-Y/N's pov-
"It was here. Right here." Max said as we all stood looking at the wall
"A grandfather clock?" Nancy asked
"It was so real. And then, when I got closer, suddenly I just...I woke up." Max explained
"It was like she was in a trance or something. Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy." Dustin added
"Exactly what happened to Fred." I turned to face the group from next to max
"That's not even the bad part." Max said before leading us back to Kelley's office
"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelley for help. They both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. And then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their past. The visions kept on getting worse and worse until eventually everything ended." Max explained as she pointed to papers
"Veccna's curse." Robin looked up from her seat
I muttered something under my breath in thought "The connection here is trauma. Fred with the car crash." I scanned over Chrissy's file "Chrissy with an eating disorder, bad parents. And max with a dead brother." I said before looking up
"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 I'm gonna die tomorrow." Max said as she teared up. I opened my mouth to say something but got cut off by a distant noise. We all turned to look
"Stay here." Steve said
"No, if you get to go kick some ass I wanna help." I said running in front of him as he grabbed a lamp I rolled my eyes and opened the door. We walked down the hall to hear more noise. A figure ran down the hall, everyone screamed. I punched Lucas square in the face.
"Ow! It's me!" Lucas yelled
"Lucas?" Max called
"Its me."
"I know." I crossed my arms
"Jesus, what's wrong with you sinclair?" Steve yelled
"I'm sorry." he sighed trying to catch his breath
"I could've taken you out with this lamp!" Steve yelled again
"I doubt that." I smiled
"Y/N if you knew it was me, why punch?" Lucas asked grabbing his nose
"For thinking Eddie killed Chrissy." I shrugged
"I was biking for eight miles. Give me one second." Lucas gasped for air "We've got a code red."
"What?" Steve asked
"Dustin. I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Amdy, and they've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie, and they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger." Lucas explained quickly
"Alright, yeah that definitely sucks but we've got bigger problems than Jason right now." Dustin nodded before looking at Max
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We all sat around in my basement waiting for Nancy and Robin.
"Okay, uh be honest. Uh, you guys understand any of this?" Steve asked
"No." Lucas said
"Pretty straightforward." Dustin replied
"Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve looked at him as he paced
"Well what's confusing to you?" I asked "So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died,"
"Except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor." Dustin explained
"If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him." I added
"Yeah that's assuming that he was cursed dip shits, which we don't even know. How can Vecna have existed in the '50's? It doesn't make sense." Steve said as he looked down at a paper
"As far as we know El didn't create the upside down. She just opened a gate to it." I looked up at him
"The upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn't be surprised of it predated the dinosaurs." Dustin continued
"Dinosaurs? Wha--" Steve was cut off
"If a gate didn't exist in the 50's how did Vecna get through?" Lucas asked
"Oh and how's he getting through now?" Steve added
"And why now?" Lucas asked
"and why then? Just pops out in the 50's, kills a family is like 'im good.' then comes back 50 years layer and kills a bunch of teens? I don't buy it." steve sighed "Honestly, Wheeler, Henderson, a little humility--"
I saw Dustin's face as he got a bit upset and I started to get protective "Shut up." I cut him off "We don't know Vecna needs to be here to kill, he could be doing it from the Upside Down. So before you go and shit on some else's idea consider all the possibilities, pea brain."
Steve rolled his eyes and sat down. We sat in silence for a minute before Dustin looked at Max who was sitting at my desk
"Any idea what she's writing?" Dustin asked causing Steve to look at her "Did she sleep?"
"I mean, would you?" Lucas asked bringing up a good point just before Nancy and Robin ran down the stairs.
"Ok, so, we have a plan." Nancy said
"Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame." Robin explained
"I'm now Ruth." Nancy spoke from the recliner chair next to me
"And I'm now rose." Robin said as she sat on a stool
"Ruth?" Steve asked skeptically
"Rose" I snorted
"Nice GPA." Dustin said before pointing it out on the paper to me
"Thanks. So we called Penthurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Creel for a thesis we're co writing on paranoid schizophrenics--" Nancy started
"To which they said no." Robin crosses her arms
"But we landed a three o'clock with the director." Nancy added
"Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor." Robin over explained
"Then maybe we can rid max of this curse." Nancy said softly
"Yeah, uh about that we've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh, we got some questions." Steve took something from Lucas and looked at Nancy
"Lots of questions." Lucas added
"So do we. Hopefully, Victor has the answers." Nancy rubbed her hands together for a minute
"Wait, wait, wait a second. Uh, where's mine?" Steve asked
"Aww, mom thinks he won't be stuck babysitting again?" I laughed causing Steve to glare at me
Steve, Nancy, and Robin ran upstairs. The mood changed, I had nothing to joke about anymore. I sighed and leaned back in my seat, grabbing Dustin's hand in the process. "You think we're going to beat it this time?"
"Of course. We always beat it." Dustin looked at me confused
"But, this is bigger." I leaned forward and looked at him "This isn't russians kidnappings us, this isn't demodogs and a shadow monster, and this isn't the demogorgon. I mean, what if we don't fix this?"
"We're gonna fix this, we're going to figure out how to stop this for good." Dustin squeezed my hand
"I hope you're right." I sighed and looked at the ground
________
It's been about 30 minutes to an hour since Nancy and Robin left. Me, Dustin, and Lucas are on the couch and Steve is in the recliner. The boys are staring at Max as she writes, I'm reading some random horror book I found laying around.
"I know you guys are staring at me." Max said
"What?"
"You need something?"
"Just hanging out."
The boys pretended to do something and I smiled and shook my head
"How you think your eyes boring on the back of my head will protect me from Vecna, I don't know." Max said as she gathered some papers and stood up. She walked over and stood in front of us. I looked up from my book and saw the boys still wouldn't look at her
"You can look at me now." She shrugged
"Thank you. Sorry." The boys all apologized
Max sighed and handed us all a envelope "Give these to Mike, El, and Will." She handed me three more envelopes
The boys started to open them and max stooped then quickly
"Max, is this a failsafe?" I asked closing my book with the envelopes in them
"Yeah, in case I don't make it." Max looked at the ground. My voice caught in my throat, I wanted to comfort her but I couldn't. I didn't think things would work out.
"Things are gonna work out." Lucas said
"Don't. I don't need you comforting me. People have been telling me that my whole life and it's almost never true. I mean, of course this asshole curses me. Should've seen that one coming." she whispered the last bit
I stood up and walked over to my desk "Max, I'm copying your idea." I mumbled and started writing quickly
"Y/N, you don't need a failsafe, nobody needs a failsafe!" Dustin said quickly standing up and walking over
"You don't know that." I said as I picked up a piece of paper and started writing
"Yes I do! We always win, no matter how many times this comes back, we win!" Dustin argued
I wrote quickly, my handwriting was probably the worst I'd ever seen it "You can't always win everything. I mean, look at what we're fighting here. A damn magical creature who kills teenagers, and he's technically targeting me. He wants to make my life hell, he's killing off my friends, going after family, and I'm sure I'm next after that!"
"Please Y/N! You can just tell us! We'll be fine!" Dustin argued as he grabbed my wrist
I sighed and looked into his pleading eyes, I couldn't resist giving in as soon as I made eye contact "Fine."
"If we go to East Hawkins, will this still reach, Penthurst?" Max asked as she picked up my walkie
I turned to face her "Yeah."
"Why are we talking about east hawkins?" Steve asked, everyone looked at him as he understood "No. No. No!"
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-1686 words.-