𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐄 || 𝘔𝘈𝘟 𝘔𝘈𝘠𝘍𝘐𝘌𝘓𝘋

39. seven hours

SEVEN HOURS

March 23rd, 1986
⏰ 7:30 pm, 📍Hawkins, Indiana

༺♥༻ "It's exactly like a mini-Watergate or something." Dustin gasps and smiles, studying the posters hung to the wall. "Hawkinsgate."

Max and Stephanie open the filing cabinet and flip through each one until Stephanie finds Chrissy's and Max finds Fred's.

"Hold on, didn't those guys get caught?" Steve questions, shining his flashlight around Ms. Kelley's desk.

"Yes, Steve." Stephanie answers, faced away from Steve. "Don't you watch the news?"

Steve stops. "Weren't you literally two?"

"Doesn't matter." Stephanie shakes her head side to side. "Files." She smiles, holding up Chrissy's file and kneeling down next to Max, who situated herself at Ms. Kelley's desk.

Stephanie opens Chrissy's file and starts reading through. "Past trauma, difficulty sleeping, nightmares, headaches, nosebleeds." She mumbles to herself.

Max stops her. "What's the last thing you said?"

"Uh, nosebleeds, headaches, nightmares." She lists off, flipping through the other pages.

Max takes a page out of Fred's file, similar to the one in Chrissy's and puts them side to side.

Stephanie compares the two. Exactly the same. Both Chrissy and Fred had the same symptoms.

Max keeps focused on the papers. Almost too focused.

"Max, what is it?" Stephanie shakes Max's shoulder. "Max?"

Maxs gaze shifts upwards and she becomes responsive again, grabbing for Stephanie and panting.

She only gets up from her seat and basically bolts out of the door, making the rest of them run after her.

Robin and Nancy come running through the doors and join the three, equally as confusing as to why they're running after Max.

Max stops at the end of the hallway, standing in front of a blank wall, occupied only by green and orange stripes. She shakes her head. "The clock was here. Right here."

"A grandfather clock?" Nancy confirms for maybe the eighth time.

"It was so real." Max adds, Stephanie could hear the break in her voice. "And then, when I got closer, suddenly I just...I woke up."

"It was like she was in a trance or something." Dustin comments, almost not hearing himself.

"That's exactly what Eddie said happen to Chrissy." Stephanie studies Max's facial expression as she turns around.

"That's not even the bad part." Max says through shaky breaths.

"Well, what's the bad part?" Stephanie asks, not sure if she actually wants to know.

"Come on." Max nods her head towards Ms. Kelley's office, making everyone else follow her.

Max sits back down at Ms. Kelley's desk and takes a deep breath before starting. "Fred and Chrissy, they both were coming to Miss Kelley for help." She points to both of the papers. "Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away." Max hesitates for a moment, looking to Stephanie for assurance. "And then...then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. And then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. And these visions, they just...they kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually...everything ended."