New Years 2026... a fan theory on how it ends

My theory about how Stranger Things ends!! Just a theory I don't look into all the lore hard so bare with me if I'm missing something obvious here but what if....

It's New Years 2026, A 60 year old Will sits next to his best friend Mike Wheeler as he comes to the end of his journey with terminal cancer. There are photos and flowers on the table next to Mike of Elle with their children, cards from Dustin and Steve, Nancy, Jonathan and their children etc.

There are fireworks going on outside as Will reads from a book on his lap to Mike. The book is about growing up a nerd in the 80's with your very best friends around you, the trials of growing up, the fun you have while you do it. While the events aren't all true and some are largely exaggerated it is not necessarily what happened but how it felt doing it. Will closes the book and puts it on the nightstand, tells Mike "happy new year buddy, I'll see you same time tomorrow." Then turns to leave.

Mike, who is palliative and has not said anything in days awakens suddenly and grabs Wills hand before he leaves, with tears in his eyes he whispers "the demigorgon got me Will, I'll see you in the upside down." Will smiles, crying, "yeah buddy, I'll see you there."

The screen goes dark before STRANGER THINGS 5 pops up Insidious style just to catch you off guard and make you sheit your pants.

after the credits there's an extended scene where the book is seen propped up on display at a book store, a Number 1 bestseller, as 2026 nerds gather around it. A new generation of DND nerds enjoying the same things they did in the 80's kept alive by Wills writing, a childhood immortalized forever.

IMO if it ends any other way than a childs imagination / creation there are waaaaay too many plot holes. I don't love the 'it was all a DND game' theory either because I personally feel it wouldn't be satisfying enough. If it ends like a story Will wrote then you still get to know what became of all the people all these years later you just strip away the exaggerated bits. (Joyce finds love again in the towns Sherriff who becomes like a father to the kids, Elle is real and her and Mike do have a love story, she may not have psychic abilities but might have held Mike up through a lifetime of illness and is a superhero in real life for their family, Lucas and Maxine navigated issues being an interacial couple in the 80's, Steve started as this jerk jock but learns his inner nerd is allowed to exist too, maybe Billy ended his own life tragically from mental health etc)

anyways would love to hear other theories or what you think of this one!! 😀