Life hasn't been the same for the Blackwood family since their eldest daughter learned the truth, but while in Hawkins, Indiana, life is never normal. The town is said to be cursed, a rumor that is spreading rampant amongst the neighbors. The four b...
The time to go back to school comes crashing down amongst the students of Hawkins like a wave, a tsunami they cannot outrun. The cold and bleak weather still looms about as their second semester of the school year begins and brings them back to their studies. While some just focus on the day to day and get their homework done, some put in the extra effort, for the time the submit college applications is just around the corner.
And everything seems... normal.
Far too normal.
The month of January in the year 1986 has brought nothing new to the table. No new threats plague the town of Hawkins.
All seems fine.
The Hellfire Club has finished a campaign and is working on their next, but in the meantime have had a group photo taken for the school yearbook, of which Eddie made Lily partake it. She refused, saying she wasn't really a member, and he argued, and of course he won.
The King and Queen of Hellfire posed for their photo along with the younger members and Eddie's bandmates, being the only other time Lily has been in the same room as Nancy Wheeler for quite some time.
Their awkward eye contact went on for some time, until Dustin ultimately ended up dragging Lily out to watch Lucas during practice.
The basketball team seems to have opened up their arms to the Sinclair boy, but with that comes trouble. Everybody knows that the basketball boys aren't exactly saints, and their indoctrination seems to be getting through to Lucas. Small, minor habits that only Lily seems to have picked up on.
And Max. Oh, poor Max.
Whatever remnants of Lily's spell have long left the Mayfield girl, and her grief is all that remains. Her loss, her pain. It's what leads her to crying her eyes out in the girls bathroom at school, and right behind her comes Lily, prepared to fix whatever need be.
Max collapses to her knees, her walkman clutched in her right hand as she cries out in pain. All of her emotions come tumbling back, and no more is she doing alright.
No more is Lily's spell helping, but making everything worse.
Lily rushes to aid the red hand, hands clutching her shoulders, then going up to cup her face so she can see the damage. Max's eyes open to be met with hers, and it draws a gasp from Lily's lips.
All she can see is pain. Pain and suffering and loss and grief.
It's overflowing in Max's eyes and comes out in the form of tears, but it's more than that. It seems to have been intensified by the use of witchcraft. It seems that Lily wasn't getting rid of Max's pain, but rather just saving it for later.
And later is now.
All those feelings Max normally would've felt and gone through all come tumbling out on the bathroom floor, and it eats Lily alive. She feels at fault. She thinks she did this. She thinks she messed up.
And she did.
Pain is not just an inconvenience for humans, but a necessary tool for evolution. As much as humans hate pain, we need it, for it's what makes us human.
And as much as Lily wants to help, wants to take away her pain, she just can't do it. Not again. She can't make a bad situation worse. Instead, Lily offers her a hug, and she holds Max for as long as she needs before helping her to the guidance counselor's office for some more aid that Lily just can't provide.
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