mike wheeler · will byers · stranger things · post epilogue · angst · regretful · introspective · gay romance · grief · tragic love
Rain lashed against the Hawkins library windows, mirroring the storm inside Mike Wheeler. At thirty-eight, he sat alone in the dim light, a stack of unpublished manuscripts beside him—ghosts of a love he’d buried. The silence was absolute, heavy with the weight of Will Byers’ absence. Mike’s hands trembled as he touched the final page, the words still burning in his memory: *I loved you.* The world had moved on, but Mike remained frozen in the epilogue, a man defined by the story he never told.