What Are You Hiding? | Henry Creel / Peter Ballard / 001

Part 15 - For the Dramatics

"Are you ready?" Henry whispers to me as we approach the entrance to the room containing the portal to the upside down.

I nod. "Born ready."

I take the lead, marching into the room with Henry trailing behind me. "Guys!" I greet loudly, announcing my presence.

I'm met by multiple shocked gasps and greetings as everyone turns to me. "Finally!" Mike exclaims, rushing towards me.

"My bad for taking so long," I smile. "Unfortunately, it seems that we have to..." I trail off, making a pained expression as I clutch my chest. However, I still attempt to finish my statement (because it adds to the dramatic effect, of course). "Make a slight change..."  I now double over, gasping in pain.

"Jules?" Mike asks worriedly, having arrived in front of me.

"Are you okay?" Henry asks, his voice now directly behind me.

I slowly shake my head. "The cuts," I mutter. Without warning, I collapse to the ground dramatically.

"Jules!" a few voices shout worriedly, and I soon hear multiple pairs of footsteps approaching me.

I look up to see Henry leaned over me, his hand cautiously peeling back the gauze on my chest through one of the tears in my shirt. "Dear god," he mutters. "This is getting really bad. It shouldn't be doing this."

"It started hurting more and more as we approached the basement," I wince, making sure to grab Henry's arm in a stereotypical damsel-in-distress-grabbing-the-hero type of way. "Motherfucker," I hiss, my face contorted in pain.

Henry carefully lifts me up, pressing my face into his shoulder as he glances at my back (undoubtedly seeing the excessive bleeding from those cuts now). "No, no, this is very unnatural," he shakes his head.

"What if that's because it isn't natural?" Mike inputs. "She said it started hurting more and more as you approached the basement. What if the portal's doing it?"  Thank god, Mike, of all times to use your head this is the perfect time.

Henry pulls my face away from his shoulder in the slightest so he can look at me. I now have a single tear on my cheek (the perfect touch of drama) with a pained wince on my face. I writhe in his arms, grabbing onto his shirt as if my life depends on it. "Henry, it hurts," I whisper.

I can practically see the contemplation in his face. After a few seconds, he nods firmly. "Okay, let's close the portal then. That must be what's causing this."

I tighten my grip on Henry's arm as I pull my face into his chest, burying myself in his somehow-still-good-smelling shirt. I feel one of his hands land on the back of my head, the other wrapping around my midsection comfortingly. "It's okay, I'm going to make it stop," he whispers, leaning down so that nobody else can hear his words.

I nod into the fabric of his shirt. I'm not going to lie, I'm in so much pain that I'm not acting much anymore.

Henry looks up at everyone surrounding us. "I'll take her to the hospital. You guys close up this portal."

"No," Hopper speaks up. "How about Joyce drives you two and Will to the hospital; if you're making a trip to the hospital, we may as well send everyone who needs medical attention."

I can feel Henry's disagreement as he tenses up, but he nods regardless. "Perfect."

I feel his gaze on me as he uses his hand on the back of my head to brush my hair out of my face. I try to look up at him, but my visions refuses to focus, my eyelids growing heavy. Oh shit, I'm actually losing consciousness. He carefully leans down, his lips brushing past my ear as he whispers, "Don't worry; I promise I'll eventually get us alone. Then I'll never let you go."