KAS The Bloody Handed

Death at the Hargroves

Eddie's POV

As they stepped inside the Creels house they could feel the apprehension in the air. Hopper took the lead, with Eddie right behind, then Wayne, Kali and El at the back. He led them straight up into the attic... to find it empty. Shit. Where was he? They looked around the room for any clues that might lead them to Vecna... but there was nothing.
"What do we do now? Just wait for him?" Wayne asked Hopper.
"I suppo— El? What are you doing?" Hopper noticed El in the far corner of the room. She held up her hand in a 'wait' signal. With her other hand, she held it palm outwards towards the wall. They all watched as the black vines started slithering away to reveal the wooden boards behind.
"Oh.. I thought Max was here" El mumbled.
"I am" came a voice from behind. Everyone snapped around to see Max standing at the door.
"Hi El" she beamed. El rushed over and threw herself into Max's arms.
"How long have you been here?" El asked.
"I don't know... feels like forever. I'm trapped here. I can't leave this house. Sometimes he lets me walk around, but most of the time I'm stuck to that wall" she pointed over to where El had manipulated the vines.
"We think that if we kill him, you can come back to your body! Your body is still here Max, but we have a time limit..." El explained.
"Well good luck with that one... he's not here. Like, at all. I'm connected to him somehow... and I can feel him. But a few hours ago it just disappeared completely.. like he's left the Upside Down" Max replied nonchalantly.
"Shit! He's gone to Hawkins! We've got to get back there NOW!" Hopper yelled, very agitated.
They all rushed down the stairs to get back to Hawkins as quickly as they could. One by one they leapt through the front door. El turned around and motioned for Max to follow, but she just stood and smiled sadly.
"I told you El, I can't leave this house. Trust me, I've tried" She said softly, and she showed El what she meant. She tried to step outside of the front door and some kind of energy zapped her straight back in.
"He may not be here, but he still controls everything here" Max explained.
"We'll come back for you, I promise" El sombrely told Max. El really didn't want to leave her, but she knew she had to. Hopper asked Eddie to use his vampire speed to get them back to the gate at the caravan. He had to make two trips. He took Hopper and El first, then went back for Wayne and Kali. They jumped back through the gate and landed in a heap back in Hawkins.

Everything seemed as it was before - it was deadly silent, no creatures running around.. what was Vecna up to? The group headed to the hospital assuming everyone would be there... Hopper went in and came back out rather concerned. He told the guys that Max's body had gone missing, and that her own mother was suspected to have taken her to stop her life support being turned off.. which kind of went against the whole idea of saving her because surely she would've died the minute her mom took out all the tubes? That's what made Hopper suspicious.. and so you all set off to find everyone. Mikes first... that's where they normally are.

Your POV

Will had casually called Mike and Lucas upstairs to tell them his concerns. You, Robin and Steve were called up too on the premise of helping with 'food', leaving Max down in the basement. Will was discussing his worry behind the feelings he had ever since they'd got back to find Max downstairs when there was a loud rapturous knock on the door. Will rushed over to open it and there stood Hopper, Eddie, Kali, El and Wayne.
"What happened?! You're back sooner than expected!" Mike exclaimed, but the clear relief to see El showed on his face.
"Vecna has gone.. he's not in the Upside Down anymore. But Max is... she's stuck there. We need to find Vecna as soon as possible... also, Max's body is missing from the hospital" Hopper stated.
"Wh-what?! Bu-but she can't still be there! She's here! She's downstairs!" Lucas burst out, stumbling on his words.
"Vecna..." Hopper whispered as he charged at the basement door. Everyone followed suit and rushed down into the basement... but it was empty. She was gone again.
"Where is she?!" Yelled Hopper.
"She was right there! We were just talking to her!" Lucas exclaimed.
"I knew it... I just knew it wasn't right..." mumbled Will, "I brought the guys up here to tell them my concerns, I felt like something was off from the minute she turned up here".
"Wait, so Vecna is walking around in Max's body?" Asked Lucas... as if the poor boy hadn't been through enough already.
"What do we do now?" You asked Hopper.
"Well there's already a red alert out for Max... someone will surely see her... did you guys tell her anything? Show her anything?" He replied.
"No... nothing of importance. I knew something was wrong and so I kept disrupting the conversation and making things up" Will puffed out his chest, happy that he'd stuck with his instinct.
"So what happens when we do find her? We can't kill her! What do we do?!" Lucas was in panic mode.
"Hopefully it doesn't come to that... we might just have to restrain her until we figure out what to do" Hopper declared. Luckily, Eddie had brought the power restricting device that he'd used on El last week.. maybe that would work.
"I'm gonna drive around town with El and we're gonna go check in on Max's house. Maybe the other officers missed something. Who knows what that monster is up to" Hopper rubbed his chin... deep in thought. The rest of you were to stay in the basement, block off the door and wait for Hopper to come with news, if there was any.

Hoppers POV

Hopper jumped in his car with El and set off towards Max's house. He kept his eyes peeled for any creatures roaming around town... but there was still not a thing in sight. It worried him deeply- Vecna normally went straight for the kill, it seemed he had changed up his tactics. When they arrived at the house, the door was already open but police tape covered it. There was a clean up crew roaming around the house... making him wonder what had happened.
"What've you found here then?" He inquired to another officer as he approached the front door.
"Hopper, glad you're here... this is not a scene for the young lady to witness..." the officer gestured at El.
"El, go wait in the car please" He asked. El wasn't happy about it but done what she was told. When she was out of earshot the officer told Hopper what they'd found.
"Mrs Hargrove was found in there Hopper... it wasn't a pleasant site. We suspect foul play.. maybe Mr Hargrove as he has all but disappeared too. Maxine's body has not yet been recovered... but, oh my, the scene was unbelievable. It made our officers who found her physically sick" the officer stated.
"How was she found?" Hopper asked sombrely.
"In the same way that the victims of Eddie Munson were found last year... seems like he's come back, or there's a copycat at play. Hopper, she was twisted in ways I never thought a human body could twist. Her eyes were missing... but not cut out, it was like they imploded inside her head..." replied the officer, not finishing his sentence. Oh man. Hopper rubbed the side of head. Vecna in Max's body must've done this to Mrs Hargrove. He could only assume that Mr Hargrove was also out there somewhere... dead.
"Thankyou, I'll keep driving around town to see if I can find them... if they aren't already halfway out of Hawkins" Hopper tipped his hat to the officer and set back off to his car. He explained to El what had happened. She was distraught... if they managed to save Max from the Upside Down then she wouldn't have her mom... she'd already lost Billy. She would be an orphan. Just when they thought her life couldn't get any worse...