Chapter Text
The end of the school year is quickly approaching. In a week Summer break will start and the seniors of Hawkins High School will be graduating. Not that Mike will be, he’s only a sophomore, but Nancy and Robin are, and Eddie Munson finally managed to be cleared to graduate, so this week’s Hellfire meeting is the last one that's going to be DM’d by him, and the campaign that Hellfire's been doing since coming back from spring break would come to ‘an epic finale’ (in Dustin’s words).
This particular campaign however, happens to be inspired by what happened over Spring Break with Henry/Vecna/One, except with a twist, instead of preying on traumas like Henry did, this monster, a dark wizard like vecna, preys and feeds on fear. If Mike hadn’t known better he would’ve thought it was a sick joke they were playing on him, but he hadn’t told anyone about the clown, so it wasn’t exactly targeted. Still, he attended one night of this campaign and afterwards stopped showing up to Hellfire entirely. Lucas and Dustin keep trying to get him to come back, or at least tell them what's wrong. He doesn’t, though and now hasn’t shown up to a campaign night in over a month which essentially got him kicked from the table they sit at lunch, but it's fine, he just hangs out with Max more (which is also fine, the two of them have been getting along a lot better lately and have actually grown kind of close with Will and El in California), and sometimes Dustin and Lucas abandon the Hellfire table to sit with the two of them, so even if he did get kicked out from the Hellfire table, it's not so bad.
The final bell rings, signaling the end of the school day. One more week and he’ll be out of this hellhole for two months.
Mike quickly picks his backpack up off the floor and heads for the exit of the classroom, then the exit to the building. He doesn't want to waste any time getting out of here, especially when he runs the risk of his friends stopping him and begging him to stay for Hellfire today, even though he's told them multiple times that he wants nothing to do with the campaign Hellfire's been playing through since they returned to school after spring break.
As Mike walks out into the parking lot and starts nearing Nancy's car, he hears Lucas shout his name.
Mike turns around. “What?” he asks, a little snappier than intended.
“Are you going to stay for Hellfire tonight?” Dustin blurts, receiving a ‘dude!’ from Lucas and an eye roll from Max.
Mike crosses his arms. “I haven’t gone to Hellfire since before spring break, why the hell would I come tonight?”
Dustin sticks his index finger up, starting to list off reasons. “Well for one: it’s the finale and the party needs all the help it can get.” He sticks another finger up. "Two it’s Eddie’s last time DMing for Hellfire since he graduates next week so it’d be nice if you would show up; if you don't remember Eddie was the only one—”
Max's hand clasps around Dustin's mouth cutting him off. "Shut up," she hisses.
"Is the campaign the same one he started after spring break?” Mike asks.
Dustin nods 'yes', mouth still covered by Max’s hand.
“Then I’m not coming.”
“Mike, c’mon man—” Lucas starts saying but Mike ignores him, walking away from his friends, to Nancy's car where she's already waiting.
He opens the front passenger door and slides in. Through the window he catches Max saying something to Lucas and Dustin. He can't really make out what she was telling them, he doesn’t really care either, though.
Nancy is about to pull out of her parking spot when Max knocks on the driver’s side window. Nancy rolls it down.
“Hey, sorry that this is last minute but my mom’s working late again, then she's going to—”
“Yeah, Max, you can come home with us.” Nancy cuts her off, already knowing where the conversation is heading. Max ends up at the Wheeler house pretty often, especially when her mom is drinking a little too much. It started with her sneaking over because she didn’t know where else to go after her mom came home drunk and started yelling rather than immediately passing out. After Karen kicked out Ted and started the process of divorcing him, she told Max she was allowed to sleep at their house whenever she needed to. Although, not having permission hasn't stopped her before.
Max climbs in the back. “Cool, thanks.”
Mike and Max drop their backpacks in the basement. Max heads to the box of comics kept in the basement and starts digging through it. Mike heads over to the phone and dials the number to the Byers' house in California. He's not sure if Will and El are still at school, considering there's a three hour time difference between Hawkins and Lenora, but he's going to try and get a hold of one of them anyways. After everything over spring break Mike and Will made a much larger effort to keep in contact with each other, being sure to try calling at least once a week, even if only to keep Will updated on what's happening in Hawkins.
“All of your comics suck. Why do you only have Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman comics?” Max complains.
"Hey! There's nothing wrong with Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman. They have the most shows and movies about them for a reason."
"They're overrated," Max argues. "Plus, Wonder Woman has a TV show too, and she's much better than those three."
"I don't have Wonder Woman. But I have some more comics up in my room. X-Men, Swamp Thing, Fantastic Four," he starts listing.
“I’ll judge those later. I guess for now I’ll have to deal with reading Superman.”
Mike rolls his eyes. There’s a click as the line connects.
“Hello?”
It’s Joyce.
“Hey, Mrs. Byers, it’s Mike, is Will there?”
Max perks her head up as Mike waits for Joyce’s response.
“Yes, just a second,” she says and the line goes silent.
“Hey, Mike.”
“Hey! You guys are still flying back to Indiana this weekend right?”
“Idiot," Max mutters, setting the comic book down.
Will laughs. “Yes. You didn’t call just to ask that, did you?”
“No! I just wanted to call. You and El finished up school this week, right?”
“Yeah. But we haven't really done anything all week, so my mom didn’t make us go today. We got stuck helping pack up the house instead, though and even El's friend got roped into it when she came over.”
“I thought El didn’t have any friends?”
“I don’t know why she didn’t tell you about her. They’ve been friends since December, I think, they've gotten pretty close, I think I might even be friends with her too, now, I'm not totally sure."
“Damn. Where was she on spring break?” Mike half-jokes. El lied about having a ton of friends in her letters, even mentioning she was friends with Angela and Stacy when he got to California (which couldn't be further from the truth) so Mike assumed she just didn't make any. But if she did, why lie and say she's friends with other people she obviously wasn't? It didn't make much sense.
“I think El said she was going with her aunt somewhere for a few days.They’re in El’s room right now, but if I start calling her Jane then just know her friend is down here.”
“Got it.”
“Wait, El made a friend?” Max asks, now fully paying attention to the conversation.
Mike shrugs. “Yeah, apparently they’ve been friends since December.”
Max gets off the couch, walks over to where Mike is standing, and yanks the phone out of his hand. “Hi Will,” she says, in a somewhat aggressive manner. “So, tell me about my replacement.”
“Could you at least have the phone where I can hear it too?” Mike hisses.
Max rolls her eyes but moves the phone away from her ear and holds it to where it’s possible for both of them to at least kind of hear and talk at the same time.
“So her name is Beverly,” Will starts. Mike pales upon hearing that name. It's probably just a coincidence though, it’s not a super uncommon name. “We’re in the same grade, I have some classes with her, and we're friends now, I'm not as close with her as El is though. They met after Angela harassed El one day so bad that she ended up crying in the bathroom. Don't tell either of them I said this, but I'm pretty sure El latched onto her so quickly because she reminded her of you, Max. You both have red hair and don't back down easily, although I don't think she's nearly as good at DigDug as you.”
Will’s description matched the Beverly that Richie knew before moving to Hawkins, the one from that awful summer. It could still be a coincidence they have the same name and hair color, but it's less likely.
“If I ever meet Angela, I’m gonna punch her in the face,” Max says glaring at the phone.
“El already did it, with a roller skate,” whispers Mike.
“Damn. Wish I was there to see it.”
“It was bad, her nose was broken and bloody, and she got a concussion. El literally got arrested for it."
“Anyways, she’s the only friend El has made here. And she’s currently at our house. Did you know Hopper proposed to my Mom?”
“No way,” Max gasps dramatically.
“Haven’t they only been together for a couple months?” Mike asks, a bit shocked at how fast they were going.
“Yeah. But I guess their logic is we never know when we’re gonna die, and it could be soon knowing how Hawkins is.”
Mike shrugs. “I guess that makes sense.”
There’s a loud knocking noise from the door, then an aggressive doorbell ringing. Mike looks at Max.
“It’s your house, you go open the door," she argues.
He groans and rolls his eyes, mocking Max under his breath while heading up the stairs. He gets to the door and opens it, it's Lucas and Dustin.
Mike crosses his arms. “I thought you two were going to Hellfire?”
“We were, but we felt bad about earlier,” Lucas says, having the decency to look a little guilty.
“And Hellfire got canceled,” Dustin adds, not looking guilty at all. He gets an elbow from Lucas.
Mike steps aside to let them in the house. “Canceled? Why’d it get canceled?” he asks. It would take something really serious for Eddie to cancel or postpone a campaign night, even Lucas’ championship basketball game hadn’t been important enough to postpone.
“All after school activities are canceled for the rest of the school year, Chief Powell enacted a sunset curfew again, like over spring break. In the past week they’ve had reports of more than five missing kids from across Hawkins, their bodies weren’t found but a couple limbs were found in the woods,” Lucas explains as they head to the basement where Max is still on the phone.
“It’s bullshit! Way crazier shit has happened without anything being done about it!” Dustin exclaims as they reach the bottom of the stairs. He does have a point, but maybe it's different now because of what happened in March.
“We were talking to Will when you guys got here,” says Mike returning to the phone. Lucas and Dustin follow, wanting to say hi to Will.
After saying their hellos the entire Party (at least the ones in Hawkins) is now gathered around the phone. El is on now, talking about her last few weeks of school. Things had gotten a little better since she assaulted Angela in March. All the charges had disappeared, thanks to her saving the world and all that, and Angela and her gang didn’t mess with her as much anymore. '
As they're talking, Mike can't help but think about what Lucas had said about kids going missing. Logically, it probably isn’t the clown, he's not sure the clown ever leaves Derry, but he can't help but think It might’ve followed him here, or maybe It didn’t follow him at all. Maybe It isn’t just in Derry. Maybe that’s why he never forgot after he moved to Hawkins, because Hawkins was also cursed . Although Hawkins doesn't have murders or horrible things happening every twenty-seven years (as far as he knows anyways) although, it is possible that weird shit like disappearances have happened here and the government just covered it up. Wouldn’t be the first time they did that.
Mike noticed a hand waving in front of his face, and quickly pulled himself out of his ‘oh god Pennywise is after me again’ spiral to find Lucas, Max, and Dustin all staring at him in concern.
“You good, man?” Lucas asks.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Mike attempts to reassure his friends.
None of them believe him.
Dustin opens his mouth to say something and Max covers it, she didn’t believe he was fine either. She used her free hand to put the phone back up to her ear again. “Mike’s being weird again, see you and El Sunday, Will.” She hangs up the phone, then takes her hand off Dustin’s mouth.
“Can you stop doing that!?” Dustin yells.
Max rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. She would not be stopping, no matter how much Dustin wants her to. Lucas is now standing next to Max with his arm swung over his girlfriend's shoulders. They got back together after Spring Break and somehow have not broken up since. Mike is pretty sure this is the longest Max and Lucas have ever gone without breaking up and getting back together less than two weeks later.
“Guys, I’m fine, I swear,” he once again attempts to reassure with no avail. Sometimes his friends just see right through him, this happened to be one of the times. He swears he isn’t that easy to read.
Lucas gives him a skeptical look. “When we said something about kids going missing you just got this look on your face, you looked out of it, and terrified.”
“It’s nothing, Lucas. Just reminded me of shit that happened in the town I lived in in Maine. I really don’t want to talk about it, so can we just watch a movie or something and forget about this?”
“What the fuck happened to you in Maine to get you like this?" asks Dustin. "It’s like you lived in a town that was the setting for a horror movie or something”.
Mike tenses, he really doesn’t want to talk about this. He would rather fight another demogorgon than talk about this. At least a demogorgon he could kill with fire, he wishes he could kill his feelings with fire, that’d be so convenient.
“You do realize our lives have basically been a horror movie, right?” Max points out, flopping onto the couch. She looks over to Mike, who is still tense and staring at nothing. She knows they aren’t going to get anything out of him in this state. “Anyways, a movie sounds fun. As long as your movie selection isn’t as lame as your comic book selection.”
Mike looks up, briefly snapping out of his funk. “My comic book selection isn’t that bad..”
Max rolls her eyes. Mike gets up and goes to look through the VHS tapes. Most of the time they just rented movies (Dustin used Steve’s employee discount) for Party movie nights, but a few tapes are kept in the Wheeler basement, mostly movies they've all watched dozens of times before. “Star Wars Marathon?” he suggests, pulling out the three Star Wars tapes.
“I’m down.” Lucas responds looking over at Max, who shrugs before announcing her agreement with the proposed movies. Dustin agrees enthusiastically.
They'll probably still harass Mike over his issues in the morning, but that was a problem for Future Mike. Or maybe they’d forget about it. God, he hopes they just forget about it.
About halfway through The Empire Strikes Back, Mike decides to slip out of the basement. His friends are all engrossed in the film, despite how many times they had all watched it. Quietly he slips up the stairs, checking to see if anyone is behind him and being relieved when he finds no one.
As soon as he reaches the top of the stairs, he hears someone in the kitchen. Most likely Karen or Nancy, possibly Holly.
“Michael!” His aunt shouts. Okay, so that’s who's in the kitchen.
“What!?” He shouts back. He just wants to go and have alone time in his room, is that too much to ask?
“Kitchen!”
Mike huffs and turns around, heading back down the stairs and to the kitchen. “What?” He repeats, not as loud this time.
Karen is putting away dishes. She pauses once she realizes he entered the room. “Are Dustin and Lucas also planning on staying the night?” she asks, not yet turning to look at where Mike is standing in the doorway.
Mike shrugs. “Didn’t ask, but probably.”
“Well, make sure they call their parents," Karen hums. "Can’t be too careful these days, especially after those poor kids went missing, one was in your grade you know?”
“Okay,” Mike groans, rolling his eyes and turning to leave the kitchen.
“Michael.”
“What?” he huffs, leaning against the wall, why did she decide to be annoying tonight? Karen finishes putting away the dishes and picks up a stack of…are those envelopes? that were sitting on the table.
Karen hands the stack to Mike. “I think these belong to you, I found them with Ted’s stuff.”
“What are these?” he asks, taking them from her and flipping through them. They all had return addresses to his friends' houses in Maine, they also all had 'Richie Tozier' written instead of 'Mike Wheeler'. Holy shit they're—
“Letters from your friends back in Maine,” his aunt answers, just as he reaches the same conclusion. His eyes widen, he assumed his friends just didn’t want to stay in touch with him, but instead he now has a huge stack of letters. He isn’t sure how old some were or if any are recent, he’d probably have to open them up to see. From what he could notice just glancing at them about half are from Stan and Bill, and the other half are from Eddie. There are even a few from Ben and Mike mixed in. His aunt seems to notice him smiling at the letters. “You should call them,” she says comfortingly, clapping him on the shoulder, then leaves him alone in the kitchen.
For a few minutes or maybe it's just seconds, he stood there staring at the unopened letters. Moving over to the table he starts at the bottom of the stack, it looked a few years old. He quietly opens it after checking to make sure no one entered the kitchen. He pulls the letter out noticing that it's dated Feburary 1984, mere weeks after he moved down to Hawkins. He isn’t sure how his friends got his new address so fast but he's not upset about it.
He takes a deep breath then starts to read.