The sun had already set. Steve's car sat in front of Nancy's house for a few minutes before the rest of your group stepped out onto the street.
You watched through Nancy's bedroom window as Dustin turn on his Walkie-Talkie. The one he'd given you clicked and buzzed in your bag. You ran to Nancy's desk where your bag laid limp on the chair and scrambled through your crap to get the walkie.
"Yeah? What's up?" You frantically answered.
Dustin's response was swift. "Let us in through the basement." Your Walkie-Talkie beeped as he turned his off. You walked back to the window as you watched the group begin walking to the back of the house.
Max anxiously bit at her nail beds as she was escorted around by the boys. They all seemed to have wet faces.
You, Nancy, and Robin rushed downstairs and into the basement. The lock on the basement door clicked as Nancy opened the door for Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Steve. They all sat down on the couch or chairs.
You were right, they'd all been crying.
No one really said anything for a while. You'd already known what happened. Vecna got Max, he got into her mind and tried to take her away, just as he had with your best friend and two classmates.
Max was lucky, you'd found a way for her to escape Vecna's villainous grasp and save her life. But she'd still almost died. She was petrified, as well as everyone else who almost saw her last moments.
Silent cries and small tears flowed down Max's face as she zoned out, staring blankly at the wall across from the couch.
Still, no one spoke for what seemed like millions of minutes.
You and Steve silently spoke to each other, an inaudible language of head tilts and facial expressions the two of you had mastered after knowing each other for so long.
You opened your eyes wide and quickly glanced towards Max, then raised your eyebrows, meaning; What should we do?
Steve replied by slightly lifting his shoulders, tilting his watch to face you, then scanning his eyes around the room and shrugging again; I don't know, but it's only 8, are we just going to sit around?
Before you could make another noiseless response, Max cleared her throat.
"I think I'm going to go to bed." Her voice startled you as she broke the silence. The sound in her voice was there, but her soul and presence seemed to be gone.
You also cleared your throat and nodded. "Uh, yeah Max. Whatever you want. In fact, maybe we should all start settling down... we've all had a few eventful days."
"I'll grab you guys some clean clothes from upstairs to change in to." Nancy said, getting off her chair and heading upstairs.
Steve looked at an emotionless Max and motion towards the bathroom door. "Hey Max, do you wanna use the bathroom or anything? Wash your face to feel a bit better?"
"Sure." She swiftly said, walking over towards the bathroom with her arms crossed.
As soon as the door shut, everyone could hear that she was crying. You all pretended not to hear and spoke about the meeting with Hatch and what you learned from Victor Creel.
"I know the music pulled Max out of her trance," said Steve, "but how? Why did that even work?"
Robin clasped her hands together. "Hatch said music reaches parts of the brain words can't. He never said it would be able to save lives though..."
"We figured that part out by putting two and two together. Victor said that he heard a song playing when Vecna killed his family. We guessed that music could reach the same part of the mind that Vecna would attack. That it would act as a sort of lifeline back to reality."
Steve bit the inside of his cheek for a second. "Hm, good thing they told you."
"Yeah." Robin replied.
Max flipped off the light switch and swung the door open, wiping her red eyes. "Bathroom's free."
"I'll go," Robin said, standing up, "Y/n, you wanna come with me?"
You felt your face get a little hot as you got up from your chair. "Sure."
You both walked to the bathroom, flipped the light back on, and closed the door. You sat on the closed toilet seat as Robin opened the cabinets under the sink.
You took a deep breath and sighed. "This is all just... so strange." You said as your voice broke, running the palm of your hand over your face.
"I know," Robin replied, getting a bottle of face wash from under the cabinet, "it's not every day you create fake identities, talk to an old traumatized man, escape the police, and save a girl from a monster." She chuckled to herself, then turned to you. Your eyes pooled with tears.
"Hey, hey, I'm sorry." She put the bottle down and wrapped her arms around you in a warm hug."Was it something I said?"
"No, not really. This week has just been so much..." she let you go and you wiped a tear off your face. "This is all so crazy... my best friend is dead! Eddie's a convicted murderer! We lied and ran away from the cops, and there's a fucking monster killing people!" Hot, emotional tears streamed down your face. "I just want things to go back to normal."
"There really is no normal in Hawkins, this towns basically just a playground for all things evil and supernatural, you were bound to find out eventually." Robin replied, giving you a tissue from the countertop.
You wiped your face and steadied your breathing. "I guess so... im sorry for flipping out. I just needed to let it out."
Robin smiled and hugged you again. She pulled away, but left her hand on your arm. "Let's get cleaned up, I hate having all this makeup on my face."
You smiled and walked over to the sink. After washing your faces, you walked out of the bathroom. Nancy had brought the clothes for Dustin, Lucas, Steve, and Max down.They took turns changing in the bathroom before you all began finding different spots on the couch and floor to sleep on.
Someone had turned off the main light and flipped on a lamp. The dark atmosphere made you feel more relaxed and tired. Nancy had also brought down some blankets, and as soon as you were wrapped in a soft, pink blanket.
You felt your eyes get heavy and you drifted off to sleep.