Henry Creel - Short Stories

Pt 2 - Hope in the past

El had no idea on how to travel back in time.
Her mind needed to be clear, so she needed to get a homemade sensor deprivation tank.
In Mike's house there was a lot of salt. He had collected boxes of it just for her, to help her.
A small, sad smile curved her lips. Good, kind Mike. She didn't deserve him. But he deserved to be saved.
Nancy said in Vecna's vision she saw the death of her whole family, including Mike.
El could never allow that.
So she put herself at work.
She filled the bathtub with salt and water, then stepped into it.
It wasn't comfortable enough, but it worked.
She closed her eyes and travelled into the dark.
She focused hard on what she wanted. She tried to remember how human Henry looked like.
Suddenly she was swallowed by a black hole.
El gasped, swallowing water as she lost control on what was happening.
She was drowning.
Was it Vecna attacking her to stop her?
El started panicking.
Then suddenly it all stopped and she resurfaced gasping for air.
Cold air burned her lungs. She was swimming in cold waters.
She wasn't into Mike's bathtub anymore.
She was in a pond. At night.
Still struggling to breathe, El dove to get out of the water.
Maybe it was a mindscape?
But why she was in the pond?
When she looked up, she found her answer.
Hawkins National Lab.
Where she had known good Henry.
And she realized that the world wasn't burning.
The forest was still alive around her.
Confused, she roamed until she reached the town.
It looked different from how she knew it.
She picked a newspaper from a garbage bin and stared in shock at the date.
October 1966.
Did she actually make it? Or was it a trick of her mind?
Was she truly back in time? Four years before she was even born?
Excitement won over her fears and El wandered to break into some shops and get some dry clothes.
Somehow her hair had grown up to shoulder length, making her looking less like a test subject.
She knew nobody who could help her in that year. All her acquaintances were into Hawkins Lab.
So she needed to break into it. To get into the place she hated the most.

When it dawned, she spied the gates, wondering how to get in.
She could offer herself as a test subject, but it was too dangerous. She didn't need to attract Papa's attention.
She needed a job.
The lab's staff included not just doctors and orderlies. There were guards, controllers, technicians.
But only a limited number of people were allowed to work with the children.
And El remembered the nurses that took care of her and her brothers and sisters.
So El would be a trainee nurse.
How to trick the guards?
She chose to rely on her powers over the minds.
She would be Jane Spencer, a young nurse that needed training and was supported by big names from the local government.
It seemed like a dream, but her plan worked and El was allowed to enter the lab.
The doctor who illustrated her new duties was a strict woman, but El was happy as long as she didn't spot Papa.
She said she was nineteen and was given her uniform and a small room where to sleep.
The tasks she was given made her feel like a cleaner.
In her first evening at the lab she spotted Henry in his orderly uniform and barely recognized him.
He was so younger. He was almost about her age.
She had halted in the middle of the canteen, staring at him with her jaw dropped. She realized it only when he crossed her eyes and shot her a curious look.
El blushed and strode away to have her dinner with the other nurses.
Only few faces looked familiar, most looked stranger.
But she wasn't treated like a big news, not many questions were asked to her.
There were other people in the room, adult test subjects that would visit the place regularly.
El pondered her options, trying to make a plan to talk to Henry and to help him escape. But she felt too intimidated.
She couldn't use her powers into the lab, for avoiding troubles with Papa.
She had to play fair and drag Henry out of that hell, away from the awful future waiting for him. And then what? She couldn't know and she didn't care.

Few days later Henry was taken to the infirmary.
El froze at the sight of his weakened body. He had been tortured and was unconscious.
She shivered at the memories of Papa's punishments, of the collar.
"It seems you have to clean more than just the room now" the nurse teased her "Are you scared of boys?".
"No" El said softly, watching Henry being laid on the stretcher.
"Good. He won't bite. Maybe he even deserve to stay that dirty. Start with removing his uniform and take them to the laundry room".
El felt angry but bit her tongue and moved closer to the boy.
Even tortured and bleeding, he looked so gorgeous.
She closed her eyes, asking Mike to forgive her for her forbidden thoughts.
She started with removing his shoes, placing them at the edge of the stretcher.
Then she unbottoned his shirt.
"You are so delicate, like you're unwrapping presents on a Christmas morning" the nurse mocked her, injecting something in his arm "This will keep him sedated for some hours. Just in case he recovers faster than usual as decides to assault our new trainee".
El looked at her in horror.
The nurse laughed "You're safe now. We will tie him down after you changed him, if this will make you feel more comfortable. You're expected to watch over him until tomorrow morning. Can you do that?".
"Of course" El mumbled and finished unbuttoning his shirt. Another orderly helped her to lift him up enough for her to free Henry of his shirt.
When she had to remove his pants she felt mortified and humiliated as the adults watched her with amused faces.
When Henry was dressed again with hospital clothes, El sighed with relief.
"Good job, Jane. Now take a break to carry the clothes to the laundry room. And wash your face if you still feel so embarassed".
El grabbed the basket with Henry's clothes and strode away, trying to ignore the mean comments the adults were sharing at her back.
A boy was just tortured until he passed out and they were having fun mocking her.
Maybe the cruel world deserved to be burned down.
El thought of her friends and reminded to herself that she was going through that hell just to save them.
When she was back to the infirmary, she felt more motivated.
The nurse was taking samples of Henry's blood.
El spotted his tattoed number on his wrist as his arm was placed down.
"Don't tell me your afraid of needles" the nurse mocked her.
"I'm not".
"Of blood then?" the nurse handed her the bag of blood she just collected.
El grabbed it and placed into the fridge "Neither".
"Good. My shift is over. If you feel he gets a fever, give him some paracetamol. Of he gives trouble, call the guards. They know how to tame him quickly".
El just nodded, hating how Henry was referred to like he was a wild animal.
She was treated like an animal too when she was a prisoner in that lab.
The evening passed quietly.
El took a nap on a chair by the wall, then waited, taking the chance to look at Henry closely.
She looked at his tattoo, matching it with her own hidden under her sleeve.
Then she looked at his neck and at the chip that blocked his powers.
"Who are you?".
El jumped away from the stretcher.
She was so lost into her thoughts that she didn't realise he had opened his eyes.
He was still breathing slowly like he was sleeping.
"You're new" he added since she just gaped and didn't say a word.
She nodded and straitened her back.
"I'm Jane. I'm a new trainee. You have a fever. You need some paracetamol" she said mechanically.
She grabbed a glass of water and the medicine from the near table.
"You're not a nurse" he said straightforward, his predator gaze fixed on her.
El froze. Maybe she just had to kill him right there and everything was over.
"I'm a trainee. As I said" she said sternly.
"You want to poison me. That's not paracetamol. That's antibiotics".
She looked at the tablet she picked and rigidly replaced it with real paracetamol.
"Can you swallow it on your own or do I have to push it down your throat?" she asked handing him water and medicine.
"I don't need you" he said with a tight smile and placed the tablet on his tongue, then swallowed it with the water.
She watched his neck as his Adam apple moved.
Just a little push with her powers and she could break his neck. So no more Vecna, no more troubles.
But she was here so save Henry. Not to kill him.
Yet being in his presence and sensing his danger made her see him as an enemy she needed to get rid of as soon as possible.
"How old are you, Jane?" he asked handing her the empty glass and wiping the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.
"Nineteen".
"You look younger than nineteen" he commented, making her wish to break the glass on his head "I'm nineteen".
El almost let the glass fall from her hand.
She had knew him when he was in his late twenties and early thirties.
He was just a teenager. Like her.
"So we are the same age" she said dismissively, then turned to face him "What have you done to get so badly punished?".
"Do you want the truth?".
"Of course".
"I tried to poison Brenner".
A malicious grin curled her lips and she quickly suppressed it. Brenner was dead anyway, in her time.
"You don't believe me".
"I do" she sat by his side, touching his forehead "You're feverish".
"You look feverish as well".
She dropped her hand, then decided to touch his neck, teasing Soteria.
He stiffened and stared at her confused. Finally she found how to make him speechless.
"Does it hurt?".
"Yes".
"You must be a very bad boy to deserve something like that".
"You have no idea how bad".
She grinned weakly. She really had a clear idea.
She winced when suddenly he grabbed her hand and pressed it against his neck.
"Do you think you can remove it?" he asked, suddenly anxious.
"Why would I want to remove that?" she snatched her hand and grabbed his arm to reveal his tattoo "You're a subject".
"I'm a human being" he hissed "And I'm treated like a beast. Have you seen what they do to me? Have you cleaned my blood? They never stop until I pass out".
"You want to hurt people".
"Only those who deserve it" he stared at her like studying her "You're not scared of me".
"Should I?".
"What did the nurses tell you about me?".
"That I have to call the guards if you don't behave".
"Would you really do that? Call them? When you know what they do to me" he challenged her.
"I'm not a sadist. I can tame you on my own".
"How?".
She had no idea. So she decided to play rough and pressed her fingers on Soteria.
He gritted his teeth with a hiss of pain and moved away from her.
"That's unfair" he curled grabbing his head in his hands.
"It truly weakens you" she said, uneasy for having hurt him.
"My head" he whined shaking "I need some water".
El grabbed the glass and filled it with water, then sat back next to him.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you" she said ashamed "Here. Let me help".
She lowered his arm and placed the glass near his lips, helping him to take some sips of it.
His body relaxed and he extended his legs as he emptied the glass again.
Then suddenly he grabbed her collar and pulled her to him, pressing his lips on hers.
She reacted clumsily, pushing against his shoulders to free herself and almost lost her balance.
He let her go, saying "Thank you".
She was all shades of red and he seemed to enjoy it.
She wondered if he just acted to play that prank on her, but she didn't dare to talk about it.
He didn't look hurt anymore.
"The nurse was right. It was better to tie you down on that bed" she said wiping her mouth.
"Why don't you try?" he challenged her, sitting comfortably on the bed.
El looked around and grabbed a filled syringe "Don't you dare".
His eyes dropped to stare at her weapon and seemed to reconsider.
"I don't mean to hurt you, Jane. You're just... different. You intrigue me".
"And you piss me off. Now can you go back to sleep or do I have to sedate you?".
He raised his hands to surrender and laid down as a good boy.
"So you can stare again at me? Can I stare at you when you're sleeping? I want to try if it's funny".
El dropped her jaw again, then just groaned in frustration and went back to sit on her chair, trying to distract herself with the weird items on the table. Anything to avoid looking at him.
When she peeped at him, he was asleep.