||𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

There was a slight hiccup in plans, so I was unable to go over to Will's house before hand for trick-or-treating, but thankfully everything was back on track. I ended up meeting at Mike's house with Dustin and by the looks of it, we had gotten there just in time. Jonathan pulled up and we all waited anxiously for them. The boys started hitting each other with their empty pillow cases and I laughed. Movement up ahead caught my eye and I smiled when I saw Will heading our way.

"Hey, Egon!"

We all caught up quickly before, planning our route.

"So, Jonathan's not coming?" I asked, knowing that was originally the plan.

Will smiled and told us Jonathan was cool enough to let us go alone, as long as he was back by 9. I smiled at him and linked our arms, as I goofily marched on down the street.

"Then there's no time to waste," I declared. "Tonight we feast, fellas!"

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

We'd been out for about an hour now, and Will had turned on the video camera he brought.

We all waited patiently at the front door, Dustin and Lucas fought over who got to ring the bell. Soon enough a nice lady answered the door.

"Trick or treat!"

"Oh!" She beamed, reaching for the candy bowl. "Well, aren't you cute? The little exterminators." We all tried to hide our disappointment and the unexpected statement, when the lady turned to me.

"And who are you, young lady?" I forced a weak and awkward smile, and I felt the camera pan over to me, I could see Will snickering at the comment.

"Uh," I looked around, and finally shrugged. "It doesn't matter, thank you!" I trailed off, taking the candy.

The door had closed behind us and the boys did not miss the opportunity to laugh. "Well, at least I'm not an exterminator!" I retort with a laugh.

Lucas began rummaging through his pillow case and sighed. "If I get another 3 Musketeers, I'm gonna kill myself."

"What's wrong with 3 Musketeers?" Dustin asked.

"'What's wrong with 3 Musketeers'?"

"No one likes 3 Musketeers." Mike argued.

"Yeah, it's just nougat?" Will said.

'Uh oh, here we go.' I thought.

Dustin was quick to the defense. "Whoa, 'just nougat'? Just nougat? It is top three for me."

"Top three?"

"Top three!"

"Oh God, Give me a break." Mike whined.

"Seriously, I can just eat a whole bowl of nougat. Straight up."

"That's cause you're weird, Dustin." I laughed, as he stuck his tongue out at me.

I had fallen into the head of the group and just as I turned around I was surprised to say the least when I saw a Michael Myers Mask inches from my face, the figure was in all black and swinging a machete.

In my fight or flight response, I screamed, and threw my arms out and pushed the figure away as backed up.

The figure had been laughing, but flinched and it's hands flew to to it's arm, holding it and wincing. "Ow, what the hell?"

The voice sounded familiar and with it's free hand, pulled the mask back and we all relaxed when we saw it was Max.

She shook her arm out and frowned, seeming confused, but she looked back at us and laughed.

"Holy shit! You should have seen the look on your faces. Also, your hands are, are like burning up, you might have a fever or something, cause like, what the hell was that? And you?" She pointed at Lucas. "Who screams like that? You sound like a little girl."

She laughed and continued walking. I looked down at my hands and saw that they were once again, tinted slightly darker than their usual hue. I frowned as I looked at my hands, and rolled up my sleeves and touched m arm, wincing at how hot it was.

Lately, I've been noticing that it's been getting... worse. More frequent, to be specific. It's getting harder to control, like when I'm caught off guard like this. It's like a reflex and I can't control it. I don't know what's wrong with me, or how this is possible, or even how in the hell I got these abilities, but I can't help but feel more.... isolated. I-

"Y/n?"

I looked, up, realizing everyone was heading for the next house, except for Will. He lowered the camera a little.

"Are you okay?"

I smiled weakly and shook my head. "Yeah, I'm fine." I wanted to tell him my concerns, but the tape was going so I opted not to. "Let's go, we better catch up."

I straightened my head and kept on walking.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

Some time had passed, and we had stopped by a few houses at Loch Nora. And Max was right, there were a ton of full sized candy bars.

"Another full-size. Like, seriously, rich people are such suckers." Dustin laughed, but then he grew quiet. "Wait, you're not rich, right?"

"No, I live up Old Cherry Road."

"Oh,"

"No, it's fine. I mean, the street's good for skating."

"Mmm, yeah. Totally tubular." Max raised her eyebrows and laughed at Dustin's comment.

"What? Did I say that right? Or is it, like, tubular."

Lucas and Dustin started doing their impression of a surfer, which made Max and I laugh. "Stop, my ears are actually hurting."

I had started to fall behind so I could walk with Mike and Will.

"You okay, Mike? You've been quiet."

He looked between Will and I, Will was now aiming the camera at us.

"Did you agree to this?"

"What?" Will asked.

"What do you mean?"

Will lowered the camera.

Mike glared at Max. "To her joining our party."

"It's just for Halloween." Will offered.

"You should have checked with me." He snapped.

I frowned. "Mike, what is your problem?" I asked, annoyed by his sudden behavior.

"She is! She's my problem. She's ruining the best night of the year." With that he stormed off.

"Mike," I called after him, quickly walking to catch up with him. "Mike, we should at last talk about this, Mike-!"

I heard a clatter from where we came from and I instinctively whipped around. I noticed Will wasn't with us.

"Will?" I called out, my heart starting to pound.

I ran back around the corner, and I could hear Mike following me.

I wanted to kick myself for not getting there in time, a bunch of asshole teenagers were harassing him. Will was laying on his back, looking taken aback and his camera was on the ground with him. But all I could focus on were those bullies who were laughing and pointing at him as they walked away.

I ran after them. "Hey, piss off! You leave him alone, you hear me? You leave him the fuck alone, you assholes!"

They just laughed and sneered as they kept on walking. I took a sharp and deep breath, and turned around. I heard Will calling my name, he was frightened.

"Will, are you okay-?"

"Y/n! Mike!"

I felt my stomach drop when I saw him. He was pale as a ghost and staring up at the sky. Before I could say or do anything, he turned and ran behind some houses.

"Will!" I ran after him and I could hear Mike behind me.

"What's going on?"

"He must be having another episode. Some assholes cornered him and now he's having an attack. Come on!"

I heard other footsteps join us and I assumed the others overheard and ran after us.

I saw Will stop suddenly and dive behind a ledge. "Will!"

I came around to halt, and saw more frightened than I'd seen him in a while. He was clutching his legs as they were tucked far into his chest, he rocked back and forth, his eyes closed and his breathing heavy.

My heart ached to see him like this. As quickly as my body could register, I reached out to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He jumped when he saw me.

"Will, it's me. It's okay, it's over. It's just me. What happened?"

His eyes ere wide and frantic, he was looking around, still in shock.

"Will, I need you to breathe, okay?" He was shaking pretty heavily but he looked at me and nodded, taking deep breathes.

"Holy shit!"

"Is he okay?'

The others had caught up to us.

"I-I don't know."

Mike kneeled down and I moved over so they could talk.

"Will are you hurt? Are you okay?"

"I'm gonna get you home, okay? I'm gonna get you home. Hold on."

I stood up and offered my hand, Mike did the same. Will grabbed our hands and shakily stood up, he still hadn't said a word.

I grabbed an arm and started soothing him. That was when Mike snapped at me. "I got him."

I just stood there in shocked silence.

Even Dustin seemed put off by his behavior. "Mike?"

"Keep trick-or-treating. I'm bored anyways." He had a weird venom in his voice, and my blood began to boil.

We all stared after them. I was very angry at Mike, but more than anything I was worried about Will, and I just wanted to make sure he was okay.

"What's wrong with him?"

I felt anger and sadness blending together and I stormed off. I wanted to run after Mike and give him a piece of my mind, but I knew that's not what Will needs right now. I stopped short when I saw Will's camera and candy bag. I sighed, all the anger leaving my body and all that was left was worry.

I walked over and kneeled down, picking up the camera and began examining it. Thankfully, it seemed to still be in good shape, nothing other than some scratches and a dent in the plastic but other than that it seemed fine. I sighed, and turned off the camera, having realized it was still on. I closed it up and bent back down, picking up his pillow case full of candy.

My mind was racing, and but it never seemed to leave Will.

||𝟑𝐑𝐃 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

"It's like... It's like I'm stuck."

Mike and Will had made it back to Mike's house. Will was currently waiting for Jonathan to show up, and the two were hiding out in the basement. Just before they had gotten to the house, [Y/N] had caught up to them, returning Will's camera and candy. She checked in with Will and quietly slipped away, something the boys couldn't help but feel a little bad for, Mike specifically.

Will had calmed down enough and he trembled ever so slightly as he recalled the encounter.

"Like, like, stuck in the Upside Down?" Mike asked gently.

"No." Will sighed, trying to find the right words. "You know how on a View-Master, when it get's like..." Will struggled with the words and gesturing.

"Caught between two slides?"

"Yeah. Like that. Like, one side's our world, and the other... the other slide is the Upside Down."

Mike was quiet as he tried to understand all that was being said, all the while Will continued. "And there was this noise coming from everywhere."

Mike noticed the look in Will's eye, it was distant like he wasn't there. "And then I saw something."

"The demogorgon?"

"No. It was like this huge shadow in the sky. Only, it was alive. and it was coming for me."

"Is this all real?" Mike asked gently. "Or is it like the doctors say, all in your head?"

"I don't know. Just..." Will looked to Mike desperately. "Just please don't tell the others, okay? Especially Y/n. I don't want her to worry, and... and I know she's got a lot of stuff to worry abut already. And the others, they... They won't understand."

Mike looked to his lap and nodded. "Eleven would."

Will recalled all the stories they would tell him about Eleven. This made Will perk up. "She would?"

"Yeah. She always did."

The boys grew silent and Mike smiled sadly. "Sometimes I feel like, I can still see her. Like she's still around, but she never is." he shook his head, sniffling ever so slightly. "I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy."

"Me, too."

Mike looked to his best friend and smiled weakly. "Hey, well, if we're both going crazy, then we'll go crazy together, right?"

Will chuckled lightly, and smiled at Mike. "Yeah. Crazy together."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Y/n, are you sure you're okay? You seem kinda not fine-" Dustin called after his sister as she walked sadly into the house.

Her only reply was the front door slamming shut. Dustin sighed and was about to go after her when he heard a noise coming from behind him. He froze in place, and ever so slowly turned around. He stared at the metal trashcan as he heard the strange noise again. It was an unusual, high pitched growl.

"Mews," he called softly, not believing for a second it was his mother's cat. "is that--?"

The trash can moved suddenly with a loud echoing thud and Dustin gasped, dropping his bag of candy on the pavement. His heart was racing and he kept telling himself that there had to be reasonable explanation but for the life of him he could not think of one. Dustin slowly reached behind his back and pulled out his "proton blaster" and aimed it at the trash.

He slowly and cautiously stalked forward.

The high pitched growl echoed off in a metallic manner once more and the trash can shook.

He crept further. "Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit."

It chirped and growled.

He stepped closer.

It growled again.

'This is it,' He thought, 'Now or never.'

Dustin summoned every scrap of courage he could muster and let out his best battle cry as he ripped the lid off the trash can, and aiming his blaster at the bottom of the can.

He froze suddenly, staring at the strange sight before him.

"Holy sh-!"