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you left me no choice (but to stay here forever) by jiaras
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
02 Jan 2026
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Summary
After the world is saved, Mike Wheeler is left with the quiet.
Hawkins moves on, the party heals, and Mike learns what it means to miss someone who saved everything, but left him behind in the process.
Series
- Part 1 of no choice universe
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Bookmark Notes:
"She said his name again. He didn’t turn his head, didn’t even blink.
His eyes stayed locked on the space in front of him, the exact spot where Eleven had been standing, where her feet had touched the ground, where the air still felt wrong, like it remembered her. He memorized it without meaning to. The scorch marks. The uneven dirt. The nothingness that wasn’t really nothing at all.
That was where she would come back.
And if he looked away, if he let himself see anything else even for a second, then what? She’d return and he’d miss it. She’d be there, confused and alone, and he wouldn’t be watching.
He couldn’t let that happen. So he stared.
Nancy’s thumb brushed under his eye, wiping at something wet he hadn’t noticed. She said his name again, closer this time, like she was leaning in, like she was begging.
He still didn’t move.
His chest felt too tight, but not in a way that meant he needed to cry. It was like all the feeling had been packed down, compressed into something solid and unyielding. There was no room for crying yet. No room for screaming. Just this waiting, this frozen, horrible hope that refused to die. Hope that he had felt before, hope that had been repaid before.
Any second now, his mind insisted.
Any second.""El was still gone.
No amount of regulated sleep or scheduled meals could change that. The world was still wrong: it was still missing its center. Mike could function now, could wake up and eat and go through the motions, but he wasn’t better.
He was just… there.
Then the Snow Ball came. Holly’s dress was pink.
That was the first thing that hit him: the color. So soft, so bright. It felt wrong in a house that had learned how to live quietly. Mike watched her spin in front of the mirror, watched his mother fuss with her hair, watched the excitement bounce around the room.
The Snow Ball. He remembered a gym strung up with cheap lights. Paper snowflakes. Music too loud and too earnest. He remembered standing there, awkward and terrified and hopeful all at once. Remembered how Eleven had looked at him like he was something worth choosing. Like the world made sense when they were standing side by side.
Holly laughed, and it echoed in a way that made his throat close.
He went through the motions. He smiled when he was supposed to. He stood where his mother told him to stand. He held the camera steady while Holly twirled in her pink dress, all excitement and missing front tooth and happiness that didn’t know how fragile it was yet. He told her she looked beautiful. He told her to have fun. He meant it, in the distant way you mean things when they don’t quite belong to you anymore.
Then the front door closed. The car pulled away. The house settled into its nighttime shape."“Everyone keeps telling me I’ll feel better, I’ll move on.”
“They don’t know what to say,” Nancy said. “They’re just scared.”
“So am I,” he replied quietly. “But I don’t think it’s the same kind.”
She nodded, slow. “What kind is it, then?”
Mike’s fingers twisted in the sheet. He stared at the ceiling like it might answer for him.
“It’s like,” he said, searching, “I don’t know where to put myself. There used to be a place. With her. And now there isn’t. And everyone’s acting like I should just… stand somewhere else.”
Nancy’s eyes filled, but she didn’t interrupt.
“I don’t want a new place,” he went on. “I don’t want a version of this where it’s okay.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“I don’t even know what people mean when they say ‘better,’” Mike said. His voice cracked, not loudly, not dramatically. Just enough to betray him. “Better than what?”mike 😩 darling 😔
It wasn't my fault
You had to leave
Now I can't go on
Please tell me that you're coming back
I love youIs there anyway
You could love me once again?
Gotta find a way
To bring back my best friend
I'll sing a song for you
With the sweetest melody
Please tell me I'll find my baby'Cause I can't go on
I can't go on, baby
The feeling is lonely (All by myself)
I can't go on, baby (I can't go on)
Feeling I need you in my life (Whoa)
I can't go on (No, no, by myself)
The feeling is lonely (No, no, no, no)
I can't go on, baby (I can't go on)
Feeling I need you in my lifeYou make me feel
Like I can do anything
Now I'm half the man
Without my baby, oh& heavy by the marias
i wish you roses by kali uchis
d*e with a smile by gaga/bruno
superwoman & love you more than you'll ever know by donny hathaway
i wake up alone by amy winehouse
i don't know if i should stay by alexz johnson
homecoming by ec -
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