Long Way Down Summary

Will introduces himself to the reader and swears that his story is true, though he understands if the reader doesn’t believe it. He asks the reader to call him Will, like everyone else does. Only his mother calls him William, and his brother Shawn used to too, when he was trying to be funny—but last night, Shawn was killed. Will says that no matter what he doesn’t or doesn’t have in common with the reader, it’s still horribly painful to see a loved one’s blood outside of their body.

Though Will is disoriented and sad about Shawn’s death, he isn’t exactly surprised. When it happens, Will and his friend Tony are outside, wondering if they’ll grow taller now that they’re 15. Suddenly, gunshots ring out and they get down like they’re supposed to. When they stand up, Will sees that Shawn is dead. He died fetching special soap for their mother’s eczema. Shawn’s girlfriend, Leticia, kisses him and shrieks, while Will and Shawn’s mother moans. When the police arrive, a young officer seems to legitimately expect answers, but Will insists that when someone dies in his neighborhood, everyone pretends to be deaf and blind. The police put up yellow tape, zip Shawn into a body bag, and take him away. Will explains that in his neighborhood, “beef” gets passed around. It never does anything good, and it’s what killed Shawn. Back in their eighth-floor apartment, Will’s mother sobs while Will hides in his room. He tries hard to hold back tears, since “the Rules” of the neighborhood say that he shouldn’t cry. The other two Rules are no snitching, and always seek revenge—this means that if a loved one is killed, you must kill their killer. Nobody can break the Rules.

Will describes his bedroom he shared with Shawn. Shawn’s half is neat, while Will’s is messy. The only thing amiss on Shawn’s side is the middle drawer of his dresser, which contains his gun. Shawn wasn’t an angelic person; once he turned 18, their mother stopped trying to control him. However, he was Will’s favorite and only brother. He let Will start using his cologne when Will turned 13. The morning after Shawn’s death, Will digs into the middle drawer and fishes out the gun. It feels about as heavy as an infant, and Will knows that with it, he can follow Rule No. 3 and take down Carlson Riggs, a former friend of Shawn’s whom he believes is also Shawn’s killer. Will lays out his evidence for why Riggs killed Shawn: Riggs was a member of the Dark Suns, a gang whose territory included the shop where Shawn had to buy the special soap. Will also just knows Riggs did it—he’s had lots of practice identifying bad guys from watching crime shows. The next morning, Will pulls the gun out and feels close to Shawn as he grips it. Will tucks the gun into the back of his waistband. His plan is to go early to Riggs’s apartment so he can “do it.” He creeps past his mother and out of the apartment, calls the elevator, and presses the L button.

On the seventh floor, a man gets on and checks that the L button is lit up. Will remembers how he and Shawn used to giggle that “L” meant anyone going to the lobby was a losers, and Will thinks that he’s already chosen to be a loser. The man starts to look oddly at Will, and finally he turns around and shows Will his T-shirt, which has a photo of the man and a caption memorializing his own death. The man is Buck, and he’s supposed to be dead. Will tries to wake himself up from what he thinks is a dream and deliberates about whether he should be scared or not. Buck was Shawn’s mentor after Pop, the boys’ father, died. Will wonders if Buck has come to “steal his breath,” but Buck says he came to check on his gun. Will tries to adopt a tough stance and listens to Buck explain that he gave the gun to Shawn and told Shawn to keep the gun away from Will. Will announces that he found it anyway, and that he needs it to avenge Shawn’s death and follow the Rules, just like Buck would’ve done. When Will nervously grumbles about the slow elevator, Buck quips that it’s a long way down and laughs at Will’s insistence that he has work to do. Buck says Will doesn’t have it in him, and asks if he checked that the gun is loaded. Will almost shoots himself trying to check, so Buck takes the gun and announces that there are 15 bullets in it. There are supposed to be 16. Buck lights a cigarette and the elevator stops.

On the sixth floor, a beautiful young woman gets in. Will tries to check her out, but the gun digs into his back and makes him wince. The girl scolds Buck for smoking in the elevator and then asks Will why he has a gun. Will is disturbed—the girl can see Buck’s ghost and somehow knows Will has a gun. Trying to play it cool, Will says he’s not going to talk to a stranger about this, but the girl says she’s not a stranger: she’s known Will for a long time. She opens her purse and shows Will a photo of himself and his friend Dani when they were eight years old, on the day Dani died. He realizes the girl in front of him is Dani’s ghost, and says that the day in the photo was the best and worst day of his life. They were playing on the playground when someone started firing gunshots around them, and Will watched Dani get shot and bleed to death while Shawn tried to shield them from the bullets. Will cried all night. The next morning, Shawn taught him the first Rule (no crying). When Will tried to follow it, he wanted to punch something. Now, in the elevator, Dani again asks Will why he needs the gun, and Will says he’s going after Riggs. He explains the Rules to Dani so she doesn’t think he’s being violent for no reason. When she asks what happens if he misses, Will insists he won’t. Dani then accepts a cigarette from Buck, which Buck lights as the elevator grinds to a stop.

The cigarette smoke seems to box Will in, and he figures that whoever’s waiting to get on won’t get into this crowded, smoky elevator. However, big hands reach into the elevator and grab Will’s neck. Will yelps, leaps back, and reaches for his gun. He sees that the hands belong to the ghost of Uncle Mark, whom Will recognizes from the many photos of Mark around his house. Uncle Mark extremely tall and impeccably dressed, and he emotionally tells Will that he looks just like Pop. Uncle Mark was an aspiring filmmaker in life and wanted to make a movie based off of Pop and Will’s mother’s love story. When Will asks why Uncle Mark is here, Uncle Mark slowly asks the same question of Will and then menacingly forces him to answer. Will says he’s following the Rules, just like Uncle Mark would’ve. Uncle Mark walks Will through the “scene” of killing Riggs, but when they get to the point of Will pulling the trigger, Will struggles to say it. Will tells the reader that Uncle Mark died after he lost his video camera and started dealing drugs to get money for a new one. It was lucrative for a few months until a young kid killed him. Uncle Mark asks Will what happens after he shoots, but Will insists that’s the end. With a chuckle, Uncle Mark lights a cigarette and says that’s never the end. The elevator stops again.

The ghost of Pop steps in on the fourth floor and immediately envelops Will in a hug. Pop died when Will was three, so Will doesn’t remember anything about him. According to his mother, Pop died of a broken heart after Uncle Mark died, but according to Shawn he was killed at a payphone after killing Uncle Mark’s killer. At that point, then-16-year-old Buck took Shawn under his wing. In the elevator, Pop and Will start to make small talk. Though Will wants to tell Pop everything, he doesn’t—he doesn’t want to look weak in front of the other ghosts. He vows not to cry, and when Pop asks Will what Will thinks he should do, Will says he should follow the Rules just like Pop did. This worries Pop, and he asks Will if Will has ever heard his story. Pop explains that he was broken when Uncle Mark died, and he followed the Rules. He killed the man he knew killed Uncle Mark, but couldn’t sleep that night or touch his wife, Will, or Shawn. Will insists that Pop just did what he was supposed to do, but Pop says that’s not true: he killed the wrong guy, even though he believed he had the right man. Hearing this, Will is disappointed that his father isn’t the man he thought he was. He also wonders if he’s disappointing Pop right now. Pop steps forward and pulls Will into a hug again. Will feels both confused and comforted until Pop grabs Will’s gun and puts it to Will’s head. Will shrieks for help, but the smoke blocks out everyone else in the elevator. After Will wets himself in fear, Pop removes the gun away and gives it back to Will. Uncle Mark offers Pop a cigarette, and when Buck lights it, the elevator stops.

A light-skinned stranger gets on and doesn’t acknowledge anyone, so Will thinks he must be alive and real. Buck, however, approaches the stranger and shows the man the back of his T-shirt. They embrace happily, and Buck introduces the man as Frick, his killer. Will is shocked, especially when Buck asks if Shawn never shared this story. Will thinks that Shawn didn’t, but he remembers Shawn saying that he knew who killed Buck and watching Shawn load his gun. Buck says that one day, he was with Shawn at the basketball court. Shawn was talking about an old friend who’s now a Dark Sun, and who tried to get Shawn to stop buying the special soap for his mother in Dark Suns territory. Will knows Shawn was talking about Riggs. Buck explains that as they talked, he tried to show Shawn a gold chain he’d just stolen from a suburban kid. He gave the chain to Shawn to cheer him up, and Shawn left the court. Will explains how to become a Dark Sun: one must acquire a cigarette burn under the right eye, live nine blocks from Will’s building, and perform a “Dark Deed,” which can be robbing, beating, or killing someone. Frick pipes up and says that he was supposed to rob Buck as his Dark Deed, but when he approached Buck, Buck just laughed. When Buck then swiped at Frick, Frick got scared and shot him. Will asks what any of this has to do with Shawn, and Frick replies that Shawn followed the Rules. He pulls down his shirt to reveal a bloody bullet hole, and Buck explains that Shawn found out who Frick was from Tony, who spends his days at the basketball court talking about everything to make himself seem cool. Turning to Will, Buck asks how he knows Riggs killed Shawn. Will says it makes sense: Riggs avenged Frick’s death. Frick, however, doesn’t know who Riggs is. He lights his own cigarette and the elevator stops.

Nobody is there when the elevator doors open. Will is getting impatient and thinks the elevator feels like a coffin. When the doors are almost closed, fingers stop them and they open again to reveal Shawn, wearing the blood-soaked clothes he died in. Shawn steps in, warmly greets the other ghosts, and then turns to face Will. Will hugs Shawn, but Shawn just stands there awkwardly. Will tells Shawn everything and says he’s trying to follow the Rules and kill Riggs. He confesses that he’s scared, and wants Shawn to tell him if he’s doing the right thing. Shawn starts to cry. Will tells Shawn that the first rule is that they can’t cry, and looks away so that he doesn’t start crying. But Will realizes that he doesn’t love Shawn any less because he’s crying—he’s still Will’s favorite and only brother. Shawn makes a pained, grinding sound as the elevator reaches the lobby. The doors open and all the ghosts step out after the smoke. Will stands in the elevator, wet, tear-stained, and afraid. Shawn turns around and asks Will if he’s coming.