MARLEY // Max Mayfield

Resurrection

The chatter continued in the living room, cops waltzing in and out of the Wheeler residence, their radios crackling every so often with new information, not information that was of any use to the party but knowledge nonetheless and Marley could only listen to so much of Holly's Pony Drama before she lost what little she had left of her mind. Dustin and Lucas had disappeared to the kitchen somewhere, muttering some excuse about being hungry, Marley didn't follow, she wanted to wait for Max - to be there when the girl was freed from her interrogation, which, annoyingly, was taking a hefty chunk of time. Marley had begun picking at her bandage, eyes trained unblinkingly on the wall across from her.

Holly had at some point found her to talk about her toys, her clueless excitement somewhat refreshing, a break from the horrors that were beyond their walls, held up by a veil between their worlds. Well, it had been for the first twenty minutes, however, as it went on and on, the ponies blurred together, and Marley couldn't tell the difference between Mr Satsuma and Mr Clementine a pair of citrusy ponies.

She closed her eyes and leant her head back against the wall, breathing slowly as she continued to offer Holly some input every now and again, she didn't even realise Holly was gone until she opened her eyes some moments later, realising she had just been muttering to herself for the past twenty minutes.

"Little shit..." Marley muttered with a soft chuckle, shaking her head as she clambered to her feet, she peaked around into the room full of adults, all still arguing and pacing, worried for their children. She couldn't help the pang of resentment that settled deep in her gut and pulled away. Instead, she started to pace in front of the interrogation room, resisting the urge to barge inside and pull Max out of there.

The whereabouts of the boys still evaded her but she couldn't bring herself to leave the door, staring into the wood as if she could see through the grain, or at least willing herself to develop the ability to. Alas, the new power predictably never manifested and she was left to ponder the happenings of the inner room. And though ponder she did, it didn't take much longer after that for the door to open, Callahan and Powell stepping outside with Max on their heel. Marley straightened at once and smiled slightly, Max offering her the same.

"You ok?" Marley asked, approaching her quickly.

"Yeah," Max said and then leaned closer, "these guys are pretty incompetent."

Marley smiled a little wider and nodded, "tell me about it."

They congregated with the rest of the adults and stood off to the side, Marley fixing Max's headphones over her ears quickly, tongue stuck between her teeth as she fumbled with the girl's tape. It was still wound but the officers had taken it out of Max's Walkman for the interrogation, so it needed to be replaced, much to Marley's annoyance. When she clipped the Walkman closed and pressed play, Max tapped her stomach and Marley halted, looking at her in confusion, gaze ultimately following the direction she pointed to find Dustin at the bottom of the stairs, beckoning them closer.

Marley couldn't help her groan of annoyance, ultimately stumbling after him when Max dragged her along, it wasn't as if she could pull away, Marley would absolutely never pull away from Max, it would be a death sentence, either that or she'd be given the silent treatment. They hurried hushedly into Nancy's room where Dustin explained the situation, Marley, however, was too distracted by the sight of Lucas outside and Erica in the middle of climbing out of the bedroom window.

"Steve, Robin, Nancy and Eddie are all trapped in the Upside Down but it's ok because they're going to Eddie's trailer where they can get through the gate that we think is open there," Dustin rushed, Marley tuning in on time to hear most of his explanation.

"What?" And yet she was still confused, entirely bewildered in fact, the new information was so sudden she didn't have time to process it before Dustin shoved her out of the window past Erica. She landed with a thud and let out a groan as she rolled around in the grass. Always the goddamn window.