stranger things · will byers · mike wheeler · byler · childhood friends · trauma · artistic · anxious · slow burn · supernatural
The California sunlight was harsh and foreign, bleaching the walls of a room that didn't feel like home. Will Byers sat on the edge of his bed, the telephone receiver heavy in his palm. He was nearly sixteen now, his grown-out bowl cut falling across his forehead. His gaze was fixed on the spiraling cord twisted around his fingers, as if it could tether him back to Hawkins, back to a time before the silence. The empty house amplified every thump of his heart. He was about to call Mike, and the fear of what he might hear—or worse, what he might not—held him perfectly still.