Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Great War

They moved around the house, almost silent. It had been Lucas who said they should take their shoes off- they'd be too noisy with them. Annie was just glad she decided to wear shoes with socks, otherwise it'd be gross.

Her music played loud in her ears, the only sound in the room she was in. In her one had, a lantern with a blue lightbulb to detect Vecna. In her other, a notepad and pencil to talk to the others.

Annie felt like her heart might pound right out of her chest. She has never been a fan of the dark, so this pretty much sucks. Especially knowing that, yes, people she knew were in the house, but so was a monster. One that had access to her mind.

As Annie crept around the attic, Lucas and Max were on the second floor and Erica on the first, all doing the same. They had all parts of the house covered.

Annie came close to a corner, then paused. She felt someone else in the room with her. Turning, very slowly and carefully, she felt her whole body relax at the sight of Erica, Lucas, and Max.

But then it tensed right back up when she read Erica's note in her outstretched hand.

'Found Vecna.'

The group followed their youngest member all the way down to the glowing blue lantern situated in the kitchen. As she got closer, Annie looked down at her own lantern and noticed it's intense glow.

She turned and looked back to the others, and patiently waited for Erica to finish writing her note.

'Phase one?'

They all nodded at her, and she nodded back. A second later, with her shoes back on, Erica was hurrying out of the house to get phase one started. It required her over at the playground with a flashlight to get the Upside Down crew's attention.

Knowing it would be a second before they could do anything more, the other three sat down and started their long wait. They went a couple rooms away, not wanting to stay too close but also knowing they couldn't go far.

With their lanterns sitting on the coffee table, Lucas and Max took the arms of the couches. Annie sat on the couch next to Max, staring at her sock covered toes as Bonnie Tyler continued to serenade her.

Max was right. Annie still wasn't tired of the song. All she did to keep herself entertained was play the scene from the movie over and over in her head. It wasn't the most heroic scene, chicken fighting with tractors, but it made her smile every time. How one character's incompetence managed to get him to victory.

Only because the others didn't know he had no idea what he was doing. They all believed him to be that ballsy. It made Annie wanna be ballsy, too. Maybe that helped her make such a decision, being bait. Who knows.

Annie looked over at Max and Lucas at one point, seeing them 'talking.' She didn't watch the words they wrote back and forth, since it didn't involve her.

If she had, she would've been blushing like mad. Lucas had asked Max if everything was okay, sort of referencing the talk she and Annie had before they came inside the house.

Max said she was, thought for a second longer, then added what they had confessed to each other and how excited she was.

Lucas pointed out that everyone knew they loved each other, it was so obvious in the way they acted with each other. Especially after Annie was curse.

Max shrugged and replied with how she also knew she always loved Annie, she just hadn't put words to it until then. And she liked how Annie led the charge. It made her worries of one-sidedness die down.