Featuring El Hopper, Billy Hargrove (/neg), and Maz Mayfield.
778 words and apparently it didn't send the first time, so here we go again!
El stares at her comatose friend, who lays still on the hospital bed, the heart monitor beeping in the otherwise quiet room. She switches the TV to a static station and she grabs her cloth that she had brought, and ties it around her eyes. This has to work. I'll pull her out of her own head, and wake her up. El grabs Max's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before closing her eyes to try and look into her mind. When it first happened, she tried to see into her mind, only the result was an empty black void. No sign of Max's consciousness. But El wasn't one to give up, not when it came to her friends.
She imagines the day she decided to have a sleepover at Max's house, trying to reach the spirit of the girl she was so happy to consider her best friend. She finds herself in Max's old house. She sees a shadowy form of Mr. Hargrove, and her mom, and— El's consciousness backs up, feeling a primal fear run down her spine. Billy. She knew she had no reason to be frightened, Billy died, technically he saved her. But seeing a form of him, staring her down sent chills up and down her spine. “What are you doing here?” He asks, as the shroud around him dissipates. El clears her throat. “Max.” She manages, through a shaky breath. He grunts, and looks at El with a deadly glare. “You can't help her.” He says, in a low growl. El swallows, trying to stand taller, despite the older, taller and dead boy in front of her.
“I have to try.” She says, and Billy laughs. “Why?” He asks, and El frowns. “She's my friend. I have to save her.” Billy shakes his head. “But she's a murderer, isn't she?” He says, leaning off to the left, as if calling down the hall. El shakes her head. “Max hasn't killed anyone. She's a good person!” El snaps on her friend's behalf, but it only succeeds in making Billy laugh louder. “But she is one...” He says, in a taunting, singsong voice. “She killed me, after all.” El scoffs, that comment somehow makes the list of dumbest things she had ever heard. “I didn't see her stab you.” She says, plain and to the point. But Billy takes a step closer to El. “She may not have struck the last blow, but she wanted it. She killed me by just watching me die!”
“LIAR!” El screams, throwing out her hand to push him back with her mind. He slams against the fat wall, grinning. She walks forwards, head tilted down, and eyes dark. He chuckles, as he tries to pull himself free. “I'm afraid it is true, she wished I was dead.” There's no way that that's true! “You liar!” She screams again, pushing him further into the wall, making a Billy sized dent in the wall. He grunts and cries out as she lifts her other hand to shove him in further. “El, stop.” A distorted voice says. El freezes. She looks to figure out where the voice came from, but the scene shifts. El finds her in a different place, somewhere she has never been before, but on the floor is a taped up skateboard, a pair of headphones and a tape player. Her heart didn't want to believe it, but before her eyes was Max Mayfield, curled up in a ball, with tear stained cheeks and red eyes.
“Max!” She says, her face lighting up like the fourth of July that brought these two girls together. Max sniffles as El comes closer. “Please don't come any closer.” She whispers, her voice gone. El frowns. “Max, what– what's wrong? I– I mean, I saw Billy! He said you wanted him dead! I—” She watches Max grab her knees and rock for a moment. “It's true.” She whispers, and El leans forward. “What?” She says, and Max swallows. “For a long time after I learned about the Upside Down and stuff, I was wishing he would die.” The silence becomes loud after that. El crouches down to Max's eye level. “He was a bad man, you wanting to be safe from a guy that hurt you and your friends isn't the same as killing him, okay?” Max sniffs. “You didn't kill him, and even if you could have moved to try and save him, what could you have done? You don't have to hold this in, you didn't do anything wrong.” Max sobs, before wrapping her arms around El. “Thanks, El. I needed to hear that.” El smiles, hugging her back. “Anytime.”
