isn't it strange?

✧

Rue wakes with the taste of ash on her tongue and a buzz under her skin.

Her mind drifts away from a nightmare that felt almost too vivid to be her imagination. She can still hear the screams of despair, the snapping bones, and the breaking of joints and every time she blinks, Rue sees distorted faces she doesn't recognize. Four faceless bodies lay on the floor of a house she'd never seen.

A profound sense of wrong inked itself into Rue's skin, and the taste of ash on her tongue turned to iron, almost like blood.

Her head throbs against her skull, and it takes her a long minute to process her surroundings. A blurry image of the familiar roof of Nancy Wheeler's basement comes to focus, and Rue groans softly while sitting up from where she had been sleeping. A blanket slips from her shoulders, and she brings her hand up to rub the back of her neck, where a killer ache pulses against the skin, and she has to roll her head back to soothe it.

Rue finds herself on a soft couch, and Lucas is curled into a ball at the other end while Dustin is on a chair. The two boys drool and snore as they sleep, still dressed in the same dirty clothes from the day before.

Rue can hear Nancy, Robin and Steve's voices from upstairs with the clutter of dishes and Steve yelling at Robin to move out of the way before she burns the whole house down. The two start to bicker, and Nancy screeches, "Shush! The kids are still sleeping."

The old staircase leading to the basement creaks, and soft footsteps coming down the steps. Rue half expected it to be Nancy coming to check on them but was left surprised when she spotted Max instead.

Rue sits on the couch, dropping her feet to the carpet floor as Max freezes on the final step of the stairs. She has countless envelopes in her hands, and her eyes widen when she sees Rue awake.

For a brief moment, the two exchange stares. Rue is suddenly aware that she has just woken up and looks like a mess. While Max continues to stare at her, shifting awkwardly in her place, Rue combs her fingers through her hair, hoping to fix her appearance.

"Where'd you go last night?" Max eventually speaks, and she walks off the final step of the stairs, the blue scrunchie in her hair almost slipping from her head while countless red flyways fall over her freckled face.

Rue's brows drew together as she reminisced the previous night. She recalls wandering through Hawkins High's hallways, Max's trance, the man in white, the ticking clock, uniting with Lucas, and Max realizing she would die the next day.

Rue shivers as a sense of dread steadily creeps into her veins and bones. She looks up at Max, recalling their movie nights and sleepovers, how they would stay up late gossiping and painting each other's nails. Rue remembers how they'd spend many summer days doing nothing but lying on Max's bed and talking for hours, or how sometimes they wouldn't talk at all and loved each other's company. She recalls their outings to the mall, venturing at night to gaze at the stars, lingering touches, and laughter.

Max believes she's hours away from death, and Rue slowly understands she hours away from losing her best friend.

Rue lowers her hands from her hair and lets them fall on her lap. She regretfully realizes that Max is no longer her best friend and hasn't been for the past three months.

It still ached to know they'd become strangers again after losing their chance to be lovers. They were strangers with shared memories and lingering feelings for each other that doesn't lead to anything but heartache.

When Rue glances at Max again, she feels like a child. Her mind draws blank as she catches Max's curious stare and Rue forgets what was asked. "What?"

Max rubs her eyes tiredly with her free hand, "Last night," She explains, "I saw you get up and leave, and you didn't come back for an hour or something."

Rue frowns, "I don't remember that."

However, she does remember her nightmare; the four blurred faces, broken bones, blood, cries and the house.

"Oh," Max hums, and she slowly inches towards the desk behind the stairs while Dustin stirs in his sleep. Max seems distraught and shaken at Rue's answer, and she tries to play it off coolly as she shrugs her shoulders while setting the papers on the table. "Probably just another Vecna vision or whatever."

Rue stands from the couch and checks that the blanket she had been sharing with Lucas hasn't fallen. She takes hesitant strides towards Max, and while she gets closer, she notices the dark circles under her eyes and how her body slumps onto the chair.

Rue keeps a distance between the two as she wraps her arms around herself. "Did you... did you get any sleep?"

Max pauses, and she couldn't believe Rue bothered to talk to her, let alone act as if she cared. She sits up in her chair and stares at the girl who stands nearly too far away to talk.

Max manages to ignore how her heart thrashes in her chest, knowing she can't lie when Rue is a living lie detector and mind reader. Max shrugs and yawns, "I couldn't sleep knowing I was going to die today," she says, "Besides, when I do sleep, it's always nightmares, so."

"You're not gonna die." Rue grumbles.

She doesn't sound very reassuring, bitter than anything else. Rue bites her tongue before she can say more—there are a million words of hope, a million words of love, a million ways to say "I can't lose you," sitting at the tip of her tongue, waiting to be said—she's afraid that if she tries to speak again the words may escape before she has the chance to stop them.

Rue is supposed to be mad at Max, and she's supposed to be furious at her and everyone. But Max Mayfield will die by the end of the day, or at least she believes she will, and Rue doesn't know where her confusing feelings lie.

She turns and hurries to the bathroom in the Wheeler's basement. She feels Max's gaze burn holes into her back until she shuts the door and locks it.

Rue turns on the tap of the small sink and sighs, letting the sounds of running water fill her ears. She still feels groggy from waking up and decides it is too early to be angry and hot-tempered.

When she closes her eyes, she sees flashes of her nightmare, and when she tries to think of anything else, she thinks of summer nights spent with Max Mayfield. All of it makes her groan and push herself off the door.

Rue approaches the sink and cups her hands under the water before splashing it over her face. She rinses her mouth with cold water, hoping it helps her morning breath because there weren't any toothbrushes there for her to use.

Rue rubs her hands over her cheeks, lets out a low breath and glances at her reflection in the mirror. Rue feels her whole body stutter once she catches a glimpse of herself. She leans closer to the mirror, shuts off the water, and she first notices her clothes, which are not the same ones she had gone to sleep in.

Her thick white sweater is replaced with a cotton pink long-sleeved shirt, and her denim pants are darker with a thin brown belt around them. It was reassuring to know they were still her clothes, but what put Rue on edge the most was that she left her suitcase back in Dustin's house. She doesn't remember the group making a pit stop at his house or changing clothes at all.

"Where'd you go last night?" Max had asked, and now Rue was asking herself the same question after realizing that the pink dye that had once been in her hair was gone, and there was dry blood mixed with a long strand of her hair.

Swallowing her worries, Rue starts to wash the blood from her hair with shaky hands. She jumps when someone knocks on the door.

"I need to pee!" Dustin whines from the other side of the door. His voice is raspy from having just woken up, but his constant knocks on the door are relentless, and he doesn't seem to give up after Rue tells him she was using the bathroom.

After putting her hair in two low pigtails, Rue pulls the door open, stumbling back when Dustin hurries inside. Like the boy he was, and possibly still half-asleep, he makes a bee-line straight to the toilet without checking if Rue had left the bathroom yet.

Rue rushes out once she realizes that and quickly shuts the door behind her with wide eyes, knowing that if she had been any slower she would have probably been left traumatized. Rue hears Lucas snicker on the couch, and when she glares at him, he only laughs louder.

There's a sort of lightness that grows in the air, and Rue is suddenly reminded of the countless nights the party had spent invading the Wheeler's basement, whether they were watching a moving, having a big sleepover, playing D&D, or even arguing and eating everything in the Wheeler's fridge for the fun of it.

At the thought of the board game, Rue starts to miss Will and Eleven. She heads towards the phone in the basement while Lucas says he's going to eat breakfast. Rue dials her home's number on the phone, spotting Max still sitting on the desk behind the stairs, writing.

Rue frowns when she realizes the line's busy, and she waits a few minutes before calling again. Her fate was the same, and Dustin comes out of the bathroom as Rue puts the phone back on the receiver.

"Who you callin'?" Dustin asks, throwing himself on the couch. He picks up old newspapers Nancy and Robin had brought with them after researching Victor Creel and Vecna's first victims in the public library.

"Home," Rue mumbles, her gaze never reaching his eyes.

Things were tense between the two, which was strange because Dustin Henderson was the last person Rue expected to be upset at. He'd always been so nice to her, and she used to be closer to Dustin than to Lucas. That was undoubtedly why his deceit had come as such a surprise, and why it stung ten times as much as it should have.

Dustin apologized for the third time the night before, as the group sat dully in separate parts of the Wheeler's house, all of them clutching a warm bowl of stew Mrs. Wheeler had been glad to make.

Rue had been sitting on the couch with Nancy and Lucas, catching up in whispers, seeking to find some sort of normality in the night where they could just be friends without worrying about the horrors lurking in the shadows.

Dustin had nervously approached the trio and cleared his throat softly. He asked if he could speak to Rue on his own and led her to talk privately in the kitchen. "Listen," He started, his voice timid, but he kept eye contact to prove he meant every word he said. "If you're going to blame anyone or be mad at anyone, it should be me. Not Max, not Steve, or Robin. Me. It was my idea to call you, and I pushed Max to do it because I thought she could convince you..."

He went on for fifteen minutes, and Rue had to get him a glass of water by the end of it. She never accepted his apology, which crushed him completely, but after she explained why he understood that this wasn't something she could move on from overnight.

It felt better knowing both sides of the story, but it still couldn't help fix what had already been broken. Not that quickly, at least.

Rue glances at the yellow phone again and hesitates before calling another number. She only hopes that if Ember's parents decide to pick up the phone, this won't come back to bite her.

Rue had last spoken to Ember at Rink-O-Mania when she said they could talk later. Their encounter never happened because Rue was leaving for Hawkins the next day, barely allowing her time to say goodbye to anyone other than her family.

She left Ember high and dry, expecting more but receiving nothing.

A lot like how Max had done with Rue.

She considered calling Nate's house because he lived down the street and could probably get a hold of Will or Jonathan quicker, but knowing that it was probably six or seven in the morning in California, he would be knocked out, and nothing but the smell of food could wake him.

Rue twirls her finger around the cord as the phone rings. She leans on the small pillar and closes her eyes, cursing to herself when she hears Madeline Edwards' peppy voice chirp through the line "Edwards residence!"

Fuck.

Rue straightens up and tries to sound like one of Ember's friends. "Hey, Madeline! Is Ember there?"

She cringes, embarrassment settling deep in her bones when Dustin looks at her weirdly, and Max turns in her seat with raised brows.

"Who's this?" Madeline asks.

"Uhm..." Rue scrunches her nose, "A friend of Ember's. Is she there?"

"Byers? Is that you?"

"Would you believe me if I said no...?"

Madeline drops the pep in her voice, "You have some fucking nerve, punk."

"Yeah, it's great to talk to you, too," Rue gives up on trying to sound like someone else. She sighs and drops her hands to her side, "I missed your voice," she says sarcastically. "Is Ember there or not?"

"The fuck do you want with my sister?" Madeline spits, "I've already told you to stay away from her, you little shit. Can't you wrap that around your fucked up head?"

"Can you just put her on the phone?"

"No."

"You know for someone older than me, you're really fucking petty," Rue leans on the pillar again, ignoring the way Dustin and Max had glanced at each other. "You won't let me see your sister, won't let me talk to her..." Rue trails off, "Your lame attempts to keep me away from her are honestly so pathetic considering she sneaks out to see me all the time."

There's a beat on the other side of the line, and Rue smirks, knowing she hit Madeline where it hurts.

For a minute, she thinks Madeline had hung up on her, but then her stubborn voice blares through the phone again. "Whatever you have to say to her goes through me first."

Rue laughs, "Why? To make sure I won't curse her or something?"

"To make sure you're not putting any fucked up ideas in her head."

"Oh," Rue shifts in her spot, and she feels her lips curl into a wicked smile. "So you want me to put fucked up ideas in your head instead? Madeline! Watch yourself! You have a boyfriend."

Rue wishes she could have seen the look on her face.

"That's not what I meant, you disgusting freak!"

"Oh, come on, you know I'm joking," Rue teases, and she feels herself slowly losing patience, "put Ember on the phone, all right?"

"And if I don't?"

"I shit you not, the next time I see you I'll bash your head in with Ember's stupid little pom poms to the point not even God will save you. I'm not fucking around."

There's silence on the line again, and Rue rolls her eyes. She hears a pencil drop and looks up from her hands to find Max awkwardly leaning on the side of her chair, picking up the pencil she dropped.

Dustin quickly hides his face behind the newspapers he was reading before Rue glances at him, and he begins to hum a tune of a quick-paced song, probably rock or metal.

Rue picks the dirt and dry blood from under her nails while she waits for a response. She freezes as she realizes blood and filth are caught beneath her nails.

She remembers her nightmare; four blurred faces, broken bones, blood, cries and the house. The weight of the clothes she never changed into feels heavy.

"Ember's not home," Madeline finally says, pulling Rue back to reality.

Rue blinks, registering the information. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"I'm many things Byers, but I'm not a liar. She apparently asked father to go and watch the sunrise with her friend Jane or something."

Rue wants to punch a wall, "Jane?" She echoes and then realizes El goes by that name in Lenora Hills. "That's my sister!"

Madeline mutters something Rue can't understand, but it's enough to piss her off when she understands the older girl calling El names.

She scoffs, "you led me on for nothing? I knew you wanted to fuck me, but I didn't think you were that desperate."

"Fuck you!" Madelina screeches, her disgust evident before she hangs up the phone.

Rue lets out an annoyed grunt, and she slams the phone back into the receiver. She kicks the thin pillar where the phone hung and curses at the pain that sparked on her toe.

"I hate that bitch, fuck!" She mutters while hopping on one foot as she grasps the hurting one. "Abusive piece of shit. Fucking- fuck!"

The world turns into a sort of static as Rue feels herself grow hot with anger. She continues to curse under her breath as she stands on both feet. It feels as if the two pigtails on her head were too tight and the cotton of her shirt was swallowing her whole.

All Rue wants is to call home and hear Will's voice say "I told you so," after she admits that she should have listened to him and stayed home and ask Joyce to return the ticket. But now no one was answering the phone, Joyce was in Alaska for a conference, and Rue had to put up with Madeline fucking Edwards for nothing.

She needed something to take this stupid, annoying edge off. Something to help her breathe easier and keep her from wanting to bash her head against the wall. Rue thinks about her meds, the nearly empty prescribed bottles Joyce had packed in her bag, tucked in one of her socks in Dustin's room.

But she was at the Wheeler's, wishing she didn't have to rely on medication to calm down. Tears prickle in Rue's eyes, and she's quick to wipe them away with the backs of her hands.

Rue considers scouting through Mrs. Wheeler's medicine cabinet and taking the first thing she finds, but decides against it after realizing that was a stupid idea.

Then the two boys she had met yesterday come to her mind. Rue had forgotten their names, but she remembered how they reeked like skunks. Maybe Rue could ask Nancy to drive her there, and she could slip in a couple of bucks so they'd let her have a small stash, but that idea falls apart rather quicking, knowing Nancy would freak out if she found out and Rue didn't have enough money on her to bribe college boys.

The sound of someone approaching Rue makes her spin around, and she finds Max standing behind her. The girl tenses up when Rue looks at her and pivots to the trash can next to the couch Dustin sat on. Max sharpens her pencil in silence at first, letting Rue and Dustin stare at her with dumbfounded expressions before she casually looks up at Rue from over her shoulder.

"So... Ember?"