Chapter Text
Wills POV:
My hands buzzed, an inner electricity humming in my veins. It took everything in me to open my eyes, ever so slowly filling the view in front of me. Gray pallets were slathered in the soldier's blood, as pools of fire scattered in front of me. Then him. Mike. His eyes shimmered, the flames reflecting their brown glow. His smile… his smile, soft but still so visible.
A weight pressed itself on my shoulders. The all-too-familiar scent of my mom's smoky breath touched my neck, her arms pulling me into a hug. Some warmness and familiarity to drag me out of whatever the hell this was.
She pulled back whispering, “Oh, baby.” Her soft voice pierced through the sharp air. “I don't understand! How did you–?”
“He's a sorcerer! A real life, honest-to-God, sorcerer!” Mike interjects, an amazed craze in his eyes. He runs up to me, his hair flopping gently against his forehead.
Before I knew, his lanky figure pressed against mine. And then his hands and his neck. Pause. He's actually hugging me. And damn, it feels… good? It's not just a shit hug, like the one he'd half-given me at the airport months ago. He's actively diving in, bringing me closer and closer. A mix of sweat and whatever was left of his deodorant filled my lungs, his jacket gently easing its way to suffocating me. I'd wish it would. Then he pulls back, his warmth leaving me.
“You did it! You really did it.”
Did I? If you call a failed attempt of saving kids from the grasp of Henry, then sure, I did do that.
I sighed, taking a second to breathe, even though my mind and body were still wired through the buzziness from earlier, the unfamiliar rhythms of Henry's control. “Vecna got the other kids too. They didn't make it out of Hawkins. I-I could've helped them fight if I had just acted sooner.” Mike's eyes met mine, darting to Mom's, then mine again. “But, I was too late! And, now he's got all of them. All twelve. We failed, I failed.”