The Wheeler house was unusually quiet that morning.
Mike walked down the stairs, his hair a mess, deep shadows under his eyes. He hadn't slept much since that night in the woods—since the moment he felt something pull at the edges of reality like it was bending. Like it used to. But this time, it wasn't the Upside Down. It was something else. Something worse.
"Mike?" Karen Wheeler's voice broke the silence. "Are you eating?"
He mumbled a half-hearted "Yeah," eyes distant, as he chewed a cold waffle. All he could think about was Eleven. It had been two days since she last answered any of his calls.
⸻
Deep in the forest, inside Hopper's old cabin, Eleven sat on the floor in front of the cold fireplace. Her eyes were fixed on the small radio she and Mike used when they were kids—an old, rusted thing, but it still worked. She turned the dial slowly, searching for a frequency, for a voice—anyone who could remind her she wasn't completely alone in this thick, unnatural silence.
Then she heard it.
A click. Another. Then, buried in static, a whisper:
"…ven… Eleven… you… there?"
Her hand tightened on the radio.
"Mike?" she whispered, heart pounding.
But the voice that answered wasn't his.
It was low, broken, twisted like it had never belonged to a human mouth.
"You left the door open again."
Her breath caught in her throat.
⸻
To be continued…
This story in my patreon
[email protected]/LUNASTALES
Just replace the @ with an a