Chapter Thirty-Eight: Cruel Summer

"Annie? Annie!"

The voice sounded far away, but got closer and closer with every shout.

"Annie! Annie! Annie!"

It was the shaking that got her up.

Annie's eyes fluttered open and she saw Max's panicked face above hers. Her eyes honed in on one spot- a blossoming red spot on the redhead's cheek. She moved her hand up to touch it gently.

"Max are you okay?" she asked.

The girl scoffed. "You don't look that great either, Barbie."

Knowing that one was awake, Max moved over to the other unconscious body. "Mike! Get up, can you hear me?" she asked, shaking Mike awake, too.

Annie sat up a bit slowly, her own hand moving to her face and touching a very tender spot. When she pulled her pointer finger away, it had blood on it. It didn't feel like it was trickling down her face at all.

She looked over to the side and up, seeing blood on the wall as well. "What...?" she muttered and moved a hand to hold the back of her head.

Everything came rushing back, including the gun. She felt for it and realized it had fallen out. Looking around, she found it about a foot away.

"Hey, come on," Max said, much quieter this time. Annie looked over and saw Max helping Mike off the ground. He had a pretty sizable wound on his own face. "You okay?" she asked, he seemed out of it.

Annie kept the gun in her hand and walked over to the other two as Mike looked around the room. "Where's El?"

They looked around, two very important people missing. "Fuck, he's got her," Annie said, looking at the other two in panic. Mike's eyes were wide as Annie spoke. "Where the hell do we go?"

He looked around and thought for a second. "I know where we are, come on!" He hurried around the girls and they ran right after him. "Come on!" They moved faster.

He pushed open a door and Annie started to recognize it.

"Scoops!" she yelled, and they ran through the break room and into the main lobby. They could see the monster looming ahead and skid to a stop right outside the store front.

Annie took in the scene before her. El was laying on the ground, Billy standing in front of her, staring down the monster standing in the large mall opening. The room was slightly hazy. She remembered the fireworks from the grocery store, and for a second Annie was disappointed she missed out on the sparkly, neon sticks of dynamite.

El was crawling backward, trying to get away from everything. Annie wanted to run out and pull her back, but her feet stayed glued to the mall's tiled floor.

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The monster's mouth-tentacle came spitting out towards the pair. El covered her face as she prepared for it to make contact.

Billy catching it instead.

He let out yells as he pushed against it. More tentacles came wriggling from the monster, ready to attack. A strangled sob from the beautiful girl next to Annie finally got her feet to move. Her mind might not be thinking straight, but her feet had a plan.

"Annie!" Max screamed, watching the brunette run forward.

Mike looked over and saw the same thing. "Annie!"

But the girl kept running. She felt the weight of the gun in her hands and it felt heavy but right. She knew this was something she had to do, never wanting to see or hear Max cry.

"Annie!" A cry from above, Steve most likely. But Annie knew if she turned her attention to him, she wouldn't keep the guts to shoot the gun- to save Billy.

She raised her arms, both hands gripping the gun. One thumb moved the safety to 'off' in preparation for what she was going to do.

A tentacle was coming straight for Billy's side, so she aimed for that one. When it got too close, she pulled the trigger.

It let out a shriek of pain, and sights were turned to Annie. Her eyes went wide, but she did her best to stand her ground.

She fired another shot at another tentacle that was getting too close to Billy.

Another one.

Movement at the bottom of her vision startled Annie and she saw the tentacle slithering over to her. She tried to take a few steps back but was too late in reacting. A tentacle gripped her ankle and pulled.

"Annie!" Steve cried. Seeing his little sister getting dragged by the monster made him think his fears were coming true. Beside him, Robin gripped his arm with her own fears bubbling over.

The girl was still holding onto her gun, so she tried everything to get the thing off of her. She let out what can only be described as a war cry as she aimed at the tentacle on her leg. Firing one, two shots before she was out.

Words formed in her head- several, in fact. But her mouth couldn't move as the monster dragged her across the tiled floor. Any closer and she worried it would lift her in the air. Once that happened, she'd be a goner.

Her gun might not be able to shoot anymore, but she could use it as a club. Annie sat up as best as she could and repeatedly hit the part around her leg, letting out yells with every move.

It was barely affected, though, and it picked her up. The gun slipped out of her hands and she fell back, her head smacking on the tile.

This was it. The end of Annie Harrington. She just hoped Billy made it out, otherwise this would be a pretty meaningless move.

Her fate was sealed.

Annie closed her eyes and waited for her inevitably painful death.

It never came.

Instead, she was let go and unceremoniously crashed to the ground. She opened her eyes and watched the monster flail around, screeching in pain. Annie started pushing off the ground, her body sliding back towards the Scoops store and to the others.

The monster moved sporadically, crashing into columns and the second level. Debris flew everywhere and Annie covered her face with an arm when a piece came near her.

After its few seconds of death, the monster's legs gave out and it fell to the ground.

Everything felt quiet. No one could believe it happened- the monster was down. The Mind Flayer was gone. They did it.

Annie let her arms give out from underneath her, her chest heaving as her heart raced in her chest. Tears poured down her face and so many things stung. Everything hurt. She let her eyes close but out of victory instead of fear.

She barely heard voices behind her, and then someone was coming toward her. "Annie? Annie?" It was El's voice.

"El?" Annie asked, her eyes opening up. The girl was crawling to her with Mike coming right behind.

Max ran to Billy first, noticing the other two going for Annie to make sure she was okay. Well, "okay" was a shitty word to use. Nobody was "okay."

"Billy," Max breathed, kneeling down beside him. The monster had gotten him once after it grabbed Annie. He had some pretty deep gashes, but it didn't look too terrible. When it started to die, Billy dropped to the ground.

"Billy? Is it you?" Max asked. She was worried to touch him, in case he was still it. But by the sound of it, El had gotten through to him. Why else would he have stopped the monster from getting El?

His opened and he was woozy for a second. "Max?" he slurred, attempting to sit up before hissing in pain and grabbing his side. "Max, holy shit..."

It was him. Max let out a relieved sigh and pulled him into a hug- the best she could do while they were on the ground. He accepted it, wrapping one of his own arms around her.

He looked over while his head was over Max's shoulder and found Annie being helped to a sitting position. Mike and El were getting her to lean up on one of the planters and El looked at her head.

They made eye contact and Billy nodded slightly. A silent 'thank you'. If he got the chance later, he'd say the words to her.

For now, the nod worked. Annie smiled and nodded back. A silent 'anytime.'

"Annie!" The girl in question carefully looked over and saw Steve running towards her. "Annie, holy shit what the hell were you thinking!" Even though he sounded mad, and kind of was, he pulled her into a hug. Overall, he was just glad she was alive and relatively unharmed.

"Well, I think the point is that I wasn't," Annie said, and Steve pulled away to glare at her. "What! You've done plenty of dumb shit, too! Need I remind you of the bus last November? When you had to 'expand the menu?'" Annie asked.

Steve glared at first, but then cracked and smile and laughed. "Whatever, at least we know where you get it from," he said.

Annie laughed. "Now we just have to figure out where you got it from."

The moment was nice, even though Annie was bleeding out of multiple places. No one had paid those any mind for now. What they did pay attention to, however, was the sound of the mall doors being slammed open.

Steve instinctively moved to be in front of the kids until the shouts of the intruders became clearer. It was the United States military.

Mike looked down at Annie's profusely bleeding leg. "Hey, uh, Steve, we might need to get her some medical attention," Mike said, and Steve turned to see what the boy was talking about.

"Ah hell..." he mumbled. He turned back around and stood up, waving his arms. "Hello! We need some medical assistance down here!"

Some people broke off the group and made their way over to the kids. Everyone had come down from the second floor and was standing in a big group, so they were easy to find and identify as allies, not enemies.

The group was moved outside where firetrucks and ambulances had joined the group. Annie was brought (carried) to an ambulance by one army man, Steve in tow. Billy was brought to another so he could get his side looked at, Max going with him.

Annie sat on the edge of the ambulance, an EMT giving her the okay on her head after wrapping her leg up in bandages.

"Try to keep pressure off of it, I'll see if there are any crutches in another ambulance." She nodded with a smile, her thanks, and the EMT was off.

"I'm sorry," Annie said, turning to Steve sitting next to her. "I know I scared the shit out of you when I did that I just... when Billy caught the first monster-tentacle-thing, Max made this noise. A weird cry of sorts. And it made something in me move. My brain wasn't working, but my feet were."

Steve shook his head and moved his protective arm around Annie's shoulders. "You're alive, that's what matters to me. And I get it. Love makes us do some crazy things," he said, looking down at his baby sister to gauge her reaction.

She was already staring off somewhere else. "Yeah, it does."

Across the way, Max sat next to Billy as the EMTs worked on him. He looked over at her and saw she was looking at a certain brunette in a different ambulance. "Go say something."

Max's head turned to look at Billy, confusion on her face. "What are you talking about?" she asked, adjusting so her legs were straight out on the edge of the open ambulance instead of dangling off.

Billy nodded his head in the direction of where Annie was sat. "Go say something to her. I know you want to. Contrary to what you may think, I pay attention. Sometimes."

A blush coated Max's cheeks but she let out an awkward laugh. "Yeah, whatever..." she mumbled, breaking eye contact to look at the ground. A second later, she looked back up at Billy. "Are you sure?"

For the first time in a very long time, Billy smiled. "Go." Max smiled widely and practically leapt off the back of the ambulance to hurry on over to Annie.

Billy sat with his thoughts for a second, thinking about how much Max really liked this girl. He was very weirded out at first and definitely didn't make a good first impression, but then he saw so much more of it. The thoughts in his head weren't his, they were his father's- Neil's. After that realization, Billy became much more for the pair.

Max walked with haste, trying to figure out what she was going to say to the other girl. She looked up to see how close she was and saw Annie coming over to her (with crutches). Picking up the pace, she met Annie in the middle.

The other girl looked up and smiled. "Hey, uh, I didn't know if it would be a good time to talk or anything but I... I just... ugh, I just wanna say I..." Annie couldn't get her thoughts out and huffed.

But Max was tired of waiting. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to Annie's. Even if it was just for a second, the girls felt all sorts of butterflies and fireworks shooting around their insides.

A stunned Annie froze, unsure of what to do. Max pulled away just as quick. Her face was as red as her hair. "Uh... I'm sorry, I just-"

Annie did not care. She leaned forward and used one hand to pull Max close by her arm. The gap closed and they kissed again, this time longer than a peck.

When they pulled away again, Annie was just as red as Max was. "So..." she started.

"So..." Max repeated.

Annie took in a deep breath, finding the words much easier to find this time. "I like you. I have liked you probably since I first met you. When I came out to... I didn't want to tell you because you were the one I fell for. I was scared to give anything away and you not feel the same."

Max adjusted so Annie's hand was no longer grabbing her arm, but her own hand. "I like you, too. Have for probably about as long. I was scared that you were going to think I was weird cause I didn't know if Hawkins was like California."

The girls giggled. "So we both liked each other and just suffered for nearly a year?" Annie asked, her giggle growing into full on laughter. Max joined in and they laughed for what felt like forever before calming down and putting their foreheads together.

"What should we do now?"

A/n: ITS HAPPENING EVERYONE STAY CALM STAY FUCKING CALM