Hawkins High School was dark when they entered the building. Sadie led the way, one of her father's keys pressed into a closed palm as she and Lucas Sinclair jogged down the lonely hallways to find their friends. Not much had changed since her graduation—not the bulletin boards, the classrooms, or the awful green paint. In the grand scheme of things, not that much time had passed.

"What are they doing here again?" Lucas asked between shallow breaths. They hadn't stopped running since Gareth's house.

"I… told you." Sadie struggled to speak. Cigarettes didn't help, but she had never been a fan of cardio—primarily running. How athletes did it for fun was simply beyond her understanding. It was masochistic. "Max needed to speak with Ms. Kelley to learn more about Chrissy and Fred. The woman refused, so now they're looking through school records. They should be in her office."

"Of course they ar—"

The two of them rounded the corner, and suddenly face to face with someone in the darkness, their steps abruptly stopped. A male figure threatened them with something metal, swinging the solid object in their direction. Lucas and Sadie's screams overpowered the stranger's, and the girl tripped over her feet, falling backward—away from whatever had been waiting for them in the hallway.

"It's me!" Lucas screamed. "It's me!" His reaction forced the young woman to squint a little harder. And, when Sadie understood that Steve Harrington stood above her—holding a lamp—she audibly sighed. Past him, the others had joined in the hallway, and their hesitance faded with the realization that Sadie had found Lucas Sinclair.

"Jesus Christ!" Steve shouted. "What is wrong with you two?" He swung the lamp for emphasis. "I could have taken you out with this thing!"

"What is wrong with you? You knew I was coming!" With Lucas' help, Sadie was back on two feet. She took a slow breath through parted lips. "We've been running for two miles. Give us a goddamn break."

Still winded, Lucas held his side as he approached the group. "There's no time for a break. We have a code red."

"A what?" Steve asked, placing hands on either hip.

Lucas stepped past him. "Dustin… I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy. They've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie. They think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger."

"All right…" Dustin swallowed, his gaze falling to the floor. He nodded, but his lips were unnaturally turned down as he weighed the seriousness of their friend's situation over his own. "That definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason right now." The school records had proved helpful, though not in their endeavors to stop Vecna. Instead, Max had confessed her likeness to both Chrissy and Fred's symptoms in their last few days alive.

Which meant she was next.

Two hours later, Sadie sat on an old recliner in the Wheeler's basement with her knees pulled toward her chest. She held Dustin's radio in one hand and tilted it slightly, catching a glimpse of the fresh scrapes and purple bruising that marked her knuckles. The skin felt raw where it had connected with Jason Carver's jaw. Sadie had been arrested for underage drinking, but physical assault was new. It hurt like hell, but it would heal. She just wanted Jason to know that no one would fuck with her friends without a fight.

Looking up from her wounds, she glared at Steve Harrington. It was unfair—leaving Eddie to possibly fend for himself against those psychopaths while four of them sat here with Max. The redheaded girl needed them, not her. But, Nancy and Robin had taken the other car to Pennhurst Asylum with hopes of speaking to Victor Creel, and like a good babysitter, Steve was to stay behind with his kids. If what they had read was true about Fred and Chrissy, Max didn't have long. So, naturally, Steve, Dustin, and Lucas sat on the old couch, surveilling Max as she furiously scribbled and folded pieces of paper at the desk across the room.

"I know you guys are staring," she muttered with a glance over her shoulder. Caught red-handed, the three of them looked away at once.

"What? We're just hanging out," Steve lied. He leaned back, tossing a baseball into the air as if he had been doing it all along.

"They were staring," Sadie muttered.

"I know they were. How they think their eyes boring into the back of my head is protecting me from Vecna, I don't know…" Max collected several brown envelopes and stood from the desk, approaching the three boys with a sigh. "For you." The first one was offered to Dustin, then Steve, and finally, Lucas. The others, she set on the scuffed coffee table. "Give these to Mike, El, and Will… if you can ever get ahold of them again."

Sadie sat up in the recliner, setting the handheld radio in her lap as she waited for Max to turn to her. "What about me?" she asked. "Do I get one?"

"I'm sorry—what is it?" Dustin asked over her.

She picked at the sleeve of a blue and yellow jacket, her gaze unable to reach them as she considered the meaning of her letters. "It's a fail-safe, for after… if things don't work out." Turning to Sadie, she seemed almost apologetic. "I, uh… I didn't write one for you. Close friends only. Sorry."

Sadie nodded, her dark eyes slow as they searched those striking blue hues. The letters were her way of coping. She was just a kid, forced to accept that at any moment, she faced a gruesome death at the hand of some undead creature. Forced to accept the fact that she might join her stepbrother after suffering the effects of his loss over the last year. Both pain and fear were evident behind the stoic mask she wore for her friends—Sadie could see it. She was a stranger to neither. They may not have been close friends, but Sadie would have done anything to bear some of her burdens.

"Things are going to work out, Max…" she murmured.

"No," Max challenged. "I don't need you to reassure me and tell me that it's all going to work out. People have been telling me that my entire life, and it's almost never true. I mean, of course, this asshole curses me! I should have seen that one coming..." She inhaled, and her jaw gritted to prevent her lower lip from quivering. A brief silence fell over the basement, and Sadie feared the girl would break into a million pieces. But Max made it impossible for them to comfort her, so she said nothing more.

Stepping closer to Sadie, Max motioned to the radio in her lap. "If we go to East Hawkins, will that still reach Pennhurst?"

Each one of them had stilled, afraid to offer the wrong answer. Dustin was the only one brave enough to speak up. It was his radio, after all. "Of course," he said with a nod.

"Wait—why are we talking about East Hawkins?" Naturally, one step behind, Steve looked from Dustin to Max, and realization dawned on him without need for explanation. "No. No!"

Max had turned and was already grabbing for her backpack before Steve could pull himself from the old couch cushions. Sadie jumped ahead of him, following Max up the basement stairs. She didn't know where they were going, but she sure as hell wasn't about to leave her with three clueless boys.

"Max! Seriously… I'm not joking, okay?" Steve ran after them—through the house, out the front door, and down the driveway. "I'm not driving you anywhere!"

"If you think I'm going to spend what is likely the last day of my life in the armpit of what is Mike Wheeler's basement, then you're out of your mind." She kept walking, not once turning back to face Steve. "...so either take me where I want to go or tie me down, which is technically kidnapping of a minor." She approached the BMW. "And if I live to see another day, Steve, I swear to God I will prosecute." She grabbed at the handle to find the car locked.

"Open the door," Sadie told him. "As long as we go with her, what difference does it make? Mike Wheeler's basement isn't going to protect Max from Vecna."

He glared at her—eyes wide with the disbelief that she had sided with Max. "No."

The young woman crossed her arms. "If Max wants to prosecute, I know a good lawyer."

Steve stared at her open-mouthed, his incredulous gaze shifting to Max as he scoffed and reached into his jacket pocket. "Dustin," he said with a shake of the head. "That super walkie of yours better reach Pennhurst."

Max directed Steve to Forest Hills Trailer Park and hurried around her trailer with a handful of letters to give to her mother—not that anyone else would understand why she had written them. She hoped they never had to be opened.

Almost an hour later, Sadie sat crammed between Lucas and Max in the backseat of Harrington's BMW as he took the dirt road leading to Roane Hill Cemetary. She could only assume the last letter was written for someone buried within the small stretch of land. From an outsider's perspective, it seemed she didn't get along with Billy Hargrove when he was alive. But Sadie knew very little about Max and even less about her stepbrother. Whether or not she and Christopher were the best of siblings, she could not imagine what it would have been like to lose him. Not in any way—let alone how Max had lost Billy. How awful it must have been for her to know the truth and never be able to tell his father. Instead, she was forced to live with the guilt and watch the secret tear their family apart.

Eddie had been on her mind since they sat idling in Forest Hills and even more so as they drove in silence. Radio still in her hands, Sadie wished she could return to Rick's boathouse, but Steve assured her they would drop her off after Max delivered her letters. So, she let her head fall back against the stiff upholstery and closed her eyes.

Just as she drifted off, the car came to a slow stop, and Max jumped out. She slammed the door before anyone could object, and Sadie opened just one of her eyes, noting how quickly Lucas Sinclair hurried after her. Stretching out along the backseats, she watched the two converse just beyond the BMW. "What do you think they're talking about?" Sadie asked, looking at Steve through the rearview mirror.

He hesitated, allowing his head to fall against the headrest as he watched the two. "Probably the same thing you and Eddie talked about last night."

"I doubt it," she muttered. "They aren't yelling at each other."

Dustin turned in his seat. "What did you and Eddie talk about last night?"

Sadie sighed. "Nothing that will help us find Vecna—that's for sure." Just as she had settled comfortably and closed her eyes, Lucas opened the car door and collapsed into the seat—and her legs. "Ow! What the hell, Sinclair?" She pulled her legs out from under him and sat upright, reaching for the door handle. "I'm tired of being crammed into this stupid fucking car."

"Yeah, well, contact that lawyer of yours about it," Steve muttered. He watched Sadie settle onto a nearby cement wall through the rearview mirror. He then refocused on Max as she trudged up the hill and sank into the grass, sitting cross-legged at Billy Hargrove's gravestone.

Several minutes passed, and Sadie busied herself by carefully tying blades of grass together. From the pockets of her jeans, she pulled out a fresh pack of cigarettes. Chipped white nails picked at the unopened plastic, and she glanced over at the BMW as an impatient Steve Harrington got out and slammed his door. A cigarette between her lips, Sadie pushed herself to her feet and followed him.

"Where are you going?"

"No," Steve snapped. He turned back, pointing to the car. "Stay put and watch the kids, Lepley. I've had enough of this shit, and she's had long enough. I'm calling it." Turning on his heel, Steve jogged away, leaving Sadie with Dustin and Lucas.

Rolling her eyes, she wandered back to the car as instructed. And, leaning against it, she finally lit her cigarette. "He tends to panic, doesn't he?"

Dustin snorted at that. "You have no idea."

She stuffed the lighter into her pocket and smoked as they watched Steve approach his target. While Sadie expected the girl to argue with him, maybe even hit him, she did not move. The three shifted uncomfortably—a simultaneous, wordless understanding that Max was in danger.

"Something's wrong," Lucas muttered. Leaning against the car, he straightened. No matter what they had been through or faced before could have prepared them for the uncertainty that was Vecna. Fear fell over them like a dark cloud. The feeling kept them rooted there for a moment longer until Steve Harrington finally yelled from atop the hill.

"Guys!" Positioned on his knees, he held her shoulders in either hand and shook, urging the girl to wake. "Max, are you in there?"

Dustin, Lucas, and Sadie tore up the grassy hill toward them, weaving through and jumping over random headstones. Once they were close enough, Sadie collapsed onto her knees beside Steve—her gaze fixed on the redheaded girl who sat cross-legged in the grass. The striking, steely blue part of her eyes had rolled backward, their color replaced by a milky white sheen that signaled she was in a trance. Just as Eddie had described with Chrissy.

Vecna's curse.

Her stomach twisted.

"Max?" Sadie reached for the girl's forearm and pulled, but the limb was unforgiving and stiff. "Max? Can you hear me?" Both hands moved to her face, cradling either side as the boys panicked beside her. "Max? Wake up, Max!" Clouded eyes flickered, and her upper body rocked with the slightest movements, but she did not answer or even acknowledge their presence.

Steve stumbled toward Dustin on his knees and grabbed the boy by his collar. "Call Nancy and Robin! Go! Go get them! Nancy and Robin! Now!"

Dustin nodded, falling backward as Steve released him. Back down the hill he went, spewing curses as he hurried for the car and the radio within it. All the while, Sadie fought with Lucas and Steve to wake Max from her trance. They shook her—pulling and tugging the girl in directions her body refused to contort. They screamed for her and at each other, but nothing seemed to wake her. Sadie's stomach began to twist with fear, her heart thudding faster with each failed attempt. There was no telling how long this would last.

His return brought no logical explanation, yet the boy released several cassette tapes onto the grass between them. Max's Walkman also spilled onto the earth, the headphone wires tangled into a ball. "What is this?" Steve yelled.

"Music! It's music! I can't explain now!" Dustin's screeched. "What's her favorite song? Lucas!"

"Uh—Kate Bush. I-I don't know the name," Lucas pressed both hands to his head before diving into the pile of tapes. They all followed suit, leaving Max to rock on her own gently.

"Which one is it?" Sadie grabbed the Walkman, placing the tangled headphones over Max's ears. "Hurry!"

"I'm trying!" Lucas cried.

"Lucas!"

He reached for the final plastic case and pulled the plastic apart so roughly that Sadie thought it might break. From the case, Lucas pulled out the cassette tape. In what felt like slow motion, he thrust tape in her direction. Sadie slid the tape into the track and smacked it shut, her fingers sliding the volume to its max once as it played. Lips parted, allowing space for panicked breaths to escape until they hitched in her throat. They watched and waited for something to happen.

And what did was absolutely jarring.

Max rose from the grass, crossed legs unraveling as she ascended well above Billy's headstone—hands open at her sides as if she were a puppet on imaginary strings.

Like the others, Sadie fell backward, the color draining from her face with the realization that Vecna had strung their friend out of reach. Her chest heaved with breath, Steve's panic at the car paling compared to the nerves in her chest. Sadie was the first to push herself from the grass. She stood beneath old sneakers, hands moving to her mouth as she screamed.

"Max! Wake up!" The boys scrambled around her, looking equally dumbfounded by the ungodly, unimaginable display. Vecna had pulled Max too far under—stripping them of any power, any knowledge of the Upside Down they thought they possessed. Now, with Max dangling just out of reach, they couldn't even hold their friend in what felt like her last moments. All they could do was yell for her, so they yelled. They screamed and screamed until their throats were hoarse.

"Help!" Desperate cries echoed through the cemetery, with only the lonely souls of the dead left to hear. "Someone help us!" Dread seeped into the cracks of the hope Sadie had for her friend—for them to beat Vecna.

They couldn't do this.

They were just a bunch of kids, and Sadie was prepared to watch the girl meet a gruesome end. She told herself she wouldn't run—she'd be there for Max until the very end because that's just what friends did.

But, Max slipped from the trance—cut from Vecna's invisible strings until she landed in the grass between them. The four crumbled around her, crowding the girl until they realized she was alive. Max gasped for air, her chest heaving as Lucas wrapped her in his arms. The girl trembled and shook in his embrace, tears dripping from the corners of her eyes.

"I thought we lost you…" Lucas' voice was raw, and it cracked when he spoke.

"I'm still… I'm still here," she breathed. "I'm still here."

Sadie reached for Max's hand and squeezed, dark eyes closing as her head fell to Dustin's shoulder. Together, the four sat in the grass, thankful to have each other.

That's what life was really about, wasn't it? Surrounding yourself with the ones you loved—the ones who offered a soft landing in the hardest and darkest of times.