Escaping Her Mind

Chapter Five: The Memories of Maxine Mayfield Part One

The group opens their eyes as the scene in front of them comes into focus. 

"Did she do it?" Dustin questions, looking around. "Did we make it?" He asks with a smile, looking to his friends. 

Eleven stumbles to the side and Steve grabs her arms. "Woah, woah, woah." Steve says as Mike rushes over. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Eleven says, shaking her head as if to clear it. She wipes the blood from her nose and looks at Mike. "I'm fine. Promise." She tells him, forcing a smile onto her face. 

"You tell me the second you aren't fine and we're shutting this down, okay?" Mike tells her and she gives him a nod as Steve lets go of her shoulders. 

Eleven looks at the scene in front of her. "We're here." She states, answering Dustin's question from earlier. 

"Holy shit...it actually worked." Steve breathes, looking around. 

"Uh, where exactly are we?" Robin questions, looking around the area in front of the group. 

"Max's memories." Eleven says. "One of them." She studies the scene in front of her. The group is standing across the street from a house with one car in the driveway. A blur of fiery red hair skates past the group and they watch as a younger version of Max skateboards in the street. 

"Max!" Lucas yells, trying to rush towards her but Eleven grabs his hand.

"No." Eleven tells him, shaking her head slowly. "It's a memory. She can't see us." 

"Well then what's the point in being here?" Lucas questions her. 

"It is connected..." Eleven whispers, looking back at the scene. "We will find her in her memories. All we need to do is watch. And then when we see our Max, we go to her." She says, looking at Lucas. 

Steve and Dustin share a look. By the time they look at Eleven once again, her eyes are back on the scene in front of them. 

The skateboard hits a crack in the road and Memory Max is thrown from the board, thrown to the ground and skinning her knee. Memory Max grabs her knee and cradles it, grinding her teeth together to keep tears in as blood emerges from her skinned knee. 

"Maxine!" A deep voice yells from inside the house. Memory Max's eyes widen and she quickly smears her hand over her bloody knee, trying to get rid of the red coloring. She pushes herself off the ground and stands up just as the door opens and a man -- her stepfather -- walks out. "What the hell are you doing out here?" He asks, pulling a cigar from his mouth. 

"Your asshole of a son didn't want me in the house anymore." Memory Max says, using language that was much too old for her memory age. 

"What did you just say to me?" Memory Neil questions, taking a step onto the sidewalk. Memory Max's eyes widen once again and she takes a step backwards, further into the street. "Get the hell out of the street!" He yells at her. 

"Yessir." Memory Max squeaks her response, rushing onto the curb of the sidewalk, trying to keep as much distance between her stepfather and herself without being in the street. 

"You're going to get run over one day if you keep messing around in the street." Memory Neil tells her, pointing his cigar at her. "And let me tell you, I won't miss you one bit." He says, spitting his words at her. "Now you wait here." He tells her. "Billy!" He yells, turning back to the house. Memory Max sits down on the curb, her skateboard resting next to her.

"What an asshole." Steve mutters, looking towards the house and then at Memory Max on the curb.

"Yeah, for real." Will says before looking at his friends. "Did we know that her stepfather was such an asshole?"