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The Party was splitting up. Of course they would, Mike supposed it was going to happen eventually, he just didn’t realize it would happen so soon. They had been invited to their first teenage party and all Mike wanted to do was play games together in his basement like they used to. They still had the rest of the summer to hang around. It held the promise of adventures they couldn’t take part in before, not without the threat of some new monster looming over them.
The campaign was one he’d been planning for a while now. Inspiration taken from campaigns with Eddie and ones that Mike was working on after Will had left for Lenora. When Max started joining them, the campaigns had been a bit more tame, lower stakes, so the boys could better help build her character and gauge Max’s interest in the game. Now she was just as involved and dramatic as the rest of them; it was something Mike knew even his 13-year-old self would be surprised by.
“Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. That’s it?”
Max had certainly loved the dramatics of the game; she didn’t even shy away from the 10+ hour-long campaigns. And yet she never pulled her punches when it came to their interactions. It was fire and fire, constantly egging the other on. He’d never admit it, but she’d truly become one of the best friends he’d ever had, and he had a sneaking suspicion she felt the same way.
“Comfort and happiness? Could you be more trite? I thought you were some kind of master storyteller or something.”
As Dustin and Lucas sniggered, Mike was ready to be the butt of her joke until his eyes caught on Will, who was looking at him with such open fondness.
Comfort and happiness? Yes.
“Well, it is true, the comfort and happiness part. But happiness can be found in many places.”
This was for his friends, who had fought and lost for so long. They deserved their happy endings.
“The knight and the zoomer, they retire from battle and they settle down in a small village. With each passing day, their love grows stronger.”
Typically, Mike separates his parties once the campaigns are over, but these two, the knight and the zoomer, their trauma and promises only made their relationship stronger. They had grown and fought together and alone and still found a way to come back to each other in the end. It was something Mike wouldn’t deny them, even if he envied them for it. He could envision their movie date, something Lucas held on to while Max was in the hospital. Their little drawing was pinned resolutely to the wall above her bed. Now with the threat of mortal danger gone from their lives, they could finally go.
“The bard, craving knowledge, makes his way to the Mage’s Guild of Enclave, where he spends his days in their vast library. Though deeply devoted to his studies, he still makes time for the occasional adventure.” The bard was easy enough as well. He would be thrilled to live out the rest of his days surrounded by knowledge, using his curiosity paddles for his next voyage. And to speak of voyages, Dustin and Steve had started adventures of their own. What began as nearby University tours led them to wacky roadside attractions and any and all tourist sites that Indiana had to offer.
“As for Will the Wise,” he had to know, surely Will needed to know more than any of the others, that this wasn’t just Mike talking about the end of some (albeit exciting) campaign. It was Will who had lost the most, his childhood, his sense of self, and safety. Mike knew without either of them saying that Will still got nightmares, it was obvious when he jumped at the flickering of lights, how hard he looked around when they were out on their bikes, as if he was waiting for Vecna to appear from the woods, for the mornings he’d show up to school like a ghost, like he used to when they first thought everything was over.
He needed to get out of Hawkins, out of Indiana, far away from all the reminders of what happened to him here. Mike felt cold in his bones when Will came back from a long weekend with Johnathan in the city, talking about art schools, museum trips, and the ever-moving city life.
“He travels far and long to the bustling city of Vallaki. It’s overwhelming at first. So very different from the village where he spent his youth. But it isn’t long before he finds his place there. And with that, deep happiness and acceptance.”
Will was the sunshine of the party, their true protector, something Mike had tried and failed to be time and time again. Will would make new friends again, friends not connected to this horror that took up far too much of his life, nearly all of his childhood. He would be happy again, even if I’m not going to be there to see it, he thought bitterly.
Mike didn’t know what or who Will meant when he started going on about “he was just my Tammy,” but he heard the message loud and clear: “He’s not like me. I've moved on now. It was just a crush.” Mike’s entire body was rooted to the spot - unable to do anything. Stupidly, he thought of his mom, who would berate him for always running late; of course, he’d been too late for this, too. Because what was the point of telling Will now that he’d moved on? They weren’t like Max and Luca,s who had actually been able to save each other. If Mike wanted a reminder of his shortcomings, he only had to look back on the last six years, starting on that one night he should’ve asked Will to sleepover.
No, it was better this way. Will had moved on. He started being more vibrant - even more than he used to. Back before he knew the truth of bullies like Lonnie and Troy. The shocking thing was how no one else seemed to notice the change in him. It wasn’t that he was an entirely new person; things just shifted, pieces slotting into place. Will seemed to behave however he liked, without fear of how others would perceive him. He wore a necklace and bright, warm colors, he changed his hair (finally), and laughed so openly, it was hard not to just stare at him.
Mike could picture every part of the happy ending Will more than deserved, right down to the guy he would end up with. They would be at some bar in the city, maybe it was their first meeting or their regular hangout spot. Will would be happy there, with him. Mike spent far too much time thinking about him - the mystery guy that Will would end up with. He’d imagined it all, different iterations, settings, and possible meet-up spots; they would keep him awake into the early hours of the night, they would drop on him the second Mike spotted Will talking with some guy across the hall, when Will talked about moving to the city. The guy, the boyfriend, was different every time, and yet they all had a string of features tying them together: dark wavy hair, wide, dark eyes, always taller than Will, sometimes dressed in navy sweaters or bomber jackets. Someone who might look just enough like Mike to be mistaken in a dark room.
It was his own twisted pleasure, something Mike knew he’d take with him to his grave; it might just come later than any of them expected. They defeated Vecna and the Mind Flayer in one swift day, one battle, and now they could live out the rest of their days in peace. Mike hated the space it brought them.
“And the storyteller? What about him?”
He wasn’t supposed to do that; he wasn’t supposed to ask Mike about his happy ending. Will looked like he meant it, his eyes shining, looking like he thought Mike deserved a happy ever after, just like the rest of them.
He didn’t.
Mike, who had failed to protect Will from day one. Who failed to be true to Will and then redirected all his feelings onto El, the person who didn’t actually need his protection, just his support. He’d pushed them both away again and again, trying to cover up his feelings just to have the rug pulled from underneath him.
He couldn’t tell Will how he felt while they were busy fighting monsters. Mike had gone on rambling about his messed-up feelings for El when they were chasing her across the desert. No, it would be different when Mike told Will. They just had to get through this goddamn mess first. But before he even got the chance, Will had moved on. Mike tried to tell himself that it was for the best, that in the end, all Mike would do is remind Will of everything awful that he had been through when they were kids. Mike thought this time, for sure he was going to catch up, to be ready for Will the moment that Vecna and the Mind Flayer were defeated. But the sun was sinking out of reach. If he had been just a little bit faster, if he paid just a little bit more attention, maybe it would’ve all been different. He didn’t deserve a happy ending.
So he lied to Will, one final time, to bring him some peace. For all his talk of “friends don’t lie,” Mike was well practiced in these lies now, less of an outright lie than an omission of the greater truth.
He would keep writing stories about the party. He would write and write and write until it drove him insane because the truth was, he would never be able to move on from here. He would be in a small bedroom somewhere, it didn’t matter where, he just knew that Will wouldn’t be within reach. Mike would be enveloped by Will, all of the paintings he made when they were children would adorn Mike’s walls just like they used to, before Mike learned that teenagers didn’t keep their best friends’ artwork all over their bedroom walls. Mike would sit there and type all day, with his black rimmed glasses just like Stephen King, hell, maybe he’d even move to Maine.
“The storyteller keeps telling stories, stories inspired by his friends. One day, he hopes their tales of grand adventure will spread far and wide across the land so all can know of their great bravery. But there is a story that he can never tell. The story of the mage. Or at least not the real story.”
“The real story?”
Mike explained his theory of El, wonderful El. He couldn’t wrap his head around her being gone. She was too great, too good. He’d treated her like shit when they were dating, but he never stopped caring about her. So he played it back in his mind again and again, reworking all the memories until the pieces seemed to make sense with each other. It wasn’t a soundproof story, but it was the best one he came up with, so he chose to believe it. Because if El was alive, then it meant that good had really conquered evil, that she had gotten the final word instead of being collateral damage. Her existence was the same hope as Will’s: it was the promise that truly good people would survive all the awful things they were put through.
“And it is here, at last, that she finds peace. That she finally finds happiness.”
“And this is just a theory, right?”
“How do we know it’s true?”
“We don’t. Not for sure. But I choose to believe that it is. I believe.”
They all did, and Mike hoped that wherever El was, she could somehow feel all the love they had for her, how much they believed in her happy ending. He hoped with all his might that she could find it.
“Guys! What’s going on? The lasagna’s getting cold!”
“Yeah, we… we just finished. We’ll be right up.” He didn’t realize until he spoke how close he was to tears. The party began to pack up their binders; they were all ready to move on.
Mike and Will were the last to leave the table.
Mike waited until Will was on his way out of the basement before putting his binder away. He had to be alone for this.
One final lie of omission, a cover-up, sealing the crack in the walls Mike built around himself. There was one story he almost let slip, years ago, in this same house in the pouring rain. It was funny, he supposed, that after all he tried and failed to change, he was here now in the exact place he feared and longed for; shying away from growing up, without a girlfriend, having spent all day playing games in his basement. If he had known then that it was the same thing Will longed for, maybe he and Mike would have had their own happily ever after.
Except it wouldn’t be for the rest of their lives, it was tonight, Mike knew. This was their last night, the final game already played. There was some painful happiness in knowing that his binder would remain here next to Will’s forever.
Holly and her friends burst down the basement door, loudly talking over each other and taking over the entire table. It was jarring to finally be on the other side of this experience, the side his mom and Nancy must have always seen. But for this party, maybe it would be different, maybe they would all get their happy endings. Mike looked on and felt how young they were, how much they had already gone through, and how much older he was. They had all conquered their fears and came out stronger because of it.
Mike might not have the strength to do that, but his friends did, Holly and Nancy and their friends did. Maybe in some other universe, he was brave like them. Maybe 12-year-old Mike was able to save 12-year-old Will, or maybe all of the bad, evil things happened to them anyway. But maybe at the end of it all, he’d still have Will.
The party had gone upstairs without him. He was supposed to be there with them, moving on, growing up, starting the next chapter of their lives; it was what he was supposed to do. He was stuck here between his friends and Holly’s, holding on to the past that he was too old to live in anymore.
Mike knew he would be in his basement forever, begging his mom for just 20 more minutes.