Chapter Text
Time moved slowly, each second sluggishly ticking by, each day longer than before. Each month swallowed by endless hiding and quiet sobs. It had been years, and Will knew he would never leave, it was just a fact of everyday life. Everyone moved on while Will slowly crawled to his awaiting death. The pounding in his head became second nature, along with the cold sleepless nights that seemed to blend in with the days.
It was just another day of begging for something or someone to take him out of his misery. Will would go out at night and scream and beg for something to end his suffering, though it never came.
His whole life had just become waiting. It's as simple as that he thinks to himself as he paces through the once-used building.
For about the first 2 years he had stayed at his childhood home, finding comfort in the quiet voices of his family members that filtered throughout the house.
But after a while it was just a reminder that life had moved on, that to everyone else he was just a distant memory someone who they once loved.
Will made his way back to the upper floor, easily sliding past the vines that encircled the concrete.
He no longer slept, only in short intervals during the week. He made his way up the ladder onto the small, framed, rooftop. Spores fell into his greasy, grown-out, hair, dusting it like snow, though he knew it wasn’t, not really.
Months faded together, everything looked the same no matter what. Nights, days, weeks, months, years, they all faded together.
Will made his way to the small ledge, sitting down, and letting his feet swing in the air. What if? Everyone was gone, there was no reason to be here.
The voices that once quietly filled the flipped town were now gone, replaced with the pounding voice in his head and the ringing in his ears.
Will looked towards the sky, breathing in the toxic air he was accustomed to. He felt a warm tear slip down his cheek, he didn't make a move to stop it. He thought of his mom, his brother, his friends, Mike. A silent notion of what he once had.
Will swung his legs back over to the platform and quickly got up, not wanting to be exposed to the outside much longer.
He slid down the ladder back into the building. It didn't have much, he had moved a mattress into the corner, and it had a few cabinets already built into the small brick building.
William.
The creature’s voice in his head pried at the walls of his mind, intensifying the pounding headache he already possessed.
NO. Will screamed back, echos vibrating against his skull. He heard the quiet screeches of demobats in the distance.
He shuffled to the mattress and enveloped his knees in an embrace, hugging himself, willing the thoughts to get out of his head.
I miss Jonathan.
Warm tears glided down Will's cheeks, he hastily scrubbed them away, thinking of what others would say, what his dad would say.
He hugged the army jacket around him tighter. It used to smell like Jonathan, but now it just smelled like blood, dirt, and the toxic air that he inhabits.
[]
Will sat there for hours, slowly peeling back layers of his lips, copper flavor finding its place in his mouth. He sticks his hands in his hair pulling at the slick, greasy, strands.
Yuck. He thinks to himself, dirt getting combed into his fingernails along with small white spores.
He hadn’t showered in years. He had barely brushed his hair. Will's hair now flowed to just below his shoulders. Of course, he attempts to cut it every once in a while, but he mainly just cuts his fringe. It wasn’t worth all that time.
Will wipes his hands on the mattress and gets up. He shuffles outside, the smell of the sulfuric landscape quickly filling his nose.
Demobats scream at him, he’s unfazed by their cries, as his knife slides against the asphalt road, clunking and screeching against the ground, black dried blood chipping off slowly.
Today was stock day, a normal part of his week, the one thing he did to stay close to his mother.
He knew the way to Melvald's by heart, having scoped out all of Hawkins at this point. He made his way through the busted door, and shuffled around the vines to get to the canned food aisle he grabbed a few cans of beans and two off-brand chicken noodle soup cans.
Will went back up to the front of the store, only pausing once to look at his mother's employee of the month plaque with the small black and white photo of her framed in a dark wood frame.
Will made his way out of the store to find a small group of demobats, about 14, crowded around the store entrance.
They all thrashed at the sight of him, screeching and making any noise they could. Will took his knife from his side and brought it forward, not wanting to attempt to walk through them.
The first one to attack came flying toward his face. He took his knife and with one smooth diagonal swing, cut its head clean off, it dropped to the floor easily and black blood leaked out of its open neck.
The others screamed around him, they circled him in a cloud of gray wings, enclosing his vision.
Will’s head moved from side to side trying to stay alert. STOP! Just stop! The bats all drop to the ground, choking, and screeching at Will’s feet.
They all ring out a deafening wail. Will drops to his knees covering his ears and letting go of his knife and bag of canned goods, shaking at the impact.
STOP!
The noise is too loud, and everything around him is blurring, with one last held breath, a scream rips out of him and the bat's screeches fizzle to a shocking halt.
He looks up around him to see the bats ripped into shreds, wings, and tails surrounding their crumbled, oozing bodies.
Will’s headache reaches an all-time high buzzing so strongly it feels like his brain will explode. He feels warm blood trickling down his face when he lifts his hand to swipe it away.
See Will, You are powerful.
What do you want from me?!
I want you to join me.
I will never join you, Will seethes. Will can read it's mind, he knows what the creature thinks and feels, and all it is, is pure evil, and rage.
Will gets off the ground, turning back towards his house. His head spins at the movement, and his headache quickly increases.
Will steadies himself and runs hurriedly back to his house avoiding all the vines he can.
[]
Upon his arrival at home, vines trickle in through the door behind him blocking his entrance and sealing the doorway.
Will feels unfazed, he’s already trapped in this hell anyway.
He goes to the cabinets and puts the few things he got in them, keeping one soup out for him to eat now.
He jabs his knife into the can and grabs his only spoon from the enclosed drawer. Will digs into the can pulling up a few noodles, carrots, and one small piece of chicken. He scoops it into his mouth, cold soup hitting his tongue, sliding against it, the grainy bits sticking to the walls of his mouth.
This is what he had been eating for years, he no longer cared about taste. The first few years he hated eating; it had taken him a while to get used to the flavors of cold dry beans, and wet granulated soup. Eventually, he realized it was his only choice, he had to eat, so, this was it.
He just misses so much. He misses home-cooked meals, he misses fresh fruit, and fast food, he misses his mother’s runny potatoes, and his brother’s early breakfasts and he-he misses home. His life has become hiding, running, and fighting, he just wants to live, to love, to be loved.
Vines snaking around his feet break him out of his thoughts and self-pity. The spikes in the vines dig into his ankles.
He swings his knife down towards them, cutting the thick slimy mass. It quickly grows back as he continues slashing at them.
More vines climb from the walls around him, shoving themselves into his back, shooting pain breaks through his body, climbing to his head.
A vine wraps tightly around his arm, spikes shoving into his veins, making his nerves burn.
Join me.
No, I would never betray them. I love my family, I love my friends and I need them!
Oh, but William they don’t need you.
The creature says, menacingly sweet ringing throughout Will’s ears.
Will can feel his eyes roll back replaced by darkness.
Will looks around but it’s just black. The pain that was shooting through his arms is currently gone. He glances down at his arms and sees that the vines are gone, they’ve been replaced by water.
Will takes a small step forward, and that's when he sees it, his mom. He knows it’s Joyce, the gentle crease in her forehead, her chestnut bangs hanging gently off her face, her nurturing smile.
Will takes another step forward, the image becoming even more clear, his brother is there too. Will almost breaks at the image, his-he’s-he’s old, Jonathan is an adult.
A tear slips down his face. His family, including his dad, are sitting around a Christmas tree, Jonathan smiling over the two gifts he got, and his mom and dad hugged together on the couch. Tears quickly fall out of his eyes, cascading down his rosy cheek, realizing just how many Christmases he’s missed. They were happy. Without him. Without Will.
“Mom.” He calls out, Joyce quickly looks over, but her glance isn’t focused on him, it’s void.
“Mom, mom, please.” He begs as he approaches his mother. Will tries to wrap his thin arms around her but she quickly disintegrates.
“NO, no, no, no, no-,” He paces to Jonathan and then back over, “MOM, please!” Then, the image before him disappears and his family is gone.
Completely.
Will screams into the darkness, the water below him rippling with his raised volume.
“Will-” He quickly looks over to the source of the voice, it’s Mike. Mike can see him, He knows that I’m alive! Will thinks to himself. “Will you grab that for me?”
What… “Mike?” he calls out to him.
Mike stays focused on what’s in front of him, not looking up or acknowledging Will’s presence.
A girl with long flowing red hair hands him the book he had apparently asked for.
“Thank you,” Mike says sassily, snatching it out of her hands. She gives him a snarky smile and out of the void Lucas walks over kissing her on the cheek, Dustin following him in.
They all look happy, without him. Will sits down in the water, enjoying the presence of his friends, even as tears roll down his face, even as he realizes that they don’t need him.
The warmth is quickly taken away from him, and all his friends disappear.
Will gets up quickly grasping at the last parts of his friends.
“No, no, no, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, PLEASE!” He wraps his arms around himself, sinking to the ground, the water around him thrashes, and ripples orbit his body.
[]
The endless void around him disappears, and he's back to the shooting pain that vibrates through his body.
GET OUT Will shouts into his brain, praying that the four vines will leave his body.
They snap out of his back, crunching and slimy, letting him fall, his knees hitting hard on the pavement, back cracking harshly.
He's only being held up by the vines that constrict his arms. The vines in his arms retract the spikes that laid in his shoulders and slither away. A shrill scream rips out of Will’s throat. He falls to the ground, his head hung below his shoulders, arms quavering, body cowering with pain.
That’s when he decides to let it all out.
Will lets himself scream.
He screams for his mom, for his brother, for Lucas, for Dustin, for Mike. He screams for the sunrise in the mornings, and the stars at night, he screams for long summer days and cozy winter nights.
He screams for Dustin’s laugh, for Lucas’s awkward hugs, for Mike’s loving handholds.
He screams for his mother’s hugs when he’s sad, he screams for nights when Jonathan would play him new music.
He screams for home, for family, for love.
He only stops when he hears harsh ripping and a loud crumbling sound.
Will opens his eyes and takes in his surroundings. A long wide hole splits in the ground in front of him, cracking the cement floor that lines the building he lives in.
Did I do that?
He goes to inspect it, crawling to the edge and peering into the gaping pocket. What!? He can see a road and the animals that chitter on the sides of it.
It’s Hawkins… Will soliloquizes.
But how do I know this is real? If I jump would I die?
He thinks to himself. But I’m going to die down here anyway. Will touches the crumbling sides of the gate. Will can’t wait to see his family.
He can’t wait to see his family… but his family doesn’t want to see him…
Jonathan’s grown up, his mom is happy, his friends are happy, Mike is happy.
Nobody wants you. The judging voice in the back of his head taunts him, urging him to stay in this hell.
No, I’m getting out of here, whether they want me or not.
He hurriedly gets to his feet and looks down at the area below him. Will places his feet at the crumbling edges and jumps into the gaping hole in the concrete.
He holds his breath and jumps into the pocket. The world spins around him, his grease-filled hair floats above him, and then it’s just,
Black.