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The house was dusty and smelt of mold. "What a nice place to die," she thought. Before she was cut off by a concerned looking Michelle.
"will?" she said in that same sweet voice she had been using since forever. "are you okay?" she asked.
no. is what willow wanted to say. but she didn't.
"yeah...sorry... I got distracted," she apologised, after realising she had just stood there at the door like a deer in the headlights.
"don't apologise...you're going to be okay,"
willow sure didn't feel like it but Michelle said it with such...such what? reassurance? power? she doesn't know, but she almost believed her.now all they had to do was wait.
and the two of them did for what felt like an eternity for Erica's signal, but still nothing.
Michelle glanced at Willow, who bobbed her legs up and down and bit at her nails like she always did when she was nervous. She couldn't help but worry for her best friend, so she grabbed her notebook and wrote down a "hi." it was stupid really, the word didn't speak any volume literally and figuratively, but it distracted willow.
she watched the cheesy yet somewhat shy smirk Michelle gave her and couldn't help but grin back and scribble the same.
Michelle thought for a moment on what to write back to keep her distracted
"dnd Friday?" she decided. They hadn't played in ages and with everything going on It would be nice to find a sense of normality.
Willow didn't need time to think, the answer was yes, so she started to draw, covering the page from a nosy and ever so slightly giggling Michelle.
but she waited and watched her as she drew and pulled that face she always did. Her eyebrows scrunched up in concentration, she lightly bit down on her tongue then her lip. Michelle could watch her face forever constantly mapping and memorising it to come back to later.
Willow was finished, she flipped the notebook to face Michelle and showed her the cartoon-like drawing of a paladin and a cleric in battle.
in a moment of giddiness, Michelle blushed then in the corner of her eye, saw the light that signalled the beginning of phase one.
they both froze in their seats but Michelle had to be brave, for willow.
"Ready?" Michelle asked, placing a gentle hand on her friend's shoulder.
Willow could only nod in response.
phase one. find Vecna. she thought once again as she had been going through the plan over and over in her head like a broken record. But now it was time to begin.
Once they reached the attic both of their lights began to glow. softly at first but the closer then got to the centre of the room the brighter they did.
"He's here...I can feel it," Willow shuddered.
She took off her headphones, heard the ringing silence the clash could no longer fill and spared a glance at Michelle's beautiful face, wondering if this was the last time she would ever see it.
but as the minutes ticked by she found herself staring for longer, longer than she could under any other circumstances. She couldn't take it anymore.
"hey asshole!" she belted in no particular direction.
silence.
"Do you want me or not!" she tried again. It was pointless. She sat down cross-legged on the dirty creaking floor boards and began to talk.
"I know you can hear me...I know you can read my thoughts...even my worse ones...especially my worse ones" she began. "I thought about what you said...about how I wanted lonnie to die. I thought you were just saying that to scare me, make it easier to stop me from running, but...I think you were right. I hated him. He made my whole life living hell and...and ever since I was little, when I would lie in my bed and listen to him scream at my mum I would wish something would happen to him, something horrible. He'd drink a lot and sometimes after a fight he would get in the car, that's when I would imagine him losing control, crashing into a tree, maybe even a ditch. It was a horrible thing to think. especially at that age." Willow then began to cry. "and then when he did finally die I think part of me didn't want to save him, so I just stood there.i could've done something but i didn't." she let out a long exhale before speaking again.
"So now when I lie in bed I hope something happens to me, something horrible. I hope I die."
After her final words Michelle watched as she slowly began to rise like a puppet whose strings were being pulled.
"shit!" she exclaimed, reaching to pull on the other girl's headphones.
she knocked them off with an unnatural force immediately.
a slightly confused Michelle put them back on, only for them to be knocked off again.
"Willow! Can you hear me?" "You need to come back now!" she yelled, trying once again to put the headphones back on.
a version of willow who's eyes had rolled all the way to the back of her head took the headphones and snapped them in two before throwing them across the room.
"fuck!" Michelle cursed. "uhh... should I stay or should I go now, should I stay or should I go now, if you say that you are mi-"
Michelle's horrible singing was cut off by a hand to her throat.
Willow's possessed body flung itself at Michelle, pushing her up against the wall with a loud crash and a strangled sob.
Michelle reached for the plank of wood on a shelf beside her and smacked willow across the head with it.
The other girl stumbled backwards as Michelle freed herself and grabbed an axe from the corner of the room.
"please willow, it's me Michelle, don't make me hurt you!" she pleaded, with a firm grip on the handle.
she may have been seeing things, but was it possible that willow hesitated? for just a second before stretching out her arm and flinging the axe out of her hand with whatever powers Vecna had currently enabled her to use.
before Michelle could think of anything else she was cornered again. willows strength even stronger than before.
she felt her vision blur and her head spin. Michelle was about to die. and if she wasn't alive to help, so would Willow.
there was nothing she could do. no dice she could roll to change the ending. and no one to save her. willow of course. no one to save willow.
she thought of that day they met on the swings and how happy she was to have made a freind. who would've known that Willow Byers would be the one to kill her tonight.
She thought of all those afternoons spent with her and the rest of the party in her basement slaying dragons and saving villages, the late night bike rides and movie nights together and Michelle thought that given what was happening, she wouldn't change a thing. She would do it all over again without a second thought or a single glance back because she loved willow Byers and if now was the only chance she got to tell her she would. and she did.
two dots, stop.
dot dash dot dot, stop.
3 dashes, stop.
dot dot dot dash, stop.
dot, stop.
dot dot dash, stop.
Michelle tapped the sequence out on Willow's wrist and she released her neck.
Michelle gasped for air refusing to look away from Willow's pearly white eyes.
"Willow, Willow I love you" she choked out.
"I have loved you since the day we met. I love every single thing about you. I love your hair. I love your eyes. I love your drawings. I love listening to music together. I love watching you wake up in the morning. I love the way you laugh. I love the way you smile...I can't live without you Willow. I can't breathe without you. I can't sleep without you. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
Michelle watched as Willow's face softened and her hands began to fall. But then Vecna was back again and right before Willow could tighten her grasp Michelle cupped her face and crashed their lips together.
she held on as tight and as close as possible as if letting go would kill her. until she felt willow melt into her arms, softening the kiss then pulling away with a light gasp as she slid to the floor.
"Will! Are you okay?" she cried, joining her and pressing their foreheads together.
"did...did you mean all that?" she asked breathily, looking into Michelle's eyes.
There was no hesitation.
"everyone word"
This time it was Willow who pulled the other in hungrily, fast and passionately like if they waited any longer they would explode. Both girls crashed their lips together, tangling their fingers in each other's hair and grinning against their lips, teeth softly clanking together.
Michelle Wheeler and Willow Byers had never been happier. They felt the weight of a hundred bricks lift from their chests and they could breathe again.
They continued to breathe for a long time. The only monsters they ever need to fight, fictional.