[𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗪𝗢: 𝗩𝗘𝗖𝗡𝗔'𝗦 𝗖𝗨𝗥𝗦𝗘]

SAGE WHEELER JUMPED UP FROM THE bed, breathing heavily as cold sweat drips down her face. the brunette looks down next to her to see max sleeping peacefully.

sage turned to her right and checked the time to see it was only six in the morning. the wheeler teen let out a shaky sigh, slowly getting off of the bed trying not to wake up her girlfriend, and walks over to the bathroom.

the wheeler teen closes the door behind her, turns on the sink, and rinses her face with cold water. sage turns off the sink once she was done and grabs the towel next to her, drying her face. when the brunette looks in the mirror she sighs, the visuals of her dream coming into mind.

"you will hand me over your power, sage . . ."

"stay out of my fucking head!"

sage quickly walks out of the bathroom, heading to max's room and grabs her backpack, taking out the extra clothes she brought with her. the brunette changes into her clothes and just as she was about to walk out of the room, she hears max tossing and turning on the bed.

"max, hey," sage whispers, walking over back to the bed, grabbing max's hand. "maxine,"

the red-head jumps up from the bed, breathing heavily with cold sweat on her skin. the wheeler teen frowns as she feels max squeeze her hand tightly. the mayfield teen looks over at her girlfriend and leans over, hugging her tightly as she kicks her feet off the bed.

sage wraps her arms around max, helping her up off the bed carefully as the red-head clings onto her tightly.

"i got you, i got you," sage whispers in max's ear, rubbing her back gently. "when'd you wake up?" max asks the wheeler teen.

"just a few minutes ago,"

the red-head nods before releasing her lover, rubbing her temples, and heading out of her room to the kitchen to get her tylenol.

the brunette follows max into the kitchen and leans against the sink, rubbing her back gently. the mayfield teen gives sage one pill after swallowing her own. the wheeler teen pops the pill in her mouth, swallowing it down with some water as max looks out the window.

police sirens were heard in the distance along with a dog barking.

the couple glance at each other before going outside to see what was going on. the two see police driving into the trailer park, right in front of eddie munson's trailer house.

behind them, susan mayfield walks out, crossing her arms over her chest.

"looks like that munson boy's up to no good again," she commented as she stared at the situation in front of her.

the cops get out of the car as chief powell walks into the trailer.

max slowly walks down the steps of her trailer house and sage slowly follows her, taking ahold of her hand, gripping it.

susan's eyes follow the two teen girls as they walk to the crime scene to see what had happened. the couple gets closer and they were able to get a peek of a body. a teen girl in a cheerleading uniform and her bones were snapped. sage let out a small gasp at the sight before someone grabbed max by the shoulder, turning her around causing her to gasp.

"hey! you two can't be out here. get back inside."

sage glares at the officer. "touch her again, i dare you." she threatens as max takes one look back at the trailer house. "back inside," the officer demands the wheeler teen, glaring back at her. the brunette's eyes flashed a orange-red color shocking the officer.

sage turns around, eyes not leaving the officer until max puts a hand on her back, leading her back to the trailer house.

"ms. mayfield, can i use your phone?" sage asked quickly. "yes, of course," susan replied with a nod, allowing sage to pass by her.

"thank you,"

the brunette walks over to the phone, dialing her house number. the wheeler teen puts the phone to her ear. it didn't take long for her mother to answer the phone.

"this is the wheeler's," karen said. "mom, hi, it's sage. could i speak to mike really quick?" sage asked, picking at the skin on her fingernails. "oh, yes of course."

sage heard her mother yell for mike and then heard footsteps.

"hello?"

"mike, hi! okay, so before you leave to your flight i need you to go to my room and grab letters for will and el. there's just right on my desk."

"okay, i'll do that,"

"perfect, and can you please spend some time with will. not just el, okay? don't make him third wheel and don't leave him out. if he has to say something to you listen to him, all right?"

"yeah, i will,"

"don't bullshit me, mike," sage said firmly. "i'm not bullshitting you, sage,"

"you better not be or i swear you will never see life again,"

" . . . y-yeah, okay,"

sage smiled widely before it slowly fell, "be safe,"

"i will. bye sage."

"bye, mike,"

sage hung up the phone and sighed, rubbing her face.

so the vision actually happened, sage thought.

DUSTIN HENDERSON OPENS HIS FRONT door to see max and sage standing there with scared looks on their faces.

dustin looked at them concerned, but nevertheless let the couple inside the house.

the three went to his room and sage sat on his bed as max and dustin stood.

"chrissy cunningham?" dustin asked after the two explained what they saw. "you're sure it was chrissy?"

"yes, she was in her cheerleader outfit. same thing she was in when i saw her with eddie." max replied. "plus, i was with eddie the whole ride to max's. chrissy was there. we talked." sage added in, elbows on her knees.

"did you tell all this to the cops?" dustin then asked. "no," the couple replied.

"no, but we . . . we can't be the only one who saw them together," max added. "they stood out,"

"eddie the freak with chrissy the cheerleader?" dustin questions. "dustin, yes," sage said.

"exactly. you know, his name's not in the news or anything, but i guarantee you eddie is suspect number one now." max informs. "that's crazy," dustin immediately begins to defend.

"eddie didn't do this. no way. no way."

"dustin, with all due respect here, we didn't say he did it. we were just saying he's a suspect because one: it's his house, two: he sells drugs," sage informed the henderson teen. "we can't just rule it out," max told dustin. "yes, we can," dustin replied.

did they just ignore me? sage thought.

"dustin!" max exclaims. "you don't know him like i do, max. okay? when we got to high school, lucas made all his sports friends. mike, sage, and me? i mean, no one was nice to us. especially to sage." dustin explains.

max rolls her eyes, giving dustin a look.

"no one expect eddie."

"okay. well, they said the same shit about ted bundy." max said making sage look at her. "yeah, he's, like, a super nice guy, but he's then murdering women on the weekend."

"so you're saying eddie is like ted bundy?" dustin questions. "no, i'm not saying — i'm saying that we can't presume anything, okay? but it doesn't look good for eddie."

dustin puts his hands up, done with max before sitting on his bed next to sage, sighing.

max sighs before dustin speaks up. "why haven't you told the cops this?"

"i . . . i don't know," max says, crossing her arms.

"you don't know?"

"we don't know, dustin," sage replied as max sat on the bed on other side of dustin. "after i saw eddie and chrissy go in the trailer . . ." max began, looking at the henderson teen.

". . . something else happened," sage added in, rubbing her hands. "nothing that weird or anything. eddie always drives like a maniac and the power goes off at my place all the time. it's a piece of shit. but . . . after i caught sage almost dying with a bloody nose i started to think back this morning, and . . . i don't know. the look on his face and sage's face." max explained.

"he was scared, dustin. sage was scared."

"really scared," sage mumbled. "maybe he was scared because, you know, he . . . he just killed someone, or . . . maybe, um . . ." max tries saying but couldn't find the right words.

"maybe be . . . because . . . i don't . . . i don't know, maybe . . ."

"something else killed her," dustin said making the couple look at him and nod. "but that's impossible. right?" max asked. "i don't know," dustin whispered.

"it should be," sage spoke up. "but . . . i don't think it is. there's only two people who know what actually happened."

dustin and max look at her. "me and eddie,"

"how — how do you know?" dustin asks.

"last night when i was changing i got this sudden painful headache out of nowhere, and . . . i saw . . ." sage lets out a shaky breath while feeling tears form in her eyes. "i saw what happened to chrissy and it was . . . horrifying. it was like a vision and her — her b-bones —"

dustin put a hand on her shoulder and rubbed it, "hey, you don't have to tell us. we'll talk with eddie, okay?"

sage nodded and wiped her tears away, swinging her backpack over her shoulder as the three walk out of the room together.

"have you two talked to anyone else?" dustin asked. "no," max replied. "i can't find lucas or nancy, and mike's in —"

"i talked to mike, but i didn't have the courage to tell him what happened," sage cut her off. "plus he's already flying to california,"

"shit, shit, shit," dustin curses, heading to the front door. "dusty, where you going?" claudia, dustin's mother asks. "to see a friend,"

"you heard the news. it's not safe."

"good point, we'll be extra careful. thanks, mom. love you. bye."

dustin closes the door to his house after him, sage, and max walked out. the three get on their bikes, immediately biking over to family video store to see steve and robin.

THE THREE TEENAGERS MAKE IT TO family video store and get off their bikes, heading into the building.

"hey, steve," dustin says as they walk in. "you see this?" the harrington teen asks, pointing to the tv.

"how many phones do you have?" dustin asks, ignoring what he said. "someone was murdered." steve told him. "how many phones do you have?" the henderson teen repeated.

"two. why?"

"technically three, if you count keith's in the back," robin adds in. "yeah, three works," max says before dustin takes off his backpack.

"what are you doing?" steve questions.

dustin tosses his bag over the counter and jumps over it, knocking over steve's tapes.

"what are you —"

"my pile!"

"no, no, no! my tapes! dude."

the henderson teen sits on a chair in front of a computer as max and sage walk around the counter.

"what are you doing, man!"

"setting up base of operations here," dustin says to steve. "base of operations?" robin asks.

sage and max walk over to dustin, standing next to him.

"get off of that," steve tells dustin. "no, i need it," dustin replies, typing on the computer.

"need it for what?"

"eddie's friends' phone numbers,"

"oh, eddie. your new best friend you think is cooler because he plays your nerdy game?"

"yes." dustin replied, looking at steve. "i never said that,"

"seriously, you guys, maybe on a monday you can play around in here like toddlers, but it's saturday. it's our busiest day." robin informs, putting steve's tapes back on the counter.

"it doesn't seem to look busy," sage mentioned, crossing her arms as she watched dustin work on the computer. "robin, i empathize, but this cannot wait until monday ," dustin says.

"oh my god," steve groans, hands over his face.

"calling eddie's friends is an emergency?" robin asked dustin. "correct!"

"want me to strangle him or do you want to do it?" steve asks the buckley teen. "we could take turns," she suggests.

"can you fill them in while i do this?" dustin asks the couple, turning to them. "fill us in on what?" robin questions.

"a lot," sage said with a slight smile.

the couple fill in the two friends on what happened as dustin works on the computer.

"so, can we get keith's phone?" sage asked.

robin nodded then went to the back, taking keith's phone and bringing it to the front.

"all right, call. start calling! ándale, ándale!" sage said, snapping her fingers as dustin took out a list of numbers. "i didn't know you know spanish," steve said, huffing.

"i take a spanish class, harrington,"

steve stares at the wheeler teen and shakes his head. "yeah, okay,"

MIKE, WILL, AND ELEVEN SIT WITH each other in rink o'maina while drinking milkshakes.

"mine's better," mike says after sipping some of eleven's milkshake. "no, it isn't," eleven says.

"milkshakes?" a blonde girl, angela, asks as she shakes over to the trio. "yum,"

the three look up at the blonde.

"where, oh where have you been hiding this handsome thing?" angela asks, looking at mike with a smirk. "uh, angela, thi . . . this is mike, my boyfriend," eleven introduces.

"angela. pleasure." angela says, reaching her hand out to shake mike's hand. "heard a lot about you." mike said, shaking her hand. "it's really cool to finally meet some of el — jane's friends."

"friends" angela asks with a chuckle. "yeah. super cool. come on, friend. let's skate, shall we?"

"i wanted to finish —"

"i'll hold onto that,"

angela takes elevens, or jane's, hand and skates away with her onto the rink.

will stands you, watching eleven get dragged away by the blonde, holding the letter mike gave him that was from sage.

"take care of her, will,"

"whoo!" angela says with a fake smile as she skates with jane. "why are you so nervous?" she asks, grinning mischievously. "we're just having fun!"

the byers teen looks more deeply into the rink to see a camera man.

"oh no," will said. "what?" mike asks, standing up next to will. "el, she hasn't been telling you everything," the byers teen informed.

"what are you talking about?"

"she's lying to you, mike,"

"bullshit."

"no, listen to me. she's having problems here." will tells mike. "problems. okay, what kind of problems?" the wheeler teen asks, remembering what his twin had said if he didn't listen to will.

will doesn't answer and turns his head to look at the rink, seeing angela take eleven to the middle of the skating rink.

"stay put," angela tells eleven before skating away with a laugh.

eleven watches the blonde skate away with a confused look before the music stops, and someone speaks into the microphone.

"all right, everyone. this next song is dedicated to jane, the local snitch."

the light turns on right over the hopper (or byers) girl. a new song then begins to play.

wipe out

the drum intro plays and teens on the rink begin to imitate el's hand gesture.

"freak!"

"go home!"

"loser!"

the bullies laugh as they skate around eleven. will and mike look at each other, worryingly.

eleven turns, staring at the bullies before almost falling on the rink. eleven yelps as she catches herself from falling.

"she's a little baby!"

"baby!"

eleven brings her hands up to her ears to block the noise, tears pooling in her eyes as sage's voice speaks in her head.

"never be scared to hit them,"

"it doesn't matter if you're powers are gone, el. you are still powerful."

"if they do something, fucking strike at them."

eleven let's out a small sob at sage's voice in her head. she truly wishes she was here to help her.

the music suddenly comes to a stop as the man speaks into the microphone.

"wipeout!"

eleven gets thrown chocolate milkshake at her and she slips back on the rink. everyone around her laughs at her at the action. eleven groans before sitting up on her elbows as angela skates over to her.

"didn't you see the sign, dummy? "no food or drinks on the rink." " angela says and laughs before skating away.

eleven pouts up at her, tears falling out of her eyes.

"el! el!" mike calls out, skating onto the rink.

eleven let's out a sigh, quickly getting up from the floor, and pushing past the crowd of people as tears fall down her face.

"el!"

"hey, get out of my way! el!"

"el!"

AUTHORS NOTE //

this chapter is so messy and i hate it sm, bye

bee <3