voyager // max mayfield

TWENTY SIX: TRY NOT TO MISS

Since Max and Eve's talk in the bathroom, Eve had been brought out to the little living room, sat on the end of the couch next to Steve, who kept his arm around her as they all began to question the two girls who had been stuck in trances.

"Was it a curse? Did he curse you?" Steve asked Eve quietly as they all looked at her, everyone other than Nancy, who hadn't found it in her to mutter a single word since her meeting with the devil himself.

"I...I don't think so," Eve shakes her head, "he wasn't trying to kill me, or he was and failed... it's all really blurry."

"Well what did you see? It could help us figure it out," Dustin says, making Eve look over to Max, not wanting to discuss what she had seen to a room full of people - doing it to just her was hard enough.

"Her worst memories, like I did," Max said to them all, covering for the girl she could tell was uncomfortable by the question.

"How did you get out without the music?" Lucas asked her then, crossing his arms over his middle.

"I thought of a happy memory," Eve said then, looking down at her hands, "and then Vecna showed up... he wasn't aggressive, and he wasn't trying to hurt me, he was just talking to me..."

"About what?" Steve asked her.

"He said he doubted choosing me, but I hadn't disaappointed him... he was proud of how my powers had progressed," Eve explained to them, confusing them all a little, "he said my act of defiance was over."

"Defiance?" Steve asked her.

"So... you know that I was, am, the mind-flayers cobber? Take a wild guess who chose for me to be that?" Eve asked him.

"Vecna," Dustin realised.

"Yeah," Eve said.

"That makes sense," Nancy realised, looking up at them, "we weren't cursed, Eve, he was showing us both different things at the same time. He was showing you that he needs you as his sidekick, like he's wanted all along... and he showed me..."

Nancy stopped then, looking down as Eve's eyebrows furrowed.

"What did you see, Nance?" Eve asked quietly.

"He showed me things that haven't happened yet," She says quietly, looking at the floor, "the most awful things... I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this... this giant creature with a gaping mouth... and this creature wasn't alone... there were so many monsters. An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighbourhoods... our homes. And then he showed me my mom, and Holly, Mike. And they... they were all..."

Her breath began to shake, a tear falling from her eyes as the room fell completely silent - all worried about what the outcome of the world would be if they didn't act, but also horrified for the girl in front of them who had seen the most traumatic ending.

"Okay..." Steve breathed out, his arm unknowingly going tighter around eyes shoulders, he couldn't imagine seeing what Nancy had seen, especially if it was his sister, "but, he's just trying to scare you, Nance. Right? I mean... it's not real."

"Not yet," Eve argued, "I mean... it's horrible, but it makes sense. Vecna telling me it time to start playing by his rules, then showing Nancy what his plan is, or at least the outcome is... he's ready for the end, and he's not afraid to take us all down with him."