Don't You Want Me? ✵ Steve Harrington

Chapter 64

Kim woke up the next morning on the floor of the Wheeler's basement, Eddie's voice coming through the crackling walky talky. "Dustin, can you hear me? Dustin? Earth to Dustin!"
   
The dark haired girl groaned and extended the antenna on the walky talky. "Hey, it's Kim."
   
"Klepto! Hey!" Eddie smiled. "Um, I'm gonna need a food delivery, like, really soon, unless you want me going out into the world."
   
"No, no," Kim shook her head. "Don't do that. Just stay where you are, and we'll be there as soon as we can."
   
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Eddie said quickly. "Listen, um, can you pick me up a six-pack? I know, it's stupid as shit, drinking right now, but a cold beer would really calm my jangled nerves."
   
Kim rolled her eyes, looking around the room to see if anyone else was hearing this shit. Her eyes fell on the couch Max had slept on last night. Empty. "Hey, uh, I'm gonna have to call you back."
   
"No, don't do tha–" he started to protest.
   
Kim ignored him, and shook her little brother awake. "Dustin! Wake up!"
   
"What?" he said groggily.
   
"Aren't you supposed to be on Max watch?"
   
"Yep! Yep, yep, yep," he said, quickly waking up. "Sorry."
   
"Okay, well then where is she?" Kim questioned, pointing at the deserted couch.
   
"She's right there," it took a second for Dustin to realize the couch was empty. "A second ago. I swear, I just dozed off for..." he checked his watch and grimaced. "An hour."
   
"I'm gonna kill you," Kim grumbled, running up the stairs.
   
Dustin stumbled after her, the two of them making their way into the Wheeler's kitchen. They both breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Max sitting at the kitchen table, headphones on and feet still planted firmly on the ground.

"Morning, guys!" Mrs. Wheeler smiled, busy making breakfast while her husband read the paper at the counter. "Everything okay?"
   
"Yeah," Kim nodded. "Yeah, everything's okay."
   
"I think it's so sweet that you guys are sticking together like this," Mrs. Wheeler said.
   
"Try sticking together at a different house for a change," Mr. Wheeler grumbled.
   
Mrs. Wheeler rolled her eyes at her crabby husband. "You know you're welcome here anytime."
   
Kim smiled and nodded before taking a seat next to Max.

"Totally. We're like family," Dustin eyed the large breakfast Mrs. Wheeler had prepared. "May I?"
   
"Absolutely," Mrs. Wheeler singsonged.
   
"Yeah, why not? Take us for all we're worth," Ted added, flipping the page in his newspaper.
   
"Okay," Dustin smiled cheekily as he filled up his plate with pancakes.
   
"Hey," Max said quietly, taking her headphones off.
   
"Hey," Kim smiled at her. "You okay?"
   
"Just couldn't sleep," Max shrugged. "People kept blasting music in my ears, for some reason."
   
Kim chuckled, glad that Max's sense of humor was still intact.
   
"But Holly let me borrow some of her crayons," Max smiled at the youngest Wheeler across the table. "We've been having fun, right, Holly?"
   
The little blonde girl nodded, not looking up from her own drawing.
   
Kim's eyes scanned Max's drawings. "Is this what you saw last night?"
   
"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."
   
Kim's eye caught on one drawing in particular of Chrissy and Fred. "Is that..."
   
"It was like they were on display or something," Max said, suppressing a shiver. "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?" Kim asked.
   
"With Billy? Yeah," Max nodded, thinking back to the vision of her stepbrother and the terrible things he'd said. She gestured to her red drawings before continuing, "But when I made it here, I dunno, something was different. He seemed surprised, almost. Like he didn't want me there."
   
Dustin sat down, his plate piled high with pancakes and syrup. "Maybe you infiltrated his mind. He invaded your mind, right? Is it that big of a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his? Like Freddie Krueger's boiler room."
   
"Freddie Krueger?" Holly asked in confusion.
   
"He's a super burned-up dude with razors for fingers," Dustin excitedly explained. "And he kills you in your sleep!"
   
Seeing the look of terror on Holly's face, Kim punched her brother in the arm. "Dust, seriously?"
   
Dustin looked at Holly's scared expression and then quickly backtracked. "Sorry. It's a movie. It's not real." He turned back to Kim and Max. "Just think about it. 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. God, we need Will."
   
"Yeah, no shit," Max mumbled. "I tried them again this morning and it's the same busy signal."
   
Kim looked at the 'incredibly vague drawing' her brother had just been holding. Something about it looked familiar. "Is this a window?"
   
"Yeah," Max nodded, glad someone got it right.
   
"Stained glass with roses?" Kim asked, just to clarify.
   
"Yeah. See? I'm not so terrible after all."
   
"Yeah, well, it helps that I've seen it before," Kim muttered, looking for anything else she recognized in Max's drawings. She quickly started folding the papers in front of her, not giving her logical brain time to tell her how crazy this was. By the time she was done, the Creel house lay before them, all from parts of Max's drawings.