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

Last Survivors

It was only one day later when Henry broke the news to me that he believed the human population, apart from the two of us and some more babies and children he'd accumulated and given to me to take care of, had been wiped out.

"We can't find any more. They're dead. All of the people," he said.

Chills ran down my spine. I imagined every road empty. New York City pitch black. Silence throughout the entire world. It felt lonely for a moment, with the world shut down. But, then I remembered, the only people I needed were Henry and our babies, our children.

"But what about their underground bunkers?" I asked.

"I think the Mind Flayers have covered them. They let out a poisonous substance which should have penetrated the ground and reached them. But, of course, there's always a chance. If there do happen to be some last survivors, they won't be too much for us to take on. It's not as if they'd know we're a threat; they'd just assume we're survivors, too."

I breathed out shakily. "I can't believe it."

Henry looked down at me and smiled. "It's done. There won't be any more stress about it. We can go back to the Rightside Up now, and begin our new life."

*

Once Henry had helped me through the nearest portal, and then dragged himself through after, we took our first step into the New World.

I hadn't been in the Rightside Up in such a long time. It was the strangest thing. The air felt thinner, less thick and stuffy...fresh. It was clearer, too. I'd sort of gotten used to the grimy, greeny-blue tinted air in the Upside Down after spending so much time there, but stepping into clean air now, the difference was immeasurable.

I looked at Henry, and all of the blue-ish, scaly texture which the Upside Down had added to his skin, disappeared. His face, his arms, his fingernails, his veins, everything...returned to a normal human state. The state which I had fell in love with for the first time back at the laboratory. My heart swelled with love and nostalgia. Although it had been the same Henry all along...seeing this difference made me feel as though I hadn't seen the real him in such a long time.

Henry looked back at the portal and whistled. A Demodog came bounding through towards us, and then began zooming round in circles in the open space.

"I think he knows his job is done," Henry said with a smile. "He knows he's free to roam the earth now and do whatever he likes. Just like us, except the creatures born of the Upside Down, such as him and the Demogorgon, will have to go back there from time to time to...recharge, I suppose you could say. In the Rightside Up, they're like a fish out water, or perhaps a dolphin in water, in the sense that they can live in the Rightside Up, but not survive there without breaks."

"Oh, I see," I said, reaching my hand down to pet the Demodog.

The three of us made our way out of the house, and onto the street to take our first glance. It was deathly silent. As I looked up at Henry, and Henry looked down at me, and we held each other's hand, I began to wonder...what next?

This was it. This was what we'd been fighting for, but while I'd been imagining it this entire time, I hadn't thought about the effort it would take to build the reality I wanted.

"So, where will we live?" I asked.

"It's your choice," said Henry, producing a map from his back pocket and handing it to me.

I scanned it with my eyes...now, the dream was really coming alive. I urge you, whoever happens to be reading this story of my life, to imagine being handed a map and asked to choose wherever on Earth you wanted to live.

"Fiji," I said, a grin smothering my face. I began to squeal and jump.

Henry laughed. "Okay. But there are hundreds which make up Fiji. You'll have to choose one. I'll grab a book for you to look at photographs of each island and choose one while we're on our way."

"I can't wait. But how will we get there?"

*

Henry instructed the monsters in the Upside Down to relocate themselves to the Upside Down version of Fiji. He also brought the Demogorgon and a few more Demodogs out into the Rightside Up with us, some to carry our belongings, including our babies, of which there were thirty in total, to some horse stables, located about an hour away. Henry and I rode on a Demodog each, too, as that meant the they could travel faster with less weight on them. But, before we had left, there was one other thing I had instructed the Demogorgon to do.

"Go to the nearest hospital, bring home some general anaesthesia, take it back through the portal and into our home in the Upside Down. There should be a girl in the basement. Administer it to the girl, then insert this device into her neck. It is called a Soteria device, and it will prohibit her from using any telekinetic powers. Trust me, you do not want to skip that step, or she will destroy you. Then, while she remains unconscious, tape her mouth for extra measures, lock her in this cage, and bring her with us. Do whatever you have to do to keep the girl safe, alive, but unconscious. And do not let Henry see. Drape a blanket around the cage and attach it to yourself, or carry it, I don't care. But make sure it arrives with us at Fiji, with her inside," I had said to the Demogorgon, and I knew the it understood. The cage was something I had been working on for the past few days—made of metal, like a dog cage, but with the vines of the Upside Down wrapped around the bars. Of course, the plant wouldn't survive for long outside of the Upside Down, but they were just for extra security, in case she removed her Soteria device, like Henry and I had in the lab. But, the advantage was that, if she did wake up during the journey, she probably wouldn't even realise the device had been inserted. It was actually either my or Henry's old Soteria device, I wasn't sure whose, which I'd found in Henry's pocket of the shirt he was wearing the day we escaped. My plan for Eleven was to see if I could choose a Fiji island which had some sort of zoo or prison, or anything secure, in it, to keep her in once we got there. If there was nothing, I would find a way around it. I had to. I always did.