"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
All she knew after Steve dropped her and Alistair off and they got inside and separated into their bedrooms was that she had to talk to Victor. She knew he was traumatised, knew he was depressed and riddled with guilt over his family, but she needed to talk to him, to tell her how he survived Vecna's curse, and use that to save Max's life. She needed to know because...
Because she couldn't lose Max to Vecna, not after Chrissy. She couldn't have Vecna kill someone else she loved. She couldn't.
But amid the clawing fear, the desperate determination to save Max's life, anger burned in Rowan. Vecna was going after Max. The motherfucker was going after someone else she loved, after he'd cursed and murdered Chrissy. Even the thought of Vecna choosing Max as his next victim made Rowan's blood boil with tempestuous fury, had storms of wrath crackle in her bones and and thunder in her heartbeat. If her urge to murder Vecna painfully and slowly had been intense after she found Chrissy's body and knew somewhat who and what had killed her, it had only increased.
Vecna better be counting his fucking days. Because when Max survived, Rowan was coming for him.
With that thought in mind, Rowan sat on her bed, after taking off her boots, jacket, bra and jeans. She laid down, forcing her eyes to close and her mind to calm with her now-familiar mantra ringing through her mind, now with a new addition, soothing her into sleep.
We're going to find Vecna. We're going to prove Eddie's innocence and clear his name. We're going to save Max. I'm going to get revenge and justice for Chrissy and Max. I'm not going to lose Max or anyone else.
I'm not going to lose anyone else.
***
Rowan woke up with a gasp and screams in her ears.
Whirling around, her eyes widened when she saw walls stained red with blood, lights flickering haphazardly overhead.
She was back in Hawkins Lab. Back to that horrible, terrifying night.
The Demodogs prowling the halls. Bodies lying torn apart. Blood painting the lab in gruesome shades of crimson. Bob.
Rowan squeezed her eyes shut, wanting to be anywhere but here, not wanting to see the face of one of the people she failed to save, not wanting to hear those screams.
Wait. Screams.
She didn't hear screams on that night. The only scream she heard was Joyce's.
