Notes- TW for violence and death and talk of killing
Mike couldn't believe it. Jonathan (the Mind Flayer, really, but Mike continued to call him Jonathan) was about to murder him. He'd survived five years of Upside-Down-torment only to be killed by an evil monster possessing his best friend's brother's corpse three years after. And at the ripe age of nineteen too. He couldn't let it happen.
Mike only had a second to react as Jonathan grabbed a lamp from the dresser by which he was standing and swung it with unbelievable force in his direction. If taken to the head, the blow probably would kill. Mike jumped back onto the bed right as the object sailed past him.
"Why do you even want to get Will?" Mike asked as he turned away from another attempted hit. "Why is he so important to you anyway?"
Jonathan laughed. "I've never been sure, but we're connected. He's the only human I can possess like that." He struck again and Mike jumped away. "This body... this is different. It isn't alive. Taking hold of a corpse is easy, but I need life ."
Mike raised his eyebrow at the statement, distracted momentarily. He felt the force of the lamp colliding with his stomach. He yelped as the pain made him double over. He attempted to get up, but was hit over the head. Suddenly, getting up felt a lot less desirable. He watched through blurry vision as Jonathan stepped closer. This is it. I'm dead.
"So you can see why he's so important, and you've done nothing but get in my way." Jonathan tilted his head, smiling slightly at the barely conscious Mike Wheeler. "Goodbye, Mike. I'll give Will your regards." Jonathan raised the lamp once more and readied himself to deliver the final blow. D&D ran through Mike's head, for one reason or another. Maybe he'll roll a one.
There was a knock at the door. "Hey, is everything alright in there?" Lucas's voice had never sounded so wonderful to Mike.
Jonathan scowled and turned to the door. "Everything's fine, thank you!"
"Are you sure? I heard a couple of pretty loud bangs. Did something fall over?"
"Really, Lucas. Everything's-"
Mike found the strength to sit up. He reached his hand out and pulled Jonathan's leg out from underneath him, making him lose balance. Jonathan gave a surprised gasp, prompting Lucas to open the door.
Lucas looked at the sight with wide eyes. "What the hell?" is what he managed to say.
Mike got up, slightly wobbly. "That's not Jonathan." He pointed. "It's the Mind Flayer. He tried to- agh!" Mike was grabbed by the hair and pulled back by a cold, boney hand. He felt something press against his scalp as Lucas stepped back.
"Woah," said Lucas. "Put the gun down, Jonathan- er... Mind Flayer? Let's talk, okay?"
Jonathan shook his head. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to use this thing, too much noise, but you leave me no choice." He pressed the weapon harder. Mike noticed his hands had started up shaking again. "Don't make a sound or I'll shoot him."
Lucas looked conflicted, unsure what he should make of his situation. He stood there for a moment, unmoving. Mike could almost see the cogs in his brain at work, trying to think of a way out. He looked Mike in the eyes, his voice shaky. "If I'm wrong about this, Mike, I'm really sorry." With that, Lucas turned and bolted down the hallway. Mike's mouth dropped open. Lucas had just left him to die.
"Hey!" shouted Jonathan. He took the gun away from Mike's head and shoot through the door, missing Lucas by an inch. He lowered the gun and groaned. "Dammit, come with me." He walked into the hallway, holding Mike tightly by the arm and pressing the gun to his head.
Mike heard Lucas shouting a room over, trying to warn everyone about Jonathan.
"I'm gonna kill him," Jonathan muttered to Mike. "I'll kill all of you. None of you can know what's going on." He walked Mike over to the living room, where Lucas was standing and waiting for the rest of the group to come to aid him. He turned as he heard Jonathan enter, his expression panicked.
"Sorry I left you," he said quietly to Mike. "I figured he wouldn't shoot you since I'd just run anyway."
Jonathan laughed, tightening his grip on Mike's arm. "Well, I'll shoot him now, so don't try to pull anything else. Stay right where you are."
Jane ran into the living room behind Lucas, followed by everyone else... except Will. Mike squinted, looking for him. Why wasn't Will there?
"Oh my god," said Max, looking with her white eyes. "What are you doing, Jonathan?"
"It's not Jonathan," said Mike, earning a slight jab to the head. "It's the Mind Flayer."
Everyone exchanged worried glances and Jane stepped forward from the group, outstretching her hand. Mike had almost forgotten Jane had powers. Surely, she'd save all their asses and they'd never have to talk about this again. Easy fix.
Jonathan laughed, lowering Mike's confidence. "Try anything and I'll shoot. I've got fast reflexes, so don't think you can trick me."
Jane kept her hand up, her eyebrows lowered so she looked scary. "How long have you been inhabiting Jonathan."
"This entire time," Jonathan answered. "Jonathan is dead. He has been for three years. I'm simply using his body until I can reach my final host."
"Your final host?" Jane asked. Elaborate.
"William Byers," Jonathan said plainly. "He is essential to me... this body is not."
"We'd never let you get to Will," Dustin said, crossing his arms. "We'll stop you before you can even try."
Jonathan smiled. Mike couldn't see it, but he could feel the smile. "You can't stop me, Dustin Henderson. The only way to stop me right now is to kill William Byers." He looked around. "And I know you won't do that." He tapped his foot, making the room unbearably quiet for a moment. Mike was still shaking. He had no idea what to do.
"Actually," Jonathan continued. "Let's make this fun. I used to know someone who liked to make things like this fun. I think you killed him, right?"
"Vecna?" Mike guessed. "Yeah, we killed him. And we'll do the same to you."
"I'm holding a gun to your head, not the other way around," Jonathan reminded him. "Anyway, here's a deal. Just because I'm curious about what you'll do. The human brain is very interesting to me. And human emotions as well. I feel like this will be beneficial to my understanding of-"
"Just tell us what it is," Max snapped.
Jonathan sighed. " Fine. Either I kill every one of you in this room– and I am capable of that– or you kill William Byers."
The room was silent for a moment. Mike watched as everyone had small non-verbal conversations with each other, taking in their options. The answer to that question was almost obvious, obviously, you'd kill one person rather than five, but nobody was too fond of the other option either.
"Hard decision, hmm? I just wanted to see if you'd choose anything." Jonathan tapped his fingers on Mike's arm, sending shivers down his spine. "I'll make it easier. Either I kill all of you, or you bring Will to me. I don't want him dead anyway." Mike didn't like that option much better. He'd rather one of the options be I'll just leave Will alone and go back to the Upside Down. Then maybe he'd take the kill-everyone option.
Jane tilted her head. "You need Will alive, then?"
Jonathan shrugged. " Essentially. It would make my job a lot easier."
"Okay, let Mike go or we'll kill Will." Mike raised his eyebrows and gave Jane a look. What the hell are you thinking? Killing Will wasn't an option, Jane of anyone should have known that. His own sister. Everyone else in the room seemed to have a similar reaction. Mike watched Jane look back at them quickly and mouth something he didn't catch.
Jonathan nodded. "I see you're playing my game now, but it's useless. I know you wouldn't."
Jane put her hand down. "The fate of the world or Will? I think you're underestimating us. He's really not that important." Mike almost changed from being angry at Jonathan to being angry at Jane, but she met his eyes, tilting her head slightly. Trust me.
"Really..." Jonathan thought about it. "What do you think about that, Mike? Would you want them to kill Will? You care about him. From what I've seen, that makes humans weak to sacrifice."
Mike wanted to respond yeah, I completely disagree with Jane. Just kill us all, thanks. Jane gave him a look, urging him to play along with whatever she was trying to do. "Uhh..." he started. "I- Yeah, they can kill him. He's... he doesn't mean that much to me. I'm not gonna sacrifice anything for him, if that's what you think." He stuck his tongue out and scrunched up his face. Just saying that felt horrible.
Jonathan seemed very surprised by what Mike had said, loosening his grip slightly. "Really? Hmm... that's very unexpected."
"Yeah," said Mike, boosted by Jane's satisfactory smile. "I... Well, he doesn't do much for us anyway. I don't think we'd miss him too much if he was gone, right?" Which is completely and utterly untrue he added in his head. He hoped whatever Jane was doing actually helped and he wasn't saying mean things about his favorite person for nothing.
Jane looked back at the group. "Would you guys have a problem killing Will?"
Dustin started nodding and quickly turned it into a shake. "...no?" He looked at Jane for approval. "Yeah, no. I'd worry about killing him the least of everyone in this group. If it was Mike? Yeah, I'd pass. But Will?"
"Same here," Lucas said, patting Dustin's shoulder. "Kinda hate the guy."
"He's the worst," Max contributed. "I'd kill him in a heartbeat if it meant saving the rest of us. I call doing it too. I call killing him, actually."
Jonathan looked troubled then. "Have I... completely misunderstood the nature of human emotion? I thought that you cared about him and wouldn't want him to die... This doesn't make sense."
"Sure it does," Max said. "I'm gonna give you a new term. Fake friends. People you only pretend to like for whatever reason. In Will's case? We just feel bad for the guy. But we'd kill him."
"So what do you choose?" Jane asked, her hands on her hips. "Let us go or we kill Will."
Jonathan laughed quietly, shaking his head. "So humans really are ruthless. How... disturbing. You are giving me a difficult choice." he looked around the group. "Where is Will anyw-"
BANG. A gunshot echoed throughout the room. Jonathan looked down and saw the bullet hole that had appeared in his chest. He dropped his grip on Mike and fell to the ground with a thud, gaining a surprised look from everyone.
Will entered the room holding a smoking gun shakily in his hands. His eyes looked wet and his expression was angry. He walked forward and shot Jonathan a second time. "Nobody's dying," he said. BANG. A second shot into Jonathan's neck. "Except you."
Everyone stared at the body for a moment. It was Jonathan's, which made the sight slightly sad by nature, but on the other hand, it was a force of evil that was gone. Jonathan's body didn't bleed. It had been dead for three years.
Will shook as he looked at what he'd done. Mike frowned and tried to reach out to him to comfort the boy. "Will..."
Will ignored him, dropping to his knees in front of the corpse of his older brother. "I'm sorry, Jonathan," he said to it. He reached out and took its hand. Mike jumped back as Will's head shot up the moment he made contact with the body. His eyes rolled back until they were as white as Max's.
"He's having a vision," Mike said urgently to the group. He sat down by his friends and shook his shoulders. "Wake up, Will!" He thought the visions would end now that the Mind Flayer was gone.
Everyone stood around and Mike tried desperately to wake his friend up. Will was unresponsive to anything.
After a while of watching in silence, Dustin turned to Jane. "Okay, what was that whole ' we want to kill Will' thing about? We weren't saying that for real, right?"
Jane shook her head. "Of course not! I knew Will was looking for the gun- a clever plan really-, so I was buying him time with something I knew would confuse the Mind Flayer. I wouldn't ever kill Will for anything."
Mike hardly listened to their conversation as he continued to yell to his unconscious friend. Usually, he could wake Will up from his visions with a quick shake, but it wasn't working. Nothing Mike tried gained any reaction from his friend.
I really hope you're okay, Will. He wasn't sure at this point.