He grasped a handful of her hair and lifted her head to face him, getting his ratty face all up in Val's battered one. His breath stunk of alcohol and cigars.
"You're just a fucking bitch," he grunted, taking his face in her hands and squeezing her cheeks to hold her up. "No friends.. shitty family.. washed-up, druggie slut—"
"You're not real," Val kept repeating in a strained moan, clutching her gut. "You're just.. in my head—not fucking real..."
"Everything I'm saying is," he intoned, his voice mocking. He threw her back down to the grkund. "All of this shit is true, and you know it. You don't have any goddamn friends, your little bullshit foster-family hates you. Do any of these new people you're always with—the new ones you're running from right now—do they know you? Do they know that the same Valerie who hides behind such a big, scary, mysterious wall is the same Valerie who just sat awake last week and almost followed in her mother's footsteps?"
As he spoke, his body did the same as Val's mother did just a few hours ago—his skin began to shrivel and flake off, revealing a veiny, disfigured creature who Val now recognized as Vecna. Her father's voice merged into the same croaky, grating one that spoke to her earlier.
"That is why I'm here," the creature said, staring down at Val with hideous blue eyes. "To end your suffering, once and for all. It is time, Valerie. Time for you to join me."
Val shook her head, clutching her stomach with one hand and reaching around for a way to escape. She groaned out a reply, that of which was hard to understand, even for her. She cowered into herself, trying to look as small as possible.
Somewhere in herself, she found enough strength—or just pure adrenaline—to stand, then slowly limp her way to a crooked run away from Vecna. She didn't need speed; she wasn't being chased or followed just yet. Vecna hadn't so much as moved to pursue her. All Val wanted was distance. To escape. Her feet pounded against the wet, veiny ground as hastily as she could force them to, every single thing in her body screaming in agony. Stringy hair stuck to her bloody forehead, chest heaving with suppressed sobs and pants. A clock chimed somewhere in the distance.
"Valerie..." came Vecna's voice, seemingly from everywhere all at once. "You are only postponing the inevitable. Come back to me."
A blinding stitch erupted in her gut. She stumbled to a stop, breathless, eyes darting around fearfully. When she turned, she gasped a sob—he was right behind her. She made to run again, but Vecna's hand twitched, and a vine snapped up and took hold of her leg. She fell to the ground, grunting on impact. Trying to kick off the vine didn't even so much as loosen it—it was practically glued to her leg.
"No!" she screamed, clawing the ground with her fingernails as the vine dragged her back towards Vecna. "No, God—"
"Join me, Valerie," Vecna said, advancing on her grounded form. "I can end your suffering."
"You already... used that line," she managed weakly. She ripped the vines off her ankles, but more grew back within the blink of an eye—and tighter this time.
Suddenly, an unusual sound halted both Vecna and Val in their tracks: A click, as if that of a cassette tape. A moment later followed a familiar tune—and after an electric guitar's vamp, Stevie Nicks's voice flooded the Upside Down. Off in the distance, a cloud appeared, showing four panicked figures very clearly distressed over a still body—Val gasped. It was her, under the curse of Vecna, and all of her friends reacting in real time.
"Valerie!" Eddie shook her by the shoulders, but to no avail. "Come on!"
He, Steve, Nancy, and Robin were standing around Val's car, parked on the road near Reefer Rick's house, exactly where she'd left it two days ago. All of the car doors were open—even the trunk—and the stereo was cranked all the way up, blaring The Edge of Seventeen for practically the entire lake. Val's spellbound body was unmoving.
"Is it working?" Robin asked urgently, her hands in her hair. "Is–is it saving her? Could we even tell?"
"Valerie! Please, Val!" Eddie screamed, trembling hands cupping her unmoving face. Eddie turned to Steve and grabbed the front of his shirt, balling up the fabric in his fists and pulling Steve close to yell in his face, "Get her the hell back, Harrington!"
Steve pushed away, gesturing at Val's entranced figure. "Doing my goddamn best, Eddie!"
"How long does she have?" Robin cried, as Eddie went back to holding Val's cheeks. "She's already..."
"They can't save you, Valerie," Vecna said, drawing her attention back to himself. He slowly lifted a claw towards her face. "There's a reason you don't let them in. That boy out there, you used to be friends with him. Why did you stop, Valerie? You shut him out for a reason. He doesn't know you anymore. I do. Join me, and I can show you—"
Val stood messily, stumbling around, trying to find her balance. "I... I have a q-question," she managed, her voice straining with effort and pain.
Vecna's lips curled into a malicious smile. "Ask away, Valerie."
"H-have... have you ever—ever been kicked... in the back of your knee before?"
Before he could even register her question, she let out a scream of anguish and twisted her leg to kick him in the crook of his knee. Taken by surprise, he lost his balance and stumbled back, grunting in pain.
Val took her chance and ran for her life, fighting back sobs and screams and gasps. She was breathless and tired but not a single thing was going to stop her from getting back to Eddie—back to her friends, back to real life. Out of this nightmare.
She didn't realize how much she truly liked these weirdos until Vecna tried to convince her she didn't; Max with her stubbornness and pride, all of Dustin's weird Dustin-ness, Steve with his stupidly awesome hair... And Eddie, whom she miraculously found herself rekindling a friendship with, after years of tense eye contact and unprovided closure. The weirdest, most mind-bending part of it all was that Max had been almost right on the head earlier, and Val didn't realize it until she was running away from the claws of death.
"What the hell is happening?" came a hysterical voice from the pocket of the real world, and Val's eyes rose to the bubble to see Mason Anderson, breathless and confused as he stood in front of Val's entranced form. He turned to Eddie. "What the fuck did you do to my sister!?"
Val found a surge of strength and pushed herself just a bit further. The faster she ran, the closer she was to getting back—until she was just feet away from surviving, and it all went black.
why did val just deadleg vecna
can we talk about that
x . on the edge of seventeen
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