It's funny how minds work. One moment you’re laughing and having fun, and the next you’re on the floor, shaking and unable to breathe. Really, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. Some scientist one time said that you have the willpower to do anything you set your mind to. So why is it that Max couldn’t pull herself out of the episode she was having? Why?
Max couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t regulate the breaths in and out of her throat, so they came in short, desperate gasps. Not enough air. She had walkied El when she felt it start, but stopped short when the panic reached her throat and nearly closed it off. “Hel… help, E… El, I c–can't brea–” was all she had managed to choke out. She hoped to god or whatever the fuck was up there that El understood. Max hugged her knees, pulling them inward, trying to shrink into nothing. She wanted it to stop. She wanted her mind to stop screaming and her lungs to fill and her heart to stop pounding— and suddenly it did.
Max looked around and realized something as her heart sank even lower. She was back. Back there. The sky glowed red and cloudy, objects floating above her head, threatening to crush her at any moment. Max stumbled back, unsure of how she had gotten there. Vecna was gone. He wasn’t with her. He had been defeated. But when she heard a visceral growl come from behind her, she forgot all that and spun around to face the… thing that had haunted her nightmares for weeks.
“Max…”
The voice that drew from the awful creature swelled around Max, threatening to swallow her whole. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing him to go away. It didn’t work.
“Max,” Vecna repeated, stalking slowly toward her. He stretched his enlarged claw, twisting his wrist around as if getting ready for an exercise. Max tripped and nearly bit it as she scrambled backward, bumping into numerous slick pieces of what was once the Creel house. She felt her back touch something, and turned to see a massive wall.
“It is time, Max.”
“No,” Max gasped, clawing at the wall behind her. “No!”
“Yes, Max. I have come for you, just as I came for them… you are useless to them, just a waste of space… but here, Max, here… you have purpose…"
“No!” Max screamed this time, her voice tearing through the moist air of Vecna’s mindscape. “No! You’re not real!”
“Oh, but I am, Max,” Vecna drawled, stepping closer to her. “I am… and I’m here to take—”
“Max!”
Max looked up, seeing nothing but cloudy red sky and bits of Creel house floating above her. But she knew she’d heard it. She knew.
“I… I’m here! I’m here,” Max yelled in return.
Vecna’s neck twitched in annoyance.
“Enough, Max. It is time.”
Vecna reached out a taloned hand and was about to pass it over Max’s head when they heard it again.
“Max! Max, come on!”
El. It was El’s sweet voice, carrying through the mess that was Max’s head. Max felt herself tear up from pure gratefulness, the fact that El, her person, was with her physically, in the land outside of her mind.
“I’m here, Max. Wake up. I know you’re in there.”
Max squeezed her eyes shut once again, willing her body to react. She felt herself lift an arm, at which she heard El make a sound of approval and clutch her hand. “Good job, Max. Good job, you can do this baby, I know you can.”
Max grunted at the effort it took to pull herself from her internal dumpster fire, but from the corner of her eye saw Vecna and his hell of a mindscape slowly fade away. She gasped as she fell back into reality, right into El, who was waiting for her on her bed. “El,” Max choked, tears falling from her eyes onto El’s shirt, clutching the girl like she was going to disappear too.
“You’re safe, Max. I’m right here,” El said in a soothing voice as she pulled Max toward her, stroking her hair. “I’m here. You’re here.” Somehow, those words, whether Max believed them or not, calmed the internal fire a bit. Max felt air return to her lungs, her heart slowing slightly. The tears trickled down her face and slowly stopped, and her breathing turned from a heavy pant to lighter huffs. She extracted herself from El after a while, looking her girlfriend in the eye as her tears started right up again.
“How long…” she gasped. “How long until I can… until I can live n–normally again? How long is this gonna h–happen?” El’s eyes turned sad and she held Max to her chest, whispering into her hair.
“I don’t know, baby, I don’t know. But I’m here to help, okay? We all are.”
Max raised her head to look at El again, a small smile growing on her face.
“I love you, El,” she said, leaning in to kiss her perfect girlfriend. The contact somehow calmed her more, and she sighed into El’s mouth. She felt El smile against her lips as she returned the kiss, placing her hand on the nape of Max’s back softly. Max felt the familiar warmth in her stomach that she felt every time her and El got close. She pulled the brunette closer, hungry for more. El complied, scooching forward until she was practically on Max’s lap. The two continued their soft kisses until El slowly backed up due to the need to breathe. Max sighed again when she did, rubbing her sore eyes.
“Max, you look tired. Why don’t we take a nap? Does that sound okay?” El raised the blanket as she raised the question.
Max smiled again at the use of the word ‘we.’ “Yeah,” she said, placing one last kiss on the brunette’s grinning lips before helping herself and El under the covers. “That would be nice,” she mumbled as she curled into El’s chest, closing her eyes as the feeling of her girlfriend brushing her hands through her hair lulled her into a peaceful and much needed sleep.