"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
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Chapter Fifty-Eight: Max Vs Steve
(Dear Billy, Pt. 3)
***
Time ticked slowly past in the Wheeler basement.
Alistair, Steve, Cami, Dustin and Lucas sat on the couch, watching Max like a hawk as she finally seemed to finish writing whatever she was writing over at the desk and she had handed to Rowan earlier. When she did, she said, "I know you guys are staring at me."
Alistair cursed himself as they immediately scrambled to do anything else but look at Max—Steve grabbing a ball and tossing it up, Cani pretending to file her nails, Alistair reading the Weekly Watcher article, Lucas and Dustin also pretending to read something—as Steve said, "What, sorry?"
"You said you needed something," Lucas lied.
"Wasn't really looking," Cami denied.
"Just looking vaguely in your direction," Alistair lied as he kept his eyes pinned to the article.
"Just hanging out," Steve lied.
"How do you guys think your eyes boring into the back of my mind is protecting me from Vecna, I don't know," Max informed drily. A beat later, she told them, "You can look at me now."
Immediately they looked up, seeing Max in front of them, holding something that Alistair saw were brown envelopes. His gut twisted, thinking he knew what those were.
"Thank you. Sorry," Dustin apologised.
"Sorry," Steve, Lucas, Alistair and Cami apologised one after the other.
Max seemed to accept the apology, because she handed one of the envelopes to Dustin. "For you."
She handed another to Cami. "For you."
Another to Alistair, gazes catching—the cursed, even though Max had no idea of the death sentence hanging over his head. "For you."
A fourth to Steve. "For you."
And one, finally, to Lucas. "And, um, you."
A second passed, before Max handed three more envelopes to Lucas, saying, "Oh, and, um, give these are for Mike, El and Will. If you can ever get hold of them again."
Alistair frowned—what did Max mean get a hold of them?—but his question was forgotten when Dustin, Lucas, Cami and Steve made to open their envelopes and Max quickly ordered, "Hey, wait what are you doing? No, don't. That's not for now. Don't open it now."
"Don't... okay," Dustin said, as they stopped opening the envelopes.
However, that suspicion had increased in Alistair as Dustin asked, "I'm sorry. What is this?"
