MELANCHOLY [S.T. B. Hargrove]

51

I slide to my knees beside Max,

"What is it? What's wrong?" I ask Steve.

"She's in that trance. I-I-I don't know what to do!" Steve panics.

I cup Max's face in my hands. Her eyes were white like she was blind.

"Max!" I shout. "Max, honey, wake up!"

"Call Robin and Nancy!" Steve demands Dustin.

"Max!" I cry, wiping the tears from under her eyes.

Her body was stiff. She didn't budge no matter what I did or said.

"Honey, please! Come on," I beg. "Max!"

"What do we do?" Lucas sobs.

I glance at Billy's grave. Max's letter to Billy was still in her hand.

My promise.

Vecna wasn't taking Max before he took me. He'd have to go through me first.

My mind races.

El inside my head. Focus. Past trauma. Vecna's curse.

I stand up sharply and spin around the cemetery. "Hey! Asshole!"

"What are you doing?" Steve asks. "Now isn't the time for you to lose your shit and go mad!"

"You want someone? Come at me!" I urge.

"Racquel!" Steve scolds.

Past trauma. Guilt.

"I killed my friends!" I shout with a broken voice.

I don't look at Steve or Lucas. I could hear Dustin screaming into the radio in the distance.

"I was angry because that son of a bitch touched my sister! I killed him! I put the shit in his veins and watched him die!" I confess into the air.

The clouds rumble above me.

"And I'm the reason they shot up my friends! I got away because they were too busy killing my friends over what I did!"

Things start to get darker.

"And.. And I killed the love of my life!" I sob.

Visions of Billy dying play in my head.

"I didn't tell him the truth. He was out because of me! I killed him because I was selfish for loving him!"

"Rocky!" Lucas' voice goes distant, like an echo.

"You want someone that has fucking guilt, it's me! I'm the problem!"

"Racquel.."

That voice.

I turn around and see that Lucas, Steve, and Max were gone.

Instead, there was a shadow.

"Racquel.." it repeats.

I wave the fog away from my eyes. I was in the ruins of a house.

I squint and see the shadow in full. It was a body strung up. Chrissy.

"Rocky!" Max cries.

"Max!" I shout, scanning the area. 

Were we in here together?

"Rocky!"

I run off in the direction I heard her.

There was a.. thing.. hovering over Max. 

She was pressed against a spike. The thing holds it's hand over her face.

"Vecna!" I shout.

The being doesn't react, only getting closer to Max.