𝗧𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗔𝗚𝗘 𝗥𝗢𝗬𝗔𝗟𝗧𝗬 [steve harrington]

chapter 48

grandfather clock
🎶 labyrinth - taylor swift

Robin had just explained to Dustin she and Nancy's findings, but unfortunately the teens didn't quite have time as they were rushing through the school. "That's great Robin but I don't really have a lot of time right now."

Izzie couldn't hear Robins voice on the other side, her head was in a haze running over every possible way this could go wrong. She heard a rambling assortment of words through her thoughts. Breaking. School. Confidential. Ass. Here. Stat. That was it. The first full sentence wasn't put together until Steve noticed was almost walking into a door and grabbed her by the arm. "Izzie, you ok?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "Why?"

"Because you almost just broke your nose." Steve replied with a worried expression. "Are you feeling alright?" A pit was forming in his stomach at the thought of Izzie being unwell.

"I'm ok— just anxious." Izzie answered.

"Love birds!" Blair hollered. "Speed up!"

Max shoved the stolen key into the whole and the group moved into the office. Max sped over to the cabinet, immediately beginning to flip through the student files in her drawer. Steve and Dustin were muttering to each other about whatever HawkinsGate was. "Holy shit." Max said.

"You found Chrissy's file?" Torie asked.

Blair looked over Max's shoulder. "Not only that, but Fred was seeing Miss Kelly too."

The world become foggy for Blair, she zoned out as she heard her name being called. Not just called, cried out. "Blair! Blair!" Billy's voice cried. She ran out the room, trying to find him, however when she reached the sound of his voice, it wasn't him.

It was his locker, and inside sat an eerie clock that terrified Blair, she ran back into the room as fast as she could, and it was like her soul reunited with her body. Nobody noticed she was out of it.

Her sister, however, noticed was breathing heavily. "Are you okay?" Victorie asked.

Blair nodded. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Izzie questioned. "You look panicked."

"I am panicked." She quipped. "I don't want to be here dealing with this bullshit!"

Izzie was taken aback. "I don't think any of us really want to be here, B."

"Whats wrong with Max?" Victorie asked, noticing she had been sitting in the desk, staring down.

Izzie turned her attention away from Blair. "Max? Are you ok?" She said. They shook her.

"Max wake up!" Dustin said.

She opened her eyes and looked as if she didn't know where she was. "There's a clock, in the wall." Blair's eyes widened as she heard Max say this.

Robin and Nancy ran into the school, meeting up with the rest of the group.

They followed Max down the hall, but there was no clock. "It was here, right here." She said in disbelief.

"A grandfather clock?" Nancy questioned.

"It was so real." Max said. "As soon as I got close to it, it was like, I woke up."

"It was like, she was in a trance or something." Dustin explained. "Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy."

Max turned around to face them. "That's not even the bad part."  She announced mysteriously, walking back into the office.

"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelly for help." She explained. "Uh, they'd both been having headaches, bad headaches that just wouldn't go away. Then the nightmares, trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat— and then they started seeing things. Bad things, from their past. And these visions they just, kept getting worse and worse until eventually, everything ended."

"Vecna's curse." Robin remarked.

"Chrissy's headaches started a week ago. Fred's six days ago." Max paused, swallowing the tears in her eyes. "I've been having them for five days."

Blair tried not to panic as she remembered the headaches she'd been having since she got home, and the nightmares, and what she had just seen. She had thought that being home was just triggering her grief but now she wasn't so sure. She had contemplated saying something, but she considered the fact that it would take away from the efforts to save Max and the fact that she didn't quite know if she wanted to be saved.

"I don't know how long I have." Max said, trying really hard not to cry. "All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision." Everyone stared at her, unsure of what to say. "And I just saw that damn clock, so—" She took a shaky breath. "Looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow."

Everyone's heads quickly turned around as they heard a clang in the distance. "Stay here." Steve said.

Izzie shook her head at at him. "He always thinks saying that is gonna work on me."

Steve rolled his eyes as Izzie followed him, grabbing a letter opener off the desk. Steve grabbed a lamp and went out, making sure Izzie was behind him.

Soon after they went out into the hall, the rest of the group followed behind. They slowed their steps as more clattering was heard. A figure jumped out, startling the group. They all screamed, holding up their makeshift weapons at it. However, when it shrieked a girly shriek right back at them, they realized it was Lucas.

"It's me, it's me." He said breathlessly, looking like he had been running for miles.

"Lucas?" Nancy questioned.

"What is wrong with you Sinclair!" Steve fussed.

"I'm sorry." He said between deep breaths.

"I could have taken you out with this lamp!" Steve yelled like a maniac.

Izzie shook her head. "No he couldn't have."

"Sorry guys. I was— I was biking for eight miles." He panted. "Give me a second, shit. We've got a code red."

"What?" Steve questioned.

Lucas walked up to Dustin. "Dustin, I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy and they've gone totally off the rails." He explained. "They're trying to capture Eddie, and they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger."

"All right, yeah that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason right now." Dustin replied.