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❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚ ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜ ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ʀᴜɴɴɪɴɢ ᴜᴘ ᴛʜᴀᴛ
ʜɪʟʟ ( ᴀ ᴅᴇᴀʟ ᴡɪᴛʜ ɢᴏᴅ ) ꒱
❝ AND I'D GET HIM TO
SWAP OUR PLACES ❞
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If Jessie Salvador was the master of one thing, it was bottling up her emotions. Nancy had been right when she'd spoken to Max about that (along the same lines, at least) hours earlier. It had been rather startling to rouse to three very worried-looking teenagers. She'd played it off like it hadn't meant anything to her when, in fact, it had made her feel distinctly uncomfortable.
This was only because she wasn't used to people caring about her. Until she'd met the party the year they'd found Eleven, it had just been her, her unresponsive father and— rarely— her mother. They weren't exactly ideal conversation partners or emotional support, so she became used to relying on herself. Even once she'd met Will and the rest of his friends, they only included her because she'd had useful information on the lab— not because they actually wanted to be her friend.
It was only when Eleven had become an integral part of their group that they'd finally started including her more, which had been immediately dashed once the super-powered girl disappeared. Then, it had just been Jessie by herself again, only worse because she knew now what having friends was like. That was when she'd resolved to never depend on anyone else again. . . until Max Mayfield walked into the classroom on that windy October day.
Now, Jessie was infiltrating alternate dimensions with the intent to kill for someone who she wasn't sure was her girlfriend or not. It was best to avoid addressing as many emotional situations as possible, especially when they were still in relative peril. So, the best thing to do was pretend like everything was just fine and carry on like nothing had happened.
She could hear the older teens start into motion after her and she was relieved that they didn't bring up her second blackout. Instead, they opened the door to the attic to reveal a shadowy room where Vecna's body was suspended by. . . something. Robin set her backpack down on the ground and handed out the torches.
Jessie took the matches out of her coat's pocket and struck them against the metal strip on the back of the package. The flame lit up in her fingers and cast a golden glow to her face. As Steve turned to her to light the cloth of his torch on fire, he caught the same shine flickering in her eyes. She gave him a smile that was all sharp, white teeth as she set the cloth ablaze.
The older boy handed her the Molotov cocktail as she put out the flame on her match. Jessie moved almost reverently despite the burning cloth. She raised her arm above her head and threw the bottle as hard as she could towards Vecna's suspended figure. It caught on his form and the body burst into flames, which lit up the dark space and chased the shadows away.
Steve, Robin and Nancy all shielded their eyes from the sudden onslaught of light but Jessie stared right into the fire as it consumed Vecna's body. Over the noise, she shouted: "that's for messing with my girlfriend, you bitch-ass motherfucker!"
Vecna fell to the ground with a rasping gasp of air but the flames hadn't killed him yet. He pushed himself to his feet as he stared them down. Nancy lifted her improvised gun higher. Robin prepared the second Molotov cocktail with her lighter. Her aim was just as good as Jessie's and it hit Vecna in the stomach, causing even more flames to rage around his form.
When he showed only the slightest signs of being affected, Nancy took purposeful steps forward and finally released the trigger on her gun. Her first shot hit his shoulder and blood— or what could pass for blood— sprayed from the wound. She kept up a relentless stream of bullets as she continued her forward path, each one weakening their enemy. The last shot had enough force that it knocked him entirely out of the attic and he fell through the third-story window.
They ran out of the building only a few minutes later only to find that Vecna's body had completely disintegrated. All that was left was a scorched imprint on the ground where he'd fallen. Jessie let out a sigh of disappointment. "Well, damn. There goes my plan for proving my love for Max." She turned back to the house thoughtfully. "Hold on, I'll be right back."
She reentered the house and made her way over to the stairs where she'd dropped her knife. Once she'd reclaimed it, she swung it towards the motionless vines that were spread over the stairs. The piece that broke off was placed into her pocket for safekeeping. So caught up in her task, she nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of four chimes that rang through the house. Her blood turned cold.
The trio joined her quickly and Robin breathed out: "four chimes."
Nancy stared at the clock's face. "Max."
Jessie felt a comforting arm wrap around her shoulders as she was pulled against Steve's side. "I'm sorry, kid."
She shook her head furiously. "No. No, it's not Max. It's-it's someone else. Either that or it's chiming because Vecna's dead. Don't even say that. She's fine. I know she is. She has to be—"
Before she could continue her denial, the house shook as if a level nine earthquake had hit it. They lost their balance and used the walls for support as the entire house began to tear apart to form a new gate.
・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.
Two days later
Jessie hadn't stretched her legs for approximately forty-eight hours. After she'd returned from the Upside-Down, she'd first (almost reluctantly, because she was far more concerned about Max) gone to check on her father. However, when she'd arrived at her home— or what had been her home— she'd found that her house, her belongings and her father had all been swallowed by the earthquake that had rumbled through Hawkins. The entire building had all but disappeared with only the foundations on one side of the rift remaining.
While she knew that she should've grieved for her loss, Jessie could only feel relief. This was what she meant about her emotions being broken: the only family member that she acknowledged had been consumed by the Upside-Down, yet she didn't even feel the slightest hint of remorse or sadness. The only thing that she did feel was the immediate need to seek out Max's condition. Her lack of emotions to what was surely a devastating loss would've made someone like Miss Kelly only too happy to have her as a patient, but anything that she did feel was bottled up and stored away as she focused on her more— in her opinion— important concern. Upon learning that Max had been sent to the hospital (because she had been the one to open the gate, despite Jessie's denial), the brunette had made a beeline for her. Then, she'd sat next to Max's bedside until now.
She'd hardly eaten, slept or taken proper care of herself since finding out about her girlfriend's circumstance. In fact, they'd all but swapped places from the last time one of them had been injured— when Jessie had blacked out after being thrown by the Mind Flayer. But, unlike the redhead, she hadn't spent the night in tears. Instead, she'd stoically taken the other girl's hand and determinedly sat next to her, come hell or high water.
It has been said before that Jessie isn't big on emotional confessions. Whenever Max had tried to express her feelings in the past, she'd been met with a lackluster— or awkward— response. Jessie was a person of action and words held little meaning for her; people lied all the time and the citizens of Hawkins hardly had anything nice to say. Rather, she relied on actions to show her feelings, such as killing the monster that plagued her girlfriend or staying by her side in her time of need. To her, these acts proved her feelings more than flowery words did.
For example: Jessie hated reading, especially for school. She always complained that the assigned novels for English class never held real-world meaning and that they were a waste of time. They were all fictional and most of them had dumb plots (or so she claimed, having only read one before she decided that she was against the practice.) But, the doctors had said that talking to Max would help her recover, so she read.
Mind you, it wasn't a nonsensical fairytale with a happy ending, but she chose to read the newspapers that the hospital provided. She only read the good stories, of course, so it wouldn't stress Max out if she could hear them. It was still better than things that couldn't ever happen.
"'Freshman Leads Cards to Title.' Oh, great, this one's about sports. Well, at least it sounds pretty good," Jessie commented. As she read each article, she also provided her own observations in order to make the experience more interesting. Maybe if she was funny enough, Max would wake up laughing rather than frightened. "'Louisville played Duke's part. The game was there for the taking and the Cardinals became the first team during the entire college basketball season to take one away from the Blue Devils. Blue Devils?" the brunette scoffed. "I've looked into the face of the devil and he definitely wasn't blue. Sports teams always have dumb names. Why would you call yourself a bird? Especially one as tiny as a cardinal. That seems counterproductive. . ."
She continued to read the article until footsteps by the door made her look up. She stared in shock at the sight of Mike, Johnathan, Eleven and— "Will!" she breathed out. Jessie dropped the newspaper, causing it to flutter to the floor as she launched herself out of her chair. She stumbled a bit due to lack of movement and food, but she threw herself at the taller boy all the same.
The girl wrapped her arms around his slender figure and hugged him tightly. While she wasn't normally one for hugging, it had been six months since she'd seen the only person that she officially called her best friend. He returned the gesture and bent slightly to accommodate their height difference as he let out a shaky breath into her hair. They stayed like that for several moments until a very familiar, very irritating voice spoke up: "what, you're not happy to see the rest of us?"
"Shut up, Mike," she replied promptly, though she did pull away from Will to look up at him. "You've gotten so tall!"
He gave her a small smile. "What are you, my grandmother?"
Jessie rolled her eyes and turned to greet the rest of the group. She pointedly ignored Mike as she shook hands with Johnathan and made to do the same with El, but the short-haired girl pulled her into a hug despite her protests.
Eleven looked over at Max with big brown eyes. "I'm sorry," she murmured. They walked over to where the redhead was laying. Mike put his arm around his girlfriend as she spoke: "do they know. . . when she will wake?"
The brunette let out a quiet sigh. "No. They. . . say that she might not." Her voice cracked as she finished the sentence and Will reached out to gently squeeze her hand.
Lucas spoke up when she didn't continue: "her heart stopped for over a minute. She died. I. . . I mean, clinically, but. . . then she came back." He let out a breath. "The doctors don't know how. They say it's a miracle."
Eleven sat on Max's bed and moved her hand to lightly hold the redhead's. "I'm here, Max."
Jessie clenched her teeth together at the girl's words. While she appreciated everything that Eleven could do, it felt like she hadn't done enough. Sure, she'd been the one to start the assault on Vecna, but Max had still. . . died. They'd still failed. Jessie had failed. Now it was time for the superhero to sweep in and save the day— bring Max Vecna's head, so to speak— and show her (Jessie) how useless she really was. Will squeezed her hand again as if he could sense the mutinous thoughts that were directed at herself.
Unable to keep her comments to herself, the brunette spoke aloud: "you know what? I really fucking hate spring break."