/

Chapter Three

Don't You Forget About Me

There is a quiet clattering of knives and forks against crockery as a steaming lasagne with vegetables is served on everyone's plates, to be consumed with gusto by only one – an impervious father. Holly plays with her food, despite her mother's calm warnings. No one seemed able to talk comfortably at the Wheeler dining table after Will has finished answering Karen's questions.

Mike is trying to keep his head down and out of the conversation but for the first time in a while, his father surprises him.

"Why are your hands wrapped up like that Mike?"

Mike swallowed the piece of lasagne on his fork too quickly and some of it goes down his air pipe. He chokes a little, coughing arbitrarily until Will sends a direct hit just in the right spot in his upper back. The tickle of a foreign object going to the wrong place internally is finally alleviated and he gives a few deep breaths, looking gratefully at Will.

"I was going to talk about this with you later Ted, but now that you've…brought it up, Mike got into a fight at school today."

His father is quite apathetic at hearing most things but this time he's taken aback.

"You – you got into a fight?"

"Yes, that's why Mike's hands are bandaged. He's bruised them but they should heal in time for the future snow shovelling he'll be doing this coming winter."

Mike is ready to protest, but her raised eyebrows do all the talking for her, and his defence dies down in his throat, as he sits back in his chair. Will smiled sympathetically at his friend.

"I figured if you'd be in a tussle at school, ever, you'd be sporting some shiners too."

"They're on his knuckles and thankfully, nowhere else," Karen scolded.

"So how bad is the other guy then?"

"Ted!"

"Pretty bad," Mike admitted.

"Michael, don't participate," Karen warned. She felt herself blushing slightly, "I'm sorry you had to see that Will."

"No need to apologise Mrs. Wheeler. This lasagne is great by the way."

"Thank you honey."

"So how did you get the upper hand?" Ted quietly asked while he believed his wife was distracted.

"I…I honestly don't remember Dad."

"The very definition of seeing red," Will added hastily as he can see the growing annoyance on Mrs. Wheeler's face. He deflects the conversation with only the finesse a child of divorce could have. "How was school Holly?"

The little girl who is now six years old and just started the first grade is twirling her fork in only an abundant curiosity a child could behold. Holly didn't find absolutely everything frightening anymore and sat up at Will's question, and responded eagerly retelling her day with every finite detail that only she could deem important as her blonde plaits shake about with enthusiasm.

Karen beamed as her daughter was the epitome of innocence yet untainted and Mike started to zone out once his little sister goes on about some ladybug she found during recess. Will is amused to say the least and Ted Wheeler has given up trying to stay on the topic, knowing how sensitive his youngest is to be disrupted.

As Will and Mike were studying down in the basement, they avoided the fun they could be having instead to follow Karen's rule that Mike was still technically in trouble. He really didn't want to exacerbate her disappointment into being grounded since this weekend was just too important to him, so they quietly whispered to each other the answers to their English homework. However Will couldn't help but point out one thing from the dinner.

"Hey Mike – you know how you said you didn't remember much from the fight?"

"Like you said, I was seeing red."

Quiet flowed through the basement as Will began to bite down on his lips, hiding his smile.

"You don't remember saying anything while you were pounding Troy in the chest?"

"No Will, I really don't...wait did I say things?"

Will nodded as he was struggling to hold on to what he witnessed.

"Well what did I say?!"

His friend had to compose himself just a little before he could emit anything, "You said, and I quote: I can't wait for the day I get to dance on your grave you acne ridden fuckwit."

Mike dropped his pen and slapped both his hands on his mouth after he snorted uncharitably. "I said that?"

"Kind of why I thought you would get in more trouble – but not enough people heard you and I never put that in my account. I don't think Troy was even conscious enough to have caught on."

"Martinez never mentioned it. Fox mustn't have told her either."

"Well I'm glad I've got that in my memory – Dustin would just start giggling on the way home out of nowhere because it just kept coming back into his mind."

The phone started to ring upstairs and Will and Mike immediately set their heads down to work out of habit. Both relaxed for a second before not long after Mike was called up to talk to his sister.

Mike's shoulders sagged. He had a feeling, deep in his stomach that this call wasn't dissimilar to the one he received last year. Taking two stairs at a time up to the house he took the phone off his mother who had clearly just been discussing how his wayward behaviour had started that day. He waited for her to give him some distance before he spoke.

"Nancy?"

"Well hello to you too Rocky."

Mike groaned in annoyance, "I didn't think she got every detail in yet."

"Mom has her ways. I had to hide my pride when she was telling me. I can't believe you laid into that little shit for once."

Mike couldn't help but smile at the gratification in her tone. Nancy had been in his corner even if he threw the first punch.

"And to think Mom wants me to come back home this Christmas to set you right, of all the things."

Mike snorted with a chuckle to follow it.

"But what happened? I mean, this is not very…you."

Mike went quiet for a moment and he wondered how he could get into this while working his way tentatively around the point. It seemed in trying to find a quick exit he left his sister hanging.

"Mike?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"No more secrets. Remember?"

Mike sighed and said, "I know. He said something about…her."

"What? How does he know about her?"

"You remember the Quarry story?"

"Ohhhhhhh. Okay."

She went quiet too for a few seconds as Mike was preparing for whatever pinprick questions she might have for him because of it. Instead she continued to focus on Troy.

"That little fucker. Who does he think he is?"

"Troy Donovan, that's who," but Mike does his best to brush it off now his adrenaline is gone. "It doesn't matter now though. I broke his nose Nance."

"Used what I taught you? Caught him off guard?"

"Yeah, only thing is it doesn't feel very noble," Mike sheepishly admitted.

His sister snorted from her end, "Mike, there's nothing noble about fighting, and that whole façade can be left behind with the knights. For those of us who are much smaller – sometimes you need everything you can get. Besides using someone's weakness against them isn't that dirty – it's not like you gouged his eyes out or anything."

"The guys pulled me off before I could start pulling his teeth out and getting the guillotine ready," he sarcastically replied.

"Ew, Mike," Nancy said with some disgust, which baffled Mike since she was playing with guns and defence now.

"How are those three dorks anyway?"

"They're fine I suppose, better now that Lucas has a car," Mike said quietly, guilt tripping her.

"Mike, I won't repeat this ever again. I need my car."

"You're in New York Nancy, what could you possibly need a car for?" argued Mike, an ongoing, longwinded argument of him trying to convince his sister had no use of a car when he could use it at home.

"You're not even sixteen yet! And what could you possibly want with my car?"

Mike could practically feel his sister rolling her eyes at him through the phone.

Suddenly she spoke up very excitedly.

"...Oh my god, is there a girl I don't know about?"

Mike almost hiccupped in reaction to even hearing such a suggestion, "You know I haven't – well – I haven't cared much for girls in a while."

Nancy sighed, careful of what was bound to come next. "Right, sorry Mike…are you okay?"

They were always going to get to the point no matter how much Mike edged away from it. And it all started to freeze up on the subject properly around the time before Nancy left for college, when she took him to the shooting range she'd been going to without their parents' knowledge.

Mike had been struggling at that time, more obviously than he currently was anyway. His mother didn't know what to do and as much as his friends were the best distraction, just being around them was a constant reminder of what they all lost. They always knew they would get Will back – or at least they were blind in their faith that would get him back, because Eleven, despite her faults was helping them to her utmost abilities. And Will returned and they were so blessed she'd been there to help them.

But when they tried to do the same for her, the old tried and true methods that they used to find Will never quite reached, because she was unreachable without the assistance of her powers to guide them through the radio waves. Will was different and El was gone, and it took Mike until the summer of 1985 to see that those factors wouldn't change because he wanted them to. While Mike didn't realise this, it was truly the end of his childhood the day he accepted that he would never see Eleven again.

As he was coming to terms with this, Nancy pulled him out of his cave one morning and told him to get up and get dressed, that a granola bar and apple with a grape juice box were waiting on the bench for him and to hurry his ass up because it was the last juice box and Holly wasn't aware of that fact yet.

He was pulled into her car shortly after and she started the hour drive to Indianapolis central.

It was then Mike found out what his sister, off to Pre Med at Columbia the coming Fall, was up to when she wasn't working her Summer job.

When they parked in front of an indoor and outdoor shooting range, Mike wasn't sure his sister had the right address. He remembered how she confirmed it was definitely the right place when he'd never said anything but looked confused nonetheless.

Nancy had been treated like a regular and Mike being her sibling was given the full tour. Then a man with a greying beard and a bald head erring into his fifties with an incredibly intimidating build considering his age hugged Nancy like she was one of his own and looked as though he recognised Mike. Once introduced, the man's name turned out to be Ozzie, and he had the accent of a southern gentleman, which was also strange since Indiana wasn't famous for bringing warmer weathered people to its state.

Despite looking like he could rip Mike in half with his bare hands, Ozzie was very kind and patient, which the accent probably aided in keeping Mike relaxed. The guns too freaked Mike out, as his brain's memories greatest hits had a gun squarely pointed at him while trying to help Eleven get away from her 'Papa'. But Ozzie eased the tension once he went into the technical side of each gun and started to actually gain Mike's interest. Apparently he hadn't given Nancy all the details like he'd given Mike and she supposed this was because Ozzie knew how to appeal to each and every individual, Mike liking the detail of what was a mechanised weapon. Ozzie had a keener sense than most adults Mike knew, and didn't come off condescending to him once.

There was another person that Nancy talked about a lot, but he didn't get the opportunity to meet Zoe, Nancy's other mentor in the gun range. But Mike knew Nancy wasn't the type to puff up anyone's image so had a feeling she was true to his sister's description.

Nancy had been coming since 1984, but it wasn't until 1985 that Mike was becoming more baffled by his older sister's new priorities. And she was one hell of a shot too.

But Mike hadn't been totally sure why she would take up this very left of field hobby and enjoy it too.

Admittedly Nancy's pool of friends heavily depleted when Barb left and so she was stuck with Steve until they broke up, surprisingly amicably, before he went to college in California a year before she left for New York. This also left her with a lot of spare time.

She had attempted to find some way to cathartically release her deepest darkest emotions while also bringing herself some true repose from the ache that mourning did to a young adult. It was hard to find such an activity that was actually satisfying.

When her shotgun supplied by Ozzie was cocked away from Mike for safety purposes, she was getting her bullets ready when Nancy bluntly explained what she felt was missing from the obvious narrative.

She'd tried all this new age junk to centre her soul and bring herself serenity but she wasn't a believer and she was finding the trend of working out through aerobics to just be an exercise that didn't expose herself reflectively. While she found the meditating did help her focus on her new hobby more, it wasn't the centre of her life.

And while shooting a gun at a target was whittled down to her sadness and guilt for Barb's early loss – he knew that there was something more determined behind her eyes that didn't fit the mourning girl's tale. There was a hate and a readiness he hadn't seen before and he felt as though she was picturing herself in the Byers house, with the Christmas lights strung up in every corner possible and across the ceiling, as they began to flicker in a way that could only feel like the sinister presence of a Demogorgon. Suddenly shot after shot rang out and even with the cushioning headphones, Mike could feel every shot whirring through the air and hitting the target with an accuracy of someone willing to have trained as much as she had.

Once she was out, Nancy placed her gun on the table in front of her. As they both took their headphones off, she wasn't necessarily smiling anymore, but she was at peace, and that was what counted.

Mike couldn't help but voice his thoughts at the time.

"Is this all you get out of shooting a gun at a mark?"

He hadn't expected the answer he got from her, were he to be basing it on the years he knew her as the girl who became enthralled by the likes of Steve Harrington, pre-reckoning, but it stayed with him to that day.

"If you believe that Eleven can come back - then I believe those things can find a way too. And I want to be capable when that day comes."

That was when she put a gun in his hands, the same one, because that's what she believed he should start with. She never said if to the idea, but believed it was a matter of when. And just as he was starting to believe it was no longer an option.

"Mike? Mike, are you there?"

Mike inhaled sharply as he realised he was sinking into his memories again – a habit he'd picked up when he was thirteen, and that he was actually still on the phone to his sister.

"Sorry, I'm here."

"Did you zone out mid-phone call?" she sounded somewhat amused considering the nature of her question that sent him off into his head in the first place.

"Might have," Mike responded sheepishly.

He heard her sigh – the same way his mom did when she was concerned.

"You can't avoid this forever. You won't even say her name."

This stung him where he didn't want it.

"Do I ask you to say Barb's name?"

He regretted it the minute it fell from his lips.

"We both know I haven't got a problem with thinking about Barb anymore Mike."

"I'm sorry Nancy, that was really out of line."

"And I knew you'd figure that out eventually too."

Mike knew he was probably being childish by being overly defensive and becoming mute to her name aloud – after all, it had been spelled on his brain the minute he decided to punch Troy in the face. But up until then, it had been his coping mechanism for a couple of years and it held up well.

Until he beat up Troy, but that was a one off – Mike had to be certain on that.

"- if you don't talk about this to your friends, or Mom or me – you're going to end up mentally imploding – and I'm really worried the result next time won't be you just burying your fists into some douche bag."

She'd been oddly in sync with him lately but he couldn't say what he really wanted to. Mike had been pushing it with this phone call, let alone this week existing every year and Troy even having the gall to mention her at all. And Nancy was right, he did feel like both imploding and exploding but Mike had to hold it together otherwise he'd be more of a mess than he was already.

"Just promise me you'll get it out of your system Mike, please?"

Mike swallowed away his pride and rubbed his eyes, feeling how heavy they'd grown over the day. If he had to assuage his sister's concerns as well as everyone else's,

Mike would have to go along with it.

"Okay Nancy."

Mike still hadn't said her name aloud. And he wasn't sure if he ever could bring himself to do so again.

Will was in his own incredibly uncertain headspace after Mike went upstairs to take the call from his sister. He was rubbing his eyes absentmindedly and yawning, ready for a full night's sleep, after he'd done all he could in helping Eleven that day once he reached the privacy of his room.

It was just a matter of waiting to be transported into the Upside Down again – and being lucky enough to be in the same exact place at the same exact time again.

Looking down at his English homework, Will knew it was only taunting him because he was stuck on one final question, but wouldn't be able to concentrate on it as he started trying to think of ways to send himself to the place he would have rather avoided. All he desired was to be able to control this ability to send himself to the Upside Down.

It was then he felt something sit beside him, and he moved as though to give it space.

When his body consciously connected this bizarre happening to his thoughts, Will felt his stomach drop. There was nothing beside him on the sofa and yet he felt he needed to check regardless.

The tickling in his stomach started to occur sooner than he thought, and Will began to panic which only aggravated the gagging. This was not the time or the place, but the universe wasn't about to give him an out when he began to cough up a new slug.

It was nearly a ruler's length and Will was forced to pull it out with his own hands just to speed up the process, which made him feel more vile than he had anticipated.

His sickness effected him every so often to the point that he could guess when the next bout would occur, but this had been too soon after the last one, which was only the night before.

He closed his eyes, trying to slow down his breathing. Will hadn't ever had a fit outside of his house before. He figured it was due to some overly familiar feeling about his house and the replica within the Upside Down able to set him off mixed with his struggle to stop going there.

Slowly, as he opened his eyes, Will found himself in the Upside Down in Mike's basement.

But the same eeriness wasn't there as it had been in his room, filled with spores and damp walls and cold floors. Remnants of the Upside Down definitely clung to the basement but wasn't as strong as the plague that Will was constantly pushing back in his short time in the same dimension.

Life seemed to show itself in the form of artefacts that weren't tainted by the touch of toxicity and there was light illuminating the basement from several different outlets of flashlights collected around the room. What little of the outside world that was usually seen through the small basement window in the normal dimension was caved in, a product of an event Mike wouldn't like to find out about. It wasn't warm, but something about it felt kind of like the original.

"Will?"

Said teenager shot up from his spot as he saw a girl sitting there next to him, quiet as a mouse.

Eleven.

She looked as tired as he feels, black circles chronically existing around her eyes and a complexion that screams that she hadn't seen the sun in years. She honestly looks a little radioactive too, with a green tinge to every inch of her skin.

Her hair is longer as he had sketched out, but there are places where it needs serious intervention. And she wears layers of warm sweaters and a pair of tracksuit pants with tennis shoes that have seen better years.

She is smaller in mass considering all her layers, and more on the thin side, evident in her gaunt face, which makes him question several things of which he hadn't come across in his initial shock from seeing her the night before.

Slowly and very cautiously, Will sat back down on the sofa.

"It's really you, isn't it?"

Eleven blinks tiredly and nods. Will finally notices something in her hands, something she must have recently taken off.

"Is that a gas mask?"

Again she nods and hands it over for him to look at. Its clunky and heavy, but a necessity to get by in the Upside Down without going mad.

"You wear this all the time?"

"Yes," she breathes out carefully. It's not a very flattering device, so she took it off so she didn't frighten Will upon arrival. "How…how are you here?"

Will was uncertain how to answer. "I don't really know…but sometimes, when I feel sick – I come back. Only briefly though," which causes him to consider just how much time he does have with her, "Eleven – do you live here?"

She gave Will a small smile and nods with some sort of pride, "I feel safe here."

Will surmised it was partly because she was once safe in the normal dimension in Mike's basement and that Mike was also a constant presence in his own too. But it began to raise the first reactionary questions he had of this interaction alone from his prepared ones.

"Did you…did you touch me…before I arrived, just now?" Will struggled to phrase.

Eleven slowly nodded. "I felt something there…I thought it might be…"

Will didn't need her to finish the thought. But it certainly raised another query he had, based on his experience the other night.

"If you live here, why were you in my bed last night?"

Eleven shrugged, also struggling to find the right words. "I felt something…something warm taking me there. Warm is good here."

"Did you feel the same thing here too?"

"Yes, same thing," Eleven's stunted answer came out with her own mix of confusion.

Will relaxed back into the sofa as he took this information in. He had thousands of questions, both about this sensory phenomenon they shared and just how in the hell she was still alive, but he had to prioritise his efforts. He sat up and put his hand on hers. Eleven looked startled but calmed herself down when she realised that Will's hands were soft and warm. She had been starved of human interaction – that Will could tell, but she took his hand back in hers when he tried to pull away in realising he might have pushed her in the wrong direction. Will decided to stay on topic than mention her clear want of physical affection of any sort.

"Eleven, you can't live breathing through a gas mask anymore."

"But I need it."

Will smiled and shook his head, "I mean that you need to come home."

Eleven shook her head adamantly, and tears began to spring up that she couldn't wipe away,

"I can't."

"Why not?"

Eleven gestured to the caved in basement window that was the depiction of the outside of this mini haven to her.

"Is it too dangerous out there?"

"No," Eleven whispered, as years of time and incidents proved she was always the victor.

"Then why can't you come home Eleven?"

"I'm responsible, okay!"

Will hadn't expected this, for her to so adamantly take the blame and undertake all the burdens that came with it. And she had spoken words that Will wasn't sure was in her vocabulary.

"I brought it here…it killed Barb – it took you." Then she jabbed at her chest as though to reaffirm the blamed.

Will squeezed her hand, forcing her to look up at him, tears flowing freely.

"You didn't do that on purpose Eleven. You were just a kid, just like I was…still am. Barb's death isn't your fault either. And I'm still alive because of you. A lot of people would really like you to come back, and if I know anything – this isn't a place for a girl to live, even a super-powered one."

She was shaking her head in denial.

"I could bring something with me."

Will smiled, bittersweet. If he had been connected to Eleven like this, then that possibility was a potential reality even without her bringing it forward. And the creatures of the Upside Down did exist in the normal dimension…they just never lived very long outside of Will's body.

"We'll deal with it when if comes to that."

The casualty of his reply shocked her tears to stop flowing for just a moment.

"No – Will -"

"Yes, Eleven. Chances are you won't - that won't happen."

Before she can refuse the notion again, Will decides to take a firmer, more direct approach.

"Mike needs you back Eleven. Just trust me on that. And he'd welcome you with open arms, even if a Thessylhydra came out right behind you."

At the mention of Mike, Eleven's eyes bore into Will, as though she were checking him for lying. Her mouth parts slightly and her eyes close as she breathes in deeply.

"If we're connected El, I want to use this to help you get out of here…do you know if you can?"

The guilt of this knowledge seemed evident to Will when she looks away from him and nods.

Will seethed uncomfortably and reassured a suddenly concerned Eleven, "We'll deal with everything when it comes to it. What's important is that we get you out of here as soon as we can. What do we need you to do to get you out?"

Eleven shrugged her shoulders sheepishly, "I don't know how…to leave. Only that I think I can."

Will looked devastated as he still hadn't come up with a way himself and figured that if she could get out, then she would know how.

"There's a spot...near your house."

He looked up with a small measure of conviction in his eyes and watched her carefully as she tried to explain.

He started to feel the same sensation of tugging in his stomach that called time on his visit. He tried very hard to quash it down just for a little while longer and tried not to let his worry show on his features.

Instead Will squeezed her hands. If this was all they said before he disappeared it would cut him too deeply.

"It's weak, but not open."

Will wasn't sure what she was talking about until he remembered the marked tree in the woods by his house. Nancy had never told him about her very short trip to the Upside Down, but Jonathon remembered the tree where she came back out, and Will was given the necessary heads up a kid would need when fearing the worst. While he'd never found it, he knew there was a spray painted X left on it. That was when a plan began to formulate in the normally creatively inclined teenager who left up these situations for his friends to lead.

"Are you weak too?" asked Will distractedly.

Eleven shook her head, and made a show of where she stood in the hierarchy when contending with the scariest the Upside Down had to offer.

She was on top.

Will felt the coughing fit begin and she looked really worried but Will couldn't let it go before he got out one thing, endeavouring through his words.

"Follow the warmth Eleven, find the Supercom I left behind in Castle Byers and break open the gateway."

His face was red from the effort to get them out clearly but his message got across when she firmly nodded. When he closed his eyes and let out one cruel cough after another, relief was slowly creeping in and wrapping him up with gratitude.

Will's eyes fluttered open, uncertain what he would come back to. His surroundings were the same, but he knew he was back in his dimension. He just felt warmer.

The difference was Eleven could still be felt with him even now when she was technically not sitting next to him in this dimension, tied to their unexplained connection. No longer did Will see it as something to be frightened of, but something that could be used to their advantage.

Coming at about 12 inches and a little thicker than he wished to have coughed up, the leech like creature Will had coughed up into his hands but ended up on his lap while he was absent in another dimension, was shoved into his pocket when he could hear Mike coming back.

He was slower coming down this time, and had the melancholy disposition that came with probably going back to his past. Will's heart was beating hard against his chest, and just once, hoped that Mike's issues were enough to keep him inattentive to Will's peculiar behaviour.

"Sorry I was up there so long man. Hopper's here for you."

Will was actually happy to be picked up earlier than normal for once, "That's all good man, I started to fall asleep anyway. I'm going to try and get a good rest tonight...maybe you should too."

He patted Mike's shoulder on the way to the stairs, and got up to the next level quickly, a new set determination coursing through his veins. Will stopped in his tracks just on his way out the front door to see Mrs. Wheeler reading, never one not to pick up on a lack of gratitude.

"Bye Mrs. Wheeler, thank you for dinner."

"Anytime Will."

By the time he was in Hopper's passenger seat, he was all nerves and jitters, knee bouncing and fingers twiddling.

Hopper hadn't ever seen him so antsy before and it put him on edge more than he'd care to admit.

"You okay Will?"

"Hmm?" Will was brought out of his thoughts and nodded his head carefully, before looking out the window and cooling himself down.

Hopper studied him from the corner of his eye from then on, keeping himself mostly to the road. Will wasn't a misbehaved kid, so he didn't think too much of it, but he was acting a lot more sketchy than usual.

At last Hopper figures it's the dastardly date that's doing this to them all.

Will rushed into his house and straight to the bathroom before Hopper could put his Chevy in park.

Joyce watches as Will says as much as a "Hello", before becoming a blur into her house and frowns in the direction of Hopper as he closes the door behind himself from the driver's seat. She hears the bathroom door slam shut and realises what caused her son to be so hasty.

"He's kind of jittery tonight," Hopper said as he approached, a mix of confusion and concern.

"I think he just needed the bathroom Jim," Joyce said amused.

Hopper shook his head, unconvinced. "No, he's been like that since he got in my car at the Wheeler's."

"Oh," Joyce frowned, but again shook it off. "Well maybe their bathroom was occupied. You know how he hates to intrude."

While still looking uncertain, Joyce brushed his arm and said, "If there's anything to be worried about, I'll know soon enough. He can't keep many secrets from me."

Meanwhile in the Byers bathroom, Will was throwing the slug into the can he had set aside for burning his second biggest secret he was maintaining for the past three years, with the recent development of Eleven's living existence in the Upside Down and their connection taking first rank due to the magnitude of it's inconceivability.

He put the brick he'd always used in his method on top of the can to hold it down until he set up his killing routine for these creatures.

When it first started happening, Will let them run away down the sink. That was until one started crawling back up a few days later and it got bigger, and he could remember the markings so knew it was the same one. There were a couple that got away because of that method, but he learned his lesson. He'd have to kill every single one.

Eventually he'd found the quickest, least disgusting and by far most effective method before he turned fourteen. A small drop from a bottle of lighter fluid and a match thrown in later had the long leech going up in flames. By the time he did that he was always outside, but he couldn't risk going back out until Hopper left and his mom was happy minding her own business for the rest of the evening.

The bathroom didn't have a fire alarm so Will had to do his best to contain the ignited flame's power from impacting on the fire sprinkler system outside the bathroom.

The squirming leech turned into ash soon enough, having grown no proper skeleton yet and Will opened up the window to scatter them out before his mom could smell the same foul odour that came from killing these creatures with fire.

With that done, Will looked out the window to see in the distance where on the outskirts Castle Byers once was. He could now focus on his biggest secret.

It's two in the morning. And Mike couldn't fall asleep for all the effort he put into setting himself up for it.

He found himself staring up at the ceiling, since closing his eyes just allowed him to enter into his imagination, something he plainly doesn't want to enter when he isn't in control of that terrain anymore.

Constantly replaying the telephone conversation he had with his sister earlier on, Mike wondered just how he could get this mess out of his system. This feeling of being perpetually stuck.

His room feels like the wrong place to be and so Mike picks himself up off the bed.

He wants to be where those warm memories began – after long avoiding it.

There's a change in the air when Will knows his mother is fast asleep, but he remains as soundless as the world around him allows him to be combined with his efforts to be light-footed around his creaky house.

He adds layers on top of his clothes and packs a couple of more to provide some extra warmth depending on just how close Winter wants to be this early November morning and slides a blanket down into his backpack among his other necessities: a bottle of water, some snacks, and a flashlight. His BB gun is in his jacket pocket, a small and childish weapon that he still holds onto so that he doesn't have to ever find it in an adrenaline rush only to fail.

But Will plans on having more than one weapon. His brother's handmade bat with nails stuck in it from three years ago still sat in the shed and he was planning on making a stop there before he goes out to the marked tree, unsure of what outcome he'll get.

His newer Supercom is clutched tightly in his left hand, hoping that if Eleven puts some strength into it, she will be able to hear him at least.

Mike opens the door to the basement and very quietly takes every step down; weary of his parents and little sister being asleep. He turns on the small lamp, bringing the basement to life.

And as always, something feels out of place.

He used to hush that part of his mind, but tonight he was going to have to explore it.

Mike trains himself to relax, to remain collected at least for a little while longer.

The blanket fort had seen better days, slouching inwardly just a little bit more than normal, but it isn't unkempt from over use. It looks as though no one would touch his small shrine of remembrance dedicated to a secret that much of his family didn't get to know.

While he had accepted Eleven's fate long ago…he could never bring himself to take it down before.

Maybe that had to be the first step, to moving on for good, to letting his time for mourning go. He walked toward it and stopped right before the chairs.

All he had to do was pull it apart. Take away a chair. Let the fort collapse.

Touching the old blanket that made it by definition a fort, Mike caressed the material and closed his eyes.

He could picture himself, younger, still naïve of true pain and being curious but cautious of a girl with a buzz-cut who sat in his clothes and could barely communicate through the traditional social means but who would slowly come out of her shell with time and trust earned and who he would slowly become confused about in ways beyond his understanding.

She had only existed in his life for a week. When he was twelve. And yet every facet of Mike still couldn't give her up.

A shaky breath was given as his pride was consumed by an entity he hadn't seen for a few years. Finally, things began to run free from his tight reins.

In his heart, he still couldn't pull it down – because he hadn't faced it all truly until now.

He let his body move for him, as Mike crawled into the smaller, more cramped space. Legs huddled and hands close to his chest, he closes his eyes and goes through every little thing he kept pushing away.

Mike remembered the last moments he saw her, involuntarily leaving them because it was for their sake – leaving the place that wanted to give her a future but she couldn't accept because the burden of being Hawkins lab Jean Grey meant in that one significant moment, she had to sacrifice her happiness and safety, her future and possibility for a better, peaceful life to keep those she cared for safe.

The tears start to roll as Mike saw flashes of her face beating the pain into him – the moment they met in the rain as she shivered, cold to the bone – the moment he saw her tattoo, and finally had a name , when he was putting make up on her face and came out in a wig, when blood trickled from her nose when she collapsed after saving his life, the feeling of her clutching onto him as they rode toward a truck that would be flipped mid air over them, the moment she gave up Brenner and called weakly out for him - all up until she stood her ground after being a rag doll for Dustin to carry through the halls of his middle school, pale and remorseful. As she paid her final debt to the Demogorgon, as she said goodbye to him.

All the while, he had helplessly watched on.

While in the shed, Will picks up the bat, and swings it around to get a taste of what he's dealing with. Just as he's about the leave, he sees a couple of cans of spray paint and looks at his Supercom.

If his method of communication didn't work, his mom's wall alphabet was a proven medium, and the last resort.

Packing them in his now overstuffed backpack, just fitting the zipper around the lot, he hauled it around his shoulders, and didn't waste time in leaving and locking up.

He turned around ready to head off, when he found himself glued to the spot.

It hit Will, very suddenly, that he was facing his biggest fear. These specific woods at night would never just be nature existing to him ever again. And for the first time since before the Upside Down, he was going back in, straight to what might have been the belly of the beast.

One step after another, Will slowly gained the need to move onward when he kept picturing the warmth Eleven was talking about.

In his fearful approach, flashlight in constant rotation of the woods around in its untidy state as the elements took control of its wellbeing, Will felt something strangely familiar – a presence. His flashlight landed on the last place he wanted to be, but became a necessary evil to his plan.

The feeling of another presence grew stronger until he could feel it right next to him. Turning on the Supercom, Will frantically went through the channels.

He had failed her.

It wasn't hard to come to this conclusion often, for his part in all of this.

And while many tried to convince Mike otherwise, he just couldn't see any other way around it.

As much as Mike knew his feelings for her were a big factor in why he still suffered as he did, he also knew it had something to do with his guilt that he hadn't given her other opportunities – that they hadn't left the middle school after the adults and the teenagers ditched them to play their part in getting Will back.

They had just hung around, like sitting ducks, an easy find to the Department people.

And all she wanted was freedom to be a kid and to have a real family and friends, a real connection. She'd had it for a week entirely, much of it marred by her own fears and her own guilt in the Upside Down being brought closer to their dimension, but it was better than being stuck in the lab, forced and tortured emotionally into doing the things she really didn't feel comfortable doing.

Even if she had stayed and they had just been friends after a night at the Snow Ball, Mike would have been elated knowing she finally had her chance at an ordinary life and all the beauty it had to offer her after what she'd been through.

Mike unwittingly begins to sob, tears having already spilt down his old t-shirt. He stifles the sound with his hands, and squeezes himself tighter, as though trying to console himself.

"It was never fair. You never got to live your life. You gave it up, for us, but I would trade everything I enjoyed about my life if you could be back living yours happy and safe."

Growing frustration almost takes up Will's hope. The Supercom is only receiving static – and he knew Eleven wouldn't half heartedly go through with this.

He throws his backpack off his shoulders and onto the ground, covered in the dying Fall leaves. Putting his Supercom on the ground beside him, Will decided to enact Plan a la Joyce Byers. Unzipping the backpack and revealing its contents, he finds the spray paint bottles.

Replacing them with the Supercom now securely in his bag, Will sets off once more, a couple of the cans under his arms, a bright red can being uncapped and shaken up in his hand. He starts marking the ground in and arrow shape, telling her where to go.

The presence is a magnetised attachment now, and Will can feel it pulsing near him as he imagines her walking the same steps as him.

Will sprays onward every now and then when he feels the connection diminish slightly, and when he does so, pulses stronger than before.

Heart racing, will spots the tree with his flashlight, the bright red X his brother had done three years ago ageing but very much still there.

The presence stops as he does and Will spells out with his green can: "Here", with a mark down to the hole where Nancy once entered into the Upside Down. A warmth envelopes him like his mother's hugs or his friends laughter or his brother introducing him to a whole new world of music and Will feels like it was all worth the past three miserable years if this worked.

"I'm so sorry Eleven, I'm so sorry. I miss you so much."

It was the last thing Mike Wheeler uttered aloud that night.

But it was enough.

And the universe began to turn as a tree started to crack.