𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝𝐲 ⟿ s. harrington

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

LOOKING AT A THE GHOST OF YOU

☀︎

MAX MAYFIELD STOOD IN DISBELIEF AT THE EMPTY HALLWAY BEFORE HER. Where once a grandfather clock had been sitting inside of the school wall had now been empty. It was as if it never existed. She couldn't begin to understand how it could all be in her head when it was so real. The chiming, the haunting pendulum swaying from side to side— she could see it all so easy and yet it stayed locked away somewhere in her mind where Vecna's darkness took hold.

Reunited, the group had gathered around Ms. Kelley's desk as Max continued to recall the trance Vecna had pulled her into. No one had said a word as she laid out two files before the group— Chrissy and Fred. Standing across the desk from Max, Alex's eyes flickered across their personal information, unable to gather a single word. Fred and Chrissy were people and struggled all the same as her. Dead or not, she felt obligated to keep their struggles hidden away. For their last memory of them to be of something so personal, something they wished to hide away felt like a dishonor to their lives. Yet everything bit of misery that Vecna caused them had been far worse than what they feared their last memory to be.

Her eyes caught onto one that lay there unopened. Once tucked away, hidden from others' eyes, her file had found its home back on Ms. Kelley's desk. Throat burning and panicked thoughts, Alex's eyes turned down, afraid that her fears were a reality. Unspoken promises to never cross the line of personal boundaries may have been shattered because she hadn't been there to express her desire to keep those secrets to herself or to share them herself.

"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Ms. Kelley for help. They both were having headaches, bad headaches that just wouldn't go away. And then... then the nightmares." Max's voice cracked as she explained such simple symptoms— all that had occurred to her daily. "Trouble sleeping," she continued, "They'd wake up in a cold sweat. Then they started seeing things. Bad things. These visions, they just... they kept on getting worse and worse until eventually..." Her words came to a pause as she tore her eyes off of the files, looking at all those that stood before her. "Everything ended."

Steve looked down as he listened, trying to understand what this all meant but his mind was elsewhere. Slowly, his eyes traveled over to Alex only to find her looking his way. It was an unspoken understanding that each of them thought of the night they had broken up. Awoken in a cold sweat, blood gushing from her nose was the reason she had disappeared from his life. Steve wished he was able to break her from this curse and save each of them for a life together. To live without her was a dark place he could no longer live in. All he wished was to love her forever and Vecna's curse was just another thing that stood in his way of holding onto that forever.

"Chrissy's headaches started a week ago, Fred's, six days. I've been having them for five days. I don't know how long I have but for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than twenty four hours after their first vision," Max explained. Twenty four hours sounded far away yet it felt as if it was happening all too soon. Just one day more would be all she had to say goodbye and right her wrongs, but that fear of knowing it truly was one day away that she would be erased from this world set a feeling of confused rage, unprepared to die so soon.