Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-One: Bad Blood

Everyone stood in the waiting room, staring at the flashing lights above. If they knew one thing, it was what they meant. Who was near.

Max instinctively looked for Annie and realized she had never come back from the bathroom. "Guys-"

"He's here," Will said, accidentally cutting Max off.

"We've gotta go find Nancy and Johnathan," Mike said, and they started walking towards the elevators.

"And Annie! She went off to find a bathroom forever ago and hasn't come back," Max added on as they started to walked by the front desk.

The nurse stood up and yelled after them. "Hey, hey, hey! Two at a time!" None of them stopped to pay attention to her and she didn't seem to care enough to stop them. When the elevators didn't work, they took the stairs.

It wasn't hard to find where 'he' was when they heard the growling and roars. "Here!" El yelled, and they burst through the door out of the stairwell. In the hallway, they all saw Johnathan using something to try and break the window.

El and them ran over, El forcing Johnathan out of the way. She blew the door off it's hinges and it went flying into the room. They all had to pause and take in the monster before them- nothing like they'd ever imagined. It was even worse.

"Jesus," Mike breathed out.

"What the fuck?" Max asked.

El took hold of the monster, the Mind Flayer, and threw it around while yelling. Into one wall, into the other wall, into the ceiling, then into the floor. It tried to get up and attack the kids, but El used both her hands to get a hold of the monster and nearly screamed as she threw the monster through the window.

Johnathan immediately ran into the room to check on Nancy. Max hurried in, too, letting the others run off to find the Mind Flayer.

"Have you seen Annie?" Max asked. Nancy and Johnathan looked at her in confusion. "Annie! Did you see her at all while you were in here?" she tried again.

They shook their heads and Max let out a huff. She turned around and hurried down the hall.

"Annie! Annie!" She continued to yell the girl's name and begged she'd be okay. "Annie!"

Annie's sobs quieted when she heard the familiar voice yelling down the hall. "Max?" she croaked, unable to make much more noise than that.

But it was enough. The redhead soon came running into the room. "Annie!" She ran up to the girl and quickly crouched down in front of her.

Her hands flew up to the brunette's face and she saw the dried blood coming from her nose and the drying black crap. "Annie oh my god what the hell happened?"

"It was- it was..." Annie tried, but she couldn't stop crying. "H-Holly and- and Meg..." She gestured to the piles of clothes that used to hold the flayed bodies of her friends.

Watching them melt into liquid flesh and slink out of the room was disturbing, then she heard the roars of a bigger monster above her.

Max pieced it all together pretty quick and didn't hesitate to hold Annie in her arms. The girl was covered in blood and black goop, but Max didn't care. What she did care about was the girl in front of her who just lost her best friends in one of the most traumatic ways possible.

Annie held onto Max tightly, her hands making fists in the fabric of Max's shirt. She couldn't stop the tears as they fell, and it felt like Annie would be crying for the rest of her life.