Escaping Her Mind

Chapter Seven: Memories That Hurt Part Two

There was no possible way Max could ever be ready for what was behind the fourth white door in the hallway. 

She steps onto the scene and finds herself in the cemetery at night. No...no, this wasn't nighttime. She remembers this day. She remembers the fear and panic of this day. Vecna was taking over her mind. 

Memory Max rushes around the dark cemetery. "Lucas!" Memory Max screams, looking around. "Lucas! Dustin! Lucas!" She screams their names ear-splittingly loud. "Lucas, please help! Dustin!" She screeches through gasping tears. But when she turns around, red fog takes over the place. She walks forwards, walking towards the red. 

Memory Max steps through wet blood on the ground as she looks at the scene in front of her. Max follows, also stepping into the wet blood and realizing where they were: Vecna's mind. Though, at the time, her past self had no idea that she had infiltrated Vecna's mind. 

Memory Max continues to walk forwards. Red lightning strikes through the area and thunder rips through, rumbling. Memory Max and Max walk side by side, Max breathing heavily in fear. Though she knew exactly what was going to happen, exactly how this was going to end, this memory was still unnerving. A clock chimes and Max lets out a gasp, knowing exactly what those clock chimes mean. 

"What are you doing in here, Max?" Memory Vecna's voice questions. Memory Max steps on spider eggs and spiders emerge from under her foot. She gasps, stumbling backwards. "Come back to me." Memory Vecna taunts. Memory Max gasps, seeing the broken, mangled, dead bodies of the other victims of Vecna. "How do you like them, Max?" Memory Vecna questions from behind and Memory Max whips around to face him, gasping in fear. "Would you like to join them?" He questions. 

Memory Max turns to make a run for it, sprinting away. But Memory Vecna uses his tentacles that he controls and grabs Memory Max's foot. She falls to the ground hard. "Shit!" She yells. "Shit!" She yells again as she gets pulled backwards.

The tentacles trap Memory Max against the wall, retraining her arms and legs and then pulling her into a choke hold. Memory Max whimpers as Memory Vecna gets closer. 

"Come on...come on..." Max whispers, looking around. She knew that her friends would save her. She knew that she would make it out of here alive. But she was still terrified watching the scene. She just needed to wait for the music...she needed to wait for her walkman and headphones to be put on. She needed to wait for her music to allow her to drown out the world and all the bad things happening right now.  

And suddenly, Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush blasts through the scene. 

A small opening reveals itself within the light, showing a glimpse into reality where her friends are trying to wake her up. 

"They can't help you, Max." Memory Vecna taunts, tightening the choke hold on Memory Max and she gasps in pain. "There's a reason you hide from them." He taunts as music continues to blare. "You...belong here...with me."

"You're not really here." Memory Max chokes out.

"Oh, but I am, Max." Memory Vecna taunts. "I am." And with that, he lifts his hand over her face. Max looks over to the opening where her past body rises into the air and her friends shout her name over and over again, trying to get her back. 

"Come on...come on..." Max whispers, looking from the opening over to Memory Max who was still losing to Memory Vecna. 

In one swift move, Memory Max grabs Memory Vecna's neck, slicing through his tentacle skin. Memory Vecna groans in pain, stumbling away from her and Memory Max falls to the ground. She looks up at the opening.