Ryan felt butterflies in her stomach. As Eddie was leaning in so was Ryan. Their lips touched lightly before both of them pulled away. Ryan looked up at Eddie before leaning in again crashing their lips together once more. Eddie grabs her waist making her straddle his lap without breaking the heated kiss they were in. Ryan broke the kiss looking down at Eddie who was blushing hardcore. "Someone's a little happy." Ryan teased making him roll his eyes. "So, are we going to be sleeping in a boat?" Ryan asked getting off of Eddie's lap, much to his dismay. "Sadly, yes." Ryan groaned at the thought of sleeping in a creaky boat. Even though her bed is absolutely shit as well sleeping in a boat just seems like torture. "It's not that bad." Eddie spoke breaking the silence trying to reassure Ryan.

"Whatever, dipshit." Ryan sighs as she realizes she didn't have her cigarettes. "What's wrong?" Eddie questioned seeing Ryan in dismay. "Nothing," Ryan mumbled out as she was starting to get tired. "Tired?" Ryan nodded her head as she tired her best to get comfortable in the boat, which was absolutely impossible. "Goodnight, freak."

-

"Jesus!" Eddie yelled out making Ryan jolt awake in the boat. "Delivery service." Dustin said holding up a baggie of groceries. "What the fuck, Dustin." Ryan said trying to restart her heart before climbing out of the boat. Ryan grabbed the baggie from Dustin and throwing it on the table. "So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news." Dustin said as Eddie was stuffing his face with food. "How do you prefer it?"

"Bad news first, always." Eddie answered to Dustin. "All right. Bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy." Dustin said before Max added, "like, 100% kind of convinced."

"And the good news?"

"Your name hasn't gone public yet." Robin said trying to reassure him but utterly failing. "But if we found out about you, it's a matter of before others do. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you." Robin stated. "Hunt the freak, right?"

Robin answered, "exactly."

"So, before that happens, we find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence." Dustin explained to Eddie, "that's all, Dustin? That's all?" Ryan rolled her eyes at Eddie's response before taking the box of cereal in his hands and setting it down. "Yeah, no, that's pretty much it."

"Listen, Eddie. I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this before. I mean, they have a... a few times, and... and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh-based, theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel we got this." Robin trailed off into her experience with the Upside Down. "We usually relay on this girl who has super powers. But, uh, those went bye-bye, so..." Steve said before Robin cut him off, "so we're technically in more of the,"

"Kinda..."

"Brainstorming phase." Max finishes for them. "There... there's nothing to worry about." Dustin sputtered out making Steve scoff earning a jab in the rib cage from Ryan. Before anyone could say anything else there were sirens.

"Shit." Ryan muttered out. "Tarp! Tarp. Tarp." Robin said frantically, Eddie grabbed the tarp and threw it over himself to cover him. The rest of them head to the small window in the shack to see the cop cars zooming past the house and shack with an ambulance behind it. "Let's go!" Steve said as they all got into his car. "Wait, I forgot something in the shack." Ryan lied running back to the shack.

"Eddie!" She whisper-shouted taking the tarp off. "What?" Ryan said nothing but kissed his cheek and ran off. She got into the car making Steve hit the gas quickly. "Little warning next time!" Ryan yelled at Steve as her head hit the back of seat. When Steve pulled into crime scene they saw someone they never expected. Nancy.

-

"You're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it's from the Upside Down?" Nancy questioned as they explained to her about Vecna. "What else could it be?" Ryan answered her question with a question. "Our working theory is that he attack with a spell or a curse. Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loved killing teens, we don't know." Dustin admitted.

"All we know is this is something different. Something new." Max announced. "It doesn't make sense." Nancy murmured. "It's just a theory."

"No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense. I mean, why them?" Nancy made some good points about how the two had 'perfect' lives. "Maybe they were just in the wrong place. Were both at the game."

"And at the trailer park!" Ryan exclaimed out. Before realizing, "we're at the trailer park." Steve points out.

"There is something off about this place. Fred started acting weird the second we got here." Nancy said recalling earlier when the two of them got there. "Chrissy was upset just like Fred. She was crying in the bathroom at school." Max stated as they put the symptoms of Chrissy and Fred together and they had matched.

"If they saw something like that, don't you think they would tell someone?" Ryan questioned. "Maybe they did. I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office. If you saw a monster, you... you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your," Robin cut her off, "your shrink." In which Max nodded her head at Robins answer.

-

Max rang the doorbell to Ms. Kelleys. The door opened up soon after that and Max greeted her. "Okay. She's in." Steve stated. "No shit." Ryan sassed. "I'm missing collarbones, not eyes."

"So, we gonna talk about... it?" Ryan noticed how it was a Harrington and Henderson talk. Ryan sighed as she put her headphones on pushing the play button before her eyes were filled with Queen.

I want to break free, I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You're self-satisfied I don't need you
I've got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free

I've fallen in love
I've fallen in love for the first time
This time I know it's for real
I've fallen in love, yeah
God knows, God knows I've fallen in love

It's strange but it's true, hey
I cant get over the way you love me like you do.

"Ryan!" Max was shaking her shoulder to get her out of her trance. "Sorry, I was listening to music." She takes the headphones off as Lucas' voice comes over the walkie-talkie. "It's Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin."

"Lucas? Where the hell have you been?" Dustin radioed over to Lucas. "Just listen. Are you looking for Eddie?" Ryan scoffed at Lucas' question before talking the walkie from Dustin. "Yeah, no thanks to you." She radioed to Lucas. "Wait, are you with Ryan, the bitch, Sullivan?"

"That's not important right now. Yeah we found him, he's in a boathouse on Coal Mill Road. Don't worry. He's safe." Dustin explained. "You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?"

"Bullshit!"

"Lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay? Just meet us at the school. We'll explain later." Max said as she had taken the walkie away from Dustin. "I... I can't. I think some real bad shits about to go down."

"What are you talking about?" Ryan took the walkie from Max to hear what Lucas had to say. But there was no response. "Son of a bitch!" Ryan yelled out as it was just static from the other end.

-

"Dustin, do you copy?" Robin's voice rang through the walkie-talkie, "yeah, I copy."

"Vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bull's-eye." Robin informed. "Okay, that's totally bonkers, but I can't really talk right now. We're breaking and entering school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files."

"Can you repeat that?" Robin asked the boy on the other end of the walkie-talkie. "Just get your ass over here, stat. We'll explain everything."

Max unlocked the door to the counseling office and the rest followed her with their flashlights as she opened a file cabinet getting Chrissy's and Fred's files before opening them up and setting them on Ms. Kelley's desk. Seeing the symptoms line up, Ryan lightly gasped.

Past trauma
Terrible nightmares
Difficulty sleeping
Headaches

"Max!" Ryan was shouting her name. She wasn't responding. She was frozen. "Dustin! It's Vecna!" Steve yelled out as Ryan and him were trying to get Max out of the trance. That's when it happened.

Tick-tock.

Ryan turned around to come face to face with an old grandfather clock. "Get out of my head!" Ryan yelled out while spinning in circles trying to find what was doing this to her, but more like who.

"Ryan..." Ryan snapped around hearing an eerie voice call her name. "What do you want from me!"

"You killed her. She was living in you. And you killed her." Vecna said.

"Get out of my fucking head!"

Ryan woke up with a jolt to see Steve standing in front of her. Ryan immediately wrapped her arms around him as a tear fell down her face. "I'm going to die, Steve." She muttered out in between sobs. "I need to go." Ryan said breaking away from the embrace and started walking towards the exit. "Wait! Max saw the clock too." Ryan stopped dead in her tracks before turning around and going into the hallway to see Max.

"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelley for help. Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And then... then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. Then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. These visions, they just... they kept on getting worse and worse until eventually... everything ended." Ryan was in shambles at hearing the symptoms and what had happened to Chrissy and Fred. Especially as they were happening to her too. And not to mention Max was also seeing things.

"Chrissy's headaches started a week ago. Fred's, six days ago. I've been having them for five days. I don't know how long I have. All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock, so looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow." Ryan immediately hugged the girl. "You aren't dying, you're too cool to die." Ryan said making the girl laugh a little.

"Am I dreaming of is Ryan actually being nice?" Dustin asked quietly. "I'll cut your dick off, Henderson."

clang.

"Stay here." Ryan didn't listen and followed Steve anyways. He grabs the lamp before leaving the room. What the fuck is he gonna do with a lamp? Ryan thought to herself as she followed Steve closely. The clanging was starting to get louder with each step they took. The footsteps were louder and getting rapid. The monster had turned the corner and it was, Lucas?

"Holy shit! You really are hanging out with Ryan Sullivan!" Lucas said panting. "What the fuck is this dudes problem?" Ryan asked rhetorically.

"Jesus, what's wrong with you? I could've taken you out with this lamp!" Ryan laughs at Steve as that lamp would do absolutely nothing against a real threat. "We've got a code red." Lucas said after catching his breath a little.

"Dustin, I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie, and they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger." Lucas explained to Dustin as he didn't seem fazed at all. "All right. Yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason now." Dustin said as he looked back at Max.

-

"Okay, be honest. Uh... you guys understand any of this?" Steve pondered as they were reading articles. "It's pretty straightforward." Ryan watched as Dustin and Steve bickered around like always. "Can you guys just shut up? Some of us are trying to sleep." Ryan groaned as they were interfering with her beloved sleep. "We have more important matters then sleep right now!"

Ryan put her headphones back on to resume the song she was playing from before.

But I have to be sure when I walk out that door
Oh, I want to be free, baby
Oh, how I want to be free
Oh, I want to break free

But life still goes on
I cant get used to living without, living without
Living without you by my side
I don't want to live alone, hey
God knows, got to make it on my own

The song ended much to Ryan's dismay as one of her favorite songs ended making her take the headphones off realizing that Steve had left the basement. "Where'd Steve go?" Ryan asked and Dustin motioned that he went upstairs.

"Someone's a little upset." Ryan pried at the boy. "So, when did you become all buddy buddy with the party?" Lucas asked. Ryan scoffed at his question before answering, "none of your business, dickwad." Lucas looked confused as she was just nice to Max and Dustin but not him.

"She's real nice when you get to know her." Dustin whispered to Lucas as Ryan walked away and went upstairs to get some water. Finding the fridge, she opened it up and grabbed a bottled water before heading back downstairs to see Steve back and Max in front of the couch handing out letters. The creaking of the stairs made Max look behind her.

"This is for you." Ryan took the letter from Max and setting her water down. "Don't open it now, it's just in case something goes wrong." She explained to Ryan who looked at her with sad eyes before pulling her into a hug which she accepted.

-

They all file into the car as Max didn't want to spend her last day in the armpit of Mike Wheeler's basement. "You're a badass Max Mayfield." Ryan complimented as she threatened Steve with kidnapping a minor. The drive felt long, like it was never ending. And frankly Ryan didn't want it to end. Knowing that if it ended it was closer to death with Max.

Steve pulled into Max's house as she needed to give her mother her letter. It was taking Max a long time and they were starting to get worried. "Hey, are you alright?" Ryan asked seeing Max rush out of the house, panting. "I'm fine. Let's just go." They all piled back into the car as Steve drove away and to the next destination. Billy's grave. "Good luck, come back to me." Ryan stated as Max got out of the car. Steve was starting to get impatient. He ran up to Max, who was sitting in front of Billy's grave. "Max!" He shouted but she didn't respond. So, he did it again. And again. And again. But nothing happened. Shit!

Ryan ran towards Max and Steve to see Max under the curse once more. This was it. They were going to lose Max. Dustin ran towards the car to get the walkie-talkie to see if Robin and Nancy had gotten it figured it out. "Code red!" No response.

Dustin ran back up to Max dumping a load of mixtapes. "What's her favorite song?" Dustin asked and they quickly got to work trying to find Running up that hill.

Soon Max started to float. "No! Max!" Ryan shouted seeing her float up. Then it happened. She came back down. "Max!" Ryan quickly wrapped her arms around the girl who was freaking out.

"You're safe now."

~

wc: 2672

yuh
i don't know lmfao