'Nothing scares me anymore.'
In which Hopper's daughter returns for the summer, but everything goes wrong.
Max Mayfield x fem!oc
season 3 - season 4
completed until season 5
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"It was here. Right here." When they walked in the school, something was wrong with Max. "A grandfather clock?" Lexi asked and Max nodded. "It was so real. And then, when I got closer, suddenly I just...I woke up."
"It was like she was in a trance or something. Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy." Dustin said, sadly. "That's not even the bad part. Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelley for help. Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And then... Then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. Then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. These visions, they just... They kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually... Everything ended."
"Vecna's curse." Robin announced and Lexi thought back to all the moments when Max woke up from a nightmare and Lexi comforted her, or when her nose started bleeding. "Chrissy's headache started a week ago. Fred's, six days ago. I've been having them for five days. I don't know how long I have. All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock, so... looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow."
Lexi shook her head. She refused to let that happen. She watched her feet, until a loud bang was heard. She took Max's hand and interwined their fingers. "Stay here." Steve picked up a lamp and walked out of the room. No one listened to him and followed him.
"It's me!" Someone yelled after they ran to them. Lexi squinted her eyes. "Lucas?" She recognized him. "It's me." He shouted again. "Jesus, what's wrong with you? I could've taken you out with this lamp!"
"Sorry, guys. Sorry. I was... I was biking for eight miles. Give me a second. Shit. We've got a code red. Dustin. I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie, and they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger."
"All right. Yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason now." He looked over at Max.
"Okay, be honest. Uh... You guys understand any of this?" Steve asked and Lexi shook her head. To be honest, she didn't really read any of that. She didn't sleep much and neither has Max, so the two girls spent their most probably last night together. "No."
"Pretty straightforward." Dustin shrugged. "Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve scoffed. "What's confusing to you? So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died, except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor. If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him."
"That's assuming he was cursed, which we don't even know. How can Vecna have existed in the '50s? It doesn't make sense." Steve pointed out. "Far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside Down. She opened a gate to it. The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs."
"Dinosaurs? What are we... But if a gate didn't exist in the '50s, how did Vecna get through?" Steve said. "How's he getting through now?" Dustin added. "And why now? And why then? Just pops out in the '50s, kills one family, and he's like, I'm good. And poof, he just disappears. Just... gone? Only to return 30 years later and start killing random teens? No, I don't buy it. Straightforward, my ass. Honestly, Henderson, a little humility now and then, it wouldn't hurt you."
"Sorry. Any idea what she's writing? Did she sleep?" Dustin asked. "Would you?" Lexi asked and the door opened, revealing Nancy and Robin. "Okay, so... we have a plan." Nancy smiled. "Thanks to Nancy's minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame."
"I'm now Ruth." Nancy revealed. "And I'm Rose." Robin added. "Ruth?" Steve raised his brows as Nancy handed 'her' results. "Nice GPA." Lexi said as she handed it to Dustin. "Thanks. So we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics... To which they said no. But we landed a three o'clock with the director. Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor. Then maybe we can rid Max of this curse."
"About that. We've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh...we got some questions." Steve said. "Lots of questions." Lucas added. "So do we. Hopefully, Victor has the answers." Nancy sighed. "Wait... Wait... Wait a second. Uh...Where's mine?"
Steve chased them to Nancy's room and Lexi sighed. When the two girls left, Steve joined them in the basement and the boys kept staring at Max. "I know you guys are staring at me." This caught Lexi's attention. "What, sorry?"
"You said you needed something?" Dustin asked. "Just hanging out." Steve shrugged. "How you think your eyes boring into the back of my head is protecting me from Vecna, I don't know. You can look at me now." They all watched her. "Thank you. Sorry."
"Sorry." They all apologized and Max sighed. "For you. For you. And, um, you. Oh, and, um, give these to Mike, El, and Will. If you can ever get a hold of them again." She handed them all a letter and Steve and Dustin started opening them, while Lexi just stared at the envelope. "What are you doing? No, don't. That's not for now. Don't open it now."
"Don't... Okay. I'm sorry. What is this?" Steve asked. "It's, um... It's a fail-safe. For after. If things don't work out." She winced a little. "Wait, whoa." Lucas shook his head. "Max, things are gonna work out." Lexi convinced Max, but to be honest, she also tried to convince herself.
"No! No, I don't need you to reassure me and tell me it's all gonna work out. People have been telling me that my entire life and it's almost never true. It's never true. I mean, of course this asshole curses me. Should've seen that one coming."
Lexi winced at her tone. "I don't care, okay? I'm not gonna let that happen." Max looked at the floor to hide the smile. "If we go to East Hawkins, will this reach Pennhurst?" She looked at Dustin. "Of course. Yeah." He nodded. "Why are we talking about East Hawkins? No. No. No! Max, Max. Seriously. Seriously, I'm not joking. I'm not driving you anywhere."
They were walking to Steve's car as the two kept arguing. "If you think I'm going to spend what is likely the last day of my life in the armpit that is Mike Wheeler's basement, you're out of your mind. Either take me where I need to go or tie me down, which is technically kidnapping of a minor. And if I live to see another day, Steve, I swear to God, I will prosecute. Open the door."
"Uh, no." He shook his head and both Max and Lexi tried to open it. "My uncle's a lawyer." He looked at Lexi, who raised her brows as he gave in. "Henderson, that super walkie of yours better reach Pennhurst."
"This better be fast, Mayfield." Steve pulled up in front of Max's house and she got out of the car. "Twenty seconds." She said and walked away. "That thing's got batteries in it, right?" He pointed at the walkie in Dustin's hand. "I'm not even answering that question. Yes, it has batteries."
"Yeah, I got it." He sighed. Lexi watched as Max stomped back to the car. She opened the door and Lexi noticed her tear stained cheeks. "Hey, that was longer than 20 seconds. Hey, whoa, whoa. You all right?"
"I'm fine. Just drive." Lexi knew words couldn't do anything right now, so she just took the redhead's hand in her own and placed her head on her shoulder. "Did something happen?" He kept asking. "Can we please just go?"
