Cassie and Lucas screamed on sync when Steve nearly took them out with the lamp.

"Steven, absolutely not!" Cassie dropped to the ground.

"It's me!" Lucad yelled as he held his arms out.

"Lucas?" Nancy asked in disbelief as she shined the flashlight. "Cassie?"

"It's me." Lucas exhaled, leaning over to catch his breath with his hands on Cassies shoulders.

"My little life genuinely flashed before my very eyes!" Cassie ranted from the ground, sitting up on her knees. "I thought we were friends!"

"Why wouldn't you make yourselves known!" Steve hollered at the pair as Lucas helped Cassie to her feet. "I could have taken you out with this lamp."

"I'm very much, quite literally, extremely aware." Cassie held her heart with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry." Lucas panted. "Sorry, sorry, guys. We were biking for eight miles."

"Broke a sweat." Cassie wiped her forehead. "Like a magical waterfall from my scalp."

"Give me a second. Shit." Lucas caught his breath. "We've got a code red."

"Like Scarlett red- code red." Cassie agreed.

"What?" Steve gapped.

"Dustin." Lucas ignored Steve as he walked to them. Cassie hugged Max as she nearly fell over. "We'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."

"I didn't pull the police alarm in time." Cassie moved away from Max.

"Police alarm?" Robin gapped.

"All right. Yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason now." Jason informed the pair with a odd look in his eye.

"This is genuinely shaking my brain so terribly bad I might explode of ruby red brains and mint green thoughts." Cassie said honestly as she looked down at her flyer, sat with Lucas.

"Okay, be honest. Uh, do you guys understand any of this?" Steve gave a curious look to the trio on the couch.

"No." Lucas shook his head.

"Pretty straightforward." Dustin nodded his head.

"Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve gave him a look of disbelief.

"Ow." Cassie dropped the paper as she looked at her finger. "I've painfully and drastically cut my finger."

"Oh, no, Cass." Lucas grabbed her hand. "Let me see."

"What's confusing to you?" Dustin ignored the two as he looked to Steve. "So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died, except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor. If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him."

"Except Nancy broke the painfully, horrible news to us that he might not have possibly been cursed." Cassie pointed out.

"See." Steve agreed. "We don't even know. How can Vecna have existed back in the '50s? It doesn't make sense."

"Far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside Down." Dustin pointed out.

"Ugh, my heart and soul burns for my El." Cassie frowned. "I painfully, so extraordinarily, whole heartedly, wish she was here."

"The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions." Dustin nodded. "I wouldn't be surprised if it predates the dinosaurs."

"Dinosaurs? What are we-" Steve began to get confused.

"Okay." Lucas cut in before it could escalate. "But if a gate didn't exist in the '50s, how did Vecna get through?"

"And how now?" Steve nodded.

"And why now?" the Sinclair boy looked to Cassie.

"And why then." Steve got their attention again. "Just pops out of the 50s, kills one family, and he's like, 'I'm good.' And poof, he just disappears. Just...gone? Only to return thirty years later to start killing some random teens? No, I don't buy it."

"Intelligent filled questions." Cassie nodded slowly. "El got through on her own, with her powers. What is Vecna has required more then just his cursing powers?"

"Maybe but it still doesn't answer why, just thirty years later, it's happening again." Steve pointed out.

"Suppose you do make a rather excellent point that grants you the right to be right." Cassie agreed as she fell back against the couch.

"Straightforward my ass. Honestly, Henderson, a little humility now and then, it wouldn't hurt you." Steve pointed the paper toward Dustin.

"Sorry." Dustin hummed. Dustin looked to Max across the room. "Any idea what she's writing?"

"Letters to her past live selves with her tears mixed within the ink, expressing all the things she wished she knew and felt for them?" Cassie suggested.

"Yup, that's it." Steve hummed.

"Did she sleep?" Dustin spoke up.

"I mean, would you?" Lucas gave a knowing look. Cassie jumped when the door opened, Nancy and Robin came jogging down the steps quickly.

"Okay, so we have a plan." Nancy smiled to Robin.

"Thanks to Nancy and Cassies newspaper minions we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Norte Dame." Robin grinned as she showed off the fake resumes.

"I'm nowcRuth." Nancy hummed.

"And i'm now Rose." Robin agreed.

"Nice GPA." Dustin rose his eyebrows.

"Thanks." Nancy grinned. "So we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Victor Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics-" Nancy started with a nod.

"To which they said no." Robin pointed out.

"But we landed a three o'clock with the director." Nancy reassured them with a nod of her head.

"I'm painfully, soul-burningly impressed." Cassie smiled as she passed Robin her resume back.

"Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor." Robin finished off the plan with a nod of her head.

"And then maybe we can rid Max of this curse." Nancy nodded her head as she looked toward the redhead.

"Yeah, about that. We're been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh...we got some questions." Steve stacked up the papers.

"Lots of questions." Lucas pointed out from the other side of Cassie.

"An unbearable, suffocatingly load of questions." Cassie snapped her fingers.

"So do we. Hopefully, Victor has the answers." Nancy agreed with a nod.

"Wait-Wait-Wait a second. Uh..where's mine?" Steve laughed when he realized their had only been two folders for just Ruth and Rose.

"Pain." Cassie held up her cut finger, that was now wrapped in a cartoon bandaid via Nancy. "Why do little cuts hurt an exceptionally lot more then large cuts?"

"We'll never know, Cas. We'll never know." Lucas shook his head. They sat together on the couch while Dustin and Steve were on the stairs. Even in the small basement, they're conversation wouldn't be heard if they spoke quietly. "So, hey."

"Hey, back." she hummed, continuing to look down at all her Victor Crill papers.

"So, are you just gonna pretend like what happened at Dustin's didn't happen or.." Lucas trialed off. Cassie reddened in the face as she slowly looked up at him. "Because, I know you said you were s-"

"For you." Max's voice cut him off as they both turned their head to see her handing a letter to Dustin. Then one to Steve. "For you."

She walked toward the two on the couch. "For you Cas, and you, Lucas."

"Love letters?" Cassie rose her eyebrows. "You shouldn't have."

"Give these to Mike, El, and Will. Especially El, please." Max held the letters out to Cassie. "You're the most responsible one here so...If you can ever get ahold of them again, anyways."

"Of course." Cassie nodded her head. "What are these for?"

"Don't open them now!" Max spoke quickly as all four of them went to.

"Don't...okay." Dustin nodded his head quickly.

"It's, um...it's a fail-safe." Max explained, getting four questionable looks. "For after. If things don't work out."

Cassies face fell. "Max-"

"Things are gonna work out." Lucas promised her with a nod of his head.

"No!" Max scolded them both quickly. "No, I don't need you to reassure me and tell me it's all gonna work out. Because people have been telling me that my entire life and it's almost never true. It's never true. And I mean, of course this asshole curses me. Should've seen that one coming."

Max looked away when her eyes watered up. She grabbed her walkie quickly. "If we go to East Hawkins, will this still reach Pennhurst?"

"Of course." Dustin nodded quickly.

"Wait, why are we talking about East Hawkins?" Steve gave a questionable look with a minor shake of his head.

"I'll drive!" Cassie suggested.

"No, no, no." Steve stood up and followed Max.

"Dead people?" Cassie asked Max when they pulled up to the cemetery, after a freaky encounter at her house already. "Are you sure this is the right atmosphere to spend this shiny, possibly heart lifting, spirit lighting, day at?"

"Yes, I have to do this." Max unbuckled her seat belt.

"Do you want me to accompany you?" Cassie caught her hand before she could go.

"Tell you what." Max nodded. "Wait in the car but if I need you, i'll wave you over."

Cassie nodded in understand meant as Max shut the door, walking toward a certain grave. The four sat in the car. Cassie shook her head. "Nancy and Robin-"

"They're gonna figure it out." Dustin nodded, maybe trying to convince himself more then anyone else.

Lucas' pinkie touched Cassies leg just slightly, maybe apart of him hoped she didn't even feel it. She had, turning her head just a little but not fully. Her pinkie nudged his in return.

"All right, it's been long enough." Steve opened the car door.

"Steve, just give her some time." Lucas huffed.

"I have, okay? I'm calling it. She wants to get a lawyer, she can." Steve shrugged in return.

"Jerk." Cassie rolled her eyes.

The trio watched him jog toward Max, kneeling by her side. Cassie opened the car door with a questionable look. Lucas saw her face. "What is it?"

"Something isn't right." she shook her head, watching Steve violently start to shake Max's shoulder. "No, something definitely isn't right. Max!"

The boys followed her quickly, the trio running up to see Max frozen. Cassie dropped on her knees beside her. "What's happening?"

"She was like this when I got over here!" Steve spoke in a panic. "Wake up!"

"Max!" Cassie shook her shoulders, patting her face. "Max! Max, come back! Come on!"

"Max!" the boys yelled at her. "Max you gotta got outta there! Can you hear me?"

"Call Nancy and Robin! Go get 'em!" Steve grabbed Dustin quickly. "Call Nancy and Robin! Go!"

"Max!" Cassie held her face as she shook her head. "Don't let him get to you! He's not actually here, come back!"

"Cassie you're gonna make her dizzy." Steve tried to stop her.

"I don't care!" She yelled, shaking Max even harder. "Come on, Max! Come on! Just listen to my voice, come back!"

"Music!" Dustin yelled, running over with the headphones and cassette tapes. "It's music! It brings them back! Music!"

"Which one is it?" Lucas asked as they looked through her mixtapes.

"It's Running Up That Hill! She told me!" Cassie called quickly as they looked around. "Kate Bush, it's Kate Bush!"

"It's right here! It's right here!" Lucas called quickly as he took the cassette out, passing it to Steve as he clasped it.

"Now!" Dustin yelled after securing the headphones on Max's head.

"Max, come on." Cassie held her wrist now. "You got this. Come on, I know you can do it!"

Her body started to move, Cassie thought she was waking up, only to see her floating above them now. Cassie fell back in shock before getting to her feet. "Max! Max, wake up!"

"Max!" Lucas yelled for her.

"Max, come on!" Steve yelled.

"Max!" Dustin stared up to her.

"I know you can get out of there!" Cassie yelled to encourage her. "Max, come on! We'll figure it out! We'll fix it all!"

Her body suddenly fell, the redhead cried out. She reached around in a panic, the trio of friends wrapping her in a hug. Cassie dug her face into her neck. Lucas sighed. "I thought we lost you."

"I'm still here." Max gripped onto all three of them as Steve took a moment to recover. "I'm still here."

•

kylie speaks

i'm so glad i didn't decide
to let vecna take cassie bc
i couldn't handle that one,
idk how i'm gonna get through
the four oc's that i did pick