Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Eighty-One

Chapter Eighty-One: I Did Something Bad

Max paced the room, worried out of her mind when her girlfriend started breathing faster and get sweatier. "What the hell is taking them so long," Max muttered.

Lucas was at the window, trying to signal down to Erica, see if she knew anything more than them. Instead, they got a floorboard creak. Both kids paused, trying to locate the sound. They did by hearing someone come into the attic.

Max turned around and felt her face drop at the sight of Jason. "Fucking shit," she whispered to herself, just under her breath.

Lucas turned, too, and went rigid at the sight of Jason. "Jason, you cannot be here right now man." His voice was shaking a bit, worried about what was about to happen.

"What the hell have you two done?" Jason asked, getting too close to Annie.

Max took a step forward. "Stay away from her," Max demanded, keeping her voice low and even.

"Jason, you need to leave," Lucas said slowly.

But Max could see his bloodshot eyes, sings of alcohol and lack of sleep. She knew he was in no place to listen to them or reason. He had one single thought, and Max didn't like what it could be.

"Is this what you did to Chrissy?" he asked. When he started crouching down beside Annie, Max got infuriated. Lucas kept urging him to leave, but Jason completely ignored him, trying to talk to Annie. "Hey, can you hear me?" He waved a hand in front of Annie's face.

Jason's hand started to get too close to touching her. Max took a bigger step forward. "Do not touch her," she said, her voice getting a little louder now.

Lucas had enough. Rushing forward, Lucas said, "We're not kidding around man, get the hell out-"

Jason stood immediately. "Back up! Back up!" he shouted, pulling a gun from his jacket pocket, aiming it at Lucas. "Not another step."

"Shit," Max breathed, her hands going up without a second thought.

Lucas had his hands out, too, as if taming a wild animal. He pretty much was trying to. "Wait... wait... we... we don't have to do this," Lucas pleaded, his voice shaking. "We don't have to do this, man."

"I hope you're right." Jason's voice was hard and cold. "Is there anyone else in the house?" he then asked. "Besides you two."

Max shook her head. "No, no."

"Turn around." Max's heart plummeted to her stomach.

It seemed Lucas's did, too. "Wh- what?" he asked, fear coming out.

"I said turn around!" Jason yelled. "And put down your flashlight!"

"Okay! Okay," Lucas muttered, along with some more words. He bent down carefully and set the flashlight down.

"Empty your pockets," Jason instructed. When Lucas wasn't moving fast enough for his liking, he yelled the instruction again and got Lucas moving faster.

Max had tears spring to her eyes, but she didn't dare say anything to him.

"Okay," Jason said, his voice not as loud this time. "Now here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna back away to the top of the stairs there. Then I'll watch as you wake her up from whatever the hell this is."

Again, Max's heart fell further down. She could barely hear voices over the blood rushing in her ears. "We can't," she said, her voice breaking over the words. Jason looked over at her, jerking slightly, as if he wanted to move the gun to a new target, but it stayed put.

"Jason," Lucas said, trying to be gentle. He slowly turned as he spoke. "If we wake her too soon, we all die."

It didn't work. "No," Jason whispered. "You wake her up right now, or you die, Sinclair." He clicked the safety off. "Just you."

Max was shaking her head, freaking out heavily. "Wait!" she cried, and everything seemed to freeze. Jason's eyes moved to her, as well as Lucas's.

She took a deep breath. "We call him Vecna," she started. "He lives in another dimension. That's why you can't see him."

"And Eddie Munson and his... his Hellfire Acolytes... what, you all summon this Vecna?" Jason asked, taking some slow steps closer to Max, going around the table set up that Annie was still seated in front of.

Max shook her head. "No, no, no- just listen! There is no cult. There never was!"

"Am I supposed to believe that?" Jason asked, taking a glance around the room as if it was his proof.

"It's a stupid nerd club!" Max yelled, exasperated. "Where they play this stupid board game that only nerds understand!"

"It's the truth!" Lucas added on, taking some of Jason's focus back.

"Then why was Chrissy at Eddie's trailer?" he then asked.

Max sighed. "She was buying drugs!"

"LIAR!" Jason swung his arms around and had the gun pointed at Max now. She gasped and felt herself start to shake.

"Okay!" Lucas yelled loud enough to get Jason refocused on him. "Okay... Chrissy... she was seeing things. Terrible things. Things Vecna forced her to see. She was scared. She just needed help."

Jason was shaking his head. "No, see that's where I know you're lying. If Chrissy were scared... if- if Chrissy wanted help, she would've come to me! Not Eddie! Not that freak! Never!"

"You're wrong about Eddie," Lucas said, voice low but steady. Max could see him shifting. He was getting ready to move.

"No," Jason breathed, a hint of humor in it. Then he got serious again. "But I was wrong about you. I never should've let you in the door." The words were knives, intended to be buried deep.

Lucas took in a deep breath and shook his head slowly. "And I never should have knocked." Suddenly, there was a shift between the two. Jason was getting fidgety when he noticed Lucas not being so scared anymore.

"I thought I wanted to be like you. Popular. Normal. But it turns out, normal's just a raging psychopath."

Jason adjusted the grip he had on the gun. "You have five seconds to wake her up," he said. When Lucas didn't move, he starting counting. "Four." Still nothing. "Three."

With a cry, Lucas ducked down and charged for Jason. Jason fired a second too late, missing Lucas and hitting a wall near Max, causing her to gasp and drop to the floor with her hands over her head.

When she looked back up, Lucas had managed to knock the gun from Jason's hand, and they were trading punches. Max's current plan was to stay out of the way.

It changed, though, when Lucas was thrown into and over the table with Annie's Walkman. Her golden ticket away from Vecna. And then Jason stepped over the table and directly onto the device.

"No!" Max cried, hurrying over to Annie.

Jason started to move towards her, but Lucas took all of his attention again, and they fought in the background.

"Oh shit, oh god, Annie I'm so sorry, shit," Max muttered, grabbing the pieces of the Walkman set. They didn't have any backups. This was it. "Shit, shit, shit, shit."

Max looked at Annie, who was still breathing heavy and had a light sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"Please be okay."

A/n: It's hard, because the stuff I need for one chapter is split up between scenes I need for another chapter, but I really love doing it this way. Makes it more fun >:)