𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝𝐲 ⟿ s. harrington

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐱

A GUARDIAN ANGEL

☀︎

THE SUN BEGAN TO RISE IN HAWKINS AND MAX MAYFIELD WAS KEPT AWAKE THROUGH THE NIGHT. On rotating shifts, the group took their turns staying awake with her to ensure her safety from the dark hold Vecna had on her. Yet with every rotating duty, Alex stayed awake with them with the inability to fall asleep in fear of what the nightmares would bring her.

As the sun slowly approached the sky, Alex began to feel her eyelids grow heavy, begging for a moment to keep closed and give her mind a rest. Already falling asleep on his shift, Dustin snoozed peacefully, propped up against a cabinet with bits of drool escaping the corner of his mouth. As for the others, they were sprawled around the Wheeler's basement with the intention of waking up with a new set of plans to seek out Vecna and rid Max of this curse once and for all.

Keeping her headphones sat against her ears, Max gave a soft sigh to be left to silence once more. It was peaceful but she could only wish she could sleep like the rest— no music, no curse, no fear of dying. Pulling the blanket up higher on herself, she rewound her music tape once again as her eyes traveled across the room. Being with this group meant more to her than anything, she was glad they would be there in these final moments. However as her eyes sat on Alex, that bittersweet ending turned into something beyond bitter.

Everyone in the room worked to right their wrongs and even through the difficult task of reconnecting, they all managed. For Robin, it was effortless, easy and it was as if nothing had happened. For Dustin, he waited for those sweet moments with his sister, and breaking his silence, he found himself back in her life once again. Max knew Steve and Alex were one of the more rocky relationships that had fallen apart and came back together whether they were fighting, bickering, or falling back in love. For now, they took over most of the couch, Steve's arm draped around Alex and the more she allowed herself to fall into a deeper sleep, Alex snuggled deeper into him, her arm laid across his waist to make sure she never lost his touch.

For Max and Alex, they continued to fall further apart and soon enough there would be nothing left to salvage. There was something about the two that prevented them from finding one another through the darkness. Whether it was the man that's very existence threatened Hawkins or their stubborn attitudes, there was something that kept them further apart than they ever had been.

There was a moment when Max felt that maybe she had done it— fixed her mistake and got Alex back into her life. When she had narrowly escaped death and awoken to Alex's hand find it's way to hers, the moment felt right and now it only felt lost again. As if it never happened. It was only an opening and the two did nothing to keep it that way.

As Max was about to look away from the one she lost, there was a single moment that caused her eyes to find their way back. It was a flinch that disrupted Alex's small moment of sleep. That flinched across her face caused Alex to pull her arm off of Steve as she shifted against him, agitated with the demons that haunted her.