they're carving my name (in the grave again) - byler

chapter 1 - the dreams

November 4th, 1986.

Will Byers had never been able to forget the Upside Down. The memories of his terrifying experience there still haunted him, even though it had been a few years since he had last set foot in that dark, twisted world. He tried to forget, but every night he found himself dreaming about the Upside Down, reliving his worst nightmare over and over again.

Tonight, Will's dream was particularly vivid. He found himself wandering through the woods, lost and confused, just like he had been when he was first taken by the Demogorgon. Suddenly, he heard a strange noise behind him. He turned around, and there it was - the dark, twisted, shadowy world of the Upside Down.

Will tried to run, but he couldn't escape. He was back in that nightmare world, surrounded by the same strange creatures and eerie silence that had tormented him before. He tried to scream, but his voice was trapped in his throat. He was paralyzed with fear.

His feet felt like they were glued to the ground. He was trapped, with no way out. A monstrous figure approached him slowly and started to speak in a low voice.

"Will.... It's almost time," The voice said.

Will's eyes snapped open. He was lying in his bed, drenched in sweat, his heart racing in his chest. The room around him was dark and ominous, his bedclothes feeling oppressive and suffocating. He had been having bad dreams - vivid, terrifying nightmares that left him feeling drained and frightened.

As he lay there in the darkness, his mind still racing with images of the horrors he had seen in his sleep, there was a sudden, deafening crash of thunder that shook the entire house. Will jumped into his bed, startled and disoriented.

For a moment, he lay there trembling, too scared to move. But then he heard the sounds of rain tapping against his bedroom window, and he realized that the thunder had woken him up from his nightmare.

Slowly, he pulled himself out of his bed, feeling his way through the darkness until he reached the window. Outside, the storm was raging - lightning flashing across the sky, and rain pouring from the clouds in sheets.

As he watched the storm play out before him, Will felt a sense of relief wash over him. The nightmare was over, at least for now. And as he listened to the sound of the rain tapping against his window, he finally allowed himself to relax and try to drift off back to sleep.

As Will eased his head back onto his pillow, he winced as a sharp pain shot through his temples. He realized that, in addition to the terrifying dreams, his headache had returned with a vengeance. He didn't know what was causing it, but it had been plaguing him for weeks now, making it difficult to focus on anything else.

As he lay in bed, his head pounding, he began to think about the one thing that he couldn't shake from his mind - his feelings for Mike. He had been known for a while now that he was gay. But what made it even more challenging was that he was in love with his best friend, Mike.

Every time he saw Mike, his heart would skip a beat, and he would feel a stirring of desire that he couldn't suppress. They had formed a deep bond over the years, sharing secrets and experiences that they had hardly spoken about with anyone else. But as much as Will cherished their friendship, he couldn't deny that he longed for something more.

To make matters worse, he wasn't sure if Mike felt the same way. Will had tried to drop subtle hints over the past few months, testing the waters to see if his friend would respond, but he could never quite gauge Mike's reaction. Sometimes he thought he saw a flicker of interest in Mike's eyes, a hint of a smile that suggested he was open to something more. But at other times, Mike seemed oblivious, treating Will's advances as nothing more than friendly gestures.