Chapter Text
The only sound you could hear was the crunching of dried leaves and branches from under me. My ears were ringing, my legs felt like they had 20 pounds attached to my ankles. My breathing was erratic and my face was hot. I was running, my feet were on fire but I couldn't stop, not with what was behind me.
"Michael~" it sing-songed, its voice ran like fire crackles were under my skin, it made me itchy how it said my name. "You have no idea who you are? do you?" it laughed. Its laugh made me sick, my skin crawled, it felt like a million spiders were crawling on me. "You brats can never seem to figure it out huh? it's time you know just who you are, Micheal Wheeler" it spit out like venom.
My legs couldn't take it, my feet were on fire, it felt like I had broken my leg in ten ways just from running my lungs out. I dipped my head and barreled to hide between two huge rocks. I was shaking, my vision blurring (i didn't even know I was crying). "There's no use in hiding Micheal, I can smell you" there's something that can go on the top ten things I'd never thought to hear while fearing for my life.
"Found you" it screeched, the last thing I saw was a ugly gray head and its huge wings as its yellow teeth came at me.
—
I woke in a cold sweat, I felt tears streaming down my face while I was trying to catch my breath. “ Another nightmare huh?” I heard a familiar voice speak. I whipped my head to the direction the sound came from “Fuck Nance dont scare me like that” sitting up I put my head in my hands, wiping off the tears. “Sorry sorry, I was just checking to see why you weren’t coming down for breakfast”
“Yeah uh it was a nightmare, i don't understand what it meant at all though.” I removed my head from my hands looking up at her “It was so fucking cryptic Nancy i dont even know what to think” She pulled up my desk chair and sat down looking dead at me “What do you mean “Cryptic”?”
We started having talks like these, like deep stuff, after I came back from California and the whole world went to shit. We trust each other again, we’re actually siblings that talk to each other. It feels nice knowing I can talk and she just listens now, like she knows me and I know her.
“ This monster was chasing me and saying shit like “you don’t know who you are” or like “you can’t figure it out huh?” like a puzzle or something” But honestly I don't need some dream monster giving me an identity crisis, I am NOT in the mood.
Her face darkened “Mike was it… Vecna?” With Max still being in her coma state and not waking up anytime soon, Vecna was a really hard subject to touch. “ no no no this one was different from his Nance, it was winged and looked almost human like..” I paused “Like a gargoyle with yellow teeth, it was a disgusting creature”. Thinking about it gave me goosebumps, like the monster actually existed. But it couldn't, right? It was just a figment of my imagination, my brain just scaring me for fun… right?
She sighed, a look of pure relief on her face “ So it's just a random monster?” she asked.
“Maybe? I don't know Nance. I feel like it was trying to tell me something, like I need to find out something about myself.” She shrugged, “ I don't know Mike but I know some food will help.” She slapped my leg and walked up to the doorway.
“Ow” I said flatly. “You got 30 minutes to eat and get ready Mike or I'm leaving your ass” She walked out of the room shaking her car keys.
“Fuck its a school day?!” I yelled getting up and running to my drawers.
—
School was so grueling, every minute felt like an hour and it didn't help that my brain wouldn't get the image of the gargoyle (Yes the name is sticking) out of my head. Its words played like a broken record, bouncing in head like a mantra.
I was staring at my history homework trying to get the words to stop running around and my head to just quiet. I've had dyslexia for my entire life but it's never been this bad. I've been tapping my foot anxiously like something bad was gonna happen.
Like what could possibly happen that hasn't already? I'm so tired of monsters and the upside down and losing people. It's such an endless cycle but I would be so much happier if my brain stopped gambling the word viking to pickling. How does that even correlate?
“Dude are you okay?” I felt a tap on my shoulder to see Dustin. “Youre like more… twitchy then usual.”
“Oh uh yeah I’m okay just a lot going through my head right now” I chuckled nervously, I gotta calm down. I really don't want people to think I'm having a psychotic break or something.
“ I hear you man, these last few weeks have been so hectic” Dustin spoke far-off. God he's been through so much this year I wish we could just swap our heads so he didn't have to deal with it. “ yeah I know…” the final bell rang, i've never been more happy than school over in my life.
I jumped up packing my stuff instantly “Hey you're coming to the Byers-Hoppers house tonight right?” Dustin asked while we walked out into the hallway “Of course man, wouldn't miss our meeting” I gave him a smile before I opened the door.
“Bye dusty-bun”
“ OH fuck you man seriously”
He flipped me off before he walked away.
Biking home never really felt the same after the Byers left, There back now but it still doesn’t feel right. No one in the group really talks to me daily except for Nancy and Dustin. I mean well Lucas makes sense, he’s never away from Max, we got to force that boy out of her hospital room. El well…
She broke up with me. Which is completely fair. I was an awful boyfriend but she hasn't spoken a word to me since she broke up with me. She finally told me how she felt a week after we saw the decay of Hawkins. I wish she would speak to me, I need her in my life. Not as a girlfriend but as a best friend, she means the world to me and I guess I was just too stupid to realize that.
And Will
Oh Will
He talks to me, barely, our conversations are so short lived and it's driving me insane. Him being gone felt like my other half got ripped out and I was just a shell of me. But him BEING here and not being with me feels like a million daggers are in my chest.
I don't know how to describe the way Will makes me feel, all I know is that I miss him more than anything. He's my best friend, my other half, he completes me in a way.
Getting off my bike I ran up to my front door and swung it open.
But I didn't walk into my house.
No, it was just darkness around me, like the world just turned off its lights.
“Mike” I heard someone say but it was so far from me I didn't know where it was coming from, a million voices were talking but only one was loud enough for me to hear clearly.
“Mike! Mike! Can you hear me?” They were talking frantic but the voices was getting so far, it was morphing around me
And just like that the lights were back on and I was sitting on my front porch, door wide open. “ Micheal are you okay — why are you on the ground son? Get in here” My loving mother said “The neighbors are gonna talk, get inside " "Okay okay sorry” I said dizzy, my head was still spinning.
I went inside but one word kept ringing through my head. I picked it out over what the voice was saying.
Half-blood.