chapter forty-six
stars around my scars
✧
Two years ago, Lucas Sinclair asked Max Mayfield if she was ready to accept the risk of knowing the truth. At the time, she thought the boy had just been pulling her strings, leading her on with another stupid prank. She was already pissed about being pushed back and forth by Lucas and his friends, and worse, Rue hadn't been picking up the phone the whole weekend.
An insecure part of Max believed that Rue became bored with her and opted to stop their short-found friendship because Max wasn't good enough to be her friend. At least, that's what Billy would have said. If Billy had known how Max felt, he would have gone on and on about how Max lacked intriguing qualities that would tempt someone to befriend her.
Two years ago, Max would have believed Billy. He always knew how to put her down and ruin her day, possibly the whole month.
Two years ago, Max accepted the risk. She couldn't believe that anything Lucas were to tell her would be worse than what she lived through already.
He proved her wrong, though.
The next day, Max found herself preparing a trap for a monster from another dimension. That same night, she discovered a laboratory located in the woods of Hawkins, Indiana, where there appeared to be a gateway to the dimension where the monsters were emerging. Since then, everything has gone downhill. Her best friend's father was mauled to death, Will Byers was possessed, met Eleven, injected her brother with a drug, drove a car, and watched her friends burn a hive mind.
There was a break of peace after that until the Fourth of July came along and then her brother had become possessed and he nearly killed her, twice, a monster made out of human remains hunted her and her friends, she watched as Rue murdered Billy, and fall into a coma for a week.
Max was sure that if she knew it all two years ago—she would not have accepted the risk.
Max was also certain that if Rue had known what she had agreed to before coming to Hawkins, she would not have taken the risk.
Rue's ignorance irritated Max at times. Mostly because Rue was a mind reader and could easily figure out anything she needed to know without exerting herself. However, Rue Newby's integrity and morals prohibited her from intruding into someone's private thoughts. Max recalls Rue confessing that she never read somebody's mind unless it was absolutely necessary, that privacy was a gift that should not be taken away from anyone.
Max would have read the minds of everyone around her if she possessed Rue's psychic abilities. It would have been for her amusement or to determine what anyone genuinely thought of her or whether they were lying. Max would have done a lot of things differently if she had Rue's abilities, especially if Billy had still been around.
Max Mayfield couldn't believe that almost a year later, Billy still haunted her thoughts. He felt like a plague, one she couldn't escape from. Even dead, he wouldn't let her rest, and he'd make her doubt herself in everything.
But at least she had someone to blame. It was Billy's fault everything went to shit in her life. His fault, not hers. It was his words stuck in her head, after all, the ones that pushed Max into shutting everyone out, ending things with Rue, ending contact with El. It was his words that had her praying for her own demise every night. At least she liked to think of it that way.
Max had only realized a little too late what she had done, but that damage had already been done, everything was too broken for her to fix, so she might as well leave it as it was. Max turned to music as an escape and a coping device. Max never thought of herself being the type of person to turn to music when things went downhill, but Rue Newby had taught her music was the best help there could be.
Max didn't know where she would be without music. Sometimes it scared her to think she'd be nothing. If it hadn't been for Rue, Max would be nothing.
Max wished she could go back in time and save herself from ruining everything. Rue was the first person to look at Max and thought she was enough. Rue saw through all the layers of toughness and meanness Max had created in the aftermath of Billy. She saw Max in a way that no one else could. And Max felt as if she didn't need to keep adding more layers to herself. Max felt like she could be herself around Rue.
But then Rue was gone.
And the layers had piled up again.
Max guessed it was hard for Rue to see any of that thousands of miles away, and she didn't blame her.
But Rue was here now, sitting a seat away from her.
When Rue looked at Max at the airport, Max could have sworn Rue was seeing her all over again. She saw everything underneath the layers. She always did.
Sitting in the back of Steve Harrington's car, potentially days away from facing other monsters from the Upsidedown, Max held close to the Walkman Rue had given her all those months ago. Rue's gemstones and stickers had peeled off, and the labels on the buttons were practically gone from how many times Rue and now Max had used it, but she had them memorized by this point.
Our Mixtape, the cassette she had grown awfully attached to, was playing in the music player. Rue had composed the mixtape specifically for Max with songs that reminded Rue of her.
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) was Max's favourite song out of all of them in the mixtape. It led her to buy Kate Bush's album on cassette and create her own mixtape with that same song on loop for 46 minutes.
Now, with her favourite song playing in her ears, Max couldn't help but think of all the broken pieces she had. She wished she could somehow put them back together, somehow fix the mess she had made. Things were so different now, and she really wished they weren't.
When Steve stopped the car deep into the driveway of Reefer Rick's lake house so they wouldn't be seen, Max couldn't help but have this gut feeling that they were moments away from something bad happening.
She tried to shove those feelings away and tied her hair back and out of her face. Max got out of the car, and Dustin stumbled to follow her. He nearly tripped and fell face-first onto the grave floor before he caught himself. Embarrassed, he smiled sheepishly at Max before Steve grabbed him by the collar and led him to the trunk.
Robin, Steve, and Dustin retrieved the food bags they had brought for Eddie and Ricky. The group had taken a brief detour at the grocery store after deciding that the food from Dustin's kitchen wouldn't be enough for two early twenty-something boys who had probably only eaten the pot brownies Ricky had made.
Rue had become unusually quiet since they had left Dustin's house. Max considered her silence as a bad note; she didn't know why, but something about it concerned her. Rue has already been an undoubtedly quiet person, but there was something off about this. Everyone else seemed to dismiss it, but it felt like an itch on Max's skin that she couldn't scratch.
Dustin directed everyone's attention to the shed hidden behind the woods. As they approached Lovers Lake, the air became cooler. The calmness of the heart-shaped lake originated from the deep hue of the lake, which became the poetic melody of the light that danced upon its wind-dancing ruffles.
Dustin ushered everyone towards the shed hidden behind the trees. The air was cooler as they approached closer to Lovers Lake. The heart-shaped lake held a sort of calmness to it, the deep hue became the poetic song of the light that played upon its wind-dancing ruffles.
Dustin kicking through the metal door of the shed had disrupted the tranquillity of Lovers Lake. Before the gang piled into the shed, there was a startled shout from inside. Robin and Dustin joyfully held up the plastic bags as they grinned at Eddie, who had backed himself into a corner and grabbed the shattered beer bottle he nearly murdered Steve with the night before.
"Jesus..." Eddie slowly brought down the bottle and sighed deeply.
"Delivery service!" Dustin smiled.
Max didn't know why, but she found herself forcing a smile on Eddie as if to apologize to Dustin and Robin. She also couldn't help but raise her brows when she spotted Ricky sprawled on the floor on the other side of the shed, still asleep.
Robin set the bags near the boat and made her way toward Ricky. She kicked his side and leaned down, "Rise and shine!"
"Go away, Dani," He muttered, half asleep, "I still have an hour before my shift."
Eddie finally peeled himself away from the corner after spotting the food. He approached it gingerly, almost as if he was too shy to take it which left Max surprised. Eddie froze midway from his approach and pointed between Max and Steve with raised brows. "Who's your friend?"
Max immediately realized he was referring to Rue, who had tucked herself against Steve's side and had remained silent. She was staring at Eddie with doubt, almost as if she were trying to decide if she could trust him.
"That's our lovely Rue," Dustin said, waving his hands in the air before he looked back down at the bag of food and began to pull everything out so Eddie could see his options. "The one we told you about.
Eddie nodded, "Right." His gaze lingered at Rue for a moment longer before he blinked and nodded again. "Well, uh, I'm Eddie..." He introduced himself. When Rue didn't say anything Eddie pursed his lips and picked up a box of cereal. "Alright then. Not a talker, that's fair."
Eddie sat on the boat in the middle of the shed and crossed his legs. He munched on the dry cereal and began to take swigs from an iced tea he found within the pile. He didn't say much, only stared off to the lake, watching the morning sun reflect off the water.
Everyone followed him and surrounded the boat, and Ricky finally got up from the floor. He had stretched his arms into the air, his shirt rising and exposing his toned stomach before he dropped his arms again. Max's eyes widened, and she looked away, embarrassed to admit that she felt her face grow warm.
Ricky fixed his shirt, shrugged on a spring jacket and sighed, "Seriously? All junk food?" He looked up at Steve in disbelief after glancing at the food. "It's like you don't even care for our health, man."
"It's the cheapest stuff at the store—" Steve began to argue, but Ricky waved him off, shutting him up rather quickly.
"Yeah, yeah. Always got some excuses up your ass, don't you, Harrington?" Ricky cracked open a water bottle and sat near Dustin. He leaned his arm on his shoulder and smiled at the boy. Ricky then nodded towards the three girls standing at the other side of the shed, "Rue, right?"
She nodded.
Her lack of response put Max on edge. Rue held a closed-off sort of body language as she stood between her and Robin. Max wouldn't blame her-they had dragged her across Hawkins without an explanation. Max had to bite her tongue to stop herself from blurting out the truth to her.
"I knew it," Ricky smirked, which he does a lot, and Max noticed. It's a part of his charm, she thinks. "Alex never shuts up about you and Will. I'm his brother, Ricky."
Dustin cleared his throat, cutting off the small talk. He turned to Eddie, "So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?"
Eddie froze as he ate a handful of dry honeycomb cereal. "Bad news first, always," he said with his mouth full before taking a swig from the iced tea. His eyes were wide as he spoke, and he shook like a scared puppy.
Dustin nodded, "Okay," he glanced behind him for a moment after hearing Steve and Ricky argue quietly. Dustin glared at them, and Steve shoved Ricky away before leaning on the wooden pillar next to him.
"Go on, tell him the news, Henderson."
Dustin scoffed and rolled his eyes before turning to Eddie again. "So, we tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy."
"Like, 100% kind of convinced," Max added so he'd be aware of how bad his stakes were.
Eddie stared at her blankly for a moment, processing all the information. Max almost felt bad for him.
"And the good news?" He tried to sound hopeful.
"Your name hasn't gone public yet," Robin told him, "But if we found out about you, it's only a matter of time before others do too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother are gonna be gunning for you."
"Hunt the freak, right?" Eddie said stiffly.
"Exactly."
"Shit."
"Wait," Rue said, speaking up for the first time since they had gotten into the car. Everyone turned to her, and she pointed at Eddie with one hand, "If you didn't kill the girl... Chrissy. If you didn't kill Chrissy, who did?"
Eddie raises his brows. There's a look of incredulity on his face, and he slowly turns to Dustin. "Does she—does she not know—? I thought you said—"
"Well, you see," Dustin starts, his voice rising in volume and cracking nervously. "Uhm, the thing is..."
"What don't I know?" Rue asks. "What is he talking about?"
Everyone but Eddie and Ricky grows stiff and nervous, Dustin most out of all of them. Dustin spares Max a helpless glance, but she glares at him in a way that screams: I told you so.
"Eddie didn't kill Chrissy. Vecna did." Ricky clarifies.
"Vecna?" Rue echoes, her voice laced with disbelief. "Vecna." She says again. Rue spins on her heels and paces back and forth and repeats the name to herself. "That makes sense." She states sarcastically. "Who the fuck is Vecna?"
The original plan of reassuring Eddie that everything was under control immediately goes amiss.
"Dustin?" Ricky calls, "How are we going to kill Vecna, this dark alternate dimensional wizard, if the girl with superpowers doesn't even know who he is?"
"Excuse me?" Rue turns around quickly before Dustin can answer. She glares at Ricky, "What did you just say?"
Taken aback, Ricky stumbles over his words, "Girl with superpowers?"
"Before that."
"Alternate dimensional wizard?"
Rue scoffs after hearing it. It is obvious it all finally clicks, and she runs her hands through her hair. "Oh, my God, that's why I'm here," Her voice is breathless as the betrayal quickly sinks in. "That's why I'm here, isn't it?"
The silence that follows after is deadly. No one said anything, afraid to say the wrong words. They did share guilty glances and tried to avoid Rue's gaze, though.
Steve Harrington was the first to speak, which was automatically a terrible idea after he said, "What? No, Rue. It's—it's not like that at all."
"Steve," Robin tries to stop him, but he ignores her.
"Rue, come on. This is all coincidental."
Dustin winces.
Rue's eyes snapped to Steve. Her lips parted as sorrow settled in her eyes. "Don't lie to me."
"I'm—I'm not lying—"
"Cut the bullshit," She seethed, her hands balling into fists at her sides. When her sorrow turns into wrath, it does it quickly. Rage consumed her, swallowing her hole until she was almost unrecognizable.
Steve tried to speak again, but she stopped him.
"I said don't lie, Steve Harrington. Why would you even bother? I can tell when you lie anyway," her gaze shifts to everyone else, "I knew there was something off, but I didn't think it was this. I didn't want to believe you'd drop so fucking low—"
Rue pauses to scoff out an angry laugh. She glares at everyone with all the hatred she can muster and points at Steve, "Wow you're full of shit." Then she points to Dustin, "You're full of shit." Then Max, "And you're full of shit." And Rue threw her hands in the air and shouted, "You're all full of fucking shit!"
There was a family of ducks that flew away after hearing her shouts. Silence consumed the shed once more-this time, much more uncomfortable than the last. Rue scoffed again and flipped everyone off before stomping out of the shed and slamming the door shut behind her.
"That could have gone a lot worse," Robin stated, "she could have killed us all if she wanted to."
Eddie shifted awkwardly in his spot on the paddle boat and pointed over his shoulder, "Does she take medication for that?"
"I know what can get her to chill if you guys are looking for a last resort," Ricky suggested, and when Max and Dustin glared at him, he threw his hands in the air, "It's just weed! I'm not gonna kill the kid."
"What now?" Dustin asked, turning to Max.
"We go after her," She said as if it were obvious. Max scoffed when she realized no one had even thought about following Rue to make sure she was alright. She obviously wasn't, but still.
When Max stood from her spot, she could feel the hot blood pound at her head. She tried to ignore it as she hurried out of the shed and stepped into the fresh air. Max brought her hands to her head, her cold fingertips creating an odd contrast against the hot skin. That stupid headache had returned, and it's been plaguing her all week.
The sun made her mind spin, and her vision blurred before. Fighting through it, Max spotted Rue's blurry figure storming towards Reefer Rick's house. Max felt the sense of wrong creeping back into her consciousness as she followed Rue.
A part of Max wanted to remind herself that it was just Rue. Would-cry-if-she-stepped-on-a-bug, Rue Newby.
But she wasn't sure if Rue was still the same girl she once knew.
The fact was, Rue had never been very good at articulating her emotions. Max was aware that Rue frequently struggled with it, at least from what she remembered. She wasn't sure Rue still had the problem anymore-she made it pretty clear how she felt moments ago in the shed.
Max's vision had finally cleared. "Rue?" she chased after her. "Rue, wait. Come on—"
"Go away, Max," Rue muttered, swerving past a tree and nearing Reefer Rick's driveway.
Max frowned, but she took the bullet anyway, "Rue, listen to me. I need you to understand—"
"No!" Rue shouted. She spun around with a deadly look in her eyes, stopping Max from saying more. The red-haired girl froze in her spot, almost stuck where she was with her feet nailed to the ground as Rue glared at her. "No, I don't want to understand! I mean, it's pretty fucking clear what's going on. You're using me."
"We're—we're—" Max choked, and she tried to move again, but she felt frozen again. Again. Like every other time, she tried to call Rue. Max would freeze with the phone in her hand, her fingers hovering over the numbers to dial. In the same way, she'd freeze as she tried to mail all the letters to California. Max would freeze and stare at the mailbox, gripping the envelopes until they crumbled in her fist.
She could almost hear Billy's voice taunt her right now.
Rue stood there, her patience running thin with every second Max didn't say a word. Her hair was long and flowing with the wind, the light pink strands meshed with the soft white of her sweater. There were tears in her green eyes, but none that she would dare to let fall. "You're—you're—" Rue mocked her the way an immature child would, "You're what?"
Max found her voice again, "We're not using you, Rue."
She nearly laughed, "Right? Is that so? What the hell is this, then? Why else am I here? Why else would you call me for the first time in months and ask me to come here?"
Max took a step closer, and the Walkman strapped to her pants felt heavier. "Please, let me explain."
"Oh, yes, Max. Please, explain it all to me," Rue said in a high-pitched voice, sarcastically begging as she cupped her hands together and pouted, "Please, Max. Since I'm so clueless and so difficult to be around."
Max flinched as Rue dropped the act and returned to glare at her again.
"Your words, not mine, sunshine."
The lightheartedness that usually came with a pet name was shallow once Rue said it. Her voice had been laced with venom as she reminded Max of the bitter words she called Rue over the phone yesterday.
Rue, stop being so difficult, alright?
All you can do is act clueless.
Max winced, feeling the pit of guilt open up again and slowly drag her into the dark depths. She sucked in a sharp breath, hoping to clear everything up. "Okay, fine. It was Dustin's idea to bring you here. He made me call you and everything. I told him not to. It told him it was a bad idea."
The look on Rue's face shifted entirely. "Oh," She ran her hands through her hair again. Rue dropped her head back and stared at the sky. "Of course! Of course, it was Dustin's idea."
"Don't blame him," Max said quickly "we were scared and-"
"Oh, no, I don't blame him." Rue cut her off. She tucked her hair behind her ears and out of her face. Rue's brows furrowed deeply, and she frowned, hugging herself, "I blame myself for being so fucking stupid. You know, for a moment, I actually thought that maybe you wanted me here. I thought may—maybe you guys missed me. But I'm stupid to think that. I'm not here because you missed me. I'm not here because you wanted to talk about us. I'm here because I benefit you. Because it's only when shit goes down that you actually think of me."
Max tried to speak, but Rue stopped her.
"I have been trying so hard to get away from Hawkins. To forget Hawkins. To forget the monsters. The nightmares. All of it. I wanted it gone. And you knew that. You knew that and you still—" Rue's anger got the best of her. She whirled around and stomped the ground with her shoes as her rage overcame her. To keep from screaming, she bit her hand, but as she stomped her foot on the ground, the trees behind her trembled maniacally.
Guilt acted like a monster in the shadows. It emerges when you least expect it and snatches you up. It had grabbed Max by the shoulders, forcing her to stay put and watch as Rue spilled whatever she could muster. But Max couldn't speak. She couldn't comfort Rue as the guilt held her by the throat and cupped her mouth.
Guilt forced her to watch and do nothing but cry.
Cry and watch.
Max questioned whether guilt varied depending on the person; if others knelt and begged for forgiveness by kissing the ground. If others fled the situation, just like Eddie Munson had done after witnessing Chrissy Cunningham die brutally.
Max blinked, realizing Rue had still been talking.
"I mean, if this Vecna, or whatever you call it is some real Upsidedown shit, then what? What did you think would happen? Look what happened last time. We barely made it out alive. Hopper is dead. El almost died. And I wasn't strong enough for any of it. And Billy... sometimes I feel like it's my fault."
Max shivered. She didn't know if it was because of the spring breeze or Rue mentioning Billy.
When she noticed Rue had started to cry, Max tried to step closer. And she took another step after realizing the guilt hadn't been holding her down anymore. Max continued stepping closer to Rue until she stood in front of her. Standing so close to her made Max's heart lunge into her throat. Her palms grew sweaty, and her stomach turned as tears rolled down Rue's cheeks, much like her own.
Max tried to smile for her, to comfort her. It wasn't much, it wouldn't repent all her sins, but it was a start. Max believed it was something to help ignite that spark again.
"It's not your fault, Rue. It never was."
Rue nodded slowly. Her hair fell over her face, and Max reached to tuck it behind her ears. Rue returned the smile, gentle and shy. "You're right. It's not my fault. It's yours."
Rue's words nearly gave Max whiplash, and she stumbled away from her. "What?"
"It was your fault, Max." It was Rue's turn to step closer to Max. Every step Max took away from her—Rue made another. "It was your fault, wasn't it?" She tilts her head to the side, a sneer forming on her lips.
Max didn't know how far her heart could drop, but it felt like it was splat between her feet, thumping mercilessly on the floor. "Rue, what are you—? What are you talking about?
"You just stood there and watched. I mean, I remember it as clear as day. The relief you felt as you watched your brother die. You're sick. How could I have ever loved you? Someone sick like you. And then you turn around and act like the victim?"
"Wait," Tears clouded Max's eyes. She felt nauseous as Rue dug into the depths of her memories and fears and used all of them against her. It had left her breathless, humiliated and terrified. All the scars Rue had once helped heal, they'd started to open up again, bleeding as if they were new. "What? Why—what are you saying?
"I'm telling you to wake up, Max." Rue scoffed, "Look around you, you're alone. You pushed everyone away and then blamed it on Billy? Billy's dead. He didn't do this. You did. Wake up, Max. Wake the hell up."
It was over as quickly as it began.
There was a harsh shove against Max's shoulder, which made her let out a strangled shout, startled. She had to blink before recollecting herself and watched as Dustin ran past her.
"What are you standing there for?" He asked, "I thought you said you were going to get Rue? Where is she?"
Max blinked, confused.
With her heart beating frantically against her ribs, she slowly turned to look at where Rue had been, where she had said all those nasty things. But she wasn't there. No trace of her left behind other than the shoe prints in the dirt.
Steve and Robin ran past Max and jumped into Steve's car. "Come on, Max, let's go!"
Max slowly approached the car, still on edge. She opened the back door and asked, "Where are we going?"
Dustin gave her a strange glance, "Didn't you hear the sirens? You were outside when they went off. We're checking to see what it was."
"Oh. Yeah, right. My bad."
The two of them got in the car, and Steve drove out of the driveway. Dustin turned to Max with a worried look. He placed his hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay?"
No. Max wanted to say. But she knew Dustin would question it further, and Max wasn't sure how to explain what happened. If it even did happen at all. So instead, she bit her tongue and nodded, hoping to brush it off. "Yeah. I'm fine."
Steve had been driving down a familiar road to Max, and it didn't take long for her to recognize it was the path to the trailer park. An uneasy feeling settled in her gut, sending a shudder down her spine. Max's stomach felt like it was home to a swarm of hornets, and they grew angrier by the second when Steve began to slow down after spotting a white blur wandering down the side of the road.
He came to a halt beside it and rolled down Robin's window. "Come on, Newby, get in the car."
Rue glared at him from the open window and flipped him off.
Steve's face stiffened for a moment before he sighed and nodded, "That's—okay, yeah, that's fair."
She made a face before continuing to walk down the road.
Robin stuck her head out the window, "Bug, please. What we did was so fucked up. Like, no words can describe how fucked up our fuck up was. We all feel super really terrible, and yes this is a terrible apology, you deserve better than us yelling at you from the side of the road. But that also doesn't mean you should be walking on your own like this. Like, what if you get kidnapped or something?"
Rue shot Robin a restless glance.
"Okay, fine. You can probably take care of yourself if you get kidnapped, but please come in the car. We'll make it up for you. I'll even get Steve and Dustin on their knees and beg for your forgiveness while Max sings you your favourite song. If that doesn't work I'll buy you the new Blondie album on vinyl."
Rue stops in her tracks at the offer.
"Vinyl?" She raised her brows.
Robin nodded frantically, "Yes!"
"Promise?"
"I swear it, Bug! Cross my heart and all the spazz!"
Wordlessly, Rue opens the back door and gets in the car. Dustin hurries to shuffle down the seats to make room for her as she sits down. Steve and Robin stared at her, shocked that the bribe had worked.
"I don't forgive you," Rue says, "I never will forgive any of you. And I won't help you with Vecna either. Because it's my choice. But I still want the album. And you can't take it back because you promised."
That seemed to reassure Steve, as he exhaled in relief and kept driving in the same direction as the cops and ambulance.
Her words, however, had not been reassuring to Max. They made her tenser than before. She exchanged an uneasy glance with Rue before averting her gaze. Max was trying to piece together what had happened. She wondered if Rue remembered anything or if she had really been present at all. What if it had all been dreamed up by Max from bits and pieces of her mind?
The distance that had been forced between them created a gap in their—friendship? Relationship? Whatever it had been, the distance ruined what once was.
Steve parked behind a row of cars. To Max's surprise, she and the group spotted Nancy Wheeler speaking to Chief Powell and officer Callahan. Behind them was a tarp on the floor-one that seemed familiar to the one they used to cover Chrissy Cunningham's body the day before.
Dread had quickly settled in Max's bones as she got out of the car like everyone else. She quickly pieced the pieces together and realized that this was another victim to Vecna's curse, as Dustin liked to call it.
Nancy spotted them and made a signal with her hands, and she seemed almost thankful to see everyone. Her eyes widened after she noticed the third kid, and she hurried to wrap up the questions with the police.
The oldest Wheeler had tried to be subtle as she hurried towards her friends, but the loud clicking of her shoes against the concrete road betrayed her.
"Nance—" Steve began to say. Maybe he was about to speak words of comfort to help calm whatever had her so uptight and stressed, or maybe he was about to tell her that the outfit she wore was horrid. None of them knew what he was about to say because Nancy shoved him out of the way and wrapped her arms around Rue.
"Are you real? Are you really here?" She asked breathlessly, her hands balling the back of Rue's thick sweater. Nancy cupped the back of Rue's head, "You smell real. Like apples and cinnamon. Maybe Callahan was right, maybe I need sleep."
"I'm real. I'm here," Rue's voice was muffled from Nancy's shoulder. The sound only made Nancy hold her closer, and Rue grunted at the tight embrace.
Max tucked her hands inside her jacket pockets. She squinted at the sun as the wind kicked up again, watching Nancy Wheeler and Rue Newby reunite. Max wished she could have done that with Rue, embracing each other and refusing to let go even if neither of them could breathe. Max would have kissed her to show her how much she missed her because she knew there were no words to convey how she felt. The unfortunate reality was that all she received was an awkward "Hey."
Max wanted nothing more than to be run over by a car right now.
The group eventually relocated into the trailer park. They sat around an old picnic table where most families would host barbeques during warmer weather. Ironically enough, it had been right next to Eddie Munson's trailer. The trailer was wrapped around with bright yellow caution tape, alerting everyone to stay away from it.
Rue stayed by Nancy's side the entire time, still upset about all that had happened, and Max couldn't blame her; she would have done the same.
Dustin began to fill Nancy in with everything they knew, his theories, about Eddie and Vecna. Mid-way, Nancy cut him off and gave everyone an extremely long rant explaining why what they did to Rue was wrong. Max felt twelve times worse than before by the end, and so had the other three.
Nancy leaned her elbows on the table as she took in all parts told to her by Dustin Henderson. Rue sat quieter again, tapping the rhythm of Everybody Wants To Rule The World onto the wooden table.
Max had been surprised to recognize the beat. The tapping reminded Max of the game she used to play with Rue last year, where Rue would make a beat, and Max had to guess as many as she could.
But that wasn't the point. Information had been handed around, and Rue looked more open to hearing it after speaking with Nancy than she had been in the shed.
"So, you're saying this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it's from the Upsidedown?" Nancy sounds tired, and she sighs. Her mascara had smudged under her eyes, and her lipstick had rubbed at the corners of her mouth.
"If the shoe fits," Steve nods.
"Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a curse," Dustin says. "Now whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens, we don't know."
Max thinks of everything Eddie had said yesterday in the shed. How Chrissy had levitated in the air, and her bones started to crack. There was a familiarity with it, and it reminded her of Billy's death. It sounded too similar, and the only difference was that Rue hadn't been at the other end of the murder this time. "All we know is this is something different," Max replies, but she's not sure she believes it as she casts a sidelong glance at Rue. "Something new."
"Do you think he's a real wizard?" Rue suddenly asks. "Like, the ones in the movies?"
"Maybe." Steve shrugs, "That would be super cool though."
"What if he wears a pointy hat?" Rue brought her hands up to her head, cupping them like a triangle to mirror a wizard's hat. "Like the one Will has."
"Doesn't make sense," Nancy shakes her head.
"I mean the hat in the Upsidedown would probably be made out of vines or something," Dustin explains.
"No," There's a faint grin on Nancy's face. She reaches for Rue's arms and brings them down before steering everyone back to the right direction of the conversation. "Fred and Chrissy don't make sense. I mean, why them?"
Dustin's shoulders drop, "Maybe they were just in the wrong place. They were both at the game."
"And near the trailer park," Max adds.
"We're at the trailer park," Steve points out slowly. He looks over his shoulder for a quick moment before turning back to the rest of the group, "Uh," he draws out, "should we maybe not be here?"
Everyone starts looking over their shoulders, monitoring each other's backs. The notion of the threat perhaps hiding exactly where they were had pricked everyone's awareness and made the air tense. That was Hawkin's charm; you always had to look over your shoulder for any unsuspected threat.
"There is something about this place," Nancy says, "Fred started acting weird the second we got here."
Robin makes a face, "Acting weird as in...?"
"Scared, on edge, upset."
"That's pretty vague," Rue points out, "Anyone in Hawkins could feel that way all the time."
"That's true," Robin nods.
"Max said Chrissy was upset too," Dustin says. "Not vaguely upset, but upset-upset."
"Yeah, but not here," Max tells him. The memory of finding Chrissy Cunningham crying in one of the dark bathroom stalls of Hawkins High comes to mind. "She was crying in the bathroom at school."
"Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right?" Robin starts, "So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw the Vecman—"
"Vecna," Dustin corrects her.
Steve shakes his head, "Dunno about you, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone."
"Maybe they did," Max suggests. She thinks of Chrissy again. "I saw Chrissy leaving Miss Kelley's office. If you saw a monster, you... you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your—"
"Your shrink." Robin finishes.
"Miss Kelley's a therapist?" Rue asks, "Right? Alex told me about her."
"She's the school's guidance counsellor," Dustin explains. "So, like, a free therapist."
"Okay, let's go see Miss Kelley, then," Steve gets up from his seat, "If anyone knows what was wrong with Chrissy, it's her."
Steve's car is followed by the rest of the group. They go through rows of old and rusted mailboxes, and Max notices Rue staring at them for a long moment before they reach the car. When they hear Steve yelling for Nancy, they all come to a halt. Nancy had made a last-minute turn and attempted to sneak toward her car.
"Nance, where are you going?"
Nancy continues to walk backwards with her hands stuffed into the pockets of her denim jacket. "Oh, there's just something I wanna check on first."
"Something you maybe wanna share with the rest of us?" Dustin asks.
"I don't want to waste your time. It's a real shot in the dark."
Steve scoffs, "Yeah, okay, are you out of your mind? Flying solo with this Vecna creep on the loose? No, it's too dangerous. You need... You need someone to..."
Steve never finishes his sentence before he turns around and tosses the keys to Robin. The girl barely catches them as she says, "Here. I'll stick with Nance. You guys take the car, check out the shrink."
"I don't think you want me driving your car with three children inside of it." Robin tells him.
"Why?"
"I don't have a licence."
"What-? Why don't you have a licence?"
Robin shrugs, "I'm poor."
"I can drive," Max offers.
"No," Steve quickly shuts that idea down. "No, never again. Please. Anybody but you. No."
Dustin raises his brows.
Steve shakes his head. "No chance."
He pouts, "Come on."
"No."
Robin groans, annoyed with all the bickering. "All right, okay. This is stupid." She reaches into Dustin's bag and pulls out his Comm. Robin gives Steve his car keys back and makes her way towards Nancy, "Us ladies will stick together. Unless you think we need you to protect us."
Steve stays silent. Max couldn't see his face, but she was sure he was rolling his eyes. Robin laughs softly before turning on her heels and walking towards Nancy's car.
"In that case, can I come with you?" Rue steps forward from Dustin's side with pleading eyes as she looks at Nancy.
Nancy hesitates, clearly thinking of an answer. She shares a knowing glance with Steve before shaking her head, "Sorry, bug, maybe next time." She turns down Rue's question and hurries to chase after Robin.
Rue whines and throws her head back before getting in Steve's car and slamming the door shut. It didn't take a genius to know she would much rather be with Nancy than anyone else in the group she got stuck with.
Dustin waves the two girls goodbye before turning to Steve, who seemed just as annoyed with the choice of groups as Rue had been.
"Are you just going to stand there and gawk, Harrington?"
"Shut up!" Steve tells him.
"Why don't we go?" Dustin suggests. "Okay?"
"Shut up and get in the car," He rolls his eyes and slides into the driver's seat. Dustin is stopped from entering and told to wipe his feet. Dustin provokes him by wiping the bottom of his shoes on the car mat. "On the outside! Not the inside."
Once they're seated, Steve whacks the back of Dustin's head. The oldest ensures that the two girls in the back are wearing their seatbelts. The two had turned away from each other, each of them wearing headphones and staring out the window. Steve rolls his eyes once more before pressing the keys and grumbling, "Always the babysitter. Always the goddamn babysitter!"
a/n: folklore is ruemax/newfield's official album.
i don't care what anyone says about the number of hallucinations vecna does. "but, faye, max only had three-" WRONG. four clock chimes, four hallucinations.
i will be tinkering with the st plot so it fits the story of this book. "faye, this isn't how it went in the show-" I KNOOOWWWWWW THAT'S THE POINTTTTUH.
robin & nancy calling rue "bug" i'm sick to my stomach 🥺🥺
the complexity of max's character is something i admire. she doesn't want to be alone but pushes everyone away? uses music as a coping device? she's just like me fr.
also to clear this up before people ask. rue's confrontation to max was half real half vecna. so at the part where she's stomping around, she actually walked off again. don't worry, they'll get another chance to actually talk again. they really need to communicate better.
my second time writing max's pov 😫😫(the first time was in the extended version) i think it went pretty well 🤭 i struggled less than last time, that's for sure.
how max thinks of rue is so different compared to dustin, i realized this about a paragraph into the chapter. max is not afraid of rue like dustin is and she doesn't see rue as a sign of hope or whatever. she see's rue as rue.
and i like how rue and max's personalities totally switched this season, like max is constantly talking about how she doesn't blame rue, how she blames herself for a lot of it which is something rue used to do a lot. and rue is a lot tougher and closed off like max usually is.
but catch this, the moment rue steps into hawkins, she's slowly returning to her old self again. dustin doesn't notice the change because he still see's rue the same, which is why in his pov rue was much like regular rue (sweet, naive or whatever), but max noticed and she points out the differences in even if they're small.
and dustin's pov was more focused on the vecna situation, his fears, eddie, etc. because that's what he thinks is important. max however, is struggling with a lot more than him. billy, rue, the headaches, the guilt, her doubts, jealousy, emotions, etc. it's a lot and very overwhelming. okay i'm going to stop this rant now haha i got carried away.
my stranger things 4 takes:
fair warning that these sound very passive-aggressive, but i can assure you it's not 😭😭 i just have this weird attachment to the show and i get very passionate.
1) jason isn't a bad guy. caleb mclaughlin said that jason was one of the few people who were nice to lucas in highschool and took him in instead of bullying him.
jason's actions were surely out of line but i understand why he did it. his girlfriend, who he loved and probably wanted to marry was murdered. he didn't know anything about the paranormal activity in hawkins or stuff, so he thought the local freak killed her. (and he doesn't personally know eddie, he only knows him as the weirdo/jerk who mocks everyone during lunch and thinks he's better than everyone)
he got even more upset when the cops didn't do anything about it. and he was confused and upset when lucas told him chrissy was hurting but she didn't tell jason anything. which the same thing happened with lucas and max, lucas was hurt when max didn't tell him what was wrong.
jason simply lost his way with grief. i'm not a jason stan or anything, but don't make it seem like he was a monster or worse than billy. my man jason took too many L's and went into his villain era. he's just like me fr.
2) the duffer brothers aren't bad writers because they forgot will's birthday. as a writer myself, i forget little details in my stuff all the time and i have to go back and change it so it fits the current chapters i'm working on now. i forgot rue's birthday multiple times, once it was in may then i moved it to september, then january. it happens. in fact, i don't think they're bad writers at all, they came up with this whole story and it's hard to keep it going after 4 seasons. the expectations in insanely high and they get higher every year.
3) the lack of diversity in hawkins is understandable. it's the 80s, it's indiana, and it's a small town. also indiana is right next to ohio and kentucky which are white dominant states. i'm not surprised with the lack of diversity, honestly. it's expected from that sort of town, time and placement. but since it's fictional, adding some culture and poc wouldn't hurt.
4) shipping characters is fine, honestly. but don't get so attached to them and make it your whole personality. you're just annoying. like, steddie shippers, no offence but some of you are just as bad as mileven vs byler shippers 😖😖the way steddie shipper hate on chrissy for no reason and then lie that she's 15/16 when it's said she's literally a senior with jason and eddie.
i'm sick of everyone shipping everything and taking it to heart. steve and eddie? no chemistry. will and mike? never gonna happen. steve and billy? no ew. dustin and eddie? you're.... weird!!! what the fuck?
then they get mad at the duffers for not making it happen? people calling the duffer's COWARDS? LMFOADOA hating on other people because they don't ship it? no way you guys are insane. don't attack the creators/fans because it's never going to happen. it's also not homophobic, get that out of your head, this isn't heartstopper.
i'm sorry guys but someone had to let you know. if you want it so bad ao3, wattpad and tumblr are right there. read a fanfic like everyone else.
the only good gay ships are elmax, ronance and jonathan+argyle.
5) vol 1 was better than vol 2. it's just the facts. episode 8 (papa) was good tho, i enjoyed it. but episode 9....? nurr... at least the acting was good.
6) they gotta stop forcing nancy into relationships, especially with steve. st*ncy irks me after season 2. i hate it with a passion. jancy is my endgame but that's because jonathan is one of my favs. they should just quit the love triangle. it's been 4 seasons of the same shit, people get bored. adding on to my hatred for st*ncy, it will be removed in this book. i can't write it without wanting to vomit all over my laptop.
7) mileven is cute, i'll admit but mike and el have attachment issues and they're traumatized and that's probably why they try to stay together. but i really don't care about mileven. also wtf was mike's speech? why did el need to hear that to be motivated? YOUR BEST FRIEND IS DYING IN FRONT OF YOU!! IS THAT NOT ENOUGH?
8) steve gave me a massive ick in vol 2. like, who tells their ex they dreamed of having their babies? SIX BABIES??? bro, you're so fucking weird. it's been 3 years move the fuck OOONNN. they also have to stop glorifying steve so much, he's just a punching bag at this point and his only personality is that he's still in love with nancy and he's the babysitter. i still love him tho lmafoaod
9) nancy, robin and steve were useless after episode 8. they didn't kill vecna and that was their only job. everyone is hyping up nancy for shooting venca when she didn't do shit and MISSED HIS HEAD. robin just stood there and got them tangled up in vines.
10) eddie's death was unnecessary. why put my man dustin through that pain? the reaction was sadder than the death because the death pissed me off.
11) the only good thing that came out of the 2 day time jump was everything that came during/after the cabin scene. everyone skipped over eddie's death but dustin and his uncle. no one cared about max but the party. i hope nancy feels guilty for what happened to max because max asked her not to miss and she missed (yes i'm still bitter about that)
12) they should've left max dead. just to show how badly the stakes will be in season 5 or whatever. they also have to stop bringing in new characters just to kill them off. like, the main cast automatically gets a safe card? what? no! millie's right, kill those mfs off. i hate that they focus on new characters, give them a personality, an important role, and then kill them? like what even was the point.
13) the sinclair siblings + dustin are some of the best characters and shouldn't be underrated it's just the facts.
14) billy apologists smell so bad and they ugly too 😭😭 anyone with a billy fic, i know yall don't shower. stinky mfs.
"but faye, it's a fictional character-" okay??? that shows yall will still prefer the racist white man in characters AND irl because they're hot😒
15) nancy used to be one of my favs, but after the forced stancy she dropped 7 places. (i hate stancy that much, steve also dropped a lot of places) she's still my baddie gf tho 🤭🤭
16) the nina project plot was so good, the haters just don't get it like i do. you don't get cinema.
17) seasons 1 & 2 >>>> 3 & 4. because they had happy endings and i don't believe my favs suffered after the snowball. they all had fun as one big friend group. the end.
( word count: 8482 )