wires, steve harrington

thirty-six.

after meadow, steve, dustin, and max arrived at hawkins high school, robin and nancy finally got back to them. "so, nancy's a genius." robin said. "vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. her shot in the dark was a bullseye."

dustin nodded. "okay, that's totally bonkers, but i can't really talk right now."

"wait, what are you doing?"

"breaking and entering school properly." meadow replied, once again grabbing at the walkie talkie. "retrieving some confidential and extremely personal files of therapy sessions that children had with their trusted counselor. it isn't morally incorrect or illegal at all."

robin was silent for a moment. "can you repeat that?"

"just get your ass over here, stat!" dustin said. "we'll explain everything."

using the keys max had stolen, they unlocked the door to the counselors office. max quickly located chrissy's file, and pulled it out. "holy shit. fred was seeing ms kelley, too." they laid both files out to look for similarities in their noted issues.

"max?" meadow asked when she noticed how tense she was. "are you okay?" she didn't reply, and the older girl put her hands on her shoulders. when she looked down, she noticed that she was seemingly in a trance. "shit shit shit. max, wake up!" she shook her, and her eyes flew open.

after waking up, max insisted that she'd seen a grandfather clock stuck in the wall. "right here." she said, though it had seemingly disappeared. "it was so real. and then, when i got closer, suddenly i just.. i woke up."

"it was like she was in a trance or something." dustin explained to robin and nancy, who had just arrived. "exactly what eddie said happened to chrissy."

max turned around, shaking her head. "that's not even the bad part. fred and chrissy, they both came to ms kelley for help." she said, showing them the files. "they both were having headaches, bad headaches that just wouldn't go away. and then.. then the nightmares. trouble sleeping. they'd wake up in a cold sweat. and then they started seeing things. bad things. from their past. these visions, they just.. they kept on getting worse, and worse, until eventually.. everything ended."

"vecna's curse." meadow said.

"chrissy's headache started a week ago. fred's, six days ago." max looked around at the others. "i've been having them for five days."

meadow's head dropped to her hands. "shit."

"i don't know how long i have," max began, "all i know is that, for fred and chrissy, they both died less than twenty four hours after their first vision. and i just saw that goddamn clock, so-"

"hey, hey." meadow stood up, and max practically fell into her arms. the older girl put a hand on the back of her head, holding her close in a hug. "we're going to find a way to fix this, okay?"

she shook her head. "i'm gonna die tomorrow."

"no, you're not-" the older girl was about to come up with something inspirational or helpful when a distant sound startled the group.

"stay here." steve said, picking up a lamp that he held up as a weapon. of course, no one listened, and everyone almost immediately followed steve into the hallway. the noises got closer and closer, and steve was about to strike whatever it was when lucas rounded the corner screaming. "sinclair!! what is wrong with you?! i could've taken you out with this lamp!"

lucas panted. "sorry, guys. sorry. i was.. i was biking for eight miles. give me a second. shit." he groaned. "we've got a code red."

meadow nodded. "yeah, so do we. what's yours?"