the vanishing of will byers

    Mike Wheeler looked ominously around the group of boys. Nick loved it when Mike was Dungeon Master, he always made it way more fun.

    "A shadow grows on the wall behind you...swallowing you in darkness...it is almost here..." Mike looked around at all the boys. Lucas. Dustin. Will. Nick.

    "...What is it?" Will was the first to break the silence. Nick's eyes unconsciously swivelled towards Will. Something he did often.

    "The Demogorgon?" Dustin asked.

    "We're screwed if it's the Demogorgon!" Will exclaimed.

    "So screwed!" Nick agreed. He could probably count on one hand how many times he had actually disagreed with Will.

    "It's not the Demogorgon." Lucas argued.

    "How could it not be the Demogorgon!" Nick argued. He pushed back a stray piece of dark hair that fell across his forehead.

    Mike waited until the other boys calmed down. Nick's eyes reluctantly turned towards the clock on the wall in the basement. The yellow clock portrayed that they were getting entirely too close to leaving the Wheeler household.

    "An army of Troglodytes charge into the chamber!" Mike's shouting snapped Nick away from the clock. Mike's hands were wrapped around six winged miniatures as he slammed them down onto the map. "Their tails drum the floor. Boom! Boom! Boom!"

    "Troglodytes?!" Dustin yelled.

    Nick could only imagine the annoyance of the eldest Wheeler sibling a floor above them. He was sure Nancy would be mean to them as they left. He didn't mind, he found that he quite liked Nancy. Not in the way that Dustin or Lucas liked Nancy. He just thought she was cool.

    "Told 'ya!" Lucas slammed his fists down on the table as he looked around at the boys.

    "Easy." Dustin feighned confidence. Nick wasn't sure he had ever really seen Dustin be truly confident.

    Mike looked over his shoulder, really playing into the narrative. "Wait...do you hear that? Boom! Boom! Boom! That sound...it didn't come from the Troglodytes. No. It came from something behind them..." Mike slammed another miniature onto the map. "The Demogorgon."

    The boys stared at the board.

    "We're all gonna die." Lucas concluded.

    Nick gulped. "Yeah, we are."

    "Will, your action!" All heads snapped towards the gentle boy.

    Will swallowed. "I...I don't know-" Will started.

    "Fireball him-" Lucas shot off.

    "I'd have to roll thirteen or higher-" Will defended.

    "Too risky. Cast a protection spell!" Dustin suggested.

    "Don't be a pussy! Fireball him!" Lucas shouted.

    "Don't listen to him Will! Protection spell!" Nick shouted, he hoped his words would reach Will more, they usually did. He did quite hate making Will feel overwhelmed and pressured by outside forces, let alone himself.

    "The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering. It stomps towards you." Mike continued. "Boom!" He slammed his hands against the table yet again.

    "Fireballl him!" Lucas yelled.

    "Another stomp, boom!" Mike continued upping the anty.

    "Cast protection." Nick convinced.

    "He roars in anger!" The group all clamored around as Mike growled.

    "Fireball!" Lucas and Dustin shouted.

    Will rolled the dice and they clattered against the table, the boys held their breath as the dice rolled on its sides and off the table.

    "Oh shit!" Dustin exclaimed.

    "Where'd it go?" Lucas and everyone else dived under the table in search of the dice, which would ultimately decide the fate of their game.

    "Where is it?" Lucas pointed his question at Will again.

    "He doesn't know!" Nick defended his best friend.

    "Is it a thirteen?" Lucas ignored Nick and asked again.

    "I don't know!" Will shouted as the boys scrambled to the basement floor for the dice. Nick's hand slapped over Will's as they both reached for the die.

    The basement door swung open just as the boys eyes made contact. Nick ripped his hand back as if he had placed his hand over a stovetop.

    Karen Wheeler stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at the boys as they all looked back at her. Her presence respected but also brought annoyed feelings.

    "Mom, we're in the middle of a campaign-" Mike shouted as he followed his mother to the top of the stairs.

    The four boys scurried into their previous chair, a light dusting of red on Nick's cheeks as he watched Will out of his peripheral.

    "You mean the end." The boys heard as they disappeared out of the basement.

    "That might be our cue." Nick swung his legs back and forth as they looked at the D&D board, which they would likely leave untouched until their next game night.

    The boys collected their backpacks, shoving belongings inside.

    "Does the seven count?" Will asked, a cheeky smile on his face. Nick found that his eyes lingered on the boys face long after Lucas' outburst about the number.

    "It was a seven?!" He exclaimed.

    Will nodded as he met Nick's eyes, causing the boy to rip his eyes away and focus them on the ground.

    "Did Mike see it?" Lucas asked further.

    Will didn't pull his eyes away from Nick as he pushed things inside his backpack. He shook his head.

    "Then it doesn't count." Lucas shrugged his backpack on.

    They scittered down the hall as a quartet, only stopping when they heard the older voice of Mike's older sister Nancy.

    She was laid on her bed, her phone in her hand as she talked away to her friend Barb, one older kid that Nick had actually met and found that he liked.

    "Hold on a second, Barb." Nancy put down her corded phone as she walked towards the door where the boys were conglomerated.

    She shut the door in their faces, an ingenuine smile on her face.

    Nick never really understood why everyone had a crush on Mike's older sister. He just thought she was a mean girl. He never really found myself in awe of her.

    "She's so mean." Nick mumbled as they descended the stairs.

    "How can you say that? Have you seen her?" Lucas exclaimed as they entered the garage where their bikes were waiting for them.

    "Who?" Mike asked, brows furrowed.

    "Nancy." Lucas and Nick spoke in unison.

    "I'm not listening to this." Mike covered his ears. He hated the crushes his friends had on his older sister. He never really did worry about Will having a crush on her before, he had never displayed interest.

    "She's got a boyfriend now." Dusin informed.

    "Does not!" Lucas argued.

    "Does too!" Dustin countered.

    "Who cares?" Nick mounted his bike. Eyes turned to him at his rather loud outburst. "I mean, why would we care who Nancy's dating? It's not like it's gonna effect one of us."

    "Steve Harrington." Dustin informed.

    "He's cool!" Lucas and Dustin went back to their previous conversation about the unattainable Nancy Wheeler.

    "I don't think she's all that great either." Will admitted as they took off on their bikes and headed down the dark street.

    The four boys biked side by side.

    "See ya, ladies." Lucas was the first to depart from the group, peeling off on a side street towards his house.

    "Kiss your mom 'night for me." Dustin called, his only response from Lucas being a middle finger.

    "Race to my place?" Dustin looked from Nick to Will. "Loser gets a comic."

    "Any comic?" Will asked, an excited expression. Nick found that he didn't really care about the prize or the race until he saw Will's face. He was determined to make sure Will won.

    "Yeah." Dustin agreed.

    That was all it took for Will to take off in the direction of Dustin's house, pedalling as fast as he possibly could.

    "Shit!" Dustin shouted, but Nick had already taken off too, coming up on Will's rear, but not quite reaching him. Just as he intended.

    Will raced past Dustin's house, a smile on his face.

    Nick's breath caught in his throat, but he blamed it on the burn in his legs from pedalling so fast. Will's eyes darted back to look at Dustin.

    "I'll take your X-Men Uncanny two-six-nine!" Nick didn't know what that meant, but he didn't have a lot of time to think about it because his bike hit a crack in the sidewalk, jolting his body.

    Will slowed down ahead of him for the boy to catch up.

    "You wanna stay the night at my house?" Nick smiled, his dimples popping in his cheeks. Will couldn't help but smile back, as if it was simply unnatural if he didn't smile back at Nick.

    "I can't. We've got school tomorrow." Will wanted so badly to go to Nick's house and stay up late into the night laughing, but he could not.

    "That sucks. I'm sure it'd give Veronica a reason to hang out with us." It was no secret that Veronica Cline had a favorites when it came to her brother's friends. Will was without a doubt her favorite.

    "Oh shut up!" Will laughed as they pedalled in unison down the dark street. The boys often joked that Will had a crush on Veronica due to his rosy cheeks everytime she was around.

    "It's so true!" Nick laughed. He knew that they should be scared biking home just the two of them in the dark, but he wasn't. Maybe it was because Hawkins, Indiana was practically the safest town in America due to its utter mediocrity. Most likely, it was because Nick never really felt scared with Will. He always found that he felt nothing but comfort around his closest friend.

    "Okay, this is me." Nick nodded his head towards his house. His dad's light was off, as he had assumed, but his sister's was on. Veronica always waited until Nick got home to go to sleep.

    "See you later!" Will called, but biked slowly away until Nick got inside.

    Nick left his bike in the driveway and scrambled up the stairs. His converse slid and scraped against the tile in his front entryway. He jumped as he tried to pry his shoes from his feet.

    Veronica stood at the top of the stairs, a light illuminating from her bedroom. "You're like, really late." She crossed her arms over her chest.

    Nick often found that Veronica posed as parental figure more than she did an older sister. It also didn't help that their dad liked to pose more as an older brother than a father.

    "Sorry, ran late at Mike's." Nick finally pried the shoe from his foot and left them in a cluster by the front door. "Crazy great campaign, you would've loved it."

    "I'm sure." She nodded her head with faux interest. "School, in the morning." She patted him on the back as she directed him towards his room.

    Nick's room was adorned with space memorabilia, everywhere his eyes could scan, there was something that was reminiscent of space. He had stick on glow in the dark stars on his ceiling. Several solar system models. NASA posters. Books scattered across surfaces about the moon landing, and information about Mars.

    He slumped against his space themed bed sheets and looked up at the glowing stars that had been taped to his popcorn ceiling. He remembered when Veronica had brought them home and did her best to Scotch tape them to the ceiling. Most of them were crooked do to their haphazard placement, a few were on their last leg and almost falling. Nick loved them entirely. It was the first time he had felt that he was a person. That people around him noticed him. At least, Veronica anyways.

    A soft knock sounded at his door as his sister opened the door.

    "Why knock, when you're already almost in the room?" Nick sat up in his bed, his worn jeans and t-shirt still on.

    "Don't forget about your science homework." Veronica all but sang as she closed the door.

    Nick groaned, but in truth, he loved his sister more than anyone. He loved Will, and considered Will one of his closest people, but Veronica was his best friend and truest confidant.

    Chris Cline making his kids breakfast was a rare and treasured event. It never really ended in a good, not burnt breakfast, but it was always an experience.

    Nick could always tell that it was a good day for his dad when the sound of pots and pans clanking downstairs made their debut.

    Veronica had already exited her room and was rushing down the stairs by the time Nick had even rubbed his eyes and peaked his head out the window.

    "Dad?" Nick yawned as he joined his sister in the kitchen.

    "Nicky!" Chris' face was covered with a scruffy brown beard, his hair was longer and curled against his neck. His eyes were, for that day, full of life and excitement. "You want pancakes, son?" He held up the hot pan at his son.

    "Hey, why don't you let me take over the hot pan?" Veronica tried her best to come off as nicely as possible. She had more experience with this than Nick, she had lost the excitement that Nick still had for their father.

    "Woah!" Chris pulled the pan away from his sixteen year old daughter. "I can make breakfast for my kids. Sit. Sit!" He insisted, nudging her with his other hand.

    Veronica practically bit her tongue as she sat at the kitchen island with her younger brother.

    "Is this one of his...things?" Nick whispered as their father hummed to some song that was blaring from their local radio station.

    Veronica finally pulled her eyes away from their father to look at her brother. "Yeah. Don't get your hopes up that he'll even get out of bed tomorrow."

    The wall phone rang, Veronica was out of her seat before the second ring.

    "Hello." She wrapped the cord around her finger as she kept a cautious eye on her father. "Oh hey Mrs. Byers'."

    Nick's head perked up at the mention of his best friends mom.

    "Oh no, sorry. Will's not here. Hey, Nick, did Will stay at Mike's last night?" Veronica held the phone away from her mouth as she asked.

    "No, did he not make it home?" Nick was up and out of his seat before he could really think about what he was going to do when he got to the phone.

    "Hey, Jonathan." Joyce had obviously passed the phone off to her eldest son. "No, I promise he really didn't want to come over, why would I lie?"

    "Pancakes!" Their dad shouted and set out two plates of overdone pancakes on the counter.

    "Yeah, yeah. If I see him I'll call, yeah. I'll see you soon." Jonathan and Veronica were casual friends. She didn't feel a certain obligation to always hang out with him, but she often did. They wouldn't admit it out loud, but they were closer than they intended to be.

    "Will didn't go home last night?" Nick, who like his sister before the hardening girlhood, felt everything entirely too much. Which was why Veronica's eyes softened when she looked at her younger brother, so full of life, the world hadn't touched him yet.

    "No." She sighed and let her shoulders sag. "He didn't."

    "Pancakes!" Chris shouted again.

    Veronica ruffled her brother's already disheveled hair. "Go eat pancakes."
    Nick didn't just wear his heart on his sleeve, he wore it on his face. Anyone could see his distress from one look at him. His brows furrowed and his mouth in a frown.

    "These are great dad, thanks." Veronica nudged her brother with her elbow as an indication.

    Nick wiped his mouth with the back of the hand. "Thanks dad." He shoved another forkful of syrupy goodness.

    The eleven year old boy practically inhaled his food before he all but lept out of his chair and ran for his bedroom upstairs.

    He shoved his limbs into clothes as fast as he could fit them, shoved his discarded science homework in his backpack, and crammed his feet back into his dirty maroon Converse.

    Veronica was already ready waiting at the bottom of the stairs flipping her keys in her hand when Nick descended the stairs, his backpack slung over his shoulder.

    "Let's go." Veronica opened the door and ushered Nick out. "Bye dad." She smiled back at their father, whom she was not sure would be as joyous as he was at the beginning of the day the next time they saw him.

    Nick slid into the front seat of Veronica's Station Wagon.

    "Jonathan said that Will didn't come home?" Nick swallowed the lump in his throat before he asked again. He didn't want her to answer truthfully, not really. He wanted her to tell him that it was all one big mistake and Will had just slept in.

    "He said he wasn't in his bed this morning." She kept her eyes on the road, no matter how much she wanted to look over and check on her brother. "Hey, I'm sure he's fine. Maybe he just left early and this is all a big misunderstanding."

    As much as Nick wanted to ignore the knots in his stomach, he felt that the situation couldn't be true.

    Veronica pulled in front of the middle school. "Did you do your science homework?"

    "No." Nick was already climbing out of the car by the time he answered her.

    "Dude. You want to keep going over to Mike's to do nerd time, do your freaking science homework." She scolded, but there was no bite behind it.

    "God, just curse like a normal teenager." He smiled, but he was looking around every which way for a simple glimpse of Will.

    "Never." She smiled as she pulled the car into drive. "Bye."

    Nick held onto the strap of his backpack as he looked around the courtyard. His eyes danced over his peers, looking for one individual.

    As his feet took him towards the bike rack where he knew Mike and the rest of the party would be, he never once laid his eyes upon Will.

    "Hey, have you guys seen Will?" Nick asked as soon as he came upon the rest of his friends.

    Dustin and Lucas shook their heads.

    "They called you too?" Mike asked, he pushed his bike against the rack to ensure its stability. "I thought he stayed the night at yours."

    Nick pressed his lips together and shook his head. "No, we split off where we usually did."

    The four walked to Mr Clarke's class, feeling odd due to their lacking of one important member. Their wizard.

    "Who here enjoys mysteries?" Mr Clarke asked the class. Hands rose all over the room, including three of the boys. Nick was too busy looking out the large window in the classroom. "Good, good. Because I want you to start thinking of this class as an investigation into the greatest mysteries known to man. You'll need to learn to think beyond your own senses. This means using your imagination. I don't know how many of you watched Cosmos like I asked...You may remember something Carl Sagan said: "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it...we go nowhere."

    Sharp knocks sounded against the classroom as their vice principal followed it. "So sorry to interrupt...may I borrow Michael, Lucas, Dustin and Nicolaus?" She asked.

    "Yes, of course." Mr Clarke answered for them.

    The four boys rose from their seats and followed the vice principal out of the classroom.

    "Do you think this is about Will?" Nick, ever the optimist, asked.

    Mike elbowed him in the ribs. "Yeah, I think it's about Will."

    The four boys were scrunched together on a couch in the principals office, the Chief and Deputy opposite them.

    "...So you were...racing?" The Chief asked, an eyebrow raised.

    "It was me, him, and Nick actually-"

    "My house is the first up-"

    "He takes Mirkwood home-"

    "We were racing on a bet and-"

    "My house is only a few streets over-"

    Chief Hopper put his hands up and silenced the boys. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. One at a time." He pointed his index finger at Mike. "You. You said he takes...what?"

    "Mirkwood."

    "Mirkwood? You ever hear of a Mirkwood?" Hopper turned to his Deputy, a confused lilt in his voice at the unknown.

    "Sounds made up." Deputy Callahan responded.

    "It's from Lord of the Rings—"

    "The Hobbit—" Dustin corrected.

    "It doesn't matter!" Lucas exclaimed.

    "He asked." Dustin defended himself.

    Hopper slammed his hand down on the desk. "Hey! What'd I just say? One at a goddamn time." He pointed at Mike again. "You."

    "Mirkwood. It's a real road. It's just the name that's made-up." Mike answered.

    "What's its real name?" Hopper asked.

    Mike turned to look at Nick, if anyone in the party knew he assumed that Nick was. He lived the closest to Will, he went over there the most, he overall spent the most time with the boy out of any of them.

    "I-I'm not sure. It's by Camp hero. Where Crook's Cove and Kerley meet." Nick tried his best to remember but he just couldn't. His leg bounced up and down due to the nerves.

    "Yeah, I think I know it." Hopper wrote something down on a note pad.

    "We can show you–" Mike tried, but the Chief just cut him off again.

    "I said I know it." He gave the boy a stern look. The Chief of Police was not used to being cut off by eleven year old boys.

    "We could help you look, is what he means." Nick's soft voice always attracted eyes when he was in a room. He was a boy of few words, but when he said them, he sounded like he really meant them.

    "No." Hopper spoke sternly. "After school, you boys go straight home. All of you." He looked at all the boys, making eye contact with all of them to drive his point home. "That means no biking around looking for your friend, no investigating, no nonsense. This isn't some Hobbit book. I make myself clear?"

    The boys turned to look at each other, a glimmer of defiance in each of their eyes.

    "I make myself clear?" Hopper asked again.

    All the boys quickly nodded, shaken by his serious tone. Jim Hopper had always been someone they had heard of, but never one that they had really met.

    Unlike a lot of young boys, Nick was a rule follower. He got into his sister's car when she got there and he went home.

    "There's a search party tonight." She informed her younger brother who turned his head from the window to look at her. "For Will. I think I'm gonna go."

    Nick thought it over in his head. He knew that she wouldn't let him go. "You should." He nodded. "The Chief came and talked to us at school about Will. I couldn't remember the road he takes home."

    Veronica patted his shoulder as she pulled into their driveway. "I'm sure you were a big help either way." She out the car into park. "They're going to find Will. You know that right?"

    Nick shook his head. "No. I don't know that." He grabbed his backpack from the floorboard and exited the car.

    When the pair entered the house, they could still see the dirty dishes from breakfast. It was obvious to the pair that their father's high hadn't lasted very long.

    "Dad?" Veronica knocked on her father's door.

    Nick didn't bother waiting outside and just went straight to his room.

    He did everything he could to pass the time and try and not think about how his friend might be missing. He did his science homework. He read about Venus, and Mars, and Saturn. He listened to the radio. All he could do was bounce his knee and listen for the phone after that.

    "Nick? It's Mike. You copy?" Mike's voice crackled through their walkie talkies.

    Nick brought the walkie talkie up to his mouth before he responded. "It's Nick." He answered the boy.

    "I know it's you. Say 'over' when you're done talking or I don't know you're done." Mike paused for a moment. "Over."

    "Okay. Over." Nick sighed and spun back and forth in his desk chair. Chris had put the chair together on what Veronica had called 'one of his good days'.

    "I'm worried about Will. Over." Nick paused for a moment, thinking about what to say.

    "Me too. I can't stop thinking about it. Over." He admitted. He found it was better to be truthful about all the feelings he felt than to lie and act cooler about them.

    "I was thinking...Will could've cast protection last night. But he didn't. He cast fireball. Over." Mike rambled.

    "Who cares? Over." Nick didn't think that talking about D&D was going to help anyone, especially Will of all people.

    "My point is...he could've played it safe. But he didn't. He put himself in danger to help the party. Over." Mike's words sunk into Nick.

    "I'll be outside your house in ten. Over and out." Nick shoved his walkie talkie into his backpack as he rushed out of his room.

    He was grateful that Veronica had already gone to the search party, and he was sure that his dad would not even notice his presence or absence.

    Mike Wheeler was waiting outside his house by a lamp post by the time Nick had got there. His legs had already started to burn from how fast he was pedalling.

    "Ten? It took you half that." Mike exclaimed.

    "Ready?" Nick looked around the road for any passersby.

    "No. We gotta wait for Lucas and Dustin." It took the two ten more minutes to finally join Mike and Nick.

    "What took you guys so long?" Nick asked.

    "Parents were watching MASH. No way past." Lucas defended himself with a shoulder shrug as well.

    "Same." Dustin replied.

    "Where are we going?" Lucas asked as Mike and Nick took off on their bikes.

    "Mirkwood." They spoke in unison. "We had a lot of time to strategize while you two took your time getting here." Mike teased.

    The four boys reached Mirkwood in no time.

    "Will?!" They all took turned shouting out into the trees, looking for any movement they could find.

    "I've got your Uncanny! 269!" Dustin shouted, as if that would entice Will into coming out of the woods, but he was met with no response.

    "Why are we even here? My mom says there's a whole search party-" Lucas tried but he was cut off by Nick.

    "He's our friend. And they don't know him like we do. He knows us." Nick's words practically stumbled and crashed into each other.

    "So?" Nick's eyes widened as he looked at Lucas.

    "So, what-what if he's scared or lost-" The boys crashed into each other, their bikes and bodies hitting the pavement.

    "...What...What was that? Mike?" Lucas looked at the only boy who was still standing.

    Mike Wheeler, in a trance, raised his flashlight up ahead of him. Light illuminated not only the street, but a bald girl standing in the middle of the woods, wearing only a large Fish 'N Fry t-shirt.