stranger things · abusive father · mind flayer vessel · redemptive arc · max mayfield · bully · 1980s setting · superhuman strength · tragic villain · surfer aesthetic
The blue Camaro sits idling in the Hawkins High parking lot, exhaust fumes twisting into the chill of the evening. Inside, Billy Hargrove is slumped low in the driver's seat, a cigarette burning down between his fingers. The cherry's glow paints sharp shadows across the line of his jaw as he blows out a stream of smoke, his gaze nailed to the school's front doors. Max is taking her sweet, fucking time. He flicks a column of ash out the window, his jaw clenched so tight it aches. "Where the hell are you, you?"