In the plane Will truly belonged to (if one could say as much with him inexorably drawn to the Upside Down) he appeared to quail before nothing. His eyes were open but glazed as they stared at a world unseen by everyone else. Despite the chill which should bring a rosy flush to his skin he was pale as a ghost and his lips were purpling. He did not respond to the abrupt appearance of another, lost far beyond the light and noise. Each breath shuddered in and out through flared nostrils. A drop of crimson made a slow descent down his quivering chin. He did not seem to hear nor feel the comforting presence for some moments. To him, the darkness was consuming.
Yet there in the black hole he had hidden in was a distant murmur. At first he was convinced it was Mind Flayer come to again whisper evil into his heart. He took a sharp spastic inhale and could not stop the broken sob that was punched out of him. It could not have found him! Not now! The sky had been clear of His enormous silhouette and scarlet lightning. Nonononono! Will shut his eyes tightly with a child's illogical belief that what he could not see could not see him.
But the whisper persisted, growing louder until it sounded like human speech. How he wanted to follow that kind voice to its source. A faint warmth bloomed under the weight of a phantom pressure. Warmth? In this place? Was he going back? It had never been such a glacial process before. Usually he was thrust into reality with all the preamble of a bullet. He felt a tug buried beneath his ribs--- like the edges of a hole strained by an object being forced through.
And then LIGHT and AIR exploded over him. Will started so hard that his head slammed back against the wall. He began to loudly pant as if he had been holding his breath. Sweet human oxygen flowed into his lungs and daylight painted the spaces between the wall boards. All at once Will began to openly sob, his sensitive nature overwhelmed with relief as the dam he had built broke. He buried his face in his knees while his narrow shoulders quaked. The hand on his shoulder did not go unnoticed but the boy could never bring himself to properly respond until he had calmed down.