Into The Vale of Shadows // Max Mayfield

xv. a mad max

chapter fifteen
a mad max

      SHE HELD THE cup close to her lips, drinking the creamy chocolate drink in it, attentively listening to what Hopper was saying. Raven found herself sat in the dining room once more, seated across Dustin, sharing a seat with the newly arrived Eleven.

     "It's not like it was before." Raven offered her drink to El who gladly took a sip, nodding as she lowly hummed. "It's grown . . . a lot." The man leaned on the kitchen counter, watching the interaction between the two. "And I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."

     "Demo-dogs," Dustin corrected, earning a glare from the man.

     El gave Raven a questioning look, shifting her eyes from Dustin and back at her again. Raven sighed, shaking her head as she once again offered her drink to her, the gesture making the entity within grumble in disapproval.

     "I'm sorry." Hopper gave him an intense stare, having him slightly deep into his seat. "What?"

     "I said uh, demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon dogs, you put them together, it sounds pretty badass—"

     "How is this important right now?" Hopper cuts him off, aggravated by the boy's antics.

     "It's not, I'm sorry," Dustin mumbled his apology, looking down to his hand that were resting on the table.

     "I can do it." Raven turned to El, so fast that her neck might've just snap off, it hurt her also, having her hand touch the back of her neck, massaging it to somehow sooth it.

     "You're not hearing me." El just gave him a challenging look, booth brow raised as if daring him to stop her.

     "I'm hearing you. I can do it."

     "If El's coming, I'll be going too," Raven added, earning the same look Hopper gave El, the one full of authority, commanding her.

     "Even if El can," said Mike, "there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies."

     "I thought that was the whole point?" Max looked away from Raven and El for the first time since the two started sharing a seat, now adverting her gaze to Mike.

     "It is, but if we're really right about this . . . I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayer's army . . ."

     "Wills part of that army," Lucas added.

     "Closing the gate will kill him."

     And for obvious reasons, the lot of them turned to Raven who just looked to be a lost puppy, getting a bit anxious for their stares. "Oh?" Realization dawned within, having her eyes wide. "Oh!"

     "Does that mean she dies too?" Max was the first to ask, "I mean, she does have a piece of the Upside Down."

     "No, I don't think I will," she mumbled nervously, "Will I?"

     I've been having you safe for the rest of the year. I think it's your turn to save the both of us.

     "What?"