Chapter Text
"...Guys?? What's going on?! The lasagna's getting cold!!"
"We just finished!! We'll be right up!!"
It's been a week since the final campaign. D&D brings back too many bad memories for Mike to play anymore, and he doesn't blame his friends if they feel the same way he does. He'd rather just pretend nothing happened and forget. Because that what he always does. He pretends. He cracks his neck. He'll be sitting here for awhile. Even if he didn't play D&D anymore, you couldn't take the Dungeon Master out of him. Now, it was in the form of an author as he worked on his new, sci-fi/horror novel titled 'Stranger Things'.
Will used to tell him that painting his thoughts always made him feel a little bit better, so Mike was trying to do something similar with his writing. Will... it's been awhile since He talked to Will. Mike still keeps in touch with all of his friends of course... but it's hard to talk to Will after everything that happened. Mike can only imagine how Will feels... He's always been scared... He's always had survivor's guilt because of Nancy's friend Barbara... Not to mention his whole thing with Vecna. He wonders why Will never became an artist... It was his greatest passion. He looks over at that painting that he says Eleven commissioned for him. He still can't believe he painted that with his own two hands... Mike doesn't think he could draw a recognizable stick figure if he tried. "Without the heart, we all fall apart. You're the heart, Mike."
He was right all along... After all, what did he do when things were going to shit? He did nothing. He stood in the background and watched. And at what cost? The town is saved... but his girlfriend... El... She's dead now. Because of him. He told his friends that story of how she escaped with the help of her supposed sister Kali to give them hope, but he knows there's no way it could've happened. How could Kali have used her powers with that kryptonite blasting everywhere? There's just no way that El is alive anymore.
Now that she's gone... it really hits him how terrible he was to her. Eleven died right in front of Mike's eyes. Sacrificed herself for him. For everyone. And he still couldn't say "I love you." The one time he did tell her so was only because someone else told him to. What kind of asshole can't even say "I love you" to his own girlfriend? She's never had a moment of comfort in her life... except for when she broke up with him. Mike wishes she never came back to him just so she could've been happy. Maybe then she wouldn't have had to die.
"Michael! Dinner!" He hears his father call. He sighs and gets up from his chair, stretching his sore back.
The table is so empty now. Nancy has already moved out, and Holly doesn't come up to eat. She usually stays in the basement, taking up after Mike in her new role as the Dungeon Master with her friends. She really is just like him when he was younger. And his mother... she wasn't around anymore. She always pretended to be unaffected after everything happened... Typical mother behavior. She hid her wounds with makeup so the Wheelers didn't have to look at them, but if course no normal person can recover from something like that. All she did was bend over a bit too far and the giant scar ripped right back open, even further this time. She didn't survive. She should've never left the hospital in the first place, but none of the doctors there knew how to do their goddamn job. It's what he gets for believing in American healthcare.
"... Michael? Michael! Earth to Michael!"
Mike snaps out of it. "Huh? What?"
"I said, how is your novel going?"
"Oh... um... Good. It's going good." He mumbles, pushing his food around with his fork.
The table goes silent again. Dinners are like this now. Just Ted Wheeler and his son "bonding". But Mike knows he doesn't really care. He just pretends. Just like how Mike pretends.
"Michael, you still keep in touch with your friends?" Ted asks.
Mike raises an eyebrow. "Of course... Why?"
His father sighs. "Including that Byers boy?"
"You mean Will?"
"Yeah. Him" Mike bristles. His father can never just say Will's name. It angers him for some reason.
"I don't want you hanging around with him anymore."
Mike was taken aback. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me. I don't think he's good for you. His brain's all messed up from the crap that happened in this town. People like that are dangerous, Mike"
"Are you shitting me? This is Will we're talking about!" Mike scoffs incredulously.
"Language!"
Mike rolls his eyes. "Dad, I'm a grown man! I can take care of myself!"
"Oh really? That why you're still living here?"
"I just graduated! I don't have the funds to move out yet!"
"There, you said it. And as long as you live under my roof, you live under my rules, son."
"No!" Mike finally snaps.
Ted raises an eyebrow. "Pardon?"
"Why should I have to listen to you?! You don't care! You didn't even cry when Mom died! You got mad at me for criticizing the system when she died because it 'wasn't very patriotic of me'! As if that's our biggest problem right now! If she were here, she'd be on my side and you know it!" Mike spat out wrathfully.
"Michael, that's enough-!"
Mike cuts him off. "No! It's not enough! You are a selfish piece of shit!"
"I'm selfish? Oh yes, I'm selfish for giving you and your sisters a loving house to grow up in! I worked my butt off daily and never got so much as a single thank you!"
Mike scoffs. "Yeah, it must've been so hard in your goddamn Lay-Z-Boy all day!"
"Learn to consider other people's feelings for once!" Ted was finally yelling. He never yelled. "Why do you have to make everything so difficult?! Why can't you be more like Nancy?! More like Holly, even!!"
Mike clenched his fists. He'd let anybody call him anything. But never selfish. Ever. He'll never forget how he nearly killed himself to save Dustin from those bullies four years ago. And don't think he missed the backhanded remark about Holly.
"Why can't you be more like how Mom used to be?!" He screams. "Why can't you understand?! Why can't you care?! WHY CAN'T YOU CARE?! Why do I have to tell you how to do your own job?! WHY DID NANCY?!"
"Michael!"
"You said the same shit with Lucas when I made friends with him!! You don't care about me!! You just didn't like him because he's black!! And now you don't like Will because he's gay!! You're a festering piece of shit who can't be bothered to take care of his own kids!! I WISH IT WAS YOU WHO DIED INSTEAD OF MOM!!"
"MICHAEL!!" Ted yells in rage, but Mike has already stormed off and shut the door to his room.
He sobs. He cries the hardest he's ever cried in a long, long time. Even though he hates his father, he can't believe he said that. What kind of monsterous thing is that to wish upon someone? What kind of person is he? It's not even just his father. He did this to Eleven too. He always yelled at her and called her a monster for standing up for herself. What is wrong with him? What kind of human could Michael Wheeler be to say such things? Now he wishes it was himself who died. He wishes Will never killed that Demogorgon. He wishes it mauled him to death. "I don't deserve such a good friend as Will..."
"..."
"Michael..."
"Go away, Dad." Mike mumbles weakly. He's probably gonna tell him how boys don't cry and all that bullshit.
"Michael..."
"I said go away!"
He flings the door open only to see vines. Vines. Everywhere.
"Michael..."
That's not his father's voice...