I, Will Byers, Am Not a Victim

Chapter 09: Past Trauma

"Hey Jon, can I ask you about something?" I ask as he walks in the door.

"What's wrong buddy," he responds with a concerned look on his face. Like Mike, he can read me like a book, and he instantly knew that something was wrong. I hated to bother him after everything that happened so recently, but I was going to drive myself crazy if I didn't get answers.

"Did something happen to me when I was little? Something horrible?" I ask.

"Not that I know of, " Jonathan lied. He might be able to notice when I'm lying, but I can tell when he's lying too.

"Jonathan,please. I know something happened. I noticed my pictures missing from the photo album. I keep having these dreams about a young child being carried away. I thought it was another brother of mine, but now I see that it is me. This can't be a coincidence, and Mom isn't telling me anything," I say back to him with distress in my voice. I know hecan tell when that I'm serious about this.

Jonathan sighed as he sat down next to me. "I don't know everything. Mom kept me in the dark, but I'll tell you what I do know. When you were three, you had a bad cough, so Mom took you to the doctor, but thiswasn't an ordinary visit. When she came home, she was more distressed than she was before, saying that there's no way she'd let 'them' take her baby away."

"Them?"I ask.

"She wouldn't tell me who 'they' were, and I couldn't get her to talk tome about any of it. Anyway, the following week, you had another appointment and then I didn't see you any more. She claimed that youhad to go to the hospital for a while, and you didn't know when we'd see you again. I asked to visit you, but she would always say no, and she never gave me any details as to what was wrong with you. I tried to figure it out myself, but I was only 6. After about a year, you came home, and there didn't seem to be anything wrong with you. Mom made me promise to never tell you any of this, so don't tell her I told you."

"Do you have any idea what happened?" I asked.

"Not really," he responded. "None of what happened in that year made any sense. Mom has always been open with us, and it's not like her to hide something. Since you seemed to be your normal, happy self after coming home, we all figured it would be best if we left that behind us."

"Oh."I responded.

"Hey, don't worry. We got you back, didn't we? It might be more painful bringing this stuff up," he suggested. "Maybe you forgot about for a reason."

"But, what about these dreams? How can I be having those dreams if I don't remember anything?" I ask.

"They will pass. Sometimes, our dreams don't mean anything. Go out and enjoy yourself, you deserve it after everything that happened," he responded.

"I guess you're right," I reply with a sigh. I turned the walkie talkie on, contacting Mike.

"Hey Mike, it's Will. Do you copy? Over." There was no response. He was probably away from it, or couldn't hear it over the loud arcade sounds.

"Hey, Mike, it's Will. Do you copy? Over." I say again.

"Will?" Mike responds. "Are you okay? What's wrong? Over."

"Yeah, I think I'm okay," I respond. "Sorry for ditching you earlier. I can come out now, if you still want to see me. Over."

"Of course. Come on over!" Mike responded enthusiastically.