Upside Down Love Part 1 & 2

Part 2, Chapter 5: Connections

 Steve ran over to check on us because it'd been too long. I kept trying to shake her awake.

"Girls! Time to giddy up, yeah?" Steve said.

I looked at him and then back at Max.

He looked at Max and saw what was happening but didn't know what to do. "Max? Max. Max. Max! Wake up!"

I started shaking. She wasn't waking up. I looked at Dustin and Lucas and then back at Max. 

"Max, wake up!" Steve yelled. "Max! Wake up! Max!"

"Guys!" Steve and I yelled to Lucas and Dustin.

"Come on, wake up!" Steve said to Max.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Max, you gotta get outta there!" Lucas yelled. "Can you hear me, Max?"

"Max!" Dustin yelled.

"You gotta get outta there!" Lucas yelled again.

Steve grabbed Dustin and yelled. "Call Nancy and Robin! Go get 'em! Call Nancy and Robin! Go!"

Dustin ran over to the car. "Shit!"

"Please, Max!" Lucas said.

Dustin got to the car and grabbed the walkie-talkie and started yelling into it for Nancy and Robin. He got on top of the car to get a better signal and kept yelling. After a couple minutes, he grabbed Max's bag and started getting her Walkman and mixtapes out. He then ran over and dropped them in front of us.

"Guys!" Dustin yelled.

"What is this?" Lucas shouted.

"Her song. What's her favorite song?" Dustin asked.

"But, why? Why?" Lucas asked.

"Robin said if she listens... It's too much to explain right now. What's her favorite song?!" Dustin shouted.

"Lucas, just stop asking questions and find the goddamn song." I said.

Then Lucas started looking for her favorite song while arguing with Dustin. Soon enough, he found it. It was Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush. 

"It's right here! It's right here! Got it!" Lucas yelled as he look the tape out of it's case and handed it to Steve.

Steve then put it into the Walkman and Dustin put the headphones on Max's ears.

"Now!" Dustin yelled and then Steve hit play on the Walkman.

She started floating after a couple of seconds and then my nose started bleeding and my ears started bleeding again. I lost my balance and had to sit down.

"Max!" Lucas shouted as all three of them stood up.

I had to stay on the ground because my legs were too weak to stand. Max was floating like Eddie said Chrissy did when she died. I was shaking. I couldn't believe this was happening. They kept calling her name, hoping she would somehow be able to hear their cries and then come back to us. All of a sudden, I felt a pain in my neck. It felt as if someone had pulled a bone or something out. I yelped in pain but Lucas, Steve, and Dustin didn't notice. I held my neck, hoping the pain would go away. It quickly did. It felt as if the "bone" that was pulled out of my neck regrew. I closed my eyes and saw max running away from someone in a world with red skies. I immediately knew where she was. She was in Vecna's version of the Upside Down in his head. I was confused on why I could feel and see everything Vecna saw and felt until I realized. I was connected to him. I had a flashback. The same flashback that I saw when I saw the machine the Russians were using to open the gate. William ran into the house, looking for Mom, Jonathan, me, anyone really. I came out of my room, wondering why he was yelling and sounded scared. He told me that something was out there. Something that wanted to kill and feed. We ran to the shed and grabbed the only two guns we had. Then we waited for the creature to strike, but it didn't. There was silence. We heard low growling behind us and slowly turned around. The creature was standing over us. He was tall with long arms and no face. Lightning struck and the entire world seemed to be the polar opposite of what it was like in normal-day-light. There were vines everywhere, creatures similar to the creature standing before me, and odd bats flying around in the sky. Everywhere. The creature grabbed me by the throat, choking me. I managed to get out the words to tell William to run. He hesitated but then he ran. The creature took me to who must've been it's master and threw me onto the ground. I was gasping for air. The man that the creature took me to was tall and seemed to have claws for fingers. The man used vines to tie me up against a wall. He asked me if I knew or remembered him. I asked if I should and then looked at him. His skin seemed to be burnt off. I made a joke about it, thinking this whole situation was funny and that I was dreaming. Then the guy lifting one of his hands above my head and I started having a flashback from the year before. I was walking into school and a mouth breather was taunting me, calling me a freak and that I had no chance at acting or becoming anything at life. I ignored them and went on with my day. In my free period, I sat by the football field, because barely anyone went there during their free periods or lunch breaks, and went over my script for the school play; which was going to be my first role in anything. The guy that was bullying me walked up to me with his friends. Said that he was "sorry" and wanted to look over my script. That's when he ripped it and walked away. I tried picking up the pieces of the script that I could get and then stood up. I walked after the guy and yelled his name, and asked him if he wanted to see a real freak. Then he turned around and I tilted my head, quickly, and broke his arm with my mind. He yelled at me, saying I broke his arm, like I didn't already know. He started annoying me so I threw him against the field goal with my powers. Jonathan was watching the whole time because it was his free period too. He ran up to me and grabbed my hand and we ran to a good place to hide because we knew for sure that the guy would tell the police and they would be looking for me everywhere. Then the flashback stopped and I was back into the real world. Steve, Dustin, Lucas, and Max yelling my name, praying to God that I wasn't under the curse yet. I opened my eyes and they sat back in relief.

"You scared me there, Byers." Harrington said.

"Sorry about that." I said.

"Hey, what was that?" Max asked.

I looked at her. I hadn't even noticed that she had escaped from the curse yet.

"Max? Oh my God, Max!" I said as I hugged her. "I was so worried about you!"

"You were worried about me? I was worried about you! I thought after I escaped he immediately put you under the curse." Max said.

"Nope. I'm still conscious." I said.

"Then what was that?" Max asked.

I sighed. "I was in the middle of a flashback."

"Flashback?" Steve said.

"What kind of flashback?" Dustin asked.

"It was a familiar one." I said. "It's the most common flashback that I have. I had the same flashback last year when I saw the machine the Russians were building and I saw the gate. It was of the last time I saw Vecna."

"Wait, so you're telling us that you've met Vecna before and you chose to just stay silent?" Lucas asked.

"I know that you guys are probably angry at me, but I had that flashback for a reason." I said. "I think I'm connected to Vecna."

"You're what to Vecna?!" Dustin shouted.

"I know it sounds hard to believe but hear me out on this, okay?" I said. "When William and I were taken by the Demogorgon, it took me to it's master. At the time, I didn't know who he was but now... I'm pretty sure it was Vecna. Don't worry, I have more proof. Max, while you were in Vecna's trance or curse thingy-ma-jig and he had you tied up to the wall, did you pull out something on his neck?"

Max nodded. "Yeah, how do you know about that? I haven't told anyone."

"Because I felt it." I said, touching the spot where I felt the pain on my neck. "When the Demogorgon's boss, who I am 99% sure is Vecna, was showing me a memory that made me angry and sad, he must've used his powers to connect us, so he could harness my power."

"That explains why you lost your powers." Steve said.

"Yeah, but that's not all." I said smiling. "That means he can't kill me. If he kills me, he's killing himself in the process."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I think that when the Mind Flayer threw me over that ledge, it hurt Vecna, too." I said. "And when Vecna gets hurt, I believe that any power that he takes from people gets returned to the original owner. And the amount of power given back depends on how badly he's hurt. So I think that if we hurt him bad enough, we can not only end the murders, but we can get my powers back."

"It's worth a shot." Steve said.

"It's the only shot we've got." I said. "Let's try and kill this son of a bitch."