Chapter Text
Will the Wise.
Will glances over the title of his drawing. As he stares at the work, he thinks back to the time he drew it. Times when his worst fear could be his mother's reaction when he returns home late, after a ten-hour Dungeons and Dragons session. His worst injury had been a scrape to his knee after falling off his bike. The only monsters he knew were perhaps school bullies.
Zombie Boy.
His glance moves to a much later piece. He hears the voices of fellow school kids mumbling his new title behind his back. He remembers the night he woke up in hospital, without a clue as to how he had got there. He remembers the cold, the fog, and the horrible stench of the Upside Down as he lay in Castle Byers, trying to remain as quiet as possible.
He tries his hardest to take his memory away from the moment the Demogorgon had taken him and used him as an incubator. He re-reads the title to distract himself. Zombie Boy. He remembers the Snow Ball; being asked to dance. A small smile plays at his lips.
Bob Newby, Superhero.
His attention is finally drawn to his most recent work. His smile immediately melts away into a frown as he remembers the man that made his family happy again. The man that had fought his way through the lab to save them all. He's thankful he didn't see Bob's demise; he's sure that would be the only image he could think of right now. He remembers that morning on the way to school, when Bob had told him his method of banishing Mr. Baldo from his own nightmares.
'Go away!' He hears Bob's voice in his head. Despite this talk being the reason he'd become posessed, he still appriciates the help from Bob. He didn't know that Will was seeing current-time visions, or that he'd fall victim to the Mind Flayer by not running. He wouldn't have said any of it if he'd known. Bob had always been trying to help, in any way he could.
Will lays back down onto his bed, and tries to focus on the good memories of Bob, his friends, and his family. He doesn't want to think of the deaths, the monsters, the lab or the Mind Flayer. 'It's over. It's all over.' he tells himself. But his latest symptoms make him worry otherwise. Thankfully, he hasn't experienced any 'episodes' since he had been freed from the Mind Flayer's grasp; but nightmares, zoning out into daydreams, hearing things in the back of his mind... those symptoms still persisted.
'Those can be put down to PTSD' he tells himself. But he's unsure about his latest symptoms. He's recently been experiencing light-headedness out of nowhere. He could be drawing, talking to his friends, absolutely anything, and suddenly feel light-headed, for no apparent reason, and he can't help but worry. He can't help but think that this must be related to his experiences, his traumas.
'Is part of... him... still inside me?' he wonders. The thought alone makes him shiver.
Perhaps his latest symptom is the weirdest of all, however, and he struggles to think of any possible reason or cause. They seemed as spontanious as his episodes of light-headedness. Usually they'd happen at the same time, but not always. He'd feel a slight tingle at the back of his head, followed by a strangely short nosebleed. 'What on Earth could be causing that?' he wonders.
He shrugs the thought off, as he turns onto his side to get comfortable. But then his thoughts linger on one more thing. A person. Somebody who he's not properly interacted with as of yet, but from what everyone else has told him, he wonders if this person might know what his symptoms could mean. He finally comes to a decision.
'I need to see Jane.'
Darkness. The sound of water beneath her feet as El strolls around in the empty void.
Or so she thought. A whimper sounds from behind her. She suddenly turns towards the direction of the whimpers. In the distance, she sees a bed, with someone laying in it. She begins to walk towards the bed for a closer look.
Whoever lays there stirs in their sleep repeatedly. Head turning from one direction to another, followed by their quiet whimpers. On closer inspection, she realises she's watching Will, and figures that this must be what a nightmare looks like from the outside. She frowns slightly as she assumes this, feeling sorry for Will. Has he not suffered enough? Why can't his dreams be happy? Why can't he be free from his torture?
She instinctively tries to think of how to comfort him. She's well aware that contact typically causes the other person to vanish, but she persists anyway. She reaches out and places her hand on his shoulder.
W-what?' she quickly thinks as she feels Will's shoulder under her hand. His eyes suddenly blink open, staring into her own, with a large gasp as he awakens. She jumps back, and Will shortly vanishes into smoke. The darkness fades away, revealing the rest of Will's bedroom around his empty bed. She spins around to grasp her surroundings; vines cover the walls, the window is smashed. Outside, trees are dead, scarce of leaves. She realises where she is, and panic quickly builds.
She screams Will's name, hoping that she can break free of this world and return to where she belongs.
"Will!?" she screams three more times before she hears a loud, sudden wind through the broken window. Her attention is drawn to it immediately, but she backs away.
"W-Will?" she whimpers herself, before a dark smoke flies in. She screams, knowing full well what this smoke that surrounds her is. She drops to the floor and covers her head with her arms, curling into herself in hope that the Mind Flayer can't claim her. She continues screaming as it surrounds her, reaching closer with each passing second.
El's eyes blink open and she lunges into a sitting position with a gasp. She looks around to find herself in her bedroom, on her bed. Covers and pillows lay on the floor as a result of her stiring.
She eventually gets up to look through her window. Opening the blinds, she barely sees the trees surrounding them through the night's darkness, but they are alive and well. Silence, minus slight gusts of wind, surroud the cabin. She slowly feels relieved that she has broken free of her nightmare, but quickly remembers Will; how she had managed to physically touch him in the void. She'd never been able to make physical contact in the void before; was that part of her nightmare too?
She gets back into bed, picking up the covers and pillows and tucking herself back in. She stares at the ceiling for a moment, wondering why she had seen Will, how she had managed to physically touch him, and why doing so sent her into the Upside Down. Was Will's nightmare passed onto her? How? Was her contact with Will real, or part of a nightmare? These questions eventually lead to one thought. She turns onto her side to get comfortable, and comes to a decision.
'I need to see Will.'