LACUNA | WILL BYERS ¹ ✔

The Upside Down - [Pt.3 - FINAL PART]

-One month later-

We were all gathered up in Mike's glorious basement, playing D&D.

"Something in coming. Something angry. Hungry for your blood. It is almost here."

"What is it?" Will asked.

"It's the thessalhydra, I'm telling you." Dustin said.

"It's not the thessalhydra," Lucas said.

"And you know that how?" I asked.

"My guts," Lucas answered.

"I'm telling you, it's the thessalhydra!" Dustin argued.

"The thessalhydra!" Mike announced, slamming the piece onto the table.

"What does that gut of yours say now, Lucas?" I teased. He smacked my arm playfully.

"Damn it," Dustin said.

"It roars in anger!" Mike yelled. "Will, your action!"

"What should I do, I--"

"Fireball him!" Lucas said.

Dustin surprisingly didn't argue with Lucas. Instead, he said: "Fireball the son of a bitch." He smirked.

Will had the cutest grin on his face and grabbed the dice.

He rolled them and...

"FOURTEEN!!" Everyone yelled.

We all started screaming in joy.

"Direct hit, Will the Wise's fireball hits the thessalhydra. It makes a painful..." He started imitating a screech and rolled up and onto the floor. "And the... it crumbles to the ground. It's clawed hand reaches for you one last time, and, and, and..." He imitated a death.

We all started cheering and whooping and stood up and danced. Mike continued. "Lucas cuts off its seven heads, and Dustin places them into his bag of holding. You carry the heads out of the dungeon, victorious, and you present them to King Tristan. He thanks you for your bravery and service--"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's not it, is it?" Dustin said, surprised.

"No, there's a medal ceremony--"

"Oh, a medal ceremony? What are you talking about?" Dustin asked, shouting.

"And--"

"The campaign was way too short." Lucas said.

"Yeah!" Will said.

"It really was..." I said.

"It was ten hours!" Mike said.

"But it doesn't make any sense!" Dustin said.

"It makes sense," Mike defended.

"Uh, no, what about the lost knight?" Dustin asked.

"And the proud princess?" Lucas asked.

"And those weird flowers in the cave?" Will asked.

"Mike has a point though..." I said. "We started at noon, it's ten now!" I said.

"But it was short for a campaign!" Will said.

"I don't know, it's--"

Suddenly Jonathan walked in.

"Jeez, what's that smell? Have you guys been playing games all day, or just farting?"

Everyone chuckled. "Oh, that's just Dustin. He farted." He said, and Dustin's expression dropped immediately. He blew raspberries. "Dustin farted!"

"Okay," Dustin said, clearly annoyed.

"Dustin farted!"

"Very mature, Lucas." Dustin said.

"Will," Jonathan said.

"Shut up!" Dustin yelled.

"Bye guys!" Will said.

"Bye Will!" Everyone else said.

"See you, Will," Mike said.

Then Lucas and Dustin got into some sort of play fight, but what caught my attention is that Mike was looking over at El's old fort.

"Hey," I said, getting his attention, putting my hand on his shoulder. "She may be gone now, but she was a great friend while she lasted." I smiled, and he gave me a weak smile in return.

"I guess..." He said, quietly and weakly.

"And you're not escaping the fact that I saw you making a move--"

"So when are you gonna tell Will?" He said, grinning, eagerly changing the subject.

"Hey! I wasn't done talking!" I said playfully. I got a small smile in return. "Seriously, though. El was a great friend while she lasted."

He made a small, weak smile again.

"Well, I gotta go, it's late." I said. I waved to all the boys and left.

I went upstairs, and said goodbye to Nancy, Mr. Wheeler, Steve, and Mrs. Wheeler

But then I got to thinking.

When should I tell Will?

Would I ever tell him?

Would it ruin our good friendship we have going on?

Would he dump me as a friend?

I started biking home.

As I rode to my house I felt a pang of dizziness.

Then my skin started crawling.

Then I started feeling pain in my body.

I kept biking and then it's like these things kept flickering on and off, as if something inside my body was turning on.

What the hell?

What's happening to me?