you, robin and nancy rushed into the school, where you found max, dustin, steve

as you, robin and nancy called out to the others they all turned around glad to see you. Steve instantly stepped forward, "are you okay how was it? you were careful, right?"

"don't need to worry that much steve." you laugh at how protective he was, but you appreciated it none the less, "we were at the library that's all." you smile hugging his side, the others were gathered around max, "what's going on?" you ask noticing that something was definitely up

"max says she saw a clock right here." steve says

"it was here." max explains as we point out flash lights towards an empty wall, "right here." theres panic in her voice

"a grandfather clock?" nancy questions

"it was so real. and then, when i got closer, suddenly i just.. i woke up."

"it was like she was in a trance or something. exactly what eddie said happened to chrissy." dustin says, everyone was silent until max turned to us

"that's not even the bad part." max lead us back into ms kelley's office and explained what she had found, "fred and chrissy, they both came to miss kelley for help. uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches thats 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 past. and these visions they.. they kept on getting worse and worse. until eventually... everything ended."

"vecnas curse."

"chrissys headache started a week ago. fred's, six days ago."

"i've been having them for five days." max says making us all start to worry more then we already were

"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.." max breathes shakily, on the verge of tears at this point

".. looks like i'm gonna die tomorrow." suddenly there's a loud clanging noise in the distance that makes us all look towards the direction it was coming from

"stay here." steve says walking towards the door, grabbing a lamp on the way out, the rest of you following him shortly after ignore his previous statement

more clattering makes us stop momentarily, but the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching making us stand on guard, steve raising the lamp he was holding

everyone yells as a person quickly turns the corner making us scream too

"it's me!" the person yells

"lucas?" nancy questions

"jesus!" steve shouts

"it's me."

"what's wrong with you sinclair!" steve shouts again

"i'm sorry." he says out of breath

"i couldve taken you out with this lamp!" steve shouts once again

"sorry, guys." lucas apologies again, exhaling once more almost like he just sprinted from the other side of town

"not like you swung at anything anyway steve." you comment to which he drops the lamp to the ground rolling his eyes at you.

"i was.. i was biking for eight miles." lucas explains, "give me one second." he says still catching his breath, "shit. we've got a code red."

"what?"

"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."

"alright. yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than jason now." dustin says looking back at max

*timeskip to nancy's house/mike's basement*

you, steve, dustin, lucas and max now sat in the wheelers basement, steve, dustin and lucas reading, 'the watcher' article you, robin and nancy had found about victor creel.

"uh, be honest. you guys understand any of this?" steve questions as he paces around the basement

"no."lucas says

"pretty straightforward." dustin says

"oh, straightforward, really?"

"what's confusing to you?"

you sit listening to steve and dustin bicker about the article and about victor creel - having some very logical arguments about how random the vecna curse was.. you turn to the other side of the basement where you see max sitting at a desk writing something

"any idea what she's writing?" you ask the boys, who now turn to look at max

"did she sleep?" dustin asks

"i mean, would you?" lucas asks

the basement door opens and nancy and robin come down the staircase, "okay, so.. we have a plan." nancy states

"thanks to nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the university of Notre Dame." robin explains

"i'm now ruth." nancy says

"and i'm rose."

"ruth? rose?" steve asks

"nice GPA." dustin compliments

"thanks."

"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—-"

"to which they said no."

"but we landed a three oclock with the director."

"now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to victor."

"and then maybe we can rid max of this curse."

"yeah about that, we've been doing our victor creel homework, and, uh, we got some questions."

"lots of questions." lucas adds

"so do we. hopefully, victor has the answers."

"wait a second. uh... where's ours?" steve says pointing between you and him

"nancy you're outta your mind if you think you're leaving us to babysit. again."

"okay first of all, they're not babies anymore. and max is in real danger. she needs people around her."

"honestly i don't mind-" you start

"y/n, not the time." steve whispers to you, "i know nancy. but why does it always have to be me?"

you lay on nancys bed as you listen to them bicker, when robin walks in with a gasp making you look up at her

"oh my god, you have a tom cruise poster. you have a tom cruise poster."

"that's old."

"it's just.." robin laughs

"can you please not touch anything?"

"i cant do anything here, nancy. maybe we can be helpful with this asylum director dude."

"...if we're gonna convince him, we need to act like life long scholars, true academic scholars."

"omg robin look at this!" you say handing her a jewellery box

"holy shit. there's a little ballerina in here." robin whispers bitting her lip

"academic scholar? she's giving you an academic scholar vibe? yeah." making robin shut the music box

"no but.. she will." nancy says holding up a fancy blouse

"oh, please, tell me that you're joking." robin says