Chapter Text
Will remembers the day like it was yesterday.
Literally. It was just yesterday.
A few years ago, Will was introduced to his aunt Carol. His mom’s distant cousin who lived in Utah. She would be in Hawkins for a few days visiting them, catching up with Joyce and getting to know the boys. She didn’t want to burden them and make them give her a space in their home, so she instead got a hotel and drove Joyce, Jonathon, and Will to nice restaurants to chat.
Although he was hesitant at first, Will began to like his aunt Carol. She always brought gifts, was as sweet as anything, was actually funny, got along with Joyce well, and she genuinely gave an interest in Will’s and Jonathan’s lives. Plus, she paid for all meals. Will felt comfortable enough to tell her about his interests that might have seemed embarrassing to most relatives. Instead of the usual tone he got from his family members when talking about something which indicated they wanted to switch the conversation, Carol gave the tone which indicated she wanted to continue it. For a long time.
The only thing is, Carol was Catholic. Will didn’t mind people who were religious when he was younger, but as he got older he felt more and more unsafe. That’s what they believe in, that’s what they love, you should accept everyone, he tells himself constantly.
But nobody ever gave him that same treatment.
Especially not from people who go to church.
Yet somehow, Carol was the only exception. She didn’t seem like someone who was overtly religious. She only started giving Will advice that she “got from God” after her third visit. Strangely, some of it actually helped.
Even though she was only supposed to stay that one time for a few days, she kept coming back.
The truth is, Will knew why.
She started visiting a short two weeks after they had tied his possessed body down and burned the Mind Flayer out of him. Her visits became more frequent after the Starcourt Mall burned down. The “family bonding” with a distant relative his mom claimed would be good for him was just a disguise for what it really was.
Therapy. Religious cleansing.
His mom wanted him to find something to believe in, something to turn to in the dark times. She would never admit it, though. Joyce wasn’t the type of person to be overly religious and force it on anybody, she just wanted her son to be happy. She was doing this to try to make him happy. Preventing living in fear of constantly being captured and tortured again.
Carol would have loved to visit more often, but she wasn’t made of money, and Joyce began seeing things in Will that she felt Carol’s religion wouldn’t approve of. That’s when Joyce decided to move the family to California.
When they moved back after Vecna’s strike, immediately they were quarantined from everything. Carol couldn’t visit. It was near the end of the constant suffering from Vecna’s attacks that Will decided to come out to everyone. He finally felt happy with himself. Happy that his friends and family knew the truth. Happy they were accepting. Happy that Mike stayed close with him. He could live with being just best friends. Even though Will really liked Aunt Carol, he was happy that she wasn’t there, possibly praying for Jesus to forgive his sins.
Now, Vecna was dead. The long nightmare of fear was finally over.
But Carol visited again.
This time for a long while.
This time she wanted to take Will with her back to Utah.
Will shames himself for being a people pleaser and agreeing to stay with her for a month.
A short vacation, right? Might be nice?
Now he’s in a simple dress shirt and slacks, surrounded by Catholics he doesn’t know, sitting in a row with people he barely met, worshipping a God he doesn’t believe in while in a building he swore he would never enter.
If there was a God, he’s pleading for Him to save him from this place.