Please stay M.M

Part 10

As I woke up to a pissed off Nancy shaking awake Dustin I realised that I was longer holding Max under my arms.
"She's right there with Sarah" Dustin pointed at me with closed eyes, "a second ago, I swear" he continued noticing max was missing.
"I can't believe I fell asleep" I cursed myself, this was my fault, the three of us ran up the stairs. As we speed walked through the kitchen we saw max sitting at the table with my little cousin Holly colouring in.
"Morning guys" my aunt said, however my eyes zoned out the conversation behind me as I pulled a chair up next to Max.
"Hey" I gently put a hand on her shoulder as Max clicked stop on the milkman taking off the headphones, "hey" we stared into each other eyes for a second, we hadn't really talked since yesterday, however last night after I made sure Dustin was awake for the next 'max watch' I started to fall asleep taking deep breaths of the intoxicating smell of Max Mayfield's shampoo and the soft sound on Kate bush invading my ears. I felt max shift facing me on the couch and whisper, "I love you too" after that I assumed she might have fallen asleep too, but I was wrong.
At the sound of Nancy and Dustin sitting down next to us I looked down at her drawing and let me hand fall back onto Max's chair.
"Sorry if I made you guys worry, I couldn't sleep, someone kept blasting music in my ears for some reason" she paused smiling at her own joke, "but uhh holly lended me some of her crayons, we've been having fun, right Holly?"
"Mm-hmm" holly hummed in response not taking her eyes off the current masterpiece in the making.
"Is this what you saw last night?" Nancy asking point to the drawing. I looked up at max admiring her side profile as she spoke.
"I mean, it's supposed to be. I thought it'd be easier to draw it out that to explain it, but" she pause looking for the right words, "not so much"
"Is that?" Nancys concerned voice spoke as she pointed at a drawing of people tied to a stump like structure.
"It was like they were on display or something, and there was this red fog everywhere," she said gesturing to all of her drawings. "It was like a dream, a nightmare"
"Do you think Vecna's just trying to scare you?"
"With billy? Yeah but when I made it here. I dunno, something was different he seemed surprised, almost like he didn't want me there"
"Maybe you infiltrated his mind." Dustin spoke up, I had honestly forgotten he was there, probably stuffing his face with pancakes, "he invaded your mind, right? Is it that big of a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his?" He paused looking at us, before he had some sort of a realisation, "like Freddie Kruegers broiler room."
"Freddie Krueger?" Holly asked
"He's this super burned-up dude with razors for fingers and he kills you in your dreams"
"Dustin, Seriously?" Nancy and I asked both motioning our heads to the horrified seven year old in front of him.
"Sorry, it's a movie, it's not real" he trailed off realising his mistake. "Just think about it, what if you somehow unlocked a back door to Vecnas world? Like maybe the answer we are looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing." He said picking up one of the pieces of paper, "god we need will"
"Yea no shit, but I've tried them again this morning and it's the same busy signal."
"Is this a window" Nancy asked picking up a different piece of paper than Dustin
"Yeah."
"Stained glass with roses?"
"Yeah see? I'm not so terrible after all" she said pointing to Dustin, I giggled beside her earning myself a slap on the arm from Max.
"Yeah, we'll, it helps that I've seen it before" Nancy began folding and placing the paper.making the shape of a house, drawing the outline.
"It's victor creels house"
"Where you goin?" Dustin asked with his mouth full of more pancakes
"Waking the others" somehow the boy still grabbed more food, from a very unpretentious uncle Ted.

We were now in the car driving to the creek house. I held Max's hand sitting in the back between max and Steve. The car came to a halt in front of a Old overgrown yard that hand a house planted in the middle covered in vines and boarded up. Everyone stood back as Steve and nance pulled out the nails in the board covering the door.
"What exactly are we supposed to be looking for in this shithole?" Steve asked finishing up
"Not sure" Nancy answered, "we just know this house is important to Vecna"
"Because max saw it in Vecnas red soup mind world?"
"Basically"
"Great"
They continued talking I zoned out entirely, until the thud of the board hitting the ground woke me from my mini nap.
"It's locked" Steve said, "should I knock see if anybody's home?"
"No need" I said looking at robin
"I found a key" she continued holding up an old brick.

—time skip—
Max and I had walked off together leaving the three boys to venture together, and Robin and nance had already left to go upstairs.
The Walkman clicked as Max's tape ended, she picked it up to rewind it.
"Hey max can we talk?"
"Sure" she said looking back up at me, we walked over to the piano sitting in the chair, I softly played let it be, " I uhh" I scoffed as myself, "god I don't even know why I'm making this so hard for myself." I stopped playing a turned to look at max in the eyes, her confusion filled eyes. "I heard you, last night. When you thought I was asleep." I said slowly.
"Oh, ummm?"
"I just wanted to know if you meant it?"
I continued to play facing the piano, desperately waiting for her to answer. I had a habit of playing faster when I was nervous, max knew this, so when I started slowly and continuously speeding the song up max grabbed my wrist making me turn to her, she intertwined our fingers, "Sarah" I searched her eyes for any sort of a hint, "I love you" she paused her oceans blue eyes almost drowning my own, "so much, a-and- I I was just so scared to tell you. So sorry for taking so long to let you know, but I do"
"I love you too"
"But, you seriously got to drop it with the Beatles" she giggled
"Oh come on" I groaned, I stopped as the Walkman clicked again
"All done, work your magic Kate"
"She is pretty magical" the soft hum drew our attention the the lights
" I promise I'm gonna stop asking this, but"
"Yea I see it" I reached forward grabbing her and squeezing it to make sure she was still here. As Max's hand almost touched the light it suddenly went out.