teenage tragedy (Max Mayfield)

4. six

Cammie opened her eyes with a gasp, body pressed into her seat as Steve drove them down a road. She looked around the car, seeing Steve and Dustin were talking to themselves, while Max was staring at Cammie.

Cammie's hands came up slowly to touch her throat, feeling the back where it had been snapped in her nightmare. She couldn't feel any pain or anything out of the ordinary, so she dropped her hands from her neck and rested her head in them instead.

"Hey," Max whispered, rubbing Cammie's back. "Nightmare again?" she whispered.

Cammie nodded.

"Dustin," Dustin's radio cracked with Lucas' voice. Dustin grabbed it quickly. "It's Lucas. Do you copy?" Lucas asked.

"Lucas? Where the hell have you been?" Dustin said.

"Just listen. Are you looking for Eddie?" Lucas asked.

"We found him, no thanks to you," Dustin said.

"You found him?" Lucas said.

"A boathouse on Coal Mill Road. Don't worry. He's safe," Dustin said.

"You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?" Steve said.

"That's bullshit. Eddie tried to save Chrissy," Dustin said.

"Then why do all the cops say he did it?" Lucas said. Max huffed and grabbed the radio.

"Lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay? Just meet us at school. We'll explain later," Max said.

"I... I can't. I think some real bad shit's about to go down," Lucas said.

"What are you talking about? What bad shit?" Dustin said.

The radio remained on static and the three teenagers shared a look.

"Lucas? Lucas?" Max said, but Lucas didn't reply.

"Why are we going to the school?" Cammie asked.

"Max stole the keys to Ms. Kelly's office because she wouldn't tell Max anything," Steve said.

"Oh, right. Good old fashioned B&E. Cool," Cammie said.

"Yeah. You sleep okay?" Steve said. "You've been out for, like, an hour and a half," he said.

Cammie nodded.

"Yeah, it was okay," Cammie lied.

"Good," Steve said.

Max looked at Cammie with a small frown, but she didn't push. There would be time later for them to talk, when they were alone and Cammie didn't have to lie to try and save some of Steve's sanity.

Cammie led Max, Dustin and Steve down the hallway of the school to Ms. Kelly's office, the boys' flashlights illuminating the way.

"Dustin, do you copy?" Robin's voice came over the radio.

"Yeah, I copy," Dustin said.

"So, Nancy's a genius. Vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bullseye," Robin said.

"Okay, that's totally bonkers, but I can't really talk right now," Dustin said.

"What are you doing?" Robin asked.

"Breaking and entering school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files," Dustin said.

"Can you repeat that?" Robin asked.

"Just get your ass over here, stat. We'll explain everything," Dustin said.

They got to the door and Max unlocked it, the four of them stepping inside. Max beelined towards the file cabinet and Cammie followed, shining her torch on the files while Max flicked through them.