Chapter 6: Dig Dug
"It's gonna take a lot to take me away from you, There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do."
•
"Steve we both need plans, and urgently," Eve says as she sat with her brother in their kitchen, "I mean, we both need to win our women back... well your woman back, i didn't have a woman in the first place."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that, E. I've seen the way you look at eachother," Steve says with a knowing smile. Eve looks down at the floor as a blush appears on her cheeks, "trust me. I'm the love doctor."
"I'm not gonna trust you- I mean, you just called yourself the love doctor," Eve says with a little chuckle, "but i do need a plan."
"Alright," Steve says, "Leave this to the love doctor."
"Stop calling yourself that!"
-
It was an our later and Eve was in her room doodling instead of studying for a test she had soon when Steve suddenly burst through the door.
"I know exactly what to do," Steve says as Eve jumps and looks over at him. He throws a jacket at her that she luckily catches and shoes that hit her on the head, "come on!"
"Ouch! Steve!" She shouts as she staggered back. Steve laughs and starts to leave, Eve shrugs on the jacket quickly and runs after him with the shoes in hand.
She runs down the stairs as Steve opens the door and stupidly tries to put her shoes on as she's walking.
"Steve slow down!" Eve shouts as she gets one shoe on. She finally gets the other on and runs into the car just as Steve pulls away, a wide smile on his lips.
"What's the plan?" She asks as the two get into his car. She wanted to solve the problem with Max, she just didn't know how. Her breath was heavy from that commotion and a glare was on her face thanks to the shoe that'd hit her in the face.
"Talking to her."
"Uh... steve I don't know..." Eve starts, seeing Steve turn off of the driveway in the opposite direction to Max's house, "and you're not even going the right way."
"Come on, where do your loser friends always go when you have free time?" Steve asks her.
"The arcade?" Eve asks.
"Yup, So that's where you talk."
-
Everything was in place, Eve was waiting in the back room thanks to Keith helping her with the plan - mostly because she was Steve Harrington's sister - but that's besides the point.
She was nervous to say the least, her friendship or any future with Max could be destroyed or made when she arrives - if she arrives.
Eve's thoughts were cut short when Max arrived, as soon as she saw Eve she looked annoyed. Eve just smiled softly and did weird jazz hands out of nerves. Keith just looked at the two and left, closing the door. Max glared at the girl in front of her.
"What is this shit, Evangeline?" Max asks the girl angrily and takes a step closer to her. Eve knew she was in deep the second Max pulled the full name card - and her bitchy instincts were going to take over. Eve took a deep breath to calm the inner bitch.
"Sorry," Eve apologises to the girl, "I know this is weird, and the last place I wanna be is an arcade, I just needed a safe place."
"A safe place to what? Be creepy?" Max asks with a sarcastic laugh, she wanted Eve to have a taste of her own medicine. She'd treated Max like shit, so now it was Max's turn to return the favour, "and wear shoes that don't match, apparently."
Eve looked down at her shoes, only just realising one was a white trainer and the other was one of Lily H's red pumps she'd borrowed for Halloween.
"Listen..." Eve takes a deep breath, she was going to do it, "I'm gonna tell you the truth about everything that happened last year. But if anyone finds out, you could be arrested. Possibly killed-"
"Killed?" Max asks with an eye roll, now was not the time for Eve's silly games. She just wanted to get the truth and then pretend that nothing had happened. She wanted to go back to normal.
"I need to know. Do you accept the risk?" Eve asks, still completely serious. She didn't want to tell Max anything that the girl wasn't ready to hear. The information that Eve was about to tell would change her perspective on a lot of things and burden her forever.
"Oh, my God! This this is so stupid," Max mutters, turning around and taking a deep breath to try and hold on her annoyance.
"Do you accept the risk?" Eve asks taking the girl's hand to stop her from moving. She needed Max to take her seriously in order for her to tell the events of the year prior.
"Yeah," Max says, looking at their hands, Max always had a soft spot for the blue eyed beauty that stood in front of her, "Sure. Fine. I accept the risk. Let's hear it." Max then puts down her skateboard and sits on a chair opposite Eve.
"Last year Will didn't get lost in the woods. He got lost somewhere else...."
-
"...And that was the last we ever saw of her," Eve finishes up the story, she looks down at her hands as a feeling of sadness overcomes her. She really misses the girl, "After that, she was just gone. I can't believe it's been that long. Feels like yesterday."
"Yeah. I mean, I bet," Max leans forward, her eyes looking from Eve to the ground as she shook her head softly, "Wow. It's crazy."
"I know," Eve nods with a small sigh. Talking about what happened felt good, like a weight had been lifted off of her chest, but it felt like she'd just passed it into Max.
"It's crazy, but I really liked it," Max says, making Eve confused. Liked it? What does she mean?
"Liked it?"
"Yeah," Max nods, a small smile playing on her features, "Well, I mean, I had a few issues..."
"Issues?" Eve asks. What was max on about? She didn't understand what she meant, of course she didn't. She just wanted Max to believe her, but of course she wouldn't - the story sounded fictional, but it was far too real.
"I felt it was a little derivative in parts," Max says to her, as if she was criticising the story that Eve had made up.
"What are you talking about?" Eve asks, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Why was Max being so confusing?
"I just wish it had a little more originality. That's all," Max tells the girl with a shrug.
"Originality? You think I made that up? You don't believe me?" Eve asks with an annoyed and upset look. She'd just poured her heart out and told a secret that could get her and her brother killed and Max didn't believe her.
"Eve, come on, seriously? How gullible do you think I am?" Max asks the girl with a little scoff. She knew Eve wasn't telling the truth the second she started saying the words 'telekinesis' 'Demogorgon' And 'different dimension'
"Why would I make this up?" Eve asks, standing up in anger. She needed to keep calm, in case the weird mist came from her hands again or she turned bitchy - no one needed to see her bitch side.
"I don't know. To impress me or something? Or you're just, like, insane," Max says, hesitating at first. She'd accepted she liked women - more specifically Eve in a way that was more than a friend, but she didn't know if Eve was the same. But after this; Eve just sounded insane, Max wondered how she could get popular if this is what she told people.
"I tell you all of this," Eve starts to pace, her anger building up, "I mean, top-secret stuff. Risking my life, risking my families life. And this is how you fucking react?"
"Risking your life?" Max asks with a little chuckle. Eve was taking her joke way too far.
"Oh, so this is funny to you?" Eve asks, clenching her fists in an effort to keep calm. She'd put herself and Steve in danger and she'd brushed it off, believing that Eve was lying.
"Yeah," Max nods with a small smile on her features, she thought it was cute how Eve wanted to tell her stories, "I mean kind of funny. Stupid, but funny."
"You know what, just forget it," Eve mumbles, wanting to burst into tears of anger and sadness. She got up from her seat and headed towards the door. Max's eyebrows furrowed, confused as to why Eve was acting how she was.
"Where are you going?" Max asks the girl, grabbing her skateboard and following Eve out of the staff room.
"Story time's over, isn't it?" Eve asks sarcastically and leaves, Max sighs.
"I'm sorry I don't believe your fairytales, Eve," Max says to her as Eve walks through the arcade, Max close behind, "Maybe if you made them a little more believable I would've-"
"What's wrong with you?" Eve snaps at the girl as she stops and turns to face her, "I gave you what you wanted."
"I wanted to be your friend, not a part of some joke or someone for you and your buddies to laugh at," Max says back, sending a glare to Eve that she ignored.
"It's not a joke," Eve says softly but Max could tell she was agitated - she wasn't the best actor, but she was trying to convince Max that she was telling the truth.
"You did a good job, okay? You can go tell everyone I believed your lies if it gets you popular points or whatever," Max says to her and starts to walk to play her arcade games when Eve grabs her arm to stop her.
"Listen. I know I hang with a crowd you're not happy with, but I still have fucking morals; all right? I follow a rule, a rule that Friends don't lie. Never ever. No matter what," Eve says to her with a serious look. She wanted Max to believe her, she needed Max to believe her.
"Is that right?" Max asks, walking away, Eve follows as she goes up to the 'out of order' dig dug sign. Max takes the sign off of the game and sticks it to Eve's shoulder, "Then how do you explain this?"
"I had to do that," Eve says, ripping it off, "To protect you."
"To protect me from who, exactly?" Max asks, "The big bad government baddies from Hawkins Lab?"
"Lower your voice," Eve whispers to the girl seriously. Max just chuckled before speaking a little louder.
"Maybe it was to protect me from the Demogorgon from another dimension?" Max asks sarcastically, keeping her voice loud as she starts to play the game.
"Max, I'm serious, shut up!" Eve says, looking around quickly to see if anyone was paying attention.
"Oh, no, no! You know what it was? It was Eleven. The girl..." Max carried on, but Eve couldn't let her, she put her hand over the red heads mouth.
"Stop talking," Eve whispered to the girl slowly, looking around to make sure there wasn't any government spies or anyone looking suspicious, "You're going to get us killed. Do you understand?"
Max grabs the girl's hand and moves it away, "You're serious?" Max asks quietly, glancing around too. She didn't know what to believe.
"I really wish I wasn't," Eve says to her sadly, "I just want to go back to normal, you know? The government made us sign so many things and now I can't walk into a room without feeling like someone's watching me. It's real Max, very, very real."
"Prove it," Max says, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I can't," Eve says.
"So what? I'm supposed to just trust you?" Max asks the girl.
"Yes," Eve says, "Because I trust you with the information. This is a trust tree okay, don't break it."
"Trust tree?" Max asked with raised eyebrows.
"You get what I mean," Eve scoffed as Max tried to hold in her laugh, "you know... everybody climbs, nobody falls."
"That singlehandedly has to be the weirdest thing to ever leave your mouth," Max chuckles, "it's cute."
Eve blushes as Max says the last part, and Max blushes too - realising what she said.
They hear an engine rev outside and Max walks past Eve, looking out of the window in the door to see Billy in his car, Eve looked out too, seeing him, "Shit," Max muttered before turning to Eve, "I gotta go. Um..." Max grabs Eve's hand and squeezes it, "Don't follow me out. Okay?"
"Why not?" Eve asks.
"Just... trust me. Remember the trust tree," Max says to her and Eve rolls her eyes, a small smile on her lips before remembering what she'd told
Eve not even ten minutes ago.
"Do you believe me?" Eve asks the girl before she leaves. Max looks at the girl and then looks away, walking out of the doors. Eve stands at the doors, watching her as she gets into the car as Billy and Max talk before he drives off.
Eve then leaves the arcade, looking at Billy's car leave. She doesn't know what to think. She just told Max a huge secret and Max might not believe her.
"Eve? What are you doing here?" Lucas asks, approaching her. He'd been playing dragons lair and only just noticed Eve was there.
"I was trying to talk to Max." Eve says, "she was really mad at me because I wouldn't tell her what was going on - and then when I do she doesn't believe me."
"You told her?" Lucas asks her.
"Yeah," Eve says, "and before you lecture me, she didn't believe a word of it, so you've got nothing to worry about."
"Maybe it's good that she knows," Lucas shrugs as he looks at the floor.
"She told me to prove it but I have no idea how," Eve tells him.
"Why don't your shoes match?" Lucas asks, giving the girl a weird look as he looks at her shoes.
"Steve," She shrugs, "back on point. How am I supposed to prove this is all real to her?"
"I'm not sure," Lucas shrugs, "I'll help you if you want."
"Thanks Lucas," She smiles, "I'm gonna go, enjoy your games." She tells him and he nods, saying his own goodbyes as Eve leaves.
She was walking down the street when she suddenly froze, as if going into a state. She looked around, suddenly she started to run. She didn't know where she was running to, but she was running. And running fast.
-
When she stopped running, she looked around in a haze. She was in a pumpkin patch, her hands were covered in the weird shadowy mist. She saw Hopper's car, and then a car come out of nowhere. She screamed as the car stopped inches in front of her. Suddenly Joyce and Bob Newby got out of the car.
"What are you doing here, Sweetie?" Joyce asks the girl.
"I- I don't know," she says as Bob gives her his coat, seeing how the girl was shivering. She covered her hands with it, not wanting Bob to see. Joyce goes into a little hole that was dug.
"I need to get down there," Eve says, running to Joyce, "I need to get down there."
"Eve what are you talking about?" Bob asks the girl as Joyce nods her head.
"Bob!" Joyce shouts, "go get
The rope from the boot," She says trying to distract him. Bob nods his head and runs off as Eve kneels next to the covered up hole.
"Vines," Joyce whispers as Eve puts her hands out. Mist appears as she begs with her mind for the vines to disperse so she can get to Hopper, and surprisingly enough they follow her command. Joyce looks at the child in shock.
"How did you-" Joyce starts to ask.
"I don't know! I don't know!" Eve shouts, "help me get down there," she begs.
Joyce stops the girl, "no, honey, it's too dangerous."
"I can take it. Help me get down or I'll go down myself." Eve tells the woman. Joyce stops for a second before nodding and she grabs Eve's hand, Bob coming to help too after saying there was no rope in the boot. They get Eve down and they both follow.
"Hopper!" Joyce shouts, looking around with her flashlight, "Hopper!"
"Wait, be quiet, I can't concentrate," Eve says to the woman, putting her hand out and closing her eyes.
"Joyce, what is going on? Where are we?" Bob asks the woman as Eve stands still trying to concentrate, "Tunnels. Is this Will's map? Are we in Will's map?"
"Hopper!" Joyce shouts, starting to walk, but Eve stops her.
"Stay here." Eve tells the woman seriously, "So I can find the exit."
"Eve it's not safe," Joyce shakes her head.
"We're in Will's map," Bob whispers.
"Trust me," Eve says, "I can find him and get him here. Just have a little trust in me."
C'mon Joyce, believe in the trust tree.
Joyce nods and Eve runs off in one direction while Bob stays with his girlfriend, still in shock from the tunnels.
She looked around as she walked, the tunnels shocking her - they were covered in moving vines and the air had little bits in them. She looked up, seeing something like a loving flower and squinted her eyes, looking a little closer.
The flower suddenly opened up, spurting a bunch of the little flying particles onto Eve. She screamed and coughed before running away from it and focusing back on the main mission - finding Hopper.
She sees Hopper's hat, and looks around desperately before she spots his arm. She runs over, screaming his name and jumping down to its level.
"Oh my god it's strangling you," She says, pulling it away as if it's nothing. Hopper watches her, confused.
Eve let's out a large scream as her hands shoot at Hopper's chest. He watches in amazement as all the vines suddenly clear and he's free, Eve looks at her hands as she breathed heavily and began to feel light headed.
"Hopper, are you okay?" She pants out as she helps him stand up, becoming dizzy herself.
"Eve," he breathes, pulling the girl in for a hug. He was eternally grateful for what she'd done - he knew if she hadn't he definitely would've died.
"We need- we need to get out of here," Eve pants, starting to lose her balance. Hopper grabs her shoulders as she looks at him as the soldiers start to burn the area.
She screams in pain and cries in his arms as she squirms. "It hurts!" She screams. Hopper stares, confused and concerned as Eve screams and screams.
"What's going on?" Hopper asks, grabbing her shoulders as she screams. She grabs his hands, her nails digging into them and she cried out.
"What's wrong with her?" A soldier asked approaching and hopper didn't know how to respond because he had no idea.
Eve continued to scream in pain, her whole body felt like it was being stabbed by knives covered in flames. The pain was excruciating and her blood was pumping faster than it ever had before - she was powerless to stop the pain. She let out another scream of pain before falling limp, passing out.
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Edited ✅