• 000 • A stranger things fanfic •

It went dark

I turned to the locked doors behind me and forced them open and ran as fast as I possibly could, away from One, away from Papa and his torturous tests and away from the dark memories that this place had uncovered within my mind.

They came to me in flashes, the blood and pain I caused that will haunt me forever. My parents mangled bodies that boy and the pool of blood that he rests in, all of that caused by me. Maybe my parents were right. What if I am a monster?

I stop running panting and gasping for air. Sweat runs down my forehead. Maybe it's wrong for me to run. Maybe if I am a monster it's better for me to stay here, locked away from anyone else I could harm and put in danger. I fall to my knees exhausted and mind aching.

"Zero?" It was Papa. His voice echoed through the empty hallway like a fire in a forest, it sent shivers up my spine.

"Papa...you tried to kill me" I stood, I felt the anger from earlier creep back into my body and taking over me.

"N-no! Zero I was trying to help you! To make you stronger, I knew that One would bring back your powers! You only needed that little push!"

"Little push? One was going to murder me and you would have let him! He was right, your nothing but a pathetic liar!"

"Please Zero...stay, I can teach you do much more, I can make you stronger! More powerful than any other child like you, you just have to trust me. I only want to help you"

Papa walked towards me and took me into his embrace, he squeezed me tightly and for a moment I felt safe and comforted. As if I could stay in his arms for the rest of eternity and never have to feel pain or heartbreak or loss ever again. And then I felt a sharp aching pain in my neck. And it went dark and it rained and rained and rained.

———

I flicker my eyes open to bright lights above me, I try to move but my arms and legs are strapped to the bed beneath me.

"You're finally awake, took you long enough but you got there eventually"

"W-what have you done...let me go!"

"Zero I can't let you go you're not ready but you will be, and once you are then I will let you go. In the meantime you need to follow rules and obey my orders"

"Never"

"Oh come one Zero don't be so immature, we both know that it's for the best that you're held here until you learn how to control your powers"

I nod my head and he grins. But I don't mean it, how can he really believe that I would ever trust him after he has betrayed me twice. Once I'm free from this Hell I will kill One and save Papa for last and make him pay for everything he has done.