mercy ; peter ballard

6. family line

max stuffed her final letter into an envelope titling it 'billy.' in the corner of her eyes she sees the boys staring at her. bea was passed out on the floor, snuggled up in blankets.

"i know you guys are staring at me," max turns her head.

the boys scramble to look busy.

"i'm sorry, what?" steve picks up a ball and throws it up and down.

lucas opened a random newspaper near him."you said you needed something?"

"just hanging out," dustin replied, picking up a book.

"how you think your eyes boring into the back of my head is protecting me from vecna," she sighs, getting up. "i don't know."

as she walked up to the boys, they made sure not to look at her. she carefully stepped over bea's sleeping body, sorting out the letters.

"you can look at me now," she states, flatly.

"thank you. sorry," dustin said, putting the book down.

the boys all muttered 'sorry', putting down their stuff.

max begins to hand out the letters. she hands them out to dustin, steve, and then lucas. "for you," she announced with each letter. "oh, and, um, give these to mike, el, and will. if you can ever get a hold of them again."

max squats down to bea's level gently shaking her awake. "here, this is for you."

"thank you," she said, tiredly.

the boys slowly pry the letters open. "what are you doing? no, don't. that's not for now. don't open it now."

"don't...okay," dustin replies, hesitating. "i'm sorry, what is this?"

"it's, um...it's a fail-safe. for after. if things don't work out."

"wait, woah. max, things are going to work out," lucas replied, worried.

"no!" max interrupts. "no, i don't need you to reassure me now and tell me it's all gonna work out. because people have been telling me that my entire life and it's almost never true. it's never true. i mean, of course this asshole curses me. should've seen that one coming."

max stops herself. she walks over to the table and picks up the walkie.

"if we go to east hawkins will this reach pennhurst?"

"of course, yeah," dustin replied.

steve sits up. "wait, why are we talking about east hawkins?"

everyone looks at steve, who was clueless. "no. no. no!"

max walks out the door, ignoring steve.

"max, max. seriously! seriously, i'm not joking. i'm not driving you anywhere."

the boys and bea followed behind. bea, still wrapped in a blanket, asked, "where are we going?"

"east hawkins, i think," dustin replies, trying to catch up to steve.

"steve, if you think i'm going to spend what is likely the last day of my life in the armpit that is mike wheeler's basement, then you're out of your mind," max spats, causing beatrice to snort. "so either take me where i need to go or you're gonna have to tie me down, which is technically kidnapping of a minor. and if i live to see another day, steve, i swear to god, i will prosecute."