Byler- The Unwanted Return of Everything (And How It Finally Ends)

Sudden Death

I can't do this. He's dead. I watched him die.

He sighed and slowly reached up to the phone again, trying to steady his fingers as he tried to enter the number again. He finally succeeded, pulling the phone to his ear. It was smudged with red stains.

Mike answered almost immediately, somehow knowing it was Will who was calling. "Will? What is it? Do you need help?"

Will tried to answer him, but words wouldn't come out of his mouth. He whimpered slightly into the phone, the only thing he could manage.

"What? Are you okay, Will? What's going on? Talk to me!"

Will wanted to throw the phone across the room. "He... He's dead." Saying it to Mike felt like coming to terms with it. Tears streamed down Will's cheeks and he tried to wipe them with his bloody hands, making matters worse.

Mike was silent for a moment. "...Dead? Brad? Who are you talking about, Will?"

"The demogorgon... it- It came in and–"

"Demogorgon?" Mike yelled into Will's ear, it made him jump like an idiot. "I'm coming over, okay? Just... stay there."

"Thank y-" Mike hung up the phone, leaving Will to himself again. He sat with his back against the dresser and closed his eyes again, trying to regulate his breathing in and out. Every part of him was still shaking violently. He tried to stop until he cried again. It was useless. Everything kept playing over in his mind. The creature coming in and pouncing on Brad and the blood and the sounds and everything. Will grabbed his ears and put his hands over them, trying to stop the sounds. He shook his head, not sure what he was disagreeing with.

Look at you. Pull your act together. Remember? Your act.

Will leaned his head up, exhaling deeply. "You're gonna be okay," he said aloud. "Mike's gonna come and you're gonna be okay. And Brad, he had... he had a family. He had friends." What would Will tell them? How would he explain the demogorgon attack to some random people who had never heard of the concept? Maybe he'd just call it a murder. It was a murder.

Will just sat there, trying to think of nothing.

Mike came, much too late. The door was locked, the demogorgon having come in through a window. There was glass all over the floor on the side of the bed.

Will stood shakily and made his way cautiously to the door, turning the handle and pulling it open. Mike stood on the other side, his look of concern growing as he caught sight of more of the situation.

"Holy shit, what happened?"

Will didn't answer. He just collapsed into the boy's arms and cried like a baby.

It was a mess. Mike couldn't begin to guess what had happened. There was blood on the floor and splattered on the sheets. Will had blood coming from his nose and blood covering his clothes and blood on his hands. He looked like he had just murdered an entire family on vacation. Whatever happened, he wasn't taking it well. The poor boy could hardly talk, gripping onto Mike in a fierce hug, shaking like it was negative twenty degrees outside. Mike didn't know what to do.

"Hey... hey, what's going on? What happened?" The scene was even scaring Mike and he hadn't been there. Maybe I should call more people. "Let's go sit down, okay? Can we go inside or do you want to go to my car?"

"Car," Will said. "I don't want to go back in there."

Mike nodded. "Okay, yeah. That's fine. Come on." He carefully led Will back to his car and followed him to the backseat.

Will took a second to compose himself, not very well, but enough to talk. "I came home and he was angry. He... He had a gun."

Mike raised an eyebrow. "A gun? Did he hurt you?"

Will shook his head. "He wanted to kill you."

Mike widened his eyes. That was something he wasn't expecting to hear. Brad had actually wanted to kill him? He bought a gun and everything? Guess I was right about him. Holy shit.

Will continued. "But the monster came and it jumped on him. It was so fast. He just... he was screaming, Mike. I don't know what he said. It was so loud. He said... he said my name. He said help. I couldn't help him and he... it took him. It killed him and it took his body back to the Upside Down. Mike, I... I..." Tears started to form in his eyes again. He looked up at the roof of the car, blinking and trying to make them stop.

Mike gave him a hug, rubbing his back and saying empty things like "it's okay" and "hey, you're okay." None of it would help. He never knew how to help. Sometimes he hated how traumatized Will was. He wasn't supposed to have to deal with this. Mike was nineteen years old still and he shouldn't have to deal with this. Will shouldn't have to go through it. Nobody deserved anything, Dustin was right about that.

On another note, Brad was dead. Ding dong, the witch was fucking mauled by a demogorgon. Mike tried not to, but some part of him was relieved by it. He was gone and he couldn't give Will any more trouble. Mike supposed that was about the same mentality Brad must have had when he wanted to kill him, which also didn't sit well, but he couldn't help but feel like a weight was lifted off of the world. Goodbye, Brad.

"I shouldn't have let him come, Mike. I let him come to Hawkins and now he's dead." Will looked into Mike's eyes, silently asking a question. Am I guilty? Do you think I killed him?

"Will, you said it yourself, he insisted on coming. You didn't have a choice. If this is anyone's fault, it's his." Will had said something about that on the first day that they were in Hawkins. It wasn't his fault and it was stupid to blame himself. "You didn't do anything, okay?"

Will nodded. "I just... God, I can't believe he had to go right then. I wish my last interaction with him wouldn't have been arguing about how I cheated on him. That's... that's horrible."

Mike leveled his eyelids. "Why does it matter? He sucked anyway and he's dead now, so does it matter how he felt when he died? He deserved it, that's what I think. He had it coming."

Will leaned back, looking stern. "He was also a person, Mike. Even if he was mean. He was just a kid. Twenty-one years old... he... he had a family. And his team. He was still a person." Will sighed. "And maybe it doesn't matter how he felt when he died, but I felt horrible." He shook his head. "I shouldn't have even gone on that car ride with you... or kissed you. It was stupid. It was wrong."

Mike's heart dropped and he shook his head, grabbing Will's shoulders. "No, it wasn't stupid, Will. You were gonna tell him. It's not like you were seeing me behind his back. You were gonna tell him right away. It wasn't wrong. It isn't wrong." He couldn't let Will leave him over this. Then Brad succeeds even though he's dead. He'd be rolling in his grave... or lack thereof.

"I just... I don't what to do, Mike. What should we do? I mean, he was on our team. And now we're down a man. We've got to find this demogrogon before he can do any more damage."

Mike thought for a moment. It seemed too late to deal with this. "Can we just think about it in the morning, Will? You can stay at my house."

Will shook his head. "I'm not going to sleep, Mike. I can't. We have to do something."

"What do we do about the room? I'm guessing the motel owners are gonna want some answers on the state of it." Mike thought about how they would tell the motel owners " hey, someone just got violently killed in room 106. Sorry about that. Could we get some housekeeping maybe?"

Will shrugged. "I was thinking murder. I wasn't there and I walked in and he was gone. Killed by an unknown criminal. I mean, he was murdered, right? It's not a lie."

"I miss when the government covered this stuff up." Mike laughed at his own joke, clearing his throat when he realized it wasn't the right moment. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Will sighed. "Let's get this over with. I think the front desk is still open."