Chapter Text
Jonathan had always believed fear had a sound.
A low ringing in the ears. The uneven thud of a heart beating too fast. Breath that feels too loud in the silence.
The Upside Down had all of it… and none of it at once.
Ash-like spores drifted through the air as Jonathan stepped back, his grip shaking around the bow in his hands. He shouldn’t have been alone. He knew that. Steve had told him.
Nancy too.
But Will had felt something—pressure behind his eyes, a pull he couldn’t explain—and Jonathan had gone in first. Like always. Like a big brother. Like a shield.
Entering wasn’t the mistake.
Believing he could leave was.
The vines burst from the ground without warning, snapping around his legs, his torso, stealing the air from his lungs in a choked gasp.
“No—wait!” he shouted, struggling, but the Upside Down didn’t negotiate.
The world tilted.
The bow slipped from his fingers.
Something cold and alive wrapped around his wrist, then his throat—tight enough to spark panic, not enough to let him pass out.
Perfect, thought a voice that was not his own.
The presence pressed into his mind like a crushing weight. Vecna didn’t need to fully appear. Jonathan felt him anyway—fingers digging through memories, guilt, love, fear.
“So you’re the brother,” the voice murmured, deep and pleased. “The one who carries everything.”
Jonathan clenched his teeth as the vines lifted him off the ground. Pain came second.
The invasion was worse. Images flooded him—Will, small and shaking.
Joyce crying at the kitchen table. Steve laughing too loud, pretending nothing ever hurt him.
“Don’t… touch him,” Jonathan whispered, not sure if he meant Will… or Steve.
Vecna laughed.
Slow.
Cruel.
“I don’t need to touch him,” he said. “You’ll be enough.”
The pressure increased. Jonathan whimpered, the sound broken and humiliating.
He tried to focus on something real. Something solid. Something Vecna couldn’t rip away.
That’s when he heard it.
A meow.
Small.
Lost.
Impossible.
Jonathan’s eyes flew open.
Between the red shadows, perched on a rock choked with sickly vines, was a tiny shape—white with gray markings.
Two enormous eyes stared back at him, full of fear… and stubborn determination.
“Cometa…?” Jonathan breathed, certain he was hallucinating.
The kitten answered with another meow and took an unsteady step toward him. Then another. The vines twitched, irritated.
Vecna stiffened.
“What is this?”
Something unfamiliar cut through Jonathan’s terror.
Not hope. Not yet. But something close. Something warm.
“He’s… he’s mine,” Jonathan said, barely audible.
The vines tightened, forcing a gasp from his chest.
Cometa hissed and, without hesitation, lunged forward, tiny claws slashing at one of the vines as if it were a normal enemy—something that could be fought.
“No,” Jonathan whispered. “No, no, no…”
The kitten was thrown back by the unnatural force, tumbling across the ground—but he scrambled up immediately, fur bristling, spitting defiance.
Vecna watched with new interest.
“Curious,” he said. “Even here… you cling.”
Jonathan squeezed his eyes shut as the pressure in his chest became unbearable.
Every happy memory twisted into a weapon. Steve knocking on his bedroom door.
Will sleeping with the light on.
Cometa weaving between his feet at home.
“Please,” Jonathan begged. “Leave him alone.”
“No,” Vecna replied calmly. “You’re going to break. And when you do… your brother will feel it.”
The vines dragged Jonathan deeper, away from the kitten. His scream tore free, raw and desperate, swallowed by the thick air of the Upside Down.
“Cometa!”
The answering meow was the last thing he heard before darkness claimed him.
And somewhere far away, Steve Harrington felt something snap.