Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Nancy described what had occurred in Hawkins whilst he had been in California, Mike came to a silent realisation: he had been incredibly lucky. 

He knew from the police officers in California that something had been brutally murdering people in Hawkins, and from El that it was an evil superhuman called Henry from Hawkin's lab who had murdered all the other superkids before El had sent him flying into the Upside Down, but there were gaps in this story, so now he was sitting in his basement with the rest of the gang (minus Lucas and Max) as Nancy filled him, Will, Jonathan and El in, with occasional help from the others. 

Nancy had been listing the symptoms that Vecna’s victims had experienced when Mike momentarily froze, a look of wide-eyed horror flashing across his face. As everyone else was focussed on her, she was the only one who noticed it. 

She briefly considered asking him if he was alright, but decided against it. Not in front of everyone else. Of course, if it had been Will, Johnathan would have immediately made sure he was okay… but Mike and Nancy weren’t like that. They cared about each other immensely, of course, but they were both almost incapable of talking about feelings to each other. It must have something to do with having parents who barely spoke to each other.

She looked away to ensure that he didn't notice her staring, but glanced at him again while she described how she and Robin had visited Victor Creel. He still looked shaken up, but so did Will and Johnathon - it was a horrific story, after all. Maybe she’d imagined it.

Unbeknownst to her or anyone else, Mike was currently replaying memories in his mind from the three days leading up to his trip to California. A pounding headache that wouldn’t go away. A drop of blood splashing onto his history homework. Nightmares causing him to wake up gasping and shaking, images of the Mindflayer, El disappearing with the Demogorgon and Will's body being pulled from that lake flashing behind his eyelids.

The headache had disappeared on the plane, and he didn't have a single nosebleed or nightmare in California, which had been a relief… but if those were the same symptoms Chrissy, Fred, Patrick and Max had experienced…

Oh, god. I was meant to be Vecna’s fourth victim.

The curse must have lifted when he left Hawkins. It could have been him brutally murdered. It could have been him used as bait for Vecna and ending up comatose. Instead, he'd been sitting in a pizza van whilst everyone else was fighting for their lives.  

He listened to the rest of Nancy’s recap, trying to keep his face as composed as possible. So, all four doors to the Upside Down had been opened, the Upside Down was merging with Hawkins and Vecna was still alive. Great. On the bright side, now four doors were open, there was no reason for Vecna to curse anyone else, so Mike was supposedly safe. On the other hand, Vecna was still alive and whatever other monsters were in the Upside Down could now freely enter Hawkins, so they were probably all going to die anyway.

Will immediately approached him after the group dispersed and asked him if he was okay, his brown eyes full of concern. He hadn't been able to keep his emotions from affecting his face, then. He tried to force his face into a neutral expression before replying.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Why?”

Will frowned. “You’ve gone pale.”

That made sense. He did feel like throwing up.

“I’m always pale” Mike gave a halfhearted grin in an attempt to lighten the mood. 

Will didn’t seem to find it funny. “No, you look like you’re going to pass out.”

Mike broke eye contact, looking down at the floor. “I’m okay” he repeated. “It’s just... a lot to take in, I suppose.”

Chapter Text

Mike felt sick.

In the safety of his room, he had collapsed onto his bed and stopped trying to hold himself together. He was now shaking uncontrollably.

Patrick McKinney. Mike hadn’t known him, but he had seen Lucas hang out with him and his other basketball friends a few times. He’d written all of them off as self absorbed jerks, but Patrick had seemed like a genuinely nice guy. And now he was dead.

Hopes, dreams, future, all gone. 

Lucas said he thought Patrick had been targeted by Vecna because he was being abused. Patrick had been in his last year of high school - he must have been so excited by the prospect of leaving home this year. But now he’d never experience the relief of escaping his abuser, all because Mike hadn’t been there for Vecna to murder instead.

He was going to throw up.

He pushed himself off his bed, threw his door open, bolted to the bathroom, and fell against the toilet, retching.

“Mike?! Oh my god, Mike, are you okay?”

No. He wasn’t okay. He couldn’t stop shaking and his vision was so blurry that he couldn’t see who was standing over him and his heart was beating so fast that he was sure it was going to burst and he was going to die and-

“Mike, breathe!”

He wasn’t sure when it had happened, but he was no longer hugging the toilet. He was lying in someone’s lap.

“That’s better. It’s okay.” It was Nancy. She was rubbing circles on his back and mumbling words of comfort. Now that his vision had returned, he could see the expression on her face - she looked like she was about to burst into tears.

“Nance?” He croaked.

Her face brightened a little. “I’m here. Are you back with me now?” 

“Think so.” He still felt like shit, but at least his chest didn’t feel like it was going to explode anymore. 

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah”

“Want to talk about it?” 

Honestly, Mike desperately wanted to tell someone and share the weight of the knowledge that he had been cursed, but he couldn’t burden anyone else. Nancy had almost cried when she recounted what Vecna had shown her - her family, including Mike, dead - how would she react if she knew Vecna had specifically targeted him?

He shook his head. 

Nancy frowned. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. "I'm fine."

“You were so freaked out that you threw up, Mike.”

Mike cringed. He should have shut that damn door behind him.

“The Upside Down is merging with our town, Nancy. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to be freaking out right now!” He faltered at the hurt look on his sister’s face. Damn it, couldn’t he talk to anyone without hurting them? “I’m sorry. Thanks - thank you for calming me down. I just don’t want to talk about it, okay?”

Nancy was still frowning. “Okay… well, if you change your mind, I’m here, okay?”

“Okay.”

Mike stood up on wobbly legs, and began to make his way out of the bathroom.

“Mike?”

He turned back to face Nancy.

“You know I care about you, right?”

He nodded. “I care about you too.” And that is precisely why I can’t tell you what’s wrong.

Chapter Text

“There has to be a way to get her back.”

Mike was sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair in Max’s hospital room with Lucas and El. Lucas was sitting on a chair beside her bed, his hand on her arm. The sight of Max, pale and motionless with half her body encased in casts, made him feel physically ill. He hated being here, feeling so useless, but he had to at least feel like he was supporting Lucas. When one of his friends were in danger, his go to coping mechanism was to figure out how to save them. When Will disappeared, he had refused to leave the investigation to the police. When El disappeared, he’d called her every day, hoping she could use it to find her way back, despite all the evidence suggesting that she was dead. Sure, it had actually been El who found Will, and him calling her on his walkie talkie hadn’t helped her at all, but at the time he had convinced himself that he might be helping.

But this… he couldn’t do anything. Even El didn’t know where Max was, and she could find anyone. It was even worse now, knowing that if he had been in Hawkins, he could have offered himself as bait instead of Max. She would still be awake with her limbs and eyes unscathed. Lucas wouldn’t be living in a hospital room, his eyes permanently filled with grief. Lucas blamed himself - if he’d protected the headphones better, Max would be okay, he'd insisted - but Mike knew that that was ridiculous. It was Mike's own fault. He couldn’t tell Lucas that without telling him that he’d also been cursed, though, so all he could do was hug him and tell him that it was Jason’s fault for attacking them while Max was under the curse, and Vecna’s fault for cursing her in the first place.

El wasn’t doing much better. She blamed herself too, for not tearing Vecna away from Max before he had a chance to lay his hands on her. Mike thought that was crazy: El had literally brought Max back to life, and he told her as much. It didn’t help. They’d been even more distant than before since returning to Hawkins, which seemed impossible considering how badly they’d left it in California. Apparently, she had nothing to say about what he'd said whilst she was fighting Vecna.

Nothing Mike could do or say could cheer Lucas or El up, or anyone else for that matter (Nancy, Steve and Robin all felt guilty for not being able to kill Vecna, and Dustin couldn’t get over Eddie’s death), and that was almost as bad as not being able to do anything to wake Max up.

He wished Will were there. Will always knew exactly what to say, and Mike always felt better when he was with him.

The first time Mike had visited Max in hospital, El had simply sat by the bed, holding her hand and crying. This time, she was pacing up and down the room, a familiar look of fiery determination on her face, vocally brainstorming ways to save her friend.

“In the Mindscape, Hen-Vecna had Chrissy, Fred and Patrick tied up with vines. I think Max is still there, tied up also. She never got free.”

 Lucas looked horrified. “But-but she’s still alive, right? If we could free her from there - if she is there - and freed her mind… do you think she would wake up?”

El stopped pacing and nodded slowly. “I-I think so.”

Lucas’s face brightened slightly, although he still looked miserable. “So, we need to get back into Vecna’s Mindscape. How do we do that?”

El frowned at the floor. “I got there using Max’s mind, and Vecna took her there by cursing her. I’m not sure how to get back.”

“But we’ll figure it out, right?” Lucas demanded desperately.

“Yes.” She replied without hesitation, but still sounded uncertain.

Mike felt like shit. He couldn’t think of a single way to contribute to this conversation - it made sense, Max being in Vecna’s Mindscape, but as to how they’d get her out of there, he had no idea. El and Lucas had stopped talking, so he zoned out, listening to the music playing in the background. Lucas had taken to playing her favourite song in the room every day, in the hope that it might help her escape again.

“I feel so useless… this makes me feel like I’m at least trying something” Lucas had explained in despair.

Mike subconsciously began listening to the lyrics properly.

Do you wanna hear about the deal I’m making?

It was a good song. He could see how it had the power to overcome an evil being from a hellish dimension.

And if I only could, I’d make a deal with God, and I'd get him to swap our places, be running up that road-

Mike suddenly tensed up, realisation running over him like winter rain.

He did know how to enter the Mindscape.

A crazy, suicidal plan began to form in his mind. 

"Mike?"

Mike was startled out of his daze by the sound of Lucas's voice. "Yeah?"

Lucas was looking at him with an almost distressed expression. "You... I don't know, were looking kind of spacey. Are you okay?"

Shit. He must have reminded Lucas of Max under the curse. "Sorry. I'm - I'm fine. Just thinking."

Lucas didn't seem convinced. "You sure?"

"I'm fine" he repeated. He wouldn't be fine if his plan worked, but it didn't matter. He knew that Lucas and everyone else would accept his death if it resulted in Max waking up.

Vecna had targeted him. The others couldn’t enter the Mindscape, but maybe he could. 

Surely Vecna would prefer the mind of a truly dead person, as opposed to the mind of someone whose body was still alive? What if he could convince him to take him into the Mindscape, and use him as the fourth victim instead?

And if I only could, I’d make a deal with God, and I'd get him to swap our places...

Mike couldn't make a deal with God, but maybe he could make a deal with Vecna.

He could trade places with Max. 

Chapter Text

Mike didn’t tell anyone what he was planning. He knew that everyone would tell him that it was crazy, and that they wouldn’t let him do it. Even though most of them would rather have Max than him, they were too kind to actively accept him sacrificing himself.

When he’d got home from the hospital yesterday, he had shut himself in his room, trying to figure out what he was going to do. He would go to the Creel house and try to get Vecna’s attention from in there, like Max had. Once he was under the curse… he’d have to find Max and free her himself, as he doubted Vecna would do it for him. As long as Lucas was still playing Max’s favourite song, he assumed that her portal would open up, and she’d be able to run through it. 

He would have ran off to the Creel house to get Vecna’s attention last night, but he had to ensure that he didn’t screw things up for his friends even more in the process. What if he created another door to the Upside Down when he died, and ended up making Hawkin’s even more dangerous? So, the next morning he went to the only person who might have the answers to his questions. 

Hopper didn’t look happy when he opened the door to find Mike standing outside his cabin, but he let him in anyway, on the condition that they left the door open three inches. 

El looked startled when she opened her bedroom door and saw Mike. “Mike! What are you doing here?”

“I-I… just wanted to see you? We haven’t hung out since we got back.” He didn't think this was a weird request, considering that they used to spend hours in her bedroom together. She gave him a smile that didn’t seem to reach her eyes and opened her door all the way, signalling that he could come in. She didn’t even half close the door behind him, leaving it fully open, before sitting on her bed. Mike stayed standing.

“So... are you doing okay?” he asked.

“Yes.” Her monotone voice implied otherwise. 

“We’ll get Max back, you know.”

“I know.” She sighed. “I just need to figure out how to get into the Mindscape.”

Thinking of Will’s long speech about how El needed him, Mike wondered yet again what was going on with her. The painting had motivated him to give her that speech about how much he loved her whilst she was fighting Vecna. But if she needed him that much, why wouldn’t she look at him?

“El?”

“Yes?”

“I was wondering… this is a weird question, but what if Vecna killed someone else? Would it create another door? Would it make things worse?”

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Vecna isn’t going to curse anyone else, Mike.”

“I know, but theoretically?”

She thought for a few seconds before answering. “I… well, the four doors have already fused. If it did create another door, I don’t think it would matter anymore.” 

Great. He trusted El’s judgement - he wasn’t going to cause another earthquake or make Hawkins implode if he let Vecna take him. 

“Also… if-I mean, when we get Max back, would her door still be open? Is Vecna, like, keeping the doors open with the power of his victims or are they self-sustaining?”

El stared at him incredulously. “I don’t know, Mike. Why are you asking me this?”

Oh well. He supposed it didn’t matter - even if Max was sustaining the fourth door, if Vecna did trap him he’d be sustaining another door anyway.

“Just wondering.”

They sat in silence for a few seconds until Mike couldn’t take it anymore. 

“El, what is going on between us?”

“What do you mean?”

Mike knew he was being ridiculous - his relationship didn’t matter at all, considering what he was planning to do, so why was he initiating an argument? 

“Why won’t you look at me or talk to me properly? I’m just confused. You got Will to paint that painting about you needing me but every time I look into your eyes, I still feel like you don’t!”

El frowned. “What painting?”

“The-the one you told him to paint?“

El looked baffled. “Mike… I never told Will to paint anything.”

Time seemed to stop. Mike's ears were ringing, his heart was thumping uncomfortably hard, and he had to sit down on the floor before he keeled over. "What?"

She was too confused to respond - she clearly had no idea what he was talking about.

He was so stupid. Why would El ask Will to paint a D&D inspired painting? El wasn’t interested in D&D, she’d never played it with them, he’d never taught her it and seeing as Will donated his set, he most likely hadn’t taught her either. But if El hadn’t commissioned the painting… Will had lied to him. Will never lied to him. “He… gave me a painting. Said you commissioned it, but… he must have been lying to make me feel better.”

El’s face fell “So you were only acting nicer when you rescued me because you thought I had Will make you a painting?”

“No! No, I was worried about you! You were in danger! I was just glad that you were okay!” He was practically shouting, his voice panicked.

El didn’t look reassured by his defence. “But what about when I’m not in danger? I don’t need saving all the time anymore, Mike!”

Mike’s breath hitched. He was about to tell her she was being ridiculous, but for some reason, all that blurted out of his mouth was “You don’t need me anymore.”

Her face softened. “No, Mike, it’s not like that. You were the first person I could remember who treated me like a human, and treated me with care. We went through a lot together. I will always care about you. But you don’t understand that I don’t need you in the way that I needed you when I first escaped anymore. And I don’t think you love me.”

“What - no, I do! I said ‘I love you’ multiple times in that pizza shop!”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t see you, Mike. I heard - Will made you talk to me. You were telling me what you thought I wanted to hear because you thought I’d get hurt if you didn’t.”

“That’s-that’s not true.”

“Look at me. In my eyes. And tell me you love me.”

Mike looked desperately at El’s face. Fuck. Why couldn’t he say it? Why were there tears running down his face?

She lifted her hand and wiped away the tears. “Don’t cry, Mike. I understand. I just want to try and be friends, okay? Real friends - not fighting, like last time we broke up.”

He nodded. He wasn’t sure why he was crying. El was right. He didn’t know if he loved her that way. He had when he was younger - he’d certainly been in awe of her - but they’d both changed so much, and she didn’t need him to help her navigate the world anymore. Besides, it would be much easier for her to deal with his death if they weren’t dating.“M-Max and Lucas broke up lots” El continued. “Maybe we can try again in the future.”

I’m not going to be here in the future.  

“I- yeah, I want to be friends with you too.”

El smiled. “Thanks Mike.”

“I… should probably go.” He stood up. “See you later?”

“Okay” she nodded. 

He ignored Hopper, who had clearly heard everything, as he exited the house. Although the fact that El undeniably did not need him anymore weighed heavily on his chest, another weight had been lifted - El would be fine when he was gone. 

Chapter Text

Mike wasn’t sure whether he was seeking out Will because he wanted to know about the painting or because he wanted to be comforted, but after leaving the cabin he almost subconsciously cycled to Hawkins High, where he knew Will was volunteering.

“Will?”

Will turned around and beamed when he saw Mike. “Hey!”

“Can I talk to you? Outside?”

The smile fell slightly. “Um, yeah, okay.” 

He followed Mike outside, clearly sensing that something was off as the confused expression on his face was replaced with concern. “Mike, are you okay? Has something happened?” 

“I know you lied about the painting” he blurted before thinking about it. 

Will’s eyes widened. “I… w-what?” he spluttered.

“I asked El about it, and she didn’t know what I was talking about.” 

Will looked like he was going to burst into tears. “It’s okay!” Mike said quickly, not wanting to see him cry. “I’m not angry!”

“I’m sorry” he whispered. 

“It’s fine… I’m just confused. It’s an amazing painting. I love it, I love your art. I don’t see why you’d tell me it was from El when it was from you.”

Will looked down at the floor, his hands fiddling with his sleeves. “I just… you were upset about El. I wanted to make you feel better.” 

Mike didn’t believe that he was telling the whole truth, but Will looked so terrified that he didn’t have it in him to interrogate him further.

“It’s fine. It did cheer me up.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “We, um, broke up.  It’s fine though, we’re still friends.”

“Shit.” Will hid his hands in his face. “Oh my god, I’m sorry.”

Mike frowned in confusion. “What for? It’s not your fault.”

“If I hadn’t lied-“

“We probably would have broken up days ago” Mike interrupted. 

Will still looked uncomfortable. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“So… did you just come over here to tell me that you know I lied, but you’re not angry?”

“What? No!” It was at that moment Mike realised why he had sought out Will. He wanted to spend some time with him before he died. “No, no, I want to hang out with you.”

Will’s frown disappeared. “Oh. Well, I’m, uh, kind of busy at the moment-“ he gestured towards the building behind him “-but we can hang out later if you’d like?”

Mike couldn’t think of a better way to spend the night before he died. He offered Will a small smile and nodded. “My basement at six?”

Will smiled back. “Sure.”

El had reassured him that he wasn’t going to destroy Hawkins by convincing Vecna to take him, so Mike could go and get Max back this afternoon - but he had things he needed to say to his friends first. Dustin’s house was closer to the school than the hospital, so he cycled there first.

Dustin looked shocked when he opened his front door to find Mike standing outside. Which was ridiculous, because they were friends, and although Mike’s house was the most popular, he still used to hang out at Dustin’s house lots. 

“Mike! What are you - has something happened?”

Mike sighed. It was a stark reminder of how bad things had become, everyone assuming that he'd only voluntarily come and speak to them if another disaster had occurred. “No. Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to talk to you.”

“Okay?” He still looked confused. Probably because Mike had barely interacted with anyone outside of school for months.

“Dustin, I… I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? What for?”

“For being such a shitty friend. I didn’t hang out with you guys enough when El came back, I should have been there when you came back from summer camp last year. I should have been with you when you were investigating those Russians, and when you got stuck in their base.” He took a deep breath. “And, I know I’ve kind of been a ghost since last Summer… I’m really sorry about that too. You must think I hate you. I don't hate you.”

Dustin looked bewildered. “Mike… it’s fine, all of that is fine… but where is this coming from?”

Mike shrugged. “Felt guilty.”

“I accept your apology. Not that it was necessary - are you sure you’re okay?”

He nodded unconvincingly. 

Dustin stared for a few seconds, as if trying to figure out what was going on with his mind alone and ultimately failing. “If you need to talk about anything, I’m here, okay?”

He nodded again, giving Dustin a small smile. “Okay. Thanks.”

Lucas was, of course, still sitting beside Max when Mike arrived at the hospital. He looked up when Mike walked into the room, his eyes still full of despair. “Oh, hey Mike. Didn’t know you were coming today.”

“I, um, wanted to make sure you were doing okay."

Lucas sighed, turning his gaze back to Max’s motionless form. “I’m okay.” 

“When was the last time you left this room? Have you eaten today?” 

He shook his head. “I’m not leaving.”

“I’m not going to make you leave” Mike reassured him. “I bought you some food.” He offered Lucas the meagre ham and cheese sandwich he’d bought from the crappy hospital cafe downstairs.

Lucas accepted it, almost absentmindedly. “Thanks, Mike.”

“You’re welcome” he replied as he sat down on the uncomfortable wooden chair El usually occupied. He glanced towards Max’s body - still comatose and covered in casts. I’ll get you out of there soon, Max.

“Lucas?”

Lucas looked up to face him. “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry for not coming to your basketball games.”

“Oh. It’s okay - I’d honestly forgotten about that.” He looked back at Max sadly. “Since Vecna - I couldn’t care less about it, to be honest.”

“Yeah, but I was still being an asshole. I’m really sorry for not supporting you when you joined the team. I-I was jealous, but… I’m proud of you.”

Lucas gave him a halfhearted smile. “Thanks.” The smile disappeared almost immediately, however, as he put his hand on Max’s arm.

“We’ll get her back, Lucas.” 

Lucas nodded, but he didn’t look hopeful. “I know.” 

Will, true to his word, had arrived at Mike’s house at six on the dot. For the first time in weeks, perhaps months, Mike actually felt some semblance of happiness. Which was ironic, considering that he was going to die tomorrow. 

He’d spent the past hour messing about with Will, playing on his new Nintendo, and Will was actually smiling. 

When was the last time he’d seen Will look genuinely happy? He’d spent last summer ignoring Will when he should have been playing D&D with him. Giving him one night of happiness wasn’t nearly enough, but it was all the time Mike had left. 

“Mike? Are you okay?”

He looked up, startled. Oh. So he wasn’t doing a great job at hiding his inner turmoil after all.

“Y-yeah”

Will put his hand on Mike’s shoulder. “You sure?”

He nodded, ignoring the electric feeling coursing through his arm, his eyes avoiding Will’s face.

Will sighed, clearly not believing him. “You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?”

“If I died, would you be okay?” Mike blurted.

Mike saw Will tense up, his face morphing from concern to horror. “What? No! If you died, I’d be devastated! What is going on, Mike?”

Oh shit. How was he going to explain that outburst away? “The - the Upside Down is literally merging with Hawkins, Will. Vecna could start trying to murder the whole town any day now - and you and I both know that we’re going to have to face him again. Any of us could die. Promise me you’d be okay if I died.”

Will's face softened. “Would it make you feel better if I said yes?”

"Yes.”

He hesitated before answering. “I... I’d be broken, Mike. But if that did happen… I promise I'd try my best to be okay, if that’s what you would want.”

Mike nodded, finally letting himself meet Will’s eyes. “It is.”

Chapter Text

Mike couldn’t sleep that night. It was to be expected, considering what was going to happen the next day. After what felt like hours of tossing and turning, he gave up and ventured into the kitchen to get a glass of water. His mouth was really dry. Which made sense: he remembered Mr Clarke talking about the flight or fight response to extreme stress in one of his science lessons last year, and how it led to a variety of symptoms. Including decreased saliva production.

On the way back to his room, he found Holly sitting in the hallway, her legs folded up against her chest. 

“Holly?” He sat down beside her. “What's wrong?”

“I had a bad dream” she sniffed. “And daddy said I’m too old to go into mummy’s room now.”

Mike sighed and wrapped his right arm around his younger sister’s shoulders, resisting the urge to storm into his father’s room and shout at him. “It’s okay, Holly. Do you want to come into my room instead?”

Her face brightened a little. “Yes please.”

Mike led her into his room and onto the bed before wrapping the blanket around her. It wasn’t cold, but he hoped that it might offer her some comfort.

“You’re not too old to have nightmares, you know” Mike reassured her. 

Holly looked at him uncertainly. “Really?”

“Of course not. I get nightmares too.”

“Really?” she repeated in wonder.

“Yes.” He hesitated. “I don’t know if you remember, but my friend went missing a few years ago. I was really scared. Even after he came back, I had nightmares about bad things happening to him. I watched the mall burn down too, and I still sometimes dream of monsters coming and hurting my friends - but when I wake up, I can go and see them, because it wasn’t real. The monsters aren’t real.” Of course, the monsters that plagued his dreams were real, but Holly didn’t need to know that.

“There are monsters in my dreams too” Holly said in a hushed tone.

“I’m really sorry that they’re in your dreams too, Holly.” Mike meant it. As much as everyone liked to pretend that Holly was pure and innocent. untouched by the horrors that came with living in Hawkins these past years, she had clearly still been affected, despite not understanding the severity of what was happening. “But you have to remember: they’re not real, and they can’t hurt you. I - we would never let anything bad happen to you.” Mike had been about to say that he would never let anything bad happen to her, but had choked on the words because after tomorrow, he wasn’t going to be there to protect her anymore. 

Holly nodded, and then yawned. 

Mike laughed. “I think it’s time you went back to sleep. It’s way past your bedtime, missy.”

Her bottom lip trembled slightly. “But what if they come back?”

“I’m here. I’ll scare them away, okay?”

Her shoulders relaxed as she nodded again, and she laid down on Mike’s pillow. “Love you, Mikey.”

“I love you too.” He was thankful that Holly had her eyes closed, so she didn't notice the tears spilling from his eyes.

Mike hadn’t expected to fall asleep, so he was shocked when he found himself waking up, sunlight streaming through the curtains. Stress and horror weighed down on him the moment he became conscious enough to realise he was awake, because oh god, I am going to die today. 

Holly wasn’t in his room anymore. He stood up, legs trembling, and tentatively walked out into the hallway. He smiled slightly at the sound of Holly playing in her room as he walked past her door.

His mother was in the kitchen when he went downstairs. She beamed when she noticed him. “Hey, honey. How are you?”

He tried to smile back, but he knew that it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m okay” he replied as he pulled a bowl out of one of the cupboards. He wasn’t hungry - he actually felt like he was going to throw up - but he didn’t want her to think anything was wrong. 

Her motherly instincts were still obviously kicking in though, because he could sense her glancing at him whilst he was pouring the cereal and milk into the bowl, and as he made his way to the table and sat down. As he mindlessly swirled the cereal around the bowl, feeling too ill to actually eat it, he willed her to leave the room. His heart was pounding, he could feel sweat congregating underneath his t shirt, and he wasn’t sure if he could hold himself together for much longer. 

“Mike, are you okay?” Her voice was laced with concern.

Mike nodded, but his face was almost crumpling at the same time as he fought the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. He felt his mother’s hand on his shoulder, and he sighed and let himself relax into her embrace like he had when he’d come home thinking Will was dead. He wasn’t crying as hard has he had that night, but a few rogue tears did fall down his cheeks as she held his head with one arm, stroking his messy hair with the other. “Oh, honey” she murmured. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

It was a testament to how dire life had become that she didn’t even seem surprised, or immediately ask him what was wrong. With a shuddering breath, Mike lifted his heavy arms and hugged her back. They stayed like that for a few minutes, Mike savouring what would probably be the last hug his mother ever gave him.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Did he want to talk about it? Of course he did. But he’d stopped being able to talk about his problems with his mother a long time ago. Even if he could tell her that he was going to sacrifice himself today without her becoming hysterical, how would he even begin to explain Vecna and the Upside Down? She’d drag him to a hospital to get his head checked.

He shook his head. 

Karen sighed. “Okay. But I’m always here if you change your mind, okay?”

He nodded at the floor, unable to make eye contact with her.  Then he stood up, poured his uneaten cereal into the bin and strode out the room, leaving the bowl next to the sink. 

Back in his room, his chest tightened. He hoped he hadn’t upset his mother, but he couldn’t tell her what was wrong, and if he’d stayed there much longer he would have probably broken down properly.

He had one last task to complete before heading to the Creel house and getting Max back: he needed to write a letter and explain what he’d done. If he did succeed and Max woke up, she might be able to tell the others that Mike had been in Vecna’s Mind Lair, but they wouldn’t know where to find his body, how he’d managed to get into the Mindscape in the first place or why he’d done it. He could have written it yesterday, of course, but it felt wrong, not writing it on the day. Oddly, writing the letter calmed his nerves a bit. It reminded him why what he was doing was necessary.

He addressed the letter to Nancy, and folded it into an envelope to deter anyone else from reading it. He knew that when they noticed they hadn’t seen Mike all day, his family would check his room, and he needed Nancy to be the one to read it. She was the only one who knew about Vecna, and once she knew where his body was, she could call the police, and they could tell his parents that he'd been murdered. He didn’t stop to look around the room one last time - there was no point in making it harder for himself. Leaving the note on his desk, he took a second to compose himself before standing up and exiting his room for the last time.

He walked from his room to the front door in a trace-like state.

“Mike?”

He jolted in shock, turning around. It was Nancy. “Y-yes?”

She was looking at him as if he were a riddle she couldn’t solve. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to see Will.” 

“Really?” 

Mike’s heart began to pound again. Nancy had realised that he was planning something. “Yes.”

“Then why did you just jump out of your skin when I called you?”

“Why do you even care where I’m going?” he retorted angrily.

“Because I’m worried about you!” she shouted. “It’s like you’ve been slipping away for years, and I’ve never really brought it up because I don’t know how, but these past few days you’ve been so… I don’t know! You keep spacing out, and you’re barely talking, and I can just feel that something’s wrong!”

Mike lowered his gaze to the floor. “I - I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Nancy shook her head. “You had a panic attack in the bathroom the other day, Mike. I just… after what happened to Max, I suppose I’m worried about you.”

He did not like where this conversation was heading. “Nothing’s going to happen to me, Nancy. I’m just going to see Will.” 

“Promise you won’t do anything stupid” she begged, her voice cracking. “At least tell me before you go on a suicide mission or some shit, okay?”

Well, fuck. “Yeah. Will do.” He opened the door and stepped out of it, hyperaware of Nancy’s persistent staring. “Goodbye." 

“Bye, Mike.” 

Before she could see the expression on his face, he turned around and stepped away from the house awkwardly. He could feel her gaze on his back as he retrieved his bike from the driveway, and as he cycled away.

I’m sorry, Nancy.

Will was volunteering at the school again. He didn't have any idea how to get rid of Vecna - all he had was a weird connection to the Upside Down that let him know that Vecna was definitely still alive. It would be El who figured it out, or maybe Mike, but not him, so he had resigned himself to volunteering every day so that he could at least feel like he was doing something. Yet, today he couldn't concentrate. He couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that had nested in his chest last night and refused to budge since. 

He had known yesterday, almost immediately, that something was wrong with Mike. He’d sensed it when Mike spoke to him outside the school, and whilst he was at Mike’s house, although he had clearly been trying to hide it, it had become increasingly obvious, until Will couldn’t ignore it anymore and asked him if he was alright. Mike asking him if he’d be okay if he died had honestly made Will feel sick, and he still hadn’t completely recovered from that shaky feeling, although he was trying his best to distract himself by organising the donated clothes into piles. 

“Will?”

He started. It was Dustin. Will had been so immersed in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed him approaching. “Hey, Dustin.” 

Dustin didn’t seem to notice that he’d made Will jump - he seemed distracted as well. “Have you seen Mike lately?”

Will stopped folding the clothes at the mention of Mike’s name. “Um… yeah, I actually went to his house yesterday.”

“Did he seem okay to you?”

Will frowned. “Well… to be honest, not really, but - wait, why?”

Dustin visibly deflated. “He came to my house yesterday, which he hasn’t done for months, by the way, and starting apologising for being a bad friend, even though he’s done nothing wrong, I haven’t said anything to him that suggested he’d upset me, and we haven’t had an argument. And… he didn’t seem right, Will.”

The uneasy feeling in Will’s chest intensified as he cast his mind back to the previous night. “There was definitely something wrong last night. He was trying to hide it, but he kept spacing out, and he asked me if I’d be okay if he died, and-“ Will froze for a second, mouth still open, a horrific realisation running through his mind. “Oh my god, you don’t think he’s planning something stupid?”

"Oh, shit!" Dustin cried, his eyes widening, the colour draining from his face. “Shit, shit, we’ve got to find him!" He was already running towards the door. "Come on!"

Chapter Text

Nancy was going mad.  

It was Vecna’s fault. He'd probably planned to make her lose her mind. He’d shown her that damn vision of her family, and now she couldn’t think rationally. Why else would she feel so anxious about Mike going to his friend’s house? He had been doing that since he was eight years old. This stupid feeling that something awful was going to happen to her brother was illogical. 

Maybe she was also scared because she’d heard Lucas and Dustin talk about how Max had acted after Billy died, and it had reminded her of the way Mike had been acting for years now, but she had no idea how to approach Mike about that. She couldn’t knock on his door and ask him if he had depression, could she? And she had found him literally throwing up in a state of panic two nights ago, which had terrified her, but he had refused to talk about it and she didn't know how to bring it up again without him clamming up. The four gates had been opened, though, so it wasn't like she had to worry about Mike being affected by Vecna.

Why wouldn't the tight feeling in her chest go away?

She had started tidying her room in an attempt to distract herself after Mike left the house, even though it wasn’t messy, and she was really just taking things out of boxes and fiddling with them. Her head immediately shot up when she heard knocking at the front door, her heart rate accelerating. Jesus Christ, get it together Nancy. 

The person at the door knocked again. Nancy exhaled in annoyance - her mother had gone out somewhere, and her father was no doubt sitting in the living room, hoping that whoever was at the door would leave so that he didn't have to stand up. She stood up, deciding to answer it herself.

Her heart dropped when she saw Dustin and Will on the doorstep. Without Mike. Oh god, had something happened to him?

“Is Mike here?” Will asked before she could say anything. 

“No… no, he said he was with you!” 

“Shit!” Dustin swore, looking around wildly as if hoping to spot Mike cycling down the road.

Nancy’s anxious expression morphed into full-blown panic, and she was forced to grab the door to steady herself. “Why?! What’s wrong?!” 

“We - we’re worried about him” Will stuttered, fiddling with his sleeves. “He’s acting weird, y-yesterday he asked me if I’d be okay if he died, so we-“

“WHAT?” Nancy shouted, icy terror she’d only previously felt in the Upside Down surging through her chest. “He- and you didn’t tell anyone? And left him alone? What the fuck, Will!”

Will recoiled, tears pooling in his eyes. “I-I’m sorry! I-“

“GUYS!” Dustin yelled. “Shut up! We need to find him!”

Nancy stopped glaring at Will and sighed. “Yes, yes, you’re right… god, where could he be?”

“Let’s split up.” Will suggested quietly, still clearly affected by what Nancy had shouted at him. “We can use our walkie talkies to contact each other if we find him.”

Mike was standing outside the Creel house. 

It had clearly once been an impressive work of architecture: it was huge, surrounded by a vast area of open space, with white details decorating the roof signifying itsgrandeur. However, now the windows were boarded up, and it had practically split in two due to the gate inside it fusing with the other three - the centre of the building had completely crumbled, leaving two halves that barely seemed to be standing. No wonder the fusing of the gates had been misinterpreted as an earthquake

He stood there for a few minutes, mentally preparing himself, before taking a deep breath of determination and walking towards the crevice. The front door had been vapourised, so he was forced to walk apprehensively over the pile of plaster and rubble to get into the building.  

His hands were sweating as he turned his torch on, the light not travelling visibly far due to the time of the day, but visible enough for him to see if it started flickering. Nancy and Lucas had told him exactly how Max had figured out where Vecna was, and he intended to use the same method.

Mike carried the torch into what had once been a kitchen, trying not to cough as he breathed in the dust. His heart was thumping like a trapped pigeon in his ribcage. The torchlight wasn’t affected, so he continued into what might have been a dining room. Nothing. He slowly made his way through a dingy hallway, each footstep echoing eerily throughout the building, each breath audible. The torch finally started to flash when he entered the desolate room at the end of the hallway. Bingo.

For a few seconds, blind panic gripped him, his thoughts became racing, garbled nonsense and his breath hitched. He stopped walking and simply stared at the flashing torch as he willed himself to get it together. When he was sure he could talk without stuttering, he inhaled heavily before beginning to speak.

“Hey, Vecna!” he shouted. “Henry! Or do you prefer One? Considering that Henry is the name your parents gave you, and you murdered them. Whatever. I remember the headaches, nosebleeds and nightmares. I know you cursed me.”

He started to slowly pace up and down the room.

“You might have noticed, but Max is still alive. Using her seems a little risky, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t you rather have a truly dead victim?” He raised his hands, unclenching the one that wasn’t holding the torch. “See for yourself. There’s no one else here. No one knows I’m here. If you take me, I have no way of escaping. But if you keep Max - believe me, we will get her back.” 

He took another deep breath before continuing. “So, I’m here to make you an offer. Take me, and let Max go.”

Nothing happened, but Mike hadn’t expected it to be that easy.

He sighed and stopped pacing. “Please take me. I... I’m useless. I mess up everything. When Will disappeared, and when he got possessed by the Mindflayer, I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t do anything to get El back when she disappeared either, and when Hopper let her see me again I grew so fucking attached to her that I stopped hanging out with my friends. The Party certainly doesn’t need me anymore. I made Will upset - and for nothing! El doesn’t need me - she only ever needed a place to stay, and when she didn’t need to hide in my basement any more, I stopped being able to help her. She couldn’t even tell me she was being bullied, and I’ve been bullied my whole life - how the fuck did I mess up so badly? Lucas managed to escape the bullying by joining the basketball team, and instead of being happy, I was angry with him! Dustin escaped a Russian base last Summer, and I didn’t even know he was in danger! And Will - oh my god, I don’t even know what’s going on, I care about him so much, but every time I’m near him I start acting stupidly and I don’t know why! I can’t stop upsetting him - shit, he’d be much better off without me. None of them need me. Not to mention that I constantly feel like breaking down, even though everyone around me has gone through far worse shit that I have, and I know I don't deserve to feel this bad, but I can't fucking help it!”

Mike stopped for a few seconds to compose himself. Great, now he was spilling his guts out to an interdimensional monster. Stay focused.

“I jumped off a cliff when I was twelve." His voice was shaking now. "A bully told me that if I didn’t, he’d cut out Dustin’s teeth. If Eleven hadn’t saved me, I’d have died. I didn’t know that she was there. I put myself in danger every time some crazy monster comes out of the Upside Down, and I try to tell myself that I’m just trying to keep my friends safe… but honestly? I think I’ve always known that the best way to help my friends… would be by getting myself killed. You were right to curse me. Max escaped from you once - and she tried to again - because she doesn’t belong with you. She wants to be here. But me? I’m not going to escape. I do belong with you.”

The silence seemed to be mocking him. He began to lose his composure.

“I’m asking you to trade my life for my friend’s life. Don’t you consider that pathetic? Am I not the type of person you are trying to rid this world of? I’m RIGHT HERE! TAKE ME!” 

The room remained stubbornly unchanged, and Mike was about to start screaming profanities when the door opened behind him. Mike turned around - and his mouth gaped open.

“Will?”

Will was running through the woodland near Hopper’s cabin, shouting Mike’s name when the familiar tingling sensation sent shivers down his spine. 

He came to a halt, instinctively placed his hand on the back of his neck and glanced nervously in the direction the sensation was pulling him. “G-guys?” He stammered breathlessly into his walkie talkie. “Vecna’s up to something.”

Chapter Text

What was Will doing here? How had he known? Had he heard what Mike had said? 

“You’re right” Will said in a monotonous voice that Mike had never heard him use before.

“W-what?” he spluttered.

“You’re right. We’d be better off without you.”

Mike recoiled backwards, eyes wide and fixed on Will, who was walking slowly towards him.

“After all we’ve been through, you’re the one who gets cursed? You’ve had the easiest life… and yet, you’re still weak enough to let him into your mind?”

Will continued speaking, but Mike could barely hear the words anymore - his ears were ringing, and it felt like there was a belt strapped around his chest, tightening with every word that came out of Will’s mouth, and pretty soon he wasn’t going to be able to breathe at all. He knew he’d been a terrible friend to Will, but what had changed between now and last night? Had Will always felt like this?

“Maybe it’s best for all of us if he takes you.”

Mike was wildly looking around the room, looking anywhere other than Will, when his eyes fell on the open door.

Suddenly, he understood. It should have been obvious; Will would never talk to anyone like this. Will couldn’t even bring himself to badmouth his bullies behind their backs. 

He hadn’t shut that door behind him, but he had heard Will open it when he’d entered the room.

“This… this is an illusion” he whispered to himself. He looked straight into Will’s eyes. “Vecna.”

“Well.” The voice coming from Will’s body morphed into a monstrous growl. “That is what your friends have decided to call me, yes.”

Mike sighed in frustration as he stood up. “Where’s Max?”

The body morphed into a revolting, almost decaying monster with a skull-like face. Despite expecting it, Mike still gasped in fear, nearly falling backwards again, because nothing could have prepared anyone for the sight of this. 

“Don’t worry about her, Mike. She’s not suffering anymore.”

Mike scowled. “Bullshit! Her whole body is broken and her mind has gone! I made you an offer! You take me and let her go!”

Vecna sighed - although, coming from him, it sounded more like a growl. “I’m not willingly letting my chosen people go.”

“C-chosen people?" Mike spluttered. "You mean your victims? Why did you take me, then? You already have four victims! The gates have already fused!”

Vecna lifted and unfolded his right hand to reveal huge, nauseating claws. “You make a reasonable point. Max’s body is, unfortunately, still alive. It would be sensible to have a back up, don’t you agree?” Vecna began to approach Mike, causing Mike to back up against the wall, breathing heavily. “You wanted me to take you. I wouldn’t deny you that choice.”

“Fuck you” Mike snarled. Not his finest line, but someone had to say it to this asshole.

“I don’t really believe that you let me take you just so that you could save you friend” Vecna continued, as if Mike hadn’t spoken. “Don’t worry, Mike - your suffering is about to come to an end.”

Vecna wasn’t going to let Max go. Mike would have to find her himself. Luckily, he hadn’t really expected Vecna to cooperate, and had a plan. He needed to hide in a happy memory for a bit to throw Vecna off his scent, and then find Max whilst he was distracted.

“Mike, where are you going?” Did Vecna seriously sound confused? “I can take your pain away!”

But Mike was already running out of the room, concentrating hard on one of his happiest memories.

He smiled, the tightness of his chest loosening a bit, when he exited the house to find two small boys conversing on a familiar swing set. 

Will was running through the woods, grasping his walkie talkie tightly. Dustin had agreed to meet him in case he ended up stumbling across something like a demogorgon, but Nancy had told them both that she was going to keep searching for her brother. She clearly didn’t trust Will, and probably didn't even believe that he could sense Vecna.

Of course, Will wanted to find Mike - but what if whatever he was sensing had something to do with Mike? No - no, he had to keep that possibility out of his mind. The thought of Vecna targeting Mike was too painful. Nevertheless, if Vecna was up to something, Will not figuring out what it was might result in the destruction of Hawkins, and the spreading of the Upside Down to neighbouring towns, which would hurt Mike and the rest of his friends anyway.

The sensation pulled him out of the woods and down a road near his old school. He stopped outside a huge, crumbling mansion. Whatever Vecna was doing, he was doing in there.

Will really should have guessed that this was where the feeling would lead him.

“I’m at the Creel House” he said nervously into the walkie talkie.

“Alright, I’m coming” came Dustin’s crackling voice. “Be careful, Will. There’s a gate in there. Maybe you shouldn’t go inside by yourself.” 

Will didn’t answer. He looked the house up and down, eyes lingering on the rift that had formed between the two standing halves of the building. There didn’t seem to be anything occurring inside. Surely, if Vecna was actually doing something, it would be a bit more obvious?

Despite knowing that Dustin was simply being cautious, he was still a little annoyed that he'd suggested that Will shouldn't investigate by himself. It wasn’t as if he was the same twelve year old who got stuck in the Upside Down anymore. Even if he did end up in the Upside Down again, he knew all he needed to do to get out was find a gate. He didn’t need to be protected. 

Will strode towards the ruins of the house, climbed over the pile of wood and plaster surrounding the entrance, and let the sensation still tingling down his spine guide him down a hallway, towards an otherwise nondescript room. He slowed down a little as he approached this room: he couldn’t see or hear anything other than his own footsteps and breathing, which was unusual, considering how monsters from the Upside Down normally acted. 

When he was close enough to the doorway to see inside the room, he stopped abruptly for a second, almost dropping his walkie talkie. He genuinely thought that he might be hallucinating. 

“Mike?”

Mike was facing away from the doorway, standing so still that it was unnerving. He didn’t react to Will calling his name.

“Mike?” He tried again. “What are you doing?” He cautiously approached the motionless boy, who still wasn’t reacting to anything.

He froze in horror for a split second when he saw Mike’s face. It was completely expressionless, and his brown irises were gone - his eyes were pure white.

“Mike? Mike, wake up!” He begged, shaking his shoulder with his left hand. “Dustin! Nancy!” he shouted desperately into the walkie talkie, his voice cracking.

He received a reply from Dustin almost immediately. “Will? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“It’s Mike! Vecna has him!”

“Shit!” The panic in Dustin’s voice was evident. “Okay, okay, I’m coming." His voice became harder to make out - he had clearly began to run. "I’m near the record shop, I’ll get something out of there, I’m coming!”

Dustin’s voice disappeared, and was swiftly replaced by Nancy’s frantic one. “Vecna has Mike? Are you sure?!”

Will glanced grimly at Mike’s unmoving body. “His eyes have gone white, like they’ve rolled back into his head or something, he’s n-not moving and I don’t think he can hear me” he listed, as if Nancy could give him another explanation that didn’t involve Mike being cursed. 

There was silence for a second.

“It’s - it’s probably just like when Vecna possessed me - he didn’t kill me, he just showed me a bunch of memories… he doesn’t need to curse anyone else, Mike would’ve told us if he started experiencing symptoms, he’s not going to hurt him!” But Nancy sounded like she was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince Will. “You said you were at the Creel House? Oh god, I'm nowhere near there, and mum has the car - shit, I'll call Jonathan or Steve or something, I’m coming!”

As much as Mike was enjoying this memory, he’d probably been here long enough to lure Vecna away (he hadn’t actually been there long, but he couldn’t risk not freeing Max) so it was time to find wherever Vecna was keeping his victims. This, he wasn’t exactly sure how to do, but if he could conjure a memory here, he could surely will himself into wherever Max was.

He imagined what it might look like, based on El's description: dark red sky, red fog, a vast landscape consisting of nothing but ruins and tall spikes of rock and stone. As an aspiring writer, Mike was adept at creating descriptions of images, and this was just the other way round. He started to walk away from the swing set. 

A huge cloud of fog and red light began to descend over the sky. The swings were gone, the grass was replaced by rubble, and pointed columns of stone and the ruins of a large building emerged from the ground. It had worked. A sense of relief washed over him, although he was being forced to repress the part of his mind that was informing him that this place was dangerous and that he was in great peril. He just needed to find Max.

Mike gagged when he spotted the first body. Chrissy. Her body was so mangled that he had to look away to prevent himself from throwing up, and panic started to rise up his chest again, because what if Max looked like that too? What if he was too late?

He spotted her a few seconds later. Thankfully, her body didn’t appear to be damaged, but she was clearly unconscious, tangled in vines up to her neck, and for a second Mike thought she was dead. He sprinted over to her, the tightness of his own chest easing marginally when he got close enough to see her chest rise and fall.

“Max?” He lifted her head, which had been hanging forwards against one of the vines, with both his hands. “Max, wake up!”

She didn’t respond. Even as Mike put one hand on her shoulder, supporting her head with the other hand, and shook her, her body remained limp, pale face motionless, eyes closed. This clearly wasn’t working. He desperately grasped at the memories from the past few days for something that would help him free her.

He recalled Lucas telling him that Max had drawn strength from happy memories to escape the first time, and El explaining how she believed that she had somehow used her own happy memories of Max to revive her - and it hit him. 

He thought of an afternoon, almost a year ago. Himself and Dustin watching Max absolutely obliterate their high scores on one of the arcade games. Max smirking at Dustin’s protests of “that’s impossible!” and Mike’s own expression of awe. Concentrating on the memory, he placed his hands on Max’s shoulders. “Wake up!”

Another memory flashed through his mind: Max showing off her skateboarding skills at the skatepark. It had been a few days after they had driven the Mindflayer from Will’s body and El had returned. With the weight of El possibly being dead and Will acting off and then being possessed lifted from his shoulders for the first time since he’d met her, he’d approached her, apologised for suggesting that she couldn’t be in the Party, and asked if she’d show him her skateboarding again. She was incredible; he could not believe that she hadn’t fallen off the board yet. He’d had a go on the skateboard himself, and hadn’t even been able to skate in a straight line without falling off, much to Max’s amusement. “Max! Wake up!”

She awoke suddenly, gasping in fright, causing Mike to jump backwards. Kate Bush’s voice began blaring through the dismal landscape. Mike breathed a sigh of relief - Lucas was about to save Max’s life by playing that song in her hospital room. “Hey, Max, it’s okay, you’re going to get out of here, okay?”

“Mike?” Max’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What are you doing here?”

“Doesn’t matter - you need to get out of here!” He glanced towards his left, where a portal was opening in the distance. “You have to get through that portal.”

She looked down at the thick, grey vines wrapped around her limbs and torso. “I’m stuck.”

“Listen to the music! You can break through them!”

She nodded, before scrunching her eyes shut in concentration and struggling against the vines. After a few seconds her right arm broke through.

“Yes! Keep going!” Mike scanned the landscape nervously, sure that Vecna was going to materialise any second now. 

Her other arm flew out of the trap, and both hands immediately went to the vines around her torso. Mike jumped forwards to help, ripping the vines off her legs and pulling her to her feet when she fell from the stone structure she’d been tied to.

Mike… a deep growl rumbled through the air. Mike spun around, eyes landing on the grotesque form of Vecna in the distance.

“Max, RUN!” he screamed. 

“Aren’t you coming with me?!”

Mike shook his head, eyes frozen on the figure stalking towards them. “That’s your portal. It won’t work for me.”

“Then how are you going to get out?”

“Doesn’t matter! Max, he’s coming! RUN!”

She opened her mouth to protest, but couldn’t say anything before Mike yelled “RUN!” at her again. She glanced at Vecna, who was rapidly approaching them, before muttering “I hope you know what you’re doing” and bolting towards the portal. 

Max woke up, gasping, to Lucas and El standing over her, staring at her face. 

“Max!” 

She was suddenly being embraced by Lucas, but when she tried to hug him back, she realised that she couldn’t move. She tried to move her head to look down at her body, and was met with the sight of all her limbs encased in plaster. “Oh my god, oh my god, I thought you’d never wake up!” Lucas cried, voice breaking in relief. El was grinning at her over Lucas’s shoulder - but she also looked confused.

“What happened?” El asked. “Your eyes went white, like they did when Vecna cursed you! I'm so happy you got out! But how?”

Max wanted to stay in Lucas’s embrace forever. In his arms, she was safe. She didn’t want to ruin the moment. However, she had a sinking feeling that Mike had somehow figured out how to find her without telling anyone - and that the idiot was about to get himself killed. “El. Vecna has Mike.”

El’s face dropped as Lucas cried “what?”

“El, you have to find him!”

El sat down shakily, turned the knobs of the radio until it began emitting white noise, and closed her eyes in concentration.

Lucas was looking at her incredulously. “Vecna has Mike?” 

She tried to put a finger to her mouth to tell him to be quiet and let El concentrate, then sighed in frustration when she remembered that she couldn’t move her arms. “Shhh. Let her concentrate.”

He nodded miserably. A pang of sympathy surged through her chest - she didn’t know how long it had been since she’d let Vecna take her, but considering that all her limbs seemed to be broken and she had apparently been comatose, Lucas must have been terrified. 

“Lucas” she whispered. “Come here.”

His face brightened slightly, and he placed his arms back around her.

She nestled her head against his chest, trying her best to comfort him despite not being able to hug back. “I love you.”

When Lucas replied, his voice was shaking with emotion. “I love you too. So much.”

All that was running through El’s mind was no, no, not again.

She’d desperately hoped that Max had been mistaken, and that she’d find Mike safe in his basement or his room. Instead, she found him in the Creel House, standing, motionless, his eyes glowing white. Will was with him, and he was in hysterics, begging Mike to wake up and shouting for someone to hurry into his walkie talkie. 

Was it her fault? Was Vecna targeting her friends to hurt her?

El pushed that thought out of her mind - now was not the time - and placed a hand on MIke’s shoulder. She was immediately thrown into Vecna’s Mindscape.

Mike was tied to the same stone structure that Max had been tied to, and Vecna was standing right over him.

Will was already crying hysterically. No matter what he did or said, he could not get Mike to wake up. He was completely gone.

He nearly threw up when Mike’s face started spasming. He knew that that meant that Vecna had him - and was trying to hurt him. There was no hope that Vecna was simply messing with him, like he’d messed with Nancy. 

He put a hand on Mike's face and whispered "it's okay, it's okay Mike," which was stupid, because it wasn't okay and Mike couldn't even hear him, but there was nothing else Will could do.

Then Mike went fucking flying into the air.

 Will fell backwards onto the ground in shock, his mind devoid of any coherent thoughts as he entered a state of complete and utter panic.

“D-DUSTIN!” he sobbed into the walkie talkie. “Mike! Wake up! Come back!”

A crackle of static. Dustin’s muffled shouts of “I’m nearly there!” But it didn’t matter, it didn’t make any difference, because Mike was already floating, which meant that Will was going to have to watch him die.

Panic, despair and rage were all coursing through El’s body. How dare Vecna target Mike? The first person who'd ever been kind to her?

Was Mike even conscious? His eyes were open, but he didn’t seem to be fighting back at all, or struggling agains the vines. What had Henry done to him?

“HENRY!” El yelled, throwing her hands forwards, causing him to fly backwards.

He stood up and turned around. To El’s surprise, he actually seemed a little frightened at the sight of her.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” she screamed, advancing upon him. Maybe they hadn't been the best couple, but Mike was the reason El could even dream of a normal, torture-free life and there was no way that she was going to let anyone hurt him.

Henry tilted his head, studying her cautiously. “Hmm. I see.” He looked towards Mike, who was already being choked by the vines. “Another trap. The rest of them are looking for my body, aren’t they?” 

“What?” El frowned, so confused that she stopped walking for a second. 

Henry turned back towards Mike, and before El could even register what was happening, he had his claws over Mike’s face. She screamed, threw her hands in the air again, tried to throw him away from Mike, but now she was being thrown from the Mindscape, falling through black space, deposited into the void just in time to watch Mike’s body drop from the air. 

Will screamed, screamed as if it were his own bones breaking, as he watched Mike’s right arm snap. He stayed hanging in the air for a few seconds, as if Vecna was trying to prolong his suffering, before the rest of his limbs snapped and he dropped abruptly onto the floor.

Will wasn’t even fast enough to catch him.

He collapsed to his knees beside Mike, the room spinning. Blood was running down Mike’s cheeks, and Will didn't know if he was relieved or even more horrified when he realised that Mike was crying, because at least he was alive, but oh god, he was clearly in agony. He was crying tears of blood, and his dark eyes had turned grey. Will did the only thing he could think of and gathered Mike’s broken body into his arms, grimacing at the sight of his broken limbs. “Mike? Mike, can you hear me?”

Dustin burst into the room, holding a walkman, but it was too late. Will looked up desperately. “Dustin!" he sobbed. "C-call an ambulance!” 

All the colour draining from his face, Dustin nodded before running back outside.

Will turned back to Mike in his arms, and tried to murmur words of comfort, but he knew that it was futile: comforting words weren’t going to mend Mike’s bones. Mike was still sobbing, but now his mouth was forming a shape, trying to say something. “Mike? Can you hear me?” Will tried again.

“W-Will?”

“I’m here, don’t worry, we’re going to get you to hospital, alright?”

“Hurts” Mike whimpered.

“I know, I know, the doctors will fix you, okay? You’re going to be fine, just stay with me, okay?”

“D-don’t cry.”

His voice must sound really pathetic if Mike could tell that he was crying. “What? Don’t worry about me Mike, there’s nothing wrong with me! It’s you we need to worry about!”

“You - promised” Mike wheezed “th-that you’d be okay.”

“What?” Will repeated hysterically. “No, no, you’re not going to die! The ambulance will be here soon, and we’ll take you to the hospital, and you’re going to be fine!”

Mike tried to say something else, but all that came out was something between a gurgled cough and a gasp.

“Don’t t-try to talk, Mike. You don’t h-have to talk.” It was a wonder that Will could even speak coherently anymore - he was crying almost as hard as Mike.

Mike ignored Will's request, attempting to speak again. “‘M s-sorry” he wheezed.

“No, don’t apologise Mike, you haven’t done anything wrong!” 

Mike didn’t respond. Will could feel his body becoming flaccid in his arms, and his sobs were dying down… in fact, he was barely making any noise at all.

“Mike?!” The sound of Mike’s cries and the raspiness of his voice as he’d tried to talk had sickened him, but now Will was begging for the noises to return. “Mike, are you still with me?”

His world imploded when Mike’s eyes slid shut. 

“Mike? Nonono, Mike, wake up! Mike?!”

But Mike’s body was completely limp and motionless.  

Chapter Text

For a few seconds after she realised Mike had stopped breathing, El was overwhelmed by panic.

Henry had not just killed another one of her friends. The boy who had practically saved her life by hiding her in his basement was not lying dead in front of her because she hadn’t been able to protect him.

No. He wasn’t going to stay dead. She’d revived Max. She could revive Mike too, right? She cast her mind back to the night Max had died: she’d placed her hand over Max's heart, and concentrated on all the happy experiences she’d had with Max whilst directing her power into her chest. She just needed to do the same for Mike.

Mike building her that blanket fort in his basement. Trying eggos for the first time. Him telling her that she was pretty, even without that uncomfortable blonde wig.

Will, overcome with grief, was replaying happy memories in his mind too. All those hours, playing DnD in Mike’s basement. Their matching outfits every Halloween. Nights when Will would stay after Dustin and Lucas had left and they’d watch Star Wars or Ghostbusters together. Mike taking care of him when he was being plagued by the Mindflayer - in fact, Will’s only happy memories from that year were with Mike. No wonder Will had fallen hopelessly in love with him.

Mike asking him if he wanted to be friends on his first day of school. The relief that had washed over Will when he realised that he didn't have to be alone anymore. But now all those memories were contaminated, would no longer bring him joy, as they'd only serve to remind Will of what he had lost.

He clutched Mike’s blue, bloodstained t shirt with one hand and his tangled black hair with the other, still supporting his head even though that clearly wasn’t necessary anymore, and cried so hard that he could barely breathe. 

He didn’t notice when his hands started glowing blue. 

El faltered a bit when she saw the light emitting from Will’s hands. A few seconds later, Mike took a weak, shuddering breath, and El nearly collapsed in relief, too preoccupied to think much about anything else. Tears still streaming down her face, she tried to put her hand on Will’s shoulder. He couldn’t feel it, of course, but he was still bawling and she was desperate to comfort him. 

Dustin returned a minute or so later, informing them that an ambulance was on its way, and El took that as her cue to leave the void.

Dustin had heard Will’s screams from the phone box on the road outside the house. He’d managed to keep it together for long enough to finish telling the operator that his friend’s limbs were all broken and that his eyes were bleeding, but after the operator reassured him that an ambulance was on its way, he hung up and burst into tears, because for Will to have screamed like that… Mike must have died.

When he burst into the room, Mike wasn’t moving anymore - he was as motionless and pale as a corpse, and for a second Dustin thought he was actually dead. Then Mike took a breath - a laboured, wheezy breath, but still a breath - and Dustin nearly collapsed in relief. 

And then dissolved into tears again, because this was exactly what had happened to Max, and whilst she was still alive, she was lying in a hospital bed, comatose, encased in bandages and possibly braindead.

“Will?" he said with a shaky voice. "The ambulance is coming.”

“He’s dead, Dustin” Will sobbed.

Dustin froze in shock. “What? No, no, he’s still breathing Will!”

“He died! He just died on me!” 

Will was scaring Dustin now. “Maybe he did, but he’s alive now, okay? Like M-Max. He's not dead.” 

“He’s gone.”

Looking at the blood streaking down Mike’s cheeks and the state of his arms and legs, Dustin couldn’t bring himself to argue with that. 

When El returned to her physical body, she was bombarded with the sound of Max and Lucas shouting her name.

“El! What’s wrong?”

“Is Mike okay?”

She lifted her hand to her cheek, realising that she’d been crying here too. She tried to speak, but it came out as a sob instead.

“Oh my god. Oh my god, he’s not dead, is he?” Max asked frantically, eyes wide.

El shook her head. “No… but h-he was.”

Max’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion as Lucas’s face dropped.

“Vecna got him?” he asked a small voice, looking down at the floor.

El nodded tearfully. “He’s b-broken like - like Max was.”

Max glanced down at her body, as if realising for the first time how seriously injured she’d been and how injured she still was. Silent tears began streaming down Lucas’s face, his expression bleak.

Nancy ran out of the car before it had even stopped moving.

She had called Jonathan and asked him to drive her to the house, but it had still taken far too long. She’d heard Will’s increasingly terrified begging on her walkie talkie, which had abruptly stopped before Jonathan had even arrived to give her a ride. Neither Dustin nor Will were replying to her anymore. She’d spent the drive to the house crying and screaming at Jonathan to drive faster, but she knew that she was already too late.

Nancy lurched forwards when she saw Mike lying in Will’s arms, but stopped dead when she took in the state he was in. Dried blood streaked down his face. Unconscious. Open fractures to all four of his limbs. Just like her vision.

She should have immediately fallen to her knees and cradled her brother’s broken body.

Instead, she turned around, collapsed onto the floor, and started puking.

That was how Jonathan found them a few seconds later: Nancy throwing up and crying hysterically, Dustin backed against the wall, knees to his chest, bawling, Mike unconscious in Will’s arms, and Will clutching Mike’s shirt, looking utterly shell shocked.

“Jesus!” he exclaimed, recoiling in horror. “Okay, okay… you’ve called an ambulance, right?” he demanded, directing the question to Dustin. Dustin nodded. “Okay, that’s good.” He knelt down beside Will, who hadn’t moved since Jonathan had entered the room.

“Will?” Jonathan whispered.

The dried tear stains on Will’s cheeks and the redness of his face indicated that he had been crying, but he wasn’t crying now. His brown eyes were glazed and unfocused, staring vacantly into space. He didn’t give any indication that he’d heard his brother at all. 

“Will? Buddy?” Jonathan tried again. He tried putting his hand on Will’s shoulder, and then waving the other hand in front of his brother’s face, but Will didn’t even blink.

“Come on - Nance, are you okay?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder towards his girlfriend. Even whilst bawling, she still managed to give him a look that implied are you being serious? “Okay, I’m sorry, stupid question. But I need you to calm down, okay? An ambulance is coming. He’s still alive. He’s going to be okay, but I need you to be strong for him, can you do that?”

Nancy nodded, doing her best to gain control of her breathing.

“Can you take Mike?” Jonathan asked tentatively. “I-I think Will’s gone into shock or something.”

She nodded again, tears still streaming down her cheeks as she shuffled forwards and gently lifted her brother’s limp body onto her own lap. “Mike?” she whispered. “Mike, can you hear me?” He couldn't, of course. She tried to wipe the blood from his cheeks with her sleeve, but it had already dried, so all she managed to do was smear it. "Oh Mike, I am s-so sorry" she breathed.

She'd known that something was going on with Mike. Although she didn't know exactly what had happened (what had Mike been doing in the Creel house?) it couldn't be a coincidence that he'd been acting so strange in the days leading up to it. Not to mention that Vecna had literally shown her a vision of Mike's dead body last week - she should have known something like this was going to happen. She shouldn't have let Mike out of her sight. Now she couldn't do anything but whisper reassurances and apologies to him until the paramedics arrived and prised his body from her arms.

Chapter Text

After a painful, silent drive to the hospital that seemed to drag on for hours, although it probably only took about fifteen minutes, Nancy once again bolted out of the car before Jonathan could even unbuckle his seatbelt.

El and Lucas were sitting on a wooden bench outside the entrance to the hospital. Dustin was the first to spot them.

“Lucas! El? What are you doing out here?” As he approached, he noticed the gloomy demeanour surrounding his friends. “Shit, is Max okay?”

Lucas looked up when he heard Dustin, and nodded in response. “Yeah. Yeah, actually, she’s awake.”

“Whoa - what?” Dustin almost shouted. “When?” How?”

“Not long ago. And… I’m not sure how” he shifted his gaze towards El, hoping that she could give a better answer, but she wasn’t listening. Her eyes had fallen on Will, eyes glazed and Jonathan’s hand on his shoulder, steadying him. 

“Will?” she whispered, approaching him and putting her hand on his cheek, her face crumpling when he didn’t react.

Jonathan shuffled his feet uncomfortably. Although El had broken up with Mike, he knew that she still cared about him immensely. “El-“ he began, his voice serious.

“I know what happened to Mike” she interrupted. 

Jonathan's jaw went slack with shock as Dustin turned around, exclaiming “What? How?”

“I-I was visiting Max" she began uncertainly. "I went to the vending machine, and Lucas ran out and told me something was happening to Max. Max’s eyes were open, and they were white, like when she was possessed by Vecna, and I was going to go into her mind, but she woke up.”

“A nurse came in, and I swear he almost screamed when he saw that she was awake” Lucas grinned slightly at the memory, but it didn’t reach his eyes, so it ended up looking more like a grimace. “He shouted at us for not calling anyone when she woke up, and then told us to get out so that a doctor could check her over.”

Dustin looked at El quizzically. “But… how did you know what happened to Mike? Did Max know?”

El nodded. “Max told me that Vecna had Mike. She saw him in the Mindscape.” Her voice was shaking. “I-I found him…” she said so quietly that it was almost a whisper “but I… I couldn’t save him.” A few silent tears leaked from her eyes.

Jonathan lifted the arm that wasn’t steadying Will and threw it around El, bringing her into a hug. “It wasn’t your fault” he promised softly. “You did okay, alright? He’s still alive. It’s not your fault.”

Nancy appeared from inside the building a few seconds later, eyes shining, a defeated expression on her face. “They won’t let me see him.” Her voice was hoarse, as if she’d just participated in a heated argument.

“Did they tell you when you might be able to see him?” Johnathan asked.

“They’ve g-got to operate on his arms and legs. And they’ve got to do all four… so it’s going to take hours”

Lucas nodded solemnly. “It took, like, five hours for Max to come out of surgery. It’s okay, though!” he retracted when Nancy’s face fell. “Max woke up an hour ago!”

Nancy froze for a second, her demeanour brightening marginally. “What? Really?”

“Nancy-“ Jonathan said urgently, eager to ease his girlfriend’s mind. “El says Max saw Mike before she woke up. Maybe we can figure out what happened.”

“Really?” she repeated. “Max… woke up and said she saw Mike?”

Lucas and El nodded.

“Did she… did she have any idea what he was doing in there?”

“We don’t know” Lucas replied. “She just woke up and told El that Vecna had Mike, and El used her powers to find Mike, and then we got kicked out when the nurse came… we haven’t asked her much yet.”

The group was silent for a few seconds. “Maybe the doctor has finished now?” El suggested, looking at Lucas.

Lucas glanced at his watch. “Maybe. Let’s check now.”

“I’m going to take Will back to the cabin” Jonathan said, his hand still gripping his brother’s shoulder.

Dustin glanced at Will’s unfocused eyes, concerned. “Shouldn’t we get a doctor to look at him?”

Jonathan shook his head. “He’s scared of hospitals. Ever since… you know.” Dustin lowered his gaze and nodded, understanding.  “He’s traumatised. Doctors prodding at him is just going to make it worse.”

The doctor had evidently finished with Max, because there was no one else in the room when the group, minus Jonathan and Will, entered. She was still encased in plaster and bandages, still in a hospital gown, but definitely awake. Someone had moved the bed into a sitting position so that she wasn’t stuck on her back anymore. 

Dustin immediately ran up to the bed. “Max! Oh my god, you’re actually awake!” he cried joyfully.

Max grinned at Dustin. “Can't get rid of me that easily.” 

Lucas approached her in a calmer manner, placing his hand on her left arm. “Are you okay? What did the doctor say?” he asked softly.

“That there’s no way I should be sitting up and talking” she smirked. “I’m a medical miracle, apparently.” Then she winced - only slightly, but it was enough for Lucas tense up and ask “what’s wrong?! Are you okay?”

“Fine. Just… my arms and legs are aching. He gave me some painkillers, but they haven’t kicked in yet.”

“Your eyes healed, though!” Dustin remarked. “Can you... is your vision okay?”

“Yes… well, things in the distance are a bit blurry, but the doc says that should go away soon.” She hesitated, frowning. “He was so shocked when he checked my eyes. What... what did Vecna do to them?”

An uncomfortable silence filled the room for a few seconds. “Erm, when he attacked you… your eyes started bleeding” Lucas said, voice trembling as he remembered what Max had looked like that night. “And your irises… they were grey. We thought you’d be blind if you woke up.”

Max’s face turned the shade of milk. “But they look normal now?”

El nodded. “Your eyes went white before you woke up and then went back to how they were before you were attacked.” She hesitated, wondering if now was the best time to interrogate her. “What happened just before you escaped?”

Max looked down at her body, lost in thought for a moment. “Well… I must have been unconscious in there or something. I remember Vecna standing over me, and El in the distance before he attacked me. I think… I remember seeing some bad memories in there, maybe Vecna was still messing with me, but it’s mostly blank. Then… I woke up, still in the same place he tried to kill me. Mike was shaking me. I think he woke me up somehow.”

Nancy didn’t want to interrupt - she recognised that Max had just been through a severely traumatic event, and that her friends were happy to see her awake - but she was finding it difficult to care about anything other than her brother at the moment. “But why was Mike there?” she demanded.

“I don’t know. I asked him what he was doing there… but he said it didn’t matter because Vecna was coming. He kept telling me that I needed to get out of there, he wouldn’t tell me anything else.” She paused for a second. “I heard the music when I woke up. It opened a portal, and helped me free myself from the vines, but Mike said he couldn’t get through it because it was my portal.” Another hesitation. “Then Vecna came. Mike wouldn’t tell me how he was going to get out. He just kept shouting at me to run… so I did.”

Nancy shook her head. “This still doesn’t make sense. How did he get into the Mindscape? What was he doing there?”

Max kept her eyes on her bed, as if trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone. “He didn’t tell me anything. He wouldn’t answer any of my questions” she said. “Sorry!” she added when she saw Nancy visibly deflate in the corner of her vision. 

“No, it’s fine, it’s not your fault” Nancy sighed. The prickling feeling that signified the arrival of tears began plaguing the back of her eyes. She really didn't want to start crying here. Not in front of four schoolchildren. And Max was clearly already feeling guilty about not being able to tell them much about Mike - Nancy couldn’t spoil Max’s reunion with her friends. 

“I-I’m going to see if my mother’s here yet” she announced, coming up with the excuse on the spot. “I’m really glad you’re awake, Max” she added before she strode out of the room, not wanting to give the impression that she didn’t care. She’d grown quite fond of Max - she was fun to be around, and sometimes reminded her of Mike. She’d felt fairly protective of her when she realised she’d been targeted by Vecna and had been burdened with her own share of guilt when Vecna attacked her, because if only she’d got to Vecna’s body a bit sooner… “feel better soon, okay?” Then she bolted out of the room, shutting the door behind her before she could hear Max’s response. 

No one batted an eye at the sight of her walking through the corridors with tears streaming down her face, which was a relief. Obviously, people crying was a daily occurrence in hospitals. None of the staff had time to comfort all the friends and family of the sick and injured.

Nancy had just used her mother as an excuse - although the receptionist she’d spoken to had told her that her mother had been called as soon as Mike had arrived - but now she realised that she actually wanted to see her. 

Karen was, in fact, in the waiting room. Nancy spotted her through the window before she opened the door. A woman dressed in the white hospital uniform was standing in front of her, clearly explaining everything that the man who’d spoken to Nancy had said after she’d raced into the hospital’s reception and demanded to see Mike. Both women looked up when Nancy burst into the room. Karen’s eyes were red, her cheeks tearstained.  

“Nancy” she uttered in a shaky, broken voice that Nancy had never heard her use before. 

Nancy tried to respond in a comforting voice, but all that came out was an embarrassing whimper.

“Oh, Nancy” her mother whispered, standing up and embracing her. Nancy was practically the same height as Karen now, but she still melted into the hug like a small child, and broke down. Not in the deranged, panicked way she had when she’d found Mike in the Creel House, but her sobs now were just as intense.

“I saw him. Before the ambulance came” she sobbed into her mother’s shoulder. “He was hurt so badly, mum.”

“Shh” Karen hushed, rubbing circles into Nancy’s back. “I know, honey. I know. It’s going to be okay. They’ll fix him.”

That only made Nancy cry harder, because while the doctors could fix Mike’s limbs, they couldn’t free his mind from Vecna. Only a small group of people even knew about the Upside Down, and none of them knew how to enter the Mindscape.

Eventually, Nancy calmed down and let go. Nancy hadn’t noticed her leaving, but the woman who had been talking to her mother before Nancy had arrived wasn’t in the room anymore.

“I, um, went into his room to… to get some of his things” Karen said suddenly, gesturing towards Mike’s blue, white and brown backpack underneath the chair she’d been sitting on. “I-in case he needed them. And-“ she rummaged through her handbag “-I found this on his desk.” She held out a white envelope. Nancy took it, a bewildered expression on her face, before turning it over and inhaling sharply. Written on the back, in Mike’s handwriting, was her name.

‘I won’t intrude” Karen promised, despite her lingering gaze on the letter making it obvious that she wanted to open it herself. “But-” she hesitated for a second “-if there’s anything important in there, you will tell me, won’t you?”

Nancy nodded, still staring at the envelope. “Y-yeah. Yes.”

She excused herself and walked out of the room, fiddling with the corners the envelope. As much as she wanted to rip it open right there, and as much as she wanted to stay with her mother, opening it in front of anyone else didn’t feel right. Mike had addressed this letter specifically to her.

The sun was high in the sky when she went outside, which was a bit disorientating. It must be early afternoon by now - Dustin and Will had shown up at her house mid-morning - but Nancy had almost expected it to be dark. Perhaps it was because it felt like far more than a few hours since she’d last spoken to Mike, perhaps because the trauma she’d just been through felt like something that could only occur on a cold, stormy night. The fog that had set over Hawkins after the gates had fused was showing no signs of leaving, but apart from that the weather was almost pleasant.

Sitting down on a bench, Nancy hesitated for a second, afraid of what she might find in the envelope. Ultimately, the realisation that whatever Mike had written might help them figure out how to get him back - or at least understand what on Earth he had been doing in the Creel House, possessed by Vecna even though four gates had already opened - was what gave Nancy the strength to open it. She carefully peeled the envelope open and extracted a neatly folded piece of lined paper. When she unfolded it, her hands trembling, a page full of Mike’s handwriting was revealed. 

She took a deep breath before beginning to read it. 

Dear Nancy,

I’m sorry for not telling anyone that I was going to do this, but this is something I had to do alone. 

I’m addressing this letter to you because I can’t give a letter to any of the others and ask them not to open it for an hour or so without arousing suspicion. I know that, eventually, when you realise I’m missing, you’ll check my room, and you’re the only person in this house who knows about the Upside Down and Vecna.

I don’t really know what to write. I need to explain what I’ve done and where I am now, obviously, but seeing as this is the last thing you’re going to hear from me, I feel like I should make it more… I don’t know, personal? I can’t really give you any appropriate last words in person, because that’ll make it harder to leave the house, so I’ll write them here instead. I’m sorry that we weren’t as close as we could have been. It’s probably because we live in such a loveless household - I could probably count the number of times I’ve heard our parents say “I love you” to each other on one hand - but that’s no excuse. I should have tried harder. I shouldn’t have been so awful at talking about my emotions. I do love you, you know, and I hope you come out of this next battle with Vecna unharmed.

Remember the night you found out about El? You said “no more secrets. From now on, we tell each other everything.” And I agreed. I wish I’d kept that promise, because sometimes it feels like I’m drowning in my thoughts, being suffocated by all the things I can’t tell anyone. I’m sorry that I’ve only gotten more distant as the years have passed. There’s something wrong with me. I have no energy some days. It feels like my emotions have disappeared, and now I can’t feel anything. Unless I’m anxious or angry, which makes me act like a total douche. Anyway, I’ve gone way off topic. 

Three days before I went to California, I started getting nosebleeds. I had a headache that would not go away. I suffered from nightmares every night. I know now that Vecna must have cursed me. I was meant to be his fourth victim, but I left Hawkins before he could kill me, so he killed Patrick instead. 

Two days ago, I realised that I could get Max back. In fact, I’m the only person who can get her back.

We know that Max is stuck in Vecna’s Mindscape. I’m the only one who can get into the Mindscape. I can do the same thing Max did: I’m going to convince Vecna to take me. Once I’m in the Mindscape, I’ll find Max, free her and help her escape. I’m going to take her place. Maybe Vecna will actually let her go and take me instead, as having a dead victim would be safer than having a comatose but alive victim. If not, I have a back up plan, and I think I can find and free her before Vecna finds me. Lucas is constantly playing her favourite song in her hospital room, so hopefully when I free her the portal will open and she can escape. 

You’re probably going to try and blame yourself for this just because you found me having a panic attack a few days ago, so here it is in writing: this is not your fault. I chose to do this. I know that I’m expendable, and that’s my own fault. Even if you did figure out I was up to something, there was no way you could have stopped me. I know I didn’t sound grateful at the time, but thank you for calming me down there. I was freaking out because I’d realised that I was supposed to be the fourth victim that day and I couldn’t stop thinking about how Patrick was dead because of me, and Max was in a coma because I wasn’t there to be used as bait instead. I want to do this, Nancy. I have to.

If I failed, and Max hasn’t woken up, please tell the others that I’m truly sorry. 

My body is in the Creel House. Call the police. Don’t go to the house yourself. I don’t want you to see my body. 

- Mike   

Nancy stared at the letter blankly for a few seconds after she finished reading it, her mouth open in shock. Then she read it again, hoping that the content of the letter would change. It didn’t.

When she finally accepted that she hadn’t misread anything, her face crumpled (again) and warm tears began cascading down her cheeks (again). Clutching the letter to her chest with both hands, she cursed herself internally, because how the hell had she fucked up so badly? 

She had seen the horrified expression that had flashed across Mike’s face when she’d described the symptoms Vecna’s victims had experienced. She should have demanded there that he tell her what was wrong - or at least talk to him after everyone else had left - but she’d ignored it. 

Memories of the days before Mike went to California came flooding back, so prominent in her mind’s eye that she may as well have been looking at a slideshow: bloody tissues in the bathroom, Mike holding his head at dinnertime, the dark shadows under his eyes becoming even more prominent… it was so fucking obvious that he’d been cursed, looking back.Nancy's chest began to tighten uncomfortably, the guilt overwhelming her.

“I have no energy some days. It feels like my emotions have disappeared” - Nancy didn’t know much about mental illnesses, but from what she'd read in those files from the counsellor's office, that sounded like depression. Which, again, should have been obvious: Mike had started acting up and stopped trying at school years ago, after El disappeared, but Nancy had assumed that he was just upset. She didn’t consider that he might actually be clinically depressed, especially when he went back to normal when El came back. But… he hadn’t gone back to normal, had he? He never did seem as happy as he had before Will had disappeared: he was still far more irritable than usual and seemed to stop caring about everything he used to care about. Nancy thought that it was just because he was growing up and becoming an angsty teenager. And ever since the battle at Starcourt… Mike sometimes spent days moping in his room.

And the past trauma that Vecna preyed on? Mike had plenty of it. Everything that had come out of the Upside Down would have been enough on its own, but Mike had been bullied his whole life too. Not to mention that Vecna had literally shown her vision of Mike’s corpse last week! It was so blatantly obvious that Vecna would target him. She should have insisted that he walk around with a walkman and his favourite song at all times (god, did she even know what Mike’s favourite song was anymore?).

She ran her fingers over the paragraph in which Mike had recalled the night they’d promised to stop keeping secrets. What a shitty, absent sister she had been since that night. So distant from her brother that he hadn’t told her that Vecna had targeted him, let alone discussed his stupid, self-sacrificial plan to get Max back with her. Of course she wouldn’t have been happy to let Mike bargain with Vecna - in fact, after what had happened to Max, she would have been horrified - but they could have figured out something that didn’t involve Mike dying! 

Her eyes flickered to the bottom half of the letter. “I know that I’m expendable.” That line - the fact that her brother had actually written that himself - caused Nancy’s throat to constrict. No, she thought furiously, as if trying to telepathically communicate with Mike. No, Mike, you are not fucking expendable. You are loved by everyone. I love you, you stupid, heroic idiot. 

But it was too late. Because while the letter explained in horrific detail exactly how Mike had ended up possessed by Vecna, it did not give her any way to get him back. In fact, it gave her the opposite: Mike had only been able to get into the Mindscape and wake Max up because he himself had been cursed. So, until they found another way to get into the Mindscape and free Mike - if there even was a way - he was going to be stuck in a coma.

A sudden wave of anger coursed through her body, overpowering the sorrow and guilt. She stood up abruptly, still clutching the letter to her chest, and screamed. 

An old man on one of the other benches was staring at her with a mixture of revulsion and fear. She probably looked like she’d just escaped the psych ward, screaming at the wind, but she didn’t care. This monster had possessed her, shown her visions of her whole family dead, potentially killed her best friend Barb, flung her town into an almost apocalyptic state, and now he’d taken her brother.

Henry, you son of bitch, I am going to fucking murder you.

Chapter Text

The sun was setting outside, the orange glow blurry and barely visible through the dirty, inter-dimensional fog. She could see it through the small, grimy, square-shaped window in the wall. She wondered when the window had last been cleaned. It was filthy. Maybe it hadn’t been cleaned in years. 

It would make a good photo for the news, the sunset. There’d no doubt be another article in the papers tomorrow, speculating on the strange weather. Fog in a small town in Indiana, miles away from the coast? Lasting for days? In spring? Very peculiar. Caused by dust from the recent earthquake, perhaps.

Nancy shook her head and averted her eyes from the window, back towards Mike. She shouldn’t be daydreaming about dirty windows and the fucking weather. She should be brainstorming ways to get her brother back.

She and her mother had finally been allowed to see him about an hour ago. They’d been limited to two visitors at a time, and only family outside of visiting hours because nurses were still coming in frequently to check on him. The fact that the sun was setting was a testament to how long they’d waited in the hospital before finally being approached, reassured that Mike was out of surgery, we managed to fix all four limbs, yes, you can see him in a few minutes, but I’m afraid I have to warn you, he’s in a coma and we don’t know if he’ll wake up. Oh, and his eyes-“

Nancy obviously knew that Mike was going to be comatose. It didn’t make hearing it from the doctor any easier. Especially when her mother burst into tears beside her.

She should have been prepared for the sight of her brother; she’d visited Max whilst she’d been in her coma a few times, and she had held Mike before the paramedics arrived, his body limp in her arms, with dried blood smeared across his face and his arms and legs sticking out at angles that shouldn’t have even been possible. But she’d still felt all the air leave her lungs, tears springing to her eyes, and the urge to gag when she first entered the room, because Mike looked awful. All four limbs were, of course, encased in white casts. The cast on his left arm only went up to his wrist, an IV inserted into the back of that hand and an oximeter attached to the index finger, so it was also being supported by a sling. Numerous wires were emerging from under the ugly hospital gown, attaching him to machines monitoring things like his heart rate. An oxygen mask obscured most of his face. The blood had been washed away, but a dark red bruise had blossomed along the left side of his face, stretching from his eyebrow to his lower jaw, starkly contrasting against his pale skin. He must have hit his head on the floor when he’d fallen out of the air. 

He looked far too thin in that bed. He’d become fairly lanky recently, but now he just looked sickly. Frail, even. 

Nancy was still the only one who knew what Mike had done. She hadn’t mentioned Mike’s letter to anyone yet. Mainly because she didn’t feel ready to discuss it without screaming or sobbing, but also because most of the group weren’t at the hospital. Besides, when she’d finally gone back to the others in Max’s room, Max had fallen asleep, and Max should really be the first person to find out why Mike was in the Mindscape. Dustin had left the hospital about two hours ago, planning on finding and updating Robin and Steve. Erica had turned up as soon as Lucas called her, but Will, Joyce and Johnathan wouldn’t be here until tomorrow. 

Hopper had payed them a brief visit whilst Mike was still in surgery. They had agreed to meet in Max’s room the next morning to discuss what had happened, and no doubt whether they had to be worried about any more people getting possessed by Vecna.

The door creaked open, and Nancy’s head instinctively turned, eyes landing on her mother. She wordlessly offered Nancy a sandwich, which Nancy accepted, before collapsing into the chair on the other side of Mike. She looked like she hadn’t slept for days. Her hair was a mess, the sides of her mouth were drooping, and although she wasn’t crying like she had been when she first saw Mike, her red-rimmed eyes gleamed as she watched over her son.

“Nancy, you need to eat.” There wasn’t much force behind her voice. It was weak and tired, giving the impression that she didn’t actually care whether Nancy ate or not.

“I’m not hungry.”

She sighed heavily. “Nancy, please”

Nancy rolled her eyes, unwrapped the sandwich and bit into it without checking what type of sandwich it was first. Cheese salad. It tasted like cardboard and plastic. Realising she was slouching against her chair, she straightened up, wincing at the pain the pressure of the plastic had inflected on her shoulder blades. If she managed to fall asleep in this chair tonight, her neck and back would kill in the morning. 

It was going to be a long night.

“Nancy, can I have a word?”

That was her cue. Hopper had agreed to come and get her once everyone else was settled in Max’s room so that she didn’t have to spend an unnecessary amount of time away from her brother, and to minimise her mother’s suspicion. 

She closed her eyes for a second and nodded, then stood up, winced at the pain shooting up her back, and glanced sadly at Mike before turning to Hopper.

“Why?” Karen demanded. “What do you want with her?”

Hopper turned to face Karen with a serious, expressionless face. “I’m investigating the attack on your son, Mrs Wheeler” he replied cooly. Your daughter was at the scene when the paramedics turned up. I just have to ask her a few questions.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“Mum, it’s fine” Nancy assured her, already walking towards the the doorway. “I’ll come back straight after, okay?”

Karen still seemed concerned. “Are you sure?” 

“Yes. It’s fine.” Hastily, she strode out of the room before her mother could stall her any longer.

Once they were a few corridors away from Mike’s room, Hopper’s emotionless face fell, revealing a stunned expression. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Shit” he mumbled to himself.

Nancy scowled. “Yeah. It is shit.”

“I’m sorry. It was just… shocking to see him like that.”

“Should’ve seen him yesterday after One snapped his arms and legs in half” she retorted bitterly. 

She expected the chief to scold her - she was being unnecessarily rude and she knew it - but he just sighed again. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

Max’s room was crammed. Lucas and Erica were in the chairs on Max’s left side, conversing. El was sitting, cross-legged, on the end of Max’s bed, fiddling with the blanket and lost in her thoughts. Someone had managed to obtain a few more chairs from somewhere, as Dustin, Steve and Robin were all seated to the right of Max. Steve and Robin were speaking to her, ostensibly because they hadn’t seen her yesterday. Will was standing a little further away, near the wall. He still looked traumatised, but Nancy was glad to see that his eyes weren’t completely glazed over anymore. Jonathan was standing behind him - not too close, but close enough to keep an eye on him. Hopper joined Joyce, standing in the centre of the room, ready to lead the discussion. 

It would have been a joyous occasion… except everyone’s faces were displaying various levels of shock and despair. Many of them were staring off into space. Some of them looked dazed. Others looked stunned. The people who were talking were doing so in hushed, serious voices, which died down as soon as everyone noticed that Nancy had arrived. Steve and Robin shot her looks of pity and concern, and Johnathan motioned for her to come and speak to him. She ignored them. She didn’t blame them: she had barely slept last night and probably looked awful. Joyce appeared to study her for a few seconds, but then apparently decided to leave her alone. She could probably that Nancy wasn’t in the mood to be comforted. 

“Okay. Let’s get straight to the point.” Hopper began a few seconds after the room went quiet. He had completely reverted to cop mode, his face once again focused and void of any emotion. “What happened yesterday?

Lucas, Max and El all shared a look. “Well, El and I were here. The doctor said that nothing had changed, and nothing out of the ordinary happened all morning. But then Max’s eyes opened, and they were white-“ Lucas began, launching into the story. El jumped in, explaining how she’d gone into Max’s mind, and then Max described what had happened from her point of view. Apart from a few gasps and the occasional “what?”  the group was silent, listening intently.

When Max finished, Hopper took over again. 

“And - you four found Mike in the Creel House, right?” he stated, gesturing towards Will, Jonathan, Dustin and Nancy individually. “Will - you don’t have to say anything if you’re not ready to talk about it, but can one of you tell us what happened there?”

“No, it’s fine” Will said, his voice quiet. “I - we were looking for Mike - Dustin, Nancy and I - because we were worried about him… because he’d been acting strange.”

“What do you mean, strange?” Hopper interrupted. 

“He came to my house and started apologising even though we hadn’t been fighting” Dustin interjected. 

“And he, uh, asked me if I’d be okay if he died.”

That earned a sharp intake of breath from a few people in the room. 

“Wait” Lucas intercepted, frowning. “He came here two days ago and started apologising to me too.” He looked up towards Hopper. “What does that mean? Does that have something to do with this?”

Hoppers eyebrows were furrowed, as if he were deep in thought. “I’m not sure.” In fact, this information had triggered alarms in his mind - Mike’s actions sounded an awful lot like the actions of a person planning to attempt suicide. Especially the comment from Will. But there was no need to share that information with the kids just yet. “Okay, go on Will. What happened next?” 

“Um, I was in the woods near the schools… and then I felt him. Vecna. I could feel that he was up to something.” He shuddered, recalling the icy sensation that had coursed down his spine. “I-I radioed Dustin and Nancy, and went in the direction the - the feeling was pulling me. It led me to the house, and when I went in… I found Mike. His eyes were w-white and he wouldn’t respond to me and he kept twitching… I called Dustin and Nancy, but then h-he went flying into the air-“

He broke off, on the verge of tears. Dustin swooped in, attempting to take the attention off Will. “I started running to the house as soon as Will told us that Vecna had Mike, but when I got there… Vecna had already hurt him.” He took a second to compose himself before continuing. “I, um, called an ambulance. And then Jonathan and Nancy arrived after that.”

“Alright” Hopper said, eyebrows furrowed in confusion “but how did he survive? No one was attacking the body this time. Why didn’t this thing, you know… inflict as much damage on Mike as he did to the others?”

“He’s still weak” Will mumbled, barely loud enough for the others to hear him. “El said that Vecna thought it was a trap when he saw her. He assumed that the rest of us were in the Upside Down, trying to kill his body, and that Mike was just tricking him. Like Max did. So he attacked Mike and left immediately.” His voice was monotonous, his eyes vacant and staring off into space. It was unnerving. “But he’s still hurt, so he didn’t manage to hurt Mike as much as he did the others.”

No one knew what to say. As much as they understood that Will’s connection to Vecna was something beyond his control, a curse left over from a traumatic experience, they still found it a bit disturbing. Everyone except El, who, after thinking for a few seconds, nodded at Will grimly. “That makes sense.”

Nancy had been listening to the conversation attentively, not saying much, trying to gauge when and how she should bring up Mike’s letter. Every time she thought that maybe now was a good time to speak up, her throat constricted, and whilst she was trying to force the words out, another person would speak first. Fortunately, Hopper’s next question delivered her the perfect opportunity. 

“Okay. Does anyone have any idea how Mike ended up possessed?”

“Um-“ Nancy began, swallowing nervously. “I-“ she faltered for a second when everyone turned to stare at her “-I know what happened.”

The room erupted into chaos, Lucas and Dustin both standing up and shouting, Jonathan attempting to move towards her, saying something that was drowned out by whatever Steve was saying, and Hopper trying to talk over all of them. None of this was helped by the stress-induced ringing in her ears. She couldn’t pick out any individual words from the cacophony being emitted by the group. 

After a few seconds, Hopper grew impatient.

“ENOUGH!” He shouted. “Let Nancy speak.” 

Her whole body was trembling. She held up the envelope. “M-my mother found this in Mike’s room yesterday.”

Hopper began walking towards her, and Nancy almost instinctively took a step backwards, holding the letter to her chest. She knew that she had to share the contents of the letter with the others, but it still felt like she was violating her brother’s privacy when she let Hopper prise it from her fingers. It was something that Mike had specifically written for her, and she selfishly wanted to keep it to herself.

Everyone in the room watched Hopper tensely, not speaking a word as he read the letter. Nancy detected the exact moment he got to the paragraph that explained what Mike had done by the spark of shock that crossed his otherwise composed face. When he finished, he shook his head, muttering “Jesus Christ.”

“What does it say?” El inquired, peering at the piece of paper in her dad’s hand suspiciously.

Hopper ran his hand over his head, his eyes transfixed on the letter. “Jesus” he repeated. “Uh, can I read this out loud, Nancy?”

Nancy adverted her eyes to the ground, avoiding eye contact, clearly uncomfortable. “Y-yeah, okay” she stuttered. “But - but can you… only read out the relevant bits, please?” she begged quietly, her eyes gleaming as she looked up from the floor, towards Hopper’s face. A glimmer of sympathy flashed across Hopper’s eyes. He didn’t say anything, but she could tell that he understood.

For a few seconds after Hopper finished reading the section of the letter where Mike explained that he’d been cursed, and what he had done, the room was completely silent, the inhabitants all wide eyed and too stunned to speak. Max, whose face had gone so pale that it had developed a green tinge, broke the silence by whimpering Lucas’ name.

Lucas snapped out of his shock-induced trance, took one look at her and immediately realised what was about to happen. He lunged forwards, grabbed the bin from the floor, and placed it under Max’s chin, a split second before she started violently throwing up. “Oh my god” she gasped in between retching.

“Hey, it’s okay” Lucas murmured, rubbing her back with one of his hands and holding the bin with the other, but he looked dangerously close to puking himself, a layer of sweat glistening on his forehead.

El, still sitting on the bed, put her hand on Max’s right leg, but didn’t say anything. She was simply staring off into space, eyes vacant, a haunted expression on her face.

Jonathan placed a hand on Will’s shoulder, shooting him a worried look. He didn’t say anything, but the question was clear: are you okay?

Will looked up to meet his brother’s eyes and nodded. Jonathan held the eye contact for a few seconds, clearly not sure whether to believe him or not, but Will refused react any more than he already had.

He wasn’t okay, of course. But he wasn’t going to start dissociating like he did yesterday. Yesterday had been a different type of pain. Yesterday, watching Mike’s limbs snap, cradling his broken body, and watching the life drain out of him had caused an excruciating, all-consuming agony, the type of burning pain that raged through his entire body, leaving him gasping on the floor. His mind had shut down on itself because that was the only way it could escape. This was different. It was crushing guilt, concentrated in his chest, like a brick wall continuously collapsing on top of him. It was pain that his mind wouldn’t shut out, pain that he was forced to suffer through, because he deserved it. Here was proof that it was his fault. If he hadn’t brushed off Mike talking about his death that day… if he’d just stayed the night, hell, if he’d just told an adult that he was worried about Mike, maybe Mike wouldn’t have been left alone long enough to get himself possessed. 

He hadn’t made it clear enough in the van. He’d seen that Mike was full of self doubt, and he’d tried to make him feel better, but it clearly hadn’t been enough, because Mike still felt worthless enough to willingly let Vecna kill him. He still, clearly, didn’t believe that everyone would fall apart without him. 

Needless to say, Will wasn’t the only one dealing with unbearable guilt. At first, Max had felt absolutely nothing. She’d been so shocked that she’d gone numb. She was sure she was hallucinating Hopper’s words, or maybe dreaming. Then, when he finished reading, every negative emotion she was capable of feeling hit her at once - shock, grief, overwhelming guilt - because why had Mike, of all people, sacrificed himself for her? How was she supposed to cope with the fact that reason she was awake was the reason Mike was lying in his own hospital bed, his limbs broken, and his mind trapped by Vecna? 

How dare he leave her to deal with this guilt? What if he had actually died? What if he did die? What if they never figured out how to free him from Vecna? How would she live with the knowledge that she was alive because he was dead? How dare he?

“Why?” she demanded, her voice shaky. She’d stopped vomiting, and the colour was slowly returning to her face. She still looked completely shellshocked, but anger was starting to creep through too. “Why would he do that? He-he doesn’t even like me!”

“He does like you!” Dustin asserted indignantly, at the same time as Erica muttered “well, he likes you enough to die for you.”

“Erica” Lucas chided, but his voice lacked the vigour it usually held when dealing with his sister. 

“It’s the truth!” she pointed out.

No one tried to argue with that.

“Never would have expected Mike to be the self-sacrificing type” Steve admitted, running a shaking hand through his hair. 

“Um-“ Dustin interrupted, scowling “-actually, this is kind of exactly the type of thing Mike would do.”

Everyone’s heads turned towards Dustin, displaying various levels of confusion. 

“I mean” Dustin clarified, flustered now that all the attention was on him “I mean, the cliff?”

Realisation washed over El’s face, and she nodded, but everyone else just looked baffled.

“…what cliff, Dustin?” Hopper asked, voice cop-like and serious once again.

Dustin’s face fell. “Oh god. Shit. We - we never told anyone about the cliff.”

“What cliff?” Nancy shouted, advancing towards Dustin.

“Erm, okay, so one day during the week that Will was missing, Troy and James found us near the cliff over the quarry” Dustin began, speaking so quickly that he was almost stumbling over his words. “Mike, Lucas and El had been arguing, so El and Lucas weren’t there, it was just me and Mike. Troy, um, grabbed me and pulled a knife to my face. Told Mike that he’d cut my teeth out u-unless Mike jumped.”

A horrified silence followed. “Oh my god” Steve breathed, speaking for everyone. “Please tell me he didn’t actually jump.”

Dustin’s expression was enough to answer that question.

“Holy shit” Robin muttered. 

“El must have heard us, because she caught Mike with her powers before he hit the rocks and pulled him back up” Dustin continued. “But we didn’t know that El was there. He-he tried to trade his life for my fucking baby teeth. So yeah, I don’t find him trading his life for Max’s hard to believe.” He adverted his eyes to the floor, a few tears leaking down his cheeks. “I should have known he’d do something like this.”

“My brother jumped off a cliff and you didn’t tell anyone?” Nancy screeched. 

“It was an eventful week!” When no one jumped in to back him up, he added “we were twelve! I didn’t realise how fucked up it was!”

“Will? Are you okay?” Joyce asked softly, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Y-yeah” Will replied, in a voice that was almost a whisper. All the remaining colour had drained from his face, and if he hadn’t looked on the verge of another breakdown before, he certainly did now.

He could have come back from the Upside Down to find a home without Mike. To find Mike dead. 

He imagined going through the year after his disappearance without Mike and shuddered. 

“Oh god” Lucas uttered, putting his head in his hands. “Oh god, I should have been there, I could have pulled Troy off you, shit-“

“Not your fault, Lucas” Dustin interrupted. “Besides, none of us actually got hurt, it’s just-“

“Alright” Hopper said loudly, attempting to regain control of the conversation. “So, we don’t need to worry about any more people getting possessed. That’s a good thing. However, we thought we could count on no one getting possessed yesterday too, so I'm going to need you all to start carrying Walkmans around in case you find anyone else possessed, okay? And whatever Mike did, it worked. Max woke up. So now we know for sure that if we can get into the Mindscape, we can wake him up.”

The fact that no one had any idea how to get into the Mindscape was left unsaid, hanging heavily over their heads.

Well. No one except Max.

“Maybe I can convince him to take me back?” she suggested desperately.

“NO!” Lucas, El and Steve all shouted in unison.

“Max, you died last time!”

“You and Mike are the only people who have offered themselves to Vecna, and neither of you made it out!”

“But Jason won’t be there to screw it up this time, so-“

“No.”

“But-“

“Okay, everyone, be quiet” Hopper demanded. “Max, even if we were stupid enough to let you try that shit again, he would not fall for it a second time. He’d know it was a trap. We are not letting any more kids use themselves as bait." He glared around the room, his expression fierce, making it clear that this applied to everybody. "Understood?”

Max’s face fell into a mixture of anger and despair, and she slumped against her pillow in defeat.

Silence settled over the group again for a few seconds, no one else proposing any new ideas, no one wanting to add to the misery.

Then: “I want to tell my mother.”

“What?” Hopper questioned, eyebrows furrowed.

“I want to tell my mother” Nancy repeated. “About the Upside Down. What actually happened to Mike.”

Hopper exhaled heavily. “Nancy, you know we signed those contracts-“

“FUCK THE CONTRACTS!” she shouted, hands clenched together. “The Upside Down is literally merging with the town anyway! He took my brother!” She leant against the wall, shoulders trembling, the anger visibly leaving her body, replaced by fear and dejection. “I don’t want to hide this from her anymore” she half-whispered, her voice quavering.

“Jim-“ interjected Joyce, preventing Hopper from responding “-Nancy’s right. Karen has a right to know. Nancy needs her mother to know what she’s been through. So will Mike.”

The way she said it, the firm, determined, yet pained way she looked at Hopper - reminding him that she, too, had been through the pain of losing a child to the Upside Down - was what ultimately swayed him. He sighed, before turning to face Nancy. “Okay. Okay. We’ll tell your mother.”

They agreed that it would be best for Nancy to bring Karen to Max’s room so that everyone could explain everything together. So much had happened since 1984 that it was impossible for one person to tell the full story anymore. 

Will agreed to stay with Mike whilst the others spoke to Karen; he didn’t want to be there to relive the whole story of him getting kidnapped and then possessed. Especially considering that he was already on the verge of a panic attack.

He almost went into hysterics anyway when he followed Nancy into Mike’s room. Which was stupid, because like Nancy, he had seen Mike with all his limbs snapped yesterday, which was far worse than seeing him in a hospital bed. Maybe it was because seeing him here made it too real. It confirmed that yesterday hadn’t just been a horrifying nightmare.

The sound of Nancy trying to convince Karen to leave the room so that Hopper could talk to her pulled him out of his trance. Karen wasn’t happy, but agreed to leave when Nancy told her that the chief knew what had happened to Mike. 

As Nancy guided Karen out of the door, Will walked silently across the room, sliding into the chair on the right side of Mike’s bed. Almost instinctively, he reached forwards and placed his left hand on Mike’s fingers. The only part of his arm that wasn’t encased in bandages. He tried to focus on the warmth of Mike’s fingers, the slow rise and fall of his chest, the steady beeping of the heart monitor - all the things that reassured him that Mike was still alive. 

It wasn’t enough to distract him from the bandages encasing Mike’s limbs. The bruise on the side of his too-pale face. The oxygen mask strapped to his face. “Oh god” he whispered, a few warm tears spilling down his cheeks. “Oh my god, Mike, I’m s-so sorry.” 

The bruise was a nauseating mess of red and purple. The guilt that had settled in his chest grew exponentially as Will gazed at Mike’s face sadly. If only he’d managed to catch him before he hit the floor. 

Will glanced around the room nervously, ensuring that there was no one was watching him (even though he knew there was no one else in the room), before extending his other hand and running his fingers through Mike’s hair. He knew that Mike liked his hair being stroked - not that Mike would ever admit it to anyone other than Will - because that was how his mother used to calm him down. Mike didn’t cry much in front of him, but it had happened a few times when they were younger. Once he’d found Mike bawling in the toilets at school because the bullies were calling him names. Another time, Mike had showed up at Will’s house, and broke down into tears as soon as he was in Will’s bedroom, blubbering about his parents arguing. And Will would just hug him, and run his fingers through his hair until he felt better.

Mike obviously couldn’t feel Will’s hand caressing his hair now, but god, Will had to feel like he was doing something. And, honestly, the motion was making Will feel a bit better himself.

Mike’s hair was so much longer than it had been last summer. He’d also stopped straightening it - no point in worrying about hair when the world is ending - so now his natural curls had reformed, sticking out in every direction. Will loved it. 

He moved his hand away from Mike’s head and placed it gently on the upper half of Mike’s arm, his other hand still holding Mike’s fingers.

“I’m here, Mike.” His eyes filled with tears again, remembering the time that Mike had promised Will that he would be okay, when he’d started experiencing those visions and now-memories. “We’re going to get you out of there, okay?” 

And Will had been okay, eventually. Physically, at least. “I promise.” 

Karen was visibly shocked when Nancy led her to a hospital room crammed full of teenagers. Her confusion eased a bit when she spotted Max, the casts on her limbs making it clear that whatever had happened to Mike had happened to her too.

“Nancy… what’s going on?”

Nancy leant against the wall and sighed. “It’s… a long story.”

Karen shook her head and turned to Hopper, her expression quizzical.

“Mrs Wheeler… you know that strange things have been happening in this town lately” he began. “Things that the government have covered up. Your son has been heavily involved in these… occurrences, as has everyone in this room.”

“What?” Karen glanced back at Nancy in disbelief, but Nancy just nodded. “The-the government? What happened to my son?”

Hopper sighed. “Mrs Wheeler, you should sit down. Like Nancy said, it’s a long story.”

Karen huffed, but did as she was told. Hopper hesitated for a second under her glare.

“Remember when Will went missing a few years ago?” he asked.

She frowned before nodding, clearly wondering what this had to do with Mike being attacked yesterday.

“Well, he didn’t actually get lost in the woods…”

Chapter Text

“I don’t believe it.”

They had recounted the whole story. Answered every question. Explained how the recent events in Hawkins were all connected and explained by the existence of the Upside Down. Nancy had given her Mike’s letter. El had even shown Karen her powers by making a bottle of water levitate (at which point Karen’s face had gone so pale that Nancy had made her sit down, convinced that she was going to faint).  

“Mrs Wheeler, this dimension is merging with Hawkins as we speak." Hopper's voice was as direct and serious as ever, but a weary undertone was beginning to emerge. “By all means, we can take you to the gates if you want to see for yourself.”

Karen shook her head, dazed. “My son was attacked by a… a telekinetic monster?”

Her tone made it clear that she still considered this an impossibility, but Hopper’s face was deadly serious when he responded. “Yes.”

“But-“ she turned to Nancy “-you said he attacks people with trauma! Mike was fine!”

“You’ve heard the whole story, Mrs Wheeler” Hopper interrupted sharply. “Frankly, every person in this room has enough past trauma to warrant getting targeted. And your son, unfortunately, has been involved since the very beginning.”

“And you read the letter” Nancy added pointedly. “He wasn’t fine. He has depression.”

Karen opened her mouth and closed it again, apparently at a loss for words. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” she demanded after a few seconds. “If two of my children were involved in… in evil dimensions and monsters, why did no one tell me?”

“We told you why” Hopper retorted. “We were ordered to sign government contracts.”

“Contracts?!” Karen shrieked. “My children were being attacked by monsters and Russians and you couldn’t tell me because of some contracts?”

“Mum” Nancy interjected, embarrassed. Everyone apart from her and Hopper were sitting in an awkward silence, attempting to keep their facial expressions neutral, but they all just looked extremely uncomfortable. “Come on. We can talk about this outside.”

She grabbed her mother’s shoulder and led her out of the room, shutting the door behind her. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Karen asked again in an accusatory voice before Nancy had even turned away from the door.

“It was me who convinced Hopper to tell you the truth” Nancy reminded her as she leaned against the wall and folded her arms.

“And you only decided to let me know after your brother got snapped in half?!”

A jolt of pain coursed through Nancy's abdomen. “Would you have believed us?” she snapped, tears springing to her eyes. “Would you have believed me or Mike if we started talking about monsters coming out of walls?” She blinked furiously, trying to prevent the tears from escaping.

Karen scowled. “If you’d shown me-“

“And put your life in danger too?” she retorted furiously. “Eddie found out about the Upside Down about two weeks ago, and now he’s dead!"

“That doesn’t matter!” Karen shouted, her eyes gleaming. “I’m your mother!”

Nancy had had enough. “Whatever” she muttered, turning away so that her mother couldn’t see the tears escaping her eyes. ”I’ve told you now. Let’s just get back to Mike.”

Will was still sitting beside Mike when Karen and Nancy returned, his hand resting on Mike’s fingers. He started slightly when he noticed Nancy at the doorway and stood up immediately. 

“Thanks, Will” Nancy mumbled as he began to make his way towards the door.

“It’s okay.” Will’s voice was wavering, and he rushed out of the room without another word. Nancy suspected he was crying. Considering the way she felt as she sat down in the seat he had vacated, her brother’s motionless body in front of her, she couldn’t blame him.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room for a few minutes. Karen stared at Mike’s body with a vacant expression, occasionally rubbing her eyelids, still clearly trying to wrap her head around everything. Nancy struggled to figure out what to say.

“Have you called dad?” she asked eventually.

Karen sighed. “He was at home when I got the call yesterday. I told him where I was going.”

“You - you haven’t spoken to him since?!” Nancy sat up straight, staring at Karen in surprise.

“I haven’t really thought of it” she admitted. 

“And he hasn’t visited or called?” Nancy asked incredulously.

“He doesn’t know how badly hurt Mike is. He probably thinks it’s nothing serious.”

“Nothing - it’s been a whole day!” Of course her mother would try to twist the situation to justify her father's unjustifiable actions.

“Nancy, I’ll call him later, okay?” Karen snapped.

Nancy scowled, but didn’t pursue the issue. Her eyes fell back onto Mike’s face, lingering on the purple bruise on his jaw.

No more secrets. 

She was the one who had proposed that they tell each other everything, and yet she had been the one who had gone back to barely talking to Mike when he began acting out in the weeks and months after Will and then El disappeared. He’d been so irritable, so quick to snap at everyone, and Nancy couldn’t be bothered to deal with it. Especially considering that the threat of the Demogorgon seemed to have disappeared, so she’d stopped worrying about the monster coming and killing her brother like it had killed her best friend.

In hindsight, Nancy could see that anger was simply the way Mike dealt with his trauma and negative emotions. Anger and shutting everyone else out, judging by the way he’d holed himself up in the basement for months after the Byers moved. And she had stopped talking to him. So he stopped telling her anything. 

The guilt that had been piled up on her chest like a pile of bricks since yesterday grew heavier as she let her thoughts spiral.

To think that he had been more willing to go and get himself killed than tell her that he’d been cursed.

“Nancy?” Her mother’s voice interrupted her thoughts. She looked up. “Mm?”

“You said this… this Vecna-“ Karen grimaced, as if the name left a bitter taste in her mouth “-he targets traumatised people?”

Nancy wasn’t sure where this was going. They’d been through this multiple times already. “Yes.”

Her mother was silent for a few seconds before responding. “What kind of problems did the others have?”

“Oh.” Nancy paused for a second. They’d left that information out of the story in Max’s room. It hadn’t seemed relevant.  “Well, Chrissy had an eating disorder. Fred had PTSD - he was in a car accident last year. We think Patrick was abused-” Nancy hesitated at the devastated expression on her mother’s face. “And, uh, Max had a really shit home life and watched the Mindflayer kill her brother last summer. And she has depression.”

Karen adverted her gaze from Nancy towards Mike, her chin wobbling. She reached forwards and gently placed her hand on his arm. “I can’t believe he was struggling so much and I didn’t notice.”  

“Mum, it’s not your fault.”

“But it seems s-so obvious now. He was such a boisterous and happy child-” she lifted a hand to wipe away the tear rolling down her left cheek “-I thought he just grew out of it, you know? Teenage moodiness. But the transition in his personality was s-so sudden-” her voice broke off as more tears began streaming down her face.

“No, you couldn’t have known” said Nancy, giving what she hoped was a reassuring look. “You didn’t know about the Upside Down.” But I did. I should have known. “And Mike kind of expresses his negative emotions as anger, doesn’t he? He was so difficult to talk to after El disappeared.” I should have tried harder.

“Was he close to that girl?” Karen asked uncertainly. “Max? I know she was at our house a few times, but I don’t think I ever even saw them talk.”

Nancy shook her head. “Not really. They get on each others nerves.”

“But he still sacrificed himself for her?” Her voice was wavering.

Nancy shrugged. “You read his letter. He thought it should have been him in the coma instead.” She took a shuddering breath. “Or d-dead instead of Patrick.” Because that had been Mike’s plan, hadn’t it? He hadn’t planned on making it out unhurt. He hadn’t even planned on making it out alive but trapped like Max had. He had planned on dying. Tears were spilling down her cheeks again, and they were too fast and numerous to hide from her mother. “And now he is in a coma instead-“ she broke off as the tears progressed into sobs, bowing her head in a half-hearted attempt to hide her face.

She heard her mother stand up, and a few seconds later Karen was wrapping her arms around Nancy’s shoulders. “Shhh. It’s going to be alright” she murmured softly, running her fingers through Nancy’s hair. “We’ll work it out, okay? And it’s not your fault. I’m sorry I shouted at you earlier. None of this is your fault.”

Nancy rested her head on her mother’s shoulder. She wondered how Karen had known that she was blaming herself. 

“Nancy,” Karen said, her voice suddenly more serious. “You know I’ve always said you can tell me anything?”

She nodded, her cheeks flushing slightly with embarrassment. Her mother had always told her that she could tell her anything, but that hadn’t stopped Nancy practically living a double life since Barb died. Even before that, she hadn’t exactly been open with either of her parents. 

“I mean it, okay?” Her mother continued. “Anything. No matter how old you get - if you’re ever struggling, if you have depression or anything like that, if you’re in trouble, even if you’ve done something wrong - I want you to tell me, okay?”

Nancy nodded again, a few more tears trickling down her face. “Okay.” She broke the eye contact, looking down at the floor, before looking back up at her mother’s face and blurting “I told him no more secrets.”

Karen’s forehead creased slightly. “Hm?”

“Mike. When Will disappeared, after I found out about the Upside Down. I made him agree to tell each other everything.” She paused, trying to regain some level of composure. “But I stopped trying after Will came back and he didn’t tell me anything-“

“Oh, Nancy, no” Karen hushed, wiping a few tears off Nancy’s face with her thumb. “I told you, this isn’t your fault.”

Nancy shook her head. Her mother didn’t understand. “I-I found him having a panic attack a few days ago! I knew something was wrong with him!”

Karen seemed to consider Nancy's words for a few seconds as she ran her thumb across her other cheek. “Panic attacks aren’t symptoms of the curse, are they?”

“Hm?” She took a second to process the question. “No, but-“

“Then how were you supposed to know what Mike was going to do?”

Nancy didn’t respond to that. She still knew that this was all her fault… but she couldn’t find an answer to that question.

“You know, I found him in the kitchen yesterday morning” said Karen in a slightly quieter, more subdued voice, “and I could tell something was wrong. I asked him if he wanted to talk about it, he obviously said no… and I let him go.” Nancy felt her shudder slightly. “I let him go. Does that mean this is my fault?”

Nancy wanted to argue back, tell her mother that it wasn’t the same - she didn’t know about Vecna - but she didn’t.  “No. No, it’s not.”

“Then it’s not your fault either, honey” Karen stated simply. 

For some reason, the realisation that she wasn't the only one who felt like she could have prevented this situation was a comforting one. She could feel the uncomfortable tightness that had been plaguing her chest since yesterday diminishing ever so slightly. She offered her mother a small smile before succumbing to tears yet again, falling back into the hug, tightly wrapping her arms around Karen.

She should really talk to her mother about her feelings more often. 

It didn’t fix everything, of course. Her brother was still trapped in Vecna’s Mind Lair. Grief still weighed painfully over her whole body. The guilt was still there, lingering in her chest - she still felt at least partially to blame - but it wasn’t overwhelming her anymore. And as she sat beside Mike, her mother beside her, she began to let herself hope that, maybe, eventually, they'd find a way to free Mike, and maybe everything might turn out okay.

Chapter Text

El was sitting cross-legged on her bed. A black knitted scarf was tied over her eyes. The radio on her bedside table was emitting white noise loudly enough to drown out the noise of her family in the other rooms.

She couldn’t find him. 

Karen had let her see Mike yesterday. She had held his hand, closed her eyes, transported herself to the Void… and Mike hadn’t been there. 

It shouldn’t have hurt as badly as it had when she tried to find Max. She knew that Mike was in the exact same place Max had been. Whilst Mike was trapped in the Mindscape she wouldn’t be able to find anything.

The empty void of Mike's mind had still devastated her.

She had to figure out how to get him back - she was the one with powers, and the one who knew Henry personally, so it was up to her - but she couldn't come up with anything. As far as they knew, the only way to enter Vecna’s Mindscape was by being cursed. None of them except Max and Mike had been cursed, and Vecna wasn't going to curse anyone else because he had already opened four doors. They couldn’t get into the Mindscape without Henry letting them in… and her dad was right. Even if they tried to convince Vecna to curse one of them again, he wouldn’t fall for it after being tricked by both Mike and Max.

Mike and Max. Her two best friends, and Henry had almost killed them both. Max had been the first person to encourage her to be herself. Do things she wanted to do just for the fun of it, without worrying what other people might think of her. And Mike… he was her first friend. The first person to ever treat her with genuine kindness.

Who next? Her dad? Another one of her friends? Her brothers?

She ripped the scarf off her face, making a strangled sound that was somewhere between a scream and a sob as she threw it to the side. It slid off the bed and onto the floor, but she didn’t care enough to pick it back up. 

Things were so much easier when all El had to do to save Mike from his self-sacrificial ways was use her telekinesis to pull him back up a cliff. Despite her powers being stronger than ever, they weren’t enough anymore. She had no idea how to find him. She didn’t even know what would happen if they killed Henry whilst Mike was still stuck in the Mindscape: there was a chance that Mike would wake up, but there was also the possibility that whatever part of Mike Henry had trapped would die with him, and none of them were willing to gamble with Mike’s life like that. Killing Henry would be difficult enough - El had already failed to kill him once (twice, if you counted the time she accidentally blasted him into the Upside Down) - but they had to free Mike before they killed him, and El had no idea how to achieve that.

God, this was all her fault. A few tears slid down her cheeks as Henry’s words rang through her mind.

All I needed was someone to open the door… and you did that for me. 

If she hadn’t removed the chip from his neck… if she hadn’t thrown him into the Upside Down…

She imagined what Mike would say if he knew what she was thinking. He'd be horrified. She could practically hear his voice: no El, it wasn't your fault. That mouth breather used you. You're not a monster.

The guilt subsided slightly, but it was replaced by burning rage. It wasn't her fault. It was Henry's fault. He had used her. He was the one who had cursed Mike.

But it was her responsibility to fix it.

Mike had come to her the day before he sacrificed himself and asked her those questions about what would happen if Vecna killed someone else and she hadn’t realised what he was going to do. The guilt returned, twisting her insides painfully. The memory of Vecna standing over Mike flashed beneath her eyelids, and more tears spurted down her face. Unlike Max, he hadn’t even been fighting back. It was like he had wanted Vecna to kill him.

He had been the first person to treat her like a human who needed to be cared for, rather than a weapon that could be exploited. The first person to reassure her that she was not a monster. She buried her head in her hands, smearing the blood underneath her nose, as she remembered the things she’d said to him in Lenora. Would he have still gone and sacrificed himself without telling her if they hadn’t fought so much? Those fights seemed so stupid now, because it didn’t matter if Mike didn’t love her romantically, and couldn’t say I love you to her face - he was still the best first friend she could have asked for, he had protected her when she escaped from the lab, and she had failed- 

El was jolted from her spiralling thoughts by soft knocking on her door. Wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hands, she looked up at the white door, wondering who it was. Her dad, probably - but Joyce, Jonathan and Will were currently living here too. It was a squeeze, because the cabin was so small, but Jonathan claimed he was content with sleeping in the pizza van with Argyle, and it wasn’t as if they had many other options. 

“El?” It was Will. “Are you okay?” 

She didn’t respond at first. After a few seconds, Will spoke again, louder this time. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk. It’s just, you’ve been in there for a while.”

El sighed before lazily flicking her wrist in the direction of the door, using her telekinesis to open it. The door flew open to reveal Will, standing in the doorway. A twinge of pain jolted through El’s body as she took in his bloodshot eyes, unkept hair and dejected posture. He’d been crying too. 

El thought that Will seemed to have been hit hardest. He was certainly struggling more than the rest of their friends. It reminded her a bit of Mike when El first met him, when Will was missing: Dustin and Lucas had desperately wanted to find Will too - Lucas had even tried to go after the bad men by himself - but Mike had acted like his life would be over if they didn’t find Will. He had been the most upset when Will’s fake body was found. Mike and Will’s friendship was just… different to normal friendships somehow. Stronger. As if one couldn’t exist without the other.

Will shot her a worried glance - her eyes were probably still red from crying, and she knew there was still some blood smeared under her nose - but his face softened in understanding when his eyes landed on the scarf lying on the floor beside her bed. “Still can’t find him?” he asked quietly.

El’s face crumpled as she shook her head. She bowed her head, trying to hide her face and compose herself, but it was futile. She heard the door close, and a few seconds later felt the dip in her mattress as Will sat down on her bed.

He pulled her into a hug, and El buried her head in his shoulder, sobbing. He didn’t try to say anything like “it’s okay,” which El appreciated. He just hugged her. 

“I can’t find him” she cried into Will’s shoulder after a few minutes. “I-I’m useless.”

“What? No, don’t say that!” Will pulled away so that he was facing her. “El, we’d all be dead many times over without you and you know it.”

El sniffed. “I couldn’t save Max” she said in a shaky voice. “I couldn’t stop the gates from opening… and I couldn’t save Mike! I can’t beat Vecna! I can’t find Mike!”

“Hey” Will interjected, grabbing her hands. “El, calm down. Take some deep breaths for me, okay?” El hadn’t noticed how erratic her breathing had become. She breathed in and out slowly, and to her surprise, her body relaxed slightly. “That’s it.” Will encouraged her in a soft voice. “Okay. Listen to me. I know you’re the one with powers, but you don’t have to face Vecna alone, you know? It’s not your responsibility alone to figure out how to kill him, or how to get M-Mike back. Everyone else is going to fight him too.” El disagreed - it was her who gave Henry his powers back in the first place, so it was surely her responsibility to kill him - but she knew Will wouldn’t want to hear that, so she stayed quiet. “And you did save Max, remember? You restarted her heart. You distracted Vecna for long enough to let the others get to his body. Without you, Max, Robin, Steve and Nancy would all be dead, and Vecna would be at full strength.” Will paused for a second. His eyes were gleaming. “And… you saved Mike too, didn’t you? He died in my arms. I felt him stop breathing.” Will shuddered at the memory. “You revived him, didn’t you?”

Ah. This was something she’d been meaning to discuss with Will for a few days. She hadn’t really stopped to consider what had happened after Mike died in the hours after it had happened - she had been too distraught - but these past few days, she had been thinking about what she had seen and felt in the void. “I… I don’t think I did” she admitted.

Will’s forehead creased in confusion. “What? What are you talking about?”

El took a shaky breath. “I tried to. But it felt… different to when I saved Max. I could feel the power going from my hand to her heart. It was not as strong when I tried to save Mike.”

“But - but he’s still alive. It still worked.”

El shook her head. “Will” she said. “I think you saved him.”

The room was silent for a few seconds. “W-what?” Will spluttered eventually, taken aback. He looked at her with a baffled expression, as if El was playing some elaborate prank.

El, however, was deadly serious. “Your hands were glowing.”

Will frowned at her. He glanced at his hands, as if expecting them to start glowing now. “They were?”

She nodded. “Yes. They were blue.”

“But-“ Will shook his head “-El, I don’t have powers.”

“You can sense Vecna” El pointed out. “You could see the shadow monster.”

“Yeah, but that’s just because I got possessed.”

“You survived in the Upside Down for seven days,” El continued, brushing off Will’s interruption “and that girl - Barb - she didn’t. Maybe you do have powers.”

“No” Will stated simply, refusing to even contemplate her suggestion. “I’d - I’d know if I had powers, El. How - how could I accidentally bring someone back to life?”

El shrugged. “I didn’t know that I could do that until I did it with Max.”

“You knew what you were trying to do, though” Will argued. “And you knew you had other powers.”

El shook her head. She was beginning to feel a bit irritated. Why was Will refusing to take her seriously? She was, after all, the only person with powers he knew. “I have used those powers before, Will” she reminded him. “I know what it feels like to use them, and I’m telling you, it did not feel the same when I tried to save Mike. Maybe our powers merged, maybe we both restarted his heart together. I don’t know. But it was not just me.”

“But how could I do that without knowing?” Will repeated. 

“My powers are stronger when I’m angry. Or sad. Strong emotions. You care about Mike very much. Maybe you were so sad that your powers… burst out of you.”

“Yeah - the powers that I don’t have.” Will stood up. El could tell from the tone of his voice that he was angry, which confused her. Why was he angry?

“Will?” 

Will didn’t turn around. He stormed out of the room instead. El followed him through the cabin and outside, shouting his name, but Will ignored her.

“Why are you angry?” she shouted after him.

Will stopped, and finally turned to face her. “I’m not” he scowled.

It was amazing, considering that the first thing she’d learnt about friends was that they supposedly didn’t lie, how often everyone around her lied so casually. “You are. Why-” She blinked, suddenly remembering the horrified look Brenner had given her after she’d thrown Henry into the Upside Down. Cold realisation filled her veins. Her face fell, and tears began to pool under her eyes again. “Do you - do you think having powers is bad?”

Will’s face softened immediately. “No. No- god, no, El, I didn’t mean it like that” he said hurriedly. “There’s nothing wrong with having powers.”

El frowned. Maybe Will was just acting like this because he was sad. She knew grief made people act angry sometimes - she herself had had days where the smallest things would irritate her when she thought her dad was dead. But - no, Will had been acting fine before she suggested that he might have powers. “But you got angry when I said you might have powers. I don’t understand.”

Will ran a hand through his hair. He glanced down at the ground before looking back up at her face, before taking a deep breath. “All this shit that’s happened these past three years” he began uncertainly. “I’ve not been able to do anything to help. You always have to fight whatever monster the Upside Down throws at us because you’re the one with powers.” He paused for a second, adverting his eyes back to the ground. “And the others help, they make plans and use weapons, but I’m no help at all. Like, Mike figured out how to destroy the tunnels. Dustin and Erica escaped the Russians. The fireworks last year was Lucas’s idea.” He looked back up at El, eyes glistening. “And... you’re suggesting that I have - that I could have helped you fight this whole time? I could’ve helped you stop Vecna hurting Max in the first place? Stopped him getting Mike?”

Oh. 

El shook her head hurriedly. It wasn’t the same at all. Her and Will’s situations were completely different. “No, that’s not what I meant. I was trained to use my powers for most of my life” El reminded him. “Pa-Brenner just saw me as a weapon. That’s why I knew I had powers. That’s why my powers are strong.”

Will’s face dropped. His eyes clouded with pain. “I-I know - I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking-“

“It’s okay” El interrupted. “It’s - it’s not your fault. Also, we don’t even know what other powers you have.”

“Yeah.” Will’s face hardened. “Yeah, exactly - I’ve been sad, angry and scared before. We don’t know what powers I have. No other powers have ever exploded out of me to save the day, because I don’t have any.” His voice was suddenly harsh again. “If you want to consider my connection to the Upside Down a power, fine. But there’s nothing special about me.”

“No, Will-“ El tried, but Will shook his head.

“Look, I know you’re feeling guilty because you couldn’t stop Mike from getting hurt, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t you who saved him, alright? You shouldn’t blame yourself. You saved his life.” He turned away, but El still saw the tear that spilled down his left cheek. “I don’t save people. I’m always the one who needs saving.”

“Will-“

“No, El. I’m sorry-“ he lowered his voice slightly, probably trying not to upset El further “-I’m not angry at you, okay? You haven’t done anything wrong. I just… need to be alone.”

El watched with wide eyes as Will strode away from the cabin, biting the inside of her lip nervously. She should go after him. It wasn’t safe, walking around Hawkins alone whilst the Upside Down was still seeping through cracks in the ground. Especially not for Will, who had been targeted by monsters from the Upside Down twice before. 

Yet… she didn’t even consider stopping him from leaving. She knew exactly what it was like to be confined to the cabin. To be made to feel like a prisoner by the people who were supposed to care about her. Besides, if Vecna wanted to attack any of them, they couldn’t avoid it by staying inside.

She stood motionless for a few minutes, staring at the space where Will had disappeared amongst the trees, before turning back to the cabin, her determination rekindled.       

Chapter Text

Two weeks after Max woke up, four weeks after Will, Mike and El returned to Hawkins and seven months after the last time the whole Party had been at the same place at the same time, the six of them were finally in a room together again.

This was the first time Max had been allowed out of her room. The nurses had started trying to get her into a wheelchair a few days ago, but she’d been mostly stuck in her bed. There was always someone with her to try and alleviate the boredom caused by not being able to get up or move any of her limbs. Well, there had always been someone with her whilst she was comatose, but that had only been because Lucas had refused to leave her side. Now there was an unspoken agreement that someone had to be there at all times, available to prevent her from lying in her bed alone, with nothing to do but stare at the ceiling. She got pretty restless sometimes, but she also slept a lot, usually being unable to stay awake for much longer than an hour. Lucas had pointed this out when Max first insisted that she wanted to visit Mike, but she’d just scowled at him. “I’ll manage.”

Lucas had been uncertain, especially as she was still in considerable pain from her broken limbs. However, after a few days of asking, her doctor had agreed to let her leave her room, as long as she wasn’t left by herself. She’d even remarked that “it’d do you some good to get out of this room” - so Lucas really had no excuse to convince Max to stay in her room, even though he was still terrified that something else might happen to her. 

Which was stupid, because it wasn’t like being in her room was going to protect her from anything. But he couldn’t help it.

So now Max was in Mike’s hospital room, sitting in her wheelchair next to Lucas. Will was there too, on the other side of the bed, in the chair closet to Mike’s head. The haunted expression still hadn’t left his face, and Lucas hadn’t heard him speak all week. El was sitting next to him, bouncing her leg and staring off into space, seemingly deep in thought. Dustin was sitting next to her, staring at the floor and fiddling with his hands.

They were finally together again. But two of them were severely injured, and one wasn’t even awake.

Max was clearly trying to keep a straight face, but her horror was evident, and her eyes were fixed on Mike’s body. Her skin had become green-tinged, almost like when she’d first found out what Mike had done. Lucas was keeping an eye on her, ready to grab the bin if he needed to. He understood. The casts on his limbs, the sickly paleness of his skin, the nasal cannula draped over his face - that wasn’t something you could ever get used to. The fact that Mike had sacrificed himself for her obviously mustn't be helping either. 

He glanced at Will for a second, something twinging in his gut as he took in the haunted look in his slightly glazed eyes, the shadows under those eyes, his messy bowl cut and his slumped, dejected posture.

Lucas hadn’t tried to talk to Will about what had happened. The memory of Max dying in his arms still haunted his dreams and sent a chill of horror through his body every time he was reminded of the sight of her limp body, the feel of her head lolling against his arm, the sound of her terrified sobs, the metallic smell of her blood… he wasn’t sure if he ready to talk about it yet. He was sure Will wouldn’t appreciate him bringing up the ordeal of watching the same thing happen to Mike. Yet he still wanted Will to know that he was there for him. That he understood. 

But they weren’t as close as they used to be. None of them were.

He'd been friends with Mike since they were six. He'd been a bit hostile at first, convinced that Lucas was going to get in the way of his friendship with Will - Mike and Will were practically joined at the hip since the first day of school - but he had soon accepted being part of a trio. Their friendship had strengthened significantly when they realised they lived so close together, resulting in weekly playdates. He remembered learning to ride a bike with Mike on the pavement outside their houses. Mike being so excited at the prospect of being able to go to Will's house without needing an adult to drive him there. Learning to play DnD in Mike's basement.

His 11 year old self would have probably cried for days if he’d known that the Party would drift apart so dramatically in just a few short years. A few years ago, he would have had no issue approaching Will. Now… now everyone was in the same room, but that room was silent. His relationships with everyone were broken.

He might never even get to fix his friendship with Mike.

“I’m sorry for ditching you guys this year” he said suddenly, breaking the silence.

Dustin looked up from the floor, confused. “What? Don’t worry about that, dude” he said. “I - honestly, if I had found a way to stop people bullying me, I have taken it too." He hesitated for a moment. "I’m sorry for not going to your game.”

A jolt of pain twinged Lucas’s chest, remembering the last conversation he’d had with Mike. “It’s fine. I get it.”

Dustin shook his head. “It wasn’t. And - I’m also sorry for hanging around Steve and Robin when Upside Down stuff started happening instead of with you guys last Summer. We should have stuck together.”

“That wasn’t even your fault” Lucas pointed out, cringing internally as he remembered the way he’d acted that summer. “You tried to hang out with us, but Mike and I were being insufferable, and-”

“Will you two shut up?” Max cut in sharply, although her eyes seemed to have lit up ever so slightly. “You’re making me feel sick.”

Lucas smiled despite himself. He’d missed Max’s attitude.

And then he had to close his eyes for a few seconds to stop the tears that had sprung to his eyes from escaping, because he missed Mike’s snarky comments.

El, who had been pretty fidgety all day, suddenly turned to Will tentatively. “I think we should tell them.”

Lucas felt his insides freeze. That didn’t sound good. Dustin seemed to feel the same way, judging by the way his body had stiffened.

Will, however, simply shrugged apathetically. 

El took that as permission to elaborate, and turned to the others. “We’ve been thinking… we might have to go into the Upside Down.”

“What? Why would you do that?” Dustin asked, looking baffled. Lucas felt the same way: the Upside Down was already seeping into the town. It was a full of monsters. It was the reason they were in this mess in the first place. Surely they should be staying as far away as possible until they formed some sort of plan?

“We’re not getting any closer to finding Mike or killing Vecna” El explained. "We are going there to look for clues.”

“Just you and Will?” As much as Lucas didn’t like the fact that El constantly put herself in danger every time a supernatural problem arose, he understood why that had to be the case. She was the one with the powers. Will, on the other hand… he still had severe PTSD from his time in the Upside Down, and had developed a tendency to freeze when overwhelmed. Going back into the Upside Down would be torturous for him.

“Nancy is coming with us too” El replied. “Will is coming because he… he has a connection to the Upside Down, and he’s good at hiding from the monsters.” She paused for a second. “And Nancy said we should ask Robin too, because she’s good at solving problems.”

“What if he comes after you?” Max interrupted.

“It will be dangerous” El admitted “-but we’re running out of time.”

“Whoa, hold up.” Lucas put his hand up. They knew Vecna was still alive, and planning to do god knows what to spread suffering across the town. But he’d been badly hurt. He couldn't attack anyone in his current condition, could he? “Why are we running out of time?”

El glanced at Will, who still hadn’t spoken yet. He pressed his lips into a thin line, eyes focused towards the floor instead of towards the others. “You- you guys know how I can. Uh. Feel him?”

Lucas nodded. Dustin’s forehead creased. “Why? What are you feeling now?” 

Will was silent for a few seconds. “He’s… still hurt” he began tentatively. “But not as much as before. He’s healing. And getting stronger. Quickly.”

Max’s expression was unreadable. El seemed sombre  - Lucas wondered when Will had shared this information with her. It was still a bit weird, seeing them as siblings, even though they’d been living in the same house for nearly a year now.

“So - do you think he’s planning something?” Dustin asked.

Will nodded solemnly. “I don’t know what, or when, but he wants to destroy everything. He's really angry. And the stronger he gets, the harder he’s going to be to kill.”

“But we don’t know how to kill him” Lucas finished. “Nancy, Robin and Steve set him alight and he’s still alive.”

“And we don’t know how to get Mike out before we kill him” Will added.

They’d been trying to figure out how to free someone from the Mindscape ever since Max was taken. Nancy was spending all the time she wasn’t at the hospital in the library, calling people, trying to follow even the most outlandish leads, but they hadn’t made a breakthrough since Robin had figured out that music could free the victims from Vecna’s curse.

They knew that they’d need Mike’s favourite song to free him. Even that had been difficult to figure out, but Nancy had extracted a song from MIke’s room, claiming that she had heard him playing it on repeat for months. Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat - definitely not what Lucas would have guessed, but he’d drifted away from Mike so much since last Summer that he didn’t even question it. However, even if this was Mike’s favourite song, it wasn’t enough by its own - Lucas knew that all too well from the days he had spent playing Kate Bush to Max to no avail.

Max sighed. “If you’d just let him take me again-“

“Max, no!” El shrieked.

Lucas scowled. “We’ve spoken about this! He wouldn’t take you after you tricked him last time even if you tried!”

“But maybe he’s so angry that I got away that he’d still take me back!”

“Max, stop it” Dustin cut in before Lucas could respond. “Let’s say that Vecna is stupid enough to possess you again. What if you get hurt again? What he traps you? Do you really think we’re willing to let this-“ he gestured at Mike’s body “-happen again?”

Max didn’t respond, adverting her eyes to the floor. Dustin sighed. “You two really are the same person.”

Max smirked at that, although it still lacked her usual feistiness. “You mean we’re both depressed as fuck? I noticed.”

Dustin didn’t smile back. “I meant you both clearly believe that no one would care if you died.” He glanced at Mike sadly. “Which is bullshit. We do care. About both of you.”

Max’s smile disappeared. The same awkward silence descended over the group again, and Lucas found himself feeling irritated at Dustin, even though he agreed wholeheartedly with what he had said.

“You couldn’t have known that either of us were depressed, you know” Max said suddenly.

“What?”

“Symptoms of depression aren’t exactly common knowledge.” If her arms weren’t both in casts up to her shoulders, she probably would have shrugged. “I mean, I figured Mike was depressed, but-”

“You did?” Dustin interrupted. 

Max looked down at her lap for a few seconds hesitantly. “Yeah” she replied quietly. “I knew.”

“How? Did he tell you?”

“What? No-” Max rolled her eyes “-of course not.”

“Then how did you know?” Dustin’s voice was thick with emotion.

“He locked himself in his basement for like, the whole Christmas break.” Will, who Lucas had barely seen react to anything all day, went wide eyed. “You remember that, right?” Max asked, directing the question to Lucas and Dustin. They both nodded.

“Depressive episode” she said, matter of factly. “Sometimes you have really bad periods where you don’t want to do anything. In between those periods… it’s not as bad, you can function and act somewhat normally, but you’re not happy. Just…” she paused, as if searching for the right word. “Numb, I suppose. Anyway, he’s also been really irritable for ages. And Nancy said his room and the basement have been a mess lately. He shouted at me for messing up his stuff the first time I went to his house, remember? I don’t know, maybe that was just because he hated me-“

“He didn’t hate you”

“-but I still got the impression that he was a bit of a neat freak when it came to his basement” Max continued, as if Lucas hadn’t spoke. “But when you’re depressed… you don’t have the energy to care about stuff like mess.”

A tear fell down Will’s cheek. 

Max winced, and Lucas was alert, standing up immediately. “Are you okay?”

“Fine” she muttered, clenching her jaw, but she was in clear discomfort.

“You don’t look fine” he retorted. “I’ll take you back to your room.”

“I’ll take her” El interrupted. 

Part of Lucas wanted to argue with El, but he stopped himself. He had been with Max almost constantly since she had woken up. Not to mention that El had been in California for nearly seven months - it’d probably do both Max and El some good to spend time together. “Alright” he said instead, sitting back down. “Ask the nurse to give her some more medication for the pain.”

El nodded as she vacated her seat, and carefully began to manoeuvre Max towards the door. 

Lucas looked down at his clenched hands, wondering what to do now.

Dustin stood up. “I need to go too” he announced. “I promised mum I’d be home before it got dark.”

Lucas nodded. Dustin’s mother had become understandably protective of him since the “earthquake,” the ordeal of the Hellfire members being labelled “satanic” by half the town and two of Dustin's friends being attacked. “See you tomorrow.”

Near-silence filled the room after the door closed behind Dustin, broken only by the beeping of Mike’s heart monitor. Lucas watched Will for a few seconds. He look awful, watching Mike’s unresponsive body with bloodshot eyes as if Mike would disappear if he looked away. 

“Maybe you should go home too.”

Will turned his head and glared at him. 

Lucas wasn’t surprised. He had done the exact same thing multiple times to Erica, Steve, Robin, the nurses - pretty much everyone - when he’d been sitting at Max’s bedside. “I’m serious, man. You look exhausted - have you not been sleeping?”

Will, stone-faced, turned back to Mike. “Can’t sleep.”

Lucas’s face softened in understanding. “Nightmares?”

Will nodded, his bottom lip wobbling slightly. 

The silence stretched out for a few seconds, and Lucas had assumed that Will wasn’t going to elaborate, and was desperately trying to figure out what to say next by the time Will spoke again.

“I keep seeing him die.” His voice was suddenly a lot quieter. “Every time I close my eyes.”

“Do you… want to talk about it?”

Will shook his head, forcing his face back into a neutral expression. “N-no, I’m sorry. I’m fine.” 

Lucas sighed. “Will. I’m worried about you. You’ve barely spoken all day.”

Will had completely clammed up again. Like in the weeks after he’d been possessed by the Mind Flayer. The only person who had ever been able to get Will to open up when he was like this was Mike.

But Mike wasn’t here anymore.

He had to stop thinking so hard about what to say, and just try to comfort Will. Channel his inner Mike. “I’m just saying - if you need to talk about it, I’m probably the only one who might understand, you know? I mean, I was there when he got Max.”

Will was quiet for a few seconds, probably wondering whether he should speak or not. “He was… crying” he began, still not facing Lucas. “He was hurt s-so bad. I can’t get the sound of him crying out of my head.”

Lucas looked down at the floor, trying not to imagine what Mike had looked when he was dying in Will’s arms. “I get it” he said quietly. “I’m not… going to tell you everything’s fine. It’s not fine. But… I understand. Max … she kept telling me that she was scared. She said she w-wasn’t ready to die.” Unfortunately for him, he’d seen firsthand what Vecna could do. He knew exactly what Mike must have looked like. “And I’m still haunted by… by the sound of her begging not to die, even though she’s awake now.” A stray tear escaped his left eye, but he wiped it away with his sleeve before Will could notice it.

Not that Will was looking at him - his eyes were still fixed on Mike. “Mike spoke to me a bit too. He reminded me that I’d promised I’d be alright if he died.” His voice was beginning to waver, Lucas noted. “I, uh, obviously started panicking, told him that he was going to be fine… but then he fucking died on me!”

At that, Will broke down, burying his face into his hands. Lucas immediately stood up and rushed to his side, placing a hand on his back. “It’s the most awful feeling in the world, isn’t it?” He murmured. “Like, we’ve been through so much shit. You especially, far more than the rest of us. But that… that pain is on another level. I told Max she wasn’t going to die too.” He shuddered as Max’s desperate sobs echoed in his ears. “She was terrified. And, I was probably comforting myself as much as her, trying to convince myself she was going to be fine. But then… yeah, she just went limp in my arms.”

He felt Will shudder beneath his fingers. “Mike didn’t… he didn’t seem to care that he was dying. Which, I suppose makes sense considering that he wasn’t planning on making it out alive…” a fresh wave of tears began to cascade down his cheeks. Lucas pulled him into a hug, ignoring the tears streaming down his own cheeks. “I- Lucas, I think he actually wanted to die.”

Lucas tried to keep his face as steady as possible. The possibility that both Mike and Max had wanted to die - that Mike still wanted to - was crushing, but he needed to keep it together for Will. The way Will and Mike had kept it together for Lucas the day they came back from California. “We’ll figure it out” he promised. “When he wakes up, we’re all going to be here for him, okay? We’ll figure it out.”

Will nodded, and Lucas could just about make out the tiny shift in Will’s face. He still looked devestated but… his eyes were just a tiny bit more hopeful.

That lasted all of five seconds, however, as Will suddenly tensed, eyes widening in horror, right hand shooting to the back of his neck.

“Will?” Lucas tried to catch Will’s eye, an uncomfortable, creeping feeling crawling down his back, but Will was too distracted to notice. “What’s wrong?”

Will stood up abruptly, finally looking at Lucas. His eyes were cold, jaw clenched in determination. “Stay here. Stay with Mike.”

Lucas shook his head in confusion. “What? Where are you going? What’s going on?”

“El" Will panted, striding to the door. "I need to get El.”

“Why? What’s going on?!” Lucas shouted after him.

Will stopped in the doorway, hesitating momentarily. 

“Vecna.”

Chapter Text

It was cold.

He was exhausted. His body was aching.

The air was putrid and acidic and irritating his nostrils.

No, his body wasn’t just aching - it was in agony. His muscles were burning, as if he’d been walking for days, but it wasn’t just in his legs. It was in his arms, his chest, his abdomen, everywhere. He tried to whimper in pain, but his vocal cords didn’t seem to be working. 

He cracked his eyes open.

A grey, rotting monster with a skull-like face was standing over him. Mike took in a shocked, sharp intake of breath, and tried to recoil - but again, his body didn’t cooperate.

A slither of confusion washed over him. He distinctly remembered Vecna crushing the life out of him. A while ago. How long ago? He didn’t remember anything happening after his body got pulverised, yet it felt like months ago. He must have passed out.

But if Vecna had killed him… how was he still alive?

He moved his eyes down to glance at his body. Thick, grey vines were wrapped uncomfortably tightly around his torso, neck, and each of his limbs. That explained why he was still in an upright position. He felt too exhausted to even keep his head upright, let alone stand. 

Maybe this was all that happens after death. You end up tethered to the place you died, forced to relive the last thing you saw for eternity.

Or maybe he was just in Hell.

“Michael Wheeler.” 

Definitely Hell.

Mike tried to speak - but found that he could barely move his mouth. Even using all his strength and concentration, all he managed to do was twitch his lips. He felt his heart rate accelerate as it finally sank in that he could not move at all. 

Vecna smirked. “Don’t bother.” He growled. “You do not have enough energy to argue with me.”

Mike slowly swivelled his eyes to the side, taking in the rest of his surroundings. Dark red sky, smog-filled air, and a wasteland of rocks and dilapidated ruins stretching all the way to the horizon. 

“They’re not going to help you. You’re too far gone for your little friends to get you out now.”

If he’d had the energy, he would have frowned in confusion, but all he could do was move his eyes back to the monster in front of him and stare at him blankly. He knew no one was coming. He couldn’t move. And Vecna was standing right over him.

“All my victims…” he mused, gesturing to the pillars in the distance. “They are not gone. They’re still here. The energy I draw from them amplifies my strength, and is increasing my power. Healing me.” He stepped closer. “The energy I’m drawing from you.”

So wasn’t he killing him?

He wished he’d just get it over with. It was cold, and it smelt bad, and his whole body was in pain. 

Unfortunately, the monster seemed more interested in monologuing and revelling in the fact that Mike couldn’t talk back. Typical.

“I didn’t account for your sister to… injure me” he drawled. “It weakened me greatly. That is the only reason you are still alive.” The mutilated figure paused for a second, his eyes fixed on Mike’s face. “But… I could kill you right now if I wanted.” 

Then do it! KILL ME!

Vecna smirked again, as if he could hear Mike’s thoughts, the mutilated grey remains of his skin folding deeper and stretching the skin below where his nose should have been. It was a grotesque sight, and Mike wanted to look away so that he didn’t have to keep watching it, but he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away. “You and your friends have caused me a great deal of trouble, Mike. I’m afraid I cannot give you the mercy of a quick death anymore.”

Oh. 

Oh shit. 

Vecna sighed, as if feigning disappointment. “Unfortunately, I have to make your death slow and painful.”

Mike tried to struggle against the vines holding him in place as his breaths started coming in fast and ragged and his heart began to pound like a flapping bird in his ribcage, but his muscles were too fatigued to even move his fingers.

“And I’m going to make the rest of them watch it.”

And Vecna’s claws were over his face again, and he tried to scream, struggle, anything, but he was paralysed and completely powerless as his body seized and an excruciating, searing, all-consuming pain, as if all his cells were being simultaneously set on fire, exploded through his body.

Chapter Text

The first sign that something was wrong was the beeping of the heart rate monitor.

Well, no, that wasn’t quite accurate - the first sign had been Will panicking and running out of the room, claiming that Vecna was up to something again. But the first sign that something was wrong with Mike - the thing that catapulted Lucas’s emotions from nervousness to full blown terror - was the heart rate monitor.

The sound of the monitor had been so steady and unchanging that Lucas had become desensitised to it. So when the frequency of the beeping started to accelerate, he froze, and immediately began to panic.

“Oh shit - Mike?!” he cursed, as if Mike could tell him what was wrong.

What the fuck should he do? Should he call a doctor? What if this wasn’t Vecna, but a genuine medical emergency? 

What if Vecna was trying to finish Mike off? Shit, should he start playing music?

He adverted his eyes to the heart rate monitor - 135bpm and still climbing - and when he turned back to Mike, his legs almost gave out.

Dark red blood was streaming out of Mike’s nose.

Lucas’s own heart began to race as a fresh wave of horror rose into his chest.

No, no, this wasn’t happening - not again - he could not watch another one of his friends die.

He bolted to the shelf where the cassette player was standing - Max had confirmed that she hadn’t heard any music until Mike had somehow woken her up in the Mindscape, but seeing as it was the only known way to save Vecna's victims, it was being kept in Mike’s room. Hands trembling and sweating, he turned it on, but the sound of the music filling the room didn’t bring him any relief. Fuck, he didn’t even know if this was actually Mike’s favourite song! They hadn't spoken about things like their favourite songs for nearly 2 years!

He turned back just in time to see that Mike’s breathing, which had been slow and regular, was accelerating into short, ragged breaths. It looked like he was having a nightmare. 

“Mike?” Lucas cried, running back towards his bedside and putting a hand on his shoulder. “Mike, can you hear me?”

Mike’s head arched back, and for a second Lucas thought he was waking up - but then his whole body started spasming.

“Oh my god!” Lucas shrieked, jumping back instinctively.

Will and El came barrelling into the room a second later, which was a relief because Lucas was close to losing all composure and cracking up, and too horrified to do anything useful anymore. El shot to Mike’s side and took his hand - but instantly jolted back with a cry of pain. 

Before he could make his voice work long enough to ask if either Will or El knew what the fuck was happening, a group of doctors came running into the room - maybe Mike’s heart rate or breathing had gotten bad enough to set off an alarm, maybe one of the monitors had detected the shaking - either way, he was being shoved out of the room.

The doctors, baffled, had assumed that Mike had been having a seizure, so now they had taken him to do a bunch of tests to check his brain function. Which were all going to be useless, because whatever Vecna was doing to Mike wouldn’t show up on any screen. 

Will knew, even before he’d ran into Mike’s room and seen him shaking with blood running down his face, that Mike was being tortured. 

“What happened when you touched him, El?”

It was Lucas who asked that. Will hadn’t asked because he already knew what El had felt when she'd touched Mike’s hand.

“Pain” she replied, in a quavering voice so quiet that it was almost a whisper. “Everywhere.”

Everywhere. 

Will knew that pain too well - although he’d tried his hardest to block out the memories from his possession, he remembered the feeling of all his nerve endings burning when the tunnels had been set on fire.

“Where does it hurt?”

“EVERYWHERE!”

Will was furious. 

This monster had abducted him when he was only 12 years old, subjected him to a week of pain and crying and running and hiding from monsters he didn’t even know existed until they were trying to hunt him, possessed him, helped Brenner abuse El, killed Max, traumatised all his friends and family - and now he was torturing the one person who had always managed to make Will feel like everything was going to be okay. 

Will didn’t have it in him to feel sad, or even scared, anymore. He was full of simple rage.

Karen came rushing in at some point - the hospital must have called her - disheveled, hair matted, with an almost crazed look in her eyes. “What happened?” she demanded frantically. “What’s happening to him now?!”

“We’re not sure-“

“-his heart rate shot up, then his nose started bleeding and he just, I don’t know, started shaking-“ 

Will didn’t try to help El and Lucas explain. Karen was better off not knowing that her son was being tortured. 

When they were finally allowed to see Mike again, he and El both went back into the room in case anything happened.

It didn’t happen again that afternoon.

“Will. El. I think you should both come home tonight.”

“No.”

Will didn’t look up, but he heard his mother sigh. “Will-“

“I’m not leaving.” 

“Me either” El agreed quietly.

Joyce had dropped by the hospital to check on her children. She had also offered to stay with Mike so that Karen could go home for a bit, but Karen was refusing to leave Mike’s side, so now Joyce’s attention had turned to convincing Will and El to leave instead.

She sighed again, and sat down in the chair next to El, who was sitting next to Will. “Are you sure? It’s been three days. I’m sure if you both left for one night, to sleep in a proper bed-”

Will shook his head, finally looking away from Mike. “We don’t know that. And I can sense when it’s going to happen! I need to be here with El in case there’s a way to stop it!”

Joyce glanced at Mike with misty eyes. Her face clouded with pain. “Okay. Okay. Well, you two still need to try and take care of yourselves too. I’ll go and get you some food - what would you like?”

Will shrugged. El replied with “I don’t mind.”

They sat in tense silence while Joyce was gone. Nancy had been visiting sporadically over the past few days, but wasn't here at the moment. Will had no idea what she was up to, but judging by how furious she'd been when she found out Vecna was messing with Mike again, Will wouldn't be surprised if she were marching through the Upside Down by herself right now, looking for Vecna and planning to rip him apart with her bare hands. Karen was sitting on the other side of Mike’s bed. She hadn’t spoken to Will or El since shouting at them to tell her what was wrong with Mike three days ago - Will wasn’t sure if she even remembered that El and Will were in the room - but sometimes, seemingly at random, she’d grasp Mike’s fingers, lean over the bed and mutter something. Will wondered if she was losing her mind. He wasn’t surprised - sometimes he felt dangerously close to cracking up himself. 

Joyce came back with sandwiches and bottles of water a while later - five minutes or an hour, Will didn’t know. He took the food she offered him with a muttered “thank you” and began to unwrap it without caring to check what type of sandwich it was. He wasn’t hungry, but it gave his hands something to do, and would hopefully stop his mother from nagging at him for a bit longer.

Just as he was about to bring the sandwich to his mouth, he froze.

The awful, chilling feeling began to trickle down his back again.

Before he could say anything, the beeping of the heart rate monitor began to increase.

Panicked, Will turned to look at El at the same time as she turned to face him. As they made eye contact Will could see the fear in her wide, brown eyes before she turned and reached out to take Mike’s hand.

“Is it happening again? What’s happening?” Karen shouted. 

El inhaled deeply as her hand hovered over Mike’s wrist, probably remembering the pain she had felt the last time this had happened. After a few seconds, she took his hand and closed her eyes just as blood began streaming down Mike’s face. 

“Mike? What’s happening to him?!” 

Will stood up to make his way over to El. He had absolutely no idea how he could help, but - shit, Mike was about to get tortured again, he had to do something! 

As soon as Mike started hyperventilating and shaking again, El was thrown across the room, landing in a heap on the ground. 

Karen screamed. Joyce shouted “El!” and hurried to her side.

It was too much. 

Will couldn’t contain his anger as he looked from his love best friend seizing and bleeding in a hospital bed to his sister lying on the floor and groaning. But just like last time, when all he could do was run to find El, and the time before, when he could sense enough to find Mike, but couldn’t wake him up before Vecna killed him, he was useless. This was his curse: being able to tell that something was wrong, having to watch everyone he loved get hurt, but never being able to do anything about it. 

His fists were clenched, his vision was tinted red, his heart was pounding, his ears were roaring, his head was about to explode - 

The sky was red. 

Will gasped as he realised that the hospital room and its inhabitants had disappeared. His eyes widened as he took in his new surroundings: a red sky, full of grey dust. The ground hosted no living beings, no insects or plants - nothing but jagged rocks and a few structures that looked unnervingly like bones. His nostrils were filled with the stench of dampness and decay. It was cold and silent.

 He instinctively knew that this was it. 

This was the Mindscape.

Vecna must have finally decided to target him. It had only been a matter of time. Will had been expecting it, ever since he’d learnt about Vecna’s curse - it had just taken a backseat ever since Mike was attacked. But this was it. Vecna must have realised that Will could still sense him, and decided to finish him off.

But if this was the Mindscape-

“MIKE?” Will shouted. He scanned his surroundings wildly, but the red smog was obscuring his vision, and he could see nothing but dust and rubble. He started running, allowing the tingling feeling still spreading down his spine guide him. 

Squinting as he ran, he could just about make out an area in the distance marked by the shadowy outlines of what looked like tall, thin spires of stone, arranged in a circle, like the outside of a villain’s lair in a fantasy novel. He continued to run towards the area, not questioning what he would do once he got there, not fearing what would happen when Vecna found him: he was wholly concerned with finding Mike. 

He could see the spires more clearly now. They seemed to have been constructed with a mismatch of broken objects, all moulded and held in place by thick, grey vines to form circles of spires surrounding a central area: there was one that seemed to be sculpted from the bricks of a demolished garden wall, behind that was what looked like beams from the remains of a dilapidated building, and-

Will’s stomach lurched. He had stopped running. He was completely paralysed, so paralysed that he couldn’t even tear his eyes away from the grotesque sight in front of him.

There was a body tied to one of the spires. 

Not Mike - the body was the wrong size. It had clearly been decomposing for weeks. What remained of its hair was long and light-coloured- blonde, or maybe ginger. It was hard to tell, as it was coated with a thick layer of grey dust, but not Mike, not Mike - yet the small sense of relief that knowing that the body wasn’t Mike’s didn’t help much, because the corpse was so deformed and decayed, with limbs sticking out in all directions and greyish-purple flesh that was fusing with the vines, that it made Will’s legs give out beneath him, bringing him to his knees as he began retching. 

“Will?”

Oh, great. Now Vecna had found him. 

“WILL!”

Will screwed his eyes shut, bent his head towards the ground and clamped his hands over his ears, as if he could simply make the monster go away by blocking it out.

He was going to die. After all his family and friends had gone through to get him back from the Upside Down two years ago - none of them would have even ended up in this mess with the Upside Down if they hadn’t been so determined to save him - he was still going to end up like the mangled corpse in front of him, one of Vecna’s victims, trapped in a vile alternate dimension forever. 

“Will? WILL?!”

Go away go away go away go away-

“WILL!” Wake up!”

*

Go away-

*

*

WAKE UP!

*

He jolted back to his body suddenly with a gasp, as if waking up from a falling dream just before hitting the ground, nearly head butting whoever was standing in front of him. His eyes shot open. The sky wasn’t red anymore.

It was El in front of him. Her hands were on his shoulders. She was staring at him with a horrified expression. 

“Will?” She asked tentatively. “Can you hear me?”

He adverted his eyes away from his sister to scan the rest of the room, too stunned to speak. His mother was loitering just behind El, pale-faced, looking almost as terrified as he felt. He was back in Mike’s hospital room. Mike was motionless once again, although there was still blood smeared under his nose. There was a doctor checking the monitors and frowning. Karen was running her hand through Mike's hair and mumbling to him quietly between sobs.

“Y-yeah.. what?” Will finally managed.

“You-you... something happened, you wouldn’t wake up, and-“ El broke off, seemingly distracted by Will's hands. He followed her line of vision and started violently.  

Black, shadowy, vine-like outlines, retreating and fading now, but still very prominent, branching across his hands and arms like lightening bolts, making him look like something out of the Upside Down-

The blood vessels underneath his skin were black.

Chapter Text

“I can’t do it.”

“Keep trying.”

“I am trying!”

Will’s mother had been so spooked by the sight of whatever had happened to him at the hospital that she had dragged him home immediately. Will himself had been too stunned and disturbed to argue much. El, satisfied that there was no way she could stop Mike’s episodes herself and already designing another plan in her mind, had agreed to come home too. 

From what El and his mother had told him, he’d gone into some sort of trance at the hospital, kind of like people under Vecna’s curse, but his eyes were almost closed. Like the time he’d been possessed by the Shadow Monster outside school nearly two years ago according to his mother, but that comparison wasn’t much use to Will seeing as he hadn’t been able to see his body during that episode either. Oh yeah, and the black, shadowy lines he’d seen branching all over his hands and arms? Apparently they had spread up his neck and onto his face too. 

Joyce had been convinced that Will was being possessed again, but El believed differently. Her suspicions had been confirmed when Will managed to explain what he’d seen: Will had powers, and he could enter the Mindscape, similar to how El could enter the Void.

“That doesn’t make sense!” Will had protested when El had first put forward this theory. “Didn’t Vecna create the Mindscape? Isn’t it part of his mind? How can I have the specific power to get into his mind?!”

“You are connected to him” she had pointed out. “You can sense him. Why doesn’t it make sense that you can get into the Mindscape too?”

And it did make sense. Will had been connected to the Upside Down and its monsters ever since he’d been abducted that fateful November night. He just didn’t want to admit it. He didn’t want to be connected to Vecna. He didn’t want to have powers that came from the Upside Down, the place he had been trying to escape since he was 12, that made black shadows spread across his body and intertwined him even closer with the villain - how powerful must their connection be, for him to be able to sense his emotions and enter his mind?

“Focus on your emotions.”

But this revelation was far bigger than Will simply having powers: if he really did have the power to enter the Mindscape, El could use her powers to piggyback again, like she had with Max, and enter the Mindscape with him. They could find Mike together.

That was the only reason Will was letting El attempt to train him to control his powers. If this wasn’t the only way he could help free Mike, he’d continue to shy away from the remnants of his time in the Upside Down, and try his absolute hardest to bury the feelings caused by his connection to that place so far down in his mind that he could almost pretend that he had made it out of the evil dimension unscathed. The knowledge that he was tethered to Vecna made his skin crawl as if the dust of the Upside Down was still spreading across the surface of his body, and no amount of sitting under the shower, unmoving as the stream of warm water crashed over his body, could make the feeling go away. If he thought about it for too long he started to hyperventilate and spiral into panic attacks like those he’d had in the weeks and months after his disappearance. 

But none of that was worse than the possibility of Mike ending up like the body he’d seen in the Mindscape.

So now, instead of fighting it, or running from it, or freezing in the face of danger, Will was actively trying to enter enemy territory. But it had been three days, and he still hadn’t managed to enter the Mindscape again.

“What were you feeling before you entered the Mindscape?”

El had asked this multiple times already. Strong emotions made her powers stronger, she claimed, and Will supposed that it made sense that those emotions would bring his powers out too, considering that he’d found himself in the Mindscape after watching Mike get tortured. “I was… angry. Really angry.”

“Then try and think about the things that made you angry.”

But that didn’t seem to be working.

This monster had kidnapped him and traumatised his friends and family and had taken Mike.

He had kidnapped him and traumatised his friends and family and was torturing his best friend and if that wasn’t enough Will was fucking connected to his mind as well.

He had kidnapped him and traumatised his friends and family and was torturing the love of his life and was connected to Will and why could Will never catch a fucking break?

He had cursed Mike and killed Mike and trapped Mike in his Mindscape and tortured Mike, he was torturing Mike, he was torturing Mike and he was connected to this monster and-

Cold, tingling feeling crawling down his spine-

Oh fuck, oh god-

Will tore the scarf off his face, hyperventilating.

“Will? What happened?”

“Mike, it’s happening again-“

“What?! Okay, I’m going to check on him, concentrate on your breathing.”

El had figured out, from watching Joyce and Jonathan calming Will down from panic attacks, that Will was supposed to “concentrate on his breathing” when he started hyperventilating like this, but that wasn’t much use now. Not while this awful feeling was spreading from his spine and chest to his limbs and the surface of his skin like fungal hyphae, making his lungs contract and his limbs shake. Not while all he could do as Mike was tortured was watch his sister sitting with her eyes closed and blood dripping down her face.

After a minute or so, El opened her eyes, looking grim. “It’s stopped now. And Mike’s okay.”

Okay? Sure. If being trapped in a monstrous dimension and being subjected to periodic bouts of torture was okay.

“He’s not okay!” Will almost shouted. “He’s being tortured! He’s being tortured, El!”

“I- I know, I’m sorry” she stammered. “I just meant… he’s still alive.”

Will sighed. “No, I’m sorry. I-I know that’s what you meant. I think I need a break.” He turned around and hurried out of the room, breathing heavily, not waiting for an answer.

He ended up outside, sitting on the ground with his back to the cabin, knees to his chest. 

Concentrate on your breathing. Ignore all your other thoughts. Ignore the tingling sensation crawling over your skin. Breathing. In for four. Hold for seven. Focus. Out for eight. 

A while later, El appeared at his side and wordlessly sat next to him.

“Are you better?”

Will nodded, but didn’t look up.

“Are you - is it okay if we talk about your powers?”

“Sure” Will shrugged nonchalantly. He had no faith that whatever El suggested next would help him utilise his powers - not because El's ideas were bad or anything. Just because he believed he was clearly never going to learn how to control these powers, no matter how good his teacher was.

“What thoughts are you focusing on?” she asked.

Oh. That was… slightly different to the questions she’d asked him before. Those questions had mainly concerned his emotions, not his thoughts. “Well, he kidnapped me” Will shrugged. “Then possessed me. Uh, did a lot of shit to my friends and family. And now he’s taken Mike too-“ his voice began to rise with his anger and frustration “-and I’m fucking connected to this asshole!” He covered his face with his hands, breathing heavily again as the tightness that had left his chest as he had focused on his breathing returned.

El rested her chin on her hand and looked thoughtful for a few seconds. “You’re angry because you have powers.” It wasn’t a question - it didn’t even sound like a statement. The tone and finality of her voice made it sound more like she was answering a question.

“Well… yes” Will said after a few seconds, confused. “You know I don’t want these powers.”

She nodded, a faint glimmer of triumph forming in her eyes. “Yes, but you are focusing on that when trying to use them. That is why it’s not working. You don’t want it to work.”

Will’s head jolted up to scowl at her. “What?! Of course I want it to work!” He insisted indignantly. “I want to save Mike! You know that! How- how could you even suggest that I don’t want it to work?!”

El’s face was stricken. “Will, that’s not-“

“No.” He stood up. He knew he was acting and speaking irrationally. He had to get away (again), to stop himself from directing his anger at El (again). “No, I- I’m not ready to talk about this yet." He stood up. "I’ll come back, I promise. Just - not now.”

He came back an hour or so later with a slightly clearer head, apologised to El, and began trying to focus on his anger without thinking about his connection to Vecna - but it was to no avail. Days passed, and he still couldn’t transport himself back to the Mindscape.

“I c-can’t do it.”

“You’ll get it.”

“I won’t! I won’t, and Mike’s going to fucking die-“

“We won’t let that happen” El insisted, sharply and a little too quickly.

“You don’t get it!” Will wailed, gripping his hair with his fists in frustration. “He is going to k-kill him! And I’m not going to be able to control these stupid powers in time to save him!”

El recoiled slightly, her face paling at Will’s outburst, even though he’d already told her (tearfully, a few days ago) what Vecna was doing to Mike. “You… you can still use your connection to feel what he’s thinking, yes?” she asked, almost desperately.

Will swallowed nervously, his throat dry. “Yeah.” Unlike his power to enter the Mindscape, he could use his power to sense Vecna’s emotions almost without thinking about it. Sometimes it even happened spontaneously, and Will would feel a sudden surge of emotion that wasn’t his own, which was terrifying, and he’d much rather be able to control his ability to enter the Mindscape than be subjected to surges of the monsters feelings, but it figured - Will could never catch a break.

“Is he…” El hesitated, her anxious eyes eyes not meeting Will’s. “Is he planning on… k-killing Mike soon?”

Will nearly winced at that question, even though he knew it had been coming. “No. He’s just… sort of playing with him at the moment. Making him s-suffer before he… you know.”

El’s eyes glimmered with emotion - fury or sadness, Will couldn’t tell - but she was clearly trying to hide it. “So we still have time” she said. “And if you feel like he is about to k- do that, and you still can’t get into the Mindscape, we’ll go to the Upside Down and kill him, okay? And I can try to go into his mind from there and get Mike out.” This was the backup plan the gang had come up with, led by El, Nancy and Robin. It was far less preferable to the main plan, far more dangerous and far less likely to succeed, but seeing as the main plan hinged on Will using powers he had only just learned existed, a backup was more than necessary.

Will sniffled. “If he dies - I won’t be able to live with myself.”

El adverted her eyes and gazed off into space for a few seconds, eyebrows furrowed slightly, pondering. Will found this a bit unnerving - he’d kind of expected her to just immediately reassure him that Mike wasn’t going to die.

Finally, she stated “you care about Mike very much.”

Will didn’t know where this was going. The answer to that question was obvious, wasn’t it? “Yeah. I do.”

“You love him.”

Will’s eyes widened, his heart dropped and he nearly gasped, but prevented himself from losing his composure just in time. For a second he thought El had caught him out, but when he looked back at her, she didn’t look accusatory or disgusted, or as if what she had suggested was out of the ordinary. She meant platonically. That he loved Mike as a friend. Obviously.

“Uh, yeah - I mean, of course I do. He’s my best friend.”

El gave Will a weird look that he couldn’t decipher - it was probably the way he had replied or something - but didn’t try to intrude. “My powers are more powerful when I’m angry” she said. “But they were even stronger when I was… sad. I restarted Max’s heart. And you restarted Mike’s heart with the same feelings.”

What she was saying made sense, but Will wasn’t sure if he understood her point. “So, what, you want me to focus on… being sad?”

“No. I mean, I was sad because I… care about Max and wanted her to be okay. I was thinking about the fun times I had with her. I could save Max because I love her. You saved Mike because you love him. So… maybe you could use your powers if you focus on strong, good emotions instead? Think about what you like about Mike.”

Think about what he liked about Mike?

That was definitely something he could do.

He nodded. “Uh- alright. I’ll try” he said uncertainly, reaching for the scarf. He put the scarf back over his eyes, and began to concentrate.

Mike had been his favourite person to be around since he was five years old. He had saved him from years of isolation at school, because Will had been far too shy to approach anyone on his own back then. Mike listened to everything that he had to say with great attention, and responded with such enthusiasm that it made him feel just as interesting as everyone else, despite his father trying to convince him that he was worthless. Even as a loud, brash child Mike made sure to keep his voice soft and quieter when around him because he quickly realised that Will got scared when people raised their voices.

Mike was almost always the first one to notice when something was wrong with Will, like the time he was being plagued with visions from the Upside Down, and was often the one to fix the issue. He was kind and smart and considerate. 

Mike was beautiful. He was tall (although Will’s recent growth spurt meant that he was almost the same height as him now) but never intimidating. His deep, dark brown eyes glittered when he smiled, and were so mesmerising that Will sometimes struggled to look away from them. His facial structure was a work of art itself, and Will had filled sketchbooks trying to draw Mike and get the curves and edges of his face just right. 

Mike was as close to perfect as a human could be. 

Will had struggled with his feelings for men for as long as he could remember, believing it was unnatural. Disgusting. But loving Mike felt like the most natural thing in the world. Loving Mike was beautiful. 

But if they couldn’t free Mike, he was going to die. Again. 

He had already experienced Mike dying once, and it was the most dreadful pain he had ever felt in his life. Worse than when he'd been running from monsters alone in a dimension he didn't know existed. Worse than when the tunnels he was connected to during his possession were set alight. Nothing could be worse than the feeling of Mike going limp in his arms, his chest ceasing to move in and out, blood running down his face-

Red sky. Dust. Rocks.

Mindscape. 

Where was Mike?

He began to run.

“WILL?!”

He stopped running. That was El calling him. He should probably tell her that he’d managed to access the Mindscape so she could help him find Mike.

But… how did he get out?”

He was stuck in the Mindscape, Vecna was going to find him, he couldn’t free Mike by himself, he was going to die-

“WILL!”

As suddenly as he’d entered the Mindscape, he exited it, eyes flying open to see El standing over him with a concerned expression on her face. He’d somehow ended up on the floor with the scarf lying next to him. He pushed himself into a sitting position, panting, starting and nearly falling back down when he saw his arms. He really had to get used to the sight of his veins going black if this was going to happen every time he used his powers. 

“Will! Are you okay?” 

Will was still dazed, but managed a nod.

“Did - did you see the Mindscape?”

Another nod.

“Okay. That’s good. But I think we need to work on getting you out of there.” 

Chapter Text

It had been just over three weeks since Will had managed to intentionally enter the Mindscape. It had taken far longer than he would have liked, especially as he could feel Vecna getting stronger and more sinister with each passing week, but he could now control his powers well enough to (hopefully) use them in battle.

He could enter the Mindscape almost effortlessly, and had also learnt how to get himself out at will. El had started to practise piggybacking into the Mindscape with him about a week ago, inspecting the landscape so that they wouldn’t waste time finding Mike when it was time to save him and using her powers to make sure they worked while in Will’s (Will’s? Vecna’s? Or were their minds one and the same now?) mind, but never for too long. Will could tell that Vecna could sense that something was amiss when El was in the Mindscape, especially when she used her telekinesis. He didn’t think Vecna could sense him, though, and while this aspect of his powers was certainly useful, it only made him feel more contaminated by the connection.

One thing was certain: he wasn’t going to be much use once the battle was underway. He’d tried transporting himself to the Mindscape whilst holding a weapon with his physical body - a gun, a knife, even a baseball bat - but none of them were transported with him. He didn’t particularly care about the fact that him being in the Mindscape while El fought Vecna put him in great danger; everyone else was going to be in great danger too. It was just… everyone else was going to be fighting for their lives while Will was, once again, hiding. It made him feel like a burden. 

Apart from the feeling that Vecna was getting stronger, and that Mike was in imminent danger, there was also more tangible proof that he was getting more powerful, ready to unleash even more misery upon the town’s inhabitants: monsters from the Upside Down had started creeping into Hawkins. Demogorgons. Demodogs. Demobats. The works. 

The others had been fighting them, partly to train for their next venture into the Upside down, and partly to prevent anyone else from seeing them. While it would be a relief for the rest of the town to finally learn what had been going on all these years, they couldn’t risk the town getting evacuated before they had the chance to get Mike out of the Mindscape. 

They had been holding all their meetings in Max's room so she knew what was going on, and so she could contribute to their plans, but she was visibly annoyed that she couldn’t help fight Vecna physically this time. Her casts had been removed a few days ago. Although her bones had healed, she was still visibly in pain, and her muscles had grown weak with disuse, making it difficult for her to move any of her limbs. It was going to be a long while before she was walking like she had before… if that day ever came. 

It was awful. He had been aware, of course, that healing from compound fractures in all four limbs wouldn’t be as simple as waiting for the bones to heal, but it was as if some small part of Will’s mind had still hoped that when the casts came off, she’d almost be back to her old self. Knowing that she was facing months of painful physical therapy and wasn’t going to be zooming around on her skateboard for a long time added more fuel to the fire that was Will’s desire to kill Vecna. 

Nancy had actually smiled at the start of today's meeting when El confirmed that she thought she and Will were ready to use their powers together. It didn’t last long, nor melt the harsh glint in her eyes that had been there since Mike had been attacked, but it was there.

“Okay.” she began impatiently. “So, this is the final plan: Will is going to go into the Mindscape. El piggybacks and they both find Mike and free him. The rest of the kids and Argyle will guard Will and El’s bodies. Max and my mother will be playing the song in his room, so he’ll be able to escape, and when Vecna realises they’re there, he’ll go into the Mindscape and Will and El are going to try to defeat him in there while the rest of us handle the body in the Upside Down.”

“We still don’t know how to actually kill the body, though.”

That was it. The key issue. The only problem they hadn’t solved. 

How did they kill Vecna?

They’d discussed this issue over and over again, and Nancy and Robin had poured over countless books and documents, but despite some of them having their own theories, they hadn’t collectively accepted any one theory as fact, and no one had come up with anything better than “let’s just mess up his body so badly that he won’t be able to regenerate.” Will doubted they’d solve this mystery today. He sighed internally as the others began to debate again.

“We should stab the heart. It’s usually the heart.”

Dustin rolled his eyes in Steve’s direction. “Dude, he’s not a vampire.”

“He controls people’s minds. And El said Brenner tested her brain function whenever she used her powers in the lab, so his powers must come from his brain. We need to target the head” Nancy attested.

“We set his entire body on fire last time. Including his head.”

“We set his fucking chest on fire too!”

“Maybe that was just because the version of him in the Mindscape was still alive? Robin suggested. “I mean, if Will and El manage to kill that part, maybe we’ll be able to kill the body? Defeat the mind, and the body dies?”

Will shivered involuntarily. Defeat the mind and the body dies. Although he didn’t have many definitive memories from the period of time between the tunnels being set on fire and him waking up the day after his exorcism - it was just a haze of blurry images and pain - he was pretty sure Mike had said something like that when Will had been possessed. 

"Okay, but what if they can't kill that version?"

“Look, it doesn’t even matter if he comes back again!” Nancy asserted loudly, folding her arms. The sudden increase in volume made him jump. Ignoring the resulting stunned silence, she continued fervently. “I want this bastard dead as much as everyone else, but as long as we distract him for long enough to get Mike out of there, it doesn’t matter!” 

A few of the others stared at her in shock, as if she’d just said something atrocious, but Will personally agreed with Nancy. Although he suspected he wanted Vecna dead a bit more than Nancy did, considering the monster was literally in his head. But she was right - as long as they saved Mike before he was killed, everything else could wait if necessary.

Hopper broke the silence. “That’s fine, but let’s still do everything in our power to kill him this time, okay? Set him on fire, stake the heart, behead him - there are enough of us to do all of that.” Will noticed how Hopper’s eyes darted towards El, even though he was speaking to Nancy. He could tell Hopper didn’t want El to have to fight any more monsters after this.

It had been decided last week that Hopper, Joyce and the older teens, minus Argyle, were going into the Upside Down to tackle the body, while Lucas, Dustin, Erica and Argyle had been assigned the task of staying with El and Will’s bodies while their minds were in the Mindscape. 

Lucas and Dustin had not been happy when Hopper had first suggested that maybe they should stay out of the Upside Down.

“We don’t all need to go into the Upside Down. And you - Lucas, Dustin and Erica - are still children.”

Lucas had scowled. “And? So are Will and El.”

“Yes. They are” Hopper had replied in a hard voice. “Do you think I’m happy about letting them put themselves in such danger? If it were up to me, none of you - not the older kids, not even Joyce - would have to do this. But unfortunately, El and Will are the only ones with powers.”

“So you want us to just sit here and do nothing? We’ve been involved in this since the beginning! 

“Yeah!” Dustin agreed indignantly. “We’ve been fighting monsters since we were 12!”

“I was 11” Erica piped up.

But then Jonathan had cut in. “We need you all to stay with Will and El” he had said, before Hopper could reply. “El would have died if she was alone the last time she tried to fight him. Someone needs to stay with them in case something goes wrong. I’ve asked Argyle to stay with them, but he can’t handle them both by himself if something goes wrong, and he doesn’t know them as well as you do.”

“We’re in his territory” Will had suddenly added in an eerie voice, before he could even comprehend why he was speaking. He had been hit with a sudden, intense premonition, like a bullet in his gut. “He might… send things after us if he realises what we are doing.”

Jonathan and Joyce had turned to face him with horrified expressions. Hopper had rubbed his temples, looking exhausted. “Christ. Well … there you go. There’s your job. You might get to fight monsters after all.”

Lucas still hadn’t been happy - Will secretly wondered if it was because he’d been given the job of protecting a person’s physical body while their mind was in the Mindscape before, and it hadn’t gone well. No wonder he wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of having to do it again. He was probably covering his nerves behind a facade of anger. Nevertheless, he, Dustin and Erica had agreed to protect Will and El with Argyle.

What Argyle was going to do, or why Argyle was still even in Hawkins at all, Will couldn't fathom. He was mad.

“So, that’s the plan sorted, right?” Nancy said impatiently. “That’s it? We’re all ready?”

A few people nodded. No one dissented.

“Will, El, you’re definitely both ready?”

Will nodded in what he hoped was a confident manner, while El said “yes” in a determined tone. 

“Then let’s do this tomorrow.”

Followed by a beat of silence.

“Don’t you think it’s a bad idea to rush into this?” Steve asked uncertainly. “That didn’t work too well last time-“

“This isn’t like last time!” Nancy shouted furiously. “Last time we had only learned what we were even fighting the day before! We’ve been working on this for weeks!”

“We still shouldn’t rush-“

“No” Will interrupted. Everyone turned to face him. His felt his cheeks heat up at the sudden attention, but he kept his voice steady. This was important. “Listen to Nancy. Time isn’t on our side. We have to go as soon as possible.”

His mental connection to the big bad monster they were all trying to defeat may be making everyone uneasy around him, but at least it had the advantage of forcing them to take him seriously. No one tried to argue against enacting the plan so quickly after that. 

And so it was decided.

Tomorrow. 

Chapter Text

“Hey, Mike.

I know you can’t hear me, but I really need to tell you this.

We’re coming to get you. 

First thing tomorrow. The others are preparing now, gathering their weapons and stuff.

I know he’s hurting you. Trying to k-kill you slowly. But we’re coming. We’re going to get you out before he can do that.

Please just hang on for one more night, okay?

I… really miss you.”

“Please be careful.”

Joyce’s voice was shaky. 

“I will be” Will mumbled into her shoulder. “You too. Stay safe.” He’d said the same thing to Johnathan about a minute ago. 

They were in the library. It hadn't taken long to decide that this was where they were going to transport themselves to the Mindscape from: the library was more sheltered from potential horrors from the Upside Down than anywhere outside, where the monsters could be hidden from view by buildings or trees. Plus, it was the only building where they wouldn’t be interrupted by members of the public that wasn’t one of their houses, and no one wanted their home destroyed by demogorgons. Barely anyone was left in Hawkins, and the library had been left unstaffed and damaged after the "earthquake", so those that remained were unlikely to intrude.

The others were going to the Creel House, as it was a direct route to Vecna’s body while he was in the Mindscape. 

Hopper was standing with his hands on El’s shoulders, talking to her in a low voice. Will couldn’t hear what he was saying over the sound of everyone else saying their goodbyes and double-checking they understood the plan, but he knew it must be some variation of “be careful” and “I love you”. He wished he could take Hopper aside and promise him he’d keep El safe, but everyone knew the only person keeping anyone safe in the Mindscape was going to be El herself. 

 A few minutes later, the group that were going into the Upside Down walked out of the building, to the sound of the last few shouts of “good luck” and “stay safe” - and now they were left standing in silence. 

No one spoke as they waited for the signal from the others. Everyone was on edge, and no one knew what to say. 

Will’s stomach began to twinge in anticipation. It was mostly fear, of course - he was going to be in the Mindscape at the same time as Vecna for however long it took El to defeat him. Everyone he loved was going to be in danger. So many things could go wrong. However... there was a bit of excitement there too, because this was it. They were going to save Mike.

He could see El tapping her fingers against her leg in the corner of his eye. Dustin fiddling with the walkie talkie. Lucas's leg shaking.

He was starting to feel nauseous. He began silently willing the signal to come now - the wait was agonising, and he just wanted to get it over with, so that all of this could finally be over. 

After what felt like both hours and mere seconds, the walkie talkie in Dustin’s hand crackled to life. “We’re at the house.”

“Noted” Dustin replied. He looked up at Will and El. “Well… you guys are up.”

“Good luck” said Lucas.

“Go kick his ass” Erica added.

Will glanced at El. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes into the Mindscape. A few seconds later, El appeared by his side.

He turned to acknowledge her. 

She met his eyes and titled her head slightly. You ready?

He nodded, then tilted his head towards the horizon. Yes. Let’s go. 

Without a word, they began to run in the direction of the spires in the distance.

“They’re in” Dustin said into his walkie talkie.

“Got it” came the slightly muffled voice of Hopper.

The walkie talkie crackled a bit before going quiet, leaving them standing in silence once more.

Lucas, gripping a gun, watched Will and El’s motionless bodies. 

Will looked possessed. His face, neck and arms were rapidly becoming covered by black lines that were branching across his skin, as if his blood had been replaced by black sludge. His eyes were half closed, and the eyeballs visible were white and bloodshot like the eyes of a person under Vecna’s curse. 

They were used to the way El looked when using her powers, and frankly, a bleeding nose was not as disturbing as whatever was happening to Will, but it was still rather unsettling given the current circumstances. Normally, when she went into this trance, she was spying in the Void, invisible and untouchable to whoever she was spying on. Not attempting to fight a mass murderer with powers in the place said monster tortured and killed his victims. 

And if anything did find their bodies here, Will and El were completely defenceless. One hundred percent reliant on the other four teens in the library to protect them.

“Man, that is not right” Argyle mumbled in his permanently dazed voice as he gazed at the duo.

Lucas wasn’t sure why Jonathan had sent his weird addict friend to help them. Or why he was even still in Hawkins if he lived in California. Personally, if he ever found himself in a town that he didn’t live in, and that town looked like the apocalypse had hit it, he would run in the opposite direction well before anyone had the chance to tell him about alternative dimensions and monsters.

Although, to be fair, Argyle was probably too high to understand how weird the situation in Hawkins was. 

“It is a bit creepy, isn’t it?” Dustin muttered suddenly, bringing Lucas’s wandering mind back to the library.

Lucas blinked at Will and El and gave a sudden, half-suppressed laugh.

Dustin looked at him incredulously. “I wasn’t trying to be funny.”

The corners of his mouth sank. “I know. It wasn’t funny. Nervous laughter.”

Dustin’s faced softened. “Makes sense.”

“This is just… so messed up.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“And the-“

“HEY! DIPSHITS!” Erica shouted suddenly.

Lucas’s body jolted in the direction of his sister. “Wha- oh SHIT!” he yelled as a demogorgon burst through a window

As soon as Dustin’s voice crackled through the walkie talkie in Hopper’s hand, Nancy began to storm towards the Creel House. 

No one tried to stop her, or tell her to slow down. They all simply followed her, Jonathan running to be by her side.

They didn’t need to navigate the house like they had last time - the building was practically a ruin now, and seemed to be one windy day away from toppling over completely. Nancy marched over the mounds of rubble, through the gaping hole in the wall and into the house. Trying not to think about Mike treading across the very same rubble, towards his death.

It didn’t take long to find the gate. The fissures in the ground and rubble surrounding them created by the fusion of the gates lead straight to it, like a path of blood leading to a homicide victim. The gate had long since stopped glowing orange, and would’ve seemed uninteresting if they hadn’t known better - merely a crack in the ground. The only sign that it was a portal into an alternative dimension was mass of grey, alien-like vines obscuring the opening.

Nancy knelt down, set her gun on the floor and began tearing the vines away with both hands. She was joined a few moments later by Hopper and Steve. The vines were thick and numerous, but they were also rotting and inanimate, and Nancy was being fuelled by rage and angst, so they came away easily, revealing a dark hole in the wood panel floor bordered by cobwebs and grime. 

Slowly and silently, they all moved forwards to see what was on the other side. 

The grey, polluted, decaying air of the Upside Down gazed back at them. He was there, hanging in his stupid trance amongst his stupid vines. She wanted to jump down there and shoot him right now - but she couldn’t. They didn’t know what would happen to Mike if he was still in the Mindscape when Vecna died. She had to wait for confirmation that Mike had escaped.

The sound of Jonathan inhaling sharply brought her back to her body.

Jonathan hadn’t seen the monster before.

It had been described to him and the others multiple times, but nothing compared to seeing something so grotesque and evil in the flesh.

A flicker of sympathy burned through the anger and determination, and she reached back to take his hand. He was cold and trembling, but she could feel some of the tension in his arm relaxing slightly as he squeezed her hand back. 

“We’ve got direct access to the body here” Hopper said gruffly. He seemed unfazed by the sight of the monster. “As soon as Mike’s out, we should be able to attack before he realises we’re here.”

“Unless the vines get us again” muttered Robin. 

“We can escape through the gate this time” Steve pointed out. “Last time, the nearest gate was in the trailer park.”

“I have the rope. We can tie it to this” Joyce motioned to a still-standing wooden beam in the wall, exposed by the destruction of the bricks that had concealed it.

“Do you think that’ll be strong enough?”

“It was strong enough to hold the house up.” 

Nancy watched as Joyce and Hopper began to tie the end of the rope to the beam, struck by how calm everyone appeared. As if preparing to battle with a monster from an alternate dimension was normal. 

Because for them, this was normal. 

Jonathan lowered the rope through the gate. It almost reached the ground in the Upside Down. That was good - they hadn't been sure how long the rope would need to be. 

Now, all they could do was wait.

Will and El were greeted by the sight of a decaying body tied to a pillar when they arrived at the edge of the circle of spires. Breathing deeply and looking away to prevent himself from retching, Will met El’s eyes. She looked as horrified as he felt. He almost wanted to hold her hand for comfort, but she needed both hands free in case something happened. 

They continued towards the centre of the Mindscape, past the spires and pillars that created a sort of post-apocalyptic forest. 

“This way” Will muttered, letting the feeling down his spine guide him. “We have to hurry - he knows something’s up. He’ll be here soon.”

About ten seconds later, they arrived at a small clearing in the pillars, where the remains of the bulldozed Creel House stood.

“I remember this place” El said breathlessly. “We’re close.”

Will nodded - the feeling at the base of his head agreed. They hurried past a few piles of rubble, an old grandfather clock, straining to see through the thick, red fog -

And there was Mike.

He was tied up, like the other victims. The thick, grey vines were wrapped tightly around every part of his body - his limbs, his torso, even his neck - adhering him to one side of a doorframe from a room that no longer existed. There was blood smeared across his face. His eyes were closed. His dark hair was covered in dust. His lips were cracked and grey. He was so pale that the blue blood vessels underneath the skin on his eyelids and neck were visible, a sight made worse by the red glow of the Mindscape.

But he was alive. 

Will ran to him with El at his heels. His hands immediately went to the vines around Mike’s neck. “Mike!” 

The vines didn’t move. His eyes didn’t open.

El started tugging at the vines wrapped around his torso, but they also refused to budge. “How did he free Max?!” she wondered out loud.

“Don’t know, but we have to figure it out now!” Will desperately pulled at the vines around his neck again, intense fear coursing through his body as he felt the presence of Vecna getting ever closer. Mike was right here - quite literally within touching distance - they couldn't come this close and still leave him tied up in the Mindscape. But Vecna was coming into the Mindscape, they didn’t have long, Mike could still die- 

-suddenly, the vines around his neck snapped. Mike’s head lolled forwards against his shoulder. 

El’s eyes widened. “How-“ but the rest of her question was drowned out by a sudden burst of electricity through Will’s entire body. 

“El - El, he’s here.” 

El's expression switched from shocked to determined as she looked in the direction Will was pointing. As she stood up, she simply said "get Mike out" before bolting in said direction.

"Good luck!" Will called after her, but he wasn't sure if she was listening.

Breathing rapidly, he immediately turned back to Mike. He grabbed the vines and, without much effort, ripped them off Mike’s body. Mike dropped from the doorway into Will’s arms, limbs dangling and head lolling to one side. “Mike?” Will called as he lowered him to the floor gently, so that his head was lying on Will's lap. He was still unconscious. 

Will looked over his shoulder quickly to ensure the monster wasn’t behind him before turning back to Mike. 

"Mike?" he tried again, to no avail. The panic that had subsided as the vines snapped was rapidly filling his chest again, as if he'd just passed through the eye of the storm. The problems he kept encountering were never-ending. 

Desperately, he cupped Mike's face with one of his hands, and placed his other hand on his chest. “Mike - come on, please wake up!”

Mike suddenly jolted awake, his eyes flying open as if he'd just been startled awake. Will nearly cried with relief and happiness. "Oh my god - Mike-" 

Mike was looking up at him, definitely aware, but apart from a slight twitching of the mouth, he didn’t move.

“Hang on, I can help you” Will murmured softly, placing a hand on Mike’s chest. He instinctively knew that Mike couldn't move because he was exhausted. He didn’t know how or why he knew he could do this, but that didn’t matter - he closed his eyes, and a few seconds later felt his energy levels drop a bit as his power seeped into Mike. 

Mike sat up violently. 

“Hey, it’s okay!”

“W-Will? What are you-“

“I’ll explain later, but you’ve got to get out, okay? Do you think you can walk?”

“No, no, he’s… gonna… get you…” He seemed to be struggling. He must still be exhausted.

“He’s not, Mike. El’s dealing with him. And Nancy and the others are in the Upside Down.”

“’S not going to work.”

“They’ll try their best, okay? Don’t worry, just get out of here!" Music was playing in the background - Will had been so fixated on Mike that the music was only just registering in his ears, but it was there. And that must mean - yep, a portal had formed about half a kilometre behind them. "Come on, I'll help you get to the portal."

Mike shook his head “You’ve got to free the others.”

Will frowned at him in utter bemusement. “Huh? Who?”

“Chrissy, Patrick and Fred.”

That hardly eased Will's confusion. “What?” He had not prepared for their first conversation to go like this. “Mike, they’re all… they’re dead.”

“H-he’s using their bodies for power.” Mike seemed to be more with it now. “That’s h-how he survived.” 

Will's heart dropped. That made sense. It complicated things, but it explained why Vecna survived the first attack.

It also meant that he had to free the others as soon as possible, otherwise El and the others would have no chance of killing Vecna. 

“Okay. Okay. I’ll free them. But you’ve got to get out first.”

“Let me help.”

“Mike, you’re exhausted!” Will exclaimed, almost as panicked as Mike was. El was probably already fighting the Vecna now. “The portal’s just over there!” He gestured, as if Mike hadn’t noticed the bright hole in the sky. “Please just get out of here!”

“I’m okay now. It’ll be quicker if we work together.”

Will sighed. He didn’t have time to argue, especially not if he really did have to free the others before El and the group in the Upside Down could defeat Vecna. And he definitely couldn’t leave Mike here by himself. “Fine. Let’s find them.”

El wandered through the Mindscape, heart thumping and legs trembling slightly, anxiously listening for any noise that indicated Vecna was near and constantly looking over her shoulder to ensure that he didn’t take her by surprise. 

She saw him before she heard him. She jumped, and nearly gasped as the eerie, slumping figure emerged from the shadows in front of her. 

Despite the fact that she’d been expecting him - had actively been looking for him - it was surely impossible to see something so gruesome without being startled. Even without knowing how dangerous it was, how he could end a life with a flick of his wrist, as easily as one could tear a daisy from the ground. The memory of the grey, monstrous body was nothing compared to seeing it in person.

She tried to use her powers the moment she spotted him, but felt him resisting against her efforts. He already knew exactly where she was. 

“Ah. Eleven” the monster growled. “I thought we’d be meeting again soon.”

She scowled, and moved to throw him backwards before she had to listen to another tiresome monologue - but with a jerk of his forearm, she was sent sprawling to the ground. Her throat constricted as she felt pieces of gravel digging into her hands.

She expected him to attack her and try to tie her up and kill her again like he had last time - but instead, he began to walk past her. Fuelled by pure panic - Will and Mike were back there, defenceless - a jolt of energy surged through her, causing him to trip over and fall in front of her.

Relaxing slightly while he was momentarily stunned was a mistake. At lightening speed, before he had even picked himself back up, she was thrown back against part of the crumbling stone wall from the Creel House’s garden. 

“You silly little girl” he taunted. “When are you going to accept that I am far, far stronger than you?”

The vines started to move towards her body.

“I am in control.”

Tears sprang to her eyes, and her face began to crumble. It was no use. He was right - he was stronger than her. It was going exactly how it did last time, when he’d cursed Max.

The memory of those claws over Max’s face flashed before her eyes. 

Those same claws over Mike’s face. 

Will, exhausted, wet, cold, scared and alone in the Upside Down.

The bodies of all those children at the lab. 

An involuntary scream tore out through the back of her throat as a huge, anger-fuelled surge of power erupted through her body. Her hands flew forward from her sides, free from the invisible restraints he had placed on her. Still screaming at him, she dropped down the wall onto her feet - and sent him flying backwards.

“So, you have powers? That’s how you got here?”

“Yep” Will replied simply. This wasn’t at all what he’d expected his first proper conversation with Mike to be like. Granted, he’d planned on Mike running out of this place as soon as possible, well before they’d have a chance to have a full conversation, but he should have expected Mike to pull something like this. 

Despite himself, Will was in awe at the fact that Mike had somehow remembered - or even figured out, Will wasn’t sure Vecna had even told Mike the reason he could regenerate - that they needed to free the other victims to have any chance of killing the monster, despite the torture he’d been subjected to over the past few weeks. Mike was so incredibly smart. That was part of the reason Will was so in love with him.

(Stop it, this is NOT the time to think about that)

“You know my… how I have a, uh, connection to Vecna’s mind? El thinks I’m tapping into some of his powers or something.”

“That’s cool. More than just a super spy now, huh?”

Will just nodded, not wanting to unleash how absolutely not cool being connected to this place was. What else could he say? Nothing he could say would encapsulate the agony he had felt the entire time Mike had been trapped here, or the magnitude of his happiness at finally being able to talk to Mike again.

He settled on “I’ve… really missed you.” 

Mike gave him a small smile. “I missed you too.”

Will doubted Mike had been capable of missing anyone during his time here, but he appreciated the sentiment. “We’re nearly there. One of the victims is just behind that wall.”

He braced himself for the sight, but still started in horror when he saw the body. The long hair, still coated in grey dust, told him that this was Chrissy.

Mike looked like he was going to puke. Will wasn’t surprised. He put a hand on Mike’s elbow. “You okay?”

Mike nodded shakily. “Y-yeah… I saw her when I first came in here, it’s just-“

“I get it.” Will said quickly. “So… you think we just have to free her from the vines?”

Mike nodded. 

Will stood back, staring at the decomposing corpse. The vines almost seemed to have fused with the body - or perhaps the body had fused with the vines…

Quite frankly, he didn’t know what to do.

“How did you free Max?”

“I woke her up by concentrating on happy memories I had of her, and she freed herself from the vines.”

“Ah. Smart.”

“Not much help here though.” Mike squinted at the body in concentration, as if it were a particularly complex maths equation. “Do you think you can… shape this place?”

Will frowned. “Huh?” 

“I mean… if you have the power to sense Vecna, and transport yourself into his Mind Lair, maybe you could shape it like he does too? Sorry, maybe that’s a dumb idea-“

“No” Will said instinctively. “No, it’s not dumb. I… haven’t tried that.”

That wasn’t entirely true. Will had tried to move things around in the Mindscape with El a few times, and it had never worked, so he had assumed that his powers were simply limited to spying. However, the way Mike had worded his idea - as if Will shouldn’t be trying to move things with his mind like El, but rather manipulate the environment around him…

Like he had manipulated the vines...

“I think I can do it.” Will looked straight up at the body. He still wasn’t exactly sure what he should be doing, but he had manipulated the environment before. He knew he could do it again.

He tried concentrating hard on the vines, imagining them retracting away from the body. He hadn’t prepared for this. He didn’t have weeks to practise and learn how to control this.

The vines twitched a bit, but didn’t release the body. He felt his shoulders slump in defeat. 

Mike put a hand on Will’s shoulder. “It’s okay. You can do it.”

Warmth and adoration for the boy next to him coursed through his veins. He refocused on the vines, willing them to detach themselves from the body. 

The vines twitched again.

Come on, MOVE-

He could still feel Mike’s hand on his arm. 

MOVE!

-and the vines snapped, unravelling from around the body and slithering away into the shadows.

The body fell to the floor and instantly vanished, as if it had turned to dust. Will’s eyes widened in shock - he hadn’t expected the body to disappear like that.

He hoped it symbolised Chrissy’s soul finally being put to rest.

When he looked up, Mike was grinning at him. “That was epic!”

Will gave him a small smile. “Thanks. Two more - let’s go.” 

A second or so after getting back to his feet, Vecna suddenly roared in pain - but El hadn’t done anything except resist his attempts to trap her again. Her eyes were drawn to the left side of his body, where a few of the vines running up his limbs were becoming dark and singed, as if someone had set the ends of the vines on fire with a lit match. 

Maybe the group in the Upside Down had set his body on fire again? But if that were the case, why was he still here? Why wasn’t he disappearing from the Mindscape like he had the last time they had attacked his physical body?

She didn’t have time to figure out what was going on, because he had quickly regained his composure, and was turning around, as if to run away.

Will and Mike.

“No” El growled, her voice harsh and dark, throwing her arms in his direction and using her anger to channel enough power to immobilise him. To her slight surprise, it worked - he had been weakened. He was struggling against her furiously, but she was stronger. She had him trapped.

She began to drag him backwards.

Mike and Will had found Fred in the same way they had found Chrissy. Will freed him too, and like Chrissy, Fred vanished from the Mindscape as soon as the vines were released from his body.

Mike continued to run beside him, but Will could tell he was getting tired again. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Yeah” Mike wheezed. 

He doesn’t sound okay a voice in Will’s head warned.

The voice was correct: less than a minute after they had freed Fred, Mike suddenly lurched forward beside Will.

“Mike?!” Will yelped, catching him before he could hit the floor.

“‘M okay” Mike murmured, his eyes half closed. “Jus’ tired.”

Will sighed. He couldn’t spare any more energy - he had to find El and get her out of this hellscape as soon as he freed Patrick and got Mike out of here. “Alright, let’s free Patrick - I think he’s just over there - and then you’re going straight out that portal.”

“What do you mean, he’s not waking up?”

“Come on, kiddo” Hopper muttered under his breath as he watched the monster through the gate twitch and grunt in pain. According to Karen and Max, Mike’s eyes had opened a while ago, like Max’s had when she had woken up in the Mindscape, but he hadn’t returned to his body yet. Nancy was frantically conversing with them through the walkie talkie. 

They hadn’t heard from the other kids in a while.

Hopper was anxious, of course. No - he was petrified at the prospect of losing his daughter again. He wanted nothing more than to jump into that hellscape down there and rip this Vecna from limb to limb so she didn’t have to ever face him or any other evil magical shit ever again. But he could tell, instinctively and from the way the monster was groaning and twitching, that El was hurting him. Winning, even. 

“What’s taking them so long?!”

Hopper didn’t want Mike to die. Of course he didn’t. Mike was a good kid. Heroic, even - after all, he was stuck in the Mindscape now because he’d decided to play the hero and sacrifice himself. Not to mention how devastated El, Will and the others would be if he didn’t wake up. But if there was any sign that the evil creep on the other side of that gate was killing Hopper’s daughter, he was going to leap down there and shoot him. 

Who knew, maybe killing Vecna would wake Mike up after all. And if Vecna really was as indestructible as he’d appeared when the older kids had attacked him, shooting him would probably just pull him out of the Mindscape, not harming Mike at all. It would ensure the bastard couldn't go after Will again. 

God, he hoped Will was doing okay in there too.

Maybe he was subconsciously speaking to all three kids in the Mindscape.

“Come on, kid.”

Something was happening. The group in the Upside Down attacking him again? Something else? Whatever it was, it was rapidly draining Vecna’s power. It wasn’t a struggle to prevent him from throwing her against the rubble anymore. He barely seemed capable of fighting against her.

El had forced him back towards another crumbling doorway, using her powers to keep his hands by his side - but he was still resisting, just enough to prevent her from killing him, and she wasn’t sure if she hold him like this and snap his neck at the same time.

That wasn’t going to stop her from trying.

She screwed her face up in concentration, breathing heavily, and tried channelling some of her power away from restraining him, and towards breaking his vertebrae - and then had to rapidly refocus all her energy towards restraining him when his arms twitched, nearly escaping. It still wasn’t enough.

She tried again, and yielded the same results. Even worse, the effort of restraining him was starting to tire her. If she stayed like this for much longer, she wouldn't have enough energy to fight against him.

Suddenly, just as she was beginning to lose hope, a series of loud bangs erupted in the distance. Instantly, the monster was roaring in pain again - but she still wasn’t doing anything other than keeping him trapped. 

All the vines that formed his mutilated body seemed to shrivel at once as she held him in the air the way she had held her, Max, Mike, and all the other children at the lab.

It was now or never.

Lucas, Dustin, Erica and Argyle were panting, standing in the middle of the almost-demolished library. Every shelf had been knocked over, no window have been left unscathed, there were multiple holes in the walls and the ground was covered in dust and glass. Not to mention the carcasses of demogorgons and demobats lying on the floor. They were all grimy, sweating, and the younger three were bleeding: Erica from a cut on her cheek, Lucas from a graze just underneath his ribs, and Dustin from his knuckles. 

Despite all this, they had managed to keep all the creatures away from Will and El, and it finally seemed like the onslaught was over. Hopefully that meant that Will, El and the group in the Upside Down were all winning.

However, Will and El certainly weren’t out of the woods yet. 

“Holy shit” Dustin choked, watching tears of blood were drip down El’s cheeks. 

“Jesus Christ” Lucas muttered in agreement as the black shadows seeped into the blood vessels of Will’s rolled-back eyes.

“This is so not cool, man.”

No one disagreed with Argyle.

Mike and Will hadn’t even begun to celebrate freeing Patrick before the landscape around them began falling to pieces.

One by one, the pillars of rubble began to collapse. Fissures began to appear in the ground beneath their feet.

Will knew, instinctively, what was happening - Vecna, without the power he had gained by feeding off the souls of his victims, was no longer strong enough to hold his Mindscape together. It would’ve been nicer to know that would happen before the place began to fall apart with Will, Mike and El still inside it, but at least he knew now.

“The Mindscape is collapsing! You’ve got to get out!” Will shouted over the cacophony of rocks smashing together, simultaneously dragging him towards the portal, which was still glimmering in the distance. Mike had used up all his energy, and now he could barely walk.

“But-“

“I CAN’T LEAVE UNTIL YOU GET OUT OF HERE!” Will yelled at him. 

Mike backed up a bit, his eyes wide, and Will almost felt bad for shouting at him - but he needed to get Mike out, and if that required shouting, then so be it. “You and El can definitely get out?” Mike asked.

“Yes!” Will stopped, a few metres away from the portal. They were close enough to see the image on the other side now: Mike’s body lying in a hospital bed, all limbs broken, eyes open and rolled back in his head, Karen by his side, calling out to him, begging him to wake up. The Mike next to Will, looking at his own body, looked like he wanted to throw up, even more so than when he had seen Chrissy’s corpse. Will could feel his breathing accelerating and his body shaking.

Oh. 

Mike was afraid.

“It’s going to be okay” Will reassured him softly, trying to sound as calm as he possibly could with pillars of stone collapsing around him. “We - everyone misses you. And we’ll all help you as much as you need. Promise.”

Mike glanced at the falling pillars.

"Please, Mike."

Mike closed his eyes and nodded. He turned back to the portal, and began to stumble towards it.

At the edge, he hesitated again. 

"It's going to be okay" Will repeated softly.

Mike's shoulders dropped a bit - and he finally stepped through the portal. Said portal shut instantly, and the sound of Smalltown Boy that had still been discernible under the noise of the Mindscape falling apart vanished. Warm relief washed over Will, releasing a tension that had been nestling in Will's abdomen since he'd found Mike at the Creel House. Mike was finally safe.

But Will and El were not.

Will was snapped back to reality as a boulder the size of a car dropped beside him, cracking the ground beneath his feet.

“EL?” he yelled as he began to run, letting his connection to Vecna guide him towards her. “EL!”

Mike couldn’t move.

He hadn’t been able to move for however long he’d been trapped in the Mindscape, but Will had freed him from the vines and given him energy. He'd been able to move and run and speak. But now he was being restrained again. 

It must have been another illusion. Of course - he hadn’t really escaped. Just another method of torture. 

He fought against the vines, knowing that if he was awake the monster must be coming back for another torture session.

“Mike!”

Now the monster was impersonating his mother too.

“Mike, baby, it’s okay!”

A blurry figure moved into his field of vision.

He stopped trying to struggle against the vines as the figure morphed into his mother’s face. 

“M-m’m.”

Soft hands cupped his face. He hadn’t felt such comfort since he’d been trapped, not even in the visions the monster taunted him with. Maybe Will had been real. Maybe this was real.

But his body still ached terribly. His limbs were in agony. He couldn’t move. No, this scene was going to morph back into the Mindscape any second now.

“M-mum, he’s gonna get me-“

“Shh honey, it’s okay, he can’t get you anymore-“

“Mum, it hurts so bad” he sobbed.

“Okay, I’ll call a doctor, okay? They’ll make the pain go away, just please calm down baby, I promise everything is going to be okay-“

It wasn’t going to be okay. The pain in his body was getting worse by the second, Vecna was surely going to materialise in front of him any moment now-

“Make it stop!" he begged. "Just kill me!”

He continued to beg to his mother - or rather, to the monster impersonating her - to just let him die. He couldn’t take the pain anymore, especially not after that cruel hallucination he’d experienced with Will, where he’d experienced what it was like to be pain-free, to not feel fatigued to his bones, and to be able to move his body again. He didn’t think he’d be able to make it through one more torture session without losing his mind. 

The vision of the white room with his mother bending over him was beginning to dim. 

Before he could comprehend what might be happening, he was unconscious.

“What did you do to him?!” Karen shrieked as Mike’s body relaxed and his eyes slid shut.

“We gave him a sedative.”

“HE JUST WOKE UP!” Karen shouted, too distraught to consider any other point of view. “He’s been unconscious for months, and I just got him back and you knocked him out again!”

“Ma’am, I assure you the effects of the sedative are temporary-“ 

Max watched on helplessly as Karen continued to shout at the hospital staff. 

She had been ready for Mike to wake up, and after Karen had had a chance to say whatever she needed to say to him, Max had been ready to thank Mike. And call him an idiot for doing something so stupid.

She hadn’t been ready for this.

Hands shaking, she fumbled with the walkie talkie. It would’ve been helpful if Karen could use the walkie talkie to tell the others, but she was otherwise occupied. 

Finally, she managed to hold down the button.

“He woke up. You can attack.”

“EL?!”

She could feel the ground shaking beneath her feet. She could hear the sound of rocks crashing and thunder booming in the distance, and Will’s panicked voice crying her name.

Her arms were still outstretched towards the monster. She couldn’t turn her head to look for Will; she had to direct all her focus onto the figure in front of her. He may have been severely weakened, but he was still bigger, older and more experienced than her. If she lost her control over his body for just one moment, he could still kill her and escape. 

She’d been holding him for a few minutes now, but was struggling to find the power to overcome his resistance, and snap the life out of him the way he had done to so many others. He was weakened, but she was tired, and he was fighting for his life.

Max, Mike, the children in the lab-

It wasn't working anymore. 

What about things that made her happy? 

Her father, her family, her friends-

Will called her name again. He sounded terrified. 

The thought that Will could be in danger gave her the last boost of motivation she needed.

“You” she growled, staring straight into his eyes, the only part of his body that still appeared human “will never hurt my friends or family ever again.” 

-and with a tilt of her head, she cracked the creature’s neck in half. He gave one last pathetic roar before shrivelling into dust. 

El finally let herself rest, and fell to the floor, panting.

“El!” Will shouted again, falling to his knees beside her. She was worried, for a moment, that he’d be scared of her after watching her turn Vecna into a pile of dust, but his expression showed nothing but concern. “Are you okay?”

El nodded. “M-Mike?”

“He’s safe.”  

El breathed a sigh of relief - but the sense of calm was almost immediately dispelled by the collapse of the stone wall in front of her. Will leapt to his feet just before another jagged rock spire collapsed onto the floor where he’d been kneeling. El tried to push herself to her feet, but she was so tired, and the ground was shaking so much, that she fell back onto her knees.

Will grabbed her hands and helped her to her feet as the floor beneath their bodies began to crack. She could feel his hands trembling. Whatever he had done to break the Mindscape, it had drained him. “We need to get out!” Will yelled over the clamour of hundreds of stone structures collapsing. “Are you ready?!”

El nodded again, and placed a hand on Will’s shoulder. Will closed his eyes, concentrating-

They woke up in the library, gasping. Before he could properly register his surroundings, Will had the air knocked out of him by Dustin crushing him into a hug.

“You’re okay! Oh, god- did it work?”

Will barely suppressed a grimace as he caught sight of the black tendrils covering his arms. “We got Mike out.” 

“Oh, thank god.”

“El - you’re covered in blood.”

Will glanced over at his sister and discovered, to his horror, that Lucas was right - there were streaks of blood dripping down her cheeks. “So are you” she replied, gesturing at Lucas’s abdomen. It looked like a tornado had swept through the library. He’d been right. He did send monsters after their bodies.

“It’s fine. Just a graze.”

“Well?” Erica asked, arms folded. “What about Vecna?”

"El kicked his ass. And the others can finish him off now."

"Are you sure?"

“Definitely" Will reiterated. "The Mindscape is gone.”

As soon as Vecna opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of Nancy blasting a fireball at his head.

The monster instantly fell to the floor, groaned, and reached an arm out in an attempt to drag himself away.

“Don’t let him escape!” 

But he already seemed far more feeble than he had after they had set him on fire last time. Whatever had happened in the Mindscape must have worked.

He still, unfortunately, had his telekinesis. With a twitch of his finger so small that no one noticed it, he knocked Nancy and Robin to the ground. As the others turned, distracted, vines shot out from the floor and the sides of the room, slithering up everyone’s ankles

Fortunately, the vines were nowhere near as strong as they had been last time, and kicking and struggling against them was enough to halt their progress up their legs, but they were still enough to refocus most of their attention away from Vecna, because the moment they stopped struggling against the vines, the vines crept back around their legs and tripped them over.

Vecna stood up, convinced that everyone was too preoccupied to try and attack him again - but was immediately floored again by a knife protruding through his chest. The body fell to reveal Steve, breathing heavily, holding a knife coated in blood. 

“Nice one” Hopper grunted. He kicked his way through the vines, towards the monster. Instead of going for the element of surprise and attacking quickly, Hopper stood over him. 

“What’s up?” he taunted, ignoring the tendrils coiling around his boots. “Did my daughter beat your ass?”

Vecna looked up at the man standing over him, and contorted his gristly face into something that resembled a smile. But Hopper wasn’t interested in anything he had to say, and took the opportunity to shoot him between the eyeballs.

The vines the others were grappling with fell to the floor, inanimate once more. 

Vecna was lying motionless on the ground. He was certainly unconscious… but they could all tell, from the rise and fall of the chest and the way the mutilated body was being held, that he wasn’t dead yet. 

The others looked around at each other, but said nothing, as if speaking would wake him. 

He’d probably die from his injuries if they just left him like this… but that’s what they had assumed before. He'd still managed to recover.

Suddenly, an idea struck Nancy.

She had been sure that they had to target the head, and she still believed that that was the case - but so far, they’d only tried damaging various parts of the body. 

“Robin. Give me the sword.”

Robin’s arm, holding out the sword, entered Nancy’s peripheral vision. Nancy took the sword without meeting her eyes, and stepped over the mass of vines separating her from the body. As the others watched on silently, she made her way to the body. 

What if the head was separated from the body?

Without apprehension, she plunged the sword into the neck.

One moment, Will was feeling fairly good, all things considered. 

The next, he was dropping to the floor, screaming and convulsing.

Pain spread from the base of his skull down his spine to his whole body, as if conducting through every one of his nerve fibres. 

“What’s happening?”

“I don’t know!”

“Fucking hell-“ he could barely make out their words now “-mind connection… why didn’t we-“

“This…… so messed up-”

“Is he dying?”

It certainly felt like he was.

“No! He’s not dying!”

He couldn’t tell which way was up, whether he was dead or alive, or even who he was. All he knew was pain. The pain was becoming more and more concentrated at the base of his head. It felt like his brain was being ripped away from his spine. It couldn’t possibly keep getting worse than this - his skull was surely going to burst-

-a searing, burning sensation-

and then…

nothing?

His body relaxed back onto the floor of the library. Right. He was in the library, he was Will Byers, he’d just escaped from Vecna’s Mindscape. He had ended up on his back, breathing heavily through his mouth, as if he’d just ran a marathon. 

He felt exhausted. Shaky. Drained. But…

The alien weight that had settled in his head during his time in the Upside Down and never gone away, which the doctors had chalked up to PTSD when he bought it up, had lifted. The awful feeling, which had plagued him for so long that he had just accepted it as part of his life, was no longer there.

He opened his eyes. El, Lucas and Dustin were standing over him.

“Will!”

“Are you alright?”

“‘m okay” Will panted. “I-It’s over.”

“Are you sure?” El asked, her voice a few notes higher than normal.

“It’s over as in whatever just happened to you is over, or-?”

“They did it. He’s dead.”

Chapter Text

Mike was tired. 

It had been a long time since the last torture session. Or maybe that was just yet another mind trick. Either way, he was sure Vecna was going to return any minute now.

“Mike?”

Mike started to tremble, his heart pounding and his breath quickening. The monster was back.

“Mike, baby, please don’t panic. You’re safe.”

He wasn’t safe. He knew he wasn’t safe because he was still tied down. He wanted to shout at Vecna to just leave him to die, stop playing these mind games, he knew he was still being held captive, being restrained by vines because he couldn’t move. But he was still half asleep, too tired and sluggish to say all that, so all that came out was  “c-can’t move”

“That’s because your arms and legs are still broken, baby. They’re in casts - open your eyes and look at them.”

He didn’t believe it. But he was so desperate for it to be true. To feel safe, even if that feeling was just a delusion that would only last a few seconds before his torturer shattered it again. 

Cautiously, he opened his eyes. His mother was standing over him, but he wasn’t ready to trust his eyes just yet. She looked exhausted and grief-stricken - her hair was disheveled, her face lined with  He lifted his head and gazed down at his body. His arms and legs were indeed encased in white plaster. 

He dropped his head back against the pillow. His mother was still there. She hadn’t morphed into a monster. “It was real? I got out?”

His mother’s face cracked into a huge, relieved smile, which Mike only saw for a split second before she buried her face into his hair, embracing him in a hug. 

“Oh, thank god - yes honey, you got out. You’re safe. You’re safe. Oh honey, I love you so much.”

Mike wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. He couldn’t exactly return the hug. And although he was awake, he still felt too groggy to think straight. Maybe his mind was permanently damaged. “Why ‘m I so tired?”

“You… kept waking up and panicking, so the doctors sedated you.”

Oh. Come to think of it, he did remember waking up, seeing his mother and then losing consciousness a few times. “Thought you were a hallucination”

“Oh, honey...” She ran her hands through his hair, something she hadn’t done since he was about five years old. “I’m sorry. It’s over now. He can’t hurt you anymore. He’s gone.”

“Vecna? They killed him?”

“Yes.” The corners of her mouth turned up slightly. “Your sister made sure of that.”

“Th-they told you?”

The half-smile immediately vanished from her face. “They did. And about time - I can’t believe all you and your sister went through without me knowing! Especially you - since you were twelve years old!”

“Wasn’t that bad.”

Karen’s eyes widened, and she started talking furiously - she clearly disagreed with him - but it was getting hard to concentrate on her words. He fought to keep his eyes open, but his eyelids were beginning to feel like lead. 

“It’s alright, Mike. You can go back to sleep if you need to.”

He fell unconscious almost instantly.

Red light. 

Pain. 

CAN’T MOVE

“Mike! Can you hear me?”

Mike’s eyes shot open as he gasped and tried to sit up - but, of course, he couldn’t fucking move, so all he managed to do was jolt his body, causing intense pain to shoot through all four limbs, forcing him to cry out and sink back into the bed.

“Hey - it’s okay!”

He kept his gaze away from the voice and on the ceiling for a few seconds, almost hyperventilating, trying to find his bearings. The ceiling was white, and the light was on. That was why everything had looked red when he woke up - the light shining through his eyelids. Not the Mindscape. And that voice wasn’t Vecna. It was Nancy. 

“I-I’m okay” he panted. 

“Oh my god, you’re actually awake - holy shit, Mike!”

“Mhm” he hummed, embarrassed.

Nancy, beaming, rushed forward to embrace him. “You absolute dumbass - please don’t ever do anything like that again!”

He wasn’t ready to address that, so decided to change the subject. “Heard you killed Vecna.”

Nancy chuckled. “I axed the bastard’s head off. El beat up his Mindscape presence. And I heard you and Will destroyed the Mindscape by releasing the others?”

“Yeah.”

“You should’ve just escaped and let Will release them, you know.”

Mike was about to protest no, he’d never leave Will by himself to do something like that - but then his parents walked in with Holly, and all talk about the supernatural was forced to an abrupt stop. His mother must have summoned the rest of the family as soon as he’d fallen asleep last time. Or maybe he’d been asleep for days and this was just a coincidence. He certainly didn’t know what had been going on outside the Mindscape over the past few weeks.

“Mikey!” Holly squealed, running towards him. “You’re awake! You were asleep for so long!”

The corners of Mike’s lips turned up into a half-smile, and for the first him he found himself wishing that he could return the hug. “Hey, Hols.”

Ted patted him on the shoulder awkwardly. “Good to see you awake. Thought you’d never wake up.” Then his eyes darkened and his voice deepened as he asked “Do you not remember who attacked you?”

Mike stared down at the bedsheets awkwardly. “No”

Ted muttered something that sounded vaguely like “fuck” under his breath. “Neither does that girl he attacked. The bastard is still on the loose - kids being murdered and mutilated left and right, the police are useless - someone needs to be behind bars!”

Mike was surprised - and a little touched - by his father’s concern. He hadn’t even considered whether he would care if Vecna had succeeded in killing him, because the answer, he had assumed, was obviously no.

“Everyone else will be so glad to hear you’re awake” said Karen abruptly, probably in an attempt to steer the conversation in a different direction. “They’ve all been so worried about you.”

Mike nearly scoffed at that. He knew the others must have all played a part in helping him escape, but that was surely because they all wanted Vecna dead and all this shit with the Upside Down to end. 

“Your friends, especially - can I let them know you’re awake?”

His heart started pounding heavily again. The thought of everyone cramming into his room made Mike feel queasy. “N-no… not yet.”

Karen frowned. “Are you sure there’s no one else you’d like to see?”

He was tempted to refuse to see anyone, and hide away from everyone. He was starting to grasp the magnitude of what everyone had gone through to rescue him, and he wasn’t looking forward to everyone demanding to know why he had tried to sacrifice himself on a solo suicide mission. 

Then he remembered how he had felt one November evening, nearly three years ago, sitting in a hallway in this very building, waiting for his best friend to wake up, and realised he wasn’t being fair. 

“Actually - I want to see Will.”

Chapter Text

Will had to wait another day to visit Mike, because a nurse came into the room not long after Mike’s parents. The nurse had chastised them for not calling for a doctor as soon as Mike had woken up, and by the time Mike had finished being checked over by a doctor (who seemed baffled that Mike was lucid and capable of speaking), he was half asleep again. 

Will was excited to see Mike again - of course he was. But the extra week between defeating Vecna and seeing Mike had given him time to think about things that he hadn’t had time to think about since Mike had been attacked. Like, even though they had talked a bit in Lenora after their argument, and Mike had apologised to Will (and asked Will if he’d be okay if Mike died - thinking about that conversation still reduced Will to tears) the day before he was attacked, they still weren’t as close as they used to be. And somewhere along the line, Mike had developed depression. And he’d gone on a solo suicide mission without telling anyone. He’d been solely focused on getting Mike out of the Mindscape, out of immediate danger - but now everyone had to face the fact that Mike was never going to wake up completely unscathed. 

This was uncharted territory, even for a friendship plagued by supernatural disasters, and Will wasn’t sure he could navigate it. 

Those thoughts momentarily disappeared from his mind, replaced with pure joy, when he saw Mike awake. Will’s face broke into a huge smile as he practically ran to Mike’s bedside, barely able to restrain from throwing himself at his friend as if they were still 12 years old.  “Mike!” 

Mike looked…. tired. The corners of his lips upturned into a small smile, but it didn’t reach his bloodshot eyes. “Hi Will” 

Will asked “Uh, how are you feeling?” and then immediately regretted it. Yeah, that was a great first question. Not like everyone else is asking him the exact same thing every time he wakes up.

Mike's facial expression didn't change at all. “I’m fine.” Will raised his eyebrows. “Well, these pain meds are making me tired, but… it’s okay. Thanks for getting me out of there.”

“Oh - you’re welcome. I mean, it wasn’t just me, it was El too, and the others, and you don’t need to thank me for that - I mean, you rescued me from the Upside Down twice.”

“Well, I still appreciate it.” 

Mike’s apparent lack of emotion was a bit unsettling. Not that Will wanted Mike to feel bad - of course not - but he had just spent five weeks stuck in a literal hellscape. But Will wasn’t going to demand that Mike tell him exactly how he was feeling, or treat him like glass, because Will knew from experience that Mike probably just wanted to be treated like a normal person. 

Would it be weird to tell Mike he’d missed him? 

No. He’d just spent six weeks not knowing whether he’d ever be able to speak to Mike again. Regretting that he’d never made it clear how much Mike meant to him. Now was not the time to worry about making the conversation awkward. 

“I really missed you, you know. These past few weeks have been awful. I’m really sorry that you were struggling so much that Vecna targeted you, and I’m sorry that felt like I would be okay if you died, because I wouldn’t. You’re like, one of the most important people in my life, and I’d be devastated if I lost you. I was devastated when Vecna attacked you - and so was everyone else.”

Mike's eyes widened a bit, an expression of shock shining through his expressionless mask. “Thank you.”

“I would’ve stopped at nothing to get you out of there, you know.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, Nancy and El and the others would have too, but, I mean, my main goal wasn’t killing Vecna. It was saving you.”

Mike opened his mouth to respond, and then closed it again, apparently rendered speechless. “Wh - How’d you know?”

“How’d I know you’re assuming we only saved you because we wanted to kill Vecna? Mike, I know we’re not as close as we used to be, but you’ve always had shit self-esteem, and this whole ordeal has proven that it’s practically non-existent now. You didn’t think any of us would care, did you?”

Mike didn’t answer, which was enough to confirm Will’s fears. His heart dropped, and to his horror, tears began leaking out of his eyes. He lifted a hand to wipe them away, but it was pointless - he knew Mike had already seen him. 

“Will… please don’t cry.” Mike’s forehead was creased with concern - ironically, it was the first time that day that real, unsuppressed emotion was apparent on Mike’s face. 

“No - it’s fine. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be talking about this yet, I don’t wanna argue with you, you’ve just been through hell-“

“Will“ Mike said gently. “It’s okay.”

Will sniffed, gaining control over his tear glands again, and decided to turn the conversation away from him. He didn’t want to turn the conversation into Mike comforting him. “The others were really upset when they found out too, you know. Not just me. They all really want to visit you - only when you’re ready though, obviously.”

Mike’s face dropped, making Will regret bringing the others up. “Uh, yeah, I know I can’t hide from them forever. I just… I don’t want everyone crowding in here and interrogating me. The thought of it is, um, kind of panic-inducing.”

Will nodded. He understood the feeling. “Okay. How about one person at a time?”

Mike adverted his eyes to his bedsheets, taking a few seconds to answer. He nodded, but Will had a feeling Mike was still unsure.

Before Will could say anything else, Mike yawned - which didn’t surprise Will, because Mike looked exhausted, but seemed to greatly distress Mike. “Will… I’m sorry… I think I’m gonna fall asleep…”

“It’s alright, Mike.”

“Sorry… wanna keep talking to you…”

“I know, Mike, it’s fine.”

Will stayed sitting next to Mike for a few more minutes, thinking. There was a lot they still needed to talk about, but now Mike was out of danger, there was no need to rush. Will couldn’t tell from their short conversation whether Mike was coping with his current situation well or not. He probably hadn’t even processed what had happened yet - and the issues that led to Mike being targeted by Vecna needed to be addressed too. Seeing for himself that Mike was awake had calmed his anxiety a bit, but he still wasn’t sure if Mike would be okay.

No thought Will furiously - Mike would be okay. Even if it took some time. He’d make sure of it. 

Chapter Text

Will had to wait another day to visit Mike, because a nurse came into the room not long after Mike’s parents. The nurse had chastised them for not calling for a doctor as soon as Mike had woken up, and by the time Mike had finished being checked over by a doctor (who seemed baffled that Mike was lucid and capable of speaking), he was half asleep again. 

Will was excited to see Mike again - of course he was. But the extra week between defeating Vecna and seeing Mike had given him time to think about things that he hadn’t had time to think about since Mike had been attacked. Like, even though they had talked a bit in Lenora after their argument, and Mike had apologised to Will (and asked Will if he’d be okay if Mike died - thinking about that conversation still reduced Will to tears) the day before he was attacked, they still weren’t as close as they used to be. And Will was in love with Mike. (don't think about that, now is not the time). And somewhere along the line, Mike had developed depression. And he’d gone on a solo suicide mission without telling anyone. He’d been solely focused on getting Mike out of the Mindscape, out of immediate danger - but now he had to face the fact that Mike was never going to wake up completely unscathed. 

This was uncharted territory, even for a friendship plagued by supernatural disasters, and Will wasn’t sure he could navigate it. 

Those thoughts momentarily disappeared from his mind, replaced with pure joy, when he saw Mike awake. Will’s face broke into a huge smile as he practically ran to Mike’s bedside, barely able to restrain from throwing himself at his friend as if they were still 12 years old.  “Mike!” 

Mike looked…. tired. The corners of his lips upturned into a small smile, but it didn’t reach his bloodshot eyes. “Hi Will” 

“Uh, how are you feeling?” Yeah, that was a great first question. Not like everyone who had spoken to him since he had woken up had asked him the exact same question. He was probably sick of answering it. Why had he asked that?

“I’m fine.” Will raised his eyebrows. “Well, these pain meds are making me tired, but… it’s okay. Thanks for getting me out of there.”

“Oh - you’re welcome. I mean, it wasn’t just me, it was El too, and the others, and you don’t need to thank me for that - I mean, you rescued me from the Upside Down twice.”

“Well, I still appreciate it.” 

Mike’s apparent lack of emotion was a bit unsettling. Not that Will wanted Mike to feel bad - of course not - but he had just spent five weeks stuck in a literal hellscape. But Will wasn’t going to demand that Mike tell him exactly how he was feeling, or treat him like glass, because Will knew from experience that Mike probably just wanted to be treated like a normal person. 

Would it be weird to tell Mike he’d missed him? 

No. He’d just spent six weeks not knowing whether he’d ever be able to speak to Mike again. Regretting that he’d never made it clear how much Mike meant to him. Now was not the time to worry about making the conversation awkward. 

“I really missed you, you know. These past few weeks have been awful. I’m really sorry that you were struggling so much that Vecna targeted you, and I’m sorry that felt like I would be okay if you died, because I wouldn’t. You’re like, one of the most important people in my life, and I’d be devastated if I lost you. I was devastated when Vecna attacked you - and so was everyone else.”

A flicker of emotion finally passed over Mike’s face - shock? Gratitude? - but it lasted less than a second “Thanks.”

“I would’ve stopped at nothing to get you out of there, you know.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, Nancy and El and the others would have too, but, I mean, my main goal wasn’t killing Vecna. It was saving you.”

Mike opened his mouth to respond, and then closed it again, apparently rendered speechless. “Wh - How’d you know?”

“How’d I know you’re assuming we only saved you because we wanted to kill Vecna? Mike, I know we’re not as close as we used to be, but you’ve always had shit self esteem, and this whole ordeal has proven that it’s practically non-existent now. You didn’t think any of us would care, did you?”

Mike didn’t answer, which was enough to confirm Will’s fears. His heart dropped, and to his horror, tears began leaking out of his eyes. He lifted a hand to wipe them away, but it was pointless - he knew Mike had already seen him. 

“Will… please don’t cry.” Mike’s forehead was creased with concern - the first time that day that Mike had shown real emotion for longer than a few seconds, and it was concern for Will. 

“No - it’s fine. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be talking about this yet, I don’t wanna argue with you, you’ve just been through hell-“

“Will“ Mike said gently. “It’s okay.”

Will sniffed, gaining control over his tear glands again, and decided to steer the conversation away from him. He didn’t want to turn the conversation into Mike comforting him. “The others were really upset when they found out too, you know. Not just me. They all really want to visit you - only when you’re ready though, obviously.”

Mike’s face dropped, making Will regret bringing the others up. “Uh, yeah, I know I can’t hide from them forever. I just… I don’t want everyone crowding in here and interrogating me. The thought of it is, um, kind of panic inducing.”

Will nodded. He understood the feeling. “Okay. How about one person at a time?”

Mike adverted his eyes to his bedsheets, taking a few seconds to answer. He nodded, but Will had a feeling Mike was still unsure.

Before Will could say anything else, Mike yawned - which didn’t surprise Will, because Mike looked exhausted, but seemed to greatly distress Mike. “Will… I’m sorry… I think I’m gonna fall asleep…”

A pang of disappointment hit Will’s chest, which he hoped didn’t show on his face. “It’s alright, Mike.”

“‘m sorry”

Had his disappointment shown on his face? Now he just felt guilty. “Mike, it’s fine.”

Mike was already asleep.

Will stayed sitting next to him for a few more minutes, thinking. It had been an incredibly short conversation. There was a lot they still needed to talk about, but now Mike was out of danger, there was no need to rush. Will couldn’t tell from their short conversation whether Mike was coping with his current situation well or not. He probably hadn’t even processed what had happened yet - and the issues that led to Mike being targeted by Vecna needed to be addressed too. Seeing for himself that Mike was awake had calmed his anxiety a bit, but he still wasn’t sure if Mike would be okay. Was that even possible, after everything that had happened?

No thought Will furiously - Mike would be okay. Even if it took some time. He’d make sure of it. 

Chapter Text

When Mike awoke next, Max was sitting beside him. She glanced at him nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened. 

“Hey loser.” 

Mike nearly smiled at that. “Right back at you.”

Max was looking much better than she had the last time he’d seen her outside the Mindscape. She was sitting in a wheelchair, and she still looked a bit thin and drained, but Mike was pleased to see that her arms and legs were free from casts.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I reckoned it was my turn to talk to you. Seeing as I’m the reason you ended up in this situation and all.”

Straight to the point, as usual. “Actually, Vecna was the one who t-“ he wanted to say trapped me in the Mindscape, but a momentary flash of vines slithering up his body and claws looming over his face caused the words to get stuck in his throat “-tried to kill me.”

Max’s face remained unchanged, but she didn’t roll her eyes at him, which made him suspect that she’d noticed his stutter. “You know what I mean. Thank you, by the way - I am grateful that you got me out of there before he, uh, decided to wake me up, but doing - what you did - without letting anyone know… that was really stupid, you know.”

“So I’ve been told.” 

“I would’ve been so pissed if you had died.” Her face softened slightly, cracks finally appearing in the unbothered mask she was wearing. “No offence, but if I’d had to guess who was most likely to pull something like this for me, you would have been my last guess.”

That didn’t surprise him at all. “Makes sense. I was an asshole to you when you first moved to Hawkins.”

Max scoffed. “If you felt bad about that, you do know you could have just said sorry? Instead of, you know, sacrificing yourself for me?”

“Well… I’m sorry for the way I treated you when you moved here” Mike said sincerely. 

She did roll her eyes at him then. “It’s a bit late for that now. But apology accepted.” 

“Thanks.”

There was a momentary lull in the conversation, which Max promptly filled in by saying what she had probably been wanting to say to him for weeks.

“What exactly was your logic? Instead of having a comatose friend, we could have a dead one?”

Mike shrugged - sort of, he couldn’t really get his arms as high as usual with his arms in casts up to his shoulders. “We didn’t know if you were going to survive. I was - well, I thought I was the only other person who could get into the Mindscape, so I figured, I could let you die, or I could free you myself.”

Max shook her head, clearly disagreeing with his logic. “Even if I had died, either way everyone else would have still ended up with one dead friend.”

“Yeah, but better me than you.”

Max froze, her eyes wide with shock. For the first time ever, Mike had actually managed to stun Max into silence. For a few seconds, anyway. “Why?” She demanded after she’d found her voice again. “Why better you than me?”

Mike couldn’t believe Max was so shocked. He’d assumed that it was just universally accepted by everyone that Max was needed more than him, even if no one would say it. “I don’t think you get how upset everyone was after you - after he attacked you. Lucas was devastated. El was beside herself the whole drive back from Lenora, she refused to speak to anyone. Everyone - Dustin, Will, even Steve and Robin - were, like, constantly on the verge of tears. Lucas needed you. El needed you. And the others… they’d rather have you than me.”

“I don’t think you get how upset everyone was when it was you! Will was literally in shock after he watched you get snapped in half. Dustin saw your body too, did you know that? It took him days to stop shaking. El was devastated. Nancy couldn’t stop crying. Everyone was horrified when they found out what you’d done. And even if no one else had cared about you - what about me?”

Mike frowned. “What about you?”
“How do you think I would have felt if you died? How do you think I did feel when you were stuck in the Mindscape? Do you think I would’ve been okay if I had to live the rest of my life with the fact that I was only alive because you were dead hanging over me? How would you feel if it had been me stuck in the Mindscape because I’d sacrificed myself to get you out?”

The penny finally dropped. “…awful” Mike admitted. 

“When I found out what you had done - from that letter you wrote to Nancy - I started puking my guts out.”

Now Mike was the one stunned into silence. 

“After Billy died… I really struggled for a while. I sometimes wished that it had been me. I used to wish I’d died instead of him. I… I think I’m over that now. But if you had died for me…” she shook her head “all those feelings would have come back. It would’ve been worse, because Billy didn’t actually die because of me, but you did. And I’m not sure I’d be able to recover from something like that.”

He understood the implication behind that. They might have ended up losing Max anyway.

A wave of guilt was flooding his chest. This wasn’t the pity he’d felt when his mother and Nancy had practically sobbed over him when he first woke up, or the shock he’d felt when Will told him how desperate he’d been to save him. This was overwhelming, genuine guilt. “I’m sorry. You’re right, I should have made a plan with the others.”

“Yeah. You should have. But you didn’t. And… you don’t have to talk about this now, or with me… but you should talk to someone about your depression.”

“Uh. My what?”

“Mike, I have depression, and I know you do too. I could’ve figured that out even if Vecna hadn’t targeted you.” 

Mike wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he averted his eyes from Max and decided to start fiddling with the bedsheets, before remembering that he couldn’t move his arms. “I’m tired.”

Max sighed. “Okay. I’ll leave. But please do talk to someone about it.”

Mike stared guiltily at the door for a few minutes after she left. He hadn’t really been lying - he was mentally drained, and he had been constantly tired ever since he escaped the Mindscape - but he wasn’t on the verge of falling asleep like he had been when his conversation with Will had been cut short. And the pain in his limbs was getting harder to ignore. The doctors must be weaning him off the drugs. 

He thought about what Max had said. Sure, he never really felt happy anymore, but he wasn’t sad all the time. Just... emotionless. 

He wasn’t depressed, was he?

Chapter Text

The next two weeks were a blur of people barging into his room, exclaiming that they were so happy he was awake, and calling him stupid.

If he’d been physically capable of standing up, he would have tried to escape by now.

There had been a lot of difficult conversations. Many that had made him feel really guilty. Particularly one with Dustin that they’d been avoiding for four years.

“I thought Will was dead. Lucas was angry with me, and I was a stupid 12-year-old, so I thought he’d never be my friend again. El had gone, so I didn’t think I’d ever see her again either. You-you were literally the only person I had left, and I couldn’t let anything happen to you. I couldn’t lose you too.”

“Do you really think I would have been okay if you had died there, Mike? Do you think I would have been okay after watching you jump to your death? Especially after seeing Will’s body… god, would I have been okay if I’d had to watch two of my friend’s bodies pulled from that same damn quarry?”

“No. No, of course not. I’m sorry.”

Another one with Lucas.

“I don’t know what happened to convince you that everyone would be fine if something happened to you, but that’s just not true. Everyone cares about you. I care about you. And I’m not saying the only reason you should care about your own life is because everyone would be devastated if you died - you need to care about yourself too - but if that’s the only thing that’s going to stop you from jumping off cliffs or going on suicide missions at the first opportunity, then I need you to accept that we want you to be okay.”

“I’m sorry.”

And El.

“You didn’t tell me you were sad.”

“You were in Lenora.”

“But we wrote to each other.”

“Well, you didn’t tell me you were being bullied. You said you had friends.”

That conversation involved a few tears, El promising to never lie like that again and Mike promising the same. Because they were friends, and his 12-year-old self had told her that friends don’t lie.

His 12-year-old self had no idea.

Even Hopper had come and given Mike a stern talking-to, which Mike thought was a bit rich coming from a man who had been presumed dead for over half a year.

By the time Jonathan and even Robin came to chastise him, he wanted to scream.

He wished they would all stop. He wished they could all just act like nothing had happened. He was exhausted. He couldn’t bear any more conversations about how stupid he had been and how worried they had been and why didn’t you tell anyone you were struggling? They were all telling him that they cared about him and wanted him to be okay, but all Mike felt now was guilt over how much trouble he had caused by getting stuck in the Mindscape instead of just dying like he had planned. Of course they would insist that they had been worried - they weren’t bad people. That didn’t necessarily mean that they weren’t all exaggerating.

The doctors were scaling back his medication too. That was allowing him to stay awake for more than ten minutes at a time, which was a positive - but it was also making his head less hazy. His mind clearer. His memory and cognitive processing better.

Which, of course, gave way to the memories and comprehension of just how awful his time in the Mindscape had been.

It was getting harder to focus on anything other than the memory of every part of his body burning in pain. He was even finding it difficult to fall asleep now, and when he did he would inevitably wake up screaming, convinced he was still in the Mindscape. That had really freaked the hospital staff and his mother out the first few times it happened. He was startled every time the door opened and sometimes even expected one of the doctors or nurses to morph into Vecna.

It didn’t help that he was stuck in bed, with nothing to distract himself except a shitty hospital TV that he wouldn’t even try to watch because he couldn’t use his hands to change the channels himself. Luckily, the casts were due to come off tomorrow, so hopefully after the next morning he would stop waking up unable to move - but then he’d have to deal with the arduous task of learning to use his limbs again. Max had finally been discharged from the hospital (sleeping in Steve’s house and spending most days at Lucas’ house - the whereabouts of her mother were still unknown), but was still attending daily physiotherapy sessions and couldn’t stand for long without getting tired.

While he was pondering all of this for what felt like the millionth time, staring at the ceiling and wishing he could just sleep the rest of his hospital stay away, the door swung open again. He glanced up nonchalantly, expecting it to be another doctor or his mother - but his mood lifted a little when he saw that it was Will.

Will smiled as the door swung shut. “Hey Mike. How are you?”

Mike resisted the urge to sigh.

“Fine.”

“You sure?”

Irritation flared in Mike’s chest. “Will, if you’re just here to tell me how stupid I am or how worried everyone was, just leave it.”

Will’s eyes widened slightly and the sides of his mouth turned down, instantly turning the irritation into guilt. “Sorry.”

Mike did sigh then. “Sorry. I’m sorry. It’s fine. You’re fine. It’s just, everyone who comes in here says that to me, and, uh, I’m just a bit sick of it, you know?”

Will nodded. “It’s fine. But I didn’t come here to call you stupid. You’re not stupid. I came to ask you if you’re okay. And I know that’s not what you want - I know you want everyone to treat you normally and act like nothing happened. That’s all I wanted after I got out of the Upside Down. But… look, what happened was really bad. And I don’t want you, like, replaying those memories and drowning in your feelings alone.”

“Thanks, Will. I-I appreciate it, but I just don’t really want to talk about any of that right now.” Or ever, preferably.

Thankfully, Will didn’t press the issue. “Okay. We don’t have to talk about them right now.” He paused for a moment. “You know, we didn’t really get to talk much during spring break before everything blew up - why don’t you fill me in on what happened while I was in Lenora?”

Mike doubted that there was much Will hadn’t been told by the others, but he appreciated the chance to pass the time without talking about his issues or apologising for everything. So he told him about how Eddie took them under his wing and invited them to his DnD party almost instantly.

“I wish I could have met him.”

“Me too. He would have loved you.”

He told Will about Lucas joining the basketball team and spending more time with the jocks than with Mike and Dustin, and how he had wanted to feel happy for Lucas, but couldn’t help feeling a bit uneasy about him hanging out with people that usually bullied people like Mike. He carefully skipped over the bits where he spent evenings lying on the sofa in his basement, wondering why he felt so unmotivated and empty. Or the hours he spent at his desk, a piece of paper with nothing but “Dear Will” written on it lying in front of him.

And Will filled Mike in, too. He told Mike that when they had arrived at their new school, the other students had immediately noticed that Will and El were different the way that only schoolchildren can. Will had done his best to keep his head down and avoid attention, but El, who had zero experience dealing with school bullies without her powers and struggled in class, had become an obvious target for everyone - especially Angela and her gang. Jonathan started coming home with the stench of weed clinging to his clothes, and his mother, busy with her new job, assuming no labs or monsters could reach her children on the other side of the country and still devastated over the loss of Hopper, didn’t seem to notice anything anymore.

Mike’s memory flashed back to their argument at the roller-skating rink, when Will had basically told him that he was jealous that Mike wrote to El but not him. From El’s letters, Mike had assumed that Will was having a great time with his new friends and probably wouldn’t care that Mike felt unable to write anything to him. Hearing Will talk about Lenora now, he wondered for the first time if writing to Will would’ve made it easier for him to navigate his new life.

He was mulling over this thought when Will brought up the subject of the letters himself. “I’m sorry I didn’t write to you. I guess, I just saw El receive letter after letter from you, and I assumed that, because you didn’t write to me, you wouldn’t want to hear from me, and writing would just sound needy.”

Mike barely stifled a sharp intake of breath. He’d gone past the feeling of guilt now - he felt genuinely horrified that Will had believed that. “Will… no, I’m sorry I didn’t write to you, that was really shitty of me, but I swear, I would have loved to hear from you.”

“Yeah? I appreciate the apology Mike, but you didn’t seem too pleased to see me at the airport.”

“I- this is going to sound stupid, but I don’t know why I reacted like that at the airport. I guess you. Uh. Looked different? And from El’s letters, I thought you both had friends, and maybe you had moved on from me. I don’t know what happened. And I… I tried to call you. Like, nearly every day for at least three months. But Joyce was always on the phone. And when I tried to sit down to write you a letter, I couldn’t figure out what to write. With El, it was easy, just respond to the stuff she’d written - but with you,  nothing felt sincere enough.”

Will looked a bit perplexed, which didn’t surprise Mike. Mike didn’t understand his own feelings towards Will. “Moved… on? From you?” Will shook his head. “Mike, even if I did have new friends, I-I would’ve been happy to receive anything from you. Even if it was just, like, two sentences.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Mike didn’t realise he was smiling at Will until the door opened, startling both of them. It was his mother.

“Hi Mike - Will, good to see you. Are you feeling okay, Mike? Do you need anything?”

Mike’s cheeks flushed red. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Are you hungry? Thirsty?”

Seeing an opportunity to get his mother out of the room for a few more minutes so he could finish his conversation with Will in private, Mike told her he was thirsty.

“Ugh, I’m sorry.” He couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed that the conversation had been interrupted.

“Nah, it’s fine. She just cares about you. My mother was worse.”

“Yeah, I guess. So, uh-“ Mike swallowed reflexively “-will you, uh, come back tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. See you tomorrow.” Will walked towards the door and turned back around. “Oh, and Mike?”

“Mhm?”

“You don’t have to talk about your feelings right now. And you don’t have to talk about it with me. Just- promise me you’ll talk to someone, at some point, okay?”

Mike had been dealing with people telling him that he could talk to them and to not do anything that might get him hurt for weeks. Generally, it had really pissed him off, because it felt like they were all just saying that because they were guilty. It didn’t feel like any of them actually meant it when they said they cared about his feelings, except maybe his mother and Nancy. But - maybe due to what Will had just said about Mike’s letters, or the way he said it, or just because it was Will - it actually felt sincere.

“I promise.”

And he really meant it.

Chapter Text

Will did come back the next day - but they didn’t get to talk as much, because it was also the day that Mike’s casts came off.

He’d heard from Max how much the physiotherapy after having the casts removed sucked, but she hadn’t told him what the immediate aftermath was like, and he hadn’t thought to ask. As a result, he was completely unprepared for how unrecognisable his arms and legs looked. Mike had always been pale, but the skin on his limbs looked deathly white and so flaky that it was peeling off. The accumulation of grime and sweat was frankly gag-inducing, as was the sight of patches of his skin literally falling off when said grime was washed off the limbs. They were also disconcertingly thin and bony, as if all his muscles had broken down.

They felt like shit, too. Despite clearly being lighter than they had been, they felt like they were made of lead. The areas where his bones had been snapped obviously ached - but so did his joints. And when he tried to lift a plastic cup of water so he could drink without a straw for the first time since waking up, his hand shook so much that he only lifted it a few centimetres away up from the table before putting it back down, sure he would spill the water all over himself.

Then they made him try to stand up. Which went about as well as you’d expect. He would have probably ended up in a real coma if the group of doctors and nurses hadn’t been there to grab him before he collapsed headfirst into the

It’s normal, the doctor had said. You haven’t used those muscles for months. It’ll take some time to regain full use of them.

The thought of having to walk - let alone do all the physical therapy that Max was still going through - made his heart race. He had also spent the previous night plagued by nightmares, and the sleep deprivation only added to his irritability. The result was that when Will came, Mike wasn’t really in the mood to talk much. He didn’t snap at Will or anything - Will didn’t deserve that - but he didn’t try to carry the conversation himself, just answering and reacting to Will’s questions and comments with one-word answers. Will didn’t try to push Mike into a more interesting conversation and left rather quickly, which for some reason disappointed Mike.

He was given about 20 minutes of peace to stare at the ceiling and think about how much everything sucked before his sister came to visit him.

“Hey Mike.” He didn’t say anything as Nancy made her way to the chair beside his bed. “Bet you’re glad those casts are off, hey?”

Mike just hummed in response, fixing his gaze onto his lap.

“Hey, don’t be like that. What’s wrong?” Her voice was too positive. As if she were talking to a scared toddler hiding under a table.

“Nothing,” he replied sharply. “Just not in the mood to talk about the casts because, you know, my arms and legs are still practically useless.”

“Yeah, but this is the first step to being able to use them. And now you can… move around more freely.”

Mike smirked at that. “Yeah, now when I have a nightmare I’ll be able to scare the nurses by throwing my arms out as well as screaming.”

As soon as he’d said it, he regretted it. Nancy’s false positive demeanour immediately evaporated. Flailing during his nightmares wasn’t even something he’d thought about until right now - in fact, the nightmares would be slightly more tolerable with the casts off because he wouldn’t have to wake up immobilised as if he were still tied up by the vines in the Mindscape.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No. It was just a joke.”

Nancy sighed. “Then… I don’t know, do you think you should see a therapist?”

Mike turned to look at her, dumbfounded. “A... therapist? What would I say to a fucking therapist?! If I tried to tell them about the Upside Down, they’d lock me up!”

“I guess, but we could see if Hopper could find somebody who’d keep it a secret. Or you could just talk to me about it.”

Mike tried not to react to that, but he must have made a face because Nancy frowned at him. “Come on, don’t be like that,” she said again. ”I’m your sister. Remember what I said after Will went missing? No more secrets?”

“That was years ago! I was twelve. And it wasn’t serious - we both kept keeping secrets after that.”

She sighed again. “I know. I’m trying to fix that.”

Nancy looked at him expectantly, as if she wanted him to start pouring out all his feelings and grievances to her.

Mike thought about the feelings (or lack of them) that had led to him spending whole days lying in the basement or on his bed, staring at the ceiling. The indescribable fear of seeing Vecna stand over him, knowing that he was about to be tortured. The nightmares that caused him to wake up screaming and drenched in sweat, but that he couldn’t remember anything of except flashes of red and pain.

“I don’t even know how to put any of… that stuff into words,” he said truthfully.

“Okay.” Nancy paused for a second, as if considering her options. “How about I talk to you instead?”

Mike didn’t really know what she meant by that, so he just shrugged.

“I have nightmares too,” she said softly. “About… Barb. And after I saw your - your body after Vecna got you, I had nightmares about that every night for about a month.”

His chest tightened uncomfortably. “Sorry”

“No, I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. I’m just saying - you shouldn’t be embarrassed.”

Mike had the feeling that Nancy was dancing around what she actually wanted to say. “I’m not embarrassed” he lied. “Just rather not talk about it.”

This was followed by a few seconds of silence, in which Nancy swallowed nervously. Mike considered telling Nancy to just do what everyone else had been asking Mike to do and tell him what the matter was, but didn’t say anything.

Finally, she spoke again. “I still feel really guilty about what happened to you, too.”

“Huh?” That wasn’t what he’d been expecting. “What? Why? You didn’t do anything.”

Tears were welling up at the base of Nancy’s eyes. “Exactly! I found you throwing up the night before it happened, and even before that I could tell something was wrong - but I still didn’t stop you!”

Mike shook his head, his frustration evaporating. “Nancy, that’s ridiculous. If I remember correctly, you literally told me not to do anything stupid right before I left the house that day. I’d already made my mind up. I wasn’t going to tell anyone about it, and no one could have stopped me.”

“I should’ve stopped you leaving - told someone-“

“And then what? Kept me locked in my room for no apparent reason? I wanted Vecna to take me!”

A few of the tears in her eyes escaped, running down her cheeks. “That’s just it though - you’d been targeted, you wanted to die and I didn’t know about it! All those months, you lying in that basement, letting your room get filthy, and I didn’t even realise you were depressed!”

“Who knows that those things are signs of depression? I didn’t even know I was depressed. And I didn’t want to tell anyone. And… we’re not really those kind of siblings.” Mike had always been Nancy’s annoying little brother, and until a few years ago, he had enjoyed being annoying to his sister.

“Well, maybe I’d like us to be.”

Honestly, Mike wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He still didn’t particularly want to talk about certain things with anyone. But - then again, he hadn’t known that Nancy was still so affected by Barb’s death. Come to think of it, he hadn’t really spoken to her about it after she disappeared - hadn’t even given it much thought - that Mike’s best friend had been saved, but Nancy’s had died. And he’d been the only person in the house who she could have spoken to about it.

“Mike?”

Oh. He’d spaced out. “Sorry. I was just thinking - yeah, we can work on it. But you need to talk to me too.”

Nancy smiled. “Deal.”

Later that day, in the evening, when visiting hours were over and the medical staff mostly left him alone, Mike spent an hour staring at the white hospital ceiling, thinking.

Maybe he’d been selfish. He’d been thinking of all the ways everyone would benefit by him sacrificing himself and dying, but in the years before that, there were ways in which he could have made people around him feel better just by talking to them and trying to understand what they were going through. Will and Nancy especially. He was going to make a conscious effort to talk to Nancy about important things from now on. Make sure she was okay.

And Will… he clearly wanted Mike to confide in him too. But there was the same issue that Mike wasn’t sure he particularly felt comfortable talking about certain things with anyone. Mike hadn’t been lying when he’d told Nancy that he didn’t know how to put his feelings into words. Especially when it came to his feelings about Will. If Mike tried to tell Will that, it might confuse him. Make him uncomfortable, even.

But maybe Will would appreciate knowing that?

The next time Will came to see him… Maybe Mike should try and talk to him about some of his feelings.

Will was lying on his bed, staring at the wooden ceiling and thinking.

When Mike had been in the Mindscape, Will had spent so much time thinking about all the things he’d wanted to say to Mike.

I care about you. I want you alive. Please don’t ever do anything like that again.

I love you.

But now Mike was safe, he had regressed back into being reluctant to say anything.

At first, Mike had been unable to stay awake long enough to have a proper conversation. Afterwards, it felt wrong to drop all of his feelings on Mike when Mike was still dealing with what had happened to him. And today, Mike had clearly not been in the mood to talk about anything. It just hadn’t been the right time.

But would it ever be the right time? What if he kept making excuses for the rest of his life?

Will stood up and started pacing up and down the tiny room. He thought, considering all he’d said about wanting Mike to talk to him, at this point he owed Mike the truth about the painting and… everything.

Should he just go for it? No, that would be ridiculous. His heart was pounding just thinking about it.

But it would always feel ridiculous. He might as well just do it and get it over with.

What if he hates me, what if he doesn’t want to be near me anymore, what if he tells everyone and everyone else hates me too…

No. This was Mike. He’d risked his life to get Will back from the Upside Down. Jumped off a cliff for Dustin. Sacrificed himself for Max. He wouldn’t hate Will for something as trivial as this.

But Mike had so much going on already. It wouldn’t be fair to give him something else to worry about.

But he had asked Mike to be honest with him. It all came back to the fact that Will owed Mike the truth. And that there might never be a “right time” to reveal something like this.

And even if it went wrong… well, at least he knew that Jonathan accepted him.

Will took a deep breath and sat down on the bed.

I’m going to tell him.

Chapter Text

Mike spent the half hour between the group of doctors and physiotherapists trying to get him to use his arms and legs (to little success) and Will’s visit agonising over what he might say. Which was ridiculous, because this was Will. His best friend since the first day of school. 

He could tell Will about the time he’d spent in his basement, unable to feel anything, unable to send letters to Will because nothing he wrote felt right, but… the way his chest felt whenever Will was around him? As if Will was an essential part of him? How could he explain that? Wouldn’t Will find that a bit… weird?

He still hadn’t quite figured out how he was going to approach the situation when Will turned up - but all thoughts were wiped from his brain, because Will looked terrified. Mike’s first instinct was to assume that some new monstrosity had crawled out of the Upside Down.

“Are you okay? Has something happened?”

Will shook his head. “N-no, everything’s fine. I just, uh, wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Yeah?”

Will looked like he was on the verge of hyperventilating. “You know - um, remember that painting I made for you?”

Mike frowned. “Mm?”

Will’s eyes darted around the room. He swallowed a couple of times before continuing. “I wasn’t exactly… well, when I told you that El needed you, she didn’t tell me to say that, you, um, already know that, but I wasn’t really lying, I just used her name instead of mine.”

Mike blinked, baffled. “Um… what?” 

“When I… when I said she felt lost, b-but you made her feel better for being different, and she needed you, b-but I was talking about me.”

Mike rubbed his forehead with his hand, wondering if his brain was just scrambled, or if Will really wasn’t making any sense. “Will, I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me.”

“I love you!”

For a few seconds, Mike’s mind went blank. Nothing seemed to exist except a slight ringing noise in his ears. 

“You… love me?” 

And then his brain started racing.

That feeling in his stomach. 

The way his heart raced when he even thought about Will. 

The feeling of longing and emptiness whenever Will was gone, coupled with the nervousness when he was there in Lenora.

Something, finally, clicked in his mind.

“Ohhh…”

Will had turned away, clearly confusing his reaction with rejection.

Mike’s heart dropped. “Will - no, come back!”

But Will was already walking away.

Mike tried to lift himself up out of the bed, to run after Will, not caring that he could barely even stand up - but due to the pitiable state of his limbs and the exhaustion caused by the physical therapy earlier, all he managed to do was slide himself ungracefully off the bed and onto the floor. 

It was humiliating, but at least the noise caused Will to turn around. His face dropped in horror, and he ran back into the room, kneeling beside Mike, babbling  “oh, god, oh shit, I’m sorry Mike, oh god-“

Mike’s cheeks burnt. “I’m fine, it’s fine, don’t worry-”

“Oh god-“

“WILL! I’m fine! Just… can you help me back up?”

Will stopped babbling and nodded. Mike managed to pull himself up, and Will helped him back onto the bed. 

“You sure you’re okay?” 

“Yeah. Seriously. I’m fine.”

Now the initial panic had worn off, Will was starting to look like a nervous deer again, ready to bolt at the slightest movement.

He had to tell him before that happened. “Will… uh, this is going to sound insane, but, um-“

He paused for a second, wondering how to explain what had just happened inside his mind without sounding insincere or crazy. Will didn’t say anything.

Mike put his hands on his head. “Oh god, Will, I think I’m in love with you too.”

Will jerked backwards. “What?”

He didn’t believe him. 

Mike’s stomach turned. “I know I haven’t acted like it, it’s just, I’ve, uh, only just realised.” His eyes were beginning to sting, threatening to spill tears. “Or, I don’t know, maybe I didn’t even let myself consider it. No-“ Will had gone to move away again “-Will, please let me explain.”

Will’s arms were crossed tightly against his chest. He wouldn’t meet Mike’s eyes. “You were in love with El.”

Mike sighed. “I was. But we were 12. She was a girl. With powers. I… I think I did love her, and I’ll always care about her. But we’ve grown up - it never really felt the same after she dumped me the first time - and we broke up because neither of us feel that way about each other anymore.”

Will had uncrossed his arms, and was now pacing up and down the room. “I have spent… so long, trying to accept my feelings for you. Trying to accept that I’m different, and that you could never feel the same.” His voice rose with anger with each sentence. “I had to watch you choose to spend all your time with her instead of me. Write her letters every week while I never got anything from you. Act like I wasn’t even there in Lenora. Just for you to say you love me? Do you think this is funny?”

Blind panic shot through Mike. “No! No, Will, please, I’m not joking- please don’t walk away again.”

If it hadn’t been for the desperation and genuine anguish in Mike’s voice, Will probably would have walked out. Instead, he hesitated, then turned back around, his facial expression slightly softer. 

Mike had to explain. “Will… ever since you left for Lenora, I have been so confused about my feelings for you.” 

Will’s face didn’t change. His voice was still slightly cold as he asked “How so?”

Mike drew a shaky breath, still not entirely sure how he was going to put his feelings into words. “I guess it started when I hugged you goodbye. I had this… weird feeling in my chest. Kind of the same feeling I’d felt when El disappeared, although I didn’t realise that at the time… I thought it was just because I was sad you were leaving.” A similar, uncomfortable feeling was spreading through his chest right now. It felt like he was talking nonsense. “I didn’t feel anything that strong when I hugged El goodbye, or even when she said she loved me, and that really confused me, because I was supposed to be in love with her. I didn’t want to consider that maybe my feelings for her had changed. Then, when you were away… I tried to call you nearly every night for the first few months, but because of Joyce’s job, the line was barely ever free. I wrote whatever superficial shit came into my head for El, but when I tried to write to you, my mind just went blank.” Mike had averted his gaze from Will to his lap now, the uncomfortable feeling spreading to the pit of his stomach. “It felt like nothing I could think of was quite right. And whenever I thought of you I felt this weird… feeling of emptiness. And you never wrote to me or called me, so I assumed that you didn’t want to hear from me anyway… I thought maybe you had moved on with the new friends El kept telling me about. Then when I visited you in Lenora, every time I was near you I could feel my heart rate increase. I felt almost… panicky when you hugged me at the airport, even though I’d wanted to see you so badly. That confused me even more, because I’d never felt nervous around you before. And now, every time you’re near me, I can’t - well, couldn’t - even describe how I felt.” His mouth was racing as fast as his mind now. Will probably thought he was talking gibberish. “I haven’t been able to make sense of it… it never even crossed my mind that, uh…” his voice broke off. The tears still hadn’t left his eyes, but he could feel his lip quivering, and knew that his face was probably betraying him, showing Will that he was on the verge of tears. He risked a quick glance back up towards Will.

Mike was shocked to find that Will didn’t look angry anymore. His face had softened significantly, and his eyes were glistening. “Because I’m a boy?”

Mike nodded. “Um… yeah.”

Will lowered his gaze. He was fiddling with his fingers nervously. “Uh... well, firstly, I just want to say, I'd have been happy to receive anything from you, even if it was "superficial shit"... and even if I had made new friends, I never would've moved on from you. But I guess I didn't send you anything either, so really it's as much my fault, and I'm sorry for making you feel like that."

"I-it's fine" Mike muttered awkwardly, bracing himself for the point where Will started telling him that everything else he had said was rubbish.

But Will still didn't look angry. His eyes were darting around the room again, and he had started wringing his hands. "Are you… really? Are you sure? That you… that all that is because you love me?” 

Mike blinked. He hadn’t been this sure of his feelings for a long time. But… are you sure was not something someone should have to ask if you’ve just professed your love for them. He hadn’t made Will feel loved, or even as if Mike cared about him. And that, ultimately, was what finally overcame Mike’s efforts to stop the tears escaping his eyes. A few stray tears leaked out and streamed down his face. “Y-yeah. I’m sure.”

Something in Will’s expression cracked then, like the cautious mask he’d been wearing all this time finally slipped. Relief flooded his face, mingled with a joy so fragile it almost hurt to look at. He let out a shaky laugh, half-sob, half-breathless release. “You’re such a dumbass! I’ve been hiding that from you for so long!”

Mike bowed his head back towards his lap. “I’m sorry,” he whispered… before, embarrassingly, slumping down into himself and bursting into tears.

“Hey - it’s okay-” Will’s mortified voice spoke from somewhere above him.

“I-it’s not! I’ve b-been horrible to you-“

“-that’s not true-“

“-how could you love someone like me?”

Will’s face twisted, as if he’d been punched. When he spoke again, his voice wavered. “Mike… you’ve been there for me since the first day at school. You probably saved me from social isolation that day… I was too scared to talk to anyone. You were the only one who treated me normally after I was rescued from the Upside Down. You- you’re the reason I’m still here. If you hadn’t been there, I don’t think I would’ve made it through everything. You’ve saved me so many times. A year or so of hanging out with a girlfriend instead of me doesn’t undo everything you’ve done for me.”

Mike wanted to argue, to list all the ways he had failed, all the letters unwritten, the phone calls unanswered. But he knew Will wouldn’t accept it - he was too forgiving. So Mike just kept crying pathetically, wiping furiously at his face with his hands even though his face was so wet and his eyes were replacing the tears he wiped away so rapidly that all he managed to achieve was spreading the tears around his face and getting the back of his hands wet. 

Suddenly, he was being embraced. He stiffened a bit in surprise.

“Mike. Stop hating yourself.”

He looked up, finally letting his eyes meet Will’s, and Mike’s breath was almost taken away. A warm, almost overwhelming feeling was surging through his body. The stream of tears slowed a bit. He could’ve stayed like that for hours, staring into Will’s eyes… except now they were filling with tears, and now those tears were streaming down Will’s cheeks. 

“Hey, don’t cry-“ Mike’s voice was still thick with his own tears “-what’s wrong?” 

“N-nothing” Will choked. “Just don’t like seeing you like this.”

Mike’s arms hurt with each movement, but he didn’t even notice the pain as he lifted his arms around Will. “I-I’m alright, Will. It’s okay.”

Will sniffed and managed to get the tears under control. “Sorry. Got overwhelmed. I’m just so… I never thought this was even possible. Sorry. I shouldn’t be… you’re the one in hospital.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t be sad too. I cried when you disappeared, and I wasn’t the one who was stuck in the Upside Down... the worst experience of your life, and I still felt sorry for myself.”

Will shook his head. “You literally d-died in my arms. That was the worst thing I have ever experienced.”

“You were stuck in the Upside Down for a week. You got possessed.”

“The worst thing” Will repeated firmly. 

Mike grimaced. “Sorry. You… uh, I never meant for you to see that.”

“Don’t apologise. It happened - and I’m glad I was there, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. I just want you to know that I care about you… I love you. And I want you to be okay.”

Something warm and steady bloomed in Mike’s chest, chasing away the cold. For once, he believed it. He believed Will. He leaned back against the pillows, his breathing still uneven, but steadier than a few minutes ago.

Will hadn’t moved away. One of his hands was still on Mike’s arm, thumb brushing nervously against the fabric of the hospital gown, as if he wasn’t sure whether he had the right to touch Mike now he wasn’t bawling his eyes out. Mike, noticing this, put his hand over Will’s without looking away from Will’s face, as if to say it’s okay. It’s okay to do this.

The two of them sat there, side by side, saying nothing more. There was no need. They’d have time later to talk more about what this meant and how they would navigate it together. The hospital machines hummed, the fluorescent lights buzzed faintly overhead, hospital staff bustled up and down the corridor on the other side of the door, but in the small circle of space around the bed, it felt quiet. Safe.

Mike let his eyes close for a moment, exhaustion finally catching up with him. He was still broken, still insecure, still unsure if it was possible to rebuild himself. It would take a long time for everyone to recover from everything that had happened since that night in November 1983. A long time for Max and Mike to be able to use their limbs normally again. Even longer for them to recover their self-worth and repair their mental health. But Will was here. For now, that was enough. 

He felt Will’s hand slip into his. Tentative, trembling, but firm enough to anchor him. 

For the first time in a long time, Mike didn’t feel empty.