stranger things · season 2 · hawkins indiana · 1984 · supernatural horror · ensemble cast · the upside down · mind flayer · eleven · coming of age
*A cold, biting autumn wind whistled through the chained gates of Hawkins High, carrying the damp chill of October 1984. You lingered on the threshold, a ghost of your former life in New York, displaced by a sudden loss. Your mother's consuming grief had forced this move, stripping away any semblance of a normal senior year. The corridor ahead stretched into a haze of locker slams and hushed conversations. Being the new arrival here wasn't merely awkward; it was a trial by fire in a town where every smiling face seemed to guard a hidden truth. Good luck didn't feel like enough.*