BLOODY, BEATEN, AND BRUISED
March 27th, 1986
⏰ 7:30 pm, 📍Hawkins, Indiana
༺♥༻ "You can't be here right now, man."
Jason bends down next to Max. "Is this what you did to Chrissy?"
Stephanie slowly walks towards Jason, almost herding him out of the room. "I didn't do anything to Chrissy."
"Hey, can you hear me?"
"Jason, do not touch her."
"What's wrong with her?"
"I'm not messing around, alright?"
"Hey, can you hear me?"
"Jason, please, just-"
Jason jumps up to a standing position, pulling a gun out of his pocket and pointing it at Stephanie, who instinctively puts her hands up, not dropping her flashlight.
"Jason, stop." Stephanie pants, trying to keep calm. "We don't have to do this, okay?" Her hands shake, her mind racing as she's trying to comprehend the idea that she could not make it out of this house.
"Yeah, I hope you're right." Jason's chest heaves as he licks his lips and straightens his arms. "Is there anyone else in the house?"
Stephanie's mouth goes dry. "No. There's nobody else."
Jason takes a quick look over his shoulder, repositioning his grip on the gun. "Turn around."
"No."
"Turn around!"
Jason shoots right beside the girl, mere feet from Stephanie's arm, making her flinch at the loud noise. "Holy shit are you crazy? You could've fucking shot me!"
"And I will if you don't listen to me!" Jason yells, emphasizing his words with the gun he's waving around. "Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna back away to the top of the stairs there. Then I'm going to watch as you wake her up from whatever the hell this is."
"I can't, okay?" Stephanie doesn't break their eye contact. "If I wake her too soon, we all will die."
"No." Jason laughs disbelievingly, clicking the safety off. "Only you."
Stephanie feels her heartbeat thump in her ears as she thinks of any possible solution.
"No, no, no." Stephanie can feel her lips tremble as she speaks. "We call him Vecna. He-he lives in another dimension. That the reason why you can't see him."
"What? So, Eddie Munson and his...his Hellfire acolytes," Jason scoffs, taking steps closer to Stephanie. "You all summoned this Vecna?"
Stephanie puts her hands out, trying to stop Jason from moving forward. "You're not listening to me. Just listen. There is no cult. There never was!"
Jason raises the gun in front of Stephanie's face, surely to kill her if he decides to shoot. "Then why was Chrissy at Eddie's trailer?"
"She was buying drugs!" Stephanie yells back, not knowing what more Jason wants to hear from her.
The safety clicks again. "Liar!"
Stephanie takes a step back, trying to create space between her and Jason. "She was seeing things, okay? Terrible things. Things Vecna forced her to see. She was scared and she tried to find a solution. She just needed help."
Jason shakes his head. "See, that's how I know you're lying. If Chrissy was scared...she would've come to me!" His voice gradually starts to increase in volume. "Not Eddie! Not that freak! Never!"
Stephanie puts her hands down, filled with an overwhelming sense of boldness. "Maybe she didn't like you as much as your ugly self thinks."
Jason jostles the gun in his hands. "I never should've let you in the door."
Stephanie takes a sharp breath in. "And I never should have knocked."
"You have five seconds to wake her up." Jason says, his voice seemingly darker. "If you don't I'll kill you."
Stephanie doesn't break her stare at Jason.
"Four."
She clenches her jaw together, ready to execute her half baked plan she thought of on the spot.
"Three."
Stephanie ducks down right as Jason shoots, barley missing the bullets path. She tackles him to the ground, surprising herself with the strength she didn't know she had.
Pushing his arm against the wall, Jason shoots again, the gun falling out of his hands and sliding across the floor.
Since Stephanie isn't professionally trained in combat, Jason easily finds a way to get out of her grip and throw four hard punches to her face, making her fall onto the ground.
That's when Jason steps onto Max's Walkman.
Just before he can put all of his weight on it, Stephanie kicks his leg back, causing him to loose his balance and fall onto his stomach.
Jason quickly stands up, leaving Stephanie no time to prepare before more punches land onto her face and abdomen.
Just by thinking about Max, Stephanie finds herself with newfound adrenaline, pushing Jason away from her by the shoulders and punching him in his face, focusing only on the person she cares about facing the most. She doesn't care if she doesn't make it out, only that Max will.
Stephanie stumbles backwards as she feels a particularly hard punch to her abdomen.
"Fuck." She breathes out as she looks down at her stomach.
A knife.
A knife stuck at least four inches into her stomach.
She can't stop now. No. No way.
Stephanie runs back towards Jason, her hands grasping around his neck. She squeezes tighter through pained grunts and choked sobs.
As her vision darkens and she becomes increasingly dizzy, Jason falls limp onto the floor.
Stephanie falls on the ground, barely seeing anything at this point, her ears are ringing, and it feels as though her stomach got set on fire. She studies the knife, not having a clue on what to do.
Do I take it out? Yes I do. That's what they say in horror movies. Or is it never take out the knife? No. It's definitely take it out.
Stephanie holds her breath as she wraps her hands around the handle, fresh tears forming at the corner of her eyes. She counts to three in her head, screaming as she pulls the knife out and throwing it across the room.
She uses her weakened arms to pull herself towards Max, reaching for the half broken Walkman, tears streaming down her face.
Stephanie pulls the Walkman towards her with one of her hands, the other holding onto her wound, which is bleeding profusely.
Stephanie whips her head around when she hears a rustling noise coming from Jason. She abandons the Walkman, praying that Max won't lift right now.
Jason lifts his head up, still confused and groggy.
Stephanie takes what is left of her strength, stands up on wobbly legs, and walks towards the gun. She picks up the gun and silently walks over to Jason, pointing it at him.
Obviously she doesn't want to kill the kid. All that she wanted to happen was Jason will wake up, see that Stephanie isn't playing around, and leave. Easy, right? The only thing is, Stephanie has never held a gun before. Safety on, safety off, what's the difference?
Jason holds his head as he slowly sits up, holding onto the wall for support.
"What-" He says before being interrupted by Stephanie.
"Listen to me, you better leave before I report you to the police. Do you know who my family is? My brother can destroy you in thirty seconds and my father knows people, alright? He can ruin you in a minute if I say so."
Jason goes to stand up, his feet sliding on the floor as he struggles to.
Stephanie winces as she drops the gun to the ground, flinching as a shot rings in her ears. She quickly turns around, too quick, she falls to the ground as Jason clutches his shoulder and cries out in pain.
Stephanie quickly crawls to the Walkman, hissing in pain as she takes her hand off of her wound to grab the Walkman and get it to Max.
"Fuck." She cries as she puts the headphones on Max, pressing play and hearing the distorted music through her headphones.
Max gasps as she falls backwards, barely being caught by Stephanie who cries out in pain as Max lands in her arms.
"Steph." Max pants, grabbing onto the girls jacket. "Steph, no. I have to go back. It's El. El is in there with Vecna."
"Max." Stephanie hushes, cupping her face with her hands as tears continue to stream down her face, getting blood on Max's cheek. "It's okay you're safe. You're safe."
Max wipes the blood off of her cheek, examining it on her fingers. Her gaze trails down to Stephanie's stomach, blood seeping between her fingers onto the floor.
Max reaches out to Stephanie "Your stomach."
"I'm fine, Max, really." Stephanie says as she pushes her hand away.
Max shakes her head. "No, no, no. No you're not, you're loosing blood."
Stephanie reaches out for Max as she falls forward, falling in and out of consciousness.
Max catches the girl and picks her up, slowly but surely making their way out of the attic.
"Max, stop!" Stephanie hits her hands away. "I'm fine, okay?"
Max repositions her grip on Stephanie, helping her walk down the stairs. "Come on, we're gonna get you to the hospital."
Stephanie can barely hear the curses Max says as the two stumble down the stairs, they're mere inches apart but yet Max sounds miles away. As if Stephanie were underwater with no way of getting to the surface.
She can barely feel the wind hit her face as the door swings open.
She can barely hear Max's pleads to Erica.
And that's when it all goes dark.
༺♥༻
51 1/2 will b very emo 🖤
7/20/23