THE FIRST PLACE MAX WANTS TO BE TAKEN IS HER TRAILER.

It was a familiar drive for Steve—he'd ended up being something of a designated driver for all of the kids over the past year. Max didn't use him to her advantage like Dustin did, but there'd been a few times in which she'd asked for a ride. And who was he to say no after everything?

Carla hadn't been to the trailer many times. She had helped the Mayfield set up her new room. Went over a few times with Steve for carpool purposes. Truly, after the events of summer, Max had closed herself off. She misses the Max she used to know—though she feels like she can't be speaking. She's closed herself off more than she'd like to admit in the past few months, too. 

The car is silent, excluding the light music that came from the BMW radio—it's not doing anything to ease the tension on the groups shoulders. Max stares out the window, in her own world. Lucas watches her intently. Dustin stays quieter than Carla's ever heard him, fiddling around with the walkie. Steve's hands clench and un-clench against the wheel as he tries to fight away the voice telling him to turn right back around. The Wheeler herself picks at her cuticles, eyes darted down in her lap.

The BMW passes by a row of rusty mailboxes, the gravel beneath the wheels leaving a trail of dust as it's crunched. Carla glances up and looks out her window, taking in the emptiness of the place. It was much different than the bustling of officers, news anchors, and concerned passerby that filled the place yesterday—the police tape keeping people away from the Munson house deeps a reminder as to why they had been there. 

Steve hits the brakes and unlocks the door, "Alright, this better be fast, Mayfield."

"Twenty seconds." Max replies sharply, getting out and slamming the door. She throws her backpack over her shoulder and makes a quick dash into her trailer, ponytail swinging behind her. 

As the Mayfield leaves, Steve sighs and runs a hand through his hair. His eyes flicked to his girlfriend, who was back to her hands. Her cuticles were now slightly red from all the picking. He can't help but ask the question he seems to ask her every day, hoping for a truthful answer for once. "You feeling okay?"

Carla glances up at him, offering a nod. "Yeah."

It's unconvincing. She's lied to him for a month—he has no reason to let her go with a simple yes or no.

"You've had anymore headaches?"

The Wheeler thinks about the vision she'd had in the shower that morning. Billy pinning her to the wall, telling her that she was weak—that she wouldn't win again. "Not since yesterday." 

Steve looks at her for a moment longer but he doesn't push. He lets out a breath and mutters, "Good." 

The car falls into silence again—a tension filled silence. No one knows what to say, or if it's right to say anything at all, really. The looming thought that today could be Max's final day was heavy in their heads, and conversation didn't really seem relevant if it was. Who wanted a light-hearted conversation when Max was about to die?

After a beat of silence, the Harrington glances back in the rear-view mirror at the walkie in Dustin's grasp. "That thing's got batteries in it, right?"

 The Henderson looks up with an incredulous expression—was he serious? He shakes his head. "I'm not even answering that question."  Steve narrows his eyes, unamused with the boy's reply. Dustin snaps at his silent refuge, "Yes, it has batteries!"

"Yeah, I got it." 

Before any other pointless conversation can be made, the sound of barking cuts into the air. All four teens look to the side, Carla's eyes narrowing in on a dog standing behind a fence near Max's trailer. It's more scraggly than it is pampered, barking like a fool at Steve's BMW as if begging for attention. 

The Wheeler can't not give in. 

Still looking at the dog, Carla unbuckles her seat belt and reaches for the door handle, "I'll be right back."

Steve is quick to stop her, hand coming to wrap around her wrist to stop her from moving so quickly, "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna pet that dog." the Wheeler briefly explains. She needed a distraction from everything that has happened the past day or so, and the dog was begging to be pet. 

The Harrington boy weakly chuckled, still not fully onboard with the idea of letting his girlfriend out of his sight. He knows he's being a little over-the-top but honestly he feels like he can't trust Carla—he can't trust her with Vecna in her head, engraving bad thoughts into her. "Yeah, well, it's not the best time to be wandering off, baby."

Carla knows that Steve is only coming from a place of concern, and rightfully so. But it wasn't like she was running off into the woods—she was going a mere few feet away to pet a dog.  A slight edge of frustration creeps into her voice, one she doesn't mean to have. "Steve, I'm not wandering off. It's right there."

Steve's eyes flickered between her face and the barking dog. After a beat, he let go of her wrist with a sharp exhale. The Wheeler takes this as her cue to leave and opens the car door, shoes crunching gravel as she moves down to the fence, crouching down to pet the dog.

"Hi, buddy." Carla offers the dog a small smile, bringing her hand to the metal fence so she could lightly pet it. The animal whines, tail wagging as the girl continues her actions. "Are you lonely out here? Yeah? I would be." 

The gentle connection with the dog was calming, a brief escape from the weight of everything else pressing on her mind. But as her fingers traced the fence, her gaze shifted toward the trailer. It stands quiet and still; the entire trailer park is still deadly silent except for the quiet whines of the dog. The girl within comes to the front of her mind.

The past week, Carla can't help but feel like looking at Max is like looking in a mirror—she sees a reflection of her prior year's self in the redheads eyes. A reflection of the girl who was set on the idea that she was dying, who didn't want her friends to console her otherwise, who stubbornly tried to get herself killed because she'd rather die than watch her friends suffer for her. 

She wishes she could save Max. But she hasn't even saved herself.

The sky suddenly darkens, swallowing the sun in a heartbeat. The dog whines again, but Carla whips her head up in confusion. Dark clouds loom overhead, turning the world a gloomy and threatening gray. 

"The fuck?" the Wheeler is quick on her feet, looking up at the sky above. There was nothing in the news about a storm—and nothing turned this gloomy so fast in March.

 The dog starts barking furiously, lips curled backwards as if he were threatened by something. Carla doesn't even have a chance to turn around before her scars start to flare up in a searing burn.

"Carla." 

The Wheeler feels her heart skip a beat as she looks to the side to see Vecna. 

It's a vision. 

Two in one day is new. Carla is brought no comfort at the revelation—this has to be a sign she's next, right? She leveled up from seeing things once to twice, a signal that Vecna has to be rooting himself further into her brain. Though, she should feel some fucked up comfort because at least if she's next, there's still time for Max to be saved—

Her eyes get caught on the small figure in his grasp. Max. 

Carla's eyes widen, seeing the redhead in Vecna's grotesque mockery of an embrace. Her feet start pacing towards the monster and her friend before she can even process the scene, fear coursing through her veins.

"Look at her, Carla." Vecna teases, voice booming in a threatening dominance. He brings an elongated and bony figure to stroke Max's pale and freckled cheek. "She's given up. Just like you will when you realize it's pointless to try and survive."

Carla shakes her head, "No—"

"You are so tired, Carla," The monster presses, his voice low and enticing. "Every moment you spend in this world feels like a weight. It eats away at you."

God, he was getting in her head again. Carla shakes her head even harder, trying to keep his words from infesting her mind—from rotting her away, further. Her hands hover in the air, wanting nothing more than to cover her ears. 

"Maxine let me in."  Vecna chimes, clutching on to the Mayfield tighter, as if showing his claim on her. Thunder rumbles in the back, the sky seeming to grow darker with every second. "It's time you did, too." 

"Carla!"

Carla feels her body flinch back. Her eyes widened and she quickly darted her head around, eyes capturing the trailer park. The dog barking in front of her. The light. 

She was back. 

"Carla! It's time to go!"

The Wheeler girl looks back to see Steve standing outside his car, waving her in with his hand. His hair lightly blows in the slight breeze. She narrows in on Max sitting in the back of the car and feels relief settle her pounding heart. Max was still okay. 

Carla gets on her feet and heads back to the car, her eyes never leaving Max's figure. She was going to save Max, even if she had to die to do it. 

Roane Hill Cemetery is Max's next destination. 

Carla has only been to the cemetery a few times in her life, though none truly meant much to her. She hadn't known her grandmother or her great uncle, really. Will's funeral had been a fake.  No one who had died did she care enough to visit here. 

However, Max was different. Billy had died and was buried in this cemetery—the Wheeler didn't attend his funeral. Truly, she didn't leave the house the week after the catastrophe of Starcourt Mall. After all, she died; was she just supposed to smile at everyone and act like she wasn't traumatized?—and based on the letter that the Mayfield hadn't stopped fiddling with for the whole car ride, it was clear she wanted a final word with her step-brother. 

Steve realized it was better not to argue with the redhead and pulled into the cemetery without question, as much as he wanted to haul her back to the Wheeler basement. It was probably her last day—it felt wrong saying no to someone who had a death sentence. 

Max got out of the vehicle without a word, slamming the door behind her. She's quick to pace off in the direction of Billy Hargrove's grave, but she doesn't get too far before Lucas throws open his own door and chases after her, full of desperation.

Carla sees her and Steve in Lucas and Max, even if they're broken up. It scares her. 

The Sinclair ends up returning glumly to the BMW, taking a seat on the hood. Dustin leaves the vehicle to stand with his friend. Carla and Steve stay in the car, the Harrington tapping his fingers against the window while the Wheeler watched as Max took a seat in front of a nearby grave, taking a piece of paper out of the envelope that read Billy. 

Carla leaned her head back against the seat, and her eyes shifted to her boyfriend. Steve's fingers tapped anxiously against the window, the rhythmic sound filling the tense silence between them. A crease of worry lies between his brows, one the Wheeler wishes she could smooth away. His jaw is set tight as he watches Max like a hawk.

As much as he hated to admit it, Steve did care for the Party. He's watched over them for the last four years, growing from some guy they sometimes saw to someone they sought out for protection. He feels the need to be their protector—Carla's learned that Steve always feels the need to protect others, but it's certainly present with the kids. 

Finding out that Max was being attacked internally by something he couldn't protect her from didn't sit right. Carla could see that—it was adding a weight on to his shoulders that were already slouching under the pressure of finding out his girlfriend was cursed too. Steve felt like he had to step in for Billy, be the protector the Hargrove should have been for her, and he was failing. 

But as much as Max had grown on Steve, Carla knew that if it came down to it, the Harrington would pick her.  If Vecna came after both of the cursed girls, she knew that Steve would beg for her to come back. 

Sitting in silence with the boy, Carla couldn't help but let it sit in the front of her mind. The fact that he would protect her other Max didn't feel right, not when all the Wheeler wanted was for the Mayfield to live through this. If Vecna came after both of them, she needed Steve to pick Max for her own sake. 

"Steve," Carla breaks the pool of silence, voice quiet yet serious. 

Steve stops tapping his fingers, looking at his girlfriend. He tries to read over her expression, "Yeah?"

Carla digs her fingers in her palms. "I need you to promise me something."

Steve frowned, the lines in his face deepening with concern. "What is it?"

"Uh...I just—" Carla glances back up at Max, who she can see wiping her eyes. "If something happens, when it comes down to it... I—I need you to save Max first."

Steve's eyes widened at the statement, "Carla—"

"No, Steve, listen to me." Carla doesn't want to listen to him reason yet. She needs him to know that she needs Max to live. She can't let the Mayfield die and let herself survive; she needs it to be the other way, or as close as it can be. "Max is only fifteen, and she's been through so much. She's walking into this defeated and I know Vecna is not going to let her go. He's going to take her. We both know he's going to come after me, too. And if he does at the same time, I just—" the Wheeler takes in a sharp inhale, "Just promise me that you guys will save Max first."

Steve's jaw tightened, and he shook his head slightly, refusing to entertain the idea. "No, Carla, I'm not going to promise that—"

"I'm not asking, Steve. I'm telling you." Carla reasons, voice holding more emotion than she wanted. "Max needs you more than I do. If it comes down to it, you save her, not me. I'm connected to all this shit—I know what Vecna is going to try and do. She doesn't."

Steve shakes his head, more determined than before. Both of them deserved to be saved, and call him selfish, but he wasn't going to ignore his girlfriend for Max. He could live without Max Mayfield, but he couldn't live without Carla Wheeler. 

  "No, no—I'm not losing you again." the Harrington scoffs, "I can't—I won't choose between you two like that."

"Steve, I know you don't want to. But I really need you too." the Wheeler softens her gaze, trying to get him to just promise her. "We got to be together without monsters. We got to be happy. Max deserves that, too. Especially right now." She locks her eyes with his. "I couldn't live with myself if she dies and I'm still here. If I'm saved and she isn't. Please just promise me." 

Does Carla not realize the future Steve wants with her? The reoccurring dream that he has almost every night where Carla is his wife, where she's the mother of his kids, where they travel and she's happy? The Harrington can't have any of that if he chooses Max Mayfield and leaves the Wheeler to follow Vecna to death.

But he can see the desperation in Carla's eyes. He knows how much guilt she feels over Max and knows that if he doesn't chose Max and she lives, she won't forgive herself. She won't be happy. And all he wants is for his girlfriend to feel happy again.  

"I—" the Harrington started, but his voice faltered. He let out a long sigh, closing his eyes for a moment. Opening them again, he manages a hesitant,  "Okay. I promise."

Carla nods. "I love you." 

Like it makes anything better. 

Steve finds her hand and squeezes it tightly, like it makes his promise more official. "I love you too." 

The couple falls quiet again, glancing back over at Max. She's still sitting in front of the grave, unmoved from when she first sat down. Carla rubs over her boyfriend's knuckles as if to try and ease his nerves. Steve sits up straight and looks down at his watch—it's been long enough for her to read a letter. 

"Alright, it's been long enough." Steve murmurs before discarding Carla's hand, stepping out of his car. The Wheeler is quick to leave the vehicle too, wanting to check in on the younger girl. 

Lucas watches as the couple heads in the Mayfield's direction—Steve charging his way forward. "Steve, just give her some time—" 

"I have, alright, Sinclair?" Steve clips, turning around to walk backwards. "I'm calling it. If she wants to get a lawyer, she can."

He starts pacing off and Lucas turns to Carla, almost waiting for her to tell the Harrington to wait it out a little longer. However, the Wheeler merely shrugs and trudges after her boyfriend in the direction of Billy's grave.

Steve starts to jog forward, though Max gives no reaction to the incoming footsteps. Carla notices that she no longer holds the letter in her hands, merely staring blankly at Billy's grave. Oddly still. 

"Max! Time to giddy up, yeah?" the Harrington chimes as he reaches her atop the mound. 

Silence. No sarcastic remark or complaint. No recognition of Steve's words. 

Carla feels her heart skip a beat. Cautiously, she crosses down to kneel down in front of the girl, "Hey, Max?" 

The Wheeler's eyes widen as she examines the Mayfield's face to find her blue eyes rolled all the way back, whites growing red with strain. Her face lightly twitched every few seconds, but she's utterly blank. 

"Max?" the Wheeler feels her chest tighten as she raises shaky hands to cup the Mayfield's face. The girl shows no reaction, continuing to blink furiously. Carla tries her best to keep her emotions settled, but she struggles, "Maxine, can you hear me? Max?!"

Carla and Steve share a quick glance, knowing. 

"Fuck, Max, come on—" the Wheeler starts to lightly shake her face, trying to snap her out of Vecna's hold, though she knows it's a weak attempt. Vecna had her—Carla knew he wasn't letting go easy. "Max, please."

Steve crouches down, clapping at the Mayfield. When she'd been locked in a trance at the school, he'd merely shook her shoulder and she had come back. "Max! Wake up! Max, wake up!" 

"Dustin! Lucas!" Carla cries out, though she doesn't pull away from Max. She clutches onto the girl's face harder, as if her hold was enough to keep Vecna from claiming her. Her thumbs smooth over the Mayfield's cheeks, hoping the redhead could feel that she was right here. "Max, I'm right here—please stay with me! Please." 

Steve whips around, "Guys!"

Dustin and Lucas are quick to race up to where Max, Steve, and Carla are, already knowing that something is wrong. Both boys fill with panic as they see the state of Max and join into the cacophony of pleads and calls for her to come back to them. For a moment, it's all the group can think to do—Nancy and Robin were still gone. They didn't know how to stop Vecna. 

"Max—Max you gotta get out of there!"

"Wake up! Max, wake up!"

"Can you hear me, Max?!"

"Max!"

"Don't let him take you." Carla continues to clutch onto Max's face, heart yearning to take her place. God, she wishes she could swap their places. Max didn't deserve this. Vecna didn't deserve her. "You have to fight it, Max! You have to come back to us!"

Max doesn't respond as she's called. The group spirals further, knowing that Vecna was truly claiming her now. Just like Chrissy, just like Fred. 

Leading with his first thought, Steve clutches on to Dustin's shirt to roughly lurch him forward, screaming, "Call Nancy and Robin! Go get 'em! Call Nancy and Robin! Go!" He shoves the young boy back, ignoring how he rolls right off the mound. 

"Please, Max!"

"Shit!"

Dustin sprints for the BMW. Lucas, Steve, and Carla continue to plead, beg, and scream at Max. Both of her shoulders are being shaken with force and her face continues to be stroked. There's no answer, still. Max remains hollow. 

"Take me you fucker!" Carla cries out, as if Vecna is listening. She doesn't care if Steve's right there, or if her cries sound silly. She can't lose Max to this creature—she can only lose herself. "Take me instead of her! Let her go!"

Steve's eyes flicked over to Carla for a split second, but he didn't say anything. He was too focused on trying to wake Max.

Seconds ticked by like hours as the trio shook Max, praying to whoever was listening to spare the teenager. Their prayers go to deaf ears. The Wheeler's brain wracks in an adrenaline rush for a solution to what was happening and she quickly remembers when Eleven was trapped in her head. Carla had managed to dream walk inside, and while they hadn't exactly been Vecna—

Dustin's thudding feet interrupt Carla's thoughts as he returns after what felt like an eternity. The Henderson comes sliding into the mound, throwing at least a dozen cassettes and a Walkman down in front of the trio. "Guys!"

The Wheeler pauses in her pleas with Max, eyes scanning swiftly over the cassettes. What the fuck was this? 

"What is—what is this?" Lucas rushes in a tight panic.

 "Her song!" Dustin screeches back, "What's her favorite song?!"

"Why?! Why?!" 

"Robin said if she—if she listens...." the Henderson seems to realize that the reasoning  behind his question is too much to explain with Max's life on the line, and prays his friends just listen without a reason. "It's too much to explain right now! What's her favorite song!" 

Carla couldn't tell you what Max had been listening to—she always had her Walkman on her and her headphones in, but never did she reveal what exactly was playing. Steve wouldn't know either. The couple turns to Lucas with hope he would. 

Lucas starts to shift through the cassettes in the grass, the pressure on his shoulders high. Steve weakly helps, reading them off and merely assuming based on what he knew about the Mayfield already. 

"Which one?!"

"Hurry up!"

"We're gonna get you back, Max." Carla reassures, eyes darting between the boys rummaging through the cassettes and the Mayfield's rolled back eyes. "Just hold on a little longer, okay? Don't let him win. You're stronger than that."

 "It's right here! It's right here—I got it!" the Sinclair fumbles to unbox the cassette.Nimbly, he hands over a tape of 'Running Up That Hill' by Kate Bush to Steve, who swiftly captures it in the Walkman. 

"Okay, headphones!" Dustin lurches for the headphones and places them over Max's ears. "Now!"

Lucas grabs the Walkman and hits play. 

It's a tense few seconds as the group waits for something to happen. Carla prays that whatever technique Robin had recommended works. 

There's not an immediate reaction. The group continues to screech for their friend. 

"Max!"

"Max, wake up!"

"Max, we're right here!"

"You're so much stronger than he is, Max! Come back to us!" 

Without warning, the Mayfield's legs uncross and she starts to levitate in the air. Carla feels a sound of horror leave the back of her throat. 

The Wheeler hands drop from Max's face and she falls back at the sight, eyes widening in fear. Her heart hammers against her chest. This is what Eddie saw before Chrissy died. This is how Chrissy died. Max was about to die. 

Steve, Dustin, and Lucas all share similar reactions, moving backwards at impulse as Max rises upwards. Carla rushes onto her feet and stares up at the young girl, unsure on what the fuck they can do but wait for the worst. 

She had to be thirty feet in the air, more than any of them could jump. She was lost in a trance, hollow to the world around her. She was going to die. 

"What did you do?!" Carla doesn't want to blame anyone for what was happening to Max other than Vecna, but she only started levitating when the music started playing. Her mind is a mess of emotion and she can't stop herself from weakly jumping up, as if she stands a chance at gasping ahold of her ankle from thirty feet down. "Fuck, Max!"

Dustin and Lucas get lost screaming—fighting Demogorgans and the Mind Flayer were less scary to the Sinclair boy than the prospect of losing Maxine Mayfield— and leaping for one of her ankles. Steve's hand card through his hair in a stressed panic—he was supposed to protect her! He'd promised Carla he would.

Carla begs in her head for Vecna to claim her. To switch places. She knows he can hear her—why wasn't he listening!? Isn't she all he's ever wanted, what he spent an entire summer trying to claim? Why wasn't he taking her now?

Max's name is screamed relentlessly, but she doesn't come back. She just stays in the air. 

This is where her bones are supposed to snap. This is where Max's joints are supposed to twist and her bones are supposed to break, where she's supposed to die. Carla is about to watch Max die—

Without warning, Max starts pummeling down from the sky at full speed. 

Carla barely believes her eyes but she's quick to try and lurch forward. Lucas, Dustin, and Steve follow through, reaching for the Mayfield as she crashes onto the ground with a thud. She collapses onto her side and everyone starts reaching for her. 

Whimpers and gasps for breath come from Max's lips and Carla lets out a sob of relief because she's alive. She thrashes on the ground, eyes widened in utter horror but Lucas reaches on to her and pulls her right into his chest, right back home. 

The Sinclair wraps an arm around her, to which she grips for dear life, hyperventilating. Steve and Dustin can't help but swarm around the Mayfield, reaching for her hand or shoulder in comfort. Carla crawls forward, cupping one side of the shaking girl's face with her own trembling hand. 

"You're back—you're okay." Carla tries to reassure, wanting to calm her down as much as possible. "You're here, honey. Just breathe, Max." 

Max slowly starts to calm down, clutching onto her ex-boyfriend as she wheezed. 

"I thought we lost you," Lucas holds her tightly, voice rough with tears.

"I'm still....." Max chokes, tear rolling down her face. "I'm still here." 

Carla has never been so thankful in her entire life. 

mara's misc!

uhhhh hey!

this chapter was a pain in the ASS to write but writing max getting cursed was pretty fun??? applause to me because i also wrote most of this today.

YES steve's dream is the six nugget dream he told nancy about but obviously with carla instead. while carla's focused on school this season, steve is really thinking about how he wants all of it with carla. i will say the convo WILL happen and you'll get to hear of starla's (hopefully) future kids :)

i was never planning on having carla get cursed this chapter. once again i really HATE going off cannon (why i write fanfiction idk)so i'm going t

yesterday i went to see my mom in an opera and OH MY GOD WAS THAT A WILD EXPERIENCE. they literally sang entirely in latin so i was listening to people sing in latin nonstop for THREE fucking hours. i was tweaking the entire time like three hours without hearing english is wild (it was tosca btw so HELLA dramatic, too)

also just wanted to say apple cider slushies are extremely addictive. they could be the best invention on this planet.

hope you enjoyed <3 see you back with chapter 011!!