Upside Down Riff

Bikes on the blacktop

Blood in the nose

Walkie-talk talk

Static in the cold

One kid missing

Mothers losing sleep

Posters on the poles and a secret in the deep

Basement plans

Lights start to shake

Alphabet wall

Letters come awake

Teeth in the dark

Something in the vents

Whole damn town feeling bent

It’s a stranger thing

When the ceiling starts to breathe

When your best friend’s voice

Comes crawling through the weeds

Yeah

The world splits open

On an ordinary street

And we’re running

Running

From the shadow on our heels (hey!)

Shaved head

Stolen gown

Name like a code

Nosebleed girl with a mind that explodes

Eggos on the table

Sirens in the night

Door to the other side framed in flickering light

Mouths full of knives in a sinking gym

Soldier with a scar line

Eyes gone dim

Masks at the lab

Secrets in the floor

Every little lie kicks open one more door

It’s a stranger thing

When the walls begin to crawl

When your childhood maps

Don’t match the shape at all

Yeah

The sky burns crimson

Over rust and peeling steel

And you’re holding

Holding

To a promise that feels unreal

Roll the dice on the bedroom rug

Heart like a drum in a sea of bugs

Brother in the Byers car

Graveyard rain

Teenage teeth sunk deep in the pain

Fireworks bloom over mall glass cracks

Monsters learning all our tracks

Kids in helmets

Kids in chains

Love and terror share one name (one name)

It’s a stranger thing

When the past won’t stay asleep

When the monster wears

The faces that you keep

Yeah

The gates break open

In a small town summer reel

And we’re shouting

Shouting

Till the darkness finally kneels

Small town scars

Flicker and fade

But the hum in the power lines always remains

If the lights go out and the earth sings

We remember

All these stranger things