✓ | flow ( eddie munson )

thirty-seven. a floating feeling

veda henderson

          The squelching sound of Vecna's feet hitting the ground echoes throughout the gym. I feel myself stepping forward despite Eleven being beyond capable of defending herself. I don't want her to overwork herself so soon and lose her powers.

    Almost as if Vecna senses this, he makes eye contact with me. His evil eyes narrow on mine before he lifts his hand and swipes it through the air. I flinch, feeling wind gust all around me before I open my eyes. Instead of the blues of the snowball, all I see is red everywhere. Everything from the sky to pieces of a house is covered in a red light.

    I've been here before.

    I'm the only one here, surrounded by crimson objects and nothing else. No Eleven, no Max and no Vecna. They're all alone with him somewhere else.

    Why would he get rid of me? To save me so I can become his puppet?

    "Max! Eleven!" I scream, wishing on anything that they can hear me. 

    Clenching my eyes shut, I try to focus on the previous room I was in. The balloons, the streamers and the two girls in it. But, no matter how hard I try, I feel my feet cemented on the ground of Vecnas lair. 

    Closing my eyes again, I try with all my might to open a portal, anything to get me back. Except, when I close my eyes, all I see is Eddie in the middle of hundreds of bats, screaming in anger as he prepares to fight them. 

    A noise escapes me without my consent, something between a sob and a whine as I snap my eyes open. Vecna is sending me these images just to mess with me, they're not real. I know they're not. He knows the only way I'll join him is if I have nothing left. I won't give him the satisfaction.

    Suddenly, a noise behind me alerts me to another arrival. I spin around, ready to fight before I notice a girl in white rolling across the ground. Her once white pants and floral shirt are covered in red mud from the ground.

    Two vines slither out like snakes from the wall, wrapping themselves around the tired girl and pulling her up to a wall.

    "El!" I shout, ready to run to her and pull her free. Before I get a chance to, two more vines appear and wrap themselves around my wrists, yanking me until my back hits the wall.

    I watch as the tentacles tie themselves around an almost unconscious Elevens wrists and ankles. Her eyes fight to stay open, borderlining on unconsciousness. 

    "El! Are you okay? Where's Max?" I fire questions at her. Her eyes slowly flutter open, taking in her new red surroundings. 

    Tears of fear well up in her eyes, her body pulling into itself as she turns to all angles. I look to the left of her, the sight before me almost forcing stomach acid up into my mouth.

    Chrissy's body, tangled. and distorted in a tree of slimy tentacles. Her eye sockets are bare and her body looks like mush without the sturdiness of her bones.

    I clench my eyes shut, dropping my head to try and rid the image of her from my mind. 

    Footsteps echo, catching my attention once more. I look up in time to see Vecna nonchalantly walking towards another piece of crumbled house, Max slung over his shoulder. He drops her to the ground as if she's no more than an object, the vines almost immediately curling themselves around her body and pulling her up all while restricting her.