𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐄 || 𝘔𝘈𝘟 𝘔𝘈𝘠𝘍𝘐𝘌𝘓𝘋

41. kate bush is cool

KATE BUSH IS COOL

March 24th, 1986
⏰ 3:45 pm, 📍Hawkins, Indiana

༺♥༻ "Alright, it's been too long." Stephanie mutters, jumping off the car.

Lucas looks up. "Just give her some time, Steph."

"Number one, don't call me that. Number two, it's been long enough, man." Stephanie says, turning around so she's walking backwards.

Stephanie jogs up next to Max and claps her hands to grab Max's attention. "Hey, Max?" She walks closer. "It's been a while, we should probably head out soon, yeah?" Stephanie immediately turns terrified as she sees Max's eyes red and rolled to the back of her head. "Max?" She bends down, shaking the redheads shoulders. "Max, please wake up!" Stephanie waves the boys over,  yelling, "Steve! Something's wrong. Something's really wrong!"

They rush over, yelling at Max to get out of her trance. Stephanie's positive she's blacked out at this point, repeating Max's name over and over. Steve yells something at Dustin, to which Stephanie couldn't hear. But out of the corner of her eye she sees Dustin fall over himself, scurrying to the car for God knows what reason.

Dustin runs over, sliding on the grass spilling tons of cassette tapes. "Her song! What's her favorite song?"

"Why?"

Dustin splutters out nonsense until he repeats again, "What's her favorite song?"

Everyone quickly shuffles around the various tapes when Stephanie yells out, "Kate Bush!" She pushes Dustin's hand away. "It's the Kate Bush one!"

"There's two!" Dustin screams back, holding out two tapes.

Stephanie looks between the two, trying to remember what song she hears leaking through Max's headphones everyday at school. "Uh...It's this one!" She grabs Kate Bush's Running up that Hill, takes the tape out of the case, and quickly puts it into the Walkman with shaking hands.

Steve puts the headphones on Max's head as Stephanie presses play on the Walkman.

Stephanie shakes Max by the shoulders as the boys keep yelling her name.

This can't be happening. No. No, no, no. We just made up! Is this her favorite song? Why isn't it working? Are Robin and Nancy wrong about the music? Jesus Christ, Max, please wake up!

Stephanie breathes in, making room to yell more. Her breath gets caught in her throat as she watches Max lift into the air by some invisible force.

No. No. No. No. She can't die. She won't. How the fuck is she levitating? Is this how Chrissy died? Oh, my God. Oh, God I'm gonna throw up.

All Stephanie could do is watch and hope. Hope that the son of a bitch Vecna will somehow magically die while trying to kill Max. And watch as Max hung in the air, exactly how Eddie described Chrissy was before she died.

Then, she falls.

Max hits the ground, feeling around for Stephanie. She's hyperventilating as Stephanie pulls her into a hug, calming her down slightly.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God." Stephanie holds onto Max tighter. "It's okay. You're okay. We thought we lost you."

"I'm still here. I'm still here, Steph."