Chapter Text
They’re running. Again.
It feels like it’s all they’ve been doing for the past days, even weeks. They’re jumping from one spot to the other, feet always careful not to touch the vines, eyes darting around, looking for clues and enemies they know are coming.
Will lands on the ground in an empty spot and takes one moment longer to breathe. He never thought he’d be back here. When he arrived back in Hawkins he knew that the worst was yet to come , that he’d have to face the monsters again, especially Vecna. He didn’t like to call him Henry – it felt like humanizing him and he was no human. Not anymore, for what concerned him. He was the monster in this story, his story, the one he saw that night so many years ago when he disappeared and found himself in a different world.
Even though he knew he couldn’t possibly avoid facing him, he surely didn’t think he’d be back in the Upside Down.
“Will.” He snaps his head up and Mike is looking at him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he says and it’s become an automatism because he can’t really remember the last time he actually felt fine. He straightens up and removes some dirt off his pants.
Mike just nods and they start to run again.
Dustin is leading the way, his compass permanently in his hands even though they all know it doesn’t work, not in the Upside Down. Still, he keeps it in his hands and looks at it sometimes. He says it makes him look cool but deep down everyone knows he keeps looking at it because it gives him some kind of reassurance, like it could still guide them towards safety.
This was meant to be a short trip – get in, gather some more evidence about the Upside Down being stuck on the day Will went missing, and quickly get the hell out of it. Obviously, things hadn’t gone to plan.
Dustin had been the first to offer to get in and everyone knew it was because of Eddie. No one bat an eye and immediately after El said she was tagging along.
“I can protect you,” she had said and Dustin had offered her another warm hug.
To no one’s surprise, Mike had been the third to join in and it didn’t take long for Will to offer his help, too. It was probably the most logical thing to do, actually. If the Upside Down was stuck on the day of his disappearing, then maybe he had to go back there. He really didn’t want to go but he was not about to let his friends face it on their own. He wanted to be useful.
No one expected Lucas to join them, as he was glued to Max’s side in the hospital, but as the party was readying themselves to leave, Lucas stepped into Mike’s basement with a backpack in his hand and a smile on his face.
“There’s no party without a ranger, right?”
So here they were, three days later, with their food supplies running short and the gates back to the normal w orld constantly guarded. El had tried many times to fight the demobats away but it was never enough to keep them away for them to get through one gate. So they kept running, hiding in the woods, rationing their supplies , resting whenever they could.
“Shit.”
Everyone stops dead in their tracks, Lucas almost stepping on a vine and Mike catching him just in time.
“Shit shit shit,” Dustin says again.
“What, Dustin?”
“Demobats. Again.”
Lucas reaches his side and furrows his brows. A flock of demobats is circling a field they were meant to take, one that leads to the nearest gate. “They weren’t here yesterday. They’re moving.”
“More like following us,” Mike suggests.
Crack .
It sounds like a branch crackling in the fireplace but the party knows that they need to be aware of all kinds of sounds. They’re all looking around, trying to figure out what caused that noise when Dustin suddenly screams.
“Run!”
The demobats are coming towards them and they’re running, again and again, back from where they came from, and El is throwing rocks at the demobats to buy them some time.
Lucas runs faster than any of them and he finds a cave shortly after, leading the party there to hide. Everyone ducks in it and Lucas grabs El, the last one to hide, and they all go quiet.
There’s a sound of flying demons, screeches and air moving over them, and no one dares to move.
“Are they gone?” Dustin whispers after a while and Lucas turns around to peek over the rocks. He shakes his head.
“They’re still near,” he whispers. “Not above us but if we get out, they’ll see us.”
“I guess we have to wait,” Mike says, resting his head against the hard rock.
Dustin sighs, heavily. He’s the farthest from the entrance of the cave, with El and Lucas right next to him. Mike and Will are on the other side of the small cave .
Will watches as everyone settles in: they’ve been doing this for far too many days not to know what to do. El picks up a chocolate bar from her backpack and splits it in three, keeping one piece for herself and giving the other two parts to Dustin and Lucas. Then, she gives Will a warm smile and he tries his best to smile back. She’s strong, stronger than anyone in that cave, but he knows she needs him the most and he would do anything to make his sister feel safe and give her all the strength she needs.
It’s weird, he thinks. He imagined that that role was meant for Mike but two days after their arrival in Hawkins he found a pensive El sitting on the stairs of Hopper’s cabin, and when he asked if anything was wrong, he certainly didn’t think he’d hear her say that she and Mike just broke up.
“Why? What happened?” Will asked because he was utterly confused.
“It was not meant to be,” she answered, and there was no pain in her voice. “I think we were never meant to be more than friends. Does it make sense?”
Will nodded but couldn’t utter a word for quite a while. “But...don’t you love him?”
“I figured out there are different kinds of love. I love him as I love you. And you’re my brother.”
Will hadn’t had the time to investigate any further because the day after their adventure in the Upside Down had begun and things had gone crazy.
“Here.”
He gets taken out of his thoughts when he hears Mike’s voice. He turns around and Mike is near, too near, but he’s offering him a bottle of water – what little they have left, anyway.
“You didn’t drink it last time,” Mike insists and Will doesn’t try to fight him. He knows he’d come out as the loser in that fight.
“Thanks,” he says as he takes the bottle. Mike gives him a loving smile and just stares at him the whole time he drinks (or sips, actually. He doesn’t want to finish it).
Will felt something shift between the two of them and he couldn’t quite place when it had happened. For a long moment, Will thought that Mike was just trying to process the breakup, but on the first day of their adventure in the Upside Down, El and Mike had laughed at some inside joke and their breakup definitely looked like it was mutual. So, Will obviously thought that Mike was mad about the painting, that he had figured out his lie, but Mike was acting anything but mad with him, and that left Will wandering in a confused limbo where he didn’t know how to act.
Mike was almost treating him as if he was going to break and it was probably because he was back in this hellhole, and after the second day Will had stopped questioning his behaviour altogether. He simply didn’t have the time for it.
He hands the water bottle back to Mike and silence fills the cave, broken only by the sounds of the demobats still lurking outside.
“Okay, game time. Where do you see yourself in ten years?”
All eyes are on Dustin, who’s looking around, expecting someone to answer his question.
“Seriously, Dustin? Now?” Lucas asks, raising his eyebrows.
“You got better things to do?”
Lucas opens his mouth, ready to object that that is not the point, that they’re trying to survive and make it out of what’s become hell on Earth, but he doesn’t get the chance to because El, to everyone’s surprise, is the first to speak up. “I don't know,” she says. She brings her legs close to her chest and her smile is painted with blue colours. “I never thought I could think so ahead of time.”
Dustin presses his lips shut, realising that what was meant to be a way of passing time and lighten the mood turned out to be quite a heavy topic. But then El, wonderful, gentle El turns her sad smile into a genuine one as she speaks again. “But I know I’ll still be eating lots of eggos.”
There’s a soft melody echoing in the cave now, created by the party’s gentle laugh. Will looks at his sister and god, does he hope that her future is full of eggos and happy places.
“I’m not sure,” Lucas says, hand scratching his arm. “I always thought that teaching science to kids would be extremely cool.”
“You mean being Mr. Clarke is cool,” Mike corrects him and Lucas throws a stick his way.
“We all know he’s the coolest. It’d be cool to be like him. Or maybe I could become a professional basketball player.”
Dustin snorts, earning a side-eye from his friend. “You? A professional basketball player? Yeah, sure.”
“I’m good!”
“Have you ever actually played?”
“I have, and even scored the most important point of the game. And you guys would know that had you showed up to the game.”
Will feels Mike stiffen right next to him and something that looks like guilt crosses his eyes. El is just as confused as he is, but the heavy atmosphere doesn’t linger over them for long.
“I already said we’re sorry,” Dustin says, and there’s no mocking in his voice. He genuinely means it and Will can see that Lucas knows.
“I know but still, you missed the best game we’ve ever had.” Lucas is smiling and Mike relaxes next to him, and Will knows that whatever happened wasn’t – thankfully – bad enough to break the party up in moments like this.
“We’ll make sure to be there for the next one, then,” Dustin says. He relaxes and sighs, almost dreamily. “I want to work at NASA. Or just in some science field. That’d be awesome.”
“You’d be good at it.”
Silence falls over them and Will shifts in his spot because he knows that it’s his turn to speak now – his or Mike’s, since they’re the only ones who haven’t joined the conversation yet . He’s not sure of what to say. The future always seemed like something too far from him.
“I like writing.” All eyes are on Mike and he’s whispering, not because of the demobats, but because it’s something he rarely shares with people. They all know his passion for writing, he’s been their Dungeon Master for years and not just because they had randomly picked him. He was the best at creating stories, at telling them, at coming up with new worlds in a matter of minutes.
“And… I like to think that I could become a writer. And, I don’t know, maybe write some cool comics. Or even just fantasy books.”
Mike turns his head towards him and Will feels his heart skip a beat. They’ve been reunited for almost two weeks now and even though it had just recently started to feel like they’ve never been apart, Will can’t say he hasn’t missed this. Getting lost in Mike’s eyes was a privilege he had when they were kids, when society didn’t care too much about two boys holding hands, because they were little and innocent, even though some people – people like Lonnie, obviously – told them it was wrong and that they couldn’t, because it was inappropriate or worse, a sin.
Will never believed in that kind of stuff and when Lonnie left he thought that the worst part of his life was finally gone for good. Then he grew up, and so did Mike, and they both realised that holding hands was meant for girls and boys together, sometimes even for girls and girls, but not for boys and boys. Never for them. And getting lost in Mike's eyes became a rarity until it became just a memory for Will. He never thought he would get the chance to do it again.
“You could help me with the drawings of the comics,” Mike finally says when the silence starts to get too heavy. “I’m not sure I’d manage to make anything look good.”
“I’d like that,” he says and his breath catches in his throat for a moment. Mike smiles at him and Will wants to drown in his eyes, to take his hand and to never let him go.
They’re lost again in their own little world, eyes locked into one another and Will wonders, in times like this, if maybe, just maybe, he might be just exactly what Mike needs.
“I like dancing,” El says and Will doesn’t want to divert his eyes from Mike’s but it’s his sister speaking, so he turns around to listen to her. “And talking to Max. She’s there, in my future.”
Lucas smiles and reaches out to squeeze El’s hand. “She’s also in mine.”
“I guess we’ll see each other a lot, then.”
“I hope we are all seeing each other a lot in the future,” Dustin adds. “There’s no way you’re getting rid of me. No chance.”
They know it won’t be like this forever. Dustin has already mentioned MIT and maybe they haven’t talked about it, but they’re not going to stay in Hawkins. Maybe some of them will but not everyone, and Will himself doesn’t think he’s going to stay in his home town forever. California wasn’t that bad, and definitely more open-minded than the little Indiana city he grew up in, but he knows he still has to find his place in this world.
“Yeah, we know,” Lucas says, rolling his eyes. It’s just a moment because immediately after his face gets serious again. “We’ll see each other as often as we can. We can plan monthly reunions!”
“I doubt we’ll manage monthly reunions,” Mike replies, eyebrows furrowing. “If we manage to see each other like twice a year it’ll be a miracle.”
“Oh come on, we have to meet at least every two months.”
“Mmh. Still sounds like a miracle.”
“Okay, then every three months. That would still be just four times a year!”
Dustin joins in as if it was the most important debate of history. “Plus, we’ll have to meet for our birthdays. And future weddings!”
Lucas snorts and Will just takes it all in because he’s missed this , his friends, his old normality. “Already planning on asking Suzie to marry you?”
“We would be very happy together. And have beautiful kids.”
“Yeah, like a ton of Mormon kids. Are you even allowed to marry her?”
And they’re back to their kid-selves, when they used to argue about anything and pretty much everywhere, not caring about the contest. El is sitting between the two of them, looking quite amused and laughing when they start to argue about how many kids they’ll have and how they could probably make their own football team because they'll just have so many .
Their voices aren’t loud, not wanting to catch the demobats’ attention, but they’re loud enough for Will to get lost in them. To pretend this is just a normal day where school has just ended and they’re at the park. Someone has just made a snarky remark about Juliet Donovan and Matt Keynes, who are apparently the school sweethearts of Hawkins High School, and everyone just knows they’re going to get married, and that’s how they ended up talking about their future lives.
But they’re not in a green environment, they’re in a cave, and everyone starts to make fun of Dustin’s vision of marriage, El telling him that his kids’ first words are probably going to be science-related while Mike is convinced Dustin is going to forget all of his children’s birthdays because he’ll have so many .
“I’m very good at remembering things, thank you very much,” Dustin says and he looks at Will, throwing a small rock his way. “What about you, Byers? What's life going to be for your married future self?”
Will smiles and it’s a sad smile, because he’s thought about it way too many times and not because getting married or having a family is something he’s always wanted to have. Sure, he’d like that, to marry someone he loves – Mike, if he has to be honest. He only wants to marry Mike – and to actually have kids of his own. He had these fantasies growing up where he would imagine himself happy, somewhere far away from Hawkins, with a husband and a couple of kids. He allowed himself happy scenarios but growing up he started to realise that it could be only that, a fantasy, and it became too painful to think about something he was sure he would never have. So, he started to think less and less about his future until he stopped altogether.
“I don't think I'll ever get married. Or have kids, actually.”
Lucas laughs, and it’s soft. “Why the hell not?”
“Because it's illegal for people like me. We don't get happy endings.”
He’s never said it, never meant for them to find out this soon and definitely not like this but he’s oh, so tired.
He’s tired and every second that passes it’s one more than what he wanted to spend in the Upside Down, and he simply doesn’t care anymore. Somehow, he knows everyone knew already, but still he notices how Lucas and Dustin stiff en , while El just looks at him confused. Bless her innocent heart. Mike, though, doesn’t flinch or jump away from him. He scoots closer, almost imperceptibly, for anyone but him probably.
“What do you mean?” El asks.
“I’m gay,” Will answers because he knows he has to make it clear even though everyone – everyone but El – understood what he meant.
“What does that mean?” she asks again.
“I like boys,” and it takes him all the strength he has left not to say that he loves a boy, specifically the boy sitting next to him.
“I like boys too,” El says. “Does that make me gay?”
Will laughs and it should feel weird, being the only one laughing, but Dustin and Lucas still have a confused expression on their faces and Will knows it’s because they don’t know how to behave around him yet. It’s one thing to hear about homosexuals, it’s another one to have one in your party.
Mike, in all of this, is still silent.
“No, it doesn’t,” he answers. “Gay is a term used only for boys who like other boys. If a boy likes a girl, or if a girl likes a boy, they’re straight. They’re normal.”
“Hey, don’t say that.” It’s the first time that Mike speaks and Will can’t help but feel his heart melt. Mike has his head resting on his knees and his eyes are soft and veiled with sadness. “You’re normal, too.”
“Well. Debatable.” Everyone turns around to look at Dustin and Will swears he almost sees murder written in Lucas’ eyes.
“I mean, is any of us actually normal?” Dustin continues. “We like board games, we actually have good grades in maths and science, three of us are part of a club that people think is a satanic cult and the other two are one girl with superpowers and one boy with some strange spidey-sense. We’re nerds fighting against supernatural creatures and who are currently having a field trip in an interdimensional world. I wouldn’t exactly call us ‘normal’.”
There’s a moment where no one speaks but where the silence is not as heavy as Will thought it would be. Lucas’ gaze went from murderous to the usual one he has when Dustin starts to babble a bit too much, and it’s familiar and it’s safe , and safe is what this cave has become for Will. He’s safe here, with his friends, his family, and he really never thought this would be his coming out.
“Who likes normal anyway?” Mike says, breaking the silence. Soft laughs echo around them and Mike turns around to look at him again, gifting Will one of his warmest smiles. “It’s not like normal people accomplish that much in life.”
He’s taken back a few years, at his discussion with Jonathan that late afternoon in his old bedroom, when he was drawing himself as zombie boy, because that was what he was but that’s not how Jonathan made him feel that day.
The thing is nobody normal ever accomplished anything meaningful in this world.
Maybe normal wasn’t something he should want to be.
“I guess you’re right,” Will answers and Dustin smiles at him from across the cave.
“So, not-so-normal Will,” Dustin continues. “How’s life for you in ten years?”
And he doesn’t mean to ruin the mood, he really doesn’t, because everyone has done such a great job at making him feel safe and supported. They hadn’t said it clearly but he knows them and knows that they didn’t have to say “It’s okay that you’re gay” for him to feel safe. He knows all of this, but he also knows how he feels and he can’t lie, not anymore. He’s been doing that for far too long.
“I feel like I won’t be alive in ten years.”
He says it with a smile but with a heavy heart, and that’s what makes Mike move. “No, don’t.”
Will turns to face him and Mike’s reaching for his arm. He squeezes it gently and his gaze is fierce, fiercer than he’s ever seen. “Don’t say that. We’ll make it out of this mess alive. Everyone will make it out of this alive.”
“I have a feeling that I won’t.”
El jumps up from her spot and goes to kneel in front of him. Will looks at her, feeling defeated, and maybe it’s the contaminated air they’ve been breathing for far too long, or maybe it’s just all of his pain and trauma finally catching up with him, but he doesn’t feel like there’s much his sister can do to make him feel better.
“Listen to me,” she says and Will thinks she’s never looked stronger than this. “This is not the end, do you hear me? Not now and not even tomorrow. We will survive this and you, William Byers, will see the end of this and not as a victim but as a hero.”
He can feel tears well up in the corner of his eyes, and he’s tired of crying, but he thinks that if he doesn’t let go then he’ll only do more damage. He realises, now and then, that this is his sister giving back all the strength he’d given her, returning the favour, because that’s what a family does. They’re there for each other when the other needs them the most and if El needed him before, now it’s Will who needs her and he’s never been more grateful for his sister.
“Okay?” she asks and Will nods almost convulsively, tears running down his cheeks.
“Okay,” he manages to croak out and El launches himself at him, hugging him tight, as if life itself depended on it, and it doesn’t take long for the rest of the party to join in.
Will almost feels like he’s suffocating but he thinks that if that’s how he’s meant to go, then he doesn’t mind. It would be quite ironical, though, to die in the embrace of his friends mere seconds after they’ve told him he’s not meant to die there.
In the mess of their limbs entwined together, Will feels Mike’s hand find his own and their finger interlace, and when everyone slowly retires from the group hug, Mike doesn’t let go.
There’s a moment of silence, where El wipes away her tears with a sniff, and while Dustin tries his best to gift everyone his brightest smile, Lucas suddenly perks up.
“Do you guys hear that?” he asks and everyone goes still, and the dust in the air is the only thing they can actually feel in that moment.
“I can’t hear anything,” Dustin says and Lucas smiles.
“Exactly.”
It doesn’t take them long to understand. The demobats are gone.
They run to the entrance of the cave and look around, almost expecting the demobats to be right above them and ready to turn them to pieces. Now, closer to the exit of the cave, they can hear faint screeches and the demobats seem long gone.
“I don’t understand,” Dustin says. “They’ve been following us for days. We can’t reach the gates because they’re always there. Why are they suddenly gone?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Mike exclaims. His hand is still holding Will’s and Will doesn’t want to think too much about it, and doesn’t want to give it a weight it doesn’t have. They just had a delicate moment, with the party, and they’re in danger again: it’s perfectly normal to hold onto each other, especially now that they’re finding their old bond again. “We need to go. Now!”
El is the first to jump out and everyone tails behind her. They’re careful, taking the first couple of steps very slowly, but when they realise that it isn't a trap and that the demobats are really gone, they start to run.
His legs are asking him for truce, because they’re running too fast, and even though they’ve been doing this for three days, his body doesn’t feel ready for it. Mike has to let go of his hand, understandably, because running while holding hands and watching not to step on the vines is quite the task, and they can’t risk it when they finally have a concrete chance of escaping.
They’re near the gate created by Fred’s death and the vines are circling it, almost blocking the entrance. Dustin and Lucas are the first to reach it and they waste no time trying to free the passage. El helps them immediately, eyes focused and hand stretched out, nose already bleeding.
Will is catching his breath, hands on his knees, when a sudden pain breaks through his body.
He screams, bringing his hands to cover his ears as a piercing sound threatens to break his brain in half. It’s like a siren has gone off and all the sound is condensed in his ears, only for him to hear. He drops on his knees and he just knows, something’s extremely wrong.
“Will!”
Mike is on his side in mere seconds, hands travelling from his arms to his hands, as if his touch could somehow ease what is torturing his ears. “What’s wrong?”
“I-I don’t-”
A sharp pain travels through his body, a feeling he can only describe as a knife in his throat, and he drops to the ground, screaming. He doesn’t know what’s happening, how long he’s been on the ground because it feels like ages and somehow, it feels like dying. He knows the feeling. He already felt it twice. If his lungs could manage it, he would probably laugh. Three’s a charm, isn’t it?
Mike is still trying to get a grip of him, screaming his name as if it’s his own personal mantra, and new hands reach him and he knows they belong to his sister.
“I’m going to help you, okay? Will, can you hear me?”
He can but he’s not sure they can hear him and he tries to nod but he only screams more.
He can’t think of a way El might save him, and she’s not actively doing anything, and Will suddenly gets it. It’s him. It’s Vecna, of course it’s Vecna, and he’s probably in his mind, he just can’t see him. Not yet, not when the world is black and his lungs are screaming for uncontaminated air.
There’s a sudden flash of light, fast and painful, and the piercing sound suddenly stops and he’s able to breathe again.
“Will?”
He looks up and Mike is still holding him. He’s crying and trying his best to look strong but Will can see his desperation not so well hidden under his worried gaze.
“Hey. You okay?” Mike asks, his voice soft as the first snow in winter. Will can only thank him for that because he’s not sure he would manage loud noises right now. He nods and holds onto Mike as he helps him get up. He suddenly notices that Dustin and Lucas are near them, faces covered in dirt and worried gazes, and as soon as Will gets up, they turn around and run towards the gate again.
They’re the first two to slip through the gate, ready to help Will get back to the real world since he looks like he’s got no strength left. Will limps towards it, Mike holding him close, and he thinks it’s finally over when suddenly the three of them are pulled back.
Dustin is screaming their name and Will can faintly hear Lucas shout something about getting help, or asking for help, Will’s not sure because he blacks everything out when he feels his back hit the ground and something sharp pierces his side.
It doesn’t take him long to realise that the demobats are back again and they’re attacking them. He can’t see Mike and El from where he is but he can hear screams and El using her powers.
Will’s trying to push the demons away but whatever happened mere seconds before has drained him of all of his energies and he tries and fails to save himself.
The demobats are eating him alive and he just screams, and he can’t help but think that he was never meant to leave the Upside Down. Not the first time years ago, not today.
He hears gunshots, he hears Mike screaming his name, and he wishes he could’ve died faster.
A beak sinks in his flesh and he screams one last time before his world goes to black.