Chapter Text
Part One - Don't They Know It's The End Of The World
Allowing the Byers boy and the ‘Wheelie-Boy’ as that stoned weirdo Argyle called the kid to stay with him was not on Murray’s bucket list of ‘Top Ten Things To Do Before The World Ended’. Jim had explained, more than once, that young Will had an odd connection to this Vecna/Henry/001 fellow, and that until the Henderson boy and running star (or was it basketball? All sport was the same to Murray) Sinclair returned from their mission, Will needed a safe place out of the way to hide.
And that gangly dark-haired boy Mike Wheeler, Miss Nancy’s only brother, was firmly and steadfastly by Byers’ side, barely giving the kid room to breathe.
It was sickening, really, Murray thought as he allowed the two boys into his bunker, noting that Mike was carrying two duffle bags. He’d already gone through this shit with Jonathan and Joyce – did he really have to watch these two almost post-pubescent boys give each other heart eyes when the other wasn’t looking?
He rolled his eyes as Mike dumped the two bags on one of his sofas and offered his hand to Will, tugging him into the room. The moment Mike looked away, Will blushed.
Jesus Christ, this was gonna be a long night. Murray hoped that Henderson and Sinclair weren’t eaten by a Demogorgon before the sunrise tomorrow morning.
“Alright,” he said as he selected a vinyl, older music that he chose just to piss off Will, who wrinkled his nose at tunes not to his taste (definitely Jonathan Byers younger brother). “I’m gonna need you two to explain this a little better – Jim told me some of it but was focused on your friends more than the actual story.”
He sat in his chair, making sure his robe wasn’t tangled. Will and Mike sat together on one of the sofas, knees touching, but Will didn’t seem to notice, brow furrowing as he tried to figure out what to say. Mike had no such reaction; Murray saw him tense, dark brown eyes widening slightly, pale hands twisting together almost painfully.
Damn teenagers being unable to even acknowledge their feelings, let alone actually act on them. It was Jonathan and Nancy, Jim and Joyce all over again. It made Murray want to hit his head against the wall and snap at the two of them, but this was different. Very different to his friends and the two young men’s older siblings.
“Ok,” Will sighed, shaking his head slightly. “When the Mind Flayer possessed me years ago, it left a piece of itself behind… a piece we believe to be connected to Henry. It’s why I can feel him. I know how he thinks, how he feels, how he does things…”
“But…?” Murray prompted when Will fell silent, knowing there was a catch to this. No way could Will have such an amazing advantage over their enemy, be able to pretty much pinpoint where their asshole was, without there being a price to pay.
“He can do the same to me,” Will whispered, staring down at his shoes. “He can feel me, know how I think, how I feel, where I am…” He put his face in his hands, and Mike put a hand on Will’s knee.
“Hey, we’re not in Hawkins right now,” he said, his voice in a tone Murray had never heard on the kid before. “His reach doesn’t extend this far. How much of him can you sense right now?”
Will was shaking. Murray wondered whether to offer the kid a drink or not, then remembered what Joyce and Jim had told him about Joyce’s ex-husband, Will and Jonathan’s Dad. Probably a bad idea, especially since Will looked like he was ready to cry. Murray sighed, letting his head fall back and closing his eyes as he heard Will speak.
“Not a lot. It’s very faint. He’s still furious, there’s some pain, but I can’t pinpoint if it’s physical pain or something else… Like the pain that stemmed from his anger when we first came back.” Will gave a shuddering breath as Murray lifted his head again, rubbing his eyes under his glasses. “It’s like he’s…”
“Waiting?” Mike guessed, raising his eyebrows, and Murray resisted the urge to roll his eyes. They could even finish each other’s sentences? These two were way beyond what was going on with what Murray had taken to affectionately dubbing Jancy and Jopper.
Unlike the other two – Nancy and Jonathan knowing each other for years and not even being friends until their late teens, and Joyce and Jim just barely remembering their friendship from high school – these two had a long, close history. One Murray could tell had been patched up not too long ago.
Idiots. Clowns, the lot of them, the Byers in particular, but the two Wheelers and Jim were just as bad in a stubborn, gonna-keep-living-in-denial sort of way. It made his head spin and want to speed up Armageddon himself.
Nothing beat a life-or-death, if-I-don’t-tell-you-just-before-the-world-ends love confession.
“Yeah.” Will’s voice cracked slightly, and Murray saw the tears welling in the kid’s eyes. Geez… He had to get up, stretching slightly. Will and Mike, seemingly lost in their own world, now realised Murray was still here and jolted away from each other, though not far enough; their knees still touched.
“You kids allergic to anything?” Murray asked them. They shook their heads. “Good. Get comfortable, I’ll make us some dinner, and be sure to make extras to take with you tomorrow.”
He wasn’t completely heartless. Murray wasn’t a fan of kids, but he wasn’t about to send them out to fend for themselves. Not with the threat of Joyce Byers showing up on his doorstep and calling him a jackass again.
More out of politeness than genuinely wanting to share, after they finished eating, Murray grabbed a half-empty bottle of vodka and three glasses, flopping back into his chair as Will and Mike sat across from him. He poured out just under a quarter of a glass each for them, less than a shot, and pushed the glasses over.
“Take it or don’t,” he told them, pouring himself double what he did for them. “Doesn’t bother me.”
Will stared at the clear liquid that had all the intensity of a wildfire as Murray drank, his glasses flashing as he watched them. His eyes hardening, Will reached out and picked up the glass, taking the smallest of sips and grimacing.
Murray laughed. “Shoulda warned it would have a kick for you two.”
Mike was slower, but he followed suit. Murray put the vodka bottle back on the table, the glass clunking loudly against the wood.
“Feels like yesterday your siblings were here sitting in the exact same spot,” Murray told them, swirling his drink slightly. “Only they were trying to figure out what happened to Nancy’s friend, not being forced into hiding and waiting for their friends.”
Murray saw something flash in Mike’s eyes and Will stiffened up uncomfortably. He frowned at them, thinking. He remembered Jim briefly telling him what had been going on at that time – Will and Mike must’ve been about thirteen, so five years ago now – but it wasn’t quite coming to him.
“Are you two alright?” he asked, not unkindly, leaning forward as he rested his elbows on his knees. Mike’s mouth had set into a thin white line while Will just nodded weakly.
“Sorry… It’s just… that’s when this happened.” And he lifted his hand to the back of his neck, spacing out.
Geez, this kid had had it rough. Deadbeat dad, strange creepy fully grown man stalking him, being possessed by some other world entity, being trapped in this ‘Upside Down’ for a week by himself at twelve, having feelings for his male best friend in the least ideal time…
“You’re alright, kid,” Murray assured, making Will look up in surprise. “As you said, you can barely sense that creep out here. He’s seen too much of you, you deserve a break. You’re stuck here for the night, sure, but let yourself relax a little, you’ve been anxious ever since you got here.”
Now Mike was looking up too, his eyes narrowing in warning. Murray ignored him.
“You’ve got trust issues,” he continued, still staring at Will. “Easy to see. Your Dad caused a lot of it, right? And now you’ve got this murderous psychopath in your head, in your life, reading anything and everything you put out into the world before you can even voice it.”
“Watch it-” Mike started to snarl, but withdrew in surprise when Will held his hand up to quiet him, staring at Murray with eyes as wide as plates.
“This… Henry… he’s the only person on this earth who knows everything about you,” Murray mused with a nod. “Maybe even things you haven’t realised about yourself yet. Things you haven’t told anyone else. You don’t want it to be like this, you don’t want him to know everything, but he does. And you’re still afraid to open up to anyone else… even at the expense of your own happiness, and likely your own safety too.”
Will hurriedly took a drink, but his eyes never left Murray.
“You’re the kind to break your own heart in order for those you love to be happy,” Murray added. “You work hard, you pour your everything into those around you, into what you love, until there’s nothing left for you. Nothing left to give yourself.”
Will was quivering now, and Mike snapped, “Alright, old man, that’s enough!”
“Don’t even get me started on you,” Murray interrupted Mike, making him jerk back slightly. “It’s hard to pinpoint you, but I’ve seen your type; grew up in the good neighbourhood, cookie-cutter ideal family with married parents and two-point-five children, good clothes, full meals…”
“Hey, wait-”
“But that doesn’t make you happy,” Murray cut across him. “You think you should live that life, you think that’s the ideal, normal, safe life, but really… you’re lying to yourself. You wanna fit in, you wanna be normal, but really, you know you’re far from it, and you can’t accept it because it means losing that safety and having to face the reality.”
Mike’s face was odd; he was paler than Will, like he’d seen a ghost, but his expression was hard. He was trying to slam a door closed, trying to block Murray out, but he was intrigued. Murray could see it, that same curious glint in Mike’s eye that had been there in Nancy’s.
Kids who had led these so called ‘perfect’ lives only to be miserable. Parents who didn’t actually love each other and only doted on their kids when they were really little. Expected them to keep up the good streak, the churchly son and daughter life, stay the course, live the life, have the white picket fence.
It was not something Mike or Nancy wanted. Murray had seen it with his own two eyes, plain as day; those Wheeler kids were besotted with the Byers boys. Nancy with Jonathan, a guy in a different wealth class to her, considered less because he’d grown up poor and without a father. Mike, clearly reciprocating Will’s poorly concealed feelings, another boy, a love seen as ugly, sinful, wrong, in this day’s age.
Idiots. All of them. Life was too short to worry, especially now, when they had bigger concerns, like the literal Upside Down clawing at their world and tearing it apart.
Still, Murray didn’t say anything about that to either boy. They didn’t know about the other. It wasn’t his place to point it out, make them uncomfortable, or out them to each other. He hadn’t had that choice over thirty years ago when he was forcefully outed – he wasn’t about to push that onto two young, growing men still figuring themselves out.
“I’m just saying, kid,” Murray sighed, pouring himself another drink. “Take it from someone Jim and those Jakes called a ‘crackpot’ – I am well aware what they call me, close your flytrap – ‘normal’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Normal’s boring. Most people fall into a life they regret.”
He knew he’d struck a cord with Mike, who definitely had his defenses up. Murray sat back.
"Look,” he said slowly, noticing how shaken Will was. “We’ve lost a lot of people due to what they kept hidden. Your friend Max? She’s the only lucky one. She told your friend Lucas things. She found a part of herself that she showed to your superpowered friend too.”
With their deer-in-the-headlights expressions, Murray was reminded why he never wanted kids. But he decided enough was enough. He nodded at the vodka bottle. “Just this once, feel free to help yourselves. I have a couch out here and there’s a spare bed through there.” He gestured to the sliding door. “Probably should sleep soon, your friends will hopefully be here tomorrow.”
Murray stood, taking his glass with him and putting it in the sink. He walked back past the two in time to hear Mike insisting, “You take the bed, you’ve been in my basement for months, you should sleep in a proper bed.”
“It’s fine, Mike, I’ll be fine, you take it,” Will hissed back.
Turning his head so they didn’t see, Murray rolled his eyes. He had severely overestimated how insufferable Jancy and Jopper had been.
Mike and Will were a million times worse.