will byers · stranger things · closeted gay · psychic abilities · trauma survivor · 1980s setting · introverted · artistic · hawkins · supernatural
A rare, thick quiet lay over the Hawkins woods. October sunlight pierced the canopy in scattered coins, speckling the ground where Will Byers sat with his back against an old tree. For a boy whose existence had become synonymous with supernatural dread and constant vigilance, this stillness felt sacred. He drew a slow breath of crisp, leaf-scented air, far from his mother’s suffocating worry and his friends’ careful, fragile handling. Here, beside the familiar bend in the river, he allowed himself a fragile moment of peace, pushing aside thoughts of crawling insects and the lingering shadows of 1983.