ɪ ᴄᴀʀᴇ. (ᴀ ᴍᴀᴅᴡʜᴇᴇʟᴇʀ ꜱᴛᴏʀʏ)

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 01- ᴛʜᴇ ᴇꜱᴄᴀᴘᴇ

**Trigger Warning: Child abuse, violence, mild swearing

January 12th, 1986

The Hargrove house

It had happened again. Neil had raged. Max had tried her best to defuse him, perhaps like how a soldier would defuse a lehal bomb on the verge of exploding. However, this was to no avail. This was Neil Hargrove after all. His heart was cold, and his actions were fueled by rage and hatred. 

He came home that night, later than usual. Max just figured that he went out somewhere and got drunk. That happened often. She tried to ignore him, because he'd eventually end up passing out on the couch anyways. Unfortunately, his anger tonight was chanelled towards the poor readheaded 14 year old girl. 

As she was trying to drift off to sleep, she heard a hard knock and the haunting voice of her step-father, which echoed on the other side of her bedroom door. She jolted awake, in a fright.

"Maaax" Neil's disturbing voice said. "I know what you did".

Millions of thoughts raced through the petrified girl's head. What had she done wrong? 

"Wh- what did I d-do?" she stuttered.

"Don't you dare play dumb with me Maxine" Neil yelled. "I know you stole my car yesterday!".

Max's stomach dropped. How had Neil found out? She had made such an effort to be stealthy!

"P-please Neil, l- let me explain..." the young girl stammered.

"MAXINE MAYFIELD, I AM SICK OF THIS BULLSHIT" Neil screamed. He burst open Max's bedroom door, revealing the shaking, horrified child, hidden in the bedsheets. Quickly, he grabbed her wrist and slammed her against the wall. The impact left Max with a rather large welt on her shoulder blade and marks on her wrist from where Neil had lunged at her. Tears had started flowing down the poor girl's freckley cheeks. She could smell alcohol in Neil's breath, his clothes reeked of the repulsive smell.

"N-Neil please..." Max tried to utter, to which she was cut of by the force of Neil's fist making contact with her face, leaving her with a bloody nose.

"NO" Neil boomed, hysterical with anger. "YOU NEED TO BE TAUGHT A LESSON! DON'T YOU EVER DRIVE MY CAR AGAIN!" he demanded, while repeatedly slapping the now-(badly) injured teen, leaving bruises and cuts all along her small, fragile body. 

Max was in excruciating pain. From the corner of her swelled black eye, the girl could make out a bat, stuffed with nails, the one Steve had gifted her a while back. Quickly, in between Neil's powerful strikes, Max squirmed away from her abuser's wrath. She grabbed the bat and struck him in the stomach. Neil recoiled in pain. 

"YOU BITCH! WAIT UNTIL I'VE FINISHED YOU OFF" Neil mustered out, clenching injured stomach. 

Before he could get to her again, Max scrambled to her feet, opened the window, and crawled on top of the roof, underneath the stormy sky. She knew that she would have to jump off of it, it was to only way to escape her phsyco step-father. 

"GET BACK HERE" she heard Neil yell from the other side of the glass screen. It was now or never. Max had to jump. After a short three second countdown, she held her breath and jumped...

*~*

Max landed on the soaked grass, beside some shrubs. The girl was so shaken that it took her a few seconds to realize that there was a sharp pain coming from her ankle. She covered her mouth, trying not to scream in pain. After further inspection, Max realized that it was badly sprained. She couldn't stay here and attend to her injuries though, not in her condition and definitely not with a person like Neil looming around. 

It took Max more than a few tries to stand up but, when she finally managed to steady herself, she hobbled to the edge of the driveway, whimpering with every step she took. When she got onto the street, she finally realized the severity of this situation. She, Max Mayfield, could not stay here anymore. 4819 Cherry Lane, the place that she had called home for almost two years, was no longer a safe place to be. Her step-father was abusive, her mother was oblivious, and her demented step-brother was dead. These melancholic thoughts dragged Max down, quite literally. She fell to the ground, crumpling into a sad heap of emotions. 

*~*

The depressed girl sat there, bawling in the rain, for a good ten minutes. When she finally stifled her tears, she realized that she had nowhere to go. Last time she checked, it was 12:48 am. It was at least 1 am now. 

Max needed shelter. She desperately needed somewhere to go. She tried to make a mental list of some elligible people, of some friends whose houses she could go to. Of course, Lucas came to her mind first. Unfortunatley, he was visiting some family in Illinois for the weekend.

Dustin? No, he went to bed very early, and his mom was quite an anxious person. Max couldn't risk going into his house. Will, maybe? No, she knew he was a very paranoid person who still got terrifying visions at night. He had his own problems to deal with. Forget El, she lived in the middle of the woods. No way was Max going there while it was pitch black outside. Plus, Hopper guarded the house with a bunch of booby traps placed god knows where.

After she had mentally run through a list of all of her friends, she came across one last person:

Mike Wheeler.

She rolled her eyes at just the thought of him. He had always been so rude around her, which was annoying because Max had always tried to be nice and friendly with him.

Alas, the shivering girl had no other option. She needed shelter, and Mike was the only one left in her group of friends that wasn't impossible to reach. With a sigh, she stood up, careful not to put too much pressure on her injured ankle, and attempted to limp all the way to the Wheelers' house.

About fifteen minutes later, Max found herself infront of the large estate. Almost all the lights in the house were off, except for one. Upon further observation, the girl could make out the lit room. It was a bedroom. Inside, she could see a slender boy with curly raven hair pacing around him room.

Micheal. Freaking. Wheeler.

Author's note:

Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed chapter 1 of my first Madwheeler book! Feel free to leave comments and feedback! 

Once again, this is probably going to be a stereotypical Madwheeler story, so I apologize once again if my book is similar to others.

I'll try to update regularily :)