••••• "Don't don't you want me? / You know I can't believe it when you say that you don't need me" •••••
"This might be the stupidest thing I've ever gotten myself involved in, but I'm in."
In which Steve Harrington and Kimberly Henderson go from be...
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"It was here, right here," Max said, feeling like a crazy person as she stared at the blank wall. There wasn't even a crack where the ominous clock had been.
"A grandfather clock?" Nancy asked.
Max nodded. It was like she could still hear the ticking in her ears, echoing around her skull. "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 added. "Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy."
"That's not even the bad part," Max said, her voice shaking. She quickly walked to Ms. Kelley's office, signaling for everyone to follow her. "Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Ms. Kelley for help. They both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And 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," Robin muttered.
"Chrissy's headaches started a week ago. Fred's, six days ago. I've been having them for five days," Max explained. Her voice was choked as tears pooled in her blue eyes.
Kim felt like the floor had fallen out from under her feet. There was nothing keeping her from tumbling down, down, down. All she knew in that moment was that she would do anything she could to keep Max safe.
"I don't know how long I have," Max went on. "All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock, so... looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow."
The group's adrenaline kicked in at the sound of a door opening somewhere in the school.
"Stay here," Steve warned, grabbing a lamp and going to investigate.
Kim rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Yeah, well, screw that." She grabbed the stapler off of Ms. Kelley's desk and followed after Steve.
The rest of the group exchanged a look before following Kim. Nobody had ever discussed it, but there was just something about Kim that made people want to follow her. Maybe it was the way she genuinely cared so much about everyone or maybe it was the way her fearlessness inspired them, but there was a silent agreement between the group that they would follow Kim anywhere.
Still leading the group, Steve and Kim shared a glace. It was the first non-hostile interaction between the two of them since their fight the night before. They felt some level of comfort in the fact that whatever they were about to face, armed only with a lamp and a stapler, they were going to do it together. Like they always did.
The sound of running down the next hallway snapped them out of it and set them both on edge again. The whole group screamed as someone came flying around the corner. Kim held the stapler like a gun, shooting off staples in every direction until she realized who it was.
