"will what aren't you telling us,"
"you said she was here to tell us something, but now she can't,"
"will we need to know,"
"does it have to do with what just happened?"
voices were heard all around her. she didn't remember much, the last thing was being in a dark cold dimension, with a creature. it had touched her, but as soon as she felt the icy cold contact she was snapped back into reality. she sat still on a couch, she couldn't move. now she heard familiar distressed voices asking questions.
"ok, mike explain what happened one more time,"
"i've explained this a million times,"
"just-"
"ok, ok i was riding up your driveway on my bike, we were both on it-"
"you were both on it?"
"yes- not the point. um, as soon as we started going up she started saying that she wasn't feeling well and just as i was stopping i she had just passed out cause the next thing i know she was on the ground and i'm screaming into my walkie talkie,"
max felt her breath quicken as she heard mike explain what had happened. memories from last night and this morning at the diner and on their bike ride all came back to her. maxs heart began to beat quicker than normal when she realized where she was. her stomach dropped when she realized who was here and why.
she wasn't ready to tell them, she didn't want to. she was wishing she could just be alone right now. she heard everyone's voices and knew all eyes were on her and would be on her again. she knew everyone was terrified that this was happening to her. they probably assumed it was the same thing that happened to will, and max honestly didn't know what it was.
her body was tense thinking about trying to explain this. she felt guilty for not telling them, it wasn't technically her fault though, because it was initially just dreams, that then grew into whatever this was. the red haired girl was so overwhelmed by everything and wasn't able to handle it. she still couldn't move but felt her body begin to shake. she heard the fighting stop over her whimpering and shaking.
"guys, guys!"
she heard a distressed voice call out, the room went silent and she felt all the attention face her. her body was violently shaking but she couldn't snap herself out of her head.
"oh my god is she ok?"
she heard a familiar voice come up beside her and hold her arm, "we have to get her up, i don't like this," she heard mike say frantically.
"how are we supposed to do that," she heard dustin say. all of a sudden she heard the door swing open and close followed by footsteps coming closer to her. "holy shit what happened," she heard steve say shocked as the footsteps stopped. the room was quiet, the only sounds of maxs whimpering and shaking.
she still felt mike holding on to her hand as she panicked, "max, come on i really need you to wake up," she heard mike say from beside her. max wasn't sure if what he was saying was making her feel better or was just stressing her out even more. "max, max you're ok look i'm here, mikes here, dustin, lucas and look even steve," she heard a new voice come up beside her. will.
as if a tidal wave hit her, max was brought back to the upside down. as she stared into the the overgrown house of wills she remembered calling for him before she passed out. memories flooded back to her as remembered what had happened in the upside down. she looked around and saw a red flashing light coming from the window on the door. she shakily stood up from the couch and began to move towards the the door. max slowly extended her hand and opened the front door.
in the door way she could see the red flashing lightning, and through that she could see a large shadow looming over the sky. max's breath caught her throat as she stared out at it. max's body began shaking as the figure began to get bigger. she noticed the long tentacle reaching out quicker than her mind could process. she felt the cold touch on her body when she felt a wave of nausea come over her.
"holy shit max are you ok?"
max's body woke and shot up quick. she was breathing heavily as she held on to her chest trying to catch a breath. "oh my-" max's body was shaking as she was trying to grip everything that had just happened. she didn't understand what was going on. the dreams started as, well dreams, but now she was getting a feeling from them, before, during and after they occurred. max was whispering gibberish to herself as rocked back and forth trying to figure out what exactly had happened.
"max... max!"
max jumped at the sudden voice from beside her. the red head turned to face the group and sat shocked as she looked around. everyone one was there. the party including el and steve were surrounding her, nancy and jonathan weren't to far away from her as-well as joyce and hopper.
"max," mike said softly trying to put a hand on her arm. max jumped at the sudden contact. "max," she heard a different voice say. she turned to look at steve who slowly walking toward her, "hey kid," he said sitting beside mike. max's body was still shaking violently but her breathing had calmed down. "hey, hey your ok," steve said sensing some of her panic. max sat with a quivering lip still trying come back to her senses.
"hey max," mike tried again, talking very softly, "look your okay, we're all here," he said moving his hand close to hers, "your here," max repeated, "everyone, look," max looked up again to see everyone's frightened but sympathetic faces, "everyones here," she whispered reassuring herself.
"your safe now," she heard will say from beside her. max nodded her shaking head and began fiddling with her hands. "max honey, do you want to tell us what's wrong," joyce said concerned walking towards her. max looked up at her with teary eyes. closing her eyes she slowly nodded turning her attention to her lap.
clearing her throat max began to explain, "ever s-since the night with the demo dogs and- and just the upside down in general i've been having, these- these dreams. the first weeks they weren't constant, but as weeks turned into months, they started occurring more than an average dream would." she said slowly, "at first i thought they were just nightmares so i shook it off, but it was weird because i had never been in the actual upside-down or- or seen that creature for me to fully picture what it actually looks like you know?"
"max what's happening in the dreams," the raven haired boy who sat next to her asked, "w-well, i'm in the upside down-" "what does the upside down look like?" hopper interrupted with his arms crossed, "well, it's like it can be anywhere," max said, "it's hawkins just dark, and cold, and scary," max replied, "the sky is dark and cloudy, then it will turn bright red and thunder and lightning will go off and the ground and any structure is just covered in vines and weird plant and slug things,"
"it's an accurate description," will said turning around to face his mother. joyce put her hand to her lip trying to think of what to do, "max honey when your in the upside down, so you see anything in particular that scares you,"
max looked down at her hands, "i-i," she started. she looked beside her at mike who was patiently waiting for her talk. he noticed her discomfort and grabbed one of her hands and began playing with it in attempt to comfort her. looking up she saw eleven, who's face was growing red from anger. she shook off the glare she was receiving and turned her attention back to her hands. "i see a creature," she said slowly, "like the one will saw,"
"how do you know what the one will saw looked like," hopper asked leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, "when will was, possessed? um- we saw his drawing," she said. max sighed looking down again. "max, how detailed are the dreams, like do they look like real life?" mike said from beside her. "what i'm seeing in my dreams looks like real life,"
"but what she's seeing in her dreams might actually be real life," will added on not making eye contact with anyone, "what do you mean?" lucas asked as everyone began sitting up, "they used to just be when i was asleep," max started, "but just recently they'd, they'd come and go whenever," "like visions?" mike asked concerned. max nodded her head. she felt the room shift into an uneasy environment, the pit in max s stomach was growing as the she felt guiltier and guiltier for not telling them. she felt a squeeze on her hand and looked over to see mike giving her a sympathetic smile.
"what does it feel like?" he said quietly, "do you feel connected to it," "i don't know," max replied, "it's just- uh, it's just there and it's happening you know? i'm watching and it comes towards me and almost touches me i guess, i can feel it touch me, and i can feel when i'm about to have vision but i can't feel it's feelings,"
the room went silent again, "if it's doing the same thing it did with will, why did it choose me to be the host," max whispered, " it got will cause he was in the upside down. when he almost, you know- died down there, he had things growing inside of him, i don't have anything growing-"
"-ok yes, what about when we went into the tunnels," steve suggested, "too short of time," will said shaking his head, "hypothetically if it was, why would it be her, i mean if we were all down there you know? max do you remember any moment of anything strange happening,"
"other then the fact that i was in another dimension, running away from its inter dimensional creatures, attempting to close the gate to it, no everything was fine," max replied sarcastically.
"he's got a point," hopper said, "has there been any moments you can think of that would've sparked this," max shook her head, "i cant think of anything,"
"nance, when te shadow monster left will where did it go," lucas said suddenly, "oh, i'm not sure, when it left it burst out and went into the sky, blended with the dark. are you insinuating it went into max when it left will," nancy replied, "possibly, that could be an option, but what if when it went to will it never went back to the upside down, what if it stayed out searching for a new host,"
"i saw the shadow monster when i closed the gate," el said, "it couldn't have gotten out," "but what if the shadow monster was never in will," "woah lucas this is-" dustin interrupted, "-what if it was an assistant to the shadow monster, it would connect will with it when needed to,"
"if you don't look at it to in depth, lucas has got a point," joyce cut in, "when will had the dreams he could see the shadow the monster," "but that was before he got possessed," "ok woah, woah," steve interrupted, "so what your saying is when el closed the gate something was left out and that's what's giving max these visions, and now it's only a matter of time before it takes her over," lucas nodded.
max rubbed her forehead stressfully as she listened to their theory's. her body began shaking again hearing all of these possibilities. she grew worried of how her condition would escalate. "that might not be it though," dustin said, "when el closed the gate didn't everything that was part of the upside down die?"
she felt a squeeze on her hand and looked over at mikes shocked face, "of course!" he said, "the gates, the leaks around town! that's probably how she was exposed to it," hopper looked at mike shocked, but didn't seem disobedient to his idea, "max do you remember around what time you started having these dreams," "um a couple months ago. i started getting light ones a little after the whole situation but around a month of after the snowball it really set in," she replied.
"it's rough, but it could work," hopper said putting his hat on his head, "where are you going?" joyce asked as he began to move near the door, "the lab, i'm going to get as much information about everything that i can get my hands on. i'm gonna talk to some doctors as-well and see if we can get max in for some tests," "i'm coming with you," joyce said trailing behind him, "nance, jonathan, steve keep an eye on the kids," "if anything happens call us right away, we will call you guys to update you, or come pick you up," hopper said opening the door.
joyce walked to the door but turned around to the kids, "max honey, what ever you do try your best to resist it, don't let it get you, don't let it get back,"
//
a/n
thank you so much for all the nice comments and 1k reads!!!
sorry for the late updates i was busy with exams and other testing but i'm finished now and its summer so yay!
theres probably going to be one more chapter before s3 and depending on how the storyline goes in the next season i think ill probably continue it. i might even write a new story ;)
anyways thank u so much!!!!