This is literally 3,500 words. Of pure pain, I mean what.
I had a hard time telling the story, but I hope you guys like it. If you did, leave a review.
(This isn't the last chapter btw.)
The kids sat in a circle under a tree, shivering.
Dustin and, he found out, Lucas told him what happened in 1983. Max and Will helped them tell the next adventure. Then they got to when Mike died.
"It turned out Brenner, the lab guy, wasn't dead," Dustin said. "Hopper and El's Aunt Becky took her on a surprise vacation to get her away from Brenner."
"And the Gate wasn't closed forever," Lucas added.
"The Mind Flayer," Will began. "Sent me visions in my dreams. Mostly death and destruction. I woke up screaming every night." Will took a slow breath. "One night, my mom woke me up from a new dream. It was Mike. Brenner was there. And he was... hurting him."
Dustin, noticing that Will was havng trouble keeping his composure, continued for him. "Ms. Byers called Mrs. Wheeler. Mike wasn't in his bed. He wasn't in the house. His window was open and his sheets were all over the floor. On top of the heap was a note. '011 for Michael Wheeler.'"
"She called Hopper," Max told Richie. "He came back, with El as his stowaway. She'd seen Mike in the Void."
"It took the adults and older kids awhile to plan." Will had regained enough of himself to continue telling the story. "So El, Lucas, Dustin, Max, and I snuck away. We thought we could sneak in with El and get Mike out."
"But we were wrong. They had anticipated that very tactic. They let us reach Mike." Lucas eyes had gone misty.
Max looked at El. She knew this was one of the parts that upset her the most. But it was important to the story. And better for Max to tell it than one of the idiotic and insensitive boys.
"El-" She began slowly.
"Lost it!" Dustin practically yelled, excitedly.
He shut up with one glare from Max, who tried to think of how to best describe what happened.
El nodded her head and the lock on the heavy door broke. Lucas, who had reached for the door handle, scrambled away as El swiped her hand to the side, flinging the door open. She stormed in, arms raised, with an aura of raw power. The four others ran in after her, then, suddenly feeling the aura shatter, looked around wildly.
In the middle of El's room stood Brenner. He wore a crisp suit and a cold smile.
"Papa," El whispered. Her hands fell to her sides. "Mike."
In Brenner's hand was the collar of a striped shirt, spattered with blood. Mike, barely conscious, hung from it. His face was bloody and bruised. The skin revealed under his shirt was black and blue.
"El," he croaked. "El, no..."
El forced open Brenner's hand and caught Mike as he fell to the ground. She pulled him across the room towards her, all while not moving her feet. Brenner laughed.
"You shouldn't have brought all of them. Now instead of saving your boyfriend, you've doomed them all to an adolescent death," Brenner sneered.
El screamed and pushed him to the wall. Not hard enough to kill him. Even after what he did to Mike, she still couldn't kill Papa.
"El, come on!" Max yelled at the girl, who still hadn't let Brenner down. The girls had become closer after making up after Max's first encounter with El. Max knew exactly to say to get her moving. "Mike needs to get out of here!"
El dropped Brenner and ran after them. Dustin and Lucas supported Mike between them. Max sported Lucas' slingshot. Will may or may not have stolen Steve's bat.
El fell into pace with Will. "I need you to get Mike out of here."
Will looked at her like she had five heads. "Duh?"
"No. I mean," She scrambled for how to say this. "They're going to use every force they have to get me. If you guys can slip out, if you guys can get Mike to safety, don't look back."
"El-"
"Promise me Will."
Up ahead she heard Dustin and Lucas talking to Mike. "Yeah, buddy, she's right back there. She's okay."
"I promise."
They ran up through the building, as fast as Mike could go. El took out soldiers with a wave of her hand as they ran. Her heart skipped a beat when they made it to the atrium.
That's when something his her in the leg. Something that hurt.
She fell to the ground. When she glanced at it, quickly, she saw that her calf was bleeding profusely.
A bullet.
They'd shot her.
Soldiers surrounded her. Her friends were no where to be seen.
"Go Max!" She heard Will yell.
Through a gap in the wall of soldiers, she saw her friends running. A few soldiers were chasing them. El yelled and pushed all the soldiers around her away. The ones going after her friends changed course, running towards something much more valuable- her.
But El's strength was weakening and she didn't know what else to do besides push.
So she did that- she kept pushing until she couldn't feel the pain in her leg or the muscles in her arms. Until the blood from her nose trickled down her chin and splattered onto the white tile and the rest of her came crashing down with it.
In the fuzzy numbness she was watching through, she could see her friends stop running. Max was holding the bat now. Lucas had his sling shot. Dustin and Will were holding Mike. Holding Mike back from running to her. She couldn't hear him, but she could feel him screaming her name.
She knew she had done a terrible thing to Will, forcing him to do that. But she couldn't feeling anything more than a quick bit of guilt on top of heart destroying pain for Mike, before all she saw was Papa, then black.
The party did their best to tell Richie all of this. They proceeded to tell him about getting back to the cabin. Joyce had hollered at Will for running away. Hopper had glared at all of them, before noticing that El was gone. He had asked where she was. Then he had yelled it.
Dustin had told him. Hopper had looked ready to beat the snot out of all four of them, until a weak voice reached them.
"It's not their fault."
Mike limped around the corner. Dustin and Lucas had dropped him on the couch before the other four kids ran into the kitchen to tell the adults to drive them to the hospital. Before they could even talk, they were being yelled at.
Nancy made a noise halfway through a squeal and a sob and tackled him with a hug. He bit his lip to keep from crying out in pain, knowing Nancy would hate it if she knew she hurt him.
"We brought him to the hospital, Nancy refusing to leave his side the entire time," Lucas told them.
"I can still picture the poor desk lady's face," Dustin mused. "When we all walked in."
Richie could imagine what they must of looked like, but he had to ask. "You saved Mike though. He's alive. I don't understa-"
Lucas cut him off. "It wasn't over yet. We knew we needed to save El from Brenner."
"While the doctors helped Mike, the rest of us explained what happened. It was a little awkward and we got some very odd looks from other people in the waiting room." Dustin laughed.
"Mrs. Wheeler came after that and was freaking out. Hopper had to hold her back from the room where Mike was in pretty bad condition. It wasn't critical or anything. But they hadn't fed him well and he had many bruises and probably broken things," Lucas explained.
"Mrs. Wheeler hogged him when we were all allowed to see him," Will told Richie. "But I noticed how Mike grew increasingly uncomfortable. Everyone was yelling, trying to be heard over each other."
"Will totally flipped!" Dustin exclaimed excitedly. "He screamed for us all to leave! And Hopper and Mrs. Wheeler actually listened."
"Yeah well you guys weren't helping him!" Will retorted, annoyed. To Richie he continued. "I sat with Mike for awhile and asked him what happened. He was mad at me for not letting him save El. But I did my best to get through to him."
Will turned back to Mike after Hopper closed the door. His friend was silent, refusing to look at him. He fidgeted with his bandages.
Will sat down on the edge of Mike's bed. "Mike. You don't have to tell me what happened right now. But eventually, you'll need to tell someone. It can be me, Nancy, Dustin, Lucas... El." Mike flinched. "You can't keep it all inside."
The doctors had allowed Mike to shower before they rewrapped his bandages, so his hair was no longer greasy and thick with blood. Mike no longer smelled like sweat and puke, nor blood. He was clean, and besides the injuries he sustained, you wouldn't be able to tell anything was wrong with him. Unless you looked into his huge, dark, shattered eyes.
"You left her."
Will, who had been intently staring at the floor, swung his head when Mike spoke. He met those sad eyes, full of pain and, he noticed with what felt like a punch to the gut, a little bit of anger.
"She told me to-" Will began to explain.
"You didn't have to listen."
Will swung his legs onto the bed and faced Mike. "I know. And I regret it. But I had to save you. If we stayed, we would have died. And then we couldn't save her and destroy everyone there next time, with more fire power."
Mike looked away. Will grabbed one of his hands, holding it in his own. "Mike... will you tell me what happened?"
Mike shook his head.
"I know that you're our paladin," Will whispered. "But even you need to be saved sometimes.. Just look at me!" Will laughed. "This is the first time it hasn't been 'Oh no Will's missing!' 'Oh no Will's in trouble!' It's okay to need help."
There was a long moment of silence.
"Can you come over here?" Mike asked. He moved over to make room for Will next to him.
Will nodded. He crawled over and sat on top of the covers. Mike was quite a few inches taller than him, the tallest in the party compared to the shortest. But as soon as Will sat down and put his arm under Mike's head, the other boy curled up into him. Will remembered all the nights he'd spent with Jonathan, plagued with nightmares and visions. Will remembered being where Mike was.
"They hurt me, Will," Mike whispered. "I didn't think they actually would. But they did."
He told Will how they hurt him, told him how the illusion kids had grown up with was gone, that no, adults wouldn't protect them. Adults hurt them.
Mike cried and Will hugged him into his chest, brushing his fingers through Mike's hair.
By the time the others came back in, both were asleep. Mike had a slight smile on his face.
"I still don't understand! You were all safe! All you had to do was call the cops on that motherf*cker and everyone would be safe," Richie complained.
"We did," Max told him sadly. "But Brenner had corrupted the system. We literally had Mike, who had been on the missing list for a few weeks, go to the FBI. But it was Brenner, and they were in on it."
"So we had to go after El ourselves," Dustin said.
"Hopper found out that there was a presentation to be taking place at the lab, of a 'recovered weapon'. He thought that they could sneak in and get her out," Lucas explained. "Hopper, Joyce, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve snuck in, in uniform."
"Nancy couldn't stop checking Jonathan out, it was so funny," Dustin snickered. "And Jonathan had his eyes all over Steve's butt."
"Anyway," Max continued pointedly. "They left us all with Mrs. Wheeler, who refused to let Mike leave. But Dustin, Will, Lucas, and I snuck away. We wanted to help. We kid in the back of one of the trucks being brought in, the military style with canvas for doors."
"Mike was so upset at being left behind, but we told him it was for his own good. He was hurt and weak," Lucas said. "But he came after us, once his mother fell asleep."
"The plan was working." Will's face had become stormy. "But it always seems that way."
"I had hacked into their computer system," Dustin admitted. "And erased any trace of us in their database. Or at least I thought I did. I'd only made it go away for a few hours. Hopper's crew was in the middle of watching the presentation. They snatched guns as they passed other visitors in uniform. I disabled their cameras after sneaking into the main security office. We snuck into the back of the presentation room."
"That's when everything went to-"
"Sh*t?" Richie offered
"Yeah." Max nodded. "the security cameras came back on, facial recognition kicked in, and alarms started blaring. Of course, Mike decided to enter the room at this point. El, who had been ripped out of the Void, saw him. She saw one of the soldiers tackle him to the ground, then the rest of us were taken down. She screamed and suddenly, a tremor shook the room. Everyone stopped moving. It was silent. Then the wall cracked open. The Gate was reopening."
"It was crazy!" Dustin exclaimed. "All the soldiers ran away. Lucas, Max, and I did too, towards the others who were by the door. But Will ran toward the Gate. El ran toward Mike. We watched a long, shadow-like leg reached out and-"
Will was sure of three things.
It was the Mind Flayer.
And, despite what he told Joyce, Will knew he wasn't completely severed from its connection. He was no longer possessed, but there was still something there. His dreams had proved that.
He was right about those, so he had to be right about the other thing.
That he had to kill it.
But what he didn't know, was how to do that.
He heard his mother scream his name. He knew she was fighting Hopper to get over to him, to stop him. But Will couldn't assure her that he'd be back soon, that he'd be safe. He was fairly certain of one more thing.
This would probably kill him.
Will kept running, past El and Mike. Mike called out for him. He didn't stop.
The Mind Flayer's arm was squeezing out through the crack. When Will reached it, he didn't hesitate. He knew what he had to do.
With a roar, Will reached out and grabbed the shadowy shape. Even though it seemed like his fingers would slip right through it, they didn't. His nails found something to sink into. It was how he imagined a cloud might feel, only ice cold and ruff, rather than fluffy. He clamped his other hand onto the other side.
Will pictured all his friends, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Max, El. He remembered back to that one day in Mike's basement, playing DnD, teaching the girls how to play. Mike's family had gotten a record player and let Mike bring it down to the basement, surprising Will by placing the Clash's album Combat Rock on the turntable.
"This is a public service announcement!" The had speakers blasted. The boys looked at each other, before all screaming "WITH GUITAR!"
Will remembered watching Star Wars with his mom and brother for the first time. They had never seen it and, on Will's birthday, decided to have a marathon. He told them extra facts and all about the making of the movie.
Will opened his eyes and with something he didn't know he had inside of him, he imagined tearing the Mind Flayer apart. He felt it working because he felt his own body being ripped in half.
The crack, which had been getting bigger as the Mind Flayer forced its way through, began to shrink. Will turned his head and saw El next to him.
The Mind Flayer roared, or at least Will thought that's what that inhuman sound was. It was deafening, but satisfying. Will knew that what he was doing must have been working. He didn't know how he was doing it, but he was doing it.
He heard someone yelling in his ear, but the wind and screaming he, the Mind Flayer, and El were doing, made it too loud to understand.
He felt the Mind Flayer's force pushing into him. He knew this was the end. But he wasn't upset, or even scared. He was saving his friends and... honestly? He was surprised that he'd survived until now.
Just when he thought he was taking his last breath, someone forced him out of the way. Will fell to the ground, the connection broken, but not destroyed. It'd been passed on to someone else.
Will frantically tried to identify his replacement, but the light that was building around the figure was too blinding. They screamed and that's when Will identified them.
"MIKE!" He wailed, tears suddenly stinging his eyes.
There was a flash and a bang and suddenly Will's world was black.
When Will came to, he wondered why he wasn't dead.
He sat up slowly, his head swiveling around, searching for the answer to why he was still alive.
He saw two figures in the dark, illuminated by one remaining fluorescent light. One, he recognized as El. Will crawled over to her. She was kneeling over someone he couldn't make out.
El looked up at him when he placed a hand on his shoulder. She had blood under her nose, dripping down off her chin. Will, on a hunch, felt under his own lip. His finger came back red. He also noticed that besides blood, tears were making their way down El's face. Will wondered why, until he saw who was on the ground, and his last thirty seconds of consciousness came flooding back.
The boy on the ground had tar black hair that flared on the cement underneath him. His chocolate brown eyes were wide open and glazed over, like they did when he got bored in class (pretty much all of them except Mr. Clarke's). His face was pale and littered with its normal amount of freckles. Under his nose was a pool of blood.
"Mike..." Will breathed. El sobbed into his unmoving chest.
Will carefully placed his hands underneath Mike's head and lifted it up. "Come on buddy, you gotta wake up for me..." Nothing happened. "For El..."
Someone came sliding toward them. It was Nancy. She took Mike's head from Will and hugged him close. El brought her knees to her chest and began to shake as she rocked back and forth. "Mike..." She moaned.
Will didn't know why everyone was crying. The rest of his friends had come over. Will didn't know why he was crying. Mike's okay. Mike will be okay. Mike's always okay.
Joyce seized Will, as if she knew that the dead boy could've and would've been him. Jonathan tried to pry Nancy off of the corpse. He finally coaxed her into letting go, and the body fell to the ground.
Will pushed Joyce off of him and dove to catch Mike as he tumbled down. "Don't just drop him! That'll hurt him."
Joyce leaned down toward Will. She cupped his face with her hands. "Honey, Mike... Mike can't get hurt."
"Just because he's unconscious doesn't mean he can't get hurt, Mom."
Before Joyce told him he knew. That's why he was crying. That's why El and Nancy were crying. That's why Dustin, Lucas, and Max were crying.
That's why Mike wasn't breathing.
Dead people don't breathe.
"Will you need to move!" Someone's voice was screaming in his mind. It was Mike. "Will!" It was what Mike had tried to say to him before he pushed him out of the way. "I'm so sorry, Will." He felt the push again. "Take care of her for me. Take care of El."