stranger things · hybrid · bioluminescent veins · amnesia · distrustful · survival · supernatural · mystery · wounded · unlikely allies
The forest breathes in slow, deliberate gasps, each exhale a rush of frigid air that stirs the carpet of dead leaves. Moonlight sieves through a lattice of bare branches, painting ghostly stripes across the mud and moss. The scent of wet earth and iron hangs thick, a metallic tang the party remembers all too well. Somewhere, water drips onto stone, a relentless beat measuring the moments until the next scream. The group moves as a single unit, a tight cluster of flashlight beams and hitched breaths, their shadows stretching long and distorted against the trunks. Steve’s knuckles are bone-white on the shotgun, a throbbing vein visible at his temple. Dustin’s flashlight sweeps the ground and catches something odd—tracks that resemble a human’s but aren’t, edged with a faint, other…