Henry x Eleven | Stranger Things

Happy 18th [M]

Once needed.

Now rejected.

If anyone had asked Eleven if she thought she would have survived the last battle with Vecna when she was fifteen,she would have laughed and then replied with a solemn "no."

But here she was- three years later,still waking up sobbing from the dreams,from the memories. From the last words that Henry- no,that *Vecna* had hissed at her as she watched his body burn on that battlefield. 

"I will be back to ruin you, Eleven. You can't escape me..."

Shuddering on sobs, it's no surprise to her when she feels warm arms wrap around her. Keeps her eyes screwed shut, she tries to relax back into her fiancés chest, swallowing down the sounds.

"Mm...you alright..?" The words are mumbled into her neck, the cool feeling of Mike's mouth making her shiver lightly.

"Yes,Mike. I- I am okay. Just another nightmare." She keeps her eyes shut, slightly sighing as she tries to calm her racing heart, assuring herself that she's safe.

"About what, my dear?"

"My dear?" She teases the tired man lightly before sighing.

"Just...the battle again. Him. What he said."

"You mean, Vecna?" Voice still husky, Mike pressed a kiss to El's neck, and she flinched at the sudden sting.

"Of course I- Ow- Mike, that hurt-" she moves her hand to touch her neck, but the arms around her tighten. "Mike! Stop, what are you-" Eyes flying open, the breath is stolen from her lungs when a thought hits her like a runaway train.

This is not her room. And those are not Mike's arms around her.

As the realization fully sets in, Eleven finds her body suddenly flailing, thrashing. Her nails find purchase in white long sleeved arms, her legs kick and there's an ungodly screeching sound that makes her head hurt- a sound she realizes after a second, comes from her own throat.

Instead of being enraged, air blows over her neck as the body behind her chuckles.

"Ah... so you're finally awake, Eleven? Good..." The cooing tone shocks her- she fully expected him to drop the act and speak as Vecna. Instead, the voice is same soft, soothing tone that belonged to Henry Creel, her favorite orderly from all those years ago.

Instead of comforting her, the familiar voice makes Eleven jerk harder, and to her surprise, the arms release her and she flies across the bed they're in.

Scrambling to her knees, Eleven goes to get up and run somewhere, anywhere, when an invisible force suddenly forces her back onto the bed on her back.

"Henry! Vecna- Henry, how- how are you alive?" She cries out, voice shaking more than she'd like it to do as tears form in her eyes, an icy feeling pouring down spine her spine, effectively cooling her blood.

"That shouldn't concern you right now." The body next to her gets out of the bed, slowly walking to stand at the foot of it, as though there was not a single reason he would hurry. As though he was content to remain staring down at her.

Another shock runs through El's body as she realizes the eyes burning holes into her skin are not the translucent, milky ones of Vecna- but instead are also the cool blue of the orderly she once adored. Blonde hair falling over his face, and angelic features twisted into a small smile that could almost pass as kind if one didn't know the person it was attached to.

"It has been what...three years, since you believed me defeated?" At his words, El attempts, to no avail, to raise her hand, earning a click of a tongue from the man in front of her.