Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Will
5/26/1986
Will had been biking a lot since he got back to Hawkins. This was the summer he was supposed to be learning how to drive, but all the roads were torn up. It was hard enough to bike around as it was.
It would be wrong to call it summer. Truthfully, it was only early May, but since the “earthquake” (which was really the four gates’ opening), there was no school in Hawkins, Indiana. A lot of people had fled Hawkins in the following days, the town’s population was less than half of what it once was. It was a good thing. The final battle was imminent and the less people around, the better.
Will biked almost every day for the past month. He needed the outlet. Being back here was so complicated in his brain. He had so many bad memories in this town, but at least he wasn’t alone here like he was in California. However, the constant chill on the back of his neck was unbearable. At first Will thought that the physical activity would distract him from it, but it didn’t work.
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About a week in he noticed the tingling sensation got stronger, and when he stopped to look where he was, Will realized he was right outside the Forrest Hills trailer park. At first he feared that Vecna was returning, but then Will remembered that this was where one of the gates opened.
He also remembered that it was where Lucas had said Max moved to after her step-dad left. Will hadn’t been to see Max in the hospital for a while. He felt a lot of guilt about her. When he learned about Vecna’s curse and how he chose his victims, Will was immediately certain that if he had been in Hawkins, it would have been him , not Max. She wouldn’t be in a coma.
Off in the distance Will saw Max’s mother, Susan Mayfield hanging laundry outside their trailer. After thinking about it for a minute, he biked over to her. “Hi, Ms. Mayfield,” Will said shyly as he approached the trailer.
Susan Mayfieild turned around slowly, her eyes looking glazed over as she held a bedsheet in her hands. After a second, life returned to them and she gave a soft smile, as to put on an air of togetherness for Will. “Oh, hi Will. I wasn’t expecting to see you. What are you doing here?”
Will lowered the kickstand on his bike and stepped off of it. “I was biking and realized I was in the area,” Will said, struggling to make eye contact, “I wanted to ask about how Max was doing.”
Ms. Mayfield’s face went cold as the sorrow crept into her eyes. She turns around and continues to hang her laundry. “The doctors say that her bones should heal correctly, and that… if… she wakes up, she should be able to walk again eventually.” The pause she gave around the word ‘if’ felt agonizingly long, and Will immediately felt terrible for ambushing her with the question.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come here.” Will got back on his bike and turned to leave.
“Wait!” Will turned back around. “Thank you for coming by,” Ms. Mayfield said. “You’re free to visit Max in the hospital whenever you want.”
Will nodded. “I will. Thank you Ms. Mayfield.” He turned again and made his way back into town.
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The following day, Will gathered up the courage to visit the rest of the gates, confirming the fact that his suspicions when the hairs on the back of his neck stood straighter upon nearing them. He had told El about this, but no one else. He knew El would understand, and he didn’t want to worry everyone else. Together, they reasoned that using the degree of change in Will’s 6th sense when near the gates, that Vecna still was nowhere close to being ready to reemerge.
Since then, Will biked across town every day to document the change. Day 1, he scored his baseline chill, the one he felt since he returned to Hawkins, as a 2.5, and the chill he got near the gates around a 3.8. It was May 3rd, Will’s 26th day of observation. After completing his rounds, Will concluded that the most intense gate was only around a 4.3. ‘Good,’ he thought, ‘We have time.’
Will made his way back to the Byers house. The house had been sold when they moved to California last summer, but the new owners fled following the “earthquake,” allowing the Byers’ to move back in. As he biked through town, Will’s front tire snagged on a crack in the road, and he spun off into the side of a building. ‘Damnit,’ he thought to himself, knowing he should have been paying better attention to the broken roads. Before Will could stand up, a voice called from behind him.
“Hey, are you okay?”