Chapter Fifty-Four: Zombie Boy And Ghost Boy

(Trick Or Treat, Freak, Pt. 6)

***

"It's... it's like I'm stuck," Will mumbled.

Alistair looked at his best friend, worry squirming inside him as he pressed closer to Will. On his other side Mike sat, wearing a similar look of worry and understanding on his face as Will spoke about his latest episode. An episode that still had Alistair's heart racing in terror as he remembered watching Will wander, then run, after he yelled at the mouth breathers who harassed him, running after Will and shouting his name before trying to shake him awake, Mike finding them and succeeding in shaking Will out of the episode where Alistair had failed, leading to trick and treating cut short and them sitting in Mike's basement. And while Alistair knew Will's episodes would be getting worse the closer they got to the day he went missing, it didn't stop tendrils of fear shooting down Alistair's spine. Didn't have him not want to make it all stop for Will.

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

His friend swallowed and shook his head. "No. You know on a View-Master, when it gets, like—"

"Caught between two slides?" the other two boys questioned in unison. Will nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, like that. Like one slide's our world, and the other... the other slide is the Upside Down," Will explained. "And... and there was the noise, coming from everywhere. And then... I saw something."

"The Demogorgon?" Mike inquired, to which Will shook his head.

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

Those tendrils of fear constricted Alistair's spine, creeping through his bloodstream, especially when he heard the fear quavering in Will's words, saw how much Will was shaking and trying to hide it. Hugin shifted uneasily on his shoulder, sensing his fear. 

Why can't it be over, why can't the Upside Down just be fucking done with Will?

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

"I don't know. Just... just please don't tell the others, okay? They wouldn't understand," Will pleaded.

"Of course, Will," Alistair said without hesitation. Like he would say anything otherwise.

Will gave him a grateful look, and Alistair gave him a soft smile, placed a hand on his shoulder to squeeze comfortingly, to show he understood. He understood what it was like to see things you couldn't explain, that terrified you, that you knew were real, but everyone told you they weren't.

He understood.

"Eleven would," Mike murmured and Alistair felt his spine lock up as he looked at Mike, his friend not looking at him. Eleven. Her presence still held a gap between them, the gap that while Mike still seemed to believe she was still alive because Alistair couldn't see her ghost, Alistair had accepted she wasn't, that she simply moved on. And as much as Alistair wanted to breach the gap and mend his friendship with Mike, he couldn't as long as there was El, and Mike's belief she was still out there. 

"She would?" Will asked quietly, breaking Alistair out of his thoughts.

"Yeah. She always did," Mike murmured, before he looked at Alistair, who found himself nodding.

"Yeah, yeah, she would, Will," Alistair assured as Hugin cawed almost soothingly, hopping off Alistair's shoulder onto Will's to rub his head against the boy's neck like he always did to comfort Alistair. "She always did, with me, even before she knew about my powers."

Will seemed to be assured as he stroked Hugin's feathers, yet sad he wouldn't meet the girl who would get it. And Alistair was too. With how hard El tried to find Will, to bring him home alive and well, it seemed unfair that she would never get the chance to meet the boy she helped save, to help bring home. Alistair liked to think they could have been friends, if they ever met.

"Sometimes... sometimes I feel like I still see her," Mike muttered, making Alistair and Will look at him as he added on, "Not like Al can. Like she's still around, but she never is. I don't know. Sometimes, I feel like I'm going crazy."

Alistair's heart twisted, and regret squirmed inside him, of not making more of an effort to bridge the gap, to not let Mike's initial anger at how Alistair couldn't see El's ghost drive them apart. To have them, arguably the two closest people to her before she sacrificed herself for them all, mourn her and heal together instead of being driven apart and mourning alone. Of letting the wound of her death grow infected and rotting.

"Me too," Will whispered, bringing Alistair out of his thoughts. He found himself nodding in agreement.

"I mean, anyone would say I'm crazy if I told them what I can see, and after a while... maybe I have gone a bit crazy," Alistair confessed, chuckling weakly.

"Hey, well, if we're all going crazy, then we'll go crazy together, right?" Mike said, a ghost of a grin on his face.

Will chuckled. "Yeah. Crazy together."

"Crazy together," Alistair agreed.

The three boys chuckled, and Alistair looked at Mike, feeling for the first time in a year like things were getting better between them. Like they could finally fix their friendship.

An engine rumbled, attracting the three boys' attention. Hugin flew up into Alistair's curls and nestled within them, giving an anxious croak as Alistair patted his bird's feathers soothingly. It's okay, he told Hugin telepathically via their mental bond, it's probably just my aunt or Jonathan or Eddie. Maybe even Steve Harrington.

Hugin gave a garbled caw that Alistair took as meaning the undead corvid was still anxious.

Footsteps sounded above, along with mumbled voices, belonging to Nancy and, Alistair assumed, Steve Harrington—the teen who a year ago his sister had hated with a burning passion but they had become friends, close enough to call (Alistair had heard. He hadn't listened, but he felt awful at hearing his usually put together sister break down over what he assumed was a nightmare) and for his sister to be vulnerable with him about her nightmares, something that she'd never been in the past, especially before the Upside Down stuff, always justifying his nightmares deserved more attention, always putting him and his own nightly terrors first before hers. And while Alistair hadn't liked Steve Harrington due to second-hand hate from Rowan, if he could make Rowan talk about her nightmares and put them first, something neither he or Aunt Aco or even her best friends could do... then maybe he wasn't so bad.

Maybe it was good for Rowan, for them to be friends.

Whatever. But, he guessed with the arrival of Nancy and Steve, that meant the party his sister and her friends went to, that the couple above went to, was over, and Rowan and Eddie and Robin would be here any minute now to pick him up. Same with Jonathan for Will.

Alistair got ready to put Hugin on his shoulder—the tape had been lost so Alistair hoped either Eddie and Robin wouldn't notice or Rowan would make sure they didn't notice—when he heard the tramp of footsteps heading downstairs, and making their way toward the basement. The confusion lifted when the door opened and Jonathan came down the stairs.

So he was the one to bring Nancy home. Huh.

"Hey," the older boy greeted, the trio giving their own "Hey"s and Hugin cawed. Jonathan looked at his brother, as if noticing that they should all be out later despite whatever deal he and Will had made before Will joined them, and asked, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Will said, pasting on a smile. 

Jonathan frowned, obviously not believing Will, but he didn't push.

"Well, come on. We better head home," Jonathan said, but just as Will stood up, Alistair stood up too and asked, "Hey, could I come with you guys? And stay at your place for the night?"

Jonathan and Will stared at Alistair, Jonathan looking more taken aback than Will was, but he nodded; it wasn't surprising that Alistair would ask for impromptu sleepovers.

"Uh, sure. Just let your aunt and Rowan know so they don't think I kidnapped you," Jonathan said with a wry chuckle. Alistair smiled, ignoring the irony of how a year ago, Hopper had the (unfounded) suspicion that his aunt had kidnapped Will.

"Sure," Alistair said, going to the phone on the basement wall and dialling his home number. He listened to the ringtone for five seconds before his aunt picked up. "Hey kid. How was trick or treating? Do you want me to pick you up?"

"Um, actually Aunt Aco, I was calling to see if I could stay at the Byers' tonight?" Alistair questioned, his pointer finger picking the skin around his thumbnail absentmindedly, waiting for his aunt's answer. Hugin shifted his weight on Alistair's shoulder and tugged one of Alistair's curls, making the boy realise what he was doing and instead coil the phone cord around his finger to stop picking—it was a habit he was trying to break.

Finally, she answered.

"It's okay, kid. Just... is everything okay? Did Will have another episode?"

"No, no, he didn't. I just... wanted to stay over tonight and eat our candy together," Alistair lied.

Again, everything was silent on his aunt's end, and Alistair hoped she hadn't seen through his lie before she sighed and said, "Okay. I'll let your sister and Eddie know when they come home, and I'll pick you up after school tomorrow. And don't eat too much candy, kid."

"Okay, and I won't. Thanks, Aunt Aco," Alistair replied and hung the phone up. He turned to Mike, offering awkward goodbyes before going with Will and Jonathan, Hugin nesting in his hair again. Will took shotgun while Alistair was content to stay in the back, watching the streets of Hawkins pass, watching as the streets—and the ghosts who haunted them—blurred by, the ghosts not noticing him, giving him a few minutes of peace.

When they arrived at the Byers home, Hugin flew off from his hair and into the sky, stretching out his wings as he gave a throaty caw. Alistair watched his raven disappear into the dark night sky before he went into Will's house, a step behind his best friend.

When he got inside, Alistair had to do a double take, remind himself that the Christmas lights and the alphabet wall where Mrs. Byers had communicated with Will was gone, that Will was home. Usually, it didn't hit him as much—not as hard as it did for his sister, who fought the very monster that took Will and killed Nancy's friend here—but the anniversary effect his sister offhandedly mentioned about Will's episodes getting worse as per her newfound passion with psychology was coming in swinging for him, too.

Alistair shook his head, shoving the memory down as he followed Will into his room. Alistair noticed that Mrs. Byers wasn't up, that maybe she'd gone to sleep. He wondered if her new boyfriend, Bob Newby, was with her. He wondered how long it would be until they got married. He hoped they did. Bob was nice, and was better than Will's dad.

Once they were inside, Alistair went to Will's window and opened it a bit, to let Hugin in. Turning, he joined Will on the bed, dragging the bag of candy he'd remembered to take as he dumped their haul onto the bed and asked, "So. Which one are we gonna start with?"

"Uh, I guess the Reese's Pieces," Will said, grabbing the orange-wrapped chocolate candy and unwrapping it with a grin. Alistair grinned and he grabbed for the Three Musketeers. As he did, he noticed a piece of paper on Will's bedside table.

Leaning over his friend and ignoring Will's protests, Alistair grabbed the paper and looked at it. He immediately frowned.

"'Zombie Boy'?" he said out loud, anger burning through him again, but he shoved it down when he saw how Will's face shuttered, his best friend fiddling with the candy's foil wrapping.

"It's nothing, Al," Will mumbled, pointedly not looking at Alistair.

Alistair's mouth twisted, and he remembered those older boys, how he'd threatened to show them a real zombie, how his eyes burned cold and he knew they must have turned ghost-white by how those older teens had scattered, how he'd almost revealed his powers and risked his secret. How he'd been scared by how easily he could use his power over the dead to threaten the living. 

And yet, he'd do it again, for Will.

But anger wasn't what his best friend needed right now.

Alistair shifted closer to Will and said, "Hey, you know you can talk to me. We're best friends. We can talk about anything, okay?"

Will looked at him, chewing his bottom lip before he sighed and confessed, "I guess I'm just tired of people treating me differently, like I'm gonna break. Like I can't handle things on my own anymore. And I guess... I guess I'm tired of being called Zombie Boy. It makes me feel even more of a freak."

Alistair looked at Will, his heart twisting. 

"I... I'm sorry, Will," he apologised. "I'm sorry if I treated you different. I guess I'm just... I'm scared of losing you again. I was so scared when you went missing, I was so scared that... that the next time I saw you it would be your ghost and..."

Alistair swallowed, before he pushed forward, grabbing Will's hand. "But I'm sorry, for treating you differently. Like I said, I'm scared of losing you, losing my best friend all over again and being unable to stop it. But I still shouldn't treat you differently. I'm sorry."

Will looked at Alistair, something flickering in his eyes before he ducked his head, hiding his expression as he mumbled, "It's okay."

Alistair bumped Will's shoulder with his, a hesitant smile on his face. "We're good?"

Will looked up, his own smile on his face. "Yeah, we're good."

The two boys smiled at each other before they let each other's hands go and scooted away from each other, before Will coughed and said, "Beside, I'm not Zombie Boy. I think you are, with your powers."

"Well, if anything, I'm more Ghost Boy. I've been seeing ghosts far longer than I have been raising zombies," Alistair joked, and the smile on Will's face lifted, turned more genuine. Alistair's own smile softened and he knocked his shoulder into Will's again. 

"Hey," he murmured as Will looked at him, brows dipped down as if he sensed the sombre note in his best friend's voice. "With what I said earlier... I meant it. And I also... I also want you to know I'm never gonna leave you. I'm by your side, no matter what, if it's these episodes or bullies or whatever. I'm not going anywhere."

Will stared at him, before he said, "Same here, Al, with ghosts or... or whatever. Not going anywhere."

Alistair smiled. "Guess it's just us two against the world. Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy, sticking together."

Will returned it, and Alistair thought it was the first time the cruel name that usually had Alistair's blood boil in rage was used for something good. "Yeah. Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy against the world."

Alistair smiled, before he nodded to the candy. "Come on. We better eat this candy after working so hard on getting it."

Will hummed in agreement, before he yelled at seeing Alistair snatch up a piece of candy he'd been eyeing. "Al!"

Alistair grinned wickedly, holding the candy up. "If you want it, come fight me for it, Byers."

Will glowered and lunged for Alistair, tackling the other boy to the bed, the two boys tussling and yelling even as they laughed, before Alistair conceded defeat and handed the candy to a smug Will, the two boys eating in content silence as sugar rushed through them. When only wrapping foil covered the bed, Alistair felt his eyes droop with exhaustion as he collapsed onto the bed, snuggling close to Will, the other boy already asleep.

Alistair succumbed to sleep himself just as Hugin flew in, the reanimated raven circling over Alistair before roosting in his curls, going into a facsimile of sleep as his human and the other human he cared about slept, more soundly than when apart.

That in each other's company, the nightmares let them be for a night of peaceful sleep.

***

ALISILL!!!!

I love my boys so much!!! Their friendship is something I love a lot, so I'm always happy to touch on it and develop it!!! 

And yeah, even though Alistair and Mike have formed a bit of a peace, things are still rocky between them. Things won't get better between them for a little while

And the mention of Bob 🥺😭

And the final scene!!! I loved writing it so much! And yeah, Will and Alistair, Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy 🥺 And that scene of them asleep together and not having any nightmares in the other's presence... can you tell I'm soft for them?

Next chapter will be soon! 

Please read, comment and vote! 

GhostWriterGirl out!