My Number One (001/Henry Creel/Vecna x Reader)

Cellmates

My heart lit up.

Where was he? Was he in that room opposite?

"Where are you?" I called.

"In the cell opposite you. Twelve, there is a device implanted in your neck suppressing your powers. If you want any sort of chance at escaping, you have to do as I say."

My mouth fell open as I lifted my hand to my neck and felt a swelling.

"Escape?" I whispered.

"Yes, escape."

"Did Papa tell you to say this?" I asked. I thought it was a trick.

"No. Twelve, I am going to escape with you, but once you do the thing I'm about to tell you to do, you'll have to move fast. We won't have much time at all."

"But what if I don't want to do it?"

"Why would you not want to do it?" he bellowed.

"Because...what will happen? Where will we go?"

"I will look after you." He paused. "Twelve, we are powerful. In the outside world, we could do anything. You just don't realise because, before you came here, you were taught to suppress it, stay hidden. If you use it to your advantage, you could do anything. Especially with me.'

I was staring at the door in confusion. "What did you mean by...we?"

"That's the secret I wanted to tell you. I'm like you. You've proved your trust to me now, but it's too late, anyway. If you hadn't have proved it, I would've had to have told you, regardless."

My head was starting to spin. "All this time?" I could only manage to say faintly. Everything was too much all at once.

"Yes," was all I heard before I hit the floor.

*

The most sudden, intense rush of pain awoke me into consciousness...and it was coming from my neck.

Then, my second sense came back to life, my eyes, and above me I saw Mr Ballard.

His hands were covered in blood. I scrambled to my knees, and when I caught sight of the room, it all came flooding back to me. I began to reach for my neck, but Mr Ballard pushed my arm back down with his hand, leaving smudges of blood on it. "Don't touch it. We have to go now," he commanded.

He grasped my arms and lifted me up hastily. My head was still clearing, but I moved mindlessly along with him, and out through the heavy steel door which was somehow now open.

This hallway we were now in, I had never seen before. Its floor was dark, damp and echoey, and of its long row of mysterious doors, I heard no one. When we reached the end of the corridor, Mr Ballard paused and put his finger to his mouth to signal silence from then on.

"Wait," I whispered.

"We don't have time to wait," he said, grasping my wrist and attempting to pull me forward.

"What about Eleven?" I asked. "If this is really it, I can't leave her behind."

"Yes, what about Eleven?" he said, repeating my own question back to me. "She doesn't matter. You're only friends because you're the best each other has in this place, but on the outside, you'll find many more who are much better suited to you. She's young, anyway, we couldn't look after her."

"She doesn't need looking after," I insisted. "She's younger, yes, but she's almost as mature as I am."

He gripped my wrist harder and used it to turn me to face him. "I just want it to be the two of us."

"No," I protested. "Us three."

Then, he seemed to deliberate for a moment before saying, "Okay. Yes, we can go back and get her."

"Where is the escape? And how far away is Eleven?" I asked as we turned around and made our way back down the hallway.

"The cells we were locked in earlier, they're located underground on a different floor from the rest of the laboratory, near an emergency exit only the guards know of. It may seem strange for a cell to be situated near an exit, but those cells are only used for test subjects who have the Soteria implant in their neck, suppressing their abilities. That means they wouldn't be able to escape no matter what, so it wouldn't matter about them being near the exit or having low security. Or so we thought."

"So we have to go upstairs?" I asked, now getting worried.

"It's very risky, but it's your decision."

We walked until we reached a block of stairs, and then he paused. "You should wait here. Up these stairs is the main floor, and if anyone sees you, they'll react and we're done. But if any of the children see me, they'll think it's normal. They wouldn't have been wondering where I am. Besides, I know all of the codes to access guard rooms in case I need to hide for a moment."

"But what if a guard sees you?"

Mr Ballard pointed to his neck. "I'll take action before they have the chance to tell another."

I started to panic...as if I wasn't panicking beforehand. "But what should I do if someone starts walking down the stairs?"

"The only reason they'll be coming down here is to bring us food, and it won't be around this time. Trust me, I have been locked down here many times before."

So Mr Ballard went up, and I waited with my heart in my mouth, the thoughts of everything that had happened spinning in my mind.

*

Soon, Mr Ballard came rushing back down the stairs, and I breathed out in relief...but I was watching behind him, waiting to see a certain face, but no one followed. "Where's Eleven?"

"I couldn't find her, Twelve, come on we have to go!"

"Wait—"

"No!" he bellowed, grasping my arm again and pulling me along, running, and this time I couldn't fight it.

"Did someone see you?" I asked frantically, starting to run out of breath.

"Yes!" he said. "Look at me!"

As we were moving along, I glanced quickly at his previously white shirt, which, if it wasn't covered before, was now coated in blood. "Oh my god, who did you hurt?"

"A guard. In front of the children, and then I left, so they're going to be panicking now, telling the other guards, and they're going to be on their way down to get us."

As he was speaking, the adrenaline rushed inside me, and it didn't feel good. All I kept telling myself was not to pass out now.

We burst through the double doors we almost walked through earlier before we had decided to turn back around for Eleven. Rushing through a similar hallway, a sound behind us made me almost vomit in fear.

Someone else had followed us through the double doors, and their footsteps echoed in our trail.

I turned around to see...

Eleven.