synopsis: henry creel’s final moments cause him to hallucinate something peaceful despite his demise.
pairing: henry creel x female! reader
warning! i know a lot of us are upset and grieving. only read if you can, this will be sad. i cried writing it, but i want henry to have had some comfort in his dying moments. also this may be inaccurate or a little weirdly written im sorry it’s kind of hard writing henry when vecna is there… hopefully it doesn’t disappoint. also not proofread.
henry creel, you’re so dear to us. we’re sorry you were let down. we’ll love you and defend you no matter what happens. remember, justice through strength and courage.
henry remembered. he experienced it all over again. the fear, the blood on his hands, the blood on his face. he was a little boy again, in his boy scout uniform. innocent. scared. it’s not long until he opens the suitcase the scary man was protecting, and alters him permanently. so much so that henry will never, ever be able to live again. never will he be happy. never will he be comforted. he looks down at his hand, and it’s like he felt the same pain he did at eight years old. god, he didn’t want to remember this. he didn’t want to have it, and even yet. even though henry faced his most traumatic memory, it still wasn’t enough. nothing ever would be, and he knew that.
and here he was, losing. in the end, henry couldn’t fight off the mindflayer. in all these years, these cursed years, henry creel couldn’t save himself. neither could anyone. failed by his family in 1959, and failed again in 1987. despite will byers’ words, and no matter how much henry wanted to listen to him- he couldn’t. the mindflayers control was far too strong, it always has been. and henry never had a chance at fighting it’s control off or beating it.
now, vecna’s body was impaled, but henry’s was nowhere near it. his consciousness was small, barely visible, barely even there. like it’s always been, but now… he knew he was going to die. and henry? the real, conscious henry that was trapped inside that scary, disgusting monster, the one who was always shut out and struggled- was happy. for once in his goddamn life, for once since high school. he didn’t want to fight it. he could finally be free.
and so, as joyce began to axe vecna, henry falters. he sees someone, someone so… familiar. warm. safe. henry blinks, eyes wide. that’s when he realizes, remembers.
“y/n,” henry breathed, eyebrows knitting together as his eyes watered more than they already were, his tears unstopping. his love. from high school, the girl he barely had any time with. the girl he tried to help, only to end up hurting her. that seemed like all henry was ever capable of doing. everything he touched, was doomed. “y/n,” henry repeated, scrambling to his feet as he stood up. she looked the exact same as she did all those years ago, but henry didn’t know that she was just a figment of his imagination. he genuinely believed this was her, like he’d been spared. he was still in his brown and beige suit, messy blonde hair, missing glasses, and a tear streaked face.
the world was slipping away, sound was folding in on itself and the light was only getting dimmer. but she was here- and she looked so damn beautiful. the pain was there, but it felt distant. as if it belonged to someone else, like everything always did.
y/n just stood there. she wasn’t far away, nor was she looming over him. you stand in front of him, close enough for henry to see all the small details of your face. the softness your eyes held as they met his, the same exact softness your eyes would have when henry was scared of not being able to control himself all those years ago. you never judged him. and he loved you for that. he loved you so beyond words, beyond anything he could ever explain, and he was only now remembering. perhaps, you could’ve been the key to saving him. maybe, just maybe none of this would’ve happened if you were there.
but, you and henry both knew that even you wouldn’t be enough to save him. not with brenner’s constant manipulation and purposely angering him, and his mother pushing him away when he needed her. henry remembered it all. a whimper slips from his lips at the memories, his legs growing weak as he falls onto his knees.
“i tried,” henry sobs, looking up at his former love, blissfully unaware of how his body changed. he was back to his high school self, in a long sleeved plaid shirt and trousers, his hair neatly fixed. “i really did, y/n” it comes out childlike, and it’s then y/n kneels down beside henry, her expression sorrowful. she looked at him like he was still a human, like he was still the boy she loved. the one she called weird, the one she’d grab milkshakes with and share straws with, the boy she’d always put her fist in the air with and go “justice is strength and courage”. he wasn’t some kind of mistake that needed mending, and y/n would never look at him that way. he was her heart once, and still was.
y/n just nods, her hand moving to cradle the back of henry’s head. “i know,” she says in that familiar soft voice she always used when comforting him. behind y/n, joyce’s silhouette could be seen, unwavering and hateful, and henry understands.
“you’re not them, henry,” y/n whispers. “you’re not the monster they made you into.” henry’s body is met with a warm embrace as y/n wraps her arms around him, who almost instantly reciprocates. as if it was by instinct. “you never were.”
but your warm touch wasn’t enough to save him.
“i love you, henry,” y/n quietly comforted, neither of the two of them heard those words in years. they never saw each other again after november sixth, and yet here he was imagining her. like she was all he needed.
“y-y/n,” henry breathes, his hands clutching onto her clothes tightly. he knew the final blow was coming. “i love you more- more than you know, i’m sorry,” henry began to word vomit, like it would save him and spare him more time with her. “i-i didn’t want to be like this.”
y/n’s frown deepens. “i know,” her hand cups his face with a familiar gentleness. “it’s okay, henry,”
“you’re going to be okay.”
the final blow comes, and there’s no fear. his pain falls into silence.
and finally, henry creel is in peace. freed of the thing consuming him for almost three decades, because she had stayed by his side and he had reached for the place he felt safest.
someone edit henry to the string version of mrs magic and make the very ending of the edit when the lyrics say “just let me be myself” and it’s henry crying in the cave PLEASE
writing this here so i don’t forget but maybe i’ll write a fic where instead of henry dying, he realizes this world never deserved him and was always so against him and so hateful that he just kills them all
i couldn’t meet him but i did at least watch him live on the tonight show :( im so upset about it but whatever 💔 also seeing him in person, i was so starstruck. i was literally in awe, he’s so genuine, down to earth, humble, and kind hearted. i truly love him
