Time didn't seem to have any meaning for Max; the last thing she remembered was El fighting off Vecna, and the demonic thing had her suffocating as vine-like tentacles tied her to a crumbling brick wall…and the next thing was she was trapped, alone in the same hellish place, but at least she was free now.
Free being she was no longer tied to a wall, but what that meant, she didn't know. She would have felt it made much more sense for her to be tied up, but then she realised why. She wasn't a threat to Vecna. She didn't have any of El's powers - the fact her friend's powers had come back made Max hopeful she could get out of this mess.
Max flinched; the place was so eerie, and despite the storms in the perpetually dark blood-red skies, her footsteps still echoed. She looked around, hoping for some way out of this; she had heard about the Upside Down from Dustin, Lucas (she closed her eyes, wondering how her on and off again boyfriend was coping), and Mike to know there were ways out, but if she could find a portal…
"You're wasting your time," the voice came all of a sudden, making Max jump, and she found herself staring at a young boy wearing a hospital smock and his head was shaven.
"Sorry, what do you mean, I'm wasting my time," Max looked around and found herself surrounded by a small group of kids wearing similar clothes and haircuts. Where had they come from?
"Just that," a girl responded.
"We've tried to find a way out."
"Ever since we got here."
"Where's here?" Max demanded, starting to get a little bit annoyed by the negative waves she was getting, but as she looked at the kids she wondered about their story.
"Ah, I see you've met them," the voice of an older woman said, and Max turned, and gaped as she saw a tall, beautiful blonde-haired woman wearing a beautiful but old-fashioned dress. "Ever since my…son killed them they've tried to escape, but they haven't had any luck."
Max licked her suddenly dry lips. She recognised this woman from her research into Henry and Victor Creel. "Virginia Creel?" She whispered.
Virginia smiled sadly back. "Hello there, Max," she whispered.
"Mummy, is this Max?" Max choked when she saw the small blonde-haired girl step out from the shadows and approach. The girl looked frightened and clung to her mother.
"Yes, Alice," Virginia smiled down at her daughter before she gazed at the children around them.
"You said you've been trying to escape," Max began as she tried to understand what was going on, but also to get some solid answers, "but where are we?"
"We inside his mind. This is his mindscape. Every person has their mindscape, and only a few people can visit or visualise them," one of the kids said.
Max nodded, absently wondering if the 'void' that El and the others had described counted, but decided to find that out later. But before she had the chance to say anything else, another ghost called out.
"Max? Oh my god, Max!"
Max turned and gaped as she saw Chrissy Cunningham seemingly alive and well. The cheerleader was standing next to Patrick. The sight of the boy who had been the closest thing to a big brother to Lucas was reassuring to Max, but it didn't make it any less depressing to remember exactly what the basketball team and the whole of Hawkins had done to her and her friends, to say nothing of Eddie. For fuck's sake, what the hell had the Hawkins police been thinking when they had talked about Eddie and his band delving into the occult?
"Chrissy? Patrick? You're here too," she said lamely.
"Everyone One has killed is taken here," one of the kids said solemnly.
"Okay, who are you kids, and what was One mean?" Max demanded, but then she remembered. "Hold it, One. I remember….Nancy told us she had seen Creel becoming a test subject in the Lab, under Brenner. She saw Brenner tattoo Creel himself. And you….and you kids, you're from the Lab," she finished, mentally kicking herself for not realising the truth earlier.
One of the kids silently showed off his tattoo solemnly.
Max leaned forward to see it.
002.
The other kids showed off their tattoos. Max had seen this all before, thanks to her friendship with El. She had seen the other girls' tattoo in the past, but meeting the kids who were there with her was something she hadn't expected.
"He killed you," she said.
"Murdered," 002 corrected darkly, "with that mistake's fault."
"What mistake?"
"Eleven," he spat back in reply.
Max socked him in the face, hard. "That's my friend you're talking about."
Whether or not 002 would have responded or not, Max would never be sure because extremely quickly, a voice rang out over the harsh horizon.
"We've talked about this; it's not her fault at all. Creel manipulated her. He promised her the one thing she wanted but couldn't get, thanks to Brenner," the name was spat out like poison. "Besides, we must help Jane."
"Jane?" Max stilled and she turned and gasped as she saw two women she had seen before. "It can't be," she whispered, "you two….you can't be here. You're both dead."