Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Fifty-Six

Chapter Fifty-Six: False God

No one spoke. No one moved, either. It was like they were all stuck in their own grief all of a sudden. Nothing being able to pull them out.

The connection had been made that Fred and Chrissy experienced their first visions, and then less than a day later were dead. It wasn't comforting to any of the teens.

Because starting now, Annie had possibly one day left. Less than, really.

Steve and Max were tied for being the worst takers of this news. The former was more jittery, shaking his head as if that would ward away all the bad. The latter was silently crying as she thought about what she had heard and seen with Chrissy, and how she'd go through that with Annie.

The one thing connecting them all was the same idea: they were going to do everything they could to stop Vecna from taking Annie.

Nancy went to open her mouth to say something, but a loud squeak caused everyone's heads to snap to the door. There was no immediate follow up noise other than the heavy breathing coming from each person in the office.

Steve looked at them all. "Stay here," he said, his voice scratchy. He gave Annie a pointed look before going to leave the office. Before he was out the door, Steve stopped and picked up a lamp from the corner as his weapon of choice.

It was a few steps later when Dustin looked at the others. "We're following, right?" he asked, his flashlight already being turned back on in his hand.

"Duh," Robin answered.

The ones sitting got to their feet and the group moved to follow Steve, flashlights lit up. Max stayed with Annie toward the back of the group. If the intruder was Vecna or someone related to "him," Max felt it necessary to keep Annie the farthest away.

Annie was just trying to process everything. Learning her death was basically set, with a time and date basically, was making her go nuts. How were they going to stop it? It's not like anyone had any growing ideas. Or anything.

Just some old dude whose family was murdered either by him or by Vecna. And Annie wasn't exactly ready to bet her life on the old dude.

There was another clang, the sound of someone slamming a door open, followed by rapid footsteps. Whoever it was, they were running- sprinting.

Steve geared up to smack the intruder, his grip adjusting and he raised the lamp a bit higher. He was ready to swing.

The person came running around the corner. Steve let out a cry, the person stopped, Dustin and Annie let out screams, and everyone jumped.

"It's me!"

"Lucas?"

"Its... me..."

"Jesus- what's wrong with you Sinclair!"

"I'm sorry!"

"I could've taken you out with this lamp!"

Lucas stood up straight, his hands on his hips as he tried to catch his breath. He apologized a few more times, but still struggled to catch his breath. "I was... I was biking for eight miles... give me one second... shit..."

Max looked at Annie, but found the brunette wasn't paying too much attention to what was happening. Her hand was on her chest, taking in deep breaths, and she was clearly lost in thoughts. Probably of what everyone expected to jump out from that corner.

Thank god it was just Lucas.

"Hey," Max whispered, placing her hand carefully on Annie's shoulder. She didn't jump, just turned to look at her. "You okay?"