╔═════   ∘◦ ☽ ﾐ ◦∘ ══════╗

𝗠𝗜𝗗𝗡𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧

𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓮:
"𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚊 𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚞𝚜, 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚢𝚎𝚛𝚜."

╚═════ ∘◦ ミ ☾ ◦∘ ══════╝

UPON ARRIVING AT Heather's house, Mackenzie scrambled out of the car. It was incredibly stuffy with the combination of the hot summer air and eight people in it. She ripped her hair out of the extremely messy ponytail that had been in since last night and re-tied it. Mackenzie let out a hiss of pain as she raised her shoulders. She wanted these bruises to go away.

"Mack?" Will asked. She turned towards him as they walked up the path. "How are you doing?"

She raised an eyebrow. "How am I doing? I should be asking how you're doing."

He shrugged. "I-I don't really know. It's like I'm feeling a million different emotions all at once."

"And that's okay," she told him. "You don't have to know everything."

Will smiled for probably the first time since yesterday. "Have I ever told you you're the best?"

She giggled, butterflies erupting in her stomach. "Once or twice."

They finally stopped in front of the house. Nancy rang the doorbell, but there was no response. She rang it again, and when nothing happened, she shared a glance with Jonathan before they turned around to look at Eleven. A quick nod of the girl's head sent the door flying open. Mackenzie let out a deep breath and followed after everyone with extreme caution. Once she entered, she saw the carpet was extremely out of place. Her eyes narrowed in thought as they all began to look around.

"Tom?" Nancy called out. "Heather?"

"Jesus, it's freezing," Max complained, rubbing her arms in effort to make herself warmer.

Mackenzie nodded. "Well, you know what they say. He likes it cold."

They all entered the living room. Nancy stopped, turning back to the group.

"Do you guys smell that?"

Mackenzie sniffed the air. She understood what Nancy was asking. The air smelled distinctively of chemicals, more specifically ones used to clean. All of them looked to the kitchen, where empty bottles of cleaning chemicals were scattered across the room. The sink was ripped out of the wall as well.

"Oh, God," Nancy said. "More chemicals."

Jonathan picked up an empty bottle. "You think they're guzzling this shit?"

"Yeah, either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree."

"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals." Max then looked at him suspiciously. "Did you?"

Mackenzie glanced at him with wide eyes. "Oh God, did you?"

He stared at her incredulously. "What? Mack, no. This is something new."

"Mr. Clarke, fifth grade," Mike voiced. "Posit. What happens when you mix chemicals together?"

"You create a new substance," Lucas, Will, and Mackenzie chorused.

Will looked over at Mackenzie. "Might wanna rethink not going to science camp, Mack."

She smacked his shoulder, a small smile on her face. "Shut up."

"What if they're making something?" Mike asked, ignoring the interaction between Will and Mackenzie.

"In themselves?" Max countered. "I mean, come on. If you drink this crap, it'll kill you."

"Yeah, if you're human," Lucas argued.

Nancy then slowly turned around. Mackenzie looked at her curiously, following after her into the dining room. Dinner was still on the table and a sheet of cookies was sitting there. Red wine stained the white tablecloth, turning it a burgundy color. Nancy walked over to the carpet and crouched down to inspect something.

"Blood," she announced. Her posture straightened up, obviously realizing something. "Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead." She then picked up the wine bottle that was laying on the carpet, a bit of blood dried on its label. Mackenzie resisted the urge to gag as Nancy stood up and looked at them. "He was attacked."

The girl moved forwards, obviously placing the clues together.

Mackenzie scoffed in amazement. "She really is like Nancy Drew."

El looked at her in confusion as they followed Nancy. "Who is Nancy Drew?"

Mackenzie blinked in shock. "Damn, girl. Did Mike not teach you anything about pop culture?"

Mike reached over and pushed her head slightly. "Shut up, Kenzie."

"Nah, I'm good."

Nancy suddenly opened a door that revealed another door. She opened it and they all entered the garage. Jonathan kneeled down and picked up a rope that was sitting on the concrete floor.

"They must have tied them," he concluded while standing up. "They must have taken them somewhere."

"Mrs. Driscoll," Nancy suddenly said. "She kept saying I have to go back. What if the flaying, it's taking place somewhere else? There must be a place where all this started, right? A source."

"Somewhere he didn't want me to see," El agreed.

"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him. Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals."

"How do we find it?" El asked.

"Mrs. Driscoll." Everyone looked to Will. "If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"

Mackenzie stared at him in surprise before taking his shoulders in her hands and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "You are a genius, Will Byers."

She then walked back towards the door they came through. When she didn't hear any footsteps, she turned around in confusion. All of them were staring at her with wide eyes, especially Will, whose face was as bright as a tomato. El and Max, whoever, were smirking at the girl knowingly.

"Well?" she asked. "Come on. We don't have all day."

That seemed to snap everyone out of it. They all followed after her to the front door. Mackenzie walked outside, her smile as bright as the sun and her insides filled with warmth, completely oblivious to the fact that everything was about to go south.

༻✦༺༻✧༺༻✦༺

MACKENZIE HATED HOSPITALS. Everything from the smell to the linoleum floors and fluorescent lights made her shiver. To make things worse, the receptionist wouldn't let all of them go see Mrs. Driscoll, so Mackenzie was stuck sitting in an uncomfortable chair while Nancy and Jonathan made their way up to the older woman.

She sighed, trying to make the best of a bad situation. El had made the vending machine drop all of the candy, and Mike had thrown her a packet of M&M's without her even asking. She munched on the snack, glancing around the waiting room.

"Mack." She turned to Will. "I, um . . . I never thanked you for the other night. You know, when you found me at Castle Byers and brought me home."

She shook her head. "You don't need to thank me, Will. I'm sure Mike or Lucas would've done the same."

"Yeah, maybe, but . . . it made all the difference that it was you."

They exchanged a smile before Will's eyes locked on something else. Mackenzie followed his gaze to see Mike giving them an urgent look as he sat next to El. Mackenzie looked back to Will and nodded her head over to the magazines on the table. The two got up and grabbed one at random, beginning to flip through them.

However, Mackenzie couldn't help but watch Mike and El's interaction. El was smiling at Mike widely, and Mackenzie knew deep down in her heart that they cared for each other so so much.

A little while later, they all sat in the chairs in the waiting room. Max and Lucas were looking at a magazine while Mike was explaining some things to El that were on an M&M's packet. Meanwhile, Mackenzie was trying to guess the color M&M Will was giving her with her eyes closed. Since they all tasted the same, Mackenzie wasn't doing too hot, but it was a fun game to try and cure her of her boredom.

Will's gaze suddenly left hers as he glanced up. Mackenzie opened her eyes, and while eating a yellow M&M, looked to see that the lights were flickering a bit. Will stood up from his chair and looked around at the rest of the lights. They were all flickering.

As per usual, something was wrong, and they didn't even realize what was happening a few floors above them.

☾ ★ ☽

kenzie          🤝          will
always checking up on each other

ok I have a couple of things I wanna say:

1. happy fourth of july to those in america! I kind of hate it here but that's besides the point 🥰
2. happy one year of stranger things 3, this season was literally a cultural reset
3. thank you so much for 1K reads on this book! midnight is like my child and watching it grow makes me so happy 🥺