ɪ ᴄᴀʀᴇ. (ᴀ ᴍᴀᴅᴡʜᴇᴇʟᴇʀ ꜱᴛᴏʀʏ)

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 05~ ᴍɪꜱꜱɪɴɢ

Max's head was pounding. Slowly, she forced her eyes open to find herself entagled in coarse vine-like objects. Silently gasping, she jerked up, only to see that she was surrounded by dark, sinister looking tunnels. Max got to her feet, inhaling the small, white dust particles that seemed to poison her lungs, releasing menacing toxins into her body.

"No... no no no no no..." the readhead whispered, suddering. This was not the Upside Down. This had to be a dream. Maybe she was just...

𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖚𝖈𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌

*~*

Drifting in and out of conciousness, Max tried to pull herself together. From experience, she knew that nothing good could be found down here. She had to be careful.

The girl was so busy trying to perceive her surroundings, she hadn't noticed the alarming rate at which her strange marking had grown. Now, she could feel it snaking around her neck and shoulders, pulsing through her veins.

Struggling to grasp onto her sanity, the redhead began searching for something, anything, to make her way out of this horrid location.

*~*

Mike sighed with relief. It was finally the weekend. He and the Party were planning on going to the arcade for the entire day, with the goal of beating every single highscore in the Palace Arcade. Today was going to be awesome.

Quickly, the raven-haired boy hopped onto his old bicycle and made his way to the arcade. He met up with the rest of the Party as they all made their way inside, eager to start playing. 

Dustin offered to play first. Knowing the exact game that the curly-haired boy was going to play, the rest of the part made their way to The Dragon's Lair, Dustin eager to play.

After a couple rounds (and a lot of yelling), Dustin had finally accumulated 450 000 points. 

By this time, Lucas had noticed Max's absence.

"Hey guys, where's Max?" the boy asked. 

A series of "I don't know" 's echoed around the room.

"Maybe she forgot about today?" Will suggested.

"That seems unlike her" Dustin countered.

Mike was suspicious. Max would never refuse a day at the arcade, especially since the boys were trying to beat her high score.

"I'll go look for her" Mike suggested. "I'm sure she just forgot".

The knot of anxiety rooted deep inside his stomach suggested otherwise. 

"I'll come" Lucas offered.

"It's ok, I'll be back in a jiff" Mike quickly answered.

Lucas was hesitant, but reluctantly agreed to let Mike go by himself.

 Man, he was a bad boyfriend.

*~*

Mike quickly made his way to the Hargrove house, fearing the worst. Had her spider-like mark grown bigger? Was she okay? Questions raced through his mind, and encouraged him to bike even faster.