Archive of Our Own ^beta

May 11, 1987.

Deep breath.

In… and out.

In… and out.

In… and out.

I would tell you that I loved you, if I thought that you would stay. 

But I know that it’s no use, and you’ve already gone away—

The couch shifts, and Will lets out a little “oof!” as someone sprawls out onto his lap. He opens his eyes, looking down and meeting the eyes of his best friend.

No… wait.

His boyfriend.

The butterflies inside Will’s stomach that haven’t gone away for the last forty-eight hours spring to life as Mike grins up at him. His eyes are bright and full of mirth, and though he doesn’t say anything, Will can tell by the look on his face exactly what Mike is thinking.

I love you.

Will smiles, and he lowers his headphones, letting them rest around his neck. “Hi,” he chuckles. “Did you need something?”

The smile on Mike’s face widens; he sits up, stealing a kiss from Will.  “Just wanted to say hi,” he says, rolling his eyes. “Is that a problem?”

“Mm.” Will considers this for a moment. The Cure echoes softly through his headphones—barely audible now that he’s not wearing them. “Nah. I don’t think it is.”

“Good,” Mike laughs, and he shifts so that he’s resting his head on Will’s shoulder. Honestly, Will isn’t sure how he isn’t uncomfortable, considering Mike has a good few inches on him and is definitely slouching to cuddle up to him. Then again, Mike’s always had terrible posture, so maybe Will should be used to it by now.

Will just hums, and he leans his head on top of Mike’s. All of this—the two of them… cuddling… holding hands… being together… it’s all so new. Quite honestly, Will isn’t entirely convinced that this is even real . God knows what else Vecna has up his sleeve. They already know he can manipulate your mind into seeing and hearing things that aren’t really there, so maybe all of this is just some elaborate trance. 

Maybe Will is just a few moments away from being brutally murdered by the same asshole who has been making his life a living hell for the last four years. That would be rather unfortunate. 

“I can practically hear you thinking,” Mike mutters, and he reaches for Will’s hand, intertwining their fingers. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Will reassures. Mike just sits up, giving him a look that clearly says, Bullshit. “Oh, don’t give me that look! Nothing’s wrong!”

“Liar,” Mike deadpans, and he pokes Will’s side. 

Will yelps, smacking his best friend’s—his boyfriend’s—hand away and giving him an offended look. “I’m not lying, asshole!”

Mike gives him another look. Uh huh.

Will groans. “I’m not.”

“Wiiilll.” Mike lets out a sad little groan, and he falls—very dramatically, Will might add—back onto Will’s lap. “Come on. Friends don’t lie.”

“Boyfriends do,” Will teases lightly, and Mike gapes at him. “Or… so El says.” 

“Okay.” Mike sits up again, a mock offended look on his face. This time, he shoves Will away, and Will just bursts into laughter. “That was uncalled for!”

“I’ve gotta learn about relationships from somebody ,” Will says with a teasing grin. “And I figured since El has experience with dating you…”

“Will!” Mike groans. He’s a very amusing shade of red, and Will laughs, scooting close and leaning his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Yes?”

“You’re the absolute worst.”

Once again, Will just laughs, and he scoots closer, taking Mike’s hand and intertwining their fingers once more. “Mm, you sure about that?” he teases softly.

The look on Mike’s face softens, and he leans close, stealing a quick kiss. “Nah,” he says, his voice equally soft. “Just trying to prove your point about boyfriends lying and all that.”

Will smiles into their kiss, and he gives Mike’s hand a gentle squeeze, before closing his eyes. Now that both of them are quieter, it’s easier to hear The Cure’s soft singing in the silence of the Wheelers’ basement.

I tried to laugh about it, cover it all up with lies. 

I tried to laugh about it, hiding the tears in my eyes.

“You know, this feels too good to be true,” Will says softly.

Mike glances at him, his brow furrowing in confusion. “What does?”

Will shrugs. “This,” he admits. “ Us . It’s just… Even with everything happening in Hawkins and… and with the Upside Down, I… I’m happy. Like… actually, really happy. And I don’t know. I guess… I guess there’s a part of me just holding my breath… waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

The smile on Mike’s face falls, and he sits up, turning so that the two of them are facing each other. There’s a concerned look on his face as he takes Will’s other hand. 

“Hey,” he says softly. “Don’t say that. You’re allowed to be happy, Will. You are. And I mean… everything’s still really shitty out there, and I guess we don’t really know what’s going to happen… But we can still be happy. I think we deserve to be happy… I think you deserve to be happy, Will.”

There’s something so genuine and so gentle in Mike’s voice, and Will ducks his head, unable to keep the smile off his face. His cheeks burn with embarrassment, and Go , how is it possible that someone he’s known for years now can still make him this flustered and so happy?

“I guess I’m lucky then,” Will says softly, and he looks back up, smiling at his boyfriend. Mike raises an eyebrow, as if to ask, Why?, and Will shrugs. “Because you make me happy… happier than I’ve been in a long time.”

Now, it’s Mike’s turn to be flustered, and as his cheeks turn red, he glances away, unable to hide his smug little smile. Will just laughs softly, and he leans forward, kissing his boyfriend sweetly. 

“Love you,” Will whispers.

Mike smiles, and he kisses Will back, reaching up and cupping Will’s cheek gently. “Love you too,” he whispers back. “God, I love you so much.”

Before Will can say anything else, the door leading to the Wheelers’ basement opens, and a familiar voice calls, “Will! Mike!”

Will glances up at the sound of his sister’s voice, and he offers Mike a weak smile. “Guess El and Hopper are here.”

Mike makes a face. “Already?” he groans. “There’s no way it’s 7 already!”

Will just chuckles, and he stands, pulling his boyfriend to his feet. “It’s not,” he agrees, glancing at his watch. “But Hop probably just wanted to come see my mom.”

“Gross.” Mike scrunches his nose as the two of them walk to the stairs. “I know it’s been like… a year since they’ve started dating, but I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to it.”

“Oh, hush.” Will rolls his eyes, jogging up the stairs and letting go of Mike’s hand once they reach the top. “You sound like Jonathan. They’re happy, and that’s all that matters.”

Once again, Mike just makes a face. “Yeah, but your mom’s like… one of the best people in the world. And it’s Hopper,” he whispers, pausing at the top of the steps. “ Hopper, Will.”

“You’re just worried he’s going to give you shit when we tell them about us,” Will whispers back, and he relishes the way Mike’s face turns red once more. “Now come on. The others are probably waiting on us.”

He doesn’t give Mike a chance to argue; instead, Will just walks into the living room, where—sure enough—everyone else is already waiting on them. To no surprise, Will’s mom and Hopper are sitting on the couch together with their hands intertwined, and similarly, Nancy and Jonathan are sharing one of the Wheelers’ recliners. El sits on the ground, absently levitating some of the books on the Wheelers’ coffee table, and she glances up when Will and Mike walk into the room.

“Finally,” she comments, rolling her eyes and standing up. Will makes a face back at his sister, but he pulls her into a hug regardless.

“Good to see you too,” Will laughs, and he pulls away, offering her a smile. “You braided your hair!”

El grins, running her hand across her little braids. “It’s finally long enough,” she says triumphantly, turning so Will can see the back of her hair better. “It was a pain in the ass though.”

“I bet,” Will chuckles, then he glances at Mike, a teasing smile on his face. “I still haven’t convinced him to let me braid his hair.”

“Absolutely not,” Mike deadpans, and El just bursts into laughter as she hugs him.

“You have longer hair than I do,” she says, a teasing glint in her eyes. “It would be really easy to braid your hair.”

“Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should,” Mike reminds, and Will just rolls his eyes, nudging his boyfriend lightly. “You’re not braiding my hair!”

“We’ll convince him one day,” Will promises, taking a seat in front of the couch. El just giggles, and both she and Mike follow Will, sitting down on either side of him. 

Mike purposely sits close to Will—close enough that their shoulders are touching and that Mike’s hand brushes up against Will’s—and Will glances over at him, exchanging a small smile.

(No one else knows about this yet—not even their own families. It’s still so new, and while everyone already knows about Will, it’s another thing entirely to tell them that he’s actually dating someone. Will knows none of them will have a problem with it (except for maybe Jonathan, who still hasn’t entirely forgiven Mike for the events of last spring break), but telling their family is an issue they’ll deal with later.)

“You guys ready to get started?” Nancy’s voice snaps Will out of his thoughts, and he glances up, looking around the room as the others nod. 

Nancy she grabs her notebook off the coffee table. “Alright, so first up, we’ve got Murray’s updates. He’s recently been in contact with some of his connections, and they got him some more information on those crazy government freaks hunting El…”

Click.

The tape restarts. The familiar strum of a guitar fills the quiet, and The Cure begins to sing. Without his headphones on, it’s a little difficult for Will to hear his music, and it’s even hard to really listen to the music as he tries to focus on the updates Nancy has gotten from everyone in the extended Party. 

A thought crosses Will’s mind for the briefest moment.

You should put your headphones back on.

A chill runs down Will’s spine. 

Something… in the air shifts. 

Ice runs through Will’s veins.

And Will feels him.

“Guys,” Will starts to say, but the words die in the back of his throat.

It’s too late, a voice whispers in the back of Will’s mind. You are too late.

The ground beneath them begins absolutely trembling , and everything in the Wheelers’ house shakes. Picture frames and old trinkets fall off the walls and off the mantles, crashing to the ground in piles of glass and metal. 

“Everyone take cover!” Hopper shouts, and everyone scatters, hoping to find shelter.

Everyone but Will.

Suddenly, it feels like he’s thirteen years old again, going up against something far more evil and more sinister than he could have ever imagined. Though every cell inside his body screams, Run, run, run! Get out! Go! RUN!, Will just… feels frozen. Paralyzed with fear. 

Someone— Mike , Will thinks distantly—pulls him to his feet. Pulls him away from the chaos and to somewhere safer.

It’s too late, that voice— his voice—whispers again. You are too late.

Above all the noise, a clock chimes.

One.

But I know that it’s too late, The Cure sings—barely a whisper above the noise.

Two.

And now there’s nothing I can do.

Three.

A horrible, horrible cracking noise fills the air, and Will feels like he can’t breathe. Somehow, that feeling of his presence only worsens—permeating through the air like some sort of toxin that steals all the air out of Will’s lungs.

Four.

That’s it, Will thinks. Mike’s arms tighten around him, and Will breathes heavily, closing his eyes. He still feels frozen in place, completely consumed by that icy cold feeling of fear and dread, but Mike’s arms provide a temporary solace—a warmth in the midst of the cold. Four chimes. That’s it.

But the chaos doesn’t stop.

The cracking only gets louder, and Will knows . Will knows exactly what is happening, though he refuses to open his eyes and see it. 

Someone curses—Jonathan?—loudly. “Shit!” he yells. “Shit, we have to go!”

The clock chimes a fifth time. It feels final.

And the next thing Will knows, the warmth disappears, and someone else screams, “Mike!”

No, Will thinks. Dread wraps around his heart in an icy cold grip. No.

Will opens his eyes. 

“Mike!” 

Sure enough, right in the middle of the Wheelers’ living room is an enormous gate to the Upside Down. It divides the entire room into two parts, separating Will and Mike from the others, and it only grows bigger and bigger—breaking open and tearing through the walls. Massive black vines begin to spring up from the gate, snaking across the ground and latching on to everything —and everyone.

Including Mike.

Including Will.

Will barely has a moment to process it. One moment, he’s crouching beside one of the Wheelers’ recliners, and the next minute, his body falls flat against the ground. Something—a vine, Will realizes—snakes up his leg, and it pulls, dragging him away.

Dragging him right towards the gate.

The ground is still trembling. The gate is still growing. The vines are still coming.

Someone else screams his name, and Will manages to look up. 

It’s El. She’s standing as close as she can to the gate—as close as she can to Mike and Will —and her arms are outstretched. She’s trying to stop the vines from coming and from latching on even more to all of them, but there are too many of them. And they’re too fast.

The vines keep pulling Will towards the gate. El’s eyes widen, and her gaze darts back and forth between Mike and Will, desperation filling her eyes. 

And Will knows.

Will knows.

She can’t save them both.

She can’t save them both and save the others—who are all still stupidly trying to help and stupidly shooting at the vines and trying to get to them. It’s futile.

Will knows what’s going to happen. Will knows how this ends.

Somehow, his headphones haven’t fallen off in the chaos. The Cure continues to sing—a rather ironic soundtrack to Will’s demise.

I would tell you that I loved you, if I thought that you would stay. 

But I know that it’s no use, and you’ve already gone away—

Will looks up. Meets his sister’s eyes. Manages a smile.

It’s okay, he tries to say, and El’s eyes fill with tears. She understands. Save him.

It’s hard to hear over all the chaos—over all the desperate screaming, over the gunshots from either Hopper or Nancy or maybe both, over the deafening sound of the ground being ripped apart by the Upside Down. 

Will hopes Mike can hear him anyways.

Will manages to turn around—to see Mike one last time—before Vecna takes him again. Somewhere in the room, El screams again, and the vines holding Mike release him. He falls to the ground, but immediately, he scrambles to his feet, desperately trying to reach Will.

“I love you,” Will says, but his voice comes out as barely a whisper. He hopes Mike can hear him anyways.

Mike’s eyes widen. He throws his hand out towards Will—a last ditch effort to save Will. 

It’s no use. 

The vines pull, one last time, and Will falls. 

Will falls right through the gate, right through the Upside Down’s strange, strange gravity, right into the ever-tightening grip of the vines. The bright red membrane burns as it touches his skin, and Will’s stomach drops as he plummets down, down, down right into the place that has haunted him for years now.

The last thing he hears is the horrified voice of his best friend—no, his boyfriend—screaming his name.

“Will!” 

Everything goes black, and everything becomes so, so cold.

Will slams to the ground in a painful heap, and he groans, closing his eyes tightly. Somewhere in the distance, he can still hear the chaos. Someone keeps screaming his name over and over again. Another person is crying. Someone else yells, “We have to go! We have to go!”

Then, the ticking starts. 

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“Do you know what March 22nd is? …It’s your birthday.”

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“Do you remember the day Dad left? We stayed up all night building Castle Byers, just the way you drew it.”

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes. You said yes . It was the best thing I ever did.”

“Will,” a voice—low and familiar—whispers, and Will shivers. That icy cold feeling of dread and terror washes over him until nothing is left but that horrible, awful feeling.

“Do you know what March 22nd is? … It’s—”

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“Do you remember the day Dad left? We stayed up all night building—“

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said—”

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“Your friend, Maxine,” that voice whispers again, reaching into the deepest crevices of Will’s mind. The ticking of the clock becomes louder and more frenzied, and Will grimaces, reaching up to cover his ears. “She once tried to hide in the light… in her memories.”

“Do you know what—”

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“Do you remember the day—”

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“I asked if you—”

“They helped her escape me,” he whispers, voice full of amusement. The clock’s ticking grows louder and more frenzied still, drowning out every other sound until it’s all Will can hear. 

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“I will not make that mistake again,” Vecna says, his voice low and ominous. 

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

“They cannot save you, Will,” Vecna whispers, and as realization begins to set in, dread fills Will’s heart. “Their memories cannot save you.”

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

The ticking of the clock stops. The chaos up above has died down. Will finds himself in complete silence, save for the sound of his voice.

“Not if they cannot even remember you.”

…

Will has gotten good at running.

It’s a bit of a cowardly thing, and he knows it. There’s a part of him that’s ashamed, a part of him that sounds too much like his dad, a part of him that tells him to Stay, just take it like a man, stop hiding, stop running, stop crying—

But this is the Upside Down. That’s not how things work here. And Will has survived before—though only for a week back then—and he did it by running and by hiding.

Maybe it’s a cowardly thing to do, but it’s the only way to stay alive down here. 

And so Will runs, and Will hides.

Honestly, he’s not sure how long it’s been or what day it even is anymore. It’s hard to keep track of time in the Upside Down—especially since this place is still frozen on the worst (or maybe second worst, now) day of Will’s life. There’s no sunlight here, no day or night to help him keep track of the time that has passed, and it’s not even like Will can rely on his own body to alert him to the fact that, Hey! It’s time to sleep again! anymore. 

No, even his own body is forced to adjust to the Upside Down and its strange grasp on time. It’s too dangerous to sleep for too long, because God knows what monsters might find him when he’s not conscious. And sure, Will can hide and shelter himself from the monsters temporarily, but even that feels futile. The vines of the Upside Down have spread—everywhere. It’s hard to find any spaces left untouched, and that means…

Well, that means Will is never alone. Ever.

No matter where Will goes, the Upside Down’s hive mind follows. He is there—ever present and lurking in the shadows. Now more than ever, Will can feel him everywhere. His presence looms over Will like a dark cloud, and Will isn’t sure whether he’s just going crazy or whether he can actually hear Vecna’s voice speaking to him amidst the eerie silence of the Upside Down.

The Cure helps for a while. Will doesn’t dare put the headphones on all the way; after all, he needs to be able to listen to his surroundings and listen for any incoming threats. But he turns the volume up all the way and lets The Cure sing to him over and over and over again.

They are a saving grace—a lifeline back to home and to a life that used to be Will’s. 

He tries not to let the lyrics weigh too heavy on his already aching heart. Tries not to waste his energy focusing on things he can’t change. Tries not to think about the life— his life —that he was wrongfully stolen from again. Tries not to cry because he’s already dehydrated and already feels like a walking corpse.

The words hurt though. It’s hard to ignore them, especially when they’re all that Will hears for the long time.

Now, I would do most anything to get you back by my side.

It’s hard not to think about his family, about his friends, about Mike . It’s hard not to grieve over being separated from them again, and quite frankly, it’s hard not to break down in tears every single time Will’s mind begins to think about all the people he loves and has been stolen from.

Once upon a time, when Will was stuck here years and years ago, he knows all of them were willing to go to the ends of the earth for him. 

His mom would have looked everywhere for him, making sure to leave no stone unturned. His brother would have fought monsters and bullies and anyone else that tried to stop him from coming for Will. His sister—though they weren’t siblings yet—would have faced her greatest fears and put her own life on the line to find him. His friends would have disobeyed every single rule and solved every mystery because that’s what they do . No Party member gets left behind.

But that was then. 

And this is now.

Now, none of them even remember Will. He doesn’t have confirmation of it. He can’t even find his family or his friends anymore, but deep in his heart, he knows it’s true.

“They cannot save you, Will.” Vecna’s words echo on an almost constant loop inside Will’s head. Not even The Cure can drown out his words and the way they haunt Will. He can’t escape that reality. “Their memories cannot save you. Not if they cannot even remember you.”

His friends and family don’t remember him.

Not Dustin. Not Lucas. Not Nancy and Hopper. Not El. Not Jonathan. Not his mom.

Not Mike.

None of them even remember Will anymore, which means that Will is completely alone. No one is coming to rescue him this time. There’s no more contacting his mom through the lights, no visits from El to give him hope in his darkest moments, no grand rescue from Hopper and his mom to bring Will back from the brink.

Will is alone. 

Even the voices from up above—from home—stop eventually. That makes sense. The population of Hawkins has been dwindling since the first gate rupture back in 1986. It was only a matter of time before the town itself was abandoned. Will wonders if his family and friends have finally fled Hawkins too. Part of him hopes they have. It’s too damn dangerous here. They should get out while they have the chance. 

It’s your fault, the voice of guilt always whispers in the back of his mind. Your fault they got dragged into this mess in the first place.

I know, Will always thinks back. I know.

Part of him hopes they’ve left.

But there’s part of him—the selfish, terrified part of him—that hopes they’ve stayed. That somehow maybe they’ll find him. Not even remember him… just… find him. It’s a longshot, and Will knows it. But the longer and longer he spends in the Upside Down, the more exhausted he becomes—physically, emotionally, and mentally. It’s as if everything about this place is draining—sucking up every last bit of life and humanity left to Will.

(What happens when there’s nothing left for Will to give—nothing left for the Upside Down to steal from him? Will doesn’t know. He really, really doesn’t.)

And so for as long as he can, he clings on to that life, to that humanity. The voices from above help for a while until they disappear, and the remnants of the real world fall further from Will’s reach. The Cure helps for a bit longer, until the batteries in Will’s walkman finally die, and none of the houses he raids have batteries readily available. It’s hard enough to grab food and water and other vital supplies from the houses and stores he manages to sneak into. Everything is covered with vines now. One wrong move, and Will knows he’s a goner.

Eventually, the echoes of humanity all but vanish, leaving Will alone with only the eerie stillness of the Upside Down, the distant growls of the monsters lurking in the shadows, and the faintest whisper of a man turned into a monster in the deepest crevices of Will’s mind.

It’s completely and utterly terrifying.

Because the thing is… Will isn’t sure how long he’s going to be stuck here. He has no idea how to get out and how to get home. He has no weapons and no plan for escape, and the gates are crawling with monsters—demobats, demodogs, demogorgons, and even other variants of Upside Down monsters that Will has never even seen before. He can’t make it back to Hawkins through the gates, and he can’t rely on anyone else from Hawkins to come find him.

Will is trapped in the Upside Down, right where Vecna wants him.

It’s only a matter of time now, and Will knows it. As sickening as it is, he still remembers and still knows how Vecna’s mind works. He remembers the sick satisfaction that Vecna had felt, tricking all of those soldiers and sending them to their deaths. He remembers the twisted motivation and desire to make everyone —Will included—suffer as much as possible before sending them to their doom. He remembers the single-minded focus on destroying everything —on sucking all of the life and humanity and goodness out of the world and using Will to do it. 

It’s only a matter of time now.

Because Will knows . He has no idea how long it’s been since he was taken again, but as more and more time passes, it becomes harder and harder to hold on. His movements become more sluggish. He spends more time hiding in the same spots, even when the monsters creep closer and closer. He falls asleep faster and stays asleep longer, completely vulnerable to the monsters that won’t stop chasing him.

They’re coming. He’s coming. Will isn’t a fool. He knows that Vecna knows exactly where he’s at. He knows that all it takes is one movement from the vines to trap him in his place long enough for the monsters to catch up to him and to finally bring him to Vecna. He knows exactly what Vecna is doing.

It’s just like how a predator plays with its prey before it devours it. The predator wears its prey down until it simply has no fight left in it. It drags out the misery and the suffering for as long as possible—perhaps because it’s bored or perhaps because it finds the whole situation amusing. 

It’s only a matter of time now, and Will knows it.

Give up, Vecna’s voice always seems to whisper into the silence, his presence creeping up behind Will and latching on to him. There is no use fighting anymore. Give up.

It’s tempting. Really, it is. And maybe… maybe Will is a coward, but he almost does. He almost gives in to the exhaustion and to all the dread that threatens to pull him under.

Someone stops him though. Every single time, something stops him.

I think we deserve to be happy. Somehow, Mike’s voice is always there—soft and gentle in the back of Will’s mind. I think you deserve to be happy, Will. 

A smile—full of warmth and joy and so much love. Enough love to anchor him back to reality and to life, even in the midst of all this darkness and suffering.

I love you.

God, I love you so much.

Maybe it’s only a matter of time until Vecna grows tired of playing games. Maybe it’s only a matter of time until running and hiding stops working and the darkness catches up to him. 

Will keeps running anyway.

March 22nd, 1988.

Will wakes up on his birthday to the sound of someone singing “happy birthday” in his head.

He doesn’t remember falling asleep that day? night? Honestly, he doesn’t know anymore. Days and nights don’t exist in the Upside Down, and his body has long since stopped functioning on a normal sleep schedule. He sleeps when it’s safe enough to or when he’s simply too exhausted to keep going anymore. 

It feels like his body is in constant survival mode. Attacks from monsters have become a lot more frequent now, and though Will has always been a fast runner, nothing in the Upside Down is ever on his side. Even when he tries to run and even when he tries to hide, the vines or the monsters or even the fucking air catches up to him. 

The air is always a little bit toxic in the Upside Down, but sometimes, Will swears it works in tandem with the monsters to catch him off guard. One moment, he’s running and he’s fine, but then the next moment, his lungs feel like they’re on fire. He can’t go on. The monsters catch up to him.

Other times, the vines catch him, and they wrap themselves around him, squeezing tighter and tighter until Will can’t breathe and dragging him right back in the direction from which he’s running. He only has so much strength to fight back. And so, the monsters catch up to him.

The monsters never kill him though. Either Vecna wants him alive for something, or he’s taken some sick pleasure in making Will suffer as much as possible before his inevitable death. Maybe both. Will isn’t sure anymore.

But every time, the monsters let him go. They’re called back before they can do any real damage, and Will is left there—more broken and exhausted than before and one step closer to giving up.

He’s nowhere closer to escaping or to being found. No one has contacted him from the real world, and it’s been… God, Will doesn’t even know how long it’s been since he’s heard another human being’s voice. 

He doesn’t count Vecna. As far as Will is concerned, Vecna lost his humanity a long, long time ago. The Upside Down has a way of doing that to people.

What makes you any different then? that harsh voice in the back of his mind whispers. 

Maybe it doesn’t.

Another monster attack happens right before Will’s birthday—though he doesn’t even realize it’s his birthday. They chase him all throughout the forest, nearly catching up to him on more than one occasion, and Will runs for what feels like miles and miles. By the time the chase ends, he’s bloody and bruised and exhausted, and he all but collapses onto the floor of the house he manages to reach.

It’s only by bitter irony and luck that Will finds himself in his childhood home. It looks just the same as it did back in 1983 when he spent nearly a week, hiding and terrified for his life. The only difference is that there are far, far more vines sprawled across the floor and covering practically every inch of the wall.

Will is too exhausted to even care anymore. He lets the door close behind him (not that it’ll do any good if the demodogs do find him), and he doesn’t even make it to the living room before he collapses to the ground and passes out.

And when Will sleeps, he dreams.

Normally, he dreams of memories—of times when things were so much simpler. 

His dreams are full of crayons and colored pencils and markers all given to him by his mom. They’re full of his mom’s smile—bright and full of so much pride—as she hangs all of his artwork up for everyone to see and makes sure the world knows just how much she loves him.

His dreams are full of music and mixtapes, of laughter and learning how to like the same things as his brother, and of building and bringing to life one of his most favorite creations with his best friend. They’re full of his brother’s loving embrace, full of safety and security, and shielding him from the worst parts of the world.

His dreams are full of arcade games and bike rides shared with his best friends and his sister. They’re full of gentle teasing and laughter at one another’s expense but also a fierce loyalty and love that drives all of them to protect each other no matter the cost.

But most of all, his dreams are full of D&D campaigns and of long, thought-out stories and comic books together and of a smile that never leaves Will’s mind and of a boy he’s known since he was young and loved since he even fully understood it. They’re full of a happiness and a love that have been a guiding light through some of Will’s darkest moments. 

Will’s dreams are full of so, so much love, and he hates waking up from them. He wants to stay forever frozen in his dreams, where those memories are safe and protected and real . Because in the world he lives in now—this world so far removed from the people he loves and from any sort of light—sometimes, the memories don’t even really feel like they exist anymore. 

Sometimes, Will doesn’t feel like he exists anymore.

When he sleeps, Will’s dreams are sweet. They’re safe. They make him feel like he’s home again.

But nothing good lasts forever, and so, it really is no surprise when Will’s dreams begin to change for the worse.

One moment, he’s back home—or rather, at the Wheelers’ house—laughing and chasing after Mike down in the basement like they’re seven years old again. Then, the next moment, Will finds himself back at Rink-o-Mania of all places in the world.

The skating rink is just as busy and looks just like the last time he was there, well over a year ago now. The disco ball shimmers above his head, reflecting light all across the room, and Will winces as it hits his eyes. No one pays any attention to him—including Mike and El, who are still skating hand in hand. All around him, other people skate and laugh and talk, and not a single person even looks at him.

The record scratches. It stops playing whatever cheesy pop song the DJ had chosen, and instead, it begins to play a hauntingly familiar tune. 

Happy birthday to you…

Happy birthday to you…

Only the instrumental music plays from the intercom. No words are sung, yet Will knows the song is for him.

Happy birthday, dear Will.

Happy birthday to you…

The song starts again. Slower this time. The light in the room begins to darken.

Happy birthday to you…

Happy birthday to you…

Happy birthday, dear Will.

Happy birthday to you…

A chill runs down Will’s spine, and every single hair on the back of his neck stands up. That feeling is back, which means that he is here.

“Happy birthday to you,” his voice sings, low and haunting and barely a whisper. Will’s heart pounds inside his chest, and he looks around desperately, trying to find a way out. 

The skating rink looks different. It’s darker; almost no light makes its way into the room. Familiar black vines begin to grow from the ground, stretching across the walls and weaving all across the floor. Spores float aimlessly in the air, and Will’s chest suddenly feels tight.

“Happy birthday to you…” He sounds so much closer now, and Will shudders, taking a step back. Something wet and slimy wraps around his ankle, and fuck, fuck, fuck —

“Happy birthday, dear Will,”  he sings, as the vine pulls Will to the ground in a painful heap. Other vines quickly latch on to him, and Will cries out, struggling roughly against the vines. 

“Happy birthday to you,” Vecna finishes, even the roller skating rink begins to fade right before Will’s very eyes, and the vines wrap around him tighter and tighter, squeezing all the life out of him, and—

With a weak gasp, Will opens his eyes and tries to sit up.

The skating rink is gone, and so are all of the people Will passed by as he numbly followed Mike and El around. He’s awake now. He’s no longer trapped in that memory.

But the vines are still there, wrapped around Will’s arms and legs and holding him down, and his presence still hangs in the air, sending another chill down Will’s spine.

His voice begins softly humming the tune of happy birthday again. 

Happy birthday to you…

The air turns colder—frigid even.  

Happy birthday to you…

The vines slowly loosen around Will’s arms and legs, allowing him more mobility as they slink backwards.

Happy birthday, dear Will…

As soon as he’s able to, Will sits up, and he scrambles to his feet, desperately looking for a way out. Everything inside of him has gone into fight or flight mode, and Will doesn’t hesitate to run for the door.

Happy birthday to you…

But he never makes it there.

All at once, pain explodes in his back, and Will cries out, stumbling as something punctures his back, just below his right shoulder. He barely has time to process before a similar burning sensation erupts below his left shoulder, then again and again all the way down his back. 

Vaguely, Will thinks he hears himself scream, but he’s not sure anymore. Hot, sticky blood runs down his back, quickly seeping through his torn shirt. The pain is excruciating, and there’s something inside him that makes everything feel wrong—

Something pulls, and Will screams as a new wave of pain explodes in his back. He’s suddenly yanked backwards away from the door and into the air.

The singing starts again.

“Happy birthday to you…”

He’s hanging midair now, and somewhere in the blurry daze of pain, Will realizes it’s the vines. The vines are inside him; they’ve punctured into his back and are holding him up now, a few feet above the air.

“Happy birthday to you…”

Struggling is useless, but fight or flight instinct has fully kicked in at this point. He tries—God, he tries to break free. The vines only respond by digging their barbs deeper into his skin, and Will retches, his vision going blurry from the pain.

“Happy birthday, dear Will…”

The air has turned icy cold—colder than Will has ever felt it in the Upside Down. He’s completely frozen, trapped here by the vines, and finally caught by the predator that’s been chasing after him all this time.

“Happy birthday to you.”

His presence fills the entire room, and more intensely than he ever has before, Will feels him. Will feels everything in the Upside Down—every single demodog and demobat and demogorgon, every single vine that slinks across the ground, every victim that Vecna has taken and made part of the hive mind. Will feels them. He feels it all. He’s part of it all.

“I have a gift for you, Will,” Vecna whispers in that gravelly, low voice of his. “Since it is your birthday, after all.”

The vines burrow deeper, and Will retches, his breaths coming out in short, panicked gasps. His back hurts, and his head hurts, and his chest hurts, and everything hurts—

“Don’t worry,” Vecna says, his voice a bit of a chuckle. “It will all be over soon.”

The dull and always present ache in Will’s head intensifies until it’s absolutely excruciating, and Will’s vision turns blurry and dark. He thinks he hears himself scream, and he’s almost certain he’s crying now, begging for it to stop.

The pain continues for what feels like an eternity, leaving Will completely trapped in the darkness.

Then, the blurriness of his vision begins to fade away, and a familiar laugh fills the silence.

“Quit it!” someone—Mom?—says, and Will blinks, trying to find the source of her voice. “Hop!” 

“I’m not doing anything,” Hopper chuckles. There’s mischief in his voice; it causes Will’s mom to laugh again. Will blinks again, and finally, his vision clears up just enough for him to see his mom and Hopper sitting on a bed together barely a few feet away from Will. “Don’t give me that look!”

“You’re ridiculous,” Will’s mom replies, but there’s a soft sort of fondness in her voice. She looks happy —so, so happy. “Completely ridiculous, Hopper.”

Hopper just smiles back at her, and he looks just as happy as Will’s mom does. “Yeah, well… somehow, you love me anyways.”

Will’s mom just smiles, and a disgusting, ugly sort of emotion festers inside Will’s heart. She looks happy. She is happy. So, why does Will feel this way?

“Of course, I do,” Will’s mom whispers back; then, she closes the space between them. “I love you.”

Will can’t help but look away. His heart aches. God, he misses her; he misses both of them. He wants to be there and be happy with them too—

“Jonathan!” This time, Nancy’s voice breaks through the silence. Will forces himself to open his eyes and to look again. 

There, barely a few feet away from where Will hangs in the air, are Jonathan and Nancy. They’re in a place Will doesn’t really recognize, and Nancy is chasing after Jonathan, an indignant look on her face. 

Jonathan holds something above his head, and his laughter is bright as he runs away from Nancy. “What?” he teases back. “Come on, you can’t catch up with me?”

He’s smiling. He looks happier than Will remembers him being and happier than he has been in a long time. Nancy looks happy too, and it seems like whatever relationship problems the two of them had have long since been resolved. 

Nancy narrows her eyes, and she doesn’t hesitate to run full force towards Will’s brother and throw herself into him, sending them both toppling to the ground in a pile of limbs. Her grin is triumphant and happy, and she takes the item from his hands with a satisfied look on her face. “Don’t ever doubt me again, Jonathan Byers.”

Jonathan just groans, but there’s a fond, loving look on his face. “Trust me, I won’t,” he chuckles, as he leans up and kisses her. “I’m never doubting you again, Nancy Wheeler.”

Once again, that disgusting, painful feeling just grows in Will’s heart, and he looks away, blinking back his tears. Fuck. Fuck, he shouldn’t feel like this. He shouldn’t . Jonathan is happy. Finally , Jonathan gets to be happy, and Will should be happy for him too—

The image in front of him changes again, and Will’s breath catches. 

Dustin, Lucas, El, and Mike all sit on the floor together, arms wrapped around each other in a tight hug, and oh, Will’s heart aches. Fuck, it aches so badly.

Instinctively, he reaches out, just trying to get to them, but the vines pull him backwards roughly, sending another shockwave of pain throughout his whole body. Will whimpers, and he closes his eyes tightly. 

He misses them. He misses all of them so, so much it physically hurts, and God, he can’t watch this. He can’t look at them, can’t see how happy they all are, while he’s stuck and trapped here—like he’s fucking frozen in time. He just can’t. And maybe he’s selfish for that, but Will can’t just sit there and watch his loved ones be happy and move on without him.

It hurts too much.

One of the vines digs dangerously deeper into Will’s back, and he lets out a pained gasp, trying to pull away. His presence moves closer to Will, sending a clear warning and message.

Watch them, or else I’ll make sure you suffer even more.

So, reluctantly, Will opens his eyes, and he looks over at his best friends.

“We should do something fun,” Dustin suggests. “Like… I don’t know. A D&D campaign or something!”

“Do we even have any of the supplies?” Lucas asks. 

“I’m sure we can figure something out!” Dustin shrugs, a bright smile still on his face.

“What if… I don’t know how to play?” El tilts her head, and she looks at the others with a bit of embarrassment, before her gaze finally lands on Mike.

There’s a thoughtful expression on Mike’s face, and God, Will wants to memorize every single aspect of how Mike looks and who Mike is. He’s so close—close enough that Will can almost reach him—but at the same time, he’s so, so far out of Will’s reach.

“We’ll teach you,” Mike promises, a grin stretching across his face. “And I’m sure we can figure something out. We’ll improvise, Lucas!”

“Fine by me,” Lucas decides, and then he, too, smiles at the other. “Maybe El could be our cleric! We’ve never had one of those!”

Somehow, those words hurt even more than anything else that Will has experienced in the Upside Down.

Because those words… they’re a confirmation. And they’re a shotgun fired at the last of Will’s hopes that somehow, maybe Vecna was wrong. That somehow, his friends and his family still remembered him and were actively looking for a way to get to him. The hope had almost entirely vanished, but still, Will had been holding on to it so, so desperately.

But now? 

Now, there’s no need to hold on to that hope. None of them remember him. Not his mom. Not Jonathan. Not Lucas, Dustin, and El. Not even Mike. None of them remember him.

And all of them are happy… even without him. And dare Will say it, but… they almost seem happier without him.

“Happy birthday to you,” Vecna’s voice sings again, as the image of Will’s friends begins to fade away from view. 

“Happy birthday to you.” The eerie darkness of the Upside Down begins to fill Will’s vision again, and once more, the pain settles deep into his body and his heart.

“Happy birthday, dear Will,” Vecna whispers, and Will shuts his eyes, unable to stop the tears from slipping out.

This must be it, then. Vecna has grown tired of his games, grown tired of just letting Will try to escape. He has Will now—here and literally connected to the hive mind and trapped with no hope for any escape. Whatever he plans to do with Will, he must be ready to do it.

“Happy birthday to you.”

All at once, the vines tear themselves from Will’s body, and he lets out a strangled cry, falling to the ground in a painful heap. The vines on the ground slither away from him, and instinctively, Will curls up, unable to stop the pathetic whimper that escapes his lips. Everything still hurts so, so much.

“Do you understand now, Will?” Vecna whispers. He sounds as if he’s right in front of Will, but there’s no one there. “They have forgotten you. They have moved on without you. They do not need you. But we do, Will. We will always need you here.”

Will looks out into the darkness with his blurry vision, and he blinks back the tears in his eyes. “Why?” he croaks, his voice hoarse and barely recognizable to his own ears. “What do you want from me?”

“I want you to understand,” Vecna chuckles. “You… and I… we are one and the same, Will Byers. And my time here shaped me. It molded me. It made me better —far better than the rest of humanity. I merely want the same for you. We were both born special, and this place will make you even better. You are different from the others. Superior to them. You need only find yourself here.”

Before Will can respond or even ask what he means by that, Vecna’s presence fades away. It’s still there—though more distant, as if he’s in the back of Will’s head rather than there, right in front of him. 

Will is alone (or as alone as he can be) with only his thoughts once more. 

“They do not need you. But we do, Will,” Vecna had whispered. The images of Will’s loved ones flash through his mind, and he chokes back a sob, curling up into a little ball. The physical pain is still excruciating, and his back feels completely raw and exposed. He knows he won’t be getting up from this place for a while.

But it’s nothing compared to the emotional pain—the agony of realizing that he really, truly has no hope of getting out of here. There’s no way Will can find his way out, and there is no one coming for him. Nobody remembers him, and their lives have carried on just fine without Will. 

The truth is simple: he doesn’t matter to any of them. Not anymore. Will simply does not exist to the rest of the world.

And so, on the very same day that Will Byers was born, he dies too—alone and broken and trapped in the closest thing to hell that he’s ever known.

…

It takes Will a long time to recover after his encounter with Vecna.

He stays in his old house for a long time—probably longer than he should—and just tries to recover. Physically, it takes a while, especially since there’s no one else there to help him. But he gets there. The wounds slowly begin to heal, and though the dull ache is still there, it’s bearable. Eventually, he’ll get there. The physical wounds will heal.

Will isn’t so sure about the emotional wounds.

The emotional wounds hurt even more, and they’re harder to escape from. Will knows—deep in his heart, he knows—that it doesn’t matter how much time passes. It doesn’t matter how long he’s stuck here, how long Vecna decides to keep him alive, and how long he spends separated from his family and his friends. He’s always going to miss them. He’s always going to think about them. He’s always going to remember all the happy memories and the light and love he once shared with them.

He’s going to spend the rest of his life mourning that loss, and honestly, Will isn’t sure how to deal with that.

So, for a while, he just feels numb. Once the physical wounds heal enough for him to leave, he abandons his old house with a backpack full of supplies and food and sets out to find a new place to hide in the Upside Down. 

Oddly enough, the vines don’t bother him anymore. The monsters stay away. And Will can’t help but think about some of Vecna’s last words to him. 

“We were both born special, and this place will make you even better. You are different from the others. Superior to them. You need only find yourself here.”

Will isn’t quite sure what the fuck he means by that, and he’s even less sure of whether or not he wants to know. But whatever the hell Vecna meant, it keeps Will safe for some time. It gives him a chance to catch his breath and try to regroup after his jarring encounter with Vecna and with the hive mind on his birthday.

Because… things get… strange after that day.

For a few years now, he’s had a… weird sixth sense for all things from the Upside Down. Dustin once jokingly referred to it as Will’s “Spidey Sense,” and it had caught on pretty quickly with the other Party members—even El, who had taken to reading Will’s old comic books during their time in California. Naturally, after his kidnapping, that sense from the Upside Down had become Will’s saving grace, alerting him to any approaching monsters or other threats. 

But now… 

Now, it’s just different.

It’s still there, but it’s so much more intense. It feels as if all of Will’s senses are dialed up to 100, tuning him into everything in the Upside Down—every single demobat and demodog and demogorgon wandering around this plane. He can still feel them, almost just as viscerally as he felt them when the vines had latched on to him. They’re everywhere , and it’s almost like… like… they’re part of Will now.

Or maybe Will is part of them now.

It’s like his possession, but at the same time, it’s not. Will still has control of his mind—still has his agency and his autonomy—but at the same time, he feels connected to everything here in this place. Every living organism in this place is tuned in to the same frequency, and now Will is just like them. No different from the demobats or the demodogs or the demogorgons or the vines or even Vecna.

“You… and I… we are one and the same, Will Byers.”

I’m nothing like you, Will wishes he had said, but he thinks he’s starting to get it now. He thinks he’s starting to understand .

It starts with being able to sense the monsters, even when they’re far, far away from him. 

It’s a silent message that Will isn’t even sure how he manages to send out. The monsters listen anyway.

Stay away from me. Leave me alone.

(Their attacks stop. Will breathes a little bit easier.)

It’s the forced movement of the vines away from something he needs. It’s the desperation of needing more food and more water, and it’s the instinctual command of MOVE that causes the vines to slink backwards the moment Will reaches his arms out.

It’s the little things that slowly become bigger and bigger and that slowly change everything for Will. Whereas before, he was just desperately trying to survive , whatever… whatever happened to him—whatever all of this is—has given him the ability to live again, without the fear of being mauled or attacked.

It’s a relief. Will still isn’t safe here. He’s not a fool. He knows he isn’t safe, and he can feel Vecna in the back of his mind, watching him and carefully observing his progress through… whatever all of this is. But for as long as Will has lived on the run from monsters and in complete terror that the vines might choke him to death in his sleep, he’ll take the little victories.

Even if they do prove Vecna right.

“You… and I… we are one and the same, Will Byers.”

Will supposes there must be some truth in those words. After all, only monsters survive here in the Upside Down, and if Vecna is to be believed, then Will has been here for months . With the exception of Vecna himself, Will… Will is the longest surviving human to last in this place.

He wonders how long it will take until he becomes a monster, just like Vecna.

(It feels like it might only be a matter of time now.)

But then, everything changes… again.

It happens completely out of the blue. One moment, Will is by himself—hiding in the Upside Down’s version of the Hendersons’’ house. He’s only just now circled back to visiting his best friends’ homes, and of course, they’re long gone. There are no echoes from the real world to anchor Will back to reality, but somehow, there’s still something comforting about being back here.

Will closes his eyes, pulling the old, ratty blanket he’d managed to find in Dustin’s room over himself. It doesn’t do much to help the cold—nothing does. Will wonders if he’ll ever be warm again, or if he’ll always feel as frozen as he does here in the Upside Down. It’s as if the cold is coming from within, and no matter how hard he tries, he just can’t get warm.

(It’s fine. He’s used to it by now. It’s all just part of living in this place and of being stuck here.) 

The exhaustion begins to settle in, and Will wraps the blanket around himself tighter, letting out a shuddered breath. He hopes he doesn’t dream tonight. Lately, they’ve been too full of nightmares, tainting old memories that used to be his lifeline out of his place. It’s exhausting, and more often than not, Will wakes up with the feeling of grief weighing heavy on his heart—

A chill runs down Will’s spine, and he sits up, looking around the room with wide eyes.

Something is here in the house with him. He can feel it, coming closer and closer to where Will is hiding. Unlike the other monsters, this new thing is seemingly undeterred by Will’s warnings to stay away.

Will closes his eyes, and he takes a deep breath. He focuses on that feeling—on that connectedness to everything in the Upside Down. The vines on the wall slink towards him in response, and Will flinches. Though the physical wounds have long since healed, a phantom ache appears, right below his shoulders, where the vines first entered his body.

No, he thinks. Not again. 

The vines slither away, clearly hearing and understanding his message. But they’re not who Will is trying to communicate to. No, he wants to speak to whatever new creature is in the house with him and is approaching the door to Dustin’s bedroom.

So, Will focuses on that presence, and he takes another deep breath, surrendering to the strange feeling of weightlessness that always comes with his mental connections to the Upside Down. 

Go away, Will thinks. Go away. Leave me alone. Go away.

The creature stops moving, and it remains still for several moments. It doesn’t leave. It’s as if the creature is frozen in place.

GO AWAY, Will thinks again, and he clenches his trembling fists tightly. His heart is pounding inside of his chest; every single part of him feels on edge, as if ready to run . This has always worked before, but maybe his luck has run out. Maybe Vecna is ready to target him once again. GO AWAY—

“Will?” a voice—so quiet Will can barely even hear it—whispers, and Will tenses. 

Is that…

No. It… it can’t be… can it?

Will opens his eyes, and he cautiously moves towards the door, holding his arm out in front of him. He still hasn’t quite learned how his… abilities work, but surely, they’ll come in handy one of these days in a fight.

He hopes today isn’t that day. He hopes he isn’t just hearing things and getting his hopes up, only to have them get crushed.

“Who… who’s there?” Will whispers back, and he hesitantly reaches for the door. “Who’s there?”

Will opens the door.

There’s no one on the other side.

Will’s heart drops to the bottom of his stomach, and he takes a shuddered breath, looking down. Of course not. He is just hearing things. Of course, it isn’t real. He’s just getting his hopes up again for nothing. 

“Will,” the voice whispers again, and Will flinches, looking back up. The voice sounds like it’s right in front of Will, and there’s no denying now just who is speaking. 

Will blinks, staring out at the empty hallway. “Max?” 

A shaky laugh echoes through the hallway. “Holy shit, it is you,” the voice—Max’s voice—says. She sounds like she’s crying. “It’s really you!”

For a moment, all Will can do is stare blankly in front of him. “Are you… are you real?” he blurts out. “Why… why can’t I see you? Can you see me? What’s going on?”

There’s silence.

Then, Max quietly says, “You… you can’t see me?”

“No,” Will says helplessly. “I… I can hear you, obviously… and I could feel you, but… but I don’t see you, Max. How… how are you even here ? Have you… have you been here this whole time? And… and how do I know… how do I know this isn’t…”

Will’s voice trails off, and he shuts his eyes tightly.

How do I know this isn’t a trap? Another trick. Something else to mess with my head.

“A trap?” Max asks, her voice soft.

“Yeah.” Will’s voice breaks, and he slides down the door, suddenly feeling exhausted. “That. I can’t even see you, so… for all I know, you could just be in my head.”

For a moment, Max is silent. Will can sense her presence, still standing out in the hallway; then, she moves into the room, coming to sit next to him. “I would have thought you would be able to see me,” she admits. “Like… like he can.”

The words aren’t meant to be an insult, but still, Will can’t help but flinch. He leans his head on his hands, running his hands through his matted hair. “Sorry. It’s not like… It’s not like I can do everything he can,” he mutters. 

Once again, Max just goes quiet. Then, she shifts closer to Will. Up close, her presence feels almost… warm. It feels familiar… like home. 

Will nearly chokes back a sob. God, as selfish as it is, he wants this to be real. He wants this to be Max—for Max to actually be here—just so he isn’t alone anymore.

“Will,” Max finally says. Her voice is hushed, like she’s sharing some sort of secret. “That’s the thing… I… I think you can.”

Will blinks and lifts his head. “What?”

“I can… I can still feel him,” Max admits. “This whole time, I’ve been down here, and I… I can feel him. When… When I was still alive, it was like I was marked. I could always just feel his presence in the back of my mind. And… and I don’t know what changed, but all of the sudden, I started to be able to feel you. I don’t know how long it’s been, but I’ve been trying to find you ever since. You feel like him, Will, but… but different.”

“Different,” Will echoes. “Different… how?”

“You… you know how Vecna feels, don’t you?” Max asks quietly, and Will can’t help but shudder.

(Of course, he does. Of course , he knows what Vecna feels like.

He feels like the shadowy darkness that attacked Will and tore him apart from the inside out, ripping all of his autonomy and his security away from him.

He feels like the icy, frigid cold of the Upside Down that has left Will feeling so empty and numb after being exposed for so long.

He feels like the bitter, aching loneliness of wandering in a place that looks like home but that will never be home and never be the place where Will belongs.

But most of all, he feels like pure, unadulterated evil. An evil that seeks to kill and destroy every single thing that it touches until there is nothing left. An evil that seeps into even the tiniest of cracks in the wall, poisoning everything—and everyone—it comes into contact with. An evil that simply won’t stop until all life and everything good is eradicated from this reality.

That’s what Vecna feels like. And now, being so connected to him and to the Upside Down, Will understands that more than ever.)

“Yeah,” Will whispers back. “Yeah… I do.”

“Well… you feel like the opposite of that,” Max says, her voice soft. “If… if Vecna’s presence feels like darkness, then… then you feel like light, Will.”

“Max…” Will’s eyes water, and he bites down on his lip, staring out into the open space where he can sense his friend’s presence. “That doesn’t… it doesn’t mean anything…”

“Doesn’t it?” Max challenges. “What if you can do what he can? What if you could get us out of here, Will?”

“I can’t even see you, Max!” Will shouts, throwing his hands up in the air. The vines slither towards them in response, and he glares at them, willing them to go away. “I-I can’t even see you, and I don’t know if you’re even real, or if I’m just fucking going crazy !”

His voice cracks on that last word, and Will can’t help but think back to a time when things were so, so different and yet so very much the same.

(“Well, if we’re both going crazy, we’ll go crazy together, right?”

“Yeah. Crazy together.”)

Max’s voice snaps Will out of the memory.

“Just try, Will,” she pleads. “You don’t have to believe me, or… or trust what I’m saying. But… just at least try to see me. What else do you have to lose?”

Will takes a shuddered breath. Nothing, he thinks. He has absolutely nothing to lose.

“Fine,” he whispers back, and Max lets out a relieved sigh. “How… how do I see you?”

“How should I know?” Max scoffs, and Will groans, leaning his head against the wall. “Will, you’re the one with Upside Down powers!”

“That doesn’t mean I know how to use them,” Will reminds, running a hand through his hair and closing his eyes. “Okay, just… just give me a second.”

He can do this.

Deep breath.

In… and out.

In… and out.

In… and out.

Will takes another deep breath, and he focuses on that feeling of connectedness and on Max. Up close, her presence does feel warmer than anything else in the Upside Down, and more importantly, it feels familiar .

“You’re pretty cool, you know that, Byers?” Max’s voice echoes in the back of his mind. There’s an image—a memory—from the first year the two of them met, nearly in his grasp. Will reaches out for it, giving in to that feeling of weightlessness.

“Screw what people say. You survived the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer? That’s badass! You’re like a superhero! You’re the coolest person in the Party!”

Another memory comes to mind. Springtime, right around Will’s fourteenth birthday. 

“Hey, Byers! Lucas said it was your birthday this week… Happy birthday. I know it’s not the X-Men, but Wonder Woman is pretty cool too, you know.”

Will reaches for that memory too… and another… and another. There aren’t as many—after all, he and Max had barely gotten a year together before everything happened with the Mind Flayer, with Will’s move to California, and with Vecna. But it’s enough. The memories—the friendship and the love —are there, and it’s enough to fill Will’s heart with joy and light and a warmth he hasn’t felt in so long.

“Will?” Max—the Max in front of him—whispers. “I… I think you should open your eyes.”

Will dares to open his eyes.

And the sight in front of him takes his breath away.

All around him, there are little glowing particles of golden light, illuminating the darkness of the Upside Down. The light is absolutely radiant, and Will stares at it in awe, looking around until—

Until his gaze lands on Max.

She looks a bit different—translucent, almost like a ghost. The particles of golden light shimmer around her, and Will hesitantly reaches out, putting a hand on her shoulder. 

His hand passes right through. Max just grimaces.

“That felt weird,” she remarks. “I… I don’t… I don’t know how this works. Nothing else can see or touch me down here, and I can’t touch anything either, but…”

“But you’re still here,” Will whispers, and he can’t help the tears that sting his eyes. He meets Max’s gaze and offers her a watery smile. “You’re here . You’re actually here.”

Max’s expression softens, and she reaches out, putting her hand on Will’s cheek. Once again, it passes right through, but the gentleness and the intention of the act is enough to make Will choke back another sob. “I’m here,” she whispers back. “And you are too. We… we’re not alone anymore. We’re not alone.”

Will gives her another watery smile, and he mirrors her movement, reaching forward and putting his hand on her cheek. “We’re not alone,” Will echoes. 

The lights around them glow brighter in response, and Max just smiles.

August 24th, 1988.

Things change after Max finds Will in the Upside Down.

For the first time in likely over a year now, Will feels like he has hope again. He feels like he has a reason to keep surviving—no, to keep living. Not just surviving, but actually living. He isn’t alone down here anymore. He and Max have each other, and they both have to make it back home somehow. They have to figure out a way to get out of here and to get back to their friends and family.

Luckily for Will, Max has been more successful in finding their friends than he has.

They haven’t left Hawkins, much to Will’s surprise. No, they’re in the lab now—the very same lab where El grew up in and where Will spent so much time in, the year after his first disappearance. Together, he and Max travel to the Upside Down’s version of Hawkins National Laboratory, and for the first time in a long, long time, Will hears the soft echoes of his loved ones’ voices.

He nearly starts sobbing right then and there. The echoes are barely audible—so quiet that he and Max can barely understand what the others are even saying—but Will doesn’t care. They’re here . Everyone he loves is so close but also still just out of reach, and everything inside Will aches . He just wants to get home so, so badly. He just wants to see them again. 

Even if… even if they can’t remember him, Will doesn’t care at this point. All he wants is to see his mom and Jonathan and his friends and Mike again. They can figure out the memory problem later. Right now, Will just wants to get home, and he wants to get Max home.

They begin to make plans—as best as they can, at least. 

Going up through the gates is immediately out of the question. Even with Will’s connection to the hive mind, he’s almost certain Vecna would somehow override what little communication and control he has with the monsters. Besides, there are just too many of them guarding the gates, and crawling back up to the real world is a logistical disaster. So, that plan is out.

They also try making their own gates. Vecna can do it, and so can El… so it stands to reason that Will can as well. It’s a good theory, and for several days in a row, Will tries . He stands in the same place down in the basement of Hawkins National Laboratory, and he tries with everything in him to open up a new gate back home. It never works, and so, that plan is out too.

And so, that just leaves trying to communicate with their friends and family.

Communicating through the lights has worked before—a couple times actually, though none of them would remember the first time Will tried it—so Max and Will just know that someone will catch on to it. Even if they just send a simple SOS signal through the lights, someone will catch on and realize that they need help. That they’re trapped in the Upside Down.

The lights in the laboratory are hard to reach. They’re all just ceiling lights, and Will has to reach up just to manipulate the little glowing particles. Constantly reaching above his head and trying to touch the lights exacerbates his old injuries, but Will does his best to power through. The temporary pain is worth it if it means they can get home .

But somehow, that doesn’t work either, and fuck, they’re running out of options and out of time here.

Because at the end of the day, Will and Max both know they’re running on borrowed time. It’s only a matter of time before Vecna comes after them and realizes what they’re up to, and once Vecna realizes that Will has figured out some of the strange powers and control he has over the Upside Down, there’s no telling what he’ll force Will to do. And once Vecna realizes Max is still around, he’ll surely suck up her consciousness or whatever the fuck it is he’s done to the rest of his victims.

They’re running out of time, and none of their plans work.

Until Max suggests a new plan.

“What if you put one of them in a trance?” Max asks suddenly.

Will opens his eyes, staring at his friend in confusion. Her form flickers ever so slightly—the unfortunate result of Will’s own exhaustion and inability to keep the lights alive. “Put them in a trance,” he echoes slowly. “Like… Vecna does?”

Max nods, a thoughtful look on her face. “He was able to talk to me through the trance,” she muses. “So… what if you could do the same? You could… try reaching out to one of them. Your mom or… or Jonathan… or Mike?”

Will winces, and he runs a hand through his hair, tugging at the ends slightly. “ Maybe I could,” he agrees, “but you’re forgetting something. They don’t remember me. I don’t exist anymore, Max. Not to them at least. Vecna stole their memories.”

“Okay.” Max shrugs. “So, make them remember you. Give them the memories back.”

“You know, I don’t know whether to be touched or incredibly annoyed at how much faith you have in my abilities,” Will says dryly. “Say I somehow figure out how to trance one of them… make a psychic connection, all that. Vecna’s powerful, Max. I don’t know how I’m supposed to just break this curse and magically give them their memories back.”

Max tilts her head. “Memories are a powerful thing,” she reminds, her voice surprisingly gentle. “That’s what saved me the first time… And that’s what bought me enough time for El to bring me back the second time. Those memories? They’re light, Will. And light’s… kind of your thing. You can do it. I know you can. I say you make them remember you.”

She pauses here and glances up at the ceiling, a bittersweet sort of smile on her face. “And to be honest with you? I know there’s at least one person up there who could never forget you. He’s too damn stubborn to.”

Will feels his cheeks go warm at the implication of his friend’s words, and he opens his mouth to argue. Before he can though, Max gives him a look. “Nuh uh. Don’t try the bullshit with me, not when we’re literally trapped in hell together. Just… try to reach him. Even if he doesn’t remember you… Mike’s got a good heart. He’d never leave anyone down here, even if they were a total stranger.”

Max is right, of course. If there’s anything Will knows about Mike, it’s that he’s a good person—someone whose heart is kind and gentle and so full of love . Even if Mike doesn’t know him anymore, Will knows that Mike isn’t the kind of person to turn away someone in need. That’s just not who he is.

It’s one of the things Will loves the most about him.

“Okay,” Will says softly, and he sits up, taking a deep breath. “Okay. I… I’ll try it at least.”

Max smiles at him, and she reaches out, placing her hand on his shoulder. It passes right through, as it always does, but the gesture still counts for something. “You got this,” she whispers. “Just think about the light… think about your light.”

My light, Will thinks, nodding slightly at his best friend and closing his eyes. Think about the light.

There’s always been a lot of darkness in Will’s life. Even before the Upside Down, Will knows his life was marred by darkness—by his own father’s abuse, by the horrible insults and slurs thrown at him by bullies, and by his own fear and self-hatred. 

But for all the darkness in his life, there’s always been light to counteract it. Even in the darkest moments of his life, trapped in the Upside Down or possessed by an otherworldly creature, the light has always managed to break through the darkness and help him find a way out. Even now, after spending over a year trapped in this place, the light has found him again. The light always seems to find Will when he’s lost.

Now, it’s his turn to be the light. To find Mike and to help him see… to help him remember. 

So, Will thinks about the light. He thinks about all the memories—full of love and laughter—that have been his lifeline. He thinks about hours-long D&D campaigns in Mike’s basement and about dreams of creating comic books together for the rest of their lives. He thinks about long bike rides around all of Hawkins during the summer and about snowball fights and snowmen in the winter and about every single moment in between. He thinks about all of his happiest moments with his best friend—now his boyfriend —by his side through it all.

Will opens his eyes. 

And he finds himself right where it all started.

Hawkins Elementary School.

The world around him is still dark, so Will lets the light guide his way. Slowly, he makes his way over to the swing set, and he takes a seat, breathing deeply.

In… and out.

In… and out.

In… and out.

And Will waits.

Will waits for Mike to come to him, just like he did all those years ago.

He can feel Mike now—somewhere in the back of his mind, he can feel Mike’s presence. It’s bright and warm—a blazing fire in the midst of a snowstorm. But at the same time, it’s gentle and soft—a protective embrace that promises, I’ve got you, I’ve got you, I’ve got you. And it’s familiar— God, it’s so familiar. It’s like the feeling of coming home after being gone for so long. 

Will takes another deep breath, and he closes his eyes. Mike’s presence is closer now, but he’s still lost. His mind is still tinged with the remnants of Vecna’s curse, and Will can’t help but think back to that day when Vecna first stole Mike’s memories and stole Will away.

What was that memory? The one that had echoed over and over again around him, each time getting shorter and shorter until it finally disappeared.

The shed.

Breaking free of the Mind Flayer’s possession.

“Do you remember the first day that we met?” Mike had once asked him.

Yes, Will thinks to himself. How could I forget?

“It was… it was the first day of kindergarten. I knew nobody,” Mike had continued. Despite it all, despite the possession and everything that had happened that week, Will remembers this moment clear as day. “I had no friends, and… I just felt so alone… and so scared, but I saw you on the swings and you were alone too.”

Will’s hands tighten around the metal chainlinks of the swing, and he can’t help but smile to himself. Kindergarten. The swings. It was all so long ago, and yet, he can still vividly picture that moment in his mind.

“You were just swinging by yourself,” the voice of Mike’s younger self says quietly, and Will feels him. He feels Mike’s presence coming closer and closer to him, finding his way out of the darkness. “And… I just walked up to you, and I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And—”

“And I said yes,” Will whispers into the darkness. The golden particles of light glow brighter in response, and Will can’t help but smile. “I said yes.”

“It was the best thing I ever did,” Will says softly, an echo of the words Mike had once said to him years ago. 

Somehow, the lights glow even brighter.

And finally, Will sees him.

There, standing right in front of him, is none other than Mike Wheeler.

His hair is longer than Will remembers it, and he looks tired, with dark bags under his eyes. But there’s a look of complete wonder on his face, and Will thinks he looks absolutely beautiful.

Then, Mike does something that surprises him.

“Will,” he whispers, and now, it’s Will’s turn to stare at him in shock. 

You remember me? Will thinks to himself, and hot, salty tears sting his eyes. You remember?

Will stands to his feet, unable to keep the smile off his face. “Mike,” he whispers back hesitantly. 

Maybe it’s all just a fluke. Maybe Mike doesn’t actually remember; maybe Will is just making all of this up—

The next thing Will knows, Mike all but throws himself at Will, choking back a sob. 

“It’s you ,” Mike gasps, and he wraps Will in a bone-crushing hug. The hug is warm, and it feels safe, and fuck, Will can’t help but sob. “It… it’s you. Will. You’re real… You’re here.”

“I’m here,” he promises, wrapping his arms around Mike just as tightly. “And I… I’m real. Um… sort of.”

There’s a beat.

Then, Mike pulls away. Everything inside of Will cries out at the sudden loss of touch and warmth, but quickly after, Mike cups his face gently. There’s a confused look on his face. “What do you mean sort of ?”

Will winces. “I… think I have you in a trance or something,” he tries to explain, offering a sheepish smile. “Sort of… Sort of… like what he does… or like El’s piggyback. But we… we don’t have a lot of time, Mike. He’s going to sense this, so I need you to listen to me—”

A chill runs down Will’s spine, and he tenses, looking around. The lights around them begin to dim, flickering in and out, and Will knows. Will knows that he is here—that he’s close . 

Will is running out of time.

“Shit,” he curses. “Shit. Okay, Mike, we’re in the Upside Down. Both of us, and he has us trapped. Whatever he’s planning… you and-and El and the others have to get here soon. You have to hurry—”

Another chill runs down Will’s spine, and his presence inches closer, like a predator approaching its prey. Will bites back a sob, right as Mike quickly asks, “Okay, do you know where you are in the Upside Down? And… who is we? Who else is there with you? What are you talking about, Will? What is he planning?” 

Leave it to Mike Wheeler to ask a dozen questions that Will just doesn’t have time to explain. He has to get out of here before Vecna gets to Mike or before he gets to Max . “There’s no time to explain,” he says urgently. “I have to go before he gets to you, but just… just be careful—”

Will pulls away, right as another chill runs down his spine, and the lights fade away even quicker. He’s just about to let go and separate himself from Mike when suddenly, Mike grabs his hand at the last moment. “Wait!”

His touch is like electricity. The lights glow brighter in response, and Will’s face turns warm as he looks back at his best friend. “What?”

For a moment, Mike just looks confused and almost like… like he’s trying to figure something out. And Will doesn’t have the time for this, because he is coming, and they have to get out of here, and—

Oh.

Oh.

Just as quickly as Mike kisses him, Mike pulls away, his eyes wide. Will stares right back at him in complete shock, trying to process what the hell just happened and just how much Mike remembers—

“We’ll find you,” Mike promises, resolve in his voice. “I’ll find you. I… I’m not losing you, Will. Never again.”

I love you, Mike says without having to say it, and God, Will feels more alive than he has in months.

He can’t help the tears that form in his eyes as he smiles back at his boyfriend. “Okay,” Will whispers back. “I… I’ll see you soon, Mike.”

He catches one last glimpse of Mike’s smiling face—so full of love and of light—before Will lets him go and breaks their psychic connection.

With a gasp, he opens his eyes and looks around.

“Holy shit!” Max exclaims. She’s still sitting right in front of him, though the lights around her are flickering in and out. “Holy shit, Will; that was insane. The… the lights; I’ve never seen them so bright before, and—”

“We have to go,” Will says urgently, and he scrambles to his feet, looking around. “We have to go now . He’s coming.”

Max’s eyes widen, and she, too, scrambles to her feet, quickly following Will out of the room. “Shit, shit, shit,” she curses. “He knows then… about you… about your powers?”

“I think he’s always known,” Will says grimly as the two of them run out of the hall and to the closest exit. “But he’s just been biding his time… waiting for the right moment.”

“And… and do you think he knows about me?” Max whispers. There’s an uncharacteristic amount of fear in her voice, and Will glances back, meeting her eyes.

“Probably,” he whispers. Max swallows the lump in her throat, clenching her fists tightly. “He probably knows about both of us, so we have to get out of here and hide and—”

A chill runs down Will’s spine, and suddenly, he feels his presence, closer than ever before. Everything inside Will knows he should keep running, but it’s as if his body has a mind of his own. Instead of running, he slows down until he’s completely frozen in place, helpless to do anything but looking around for the incoming threat.

“Will, come on!” Max shouts, several paces ahead of him. “We have to go! Come on!”

There’s desperation in her voice and tears in her eyes, and Will can tell by the look in her eyes that Max can feel him too. She’s just as terrified as he is. 

“Go!” Will screams back. “Run, Max! Get out of here!”

Her eyes widen, and for a moment, she hesitates. Though he still feels frozen in place, Will closes his eyes and pours all his energy into making sure Max can’t be seen and can’t be felt. He has no idea if it’ll work or for how long it’ll work, but if he can protect Max just long enough for her to escape, then it’ll all be worth it.

“Will Byers,” a familiar voice whispers from behind him, and Will shudders, tensing as his presence moves closer and closer. His chest feels tight; it becomes harder and harder to breathe. “I see you have learned what I desired for you. Do you see now how different you are? How special you are? You belong here, far from the rest of humanity. They are beneath you.”

“Let me go,” Will whispers through gritted teeth. He still can’t move his limbs, and behind him, Vecna merely chuckles.

“We both know that isn’t an option, Will,” he says lowly. “And it never was. You’ve known it this whole time, just as I have. You belong here.”

Will squeezes his eyes shut tighter, and he forces himself to take a shuddered breath. The closeness of his presence paralyzes Will with terror, but Will can’t afford to get trapped in his own thoughts and fears right now. He can’t . He has to get out of here.

“Just think about the light… think about your light.” Max’s voice echoes in the back of Will’s mind, and he takes another deep breath.

The light.

A playground with a little old swing set.

A boy—someone Will loved since before he even knew what love meant.

A promise: “I’ll find you. I… I’m not losing you, Will. Never again.”

A love strong enough to break both of them out of the darkness, just long enough for them to find each other again.

Distantly, Will thinks he hears himself scream. A rush of energy washes over him like a wave, filling up every single part of him with a sensation of warmth and familiarity and light.

Will dares to open his eyes. 

He’s still in the Upside Down, but it’s brighter than he’s ever seen before. Brilliant, glowing particles of light illuminate the entire way out of the laboratory, and his presence is nowhere to be found.

And Will can move again.

He scrambles to his feet, running as fast as he can in the direction of the light. He has to get out of here, and he has to find Max. The others are coming for them—Mike is coming for him. All Will has to do is stall long enough to be rescued.

So, Will runs.

And he doesn’t look back.