History Must Repeat Itself

Chapter 32

          "Max," my voice unintentionally wavered, "what the hell are you talking about?"

She looked at me, and the pure terror shining in her eyes made tears burn in mine. I couldn't cry though. I couldn't jump to assumptions.

"Follow me," she said. Dustin followed close behind her, but me and the other three exchanged looks before following them. We had a sense of just how bad this was, even without many details.

Max sat at Ms. Kelley's desk, Chrissy's and Fred's files spread in front of her. She watched the others pull up chairs and sit. I couldn't bring myself to sit, leaning against the cabinets. The buzzy sense at the back of my head was turning into a headache. I don't know if it was the stress of the situation or the weather, but instinctively, I knew it wouldn't be bad like the one at the trailer park.

"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss. Kelley for help. Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And then," Max stopped. "Then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. Bad things. From their pasts." Steve peered at me from across the room. We knew where she was going before she said it. "These visions, they just kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually, everything ended."

"Vecna's curse," Robin stated.

"Chrissy's headache started a week ago," Max pointed to the notes. "Fred's, six days ago. I've been having them for five days." The air slipped from my lungs when tears appeared on her cheeks. "I don't know how long I have. All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock, so," Max looked at everyone but noticeably, not me. "Looks like I'm going to die tomorrow."

I stared at the doorway, my mouth hidden against the back of my hand. I considered her to be my second little sister, someone that I wanted to protect more than anything, and if she was right, she could die tomorrow. And there was nothing I could do about it. 

All six of our heads shot up at a echoing thud from down the hall.

"Stay here," Steve instructed us, grabbing a floor lamp and yanking the cord out of the wall. Robin glanced at me and rolled her eyes as we followed him. Another clatter turned into footsteps running towards us. A person rounded the corner, inches from Steve's face and they both started yelling. We jump as a group, yelling out expletives.

"It's me!" Lucas screamed.

"Lucas?"

"It's me!"

"Jesus, what's wrong with you, Sinclair? I could've taken you out with this lamp!"

Lucas put his hands on his hips, bending slightly. "Sorry, guys. Sorry. I was," he took a deep breath. "I was biking for eight miles." The panting now made sense. "Give me a second. Shit."

Nancy and I glanced at each other. This was definitely her brother's friend.

"We've got a code red," he said after catching his breath.

"What?"

"Dustin. Jess." the freshman basketball player walked up to us. "I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie and they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger."

Dustin and I looked at each other. Great. Just what we need.

"All right. Yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason now," Dustin said, turning to Max.

"What's going on?"

Dustin took charge of the conversation again, as he had with Nancy. I stood at the back, leaning against the wall. The headache I'd been able to ignore before was becoming more prominence. It pushed on my temple, indicating it was from stress. Until I could lie down, more pain killers would have to do.