My eyes shot open as I audibly gasped at the sight of the sickening face I saw, only briefly, but long enough for it to burn into my brain and render me fucking terrified. My eyes opened, but I wasn't surrounded by darkness this time, there was fluorescent lighting above me and the voices of people I knew around me. "Princess?!" Eddie called out beside me, squeezing my hand softly as he grabbed my attention, I turned to face him and felt that amazing warmth in my chest as his smiling relieved face. "Eddie..." I sighed softly before he lent over and grasped me into a tight embrace, his breathing becoming shaky as she tried to hide back the sobs of joy at me finally being awake. "W-where am I?" I knew I wasn't at home, but the room looked a lot like my old bedroom at the facility which made the knot of panic begin to tighten in my stomach. "You're in the hospital, baby. You-you'd passed out at home I think. I found you in your room, covered i-in blood and the whole place was a mess!" Oh god, what did I do to the trailer?! I knew I had a habit of breaking things when my emotions took over, but he made it sound really fucking bad this time.
"Princess... I-I think it's time we talk about all those things you've been avoiding?" he was right. I kept pushing him away from learning anything about me, thinking it would keep him safe from the people I ran away from, but if Peter was right about El, telling him the truth might just keep him safe from her. I looked around at the curious faces around me, I could hear them all thinking different theories about who I was and what my life must have been like all of which mentioning something called Vecna, but the only one who was even remotely correct was 011, or rather, El. "Please don't shut me out again. Please just talk to me this time!" I could hear Eddie silently begging me, his pleas were loud as they pounded through my head, but his face still looked encouraging despite his saddened tone. This conversation was going to really suck, my chest burned at the thought of sharing all of this with a room full of people, but I took a deep breath and readied myself to speak.
"El was right, she did recognise me. And I knew who she was as soon as I saw her. Before I was adopted by Alice, my name was... 005." my voice cracking as I recalled my previous apparent "name", glancing down at the number engraved into my wrist. "So you were one of the first?" Steve asked and I only nodded as I kept my eyes fixed to the numbers on my arm. "I was born there, like the others. Never knew my parents... only Papa." my body shuddered as I said that name, I could see the discomfort on El's face too. "When I was about 8, I ran away and never went back. Alice found me cold and sore from running through the woods and that's when my real life started. They spent weeks trying to find me and I thought it was safe, until Alice died last year. Her car accident was a total mystery, no idea who ran her car off the road, but I just know it was them." I tried to gloss over the worst parts of living in the facility, they must've know about some of it because of El. "And... y-your, powers?" I could see how uncomfortable it made Eddie to even think about me being some super-powered freak, I was scared he would think our whole friendship and relationship was a lie, something I'd manipulated, but it wasn't at all. Everything we felt for each other was real.
"I- uhh, I can control people, I can make them move or speak exactly how I want them too. I can make them see whatever I want them to see, that's how I escaped the facility. I can hear what people are thinking, o-only when I choose too usually - an-and I don't! Not anymore! Except you, Eddie... I don't know why but I can always hear your thoughts, all of them." Eddie's eyes widened at learning I'd heard everything he ever thought since we met, even the things he thought about when he watched me during D&D and during our steamy make out sessions when he'd claim to "accidentally" graze his hand across my ass. His cheeks burned crimson red at the embarrassment of the very personal things I'd heard. "And, uh, luckily for Dustin, I can move people and objects - just like El." Everyone's eyes grew wide as they'd finally figured out what happened to Dustin when the car was coming toward him, Dustin burst through the group of people and threw himself at me in a strangulating hug, "Thank you!" he whispered as his arms locked tighter around my neck.
"And the trailer? The Wheelers lights? Was that you too?" Steve looked like he already knew the answer anyway, I nodded a little feeling a bit embarrassed by my chaotic destruction. "When I can't totally control my emotions, my powers just kinda, take over. Things move or break, lights glow or dim and... trailer parks fall into complete blackouts." I chuckled at that last part, hoping Eddie would remember the blackout that night. "Wait. That was you?!" Eddie's voice, thankfully, sounded light and he was smiling with a light chuckle as he asked, I giggled coyly and nodded with a grin which made him smile brightly. "When I have nightmares, like really vivid ones, I can't keep them in check. I replace the lightbulbs in my trailer like 3 times a week!" I chuckled, it felt kinda nice finally sharing this with someone and much to my surprise, they all laughed along with me when I'd say something amusing. Nobody treated me like a freak. But then I thought about what Peter has said, about how El is dangerous and needs to be stopped.
- Eddie POV -
It felt so weird hearing Y/N answer questions about superpowers and crazy experimental facilities, this was Y/N for fucks sake, quiet, shy, adorable Y/N! But I guess it explained a lot about why she seemed so naïve toward everything that people our age would consider normal, why she always seemed confused whenever I tried to talk about being a bit more... intimate in our relationship. "I've fallen in love with probably the only girl in the world that's never even heard about sex? I guess there's no pressure when the time comes then..." Oh Jesus, I wonder if she just heard that?! Thankfully it looked like she was busy explaining Henderson's accident to everyone, thank god she had powers else he would have been fucking roadkill. I've got so many more questions for her, but- but not here, not in front of everyone else.
Steve started asking her about the fucked up trailer and busted lights at the Wheelers, she said that weird shit happens when she gets emotional, shit she can't always control... Wait, her emotions make weird shit happen? That's when it hit me, the fucking lights when we kissed for the first time, she made the lights in the trailer go crazy right before the power came back on. Then she mentioned the power cuts in the trailer park, "Wait. That was you?!" I chuckled, I'd never even realised that the power cuts started when she moved in... but that's the price of spending most nights boxed out of my mind on weed and beer I guess, I don't tend to notice much really.
I'd never seen her this relaxed before, especially around other people, she always seemed really on edge, like she was ready to run at any second. But now, she looked like the whole world had been lifted from her shoulders, like letting out her deepest, darkest secrets suddenly transformed her into a new person. God, I loved her even more in that moment.
"Do you guys mind if, maybe, El and I talk alone for a sec?" I was confused by her request, I only just got her back after I thought I'd lost her and now she's kicking me out for El?! Everyone else kinda half ass nodded and started to head out of the room but I really didn't wanna leave her. I gave her a pleading and unsure glance, silently praying she'd change her mind, although I've just learned that nothing is a silent prayer around her, but she gave me a reassuring smile as she mouthed "I'll be okay..." - I still wasn't happy, but I guess she needed this so I lowly nodded and kissed her cheek before leaving the room to join the others in the hall.
- Y/N POV -
Eventually Eddie skulked his way out of the room, leaving me alone with El, the girl who is apparently the greatest threat to the world. Looking at her face my eyes became drawn to hers, the same warm brown saucers she had when we were growing up together. Sure, she was much older now, but her face still gave me chills and raw flashbacks to the timid little girl I was forced to compete with for senseless appraisal. "H-how did you escape? And when did you leave?" she was still really small when I left and I'd never met another one of us since. "1983. There was a fight, e-everyone died... Hen- Peter... he killed them all." her voice began to shake as she spoke about Peter, but I just spoke to him, he said she'd lie... maybe this is what he warned me about. I tried to hear her thoughts but I was still exhausted and it seemed to take a lot of energy to access her mind, it always did when we were kids too, she was always one of the strongest of us.
"And are they still looking for you?" I needed to know if I was safe around her, I'd spent years trying to shake them, lost someone I cared so much about, I wasn't gonna let it happen again, not because of her. She looked at me with such confusion, like I was missing a big piece of information that apparently everyone but me knew. "Y/N, the facility closed years ago. Papa is dead." she stated, very matter-of-factly with a audible certainty, Papa is dead, the words I never thought I'd hear.
I felt relieved to hear he was gone, that the hell I spent years terrified of was gone. "What happened to Peter?" she must've known more about him than she was letting on and it sounded like she was going to use a different name. She told me about Peter actually being 'Henry Creel', said he was 001 but 001 hadn't been at the facility when I was there and I was one of the earliest. Then it got really crazy, she started talking about a new world like Hawkins but not, and monsters and murders and Vecna. Who the fuck is this Vecna?! Eddie said they used to do a campaign in D&D called "Cult of Vecna", but that's just a game, he's not real!
Peter was right. She's a liar. Eddie always told me "friends don't lie" - but she does. She has to be. Then- well, then she isn't a friend! Peter was my friend, the only person who ever cared for me in that awful place and now she was spouting these fucking lies about him. "I want Eddie." I snapped, I couldn't listen to her anymore, I needed my home, my Eddie. She saw how upset I was getting a ran out to get him and I was immediately relieved to be in his arms as he soothed me. I needed to do what Peter asked me, I needed to get rid of her, I needed my safe future with Eddie and the only way Peter could help me was to get rid of El. I had no fucking idea how to do it, she was strong, but I'd spent more than 10 years practicing how to protect myself and those I loved, so all I could do was pray that I'd worked hard enough to be far stronger than her by now.
As darkness rolled in over Hawkins, I was discharge from the hospital but with nowhere to go. My trailer was obliterated and I had no time to get it fixed up in time, I still had my car, but it was freezing out so I couldn't stay in there. Thankfully, Eddie agreed that I could stay at his place with him, his uncle Wayne having absolutely no objections to the idea either. Apparently some wild shit went down in Hawkins last year so Wayne had an understanding of Hawkins Lab and powers and shit so felt safe there after Eddie gave him a quick rundown of my previous life.
Things were going great since I got home but I couldn't shake El, not now she was living back in Hawkins and going to the high school too. I needed to plan how to get rid of her, so I'd decided to closely befriend her in hopes her guard would drop and I'd hear something from her that I could use as a weakness.
The nightmares had subsided since living with Eddie, being around him made me feel more in control, but there was a new kind of tension between us and I just couldn't figure out why. Then he said it, the words I wanted to hear from him since I'd met him, the words that gave my existence meaning. Sitting on his bed together, well... our bed at the moment, enthralled in the most loving and passionate embrace and make out yet, he hummed against my lips before uttering the greatest words I'd ever heard...
"I love you, Y/N..."