third person

          Veda Henderson opens her eyes, her hands up near her face in a natural defensive reflex. Her surroundings are new and unfamiliar to her, hospital walls splattered in blood with broken pieces of the building around her. She looks down, her hand clamping over her mouth in shock when she spies multiple bodies of young kids. Each kid has a shaved head and their own bloodied hospital down. The closer she looks, the more she can spot the signs of Vecna's terror. 

    "I'm going to be sick," She mutters into the skin of her hand, moving down the crime scene corridor. 

    The lights start to flicker like a horror movie, causing Veda to look up with eyes as wide as saucers before taking off running. She knows this is just a hallucination, another one of her visions, but she can't help but feel fear.

    Unbeknownst to her, Eddie Munson stands by her body in the real world, shaking her by her shoulders and staring into her clouded eyes. He feels as though his whole body is shaking on the inside as if he's freezing without feeling cold. His eyes zip between hers, looking for any sign of the girl he's come to love. 

    "Veda, you're freaking me out!" He yells, tapping her once more. His taps become more aggressive, panic starting to seep into his muscles and make them stronger with adrenaline. He looks up at the hole in the ceiling, the one Veda imagined him going through even though both of them are still stuck in the upside down. "Whatever you guys are doing up there, hurry!"

    Erica makes eye contact with Eddie as he yells before taking off in the direction of his bedroom where the others rifle through his things. 

    "Eddie says you need to hurry!" Erica informs in a panic.

    "Yeah, no shit!" Dustin screams back, his hands shaking as he tosses Eddie's things around, desperately looking for a cure for his sister. He knows that she's been in these visions before, and her eyes have clouded the same way. But, this is different. Veda was always aware and looked the same every other time. But this time, she almost looks dead as if Vecna is killing her.

    "We're trying, we can't find anything!" Max exclaims, feeling fear for not only Veda but herself as well. She feels selfish for thinking so, but Veda gives her a sense of comfort she isn't ready to let go of. She feels as though, if the brunette is alive and well, Max herself has a chance. 

    "What even is all this shit!" Robin yells, the music cassettes falling from her shaking hands as she yells. 

    "Dustin, what's her favourite song?" Steve yells, grabbing some of the fallen cassettes and holding them up. 

    "I don't know!" Dustin screams back.

    "How do you not know? She's your sister!" Nancy criticises, feeling guilty for yelling at the child as soon as she did. 

    "You think I don't know that? She's a very private person!" Dustin defends, tossing more things to the ground in a haze. Eddie and Veda are close, something in here has to help her. It just has to. 

    "Wait, wait wait," Robin heaves, sliding Eddie's cassettes over the bed as she searches for a particular one. She thinks back to earlier in the night when she was in Veda's house in the upside down, how the girl has a cassette on her vanity with her favourite song written in bold. "It's a Metallica song!"

    "No shit!" Dustin repeats himself from moments ago, moving to the bed. 

    Robin closes her eyes tightly, thinking back to the hoodie Veda has been wearing this whole time. 'Ride the lightning' enters her vision before she snaps her eyes open and finds the corresponding cassette, looking through the tracklist before she finds one that tugs at her memory.

    For whom the bell tolls. Ironic. 

    Back in her vision, Veda runs down a flashing hallway, looking over her shoulder as if some presence is following her. She reaches a door at the end of the hallway, wooden boards blocking off the exit. She immediately grips the wood, ignoring the splinters in her hands as she pulls on them with all her might. 

    At the same time, she lifts one leg up and repeatedly kicks at the lower planks. She gets one off with her hands, dropping it to the ground before grabbing another solid plank.

    "Veda," She hears that familiar drawl of her name from the deep voice that has haunted her almost as much as her father's. If there's anything that Vecna has done for her, it's replace the horror of her Father with his own. 

    Veda pauses, her breath hastily leaving her lungs as she slowly turns her head over her shoulder. She's seen Vecna enough to not feel as scared of him as the first time, but there's only so much getting used to one can cope with. 

    "What are you doing?" The monster asks, his fleshy footsteps sending a deep thump throughout the place. "It's not time for you to leave,"

    "Leave me alone!" Veda screams back at the thing, turning back to the planks to continue to rip them off of her exit. 

    "I can't do that. We need each other, Veda," 

    Veda doesn't reply to his words or even react. She knows Vecna has a weird obsession with her and what he thinks she can do for him, but she won't play into his delusions. She refuses to.

    "Now that you've seen where I've been.... I would like very much to show you where I am going. Where we are going,"

    Veda rips the last plank from the door, not bothering to look back at Vecna before pushing the double doors open and rushing inside whatever room is on the other side. She comes to a stop inside the room, looking around for a sign of anything helpful.

    Instead, a young Dr Brenner from the vision Vecna showed her steps from the shadows. His eyes are clouded darkly. "Take a seat, Veda,"

    Suddenly, the lights flicker off and Veda is dumped into total darkness. She feels as though she's floating in a dark void, unable to see or feel anything. All she can hear is her own breath ringing in her ear. 

    The lights snap back on, Veda panting in horror as she realises where she now is. She's sitting on one of the medical-styled chairs, similar to what Vecna himself sat in when Dr Brenner tattooed that awful number on his wrist. 

    At her feet and ankles, slimy ropes resembling the vines of the upside down wrap around her body and keep her still in the chair.

    Veda calls out in fear, tugging at her restraints to no use. The slimy vines don't budge despite her constant squirming.

    An ominous presence enters the room, causing Veda to freeze before dragging her eyes up in front of her. Vecna stands in front of the light, growling as he steps forward. His body makes a squelching sound as he moves forward as if he's covered head to toe in a liquid.

    Vecna reaches the chair, leaning over the scared raven-haired girl. Despite his understanding, he can't help but feel slightly annoyed by her fear. He wishes he could skip this part and she'd become the warrior he plans for her to be.

    "I... want you to tell Eleven," Vecna drawls off, the sound of a grandfather clock ticking softly in the background filters into the room. He slowly lifts his fleshy hand up, Veda's eyes trained on the limb. "I want you to tell her... everything you see,"

    Suddenly, Vecna lifts his hand up over her face, his long, clawed fingers extending past her forehead. Images of the Victor Creel house crumbling into a red fire is the first thing she sees. Then, flashes of Hawkins being ripped apart by that same consuming red light, a clock spinning backwards in between the terrors of her home being torn apart. 

    "Tell her," He speaks.

    "No!" Veda yells, her voice hoarse as she rips her arms free from her restraints. She then pushes her hands out in front of her and against Vecna. An unknown force rips from Veda and hits the creature in front of her, sweeping him off his feet until he's flying back into the wall on the other side of the room. 

    Veda watches as the walls crack under the force of Vecna being thrown against it. She barely has time to register what she's done, the display of power she's established before she blinks and opens her eyes to Eddie's face in front of hers.

    She frantically looks around her, spying the signs of the upside-down version of Eddie's trailer, the rope in front of her. Eddie reaches out to her, avoiding her torn arm as he holds her and stops her from falling to the ground. He slowly lowers her, his knees hitting the ground as she latches onto his forearm.

    Veda pants, her eyes darting around as if she still isn't sure where she is. "Hey, you're okay, you're okay,"

    Finally, her eyes settle on Eddie's, both of them connecting in a deeper way than they had previously thought. His hand holds her face gently, the simple gesture grounding her to where she is. 

    "Muffin?" She wheezes, leaning forward to bury her face into his chest, reaching for another grasp at reality. She's never felt that before, the disconnection from the real world. She never wants to feel that again.

    "It's okay, just breathe," He attempts to soothe her despite his own racing heartbeat. He can't calm down from his thoughts of her floating and losing her forever. She's the one person who understands him, who sees past his weirdness and freak nature. "Dustin!"

    "We got it! I'm coming!" Dustin's echoing voice reaches their ears. Dustin grips the Metallica tape in his sweaty hands, running to the upside down opening under the impression that his sister is still in Vecna's hands. 

    He reaches the lounge, looking up through the hole to see his sister awake, Eddie clutching her as if the floor is about to swallow her whole. Dustin closes his eyes, relief overcoming him like a wave at the sight of his sister. 

    "Jesus Christ,"

a/n

sorry guys I just had to include this bc ahhh look at this gorgeous poster of veda eternityei made for me!! she also made another amazing banner/manip of eddie and veda that you can find already in the graphic gallery!!