𝘿𝙍𝙄𝙁𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 - Max Mayfield

39. Familiar Faces

A snap...

A ticking clock...

A crack...

A hiss...

"I've been expecting you, child..."

__________

He shot out of his bed with a gasp, sitting up as beads of sweat decorated his face. As his breaths slowed down,his right hand ran over his hair as he tried to calm himself. His eyes landed  the bedside clock.

4:13am.

"Another nightmare..."

It was the fourth one in a row. They'd started a few days ago,but he'd thought nothing of the first two. He occasionally had nightmares but they were only regarding his past. This particular one barely had anything he could remember,it always went by in a haze but by now the sounds were burned into his brain.

He remembered feeling fear...

Dread...

Shaking his head,he threw the covers aside and let his feet touch the wooden floor, taking gentle steps out of the bedroom and down the empty hallway. Walking around in only a pair of grey sweatpants,he made his way outside and slid the glass door as quietly as possible.

Once outside, he took a seat on the porch,brown eyes fixed on nothing in particular as the moonlight shone against his tan skin. Even the nocturnal animals seemed to be asleep by this time as the only sound he could hear was the light wind,or as Hinata had put it, "the earth breathing".

He tried to calm himself, to shift his thoughts from what he kept hearing in his sleep. A theory kept gnawing at him but he didn't know how it was possible.

Could that bastard really reach him all the way here?

He once again let out a sigh as a few of his medium sized dreads hung just above his eyebrows.

That couldn't be it.

He'd left all that madness behind...

"You alright?"

He looked up and was met by blond hair and blue eyes.

When did he get there?

"Yeah... Just another nightmare"

Naruto took a seat next to him. "Aiden... Do you want to talk about it?"

The boy gave a small smile. "it's hard to explain something I can't see..."

"Well did you at least hear?" The blond looked at the kid beside him who nodded.

"What was it?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know if it's a nightmare,a warning or a premonition" Aiden tried to explain. "But something horrible is heading to Hawkins..  and I know what it is. But I can't go back  there. There's people who are more than capable of taking care of it..."

"Aiden" Naruto cut his rant short. "it's been half a year, how long till you realise that it wasn't your fault?"

"But it was," Aiden argued. "I could've done something more... I didn't even think that he'd get poisoned-"

A light smack to Aiden's left cheek cut off his usual round of self loathing.

"Ow"

"Sorry" Naruto took his bandaged hand off Aiden's face. "But I had to stop you from falling into your bottomless pit again"

"They're better off without me, Naruto, " Aiden mumbled,eyes on his lap. "I wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place"

"But you did end up there," the seventh Hokage patted his shoulder. "That's what matters. Aiden,I haven't known you for that long,but you've known me for years, meaning you know my ninja way and what I stand for"