Chapter Text
Prologue
Will was dead.
The thought slammed into Mike's head the moment he saw Joyce's face. Not scared, not hopeful, not determined, Broken. Completely broken. and suddenly the hope he'd been carrying around for days felt fragile.
Hopper looked exhausted. Mud stained his clothes, dark circles sat beneath his eyes, and for the first time since all of this started, he looked like a man who didn't have any answers left to give. The room was silent except for Joyce's uneven breathing. Mike sat forward in his chair, waiting for Hopper to tell them where Will was. Waiting for him to explain how they were going to bring him home.
Instead, Hopper told them what they found. After talking to Eleven and following what she told them she saw, they had searched again. They went through the woods, followed every lead they had, and eventually made their way to Castle Byers.
Will's castle.
His hideout.
His safe place.
Except when they got there, it was gone. The fort had been destroyed. Boards ripped apart, the roof caved in, supplies scattered everywhere as if something had torn through it. Mike's stomach dropped. But that didn't mean anything, Will wasn't there. That was all. He wasn't there.
Hopper kept talking.
They searched the area around the fort. They searched for hours, then they found blood.
A lot of blood.
Mike felt his chest tighten.
Joyce made a horrible sound beside Hopper. The kind of sound that didn't even sound human anymore. Then Hopper told them about the vest, Will's vest. The one he'd been wearing the day he disappeared and then the backpack. Found hanging from a tree branch above the ground.
Mike stared at him.
Waiting.
Waiting for the rest.
Waiting for the part where they found Will.
But it never came, because there wasn't any more.
Just blood.
A vest.
A backpack.
And nothing else.
Will was dead.
The thought crashed through his mind.
Will was dead.
No, No, he wasn't, he couldn't be.
Will was dead.
Mike's breathing became uneven.
Will was dead.
No.
No.
No.
Eleven saw him.
She found him.
She knew he was alive.
Will was dead.
The words wouldn't stop. They pounded against his skull over and over and over until he wanted to scream. "He's not dead." His voice barely sounded like his own. Hopper looked at him sadly. That look alone nearly shattered him, because Hopper looked like he believed it. Joyce looked like she believed it. Everyone looked like they believed it and Mike hated them for it.
Not really hated.
But hated that they were accepting it.
Hated that they were letting themselves believe it.
"He's not dead."
His voice was louder now.
More desperate.
More frantic.
Tears burned behind his eyes.
"You didn't find him."
Nobody answered.
"You found his stuff."
His hands were shaking.
"You found blood."
Will was dead.
The thought came back again.
Louder.
Crueler.
Will was dead.
Will was dead.
Will was dead.
Mike shook his head hard enough to hurt.
"No."
His voice cracked.
"No."
Joyce was crying openly now.
Jonathan had his arm around her shoulders.
Hopper stepped forward slightly, trying to calm him, trying to explain that they searched everywhere they could. But Mike couldn't hear him.
Will was dead.
Will was dead.
Will was dead.
The words drowned everything else out. His best friend was dead. The boy who sat beside him during D&D campaigns, the boy who laughed at his stupid jokes, the boy who always understood him.
Dead.
Gone.
Never coming back.
"No!"
The word ripped from his throat before he could stop it.
Everyone flinched.
Mike was crying now.
Actually crying.
Tears streamed down his face faster than he could wipe them away. "He's alive."
His voice broke completely.
"He has to be."
Will was dead.
No.
No.
No.
"He has to be."
The room felt too small, the walls felt like they were closing in around him. Everyone was looking at him with pity, with sadness. With that horrible look people gave someone when they knew something terrible before they did. Mike couldn't stand it. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
Will was dead.
The thought chased him all the way out the door. It followed him onto his bike. Followed him down every street. Followed him through every red light and every turn.
Will was dead.
The wind stung his face.
Will was dead.
His hands gripped the handlebars so tightly they hurt.
Will was dead.
His vision blurred with tears.
Will was dead.
Will was dead.
Will was dead.
By the time he got home, he was barely holding himself together. His mother said something when he burst through the front door. He didn't hear her or maybe he did.
He just couldn't care.
Will was dead.
He ran upstairs.
Will is dead.
He slammed his bedroom door.
Will is dead.
He collapsed onto the floor and finally, completely, utterly broke. The sob that escaped him felt like it tore straight through his chest. His entire body shook.
Will is dead.
He buried his face in his arms and cried harder than he ever had before.
Will is dead.
Eleven was gone.
Will is dead.
Everything hurt.
Will is dead.
Nothing felt real anymore.
Will is dead.
Will is dead.
Will is dead.
The words followed him until exhaustion finally dragged him under hours later, tears still wet on his cheeks, his chest aching, his heart refusing to accept what everyone else already seemed to know.
Will is dead.
And somehow that was the one thing Mike still couldn't believe.
~~~
The next day felt like a nightmare Mike couldn't wake up from. He barely slept. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Will's vest hanging from a tree. He saw Joyce crying. He heard Hopper's voice explaining what they found.
Will is dead.
The thought had followed him into his dreams and was still sitting heavy in his chest when a knock at the door pulled him downstairs the next morning.
The FBI.
Mike recognized the suits immediately.
His stomach twisted.
They sat at the Wheeler dining room table looking completely out of place in their pressed jackets and polished shoes. Karen sat nearby, clearly uncomfortable, while Ted hid behind a newspaper pretending none of this was happening. One of the agents offered Mike a smile that felt fake. "Michael, thank you for speaking with us." Mike didn't answer.
The agent exchanged a glance with his partner before continuing. "We just have a few questions." Mike stared at the table. The first agent opened a notebook. "You were friends with William Byers?" Mike's jaw tightened. "Yeah."
"How close would you say you were?" Mike looked up. "What kind of question is that? He is my best friend." The agent ignored the tone. "Were you with him the day he disappeared?" "Yes." "When was the last time you saw him?" Mike answered mechanically. The questions kept coming. The same questions he'd already answered a hundred times.
About Will.
About the boys.
About that night.
Then they shifted.
"Let's talk about Eleven." Mike immediately froze. The agents noticed, one leaned forward. "We know she was staying with you." Still nothing. "Michael, this is important." Mike looked away. The agent sighed dramatically like he was dealing with a difficult toddler. "Listen, son. We know you've been through a lot."
Son.
Mike hated when they called him that.
"We're trying to help."
Help.
The word made him want to laugh.
The other agent joined in. "If you know where she is, you need to tell us." Mike's hands clenched beneath the table. "We can protect her."
Protect her.
Like they'd protected Will?
Like they'd protected anyone?
The first agent softened his voice.
The fake sympathetic voice adults used when they thought kids were stupid.
"Michael, sometimes children don't understand the seriousness of a situation." Mike stared at him. "We're the adults here." His eye twitched. "If you tell us what you know, we can handle it." Something inside Mike snapped.
The agents kept talking.
Explaining.
Lecturing.
Talking down to him.
Like he was five years old.
Like he didn't understand.
Like he hadn't spent the last week watching his life fall apart.
"If you continue withholding information—"
"Withholding information?" The words exploded out of Mike.
The room fell silent.
Both agents blinked.
Mike shot to his feet.
His chair slammed into the floor behind him. "You're accusing me now?"
"Michael—"
"No!"
His voice cracked through the room. Weeks of fear and grief came pouring out all at once. "You don't get to come into my house and act like I'm the problem!"
Karen immediately stood.
"Mike—"
"No, Mom!"
The agents exchanged another look.
That only made him angrier.
Will is dead.
And they were sitting here asking questions.
Will is dead.
And they were treating him like some stupid kid. "You wanna know where Eleven is?" Mike laughed bitterly. "I don't know!" His eyes burned. "You people took her!" The agents' expressions hardened.
"Michael—"
"Shut up!" Mike yelled.
Karen gasped.
Ted finally lowered his newspaper.
Mike barely noticed. "You keep saying you're trying to help." His voice shook violently. "But everywhere you go people get hurt!"
The agents stood.
"Michael, calm down."
"No!"
He pointed at them.
"You wanna know what I think?"
His breathing became ragged.
"I think this is your fucking fault!"
Karen moved toward him.
"Mike."
His eyes filled with tears.
"I think Will's dead because of you!"
The room went completely silent.
The words hung in the air.
The agents looked uncomfortable now.
Good.
Mike wanted them uncomfortable.
Wanted them to feel even a fraction of what he was feeling.
"He was my best friend." His voice cracked. "And now he's gone." Neither agent spoke. For the first time all morning they didn't have a response. Karen finally stepped between them. "That's enough." Her voice was firm, protective. She gently placed a hand on Mike's shoulder. He immediately shrugged it off.
"Mike."
This time her voice softened, the anger drained out of him all at once. Leaving behind nothing but exhaustion. Nothing but grief.Karen looked at the agents. "My son isn't answering any more questions today." One of them started to object. Karen didn't let him. "He's done." The agents exchanged another glance before gathering their things. Neither looked particularly happy about it. Mike didn't care. As they headed for the door, he turned away from them completely.
Will is dead.
The thought settled heavily in his chest once more.
Will is dead.
And somehow these people expected him to sit quietly and answer questions like everything was normal. The front door closed behind them. Silence filled the house. Karen reached for him again. This time Mike didn't pull away. He just stood there staring at nothing.
Completely numb.
Because none of it mattered.
Not the FBI.
Not their questions.
Not their lies.
Will is dead.
And Mike didn't know how he was supposed to keep living in a world where that was true.
~~~~~
A year.
Three hundred and sixty-five days.
Three hundred and sixty-five days since Will Byers disappeared.
Three hundred and sixty-five days since they found the blood.
Since they found the vest.
Since they gave up.
Mike had stopped counting after the first few months. At least that's what he told himself. The truth was he knew exactly how long it had been.He counted, every single day. Because every day felt wrong. The bullies got worse after Will died. At first he'd ignore them, then he'd snap back, then he'd started throwing punches. It happened so often that getting sent to the principal's office barely felt like a punishment anymore.
Teachers were sick of him, students avoided him, parents whispered about him. Mike Wheeler had become a problem. He cussed out teachers when they called on him, skipped classes, turned in plagiarized essays he barely bothered editing, once he got detention for carving profanity into a bathroom stall. Another time for shoving a kid into a locker after the kid made a joke about Will.
The old Mike would have cared.
The old Mike would've felt guilty.
The old Mike would've apologized.
The old Mike was gone.
Dustin and Lucas noticed.
Of course they noticed.
Everyone did.
But unlike everyone else, they actually cared. Which somehow made it worse. The three of them sat together during lunch one afternoon or at least Dustin and Lucas sat together. Mike mostly pushed food around his tray. The cafeteria buzzed with noise around them. Mike barely heard any of it. "You got detention again." Dustin finally said it. Mike rolled his eyes. "So?" Dustin exchanged a look with Lucas.
Mike hated that look.
The concerned one.
The one adults gave him.
The one everyone gave him.
"You've gotten detention like six times this month."
"Seven."
Lucas corrected.
Mike stabbed a french fry with unnecessary force.
"Congratulations."
Neither of them laughed.
That annoyed him.
Lucas leaned forward.
"Mike."
"What?"
"You shoved Troy into a wall."
Mike shrugged.
"He deserved it."
"He made a joke."
Mike's head snapped up.
"A joke?"
Lucas immediately regretted his wording.
"You know what I mean."
"No."
Mike laughed bitterly.
"No, tell me. What was the joke?"
Neither answered.
Because they both knew.
The joke had been about Will.
Always Will.
Mike looked away before they could see his expression. The anger was easier than the hurt, much easier. Dustin sighed heavily. "That's not what we're talking about." Mike pushed away his tray. "Then don't talk about it." Dustin's shoulders slumped. For a moment nobody spoke. The silence stretched, finally Lucas broke it. "We're worried about you." Mike immediately scoffed.
"Don't."
"What?"
"Don't do that."
Dustin frowned.
"Do what?"
"Pity me." His voice came out sharper than intended. The words stung all three of them. "We're not pitying you." "Sure." Mike stood abruptly. His chair scraped loudly against the floor. Several students glanced over. Mike ignored them. Dustin stood too. "Mike." "What?" The frustration in his voice made both boys flinch. "What do you want me to say?" Nobody answered.
Mike laughed humorlessly.
"You want me to say I'm sad?"
His chest tightened.
"You want me to say I miss him?"
Dustin looked down.
Lucas looked away.
Because of course he missed him.
Every second.
Every day.
Every year.
He missed him so much it felt like something was constantly clawing at his ribs. But talking about it didn't help. Nothing helped. "You guys act like I don't know I'm messed up." His voice lowered. Quieter now. More tired than angry. "I know." The words hung in the air. For the first time neither Dustin nor Lucas interrupted. Because Mike sounded exhausted. Not angry, just exhausted. Like he was carrying something too heavy for too long.
Dustin swallowed.
"We just don't want you doing this alone."
Something painful flashed across Mike's face.
Gone almost instantly.
He looked away before either of them could see it.
Too late.
They already had.
Mike grabbed his backpack. "I'm fine." The biggest lie he'd told all day. Lucas opened his mouth, then closed it. Because they all knew arguing wouldn't help. Mike had become impossible to reach. Like every conversation hit a wall. Like he was locking everyone out one brick at a time. "I'm fine," Mike repeated. Then he walked away. Dustin watched him leave, Lucas did too.
Neither moved.
Neither spoke.
Because the worst part wasn't that Mike was angry.
Or getting into fights.
Or failing classes.
The worst part was that every day he looked a little less like himself and neither of them knew how to bring him back.
~~~~
Life kept moving. Will had been gone for over a year and somehow the world expected everyone to continue like normal.
School continued.
People laughed.
People dated.
People talked about stupid things like movies and homework and basketball games. Meanwhile Mike was still visiting Castle Byers feeling sick. But something was wrong, something was very wrong. It started with the farms. Entire fields suddenly rotted overnight. Healthy pumpkins turned black and mushy from the inside out. Crops died for no reason. Livestock became sick. The farmers couldn't explain it. Then the wells started drying up, water that had been there for decades suddenly disappeared. After that came the power outages. Entire sections of Hawkins would randomly lose electricity. Streetlights flickered. Televisions filled with static. Radios crackled with strange noises before cutting out completely.
The whole town felt off. Like something rotten was spreading beneath the surface. Mike noticed it immediately, because he'd seen it before. The Upside Down, It wasn't gone It was back, deep down, Mike knew it had never really left.
The others noticed too. Dustin became obsessed with investigating strange sightings around town. Lucas kept insisting something was happening. And then Max Mayfield showed up.
Mike barely cared.
She was loud.
Sarcastic.
Good at arcade games.
Dustin immediately thought she was awesome.
Lucas thought she was cool.
Mike couldn't bring himself to care. Not because there was anything wrong with Max. There wasn't. She was fine. He just felt guilty every time he laughed around her. Every time he smiled. Like moving on somehow meant leaving Will behind. So while Dustin and Lucas argued over who got to sit beside Max during class, Mike mostly stayed quiet.
Existing.
Going through the motions.
Then Dustin found Dart.
And everything got worse.
At first it looked harmless, just some weird little creature Dustin had found. But Mike knew better. The second he saw it, a cold feeling settled into his stomach. The Upside Down was back. He knew it, every instinct screamed it. As the weeks passed, strange things kept happening around town.
More dead fields.
More tunnels beneath Hawkins.
More signs that something was spreading underground.
And throughout all of it, Mike couldn't shake the feeling that someone was trying to reach him. At first he thought he was losing his mind. Wouldn't have been surprising. But then it kept happening. The radio in his room would randomly crackle to life. A familiar song would play at exactly the wrong moment. Lights would flicker when he thought about Will. Sometimes he'd wake up in the middle of the night convinced someone had said his name.
Not loudly.
Just a whisper.
Mike.
And for one stupid second every single time, his heart would leap.
Will.
It had to be Will.
Maybe not really.
Maybe not physically.
But something.
A memory.
A ghost.
A piece of him left behind.
Mike started talking to empty rooms when nobody was around. Started staring at static-filled television screens. Started lingering by Castle Byers.
Just in case.
Just in case somehow Will was still there.
Just in case the Upside Down had found a way to hold onto him.
It was ridiculous. He knew it was ridiculous. But hope had never really left him, not completely. Then Eleven came back. The world practically stopped. Mike had imagined that moment for over a year. Over and over again. What he would say. What he would do. How it would feel and when he finally saw her standing there, alive and real, every emotion crashed into him at once.
Relief.
Shock.
Happiness.
Anger.
Grief.
Because Eleven was back.
But Will wasn't.
Will was still gone.
The unfairness of it nearly broke him.
Still, he hugged her.
Still, he cried.
Still, he listened as she explained where she'd been.
Because she was family.
Because she'd always be family.
And for the first time in over a year, one piece of his life had been returned to him.
Just one.
The Snow Ball came a few weeks later. Everyone was excited. Dustin spent days preparing, Lucas couldn't stop talking about Max. The gym was decorated with cheap streamers and Christmas lights. Normal middle school stuff. The kind of thing Mike used to enjoy. He took Eleven because it felt right.
Because she'd spent so long alone.
Because she deserved one normal night.
Because he cared about her.
Because after everything she'd done for them, she deserved someone beside her.
So he put on the suit, picked her up, held her hand, danced when she asked, Smiled when she smiled and even Kissed her. For anyone watching, everything looked perfect. But the entire night there was an ache in his chest. A constant one. Because every song reminded him of someone missing. Every laugh reminded him of someone missing. Every happy moment reminded him that there should have been six of them.
Not five.
Five.
Will should've been there. Standing awkwardly near the punch bowl, rolling his eyes at Dustin, complaining about the music, Laughing with them, Living. Mike smiled for Eleven. He really did. But when slow music started playing and the lights dimmed, his eyes drifted toward the empty space beside the dance floor. And for just a second, he imagined Will standing there.
Smiling.
Safe.
Home.
Then the image disappeared and all that remained was the ache.
The same ache that had followed him for over a year.
The same ache that no amount of time seemed capable of fixing.
Because Eleven had come back.
The Upside Down had come back.
The monsters had come back.
Everything always seemed to come back.
Everything except Will.
~~~~~
By the summer of 1985, Mike Wheeler had become very good at pretending. Pretending he was okay. Pretending he wasn't still grieving someone who had been gone for almost three years. Pretending that every time he rode past Castle Byers, he didn't feel like someone was squeezing his heart.
The fort was still there. The wood had weathered with time, rain had warped some of the boards, the old drawings inside had begun to fade, vines crawled up the sides. But it remained standing, a monument to a boy who never got to grow up. Sometimes Mike would bike there alone. Just sit inside. Say nothing. The silence somehow felt closer to Will than the rest of Hawkins ever did.
The town had moved on.
Mike hadn't.
Not completely.
Jane had come back into his life after everything that happened with the Mind Flayer. She was alive. Safe. Finally getting the chance to be a normal teenager and Mike cared about her. He really did. That was the problem, he cared about her, not loved her. Not the way she deserved.
At first dating her felt like the obvious thing to do. The expected thing. Everyone assumed it would happen. The boy and the girl reunited after years of tragedy.The hero and the girl with powers. It was practically written for them.
So Mike tried. God, he tried. He held her hand. Walked her home. Spent afternoons together. Called her when he was supposed to. Kissed her when he was supposed to. Acted like a boyfriend was supposed to act. And for a while he convinced himself maybe that was enough.
Maybe love was supposed to feel comfortable.
Maybe what he felt was normal.
But every time Jane smiled at him with that look in her eyes, Mike felt guilty. Because she deserved someone who looked back at her the same way. Someone whose heart sped up when she entered a room. Someone who couldn't stop thinking about her.
Instead, Mike found himself staring out windows. Getting lost in memories. Thinking about Castle Byers. Thinking about Will. Always Will.
Will at twelve years old rolling his eyes during D&D.
Will laughing so hard milk came out his nose.
Will sitting beside him on the basement floor.
Will growing older.
Will never getting older.
The grief had changed over the years, it wasn't sharp anymore. It wasn't the kind of pain that left him unable to breathe.
Now it was quieter.
Permanent.
Like an old scar.
The problem was that every relationship Mike tried to build eventually ran into that scar. Because some part of him was still standing in those woods. Still waiting for a boy who wasn't coming back.
Then came Starcourt Mall.
The giant symbol of Hawkins moving on.
Everyone loved it.
Lucas loved it.
Max loved it.
Jane loved it.
Dustin spent half his summer talking about Suzie.
Meanwhile Mike mostly followed everyone around trying to ignore the strange feeling sitting in his stomach. Because Hawkins never stayed normal for long. And sure enough, weird things started happening.
The rats.
The chemicals disappearing.
Billy acting strange.
People vanishing.
The feeling of something rotten spreading beneath the town.
The Upside Down was back.
Again.
Just like it always seemed to be. But while all of that was happening, another problem was slowly building.
Jane.
The relationship wasn't working.
And the worst part was that neither of them seemed surprised. The realization came slowly. One awkward conversation at a time. One forced date at a time. One moment of silence at a time. Until eventually neither of them could ignore it anymore. The breakup happened on a warm afternoon near the end of summer. Not during a fight. Not after some huge argument.
Just honesty.
For once.
Mike found himself sitting with Jane outside Hopper's cabin. The woods surrounding them were quiet. For several minutes neither spoke. Mike picked nervously at a loose thread on his sleeve. Jane watched him. Waiting. She probably already knew what he was going to say.
Mike swallowed.
Hard.
"This isn't working."
The words felt strange coming out loud.
Jane didn't react.
At least not immediately. She just stared at the ground for a moment.
Then nodded.
A small sad smile appearing on her face.
"No, it's not."
Mike blinked.
"That's it?"
"What?"
"You're not mad?"
Jane laughed softly.
The sound surprised him.
"Should I be?"
Mike didn't know.
Maybe.
Most breakups seemed messier than this, but instead Jane looked relieved.
Not devastated.
Relieved.
Like she had been carrying the same weight.
"We've both known for a while."
Mike looked down.
Because she was right, they had. Neither had wanted to say it first. Neither wanted to hurt the other. So they'd continued pretending. Jane shifted beside him. "You care about me." Mike immediately nodded. "Of course I do."
"I know."
The words came easily. Because they were true. Jane was one of his best friends. One of the most important people in his life. That had never changed. "But not like that." Mike's chest tightened. The honesty felt uncomfortable. Jane smiled sadly. "But not like that." Neither spoke for a moment.
The silence wasn't painful, just final. Like closing a book after already reading the last chapter. Eventually Mike let out a long breath. One he felt like he'd been holding for months. The relief hit him immediately and then came the guilt.
Because relief wasn't how breakups were supposed to feel.
Was it?
Shouldn't he be heartbroken?
Instead he mostly felt lighter. Jane must've noticed because she bumped his shoulder. "You look guilty." Mike laughed despite himself. "A little."he said. "Don't." She shrugged. "I feel better too." That made him laugh again.
A real laugh.
One he hadn't expected.
For the first time in months, neither of them were pretending. Neither of them were trying to force something into existence. They were just friends. Bestfriends.Somehow that felt right. When they stood to leave, Jane hugged him.
Mike hugged her back.
No tears.
No dramatic goodbye.
No promises.
Just understanding.
When she pulled away she smiled.
"We're still friends."
"Bestfriends."
She rolled her eyes.
Then headed back toward the cabin.
Mike watched her go.
Waiting for sadness.
Waiting for regret.
Waiting for some overwhelming feeling that never came.
Instead he got on his bike.
And rode.
The familiar path eventually carried him toward the edge of town.
Toward the woods.
Toward Castle Byers.
The old fort appeared between the trees.
Still standing.
Still waiting.
Mike stopped his bike.
For a long moment he simply stared at it.
The summer breeze rustled through the leaves overhead. Everything felt strangely peaceful. He thought about Jane. About how hard he'd tried to be someone he wasn't. About how long he'd spent doing what was expected of him.
Being the boyfriend.
Being normal.
Moving on.
Maybe he was finally done pretending. Maybe that was what growing up actually meant. Not becoming what everyone expected, but figuring out who you were when nobody else was looking. The thought stayed with him as the summer continued.
As Billy fell under the Mind Flayer's control.
As the Russians opened the gate beneath Starcourt.
As Dustin intercepted secret transmissions.
As Steve, Robin, Erica, and Dustin uncovered the Russian base.
As the creature grew larger and larger.
As Hawkins once again descended into chaos.
The monsters had returned.
The danger had returned.
The grief had never left.
And through all of it, one truth remained constant.
Will Byers was gone.
But somehow, after years of running from that fact, Mike was finally beginning to understand that moving forward didn't mean leaving Will behind. It just meant carrying him differently. Despite everything, Mike never stopped visiting the Byers house. Not at first because it was healthy. Actually, for a long time, it probably wasn't.
The first year after Will died, he'd bike there almost every day. Sometimes Joyce wouldn't even know he was there. He'd sit in Castle Byers for hours, staring at old drawings on the walls and convincing himself that if he waited long enough, something would happen.
A sign.
A voice.
Anything.
As the years passed, the visits became less frequent. Not because he cared less, never because of that. Life simply got busier. School. Friends. The endless supernatural disasters Hawkins seemed determined to attract.
But Mike still found himself at the Byers house whenever he had the chance. Sometimes for dinner. Sometimes to help Jonathan with something. Sometimes for no reason at all.
The Byers had become family somewhere along the way, not officially. But family all the same. He tried not to bring up the fact that part of him still thought Will was alive. Most people had stopped talking about it years ago.
Lucas and Dustin.
Hopper.
Even Joyce.
At least out loud.
Mike had learned to keep those thoughts to himself.
Mostly.
Every now and then he'd see something strange.
A flickering light.
A dream that felt too real.
A radio crackling at the exact wrong moment.
And the thought would return.
What if?
What if everyone was wrong?
What if somehow, somewhere, Will was still out there?
He never said it anymore.
Not after seeing the looks people gave him.
The concern.
The pity.
So he kept it locked away. Just another secret. Just another thing he carried. Jonathan understood better than anyone. Not because he believed Will was alive. He didn't. But because he missed him too. Jonathan had changed over the years. The quiet, distant teenager Mike remembered had slowly become someone else. Someone steadier. Someone easier to talk to. Nancy probably helped.
The two of them spent so much time together that Jonathan was practically attached to the Wheeler family now. Which meant Mike spent more time around him too. At some point they stopped feeling like Nancy's boyfriend and little brother, they'd become something closer.
Jonathan became the person Mike called when his car wouldn't start.
The person who never got uncomfortable when Will's name came up in conversation.
The person who understood why certain days were harder than others without Mike having to explain it.
The person who would drive Mike out to the quarry at midnight just because neither of them could sleep.
The person who listened when Mike talked and sat quietly beside him when he couldn't.
A brother.
Not by blood.
But close enough.
One afternoon during the summer, Mike found himself helping Jonathan repair part of the porch. The work was miserable. The Indiana heat was unbearable. Jonathan looked equally exhausted. "This would've taken Will five minutes." Mike laughed. "No chance." Jonathan snorted. "He would've spent four hours making a blueprint first." Mike immediately smiled. "Okay, that's fair."
The conversation drifted naturally from there. One memory becoming another. Stories they'd heard a hundred times before. Stories neither of them ever got tired of telling.
Will accidentally setting Dustin's character sheet on fire.
Will convincing Mike to watch some terrible fantasy movie three times in one weekend.
Will hiding beneath the bed when he was six because he thought monsters lived in the closet.
The stories always hurt.
But they also felt good.
Like keeping something alive.
Like refusing to let time erase him.
Later that evening Jonathan left to pick Nancy up from work. That left Mike alone with Joyce. The sun was beginning to set. The kitchen smelled like coffee. Mike sat at the table while Joyce washed dishes. For a while neither spoke.
Comfortable silence.
The kind that only came from years of knowing someone. Finally Joyce smiled softly. "You know, he would've loved Starcourt." Mike laughed quietly.
"Yeah."
"He would've gone to every store in the mall."
"He would've spent all his money on movie posters and art supplies."
Joyce smiled wider.
"And comic books."
"And candy."
"And probably one of those giant stuffed animals."
Joyce laughed.
The sound was warm.
Familiar.
For a moment it almost felt normal.
Then the silence returned.
Not uncomfortable.
Just thoughtful.
Mike stared out the kitchen window. The woods stretched beyond the backyard. Castle Byers hidden somewhere among the trees.
Still standing.
Still waiting.
Joyce noticed where he was looking.
She always noticed.
Her expression softened.
"You miss him." It wasn't a question. Mike looked down at the table. The answer felt obvious. "Every day." Joyce nodded. Like she understood exactly what that meant. Because she did. For a long moment neither spoke. Then Joyce dried her hands and sat across from him. "Me too." Mike swallowed. His throat suddenly tight.
Joyce smiled sadly.
"Some days it's easier."
She looked toward the window.
"Some days it isn't."
Mike nodded.
"Yeah."
Another silence.
Then Joyce reached across the table and squeezed his hand. A small gesture, a simple one. But somehow it meant everything. "You know," she said quietly, "he loved you." Mike looked up. Joyce's eyes glistened, not with fresh tears. Just old ones. The kind that never fully disappeared. "You were his favorite person." Mike laughed weakly. "No I wasn't." "You absolutely were." A tiny smile appeared on her face. "He talked about you constantly." Mike looked away before she could see how much that affected him.
Joyce squeezed his hand again.
And for the first time in a long while, neither of them felt the need to say anything else. The silence said enough. They sat there together as the sun slowly disappeared beyond the trees.
Remembering.
Missing him.
Loving him.
And refusing to forget.
The Battle of Starcourt was the closest Mike had come to dying since Will disappeared.
For years the Upside Down had haunted every corner of his life. It had taken Will. It had taken years from all of them. It had turned Hawkins into a graveyard disguised as a small town.
And now it was back.
Again.
The mall had become a war zone.
The bright lights, colorful signs, and endless stores felt almost ridiculous compared to the monster stalking through them.
The Mind Flayer was bigger than anything Mike had ever seen. A towering mass of flesh and bones and everything wrong with the world. The creature crashed through walls like they were paper.
Glass exploded.
People screamed.
The entire building shook beneath its weight.
And all Mike could think was that it never ended.
Every year.
Every single year.
Another monster.
Another battle.
Another person they might lose.
The worst part was Eleven.
She was hurt.
Badly.
The creature had managed to wound her, and for the first time since meeting her, Mike looked at Eleven and saw fear.
Real fear.
Not for herself.
For everyone else.
The realization terrified him. Because if Eleven couldn't stop it, who could? The battle became chaotic. Lucas firing fireworks. Max trying to keep everyone together. Dustin and Erica helping from Cerebro. Steve and Robin fighting their way through Russians.
Everyone was doing whatever they could just to survive. Mike barely remembered half of it afterward.
Only flashes.
Running.
Screaming.
Holding Eleven's hand. Thinking they were all about to die, then Billy appeared. For months Mike had hated him.
Everyone had.
Billy was cruel.
Mean.
Dangerous.
Everything Max said he was, but standing there in front of the Mind Flayer, something changed. Billy remembered who he was. For one brief moment he became himself again. Mike would never forget the look on Max's face.
Or Eleven's.
Or the way Billy stepped between them and the monster.
Protecting them.
Choosing them.
The creature killed him anyway. It happened so fast, one second Billy was standing. The next he was gone. Max's scream echoed through the mall. The sound would stay with Mike for years.
Because he knew that scream. He knew exactly what it sounded like when someone lost a person they loved.
He'd heard it from Joyce.
From Jonathan.
From himself.
And now from Max.
Another name added to the list.
Another grave.
Another tragedy Hawkins would never fully recover from. But the battle wasn't over. Not yet. The gate still had to be closed. The machine beneath Starcourt still had to be destroyed and Hopper was down there.
Fighting.
Trying to buy them time.
Trying to save everyone.
Mike didn't know exactly what happened.
Not then.
All he remembered was the explosion.
The blinding light.
The feeling of the ground shaking beneath his feet.
Then silence.
When the dust settled, Hopper was gone.
Just gone.
No body.
No explanation.
Nothing.
Only an empty platform.
The same way Will had vanished years ago.
The same horrible uncertainty.
Only this time everyone seemed willing to accept it.
Mike wasn't.
Not immediately.
Because he'd done this before.
He'd mourned someone without a body before.
He'd listened to people tell him someone was gone before.
He'd watched adults give up before.
And look how that turned out.
Part of him spent weeks expecting Hopper to walk back through the front door.
Weeks waiting for a miracle.
Weeks waiting for someone to tell him they were wrong.
But no miracle came, only grief. The aftermath hit harder than the battle itself.
Max lost Billy.
Jane lost Hopper.
Joyce lost another person she loved.
The entire town celebrated surviving while the people who actually fought the battle were left picking up the pieces. Mike found himself back at Castle Byers a few days later.
The fort stood quietly among the trees.
Unchanged.
Untouched.
Like the world hadn't nearly ended.
Again.
He sat inside for hours.
Thinking.
About Billy.
About Hopper.
About Will.
Three people connected by loss.
Three people who should've had more time.
The unfairness of it all made him angry.
It always would.
The older he got, the more he realized that surviving wasn't the same thing as winning.
They defeated the Mind Flayer.
They closed the gate.
They saved Hawkins.
But victories in Hawkins always cost something.
Always.
Someone paid the price.
Someone got left behind.
As the sun disappeared beyond the trees, Mike stared at the fading drawings covering Castle Byers' walls. He thought about all the people he'd lost. All the people everyone else had lost and for the first time since the battle, he allowed himself to cry.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just quietly.
The way grief usually happened.
Because Billy was dead.
Because Hopper was gone.
Because Will had been gone for years.
And because no matter how many monsters they defeated, no matter how many gates they closed, there was one thing none of them had ever figured out how to beat.
Loss.
The fort creaked softly around him. For a while he just stared at the floor, then he laughed bitterly.
"You know, this is stupid." His voice sounded strange in the empty fort. Silence answered him. Mike swallowed hard. "Hopper's gone." His eyes burned. "Jane won't stop crying." He rubbed his face roughly. "Max lost Billy." His voice cracked.
"And I don't know how to help any of them." The silence somehow felt heavier. Mike looked up at the old drawings still hanging on the walls. His chest tightened. "You would've known what to say." A shaky laugh escaped him. "You always did."
His vision blurred. "God, I miss you." The words came out broken.
Honest.
Raw.
"I miss you so much, Will." Tears slid down his cheeks. Mike didn't bother wiping them away. "Everyone keeps leaving." His voice trembled. "Everyone." He squeezed his eyes shut.
"I keep waiting." A sob caught in his throat. "Every year I think maybe you'll come back." His shoulders shook. "Maybe they'll find something." Another tear fell. "Maybe everybody was wrong." His breathing became uneven.
"But you're not coming back, are you?" The question hung in the air.
Unanswered.
Mike let out a shaky breath. "I hate that." His voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I hate that I don't get to know who you would've become." Another silence. Then a small sad smile appeared on his face. "You would've hated Starcourt actually."
A laugh escaped him through his tears. "Dustin would've dragged you there every day." Mike looked around the fort one last time. "I just..." His voice broke completely. "I wish you were here." The words echoed softly through Castle Byers.
And for the first time in a long time, Mike let himself cry.
–
The thing about losing people was that it never seemed to stop.
First Will.
Then Billy.
Then Hopper.
Every time Mike thought he had finally adjusted to the hole someone left behind, life found a way to make it bigger.
Hopper's death hit harder than Mike expected, not because they had always gotten along.
Honestly, they hadn't. Half the time Hopper seemed annoyed by his existence. The other half he was threatening him over Jane.
But Hopper had been there.
Solid.
Reliable.
One of the few adults who actually knew the truth about everything.
The Upside Down.
The Mind Flayer.
Will.
Now he was gone too and then Joyce decided to leave Hawkins. Mike couldn't blame her, not really. Hawkins had taken almost everything from her. Still, when she told everyone she was moving to California, it felt like another funeral.
Jonathan was leaving.
Jane was leaving.
Joyce was leaving.
The Byers house would be empty. The thought made Mike physically sick. The day they packed the moving truck, he spent most of his time pretending he wasn't upset. It didn't work. Nothing worked anymore.
He hugged Jonathan goodbye longer than either of them would ever admit.
Jonathan just squeezed his shoulder.
"Call me."
Mike laughed weakly.
"You hate talking on the phone."
"Still call me."
The smile disappeared from Mike's face.
"Okay."
Jonathan nodded.
For a second neither moved.
Then Jonathan pulled him into a quick hug.
The kind brothers gave each other.
The kind that said everything neither of them knew how to put into words.
Mike nearly lost it right there, because Jonathan leaving felt wrong. The Byers leaving felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. When Joyce hugged him goodbye, it was somehow even worse.
She held him tightly.
Like she always did.
Like she had ever since Will died.
Mike hugged her back. For a brief moment he was twelve years old again. Scared. Heartbroken. Missing someone. When they finally pulled away, Joyce kissed the top of his head. The same way she used to when he was younger.
Mike almost cried.
The moving truck eventually disappeared down the road and with it went the last piece of Will that still felt close.
The Byers house sat empty after that.
Dark.
Silent.
Abandoned.
Mike visited once.
Then never again.
He couldn't.
Because without Jonathan.
Without Joyce.
Without all the memories.
It was just a house.
And somehow that made everything worse.
For years there had always been people around who remembered Will exactly the way Mike did. Now they were two thousand miles away.
California.
An entire country away and suddenly it felt like Will was really gone.
Really.
Truly.
Gone.
Not just dead.
Gone.
Like the world was finally moving forward without him.
Leaving Mike behind.
~~~~~
The next few months were miserable. The letters from Jane helped, a little. Phone calls helped too, sometimes. But they weren't enough. Nothing was.
Mike missed everyone.
Missed Jonathan.
Missed Joyce.
Missed having people nearby who understood.
People who remembered. Every conversation seemed to circle back to Will eventually. Not intentionally. Just naturally. Now those conversations were gone too. The loneliness settled over him like a second skin. Then spring break arrived and Mike flew to California.
For the first time in months, he felt excited. The feeling disappeared almost immediately. Because something was wrong with Jane. The moment he saw her at the airport, he knew.
She smiled.
But it wasn't real.
Not completely.
The old Jane would've tackled him into a hug. This version looked exhausted. Like she was carrying something heavy. Mike spent the next few days trying to ignore it.
Trying to enjoy California.
Trying to pretend everything was normal.
It wasn't.
Jonathan seemed distracted.
Jane seemed miserable.
Something was wrong.
Then came the roller rink. The disaster that changed everything. Mike watched in horror as Angela humiliated Jane in front of everyone. The entire rink laughing.
Pointing.
Mocking her.
The anger hit instantly, but before he could do anything, Jane snapped. The skate connected with Angela's face.
Everyone froze.
Including Mike.
The moment was over almost as quickly as it started. But the damage was done. Everything spiraled afterward.
Police.
Arguments.
Fear.
Confusion.
And before anyone could catch their breath, another nightmare began. Back in Hawkins, people were dying.
Horribly.
Mysteriously.
The news reached them quickly.
Chrissy Cunningham.
Then Fred.
Then Patrick.
The deaths made Mike's blood run cold. Because he knew, he knew that feeling. He knew what it meant when impossible things started happening in Hawkins.
Another monster.
Another threat.
Another year.
The name eventually reached them.
Vecna.
A creature unlike anything they'd faced before.
Something ancient.
Something powerful.
Something connected to the Upside Down.
As Hawkins descended into chaos, Mike found himself separated from the others.
Again.
Just like always.
The world seemed determined to pull them apart.
He, Jonathan, Argyle, and Jane eventually learned the truth.
Hopper was alive.
Alive.
For a moment Mike couldn't even process it. The relief was overwhelming.
After everything.
After years of grief.
After all the pain.
Someone had actually come back. The irony wasn't lost on him.
Hopper came back.
Will never did.
The thought hurt more than it should have. Still, they focused on saving him. Saving everyone. Saving Hawkins. The journey across the country felt endless. Every mile carried them closer to another battle. Another impossible situation. Eventually they reunited with the others.
Dustin.
Lucas.
Steve.
Robin.
Everyone looked older. More tired. Like the weight of Hawkins was finally catching up to them. Then came the truth about Vecna.
Henry Creel.
One.
The Upside Down.
Everything connected.
Everything leading back to the beginning.
Back to the moment Will disappeared. Mike couldn't stop thinking about it.
If Vecna had existed this whole time...
if the Upside Down had been shaping their lives for years...
then maybe everything started with Will.
Maybe his death wasn't random.
Maybe none of it was.
The final battle felt like the end of the world.
Because it almost was.
Max nearly died and is now in a coma.
Lucas nearly died.
Eddie is dead.
Everyone nearly died.
The gates tore open.
Hawkins split apart.
The sky itself seemed to bleed.
And as Mike stood watching ash drift through the air, staring at the destruction surrounding his hometown, he couldn't stop thinking about one thing.
Will should have been here.
Not for the battle.
Not for the monsters.
Not for the suffering.
Just here.
Alive.
Growing up.
Complaining about school.
Making terrible jokes.
Existing.
Instead, all that remained was grief. Years old and still refusing to fade. The group stood together overlooking the ruined town.
Silent.
Exhausted.
Broken.
And for the first time in a very long time, Mike realized something. The Upside Down had taken Will years ago. But it had never really stopped taking things from them.
Not once.
Not ever.
And standing there beside the people he loved, staring at the beginning of yet another war, Mike silently promised himself one thing.
Whatever happened next—
he wasn't losing anyone else.