𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 ━ max mayfield

4│DEAD MAN'S PARTY

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❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴀɴ's ᴘᴀʀᴛʏ ꒱


❝ DON'T BE AFRAID OF
WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE ❞

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Hawkins was very much an all or nothing town: either a murderous, interdimensional beast was out for blood or it was the most boring place in the world. Right now, it was the latter and Jessie was one of the few (if not the only one) who preferred it the first way. She let out a disinterested sigh as Mr. Clarke droned on about the day's Science lecture. Her mind drifted— as it usually did now— to Max.

Her eyes fell on the fire-y strands of hair in front of her and glazed over as she watched them swish slowly back and forth whenever the girl shifted. After her confession, Jessie had done her best to keep her distance from Max. Whatever the girl said, the brunette was convinced that it was some sort of complicated joke or prank and she refused to be the brunt of other people's entertainment. Her paranoia, of course, led to Max spending more time with the boys, most notably Dustin and Lucas.

While Jessie knew that this was something that she'd brought on herself, she couldn't help but feel her stomach burn with acid whenever she saw Max and Lucas or Max and Dustin together. It often put her in the mood to blow something up. So, when she was finished with her chores for the day, loud bangs could usually be heard from behind the house as she used her emotions for target practice.

Still, that couldn't keep her attention forever and she cleaned up her pistol before she slid it back into one of her coat's many pockets. After checking to make sure that the doors of the house were locked, she turned away from the street and headed into the forest. Very few of Hawkins' residents paid much attention to the wooded area except for when Will had gone missing last year. Other than that, only avid hikers could be found among the trails.

Jessie liked the woods.

Unlike the school, they were relatively quiet and had no reason to judge her. Animals skittered through the leaves or above in the branches. Her sneakers trod on the barely-visible path that wound through the trunks of autumn-colored trees and the fresh air cleared her mind better than her pyromaniac tendencies ever could. Besides, things liked to hide in the woods; if she were to do the 'ranger' job the party had decreed for her, she would find anomalies here.

Some time later, she paused as a. . . different smell drifted on the breeze. Immediately, her nose wrinkled at how disgusting the scent was. She was reminded of rotten eggs and decaying carcasses. Definitely an anomaly. 

Senses alerted, her pace picked up until she was jogging lightly through the woods. She let her nose guide her towards she smell and tried not to think about the way her heart was speeding up to an uncomfortable, irregular rate. By the time she got to the edge of the woods, her breath was rasping painfully in her throat and she felt exhausted despite the short distance.

The brunette closed her eyes to steady herself and focused on exhaling in and out to even her breathing. This was the bad thing about the woods: the soft ground didn't allow her to use her roller skates and forced her to run instead. She'd never been particularly good at running and even the shortest distances sent her heart pounding sporadically, something which would be a concern if she focused on it. Instead, she chose to ignore the potential problem and avoided running at all costs. 

Once ten minutes had passed (as that was usually how long it took to recover from her 'attacks') Jessie turned her attention back to her discovery. As she peered through the forest edge, her eyes widened at the sight of the decaying crops. So that explained the smell, she realized.