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“I got him!” Mike said, gripping Will’s shoulder tightly. He should feel it and his entire body shaking as he got to his feet. He got Will up the stairs with a flippant remark to his friends– and Max– about being bored. It was only half true. Honestly, with Will nearly in tears and his bottom lip quivering as he tried to speak, there was no way Mike was going to enjoy the night anyway.
They emerged from where Will had found shelter and Mike led Will back onto the street. Other kids passed them, strange looks being handed out like candy bars. Will stared distantly at his own feet, looking as if he was startled they were really there and moving.
“Will, hey. Will? These are yours, right?” Mike stopped them at a lost pillow case and camcorder on the asphalt. Will blinked. “Come on, I’ll carry it for you.” Mike twisted his own bag around his hand before reaching down to grab Will’s. He released Will’s shoulder to hoist the camcorder up from the ground. He tucked it under his arm before guiding Will forward again. “What’s wrong, Will? Talk to me.”
Will’s eyes darted across the street, a small whimper answering first. “H-Home. I w-want to go home.”
“I’m taking you back to my house. Jonathan can come get you there.” Mike said. He rubbed Will’s back between his shoulders. “You’re okay.”
Will walked slowly, his feet stomping as he nearly tripped with every step. His legs were wobbling under the weight of his own visions– whatever it was that flashed before Will’s wide eyes. His hands lifted to touch his collar, fiddling with it as if it was choking him. His frail fingers trembled, barely able to grip the fabric of his costume.
Mike balanced the camcorder on his hip, pressing against his arm as he released the handle. First, he thought he would only swat Will’s hand down from his neck, but the moment Mike felt Will’s ice hold touch, his hands couldn’t return to his sides. He wrapped his fingers around Will’s hand and pulled it close to him. The back of Will’s hand rested against Mike’s chest. He hoped his own racing heartbeat could shake Will back from whatever nightmare he was walking through alone.
Loch Nora wasn’t too far from Mike’s street and once they passed the estate sign, it was only ten or so minutes before they were back somewhere safe. The walk would be quiet, most kids already in their neighborhoods of choice for the night and not traveling elsewhere. The street lights were scarce and the trees cast spindly shadows around them, but Mike gripped Will’s hand tightly. He wouldn’t have to go anywhere else; he’d be safe with Mike.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.”
“Are you hurt? S-Should I get my mom when we get back?”
“No.”
“Can I do anything?”
“…I don’t think so.” Will muttered, blinking and focusing on Mike’s face. “I want to sit down.”
“We’re almost home.” Mike assured him, tugging on his arm. Will walked with his arm brushing against Mike’s. “Then we’ll divide up our candy. I think I got a lot of Reese’s Pieces. You can have all of mine.”
“Thanks.” Will said quietly. His face crumpled and he tried smile, but he wasn’t quite ready. Mike smiled back regardless.
“Of course. Can’t end the best of the year without consuming your body weight in your favorite candy, right?”
Will blinked, his head lowering again. “Yeah.”
They finished their walk in silence, Will shuffling closely beside Mike and staring at his feet again. Mike lead him down his street to his house. He avoided his parents and the front door and slipped them around back to the basement door. Mike placed both their pillowcases on the coffee table and eased Will onto the couch. He began wringing his hands the minute Mike took his hand from him. He was alone again.
“Here, we’re sitting. And we have some candy!” Mike said cheerfully, placing his hand on Will’s shoulder as he handed him his pillowcase. “You’re okay.”
“You didn’t see anything, did you?” Will asked timidly. He slowly reached forward and dug around in his pillowcase. He tugged on the edge and poured a pile onto the table.
“No. No, Will, I didn’t see anything.” Mike shook his head and followed Will’s lead. If he was being honest though, he wasn’t in much of a mood to eat. “Did you?”
“I–I don’t know.” He said. He twisted the ends of a Baby Ruth wrapper, peeling it down the glued flap. “I don’t know why I did.” He put the candy back on the table and sat back with a huff. He shook his head and swallowed.
“What do you mean?” Mike pulled his hands back to himself, resting on his leg while the other rested in his lap.
“It’s like.. like I’m stuck.” Will said, still looking ahead.
“Like… like, stuck in the Upside Down?” Mike offered, trying to ease Will into his own words. He couldn’t read Will as easily as he could before. There was something distant about him, and Mike was fighting the instinct to make their bodies one less thing keeping them apart. He kept his hands in his lap.
“No.” Will sighed. “You know on a View-Master, when it gets, like,” Will moved his hands along trying to find the words.
“Caught between two slides?” Mike offered, keeping eye contact with Will as he turned to him.
“Yeah. Like that. Like one side’s our world, and the other… The other slide is the Upside Down.” Will said, gaining more confidence in his words. Mike kept watching his face even as he turned back to the table; he watched his eyes, waiting for them to glaze over again. And.. And there was this noise coming from everywhere. And then I saw something.”
His eyes began to go wide.
“The Demogorgon?” Mike jumped in, hoping to offer his company to his memory. Will shouldn’t feel alone with Mike.
“No. It was like this huge shadow in the sky. Only, it was alive. And it was coming for me.” Will was no longer looking at anything in front of him. He was back in his own world. His lips were parted and quivering with a shaky breath. He was alone. His visions were back, and there wasn’t anything Mike could do.
“Is this all real? Or is it like the doctors say, all in your head?” Mike was being hopeful. He didn’t want to think for a second that Will was facing another hell alone. Mike couldn’t bare watching from the sidelines again. He felt his own eyes burn as he blinked away tears.
“I don’t know. Just please don’t tell the others, okay? They won’t understand.” Lucas and Dustin often understood very little about Will. But Mike was always there.
“Eleven would.” Mike offered. She was the only one who could help Will. Instead, Will was just stuck with him. He was alone. All fucking alone.
“She would?” Will asked. He sounded amused for the first time, smiling the faintest bit.
“Yeah. She always did.” Mike tried to offer someone to cling to; that faint outline of a face Will hadn’t seen again, the voice telling him his mother was coming to save him. El was the only familiar presence in The Upside Down. “Sometimes I feel like I still see her. Like she’s still around, but she never is.” Maybe the promise of her return would comfort Will as well. “I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy.”
“Me, too.” Will said. Mike had meant his as a joke, but Will didn’t.
“Hey, well, if we’re both going crazy, then we’ll go crazy together, right?” Mike said with a smile.
“Yeah. Crazy together.” Will finally smiled, teeth and all, but Mike couldn’t avoid the tears shining in Will’s eyes. “D-Do you want any of my candy? I’m not really all that hungry.”
“Me neither.” Mike agreed, shrugging. “Guess we’ll just have to save it, huh?”
“Can’t believe we’re breaking tradition.” Will sighed. He leaned back and rested his head against the back of the couch. “We left trick-or-treating at like, eight and now we aren’t even eating any candy.”
“Hey, that’s alright.” Mike soothed. “We’ll do something else instead. Our tradition. For us crazies.” He reached over for Will’s hand again. It wasn’t shaking or trembling. It was steady and warm. It was Mike’s hand to hold, if only for the few moments they’d allow themselves. Will wasn’t alone. He had Mike. Always would.