Chapter Text
April 1986
The earth had split open. Hawkins was destroyed, at least partially. They had failed. Mike didn't know how to feel about that. For the first time since Will went missing, they didn't succeed. And Mike hated it. They had beat the odds so many times before and accomplished the impossible. All of them working together it should have been a sure thing, or at least Mike had hoped it would be. But it hadn’t been, the world was literally ending all around them. And no one knew what the next minutes, hours or days would bring. It was one of the scariest things Mike had ever experienced. After the earth had split open, they drove Max to the hospital. She had looked so weak and fragile. Mike had never before thought of Max as either of those things. But seeing Lucas run into the hospital with her in his arms had shocked Mike to his core. Max’s heart had stopped. She had died. Luckily, they had made it to the hospital in time and Max was alive. Not well but alive at least. Mike and Max weren’t that close, but he still was worried about her. He was worried about all his friends. Dustin was still struggling with the gunshot wound he had gotten and then there was Will. Will had been in so much pain in that stupid Creel house. Pain that had no real origin and therefore nothing Mike could do to help him with it. Mike realized how scared he had been for Will. His best friend had not said or moved on the way to the hospital or to the cabin. And even back there when his mother started to fuss about him, Will didn’t talk. Mike wanted to help him but there didn’t seem to be anything he could do. When they had made it to Hop’s cabin the nightmare continued. El had locked herself in her room and no matter what they tried she had not come out. Hop told the boys that El saw Vecna attack and seemingly kill Max. She had seen her best friend die. Mike felt so horrible for her. He knew what it was like to see your best friend’s lifeless corps, but unlike him El didn’t have the luck to find out that lifeless corps was fake. When they had all exchanged their tales from the night they had started to wait. It had felt like hours even though it was probably only a few minutes.
Mike had never been more relieved to see his sister walk into a room. He hadn’t even realized how worried he had been for Nancys safety. And by the way she had hugged him, Mike had gotten the feeling she had been worried about him too. Soon after they had all told each other what happened on their separate missions, Nancy had dragged him away to go back home. Mike felt a bit bad because until that moment he had not thought about his mother and father and little sister. Suddenly, however he remembered that the town had been split in two by rifts to the Upside Down and there was no telling if their house had been spared. When Nancy and he pulled up to their house their mom ran outside and hugged both of them immediately. Mike without hesitation hugged her back. Their house was still standing but there was a bit of damage to their furniture due to the split earth creating an earthquake. Holly was crying, probably scared out of her mind and even his father seemed to care for the well-being of his children for what felt to Mike like the first time ever. The military was patrolling the streets and ordering people to stay indoors so Mike and Nancy both had to accept the fact that they would not be able to get in contact with their friends this evening.
That’s how Mike ended up alone in his room with sirens blasting outside making sleep impossible. His thoughts were too loud as well. Max was in the hospital barely clinging to life, El refused to talk to anyone and blamed herself, Dustin and Lucas were both hurt and overall, their group had to deal with the fact that they had failed. Mike couldn’t help it when his thoughts turned back to Will. The way he had screamed and clawed at his skin was disturbing. Mike shook his head to get the thoughts out again. No reason to dwell on it more right now. The next few days were going to bring enough time to think this whole mess over. Mike decided to at least try and get some sleep, so he finally took his jacket off. He saw something white fall to the floor and stopped in his tracks. The paper that he grabbed outside the Creel House. The one Will had been clutching during his episode. Mike didn’t even know why he had grabbed it. It was important to Will; he had seen that, so he must have thought he should safe it. Mike grabbed the paper and sat back down on his bed. He carefully unfolded it and looked over the contents he found on the paper. It was a drawing. A pencil drawing. Will must have made it in Hop’s cabin after his encounter with Vecna. Mike looked at it more carefully. It was clearly not finished but Mike recognized what Will had wanted to draw. A swing set. It looked vaguely familiar to Mike. Suddenly it hit him like a brick wall. Kindergarten. When they met. When Mike decided to be brave and ask Will to be his friend. He looked more closely and saw the first outlines of two people sitting on the swings. Mike didn’t know how to feel. He felt as if he was intruding in something really private. He remembered how Will hid the drawings he was making when he came into the room in the cabin. Mike instinctively put the paper down. He shouldn’t be looking at it. Not without asking Will first even though he was quite certain Will wouldn’t want him to see it anyways. Mike felt shame rise in his stomach. He broke his friends trust by looking at it. He folded the paper carefully again and put it in the box with all the other drawings of Will’s he had collected over the years. With the drawing hidden Mike got ready for bed. But he couldn’t fall asleep right away. His thoughts spiralled too much to sleep. The events of the evening and the last week, the horror that was waiting for them all in the coming days and that damn drawing. Mike got sleepier but before he fell asleep, a conversation he had a day earlier with Will kept swirling around his head.
“So, anything in particular you wanted to bring to paper?”
“Just something I have been thinking about a lot lately. Nothing special, just special to me I guess.”