"You're scared."

The growl of the creature looming above instills nothing but fear in you, your body restrained in a chair of his conjuring with tendril-like vines holding down each of your limbs. Nothing could have prepared you for what stood in front of you; not Max's descriptions of the vindictive entity, nor any horror movie you'd seen, or even the worst of your guilt-ridden nightmares involving Barb's death and your role in it.

Nothing prepared you for him: Vecna, as the others had taken to calling him, but you knew better now. You were looking at the amalgamated form of Henry Creel and the Upside Down's influence; human skin long replaced by the Upside Down's vines and roots, long fingers taloned with claws, and cold, milky eyes that held no light in them. You were witnessing something that had once been a man but now resembled the devil himself.

The creature snarls in contempt at your horror, the noises throaty and low. "You're scared... of me," he hisses as if the words physically pain him, "...but there's no need. I am not going to hurt you."

Your heart rattles further in your chest as Henry extends the long digits of his hand towards your face, claws outstretched as if he intends to sink them into your flesh. Maybe he does, you can't help but think, chest fluttering with panicked breaths as he draws closer, maybe he's lying—

"You'd do well to say yes to me," he continues, his own breathing labored while his hand lingers in front of your face. "I want you to tell Eleven... I want you to tell her everything you see."

You don't even hear your screams for him to stop before he floods your mind with more hellish visions of Hawkins, of a giant gate tearing through the town's limits and plunging it into a wasteland full of death and destruction.

"You'll tell her, won't you? " Henry mocks, and he bewitches his form to resemble the human he once was, all blond curls and pale skin but the same dead eyes from before. "That you all have already lost."