RINGO WHEELER WAS CERTAIN THAT by the time they'd be done with Henry/Vecna/One she'd be fit enough to be a track star. Never in her life had she ran as much, whether it was from her enemy or toward a friend in need.
Ben Waters had propelled out of the trailer like a bat out of hell, coincidentally toward bats in hell, in a brave but incredibly idiotic attempt at diverting the demobats attention away from his friends. He intended to lead them on a goose chase across the Upside Down, having grappled for one of the bikes they had earlier left behind and pedalling faster than lightening into the abyss. He left behind a stunned Ringo and Eddie, who didn't have to think twice about giving him back-up as they chased after him.
Ringo let out a rough shout of frustration when Eddie too hauled a stray bike out of the dirt and launched himself onto the seat, taking off after him and leaving her behind without the ability to ride one. With no other choice, she was forced to sprint as fast as she could in the direction they had been heading, even if it meant she'd be sorely lagging behind.
Further ahead, Eddie was muttering complaints and frustrations aloud about Ben's actions.
"Little asshole, I'm going to wring his neck for being so goddamn dumb," Eddie huffed. An ache began to spread in his thighs from how hard he pedalled the bike, now only just being able to make out Ben's figure further ahead with a cloud of demobats at his tail. If they were to turn and gun for Eddie instead, he'd be screwed.
He hadn't thought twice about trying to help the boy. Pure instinct and loyalty had him hurtling forward. As much as he had laughed off the notion of ever being a hero, this was his friend. The same Ben who didn't speak his first two weeks in Hellfire club, fearing everyone would hate him. The same Ben who harboured Eddie at his house without hesitation, despite his fear of the law and the repercussions that would have came with it. He wasn't going to let Ben fall victim to this murderous bastard as Chrissy had, both as innocent and undeserving as the other.
Even further ahead, the Waters boy was doing something even more uncharacteristic than diving headfirst to save his friends. He was swearing.
Ben muttered the word 'shit' over and over to himself so many times it barely sounded like a word to him any more. His mother would scorn him for using such language, but his mother didn't have a couple dozen otherworldly creatures at her back ready to tear her limb from limb either.
Furthest back from the chaos, Ringo was doing her best to avoid all rocks and slithering vines that would send her tumbling face down to the ground. She was determined to not fall into a horror movie stereotype of a running protagonist that tripped suddenly as the killer chased them. But in the end, it wasn't an invisible rock or any other obstruction that toppled the blonde to her knees - it was pain.
It came fast and sudden, pinpointed inside her chest and feeling like a ball of fire had lit up inside of her. Ringo fell forward clutching her chest desperately to free herself of the pain, but without any visible cause it was impossible as she tugged her shirt down to search for a wound and came up empty. Like a penny dropping, or a light bulb turning on, she began to realise what was happening to her.
Whatever small piece of himself Vecna had placed inside of her, violently and disturbingly shoved down her throat, was somehow still connected to its original owner. Nancy and the others had made it to their destination and were currently setting fire to Henry, at Ringo's expense.
Letting out a soft cry of agony, she slumped forward against the dirt, fisting the shirt above her chest between her fingers as if it would relieve the pain. A few yards ahead, the bats that encircled Ben were suddenly squealing violently as they felt the same affliction. They laid off their attack and began to falter mid-flight, but not before one stray creature managed to swoop from the side and knock against the back wheel of Ben's bike, sending him hurtling to the ground.
Ringo, still laid against the dirt and now clawing at her skin, suddenly felt a sensation she couldn't altogether find words to describe. The fire in her chest that seemed to localise to one specific area was now expanding, as if the connection to Vecna was growing stronger instead of diminishing. As it grew, her clenched jaw loosened as she couldn't help but let out a scream of agony, now feeling as if she were being burnt alive over the upper half of her body.
The pain was like nothing she had ever felt in her life, and beneath it all she could sense Henry himself. Somehow, despite his body being set alight, Henry Creel was using the connection he had made with Ringo and expanding it, sharing the pain he was suffering with her and seemingly using her life force to strengthen his own. The two were becoming more linked than ever before, and with each passing second that the pain heightened the demobats were regaining strength, feeding on her life source.
The 'hive' mind that Will had been incorporated into was now something Ringo was quickly and painfully beginning to understand, except she didn't feel connected to the Upside Down itself - she felt the link with Vecna and Vecna alone. As the link solidified itself, flashes of memories started to play in her mind only they weren't her own. Images of a family in a grand house, of a little blonde girl skipping upstairs and a man who she thought looked like a doctor bent over a small and tattooing a number onto it. They played like a movie reel behind her eyelids until the final scene she saw was three very familiar faces - Robin, Steve and Nancy facing him, fully equipped as Nancy herself stepped forward with her shotgun and let a round explode in his direction.
Although she couldn't see what Vecna was seeing any longer, she felt the sensation of the bullet as if it was aimed at herself, launching through her shoulder with enough impact for her to be thrown backward. The sensation happened twice more, ending with a final blast to the centre of her chest that blackened her vision entirely as she fell to lay flat on her back.
Unaware of what was happening behind him, Eddie nearly leapt from his bike when he saw Ben had been shoved from his and was now in a crouched position, his arms covering his head from the relentless attacks of the bats that were soaring toward him.
"Ben!" Eddie let out a roar, diving toward the brunette boy with his shield angled upward. Protectively, he covered Ben's cowering body with his own, with nothing but a modified lid of a trash can to protect their heads as his back and arms were now receiving the full brunt of the bats attacks.
The two boys panted heavily from terror, but Ben did not raise his head to meet his saviour's eyes. He couldn't. Eddie let out a string of shouts from the gashes being left on him, feeling the blood soak through to his clothing already although he knew the pain would have been ten times as tormenting if adrenaline hadn't been coursing through his veins. Ben had surely not escaped the unrelenting creatures attacks, if the chokes of agony Eddie heard beneath him were anything to go by. Silently, the two waited. Initially waiting for a miracle, but as the seconds ticked by they were now simply waiting to die.
When all of a sudden the slashes and bites of the bats ceased entirely, Eddie was certain he really had died. His eyes having been squeezed shut, he tentatively opened them, expecting to either see the glowing white light at the end of the tunnel or the pits of Hell surrounding him. Instead, he saw the same surroundings he had been in seconds prior.
Puzzled, his gaze carefully searched the landscape around them for an explanation of why the demobats had suddenly decided to leave them alone, and found the cause a few feet behind him.
Ringo was standing completely still wearing a stony expression, with one arm raised in the air and hand outstretched in their direction. She looked even more dishevelled than before despite escaping the onslaught they had found themselves in, with overly tousled hair and crumpled clothing, to go along with a thin trickle of blood that was dripping from her left nostril.
Eyebrows furrowed at the sight, Eddie noticed her hand was slightly elevated from where he and Ben's bodies were, and tilted his head back to look above their heads. The demobats hadn't gone anywhere at all, and instead were now hovering a few feet above Eddie and Ben together in a flock. They didn't seem altogether in control of their peculiar actions, as they batted their wings furiously to escape whatever was holding them in place, screeching as they always did but it was clear this time it was in agony.
It was Ringo, Eddie realised. Her outstretched fingers seemed to telepathically have a hold on them they couldn't escape from. With a soft grunt and a flick of her hand, they were sent soaring in the opposite direction from them all. Ringo dropped her hand after, releasing them from her hold but they didn't attempt to retaliate. Instead, they dispersed immediately, fleeing the scene as if they had been the ones trying to escape all along.
Once they were at a safe enough distance away, the blonde rushed toward them to check if they were alright, but the sudden movement had Eddie scrambling backward to get away from her and her newfound ability. For the first time since ever laying eyes on the girl, he was absolutely terrified by her. She gulped at his reaction, understanding entirely as she was just as scared herself. The power she exhibited wasn't hers she knew, it belonged completely to him. When she saw her friends being attacked a part of her had tapped into their connection for her own advantage.
Eager to escape Eddie's piercing stare, she redirected her gaze toward Ben upon hearing a quiet guttural noise coming from the boy. With furrowed brows, she stepped forward and squinted to see in the dim lighting of the Upside Down.
When she stepped closer, she wished she wasn't able to see it at all.
Letting out a short cry of horror, Ringo dropped to her knees beside her friend, hands uselessly raised to grip his shoulders as blood spurted relentlessly from a gash on his neck. Her reaction pushed Eddie out of his stupor to the current situation they had on their hands.
"No!" Eddie roared, hands grappling for Ben's shirt. The boy had his now blood-soaked hands pressed against the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding, all the while letting out choking noises as his body began to lose all energy.
Nearly hyperventilating, Ringo added her own hands to cover his, swearing to herself she would never let go if it meant it'd somehow plug the bleeding and keep him alive. Eddie's arm wrapped around his back as he began to tilt backward, preventing him from collapsing onto the ground in a heap and instead safely fall into the arms of his fellow Hellfire member.
"No, no, no, no," Ringo muttered over and over, each time the word sounding raspier than its previous iteration. Her body was now in fully fledged fight or flight mode, but there was no monster to fight. No enemy to flee from. There was only a short gash on her best friends neck, on the skin above an artery that she knew would be fatal if pricked.
"You're gonna be alright, man! Okay?" Eddie reassured, gazing hopelessly down as the boy shook and jerked in his embrace, succumbing to his injury with each passing second. "I swear to god if you give out on me, I'd summon the devil himself to bring you back."
"Give me something to cover this with!" Ringo pleaded, her mind racing through movies she had seen where soldiers with wounds were saved once the blood was blocked from exiting.
But this was no movie. And Ben was only mortal.
Frantically, Eddie lifted his free arm to rip the bandana from his head and shove it in the blonde's direction so she could add it to the chaotic pile above Ben's wound that had now formed, consisting of his and her hands, and now a bandana that was soaked in milliseconds.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry this is all my fault-" Ringo broke off mid-apology as sobs ripped through her body. Her palms were now caked in his blood, and nothing she was doing was stopping more from coming. The blonde dropped her head to rest his forehead against his, hoping it would give him some form of comfort in his last moments.
"It-..." Ben tried to speak, although it sounded as if the liquid was now filling his throat and inhibiting his ability to talk. Nevertheless, he tried again. "...it's... it's okay..."
Shaking her head in denial, Ringo lifted back up to scan around their surroundings for anything that could help them, anything. But the Upside Down was proving to be the worst possible place to get injured, with nothing but a nightmarish and barren wasteland surrounding them. Eventually she was forced to meet his eyes again, as he looked up at the two of them with a wide-eyed stare. She physically felt her heart stall in her chest at his appearance.
Long gone were his bright eyes and rosy cheeks, now replaced with a grey pallor and a fear in his gaze that held an underlying acceptance that this was the end.
"I'm..." he tried again, sputtering before continuing,"I'm so scared..."
"We're right here. We're right here," she softly whispered, forcing the tremble out of her voice. Her grip on his injury had proven useless, she knew. They all did. Reluctantly, she lifted one hand to cup his cheek, smearing his skin with dark red blood. "Don't be scared... we've got you..."
Ben attempted to nod, no longer able to force words together as his head slumped backward into the crook of Eddie's elbow, eyes beginning to flutter closed.
Ringo had never seen anyone die in person, much less someone that had become so near and dear to her heart. The closest she could describe the experience to being was that of a star slowly dimming, until eventually the light was gone from sight altogether.
Ben Waters died mere minutes after Ringo attempted to save him. And with him, he took a piece of both Ringo and Eddie.
The blonde wailed in agony, certain that the pain she was currently feeling was ten times worse than anything Vecna, or anyone, had ever put her through before. Eddie's reaction was the exact opposite, as the man seemed to simply shut down from shock, eyes staring blankly forward and arms still wrapped firmly around the corpse.
Ringo hadn't been quick enough. And Eddie hadn't realised in the commotion of the demobats that one had slipped through the shield he had attempted to form with his forearms. It was something they were going to bear the guilt of for the rest of their lives, whether they had been at fault or not.
He was just a boy. A kid who was so sure he had such little impact on them all, yet somehow had become the heart of the group. Someone that swore down he was cowardly, yet time and time again had proved he was far from it when it came to his friends. The one amongst them with likely the most potential to do something amazing with his life. Everything that made Ben Ben was gone in the blink of an eye.
The ground beneath them began to shake violently, yet neither one dared to react. They barely even noticed as Vecna's final victim fell, and their own world on the other side was now ripping apart at the seams.
✵
I'M SORRY.
I'M SO SORRY.
Do you all see now why it took me a full week to post this chapter after writing it? I couldn't bare putting it out into existence but I had to continue on instead of leaving people waiting in suspense. I am literally embodying that 'let me tell you something' tiktok audio right now.
I'd like to start by saying Ringo does NOT have powers! She doesn't have untapped energy that she was born with or anything like that. My idea for her bond with Henry Creel was that he could use her life force to keep himself alive, and Ringo was able to manipulate this connection to tap into his power. This is just the beginning of her journey with this, and I suppose I'm partially terrified for posting this because the last thing I wanted was for Ringo to fall into the cliche 99% of fanfics fall into. But I just thought this was an interesting route to take and something different from what I've seen before.
As for Ben 😭😭 it had to happen! I didn't keep Eddie alive for fan service, I just think he has more potential in the future of this story and I really want to explore a brother-sister dynamic between him and Ringo. Believe me it still breaks my heart to let Benny Bou go.
If it makes you guys feel better, my friend reads this story and has threatened physical violence if I ever killed Ben so rest assured I AM getting my ass beat for this one 🙃
All my love, and please be kind! It took a lot for me to continue the book this week 💛