HOW TO STOP LIKING BOYS ━ Stranger Things ✓

TWELVE: WILL BYERS WAS DEAD

TWELVE: WILL BYERS WAS DEAD

THEY FOUND NOTHING IN THE WOODS. Even after walking for hours. They hadn't found Will, nor had they found another weird girl with a shaved head. Although disappointed, Daniel knew they were never going to get far with this. Maybe Heather had been right, even though it was cruel to think about. Could Will be dead? The very idea of Will not being around anymore, not being around for good, sounded like living in a nightmare. Even if Will wasn't super talkative, Daniel still considered Will to be one of his best friends. Many a night had they spent playing D&D (with Daniel watching, of course) where they saw the real Will. The real Will with his bright smiles and thought out decisions.

Night had fallen long ago, but the boys were still mindlessly searching through the woods while Eleven lead them without telling any of the boys where they were actually going. They seemed to just be wandering, but the girl seemed to have some kind of plan or whatever. Daniel would be lying if he said he cared.

An owl hooted, disturbing the quiet night, and Daniel jumped. As if Mike could sense how scared he was, he silently laced his fingers with Daniel's. Suddenly, the boy was glad it was dark so his friend couldn't see his blush.

For some reason, Eleven stopped in front of Will's house. This is what they walked for hours for? What was the point?

"Here," was all she said.

Mike, thankfully, was unimpressed. "Yeah, this is where Will lives."

"Hiding," she said again. Could this girl really not put a coherent sentence together?

"No, no, this is where he lives," Mike repeated. "He's missing from here, understand?"

Daniel sighed, taking note of Mike still holding his hand. "What are we even doing here? This is going nowhere, let's just go home, I'm tired."

"Yeah," Lucas cut in, him and Dustin dropping their bikes, "What are we doing here?"

"She says he's hiding here."

"Oh, and you go along with everything she says now?" Daniel let go of Mike in order to cross his arms. He was getting very tired of Eleven suddenly running things.

"Yeah, no," Lucas was just as on Daniel's side as he usually was, which was nice. At least there was one other reasonable person in this group.

"I swear if we walked all the way out here for nothing-"

"That's exactly what we did!" Lucas exclaimed, cutting off Dustin. "I told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!"

"Screw this, I'm going home!" Daniel said, beginning to walk towards the house, "I'm gonna go see if Joyce will let me use her phone. Lucas, Dustin, you want Heather to give you a ride?"

The two boys nodded and began to follow before Mike stopped them by shouting, "Listen! We all wanna find Will, right? Well, right now El's our best chance whether it makes sense or not! We're gonna get nowhere just searching the woods day and night! Until we have a better clue as to where the hell he is, she's our best shot!"

Everyone went silent and Mike turned to Eleven, his voice quieter and more of a monotone, "Why did you bring us here?" Eleven tried to answer, but no words came out.

"Mike," Lucas started, "Don't waste your time with her."

"What do you wanna do then?"

"Call the cops like we should have done yesterday," Lucas said with a sigh.

"I agree, this whole idea was just stupid!" Daniel exclaimed, getting more and more agitated by the minute. God, he really hated Eleven. There was something about her that made Mike throw all reason out the goddamn window. It was the way Daniel was for Mike and that was killing him slowly.

"We are not calling the cops!"

"Hey, hey guys?" Dustin cut in, his voice sounding nervous. The boys continued arguing, but Dustin yelled again, "Guys!"

It was then they all heard the deafening sirens. Sirens that could only mean something bad was happening and it was happening right now. It was rare that sirens were heard in Hawkins, in fact, this sound was completely new to Daniel. They all watched the road as two cop cars and an ambulance sped past, sirens blaring. This was nothing good.

"Will. . ." Mike said before they all turned around and sprinted to the bikes. Daniel, out of habit, got onto Mike's.

Eleven stuttered for a moment before Lucas sighed. "Screw it, just get on mine!"

The girl did so for the sake of urgency and they sped off after the sound of sirens. They rode faster than they probably ever had in their short lives, worried that their friend had been found and not in the way they wanted him to be. They followed the sirens all the way to the Quarry where they were greeted with a sight much too terrible for their young eyes. The five hid behind a truck and watched as a small body that could only be Will Byers was pulled out of the water.

"No. . ." Daniel muttered, tears already falling, "No, no, no, this isn't happening. This isn't real, this isn't happening."

"What, what if it's someone else?" Dustin suggested, but they all knew who it was.

Mike had one arm around Daniel's shoulders, comforting him as they all cried together, watching their best friend's corpse be carried away. Will was dead. This was one thing Heather would hate to be right about when she heard.

"It's not Will," Mike mumbled, "It can't be."

Daniel tried to speak, but the lump in his throat kept any words from reaching the surface. He turned and cried into Mike's shirt instead, letting the other boy hold him. They were all breaking down. Their best friend was dead.

"It's Will. It's really Will," Lucas said, his voice broken.

"T-this is her fault," Daniel snarled, wiping tears from his cheeks only for them to be replaced with fresh ones. He let go of Mike and whipped around to face Eleven. "You, you gave us hope, you led us on, but he's been dead the whole time!"

"You lied to us," Mike's voice was disappointed and defeated.

"Mike," Eleven tried to say, placing a hand on his shoulder, but he slapped it away. If Daniel hadn't just found out his best friend was dead, he might have been satisfied by that. He had bigger fish to fry right now, though. God, Will was really dead.

"Mike?" the boy repeated, now sounding angry, "Mike what? You were supposed to help us find him alive. You said he was alive! Why did you lie to us? What's wrong with you? What is wrong with you?"

Daniel reached out and placed a hand on Mike's shoulder and it wasn't slapped away. "Mike, let's just go, okay? She's some kind of fucking sociopath or whatever, she isn't worth it. I-I can stay the night and your place and we'll keep each other company. Let's just leave her here. She can climb back into whatever hole she came from."

"Daniel. . ." Eleven began softly, but the boy cut her off.

"Don't say my name like I'm supposed to care. Let's go."

"Guys, don't do this, come on," Lucas pleaded tears dripping from his eyes.

"Where are you going?" Dustin asked, crying as well, "Mike, Daniel."

The two boys climbed onto the one bike and rode off into the night, Daniel gripping Mike tightly as tears fell down his cheeks. Will Byers was dead. Will Byers was dead.

( note! )

w o w remember when they used Heroes by David Bowie as they were pulling "Will" out of the river because hooo boy i sure do! long story short,, im sobbing