Notes- TW for violence, blood, and suicidal intentions (kind of?)
The wind screamed in a high, painful pitch, nearly blowing Mike over as he made his way toward the clearing in the trees. He tried to keep his feet grounded as he stepped forward, pulling his jacket further around him in an attempt to resist the cold. He hoped he wouldn't freeze solid right then and there, that wouldn't help anyone.
Once he'd reached the edge of the trees, he turned around. Lucas and Dustin stood beside him, waiting for his word of command. Why they were still taking orders from Mike in his state of hysteria, Mike wasn't sure, but he appreciated their loyalty.
"Come out!" Mike yelled into the wind. "We're here! Didn't you want us to come here? Come out!" He looked into the distorted distance, trying to make out any movement.
Dustin sighed to his right. "Maybe this isn't the right place either."
Mike shook his head. "No. This is it, I know it." He looked out again. "Well? Come out and face us! Are you scared?" There was, once again, no response. Mike's confidence began to dwindle. He wasn't sure what he'd do if this wasn't the place. He had no other option, no more time.
The rain beat in harsh sheets onto his back, but Mike barely noticed, fixated on the woods, trying to hear any sound or see the figure of his friend. He stood there for over a minute, just staring.
Just when he was about to give up and head back to the car with his head hung, there was a snap from somewhere to his right. Mike whipped his head around and saw Will– the Mind Flayer– emerging from the bushes. He was about to yell at him but noticed he was shaking from head to toe. Not a cold shake, he thought, a scared shake.
"Let's get him," Lucas muttered. He waited for no response, running forward with Dustin on his tail. They grabbed Will from both sides and wrestled him to the ground with little effort. Will yelped, not attempting to fight back. He was crying.
"Get out of our friend or you're gonna regret it," Dustin yelled, forcefully shaking the boy. "Get out!" Both of Mike's friends yelled at Will and shook him around, ignoring any attempts he made to speak.
Something was wrong. The Mind Flayer wasn't fighting back. "Stop," said Mike, stepping forward. "Guys, stop."
His friends looked back at him with sudden confusion, waiting for an explanation for his hesitance. Mike simply stepped forward, kneeling down beside Will's trembling mess of a figure.
"Hey," he said quietly. "Will?"
The boy looked up at him, nodding. "I- I don't know where He went. He just– He's not here anymore. I don't know what's going on, Mike. I don't know what's happening." Will lunged forward, but Mike didn't flinch away with any sort of defensive response. He let Will wrap his arms around his neck and bury his face into his jacket. The boy was terrified, and Mike hated seeing him this way.
"Don't worry," whispered Mike. "We're here. We're not going to let the Mind Flayer get you again."
Will sighed into his ear, almost chuckling. "You really are an idiot."
Then Mike felt two different pains right after one another. The first in his back, a sharp, burning pain that stung with the rain slashing against it. The second was not even half a second later, and it was the full weight of Dustin diving at him and Will, pushing Mike to the side and trying to pin Will down again.
Mike sat on the ground for a second, trying to comprehend everything and drowning out the sounds of his friends yelling. Will was obviously not unpossessed, Mike should have seen that one coming. Also, something hurt. Will had tried to stab him with a sharp stick. As Mike felt the wound, he decided it wasn't fatally deep, but it was bleeding. It was bleeding a lot, and that was slightly disorienting.
"Mike!" he head Lucas yell from behind him. Mike turned to face him. "Are you okay, Mike? Oh my god, you're bleeding."
Mike sighed. "Yeah, I know. It's not bad, though. I don't think he got very far before Dustin fucking tackled me." Mike's side would probably bruise from the weight of Dustin shooting at him at a million miles an hour, although that was better than being impaled with a stick.
"Okay," said Lucas, exhaling. "Good. I was-"
" GUYS!" Dustin sounded somewhat strained as he yelled from Mike's left. Mike turned and remembered that he was currently rolling around with the stick-wielding Mind Flayer, trying not to die. "Help me, will you?"
Mike and Lucas ran to him. Mike pried Will off of Dustin, attempting to hold him in place. Will jerked his shoulders out of Mike's grasp with a violent motion, elbowing him in the chest. Mike fell once again, coughing slightly. His back still stung. When he looked up, he saw Will back towards the edge of the cliff, smiling like a maniac.
"What are you doing?" Dustin shouted at him. He looked at his friends frantically and got into some sort of battle stance. "Running away? Come on! Fight us!" He urged the Mind Flayer to come back. The creature in Will's body just smiled and continued backward. He was almost to the edge.
"Hey," said Mike, realizing what was happening. "Hey!" He ran forward, trying to stop Will.
Will put out his hand, commanding Mike to stop. He did so, breaking on his heels and waiting for some sort of explanation from the evil monster.
"Don't come any closer," said Will, slowly putting down his arm. "Or I'll jump." He looked back at the drop behind him. "I'd survive, of course, but I'm not so sure about this body." He stuck up an arm and tilted his head towards it as if he was studying its composition.
"You wouldn't," Lucas argued. "You need him, don't you?" He stepped forward, reaching out to get the monster.
Will stepped back again. "Don't underestimate me. I can do whatever I want, it doesn't matter if he dies now." He took one more step, an inch from the edge.
Mike realized he was shaking even more now, and not because of the cold air. "Stop," he said. "What do you want, then? Why are you doing this?" He couldn't let this thing kill Will, no matter what he wanted. Mike hated how the Mind Flayer found to power to put everyone in these situations.
Will looked pensive for a moment, then went back to his horrible grin. "Well, I would say leave me alone, but I feel like I need something more from you."
"Do you?" Dustin muttered, crossing his arms. He spoke up. "Fine, name your price. In exchange for Will, right?"
The Mind Flayer kept on smiling, it grew larger. Mike had the feeling he was doing something sly. "In exchange for Will. Do we have a deal?" Will's eyes gleamed with deceit, a look Mike had never seen on the boy.
"You haven't even named our end of the bargain," said Lucas hesitantly. All three boys knew that whatever the Mind Flayer suggested wouldn't be good. Something bad was about to happen, Mike could feel it in the air. "What do we have to do?"
Will stepped to the right, covering the glow of the moon behind a cloud so that Mike couldn't see it. He almost looked like he was glowing in the light, a specter of himself. "I want two of you to get out of here as fast as you can and leave me to my business," he paused, for dramatic effect perhaps. "And I want the remaining of you to jump off of this cliff."
Mike froze up, staring with an open mouth at the Mind Flayer. He tried to say something, but his mouth felt dry. He didn't like that deal at all because he knew who it had to be.
"Pick your preferred arrangement soon," the Mind Flayer added. "Or I'll have to drop Will off the cliff. I'll give you only a minute to figure it out." He placed his hands on his hips and suddenly started counting, giving almost no time to react. " One, two, three..."
"Okay, okay," said Dustin, looking his friends back a forth, his eyes darting. "What the hell are we gonna do? We can't really stop him because he's right on the edge, but please tell me someone had a good idea." Mike was pretty sure they wouldn't be able to find a way out of this one.
"We can't just pick someone to die," said Lucas. "I mean, I can't do that. I'd have to do it. I'd-"
"Nuh-uh," said Dustin, cutting him off. "You're important, and no one's jumping. We're gonna figure this out."
"Twenty-five, twenty-six..."
"We're not going to figure something out in time, Dustin," said Mike. He shivered, realizing they only had thirty seconds left to figure out which of them would die. Unfortunately, he already knew their choice, whether the others liked it or not. But it's for Will. It's gonna save Will. Mike just wanted him to be okay.
"Seriously," Dustin was saying. His hands were shaking. "He wouldn't kill Will would he?" He looked around for affirmation and received none, his expression darkening.
" Forty-two, forty-three, forty-four..."
"I think he'd kill him," Lucas said solemnly, looking down at his feet. "He's not lying, he's done that too much."
"Holy shit," said Dustin. "Holy shit, guys. Holy shit." He was starting to pace.
"Fifty, fifty-one..."
Mike sighed, closing his eyes and tightening his fists. "I'm doing it," he said plainly. He looked at his friends, daring them to argue in the last five seconds.
" Mike," said Lucas. "Let's-"
"No time," interrupted Mike. "I'm doing it. That's the bottom line. It's the least I can do for Will right now, please just let me do this." Mike had the feeling he'd made life a lot harder for Will ever since they got back to Hawkins. Hopefully, he'd see this as an acceptable apology.
Dustin and Lucas exchanged a look. Dustin looked like he was about to speak, his hands still shaking uncontrollably, but he was interrupted by the last number.
"Sixty."
All three boys looked to the Mind Flayer, awaiting his next instruction. Mike took deep breaths, trying to calm himself. It has to be you. It has to be you, no one else needs to die, it has to be you.
"Well?" said the Mind Flayer. "Looks like you haven't really come to a decision, so I'll just-"
"No!" said Mike, walking forward, putting one foot in front of the other with all his willpower. It was hard. The wound on his back stung, almost pulling him back to the solid land behind him. He wouldn't let it. "I'm going. I'll do it."
Will smiled, nodding. "Wonderful, I was hoping it would be you." He stepped to the side, giving Mike room to jump. He put a hand out to the drop, as if guiding him. "Go on."
"Mike," said Lucas again. "Mike, we-"
"Do we have another choice, Lucas?" Mike snapped at him. "It's either I go or Will goes right now, and I'm not gonna make you choose. I'm jumping." He looked back for a moment, waiting for Dustin and Lucas to argue, but both seemed to be at a loss for words. They just stood and stared.
"Go," Will said again, more impatient.
Better to get it over with quickly. Mike took another deep breath and ran toward the edge of the cliff. It hadn't sunk in yet that he was about to die, but as he got closer, it became more apparent. All of him wanted to stop and turn around, but he wouldn't let it happen. He was saving Will. It had to be him.
He barely noticed that he was only a foot from the edge but readied himself to jump into the lake below him.
And then he was stopped.
Mike looked down at his arm, which Will was holding onto with painful intensity. He looked up at Will's face, which looked just as confused as he was by the action.
"I-" The Mind Flayer stuttered. "How is he- What?" He focused for a second, trying to release his grip, but it only tightened. "How is he doing that?"
Mike wasn't exactly sure what was happening, but he was pretty sure Will just stopped him from jumping off the cliff. Not possessed Will, but the real Will. He couldn't help but smile.
"Jump!" the Mind Flayer shouted. "Do it! I'll kill him, so do it! Do it. Do-" He gasped and released his grip on Mike's arm, losing his balance. Mike caught him, so he didn't tumble over the side of the cliff and laid him down on the ground. He had been knocked unconscious.
"Sorry," Dustin whispered from above Mike. "I wasn't sure how else to do it, but I don't think I killed him, so it should be okay." He peered down, holding a big piece of wood.
Mike gave a giant sigh of relief, picking up Will's limp body and looking at his friends. "Max and Jane should have a plan by now, let's get him home." He started walking. "Quick," he added. "Before he wakes up again."