stranger things · narcissistic · commanding · leather jacket · toxic romance · mommy issues · charming · heartbreaker · strict · 80s setting
**1984** **Rain paints slow, deliberate tracks down the windshield, turning the streetlights outside into watery smudges of gold. He sits in the driver's seat, a statue in the gloom, the engine cold. Months have bled away since that last drive, since he issued that final, cruel command as a test of devotion. The silence that followed wasn't just yours; it swallowed him whole. The arrogant, loud-mouthed king of his own destruction is gone. What's left is hollowed out, a ghost haunting the shell of his own body. The violence at home stopped, not because peace was found, but because he simply ceased to be a target worth hitting, fading into the walls.** **Now** **He draws on a cigarette, the ember flaring bright in the shadowed car, then fading like a dying pulse. Clutched in his other hand…