~The Black Phone • Vance x Finney~

Epilogue

Tw/cw: swearing, panic attack??

Wind blows, disturbing the stained curtains that drift into the often lonely room. To the right of this is a similar scene. The only difference is that the stained curtains flow onto a wet and teary face. A tear falls from his cheek and lands on his barren knee. The boy continues to stare out of the window, moonlight gleaming in his glossy blue eyes. His blonde hair moves with the wind.

His fingernails dig into his skin, which threatens to break. Just thinking about it was enough to set him off.

The wind continues to prick his skin with freezing needles as he clasps his arms around his legs, clinging them to his shaky chest. He didn't know what to do. He wasn't even sure how he got into such a situation.

Tonight was the worst night of his life, all while strangely being the best.
The euphoric feeling of planting his lips onto Finney's, but then the feeling of seeing the boy being dragged away from him.

He hasn't felt this way towards anyone besides his father, and he found it mildly confusing.
Though lately, he feels that he finally figured it out.

He was in love.

Memories of a brown haired boy flood his mind wildly, beginning to come to life. He pauses his sobs to watch the flashbacks as if they were now.

"So now, solve for X," Finney said, looking back at a clearly bored teenager who scoffed and replied with,
"Ugh I don't fucking know.. Nine?"

"You got it right," Finney said, slightly smiling.
"Yippee," Vance responded sarcastically.

The voices echo in Vance's mind.

"I'm scared of the d-dark. Can you, u-uhm, stay?" Finney said, looking away and blushing. He quickly looked back when the other teenager started laughing.

"You're like a child I swear to god," mocked Vance.
"Hey! You're the one who gets in fights all the time. Even adults can be scared of the dark!"

The tones were going in and out of the boy's ear tauntingly, as if it were amusing to play with his feelings.
"Stop it," he demanded.

"I will suffocate you with this pillow, no hesitation," Vance stated matter-of-factly.

"Try me." Finney had no idea where his own confidence came from but he liked it.

"Enough," the present Vance stated, already so close to the verge of crumbling into a fine dust, only to be carried off by the cold wind.

"Hey! Not the fucking hair," Vance exclaimed, swatting Finney's hand away.

"Oh come on!! It's so long and frizzy!!"
Vance shot a glare towards the boy.
"Fine! Meanie.." Finney grumbled, putting his hands back in his lap.

"Ugh, fine! Since you're gonna be a bitch about it you can comb through my hair with your grody fingers."

Finney's originally deadpanned face rose up. Much like a dog's ears suddenly perking up at a doorbell.

"Please, stop..." Vance begged. His tears were beginning to form again.

"Where the fuck did you learn to punch like that?!" he exclaimed, turning his head back to face the infuriated boy.

"Fuck you," was all Finney said.

"What?"

"Fuck you."

"Stop."

"DAD, LET GO OF ME. LET GO," an out of breath Finney shrieks, sobbing heavily. "NO. LET ME GO. I'M SORRY, PLEASE."

"STOP IT!" Vance bangs his head onto his windowsill repeatedly, trying to empty his mind. Trying to bang his head into mush so he never has to think or function again.
To not live would be better than barely surviving without his special someone.

His face was drenched with tears, and his nose was extraordinarily runny. Vance's voice was so hoarse from screaming that every time he would speak or yell, it was with massive voice cracks and very weak vocal strength.

Vance whipped around at the sound of his bedroom door creaking open. It was his uncle.

"Hey, kid," Uncle Eli said lightly, and with sympathy.

"GET OUT. GO AWAY, GO AWAY!" Vance wailed, a mix of sadness and anger. He started sobbing again.

"Hey, woah now, calm down. Everything is gonna be okay," said Vance's uncle, sitting on Vance's bed.
"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT. GET AWAY FROM ME!!" Vance shouted, pushing his uncle weakly on the chest. He didn't have the energy to push him away very well, this was also because he was finding it hard to breathe properly.

"Hey, kid.." Eli grabbed the distressed teenager's shoulders. "Talk to me.."

"NO, NO, NO. GO AWAY." Vance pushed his uncle off of his shoulders.

Eli ignored the upset boy and cocooned him into a loving squeeze. Vance squirmed for a bit before reluctantly giving up in result of his exhaustion. He sobbed and sobbed for what seemed like forever and a half but Uncle Eli never let go.

Letting go is what Vance needed to do. There was definitely no way his fairy tale would have a happy ending. He needed to accept that. Though for years he still clung onto hope. But he never saw Finn again.

Two boys in love in 1978. So naive. Two boys separated and never brought together by fate. Perhaps it wasn't fate at all.