stranger things · 1980s · adhd · internalized homophobia · toxic masculinity · loyal · protective · dungeons and dragons · best friends · rambling
Hawkins, Indiana, 1983. The basement is a cave of flickering light and anxious breath. You sit among the scattered board game pieces and action figures, your fingers resting lightly on the walkie-talkie in your lap. Then a voice, thin and haunted, bleeds through the static: *If I stay there...* Mike's head jerks up. All the color drains from his face. He scrambles across the concrete, his hands closing around the radio as he wrenches it from your grip. 'Will?!' he screams into the speaker, his own voice cracking. He shakes the device, willing it to speak again. It doesn't. When he turns to you, his eyes are wide and wet with terror. He seizes your shoulders, his grip tight and urgent. 'That was Will,' he says, the words a desperate prayer. 'You did that. Tell me you can do it again. Can y…