Henry Creel - Short Stories

001xReader // Lost Friend

1965

You've just got a job in the Hawkins National Lab.
Your father is a high ranked police officer and his friendship with Dr Brenner allowed you to enter the restricted building.
You are assigned to help in the kitchen.
You've already some experience in some restaurants as cook and waitress. And you've been cooking and doing houseworks for your devorced father.
You are told that you and the other cooks have to prepare some special diet for children who lived in the lab. You are not allowed to ask further questions.
After few days you grow used to the life in there.

Until you spot a tall young man dressed in a white orderly uniform, with pale skin, dirty blond hair and blue eyes.
You can't take your eyes off of those eyes.
They are familiar and it feels like opening an old wound.

The orderly walks away and you are left wondering why his eyes are so peculiar.
Feeling dizzy, you finish the job for the day, preparing dinner and then cleaning.
Then finally you are free to be alone with your thoughts.
You don't manage to reach your room. You have an emotional breakdown and you hide in the first empty room you find.
You sit on the floor in the dim light and hug your knees.
Those eyes reminds you someone you lost few years ago.
Henry.

It was 1959.
You were thirteen, a lonely girl who lived only with her father after your mother divorced and left for a new life in Europe.
The new year started with some news.
Your old neighbour had passed few months earlier and his big house belonged now to a young family that bought the building and moved at the beginning of the year.
The Creels.

Soon you became friend with Alice, who was a couple of years older than you.
She used to help you cross the hedge that divided your adjacent garden and often her kind parents invited you and your father for dinner.
The Creels had also a younger son, Henry, who was introvert and lonely.
Alice didn't get on well with him, so you two never included him in your games and chilling together in their lovely garden.
You preferred staying with the Creels than working as a maid in your own house, with your father being busy at work for the whole day and usually coming back home just to get drunk and turn irritable.
The Creels hoped that inviting him to dinner, that their company, could help him quit that bad habit.
It worked for just a couple of weeks, then your father felt the need to avoid company and surround himself with alcoholic until he felt asleep.

It was late February when he forced you to get the smallpox vaccine.
You understood it was for your own good, but the needles hurt you and you felt sick for the whole day.
You warned him that you weren't able to do your usual housework and cooking. Your left arm hurt and you felt feverish.
He wasn't happy about it and shouted at you, until he raised his hand and slapped your face.
Shocked, you ran out of the house and seeked haven crossing the hedge, getting scratched in the hurry. You stopped into the Creel's garden, curling down, hugging yourself and crying.

"Are you hurt?" you hear a weak voice ask.
You quickly wiped your face with your sleeves and turned, spotting Henry staring at you from behind a big tree.
He moved to approach you carefully "I heard screaming. He hit you?".
You swallowed hard, trying to hide your red cheek that still tingled, and slowly nodded, hugging yourself.
"He's a monster" he said bluntly, kneeling next to you.
"Shh" you warned him, alarmed "If he hears you...".
"I'm not scared of him" he said stubbornly "Can I?".
You eyed him confused seeing him raising a hand. You nodded hesitantly.
He delicately touched your aching cheek "Where else are you hurt?".
"I've got the smallpox vaccine" you informed him "It hurts. I feel sick. I can't work as I usually do, and it angered him".
"You can stay here until you feel better" he offered.
His compassion warmed your heart "Thank you".
You were interrupted by Alice, who made a fuss and dragged you into the big house, where Mrs Creel took care of you like a caring mother.
You envied Alice for that, but you were grateful for their friendship.
You quickly felt better and they accompanied you back to your home. Your father was just speechless and didn't bring the thing up ever again.