Chapter Text
For a long moment, Henry doesn’t say anything. He digs his nails into his palm, taking rough, heavy breaths as if he’ll be able to fix his expression like he did before. He closes his eyes tightly, lifting his head, and finally looks at me, tentative.
I sit there, feeling the way his gaze slides over me, looking everywhere but my face. It’s almost like he’s afraid, like he’s scared of what he might see. I tilt my head to the side, waiting. He looks away before his eyes ever reach mine. I frown. Does he think I’ll hate him?
“Henry?”
He freezes, staring at the wall like it personally offended him. He doesn’t reply, gritting his teeth and hunching his shoulders like a child awaiting punishment.
I inch myself closer. “You are Henry now, right?”
He tenses, then nods.
“Come on, look at me.” I lean forward, poking the side of his face.
He forces his head to the side, searching my expression. His eyes are so very blue. I watch the way they drag down my features, looking for fear or hatred or anger.
“Hellooooo?”
When he finds none of the emotions he’d been expecting, his expression goes blank. Not empty like when He’s in control, just sort of lost, realizing he didn’t know something like he thought he did.
“Did all that yelling hurt your throat?”
He lets his arms drop, facing me properly. He reaches forward, tracing me with the tips of his fingers. Up the sides of my cheeks, my lips, my nose and forehead. Verifying, maybe, that it’s real. His hand is uncomfortably damp, but I do my best to stay still. His brows knit together in confusion.
“Seriously, you can talk, right?”
He frowns, nodding once.
“That’s decidedly unhelpful.”
“...I can talk…”
“Good. Doesn’t sound all creepy anymore.”
He seems to grow more confused as I continue to talk. “You-...” his voice trails off.
“I?”
“...are acting… very calm…” he settles on, finally.
“Well, He seems to have left, so that’s all good. He was acting all creepy, which I didn’t like. Now that you’re back, I don’t need to be scared anymore. You won’t hurt me.”
Henry nods slowly, pulling me closer. He buries into my hair, arms draping around my waist. I lean against his chest, forcing my heart beat to settle down. It’s fine. I’m fine. His grip isn’t painful. He just needs comfort as much as anyone else. He won’t hurt me. It’s okay.
Damp. So gross.
“Mm… sorry..” he murmurs.
I glance back at him. “Hey, it’s okay. Good thing I did all that magic training, hm?”
He doesn’t laugh, just holds on tighter. Okay then. As long as he doesn’t get too close, he won’t notice the heaviness of my breath, the hammering in my chest, the tenseness of my muscles. He won’t notice that I’m scared. He can’t notice. I swallow around nothing, forcing a laugh.
“You know… whenever He possesses you, it makes you all overheated. Doesn’t a nice shower sound great?”
He straightens, leaning over my shoulder. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now?”
“Nothing comforts more than the sweet smell of your overly perfumed soaps?” I attempt with a weak smile.
He just stares at me. “Okay.”
The moment he’s out of sight and I hear the sound of the shower, I keel over, grasping at my chest. Dry, heaving sobs rip from my throat, my heart clenching painfully, almost seizing. Holy shit. I curl in on myself, scratching at the skin on my arms.
“Fuck!” I gasp under my breath.
I can still hear his animalistic shouts, sense the vibrations as he beat against the door, feel the way his magic curled around me. The wild eyes, the dark veins, the smell of blood and sweat. My nails dig into the carpet.
“Fuck…”
I stumble downstairs to the other washroom, splashing warm water on my face. It’s fine. It wasn’t him. Henry wouldn’t–I can’t blame him. I rub my skin raw on the hand towel, trying to pull my hair into something less panicked. I hear the shower turn off, the footsteps to his room.
I need–I need to go up there. To go assure him that I’m okay, that I’m not scared of him, that I forgive him. I need to let him hug me, then make sure he goes to sleep, then lie in my bed and not cry. I need to make sure I sleep too.
I take a long breath and go upstairs, knocking on the door to his room. He makes some noise that sounds sort of like ‘come in’, so I do. He’s sitting on the foot of his bed in his pyjamas, staring at his lap.
“Hey,” I greet, trying to seem casual.
He glances up. “Hello, Thirteen.”
I walk over, sitting down next to him, and leaning against his shoulder. “Are you okay?”
He scoffs. “I should be asking you that.”
“Well, I’m fine. You?”
“‘Fine’?” he echoes. “I suppose I’m fine too.”
“That’s, uh, that’s good.”
He stares at me like there’s a million things he wants to ask, to say, to cry. Instead, he glances past me, looking at the clock.
“It’s not even late.. I shouldn’t be this tired.”
“Hey, possession takes a lot out of a person. You should go to sleep and stuff. You’ll be all better in the morning.”
He nods once, moving up to the headboard.
I stand, giving him a half smile. “Well, goodnight, Henry.”
I turn to leave.
“No.”
I tense, glancing back. “No?”
He pats the spot next to him.
Oh. “Aw, come on… haven’t done that since back when I didn’t have a bedroom. There’s no need to-”
His eyes narrow, the quiet vulnerability sharpening into a sort of realization. “You are scared of me now, aren’t you?”
Shit. I let out a breath, shaking my head, and walk closer. “And you say I always assume the worst about you. I just feel like I’ve um… I’ve grown out of this stuff.”
“Thirteen,” he snaps, voice cracking. It sounds like a plea.
I sit down next to him, opening my mouth to say something, but he just reaches past me and turns off the light. He adjusts the pillows, laying them down flat and forcing me to actually lie on my back. Okay. This is fine.
His arms wrap around me, pulling me against his chest, face finding its way back into my hair. One hand grips at my clothes, while the other presses against the side of my neck. He’s not going to- he won’t-
“...it’s fast.”
He’s just listening to my heartbeat. I press my lips together and stay silent. He doesn’t push the issue, just pulls me closer.
“...Henry?” I whisper.
“Mhm?”
“What did… What did He mean… when He said I’d grow Him an army?”
He tenses, holding tighter. “He wasn’t supposed to try and take you. I-I told Him He couldn’t have you, that I’d find others that He could use.”
I blink. “That doesn’t answ-”
“If-If He tries that again, just… push Him away, by any means necessary. I don’t care if you hurt me.”
“.......okay..”
He shakes his head. “He wasn’t supposed to do that…” he murmurs to himself, gritting his teeth.
I stare straight ahead, listening as his breathing evens out, but his hold on me never lessens. I guess I’m staying here then.
* * *
I wake up to an empty bed. I’m lying on my side, the blankets carefully tucked around me, but no one’s around. I sit up, squinting at the clock. Afternoon already? I still, listening, but I can’t hear any movement downstairs, no sound of anyone making lunch. Weird. My gaze drops to the bedside table. There’s a note.
Upside Down. Back late.
Henry
Oh.
Oh! Now I can go into town. Alright. Cool. That’s great.
I hurry out of bed to my room, changing, getting ready, packing my stuff, running downstairs. I search the house once, just to make sure he’s definitely gone, then quickly eat breakfast and start the walk to town. Find Barb, talk to Jonathan, make sure Eleven’s okay, destroy the lab, find a way to kill Him–all before Henry notices I’m gone.
Okay, so maybe not all of that. Definitely some of it!
Finding Jonathan is probably the easiest. I know where he is, plus then I can get him to help me find Barb. It was… just down this road and through the forest. Yeah, cause I found the bike over there. I walk through the woods, pushing aside the branches and foliage in my way. Now I turn here and-
BANG
I stop in my tracks, glancing one way then the other. Gunshot. That was a gunshot. Distantly, I hear voices off to the right. I walk slowly, quietly, making sure not to make my presence too known.
BANG
Closer this time, the sound echoes from the clearing. I push through the trees, stumbling out to find two people talking amongst themselves, aiming at a row of cans. They go silent when they hear me, turning.
“Oh! Jonathan! I was looking for you.”
Nancy and Jonathan stare at me, bewildered. The former speaks up first, looking pissed.
“What the hell are you doing here!? You sell out Steve to the cops for drinking and sell some fucking story that Barb ran away after driving drunk!”
I blink. “I- what?”
Jonathan puts a hand on her shoulder. “She never said Barb was drunk. She insisted she wasn’t. The cops just didn’t believe it.”
I glance between the two of them. “Has anyone found her? Is she okay?”
Nancy glares, but stops herself from yelling. “She… we don’t know. We think something happened to her. Something bad.”
“Something bad? Like what?”
“You wouldn’t believe it anyway.”
“Tell me.”
She steps back, fumbling around in her bag before pulling out some tapped together pictures. I take them, noticing Barb and I by the pool. Why does she have- She points to the corner and I squint.
“...faceless one,” I murmur before I can stop myself.
Nancy looks up at me. “What?”
“Do you… Do you think it took her? That thing?”
They glance between each other.
“The monster! Slimy, humanoid creature? No face? Is that what took her?” my voice grows more panicked.
The lights flickered, at the pool. She saw something when she got in the car. The faceless one. Henry knew I was at the station.
“Tina…” Jonathan begins slowly. “Have you seen this thing before?”
I freeze. Henry wouldn't want me to talk about it, he’ll be mad, he… sent a monster to kill my friend and nearly gave me a concussion.
“Yeah. I’ve seen it.”
“The night it took Barb?”
I shake my head. I want to say that it was in my house, that it tried to kill me, that I know where it comes from… but I can’t.
“No… it was… in the woods, around Hawkins. I spend a lot of time in the forest. This thing… is not something that should be here. I called it the faceless one, because, you know..”
“My mom saw it too. We think that's what took Will too. What killed him. ”
Killed? But Henry… I glance down at his hands. “And the gun?”
“To kill it.”
I swallow. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”