Chapter Thirty-One: Bad Blood

Everyone stood in the waiting room, staring at the flashing lights above. If they knew one thing, it was what they meant. Who was near.

Max instinctively looked for Annie and realized she had never come back from the bathroom. "Guys-"

"He's here," Will said, accidentally cutting Max off.

"We've gotta go find Nancy and Johnathan," Mike said, and they started walking towards the elevators.

"And Annie! She went off to find a bathroom forever ago and hasn't come back," Max added on as they started to walked by the front desk.

The nurse stood up and yelled after them. "Hey, hey, hey! Two at a time!" None of them stopped to pay attention to her and she didn't seem to care enough to stop them. When the elevators didn't work, they took the stairs.

It wasn't hard to find where 'he' was when they heard the growling and roars. "Here!" El yelled, and they burst through the door out of the stairwell. In the hallway, they all saw Johnathan using something to try and break the window.

El and them ran over, El forcing Johnathan out of the way. She blew the door off it's hinges and it went flying into the room. They all had to pause and take in the monster before them- nothing like they'd ever imagined. It was even worse.

"Jesus," Mike breathed out.

"What the fuck?" Max asked.

El took hold of the monster, the Mind Flayer, and threw it around while yelling. Into one wall, into the other wall, into the ceiling, then into the floor. It tried to get up and attack the kids, but El used both her hands to get a hold of the monster and nearly screamed as she threw the monster through the window.

Johnathan immediately ran into the room to check on Nancy. Max hurried in, too, letting the others run off to find the Mind Flayer.

"Have you seen Annie?" Max asked. Nancy and Johnathan looked at her in confusion. "Annie! Did you see her at all while you were in here?" she tried again.

They shook their heads and Max let out a huff. She turned around and hurried down the hall.

"Annie! Annie!" She continued to yell the girl's name and begged she'd be okay. "Annie!"

Annie's sobs quieted when she heard the familiar voice yelling down the hall. "Max?" she croaked, unable to make much more noise than that.

But it was enough. The redhead soon came running into the room. "Annie!" She ran up to the girl and quickly crouched down in front of her.

Her hands flew up to the brunette's face and she saw the dried blood coming from her nose and the drying black crap. "Annie oh my god what the hell happened?"

"It was- it was..." Annie tried, but she couldn't stop crying. "H-Holly and- and Meg..." She gestured to the piles of clothes that used to hold the flayed bodies of her friends.

Watching them melt into liquid flesh and slink out of the room was disturbing, then she heard the roars of a bigger monster above her.

Max pieced it all together pretty quick and didn't hesitate to hold Annie in her arms. The girl was covered in blood and black goop, but Max didn't care. What she did care about was the girl in front of her who just lost her best friends in one of the most traumatic ways possible.

Annie held onto Max tightly, her hands making fists in the fabric of Max's shirt. She couldn't stop the tears as they fell, and it felt like Annie would be crying for the rest of her life.

At some point, Nancy and Johnathan found the girls curled up in the corner. Nancy surveyed the scene and quickly put together that Annie went through something very similar, she just didn't know who it was that attacked her.

"Hey, we should get out of here," Nancy whispered to Max and the redhead nodded.

Carefully, she helped Annie off the ground and had her arm around the girl. She moved her head into the crook of Max's neck and the group of four walked out. Jonathan and Nancy walked with arms around each other, both helping the other walk.

Subtly, Max moved her hand down and felt the gun still tucked in Annie's waistband. She couldn't blame her for not using it.

When they got outside, the others turned around and saw the state Annie was in. Will ran over first, the others coming behind.

"Is she okay?" Max just shook her head and mouthed 'later.' Right now, they needed to go somewhere safe and Annie needed to change.

"Let's go," Nancy said, getting the car keys out. She led the group to the car and everyone got in their respective spots.

When they all got in and buckled, Annie finally removed her face from Max's neck. Nancy looked in the mirror and saw the blood and black liquid, as well as the angry red handprints on her neck. That would become an angry bruise soon.

"Where are we going?" Lucas asked from the back, taking Nancy out of her trance.

She hesitated. El jumped in for her. "The cabin. Do you know the way?" Nancy nodded and the group went off to El and Hopper's residence. She still knew the way from back in November, when they brought Will there.

It was another silent car ride. Annie gently grazed her neck and felt along where she knew the bruise would be. Her fingers traveled up to her face where she felt the dried blood and black shit. She must look like an absolute mess. Not to mention her clothes- the clothes Max lended her- were probably trash now.

They arrived at the cabin and everyone quickly got out of the car. Max took a hold of Annie once she was out and brought her right into the house. El had grabbed the bag Annie had thrown together and followed after them.

The others didn't say a word, even as they caught glimpses of Annie's clothes and face. It was so much more noticeable in the light. Max ushered her into the bathroom quickly to get Annie's face washed off.

"Do you mind if she uses your room?" Max asked El. The latter shook her head and left to go place the bag in her room. El herself decided to go ahead and change into something less sweaty and gross while she could.

The girls were pretty quiet in the bathroom. Annie was seated on the edge of the bathtub and Max had a warm, damp rag to wipe everything off her face. There was a scary, faraway look in Annie's eyes that worried Max. She was supposed to be a bubbly, happy person. Not this.

"Are you okay?" Max asked softly.

Annie shook her head. She swallowed, wincing slightly, then said, "It was awful. I thought... I..." She trailed off with a sigh. Max got up and washed off the rag before coming back and picking up where she left off. Annie's face was almost clear.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, especially alone," Max said. She was kicking herself for not noticing Annie's absence earlier. If she had been paying more attention, maybe they would've found out about the flayed sooner and things wouldn't be so terrible.

"They kept calling me a freak," Annie said, breaking the silence. Max looked at her confused as she continued to clean the last of the stuff off her face. Then she'd move to her hair and her neck.

"What do you mean?" Max asked.

Annie paused, realizing she's never actually come out to Max. Now she'd seem like a jerk. Maybe one day she could explain it, but today she figured she'd get a pass. "I came out to them. They promised they still loved me. Then today... they just kept saying 'freak,'" Annie revealed.

Max's hand faltered slightly as she wiped the last of the blood- luckily Annie's nose didn't seem to be broken. "That's terrible, Annie I- I'm so sorry." She got back up to rinse the rag again. "But you know that was the Mind Flayer. They did love you, Annie. They'd never hurt you like that."

Max turned back around to come back over and saw Annie's hands covering her eyes as she cried quietly. The redhead hurried back over and enveloped Annie in a hug. "I just- they're gone. 'They did' this and 'they did' that. I can't believe- I can't believe they're gone," she whispered through the tears.

The girls sat like that for a bit, Max using her open hand to stroke Annie's hair at one point. It felt like forever had passed when Annie leaned back and Max leaned away. "Let me finish and then you can get changed. Looks like you were pretty smart back at your house."

Annie smiled lightly. "Yeah, sorry about your shirt..." She looked down and held the shirt out by the hem. "I don't know how to get Mind Flayer out of clothes."

Max just laughed. "I don't care, I just care about you." The girls stopped and held eye contact.

For Annie, she was trying hard to keep her feelings at bay and tell herself that Max was saying that in the friendly way.

For Max, she was hoping that maybe this would finally be her opening. Desperate to move on before it got too weird, though, she went back to cleaning around Annie's neck. Neither girl spoke for the rest of the clean-up until Max was all done.

They went over to El's room and ignored the talk happening over in the living room. It sounded like El was going to try and find someone, so they didn't need to be there.

In El's room, Max closed the door and locked it to make sure no one came in at the wrong time. She walked over to the bag that Annie was already going through.

"Here," she croaked, handing Max the clothes she picked out of Annie's closet. "Should I expect you to get covered in blood and black shit as payback? You should warn me now."

Max laughed and Annie cracked a smile, laughing being too painful. "I promise I won't try to do anything, but I can't promise nothing won't happen."

They laughed- Annie rather quietly- and then went to their respective corners to get changed. After, they just threw their disgusting clothes in a pile by the end of the bed. There was no need to really deal with them. Annie went ahead and put the gun in her bag, not wanting to deal with it. There was a decently shaped bruise on her lower back from Meghan's well-placed kick.

"Very Barbie of you," Max said, taking in Annie's white shorts and pink tank top.

She flushed red and looked away. "Yeah, yeah, let's just hope I can wear them again," she mumbled.

The two girls exited the room and saw the others were unplugging and picking up the television set. "Uh, what are you guys doing?" Max asked.

El was the one who answered first. "I am going to find them." She held out a bunch of pieces of paper that the other two looked at. They were pictures of the flayed. There wasn't a picture of Holly or Meghan though, and Annie realized it was because nobody else knew they were there. Only Nancy and Johnathan knew Annie was attacked at all.

"Okay, well we're done in your room if you want privacy," Annie croaked. Her throat was in a lot of pain, and she wondered if El felt the same after what Billy did. The girl seemed okay now, so maybe this would pass for Annie soon.

El nodded and the others moved the box into El's room. Max and Annie sat down on the couch. Trying to fight off boredom and the thoughts in her head, Annie turned Max sideways and started to part her hair for braids. She worked slowly, making sure the two braids weren't too loose.

"It can't be good for her to be in there for this long."

Mike was pacing around in front of them making Max go crazy. "Mike, you need to relax," she said just as Annie finished up the first braid.

"What if she gets brain damage or something?" Mike immediately asked.

Lucas, in the chair beside the girls, perked up. "Oh shit. Is that, like, a real thing?" he asked.

Max gently shook her head. "No, it's not. He made it up. Mike doesn't know what the hell he's talking about," she said.

"Oh and you do?" Mike jumped in. He and Max never got along that well, but right now wasn't the best timing for a fight.

"No, I don't, but see, that's the difference between us!" Max said. Annie tuned the argument out and focused on braiding Max's hair. Once she was done, she tied it off and went to sit back.

Instead, Max moved and was now sitting on the couch arm behind Annie and got to work doing her hair. "Lucas, grab me those little elastics in the bathroom," Max muttered while Mike was saying something else.

Annie continued to drown out the argument as Max made tiny braids in her hair, two on each side. When those were done, she put Annie's hair up in a ponytail with the two braids in it. Annie reached her hand up and felt them on each side of her head, smiling.

She turned around and smiled at Max, who smiled and nodded back. "Oh my god you are unbelievable! You're not even listening right now!" Mike yelled, and the girls' attention was moved to him.

"Because it's over! How is it your responsibility to tell El what to do?" she yelled back.

"I'm saying she shouldn't be pushing herself as far as she has been! It could be super dangerous!" Mike yelled, trying to be louder than Max.

"Oh my god!" Max yelled and quickly got up and off the couch. Mike followed her, as did Annie. "Okay, can you guys settle an argument for us?" Max asked. The three of them stopped right in front of Nancy, Will, and Johnathan.

Annie made eye contact with Will and shrugged lightly. She really hadn't been paying attention to what Max and Mike were arguing about.

"Who do you think should decide El's limits? Mike or Eleven?"

Mike rolled his eyes. "The way that you frame that is such bullshit," he complained. Annie noticed Lucas joining the group as well.

"It's not bullshit Mike! This is your whole problem. And it's also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass!" Max yelled.

"El dumped you?" Nancy asked, obviously shocked at such a thing.

"Yeah, because they've been conspiring against me," Mike said, and gestured at both Max and Annie, the latter scrunching her face in distaste. "They're corrupting her."

"No, enlightening her. The fact is, she's not yours. She's her own person fully capable of making her own decisions," Max argued.

"She's risking her life for now reason!"

"For no reason?" Nancy was back in. "Mike, the flayed are out there doing God know's what."

Annie couldn't tell if she should be as entertained as she was. Of course she wanted to input her own thoughts, but it hurt to talk let alone yell like they were doing.

"Killing, flaying..."

"And transforming into monsters."

"And El's not stupid. She knows her abilities better than any of us," Nancy concluded.

"Exactly, thank you!" Max turned to look at Annie, then Mike with a victorious smile.

"And she is her own person. With her own free will."

"Exactly. El has saved the world twice and Mike still doesn't trust her," Max said.

"You wanna talk about trust? Really? After you both," he looked between Max and Annie again, "made Eleven spy on us?"

That made the girls look away. "Wait, what?" Lucas asked.

"Oh, she didn't tell you this? You're girlfriend-"

"Ex-girlfriend," Max interrupted.

"- and her partner in crime used El's powers to spy on us."

"No, no, no, we did not make her. It was her idea!" Max butted in. Annie stepped up, nodding in agreement. "And why are we even talking about this, seriously?"

"Yeah, who cares?" Will asked. He was obviously very tired of the arguing and the yelling. Annie couldn't blame him, she almost wish she could pop into El's room and just sit down in there and listen to the television static.

"I guess girlfriends don't lie, they spy!" Mike said, making a dramatic turn to Max.

"Would you listen to me when I say ex please? And we were just joking around- it's not that big of a deal."

"Wouldn't it have been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?" Mike yelled. Annie didn't want that mental image.

"You weren't!"

"But what if I was?"

"Then gross!"

"Seriously, Mike?"

"I'm just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven's powers. In fact, how careless all of you are! You're treating her like some kind of machine when she's not a machine, and I don't want her to die looking for the flayed when they've obviously vanished off the face of the earth. So can we please just come up with a new plan because I love her and I can't lose her again!"

A/n: have I mentioned how much I love season 3?