Ghostbusters - BYLER

➵ prologue

October, 1986

Hawkins, Indiana

Will Byers remembered everything.

He wished he didn't, but he did. Unfortunately. God, it sucked. Everything sucked.

He had company at first, his mother and brother, but then they moved out. Then they had the Uris family, who moved out. But throughout the whole time, he had Eddie. Eddie was nice, and he was funny. Will really missed Eddie.

But, when the Uris family had come, their son, Stan, had done something, and Eddie was set free. He went with Stan to Maine, and they left Will all alone.

He didn't know how long it had been. He didn't really care either. Every day was the same.

He kept the house clean though, in honor of Eddie and Stan. When it was just Will and Eddie, Will was new to the whole thing, and all he did was sulk in his room. But Eddie was understanding. He spent his days cleaning the house, and once a day, he would go into Will's room and dust so nothing would get too dirty.

When Stan's family came, the house was spotless 100% of the time. Even on the days when Eddie didn't get around to cleaning, it was the cleanest Will had ever seen the house. No one stayed in Will's room. Will made sure of that. Only Eddie was allowed in.

But then Stan left, and he took Eddie with him. Stan hadn't even known Will was there.

So Will was alone again - only for a couple months, but alone nonetheless.

Will was lonely.

—

Mike Wheeler hated his new house.

It wasn't too ugly, sure, and he would get his own room, but he hated it. Well, not the house specifically. He hated Hawkins. Hawkins, Indiana, the shitty little town in the middle of nowhere that they had to move to for Ted's job. Ted was Mike's father, and Karen was his mother. Mike still wasn't sure what Ted's job was.

Mike had siblings too - Nancy, his older sister by three years, and Holly, his younger sister by nine years - but neither of them were affected by the move as much as him. Holly was still too young to understand what was going on - she was only six years old - and Nancy had just gone off to college a few weeks before. Mike was fifteen, a freshman, and his entire life was turned upside down when his father announced the move.

It was bullshit. At least, Mike thought so.

As he stood outside the new house - which was quite large, actually - holding his box of comics, he considered running away and never coming back. But then he remembered he wouldn't survive a day on his own, so he sighed loudly and walked inside. His mother and father had already gone in to help Holly set up her room, so of course Holly got first pick on which room was hers.

She got the nice one right by the stairs, the one with a bay window and a view over the top of the forest, which was behind their house. It wasn't a huge room, but it was much too big for a six year-old, in Mike's opinion. His room was bigger than her's, but he was fifteen. He needed more space.

He stomped into his room, slamming the door behind him and dropping the box on the floor. His room was sort of nice too - no bay window, but there were some rectangle windows around the edges, and he got his own bathroom. He couldn't wait to call Lucas, as soon as they got their phone installed, and complain about how terrible the new house was. There weren't even any kids in the neighborhood, as far as he saw. Who was he supposed to hang out with?