brutal ━ mike wheeler

seven. all around the clock

SEVEN━━━━
ALL AROUND THE CLOCK

stranger things;
season 4    ep 3

TICK. TICK. TICK. TICK.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Tick. Tick.

Tick.

The air was suffocating. Adrian was alone now.

It was weird the way Max seemed to just fade out of existence, leaving him alone in this weird vision.

His head pounded as he continued to look at the clock in front of him, the hands of the clock starting to move too quickly for Adrian to even understand.

What. . . was going on?

What was this?

Adrian. . .

He snapped his head in the direction that he heard the menacing voice, his hands shaking as he lifted his flashlight. He swallowed thickly and opted for staying right where he was.

Time is running out.

What?

He turned to look at the clock once more, looking at the hands as the chimes grew louder and more frequent. He screwed his eyes shut as he tried to not freak out, pulling in jagged breathes.

When he opened his eyes again. . .

The wall returned to normal. As if the clock hadn't ever been there in the first place. When Adrian closed his eyes and opened them once more, he found himself back in the office, everyone looking between both him and Max with worry written all over their faces.

Max had been looking at him with an intensity that no one else had.

At that point in time, Robin and Nancy had arrived at the school. Adrian had no idea when they had gotten there, but he found himself too shaken up to even care. He swallowed thickly as he turned to look at Max, and she was already looking at him. "Hello? What was that??" Dustin questioned, flailing his arms out.

"Yeah, you guys just went completely still. Like you were spaced out. Are you okay?" Mike walked toward Adrian, who slowly nodded his head once he realized what the two of them had just seen wasn't real. "Uh—I don't. . . I don't know." Max quickly got up and grabbed her flashlight, walking out into the hallway.

Adrian automatically knew where she was headed, and decided that he needed to see it for himself, too. He had to make sure that the clock really wasn't there.

When the two of them made it down to the end of the hall, his theories were confirmed. The wall had no cracks in it, only a few chips in the white paint from the years of kids throwing shit at it. "I don't understand." Max muttered as she turned and looked up at Adrian.

"Understand what? You guys are freaking us out." Steve told them, looking between the two of them. Adrian turned on his heel as Max continued to look at the wall. "There was a clock. A grandfather clock. It was lodged in this wall."