Byler- The Unwanted Return of Everything (And How It Finally Ends)

Of Playing Games

"An old guy?" Max asked, leaning across the kitchen counter. "How old?"

Will thought about it, but not too hard. He didn't want to think about the vision at all. "His eighties, maybe? As I said, his face was barely even there. I can't really tell." Will was explaining his vision to Jane, Max, and Brad, who were trying to connect it to what they figured out in their town investigations.

Jane pulled out a newspaper and plopped it down in front of Will, pointing to a black and white photo of a man under an article titled Missing Senior Concerns Hawkins Locals. "Could this be him?" she asked.

Will looked at the picture closely. The hair looked pretty similar. Luckily, the hair on the body had been somewhat intact. "I mean, yeah. The hair is the same."

Jane nodded. "Me and Dustin asked around about this guy and found out his name was John Forvo. He lived at the senior center and one day he went out for a walk and never came back. All they found was a jacket full of his own blood and unidentifiable saliva. Sound familiar, maybe?"

"A demogorgon got him, I'd guess," said Max. "That's bad news. There's a demogorgon. What the hell do we do about that?"

Brad shrugged. "Kill it? Isn't that how you got the first one?"

"After it murdered multiple people," said Jane. "They aren't that easy to catch. I'm sure that we could do it, but it's gonna be hard. Anyone own a flamethrower or something?"

Will shook his head. "Sorry, just got rid of mine. Spring cleaning."

Max smirked. "I'm, unfortunately, in a similar situation."

Jane shook her head. "Oh, you guys are very funny. Haha."

Just then, Mike poked his head into the room. "Hey, guys," he said, not too cheerful. "Joyce needs some help unloading groceries if anyone would like to come..."

Jane nodded. "I'll be right there! Come on, Max, let's help." She grabbed her friend's hand and went off toward the garage.

"They've probably got it covered," Brad decided. "We should get outta the kitchen though. So we aren't in the way."

"Yeah, definitely." Will followed Brad into the living room, passing Mike on the way out. He looked at him for a second. He was still pissed about what Mike said. How Brad was anything like Lonnie. Imagine comparing your friend's boyfriend to their abusive dad. It was just so uncalled for and completely inappropriate. And saying Will was gonna end up like his mother? That just seemed disrespectful to her. His mother was doing just fine. Three happy kids, a loving husband, and a nice house. Maybe she wasn't always in the best place, but that didn't mean Will was gonna 'end up like her.'

Will decided not to sit down in the living room and he made his way over to Jonathan's room, needing someone to chat with. He hadn't been able to talk about his problems with Jonathan in a very long time. Now he could. The fact that Jonathan was alive still made him beam when he thought about it.

As he knocked on the door, Will felt something in his neck again. He decided to ignore it. Jonathan opened the door and smiled at his brother.

"Will, hi! Do you need something?"

Will nodded. "Maybe. Just want to catch up with you and everything, I guess. Can I come in?"

"Of course." Jonathan opened the door wider, allowing Will's entry. He sat down in a chair by his desk and motioned for Will to sit on his bed.

"I talk to Argyle every now and then, you know," Will said. "Helped him through some pretty hard stuff after you died. You really impacted him, I think. I guess it's because you were so close. But he's doing really well. He'll be happy to hear you're alive and everything. I can't wait to tell him. You'll have to come out to California with me and meet him in person. He's gonna freak out!" Will laughed, doing his best Argyle impression. "Woah, dude! Are you, like, a zombie right now? That's trippy, man."