Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mike was never exactly an optimist. After the things he had seen, how could he be? He had a habit of anticipating the worst possible outcome and anxiously preparing to do damage control. These tendencies had only intensified over the last few years as he and his friends had survived catastrophe after catastrophe, and every time he thought the danger had passed, it would strike again. Unfortunately, danger’s favorite target was his best friend. These days, he learned to never expect the best possible outcome or even a good one, but that didn’t stop him from crossing his fingers in his pockets and praying to whatever God might be listening that all would finally go well. Did he think his prayers would be answered? No, but it didn’t hurt to try. There was just something about this situation that screamed “SOMETHING IS GOING TO GO WRONG!”

Mike gave himself a little shake and turned to his best source of encouragement and positivity, who was sitting a few feet from him on an uncomfortable chair on what remained of the second floor of the Creel house.

Through the drifting spores, he saw Will’s face lit by the dim lantern on the table between them and the hellish glow of the gate in the center of the destroyed house. Whatever positivity he hoped to glean from his best friend was not on display. Will’s face was lined with anxiety. He was picking nervously at the sleeve of his sweater, and his eyes were fixed dead ahead in the direction of the gate. His shoulders were tense, and his knee was bouncing anxiously. Despite his nervous state, Will’s presence managed to soothe Mike just a bit. However, his feeling of temporary calm was immediately overshadowed by a fierce desire to help. Seeing Will in this state made Mike feel slightly ashamed of his own worries. Will had far more of a reason to fear the operation going wrong.

Mike longed to remove Will’s pain and worries in any way he could. He wanted to wrap his arms around Will and shield him from the world that had treated him so terribly. That wouldn’t be weird, would it? He’s just concerned for his friend, as anyone would be if their friend had gone through what Will had. He decided not to act on that particular impulse. He didn’t want to alienate Will when they were finally starting to reform the close friendship that they had had since the age of five. All the awkwardness of Spring Break in California was forgotten, as was the tense conflict from the summer of ’85. The high stakes of life in the apocalypse had driven the two of them back together. After a full year of stupidly pushing Will away, Mike had finally gotten his head screwed back on right, helped by his breakup with El. Without a romantic relationship to distract him and complicate things, he and Will had fallen back into their old ways. There was still some lingering tension between them, but it wasn’t bad tension. They were both perfectly friendly to each other and were able to talk as freely as they ever had, but Mike could tell there was something on Will’s mind which he wasn’t sharing with him. He was sure he could only tell because he knew Will so well.

He could tell that whatever Will was hiding from him was not the cause of his present anxiety. Squashing down the instinct to physically reach out to Will, Mike opted to try talking to him instead.

“Hey,” Mike said quietly.

Will started and looked at him. His features softened almost imperceptibly, but the change wasn’t missed by Mike, who felt his own heart flutter slightly. “You ok?”

There was an instant in which anxiety still showed on Will’s face, but then on went the mask of forced calm. “Yeah,” he replied dismissively. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Mike responded with a look that made it clear that he had seen through Will’s façade. The mask crumbled. “I’m just a bit nervous.”

Mike shared the sentiment, and though he knew Will would see through his mask as easily as Mike had seen through Will’s, Mike projected confidence he didn’t feel. “I’m sure it will all work out. El will close the gates and everything will be fine.”

Will’s expression told Mike that he wasn’t very convincing. “Don’t you think it seems too easy? We just walked in here, no problem.”

Will had identified the exact worry Mike was grappling with. Today they were closing the rift. For months they had been waiting for an opportunity to reverse the damage Henry Creel had done to their town. They had taken shelter in their homes (the Byers living at the Wheeler house). They had patrolled the streets, monitored the movements of monsters from the Upside Down, and prepared for a battle that never came. It just seemed like something serious should have happened by now. Now, after months of restraining her newly re-acquired power, saving her strength as much as possible, El was finally ready to close the gates and stop the Upside Down from bleeding any farther into Hawkins.

Hopper wasn’t happy about the plan, but El had begged him to let her try, refusing to take “no” for an answer. Mike didn’t particularly like the plan either (after what had happened the last time El had overexerted herself), but he had long since learned that he should have some faith in El’s knowledge of her own strength. Once Mike had gotten past the concern for his ex-girlfriend-now-best-friend, he had to admit he was proud of her. Hopper had tried extremely hard to put his foot down, but El had made it clear that she was going to try her plan whether he let her or not. Eventually, he gave up and insisted that she let him help. Mike loved her strategy, as he had used the exact same one on Steve almost two years ago, insisting on setting fire to the tunnels to assist El until Steve had had no choice but to let them, even taking the lead at Dustin’s insistence. Mike liked to think that maybe he had taught El to be so stubborn. Hopper wouldn’t like that idea, even if his attitude toward Mike had improved since Mike had stopped dating his daughter. The Party and their allies had gladly taken up roles in the operation, splitting into groups and positioning themselves at each of the four gates to monitor them for activity and ensure that they all closed properly. That’s what led Mike and Will to be in this half-destroyed, creepy husk of a house at this moment. Will was right. Getting in had been far too easy and Mike’s instincts were screaming at him to abort.

Mike decided to be honest with Will. “Yeah, I know. Do you think it’s a trap?”

Will shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe. But how would letting El close the gates be a trap?”

“You can’t feel anything? You said he was still hurt.”

“Yeah, he is, but he’s definitely starting to get stronger again. I can’t feel anything right now, though.”

“Even if he’s getting stronger, so is El.” Mike took comfort in that fact. El had her powers back and they were stronger than ever before, even without accounting for the fact that she had been conserving her strength for months. As long as they had her, Mike couldn’t feel too worried. “Maybe One isn’t strong enough to stop her, yet.”

“Yeah, but he should be strong enough to do something. I just can’t see him letting her undo all his hard work. Maybe he has something planned and he’s going to do it once she starts closing the gates. Or maybe he’s sending monsters to stop her right now and we just haven’t heard about it. Or maybe-”

“Will, stop,” said Mike, firmly putting an end to Will’s spiral of anxiety. “El is strong, and she’s with Hopper and your mom. I’m scared, too, but we have to try something before One gets any stronger. We might not get another chance.”

Will nodded and muttered more to himself than to Mike, “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.”

“It’s ok,” Mike said soothingly. “Just try to think about something else for a little while.”

“Like what?”

“How about what we’re going to do once the gates are closed.”

Will grimaced. “Figure out how to kill Henry? I mean, even once the gates are closed, he’ll still be alive.”

“Yeah, but we will have bought ourselves some time,” said Mike in slight exasperation. “I meant what are we going to do for fun once the Upside Down is back in the Upside Down?”

Will’s shoulders seemed to relax slightly in spite of himself. “I don’t know, maybe…” He trailed off.

“What?”

“I was thinking maybe some D&D? Maybe it’s stupid but…” Will’s nervous tone made Mike feel like a complete asshole, which he was of course. It was as though Will expected Mike to yell at him for the suggestion. Given past events maybe this was a reasonable expectation. Mike had to correct that immediately.

“No. No, it’s not stupid, Will. I think it’s a great idea. We can get the original Party back together like old times. We can even watch a movie, and everyone can sleep over like when we were kids.”

Will’s face broke into the first genuine smile he had worn in days, and the effect was remarkable. Mike felt like he was staring into a sunrise.

“Really?” Will sounded like he didn’t dare believe what he had heard.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” said Mike enthusiastically. “I’ll need to come up with a campaign, though. We could work together on it if you want.” Will’s smile widened and Mike’s heart fluttered again. “I haven’t been a DM in forever, but after listening to Eddie so much, I’m actually really-”

The crackle of the radio broke Mike out of his emersion and he saw Will tense again as well. Damn it, he thought to himself. They both stood up, suddenly alert, and Mike grabbed the supercom from the table and walked toward the edge of the gate to get a better view.

"El is ready to go," came the gruff voice of Hopper from the supercom. Mike held it up and prepared to respond as Hopper continued. "Requesting confirmation that all groups are in position. Group Alpha, please respond, over."

At once, Nancy's voice replaced Hopper's. "Group Alpha in position, no activity to report, over." A glance at Will told Mike that he, too, felt slight relief. Nancy and Jonathan had reached the gate in the trailer park with no resistance.

"Group Beta, please respond, over," came Hopper's voice again.

"Group Beta in position, Watergate is secure, over," came Dustin's voice, barely concealing a giggle. Mike shot Will a grin, which he returned. Dustin had agreed to take up a position for this operation, with the only condition being that he wouldn't set foot in the trailer park. Considering what had happened last time he was there, Mike didn't blame him. At any rate, he was glad Dustin was finding humor in something, even if it was from his own poorly timed joke. Mike could almost hear Steve's eyes rolling from across town where he sat with Dustin. He had to admit, calling it Watergate was hilarious, though he would never tell Dustin that.

Hopper made no comment on Dustin's stab at comedy when he next spoke, though his voice did sound slightly more exasperated. "Group Charlie, please respond, over."

"Group Charlie in position, over." Lucas, on the other hand, didn't seem to be in a joking mood, not that he ever was these days. Again, Mike couldn't blame him. Like Dustin, Lucas's involvement in this operation was conditional: he would not go anywhere near the Creel house. Instead, he had taken up a post near the gate on the road where Fred Benson had been killed, accompanied by Erica, who refused to be benched, and Robin, who had offered to go along and attempt to corral the siblings, mainly Erica.

This left Mike and Will to watch the gate at the Creel house.

"Group Delta, please respond, over."

Mike pressed the button on the walkie and responded, "Group Delta in position, ready to go." He paused for a second and glanced at Will.

You're the heart...

"You can do this, El. I know you can," he added with as much conviction as he could muster. Will gave him an approving nod and another small smile. Mike stared back, slightly transfixed for a few seconds before remembering to add, "Over."

"All groups stay alert and report any problems right away," Hopper said, and Mike felt Will tense with anticipation next to him. "Operation proceeding in five..."

Here goes nothing, thought Mike.

"Four..."

Something’s going to go wrong, said an anxious, nagging voice in the back of Mike’s mind.

"Three..."

Shut up, Mike scolded his own mind. Everything is going to be fine.

"Two..."

Mike looked over at Will, who was looking more anxious by the second. Think about Will, he told himself. El’s going to close the gates, and we’re all going to play D&D. Will is going to be happy, and so will I. We’ll all be safe and it’ll be just like when we were kids. He held onto the idea like a drowning man clutching at a life preserver.

"One."

At first nothing seemed to happen. Then, there was a distant rumbling, and the ground began to shake. Glancing through the shattered front window, Mike could see that the rift stretching toward the center of Hawkins seemed to be mending itself. Rock was shifting and the ominous red glow was fading, leaving behind rough but intact terrain.

Mike thought the news would probably call this another earthquake, maybe an aftershock. He wondered if it would become yet another thing somehow blamed on Hellfire Club. He figured it was unlikely. Once everyone realized the town was back to normal and the "gate to hell" was closed, they would find someone else to give credit to. They would say their prayers were answered and God would get all the credit, even though half the members of Hellfire were choosing to risk their lives, standing guard to ensure that the gates were closed.

No, Mike was sure that when everything was over, he and his friends would go right back to being treated like something nasty on the sole of everyone's shoes. His one comforting thought was that at least now he wouldn't face being at the bottom of the food chain alone. Will was back by his side.

He glanced over at Will and saw that he had returned to anxiously watching the gate. Mike could tell that he still had a feeling something was going to go wrong. Mike wanted to comfort him, but he knew his words would sound empty. Will would not breathe easily until the gates were closed and Vecna was dead. He glanced down at Will's hand, which was clenched and trembling at his side. Mike itched to reach out and grab it, just to calm Will down a bit. That wouldn't be a big deal, right? Friends holding hands would be perfectly normal in a situation like this.

Before he could act on his impulse, the lantern on the table flickered. Mike saw Will jump and they both looked over at it. Mike wondered if Henry could be here. Will would surely know. Mike glanced up but saw no signs of physical discomfort. No telltale hand on the back of his neck. The light flickered again. One thing was certain: something was moving on the other side.

Mike tried to keep the fear out of his voice. "Do you think that's-"

The demodog leapt out of the gate and barreled into Will's side before Mike could do anything.

"WILL!" Mike yelled in alarm.

Will hit the floor hard and the demodog landed on top of him. The scene was so horrible and familiar, that for a moment Mike felt like he was 13 years old again, watching Bob Newby get torn apart. Bob, who had risked his life to save theirs and who, of all people, didn't deserve such a horrible fate. Of course, nobody deserved a fate like that, except maybe Dr. Brenner or Henry himself, but Bob especially didn't, and neither did Will.

No, thought Mike. No. You're not taking Will.

Mike reached over to his backpack to retrieve his weapon. Hopper had insisted that everyone become proficient with weaponry just in case they ever needed to defend themselves. Mike didn't need to be told twice, but he always seemed to lack the coordination and steady hand required to accurately fire a gun. He wisely decided to avoid firearms in combat, convinced that he was likely to shoot one of his friends by accident if he wasn't careful, especially in a state of panic. He had borrowed Steve's nail bat for some practice and found it to be much more comfortable. However, not wanting anyone to think he was copying Steve Harrington, he had sought a different weapon. In the end, he had become attached to a machete that he had found at War Zone, which he still couldn't believe was a real store. The weapon felt right in his hand. Perhaps he liked to imagine he was a paladin, even though he hadn't acted like one in a long time, if ever. Either way, Mike thought that a machete was an undeniably badass weapon, and he could certainly use it effectively, so he had gladly claimed it as his.

He opened the bag and had barely gripped the handle of the blade when there was a patter of feet and a second demodog leapt onto Mike. He crashed to the floor, hitting his head very hard on the leg of the table. Fighting through the pain, he rolled onto his back and was greeted by the sight of the demodog's open maw lined with rows of needle-like teeth. Before it could clamp around his face, he managed to close his left hand around the monster's throat, and he pushed it back with as much force as he could manage. The clawed front feet scrabbled in midair, barely an inch from Mike's chest. As it began to leave painful scratches along his bicep, Mike managed to get a handle on his blade and swung it into the flank of the demodog. Dark and foul-smelling blood spilled across Mike's front as the monster shrieked. Mike shoved it to the side where it hit the floor. He raised the blade over his head and brought it down on the exposed neck of the creature.

He looked up, expecting to see what was left of Will. For maybe half a second, he was relieved to see that Will was alive. Then, he noticed that his friend was being dragged backward by the ankles, which were now wrapped in thick black vines that led over the edge of the broken second floor of the Creel house and down into the gate. Mike lunged toward the vines hoping to sever them, but he was intercepted by the demodog that had previously pinned Will down. It crashed into his side, sending him sprawling across the floor. His machete flew out of his hand, skittered across the floor, and dropped right over the edge and into the gate.

Mike barely had time to curse himself for having butterfingers at the worst time possible when he saw a far worse sight. Will was trying desperately to resist the pull of the vines around his legs, but his efforts were futile. Even as Mike watched, his legs disappeared over the edge.

"MIKE!" cried Will, skinning his palm on the floor in an attempt to find something, anything, to hold onto.

Adrenaline pumping through his veins, Mike rammed his shoulder into the demodog (which had been sinking its claws into his back) with as much force as he could manage, sending it skidding back across the floor. He scrambled to his feet and dove toward Will. His hand closed around Will's, and Will's other hand gripped Mike's wrist desperately. Mike made to reach out with his other hand, but the vines gave an almighty lurch. For barely a second, Mike's feet tried to gain traction, but he soon found himself being dragged over the edge and he only just managed to fling out a hand and grab the edge of the broken floor.

Time seemed to slow down. Above him lay his supercom, his only chance of calling for help, discarded in the frenzy to help Will. Beyond it lay his bag, full of supplies that were completely useless to him now. Reaching for either one would mean letting go of Will. The force of the tugging vines and Will's weight made Mike feel like his arm might pop out of its socket, and his fingers were being scraped raw against the wooden ledge above him. Mike looked down and saw the vines snaking their way up Will's waist and knew that even on solid ground there would be no way to tug him free. Beyond that was the ominous red glow of the gate. He met Will's eyes which were glistening with tears.

"Let me go, Mike," he said, his voice quavering.

Mike shook his head at once. "No! No way!"

"You can't pull me up. Please… please just let me go." Every word seemed to cause Will terrible pain.

Mike looked around. Vines were shifting at the edge of the gate and the light from the lamp on the floor above was becoming intensely bright. Eleven was still doing her job, dutifully closing the gates without knowing that Will Byers would soon be trapped on the other side. As it was, his legs were already through the membrane separating Hawkins from the Upside Down. If the gate closed now, would Will be cut in half like Jason had been? The thought made Mike feel sick. Yet, Will was right. There was no way to pull him up.

Mike wanted to cry at the injustice. How could Will, the most gentle and caring person in the world, be destined for this fate? He had survived the Upside Down against all odds, survived possession and being burned alive, been hunted by a giant flesh monster, and been forced to flee thousands of miles for a chance at safety, only to somehow be dragged back to Hawkins and pulled into the hell he had already escaped from. Will, the boy who had suffered so much yet still remained the same selfless, humble, wonderful person Mike had held out his hand to on the swings all those years ago, was being sentenced to a slow death, scared and alone in the Upside Down. Mike couldn't save him, but he couldn't let him go either. Letting go would be no different from killing Will himself, and he knew that losing Will would destroy Mike, too. There was only one thing to do. He had known it from the moment he grabbed Will's hand.

"Mike, don't!" Mike's eyes snapped back to Will's. Will knew what he was going to do, because he knew Mike better than anyone, and could read him like no one else could. Will looked terrified. His hazel eyes were wide. He was sweaty, his hair was sticking to his face, and his cheek was scraped and bloody from where it had hit the floor. Mike thought he had never looked better. As he stared at his best friend, a thousand memories flashed through his mind. He would never find another person like Will, because there was no one else like Will. The thought of what would be lost if he let Will go is what made up his mind.

"Please, Mike! Just let go! You don't deserve to be stuck down there!" Will was pleading as though his own life depended on Mike's survival.

"And you do?!" Mike asked, his heart breaking at the idea that Will thought he deserved any of this. "I'm not letting you go back down there alone!"

"Mike..." Will croaked. "I..." He knew Will was trying to say goodbye, but he couldn't let him. If Will said it, it would mean Mike would lose him forever. He couldn't let it happen.

"WILL! I'M NOT LETTING YOU GO!" Mike yelled. He had spent years kicking himself for letting Will leave his house that fateful night. He could have gone with him. He could have asked his mom to let him stay the night. He could've done something. He should have done something. But he didn't, and Will had almost paid the price with his life. That could not happen again, no matter what.

"Mike, El is closing the gate. What if there's no way back this time?" Will was losing composure. His chin was trembling with the effort to keep his emotions under control.

Mike held his expression firmly in place. If there was no way back, that was all the more reason to make sure Will wasn't alone.

"MIKE!"

But despite himself, Mike thought of Nancy. She wasn't always the nicest sister, but she would surely mourn his death. And his mother. Would she even be allowed to know why he was gone? Holly would grow up without her brother. Lucas and Dustin would be devastated by the loss of half their party. El would blame herself for trapping Mike and Will in the Upside Down. His life wasn't always perfect, but it was still life. He still had people he loved and who loved him. He still got to make good memories with the people who mattered most. He still got to feel sunlight on his face. If he let go of Will, he would have that all back. But the price would be too high. He knew he would never be able to enjoy any of it without Will. He would never be able to look Jonathan or Joyce in the eye again, nor would he be able to look himself in the mirror if he knew he had given up on Will, even when no help was possible. He would spend the rest of his life wondering what would have happened if he had moved Will away from the edge, if he had kept his weapon in his hand from the moment they had entered the house, or if he had told Will everything he wanted to tell him when he had the chance. Those thoughts would chip away at him until there was nothing left but burning regret and lingering grief. He fought to keep his face stubbornly determined, even as these thoughts churned inside his mind.

Mike's fingers were slipping on the ledge. The sides of the gate were closing in. He knew he only had seconds.

"MIKE, THINK ABOUT THIS! IF YOU LET GO, YOU’LL BE STUCK DOWN THERE! YOU’LL DIE!" A tear rolled down Will's cheek. “PLEASE DON’T DO THIS! IT’S CRAZY!

Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy.

Me too.

Well, if we're both going crazy, we'll go crazy...

"Together", Mike murmured to himself.

"WHAT?!" Will yelled.

"I said we would go crazy together, Will!"

Mike could hear vines slithering across the walls around him, retreating into the gate. He knew the light from the lamp above was becoming blindingly bright as the gates prepared to close. He could feel the air around him becoming clean and warm for the first time in months. The dark clouds outside were dissipating and a golden stream of late afternoon sunlight finally punched through the storm and lit up the room. Yet he had no desire to stay here. He didn't look around. He could only see Will, bathed in the golden light, who seemed to understand at last that there was no way to change Mike's mind. Without another glance at the world to which he belonged, Mike took a deep breath and let go of the ledge. He gripped Will's hand tightly as he plummeted down toward the closing gate and burst through into the dark and the cold.

Chapter Text

Come on, El. Come on, you can do it. Almost there.

Joyce was maintaining a steady stream of silent encouragement inside her mind. It was the only thing keeping her from dissolving into an anxious wreck. Worries were buzzing around her head like flies. The familiar nagging fear for the safety of her children was most prominent of all. All three of her children were in harm's way this time. At least El was in her line of sight and seemed to be safe, but Jonathan and Will were both on the outskirts of town, far enough that she couldn't rush to them in an instant if something went wrong.

That fact bled into her other major worry: the paranoia telling her that something was surely going to go wrong. This whole operation had gone too smoothly for her liking. Hell, there had been more resistance two years ago when Hopper and El had set off together to close the Mother gate at the lab. And that was just one gate. Now, they were closing four gates simultaneously and repairing the town-wide rift and she hadn't seen or heard about so much as a vine twitching in protest. Surely any second calamity was bound to strike.

On top of all her worries, she felt an impatient longing for this all to be over. She wanted nothing more than to settle down and allow her children to live the rest of their lives in peace. They had more than earned it. All her faith in this glorious dream for the future lay in the girl now hovering above the ground before her.

When El's feet had lifted from the pavement in front of the library, Joyce had nearly toppled into Hopper in surprise. From his expression she surmised that this must have happened last time she closed a gate. She expected he would've given her a smug look saying "Look at how awesome my daughter is," if he hadn't been so worried for her safety.

She looked over at Hopper and saw him staring intently at El. His mouth was moving but no sound was coming out. She expected he was mouthing the same silent mantra still cycling in her own mind. You can do it, El. You're so close. Be safe. We love you. She reached out and took one of his large hands in hers. With a sideways glance, he locked eyes with her and she gave him the most reassuring closed-lip smile she could manage. His tense posture didn't deflate at all, but he at least returned the strained smile, which she counted as a win.

Suddenly, the trembling of the ground intensified. Lamp posts down the street swayed and their bulbs flared intensely. Vines began creeping their way down the sides of the buildings of main street, sliding back toward the rift. Above them, El let out a primal scream as she fought to stay focused on her task. As the quaking reached a crescendo and the glowing red light from the rift before them started to dim, Joyce felt a gust of warm wind sweep down the street. She inhaled deeply, taking in a lungful of clean air. She looked around to see that spores were no longer drifting lazily around her but instead swirling toward the rift as though being sucked down a drain. The sound of thunder and the flashing of red lightning ceased and warm sunlight touched her skin for the first time in months. It felt like breaking the surface of an icy lake and taking in a life-saving gulp of air. 

The library swam into view through the clearing haze before them. Rock was shifting and mending itself along the rift. The vines disappeared from view, there was a final rumbling quake, and the red light was extinguished. El's scream faded into silence and she dropped out of the air like a marionette whose strings were cut. Hopper darted forward just in time to catch her and a second later he was crouching on the pavement with her in his arms. Her eyes were closed, her skin was pale, and there was a sickening amount of blood pouring down her face from both nostrils.

Joyce hurried to Hopper's side. He was mumbling almost inaudibly. "Come on, come on, come on. Don't do this to me."

He placed two fingers on the side of her neck and a second later his whole body sagged with relief. "She's alive. She's breathing."

Joyce knew from his expression that for an instant he had looked down at El's unconscious form and seen a different little girl. She put a comforting hand on his back and rubbed slow circles until he sat up straighter and unclipped his walkie from his belt.

"The rift is closed. I repeat, the rift is closed. All groups, please copy, over."

Immediately, Nancy's voice responded. "No trouble here. The gate's closed and Jonathan and I are alright, over."

Joyce let out a small sigh. Two of her kids were safe. That just left Will.

"We're all good here, Watergate is history," came Dustin's voice, actually giggling this time.

Hopper rolled his eyes and Joyce managed a smile as they heard Steve in the background. "Jesus Christ, Henderson, give me that thing..."

Lucas spoke up next. "All good here. The gate's closed." He sounded relieved. He must be glad that something had at last gone to plan.

Joyce tensed in anticipation, ready to celebrate a successful mission. She just needed to hear that Will was OK.

Silence. Oh shit.

Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic.

Hopper clicked the button again. "Mike, do you copy, over," he said. He must be worried, too, if he used Mike's first name.

More silence.

Please, no. Not again. He can't be gone again.

Joyce's heart began to race and her breaths became ragged as she started to fear the worst.

"C'mon, kid. Don't mess around. Do you copy? Please respond, over." How was Hopper staying so calm?

Joyce snatched the walkie out of his hands and slammed her fingers onto the button. "Will?! Mike! Are you there?" Every second of silence felt like a year. Panic was rising inside her, scorching all thoughts from her brain except for one: FIND WILL. "Boys, please respond! Please tell me you're ok! Please..." She was having trouble breathing now. She lowered the walkie from her mouth and got to her feet. "Shit!" she exclaimed.

Hopper scooped up El and hurried after Joyce as she marched purposefully toward Hopper's truck. "Joyce, don't panic. We don't know that-"

"DON'T TELL ME NOT TO PANIC, HOP! MY SON IS... HE'S..." Not again. This can't be happening again.

"Okay, okay, let's go check on them. We'll figure this out, okay?" Hopper's words didn't calm her down, but she was grateful when he caught up to her. He laid El gently across the back seat of the truck and got into the driver's seat.

Joyce was so frantic that it took her a moment to realize that someone was talking through the walkie still clutched in her hand.

"Mom?" For an instant, Joyce convinced herself that it was Will. But as the voice spoke again, she realized it was Jonathan.

"Mom, what's going on?!" He sounded almost as panicked as she felt.

Her hands were trembling as she responded. "Hop and I are going to check on them, okay? Jonathan, we're going to find them. I promise. I'll see you back at the cabin, alright?"

"O-Okay. Be careful, mom," Jonathan stammered. He sounded close to tears.

The drive was a blur. If Hopper wasn't Chief of Police and if the town wasn't almost empty, he might have been arrested for his driving. He had barely slammed down the brakes at the Creel house when Joyce was opening the door and hurrying up the path.

She stepped right through the demolished front wall of the house, barely registering the lack of a gate in the center of the ground floor. She marched up the stairs, Hopper barely keeping up. On the second floor, the sight that met her forced all the breath out of her lungs. Mike's supercom was in the middle of the floor on its side as though it had been thrown to the ground. Mike's backpack was open against the wall. Worse was the demodog. It was dead, with gruesome wounds on its flank and neck, dark blood flooding out onto the floor. A glance around the room confirmed her worst fear. Her son and Mike were not there.

"Oh god..." Joyce slumped sideways into the wall and slid down to the floor. She vaguely registered Hopper's voice echoing through the house. She couldn't hear what he was yelling. Blood was pounding in her ears. The walls seemed to be closing in on her, and she felt like she was trying to breathe through a heavy blanket. Only when Hopper crouched down in front of her did she realize she was looking at him through a haze of tears.

She felt him grab her hands and he was now speaking to her. She had to focus to register what he was saying.

"Joyce. Hey, c'mon just breathe. Okay? Just breathe with me." He breathed in slow and deep. She tried to copy him and managed only a ragged gasp. "Okay, again," he said patiently. As she breathed again, she tried to focus on the low rumble of his voice. "Joyce, we're going to find them, I swear to you."

"I- I-," Joyce was having trouble speaking. "I can't do this again. I can't- my boy- he's gone. He's gone, Hop, and Mike..."

As Hopper pulled her into his arms, she couldn't hold back the sobs that escaped her as all her fear and sorrow seemed to burst through a dam in her chest. She had fallen into her worst nightmare again, and she wanted nothing more than to wake up.

When she finally pulled away from Hopper, he fixed her with a firm look. "Listen, Joyce. We found him last time, and we're going to find him this time, okay? We're going to find both of them."

She managed to nod, and in doing so she finally regained enough composure to notice how worried Hop seemed to be. Of course, with how invested he was in finding Will last time and how hard he had worked to be there for him in the year after the Upside Down, he cared deeply about Will's safety. He was doing his best to stay strong for her, but she could see the barely controlled panic in his eyes. She knew that panic. She saw it every time she looked in the mirror during that fateful week in November, 1983. It was the panic of a desperate parent. The fact that Hopper was concerned for Will's safety in a way that Lonnie had never been, even for a second, calmed her down a bit more.

She started to absorb the situation. Her son was missing again, and this time Mike was missing, too. All her initial attention had been on Will, as it had been since he had returned from the Upside Down last time, but now that she had caught her breath, Mike's fate became an equally powerful source of distress. Mike had been by Will's side for so long, and had spent so much time under her roof, that he was practically an honorary Byers. And the way he had been there for Will after he had been rescued and while he was possessed had earned him a special place in her heart. She had a feeling Hopper had a similar view of Mike. Of course he had complained relentlessly about him when he was dating El, but she was sure that was all a front. Mike was one of El's favorite people in the world, so surely Hopper cared deeply about him, regardless of his disapproval of him as a boyfriend to his daughter.

"Joyce, I'm going to take a look around the house, make sure they aren't here, then we need to tell the others and get a plan worked out." Joyce nodded. Hopper was right. They couldn't waste time panicking. If they wanted to find Mike and Will they needed to start looking immediately. "Would you be okay waiting in the truck? You can keep an eye on El while I look." The message was clear. You take care of my kid, so I can look for yours.

After an agonizing 15 minutes during which Hopper did a thorough search of the house and the property, he got back in the truck with Mike's backpack in his hand. His facial expression told her that he didn't find them.

By the time they arrived at Hopper's cabin, Joyce felt numb. She staggered out of the truck and drifted like a ghost behind Hopper as he carried El inside. When they entered there was a flurry of voices, all asking questions. Some were about Mike and Will, others expressed concern for El. Hopper assured everyone that El was alive and that she would be fine, and he cleared a path to her bedroom where he disappeared inside.

Once he was gone, every eye found Joyce. Jonathan stepped forward. "Mom, is he..."

His face fell as he looked at her, and she pulled him into a tight hug. "He wasn't there, Jonathan. I don't know where he is." Her voice shook as she spoke.

Over Jonathan's shoulder, Nancy looked imploringly at Joyce. "And Mike? Was he..."

"He wasn't there," Hopper said grimly as he stepped back into the room. The atmosphere of the cabin became thick with worry at this, and Joyce looked around properly for the first time. Dustin was on the couch, all traces of humor gone, and Steve was hovering anxiously behind him. Next to Dustin was Lucas, who looked like he was in shock. Erica was sitting next to him on the arm of the couch. Robin was on the floor with her back against the wall, looking stricken. Nancy and Jonathan seemed to have abandoned the chairs at the kitchen table by the window to greet Joyce.

"Do you have any idea what happened?" asked Dustin somberly.

Hopper stared around at all the glum faces and took a deep breath. "There was a dead demodog in the house, so we know they were attacked." Joyce thought of Bob and shuddered as Hopper continued. "Based on the state of the corpse, they seem to have put up a good fight. But what actually happened? It's hard to say. Mike left his backpack and his walkie, so wherever they went, they obviously left in a hurry."

"Maybe they ran off," said Steve in a falsely optimistic voice. "If they were attacked by a lot of those things it might have been their only option."

"It's possible," agreed Hopper. "They didn't leave any weapons behind, which would make sense if they left in the middle of an attack."

"But if the gate closed, then whatever was attacking them should've died," said Dustin. "That's what happened when El closed the Mother gate."

"If that happened, then they're probably on their way back right now," said Steve, lifting his arms in a "don't even worry about it" gesture. Joyce admired the way he kept trying to consider the best possible outcome. Unfortunately, she had a feeling the truth was much more sinister.

"Unless one of them is hurt," added Robin, shrugging apologetically when eight tense faces turned to face her.

"Either way, it would be smart to send a search party out," said Hopper in a commanding tone, snapping everyone's attention back to him. "Unfortunately there are other options to consider." Hopper looked at Joyce sadly, as though what he was thinking would physically hurt her if it was said aloud. Joyce was sure he was thinking the same thing as she was.

"Like what?" asked Steve, seeming to know the answer.

"Like what if they're on the other side?" answered Jonathan in a hoarse voice. The temperature in the room seemed to drop by a few degrees as everyone considered this prospect.

"Yeah, exactly," said Hopper quietly. "The gate in that house closed like all the rest, so if they somehow fell or were dragged through..." he trailed off.

"Then they're stuck down there," said Lucas in an emotionless voice. His sister put a hand on his shoulder in an uncharacteristic display of compassion toward her brother.

Another glance around the room revealed a gloomy scene. Dustin looked unusually grave. Robin and Steve were exchanging looks that would fit in at a funeral. Nancy had sunk into a chair and had her head in her hands, shoulders shaking with quiet sobs, and Jonathan stood over her with his hand on her back, looking teary himself. Joyce felt drained. The thought of her little boy back in that place made her feel both sick and unbearably angry. Henry, for whatever reason, had targeted her son and had destroyed what should have been a happy childhood. That's all Joyce ever wanted for her son: for him to be happy. After she had kicked Lonnie out, she was sure all would be well. Will was certainly thriving in a way he had never been able to under Lonnie's thumb. Then everything had gone wrong. Her happy boy had been taken from her, and he had never really come home. After the Upside Down, Will had been different. He was quieter and more reserved, and he had a permanent sadness in his eyes that broke Joyce's heart. But Henry wasn't done. He had to keep striking again and again, and this time he had taken Mike, too. Thinking about it made her so angry, that she desired nothing more than to find Henry and make him pay for what he had done to her son. She would tear him limb from limb if that's what it took to keep Will safe.

Some of her anger must have shown on her face, because Hopper was looking at her with regret across his features.

"I should never have let this happen," he said gruffly. "Closing the gate was bound to cause Henry to retaliate. I shouldn't have let El do it." He stepped forward with his head bowed. "I'm sorry, Joyce. It's my fault Will-"

"No, Hop," Joyce cut in. "Don't do that. This was not your fault, and it wasn't El's fault either. This was Henry's fault and nobody else's." Hopper seemed like he was about to speak so Joyce kept talking. "El was incredible today, and I'm so proud of her, and when she wakes up we need to make sure she understands that. She closed the gates just like she said she would." She took a step closer to him and lowered her voice a bit, fighting to keep angry tears from falling. "Nobody could've expected this to happen. Not Will, or El, or you, so don't you dare blame yourself!"

The silence following this speech was deafening. Everyone was looking at Joyce and Hopper, and they all seemed stunned by Joyce's rage.

"She's right," said Dustin. "One way or another, the gates are closed, which probably set Henry back a long way."

"But that means Mike and Will are stuck down there with him," argued Lucas, sounding horrified by what he was saying. He looked around the room. "I agree, this isn't anybody's fault, but what are we going to do about it?"

"Can't El just open another gate?" asked Steve.

"Maybe," answered Dustin. "She opened the Mother gate through psychic contact, so I don't see why she couldn't do it again."

"And she could help us find Mike and Will. We might have to make another sensory deprivation tank for her, but it would be a lot easier than looking manually," added Lucas.

"Cool, so we just have to wait for her to wake up," said Steve.

This didn't lift Joyce's mood in the way he was probably hoping it would. How long would it take for El to wake up? She just used a huge amount of energy, so it could be a while. And what if she lost her powers again like the last time she pushed herself that hard? Would Mike and Will be stuck in the Upside Down forever? No. She told herself forcefully. Don't think like that.

Dustin seemed to be following the same train of thought. "We don't know how long that'll take. And her power might still be drained when she wakes up. If they really are in the Upside Down, they might be waiting a while."

"But can they hold on that long?" asked Lucas. Joyce knew he, too, was thinking of how weak Will had been at the end of his time down there.

"Yeah. They can," said Nancy, speaking up at last. She spoke quietly, but with such intensity that everyone hung on each word. She raised her head from her hands and wiped the tears off her cheeks. "Will survived there for a week by himself when he was 12 years old. He's tough. A lot tougher than people give him credit for." Jonathan and Joyce both shot her grateful smiles for the faith she was putting in Will. "And this time, Mike is with him."

This seemed to surprise everyone. None of them had ever heard her speak about Mike with so much confidence, even respect. As far as any of them knew, the Wheeler siblings just weren't that close.

"She's right," said Jonathan. "Mike and Will have always been inseparable. I mean, Mike practically lived at our house since they were in kindergarten. If any two people can survive that place long term, it's them."

For the first time since Mike and Will had failed to respond to Hopper over the radio, Joyce felt some measure of calm. Nancy and Jonathan were right. Joyce had had the pleasure of getting to watch Mike and Will grow up together. They were closer than any two friends she had ever seen. Mike had a way of lifting Will up that even she and Jonathan couldn't match. Will acted differently around Mike. He didn't become a different person, but he became more himself. Any trace of awkwardness or self doubt disappeared the second Mike entered a room. And Will was able to calm Mike in a way nobody else could. Joyce had seen Mike mouth off to adults and peers alike. She knew that he could be abrasive and intentionally difficult with almost anyone. Hopper only ever saw that side of him when he was dating El. But around Will, Mike became softer, gentler, and more mature. She would never forget the way Mike had appealed to Will when he was possessed and tied up in the shed behind their old house. He had poured out his heart in a way she had never seen him do before, and it had worked. Mike had saved Will's life just as effectively as El had. She now realized that there was no better person to help her son through the Upside Down than Mike Wheeler.

Everyone else in the cabin seemed to share the sentiment.

"Exactly!" said Dustin. "It was actually pretty stupid of Henry to take Mike when you think about it. If he tries to hurt Will in front of Mike, Mike might just murder him on the spot."

"Remember when Mike pushed Troy?" asked Lucas, brightening up at the memory "And he didn't even do anything to Will that time. He just talked about him."

"Mike used to glare at me for teasing Will sometimes," added Dustin. "Even if I was obviously kidding."

"Well maybe he couldn't tell," muttered Steve.

"What does that mean?!" asked Dustin in outrage.

"Just that it's not always clear when you're being sarcastic and when you're not"

"Have you considered that maybe it's just you who can't tell?" Dustin's eyes widened suddenly and he snapped his fingers. "Wait, that actually makes sense. Mike is super oblivious, too, which is why he always blew my jokes out of propor-"

"Did you just call me obli-"

"Okay, that's enough!" interrupted Hopper. But the mood had been lifted somewhat, and Joyce was grateful. She was also grateful to have more reasons that her son and Mike might still be alive. She would feverishly collect as many reasons as she could and hold onto them for dear life until the boys were home.

But as Hopper went about forming search parties, Joyce couldn't escape the fact that as much as she might hope for the contrary, her son might not come home. Even with Mike by his side, the Upside Down was not merciful. Will had barely escaped with his life last time. Looking around the cabin to Nancy and Dustin in particular, she realized that these people had friends who had not come back from that place. Somehow, among the people who had visited the Upside Down, Will was one of the lucky ones. Would that luck hold out? And what if Mike didn't make it? She remembered the horrible sinking feeling that she had experienced when Hopper told her that Will's body had been found in the quarry. It was pain beyond anything she had ever experienced, and she had had evidence that Will might still be alive. She thought about Hopper, brought back to the moment he had lost his daughter by the sight of an unconscious El barely over an hour ago. She would never wish that pain on anyone, and she never wanted to experience it again. She therefore pushed her worries down into a corner of her mind and decided to put her faith in Mike and Will.

Chapter Text

Will shivered as he woke. It took him a moment to remember what had happened. It all came back when he saw the thick cloud of spores drifting in front of his eyes and landing on the wooden floor on which he seemed to be lying.

Will sat up and looked around. The room was dark and silent. Vines were plastered across the walls and draped over the furniture. A wooden table sat in the center of the room, chairs positioned haphazardly around it. Framed photos hung above cabinets along one wall and along another was a shelf above a dismal fireplace. The windows were shattered and Will could barely see through the gloom outside, though distant flashes of red lightning occasially punctured the wall of fog. On the mantle was an old radio and a collection of photographs featuring a charming man, a pretty woman, a happy young girl, and a timid-looking boy who did not smile. From the state of the room and the subjects of the photos, he determined that he was still in the Creel house, in the dining room specifically. Will shuddered as he remembered what Nancy had relayed from the vision Vecna had showed her, about how Henry had murdered his mother in this room. Well, not this room exactly, he thought.

The full weight of his situation crashed down on him. He was back in the Upside Down. He was really here, and this time the gate was closed. Worse, he hadn't merely been hunted by a demogorgon this time. The vines had ensnared him, and it was clear that Henry had reached out personally to take him. 

He wanted to cry at the cruelty of it. Hadn't he suffered enough? Hadn't he fought hard enough to earn the right to be happy? What do you mean 'fought'?, said a nasty voice in the back of his mind. Everyone else fought. You just ran and hid and cried for help. Will scolded himself. That wasn't how life worked. He wasn't owed anything. Life wasn't fair, especially for people like Will. The idea that he might live happily ever after, or that he might actually get what he wants in life was childish. He had gotten into the habit of correcting himself whenever he had expectations like this, especially after that horrible summer when his determination to hold onto fantasy had almost cost him the most important person in his life.

Will gasped as another piece of what had happened finally came back to his dazed brain. He looked quickly around the dining room and found that it was distinctly empty.

"Mike?" he called tentatively into the silence. The instincts he had honed during his last trip here were coming back to him. He knew it was best not to make too much noise here.

There was no answer. Will stood up and jumped slightly as he felt something shift at his feet. He looked down and saw the severed remains of the vines falling off of his legs. Someone had cut him free, and there was only one person it could be.

"Mike," he called again. He crept to the door and exited into the hall. This version of the Creel house was in just as bad of shape as the one in Hawkins. The front of the house was completely demolished by the opening of the rift, and while the rift was no more, the house had not repaired itself. He looked to the center of the ground floor where there was no gate. There was, however, a figure with shoulder-length black hair who seemed to be kneeling on the spot where the gate had been.

"Mike!" Will hissed, hurrying over to his friend, relieved to see him alive. "Are you okay?"

Stupid question, he thought to himself. Mike did not answer.

"Mike?" Will repeated, voice now laced with concern. He moved around to get a look at his face.

Mike finally looked up at him and his eyes looked dark and sad. "What are we gonna do, Will?" he asked, almost inaudibly.

Hearing the hopelessness in Mike's voice made Will's heart shatter. He never wanted this. As awful as his week here had been, the one silver lining had been that Mike didn't have to go through it. He was never supposed to know the feeling of the toxic air in his lungs, or the cold seeping down to his bones. He was never supposed to know what it was like to run for his life and hide and pray that a monster wouldn't leap out of the darkness and catch him. But now he was here. And Will hated it.

"I- I don't know, Mike," Will said, trying to keep his voice steady. "Castle Byers was destroyed and we're really far from it anyway, but maybe we can find somewhere else to hide. If we're lucky we might survive for a few-"

"I mean how are we gonna get home?" Mike interjected.

"Mike..." Will began, heart sinking as he spoke. "I- I don't know if we can go home. I told you, El closed the gate, s-so I think we're stuck down here."

"So... you're just giving up?" Mike asked, and he actually sounded hurt.

Will felt like a weight was pressing on his heart. He wanted desperately to rally faithfully behind his best friend and follow him, trusting in his ability to figure things out and protect him, but he was exhausted. He just couldn't bear to get his hopes up again. Not when all the physical evidence told him that they were going to die.

"I'm sorry," Will croaked, lip trembling. "I'm so sorry, Mike."

"Sorry for what?!" shot Mike, standing up and turning to face Will. "We're gonna get home, Will. I promise."

"How?!" Will demanded. He genuinely wanted to know. He wanted Mike to pull some magical solution out of his pocket, desperate for the tiniest shred of evidence that there might be a way back home.

"I was hoping you would think of something," Mike said expectantly. "I mean, you're the Upside Down expert."

Will just stared hopelessly back at him. He thought he had made it clear that there was no way back. He wracked his brain, trying to come up with a solution. Their best hope would be El, but would she be able to open another gate? Would he want her to? She had finally sealed the Upside Down out of Hawkins. All of Will's friends and family finally had a chance to be safe. He wouldn't want them to undo all of that and jeopardize the world just to save him. If he was lucky, maybe he could find a way to kill Henry while he was here. Then he would at least die with the knowledge that he had done something useful for the Party.

But then there was Mike, who had been condemned to death with him. He had hoped that Mike would understand that this was a one way trip, and that following Will would be a death sentence. But of course Mike had never been one to accept defeat. It was one of the reasons he had fallen in love with him. For the first time, he wished Mike would stop trying to help. He needed him to understand that sometimes, life isn't fair. Sometimes there isn't a way back. 

Life isn't fair. It was ironic that it was because of Mike that Will had learned that lesson in the first place, and here he was trying to send the message back.

If they could somehow make contact with El and ask her to open a new gate, they would be giving Henry another chance to destroy everything. Could that have been his plan? To give El a reason to reopen the gates once he realized what she was going to do? It could be a terrible risk to try to go home. But if he did nothing, he would be sentencing Mike to a certain death. How could he choose between Mike and the world? Part of Will was angry at Mike for putting him in this position.

Mike seemed to deflate as the seconds dragged by and Will had not given an answer.

"There's really nothing we can do, huh?" asked Mike, the disappointment palpable.

Will pulled his arms close and gripped his elbows defensively. "What do you want me to say, Mike?"

Mike took a step closer to Will. Normally this would make his heart skip, but this time it gave him the urge to shrink away in shame. "I don't know, but I followed you down here thinking I could try to save you, and now you're telling me that you just want us to curl up and die?" The words pierced Will like a knife.

"I didn't ask you to come with me. I didn't WANT you here!" Will couldn't quite keep the anger out of his voice. "I told you to let me go, Mike! I never wanted you to have to deal with this!"

"Why not? Do you think I can't handle it or something?"

"No, I just DIDN'T WANT YOU TO SAVE ME!"

A ringing silence stretched between them. Mike didn't look angry, just disappointed.

"So you don't want my help?" he asked quietly. "And you won't help me? You're just going to die?"

Will couldn't meet Mike's eyes when he spoke. "There's nothing we can do." His voice was barely more than a whisper.

"Well," said Mike in an icy tone Will had never heard him use before. "Maybe I should’ve just let you go then." Despite being what Will wanted, the statement felt like an arrow to the heart. He glanced back up at Mike and hated the disappointment on his face.

"I- Mike..." Will didn't know what to say.

"That's what you want, right?" Mike went on, seemingly oblivious to the wound he had just opened in Will's heart. "To run and hide like always?"

A lump formed in Will's throat. The part that hurt the most was that Mike was right. What had he really done in the past three years besides drag his friends down, always needing them to come to his rescue?

Mike's expression didn't soften when he saw the tears threatening to spill from Will's eyes. Instead, his voice seemed to become stonier. "Well, I hope you're happy, Will. We're both going to die down here because you refuse to fight."

When the first tear rolled down Will's cheek and Mike said nothing, it felt like he had ripped his heart out and stomped on it. Even in their worst fights, Mike always knew when he had gone too far, and he never made Will cry so unapologetically before. Will couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe Mike would talk to him like this.

"You won't fight for me, you won't fight for yourself, and you won't even let me help you. You're acting like a coward, Will!"

Proving his point, Will looked away, unable to meet Mike's accusatory stare. As Will's eyes fell on the crooked photos on the wall, his heart lurched. He suddenly remembered whose house he was in.

Mike has never talked to me like this, Will thought. Mike would never talk to me like this. Never.

He looked back at Mike, who had stopped talking and was staring at him with a smug look, as though he knew what Will was thinking.

"What are you going to do Will?" he asked.

"You're not Mike," Will said defiantly. He said it with complete certainty, because he couldn't stand the idea that Mike would hurt Will like this, even at his lowest.

Mike grinned, but not the lopsided, playful grin that made his heart skip a beat. It was an evil smile that did not reach his eyes. Will turned and tried to run but felt vines wrap around his ankles. He hit the ground hard and when he looked up, he was still in a ruined version of the Creel house, but this one was bathed in blood-red light and pieces of it drifted in the air above him. The distorted chime of a grandfather clock echoed around him. The vines dragged him back as he kicked and screamed, but within seconds he found himself fixed to a wall and bound at his wrists and ankles. 

He looked around, breathing heavily. Around the shattered foyer of the house was an array of pillars, and on each was a contorted figure shrouded in black vines. They were gaunt and skeletal, clearly having been there a long time. There was a girl in a cheerleader outfit, a boy with thick glasses, a tall black boy, and on the far end, a familiar girl with red hair.

Max was different from the others. Her cheeks were full and her hair looked as vibrant as ever. She perhaps looked a little pale, but otherwise she looked like she could be alive. In fact, upon closer inspection, Will could see her breathing.

"Max!" Will called out, his voice hoarse due to the vines constricting his airway. But she didn't stir.

"Don't bother," said a deep, echoing voice from Will's left. He turned his head to see a gruesome likeness of a man. His skin was waxy and burnt, with vines and tendrils wrapping around him. One hand featured unusually long, clawed fingers. His eyes, however, were human, which made the whole sight more disturbing. "You can't help her," boomed Henry. "You've never helped anyone."

"Let me go!" Will hurled the words at Henry, as though they might wound him. It suddenly struck him that the man before him was solely responsible for ruining his life. It was because of him that Will had been kidnapped, possessed, and burned alive. He was responsible for the deaths of Barbara, Bob, Eddie, and so many others. He had nearly killed Max and turned his hometown into a literal living hell.

"You do not scare me, Will," said Henry in an almost taunting voice. "Given the chance to fight, you would run from me." Will knew he was right. Will had just proven it seconds ago. "But I do not wish to scare you. I want to help you."

Help me? Will would've laughed at the idea in any other situation. Help me by kidnapping me and tearing my whole life apart?

Before Will could respond, there was another voice which echoed around both of them, and Will's heart lifted at the sound.

"WILL! WILL, WAKE UP!"

It was Mike, and Will was certain this was the real Mike. Does he think I'm a coward? How much of what Henry-Mike said was fake?

"HEY, ASSHOLE- OW, SHIT!" There was a tremendous crash.

Henry smirked unpleasantly and the scene around the two of them faded. A second later, Will found himself blinking in the darkness of the real Creel house in the Upside Down. He really was restrained to the wall and Henry really was standing inches from him. The new addition to the scene was Mike. He was on the floor across the foyer, with his legs wrapped in black vines. From what Will had heard and from Mike's current position, Will assumed Mike had just fallen to the ground due to his restraints. When Mike looked up, Will could see the relief in his eyes.

"Will, you're okay," he sighed. Then he turned his gaze to Henry. "Let him go, dickhead!" Will grinned slightly despite his current situation. This was his Mike, his paladin, his knight in shining armor, and he couldn't believe he didn't pick up on the fake Mike sooner.

"Or what?" rumbled Henry.

"Or I'll kick your ass, you douchebag!" said Mike, not skipping a beat. Will had never seen Mike fight anyone except for his one failed attack on the flayed Billy Hargrove. Apparently he had pushed Troy over once, but Will wasn't there to see that. However, the threat was issued with such venom that Will was inclined to believe him. Henry had called Will's bluff, but Will was certain that, given the chance, Mike would attack Henry, or at least try to.

Henry seemed to feel the same way as he directed his attention fully to Mike, walking right up to him and staring down at him with slight interest. "Fighting Will's battles for him again, Mike?"

"Will could kick your ass, too, buddy!" Mike retorted. Will felt touched by Mike's confidence in him, but hoped Henry wouldn't ask him to prove it. Of course he would try his best with Mike's life on the line, but he didn't like his chances against someone as powerful as Henry.

Henry looked at Will appraisingly, as though trying to decide if Mike was right. "I do not want to fight with Will," he said. "I want us to work together."

Will couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Why would I ever work with you after everything you've done?!" he spat.

"Because I can be very persuasive," said Henry. He clenched his clawed fingers and at once Mike made a horrible spluttering noise. The vines had coiled their way up his body, pinning his arms to his sides and fastening tightly around his throat. Will could see his eyes widening in panic as he struggled for breath.

"STOP IT!" yelled Will, watching Mike's face redden. His eyes were popping and his fear was palpable. "PLEASE! PLEASE STOP!" Henry didn't so much as glance at Will. His eyes were fixed on Mike, watching the life fade from him as though watching a mildly interesting TV show.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!" Will shouted as he thrashed against his bonds. He couldn't watch Mike die. It couldn't end like this. "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?!"

Henry looked up at Will and the vines loosened. Mike gasped and began to cough loudly.

"I want you to realize your potential," Henry grumbled, turning his back on the struggling form of Mike. "You and I can remake the world together. We can make it better."

"What do you mean?" asked Will. "The world was just fine before you turned it into hell!"

"Was it?" Henry sounded like he was genuinely asking. "Were you happy being tormented and cast aside because of who you are?" Will felt like an icy fist was squeezing his heart. "If you were so happy, why were you so willing to accept your fate in this place. You just rolled over and admitted defeat. Why did you hide from your friends and lie to them? Why did you lie to him?" Henry turned to face Mike again, who was squirming against his bonds and who was looking directly into Will's eyes. His face was still red from his near-strangulation, and it wore a look of slight confusion. Will knew him well enough to know what he was thinking. When did you lie to me?

"Please..." begged Will in a low voice. "Please don't..." If he really was to die down here with Mike, he didn't want Mike's last impression of Will to be one of disgust. Maybe it was selfish, but he didn't care. Mike was finally back to being his best friend and Will would rather die with things the way they currently were than risk messing it all up by having Mike learn the truth.

Henry turned back to Will, but Will continued to stare at Mike, trying to tell him with his eyes not to listen to Henry. Mike's expression had changed from confusion to concentration. It was a second before Will realized that Mike was fiddling with something behind his back. His back was against a cabinet so Will couldn't see his hands, but his facial expression begged Will to hold on a little longer. Will turned his gaze back to Henry, determined to keep him talking and to keep his attention off of Mike.

Henry's voice dropped so that it came out as a low growl that only Will could hear. "He doesn't know who you are, and you will never tell him. You will continue to hide from him and cower behind him as he defends you from the world. But in our new world, you will not need to hide. You will be respected, as you should be. You just have to help me and I will help you in return."

Will had to focus very hard to not let his eyes wander to Mike. He heard a wince of pain and almost let his eyes betray him. Instead he kept them fixed intently on Henry's, thinking about what he had said. A new world in which Will didn't have to hide sounded like a dream. But like a dream, Will knew the idea was too good to be true. He didn't believe that Henry had anyone's best interests at heart aside from his own. He may believe he was making the world better, but who was he to determine what was best for everyone?

"I don't believe you," Will told him. "I don't trust you."

"You don't have to trust me," Henry grumbled. "You can change the world yourself. Just let me show you how."

"No!" Will was praying that Mike would hurry up with whatever he was doing. He was placing all his trust in his best friend, and knowing that he had a plan gave Will the courage to stand up to Henry. "No, I don't want anything from you! You ruined my life!"

"If you work with me, your friends and family can have a place in the new world. But if you refuse to join me, then I have no use for them. They will die while you had the power to save them."

He's bluffing, Will told himself. He's just trying to scare me... and it's working.

Henry let out a grumble of disappointment and took a step back from Will. "If you refuse to save them, then I see no reason to keep this one alive."

As Henry turned away, there was a squelching noise as the vines around Mike were severed. Mike scrambled to his feet and charged at Henry. Will knew the only reason Mike made it was that he had taken Henry by surprise. There was a flash of metal in the dark, a swishing sound, then a scream of rage and agony from Henry. As Henry recoiled, Will could see him clutching at his face where dark blood was blossoming from a diagonal wound.

Standing where Henry had been was Mike, and the sight took Will's breath away. His hair was a mess, his face was pale and dirty, there was slime and filth all over his clothes, but Will thought he had never looked more handsome. He was holding his machete, the blade of which was now dripping with Henry's blood. The look on his face would've scared him if Mike wasn't on his side. In his current situation, it had the opposite effect. It gave him hope.

Mike brought the blade up over his head. "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

"NO!" Henry's voice boomed, and as Mike made to bring the blade down, Henry flung out a hand. Mike was thrown sideways through the door to the dining room and there was a loud crash.

"MIKE!" Will yelled, and he tugged at the vines restraining him. With Henry's attention occupied by the obvious agony he was in, Will was able to free himself easily. He fell to the ground and stumbled before hurrying after Mike. As he reached the door, Henry's voice, distorted by pain, followed him. "Remember that you chose this, Will."

Will didn't have time to let the warning scare him. The dining room table had toppled sideways and Mike seemed to have slid off it onto the floor. He was staggering to his feet, but he was clearly in a lot of pain.

"Mike! Are you okay?" Will asked, once again scolding himself. Stupid question. Does he look okay?

"I'm fine," said Mike dismissively, wincing as he got to his feet.

"We have to go!" Will commanded. "Come on!" He hurried to Mike's side and threw an arm around him, supporting his weight. Mike must have really been in pain, as he accepted Will's help without arguing, putting his arm around Will's shoulder. As they took a step, Will's foot hit something that rattled against the ground. Looking down, Will saw the machete. He scooped up the still-bloody weapon and held it, blade down, in the hand that wasn't tucked under Mike's ribs.

They moved as fast as they could with Mike in his condition, spotting a door at the far end of the room. They hurried through it, into the kitchen, and out a side door. They hurried across the backyard which flashed with the glow of red lightning. As they reached the tree line, there was a cacophony of otherworldly cries from behind them.

Mike looked back for an instant. "Shit! GO!" he yelled and he dragged Will along, shoving him ahead of himself, all thoughts of his current pain forgotten. Will risked a glance over his shoulder and saw a swarm of demobats swooping down from over the house, clearly following the two of them as they fled into the woods.

Mike and Will charged through the trees. As they went, their visibility dropped substantially. Dark fog made it impossible to see past a few trees and spores swirled like snow in front of them. Will's lungs burned from inhaling the toxic air and Mike's wheezes from beside him meant he was experiencing the same thing. The only hint that they were still being pursued was the screeches of the bats which echoed through the trees.

Suddenly, Mike lurched and almost brought Will toppling to the ground with him. "Mike! What-" Will didn't have to finish his question as Mike was pulled backwards by a vine that had snagged his ankle as they passed. Will didn't stop to think. He caught up to Mike and raised the machete that was still in his hand. As he severed the vine, there was a particularly loud screech and a bat loomed out of the darkness. It had only just landed on Mike's back when Will swung the blade at it. He knew it wasn't as graceful as if Mike was the one wielding it, but it did the trick. The bat hit the forest floor and Will stabbed the blade through its wing, grounding it.

"Come on!" Will yelled at Mike, helping him up again." Watch out for the vines! That's how it found us!"

They continued on for what felt like hours but was probably about 10 minutes, until the screeches of the bats faded into the distance. Will couldn't run anymore and Mike obviously couldn't either. They collapsed at the foot of a large tree and tried to catch their breath. They both coughed loudly as their bodies rejected the putrid air. After they both regained their breath, it was a while before Will broke the silence.

"Oh my god," he panted, looking at the dark outline that was all he could see of Mike. "That was insane." It was all he could manage. Everything about their situation was insane. They were stuck in the Upside Down, Will's mind had been infiltrated by Henry, making an already grim reality seem even worse, and craziest of all, Mike had attacked Henry. He had hurt him badly enough that he had been forced to let them escape. It was such an insane thing for Mike to do, that Will wondered if this could still be a hallucination.

"Yeah. It was," Mike answered. "I can't believe we got away." He paused for a minute, breathing heavily. Then he shifted closer. "Will, are you hurt?"

Will actually gave a small laugh, then wondered if anyone had ever laughed in the Upside Down before. Yeah, this had to be his Mike. "Me? What about you?"

"I'll be okay," Mike said unconvincingly.

"Mike..." Will said in an exasperated voice.

"We need to get somewhere safe," said Mike before Will could badger him any more. "Where are we?"

Will wished he could give a different answer. "I have no idea. Somewhere in northern Hawkins, obviously." The direction they had traveled meant nothing if they had no way to determine which way was north. "I don't suppose you have a compass on you?"

Will saw Mike shake his head in the dark. "All my stuff is in my bag." There was the sound of Mike's fist slamming against his knee. "Damn it! It's just sitting there in the Creel house. Why did I even take it off?"

"Mike, you couldn't have known we'd end up here," Will assured him. Then he remembered what the fake Mike had said to him, how he had been angry with him for accepting his fate and dooming him to die. "Mike?" Will asked hesitantly. He had to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was real. "Y-You're not mad at me are you?"

Mike's head snapped up to him and Will grimaced until Mike's voice came and it sounded concerned rather than accusatory. "Of course not. Why would I be mad at you, Will?"

"Because you're stuck down here, and there's no way out, and now we're gonna..." He couldn't finish that thought aloud.

Mike shifted again and Will jumped when he felt Mike's hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault I'm down here. You told me to let you go." His voice was incredibly gentle and it calmed Will slightly.

"Why didn't you?" Will had to ask the question. "Why didn't you just let me go, Mike? You would've been safe."

Mike thought for a moment before he answered. "I'm not sure if I ever told you, but I was there when they pulled your fake body out of the quarry." Will blinked in surprise. He hadn't known that. Mike hesitated before he kept talking, and there was an almost imperceptable quaver in his voice when he did. "I was with Lucas, Dustin, and El. We were out looking for you and we weren't supposed to be there. It was..." he seemed to be struggling to find the right words. "It was the worst moment of my life. I yelled at El and biked home by myself, and I barely remember what happened after that." He gave himself a little shake and cleared his throat before continuing. "All I know is that I spent a few hours in a world where you were dead. I... I couldn't do that again."

Will had a lump in his throat, but this time it wasn't from heartbreak. "But Mike..." he tried to keep his voice steady, but failed. "You... You'll die down here."

Will was sure Mike's hand on his shoulder was trembling slightly, but when Mike spoke, his voice was steady. "Yeah, I probably will. But... I'd rather die down here, than live without you up there."

That settled it. This was his Mike. Will remembered a conversation he had had with Lucas shortly after returning to Hawkins. Lucas had told him how Max had fought Henry by hiding in happy memories. Max had said that Henry only ever saw the darkness in people, so she fought him by hiding in the light. Will was convinced that Henry wouldn't be able to mimic such heartfelt sincerity in one of his hallucinations. This was real.

Will felt tears prickle the corners of his eyes. "Mike..." He was torn between gratitude for what Mike had done and said and sorrow over the fate they would meet. In the end, his sorrow won. "I'm sorry, Mike. I'm so sorry." His voice broke on the last word.

Mike's hand on his shoulder moved to his back and he pulled Will into a tight hug. Will felt Mike's hair tickling his cheek as the tears spilled from his eyes.

"I'm sorry, too, Will. I'm sorry you're back down here."

"That's not your fault," Will croaked.

"I know. But I'm still sorry."

Will moved his hands up Mike's back and made to grip him more tightly, but as he did so, Mike winced.

Will pulled back out of the hug. "Oh my god, Mike. I'm sorry!"

"It's fine," Mike groaned. "Stupid demodog scratched me, like, a lot."

"Mike, I knew it. You are hurt! We need to get you patched up." Will started to shift closer to Mike.

"How?" Mike asked. "You can barely see me. We need light... and shelter."

Will looked around into the darkness. He imagined the shadowy outline of the demogorgon looming from between the trees and shuddered. "I guess you're right. We'll have to just hope that we find somewhere." He looked back at Mike's outline. "Promise you'll tell me if you're in too much pain?"

"What, you don't trust me?" Mike asked in an annoyingly playful tone. Will was glad it was so dark so Mike couldn't see him blush.

"With my life? Sure. With yours, absolutely not."

Mike laughed. The sound really was strange in the Upside Down. "I guess you have a point after the shit I just pulled."

That's an understatement, thought Will. Voluntarily taking a likely one way trip into the Upside Down is certainly one for the books.

As Mike stood up, Will felt around on the rotting forest floor and retrieved Mike's machete. "Here," he said, holding it out. "You should probably have this back."

"You can keep it for now," Mike replied casually. "You were pretty good with it back there. Saved my ass with it."

"Says the guy who just sliced Henry's face open," argued Will, trying to keep the reverence out of his voice. "I'm pretty sure you cut his eye out."

"Serves him right," said Mike coldly.

Will didn't usually like to wish violence on people, but in this case he had to agree with Mike. He continued to hold the weapon out and Mike shook his head.

"I'm serious, Will. You should keep it for now. If we get attacked, I'm not gonna be much help. I'm injured, remember."

You asshole, thought Will, grinning broadly to himself in the dark. You just said you were fine about five minutes ago. Between the infuriatingly endearing banter (wait, is this considered flirting?, he wondered) and the trust he was putting in Will, Mike had just made Will realize that there was no one he would rather be stuck in the Upside Down with. Will put his arm back around Mike, strictly to make sure he could walk of course, and Mike put an arm back around Will's shoulders. Without the adrenaline-fueled panic of escaping Henry, Will was now hyper-aware of every inch of contact between himself and Mike and every slight movement Mike made as he marched on alongside Will.

Will had to force himself not to cry out with relief when a light began to shine through the gloom. He and Mike picked up their pace, still taking care to avoid any vines, and soon broke out of the tree line. The source of the light was a bulb mounted on the wall of a building, illuminating an intimidating metal structure consisting of a beam held up by pylons.

"Where are we?" Will whispered, sending the message that they should keep their voices down.

"I'm not sure," whispered Mike, following Will's lead.

They moved quietly toward the building until a sign swam out of the gloom. It was covered in vines and decay, but enough letters were visible for Will to put it together.

"Brimborn Steel Works," Will read aloud. "Isn't that where the Mind Flayer was hiding out last summer?"

"Yeah, it was," Mike responded, then reading Will's silence correctly, he went on. "We can try to find somewhere else if this place makes you uncomfortable."

On one hand, the fact that the Mind Flayer had once taken special interest in this location on the other side, made Will reluctant to enter. On the other hand, he was aware that no place in the Upside Down would be safe, and they needed to find somewhere to rest. Despite his promise, Will was sure Mike would bleed out before forcing Will to do something he didn't want to do.

"No, it's fine," Will assured him and he applied slight pressure to steer Mike toward the old steel mill. 

As they passed under the light, Will got his first good look at Mike since arriving in the Upside Down. The view lasted only a second, but it made Will wince. There was a dark bruise on Mike's forehead and there were even darker bruises around his neck from where the vines had choked him. There were large dark stains down the front of his shirt which Will sincerely hoped were not Mike's own blood. Worse than any of that was the expression on his face. He looked dead with exhaustion.

Vines hung from the ceiling of the mill and Will had to strain his eyes to make out more on the floor and deftly avoid them. Spores drifted through holes in the ceiling, and the glow of the light outside as well as the occasional red flash illuminated the space just enough for Will to make out a door on the far side.

"Let's hide out in there," Will whispered, cringing at the way the sound echoed around the enclosed space. "I don't want to be out in the open."

Mike hummed in agreement. Soon they had opened the door, with a loud groan of rusted metal and slipped through it. The room seemed to be an office of some kind. Will deposited Mike on the desk, telling him firmly not to move, and started searching the room. He opened a metal cabinet and almost cried with relief. Inside was a first aid kit as well as about half a dozen flashlights. Will passed one to Mike, who cheered quietly, and took one for himself. They clicked them on, and with the space sufficiently illuminated, Will pulled the door closed with a sound like a cannon blast in the silence.

Will directed his flashlight at Mike and properly took in his appearance.

"Jesus Christ, Mike," Will muttered.

"Is something wrong?" Mike asked jokingly, not managing to keep the exhaustion out of his voice.

Will did not laugh. "Let's patch you up," he said quietly as he opened the first aid kit.

"Do you mind if we do these first?" Mike asked, holding up his hand to reveal a bloody slice across several fingers that Will hadn't noticed before. "They hurt like a bitch."

"Oh my god, what's that from?!" Will whisper-shouted at him, shaking his head in disbelief. Would Mike have told him if he had lost fingers? Probably not if he thought it would upset you, he answered himself.

"My machete," Mike answered as Will took out a tube of antiseptic ointment out of the first aid kit (hoping dearly that it would prevent Upside Down sourced infections). "I had to grab it by the blade to slide it under those vines and cut myself loose, but I almost took my fingers off in the process. It wasn't easy with my hands tied up. I'm just lucky that I noticed it was under that cabinet."

"Wow," Will said both in exasperation and in amazement. "Good thinking." Will extracted some bandages and handed them to Mike. Once Mike's fingers were wrapped up, Will paused as he realized what had to happen next.

"Uh..." he began, trying not to blush. "I need to patch up your back, so you should probably..."

"Oh. Yeah, right," Mike replied awkwardly. Will could've sworn Mike was blushing in the second before he was lifting his shirt over his head. Will decided he couldn't be sure in these lighting conditions. He moved around behind Mike, trying not to look at his exposed abdomen. "Make it quick," Mike requested. "It's freezing down here."

Will got to work on the half a dozen long scratches down Mike's back. Most weren't too deep, but some looked like they might need stitches. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option down here and Will didn't feel qualified to administer stitches anyway. He decided to clean the wounds and cover them with bandages as best he could for now. As he worked and tried not to focus on the fact that he was sliding his fingers along Mike's bare back, Mike spoke.

"You never answered my question earlier. Are you hurt at all?"

"No," said Will honestly. "The demodog just pinned me down until the vines could grab my feet. I guess Henry wanted me alive so he could try to recruit me." Not wanting to discuss what Henry had said and done to him, he marched on to a new topic. "Thanks, by the way."

"For what?"

For what? Really?, Will thought. Where do I even start?

"Uh... for saving my life by slashing Henry's eye out," Will answered in a "shouldn't this be obvious" kind of tone.

"Don't mention it," said Mike humbly. "We have to watch each other's backs down here, right?"

Will just smiled. What had he ever done to deserve Mike as a friend? Then he thought about their situation again. While he was truly grateful for Mike's protection, he couldn't help but feel that it was meaningless, as were the bandages he was now applying to Mike's wounds. What was the point? They would both surely be dead in a week anyway.

Mike seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Will, I know things look pretty bad, but we can't give up yet." Memories of the fake Mike resurfaced again and Will tensed.

"Mike, I told you. El closed the gate."

"I know, but maybe she could open another one. I know it would be risky, but maybe we could contact her somehow and do it safely. Or maybe she'll contact us like she did with you when you were here last time."

Will made a skeptical noise. He wanted to believe that there might be a way out, but their situation looked pretty bleak.

"I don't want to give up on us just yet, that's all. You're probably right that we're going to die down here, but if there's any way out, no matter how far fetched, I think we should try it."

Will closed the first aid kit and Mike put his shirt back on.

"I don't know, Mike," Will said sadly. "Call me a coward if you want, but I just-"

"I don't think you're a coward," Mike interrupted.

Will stared for a moment before responding. "Are you sure?"

Mike actually smiled. "Of course. You're, like, the bravest person I know."

Will didn't feel like he had earned the praise. Henry's words were still ringing in his ears.

You just rolled over and admitted defeat. Why did you hide from your friends and lie to them? Why did you lie to him?

"Besides," Mike went on. "I know you haven't given up yet."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you ran from Henry, didn't you? And you patched me up. Why would you do that if you were ready to die?"

Will let out a shaky sigh. The exchange couldn't be more different than the one he had had with fake Mike. Henry's version of Mike had called Will a coward for expressing doubt in their odds of survival, but his Mike had proven to Will that he wasn't a coward, even though he had been convinced that he was. Mike had seen courage in Will that he could not see himself. That's why he's the heart, he thought.

But there was still heavy doubt weighing on Will. "And what if there really is no way out?"

Mike's expression saddened, but he didn't look away from Will. "Well, then at least we'll be together, right?"

Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy.

Me too

Well if we're both going crazy, then we'll go crazy together.

Yeah. Crazy...

"Together," said Will, smiling in spite of himself. "Yeah..."

Chapter Text

Nancy felt hollow. She couldn’t believe her little brother was gone. After the meeting in the cabin ended, Hopper had taken Ms. Byers with him into El’s room to talk, instructing everyone not to leave the cabin and promising that search parties would be formed shortly.

Though Nancy had expressed confidence in Mike and Will’s ability to survive, it didn’t stop horrible images from flashing through her mind. She saw them stumbling through the thick fog and swirling spores, hiding from lumbering shadows, and worst of all, the two of them lying on the ground pale and lifeless, covered in slime and rotten vines. She thought of Barbara and the horrible death she had been picturing for years. Her little brother couldn’t meet the same end. She couldn’t allow it. Will survived, she kept reminding herself. He survived, so why shouldn’t Mike. They’re together and they’re smart, so they’ll be fine.

She remembered her first exposure to the Upside Down during the search for Will in 1983. She had barely spent five minutes there and she had thought she would lose her mind from the fear it induced. After a few more years of battling horrors beyond comprehension, her recent escapades into that realm of nightmares had been less traumatic, but they still wouldn’t leave her mind anytime soon. She had always been surprised that Will had made it out of that place after a full week at the age of 12. He had been different afterward, but still mostly sane. Since then, she had gained a great deal of respect for her brother’s best friend.

On top of the raw shock from what had happened, Nancy was grappling with a layer of guilt. It was clear to her now that she had never been a very good sister to Mike. In fact, the only time she ever seemed to show genuine affection toward him was during times of crisis. When he had been on the run from the men from Hawkins Lab three years ago, she had been relieved to see that he was alive. She had told him not to keep any more secrets from her, as though they were turning over a new leaf and might behave like proper siblings from then on. But what had happened? She had gone right back to bickering with him and ignoring him as thoroughly as her father often did. Now that he was gone, she realized that she hardly knew Mike. She had never spent much time with him, never been there for him, never bothered to ask how his day was or offer advice or comfort. No, she had only ever ordered him around and complained about him. If they got him back- when , she reminded herself. When they got him back, would she learn from her mistakes? She thought she would last time, but clearly she hadn’t. In a month’s time, assuming they got Mike back, would anything be different?

Jonathan gave her a small nudge and she looked up at him, instantly feeling calmer. He flicked his eyes toward the door, and she got the message. Do you want to get some air? With a quick nod, she got up and he tightened the arm he had around her shoulders, steering her out and onto the front porch of the cabin. The sun was getting low in the sky. It would be dark within an hour or two. She didn’t say anything once they were settled in front of the railing, and he didn’t ask her to talk. He understood that she just needed time to process the reality they were facing. 

She wondered how he was so calm. Was he just really good at hiding his distress, or was he truly that confident in his little brother’s ability to survive? She could now appreciate how terrible that fateful week in ‘83 had been for Jonathan. It was already horrible for Nancy, between Barbara’s disappearance and watching the toll Will’s disappearance had taken on Mike, but a member of her own family being gone felt like a constant weight on her heart. It’s not even the same for me, Nancy thought. Jonathan is actually a good brother to Will. He practically raised him.

She lost track of time as she stood there, her mind racing. Finally, there was a rap on the window and she turned to see Hopper gesturing for them to come back inside.

When everyone was back in the cabin, Hopper spoke.

“Okay, I know it seems most likely that the boys are in the Upside Down, but we need to make sure they aren’t still in Hawkins. I want to get a search party out there tonight . I’ll be starting at the Creel house and I’d be grateful for any help I can get. Of course, I won’t force anyone who doesn’t want to–”

“I’ll go,” interrupted Nancy. Now that a plan was under way, she had pushed her grief aside and it had been replaced with a cold fury and a desire to do something, anything, that would bring Mike and Will home. She knew that they were most likely in the Upside Down and that the search party would probably come back empty handed, but part of her wanted to be wrong. Part of her wanted to march into the woods and find her brother and Will alive.

“I’ll go, too,” said Jonathan, and Nancy shot him a warm smile of gratitude, which he returned with a reassuring grin.

Steve looked at Robin with raised eyebrows and she gave him a curt nod. “We’re in,” he said seriously.

“I want to help, too,” said Lucas, rising from his spot on the couch.

At this, Hopper stood up to his full and considerable height and turned to look directly at all three occupants of the couch.

“Absolutely not. I don’t want any of you kids involved in this.” He spoke with so much authority that Nancy expected Lucas to shrink back in fear or maybe cower behind the couch. Instead, he seemed to stand up a little straighter.

“Hey, two of my best friends are missing. I want to help!” He sounded slightly desperate, and thinking about his situation Nancy understood why. His girlfriend had been in a coma for months, two of his best friends were most likely stuck in the Upside Down, and El was unconscious for an indeterminate amount of time. Other than Dustin and his sister (if she was in a good mood), he had nobody left.

Hopper seemed to understand, as he softened slightly, but went on, his tone still deadly serious. “I get it, kid, I really do, and I’ll do whatever it takes to bring them back, but I cannot in good conscience allow you to help with this. After we’re done here, you are to go home and stay there until I contact you with any new information. The same goes for your sister and Henderson. Do you understand me?”

“You let us help with closing the rift!” he argued back.

“Yeah, and I wasn’t too happy about that, either. And after what just happened, it turns out I was right to worry. You guys are waiting at home. End of story.”

“Last time you said that, we went out anyway and guess what? We found El! So why can’t you just–”

“We understand, sir,” interrupted Dustin. Lucas turned his head so fast it looked like he got whiplash. He gave Dustin a look that said very clearly, what the hell, dude? Before he could speak, Dustin went on, still looking at Hopper.

“You’re right. Last time we ignored you it turned out pretty well, but why tempt fate, right?” Ignoring Hopper’s suspicious stare, he turned to Lucas. “Hey, would it be cool if I crashed at your house tonight? Just to stick together?”

Lucas stared for a moment at Dustin, then looked back at the stern look on Hopper’s face and seemed to collapse in on himself. “Fine. Yeah, sure, whatever you want, man.”

Hopper clearly didn’t trust either of them, but he didn’t seem to have the energy to keep arguing about it. He turned back to the rest of the room to address them.

“Ok, everyone who’s part of the search party, let’s meet at the Creel house as soon as possible. Wait for me there before starting the search. I just need to stop at the Wheelers’ first.”

“You’re going to tell my parents?” Nancy asked at once.

“I’m not going to tell them everything, but they need to know that Mike won’t be coming home tonight,” he replied somberly.

Nancy made to speak, but bit her tongue. She felt exactly as she had when Barbara had gone missing. The idea of allowing the Hollands to hold onto hope that their daughter was alive, spending time and money looking for her when they would never find her, was horrible. She felt that they deserved the truth, but knew she couldn’t tell them. That feeling was even stronger now, when she was part of the missing person’s family. She was sure her mother would worry but hold onto hope, expecting Mike to be home within a day or two. Her father probably wouldn’t notice whether Mike was home or not until it came time for him to take the garbage out. She felt that they needed to know the severity of Mike’s situation. But would they believe her?

As though Hopper could read her mind, he went on. “I know you think they deserve the truth, and maybe they do, but not yet. I don’t want them involved in this, so they need to think it’s just another missing person’s case.”

Nancy nodded reluctantly, but still didn’t like it. Hopper continued talking to Steve and Robin, but Nancy wasn’t listening. Jonathan gave her a sympathetic look, showing that he agreed with her. She was about to continue discussing the matter with him when Ms. Byers approached them and started talking to Jonathan in a low voice.

“Be careful, honey,” she said in a shaky voice that caused Nancy’s heart to break for her. She couldn’t imagine what this must be like for her, having already experienced it once. “I’m going to stay here in case El wakes up. She needs to have someone…”

Nancy walked away and stopped listening. She stepped out onto the porch and stood there for a moment, trying to keep her composure. There was a bang as the door was thrown open behind her and Dustin marched out. He stopped at the sight of her teary expression.

“Oh… sorry, I just–,” he began awkwardly.

“It’s fine,” Nancy answered, impatiently wiping her eyes. “What’s up?”

Dustin approached and dropped his voice so as to not be overheard. “I have kind of a weird question,” he murmured. Nancy assumed he was trying to gather data. As usual, he seemed to have some sort of plan in the works. After his role in discovering the gate in Lover’s Lake and with helping her, Steve, Robin, and Eddie escape the Upside Down shortly after, she had learned never to bet against Dustin. “You said the Upside Down was stuck in 1983, right?”

This certainly was a weird question, or at least not one she was expecting. “Yeah, why?” she asked curiously.

“I’ve been thinking about that, and… and I was wondering if you have any notes or theories or anything. I know it sounds weird, but I really think it might be helpful to gather anything we can that might… you know…,” he rambled.

“Yeah, of course,” she answered quickly. If it might bring her brother home, she didn’t care how far fetched Dustin’s idea might be. “If you’re staying with Lucas tonight, why don’t you stop by my place and I’ll lend you what I have.”

Dustin nodded, giving a small smile. Knowing the kind of mischief her brother’s friends were likely to get into, she felt inclined to go on.

“Hey, whatever you and Lucas are planning to do tonight,” she gave her best impression of her mother’s most stern look, “make sure you’re careful. I really don’t want anything to happen to–”

“Oh, we’re not planning on going anywhere. Or at least I’m not.”

Nancy gave him a skeptical look.

“I swear, I’m not!” Dustin said defensively. “I just wanted to make sure Hopper didn’t murder Lucas.” His expression became sad. “I think we can all agree that they’re probably in the Upside Down. I hope I’m wrong, of course. Maybe you’ll find them tonight, but I think it’s smart to start preparing for what’s next.”

Nancy nodded, trying to stay optimistic. “Yeah, good thinking. Let me know if you need anything else.” She paused, then asked softly, “Hey, are you doing alr–”

She was interrupted by the cabin door flying open again, an envoy of people flooding out. Robin was in the lead, followed by Lucas and Erica, with Steve and Jonathan bringing up the rear.

“Hey, Henderson, do you need a ride?” asked Steve. “I’m already taking the Sinclairs home.”

“Sure!” called Dustin, following Steve toward his car and giving Nancy a thumbs up, which she took as a response to her unfinished question.

“You okay?” asked Jonathan, who had stopped next to her. She nodded weakly in response. “Hey, we’re gonna find them,” he said with conviction, pulling her into a brief hug. Over his shoulder, she glimpsed Hopper and Ms. Byers share a quick kiss, before Hopper marched purposefully toward the door and shepherded Nancy and Jonathan ahead of himself as he made for his truck.

A short time later, Nancy was pulling up behind Hopper’s truck outside her house. Steve’s car pulled up to the curb a few doors down and she heard Steve hollering something at Dustin as he ran toward the Wheeler house, to which Dustin simply waved at him over his shoulder. She entered the house and disappeared into the basement before her parents could notice she was there. She stopped dead at the bottom of the steps, the sight of Will’s drawings on the walls and her brother’s childhood hangout spot bringing her feeling of loss to the surface again. She shook her head to clear it and bustled over to the table near the door. She started digging around under it and soon found what she was looking for. She extracted the shotgun and as much ammunition as she could reasonably carry and straightened up. She figured if Mike had once hidden El down here for a week without her parents noticing, it was as good a place as any to hide a gun she knew they wouldn’t want in the house.

She flinched at the sound of someone thundering down the stairs, but it was only Dustin.

“Holy shit!” he exclaimed when he saw what she was holding.

“Not a word to my parents,” she replied warningly.

He mimed zipping his lips shut and held up his hands placatingly.

She opened the door and propped the gun against the outside of the house, to be retrieved later. She didn’t like her chances of sneaking it out the front door with her parents in the house. “C’mon,” she said to Dustin. “The stuff you wanted is upstairs.”

She led the way upstairs, trying not to listen to the low rumble of Hopper’s voice from the kitchen, and up to the second floor. When she opened her room, she found Jonathan there, rummaging around looking for something. She crossed to a wooden desk and dug to the bottom of one of the drawers, extracting a small notebook and handing it to Dustin. “Sorry if it’s hard to read,” she said. “Good luck.”

“Thanks, and good luck to you, too,” he said, with an uncharacteristically serious look. She followed him back toward the stairs, but stopped as she passed the door on the other side of the hall. She couldn’t stop herself from entering, but felt overwhelmed the instant she crossed the threshold.

The room used to be Mike’s but was now shared by Mike and Will. Their personalities were plastered across the walls. Posters of sci-fi and fantasy movies were hung above Mike’s bed, and more of Will’s art was scattered around the room including a painting she had never noticed before, which featured what she assumed to be D&D characters fighting a three-headed dragon. Will’s side of the room was neat and orderly, an easel set up in the corner by the window. Mike’s side was a mess, with the bed unmade and clothes strewn across the floor. The mess annoyed their mother to no end, and Nancy always found it irritating as well. But now it made her heart ache with sadness. She walked around the room, breathing hard, trying to fight off the hopelessness that had been growing steadily harder to ignore ever since her brother had failed to respond to Hopper’s message on the radio. Tears formed in her eyes before she could stop them.

“Hey, are you ready to–”. Jonathan had poked his head quietly into the room, with his camera on a strap around his neck. Catching sight of Nancy’s face, he swept it off and deposited it on a desk, hurrying across the room to embrace her.

For a few moments, she simply allowed herself to be held as she cried into Jonathan’s chest. Her mind was full of memories of happier times and things she didn’t say. When she pulled back and looked up, he was looking teary as well.

“I know,” he said, when she couldn’t put her feelings into words. “It’s the worst feeling in the world, isn’t it?”

A few more tears spilled out as she replied. “How did you survive it? When Will…”

“I don’t think I would’ve if it wasn’t for you,” he said with a watery smile. “Every day I had to force myself to believe that there was a chance he was alive. I had given up when you came to me with that photo…”

They lapsed into silence, both leaning on the other for support. Nancy noticed that Jonathan’s gaze was fixed somewhere behind her. She turned and saw that he was looking at the painting. There was a fondness in his expression that she found odd.

When he noticed that she was looking up at him inquisitively, he explained. “Will painted that for Mike when we were in California. He gave it to him over Spring Break when we were in that stupid pizza van,” he allowed himself to chuckle and Nancy smiled briefly as well. “It… it meant a lot to him. I’m glad to see that they hung it up.” Nancy could tell that there was something Jonathan wasn’t telling her. She could see that the painting meant a lot to him as well as Will, more than he was letting on. But if he wasn’t telling her, there was probably a good reason for it, so she decided not to pry. Instead, she voiced something that was bothering her.

“Spring Break…” She gave a hollow laugh. “It’s been here since Spring Break and I never noticed. I don’t think I’ve even been in here since then.” She felt her tears welling up again. “He never told me anything about it.” She hoped the confession would make her feel better. Instead, it was stirring up all her emotions, bringing them to the surface. “I– I never asked.”

“Hey…” said Jonathan soothingly. “It’s okay.”

“No it’s not!” she whimpered. “I hardly ever talked to him. I just bossed him around and– and yelled at him.” He pulled her into another hug. “I’m such a shitty sister.”

“No, you’re not, Nance.”

“Yes I am! I was never there for him, not like you were for Will, and now he’s…” She couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Nancy, look at me,” Jonathan said, and Nancy obeyed. “You’re there for him when it counts, okay. You can’t be so hard on yourself. I was a pretty shitty brother this last year and Will noticed. But when shit hit the fan over Spring Break, I helped him and now we’re closer than ever.”

Nancy still felt terrible. Maybe it was because she was comparing herself to Jonathan, who was about the best older sibling anyone could have.

“They’re alive, Nancy,” he said firmly. “I can just feel it. So we need to be there for them right now. Because they need us.”

Nancy nodded. Jonathan was right. Mike needed her now more than ever, and she would never get to make things right between the two of them if she didn’t get to work.

The creak of the door made both Nancy and Jonathan look up. Holly entered the room looking confused. Nancy quickly dried her eyes.

“Where’s Will?” she asked. Nancy laughed shakily. Of course Holly, who didn’t know the danger her brother was in, would be asking for Will first. Will had won her affection from the moment he had started living with them, and he hadn’t done anything to earn it except being himself. It made sense that Holly, who was used to the emotional detachment of her father, the overbearing nature of her mother, and the abrasive and impatient attitude of Mike, would take to someone like Will so quickly.

Nancy hesitated, wondering how to respond. She could lie and tell Holly that he and Mike were sleeping over at Dustin’s house and hope that they could find the boys soon. But she knew any lie would unravel quickly. She therefore decided on the truth, or at least some of it.

“Will isn’t here Holly,” Nancy said, striding forward to kneel in front of her sister. “Neither is Mike. They, um…” she struggled to find the right words. “They got lost.”

Holly just looked more confused. She didn’t seem to understand how big kids could get lost.

“But we’re going to go look for them, okay? So I don’t want you to worry about them.” Holly nodded. Nancy didn’t want to promise her anything. Such a promise would hurt too much to break. She gave Holly a quick hug.

Perhaps Holly could sense the emotion in the embrace. “Are they in trouble?” she asked. Nancy hated the real answer to that question.

“They might be. But we’re going to try to help them.”

Holly could probably tell that there was something wrong with Nancy, but she seemed to trust that her older sister knew what to do. “Okay,” she said quietly.

Nancy hated the idea of giving Holly false hope, but she didn’t see another option. She therefore left the house with the intention to deliver on her unsaid promises. After assurances from herself, Jonathan, and Hopper that she would be safe, her parents bade her goodbye and soon she was back on the road.

When they reached the Creel house, the sky was a vivid orange and light was already fading. Steve and Robin were waiting on the playground across the street. Hopper gathered everyone and began giving instructions.

“Alright, we’re going to focus our search on the woods. If they went south, we would’ve expected them to make contact with somebody by now as they would’ve been heading straight into town. So we’ll ignore that way. You two,” he gestured to Steve and Robin, “can head north. That’s a pretty big stretch of woods, so spread out but stay within each others’ line of sight. I’ll check out the woods to the west, all the way to the Starcourt lot,” he said the name as though memories of the mall were still haunting him. “That leaves you two,” he gestured at Nancy and Jonathan, “to head east. Past a few blocks you’ll reach Danford Creek. There’s a lot of open farmland and some woods beyond that.” He opened the back seat of his truck and began taking out supplies. “Every group should take a walkie and check in regularly. Report anything odd, I don’t care how small.” He also brought out enough flashlights for everyone to take one. “If anyone runs into trouble or finds anything big, let everyone know.” He paused, and his expression made it clear that he wasn’t expecting to find anything on this search. “Good luck,” is all he managed.

Nancy just nodded half-heartedly.

“Hey,” said Steve suddenly, and Nancy looked up. He was looking right at her. “We’re gonna find them.” Eventually, she thought. Probably not tonight. But she appreciated the show of confidence. “Both of them,” he added, shifting his gaze to Jonathan, who was looking a little sour but nodded all the same.

Nancy set off at Jonathan’s side, shotgun held as discretely as possible until they reached the farmland. They began calling to Mike and Will alternately. After about 15 minutes of spreading out as much as they dared in the field, Jonathan called out to Nancy. When she reached him, he was kneeling on the ground in the field. He pointed to a set of animal tracks. In a place like this, the tracks could’ve been from just about any animal. Nancy would’ve assumed they were from a coyote if she didn’t know better. The prints had unusually long and lethal looking claws. Nancy was sure that no ordinary canine made these, and neither did any other animal she could think of. She wasn’t exactly an expert tracker, but her instincts told her what the animal was.

“Demodog?” she asked.

“I think so,” said Jonathan as he snapped a photograph. The tracks were leading toward the woods on the far side of the field. Nancy lifted her gun, aiming it straight ahead of her as they began to follow.

The last rays of the setting sun couldn’t effectively illuminate the forest. Soon, they were following the tracks only by the light of the flashlight. They seemed to meander quite a bit, giving the impression that the animal wasn’t in any particular hurry to get where it was going, if it had a destination in mind at all.

Nancy froze like a statue when there was a horribly familiar chirruping noise from a patch of bushes ahead. She had last heard that sound outside the Byers’ old house about two years ago. El had saved them on that occasion, and Nancy became uncomfortably aware of the fact that it would be up to her to defend the two of them, as Jonathan was unarmed unless he could find a way to photograph the dog to death.

The seconds seemed to stretch as they waited in silence. Suddenly, the demodog leapt out of the bushes with terrifying speed. Nancy tried to aim at it, but it was too fast. The sound of her gun made her ears ring and the bullet uselessly hit the forest floor. Before she knew it, Jonathan was toppling over backwards and he hit the ground hard, the demodog on top of his legs. It made to lunge toward his face, but Nancy swung the butt of the gun at the monster. It was sent flying through the air and crashed into some bushes. Jonathan was already scrambling to his feet, thanking her, and Nancy was busy reloading the gun. She stepped in front of him as the demodog charged again, ignoring his protests. As the beast charged, it opened its mouth. Five fleshy petals spread outward, revealing an uncountable number of tiny teeth. Nancy took aim and fired. The bullet went straight into the throat of the monster, which skidded across the ground as blood splattered around it.

Nancy stood panting for a moment, floored by what had just happened. As Jonathan took a photo of the slain creature, she was already beginning to put some pieces together. She both loved and hated her conclusion. She suddenly became aware of the static of the radio.

“This is Robin, does anyone copy?”

Jonathan quickly unclipped the walkie from his belt and pushed the button. “This is Jonathan, I copy, over”

“Okay, I’m hoping those gunshots weren’t from Nancy, but if they were please tell me nobody got hurt,” she rambled.

“That was Nancy, but we’re both fine,” he paused and looked at Nancy. The look she gave him prompted him to continue. “We’ve got something to report, though, over,”

By the time they had all reconvened at the Creel house, Nancy’s mind was racing.

“It was a demodog,” she reported, before anyone else could say anything. “A live one.”

It took a few seconds for the implications of these words to sink in. “That shouldn’t be possible,” said Hopper. “El closed the gates.”

“Yeah, Henderson said any Upside Down monster should’ve died,” said Steve

“Well, it was definitely not dead,” said Jonathan. “Seeing as it almost killed me.”

“I’m fine,” he added in response to Hopper’s alarmed expression. Nancy had a feeling the details of the encounter wouldn’t be mentioned to Ms. Byers.

“Ok, let’s back up,” groaned Hopper in exasperation. “What exactly happened?” Nancy told the story, from finding the tracks to killing the demodog. By the end, everyone’s expressions were a combination of horrified and confused.

“You see what that means?” asked Nancy, torn between excitement and dread. “It means there’s a gate open somewhere.”

Hopper’s face went through a variety of expressions in a matter of seconds: dawning comprehension, hope, fear, frustration, then general annoyance. “Of course,” he said in a dejected tone.

Nancy wasn’t deterred. “I know it sucks, but it means there’s a way for Mike and Will to get back. We just have to somehow get them there and then we can have El close it.”

“Easy peasy,” Robin said in an anxiety-ridden tone.

“Wait, so we’re definitely sure they’re in the Upside Down then?” asked Steve.

“Obviously,” replied Jonathan shortly. “If they were still in Hawkins they would’ve made contact by now. I’m positive.”

“You’re probably right, but I’d feel better if we had some hard evidence,” said Hopper. “You said you followed tracks?” Nancy nodded. “And there were no human footprints? Nothing to suggest they were being chased?”

“No,” Jonathan answered. “And the footprints were winding around a lot, so I don’t think it was chasing anything.”

“Could those footprints have been made after it attacked them?” asked Robin, grimacing at the bluntness of her own question.

“There would probably be evidence of a struggle closer to the house,” said Jonathan, clearly starting to get annoyed. He looked at Hopper. “Look, you can keep searching if you want, but I just know they’re in the Upside Down, and the longer we spend looking up here, the higher the chances that they won’t make it.”

Hopper thought for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, I get it. Let’s head back. A few of us can keep searching the area if we want, but we shouldn’t split up too much now that we know what kind of danger might be out there. Tomorrow we’ll start working on finding that gate.” He said the last sentence with the tone of a man facing his final meal.

That night, Nancy couldn’t sleep. She knew there was very little she could be doing. She was now more certain than ever that her brother was in the Upside Down. She had to fight back tears as she imagined him potentially fighting for his life, even now. The only way to reach him would be through the new gate, which she could find easily enough. But an expedition into the Upside Down would need to be well planned. They would need to have all hands on deck. They would need to gather supplies and prepare for every scenario. Not to mention the fact that they had no idea where in the Upside Down the boys were, if they were even still…

No, she told herself. Don’t think that! They’re alive. They have to be. Otherwise I failed him.

She must have fallen asleep eventually, because she woke to an empty room full of weak morning sunlight. As she was still waking up, Jonathan entered the room. He was fully dressed and clutching something in his hands.

“Morning,” he greeted. “Did you sleep much?”

Her facial expression was her answer.

“Yeah, me neither,” he said. “I was just getting these developed.” He showed her the photographs of the demodog tracks and the dead creature itself. She looked at him with a puzzled expression, wondering why he was showing her these.

“I know you want to tell your parents the truth. Hopper won’t like it, but I think you’re right.” Nancy thought back to the week Will was missing. That week was full of lies: a fake body in the quarry, a fake funeral, and a staged suicide. If someone could have told Ms. Byers on that first day what was really going on, it would have saved a great deal of time and heartbreak. “I knew they wouldn’t believe you, so I made sure to get some evidence.”

Nancy’s face broke into a weak but genuine smile. “Thank you,” she said feebly as she hugged Jonathan.

Soon, the two of them headed downstairs. They glimpsed Holly playing in the living room. She looked a little glum, as though the absence of the boys was affecting her more severely now that a full night had passed. Her mother was standing at the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee and a strained expression. A glance out the window told Nancy that her father was not home. It was probably best this way. She had an instant of hesitation in which she weighed her options. She decided to go with her gut. Hopper would be furious, but she didn’t care.

“Hey mom,” she greeted.

Karen jumped slightly and looked around, trying her best to hide her worried expression. “Oh, hey sweetheart. How are you holding up?”

Nancy wanted to say “fine” but she couldn’t form the word. She decided to get straight to business. With a glance at Jonathan for reassurance, she plunged onward. “Mom, I have something I need to tell you. It’s– it’s about Mike.” Karen’s face fell slightly, and Nancy felt terrible, but knew this was the right thing to do. “You might want to sit down.”

Chapter Text

The room was dark, like everywhere else. The usual spores drifted through the air and the silence pressed on Mike’s eardrums as though he was wearing earmuffs. He looked around, trying to remember why he was here, or even where he was.

Below his feet was a once-lovely carpet, now covered in grime and decay. Around him stood bookshelves covered in twisted vines. He must be in the library. But how had he gotten here? And where was Will?

As if in response to his thoughts, a frantic scream echoed around the building. Mike took off at once, hurtling down a hallway into a different part of the library.

“MIKE!” The scream was that of a child, and not just any child. Mike would know that voice anywhere. It was Will. But shouldn’t his voice be deeper? It doesn’t matter, Mike told himself. Will’s in trouble. I need to get to Will!

“MIKE! HELP!”

Mike flew through a doorway into the center of the library. The vines on the walls were thicker here than in the rest of the building. They covered every inch of the walls, and in their midst was a boy wearing a very familiar orange vest.

“Mike!” Will called in desperation. He was pale and shaking with fear, but he was alive. “Mike! He got me! Why’d you let him get me?!”

Mike’s heart sank. Why had he let Will get taken? How had it even happened? He should’ve been there for Will.

“Mike, it’s coming!” said Will in a suddenly hushed voice. Mike took a step forward, meaning to disentangle the young Will from the vines, but a sound behind him made him whirl around. There were heavy footsteps in the hallway, accompanied by low, breathy, sounds that could only belong to one creature. Mike prepared himself for a fight. Any second the creature would enter the room. As the seconds dragged by, Mike glanced over his shoulder at Will, thinking of trying to comfort him. What he saw made him do a double take. Will had changed. He was no longer the small boy who had left Mike’s house one night in 1983. He was now older and wearing different clothes: the same clothes he had been wearing when he had fallen back into the Upside Down. Mike barely registered these details, however. He was distracted by the fact that Will was deathly pale. His eyes were closed. He was covered in slime and decay, and there was a long black vine protruding from his mouth.

“Will!” Mike cried in a strangled voice. He rushed to his best friend, all thoughts of an approaching monster forgotten. He gripped his shoulders and shook him slightly. He did not stir. He moved his hands to his cheeks, which were ice cold.

“Will! Wake up! Please, you have to wake up!”

But Mike knew he would not wake. He was dead. He was gone, and it was Mike’s fault. How had he even gotten here? When had he been taken? Why had Mike ever let him out of his sight? These questions were muffled by the terrible grief flooding his body, making him feel like he was drowning. His head was spinning and the ground seemed to fall away beneath him.

Mike jerked awake, and instantly let out a series of coughs as toxic air filled his lungs. He kicked and flailed for a few seconds before remembering where he was. He was in the Upside Down, in a tiny room at the back of the abandoned Brimborn Steel Works. He felt around him in the dark and managed to locate his flashlight. He clicked it on and shined it around the room. His blood ran cold. Will was not there. He noticed that the door was ajar. He scrambled to his feet, and marched outside. He felt like he had fallen into another nightmare.

“Will!” Mike hissed as loudly as he dared, his voice echoing around the dark space. He swept his beam of light around until it fell upon a figure in front of the filthy windows on the other side of the warehouse.

“Will!” Mike called and started marching toward his friend, torn between relief and frustration. Will didn’t move. “Hey! Will!” He jumped slightly and finally looked around at Mike.

Will took a few slow steps toward Mike, who barrelled into him and crushed him in a hug before he even thought about what he was doing, the flashlight falling from his hand and hitting the floor with a clunk. The image of the dead Will in the library was still haunting him.

After a few too many seconds, Mike realized he was clutching at the back of Will’s sweater with one hand while the other was shaking slightly on the back of Will’s neck. He pulled out of the hug and gripped Will’s shoulders tightly, bending down to look him directly in the eye.

“What the hell, Will?!” He hated yelling at Will, but he also hated having the shit scared out of him immediately after waking up. “What were you doing, wandering around by yourself?!”

“I– I was—,” stammered Will, clearly overwhelmed by Mike’s anger. “I was just taking a look around, trying to figure out–”

Mike was about to interrupt and call bullshit when there was a sudden shriek from outside. It was louder than a demodog and from the sudden tension in Will’s shoulders, which Mike was still clutching, there was only one creature it could be. Even in the dark, Mike could tell that Will’s eyes were wide with fear and he was starting to tremble slightly. Mike stooped to retrieve his flashlight and brought Will back to his surroundings by dragging him along as quietly as possible toward the room they had slept in. They slipped inside and Mike retrieved his machete and Will his flashlight, which Mike only just realized Will hadn’t taken with him while presumably exploring. He would’ve dwelled on that fact if they weren’t in such a dangerous situation. They hurried back out of the room and just managed to crouch down behind some old rusted machinery in the far corner of the warehouse when a large shadow moved in front of the doorway.

Mike had not seen a demogorgon in person since El had killed the one in Hawkins Middle School. He had forgotten how tall nine feet really was. In the gloom he couldn’t make out any features, but in his mind he could see the horrible grey skin and lanky arms. The demogorgon padded into the room and in the silence its footsteps were deafening. Mike could just see the outline of the fleshy flaps that made up its mouth, which fluttered slightly as it made a truly awful noise. It was a low chirruping sound that made the hairs on the back of Mike’s neck stand on end. He knew the sensation was about a hundred times worse for Will, who was shaking like a leaf next to him. Acting on instinct, Mike reached out and took Will’s hand in his and was relieved when Will returned the pressure.

He gave Will a look that said several things at once: it’s going to be okay, and trust me, and stay close to me . He wasn’t sure if the messages would get through in the dark, but at least one must have, because Will nodded even as Mike could see the glistening of tears in his eyes. As the demogorgon slowly made its way across the warehouse, Mike shifted as quietly as possible, leading Will with him, so as to always stay out of sight behind the machinery. He heard the ominous creak of the door being nudged open, and under the cover of the noise, he lifted himself off the ground and ran behind a support pillar, staying crouched and dragging Will behind him.

From here, he could see the monster disappearing into the dark room, and knew that they likely had only seconds to escape undetected. With another look at Will, which received a nod in return, Mike led the way to the exit and soon they were back out in the open, fleeing as quietly as possible. Once they had put about 100 yards between themselves and Brimborn, they stopped crouching and broke into a full sprint.

Only when they finally came to a stop a few minutes later did Mike realize they were still holding hands. It was another few seconds before Mike registered that Will’s hand was trembling in his. All of his lingering frustration with Will evaporated on the spot, replaced with sympathy. How had Will survived a week on the run from that monster at the age of twelve? Mike knew Will was tough, but only now did he fully comprehend what he had gone through.

“Are you okay?” he asked as gently as he could.

Will was breathing heavily and Mike decided not to let go of his hand just yet, applying steady pressure in an effort to calm him. Finally, Will straightened up. “Yeah… yeah, I’m okay.” Even his voice was shaking. “That was way too close.”

“It was probably my fault for yelling so loud,” said Mike. He had gotten a little frustrated and all his survival instincts had gone out the window. Some protector he was.

“Well, it was my fault you were yelling in the first place, so… sorry,” Will responded weakly.

Mike had to agree that it was Will’s fault he was yelling, but he didn’t want to make Will feel too bad. “You scared the shit out of me,” he admitted. “I woke up and you were gone.” He hoped he was conveying just how scared he had been.

Will nodded in acknowledgement of his mistake and made to respond, but he swayed slightly, causing Mike to let go of his hand and grip his upper arm instead. “Woah, dude,” he fretted. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I– I’m just tired I guess.”

“You’re probably dehydrated,” Mike guessed, realizing just how thirsty he was himself. “And hungry.” After a moment, he realized the problem they were facing. “Nancy said Lover’s Lake was empty on this side,” he began slowly. “Is there any natural water here?”

“I don’t think so.”

“How did you get water, you know… last time?” asked Mike awkwardly.

“I can’t really remember,” answered Will uncomfortably. Mike found this strange for a second before his mind caught up. Will had probably gone through a lot of effort to forget as much as possible about that week. Mike would’ve done the same thing. Forgetting details of that week might even have been a trauma response. Thinking about this made Mike’s heart break for his friend once again.

“It’s okay,” he assured Will. “We’ll figure it out.”

They set off down the road together in silence, both reeling from their narrow escape. After a little while, the wall of trees on the right side of the road gave way to a large open field. It took Mike a moment to realize where they must be.

“Woah,” he said quietly. “I think this is Starcourt.”

Will looked at Mike briefly, then back to the empty field. “I think you’re right.”

“I guess the Upside Down really is stuck in 1983. Starcourt hasn’t been built yet.” This fact about the Upside Down had puzzled Mike ever since Nancy had mentioned it to the group. He was sure Nancy, and probably Dustin, had some theories about why this might be and what it might say about the origins of the Upside Down. Mike hadn’t given it a great deal of thought. Survival in the apocalypse had taken up a large portion of his brain capacity, as had other, more personal matters. The most he had concluded was that something important had happened here either when the Mother gate was opened or when Will was taken. “Well, if I’m right, then Loch Nora is just past those trees.” He pointed to the tree line on the far side of the lot. “That might be a good place to gather resources.”

Will agreed and the two of them set off across the field. Mike couldn’t decide if he was relieved or terrified as they regained the shelter of the trees on the other side. On one hand, visibility dropped substantially in the woods, but on the other hand it would be harder for any monsters to see them. Overall, Mike had come to the conclusion that the Upside Down was designed to make a person as miserable as possible. He hadn’t even spent a full day here yet and he was already feeling a shortness of breath due to exposure to the air. He thought he had experienced an approximation of the Upside Down in the tunnels two years ago, but that had been almost pleasant in comparison to this place. The cold stung his exposed skin and made every muscle in his body ache. Every movement here came with an instinctual fear of attack. But he never let himself complain as he walked through the trees. He had to be strong for Will, who after all, had experienced far more of this place than Mike had.

After a while, Mike and Will reached the edge of the woods and peered out into an expansive backyard. They hurried across the lawn and onto a large patio area. Mike looked at the empty in-ground pool and shivered, thinking of Barbara Holland. They reached the sliding glass door and Mike wrenched it open and swept Will inside ahead of himself.

Mike closed the door as quietly as he could and turned around to see Will already scurrying up the stairs. Panic flared inside him. Don’t let him out of your sight, said an anxious voice in his mind. Don’t let him get taken.

“Wiilll!” Mike groaned almost inaudibly, following quietly behind his friend, grateful for the carpet muffling his footsteps.

When he reached the second floor, Will was already creeping down the hall. When he made to open a door, Mike caught up to him, grabbing his wrist.

“Woah, Will, slow down,” he whispered. “There could be something in there.”

“I doubt it,” answered Will. “The door was closed.”

“Okay, well at least wait for me before you go poking around.”

“Sorry, I just wanted to make sure nothing was in here before we trapped ourselves inside.”

When Mike continued to look anxious, Will softened. “Look, I'm sorry for scaring you earlier, but I can handle things myself. I survived this place once, remember?”

Mike grudgingly nodded. “How could I forget?” But his anxiety didn't disappear. Perhaps it was his nightmare getting to him or the fact that he was new to the Upside Down, but he couldn't shake the feeling that every movement and sound could bring calamity.

Will sighed in exasperation. “You told me I wasn't a coward,” he said. “That wasn't a lie, was it?”

“No, of course not,” answered Mike honestly.

“Okay, so can you just trust me a little?” Will was looking uncharacteristically stubborn. Mike started to connect this behavior with Will’s suspicious activity this morning and his questions after their escape last night (if it was last night; time was difficult in the Upside Down). A worry began to form in his mind, but he didn't want to ask Will about it if he wasn't ready to discuss it.

“Alright,” he replied, trying to sound calm. “Sorry, I guess I'm just on edge.” Will gave him a small smile that lifted his spirits in spite of himself.

“Trust me, I get it.”

“Still, maybe you shouldn't go charging ahead like that without a weapon at least,” Mike argued tentatively. “I bet at least one of the rich assholes on this street has some guns lying around. We just have to find them.” Mike had been shocked to learn that Will could not only fire a gun, but was a really good shot. Maybe it came as such a surprise because Will was one of the calmest and most laid back people he knew. Mike by no means disliked this development. On the contrary, he always loved watching Will practice, purely out of admiration of his friend's skills of course.

However, Will shook his head. “I don't think a gun is a good idea,” he said sadly, and Mike could've sworn there was an amused look in Will’s eyes as his face fell slightly. “It'll make too much noise and we'll have to keep looking for bullets. I had a gun last time I was here and it didn't last very long.”

“Woah, you brought a gun here when you were twelve?” Mike interjected.

“Yeah, I tried to shoot the demogorgon when it was after me,” Will replied casually.

“Oh…” Mike said faintly. “Cool.”

The image of young Will fighting a demogorgon with a gun formed in Mike's mind. That's kind of awesome, he thought. Actually, that's really awesome. He gave himself a mental shake.

“Okay, so what did you have in mind?” Mike asked.

“I'm not sure, but I'll find something.” Will suddenly looked exhausted. “Can we figure that out after we find food, though? I'm starving.”

Together, they searched the house and found that it was empty. Finally, they made their way to the kitchen and started looking around. The large pantry was musty and smelled of rot like everything else. As Mike expected, the only things fit to eat here were canned goods. Without the ability to start a fire, their selection became even more limited. He managed to find a small stash of canned fruit and both he and Will took a can of pear slices. Will insisted that they needed protein of some kind, so Mike, grinning broadly, offered a jar of peanut butter. Will rolled his eyes but accepted only because of the lack of any other reasonable options. And finally, Mike almost cheered in relief when he discovered a jug of water in the refrigerator.

He offered the water to Will first, who greedily gulped some down before passing the rest to Mike. They then found a can opener and began eating their canned fruit with their fingers, not trusting any of the grimy silverware. As they ate in silence, Mike felt himself start to relax slightly for the first time since entering the Upside Down. Sure, the air felt like sandpaper against the inside of his throat, his fingers were numb with cold, and part of him was waiting for a demogorgon to crash through the filthy window, but there was no immediate threat. He was sitting at a kitchen table with Will, eating three year old canned fruit, which he expected only stayed safe to eat due to the cold, and it was easy at the moment to forget the fact that they would likely die within a week. He made eye contact with Will across the table as his friend fished out a pear slice with his fingers, and smiled in amusement. He continued watching Will fondly after Will had looked away, realizing just how much he meant what he said yesterday. If the last few days of his life would be spent with Will, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, better by far than trying to carry on without Will in the world above.

But as they continued to eat, Mike’s mind wandered. He thought about Will’s unusual wanderings earlier, his questions about his cowardice, and the words Henry said to him when he was captured.

If you were so happy, why were you so willing to accept your fate in this place? You just rolled over and admitted defeat. Why did you hide from your friends and lie to them? Why did you lie to him ?

He wondered what lie Henry had been referring to. Part of him thought he knew. He had been suspicious for a while about the origin of the painting that now hung in his and Will’s bedroom in Hawkins. El had mentioned in her letter that she had never seen it, and Mike couldn’t understand why she would commission a D&D-themed painting that she didn’t appear in. Mike remembered hoping that the painting would be for him, and he was thrilled when he unrolled it and thought that it was a gift from Will. In fact, now that he was no longer in a relationship with El, he preferred the idea of it being Will’s original work. It would have more sentimental value to him if that were the case. Thinking about the implications of this, particularly of the words Will had spoken in the back of that pizza van, gave Mike a warm feeling of contentment. He had spent his months in the apocalypse trying not to dwell on this idea and focusing his mind on more important matters, but now Henry had brought the idea to the forefront of his imagination again. He wasn’t afraid of the idea. In fact, the idea made him feel giddy with happiness. That feeling was what scared him. What scared him even more was the prospect of bringing his suspicions up with Will. Mike had already broken their friendship once, and now it was back to how it had always been and he was terrified of breaking it again.

His own fantasies aside, one thing was clear: Henry had been inside Will’s mind. Mike had injured Henry severely on their way out, but he was certain the monster of a man was still alive. And Will had slipped out of their sleeping quarters this morning and wandered the warehouse in the dark. They needed to be able to protect themselves from Henry’s influence, and Mike knew there was only one way to do that.

His thoughts were interrupted by something nudging at his elbow. Mike looked around to see Will offering him the opened jar of peanut butter, a playful smile on his face. Mike grinned cheekily and scooped out a glob with two fingers, and Will did the same.

After eating enough to feel somewhat energized, Mike and Will prepared to move on. Mike found two nice backpacks upstairs, one clearly meant for a much younger child than the other, which Mike and Will played rock paper scissors over (Will had to wear it), and they began filling them with supplies. They scavenged the kitchen for every morsel of food they could find. They took cans of beans and other veggies, packages of peanuts, and granola bars. It wasn’t much but this was only one house of many. Around the rest of the house, they hunted down lighters and matches, batteries for their flashlights, and managed to find a pocket knife in a desk drawer. 

They made their way up to one of the bedrooms and began to peruse the closet in the hope of finding something warm to wear. The room seemed to belong to a high school aged boy, so the clothes fit them reasonably well. Mike found a fluffy blue sweater, which he swapped with his shirt, feeling very self conscious as he changed. Will was already wearing a sweater, but he managed to locate a cozy-looking jacket that fit him nicely. In a closet downstairs, they searched for any more clothing that might shield them against the chill of the Upside Down. Will dug out a scarf that made him look extremely cuddly. Woah, let’s shut that train of thought down, Mike told himself, trying to tear his eyes away from his friend. Mike found two sets of gloves, one of which he happily put on his freezing hands, as well as a nice coat with a fuzzy white collar which he put on over his sweater.

With a quick look outside, Mike led the way around the side of the house and the two of them made their way down the street. The next few houses were locked and Mike didn’t want to make too much noise by attempting to break in. After looting the kitchens of a couple more homes, morale was starting to rise. Soon, they came to a third house which they entered quietly.

As Mike was searching through the pantry, he heard a sudden crash behind him. He whirled around to see what the disturbance was and felt his stomach drop. Will was lying face down on the kitchen floor. Mike hurried over to him and was about to place a hand under his arm to help him up when he saw the blood. There was a dark pool around Will’s head. It was too much blood. Worse, when Mike reached out a shaking hand, he saw that his own fingers were stained red.

“Will!” he cried out in a wobbly voice, even as his mind began to realize what was happening. The rational part of his brain was telling him that there shouldn’t be any blood on his hands as he hadn’t touched Will, but the magnitude of what he was seeing drove any logical thought out of his mind. Mike stood up and staggered backward, trying in vain to scrub the sticky red liquid from his hands. He glanced back at Will to see him still lying there, then back at his hands which were suddenly clean. He looked around to find that he was back in the pantry, his mind reeling.

He dashed back into the kitchen to make sure Will was alright and didn’t see him there. He suddenly heard a thumping noise coming from somewhere else in the house. He hurried down the hall and through an open door, finding himself in a large garage. Will looked up as he entered and seemed surprised.

“Will…” Mike breathed weakly. “You’re alright.”

Even in his desperation, Mike registered the irritation on Will’s face. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” he asked flatly.

“I–” Mike was struggling to return to reality. “Sorry, I didn’t know where you went.”

Will didn’t roll his eyes, but Mike suspected it was a close call. His tone when he spoke was strained with suppressed frustration. “Mike, I told you I was going to check out the garage.”

“Oh…” Mike responded, feeling wrong-footed. “I must not have heard you.” His heart was racing as he started to fully comprehend what was going on.

“Mike,” Will groaned. “You said you would trust me. You can’t freak out like this, you–” he stopped talking abruptly and looked at Mike’s face with more scrutiny. “Did something happen?”

Mike considered trying to make something up, but that would mean lying to Will. And he had just been fretting over the idea of Will lying to him. Besides, Will had made it clear that he didn’t want to be treated like he was fragile and this was important information.

“I… uh…” Will’s irritation seemed to drain out of him and he stood up from where he was kneeling on the floor and approached Mike. “I think Henry might be messing with me.”

He hated the fear on Will’s face, but knew he deserved the truth. “What do you mean? What happened?”

“I had a– a vision just now. I saw…” Mike shook his head. Will didn’t need the details. “Anyway, I had a nightmare this morning as well, and I’m starting to think he might have been behind it.”

Will’s gaze was full of sympathy. “Is that why you’ve been acting so weird today? I thought it was just because we’re in… you know… the Upside Down.” Mike nodded earnestly. “What did he make you…”

Will’s question died as he caught the look on Mike’s face. Mike was trying to stay strong for Will’s sake, but he felt his composure crumbling. He looked down at the floor to try to hide his face as the enormity of what he had seen pressed on his heart.

“Hey,” Will said softly, and Mike felt his hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Mike nodded in thanks and cleared his throat in an attempt to control his emotions.

“We need to find some music,” he suggested. “We could keep looking around here for the right songs, but it would probably be easier to head downtown. We can look through the music store.”

“Yeah, sure,” Will agreed. “And you make sure you tell me if you see anything else like that, okay? Or if you get any headaches or a bloody nose or anything.” His anxious expression was startlingly like his mother's.

“Of course,” said Mike, feeling calmer now that he had shared his burden. “And you can tell me if you experience anything, alright?” He tried to put as much sincerity into the words as possible, hoping Will would offer an explanation for his behavior this morning. But no such thing happened.

Will simply nodded. “Yeah, of course.” Mike thought there was a slight strain in his voice, betraying the fact that Will was hiding something. He couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

After looting the rest of the pantry, Mike returned to the garage and this time he registered what Will was doing. He had found a wooden baseball bat and he was on the floor with it, an open toolbox next to him.

“You're making a nail bat?” Mike asked as he sat beside Will.

“Yeah,” answered Will, not looking up. “I realized all the supplies were here and thought it would be a decent weapon.”

Mike nodded. “You aren't worried about looking like Steve Harrington?” he asked jokingly.

“Who's gonna see us?” answered Will, gesturing around him. “Besides, I'm pretty sure Jonathan made the nail bat in the first place. Steve just ended up using it.” Will's shoulders seemed to sag at the mention of his brother.

Mike looked at him sadly for a minute, bittersweet thoughts reeling in his own head. “I miss them, too. Everyone,” he said sadly.

“I bet my mom is losing her mind right now,” Will murmured. The memory of Ms. Byers' frantic behavior the week Will had gone missing floated across Mike's mind. It shattered his heart into pieces.

“I bet Lucas and Dustin are looking for us,” Mike said, trying to sound hopeful, but unsaid words rang between them. They won't be able to find us.

The sad thought was interrupted by a sudden noise from the other side of the garage door. Will let out a quiet gasp and scurried into the corner of the garage with his new nail bat, Mike following him. The outline of the demogorgon's head appeared in the grimy garage window just as Mike crouched down.

The monster slowly walked along the outside of the garage, making huffing noises like a grizzly bear, as though it could sense that something was inside. Mike barely breathed, keeping his eyes on Will's until the danger finally passed.

Mike made to whisper some words of comfort when there was another distant noise from somewhere on the street. Then more noises. Instead of words of encouragement, all Mike could offer was a look that said, what the hell is going on?

Will led the way back into the house, and he stopped at the front door, peering out the small window. “Oh my god,” he said in a voice choked with fear. Mike felt the same way as he watched.

The street was full of monsters. There were packs of demodogs prowling the street like coyotes, numbering at least a few dozen. Clouds of demobats swooped overhead, their eerie cries cutting through the gloom. Worst of all were the dozen or so demogorgons that dotted the pack. It was a horrible sight. There was no hope of fighting or even escaping from a horde of monsters so large.

But before Mike could try to come up with any elaborate escape plans, the pack had passed the house and was disappearing down the street.

“What the hell?” It was all Mike could manage.

“I know,” Will panted. “I've never seen that many at once.”

After a moment of thought, Mike came to a conclusion. “They weren't here because of us. Otherwise they would've all come to the house. They were just passing through.”

“They were being called,” said Will, finishing the thought. Mike knew from his expression that he was remembering when he himself had summoned a pack of demodogs into Hawkins Lab, leading to Bob's death.

Wanting to distract from that memory, Mike chose to rally his friend. “If we're going to go downtown, we should hurry before another pack comes through.” Will nodded.

They ended up finding a single bike in the garage, which they wheeled out onto the driveway. Mike took the wheel and Will squeezed on behind him. Mike tried very hard not to focus on Will’s grip on his shoulders or the warm weight of him at his back. As Mike rode out of the neighborhood, he felt Will twist in his seat behind him.

“Everything okay?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, just–” Will seemed to hesitate before elaborating. “Remember two Halloweens ago?”

How could Mike forget? That was the night he told Will they would go crazy together. It was a moment of connection that he remembered to this day, a promise he felt he was fulfilling just by being here with Will in the Upside Down. Then he remembered why they had been together in Mike's basement in the first place.

“That's where it happened,” Mike realized. “That's where you had your episode and– and saw… him.”

Mike looked up at the sky, imagining a monstrous living shadow filling the whole space, actively seeking his friend. The idea sent shivers down his spine and once again reminded him of how tough Will was to have survived the experience.

“Yeah,” Will confirmed, and Mike felt him shudder. Mike was suddenly hit with a horrible realization. The Mind Flayer was down here somewhere. If it made an appearance, what could Mike possibly do?

Will seemed to know what he was thinking. “Hey, if he shows up again, it'll be okay.”

“Are you sure?” asked Mike skeptically.

“Well,” Will sounded sheepish. “You saved me last time, didn't you?”

Mike blushed. Despite making it crystal clear that he didn't want to be babied, Will was still putting his faith in Mike to save him if it came down to it. The show of trust meant more to him than he could say. Not only that, but Will had reminded Mike of that night in his old shed, when he had poured his heart out and saved his friend's life.

Friend, he thought. The word felt inadequate, especially for how he had felt in that moment. Even “best friend” didn't really cut it. Will was a part of him, a part he couldn't live without. It was why he was down here.

“Yeah, I guess I did.” It was all Mike could manage before he heard the shrieks. Mike put on a burst of speed as a pack of demodogs flooded out from a subdivision. He was staying ahead of them, but not by much. The cries of demobats soon joined in from above.

“Hold on!” Mike yelled, not even having time to dwell on the way Will's arms snaked beneath his and wrapped fully around him. He knew they would never survive if they entered downtown on the main road, so he made a sharp turn onto a side street, cut through a park, and skidded to a stop in a narrow alley.

Will hopped off and Mike followed him. Will rammed his shoulder into the back door of a store. It took several tries, but it began to budge. Mike joined in as best he could with his injuries and it swung open, just as the distant cry of a demogorgon was added to the sound of the monsters.

They scrambled inside, closed the door and worked together to tip a metal shelving unit over to block the exit. The boys slumped against the wall opposite the door, panting and coughing as quietly as they could, as the sound of the monsters got closer outside.

Suddenly, Will sat bolt upright. “Dustin?”

Mike was about to ask if he had hit his head when Will got to his feet and walked through a doorway into the main store.

“Will, what are you–”

As Mike joined Will in the main store, which he realized was RadioShack, he stopped. He really could hear Dustin.

“Does it really count as stealing if nobody wants it? Look at this place, nobody's coming here to–”

His voice seemed to be echoing around them, and Mike understood. Dustin must be here in Hawkins. And he was stealing something by the sound of it, using earthquake damage as justification. It was such a Dustin thing to do, that Mike's heart ached with the desire to punch through to Hawkins right now and help his friend with whatever convoluted scheme he was working on.

“Dustin!” Will called, a little loudly for Mike's liking. Mike looked at his friend and saw that he wasn't just listening to Dustin, but looking at a set of shelves in the corner of the store, as though he could see him. Suddenly, it hit Mike. True Sight.

Will's gaze followed what must be Dustin's progress from the corner into the middle of the store.

“C'mon, Steve, are you gonna help me carry this or not? You won't care that it's stealing if it helps us get Mike and Will back.”

Mike’s heart swelled with emotion. Dustin was looking for them, and he had dragged Steve along to help. Surely the others were doing the same. There were so many questions he wanted to ask. What was he doing? How would it help them escape? Was Hawkins safe now? Did his family know what had happened to him? Was El okay? He looked around frantically for the glimmer of golden mist around any of the lights, but he couldn’t see any, and before he knew it, Steve’s voice was coming from near the entrance.

“Alright, Henderson, fine. But if we get caught, this was all your…”

The voice faded away, and Will started marching toward the entrance of the store. “Will!” Mike called, hurrying after his friend and grabbing him by the wrist to stop him walking outside. Will jumped and looked at Mike, eyes wide. Mike pulled him behind a shelf and they crouched down.

“Your True Sight is back.” He didn’t bother phrasing it as a question.

Will shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah… it is.” He didn’t sound happy about it, but suddenly everything made sense to Mike.

“That’s what was going on this morning, wasn’t it? You were seeing into Hawkins when you were wandering around.”

Will nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Mike couldn’t quite keep the hurt out of his voice.

“Because I wasn’t sure at first,” Will couldn’t quite meet Mike’s eyes, but Mike looked at him intently anyway. “It was dark, so I couldn’t tell right away, but then…”

“What?” Mike asked in a concerned voice.

“Well… I was a little scared,” he admitted, finally looking at Mike, his eyes showing his fear. “Last time I had True Sight, the Mind Flayer was coming after me. And this time, I’m seeing good stuff during my episodes, but I was still worried something was wrong with–”

“Nothing is wrong with you, Will,” Mike said defiantly, and he believed it without a shadow of a doubt. “We may not understand how this works, but it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you, so don’t you dare think that.”

Will stared for a moment, then nodded.

“So you saw Dustin just now? And Steve?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, Dustin was stealing a bunch of cables and stuff.” He shrugged and Mike snickered. Nobody probably knew what Dustin was up to besides Dustin himself. If it might help Mike and Will, Mike was prepared to trust him, but he was struggling to see how even Dustin could solve their problem. “When they left, Dustin said they needed to stop at the library next, so he must be doing some serious research.”

“Should we try to follow them?” Mike asked the question casually, but Will actually flinched.

“No!” he exclaimed. Then he seemed to realize how visceral his reaction had been and forced himself to calm down. “No, I can’t go to the library here.” At Mike’s concerned look he elaborated. “That’s where… that’s where it lived. Last time. And when it caught me, it… took me there.” Mike hated the haunted look in Will’s eyes. “It’s one of the only things I remember,” he finished in a small voice.

Mike was breathing hard, but trying to hide it for Will’s sake. His dream from this morning suddenly made sense. He had been in the library, even though he hadn’t known the significance of that place. He had seen the young Will Byers trapped there. This confirmed Mike’s suspicions. Henry had caused the nightmare.

“It’s okay. We won’t go near the library.” He offered a hand to Will and he took it, allowing Mike to pull him to his feet. “C’mon. Let’s get to the music store and get the hell out of–” He stopped talking as he got a look out the window. There were shadows moving on the other side of the glass. The boys slipped behind a tall shelf and peered out at the street. It was filling up quickly, and the sound of the monsters, which Mike had momentarily tuned out, was becoming louder. Packs of demodogs were moving down the street, as though patrolling. The cries of the demobats had grown loud and Mike could even hear the sound of hundreds of wings. And as they watched, the nine foot tall shadow of a demogorgon moved in front of the glass. It really was just too tall in Mike’s opinion.

“Oh, shit,” Will muttered. If Will was swearing, Mike knew they were in trouble. Trouble didn’t cut it. They were trapped in RadioShack in the heart of the Upside Down, surrounded by at least a hundred monsters. And worst of all, coming here had been Mike’s idea. He thought back to his vision and could almost feel the blood on his hands. He really was some protector, wasn’t he?

Chapter Text

It took a while to explain everything they knew to Karen Wheeler. By the end, she was in considerable distress, though it was clear she was trying to hold herself together with Holly in the house. Jonathan felt terrible for her, but knew it was the right thing to do. She needed to know the kind of danger her son was in.

Jonathan hated imagining what Mike and Will might be going through at this moment. Ever since the boys had disappeared again, Jonathan had been anxious to do something about it. He had accompanied Nancy on the search party last night for something to do and to keep her company, but he knew deep down that it was pointless. Will and Mike were in the Upside Down and anyone should be able to see it. After discovering the existence of a gate, Hopper had insisted on finding it the next day, which irritated Jonathan. Why wait? How could he sleep peacefully when his little brother was fighting for his life?

After failing to get much sleep, he was now more impatient than ever. Part of him wanted to find a compass and head to the gate right now, but he thought of his mother, who he hadn’t seen since the meeting at the cabin last night. He should at least go check on her. After confirming that Nancy would be alright and promising to return later in the day, he left the Wheelers to themselves. 

When he arrived at Hopper’s cabin, the atmosphere was thick with sorrow. Hopper’s truck was not there. When Jonathan entered, letting the door slam behind him, there was no welcome.

“Mom?” he called as he strided over to El’s room and pushed the door open with a creak. His mother was sitting beside the bed where El was lying. El had been cleaned up since yesterday, the blood wiped from her face, but she still looked pale. Her eyes were closed and her breaths were shallow. Despite El only having been his sister for less than a year, Jonathan still felt protective over her, and his anxiety rose as he took in her condition. The sensation was accompanied by a feeling of guilt. He had been obsessing over Will and Mike and hadn’t even spared a thought for El.

His mother looked, if possible, worse. She was holding one of El’s limp hands, and she hadn’t even looked up when he called out and opened the door. She had dark shadows under her eyes and she was slumped in her chair from exhaustion and despair. The sight increased Jonathan’s desire to do something. He would do anything to take away her pain.

“Mom?” he asked again, and she looked up at him, eyes unfocused.

“Oh… hi sweety,” she greeted, trying and failing to smile at him. She sounded completely defeated and Jonathan hated it. Her tone took him right back to the worst week of both of their lives and he had to fight to keep his face neutral. He pulled up a seat and dropped into it slowly.

“Hey, have you… slept at all?” he asked, knowing the answer.

His mother shook her head. “I couldn’t,” she said very quietly.

Jonathan understood, and knew she didn’t need a lecture from him. “We’re gonna find him, mom.” He tried to sound as convincing as possible, but he wasn’t sure he even believed it himself. “This isn’t like last time, okay? We know what we’re dealing with now.” He wished he hadn’t spoken. While they knew exactly what was going on and where Will was, it brought little comfort. On the contrary, images of what Will might be experiencing had been haunting him all night, and he knew they were worse for his mother, who had actually been to the Upside Down. Jonathan wished he could convince himself that Mike and Will truly were just lost in the woods. It would be so much less distressing than the truth. The desire for action was growing stronger by the minute.

His mother had not responded to his reassurances. “Where’s Hopper?” he asked, hoping for good news.

“He’s looking for the gate,” she said flatly. Jonathan’s spirits rose slightly, but he also felt a little abandoned. It was one thing to forbid Lucas, Dustin, and Erica from helping, but he and Nancy at least deserved to be involved in the search.

“By himself?” he asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice.

“He’s not going through yet,” she assured him, seeming to pick up on his feelings. “He just wants to find it so he can work on a plan.”

Part of him thought, what do you mean “plan”? Let's just go get them. But the more rational part of his brain knew that an excursion into the Upside Down would need to be done properly.

Jonathan was sure his mother wouldn’t like the idea of him going through the gate when one of her children was already on the other side, but he didn’t intend on staying behind while others risked their lives for Will. He felt that sooner or later he would need to argue his point, but he didn’t want to do that now.

A sniffle interrupted his thoughts and after a second, he found himself wrapped around his mother as she began to cry. Jonathan always hated seeing his mother cry. He had witnessed it many times when Lonnie was still around, and he always tried his best to hide the fact that he had noticed, just as he had learned to hide his own tears from his father and from Will. Unfortunately, over the last few years, his mother’s tears had become a common sight. 

“Why does this keep happening?” she asked in a choked voice. “Why Will?”

“I don’t know.” It was all he could offer. He had been wondering the same thing. Will had suffered way too much, even before the Upside Down, with Lonnie as a father. Jonathan had done his best to shield his brother from Lonnie’s wrath, but once that danger had passed, he started falling victim to forces beyond anyone’s control. Every time they thought the Upside Down was in the past, it came back with a vengeance. They had even moved across the country and somehow it had found a way to drag Will back into its clutches.

We have to kill Henry, he thought. He knew it was the only way for Will to truly be safe.

The outpouring of grief was interrupted by the opening of the cabin door and the sound of heavy boots approaching the room. Hopper didn’t seem surprised by Jonathan’s presence or by Joyce’s tears. He simply nodded at Jonathan in greeting.

“Did you find it?” Jonathan asked at once. Hopper nodded.

“I’m sure you can guess where it is,” he said, sounding thoroughly exasperated.

“The lab,” Jonathan answered gloomily.

“Yep,” he said. “The god damn lab.” He seemed furious, and Jonathan felt he was playing with fire when he next spoke.

“So what's the plan?”

Hopper's face became slightly wooden, and Jonathan was sure he was about to be told that he couldn't help, but with a glance at Joyce, Hopper seemed to choose the path of least resistance. “The plan? Get as much firepower as we can and go in and find ‘em.” Jonathan liked the sound of that.

“Okay, how long will that take?” He knew he sounded impatient, but he didn't care. He was impatient.

“Depends how long it takes El to wake up,” Hopper responded with a sad look at his daughter. Jonathan followed his gaze, feeling his heart drop. Nobody knew how long El would be unconscious, or if she would even have powers when she woke up.

“I know you don't like it, but I'm not taking anyone into the Upside Down without El,” Hopper told him, seeming to read his mind.

“But… Will…” He didn't have to finish speaking, and upon seeing his mother's face he once again regretted opening his mouth at all.

“I know…” Hopper said grimly. “We're just going to have to trust that Mike and Will can survive until we're able to get to them.” Jonathan knew that Hopper was right. He knew that to argue would be to undermine what he had said the previous night when he had openly expressed his faith in Mike and Will. It would be pointless to try to change Hopper's mind, and he didn't want to argue with him in front of his mother.

“Okay. I guess you're right.” He was reminded of Dustin the previous night, appeasing Hopper to escape his fury. “So what do we do in the meantime?”

Hopper looked again at El and Jonathan knew that she would be his only real concern until she woke up. “We'll need to see if we can figure out where the boys are,” he said, and Jonathan knew he meant where in the Upside Down, “and we'll need to work on a strategy for how we'll get to them. I'm planning on giving Murray a call. And…” Hopper looked apologetically at both Jonathan and Joyce. “And I may have to contact Owens.”

Jonathan felt his heart sink. After Dr. Owens’ inability to protect Will in the year after the Upside Down and after being placed under house arrest by the doctor's colleagues in California, he had less than fond feelings toward him. He knew Owens was responsible for Hopper gaining custody of El and that he had done his best with the information he was given, but he couldn't bring himself to have much faith in the man.

“I know,” Hopper said consolingly, having correctly interpreted the look on Jonathan's face. “But I won't have a choice if El doesn't wake up soon. We can't just take her to the hospital when the government is after her. And he might be able to lend us some firepower.”

After staying for few hours, Jonathan left the cabin, glad that his mother was no longer alone with the unconscious El, but he was still feeling antsy. The idea of sitting around and waiting while Mike and Will were suffering was so terrible, that he almost considered driving to Hawkins Lab and marching into the Upside Down himself. But he knew it would be a suicide mission.

So instead he returned to the Wheeler house just as he promised. Inside, the house was silent. Ted Wheeler was in his recliner as usual and showed no outward signs of distress. Jonathan assumed that mean Karen had either decided not to tell her husband the truth, or he hadn’t believed her. Either way, the fact that his son was missing seemed to be of little concern to him. Jonathan hurried up the stairs and was heading for Nancy’s bedroom when he noticed that the door to Mike and Will’s room was ajar.

He crept inside and noticed that Nancy was slumped sideways on top of Mike’s comforter, fast asleep. Evidently she had taken to sitting in Mike’s room when exhaustion had finally caught up to her. Jonathan decided to let her sleep and made to head to Will’s side of the room, but after a quick sweep of his bed, his easel, and his other belongings, he couldn’t do it. He sunk into the chair at a desk that he presumed was Mike’s.

Hung on the wall above the desk was the painting. His eyes had been drawn to it the last time he was in this room. Up until now, all his concern had been about Will, but now Mike forced his way into Jonathan’s mind. For nearly ten years, he had nothing but praise for Mike Wheeler. Mike had been by Will’s side through thick and thin, through Lonnie’s worst moments. He had searched for Will just as relentlessly as his mother and Hopper had when he went missing. He had stuck to Will’s side when he was possessed. Meanwhile, Jonathan hadn’t even known anything was wrong, lost in his own endeavors. Jonathan couldn’t think of a better person to be his brother’s best friend.

Then everything had changed. As though a switch had been flipped, Mike had suddenly abandoned Will, and Jonathan saw the toll it took on him. Mike’s distance had hurt Will in a way that Lonnie’s wrath and the cruelty of the Upside Down had not. It was betrayal, and Jonathan would be lying if he said there wasn’t a part of him that came to hate Mike. 

And yet, Will never gave up on him. Perhaps he was returning the favor or perhaps he was just that good of a person, but he had created the painting and bore his heart to Mike. In doing so, he had revealed to Jonathan his most closely guarded secret. What had previously been speculation was suddenly fact. His brother was in love with Mike. All at once, Jonathan had understood the depth of the pain that Lonnie had caused him, the weight he carried everywhere, and the extent of what losing Mike had cost him. Most of all, it showed him the strength of his brother’s character. He still loved Mike despite everything he had done. He still embraced El as a sister despite his obvious jealousy. He still managed to be himself after everything the world had done to beat him down. It was these thoughts that swirled around his head as he sat at Mike’s desk, forcing him to fight back tears. Will was one of the greatest people he had ever known. And Jonathan hoped that wherever he was and whatever he was doing, he still had the strength to keep fighting. And, despite his lingering grudge toward Mike, he hoped he was staying strong as well, and that he would continue to be there for Will, who needed him more than he realized.

The sudden sound of Nancy stirring cut through Jonathan’s thoughts. He looked around to see Nancy sitting up. She spotted him and smiled weakly.

“Hey,” she intoned as she seemed to pull herself together, adjusting herself into a more dignified position.

Jonathan slapped a composed expression over his misery and tried to smile back. “Hey, how are you feeling?” He knew the question was stupid, but Nancy seemed grateful for the show of concern.

“Not great,” she answered. “My mom is still really upset and Holly’s starting to realize something’s wrong and I don’t know what to tell her.” As she swung her feet off the bed with a heavy sigh, she picked up a black binder that seemed to have been lying next to her.

“What’s that?” Jonathan asked before he could stop himself. He scooted the desk chair toward the bed as Nancy made to show him.

“I found it on Mike’s desk,” said Nancy. Then she grimaced. “I know I was snooping and I shouldn’t have done that, but it’s been so long since I’ve been in here and it was just sitting there and…” She trailed off as Jonathan gave her a “do you hear me complaining?” look.

She opened the binder, revealing a childish crayon drawing of a dragon. Jonathan looked at Nancy in slight confusion until she flipped the page. Then the next, and the next. The binder contained dozens, maybe hundreds of drawings that could only be Will’s. Wizards and mythical creatures were sketched across each page, getting gradually higher in quality as they went. Also featured were the same four characters. Jonathan assumed they were D&D characters, recognizing Will the Wise among them. As Nancy reached the later pages in the binder, one subject became particularly prominent. Mike was featured in at least every other drawing as the last pages were turned, and such obvious care had been taken in sketching him that Jonathan’s heart swelled with emotion.

“I never knew he had so many of these,” Nancy said in a wobbly voice. “Obviously I knew they were all over the walls in the basement, but I never thought…”

Jonathan was deep in thought. This binder had been on Mike’s desk, out in the open and easily discovered by Nancy, implying that it had been accessed frequently. Jonathan knew how much it would mean to Will that Mike had carefully preserved what seemed to be every drawing he had ever received. He wondered if Will knew. The discovery also perplexed Jonathan. This was proof that despite all he had done to hurt Will, Mike obviously cared deeply for him. He wondered if he would ever understand how Mike Wheeler’s brain worked. Either way, Jonathan was now more certain than ever that Mike and Will would support each other in the Upside Down for as long as they had to. But they couldn’t last forever. How much time did they have left?

“Listen, Nancy,” Jonathan said seriously, his resolve suddenly firm. “Hopper found the gate. It’s in Hawkins Lab just like last time, but he doesn’t want to go until El is better.” Nancy seemed to know what he was thinking. “I don’t know what we can really do, but I can’t sit around anymore. We need to go help them.”

Nancy nodded, her eyes showing her appreciation. “I know,” she said, all traces of sadness gone, replaced by determination. “But we shouldn’t rush into things. We need a plan.” Then, very suddenly, she stood up from the bed and walked around to Mike’s nightstand where his supercom was currently standing, presumably returned by Hopper. She picked it up and pressed the button down.

“Lucas, this is Nancy. Do you copy, over?”

Jonathan didn’t have time to ask what she was doing before Lucas responded.

“This is Lucas. I copy, over.”

“Is Dustin still at your house? Over.”

“Yep, can’t get rid of him, over.”

“Okay, I want to talk to him. Be there in a few minutes, over and out.”

Then, offering no explanation, she beckoned Jonathan and marched out of the room. Karen seemed to have emerged from wherever she had been and was drifting around the kitchen like a zombie. Nancy called that she was going to check on the Sinclairs before heading out through the front door.

She walked so quickly that they were at the Sinclair house within a minute. When they knocked, Erica answered, raising an eyebrow at them as though knocking on her door in the mid afternoon was some kind of crime. They soon walked into Lucas’s bedroom to find not just him, but also Dustin, and to Jonathan’s general annoyance, Steve Harrington. Didn’t he ever just hang out at his own house?

Jonathan was aware that Steve had changed a great deal in the last few years, allegedly. Nancy herself had vouched for him. But Steve had hurt Jonathan thoroughly enough that he found it very difficult to forgive him. He could concede that Steve hadn’t been unreasonable to break his camera, given what Jonathan had done with it. And he was willing to accept that Steve wasn’t responsible for the graffiti on the sign at the movie theater. What he couldn’t overlook was what Steve had said to him.

You know what, Byers? I’m actually kind of impressed. I always took you for a queer, but I guess you’re just a little screw-up like your father.

A bunch of screw-ups in your family. I’m not even surprised what happened to your brother.

The comment about Will still rang in his head to this day whenever Jonathan saw Steve. Steve had gone on to save Jonathan from the demogorgon, but the way he had struck Jonathan when he was at his lowest had always placed him firmly beyond the possibility of forgiveness. He wondered if Dustin would still worship him if he knew what he had said that day.

He tried his best to ignore Steve as Nancy spoke.

“Hey, we need to talk.” Everyone's attention was on her as she began to explain. “The Mother gate is open again and we need to figure out how we're gonna help Mike and Will.” She looked right at Dustin. “Have you figured anything out yet?”

Before Dustin could answer, Steve spoke. “Wait, we know where the gate is? Why don't we just go in and get them?”

Gee, why didn't I think of that, thought Jonathan.

Before Jonathan could retort, Dustin beat him to it. “Because that would be stupid as shit. Have you forgotten what happened last time you were in the Upside Down?” There was a haunted look in Dustin's eyes that scared Jonathan.

“Well, how else are we gonna get them?” Steve asked defensively.

“That's what I've been working on.” Dustin shuffled through the extensive notes he was holding and cleared his throat. “Okay, so I was thinking. We have two options. We can send a whole bunch of people into the Upside Down and risk everybody's lives,”

“Stupid as shit,” interjected Erica, shaking her head in disdain.

“Or,” he went on. “We can make the Upside Down less dangerous.”

“You mean kill Henry,” Nancy said after a short pause, earning an approving nod from Dustin. “But how do we do that without entering the Upside Down?”

“I'm so glad you asked,” replied Dustin. “There are a few options. My first thought was to give Henry a taste of his own medicine.” Jonathan was still putting together what Dustin had said when Nancy responded.

“Kill him through psychic contact?” Dustin nodded.

“Can El even do that?” Lucas asked skeptically.

“No idea. It'll be a great question to ask her when she wakes up.”

“But we don't know how long that'll take,” said Jonathan, trying hard not to sound like he was complaining.

“I know,” Dustin replied seriously. “The other option,” he continued, hesitantly. “Well… it might be a bit of a stretch, but…” For some reason, he was looking at Jonathan as though unsure of how he would respond.

“What?”

He looked at Nancy again as he continued. “This is what I wanted to see your notes for. You and I had the same idea.” Nancy nodded as though she understood.

“What?!” Jonathan asked again, slightly more impatiently.

“The Upside Down is stuck in 1983,” said Dustin. “November 6, 1983 to be exact. I wondered why. Obviously Will's disappearance had something to do with it.” Jonathan had a vague sense of where he was going with this, but he let him continue. “The simplest explanation is that it was created that night. It's a perfect copy of Hawkins at that exact moment. So…” He hesitated, as though sure he was about to sound crazy. “So either Henry created it, or Will did.”

There was a long silence.

“Or El,” offered Steve.

Dustin waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, I guess, sure.”

“So you're saying…” Jonathan felt strange saying it aloud. “Will might have powers?”

Dustin nodded. “Whether they're his own abilities or whether he's just able to control the hive mind somehow, I'm not sure, but yes.”

“So you're suggesting that Will could kill Henry?” Lucas asked.

The idea was slightly insane to Jonathan. Not necessarily the idea of Will killing Henry. After what Henry had done, he was sure Will wouldn't mind getting the chance. But the idea of Will having powers felt strange. How could Will, his little brother, the boy who was so gentle and kind and who never wanted attention from anyone, have powers strong enough to rebuild Hawkins from scratch? Wouldn’t Jonathan know, being his brother? On top of the slight disbelief, Jonathan was feeling anxious at the idea. He hated the idea of Will facing off against someone like Henry without help.

Nancy seemed to share his worry. “Even if you're right, we can't let him fight Henry alone. El couldn't even beat him.”

“So we let her help,” offered Dustin.

“So we're back to waiting for her to wake up,” groaned Jonathan. He hated this waiting game.

“Well, yeah,” Dustin said with an apologetic look. “Until we have her to help, the best we can do is try to establish communication, but even that'll be hard without her.”

“This dumbass wanted to walk around town with a god damn flashlight,” Erica muttered, pointing a thumb at Steve.

“C'mon, it could work,” argued Steve.

“Yeah, but we don't know where in the Upside Down they are. And they're probably moving constantly. You'd have to wait until you get lucky,” said Lucas.

“I don't know if you've noticed, but we’ve been shit out of luck lately,” Erica added scathingly.

Steve was looking a little hurt, which Jonathan thought was probably good for him. Dustin seemed to take pity on him. “It's not a bad idea, just inefficient. If we want to talk to them through the lights we should just keep lights on in locations they might go. Mike's house, Will’s old house, my place, here,” Dustin advised.

The idea, however unlikely, of Will being in Lucas's bedroom in the Upside Down, listening to their conversation right now, was comforting. Jonathan looked up at the bulb on the ceiling, willing it to blink just once. Then he shook his head.

“I’m not sitting around looking at light bulbs while Mike and Will are suffering. They’ve already been down there a full day,” he said, glaring at everyone, daring them to tell him to just wait.

“Well, what do you want to do?” asked Dustin.

Jonathan took a deep breath. He knew his idea would sound crazy and that Hopper wouldn’t like it. “I want to figure out what we’re dealing with. We need a plan– a real plan, not just waiting for El to fix everything.”

He hadn’t said what he was really thinking, but Nancy figured it out. “You want to go into the Upside Down?” She looked scared, but not opposed to the idea.

“Just to check on what’s going on around the lab. Then once we contact them, we can tell them exactly what to do to get home.”

Nancy seemed to be thinking, but Dustin obviously didn’t like it. “You can’t just walk into the Upside Down.” His tone made Jonathan realize just how scared Dustin was of that place. He understood why, but it didn’t deter him.

“I won’t leave the lab. I just want to check it out.”

“Henderson has a point,” piped up Steve, and Jonathan had to fight to stop his eyes from rolling. He didn’t need a lecture from Steve Harrington right now. “You can’t be too safe with that place. I got ambushed the second I got there.” He shared a meaningful look with Nancy as though they were both lost in the same terrible memory. Was that supposed to change his mind? Yes, the Upside Down was terrible. Jonathan was aware. Had Steve missed the part where Mike and Will had already been there a full day?

He looked desperately at Nancy, who seemed to understand that there was no changing his mind. “I’ll go with him,” she announced to the group. “We’ll be careful.”

Dustin looked alarmed that Jonathan’s idea was gaining traction. His expression didn’t improve when Steve spoke. “In that case, I want to go, too. I can probably get Robin–”

“Are you serious?” interrupted Dustin, looking positively horrified now. “You guys can’t go into the Upside Down! It’s too dangerous!”

“That’s why we can’t let Mike and Will stay there,” said Lucas, earning a sharp look from Dustin. “I’ll go, too.”

Jonathan was about to shut that idea down when Steve spoke.

“Uh-uh. No way, Sinclair.”

More than anything, Jonathan was unnerved at the idea of agreeing with Steve on anything.

“Oh, come on!” Lucas looked as desperate for action as Jonathan felt, but he knew he couldn’t put any of the kids in danger with his potentially stupid idea.

“If you want to help, you can stay on the radio in case we need someone to call for backup,” offered Nancy. Lucas didn’t seem happy, but he didn’t argue. Dustin didn’t look happy either.

“This is a stupid idea,” he said loudly, and Jonathan couldn’t disagree.

“So we need to make a plan,” Nancy said matter-of-factly. They went about constructing a simple plan that made everyone– not happy, but as happy as they could be given the circumstances. Jonathan left the house feeling nervous, but at last satisfied that progress was being made.

After a subdued dinner at the Wheelers, Jonathan and Nancy retreated upstairs, stopping in Mike and Will’s room to grab both of their walkies before closing the door of Nancy’s room behind them. Only after they heard Karen and Ted walk upstairs to bed did they set the plan into motion. They shifted Mike’s walkie to the new channel they had agreed on, so as not to risk alerting Hopper, and Nancy spoke.

“Alright Lucas, we're ready to go.”

This was the cue for Dustin to contact Steve. Jonathan and Nancy slipped out the bedroom window just as they once did to go hunt the demogorgon what felt like a million years ago. They walked quietly down the street and waited. Soon, headlights came into view and Jonathan and Nancy got into Steve's car where Robin sat in the passenger seat. At the same time, Jonathan spotted three bikes leaving the Sinclair house as Lucas, Dustin, and Erica started making their way toward Cerebro.

When the car reached the lab, everyone got out and waited in silence. Nancy had her shotgun. Steve had his nail bat, and as Nancy had insisted on Jonathan having a weapon, he was holding a heavy axe, already having proven his ineptitude with a gun. And in Robin's hand was one of the luminous blue lamps that had been used in their last assault on Henry. Despite this being Jonathan's idea, he couldn't help but shiver as he looked toward the entrance. The last time he was here, Will was unconscious and his mother was inconsolable as Bob was being torn apart in the lobby.

Finally, the walkies crackled to life and Dustin's voice spoke.

“We're in position. Don't do anything stupid.”

“Alright,” said Steve to the group. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He was looking at Nancy as he spoke, which annoyed Jonathan.

“We're fine,” he said, before Nancy could answer. “Let's go.”

They all entered the building, then split up at the stairwell. Steve and Robin began to climb the stairs to the roof, while Jonathan and Nancy walked downstairs toward the basement.

“Good luck,” called Steve, to which Nancy smiled briefly and Jonathan said nothing.

“Hey,” Nancy chided, nudging Jonathan once they were out of earshot of Steve. “He's being really nice.”

“Mhm,” was all Jonathan could think to say out loud. Nancy looked exasperated but seemed to realize she was fighting a losing battle and gave up.

Soon, they reached the room Dr. Owens had led them to on their last visit to Hawkins Lab, and the sight that met them infuriated Jonathan. There was the gate, black vines around its edge, an eerie red glow shining through the thin membrane between worlds. With one look at Nancy, which received a nod in return, Jonathan approached. He jabbed the head of the axe through the membrane which split easily. Jonathan could feel the gust of frigid air that floated through, see the swirl of spores on the other side, and prepared to enter.

“We're at the gate,” Nancy reported into the walkie. “See you soon.”

Jonathan took her hand, which reassured both of them, then led the way into the Upside Down. Jonathan had never been here before, and he immediately felt a fresh wave of sympathy for Mike and Will. The cold was biting and the air felt heavy with decay. His eyes were struggling to adjust to the gloom. The knowledge that his brother had spent a week in these conditions and was now over a day into his second visit gave him the courage to move. He took out a flashlight and clicked it on, and beside him Nancy changed the channel on the walkie back to the group’s usual one.

He and Nancy crept their way through the basement, soon finding the stairwell. As Jonathan opened the door, he half expected a demodog to leap out of the shadows. There was an echoing bang as Nancy knocked the butt of her gun hard against the wall. The sound seemed to reverberate in the vertical space for several seconds and no skittering of claws answered it. Nancy gave Jonathan a nod, which he understood to mean, the stairwell is clear.

They began climbing stairs, and as they reached the door to the roof, Jonathan was starting to feel winded. The sky flashed with red lightning as they emerged and the silhouettes of distant swarms of demobats could barely be made out. Jonathan pointed these out silently to Nancy, making her aware of the danger in case they needed to retreat to the stairwell.

Near the corner of the roof, they spotted what they were looking for. Just above the ground was the shimmer of golden mist, marking the spot where the lantern now sat in the world above. Jonathan nodded at Nancy and she approached.

She poked her fingers into the mist, which lit up at once. She removed her hand, then began blinking out a pattern, which Jonathan recognized as Morse Code. After her narrow escape from the Upside Down over Spring Break she had become dedicated to mastering Morse Code, and Jonathan had attempted to do the same. She was much more proficient at it than he was, but he knew enough to follow along with Nancy, albeit slowly.

HERE , she blinked.

“Good,” echoed Robin’s voice around them. “Were there any problems?”

NO , Nancy answered.

“They made it to the roof,” Steve’s voice echoed, and Jonathan knew he was relaying the message to the kids over the walkie.

“What’s it look like down there?” Robin asked.

Jonathan crept toward the parapet at the edge of the roof and peered over the edge. What he saw made him gasp, then cough as he inhaled the toxic air, and he ducked down. Seeing his reaction, Nancy moved forward to look as well. Peering cautiously back over the low wall, Jonathan took in the scene.

In the parking lot below were dozens of monsters. Most seemed to be demodogs, but at least half a dozen demogorgons were visible towering over the rest of the army. He, Nancy, and Steve had barely managed to fight off one of those things. How would they, or Mike and Will, ever fight through so many of them? Even as he watched, more shadowy figures stirred at the edge of the trees, implying that the army was growing.

“Hello?” came Steve’s echoing voice, and Jonathan relized they had not answered Robin’s question. Nancy moved back to the lantern.

MONSTERS. BELOW, she answered.

“Monsters? Like, a lot of them or…?” asked Robin nervously.

Nancy grimaced before she responded. TOO MANY.

The silence that followed reflected how Jonathan was feeling. He knew there was no way Mike and Will could simply walk up to the lab and pass through the gate. He was starting to think of possible plans involving distracting the army or somehow sneaking Mike and Will around it, when there was a crackle. Jonathan could hardly believe it when disjointed fragments of a very familiar voice floated out of the walkie.

“ Thi– Mike– anybo– opy–”

“Mike?!” Nancy answered at once, and Jonathan could hear both the relief and desperation in her voice.

“H–lo? Does– copy?” Mike didn’t seem to hear Nancy, or at least not clearly. Jonathan swore under his breath. Switching to this channel had been a real long shot, but he figured Mike and Will might have been smart enough to seek a means of communication just in case. He didn’t really expect to hear anything. Unfortunately, the stroke of brilliance had come to nothing, as the lab was out of range from most places in Hawkins, including wherever Mike was. At least they now had conclusive proof that Mike and Will were in the Upside Down, and that they were alive.

Nancy handed the walkie to Jonathan and returned to the light. MIKE. RADIO, she blinked.

“Wait, that actually worked?” echoed Steve’s voice, and if Jonathan could see him he would probably consider saying “I told you so”, though he knew he probably wouldn’t actually say it out loud. “Where is he?”

SIGNAL BAD.

“Damn,” came Steve’s disappointed voice.

Then, as Steve relayed the news to the others, Mike’s voice was replaced by another.

“If– nyone els– own here, we– stuck in– ack– lease.” The sound of Will’s voice felt like a breath of fresh air, and it was a moment before Jonathan registered what he was saying. Stuck? Does that just mean he’s stuck in the Upside Down or that he’s stuck somewhere in particular? Is he in serious trouble?

Jonathan had started moving before he even bothered to explain. Nancy gripped his arm. “Wait, Jonathan, we can’t leave the lab.”

“You heard him right?” he asked. “He said they’re stuck!”

“I know, but how are you going to help them? You don’t even know where they are!”

Jonathan hadn’t thought about that, and at the moment it didn’t seem to matter. He would search the entire Upside Down by himself if he had to.

“Jonathan, please don’t do anything crazy. What about your mom?”

Jonathan registered what she was saying. What do you think would happen to your mom if you went missing too? The thought of his mother in shambles over the loss of not one, but two children cut through his blind panic. He registered vaguely how impressive it was that Nancy was staying so clear-headed. She had probably offered to come along just to keep him under control in this exact scenario. He took a moment to appreciate how lucky he was to have her.

“Okay, we won’t go after them, but we need to figure out where they are.” He paused, realizing what that meant. “We need to get closer.”

He tried to think of how they would accomplish this feat, but Nancy beat him to it. “The tunnel,” she said. It took a moment for Jonathan to realize what she was talking about.

“The tunnel El escaped through,” he acknowledged. “The one Henry showed her.” They would never be able to leave the lab or even reach the perimeter on the ground level with the monsters below. But if they went underground they might have a chance.

Nancy turned back to the light and delivered the message. GETTING CLOSER.

“Woah, woah, hang on!” came Steve’s panicked voice. “What do you mean?”

WAIT. BE BACK SOON.

“Nancy, wait!”

It didn’t escape Jonathan’s notice that Steve seemed concerned mostly about Nancy’s well-being, but he didn’t have time to dwell on this fact, and neither it seemed, did Nancy. Before Steve could finish yelling warnings at them, they had both crept back to the door and entered the stairwell. They hurried back down to the basement as quietly as they could and spent a few minutes exploring until they found what seemed to be a boiler room.

The space was eerie. The darkness was absolute, and outside the beam of Jonathan’s flashlight was nothing but inky blackness. They soon found a round cover over what seemed to be a long, thick pipe. Working together, they took off the cover as quietly as they could, and Jonathan shined the light down the tunnel. The realization of what would happen next sunk in. Jonathan observed the opening and determined that he could fit, but it would be a narrow squeeze. Nancy would certainly fit, but he didn’t like the idea of her going first. It took him a moment to figure out why.

“I’ll go,” he offered, and Nancy looked at him suspiciously. “I promise I’m not going to go after them. I wouldn’t leave you here alone.” She seemed to believe him. “Listen, Nancy,” he began. “If something happens to me–”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” Nancy interrupted, sounding certain, like she wouldn’t let herself believe anything else.

“But if it does,” Jonathan continued. “Don’t wait for me. Just go.”

“Jonathan…” she began.

“You need to see Mike again,” he told her firmly. “And you’re going to. You’re going to see him and you’re going to make things right with him.” He knew this needed to happen, and it was why Jonathan knew he had to do this. He didn’t think his own life was worthless, but he knew Nancy had regrets he didn’t. Whatever happened, he felt he had been the best brother he could possibly be to Will. But Nancy felt in her heart that she had let Mike down. She needed to have the chance to be proven wrong, no matter what.

Her argument seemed to die in her throat and she nodded. Then she leaned in and kissed him softly. Jonathan didn’t truly think anything would happen to him, but if it did, he would be happy with this being his last exchange with Nancy. As Steve had said, he couldn’t be too careful here. Wow, I really am agreeing with Steve Harrington on something, he thought. After they broke apart, Jonathan turned his attention to the task at hand.

He banged the flashlight on the side of the tunnel and heard only silence. He hoped that meant there was nothing inside the tunnel. He handed the flashlight to Nancy, knowing he would be unable to hold it while crawling, and clipped the walkie to his belt beside his axe. He took one last look at Nancy before entering the tunnel.

He couldn’t see the other end due to the gloom of the Upside Down. The air in the tunnel was as filthy as anywhere else. His shoulders were almost snug against the sides, and he knew it would be almost impossible to go backwards in here. He would need to reach the other side, then turn around to get back, and if the tunnel were blocked by something– Don’t think about that , he told himself. As he army crawled, the walkie remained silent.

After several minutes, he began to see the dim flashes of red lightning on the other side and he felt relieved. When he finally emerged from the tunnel on the other side, he hated the sight that greeted him. The forest was gloomy. He couldn’t see past a few trees and the spores drifting in front of him were so heavy that he felt like he was in a blizzard. The thought of twelve year old Will running for his life through these trees made him feel sick.

Remembering what he was here to do, he took out the walkie. “Will, do you copy?” He waited in tense silence, but no response came.

“Will, it’s Jonathan, do you copy?” More silence followed.

“Mike? Will? Please respond. Does anyone copy? Over.” Jonathan put his back to the concrete wall around the tunnel entrance and slid to the ground, feeling defeated.

“Jo– than?” The signal was still terrible, but it didn’t matter. His message had gotten through… sort of.

“Will! Yeah, it’s Jonathan. Where are you?” It took considerable effort not to shout.

“We– town– onsters every– elp!” The words were almost unintelligible, but the tone was clear. Will was terrified and it made Jonathan want to run to him. He knew he couldn’t do it. He had made a promise to Nancy.

“Will, I can barely hear you. I–” Jonathan knew this might be his only chance to talk to his brother for a long time. He had to make it count. “I know you’re scared. We’re at Hawkins Lab. The gate here is open again, but there are a ton of monsters so don’t try to escape yet.” How could he convey everything he wanted to say over a terrible signal like this? “We’re going to get you out, okay? You just have to hang on as long as you can. I– I promise we’re going to come get you.” He realized what Nancy would want him to do if she were here, so he went on. “Mike, if you’re there,” he thought of his confusing impression of Mike and all the things he would like to say to him. He settled on the most important things. “Thank you for helping Will. Please just… stay with him, okay. He needs you, and you need him. Nancy… she misses you a lot.” He suddenly cut off. It took him a moment to realize what had startled him. Then he– heard it? No, he felt it. There was a low rumbling noise, but it was so deep it seemed to vibrate his chest. He didn’t know where it was coming from, but he knew he needed to leave.

“Jonath– you– there?” 

His voice shook with fear and raw emotion as he continued. “Listen, I know you’re scared, but I need you two to be strong, okay? Try to find somewhere to talk to us with the lights, and we’ll help you escape, but for now you need to stick together and be strong, okay?” The noise was getting louder and Jonathan could hear something shifting in the trees. “I love you, Will. Be safe, both of you.” He slammed the antenna down, clipped the walkie back onto his belt, and took out his axe just to be safe. As he stooped to re-enter the tunnel, he glanced over his shoulder and saw it.

The first thing he noticed through the gloom was the mouth. It had five fleshy “petals” like a demogorgon, but it was larger– much, much larger. The mouth had to be at least 15 feet across. The flaps were spaced farther apart so that the mouth was permanently open. The throat was wide and gaping, the rows of teeth seeming to ripple as the creature breathed and uttered its baritone call that Jonathan could feel through the forest floor.

In the second Jonathan watched, the creature’s legs came into focus. They were long and seemed to bend unnaturally like the lanky arms of a demogorgon, but they were much larger. They ended in lethal looking claws. Around the head were what appeared to be tentacles, moving on their own like the heads of serpents, with more long talons on the ends. The closest thing Jonathan had ever seen was the fleshy arm of the Mind Flayer that had bitten El’s leg the previous summer. As the monster moved and more of it became visible, Jonathan estimated it must be at least as long as a bus, probably larger. Trees trembled as it took a step and Jonathan knew the only reason he wasn’t already dead was because of the dark fog between the trees.

He didn’t want to stick around, so he started scrambling into the tunnel. Just as he started to army crawl, he felt an intense pain in his ankle as multiple sharp objects pierced his skin. He didn’t have room to twist around, but he knew the monster had grabbed him. He yelled in pain and scrabbled at the smooth wall of the tunnel as he was pulled backwards with such force that he thought his leg might come off. As he fell out onto the forest floor, he saw the monster in all its glory. It was terrible to behold. He had always thought the demogorgon was the apex predator of the Upside Down, but he knew now that he was wrong. Nothing could possibly measure up to a monster like this. He was frozen in fear for about a second, before he thought of Nancy, Will, and his mother. He couldn’t die here, not from doing something so stupid. The axe was still gripped loosely in his hand and he barely thought as he swung it toward the barbed appendage that had ahold of his leg. In his daze, he wouldn’t have been surprised if he hit his ankle by mistake. Luckily, he seemed to hit the monster, as it let out a bellowing, shrieking roar that made his eardrums throb. Its grip loosened and Jonathan yanked his leg out of its grasp. He felt the talons slice through his skin and knew they had done serious damage, but he didn’t stop to think. He barely felt the pain as he scrambled back into the tunnel and army crawled as fast as he could, his mangled leg dragging through the filth. He heard the sound of claws scraping the wall of the tunnel behind him, but he was out of the monster’s reach.

Behind him, another terrible roar echoed through the Upside Down. He wondered if Mike and Will, wherever they were, could hear it. He tried not to imagine Will encountering that monster as he continued back through the tunnel. He distracted himself with thoughts of Nancy as he made his way back toward her. But as he finally reached the boiler room at the other end of the tunnel, and hands gripped his arms, pulling him back to his feet, he realized they didn’t belong to Nancy. Nancy wasn’t here. Instead, as he straightened up, wobbling slightly, he found himself staring at Steve Harrington.

“Where’s Nancy?” he asked at once.

“She’s fine. She went back to the gate. I told her we’d be right behind her.”

“Okay, so let’s go,” Jonathan said, taking a shaky step forward. But Steve put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“I’ve got bad news, Byers,” he said. Over his words, Jonathan registered the distant sound of many heavy footsteps from outside the room. “We might be stuck here for a while.”

Jonathan couldn’t believe his luck. He had just escaped a monster of unimaginable horror, he had gotten separated from Nancy, his brother sounded like he was in serious trouble, and he was now stuck in a dark boiler room with Steve Harrington of all people. Worst of all, he had nobody to blame but himself. It was his stupid idea that brought him here.

Part of him wished he were still being attacked by the monster. Steve Harrington, he thought. You’ve got to be kidding me.

Chapter Text

“This is Mike. Does anyone copy?” Silence.

“Hello? This is Mike, if anyone is out there, we need help. We're stuck downtown. We're in RadioShack and we are completely surrounded. Please, if anyone else is down here, we need help!” Mike's voice grew slightly desperate at the end of his message and he almost slammed the walkie down on the counter in frustration.

After becoming trapped in the store, Mike had begun resourcefully gathering supplies. He had found a pair of Walkmans, one of which was now clipped to Will's belt, as well as headphones. They had each taken a supercom in case they got separated, though Will now doubted they would get to leave the store alive anyway. Mike, in a show of forced optimism, had turned his supercom to their group's usual channel and had been sending out distress signals every 15 minutes or so. He had argued that others might have been dragged into the Upside Down and could now be fighting for their lives as well. Will admired the way he kept trying to be positive for his sake, but he was certain he and Mike were alone and that nobody could hear them.

Meanwhile, outside the windows at the front of the store, monsters still roamed the street in droves. The large group had not simply moved on like the one in Loch Nora. It seemed to be waiting for Mike and Will to set foot on the street. In other words, their certain death seemed imminent.

Honestly, it's a miracle we lasted even a day, Will thought. Part of him was almost glad. At least his suffering would be over. If there was a Hell, could it really be worse than the Upside Down? More distressing was the idea of Mike being killed. Whatever he said, Will couldn't help but feel guilty for his best friend being here. He also felt guilty for how much he was warming up to the idea of accepting their fate. The words of the fake Mike haunted him.

You won't fight for me, you won't fight for yourself, and you won't even let me help you. You're acting like a coward, Will!

He knew he was playing into Henry's hands by allowing his words to affect him, but he didn't care. Will was so tired. He had tried his best to make the most of the situation, he really had. But now they had been trapped for several hours with no salvation in sight. Their food supply was going down surprisingly fast. Despite the water they found earlier, Will was still dehydrated, a dull headache a constant reminder of his condition. He was cold, his lungs were starting to burn from the toxic air, and he longed to sleep, but couldn't with the monsters outside seeming to breathe down his neck.

Mike was clearly exhausted, too. Will could see it in the shadows under his eyes and his pale complexion. But he soldiered on, trying to keep up a positive outlook for Will's sake. Will was grateful at first, but now he could see through the façade, and Mike's increasingly desperate cries for help did nothing but remind him of the fate they would soon meet.

“Please! If anyone's out there, we need… ugh, shit!” As Mike gave up his efforts for now, Will tried not to show his frustration and despair.

“It’s okay,” Mike said feverishly. “It’s going to be okay. We just need to hold on a little longer. Dustin’s looking for us, so they’ll find a way here. El will help us, or…”

“Mike,” Will said weakly. He couldn’t stand this hopeless desperation. He was sitting on the floor behind the counter as Mike stood beside him. His knees were pulled up to his chest and his chin was resting on his crossed arms on top of them. He didn’t even bother to look at Mike as he spoke.

“Dustin might come back into the store!” Mike continued hopefully. “And you saw him last time, so maybe, I don’t know, you could figure out how to talk to him. Or maybe he’ll turn the lights on for some reason and we can try to…”

“Mike!” Will said more loudly, and this time Mike looked down at him and fell silent. Will didn’t know what he could say without sounding rude, so he let his facial expression do the work. Mike seemed to soften and he took a seat on the floor with his back to the counter, looking apologetically at Will.

“Will, I’m going to get us out of this, okay? I p–”

“Don’t promise anything,” Will interrupted. He had reached his limit. He had had his expectations shattered too many times, and he couldn’t bear to have them raised again. The situation was grim. They were out of road to run on. It was time to admit defeat.

Mike looked hurt. “But…”

“Mike, can you tell me something?” Mike nodded. “Do you honestly think there’s a way out of this? And I don’t mean RadioShack, I mean the Upside Down.”

Mike’s face didn’t inspire confidence, but he seemed unwilling to say what he was really thinking. “I know you’re trying to stay positive for me,” Will added. “And I appreciate it. But… you don’t have to pretend.”

Mike’s shoulders drooped and so did his expression. He sighed deeply, and he seemed to age several years before he spoke. “No, probably not. But… if I don’t try to get us out of here– if I give up, I’m basically killing us.”

“No you’re not,” Will assured him.

“Yes, I am. And it was my idea to come here. Downtown, I mean. I should’ve known it would be stupid and that we would probably die.” Will could tell by Mike’s tone that he really and truly hated himself over this. “I’m sorry, Will.”

“Hey, stop,” Will told him firmly. “I thought it was a good idea, too. If I thought this would happen, I would’ve told you not to do it.” Mike didn’t seem to accept the would-be comforting words. “Anyway, even if this worked, how much longer would we have lasted? A few days? You said before that I hadn’t given up yet, and maybe that was true then, but now…” He looked around at their dismal surroundings and let the sound of the monsters fill the space for a moment. “I don’t know…” He trailed off, unable to articulate what he was thinking. Because at that moment, he was wondering if he should just save the monsters the trouble of waiting and walk out into the street on his own. Any other action would just prolong the inevitable.

Mike seemed to understand, but the determined look in his eyes didn’t fade entirely. “Last time you were here…” he paused, and Will tensed. He never discussed his last visit here, and Mike never asked about it. They had come to a silent understanding that if Will wanted to share something he would, otherwise it was best just to forget about it. As a result, the start of the question put him on edge. “Did you think you would get out?”

“Until El contacted me, no,” Will admitted. There was a great deal of grief and sorrow behind those words that he refused to speak aloud. The truth was, while he couldn’t remember much of what physically happened to him last time, his emotions and thoughts were crystal clear in his memory. He remembered wondering if this was Hell, and if he had ended up here as some kind of punishment. He didn’t have to think hard to guess what he had done. Loud tirades in his father’s voice echoed in his mind, as did the taunts of kids at school. He wasn’t even sure he understood at that time what was wrong with him, only that there was something. He was undeniably different from all the other kids and his father had known it. If he didn’t understand now who and what was behind the Upside Down, he might wonder if this was further punishment, a harsher sentence to his old Hell, now with Mike, the greatest reminder of his sins, suffering alongside him. 

“Exactly. El found you and you made it out. So there might be hope this time,” Mike argued. Will shrugged non-commitally. It was true that his last escape had come at a time when he had lost all hope. He remembered waking up in the hospital bed. It had been a miracle, like he had been reborn, and the feeling only intensified when Mike had come bursting into the room, flinging himself on top of his best friend. Looking back, that had been the moment when his feelings toward Mike had changed perceptibly. He knew from then on that he could always count on Mike no matter what. Since then, Mike had destroyed that expectation, then rebuilt it, and he knew he should have some faith in his friend now. But there were things even Mike couldn’t fix. Escaping last time had been a miracle, and asking for a second miracle was just being greedy. He didn't think Mike could save him now, but he could at least make his final hours a little better, and Will could do the same for him. He just needed Mike to accept the reality of the situation.

“Look,” he began sadly. “You can keep trying the walkie if you want, but the Upside Down seems more dangerous than last time. I… I wouldn't get my hopes up.” He knew it was a harsh thing to say and he hated to destroy Mike's resolve like this, but he felt he had to say it. He hoped his tone would convey his real message. I can’t fight anymore. Please don’t make me. Let's just make the most of the time we have left.

Will couldn't meet Mike's eyes anymore. He felt his own despair reaching a breaking point and buried his face in his crossed arms to hide the tears that were beginning to form in his eyes. He sat like that for a while before he heard Mike shift and a gentle hand gripped the arm that was propped on top of his right knee. Mike gave a comforting squeeze, which Will took to mean his message had been received. Will didn't look up and Mike didn't say anything for a long time. They just sat in the dark, drinking in each others’ presence as Will got his emotions back under control. This is nice, he thought. This isn't a bad way to go out.

He thought about Mike and the things he always wanted to say to him. He could tell him now and it would make no difference, with death looming on the other side of the glass. But his cowardice got the better of him again. He couldn't risk it. Even here in a nightmare dimension with no laws, no society, and where his fate was sealed, he couldn't stand the idea of Mike being disgusted by him. How pathetic.

Mike's hand suddenly left his arm and Will heard him shifting around again, and the sound of a drawer being opened.

“Hey, Will,” Mike said softly, and Will looked up. “Maybe it's stupid, given, you know…” he gestured around them. “But, would you want to… uh…” he awkwardly held out his hand. In it was a small pad of lined paper and a pencil. The message was clear.

“You want me to draw something?” The request did indeed seem strange, given their situation, but that's why it calmed Will. It was such a normal thing to ask.

“Well… yeah,” answered Mike honestly, with a small smile that made Will's heart lift in spite of himself. “I always loved your drawings and I thought it might take your mind off things.” Was Mike blushing? “I mean–” he continued, suddenly flustered, “only if you want to.”

“Sure,” replied Will softly, smiling back and taking the notepad. “What do you want me to draw?”

“Whatever you want,” said Mike with another smile, seeming grateful that Will had taken to the idea. Will decided to repay the favor. He tore the first page out of the notepad and handed the rest back to Mike.

“Here,” he said as Mike looked confused. “You should write something.”

“Like what?”

“You could start working on the campaign,” Will offered. “You know… for our… D&D night.” His heart seemed to wither as he remembered the idea he and Mike had discussed as they sat in the Creel house a million years ago. He hoped he hadn’t ruined the moment by mentioning it to Mike.

Mike’s smile was a little sad, but he took the notepad anyway. “Sure.” Will managed to dig out a binder from under the counter to put his single piece of paper on, and he tossed another pencil to Mike.

For a while, they sat in silence, each absorbed in their own distractions. It didn’t take Will long to decide on what to draw. He had thought of little else in the last day. As he sketched, he felt overwhelming gratitude toward Mike. He had known exactly what to do to help Will, as he always did. He continued to make distress calls over the walkie as they worked, but they were made with less and less conviction each time. Will didn’t dwell on them and neither, it seemed, did Mike. 

Finally, he stopped shading and looked at his work. There on the page was Mike. It didn't look much like the boy sitting in front of him. The Mike in the drawing was smiling and carefree. The effect was that he looked younger, despite being drawn at his current age. His dark hair fell around his shoulders and his hands were in his pockets, making him look even more gracefully at ease.

There was still a great deal of space on the page, left there because Will knew he would need it. Mike occupying the page alone seemed incomplete. To depict what he really wanted more than anything in the world right now, Will needed to add more.

He started on Dustin first. For inspiration, he thought back to his episode of True Sight earlier. He couldn't decide if the vision had been a blessing or a curse. On one hand, he had seen Dustin, really seen him. He had also seen sunlight through the windows of the store, which he had not experienced in months. The scene should have been refreshing, but it wasn't. Because on the other hand, while he could see the world to which he belonged, he could still feel the chill of the Upside Down, and he knew that was where he really was. Now that the vision had faded, it was taunting him. Every time he blinked, he couldn't help but imagine opening his eyes to find the store glowing with golden sunlight and full of clean, fresh air. Thinking about it was enough to drive him crazy.

As Will worked, Mike unzipped one of the backpacks and rummaged around for some food. He scooted from his position against the counter and came to rest against the wall directly to Will's right side. As he offered a granola bar to Will, he got a glimpse of the drawing.

“Wow,” he said, seemingly awestruck. “That looks great.” Will thought he was exaggerating. Truthfully, he knew it wasn’t his best work, but he was doing his best with the supplies that were on hand. Mike, however, was looking at the incomplete drawing as though it were a priceless artifact.

“Thanks,” replied Will, stuffing half of a granola bar in his mouth. With their situation so bleak, Will wasn't even concerned about rationing food anymore. “I figured I'd draw all of us together, just to… see it again.” He trailed off as the gravity of his unsaid words settled around him. The Party will never be together again. It'll never be whole again. The idea was so desperately sad, he wondered if he would be able to finish the drawing now that he had thought about it.

“Good idea,” said Mike. His voice was calm, but Will could sense his sadness. He did not move back to his original spot as Will continued to draw, but instead stayed beside him. Will could feel Mike’s eyes periodically focusing on him as he finished drawing Dustin’s curly hair.

He was in the process of sketching out Lucas’s outline when Mike spoke. “Do you remember that time in fourth grade?” Will looked over to see him inexplicably smiling. “When Dustin tried to fit an entire peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his mouth?”

Will looked at him in confusion. “It was half of one, but yeah,” replied Will uncertainly.

“Right, right,” said Mike dismissively. “He had only been in the Party for a week or two.” Will remembered. It felt strange to think that Dustin hadn't moved to Hawkins until that point. It felt like he was always part of the Party.

“Didn't Lucas dare him to do it?”

“He made a bet with him. I think Dustin wanted to prove that missing teeth was like a superpower or something.” Mike's grin was broadening and Will let out a huff of laughter in spite of their situation. At the sound of the laugh, Mike glanced over at Will, his eyes slightly brighter, and Will understood why Mike was recounting this memory. “Anyway, I remember you were all concerned that he would choke.”

“I was! I didn't want him to die in the middle of the cafeteria,” Will cut in.

“Uh huh,” Mike said fondly. “Then when he tried to talk to you with his mouth full, you cracked up and it was ad– uh, hilarious.” Mike went slightly pink. Will tried not to focus on what he had almost said. “I think that's the hardest I ever saw you laugh. Lucas, too.”

Will said nothing for a moment, relishing the happy memory. Then another floated to the surface of his mind.

“No, remember that one Christmas when the whole Party came to my place and we had that crazy snowball fight?”

Mike nodded. “Yeah, it was more of a snowball war . You and me versus Lucas and Dustin.” He chuckled. “Yeah, that got out of hand.”

“Only because you and Lucas got so competitive,” Will chided. “Anyway, remember when Dustin nailed me right in the face?”

“Yeah, I thought he hurt you, he hit you so hard.”

“And you got all protective like usual,” he smirked at Mike who was looking both fond and slightly flustered. “I thought you were gonna murder Dustin.”

“He had it coming,” Mike said defensively. “He hit you way too hard.”

“It was a snowball, Mike. It's not like it was gonna kill me.” Mike actually looked a little agitated just remembering the incident.

“Well I got him back. How many snowballs did I hit him with?”

“Four. In a row,” Will replied animatedly. “Right in the face. It was the most coordinated thing I ever saw you do.” Mike gave him a light, playful shove in retaliation. “Anyway, that's the hardest I ever saw Lucas laugh.” His memory became more bittersweet as he remembered what happened next. “Then we all went inside and my mom made hot chocolate, and… and you guys ended up staying the night I think.”

He lost some of his enthusiasm as more of that day came back to him. It was the first Christmas after Lonnie left. Despite all he put the family through, Will was still upset about it, convinced it was his fault he left. It had been a gloomy fall that year in the Byers household. That's why that day meant so much to Will. It was Mike's idea to bring the Party over to keep him company, Mike who had stayed most of the next day, refusing to leave Will's side. It was because of Mike and the rest of the Party that Will had felt genuine happiness for the first time in weeks. They had convinced Will that it wasn't the end of the world and that everything would be alright.

Everything would be alright. The thought punctured Will's temporary happiness like a balloon. A hundred other memories were flooding his mind. The Party together on the 4th of July, Halloween after Halloween spent dressing up to go to school and roaming the streets of Hawkins for candy, birthday parties, sleepovers, bike races, and so, so many D&D nights in Mike’s basement. Even boring school days suddenly felt like a priceless gift. Will felt tears forming in his eyes as his mind was suddenly full of scenes that hadn’t happened yet. He saw the Party walking the stage at graduation. He saw them piling into a car and leaving Hawkins on a road trip. He saw a hundred other things, some far fetched, but all possible. Well, he thought. They were possible.

“Yeah, that was definitely one of the best Christmases we ever–” Mike broke off as a small shuddering gasp escaped Will, who was trying desperately to contain the rush of sudden emotion. A tear fell onto his half-completed drawing.

“Oh shit, Will, I–” Mike looked suddenly horrified. “I didn’t mean to– I’m”

“I’m sorry,” Will said first, attempting to hide his tears again.

“No, Will. You have nothing to be sorry about,” Mike said in his softest tone. “Come here.” Extremely gentle hands gripped Will’s shoulders and turned him. Before he could register what was happening, Mike’s arms were wrapped firmly around him. Will was too caught up in his emotions to think twice before clutching tightly at Mike and burying his face in the crook of his neck.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he repeated in an anguished voice that was muffled by Mike’s jacket.

“Shhh,” Mike said soothingly. “It’s okay. I was trying to cheer you up. I swear I didn’t mean to make you cry. I just wanted to remind you of the world above and…”

“I know, it’s okay,” whimpered Will, trying and failing to take a steadying breath of air. “I just want to go home.” He felt silly saying it, but it was true. He had never wanted anything more. “I want everything to go back to how it was before… before…” The sob that escaped him was ugly, but Mike didn’t seem to care. He just tightened his hold on Will, one hand drifting up to the back of his head. “I just want this to be over…” Will remembered saying the same thing to his mother after the Mind Flayer caught him. He had been thinking it for years, and his nightmare never seemed to end. He should’ve known he would never be free of it, that it would keep coming back over and over again until he finally faced his fate.

“I know,” Mike said, and his voice shook as well. “I know, it’s…” He trailed off, knowing better than to tell Will that it was okay. Nothing was okay, and it hadn’t been okay in a long time. Will continued to cry as he pressed his face against Mike. The tears flowed and soaked into Mike’s jacket until Will was sure he couldn’t have many left. He should have been embarrassed to fall apart like this in front of Mike, but he wasn’t. Mike didn’t say a word. He just held Will, running his hand through his hair, soothing him as best he could when he seemed to be struggling to stay composed himself. Will’s drawing lay forgotten on the floor as he clung to Mike, shaking with grief for a life he would never get to live. Bittersweet memories and dreams of the future caused all his suppressed emotions from the last three years to finally burst their bounds, an old wound reopened. The only thing that held him together was Mike.

Will lost track of time, but finally he became calm. Perhaps he really did run out of tears, or he had exhausted himself from crying so much, but he didn’t move. He couldn’t let go of Mike, and he continued to ground himself with the gentle rise and fall of his chest. Finally, Mike spoke quietly.

“You should get some sleep.” He could obviously tell how exhausted Will was.

Will looked up at him, his fear of the monsters outside showing on his face. His eyes were surely red and bloodshot, and he must look like a mess, but Mike made no comment about it.

“Don’t worry. I’ll stay right here and keep watch,” Mike said with a small reassuring smile, once again tightening his grip.

Will would normally have been flustered by the idea of falling asleep in Mike’s arms, but in his present condition he couldn’t think too hard about it. He was just grateful to have him there. He tried to imagine if he had fallen into the Upside Down by himself again. He would’ve given up long before reaching this situation. He would probably have just let Henry kill him.

“Thank you, Mike,” he said quietly as he let his head fall back onto his friend. He had been so busy wishing Mike hadn’t followed him, and that he was safe in Hawkins, that he realized he hadn’t even thanked him yet for his sacrifice. As much as he really didn’t want Mike here, he needed to show his gratitude at least once before the end.

“Don’t mention it,” he answered, and Will felt his voice vibrate his chest as he rested his head against it.

Will must have dropped off to sleep eventually, because the next thing he was aware of was standing in a horribly familiar room. Bookshelves lined the walls, tangled vines plastered across them. Will couldn’t stand being here and turned to hurry out the door. But someone was standing in his way.

“William,” said Henry, greeting him as though meeting here was a long-standing arrangement. Henry’s face was still grotesque and covered in tendrils, but now a deep gash across his right eye had marred his appearance even farther. The vines that covered his body had intertwined and covered the wound as though stitching it together, but it didn’t help much. Henry’s remaining eye was fixed on Will.

“You see what your friend did to me?” He raised his clawed hand to gesture at his own face. “He made a mistake he will soon regret. But you, Will…” he stepped closer. “You have nothing to fear. You can still make the smart choice and join me. If you do, your friend may still be spared. If not…” He trailed off, and his eye shifted from Will’s face to somewhere behind him. Will turned and felt his stomach drop at the sight.

In the center of the floor lay a lanky figure. Mike was motionless. His limbs were sprawled across the floor. He was laying face down, but Will could still see his features. His hair was matted and sticking to his face, where blood, too much blood, was pouring down onto the floor, leaving a horrific red puddle below him.

Will felt Henry move to right behind him as he struggled to comprehend what he was seeing. “I will get what I want one way or another. You can choose how painful you want it to be. I’m giving you one more chance to make the right decision.”

Will was about to turn around and give Henry a piece of his mind when another voice spoke.

“Will! Hey, Will!” His shoulder was being jostled and he woke with a start. He was still pressed against Mike. He lifted his head and saw Mike’s face, free of blood, looking at him with concern.

“Sorry,” he muttered, finally releasing Mike and sitting up on his own. “Bad dream.”

“I could tell,” Mike said sadly. “You were… making noises. I thought you were crying again.” Will shifted awkwardly. Now that his head was clearer, he felt slightly ashamed of his breakdown earlier.

“It’s okay,” Mike reassured him. “Do you… want to talk about it?”

Will almost shook his head, but he stopped himself. After what Mike had just done, the way he had comforted Will, he saw no reason to hide this from him. “It was Henry,” he began, cringing at the look on Mike’s face.

“You mean he gave you a vision? Or did you see him?”

“Both,” Will replied heavily. “You did cut his eye out, by the way. He looks pretty bad and he is not happy with you.” Despite the threat, Mike looked a little proud of himself. “He told me he would get back at you for what you did, but that I could still save you if I joined him.”

“Why does he want you to join him so bad?” Mike asked.

“I don’t know,” Will said defensively, though he had an idea. Not wanting to discuss his theory now, he continued. “But… he showed me what would happen if I refused.” Mike didn’t say anything. He was giving Will time to marshal his thoughts. “He showed me… you. You were on the ground in the… the library, and…” Mike gripped Will’s shoulder as he struggled to form the words. “There was a lot of blood. So much blood.” Will was coming to a terrible realization. “When the monsters find us,” he didn’t bother saying if , “they’ll kill you, but… they’ll leave me alive because Henry wants me. So he’s going to make me watch when…” He couldn’t finish that horrible thought aloud.

Mike didn’t seem to know what to say. It was a while before he spoke. “In my… visions… the ones he showed me,” Mike seemed terrified at the memory. “You were dead.” He shuddered. “He showed me two visions like that.” After another long pause, he went on. “Maybe he’s just trying to scare us. He showed both of us visions of each other dying, so maybe he’s just trying to get us both to give up.”

Will considered this. “Did you actually see him in your visions?”

Mike’s hopeful expression drooped. “No. I just saw you .”

“Well he actually spoke to me, and it felt like a pretty clear warning.”

“Is that what you saw the first time? When we were in the Creel house, I mean?”

Will remembered back to his vision immediately after falling into the Upside Down. “Not exactly. He showed me… you, but you weren’t dead.” He told Mike about his vision, describing the fight he had with the fake Mike, how he had made him cry and called him a coward.

“So that’s why you kept asking me if I thought you were a coward,” Mike said with dawning realization.

“Yeah,” Will said harshly. “And I still think he was right to…”

“Will, stop saying that,” interrupted Mike, slightly exasperated. “How many times do I have to tell you? You’re not a coward.”

“How can you still think that? I’ve given up, and I made you give up, too. We’re just sitting here waiting to die.”

“Are you thinking about helping Henry?” Mike asked suddenly.

“What? No!” answered Will firmly.

“You know he’s probably going to kill you eventually if you don’t…”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

Will hesitated only a second before responding somberly. “Yeah, I am.” He felt terrible admitting it.

“Well that sounds pretty brave to me,” Mike assured him, giving him an admiring look that he didn’t feel he deserved.

“If you say so.” Will answered begrudgingly. “I’m just so scared,” he admitted to Mike. Then he realized what exactly he was scared of. “I’m scared of watching you die.”

Mike’s gaze was sad. “I’m scared of watching you die, too.” The statement was made worse by the looming certainty that those fears would come true sooner rather than later. “In your nightmare,” Mike began hesitantly. “He gave you a choice, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s probably why the monsters haven’t gotten us yet,” he theorized. “He’s waiting to see if you’ll try to run or not.”

Will peered around at the glass and saw shadows shifting on the other side. “I’m not going to run,” he said. He’d done enough running.

“Me neither,” promised Mike. They locked eyes, and Will felt yet another wave of gratitude for his friend. Then the spell was broken as Mike reached down to the floor. “Here,” he said, holding out Will’s drawing. There was still a blot from where his tear had fallen. “You should try to finish it.” Before the end , thought Will.

More time passed as Will finished sketching Lucas, then got to work on Max beside him. Mike continued making his feeble calls for help, but to no avail. They steadily ate through much of the rest of their food as time wore on. Mike continued to write, though Will wasn’t sure if he was bothering to plan the campaign anymore. He hadn’t mentioned anything, and Will couldn’t summon the strength to ask about it.

As Will was halfway through drawing El, Mike made another call over the supercom, but there was no longer any real hope in his voice. Seeming to accept his fate, he resumed his seat next to Will, watching him work with admiration in his eyes.

“I hope she’s okay,” he said wistfully, looking at El’s roughly drawn face.

“Me too,” said Will. He had spent so long being jealous of El and resenting Mike’s attachment to her, that it was strange now to have the same level of concern for her as Mike did. Mike was no longer dating El, and she was now Will’s sister. He had been thinking about her a great deal since falling into the Upside Down again. He had come to the conclusion that if she had her full strength, she would have contacted one of them by now. The fact that she hadn’t meant something was wrong. Either she was hurt or otherwise incapacitated, or she had lost her powers. Neither option boded well for Mike and Will. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.” 

Mike nodded, seeming lost in thought. “Hey, can I tell you something?”

“Anything,” Will answered, and he meant it.

“I don’t…” The words seemed difficult for Mike to say. “I don’t think I was ever in love with El.” Will blinked in surprise. He and Mike had never discussed the details of why Mike and El broke up. With the topic of El being a source of much of the previous animosity between the two of them, Will didn’t want to risk asking. He was just happy to have Mike back to his old self and chose not to question it or complain about it.

“I know it sounds bad,” said Mike. “But… I wasn’t. We got together when we were super young and I don’t know if I even wanted to. But you were gone and she was helping us find you, and Lucas and Dustin kept making it seem like I was in love with her, and even Nancy asked me about it, and I guess… I guess I just thought I was supposed to be with her.” Will was hanging on every word, wondering why Mike had never talked to him about this sooner. Then he realized that he was probably only saying this because they didn’t have much time left. He was making a deathbed confession. 

“It made me feel like an asshole,” he continued with self-hatred in his tone. “By the end, I felt like I was always lying to her and I was scared of hurting her feelings by telling her the truth. She even called me out on it, saying I could never tell her I loved her. And she was right. I never said it to her face until that night… at the pizza place.”

Will remembered back to the night in question. It was not a pleasant memory. Some of the things Mike said had torn his heart open.

I feel like my life started that day we found you in the woods. That was the day Will went missing. The thought that that horrible day held such significance for Mike made him feel betrayed and sickened. It had therefore come as a surprise when barely two tense weeks later, Mike had told Will that he and El broke up. From then on, he went right back to being the kind, selfless Mike he had missed for over a year. They never discussed the things he had confessed that night at Surfer Boy Pizza, and Will didn’t dare bring it up, too scared to upset the balance they had restored.

“To be honest, I was kind of glad when we broke up.” He cringed at his own words. “God, that sounds so bad, I’m such an asshole.”

“Mike, you’re not an asshole,” Will assured him. “And you two are okay now, right?” Mike nodded and smiled slightly.

“Yeah, we’re closer than we ever were. Or… at least we were before…” Mike let out a sad sigh.

Will was thinking hard. Mike had decided to tell Will something deeply personal, which must have taken a great deal of courage. He was beating himself up over choices he made and things he said months ago: things Will had encouraged him to say. It would only be right to return the favor, clearing up some of the conflict from Spring Break. But could Will really tell him everything? Not everything, he decided. Not unless he asks.

He cleared his throat. “Um, Mike? Can I tell you something, too?”

“Of course,” he said at once. “Anything.” Anything? Are you sure? Will thought.

“You know that painting I gave you? In the van?” Mike nodded. “I… I lied about it. I’m sorry!” he added quickly, holding up his hands in surrender, even though Mike showed no signs of anger. “El didn’t ask me to make it. It was all my idea.”

Mike didn’t look shocked, or angry, or even surprised. Somehow, he actually smiled. “Yeah, I know,” he said calmly. “Or–” he continued, seeing Will’s expression. “At least, I guessed. I mean, El has never played D&D, and she wasn’t even in the painting, so…” Stupid, Will scolded himself. Of course he would figure it out. What were you thinking? Then another thought crossed his mind. How much does he know? Does he realize…

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I shouldn’t have lied to you, I was just trying to help you because you were feeling upset about your relationship with El, and I thought if I told you it was from her…”

Mike was shaking his head. “I’m not mad at you. Actually,” again, Will was sure he was blushing. “I like it better now that I know it was from you.”

It was Will’s turn to blush. “Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Mike was fully smiling now, just as he had when he had first unrolled the painting, and Will was sure he could see it now in his mind’s eye. After a moment of eye contact, he became serious again. “So…” he began timidly. “All that stuff you said in the van… was that…”

Will froze, trying to decide how to respond. He decided on the truth again. “I meant it. Every word, but… it wasn’t about El.” Mike looked at him fondly, and Will wondered how much he understood. “I feel like kind of an asshole, too. I mean…” he shook his head in shame. “I told you all that stuff about El, and I don’t think it was even true. And you confessed all that stuff to her and it ended up ruining your–”

“It didn’t ruin our relationship,” Mike said quickly. “It wasn’t going to last much longer no matter what I said. I didn’t love her, at least not like that.” Will was hoping Mike wouldn’t pry anymore. He wasn’t sure how much more of the truth he could stand to tell. When Mike fixed him with his gaze again, Will braced himself. “Thank you for telling me.” His smile was back, and it felt like the sun in the dark room.

“Yeah… of course.” Will felt a shift in Mike’s mood. While before he had been anxiously dreading their certain death, Will thought he seemed more accepting now. His shoulders were less tense than they had been as though he had found some degree of peace with their situation.

Mike picked up the walkie, then looked at Will. “One last try…” Will nodded. Mike pressed the button down. “This is Mike. Does anybody copy?”

For barely a second there was silence. Then, shocking Will so much he staggered upright, static flared, and in its midst there was the faintest trace of a voice.

“Mike–”

Will just stared, and Mike asked, “Was that… Nancy?”

“How?” asked Will, hardly daring to believe it. Was he dreaming? Was this a vision from Henry designed to torment him with false hope?

Mike pressed the button down again. “Hello? Does anyone copy?” He was answered with only static. He looked at Will, and he could see hope returning to his eyes. “You heard it, too, right?”

“Yeah, I heard it. How is the signal getting through? Unless they’re…” He was visited by an idea: an incredible, impossible idea. “Could they be in the Upside Down?” He hardly dared to believe it.

Will dug out his own walkie from his bag and turned it on. “If anyone else is down here, we need help! We’re stuck in the RadioShack downtown! Someone, help, please!” His heart hammered in his throat as he begged the walkie to come to life again and deliver another message. He looked at Mike, anguish on his face as the silence stretched on.

Mike shot to his feet. “Will, we have to go.” At Will’s continued look of fear and anxiety, he continued. “I know you said there was no way out, and I get it. I was ready to give up, too.” Will felt cowardly again. “But if there’s even a chance that Nancy is out there, in the Upside Down, we need to get out of here and find her.”

Will breathed heavily, the problem at hand feeling insurmountable. “But… how? How do we get out of here?”

“I don’t know, but we better try something.” He offered a hand to Will. Will hesitated. He knew their chances of survival were slim. Even now, part of him was wondering if he hadn’t imagined Nancy’s voice. But with or without him, Mike was going to try. Will knew that Mike would cross the Upside Down by himself to give Will a chance at freedom. But he couldn’t let him go on his own. Crazy together, he thought to himself, and he took Mike’s hand and was pulled to his feet.

They quickly packed all their things into their bags and made their way to the back of the store again.

“The bike is in the alley to the left out this door,” said Mike. “We might have to fight like hell, but we can make it there.” He sounded so certain, that Will believed him. Will helped to lift the shelving unit they had tipped over to barricade the door, and both of them took out their weapons.

“Ready?” Mike mouthed silently at him. Will nodded shakily. Mike opened the door a few inches and they both peered out. A demodog was prowling along the back side of the store. Mike gripped his machete and, with another nod from Will, sprang out and charged the monster. It barely had time to let out a shriek before the blade of the weapon sliced through its petaled head with surprising brutality. Unfortunately, the damage was done. There was a chirruping noise from the alley and two more demodogs came streaming out.

“Come on!” Mike called, and he charged at one of the dogs, leaving Will to deal with the other. Unfortunately, the second dog also seemed to have locked onto Mike. As Mike swiped his machete at the first, sending it dodging out of the way, the second one lunged. Will just managed to swing his nail bat and catch it on the head, sending it sprawling across the ground. As the first demodog made to pounce on Mike again, there came another sound. This one was much lower and it was coming from the alley on the other side of the RadioShack. Will knew what it was. He had heard that sound in nightmares almost every night for years.

“We have to go!” Will shouted at Mike, who was too busy with the demodog to have noticed. Between both of them, they managed to get both demodogs off of them for long enough to flee. They both rushed toward the alley, Mike in the lead. Will had just spotted the bike when there was the sound of heavy clawed feet on pavement from behind him. A tremendous force slammed into Will, sending him collapsing into the brick wall on the side of the alley. Mike was nearly to the bike when he heard it. He spun around to look at Will, eyes widening in horror.

“Will!”

Will hadn’t even seen the demogorgon yet, but he knew that’s what was pinning him down. He vaguely noticed that nothing had pierced him. Then, he felt clawed fingers clamp around his leg and he was dragged backwards. Just as the demogorgon had taken him from Castle Byers three years ago, this monster was taking him away again, and Will knew to whom he was being dragged. But if he let this happen, he knew what would happen to Mike. He could not allow it. He kicked and thrashed to no avail. Then, he heard more running footsteps and Mike came thundering out of the alley, swinging his machete at the unnaturally long arm of the demogorgon. It howled in pain and slackened its grip on Will, who yanked his foot out of its grasp.

He had barely sat up when a pair of long legs obscured his view of the demogorgon. Mike had flung himself between the monster and Will, and Will had never wanted his help less. Henry had made it very clear: he wanted Will alive, but he had no qualms about killing Mike. He barely had time to try to disuade Mike when he was raising his arm holding the machete again. This time, there was a swipe of claws, a spurt of blood, and Mike collapsed in front of him.

“No!” Will shouted, scrambling to his feet and hoisting his nail bat. If Henry intended not to kill him, he would have to use that to his advantage. He stood between Mike and the demogorgon, and as the beast turned its faceless head to him, he swung the bat with as much force as he could. It connected with the monster, staggering it for a second. In that time, Will glanced over his shoulder. The demodogs stood between them and the alley. There would be no getting there. “Mike, can you stand?” Will called.

“Yeah,” said Mike, his voice strained from pain, and he got to his feet, staggering slightly.

Will set his eyes once more on the demogorgon, which was recovering. “Start walking toward the door,” Will ordered. “I’ll cover you.”

“What? No!”

“Mike! Just do it!” Will said commandingly. It felt strange to be the one giving the orders. Usually that was Mike’s job, but he figured Mike had done enough already.

As Mike moved, the demogorgon attempted to lunge at him, but Will got in the way. When it changed targets, flinging a long arm at him, he smacked it hard with the bat, which did a considerable amount of damage for how simple of a weapon it was. Thankfully, the trip back to the door was short. By the time the demodogs joined the fray, Mike was already swinging the door open. The demogorgon made one more lunge, but Will was already shoving Mike through the door, which slammed behind them. The monsters could be heard scraping at the other side, and Mike and Will tipped the shelf over again to form a blockade.

At once, Will looked over Mike. One sleeve of his sweater was now shredded and he had a long bloody gash down his arm.

“It’s not very deep,” said Mike, clearly trying to stop Will from panicking. “Anyway, we don’t have time to waste. The monsters know what building we’re in now.”

Unfortunately, Will agreed. Before he could say anything else, he registered that there was another voice coming out of the walkie. 

“Mike– ill? Plea– pond, Does– ody cop– over.”

It wasn’t Nancy, and when Will realized who it was, he almost dropped the walkie in his excitement to respond. “Jonathan?” he cried into the device. He had never been more happy to hear his brother’s voice.

“Will– it– onathan– are you?”

Will sighed in relief and almost cried at the fresh wave of hope that washed over him. “We’re downtown, and there are monsters everywhere! We need help!”

“Wi– can bare– ear you. I–” There was a pause, in which both Mike and Will stared at the walkie, holding their breath.

“I –ow you– scared. We– Hawkins La– gate – open agai– are a to– monsters– don’t– yet.” It was hard to understand through the terrible signal. Jonathan must be just out of range. But the words he was catching were fueling the dim embers of hope in his chest, turning them into a weak but steady flame. 

“We– et you– kay? Y– just– hang on– promise we– ome get yo–.” Will felt a strong surge of admiration for his brother. Somehow, against all odds, he had found a way into the Upside Down, and he was trying to help him. He and Mike weren’t alone anymore.

“Mike, if– there– ank you– help– Will– stay wi– kay? – needs you– you– him– Nancy– misses yo–” Will looked at Mike, who was looking touched. He knew the Wheeler siblings weren’t as close as he and Jonathan, but he could tell it meant a great deal to Mike to hear that Nancy missed him.

The walkie had gone silent. Will, desperate for anything else, pressed the button again, voice shaking slightly. “Jonathan. Are you still there?”

“Li–en– know you– ared, bu– you two– strong– kay? – find some– talk– ith the light– you esca– now you nee– together– strong, okay?” Even through the patchy signal, Will thought he could hear a slight quaver in his brother’s voice. He longed to jump through the device and somehow pop out wherever he was.

“ –love yo– Will– be safe–” The walkie crackled back into silence.

“Jonathan?” Will asked quietly, a lump in his throat, but no further comfort came. The brief sense of warmth that had come over him at the sound of his brother’s voice faded, and the reality of the situation came back to him.

“Okay,” he said, now full of resolve. “We need to get going.” He marched back to the front of the store, Mike trailing behind him. Will glanced out at the street. It was still packed with monsters: far too many to fight through. Their only hope was to get away on the bike. Then Will thought about Henry. Fleeing downtown would cause Henry to proceed with his plans without Will’s help. He didn’t know what his plans were exactly, but he knew that one of his goals was to kill Mike. And if they left now, Henry wouldn’t need to find them to accomplish that particular goal. “We still need music,” Will groaned, squinting down the gloomy street toward where he knew the music store was. “We need to get over there.” He looked to Mike instinctively, to see him looking wary.

“I don’t know, Will. Are you sure it’s worth it?”

“Yes,” Will said, without hesitation. If it ended up saving Mike’s life, it would be worth anything.

“We’ll never make it there,” Mike pointed out with an “are you crazy” tone. Will thought for a moment, trying to figure out a way, but it seemed impossible.

Then Mike, with a strained tone, offered a solution. “We’ll never make it. But you might.”

“What?!” asked Will, suddenly fearful.

“They won’t kill you. They’ll just try to capture you. So you have a better chance of making it alone.” Will couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Just this morning, Mike had been freaking out about Will leaving his sight for just a few seconds.

“There’s too many of them out there. They’ll get me in a second.” He spoke in a tone of forced calm.

“So I’ll clear the road,” Mike said. “They won’t kill you, but they’ll try to kill me. I’ll lead them away on the bike. As many as I can, at least.”

“Are you insane?”

“I must be if I’m willing to let you go out there by yourself,” he admitted. “But I don’t see another option.” He held up his bleeding arm and rolled up the sleeve. Will winced at the sight. “This will attract them, then all I have to do is stay ahead of the pack. You get the music, then meet me at the corner by Melvald’s. You have a walkie, so tell me when you’re on the way. Once you’re on the bike, we’ll just have to lose them somewhere and find a place to hide.”

Will considered the plan. It was certifiably insane, but so was their situation. Unfortunately, Will couldn’t think of an alternative.

“Okay,” he said, feeling like he was inscribing his own gravestone. “We can try it. What songs should I get?” he asked, turning to Mike.

“Uh… Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat for me,” he grinned. “And Should I Stay or Should I Go for you, right?”

“Not anymore, actually,” answered Will awkwardly. “This place kinda ruined it for me. Now it’s Boys Don’t Cry by The Cure.”

“Oh,” Mike replied. He seemed a little disappointed that he didn’t know Will’s favorite song anymore. “Okay.”

Realizing what had to happen next, Will took a long look at Mike. Then, before he could stop himself, he closed the distance between them and threw his arms around his best friend, crushing him in a hug. Mike only paused for a startled second before hugging Will back.

“Be careful,” Will murmured in a shaky voice, realizing that if things went wrong, this could be the last time he ever saw Mike. “And…” Tell him, said a voice in his mind. Tell him the truth. He deserves to know. And you might not get another chance. He pulled out of the hug, studying Mike’s concerned face for a few seconds. “And… thank you, again. For being here.” Coward.

Mike gave him a long searching look, and Will thought he seemed deep in thought, as though trying to decide what to say. “Yeah… of course. And you be careful, too, okay?” Will nodded. “You’re not a coward, Will! You’re not!” He seemed almost angry in his absolute certainty. “Don’t you forget it.”

The first phase of the plan went smoothly. They once again moved the shelf out of the way of the door, then Mike opened it. He clanged the blade of his machete against the metal door frame to attract the attention of the two demodogs still outside. Will grabbed the door and slammed it shut after the first one got through, isolating it so that he and Mike could kill it quickly. They repeated the process for the second. Then they crept outside together toward the mouth of the alley. Peering down it, they saw no trace of the demogorgon, which seemed to have lumbered off. Will took one last look at Mike, trying to absorb every detail of him. “Good luck,” he said with as much conviction as he could manage.

“See you in a minute,” Mike answered before sprinting to the bike and getting on it.

Will rushed back into the store and made his way to the front window. He was already regretting agreeing to the plan. How stupid would it be to get Mike killed by trying to keep him alive?

Will just managed to glimpse the shadowy form of Mike on the bike as he rode out of the alley. There was a shout that Will couldn’t quite decipher, then a ripple seemed to travel through the crowd of monsters in the street as they noticed him. Dozens of demodogs ran away from the storefronts, a few demogorgons in their midst. The shriek of demobats could be heard overhead and Will thought about Eddie Munson. He had never met him, but he knew what had happened to him. His throat seemed to constrict out of fear for Mike.

The crowd of monsters started to thin, though there were still demodogs here and there. If he was quick, he could get to the music store before they even noticed him. Don’t be a coward, said the voice in his head. I’m not a coward, Will answered himself in an internal voice that sounded like Mike’s. I’m not!  

He took a deep breath, lifted his nail bat, and opened the glass door of the store, the bell over his head jingling unhelpfully. He sprinted across the street and was under the canopy of the shop across the street before there was so much as a chitter from any of the demodogs. He could hear the distant snarling of the monsters that were after Mike. The sound made him sick with fear. As he reached the music shop, a demodog lunged at him. He reacted instinctively, swinging the nail bat and striking the monster with a horrible squelching thud. He reached the door, which was thankfully unlocked, and dashed inside.

Will lifted his walkie and pressed the button. “I’m in the music store. Please tell me you’re okay, over.”

It was a few heartstopping seconds before Mike responded. “I’m okay, but you better hurry. I can’t keep this up for long, over.”

Will sped through the store, desperately searching for anything by Bronski Beat. After less than a minute he found them, and began searching for Smalltown Boy. His eyes roved over the cassettes, but he couldn’t find it. Shit, shit, shit, he thought, as he realized what the likely problem was. He lifted the walkie again. “Hey, Mike? When did Smalltown Boy release? Over.”

“1984, wh– oh shit!” “ Oh shit” was right. Why couldn’t the Upside Down be stuck one year later? “Hey, get Should I Stay or Should I Go for me!” came Mike’s voice. “Just trust me!” 

Will didn’t question it. He quickly found the requested song, then Boys Don’t Cry, then on his way back out, he swept the entire stock of Bronski Beat cassettes into his bag just to be safe.

“Okay, I’m ready to go. I can get to Melvalds in probably a minute. Are you ready?”

“Yeah, go!”

Will didn’t stop to think. He burst out of the store and began running down the street. As he reached Melvald’s, a pack of demodogs noticed him and began approaching. Praying that Mike would arrive, he swung his bat threateningly at them. Suddenly, the sound of distant monsters didn’t sound so distant. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mike swerve around a corner, and maybe 50 feet behind him was a wall of fleshy grey creatures. With one last swing of his bat, he drove the demodogs back and made a run for it. He reached the corner at the same time Mike did. The bike barely slowed down before Will had clambered on and wrapped his arms tightly around Mike.

“GO!” he screamed at him. Mike didn’t need to be told twice.

“Hang on tight!” he called back. Will was certainly doing that. If he gripped Mike any tighter he would probably cut off his circulation. No longer attempting to keep the attention of the monsters, Mike’s riding became more erratic. He made sharp, sudden turns, cut through backyards, and through alleys. They pulled up alongside a shed in a backyard and Mike hit the brakes for a moment. The monsters had become more distant, but Will knew they would catch up soon. He realized the problem at once.

“Give me your arm,” he ordered, and Mike obliged, twisting in his seat. Will removed the scarf that was still wrapped around his neck and wound it as tightly as he could over Mike’s bloody arm, hoping it would mask the scent just enough for them to get away. As the monsters started to approach again, they biked quietly through the yards of a neighborhood.

“There” said Will quietly, pointing toward a familiar building. They were still near downtown, but this street was empty and they needed somewhere to rest. “We should bring the bike inside this time,” he added.

Even in his state of adrenaline-fuelled panic, Will couldn’t help but feel nostalgic as they pulled up to the arcade. Will dismounted at once and held the door open for Mike to wheel the bike inside. They made their way to the back of the building to what appeared to be a staff room and finally rested. The sound of monsters was now distant, and Will felt certain that they had not been followed.

They both breathed heavily for a moment before Mike spoke. “Holy shit,” he looked at Will and somehow managed to smile. “That was crazy.”

“No kidding,” said Will, then looked fondly back at Mike. “Nice job.”

“You, too.” Will didn’t feel like he did too much. He had gone music shopping and he had managed not to be killed, but Mike was obviously in the most danger.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” The statement felt obvious, but Will had to say it anyway. He couldn’t express how glad he really was.

“I’m glad you are, too.”

Suddenly remembering why they had gone through all that trouble, Will opened his bag and held out the cassette containing Should I Stay or Should I Go. Mike took it and put it in his Walkman.

“So why did you want that song? I didn’t think you liked it.”

“I didn’t,” Mike admitted. “Until I heard you singing it when you were in the Upside Down.” Will smiled broadly. He couldn’t help it. “I thought you were dead until I heard that.”

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, reeling from yet another harrowing experience. Then Mike yawned widely.

“You should sleep,” Will advised. “It’s my turn to keep watch.” As Mike found a spot to lie down on the floor, Will had to resist the urge to wrap himself around him, as Mike had done for him earlier. Soon, the sound of Mike’s soft breathing filled the space. Will watched over him from the chair he was in and was happy to see how peaceful he looked as he slept.

Not wanting to be creepy, he looked back up toward the open door to the employee room, through which he had a clear view of the glass windows at the front of the arcade. After watching the sky for a while, he noticed a particularly bright flash of red lightning. At the same time, he felt a familiar dropping sensation in his stomach and a prickle of goosebumps at the back of his neck. He only had a second of panic during which he wondered if Henry could be near him, before his instincts caught up with him. He didn’t know how he knew it, but he knew that Henry wasn’t here. But he was furious at Mike and Will’s escape. And Will knew that Henry had just put another plan into motion, one that he was sure would succeed with or without Will’s cooperation.

Yet another flash of bright red lightning shone through the windows and the sound of the distant storm outside got a little louder. Making sure to keep Mike in his line of sight, Will crept out of the room to get a better view out the windows. He glanced back once more at Mike before looking into the gloom.

Then there was another series of bright flashes and Will gasped in horror. He remembered standing near this exact point about two years ago, watching a furious storm approach. This time, the sight was far worse. Because as more lightning flickered in the distant clouds, it illuminated the monstrous form of a shadowy creature. It had long, spindly, nebulous legs, which arched high into the sky over a featureless body. Will was nothing more than a scared child as he looked upon the form of the creature he feared most. More than the demogorgon, maybe even more than Henry. The Mind Flayer’s form twisted and its body turned to gaze directly at Will, who stood shaking on the spot, wishing more fiercely than ever that his nightmare would end.

Chapter Text

Three years ago, if someone had told Steve that one day he would be sitting on the roof of an abandoned government lab in the middle of the night with a girl named Robin, waiting to communicate with Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers, who were in a parallel dimension, using a lamp and Morse code, he would’ve called bullshit and probably asked if Robin was single. But that was the situation he found himself in. His platonic (with a capital P) friend Robin was sitting next to him (definitely not single, which Steve was nothing short of thrilled about), looking remarkably calm given the situation. Not only that, his role in this insane operation was to be the messenger to a group of kids currently sitting in a field across town. How things have changed… 

Steve was considerably less calm than Robin. His mind was with Nancy in the Upside Down. Try as he might, he couldn’t suppress the memory of claws and teeth sinking into his sides, tearing flesh in chunks as he struggled on the ground. He hoped Nancy and Jonathan were up to the task of keeping themselves safe.

“Hey. Dingus,” came Robin’s voice from his left. Steve looked suddenly over at her. “They’re gonna be fine, relax.”

“You don’t know that,” Steve answered in a would-be calm voice.

“Maybe not, but you should give Nancy some credit. I mean, she’s kind of a badass. She saved our asses when we were there.”

“I know,” Steve agreed. He had learned firsthand that Nancy was a force to be reckoned with. And with her brother in trouble, she was bound to be even more formidable than usual. But everyone had their limits, and there was no overstating how ruthless the Upside Down could be. What if Henry anticipated that they might do this? Part of him wanted to run downstairs right now, march through the gate, and drag them back before anything could go wrong.

Suddenly, the lamp flared, putting an end to his thought process. As Steve and Robin shifted closer to it, it dimmed again. Robin had a pad of paper out so she could write out the messages for both ease of translation and for Steve’s benefit. Robin had followed Nancy’s lead in learning Morse code after their last trip into the Upside Down, and she had encouraged Steve to do the same. He had honestly tried (briefly), but decided he would just stick to Nancy or Robin in situations like this. If all else failed, he knew SOS.

The lamp began to flicker and Robin began translating the letters.

“HERE,” she wrote on the notepad.

“Good,” Robin answered aloud. Steve felt himself relax slightly. “Were there any problems?”

A few blinks answered. “NO,” Robin wrote.

Steve lifted the walkie to his mouth and pressed the button. “They made it to the roof,” he reported.

Immediately, Dustin’s voice answered. “Thank God,” and Steve could hear the intense relief in his voice. He hated how afraid Dustin was of the Upside Down now. Of course, that level of fear should be expected, but he compared this cautious and anxious Dustin to the eager and quizzical Dustin who had agreed to accompany Eddie Munson into the Upside Down in the spring. The difference was night and day. Steve hated thinking about Eddie in moments like this. That could have been Dustin, or me, was the refrain that kept echoing in his mind. Or that could be Nancy or Jonathan or any of us.  

“What’s it look like down there?” asked Robin. A long silence followed. As it stretched on, Steve made eye contact with Robin and they had a silent exchange of facial expressions that could be roughly translated as follows.

What’s taking so long?

They’re probably just looking around. Relax.

How can I relax? They’re in the Upside Down.

They’re adults and they can handle themselves. Get a grip.

You get a grip! You remember how crazy that place was!

He soon grew impatient. “Hello?” he called. Normally he would feel silly talking to a lamp, but he was too worried now to care.

The lantern began flickering again. “MONSTERS. BELOW,” Robin translated. At this, her calm demeanor began to crack and she looked slightly worried.

“Monsters? Like, a lot of them or…?” she asked in the awkward and strained tone she tended to use under duress. More blinking.

“TOO MANY.”

The full message was clear. There were too many monsters for anyone to fight through. By the sound of this there was an army forming around the lab, probably to stop anyone from entering the Upside Down in search of the boys or Henry.

“Well that doesn’t sound good,” said Robin quietly.

“No kidding,” replied Steve, raising the walkie again. “Bad news. The lab is surrounded by monsters. They’re not gonna be able to get through.”

“Shit,” came Dustin’s voice.

“Okay, so what if we just distract them like last time?” Steve suggested to Robin. He regretted the suggestion as soon as he made it.

“Mike and Will would have to do it. We don’t have another way in,” said Robin, wincing at the idea of something so dangerous. Steve was shaking his head at his own suggestion. After what happened the last time two people attempted to lure monsters away in the Upside Down, he knew it would be a bad idea. He was glad he hadn’t made the suggestion to Dustin.

Instead, he pitched his Plan B over the walkie. “They’re gonna have to sneak past them.”

“Obviously,” came his answer, and Steve was relieved to hear some of Dustin’s old, albeit annoying, arrogance back.

“Okay, how?” asked Steve in a tone of false exasperation, falling back into the familiar rhythm of conversation with Dustin.

“There’s only one way,” Dustin began. As Steve was still thinking, Robin put it together.

“The tunnel,” she finished. Steve knew what tunnel they were referring to: the one El had escaped through on the night Will disappeared. 

He was about to ask if anyone knew where that tunnel was when the lamp flickered again. Steve suddenly realized Nancy and Jonathan hadn’t had any input in this conversation.

“MIKE. RADIO.”

No way, thought Steve. “Wait, that actually worked?” he exclaimed without thinking. He didn’t mean to sound so surprised that Jonathan’s idea had worked. He was more so impressed with Mike and Will’s ingenuity, though after spending a likely unhealthy amount of time with Dustin, he shouldn’t be surprised what the little twerps could accomplish. “Where is he?”

“SIGNAL BAD.”

“Damn,” Steve said at once. He hastened to pass the message on. “Guys, Mike’s alive. They heard him on the radio.”

The response was immediate and predictable. “Are you serious?!” Dustin cried.

His voice was immediately replaced by that of Lucas, as though he had yanked the radio out of Dustin’s hands. “What about Will?”

“We don’t know yet, but he’s probably fine.” A short silence followed. “Alright, guys, keep a lid on it. No running in here to try to help.” The lack of a defensive answer told Steve he was right to issue the warning.

He should have given a warning to Nancy and Jonathan as well, because after a moment, the lamp flared again and Robin translated.

“GETTING CLOSER.”

Steve almost fell over as he straightened up at once. “Woah, woah, hang on! What do you mean?” They couldn’t leave the lab. That would be ridiculous. And Jonathan promised he wouldn’t.

“WAIT. BE BACK SOON.”

Apparently he would. “Nancy, wait!” But there was no answer. “I gotta go after them,” Steve announced as he started to get to his feet. Robin snatched the walkie out of his hand. “No, Robin, wait,” he hissed. Too late.

“They’re trying to get closer to get a better signal. No idea what that means,” she reported. Steve knew a lecture was coming. Sure enough, Dustin spoke.

“Tell Steve to sit his ass down and to not do anything stupid.” Steve froze as he was almost to his feet. He could run off now before listening to another word from Dustin, but that felt wrong. So instead he took the walkie back out of Robin's hands and pressed the button.

“Listen, Henderson. Jonathan and Nancy might be about to do something stupid. I gotta go check on them.”

He had barely finished speaking when Dustin responded. “Checking on them is something stupid. Please don't go.” Steve registered the desperate tone and felt enormous sympathy, but he knew Nancy and Jonathan could need backup right now. He trusted their judgement, but knew they were both blinded by the grief of losing their siblings at the moment.

“Dustin.” Steve hardly ever called Dustin by his first name. He hoped the change would convey the seriousness of the situation and the good faith behind his words. “I'm just gonna go check on them and then I'll be right back, okay? I promise.”

Dustin's voice sounded like it was shaking as he responded. “This is no time to act like a hero, Steve.” We… are not heroes. The memory came back to him sharp as a tack. But Eddie was a hero. Steve knew what could happen if he ran into the Upside Down without a plan. He knew what “acting the hero” could cost him. Maybe Nancy and Jonathan weren't planning on leaving the lab, and maybe they were. If they were, they might get torn apart. And Mike and Will were down there somewhere as well. That was proven without a shadow of a doubt now. He tried to imagine if Dustin or Lucas or Max were in their place. He had never associated too much with Mike and Will, but he knew that the burden they carried as a result of the Upside Down was immense, especially for Will. He hated the idea of what the pair of them were going through. As much as he complained in the past about always being the babysitter, that had become his role in the group, and he had to admit to himself that he was good at it. It was possibly the only thing he had ever felt he was good at.

With these thoughts in mind, he made his decision. “I'm gonna get them back,” he promised. He didn't know if he was referring to just Nancy and Jonathan, or to Mike and Will, or to all of them. It was exactly the time to be the hero. He thrust the walkie back into Robin's hand, scooped up his nail bat, and hurried toward the door to the stairwell as fast as he could go, barely registering Robin calling his name in a panic behind him or the frantic shouting coming from the walkie.

He charged down the stairs as fast as he could until he reached the basement. He dashed through the halls at top speed and soon found the gate. He didn’t even slow down as he crossed the room and burst through the thin membrane between worlds. The cold shocked him as though he had just jumped into an icy pond. The air stung his lungs and he was momentarily blind in the darkness.

If Nancy and Jonathan were trying to leave the lab, it had already been established that there was only one way out. He had no idea where the tunnel led to on the outside, but the entrance had to be underground on the inside. He therefore hurried through the labyrinthine passages of the basement as quietly as he could.

He checked in room after room, calling Nancy’s name quietly, figuring he would either find her or cause any monsters present to reveal themselves. Finally he opened a door to see a white light shining on the far wall.

“Nancy?” he asked. Nancy jumped so violently that she almost dropped the flashlight. Steve entered the room, descending a set of metal stairs to reach her.

“Steve, what the hell are you doing here?” She didn’t sound angry, but she didn’t sound happy to see him either.

“Making sure you two don’t go charging off into the Upside Down,” he answered. Then he registered who was missing from the scene. “Where’s Jonathan?”

His question was answered as his eyes fell on the open entrance of the tunnel. “He went out there alone?”

“He’s just trying to get a better signal. He’s not going anywhere,” Nancy assured him. Steve thought Jonathan must be insane and couldn’t stop himself from clutching at his hair in distress. Steve was about to suggest going after him when there was a truly horrific sound that echoed from the tunnel.

It was a screeching, bellowing roar. Steve had heard the calls of demodogs and a demogorgon, and this was worse by far than either of them. It sounded as loud as a hundred demogorgons put together. The sound seemed to shake the ground and the walls around them. Even the spores in the air seemed to quiver.

“JONATHAN?!” Nancy called in distress, bending down and sticking her head into the tunnel.

“Woah, hang on,” warned Steve, grabbing her upper arm to stop her from crawling after her boyfriend.

“We have to go after him!” Nancy fretted. “He could be–” she cut off as Steve put a finger to his lips. There was another sound filling the air. As though in response to the roar, there were shrieks from outside the lab as dozens of monsters cried out.

“Nancy, you have to go,” Steve ordered.

“But Jonathan–” she began.

“I’ll get him,” Steve promised. “I promise, I won’t come back without him, but you have to get out of here.” Steve was aware that Nancy could handle herself, and perhaps he was being a little overprotective by stopping her from staying behind, but he didn’t care. He thought it was the least he could do for the pair of them to make sure she and Jonathan survived.

Nancy seemed to be hesitating, and a second deafening roar filled the space. The sound of the monsters outside got louder and Steve became more persistent, actually leading her away from the tunnel and toward the door. “Just get back to Robin. I’ll be right behind you!” She started up the staircase toward the door and stopped one more time to look at him. “GO!” he ordered before she could waste more time.

She obeyed and let the door close behind her. Steve returned to the entrance to the tunnel and tried to look inside. He was soon distracted by the sound of footsteps in the hall. He was almost wondering if Nancy had returned at first, but then he heard the familiar sound of a demogorgon.

Before he could start thinking of a safe way out, there was a scuffling sound from the tunnel. Steve turned and saw a pair of arms reaching out. Steve hurried to help, grabbing Jonathan and pulling him out and onto his feet. When Jonathan got a look at who was helping him, his face fell into disappointment, which Steve tried not to take personally.

“Where’s Nancy?” he asked immediately.

“She’s fine. She went back to the gate. I told her we’d be right behind her.”

“Okay, so let’s go,” said Jonathan. He tried to march past Steve, but wobbled alarmingly. Steve put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“I’ve got bad news, Byers,” he said. “We might be stuck here for a while.” Jonathan just stared for a moment. Then, very suddenly, he threw Steve’s hand off and moved toward the door. Steve noticed at once that he wasn’t just wobbling a bit. He was limping. Looking down, Steve saw that one leg of his jeans was tattered and that the fabric was stained with blood.

Steve cut Jonathan off at the metal stairs, standing in his way and having to physically restrain him from barging past. “Woah, man. Relax,” he advised. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“T– To get Nancy!” Jonathan retorted at once, redoubling his efforts to get past Steve. Having been on the receiving end of Jonathan’s anger once before, Steve was half ready to shield his face if he had to.

“You can’t just go after her. It’s dangerous out there and you can barely walk. Here let me help you–”

As Steve made to shepherd Jonathan away from the stairs, Jonathan swatted his hands away again and managed to reach the first step. Steve gave him a retaliatory shove. It wasn’t supposed to be harmful, but he couldn’t let Jonathan walk out into a horde of monsters unprepared. However, Jonathan staggered and barely caught himself as he toppled backwards onto the ground.

“Shit! Sorry, I didn’t mean–” Steve began.

“I’m fine,” spat Jonathan, but he made no further attempt to get past Steve, or even to get up.

Steve slowly approached Jonathan and crouched down in front of him. “We should patch up that leg,” he advised.

“I got it,” Jonathan answered shortly, pulling his bloody leg toward himself. He tore off the shredded cloth from the bottom of his pant leg and began wrapping it around his wound.

“What happened out there?” Steve asked tentatively.

Jonathan paused for a moment before seeming to decide that the question was reasonable enough to dignify a response. “Some… creature,” he said weakly. “It was huge. I barely got away.”

Steve sat in silence, absorbing this information while Jonathan continued to patch his wound. The fabric was already soaking through with blood. Steve was no expert, but he thought Jonathan would probably need stitches for an injury like that.

Jonathan suddenly spoke, interrupting Steve’s dismay at the news of an even larger creature of even more unimaginable horror guarding the only way into the lab.

“Why’d you let Nancy go by herself? She might have gotten hurt.”

“I told her I’d wait for you. And she can handle things on her own. She had a decent head start before anything got in the building.”

“And why are you down here? You were supposed to stay with Robin.”

“Making sure you didn’t do anything stupid.” Steve realized a second too late that he had chosen his words poorly.

“We had it covered.” Jonathan spoke quietly, but his tone was as cold as the air. Steve just stared at him, unsure of what to say. He felt like he was walking in a conversational minefield. He knew Jonathan had a right to be angry at him given their history, but by now he felt he had made up for his misdeeds with most people. Nancy certainly seemed to have forgiven him for all he had done to hurt her, and the kids treated him with more respect than they ever would have just a few years ago. Robin had trusted him with her most closely guarded secret. But he had said virtually nothing to Jonathan since the year his brother disappeared the first time. He realized now that he had never made things up with him in the way he had with everyone else. All these years later, he was still paying for how he had behaved in high school.

“Listen, I’m sorry, okay? I was just trying to help out.”

“You mean you were trying to help Nancy out, right?” he retorted. “That’s why you came down here? Even though you said yourself that she can handle things on her own.” Jonathan’s words cut deep, because to some extent he was right. He was thinking mostly of Nancy as he rushed down here. But that was just because he had spent more time with her. He may not be close with Jonathan, but that didn’t mean he would let him die. 

But even as these thoughts formed in his mind, memories of the events of Spring Break came back to him. Those tense moments with Nancy, including when he had stupidly confessed that he had hoped to have a bunch of kids with her and go on a road trip as a family. Who says that kind of thing to a girl who’s in a relationship? The longer he thought, the more reasons he could think of for Jonathan to hate him. Maybe he wasn’t being too unreasonable after all.

“That’s not true,” he said, not quite believing it himself. “I was worried about you, too.”

“Oh, bullshit,” shot Jonathan, finishing the makeshift bandage on his leg and getting laboriously to his feet. “Since when have you given a shit about me?”

Steve got to his feet and held up his hands in surrender. “You’re right. Okay? You’re right, I was a total dick to you, and I’m sorry. But I’ve changed since then.” Jonathan didn’t look like he believed him. “I swear, I have. Look, I know I shouldn’t have broken your camera. I was just being protec–”

“This isn’t about the stupid camera.” The apology didn’t seem to have calmed Jonathan. Instead, he was actually getting angrier. “It’s not about the graffiti either. It’s about what you said to me.”

Steve felt as though his insides had frozen solid. He didn’t know how to respond. ‘I’m sorry’ felt inadequate.

“Do you even remember what you said that day in the alley?” Jonathan was looking daggers at Steve, who honestly couldn’t remember all the details. All he knew was that in a show of overprotectiveness, he had thrown every foul insult he could think of at Jonathan. The result had been the most productive asskicking of his life. Jonathan had literally knocked sense into him.

As seconds passed and Steve had not answered, Jonathan approached him and Steve almost cringed in disgust with himself. “I–” He could barely bring himself to repeat it. God, he was such a coward. “Didn’t I call you a– a queer? And a screwup?”

“Yeah, you did. But I’m not even mad about that.” Steve was taken aback by this. What else had he said? “You insulted my mother, and you insulted Will. You made fun of my dead brother during the worst week of my life, and you don’t even remember it.” 

Steve was frozen and his insides were curling in shame. What could he even say to make up for that? He had gone to Jonathan’s house that night to apologize, and in doing so he got dragged into this crazy conflict with the Upside Down that would consume the next few years of his life. He had saved Jonathan from the demogorgon, but he had never truly apologized. He had assumed that it would make them even, but really he had done the bare minimum. He was sure anyone with a bat in their hand would have swung at that monster, regardless of who it was on top of. And again, if he was really honest with himself, he had mainly gone back into that house with Nancy in mind. 

Steve had kicked Jonathan while he was down, then restored the status quo. He had bought him the new camera, but he hadn’t gifted it directly. He wasn’t even sure Jonathan knew it was from him, and he didn’t want to ruin what was probably an important moment in his relationship with Nancy by revealing the truth. He had then had virtually no direct contact with Jonathan for the next few years, during which Jonathan had heard about how much Steve Harrington had changed, but never really saw it with his own eyes.

“I’m sorry.” It felt embarrassingly feeble but he didn’t know what else to say. “I’m so sorry. If I were you, I wouldn’t forgive me either.” He didn’t back away from Jonathan as he spoke. He knew he deserved to be fixed with his accusatory stare. “I know it doesn’t excuse what I said, but I really didn’t mean any of it. I was upset that Nancy was spending time with you so I lashed out and said a bunch of stuff that I shouldn’t have said. I guess I was just putting on a show for my asshole friends.” Jonathan’s stare didn’t soften and Steve realized that he was just making excuses. “Everything I did back then was a show, to be honest. And that’s really messed up. God, I was such an asshole.”

In that moment, Steve realized that while his intentions had changed, that aspect of himself hadn’t. He still was always the one to put on a show. He was never content to stay behind and babysit, because he thought he had to be in the action to prove that he had become a better person. He thought fighting off a monster would serve as an apology. And right now, he was in a dangerous situation because he couldn’t just stay behind and trust his friends. He had, as Dustin had put it, chosen to act like a hero. He realized he could jump in front of monsters and run across the entire Upside Down, but until he got some results and offered something of genuine value to Jonathan, he would never truly gain his trust and make up for what he had done and said.

“Look,” he began with genuine sincerity. “I know nothing I say will get you to trust me, but I want to help get your brother back. Mike, too. And to do that, we need to get out of here, which means we’re gonna have to work together.” Jonathan’s expression didn’t soften, but he nodded his head in agreement. “Once we’re back in Hawkins, you can go back to hating my guts if you want to. Deal?” He held out a hand, and after a moment of hesitation, Jonathan shook it reluctantly.

“Are you okay to walk on that leg?” Steve asked.

“I'll be fine, but you might have to do a lot of the fighting.” Steve registered a note of apprehension in his voice. He nodded seriously, aware that Jonathan was putting some faith in Steve for possibly the first time ever.

Jonathan retrieved the axe he had dropped after emerging from the tunnel, Steve raised his nail bat, and they crept silently to the door.

It was dark and silent in the hallway. Every step threatened to reveal their location and Steve was sure every shadow was hiding a monster. When they finally reached the room with the gate, they froze as the ugly lack of a face of a demogorgon turned toward them. Alongside it was a pack of demodogs.

As the monster raced toward them, Steve shoved Jonathan back out of the room and the two of them fled down the hall as fast as Jonathan's leg would permit. They took a sharp turn at high speed and ended up in a hallway full of heavy doors. Steve tried one and found that it opened. The two of them took shelter inside before the pursuing monsters could reach them.

Steve was still staring at the closed door and breathing heavily when Jonathan staggered backwards. Steve thought it might be pain in his leg, but then he registered what Jonathan was muttering.

“It's all my fault, it's all my fault.” He sunk onto a disgusting bed against the far wall. Steve suddenly realized that the room resembled a prison cell and knew who probably lived here. A drawing on the wall confirmed his theory. On it were two stick figures. One was labeled ‘11’, and the other ‘Papa’. He brushed these observations aside for now.

“Hey, this isn't your fault, Byers.”

“Yes it is. It was my idea to go through the tunnel, and my idea to even come here in the first place. And now the gate is being guarded and we're gonna–”

“We're not gonna die. We're just gonna have to fight our way through.”

“Through that? ”

“Yes, through that. I said I would help find your brother, and we can't do that if we're stuck here.”

There was a pause in which Jonathan sat on the bed, breathing hard. He seemed to be trying to hold himself together.

“This was so stupid,” he said bitterly, burying his head in his hands. “We should've listened to Dustin. And Hopper.”

“Hey, don't give Henderson too much credit,” Steve joked, then became serious. “And this wasn't stupid. It was a good idea. Now we know what we're dealing with.”

“But it doesn't matter,” Jonathan argued. “You didn't see that monster out there, or the size of that army. How are Mike and Will supposed to get through all that? And over the walkie, Will sounded like he was in trouble. I don't know if he can…” He trailed off and Steve felt terrible. He couldn't imagine how it must feel to have a sibling in such danger. Steve, of course, didn't have any siblings so he legitimately couldn't imagine it. The closest thing was Dustin.

After a pause, Jonathan continued, with more vulnerability than Steve had yet heard from him. He must really be losing hope if he was talking like this. “You know, the night he disappeared I was supposed to be home, but I wasn't. So he was all alone and he must have been so scared and…” he trailed off, overcome with bitter emotion.

“You can't blame yourself for that,” Steve told him. “You couldn't have known what would happen.”

“I guess…” Jonathan shrugged non-commitally. “I just wanted to try to be there for him this time. And for Mike. And I almost got Nancy killed in the process and now I'm gonna get you killed. I guess I am just a screwup.” Steve felt like he had been stabbed. Even though Jonathan had said Steve's insults to him didn’t matter, they clearly did. Jonathan had believed the shitty things Steve had said about him.

“Hey… you're not a screwup. You're just worried about your brother, and it's pretty cool that you were willing to risk your life for him.” The compliments didn't seem to get through to Jonathan. “If anyone's a screwup here it's me.” And Steve meant it. “You saw how I treated people for most of my life. I'm trying to be better now, but how I used to be is still biting me in the ass.” He decided he should be honest with Jonathan. “You were right. When I came down here, I was mostly thinking about Nancy. Obviously I didn't want you to die, but…” He trailed off, trying to figure out how to express what he wanted to say. “I still really care about her. But I promise it's not like that.” He really believed what he was saying. Sure, he had once thought he and Nancy would be together long-term, but it was clear that it wasn't what was best for her. “I want her to be happy, and I only ever dragged her down. You're way better for her, dude.”

Jonathan didn't seem reassured.

“I'm serious. You two took this place down by yourselves,” he said, gesturing around at the decrepit lab. “You put me in my place when I was being an asshole, and that changed my life. And do you think Nancy would've let you come down here if she thought it was a bad idea?”

He finally cracked a very small grin. “Definitely not.” It was so rare to see even a little confidence from Jonathan that Steve let him enjoy the moment.

“And for the record, your brother isn't a screwup either. He actually seems pretty cool.” 

Jonathan smiled fondly. “Yeah, he is.” He got to his feet, resolve returning to him. “I need to get him back.” Steve nodded encouragingly and led the way back to the door. After a nod from Jonathan, Steve wrenched the door open and charged out into the hall.

The whole world seemed to disappear. For a moment, Steve drifted through darkness. Then he blinked and found himself outside Hawkins Lab, but he was no longer in the Upside Down. Beside him was Jonathan, as well as Nancy and Robin. Steve looked at each of them and was about to ask how they got there when the ground trembled.

Cracks spread across the concrete and the building before them groaned. Steel and concrete crumbled and buckled as the lab collapsed. The ground in front of them fell away and a fiery red glow flooded out of the pit. Then, something crashed through the rubble. An enormous monster with a gaping mouth and snake-like appendages around its head dragged itself out of the hole and let out a bellowing roar that seemed to vibrate Steve's chest. Steve knew this was the monster Jonathan had encountered in the Upside Down, and he was impressed that he had escaped it.

There was no time to try to make sense of what he was seeing before there was a flurry of movement and more creatures climbed out of the pit. Hundreds of demodogs, dozens of demogorgons, and thick clouds of demobats burst from the earth and charged across the ground toward them. Steve threw up his arms and stepped back in fear, but as he blinked, the scene changed. He was suddenly in downtown Hawkins. The angry red cloud of smoke and lightning that had, until recently, consumed the sky was back. Spores floated all around him. As Steve looked around, he realized that he wasn’t just with Jonathan, Nancy, and Robin anymore. Beside him was also Dustin, Lucas, El, Erica, Joyce, Hopper, Murray, and dozens and dozens of soldiers. All of them were armed and all of them looked terrified. Movement down the street caught Steve’s attention. A wall of grotesque grey skin and limbs was moving toward them, and in their lead were two people. Henry looked as horrifying as ever, but what really shocked Steve was the person beside him. Will looked pale and his eyes were dark. There was no emotion on his face as he led an army of monsters through his childhood home.

As the army approached, Steve noticed that Henry looked worse for wear than when he had last seen him. His face was mutilated, a deep diagonal gash over one eye. As he got close, he spoke in his deep, booming voice. “You cannot stop this.” Steve had to agree with him. “The more you try, the surer their fates become.”

Henry raised his clawed hand to reveal a detail that Steve had not noticed. Perhaps it had not been there. His sharp nails were piercing through the skull of a person with black hair. Blood poured down Mike’s face. His limbs dragged on the ground and in death he looked surprisingly small, given his stature. Will gave no sign of distress at the fate of his best friend. In fact, he gave no sign that he was even alive, aside from the fact that he was standing up.

Beside him, both Nancy and Jonathan called for their brothers. Dustin and Lucas’s faces showed shock and disgust, and Joyce fell forward in despair. Henry merely watched the group dissolve into misery, but Will raised a hand just as El often did when using her powers. At once, the army began to move again. Not only that, but a gigantic billowing cloud of smoke rose behind him, spiraling and separating into long limbs. The Mind Flayer towered over Hawkins, staring down at the tiny residents.

“You cannot stop me. You cannot delay me. Soon, your home will be gone. When you see your chance to flee, you should take it. Otherwise…”

The wave of monsters reached the group. Around Steve, his friends fell. Dustin and Lucas were overwhelmed by demodogs and fell to the ground. A demogorgon lept onto Hopper and another crashed into Joyce as she attempted to rise. El raised her hand to use her powers but with a twitch of Henry’s own hand, she was sent flying backwards. Erica disappeared under a swarm of demobats, as did Murray. Monsters were picking off the soldiers one by one. With a crash, a nearby building was blasted apart as the giant monster from earlier smashed through it. Steve shared a terrified glance with Nancy, Jonathan, and Robin before monsters lept onto all of them. Steve fell to the ground, feeling the weight of a monster on top of him. He hit his head and the world went black. Then, he opened his eyes to find himself back in El’s dismal room in the basement of Hawkins Lab.

He staggered and almost fell. “Holy shit!” he exclaimed, holding his head.

Jonathan was looking horrified, still in his spot on the bed. “Did you just see…?” Steve didn’t need to answer. It was clear they had both just received the same dire warning from Henry. After a moment in which Steve caught his breath, he straightened back up.

“We need to go now,” he said encouragingly, and Jonathan didn’t hesitate to get to his feet.

Feeling uneasy, Steve opened the door again, and this time he was able to make it into the hallway. Steve and Jonathan didn’t communicate out loud. It seemed Jonathan was finally willing to put some trust in Steve, as he stayed at his back the whole way back to the gate. When they reached it, the demogorgon was back in position. It spun toward them, but this time Steve was ready. His bat swung through the air, striking the head of the monster with a horrible thud. Half a dozen demodogs were in the room as well, and Jonathan brought his axe down on one of them before it even noticed him.

As Jonathan took out each demodog, Steve continued to battle the demogorgon. He got a few solid hits in, but the monster was powerful. It swiped a long arm at him. He used the bat to stop the claws from sinking into him, but the force was still enough to knock him into the wall. His head hit the concrete and he saw stars for a moment. Then he saw a horrific view down the throat of the demogorgon as it lowered its gaping mouth over his face. There was then a swishing sound and the blade of an axe pierced the neck of the creature. Dark blood spilled onto Steve as the demogorgon howled in pain and Steve managed to scramble out from under it. Jonathan, still unsteady on his feet, helped Steve up.

“Thanks!” Steve said.

Jonathan nodded earnestly, and led the way back to the gate before anything else could attack them. Before Steve had a moment to catch his breath again or register that Jonathan Byers had just saved his life, there was the sound of more monsters. The air was warm and free of spores. They were back in their own world, but the sound was not coming from the gate.

“Oh shit! Let’s go!” yelled Jonathan and Steve didn’t need to be told twice. The pair of them moved as fast as they could through the basement hallways. Jonathan was slowing down, his injury clearly causing him great pain. As they heard clawed feet getting closer behind them, they entered the stairwell. When they reached the first floor, they could see moonlight outside the glass windows. The way was clear. They could both get to safety if they wanted to. Neither of them hesitated before turning their backs on salvation and hurrying up more flights of stairs.

A few floors up, Steve rounded the corner on a landing and found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

“Nancy!” Jonathan wheezed from behind him, and the gun lowered.

“Oh my god, Jonathan,” she sighed with relief and exhaustion as her eyes fell on her boyfriend. They made as though to hug, but Robin cleared her throat from behind Nancy.

“Um, guys, can we maybe wait to do that later? We’re kinda about to die.”

She was right. Steve could hear the calls of demodogs on the floors below. The four of them hurried up flight after flight of stairs, finally reaching the fresh air and quiet of the rooftop. They pulled the door closed behind them, hoping nothing would find a way through it.

After several long minutes during which Jonathan held Nancy and Robin had a hand on Steve’s shoulders as he wheezed with exhaustion, Jonathan and Steve locked eyes.

“Thanks,” said Jonathan. Steve was sure Jonathan was still not his biggest fan, but he was also sure that the open hostility between them was now a thing of the past.

“What happened?” asked Nancy, sounding almost angry with concern.

“We were trapped in the basement for a while. We barely got out of there,” said Jonathan. 

“And Henry gave us both a pretty scary warning,” Steve added. He felt he should be honest about the horrors he had seen. But that proved unnecessary.

“Wait, you guys saw that too?” asked Robin in a panic. “Hawkins being destroyed and Will and–” She cut off at the look on Nancy’s face.

“We have to tell Hopper about this,” Jonathan announced. The idea scared Steve, but he knew it was the right thing to do. “If we wait too long, Henry’s gonna destroy the whole town. Hop’s gonna be pissed at us but that doesn’t matter.”

“Well, I have more bad news, Byers. We’re trapped again,” Steve replied. This time instead of scowling, Jonathan just nodded soberly.

“Uh… I have more bad news,” announced Robin. She looked apologetically at Steve. “The kids went silent.” She held up the walkie. “I’m pretty sure they’re on the way here.”

God damn it, thought Steve. Why can't they just stay put for once?

Chapter Text

Warning: References to attempted suicide in this chapter. The event in question takes place in canon, but just in case, you have been warned.

When Mike woke, he didn't move for a while. He lay there on the floor of the arcade, thoughts swirling through his mind like the spores drifting idly above him.

He was grasping at the memory of the dream he had been having. The details were fading fast. The subject of his dream was all he could be certain about. He remembered chestnut brown hair, hazel eyes, and a dazzling smile with a mole on the upper lip. For once, he was certain the dream had not featured blood or strangling vines. In fact, he was sure a rosy glow had enveloped the scene. Perhaps it was sunlight. Mike's frustration grew as he struggled to remember what he and Will had been doing. Was it a memory from their childhood? Or perhaps it was a fantasy of an event that hadn't happened yet.

The excursion downtown had had a profound effect on Mike. It was equal parts terrifying and enlightening. Of course a deadly struggle for survival would scare anyone, but what Mike couldn't get out of his head was the way he had accepted death. Sure, he had feared dying during his various escapades of the last three years. Memories of the demogorgon bursting through Mr Clarke's classroom door, and of demodogs prowling the halls of Hawkins Lab, and hiding from gunfire in the Byers’ house in Lenora were enough to keep him up at night, but during all of those events, he had never slowed down enough to contemplate death itself. Even as he had fallen into the Upside Down behind Will, he still had a small glimmer of hope that they might have a way out. His instinct to survive, to protect, and to lead his friends was always so powerful, that accepting such a grim defeat made him feel shameful and painfully inadequate.

He had done his best to put on a brave face for Will, but truthfully, he had been terrified. He was perhaps more terrified than he had ever been in his life, with the exception of one moment. Images of pebbles clattering down a cliff edge and water as impenetrable as iron flashed through his mind.

Mike firmly shoved those thoughts to the very back of his brain. Since that day, he had done his best not to examine those images. Only Dustin and El knew what had happened on that cliff, and they had followed his lead in not mentioning it. He hadn't even told Will. He felt ashamed of that moment and the way he had given up on himself and on his best friend. He had tried his best to be a leader, a paladin, and, as Will would put it, the heart of the Party, and he had fallen short. He had failed so spectacularly that his friends had ended up scattered and he had barely escaped with his life. He hated the idea of Will's horrified expression if he knew what Mike had done. It was so easy most days to pretend that he hadn't stepped off that cliff. There were no consequences and all of his friends had made it out of that week alive. But Will's reaction would make it seem more real and more difficult to cope with.

To escape the dreadful emotions churning in his mind, Mike sat up. As he did so, he winced. His arm still stung from where the demogorgon had scratched it, and his back still felt painful from the demodog's attacks. Wondering vaguely how many scars he would receive from his time in the Upside Down, Mike got to his feet, then froze.

Will was sitting at the table in the employee room, his head resting on his folded arms. His eyes were closed and he was breathing softly. He had clearly been more tired than he had let on the previous night and had fallen asleep while keeping watch. Mike moved around the table and sat beside him as quietly as he could. Will looked peaceful, and Mike didn't want to disturb him. It took all of his restraint to stop himself from gently moving a wayward strand of hair off of his face.

Despite the existential fear, the experience downtown had not been all bad. While Will's breakdown could hardly be considered fun, being there to comfort him and hold him while he fell asleep had felt right. He felt remarkably content at the idea that Will had allowed Mike to see him at his most vulnerable, and that he had found comfort in Mike's presence. All he ever wanted was to take away Will's pain and protect him, and in that moment he had been able to do just that. In the time that followed, while Will slept in his arms, Mike had dared to probe his feelings in a way he had not in years, maybe ever.

With Will so close, he felt a sense of calm that he had not realized until that moment he was living without. He and Will had not shared physical contact to that extent in years. As he grew up, he went to great lengths to avoid it. He told himself that it was wrong to be so intimate with his friend like that or to show such vulnerability and softness. But as he sat there on the floor of RadioShack, with Will's warm weight pressed against him, he realized how wrong he had been. Will was like a life-saving drug he had been depriving himself of for over a year, and only now did he realize how much he needed him. Mike's situation had been objectively horrifying. He was in a tiny store with death on all sides, but Will's mere presence was enough to make him feel completely at ease. What could be so wrong about that?

With this realization, the last remains of the wall he had constructed around his heart began to crumble. Feelings he had previously been too scared to examine floated to the forefront of his mind. Try as he might, he could no longer deny how he felt or what it meant about him. There was no more pushing down his feelings or trying to explain them away. There was only the truth: Will brought Mike comfort in a way nobody else did, not even El. Living without Will had been the worst experience of his life and having him back felt like a breath of fresh air. He and Will knew each other better than anyone, and their bond went far beyond any normal friendship. He had known these things for years, maybe his whole life, but until now he had been too cowardly to allow himself to recognize them for what they were.

The only thing stopping him from waking Will and telling him how he felt in that moment was the fear of being rejected. He couldn't lose Will, even so close to death. He therefore went back to doing what he had become used to for the last few years: denying the truth as best he could. The writing was on the wall. He knew what his feelings meant, but he couldn’t yet bear to accept them. Once he did so, he could never go back. He felt like he was dangling over a cliff, one hand clinging to everything he thought he was supposed to be, while below him was a chasm. He was considering letting go and taking the plunge, but he wasn’t convinced yet that he would survive the trip. However, the evidence that he might have a safe landing at the bottom was becoming more compelling.

After Will had awoken from his nightmare, Mike took a risk and admitted his lack of feelings toward El, something he had put a great deal of thought into over the months since their relationship ended. It had been refreshing to reveal the secret, but it was all he dared to say, unwilling to speak aloud his true feelings. In return, he had received a gift he had not expected: the truth about the painting. He had been correct in thinking it was from Will all along. Even better, Will's speech in the van had been about himself. But did that mean what Mike thought it meant? Or was he misreading the situation? If he was wrong and he shared his feelings with Will, it could ruin everything. But Will wouldn't hate him, even if he was wrong, would he?

These unanswerable questions were chasing each other around Mike's mind when Will began to stir. He lifted his head and looked blearily around the room. When his eyes fell on Mike, he seemed to relax slightly.

“Hey,” Mike greeted, grinning at the way Will's hair was flattened on one side.

“Oh shit…” Will said, suddenly straightening up. “I didn't mean to fall asleep. Something could've…”

“Will, relax,” Mike soothed, instinctively reaching out a hand and grabbing Will's forearm, then becoming hyper-aware of the contact. “You clearly needed the sleep, and nothing happened. We're safe.”

Will nodded, but his face was still tense with worry.

“Did you sleep okay?” asked Mike in his most soothing voice. Will nodded. “Any nightmares?”

“Uh… no,” he answered, though he still seemed anxious. All traces of peaceful drowsiness were gone. Alarm bells rang in Mike's head.

“Will, is something wrong?” he asked with delicate concern. He shifted so that he could look Will directly in the face, but Will was avoiding his eyes. “Hey,” he said in barely more than a whisper, and Will slowly looked at him. “You can tell me.”

Will was trembling slightly. It was clear that whatever was wrong had him terrified. Mike wanted to wrap him up in his arms again and shield him from the world, but he resisted the urge.

“After you fell asleep,” he began. “I… I saw… him.”

“Henry?” Mike asked, trying not to panic. 

Will shook his head. “No. It was…”

Mike's heart seemed to drop through the floor. “The Mind Flayer,” he guessed, and Will nodded shakily, confirming his worst fear.

“Through the front windows,” Will confirmed, gesturing through the arcade to where red lightning flashed on the other side of a pane of glass. “It was pretty far away, but it… it looked at me. It's after me and last time it only took a couple of days before it… it…”

Mike gave in to his instinct and wrapped his arms around Will, and felt him relax at once. In turn, Mike felt some of the tension leave his own body. “It's gonna be okay, Will. I'm not gonna let him get you.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I can’t, but you said it yourself. I saved you last time and I can do it this time.” He stopped to think about what he was saying. The Mind Flayer was a creature with such power that it was beyond human imagination. No matter how hard Mike tried, he knew it would be impossible to fend off such a horror forever. They had done it last time Will was possessed, but only by closing the gate. Mike knew what needed to happen. He pulled back to look at Will’s face again. “We have to get out of here.”

Duh, he thought. If it were that easy, we would've done it already.

“How?” asked Will, and the beginnings of a plan seemed to be soothing him. Some of the raw terror was leaving his eyes, replaced by his old childlike curiosity. Mike suddenly registered how close together they were.

“Did you hear what Jonathan said over the radio?”

Will pulled back slightly, still allowing Mike's arm to stay draped over his shoulder. “Something about Hawkins Lab and a gate.” He stared across the room and scrunched up his nose in concentration as he tried to remember. “And I think he mentioned monsters? I don't know, it was hard to hear.”

“Exactly. It sounds like the Mother gate is open again.” The thought would normally be cause for concern, but in their situation, it was a dream come true. “It means there's a way home.”

Hope began to rekindle in Will's eyes. “But there must be monsters around it. Assuming we understood Jonathan right.” He looked back at Mike instinctively for a solution.

“We can figure out a way around that,” he said encouragingly. “First, we need to make contact. Jonathan said to talk through the lights.”

“All of our houses are across town,” observed Will. “And I really don't want to…” He trailed off, clearly embarrassed to voice what he was thinking.

“I know. We should avoid passing through downtown if we can,” Mike finished, earning a grateful smile from Will. He thought about where they were and he arrived at the solution. “The hospital.” Will nodded in agreement. “Even if everyone's out looking for us, Lucas is gonna visit Max sooner or later. We just have to be there when he does. There's always a light on next to her bed.”

Emboldened by the plan, Will got to his feet and Mike's arm dropped back to his side. Mike couldn't help feeling slightly disappointed by the loss of contact. Jesus Christ, get it together, he told himself. He tried to act normal as he and Will prepared to leave, but it was made more difficult when Will climbed on the bike behind him.

“How's your arm?” Will asked with concern. Mike raised the arm that was still wrapped in Will's now-bloody scarf.

“We should probably put some real bandages on that,” Will advised.

“Good thing we're going to the hospital,” Mike responded, turning out onto the street and heading north.

They had barely gone a block when there was a sudden cry from the fog ahead of them. Mike pulled off the road and into a driveway. He and Will dismounted from the bike and crouched behind a car. Peering out, Mike saw another enormous crowd of monsters prowling past. Had they not gotten off the road, they would've pedaled straight into them. This group was easily as large as the group that had trapped them downtown and the one that had traveled through Loch Nora.

Mike felt a tugging on his wrist and looked at Will. His best friend was looking terrified as he usually did around monsters and he seemed to be trying to get Mike to move. Mike shifted so his head was no longer poking out. He couldn't see what was happening on the street anymore, but Will looked more relaxed, so Mike didn’t mind.

After the sound of the monsters subsided, Will spoke in a whisper. “That was just like Loch Nora. They were being called somewhere.”

Mike agreed with the assessment. “Both groups were heading south. They must be going to–”

“The lab,” Will finished. Mike could tell what Will was thinking. The longer they spent here, the greater the defenses were around the lab and the harder it would be to get to safety.

“We have to trust Jonathan,” Mike told him firmly. “If we try to get through now, we'll just get ourselves killed.” Will nodded hesitantly.

“We should stay off the bike,” he finally said. “That was too close of a call, and we have to stay hidden.” Mike knew the journey would take ten times as long this way, but it was better than being killed en route. He decided to walk with the bike in case they needed a quick getaway.

They soon realized that their food supply was starting to run low. In their acceptance of death they had not bothered to ration their food. Shaking off yet another memory of his pitiful surrender, Mike suggested that they stop to look for food in the first unlocked house they came across. They searched the house together, determining that it was empty before searching through the pantry for all the resources they could find. Mike wondered how long they could survive down here before he got sick of canned fruit and peanuts. They kept finding rice and pasta, but without a reliable way to cook with fire, they couldn’t make use of it. Regardless, they had soon eaten and they returned to the street.

As they journeyed north, Mike couldn’t help looking at Will every few seconds. The conflict between his two instincts, ‘act normal’ and ‘keep Will close’, had reached an all time high. He knew one would need to win over the other soon, and he knew which one he would prefer, but simply choosing to disregard one of his strongest instincts was not so easy. He was continuing to make the case in his head that he could be honest with Will and everything would be okay, but like the coward he was, he was finding it hard to commit without absolute certainty. 

With another lingering glance, Mike realized how tired Will looked, despite his rest earlier and the food they had eaten. The usual protective instinct flooded Mike’s brain and he started thinking of a way to help. Bringing up childhood memories had not had the desired effect, but opening up and showing vulnerability had made Mike feel closer to Will than he had in a long time. Of course, he thought. That’s how we used to be when we were kids. Why did I ever let us lose that? Regardless of his inner turmoil, he knew he needed that connection with Will as much as he needed oxygen. That fact is what prompted Mike to speak.

“Hey,” he said gently, and Will looked over at him. There was maybe a heartbeat where Mike saw the exhaustion on his best friend’s features before the mask of fake health covered it. “You okay?”

Will attempted a weak smile. “Yeah… yeah, I’m fine. Just tired.” That seemed like a huge understatement.

Mike smiled weakly back. “Me too.” There was a pause before Mike made his suggestion. “We should play a game.”

“What do you mean?”

“Y’know, just something to take our minds off things.”

“Sure,” Will answered uncertainly. “What did you have in mind? ‘I Spy’ or something?”

Mike chuckled. “Yeah, that’d be fun,” he answered with slight sarcasm. From the glimmer in Will’s eyes Mike could tell that Will picked up on it. “I spy with my little eye something black and slimy.”

“Hmm,” said Will in mock-puzzlement. “Is it an evil vine?”

Mike followed his gaze to one of the hundreds of vines snaking its way through the neighborhood they were in. “How’d you do that?” he asked with a theatrical gasp. Will laughed, and the sound raised Mike’s spirits at once.

He stared fondly at Will for a moment before he caught himself. “No, I was thinking something more like… Truth or Dare?” He made the suggestion hesitantly, wondering if Will would pick up on what he was trying to do.

“Uh…,” answered Will, seeming nervous. “Are you sure doing dares is a good idea down here?” Mike knew that even if he promised simple dares, Will wouldn’t like it. He never liked being the center of attention, so being asked to do anything embarrassing or unusual, even in front of just Mike, would be sure to stress him out.

“We don’t have to do dares if you don’t want to,” Mike offered, and he saw Will relax at once.

“Good,” he said, sounding relieved. “So… just Truth?”

“If you want to,” Mike answered. He could tell Will was a little reluctant. Mike gave him the most reassuring look he could, trying to make him understand that he wasn’t going to ask anything too personal unless he was okay with it. He waited, unwilling to pressure Will into anything.

“Sure,” he agreed. “Do you want to go first or should I?”

“I’ll start,” Mike offered. He wanted Will to be the one to set the tone so that Mike wouldn’t cross any boundaries. “Hm…” He pretended to deeply consider his options. “Truth.”

“Good choice,” said Will with another small laugh. He thought for a moment. Then his face tensed and he seemed to be teetering on the edge of speech. Mike tried to tell him with his eyes that he didn’t need to be afraid. “When I was… possessed…” he began. “Were you afraid of me?” Mike could tell that the question had been bothering Will since he saw the Mind Flayer again and that he had recognized the game for what it was: an opportunity to be completely honest and open with each other.

Mike didn’t have to think about his answer. “No,” he responded with conviction. Will raised an eyebrow as though he didn’t believe him. “I promise I wasn’t. I was scared for you.” He thought back to that week. It had been almost as bad as the week when Will was missing. He felt guilty for thinking that, as Will had obviously suffered far worse than Mike had. “I could tell you were in a lot of pain, especially when you were… burning. And I knew you were scared, and I hated thinking about what you were going through.” He gave Will a look that he hoped wasn’t too pitying. “But no, I wasn’t scared of you.”

“So… you’re not worried about what he might make me do if he… gets me again?”

“He’s not going to get you, Will,” Mike declared firmly.

“But if he does…”

“Then you’ll fight through it again, just like last time. And I’ll be right there with you, so don’t worry about it.” Mike was trying not to worry about it himself, and he was glad when Will nodded.

“Wait, are follow-up questions allowed?” he asked suddenly, seeming to remember that they were playing a game.

“Sure,” said Mike, not really caring about the rules.

“Okay.” Will hesitated and Mike didn’t say anything. “Uh… Truth.”

Mike nodded at the show of trust and decided to try to take Will’s mind off of the topic of possession. “What was California like? I mean what was it really like?”

Will looked a little sad, but not scared anymore, which Mike took as a victory. “It was… alright I guess. For me it wasn't too bad. People were nicer to me than they are in Hawkins, but they were horrible to El, which kinda ruined it. I tried to stay close to her to help her and it was a little better when we were together, but I was never very good at standing up to people. Not like you.” He let out a sigh. “It was hard to really enjoy anything without the Party and… and you especially.” Will seemed to realize that he had gotten caught up in his rambling and fell silent.

Mike was trying hard to keep his face passive. He hated the idea of Will feeling so isolated for so long, but took some comfort in the idea that Will missed Mike as much as Mike missed him. “I missed you, too,” Mike admitted. He had said it before in the months since Will had returned to Hawkins, but he had never said it with as much sincerity as he did now. “And it was really cool of you to look out for El.”

Will shrugged in an ‘it was nothing’ gesture. Mike wanted to express to Will just how much he had missed him, but he didn't feel ready yet. So instead he decided to lighten the mood a bit. “Hey, do people actually eat burritos for breakfast in California?”

His plan worked as Will smiled again. “I guess they must, but El never did until you came to visit.”

Mike smiled, too. “Wow, so that whole day really was bullshit, huh?” At the time, the idea that El had lied to him was upsetting, but now the whole situation just seemed like a bit of a joke.

“You're one to talk,” Will argued with obvious satisfaction. “Do you remember what you were wearing?”

“What, you didn't like it?”

“No, it was ridiculous. Where'd you even buy that, the airport?”

“I… well… yeah,” Mike admitted. It was rare for Will to rag on Mike like this. His fake act must have really been a source of annoyance to Will. But Mike didn't care about the teasing when Will let out a genuine laugh. The sound made Mike's heart swell with happiness. As he started to join in, Will's laugh turned into a cough.

Mike's face fell at once and the pair of them stopped walking. Will kept coughing and was soon doubled over in the street. The coughs were rough and deep, turning Will's face slightly red from the effort. Mike put a reassuring hand on his back until he stopped. “Are you okay?” he asked with concern.

“Yeah, I'll be alright,” he answered. “It's this stupid air. It feels like I'm breathing smoke.” Mike registered how heavily Will was breathing. Had he been doing that the whole time?

“You should rest for a while,” Mike advised. Will shook his head.

“No, I'm fine.”

“No you're not. We've been walking for a while and you need a break.” Mike looked around and tried to figure out where they were. When he got his bearings, he continued. “I have an idea. C'mon.”

They continued slowly for another block before they reached a fence with vines draped over the top. Will peered through. “The pool?”

Mike nodded. “It's fenced in so it should be safe, and we can raid the concession stand.

Once they found a way in and had checked for monsters, they did just that. Mike suspected the chips were probably all stale, but they did find a huge stash of water bottles, which Mike offered to Will, refusing to take any for himself until Will was satisfied.

“I told you, I'm fine,” he said when Will insisted that Mike drink first. “You need it more than me right now.” Will conceded and began to drink.

“You really aren't having any trouble?” he asked, sounding ashamed.

“I mean, my throat doesn't feel great, but I think I can keep walking for a while.” Mike admitted.

Will didn't look happy. “Why is it just me?”

From the expression on his face, Mike felt compelled to reassure him. “You're not weak.” Will didn't look convinced. “Like you said, it's the stupid air. And you already spent a full week breathing it when I didn't.”

Will absorbed the idea. “This place is killing us. I mean, obviously the monsters are after us, but just being here and breathing the air is going to kill us eventually.” Mike knew how desperate he was probably feeling to get to the lab and get out, but he knew they needed to talk to their friends first.

Mike looked around for a distraction. He grinned when he spotted two pool chairs that were side by side and free of vines. Mike pointed at them and raised his eyebrows. “Wanna work on your tan?” Will grinned in response.

“I think you need it more than me,” he teased. “But sure.” Then his eyes fell on Mike's arm. “Wait a second.” He hurried toward the lifeguard stand and soon returned with a first aid kit, this one much larger than the last one they found.

The two of them sat on the pool chairs side by side and Will demanded that Mike offer his arm. Mike didn't argue. He winced a little as Will unwrapped the bloodstained scarf. The wound was maybe a little deeper than Mike had let on, and Will's eyes were full of concern as he insisted on putting antiseptic ointment on it. Mike just watched his friend as he worked.

“You'll probably end up with a scar,” he said.

“Cool,” Mike responded. Then as Will rolled his eyes fondly, Mike added, “Truth.”

Will nodded then went silent as he tried to think of a question. “Do you… regret dating El?” Mike sat up a little straighter. Will had chosen to broach the topics they had discussed in RadioShack. As Mike sat in silence, thinking, Will looked suddenly apologetic. “Sorry,” he blustered. “If that's too personal, I can– I'm sorry.”

“No, no, it's a good question,” Mike assured him. Truthfully, it felt good to be able to discuss this so openly with Will. His true feelings about his relationship with El had been a source of shame for so long that it was a relief to be able to talk about them. He wondered if this was how it would feel if he revealed his other big secret.

After a moment, he began to think out loud. “I don't know,” he admitted, as Will took out a roll of gauze and began wrapping it gently around Mike's arm. “I definitely don't regret finding her, and not just because she helped us find you. She's one of my best friends.” After another moment, he had his answer. “No, I don't think I regret it. Things were okay at first, and I think I learned as much as she did.” He didn't complete that thought and hoped Will wouldn't ask him to elaborate. In dating El, he had learned a great deal about himself, as well as how not to be a boyfriend. It wasn’t as though he enjoyed the idea of using El as a practice round for dating. He had gotten the opportunity to give El a life, or at least the closest thing to one she could have, and they had gotten along perfectly well until she outgrew him. They both had come out of the relationship in good spirits and with no hard feelings on either side.

“I regret hurting her and lying to her.” That was true. He knew he had been an asshole to her. While she was trying to branch out and discover herself, Mike had clung to her for dear life. Mike had taught her to walk and to run, but she wanted to soar, and there came a point where he was just weighing her down. He hoped the experience would help him be better to the next person he dated. Because he deserved better. Woah, he thought. ‘He’? Mike gave himself a mental shake, astonished at how easily that thought formed in his mind.

“I also regret pushing you away,” he said, still staring at Will. “I know I already apologized for last summer, but… I'm sorry. I was such a dick to you.” Ever since he had learned the truth about the painting, the words he said to Will that day in his garage kept replaying in his mind. It's not my fault you don't like girls. He also kept seeing the hurt look on Will's face. If Will's speech in the van meant what Mike thought it meant, then he couldn't begin to comprehend how much his words had hurt him.

“Yeah, you were,” Will answered with a frosty tone. Mike was a little surprised that Will had said it, but he wasn't upset. In fact he was proud of Will for standing up for himself.

“I shouldn't have said… what I said. I didn't mean it. I was being an idiot and I almost lost you because of it.”

Will's expression softened. “Well, you definitely made up for it just by being down here, so… no hard feelings.” Mike felt he still owed Will an explanation for his behavior, but he filed it under ‘we'll talk about it later’. Will finished applying the bandages. “How's your back?”

“Uh… fine,” answered Mike. Will was not fooled.

“Turn around,” he ordered. Mike reluctantly obeyed. He pulled off his jacket then, feeling awkward, removed his shirt. “I should probably redo some of these.”

Mike tried not to freak out every time he felt Will's fingers on his back. He pretended the pool beside them was full of water and the sun was shining down on them. Will might just be helping Mike apply sunscreen.

That mental image didn't help.

“Truth,” said Will suddenly. Mike thought for a moment, trying to find the most uplifting question he could.

“What do you want to do when all of this is over?” he asked. Then, realizing he had asked Will that exact question less than two days ago in the Creel house, he elaborated. “I mean, other than D&D.”

There was a long silence before Will answered. “I don’t know. Nothing for a while. Finish school, I guess. And then…” He trailed off and was quiet for so long that Mike turned his head to make sure he was still there.

“Yeah?”

“I… I don’t really like thinking about…”

“College?” Mike guessed.

“Yeah,” Will confirmed. “Maybe it’s stupid, but I’m just not ready yet.”

Mike didn’t think it was stupid at all. “What would you go for? Art?” he asked.

“Yeah, probably,” he answered, but he didn’t sound very confident.

“You’ll be a great artist,” he said at once. “I mean, you already are.” When Will didn’t say anything, he went on. “Just think… I’ll have the childhood drawings of Will Byers, the famous artist.” Another glance backwards showed him that Will was smiling, and– was he blushing? Mike counted it as another victory.

They were quiet for a while. Eventually, Will finished tending to Mike’s wounds and Mike put his shirt and jacket back on, finally turning to face Will properly. The smile had faded and he looked anxious again.

“What’s wrong?” asked Mike, not bothering to ask if Will was okay.

“I just don’t want to leave Hawkins again,” he admitted. “I feel like I’ve already lost so much time. And I know, you said it yourself. We’re not kids anymore and we can’t just sit around and play games forever. But I really wish we could.”

Guilt rose like bile inside Mike. He finally understood exactly how much he had hurt Will. Of course, he had related to Will’s desire to hold onto childhood more than he had let on, but now he understood at last why Will in particular had been so determined not to grow up. He had already been denied a happy childhood by his asshole of a father, then again by the Upside Down. The D&D table in Mike’s basement was probably one of the only places Will felt truly safe and happy. Of course he wouldn’t want to leave it behind. And Mike had made it worse by throwing those feelings back in his face, making him feel ashamed of them. And when Will had moved away, Mike hadn’t bothered to stay in contact, which probably contributed to most of his unhappiness in California. He needed to make things right.

“I get it,” he assured his friend. “I really do. But we still have plenty of time before we all leave.” Mike was surprised at how much the idea stung him. He had known all his life that someday the Party would grow up and move away, but the idea of his friends, who felt like family by this point, being scattered across the country gave him a hollow feeling in his heart, and he knew it was much worse for Will. He knew at once what he had to do. “Hey, what if we went together? To college, I mean. I’m sure we could find somewhere with both of our majors.”

Will’s face lit up at the suggestion. “Really?” He looked like a child on Christmas morning.

“Of course,” Mike said at once. “You’re not getting away from me again, Byers. Not that easily.”

Mike saw the tears well up in Will’s eyes and felt the corners of his own eyes prickle, and next thing he knew, Will had his arms around him once again and Mike returned the hug tenderly. “Thank you, Mike,” came Will’s choked voice from his shoulder.

“Of course,” Mike repeated. “And we can still get the Party together for D&D when we’re fifty if you want. I told you, I didn’t mean a word I said that day.” He could feel Will let out a sigh of relief that he must have been holding onto for over a year.

As Will relaxed against him, Mike was once again visited by a warm feeling of contentment, and a desire to never let Will go. Then the magnitude of his promise started to settle over him. Mike and Will, together forever. The idea was a dream come true. He wondered if Will was envisioning it the same way he was.

When Will finally pulled out of the hug and insisted that he was ready to keep moving, Mike felt one more wall between the two of them crumbling into dust. He hadn’t felt this close to Will since before the Upside Down came into their lives. He was eager to keep the game going, but he knew he couldn’t ask the questions he was dying to. Not yet.

They crammed as many water bottles as they could into their bags and retrieved the bike from where they had propped it against the fence.

As they continued toward the hospital, Mike made more and more frequent glances at Will. He noticed now that Will was indeed breathing heavier than usual. The thought that Will had received irreversible damage to his lungs from his time here made Mike anxious. Every second they spent here suddenly felt like it was draining Will’s life.

Finally, they reached an intersection and across the street stood Hawkins Memorial Hospital. They crossed the street and made it to the door. Mike had to use his machete to pry the automatic doors open, but soon the two of them were inside. They didn’t linger in the lobby, hurrying to the stairwell before any potential monsters could find them. They left the bike at the bottom of the stairs, and hurried up several flights of stairs, Will wheezing by the time they reached the top. They made their way down the familiar hallway and into the room that they knew was Max’s.

As soon as the door was shut behind them, Will let out another sigh of relief. “I hate hospitals,” he said with surprising venom. Mike didn’t need to ask why. The sounds of Will’s agonized screams as he was being burned from the inside seemed to echo from the past.

“Look,” Mike said, pointing toward the table beside the bed. There, above the surface was a glimmer of golden light. Will hurried over to it and raised his hand into it. He began blinking out a pattern. Three short flashes, three long, and three short. S.O.S.

Mike held his breath. No echoing voice answered. Will continued the distress call, seeming to become more dejected as he went.

“It’s okay,” he assured Will. “Nobody’s here now, but we made it. We just have to wait for Lucas.” Will nodded, but didn’t look too reassured. “Just think,” he said. “Max is here.” Mike had never gotten along perfectly well with Max, but she was a member of the Party. And while he would never say it to her face, he did miss her. The thought of her being so close, but just out of sight, was comforting. Again, he would never tell her that.

“I saw her, you know,” said Will, and Mike snapped his head up in surprise. “When Henry gave me that vision when we first got here. I think I ended up in his mind, and he had all his victims there. Chrissy, Fred, Patrick, and Max. But Max was different from the others. I could see her breathing.”

The news gave Mike equal feelings of hope and dread. “So she’s alive.”

“I think… I think her mind is somehow trapped in Henry’s. That’s why she won’t wake up.” Terrifying possibilities were scrambling around inside Mike’s mind. If Max was trapped in Henry’s mind, and they killed Henry, what would happen? Would Max be free or would she die? 

They couldn’t risk it. They had to try to rescue her before they attacked Henry again. But how? Mike was already getting an idea. All the pieces of a plan were there, but he was too scared to put them together into a solution yet.

“At least she’s alive,” Mike told himself and Will. “We can figure out how to help her once we’ve contacted the others.”

Realizing they were going to be spending an indeterminate amount of time here, Mike and Will settled down on Max’s hospital bed, which they moved toward the window. The thinking was, if Will experienced True Sight again, he didn’t want to wake up in the same physical space as Max. Mike wasn’t sure how that would work, but it would surely be unpleasant or at least uncomfortable for Will. They ate some of their food, rationing it properly this time.

They had now been in the Upside Down for almost two days. It felt like longer to Mike. His fingers were always numb with cold and he was starting to long for even the apocalyptic version of Hawkins. The atmosphere from the Upside Down that was leaking into town was nowhere near as unpleasant as the real thing. He could tell that the cold was also getting to Will. He looked pale and small, due to the way he was curled up in an attempt to conserve body heat.

“Truth,” said Mike.

Will thought for a moment, then spoke in a quiet and fearful voice. “Do you still think we can get home?”

“Absolutely,” Mike answered at once. Barely a day ago, he had given up, but now they knew a gate was open and they had a possibility of talking to Lucas and the others. He never wanted to accept death again. He refused to.

“Did you think I would survive? Last time?”

Mike almost answered ‘yes’, but he hesitated. For most of that week, he had been determined to find Will, refusing to accept that he was gone, just as he was now refusing to accept his own fate. But there were those few hours after the body was found, when he was sure Will was dead. When El found him and channeled his voice, Mike felt the strongest relief he had ever experienced. From then on, he had been unwavering in his faith.

Liar, he thought to himself. Unbidden, his least favorite images flashed in front of his eyes again. A steep cliff, water far below, and air rushing past him as he fell and awaited the impact. “I–” He knew he wasn’t inspiring confidence in Will, but he couldn’t lie to him.

“It’s okay,” said Will soothingly. He didn’t seem upset by Mike’s hesitancy. In fact, he seemed as gentle and understanding as ever. Mike imagined what Will would say if he knew what Mike had done. The thought made Mike want to writhe with discomfort, but he quickly got a grip on himself. Coward, said a disapproving voice in his head. He’s your best friend. You’re supposed to be able to tell him anything. Mike was a coward. He just didn’t want Will to think that. But then he thought of the other secret he was hiding. The blurry fragments of his dream from that morning came back to him. He was too scared to act on his feelings until he was 100% sure Will would be accepting. But what if Will was thinking the same thing? Then he would never be completely certain. At some point, he would need to take a leap of faith. He wasn’t ready to tell Will his greatest secret yet, but maybe he should test the waters with another shameful secret. Will surely wouldn’t be upset with him. Definitely not , he thought. He would be supportive and sympathetic. What he was really afraid of was his own emotions. Coward, repeated the voice in his head. After a few more seconds of inner turmoil, Mike decided to jump.

“Will… can I tell you something?” Will’s eyes met his. Normally it would’ve made him relax, but now he tensed.

“Of course,” he said, sounding concerned.

“When you were missing, there was… a moment when I… did give up.” The emotion was already swelling in his chest. He wasn’t sure he could do this, but he plunged onward anyway. “Me and Lucas got in a fight, so he wasn’t with us, and El had run away. Me and Dustin were trying to find her and we ran into Troy.” Mike was breathing hard, considering he was sitting motionless on a bed. “He chased us for a while and we ended up at the quarry.” He dared to look at Will, who was looking more concerned than ever, but he nodded encouragingly. “You know that area at… at the top, where there’s the cliff?” Will nodded again. “Troy had a knife, a–and he was threatening to cut out Dustin’s teeth, and– and he told m-me–” As the first tear rolled down his cheek, Mike felt ashamed, but Will only scooted closer and put a hand on his shoulder. Mike couldn’t look at him as he continued. “He told me to jump, and– and I–” Mike hated himself as he finished the sentence. “I– I d-did it.”

When Will let out a small gasp, Mike chanced a glance at him. He looked upset, but not angry at him. Mike felt a desperate need to explain. “El caught me, so I was okay, obviously, but… I didn’t know she was there.” The tears started flowing faster. Along with the image of the water speeding up to meet him, he remembered the hopeless sinking feeling that had seemed to drag him down faster in that moment. “I knew where you were, but I didn’t know how to get to you. And for all I knew you were already dead, a–and Lucas was gone, and so was El, and she was our only chance of saving you. And I just felt so…” He couldn’t find the words to describe how he felt. Sad? Lost? Those words couldn’t do justice to the hollow feeling he had been fighting all week, as though his heart was missing. By the time he was at the edge of that cliff, he was struggling to see what the point of going on was, with Will gone. He didn’t think he could describe the sensation aloud, so he didn’t bother trying. “I thought I could at least save Dustin. I– I know he wasn’t really going to die, but at that point— I didn’t– I couldn’t–”

As words failed him, Will pulled him into another hug. Mike was breathing hard, still trying to keep his emotions under control, but his resolve was crumbling fast. Will pulled back briefly to look him directly in the eyes. Mike had to fight the urge to look away in shame.

“H–Have you ever felt like doing something… like that since then?” Mike couldn’t answer. He had felt that hopeless feeling after that day, but never as strong. Despite his glimmer of hope, he had felt it when he followed Will down here, and again when they were trapped downtown. He felt like a complete failure. He was supposed to be the heart, the protector, and he had rolled over and given up. But Will didn’t seem mad. He didn’t yell at Mike or shame him. He just pulled him closer once again and stayed there.

Mike couldn’t hold back his tears anymore and finally let them fall. He never cried like this, especially in front of Will. He was always determined to stay strong for his best friend, whose needs were usually greater than his. But in this moment, he stopped caring. He clung to Will like a lifeline, because that was what Will was to him. He thought back to the van again and the things Will had said. He felt like he had thoroughly proven Will wrong since then. He sure didn’t feel like the heart. At the moment, he felt helpless and fragile.

So yeah, El needs you, Mike. And she always will. 

The line echoed in his mind. Will had been talking about himself . He said he needed Mike, and he always would. He had no idea how much the opposite was true.

As he sat there, allowing himself to be comforted in a way he almost never did, more of Will’s words came back to him.

And when you’re different, sometimes you feel like… a mistake.

How could Will think that? Mike had an idea of what those words might’ve meant, and he hated it. The worst part was, if he was right, his own words had contributed to that feeling. It’s not my fault you don’t like girls.

“Can I ask you something?” asked Mike, completely abandoning the structure of their game.

“Anything,” said Will.

Mike pulled away to look him in the eyes again, knowing he must look awful. “Do you really feel like a mistake sometimes?”

Will’s face tensed at once. “What do you mean?”

“In the van, you said that when you’re different you feel like a mistake. Do you really think that?”

Will looked like he wanted to brush the question off, but then he seemed to steel himself. “Sometimes.” Mike felt his heart drop. “I mean, you’ve seen how people treat me. T–Troy,” he seemed reluctant to say the name now, “and my dad, and other kids.” And me, thought Mike, but he didn’t say it. If he was right about Will, Mike didn’t want him to know that he knew.

“Well you shouldn’t,” he said firmly. “I’m serious. Don’t let anyone make you think that. Anyone! ” He hoped his message had gotten across. Don’t let me make you think that. Will nodded. “Promise me you’ll tell me if you ever feel that way again.”

“Only if you promise to tell me if you’re having a hard time,” Will countered.

After a few seconds, Mike nodded. “Deal.”

Will relaxed, and so did Mike. He suddenly felt exhausted by the outpouring of emotions. He decided to take another chance. “Maybe we should share,” he said, glancing down at the bedspread. “Just to… stay warm?” He was sure Will would see right through his excuse, but Will didn’t mention it.

“Sure,” he said with a watery grin.

As Will settled into the bed beside him, Mike reflected on what had just happened. He had taken a chance and told Will about one of his most shameful memories. And Will hadn’t cringed away or gotten angry at him. In fact, he was still here beside him. He had taken a leap and landed on solid ground. After Will had drifted off beside him, Mike decided to take another plunge. In the safety of his own mind, he finally allowed himself to accept the truth.

I love Will Byers, he thought. I love him more than anything.

He felt like he had cleared a massive obstacle, and he felt better for having done it. In the silence, he made himself a promise. Sometime soon, assuming he was still alive, he would tell Will the truth. He loved him.

Chapter Text

The night was calm. The angry stormcloud that had hung over Hawkins for months was no more. In its absence, stars were scattered across the velvety blackness overhead and moonlight illuminated the hilltop where the grass rippled in a warm late-summer breeze.

The setting should have been peaceful, but it wasn’t. Even under normal circumstances, Lucas didn’t think he could stand to be here. As he stared over the terrain, he found himself thinking back to a summer day more than a year ago when he made the long trek out here with his friends. The day was scorching hot and Cerebro felt like it weighed a ton as he helped lug it to its new home. But he didn’t remember those details. 

Instead, he remembered Will, who just wanted to play D&D. He remembered Mike and El, lagging behind the rest of the group, hand in hand. At the time, it had annoyed him that they weren’t pulling their weight, but now the memory made him feel bittersweet. Most of all, he remembered Max. She rolled her eyes at him and teased him a lot that day, and yet he would give anything to go back there. And of course, he remembered Dustin, eagerly leading the group to meet Suzie, who ended up being real after all. The memory should have been a source of comfort, but now it just made him feel hollow. Aside from himself and Dustin, all of the people who had climbed the hill that day were now either in mortal peril, unconscious, or some combination of the two.

Even stronger than his feeling of melancholy was a constant anxious feeling that he should be doing more. Lucas had been thoroughly irritated at the way both Hopper and Steve had shut down his offers to help find Mike and Will. He didn’t think they quite understood how desperate he was to get his friends back. He had already lost enough of the people he cared about. He also found it a bit rich of Steve to baby him when he and Dustin were almost as old as he, Nancy, and Jonathan were when they first battled a demogorgon. Hadn’t they proven themselves capable in a crisis? He had felt some satisfaction when he set out to take up a post at Cerebro. He may not be in the action, but he was at least involved in a real plan that could eventually lead to the return of Mike and Will. However, that plan had been thoroughly derailed.

From the moment Steve announced he was going after Nancy and Jonathan, the hilltop had turned into chaos. Dustin had screamed himself hoarse into the radio, and then spent the next twenty minutes pacing, as he tended to do when he was nervous.

“Holy shit,” piped up Erica from where she was sitting in the grass. “Can you sit down? You’re giving me a headache.”

“Why hasn’t he come back yet?” asked Dustin feverishly, not slowing down. “He should’ve been back by now.”

“Hey, nerd,” Erica said in a louder and more impertenent voice. “Did you hear me? I said to chill the hell out.” Lucas didn’t think her tone was likely to soothe Dustin.

“How am I supposed to chill out?!” he asked, predictably getting more worked up. “You understand what’s going on, don’t you?”

“I must have missed it,” she answered sarcastically. Dustin didn’t seem to notice.

“They’re in the Upside Down. All of them, except for Robin.” He started pacing, if possible, faster. “The Upside Down. You know, where Mike and Will are already lost.” Lucas wished he had chosen a different word. ‘Lost’ sounded too permanent. “This was a stupid idea. It was so stupid. I should’ve never let them–”

His rambling was cut off by Lucas reaching over suddenly and picking up the radio transceiver and pressing the button down. “Robin, do you copy?”

“Yes, I copy,” she replied sounding exasperated. “Still no word from them.”

Lucas didn’t even bother to respond. He got to his feet and looked at Dustin. “This is stupid,” he announced. “Come on.”

Dustin stopped dead in his tracks. “What do you mean?”

“What do you mean ‘what do I mean’?” asked Lucas impatiently. “I mean, let’s go help them.”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Dustin began. “Are you–”

“Insane?” Lucas cut in. “No. But I’m going to go insane if I hear one more lecture about how it’s too dangerous or how we’re just kids and we need to stay put. Screw that! Mike and Will are in trouble, and now it sounds like Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve are, too.”

“So, what? You want to just march into the exact location where something has obviously gone wrong? Do I even have to explain how stupid that is?”

“You said the same thing when we were looking for Will last time, and like I said, we ended up finding El.”

Dustin didn’t seem to know what to say to that. Lucas considered it a personal victory to have rendered him speechless. “You can stay here and keep pacing if you want, but I’m going after them with or without you,” he continued. He felt a little bad, giving such a severe ultimatum like this, but he didn’t care. He was tired of being benched.

Dustin fidgited on the spot, seeming to consider the matter. “Fine,” he said at last. “I’ll help, but we’re not just walking in. We need to be smart about this.” Lucas nodded in agreement. He was grateful for any support he could get.

He turned to his sister. “You should probably stay here, just in case–”

“Hell no,” said Erica before he could finish, getting to her feet. Lucas blinked for a moment before deciding not to argue. He also decided not to update Robin on what they were doing. He knew what she would say in response and he didn’t want to hear it.

The three of them retrieved their bikes and rode back into town. The sight of Dustin riding alongside him almost made him feel nostalgic, but the absence of Mike and Will’s bikes ruined the image. Soon, they arrived at his house and slipped inside quietly. They picked up his supercom from his room, along with Dustin’s which had been left there during his two-night stint after Mike and Will had disappeared. He also reached into the drawer of his nightstand and retrieved the handgun he had hidden there. It was actually the exact gun that he had stared down the barrel of when Jason had confronted him in the Creel house. He had found it in the remains of the house after Max had been loaded into the ambulance. He had wanted to get rid of it, given the trouble it had caused, but after the town had been thrown into the apocalypse, he had seen fit to keep it. He wasn’t a fan of guns, but the time had long passed when a wrist rocket could save the day. He also grabbed a compass just in case.

They then went to the kitchen and rummaged through a cabinet until they found two bottles of liquor. Lucas knew his parents would be furious if they knew he was pouring it down the drain, but he felt his needs were greater than theirs. Maybe he would have time to steal some more from one of the ruined stores downtown and replace it before they found out. They took the now-empty bottles to the garage where he used a large container of gasoline to make a couple of molotov cocktails. He reflected briefly on how life had gotten so chaotic that the process had become as commonplace as tying his shoes.

As they stepped back outside, Lucas glanced down the road to the Wheeler house. Since Will had started living there, there had always been a dim light from the Upstairs window at night. Lucas supposed Will didn’t like sleeping in the dark since the Upside Down. He didn’t blame him in the slightest. The light was always a source of comfort to Lucas during the months of the apocalypse. It was a reminder that at least two of his friends were safe. Now the windows were dark and empty. He realized suddenly that both the Wheelers and the Byers would wake up to not one, but two children missing if Nancy and Jonathan were not rescued. Of course, he wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to Steve or Robin, but the idea of the two grieving families was what confirmed to Lucas that he was doing the right thing.

Dustin used some bungee cords to fasten the remaining gasoline to his back, and they rode off into the night again, past the edge of town and down the wooded road that led to Hawkins Lab. When they arrived at the gate, Dustin signaled for them to stop. Then, before Lucas could stop him, he raised his walkie and spoke. “Robin, do you copy?”

Lucas gave him his most severe ‘what the hell’ look, but Dustin looked defiant. His expression shifted to shock when a voice that definitely wasn’t Robin’s answered.

“Henderson?”

“STEVE?!” Dustin called at once. “You’re okay?!”

“Yeah, I’m alright. All of us are,” Steve responded, sounding uncharacteristically gentle.

“Where are you guys?”

Lucas was almost relieved that they seemed to have rescued themselves before Steve spoke again.

“Uh…” he said. Dustin’s face fell. “We’re on the roof. Listen, you guys aren’t coming to the lab are you?”

Dustin was about to respond, when Lucas intervened. He unclipped his own walkie from his belt and pressed the button. “Why?”

“The whole lab is full of monsters,” he responded, and his tone made Lucas feel sure he didn’t believe they were still at Cerebro. “So stay away from here. We’re gonna find a way out, so don’t get yourselves into trouble, okay?”

Lucas rolled his eyes. This is exactly why he didn’t want to contact Robin. Sure, now he knew that everyone was back in Hawkins ( well, not everyone , he thought), but he was still being lectured about staying put. What did they want him to do? Let them sit up there and starve to death? Or wait for them to try to fight their way through an army of demodogs and get torn to pieces? “Okay, fine,” he said moodily into the walkie before turning it off.

Dustin looked up at him. “You’re giving up?”

“No. I just wanted them off my back,” Lucas told him.

He thought Erica would approve of this blatant disregard of authority, but she didn’t look thrilled. “So what’s the plan? Walk in and get yourself killed?”

“Yeah, you heard them. The whole place is full of monsters,” Dustin agreed.

Lucas thought for a moment. They were right. Entering through the front gate would be suicide. He reached the solution at the same time Dustin did. But while Lucas sat up straight on his bike in a moment of clarity, Dustin’s face crumpled with anxiety.

“No way,” he said before Lucas even spoke.

“You said it yourself. There’s only one way to sneak in.” Lucas wasn’t sure exactly where the tunnel was, but he knew they would need to find it. More of the plan came together in his mind. “If we sneak in, all we have to do is light up some of the vines, either in the Upside Down or around the gate. We’ll draw everything into the basement and they’ll have a clear path.”

“But then they’ll kill us,” Dustin fretted, his fear of the Upside Down pitching his voice up half an octave.

“Not if we get out fast enough.” Lucas spoke with more confidence than he felt.

“That’s your plan?” It was not Dustin who spoke, but Erica.

“You, too?” Lucas asked, disappointed.

“I’m all for giving Hopper the middle finger, but this is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.” She didn’t sound like she was exaggerating.

Dustin shifted his weight uncomfortably. “She’s right. Are you sure you want to do this?”

Lucas considered the matter. “Yes,” he answered simply. When Dustin and Erica just stared, he went on. “Mike and Will would do the same for us.” Erica still looked disapproving, but Dustin nodded somberly. “You don’t have to come with me,” Lucas conceded.

Dustin shook his head despairingly. He looked terrified, but he took a deep breath and spoke. “Alright.” Lucas felt guilty, because he knew he was pressuring Dustin into doing something he didn’t want to do. He decided he would apologize later.

Dustin turned to Erica and gave her his walkie. “Stay here and stay in touch with them.” She glanced at Lucas and gave him an unusually serious look. He nodded, silently promising that he would be careful.

As Erica took shelter in the small booth that held a security guard in the days when the lab was operational, Lucas and Dustin wheeled their bikes around and disappeared down the street.

They didn’t know exactly where they were going, but they decided to start at Benny’s Burgers. They knew El had been there on the day she escaped, so it was as good a place as any to begin. From there, they followed Lucas’s compass into the woods.

After walking in silence for a while, Lucas noticed how twitchy Dustin was acting. He would jump at every snap of a twig or rustle of leaves. Lucas felt another pang of guilt, followed by a wave of gratitude for his friend. He knew how much effort it was taking for Dustin to be there with him. He decided he should repay the favor.

“You alright?” he asked with the most encouraging tone he could manage.

“No,” answered Dustin flatly. “I hate this plan.”

“I know,” Lucas answered apologetically. “But we gotta do something.” He glanced at his friend again. “I'm glad you’re here, though.” And he meant it.

“It's like you said. Mike and Will would do the same.” He shrugged. “And we have to stick together.”

Lucas nodded. That was all he wanted: for the Party to be together. He suddenly felt he owed Dustin an explanation.

“You're right. And I'm sorry I sorta forgot that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this last year. I totally abandoned you guys, which sucks.”

Dustin shrugged. “I mean, you did, but the Party was falling apart anyway.”

He was right. After Will and El moved away, what remained of the Party fractured. Max pulled away due to unrelated grief, and Mike even seemed to shut down. Lucas couldn't blame him, with his girlfriend and best friend thousands of miles away.

“But I chose to pull away,” Lucas argued sadly. “At least Max and Mike had good reasons. I just turned my back on you guys and got all buddy-buddy with… Jason.” He grimaced at the idea that he tried to be friends with that lunatic.

Dustin suddenly stopped and turned to face Lucas directly. “Wait, is that why you're doing this? You're not still blaming yourself for what happened to Max, are you?”

Lucas didn't answer immediately, and Dustin seemed to assume the answer. It was true that he felt somewhat responsible for Max's fate and for the apocalypse. But that wasn't the only reason he was doing this. “Sorta,” he admitted. “But I also just want my friends back.”

Dustin didn't seem entirely satisfied but he fell silent as they continued into the woods.

It felt like an hour had passed before they found the tunnel. It wasn't particularly wide, but he was sure he could squeeze through… barely.

“I'll go first,” Lucas offered. He thought it was only right, as this was his idea. He also thought Dustin would be more likely to squeeze back out behind him and run for help if he got stuck, given his lack of collar bones. They slid the container of gas into the tunnel ahead of them, and hoping he wouldn't pass out from the fumes, Lucas went next, pushing it ahead of him. He soon heard Dustin struggling behind him.

When at long last he emerged into a dark boiler room, he sighed in relief. He helped Dustin up and they caught their breath for a moment.

When they emerged into the hallway and heard distant footsteps in the dark, Lucas met Dustin's eyes and received a nod in return. They crept through the basement until they finally approached a doorway where the noises seemed to be coming from. Lucas took out one of the molotov cocktails and a lighter before bursting into the room.

The fleshy eyeless face of a demogorgon snapped up to meet him, and there was a commotion as a pack of demodogs stirred. Behind them, vines were sprawling across the walls and floor from a hole in the concrete that glowed a dim red. Lucas didn't stop to think. He lit the molotov and lobbed it at the demogorgon.

Fire roared to life and spread across the creature, which shrieked in agony. As Lucas extracted the second molotov, Dustin screwed the cap off of the gas can, dropped it on its side and kicked it across the floor. Lucas threw the second molotov at the tangled black vines across the floor, which erupted in a firestorm. He then dropped the lighter onto the floor and stepped back to the wall opposite the gate.

The whole room was suddenly ablaze and Lucas thought the heat from it would singe his hair off. The demodogs that had charged were caught in the flames and were twitching and writhing in pain. Even the monsters who weren't directly in the inferno seemed mostly incapacitated.

In the distance, Lucas heard the sound he had been waiting for. Hundreds of disorganized footsteps seemed to be thundering through the halls of the lab above, and they were getting closer. The army was coming down to meet them, and hopefully any monsters that remained would be subdued enough by the pain that Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, and Robin could get past.

“Okay, we gotta go,” Dustin called.

Lucas was about to follow him out of the room when something strange happened. From the charred corpses of the monsters, black particles seemed to be rising like smoke. They formed tendrils which swirled and flowed through the air toward the gate. As Lucas followed their progress, he saw something that made his heart skip a beat.

Through the membrane separating their world from the Upside Down, there was the outline of a man. Lucas didn't have much hope that it was one of his friends. As the membrane split open, Lucas got a view of black vines across waxy skin, and a hand with long clawed fingers. The particles of the Mind Flayer reached him and they flowed into his mouth and nose. Unlike Will, Henry showed no sign of discomfort at being attached to the hive mind. In fact, he seemed to welcome it.

Lucas knew he should be running, but he couldn't. For maybe a second, he stared at the man who had kidnapped Will and Mike, who had attempted to kill Max and put her in her coma, who had almost killed El, and who had destroyed his home over and over again. He saw red. The plan had been to distract the army, but how much better would it be to just cut the head off the snake and end this?

He didn't think. He pulled Jason's gun out of his pocket and aimed it at Henry. He had barely touched the trigger when the weapon was knocked out of his hand. An invisible force lifted Lucas off his feet, and pinned him against the wall. Henry had his hand extended and was looking at Lucas with mild interest.

“Dus…tin,” Lucas choked as his throat seemed to constrict under invisible bonds. “G–get out… of here…”

Dustin didn't move. From the corner of his eye, Lucas saw that his friend was frozen to the spot. Whether it was out of loyalty or fear, he couldn't tell.

Henry stepped right up to the wall of flames but did not attempt to cross it. “I suppose you thought you were being brave,” he said in his growl of a voice. “Trying to help your friends only after they're gone.” Lucas gave Henry the most furious look he could while struggling against his bonds. “Interesting…” he hummed to himself. “When they were around, you never seemed to care. You never made much time for Will, and you turned your back on your other friends when they were hurting. And now, too late, you try to make it right.”

Lucas glanced sideways at Dustin, trying to see if he was looking hurt, but there was only shock and terror on his face.

“They weren't happy with you,” Henry said mockingly. “I could tell.”

“Where… Mike a–and Will?” Lucas rasped.

“You'll see them soon,” Henry promised. “But it's too late to make things right. Will will be different, and Mike… Mike will wish he was as lucky as Max.”

The taunts about Max made Lucas’s ears ring with anger. He half wished Henry would just get on with it and kill him. Henry smirked, as though he knew what Lucas was thinking and was happy to oblige. Just as the pressure on his head started to increase, there was a sudden commotion in the room.

A crowd of people thundered through the doorway, most of them in camouflage uniforms and all of them armed. At least a dozen soldiers stepped in front of Lucas and Dustin and raised their weapons. Bringing up the rear of the group was Murray, holding a flamethrower and looking as mad as ever, and Hopper, who looked at Lucas with a mixture of relief and fury.

Lucas suddenly dropped to the floor where his legs gave out and he collapsed. At the same moment, he thought he would go deaf from the sudden gunfire in the enclosed space. Through a gap in the wall of soldiers, Lucas could see that Henry had raised his hand and seemed to be deflecting the bullets around himself. With a twitch of his fingers, the small army was knocked backwards, and many lost their footing.

Henry looked directly at Lucas, then to Dustin, and finally to Hopper. “We'll see you soon,” he said. We? Lucas didn't like the sound of that.

As Murray regained his footing and aimed his flamethrower at Henry, there was a sudden trembling in the ground. The glow from the gate was getting brighter and the vines around the edges were twisting and shifting. The gate expanded up the wall as Henry disappeared back through it.

“Let’s go!” ordered Hopper, and Lucas obeyed him for once. Dustin scrambled to his side as he followed the soldiers out of the room, Hopper and Murray once again bringing up the rear. On the way through the shaking hallway, Lucas noticed scorched corpses of monsters strewn across the ground, some still smoldering. The soldiers (or maybe just Murray) must have battled their way into the lab.

Finally, he regained the clean, fresh air of the parking lot. It was still dark out, probably the early hours of the morning. The soldiers all lingered behind near the entrance of the lab, but Hopper and Murray ushered Lucas and Dustin toward the gate. When they approached the booth, a small crowd of people swam into view.

“Steve!” called Dustin, and he broke into a run and barrelled into his friend. Lucas could tell how relieved he was that Steve was alive and unharmed, and he pretended not to notice as Dustin sniffled in Steve’s embrace. Instead, he turned his attention to Erica, who gave him a look that said ‘I told you it was a stupid idea’, and ‘I’m glad you’re okay’ at the same time. He swept his gaze over the rest of the group. Robin looked completely unharmed, and Nancy seemed to be fine as well, but Jonathan was leaning against the booth and holding one of his legs oddly. Blood was soaking through the fabric there. Before anyone could ask anything, Hopper barged through the group.

“Come on,” he said, and from his tone, Lucas knew he was in trouble. They all were.

The ride back to Hopper’s cabin was tense. Their bikes were thrown hap-hazardly into the back of Hopper’s truck, and Lucas sat silently in the back with Erica and Dustin. Even Murray didn’t dare speak until the truck had come to a stop.

“Good luck, kiddos,” were Murray’s only words of comfort.

Lucas got out after Hopper, feeling like he was approaching the gallows, and Erica and Dustin followed.

Hopper reached the porch just as a man with grey hair opened the door in greeting.

“Owens,” Hopper greeted, and stopped to talk to the man. Lucas, Erica, and Dustin hurried past him, and were soon joined by Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Jonathan. Jonathan was leaning on Nancy and, to Lucas’s surprise, Steve for support as he limped along. As soon as everyone was in the cabin, the door to El’s room opened, and Ms. Byers came flying out into their midst.

She took one look at her son, and gave him a look that was both stern and relieved. She didn’t say a word before hugging Jonathan. The reunion was cut short by the door of the cabin flying open. Hopper stormed in, followed by Dr. Owens and Murray, who both lingered near the entrance. Hopper, on the other hand, walked right to the middle of the floor, and everyone seemed to cringe backward at the sight of his anger.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” he demanded in a thunderous voice. Lucas was grateful to see that Hopper wasn’t glaring at him, but at Jonathan. Then he felt guilty as Jonathan avoided his gaze nervously.

After a moment, Jonathan mumbled, “How did you know where we were?”

Hopper stepped closer and Jonathan seemed to shrink in shame. “Is that what you’re worried about right now?” Hopper’s voice was rising in volume with every syllable. “What about your mother? Was this really the time to scare her half to death by going rogue? How about the Wheelers? How do you think they would feel if they woke up tomorrow with two kids missing? Did you even think about–”

“Yes!” retorted Jonathan. “Yes, I did think about it, okay? But did you think about the fact that Mike and Will are in the Upside Down while we’re wasting time waiting for El to wake up?”

Hopper didn’t seem to like being told how to run his rescue operation. “I told you, I’m not risking anybody’s lives by marching into the Upside Down until we can put up a fight! That means we wait for El!”

“Well…” began Jonathan heatedly, faltering as he seemed to wonder if he had the nerve to say what he wanted to. “We’re risking their lives every second we wait! They’re in trouble! For all we know they could already–” He cut off suddenly and glanced at his mother, who seemed to be trying to hold herself together. Hopper seemed to take Joyce’s reaction as a personal attack, and he stepped closer to Jonathan, looking as likely to kill as Henry.

Hopper’s expression softened when Jonathan took an instinctive step back. Lucas had a feeling he knew what had just happened in Jonathan’s mind. He didn’t know exactly what life under Lonnie’s roof had been like, but he had a general picture. Will never shared details with the Party. Lucas was sure he and Mike had discussed it, but Mike had always been extremely fierce in stopping Lucas and Dustin from asking any questions. From Jonathan’s reaction, Lucas was sure of one thing: the Byers siblings had been yelled at by their father a lot, and it didn’t usually end with a peaceful de-escalation.

With what looked like an enormous effort, Hopper took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “I understand that you’re frustrated,” he said. “Believe me, I feel the same way. But I can’t risk any more lives than necessary, and that’s what you did tonight.” Jonathan looked down at the floor in shame. “I need you to understand what could’ve happened if I hadn’t been there.”

“You mean if Lucas hadn’t been there,” Dustin interjected. Lucas felt proud of himself for about a second before Hopper turned to face him.

“What does that mean?” he asked in a deadly voice.

While Lucas tried not to show signs of weakness, Dustin briefly explained how they had drawn the monsters toward the basement by starting a fire. “And we would’ve gotten away just fine if Henry hadn’t been there.”

“Wait, you guys saw Henry?!” asked Steve with concern.

As Hopper seemed to be short circuiting at the stupidity of everyone in the room, Ms. Byers looked around at all the guilty faces. Lucas found her disappointment much harder to face than Hopper’s anger. “I can’t believe you guys.” She shook her head disapprovingly. “You could all have been killed.” She raised her arms in exasperation then let them fall again. “I mean, what was the point?”

“The point is that Mike and Will are alive,” said Nancy. That got everyone’s attention. “We heard them over the radio. It sounded like they were in trouble, but they’re alive.”

Lucas didn’t like the sound of ‘trouble’. He hoped desperately that Mike and Will had gotten out of whatever situation they were in, and that they were safe now. Stupid, he thought to himself. Of course they’re not safe. They’re in the Upside Down. Then, darker thoughts crossed his mind. What if they’re still in trouble? They could be fighting for their lives right now. Or… maybe they lost. What if Nancy and Jonathan heard the last moments of their lives. He gave himself a shake. He couldn’t think like that. Almost everyone else in the cabin seemed to be thinking along the same lines as him, though.

“Exactly,” said Jonathan, seeming grateful that the conversation had moved past his mistakes. “That’s why we were down there. We wanted to figure out what we were dealing with.”

“And?” asked his mother urgently. Even Hopper seemed to calm down a little at the prospect of potentially useful information.

“The lab is surrounded by monsters,” offered Nancy. “We think Henry put them there to stop us from going after the boys.”

“Partly,” added Steve. “He also uh… gave us all a pretty scary warning.” Steve described what he had seen: Hawkins overrun with monsters, Henry and Will at the head of the army, the Mind Flayer towering overhead, and Mike dead at Henry’s hand.

“So he wants to possess Will again,” Dustin observed. “And he wants to… kill Mike.” He glanced sympathetically at Nancy.

“He mentioned something like that when he talked to us,” Lucas added.

“This guy really has it out for Mike,” said Robin, earning a number of looks of distress. “Why?”

“And why does he want to possess Will again?” Steve asked.

With a look at Dustin, Lucas thought they were on the same page. The ‘Will has powers’ hypothesis was gaining traction. Why else would Henry want him alive so badly? If Will was responsible for creating the entire Upside Down, then he would be an incredibly powerful ally. And possessing him would ensure his cooperation.

“It doesn’t matter,” Hopper declared. “We won’t let him get to either of them if we can help it. Now that we know what’s around the lab, we can start making a plan.”

“Uh… there’s something else you should know,” Jonathan said uneasily. “It’s not just the usual monsters down there. There’s… something else.” He shared a glance with Nancy.

“What?”

“I don’t know what it was, but it was huge. It had this giant, gaping mouth,” Lucas froze. He remembered Nancy describing a similar creature during the nightmare that was Spring Break. “And it had these… limbs around its mouth, and they all move separately, like they’re all heads of their own or something.”

“Thessalhydra,” murmured Dustin.

Hopper groaned and rolled his eyes. “Is this more of your D&D bull–”

“Yeah it is,” Dustin fired back at once. “And it’s not bullshit. I know it’s not real, it’s just a naming convention. Or do you want to keep calling this thing ‘the creature with the gaping mouth’?” Hopper just blinked in surprise. Lucas was sure Dustin’s anger came from the way Hellfire Club had been demonized by the whole town. He couldn’t blame him, and nobody seemed prepared to argue back.

“So this… thessalhydra,” Hopper continued in a valiant effort to stay calm. “What happened?”

“I ran into it right outside the tunnel El escaped through. That’s what attacked me.” He shot his worried mother an apologetic look. “I’m pretty sure it’s there so Mike and Will don’t try to sneak into the lab.”

Hopper took a moment to absorb the information. “Okay,” he looked around the room. “I’m not saying going down there was a good idea, but at least we have some solid information now.” He turned to Jonathan and Ms. Byers. “You should get that leg taken care of. Dr. Owens has some people here taking care of El. I’m sure they can help you out.” Dr. Owens nodded and crossed the room to follow Jonathan and his mother into El’s room. Once the door closed, Hopper gave one more stern look at everyone in the cabin. “All of you are to go home. You’re welcome to help me with the rescue plan or establishing communication with Mike and Will, but you are NOT to go anywhere near the lab again. Do I make myself clear?” Everyone nodded in defeat. “Good. The place will be under 24 hour surveillance, so don’t get any ideas. Just give me a minute with Murray and Dr. Owens, then I’m taking you three home myself.” He pointed at Lucas, Dustin, and Erica.

Lucas walked out onto the porch, feeling exhausted. He had hardly slept at all since Mike and Will had been taken, and staying up all night was probably not a good idea. He was sure dawn was at most an hour away. The door opened and Dustin joined him at the railing.

“Well that could’ve gone worse,” he said.

“I suppose,” Lucas answered, barely aware of what he was saying. His mind was back in the basement of the lab, where he and Dustin had almost died. In an effort to keep the rest of the Party together, he had almost destroyed what was left of it. “Sorry,” he said suddenly. “You were right, it was a stupid idea.”

“I told you,” replied Dustin, seeming unable to stop himself. “But, for the record, I meant what I said. It would’ve worked if Henry wasn’t there.”

“Thanks.” Lucas looked at Dustin to see that he looked about as tired as he felt. “I almost got you killed, though. I shouldn’t have pressured you into coming along.” Dustin shrugged, not seeming upset. “I think you were right. I was feeling guilty about abandoning the Party, and I just wanted to keep what’s left of it together.”

“Hey, we’re all still here,” Dustin assured him. “El’s gonna wake up soon, and Max is alive, and we’re gonna find Mike and Will.” Lucas nodded, trying to believe it.

“You know,” he said with a small humorless laugh. “I’m starting to think I was a little hard on Mike. Leading this shit show is no joke.” Lucas remembered back to the first time Will had disappeared. Mike had encouraged all of them to ignore Hopper’s orders that very night, and in doing so they had found El, which led to Will’s rescue. If Lucas had been in charge, he would either have put off the search or ended up getting them all killed by marching right into the lab like he had tonight. Will would’ve never been found, Mike would never have been the same, and the Party would’ve crumbled. He knew Dustin, too, was thinking about their missing friends.

“I’m sure they’re fine,” he said in a tone of false-confidence. “You know what they’re like. If Will sneezes, Mike’ll be there to wipe his nose.” Lucas’s mind shifted from Mike to Will. If their theory was correct and he did have powers, that would surely boost their chances of survival in the Upside Down.

He was about to ask Dustin about his opinion on the idea when the cabin door opened and Erica exited. “You nerds holding hands out here?”

“Erica!” Lucas groaned with an eye roll.

“Hey, I’m not judging.”

The argument was averted as Steve and Robin walked past on the way to their car, Steve giving Dustin a nod and a sincere smile, and Hopper followed. It seemed Nancy had chosen to stay behind with Jonathan.

The ride back into town was uncomfortable, but less so than the ride from the lab. Lucas suspected Ms. Byers had managed to calm Hopper down. They dropped off Dustin first, and by the time they made it to Lucas and Erica’s house, there was a thin greyish line on the horizon, signaling the approaching sunrise. As Lucas got out, he turned back to the truck.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted. “I know going in there was stupid.”

Hopper still looked upset, but seemed to appreciate the apology. “Yeah, it was.” Then seeing the shame on Lucas’s face, he continued. “It worked out this time. But I wouldn’t test your luck.” Lucas nodded in agreement. “I know you can handle yourself,” he admitted. “I just wanted you to stay safe. Now go get some sleep, kid. You look like you need it.” With that, he rolled up his window and sped away down the street. Lucas stood there for a moment, marveling at how easily he had gotten off the hook with Hopper, and considering that maybe he had a point all along.

Lucas thought he was in the clear until he followed Erica inside to find his parents awake and staring expectantly at the door. It was a tense half hour after that. They had not only been caught sneaking out, but they were also spotted being dropped off by the Chief of Police. Add in the fact that he had dragged Erica out with him, and the fact that they couldn’t give details on where they had been, and Lucas thought he was lucky to only be grounded for two days. He figured his parents hadn’t yet discovered that their liquor was missing.

Lucas was laying on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, which was being illuminated by the first rays of the rising sun, when Erica pushed his door open.

“I don’t want to hear it,” he snapped at her before she could even speak.

“Hear what?”

“That I was an idiot and my stupid plan almost got me and Dustin killed.”

“I mean, I wasn’t gonna say it.” Lucas glared at her. Did she really just come in here to gloat? “I really wasn’t,” she said defensively. Lucas didn’t believe her. “I was gonna say you were lucky Hopper got there when he did.”

“That’s basically saying the same thing.”

“No it’s not. I was trying to say I’m glad you’re okay, so why don’t you watch your attitude and give me some credit.” 

Attitude? Who was she to lecture him about attitude? Then he realized what she said and was visited by a sudden suspicion.

“You called Hopper, didn’t you?”

“Duh,” she answered. “Did you think I was gonna let you kill yourself and Dusty-bun?” When Lucas didn’t say anything, she went on. “Don’t tell me you’re gonna get mad because I messed up your shitty plan.”

Lucas had to admit to himself that she made the right call. She had indirectly saved his life, as much as he didn’t want Hopper involved in his rescue operation. Before he could respond, his father peeked around his doorframe.

“You two better not be arguing,” he warned. Erica rolled her eyes in a way Lucas didn’t think would help their case.

“You should get some sleep. You look like shit,” she told Lucas as she left the room.

“Hey, watch your mouth, young lady!” called their father after her.

Then as he made to leave, Lucas spoke. “Hey, dad.” His dad stopped. “Sorry we snuck out. It won’t happen again.”

He gave Lucas a stern look. “It better not. But I appreciate the apology.”

Then before he could leave, Lucas tried his luck. “Hey, would it be okay if you took me to see Max? I haven’t visited in a few days.”

His father’s stern look softened slightly. “If you’re nice to your sister and you stay out of trouble, I’ll take you tomorrow night.”

“Thanks.” Lucas felt himself calm down slightly. Even though Max couldn’t respond, talking to her always made him feel better.

“Now get some rest. Your sister wasn’t wrong.” His father closed the door, leaving silence behind him.

Lucas closed the curtains and settled into his bed. The last comforting thought he had before falling asleep was that, even though he had nearly died tonight, they were at least a little closer to rescuing Mike and Will.

When he woke, it was a few seconds before he registered what had caused his abrupt return to consciousness. It seemed to be sometime in the afternoon based on the bright sunlight streaming through the gap in the curtains. Then the crackle of a radio caught his attention.

He fished it out of the bag next to his bed just in time to hear Nancy’s voice speaking urgently.

“Does anyone copy? I repeat, El is awake!” 

Lucas felt relief flood through every particle of his body. Dustin was right. The Party really was still here.

Chapter Text

Sunlight poured into the large room. The babble of hundreds of voices reverberated around Will. He blinked in surprise at the overwhelming sensations, feeling vaguely confused about how he got here. Glancing around, he saw long tables with kids sitting in rows on benches. He seemed to be in his middle school cafeteria. How strange… 

His musings were interrupted by a very loud voice from his right side. Will twisted in his seat to see a curly-haired head. Dustin seemed to be passionately arguing some point. Will couldn't hear the words. He didn't think they were important anyway.

From across the table came another loud voice, and Will's eyes fell on Lucas who clearly didn't agree with whatever Dustin had just said and was now making his views heard. Will took note of how young Lucas looked. Another glance at Dustin revealed a thoroughly toothless grin. This must be a memory. Will wondered why he couldn't hear any of the words. Perhaps he just couldn't remember them.

He looked straight ahead and realized that the words weren't important. The reason Will had this memory at all and the reason the messy middle school cafeteria suddenly seemed to be enveloped in a faint golden glow, was the sight before him. Mike was looking fondly across the table at Will. He flicked his eyes toward Lucas and Dustin as they continued their argument, rolled his eyes, and smiled. God, that smile, Will thought. He smiled back, then took another look around the table. He couldn’t place this particular recollection. Maybe it wasn’t even real, or maybe it was a fantasy born of hundreds of similar memories bleeding together in his mind. It didn’t really matter to Will, for he felt happy. This was nice. All of his friends were together and life was good.

But as he thought about how perfect this moment was, he wondered again why he was here, and a nagging feeling of doom settled over him. Darker images flashed in front of his eyes: images of monsters and death. As his eyes fell on Mike again, a terrible view over a steep cliff forced its way into his mind. Will knew that memory was not his, but his mind could construct the picture with ease. Suddenly despair seemed to be weighing down his heart, and the cafeteria vanished as he seemed to descend through darkness.

After a moment, the cafeteria reformed around him. But his friends were gone. He looked around and registered how different everything looked. It all seemed older. A sudden clatter caught his attention. Will turned to see a small boy standing frozen in the middle of the room. His lunch tray seemed to have been knocked to the floor by an older kid. Mike would've called him a mouth breather.

Will could just make out the words, “watch where you're going, freak,” as the bully walked away. The boy stood there for half a minute, shaking slightly with rage and humiliation before walking over to an empty table and throwing himself down, his lunch still strewn across the floor behind him.

Will approached the boy, who had his back to him. Will felt a sinking feeling of despair and injustice. He thought he was just feeling sympathy for the boy until a seething feeling of rage joined the mix. These didn't feel like his feelings. Regardless, he felt the need to comfort the boy. He reached out a hand as he made to sit beside him, but just as he touched the boy's shoulder, the surroundings changed. The cafeteria dissolved, and a blood-red landscape replaced it, littered with the remains of an old house. Will just made out the pillars with ghastly human victims bound by vines when he woke with a gasp.

Will barely had time to register that he was still laying in the hospital bed or that Mike was pressed snuggly against his back before his gasp turned into a cough. He pressed his face into the pillow, but it did not muffle the sound as much as he hoped.

“Will?” came Mike's groggy voice from beside him. A hand gripped his shoulder as he continued to cough.

“‘M okay,” he spluttered as he finally regained control.

“You sure?” Mike asked.

“Yeah. I just had a… dream,” he said. He didn't think it qualified as a nightmare. It wasn’t scary, just surprising. He made to sit up, but Mike didn't let go of his shoulder.

“Hey,” he groaned. “Relax.” Will turned his head to face Mike. His expression was practically begging him not to leave. Feeling self-conscious, Will flipped his whole body over and laid back down. Mike's face was inches from his. “Do you want to talk about it?” Will could feel Mike’s breath as he spoke.

Talk about what? Will thought. What happened? His brain seemed to have jammed. Then he remembered. Oh right. The dream.

“Y-yeah,” he answered, trying not to blush. He explained the memory briefly as well as the scene of the other boy being bullied which ended with the incursion into Henry's mindscape. Mike thought for a moment before coming to the same conclusion Will had.

“The boy was Henry. Was that one of his real memories?”

“I think so,” Will answered. “It didn't feel like a vision. I'm pretty sure he didn't make me see it.” He thought about exactly what happened. “My memory was in the cafeteria at school, and I started thinking about…” he remembered the cliff, “…dark stuff. And then… it's like I somehow shifted into his memory of the same place. And I could feel his feelings. He was furious. And when I touched him I ended up in his mind, just for a second. Then I woke up.”

Mike seemed lost in thought for a moment. Then he shivered. “It's creepy to think about. That kid is responsible for all of this.”

That's not what was creepy to Will. “I felt bad for him. I know he's a monster now, but in the memory, I just wanted to help him.” He couldn't bring himself to feel sympathy for the modern-day Henry, but that boy seemed so helpless and innocent. Will was having trouble parsing the two of them in his mind.

“Maybe it was a vision, and he's trying to make you sympathize with him,” Mike offered.

Will made a skeptical noise. “I don't think so.” He didn't know how he knew it, but he did. As sure as he knew that the sky was blue (or at least it was supposed to be), he knew that Henry didn't mean for him to see what he saw. “And even if he did, it doesn't matter. It's not gonna work.”

Mike seemed to approve. “Good. Because he's just trying to make excuses. I mean… you said he got his lunch knocked out of his hands? I've seen Troy do that to you at least three times and you would never kill anyone because you're not a psycho.” He said it with pride in his voice. But even as Will glowed slightly at Mike’s conviction, he couldn't help but think that Mike's reasoning wasn't quite right. Maybe Henry was a psycho back then, or maybe not, but the detail Will couldn't help but notice was that Henry had taken a seat at an empty table. It was a stark contrast to the group of laughing and smiling friends who had sat around Will in his memory. If someone had been kind enough to be Henry’s friend, would things have been different?

“So one way or another, you ended up in Henry's mind,” Mike said, yanking Will back to the present. “If he wasn't giving you a vision, then how'd you do that?”

Will knew. There was only one explanation. “Our minds are connected. By the Mind Flayer. It's how I can feel when he's close.”

Mike looked concerned. “But we got the Mind Flayer out of you.”

Will nodded, the side of his head still pressed against the pillow. “Yeah, you did. But it's like…” Will struggled for a moment, trying to put his thoughts into words. “It's like the Mind Flayer kicked a door down to get into my head. And when it was in there, I was connected to everything that was part of the hive mind, including Henry, but I didnt know that at the time. And when the Mind Flayer left, he left the door open. He can't control me anymore, but I can still access Henry's mind and feelings sometimes.”

“So if we kill Henry…” Will knew what Mike's concern was, and he had had it himself. He gave Mike the argument he had always used to soothe his own fears.

“I should be fine. Closing the gate didn't kill me, so as long as the Mind Flayer doesn't get me again, I should be okay.” With that statement, the worry came flooding back into Will.

“He won't get you again, Will. He won't.” Will tried to feel reassured, but he still felt like the giant shadow was looming over him.

The feeling persisted as Will got out of bed and sent another distress call using Max’s lights, which went unanswered. Mike got up shortly after that, and started rummaging around in his bag. He pulled out a handful of granola bars and passed half of them to Will. As he was zipping up the bag, he paused.

“Hey, look,” he said, as he pulled out a notepad and a loose sheet of paper containing Will’s nearly completed drawing of the Party. “You should finish this.”

Will took the page and stared at it. “Oh,” he began nervously. “Yeah, sure.”

They settled into silence as Will finished drawing El. As he worked, Mike started writing. As he did so, Will noticed him glancing at him frequently, shooting him reassuring smiles each time. Will’s mind kept wandering back to their conversation, though he wasn't thinking at all about the words they exchanged. He kept seeing Mike’s face inches from his own, his dark eyes standing out in great detail.

Will lost track of time, and after a while, Mike got up and sent another distress call with the lights. As he glanced at Will's drawing, he scrunched up his eyebrows.

“What's wrong?” He didn't need to ask to recognize that something was bothering Will.

“I don't know. I'm having trouble with this part.” Will had been staring at the paper for several minutes, unable to continue drawing. On the page were all five of his friends: Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Max, and El. That only left one Party member. The problem was that Will always had trouble drawing himself. Drawing Will the Wise was one thing, but sketching a life-accurate depiction of Will Byers was something he generally avoided, and he wasn't even sure why.

“You'll get it,” said Mike with absolute certainty. “Why don't you take a break for a while?”

It didn't take long for Will to take Mike's advice. They had now been in the hospital for about half a day with no word from the world above, and Mike was becoming restless. Finally he proposed a potentially dangerous but necessary way to pass the time. They crept out of the hospital room and started making their way around the floor, checking in every room for monsters. Will was grateful when they opened the last room to find nothing. He had been feeling like Max's room was a tiny pocket of safety surrounded by death. It reminded him too much of their imprisonment downtown. Will felt ashamed of how he had acted in that RadioShack. Whatever Mike said, he couldn't convince himself that he wasn't a coward. He had been ready to give up and even convinced Mike to do the same. It was only by a miracle that they had gotten away. He was also sure that Mike had confessed about his jump into the quarry because the emotions had been stirred up by their close brush with death. He hated being the reason Mike had relived such deep trauma.

Mike didn’t seem to share Will's negative feelings. As they worked, Will noticed that his friend was looking over at him a lot. Mike usually kept an eye on Will anyway. It was his protective instinct at work, which had always made Will feel safe around him. But today, his looks were different. Even after they had verified that there were no threats on their floor, Mike continued to watch Will, barely making an effort to hide it. What was more, his expression wasn't anxious, it was relaxed, joyful even. 

Will wondered if this was the result of their emotional conversation the previous night. Will had taken on the role of protector for the first time in his memory, and comforted Mike in a rare moment of vulnerability. Was Mike simply expressing his gratitude? It was true that he felt closer to Mike now than he had in a long time. And yet, he suspected there might be more to his behavior. 

Since confessing the truth about the painting, Will had been waiting for Mike to put the pieces together and figure out what he really meant. Part of him was waiting for a confrontation in which Mike expressed his disgust and asked Will to keep his distance. He thought sooner or later, the bridge they were building across the rift between them would crumble and Will would once again be held at arm’s length or ousted entirely from Mike’s life. Could it be that Mike was only working with him now as a result of their circumstances? If they made it back to their own world, would Mike abandon Will again, no longer needing or wanting him? Will had trouble convincing himself that that was the case. Mike had promised they would go to college together, after all. 

In fact, Mike’s behavior as they rummaged through room after room caused Will to recklessly consider a different and more unbelievable possibility. Mike had not shown the slightest sign of hostility or discomfort, either hidden or otherwise. And Will knew he could read Mike better than anyone. If he could not see signs of disgust, he was sure there were none there. In fact, Mike was being more overtly friendly and relaxed around Will than ever. The explanation for this that Will was toying with seemed to good to be true. Perhaps he had put together what Will had told him in that pizza van, and maybe… just maybe, he felt the same way. Will couldn’t bring himself to believe it. It sounded like a dream come true. Dreams didn’t usually come true for Will. Either way, if Mike kept up this display of affection, it was going to drive Will crazy. He wanted more than anything to return the sentiment, but was afraid of revealing too much.

“Hey,” Mike said softly as Will searched through a cabinet. Will looked around at him. Mike had fixed him with another fond look that made Will feel momentarily weightless. “We should play another game.”

Mike must have picked up on Will’s internal turmoil, and he had assumed it was the result of stress or fear. Well, he thought. It is. It’s just not for the reason he thinks. Either way, he seemed to be trying to distract Will again, for which he was grateful.

“Sure, what kind of game?”

Mike faltered. “Well– maybe it’s not really a game. More an activity. I just thought it might…” He trailed off at the anticipatory look on Will’s face. “I thought it might be a good idea to make a… bucket list I guess?” At Will’s look of surprise and confusion, he quickly went on. “I know a bucket list is usually stuff you do before you die, but I thought for us it can be the opposite. You know, stuff we can do after we get out of here.”

Will grinned slightly. He could tell this was Mike’s way of trying to keep Will’s hopes of survival up. Will thought it was very tactful of him. Surprisingly so. Having specific goals would make the possibility of their survival seem more real. It would also give Will more of a reason to keep fighting. You’re the heart, Will thought at him.

“Good idea,” Will answered, trying to put as much gratitude as possible into his words. “Did you have something in mind?”

“Yeah, I do,” began Mike. “But first, I want to say– no, I want to promise something.” This piqued Will’s interest. “Whatever we put on the list, I promise we’ll do it together. I think that’ll be fun.”

Will smiled. It was as though Mike had looked into Will’s mind and seen all his doubts and was going out of his way to snuff them out. Will was worrying about Mike pushing him away again, and here he was making more commitments to keep him close. Did Mike even realize how badly Will needed to hear this? Did he know the turmoil these gestures were causing Will? Did he know just how infuriating he was being?

Forcing down his rush of emotions, Will simply nodded. “Yeah, sure. Together.” Their eyes met and for a moment they just looked at each other, absorbed in the magnitude of the promise. Then Will caught himself and cleared his throat. “So… what was your idea?”

“Wh– Oh, right,” said Mike, giving himself a shake. What just happened there? Will thought to himself. “Okay, don’t freak out, but…” He took a deep breath. “I wanna go back to the quarry.”

“Woah, what?” asked Will in surprise, trying hard to heed Mike’s request and not freak out.

“I know, it sounds crazy. But I think I need to go back there.”

“Why?”

Mike sunk onto the bed in the room they were in, and sensing the gravity of the conversation, Will sat next to him.

“The quarry scares the shit out of me,” he admitted. “I mean, obviously it does. The two worst moments of my life happened there.” He shuddered slightly. “I haven’t been back there since… that day. I tried as hard as I could not to think about it, and it worked most days, but sometimes I would have… nightmares… or I would just… remember it without meaning to…” He trailed off, seemingly lost in thought.

“That’s okay,” Will assured him. “I think anyone would be scared to go back there if they had–” He stopped talking abruptly, wondering if he had said the wrong thing.

Mike didn’t look upset, at least not with Will. “I know,” he said, but Will wasn’t sure he really believed it. He seemed angry at himself. “But I’m tired of being scared.” In that moment, Will understood just how scared Mike was, and it had a profound effect on him. Mike was one of the strongest people Will knew. And Will had come to rely on his support so much, that he sometimes thought of his friend only as the fearless paladin he always pretended to be in their D&D campaigns. Sometimes he forgot that he was just a teenager like himself. But now, for the second time in a day, Mike had allowed Will to see his vulnerabilities. It made him seem more human than usual, but he didn’t seem weak. In fact, Will now thought he was stronger than ever. It was as though the harshness of the Upside Down was chipping away at the protective wall around Mike, allowing Will to glimpse the seething mass of fear and anxiety inside. The fact that Mike grappled with such volatile emotions every day, often pushing them down in favor of Will’s needs, made Will feel both admiration and sympathy for his friend. It also filled him with a fierce desire to help.

“I get it,” Will told him. “I think it’s really brave of you to want to do that. I’m not sure I could…”

“What do you mean?” asked Mike incredulously. “It’s kinda what you’re doing right now, isn’t it? Just by being here.”

Will looked around the gloomy hospital room, then glanced out the window where red lightning flashed in the distance. “I guess,” he conceded, though he didn’t think he had confronted much yet. The Upside Down in general was of course terrifying, but they had yet to visit any locations that brought back his trauma quite like the quarry did for Mike. Images of the library, his house, his shed, and Castle Byers flashed through his mind. There was also the fact that he was completely failing at facing his fears, given how easily he had given up twice now.

As though reading his mind, Mike spoke. “You’re not still beating yourself up for what happened downtown are you? Because I’m just as guilty as you are. More, actually.”

“Really? I’m the one who convinced you to give up.” Will hated himself as he admitted it.

“Yeah, but I went along with it,” Mike argued. “And we got out together!” As the silence stretched between them, he continued. “Remember, I told you to never feel like a mistake, so please stop being so hard on yourself.”

Will sighed. “Alright,” he agreed. But he wasn’t sure he could do what Mike was requesting of him. How could he just choose to let go of his shame so easily?

“Thanks, by the way,” Mike said suddenly. When Will looked at him he looked awkward.

“For what?”

“For… last night. I never talked about… what I did… with anyone before. And… I don’t know, I guess I was worried you would be mad about it or something.”

Will felt his heart break. “How could I be mad at you for that?”

Mike shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess I just get stuck in my head sometimes.”

After another moment of silence, Will felt the need to ask a question. “How did it feel? Talking about it.”

“It was scary,” Mike confessed. “But I’m glad I did it.” Will noticed the way his shoulders relaxed and the carefree grin returned to his face. “I think that’s why I want to go back to the quarry,” he continued. “I think if you’re there it might not be as scary.” Will glowed with pride. The sensation Mike had just described was exactly how Will felt about having Mike with him in the Upside Down, now that the raw shock and terror had started to wear off. Maybe he was starting to get too comfortable, but his memories of his first trip here seemed a hundred times worse, and Will suspected it was mainly due to the fact that he had been alone. 

He also thought about the relief Mike had described at sharing the burden of such a big secret. Will thought about the secret he was hiding. Revealing it would surely be a huge relief, but there was the problem that the secret concerned Mike. Jonathan knew (or at least he was pretty sure he did), and that was one thing, but how could he ever summon the courage to tell Mike? Then he thought about his growing suspicions regarding Mike’s behavior of the last day, and decided to test his theory.

“Hey, you know you can tell me anything, right?” he asked quickly, before he could lose his nerve.

Mike’s dark eyes found Will’s. He seemed to be trying to figure out how much Will meant what he said. “Anything?” he asked faintly.

“Anything,” Will confirmed.

Mike just sat there, and Will could almost see cogs spinning inside his brain. He seemed to be deep in thought, and as he seemed to teeter on the edge of speech, Will tensed with anticipation. But then…

“Yeah, of course. Thanks.” Will tried not to show his disappointment. After all, Will probably would respond the same way, even if he was given an opportunity like that. Anything else would require confronting his biggest fear: bigger than heights, demogorgons, or the dark. It was the fear of losing his best friend, and Will didn’t blame Mike for faltering in the face of it.

They got back to searching the hospital, and were in the next room before Mike spoke again. “So what about you? What’s on your list?”

“Oh… I don’t know,” answered Will. Truthfully, all Will wanted to do when he got out of here was live a normal life with his friends and family, but that didn’t seem worthy of a bucket list.

“It doesn’t have to be super dramatic like mine,” said Mike. “It can just be something fun.” Will wracked his brain for fun things to do with his friends. D&D, the arcade, and the movie theater came to mind, but those seemed too ordinary. Then he found an answer. Mike would probably think he was crazy.

“Okay…” he began uneasily. “I kinda want to go to another roller rink.” Will could practically see the terrible ordeal of Rink-O-Mania replaying in Mike’s mind. Will put his hands up to try to stem the flow of unpleasant thoughts undoubtedly churning in Mike’s brain. “I know Rink-O-Mania was a disaster, but… I don’t know, I remember going there a few times before Spring Break for my mom’s work parties, and it was actually kinda fun. And I think if we weren’t… you know… fighting the whole time, and if Angela wasn’t there, we would’ve had a good time.” And if you and El weren’t lying to each other, Will thought.

Mike seemed to be considering the idea. “I wasn’t very good. If it wasn’t for El I would’ve fallen on my ass a lot.” He looked at Will timidly. “You were pretty good, though.”

It surprised Will that Mike even remembered a detail as obscure as his skating ability. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said. Then he seemed to shrink as Will’s surprise showed on his face. “I really wasn’t ignoring you that day. I’m sorry that it seemed that way. I was being a complete idiot.” Yeah, you really were, thought Will, but he nodded at the apology. Then Mike seemed to perk up as he considered the idea more. “Would we take the rest of the Party with us?”

Will thought about it. It didn’t escape his notice that Mike seemed okay with the idea of just he and Will going to a roller rink together. Almost like… a date. Get a grip, he thought. Then he thought about the rest of the Party attempting to skate and snickered. “Sure. I bet Dustin would be terrible.”

Mike laughed along. “Hopefully. Falling down a few times might be good for his ego.”

Will laughed more. Then a sad thought punctured his happy mental image. “I bet Max would be really good.” Mike, who Will knew was not the world’s biggest fan of Max, suddenly looked upset.

“Yeah. She would.” Neither of them voiced their question of whether she would ever get to skate, or even walk again.

“Sorry,” said Will suddenly, feeling he ruined the moment.

“It’s fine,” Mike assured him. “It’s a good idea. Roller rink it is.”

They finished searching the floor, then returned to Max’s room to take a break and eat. Afterward, they made their way to the stairwell. They managed to poke a metal curtain rod through the handle of the door to the second floor, effectively barring it shut. They then proceeded to the ground floor, where they completed their safe passage to the exit, just in case they needed to make a quick getaway.

They were quiet as they navigated the ground floor, checking every room for monsters. As they began searching the first room on this floor for supplies, Will suddenly froze. Once again, he felt the familiar prickle on the back of his neck and the terrible dropping sensation in his gut. He looked out the window and gasped. There, silhouetted against the flickering red light of the storm was the Mind Flayer. It seemed closer than last time, towering over the distant tree line, its limbs impossibly long and spreading outward into the swirling darkness. He didn’t wait for it to turn its gaze on him this time. He just turned and ran. 

“Will?” he heard Mike call in confusion.

He wasn’t proud of fleeing like this in front of Mike, but he didn’t care. He barged through the door into the hallway and stood there in the dark, wishing desperately that he could just go home. It was as though the Mind Flayer was aware that Will was starting to get comfortable and was determined not to allow it.

Suddenly, Will was blinking in the sterile white light of a fully illuminated hospital corridor. He staggered, wondering if this was a vision from Henry. He had his headphones around his neck, so if he was in a trance, Mike would play his music any second now and he would be safe.

“Will?” He heard Mike say his name from right beside him, but when he looked around, he saw only empty space.

“Mike?” he asked, feeling alarmed. He jumped when he felt something touch his shoulder. Again, he saw nothing.

“Will? What’s going on?” His voice seemed to echo slightly, just as Dustin’s had in RadioShack. As a couple of nurses rounded the corner and walked past Will as though he was not there, he realized what was happening. There was nothing scary about the scene, so it wasn’t likely to be Henry’s doing. And Mike hadn’t played his music yet, so he assumed there was no visible sign of danger.

“I– I’m in the hospital. In Hawkins. I can’t see you, but I can hear you a– and feel your hand on my shoulder.” He felt strange describing it, especially as, from his perspective, he was explaining his situation to thin air.

“True Sight?” Mike guessed.

“Yeah,” confirmed Will. He had a sudden urge to try something. “Hang on,” he said, and he tried to walk down the hall, but collided with something solid that he could not see. “Shit– sorry.”

“It’s fine. You go first,” said Mike.

Will walked purposefully down the hall and half-ran up the stairs. He wasn’t sure how long his True Sight would last. He never had control over it. A moment later, he was hurrying through the door to Max’s room. There she was, her hair as vivid as ever, her eyes still closed, and her arms resting limply at her sides. The usual sketch of Lucas and Max at the movie theater was pinned on the wall above her. The chair beside her bed was empty, but the lamp on her bedside table was on as always.

Not even slowing down to appreciate the dazzling sunlight streaming through the gap in the curtains, Will walked around the bed, forgetting that it was in a different position in the Upside Down, and crouched in front of the lamp. He reached a hand under the lamp shade and made as though to touch the bulb. As his fingers approached within an inch of it, it suddenly blazed brighter. The combination of sights and sensations felt shockingly familiar. He quickly began blinking out the usual message of S.O.S. Before the message was even complete, however, he blinked and all the sunlight vanished. He was met once more with the view of the grimy wall through the gloom.

He looked around to see Mike behind him, watching him with interest. “You can see me again?”

Will nodded. “That was weird.”

“It was… different,” agreed Mike. He seemed reluctant to call Will’s behavior weird. “Usually touching you snaps you out of your episodes. And you can’t usually hear stuff around you, right?”

Will nodded again, still processing what just happened.

“Why’d you come up here?”

“I don’t know,” Will admitted. “I just felt like I had to try… talking through the lights. I don’t know why, it just felt right.”

Mike sat there for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. “What’s going on today?” he asked out loud. “First you end up in Henry’s mind, then you have this super-episode of True Sight. It’s like your abilities are all out of–”

“Abilities?” Will interjected. The word felt strange when attached to himself. He never thought of his True Sight or his connection to Henry to be abilities. They were just things that happened to him. “I don’t have abilities,” he said, wanting it to be true.

“Well,” Mike said, and it was clear he hated to contradict Will. “I’ve been thinking about that.” Will wasn’t sure he liked where this conversation was going. “I think you’ve gotta have some kind of abilities. Definitely ones that I don’t have.”

“How do you know?”

“Well… just now when you used the lights. I think last time you were here…” Will tensed at the mention of that week. “When you talked… to your mom, you must have been using True Sight, right? Otherwise, how could you see the alphabet on the wall?” Will thought about this. He never questioned the events of that week if he could help it. He had made it home. Nothing else mattered to him. And he could barely remember any details of his time here anyway and he hoped to keep it that way.

“So?” Will countered, trying not to sound too upset. “I didn’t have True Sight before the Upside Down. Maybe it’s something that just… happens when you’re here for a while.”

Mike looked apologetic, and Will thought he must be debating between honesty and telling Will what he wanted to hear. It seemed like honesty won because he kept talking. “I thought that for a long time, too, but… now I’ve been here for a few days and I don’t have True Sight.” Will pulled his knees up to his chest, as though they would shield him from the words he didn’t want to hear. Mike was looking more and more sympathetic by the second, which Will would appreciate if he wasn’t the one saying these truths. “Maybe it is something that just happens to people here, but it didn’t happen to me. So… so there must be something special about you.”

“I don’t want to be special!” Will retorted, unable to stop himself. Will was different. He knew that, and had long since accepted it. He didn’t mind being different some days, but the word sometimes felt wearing. Sometimes he thought of himself as unique. ‘Unique’ had a better sound to it. It was less negative in its connotation. However, one thing he never liked to consider himself was special. ‘Special’ came with expectations. And he hated the idea that people expected anything in particular from him. He wasn’t special. He wasn’t extraordinary. He was just Will. At least he wanted to be.

Mike seemed upset with himself. He moved slowly and sat beside Will against the wall. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean anything bad by that. El doesn’t like being called special either.” Will looked over at him, thinking about that stupid pizza van yet again. He specifically remembered Mike calling El special multiple times during their talks. “It’s part of the reason we didn’t work out,” Mike admitted, seeming to be following the same train of thought as Will. “I thought treating her like she was special would make her feel good about herself, but it really just made her feel… like there was something wrong with her.” Will could understand. He imagined Dr. Brenner must have called her special a lot. The word probably made her feel like she was fulfilling the purpose for which she had been raised in that lab. Mike seemed to be getting angrier with himself. “I figured out what I was doing wrong, but it was way too late.” He shrugged. “I guess we were never gonna work out anyway, but I wish I hadn’t been so stupid. I probably hurt her feelings a lot.”

After a moment of silence, Will relaxed a little bit, accepting that Mike didn’t mean to upset him. “To be clear,” Mike said, breaking the silence. “I think you are special, but not because you might have abilities. Not– not that there’s anything wrong with having abilities– I mean–” He was getting flustered, and Will found the sight extremely endearing. He gave Mike a small smile, which seemed to calm him down a bit. “If you don’t like the word ‘special’ I can use a different one, but… I mean, you’re… nice, and gentle, and brave, and you’re really good at art. That makes you special.”

Will had to fight to keep tears from welling up in his eyes. Mike always knew exactly what to say. “Thanks,” he said shakily.

After a moment, Mike seemed to decide it was safe to keep discussing Will’s potential abilities, but he now spoke in a far gentler tone. “So… you could hear me, and feel me, but you couldn’t see the Upside Down at all?” Will nodded. “Did you feel like you could… control your True Sight this time? I mean, what caused it?”

Will sat bolt upright as he remembered what had happened just before his episode. “The Mind Flayer,” he gasped. “I saw it again. Out the window.”

“What?!” asked Mike in alarm.

“It was closer this time. Still pretty far off, but… definitely getting closer.” Will felt like something was closing in on him and he realized he was trembling slightly.

“So… is that what causes it? The Mind Flayer?” Will thought about it. That was certainly the cause of all his True Sight episodes in the year following the Upside Down. But as he thought about it more, he started to question it. Maybe the Mind Flayer was heavily involved in many of his episodes, but he wasn’t sure it was the root cause. He thought back to the arcade, when he had seen it again. He hadn’t experienced an episode then. And in RadioShack, he had seen Dustin, but as far as he knew there was no Mind Flayer near him then. And back in Brimborn Steel Works, he had simply woken up during an episode. Again, there was no Mind Flayer there.

“No,” Will thought aloud. “Not exactly.” He thought about all his episodes during the fall of ‘84. He couldn’t decipher a pattern beyond the presence of the Mind Flayer. “Well, maybe before… before I was possessed, that’s what caused it, but this time it feels… different.” He thought back to his three episodes during this visit to the Upside Down, trying to find a common thread. For Mike’s benefit, he started thinking aloud. “The first time, I just woke up during an episode, so I don’t know about that one. The second time, I heard Dustin, and it made me really happy, but also really sad. And then I could hear him louder, and I got up and realized I could see him. And… this time, I saw the Mind Flayer and it was closer, which really scared me. It freaked me out so I ran away from the window.” He felt like a wimp saying it. “I remember I just didn’t want it to find me, and I wanted…” He trailed off, an idea coming to him. “I wanted to go home.” He was sure he was right. He thought about his first episode, in Brimborn Steel Works. It was the first night in the Upside Down, so naturally Will would be wishing he could go home. He probably woke up, hoping to find out that it was all a bad dream, which ended up causing the episode.

Mike nodded in understanding. “So you are controlling it… sorta. You’re doing it by accident.” Will didn’t like the fact that Mike’s theory about his abilities was gaining traction.

“Yeah,” he agreed gloomily. “I guess I am.”

Mike bumped Will’s elbow with his own. “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with you.” When Will didn’t perk up, Mike reached for his bag again. “Here, you should think about something else for a while.” Once again, he offered Will his uncompleted drawing. Looking at it, he felt more trapped. “You can just draw something else if you want. Whatever you want,” Mike encouraged.

Will reluctantly took the notepad and began sketching the thing he always drew when he was upset. The features seemed to flow naturally from his pencil onto the page, with minimal effort from Will. As he worked, he noticed that Mike was writing again, and it didn’t escape his notice that he was making an effort to tilt his page so that Will couldn’t see what he was working on. They both got lost in their work for a while, and Will did feel himself relaxing at last.

“Wow,” Mike said suddenly, startling Will out of his concentration. Mike was looking at Will’s art with the usual expression of adoration. There on the page was Mike’s own face. Will knew he should feel self-conscious drawing Mike while sitting right next to him, but at the look on his best friend’s face, all apprehension flew out the window.

“How do you do that?” asked Mike in an awestruck voice.

“Uh… you mean draw?” Will asked, confused.

“I mean how do you draw like that?” he corrected.

Will only felt more confused and wrong-footed. “Years of practice, I guess?”

Mike shifted awkwardly, getting flustered again. “Well… yeah, of course. But I mean…” He seemed to be struggling to find the words. “The way you drew… me. It’s like real life, but it’s not. I don’t know how to…” He looked around the room as though hoping the right words would jump out at him. “I mean, I don’t look that good.” He gestured at his own face on the page.

“Of course you do,” Will answered immediately, without thinking. Then he blushed and started feeling flustered himself. “I– I mean… I think you look fine.” His blush deepened. “I… I just drew you from memory. It’s just how I see… you.” He trailed off, feeling distinctly hot around the collar. Jesus Christ, how much more obvious can you be?, he thought to himself. Mike was just staring at him as though transfixed, and Will stared back. The usual worry that Mike would shout at him and call him disgusting filled every corner of his mind. He was so preoccupied, he almost missed the sudden movement of Mike’s eyes. Did he just look at my lips? Or am I just seeing what I want to see?

Then, just as the tension became almost unbearable, Mike seemed to pull himself together and his features relaxed. “Th– thanks. It looks great– and not just because it’s a picture of my face– obviously… uh…” What is going on with him today?, Will asked himself, grinning at his friend’s bumbling.

Will worked for a few more minutes, putting the last few touches onto the drawing. Then, he signed his name on it and passed it to Mike, who took it with a look of immense joy.

“What are you working on?” Will asked. Maybe he was hoping to catch Mike off guard, as he seemed enraptured with the drawing he had just been given. He certainly jumped and clutched his paper to his chest, drawing a chuckle out of Will.

“Uh…” he answered. “It’s nothing.”

Will’s curiosity grew. “Is it something for the campaign?”

“No… not the campaign. It’s something else, but I can’t show you yet. Uh…” Mike chose that moment to offer a distraction in the form of food. He dragged his bag over again and reached inside. However, when he did, his face fell. “We’re almost out of food again.”

Will sighed. They seemed to go through food remarkably fast. He suspected it was because their selection was so limited. Even after spending a long time scavenging, their haul would be pitiful at the end and it would never last as long as they hoped.

“We’re gonna have to go get more,” Mike said hesitantly. Will hated the idea of leaving the relative safety of the hospital, but knew the alternative was starving to death. But the image of the Mind Flayer was still burned into his eyes and that thought made him want to curl up under Max’s hospital bed. “I know it seems like a bad idea, but we don’t have a choice. And… if the Mind Flayer is getting closer, it’s probably best to get a stash of food now so that we can make a quick getaway if we have to.” Will was hanging on his every word, putting his faith in his best friend as usual in situations like this.

“Okay, but we should make it quick,” Will relented. “Where should we go?”

Mike seemed to think for a moment. Then he nodded to himself. “The church,” he said decisively. “The Upside Down is frozen on November 6th. Less than a month before Thanksgiving, the food bank should be decently full. And everything will be non-parishable.”

Will had to hand it to him. It was a good idea. Stealing from a food bank would normally make him feel terrible guilt, but there were no homeless people in the Upside Down. Wait, could he and Mike be considered homeless down here? They had slept in an abandoned steel mill this week. He pushed the pointless thoughts from his mind. “Okay, but while we’re out there, we can’t leave each others’ line of sight. And we need our music at the ready all the time.” Mike nodded in agreement and led the way out of the room.

Within a minute, they were pushing their way out of the automatic doors and starting their journey east toward the church. They chose to leave the bike, figuring they would have a hard time transporting a large amount of food that way anyway. As Will walked, the usual feeling of dread started to settle back over him. He decided to take the lead in creating a distraction this time.

“I have something for the list,” he said, which got Mike’s attention.

“Hm?” he asked.

“It’s kinda broad, but I want to go somewhere,” he said. “Somewhere far from Hawkins, like New York, or San Francisco, or the Grand Canyon, or something.”

Mike absorbed that for a moment. “I thought you didn’t want to leave Hawkins,” he inquired.

“I’m just not ready to leave the Party behind. I already did that once and it sucked. But if you’re gonna be with me, and we’re not gonna be in the back of a van that smells like weed,” Mike cracked a smile. “It actually sounds pretty fun.” He imagined driving for hours on the open road with Mike in the seat beside him. It was a great mental image. “You know, we lived in California for all those months, and we never once went to the beach.” He tried hard not to think about sitting on a beach with Mike.

“That does sound fun,” Mike agreed. “We’ll have to wait until we can drive, though.” Will nodded in agreement. The thought of leaving Hawkins behind, along with all his old nightmares, and getting to go somewhere where he knew nobody, with Mike there the whole way, was wonderful. “Good choice,” Mike said.

There was a long silence as the church started to loom into view. Will could tell that Mike was trying to think of something else for his list.

“It’s your turn for a less dramatic one,” Will told him, earning a small smile.

They were nearly to the entrance of the church when Mike spoke again. “I want to rebuild Castle Byers.” The suggestion took Will by surprise, but he wasn’t unhappy with it. “It’s my fault you destroyed it, and I always liked that little hideout.” There was another pause as Will stared at Mike, struggling to hide his adoration. “And I know you did, too.”

“Maybe we could redesign it,” Will suggested. “We can make it bigger so we actually fit.” Will imagined rebuilding his old fort, except this time it wouldn’t be his. It would be theirs.

They entered the church, with the image still fresh in Will’s mind, and quickly found a large stash of canned and packaged goods. Both Mike and Will took off their backpacks and started cramming as much food in them as possible. There was also a large wooden bin containing a great deal more food. It had handles, which would come in handy with lugging it back to the hospital. As Mike was still piling cans into his bag, Will grabbed one of the handles and dragged the crate a few feet. He was sure this would result in some serious strain on his already damaged lungs.

There was a small chuckle to his left and Will turned his head to look at Mike who was smiling and shaking his head slightly. Will wondered what was so funny.

“I thought of a few things for your list,” he said with a smirk.

“Huh?” asked Will, nonplussed.

Mike’s smile broadened. “Uh… getting a boyfriend.” He made the suggestion casually, but his expression showed his amusement.

Woah, thought Will. Did he just say that? “Um… what?” asked Will, wondering if he heard right.

“You heard me,” Mike replied. “Oh, you could also add ‘get your first kiss’, right? Unless something happened in California that you didn’t tell me about.”

Will was stunned. He couldn’t believe how fast the conversation had entered this territory, or how casually Mike was speaking about this.

“Wait, so you know I’m…” Will began, struggling to say the word aloud.

“Gay?” clarified Mike. “Yeah. I mean it’s kinda obvious.”

Will felt like his brain had jammed. He was struggling to figure out what to say.

“Oh, wait,” Mike continued. “That won’t work. I promised we would do everything on the list together, didn’t I? Oh well.”

That shook Will out of his stunned silence. So he was wrong? But then what was going on with Mike today? Was he reading too far into things?

Mike suddenly looked right at him, his face becoming serious. “Oh shit. Did you think I was–” Will didn’t say anything. His heart seemed to be deflating with disappointment. “You did,” Mike said with dawning realization. “What made you think–?”

It took great effort for Will to speak. “I– I just thought. The way you kept talking to me today, and I swear you were… blushing and…”

Mike laughed, but it wasn’t a gentle and sympathetic chuckle. It was a loud, raucous shout of laughter that made Will think of Troy. In the back of his mind, he started to realize what was happening, but his focus was still on the nightmarish conversation he was having. “I was just being friendly. What? Can’t I just be nice to you without you thinking I’m…” he trailed, off seemingly unwilling to complete the thought. “I mean, come on, Will. I dated El for so long.”

“I thought you weren’t in love with her,” Will said weakly.

“What? And that means I’m,” he grimaced, “…gay?” Will just stared, feeling humiliated. The logical part of his brain started to catch up to his surroundings and dread settled like snow over him. “You probably shouldn’t have gotten your hopes–”

“Shut up,” said Will suddenly, glaring at Mike. “Stop it!”

“What’s wrong, Will?” came a deep, reverberating voice from the doorway. Will spun on the spot to see Henry staring at him with his one good eye from across the church.

“Mike!” Will called, quickly trying to purge their last conversation from his memory. He knew that nothing he said here would reach Mike, but he called for his best friend instinctively. Surely, he would come to Will’s rescue any second now.

“He cannot hear you,” Henry said lightly.

“What did you do to–”

“Nothing,” Henry replied coldly. “Not yet. But he’ll get what he deserves soon enough. Even if you could speak, he wouldn’t hear you.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not with him.” With a tiny twitch of his clawed fingers, the scene dissolved. Henry vanished, as did the church and Mike.

Will came back to his surroundings with a jolt of pain. The first thing he noticed was that he was on the ground. Next, he realized that the church was far behind him and that he was being pulled on his stomach through withered grass and decayed leaves. Vines were coiling and uncoiling around him. They seemed to be dragging him, and passing him between individual tendrils as he went so that he was guided in the direction they, or Henry, wanted him to go.

“MIKE!” Will screamed, hoping his friend was at least close by and not already– Don’t think that, he told himself.

Then, very suddenly, he came to a stop. He lay there panting for a moment, still ensnared in the vines. He looked around him and realized where he was when he saw a row of headstones nearby. He had been dragged to the cemetery.

Before he could think any more about his location, he felt a dreadful sinking sensation in his stomach, and goosebumps erupted across his neck. He had not felt the sensation so intensely since…

With a gasp, a horrible suspicion gripped him. His terror was such that it took him a moment to realize that the vines had released him. Part of him wanted to stay put and close his eyes, hoping the danger would pass. But he knew better. With great trepidation, Will flipped over onto his back and the bottom seemed to drop out of his stomach.

There, directly above him, occupying his entire field of view, was the Mind Flayer. Its smoky tendrils spread across the entire sky. Will had forgotten the sheer scale of the creature when it was up close. It seemed less like a creature than a force of nature. He tried scrambling to his feet, but he swayed alarmingly. He thought back to the last time he had encountered this horror at this proximity. He remembered how he had run away before taking Bob’s advice and attempting to confront it. Now, it did not occur to Will to run or to fight. What good would either option do? He couldn’t think of anything that would help him now. He was frozen in a half-standing position as the head of the creature descended upon him.

One of the unfathomably vast, nebulous limbs shifted, and Will knew what was going to happen. With a sound like a freight train, a swirling cloud of black particles erupted in his peripheral vision. Will could only stare into the faceless form of his worst nightmare as the maelstrom engulfed him.

The sensation was like drowning, and it was far too familiar as the particles poured into Will’s lungs, seeming to spread to every last corner of his body. The door left open by the monster when it last escaped him offered no defense. The monster swept into his mind, nestling itself right back where it had once been. As his memories and sense of self began to fade with terrifying rapidity, one memory floated to the surface of what was left of his mind.

Do you remember the first day that we met?

Mike’s face seemed to swim into view in front of his eyes. Mike, who might already be dead. The despair threatened to overwhelm him. How stupid was this? They were safe in the hospital. They could have survived for days if they really needed to. But they had gotten confident and decided to try to plan ahead, as though they could control anything down here. And it had led to Will’s worst nightmare. Mike would probably say that the Mind Flayer would have found them even if they had stayed at the hospital. Maybe it was true, maybe not, but Mike would have convinced Will that it was. Mike would know what to say. He would know what to do. He always did.

Will clung to his memory of that day on the swings like a drowning man in a hurricane. He thought only of Mike as the darkness closed in on the edges of his mind.

He no longer knew where he was or how he had gotten there. He no longer remembered his name. He only remembered that he needed Mike, and he always would. Everything else was gone.

Chapter Text

Joyce insisted that Hopper stay in the cabin as much as possible for the rest of the day. Following the shouting match of that morning, and given the information that had been relayed, she decided there was nothing Hopper could do to speed up the process of finding Mike and Will. Hopper could tell that the truth hurt Joyce to speak aloud, and he admired once again the strength she had. He felt like he was unravelling with his daughter unconscious, and she was still within his line of sight. He tried to imagine having a child lost in a nightmare dimension, a child moreover, who had already spent a week there. He didn’t have to work hard to imagine it. These days, Hopper felt like Will was his son. He had spent so much time over the past few years worrying about his wellbeing. And with Hopper and Joyce being closer than ever, and the fact that Joyce had raised El for half a year as though she were her own daughter, he felt like they were all one big family.

This feeling intensified as he looked across El’s bed to see Jonathan leaning back in his chair, his head resting against the wall and Nancy at his shoulder. He could tell Jonathan was still not happy with him. He knew he should feel bad for yelling at Joyce’s son right in front of her, but he didn’t. He felt that Jonathan’s decisions had been reckless to the point of stupidity. But he also knew where his anger was coming from. As his eyes fell on Jonathan’s bandaged leg, he thought of the danger he had been in. The thought of Jonathan in the clutches of this ‘thessalhydra’ (God, he hated that name), made his blood run cold. It was the same protective rage and fear that he felt every time he thought about Will in the Upside Down again, or El when she was back in the clutches of Dr. Brenner in the spring. He didn’t just care for the Byers, he felt responsible for them, and he therefore thought his harsh words to Jonathan were completely warranted. Maybe he would remember what he said next time he got an idea about leading others into danger. 

However, he couldn’t help but feel a little bad for Jonathan. He saw the instinctive flinch when he had approached him, full of anger. He understood the scars Lonnie had left on his children. They weren’t physical scars (as far as Hopper knew), but they were clearly visible. He hoped he was at least being a better parental figure than that piece of shit. Then he realized how low of a bar that was.

He was still lost in thought when he heard a sudden gasp from Joyce. Hopper sat up at once and noticed that Joyce was leaning forward toward El, whose eyelids were fluttering slightly. All other thoughts were wiped from his mind as he scooted forward and took one of El’s limp hands.

“El?” called Joyce softly, placing a hand on her temple.

Hopper felt enormous relief when El’s fingers curled around his. Her brown eyes opened slowly and roved over the room. She took in Joyce, then Jonathan and Nancy, and finally Hopper. She gave a weak smile, which Hopper returned.

“Hey, kiddo,” he greeted. “How do you feel?”

“Tired,” she answered groggily. She suddenly attempted to sit up, but Joyce put a hand on her shoulder.

“Hang on, sweety. You should rest. You’ve been out for a few days.” At this news, her eyes widened.

“It’s okay,” Hopper assured her. “You’re okay.”

“What happened?” she asked very seriously. Hopper didn’t want to overwhelm her right away, so he decided to ease her into the reality of what was happening. He also remembered Joyce’s words from the day Mike and Will had vanished.

El was incredible today, and I'm so proud of her, and when she wakes up we need to make sure she understands that.

“You closed the gates,” Hopper reported. “You did good.” He gave her the most reassuring smile he could with the weight of the unspoken news pressing down on him. She still looked tense, and Hopper hated the idea of hiding the truth from her, but his concern for her physical well-being took over for now. “Relax, okay? You should eat something before you get too worked up.”

She nodded and allowed Joyce to help her sit up against the headboard. Hopper could still see the worry in her eyes, but it was clear she was hungry after not eating for two days while unconscious.

“What do you want?”

El smiled faintly. “Eggos?” Hopper looked at his watch. It was 3 pm.

“Just like old times? Sounds good to me.” He figured she had the right to eat waffles whenever she damn well pleased, given how many times she had saved the world. 

As he left the room, Nancy followed. As Hopper moved around the kitchen, ignoring Murray, who was napping on his couch, Nancy relayed the news of El’s recovery over her walkie. Finally, he carried a breakfast tray into El’s room, and she began to eat gratefully.

“Dustin should be here sometime soon,” Nancy reported as she rejoined them. “Apparently Lucas is grounded so he won’t be able to see you until tomorrow night,” she told El.

El nodded. Then she scanned the room again and Hopper knew with a sinking feeling what she was going to ask. “What about Mike? And where’s Will?”

Hopper knew he wasn’t going to be able to put off this conversation for long. The absence of her brother was probably one of the first things El noticed upon waking up, and of course she would be concerned about Mike, too, given how close they were (much to Hopper’s slight annoyance).

The room went silent and nobody seemed prepared to speak. Hopper took a deep breath before sitting down beside El again.

“Listen… kid,” he began, and he saw her tense. “There was… an incident.” Her expression became more worried with every word. “Mike and Will… they’re alive. But… they’re, uh… they’re in the Upside Down.” El dropped her fork, and Hopper saw the tidal wave of panic he had been struggling against for the past two days crash over El all at once.

“What happened?” She sounded upset now, and Hopper couldn’t blame her.

“We don’t know exactly, but it looks like they either fell through the gate or were dragged.” Her eyes widened with fear.

“El, it’s okay,” Joyce said in her best attempt at a soothing tone. “Like Hop said, they’re alive.”

The words didn’t seem to calm El down. She just stared for a moment at her plate. “It’s my fault.” Angry tears were starting to form in her eyes.

“No, no, no,” cried Joyce. “This is not your fault.”

“She’s right,” added Hopper. “You couldn’t have known–”

“I closed the gate. I trapped them there,” she went on furiously, not seeming to hear any of the would-be comforting words. “It was a stupid idea. So stupid.”

“El,” Nancy called in a tone that was both commanding and comforting, and El looked up at her. “The gate in the lab is open again. So there’s a way for them to get back.”

“And we’re working on a plan to help them,” Jonathan said. “So don’t worry.”

El continued to worry. “Where are they?” she asked in an anguished tone. Hopper hated the answer to that question.

“We don’t know,” he said, attempting to keep his voice light despite the heavy subject matter. “We’ve been trying to contact them, but we haven’t had much luck. Not yet.” He added on the last two words with conviction.

At once, El set down her tray with her half-finished Eggos, flipped the blankets off of her and swung her legs off the bed.

“Woah, hang on,” Hopper implored as she attempted to stand but stumbled on her stiff legs.

“I need to find them,” El said defiantly.

“Okay, okay,” Hopper agreed, but he still pushed her gently back into a sitting position. “You can look for them, but you need to stay put for now, alright?”

After she nodded in understanding, he left the room and came back with a piece of fabric, which El tied around her eyes as a makeshift blindfold. The TV against the wall opposite the bed was flicked on and set to a static channel. Everyone fell silent in anticipation. As desperate as Hopper was to find the boys, he didn’t intend for El to be doing this so soon after waking up. She still looked pale and tired, but he knew there would be no convincing her to wait.

The minutes stretched on, every eye fixed expectantly on El. Finally, she tore the blindfold from her eyes and threw it onto the bed.

“I can’t do it!” she cried furiously, and Hopper immediately moved to sit beside her, throwing an arm around her shoulders. “I can’t find them! I can’t–”

The angry tears were back in her eyes and she was becoming more inconsolable by the minute. She buried her face in his side.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Hopper said gently, attempting to calm her down. “What do you mean ‘you can’t find them’? What happened?” He asked, attempting to understand the problem.

“It won’t work,” she wailed. Hopper didn’t know what to say.

Joyce came to his rescue, moving around the bed to face El. “You’re probably just tired,” she consoled. “It’s okay, you can try again later.”

“Yeah,” agreed Hopper. “You’ll find ‘em. I know it.” He gave her a squeeze, hoping to reassure her, but he wasn’t sure it worked.

Just then, the phone rang, and Joyce staggered out of the room to answer it. Hopper just sat for a moment, comforting El as best he could, and wondering what they were supposed to do next. If El had lost her powers, they would be in trouble.

Joyce re-entered the room. “It’s for you, Hop.”

Hopper gave El one more smile before trading places with Joyce. As she sat next to El, he stomped into the kitchen and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Jim,” replied a male voice.

“Owens,” Hopper greeted.

“I just wanted to check in and let you know what’s been going on. Joyce said El is awake?”

“Yeah, she just woke up. She’s… okay.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to discuss El right now.

“That’s good to hear,” Owens replied heavily. “Makes me wish I had better news to give you.” Hopper’s heart sank. What now?

After an audible groan, he answered. “What’s going on? Is it something at the lab again?”

“No, no. Nothing like that,” Owen assured him. “We’ve got the whole perimeter under surveillance, and we’re watching the gate as well. Nothing’s getting in or out without us knowing about it. You can come inspect it yourself if you want.”

Hopper just hummed in agreement, but he didn’t intend on going anywhere until tomorrow at the earliest. Owens continued.

“The problem is that word is getting out that Hawkins is back to normal. I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do to stop any former residents from moving back in, and I expect a lot of the business owners will be desperate to get back into town as well.”

Hopper hated the idea of hundreds of people voluntarily walking right back into the line of fire. “Are they out of their minds?” he asked.

“They must be,” Owens chuckled, though Hopper was sure he found no real humor in the situation. “With how this whole ordeal was sensationalized, I think a lot of them are just ready to call this a God-ordained miracle and get back to reality.” Hopper was starting to feel overwhelmed.

“You heard the kids last night,” he said, trying to stay calm. “You know what that wackjob Henry is planning. There’s no way in hell we can just let people drive back into town.”

“I know, Jim. I don’t like it either, but there’s nothing I can do about it. And unfortunately, that’s only half the problem.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “Some of my less reasonable colleagues are itching to get back into town as well. They’re still convinced Eleven was responsible for all this and with the town back to normal, they’re getting ready to do a thorough sweep of the area and find their culprit.” Hopper’s blood ran cold. “The good news is that they don’t know that anything is going on at the lab, so they haven’t interfered here yet, but it’s only a matter of time until they do. Jim, we need to deal with this thing fast.”

Hopper pressed his forehead against the wall above the phone and closed his eyes in frustration. If only it were that simple. “El doesn’t have her powers,” he said flatly into the phone. “Is there any way to get them to come back faster?” He knew Owens had worked with Brenner to bring back El’s powers in the spring. As unhappy as he was with Owens over this, he accepted that he may have kept her relatively safe while around her former abuser. If his knowledge from that experience helped El now, he would be prepared to forgive Owens for everything.

“Well, she just used a huge amount of energy,” he reasoned. “Frankly, I’m surprised she wasn’t out for longer. I’m afraid there’s nothing to do besides wait.” Hopper groaned again. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but you might want to consider moving on with a plan that doesn’t involve her.” If it were that easy, he would love to. Unfortunately, without El’s ability to find the boys and her raw power, he had no idea how to proceed. He decided to focus on a different problem for now.

“And what about the military? Is there any way we can get them off her back?”

“I can try to get some evidence together, but I’m afraid until we take out the threat nothing is very likely to convince them.” The information was not very helpful.

With a sigh, Hopper went on. “Okay. I’ll keep you updated if anything changes with El. And I can meet you tomorrow to–” He cut off as El’s bedroom door was flung open with such force that it banged off the wall. El came storming out, followed by an anxious looking Joyce, a limping Jonathan, and Nancy. “I gotta go,” Hopper said into the phone, and hung up before waiting for a response.

“C’mon, El,” Joyce was pleading. “It’s going to be okay.”

“No it’s not!” El sounded close to tears. “I can’t help! I can’t do anything! They’re gone!”

Jonathan staggered to a halt beside Hopper. “She tried finding them again and she just can’t.” Hopper heard a trace of disappointment in his voice, which he felt too. He knew it was unfair to expect too much from El, but he was desperate to get Mike and Will back and end this nightmare once and for all.

“Hey,” Hopper called, approaching his daughter. “Hey, calm down, okay? It’s not so bad.”

“YES IT IS!” she yelled in rage. Hopper knew she wasn’t mad at him, but he still hated seeing her like this. “Will is stuck again! And Mike is stuck, too! And I closed the gate!”

Joyce was looking heartbroken, and neither Nancy nor Jonathan seemed to know what to do.

“Listen to me!” Hopper ordered, gripping El’s shoulders and bending down to look her in the eyes. “I know it looks bad, but everything is going to be fine! They’ve held on this long, and Will survived it once before. Alright?” El nodded uncertainly. Hopper wasn’t sure she believed what he was saying. He gestured at Joyce. “She doesn’t blame you for what happened to Will.” He gestured at Nancy. “And I’m sure Nancy doesn’t blame you for what happened to Mike. Right?” he added, looking at her. 

She shook her head firmly in response. “Of course not. You didn’t know.”

Hopper looked back at El. “See? They don’t blame you, because it wasn’t your fault. So quit beating yourself up.” He released her, and she stood there breathing hard. “You set Henry back by closing those gates, and now we’re gonna find a way to kill him. I don’t know how, but we’re gonna find a way.” She nodded again, seeming to be trying to convince herself.

Her lip trembled. “Will…” she said in a whimper. “Mike…” Hopper pulled her into a tight hug. He tried to imagine how El must be feeling. She just woke up after two days of unconsciousness to find out that two of the most important people in her life were gone.

“It’s okay, kid,” he soothed. “We’re gonna find them. I know it.” She relaxed slightly, but still seemed upset. “D’you know how I know?”

“Hm?” she mumbled.

“Because we’ve got you back.” He spoke with confidence. He knew how strong his daughter was, and knew deep down that she wouldn’t rest until the boys were back home. Unfortunately, his intention didn’t seem to reach her, and she was not soothed. In fact, the opposite happened.

She pulled back out of the hug and seemed to curl inward on herself. “No you don’t.” Hopper just stared. “I can’t help! I can’t do anything!”

Before Hopper could stop her, she turned on the spot and retreated back into her room. As the door slammed behind her, he swore he heard a quiet sob.

For a few seconds, Hopper stood rooted to the spot, amazed at how quickly everything had gone wrong again. Then he took a step toward the door, determined to help her. But Joyce gripped his arm to stop him. “Just give her some time,” she said quietly. After a moment, Hopper nodded in agreement.

Jonathan hobbled forward. “So what now?” he asked. Hopper didn’t have an answer.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I guess we try to get a plan together. But I don’t know what to do without El.”

“So we’re back to waiting,” Jonathan complained.

“What do you suggest we do?” Hopper asked, genuinely asking.

“I don’t know, something other than waiting for El!” he retorted. Joyce gestured at him to keep his voice down, glancing over at El’s door, where she could surely hear them.

“I understand why you’re upset,” Hopper said, forcing himself to stay calm. “And I promise we will figure something out.” He gave Jonathan an appraising look. “But in the meantime, you need to get some rest.” He knew Jonathan would be furious if he woke up to find that no progress had been made in locating Will, but he also knew that Jonathan was going to collapse from exhaustion if he didn’t sleep soon. He looked terrible, and Hopper knew he hardly slept at all in the last two days.

Jonathan looked like he was going to argue. Hopper had to admire his commitment. It seemed he would work himself into the ground to get his brother back. Thankfully, Nancy came to the rescue.

“He’s right, Jonathan.” He looked at her, his outrage only visible for a second. It seemed he couldn’t bring himself to express his frustration to Nancy, especially as he probably knew deep down that she was right. “We both need sleep. We should go home.” He reluctantly nodded.

“Let me drive you,” offered Joyce. Hopper was grateful she had suggested it. He didn’t like the idea of either Nancy or Jonathan driving in their current state.

Hopper followed the three of them out to the porch and watched as the car trundled away down the road. He stayed there for a while reflecting on the state of his rescue operation. He agreed wholeheartedly with Jonathan that every second of inaction was a risk to Mike and Will’s lives. Unfortunately, with the knowledge and resources they currently had, there wasn’t a clear path forward.

There was a growing hostile force around the gate in the Upside Down that would be nearly impossible to fight through, especially with the presence of a previously unknown horror guarding the best possible route in or out of the lab. If they attempted to fight their way out of the lab in the Upside Down, nobody knew where Mike and Will were, and the result would be more people aimlessly wandering that hellscape. The only hope of getting Mike and Will through the gate would be through trickery and distraction, and it would need to be coordinated with the boys’ arrival at the lab. They needed to make contact, which would be made significantly harder without the help of El. All the while, Henry’s promised attack on Hawkins and the encroaching government forces in search of El added pressure to a situation that already felt impossible.

The door to the cabin opened suddenly and Murray walked out, a large bag slung over his shoulder.

“Well, Jim, this has been fun, but I think my talents will be better used elsewhere.”

“You’re leaving?” Hopper asked, annoyed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll grace you with my presence again, but napping on your couch isn’t doing anyone any favors.” Hopper couldn’t help but agree with that point, but still felt uneasy about losing any assistance, no matter how… eccentric it was.

Murray was looking at him with an appraising look that Hopper hated. “Can I give you some advice?” Not waiting for a response, he continued. “You need to deal with the fact that you can’t control shit.”

“Excuse me?”

“What, are you deaf?” he asked sarcastically. When Hopper just looked at him, affronted, he waved his hand dismissively in the air. “Oh, come on. When are you ever just gonna listen to me? Face it, Jim. You’re white-knuckling the wheel, but this car is already in a tail spin.”

“Are you trying to tell me to give up?”

“Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. I’m telling you to give up control.” He paused, seeming to think. “Although… I guess you’d just end up in a ditch then. Whatever, bad analogy. My point…” Hopper rolled his eyes. “My point!” Murray repeated very loudly. “Is that you want everything to go your way. You want the kids to stay at home. You want your daughter to save the day. You want the government to get their heads out of their asses and stay away from your town so that you can have your quiet domestic bliss in your cozy little cabin in the woods.” Hopper was starting to feel harassed. “But the truth of the matter is that life sucks. Kids are going to be idiots and almost get themselves killed. The girl’s batteries are drained, and I’m not really sure what else you expected. And, hey, maybe Jonathan Byers is right and you’re wrong and I know that bothers you.”

“Okay, what is your point?” Hopper practically begged in exasperation.

“My. Point.” Murray emphasized each word individually. “Is to just go with it. Let the kids help, maybe even listen to them for once. If you don’t do something soon, they’re all gonna be in danger anyway.” Hopper stared at him, considering his words. The act alone scared him. “Yeah, I know it’s a scary thought,” Murray said, as though he could read Hopper’s mind. “Giving up control. I’m guessing that idea’s been scaring you for a while. It’s the kind of mindset that causes you to keep your daughter inside for a year or to scare away a little shit who tries to date her. And how did that work out?”

Hopper was distracted mainly by trying to remember if he ever mentioned his intimidation of Mike to Murray. The man seemed to know everything. That thought scared him as well. “I’m guessing you got your ass kicked by life at some point and now you’re scared to leave anything to chance?” He tisked sadly. “That’s no way to live, Jim.”

Hopper didn’t want to admit it, but he thought Murray was right, to a shocking degree. As he sat thinking, Murray spoke again. “The silver lining,” Hopper looked up hopefully. “The Byers kid is tough as nails, and the Wheeler kid is annoyingly stubborn, so I’m sure they’ll be fine.” Hopper nodded vaguely.

“You think so?”

“Uh… yeah,” he answered, as though Hopper was being dense. “I never had much to do with Mike Wheeler, but you know how hard he is to get rid of.”

Hopper thought of the feud he had in the summer of ‘85 with Mike. He nodded with more conviction. “Kid’s like a cockroach.”

“Exactly,” Murray agreed. “A really confusing cockroach.” He paused. “Confused. Well, both.” What the hell is that supposed to mean?, thought Hopper. “Anyway, I better get going.” Murray turned back toward the road. “I’ll leave you to your guest.” Hopper followed his gaze to see Dustin Henderson approaching the cabin on his bike. “When you’re ready to light some shit on fire, give me a call,” Murray hollered by way of a farewell. And with that, he was marching toward his van.

Hopper stared after him in confusion and relief as he turned onto the road. Then he focused his attention on Dustin, who was climbing the steps onto the porch.

“Nancy said El’s awake,” he said breathlessly.

Hopper nodded. “Yeah, she is. But she’s pretty upset. No guarantee she’ll talk to you,” he warned. Dustin waved away Hopper’s concern and headed inside.

Hopper remained on the porch until Joyce returned to the cabin. On the way back in, they saw Dustin leaving in defeat, apparently unable to appease El. Hopper found himself wishing Max was awake. She would probably be able to cheer El up. As it was, El didn’t come out of her room for the rest of the day. Hopper left dinner outside her door, but he wasn’t around when she came out to retrieve it. He spent that night trying his best to relax and comfort Joyce, but he drifted off with Murray’s words annoyingly reverberating in his mind, along with half-formed plans for the rescue of Mike and Will.

The following morning, Hopper left before anyone else was up. It wasn’t particularly early, but everyone was so exhausted by the week that they were all sleeping in. He got in his truck and made the terribly familiar journey to the lab where he met with Dr. Owens. There was now a fairly large operation set up around the building. He walked with Dr. Owens around the perimeter fence, taking note of the regular guard posts. He felt confident that no kids would be sneaking back in here. Unless…

“What about the tunnel?” he asked.

“We’re working on blocking it off, but until we can do that, we have some people by the entrance on the inside,” Owens answered.

“And the outside?” Hopper inquired.

“Well, I’m not sure where that entrance is, to be frank, but once we find it, that’ll be guarded as well. Though, to be honest, I’m less worried about the kids getting in and more worried about anything getting out.”

Hopper was concerned about both. Owens seemed to sense his concern. “I know you aren’t happy about what happened here the other night, but I gotta say, those kids did good.” Hopper looked at him like he was crazy. He certainly sounded crazy. “It was risky. Of course it was, but I’m grateful they got in there so early. The place is getting more dangerous by the hour. They’d have a real hard time figuring out anything without being caught if they went now. Instead, we have an idea of what we’re facing.”

Hopper didn’t like what that news implied about Mike and Will’s chances of survival as time passed. Owens seemed to pick up on this, too. Were people reading his mind, or were his expressions just that obvious?

“I’ve got faith in those kids,” Owens assured Hopper. “I remember working with Will, and it was surprising to me. Y’know, after everything he went through, I would’ve expected him to be more… angry, moody, that sort of thing.” He chuckled. “I don’t know if I ever met a nicer kid. You’d never have guessed what he survived just by looking at him.” Hopper felt pride in his kid. Joyce’s kid, he reminded himself. “And I don’t know Mike too well, but after seeing how he acted when Will was in the medical wing of the lab, I wouldn’t bet against him keeping Will safe.”

Hopper was reassured by Owens’s words. It was more or less the same message Murray had given him about the boys’ chances of survival. Whether or not they realized it, they seemed to have the complete faith of everyone who knew them.

Hopper dragged himself back to reality. “So… do you have any plans in the works?”

Owens’s face fell slightly. “Nothing in too much detail, I’m afraid. I was also banking on having Eleven’s help to be honest. Until she gets her abilities back, we might be playing a waiting game.” Jonathan wouldn’t like that, and neither did Hopper.

By the time Hopper was back in his truck, he was starting to consider taking Murray’s advice. He didn’t know what kind of schemes the kids were likely to come up with, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to ask for their input. He was sure they were plotting things even now, and they would probably be inclined to keep them a secret given the way he reacted to their last escapade.

As though he had summoned a potentially hair-brained scheme into existence, he suddenly noticed a vehicle on the side of the road up ahead. Closer inspection revealed that the vehicle was vaguely familiar. It took only a few seconds for Hopper to identify it, and in that time, its owner came staggering out of the woods. In that time, he also realized where they were. The abandoned Benny's Burgers resided just off the road.

“Harrington,” Hopper called as Steve made to get back in his car. Steve looked guiltily over at the approaching vehicle. He put his hands up in surrender.

“This was all Henderson’s idea, I swear,” he pleaded. Then he looked embarrassed as he seemed to realize that blaming a kid half a decade younger than himself was not a great defense.

Hopper shoved down his instinct to get angry at signs of obvious scheming from the kids, and tried to sound polite as he spoke. “Tell Henderson to get his ass to the cabin,” he ordered. “Please,” he tacked on as an afterthought.

When Hopper reached the cabin, he saw there was already a car there. When he stepped inside, he saw Jonathan in the living room with Nancy. He was glad to see that they both looked much more well rested than the previous day. He also realized that El's bedroom door was slightly ajar and quiet voices were floating out. He realized Joyce was talking to her. He couldn't stop himself from feeling a little inadequate as a parent. Why could Joyce get her to talk but he couldn't?

Soon, Steve's car pulled into the driveway with Dustin in the passenger seat. They got out, Steve with a walkie and Dustin with a roll of paper. As they entered the cabin, Steve raised his hands again in surrender.

“I promise neither of us were going in the lab,” he said sincerely.

Hopper felt a little bad about the fear in his tone and he decided to offer a truce.

“It's alright,” Hopper assured. “I just want to know what you've been up to.”

“Okay, so we–” Dustin began, but he immediately cut off as El's door opened and both Joyce and El entered the living room. “EL!” Dustin cried loudly, thrusting the roll of paper into Steve's hands and abandoning the conversation to hug El tightly.

Hopper looked at Joyce who also seemed to be more well rested. She gave him a faint smile, which he returned, trying to hide his feeling of embarrassment at his inability to help his own daughter.

Dustin pulled out of the hug briefly to get a good look at El. “How are you?” he asked with concern.

El made a noncommittal noise and shrugged.

“Yeah, me too. But, we're gonna find them. Don't you worry.” He spoke with such confidence that El seemed to relax.

“How?” she asked in a small voice, shifting uncomfortably.

“You'll see,” he promised, walking back to Steve and taking his roll of paper back. He continued to the kitchen table where he unrolled the sheet to reveal a map of Hawkins, likely printed from the library.

“Okay,” he announced in a confident tone. “I've been trying to figure out how to establish communication. Steve and I were determining the exact range of these walkies to hopefully narrow down where they were when Jonathan made contact.” He extracted a pencil from his pocket. “Steve positioned himself right outside the tunnel. Right where Jonathan was in the Upside Down.” He drew an ‘X’ in the woods near Benny's Burgers. “The signal just started to deteriorate around… here.” He drew another ‘X’ on a residential street in the southern part of town. “That already rules out a few places they could've been. If they were in the trailer park, or the Byers’ old house, or this cabin, Jonathan would've gotten a clear signal.” Hopper had to admire the kid's reasoning skills. “The signal completely cut off around here,” he drew a third ‘X’ in northwest Hawkins, close to Loch Nora. “Now–” He cut off, then turned to Hopper. “Do you have a ruler and some string?”

It was a strange request, but Hopper rummaged around before finding some old fishing gear. He briefly imagined taking El fishing some day, then extracted some fishing line, hoping it would suffice. Joyce found a ruler in the bottom of a drawer, as well as some scissors. Dustin got to work, making some measurements and cutting fishing line. Nobody questioned him.

Finally, he returned to the map. With one finger, he held down one end of a line over the tunnel entrance, then, with the other end of the line tied around his pencil, he traced a large circular arc through the town, using the thread like a compass to ensure a consistent curvature. He then took the longer line and did the same. When he straightened up, there was a wide, curved band through the map of town, created by the two arcs.

“Alright, that covers all the locations they could've been when Jonathan talked to them from the tunnel.” He held up his hand before anyone could speak. “Now, you guys managed to hear them from the roof of the lab as well. So…” He repeated the process with the center of his new circles over the lab. He now had four arcs drawn through the town. He quickly and roughly shaded in the region between two of them. “Okay, the signal from the roof of the lab may have gone farther since you were up high, so there'll be some uncertainty, but this should give us a rough idea of where they might have been.”

He turned to the crowd of people around the table, and Hopper half expected him to take a bow.

“Damn, Henderson,” Steve said quietly, and Dustin beamed at the praise. Hopper was wondering why not one of Owens’s scientists had thought of this.

Dustin's face fell again before he continued. “The problem is that this gives us an idea of where they were. It's been more than a day since then, so they might have left.” The impossibility of their task seemed to settle over everyone. “But, if they're still there, then they're in big trouble.”

“And if they're not there?” Jonathan asked.

“Then they've escaped whatever situation they were in and they're probably safe now.” Dustin said with as much positivity as he could. “Relatively.”

“So…” Hopper thought aloud. “We start in these areas, then what?”

“Then we branch out to safe places they might go,” Dustin reasoned. “We should start with these locations, though.” He gestured to his map. “If they've been in trouble in one location for over a day, they're probably running out of hope.”

The weight of that statement hit Hopper hard. The thought of Will and Mike in a desperate situation for over a day made him feel slightly sick. Most people would crack under that kind of pressure. But somehow, he thought Will would make it out, especially if Mike was there.

“So, I would start downtown,” Dustin continued. “In fact, I think I have a good idea of somewhere they've been, even if they're not there now.” Everyone moved closer as he turned back to his map. The shaded region was a wedge shape covering at least a third of Hawkins, including downtown. “If they're communicating, then they've gotten ahold of a walkie. I doubt they got it from one of our houses.”

“Why not?” asked Nancy.

“They started at the Creel house,” Dustin began, pointing out the landmark on the map. “And all of our houses are closer to the lab than the region they were trapped in. Why would they backtrack?” Everyone nodded in agreement at this assessment. “So, they must have gotten a radio from somewhere else. There are three places that come to mind: the fire station, the police station, or, probably the most likely,” his finger landed downtown on the map. “RadioShack.”

“Okay,” Joyce said, her voice full of resolve. “So we start there. And if we don’t find them, then what?”

“We split up and camp out at possible safe places,” Dustin advised. “The Wheelers, my house, the Byers’ old house, the Sinclairs are already covered…” He paused, thinking. “The hospital maybe?”

“And if we find them…” Jonathan began in a hopeful tone. “What do we tell them? How are we getting them out?” He looked expectantly at Hopper, which caused him to feel guilty. But it was Dustin who spoke again.

“I've been thinking about that.” He shared a glance with Nancy. “The ‘Will the Wise’ hypothesis is seeming more likely the longer I think about it.” Nancy nodded, but Hopper shook his head in confusion.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, trying not to sound too annoyed at the use of more D&D naming conventions.

“It's what I've nicknamed our idea that Will might have powers.” Hopper's brain seemed to jam at this.

Joyce let out a quiet, “what?” of confusion. But Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan didn't look surprised, as though they had had this conversation before. El also seemed to be honestly considering the possibility.

With a resigned look, Dustin began to explain. “The Upside Down is stuck on the day Will disappeared, which makes us think he created it.” That idea was shocking to Hopper. Will Byers? Tiny, twelve year old Will Byers creating the Upside Down? How could that be possible? Dustin continued. “And there's more. We know he has True Sight, and he must have had it from day one in the Upside Down, because he was able to see the alphabet Ms. Byers put on her wall.” Joyce looked like she was being convinced. Hopper had to admit it was a good point he had never considered before. “And,” Dustin turned to El. “You talked to him in the void… when we built the sensory deprivation tank in the school. And he talked back. How could he have done that if he couldn't also access the void?” El nodded solemnly. That, more than anything, convinced Hopper that Dustin was onto something.

“So what's the idea?” asked Jonathan.

Dustin shrugged. “I'm not sure yet, but I'm sure someone with powers on the other side would help a lot.” Hopper nodded, though the idea of Will fighting the thessalhydra, even with powers, was frightening. “Then between Will and El, I'm sure we can find a way to kill Henry.” He faltered, seeing El's face fall slightly. “A– Assuming El’s powers come back, which I'm sure they will.” He was trying to sound confident again, but El didn't cheer up.

“Okay, one thing at a time,” Nancy said with authority, clearly trying to get past the sticky moment. “We should all get out there and start looking for them.”

“I want to help,” said El firmly. Dr. Owens’s warning replayed in Hopper’s mind. People were organizing searches of Hawkins as they spoke, and they were determined to find El.

“No way,” Hopper said in a commanding tone. “You can't be seen in town. It's too dangerous.”

El fixed him with an angry and defiant look. This time he was sure she was angry at him. “I don’t care,” she said fiercely. “Mike and Will are gone. I want to help.”

“You won't be able to help them if you get captured by the military,” Hopper said softly, in what he thought was a reasonable voice. But El bristled as though he shouted at her.

“Why don't you trust me?!” she shouted, and once again Hopper found her storming away from him. The front door of the cabin opened and slammed shut, and Hopper saw her throw herself down in one of the chairs on the porch.

The cabin was silent for a moment, until Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, and Dustin began planning the sweep of downtown. Joyce approached Hopper and pulled him aside.

“She's been really upset,” she reported.

“Yeah, I noticed,” Hopper replied. He meant to sound sarcastic, but his voice came out sounding more dejected than anything.

Joyce gazed out the window at the back of El’s head. “Apparently she spent all night trying to find the boys. Her powers just won’t work.” Hopper felt a pang of sympathy. “She’s being so hard on herself. She keeps blaming herself for what happens, and she thinks she has the weight of the world on her shoulders, and I don’t know how to help her.”

Hopper started to fully appreciate El’s struggle. At the same time, he realized why Joyce was unable to help.

“I’ll talk to her,” he said with resolve, and walked quietly to the door.

When he walked out onto the porch, El looked coldly at him, then back out at the woods.

“Hey, kiddo,” he greeted softly. “Can I sit?” After a long moment, she nodded silently and he took a seat beside her. They sat there for a long time in silence before Hopper spoke again. “I do trust you.”

She looked around at him as though she didn’t believe him.

“Come, on,” he said in a more cheery tone. “After everything you’ve done, how could I not?” Her face was still tense with worry, which confirmed to Hopper that he had the correct read on the situation. “I know you can do anything you put your mind to… and I think that’s the problem.”

She looked confused, so he explained. “El, I need you to understand that there’s nothing you could do that could cause me to be disappointed in you. Nothing.” She seemed to relax slightly at this.

“Nothing?” she asked.

“Absolutely nothing.”

“What if… what if Mike and Will d– die?” she asked in a terrified voice.

Hopper tried not to show his fear of that possibility. “Then it won’t be your fault.”

Her lip trembled. “I’m scared for them,” she admitted. Hopper put an arm around her shoulders.

“Me too.”

She looked up at him with watery eyes. “You are scared?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “Of course I’m scared. I’m scared of a lot of things.” He paused, thinking about everything he had experienced in the last three years, as well as the terrors he had faced long before that. “I’m scared of bad things happening to Will… and Mike. I’m scared of bad things happening to me.” He had already thoroughly faced that fear in Starcourt. “But most of all, I’m scared of bad things happening to you. And that fear… it made me do stupid things, and it ended up hurting you. So… sorry.”

El looked confused, so Hopper explained. “When we first started living here, I was scared of what would happen if you left, so I made those… rules. The ‘Don't Be Stupid’ rules. And I yelled at you and treated you like a prisoner. And that’s what you were, really. You were a prisoner here, and that was wrong.”

“It’s okay,” she said sincerely.

Hopper shook his head. “No it’s not. It was stupid. I kept being stupid, too. I tried to stop Mike from seeing you because I thought he was bad for you. As if that was any of my business. And now…” Hopper paused, considering what to tell her. He decided on the truth. She needed to understand the danger she was in. “There are bad people out there right now. Not the Bad Men. But they want to capture you, and I can’t let that happen. Do you understand?”

El nodded, but she still looked determined. “Yes. But I need to help.”

“No you don’t,” Hopper said forcefully. “Listen, I know when you were raised in that… lab, you were treated like a weapon. Because that’s all Brenner ever saw you as. But that’s not what you are. And… I know you probably feel like it’s your job to find the boys, but it’s not!” She didn’t seem to believe him. “You’re welcome to help.” He chuckled. “I don’t think I could stop you. But I don’t want you to do it because we want you to, and I dont want you to worry about us being disappointed in you. Especially me. Deal?”

She nodded. “Deal.” They sat in silence for a long time again before El spoke. “You were right about Mike.” Hopper raised his eyebrows in surprise, trying to hide his feeling of gloating satisfaction. “He was not a good boyfriend. But he was a good friend.”

“He is a good friend,” Hopper corrected. “You’re gonna see him again. Will, too.”

At the mention of Will, she became more sad. “Will is a good brother.”

“Yeah?” Hopper answered. “I bet he is.” Then after another moment of thought, he turned to her. “Listen, if you really want to help look for them, I…” he took a deep breath, trying to maintain a brave face. “I suppose you could. BUT,” he added as her face lit up. “You need to be careful. No being stupid, okay? Stay out of sight and stick to the others. Got it?”

She nodded, finally smiling. “Yes!” She stood up, and Hopper followed her inside and back to her room. She rummaged around for a bit before retrieving a pair of dark sunglasses, which she put on. Hopper was fairly certain they once belonged to Max. He realized what she was doing and left momentarily, coming back with a baseball cap, which she put on, disguising her appearance to at least confuse any dangerous people.

“Bitchin’,” she commented, observing herself in the mirror. Hopper smiled. Then El turned back to the closet. There, in the corner of the top shelf was a teddy bear. She raised her hand and Hopper knew what she was trying to do.

“Hey,” he said, and she looked at him. “Don’t think about me or anyone else. Who cares what anyone else thinks? Think about how good of a friend Mike is, and how good of a brother Will is.” She nodded, and she seemed to relax immediately.

She raised her hand again, and said nothing as she focused with all her might. Just as it seemed she might give up, the teddy bear flopped over and tumbled out of the closet. El’s face broke into a wide smile. The bear wasn’t winning any awards for agility, but it had at least moved. Hopper just smiled proudly.

El’s face fell slightly. “I am weak,” she observed.

“No, you’re just tired. Give it some time. They’ll come back.” She nodded. “Until then, let’s go look for Mike and Will.” El was the first out of the room, and she didn’t slow down as she marched out the front door.

Steve and Dustin were already outside. Nancy was holding the door open for Jonathan as he limped through. Hopper hurried over to him.

“Wait, Jonathan,” he called, and Jonathan turned. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Jonathan hesitated, looked at Nancy, then nodded in agreement. Joyce, looking fondly at both of them, followed Nancy outside.

Hopper cleared his throat awkwardly. “I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. “I didn’t mean to get so mad at you for going to the lab.”

Jonathan seemed surprised by the sincerity. Once the shock wore off, he waved his hand dismissively. “I– it was my fault,” he said. “You were right. It was dangerous and stupid, so… sorry.”

After an awkward silence, Hopper continued. “You were right… about me not doing enough for Will. I was hoping El would fix everything. I think we all were, which was unfair.” Jonathan didn’t disagree with him. “Owens was impressed with what you kids did at the lab,” Hopper reported. “It wasn’t a bad idea. Just… next time I want you to talk to me about it.” Jonathan nodded. “I just want you kids to be safe, that’s all. And that includes Will.”

Jonathan was continuing to nod, and his expression was softening. Hopper wondered if he ever had a genuinely productive conversation with his father. Probably not.

“Okay. Sounds good.”

Hopper held the door open and allowed Jonathan to limp ahead of him. Joyce was waiting on the porch for them. When he stopped next to her she just smiled.

“Look at you,” she said, wearing a genuine smile for the first time in days. “Gettin’ along with Jonathan.” She poked his side and he pulled her to him with one arm.

“Yeah, I got there in the end,” he mused.

As everyone got in cars and headed downtown, Hopper became lost in thought. He had to admit, Murray was right. Why was he always right?

The thought actually comforted him. If he was right about Hopper, why shouldn't he be right about Mike and Will? He hoped wherever they were right now, they knew how much everyone was rooting for them.

Chapter Text

Mike's worst nightmare began with ignorance. He was still piling food into his bag, completely oblivious to his surroundings. In his mind, he was running through the bucket list he and Will had been creating. Quarry, roller rink, road trip, Castle Byers, quarry, roller rink, road trip, Castle Byers. The mantra was filling him with hope and the will to survive. He hoped it was having the same effect on Will.

In addition to giving him a reason to keep fighting, the list made him feel like he was turning over a new leaf. For the first time in a long time, he felt that he was treating Will with the respect he deserved, and that he was putting his past mistakes in the past where they belonged.

The quarry, the sight of his two worst memories, would soon be tied to a new memory of a day spent in the peaceful quiet of the woods with Will. The tense and unpleasant memories of Rink-O-Mania would soon be eclipsed by those of a full day spent with his friends, in which Will was not forgotten and felt appreciated by everyone, especially Mike. Over Spring Break, they spent hours upon hours driving across the western United States, Mike worrying the whole way about his failing relationship with El while the person he really loved was right beside him all along. Someday they would take another trip, and he would properly embrace those hours on the endless highway with Will. Then they would go to college together, and Will would never feel abandoned again. Castle Byers now sat ruined, a pile of sticks and old memories in the woods, and a reminder of Mike's very worst offense. They would soon rebuild the old fort and in doing so, Mike would undo the damage he had caused that day. He felt like he was stitching up old wounds and wiping the blood clean from his conscience. It felt unbelievably refreshing. 

More daunting was Mike's promise to himself. He was determined that very soon Will would know just how much he meant to Mike. For the past day, he had been finding it impossible not to shower Will with affection, and his mind had been racing with hypothetical conversations and ideas of how to approach the topic.

He looked up at Will, who had finished filling his own bag. He could tell him now. It was just three words. Why should they be so hard to say? I love you. But was this really the place? Or the time? He felt like the message deserved more fanfare. Something so important shouldn't just be thrown out casually in the middle of a gloomy church in the Upside Down. But then again, who knew if they'd ever get the chance to enjoy sunlight or the safety of their own homes again? Saying it now would surely be better than taking it to the grave.

Mike suddenly realized Will was watching him. He jumped slightly and looked away, a little embarrassed to have been caught staring.

“What’s on your mind?” asked Will.

Mike froze. “Uh… nothing important,” he said quickly. Then he felt ashamed. It was extremely important, and even though Will would have no way of knowing it, he hated lying to him.

“C’mon, I can tell when something’s bothering you,” Will pried. “I said you could tell me anything.”

Here it was: the perfect opportunity to say it. Will could hardly be in a more encouraging mood. And yet…

“I know… but,” he hesitated. “I just need some time to think about… things.” He felt like a loser, but it was true. He wanted to do the moment justice. He knew it would be soon, but he couldn’t do it until he was ready.

“Hm,” said Will. He paused as though thinking. Could he be putting it together? Then… “Pathetic.”

“What?” asked Mike in shock, standing up.

“I said you’re pathetic,” clarified Will, with no sincerity in his tone. “And you’re supposed to be the brave one…”

Mike knew at once what was happening, and he took an instinctive step backward as Will approached. “Even with nothing to lose and all the support you could hope for, you can’t tell the truth.” 

The cassette was in his walkman and his headphones were around his neck. Any second now, music would start playing and he would escape. He just had to keep his distance from Henry until then. He turned away from Will and began running down the aisle and toward the door.

“Keep running, Mike,” taunted Henry's voice from behind him. “If you're too scared to tell him, how will you ever tell them?” Before Mike could process what he said, he was through the doors. He found himself, not in the gloom of the Upside Down, but in his own living room. The space was lit by a single lamp and his parents were there. As he came bursting in, his father stood up from the couch.

“Is this true, Michael?” he asked in his dry, monotonous voice. “That you've been skipping around town with a boy like some kind of queer?” Mike froze. He knew none of this was real, but this exact scenario suddenly seemed real. He started to realize that telling Will his feelings was the first step down a long one-way road, and that sooner or later, the other people in his life would find out, maybe against his will.

His mother was still seated and she looked like she had been crying. “It's okay, honey,” she said with a sniffle. “We just want to help you, okay? We're going to fix you.”

Mike didn’t want to hear any more of this conversation, and darted around the forms of his parents and wrenched open the basement door. As he thundered down the steps, he heard his mother weeping behind him, and saying in a choked voice, “I just don't know what we did wrong with him.”

When he reached the safety of the basement, he saw that the chairs around the D&D table were occupied. Will was the first to stand up, and the sight of him calmed Mike slightly, despite his situation. 

“Mike?” he asked in concern, meandering around the table to approach him. Mike took a step back and he faltered. “What's wrong? Don't you love me?” He sounded so hurt that for an instant Mike wanted to comfort him, despite knowing he was fake.

“Yes!” Mike said boldly. “I do!” The fact that none of the people before him were real made it easier to say. And that fact made him feel ashamed. But he wasn’t saying it to them. He was directing his words at the very space around him, throwing them in Henry's face. 

Behind Will, at the table, Lucas and Dustin snickered and turned their heads toward Mike. Their faces didn't look disgusted, but it was clear they thought something was wrong with him. That subtle dehumanization made him feel almost worse than if they had shouted at him.

Mike spoke once more into the air. “You're gonna have to try harder than that to scare me, asshole!” As terrifying as this reality was, he couldn't let it affect him too much. Perhaps he was so scared of it he was denying that it could ever be real, or maybe he wasn't afraid of it because he knew Will would be beside him through it all. That he was certain of. Will wouldn't abandon Mike no matter what.

As though accepting Mike's challenge, Will took another step forward,  raising his eyebrows. “Did you really think I would love you?” Mike’s heart dropped slightly. That was certainly more effective in scaring him. “After everything you did to hurt me? After breaking my heart and abandoning me?” Those words pierced Mike like a sword. Even if Will was gay, why would he want to be with Mike? Mike had treated him terribly and pushed him away when he needed him.

“He’s right,” piped up Dustin. “You were kind of an asshole to him. Did you even write to him once after he moved?” Mike said nothing.

“I guess not,” said Lucas with barely suppressed merth. “And he lied to El.” He gave a short, unpleasant laugh. “Imagine if she knew she was dating a queer the whole time.”

Mike was backing up past the stairs and toward the door to the outside. He was starting to panic, wondering why Will hadn’t played his music yet. Just as Mike reached the other side of the room, the door flew open and there stood El, looking murderous.

“You never loved me,” she said in an icy tone. “You lied to me. For years.” Mike spun around, looking for an escape but could not find one. “No,” he pleaded. “I didn’t mean to.” 

“Friends. Don’t. LIE!” El hurled the words at Mike and raised her hand.

Despite knowing this wasn’t the real El, Mike choked out a slightly hysterical, “I’m sorry,” before she thrust her palm forward. An invisible force crashed into Mike’s chest, lifting him off his feet and sending him soaring across the basement. Just as he braced for an impact with the wall, everything seemed to vanish.

His surroundings were dark and he felt like he was falling in slow motion. The sensation made him feel dizzy and slightly nauseous. Then, causing every hair on the back of his neck to stand on end, the low, deep growl of Henry seemed to come from right behind him. He could not look around because he didn’t seem to have eyes.

“You are not sorry, Mike,” said the horrible voice. “You just want to ignore the past.” He was right in a way. He had admitted just a day ago that he did not regret dating El. But he said that knowing that she did not hold a grudge against him. Was that true? Or was she just telling him that so he wouldn’t feel bad? And what about Will? Was he forgiving Mike because he was desperate for his support again? Was he still angry with him for all the things he had done, but too shy to tell him? Surely not. Mike and Will didn’t lie to each other. Will did, said a nasty voice in Mike’s mind. About the painting. And you’ve kept things from him. Mike was trying desperately to cling to his own faith in his friends. Henry was trying to unravel him, exposing all his own self doubt so that he would fall apart. He couldn’t let that happen. He held on as tightly as possible to his faith in Will, knowing that soon he would come to Mike’s rescue.

“You are trying to erase your mistakes,” Henry continued. “But they will never go away. Your friends will remember how you treated them forever, and a few good deeds will not wipe your conscience clean.” Come on, Will, Mike begged inside his head.

“You want Will to save you?” Henry asked as though in response to Mike’s thoughts. Of course, he knew everything Mike was thinking. “But that would make you feel weak. You couldn’t handle it. You save your friends only so that you feel needed. You can’t stand the idea that you are dispensible. Do you really want to face your demons? Do you want to prove what your friends mean to you? Then do it!”

With a lurch, Mike’s senses all came back to him and he slammed into solid stone. As he looked around, he realized where he was. No, he thought. Anything but this. The rock beneath his palms was all to familiar. He had seen it countless times in nightmares, forming half of the backdrop to the image of his own small sneakers as they scooted to the edge of a cliff.

There was a scuffling sound and a familiar yelling as Dustin came pelting up the path to Mike’s right, followed by Troy. As it had happened in real life, Troy managed to get ahold of Dustin and held the knife up to his face.

Troy fixed Mike with an evil stare. “You wanna save toothless?” he jeered. “Jump.”

Mike’s breath was coming in ragged gasps. Even with his talk of revisiting this location, seeing it was worse than he imagined. He felt like he was twelve years old again, the fear and sorrow gripping his pounding heart. He looked at the scared expression on Dustin’s face, then over his shoulder at the sharp dropoff. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t stand to be here. He felt like he might pass out from the fear. It was all in his head. He was stuck in his own head. But it certainly felt real.

Without thinking about it, he inched away from the edge. “No,” he mumbled, more to himself than anything. “No, no, no. This isn’t real. It isn’t real.” Once again, he pleaded in his head for Will to help him. “Wake up, wake up, wake up,” he told himself, slapping a hand against his temple.

“What’s wrong?” called Troy. “Are you scared? I thought you were the leader of the freak show.”

Mike was frozen on the spot. Part of him was hoping that if he did nothing, the vision would just go away. It was childish thinking, but that’s what Mike felt like in that moment. He was nothing more than a child who had once again led his friends into danger. He was starting to fear for Will. He was sure Will would not let him suffer at Henry’s hands for this long. Something must have happened to him, and now Mike was alone and helpless.

“JUMP!” Troy screamed at him.

I can’t, thought Mike. I can’t do this again.

As Mike attempted to move away from the edge, the choice was taken from his hands. With a tremendous cracking noise, the rock beneath his feet lurched and crumbled. As the rocky surface tipped and fell away, Mike stumbled forward onto his stomach and slid over the edge before he could stop himself. The wind was screaming in his ears and his despair felt like a physical weight on his heart, pulling him down toward the water.

El is going to catch me, he thought in a brave stab at optimism. That’s how it’s supposed to happen. 

But El did not come to his rescue. He tumbled in midair like a ragdoll as he fell. His disorienting view of the water getting closer and closer. He closed his eyes and braced for impact, past caring about what would happen. But the collision did not come. Once again he was momentarily falling in slow motion before landing abruptly back on the rock.

He sat there panting, horrified at his indifference a moment before. He thought he was past feeling like that. He had confided in Will, and he felt relief at sharing the burden. But all it took was a little bit of perceived danger which he knew was fake to put that hopelessness back into his heart. He felt disgusted with himself, and felt even worse when he looked up and realized that the scene before him hadn’t changed.

Troy was still there and Dustin was still struggling against him, the knife an inch from his face. “What’s the matter, frogface?” Troy taunted. “Don’t you care about your friend?”

Mike staggered to his feet. He didn’t dare attempt to leave the cliff edge again. But he couldn’t bring himself to step toward it.

“Let’s see if you care now?” Troy brought the blade right up to Dustin’s cheek and pressed down. Dustin screamed, but he didn’t dare thrash anymore. Small beads of blood were blossoming along the edge of the blade.

“Mike! MIKE!” Dustin begged. “HELP!”

Abandoning pretense, Mike took an instinctive step toward the struggling pair, but as he did so Troy pressed the blade down harder. A drop of blood rolled down Dustin’s cheek and dripped off his chin.

“This isn’t real!” Mike shouted, as though that would make it stop. “YOU’RE NOT REAL!” But the scene sounded real. As Troy dragged the blade along Dustin’s smooth cheek, leaving a bleeding gash there, Mike no longer cared whether it was real or not. “Okay,” he shouted. “OKAY!” 

It happened just as it had that horrible day. Slowly, he inched toward the edge of the cliff, his shoes dislodging pebbles which cascaded below him. He was trembling from head to foot. He knew in Henry’s recreations of this day, El would never catch him. Stepping off the ledge would mean certain death. Of course, he wouldn’t really die from the fall, but he would experience the sensation of dropping like a stone and see the wall of death that was the surface of the water below him. However, he couldn’t bear to see Dustin get hurt any worse than he already was. He glanced over his shoulder to see trails of blood like tears rolling down Dustin’s face. He steeled himself and stepped off the cliff. The sight of the water rushing up to meet him was so visceral that he might have really been there. The tears in his eyes were blown away by the rushing wind and he braced for impact again.

Once again, he found himself crashing a moment later onto the ground at the top of the cliff. “Stop it,” he begged. Tears were flowing down his cheeks now. He could barely breathe. “Please stop. This isn’t real.” He had to keep telling himself this.

“But if it were real, you would still jump,” came Henry’s voice. Mike looked up. Troy and Dustin were gone, and Henry stood there in his terrible form, and beside him stood Will.

“No,” begged Mike. He didn’t want to see Will get hurt, even if he wasn’t real. But as he thought about it, Mike was visited by a terrible idea. From Henry’s smirk, he knew what Mike was thinking. Will had not come to his rescue yet. This vision was worse by far than the previous one Henry had shown him or his nightmare. It was perhaps worse than the vision Nancy had described. That could only mean one thing: this was not simply meant to scare him. This must be akin to what Max had gone through, and he knew that without help he would not make it out alive. Henry was going to kill him, and right now he was simply toying with him for fun.

Will would not leave him in this state for so long. The only explanation was that Will was in trouble, too. Could Henry have them both in trances at the same time? He wasn’t sure if it was possible, but if it was, could this not be the real Will in front of him?

“W– Will?” he asked, nearly sobbing in his state of despair.

The authenticity of this Will did not matter as Henry clenched his fingers. At once, Will was lifted slightly off the ground and began spluttering as though being choked. He knew what needed to be done when the first strangled cry escaped his best friend. It was a wail of terror that felt like it physically clawed at Mike’s heart.

Feeling numb, tears still drying on his face, he took a step toward the edge of the cliff. Whether it was to get away from the sound that was torturing his very soul or because he knew deep down that he would jump off this cliff a hundred times if it ensured Will’s safety, he didn’t know, but for one reason or another, he found himself approaching the precipice one dull step after another. As he fell through the air for a third time, he didn’t feel fear anymore. He felt empty and broken, and he wondered why this was all he could seem to offer his friends. As Mike crashed into the water and the world went dark again, he waited to slam once more into the top of the cliff.

Instead, his head broke the surface of the quarry and he miraculously found himself in shallow water. It was now night time and the scene gave him an eerie feeling. He was still reeling from the experience of reliving one of his most traumatic memories three times in a row. Henry was clearly trying to destroy Mike’s psyche and at the rate he was going it wouldn’t take much longer. He was shaking and whimpering, and he had never felt less brave.

At that moment, something bumped him and he spun around with a splash. Instantly, he knew why Henry had left him down here this time. His fall into the quarry was only his second worst memory. It was really only an extension of the moment that filled him with that dull hopelessness in the first place: the memory of a small body being pulled from the dark water.

That small body was now floating face down in front of him, the orange vest horribly familiar. As Mike stared, transfixed with horror, the thin arms moved. Mike was naively hopeful for a few seconds as Will found his footing and clutched at Mike's jacket. But when he raised his head, there was no sign of life. The skin was deathly pale, the hair was matted, and the eyes were sunken.

“Mike,” said the corpse. “Why’d you let him get me?” Just like that, a terrible feeling of guilt compounded his despair. “Why did you abandon me? You were supposed to be the heart.” Will glanced down and so did Mike. There, where Will's heart should have been was a gaping wound. Blood was pouring down the front of the corpse, spreading out in the water.

“No,” Mike sobbed. “No, no, no!” It was too much. Mike scrambled to try to get away from the body, but its fists were still clenched around the fabric of Mike's jacket.

“ENOUGH!” Mike begged. “JUST END IT!” He hadn’t meant to say it, but he had no desire to take it back. He was trapped in a nightmare and he knew there was only one way out. All it would take was one more sacrifice and it would all be over. 

The corpse suddenly dropped like a rock. As it fell below the surface of the bloody water, Mike was dragged under as well. Once more he was drifting through darkness. Then he landed on pavement and realized he was outside his own house. 

“It was a seven,” said an innocent voice. Young Will was straddling his bike, very much alive.

“What?” Beside him was a younger version of Mike. The sight was surreal. 

“The roll. It was a seven. The demogorgon… it got me.” The words sent a chill down Mike's spine. “Well, see you tomorrow.” Will began to pedal his bike down the driveway. 

“No,” present Mike groaned. “No, don't let him go.” He took a step toward the retreating Will, not knowing whether he could influence this memory. Before he could find out, the ground seemed to give way and he was falling again through nothingness.

He next found himself in a hospital corridor, and Will was on a gurney being wheeled past him. He was thrashing and screaming in agony. It was the worst sound Mike had ever heard.

“Where does it hurt most, Will?” asked one of the nurses.

“EVERYWHERE!” He screamed.

Mike could only stand by and watch in horror, as helpless as he had been on that day. He fell again through the floor.

When he found himself in his garage, which was filled with the sound of hammering raindrops overhead, his guilt doubled.

“You're destroying everything, and for what?!” came Will's furious voice from the garage door. Slowly, Mike forced himself to look at the arguing pair, framed against the downpour. He had never heard Will so angry before or after this day. “So you can swap spit with some stupid girl?!”

As young Mike opened his idiotic mouth, older Mike braced himself. “El's not stupid! It's not my fault you don't like girls!”

The look on Will's face was somehow even worse this time. Now Mike understood, or at least he thought he understood, how deep of a wound had just been opened. He imagined if someone had thrown that insult in his face. It would make him feel naked and exposed. It was the type of insult that reached the soul, and he thought it was a miracle that he and Will had ever come back from it. The old doubt resurfaced. Had they come back from it? Did Will truly forgive him? If so, then he was far more forgiving than Mike could ever be. He was a better person than Mike would ever deserve. That fact was becoming clear.

As it was, Mike wanted to strangle his younger self for inflicting such pain on Will. How could he? He was supposed to be Will's protector from people who say things like that. When Mike said those words, had Will looked up and imagined Troy's face in the place of Mike's? Or Lonnie’s?

Before he could make one furious step, the ground fell away again and he soon found himself in the bright sun outside the Byers’ old house. The sun didn't feel warm, however. He watched as the moving van rolled away, taking with it his best friend. He once again felt the urge to run after Will in an attempt to stop them from leaving. They didn't realize that the distance that would soon stretch between them would nearly destroy what was left of their friendship. Again, the scene vanished, and he soon found himself in the cafeteria in the high school.

Lucas, Dustin, and his younger self were arguing.

“I'm sorry guys,” Lucas was saying. “I just can't take this anymore.”

“But–” Dustin spluttered. “Basketball? You want to hang out with people like Jason Carver?!”

“It beats getting tripped in the hallway and shoved into lockers!”

“And what about us? You're just abandoning us?”

“Don't be so dramatic. I'll still be in Hellfire.”

“But the Party's already falling apart. We need to stick together. Right, Mike?” Dustin turned to Mike for support, but past Mike said nothing. Present Mike understood that he was at the point of not caring what happened to the Party. It was already missing its most important member, and Mike was feeling lost without him.

“Really? You're not gonna try to stop him?” Dustin asked incredulously. He was clearly expecting Mike, the self proclaimed leader of the Party to make some speech and rally the remaining members. But he said nothing. He didn't have the strength anymore. Or maybe he never did.

One more time, he fell into darkness. Then, his head seemed to break another surface. But this time, the scene was blood red. As the distorted chime of a grandfather clock washed over him, Mike knew he had made it. This was the end of his nightmare, and he would soon be gone.

Vines suddenly wrapped around him and he made no effort to resist. He felt only a small, hollow pang of sorrow as he noticed Max bound to a pillar in the ruins of the Creel house. He would soon join her.

“That is your legacy, Mike” came Henry's voice as the man emerged from the shadows. “You call yourself a protector, but all you do is lie and hurt the people around you. To feel needed, you throw yourself into death over and over, but it's never enough. You are never enough.” Mike barely listened. He was just waiting for the end.

“Even this sacrifice means nothing.” Henry was very close now. “Do you want to see?” He raised his clawed hand and suddenly images were flashing through Mike's mind.

Hawkins was in ruins. Some buildings burning, others just crumbling. An army of monsters was flooding through the streets. All of his friends and family were dead on the pavement, overcome by sheer numbers. Will, however, was not dead. He was alive, but his face looked as tortured and empty as that of his corpse in the quarry. The vision faded and Mike realized he was crying again. The inevitability of it all came crashing down around him. How could he ever think he was a match for Henry? He was just a teenager who had only ever failed to protect the people he loved. He called himself a paladin, but when it came time to be truly brave, he always faltered. Always.

“Just do it,” he begged in a small voice.

For once, Henry obliged. He raised his clawed hand over Mike's face. As Mike closed his eyes, he thought of Will. No memory in particular, just his smiling face.

Then, by some miracle, Mike heard him.

“MIKE!” He wondered if he was imagining it at first, but dismissed the idea. For one thing, Henry paused, showing that he had heard it, too. For another, the voice sounded stricken and terrified. In his final moment, Mike would not choose to remember Will like that.

“Don’t worry about him,” Henry grumbled, but Mike was sure he detected the faintest trace of unease in his tone. “He is my pawn now. And your death will destroy what fight he has left.”

Mike’s mind strayed back to Will. Not a Will screaming in agony or lying apparently dead in the quarry, but a Will that was full of life. As Henry’s claws extended again to deliver a fatal wound, Mike closed his eyes.

In his mind’s eye, he saw a swingset where a small boy sat alone. He saw the moment when he made the best decision of his life, holding out his hand. “Hi, I’m Mike,” he said. “Do you want to be my friend?” A single tear leaked from the corner of Mike’s eye. They were so innocent back then, and so happy. Suddenly, his mind was full of more memories.

He was in kindergarten, and Will was showing him a picture he had drawn of a dragon. Mike was amazed at the way it looked. He could almost imagine it being real. Will was telling him he could keep it and Mike was overjoyed. Nobody had ever made something for him like this. He knew he had to make sure he never ever lost it.

He was seven years old at a sleepover in his basement. Lucas had long since fallen asleep, but Mike and Will lay side by side in their sleeping bags having a whispered conversation. Will shot him a wide smile, then put a hand over his mouth to stop his giggles from waking Lucas. Mike silently congratulated himself for making Will laugh.

They were nine, and Mike was crouching down in front of Will, putting a band-aid on his bloody and scraped knee. He looked up at his teary-eyed friend who was still wearing his bike helmet, and he assured him that everything would be okay and that he would always be there for him.

It was the first Christmas after Lonnie left. He was sitting in the Byers’ living room, which was lit only by the dim lights of the Christmas tree. He and Will were snuggled together under a blanket while the family watched a Christmas movie. He shared a glance with Will and received a warm, genuine smile in return that told him he was grateful for Mike being there. Mike was proud of himself for cheering Will up, remembering his tears from the previous day when he insisted that it was his fault his dad left. He felt immense pride, knowing he had given Will the best Christmas he could have asked for. He deserved it.

They were eleven, and they were sitting in Castle Byers. They weren’t even talking, just existing in each others’ presence. Will was drawing, wearing a face of deep concentration. Mike glanced up at him. The dappled sunlight through the trees was falling across him, and Mike found himself staring, mesmerized at his friend. At that time, he didn’t quite understand the warm, soaring feeling in his heart, but looking back it was clear he was already in love.

It was November 1983, and Will sat across from Mike at the D&D table in his basement. His friend leaned forward, completely enthralled by Mike’s narration. When Mike slammed down the demogorgon figurine, he watched in amusement as the table erupted into chaos. As his best friends argued over what to do, Mike wished he could live in this moment forever. Nights like these were what he lived for, especially with Will right there across the table.

It was Halloween and Mike, Lucas, and Dustin were singing the Ghostbusters theme as they parked their bikes outside the school. Will’s chant of “Ghostbusters!” from behind him made his heart leap with happiness. He turned to look at his best friend and thought to himself how great he looked in his costume, and how happy he was to see the smile on his face after everything that had happened that year.

They were on the couch in Mike’s basement, candy strewn across the table in front of them. Will was finally starting to calm down after his episode earlier that evening. “Well if we’re both going crazy, we’ll go crazy together,” Mike offered.

“Yeah, crazy together,” agreed Will, smiling contentedly and making Mike’s heart skip a beat. He could tell how much the promise meant, and he had no intention of breaking it.

These memories each crossed his mind in the space of a heartbeat, and each one tore open Mike’s heart a little more. More tears fell from his eyes.

He remembered Will in the back of that pizza van, illuminated by the desert sun, talking passionately about how Mike was the heart, and how El would always need him. Wait, he thought. No, he wasn’t talking about El. He said so himself.

Suddenly, Will’s voice was echoing in his head, and Mike knew this wasn’t just a memory. “I need you Mike. And I always Will.”

Suddenly, his mind was full of more memories, but these were not his.

He was sitting up in a hospital bed with his mother by his side. The door opened and in ran his best friends, Mike in the lead. He shouted “BYERS!” as though Will’s thin, pale form was the greatest thing he had ever laid eyes upon. Mike sprinted across the room and threw his arms around Will as best he could with him lying down. The weight of Mike’s head came to rest on Will’s chest, directly over his heart. The sight of his best friend after his week in Hell was like waking from a nightmare.

He was outside the arcade, Mike’s arm being slung over his shoulder, guiding him back inside toward the light and warmth as the memory of his episode faded from his mind.

He was tied up in the shed, his mind being suffocated by the encroaching darkness of the Mind Flayer. He was watching Mike as though through a gap in dark curtains. Mike was telling him about the first day that they met, a tear sliding down his cheek. The memory was like a golden light in the darkness, guiding him back to his own mind, if only for a moment.

He was standing in his old house, and Mike was looking at him across the donation box in which he had just placed his old D&D set. “What if you want to join a different party?” he asked with concern.

“Not possible,” Will answered. Mike smiled, and Will felt his heart lift. After a rift had been opened between the two of them that summer, Mike had just built him a bridge across it. He felt comfort knowing they would be okay. His cheerful feeling was immediately eclipsed by sorrow as he walked away down the hall. However close he and Mike were, in an hour he would be in a car on the highway, leaving his whole life behind.

Mike felt the emotions shift. Against his will, a wave of sorrow seemed to drown him. He was suddenly in the car, Jonathan beside him, and he was watching the farmland roll past outside, his mind still back in the old house with Mike.

He was in a motel. His mom, Jonathan, and El were all asleep, exhausted from packing up their whole lives that day. But Will lay awake, unable to sleep, feeling haunted by a lifetime of memories. He had a hand over his mouth, trying to muffle the sound of his heavy breathing as tears fell sideways out of his eyes and onto his pillow. He missed Mike so much already that it physically hurt him.

He was in his new house in Lenora. It was comfortable, but felt all wrong. The California heat was a constant reminder of where he was not, and who was not with him. His mom entered the kitchen, announcing that there was a letter from Hawkins. He felt excitement build in his chest, then felt it bleed out of him as he discovered that it was for El, and there was no letter for him in the pile.

He was in his room in Lenora, lying on his bed, frustration burning in his chest at the news that he would not be able to see Mike for Christmas. After Thanksgiving hadn’t worked out, the idea of Christmas on the horizon was all that was keeping him going. He thought back to that first Christmas after Lonnie left, and what Mike had done for him that day. Had Mike forgotten that? Why hadn’t he sent any letters or called him? Did he not want to be Will’s friend anymore? Why not? The unanswerable questions fueled his anger until he was in half a mind to somehow hitchhike back to Hawkins just to give Mike a piece of his mind.

There was a sudden flicker of renewed joy. He was in the airport, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Mike, his painting clutched in his hands. His leg was bouncing, and he could hardly keep himself from sprinting to the terminal when Mike emerged. He looked completely ridiculous in clothes that had to have been bought at the airport. His excitement turned into resentment when Mike showered El in attention, sparing only an awkward side hug for Will.

He was sitting in the back of Argyle’s weed-smelling van, watching Mike unroll the painting he had poured his heart and soul into. When his face lit up, he felt like everything was back to normal between the two of them. This was how it was supposed to be: Will giving Mike his artwork and Mike making Will feel like he truly mattered.

Several of Mike’s words from the last few days in the Upside Down echoed from the past.

“I’d rather die down here than live without you up there.”

“It’s gonna be okay, Will. I’m not gonna let him get you.”

“What if we went together? To college, I mean.”

“You’re not getting away from me again, Byers. Not that easily.”

“You’re nice, and gentle, and brave, and you’re really good at art. That makes you special.”

The emotions swelled in his chest like a balloon until he could no longer contain them.

Mike opened his eyes. Tears were cascading down his cheeks. Henry was still there, his claws an inch from Mike’s face. The flood of his own memories and the stirring of emotions in his chest had taken place in the span of a few seconds, individual memories like pages in a flipbook. And, he didn’t know how it had happened, but he knew he had just experienced some of Will’s memories through his eyes. He had seen himself as Will saw him, and as in Will’s artwork, Mike had seemed much more impressive from that viewpoint. He had seen and felt firsthand how much he meant to Will. In that moment, Mike by no means thought he was worthy of being loved by Will. He still felt the guilt from his failure to protect him and his shame for the ways he had hurt him. But he knew with absolute certainty now that Will cared about him deeply, and would be devastated by his absence. 

I need you Mike, and I always will.

If Will needed him right now, he could not give up. He couldn’t find the strength to fight for himself, but he would always have the strength to fight for Will. Because Will deserved it.

Mike yanked at the vines restraining him, and the sudden movement seemed to surprise Henry. As Mike made to hurl an insult at him, the vines suddenly released their hold and he fell to the ground. At the same moment, Henry was blasted sideways by an invisible force. It was as though Mike had been pried from Henry’s grasp. When he looked up, Mike half expected to see El, but instead, there stood Will. As Mike was momentarily stunned by confusion and relief, a familiar song began to echo all around him and a circular doorway opened up in the blood-red fog behind Will. As Should I Stay or Should I Go grew even louder, Mike glimpsed himself hovering above the grimy floor of the church, head tilted back and arms hanging limply.

The sight seemed to shock the urgency back into him. He scrambled to his feet as Henry did the same, and he sprinted toward Will, the only person who was capable of pulling him out of his darkness in that moment.

“Are you real?” he asked as he reached his best friend.

“I don’t know,” Will answered, which seemed strange to Mike. “But I need you. Right now. So come on!”

Together they sprinted across the terrible landscape. Around him, rocks and pieces of the old house crashed to the ground, but Mike didn’t slow down. With Will by his side, he didn’t even stumble. He kept running and running, and just as they reached the doorway, Will stopped, and Mike’s momentum carried him through to safety.

There was a moment, maybe a heartbeat, of silence and darkness. Then, all of Mike’s senses came back to him. The first thing he noticed was that he was in the air. In a second he dropped like a rock, his feet colliding with the floor of the church and his legs buckling. He stuck out his hands to catch himself and simply lay curled on the floor for a moment, trying to process the enormity of everything he had just experienced. Finally, he realized that Should I Stay or Should I Go really was blaring all around him. He reached for the walkman and turned the volume down. He vaguely registered that there were no headphones plugged in. Thinking he should use them to avoid attracting any unwanted attention with the noise, he looked around, thinking they had fallen, but he couldn’t see them. It was as though they had vanished into thin air. It wouldn’t matter to Mike so much, except that the blaring music had just saved his life. In his confusion, it took him longer than it should have to acknowledge the obvious problem.

With a gasp, he looked around. The two bags full of canned food were sitting there by the wooden bin. Will’s nail bat was in the middle of the floor, and its owner was nowhere to be found.

“Will!” Mike called as quietly and urgently as he could, but there was no answer. He didn’t waste another second. He forced all his lingering fear and exhaustion down and picked up his machete. He ran to the doors and threw them open. He looked up and down the street for any sign of a struggle. Then, he stopped dead.

There, towering over the houses and the trees was one of the most horrifying sights Mike had ever laid eyes on. Silhouetted against the churning storm and red lightning was a monstrous shadow. Unfathomably large limbs curved upward into the sky around it, spreading out like roots. He found himself wondering how Will had encountered this creature multiple times at age thirteen and escaped with his sanity. Mike felt as though his mind was straining to even comprehend the scale of it.

Instantly, Mike knew where to go. Henry’s words and the images he had shown came back in perfect clarity. He will soon be my pawn. He remembered the image of Will, indifferent and corpse-like but alive in Hawkins. He took off down the street directly toward the Mind Flayer, keeping his panic under control only enough to avoid stepping on any vines as he ran.

Finally, he emerged into a large open field which he realized was the cemetery. In the middle of the space, one of the limbs of the Mind Flayer met the ground, black particles swirling around like a twister. He knew Will must be inside. Feeling completely insane, Mike started creeping toward the dark mass.

“Will!” he called. He knew he must have the Mind Flayer’s attention, but he was far past caring. For the second time in barely ten minutes, he was accepting the possibility of defeat. He had told Will that if there was no way home they would at least be together. He intended to keep that promise at any cost.

The Mind Flayer shifted and the swirling cloud of particles moved away. From their midst stepped a lone figure.

“Will!” Mike yelled in relief. But Will did not run to Mike or show any sign of recognition. He just stood there. It was too late.

It doesn’t matter, Mike told himself. I saved him once and I can do it again. But even as he thought it, he wasn’t sure he could help. Connecting with Will got him to communicate last time, but it took burning Will alive to get the Mind Flayer out of him.

Mike’s thoughts were interrupted by Will suddenly walking toward him. With a serious effort, Mike managed not to flinch. He had told Will that he wasn’t afraid of him while he was possessed. Showing signs of fear now would not do him any favors if he wanted to get his friend back.

“Woah, hey,” Mike said in the most soothing voice he could manage. “It’s me, Will. It’s Mike. Your best–”

He cut off as Will reached him and without warning fastened his hand around Mike’s throat. Mike grabbed his hand with both of his own and tried prying his fingers away, but just like Billy Hargrove, Will seemed much too powerful while possessed. His grip was like iron.

“W– Will–” Mike gasped. “Re–member th– the day w– we– met?” Will’s dark eyes did not show any sign of recollection. “I– I do,” Mike continued. “I know– you do t– too. Remem–ber I said i– it was th– the best thing I– I ever did? It st– still is.” He thought of the flashes he had gotten of Will’s memories, of the sadness he had felt during their time apart, and how Will had wondered if Mike had dropped him as a friend. “I– I w– wouldn’t want a– anyone else as– m–my best– friend. I m–missed you w–when yo–you were i–in Calif–ornia. S–so much. E–even though I d–didn’t write. I–I’m sorry.” 

Will’s eyes seemed to flicker. For the space of a heartbeat, Mike saw Will’s kindness behind them before they became dark and empty once more. “Th–thanks f–for forgiving me. I–I wouldn’t h–ave. Y–you’re bet–ter than m–me. And s–stronger.” His eyes flickered again. His grip slackened just enough for Mike to take a small breath. “Y–you gotta f–fight him. Y–you can d–do it, Will.” Knowing Will as Mike did, he knew he would need more encouragement. Wherever Will was in his own mind, if he could hear Mike, he was almost certainly convinced that he was too weak to fight back. “D–do you h–hear me? Y–you can b–beat him.” Even though he still struggled to see why, Mike knew what Will needed. “I–I’m here,” he choked. “I–I’ll always be– here. I– know you– can d–do this.” Will’s eyes flickered again, and in that tiny space of time, Mike put every ounce of his strength into one word. “FIGHT!”

Suddenly, everything went dark and the feeling of Will’s hand at his throat vanished. Mike wondered if he had lost consciousness, but then he realized that the darkness around him was moving. He took a step forward, then another. Flickers of red flashed in the gloom around him. Then, suddenly, he heard a voice. As he stepped forward, a strange shape loomed out of the darkness. It was Castle Byers, and inside it was twelve year old Will, curled up, shivering, and faintly singing. “Should I stay or should I go?”

“Will?” called Mike faintly, but Will did not stir. He just continued singing as though he could not hear Mike.

Suddenly, a scream pierced through the darkness. Mike recognized it, as he had heard this exact scream within the last hour during his nightmarish vision. Mike rushed forward and soon encountered another Will, who was lying on a hospital bed, writhing in agony as he burned from the inside. 

Not wanting to witness this yet again, Mike hurried onward. He soon arrived at Castle Byers again and wondered if he had somehow gotten turned around, but then he saw Will step out of it. He was older now and he held a baseball bat in his hand. Mike only stuck around to watch him take the first swing at his childhood hideout before moving on.

Mike was startled as his own voice floated out of the swirling darkness ahead of him.

“That’s because she’s my girlfriend, Will!”

“And us?” came Will’s voice in response.

“We’re friends! We’re friends.”