Chapter 27

“Okay, be honest. Uh… You guys understand any of this?” Steve asks, as he, Lucas, Dustin and Sofia go over the articles Nancy and Robin brought home.

“No” Lucas says.

“Yeah” Sofia says.

“Pretty straightforward” Dustin adds.

“Oh, straightforward, really?” Steve asks as he paces around. Dustin and Lucas are sitting on the sofa and Sofia is sitting on one of the chairs. Robin and Nancy left home earlier and since Sofia wanted to sleep, she stayed.

“What’s confusing to you?” Dustin asks. 

“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”

“That’s assuming he was cursed, which we don’t even know” Steve says, rubbing his forehead. “How can Vecna have existed in the ’50s? It doesn’t make sense” 

“Far as we know, Eleven didn’t create the Upside Down. She opened a gate to it. The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn’t be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs” Dustin explains.

“Dinosaurs? What are we…” Steve says, confused.

“You know, dinosaurs… reptiles with tiny arms” Sofia says, imitating a T-rex. Steve gives her a mean smile in response. 

“Okay, okay…  But if a gate didn’t exist in the ’50s, how did Vecna get through?” Lucas asks.

“How’s he getting through now?” Steve asks.

“And why now?” Lucas adds.

“And why then? Just pops out in the ’50s, kills one family, and he’s like, “I’m good.” And poof, he just disappears. Just… gone? Only to return 30 years later and start killing random teens? No, I don’t buy it” Steve says and sighs, sitting on another chair.

“You know how some serial killers stop killing because they went to jail for something other than murder? Maybe something like that happened to Vecna… maybe he couldn’t kill during those 30 years” Sofia thinks out loud.

“Exactly” Dustin agrees. “As I said, pretty straightforward”

“Straightforward, my ass.  Honestly, Henderson, a little humility now and then, it wouldn’t hurt you” Steve says.

“Sorry” Dustin says. He looks up at Max, who’s at the desk writing. 

“Any idea what she’s writing?” Dustin asks, making the three of them also look at Max. “Did she sleep?”

“I mean, would you?” Lucas asks.

Suddenly, the door bursts open and Nancy and Robin run down the stairs. 

“Okay, so… we have a plan” Nancy says, smiling.

Sofia gets up to hug Robin as Nancy walks to the coffee table and places two folders on top. Nancy takes Sofia’s seat. Robin grabs a chair and sits on it. Sofia sits on the floor with her legs crossed, in the middle on Robin’s legs.

Robin starts playing with Sofia’s hair as she starts talking. “Thanks to Nancy’s minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame”

“I’m now Ruth” Nancy says.

“And I’m Rose” Robin says. Sofia chuckles, remembering Rose Maylie from Oliver Twist, the book she and Robin once read together while cuddling.

“Nice GPA” Dustin points out.

“Thanks” Nancy says.  “So we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we’d like to speak with Creel for a thesis we’re co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics-“

“-To which they said no” Robin concludes.

“But we landed a three o’clock with the director” Nancy says.

“Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor” Robin explains.

“Then maybe we can rid Max of this curse” Nancy says, glancing at Max.

“About that. We’ve been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh… we got some questions” Steve says.

“Lots of questions” Lucas adds.

“So do we. Hopefully, Victor has the answers” Nancy says.

“Wait… Wait… Wait a second. Uh…” Steve says, going over the files.  “Where’s mine?”

“You don’t have one” Nancy says, going up the stairs. Robin, Sofia and Steve follow her to her room.

Steve and Nancy enter her room and Steve starts complaining about something that Sofia can’t quite understand as she stops at the top of the staircase with Robin.

“How are you?” Robin asks her, holding Sofia’s available hand.

“I’m okay… you?” Sofia asks, shrugging.

“I’m okay… can’t wait for this to be over” Robin says, making her way into Nancy’s room.

“Oh my God, you have a Tom Cruise poster” Robin points out when she enters the room. “You have a Tom Cruise poster…”

“That’s… old” Nancy says. “It’s just… Can you please not touch anything?”

Robin starts going over Nancy’s stuff as Sofia looks around. 

“I can’t do anything here, Nance. Maybe I can be helpful with this asylum director dude. I don’t know. I could turn on my… my charm” Steve says.

“Not the charm we need” Nancy says.

“Ouch”

“No, I just… I did a little digging last night, and it turns out this Dr. Hatch is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Harvard visiting scholar, okay? This is a lifelong student of the world. If we’re gonna win him over, we’re gonna have to convince him we are too. That, like him… we are true academic scholars” Nancy explains, going over her closet.

“Holy shit. There’s a little ballerina in here” Robin smiles, as a little box with a ballerina inside starts playing music. Sofia chuckles and looks at her girlfriend in awe.

“Academic scholar? She’s giving you an academic scholar vibe? Yeah” Steve sighs.

“No, but… she will” Nancy says, grabbing a pink button down and a skirt. Inside the button down was a bra.

Sofia lets out a laugh but quickly covers her mouth with her hand.

“Oh, please, tell me you’re joking” Robin says.

Nancy hands her the clothes and signals to the bathroom and Sofia follows Robin.

“Why are you going too?” Nancy asks.

“She might need help to not throw up in those clothes” Sofia responds, entering the bathroom and closing the door.

Robin takes her shirt off as Sofia sits on the counter, noticing every gesture Robin makes. She then takes off her bra and changes into a new one.

She sees Sofia staring and walks over to her, making eye contact. Sofia grabs Robin by her pants and pulls her close so she’s between her legs.

She softly kisses Robin on the lips and soon they start making out. They shared tender and slow kisses, like they didn’t want that moment to end. 

There’s suddenly a knock on the door. “Sofy, we gotta go!” Steve says from the other side of the door.

Sofia stops kissing Robin, but she trails down Sofia’s neck and starts kissing her there. “Where?” Sofia asks, trying to keep her voice steady.

“Your appointment!” Steve says.

“Oh shit” Sofia says, looking at her wristwatch as Robin let go. “I’m out in a sec!” 

Sofia gets down from the counter and holds Robin’s hand. “Be careful” Sofia says.

“Yeah, good luck” Robin says, and they kiss goodbye.

The drive was quick. Steve dropped her off and drove back home. When she’s ready she’ll call him to pick her up.

Sofia enters the hospital, anxious to take off her cast. She never really liked hospitals: she hates the smell of disinfectant, and the amount of people that have died there creeps her out.

She sits in the waiting room for her appointment. Since she didn’t have a book or a walkman with her, she looked around, observing people.

She thought about how each one of those people actually had a life. That she does have a life too, but it’s a mess right now. She wonders if anyone’s life there is as messed up as hers.

“Sofia? Sofia Henderson?” someone asks her, pushing her out of her thoughts.

“Yes?” Sofia says, not knowing who it was.

“I’m Donna Martin… You probably don’t remember me… I’m Cher’s cousin, we played together at her 12th birthday party…”

“Oh, yes, I remember you know!” Sofia says. She didn’t. Not at all. Not even a little bit.

“I’m sorry for your loss” Sofia adds. Thinking of Cher still makes her feel physical pain, but there are bigger things to worry about right now.

“Yeah… I was wondering if you were coming to the funeral?” Donna asks.

“Oh… I didn’t know when it was. When is it?” Sofia asks. The truth is she forgot funerals are even a thing.

“Tomorrow, at the local church” Donna says, before someone calls her name. “Well, gotta go. It was good seeing you”.

“You too” Sofia says and the girl walks away. 

After a while, Sofia walks into the nursery room and the doctor makes sure everything’s okay and finally takes off her cast. He tells her to move her wrist slowly and to not make excessive movements.

She grabs 25 cents and walks to the payphone right outside the hospital.

In the meanwhile, while Robin and Nancy go into Pennhurst Asylum, Steve, Max, Lucas and Dustin are in the basement. Max has just given them the letters.

“If we go to East Hawkins, will this reach Pennhurst?” Max asks, holding the walkie-talkie.

“Of course. Yeah” Dustin answers.

“Why are we talking about East Hawkins?” Steve asks and the phone starts ringing. He makes his way to the phone, and after a few seconds hangs up. “It’s Sofia, I’m picking her up now”

“Perfect” Max says, grabbing the walkie and walking out of the house.

“Max, Max. Seriously. Seriously, I’m not joking. I’m not driving you anywhere” Steve complains as he follows her outside.

“If you think I’m going to spend what is likely the last day of my life in the armpit that is Mike Wheeler’s basement, you’re out of your mind. Either take me where I need to go or tie me down, which is technically kidnapping of a minor. And if I live to see another day, Steve, I swear to God, I will prosecute” Max says.

She tries to open the door, but it’s locked. “Open the door”.

“Uh, no” Steve says.

“I know a good lawyer” Max says, staring directly at him.

“Henderson, that super walkie of yours better reach Pennhurst” Steve sighs, opening the car.

After going to Max’s house, Steve finally arrives at the hospital. Sofia sees him pull up and she runs to the car.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Sofia asks the three teens while sitting on the backseat, since Dustin was in the passenger seat.

“Max is making me drive her around” Steve says, turning back to look at Sofia. “All good?” 

“Yup, can do all kinds of stuff now” Sofia jokes, undertones only Robin would understand. Steve turns the car on and starts driving, following Max’s instructions.

“Hey, uhm, I have something for you” Max says to Sofia, as she goes through her backpack.

“Oh, what is it?” Sofia asks, confused as to why she was giving her something right now.

Max pulls out a letter and hands it to Sofia. “Here. Don’t open it now”

“Max…” Sofia whispers sadly.

“It’s for you and Robin. The first paragraph is yours, the second is hers and the third one is for both of you” Max explains.

Sofia didn’t know what to say. She knew Max didn’t like pity. “Thanks” was all she could think of saying, and it turns out was what Max most wanted to hear.

After minutes of driving, with the air filled with tension and worry, they reached Roane Hill Cemetery.

Sofia started worrying even more. It didn’t feel right for them to be there, not at all, but she couldn’t say no to Max, not like this.

When Steve stops the car, Max immediately gets out and is soon followed by Lucas. After they talk, he walks back to the car.

Sofia and Steve sit on the hood of the car, keeping an eye on Max. Dustin and Lucas are a bit behind them, talking.

“How are you?” Steve asks the girl.

“I’m worried” Sofia responds. “This whole thing feels-“

“Weird?” Steve continues. Sofia nods. “Yeah. It sucks… at least you got Robin to help you out” Steve says.

Sofia’s lips curl into a smile right when he mentions Robin. “Yeah… I’m very lucky” she says.

Steve chuckles. “I’m glad Robin finally got the courage to say she loves you”.

“How’d you know that?” Sofia asks, smiling.

“Ugh… Robin told me. Yesterday. She usually rambles a lot in conversations, but I swear when she talks about you, she just cannot be stopped” Steve says, making Sofia chuckle.

“I love her rambling” Sofia says, smiling like crazy. And blushing too. Now she misses Robin.

After a minute or two observing Max, Sofia notices Max stopped moving. “Uh… hasn’t Max gotten too still?” she asks Steve.

He anxiously checks the time. “All right, it’s been long enough” Steve says, getting up.

“Steve, just give her some time” Dustin says.

“I have, all right? I’m calling it. She wants to get a lawyer, she can” he says, walking away. Sofia follows him.

“Max. Time to giddy up, yeah?” Steve says as they get close to the girl. Sofia looks at her and immediately knows something’s wrong.

“Max?” Sofia asks, praying to hear her answer. Steve kneels next to Max, shaking her, trying to wake her up.

Sofia starts feeling desperate. Anxiety crawled into her, followed by fear and panic. Is this real. How is it.

Sofia and Steve start screaming Max’s name, hoping she would wake up by any second. Soon Steve shouted for Dustin, and he and Lucas came running right away.

“Max, you gotta get outta there! Can you hear me?” Lucas screams.

“Max!” Sofia shouts.

“Call Nancy and Robin! Go get ’em! Call Nancy and Robin! Go!” Steve shouts, grabbing Dustin’s collar.

Dustin soon comes back with Max’s walkman and headphones, and some cassettes. “Guys!”

“What is this?” Lucas shouts, as Dustin throws the cassettes on the grass.

“What’s her favorite song?” Dustin shouts.

“Why?” Steve shouts.

“Robin said if she listens… It’s too much to explain now. What’s her favorite song?” Dustin asks, screaming. Sofia’s mind goes blank. She could only think of Robin. Oh, how she hoped she’s safe.

After a while of looking at the cassettes, Sofia pulls the Kate Bush one out. The one she gave her on Christmas.

They put the headphones on Max and the song started playing. They keep screaming for her, but nothing happens.

When she begins to levitate, Sofia falls back in fear. No way that was happening. Max cannot die. 

Sofia starts screaming louder, feeling a couple of tears roll down her face. She felt sweaty. Her voice began to crack.

Soon enough, Max dropped from the ground and Lucas embraced her. Sofia sighed in relief. Everyone did.

They were all panting, with their hearts beating way faster than they should.

But they were all glad Max was alive.

A/N: thank you so much for 2k reads! i hope everyone’s enjoying my take on the story ehe

don’t forget to vote, love yall sm <3