Stobin Month 2026 - Day Fifteen
Vecna's Curse
WC: 1,393
CW: Gore, Blood and Injury, Violence, Homophobia (but, like terribly described), Torture
She honestly didn't see it coming. She never saw herself as a main character. She was the sidekick, the best friend of the babysitter. She was the one to come up with the ideas. She was the supporting role.
She was not supposed to be the one who was cursed.
It caught her off guard. Everyone together, describing her symptoms. Things she'd been complaining about. With how Steve was looking at her, she could tell he already knew, or the very least he suspected. He didn't say anything. Watching. Waiting.
As if taking her realizating as a cue, the final symptom came up. The clock, lodged into the wall of the Wheeler basement.
She told the group, but her eyes stayed on Steve. Steve, who's expression stayed steely. He nodded once, firm. 24 hours left to live. It was strange, knowing with absolute certainty what her expiration date was.
As she looked at Steve she wondered if he'd ever felt like that before, or if even after all he'd been through he never truly thought he was going to die.
She didn't know if that was something she was supposed to ask.
She didn't sleep. It felt wrong, wasting that time on sleep. She wrote the letters instead. One for her parents. One for Steve. One for Barb. She didn't have a lot of people in her life, even after Starcourt, after joining the group of people in the know.
It was mainly just her and Steve.
So, when Nancy went off to Pennhurst the next day, she asked Steve to take them to her house, then to the cemetary. She dropped the letter of in her room, where her parents would no doubt look after… After.
She sat herself down in front of Barbs grave and opened up the letter.
It was a little bit dramatic, to be honest. Reading a letter to her old friend that she could have sworn was just like her.
"Maybe that's why you left, you know? You saw something in me that no one else did at the time, and it disgusted you. God knows it disgusted me. I was so scared for so long that you would say something, but instead you just acted like I didn't exist, but… you were still my first friend, you know? You were my first friend and I can't ask you why anymore.
I guess I'm sorry I never asked."
"Oh, poor baby," a voice came from behind her. "Sad because you're god's mistake, huh? Sad you couldn't be the person you wanted to be? Liked? Accepted? Normal?"
Robin turned around and came face to face with her. Barb. Alive and well, just standing there.
"I knew. Of course, I knew. Why do you think I left you for Nancy Wheeler? Huh? Why do you think Steve prefers Nancy Wheeler to you?"
Barb looked at Robin like she was something vile. Something disgusting.
It was fake. It didn't take a genius to figure out that 24 hours wasn't an exact measurement, and Vecna was giving out her ticket early, but it sucked. She came to the conclusion that any horror movie enthusiast would, and she ran like her ass was on fire, and she refused to look back, even as Barb called after her.
The scenery shifted, and instead of the cemetary, she was underneath Starcourt. Running through those endless hallways, all crisp white, mysterious beeping rang through it all. She hated it.
She hated it more when the screaming started up.
Steve, somewhere she couldn't reach, screaming, sobbing, begging. Steve, right around the corner. It echoed off the walls. She lost sight of her original mission for a moment, desperate to get to him. It cut through her rational thought and all she could think was that she needed to protect him. She couldn't protect him before, but she could. She would.
She made a left turn and booked it down that hall, then the scenery shifted and she was standing in front of a single door, and the screaming had stopped. Blood seeped out from underneath the crack in the door, already pooling under her feet. It was so much. It was so much blood, but she had to find Steve, and there was only one way for her to go.
She stepped through the door and it slammed shut behind her, lock clicking into place audibly.
Steve was laying on the floor, unmoving. He looked so much worse than he had the first time. His face was black and blue, his nails were gone, his shirt was soaked with blood, his hair matted and wet with it. Long gashes were cut into his legs and arms, and he was twisted and broken.
"Why did you let this happen?" Steve's asked, mouth opening to reveal missing teeth.
"I died because of you," he said.
Reality clicked back into place. It was fake. It was all fake. They got out. Steve was alive. She had to remember that. Steve was alive, he was alive, he was alive.
"No! This is fake! This is fake!" she turned and tried to run out the door, but it wouldn't budge. Wet cracks and snaps filled the room. Not-Steve was standing up, rising from the ground on broken legs, twisted and unsteady. It was nauseating.
"This is very real," Not-Steve said. He smiled, but it wasn't her smile. It wasn't the smile that she loved so much, where it was just them and he scrunched up his whole face. It wasn't the smile that she rightfully earned as his platonic soulmate. It wasn't her Steve.
She pulled at the door harder, slamming her full weight into it. She pushed and pushed, then finally it gave way under her weight and she didn't hesitate, running off again.
She didn't pay attention to where she was running until she got there, red light surrounding her as the scenery shifted yet again. It was awful. Red light and red ground and red, red, red everything. She'd seen the gate, red and pulsing. She'd heard stories of tunnels, dead and full of monsters, and she let herself wonder for just a second of that's where she was, in that fucked up mind palace— The Upside Down.
Vecna gained on her faster than she would have liked.
"Now how did you get here?" he asked. He was grotesque to look at. He wasn't wearing Steve's face anymore, instead taking the form of something worse. Visible flesh, pulsing and moving, like claws, and blood. It was awful.
Vines wrapped around her limbs and pulled, dragging her into a house. Something straight from a horror movie.
Inside, there were four pillars, two already occupied. Chrissy Cunningham and Fred Benson, exactly as Eddie described, held up on the pillars like they were crucified. Robin didn't have long to look before she was joing him at the third pillar.
Vecna said some stereotypical villain shit, but she could barely focus on it as the vines holding her limbs got tighter and tighter and he got closer. His hand reached out and hovered over her face. Pressure built in her head, and right as she was ready to close her eyes and wait for release, something caught her attention.
Music.
Fucking Bonnie Tyler.
Vecna staggered, and behind him, the light shifted. A portal, or a hole in the universe or something. She saw herself, floating above the others. She saw Steve, staring up at her, terrified. Her Steve. Her platonic soulmate, Steve.
She let herself remember the good.
Movie nights, random shifts at Family Video, the better shifts at Scoops, the diner, the floor of the bathroom at Starcourt, all of it. It played in her brain and the vines got looser.
Energy surged through her and she threw herself forward, grabbing at Vecna's neck and pulling, taking a chunk of him with her. He stumbled back and she took the chance to run. She ran far and fast, pumping her legs as hard as she could. Debris fell from the sky, and lighting cracked, and she didn't focus on any of it, because she could see Steve and he was looking up at her like he would die, too if she did and that meant something.
She ran through the portal, opened her eyes in the real world, and she fell.