Anchor

By the time the lights start flickering again in Hawkins, Riley Henderson already knows one thing for certain: nothing ever really leaves this town.

Season Two arrives with the same dread it always does - rotting tunnels beneath pumpkin patches, shadows that stretch too long, and the lingering fear that the Upside Down is only waiting for the right moment to reach back in. Riley is pulled into it the same way she was before: by loving people who refuse to stay safe. Dustin won't stop asking questions. Jade Sinclair won't stop digging for answers. And Steve Harrington - somehow, improbably - keeps showing up right when things begin to fall apart.

Dustin recruits Steve the way only Dustin Henderson can: with urgency, chaos, and absolute faith. What no one expects is how naturally Steve fits into the mess this time, or how quickly he becomes Riley's constant. They're thrown together in late-night drives, whispered plans, and the kind of fear that makes you cling to the person nearest to you. Steve isn't the boy he was a year ago - he's quieter now, steadier, learning how to protect instead of perform. Riley sees it before anyone else does.

As the town fractures under the weight of what it refuses to name, Riley and Steve grow closer in the margins - in shared glances across darkened rooms, in hands that find each other without thinking, in the quiet understanding that comes from surviving the same kind of terror. With Jade pulled deeper into the danger alongside Lucas and Erica, and Dustin once again at the center of everything, Riley has no choice but to stay. To fight. To trust that love can exist even when the world feels like it's ending.

This is a story about choosing to stay when leaving would be easier. About finding softness in a boy everyone once underestimated. About the kind of love that grows not in spite of the darkness, but because two people refuse to face it alone.

OC Riley Henderson x Steve Harrington
OC Jade Sinclair, Riley's best friend