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Will Byers had finally snapped. The last drop of patience that he had somehow managed to maintain overflowed into a pool of anger and heartbreak. He was done with Mike Wheeler’s bullshit.
“God, Will, you are so sensitive!” Mike yells, “El is my girlfriend, of course I’m going to act differently around her!”
“It’s not just that you act differently around her, it’s like I don’t exist when you’re around her!” Will screams back, tears threatening to fall from his eyes.
It had been going on like this for a while. The screaming hadn’t stopped, no matter what anyone else tried to do. Will and Mike continued to scream while their friends tried to stop them with desperate hands.
After what seemed like hours of fighting, Will began to feel…different. Distant, almost. As if something was dragging him from his body. And that’s when he heard it, the voice.
Will Byers… I have been looking forward to this day for quite some time…
Will started to feel himself drift from consciousness, and suddenly, he wasn’t in the Wheeler’s basement anymore. He was in a place that had become familiar in his dreams. He was back there.
Back in the Upside Down.
A figure stood before him. Vecna. Except he was… different. He was human.
“Will Byers. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” Vecna says.
“W-Who are you? You’re not Vecna,” Will observes. In the back of his mind, Will knows he should be scared, but for some odd reason, he’s strangely calm. The Upside Down feels almost homely.
“Ah, but there is where you are wrong. I am, and I am not. You have only seen one side of me. This, this is what I looked like before,” Vecna replies, his eyes searing into Will’s.
“What do you want with me? If you’re going to kill me, just get it over with,” Will sighs, clenching his fists.
“I am not going to kill you, Will Byers. Oh, no. No, see, I want you to join me.”
Will stands there, frozen in place, shocked by the words coming out of the monster’s mouth. “You want me to join you?”
“You may not see it now, but you and I are in fact very similar. Both outcasts from our friends and family, our true potential ignored and locked away.”
“But, why me? I mean, there’s nothing special about me. I’m just a freak.”
“Oh but you see, you are wrong. You are very special Willian Byers, very special indeed.”
“Wh- How?”
“When you were first brought here, you created a bond between you and the ‘Upside Down’; as you like to call it. The energy of this place bonded with you, creating a connection.”
“What does that mean?” Will questions, his head swimming at this revelation.
“It means you can control the Upside Down, William. You can harness the dark matter from this dimension and use it in both worlds, you just have to awaken it” Vecna says, gesturing to the dark setting around them.
Will’s head was fuzzy, the world around him seemed to be closing in. That’s when he felt a cold. The kind of cold that takes your whole body, freezing your heart and blood inside your body. But to Will, it felt strangely comforting.
“But what do you want from me?” Will asks, trying to read Vecna’s face.
“I want you to help me bring down Hawkins, and help unleash the true power of this reality on your world. But I cannot enter your world in my physical form without being recognized,” Vecna continues, dark eyes never leaving Will’s. “You’re friends, they hurt you. They don’t really care about you, they only wanted you when you had some significant importance to the cause. Join me, join me so you can hurt them back.”
Will was scared. Scared because he wanted to accept Vecna’s offer so badly. He wanted to go back into his world and make his ‘friends’ feel the same pain they caused him over years of being neglected, ignored, and used. He wanted so badly to make Mike feel the same heartache he causes Will every single day, ignoring him for El. All the memories played in his head, flashing before his eyes, all of the agony and suffering he had been through, all the cuts and scars that littered across his skin because of it, and he made up his mind. He was done with all of them.
“I will. I will join you,” Will finally says, and a devious smile stretches across Vecna’s face. “How are we going to do this?”
“First, we must send you back to your friends, to make sure they trust you, make sure they don’t suspect you of anything,” Vecna says. He waves his hand and suddenly a portal opens up next to them. It shows WIll floating in mid air, his ‘friends’ gathered around him, trying to get headphones on his head. It’s so pathetic Will could almost laugh. Why are they pretending to care about him? He wanted to make them pay so badly. He sees Eleven use her powers to lift the headphones over his head, and he hears ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ playing faintly around him. He looks to Vecna, who nods his head.
“Go. I will be in touch. And try practicing your powers, you will need full control for the end of Hawkins,” he confirms, and that is all Will needs.
He steps into the portal, happier than ever to start the end of the world as he knew it.
. . . Will fell to the ground, collapsing in a heap at the feet of who once were his friends. Immediately, they rushed over to him, a million voices at once asking if he was okay.
“Will! Oh my god, Will, you’re okay! I was so scared I was gonna lose you!” El cried, wrapping her arms around Will’s shoulders. The others came up to him, each expressing their concern for him, which he knew was obviously fake. But someone standing in the corner, far away from him, caught his eye. It was Mike. Of course it was Mike, eyes searing into his eyes with anger still clear in his features. Will just stared right back, thoughts coming into his head that part of him was wishing weren’t there. But with those thoughts came contrasting voices, encouraging him to bring true the ideas in his head.
His face must have reflected the images in his head, he realized, as a look of fear flashed across Mike’s face. Will relished in that feeling, the feeling that he, small, innocent Will Byers was scaring someone. He quickly snapped out of it though, for fear of hinting at what he was working towards.
He shakily stood up, Lucas grabbing his arm to steady him, Dustin grabbing the other one as they pulled him over to the old couch that was in so many of his childhood memories. Max hurriedly sat next to him, a glass of water in hand. She sat down next to him, rubbing small, comforting circles on his back.
“Will… I know this is a stupid thing to ask but…” Max hesitated, eyes never meeting Will’s as she was no doubtedly recalling his earlier sensitive state. “...are you okay? Is there anything I can do? Or get you?” A sort of heat flared in his chest, a kind of anxiety that sparked excitement for the upcoming fall of the town that he hated so much.
The anxiety was mixed with rage though, as he looked up to see Mike whispering something into El’s ear, Mike’s eyes looking everywhere except where Will sat with Max and Lucas, while El was looking at Will with what he knew was faux concern. Will just stared back at them, trying to keep his emotions from pooling into his eyes. He realized he’d been quiet too long and turned his attention back to Max.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” he says, taking the glass of water and getting up from the couch.
“Wait, where are you going?” Max asks, surprise laced in her voice.
“I’m going home. I need to be alone,” he responds, walking to the Wheeler’s garage door, opening it, the cool air blowing his hair into his eyes.
“What? No, Will!” Lucas cries, running after him, Dustin and the others not far behind. “You were literally just possessed by a demon from another dimension, you can’t just- just go home!”
“Yeah, come on man, I know you’re pissed at Mike but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t let us help you,” Dustin adds on. Will spins around briskly, startling the party behind him.
“Oh, so you’re just going to pretend you all are innocent? That you haven’t treated me like absolute shit for the entire time you’ve known me? The only time you paid any regard to me was when I had information on whatever fucking thing was trying to kill us at that time. It was always, ‘Will where’s the Mind Flayer?’, ‘Will, can you feel him?’, you never actually cared about who I was as a person! You only ever saw me as a vessel to be used as a means to an end!” They looked up at him with horrified features.
And he loved it. He absolutely fucking loved it.
“Will… you don’t- you dont mean that,” El says, reaching her hand out to try and comfort him. He swatted her hand away, his rage fueled by years of bottled up emotions.
Yes… that’s it Will… let your anger fuel you.
Vecna’s voice was in his head, urging him to keep going.
They think you’re weak.
He noticed how their horror had turned into pity, and something inside him stirred.
Show them, Will.
He felt the cold buzzing at the back of his neck, but this time, it was comforting, letting him know he was more powerful than he thought.
Show them.
“Why the fuck wouldn’t I?” Without another glance at any of them, he turned and stormed out of the garage door. They wanted forgiveness? Fine. Then it was forgiveness they would get when they were on their knees begging him to spare their pathetic, fake, useless lives.
Good, William. And now, the fall of Hawkins can finally begin…