Chapter Text
MIKE
“Are you sure it’s here?”
“If Will says it’s here, it’s here.” Mike shot a look towards Nancy and rolled his eyes. “He can literally go into the minds of the demogorgons, of Vecna!” Mike’s gaze shifted towards Will, who was shuffling back and forth between his feet, grinding his teeth. “Hey. Whatever it is we’re looking for, we’ll find it. You’re the sorcerer, remember?”
“God, I hope so,” Will said, but the tension in his jaw relaxed.
“Well, I know so,” Mike replied, and Will’s smile bloomed. Mike startled, inwardly. How long had he been smiling back?
“Yeah man, we know you’re on to something,” said Lucas, patting Will on the back. Mike glanced in Lucas’s direction. Lucas’s eyes flicked towards Mike, curious, and Mike became aware that he was squeezing his fists. His eyes darted towards the floor as he released his hands.
“Over here.” Jonathan walked up from behind and led them towards the backyard. It was strange, now that they were back here. Mike hadn’t been to Will’s house since he left for California.
Well, that’s not exactly true.
There was one day last November, as cold as it was right now, when Mike spent the school day staring out the window with unfocused eyes. All day, he tried to push down an uncomfortable panging in his heart. After the bell rang and the crowd of students exited the high school, Mike drummed his fingers on the handlebars of his bike. When his friends asked him if he was ready to leave, he spitballed some reason to stay—like Oh, my mom asked me to check on Holly at the elementary school—and to go on without him.
Instead, he biked to Will’s old house, pulled by some magnetism that he didn’t understand but couldn’t disobey. He sat, staring at the house, wishing he could run inside and hug Will. And play D&D, like old times. He wondered how emptiness could feel so heavy, how his heart could still leak when it had already been dredged and drained. It dawned on Mike that it felt a whole lot like grief. He biked away as fast as he could, clenching his teeth and trying not to cry.
Jonathan led the group to the shed, the golden evening light casting long shadows against the lawn. “Okay, everybody got their tapes?”
Before they left the radio station, Lucas suggested that everybody carry a tape with their favorite song in the event of a Vecna attack. Mike patted the tape in his back pocket. A recording of “Smalltown Boy” by Bronski Beat.
“Yeah, got mine,” Mike answered, and the rest of the group murmured in confirmation. “Will, got yours?”
“Got mine.”
Jonathan looked back at his brother. “You ready?”
Will hesitated. “Yeah. Yeah, I think so.”
Mike raised an eyebrow at him, and Will shrugged his shoulders. The last time Will was in the hive mind, he said that the area surrounding the shed popped in and out of his consciousness, like one of his now-memories. Although this time, Will said it felt like Vecna was trying to repress the thought. As if he did not want anyone to know about it, as if he did not want anyone there. The location where Will first disappeared.
So naturally, the group packed their supplies and set off for the shed immediately.
“Alright. Everyone behind me,” said Nancy, and she raised her sawed-off shotgun, packed with slugs rigged to explode. She nodded at Jonathan, and he swung open the door.
Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Jonathan tugged the light cord, and the group took careful steps inside. Dusty tools and workbenches greeted them in return.
“Sooo, what do you think we should be looking for?” Lucas asked Will, picking up a crowbar.
“I don’t know. I guess I’ll know it when I see it? Or feel it?” he responded. Pressing his lips together, Mike watched Will rub his knuckles, the confidence boost instilled by Mike ostensibly wearing off. He wondered if anyone could notice how often he looked at Will. It felt so secretive, and yet, somehow so obvious? Hell, Mike liked to pretend that he wasn’t looking at Will either. They were just momentary glances, nothing to worry about, nothing to fuss about…that’s what Mike told himself, at least.
In this moment, however, Mike couldn’t tear his eyes away.
Will’s hand crawled to the back of his neck. His eyes widened, and he turned his head towards Mike, his face stricken with dread.
“Brace yourself!” Mike shouted to the group. “Something’s coming!”
Lucas whipped around with a flash of panic in his eyes before steeling himself with the crowbar; in the same flash, Jonathan shot his arm out in front of Nancy. Nancy wasted no time raising her shotgun and surveying every direction. A clean shot into the mouth of a roaring demogorgon would take it out. There wasn’t a single doubt among the group that she would miss.
“Mike—” Will started, but his voice drowned in a sickening crack in the ceiling. An orange flicker danced across his eyes as two familiar, human-like gray claws ripped through. The demogorgon’s face opened up and roared, flinging spit and revealing rows and rows of bloodstained teeth.
The demogorgon couldn’t get another limb out of the ceiling before Nancy fired off a shot and hit it squarely in the throat. The slug detonated on impact and launched the demogorgon back into the Upside Down with an explosive BOOM. Mike turned towards Nancy, his sister, who he had once thought was so prissy, so obnoxious, was now so unbelievably brave, still obnoxious…his appreciation lasted for a second before he registered a second split in the ground.
“Everybody out!” Jonathan yelled, and they had barely left the shed before the second demogorgon burst through the roof, sending shards of debris flying.
“Ow!” A thick piece of wood smashed into Will’s temple, drawing blood. He kept running, stumbling on his feet.
“Will!” Mike sprinted to him, his chest beating, white hot anger coursing through his veins. He slid to a stop and yanked Will backwards as the demogorgon jumped in front of them, hammering into the ground with a thud. Mike had seen enough of these creatures by now to recognize their behaviors, the way they wound up for a pounce by backing onto their bent legs. Nancy stood the closest to it, followed by Jonathan, Will, himself, then finally—
“Look out!” Mike shouted. The demogorgon hurtled the front members of the group and Mike slammed his body into Lucas, the two narrowly missing the demogorgon’s outstretched claws. Mike landed backwards, his tape crunching underneath him.
“Mike! You okay?” Lucas lent Mike his hand and pulled him to his feet.
“I’m good. I’m good,” Mike said, cursing the demogorgons under his breath. Cursing Vecna, cursing the Upside Down, for all the damage and hurt they’ve caused his friends. His family. His party. He swore to himself: Lucas will get back to Max. Nancy and Mike will find Holly, and greet their parents as they wake. And Will…
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Nancy fired off more rounds; two of the slugs wizzed past its face, or rather lack thereof, but the third burst through one of its lips. A woosh of fire overtook it before extinguishing. Blood gushed from its mouth. The demogorgon howled and turned around, swiping at its head.
Will screamed.
“Go go go! While it’s distracted!” Jonathan shouted, and Mike grabbed Will by the arm, his hands clutching and clawing at his face.
“C’mon! C’mon!” Mike pulled Will forward, flanked by Lucas, Nancy, and Jonathan. The blood rushing through Mike’s ears, though deafening, did not dampen Will’s ear-splitting cries. Mike gritted his teeth and pretended like it wasn’t ripping him in two.
“The car! Get to the car now!” Nancy yelled before gasping. The ground opened up once more, separating Will and Mike from the rest of the group.
Will groaned, no longer screaming. “More are coming. We have to hide!”
“Where? They’ll find us!”
“I know where. Come on!” Will grabbed Mike’s hand and pulled him towards the woods. Shots and explosives rang out from behind them. The pair darted through the trees, ducking underneath branches until a clearing opened up ahead. A muddy stream cut through the center, and a rockface jutted out on the opposite side.
An eerie chirping echoed through the woods.
“It’s behind us!” Mike whispered. Will dropped his hand and jumped across the small stream. Mike followed suit, and upon landing, Will grabbed his hand again and pulled him towards the rock.
“Through here.” Will squeezed himself through a narrow opening, barely wide enough for a person to side-step through. The chirping behind him grew louder, and Mike pushed his body through, sucking air through his teeth as a sharp edge scraped skin off his hand. The passageway widened into a dome-like shape, like an alcove with enough space for the two of them to stand side by side.
The chirping turned into angry gnarling, and the demogorgon bounded out from the treeline. Mike’s heart skipped a beat as it stuck its head through the opening. It growled, twisting and turning, trying to shove its way through.
The demogorgon, apparently realizing it was too large, snarled at Will and Mike and clawed at the thin entrance of the cave. Mike and Will panted, backs against the wider wall. It gripped each side of the entrance, trying to pry it open. The rock stayed steady, unwilling to bend. The demogorgon swiped at the rock, roared one last time, and slinked away.
Mike stared at the rapid heaving of Will’s chest.
“I think it’s gone,” Will said, rubbing the back of his neck. Mike’s gaze jolted up, sheepishly wondering how many seconds had passed while watching Will’s chest beat.
I’m just worried about him. I wasn’t staring at him, I was just checking on him; wait, he just said something. Am I being weird? Does he think I’m being weird? We just nearly died from a demogorgon, and I’m worried that I’m being weird—that, in it of itself, is weird—“ I’m so mad at myself.”
That broke Mike out of his head. “What? Why?”
“Well, I could…I could see through it, right? The demogorgon. But it was like I could still feel my head pounding…” Mike glanced at the blood dripping down Will’s temple, half dried and half glistening.
“Here, let me take a look at that.” Mike, hesitant at first, touched his fingers to Will’s temple. His stomach flipped as Will’s eyes fluttered, then gently closed. “It’s a little deep, but you’ll be alright.” Mike ignored the comfortably uncomfortable buzzing in his chest as he rubbed the blood away with the sleeve of his jacket, and Will’s breath quickened. Mike scolded himself. He must have pressed his wound too harshly, must have hurt him.
“It was like I was fighting an invisible magnet. And I was too weak to pull back.” Will sighed, then dropped his head. Mike rested his hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently.
“Will, that’s just ridiculous. You are not weak. Do you hear me? You are not weak. You’re, like, the strongest one out of all of us. Out of everyone, in the whole world!” Will looked up at Mike, and Mike’s breath caught in his throat as he met those hazel eyes.
“Yeah? You think so?”
“I know so! You survived a week in the Upside Down, whereas everyone else can barely escape within hours, minutes even, hell, most people don’t even survive the Upside Down.” Mike paused as Eddie passed through his mind. “The Mind Flayer took control of you, and all the doctors thought you were gonna die…but you didn’t. You didn’t die. And not only that, you made his plan blow up in his face! You spied back, started snapping demogorgons like toothpicks. You’re the bravest person I know.”
Will’s face, though locked in a grimace just seconds before, flooded with warmth as he smiled. He huffed in a quiet laugh. Mike smiled and laughed in turn, then became painfully aware that his hand was still holding Will’s shoulder.
Mike pulled back.
Will’s eyes returned to the floor.
Silence filled the cave.
“Hey, how did you know about this place?” Mike said, looking around the small cavern.
“Oh, well, after I, y’know, after I tore down Castle Byers, I felt like I had nowhere to go anymore. I mean, of course I had your—my house and all, but Castle Byers was like, my spot. Like I could truly be myself there. And…I felt like I was missing a part of me. So I was just wandering in the woods one day, kinda lost in thought, and I stumbled upon this cave. I started bringing my sketchbook here, and I guess that made me feel better.”
Mike’s eyes fell as the memory of that rainy night came pouring in, his fight with Will, watching Will bike away. He couldn’t believe that he could have ever been that cruel. He spat venom at his best friend, and for what? Wanting to spend time with him. And when Mike and Lucas found him in the woods outside the remnants of Castle Byers, he was rubbing the back of his neck, just as he was earlier this evening.
“Do you remember what I said to you? When you ran after me the night I destroyed Castle Byers? After you asked if I wanted to play D&D.” Mike looked back up at him, found himself unable to maintain eye contact, and glanced away again.
“You said that you didn’t care about that anymore. That we had bigger problems now.”
“Yeah,” Will let out another quiet laugh, but this time, all the warmth from his face was gone. “That night was the night my childhood died.”
Mike’s stomach dropped. “Will—”
“All I thought about when I was in the Upside Down was how amazing it would feel to return home. To be able to see you, and Mom and Jonathan, Lucas, Dustin…and when I came back, I just wanted to feel normal again. Like a kid. And when I woke up in the hospital, and you came running over to me, I thought that was going to happen. I really did.” Tears welled in Will’s eyes. “But I was wrong.”
Mike stood there, speechless.
“For a while, I tried to pretend things were normal. That the Upside Down wasn’t still…affecting me. The only moments I felt okay were when we were together, in your basement. It was the only place I really felt safe. And when the Mind Flayer possessed me, God, it was like I couldn’t wake from that nightmare.”
Mike winced as he remembered Will struggling against the straps in his hospital bed, screaming,
HE’S LYING!
HE’S LYING!
HE'S LYING!
Mike, helpless, just needing it to stop.
“Then, when my mom and Jonathan and Nancy finally broke me out of it, I thought for sure, this is when it all goes back to normal. It’ll be like the old days, with us all playing D&D together. And it just…wasn’t. It wasn’t at all like that. You know, it’s strange, an-and twisted, and I know how messed up this sounds, trust me, but there were some days that summer where I almost missed when the Mind Flayer was messing with me, because I-I wasn’t…I wasn’t invisible. To you.”
A demogorgon couldn’t have cut Mike deeper in that moment.
The tears in Will’s eyes trickled out, cutting through the dirt and blood that stained his face.
Say something! Mike tossed words around in his head, desperate to form some semblance of a coherent thought, a thought that he could then translate into a sentence. What do I say? What do I say to him? Do I say that…that I… Mike imagined how he must have looked to Will. His best friend, pouring his heart out, and Mike just standing there, gaping at him. What a monster he was.
Will opened his mouth like he was about to speak, shook his head, then turned his back to Mike and shifted his way out of the narrow entrance of the cave.
“Will!” Mike hurried after him, awkwardly sliding his body over the rock. “Will! Careful! They could still be out there!”
“I’d know,” Will said coolly, not looking back at him. “Besides, it could tear into the cave from the Upside Down. Better leave now and search for everyone.”
Mike caught up to him and grabbed Will’s shoulder. To Mike's surprise, Will turned and pushed his arm aside. The warm evening light faded as dark clouds passed over the sun, and Mike was surprised at Will’s uncharacteristic coldness, then chastised himself for his arrogance. For this idea that Will wanted his arm on him, when he’s so clearly angry. Angry because of the actions of the person the arm belonged to. Stupid.
“Then…California. I thought—I thought that maybe you’d want to hang out again? Like old times. Or at the very least include me in the conversation! But…I was cast aside more than ever. Why is it that you only spend time with me when the world is ending?” Will hiccupped on the final word. Wait, or was that his voice cracking?
That pushed Mike to crack.
“I did! I did miss you!” he cried. Will still faced away.
“Not the way I missed you.
Mike hesitated. Did he mean—No, he’s just hurt. Hurt that his best friend barely talked to him after they hadn’t seen each other in a year. Of course Will felt like he missed him more, because he treated Will like he hadn’t missed him at all in California.
“But I told you, Hawkins isn’t the same without you,” Mike slowly offered, but Will just scoffed and started walking away again. Mike stood frozen. Say something. Say something. Say—
“I called you. Every day I called you!” Will stopped dead in his tracks and spun around.
“What?”
Now the words tumbled out of Mike's mouth without restraint, too rapid to permit self-consciousness.
“The line was always busy. I mean, I love your mom and all, but her telemarketer job was driving me insane. I’d get home from school, and the first thing I’d do was call you. Then my mom would be on my case about my homework and wouldn’t let me use the phone until after it was done—and high school man, it’s no joke, it’s like the teachers have nothing better to do than grade stupid papers—and then by the time I was finally done, NANCY would hog the line talking to Jonathan! And all I wanted to do was talk to you. I thought about it all the time. And then eventually Nancy started using the phone less, I guess she and Jonathan were busy with college stuff, and then…I don’t know. I guess I thought you’d call me when the line was available. And since you didn’t, I thought that maybe it was weird that I wanted to talk to you so much.”
Mike’s cheeks grew uncomfortably warm, and he hoped the dimming light prevented Will from seeing how red they surely were.
“I didn’t know that you called at all,” Will said after a moment. “I just kept seeing El getting letters from you, and I guess I felt the same way. That it was weird that I wanted to talk to you so much, when you didn’t seem like you wanted to talk to me.” The silence hung heavy in the air, and Mike sensed Will’s eyes boring into him. He forced himself to look up, to look back at him.
Will’s eyes searched Mike’s, like he had hidden gold within his irises and was trying to find it. Digging into him.
“I guess this won’t matter. Since we’re all probably gonna die—”
“Will. Don’t talk like that. We’re not—”
“—and you may hate me after this, and I wouldn’t blame you—”
“I’d never hate you!”
“I’m not like everybody else.” Will’s eyes watered once again.
“Okay? So what? Neither am I! Neither is Lucas, or Dustin—”
“No, Mike, you’re not listening.” The insistence in Will’s voice startled Mike. “I’ve just…” He paused and took a deep, shaky breath. “I don’t—I don’t like…girls…the way I’m supposed to. Romantically. I guess I figured it out a while ago, but it-it’s guys that like. In that way.”
Mike held his breath. What?
“And truthfully, there’s only ever been one guy that I’ve truly liked. Y’know, liked. And it-it’s…it’s not even like. It’s love.”
Tears fell as he took another breath.
“And I know it because…it’s you, Mike. It’s you that I love, and, and I’ve been in love with you for the longest time. And it…hurts? And I can’t”— his voice cracked again—“I can’t go on like this any longer. Pretending. That I don’t and that it doesn’t.”
Mike had never known what people meant when they said “time slowed down”. It never made much sense to him, as the important moments in his life felt like they had passed far too quickly for his liking. And standing there in front of Will, he realized how many of those moments were with him, and why they passed so quickly—he had spent so much of his present longing to go back to those moments, moments where Mike wasn’t questioning himself each time Will walked in the room—that they became ephemeral. He shrank the present to live in the past, and the harder he tried to reinvent it, the quicker it seemed to pass. And the longer life went on, the longer Mike tried to convince himself that he was okay with where he was right now in his friendship with Will.
Pretending.
So when Mike looked at Will in this present moment, he saw Will for the first time on the swings, and felt the butterflies in his stomach settle after Will agreed to be his friend. He played their first game of D&D, heard the clacking of the dice. He saw Will’s shy smile, pushing the first drawing he ever made for him across the table. Felt the awe and astonishment, because how could someone have such an eye for color, and for beauty? He saw Will’s face light up as Mike led the party through his first campaign, felt the rush within himself as Will raved about how creative it was and how cool it was and that you should really be a writer someday! He saw Will’s room the first time he invited him to his house, the planes on his bedsheets, and for the last time, empty and barren. He saw Will in the passenger seat, driving away from Hawkins.
Feeling empty. Barren.
An entire lifetime, relived as Mike soaked up every detail of this eternal present moment.
“But you told El that your life started the day I disappeared. I’ll never forget that.”
The moment shattered.
Mike’s stomach dropped, his heart plummeting. The last time he felt such gravity was years ago, after he stepped off the cliff to save Dustin. Will turned again and walked away. Mike thought it wise to follow him before he completely crashed-landed.
“Will! No, Will, it isn’t like that!” Mike ran after him, the shards of Will’s statement slicing open his feet. He stepped in the mud of the stream, his foot sinking downwards, squelching and suctioned. Mike yanked his leg, moving it every which way, but the mud wouldn’t give way. Why wouldn’t it give way?
“Will! Come back!” he yelled; at the same time, the wind picked up from a breeze to a fierce gust, the sound burgeoning, as does a gentle stream surging into a thunderous river. It carried Mike’s voice backwards, away from Will. As violently as the wind changed, the clouds sucked up every last ray of sun, shrouding the clearing in darkness. Mike looked around, frightened and still pulling at his leg.
That’s when he saw a speck of glowing white light.
Actually, two specks of light.
Moving through the darkness.
Moving towards Will.
Vecna morphed into view, his body gruesome, like a corpse wrapped in dark, writhing snakes. If the clouds sucked up the physical light, then Vecna’s presence sucked up all metaphysical light, the inner light that makes life worth living. All that was left was cold.
“WILL! RUN!” Mike screamed, his voice so pitched with panic that it sounded more like a screech. Yet Will remained frozen in place, just fifteen feet in front of Mike. He was so close, but this mud was so strangely strong. Mike looked down and gasped. It wasn’t mud holding him in place. It was vines.
Vecna took a slow step towards Will, then another. All Mike could do was watch in horror as he arrived in front of Will. A memory flashed through his mind, of Will restrained in the shed, possessed by the Mind Flayer. The tenderness, love and affection imparted by Mike and Will’s family had broken him free. Maybe he could do the same now.
“Will! If you can hear me, just listen, alright?” The dam in Mike’s heart burst. “My life started because that was the day I knew we could find you!”
Mike sent out a desperate plea for Will to hear him. He couldn’t bear another second knowing that Will thought that the day he went missing was anything but one of the worst days of his life, second only to…
“When they pulled your body out of the lake, my life ended. I didn’t know how I could ever live without you. I mean, you’re my whole life. My first memory. I never knew anything but a life with you. When those bullies grabbed Dustin that day by the cliff, all I could think about was your body in the lake down below. About how I couldn’t protect you. And if my last act in my life was protecting Dustin, then that’s what I was going to do. But then at night, I heard your voice through the walkie…”
Should I stay or should I go now? The sound of Will’s singing rang so vividly in Mike’s head, it was like he was hearing it right now.
Should I stay or should I go now? Ever since that night, the song sparked joy inside him. As if the elation of knowing Will’s life persisted rushed through him all over again. It never failed to lift Mike’s spirits. Whenever he felt low, that song would reignite hope and happiness within him. And the sentiment stayed that way, until strange feelings began creeping up inside of him. Like the joy was too much. Like his thoughts of Will occurred too often. Like Mike had to make a choice.
If I go, there will be trouble. Keep Will at an arm’s length, as best as he could, and hope that the distance would shrink those troubling thoughts. But how could Mike keep his best friend so far away? Would Will notice the distance? Would it hurt him? It was hurting Mike. Killing Mike. It was easier to pretend it wasn’t, because—
If I stay, it will be double. Each step closer to Will felt like a freefall. What if Mike didn’t push him away? What if Mike allowed Will, allowed himself, to grow closer? They couldn’t get any closer as best friends. So closer would mean shining a light on what he so desperately tried to keep in the dark. That his love for Will wasn’t fraternal. It ran deeper. It ran straight through his veins, into his brain, within his pupils, his nose and his lips, and pulsed with each heartbeat. That…
“I love you!” Mike burst into tears. “Will, I’m in love with you! I love you, and I’m sorry! I’ve been scared. Scared of the world, scared of my family, scared of myself. But most of all, I’ve been scared of losing you. Because what if you knew how I felt, and you didn’t feel the same way? What if that made you see me differently? What if I made you h-hate…what if that made you hate me? I don’t know how I could ever be okay again if I ruined our friendship. I just didn’t want to be alone, living life without you. Again.”
Mike attempted a shallow breath, shaking, grasping at the oxygen in the air. “I’m sorry I caused you so much pain. I’m sorry I made you feel so unwanted, a-and so unloved. Because it’s just the opposite. You are so loved. By me. I’m just so in love with you that it hurts. Will? Can you hear me? Will?”
The wind whipped. A low rasp reverberated through the air.
“He can’t hear you, Michael.”
Vecna raised what was once a human hand, now demented with spear-like protrusions, above Will’s head, and with one swift, brutal movement—
Someone was screaming.
Someone was screaming. Who was it? Who’s screaming? Was it Will? No, it couldn’t be Will, because blood pooled from his mouth, his body a tangled mess on the ground. Flooded with adrenaline, Mike ripped himself free from the vines, guttural shrieks taking up the space where breaths should be.
“Will! Will!” Mike wailed. He threw his arms around his body, pushing his fingers into his neck, trying to find the pulse, the pulse, where was the pulse? An expert, Mike was, in shoving away truths too painful to admit, truths that involved Will, truths like I love him and he’s dead. Truths that become undeniable upon looking at Will. Looking at Will and knowing he loved him, looking at Will and knowing he’s so obviously, horrifically dead from the blood on his face, and in his eyes, and the stillness of his chest. How many minutes ago was Mike worried that Will could tell that he was watching the rise and fall of his chest? Now Mike couldn’t break himself away, desperate to see it rise once more. He collapsed, sobbing.
“Michael.” He heard Vecna’s slow growl, but it was as irrelevant as the clouds or the wind or the trees. Nothing mattered. Nothing mattered. “Michael….Will died believing that his coming to join me was the best day of your life.”
“No!” Mike meant for his voice to be forceful, strong, but it was just a choke.
“Will died believing you would reject him. He died believing that you did not love him. That you would never love him.” Mike was crying, rocking back and forth as he cradled Will. “You treated him like nothing. You did this to him.”
“No! No!” Mike cried out again, but this time, it was not at Vecna. It was at the past, at his regrets, at the truth of those words. “No!”
“Will”—Vecna’s voice pierced his skull—“was weak. But you, Michael? You are nothing.”
Mike pleaded with Will’s body, begging that he wasn’t gone, that he was simply floating in the in between of life and death. Pretending that Will was singing that song once more—
Should I stay or should I go now?
—and that he would choose to stay.
“Please stay,” Mike whispered through his sobs.
Should I stay or should I go now? Mike’s head shot straight up. He could hear it! Music! Through the darkness, a wavering pocket of light shone through. Mike could see himself, facing away, with Lucas and Nancy shaking him from either side. Now muffled shouts bubbled around, shouts that sounded like his name.
If I go, there will be trouble…Mike leapt to his feet, sprinting away from Vecna. Vines bit at his legs, threatening to trip him. And trip he did, yet he managed to land on his left foot, and with a double skip, kept running. Eerie creaking surrounded him. Vecna called his name. Mike kept his mind on the music. The music. Kept his mind on the music.
If I stay, it will be double. The creaks amplified, turning into sharp cracks, the sharp cracks turning into thunderous booms as trees started falling all around him. Mike hopped backwards as a sycamore tree nearly turned his bones to splinters. The vines trailed after him as he jumped over the trunk.
The opening was less than ten feet ahead of him now.
Eight feet.
Six feet.
So you gotta let me know…