lost in the labyrinth of my mind

Chapter 7

Lucas was nervous.

He didn't think he would find the arcade again, especially after Mike's interruption. On his second journey through, he was more sure than ever that the arcade was where Max was. The glow of the approaching arcade grew and diminished with a menacing beat. The arcade buzzed with an ominous drone as if it whispered and demanded him to leave. It hackled every one of his instincts, flooding his body with ice-cold fear and terror. Lucas tried to dismiss it; he had to be brave; it might be his last chance.

He reaches again for the door, ready to pull it open and enter.

One thing you don't notice about the Inbetween is its neutral temperature. It had the neutrality of a grocery store, neither chill nor hot. It wasn't until he entered the arcade that he noticed it. The air inside was stale and musty, reminding Lucas of an attic. Mixed with the stench of rotten food: a sickly sweet but wrong scent.

Lucas walked the unnaturally long room and halls of the arcade. It was a distortion of the real place. It was a mocking taunt of joy and fun into a realm of nightmares. The only sound was the rising volume of discordant music and the ominous drone of machines powering an appliance.

Lucas walked over broken furniture and shattered glass: the remains of busted and beaten consoles. He kept turning through the impossible corners until he saw Max.

His shoulders drop in relief. But they rise again in distress when he takes in Max's appearance. Her back was to him as he first approached, the artificial light of the game casting a shadow, but that fiery red hair was unmistakably Max. Her posture was rigid and all wrong, as she was always ready to move. Even in the tunnel focus, on playing games in the arcade, her feet were always moving: tapping as she hit combos and defeated her enemies. Lucas continued walking towards her until he came beside her. The harsh light cast ugly shadows on her face, highlighting the deathly pallor and red veins pulse grotesquely. Her freckles were like pox marks and not the sun-kissed beauty he loved to count during the summer, despite Max's mocking that he was cheesy. Her eyes were not the corn blue he knows twinkle in wit; but are rolled back just like when she is under Vecna's spell. She plays dispassionately, going through the motions. The machine gives unenthusiastic cheers as she wins. Oh god, what has Vecna done to her?

Lucas hesitantly reaches for her shoulder to wake her; he doesn't know if it will hurt or help her. But he can't stand there and keep looking at her. They need to leave; he needs to get her out. His shaking becomes more forceful, but it doesn't do anything. She still stands there with a vacant look. Lucas looks around the machines; maybe, he could power it down. Maybe. He desperately hopes; there might be a logical way to turn it off. Maybe? He looks at the back of the machine and notices only one cable connecting to its back. It's weird. Everything here is. But it's not one of the usual black rubberized wires he knows are plugged in at the arcade back home. It's like a clear plastic tube, one he is familiar with from his visit to the hospital. It's filled with a golden liquid.

Curiosity takes over, and he follows its winding trail down more twisting and impossible corridors. He comes before a door, and if he thought the world had a rancid aura before, it is nothing compared to what he feels as he stands before it. It's every fear and every despair and every trembling thought and feeling he has ever had times a thousand. It's loneliness and heartbreak and the feeling of giving up. His hands shake as he goes to turn the doorknob, and the door creaks open.

It's him. It's Vecna. Lucas stilled his movements; maybe he hadn't noticed him yet. Lucas holds his breath in anticipation and fear. After a moment too long, Lucas finally sees that Vecna hasn't moved. He is in a stiff position standing up, vines and tubes coming from his rotting flesh. Vecna is half-formed, chunks of his body missing. The lines, he sees, are a facsimile of the various ones that keep Max alive in the real world. The wire from Max's arcade machine connects to the Gordian knot made out of the tubes of Vecna's body.

What the fuck?

Things come together in Lucas' mind. Vecna took Max's life; if it wasn't for El, he would have succeeded. But he is still taking her life from her. This whole time Max should have healed. Everyone who looks at her medical chart is baffled that despite the injuries she sustained during the 'earthquake,' she hasn't even shown signs of cognition. This is why? Because this thing is leeching her health for his own.

Pure instinct drove him to disconnect whatever monstrosity tied Vecna to Max. He pulled and tugged in deep desperation, his muscles strained from the exertion. And just as he was about to dislodge it: he heard terrified screams of Max, dousing him in worry and terror. He rushed around the machine to see Max: writhing in pain, body shaking in tremors and twitching. From her mouth came the sounds of pain.

He wished to make it stop. In a mocking copy of the last time he held Max: he stroked her face wishing he could take her pain away. If he could, he would carry her pain. But he could only cradle her, carefully and gently stroking her face and hand. Tears began to sting his eyes: he never wanted to hold Max like this again. This image had played over and over in his head; every time he saw her still form on the hospital bed, even as he tried to drown it out with music and stories.

Lucas began to murmur nonsensical words of comfort as tears fell into her pale face. Is this the moment when she dies? For real this time? No intervention from El or God?

Max stopped shaking. Her breathing began to deepen and slow from its erratic state. Her eyes flutter like butterfly wings and open, gazing blue into his deep brown.