Chapter Text
Will was in Hawkins cemetery. He stood at the back of a crowd of mourners unable to see what was happening in front of him. There was someone walking but the words were fuzzy and drowned out by the sounds of mourners crying. Will made his way around the dense crowd trying to peek over shoulders as he went. Who was the funeral for?
Suddenly the crowd parted in front of him of Will. Will made a small gasp as he saw the picture of the man who the funeral was for.
Bob Newby.
Will’s eyes started to tear up. Then a familiar voice began talking.
‘Bob was the greatest guy I could ask for,’ it was his mom, ‘He was so amazing, but that was all taken away by you!’
Will looked up to see his mother pointing at him.
‘Mom?’ Will breathed
‘My disgusting, dirty, little son killed him,’
‘What?’
‘He is the reason those men in the lab died, he was the reason Bob died!’
‘No,’ Will started to feel tear sting at his eyes.
‘He made those demodogs, they were made in him and he lead them to us,’
‘I didn’t mean to,’ Will pleaded as tears ran down his face.
‘I should of listened to Lonnie when he said there was something wrong with you,’
‘No, Mom,’
‘I wish we had left you in the Upside Down, I wish you were dead because you have been nothing but trouble from the day you were born,’
Will crumpled down onto the floor sobbing.
‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’ He whispered.
Will’s sobs made his whole body shudder as his stomach churned.
Will awoke with a sudden wave of nausea. He scrambled out of bed across the hall and to the bathroom. As he made it to the toilet he began dry heaving. Nothing came up, but he still felt like there was something wrong something that he needed to get out. Will gave up and collapsed back onto the bathroom floor, leaning against the edge of the bathtub. Wills brain finally began to catch up to him. Will felt the cold sweat on his skin and the tears on his cheeks.
Will thought of his nightmare. It wasn’t a new one. All year Will dreamt of what happened to him and what he did. The people in his dream always screamed at him directly telling him how they hated him, but Will knew nobody would ever do that even though the dreams were right. The people in his life were too kind to him and treated him well but he could tell how they felt. All year his mom had been more distant than she should have been. After he disappeared in 1983 his mom had kept him close for a whole year not letting him bike anywhere or go anywhere without anyone watching him. It made him feel like a baby, but this year was worse. His mom had given him more freedom just a month after what happened. Will could tell his mom was upset and he knew it was because of what he did.
Jonathan was avoidant too. He had a new summer job at the Hawkins post with Nancy which took up most of his time. The time that wasn’t taken up by his job was taken up by Nancy. Jonathan said that Will was his best friend. Will didn’t believe that anymore
Will knew that Mike felt the same. After El came back it was like Will barely existed. Mike had spent all his time with her and only hung out with the whole group occasionally. Will and Mike used to just hang out with each other sometimes now Will only saw him with the party. Will knew that El was Mike’s girlfriend so it made sense that he would spend more time with her, but that shouldn’t have meant cutting out Will. Which meant he didn’t want to see Will for a different reason. Will didn’t want to pick any of them
The rest of the part wasn’t as bad. Lucas and Max were dating so if Will wanted to hang out with them he had to just third wheel even if the tried to include him. When Mike was there it wasn’t much better. It was confusing just how much talking people could do about relationships. When Mike hung out with them he usually talked about El. Will’s stomach always twisted when he heard Mike talk about El or when he suddenly dropped the group to hang out with her.
However, all hope was not lost because Dustin was coming back from summer camp soon. Will knew Dustin still held a little bit of conversation about relationships whenever it was brought up but he would change the topic to something he found more interesting because Dustin had never had a girlfriend. Maybe they could play dnd again when they were all together.
Will stood up shakily and made his way to the sink. When Will turned on the bathroom lights he was greeted by his reflection. He looked pale and sweaty. His tears had dried leaving the residue on his cheeks and his eyes red and sunken. Will splashed some water on his face before going back to his bedroom. Will looked at his alarm clock it read 4:53. It was close enough to dawn that Will decided there was no point trying to go back to bed, it took him a while to fall asleep usually anyway.
Will went to his desk and sat down. He turned on his desk lamp and flipped open his sketchbook to an empty page and started drawing. Will didn’t have a complete idea in his mind as his pencil moved around the page about what he was drawing. The picture on the page began to resemble a demogorgon. Will drew the demogrgon dripping with blood. The source was from a small shape on the ground which was nearly indistinguishable apart from the red and yellow vest and a mop of brown hair.
Will knew that drawing his own death wasn’t something a normal person should do, but Will wasn’t normal, he deserved the fate on that page.
Will continued to draw trying to improve the drawing until he heard the sounds of Mom and Jonathan waking up and going about their morning. Will got up from his desk and went out to the kitchen.
Mom was making breakfast and he could hear Jonathan getting ready in his room.
‘Will, honey did you sleep okay?’ She asked
‘Yeah fine,’ Will lied.
‘I thought I heard you up in the middle of the night,’
‘I just needed to use the bathroom,’
‘Okay, Well breakfast is ready,’
She handed him a plate of eggs and toast and he sat at the table.
‘Thanks Mom,’
‘No problem honey,’ She looked up at the clock, ‘Oh dang I got to get to work,’
‘What?’ Will asked. Her work shouldn’t have started for another hour.
‘I just have to run some errands before work,’
‘Okay,’ Will shrugged.
‘Bye Will,’ said Mom as she quickly rushed through the door.
‘Bye Mom,’ Will said to the closed door.
Jonathan’s bedroom door slammed open making Will jump. Jonathan rushed out the door and crossed from the hallway to the front door in a hurry not even greeting Will. Then Jonathan left the house leaving Will by himself. He sighed as he poured syrup on his eggs and slowly began eating his breakfast despite his lack of hunger.
Will returned to his room after breakfast pondering what to do with the day. His friends were probably busy without him. Soon that would change Will thought, with Dustin coming back tomorrow. He should probably make something for him. Maybe a welcome back poster. Yeah, that would give him something to do.
Will got to work on the poster. It was really elaborate he had been working on it for an hour and it still wasn’t finished. Just as Will was filling in the “N” in Dustin his walkie crackled to life.
‘Will, it’s Lucas, do you copy? Over,’
Will rushed over and grabbed the walkie, ‘Yeah, it’s Will, over,’
‘Hey Will, Max and I were thinking we should sneak into the movies tonight to see Day of the Dead, over,’
‘Yeah sure, sounds good, over,’ Will refutes. They had been to the movies a lot this summer with the new mall open and Will enjoyed it, but it didn’t give him a chance to actually talk to anyone not that their conversations were very good these days.
’And then before the movie maybe we can plan something for when Dustin gets back, over,’
’Yeah, sure I already made him a poster, over,’
’Great, see you at 7:00, over and out,’
The walkie went silent and Will’s excitement depleted.
He went back to Dustins poster and spent another hour finishing it and making it perfect. Will spent the rest of the day floating around the house. Watching TV, drawing but nothing kept his attention for long.
Finally it was time to go to the mall just as his Mom got home. Will rode his bike all the way to Starcourt his head empty. He wasn’t excited but he wasn’t dreading it, he just felt empty. He arrived at the mall at the same time as Max and Lucas.
‘Hey Will,’ Dodd Lucas and Max in sync.
’Hey. Mike not here yet?’
‘Nope,’
The group fell into silence for a moment as they put their bikes on the rack. Silence mixed with small talk continued for another 7 minutes before Mike showed up. He rode to the front of the mall and the group approached.
Mike was wearing a yellow shirt with jeans and a blue vest and when he turned to face the group his lips definitly looked a little swollen. He looked like that every time after he hung out with El, it was like all they did was kiss or something.
‘You’re late,’ said Lucas
‘Sorry!’
‘Again,’
‘We’re gonna miss the opening,’ Will added
‘Yeah, if you guys keep whining about it lets go,’ said Mike pushing past them
‘If you guys keep whining about it. Nyeh-nyeh-nyeh,’ Lucas mocked
‘Just please stop talking, dude,’
‘Let me guess, you were busy,’ Lucas smacked his lips, obviously being right.
‘Oh, Yeah real mature, Lucas,’
‘Oh, El I wish we could make out forever, and never hang out with any of our friends,’ Lucas said
Will laughed at the comment.
‘Lucas stop,’ Max sighed
’Will thinks its funny,’ Lucas protested
‘Because it is,’ Will assured
‘Yeah, it’s so funny that I want to spend romantic time with my girlfriend,’
’I’m spending romantic time with my girlfriend,’ said Lucas putting his arm around Max,
And that is what Will liked about Lucas and Max being upholstery they were his friends. Will barely ever saw El. She was barely allowed in public and stayed in Hoppers cabin all the time which is where she and Mike hung out. El could barely considered any of the party’s friends with how little any of them saw her, apart from Mike. Will knew El was closer to everyone in the party than him because they had met her when he was missing. The only time Will had seen her was when they were hanging out in a quiet location with few people or at the snowball last year. After he went missing he had heard a lot about El and Mike’s supposed crush. This made Will feel somewhat betrayed. Mike had only known El for a week and that was the week while he was missing. Was it during the worse week of Will’s life that Mike had suddenly fallen in love with El? Had they been kissing while he was getting hunted by a demogorgon? Will felt almost as if El had replaced him in the party during that week and that they had preferred her. Of course they did, El had superpowers. Will was alive because of her which made Will feel guilty for ever thinking badly about her.
They had walked to Scoops Ahoy where Steve Harrington worked. Apparently he had helped fight the domogorgon while Will went missing and had befriended Dustin while he was possessed so he was part of their group. Will was still unsure about Steve due to Jonathan’s dislike of him, but his new job did have some perks.
Mike rung the bell on the counter. The person serving was a girl called Robin that he had seen there before.
‘Hey, dingus, your children are here.’ She called out
Steve opened the sliding windows that were behind the counter. ‘Again seriously?’ They just looked at him. Steve ushered them through the back door of the store leading them into the hallway behind the stores of the mall. ‘I swear, if anybody hears about this—’
‘We’re dead,’ the group said walking down the hallway to the door that lead to the cinema.
Mike orders around the door, ‘All clear,’ he muttered.
They walked into the cinema and went into the theatre showing Day of the Dead. They shuffled through the crowded aisle of seats and reached two sets of empty seats. Will and Mike sat behind Max and Lucas.
‘See Lucas? We made it,’ Mike whispered
‘We missed the previews,’ Lucas complained
‘Still made it. Fart face.’ Max giggled
Will opened his bag and took out some snacks handing some to Lucas.
The movie began a the theatre went quiet.
Suddenly the movie started to flicker than it stopped as the power went out. The crowd collectively groaned.
‘Come on,’ Will muttered
After a moment the lights flicked back on and the movie restarted with a cheer from the crowd.
Then Will’s stomach dropped. He felt frozen with fear. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. He reached his hand to the back of his neck as he placed the feeling. The Mind Flayer.
‘Hey,’ Will jumped as he was snapped out of that feeling by Mikes voice, ‘You okay?’
Will froze for a second. Should he tell him? It was just a feeling it didn’t mean anything, did it? Besides the Mind Flayer couldn’t be back the gate was closed. ‘…Yeah,’ Will whispered uncertainly. He could feel his heart beating out of his chest and he felt out of breath.
‘You sure?’ Mike insisted. Mike could always tell when Will felt uncomfortable even if he hadn’t shown it lately.
‘Of course,’ Will assured but he still felt scared and panicked and his heart was only going faster. ‘I need to use the bathroom actually,’ Will stammered as he stood up.
‘Okay,’ Mike muttered eyes back on the movie
Will shuffled back along the aisle ignoring the complaints of the people behind him. Will sped to the bathroom and locked himself inside a stall. He stood awkwardly wrapping his arms around himself as he door his eyes and tried to calm down
’It’s nothing. It’s nothing. It’s nothing.’ Will whispered to himself
Will jumped as one of the stall doors slammed open. He shook his head. He was being stupid. He was weak. They were just some goosebumps, he was getting worked up over that. Suddenly, instead of scared, he felt angry at himself. He took a deep breath and walked back into the movie theatre.
Once the movie finished the group walked through the mall again this time discussing Dustins welcome home party.
‘We should play dnd,’ Will suggested excitedly
‘El doesn’t know how to play,’ Mike said. El of course.
‘We can teach her,’ Lucas amended
‘Thats too hard, why don’t we let Dustin decide when he gets back,’ protests Mike
‘Okay,’ said Will
‘I have an idea,’ max pipes up, ‘What if we surprise Dustin! Like we hide in his house then jump out and yell welcome back, maybe we can even freak him out using El’s powers,’
‘Yeah. That would be so cool,’ said Lucas
‘Okay, I will tell El on the way to Dustin’s,’ said Mike
The group made it to the bike racks and took out their bikes.
’Bye guys,’ said Lucas has he rode off closely followed by Max
Will swung his leg over his bike and looked over at Mike who was doing the same, ‘Bye,’ said Will as he pushed off and began to ride
’Bye,’ he heard Mike call after him.
Will road though Hawkins towards his house on the outskirts of town. Will thought back to this time last year, where his mother would barely let him out of her sight. Now he was allowed to ride around town in the dark. Will took a slightly longer route than usual appreciating the weather. Will liked when it was warm. As the building started to thin out to give way to roads surrounded by woods Will sped up. He didn’t like the woods. As he went faster he felt the wind hit him, making him a little more cold than he would have liked.
Will suddenly felt goosebumps crawl up his neck before he went rigid and his vision blacked out. He thought he could see something in the darkness, but the shapes were fuzzy. Then Will’s sudden lack of awareness caused is bike to swerve and collided with the ground. His vision returned as pain shot through his head and shoulder. He scrambled up, feeling woozy. He pulled his bike up, then got on it and continued riding. He felt his head throbbing where it had hit the ground along with his shoulder protesting at the slightest movement. Will could feel something warm running down his temple. Blood. Will turned his bike toward his horse and quickly hoped off. He popped his bike against the house and went in through the back door rushing for the bathroom. As he shut the door he heard his mother.
‘Will, is that you?’ she yelled
‘Yeah?’ Will yelled back cringing because it made his head hurt more.
‘Okay honey,’ his mom said more quietly.
Will looked in the mirror and saw that one side of his face a a small trail of blood running down it. He pulled back his hair and saw that the cut on the side of his head was somewhere in his hair. Will opened the cabinet under the sink and took out the first aid kit. He parted his hair at the scape and started dabbing away the blood. Once the bleeding had slowed Will wiped his face clean of the blood. It looked like nothing ever happened.