Work Text:
"An idle brain is the devils workshop...."
DECEMBER 15TH, 1984
It was a cold December night in Hawkins, Indiana. Will hated cold weather. It reminded him too much of the Upside Down. It reminded him too much of everything that's happened there. It was the dead of the night, and he had just woken up due to a nightmare. or, at least what he thought was a nightmare. In said nightmare, he was back in the Upside Down. He was taken there by the man or creature he called "001" cause of a tattoo on its wrist, but who he would later know as Vecna, Henry Creel, and Mr.Whatsit. He was restrained by the weird, disgusting vines of the eerie, cold place again, hating every second of it. Will can't remember much more of the dream, but he remembers the thing that led him there had done something to his eye...
Will woke up in a cold sweat, hyperventilating and heart racing. His hand almost immediately reaching up for his eye. He didn't feel anything wrong, so he thought he was fine. But man, was he wrong.
Will woke up in a cold sweat, hyperventilating as he did so. After he somewhat calmed down, he tried to go back to sleep because it was the middle of the night, but it took forever to fall back asleep, so he woke up later then he should’ve and was almost late to school. Before he left, he went to the bathroom to make sure he looked fine and to brush his hair
When he looked into the mirror, he was met with an (un)pleasant surprise. He saw his right eye's iris was glowing a piercing blue, with visible, red, bulging veins leading down from the eye to his right forearm.
Will nearly screamed at the sight, horrified. Was the dream real all this time...? Did that creature really replace his eye?
Suddenly, his mom burst through the door
"Will? Are you ok? I heard you freak out and I was just worried...”
Will noticed Joyce didn't seem to see the veins or say anything about his eye... maybe it was just his mind playing a trick on him again.
"y-yeah mom, I'm ok... just another episode," he responded quietly, shaking his head. He was also no longer able to see the veins or weird eye, his face having gone back to normal seemingly.
"Another one…? What was it about this time?”
"... a dream I had last night, nothing to worry too much about."
"You sure sweetheart?"
"Yes mom, I'm fine..."
"Ok, if you're sure your fine... I need to go to work early but I should be home before you and Jonathan get home from school. Breakfast is down on the table, I'm gunna go say bye to your brother then be on my way. Love you, call me if anything else happens,"
Joyce hugged Will before leaving the bathroom, closing the door behind her, leaving Will by himself.
When will got home that night, he couldn't help but get a weird feeling that he was being watched. That feeling never really went away over the years, he's just learned to tune it out most of the time now.
JANUARY 25th, 1986
This past few months had been crazy. Will and his family had moved to California last month and he was having a bit of trouble adjusting, but he’s been getting used to it. That was, until, he saw the veins again.
It was just another average shitty day in the life of William Byers, that seemed to be normal, and for once he seemed to finally let go of everything that’s happened to him. He was in the school bathroom, just minding his business, until he passed the mirror and saw his eye looked the same it did to him that one fateful December morning… those unsettling veins following from his eye to his arm.
After that, he was never quite the same. He started distancing himself from those he loved, coming to school less, and starting to do things that only benefited him. He didn’t mean to, he didn’t know why he was acting like this.
He also noticed he had been gaining… certain abilities, such as clairvoyance and something similar to the dnd ability True Sight, but whenever he would try to use these abilities, he would suddenly feel something try to get inside of him and he would immediately stop.
His mom seemed to notice something going on with him but didn’t want to pry, assuming this was just because of ptsd and he snapped last time she questioned if he was ok, so she just left him alone. She wished will would let her help though.
Will froze up and just stared at his eye, breathing heavily as he felt a panic attack begin to start. His body hair stood up on its ends and he started lightly trembling, still frozen in as he looked at “his” eye. He fell to the ground and held his chest, feeling it begin to grow tight. It hurt for him to breathe but he needed to to be able to calm down. He coughed cause of the lack of oxygen, desperate to calm down. Mike walked in and saw Will on the floor struggling to breathe and immediately tried to help, kneeling down next to him and gently taking a hold of Wills hand
“Will? Are you ok? what happened?” He asked softly, trying to help his friend out
Will took a second to respond, still heavily breathing
“I-I saw something… Im f-*cough*- fine t-though,” he somewhat lied, finally starting to catch his breath
after that day, something was certain.
that nightmare, hadn’t been a dream at all.
Hey guys I’m so sorry but I’ll have to take a break from this fic since I haven’t finished season 3-5 yet and those seasons are extremely important to the fic but I promise I’ll get back to the fic as soon as possible and I might go through and edit this chapter real quick :) I’ll also do some research to make sure everything is as accurate as possible :p
2nd edit: I'm probably gunna ditch this fic and completely rewrite it in a couple weeks when I have time so please stay tuned, so sorry! life is kicking my ass right now and I haven't been able to finish stranger things yet; I do have an IT fic in the works though so Ill post that once I finish writing chapter 1 to keep y'all fed. Have a lovley day/night!