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

Unfamiliar Faces

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***

By the time it was getting dark, after walking ourselves to exhaustion, we decided to settle down under a tree to rest.

"I'm tired," said Eleven.

"I know. You go to sleep and I'll keep watch. When you wake up, we'll swap over."

So we did.

*

The next morning, after both of us had had shifts sleeping and staying up on watch, we started on walking again.

Even after the rest, Eleven looked exhausted. Either that, or she was fed up. "Where are we going?"

I was quiet for a moment. "I don't know."

"Why did you bring me here if you didn't have a plan?"

I was in shock, and I hoped it was the exhaustion causing Eleven to be so ungrateful. "Eleven...I didn't have time to make a plan, this was our only chance. It was this, or staying locked up in the lab for the rest of our lives. Even if I did try to make a plan, how would you expect me to do it? With what information? This is my first time escaping, so don't you forget that. I'm not your mother, we're a team."

*

After a long while of walking, we came across a building. Benny's Burgers, the sign read. We stood in front of it, anxious.

"I wonder what that is," I whispered to Eleven.

"It smells good," she replied. "Maybe someone can help us."

"But what if the guards have told them about us?"

"The guards aren't here yet."

"Okay. You go in and I'll keep watch outside. If I call your name, you have to come straight back out."

*

I waited, keeping my eye on the woods, and every direction around me. I was a little worried that Eleven was taking so long.

Soon enough, when it was starting to get dark, I saw a light, perhaps a flashlight, from in the distance. It might not have been someone searching for us, but I wasn't taking any chances. I opened the door of Benny's Burgers and shouted Eleven's name. In all of fifteen seconds, she was out, and we were on the run again

"What happened in there?" I asked as we ran.

"A man asked me what I was doing and why I was alone, but I didn't say anything. And he gave me these," she said, pulling a napkin wrapped around beef burger patties out of her pocket.

"Is that food?" I asked.

"Yes."

"That's good."

*

With the night now black, we found another tree to pitch ourselves.

Eleven didn't have to tell me she was tired this time—she had already curled up amongst the roots of the trees and let the weight of her eyes fall shut. "You go to sleep and I'll keep watch," I said to her. "When you wake up, we'll swap over, like we did yesterday."

So we did.

*

I was on watch when the faint, distant sound of a voice alerted me. It was like a calling. Hen came another. It sounded as if there were multiple voices.

My heart began to race—the guards must be close. We couldn't lose now.

I shook Eleven, but after the days before us of adrenaline and survival, she was too deep in slumber. I shook her some more, not wanting to risk talking and say her name.

The voices were getting closer, so close that I could hear their footsteps, the crunching of the leaves beneath them.

Lifting Eleven into my arms, I began to edge away, but the sound of calling bounced around me, and I didn't know what direction to go. Maybe it was the exhaustion taking a toll on my level-headedness, I didn't know. But I was stuck, they were closing in.

But my breath caught when they got so close I understood exactly what they were saying. They were calling for someone named Will.

Eleven started to move in my arms, so I placed her on the ground, knelt down beside her, and whispered, "People are here."

She stood up and, after listening for the repetitive voices, and began to turn towards them. "Maybe they can help us."

"No," I said, catching her arm.

"They're not calling us."

"It might be a trick," I said.

"As you said...you're not my mother."

And, with that, she started to run. I followed after her, of course—I couldn't let her go alone. She followed three bright, moving lights, and when she deciphered three figures stood behind them, barely it by the moon, she slowed to a walk.

"Wait, just think about it," I pleaded.

But she kept walking, so I did too.

Then, she came to a stop, and so did I, a few feet behind her.

Before us stood three boys. Three boys about Eleven's age, drowning in soaked raincoats, torches in their hands, and shock on their faces.