A Place Out of Time
anaidnI ,snikwaH

Peering over my shoulder, I grew dizzy as I looked down at the steep drop that rested behind me, the stairs had been ripped out of what was once had been a grand home. It was Creel house, only it was Vecna's version of it. Desolate and destroyed just like everything else in this dark world he had created.

Instinctively, I reached out to grab onto the railing of the staircase only to flinch away as my hand landed on a black vine that tightly wrapped itself along the railing. Wiping away the film that coated my hand, I carefully moved down the destroyed staircase, looking up at the angry red sky that stared back down at me, black clouds and debris of wood and stone floated around the broken home.

It was as Max had originally drawn it only now the pieces weren't put back together with scotch tape. A true representation of a broken home. Reaching the ground floor, I watched as an old grandfather clock floated above me, its distorted chime echoing around the vacant space. "Fascinating how one allows guilt to fester..." Vecna called out, somehow managing to end up behind me, but this was after all his world. He was everywhere.

Turning to face the man, I stumbled back away from his looming figure, flinching as I took in his horrifying appearance. "And yet, you carry...so much of it. You were almost too easy to reach but then again... you aren't like the others, are you?" He questioned but I was hardly listening as I pulled my eyes away from his grey, cloudy one and onto his grotesque form. His body was made out of the vines that made up the Upside Down, and yet something about him was strangely human.

He didn't look like he should be alive.

"You've been looking for me." He mumbled, taking a step closer to me causing me to narrow my eyes but I stood still in my place. "Said you were missing something." He repeated the words that I had uttered not so long ago. "So smart and yet so blind to everything I've shown you. After all, I've given you all the pieces... You just can't find it in yourself to put them together."

Watching as he reached a deformed, claw-like hand out, I flinched away from him as he tapped two fingers against my temple. "Guess I'll have to do it for you, hmm?" His voice grew distant as he tilted his head to the side, gesturing to the door that rested in front of us, only it looked as if it was glowing; like the sun was shining on the other side of the stained glass of a red rose.

In the blink of an eye, Creel house was back to normal like it had been taken back to a time before it was abandoned and left to rot away. The door was pushed open to reveal a man, a wide grin plastered on his face as he scanned his eyes over the home before moving to the side to reveal the structure to his family. "What'd I tell ya?" He had questioned as his wife and two children stepped into the foyer.

"Wow..." She had whispered with a pleased grin while the youngest of the children had hurried past her parents. "It's amazing!" She gleamed before moving to the staircase. "It's like a fairytale. A dream." She giggled before running up the staircase. "Alice, no running!" Her mother called out but the girl ignored the command, "It's so big!" She giggled from the top of the staircase.

This was the Creel's, before... What had we overlooked?

"This is nice." Victor's voice brought my attention back to him as he pulled his wife into his side as she hummed in agreement, but behind them stood a boy who didn't seem as pleased with the move. He stared down at the toes of his shoes glumly, everything about him contrasted with the happy family. Tracing his eyes up and away from the ground, a shiver ran through me as his blue eyes reached mine. He was sad.

"This will be a good thing..." Victor had mumbled to the boy, Henry, as the mother parted from them to follow after Alice. He stayed silent, cold eyes peering up at his father before walking out of the foyer without another word.

Following the boy, I watched as he scanned his eyes over the home as he walked along the halls but as he walked ahead of me, the lights in the room beside me began to flicker. Peering past the door I watched as Henry kneeled over a grate in the bathroom. It was a different day, I could tell by his change of clothes but I had no clue how much time had passed.

Pulling the covering off of the vent, I stood behind Henry to watch as he reached a hand into the vent before slowly bringing his hand back out to reveal that he now held a black widow in the palm of his hand. Rather than flinching and wiping the spider away, he stared down at it curiously and moved his hand around to watch it walk.

A gust of wind blew past me, followed by the sound of rushing footsteps. Jumping in my place, I turned around to watch as Henry slipped into the doorway that led into the attic. Vecna was warping the house, only showing me the things that mattered. What had Henry done?

Following after the boy, I hurried up the stairs to find that he sat in the center of the attic, his back facing me as he studied one of the many spiders he had captured in a glass jar before resting it with the rest. The jars rested on three cases and had been surrounded by candles, almost as if he had made an altar for the creature. Looking down at Henry, I watched as he carefully sketched the spider, eyes tracing between the paper and creature as it spun its web.

Moving out of the memory, I slowly made my way back down the stairs that now led to the hall connected with the foyer, watching as Henry now stood in front of the grandfather clock that rested in the hall as it ticked along quietly.

Standing next to Henry, I watched as his eyes slowly morphed into a glare as he stared up at the face of the clock before his eyes fell shut. The clock released a distorted chime, tracing my eyes over the clock I watched as the hands began to move in the opposite direction, slowly picking up speed while Henry's eyes darted back and forth from behind his lids.

Furrowing my brow, I moved to take a step away from the boy only to be stopped by the shrill cry of a creature. Turning around, I found that the house had melted away to reveal the front yard and only a foot away from me rested a rabbit that's leg had been caught in a trap... A trap that was set by Henry as he stood over the creature before slowly kneeling beside it.

"No..." I whispered, watching as he extended his hand over the rabbit before closing his eyes. His hand shook slightly as he focused on the rabbit, a pained cry escaping from the creature as it fell onto its side, the sound of its bones cracking soon followed as Henry began to mangle it with just his mind. "You're Henry..." I gasped before running back to the house, pushing open the door and slamming it closed behind me in a feeble attempt at blocking out the screams of the rabbit that echoed around me.

Only its cries were replaced with a babies, along with the sound of a crackling fire. Pushing myself away from the door, I moved into the living room to find Victor sitting in one of the chairs, his eyes wide and glued to the crib that rested in the fireplace.

He had cursed his own family...

A gentle voice broke through the air as I tore my eyes away from the crib, a woman's voice drifted through the radio from the dining room. "Stars shining bright above you..." Moving in front of the entryway of the dining room, I watched as the family gathered at the table as the radio behind Victor began to lose signal and cut in and out.

Victor stood from the table, moving to fix the radio while I watched as Henry traced his eyes away from the radio and onto his mother who shook in her place before slowly closing his eyes. She stiffened slightly in her place before she was pulled out of her chair and above the table, Alice screamed in terror, grabbing Victor's attention just as the woman's bones began to break, her eyes being pulled into her skull before she was dropped onto the table.

Victor, not knowing that his son had just murdered his wife, pulled Henry and Alice out of the dining room and rushed them to the front door. Only Henry wouldn't let them leave.

He had put his father in a trance while he killed his sister, and he would have killed Victor if he hadn't passed out before he got the chance. I followed Victor out the front door as he carried Henry out of the house in search of help but the world shifted yet again, Henry was in the hospital now, his father nowhere to be seen but another figure appeared in the room, a man who looked strangely familiar, just a younger version of him.

The doctor... I don't know how I knew that, I just... did.

A buzzing sound began to fill the room, turning around I found that the doctor had strapped Henry down in a chair, he held the boy's left wrist down as he tattoed a number into his skin. The boy winced as the man moved to wipe the ink that bled out of the broken skin to reveal his number, '001'... Just like El.

"Do you understand now, Eleanor?" He questioned, only I couldn't see him and he had yet to shift the world back. "Are you beginning to see things clearly?" Nodding my head frantically, I moved to pull open the door behind me, "Let me out of here!" I yelled out as I slammed my hand on the locked door. "No... I think we're still missing something." A cold chuckle filled the room as I suddenly lost my foot, falling back onto the soft cushions of a couch.

Furrowing my brow, I looked around me... This was wrong. I wasn't in one of Henry's memories anymore... I was in one of mine. "What... What are you doing?" I whispered as I looked in front of me to find my Mom. I tried to push myself off the couch or at least look away from my mother as she sat in front of me, her eyes brimming with frustrated tears as she wrung her hands anxiously.

"No, no, no..." I whimpered, clenching my eyes shut, desperately trying to block out the memory. "Stop... Stop-" I mumbled, turning to my right to find that Jonathan sat beside me, seeming frozen in the memory. "Why- why are you doing this... This doesn't matter." I cried, moving to stand from my place on the couch again only for my body to stay locked in place.

"Nellie, Nellie... You know that isn't true." The voice invaded my head, "Everything leads back to this. You've known that... deep down. And yet you've hidden it... from your friends. From yourself."

Scoffing harshly, I swallowed dryly before blinking away my tears. "Because it didn't matter-" My argument was cut off by Jonathan as he suddenly spoke up from beside me. "Mom, you're freaking me out." Turning to face him, I watched as his eyes stayed locked on our mother.

"Mom, where's Will and El?" My voice suddenly filled the room but I hadn't said anything, I hadn't even opened my mouth but that's how these memories always played out. I couldn't change the past. "I've been through this... Stop it..." I whispered, eyes watering as I watched the memory play out,  movements limited to what I had done in the past. Once again forced to sit and listen all over again.

"I told them to go for a walk." My mother's tone was uncharacteristically tense, almost harsh but I could tell it wasn't directed at us. "Can- can we ask, why?" Jon stuttered.

"I didn't want them to be here when I told you guys-- What I need to tell you... And I need you two to swear to me that you won't tell them once I have."

"Is something wrong? What happened?" My question came out rushed and breathy as I reached to hold onto one of her hands as she continued to pull at her fingers almost painfully hard, but she quickly shot down my concern. "Just promise me, first. I need you to promise that you won't tell them and that... That you'll try to understand."

The silence that filled the room was heavy as Jonathan and I wordlessly deliberated between one another if we should agree with what she was asking of us before hesitantly nodding in response.

"A few years back... when you guys were little, Lonnie had walked out on us for one of the first times and- and I was lost. I didn't know what to do and I had two kids to feed with another on the way..." She began to stumble on her words, taking in deep breaths to stop herself from hyperventilating. "Mom, it's okay." Jonathan whispered, nodding to go on.

"I was desperate, looking for a job that could hire and pay on short notice... and then an opportunity presented itself. Only I didn't realize at the time how... how terrible of a decision it could have been." Another heavy silence fell over the room, though a strange feeling of dread followed close behind. Closing my eyes in anticipation of her next few words. "Hawkins... Hawkins Lab was doing a study on children, something simple enough that I could sit in on... They said they'd be willing to pay upfront and that the two of you could be helpful in their research... I- I didn't even think to ask what it was for."

Bringing my lip between my teeth in the hopes of hiding the way it quivered, I took in a shallow breath before speaking. "You-- You let them experiment on us?" I questioned, my voice only coming out in a meek whisper as I stared up at her in disbelief.

She nodded regretfully, taking in a deep breath before trying to defend herself. "They said they would just be running a few tests... Nothing dangerous, just observation and they- they couldn't find many twins in Hawkins." She rambled, a part of her obviously still hoping that the lab hadn't done the exact thing that we all knew that the lab had the capability of doing.

"Are you telling us that you don't know what they did to us?" Jonathan slowly stuttered out, unable to hold back his scoff as he squinted his eyes at the confession. "Not only that but you do realize the importance of having twins as test subjects, right?" I questioned, moving to wipe the tear that had escaped from the corner of my eye.

But she didn't know. Her silence made that more than clear. "They made one of us a control variable and the other a test..." Jonathan stated, placing his head in his hands in an attempt to hide his red eyes.

"I thought it was just to see if you were gifted--" "No... No, they wanted to make us gifted... Which of us did they test on, Mom? I- I mean do you even know what they did to us?" My question came out rushed and I couldn't hide my anger as it began to show in my tone, the small outburst caused Mom to flinch away from me slightly. But she didn't have an answer, she stayed silent once again.

"Mom!?" Jonathan stood from his seat now, pushing for Mom to answer. "They never mentioned- I didn't think it was... I thought it was safe." She stuttered, looking up at the two of us pleadingly. "Fuck!" That was the last thing Jon yelled before storming out of the house.

Releasing a shaky breath, my face scrunched up in pain as stared into my mother's eyes, her facial expression now frozen into one of distress. The memory was over, this was how I had left Mom before locking myself in my room for the rest of the day. But he wasn't giving me that option now. "How much longer did you plan on lying to yourself, little one?"

Frustrated, I could only shake my head in response as I chewed on my bottom lip. "She said nothing happened... So, nothing happened... Nothing happened." I asserted, repeating the lie that I had been feeding myself since that day. As if pretending like something didn't exist would make it disappear, like it never happened in the first place. A deep chuckle filled my head before he spoke again. "We both know that isn't true. Admit it... It'll stay our secret."

"She would never submit us to anything that would hurt us." I whispered, refusing to let his words get to me. "She said it herself she was desperate but she would never... She wouldn't do that to us." I asserted as my gaze fell to my lap. "Now... We both know that isn't true. Do I need to remind you of everything she let happen to you?"

I knew what he was talking about... That was why he had been forcing those memories of Dad into my head... But this- This had to be different, right? Releasing a shaky breath, I shook my head before tightly shutting my eyes in a poor attempt at ignoring him; shut him out and not give him the satisfaction of a reaction. "Guess I'm going to have to put the pieces together for you." He stated as I clenched and unclenched my hands into tight fists.

Slowly prying my eyes open, I found that my hands were still repeating the same motion, only now they caught onto the hospital gown I was wearing. Slowly raising my head and turning to the right, wide blue eyes connected with my own. They were my eyes... My eyes when I was a child.

"You need to remember." That harsh voice filled my head once again as I pulled my eyes off the mirror to look around the eerily familiar hospital room. "Focus."