Vee awakened from his vision disturbed. Pants came from his mouth along with salty sea of tears that trailed down his cheeks.
His mind was more freed than it ever had been before, whatever that was freed him from the trauma he'd been repressing so chillingly. But it also hurt. He didn't know why it hurt, but it had. And it hurt so deeply.
So badly.
He sat for a moment, his pants turning into light sobs. His sobs were quiet, a call for help. A help that wouldn't come for a moment. His tiny sobs became louder and he began to hyperventilate a bit. He couldn't breath, he couldn't breathe. Whatever was happening to him made him unable to breathe.
Why can't I breathe?, he wondered so hard, but that didn't stop the feeling. He clutched his chest; pressing on his lungs so they'd hopefully begin to work but they hadn't. A sense of dread overwhelmed his presence and suddenly all the lights began to flicker in the apartment. It felt like he couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe? Why couldn't he breathe?
As he cried his mouth started to become drier than it ever had been and the words of his mother began to repeat themselves over and over again.
I love you, my stäi.
Why was she gone. Why was she gone. Why was she gone. Why did she die, why had she died? Why couldn't he remember her? Why was she gone. Why was she gone, why did she die? Why had she died? Why couldn't he remember her? Why was she gone. Why was she gone. Why was she gone. Why did she die, why had she died? Why couldn't he remember her? Why was she gone. Please. Why was she gone? Why was she gone. Why was she gone. Why was she gone. Why did she die, why had she died? Why couldn't he remember her? Why was she gone?
Please, why was she gone? Why did he take her?
The inability to breathe became unbearable for Vee and as he sobbed the television exploded into flames. Shit, why couldn't he still breathe. Why was this happening?
Suddenly he felt a bile start to travel up his throat and before he knew it. He hurried to a nearby trash can and threw up stomachs acid. He hadn't ate anything all day, so there was nothing to throw up. He felt the urge to vomit again—which was done but in between cries. When the nausea had stopped, he laid on next to the trash can.
Curling into the fetal position, he cried even harder. A light exploded from his cries.
But as he did, a muffled voice was finally coming through his ears. It wasn't blocked by the constant noise in his head that made him cry violently and make the lights cry with him, he could feel the arms of someone wrapping around him. But he couldn't. He wouldn't.
Vee struggled in the person's grip, "Don't touch me!" He screamed, and the lights screamed with him.
Glass was all over him and the person's back as their muffled cries & begging wasn't heard, they couldn't be heard in this hell. The hell of knowing the truth. Of knowing he could never see her again. Of knowing that he remembered her all this time but couldn't remember who she really was because she made him forget. Of knowing that he will never be able to feel her connection again, because it has already fell. Of knowing she was the one in his mind, and the one guiding him to the truth of what happened but leaving as soon as he found it.
It was a different kind of pill to swallow, and that pill was something of grief.
It was an aching pain.
The worst pain.
"M—Mom, please," Vee cried. "Co—come back...please—I can't—can't do this."
"Ple—please. Mom."
His cries became louder and louder, each time he screamed a light exploded. Now the gas oven was becoming hot in temperature. He wasn't paying attention as his abilities started to go haywire and turn it on so the flames can spread.
The fire above the oven was high, almost touching the ceiling, and all Vee did was cry in his ball. Clutching his tiny chest.
Before the flames touched the celling again someone had grazed his arm.
"Stop!" Vee screamed, the white fridge next to him slammed again at his outburst along with the man who was pushed back a bit.
It took a while for Vee to look up from his position at the man but once he saw who it was. His eyes immediately softened. "R-Ron?"
"Yes—Kid, it's me! It's just me, okay?" Ron tried to comfort the boy by rubbing the tears from his cheek. "Can you hear me now? How many fingers am I—"
Vee just embraced the man, the heat in his body traveling through his veins that were a scalding green. And his eyes that glowed that bright green. He cried in his shoulder, he mumbled things the man couldn't hear and heard soft whispers from Ron but he couldn't understand them.
He just cried, and laid in the embrace of Ron.
And the flames began to cease.
𓄇
It was late at night, and the building had became colder despite the recent heat. Hot chocolate and a blanket was placed over the frail body of Vee.
He took a couple sips of it, at first Ron told him to go slow because it was fresh and terribly hot but Vee just chugged it as if it was nothing. Ron only stared in a shock for a moment while Vee asked from more hot chocolate with a calm smile.
Now, vee had been laid on the rough couch of Ron's. Documents everywhere. Burnt marks on the celling. Glass on the floor.
The home was...a mess.
His outfit was different as Ron let him take a hot shower, it was now a long black shirt with long fluffy pink socks. The shirt had Mac Fleetwood on it with hints of red and other designs.
As Vee drunk more of the hot chocolate Ron walked in and sat down next to him, kind of awkwardly.
"Do you need anything else or—"
"No." Vee answered.
Ron nodded simply. "So....are you gonna tell me what happened in there?" He pointed to the boy's head.
Vee's mood suddenly shifted into something dark. Something much more depressing.
"Because for five minutes you just stayed staring at the wall then suddenly you began breathing heavily then you started screaming—I thought you were dying or something. Or like your mind exploded." Ron explained, with concern. "And why didn't you listen to me? I thought I told you and that girl to get far away from here."
Vee avoided his eyes. "I....saw my Mom...."
Ron's eyes saddened.
"She's....she's gone." Vee explained. Not elaborating. "Lab took her."
"I'm sorry." Ron comforted the boy with kiss to his forehead and an arm wrapped around his shoulders.
"And I came because she told me. She showed me." Vee pointed to his mind. "Now...she's gone."
"I have no one."
Ron shook his head. "No, kid. You've got me. Okay? You can stay here as long as you want—We can hide out together. I'll take care of you."
Vee smiled. "Okay."
Vee's heart warmed up at that. But as it did suddenly a vision hit him like a train, and his eyes rolled back to his head.
Vee opens his eye to a rundown bus with screams being heard as everything begins to register in his vision. Blinking, he raises a brow at what was happening.
What was happening?
Lucas materialized next to him and so did Dustin with the red head girl from the gym before. They all began screaming which made him back up even more but be passed through some teen with crazy hair. His hair would've distracted him if not the sudden roars that followed from outside.
"They can't get in! They can't!" Lucas screamed hopefully.
The big haired teen was quick to swing his bat and hit one of the monsters that tried to peer through the run down walls of the bus. They were eerily similar to the Demogorgon that him and El killed last year. Dustin scrambled to get his small radio that was attached to his head. "Shit!"
"Is anyone there! Mike! Will! God! Anyone!"
Another demo like creature broke through the barrier of the bus and suddenly everything disappeared around Vee.
Now, it seemed the shed of the Byers home was coming to life in his eye. He saw Will appear right in front of him but he was oddly pale; and his eyes were wider than he's ever seen them before. In a hospital gown. Whatever happened had to have been terrible because the boy looked worse than last year when El had found him. Worse than Barb.
He looked...unwell. Like something was in him, something not human.
Vee could feel there was something else in him.
Will then snapped his eyes to look at Vee standing in front of him—the test subject jumped at the sudden look and felt all the fear settled in the Byers boy's body. All the despair that wept inside of him; Vee could feel it. He could feel the nothingness that reeks from his tortured heart. The pain all inside of his small body was too much to bare.
Vee felt tears enter his vision from the effects of Will's emotion.
"H-Help....me. Please, Twelve." Will muttered from his pink trembling lips.
"You need to get it out of me—please."
Vee's lip trembled. "How do I do that?"
Will suddenly appeared next to the boy's ear and a cluster of whispers began to heard all around the void. All in his mind. The information was quick, but he could understand it all. He could feel it coming in so fast that he couldn't even think on his own. Because just as it started.
It was over.
And as Vee tried to reach out to Will again but everything disappeared.
He snapped out of the projected as it sliced through his brain like a knife quite violently. Blood trailed down on his lip, a ache in his head followed right after, and he panted from it. Grunting from his headache within his brain, he shut his eyes tight and wondered why this was all happening now. He hadn't had a headache with his powers in months.
He didn't know why that was but he couldn't make sense of it now. But now he truly knew only one thing; one thing he'd been fighting and ignoring this entire time.
Ron stared at him concerned once more, he almost looked as if he was gonna pop a vein from the stress he's been through today.
"And I need to go back." Vee murmured. A flow of memories suddenly hit his mind like a train, and he knew what to do.
Ron shook his head. "Oh fuck no! Didn't I just tell you that—"
"That is my home!" Vee screamed. "I don't care if bad men find me, I need to go. Now."
"They are in danger."
Vee put his hot chocolate down and he got up swiftly. He slipped on his converses and made his way to the door as it creaked open, going out into the night. He needed to save them. No matter what the cost was. That was his family.
His only family.
Ron couldn't help but follow the boy, struggling to put his shoes on.