After the incident, Max woke up and started explaining everything she saw.

"And then, when i got closer, suddenly i just.. I woke up." Max explained, Ava instinctively holding Max's hand tightly, afraid that if she let go, she'd lose the redhead beside her.

"It was like she was in a trance or something." Dustin mumbles, "Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy." He says. "That's not even the bad part." Max says shakily, "There's more..?" Ava mutters, totally done with life.

"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Ms. Kelley for help. Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away." Max explains, making Ava breathe slightly heavy. "Then the nightmares," Max goes on, making Ava look down to the ground.

"Trouble sleeping," The redhead continues to explain, describing everything that was so understandable to Ava. "They'd wake up in a cold sweat, and then they started seeing things." Max mumbles. "Bad things." She clarifies.

"From their pasts. These visions, they just.. They kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually.." Max says, "Everything ended?" Ava mumbles, making Max slowly nod and look at the girl next to her.

Ava's breath started to get jumpy, realizing she had every symptom Max had just listed. She zoned and started to think about if she should tell the others or not. She decided not to, Max was way more important right now, especially since Ava hadn't seen the clock yet, and she definitely didn't want it jump to conclusions.

"Vecna's curse." Robin speaks up after Max explains it, "Chrissy's headaches started a week ago. Fred's six days ago." Max mutters, making Ava hold onto the redheads hand tighter. "I've been having them for five days." She says, making Ava turn to look at her.

"I don't know how long i have, all i know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than twenty four hours after their first vision." Max says, her voice breaking slightly. "And i just saw that god damn clock, so.." The redhead sighs, making Ava hold onto the other girls waist and lay her head on Max's shoulder.

"Looks like i'm gonna die tomorrow." Max mutters, making Ava scoff. "No chance in hell." Ava speaks up, "As if i'd let you die." She continues, looking at the redhead. "It's not like you can do anything about it, Ava." Max responds coldly, but it's understandable, i mean, she just figured out she's gonna die soon.

Ava lifts her hands up, "I've got powers." Ava says, thinking it'd be even a bit helpful. "And i'm not going to let you die, you know i won't." Ava says confidently. Ava trusted herself with what she was saying, she knew she'd even sacrifice herself for Max if she had to. She'd do anything to keep the redhead safe.

Before Max could even respond there was a distant clanging noise in the background, causing them all to look that direction. "Stay here." Steve says quietly, walking towards the door and grabbing a lamp for protection.

"A fucking lamp?" Ava mumbles, making Max nudge her shoulder. The rest of the group follow Steve out, and hear footsteps running towards them. Once they see the person run the corner, Steve lifts the lamp up and shouts for an odd reason.

Everyone realized it was Lucas. "It's me!" Lucas shouts, "Lucas?" Nancy asks, "Yes, it's me!" Lucas responds, breathing heavily. "Jesus, what's wrong with you, Sinclair?!" Steve shouts, setting down the lamp.

"I'm sorry." Lucas says, out of breath. "I could've taken you out with this lamp!" Steve scoffs, gesturing to the lamp. "Sorry, guys, sorry." Lucas says, holding his hands out in surrender. "I was- I was biking for eight miles." Lucas says, breathing heavily in exhaustion.

"Give me a second. Shit." He says, turning to the wall. "We've got a code red." Lucas says through deep breaths. "What?" Steve scoffs, "Dustin." Lucas says, walking up to the boy quickly. "I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails." Lucas continues.

"They're trying to capture Eddie, and they think you know where he is." The boy explains, breathing deeply every syllable. "You're in terrible danger." Lucas says, thinking his situation is worse than the one the rest are in. "Alright, yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason now." Dustin says, making Lucas look at him in a confused way.

Dustin turns to Max, which makes Lucas do the same. Once they all look towards Max, Lucas gets what's wrong.

~~~

"Okay, be honest. Uh.." Steve says, all of them reading Victor Creel information to see if it'll help Max. "You guys understand any of this?" Steve asks, "No." Lucas responds, "Pretty straightforward." Dustin says, "Right?" Ava agrees, looking up to the boy. Ava was very nerdy when it came to murders and crime, she loved that stuff.

"Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve scoffs, "What's confusing to you?" Dustin asks. "So far, everyone Vecna cursed has died, except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found." Dustin explains. "He's the only known survivor." The boy continues, "Yeah, and if anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him." Ava adds on, looking up at her older brother.

"That's assuming he was cursed, which we don't even know." Steve says, "How can Vecna have existed in the '50s? It doesn't make sense." Steve mumbles, rubbing his forehead. "Far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside Down." Dustin speaks up.

"She opened a gate to it. The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions." Dustin says, "I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs." The boy adds. "Okay, the dinosaurs is a bit much-" Ava says before getting cut off, "Dinosaurs? What are we talking about?" Steve asks, "Okay, okay." Lucas says.

"But if a gate didn't exist in the '50s, how did Vecna get through?" Lucas asks, turning to Dustin. "Oh, yeah, and how's he getting through now?" Steve asks, "And why now?" Lucas adds. "And why then? Just pops out in the '50s, kills one family, and he's like, "I'm good." And poof, he just disappears, just.. Gone?" Steve says.

"Only to return 30 years later and start killing random teens?" Steve explains, "No, i don't buy it." The older boy finishes, sighing. "Sorry." Dustin responds to Steve acting like a drama queen. Ava was too busy staring at the back of Max to even listen in on the conversation, watching the redhead writing away on a desk.

"Any idea what she's writing?" Dustin asks Ava, who shakes her head. "But i'm about to find out." Ava says, standing up and walking towards Max.

Ava gets to Max and peers over the redheads shoulder, trying to see what she's writing. Ava's hair accidentally brushed against Max's shoulder, making the redhead turn around. Max then covered the paper, but Ava saw a little bit of what the paper had said.

'To Clumsy.'

"What is that for?" Ava asks, making Max sigh. "It's nothing important, don't worry about it." Max responds, turning back to the desk and flipping the paper over. Ava sat next to Max, resting her head on the desk. Max looked over at the girl, "Why are you over here?" Max asks, not looking away from Ava.

"I just wanted to check in on you." Ava says. "I'm fine." Max responds, clearly wanting to get back to writing. "Are you writing letters?" Ava mumbles, looking up to Max. "N-No, they're just.. Drawings." Max lies, making it painfully obvious. "You don't need to write letters." Ava scoffs, still fully confident that she'll protect the redhead.

"Ava, you need to understand that you can't fight off some murderous guy that can pop eyeballs out of peoples sockets." Max says, making hand movements to help describe it. "I can still try." Ava says, looking down at the desk. "I don't want you to try, i need you safe, okay?" Max says, hoping the other girl would just agree so Max's worry could lessen.

"And i need you safe, too." Ava responds. Max doesn't respond and just fidgets with the paper. "I care about you a lot, and you know that." Ava adds on. Max just nods, not wanting to edge the conversation on anymore.

"I care about you, too." Max admits after some awkward silence, still fidgeting with the paper. Ava nods, "I know you do." She says sheepishly, grinning over at Max, who just rolls her eyes playfully with a slight smile.

"Can you smile for me?" Ava asks, letting her thoughts take over. She just wanted to see Max smile, like she used to. She missed her smile, she missed everything. She missed her.

"Please?" Ava asks quietly, realizing what she's asking about. "Why?" Max asks, confused as to why Ava wants just a smile from the redhead. "Because i.. i miss it." Ava shrugs, trying not to sound as rude as she already thinks she sounds.

Max looks down at the table, contemplating on if she should or not. "You don't have to, i was only wondering." Ava speaks up, the slightest bit of disappointment in her voice that was clear to the ears.

Max clears her throat, and looks up at the other girl, who was already staring at her. Ava hasn't gotten a good look at at Max for a while, it's almost as though the redhead gets more beautiful every second. Even if she figured out she could possibly die soon, she still looked like a goddess, and Ava couldn't help but stare.

Max smiles, but it's not sincere. Ava wants it to be sincere. Ava stood up and noticed a small space in Max's seat, so she sat there, the two girls just inches apart. "What're you doing?" Max asks, earning a shrug from the girl now next to her.

"Wanna draw?" Ava asks with a smile, Max just sighs, knowing Ava has an idea. Ava grins and grabs Max's pencil and a piece of paper, drawing something. "Stay still for me, okay?" Ava asks with a small smile, making Max nod.

Ava gets finished and shows Max the paper, a drawing of the redhead on it, as well as an attachment on the side. "The most beautiful girl ever." The attachment said, making Max blush slightly and look over at Ava, who was already smiling at the other girl.

Max can't help but smile at that, making Ava stare at her. "That's what i wanted." Ava said with a wider smile than before, happy she got the sincere smile that she wanted. "Keep it if you want, yeah?"Ava says, setting the paper down on the table. "And i'm not the best drawer.. so, i couldn't captivate all that beauty." Ava says with a small wink, completely forgetting that they're exes and not friends or more, but they both really wanted to consider the other a friend at least.

Max just giggles, the sound being music to Ava's ears. Ava smiles widely at that, standing up so Max could have the seat to herself once again. But unknowingly to Ava, Max hoped she'd stay in that spot, just didn't say anything about it. "I'll let you get back to.. writing letters." Ava sighs, still upset about the thought that Max thinks she needs to write them.

Max nods, and looks back towards the desk. Ava sighs and walks back to the couch, finally happy she had a pretty good conversation with the redhead for once. Usually their conversations were forced, or accidental, but i think they're finally getting somewhere.

Suddenly, Robin and Nancy walk in. "We've got news." Nancy speaks up, still stepping down the stairs with Robin by her side.

This should be great.

{1941 word count}

sorry it took so long i'm kinda not motivated to write rn especially since school started sooo. But i hope this nearly 2000 word chapter kinda made up for it. I also needed to add an Ava and Max part at some point so i decided to do it here. Thank you for reading, i love you all!<33

edit~

ALSO I WANTED TO SHOW YOU THE COVER FOR MY NEW MAX MAYFIELD STORY I PLAN ON WRITING

Bro i gotta write on the side it's not working but please tell me what you think about it, and also DONT YOU DARE STEAL IT MAN, and sorry it's blurry, again thanks for reading!!