Chapter Text
“NANCY?! HOLLY?!”
Nothing.
The others kept calling out for Dustin, Steve & Jonathan every few minutes, but mike needed to stop after inhaling a mouthful of particles. He quickly spat them out. They already tasted bad but the party still wasn’t sure how safe it was to inhale them given what happened to Will & the Flayed when they’d been forced to ingest a large amount of them.
“Is this shit safe to breathe?” asked Vickie waving some out of her face.
“Unclear.” Said Robin nonchalantly.
Mike still wasn’t sure how she’d ended up with the group here but she seemed to be taking it all in rather well with Robin filling her in as they went along. Mike remembered his first visit to the upside down and even with knowing what to expect beforehand it still unnerved him when he actually came into it.
He’d only been to the upside down a handful of times when the party first tried looking for Vecna, sneaking through one of the four mile long gates before the military had covered them up with that stupid plating. It had been chilling seeing this decaying version of the town and his home covered in vines with the particles hanging in the air.
Being back here again his mind once again wonders how Will managed to survive here for a week with a Demogorgon on his tail when he was just 12. And now his sister, even younger than Will was back then, is in here already in the hands of the monster behind it all.
Mike just hoped Max was right about her trying to get away and that she’d be as lucky as Will was back then.
El was by his side, looking a different direction every few seconds including behind them. Mike knew while the others were looking out for their friends El was keeping lookout for threats like Demo’s or any military following them.
They hadn’t had a chance to fully talk about what she’d seen in the Lab Dr Kay had hidden out here other than her sister. Who he’d never even heard of till today.
Whatever else it was they had learned in the lab it had had an impact on her. It scared Mike a little how defeated she had sounded before she rescued Will from Vecna in the bathtub. Like even when Vecna is gone and the upside down is sealed forever they’ll still loose because of Dr Kay and her goons.
He didn’t know what she was thinking with that way of thought but right now he needed to focus on finding his sisters.
“HOLLY?! NANCY?!”
He took another breath as a sudden gust of wind started whipping up the particles moving around him, obscuring his view. He was about to call out again when a voice replied in the darkness in front of him.
“MIKE?!”
Everyone paused. It was a smaller high pitched voice. Definitely a child’s, definitely scared.
“HOLLY?!” and he was off running towards the voice, EL and robin being the closest to him were barely a few steps behind him.
But no one else was able to go forward to follow.
The wind was now picking up even more, a swirl of particles, dirt and broken twigs obscuring the trio from view to the rest of the party. Mike meanwhile was going full pelt, one hand above his eyes to try and shield them from the constant pelting of particles and dust slamming into his face now.
“MIKE?!”
The voice sounded slightly off but was unmistakably a child, and a familiar one at that. It had to be Holly, the only other kid who could be here and know his name was Derrick and that definitely wasn’t Derricks voice.
“WERE COMING!” Shouted Robin by his side. “JUST KEEP CALING OUT SO WE CAN FIND YOU!”
A silhouette started to take shape through the barrage slamming into their faces. It was small and child like, though any other feature was hard to make out.
Then just as quickly as the wind had started it died instantly, particles slowly floating in their weird way both up and down in the air randomly whilst all the dirt and twigs fell to the floor.
Mike, El and Robin took a second to blink their eyes clear of what dust and particles had gone in their eyes then froze as the figure on the other side became clearer.
That wasn’t Holly. They knew who it was but it couldn’t be.
For one he was either in the cabin still or on his way to WSQK, he shouldn’t be here at all. And second he hadn’t been this little for over 3 years.
Because running up to them before coming to a stop with a look of confused wide eyed fear was Will Byers. Looking either 12 or 13 years old.
_____________________3 YEARS AGO _____________________
Will had been running so hard for so long.
He’d started panicking when he’d found that….thing Dustin had brough to school in the bathroom. He’s still not sure why he never told anyone about coughing up that thing back when it was a slug, but he knew that it was Dart the minute he laid eyes on it.
And seeing it now, all alone in the bathroom, brought all those memories back. The dark, the cold, the hunger, the poisoned air and that monster following him for a week before the painful fall out of a tree that got him captured.
It was stupid being scared of something he could kill with a stomp of his foot but he needed to get away from it and those memories. He ran out the bathroom as quick as he could.
As if on cue though he’d barely calmed his breathing down before the lights in the school hall started blinking rapidly.
Oh god please no.
Not again.
But between one blink and the next the hall was dimmer, that strange white dust was in the air and the vines…dear god the vines were everywhere.
Was it always here? Had it always been here? Just hidden from view in this terrible place Will cant seem to escape from?
Then he hears it.
It starts out faint and he cant tell which direction its coming from. Its almost like a hiss. He looks down the corridor closest to the emergency exit door.
It's like it knows he was a millisecond away from making a break for that door cause suddenly it comes from another corridor just before the exit. It moves like a wave and a cloud, the sound of many hissing snakes, roars & groans coming from it as it slithers towards him.
Will turned and ran faster than he’d ever ran in his life. He tore through the school corridors, risking a glance to see it was indeed following him and gaining speed, before he tore through the schools front entrance and out across the field.
Not hearing the sound anymore he stopped for the briefest of moments, catching his breath before looking back and seeing the shadow take the form it had seen the last few times now. The one that filled him with dread and fear each time he saw it.
It rose from above the school, stretching out its four long arms ending in the long tentacle like fingers while its faceless elongated head seemed to look directly into his soul, even though no eyes or any features existed beyond its shadowy mass.
Will KNEW it was looking at him.
For the briefest of moments Will thought maybe this was all in his head after everything he’d been through. That the doctors were right and he was just having a waking nightmare from the stress of it all.
He thought of doing what Bob had said; stand up to it and tell it to go away till the nightmare or whatever this was stopped happening.
He couldn’t go on like this forever, he could already tell everyone thought he was crazy. Even the guys had acted freaked out with him recently.
Everyone except Mike.
He drew in another breath ready to start telling this thing to go away when it stopped looking and started moving an arm towards him.
He made up his mind in an instant.
He ran.
And he ran.
And he ran.
His plan was to keep running from this thing till this episode ended on its own. These flashes in the upside down or whatever these were normally lasted less than a minute. He just needed to keep running till the delusion or whatever stopped and he was back in the real world.
But it didn’t stop.
Not 5 minutes later, not 10 minutes later.
Will kept needing to stop and catch his breath but he never stopped for long. It seemed this time he was truly back in the upside down. No flashing back to reality this time.
Panic started to set in, his worst nightmare realised.
But then he realised something. This time he knew where the way out was.
He just needed to get to the Lab and climb through the gate. He knew the lab kept it guarded but they also knew him and certainly wouldn’t be expecting him to be on this side of the gate.
It’d finally show Dr Owens and the other doctors this wasn’t all in his head, that this thing and his moments in the upside down were real.
He didn’t stop to think about how they could stop it from happening or that this thing might just pull him back in again. He couldn’t let himself or he might just give up right now. He needed to get back.
Mom, Hopper and the Lab guys would know what to do.
So he ran all the way from Hawkins Middle School to the lab. Hed tried to find a bike to ride but everything was covered in vines and the minute he tried pulling them off he’d hear the sound of the Shadow Monster getting near.
He’d found staying in the tree line was the safest bet. Easier to hide from it as it “looked” for him.
When he reached the Lab he was so exhausted. His chest heaved, his muscles ached and his tongue was so dry from having no fluids since lunch then running for well over an hour.
He couldn’t hear or see the shadow monster so he cautiously made his way up to the lab, his speed slowed just a bit so he could keep his breathing under control.
But then something happened Will had not experienced in that long week he’d spent here.
There was a gust of wind.
The upside down had a constant storm overhead and was always cold. But not once had Will felt a gust of wind here.
And was it just him or was it picking up to be a strong breeze?
Terrified it might be the shadow monster Will forced himself into a run again, his muscles feeling like they were about to seize up in protest.
But he was so close! Hed deal with any pains later if it meant getting away from that thing.
He was getting close to the lab entrance when he heard it coming from the side of the other side of the lab entrance.
“NANCY?! HOLLY?!”
It sounded a little different, like maybe his voice had dropped again a little lower like it started to a couple months ago, but Will would recognise that voice anywhere.
Hed heard him shout his sisters names many times in the Wheeler house when he was annoyed with them.
“MIKE?!” he called out, his voice scared but hopeful.
The wind picked up even faster around Will as the white floaty dust and regular dust started whipping up around him, stinging his eyes.
“HOLLY?!” that deep Mike like voice replied.
Will would have felt two things in any other circumstance. He would have been annoyed thinking Mike was teasing him for his voice sounding like his four year old little sister.
He also would have been more cautious on the fact Mikes voice sounded way too deep than it sounded only an hour or so ago.
But the fear and exhaustion were making him throw caution to the wind knowing his friend and possible salvation were so close.
“WERE COMING! JUST KEEP CALLING OUT SO WE CAN FIND YOU!”
Will didn’t recognise this voice at all, only that it was a woman’s voice. Maybe she worked at the lab and everyone had somehow figured out what had happened to Will and had gone through the gate to save him.
Yeah. That had to be it.
He kept running through the constant hail of dust and wind, three shapes becoming visible to him. They all looked too tall to be Mike but maybe he was behind them. He kept moving forward.
Then all of a sudden the wind stopped, and everything went calm. Will blinked his eyes a few times to clear his vision as he kept moving forward. Then froze.
There were three people in front of him. Two teenage girls and one teenage boy. At first he thought Mike wasn’t amongst them till he had a good look at the boy in the middle.
If will didn’t know any better he’d have thought the guy was Mike’s older cousin or something with how similar they looked. But Will knew Mikes extended family better than he knew his own. Mike didn’t have a cousin.
His hair was more curled, Will hadn’t seen it that curly since they’d been in Kindergarten. His jaw was more prominent and angular, having lost what very little kid fat was there.
And god he was so tall. He’d always been taller than Will.
He had dark circles around his eyes like he hadn’t slept for ages, but he still looked handsome.
Will quickly pushed that thought away the second he thought it. He didn’t let those thoughts stay when they popped up.
They meant bad things.
It made no sense, but he’d been running for nearly an hour from a monster made of living shadow through a nightmare version of his hometown he’d barely survived a week in only a year ago. Nothing made sense anymore.
But what if this was a trick? What if the shadow monster could make him see things like it made him see the upside down when he was back in Hawkins?
What if this Mike and two strangers were trying to get him close enough for the monster to slither out and catch him?
“Will?” the older Mike said, eyes wide with confusion and concern. He handed the supercom he was holding to the girl with shaggy light brown hair in dark clothes whose looking at Will in open mouthed shock.
The other girl in grey sweater and pants with red shorts over the top (“Is she still dressed for Halloween like a superhero?”thought Will) grabbed Mikes arm and without breaking her gaze from Will said “Careful. Might be Vecna.”
“Mike” Stopped at that, briefly looking at the girl who was now looking at Will with something that made him think if he said or did the wrong thing shed tear him to pieces.
He’d had enough.
He couldn’t go on.
He was tired. Scared. Hed been running for so long and nothing made sense. He felt his eyes flutter before everything went dark.
_____________________________
Mike understood Els concern.
The party were getting close to figuring out what his plans were and hopefully about to rescue Holly from him.
It would be odd for Vecna to use an illusion of a 12 year old Will to confuse them, but they were in the twisted version of their home town trying to find their friends who had gone chasing after dimensional monsters through a silo to track down Mike & Nancys kidnapped sister. Nothing made sense.
Hadn’t done since the night Will went missing.
And Mike knew Will better than anyone. Hed known Will longer than he’d known any of his friends. If this frightened little boy with eyes so wide they looked like they’d pop out of his skull was Vecna messing with them then Mike would eat his supercom.
But before he could follow his instinct to comfort Will and tell him everything was going to be alright he saw what was going to happen.
The minute those eyes started fluttering he rushed over and caught Will who went limp in his arms.
God he was so small. Hed been smaller than Mike for years until recently but even now Mike found himself being protective of Will like he was a second younger sibling.
Robin and El rushed over and looked at Will as Mike got a better hold of him to gently lay him down on the floor.
“Is that….Will?” Robin asked.
“Yeah…..i don’t get how but yeah. Its will.” Whispered Mike.
El bent down next to Will and touched him. “He’s burning up. This place isn’t good for him right now. We need to take him back.”
“Yeah. But why is he like….a cute lil kid again?” asked Robin.
“No clue.” Said Mike “But El’s right. Murray, Mr Clarke can you guys take him back through the gate and….”
For the first time Mike and the others looked back, realising the rest of their group had been quite throughout all of this. And with good reason. They weren’t there.
“Oh my god! Vickie?!” Robin shouted. Panic on her face.
“Hop?! Dad!” called El.
Nothing.
Not a sound.
Mike tried to stay calm. He could see the panic on both of their faces. “Maybe they went back through the gate during that weird storm. We gotta get Will out so we’ll head back and check.”
The others said nothing but a cough from the small figure of Will, still unconscious, made them nod.
Mike carried Will piggyback style with robin behind him helping if he started leaning too much one side and was in danger of falling off. El took the lead keeping lookout for danger or their friends.
But it didn’t take long for the three of them to notice a huge problem.
“Guys. Where’s the gate?” asked Robin.
In the full daylight of Hawkins you could be forgiven for not noticing the miles long glowing crack that ran through the town and some of the forests before the military put one large steel band aid on it.
But when you are in the darkness of the upside down you see the glow long before you see the actual vine covered fissures separating this place and home.
But as three teens and one unconscious boy reached the place Mike, El & Robin had come through there was no glow, no crack and no way back to Hawkins. Not even any sign there had ever been a gate running for miles.
The three of them were trapped in the upside down.