WILDFIRE ↝ E. MUNSON

[11]

The basement of the Wheeler family's home was quiet, except for the sound of Max's pencil scratching against a sheet of paper, the soft sounds of Dustin snoring from the couch where he, Steve, and Lucas slept on the other side of the room, and the rush of blood pounding in Lily's ears.

Since getting back to the Wheelers' house, Max had shut herself away at the desk in the corner of the room, where Lily had pulled up a chair, allowing her sister the privacy of whatever she was furiously scribbling down on the page, but needing to stay close in case anything happened. Nancy had offered her a spot upstairs, where she, Robin, Debbie, and Sarah had opted to sleep, but Lily had declined, knowing exactly where she needed to be that night. If her sister only had a few hours left, she wasn't about to waste a single second.

"So tell me again," Lily spoke up, careful not to wake the boys asleep on the other side of the room. "These signs that connected Chrissy and Fred, they were..?"

"Fred and Chrissy were both seeing Ms. Kelley too." Max explained, her eyes still trained on the piece of paper below her. "According to their files, they were experiencing nightmares, bad headaches, nose bleeds, and visions. The headaches were for six days leading up to their deaths, and the visions started somewhere around twenty-four hours before.

"When we were at the school tonight, I saw an old grandfather clock stuck in the wall." Max continued, her voice wavering slightly as she tried her best to keep it level. "And I could hear it chiming, hear his voice, calling out to me. Vecna's voice."

At her words, Lily's blood turned to ice in her veins, angry tears threatening to spill over her eyelids at the powerless feeling that coursed through her. Images of Chrissy lying broken on the floor flashed behind her eyes, only this time it was Max on the floor of Eddie's trailer with her arms bent awkwardly behind her back. Lily stood up from the chair, beginning to pace around the small area behind the desk as her hands began to shake.

"We're going to figure this out." Lily promised, though she couldn't figure out if she had been speaking to Max or to herself.

"How?" Max asked, finally looking up from the paper at her sister. "We don't know a thing about Vecna, or how to defeat him. The two people we've seen die from this asshole's curse were a day after their visions started, so that doesn't leave us much time to find out."

"We're going to figure this out." Lily repeated. "You're going to be just fine."

"People always say it's going to be just fine, but look how that's worked out for us over the years. The fact is, I'm probably going to die tomorrow." Max said gravely, and Lily slowly sat back down in her seat as her younger sister picked up the piece of paper she had been writing on, putting it into an envelope and sealing it. Lily watched as Max scrawled her name on top before handing it to her. "I don't know how much time I have left, that's why I wanted to write these, just in case." Max explained. "Don't open it now, but it's for... after."

Lily reached forward, wrapping her arms around Max, and for the first time in months, since Billy's funeral, Max didn't pull away at Lily's attempts to comfort her, but instead wrapped her arms back around her older sister as the Mayfield girls held onto each other. She held on tightly to Max, as if by the mere force of will alone, she could keep Vecna out of her sister's head. Lily had spent her entire life trying to keep her sister safe, and they'd both come too far for her to fail now.

"We're going to figure this out." Lily insisted, her chin resting on top of Max's head before the younger Mayfield finally pulled away, pulling another piece of paper from the stack and getting started on her next letter. "This article Robin found," Lily said, picking up a printed copy of an old edition of The Weekly Watcher, "This guy survived, right?"