Byler- The Unwanted Return of Everything (And How It Finally Ends)

The Brother

Notes- TW for talk of death

Dustin waved from the living room when Mike and Will got to the house. "Hey, you two!" He raised an eyebrow. "Where's Brad?"

Mike and Will exchanged looks. What an untimely question.

"Is everyone here?" Will asked seriously. "We... have to give an update on our situation."

Dustin nodded. "Uh... yeah. Everyone's here in the living room. Is something wrong?" He frowned as the two made their way into the room and sat down on a couch together. He had no idea what they were about to say.

Will exhaled. He wondered how people were even going to take this. He doubted they'd care too much since they'd hardly known Brad. "Brad was killed by the demogorgon last night."

Everyone murmured and gasped, looking at each other to find similar reactions.

Jonathan looked angry, almost. "He... he what?" He gripped the edges of his seat, squeezing his fingers into the cushion.

Will sighed, recalling the memory. "It was very unexpected. The demogorgon came out of nowhere. We called the police and these government official guys said they'd take the whole investigation from there."

Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Government officials? How'd they figure out about all this so quickly?"

Mike shrugged. "They just showed up and told us not to talk about Brad or his death to anyone." He laughed slightly. "Obviously, we're very good at following orders." Will wondered how Mike was making jokes about it.

Jane was looking at the floor. She got up slowly and walked over to the couch where Mike and Will were sitting. She bent down and gave Will a hug. "I'm sorry that happened," she said quietly. "Are you okay? Do you need anything? That must've been horrible."

Will returned the hug. Jane gave a pretty good hug every once in a while. It made him feel a little better about everything. "I'm fine, Jane. Thank you." He was lucky to have such a thoughtful sister. Both his siblings were the best.

Lucas frowned from across the room. "Are you sure? If I lost Max– which I did– I'd be in a pretty bad spot. I was in a pretty bad spot. Are you sure you don't need to talk about anything?"

Will gave him a smile. "Really... I think I'm fine." He wasn't sure how to feel about Brad's death. Being happy about it seemed horrible, no matter how bad of a person he was. But feeling sad felt wrong too. More than anything, it was confusing.

Will looked around the room as Mike gave off some more details. He spotted Jonathan, who seemed to be taking the news worse than everyone else. He looked red in the face, like he was angry at Brad for dying. Will wondered what was up with him. He decided to check up on him later, maybe in private.

"Wow," said Max, bringing Will back into the conversation. "That's horrible. I'm so sorry, Will."

Mike crossed his legs, leaning back with an oblivious carelessness "Mmm... it's not that bad when you think about it." That turned some heads.

Jane crossed her arms, looking defensive. "It's not bad that Brad was killed? What do you mean, Mike?" Will hoped Mike wasn't going where he thought he was going. He didn't want to talk about... that.

"Well, it's bad that someone died, but maybe it's good Brad's gone-"

"What the hell, Mike? That's so insensitive. Will's right there. He's probably devastated," Lucas accused.

Mike shook his head. "No, Lucas. I was right. Brad was actually a really bad person. You know what he was gonna do before he died?"

Will sat up. " Mike," he said quietly. Mike didn't seem to hear him.