end zone | STEVE HARRINGTON

forty-one

C H A P T E R F O R T Y - O N E

season 4 episode 4

_______

ROBIN AND NANCY RETURNED TO REJOIN THE GROUP and honestly, Anastasia was glad to have them there. The two girls had a certain aura about them that calmed everyone down, especially Nancy who wasn't afraid of anything. Anastasia admired her for that.

Max and Anastasia had informed everyone on what was going on. That had described the hallucinations they were both having along with everything else. It was difficult for them to explain what was going on as it seemed to make the whole thing even realer and that scared Anna, she just wanted it to be a nightmare.

Everyone seemed to be having similar reactions. Everyone remained silent as the two girls stood in front of them, explaining what was going on. Max took the lead in explaining, "Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelley for help. Uh, they both having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And then...then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. Then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their past. And these visions, they just...they kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually...everything ended."

"Vecna's curse." Robin commented looking up from the folders in front of her.

Anastasia sighed. "Chrissy's headaches started a week ago. Fred's, six days ago. Max and I have been having them for five days."

"I don't know how long we have." Max said, Steve placed his hand over his face as the others remained silent. "All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than twenty-four hours after their first vision. And we just saw that goddamn clock, so..."

"....Look's like we're gonna die tomorrow." Anastasia finished off.

They all remained silent until they heard something clanging behind them. Steve demanded they stay in the room while he walked out, taking it upon himself to be the one to check out what was out in the hallways. He grabbed a lamp on the way out of the room, as the others stayed back, that is until they decided to follow Dustin out.

They walked through the hallway, the tension filling the air until someone came around the corner. Steve and Lucas both screamed upon seeing each other, as the older boy raised the lamp to hit Lucas. Lucas held his hands out, screaming at them. "It's me!"

"Lucas?" Nancy said his name in a high pitched tone.

"It's me!" Lucas repeated, finally lowering his arms.

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

Lucas panted, attempting to regain his breath as he apologized. "Sorry, guys, sorry. I was....was biking for eight miles. Give me a second. Shit. We've got a code red."

"Now is not the time for a code red." Anastasia told him.

Lucas ignored her, rushing over to Dustin. "Dustin. I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to find Eddie and Delilah and they think you know where they are. You're in terrible danger."

Dustin said in a calm tone. "All right. Yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason right now." He turned his head to Anastasia and Max who were standing beside one another, the two girls looking anxious as all eyes were on them.

_____

Max was busy writing down some letters as the other four sat down in the basement of the Wheeler's home. Anastasia wasn't going to be writing letters as she didn't even know what to write, but she decided on joining Max so she could write a letter for the most important people in her life. All that she could think of while reading the letter was that she was going to be with Hopper again, so it gave her the slightest piece of comfort that she wasn't going to be alone.