Just Friends - Byler

XVI

"Mikey, do you like my drawing!" Holly waved up a colorful paper.

"Yeah, that's so good Holly! Is it a rainbow?" Mike asked.

"Yes yes yes!" Holly smiled proudly.

"I knew it, you did so good!" Mike smiled at Holly.

Will was busy drawing a picture of a red, three-headed dragon. He sketched the whole thing out with a pencil and lined it with a red crayon.

"What's that?" Mike leaned his body towards Will.

"It's just a sketch of the thessalhydra." Will didn't bother looking up from his sketch.

"God, you still play that?!" Mike spat in disgust.

Will looked up in confusion, "What?"

"I can't believe you still play that pathetic game." Mikes voice was shifting between pitches. "What are you? A baby."

Will had tears forming in his eyes, daring to spill over the waterline at any second. He turned around toward the door, out the garage.

"You can't leave now, it's raining Will..." The voice was distorted and didn't sound anything like Mike anymore.

Will walked out the garage door, the rain was hitting the pavement like bullets pouring loudly, fast, and hard from the sky.

"You can't leave Will...I won't let you." The voice sounded like an out of tune guitar.

Will turned around, no one was there. The voice kept circling around his head, over and over, saying the same things. Will felt like he was going insane, he made a run for it, through the pouring rain. It felt like a million needles tapping his skin as he ran through the rain. Will kept running and the sky got darker.

Mikes street disappeared and formed into a grassy field. It was hard to see what else surrounded him.

"You can't run from me Will." The voice echoed.

"GO AWAY, GO AWAY, GO AWAY!!"

The darkness moved and showed a spot of light, the sky. The sky was grey and red thunder could be seen in the distance. Will continued running, not stopping for anything. He fell down, hitting the ground hard. When he got up, the field was changing.

"WATCH IT, ZOMBIE BOY!"

Will opened his eyes slowly, scared of what would be in front of him. He was home, HIS old home. It didn't really look as he remembered it, more of an old worn out version of his home. The door swung open, a scruffy man stood there, Will knew him as his dad.

"Late again, get inside!" Lonnie hit Will hard on the back.

"What, were you out kissing some other f*g?!" Lonnie chuckled hoarsely.

"No." Will said, remembering this moment in his life. He remembered this horrible memory, he was only 10. "I was with my friends, playing D&D" Wills voice was shifting from younger to now.

"GO TO YOUR ROOM AND DON'T GET OUT!!" Lonnie got closer and yelled in Wills face.

"What did I do?!" He got defensive.

Lonnie glared at his son and smashed his lit cigarette into his hand causing Will to scream in immense pain.

"What did I do!!" Will cried. "WHAT DID I DO?" He cried and screamed until his lips were cracked and his throat was dry.

The lights were flickering and Will could see through his blurry eyes, his house was slowly disappearing but his father stood still.

Will let out one last painful scream and opened his eyes. He was back in Hawkins. Holly was in the corner of the living room crying loudly, covering her face with her hands.
----

"It was like...a trance." Mike talked to the officer.

"Did anyone get hurt?"The officer asked.

"No but-"

"Look kid, he was most likely messing with you. Kids your age like to pull a lot of pranks, we get calls like this all the time." The officer sounded bored and mostly tired.

"He's not like that, this wasn't just some prank!" Mike fought back. "Look at him, do you think if this was a prank he would be that scared!"

"There's really nothing I can do about this, if it happens again, you can call." The officer walked away shaking his head in disappointment and waving for the other officers to leave.

"Something happened, you have to believe me!" Mike called out.

"Look kid, there's nothing we can do without proof." The officer waved off.

"Bullshit!" Mike blurted loudly.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Chief Hopper called out from afar. "Is there a problem over here?" Hopper started walking towards the officer and Mike.

"No." Mike glared at the officer and walked away.

"Look, the kid is saying something happened here and I don't get what we can do about it." Mike heard the officer say to Hopper.

"Okay, everyone go home, I'll work something out." Hopper shouted and all the officers obeyed.

"Hopper come on, you have to believe me that something did happen!" Mike walked up once the other officers left.

"Kid, without proof I can't-"

"Wh-" Mike furrowed his eyebrows.

"But-BUT, I believe you." Hopper finished his sentence, looking over at Will who looked terrified.

•••

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Hopper asked Will.

Will shook his head slowly and continued looking down at his hands.

"That's alright..." Hopper sighed, "would you talk about what happened to you with Mike?"

Will shook his head no again and a tear rolled down his cheek, he was also sweating and bouncing his leg up and down.

"Ok kid, I won't pressure you but you have to talk to someone." Hopper told Will.

"I...can't." Will breathed out. "No one will believe me..."

Hopper sighed again, "listen kid, Mike told me what he saw and I believe him, I want to know what you saw." Hopper persuaded Will into telling him.

"I don't know...everything was changing. It was like, one moment I was in a field and the next thing I knew...I was back home." Will picked at his nails.

Hopper listened intently. "It was like...I was walking through my own memories only, they weren't good memories, they were bad memories."

"I saw...my dad, he was the only thing that stayed though when everything else disappeared." Will continued. "I couldn't even remember half of those memories...which is weird. It's like, they were messed with to be more-scary, I guess." Will spoke in a sort of whisper-tone.

"Now that's a lot..." Hopper was wide eyed, "Mike!!" He called out.

"Hm?" Mike got to the room so quickly it was like he was standing there the entire time.

"Keep an eye on him, and contact me if something goes wrong." Hopper said with a stern expression.

Mike nodded and walked over to Will who was still shaking in the background and sat next to him.

"Hey, you're okay. He won't mess with you again." Mike reassured Will in a voice he only ever used for him specifically.

"You don't know that." Will choked out.

"I won't let him." Mike placed a hand on Wills and looked him in his eyes.

A/N:
POV- Will has so many traumatic memories that Vecna can't choose just one 🤭