Chapter Text
Staring at the person—or body, Steve wasn’t sure anymore if the one in front of him was still his best friend or not. Was it too late? Can he save her? A million questions went into his head. A shaky breath came out of his mouth as he took a step back, too scared to face the reality in front of him. “It’s not working. Why-Why is it not-Why is it not working?!” He turned to face Max with a look that she had never seen on his face before—the look of despair.
Max took a step back from him, the memory of what had just happened to her hours ago creeping into her mind, not a feeling she would like to experience again. She stammered, couldn’t form a sentence as the words jumbled into some incoherent sounds. “I-I don’t get it. It's supposed to work. She must have seen the gate by now. She-She must….run towards it, unless……” Her voice died at the end as a realization hit her like a nightmare.
With tears brimming at the edge of her eyes, she turned to look at Steve who looked up as the realization hit him too—so did the other people in that room. Robin’s shoulder sank at the thought of losing one of her best friends. Almost all of them flinched when Steve grabbed the nearest thing to him and threw it to the other side of the room, not being able to control his feelings at all during that moment. Letting out a few curse words, he grabbed her shoulders, shaking her violently, wishing that it would wake her up. Wishing that it would wake him up from the living nightmare. “Not like this. Not like this. I won’t let you go away like this. No. No.” He puts his forehead on her shoulder, gripping her side tightly, scared that she might start to levitate from the ground like Max did.
“If this is about your parents. To hell with them. They don't deserve you but-but you have us. All of us. We’re all here for you. Come on, please.” Shaky laughter came out of him as the tears streamed down faster down his cheeks.
“Please……, don’t leave me. That’s all I ever asked from you. And-and I don’t know if you can hear me right now, but I know sometimes there are moments where you feel like you don't exist. That’s untrue. You’ve always been there. In my world. Ever since the beginning.”
“Those pink shoes that are always left untied. It bothered me so much, you know? I never told you but it always does. You always come to school with them untied so I brave up myself to do something about it, that day when I first approached you. I was shy. When you didn’t say anything, I thought you might see me as a creep for noticing that.” He paused as the world began to crumble, his voice faded as the fates held him by the throat.
Dustin stepped forward, tears staining his cheeks as he tried his best to muster a brave look. “When I got back from Summer Camp, you were the first one to notice me. Not Steve. Not the party. You. Mom was buying something in the store and suddenly there you were, knocking on the window and I’ll never forget what you said. ‘Dustin Henderson, you don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this date to come. Welcome home, kid.’ Those words—seem meaningless but it warmed my heart the fact that you remember the date of my arrival. That day I know how special it is to have someone waiting to meet you. To have someone whose faces light up when they meet you cause that’s how happy they are. And I just-And I just want you to know that-that’s me. I’m that someone when I see you. I’ll never forget you.”
Soon one by one stepped up, telling their stories about her-about her in their world—including Eddie who despite having very limited stories to tell about, still stepped up and told them about his encounter with her. “You’re like a sister to me. There were times where I stayed up at night and wished there was a world out there where you really are my sister. You cared and loved people so dearly and it is a privilege to be one of those people you cared and loved about.” That's what Max said about her.
Steve's steady breath began to shake again as he felt her slipping away from his grasp. “No. No. Were you not listening at all?! I-I, God, please.” Using all the strength left inside him, he tries to hold her still. “Run to it. Please,” He called out her name, voice cracking as he did so. “Hold on. Please hold onto us. Was it not enough? Not enough reasons? Not just me but every person in this room, they-they held you dearly close to their heart. You make-you make our days better with your presence and it's sickening that your world won’t let you see the truth that is laid in front of your eyes.”
He could faintly hear Nancy and the others calling out his name, but all he could hear was the memories of them together. Leaning close to her ear, he whispered one last thing. “It was never empty. That space in my heart. And it is not filled by Nancy. It is full by the thoughts of you.” Then he lets go of her body, letting fates decide what happened next.
***
Hearing all of those words entirely made her draw a deep, shuddering breath. Tears stained her cheeks as she took a little step back, looking at Vecna who was getting closer to her—still taunting her with his lies and words despite what she had just heard. “No one loves you. Not entirely. Lies are all they said. I can show you the truth.”
“Those are the truth.” She took a step back again, looking behind her shoulders.
It tilted its head to the side. “Or is it?” It said.
Raising its hand to the air, Vecna spoke once again. “Wasn’t it death that you had wished for? That you long for.” It took a painfully slow step towards her, time flew slower around her as the few moments felt like forever. She looks back to the portal that seems so close yet so far from. The barrier between her life and death.
What is the point of going back to her life if she hadn’t faced all of those fears in front of her. “An unloving family you have. Friends who couldn’t give the same attention as you gave them. A lover you have not. Is that the kind of world you are willing to go back to? They only care because I got you now, wrapped inside my world. The world where you exist.” Her steps come to a halt as if its words are getting inside her once more, sticking itself to her brain like a parasite that won’t come off. Those thoughts that always haunt her life. “They’ll forget not even by tomorrow. Your death would be nothing but a quick meaningless one. It’ll be as if you never existed before.”
Voices filled her ears, faintly but clear to her. Come back. Come back. Don’t leave me. I’ll never forget you. It is full of you. They said. She could feel it getting to her even from the distance between them it was as if the air around her were starting to choke her and bring her up. Tears brimming at the edge of her eyes as she looks at Vecna. Those voices. Their voices. Their words. Can she hold onto that? Would that be enough reason for her to hold on? Would she not slip away from their words if it is not strong enough?
A string of hope tied itself to her, letting her hang onto it once more, this time she refused to let go of it ever again. “You’re wrong. Not even close to the truth. You think I’m weak enough to fall for your words. To fall for my own thoughts. My nightmares. If I ever to die in your hands, being forgotten would be the last thing I intended to be in their minds.” She could feel its hold on her weakened the more she spoke of her own feelings. “I’ve found peace………not because of you. But for once in my life, I listened to my one thoughts that truly belonged to me. And I……,” Standing back tall on her feet again as the hold it had on her had gone completely. “I have no intention to succumb today.”
Then she ran.
And never once did she look back.
***
The warm embrace of Steve Harrington was the first thing she fell onto when she got back. Her hands slipped around him naturally, not wanting to ever let go again as he wept onto her shoulders. She still has her eyes closed, afraid that if she opened it, all of them would vanish and she would still be stuck in there. “I thought I lost you. I almost lost you.” Those are the words that Steve managed to choke out.
She could feel the others reaching to her, a hand that feels like Max’s grabbing onto her right one, brushing her thumb against hers. “Thank you,” She croaked out, opening her eyes slowly. “For everything.” A smile went up to her face as the tears still streamed down her cheeks. One by one she looks at their eyes, each filled with relief. These are the truths that her world always hides her from. The truth she never managed to see for she was too focused on the darker side of her world.
Lastly, she pulled back a little to face Steve who is avoiding her face. Everyone seems to get the memo at this point as one by one starts to leave them to have their own moment together. Nancy threw a relieved smile before she lastly exited the room alongside Robin. “Steve,” She called out his name, cupping his cheek trying to get him to look at her directly. “Hey, Steve.”
“I’m right here, aren’t I? I’m okay.” She wiped her tears away, plastering a wide smile to prove it to him. The look on Steve’s face brings her pain and comfort at the same time. The thoughts of being mourned like this mean that her presence does have a big impact in his world. “Well, physically okay. Mentally, I don’t know. It was quite a scary experience.”
“I almost lost you,” He said those words again, this time looking directly at her, leaning on her palm that is holding his face. “I don’t know how I could live with the memory of your death plagued into my mind forever. I would never get to forgive myself if that ever happened. Never.”
“What happened is none of your fault at all. It was between me and my world. Don’t blame yourself for it. You couldn’t control something of mine that I have yet to learn to control, Steve.” The close distance between them allowed her to finally hear the skipped beat of his heart at the mention of his name that comes out of her. Hearing the truth. She couldn’t help but smile at that. “My near-death experience has transferred some of my intelligence into you. You talk big words now. It’s kinda scary, it doesn't suit you at all.”
He laughs at her words before burying himself to the crook of her neck. The vibration of his laughter brings one to her too. “Was it true? The things you said earlier.” She said once the laughter died down eventually, Steve pulled back once more to look at her. “I heard everything from the other side.”
The look Steve gave her was nothing like she had ever seen before. It was never seen by her, however, it was the same look on her face every time her eyes fell onto him, the same look that is on her face right now. “I love you. I think—I know I always do yet I have always convinced myself otherwise cause I’m afraid of the outcome. You said we are both fools for loving those who-who—what was that-that you said earlier again? Gosh, your words are hard to process into my little brain sometimes.” She smiled at him as he shook his head. “Does this make us even much more of a fool for not noticing that our feelings are directed to no one else but each other?”
A chuckle escaped her. “Well, you and Nancy happened.” She said, then Steve immediately holds up a finger in the air. “Nancy always knew even when I denied it, not out loud of course. But I guessed there were some real feelings and affection involved in that relationship that makes the ending hurts. I was younger and stupid.” He said.
“The last part seems to not have changed that much.” She commented, making him flick her forehead. “Ouch. Be careful with me. I’m fragile. I almost died.”
At the last word of her sentence, Steve’s shoulder sank once more, reminded of what almost happened to her earlier. He couldn’t resist the temptation to hold her close again, so he did. He wrapped his arms around her once more, not wanting to ever let go as his lips found the side of her face before finding her own. A sweet soft yet what felt so intimate gesture between the two of them. “You’re staying close to me from now on. No more near-death experiences. I won’t let you go before me.”
She let her head rest at the crook of his neck as her finger fiddled with the end of his hair. “No, you idiot. We’re a buy one get one package. If we go down, we do it together.” She could feel Steve’s smile onto her hair. As the two stayed there in silence for the next few moments, doing nothing but completely being enamored by each other's presence. Their line finally found a way to crossed one another, connecting them for eternity.
“Guess this makes us the fools in love.” He said.
She nodded quietly, the tiredness finally caught up to both of them. Her world is still far from fully being filled by the light. But as long as she no longer resides on the darker side of it. She doesn’t mind staying on whatever side is this. The side where only truth remains around her. The side where his heart beats at the mention of her name.