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The disappearance of Max Mayfield

"She doesn't exist" the voice repeated for the umpteenth time, "she is only in your head, your imagination has created her. What do you see, Eleven? Describe what you see in detail."

Max jolted awake, sitting bolt upright in the poor excuse for a bed and breathing hard, tears streaming down her face. She never knew someone could cry so much, thinking that she'd run out of tears far beforehand. If anyone were to ask her, she would say that her nightmare was no worse than her reality right now, in fact she would have to conclude that they were pretty much one and the same thing.

KNOCK KNOCK

Always 2 knocks on the door before they burst in a second later.

"Time to go" the same pervy guard who'd threatened her before said, hoisting her up roughly.

"Alright! I can stand by myself!" she half-yelled defiantly. She hadn't given up yet, she was prepared to fight for as long as it took. She still held hope that everyone would be looking for them, the boys would never let it just go, they'd know it was a trick, Hopper too, he was too suspicious of everything to believe that El would run now, after everything she'd been through to get back to them.

The guard smirked at her before nodding his head towards the door, "come on then, you know the way by now" he said sneering.

"Fucking bastard" she said as she passed him, earning a hard shove to her back which knocked her off her feet. She slid across the well-polished floor a few feet, finding herself staring at a pair of black boots. She gritted her teeth, knowing that to retaliate would earn a far worse punishment, and stayed down trying to calm herself.

"What the fuck" she heard a familiar voice say, a voice that made her sick to her stomach.

'It can't be, it fucking can't be' she thought to herself, squeezing her eyes shut. She felt as her body was dragged to her feet, and, gathering her courage, she slowly opened her eyes, her gaze eventually falling onto the face of someone she never wanted to see here of all places.

"Billy..." she managed to say before being pulled away. She couldn't place the look on his face, a cross between shock and something else.

She was shoved into the observation room as per usual, sitting without her usual protestations due to complete shock. 'Billy...it was Billy...what the fuck...what...why is he here...' She held her head in her hands, momentarily forgetting what she had been brought to witness until she was jabbed in the shoulder and told to look up, meeting El's eyes through the glass.

She had to watch again and again, every time El looked at her, she received an electric shock to her temples followed by the voice repeating the same words again and again, "she doesn't exist" the voice said, "she is only in your head, your imagination has created her. What do you see, Eleven? Describe what you see in detail."

Max was forced to watch as El's memory fought to cut her off, to deny her very existence in order to protect itself.

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

They'd been following the same routine for almost 2 weeks now as far as she could tell. Even though they'd taken her watch, and there were no clocks around the place, she quickly realised she had a day guard and a night guard. Every time night guard was on duty and she was left for a length of time, she assumed a whole day had passed and scratched another line on the wall to mark it. 13 days so far. For 13 days she'd been forced to watch El being tortured. It was her own personal Hell seeing it, torturing Max at the same time. She was disgusted with herself when she realised that she no longer jumped when El screamed in pain; it didn't shock her anymore, she anticipated it, she was becoming numb to it. Max had become subdued, never speaking, not even to annoy her guards. Her only form of defiance and support for El was her refusal to look away. She always made sure that she was looking into El's eyes when she recovered from the shocks, she promised she'd never look away again and she wasn't about to break a promise.

KNOCK KNOCK

The usual courtesy 2 knocks on the door before they burst in a second later. Max rolled her eyes, why do they even bother?

"Time to go" Fuckface Frank said.

Max had mentally nicknames the guards, out of shear boredom if nothing else. There was: 'no-fucks Phil', an orderly so gross that that's what Max assumed he'd had; 'roid-rage Ronald', the red-headed night-guard who looked unfortunately like a certain clown, but one who'd indulged in far too many steroids and was about as stable as a coke can shaken for 3 days solid; her usual guard, Fuckface Frank, whose name she had heard an orderly say; and finally 'fuck you Brenner, if I ever get my hands on a gun I won't hesitate to shoot you in the face and spit on your corpse', admittedly this one needed shortening to something a bit snappier.

She wearily got to her feet, knowing what was going to happen in the next hour or so. Then again later, and again after that. 3 times a day she'd been taken to watch El be tortured, how much more could either of them take?

As they entered the room, Max just stood there and waited, making the guard say his usual line of "sit down." Anything to wind them up. She watched as El was brought in to the other room, as she sat quietly and without resistance on the cold metal reclining chair, as they attached the usual wires to her. Max felt so low, it was finally starting to wear her down to the point where she felt numb to it all and she hated it, hated that she knew they were winning.

The switch was flipped and she knew that, as usual, El could now see into the room. Trying to meet her gaze, she heard the same voice say "what do you see, Eleven? Describe what you see in detail."

Max watched as El's eyes, looking dull and glazed over, searched the room in front of her.

"I see an empty room."

Max's heart dropped. She knew El wasn't lying, she'd looked right through her as if she didn't exist.

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