MIKE POV-

The pair exchanged no words as Will was too shaken to say anything; it was riddled all over his shaking body; his skin was cold yet sweat dropped from his forehead as the adrenaline pumped through both of their veins. The attackers passed again and this time Mike had a plan, taking off his jacket wrapping it over the body and head of the small boy so he would be hidden from view.

The brunette was pleased but when Mike stood up, he dragged him back down. The ravenette scanned the ground grabbing a rock throwing it in the opposite direction to distract the pursuers; Mike learnt this from a video game; I guess Will should be lucky he wasn't hidden in a cardboard box and a coin wasn't thrown instead.

"I hear him this way!" One of the boys screamed taking the bait. Will ducked down even deeper, his breathing shallow; it was clear he just wanted to feel safe. The ravenette just covered him but staring at his face, noticing how his eyes glow in the dark of the forest, matching the green hue of the trees; his skin perfect.

Mike cut away, looking back to where Troy and James had gone, but he remain silent, waiting for a few minutes to be extra sure. He then whispered "I think they are gone" removing the hand from the Will's head that he didn't even realise he placed "You're safe now"

But the brunette refused to move, still shaken from the experience but feeling the vibrations of Mike's calming voice he meekly nodded opening his eyes slowly allowing the ravenette's face to come into view; the flash from Mike's torch illuminated them. Both flushed, their heartbeats increasing but neither paid any mind chalking it up to adrenaline.

Carefully Mike pulled away from the smaller boy standing up, clearing his throat. He expressed a hand out to the brunette helping him. Will shakingly accepted the hand; Mike knew something like this would be terrifying, he wouldn't know if he would be able to outrun them for as long as Will did.

The brunette said nothing standing idle looking down at the ground deep in thought.

"How are you?" The ravenette questioned concerned, when he left Will all alone in the woods this was the last thing he expected would happen

"I-I'm fine!" Will answered, returning to an uncomfortable silence playing with the sleeves of Mike's jacket; it fit him if not a little big, but nothing noticeable.

"Why were they chasing you?" Mike bit his tongue asking the question; it was a dumb thing to ask in that moment but he didn't know what else to say; wanting answers to what just happened; it was very bizarre to happen in such a short amount of time.

"I- I don't know" Will stuttered. The ravenette nodded not wanting to push on if it was something triggering to the small boy "Lets just look for the last clue" Will shrugged walking ahead of the tall boy who scrunched his face

"You want to finish after all of that?" Mike raised his voice, he wasn't angry just concerned for Will's safety; if he was unable to hide him what would have happened to the small boy? Seeing the look on Will's face his eyes softened "Sorry for shouting" Mike whispered soft.

"Did you just apologise?" Will's eyes widened; his demeanour changing. It was something so weird for the brunette knowing that the only person Mike has apologised to in the comic was El; it came as a shock.

"Don't make me repeat it" Mike pouted walking off

"HEY!" Will shouted, jumping from the sound of a chirping bird causing him to run over "Wait for me! I'm scared!" The boy ran over slumping beside Mike. The ravenette rolled his eyes; it wasn't that revolutionary of him to apologise.

"I don't know where the second last clue is!" Will sighed tilting his head as they trot along to the clue; Mike led the pair around but a thought popped into his head; the reason they couldn't find the second last clue was because he already found it; fumbling through his pockets pulling out a heavily crumpled note along with an equally creased envelope.

"Here it is" Mike smiled handing the paper into the smaller boy's hand

"What's this?" Will scrunched his face annoyed

"The clue" The ravenette innocently proclaimed

"And when did you find that?" The brunette tilted his head up to face the taller boy's grinning expression

"After I left you earlier!" Mike excitedly chirped

"Okay..." Will scrunched his eyes confused to Mike's chipper voice; a weird reaction considering everything that has been going on. The ravenette was just happy to find one of the clues by himself not being so dependent on Will for help.

The brunette raised an eyebrow but read the note scrunching his face; this clue was strange, nothing like he'd seen before as this wasn't one in the comic, the rest of the clues were ones purposefully written into the pages of the comic but this one was unique; it was new.

It was an art hint; abstract. The hint contained crudely drawn trees with the word 'ghost' pointing to a creepy figure under it. "What the hell does that mean?" Will tilted his head as Mike shone his flashlight to illuminate the paper

"I have no clue" Mike remained just as confused as he was before when he read it by himself, perhaps Will had lost his talent from being attacked? The ravenette assumed the worst as they just strolled around.

"It looks like a child drew it" Will rolled his eyes but the ghost part confused him, ghost?

"Where is your flashlight?" Mike questioned as the small boy clung to his side

"Oh, it broke so I dropped it" Will shrugged, Mike nodded hearing this but something caught his eye slugging over to something that looked like a mannequin on the floor, crouching beside it.

Will followed, it wasn't clear what Mike was doing but he watched too much true crime to know this was possibly a bad sign crouching down behind Mike, keeping both hands on his back but upon being illuminated it was clear to be an actual mannequin. He was terrified looking at it; it had a wig and makeup looking a bit like Samara from the ring. Will looked back at the paper; a bulb lit in his head. Tilting his head up at the tree he saw an item hanging from one of the branches.

"Mike" He tapped the taller boy's shoulder "Up there!" pointing to the item that Mike flashed his torch on proving Will to be right.

"How do we reach that?" The ravenette squinted estimating how high it was as a simple jump wouldn't be enough to reach.

"Ummm..." Will thought hard "Pick me up!"

"Excuse me?" Mike's eyes widened

The brunette rolled his eyes "Pick me up so I can reach the last item"

"I don't want to lift you" The taller boy protested

"Just let me sit on your shoulders then" Will sighed

"Umm..." Mike was hesitant; it wasn't something he expected to do if he found Will. but he obliged; it was the last clue anyway and it was the only thing the two had thought of. The ravenette crouched down feeling Will get on his back. Slowly he lifted himself up hearing the small boy giggle.

"This reminds me of a rave!" Will chuckled

"A rave?" Mike scrunched his face

"You don't know what that is?" The brunette looked down to see the ravenette shake his head

"It's like... It- It doesn't matter" Will decided it was no use to explain; it was probably the case of no raves in the family friendly comic world "But if we did want to party, I could take my shirt off" Will joked remembering Dustin's earlier idea; not even noticing the bright blush that appeared on Mike's face from hearing that. He didn't think Will would actually do that but the thought made his heartbeat increase; has Will ever done something like that before? He wanted to ask but couldn't formulate his words into a sentence.

"I'VE GOT IT!" Will excitedly chirped; he expected to win but never expected to find the last clue without the comic books help. Mike lifted his head not really being able to see the brunette smiling and rolling his eyes over the overly chipper voice.

"On to the cabins!" Will pointing in a random direction still sitting on Mike's shoulders; this didn't hurt him as much as he thought it would be to carry someone on his shoulders. It almost felt as if all the weight was magically taken off; he found it weird but assumed he was just stronger than he thought, boosting his confidence a ton.

Step by step the pair reached the cabins being the first ones there. Mr Clark greeted with a bright smile congratulating them; not expecting them to finish the hunt so early. He was still setting the decorations holding a giant banner along with some other teachers so the first students could run through like a marathon. But upon seeing Will on top of Mike's shoulders he froze confused but shrugged not saying anything allowing the pair to quickly run breaking the banner. Mike was also in a better mood then he was before.

---- 7:23 PM ----

One by one the students flooded the area outside the cabins. El and Max sat down on the benches as Mike just stood to one side crossing his arms leaning on the wall behind him and keeping a look out for two very specific boys.

"I told you not to wear heels on the scavenger hunt" Will rolled his eyes

"That's what I said" Max repeated

"Can we not bully me please!" El mocked "I'm very sensitive"

"Yeah, sure!" Will rolled his eyes sarcastically

"WILL!" Lucas and Dustin screamed in unison running over, "Where's Mike? He went looking for you earlier!"

"He's over there" The brunette pointed "Standing like the Grinch who stole Christmas" rolling his eyes sarcastically

"Are you wearing Mike's jacket?" Dustin pointed furrowing his brows

"Umm yeah" Will nodded surprised, not even remembering he was still wearing Mike's jacket from earlier; even though an hour had passed the jacket was just too comfortable

"Oh..." Lucas sadly sighed "Did you take it from him? He never gives anyone his jacket"

"It's a... long story" Will explained "C-can I explain it too you guys later" whispering and looking both ways seeing Troy and James finally arrive to the area; he slightly ducked. Lucas worried seeing his mannerisms deciding it would be best to figure things out before they escalate further.

"What happened?" The athletic boy questioned softly placing a calming hand on the brunette's shoulder

Will looked into Lucas's eyes fidgeting his fingers "Troy and James chased me through the woods"

"Chased?" Dustin questioned turning to Lucas who remained quiet nodding knowing this wasn't the only thing bothering him.

The brunette explained "I don't know what they were going to do, but I got scared and well Mike protected me, which is surprising cause I thought he hated me but the main reason I got scared was because..."

The boy rambled pausing as he caught a breath "...They- They had a knife"

Dustin's face turned white, his mouth hung agape just hearing this; but it was Lucas's reaction that really startled him

"They fucking did what?" The athletic boy had fire behind his eyes; it was audible enough even for Max and El to hear; no one had ever heard Lucas swear, not even the other characters in the comic solely going against it for the whole story.

"AHHH" Suddenly everyone's attention turned to the noise seeing Mike stand over Troy. The ravenette went in for another punch and people did nothing to stop him. Mike, although being a very grouchy person was never one to start fights or be violent so people believed whatever Troy did must have been bad.

No teachers were present as they looked for the prizes for the scavenger hunt. The other students cheered surrounding the pair already fighting; some took videos while others just watched but some of the more well-behaved students turned to Lucas; being the class president they expected him to dissolve the confrontation.

Lucas let go of Will's shoulder. The brunette stood still in shock; seeing the athletic boy stomp over to the pair, the circle around the duelling boys moved away assuming he would inflict conflict resolution to stop them, but Lucas squinted his eyes looking for someone else: James Dante.

The athletic boy lunged at him; now people knew this was serious watching this 2v2 occurring before their very eyes and it showed no sign of stopping only getting more heated with every punch.

Everything was so peaceful a mere few seconds ago causing Will's eyes to widen

"What."

"The."

"Fuck!"

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2101 Words

Stay Safe <3