CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:
THE FLAYED

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THEY HAD STAYED at Mike's house that night. Liz had stopped the bleeding from her cut, which was deeper than she originally thought but she knew she would be fine. When they woke up the next morning, they all agreed that they needed to find Hopper, knowing that he would know what to do. Once Eleven had gotten her strength up again, she was given a blindfold. Liz and Max were sitting next to each other on the floor across from the couch where Eleven was, searching in the void for Hopper. Max had given Liz multiple worried glances, even though Liz had reassured the redhead that she was fine multiple times.

"I found him," Eleven spoke after a few minutes.

Max sat up, "Where is he?"

"Woods," Eleven explained. "He's with... Will's mom."

Will leaned forward from behind Max, "My — My mom?"

Max furrowed her brows, "What are they doing?"

"Ill... annoy," Eleven mumbled. The group all gave confused looks, not understanding what she meant. "They're going to Ill-annoy."

"Mike! Breakfast!" Mrs. Wheeler yelled down as she knocked on the basement door.

"Not now, Mom!" Mike shouted before turning back towards the group. "Illinois? Illinois, like the state? The state of Illinois?"

Eleven took off the blindfold and shrugged, "Ill-annoy."

Liz sighs and starts to rest her head in her hand but winces once she feels her cut. Max notices, giving the girl a worried glance. Liz gets up and heads towards the bathroom. Once she turns the light on, she sees that her cut had started bleeding again and it didn't look very good. Liz sighs, "Shit." As she grabbed a washcloth, someone knocked on the door. "Yeah?"

The door opened and there stood Max. She walked in and closed the door behind her, "How's your cut?"

Liz frowns, looking back in the mirror and the long, bloody cut that stretched across her cheekbone, "It started bleeding again and it hurts like a bitch."

Max chuckles, "That's because you didn't clean it properly." She starts to grab items from the shelf including rubbing alcohol and bandages. "Can I help?"

Liz shook her head, "It's alright. I can handle it. Water and soap will do the job."

Max grabbed Liz's hand, "Liz, please." Liz looked at Max and saw the girl was practically begging Liz to let her help. "It's my fault you got hurt. Can you at least let me fix it?"

Liz sighed and turned around so she was facing Max. She leaned against the counter and handed the washcloth to Max. Max took it and poured some of the rubbing alcohol onto it. She then cupped Liz's cheek and started to clean the cut, "This is gonna hurt but that just means it's working." Liz winced and closed her eyes as the liquid burned her cut. "I know. I'm sorry."

Liz smiled, "Max, stop saying that you're sorry. You didn't do this. Billy didn't do this, either, okay? This was because of the Mind Flayer. It wasn't your fault."

Max smiled back at Liz and went back to the cut. She continued cleaning it, making sure it wouldn't get infected. She started to put some ointment on it, something that would help it heal, "It isn't that deep, so you won't need stitches. I don't think we'll have to cover it up either, you should be fine with it out."

Liz looked over her shoulder at the mirror to look at her cut. She frowned, "Steve is gonna freak."

Max chuckles, "Yeah, well, Steve is kinda dramatic. He'd freak even if you could barely see it."

Liz smiles, "Yeah, you're not wrong."

Liz looks forward once again and lets Max check everything out one more time. Once Max was satisfied with everything, she started to put the supplies away. Liz ran a hand through her hair as Max looked back at her and she saw Max smiling, "God, how is it that even with a cut across your cheekbone, you look beautiful?" Liz found herself blushing. "Seriously, you always look so good without trying. It's crazy to me that you haven't ever had a boyfriend."

Liz finds herself slowly frowning before she shrugs, "I... I don't really want one."

Max turns back to her, chuckling, "What? Why?"

Liz thought about it. She knew exactly why she didn't want one and it was because the girl standing in front of her was so much better than any guy in the world, but she couldn't tell Max that, "I just... I don't..." Liz trailed off, trying to figure out what to say. "It's just not something I want, you know?"

Max furrows her brows, "Like ever?"

Liz paused. She watched as Max watched her intently, waiting for a response from the girl. Liz felt herself start to get uncomfortable and nervous. She played her fingers and bit her lip as she shrugged, "Uh... can we... not talk about this anymore?"

Max nodded immediately as she could tell Liz was uncomfortable. She put her hand on the doorknob, about to open it before she looked back at Liz, "You know you can tell me anything, right? Like, literally anything and I won't judge."

Liz looks back at Max, thinking about the one thing she hadn't told anyone except for her brother and Dustin, "Anything?"

Max nods and smiles, "Yeah. Anything. I promise."

A moment went by as Liz slowly built up the courage. She was fully prepared at that moment to tell Max everything, including her feelings for the girl. To her, it was now or never. Liz parted her lips, about to let it all spill out until Mike knocked on the door, interrupting them, "Come out! We've got news!"

Liz sighed in annoyance and also relief. She was annoyed that the moment she finally felt comfortable and ready to tell Max the truth was cut off by Mike, but she was also relieved because what if it ruined their whole friendship. The two girls exited the bathroom and both were confused to see Nancy and Jonathan starting to explain something to the rest of the group, "It was the same thing. It was the exact same thing that happened to Will last year. And look at this." Liz and Max took a seat beside each other on the couch as Nancy continued to explain something that they had clearly missed while they were in the bathroom. Nancy set down a sheet of paper from the hospital titled Vitals, which had a bunch of numbers written on a table. "Look at the body temperatures."

The group all lean forward and take a look at the numbers. Will looked up at Nancy, "He likes it cold."

"Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer —" Mike started, clearly not believing anything Nancy was telling him. Max and Liz gave each other strange looks. They had clearly missed an important part of the conversation.

"Mrs. Driscoll," Nancy corrected.

"Right, yeah, Mrs. Driscoll," Mike nods. "What time was this attack?"

"Last night," Nancy answered. "Around nine I think."

"You waited all night to call?" Jonathan questioned.

"I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests," Nancy explained.

"You weren't there?" Will asked.

Jonathan sighed, "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"

Nancy rolled her eyes, "Hallelujah!"

Lucas winced at the amount of shade Nancy was throwing, "Ooh."

"Um, so what — what time was your sauna test?" Nancy asked, getting back on track.

The kids all glanced at each other before saying in unison, "Around nine."

Nancy's eyes widened, "Well, that proves it! That proves my theory."

"She's flayed, just like Billy," Mike concluded. Jonathan seemed confused, so Mike explained. "The Mind Flayer, he flays people. Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him."

"If there are two flayed —"

"We have to assume there are more," Will concluded for Lucas.

"Heather," Eleven's eyes widened, looking at Max and Liz. Liz nodded, thinking that would explain the weird behavior. She looked back at the group. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."

Lucas furrowed his brows, "What's a good scream?"

"Max said —" Eleven started.

"Doesn't matter," Max shook her head, cutting off Eleven.

Liz shook her head as well, "It's not important right now."

"I'm sorry, I'm lost," Nancy furrowed her brows in confusion. "Who is Heather?"

"She's a lifeguard at the pool," Max answered.

"Heather Holloway?" Nancy asked, making the kids nod. Nancy and Jonathan gave each other a knowing look. "Tom."

It all happened very fast. Nancy and Jonathan started to head up the stairs, telling the kids to come with them. All the kids were very confused but followed, knowing it probably had something to do with Heather and whoever Tom was. They all piled into Nancy's car before they took off down the road, the last thing said being Nancy informing them that they were going to the Holloway house.

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[ 1500 WORDS ]

a shorter chapter but a cute
max & liz moment!!