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Will was missing. He found out that morning during breakfast when Mrs. Byers called.
The phone had rung while they were eating and his mom answered. Mike wasn't really paying attention to the conversation, but he tuned in when his mom said Will's name.
"Will? No, no, no, it's just Mike." A brief pause where Mrs. Byers responded. "No, he left here a little bit after eight. Why is he not home?" Another pause, followed by goodbyes.
"Was that Mrs. Byers? Why is she asking about Will?" Mike asks, before his mom had even set Holly down.
"She was calling to ask if Will spent the night. He's not there, so she thinks he just woke up and headed to school early."
Headed to school early, that's not like Will at all. Mike didn't question it out loud though and finished eating his breakfast.
The realization that he was really gone became clearer as he arrived at school with Lucas and Dustin.
"I don't see him anywhere, and his bike isn't here." Mike says, noting the empty space on the bike rack the four of them usually occupy.
"It's not a big deal, maybe he just parked it somewhere else." Dustin says.
"Yeah, he's probably already in class." Lucas adds.
Will wasn't in class. In fact, no one had seen him since he biked past Dustin's house last night. Dustin owed Will his X-Men 134 comic. Will hadn't even waited for Dustin to catch up before he kept going home. That meant he went missing somewhere between the Henderson house and his own home.
His mom had put both him and Nancy on house arrest, meaning he wasn't allowed to join the search party to find Will. "We should be out there looking, not inside doing nothing! Why am I the only one who cares about Will?" He had yelled at his parents, before leaving the dinner table.
That night he snuck out, along with Lucas and Dustin. The three conducted their own search and turned up nothing. They did the same thing the next night and still no Will.
Mike barely got any sleep during those nights. He couldn't sleep. Sleeping was wasting time he could spend searching for Will. He couldn't focus in class either. School was a waste of time too. Time he should be spending searching for Will.
On the third night since he went missing the three of them searched the area surrounding Will's home. That's when they heard the sirens and saw police cars and an ambulance racing towards the lake. "What do you think that's about? Do you think they found him?" Dustin asks, looking between the group.
The three boys hop on their bikes and race after the cars. They drop them off and hide behind the fire truck that was there too, watching with bated breath. "It's not Will. It can't be." Mike whispers.
But it was. The body the two men pulled out of the water was Will and the world around Mike shattered.
His best friend was gone, just like that. No proper goodbye. Mike couldn't stay there watching any longer. He let go of the fire truck and ran to his bike. Ignoring Lucas and Dustin's shouts. He hopped on his bike and peddled as fast as he could to get away.
Away from the lake. Away from the Byers home. Away from the truth.
Mike's vision blurred as he continued biking. He could barely see through his tears. He was relying solely on muscle memory to get home.
Will was dead, he was never coming back and Mike... Mike was supposed to protect him. But he couldn't. He couldn't protect his best friend and now he was dead.
It was unfair. It should've been Mike who went missing, not Will. Never Will.
Mike didn't even realize he had made it back home until he was opening the front door. "Michael?" He heard his mother call out from the living room.
He couldn't move from where he stood, too in shock to do anything. His mother enveloped him in her arms, and he cried harder. Full body sobs recked through him. The person who knew him better than anyone else was gone and Mike couldn't do anything other than cry.
At some point he must've passed out because he doesn't remember anything until he woke up the next morning.
"Hi honey. How are you doing?" His mother asked as she walked into his room to wake him up.
"I uh, I don't think I can go to school today." Mike says, unable to force himself to even sit up.
"That's fine sweetie. I need to drop off Nance and then why don't we go stop by the video store on the way back, pick up a movie. You can pick any you want. Even R-rated."
Mike knew what his mom was doing, trying to cheer him up or distract his mind. It wasn't going to work, Mike just wanted to stay inside and so that's what he told her. "I think I just want to stay home today, if that's okay."
His mom sighs and nods her head. "If you think you'll be alright by yourself. But if you need anything before I get back you call your dad at work. Okay?"
"Okay."
His mom kisses his forehead and leaves him alone in his room. Mike sighs as he slowly sits up, immediately reaching for the binder of Will's drawings that he keeps under his bed. He opens up the binder and traces each of the drawings with his fingers as he looks through them.
Will always was an amazing artist. He could draw anything perfectly, even from just a vague description given to him.
"Why'd you have to go Will? You were gonna be the greatest artist of our time."
Mike spent the entire day doing that. It was easy to spend an entire day doing that. He probably had enough of Will's drawings to do that for several days. Although it's not enough. He could have every single one of Will's artworks he made in their twelve years of living, and it wouldn't be enough.
That night Will invades his dreams, but it's not right. It's Will as he was being taken out of the water. He opens his eyes, but there's nothing in the sockets, there just pouring water out of them. When Will opens his mouth to talk it's the same story. No words just an endless waterfall.
Mike wakes up sobbing.
Mike forces himself to go to school, despite still not feeling ready to go back. He meets up with Dustin and Lucas. But all of them are quiet. The loss of Will still hanging heavily over them. Instead of bringing them closer together the shared loss was breaking their friend group apart.
There's an assembly that day. An assembly for Will. It's a total joke, none of these people cared about Will as much as they did. Nobody here outside of their friend group and Mr. Clarke cared about him at all.
Lucas was thinking the same as he was. "Look at all of these fakers. They probably didn't even know his name before today."
From down the row of bleachers they could hear James and Troy making fun of this whole thing, making fun of Will. It was causing something inside Mike to burn.
After the assembly Mike didn't hesitate. He didn't bother trying to catch the bully's attention, he just ran up behind him and shoved him into the ground. Troy's face hit the ground hard, and he skidded across the floor. Mike didn't stick around long enough for Troy to even try and get him back.
The next day was Will's funeral. Mike was hyper aware of everything that day. The way his tie felt too tight, the way his slacks fit incorrectly.
At the funeral everyone was wearing black, and most of the people in attendance Mike recognized. There was his entire family obviously, along with Barb who came with Nancy as extra emotional support. Mike wasn't fully certain if Holly understood why they were there or what was happening, but her eyes were welled up with tears.
Mrs. Byers and Jonathan were there sitting in the front, and to Mike's dismay Lonnie was there too. He was a deadbeat, and everyone knew it. The one time he tried to call him Mr. Byers he had told Mike not to do that. That it was too formal, whatever that meant.
Dustin was there with his mom behind him, as was Lucas and his family. Even Erica who'd only seen Will maybe a handful of times since they never really hung out at the Sinclair's house.
Mr. Clarke was in attendance too. Along with a number of adults that Mike only recognized from around town but didn't know by name. Probably there to support Mrs. Byers more than anything.
What was most surprising though was the Jennifer Hayes was there, and she was crying. Crying like she'd known him as well as Mike did. Even though Mike knew for a fact the two had never shared a conversation. Maybe she was one of those people that got hired to cry at funerals? No, that's a dumb idea. From what he knew of Will's class schedule he'd shared every single class with her this year and last. She had also been in the same class as him since kindergarten, just like Mike. Maybe that's why she was here. He had been a constant backgrounder in her life for as long as she could remember. Mike would never know that for certain though, not like it even mattered.
Once the ceremony was over and they all dropped flowers down on top of the coffin, Mike wavered for a moment. He wanted to say something to Mrs. Byers, but his mouth wouldn't move. Like he knew nothing he said would be enough. Like he knew he didn't really have anything to say at all. So, Mike said nothing.
After that is when he started going to the cliff every day after school. On the weekends, he'd sit there the entire day uninterrupted.
As Mike stares down at the water below all he can think of is Will and what his final moments must've been like. How scared and alone he must've felt. Did he scream as he fell and no one heard because it's so far out? Or did he just freefall silently, accepting his fate. Did he do it on purpose? No. Will would never do something like that. Right?
Mike can still hear the final thing Will said to him. The words had been replaying in his head since he found out Will was gone. “The role, it was a seven. The Demogorgon, it got me. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow!” And then he biked back home like he normally would.
Except it wasn't like normal. That promised tomorrow never came. The hours they spent searching for Will in the woods with not a single sign of a person, living or dead. The searches had all been for nothing.
This is where Will died. Maybe this should be where he dies too. They'll be together again that way. Forever inseparable in life and in death. Like they always have been.
Mike took a deep breath and looked back down at the water below the cliff and closed his eyes. “I'm coming Will,” Mike whispered to himself before stepping off and plummeted down into the water below. His body hit the surface of the water with a loud crack. Mike felt pain everywhere for half a second, but then it was gone. The pain, the water, everything was gone. He was left with a weightless feeling before becoming shrouded by the abyss.
When Mike opened his eyes, he was lying in a bed of grass, in the middle of nowhere. The sun above was setting and looked like it was being distorted by a hazy filter. Mike couldn't help but stare up at it in awe.
Mike slowly sat up, noticing that the usual stiffness that came with waking up from a long sleep was absent.
Mike breathed in deeply, letting the air fill his lungs and a small smile crept onto his face. This place - wherever it was - was nice.
"This place is nice, isn't it?" A voice asks, from behind him.
A voice that Mike never thought he'd hear again. He quickly turned his head as his eyes widened in surprise. "Will?"
"Hi Mike," Will said, with a small smile on his face.
Will was sitting on a swing set. The same swing set where they first met and Mike asked to be his friend. Will no longer looked like he had just been pulled from a lake. He was no longer deathly pale. his hair and clothes were completely dry. The clothes were the same as the ones he went missing in, just without the heavy jacket he had been wearing overtop.
Mike couldn't help but smile back, he rushed to stand up and ran over to Will's side. "Will!" Mike sat on the swing beside him and twisted back and forth in the seat. "What is this place? Do you know?"
Will shakes his head and looks from Mike up to the sky. "I don't know. It's peaceful though."
Mike joins Will in looking up at the sky and relaxes into the seat. "Have you been here since you died?"
Will doesn't answer verbally, he just nods his head. The two sit in silence for what feels like hours, but it could've just been a few minutes swinging gently.
"Are we just stuck here forever now?" Mike asks. "I guess I wouldn't mind. This place is nice, and we're together."
Will's smile grows bigger at that, more genuine. "Yeah, together."
Mike can't help but grin back. Without much thought, he brings his hand out to the open space between them. Will doesn't hesitate before reaching out and interlocking their hands.
"I could never live without you, Will."
"You don't have too anymore, Mike."