Steve pulled into the trailer park with Max immediately jumping out, promising that dropping off letters for her parents would only take twenty seconds. 

"That thing's got batteries in it, right?" Steve asked, looking towards Dustin's walking talkie. 

"I'm not even answering that question."

"Hey, I'll be back in a sec," Maggie interjected looking over to her trailer. 

"Where are you going?" Steve asked, turning to her. 

"Just over there." She returned, pointing over to her trailer. "Thought I better change, don't know how you guys stay in the same clothes for days on end. I'll be right back."

Maggie walked across the trailer park, pushing open the door. "Hey, Dad." 

"Oh hi, Maggie." Peter Fulmer returned, barely looking up from the TV. Maggie paused a second, wishing and wanting him to just question where she had been, if she was alright, but the longer she waited the louder the TV got. She sighed before moving down towards her room. 

It was small, pitiful really. Her bed was pushed in the corner, still draped in blankets from the winter months when their heater had gone out, her wardrobe taking up most of the remaining space. She headed straight to her wardrobe now, quickly gathering a new change of clothes that she thought would work well for whatever she might end up doing, monster hunting or whatever, before changing. 

She paused slightly in direct view of that door across the hall, there was something about the last few days that made her view that door differently. For across the skinny hall was what had once been her sister's room, sealed over and dark with the curtains drawn shut, despite there being nothing of any worth left in the room. 

Slamming doors. Laughter. Arguments. Jokes. Music. Love. So many things were centred on that tiny strip of floor between the two doors. 

Maggie shook her head, picking up her abandoned backpack before stuffing random items into it that she thought might be useful. She knew that she had to get a move on, she was taking too much time already and the last thing Max would want to do was wait for her.

 Giving a last glance around her room to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything that could be of worth, Maggie headed back out into the living room. 

"Bye, Dad." She said, leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Don't wait up for me. I'm going to be gone a while." 

Maggie moved away before Peter called her back. "Maggie... Your nose." 

"What?" She questioned utterly confused by what her Dad had said, until she felt the warm liquid pooling on top of her lip, blood, that constantly dripped from her nose. 

Back at the car, the three boys were still gathered on the outside of the car, when Max suddenly came from behind her trailer. "Hey, that was longer than 20 seconds." Steve accused, before noticing that she was upset. "Hey, whoa, whoa. You all right?"

"I'm fine. Just drive." Max dismissed, climbing onto the backseat. 

"Just in a sec, we have to wait for Maggie." Steve returned, looking towards where Maggie had gone, hoping for her to appear again. 

"I thought Maggie said she was going to be right back?" Dustin questioned, looking in the same direction.

"It's alright, she'll be here," Steve replied confidently despite both of them thinking the same thing. It was then that Maggie appeared, trying to subtly wipe her nose with her sleeve. 

"Woah, did something happen?" Steve asked in concern the second Maggie was in earshot. 

"No, I'm fine." Maggie returned. "I promise." She added, upon seeing Steve's disbelieving gaze. 

"Can we go?" Max asked from the back seat. 

"Right, sorry." Steve returned, hopping back in the car following wherever Max's direction led them. 

"Turn here," Max said quietly, the car soon pulling into a cemetery. 

Maggie couldn't be surprised, she knew exactly what Max was doing. Max had one final letter left in her hands and walked up to Billy Hargrove's grave with the rest of the group staying back to give her some privacy. 

There weren't many people who could sympathise with Max's situation after Billy's death, but the girl had found solace in her next-door neighbour, the only one who Max felt could offer her a shred of support away from the usual, you'll be fine bullshit. 

Maggie had already visited Billy's grave one time before, as a favour to Max who hadn't wanted to go with anyone else, and with Kaira's grave laying two plots down, it had been a very emotional experience for the both of them.  

She was almost tempted to head to Kaira's grave herself and crouch over the tombstone to brush away the dead flower petals, polishing the white lettering until it shone. But she didn't, instead settling herself to lean comfortably against Steve's car, the owner leaning beside her.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Steve asked once more. "It's just that you gave us all a scare back there. We were worried something had happened to you." 

"Nope, I'm good." Maggie smiled. "Although I'm flattered that Steve 'the Hair' Harrington was worrying about me."

Steve chuckled. "If you don't mind me asking and feel free to say no, but what's up with you and Eddie. There seems to be some weird tension there."

"Well, that's a can of worms." She returned, looking down. "In short, he was my sister's boyfriend, so naturally he got pretty close with my whole family, but after her death-" Maggie swallowed hard, despite this conversation not being as hard as it usually was when she started talking about her sister. "He just left, without saying anything. And yeah maybe it wasn't right of me to expect him to stick around, but honestly, I just needed something, something to remind me that my sister had been real after all. And her smile when she was with him, that was as real as could be." 

"Wow," Steve breathed, unsure of what to say next. "Sounds like a relationship to be envious of." 

"Indeed." Maggie returned, surprising herself at how easily she could open up to him. "I used to be so jealous of them, wondering why I never had someone who loved me so thoroughly and truthfully. Honestly, I just wanted to be cared for, loved, and I could never understand why that would never come to me as organically as it had for them."

"Yeah, I remember seeing them around school years ago now," Steve replied. "They looked happy."

"They were." Maggie returned, looking down with a soft smile. 

Max continued to sit up at Billy's grave, her letter in her hands, with the group waiting to give her time, but Steve quickly began to get worried once he didn't have his conversation with Maggie to distract him. 

"Alright, it's been long enough." He insisted, walking up the hill towards Max. 

"Steve, just give her some time," Lucas argued. 

"I have, all right?" Steve retorted. "I'm calling it. If she wants to get a lawyer, she can."

"Max. Time to giddy up, yeah? Max! Max!" Steve suddenly shouted, Maggie immediately picking herself up once she heard the concern in Steve's voice. 

"Max, wake up! Come on, wake up!" He shouted, turning back to the group who was watching in alarm. "Call Nancy and Robin!" 

Dustin immediately ran for his radio, while Maggie followed Lucas to where Steve and Max sat, soon sitting before Max and constantly calling her name to get her to come back to them. It had worked before, why wouldn't it work this time. 

A short while later, that felt like forever in everyone else's minds, Dustin returned, holding Max's walkman and various cassettes. "What's her favourite song?" Dustin demanded urgently. "Robin said if she listens...It's too much to explain now. What's her favourite song?"

The group quickly scrambled through the cassettes finding Max's favourite song, Running Up that Hill. "It's right here! Got it!" Lucas exclaimed, quickly handing it over to Steve as Maggie put Max's headphones on. 

The group sat there, waiting, hoping for something to happen. Until Max suddenly lifted into the air, Maggie falling back in shock as she watched her levitate in mid-air. 

"What the fuck." She muttered in terror before composing herself. "Max!" Maggie shouted, the others soon joining her, desperate to somehow break through to Max.

It almost appeared pointless, Max was unresponsive despite the music streaming through her headphones, until suddenly she dropped falling into Lucas' arms. 

"It's okay. I'm still...I'm still here." Max breathed. Maggie letting out a sigh of relief, almost wanting to cry at the simple words, not realising how hard she had been clutching onto Steve's arm. 

Maggie had once more found herself crashing at the Wheelers' after the eventful events of the day. Everyone slumped into random beanbags or pillows, too tired to care, with a permanent Max watch being set up as everyone was still on edge. 

"Dustin, can you hear me? Dustin? Earth to Dustin." A voice called, Maggie rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she registered the voice as Eddie's.

"Hey, it's Maggie." She replied, trying her best not to yawn. 

"Mags! Hey." Eddie called cheerfully. "Um, I'm gonna need a food delivery, like, really soon, unless you want me going out into the world."

"Yeah, that's a bad idea. There's a lot of things going on down our end but stay where you are, and we'll be there as soon as we can."

"Yeah, yeah. Listen, um...can you pick me up a six-pack?" Eddie asked tentatively, already picturing Maggie's disapproving stare. "I know, it's stupid as shit Mags, drinking right now, but a cold beer would really calm my jangled nerves."

"Yeah, we could probably do that for you..." Maggie trailed off, her eyes looking across the room only to find that Max was nowhere to be seen. "Hey, I'm gonna have to call you back."

"No, don't you da...Mags? Mags?"

"Dustin!" Maggie whisper-shouted, roughly shaking the shoulders of the teenager. "Wake up!"

"What?"

Maggie stared at him incredulously. "Where's Max?" 

"She's right there." Dustin returned, pointing to where Max's spot had previously been occupied. "A second ago. I swear, I just dozed off for...an hour."

Maggie quickly picked herself up off the ground, moving upstairs only to find Max sitting at the kitchen table, drawing with her headphones playing a constant loop of her favourite song. 

"Morning guys!" Karen Wheeler greeted. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's okay." Maggie returned, feeling small under Mr Wheeler's gaze as he stared over her and Dustin. 

She felt awkward, out of place almost, crashing at the Wheeler's house without permission. They didn't know her, yet were more than happy to offer her a place to stay, even breakfast as Dustin behind her quickly acquainted himself with, Maggie instead walked over to Max. 

"Hey, you okay?" Maggie said quietly, Max moving to remove her headphones once she sensed her presence. 

"Just couldn't sleep. People kept blasting music in my ears, for some reason." Max chuckled, Maggie soon joining her. "But Holly let me borrow some of her crayons."

"Is this what you saw last night?" Maggie prompted, looking over Max's various drawings, Nancy joining them from downstairs. 

"I mean, it's supposed to be. I thought it'd be easier to draw it out than to explain it, but...Not so much."

Nancy pointed at a certain feature of the drawing, something that Maggie immediately recognised as Vecna's victims, Chrissy and Fred. "Is that...?"

"It was like they were on display. And then there was this red fog everywhere. It was like a dream. A nightmare."

"You think Vecna's just trying to scare you?"

"With Billy? Yeah." Max nodded. "But when I made it here... I dunno, something was different. He seemed surprised, almost. Like he didn't want me there."

 "Maybe you infiltrated his mind," Dustin suggested, sitting down with a plate of pancakes. "He invaded your mind, right? Is it that big a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his? Like Freddie Krueger's boiler room."

 "Freddie Krueger?" Holly, the youngest Wheeler sibling asked, looking up at them. 

"He's a super burned-up dude with razors for fingers. And he kills you in your dreams." Dustin replied, Holly looking terrified at his response. 

"Seriously? So not the time or place." Maggie interjected. 

"Sorry. It's a movie. It's not real." He apologised before turning back to Max. "Just... think about it. What if you somehow unlocked a backdoor to Vecna's world? Like, maybe the answer we're looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing." He said, analysing it briefly before sighing. "God, we need Will." 

 "No shit. But I tried them again this morning, and it's the same busy signal."

 "Is this a window?" Nancy questioned, having better luck analysing the drawings than anyone else. 

Max nodded. "Yeah." 

"Stained glass with roses."

 "Yeah. See? I'm not so terrible after all." Max said, turning to Dustin. 

"Yeah, well, it helps that I've seen it before," Nancy replied, folding the drawings before rearranging them. 

 "Is that..." Maggie trailed off, hardly believing what her eyes were seeing.

"It's pieces of a house," Max concluded, following Maggie's train of thought. 

 "Not just any house." Nancy paused, placing the door on the front of the house.  "It's Victor Creel's house."

"Fantastic," Maggie muttered. "Not only did we have to learn about this creepy man but now we've got to visit his creepy house too."