Through The Years (Mike Wheeler x reader)

Sixty-four

~ (y/n)'s P.O.V. ~

El sat across from me, confusion pulling at her features as she looked around. I turned, wanting Mike, but I found him missing, along with the others. 

"What..." I began, but trailed off as I looked around. 

"Max? Will?" El softly called as she stood. I moved with her. Outside, it looked dark, but the air was still. Something was off. 

"Mike?" I said, hoping for an answer. The silence gnawed at me as Billy's words came back to me. "Who can you trust now? What if it was Mike next?" The weight of those words were heavy in my mind, even though I knew Mike wouldn't leave me. "Lucas?" I tried as El let out a panicked breath. "Mike!" I cried out searching around. 

"They can't hear you." I quickly turned at the voice, recognizing it as Billy's, but it also sounded distorted, deeper. He slowly walked from what I knew to be El's room. In between his fingers was a cigarette. El grasped for my hand, letting out a shaking breath. "You shouldn't have looked for me." Billy continued, directing this to El. "And you... you probably should have kept yourself blocked." El sniffled beside me. 

"Because now I see you." Billy put out his cigarette in his ash tray. "Now we can all see you." Billy began walking towards the both of us. "You..." Billy pointed to El "...let us in. And you-" Billy turned to me, "-bound us to you. You have expanded us beyond possibilities we didn't  believe to be achievable. And now... you both are going to have to let us stay." El let out a choked sob as I shook my head, stepping back away from him and pulling her with me. 

"Don't you see? All this time, we've been building it. We've been building it... for you." Flashes of the monster I saw before went through my head, the one that looked to me when I was falling before. "All that work, all that pain... all of it... for you." Billy came closer, and I felt my back hit the table. El gripped onto me tightly, quietly crying. I felt my own tears as Billy paused, eyes flickering between us. 

"And now it's time. Time to end it. I told you, (y/n), that I would find you and El. And we are going to end you. And when you are gone, we are going to end your friends." I shook my head, thinking of Mike, then Lucas, Dustin, Max, and Will, our families. 

"No!" I cried out, not wanting to imagine the pain of losing all of them. 

"And then we are going to end... everyone." Billy stopped walking forward, only inches away. "I warned you this was coming (y/n). You knew better. And now, you're fragile and stuck with me, with us." Billy reached forward, as if to touch me, but El threw her hands up, shoving the table back. 

"Get away!" She yelled, throwing Billy back. He slammed into her coffee table, and it collapsed under his weight. For a moment, I saw flashes of the new monster again, felt his presense. Billy was right, if we didn't act.... 

El disappeared from beside me, but I was too frozen to do anything as Billy sat up. He smiled at me. 

"For the first time in your life, you haven't run yet." He noted, and then I turned, wanting to get away, but when I turned he was standing in front of me again. "We will have you. I know you feel us coming." I went to flick my wrist up, but Billy caught my hand. "Ah ah. I don't tend to fall for the same trick twice." Billy said, waving a finger.

"Let me go! Let me go!" And this time, he did. I fell back into the table, then quickly reached up, remembering I needed to pull of my blindfold. I yanked it off and the image of Billy fell away. 

~

"(y/n), (y/n). Look at me, it's okay. I'm right here." When I opened Mike was sitting in front of me, cradling my face.