✅ 𝖒𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖔𝖘𝖎𝖙𝖞

~014~

"Hey El! Mind if I sit here?" Cordelia stood next to Eleven as she let out a little smile, acknowledging for her to sit down.

"El?" Eleven questioned while furrowing her eyebrows.

"Yeah, El. Short for Eleven. That's my little nickname for you." Eleven smiled to herself as she got a red token and put it inside the top as she tried using her powers to move it to where she wants it to drop.

Her body shook as she heard the clink of marbles, causing the tokens to fall out her hand. Cordelia looked over to see the kids glaring at Eleven. She changed her eyes to red as a threatening sign as they turned away in fear.

Cordelia helped Eleven, picking up the tokens as the last token was picked up by someone. Peter Ballard.

"You up for something a little more challenging?" Peter questioned as he looked at Eleven who nodded.

As Eleven sat at the chess table, Peter and Cordelia were stacking the tokens as she whispered into his ear. "I'll show you something even more challenging, darling."

Cordelia sat at the table, causing Peter to grow goosebumps but let it slide as he went over the rules of chess to Eleven.

While explaining the rules, Cordelia brushed her foot against Peter's leg. He kicked the table by accident as Eleven looked confused.

Peter glared at Cordelia as he started the game of chess with Eleven. This was a game that Cordelia and Henry used to play when they were kids, lots of tension in the air from each move.

The memory turned into a flashback of the other night with Henry as all she could hear was Henry's voice.

"Try not to show any emotion as I speak, okay." Henry said to Eleven, also hinting at Cordelia as he brushed his finger on Cordelia's thigh under the table, her breath hitched.

"Just keep playing if you understand."

"Hot fucker." Cordelia said in Henry's mind as his lips twitched into a smirk that lasted a second.

"Two is still in the infirmary recovering." Henry said as Cordelia felt Henry's and Eleven's eyes on her. She remembers what happened, did she regret it... no. He needed to pay for what he's done and suffer the consequences.

"He is being watched now but once he is released, he and the others are going to attempt to kill you. Right here, in this very room. And Papa will allow it to happen. In fact he wants it to happen."

Cordelia's blood rose as her eyes flickered red, but Eleven grabbed ahold of her hand to calm her down.

"He's been planning it for some time now..." Eleven breathed shakily as she squeezed Cordelia's hand, knowing that Cordelia wants to fight now... as well as herself but not for her, for Cordelia and Peter.

"Stay calm, focus on the game." Henry softly spoke, also grabbing ahold of Cordelia's other hand.

"There's a reason why Two and the others were able to escape their room last night..." Cordelia zoned out as all her mind was repeating "Papa will allow it to happen. In fact he wants it to happen."

Those words brought her back to her teenage self, fighting, struggling, surviving for Henry, not her father, not the ones she'd kill, not for herself... but for Henry.

"Why?" Eleven questioned, confused and shocked by everything.

"You frighten him." These words lifting off of Henry's tongue, brought Cordelia into a vision of her teenage self. She was in the midst of darkness, everything actually being pitch black. Sounds of water dripping and splashing.

She finally realizes where she's at. The place that she tried so hard to forget. The very place that trapped her—the place that held the monster...

The Void.

Cordelia groaned in pain, covering her ears from this high-pitched noise. Closing her eyes tightly from the pain, she screamed but it was as if her head was underwater.

Next thing she knew, Cordelia opened her eyes but was in a room full of mirrors around her. No way out, just the image of herself. She breathed shakily as suddenly, she was pulled into the mirror.

A house so familiar to her, one that was a distant memory that she hid for so long... The New York House. Where everything turned to shit.

Cordelia looked around, scared of what she'll find. Walking out of her old bedroom, she entered the hallway as it flickered from normal to the red blood stained walls and carpet.

Her breath hitched as she gulped, walking towards the living room. Dead bodies lay everywhere. Blood, intestines, bones cracked, not only of the ones she'd killed that night... her father's too but there was something else.

Something- or someone that was laying dead on the floor... that someone she knew and thought to be with forever.

Henry Creel.

"No... this- what- no... NO! NO! NOOOOO!" Darkness surrounded herself as she could feel it going through her body, piercing the inside to gain power. She screamed till she no longer could get anything else out.

...

"Why do you still help?" Cordelia heard the voice of Eleven as she was brought back to reality.

"Because I believe in you, Eleven. We both do." Henry said with a slight smile as he turned his head over at Cordelia, but the smile fades as he noticed something's wrong with her.

"I'm fine, just do what we have to do." Cordelia said in Henry's mind as he got his security card out and gave it to Eleven under the desk.

"It is time you are free from this hell." Henry said as he said something in his mind that only Cordelia could hear.

"You too, love."

Cordelia inhales deeply as she felt Henry brushing the side of her leg with his foot. Eleven got up to leave as Cordelia did the same, but Henry whispered in her ear.

"Let's talk."

"Not now..."

"Why-"

"I JUST- sorry... I need some time to think right now."

"About what?"

"Henry... please j-just let me think." Cordelia voice croaked as she stormed off out the Rainbow Room.

Henry knows that she's not okay. He knows every single piece of her and he wants to know more, get to be with her to the point that nothing will stand a chance to them. After all these years, he stills knows...

Henry is madly in love with Cordelia. And he will do anything to make her safe... no matter what.