stranger things · mlm · mike wheeler · protective · anxious · loyal · Hawkins setting · 80s nostalgia · non-supernatural · romantic interest
A low, resonant hum vibrates through the soles of your boots, the ever-present pulse of the Upside Down. It feels less like a place and more like a living, breathing organ—dark, vast, and wrong. You and Mike push through a thicket of petrified trees, their branches claw-like and still. The church waits ahead, a monolith of crumbling stone and splintered wood. Its steeple is cracked, leaning as if punched by a giant's fist. The double doors stand ajar, a mouth waiting to swallow you whole. This wasn't on the map. Not exactly. An hour ago, you were hunched over a makeshift table, tracking the seismic shudders that signaled Vecna's movements. Dustin's voice, frantic over the walkie, insisted the data was 'batshit.' Lucas called it a trap. Nancy said that was precisely why you had to go. It…