One and Only (Byler)

Vecna's Curse

Mike ran up to Will, grabbing him by the shoulders, and shaking his limp body, but he found himself staring into the whites of his eyes, because he was too deep within Vecna's curse, and it was far too late.  "Will! Will, can you hear me? Will please, I'm sorry, come back to me, wake up, you can't leave me, not now, he can't have you already, I won't let him-"

Max, followed by the rest of the party, ran after Mike, standing behind him.  "He's not...?"  Mike suddenly brought himself back to reality, jutting his head up. "Music." Dustin squinted at him, clearly confused, and uncontrollably panicked. "You're not making any sense, Wheeler-"
"Music! It got Max out of Vecna's curse that one time, so why don't we try it now?" Mike exclaimed, sounding slightly incredulous. He turned to Lucas, his hair clinging to his head in wet patches.

"Will left his cassette player in the driveway of my house-" Lucas nodded, and, still looking as if he was seconds away from dropping dead, ran off in the direction of Mike's house. El shoved Max and Dustin out of the way, her hand flying to her mouth when she saw Will. "What happened-" she began, her voice trailing off. She reached towards Will, but Mike placed a protective hand on him, pulling him away from her touch. "Don't-"

Will's body gave a brief jerk, and he slipped, his eyes still white and unseeing, out of Mike's hold, and lifted up into the air, his feet hovering several feet above the ground. Lucas showed up, panting and sweating, with Will's cassette player in one hand, and his headphones in the other. "Holy shit-"
Mike snatched the items out of his hands, his hands trembling, and reached up to where Will was suspended, hesitating slightly. "His favourite song hasn't changed, right?"

Dustin shook his hands compulsively, glaring at Mike. "You don't know what his favourite song is? This is not the fucking time to forget about your best friend, Wheeler!" Mike closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "We haven't been that close lately- you know what? Fuck it, I know what it is." He connected Will's headphones to his cassette player, knowing that, if he was wrong, he'd never see Will again.

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Vecna gazed through the window portal that looked over the real world, turning around to stare at Will with a grotesque smile on his face. "Wow, that little boyfriend of yours is really getting himself all riled up, isn't he? Is he always like this, or is only when you're in danger?" Will struggled against the tentacle-like ropes that bonded him to the Creel house, watching as his friends scuttled around him, shouting things he couldn't hear.

The tentacles curling around Will's neck became tighter, and he felt himself slipping out of consciousness, feeling himself losing what little breath he had in his lungs. Will's eyes rolled back, and he felt hot tears slide down his face as he listened to Mike's desperate voice telling him wake up, Mike's familiar voice telling him he was sorry, and at that moment he knew he was going to die in the upside down, die knowing that the last words he had said to his best friend was that he  'wished he had never met him'.

Vecna stepped closer to Will, tracing his razor like finger down the side of his face, with that same disturbing smile on his face.  "Do not cry, William, it will all be over soon, but I want your friends to watch your demise. I have tried so hard to kill you, all these years, watching, waiting for your downfall, hoping that you would be dead before your thirteenth birthday, but you've always had others there to help you, to defend you, but tonight, you stand alone, and it will be tonight that you bow to death."

He held his clawed hand above Will's head, turning his head towards the window portal, and then back at Will.  "Time to die, William Byers."  Vecna released the ropes that bound him, and lifted him into the air, inclining his head towards Will in a passive manner, and snapping the bone his left leg with a sickening crack. This really was the end, wasn't it? For a brief moment, Will had a sense of relief. It would all be over soon, and then he would be at peace, dead, never to suffer again.