4- The Death of Mike Wheeler
Summary: In the Battle of Starcourt, Billy is replaced by Mike. And... Yeah, that's it. Not much else to say.
Requested by: Guest
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters. If I did, Lucas would've sung to save Max.
The giant monster loomed over them.
"Seven feet!"
Billy froze.
The girl laying beneath him went on about the memory of his mom.
It all came rushing back to him, the car crash, the duplicate of him, Heather, the sauna, and... hitting Max across the face.
Billy gave a faint smile, and a tear ran down his face.
He turned.
The goo monster stuck its tongue out, aiming for the girl.
Billy caught it.
He felt other tentacles lock onto him.
He knew he was going to die.
But the monster had other plans.
It threw Billy to the side, throwing him into the wall.
Everything went blurry.
When everything came into focus, he saw the tongue come back to the girl, ready to strike.
It only had enough energy for one more strike.
He saw her brace herself.
But then, someone was running towards her.
There was screaming, then there was darkness.
She was going to die.
Billy had tried to save her, but it hadn't worked.
The long gooey tongue was coming at her.
She put her arms in front of her.
The tongue came at her.
She closed her eyes expecting pain.
But it never came.
She opened her eyes and...
There was Mike catching the tentacle.
Others was wrapping around his body, holding him in place.
The large tongue came at him, striking him in the chest.
"MIKE!" she screamed.
The monster dropped Mike to the ground, dropping itself moments later.
El was frozen, she distantly heard Max running to check on an unconscious Billy.
She slowly stood up, walking toward Mike.
He was covered in black blood, a dark hole in his chest.
"I'm sorry." he said.
And that was it.
Mike Wheeler was dead.
Eleven sobbed leaning down to shake him, begging him to wake up.
When he didn't, she half collapsed onto him, half into Max, who was hugging her, telling her it was okay.
But it wasn't.
Lucas and Will ran down the stairs, yelling how awesome that was.
They both froze, seeing Mike's body.
"Oh, no" Lucas whispered.
They both leaned down and enclosed the two girls into a hug.
Next came Nancy and Johnathan.
"You guys ok-" Johnathan started.
Nancy became pale as a ghost.
"Mike" she whispered, starting to sob.
She kneeled down next to Mike, leaning into Johnathan.
Steve and the girl from the ice cream shop came around the corner, stopping.
The girl gasped, Steves eyes widened.
Nobody heard the helicopters approaching.
El was sitting in the back of an ambulance, leaning into Max, holding hands with Lucas, and Will rubbing her back.
All four were crying.
Dustin came running up.
"That was crazy! You guys are going to have to tell me your side... Wait, where's Mike"
They all looked at him solemnly.
"No." Dustin whispered, tears streaming down his face.
El was the first to move, wrapping him in a hug.
The others came quickly after, wrapping each other in a group hug.
Erica saw this, and asked Steve what was wrong.
"Mike," was all he whispered.
Erica got it instantly.
She started crying.
Steve wrapped her in a hug.
When the group hug finished, Will saw his mother and Hopper coming towards them, both smiling.
They both stopped when they saw everyone crying.
"What happened?" Hopper asked.
"Mike" El stated, before jumping into Hopper's arms, sobbing yet again.
Hopper was shocked.
Joyce gave each of them into a hug.
In the distance there was shouting.
Karen Wheeler was fighting the medics, Nancy trying to calm her down.
Joyce started to move, but El beat her to it.
El ran over to Karen, slowing down when she got there.
Karen locked eyes with El, breaking down.
Eleven wrapped her into a hug, praying it was a nightmare.
It wasn't.
The people who took it the hardest was the Wheelers, and the kids.
Nobody had saw the Wheelers since that night and the kids had spoken minimal words.
El locked herself in her room for the first week.
It made Hopper feel even more guilty.
Max spent most of her time trying to push down the sadness, spending time with Billy in the hospital.
The boys were going through the motions, but there were no feelings behind them.
One day, El was on a hill by the cabin, when the others came up behind her.
"I saw Nancy today." she said quietly, not looking at them.
The others were surprised but said nothing.
"She gave me a note," she went on. "Apparently Mike was trying to tell me he loved me."
"Of course, he loved you El," Max said. "You could see it in his eyes."
"Yeah, he was crazy for you." Dustin said.
"He never gave up on you," Lucas remarked.
The group all put their arms around each other's shoulders.
"I miss him" El spoke softly.
"We all do, El" Will said just as soft. "We all do."
And they did miss him.
Every. Single Day.
But it got better.
Because Mike would have wanted it that way.
AN: That one... was hard to write. I didn't have Hopper killed because, really? How much trauma can El go through? I hope you liked it though. Requests are still open!