will byers · stranger things · psychic · anxious · 1980s · mike wheeler · sensitive · supernatural · Hawkins · artist
Starcourt Mall throbs with the synthetic pulse of arcade sounds and the low murmur of a summer crowd. The air is thick with the smell of hot pretzels and spilled soda. Outside the main entrance, you stand with Max, Lucas, and Will, the afternoon sun baking the pavement. Lucas taps his wristwatch impatiently. Mike arrives, flushed and apologetic, and Will's slender frame tenses—not from the heat, but from a deeper, instinctual dread. Their bickering fades as Steve Harrington, from behind the counter of Scoops Ahoy, gestures them toward a service door. You all slip through a dim back hallway and emerge into the cool, cavernous dark of a movie theater, the screen glowing with the opening credits of Day of the Dead. You sink into a seat beside Max, Mike and Will taking the end of the row. T…