𝗙𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗲 ❦ | 𝗕𝘆𝗹𝗲𝗿

★

EVERYONE was gathered in the Byers' living room as Mike explained to them what was going on, Will sort of spacing out. His eyes felt heavy and tired from lack of sleep and the amount of crying he's done today. He was listening, just not very intently.

"So, what's our game plan?" Nancy had asked after her brother had finished explaining. Everyone looked around at each other. "I know for Will we have him listen to music, but what about everything else? We can't just let this keep happening, I mean..." The room was silent.

"If no one has any better ideas, I think right now our main focus should be on Will. We don't need to take any risks with him like we did with Max, it's too dangerous and we can't lose anyone else..." Dustin said, his tone filled with obvious sadness.

"Max wouldn't have gotten hurt if Jason had never showed up." Lucas pointed out, guilt covered his face even though what happened wasn't his fault. "If we did take another risk with Will, we could pull it off if no one got in the way."

"Even if we do that, what's the point? Vecna's not dead, he's just badly injured. Which means, we need to do something different in order to actually kill him, since what we did, didn't quite do that." Robin rambled on, very much panicked. All of a sudden, Nancy had a look of realization on her face.

"Well, do you think that if we did like last time and weakened him, El could kill him while he's weak?" She suggested.

"Maybe, but it would be a huge risk. I'm sure he'll be more on guard after what happened last time." El answered, unsure if it would actually work. Nancy bit her lips as she thought some more, thinking out more details for this plan. Will glanced over at Mike for a moment, noticing that he was looking back at him, his mouth open like he wanted to say something.

      "Even if that does work, why do we have to put Will in danger? I don't recall him ever agreeing to this plan of endangering himself! Plus, we don't even know when to attack since we don't know when Vecna will attack him! I'm sure he's not gonna fall for another trap like this." Mike shouted as he finally opened his mouth to say what he wanted to say. Will was quite surprised, honestly. Why was Mike getting so upset and defensive over this?

      Before Will could give any of his options on this plan, he had heard Mike speak once again. "You know what, actually? I don't really care what happens to him anyways. A liar like him doesn't deserve my care."

      "Mike? What do you mean?" Will confusedly asked, wondering where the sudden change in behavior came from. Mike scoffed and crossed his arms.

      "As if you don't know what I'm talking about," Mike's expression grew angrier by the second. "You lied to me about that stupid painting you made. El didn't commission it, you made it from your own idea, on your own time. Yet, you still decided to lie to me about it. I wonder why?"

      "Mike I can explain, I-" Will attempted to explain why he had lied before getting cut off by the other boy.

      "No, you don't need to. I already know why you lied," Mike started, his face changing from anger to more of a smug look. "It's because you know I don't love you back, and you know how much of a freak you are. If I thought you had made it, I would have known how much of a freak you are." Will started to tear up. Why was Mike saying all of this? Especially in front of everyone?

      "I'm not queer like you are, Will. Even if I was, I could never love a mistake like you." Mike spat out the words like they were poison, leaving Will in utter despair. He knew all of what he was saying was true, but it still hurt to actually hear it from him.

      "Mike..." Will silently muttered out, beginning to cry at the hurtful words being thrown at him.

      "Will!" He heard someone shouting his name as he came back into reality. It startled him as he looked around, his breath hitched and fast as his heart rate went even faster. Everyone was looking at him completely worried as he realized all of that must've been another vision.

      "Well, Mike, it seems that we got our answer as to when he'll attack Will," Nancy started as she looked between Mike and Will. "He's gotten two visions within an hour, so Vecna's attacking soon. So far, our best bet is my plan."

      "I agree," Will finally spoke up, still in a dazed like state after that vision. "I can be the distraction, and as long as there's someone there to play music, I should be fine." He continued, hoping that this was the plan they were going with.

      "Then it's settled, we'll rework what we did last time and get it right this time." Nancy said, signaling for everyone to get to work with establishing more depth to their newfound plan. They split everyone up into groups of who was staying with Will, who would be the signal to those in the Upside Down, and the people actually going into the Upside Down. Now all there was to do was wait and hope that everything worked out.