SUMMERTIME SADNESS | Max Mayfield

CHAPTER SIX: the past is haunting me.

"I found him." Lexi heard El said as she was napping on Max's lap, too exhausted to care. "Where is he?" Mike asked. "Woods." She replied. This caught Lexi's attention. Why was her dad in the woods? "Woods?" 

"He's with... Will's mom." El informed them. "My... My mom? What are they doing?" Will asked her. "Ill... annoy. They're going to Ill-annoy." She replied. "Mike! Breakfast!" Mike's mom yelled. This is no place to nap. "Not now, Mom! Illinois? Illinois, like the state? The state of Illinois?"

"Ill-annoy." She took the bandana off and Lexi raised her head, so  Max could go with El to the bathroom and Lexi could continue napping. "Something's not right. I can't get Hopper off my back all summer, now all of a sudden, he's hiking with Will's mom to Illinois? And Dustin's MIA, too? I mean, this can't be a coincidence."

"What does it matter? The bottom line is, they're not here. It's up to us." Lexi sighed. "Up to us to do what exactly?" She mumbled. "Find Billy and stop him." He shrugged. "Okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment, but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?"

"We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time." Lucas said. "Okay, then what?" Mike scoffed. "Then we win." Lucas shrugged. "No, see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win. We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before and he just came right back. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer." He said. 

"How in the hell do we do that?" He asked. "I don't know. Maybe El does. What are they still doing in there?"

"I don't know. Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms." Lucas shrugged. "Why?" He asked. "I mean, I don't know." Lucas said. "They're conspiring against me." Mike said and Lexi sighed. "Geez, chill Mike." 

"That's what you're concerned about now?" Will scoffed. "It's not my main concern. It's just a sub-concern." Mike shrugged. "I thought it was already over."

"It's not over, okay? We're just taking a break." Mike defended. "She said she dumped your ass. That doesn't sound like a break." Lexi argued. "It wasn't! You guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?

"Conspiring. I told you, they're conspiring." But just then, a knock was heard. "Not now, Mom!" Mike yelled. "Mike, open the door." A familiar voice to Lexi shouted. Mike opened the door and Nancy and Jonathan walked down the stairs. 

"Oh my god, my favorite Wheeler!" Lexi walked over to Nancy ang hugged the girl. "Lexi? What are you doing here? I thought you stopped visiting Hawkins." Jonathan said. "Hey man, nah, I could never."

Nancy and Jonathan then began explaining what happened in the hospital. "It was the same thing, the exact same thing that happened to Will last year. And look at this. Look at the body temperatures."

She passed the paper to Lexi. "He likes it cold." Will said as he looked over Lexi's shoulder at the paper. "Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer..." Mike started. "Mrs. Driscoll." Nancy corrected him. "Right, yeah, Mrs. Driscoll. What time was this attack?"

"Last night." Nancy replied. "Right, but what time last night?" Mike said. "Around 9:00." She shrugged. "You waited all night to call?" Jonathan scoffed. "I was waiting for the doctors
to run some tests."

"You weren't there?" Will asked him in disbelief. "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Jonathan said. "Hallelujah!" Nancy raised her voice a little. "Um, so, wha... what time was your... sauna test?"

"Around 9:00." The group agreed. "Well, that proves it. That proves my theory. She's flayed, just like Billy." Nancy stood up. "Flayed?" Lexi furrowed her brows. "The Mind Flayer. He flays people. Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him. If there are two flayed..."

"We have to assume there are more." They agreed. "Heather. Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams." El looked up at them. "What's a good scream?" Lucas asked and Lexi's eyes widened. "Max said..."

"Doesn't matter." She quickly said. "I'm sorry, I'm lost. Who is Heather?" Nancy's brow raised. "She's a lifeguard at the pool." Lexi told her. "Heather Holloway?" They nodded. "Tom." They looked at each other.

"Wait, there's still one thing, we don't know." All eyes went to Lucas as he spoke. "When we did our sauna test, he told Lexi, that she was too close to the truth." All eyes went from Lucas to Lexi and her eyes widened. Her past is haunting her.

"When were you too close to the truth?" Nancy asked her immediately. "I don't know." This was true. She didn't know, what she had done, but she had to figure it out and fast. Lexi rubed her temples with both hands.

"Since when do you have a scar on your hand?" Mike asked her. "I don't." She hid her hand and he gave her the look. "Alright, but this doesn't have anything to do with this truth." That was half true. 

"Seriously? You don't come here for one summer and then you have a huge scar on your hand? This doesn't happen just like that. You had to have that hand sliced open, or something like that." 

"I don't want to talk about it." She looked down. "Why not? This might help us." Lucas said. She sighed. "Come on, leave her alone, if she doesn't want to, don't make her." Max said and El and Nancy agreed. 

"Please." Will placed his hand on top of Lexi's and she looked in his eyes. "Fine." She took a deep breath in.

"When I was at a summer camp in 1984, everything was normal, well, except for the fact that I couldn't find my friend. His name was Josh. Uhm, I went to look for him and after some time, I found him. Well, theoretically, he found me.  But before that, I found his diary. He wrote enteries about seeing some shadows and being sweaty and having headaches ever since. When we started talking, my nose started to bleed, just like yesterday. Then he said 'I'm so sorry Lexi. I had no other choice.' Those words were stuck in my head ever since. And then he tried to kill me. He tried to stab me, but I ran away. He then killed a few people, when he searched for me, some even in front of me. I hid in a plant room, but he found me. We fought a little and that's when he tried to stab me again, but I tried to block it with my hand, so that's where the scar is from. I managed to escape him and I called 911, but he found me again. So, I took a knife and killed him. 32 stab wounds and a slit throat. But he still managed to cut my stomach. But when he died, something left his body. Some black dust. And that's the story of those scars."

She finished her story and wiped some tears. They all looked at her differently then before. At first, she thought they judged her, because she killed someone, but they looked at her as an extremely brave person.