talk too much | max mayfield

33. who's the real cult here?

WHO'S THE REAL CULT HERE?

✧･ﾟ: * The championship was fairly uninteresting, Hawkins won, which was good, and Lucas shot the winning basket, also good; this did result in him being invited to the VIP after party, Nora by extension, meaning Nora didn't have to suffer through a whole night of Annie biting her tongue every time they made out and pretending the strawberry blonde was a full redhead who also happened to have freckles and the most gorgeous blue eyes and hands that knew just where to wrap themselves around Nora's waist and run their fingers through Nora's hair as the two girls giggled to each other at their inexperience and whose name also happened to be Max-

Anyway. None of that.

But also when Nora woke up the next morning in the comfort of her own bed it was to the sound of police sirens.

Steve left a note on the counter saying he's already left for work, but Nora glances over it as she rubs her eyes to see what all the ruckus was about. She has to turn the corner as she leaves her own trailer, as Max's was in front of hers covering the view, and slowly stalks up a bit to the side of the redhead as the two try to get a glimpse into the trailer across from Max's where all the cops are gathered.

"Hey!" Some guy appears in front of the two in an officer's uniform. "You can't be out here," he explains. "Get back inside."

Max turns with no complaint, falters as she sees Nora's face suddenly, then runs back inside, clearly seeing more than Nora had.

Weird.

—

✧･ﾟ: * Nora looks away as Lucas throws up over the toilet, patting his back sympathetically.

She's was running all around town earlier after getting ready that morning, first going to the VHS store to see if Steve heard the news - he had and told her to be careful and probably spend the rest of the day with him and not even think about leaving out that door right now - she then went to Lucas' house where she saw his bike wasn't out front, so she went over to where the party was the night before, quickly, as to not get him in any trouble.

When she got there, she had to talk to stupid Jason Carver who laughed as he explained Lucas' state at the moment, and has been sitting behind him on the floor of some rundown restaurant while he heaves over the toilet.

"I told you not to drink that much," she says as a form of comfort.

"Hblrg."

"Do you hear that?" Nora frowns a bit.

"Hmblrg?"

"Police sirens."

Lucas sprints up in record time, rinsing his mouth out with sink water quickly as him and Nora exit the bathroom, going into the main room where two cops walk in from the front door at the same time.

They send everyone except for Jason out, so Nora and Lucas go to the patio area outside of the building with the rest of the team who was there, and they both sigh and lean over the balcony railing in unison.

"Did you see the news?" Nora asks, though she knew he didn't. "Some kid from the high school died last night. Same area I live in."

"Shit, for real?" Lucas looks over, all signs of a hangover gone now. He taps his fingers anxiously over the ledge.

"But I'm sure that's not what this is," Nora's quick to console. "This is probably just some neighbors complaining about the noise, y'know?"

"Hm," Lucas still looks distracted.

"Hey," Nora lowers her voice a bit. "It's not like every time something bad happens here it has to do with magic."

"Yeah," Lucas nods along. "Just most times."

Jason suddenly slams open the door and pushes his way to the woods away from the building while everyone else looks up eagerly.

"Hey, man, you alright?"

"Jason, what happened?"

"Hey, where are you going?"

"What'd they say, Jason?"

"Is everything good?"

"Are they gonna call our parents?"

"Jason!"

But Jason doesn't look back as he stomps into the tree line, leaving everyone behind utterly confused.

—

✧･ﾟ: * "Eddie Munson."

Jason's gathered everyone back now with pictures and newspaper clippings.

Nora has to be honest, as her and Lucas stand more towards the back of the group, she immediately zones out as Jason drones on and on about satan and cults and sacrifices.

Until Lucas speaks up.

"Hellfire isn't a cult."

Nora scoffs at the notion, but quickly straightens her demeanor as everyone else all but glares at her.

"It's just a D&D club," Lucas elaborates but is met with blank stares. "D. . . D&D? Dungeons and Dragons?"

"It's like a game," Nora tries saving him from the awkwardness. "A fantasy."

"And how exactly is it you two know all that?" Some random guy on the team that Nora never bothered to learn the name of looks at them.

"We don't live under a rock?" Nora stares.

"My sister plays!" Lucas interrupts the death glare his teammate was giving his friend. "Yeah. . . she's, like, a total nerd. Y'know?"

Nora stares at Lucas as if he's grown two heads.

"Hey, I'm sure your sister isn't killing people," Jason mistakes Lucas' awkwardness for defensiveness and reaches a hand out to console him. "But I've read how if the wrong person plays this game, it can warp their mind. They confuse fantasy and reality and innocent people die. I mean, it's been happening all over the country, it's like- it's an epidemic."

"Yeah, I've read about that shit. It's real," Patrick, another player, nods along and Nora turns her look of disbelief to everyone in the room.

"And I think Eddie," Jason starts talking again. "He's the wrong type of person, right? Y'know he got lost," he makes weird hand movements that make Nora think maybe Jason's the one who's lost. Then he keeps going on and on about this "sick game" and "bullshit leads" and "druggies" and the rest of the guys cheer after his words like maybe they're apart of the cult.

After Jason's whole monologue he then gets out a lighter and sets the picture of the hellfire club's members all in a line on fire as everyone cheers.

Nora watches her's and Lucas' faces go up in flames.

a/n:
ok hi u can probs tell but nora and max will b separated for like two/three chapters but those chapters are basically done so I'm thinking of just releasing them all at once? then we can get back to pining? lmk like this is a max mayfield fanfic yk