LOVE HEARTS- max mayfield

Chapter 5- The Break-in

There was a chill in the air as the group convened on a bench in the same trailer park that Ruby had seen her best friend dead in just over a day ago. The chill was perhaps the cold autumn wind that descended or simply just the feeling that they had been thrust into a problem that they might not make it out alive from.

"You're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it's from the Upside Down?" Nancy asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she tried to take in the information they were giving her.

"Upside Down being... the world that bleeds into ours?" Ruby questioned. Dustin nodded.

"If the shoe fits. Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a curse. Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens, we don't know," he spoke.

"All we know is this is something different. Something new," Max confirmed.

"Doesn't make sense," Nancy shook her head in frustration. The events of the summer were over, the mind flayer was dead. How could their past be back to haunt the, again?

"It's only a theory," Dustin sighed.

"No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense. I mean, why them?" Nancy furrowed her brows again.

"Maybe they were just in the wrong place. They were both at the game," Dustin suggested.

"And near the trailer park," Max nodded, as she began to clock onto an invisible thread.

"We're at the trailer park. Uh, should we maybe not be here?" Steve started to whip his head around wildly looking for monsters in the trees.

"There is something about this place. Fred started acting weird the second we got here," Nancy confirmed.

"Acting weird as in...?" Robin questioned.

"Scared, on edge, upset," Nancy replied. A chill once again passed over the group.

"Max said Chrissy was upset too. Yeah, but not here. She was crying in the bathroom at school," Max nodded. Ruby who had been uncharacteristically silent, blurted out, "What," at hearing Max's words. She hadn't heard of Chrissy being upset in the bathroom and Chrissy told her everything.

"Yeah she came out the stall crying," Max nodded.

"She did tell me that she felt as if she was losing her mind. We sat in the field and she... she seemed terrified. Of not just herself but something else," Ruby muttered, understanding flooding her mind.

"Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right? So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman.." Robin began.

"Vecna," Dustin spat.

"Dunno about you, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone," Steve added.

"Maybe they did. I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office. If you saw a monster, you... you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your..." Max started.

"Your shrink," Robin nodded as the lines of the backstory began to converge.

"Chrissy sees Ms. Kelley every couple of days. They get on really well. If she told anyone that wasn't me, it would be her," Ruby nodded, a slight ache in her chest as she realised that if Chrissy had seen this monster, she hadn't felt the need to tell her best friend.

"C'mon let's get to Kelley's," Steve nodded. The six rushed up from the bench and headed to Steve's car. When Nancy parted from the group, Steve stopped in his tracks.

"Whoa, whoa, Nance. Nance! Where you going?"

"Oh, there's just something I wanna check on first," Nancy spoke suspiciously.