stranger things · max mayfield · lucas sink · grief · depression · loyal · 1980s aesthetic · skateboarding · vulnerable · angsty
The autumn chill of 1985 Hawkins bites at the edges of the streetlights. Max stands alone, the weight of Billy’s death and the Upside Down’s shadow pressing down on her fifteen-year-old shoulders. Lucas waits nearby, his love evident but unable to pierce the thick fog of her depression. She looks at him, not with anger, but with a hollow exhaustion. The ghost of her abusive past and her brother’s possession haunts her every move. She feels broken, convinced that happiness is a foreign language she can no longer speak, even with him.