Chapter Text
The air is cold and the wind is whistling, Dustin is screaming behind him but the wind drowns him out. Or maybe its his own mind.
Emotions are a complicated thing, something he’s never understood.
He can see the faint points of rocks below, the water is rippling gently. He knows the distance will kill him.
He could run, he could argue, but somewhere inside he knows he won’t. Maybe a little part of him is grateful. Some small fucked up part, is okay with it.
He wished Dustin didn’t have to be here, but this was a chance. A chance to get away. A chance he couldn’t just give up. At least maybe he could have a chance to go out bravely.
Will had been found here just days ago right here in the quarry. His lifeless face looked up at Mike from the edge. Had he been thinking these same thoughts? Was he also relieved?
One foot was off the edge, Dustin was pleading. Maybe a part of Mike was pleading to. Pleading for a way out of this hell called living.
He took a deep breath, letting the air fill his lungs with life for a final time. He thought about Nancy and Holly. He thought about Lucas and Dustin. He thought about El. He thought about Will.
He felt himself begin to fall, it wasn’t weightless like people described it. It was heavy, he could feel his whole being falling. But it wasn’t fast, maybe it was just the height but for a moment he thought he was flying. The rocks fell past his face, a waterfall of dirt.
And for the first time since Will went missing, the world was quiet.
Will’s eyes fluttered open, his mother and brothers faces coming into view. The walls were white and he couldn’t feel himself. Was he dead?
“ Mom ?”
Joyce perked up immediately and planted a kiss on his forehead. “Hey honey.”
The sound of her voice was so comforting he felt his eyes well up. His throat was burning in pain but he could hardly remember what happened. One moment he was in some weird other dimension and the next he was here.
He was here.
“Where…am I?”
“You’re home.” His brother whispered.
Jonathan took his hand and held onto it gently, his face wet with tears. Will noticed a bandage wrapped around one of his hands.
“Are you okay?”
Jonathan raised an eyebrow and followed his gaze, “What this?” He laughed.
Will couldn’t help but smile, he’d missed that sound.
“Its just a cut bud, its nothing.”
He and Joyce shared a look and smiled. Will smiled too. It had been so long since he’d felt this safe.
He basked in their presence, piecing together that he was in a hospital room.
“Is Mike here?”
The smiles from their faces twisted into something awful, guilt and intense sadness etched their features. Jonathans grip tightened. They wouldn’t look at him, like they were holding a secret he wasn’t a part of.
A terrible, cruel secret.
Will felt his stomach drop, nausea started to build. Something was wrong with Mike. Something had to be.
“Will..” Jonathan didn’t seem to have the words.
“I’m sorry .” Joyce’s voice was barley audible and a fresh tear slipped down her cheek. “He’s..he’s gone.”
Wills whole world stopped. Those words didn’t compute. He couldn’t be. He just…couldn’t. His face was suddenly damp and a ringing filled his ears.
He passed out.
He was sinking, he could feel the currents pulling him in every direction, body limb like a rag doll and the tide was the puppeteer.
He tried to scream but water filled his lungs, he tried to swim but he couldn’t tell what was up and what was down.
They always say death is beautiful but he felt nothing but ugly regret.
Being home was almost as painful as being away. Home isn’t a place, it’s the people in it. So what do you do if the key is missing?
Will hadn’t spoken much of anything the week he was hospitalized and eventually when he was moved home. Dustin and Lucas were by his side as much as they could be.
They would tell him all the things they did, everyone who helped look. They told him how much Mike had cared, how persistent he’d been. Then they would all cry and hold each other. Dustin wasn’t a quarter of the nerdy energetic boy Will once knew.
The body is nothing without the heart.
Mike opened his eyes, he was sitting on the edge of the quarry. But that’s impossible, he just jumped off?
He stood up and turned around, nobody was there. “Dustin?” He tried to call but his voice came out as just another whistle in the wind.
Nothing made sense, he was dazed and confused.
He couldn’t feel himself, like he was simply a presence, a feeling with no real physicality.
And then he saw it, a wooden marker in the ground. It looked out onto the view, staring straight threw him.
He wasn’t sure he even wanted to read it, because a small agonizing part of him knew what he’d find.
Mike Wheeler . Two words carved in with a sleek black paint. It was pristine, the elements hadn’t gotten to it yet.
He almost stumbled off the edge again. It was a memorial. His own memorial.
He wanted to cry but he couldn’t feel anything, only emotions so strong they shaped his very being. And right now he was a sadness plaguing the earth.
A pile of flowers rested atop the grass, each in various stages of decomposition. His mind reeled trying to take it in, but one name caught his eye and anchored him back to reality. One of those bouquets was from Will Byers.
Time rolled by impossibly fast even when nothing happened. It was nearly Halloween.
Will was curled on the couch, staring at the ceiling while Bob and Joyce spoke in the kitchen. He tuned them out.
Dustin and Lucas were coming over today, as they did every other day. They had introduced Max to him just last week, she seemed lovely.
Will just wished he could feel anything other than numbing hurt. Maybe he could laugh along with them, maybe he could try to be okay. But it didn’t work like that and every one knew it.
He knew he would never be okay again. Not fully.
A part of him died at the quarry, and it’s body was never recovered.