𝙿𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚎 *𝙻𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚡

*Hope*

*Requests : Here's a request from popqxeen, they asked for a small watching au one shot of Max under Vecna's curse. You will be seeing the upside down in Max's perspective, as they are shouting her name since they see her but she doesn't see them. I hope this makes sense I tried hard to make it what you asked for and I hope it got it right!!

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"Time for you're suffering to end," Vecna told Max, his deep voice echoing against the dark-red walls of the upside down. Well, from what she'd been told she assumed it was the upside down. She hardly even knew what the upside down was let alone what it looked like. That was another thing she could check off her bucket list of things to do before you go to college.

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Things to do before you go to college:

A̶l̶m̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶r̶a̶z̶y̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶d̶i̶m̶e̶n̶s̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶m̶o̶n̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶e̶n̶d̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶s̶u̶f̶f̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶l̶d̶

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His claws stroked against her soft cheek, cutting it open and making her wince. Max shivered, reaching for the crimson liquid now leaking from her cheek. So much for ending her suffering, Vecna was only making her suffer more. Behind her, the grandfather clock continued to tick loudly making Max question how much time she really did have left.

She stepped back, looking around for any way to escape this place. Since she couldn't find one, she attempted to run away in order to make an escape. Though, the one thing she hadn't known was that the upside-down didn't have any exits. That was with the exception of gates but sadly for her, there were none in sight.

Max continued to run, though she hadn't made it very far when Vecna stopped her. He yanked her down to the floor, making her scrape both her knees and hands against the cold ground. Max cried, gripping the slimy floors and scratching to get out. "Lucas!" She sobbed, wanting to go home. Vecna shoved her against a wall, laughing at how stupid she was being.

"Oh Max, they can't hear you." Seeing she was angry, Vecna hushed her with its long and sharp nails covering her mouth. "Don't worry, it'll all be over soon." Max let out a muffled cry preparing herself for the worst. At that moment, Max did believe she was going to die. Just like Vecna had previously said, he was going to end her suffering.  

He could've done it earlier but the time had finally come. Max sniffled, whimpering in his tight grip. Part of her did believe that she deserved to go like this but then the other remembered the good moments. For herself, life wasn't necessarily worth living anymore but it was worth it for the others involved in her life.  

Max braced herself for the impact of Vecna's long claws against her slim throat and when she felt nothing, she slowly opened her squeezed-shut eyes. If she listened closely, Max could hear the faint sound of Running up that hill by Kate Bush begin to play. He still remembered her favourite song after all that time.

Though it wasn't really a good time for this, Max felt her stomach erupt with warmth. Vecna frowned at her reaction and pushed her away, sending her flying to the ground. Max hadn't even hit the ground yet when a gate began to open right in front of her, displaying the scene of people shaking a girl and screaming for her to wake up.

Max soon recognized them, it was merely the shouts of her friends. Lucas, Dustin and Steve. They were shaking a girl, trying everything in their power to get her to wake up. Max looked deeper, trying to figure out who she could conceivably be. Squinting Max noticed it strangely looked a lot like her. Realization hit Max like a ton of bricks.

Soon, she uncovered these weren't ordinary yells, her friends were crying for her to wake up.  She looked back, eyeing Vecna before scrambling to her feet and running away toward the new gate. She ran as fast as her legs could take her, her chest burning as her favourite song rang in her ears. Memories of her life singed in the back of her mind making her regret certain things.

She wished she stayed closer to her friend, keeping certain relationships she had messed up or even ruined. She dodged different obstacles as she was too close to an escape for losing hope now. She questioned herself as she ran, how could she have been such a fool this whole time? He still loved her. This whole time, he still loved her and she hadn't seen it.

She needed to make things right. She needed to get back to him, she needed to get back to all of them. She had friends who loved her, so many friends who loved her. There was still hope for her even when life felt like a dumpster fire. That's why they hadn't given up on her after all that time. The only person who had ended up giving up on her was herself.

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