Daisies || Max Mayfield

66: Lights

"Uhh." I nodded. "Yeah, that's-that's not good."

She shook her head, walking to inspect it. When she reached out a hand, it blinked off.

"Uhh," I repeated, leaving the room. I was back in the lobby. "Hey, Steve! Robin! Nancy!"

"Daisy look-" Max followed another light, letting the light grow brighter before reaching out and letting it off. 

"What's wrong?!" Steve ran down the stairs, panting. Nancy and Robin followed just as fast, though Robin skipped half the stairs going down. "What happened?"

Dustin and Lucas stood on the landing, halfway up the stairs. "Is everything okay?"

"The light-" Max muttered.

"I saw it too, she's not having another vision," I added.

"What happened?" Steve asked.

"The light, it just." She frowned, pointing at the lamp in front of us. "It just lit up."

"How?" Lucas asked, climbing down the rest of the stairs. "I already checked it, the powers not on."

"I don't know, it was glowing."

"What do you mean glowing?" Nancy questioned.

Robin looked up, staring at the chandelier above us. "Like this?" We all followed her gaze up. The chandelier was pulsing orange and red light, not a single bulb dark.

"It's just like the Christmas lights," Nancy said.

"The Christmas lights?" Robin asked.

"When Will was in the upside down, the lights. They came to life." She explained. 

"Vecna's here," Lucas whispered. "In this house."

"Just on the other side," I added, watching the light. It buzzed slightly and then cut out. "What happened?"

"I think he just left the room." Robin supplied. 

"Did he hear us?" Max held my hand again, her flashlight turned off and tucked in her pocket.

"Can he see us?" Steve asked.

"Headphones." Lucas nodded to Max, who put them on. 

"Wait, wait." Nancy began. "Everyone turn off your flashlights and spread out." I followed her instructions, flipping it off, along with Max's. She held it out, wandering back to the room we'd been in before.

"We're not gonna be able to see if we turn off our flash...lights." Steve gave up arguing, shutting his off and walking away. I walked in a slow circle around the room as everyone scattered in the house, soon being left alone. I do not like being alone, so I found Max and brought her back to the lobby.

"I got him!" Robin shouted at the top of the stairs. "Got it!" Max and I ran, Dustin behind us. He'd been wandering around the kitchen, I think.

"I had him." She continued, staring at the dark flashlight.

"Woah-" Steve held out his light, the light glowing. He followed it past Robin. "Oh, I think he's moving. He's moving!" We chased it all the way to the end of the second-floor hallway, and up a third staircase. Once he hit the landing, the light went out. "Shit. I lost him."

"No, you didn't." Max pushed past him, climbing the rest of the stairs to a closed door. A faint light was glowing from underneath. 

She went first, slowly turning back to glance at me. I shrugged and pocketed my light, following her. 

"I hate attics," I said. 

"It's an attic. Of course, it's an attic." Robin muttered from the back of the line.

"Hold up, guys, what if he's leading us into a trap?" Dustin asked. He was at the very back, stuck by the door. "Guys? Guys!" His footsteps thudded up the stairs after us, as he cursed the entire way.

An old lightbulb was hanging from a cord in the middle of the room. As I got closer, I could hear the pulsating buzzing as the light changed in brightness.

"Flashlights," Dustin said, holding his up. I pulled mine back out. The light turned on when I put it closer to the lightbulb, even though I hadn't flipped the switch. As we formed a circle around it, the flashlights matched the bright and dark patterns of the lightbulb.

"What the hell..." I muttered.

"Okay, what's happening?" Steve whispered. 

The lights grew brighter and brighter, just like the car lights in the cornfield two years ago. Something is going on in the upside down, something big-

The lightbulb smashed first, and then the bulbs in our flashlights. I gasped, almost falling over Max when she shrieked.

"Holy shit!" Steve shouted. 

I fumbled with my flashlight, now useless. "What the fuck happened."

"I can't see anything." Lucas groaned a scraping sound. He must've fallen, and had been standing back up.

"Oh, I have a lighter." I pulled it out of the side pocket on my backpack, lighting it. The shattered glass on the floor reflected all the light as if the floor was covered in a sprinkling of snow.

"Holy shit," Robin said, brushing glass off her jacket.

"We need to leave," Steve announced, tossing his light in the corner of the room. "Right now."

"Why?"

"Because he clearly knows we're here!" He exclaimed, yanking the lighter out of my hand. "Come on, we're leaving."