Dark Crush (Mike Wheeler x Reader x Will Byers)

Chapter 023

Hopper finally arrived on the Byers property and walked up to the door. It was wide open. He reached out and pushed it open a little more.

"Hello." He called, taking off his hat.

"Leave it open," He heard Joyce say. She came out, wearing a large sweater smoking a cigarette. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I overslept. What the hell's going on? It's freezing." Joyce didn't say anything, only waved at him, urging him to follow. She put out her cigarette before going to Will's room.

"Hey! Knock knock." She opened the door and walked in a little, letting Hopper see Will. "We have a visitor." Will just sat there, in his shorts in the freezing house, with his back to the two.

~**~

"So this thing, this shadow thing. You told your mom that it likes it like this. It likes it cold?" Hopper asked, holding the drawing of the shadow monster in his hand, sitting next to Will with Joyce on the other side. The boy nodded.

"Yeah."

"How do you know that?"

"I just... know." Hopper's eyes once again returned to the picture.

"Does he talk to you?"

"No. It's like... I don't have to think. I just know things now. Things I never did before." Hopper stood up and sat across from Will.

"And what else do you know?"

"It's hard to explain. It's like old memories, in the back of my head only... they're not my memories." Will's eyes were now tearing up and you could hear it in his voice.

"Ok." Hopper said, urging the boy to keep going.

"I mean, I don't think they're old memories at all. They're... they're now memories, happening all at once, now." Joyce sat there, listening to Will with a hand over her mouth. It hurt to see her son so distressed.

"Can you describe these now-memories?" Will could see these blue tunnel like things in his mind. How would he explain those? Rihna... she would know.

"I don't know. It's... it's hard to explain." Joyce finally cut in, feeling like she needed to help or comfort her boy.

"I know it's hard but can you just... can you try? For us?" Hopper's eyes scanned Will's room for a second. When he looked back, Will's eyes were now pooling with tears.

"It's like... they're growing and spreading... killing."

"The memories?" Joyce questioned.

"I don't know..." Will's voice broke as a tear slipped out of his eye and fell down his cheek. "I'm sorry."

"No, no, no. It's ok, sweetie." His mother whispered, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him close. Her eyes met with Hopper and he could see the concerned look on her face. It was a mix of scared, worry, and panic. Her eyes traveled to a drawing on his wall. "Will The Wise" it said on it. "Hey, hey, sweetie. What if you didn't have to use words?"

~**~

Once Will had paper and crayons he didn't waste a second before grabbing a color and just violently scrubbing it on the paper. Hopper and Joyce watched from behind.

"H-he says this girl... named Rihna can help him." Joyce whispered to Hopper.

"Who?"

"He met this girl. From the Upside Down. He says she can help him but now she's back there. His friends agree to this. When I saw him having his last episode... I saw her there. She... she said something then ran off and I haven't seen her since." Joyce explained, still a whisper.

"Where did she go?"

"His friend, (Y/N) says she went back into the Upside Down. Where she's originally from. Will says this girl protected him from that monster."

"Then how did it get to him?"

"She was here with us when Will went back into the Upside Down. Those... episodes were real and when he went back in... she wasn't there. So it... it must've attacked him."

"You went to look for her?"

"Yeah, earlier today... but we couldn't find her."

~**~

Will was still violently coloring in the papers and once he was done with a paper, he would throw it off to the side, until they piled up. Joyce picked some up and went into the living room, where she and Hopper were trying to figure out what was going on.

"It's more of the same." She sighed, sitting next to him.

"Oh, it's nothing. It's just scribbles." He stated. As he flipped a page to look at the others, Joyce stopped him.

"Wait."

"Wait what?"

"Wait. These black lines... see?"

"What?" Hopper was still confused about what Joyce was talking about.

"Look they connect." She said, holding on paper over the other. "They connect." She repeated. Hopper moved back the table with the TV to create some room for them on the floor. They then threw all the papers on to the ground and started to tape them together, connecting all the drawings and pictures. Once they were done, they covered the whole floor, all the way up to the couch.

"Does this mean anything to you?" Hopper asked.

"No." Joyce breathed out. "I mean, is it some sort of maze or a road? I-I mean it's sort of forking and branching like... like lightning."

"You think it's that storm?" Hopper asked, moving around, stepping over the pictures.

"No, the storm he drew was was completely different. He used red. And this is all blue and it has some weird dirt color. I mean, maybe it's roots. Cuz remember he was saying it was spreading-"

"Killing." Hopper cut her off. "He said they were killing. Vines." Hopper grabbed his jacket and put on his hat. "He's drawing vines." He opened the door but saw Lucas, Dustin, Mike, and (Y/N) standing there. The girl looked at Joyce.

"We need to tell my sister. Sh-she could help find Rihna."