◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

Time had passed.

It was the next day now.

Sam and Auggie were still at Fred's death site.

Fred's dead and broken body was only just now being covered up with a white sheet.

"—ear the scene of the crime?"

There were cop cars all around, a firetruck, and a coroner's van. The scene was barricaded off, but they didn't stop nosy civilians and news reporters from crowding on the outside and trying to look in.

"Hello? Did you hear me?"

Sam's head snapped away from Fred's covered corpse. "S-Sorry, what was that? I... I didn't catch it."

Officer Pow — Chief Powell, Sam had to remind herself; Hopper was gone, Hopper wasn't coming back — Chief Powell sighed almost sympathetically. He repeated, "Did either of you see Eddie Munson near the scene of the crime?"

Sam finally snapped out of it, head shaking. She looked at Chief Powell like he was insane.

"Wha — No! That's not important right now!" Sam motioned to Auggie, who was still throwing up in a bucket. "I told you what I saw, Chief."

Chief Powell crossed his arms, not backing down. "Well, I still want to know how you ended up at the scene, anyways."

Incredulously, Sam motioned around wildly with her hands. She snapped, "It's a road! Some people do that, you know? They go on it."

"Then where's the car?" Chief Powell asked.

Sam pointed towards her sad bike. "I'm fifteen, do I look like I can drive?"

"Is he fifteen?" questioned Chief Powell, nodding towards the retching Auggie.

She crossed her arms, shrugging cluelessly.

"I have never seen that man in my entire life."

Officer Callahan raised an amused eyebrow at Chief Powell. He mused, "Oh, she's feisty."

Sam felt the urge to grin at him but felt that would be very poor timing.

To Sam, Chief Powell started, "Alright, watch your tone—"

Oh, yeah. Sam remembered they were standing next to a corpse.

"He is dead," glared Sam, pointing at the white sheet laid over Fred. "That innocent kid is dead, and you couldn't stop it! Two teenagers in two days, and you — what? You want me to watch my tone?"

They didn't know it, but Sam knew it. She was talking about herself. She was upset at herself. She should have been able to stop Fred's death. She should have been able to stop Chrissy's. If only her mind moved just a little faster; if only she paid attention to the drawing she left behind on the AV room desk.

This was all her fault.

"Sam?" came a very familiar voice from behind.

Sam whipped around in bewilderment. "Nancy?"

Auggie coughed into his bucket, no longer retching. He questioned, "Wheeler?"

"What — What are you doing here?" Sam asked, caught off guard.

"What are you doing here?" Nancy turned the question around.

The girls had a silent conversation with their eyes. Things were happening again, they knew, just a lot different and on a much larger scale. Sam's expression told Nancy that the blonde didn't coincidentally end up at the wrong place at the wrong time; that there was something wrong going on.

"You two know each other?" Officer Daniels (a replacement officer since Powell got moved up to Chief status) broke the silence.

Sam and Nancy shared gazes again, this time trying to formulate a lie together. But—

"That's your priority right now?" Auggie finally snapped, standing up with a newfound ferocity Sam had never seen from him before. "I just saw a boy my age dead, and if you want to waste your time questioning Sam and Nancy then that's fine, but don't be an idiot—"

"Now, young man—" Chief Powell tried interjecting.

"Fred was a young man, too, and what do you care about that?"

Sam put a hand on Auggie's shoulder, watching him with concern. "Auggie—"

Auggie flinched out of her grip.

"No, you're insane!" he glared at Sam. Auggie pointed to Chief Powell, "He's insane!" Auggie motioned around himself. "This is insane, I—" his voice broke. "I just want to go home."

Sam frowned at the boy, looking at Nancy who was just as sad as Sam was. The whole situation was sad; it was a reality check for the girls. It was a reminder of just how fucked up it was to handle everything they go through at their age.

"I'm sorry," Sam said quietly.

"Look kids," Chief Powell broke in again, successful this time, "I understand this is an unpleasant situation, but to really understand what happened, I do need to ask a few questions." Then, he glanced at Sam. "And honest answers would be preferred."

Sam raised her hands in defense with an innocent shrug.

"Now," Chief Powell turned to Nancy, bringing up his notepad again, "How'd you end up here in the first place, Miss Wheeler?"

Nancy crossed her arms uncomfortably. "I was — I was over at the trailer park. I came with Fred. We... wanted to check up on a friend after Chrissy."

Sam raised an unconvinced eyebrow at Nancy while Chief Powell wrote in his notepad. Nancy met her stare and sighed, officially caught.

Chief Powell finished writing, then looked up at her, "And then?"

"Well, I started talking to Wane Munson — about what happened. I wanted to hear his side of the story before..."

"Before?" Officer Callahan prompted when Nancy trailed off.

Before you assholes covered up the real story with one that will please the naive town.

Nancy sighed. "Nothing," she dismissed.

"And after you talked to Wayne, what happened?" Chief Powell asked.

Nancy growled, a little agitatedly. She answered, "I heard barking from the dog, and then... Fred was just — gone."

"Did you see anyone lurking about?" Officer Callahan interrogated. "Who looks like they shouldn't be there?"

"No!" Nancy cried desperately. "No, no, there was nobody there! And I already told this to Officer Daniels," she said, turning towards the mentioned cop. "Did you look into Victor Creel?"

Sam's face morphed into that of confusion. She wanted to share a look with Auggie like she was so accustomed to doing, but she was convinced she'd ruined that friendship, too. Sam was scared to even look in his direction.

"Sorry, what's that?" Chief Powell communed in Sam's confusion.

Officer Daniels sighed, nodding to Nancy like 'she's just a woman, I don't know.' He answered, "Victor Creel. Wayne got it in her head that the old nut did this."

"Who's Victor Creel?" Auggie asked, a concerned note to his voice.

Chief Powell shared a look with Officer Daniels before he was looking back at the teenagers. "Victor's locked away tight, kids. You don't need to worry about him, all right?"

"You don't need to worry about Eddie, yet you're doing so, anyways," Sam muttered under her breath, although heard by everyone.

Chief Powell sighed tiredly. "Miss Hughes, you said when you found Fred, he was already dead and looked just as we found him. Do I have that right?"

But then a car was approaching, and Sam and Nancy immediately recognized it as Steve's. Both of the girls softened and looked as if they've seen an angel.

"Miss Hughes?" Chief Powell repeated.

Sam couldn't confirm the false story she'd told him. Steve was here; she wasn't alone, anymore.

"He was already dead by 8:36 P.M. Is that correct?"

Out of Steve's car came Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Max, who watched Sam, Nancy, and Auggie in confusion. The only thing Sam could think was that Max was here. All of them were here.

"Miss Hughes?"

Sam wanted to cry in relief. She blinked rapidly before she actually did cry, and sent her friends a discreet wave.

"Miss Hughes, does that seem accurate to you?"

Max waved back sadly with a tight-lipped smile.

This would be the last time Sam felt like everything would be okay.

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

There was much more going on than Sam could ever imagine. She thought that she and Auggie had been doing a lot, but apparently so had everyone else. They all recuperated together at the trailer park picnic bench — Sam, Max, Auggie, Nancy, Dustin, Robin, and Steve.

The first fact was that Eddie didn't kill Chrissy or Fred, but Sam already knew that. She watched Fred die out of thin air.

Apparently, Eddie watched the same thing happen with Chrissy.

"So you're saying that... this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it's from the Upside Down?" Nancy clarified, after they filled her, Sam, and Auggie in on what was going on.

Steve nodded, "If the shoe fits."

"I'm currently living in a world where that sentence makes sense to me," Auggie announced sassily, "I hope you all know that."

"'If the shoe fits'?" Steve repeated in confusion.

Auggie sighed, scoffed, "No, dumbass. 'Upside Down.'"

"Yeah, how'd you even end up here, August?" Robin asked suspiciously.

"August!" Steve brightened up like he'd been struck by an epiphany. "That's your name! How'd I forget your name?"

The boy in questioned looked down almost shyly (which was weird, Sam thought). He said, "Well, no one really calls me August. You can just call me Auggie."

"No one really calls you anything," Sam added unnecessarily. "You have one friend."

Robin explained to Steve that, "He was in Scoops Ahoy, like, all the time last summer."

Auggie tried to hide being flustered, but no one could escape an Empath's observations. While he looked disgruntled, Sam looked very intrigued.

"My question is how Goldie roped him into this," Robin finished.

All traces of playfulness were wiped from Sam's and Auggie's faces. They made traumatized eye contact with each other before they both looked down.

"Sam?" Dustin asked, eyes burning holes into her side.

He never called her Specks anymore.

"You told the cops that you got to Fred after he died," Nancy said. Sam slowly looked up in shame. "But that's not true, is it?"

"I—" Sam swallowed past the lump in her throat, trying to get the words out. "Auggie came to me yesterday morning after I left a drawing behind... I drew — I... predicated Chrissy's death."

The group all took in a tense intake of breath.

It was happening again.

"Then," she continued shakily, "well, we looked to see if I did anything else, and, well — I—"

"You don't have to. It's okay, Sam," interjected Max with a serious expression.

Everyone looked at Max, surprised; especially Sam. They had known Max was usually only nice to Sam, they just hadn't seen them act like that in so long.

Auggie, however, didn't give a flying fuck.

"No, it's not, really. You guys didn't see it. Her eyes went all crystal mode and her hair—" Auggie mimicked long hair flowing in the wind — "and next thing I know Fred Benson is dead in this exact scene."

Airing out Sam's dirty laundry, Auggie slapped down Sam's drawing of the road, on top of Sam's three other drawings.

"Which, killed by nothing, by the way. Want to explain that, Ghostbusters?"

Dustin explained, "Our working theory is that he attacks with — a spell, or a curse? Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer, or just loves killing teens, we don't know."

"All we know is that this is something different," Max added. "Something new."

Nancy shook her head. "It doesn't make sense."

Dustin shrugged, "It's only a theory."

"No," Nancy deferred, "Fred and Chrissy don't make sense. I mean, why them?"

"I know," Sam agreed, but for the wrong reasons. "Why couldn't Vecna have gone after Carrie, instead?"

"Sam!"

"What?!"

"Also: why these drawings?" Robin put them back on topic, shuffling through Sam's drawings. "I mean, there are four landscapes here, but... but only two deaths. What — What does that mean?"

Everyone knew what it meant. No one wanted to say it.

Two deaths so far.

Sam tried to lighten the air with, "That I'm a freak that needs to be locked up in Pennhurst?"

"You're not a freak," Auggie and Steve argued in unison. They whipped their heads at each other after that, eyeing each other in confusion.

"Sorry, dads," Sam broke in, "but this is really fucking freaky to me."

Auggie sighed, shaking his head.

"Setting Little Miss Close Encounters of the Third Kind aside here," he motioned to Sam with his movie reference. "I'm with Wheeler. Why Fred and Chrissy?"

Dustin theorized, "Maybe they were just in the wrong place? They were both at the game."

"And near the trailer park," Max added.

Sam worried, "I was at the game..."

"And we're at the trailer park?" builded Steve, unsettled by that theory.

Auggie looked around in paranoia. "Uh, personally, I enjoy my limbs intact. Should we maybe not be here?"

Everyone looked around the trailer park, too. The grass was dead, even if it was spring. The air blew in their hair, cooling their face like it was winter.

"There is something about this place," Nancy noted. "Fred started acting weird the second we got here."

Robin questioned, "'Acting weird' as in...?"

"Scared," shrugged Nancy, "on edge, upset."

Well, Sam could agree with Fred on that one.

"Max said Chrissy was upset, too," Dustin pointed out, nodding toward the red-head.

Max hummed. "Yeah, but not here. She was crying in the bathroom at school."

"Guess she—" Sam had to stifle a smile, trying to keep a mock-serious composure. "Guess she couldn't—" she swallowed a laugh. "Guess she couldn't see what was coming— OW! I'M SORRY, I COULDN'T HELP IT!"

Max rolled her eyes and sighed, trying not to smile fondly at Sam's poorly-timed joke. She retracted her hand from where it had hit Sam in the side.

Sam sighed, trying to recuperate, although she rubbed her bicep painfully. She continued, "Okay, sorry... Look... Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right? So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman—"

"Vecna," Dustin corrected.

"I dunno about you guys, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would... mention it to someone," Steve said.

"Maybe they did," Max wondered, thinking hard about it. "I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office. If you saw a monster, you... you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But... you might go to your—"

"Your shrink," Robin finished in realization.

Auggie made a noise in his throat. He started, "Well, if we're going with the 'serial killer' theory, Sam's drawings seem pretty stalkerish." Sam curled in on herself in shame as the group processed his words. "I'm new to this whole thing, but — I mean, is that how her powers work? What if she's stalking for Vec-boy?"

Sam gagged as if the thought sickened her. "Oh, please don't say that."

"Sam's powers are," Dustin sighed, "different from anything we've seen before. We don't have any answers for them, really." He paused. "Then again... I could say the same thing for this."

With eyes trained on the table, Sam asked, "So, what's wrong with me?"

No one seemed to know the answer.

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

When the group finished their discussion at the picnic table, they got ready to leave the trailer park. Everyone headed towards Steve's car. That was, except for Nancy, who tried to make it to her car without being noticed.

"I hope you know we can't all fit in your car, Steven," Sam said, walking up to the back left side.

But Steve wasn't paying attention to Sam, or the nickname she stole from Lucas. He called out, "Woah, woah, woah, Nance!" but Nancy continued speed walking. "Nance!"

Nancy turned to Steve, but still tried to retreat backwards. "Oh, there's just something I wanna check on first."

"Something you maybe wanna share with the rest of us?" Dustin wondered.

"It better not be what I think it is, Wheeler," Auggie groaned.

He shared a look with Sam. Victor Creel.

Nancy sent them both a pleading look not to say anything. She said, "I don't wanna waste your time. It's a real shot in the dark."

"Yeah, okay," Steve scoffed, unimpressed. "Are you out of your mind? Flying solo with Vecna on the loose?"

Sam muttered, "Well, I told you we can't all fit in your car."

"It's too dangerous," Steve ignored her again. "You need... You need someone to..."

Nancy raised a challenging eyebrow, daring Steve to insinuate Nancy Wheeler needed someone to protect her.

Steve sighed. He turned to Robin, said, "Here," and threw her the keys, which she surprisingly caught. "I'll stick with Nancy, all right? You guys take the car, check out the shrink."

"I don't think you want me driving your car," Robin protested.

"Why?" Steve asked frustratedly.

"I don't have a license."

"Why don't you have a license?" Steve's brows pulled together.

Defensively, Robin explained, "I'm poor!"

Steve sighed heavily, but ultimately motioned to Auggie. "Well, okay, Smiths, you can do it."

Robin threw the keys to Auggie, which he didn't even move his hands to catch.

"I'm... also poor and also don't have a license," he explained, looking at the keys as if he were scared of them.

"You — How'd you and Goldie even get here, then?" Steve questioned wildly.

Auggie simply shrugged, "We biked."

"You biked?"

"No, I'm just lying for fun — Yes, we biked," snapped Auggie. He picked the keys up from the ground and held them out like he was trying to auction them off.

Max offered, "I can drive."

"No, no!" Steve shouted with traumatized eyes. "Never again. Please. Anybody but you. No."

With a maniacal grin, Sam tried grabbing Steve's keys from Auggie. "Anybody but Max, you say—?"

Auggie swiped the keys out of reach.

"Definitely not," Auggie and Steve said in unison again.

Sam sent them an offended face. "You haven't even—"

"No," Steve snapped. "Bad driving quite literally runs in your family."

"Steve," Nancy chided.

A little away from the car, Dustin was sending Steve a mischievous face.

"No chance," Steve immediately shut him down.

Dustin whined, "Come on!"

Robin rolled her eyes, having enough. "All right, okay. This is stupid," she decided before grabbing one of Dustin's Walkie Talkie's (because he had multiple??) and handed Steve his keys back. She headed towards Nancy's side. "Us ladies will stick together... Unless you think we need you to protect us?"

Steve's face said 'haha, very funny.'

Robin looked smug and Nancy looked intrigued. After a few seconds of realizing Steve won't defend himself, Robin laughed and turned for Nancy's car.

Nancy gave a 'what can you do?' shrug and followed after Robin.

"You two be careful!" Steve called after them, knowing he wasn't able to protest anything anymore.

Robin just sent him a peace sign, and the two girls were on their way.

Once the teen girls were out of view, Sam turned to Steve. Conversationally, she asked, "So... 'Smiths'?"

Steve threw his head back in embarrassment. "Oh, shut up!"

"Sam, get in the car!" Auggie reprimanded.

"Did you notice he called you Smiths?" Sam teased. "Your favorite band? I noticed it."

Steve swatted a hand at her. "Just get in the car, Goldie."

"Well, now that we fixed the space issue—"

"Sam, I'm serious."

"All right... just for you and Smiths."

Max had gotten in the back of the left, so Sam scooted into the middle and tuned out the older teens' curses directed at her. Auggie got in the passenger seat, slamming the door in annoyance.

"Dustin, you get in, too!"

Dustin raised his hands in the air. "Fine!" he exclaimed.

"And wipe your feet."

To be annoying, Dustin stamped his feet inside the car before he sat on Sam's other side.

"On the outside! Not on the inside!" Steve cried.

He put the keys in the ignition much-too aggressively.

"Always the babysitter. Always the goddamn babysitter!"

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

Max knocked on Ms. Kelley's door while Steve, Auggie, Sam, and Dustin stayed inside Steve's parked car a few houses down. The four of them watched the door open, Max proceeding to slip inside.

"Okay. She's in," Steve announced.

Dustin rolled his eyes, "I'm missing collarbones, not eyes."

A few beats of silence followed.

"Man, you guys are weird," Auggie couldn't help himself from saying.

Dustin leaned forward into the space between the front seats. "Yeah, how are you, like, being so calm about all of this?"

Sam snorted. She was slumped back in the left-most seat with her head back on the head rest.

"You should've seen him after Fred. He almost cried."

"Okay, well, you did cry," Auggie protested.

Sam argued, "You threw up!"

Ignoring their bickering, Steve turned to Auggie. "Do we really know anything about you besides your name?"

"Yeah, do you even go to Hawkins?" Dustin wondered.

"Yes, Curly, I do," Auggie answered in exasperation. "Actually, my voice is on morning announcements every day! I'm — How did you not know that? I'm literally in AV with Sam!"

Sam and Dustin looked pointedly away from each other. Sam tried not to think about how Dustin didn't even know Sam had a job, didn't call her Specks, anymore.

"So that's what you were doing in that room!" exclaimed Steve, oblivious to the tension in the back.

Judgmentally, Auggie questioned, "What'd you think I was doing?"

"Listening to music? I don't know!"

"Are you joking?" Auggie scrutinized. "Like — Is that serious?"

"No!"

"It says 'AV Room' on the door!"

Dustin slowly looked back at Sam, silently asking what they were talking about.

Sam shrugged back at him cluelessly, not knowing the answer.

"Well, I wasn't in a state to read, now, was I?" Steve defended himself.

"I'm not even sure you can read at all, Harrington," answered Auggie. He glanced away for a moment. "See, this is why I didn't like you when you were in high school."

Steve exclaimed. "I knew it! You did hate me!"

And, with the confession Auggie just made, Steve seemed way too happy at the revelation.

"Alright, dads, this is great, but I feel more amusement watching my aunt and uncle fight, so can the custody battle please stop?"

Steve turned around to face her, bewildered at the insinuation they were co-parenting her. "You're disgusting, you know that? That's gross!"

Sam smiled back at him innocently, pretending like she had no clue what she was doing.

"Oh, what?" Auggie teased. "Wouldn't marry me, Harrington? I'm not pretty enough?"

Steve stayed in his position facing Sam, but he turned his head to Auggie; he looked absolutely taken aback, his mouth gaping blinking rapidly. "Wait. No. I — I wasn't. That didn't — You can — You can do that? Of course, you're pretty! I — Wait, I'm not — this isn't why—"

Dustin cut him off with amused laughter, "You're like bright red in the face right now."

"No, I'm not," Steve grumbled, feeling attacked. "I don't wanna talk about it. I'll punch you so hard in the face, your teeth will fall back out."

Sam's mouth dropped, and she watched the two like she was watching a soap opera.

Dustin's face fell. "Woah. Too far," he frowned.

Steve realized what he said and immediately felt guilty.

"...Not cool. Sorry."

"It's okay."

Steve nodded, then he brought his fist back for Dustin to take.

Dustin fist bumped Steve.

The rest of the waiting in the car was filled with silence.

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

They'd been waiting for Max for so long that the sun had begin to set, painting their skins in an golden tan and making Sam's green eyes glow sage.

When Max finally came out of the house, she looked rushed, panicked, and was almost running to the car.

"Here she comes," Steve muttered. "Here she comes."

Sam scooted over to take the middle seat for Max, knowing she hated touching people that weren't Sam. Max finally threw open the car door and jumped inside.

"What'd she say?" Dustin asked.

"Nothing," panted Max, "just drive."

Steve stared at Max disbelievingly. "Nothing?"

"Steve, drive!" snapped Max.

"Okay!" Steve's eyes widened. He turned forward to start the car and start speeding away.

Sam looked to Max as she the car jolted. She blurted, "You good?"

Max met her gaze and relaxed when looking at Sam. Her shoulders fell, and the anxiety was leaving her in waved. "Are you?" she asked.

Sam sighed. They both knew the answer to both of their questions.

"We'll figure all of this out soon, okay?" Sam promised, because she couldn't say anything else with as much certainty.

Max faltered. It was the most of the real Max Sam had seen in a while. "You believe that?"

"I can't believe anything else. I just... want things to go back to the way they were," Sam confessed, and they weren't talking about the Vecna situation anymore. "Before last summer."

Max watched Sam like she was the safe haven.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she smiled softly. "I miss it."

'I miss you,' she meant.

Max tried to muster up a smile. She admitted, "I miss you, too."

Sam softened up completely, all those rough edges she'd acquired over the months dulling out. Max missed her, too. Their friendship wasn't all for nothing.

And to the right, Dustin watched the two with a soft smile.

Was the Party as broken as Sam thought it was?

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

Max wasn't lying — she didn't get anything out of Ms. Kelley. Apparently, the counselor was very keen on keeping up her doctor-patient confidentiality (which, wow, really unhelpful, Ms. Kelley). So, Max did what any rational person would do.

She stole Ms. Kelley's keys into her office.

Yeah.

So, now, predictably, Sam, Max, Dustin, Auggie, and Steve were speeding towards the school so they could get into Ms. Kelley's office before they get caught for 1) trespassing and 2) stealing.

The tension in the car had them silent. It was completely quiet.

Until it wasn't.

"Dustin!" a voice came through Dustin's Walkie.

Sam brightened up. She knew that voice.

"It's Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin."

Dustin took out his Walkie from his bag with wide eyes. "Lucas? Where the hell have you been?!"

Lucas. That was Lucas's voice on the other side.

Sam wondered where he was, if he was safe. She watched the Walkie with intense eyes, heart speeding up as she heard the sound of his voice return.

"Just listen. Are you guys looking for Eddie?"

"Yeah, and we found him. No thanks to you," Dustin added passive aggressively.

Sam nudged him for that.

"You found him?!"

Dustin shrugged and answered, "He's at a boathouse on Coal Mill Road. Don't worry, he's safe."

"You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?" questioned Lucas, sounding like he was worried about their sanities.

"That's bullshit!" Dustin snapped. "Eddie tried to save Chrissy."

Lucas asked, "Then why do all the cops say he did it?"

Max took the Walkie from Dustin in annoyance. She scoffed, "Lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay? Just meet us at the school. We'll explain later."

Sam heard Lucas suck in a deep breath from the other side.

"I... I can't. I think some real bad shit's about to go down."

Sam was quick to take the Walkie from Max in concern. "What are you talking about?" she asked, worried. "What 'bad shit?'"

Lucas didn't respond.

There was static over the radio.

"Luke?" Sam tried using her powers to get through to him even if he wasn't there. "Lucas?"

Still, no response.

Without saying a word, Lucas signed off.

"What was that?" Auggie asked, thoroughly confused.

Sam, Max, and Dustin had a silent conversation with each other, ending it off with mutual understanding. Sam looked back at Auggie.

"We don't know," she answered.

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

It was properly night when the five teenagers managed themselves to the high school. They all shuffled out the car in hasty discreetness, hoping that the high school wasn't guarded at night—

Who were they kidding? The high school was never guarded.

Max let the group as they sped-walked, Ms. Kelley's keys in hand. Everyone else took out flashlights supplied by Dustin and anxiously lit up the way.

"Dustin, do you copy?" Robin's loud voice came from Dustin's Walkie.

Dustin cursed, turning the volume on his Walkie down. In a hushed whisper, he responded, "Yeah, I copy."

Robin continued, "So, Nancy's a genius. Vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bull's-eye!"

"Okay, that's... totally bonkers," whispered Dustin, "but I can't really talk right now."

"Wait — What are you doing?"

"Breaking and entering in the school to retrieve some confidential and extremely personal files."

A beat.

"Can you repeat that?"

Dustin hissed, "Just get your ass over here, stat. We'll explain everything."

Sam, Max, Dustin, Auggie, and Steve turned down another hallway. They continued holding their flashlights, sending glances over their shoulders in paranoia.

When they reached outside of Ms. Kelley's office, Max unlocked the door with Ms. Kelley's stolen key.

"Oh, this is so illegal," Sam whined under her breath.

Max glanced to the side.

"Breaking the rules is the best part."

She opened the door and they all filed in.

Max tucked the keys in her back pocket, flicking on a flashlight instead so she could see. Auggie whispered something about Sam using her powers to illuminate the room, but Dustin hissed at him for being dumb because they were trying to be discreet.

Sam had never been in Ms. Kelley's office before. Now, she also knew what everyone was thinking — why hadn't Sam seen Ms. Kelley? She was probably, like, the number one person in Hawkins in need of a shrink.

That was a great question, but the honest answer was simple: Sam avoided her like her life depended on it.

One, introductory meeting led to a second, follow-up meeting because the first one was suspicious. Then a second one led to a third, and so-forth. Sam was already dealing with enough school stuff; she did not need to add therapy to the list.

(What? She hated feeling called out.)

"It's like a mini-Watergate or something," Dustin observed, snapping Sam out of her thoughts.

Then, Max's flashlight fell upon Ms. Kelley's cabinets, which most likely held the student's files. She shared a look with Sam, and they didn't even need to communicate.

Sam was stepping forward, instinctively going to help Max. The girls opened the cabinet together, and — although Sam thought it was very wrong — searched for Chrissy's file.

"Hawkins-gate!" Dustin exclaimed from behind them, rambling about something they didn't have time to focus on.

"Wait a second," Auggie looked to him. "Didn't those guys get caught?"

Sam and Max continued searching, and then, when Max's fingers stopped on a certain label, they gasped.

"Holy shit," muttered Sam.

Steve walked over to the girls. "You found it?" he asked.

"Yeah," Max started, holding up Chrissy's file.

But, consecutively, Sam held up Fred's file. "Not just Chrissy's file. Fred was seeing Ms. Kelley, too."

The group all shared peeved eye contact, putting pieces together.

That couldn't have been a coincidence.

And then Max was sitting in the chair meant for students in a meeting with Ms. Kelley, but she scooted the chair up so she could examine the files on Ms. Kelley's desk. The other four stood behind her, shining their flashlights on the files so they could all see while Max flipped through them.

And somewhere in Nevada, Dr. Sam Owens was convincing Eleven Hopper to fight a war coming to Hawkins—

Max grew more distraught as she read the files through.

—Somewhere in California, Corey Gray, Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, and Jonathan Byers were being told they had to sit back and let everything happen—

None of the group noticed Max's distress, either zoned out or too obtuse to notice those sorts of things.

—Somewhere on a plane, Joyce Byers and Murray Bauman were on their way to Alaska in attempt to find out if Jim Hopper was truly alive—

Suddenly, there was a ringing noise all around for Sam. Her flashlight flickered.

—Somewhere in the outskirts of Hawkins, Lucas Sinclair was fooling his basketball friends that were hunting an innocent Eddie Munson—

All of the flashlights in the room went haywire, and all eyes turned towards Sam.

—Somewhere in this very room, one member of the group was stuck in a trance; a curse of death—

Sam's hands covered her ears, pain pounding in the drums. "Guys, something's wrong," she winced.

"Sam?" Steve tilted his head at her, concerned.

The flashlights blinked wildly. There was a low frequency buzzing sounding from Sam's ears. She looked around the room, brain telling her danger was near like a flashing neon sign.

Sam closed her eyes, and when she opened them, they lingered a crystal, electric blue for just a second. The flashlights stopped flickering. Her eyes faded back to green; they widened, and she looked at Max.

"It's Max," she realized.

Suddenly, they all noticed how Max had stopped reading the files. Now she was staring out into the room, looking paralyzed.

"Max?" Dustin put a hand on her shoulder, but Max didn't budge.

Sam turned Max to face her on the swivel chair. "Max," she tried, before crouching down to Max's level and looking up into her face. "Max, hey."

"Max?" asked Steve, shaking her.

If Max was paralyzed, then Auggie was in the running competition. Flashes of Fred played in his mind. He physically couldn't handle the thought of Max being unresponsive. He felt like he was going to be sick. He was working himself into a panic attack.

"Max," Sam begged, not noticing Auggie.

She put a frantic hand on her bicep, and Max finally woke up at the contact.

Max snapped out of her trance with a gasp, breathing heavily.

Max...

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

sam making unfunny jokes at the wrong time OH OLD SAM LOVERS WE ARE SO BACK

for like a second though

things are... getting there

this is sort of just more plot building but things will quickly be speeding up!!

on the bright side: samax positive interaction, stauggie being idiotic dads, sam and auggie just berating the cops, "breaking the rules is the best part"

on the negative side: SAM WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOU ARE YOU OKAY, MAX WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOU ARE YOU OKAY

episode 4 next chapter. ifykyk. but it won't be what you expect

also school's been kicking me in the ass like 2nd semester of senior year is such a struggle LMAO i just want to graduate. pls bare with me in this trying time

it's been a few chapters since the twitter au so here are some more!!

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

✿

what'd you think?