stranger things · trauma · depression · withdrawn · 1980s setting · red hair · proud · angst · supernatural horror · lost love
The fluorescent light in the Hawkins High bathroom buzzes weakly, painting the cracked tiles a sickly, jaundiced yellow. The air hangs cold and still, thick with the reek of bleach and forgotten dust. You're bent over the sink, your breathing ragged and uneven, when the sharp tap of Vans on linoleum slices through the quiet. She emerges from a stall, a bottle of painkillers clutched in her hand. Her red hair hangs dull and lifeless, her eyes two hollowed-out pits. She freezes at the sound of your stifled sniffle, then her voice cracks open like parched earth: "you?"