Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Chapter Text
Will really hated staying at the Wheelers.
Not that he disliked the Wheelers specifically— Mike was his best friend after all. Mrs Wheeler was quite nice for taking them in and Mr Wheeler was barely ever even there, although he truly scared Will.
It was the house.
Mornings were always rushed. Elbows flying, voices overlapping each other, people here and there and smacking into Will five times in ten minutes. And the basement was freezing; so cold that Will could barely get any sleep most of the nights, and gods, how he missed his home.
“Aren't you coming? There won't be any food left for you.”
The words jerked Will out of his thoughts and he glanced at the door where Jonathan was standing, already on his way out. “I'm coming.” He called back, standing up and heading up the stairs, rubbing his neck tenderly. He'd woken up on his stomach— and his back, stiff and sore, hadn't quite stopped complaining yet.
————
Soon, the three of them—Mike, Holly and he— were on their bicycles, on their way to school, and that's when Will finally got to breathe.
The brother-sister duo chatted animatedly as they rode ahead of Will, listening to the Morning Squawk, Robin’s podcast. Will only half listened as he followed closely behind, enjoying the feel of the wind on his face. Out here, moving, the world felt quieter. Manageable.
The feeling didn’t last long.
The moment they reached school, Will’s eyes went straight to Dustin.
He stood near Lucas and Andy, his Hellfire Club T-shirt torn across the chest,, fabric stretched and frayed like it had barely survived whatever had happened before they arrived. Clearly Andy’s handiwork. Will’s chest tightened. Dustin didn’t look hurt—not physically—but there was something closed-off about him, shoulders tense, expression hard in a way that he had never really seen before..
Will had been worrying about him for a while now. Ever since their last encounter with the Upside Down, Dustin had been different—quieter when he shouldn’t be, louder when it came to trouble, walking into fights without thinking them through.
Will knew why.
Eddie’s death had carved something out of all of them. But Dustin had been closest to him—and it showed.
The four of them had become awkward when it came to Dustin. . No one quite knew what to say. Whether to comfort him, leave him alone, or pretend everything was normal and hope that somehow made it true.
Will flinched as Robin's voice cut rudely into his spiraling thoughts and they jumped to work as she declared the next crawl. Instinct kicked in as the four noted whatever information she provided, Mike writing them down on a piece of paper.
At least when it came to life or death situations, they still worked well together.
The thought settled something in Will's chest.
Will had to agree with Dustin, Zone 1 did not seem like a place Vecna would use to plot evil schemes and methods to destroy the world. Unless he wanted to buy pink bows and a tiara for his head, which Will seriously doubted, they were gonna spend another evening on yet another unsuccessful crawl.
But his three best friends seemed happy and excited about it, and Will didn't really want to be the wet blanket of the group.
He was suddenly feeling cold. And not the Winter chill, it was the other, otherworldly kind of cold. Will turned away from the boys, the familiar feeling chilling him to the bones. Not again. Please please not the Upside Down. Anything but the Upside Down. I can't do this again—
The sky was blue. And it was spinning.
The vision had probably lasted like five seconds. When he came to, he was leaning against a tree. Mike's face floated into view, worry etched on the lines of his face. Will took a few seconds before his voice returned to him, although he didn't have much to offer them. It wasn't like he had any clue what it was.
Nervous… Will felt it was a lie even as he said it. He had felt nervous multiple times before, and it definitely did not feel like this.This had felt like his body was bracing for something it remembered all too well. He had expected the vision to show him the Upside Down like it had every time before but instead he saw a spinning sky? Maybe Mike was right. Maybe
Vecna was close after all.
————
Later, sitting beside Lucas in Max’s hospital room, Will felt like he’d wandered into something he wasn’t meant to see. The space between Lucas and the bed was heavy with things unsaid, and Will kept still, afraid that even breathing too loudly might break it.
Uselessness settled in his chest, familiar and unwelcome. He’d felt it every time Hopper went off chasing another crawl while Will stayed behind, waiting, doing absolutely nothing. At least El was training now—at least she was allowed to help.
The thought stung more than he wanted it to.
Will shifted, finally standing, telling himself he was just stepping out for air, and a drink. The hallway felt brighter after the dimness of the room, almost too clean, too normal for a place that held so much grief. He had just turned back toward the door when a flash of blue caught his eye.
“Robin! Rocking Robin!”
The nickname slipped out automatically as he spotted her across the hall and lifted a hand in a small wave. She didn’t see him. Instead, she turned down another corridor without a second glance.
He frowned, following her without a second thought. He wasn’t sure why, maybe curiosity. Or that same instinct that always seemed to pull him toward things he didn’t want to understand. The hospital smelled like antiseptic and something faintly metallic, his sneakers scuffing softly against the floor as he trailed the sound of voices.
Then he heard it.
Robin’s laugh—lowered, softer than usual. Not her public, rambling laugh. Something private.
Will slowed.
He stopped just short of a doorway, peering in before he could think better of it.
Robin stood close to another girl, unfamiliar, smaller,probably a nurse. They were laughing quietly, faces inches apart, words too soft to hear.
And then they kissed.
It was brief. Gentle. Real.
Will’s mind went blank.
The world seemed to tilt, his heartbeat thudding so loudly in his ears that it drowned out everything else. Heat rushed up his neck, sharp and overwhelming, like he’d been caught doing something wrong—something shameful.
He couldn’t breathe.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not here. Not now. Not in front of him.
He didn’t let himself think. Thinking made it worse. Thinking made it about him.
Will turned and ran.
His shoes squeaked against the floor as he fled down the hallway, not caring where he was going as long as it was away—away from the image burned into his head, away from the feeling clawing up his throat. His chest hurt, tight and panicked, breath coming too fast.
Only later—much later, when his hands had stopped shaking and the hospital felt miles behind him—did he realize his soda was gone.
Left behind in that room.
He didn’t go back for it.
Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Chapter Text
Where, oh where, was Dustin.
Will had totally seen it coming. With how Dustin had been, the fights, the seriousness, the silence, the lack of laughter and every other behaviour that Will could that was very not-Dustin, somehow him missing a crawl did not seem very surprising.
Except Dustin wasn't the kind of person to miss something this important for personal reasons. He had never missed a crawl before, even with his grieving. Will hoped he didn't hurt himself. And that someone else hadn't either.
Will tried not to dwell on it. Tried not to let his thoughts spiral into worst-case scenarios. He told himself Dustin was probably fine. Probably.
His mom appeared soon after, and for a few precious seconds, the worry loosened its grip. Will's chest warmed as he spotted El with her, Hopper close behind. He hugged her gently, realising, to his surprise, that he had actually missed the girl.
———
Why hadn't any of them learnt how to operate Dustin’s equipment?
Well besides him that is. He knew how to work it, mainly because he'd helped Dustin with it, watched him adjust the screws, and listened to him speak about what the different switches did. He didn't know it perfectly, but enough, and he was willing to bet that he knew it the best out of everyone else.
Knowing how to work it and actually being allowed to work it were two very different things. He was not allowed to go operate it. Of course not. Naturally. It had been exactly like this for all the past crawls. Will wasn't allowed to do anything. Will waited, Will listened, Will hoped that Vecna wouldn’t reach out to possess him and try to spy on his friends and family.
Things went downhill really quickly after that.
Plans derailed, voices rose, panic threaded itself through every conversation. Somewhere in the chaos, Mike and Nancy had to rush off to the hospital to be with Mrs. Wheeler, leaving Will behind with his mother and Robin.
And Holly was gone.
Taken by the demogorgons. To Vecna, if he had to guess. El had followed her into the Upside Down. Of course she had. El always ran toward danger because that was the kind of person she was. She was also allowed to do so.
Will sat on the chair, face buried in his hands. He had somehow become like a harbinger of doom, a harbinger of doom with a sore head. Probably not a very happy thought. He didn't want to talk about his problems at all, but he had a feeling they would be important, and so he did, telling his mother whatever he had figured out so far, including the fact that his connection with the upside down hadn't been severed after all.
It was all truly depressing.
Nevertheless, the comparison to a radio gave him a pretty good idea, even though his mother clearly did not agree. Then again, it didn't surprise Will. She rarely agreed with anything that might be even remotely dangerous to him. While under other circumstances that would touch him, with Holly missing and Mrs Wheeler in the hospital and Dustin's absence, Will really needed to do something useful.
Joyce listened patiently, her worry deepening with every word.
Robin explained his situation with a comparison to a radio. Tuning in and out. Signals that never fully stopped transmitting. It somehow made perfect sense to him.
Joyce shut the idea down immediately, fear sharp in her voice, and Will wasn’t surprised. She never agreed with anything that had even a one percent chance of him being in danger. Under normal circumstances, that would’ve hurt. It would’ve made him retreat.
But these weren’t normal circumstances.
Holly was missing.
Mrs. Wheeler was in the hospital.
Dustin was still nowhere to be found.
And El…
Will needed to do something. Anything.
———
Something that he needed to do came in the form of Robin Buckley and her approval of his plan to tap into the hive mind. Will found that it provided him the incentive he needed to go against his mother's wishes for the first time in a while. He had a feeling he would regret it in a while, but for now, he figured he could help out in the only way he knew.
As they walked through the forest, towards the area where he’d had his last vision, Will couldn’t ignore the feeling of foreboding that had gradually been growing over the past few minutes. The darkness and silence reminded him of when he had been taken all those years ago, and Will found himself shifting closer to Robin almost unconsciously, taking comfort of the older girl’s proximity.
The location of his earlier vision did not serve as a blessing in disguise, and Will walked on when he didn’t feel anything, hoping that his legs might lead him to something useful. And hopefully they wouldn’t get lost either. Will really did not fancy getting lost in the woods again. He did not even wish to be in the woods deep at night with the—
“I’ve been meaning to ask you, were you at the hospital yesterday?”
“The hospital?” Will blinked in confusion. It took him more than a few minutes to get out of his headspace and remember what she was talking about.
Man, why did she have to bring it up… Will had been doing an excellent job of not thinking about that moment at all till then.
“No!” Will denied, way too quickly, way too fervently, “No, no, no, no.” Was that too many no’s? Could Robin tell he was lying? He hoped not.
“I didn’t see anything.” he muttered. Robin had definitely seen through his lies, because he was sure she had no other reason to tell him more about their “friendship” than if she felt he was there. Which he definitely hadn’t been. Definitely not. What was Will even supposed to reply with? He didn’t even know her name was Vicky until two seconds ago. Oh gods, should he have asked who Vicky was? Pretended he hadn’t seen her?
Or maybe she actually meant what she said and just overshared when she was nervous. Although Will had never seen her do that. Then again, they'd never been alone together either. But Robin hadn't seemed like the kind of person to do that. Oh gods, that was it. She had definitely seen through his crap— wait, why was she running?
Will followed her till she came to a stop in front of some sort of spiral created from what seemed to be tiny rocks. Robin seemed to know about them, mandala or something, Will didn't really listen to her, because the mention of children, reminded him of something, laughter and talking of other children present and they were having fun, which meant—
A merry-go-round. Will stopped in front of it, and stared up, the sky almost exactly the same as why he'd seen in his vision. He felt rather silly. Does that mean he was Holly back then? But he'd been seeing through the eyes of the demogorgon back then, so why was he suddenly seeing through Vecna's victims. What was next, he'd be seeing through Vecna's eyes?
Oh…
Oh.
He had been seeing through Vecna's eyes all this while. Vecna invaded the minds of his victims. He was a part of the hive mind after all. Will had been seeing through Vecna's eyes, who had been seeing through his victim’s eyes, and therefore he had been seeing through Holly’s eyes.
Okay that was confusing.
But it did make a lot of sense. Somehow, he was doing the opposite of what Vecna used to do with him before. Instead of him being through Will's eyes, Will was now seeing through Vecna's eyes.
Which was both really cool and terribly scary.
The sound of a vehicle stopping drew Will’s attention towards the gate, towards a yellow bus. He and Robin watched as the kids walked by them, chatting and joking with each other, and Will pressed a hand to his neck as he, yet again, saw through someone else’s eyes.
Vecna’s next victim.