Notes:
This was another really fun chapter. Although it's shorter compared to the others, I find the Lumax really cute and the story in "The Nina Project" really interesting.
So with that being said, please enjoy!
Max didn't know how much sleep she'd gotten before she groggily woke up. Running Up That Hill was blaring in her ears, and she wasn't sure how long it'd been doing so.
Eyes still shut, Max attempted to remember the last thing that had happened. She recounted Vecna and the bloody wasteland, how the music started to play, how she'd sprinted toward a portal, and how she had crashed into reality.
From there, things were a bit fuzzy. Max knew Lucas had held her after her friends had called her out her name. She must've fallen asleep, though. She opened her eyes just enough to see the group asleep in Mike's basement. The only one awake was Robin, who was staring into space. She tended to do that.
Max ensured that Robin didn't spot her; she didn't want to cause a scene. Maybe she could get some rest again if she tried hard enough.
But as the night went on, it was clear that sleep was no longer an option. Max glanced at the clock. 3:27 am.
At 4:00 am, Robin woke Steve.
"Your turn," she whispered.
Rubbing his eyes, Steve merely nodded.
Max watched through the tiny slits of her peeping eyes as he gazed at her. They're taking turns watching me…
As Robin quickly fell asleep, Max's walkman stopped. Steve stood up and crept toward her, and Max shut her eyes. She could hear him crouch beside her and rewind the tape. Max could only pray that he didn't notice that she was awake. Luckily, he didn't.
As the night went by, the music prevented Max from sleeping. Finally, after four hours, she noticed that Dustin, who was supposed to be watching her, had dozed off.
Upstairs, Max could hear Mrs. Wheeler making breakfast. Might as well head up there. It's not like she was going to get any rest.
Careful not to step on anyone, Max maneuvered around her friends and up the stairs. Then, she silently closed the basement door and headed into the kitchen. Sure enough, she found both Mrs. Wheeler and Holly.
"Good morning! Nancy told me you guys were crashing here," Mrs. Wheeler said with a smile.
"Yeah, we just wanted to keep each other company…" Max lied.
"How sweet. I'm just cooking breakfast right now if you'd like any."
Max shook her head. "I'm not hungry…."
"Oh, that's okay."
An idea suddenly popped into Max's head. She still needed to explain what she'd seen to the group, but it'd probably prove hard.
"Hey, um, I know this is a weird request, but do you have anything to draw with?"
"Of course! Holly, can you bring Max your crayons and paper? Oh, and also go ahead and change," she added.
Max waited at the table as Holly dashed up the staircase, and her mind wandered back to yesterday.
Max had thought that it'd be her last day. She honestly thought Vecna was going to kill her. And he almost did. Still, her friends managed to give her a chance to survive, and she'd taken it.
"So, how you been holding up?" Mrs. Wheeler asked. Max snapped out of her thoughts.
"Oh, um, I'm doing well. I mean, I'm nervous, but I'm alright."
She nodded. "It's not easy."
"No… it's not." Max paused. "Can I try the phone? I need to call someone…."
"Sure!"
Dialing Will and Eleven's number, she sighed as no one picked up.
"Anyone pick up," Mrs. Wheeler asked as Max hung up the phone.
"No…"
Before they could continue, Holly raced into the kitchen with her crayons and a few sheets of paper. Oh, and her Lite-Bright too.
"Thanks," Max said sweetly.
It was time to jog her memory, but it wasn't hard. Whatever Max had seen wasn't easy to forget.
Turning her music back on, she quietly listened to Kate Bush as she worked.
Max started with the things she remembered the most. Drawing Chrissy was challenging, to say the least. Both psychologically and physically. Max was never the best at drawing, so it proved hard to replicate. Not only that, she was reminded of how terrifying her body looked. Same with Fred's.
If her walkman hadn't started playing, she'd be strung up too.
Next was the grandfather clock. She drew it floating in the air as it chimed eerily. Max would never forget that sound.
Then the broken walls, the staircase, the rose stain-glass door, slimy columns, and objects flew high above her.
An hour must've passed before Nancy and Dustin burst out of the basement door. At first, Max hadn't heard Nancy speaking over the music, but she finally caught a quip. Turning around, she weakly smiled at the two. Nancy and Dustin looked both terrified and relieved. Then, she turned her attention back to drawing.
As Nancy sat beside her, Max removed her headphones. "Hey," she mumbled.
"Hey," she responded. "You okay?"
It occurred to Max that Nancy hadn't seen anything that had happened. "Just couldn't sleep. People kept blasting music in my ears, for some reason."
Nancy chuckled.
"But Holly let me borrow some of her crayons," she continued, beaming at Nancy's younger sister. "We've been having fun, right, Holly?"
"Mhm," the girl replied.
Nancy glanced at the papers. "Is this what you saw last night?" she whispered.
"I mean, it's supposed to be. I thought it'd be easier to draw it out than to explain it, but… not so much."
Nancy pulled on Chrissy and Fred's paper. "Is that…?"
"It was like they were on display or something," Max confirmed. "And then there was this red fog everywhere. It was like a dream. A nightmare."
"Do you think Vecna's just trying to scare you?" Nancy asked as she shook her head.
"With Billy? Yeah. But when I made it here… I dunno; something was different. He seemed surprised, almost," Max said softly. "Like he didn't want me there."
Dustin sat in one of the chairs. "Maybe you infiltrated his mind. "He invaded your mind, right? Is it that big a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his? Like Freddie Krueger's boiler room," he said, his eyes wide.
"Freddie Krueger?" Holly asked.
"He's a super burned-up dude with razors for fingers, and he kills you in your dreams-"
"Dustin, seriously?" Nancy interrupted, glancing at her little sister.
"Sorry. It's just a movie," Dustin told Holly. "It's not real."
"Just… think about it," he continued. "What if you somehow unlocked a backdoor to Vecna's world? Like, maybe the answer we're looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing," he said, picking up one of them. "God, we need Will."
"Yeah, no shit. But I tried them again this morning, and it's the same busy signal."
Nancy examined a picture. "Is this a window?"
"Yeah."
"Stained glass with roses."
"Yeah. See? I'm not so terrible after all," she said to Dustin.
"Yeah, well, it helps that I've seen it before," Nancy told her.
Damnit…
Folding the papers, Nancy took a sharpie and began to connect lines throughout the papers.
"It's pieces of a house…." Max said.
"Not just any house." Max placed the door in the middle. "It's Victor Creel's house," she whispered.
Standing up, she headed out of the room.
"Where you going?" Dustin asked with a mouthful of food.
"Waking the others."
As Max and Dustin followed her, he grabbed a handful of pancakes. "Sorry, fuel for the road. Thanks, Mr. Wheeler!"
Max was forced to explain everything once the group woke up. How Vecna showed her Billy, being chased, his mindscape. Fred and Chrissy. The Creel House.
The worst part was explaining exactly the method Vecna used to kill.
How he'd trap them and place his claw above their heads. The sharp pain. The hope that would fade from the victim.
Max described how she ran away through the blood as she dodged the falling remnants of what was once a house, how she'd jumped through the portal.
The boys shared what they had seen.
The trance was different than the others. Max's eyes were rolled back as her body shivered how her head twitched, and she wasn't responsive in the slightest.
They explained why they played her favorite song. Then they recounted the moment Max began to float. How utterly helpless they were.
Lucas seemed the most shaken by the event.
When they finished, everyone prepared to leave. Max grabbed her bookbag, checking to see if she had everything she needed as the group headed up the staircase. Clothing, tools, flashlights… yep, she had everything.
Suddenly, Lucas pulled her aside.
"You doing better?"
Max nodded. "Tired, but yeah, I'm doing alright."
He sighed. "Just… keep the headphones on at all times, alright… I can't afford to lose you…."
Her heart skipped a beat. "I will."
As the group stepped out of the car, they stopped in front of the old boarded-up house.
"Yeah, that's not creepy at all…." Steve muttered.
"Come on," Nancy said, leading the way.
Walking up the path, Nancy and Steve grabbed two hammers out of Max's bag.
Pulling apart nails, Steve turned to ask, "What exactly are we supposed to be
looking for in this shithole?"
"We're not sure. We just know this house is important to Vecna," Nancy replied.
"Because Max saw it in Vecna's red soup mind world?"
Soup?
"Basically."
"Great."
"Maybe it holds a clue to where Vecna is," Dustin shrugged. "Why he's back. Why he killed the Creels. And how to stop him before he comes back for Max."
"We don't think he's in here, do we?" Lucas asked.
"Guess we'll find out…." Max said.
Steve turned to Nancy. "Ready?"
She nodded. "Mhm."
Moving out of the way, they let the wood fall to the floor with a loud crash.
Behind it stood the rose stained-glass door.
Max's mind flashed back to yesterday.
"Max… What are you doing in here, Max?"
"It's locked," Steve complained, snapping Max to the present. "Should I knock, see if anybody's home?"
"No need," Robin replied, and Max spun to see her holding a brick. "I found a key."
Robin waited for the group to back away. Only then did she throw it. The glass shattered, causing Max to flinch.
Cautiously reaching through the hole, Steve unlocked the door and whistled.
"Looks like someone forgot to pay their electric bill," Lucas commented as Max wandered around.
Max didn't turn around, but she heard Steve ask, "Where'd everyone get those?"
"Do you need to be told everything?" Dustin responded condescendingly. "You're not a child."
"Thank you…"
"Back pocket," he uttered.
The backpack landed hard on the floor.
"They just left everything," Nancy said as she peered inside the living room.
"I guess a triple homicide isn't good for resale value," Robin joked.
Something caught Max's eye, and she froze.
There, right in front of her, resided the grandfather clock; from her visions.
"Hey, guys?" Max called, causing the group to join her. "You all see that, right?"
"Yeah," Steve and Dustin said.
"Is this what you saw?" Nancy questioned, "In your visions?"
Max bobbed her head. She imagined the first time she'd seen the clock, stuck inside the wall.
"I mean, it's… just a clock. Right?" Robin said. "Like a normal old clock." She wiped the dust off its frame.
"Why is this wizard obsessed with clocks?" Steve wondered aloud. "Maybe he's, like, a clockmaker or something?"
Dustin scoffed. "I think you cracked the case, Steve…."
"All I know is the answers are here. Somewhere," Nancy whispered. "Okay, everyone stay in groups of two. Robin, upstairs."
Lucas turned to Max. "Come on. Let's go."
Following him through the house, they entered a small room with couches, a chess set, and a piano. She might've liked it if the place hadn't been so creepy.
Suddenly, the headphones around her neck stopped playing. Max clicked the button to rewind it.
"I wish we had a longer loop," Lucas sighed.
"Forty-six minutes isn't bad. I think there are bigger concerns," she said. "Like… What if, by listening to this over and over, I get sick of it, and suddenly it's not my favorite anymore? Will it still work? Or will Kate Bush, like, lose her magic power or something?
He smiled. "Kate Bush? Never."
"You're a Kate Bush fan?" Max laughed.
"Uh, yeah. Now I am."
"Really?"
"Yeah, mega-fan. She… She saved your life."
Max's grin faded, but Lucas didn't seem to notice her slight discomfort.
"Besides, we're hot on this creep's trail. We're gonna find Vecna and kill him before he even thinks about messing with you again. All right?" Pausing, Lucas walked toward the piano. "In fact, I bet if we hit these suckers in the right combo, we might just open a door to his secret lair."
As he played random keys, discordant notes filled the room.
"Voilà," Lucas laughed.
"You're such a dork. I thought you were, like, one of the cool kids now."
"I'm not cool?" he asked, acting offended. Max couldn't help but giggle.
"I've really missed that."
"Missed what?"
"Your laugh."
Oh. Her heart skipped a beat. She'd forgotten it too. And secretly, Max had missed him too. She really, really missed him and their little talks.
Her tape deck clicked.
"All done," Max whispered. "Work your magic, Kate."
Max was just about to slip them on when the lamp began to flicker. She slowly moved towards it.
"I promise I'm gonna stop asking this, but… you're seeing that, right?"
"Yeah…"
Before Max could touch it, the light faded.
"Look."
Twisting her head, Max witnessed another bulb flicker. Following, it stopped, but so many others started. Flashing in turns. Until finally…
Only one was left.
She and Lucas shared a look.
They called everyone downstairs, and together, the group followed the light into the dining room. There, it stayed in the chandelier.
"It's like the Christmas lights," Nancy said.
"The Christmas lights?" Robin whispered.
"Yeah, when Will was in the Upside Down, the lights… came to life," she whispered back.
"Vecna's here," Lucas responded. "In this house. Just on the other side."
And then, the light turned to darkness.
"I think he just left the room," Robin murmured.
Max turned to Steve. "Did he hear us?'
"Can he see us?" he replied.
"Headphones," Lucas reminded. Max slipped them over her ears.
Nancy looked around. "Wait, wait. Everyone, turn off your flashlights and spread out."
"We're not gonna be able to see if we turn off our flash… lights." Steve wasn't able to get out his sentence before everyone left.
He was right, though. It was close to midnight.
Max and Lucas cubed the stairs to a bedroom when suddenly they heard Robin scream, "I got him!" over and over.
She was in the living room when they found her. "I got him…" she said more quietly.
Robin's flashlight went out. "I had him…" she said sheepishly.
And then…
Steve's flashlight shone brightly. "Oh, woah…"
Before the light could fade, Steve started following Vecna's direction. "Oh, I think he's moving. He's moving. He's moving."
But once they reached the upper staircase, it was gone. "Shit. I lost him."
Max saw differently, though. Through a thin door, a bright light peaked out its cracks.
"No, you didn't." She opened the door.
Ascending the steep stairs, she heard Robin whine, "It's an attic. Of course it's an attic."
"Hold up, guys," Dustin called. "What if he's leading us into a trap?"
No one paid him any attention. "Guys. Guys. Shit, shit, shit, shit…."
There, in the middle of the room, hung a lightbulb. Max had to admit- it was relatively bright.
Dustin's flashlight glowed. "Flashlights."
All at once, their lights started going wild.
"Okay, what's happening," Steve uttered under his breath.
And then.
Steve's exploded. Then Robin's. She squeaked. Nancy's. Lucas's. Dustin's. And Max screamed when it got to hers.
The light above shattered. Max jumped.
Suddenly, a wave of uneasiness spread over her. Something else had just happened. Max just knew it.
"Holy shit!" Dustin and Steve yelled.
"The hell was that?" Lucas cried.
"You guys okay?" Nancy called through the darkness.
"Yeah…" they all replied.
Max didn't, though. A pit formed in her stomach. Vecna had just done something. And deep down, Max knew what had just happened.
Fuck.