Rhiannon // Max Mayfield

7: Steve's a babysitter?

Steve found her quickly, sat against a tree and breathing shallowly as she held her sweatshirt to her side, the white fabric now scarlet all over. He dropped to his knees beside her, "Alex!" She opened her eyes to face him and forced a smile.

"Shit," He said, pulling the sweatshirt off her side to expose the large open wound left by the Demogorgon creature. She moved slightly so he could see the full extent, including a long scratch down her neck that was rapidly loosing blood.

It didn't take a genius to know that it was bad, it looked like the creature had ripped some of her flesh out before Alex killed it. The scratch on her neck wasn't as deep but it was long, running from behind her ear down and around to her collarbone.

Steve grabbed a spare shirt from his backpack and used his hands to tear it into uneven strands, he stretched the material across her chest and ties either end tightly even if it made her wince, the more pressure the better. He repeated this all the way down her chest, the bleeding slowing down greatly thanks to Steve's quick thinking.

he wasn't sure what to do about her neck so he just instructed her to keep holding the balled up sweatshirt to it.

"Do you have any clothes in your bag? you'll be really cold without your sweater." Steve asks rapidly, grabbing the girls bag. Not wanting her to catch a cold onto of everything.

"Mike's sweater should be in there." she said quietly, her voice rough from all the screaming. Steve grabbed it from the bag and helped the girl put it one, half sure that her arm was damaged in some way.

"What happened to her?" Dustin asks, finally caught up. He didn't hear what actually happened because his walkie was stolen by Steve as soon as he heard his sisters name.

"Dart and his friends found her, she killed a bunch of them though, most of the pack ran off before she attacked" Steve explained, helping Alex to stand and shoving her backpack in his own. He slung an arm around her shoulder and helped her walk down to the junkyard where him and Dustin were planning a trap.

By now Alex could stand, the bleeding had mostly stopped she just felt light headed and uneasy. 

Lucas shouted something from around the corner, she recognised his voice but couldn't make out what he was saying. Max was with him as well, she could tell her by her hair.

Alex put her head in her hands, her ears were ringing, like someone was screaming down her ear relentlessly and it was like she saw double of everything, her eyes not being able to focus on one point before it bounced to the next. That's definitely not normal. Maybe she was just passing out from blood loss? yeah, that seemed logical.

Steve ran over and slung an arm around her shoulder, directing her to the bus where they should theoretically be safe. He had drawn a ring around it with gasoline and him, Max and Lucas had patched up the bus's tears and holes.

She sat down, barley being able to focus. Steve was speaking, she wasn't sure who to, or what he was saying but she pretended to be listening and that all she could hear was ringing in her head. Her chest had stopped bleeding but her neck hadn't, the blood was coming out slower though, thick and gloopy, it was smeared down Mike's jumper that she stole.

Someone sat down beside her, Alex knew it was Max, she willed the ringing to quiet down and tried to focus on Max's words. "Alex, look at me, are you alright, Steve just explained what happened to you?" she asked, or at least that What Alex thinks she asked.

"Yeah... No, uh I'll be fine though, i just need to recharge, took a lot of energy to fight the dog things off after just freeing Hopper," She explained, not even realising Max had no idea about her powers, no-one with her does except Steve but that was obvious.

Suddenly her chest felt all tight again, like it did when the soldiers were burning the upside down, were they doing that again. Her breathing was becoming unsteady, one step closer and she would be hyperventilating. It all came at her at once, the ringing returning and all of Alex's energy burning out.

She slumped her head on Max's shoulder, not being able to support it, all of her muscles giving out in one. Max shook her shoulder but alex couldn't respond, in too much pain to even register the other girls words. She opened her mouth and blood just dribbled out. Then everything went black.

 It was only when she was woken up by Max slapping her that she regained consciousness.

"Fuck, Alex wake up!" She said, pulling her hand back and smacking it across the blonde girls cheek. It must have worked because she gasped, as if being underwater and looked at Max then calmed down.

"Shit, how long was i out?" she asked, panicked.

Max looked at her watch, "Uh.. about 7 minutes?" she said at a guess, Alex left out a sigh of relief. "your brother is out there distracting them, you might wanna watch," She said, Alex sprung to her feet and watched Steve take on one of the dog with his nailed bat from last year.

Out of fear she grabbed Max's hand, both girls blushed when they realised but neither complained or let go. Alex turned away from outside, checking the bus, Lucas and Dustin were huddled at the back, looking at the two girls linked hands jealously.

But then Dustin let out a half scream, noticing the dog thing prowling around the top of the ladder, one step away from killing them. Alex closed her eyes, concentrating on the dog and then twisted her hand, she heard the dog wailing and knew it worked, then reached her sleeve up to wipe her nose before anyone noticed she had something to do with that.

The three other kids looked up in fascination and horror as the dog fell though the hatch of the bus and onto the floor, convulsing in pain as it slowly burned. 

Alex has no idea how much time had passed, Her and max huddled at one end of the bus, hands clasped together and Lucas and Dustin at the other end. There was a constant stream of noise from outside, occasionally a battle cry from Steve before the wail of a Demogorgon dog. But then everything fell silent and the door creaked open, Alex readied herself incase it was a dog. It was just Steve, he flopped in the empty seat and exhaled loudly, "Fuck"

The kids all scooted out of their hiding places and onto the actual seat, neither girl letting go of the other. 

"Is everyone alright?" Steve asked, scanning over all the kids, especially concerned for Alex. They all nodded, Lucas and Dustin jumping to their feet to help Steve double check the area was clear and try to figure out where all the dogs went to.

"You okay?" Max asked Alex, offering her a hand to stand up. Alex nodded,

"I think so, i mean I'm not bleeding anymore, at least not much and i have full hearing back." she said, actually grateful about the last part. She grabbed Max's extended hand and stood up, only inches away from the redhead. Max breathed onto her face, Alex couldn't resist the urge and leant forward, connecting her lips to Max's for a few seconds.

She jumped back in horror of what she just did, it was wrong, god her parents would murder her if they found out. Max seemed to have other ideas though, grabbing Alex's hand and pulling her closer, this time kissing her, slinging her arm around the good side of Alex's neck.

Max pulled away grinning, Alex was as well. This couldn't be real surely.