Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Great War

They moved around the house, almost silent. It had been Lucas who said they should take their shoes off- they'd be too noisy with them. Annie was just glad she decided to wear shoes with socks, otherwise it'd be gross.

Her music played loud in her ears, the only sound in the room she was in. In her one had, a lantern with a blue lightbulb to detect Vecna. In her other, a notepad and pencil to talk to the others.

Annie felt like her heart might pound right out of her chest. She has never been a fan of the dark, so this pretty much sucks. Especially knowing that, yes, people she knew were in the house, but so was a monster. One that had access to her mind.

As Annie crept around the attic, Lucas and Max were on the second floor and Erica on the first, all doing the same. They had all parts of the house covered.

Annie came close to a corner, then paused. She felt someone else in the room with her. Turning, very slowly and carefully, she felt her whole body relax at the sight of Erica, Lucas, and Max.

But then it tensed right back up when she read Erica's note in her outstretched hand.

'Found Vecna.'

The group followed their youngest member all the way down to the glowing blue lantern situated in the kitchen. As she got closer, Annie looked down at her own lantern and noticed it's intense glow.

She turned and looked back to the others, and patiently waited for Erica to finish writing her note.

'Phase one?'

They all nodded at her, and she nodded back. A second later, with her shoes back on, Erica was hurrying out of the house to get phase one started. It required her over at the playground with a flashlight to get the Upside Down crew's attention.

Knowing it would be a second before they could do anything more, the other three sat down and started their long wait. They went a couple rooms away, not wanting to stay too close but also knowing they couldn't go far.

With their lanterns sitting on the coffee table, Lucas and Max took the arms of the couches. Annie sat on the couch next to Max, staring at her sock covered toes as Bonnie Tyler continued to serenade her.

Max was right. Annie still wasn't tired of the song. All she did to keep herself entertained was play the scene from the movie over and over in her head. It wasn't the most heroic scene, chicken fighting with tractors, but it made her smile every time. How one character's incompetence managed to get him to victory.

Only because the others didn't know he had no idea what he was doing. They all believed him to be that ballsy. It made Annie wanna be ballsy, too. Maybe that helped her make such a decision, being bait. Who knows.

Annie looked over at Max and Lucas at one point, seeing them 'talking.' She didn't watch the words they wrote back and forth, since it didn't involve her.

If she had, she would've been blushing like mad. Lucas had asked Max if everything was okay, sort of referencing the talk she and Annie had before they came inside the house.

Max said she was, thought for a second longer, then added what they had confessed to each other and how excited she was.

Lucas pointed out that everyone knew they loved each other, it was so obvious in the way they acted with each other. Especially after Annie was curse.

Max shrugged and replied with how she also knew she always loved Annie, she just hadn't put words to it until then. And she liked how Annie led the charge. It made her worries of one-sidedness die down.

Lucas smiled and held back the laugh he wanted to let out. Instead, he told Max he was really happy for her. And that he was glad they finally got together, and that once they told the Party, he realized that's why they had broken up.

Max apologized, but Lucas shook his head. He was okay, because he still had two amazing friends.

The conversation died down after a few more exchanges. Annie was still none the wiser, having taken to picking at a string on the couch cushion.

I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night.

Lucas jumping up from his spot on the couch caught Annie's attention. She looked over and saw Erica clicking the flashlight over to them. Lucas responded.

Now, it was time for the next phase, number two. Distracting Vecna.

They started to move back up, but Max stopped Annie with a hand on her shoulder and pointed down at the brunette's shoes. Annie nodded and kneeled down to slip her converse back on. Now, Vecna would know she's there.

Her footsteps were suddenly audible, but not by very much. She was used to walking lightly around the house. But she knew it would be enough for Vecna to hear her.

Now it was her turn. Annie reached a hand back, blindly looking for Max's. The redhead knew exactly what to do, and grabbed onto it tight.

Annie squeezed Max's hand, then slipped it out of the grip to move her headphones off her ears. Then, she hit pause on the Walkman. Her mind was open.

"Hey!" Annie called out, her own voice nearly making her jump, her ears not used to the loud noise. "I'm here, alright! You got me. No music, no games. Just me."

No movement. Annie let herself calm down for a second, waiting in hopes Vecna was just slow. But the light didn't fade, meaning he wasn't moving.

"I'm right here!" Annie yelled. "Just a few days ago, all you could do was torture me. Now what are you waiting for, huh? Come on!" Her impatience grew from her fear. This plan needed to work, and it was hinging on this right here.

The light in the middle dimmed back to it's normal strength. The lantern in Annie's hand suddenly started to glow brighter, and that's when they all knew for sure Vecna was on the move.

Slowly, they kept up with Vecna as he moved through the house. Annie led the group, since she was the one holding the lantern that was tracking Vecna. Creeping up the stairs, all the way up to the basement, Annie knew it was time.

Max and Lucas were off to the side, watching Annie's every move. Annie was getting ready when the light suddenly died down.

Her whole body stopped and she almost felt betrayed. "What- what are you waiting for? I'm right here. On a silver platter. Right here!"

She paused, watching the light, and for a moment it was just her and the lantern. "I know you can hear me. I know you can read my thoughts. Every. Single. One. But I know you like the bad ones. Right?"

Another pause. Annie let out a shaky breath and started doing something she knew Max would be pissed about. First, she put the lantern down on one of the little tables in front of her. Then, the part that was not the greatest idea, she removed the headphones and walkman from her person.

Max opened her mouth to protest, but Annie put her hand up. She gave a slow nod, and set the set down beside her. It was still close enough that it anything happened, Max would be there to save her.

Annie sat down on the floor in front of the lantern, hugging her knees to her chest and resting her chin on top of them. In her mind, the lantern was Vecna. That is who she was talking to. Plus, it kept her eyes from wandering to Max and Lucas.

"I remember what you said. A few days ago. Or, what you had Holly and Meghan say if we wanna be accurate, and... and you were trying to scare me. Like you did to everyone else- taunt the prey before you kill, but... you were right. About it all."

A heavy silence was suffocating Annie. She kept going. "I blame myself all the time for what happened to them. I used to call them my best friends, and I let them die? How... how 'best friend' of me. And it's all my fault. I should've been with them more, and I sit and wonder late into the night what would have happened had they been with me the night they were flayed. If maybe we had brought them in on everything, expanded the circle, maybe even come even closer.

"But I didn't. I ignored them. I acted as if two of the more important people in my life didn't exist. Like they weren't there for me when no one else was. As if... as if they had meant nothing all along. As if... once I found Max and became friends with the Party again, I no longer required their services.

"So you were right. I didn't care about them. Not until it was too late to do anything. Not until they were trying to kill me in that damn hospital. That was when my mistakes finally dawned on me. And by then, it was all about me wishing I wasn't about to die. They did instead, though, and I think that makes it worse. Because I had to go on, knowing exactly what I did to them and look their poor families in the eye and apologize for the loss. I might as well have been the one to do it. My knife was already in their backs.

"They didn't deserve it. But I do. For everything. For who I am, and for what I've done. So that's why I'm here, sitting in this attic. For you to finish the job."

It was dead silent when Annie finished. Tears had started to poor out in silent streams. She didn't have the will to brush them away, though, so she let them drip all the way down.

"This is all true?" Max asked, causing Annie to gasp and turn around. "Do you... do you blame me?"

Annie shook her head. "No, no, of course not- wait, why are you talking?" Something wasn't right.

"Is that why you became distant? Because you want to blame me? Or are you waiting for some other freak to come along so you can abandoned me, like you did them? Are you leaving me for dead?" Max asked, turning to face Annie.

She quickly stood up. "No! Absolutely not, how could you say that?" she asked. The tears were coming down faster. "Max, I love you, please-"

"Because it's what you did to them. And you always talked about how close you guys were. So what happens to me? Am I another thing for you to drop and kill just because you don't want to deal with me anymore?"

Max started getting closer to Annie, and Annie took matching steps back. "Max, please, you know I would never do that to you."

"I bet you would say the same thing to Meghan and Holly, right?" Annie let out a sob at that comment. "Maybe it's a good thing Vecna cursed you. Maybe it's a great thing you'll be the last sacrifice."

Annie heard Max's voice getting distorted the more she talked. "The final sacrifice."

A cold realization hit Annie. It was Vecna. He had taken the bait.

"Get away from me," she said, her voice strong and unwavering.

Betrayed crossed "Max's" face. "You... you said you wanted me to finish the job. You said to finish the job!"

Annie was getting backed into a corner. Which, lucky for her, meant she could grab a weapon propped up on the wall. Her hand found something long enough for her to smash against Vecna's head.

"Get away from me!" She swung the object around and it shattered on "Max's" head. Annie started to run immediately, not taking the chance to look back and see if it was still "Max" or if he gave up and went back to Vecna.

"Annie, can you hear me?" Max asked, kneeling on the ground in front of her frozen girlfriend. When there was no reply or movement, Max looked over to Lucas. "It's time for phase three."

He didn't respond, he just hurried over to the window and started clicking the flashlight at Erica to get the Upside Down crew in motion.

When the pair thought they were going to have a long, tense wait, the universe had other plans.

A/n: cliffhanger! he he. Also, during the master of puppets scene, do you know how hard that was to write? There are so many things happening that I was doing three chapters at once to get the layout I wanted. It was rough.

See you tomorrow!