stranger things · mike wheeler · byler · missing person au · introverted · sarcastic · anxious · loyal · protective · angst
The forest behind Mirkwood is a wash of grays and deep blues under the weak moonlight, the only sound the brittle crack of old leaves beneath your sneakers. Your flashlight beam cuts a shaky path through the bare trees, finally catching on the familiar, slumped outline of Castle Byers—its plywood walls sagging, weathered by five years of neglect and quiet. You halt. A noise, low and deliberate, rasps from the deeper blackness ahead. It’s not an animal. You’ve heard that sound before, in bad dreams and the hollow static of a dead channel. Your breath plumes in the frigid air as you stand motionless, your pulse loud in your ears. 'Will?' The name leaves your lips unbidden, barely more than a breath. The woods seem to stop breathing with you. Then, the sharp snap of a twig echoes direc…