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

Surfacing

Hearing the quick footsteps of guards in the distance kickstarted my adrenaline once again. They were probably faster than me, had the sped to catch up, but I still had one advantage. Not only I could open doors before me with my mind, but I could close them, too, and some of them, if I focused right, I could lock with a jolt of my head. If anything felt good at this time, it was to have my powers back.

If I was grateful for anything at this moment, it was that Mr Ballard had gave me some sort of information as to where this exit could be. I knew it was on this floor, and I knew I was going in the right direction...that was, until I came to two turnings.

I stopped, placed Eleven down on the floor, and caught my breath. Thankfully, I had lost the sound of the guards at that point. They were probably unlocking a door I had locked behind me, and I knew that as soon as I heard their faint footsteps, it would mean I had to make a move again, but I would still be at a safe distance, as I had been this whole time.

I deliberated for a moment, and tried to figure out which direction these turnings were facing. I knew any that were facing North, to the front of the building, would probably not be the correct one. Emergency exits would lead towards the side or the back of the house, surely? But I actually had no clue which way was what, since it, being underground, had no windows.

Hearing Eleven groan and move about on the floor gave me a little wave of relief. I knew she would be okay, that wasn't it. We had taken part in experiments that pushed us to the point of unconsciousness many a time. It was just that I wouldn't have to carry her now, and there would be two brains on the ball.

I knelt down beside Eleven and looked at her for a moment, my eyes deadpan, before making myself whisper, "Eleven," softly. I didn't want to comfort her, but I had to for my own sake.

Worry took over her expression, and she whispered, "What happened?"

"You killed Mr Ballard," I said coldly.

She looked me in the eyes. "He killed the others."

"What do you mean?"

"The other test subjects," she said, her voice breaking and her eyes filling up.

"What? When? Why would he do that?"

"I don't know," she said with the same tearful face.

I felt sick. Disgusted. I didn't know if I felt disgusted for Mr Ballard, or myself for loving him. Did I still love him? I just prayed it wasn't true. Eleven's mind could still be fuzzy from her faint. She could even be lying.

I decided I couldn't think about it right that moment, and situation we were in snapped back into my mind. Escaping was priority. "Come on, we need to go," I said suddenly, standing up and holding my hands out to help Eleven.

We'd be wasting more time if we sat there trying to figure out which way to go, which we would never do, so I decided it would be quicker and less risky to just go straight in and try one way, and if it was wrong, go back and make it just in time for the other.

"What are we doing?" asked Eleven.

"What do you mean, didn't Mr Ballard tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

So, he hadn't even asked Eleven to come and escape with us?

"What did he say when he tried to bring you down here?" I asked.

"He didn't try to bring me. I followed him myself after he killed the others."

"Oh my god," I whispered to myself. "Why would he do that? D-did he say why he did it?" I asked Eleven.

"No," she said quietly.

Footsteps in the distance sounded again, and I grabbed Eleven's hand. "We really have to go now," I said. "We're escaping. I know a way."

I wasn't sure I knew the right way, but we tried it. Eleven complied now and we ran together...until we reached a dead end.

"Please, no," I whispered.

"What?" asked Eleven, her eyes widened with worry.

"We might need to go back."

"But, the guards, they're behind us!"

"I know," I said, almost accepting defeat. "Unless..." I said, looking at a metal circle on the floor. I knelt down and felt around it. It seemed to move a bit. With shaky hands, I started to dig my fingernails underneath it. "I think this opens up," I said to Eleven.

With the help of my powers, it began to lift. I struggled with its heavy weight, but was soon able to flip it over, revealing a large hole in the ground.

"We need to go down there," I said to Eleven.

"How deep is it?" she asked.

But it was too dark to tell.

On the underside of the metal circle, there were multiple small hooks. It had obviously been placed upside down to prevent anyone from seeing the hooks, realising it was an escape, and lifting it up if they ever came across it. I wouldn't have known it was an exit if Mr Ballard hadn't told me there was one around here.

Using my mind, I ripped off one of the metal hooks and threw it down the hole. Within a second, I heard it hit the bottom, but instead of a hard fall, it made the sound of a splash.

"There's water," I mumbled. "It's a sewer."

"Sewer?" Eleven repeated.

"Yes. It means we're going to get wet."

I knew the surface of the water wasn't far down as the little piece of metal hit it very fast, but I didn't know how deep the water itself was. It didn't matter, though. My experience participating in tests Papa made up where I had to lie in a pool made me sure I would float.

"I'll go in first, Eleven, and then you'll follow after, okay?"

It was strange. In some ways, Eleven was exactly my equal. We were best friends, and understood each other entirely, knowing everything that went in in each others' lives...until recently, anyway. In others, she was my superior, in the way that she was far more confident, and perhaps even stronger, than me. Like how she held no hesitation to kill Mr Ballard, or stand up against Two. But, in this moment, she seemed to me like a small child. She had less experience of the outside world, if any at all, and her age really showed. She didn't know words like I did, or ways of life, and even I knew very little. This thought strengthened my decision to leave. How could it be right for us to be so shielded? So set apart from the outside world, knowing nothing, experiencing nothing, that was, apart from experiments not even for our own gain.

I dropped down the hole. At first, I bobbed down underwater, and for a split second I doubted my ability to swim. But then I surfaced, and looked up. Eleven towered above the hole, and I moved out of the way for her to come down.

I had almost expected the water to be shallow, to be able to walk, my feet reaching the ground, but it wasn't. That made me secretly worry about Eleven. I didn't know how much water work she had done, how strong of a swimmer she was.

But she proved to be fine.

We swam and swam, deeper into the pitch black, but it was so narrow we'd never get lost. I kept an eye on the ceiling, looking for another drain as a way to get out, until I saw one.

Above us, tiny beams of light shine through little holes in a circular metal drain. Light from the sun.