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was this all for nothing?
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. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧
Gabriel Burton was wrapped in a blanket, and he had a cup of hot chocolate in front of him, but he was ignoring both. His heart rattled in his chest like a caged hummingbird, his breath came out in similarly quickened gasps, and his mind echoed with the same two words over and over again. His stomach curdled with nausea, and he could barely hear the hushed conversations from the other three people over the roaring in his ears. His head was between his knees, tears prickled at his eyes, and one hand traced the lines of the welts embedded into his legs. Time had reduced them to mere lines upon his skin, but he was so deep in memories that it was like he could feel the vines that had wrapped around them.
He's back. Those were the two words that Will had said an hour ago, or maybe it was three or twenty-four, or mere seconds. Time didn't seem to matter anymore, because the Mind Flayer, the shadow monster, eater of worlds, was back.
Back. Like El hadn't closed the gate. Like they hadn't purged it out of Will. Like the piece hadn't died in Alina. Like everything they'd done last year was for nothing. He was seriously going to throw up.
Will was beside him, leaning his head on his shoulder. It was a nice feeling that Gabe couldn't appreciate, because he couldn't appreciate anything right now except for the fact that he was still alive.
An hour ago, or whenever it was, Mike and Lucas had crashed through the trees, their hoods of their raincoats pulled up, attempting to splutter apologies to Will, but their voices had gone quiet when they surveyed the destruction, the boy crouching in the mud (that was Gabe—he was searching through the rubble of Castle Byers, trying to salvage as much as he could) and the other one, who'd suddenly stiffed. A hand going to the back of his neck. A gasp shooting loose of his lips.
Lucas had asked what was wrong. Or maybe it was Mike. And then Will had straightened, and he'd turned around, and those same two words that kept going through Gabe's mind again and again had come out of his mouth.
Nobody had to ask who 'he' was, even though they all had a different name for the creature that had haunted them last year. Alina refused to humanize anything from the Upside Down. She called Dart 'it', as she did to all the other Demodogs and the Mind Flayer. 'It', because they were not even creatures. They were monsters. On the other hand, Will called the Mind Flayer 'he', because it was like he could pretend that it was a person who'd done this to him, not an otherworldly creature. And perhaps because his connection with it had bled the two of them together.
