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

The Search

If there was one thing that was more surreal than the Upside Down, it was dark, empty schools. Mike, Lucas, and Dustin had decided to split up and cover more ground once they got into the middle school. Dustin had argued that it sounded like a dumb horror movie plan, but Mike was pretty sure everyone would fair alright on their own.

He walked down a hallway where he had his sixth-grade science class, running his hand along the lockers until he found his own. He looked at it for a moment, in its short, gray brilliance, and laughed. There was still a dent from when Lucas once threw a rock at it. There was still a scratch from Will had attempted to etch his name, giving up after a minute of work on the first letter.

Mike walked further down the deserted hallway, leaving his locker behind. He called out for Will, although it was probably useless. A flash of lightning made the hall bright for a moment, light filtering in through a window above the lockers. It made Mike jump and instinctively hit his arm on the wall to his right. He shook his hand out and continued.

Guess it's really storming now. It had been raining pretty hard before, but thunder and lightning had only started now. It made all the more reason to find Will very quickly. Even if the Mind Flayer liked it cold, Will was probably shivering. Mike wished he'd brought an extra coat or something to give him once they found him, but he decided he'd just have to use his own. He didn't need it anyway.

The empty halls were strange. It was a middle school. Mike always remembered this place being bright and packed with kids. Now it held only the patter of rain and ghosts created by the changes in light playing tricks on Mike's eyes. He wanted to find his friends again and get out of there. He was pretty sure they would have found the Mind Flayer by now if he was here.

" Then leave."

Mike jumped again. The thought had just come into his head without him even thinking about it. It was different than a normal thought, something was communicating with him. The Mind Flayer.

"Where are you?" he said aloud, looking around him for the source of the voice.

" Not here," it responded. " Leave. Don't you want to go quickly?"

"Where are you?" Mike tried again. "Tell me, if you want us to find you that bad."

"I think you'll find me easily enough. I'm in a place you can't tell if you hate."

Mike thought, upset with the riddles that the Mind Flayer was providing him instead of answers. Couldn't it just tell him where to go? Mike didn't know what 'a place he couldn't tell if he hated' was. He wasn't very conflicted about any Hawkins locations.

"I'd go fast if I were you. I'm not really sure how Will is holding out... especially in this weather." There was an ugly noise in Mike's head, making him grab at his hair. It was as if the Mind Flayer was trying to laugh, but it was just wrong. It made Mike's brain hurt in a way he couldn't explain.

The noise finally stopped and Mike collected himself. He didn't take a moment to process his conversation with the Mind Flayer. He ran down the hallway, calling for Dustin and Lucas. They needed to get going immediately if the Mind Flayer was telling the truth. If something happened to Will, Mike didn't know what he was going to do, but he didn't want to find out either.

He found Lucas first, running to him from an adjacent hallway. "What is it?" he asked in an urgent tone. "Is something wrong?"

"We have to go," said Mike. "Right now. Where's Dustin?"

Lucas sighed. "Agh, I just saw him, really. He went down the hallway I just came from." He pointed back to where Mike had seen him running from.

Mike took off down the hallway, ignoring Lucas yelling questions from behind him. He turned another corner and found himself face-to-face with his second friend.