Talking In Code Won’t Help Us Here

“Ok… don’t panic.” Mike said. Will was already panicking so it was too late.

“Why… why did you follow me down here!?” Will practically yelled, hitting Mike on the arm. “Now we’re both trapped! Clearly, he was just trying to keep me here.” Mike looked serious.

“Exactly. First of all, I’m not giving that fuckwad what he wants. Second of all, I was not about to let you be trapped down here on your own again. Especially now that you’re marked. No way. Now… it’s fine. We’ll figure it out.” Will sighed.

“How the hell are we going to figure it out?” He asked. The last time he was trapped here, it’s a bit of a blur, but all he did was hide and hope someone would somehow find him. Now he was older… he knows what’s going on… and he wasn’t just about to hide out until El found a way to open the gate again. “I mean… I don’t think just singing our favorite songs is going to help us out here.”

“Just… hold on. Let me… we need to get out of the open.” Mike said, looking around. Will agreed, he didn’t want to just be handing himself to Henry on a silver platter.

“Let’s go to your house. Maybe we can find some way to communicate with them in Hawkins.” Mike agreed and they started the journey to the Wheeler’s house. They were walking in the same direction as they were before, to Vecna’s lair. There was silence between them and it wasn’t usually tense or awkward between them, not anymore at least. But Will was so mad at Mike for coming in after him.

“I’m sorry, okay?” Mike said, seemingly being able to read Will’s mind. “I… I wasn’t thinking. But I also didn’t want you to be down here alone. What do you want me to say?” Will sighed and stopped both of them in their tracks.

“You just… you don’t think. You don’t think about the consequences. El even told us before we came down here to not try and be a hero. And you went and did that.” Mike huffed and Will could tell he was trying not to roll his eyes.

“I wasn’t trying to be a hero. I might not think everything through before I do it, but it’s just because when I thought of you being here alone again… I just… I couldn’t bare that thought, okay? I know it was stupid but at least… at least we’re together.” Will’s face was becoming hot and it was probably bright pink. And before he could think of anything to say to that he saw something again.

“Do you see that?” He asked Mike. Mike looked around to where Will was.

“No, I don’t see anything...” Mike said. Will felt crazy. There was clearly the outline of a person right there.

“I… hold on.” Will said, walking over to the figure. Mike called after him but Will ignored him. He heard footsteps trailing behind, so he assumed Mike decided to follow him. “Who’s there?” Will called. The figure jumped. It was definitely a person. “Are you Ok?” The figure was moving closer to him and Will took a step back, right into Mike.

“Will, there’s no one there.” Now Will was definitely getting annoyed.

“How… there’s literally someone coming right at us.” Will said, gesturing ahead as if this time Mike would see it. As the figure got closer, Will saw his face. It was a boy, probably close to Jonathan or Nancy’s age. He had long hair and looked… not good. “Are… you Ok?” Will asked the figure again.

“You… you can see me?” He asked, Will nodded, unsure of what to say. “What about Wheeler?” Will was incredibly confused. Apparently this man knew Mike in some way.

“No, he can’t see you.” Will said.

“Will…” Mike started, Will shushed him.

“This is… I can’t believe this… I… I can’t tell if I’m dead or not.” Will didn’t know what he was supposed to say to that.

“I… what’s your name?” He asked.

“Oh… sorry, my name’s Eddie. Eddie Munson.” Will nearly toppled over in shock. Eddie Munson? The same Eddie Munson who had died? The same Eddie Munson who Mike, Lucas, Dustin… everyone, had told him so much about?

“Wh—what?” Will asked, just to make sure he was hearing him correctly. Eddie smiled and nodded.

“Yeah… judging by that reaction… everyone thinks I’m dead, right?” He sounded sad, and Will supposed that having people think you’re dead would warrant some sadness.

“I… what… are you?” Asked Will. He didn’t want to be insensitive, but if he was seeing dead people, he was pretty sure he was going totally crazy.

“Will, you’re freaking me out.” Mike said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Mike, I’m… there is someone here. He’s talking to me… he thinks he’s dead… and I thought he was dead too.”

“Will, what? You’re not making any sense.”

“It’s Eddie, Mike. Eddie Munson.” Mike’s eyes practically popped out of his head.

“Wh—are you sure?” Asked Mike, clearly not expecting that.

“Well, I mean only as sure as I can be seeing someone I thought was dead. Now shush.” Will said, looking back to Eddie. He was trying to be comforting, it was probably really scary to not know if you’re dead or alive.

“So far you’re the only one who’s been able to see me.” Eddie said. “The rest of them, when they came down here, they couldn’t see me. I was calling for them, for Nancy, Robin, Steve, Dustin and Lucas but they were like Mike, couldn’t see anything. What do you think that means?” Will wanted to laugh… it probably means he’s going to die too… not that it was funny, but just so damn ironic.

“I… don’t know. We’re trying to head to the Wheeler’s house… get into contact with the others some how. We got stuck down here.” Eddie had an apologetic look on his face.

“Sorry man, that can’t be good.” He sounded genuine, he looked genuine and Will felt awful, he wanted so badly to be able to help him.

“Come with us, maybe we can… help you.” Eddie smiled and followed them along, Mike still looking at Will like he didn’t quite believe him.

“Are you sure it’s Eddie?” Mike asked, Will felt bad. He didn’t even know Eddie and he could see him, and Will could tell that Mike really cared about him.

“I’m sure. Are… are you okay?” Asked Will, grabbing his wrist to make Mike look at him. Mike did, his eyes were sad and Will wished that he could fix it but he didn’t know how.

“No. I… how can he be there and only you can see him? You didn’t even know him…” Will nodded in agreement.

“I’m just as confused as you are. Although, I feel like I know him, with how amazingly you guys all talked about him.” Will looked to Eddie as he said that, and he saw a smile go across his face.

“They talked about me?” Eddie asked. Will nodded with a smile.

“A lot. Everyone told me how brave you were. Dustin told me that you sacrificed yourself for him and for everyone.” Eddie looked like he might cry, so Will looked away, not knowing what else to say.

“Well, all those guys talked about you a lot too.” Eddie said, causing Will to snap back at Eddie. “Especially Wheeler. Going on and on and on about my best friend Will who loves DnD and would love this campaign and blah blah blah.” Eddie said, Will was turning bright red.

“Really?” Asked Will, not wanting to get his hopes up. Eddie laughed.

“Oh yeah, Will The Wise. Honestly, I’m honored to meet you.” Eddie died an over dramatic bow to Will, causing them both to laugh. Will nudged Mike and smiled at him. Mike smiled back but looked confused.

“What? What’s Eddie saying? I don’t like this…” Will and Eddie both laughed again and for a moment in time, Will forgot just how insane this entire thing actually was. Will just kept smiling.

“Nothing… just that you guys talked about me when you all played DnD together.” Mike’s face was a bit red but then he nodded and got a small smile.

“Well, yeah. Duh. I couldn’t ever play DnD and not think of you.” That made Will feel warm inside, and he didn’t really know what to say to it, so he just smiled.

“Well aren’t you two adorable.” Eddie said and Will’s face turned an even brighter shade of red.

“We’ve been friends forever so…” Will said, trying to play off his emotions as completely normal best friend feelings and not I’m madly in love with someone who doesn’t love me back. They kept making conversation, again trying to pretend like this was totally normal, as they walked to the Wheeler’s. When they got there they quickly made their way inside and up to Mike’s room. Hopefully their friends in right side up Hawkins would be somewhere in the Wheeler house too or making their way there too.

“I’m sure El is working to open up a new gate as we speak, she’d never give up on trying to get us.” Will said trying to sound reassuring. Mostly he was trying to reassure himself, although he knew El wouldn’t give up… but he was pretty sure that if Vecna wanted Will down here… there wasn’t really anything anyone could do.

“El is the one with superpowers, right?” Eddie asked and Will nodded.

“Yeah, she’s my sister.” Will said, Eddie looked confused and Will laughed. “My sort of sister… it’s complicated.” Eddie laughed too and so did Mike.

“Yeah, trying to explain all that might be confusing.” Mike said. “I never know how to describe El to anyone nowadays besides saying ‘my ex girlfriend’.” Eddie’s eyes widened.

“Woah, what? Wheeler had a girlfriend?” Will raised his eyebrows in question.

“Yeah, they were dating for like… a long time.” Will said, sort of looking at Mike too.

“I’m sure I mentioned her.” Mike said, shrugging. Eddie shook his head.

“Pretty sure I would have remembered. I would have given him so much shit. All he said was that he was going to California to visit his friends, he never said it was his girlfriend.” Will didn’t know what to say to this so he just shrugged too.

“I wish there was… some way to get ahold of them. Like… a walkie or something. Let them know we have a code X situation going on.” Mike said plopping down onto “his” bed.

“First of all, I’m pretty sure they know… they saw us get trapped down here. Second of all, talking in code won’t help us here.” Will said, plopping down next to Mike feeling hopeless and doomed.

“You know, when we were stuck down here Dustin, Lucas and Erica used your little sister’s Lite Brite to write messages… maybe we could try something like that?” Eddie suggested. It was a good idea, but there was no way to know whether or not anyone would see it, let alone know to go to the Wheeler’s house. Their backup plan for if anyone got stuck down here through the first gate was to go to the other gates and… well, that didn’t work. No one ever thought that all the gates would close behind Will.

“We can try it.” Will said, not feeling too confident about that plan.

“I can try and send an SOS signal again like I did last time. Then I can stay as a lookout. That way if something bad comes I can warn you guys.” Eddie said. He had a sort of ‘take charge’ voice and it made Will’s heart clench for him.

“But, what if something happens to you?” Asked Will. Mike looked over in the direction Will was speaking too.

“What’s he saying?” Asked Mike.

“He said he’d go be lookout.” Answered Will. Eddie chuckled.

“What would happen to me? I’d die? Pretty sure I already am.” He said it in a joking way but Will could tell there was a layer of sadness deeper in there. He didn’t know what to say so he just nodded. After Eddie left him and Mike were pretty quiet with each other.

“You know… you’re giving off kind of a negative energy.” Mike said. Will turned to him, annoyed look on his face.

“Sorry what sort of energy am I supposed to have right now?” He asked rolling his eyes. “Should I be jumping up and down singing?” Mike chuckled, clearly not bothered by Will’s sarcastic tone.

“No, but maybe you could have a little bit of hope.” Said Mike… and that did it. Will was just done.

“We’re trapped here! How the hell am I supposed to have hope?” Will said, exasperated. Mike’s optimism was just getting annoying. “I mean, how do you have so much hope?” Mike just shrugged with a small smile.

“I learned it from you.” Was all he said.

“What… do you mean?” Asked Will, stupid butterflies swarming in his stomach.

“You taught me that even if things suck right now that we can always find the hope to go on. You give me hope to go on, Will.” Will didn’t know what to say to that… but Mike’s optimism was starting to rub off on him which was kind of irritating. For some reason Will just wanted to be angry… and he wasn’t even sure why.

“Well… when did you start listening to me?” Will said, trying to lighten the mood. Mike smiled and nudged himself against Will’s shoulder. There was a brief silence before Mike spoke again.

“Can I ask you a question?” Will’s stomach did a backflip.

“Always.” Will said, trying to sound normal. There was another moment of silence.

“El didn’t commission that painting.” Will’s heart fell into his stomach and he suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe. He knew that his lies were going to catch up with him eventually but he thought he’d have more time.

“I… that wasn’t a question.” Will said, trying to buy himself more time. Mike chuckled, so clearly he couldn’t be too upset with Will, right?

“Okay. Why did you lie about it?” Shit.

“I…” Well, what exactly is he supposed to say? “I mean, does it really matter right now? We definitely have bigger things to worry about.” Will said, standing up from the bed. “Like how the hell we’re going to get home.” He was desperately trying to change the subject. Mike stood up quickly behind him and grabbed Will’s arm, tight.

“Will, please. Don’t run away from me again.” Mike sounded desperate. Those words cut Will deeper than anything he’d ever heard Mike say.

“What do you want me to say?” Asked Will, feeling incredibly exposed.

“The truth.” Mike answered… And Will supposed that was fair enough, he hadn’t been honest with Mike, but how was he supposed to tell him the truth?

“I—“ Suddenly Eddie was running into the room.

“Very sorry to interrupt. I wasn’t able to send the SOS signal and—” He said, a look of terror on his face. “as your undead lookout, there’s a swarm of something coming right at us.”

“What!?” Will cried out.

“Oh… super convenient that the person I can’t see showed up in that moment.” Mike said. Will grabbed Mike’s hand, shutting him up.

“Mike, I’m sorry! We’ll talk later. Eddie just said there’s a swarm of something coming to the house and I’m pretty sure we don’t want to be here when it gets here. We need to grab something to fight with and let’s go!”