CHAPTER TEN
↳ the next victim

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By the time Laurie, Robin and Nancy arrived at the school, something had happened. The three girls had rushed into the hallways, an unsettling feeling in their stomachs as they entered Ms Kelley's office. Max Mayfield, in all her glory, looked absolutely petrified the moment the three girls had entered the room. Laurie couldn't blame her, whatsoever, not after she heard about everything. She couldn't help feeling queasy when Steve and Dustin described it to them. Max, unresponsive yet her eyes wide open. It left Laurie feeling awful, her mouth running dry as she looked at the red head who clearly wasn't at all okay.

Max had taken them exactly where she had been led to in her vision. Laurie didn't know what she had expected to see, but she certainly didn't expect to see nothing. She blinked a few times, rubbing her eyes and turning to Max with a frown on her face.

Max shone her flashlight at the direct spot she was describing to the group. "It was here. Right here."

"A grandfather clock?" Nancy frowned, clearly very confused on why Max was describing some clock.

"Sounds oddly specific," Laurie mused, immediately wanting to slap herself for being rather blunt. "Sorry, wrong timing."

Max hesitated before whispering. "It was so real." It was very clear to them all that the girl was being truthful. They couldn't not believe her after everything that had been going on for the last twenty four hours. First it was Chrissy Cunningham, then Fred Benson, there wasn't any room for dismissing Max now. Not when she could be the next victim. "And then, when I got closer, suddenly I just...I woke up."

Dustin further added. "It was like she was in a trance or something. Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy."

Laurie interrupted, her eyes wide with confusion the moment Dustin had said that. "But Max hasn't gone floating?"

"What?" Dustin turned to the blonde in confusion.

She put her hands up in defence, trying to think of a way to properly word her thoughts. She started, "Didn't Eddie say Chrissy went floating and then her bones broke and-and then you know- eyes?"

"Well yes but-"

"Vecna's taunting his victims beforehand, then." Laurie concluded, looking at Max. "Like, I know I'm not very experienced in this thing with the downside up or whatsoever, but earlier you all said about serial killers stalking - taunting - their victims and so what if these 'visions' are what he's doing?" She sighed, running her hand through her hair. "Like, Fred was acting weird according to Nancy and I think-I think I saw Chrissy having her vision, I don't know though."

Steve looked at Laurie with confusion, furrowing his brows slightly once she had finished saying what she said. "What?"

Laurie sighed, shaking her arms slightly. "I got confused too. But like, she had been out of it all day the day it happened and I went to her about it and she-she sorta just stared off into space... like something was behind me."

"Exactly what happened to Max." Dustin nodded at her. "She just stared off into space."

Max nodded, clearly looking disturbed by Laurie's input. There must have been a small piece of her hoping that none of this connected. "That's not even the bad part."

They had all gone back to Miss Kelley's office, Max had set out both Chrissy and Fred's files. Laurie nervously opened Chrissy's while Max explained. "Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelley for help. Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away." Laurie nervously began reading the information discussed about Chrissy.

Throwing up food forcefully.

Her mother...

Laurie...

Chrissy had talked about all of that to Miss Kelley and Laurie couldn't hold herself back from shaking like a leaf. She knew about how awful her mum was, but hadn't realised the extent of which it was at. Laurie knew about her issue with eating, offering support to Chrissy but never had she expected everything to be so awful. It made her feel visibly sick. Laurie couldn't help feel like an awful... an awful friend. How could she not realise all of this sooner? How could she be so damn unapproachable to Chrissy that made the girl not talk to her sooner? She didn't want to imagine how long this had all been going on for. It made the blonde haired girl feel overwhelmingly sick. She dropped the file back onto the table, rubbing her eyes with a trembling lip.

Robin reached out and grabbed Laurie's other hand. She gave her hand a squeeze. Laurie squeezed back.

"And then... then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. Then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. These visions, they just... they kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually... everything ended."

"Vecna's curse."

"Chrissy's headache started a week ago. Fred's, six days ago. I've been having them for five days." Everyone in the room looked at her with unreadable expressions. None of them wanted to believe what she was saying. Not Max, she couldn't be cursed too. Laurie was probably squeezing the life out of Robin's hand with her firm grip. But, all Robin did was squeeze back. It was... oddly comforting. "I don't know how long I have. For Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock, so..." she looked absolutely terrified, before whispering, "looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow."

Before anyone could respond and reassure Max that what she was saying wasn't at all the case, they all heard a loud noise, flinching and turning around to look at the office door.

Steve turned and grabbed some lamp, holding it as though it was a deadly weapon. He turned to all of them. "Stay here." He instructed, leaving the room.

Once he had left the room, Laurie turned and looked at Robin. "He really is as dumb as he looks, isn't he?"

Robin nodded, . "Unfortunately, yeah."

"At least he has a pretty face." Laurie muttered, more so to herself before standing up.

"Where are you going?" Dustin asked the girl as she walked towards the door.

"Following him." Laurie replied.

"Steve specifically said to stay here."

Laurie squinted at the boy, very much confused on why he was listening to why they were all so willing to listen to whatever Steve was telling them. "What is he like your babysitter now?" None of them replied and so Laurie shrugged, walking slowly out, making sure not to make a loud noise as she tip toed. She assumed the others must have given up and followed behind her.

She turned and faced Robin, squinting while whispering, "Does he really think a lamp is gonna take out this person?"

Robin sheepishly nodded. "He's Steve, it's kinda his thing to lose fights."

The group, all stood behind Steve, listened and heard another clash, before a figure turned the corner very quickly. They all shrieked, stepping back, while Steve brandished the lamp like it was a first class weapon.

Only for them to all see Lucas Sinclair.

"It's me!-"

It very clearly was, with Dustin Henderson shinning a light onto his face.

"Lucas?" Nancy looked absolutely bewildered at the panting boy, stepping forward slightly. It was almost like he had ran a marathon. 

"-It's me."

"Jesus, what's wrong with you?"

"I'm sorry."

"I could've taken you out with this lamp!" The Harrington boy yelled, holding the lamp out. Laurie could tell, from this moment alone, that Steve 'the hair' Harrington, was actually Steve 'the babysitter' Harrington.

Or maybe Steve 'the mum' Harrington. She couldn't tell the difference at this point. Was there even a difference? Laurie had absolutely no idea whatsoever.

Lucas was still panting. "Sorry, guys. Sorry. I was..." He breathed in and then out, still catching his breath.  I was biking for eight miles." He put his hands on his thighs, still rapidly breathing from exhaustion. "Give me a second. Shit. We've got a code red."

"What?"

Lucas turned and walked towards Dustin, more specifically talking to him. "Dustin. I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails."

"Hold up, what have you been doing with them?" Laurie asked abruptly, her mouth wide open with both shock and simple disbelief.

Lucas turned and looked at the girl, too out of breath to even question what she was doing right now. He explained. "They're trying to capture Eddie, they think he murdered Jason's girlfriend, and they think you know where he is." He said the last bit more specifically to Dustin. Laurie couldn't help irking at the fact he described Chrissy as 'Jason's Girlfriend'.

Ew.

Very ew.

"You're in terrible danger."

Dustin nodded. "All right. Yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason now." He turned, looking to Max and Laurie watched as Lucas' eyes significantly widened as he realised that the 'bigger problem' he was referring to was linked to Max Mayfield.

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After just a bit of bargaining and some assistance from some people Nancy knew, Laurie, Robin and Nancy had come up with a full fledged plan. They had immediately placed the large brown envelope on the table of the Wheeler's basement, Dustin Henderson immediately picking it up and reading while Robin explained.

"Thanks to Nancy's minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame."

"-I'm now Ruth."

"-And I'm Rose."

"And I'm Evelyn? Do I even look like an Evelyn?" Laurie frowned, thinking of the fact she didn't feel as though she could embody the Evelyn persona as she should. "But, that is besides the point, by creating these entirely new personas that embody extreme intelligence and a knack for psychology, we have essentially set up a plan to talk to Victor Creel, specifically about the murder of his late family, while seeming like some freaky obsessed college students."

Dustin flicked through before commenting. "Nice GPA." Nancy thanked him with a smile.

"So we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Creel a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics--"

Robin cut in. "To which they said no."

"But we landed a three o'clock with the director."

"Which, hopefully, we will manage to either charm or guilt trip him into giving us a mini-interview with Victor, to which we will be able to understand how it is he survived the curse."

"Then maybe we can rid Max of this curse." Robin finished off, Laurie's eyes wandering to where the girl was sat. She was busy writing a bunch of letters that simply made Laurie feel ill thinking about. She didn't want some letter, she wanted Max alive and well.

She prayed they could all accomplish that.

"About that," Steve began, not sounding as thrilled as the trio were about this. To them, this chance to speak to Victor was their only chance of saving Max. If they couldn't save Chrissy or Fred, the least they could do was save Max. But, Steve, Dustin and Lucas all looked beyond confused about how this would help. "We've been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh...we got some questions."

Lucas agreed. "Lots of questions."

"So do we. Hopefully, Victor has the answers." Nancy replied, rather optimistically which enlightened Laurie a lot. She liked this side of the girl, the side that loved solving mysteries and being on the right tracks.

"Wait... Wait... Wait a second. Uh..." He looked up, giving a confused look as he stuttered out in confusion. "Where's mine?"

Laurie shrugged. "Unless you wanna take up the alias of Evelyn Hutchens, then you better stay put." Steve gave her a look and began to follow after Nancy the moment she walked up the basement stairs. Laurie turned to Robin, very confused. "Is he doing okay?"

Robin shook her head. "He's got a case of left out syndrome. It'll pass." She offered an arm to Laurie. "You coming to see Wheeler's room? I am very curious to see how exactly she has decorated her room. I'm just praying I do not see flashcards and spider diagrams absolutely everywhere."

Laurie nodded. "I imagine a very classy and casual theme."

Meanwhile, Laurie could already hear Steve arguing that he shouldn't be placed onto immediate babysitting duty. 

She had walked into the room, seeing Nancy frustatedly explain that the kids in the basement weren't really kids and that Steve needed to watch after them because Max needed to be watched by someone who wasn't exactly the same age as her. Laurie would've opted to stay, though she partially wanted to spend more time with both Robin and Nancy and also a small piece of her was curious about Victor Creel.

He had haunted her childhood because of her father's "spooky" stories. Laurie needed closure. She needed to know that a human man could never commit such crimes against the people he loved.

She needed that closure that only a real monster could do such a thing.

Laurie had been immediately in love with Nancy Wheeler's bedroom. She plopped herself down on the bed, her body springing up with a bounce.

Nancy deadpanned at her. "Please don't do that."

Laurie nodded, giving a mock salute. "Right." She stood up, moving towards Nancy's wardrobe, inspecting the clothes Nancy had.

Meanwhile Steve was still giving his arguments on why he should be coming with them. Laurie didn't care. She turned her head towards Robin who was absolutely giddy while messing around with all Nancy's trinkets.

"Can you please not touch anything?" Nancy had asked the girl as she eyed all her trinkets, picking them up and misplacing them. She was still rummaging through her clothes, probably trying to find the perfect outfit for meeting a suspected serial killer.

"I can't do anything here, Nance." Steve complained, clearly not liking the idea of staying. Laurie rolled her eyes at his behaviour. "Maybe I can be helpful with this asylum director dude .I don't know. I could turn on my... my charm."

"Very charming indeed." Laurie rolled her eyes, clearly sarcastic though Steve mistook her for genuineness.

"Thank you! See—" He gave Laurie a look of realisation. "You were being sarcastic, weren't you?" Laurie smirked at him and went back to pulling out blouses that were way too frilly (though she found them very cute). She pulled out a long pink skirt and eyed it up with a grin.

Nancy Wheeler had taste. Excellent taste in fact.

"Not the charm we need." Nancy remarked, causing Steve to wince. She exhaled heavily. "I just...I did a little digging last night, and it turns out this Dr. is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Harvard visiting scholar, okay? This is a lifelong student of the world. If we're gonna win him over, we're gonna have to convince him we are too. That, like him... we are true academic scholars."

Steve turned and eyed at Robin, who was clearly too fascinated with the music box. Holy shit. There's a little ballerina in here." She bit her lip slightly, making an excited noise,

Steve looked from her to Nancy, not at all convinced. Academic scholar? She's giving you an academic scholar vibe?"

Laurie snagged a pair of high heels from the ground, glancing from them to Steve. "You don't fit the criteria either, not to sound mean or anything." She gave a smile, wincing ever so slightly when Steve deadpanned at her. "I'm just putting it out here, none of this is actually about us being academic scholars. It's all a performance and the end goal is for us to meet Victor Creel and cure Max of this Venga thingy stuff. We don't need to be actual academic scholars."

Nancy nodded. "She's right." She pulled out a dress from her closet, grinning slightly. "And she will."

Robin paled. "Oh, please, tell me you're joking."

Laurie pulled out a pair of white heels, hitting them together with a grin on her face. "You'll be great."

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uh so

can we ignore how I forgot to update?

ima be honest, I had an entire chapter written in October and just forgot to post it im so sorry