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

Us Against the World

"I'm not with you on this," I said, my voice trembling.

"Well, you should feel lucky. You're the only person I don't plan on killing."

I hugged my stomach and looked to the floor. "Will you kill me if I don't side with you?" I asked quietly.

Henry was quiet for a few moments, looking at me. "No," he finally said.

I breathed out. "But if I'm the only one left, who else could I stay with? I'll have no choice but to forgive you."

Henry gave a small smile. "That's right," he whispered.

"No, that's wrong. What you're doing is wrong," I protested, bringing my hands to my head in distress. "I can't believe I'm stuck in this situation."

Henry moved towards me, held my wrists gently, and brought my arms back down to my sides. "Calm down," he said. "You have no relations. You have no friends. Why do you care?"

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to hold back tears from the stress. Henry was still holding my wrists, keeping me from escaping the conversation. "See, that's where we're different, Henry," I said, shaking my head. "I care about people, whether they're close to me or not. I care about their feelings. You lack empathy. There are very few select people you care about, and you can't comprehend anything different than the way your own mind works."

"That's not true," he argued. "There aren't a few people I care about. There's only one."

I frowned and shook my head. Why was he doing this to me? It was so hard to hate him when he acted like this, when he said things like this. A tear spilled from my eye.

His expression changed and he stepped closer to me. "Come here," he said sweetly and pulled me into his arms.

I sobbed then. It was so strange that the person causing to cry was the one consoling me.

I understood his mindset. He had never had a connection to anyone, so he didn't realise how precious people could be. I had never had a family, but I had met people, such as Walter and the three boys who took Eleven, who showed me what people could be like.

I understood his point, too. Even I had been confused by the concept of money and working for a living when I had escaped the lab, but I had sort of assumed there was no alternative, that life had always been that way. But, from what Henry was saying, there was a time when people lived freely, and that, even now, there was an alternative, but you were seen as an outcast for trying it.

Still, it wasn't a good enough excuse to kill people. I would rather everyone live in a unnatural, structured society than not live at all.

I had to do something.

The only people I knew strong enough to stop Henry were myself and Eleven.

I really didn't want to break my streak of staying away from here, but what choice did I have? It was either seeing Eleven or letting the current human population all die out.

But how was I going to play this?

There was one way that could put Henry plan to a stop for definite...and that was to kill him. But, who was I kidding? There was no way on Earth I could bring myself to do such a thing. I would rather his plan go ahead, and everyone else die, than let Henry be killed.

Was I going to pretend to Henry that I was giving in and joining forces with him, and go behind his back to counter his plan? Surely that was the only way it would work out. I hated the thought of lying to him, but I understood this was no time for complaining about little emotions. I had to focus on the bigger picture.

"Okay," I whispered.

Henry pulled away, held me at arm's length and looked me in my eyes. "You'll join me?"

I swallowed. "Yes."

He pulled me into him again. "You're amazing," he mumbled into my hair.

*

After Henry introduced me to the shelves of the large library room in the house, a few hours passed of us sitting in silence, entertaining ourselves. Of course, I had to stick to children's books as my vocabulary wasn't very advanced from being so sheltered in the lab. I was pleased to have a source of education now, though.

"You, know I really dreaded telling you about my plan," Henry said softly, looking up from his book. "I knew I had to, though."

I pretended to keep reading for a few seconds even though my brain wasn't taking in the words. It was just thinking about what Henry was saying, and what to say back. I came up with nothing, so just looked up at him and smiled.

While I read, I thought over my plan. I considered running back to the regular world to warn Eleven, but I realised that, at this moment, I shouldn't let Henry out of my sight...although, I could do it while he was asleep. Would it help, though? What could she really do before he decided to take action? And...what if she went as far as to kill him? She had attempted it once before, and had even told me she was glad when she believed he was really dead. She wouldn't hesitate for a second, and I knew it. Perhaps I would keep Eleven as a last resort, for if he started taking drastic action that I could in no way prevent. Surely he'd spend a while planning before he put his plan into action...unless he'd already done the planning. I hoped not. Maybe first I would try once more to convince him not to do it, and if I failed to do so, then I would listen to his plan carefully and go from there trying to counteract it.

I wished myself luck...I was sure I was going to need it.

*

Later that day, when I began to slump over the seat in the library with tiredness, Henry walked over and scooped me up into his arms before carrying me to his bed. He told me he'd join me soon, that he just had some things to do around the house. I had been trying to fight the fatigue in fear that Henry would begin his killing spree while I slept, but I couldn't hold it off any longer. I had wanted to fall asleep after Henry, to be able to drift off with peace of mind, but my eyes fell shut before he came to bed beside me.