Chapter Text
NOVEMBER 4th 1984
Relief rushed through Mike as he watched the lights on Billy’s Camaro, glow brighter and brighter, until he couldn’t look at them anymore without his eyes stinging.
He knew that their plan had worked. El had closed the gate. They had won.
As everyone got into Billy’s Camaro, Mike could feel his shoulders dropping, and his heart beating at a more relaxed pace.
The car ride to the Byers went mostly quiet, except for Lucas and Max talking from time to time. Mike was really excited to see Will again, really see him again.
He couldn’t wait to tell him everything that had happened while he was ‘gone’.
But when they got to the Byers driveway, Mike could see Jonathan rushing out of the front door, with red rimmed puffy eyes. He’s crying.
Mike felt a pang of nervousness as he stepped out of the car, and made his way up to the front door. He knocked, and waited in silence anxiously.
After what felt like an eternity for Mike, Joyce opened the door, tears streaming down her face.
“What’s wrong..? Is..is everything okay?” Mike asked with caution in his voice.
Joyce wiped her eyes, and pulled Mike into a tight hug. He could feel the tears from her, falling onto his shoulders.
“I’m so sorry honey” She choked around a sob. “We didn’t have enough time, he’s.. he’s gone.”
Mike felt frozen as Joyce broke down. Will couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be.. right?
A week later Mike attended Will's second funeral. Except this time he wouldn’t come back.
NOVEMBER 4th 1985
Mike made his way into his last class of the day. He couldn’t stop thinking about Will.
It had been exactly a year since he passed away. Mike tried to push away the thoughts as he made his way into the classroom, he couldn’t have a breakdown in the middle of class.
He was really tired, he hadn’t slept all night, he couldn’t fall asleep, when he kept thinking about Will, and how much he missed him.
He wishes he could see him just one more time. But he can’t, and he has to accept that.
After sitting in class for a while, listening to the teacher talk about letters and numbers. Mike could feel his eyelids getting heavier, and his hearing getting more muffled.
He tried to stay awake as the teacher kept talking about something he couldn't really hear anymore.
Mike looked around for a second, before deciding that no one would notice if he closed his eyes for a bit. He laid his head on the desk, feeling comforted by the cold wood against his skin.
The voices of the students and teacher became quieter and quieter, before they became so distant he couldn’t hear them anymore as he quietly drifted off.
“Mike? Mike!!” A familiar voice calls out through a thick fog, Mike can barely see through it.
“..will?” Mike tries calling back, but receiving no answer.
“Will!!” Mike yells through the thick fog, that’s starting to clear up. Hopeful for an answer. “Will.. Will are..are you there.?”
Mike asks through the fog. “..Mike?” Will's voice calls out soft and quiet.
“Will?! Where are you!” Mike says, turning in every direction he can, but still not catching sight of him.
He suddenly feels like a gust of wind is being blown directly towards him, when he sees a greenish blue humanoid figure moving towards him.
As it gets closer, he suddenly realizes its Will. But he doesn’t look how Mike remembers him, here he’s taller, his hair is thicker and grown out.
And most importantly, his skin, it’s.. clear and see through.
“Michael” He says, except it’s not his voice, it’s Mr. Mundys voice? “Michael.”
Mike feels a pang in his chest as he wakes and sees Mr. Mundy leaning over his desk with a disappointed look.
“Class is for learning things. Not sleeping.” He says, with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Sorry” Mike mutters as Mr. Mundy makes his way to the front desk again.
When the bell rings, Mike grabs his books and makes his way out of class as fast as he can. He can’t stop thinking about the dream he had about Will.
As he walks through the school building he can then hear footsteps approaching him. When he looks up he sees Dustin, with a smile on his face.
Mike doesn’t understand how any of his friends could smile today.
“Mike! Are you coming to the hellfire meeting tonight??” Dustin asks with excitement, as he waits for a response Mike thinks for a moment.
He can’t, not today. DnD makes him think of Will, his smile and laugh. He can’t handle that today.
“Sorry, can’t make it tonight.” Mike mutters slightly under his breath. He watches Dustin’s expression change into something like realization before he nods.
“Yeah dude, no problem, maybe next time?” Dustin says, with a slightly different tone. Mike nods instantly instead of giving a verbal answer.
He watches Dustin go back the direction he came from as Mike continues walking down the hallways. As he makes his way through the school halls, he feels a breeze of someone passing by him, but no one’s there.
Mike can’t even be bothered to think about it.
When he steps outside, he feels the cold November breeze in the air.
Mike used to love winter as a kid; he was always so excited when he saw the first few snowflakes falling. Now it’s just depressing.
When he gets home, he swings his bag off his shoulder, and makes his way up to his room.
He quietly closes the door, and pulls out some of Will’s old drawings.
He sits on his bed, and starts looking through some of the many drawings Will gave him, or Mike took.
He feels tears form in his eyes, so he quickly wipes them with his sleeve, and puts Will’s drawings away again.
Mike lays down on his back, staring at the ceiling.
Ever since Will had died, Mike has been so out of it. The only two things that’s really happened since, that he can think of is, El breaking up with him, (which he later realized was better for both of them) and joining hellfire.
Mike realizes that Will isn’t gonna come back. He can’t be depressed for the rest of his life.
So he decides to go to the hellfire meeting tonight.
He gets up from his bed, decides to put on his hellfire shirt that Eddie gave him a couple of weeks ago, and makes his way downstairs.
He mutters goodbye to his mom, and heads out the door.
As soon as he steps into the night, he feels the cold November breeze drifting through the air.
When he makes it to the school, he quickly makes his way inside, almost immediately getting greeted by Dustin and Lucas.
“Mike! We weren’t expecting you to come.?” Lucas says, as he notices mike.
“Yeah.. but I decided to come anyway.” Mike says, trying to force a small smile.
The group makes their way into the room hellfire is being held tonight, seeing that Eddie is already sitting there waiting for them.
Eddie is starting a new campaign pretty soon, and he says it’s gonna be a really long one so they need to prepare a bit.
When they all finish talking about their class and characters, Mike gets up from his seat, says his goodbyes to the group, and makes his way out again.
When he’s about half way home, it starts snowing a bit, so he picks his pace up, just before he slips and falls on his face.
He groans as he gets up, and wipes the dirt off his cheeks and chin.
When he looks up, he feels like he saw Will for a split second.
When Mike thinks back a bit, he realizes it happens all the time. He keeps feeling like he can sense Will, or see and hear him.
Mike thinks he’s going crazy, but he heard something about ‘grief hallucinations.’ So it’s probably just that..
NOVEMBER 5th.
The next day at School, Mike decides to eat lunch with the party for once, instead of sitting alone with his thoughts like he usually does.
When he sits down at the lunch table, Lucas immediately starts talking about his basketball games, and how he thinks he’s finally starting to get along with his team.
Mike isn’t really hungry, so he just prods at the food with his fork. The food doesn’t taste the best anyway.
“Mike, are you alright?” He looks up, seeing Dustin with a bit of worry in his face. Mike hadn’t realized he had zoned out while the others were talking.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired.” He replies, not looking Dustin in the eyes, afraid he’s gonna realize that Mike's lying.
“Okay. But we’re always here if you wanna talk, you know that right?” Lucas says with a faint smile on his face.
“Thanks.” Mike mutters, looking back at the food on his tray. When he looks up again, he feels frozen when he sees.. Will?
He’s sitting next to Lucas, hand resting on his chin.
But, it’s not the same Will he knew as a kid, this Will.. almost looks like the one from his dream.?
Mike is now fully convinced he’s going absolutely crazy.
“Dude, are you okay?” Dustin asks, clearly noticing Mike's disoriented look. “Uh.. y-yeah. Do you guys see Wi-“.
He realizes it might not be the best idea to tell someone you see your dead best friend, so he keeps quiet.
“See what?” Dustin asks, clearly interested in why Mike is suddenly acting so weird.
“Uh, nothing.” Mike says quietly, still fully focused on Will, who Mike now realizes is looking directly at him.
Will's face changes into something in between shock, and happiness. Wait, can.. Can you see me.?”
Will asks, his voice small and warm. Mike nods slowly, still not pulling his eyes away from Will.
“Holy shit.” Mike hears Will mutter under his breath. Will now has a big smile on his face when he motions for Mike to get up.
“..I don’t feel well, I’m gonna go home.” Mike tells the party, eyes still lingering on Will as he gets up from the table.
Mike can't even focus on What Dustin is yelling after him. He can see Will get up after him, following behind him.
Mike feels a gush of wind as Will makes his way up to Mike, now walking side by side. “This is crazy! Can you actually see me?”
Will asks, his voice full of excitement and suspense.
Mike nods again, looking Will in his eyes. Mike had really missed looking into Will's eyes.
He snaps back to reality, and picks up his pace. The sooner he gets out of the school building, the sooner he can actually talk to Will.
When they finally get to the end of the school halls, and make their way out into the freezing snow, Mike finally speaks up.
“This is insane, I’m not like.. imagining you right? Is it really you? How is this possible?!”
Mike tries to hide the tears that are forming in his eyes.
He’s missed Will so, so much, he thought he would never see him again. And now he has.
“Yes, it’s actually me. I don’t know how this is possible either.” Will breathes out before continuing to speak, looking Mike directly in the eyes.
“I’ve been following all of you guys around since.. well since I died.”
Will's face scrunched up a little as he said that last part.
“But, you’ve never seen me before today, right?” Mike shook his head, still silently observing every little detail of Will.
“No, I haven’t, well, not fully at least.” Mike watched Will's expression turn into confusion as he spoke up.
“What do you mean by that?” Will asked curious as to what Mike meant.
Mike looked at the ground as he answered. “Well, sometimes I felt like I could see you, or hear you for just for a brief moment.”
Mike exhaled as he looked Will in the eyes again. Even as a ghost, he was so beautiful.
Mike quickly snapped himself out of whatever thought that was, before Will spoke up again.
“We should go to your house and talk about it, I think we have a lot of catching up to do, also you look like you're freezing.”
Will gestured to Mike, who now realized he was shivering. “Yeah, sure.” Mike answered, still feeling uneasy about this whole situation, but god, he was so happy.