END OF BEGINNING- a byler fanfiction/ stranger things s5

Lover, You Should've Come Over

Summary: Will and Mike Make A Plan

a/n: There will be some time skips because I don't want to be making up entire plots because I'm not the duffers. This is based solely on byler and its evolution.

Word Count: 1041

Taking a break from El was weird, especially since I practically lived in the same house as her. It had been a week since our 'break' started and since Mrs Byers and Hopper went away to Alaska. 

El and I had been cordial, saying 'hi' when we saw each other but never more. It was...weird. And I didn't know what had brought it on. I had talked to Will about it but he usually just shrugged or said he didn't know. Will was usually so good with advice, I didn't know what was going on with him. Maybe even Will The Wise couldn't figure out the mystery of girls. 

I was in the kitchen getting Cokes for me and Will (we had been mostly playing Atari all week), when the doorbell rang. 

"Oh, hey Dustin. Long time no see man."

"Hey Mike. Is El here?" Dustin was breathing kind of heavy, like he had biked all the way across town at top speed.

"I think-but-"

"Great, I really need her right now. Where is she?" Dustin pushed past me and looked around as if she was hiding under a table or behind the fridge or something.

"She's-"

"Here." El had appeared at the bottom of the stairs soundlessly. "What's going on?" 

"El, thank God. We need your help. It's Max." The mood immediately shifted at the mention of Max.

"What happened?" El asked. 

"I can't talk about it here. We need to go. Now." Dustin was already halfway out the door, El following after. I made to go with them put Dustin stopped me.

"Sorry Mike. Nancy said to only get El."

"Nancy? What does Nancy have to do with this?"

"I would tell you more, but I can't right now. There isn't time. I think it's better if you sit out for this one anyway."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Dustin." El said with urgency, anxious to go help her friend. Dustin looked back at me apologetically. 

"You just had an encounter with Vecna. Who knows what that could mean? He could be spying through you or anything, we don't know. We can't risk compromise. It's for the good of the party Mike. I'm sorry, really." 

Dustin and El were gone then, before I could say anything in my defence. Great. 

"Was that Dustin?" Will had appeared behind me. How did they do that?

"Yeah. He left with El."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Some top secret mission to do with Max. Apparently, I would compromise them if I knew anything about it."

"That's weird."

"I know."

"No, I mean, I had a dream about her last night. Max."

"Uh, okay..." I really didn't want to hear about this. 

"No, Mike, it was a weird dream, like those now-memories I had when the Mind Flayer possessed me or whatever. Max, she was alive and she was awake, but she wasn't...normal. She was in the woods, with all of these...monsters."

"Monsters?"

"Yeah. There were so many of them. Some I recognised, like the demogorgon and the demodogs. They were all standing around Max, but they weren't attacking, they were just standing there, watching. She was holding this sword...I don't know."

"Will, this could be important. Do you remember anything else?"

"Yeah. I can show you. Come with me." 

Will went upstairs and I followed after. We went to his room where he started rifling around for something. He seemed to find it when he stopped, holding a few sheets of paper. 

"I drew it afterwards. Look." Will laid the drawings out on the ground, where we both leaned down to look. There were four incredibly detailed drawings. "This one here, they're the demodogs. They're kind of different to the ones we've seen before, I noticed. They're kind of black more than green."

"Didn't Hopper say the Demogorgon in Russia was white?"

"Maybe." I pointed to the one beside the one of the demodogs, with some kind of other blobby beast that looked vaguely familiar. "What's that one?"

"I don't know. I just remembered feeling like I'd seen it before. It kind of, almost looks like-"

"The thessalhydra?"

"Yes, exactly. Vecna doesn't have those though, does he?" I shrug. Anything was possible. Will points to the next picture. "Anyway, this is-"

"Max." It was uncanny. Her fiery hair flew out in tendrils around her, and her blue eyes were wide open as she stood in the centre of the page. She was still wearing her hospital clothes in the picture.

Wait. Upon a second look over, I saw there was something strange about Max's eyes. They weren't blue like they should've been. They were red.

"Her eyes. Was that-?"

"That was how I saw them in the dream." 

Not wanting to look any more at the suddenly eerie picture,  I moved on to the last one. "And this? This is the sword?"

"Yeah." Will was quiet for a moment before saying: "There was something else...The opening in woods, it was familiar. Not just familiar, I knew exactly where it was. I remember before I got taken into the Upside Down, I fell off my bike. And that place, that wasn't far from it." 

I stared at Will long and hard, forgetting for a moment to be nonchalant. Will stared back. "We should go there."

"What?"

"To the woods. Will, if this vision is real, if it was put there by Vecna, maybe it means something. Maybe- maybe he's trying to tell you something."

"What if it's a trap?" 

"Then we come prepared." As far as I was concerned, we couldn't not go. We had to go. "We can't just laze around here and do nothing, when he's out there alive and scheming to end the world. We have to do something, anything. I promised you that we were going to stop him, and so we're going to. We have to."

"Okay. We'll go. But what about Murray?"

"You mean our babysitter? He's at karate, five to seven every Saturday. If we hurry, we'll be back before he even notices we're gone."

We packed up flashlights, pocket knifes, water bottles, a mini first aid kit with bandages and shit, Will's drawings for reference and a Walkman in case either of us got Vecna'd. Then we set out exploring. 

***