It had just gotten dark, I had spent the last two hours by a lake in my underwear trying to clean my blood covered clothes, I scrubbed, I scrubbed the fabric, the blood, my sins. My clothes were still wet but that's okay, I'll find an excuse if anyone asks. No one can know what I did. I'm afraid Steve and Robin will see me as a monster... I don't want Dustin, Max or Lucas to be afraid of me or to see me in the same way anymore. And I'm afraid of scaring Eddie away. So no one can know. If the body is found, then I'll do my best not to get caught.
Steve, Max and Dustin were at school, Maxine managed to steal the key to Mrs. Kelley's office to find the student files. Robin and Nancy were supposed to join us soon. I park in front of the school before getting out of my dad's car. I enter the school and head for the psychologist's office. I arrive at the door, seeing my friends going through drawers.
"Did you find anything?" I ask.
Everyone turns to me with a start, having thought they had been caught.
"Jesus Christ! You scared me. Says Steve.
- Sorry. It's just me." I say.
I was trying to sound normal, like nothing had happened. Trying not to make it seem like I had murdered my father. Dustin frowned as he pointed to my shirt with his fingertips while Max continued to rummage through the drawers.
"Why are your clothes... Wet?
- It rained." I said. simply, even though it wasn't true.
My excuse isn't even believable because my hair is dry, if it had really rained, my hair would be wet but Steve, Max and Dustin don't see it and believe my excuse.
"Holy shit... Said Maxine.
- Did you find it ?" Steve asks.
Maxine pulls out a file, we move towards her before she speaks, I look at the file and see Fred's name. The ironic part of his murder is that just two months ago I threatened to rip his eyes out of his body but I didn't have to, Vecna did me a favor. Thank you dear creature from a parallel world.
"Yeah. And not just Chrissy's file. Fred was seeing Ms. Kelley too." Answers Max.
I immediately look up at her realizing that two victims had gone to see Ms. Kelley, certainly to talk to them about their symptoms before being dismembered and having their eyes torn out. We open the two files, Maxine starts to read them, I see Chrissy's picture hanging on the file. It's weird to see her picture when she died 48 hours ago.
We notice that all the symptoms are the same, Max's face seems to break down while reading the file, confusing me. Max stands still for a few moments, looking away. I frown.
"Max?" I say.
I turn to Steve and Dustin who look at me confused. I then turn back to Maxine before Dustin shakes her awake, she flinches, widening her eyes. She then looks at us for a long time before getting up and running away, we then follow her before arriving in front of one of the walls of the school.
"What?" She says confused.
I immediately hear footsteps behind me. I turn around before I see Nancy and Robin.
"Did you find something? Robin asks.
- Chrissy and Fred's files but..." I answer, then turn to Max.
She still looked confused and scared.
"There was an old clock here..." She said as she shone her lamp on the wall.
Robin then takes her lamp, illuminating the wall. Max resumes the speech.
"It was here... Right here!
- A grandfather clock ? Asks Robin.
- It was so real. And then when I got closer, suddenly I just... I woke up." She says.
I frown. Had she been hallucinating? Had she been dreaming? It was all still a blur.
"It was like she was in a trance or something. Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy." Says Dustin.
I frown, slowly starting to see things clearly... I'm a little more worried. Vecna has caught her. She turns to us, looking even more scared before speaking up.
"That's not even the bad part." She says.
———
We had returned to Ms. Kelley's office. We were all around a table before Chrissy and Fred's files were laid out, waiting for Maxine to explain in more depth what had happened to her.
"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to miss Kelley for help. Uh... They were both having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And then... Then the nightmares... Trouble sleeping, they'd wake up in a cold sweat. Then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. And these visions, they just... They kept on getting worse and worse until eventually, everything ended." She explains with a trembling voice.
Everything was really clearer, everything was connected. It was obvious. When Chrissy would come back from the bathroom scared... She would see these things.
"Vecna's curse. Says Robin.
- Chrissy's headaches started a week ago. Fred's six days ago. I've been having them for five days. I don't know how long I have. All I know is that for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision. And i just saw that goddamn clock, so... Looks like im going to die tomorrow."
I frowned seeing Max completely scared. She was shaking and her eyes were shifty. I then put my hand on hers that was shaking, she puts her eyes on me, meeting my gaze.
"No. You won't die. We'll do everything we can to make sure that never happens." I say.
Max rests her eyes on our hands before intertwining our fingers together. She rests her eyes on me, before smiling at me. We immediately hear a thud. We jump back before Steve turns to us and asks us to stay there. He turns his back on us, leaves, grabs a lamp and walks out of the office.
"What's that? Robin asks.
- I don't know, maybe Vecna? Says Nancy.
- I mostly think we should stay with Steve, imagine if something happens to him? He's all alone." I say.
I then turn my back to them before hearing the footsteps of some of them following me.
"Steve said to stay here..." Says Dustin.
We ignore him and walk out of the room, I see Steve walking forward with the lamp a little further ahead of us. Dustin's voice is still echoing.
"Hey!" He says.
I finally hear him join us. We walk quietly behind Steve before we hear footsteps coming from the opposite hallway, as if someone was running towards us. My heart was pounding... I felt like I was in a horror movie. Am I going to die? I feel like I'm in a chilling Alfred Hitchcock movie. Suddenly I see someone coming right in front of us, we all start screaming as we back up before lighting up the stranger who was also screaming, we immediately recognize Lucas.
"It's me! He says screaming.
- Lucas?! Asks Nancy.
- It's me... He says again.
- Jesus what's wrong with you Sinclair ?!" Steve scolds like a mom.
We catch our breath before Lucas apologizes. Steve points to the lamp he was holding and shakes it.
"I could've taken you out with this lamp! Steve screams.
- Sorry guys. Sorry." Says Lucas.
Steve drops the lamp making it fall to the ground creating a thud before Lucas explains that he has ridden his bike for 8 miles.
"Give me a second... Shit.
- I thought I was doing a Psycho reboot." I say, catching my breath.
Lucas then tells us that we have a 'code red' Steve then asks what he was talking about before the fuzzy guy walks over to his friend Dustin.
"I've been with Jason, Patrick, Andy and Liam and they've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie, and they think that you and Cassie know where he is.
- Liam is with them?" I ask.
Lucas turns to me, nodding positively. I then sigh loudly as I place my hands on my hips and look up at the sky wishing Liam would get Vecnaiser.
"This guy will never get off my back.
- You guys are in terrible danger.
- But why would they think I know where Eddie is ? I ask.
- Because you're his ex and Liam thinks you helped him!" Answers Lucas.
Dustin sighs, Lucas then turns to the young man with the cap before speaking.
"Alright. Yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason right now." Says Dustin.
We all turn to Max, making it clear that she was in trouble and immediately Lucas looked a little more worried and confused.