▸ Take My Breath Away - Berlin

T H E   N I N A   P R O J E C T P T . I

We crashed at the Wheeler's house once again. The seven of us had been taking turns all night to keep an eye on Max. It was currently Dustin's turn. Steve and I were sleeping on the recliner since we all agreed to give the couch to Max. It was a tight fit for the both of us. I had my head on his chest. Steve had a protective arm around me, his cheek on the top of my head.

"Dustin!" I heard someone hiss, waking me up. I opened my eyes to see Nancy next to Dustin. My little brother opened his eyes with a hum. He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the tv. There was drool going down his chin. "Wake up."

"What?" Dustin was trying to stay awake.

"Aren't you supposed to be on Max watch?" Nancy scolded him.

"Yep." Dustin quickly woke up, rubbing his eyes. He wiped the drool of his chin with his sleeve. "Yep, yep, yep. Sorry."

"Then where is she?" Nancy asked.

"Max isn't here?" I sat up, looking at the empty couch.

"She's right there. A second ago." Dustin glanced from the couch and checked his watch. "I swear, I dozed off for..."

"Dustin?" I got off the recliner. Steve stirred in his sleep, his hand slightly reaching for me.

"An hour." Dustin said with wide eyes.

"She has to still be in the house." I stated. The three of us ran up the stairs. "Maybe she had to go to the bathroom? Or-or food? Maybe she got hungry? I would get hungry."

Nancy turned down the hall towards the kitchen. Dustin and I followed suit.

"Actually I am hungry." I muttered to myself with a frown.

My stomach growled. We entered the kitchen to see Max at the table. She was hunched over coloring on a piece of paper. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Morning, guys." Mrs. Wheeler chirped. She step aside from the toaster. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah." Nancy told her mom. "Yeah, everything's okay."

"I think it's so sweet." Mrs. Wheeler stacked more waffles on a plate. Mr. Wheeler was at the counter reading the paper. Max turned to look at us, showing that she had we headphones on. "That you guys are sticking together like this."

"Could try sticking together at a different house for a change." Mr. Wheeler looked up at us.

I scowled at the comment. Mrs. Wheeler rolled her eyes at her husband's comment. Nancy went to go check up on Max.

"You know you're welcome anytime." Mrs. Wheeler stated, reading my expression.

"Totally. You're like family." Dustin pointed towards the plates. "May I?"

"Absolutely." Mrs. Wheeler sang out. "You can go ahead and get some too, Dawn."

"Thanks." I gave her a soft smile, reaching for a plate.

"Yeah, why not? Take us for all we're worth." Mr. Wheeler bitterly commented.

"Okay." Dustin gave him a fake smile, serving himself waffles. He leaned back to whisper to me. "Is it bad I kind of want to eat more that I should to rub it in his face?"

"No, because I'm totally with you." I gave him a smile, nudging him to get more food.

Dustin let out a laugh. He plated two more waffles before stepping aside for me. He started to butter his food. I grabbed five waffles and placed them on my plate. Mr. Wheeler frowned at us.

"Hey." Max took off her headphones.

"Hey." Nancy sat down in the open chair next to her. "You okay?"

"I just couldn't sleep. People kept blasting music in my ears, for some reason." Max gave Nancy a small smile.

"Guilty!" I raised a hand, giving Max a big grin. "Next time I'll just have to sing for you."

"That would be lovely." Max sarcastically said with a chuckle. "Holly let me borrow some of her crayons. We've been having a fun morning, right, Holly?"

Holly released a hum, concentrated on her own art piece. I finished buttering my waffles and drowned them in syrup. With a satisfied nod, I walked over to the table and sat next to Nancy.

"Is this what you saw last night?" Nancy pointed to the drawings Max had done.

"I mean, it's supposed to be." Max looked at her drawings.

"These actually pretty good, Max." I praised, placing my plate down. Dustin sat down beside me, already taking a bit of his waffles.

"I thought it'd be easier to draw it out than to explain it, but..." Max took a deep breath in. "Not so much."

"Is that..?" Nancy trailed off, reaching fobs piece of paper and sliding it closer.

"It was like they were on display or something. And then there was this red fog everywhere." Max waved her hand over all of her drawings. She placed her hand down on the art. "It was like a dream. A nightmare."

"Do you think Vecna's just trying to scare you?" Nancy questioned.

"With Billy? Yeah." Max gave a curt nod. "But when I made it here...I dunno, something was different."

"What do you mean?" I cut into my waffles and grabbed a bite.

"He seemed surprised, almost. Like he didn't want me there." Max stated.

"Maybe you infiltrated his mind." Dustin suggested. Max looked up to him. "He invaded your mind, right? Is it that big of a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his?"

"It could be possible. Will did something similar a while back, remember?" I raised my fork, pointing to Dustin.

"Yeah. Like Freddie Kruger's boiler rim." Dustin said with a little too much excitement.

"Freddie Kruger?" Holly repeated.

"He's a super burned up dude with razors for fingers." Dustin explained, mimicking the "razors for fingers" to Holly. The girl  looked at him with big eyes. "And he kills you in your dreams."

"Dude." I nudged him to stop.

"Dustin." Nancy shot him a look. "Seriously?"

Dustin stopped and looked at her with furrowed brows. Nancy used her eyes to look at Holly. Dustin followed her gaze. Realization hit him.

"Sorry. It's a movie. It's not real." Dustin tried to reassure Holly. He turned his attention to us. "Just...think about it. What if you somehow unlocked a back door to Vecna's world?"

"Do you think it's like the Upside Down then?" I asked. "How can we access it? The Upside Down we were able to go through gates."

"Maybe the answer we're looking for is," Dustin grabbed a drawing from the table and held it up, "somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing. God, we need Will."

"They're not bad. Just not as detailed as you want them to be." I defended Max.

"Yeah. No shit." Max agreed. "But I tried them again this morning, and it's the same busy signal."

"Is this a window?" Nancy picked up a drawing, staring at it intently.

"Yeah."

"Stained glass with roses." Nancy continued.

"Yeah. See?" Max looked at Dustin and waved her hand towards her art. "I'm not so terrible after all."

Dustin shot her a sarcastic smile.

"Yeah, well, it helps that I've seen it before." Nancy started to fold the papers and arrange them a certain way.

As she started placing them, a house was forming. I straightens my back as I realized it was a house. Nancy grabbed a sharpie and outlined the house. She drew windows and arches.

"It's pieces of a house." Max noted.

"Not just any house." Nancy place the stained glass window piece where the door should be. We all glanced at her, waiting for her to continue. "It's Victor Creel's house."

Nancy stood up.

"Where are you going?" Dustin said with a mouthful of food.

"Waking the others." Nancy glanced over her shoulder before heading to the basement.

I got up, leaving my plate of half eaten waffles to help Nancy. She's going to need all the help she can get to wake up the boys and Robin.

▷

In the Wheeler's station wagon, we pulled up to Victor Creel's old house. We got out of the car and walked up the steps that led to the house. Stopping at the top of the steps, we overlooked the property and abandoned house.

"Yeah," Steve dragged out, "that's not creepy."

"Let's break into a murder house." I started to walk forward, grasping the straps of my backpack.

Steve twirled the hammer in his hand as we arrived at the boarded up door. The rest of us hang a little bit away from the door so the board could fall without hurting us. Steve started to remove the nails as everyone watched. Nancy grabbed the other hammer to help.

"Why aren't you helping?" Robin leaned toward to whisper to me.

"Steve and Dustin don't trust me with a hammer. Last time I used one," I held up my hand to show a gnarly scar near my thumb, "I hammered a nail through my hand."

"How?" Robin furrowed her brows.

"I don't even know." I helplessly shrugged.

"I mean, what exactly are we supposed to be looking for in this shithole?" Steve asked.

"I'm not sure. We just know this house is important to Vecna." Nancy informed Steve.

"Because Max saw it in Vecna's red soup mind world?" Steve removed another nail and placed a hand against the board to keep it up.

"Basically." Nancy nodded.

"Great." Steve muttered.

"Maybe it holds a clue to where Vecna is. Why he's back. Why he killed the Creels." Dustin stated with a shrug.

"I'm just hoping this will give us answers instead of a dead end." I crossed my arms.

"And," Dustin continued, "maybe we can find out how to stop him before he comes back for Max."

"We don't think he's in here...do we?" Lucas looked at all of us.

"Guess we'll find out." Max said.

"Ready?" Steve asked Nancy, eyeing the board.

Nancy gave a nod and a hum. The two stepped aside and let go of the board. It fell with a loud thunk. Dead leaves flew into the air toward our faces. I swatted one away from getting stuck in my glasses.

I slipped my backpack off and grabbed my machete and a flashlight. Steve went to open the door. I shrugged my backpack back on and then clipped the machete on my belt loop. Robin was searching the ground for something.

"It's locked." Steve turned to face us. "Should I knock, see if anybody's home?"

"Really?" I raised a brow at him.

"No need." Robin held up a brick. We stared at her. She glanced at the brick and then us. "I found a key."

Robin handed Steve the brick. He stood a few steps back and threw it at the glass. The glass shattered on impact. Steve reached through the hole and opened the door from the inside.

The door squeaked at it swung open. Steve walked in first. I turned on my flashlight and walked in with the others. The sunlight only light up so much of the house before it was too hard to see. Lucas went to turn on a lamp for it not to work. Steve closed the door behind us.

"Looks like someone forgot to pay their electric bill." Lucas commented.

Dustin turned his flashlight one from beside me. Those who hadn't turned theirs on already, copied Dustin.

"Where'd everyone get those?" Steve furrowed his brows. He looked at me to see I had one too. "You too?"

I rolled my eyes and grabbed another flashlight from my bag. Dustin turned to look at my boyfriend. He saw Steve had nothing on him. Dustin glanced at his flashlight and then back at Steve.

"Do you need to be told everything?" Dustin stated. "You're not a child."

"Thank you." Steve sarcastically replied.

Dustin gave him a nod and walked away. I shook my head and handed Steve my spare flashlight. This boy.

"Here."

"Have I told you that you're the best?" Steve grinned as he took it from my hand.

"Not enough." I shined my light across the room. Steve pecked my cheek, causing me to blush. "Stop. Don't distract me right now. We're doing serious detective shit right now."

"My bad." Steve breathed out a chuckle, holding his hands up.

Steve turned his flashlight on. The group started to roam the house, looking for anything that stands out. Nancy and Robin went to enter another room. I walked close to the stairwell as I shined my flashlight up the stairs.

"Hey guys." Max called out attention. I walked towards her. She had her light fixated on a grandfather clock. "You all see that, right?"

"Yeah." Both Steve and Dustin stated.

"Is that what you saw?" Nancy walked up behind us. "In your vision?"

Max only nodded in response.

"You know it wasn't creepy until you mentioned that." I frowned, chills going up my back. "Thanks."

"I mean, it's...just a clock. Right?" Robin moved past Max to get closer to th grandfather clock. She raised her hand to wipe the dust from the glass. Robin turned toward us. "Like a normal old clock."

"Why is this wizard obsessed with clocks?" Steve asked, inspecting the clock from where he stood. "Maybe he's like, a clockmaker or something?"

"I think you cracked the case, Steve." Dustin told him, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Steve narrowed his eyes at my brother. He glanced at me with a look of annoyance on his face.

"All I know is the answers are here." Nancy stated. "Somewhere."

"Well I sure hope so or this would be a waste of time." I muttered under my breath.

"Okay, everyone stay in at least groups of two. Robin," Nancy started to walk backwards, "upstairs."

Robin gave her a two finger salute and followed after her. Nancy turned on her flashlight as the both of them climbed the stairs.

"Come on." Max tapped Lucas's shoulder and started to lead him to another room. "Let's go."

That left Dustin, Steve, and I. Dustin smiled up at Steve. My boyfriend sighed, grabbing my hand and tugging me towards the stairs.

"Was that a sigh? Did he just sigh?" Dustin asked, looking at me for confirmation.

I held back a sigh. Instead I rolled my eyes.

"No, I did not sigh." Steve lied as we started to go up the stairs.

"Why'd you sigh?" Dustin followed after us.

"I didn't sigh. Just come on, dude." Steve flashed the light in front of us.

"I heard you." Dustin insisted.

"W...we're just always partners, okay?" Steve turned to look at Dustin for a second.

"You have a problem with that?" Dustin asked. "Dawn?"

"Don't drag me into this." I begged.

"It'll just be nice to, I don't know, mix it up a bit." Steve tried to explain. He looked at me for help. I shook my head, telling him no. Steve gave me a frown.

"So I'm boring you? Is that it?" Dustin continued to peg Steve.

"No, the opposite...and maybe I wanted to partner up with Dawn, okay? Alone." Steve admitted, throwing a hand up.

"And you dragged me into it, thanks." I gave Steve a sarcastic smile.

"Love you." Steve mouthed, fighting a smirk.

"To leave you guys all coupley? Hell no!" Dustin scoffed, running up the last of the steps.

He got in between us, making sure we let go of each other's hands. Dustin gave Steve a narrowed look.

"Dude!"

"Seriously?"

"No lovey dovey shit." Dustin wagged a finger between Steve and I. "We need to focus."

"Alright, God." Steve huffed, rolling his eyes.

"Let's just do detective shit, okay?" I rubbed my temple. I can feel a headache forming from the both of them. "We gotta find something, anything, to save Max, okay?"

"Yup."

"Yes ma'am."

I shook my head and walked into the first room on the left. The boys followed behind quietly.

My new favorite word is detective shit in case you didn't know already