will’s spidey-sense
It’s been a few months… they’ve been living on adrenaline, mostly. And Will knows that it’s all going to collapse at some point, because Henry’s not done, he isn’t—there’s no way. He’ll be back and it’ll be even worse. So, this apocalyptic world they’re living in right now in Hawkins, it’s all going to come to a big dramatic close and Will wants it to happen… but then he doesn’t. Everything will change after that point.
They’ve gotten into a routine, there’s different teams, and everyone takes turn standing watch from whatever monsters are lurking around up here from the Upside Down, the two are now completely connected. And it works… it’s not ideal, obviously they should have fled with the rest of them, but it all comes down to them. Joyce wanted to send Will away, but most of his friends families were staying anyway. The only people out of his friend’s families who didn’t stay were Dustin’s mom (and that was because Dustin forced her to leave), Lucas’s dad and Ted and Holly. Karen told Ted that he needed to take Holly somewhere safe, until this was all over. And it’s not like anyone wants to be here. But how could they leave? This group of friends… how could they leave when they’ve fought so hard for so many years… they have to see it through to the end.
It was Will’s turn to take watch with his team. His team was Mike, Lucas, Eleven, Dustin and Steve. They tried to have at least 6 people on each team, in case a code X came up… and that’s only happened a few times, but it’s better to be safe. When it’s a team’s turn for watch they go to 4 different points around Hawkins and sort of keep guard in a sense, all having walkies to they can talk to each other if they need to.
They have different partners each time, and today Will was with Lucas. The two of them have an interesting relationship. Will loves Lucas and he always has, it’s just a bit different now. It’s been different since Will came back from the Upside Down, and they’re older. They’re 15, turning 16… it’s just not the same as it was. And that’s not to say that it’s not still a good friendship, just different. But he liked being on watch with Lucas, if anyone had something igniting them to fight hard, Lucas did for sure. Max is Ok, in the relative sense of the word. She’s blind, still not able to walk, and therefore not really able to be on watch or help out too much yet. Something changed in Lucas the day Max almost died. He’s still the Lucas that Will knows in a lot of ways, but there’s a way he carries himself that Will had never seen before.
“We’re at location H today.” Lucas said, when he and Will met at their rendezvous point. Will nodded and they walked in comfortable silence until they got there. Location H was at a clearing in the woods, right by the place Will crashed his bike all those years ago. They sat down behind a bush, weapons on hand… just in case.
“How’s Max today?” Asked Will, like he always does. He sees Max every now and then, but they’re not always at the same safe house like Lucas is. He smiled.
“She’s actually doing a lot better. She… took a step today.” He was smiling so brightly, Will swore it could’ve broke his face in two. Will joined in, he had to.
“Really? That’s—Lucas, that’s so amazing.” Lucas nodded.
“I mean, obviously, she has a long way to go before she ever walks on her own, if she ever does. But, she was able to stand up for a few seconds on her own, and she even took a step with some help. It was… it was really cool to see.” Will sort of felt tears building up in his eyes.
“That’s so good to hear. I’ll have to try and see her soon.” Lucas nodded and they fell into a comfortable silence for a while, Will wasn’t sure how long.
“What was it like?” Lucas asked, suddenly. Will turned to him with a questioning look. “The Upside Down.” Lucas finished, and Will’s stomach turned. No one… no one had ever really asked him that.
“Uh… why do you ask?” Lucas looked uncomfortable but continued on.
“It’s just… if it’s anything like what we face every day now… I just… how did you do it? On your own… I think about that a lot. I think about how crazy we were all going trying to find you. Your mom and Jonathan, the party, especially Mike.” Will’s stomach turned again, but not the same as before. It’s the Mike of it all. Will is honestly never sure exactly where he stands with Mike… he knows that Mike cares about him… maybe… sometimes.
“Oh… I just… The only thing that kept me going is that I knew you guys would find me… or, well, I had hope. I kept singing my favorite song and just tried to get through it, you know?” Lucas looked puzzled.
“Your favorite song?” Asked Lucas. “Boys Don’t Cry?” Will smiled and shook his head. Since the way to stopping Vecna is for your favorite song to be played, they’d taken to make sure that everyone knew each other’s favorite songs… just in case.
“Uh… that’s my favorite song now. Back then it was, Should I Stay or Should I Go?, by The Clash. Jonathan showed it to me. I… after all of that it just… I don’t really like it anymore.” Lucas nodded in understanding, and then a weird look came over him.
“How’d you know to do that? I… I mean, since we now know that it’s been Vecna all along, even when you were in the Upside Down, and with the Mindflayer… how’d… how’d you know to do that, sing your favorite song?” Will thought for a moment… he didn’t really. He didn’t know that’s what he was supposed to do, it’s just what helped him in the moment.
“I… didn’t know. I mean, I just tried to think of happy things. Mainly I thought about Mom and Jonathan and Mike… and you guys. Like you and Dustin, the party, you know? And when I thought about Jonathan, that song came in my mind. Because we’d shared a special moment with it, if that makes sense.” Lucas nodded, as if it did make sense.
Good. They can’t know. Not yet.
“What?” Will asked. Lucas raised his brows in confusion.
“What do you mean, what?” He has a small smile playing on his face, like he was confused but amused by Will.
“Oh, I… I don’t know, sorry. I thought you said something. Must be losing my mind.” Lucas laughed and they fell back into that comfortable silence. He heard that voice again.
They’ll be able to learn our secret very soon. Don’t worry. Will realized with a jolt that it wasn’t Lucas speaking, it was inside his head. It wasn’t Will’s voice though, so who was it?
You know who I am, Will. Will was startled again… he didn’t realize that he could talk to this voice in his head. Did this make him crazy?
You’re not crazy. He realized, with horror, that it was Vecna… Henry… whatever he is… this was him, talking to him in his head.
What do you want? Will asked, feeling a bit stupid, having a conversation inside his mind.
What I want doesn’t matter right now. Will tried to continue the conversation but the voice seemed to vanish.
“Well, aren’t we all?” Lucas’s voice reminded him he wasn’t alone and he was actually out in the wilderness.
“Aren’t we all what?” Will asked.
“Losing our minds a bit?” Lucas had a concerned look on his face. “Are you okay, Will? You look pale.” Will put a tight smile on his face, trying his best to not think about what had just happened.
“Sorry, I just…” He felt goosebumps prickle on the back of his neck. He hadn’t felt that in a long time and that made him nervous. He figured he’d feel it all the time with the Upside Down practically being in Hawkins, but it was only when something really bad was going to happen. He resisted the urge to touch his neck, not wanting to alarm Lucas. Although, he supposed he really should tell him.
“Will?” Lucas broke him out of his thoughts again.
“I… just… I felt it.” Lucas seemed to immediately know what Will meant.
“Just now?” He asked, sounding panicked. Will nodded, feeling a bit doomed. ”We need to call a Code X.” Will shook his head hard, almost hurting his neck.
“No, Lucas. That’ll freak everyone out. It’s not a Code X. It’s more… a Code Z.”
“You don’t think this counts as an emergency? You haven’t felt that in months!”
“But a Code X means imminent danger. Code Z will still let people know it’s serious without completely freaking them out, okay?” Lucas still looked unsure, but nodded. Will nodded back at him and picked up his walkie.
“Code Z, I repeat, Code Z. This is Wizard W does anyone copy? I’m calling for a Code Z, meet at rendezvous Point R if you copy. I repeat, Code Z, meet at rendezvous point R if you copy. Over.” Will eyed Lucas and they began their short journey to where Will said they’d meet. They waited there for a few minutes. After some time, they heard rustling and saw Steve, Mike, Dustin and Eleven walking towards them, worried looks on all their faces.
“What’s wrong?” El said, practically running into Will.
“I’m fine, I just… I felt… it.” Everyone knew what Will meant by that and the severity that it usually held.
“Well, that can’t be good.” Dustin said. “When did you feel it?” Will shrugged.
“A couple of minutes ago.” Dustin looked puzzled.
“Did—did something happen?” Asked Mike. Will looked towards him and his heart burst. This was getting really old. Could his stupid heart get over this already, please?
“No, not yet, at least. I… Lucas and I were just talking. And then I heard— I felt something. And then I felt the goosebumps on the back of my neck.”
“Shit.” Dustin said, shaking his head. “Shit, shit, shit, shit—.” Steve cut him off.
“Relax, Henderson. How can we even be sure that something’s wrong?” Dustin huffed indignantly.
“Has Will’s Spidey-Sense ever been wrong before?” Steve sighed and bit his lower lip.
“Okay… good point. But, still… nothing’s happened. Isn’t it usually pretty immediate?”
“Really, we’re calling it a Spidey-Sense?” Will asked, rolling his eyes lightly.
“Would you rather me say, your weird and sometimes scary connection to Vecna?” Will rolled his eyes again, a litter harsher and crossed his arms.
“Listen, last time I got that feeling it was when the ‘earthquake’ happened. So… I’m thinking it’s not great.”
“Will, does it still feel like what you said a while ago? Like being on a roll-y coster?” El asked. Will chuckled despite the severity of the situation.
“Roller-coster… and yeah… but it also feels more… interactive.” Will knew that was a weird choice of words, but he didn’t know what else to say.
“Interactive?” Asked Mike, his face looking even more concerned than he already was. “What the hell does that mean?”
“I’m not good at explaining it, okay? It’s just… it felt different.”
“Can we go back to a safe house? I don’t like being out in the open like this.” Steve said, looking around with his flashlight.
“Good idea. Safe house C, we’ll continue this talk there. Groups of three on the way back. Lucas, me and El. Steve, Mike and Will. We’ll take Route A, you guys take B.” They nodded and went their separate ways, going to Route B.
“Are you okay?” Mike asked. Will shrugged.
“I guess so.” Will said, feeling small. He felt small around Mike lately because they’d barley talked about anything other than El or Vecna since they got back to Hawkins. And, it’s fine. There’s more important stuff going on then the state of their friendship and Will’s embarrassing crush… it just stinks sometimes. Like those two things are the only topics of importance…
“There’s something you’re not telling me.” Mike said, a little quieter so Steve wouldn’t hear. Will shook his head.
“No, there’s not.” Mike rolled his eyes.
“I know you, Will. I know when you’re keeping something from me.” Will wanted to laugh, he refrained himself.
“I’m not keeping anything from you.” Will said. And… okay, maybe that was a lie. But he wasn’t about to admit that he heard a voice in his head that wasn’t his… and especially that he could talk back and forth with that voice. Mike probably already thought he was crazy, some random voice in his head wasn’t going to help. Mike huffed out a sigh, like he didn’t believe Will.
“Why won’t you talk to me anymore? It’s like you’re pulling away from me again.” Again? What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“What do you mean, again?”
“Like when you moved to California. Yeah, phones work both ways, by the way, so do letters. It’s just… you’re lying. I know something’s wrong.” Will felt stuck, either way this wasn’t going to end well.
The thing with Mike is that he can’t just come out and tell him about his crush on him… he could. But, that would potentially life-ruining. And worse of all? It would hurt El. He couldn’t do that to El, although he didn’t like El when they first met, solely because of jealousy, he loved her. She’s his sister and he couldn’t hurt her, not on purpose anyways. Mike and El broke up shortly after they got back to Hawkins. Neither of them told Will why, just that they “wanted different things”, whatever that means.
“Mike, maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.” Mike scoffed and crossed his arms. They were almost to the safe house.
“Maybe I know more about you than you want me to.” Will didn’t have time to ask what he meant because their paths crossed with Dustin, Lucas and El and they finished their walk to the safe house, both Mike and Will not saying a word.
Then he felt it again.
Shit.