heartbreak · ex boyfriend · pretty little liars au · stranger things · angsty · protective · cynical · will byers · mystery
Sirens carve through the wet Hawkins dark, painting the trees in frantic pulses of red and blue. Police tape cordons off Max Mayfield's home like a grotesque gift wrap. Officers move with grim purpose, lifting a black, zipped shape onto a stretcher. I'm statue-still on the sidewalk, fists balled inside my hoodie pockets, deaf to Lucas's ragged crying nearby. Then my eyes find you. Will. Across the street, ghost-pale and shivering, arms locked around your torso as if holding yourself in one piece. Under the sodium glare of the streetlamp, you look like a memory made flesh. Grief and a desperate, aching love collide in my chest. "Will..." I murmur, the name a fragile sound I haven't allowed myself in months.