Do Not Go Gentle: Prologue
Will Byers was Never Found x Mike Wheeler jumps-off-the-cliff AU.
TW: Implied Suicide.
It hadn’t even been 24 hours between the time that the bodies of Will Byers and Mike Wheeler were pulled out of Sattler’s Quarry. Just like that, the search parties commenced, funerals were planned, and the town mourned – ruminating on the loss of two young boys. Whispers made their way around the town and down the streets
Those two boys – they were real close, right?
One of them was Lonnie’s kid. You know how he got.
Poor Wheelers. That was their only son.
There was only one boy in the world who really felt the weight of the loss. The thing is, time worked funny when you’re waiting for death. Not your own death, rather, the death of those you know, there’s nothing to be done – no divine intervention, no superhero, no vague possibility this could all be a bad dream, nothing… that could change the outcome.
Then, there was the after. Every single second, every single panicked thought that followed, every cell of your body tensing up and your throat closing up and your breath getting faster and faster and faster until finally you reach the edge, just in time to see your best friend in the whole entire world get taken by the water.
The sound wasn’t what you’d expect. It’s quiet and in the distance, probably not something you’d notice unless you were really trying to hear it.
The other two boys are long gone, their panic evident as they take off, running into the woods.
I didn’t know Wheeler would actually do it!! He’s crazy!! We wouldn’t have actually done anything!!
Don’t– don’t tell anyone, o-o-okay?
Life would never be the same. In that instant, he knew. The ripples from the splash of Mike’s body echo out, each one altering time in a manner that was never supposed to happen. Everything occurs a bit too late. Eleven will make contact with Will Byers, and then he is never to be seen again. Will Byers dies in the unreachable, and in turn, the unreachable never reaches Hawkins. The town will remain untouched, apart from those two tragedies that seem like an anomaly in a town whose biggest crime was when owls attacked Eleanor Gillespie. These tragedies will fade with time.
There would be some people who never forgot, though.
An older brother and an older sister, who would forever be haunted by the fact that they were so close to saving their family, and would make sure that next time, they’d be prepared.
A mother, who’s smoking and drinking only doubled with the guilt that if she had only checked on her son, none of this would have ever happened.
A chief, who had sworn that he wouldn’t let another person’s child die, only to lose two children.
A girl, who will never forgive herself for the fact that she was just a little early to the quarry, the boy she needed would have been there for her, and together, they’d save their friend.
And lastly, two boys, who, within 24 hours, found out that their party had been split in half, and for the rest of their lives, would be haunted by the ghosts of the two boys that the rest of the town would never think about again.
Three years later, everything changes.
Read on ao3. Can't wait to post more :)
