will’s premonitions
Will looked around, he was in Mike’s basement. That’s what Safe House C was, the Wheeler’s house. A was Dustin’s house and B was Hopper’s cabin. He looked around, El, Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Steve were just there, but now they were all gone.
Will knew what this was. It was a vision. He must be one of Vecna’s next victims… and Vecna hadn’t done this in months, since Max. So what was he playing at?
“It’s okay, Will.” Mike? What is he doing here?
“This isn’t real.” Will said, closing his eyes. Not Mike grabbed his shoulders.
“It is, it’s real. Open your eyes.” Will did, begrudgingly. It looked like Mike, but Will would not be sucked in. “See? I’m here.” Will shook his head.
“I know this is fake, you’re not really Mike.” Not Mike looked hurt.
“Why would you say that? It is me. I know you made that amazing painting for me. I know a lot more about that than you think… it’s what I was trying to tell you earlier.” Will sighed.
“Fine. I’ll play along. What do you know about it?” Will’s stomach was in knots. He knew this was Vecna… but the fact that he conjured up Mike was a low blow. And Will didn’t want Vecna to know anything about him.
“That you’re in love with me. That everything you said about El, it was really about you.” Will’s heart dropped to his stomach.
“I… no, that’s not—.”
“Don’t lie, Will. I know it’s true. I just have to ask… did you really think it would matter? I mean, did you think I would love you back? That’s disgusting. You’re disgusting.”
“No…” The last few words had morphed from Mike’s voice to a deeper, scarier voice. Suddenly hands grabbed Will’s shoulders again and when he looked up it wasn’t Mike at all, it was Vecna.
“You know that’s what he would say, William. That you’re disgusting. But if you came with me… well, I don’t think you’re disgusting at all.”
“I… I would never come with you. I… none of that is true. I’m…” Vecna laughed, it was unsettling.
“Oh, don’t lie to me, William. You must forget, I can see your inner most thoughts. I can read them as easily as a book. And I know your desires, the things you want. Your friends would never understand. And Eleven…” Vecna chuckled menacingly. “Well, she’d never forgive you.”
“I…” Will shut his eyes tightly. He just wanted this to be over… why couldn’t he find his way back. Sing your favorite song… Okay… he was singing he lyrics to himself over and over… it wasn’t working.
“Your friends don’t care about you, William. Not the way I do. You’ll see, in time.” Suddenly the lyrics to ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ started coming through, he pushed thoughts of Vecna away, he thought only of the lyrics. He tried to sing along. When he opened his eyes again Mike, Dustin, Eleven, Steve, Lucas, Nancy, Jonathan, his mom and Hopper were all standing there. Thank god. Mike catapulted into his arms.
“Oh my god.” He said, practically sighing into his shoulders. Will was frozen, his cheeks turning pink. Mike quickly pulled away, a pink tint on his cheeks as well.
“Will, are you okay?” Hopper asked. Will nodded slowly.
“I’m… fine. I…” He made eye contact with El, she looked worried too. A surge of guilt fell over him. He knew that Vecna was bending all sorts of truths… but there was one that Will knew was true. Eleven would never forgive him. El’s eyes were locked on his and he walked over to her and hugged her tightly. She seemed surprised at first, but hugged him back, just as tight. Will’s guilt over his feelings for Mike had made him even closer to El… but he was never going to let anything get in between them.
“Do you want to go somewhere else?” She asked, so only Will could hear. Will nodded into her shoulder and El led him upstairs to the boys room. The Wheeler’s house had been transferred to be a Safe House for everyone. There were 4 different rooms. The adults had one room, then there was a boys room, about 5 people slept in there, the girls room, slept about 5 as well. The fourth room was the ‘medic’ room. It had all their medical supplies and anything they needed in case someone was injured.
When they got to the room, Will plopped down on one of the beds, the one he usually slept in. El joined him.
“Are you okay? For real. You told dad you were but I don’t think you are.” Will shook his head.
“No, of course I’m not okay. Looks like I’m going to be dying pretty soon.” El slapped him on the arm, hard.
“Ow!” Will exclaimed, grabbing his now throbbing arm. Another voice spoke from the doorway.
“Yeah, that’s not happening.” It was Mike, and followed closely behind was Lucas and Dustin. The three boys took seats on the floor and surrounding beds. “That’s 100%, without a doubt, not happening.” Will wanted to roll his eyes, he didn’t.
“And how’s that?” Will asked, bitterly. “Anyone who’s been marked by Vecna hasn’t had a great fate.” He regretted it as soon as he said it. He looked to Lucas, who looked like he’d just been slapped. “Lucas… I’m… I’m sorry, I didn’t… I wasn’t thinking…” Lucas regained his composure and nodded.
“No, I mean, you’re right. Max is alive, but anyone else who was marked isn’t. And as great as Max is doing right now, I don’t think she’d recommend any of that happening.” Lucas said, Dustin smiling sadly next to him.
“You’re Will the Wise…” Dustin started. “You’re a badass.” The others nodded along, agreeing with Dustin and Will just shook his head.
“I’m not a badass. It’s not like I actually have magical powers. I’m just some nerd who can hardly help himself.” El slapped him again. Hard again.
“Ow!” Will said, grabbing his arm for the second time in a few short minutes. “Eleven!” She didn’t look apologetic.
“Do not talk about my brother like that, Will. I’m serious. You’re not a nerd… well, not anymore than these three.” There were matching hey’s from the other boys. “And you lasted a whole week in the Upside Down all by yourself. That proves you can help yourself.” Will didn’t know what to say about that, he felt himself blushing.
“Agreed.” Mike said, smiling brightly at Will. “Besides… now that we know what to do, we’re not going to let him get to you. You can carry around a walkman and have ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ on hand at all times like they did for…” He trailed off. Probably because there wasn’t a success case besides Max when it came to surviving Vecna’s targeting.
“I… have a bad feeling about this.” Dustin said, quietly. They all looked at him to continue, he looked sheepish. “I… Will, I’m sorry, I don’t want to scare you. But, I mean, One hasn’t made any kind of real move in months… why now? Why Will? And on top of that… Will has to mean more than anyone else.” They looked at him confusedly.
“What do you mean?” Asked Lucas, voicing what all of them were thinking.
“I mean, Will was literally taken to the Upside Down at one point. We now know that Vecna was the leader of it all from the start, right? We know that ever since El sent him down there… that he’s just been churning, finding these creatures, making the Upside Down exactly what he wanted it to be… but why did he take Will in the first place? He must have wanted something, right?” The others looked nervous, like everything Dustin was saying made sense… and it did. It all raised a good point.
“And… we still don’t know why the Upside Down is stuck on the day you went missing, Will.” A new voice popped in the doorway, it was Steve. Robin, Nancy and Jonathan behind as well.
“It’s what?” Asked Will frantically. “What? Why didn’t anyone tell me that?” The teenagers all looked guiltily around.
“We… we didn’t want to… we didn’t want to worry you if it was nothing… but now that this has happened… I think we need to do some real research and figure out what this means.” Nancy said, walking fully into the room.
“And how exactly are we supposed to do research on the Upside Down?” Asked Lucas.
“Isn’t it obvious? We have to go back down there.” Robin said. Everyone looked at her like she was crazy. “It’s the only way! Look, I know I didn’t know you guys when Will first went missing, but obviously that’s the day that all this shit started, right? So it’s gotta mean something! It’s not like we can do anything about it up here.”
“Plus, I’m sick of playing defense… I mean, now is the time. Will’s marked, we’re not about to let anything happen to him.” Steve said.
“I mean… I get the idea… but do we really want to risk something bad happening to Will?” Asked Mike. No one said anything for a moment, so Will decided to.
“I’m just one person.” Mike looked like he was going to interrupt, but Will didn’t let him. “I’m just saying. I’m just one person. In the grand scheme of everything… we kind of need to look at a broader perspective… not just about me.” Mike looked mad for some reason, Dustin spoke up.
“Will’s right… we do need to think about the big picture. And Steve’s right… we’ve been playing defense for too long. Not that we don’t care about you, Will.” Mike scoffed and stood up.
“Yeah, right.” Mike said, pushing past the teenagers at the door.
“Mike, what the hell?” Dustin called after him. Mike turned around sharply.
“What? You all want to risk his life? Why am I the only one who cares about Will?” Will’s face was as bright red as a Coke can and he didn’t know what to say. Mike turned on his heel again and practically ran down the steps.
“I’ll… be right back.” Nancy said, quickly following Mike. There was a lot of awkward silence before Dustin piped up again, trying to formulate a new plan.
“Maybe we can go down in teams? No team stays down there longer than like 10 minutes. That way no one is risking it too much.” Robin said. Will didn’t know Robin that well. They weren’t on team together and he hadn’t really spoken to her much in the time he’d been back in Hawkins. She seemed like a great addition to their team though.
“10 minutes doesn’t really give anyone much time though.” Dustin said, thinking face on and in full force. “But, that does seem like that safest bet. We need to find one gate to work with and stick with that, we don’t want to let Vecna know we’re going down there.”
“We have to be really careful.” Lucas said, quietly. Everyone gave him a sort of sad look, not quite knowing what to say.
“Of course.” Will said, matching Lucas’s tone. Lucas smiled at him. “I think that… El should stay up here so that if for some reason a gate were to close, she could be there. Since she’s the only one who can open one... at least that we know of.” Dustin nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, that’s true. Good thinking, Will. Okay, should we stick with the teams we have for watch?” Just then is when Nancy and Mike walked back into the room. Mike looked like he was still sort of upset but sat back down and said nothing else.
“I think we should mix it up a bit. Let people go down with someone who has opposite skills than them. That way there’s that extra safety net. And maybe only two at a time… in case… well, you know.” Steve said. The teams ended up being Robin and Steve, Nancy and Jonathan, Lucas and Dustin and Will and Mike. El agreed on staying up in Hawkins, just in case.
“We can do some training sessions before the first group goes down. Any volunteers?” Dustin asked. Jonathan and Nancy ended up volunteering for first.
Will’s stomach was in knots. He knew this was a good idea, probably one of the only things they could really do to try and get an upper hand on Vecna… but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a horrible feeling about it…a feeling like everything was about to go terribly wrong.
And, unfortunately, Will was usually right about these things.