8

Life seemed to slow down after that. The weather got colder, sharper as winter began humming in the air, but it didn't matter.

El had discovered it was fun having a boyfriend. It was fun getting kisses whenever she wanted. It was fun teasing him about old baby photos. It was fun when his parents went out and they had the house to themselves.

In turn, Mike realised he was enjoying El's company more and more. There seemed to be endless layers to her personality.

`Why do you act so tough at school?' He asked once, when they were lying together on his bed. `You aren't, really.'

`I like being on my own.' El brushed his hair back from his forehead. `Mostly. If I act tough, no one talks to me.'

`Their loss.'

`Shut up!'

He wouldn't, so she pressed her mouth against his again. Questions. They were always dangerous. But it didn't matter 'cause she was so good at making them go away.

Mike staying with El so much wasn't purely from his crush. It helped him forget things, too. A lot of things. There was so much bad running through his head, knives and Troy and Will, if he didn't find something to distract him, he'd go insane.

It wasn't until early December when the snow began to fall. White, perfect flakes landed on the black, thick coats El and Max wore, and fell down the back of the flimsy jackets of their three companions.

`We should take some of this into the hospital,' Dustin said, scooping the freezing ice up off of the table they sat around.

`They won't let us,' Lucas said grimly. `If he gets pneumonia or something, he's definitely gonna…' then he bit his own tongue.

Die, in relation to Will, was now as forbidden as queer or fairy.

`Will likes snow, then?' Max broke through the silence.

`Loved it,' Mike said softly. Then he shook his head. `Can we talk about something else? Please? I just… want to avoid it. We can't do anything about him now.'

`Always the voice of hope,' Dustin said bitterly, wiping his damp hands on his jeans.

`Well, what can we do? We don't even know where Troy is.'

El squeezed his hand. Mike was grateful for the distraction and forced his mind away from things he didn't want to remember. Like the boy with the skateboard who always seemed to vanish from Will's bedside whenever they showed up.

The snow got thicker, turning into a true blizzard. Max ducked her head under her hood, keeping it from mucking up her hair.

`One time…' Dustin again. `One time, when we were little, we made a snow-orc. Will had the idea to put icicles in for teeth.'

`He'll wake up,' Max said, for once a little gentle. `And even if he doesn't, it might be-'

Mike flinched. `Please, don't say for the best.'

That small, florescent-lit hospital room seemed to trap them all wherever they went, with all those machines beeping and wires and tubes trailing out of the boy at it's centre.

`Okay. We can change the subject,' Lucas said quietly, his eyes down.

To keep their minds off it they dragged schoolbooks out of their bags. El was nearing the end of Romeo and Juliet. She mouthed some of the words right there in the recess yard, loving the way they fizzed and tripped off her tongue.

`I'd like being an actress,' she said to Max, later. `When I'm older and done with school.'

`I thought you wanted to be a writer, Miss Best Composition.'

`Can't I be both? God, I love being in the eighties. Imagine if we were born ten years too early. We couldn't've done anything.' El squeezed her friend's hand. `Girl power and everything.'

Max laughed. `You're telekinetic. No one could've told you what to do. No one can.'

Then she paused. `Actually, could you get us some more soda?'

El rolled her eyes. `Okay, let's trade. I'll do the thing to help your lazy ass, and you have to answer my question. What's up with you and Lucas? You looked like you'd faint when you worked out Mike was with him at that party.'

Max puffed out her mouth, making a long pffff. `Nothing. I did kiss him. But kisses don't mean much. He just gave me his number and I'd have felt bad if I didn't take it.'

El shrugged. `Fair enough.'

`I didn't really like the kissing, honestly.'

`Well, he might just be a bad kisser.'

`No, I mean I really didn't like it.'

`Okay.' El wasn't sure why that was so significant. Max laughed finally, breaking the silence.

`Never mind. Point is, don't expect us to start acting like you and Wheeler. You two are just revolting- ow!'

There was a soft thump when Max hit the carpet- more tingling silence- and then a very loud thump when the comic book she'd thrown connected with El's face.

And as that was happening, as the two girls were given a brief escape from their constant terror and fear, a lone boy in a hospital ward began quietly, gently, and without any concious thought, to die.

And as Will Byers' life slipped away Troy Harmer was trying to stay warm, wrapped up in all the blankets he could find. He was sleeping in a tiny fortress someone had put up long ago. There was a permanent, gnawing hunger at the centre of his belly these days.

I should turn myself in, he thought once. They have to feed you in prison.

It was thoughts like that that made his resolve shake and the tears suddenly start into his eyes.

I'm sorry, Will. I'm sorry.

Mike flinched.

`Something bothering you?' Ted asked, not looking up from his newspaper.

Mike rubbed his chest, almost bent double. `No- I just-' his heart had hurt, that's what happened, but how would he explain that one to his dad?

`I'm fine.'

Then it came again, that horrible sharp pain. This time Mike hid it and dashed up to his room and slammed the door behind him, then curled up on the floor, tighter and tighter, trying to make the endless waves of pain go- they had to stop, they had to- he'd die if they didn't-

And as a heart monitor ran flat Mike was released from the pain.

He flattened out, breathing hard.

Will whispered out of life the way a candle blows out in the wind. The doctor stopped the defibrillators and seemed to slump whilst standing.

Gone.