veda henderson

          Lucas is the first to take off running. Given the fact that he's an athlete, he clears the hill in no time. Soon enough, all four of us were running after him. It felt as if my heart was going to burst out of my chest as I slid on my knees next to her, all three boys doing the same.

"Max, wake up!" Steve yells as if his demand had to be obeyed. We all wish that were true.

Her eyes are mostly white, her iris' blue and faces upward as she sits there in front of her brother's grave.

"Veda!" Lucas yelled, looking at me with sorrow heavy in his eyes. He wants me to fix it, just like I said I would.

He wasn't pulling me in this time. My glossy eyes were wide, turning to Dustin as if he held the answers for me. He looks at me with horror, realising I was still here with them and not in the in-between helping Max. I open my mouth to say something, but no words come out as if I were a fish on dry land.

"Call Nancy and Robin!" Steve yells once again, distress cutting at his throat as he points Dustin towards the car. Dustin springs into action, almost tumbling back down the hill to get to the walkie-talkie.

"Max!" I yell, gripping her shoulder and shaking her.

All sound seems to drown out except footsteps behind me. I look at Steve and Lucas, their mouths open wide as they yell out to the redhead but their pleas don't make it to my ears. I clench my eyes shut, slowly standing and turning around to where the footsteps are coming from.

"Open your eyes, Darling. It's rude to avoid eye contact," The man says. A stray tear drips down my face. My eyelids fight against me as I slowly separate them, staring at the dark grass before slowly dragging my eyes upwards.

My Father.

"There's my sweet girl," He coos.

"I don't understand. This isn't Max's hallucination," I speak out loud, scanning the graveyard for any sign of the girl.

"You need to let Max go, Veda," My father warns, stepping closer and closer to me. "She cannot be saved. You cannot save her,"

"You don't know that," I protest, shaking my head in defiance before his hand jolts out and grips my jaw, holding my head in place and forcing me to make eye contact. I can't help the small whimper that escapes my throat.

No matter how much time separates our beings, pulling me further and further away from my father, I will never be free of him. Deep down, that's what I struggle with the most. The little girl in me doesn't want to be free of him, she clings to the idea we created and pulls me towards it. The older version of me pushes him and his memory so deep down I begin to forget his face.

How could a daughter think of her father like that? Hate him so much she detests his memory. How could a father push her to that point?

"How can you save her when you couldn't save me?" He asks, his intact face glitching for a second to show me the mutilated mess I remember him by before glitching back into a regular head. I scream, wishing someone, anyone could hear me and help me.

My chest aches at the memory of him, beyond saving. I remember crying for the version of him he never got to be, the version of himself he never was.

"You didn't want to be saved, Dad! I didn't know how to,"

"So you let me die?" He yells in anger, thunder clapping around us causing me to flinch.

"What was I supposed to do?" I scream back, my chest huffing to try and fill my lungs back up. "Put your brain back in your skull? I tried! Why did I have to save you? You were the parent, not me!"

"I raised you, Veda. I am your father-"

"You tortured me!" I cut him off, yanking his hand away from my jaw and stepping forward. He stepped back. "You tried to beat your craziness into me, made me believe I was evil and dark, then you waited for me to come home to kill yourself. You are the evil one! When you died I felt a weight lift off my shoulders,"

The guilt of that feeling never leaves me. The relief I felt when he pulled that trigger haunts me almost just as much as the image he left. But, he was the one to blame for that feeling, not me. I won't be burdened by his actions any longer.

As if my words are a physical force, they knock him to the ground, his feet kicking into the air and his body hitting the ground with a thud. We are now back in my bedroom, his blood covering my lavender walls. For whom the bell tolls by Metallica played softly in the background, one of my favourite songs that I could only listen to quietly at night time because he claimed it invited evil spirits into our home. He was the only evil spirit I ever encountered.

I stand over him, looking down at the illusion of my sad old father. "I am good. You know nothing. I will save Max,"

Anger took control of me as the shotgun he once owned appears in my hands. I line up the sight, aiming it directly in between his eyes as he stares down the barrel, not making a noise. "Goodbye, Dad,"

I clench my eyes shut and pull the trigger, feeling the weight of the shotgun leave my hands and disappear once more. When I open them, the sights of the gloomy graveyard greet me. I turn, watching in horror as Max begins to float up from her position on the ground, the three boys watching her with fear etched permanently onto their faces.

Seeing Max floating the same way Fred and Chrissy did triggers something in me, anger boiling till it was close to spilling over. I will not sit idly by this time, Vecna will not make me watch another person die. It's not her time yet. She's still so young, as young as I was when everything happened.

"Vecna!" I scream as loud as I can, my body almost doubling over from the force of it. Almost as if he could hear my shouts, a red glowing mist seeps into my surroundings, lighting my skin and clothes red. I take off running, head first into the red mist.

The mist seemed to go on forever, consuming me as if it were a maze. I can almost hear the clock ticking in my head, telling me time is running out.

"Vey," I hear to my left. The familiar voice causes me to spin around, coming face to face with the big brown eyes that had become so close to me. His long curls sat on his shoulders, void of movement for the first time ever.

"Eddie?" I question, my heart sinking for a moment as I wonder if Vecna had gotten to him. But, this wasn't him, he feels different and looks different in a way that can only be explained by uncanny valley.

"The one and only," He fake bows, dipping his head before lifting it back up to look at me with a smile. "You're going to fail, V. I don't want to see you upset,"

"Are you...?" I trail off, unable to finish the sentence.

"Dead? No. Although, I'm sure you wish I were," He smiles, wagging his finger as he begins to circle me.

"I don't have time for this, Eddie," I shake my head, running away from the hallucination only for Eddie to emerge from the shadows in front of me with a sick smile. I gasp, skidding to a stop.

"You always have time for me, Little Lady," He smiles down at me, his hands behind his back. "You should have more time for yourself. Get rid of me, get rid of everyone. You have no idea how powerful you are,"

"I'm about as 'powerful' as the next person. Vecna pulls me in here, I just use that mistake against him," I dismiss, moving to push past his shoulders.

"What makes you think that?" 'Eddie' asks from behind me, his words stopping me in my tracks. I feel his hands grip my shoulders and spin me around to face him. "You are a very silly girl, Veda,"

"What?"

"You're smarter than that. Think," He reasons, his eyes shifting from a form built from malice to a version similar to the real thing.

"I don't know!"

"Yes you do!" He insists. Something in his eyes lint before he grins once more "He has very big plans for you, Little Lady,"

Before I can react, he pushes me backwards and I feel myself tumbling around in the dark, floating downwards as if I weigh nothing before I come crashing down. The air forces itself back into my lungs as I open my eyes, now back inside my physical body.

"V?" Dustin calls with concern, reaching for my shoulder. Instinctively, my neck cranes around the area, looking for any sign of Eddie or any other sign of this not being real.

I look up, making eye contact with the bottom of Max's red vans. My stomach sinks, watching her float so high in the air, her walkman snug against her head.

"I was thrown out, I-" I cut myself off, gripping Dustin's wrist in my sweaty palm as if he is going to float away if I don't. Before I can say anything else, Max's body comes crumbling down to the ground, falling right into Lucas's arms. To my relief, her bones are intact and her eyes opened in shock as she fumles to find the words.

The relief is short-lived as I feel a tightness in my chest. None of this makes any sense. Why would Vecna pull me in just to throw me out? Why pull me in in the first place if I could sabotage his plans? His motives are becoming more and more blurred the more I truly think deeply about it. I turn to Dustin, realising he felt it too.

Whatever big plans Vecna claimed to have for me, he can shove them right up his meaty ass.