HAWKINS, INDIANA — 1986.

"WHAT IS TAKING MAX SO LONG?"

Theresa was beginning to grow anxious, leaning over Steve to look out of the car window on his side.

Finally, the door opened and Max walked out, rushing to the car.

"What'd she say?" Dustin inquired as she hopped in the backseat, giving a shake of her head.

"Nothing, just drive."

Tess gave Max a discerning look. "Max, what did you do?"

"Nothing! Steve, drive!"

"Okay," he complied and started the car, quickly putting it in drive and pressing on the gas.

Theresa stared Max down analytically, noticing her fist closed tightly. She squinted with suspicion, meeting Max's eyes.

"What's in your hand?"

Max blinked. "Uh–"

"Dustin!" A voice came from Dustin's walkie-talkie just then, interrupting Max. "It's Lucas, do you copy? Dustin!"

"Lucas?" Dustin replied. "Where the hell have you been?"

Lucas frantically responded, "Just listen! Are you guys looking for Eddie?"

"Yeah, we found him, no thanks to you," Dustin retorted. Theresa poked her tongue in her cheek as she listened, remembering just then that she was still mad at Lucas.

"You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?" Lucas exclaimed, Tess rolling her eyes.

She reached out a hand, gesturing for Dustin to give her the walkie-talkie. "He didn't kill Chrissy, you idiot," Theresa spoke into the walkie. "Where the hell are you?"

"Tess?" he questioned with confusion. "What are you doing–"

"Meet us at the school, we'll explain later," Max said into the walkie-talkie just then.

Lucas hesitated. "I-I can't. I think some real bad shit's about to go down."

Theresa frowned. "What kind of shit?"

There was silence for a moment, and then the radio went to static.

"Lucas?" Tess hit the side of the walkie, shaking her head. "Lucas!"

Still no response. She dropped her head, swearing under her breath. Theresa had a sneaking suspicion of what Lucas had been referring to.

"It's Jason and Rudy," she said, looking over at Steve. "It's gotta be."

Steve pursed his lips, grip tightening on the steering wheel with a deep sigh.

Tess turned back to Max. "What are we going to the school for?"

Max reluctantly held up a set of keys, raising her shoulder.

"I figured we could do some investigating."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"DUSTIN, DO YOU COPY?"

Robin's voice came over the walkie-talkie as the group stood at the back door of the high school while Theresa picked the lock with a bobby pin.

"So, Nancy's a genius," Robin continued, speaking fast. "Vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bullseye."

Tess pushed the door open, leading the others inside.

"When'd you learn how to do that?" Steve questioned, Theresa giving him a coy look.

"Don't worry about it."

Dustin replied to Robin, "Okay, that's uh– totally bonkers, but I can't really talk right now."

"What are you doing?"

"Breaking and entering school to retrieve some confidential and extremely personal files."

"...Can you repeat that?"

Dustin huffed. "Just get your ass over here, stat. We'll explain everything."

Tess and Max led the way to Ms. Kelly's office, Max taking the keys and unlocking the door while the other three kept watch.

They got inside successfully, beelining for the file drawer to start looking.

"Hawkinsgate," Dustin said like he had just discovered something astounding, branding the word.

Tess rolled her eyes as she and Max continued looking, Steve and Dustin nosily poking around behind them.

Max stopped abruptly at a file, frowning for a moment.

"Tess, why is there a file with your name–"

Her eyes widened, pulling Max's hand away and slamming the drawer shut. Max met her eyes, Theresa glancing down.

"Chrissy's is right here," Tess said, changing the subject by holding up a different file.

Max eyed her for a moment, then decided to dismiss it. She looked down at the drawer in front of Theresa, knitting her brows.

"Holy shit." Max reached over her, pulling another file. Dustin and Steve walked over.

"Did you guys find it?"

"Yeah, and not just Chrissy's file. Tess was right," Max held up the file, "Fred was seeing Ms. Kelly too."

They took both files and placed them on Ms. Kelly's desk, flipping them open and reading through each one.

In Ms. Kelly's notes, there were four striking similarities between the two: past trauma, terrible nightmares, difficulty sleeping, and headaches.

Theresa read each one over and over, her heart dropping to her toes as she began to realize how near identical the symptoms were to her own. She had gone suddenly quiet, a deep frown creasing her brow.

She tried to reason with herself; perhaps it was just paranoia. They were common symptoms, and it could have been the pregnancy. But after what had happened to Chrissy and Fred, Tess felt her chest tightening with a sinking, dreadful feeling.

That she might be next.

Theresa looked down at Max, quickly noticing her vacant stare. She placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her lightly.

"Max."

The girl blinked, turning around slowly to look behind her. She sat there, staring into nothingness as the others turned to see what she was looking at.

"Max!" Tess snapped her fingers in front of Max's face, but she seemed to be in some sort of trance.

Theresa looked up at Steve and Dustin, who were just as frantic as her, leaning down and fully shaking Max by the shoulders. This was eerily similar to what had happened to Will two years ago, and Tess did not want the same thing happening to Max.

Suddenly, Max gasped and blinked, panting heavily. Theresa's shoulders dropped, sighing with relief.

"Jesus, you just scared the shit out of me."

Max shot out of the chair, grabbing the flashlight from Dustin and walking out into the hallway. The other three followed right behind her, Max stopping abruptly as she faced a dead end.

"It was right here," she said, shaking her head.

"What was?"

Max hesitated. "A-A clock. It was like a– grandfather clock."

Theresa chewed her inner lip, eyes darting to the side as her heart skipped a beat. There had been a grandfather clock in one of her dreams. The one she had the night before.

Just then, the doors to the high school opened and Nancy and Robin burst in, sprinting down the hall.

"You never moved," Tess replied at once, wary. "You were– in some kind of trance, almost... hypnotized."

"Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy," Dustin muttered.

Max turned around, facing the others. She inhaled an unsteady breath, visibly shaken up.

"That's not even the bad part."

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     "FRED AND CHRISSY, THEY BOTH CAME to Ms. Kelly for help."

Max sat down at the counselor's desk, briefly glancing up at Tess. She was the only one who knew now that Theresa had once visited Ms. Kelly as well; not even Steve knew.

"Uh, they both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away," Max continued. "And then... then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat or– sometimes screaming."

Steve's eyes traveled over to Theresa who kept her head low, hand to her chin. She was avoiding looking at him, or anyone for that matter. He knew.

"...Then they started seeing things," Max said, her voice wavering. "Bad things, from their past. And these visions, they kept on getting worse and worse until eventually... everything ended."

Robin looked up from the files. "Vecna's curse."

Max hugged herself uneasily. "Chrissy's headache started a week ago. Fred's, six days ago. I've been having them for five days."

Steve placed a hand over his mouth, rubbing his nose as he looked back over at Tess. She was still staring at the ground, refusing to acknowledge anything Max was saying.

"I don't know how long I have," Max swallowed. "All I know is that– for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than twenty-four hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock so..."

She raised a hand, tears welling in her eyes. "Looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow."

There was a noise outside in the hall just then, the sound of the door opening. They all looked up, alert.

Steve was the first to move. "Stay here," he muttered in a low voice, easing toward the door.

He stopped, picking up the nearest object, which so happened to be a lamp. Tess slightly raised an eyebrow, sighing.

Steve walked out into the hallway, the others not listening to what he told them to do and following him. Theresa was right behind Steve, hearing something clatter around the corner.

Suddenly, someone ran around it and screamed, everyone else screaming as well.

"It's me!"

They all squinted as Dustin pointed his flashlight, seeing Lucas standing with his hands in surrender.

"It's me!" he panted, dropping his hands.

Steve looked more relieved than anything, exclaiming, "Jesus, what's wrong with you Sinclair! I could've taken you out with this lamp!"

"I'm sorry," Lucas choked out, struggling to catch his breath. "Give me a second. Shit. We've got a code red!"

"What?"

Lucas wiped sweat from his forehead. "I've been with Jason, Rudy, Patrick and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie, and Dustin– they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger!"

Dustin nodded. "Alright, yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason right now."

He turned to Max, the others all doing the same. Tess felt sick to her stomach, unsure why because there could have been a multitude of reasons at the moment.

Max's eyes were trained to the ground, twisting her fingers the same way Theresa did when anxious. Except– anxious was an understatement in this situation.

They were all terrified.

Tess kept quiet, strangely quiet, as they left the school. Steve knew, and Theresa had come to realize that now. He was waiting to say something, but Tess knew the conversation could not go avoided.

She and Steve took Max, Dustin and Lucas home, but he stopped the eldest Sinclair before she could get out of the car behind Lucas.

"Did you really think I was gonna let you leave without talking about this?"

"Steve–"

"No, Tess, we're talking about it right now," he cut in, turning off the car engine.

She sat there, staring at her hands in her lap. Theresa chewed her inner lip, ignoring the inner feelings eating away at her.

"What do you want me to say, Steve? I-I don't even know if this– this curse is what's wrong with me!"

Steve shook his head, muttering, "You do know. We both do. The nightmares, the headaches, trouble sleeping–"

"Stop," she turned her head sharply with a deep scowl. "Just stop it, alright? I'm more worried about Max at the moment than me. If anything, I have more time than she does."

"Well I care about you more," Steve retorted, "I don't care if that's selfish but I do. A-And if it's true– what happened to Chrissy and Fred could happen to Max and you, I'm not letting it. I'm not losing you, Tess, do you understand me?"

Theresa bit down on her tongue, averting Steve's gaze. "If we can figure out how to stop Vecna from cursing Max, then we can stop him before he gets to me too."

Steve stared at her, then shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't risk that. Why–"

He paused, halfway scoffing as if he felt foolish for what he was asking.

"Why won't you just talk to me? Why won't you tell me what's been going on with you, Tess? I'm worried about you."

"Well stop!" she snapped, taking Steve by surprise. "Stop worrying about me all the goddamn time! There are more important things to worry about."

Steve laughed in disbelief, throwing his head back. "You're joking, right? This is how a relationship works, in case you didn't realize. Of course I'm gonna worry about you. I just want to know why you've been acting so... different. Is it something I did? I– please just tell me. Please."

Theresa went silent again, bringing her head back down. If it was true, if she was potentially going to die soon... Steve needed to know. He deserved to know what was really going on with her, as terrified as she was to say it.

"What do you want me to say, Steve? There's nothing else for me to tell you," she finally replied, giving a shrug. "You figured it out. I... I might die soon. Fuck it."

She turned to get out of the car, Steve immediately reaching over and grabbing the handle on her side.

"We're not done here," he said, Tess giving him a daring look.

Steve would not back down, though, not this time. He had too many questions and not enough answers from her.

"Steve, let me out," she quietly said, trying to avoid escalating their argument.

"I said, we're not done," Steve responded in a low, demanding voice, finally leaning back once Theresa looked like she would not bolt. "You do this every time, you know that? You run away before we can talk about it."

Theresa tilted her head, blinking with disbelief. "I already told you, I don't have anything else to say–"

"You're lying," Steve interrupted. "Stop lying to me. Whatever you're not telling me, I promise you, I can handle it."

She poked her tongue in her cheek, rubbing her temple with a deep sigh.

"You can't," Tess muttered. "You can't handle it. I can't even handle it, because I'm so fucking scared that I don't know what I'm gonna do–"

Her voice broke, and she broke down completely, raising her hand to her mouth to muffle her sob while tears came rolling down her cheeks.

Steve was growing weary, just wanting Theresa to tell him what was going on already.

"Tess..." he reached over for her hand, Tess letting out another sob and holding her other hand to her head as she tried to calm herself down. Damn her hormones.

"Tess, please tell me what's going on," Steve pleaded while she cried, finally bringing her head up to meet his eyes.

Though she could barely stop crying to even breathe for a second, Theresa could not keep it hidden from Steve any longer. He was practically begging for her to tell him, and at this point it would have been cruel not to.

So, holding her breath to try and stop her sobs escaping her mouth, Tess looked into Steve's eyes with her heart nearly thumping out of her chest.

"I'm pregnant, Steve."

notes.
the way i had all y'all thinking i was gonna make tess wait until volume 2 to tell steve

i'm sorry that was mean of me, forgive me 😔

y'all don't kill me now, i'm gonna try and publish the next chapter as soon as possible because i know you all want to know what happens next

steve rn planning where he and tess are gonna take their first roadtrip with nugget #1

that is, if she lives 🤭

just kidding, she'll live, but there's no guarantee it won't be without a sacrifice

the way tess cares more about saving max than herself, the development is 💋 chef's kiss

volume 2 predictions/theories?