A life less ordinary ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

Save you

Max's mom and stepdad finally left for the weekend, they'd spent an hour packing then another hour laying down the ground rules, leaving contact details, instructions about what to do in an emergency, etc. as per usual, only reserving a few minutes at the end to actually be affectionate and assure Max and Billy that they'd miss them and call soon. As they pulled away Max felt her stomach sink and she practically ran to her room. Billy on the other hand immediately went to the fridge and helped himself to his dad's beer, turning on the tv and settling in for a long session of drinking. Max thought she was safe until the next day at least, but she was wrong.

BANG BANG BANG

"Hey!" she heard Billy's voice, slurring and loud, "open the fucking door Max...no locked fucking doors!"

Max hated it when they went away and left Billy in charge. The first time he'd just shouted and verbally abused her, scaring her enough that she couldn't sleep. But each time they had gone away it had progressed and gotten worse, until eventually he had crossed the line into physical abuse, and even that didn't seem enough for him anymore.

She clutched her comforter to her chest, breathing hard, trying to make no noise. She was deathly afraid of Billy now, old enough to realize what the next line he crossed could be. She listened as Billy muttered to himself, praying that he was drunk enough to just pass out like he had last weekend, giving her a rare respite from his anger issues.

Crash! No such luck. She watched in horror and fear as the frame gave way on her door and he staggered into her room, beer still in hand. "I told you to open the fucking door...now look what you've done! You're gonna pay for this" he slurred, approaching her slowly.

Max was shaking in fear, looking at the state of him she knew, this was a night it could go too far. She knew not to say a word, when she spoke and tried to reason with him it just made him even angrier and the punishment would be worse. Knowing there was nothing she could do but try and protect her body as best she can and try not to think about the pain to come. There was only one thing she would think of during previous beatings, one person that made her happy.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*

The guys were gripped by the story, watching as the crew were barricaded in the medical bay, the automatic guns firing at the Aliens. As they ran out of bullets and the only noise was the beeps of motion sensors where the aliens were in the ceilings, the boys realized there was another noise in the room, El was moaning and talking in her sleep, it looked as if she was having another nightmare. "No...stop...stop it! ...NO!"

They looked at each other looking worried, not sure what to do, this was different to all the other recent nightmares, no tremors for one. "El?" said Mike, shaking her gently. She didn't wake, instead her movements became more pronounced, her words louder. "El" he said more loudly, holding her arm and shaking her hard.

She sat up straight and shoved him off, hard enough that he fell backwards onto the floor. Breathing hard she attempted to focus her mind on the dream. She said one word before scrambling up out of the blanket and running out the front door, not even bothering to close it behind her, "Max."

The guys sat there open mouthed for a few seconds, "what do we do?" asked Dustin.

After a brief pause Will replied "we go to Max's house, get your shoes on, ready in 2 minutes."

"We'll take Nancy's car, she won't mind" stated Mike.

"It's quicker to go through Mirkwood" said Lucas, "that's what El's gonna do."

"I know, but we don't know what's going on, we might need a car" countered Mike. Lucas thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

"Come on guys, let's move it" said Will. They jumped in the car and sped off into the night, not caring about the speed limit.

El, meanwhile, ran. She ran from her house, all the way through Mirkwood, towards Max. She didn't stop once, her lungs were burning, branches had whipped across her arms and face causing multiple scratches and cuts, but she didn't care, all she knew was that Max needed her.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Max was trying to protect her body from the blows that rained down upon her. "I told you, no fucking locked doors!" Billy shouted at her. "You and your whore of a mom fucking ruined us, we were fine before she showed my dad a good time, making us move to this backwater piece of shit town" he said, taking another swig from his beer. Realizing the bottle was finished he threw it at her instead. "Fuck" he said, "I'm gonna get another one...be right back" he sneered at her.

She was too scared to move, knowing if she tried anything how much angrier he would get. She just needed to get through tonight, one more night, I can do it...I...I can't do this anymore... She started crying, she hated to cry, to show such weakness, but she couldn't keep it inside any longer, sobbing loudly, not caring anymore knowing that Billy wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

Hearing Billy stagger up the stairs she knew he needed to stop crying but couldn't, it was too late, he'd heard her from the kitchen "are you fucking crying? Stupid little bitch, I'll give you something to cry about." He grabbed her hair and started dragging her towards their parent's room, throwing her on the bed.

"No...please Billy" she begged.

He just laughed, taking more large gulps of beer. He didn't hear feet taking the steps two at a time, nor the door being opened behind him. But he did feel a force pulling him away from Max and throwing him across the room, he felt his body slam into the wall and slide down to the floor. He was disorientated from the combination of alcohol and where his head hit the wall, looking around and shaking his head his gaze met that of a girl, Max's friend El. She had a look of absolute fury on her face that, despite her size and age, scared him, deep down some primeval part of him knew that she could hurt him, and hurt him badly, but he was too drunk and stubborn to listen.

El had positioned herself between Max and Billy, determined that she wouldn't even have to look at him again. She glanced behind her to check on Max's condition, she could see that Max was still curled up on the bed unable to stop shaking. Unfortunately, it was enough time for Billy to jump to his feet and lunge at her in anger, striking her left temple. She fell hard but was quick to rise, this time Billy started backing up truly afraid of the look on El's face. She raised her hand and Billy found himself being dragged up the wall until his feet were no longer on the ground, she started moving her fingers and he felt his throat tightening, he couldn't breathe and started to panic, clutching at his throat and kicking out, but to no avail. He was saved by an unlikely source.

"El" Max managed to say, "stop."

El looked around for confirmation that she heard right, Max could see her nose was dripping blood, her ears beginning to as well.

"Please El...please stop" she whimpered.

El let her arm drop and Billy followed suit, gasping for air. He looked up at El who gave him a look of pure hatred, "go." He ran out the door, barging past the guys who had witnessed the last few seconds of the incident, and jumped in his truck, racing off as fast as possible down the street.

"Dustin, call Hopper, tell him that Billy is drunk and racing around...and tell him what happened, no surprises, Billy will say what El did" instructed Mike. Dustin nodded and went downstairs, followed by Lucas.

El turned slowly to face Max, visibly drained from using her abilities she was swaying slightly. Max was still in shock from everything that had happened, her emotions and thoughts were all over the place, unstable and irrational. She found an over-riding sense of anger starting to dominate and had no other outlet than the one she would later regret. Looking into El's eyes she shook her head, "you...you promised me..."

El just looked confused, "Max, I..."

"You promised you'd never look, you'd never search...how else would you know?! ...I can't believe you did that...get out" she said, El just stood there shaking her head no. "GET OUT!" Max shouted, making El, and Mike and Will watching their exchange, jump.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*