𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 ━ max mayfield

8│THE MESSAGE

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❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴇssᴀɢᴇ ꒱


❝ DON'T PUSH ME 'CAUSE
I'M CLOSE TO THE EDGE ❞

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They arrived at the source of the lab not long after, though it was quite long enough in Jessie's opinion. When they finally stopped, she stumbled to a halt and bent slightly as she placed her hands on her knees to catch her breath. She missed the identity of their location as her blood pounded in her ears even after she stopped moving. She focused on getting her breathing under control instead. The dizzy, spinning feeling in her head finally subsided as a man's voice shouted through the trees: "who's there?"

Max tugged Jessie forward as the group went on the move again towards the sound. She didn't have the breath to complain as they burst from the trees to see—

"Steve?" Nancy and Jonathan asked in unison.

"Nancy?"

"Johnathan."

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

"We're looking for Mike and Will," Nancy explained.

"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin asked.

"We're not sure."

"Why?"

Jessie slowly counted to ten in her head as she guessed the final seconds of her usual ten-minute recovery period. Sure enough, her breath had eased back to normal and she could participate in conversation again. There wasn't much to say, though, as they listened to the muted roars of the Demogorgons inside the lab. All at once, the lights in lab returned, catching their attention.

"The power's back!" Johnathan exclaimed before he ran into the guard booth and started pressing buttons. His efforts proved futile as the gate remained shut.

"Let me try," Dustin insisted as he tried to push the older boy out of the way.

"Hang on."

"Let me try, Johnathan! Son of a bitch!"

Johnathan surrendered to his insistence and stepped back to allow Dustin free reign of the controls. The boy eyed the buttons for a minute before he began to hit them repeatedly.

Now recovered from their run, Jessie leaned against the doorway of the booth and watched him boredly. "That's not going to work."

"Shut up!"

"You look like an idiot," she commented flatly.

"Like you'd look any smarter," he snapped and continued his aggressive button-pushing. A few minutes later, the gate opened. "Ha! See?" 

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

Johnathan and Nancy drove to the lab and were gone for what seemed like an interminable amount of time. Then, things happened very quickly after that.

Two cars drove out of the hospital entrance, causing the teens to jump out of the way as a familiar police car screeched to a halt next to them. Hopper was in the driver's seat and he wasted no time in ordering them to get in the car. After a tense drive, they made it to the relative safety of the Byers' house.

They were mostly quiet as they recovered from the high stress at the lab. Will rested on the couch as his mother comforted him while Hopper was on the phone to report the attack. Steve paced anxiously around the small house while the teens sat together in an unusually agreeable silence.