Rhiannon // Max Mayfield

13: Hounds of Love

As soon as the car stopped, Max rushed out of the door, making Alex almost fall from the sudden loss of weight beside her. Alex's heart was beating quicker than it should.

"Max! hold on!" Alex called, sliding out from the car too, and jogging up behind the girl. Max turned at the girl's voice.

"Alex, just wait in the car, please." Max pleaded, Alex shook her head.

"I will, promise," She said, standing in front of Max, "I just need you to promise me that you will come running back if you have even the slightest feeling that Vecna is in your mind. What happened at your house was so scary and i know that you pretend you don't care but you don't wanna die, and i... i don't want you to die,"

"Yeah, I promise." Max said, looking up to the girl who seemed to have broken in the past twenty four hours, "Alex, you hear me, i promise."

Alex ignored the tears falling down her face, but she had to let her feelings out, what if Max, by visiting Billy's grave sped up the process and Alex couldn't save her.

"Max, i just really need you to know that, that i really care about you and... and if something happens to you, i might just... go insane or something," she laughed through her tears, "and importantly, I... I think I'm still in love with you and i know it's a really bad time to tell you, with everything going on but I just... you had to know, just in case everything goes to absolute shit and... and.. i can't handle loosing you."

Max walked over to the girl, tears in her own eyes from the girl's confession. Max wrapped her arms around Alex, in a way she had less than ten minutes ago in her yard, just under different circumstances. Max let herself cry onto Alex's shoulder, feeling the girl cry on hers.

"Your not loosing me, never." She said, putting a hand on the girls face, looking into her eyes. "I promise you, we are making through this, together," she said, linking her pinkie with the girl almost to just reassure herself.

"Okay," Alex breathed, fiddling with the cord of her walkman to distract herself, "Max, try to think of happy things if he does come for you, i was just thinking, if he is going for your trauma then, maybe if you just thought happy memories instead then..."

"Yeah, i got it." She said, closing the distance between herself and the girl with pink hair. "If all else goes to shit, think of the light at the end of the tunnel."

Alex couldn't help herself as she leant in, connecting their lips in a short motion. She pulled away after a few seconds, nodding at Max that she could go, "Two minutes, then I'm checking on you alright?"

Max swallowed her tears back, and nodded, "Yeah, two minutes." she said, walking the short incline to her step-brother's grave, looking behind her briefly to see Steve pulling his sister in close, the whole gang sat on the hood of his car.

"Time her, two minutes," Alex said to Dustin, barely above a whisper but the boy still heard it.

Alex could barely sit still for the two minutes, her knee bouncing up and down, her knuckles white and little moon shapes being pressed into her palms from her hand being squeezed tightly. She had been shushed by the others so many times, constantly asking how long was left on the timer.

Not once did her eyes leave the hill Max was sat on.

Alex sighed, looking at Dustin who indicated ten seconds left on the timer. She stood up anyway, "Fuck it, it's been long enough." she said, sliding off the hood and making a move to walk away.