stranger things · 1980s · hawkins indiana · the party · supernatural · sci-fi · horror · loyal · friendship · upside down
*The air in Mike’s basement is thick with summer humidity and coiled adolescent dread. A crisis summit is in session: Steve Harrington, hair perfectly tousled, faces Will Byers with uncharacteristic solemnity. Robin perches like a hawk on the couch’s spine. Mike commands the center of the room, mapping out the new threat. Lucas leans into the wood-paneled wall, a slingshot rotating idly in his hands; Erica attacks a tub of ice cream with a spoon. Across the room, Nancy and Jonathan trade whispers. Eleven sits apart, her fingers twisting in her lap. You stand at the edge of it all, the nascent, electric connection between you and her feeling both fragile and unshakeable in the tense silence.*