"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
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Chapter Eighty-Nine: Two Days Later
(The Piggyback, Pt. 9)
***
' Dear Al,
I have so much I want to say, about you, how much you mean to me, but I don't have much time, and if I did, this would be, like, twenty pages long or so. So, I'm just... I'm gonna say the important stuff.
When I first met you, I will admit I didn't like you. You stalked me at school—and honestly, if you wanted to know if I was the one who beat Dustin at Dig Dug, you could have asked instead of stalking me, you know. Not that hard. But when you invited me to come trick and treating and I got to know you better, I... I began to like you. You were nice, if a bit dorky and a dumbass, and I could see how much you loved Rowan when you talked about her. And even when you were hot and cold, I didn't know if I truly didn't like you, because you being an asshole didn't line up with how you were such a dork on Halloween, how you apologised and offered me a ride home, and when you and Lucas told me and Cami about the Upside Down, how serious you were and that had me think that maybe you were telling the truth, even if I was skeptical. Shows how much I know when I saw those monsters and you and Rowan use your powers for the first time.
But I won't lie, when I saw that dead wolf, when you felt everyone in Hawkins Lab dying... I was scared. I was scared, and I hated myself for being scared, because you were still Al. You were still that dumbass of a dork I'd met, that in that car ride, I felt... I felt like we could be really good friends. That you'd become the brother I wished I had, like Rowan is the sister I wished I had, that you, Rowan and Aco... are the family I wished I had. And I... I almost lost you.
When the Mind Flayer... when it killed you and Billy, I was scared. I was so fucking scared because I thought I lost both of you in that night, and I had just... stood there, and watched, instead of rushing in and pulling you away. And even though you came back, I wish I could have still pulled you away, I wish I could have saved you just like I wish I could have saved Billy, like you saved El's life and my life. But that isn't what happened, and I'm happy that you came back, that you're not dead and I didn't lose you and that... that I'm not gonna lose my brother again.
Because you are—you're my brother, Al. It doesn't matter we're not related, you are my brother. You and Rowan are my siblings, the siblings I wished I had and I'm glad I got to have with you, that you guys and Aco are the family I... I always wanted to have. That... that I could have it with you guys. And I'm so happy—and grateful—that I did.
I hope Rowan finds a way to break this curse, I really, desperately hope she does, but I know it isn't possible—I think we both know it might be too late for me, if she did. I can feel that asshole's curse, I can hear that stupid clock. I don't know how much longer I have, or if I will be dead when she and Nancy, Robin and Valerie come back or when you read this letter, if I have the chance to live long enough to say goodbye, but if I can't, I'll say it here.
