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𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧

𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓼𝓲𝔁:
"𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎, 𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢
𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚌𝚔."

╚═════ ∘◦ ミ ☾ ◦∘ ══════╝

MACKENZIE SAT OUTSIDE of Ms. Kelly's house in Steve's car with Steve and Dustin. Max had gone inside to get information about Chrissy, her being sent inside because she was also one of the students that went to go see Ms. Kelly.

She watched as Max glanced back at the car before following Ms. Kelly into her house and sighed once the door shut. There had been a dull throbbing in her head ever since she heard the news that Chrissy died, and it had gotten slightly worse ever since finding out new information about the Upside Down and Fred. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and tried to force herself to stay awake.

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

"I'm missing collarbones, not eyes," Dustin commented. The car went silent for a moment. "So, we gonna talk about . . . it?"

"Huh? Sorry, talk about what?"

"Your temporary insanity earlier today when you basically threw yourself at Nance?"

Mackenzie slightly giggled in the back seat. Steve turned around and glared at her, making her stop, but there was still a smile on her face.

"Okay, first of all, that's not what happened, okay?" Steve insisted.

"Pretty sure that's what happened," Dustin replied. "It was pretty public. There were, like, a lot of witnesses."

Mackenzie leaned forwards in her seat. "I'm one of them. Can confirm that's what happened."

Steve stared at Dustin. "Are — are you implying I still have a thing for Nance?"

"No, I'm not implying, I'm stating," Dustin responded. "And, as it relates to your steadfast refusal to date Robin, it's pretty much the only logical explanation."

"That's not the only one. And as for Nance, I was just trying to protect a friend."

Mackenzie raised her eyebrows. "Uh-huh."

Steve glared at her. "A friend, Kenzie. Okay? I don't wanna find her in the morning with her eyes sucked out of the front of her skull by this Vecna creep."

Dustin laughed. "You're, like, bright red in the face right now."

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

"Hey," Mackenzie protested. "That was too far."

Steve blinked. "Not cool. Sorry."

"Not cool," Dustin repeated. "It's okay."

Steve then lifted up a fist. Dustin hit his own fist against it. Steve then held it back to Mackenzie, who rolled her eyes playfully and hit her first on his. She then slumped back into the seat, crossing her arms across her chest and staring out the window.

In reality, it was maybe about ten minutes, but to Mackenzie, it felt like an eternity. There were only so many interesting things she could look at through the window. Her head rolled over on the seat to look at Ms. Kelly's house, only to see Max walking quickly out of it. She immediately straightened up.

"Here she comes, here she comes," Steve stated.

Max got into the back seat.

Dustin looked at her. "What'd she say?"

"Nothing, just drive," Max urged.

"Nothing?" Steve asked.

"Steve, drive!"

"Okay."

Steve put the car in drive and immediately sped off.

Mackenzie glanced at Max. "She didn't tell you anything?"

"No," Max answered. She then held up a key. "So I took the key to her office."

Mackenzie immediately laughed and held up her hand for a high-five, which Max happily obliged in. "You're a genius."

Steve continued to drive away from Ms. Kelly's house. None of them really talked in the car, so Mackenzie just looked back out the window and watched as the Hawkins scenery just flashed by. The only sound that broke the silence was static coming from Dustin's walkie, which made him take it out of his backpack.

"Dustin?" Lucas' voice echoed from Dustin's walkie, making Mackenzie's eyes widen. "It's Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin."

He lifted up the walkie to his mouth. "Lucas? Where the hell have you been?"

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

"Yeah, and we found him, no thanks to you."

"You found him?" Lucas questioned.

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

"You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?"

Mackenzie leaned forwards in her seat, and Dustin moved the walkie closer to her. "No he didn't. Eddie tried to save her, not kill her."

"Then why do all the cops say he did it?" Lucas argued.

Max snatched the walkie from Dustin. "Lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay? Just meet us at the school, we'll explain later."

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

Mackenzie's eyebrows knit in confusion. "What do you mean? Lucas, where are you right now?"

"Sinclair!" a familiar voice then shouted in the background.

Mackenzie immediately froze. She knew that voice all too well. All of the pieces started to fit together in her head.

"Lucas?" Max inquired when the radio went to static. "Lucas?"

"He's with Jason Carver," Mackenzie told them. "You know, Chrissy's boyfriend? Lucas went to a party with the basketball team the night that Chrissy . . ." She swallowed nervously. "Died. And trust me, I know how angry someone can feel when someone, or in this case, something else hurts their significant other. And especially since Chrissy's d-dead, I have a feeling that Jason is going on a rampage. How much you wanna bet that Lucas is stuck with him while they hunt for Eddie?"

Dustin sighed. "God, I hate Jason."

"I do too. Like, he literally called me Mack."

Dustin turned to face her with wide eyes. "He called you Mack?"

Steve glanced at her incredulously through the rearview mirror. "There's no way he called you Mack."

Mackenzie nodded gravely. "He called me Mack."

"That son of a bitch," Max commented.

"Tell me about it."

༻✦༺༻✧༺༻✦༺

IT WAS NIGHTTIME when they reached the school. The four of them each took a flashlight and turned it on, heading into the high school. Dustin kept his walkie out just in case anyone tried to contact them again.

Mackenzie shone her flashlight through the doors, watching as the light bounced off of the lockers. Steve opened the door and held it open for all of them. Together, the group of four started to quickly walk down the hallway on high alert.

"Dustin, do you copy?" Robin's voice echoed from Dustin's walkie.

"Yeah, I copy," Dustin replied.

"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, but I can't really talk right now."

"Wait, what are you doing?" Robin asked.

"Breaking and entering into school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files," Dustin responded.

"Can you repeat that?"

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

Finally, they reached Ms. Kelly's office. Max put the key in the lock and turned it. Instantly, the door unlocked and opened for them. Mackenzie followed after Max into the dark office, shining her flashlight around. Max immediately headed towards the filing cabinets, where no doubt all of Ms. Kelly's student files were.

"It's like a mini-Watergate or something," Dustin admitted. His eyes then widened in realization as Max opened up the filing cabinet and began to look through the files. "Hawkinsgate."

"Wait a second, didn't those guys get caught?" Steve questioned.

Mackenzie blinked. "Are you seriously talking about this right now?"

"Holy shit," Max breathed out.

"You found it?" Dustin inquired as Steve approached Max.

"Yeah, and not just Chrissy's file. Fred was seeing Ms. Kelly too."

Mackenzie felt her grip tighten on her flashlight. Oh, this was definitely not good.

Max sat down at the desk and opened up Chrissy's file. Mackenzie blinked back her tears once she saw the photograph of Chrissy paperclipped onto the file. Max lifted up a piece of paper, only to reveal another one that had a list on it. It read past trauma, terrible nightmares, difficulty sleeping, headaches.

"Can I see Fred's file?" Max asked.

Steve handed her the file. However, when Max opened it up, it had notes that listed the exact same symptoms, this one including nosebleeds. Mackenzie's eyes slowly widened and she looked down at Max. All of these things . . . Mackenzie had noticed that Max had all of them, especially recently.

Past trauma.

Max's scream in the mall as Billy got killed by the Mind Flayer.

Terrible nightmares.

Max admitting quietly to Mackenzie that she kept seeing the Mind Flayer in her dreams.

Difficulty sleeping.

Max looked more tired than ever.

Headaches.

Max taking some Tylenol in the school hallway at her locker.

Nosebleeds.

A drop of blood falling from Max's nose onto her test in math class.

Mackenzie suddenly felt herself get sick to her stomach. She had noticed all of these things about Max, and yet she hadn't done anything about it. And if Chrissy and Fred had all the same symptoms . . .

"Max, what is it?" Dustin asked. "Max! Max!"

Mackenzie looked down at her friend. Max was staring blankly ahead, no expression on her face. Dustin reached out and shook Max's shoulders, but she didn't snap out of it at all. Mackenzie felt fear creep into her throat and her heart beat against her chest.

"Max, come on," Dustin said.

"Max?" Steve questioned.

"Come on, Max," Mackenzie encouraged. "Max!"

She placed her hand on Max's shoulders and shook her a little harshly. With a gasp, Max finally snapped out of it. She glanced frantically around the room for a moment. Panic flashed through her eyes and across her face. Mackenzie stared at her in concern.

The door then suddenly flew open. Mackenzie immediately jumped and whirled around with her flashlight to see who it was. It was only Nancy and Robin, back from their trip to the library. Mackenzie let out a breath of relief. At least they hadn't gotten caught.

"What happened?" Nancy demanded, noticing their panicked states.

"T-There was a grandfather clock," Max responded. "A — a grandfather clock in the wall. Come on, I'll show you."

Max shakily stood up from her chair and left the room. Mackenzie's eyebrows knit in confusion and she followed after Max, the others trailing behind them. Max led them to a certain hallway in the school. However, when all of their flashlights shone on the wall, there was nothing. And especially no grandfather clock in the wall.

"It was here," Max insisted. "Right here."

"A grandfather clock?" Nancy inquired.

"It was so real. And then, when I got closer, suddenly, I just . . . I woke up."

"It was like she was in a trance, or something," Dustin announced.

Mackenzie swallowed nervously. "Like what Eddie said about Chrissy."

Max turned to face them all. "That's not even the bad part."

Mackenzie stepped closer to her comfortingly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, instead of standing out in the hallway in the open, we should probably discuss it in Ms. Kelly's office," Steve suggested.

Together, the six went back to Ms. Kelly's office. Max stood in front of them all to talk about what she saw. Mackenzie stood behind the desk next to Steve, her arms crossed over her chest. She continued to look at Max in concern. Mackenzie had never seen Max look so frazzled except for when that whole thing with Billy and the Mind Flayer was going on last summer.

"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Ms. Kelly for help," Max began, showing Fred and Chrissy's files to Robin and Nancy. "Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that just wouldn't go away. And then . . . then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping, they'd wake up in a cold sweat. And then they started seeing things. Bad things, from their pasts. And these visions, they just . . . they kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually . . . everything ended."

Mackenzie felt like she just got punched in the stomach, watching as Max got choked up talking about it and how tears started to fall down her face. And the whole ending thing . . . if Mackenzie was right with Max and these symptoms, that meant the end was coming for her too. But it couldn't.

Robin looked up from the files. "Vecna's curse."

"Chrissy's headache started a week ago," Max stated. "Fred's, six days ago. I've been having them for five days. 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. And I just saw that God damn clock, so . . . looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow."

Mackenzie opened her mouth to protest, because there was no way in hell that she was letting that happen, but she was cut off by the metal squeak of a door opening in the distance. She whirled around and looked at the door. Everything was silent again.

"Stay here," Steve ordered.

He started to approach the door. Steve then looked around for a moment and noticed a standing lamp in the office. He grabbed it and unplugged it, taking it with him as a weapon into the hallway. Mackenzie slowly followed after him, gesturing the others to join her.

They all walked into the hallway cautiously. There was the sound of another door opening and loud footsteps. Mackenzie gripped tighter onto her flashlight, suddenly wishing that she had that spiked bat that Steve had used before.

The footsteps got closer and closer until finally a person showed up. Steve raised the lamp with a battle cry, making Mackenzie and everyone else yell too as they scrambled backwards. However, there was also a new yell, a familiar yell. Mackenzie raised her flashlight and shined it right at the newcomer. It was Lucas.

"It's me!" Lucas shouted.

"Lucas?" Nancy voiced.

"It's me!" Lucas repeated, sounding very out of breath.

"Jesus, what's wrong with you, Sinclair?" Steve demanded.

Lucas placed his hands on his hips and breathed heavily. "I'm sorry."

"I could've taken you out with this lamp!"

"Sorry, guys. Sorry. I was just — I was biking for eight miles. Give me one second. Shit. We've got a code red."

"What?" Steve asked.

Lucas walked past Steve. "Dustin, Mackenzie, I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone, like, totally off the rails."

"Yeah, I assumed as much," Mackenzie replied.

"They're trying to capture Eddie, and Dustin, they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger."

"All right, yeah, that — that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason right now," Dustin said.

Mackenzie involuntarily glanced over at Max. Bigger problems was definitely an understatement for this.

☾ ★ ☽

me when I found out henry creel / one / vecna made the mind flayer shaped like a spider because he liked spiders: 🫢

I love how all of them just know that no one else can call her mack lol

also WHERE THE FUCK WAS STEVE'S BAT IN ST4

and bruh like why does the stranger things soundtrack make me want to cry. the theme song? kids? the first I love you? I'M GONE