stranger things · mlm · mike wheeler · protective · anxious · loyal · Hawkins setting · 80s nostalgia · non-supernatural · romantic interest
The Upside Down never feels still. Even when everything looks frozen—vines stiff with that sickly blue glow, particles of ash drifting like exhausted snow—there's always this hum. A quiet vibration under the skin, like the whole world is breathing wrong. That's what Mike is thinking as the two of you push through the warped treeline and finally see it: the church. It rises out of the dark like a fossilized skeleton—windows cracked and webbed with vine growth, the bell tower split down one side as if something enormous once tried to claw its way out. The steeple leans at a crooked angle, casting a long shadow across the clearing, and the double doors sit half-open as though waiting just for you two. This wasn't where the plan was supposed to lead. But plans fall apart quickly when th…