LONELY TOGETHER - max mayfield

23. "I still need you."

AFTER EVERYONE got a well needed full nights rest, Max, Lucas, Steve, Dustin and Jax were now in the basement together. Nancy and Robin were continuing their lead on Victor Creel while the rest of them were watching over Max and Jaxon. Though, they would both behaving completely oppositely. While Jax was sitting with the three boys on the couch, Max was sat at a desk writing for what seemed to be years.

"Okay, be honest, uh, you guys understand any of this?" Steve asked as he paced around, reading a cut of piece of a newspaper.

"No." Lucas replied.

"None of it makes cause its bullshit." Jax shot at him.

"Pretty straightforward." Dustin countered.

"Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve looked at him with a dumb expression.

"Well whats confusing to you? So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died, except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor. If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him." Dustin explained.

"Yeah, thats assuming he was cursed, Henderson, which we dont even know. How can Vecna have existed in the '50s? It doesn't make sense." Steve rubbed his head as he thought.

"Far as we know, Eleven didn't create the upside down. She opened a gate to it. The upside down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs." Dustin rambled. It seems he couldn't take the thought of being wrong.

"Wh- dinosaurs? What are we-"

"Okay, okay, but if a gate didn't exist in the '50s, how did Vecna get through?" Lucas questioned, debunking Dustin's theory.

"Oh, and hows he getting through now?" Steve added on.

"And why now?

"And why then? He just pops out in the '50s, kills one family and he's like: "hey, I'm good" and poof he just disappears. Just.. gone? Only to return 30 years later and start killing random teens? Nah, I don't buy it. Straightforward my ass. Honestly, Henderson, a little humility now and then, it wouldn't hurt you." Steve points the newspaper he was reading in Dustin's direction, plopping down into a rocking chair. Jax was sat on the couch with a magazine over his face, as if he had fallen asleep. He didn't believe that him or Max were gonna die.

"Any idea what she's writing?" Dustin changed topics, looking over at Max. The other three looked over as well. "Did she sleep?"

"Yeah, but barely. She kept waking me up cause she didn't wanna sit around alone." Jax sighed, wishing everyone would drop this and everything could go back to normal. How come it was always them who had to fix things?

Suddenly, the basement door opened and Robin and Nancy trotted down the stairs. "Okay, so.. we have a plan." The two girls sat down with them all, handing them two fake transcripts for the girls to get a hold of Victor with.

"Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rockstar psychology students at the university of Notre Dame." Robin explained, excited to be part of the smart people team.

"I'm now "Ruth." Nancy spoke up.

"And I'm Rose." Robin finished.

"Nice GPA." Dustin commented, looking at her with wide eyes.

"Thanks." Nancy smiled at him. "So we called the Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Victor Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics,"

"To which they said no." Robin butted in.

"But we landed a three o'clock with the director."

"Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor."