YOUR SONG | steve harrington

055

After Max had calmed down at the cemetery, Steve drove everyone back to the Wheelers house where they met back up with Nancy, Alicia, and Robin. The girls had explained what they had told Dustin over the walkie in further detail, telling them the whole story Victor told them.

Once they were done discussing, the sky had already fallen dark and everyone was exhausted from what the day had held for them. They fell asleep, designating some people to watch over Max and take shifts just in case Vecna had got her again. They had also forced her to listen to Kate Bush as she slept, which made it even harder for her sleep as it was.

She wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping, though.

Beverly had been tossing and turning all night as a dream played in her mind. Or rather...a nightmare.

She was back in middle school with people bullying her left and right, her mother yelling at her for not being able to lose weight, and Steve's rejection at the Snow Ball dance...but ten times worse.

She couldn't take it anymore so she decided to get up and go outside, getting some fresh air at the front of the Wheelers house. It was too dark for her to see anything, the only light being the front lights that seemed to get dimmer and dimmer as the years passed on.

The door then opened behind her, causing her to jump in fright. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, it's okay. It's just me," Chris quickly said, holding his hands up.

"Oh," Beverly breathed out, blinking rapidly. "S-Sorry."

He walked closer to her, seeing her paranoid demeanor. "Bev, is everything okay?" Chris asked, but before she could say it was, he quickly added, "And don't tell me that it is, because it's clearly not. You've been acting weird and everyone has noticed it, but you just won't tell us." Beverly sighed when he had said that, glancing away from him. "Look, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but Steve's right. We're all worried about you."

"I just can't do this anymore," she quietly said, looking back towards him.

"Do what?"

"This," she gestured around. "This Upside Down shit has been happening for the past four years. When is it going to end? Because it seems like it never is. Every time we win, that goddamn gate just opens again and it's little monsters come crawling out. And every year we are in even more danger than the last," she described. "Max almost died today. If Nancy, Alicia, and Robin hadn't gone to Pennhurst then she would have. I just — I can't handle it. First Barb, then Bob, then Billy, then Hopper, then Chrissy, then Fred, and then everyone else who died. I don't want Max to be next. I don't want any of us to be next."

Chris listened to her words, taking them all in. The girl was scared and he couldn't blame her, he was as well. "We won't be," he tried to say, wanting to make he feel better even though he didn't know how to.

"How do you know that?" she questioned. "You don't know what's gonna happen, okay? None of us do and ah—" Beverly grimaced, holding a hand up to her head as she suddenly got a piercing headache.

"Whoa, what happened?" Chris said, reaching forward and placing a hand on the side of her arm. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm..." she trailed off, shutting her eyes for a second before opening them again to try and get rid of the splitting headache. "It's just a headache. I'm fine."

"Headache?" Chris repeated quietly, remembering what Max had said, and the symptoms that the other victims had before they died by Vecna. "Beverly—"

"No, don't say it," she quickly cut him off, swallowing hard since she knew what he was going to presume. "It's nothing, okay? It's just me getting all worked up about this shit. It's just my mind trying to freak me out."