Chapter 29: Will's Worsening
POV: Adam
Late August brings the kind of oppressive heat that makes the air shimmer with menace, and Will has another episode during breakfast—his third this week—fork suspended halfway to his mouth while his eyes roll back to reveal only white, staring at horrors that exist in dimensions normal people can't perceive.
"It's getting bigger," Will whispers, voice flat and distant like he's reporting weather from hell itself. "The shadow monster. It has so many arms now, like storm clouds with teeth."
Thirty-five percent infection. Rising five percent per week. The Mind Flayer is strengthening its hold.
Adam's system tracks the progression with clinical precision while his borrowed heart breaks watching his little brother slip away in increments too small for anyone else to notice. Joyce drops her coffee mug, the ceramic shattering against kitchen tile while she reaches for Will with desperate maternal instinct.
"Will? Baby, come back to me."
He can't come back. Not completely. Not anymore.
The episode lasts forty-three seconds—Adam counts each one while his system provides real-time analysis of dimensional energy fluctuations in Will's neural patterns. When awareness finally returns to his brother's eyes, Will blinks with the confused disorientation of someone waking from dreams that refuse to fade.
"I was somewhere else again," Will says quietly, voice small in the kitchen that suddenly feels too bright, too normal for what just happened. "The dark place. But it's not just dark anymore—it's alive."
The Upside Down is evolving. The Mind Flayer is spreading through that dimension like cancer through a body, and Will is its window into our world.
Joyce pulls Will into a hug that smells like coffee and determination and the kind of love that refuses to accept inevitability even when faced with impossible odds.
"Dr. Owens is coming this afternoon," she says with forced calm. "He's going to help us figure out what's happening."
Dr. Owens. Government scientist with a conscience, trying to clean up the mess his predecessors made. But even he doesn't understand what we're really dealing with.
[WILL BYERS INFECTION STATUS: 35%]
[PROGRESSION RATE: 5% PER WEEK]
[POSSESSION THRESHOLD: 65%]
[ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL MANIFESTATION: 6 WEEKS]
[MIND FLAYER INFLUENCE: STRENGTHENING]
That afternoon, Dr. Owens arrives with the kind of gentle authority that comes from years of cleaning up other people's scientific disasters. He sets up his equipment in the living room—monitors and sensors that beep with reassuring electronic confidence—while Will submits to testing with the weary resignation of someone who's spent too much time being studied by adults who claim they want to help.
"Tell me about the episodes, Will," Dr. Owens says, his voice carrying the careful neutrality of someone trained not to judge or dismiss. "What do you see?"
Will's hands twist in his lap as he searches for words to describe the indescribable. "It's like... now-memories. Things that are happening somewhere else, but I can see them. Feel them."
Now-memories. Will is experiencing real-time events from the Upside Down.
"And this shadow monster," Dr. Owens continues, making notes on a tablet that records everything for later analysis. "Can you describe it in more detail?"
"It's huge," Will says, his voice growing distant as memory pulls him back toward visions that shouldn't exist. "Like a spider made of storm clouds, but standing up. And it's always angry. Always hungry."
The Mind Flayer. Ancient entity from the Upside Down, using Will as both spy and eventual host.
Adam listens from the hallway, hidden but close enough to hear every word while his system provides analysis that Dr. Owens' instruments can't detect. The dimensional energy surrounding Will is strengthening, becoming more complex, like a radio signal growing clearer as the transmitter moves closer.
"I believe what you're experiencing is a form of PTSD," Dr. Owens explains to Joyce after Will goes upstairs to rest. "The brain processing trauma in ways that feel real because the original experience was so intense."
If only it were that simple. If only Will's connection to the Upside Down could be explained away with psychology and medication.
"So he'll get better?" Joyce asks with desperate hope. "The episodes will stop?"
"With time and proper support, yes," Dr. Owens says with the confidence of someone who doesn't know he's dealing with interdimensional parasites. "These things often resolve themselves as the mind heals."
No. They won't resolve themselves. They'll get worse until Will isn't Will anymore.
That night, Adam finds Will sitting on his bed, staring at drawings he doesn't remember making—elaborate maps of tunnels that spread beneath Hawkins like veins in a body that doesn't know it's dying.
"Something's wrong with me," Will confesses, voice breaking on words that carry more truth than anyone realizes. "Something real, not just nightmares."
Adam sits beside his brother, taking Will's thin hand in both of his own. The contact creates a momentary empathic link—Adam feels the shadow's presence like ice water in his veins, ancient malevolence pressing against the barriers of Will's consciousness.
I can feel it. The Mind Flayer's infection, growing stronger every day.
"I know," Adam says quietly. "And whatever it is, we'll fight it together."
Even if fighting it means revealing everything. Even if it costs me my secrets and my safety.
"You promise you won't leave?" Will asks, eyes bright with tears he's trying not to shed. "Even if I get weird? Even if I become something... bad?"
You could never be bad, little brother. No matter what that thing does to you, you'll always be Will Byers underneath.
Adam's throat closes around words that feel too large for his borrowed voice. "I promise. You're my brother. Nothing changes that."
It's a promise I pray I can keep. It's a promise that may cost me everything.
After Will falls into restless sleep, Adam studies the tunnel drawings with growing dread. He recognizes the patterns—the spread of corruption beneath Hawkins, the Mind Flayer's infrastructure taking root in reality's foundations. Using Jonathan's camera, he photographs each drawing, building a database of information that could save lives if used correctly.
This is the enemy's battle plan, drawn by their unwilling spy. Will is showing us exactly how the invasion will unfold.
[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: EMPATHIC LINK]
[CAN SENSE WILL'S EMOTIONAL/PHYSICAL STATE]
[QUEST PROGRESSION: PREVENT WILL'S POSSESSION (25%)]
[INTELLIGENCE GATHERING: SUCCESSFUL (+800 XP)]
[SCOUT PATROL PATTERNS: UPDATED FOR TUNNEL MONITORING]
Through the bond, Scout sends images from his nightly patrol routes—dimensional weak points that correspond exactly to the tunnel locations in Will's drawings. The creature network is detecting increased activity at each site, reality growing thin as the Mind Flayer prepares to break through.
September. The episodes are daily now. Will's infection is accelerating toward the threshold where possession becomes inevitable.
And I still don't know how to stop it.
But as Adam settles into sleep across from his brother's restless form, he makes a silent vow to the darkness and the horrors it contains.
I couldn't save Barb. I couldn't prevent Eleven's sacrifice. But I won't lose Will. Whatever it costs, whatever I have to reveal—I won't lose my brother to that thing.
Not while I still have breath in my body and creatures willing to die for family.
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