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His head hit the floor as he lost consciousness, drained from having been in his enemies mind. Mike had once told him that his true sight could be something good, that he could be a super-spy, but Will wasn’t so sure about that. He knew he wasn’t strong enough, or had the abilities to actually control the mind of anyone. He saw what Vecna wanted him to see - the demogorgons slaughtering innocents, targeting his friends. He stayed on the backseat like a passenger, witnessing the horrors without having a say in it. He was not a super-spy, he was a bystander.
He knew if it had been anyone else, they would’ve found a way into Vecna’s mind to find a weakness already. But Will was merely a puppet for his plans. Vecna had all the access to his body and mind as he wished - Will could only sense him coming.
He blinked to stabilize his vision. The ceiling was spinning, flames raged everywhere. He felt his body being lifted from the ground, levitating. He pushed a small whimper, his head throbbing with the hit it took. He saw a shape appear in front of him, a familiar shape, a man he knew too well while having encountered only another time. Why did it feel like there was a strong connection between them?
He tried to move his feet to flee, but he seemed to be paralyzed by Vecna who dragged him to himself. A single tear rolled from his eye. He knew it was useless to fight against him. He did not have telepathic powers, or telekinesis. Struggling would just make things worse. So he stayed passive as he arrived in front of the monster. They were eye to eye. Will couldn’t look away, or close his eyes. He was at his mercy, and while usually he could feel what he felt, see what he thought, he wasn’t sure now of his intentions. Vecna had targeted him without killing, but what did he want with him?
His hand lifted. Will noticed that it wasn’t the clawed one, the one he used to kill. His own lucidity surprised him, but he smothered down a gasp when the hand laid on his cheek.
“You are going to help me” he said with a cavernous voice, one that made every hair on his body rise in gooseflesh, his bones trembling.
“One last time”
He looked into his eyes, staring deep into them. Will parted his lips to scream - his body was stuck, Vecna was touching him, he needed to escape, he needed somewhere safe—
—- —- —-
He didn’t know how he arrived there, in this place that felt timeless and unreal. He looked around - left, right, focusing on the house in front of him. He recognized it, it was the house Nancy and Dustin had shown him, the Creel house where Henry slaughtered his own family. But it wasn’t the real house, it was impossible. Steve had smashed the window, it had been left and abandoned years ago. Yet the house in front of him looked well-kept, with freshly cut green grass, a clean exterior, and a door that was definitely not smashed. On it; a red rose.
It was unmistakably the same place, only at a different time. Had he accessed a different dimension? Or did he finally succeed at getting into Vecna’s mind? He had hoped he would find shelter in a memory of his own, but perhaps the way to destabilize the enemy was to hide in his own head.
It was then that he saw a man approaching, walking up to him. He looked proper and kind, in a brown suit, wearing a hat and glasses. He walked slowly, as though slightly hesitant. But his posture was straight, assured, just slow. His face was beautiful.
But despite this look, Will knew very well not to fall for any of this nonsense. He knew who this man was - Vecna.
“Stay away” he said, realizing he had a voice to speak. He took two steps back.
Vecna stopped walking. He raised his hands as if to show he was harmless, as if he didn’t have the powers to lift him from the ground and snap his bones. “I mean no harm, William”
Will wanted to scoff, but all that crossed his throat was a pained croak.
“No harm?..” he repeated in a whisper. Had he the slightest idea of how much he hurt him?
“I am not him” Vecna said calmly, making one step forward. Will backed away again.
“You think I don’t know what you look like? You won’t trick me. Vecna. 001. Peter… or should I say Henry?”
Vecna looked down.
“I must admit, I am not entirely sure which one I am now. It seems I have been split in too many to remember”
So now he was supposed to believe this man wasn’t Vecna? What a way not to be held accountable. He needed to find a way out of here. Though - wasn’t this what he wanted? A way into Vecna’s mind, now he could finally play the role of the spy. There had to be a weakness, somewhere in this place. If Vecna came back to that house, it was for a reason. Something was in this house that Will needed to figure out.
Vecna walked closer again.
“I said stay away!” Will shook. His hands trembled despite him trying to look confident. He could feel his eyes watering. Vecna did not look threatening, but he knew what he was capable of
“Please. Just hear me out” Henry took two more steps closer, then dropped to one knee. He laid the other beside, lowering himself in front of Will.
“Wh.. what are you doing?” Will asked as he stared at the kneeling man in front of him. If that man wasn’t Vecna, he would say he was beautiful. His eyes were clear and blue, so much more human than those he stared at only a moment before. There were no shadows concealing his soul. Just human, blue eyes. Vecna had once been a handsome man. Just a handsome human man.
“I want to show you I am not a threat. I need you to listen to me” he looked up at Will, taking off his hat and revealing his golden hair. Will felt compelled to accept, to just talk. It was the first time Vecna addressed himself to him that way, and he knew Vecna could do whatever he wanted with him. Vecna had shoved a vine down his throat, Vecna had killed his friend when they weren’t even in the same room, Vecna could lift him up and immobilize his body. But now, the man in front of him gave Will full control, as he knelt and begged to be listened to. Will would be a monster to refuse it - though, if evil should be repaid with kindness, then what kindness should be repaid with?
“S-say what you want to say” he cringed by the way he stammered, angry at himself for still feeling so weak. The enemy was literally at his feet, and yet he was still scared. Was there any way he could ever get over this?
“I would like you… to address me as Henry” he left his hat on the ground, getting up from his knees. Will took a small step back as he saw his frame rising in front of him.
“The monster you call Vecna.. it’s me, but not fully. Would you please follow me?” He asked gently, offering his hand for Will to grab it. Will looked at it, considered in confusion, and eventually refused. Why did he even hesitate? He couldn’t start pitying Vecna.
Vecna looked dejected. He put his hand in his pocket, then started walking towards the house.
“I was once a little boy too, I’m sure Nancy Wheeler told you this. People described me as.. quiet, odd, sensitive.. different.” He walked, and Will followed, perhaps morbidly curious about what he had to say, or perhaps feeling a magnetic pull to that man.
He kept repeating in his head that this was the time to play the spy. He had to be brave for the sake of his friends. Maybe he could get some information about Max out of him, find a way to rescue her. All of his friends were risking their lives constantly, going onto missions, but his mother never let him do anything to do his part. He wasn’t allowed to help. Now he finally could, he was scared, and alone and into unknown territory with the enemy, but he could help.
He heard some music playing as they got closer to the house. Ella Fitzgerald, Dream a little dream of me. What a perfect irony. Was Vecna making a stupid joke?
“You don’t need to know everything, you probably already do. I got lost into another dimension, the same way you were—”
“Because you took me there! You kidnapped me” Will suddenly broke, finally feeling some pride at being able to talk back. Vecna marked a pause. He looked down as if ashamed, then nodded.
“Yes..” he cleared his throat, opened the door of the house. Will frowned, swaying his eyes back and forth to Vecna, then the house.
“Please, come in. There is no danger”
He always spoke in the same tone, soft and gentle, all polite with his “please”, trying to sound comforting with promises. Did he seriously expect Will to simply fall for a “I swear it’s safe”? When he was the one who ruined his life and hurt him more than anyone could have ever done?
He waited. Leaving the door open for Will, what a gentleman he was, he thought sarcastically. Would he also pull a chair and invite him for a nice dinner?
Ella Fitzgerald’s voice got louder as she sung “Stars fading but I linger on, dear. Still craving your kiss”.
Will couldn’t perceive anything weird in the house. It was a normal, regular house with a staircase leading up, a room on his right, a room on his left. He inhaled and decided to step in. He waited for something weird to happen, but it was just a house.
“I’m longing to linger ‘til dawn, dear” Ella sang, and Will heard Vecna humming along. He stepped after Will, closing the door behind him.
“I’m sorry. About everything. I understand that you don’t understand, I can not blame you for that” he swallowed, he wasn’t looking at Will. He strolled in the hall in circles, hands joined behind his back. If he believed Will would forgive him..
“I am not expecting forgiveness, just your time. I know you will understand” this time he looked at him, pausing his bright eyes and searching for an eye contact with Will’s. His eyes looked so human.
Will didn’t say anything, so Vecna took it as an invitation to keep going.
“After I got lost in this other dimension, I got some.. abilities I couldn’t quite control. I had a way of reaching into people’s minds” he forced a sad, pained smile.
“I saw some.. awful things. Things a child shouldn’t see” the song was coming to an end. Will was trying to force himself to investigate the house, look around, but his eyes were stuck on Vecna’s. On this simple man, who looked so ordinary if it wasn’t for his beauty, or for the fact that he had powers that turned him into a monster.
“And then I saw the shadow. The God you call the Mind Flayer.. a proper title. It does flay the mind of those who encounter it” he walked back to Will, getting closer, but this time Will did not move.
“At first I saw possibilities, but… it quickly turned on me” unexpectedly, Will felt his hand being held. Vecna took the tip of his fingers with his own, carefully stroking it with his thumb as he looked down.
“I surrendered my body to it. It got me” he sounded eternally regretful, and for the first time Will could see the scared little boy that had been caught in Henry. Was he falling for that sob story? Perhaps he was. It was his own. He knew how it felt.
Henry leaned in closer, and he reached for his cheek, the same way Vecna had, with the same hand. The human hand. He stroked it carefully and there was no threat this time. Will remained frozen, his mouth going dry.
“I know what it’s like, I know how you feel”
Ella Fitzgerald’s voice vanished into the air. There was a moment of silence, floating there between the two of them.
“I know what it’s like to have each inch of your body invaded. To be.. stuck, trapped while it uses it. Will, didn’t it force you to hurt your mother? To kill those men?” Will felt a knot tightening in his throat. He blinked the beginning of tears away. He remembered so well. He remembered being on the backseat while his very own hand closed around his mother’s neck. He remembered his own voice sending those men to their death while he screamed internally not to let it happen. He remembered the powerlessness, how weak he felt.
Would he have turned into Vecna if his mother, Jonathan and Nancy hadn’t expelled it out of him? Would that have been his fate?
“It got me. I was a child, too” for a moment, Will forgave him. Will saw Henry, he saw the child and he saw Henry. He saw it was just a man, a human and not the monster that hurt him.
New notes came from the gramophone. This one upbeat, fun.
“Children behave. That’s what they say when we’re together”. Will recognized it, I think we’re alone now.
“You are saying.. that this is Henry?” He felt his hand burning on his cheek, their eyes met and lingered. He got lost into the blue of his eyes. Could he really blame Henry for letting the mind flayer take over, when he himself had let it happen? It was out of his control, everyone was weak faced to it. Could he blame Henry for the things he himself had done?
He blamed himself every day for the death of those men. He felt so guilty he could vomit out of shame when he remembered the feeling of squeezing his mother’s neck. The face she had made, the way she choked—
“Yes. I am Henry, I am inside of Vecna, inside of the Mind Flayer like each of his victims. We’re all in there, as a collective, a hive mind”
Will didn’t know what to think anymore. It could've been another manipulation, Vecna weaponizing his empathy against himself. But Henry felt sincere. He didn’t believe that man was the horrible monster. Not with the way he touched him so gently. The kind of touch he had craved so. He yearned for tenderness, for someone to make him feel good, and loved, and seen. Henry saw him in a way no one else did. It was terrifying. But so - beautiful.
“Holding on to one another’s hand. Trying to get away into the night”
Henry smiled. A warm smile that could melt Will’s heart. And he realized that in all this time he was in his presence, never once did he feel the shivers at the back of his neck. He felt a connection, he felt like he knew him, but not in the way that he felt what he felt or saw what he thought. This wasn’t the Mind Flayer, or Vecna, this was just Henry. Warm, gentle, Henry.
“And then you put your arms around me..”
Henry followed as the song said. He put a hand on Will’s waist, the other interlaced with his fingers.
“Would you mind a last dance?”
A last dance? Will wondered. He wanted to asked but he was carried away in the rhythm Henry installed.
“I.. I don’t know how to”
“I will guide you” and so Henry took him for a waltz, staring at his face intently while Will tried to avoid stepping on his feet.
“And then you say, I think we’re alone now”
Will danced.
He danced with Henry, with Vecna. He held onto him, a hand on his shoulder and the other tightly wrapped in Henry’s. He saw the man smile, bright and happy. Had he ever been so happy?
“Why me?” Will asked as the music carried them.
“Because you understand”
“The beating of our hearts is the only sound”
Will felt himself getting flushed. His heart hammered in his chest. Would this be the last time he sees Henry? What did he mean by a last dance?
The moment of peace crumbled at once. The ground shook underneath their feet. Will felt his neck pricking. He looked at Henry, and his gaze became fearful.
“It’s coming. It found us” he said with a sort of urgency in his voice.
Will did not need any sort of explanation. The Mind Flayer was coming for them.
“Will.. this is important” he said, he stopped moving, their waltz came to an end. His hands clasped around Will’s arms, holding him in place.
“Running as fast as we can..”
“Will, you will have to kill me”
Will wanted to believe this was a joke. A cruel joke, but he knew the tone of Henry’s voice and he was very serious.
A part of the ceiling flew. The house was starting to be destroyed. But Will did not look in the direction of the destruction. He only looked at Henry.
“My only weakness is you. You are the only one who can get close enough. You’re the only one I would never kill”
Will shook his head. He refused. Not after all of this, not after knowing there was a human in Vecna. Before, the only thing he wanted was for this monster to die. He made it his only goal, his life mission to kill him even if it meant losing his own life. But this was Vecna. Killing Vecna meant killing Henry. There was a man - how was he supposed to kill Vecna if he knew there was a man within him?
“No, Henry.. you can’t ask me that. Why. Why?” He wanted to push him away, break down in tears. He couldn’t stand this.
“Because within Vecna is the Mind Flayer. But within Vecna is also me. And I would never..” he stroked his cheek again and Will heard a part of the wall being ripped. He did not fear. He focused on the way Henry’s thumb rubbed against his skin.
“Take a knife, stick it into its heart. Promise me”
He pulled Will’s face forward, kissing his forehead as Will started to tear up.
“No..” he responded weakly, his voice full of tremors and tears.
“You have to promise me” he whispered against his forehead. Will choked. He brought his arms around Henry to hold him tighter.
“This is the only way to end this. And want to be free, Will. This is what would make me the most happy. To be freed by your hand would be the greatest liberation. Please”
Free. Killing Vecna would set all of them free, give them respite in death. But it would also mean never seeing Henry again.
“Okay..” his voice broke, but Henry sighed with relief. The house around them was being torn apart. The Mind Flayer was reaching for them. The music became distorted, the voice unrecognizable. The shivers on Will’s neck almost burnt with his close he felt it. But Henry laid his palm on the back of his neck.
“Thank you” he whispered, then his mouth captured Will’s into a kiss. Will closed his eyes and pressed his lips back.
“Thank you..” Henry let his lips brush against Will’s. They were so soft. Slightly desperate, the kiss urgent, a first and a last. Will sagged into his arms, holding onto Henry and trying to muffle down his sobs. Tears rolled down his cheeks, the cheek Henry had touched so gently a moment before. The taste of salt mingled with the taste of Henry’s mouth. The press of him a comfort, a surrender. A liberation and an agony in knowing he would have to kill this man.
And as quickly as he got there, Henry was gone. Will was gone. The house was gone and the Mind Flayer too. Will was surrounded by his friends, Joyce patting his head that laid on her lap.
“Will? Will are you okay?” The voices of his friends merged and became one, stifled and deafening at once. Will burst into tears. His mother held him and patted his back. The questions came fusing, but upon seeing him breaking down in tears they all stopped talking. The silence was overwhelming. It was Mike’s voice that broke it.
“You’re safe now. What happened?” He said softly. But Will had always been safe in Henry’s arms.
“I saw him..” he said quietly, covering his face and wiping the tears from his eyes. Vecna would pay. The Mind Flayer would pay, he made a promise. And he vowed to keep it.
“I know how to kill it”