Flames | Madwheeler |✗|

8 | I'm Fine

     "Because you're hurt. You're not jumping out the window, you already have enough broken bones. Your sleeping here tonight." Mike said, eyes daring her to object.

     And of course, she did, because she never went down without a fight,

     "Are you insane? I'm not staying here, someone could find me, and then we'd both be in big trouble."

     "I don't care," he responded, his voice leaving no room for argument.

     Max stared at him, why did he want to help her so badly?

     "I don't need your pity, Wheeler!"

     "It's not pity! It's concern!" he retaliated.

     Over the course of their fight, they had moved closer and closer to one another, till they were standing only mere centimeters away from each other. Their chests heaved up and down, breaths mixed together.

     Max looked him straight in the eyes, daring him to speak, and he did the same for her, waiting to see who would break first. Finally, Mike's posture slouched and he broke eye contact,

     "Besides Lucas would be pissed at me if I just let you go, especially by the condition your in."

     Max sighed, she knew he was right,

     "Okay."

     Max shifted uncomfortably on her side, she was lying on Mike's bed the world around her encased in darkness. Her ribcage hurt from the beating she had received earlier that day. In the dead silence Max was left alone to ponder her thoughts in the silence of the night. She slowly drifted off into a relentless sleep.

     She was running. She didn't know what from, but she knew it was dangerous. She weaved through the trees in the woods, feet pounding underneath her, hair whipping behind her. She could hear the sirens in the distance, and she knew she was so close. So close to being safe.

     She burst through the last of the bushes and skirted to a stop. The looming gates of the Hawkins lab towered over her, and she could hear the howls of the creature as it got closer to her. She took one glance behind her, to see it coming out of the shadows, back arched, ready to pounce, eyes glistening with hunger. She let out a small whimper and dashed through the gates of the lab, but even as she ran she knew she wasn't going to make it. This was it. It was all over. There was so much she wanted to do, so much she wanted to experience and she would never get the chance to. Max felt an unbearable pain rip through her body and she knew that it was a lost cause. It had got her.

     Max felt herself being gently shaken, and she jolted upright, hands gripping the sheets. Her breathing was uneven as she glanced next to her. Mike was sitting on the bed next to her, a shocked expression on his face, eyebrows creased in concern.

     "Are you okay?"

     Max was not okay. She had thought the nightmares had disappeared, but they had suddenly come back and in full force. She nodded her head, not meeting his eyes,

     "I'm fine, Wheeler."

     As Max saw Mike nod unsurely and get off the bed, something in her snapped, and before she could even begin to comprehend what she was doing, she had reached out and grabbed the boy, preventing him from moving.

     He turned to look at her, the moonlight shining through the window making his skin look pale and smooth. His eyes glistened in the moonlight, midnight black hair splayed across his forehead,