[𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗢𝗡𝗘: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗟𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗕]

SAGE WHEELER WATCHED THE GAME intensely as it started.

she brought a piece of popcorn to her mouth, biting on it and eating it. her eyes followed the ball and watched as it made it to the hoop.

the wheeler twin cheered, clapping. the game continued and the opposite team made the basketball ball in the hoop.

"hey! yo, you gotta stay on 'em." jason shouted to his teammate. "stay on 'em! let's go! let's go!"

sage's eyes kept her eyes on the game until they landed on nancy and fred, nancy's friend. sage liked fred. he was nice and fun to be around.

"looks like my headline has a shot," fred told nancy with a grin. the wheeler teen shook her head, trying to stay focused.

in the hellfire game eddie is speaking to his friends. "the hooded cultists chant, "hail lord vecna. hail lord vecna." they turn to you, remove their hoods. you recognize most of them from makbar."

the teen watch, intrigued.

"but there is one you do not recognize, his skin is shriveled, desiccated. and something else. he is not only missing his left arm, but his left eye!"

the teens clamor in disbelief at vecna's survival.

"no! no!"

"vecna's dead!"

"he was killed by kas,"

"so it was thought, my friends. so it was thought." eddie told them. "but vecna lives." the munson adult places the vecna artifact on the board.

back at the game, sage watches as the basketball gets passed and as a tiger player was about to shoot, he gets blocked — pushed down.

sage winces and sits up a little, the ref blowing the whistle. the player doesn't get up and jason goes in front of the opponent.

"yo, what the hell was that? what the hell was that?" jason threatened before a ref broke them about. "that's not me, that's him,"

"you are scared. you're tired. you are injured." eddie says. "do you flee vecna and his cultists? or do you stand your ground and fight?"

"come on,"

"sinclair, you're in," the coach tells lucas. "huh?" lucas asks, surprised.

sage sits up and smiles at lucas. "you're in. son, let's go!" the coach says.

lucas takes off his jacket, throwing it to his teammate, and going on the court.

"go lucas!" sage cheers, clapping. "you got this!"

"i say we fight," dustin declares. "to the death."

"to the death," mike agrees. "to the death," erica joins in. "to the death! to the death!" the group chants, slamming their hands on the table.

"to the death! to the death!"

eddie laughs while watching them and sits back on his chair, smiling proudly.

back at the game, lucas has the ball and is blocking his opponent. the sinclair teen was able to escape and pass the ball to jason.

the blond shoots and scores.

36 to 33

shoot and score.

mike rolls his dice and misses making him groan.

"no!"

"defense! defense!"

the opposite team scores and sage anxiously bites her candy. the tigers take a shoot and they score making the wheeler twin cheer.

it now went back and forth. miss. score. miss score. so far, the guest were winning.

soon enough, jason calls for a time out. the ref blows the whistle and sage sits up, her eyes watching the team talk.

the wheeler twin lets out a sigh once the game starts again. her eyes were fixed on the ball. the teammates passed it around until it reached jason, where he is near the hoop.

the blond shoots.

everyone's eyes follow the ball, watching as it hits the hoop, but it bounces back. lucas jumps up and takes the ball.

sage lets her eyes widen at the action. lucas escapes the crowd of players and plants his feet, jumping up and shooting the ball.

the buzzer buzzes.

everyone begins to slowly stand up, eyes on the ball. sage stands up and watches as the ball makes it to the hoop, hitting it, and making it in.

the crowd roars and sage cheers loudly for her friend.

the basketball teams races to lucas with proud smiles on their faces. the lift up the sinclair team as everyone cheers for him.

"lucas! lucas! lucas!"

"LUCAS! LUCAS, YOU DID IT!" SAGE yelled as she ran to lucas after the game once everyone was outside.

"i did it!" lucas laughed and caught the wheeler teen into a tight hug. "party at benny's, boys!" jason declared as they walked to their cars.

"i'm proud of you, lucas," sage mumbled into his shoulder before letting him go. "thanks . . sage," lucas replied before his eyes landed on his other friends walking out of the school.

with his sister.

sage looked over to where he was looking at and looked back over to him. just as she was about to speak, patrick came over.

"lucas, come on," he said and motioned to the car. lucas nodded at him then looked at sage.

"i'm happy for you, lucas. go have fun." sage said before patting his shoulder and walking off to eddie's van to get a ride to max's house.

"AFTER A TRAGIC YEAR FOR OUR TOWN, the tigers have brought home the conference title, for the first time in 22 years," the man spoke on the radio.

"and what a great game it was, allen, ending with a dramatic buzzer-beater from benchwarmer lucas sinclair," another man announced. "he must be feeling on top of the world right —"

max turned off the radio and her elbows on her knees deciding it was best to stop listening, and for her to just wait for sage to arrive.

a dog barking in the distance was heard and max sighed. "all right, all right, i hear you," she says and gets up from the bed, walking out of her room to hear the tv playing.

the mayfield teen walks into the living room to see her mother sleeping deeply on the couch. the red-head goes around and puts out the cigarette that was still lit. she sighs, heading over to the refrigerator with empty beer cans in her hands. the red-head throws the cans away and opens the fridge, grabbing some left over food.

max heads outside to where the dog was still barking. she takes off the plastic wrap as she reaches the hungry dog.

"here you go. good boy." max whispers as she feeds the dog.

a car approaches, loud rock music playing from the inside was heard.

max turns her head to look at the vehicle pulling into the trailer house. the van turns off and eddie comes out from the driver side. sage comes out from the back as eddie introduces his home to chrissy cunningham.

"this is, uh, my castle," he says as chrissy walks over to him.

sage walks around the van, running over to where max was with a smile. max sees sage and gives her a small smile, before looking back over to where eddie and chrissy were.

the dog barks, snapping max out of her trance. the red-head feeds the dog one last bit of food as sage finally makes it over.

"hey, maxine," sage says, wrapping her arm around max's waist, kissing her head. "hey, sage. what was that all about?" max asks, motioning to eddie's trailer.

"oh, um, chrissy is just . . . hanging out with him. grabbing the few things." sage replied, not sure how to put it.

max nods before walking back inside her home. sage follows her, eyes landing on the mayfield adult sleeping on the couch.

"i'll go get changed," sage told her girlfriend and headed to the bathroom. "all right, i'll be here," max replies, sitting on the couch next to her sleeping mother.

the wheeler twin goes to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her, and taking out her pajamas from her backpack.

as she strips off her shirt the lights begin to flicker. the brunette's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she put on a gray hoodie over her head. sage shook her head, ignoring it and took off her pants, reaching for her sweatpants.

suddenly, a headache makes its way to sage's head. the wheeler teen hisses in pain, grabbing her head, but she chooses to ignore it. the teen puts on her sweatpants before grabbing her head again, gripping it tightly.

sage feels a liquid fall down her nose as sudden visions flow through her mind.

it was chrissy, floating.

then chrissy hitting the roof.

sage let out a small scream at the pain, falling to her knees.

chrissy's bones then began to snap.

the brunette let out a cry at the pain as the visions of chrissy's arms snapping, chrissy's legs snapping, chrissy's jaw breaking.

the last thing sage saw before her headache came to a stop was chrissy's eyes getting squeezed. when the headache came to a stop, the lights stopped flickering.

sage let out a gasp of breath, panting heavily before max opened the door to the bathroom.

"sage? sage, are you okay?" max asked as she kneeled down to her girlfriend. "i saw . . . i saw," the wheeler teen tried saying but max shushed her, cupping her face gently.

"you're nose," max whispered then stood up, grabbing a cloth and wetting it. "here,"

the mayfield teen kneeled down to her girlfriend and began wiping the blood off her nose that came out of both of her nostrils. sage's breathing began to slow down, going back to normal as she started at the red-head in front of her.

"you're okay," max cooed softly as she finished up cleaning sage's nose. "come on,"

max helped sage off the bathroom floor and took her to her bed, laying her down on it carefully. sage got under the covers and watched as her lover grabs her bottle of tylenol.

"i'm supposed to be taking care of you," sage said as she took a pill, putting it in her mouth and sipping some water, swallowing the pill. "well after what just happened to you . . . i don't think so." max told her with a smile.

"i'll be back,"

the wheeler twin nodded, her eyes following max. the red-head walks to the living room, turning off the tv, turning off the light, and fixing the covers over her mother. once max was done she headed back to her room and changed into her own pajamas as sage was trying to fall asleep.

max finished changing then crawled into her bed, face to face with sage. the red-head moved hair away from the brunette's face, softly kissing her nose before hugging her waist.

it didn't take long for the couple to fall asleep together, cuddling each other.

AUTHORS NOTE //

i never asked this before, but how do you like this fanfic ??

is it good ??

bee <3