Chapter Eighty-Four: Right Where You Left Me

It was a small service. Annie's wasn't the only one happening in town, so the Harrington's didn't do anything spectacularly huge. Plus, half the town was destroyed. They didn't have a church to hold any kind of service in. Hell, there was barely enough usable cemetery for them to use.

Max's eyes were cast to the ground, unmoving from the blades of grass she had decided to find interesting. The pastor went on, speaking about how Annie was in a better place, and that her time in this mortal world will be forever cherished.

When he made some comment about loved ones, Max felt a hand gently place itself on her shoulder. It was Lucas's, she knew that. He was the only one to dare approach her. Even though the others had come back to Hawkins the day before- El, Will, Mike, Johnathan, and some dude named Argyle- they didn't know what the hell to do.

Max cast a glance at Lucas, but didn't want to look for long. She didn't want to see his pity, or anyone else's.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will the memories from that night away.

When Annie's chest stopped moving, Max's entire world shattered.

"Annie? Annie?" she begged, shaking her girlfriend's shoulder. "Annie!"

But there was nothing. No movement of any kind, no pulse beneath Max's shaking fingers. It hit her all at once. Max let out a scream, pushing all of her emotion into it. She didn't stop screaming until her lungs were literally empty and her throat was raw. And even then, she'd get more air and keep screaming.

When her throat her too much to keep going, Max sobbed. She leaned down with her face as close to Annie's chest as she could get it and sobbed.

There was a groan off to her right, and Max slowly looked over and saw Jason struggling to get up. "You," Max spat, her word like venom. Jason froze and looked at her, the wild animal demeanor suddenly gone. "This is all your fault. If you hadn't shown up, if you hadn't ruined everything, she'd still be here! Annie would still be alive!" Max screamed.

She turned back to look at Annie's face. She didn't even die peacefully. Tears had spread blood even further down Annie's face. "I would still have the love of my life, the one thing keeping me going. It's all gone... she's all gone," Max sobbed.

Max's wails echoed around the house. Lucas and Erica sat on the bottom of the stairs, Erica crying silently into Lucas's shoulder. He had his arm around her, trying to stay strong, and failing.

It was not long after that the "earthquakes" hit. A gate started rapidly opening under Max and she had to quickly drag Annie away so she wouldn't be lost to it. Jason managed to slip away alive, but the spreading gate took his leg.

The pastor said something, and Max looked up to see the casket was being lowered into the ground. The official goodbye. She could hear Steve crying over to her left, but refused to look. Otherwise, she'd break down again.

Steve was over by his parents, who came back to town as soon as they heard of the "earthquake". When they did, they were met with news of Annie's death. It pissed Max off to no end how they suddenly decided to care. Now that she was gone, they cared.

Nancy, Robin, Johnathan, and Eddie were right beside Steve. Robin was hugging him, letting him sob into her shoulder and soak her black dress. Her own face was wet with never ending tears. Nancy and Eddie were the same way.

Once it was all done, Max just wanted to go. Lucas's family had given her a ride, she'd just go with them and get home. Once there, she planned to never ever leave her room again. Facing a world without Annie, her Barbie, by her side didn't seem possible.

"Max?" The redhead froze and looked up. Annie's mom had hardly ever spoken to her before. She didn't know how to react. "I, uh, I know you and Annie were close... probably her closest friend. I figured she'd appreciate it... uh..."

Mrs. Harrington used the tissue in her hand to wipe some tears away, then took a deep breath, and tried to continue with a strong voice. "I would like for you to come over, see her room. You can take anything you'd like. Whatever you want to remember her by. I know that's what she'd want."

It was the last thing Max wanted to do, but she couldn't tell Annie's mother no. So, she nodded, and followed the Harrington's to their car. Except for Steve. Nancy and the others had ushered him away and said they'd bring him back home.

The drive was silent and tense. Mr. Harrington was completely still behind the wheel, Max only hearing him sniff once and a while. Mrs. Harrington was trying to pull herself together, but it wasn't going very well.

Small talk would be stupid in this situation, so Max just stared at the floor of the car and waited for them to get to the house.

When they did, Max let the adults lead her inside the garage and into the house. Mrs. Harrington looked at her and nodded, giving the silent signal for her to head on up to Annie's room.

She did, and when she got there, she shut the door behind her and took in everything. Max took in a deep breath and leaned agains the door. A crippling noise confused her at first, but then she remembered the paper in her pocket.

The will Annie had left her, along with the picture and note. Max had already looked at the will and only read the funeral instructions left in there. With some help from the others, all the things Annie wanted at her funeral were checked off. Her parents didn't resist or ask questions.

Max had ignored the rest then. She couldn't now. Pulling the papers out, Max looked at the will first. It really only had a few specific things. A certain stuffed animal on her bed needed to go to Steve. Will needed to get a little project Annie was secretly working on, her as a Dungeons and Dragons character. She had been working on it nonstop until it was perfect.

El was the only other person on the list. Annie wanted her to have a notebook that she'd been writing in. There was supposedly a lot of things in there about the real world, tips and tricks for everything, the Angela situation, Mike- everything.

Max set all those things aside on Annie's desk, making sure she wouldn't forget them. Then, she finished reading the will. All Annie wanted was for Max to take anything she wanted, to let the others maybe have something. Her only rule was nothing be carelessly thrown away.

Annie was worried about being forgotten, but Max had no idea how that could happen.

Now that that had been read through, Max set it down and looked at the drawing Annie had done for her.

It was them, celebrating the New Year in her backyard. More tears slipped out, and Max smiled. She wondered if this was the memory she tried.

Max carefully set it with everything else, then went to sit on the edge of Annie's bed. It scared her, reading these last words. Max looked at the ring on her finger. The same one she hadn't taken off since Annie had given it to her.

A silver band with the heart cut out. That's how she felt. Steve had given Max the other ring, Annie's ring, but Max couldn't bare to wear it on her finger. She was scared of people asking her about the rings. She couldn't tell them the truth.

So, she put it on a chain and wore it around her neck always. The ring itself was always nestled under her shirt, never allowing anyone to see it. They wouldn't understand.

She took a deep breathing, looking away from her ring, and read the note left behind.

Max:

If you're reading this, that means we lost. The first thing I want you to know is it was not your fault. I never want you to blame yourself. Ever. Because this would never be your fault. I know you'd try everything in your power. So I don't want to hear it.

The second thing you need to know is that I love you. So, so much, Maxine Mayfield. My Red. I hope I could tell you this in person first, but if not, know that I think I always loved you, ever since we first met in the middle school hallway.

Keep going. I know I'd be a wreck if I lost you, so I know you're going to be a wreck now. Just don't lock yourself off from everyone. Don't hide away. Lean on the others. Lucas, Steve, Robin, El, Will, Dustin, Mike, Nancy. Please don't be alone.

I love you, Red. I always will.

Barbie

P.S. I have a secret little box of polaroids I got others to take of us and you. Just to try and capture all the little moments I wanted to hold onto for forever. The box is in my closet, top shelf on the left buried under a few things. Didn't need my parents seeing that. That's all yours.

Max set the letter down, her hands shaking as she did. She used Annie's desk chair to get up to the top shelf of the closet and find the box. It was under some hats, costumes, and other random things.

When it was out, Max went and sat on the floor with her back leaned against Annie's bed. She took in a deep breath and let it out before lifting the lid.

The box- a shoe box, so a decent size- was completely full of polaroids. All kinds of them, but the first one Max saw was of her and Annie cuddled together on the Harrington couch, out cold.

Memory after memory, they were all in here. Sleepovers, hang outs, some people mid-laugh, others with the funniest faces. Each one brought more tears to Max's eyes, but she was laughing, too.

She pulled out one that was face down, and turned it over, curious to know what was captured there. The image made her freeze.

It was her and Annie in the middle of their New Year's kiss. Someone had managed to take a pretty sneaky photo of them through the glass. They were both holding each other's faces and Annie had one of her legs slightly bent with her foot out a bit.

They look so in love. And they are.

Were. They were.

Everything was catching back up to her. The fact that these were all Max had left of Annie. The polaroids, the objects, the rings. She'd never have her Barbie back, just what she left behind.

Max pulled her knees up to her chest and set her forehead on them and let herself cry again, but this time she couldn't be silent. It was all too much.

Steve had gotten back to the house not too long after his parents and Max got there. He wen straight to his room, and didn't think pausing to see Max was a good idea. Maybe one day he'd get the courage to go into Annie's room again. But not now. Not for a while.

He was on his own bed, laying on his side and curled up into a ball. His head was resting on one of his pillows, his arms clutching the other. He felt completely devoid of emotion. There was nothing left in him.

After some amount of time like that, he started to hear crying. Steve sat up a bit, and pinpointed the sound to be coming from the other side of the wall, Annie's room. Max.

He knew she didn't have a ride home, and wasn't going to subject her to riding with his parents again. So, he called up the Mayfield residence. He'd written the number down a while ago. Plus, her mom would be more than happy to pick her up. He figured Max would be okay with it, too.

The line rang a couple times before it was picked up. "Hello?"

That wasn't Ms. Mayfield. Steve sat up in confusion. "Hargrove- Billy?" he asked.

There was a pause on the other end, too. "Harrington? What's up?"

"What're you doing here? I thought you were at school?"

"Yeah, decided to come on over for my spring break. Just got in, actually, haven't even had the chance to even pretend to start laundry," Billy joked, a short laugh ending the sentence.

Steve had no idea how to have this conversation right now. He and Billy weren't close, but there wasn't animosity between them. "Uh, I was- I was just looking for Max's mom. See if she can come pick her up," he explained.

"Oh, she's out right now, I don't know where she went. I can come. Is everything okay?" he asked.

Steve's brows furrowed and he was silent for a second. The way Billy spoke told him he didn't know. He had no idea. "Oh my god you have no idea," Steve whispered.

"What do you mean? Steve, what's going on?" Billy was instantly concerned.

He took in a deep breath and could already feel the tears coming back to his eyes, and a wobble was going to enter his voice. "Uh, well... Annie... she's- she's gone," Steve said, his voice losing it's even tone. He sniffed and tried to wipe away the tears. Again.

There wasn't an answer for a second. It was dead quiet except for Steve's occasional sniffs. Then, "Holy shit. What happened?"

Steve didn't want to go through this again. He couldn't relive it.

He, Robin, and Nancy were standing in the doorway to the Creel house. Vecna had done a reverse swan dive out the attic window, he should've been laying on the ground, dead. Instead, there was only pieces of wood and burn marks to show he had been there.

Steve was about to ask where he went, when a deafening chime echoed in their ears. The group immediately turned and looked inside the house. By the next chime, they were running inside.

Another chime and they stopped in front of the clock. Then, a fourth. "Four chimes," Robin stated.

"Annie," Nancy breathed.

Dread filled Steve's body. It made him a horrible person, but he'd been so focused on not being choked to death and then killing Vecna that he hand't been thinking of the others.

And that fourth chime meant they had failed.

Suddenly, the ground shook and nearly brought them all to the ground. It went on for nearly a minute straight, this violent tremor. Once it was done, they were all breathing heavy. Yet, Steve had one singular thought.

He didn't say a word, he just turned on his heel and sprinted out of the house. "Steve!" Robin called after him, but he didn't stop. He didn't care. All he needed was to get back to that stupid house.

Running through the woods felt like forever, but he knew he made it when he saw the trailer park clearing up ahead. Steve kept running, finding his way to Eddie's trailer.

Dustin was helping Eddie walk over to it, but they stopped when they saw Steve sprinting to it. "Steve?" Dustin asked, but he got nothing. "Steve!"

The teen wasn't slowing. He burst into the trailer and loudly swore when he saw the rope was gone, along with the mattress. Pulling over the table from the kitchen, Steve climbed it and used all his adrenaline and strength to pull himself into their world.

Once he made it into the other gravity, Steve managed a flip to land on his feet. No more waiting, he just kept running. He didn't even care to notice the ground had basically been ripped apart by Eddie's trailer. That wasn't the primary concern.

Back through the same woods, on a different side this time, Steve sprinted to his full power. He was using everything he had.

When the Creel mansion was in view, he could see Lucas and Erica sitting outside. "Steve!" Lucas cried. Once more, the teen never slowed. He managed around the crumbling house and hurried up the stairs to the attic.

"Annie!" he screamed, skipping steps and swinging around corners. "Annie!"

The attic door came into his sight, and he burst through and hurried up the last bit of stairs. "Annie!"

At the top, he noticed a couple things. Jason was off to the side, writhing in pain at his disintegrated leg. There was a giant, burning gorge in the room.

And Max was holding his baby sister, sobbing over her. She had turned to him when he burst in. Seeing Steve made Max's sobs louder and tears fall harder.

"Annie?" he whispered, his heart breaking- shattering- into millions of pieces.

Max shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she sobbed. Those were the only words she could get out, and she just kept repeating them.

Steve walked up to them slowly, then dropped to his knees beside Annie. "No..." he whispered. He didn't want believe it. He couldn't sit here and believe Annie was gone. Not his baby sister. Never.

But it was right in front of his face. Annie's limbs at wrong angles, dried blood coming from her eyes, her eyes just blank. It was true.

"She... she- she wanted me to tell you that she loves you," Max got out, finally breaking her repeated apologies. Those words seemed to be the final nail in his chest.

Steve sat and sobbed. He held onto his sister's hand and sobbed. That's how Nancy found them later. It took effort to convince them to go. Max and Steve got Annie out of that house, Nancy forced to help Jason.

He hadn't said a single word, just grunted in pain. When they got outside, one of Jason's basketball buddies came and grabbed him. They got into their miraculously untouched car and hurried away, most likely to a hospital.

"Robin'll be here with Dustin and Eddie and the RV," Nancy muttered to the group. Max and Steve were still sobbing messes. The other three silently cried, not knowing what else to do.

None of them knew.

All Steve knew was that he had failed.

"We, uh," Steve started, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We had an Upside Down problem and... and we lost." Billy didn't need details. He didn't need to know of everything that had happened.

It was too much for Steve to try and explain, anyway.

"Oh my god... Steve, I am so sorry," Billy said, the genuineness clear as day.

Steve nodded to himself a couple times with his eyes squeezed shut. "Uh, yeah, thanks," Steve said as he cleared his throat. "It's just, uh... my parents brought Max over to look at Annie's room and stuff and she's... she's sobbing, man. I just figured she needed to go home."

"I'll be there in five." Billy hung up, and Steve didn't care about the fact that they were nearly fifteen minutes away from the Mayfield house.

True to his word, about five minutes later there was a knock on the door. Steve spray out of his bed and hurried down the stairs. "Got it!" he called out, landing on the bottom and taking a couple more steps to the door.

Billy was there, and greeted Steve with a tight smile. Steve stepped out of the way, wordlessly inviting Billy inside. He came in, and when the door was closed Steve turned to hurry back upstairs.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know someone was here." Steve turned and saw his mother, her bloodshot eyes redder than they were earlier. "I don't believe we've met?"

Even when trying to keep formalities, she was breaking. "Mom, this is, uh, Billy. He's..."

Billy jumped in. "I'm Max's older brother," he finished, taking a step forward to shake Mrs. Harrington's hand. "Steve called, asked for me to come pick her up whenever she's ready."

"Oh," Mrs. Harrington said with a small wave of the hand. "We could've taken her back, no issue... but it's good for her to have her brother right now..."

Billy nodded. "Yeah, I figured that would be helpful, though the offer is always kind," he politely replied.

She smiled, then nodded her head. "Well, it's good to have met you. I... I'm sorry it's not under... not under good circumstances."

"I'm so sorry for your loss," Billy told her, and Steve saw how true he was being.

The woman smiled and turned around again, heading back into her room. Steve just began walking up the stairs again, back up to the rooms.

"Hey," Billy quietly called, and Steve stopped when they got to the top. "Steve, I... Jesus, I'm so sorry."

Billy pulled Steve into a hug, something Steve absolutely never would have expected from the Billy Hargrove, the man who beat him up a year and a half ago. The hug was nice, though, and Steve realized quickly it was desperately needed.

He hugged back, and let a couple more tears slip. "I don't wanna believe she's gone. I can't," he whispered.

Billy didn't answer, he just stayed until Steve was ready to go. That happened a dozen seconds later, and the composure was back.

"I'll leave you to it, then. She's just in there," Steve said, pointing to Annie's bedroom door. He nodded and turned to go back into his room and shut himself down again.

Carefully, Billy walked up to the door and knocked it.

Max heard a gentle knock and instinctively hid the polaroids she'd been looking at, thinking it was one of the Harrington parents kicking her out. "Yeah?" she asked, trying not to let her voice crack.

The door opened, and Max let out a sob when she saw Billy standing there instead. "Billy," she said, and Max stood quickly to pull Billy into a hug.

He held her tight, and Max sobbed into his shirt. Billy didn't care, he did care about Max, though. Even when they weren't really getting along, Billy didn't enjoy seeing Max upset. Never. That sentiment grew when they got close again. This entire situation was killing him.

A few minutes later when Max pulled away, Billy said, "We can go whenever you're ready, okay? Steve thought you'd appreciate a ride with me more than a tense and awkward ride with either Harrington parent.

Max nodded, agreeing, and turned back to everything. She worked quickly to grab things, like all the polaroids from the wall and put them in the shoebox. There were some other things she wanted to grab, including one of Annie's favorite sweaters.

It took about five minutes, but Max had her arms full of Annie memories and was ready to go home. In her mind, however, she'd never go home again. Not without Annie.

"Oh, I need to grab something things to distribute," Max said quietly. Billy happily took the things in Max's arms so she could grab the things on the desk.

First, was the stuffed animal for Steve. A little bunny, that had obviously been loved from day one and it never stopped. She knocked gently on his door.

When Steve opened it, Max tried a smile, but it came out like a grimace. "Um, Annie... she gave me a will and specifically wanted you to have this," Max said, handing Steve the bunny.

He took in gently, and Max saw the love in his eyes. "Thank you," he said quietly, and they hugged quickly.

Then, Max went and grabbed everything else then left Annie's room for the last time, closing the door behind her.

On the drive, Max stared out the window and thought. She held the items in her lap tightly. They were her last bits of Annie. Despite what the brunette said, Max will always blame herself even just a little bit for what happened. For Annie dying.

She'd never forget her. Her Barbie would always have the place in Max's heart. Always.

- The End -