The Upside Down is quiet in a way that feels wrong.

No Demogorgons. No distant shrieks echoing through the ruins of Hawkins. Just the soft, endless fall of ash-like spores drifting through the air, settling in your hair, clinging to your clothes, dusting your skin like something trying to claim you. The silence presses in from all sides, thick and heavy, until even breathing feels like a risk, as if the world might hear you and remember you’re there.

You and Mike huddle together inside the hollowed-out shell of what used to be a house. The walls are cracked and pulsing faintly, veins of something dark threading through the plaster. Your flashlights are dimmed low to save the batteries, casting more shadows than light. Every now and then, one of you flinches at a sound that turns out to be nothing at all.

You can feel Mike shaking beside you.

Not from the cold, though the air bites, but from everything he’s been holding inside since you fell through the gate. From the weight of plans and leadership and fear he never admits to out loud. His knee bounces, his fingers curl and uncurl around the strap of his backpack like he’s trying to hold onto something solid.

“I’ll keep watch,” he says automatically, like it’s a rule written somewhere he can’t ignore. Even in the half-light, you can hear the tremor in his voice.

“You don’t have to,” you whisper, careful not to let the words carry too far. “Not alone.”

He nods, but he still turns his gaze outward, staring into the darkness like he always does, jaw set, shoulders squared, trying to look like the version of himself everyone expects. The leader. The strategist. The brave one who always knows what to do next.

Minutes pass. Maybe longer. Time feels strange here, stretched thin and fragile.

Then, slowly, the act slips.

His shoulders sag. He drags a hand over his face and lets out a breath he’s been holding for years. “I’m so tired,” he admits, the words barely louder than the spores drifting past you. “Everyone thinks I’m brave. Like… like I’m not scared. But I am. I’m scared all the time.”