#henry creels lawyer

[henrysglock]

Do You Have A Minute To Talk About Our Lord And Savior: Vecna?

Specifically, I'd like to talk about Jericho, Book of Revelation, Paradise Lost, and the concepts of God and Satan as "good" and "evil", and try to decode who is who.

Let's start with Jericho, and go from there. Like everything else in Stranger Things, though...we'll loop back to the beginning eventually.

Season 5: Jericho

We all know about the nuclear disaster aspect, I don't think I need to continue beating that particular dead horse. (There are plenty of topics to beat into the afterlife. I witnessed a public beating re: production errors just a few days ago.)

I want to talk biblical.

I want to talk about the Battle of Jericho.

The Battle of Jericho is an old testament tale from the Book of Joshua, and there are some basics of the battle you should know:

The Israelites, who have been wandering in the desert for 40 years, prepare to invade and take the City of Jericho from its king. Joshua sends ahead 2 spies in preparation.

These spies are housed and hidden by Rahab, a prostitute. The Israelites promise to spare her and her kin for this, so long as she marks her house with a red cord.

The River Jordan dries up, allowing Joshua and his people to cross. The King of Jericho orders the walls of the city to be closed (This is important to note: He closes the walls. This is not a Rifts parallel. God opens the walls.)

God commands that for 6 days the Israelites march about the walls of the City of Jericho, one time each day. Then, on the seventh day, they are to march around the city seven times.

On this seventh day, seven trumpets are to be blown by seven priests from behind the Ark of the Covenant.

The Israelites do as God commands, and the walls of Jericho fall under the sounding of the trumpets and the cheer of the Israelites.

The Israelites kill all of Jericho's citizens except Rahab and her kin, who are accepted into their community. All of this per God's command.

Wow, that's a lot of sevens, a lot of miracles, and a lot of death.

Here's the thing about Jericho: It lay in a rift valley, and the area is historically prone to both earthquakes and landslides, which have been noted to block the Jordan for days at a time. The fall of Jericho's walls...could very well have been the result seismic activity.

If we take the recounting at face value, God likely triggered an earthquake, which caused the walls to fall.

Sound familiar?

What's also interesting about the Battle of Jericho is that there is no mention of Satan, the Devil, anything of that sort. It's just God vs Jericho on behalf of the Israelites. It's Old Testament (OT), and it's projected to have happened in 1400-1500 BC, whereas the New Testament (NT) material is all AD. (Jesus's crucifixion happens in 33 AD, and Book of Revelation is set in 81-96 AD.)

We know the OT God is highkey obsessed with 2 main things: Truth and Oppression. This guy hates being lied to, having oaths broken, being betrayed/deceived/not obeyed, etc. He has very strict commandments for his followers, and he isn't keen on people going against them. He hates human oppressors and is avid about punishing them in massively brutal ways (see: the Israelites and the King/People of Jericho). OT God is a wrathful God, and from the point of view of some...an oppressor himself.

If the other thing didn't sound familiar...boy...doesn't that one sound familiar?

Not gonna tell you who it sounds similar to yet, though. We'll save that for later. No biases in my house.

Anyway, that's all well before Christ figures and Satan as a major definable force against God. In fact, there's almost no mention of Satan as a physical adversary in the OT. "Satan" in the OT literally translates to just...adversary/traitor. There's no mention of the devil as a single entity. We know there's a fallen angel, Lucifer, a serpent in the Garden of Eden, etc., but Satan as a single, definable, physical adversary who physically fights God? Not a thing yet.

This is very different from NT literature, where Satan/the Devil/the Antichrist/etc. appear as physical figures. This is especially apparent in Book of Revelation, in which Jesus and the heavenly forces literally fight the demonic forces with swords.

This is where it starts to get spicy.

Book of Revelation

I'm just going to give you all the Cliffs Notes, because John of Patmos was definitely tripping balls...and I don't want to subject you all to that:

John of Patmos has a vision of the apocalypse: It's Jesus's second coming and the decimation of the Earth. (This is debatable historically, but for the purposes of this section lets take it at face value.)

He writes of his visions to the 7 Churches of Asia: Ephesus: "He who overcomes is granted to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God" - They are praised for not harboring evil, exposing fake apostles, and being a symbol of perseverance and patience. Smyrna: "Those who are faithful until death will be given the crown of life. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second dead" - They are praised for being rich in faith in times of hardship, and is told not to fear imprisonment for holding fast against false prophets. Pergamum: "He who overcomes will be given the hidden manna to eat and a white stone with a secret name on it." - They are praised as a faithful martyr, but admonished for sexual immorality, holding false idols, and holding the doctrine of both Balaam and the Nicolaitans. Thyatria: "He who overcomes until the end will be given power over the nations in order to dash them to pieces with a rod of iron; he will also be given the morning star." - They are praised for works of love, service, faith, and patience, but admonished for allowing a prophetess to engage in sexual immorality and holding false idols. Sardis: "He who overcomes will be clothed in white garments, and his name will not be blotted out from the Book of Life; his name will also be confessed before the Father and his angels." - They are told to strengthen their works in order to achieve perfection before God. Philadelphia (yes, Philadelphia): "He who overcomes will be made a pillar in the temple of God having the name of God, the names of the City of God, "New Jerusalem", and the Son of God's new name" - They are praised for keeping God's name holy, and is reminded to hold fast to what they have. Laodicea: "He who overcomes will be granted the opportunity to sit with the Son of God on his throne" - They are admonished for being lukewarm in their faith, reminded to be zealous. They're told to buy "gold refined in fire", white garments, and to anoint their eyes in salve so they may see.

The throne of God appears, surrounded by 24 elders. All of this happens before the throne of God: - The 4 living beings appear: A lion, and ox, a man, and an eagle. They are akin to biblically accurate angels, each having 6 wings and a multitude of eyes. - A scroll with 7 seals is presented, and only the "Lion of the tribe of Judah, from the Root of David" can open it. - The "Lamb of God, with 7 eyes and 7 horns" accepts the scroll, and all present bow before it.

The seven seals are opened: First Seal: White horse, Conquering. Second Seal: Red horse, War. Third Seal: Black horse, Famine/Hunger. Fourth Seal: Pale horse, Death. Fifth Seal: The souls of the martyrs, dressed in white robes, are told to rest until the martyrdom of their brothers is complete. Sixth Seal: A great earthquake, wherein the the sun goes dark, the stars fall to earth, and the sky rolls back like a scroll. Mountains are moved, and the people of earth hide within them from the "wrath of the Lamb". 144,000 Hebrews are marked upon their foreheads with the seal of God and sealed within the caves. Seventh Seal: Introduces the 7 trumpets, one for each of 7 angels. An eighth angel devastates the Earth with heavenly fire just before the 7 trumpets begin.

The angelic trumpets are sounded: First Trumpet: Hail and fire and blood rain upon the Earth and burn up 1/3 of plant life. Second Trumpet: A "great, flaming mountain" falls from the sky and devastates 1/3 of the seas. Third Trumpet: Wormwood, a great star, falls from the heavens and poisons 1/3 of all freshwater sources. (Radiationgate!) Fourth Trumpet: 1/3 of the sun, moon, and stars are darkened, casting the world into total darkness for 1/3 of day and night. Fifth Trumpet: The First Woe. - A star falls from the sky, and is given the key to the bottomless abyss. - The abyss opens, and the smoke of the giant abyss blots out the sky. - Locusts, in the form of humans with lions' teeth, wings like hoofbeats, and iron breastplates come and kill any who are not marked with the seal of god on their forehead (the 144k Hebrews from the 12 tribes of Israel). *** Sixth Trumpet: The Second Woe. - The four angels bound in the Euphrates are released to prepare two million horsemen. These armies kill 1/3 of mankind. Seventh Trumpet: The Third Woe, in preparation for the 7 Bowls. - The temple of God, in heaven, opens. There is lightning, an earthquake, and hail.

*** ST4 leaves off at the asterisks

The 7 Spiritual Figures, leading up to the Third Woe:

A heavenly woman is pregnant with a male child.

A dragon pulls stars from the heavens and awaits the birth of the child so he can devour it: The Archangel Michael fights this dragon, as it is revealed to be the devil. The dragon is cast out of heaven, and becomes obsessed with waging war against all the woman's offspring.

A Beast with 7 heads, 10 horns, and the names of blasphemy on his heads emerges from the sea: The people of the world follow the Sea Beast in wonder, and the dragon empowers the beast for 42 months. The Sea Beast goes on to blaspheme God's name and wage war against the Saints. He is victorious.

The antichrist/false prophet appears from the Earth: He has 2 horns like a lamb but speaks like a dragon. He instructs the people of the Earth to build a likeness of the Sea Beast, and all who participate are marked with the Sign of the Beast: 666.

The "One like the Son of Man", aka Jesus, goes and defeats the beast with the 144k Hebrews bearing the seal of God.

Heaven opens, and the 7 Bowls Revelation begins with the sounding of the Third Woe/7th trumpet.

The 7 Bowls Revelation:

First Bowl: "A foul and malignant sore" afflicts the followers of the Beast (Radiationgate Sweep!)

Second Bowl: The seas turn to blood, and everything in it dies.

Third Bowl: All fresh water turns to blood.

Fourth Bowl: The sun scorches the Earth.

Fifth Bowl: Total darkness and great pain floods the beast's kingdom.

Sixth Bowl: The Euphrates dries up, and the forces of good and evil prepare to face off.

Seventh Bowl: Another earthquake and hailstorm essentially flatten the surface of the Earth.

Aftermath Vision:

The Whore of Babylon and the Scarlet Beast are shown to John, revealing their identities and fates as such.

New Babylon is destroyed, and is mourned by its people.

Marriage Supper of the Lamb: Not a whole lot to say here, people praise God (...for decimating the Earth? Okay whatever floats your goat--I mean boat I'm not a satanist hahahaha what???)

The Judgment of the Beasts, the Dragon, and the Dead:

The Beast and the Antichrist: Both are imprisoned in the Lake of Fire.

The Dragon: He is imprisoned the Bottomless Pit for 1,000 years.

The Resurrected Martyrs: All of them live with God in peace for those 1,000 years.

After the 1,000 year time jump: - Gog and Magog: The dragon is freed, and goes on to deceive the corners of the Earth once more. He gathers them for a final battle against the City of God, and is defeated by heavenly forces, at which time he is cast into the Lake of Fire alongside the Beast and the Antichrist. - The Final Judgment: Death and Hades, along with the wicked who followed the Devil, are also cast into the Lake of Fire. This is known as the Second Death, and ensures that no more suffering or death may afflict God's chosen people.

New Heaven and New Earth:

After the fighting ends, the City of God meets the Earth and it's essentially a neat and tidy "eternal life, no more suffering, we're all in paradise with God" ending. The City of God is said to be a paradise for the pure and strong of faith, and God lives among them.

Phew. That was a whole fucking trip.

Most of it is a) allegorical and highly debated based on that fact, and b) highly disputed as to its accuracy as part of the Bible...because it was written by a second generation disciple 60 years after Jesus's death. On top of that, it just doesn't fit with the vibe of the New Testament. New Testament is very much about love and forgiveness, not wrath. Wrath is very Old Testament, which I'll come back to re: Brenner and Vecna...and Lucifer.

I'm not gonna delve into allegory tonight because while the Duffers are picking and choosing bits of the story, they seem to be taking it all very literally. That is to say, this isn't a perfect one-to-one, but what is there? Tells a story.

Let's review:

The 7 Letters: Max writes letters, a total of 10. However, we only focus on 7 of them: Steve, Lucas, Dustin, Mike, El, Will, and Billy. We don't know what they say inside, however it is interesting that Billy is the final letter, akin then to Laodicea (see: Laodicea's entry), which is essentially about lukewarm faith, white robes, and anointed eyes. Max lies to Vecna in her confession, wavers on whether or not she actually wants to die, and ends up in a white hospital gown with healing eyes.

The Living Creatures: - Lion: El in Brenner's lab has a lion doll - Ox: We've got a handful of cow references, the most prominent being 010 and Brenner's dog drawing. Funny how it all seems to tie back, huh. - Man: "He was nothing but an ordinary, mediocre man." re: Brenner and opening the Rifts. - Eagle: "Fly right, Bald Eagle!" re: closing the Gate.

The 4 Horsemen: - Chrissy: First, Conquest, our intro to Vecna Visions. - Fred: Second, War, our intro into the conflict between Hellfire and the Basketball Team. - Patrick: Third, Famine, presented alongside Hopper in Russia before the feast in The Dive (which is actually presented very similarly to The Last Supper). - Max: Fourth, Death, the fourth gate. 22 dead, and the death toll continues to rise.

The Fifth Seal: The martyrs are told to rest until the martyring of their brothers is complete. Max is in her white hospital gown, indefinitely in a coma.

The Sixth Seal: One of many great earthquakes in BoR, after which 144k Hebrews are sealed in the caves. We see one earthquake in the UD in The Dive, where Nancy, Steve, Robin, and Eddie are trapped in the UD.

The Trumpets: - First Trumpet: 1/3 of plant life is killed...I'm looking at the rot in ST2 and the dead flowers in ST4. - Third Trumpet: Wormwood, a great star, falls from the sky in and poisons all fresh water. The spores. Radiationgate. - Fifth Trumpet: The abyss opens, and the smoke from it blots out the sky. Fucked up "locusts" emerge and begin killing. The rifts open, and the smoke blots out the sky. Demo-creatures will spill out into Hawkins and begin killing.

This is where we leave off at the end of ST4. We have not met Satan yet. So far? It's all God.

God did all this, up until this point, as the beginning of a final reckoning for the sinners who populated the Earth. None of that was Satan.

Things do start to get complicated here...because we do technically have a false prophet of sorts. Jason. Jason inspires the people of Hawkins to go against the forces of good in the name of defeating the tragedy befalling Hawkins. He is killed by the Rifts. He is literally killed by a fiery pit. (More on this later, because it's more complex than it seems.)

What's spicy about all this is that...the forces of good are not the religious ones, the "pure" ones, the "normal" ones. They're the freaks. The "satanic cult". They're Hellfire.

So...What is going on in the house of commons?

If Vecna is meant to be Satan, the Antichrist, whatever...why is he so obsessed with truth, penance, and giving himself the artificial moral high ground? Why does he wait for a confession, explicit or implicit, to kill? Why does he torment his victims while claiming to be relieving their suffering?

Because he's punishing the sinners, and he's doing so under the guise of saving them/freeing them from their suffering. Punishing sinners is God's job, not Satan's. Satan punishing sinners is a misconception. Satan is being punished as much as anyone else.

Vecna has the ultimate goal of decimating the human world and remaking it into a "beautiful" place where he and those like him will never suffer or die. Vecna punishes people he deems to be bad until he receives an acceptable confession of guilt, and then he soothes himself about it by killing them and "relieving their suffering".

All things considered:

Vecna, 001, The One, is New Testament God...and plot twist: he's a wrathful dick who hides behind artificial morality...just like Old Testament God.

Okay...so what about Henry? Brenner?

In true Creel form...this is my first loop backward in time. I'm going straight back to the very beginning of Satan's story.

Let's talk Lucifer. God's most beautiful angel. Smart, powerful, capable...and cast out of heaven in disgrace.

His crimes? Daring to believe he and the other angels were equal to God, and later instructing Eve that she didn't have to obey God either, alerting her to the fact that God was hiding things from her. God didn't like that, and sent Lucifer to Hell as punishment.

I'm very very much seeing Brenner and Henry here. Brenner, a wrathful, controlling OT God. He shocks those who disobey (Henry), those who lie or whom Brenner would have you perceive as a liar (Henry and 002), those who oppress (002)...all while being an oppressor and liar himself.

Brenner also quite literally calls himself Papa. Abba. The Almighty Father...and he punishes Henry repeatedly and brutally for being a) uncontrollable and b) spreading information Brenner would rather keep hidden.

He takes away Henry's status as 001, gives him a fake name...and makes him watch as he oppress the other angel--I mean numbers through the same torment he once suffered with no way of stopping it. Henry himself calls it Hell. No one ever said Hell was literally and physically separate from Heaven. Hell is very much a state of mind, and experience. Victor is "still very much in Hell"...but he's in Pennhurst. Henry is in Hell in Brenner's lab. Hell is not a physical place, it is inescapable torment and suffering.

We also get many Lucifer shots of Henry during the Rainbow Room fight...but when his hair is in the Henry style. Not the swept-back Brenner style.

Example:

So Henry is Lucifer, then, right? He's definitely not God then, right?

Yeah. Exactly. He's the fallen angel, and he's also the serpent in OT God's garden of Eden, offering knowledge and awareness to the ignorant Eleve--I mean Eve. He inspires Eve--I mean Eleven to question Papa, who has trapped her in ignorance in the Garden of E--I mean Hawkins National Lab.

But...didn't we just say he's God? Well...no. Not exactly. I said that Vecna is God.

Are we ready for the mindfuck?

Henry and Edward, and the frankly unnecessary swapping in NINA.

As per Em's analysis of The First Shadow...it's highly highly likely that Edward Creel is Vecna, not Henry.

This absolutely tracks with multiple facets:

The cyclical nature of Brenner and one of the Creel boys re: behavior and appearance.

The inexplicable hairstyle change between whichever Creel is in the store closet and...whichever Creel is in the Rainbow Room.

The inconsistency between Vecna's retelling of his childhood...and the expressions of the Creel boy on screen.

Ok, so we've got Brenner as OT God the Father, clearly...but we have Vecna as NT God, 001, The One. That's two Gods in one timeline, and we can't explain how they all seemingly ended up in the same timeline...unless Martin Brenner, Edward Creel, and Vecna are the same person at different times in different circumstances. At least one of the Creel boys is shown to have time travel abilities. Martin Brenner, Edward (?) Creel, and Vecna behave very similarly. All this to say...they're very much seeming like the same guy. There is one God, and you shall not have any other Gods but me...and all that jazz.

Henry said he spent years with 001 in the Rainbow Room. Did anyone ever stop to consider that he may have meant that literally? Did we ever consider that we swap between Henry-hairstyle and Brenner-hairstyle throughout the Rainbow Room fight because El is being fucked with by Brenner/Edward/Vecna...and by extension so are we?

Some supporting evidence here: Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is very much about swapping places and experiences.

To Summarize: Brenner/Edward are God and Henry is Lucifer. Hellfire club is the satanic cult fighting God....while being the protagonists who believe they're fighting a dark wizard because his actions are horrible.

A clue into this narrative fuckery is Will's painting. The Party is depicated fighting a red dragon, which reeks of the red dragon of Satan. This is likely the represent the fact that they all see Vecna as a demon/monster/Satan figure, despite his God-coding. They see him as Henry...when he is not Henry at all. Vecna is very much God-coded, but he's represented as Satan in Will's painting because everyone sees his deeds as evil...and they are horrible and unjust...and they're all pinned on Henry, our Lucifer.

If there is a physical dragon, it's not going to be biblical...because the biblical dragon does not exist here. There is no satanic dragon, we just discussed that. The dragon is going to be something else, and I'm going to touch on that later.

I want to bring in another source to speak to Henry's probable innocence: Paradise Lost.

Paradise Lost (documentary series) was an inspiration for ST4 and Eddie/The Hellfire Club, specifically in that Eddie was misjudged specifically based on his interests and the way he looks.

Paradise Lost, the docuseries, is about Damien Echols as part of the West Memphis Three, who were falsely accused of brutally murdering and sexually mutilating 3 local boys. The West Memphis Three were Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelly, and Jason Baldwin.

Paradise Lost was originally a poem about Lucifer and the fall of Man. Lucifer is presented as the tragic yet villainous protagonist. His motivations remain very much "evil". I recognize this.

However, the Duffers didn't reference the poem. They referenced the docuseries, in which our "satanic cult" was never proved guilty due to lack of evidence. Just recently, in December of 2021, evidence that was supposedly destroyed in a fire was discovered to have been kept and catalogued by the West Memphis PD (source). The lawyers of the West Memphis 3 now believe all of them may be exonerated when the DNA testing comes back.

We know Eddie is caught up in the timeline fuckery, given the age change between his physical age (19, likely) and his poster age (17), and he also has the whole satanic ritual thing, which wasn't the truth at all. He was trying to stop the murders. This ties into Victor's "demon", who we believe to be Henry based on how ST4 is presented to us on the surface...but based on the surface view, Henry would be Vecna and through him...God. That makes the demon label categorically incorrect. Victor also says he heard the voice of an angel, which drew him out of his trance. Lucifer was originally an angel. However, in the other retelling, Victor is freed by Edward (?) passing out. There is no mention of music.

The thing here is...we have no evidence which conclusively links Henry Creel to any of these murders. We don't have concrete evidence of anything, other than the fact that the murders happened and that a Creel was involved somehow. We don't see the killing of the children. There's no footage of Alice's death. We're not even given the Creel boy's name in the second retelling. We have no conclusive evidence that that's Henry. We do, however, see a blood-splattered 001 in the lab...and a blood-free Henry (?).

Just like the West Memphis Three, there's no evidence of guilt for Henry in any of the murders. However, we also don't see a concrete Henry again after the blood-free shot. It's highly possible that Edward (?)/Vecna killed him. We simply don't know what happened to him.

Lucifer may already be dead by God's hand. We just don't know.

I'd also like to point out a couple of details re: Paradise Lost and Stranger Things:

Jesse Misskelly: Miss Kelley, who was supposedly seeing all of Vecna's victims, and who wears a pendant of a clock on a key. She also shows up on the board beside the Library-Progress poster, the Drama Club/Monologues flyer, and the Tutors Needed poster. There's no evidence that she did anything wrong, and it's likely she doesn't know any more than anyone else, but it's suspicious that she's so connected to Vecna/The Creels in both plot and imagery. It makes you question the depth of her involvement.

Jason Baldwin: Jason Carver. The guy I said was a false prophet, but who I also indicated is more complicated than he seems. The thing about Jason is that he is not knowingly a false prophet. If he had all the facts, he'd likely be siding with Hellfire. He's trying to fight what he perceives as the evil in Hawkins...based on limited information. Even so, he's raising an army to fight the evil, and Vecna is aware of that because it's happening in Hawkins. Jason is an adversary. Adverary. Satan. He believes it's Hellfire who is responsible, that Hellfire is in cahoots with Vecna, who is perceived as Satan. However, Hellfire is anti Vecna. When Jason blasphemes Vecna via Hellfire...he's unknowingly blaspheming God. Thus, the fiery pit. There was no true false prophet, just some guy who went mad with grief and didn't have all the necessary information and wanted to fight the evil that killed his girlfriend.

Along those lines, I also want to talk about Nancy's beast.

Nancy's beast should at least be representative of Satan, then, right? Not necessarily. The beast in Book of Revelation is highly symbolic, and is thought to be representative of the oppressive Roman Empire.

There's one player everyone seems to forget in Stranger Things: The US Military.

The military, who consume most of our national budget like a gaping maw, and who are currently coming after the person committing murders in Hawkins. The believe it's El, but the person they want is Vecna. It's exactly the same as Jason and Eddie. They're all unknowingly coming after God while chasing someone who isn't God. Like Hopper says in ST1...they're chasing the wrong kid.

All those with the sign of the beast will be condemned. Guns don't work on Demogorgons. The military, who bear symbols that designate them as such...signs of the beast if you will...will be decimated.

That isn't to say a beast won't appear. It very much may, but it's not actually linked to Henry/Lucifer. The beast is more likely representative of the US Military as an adversary of Vecna, just like the dragon in the painting is only representative of Vecna via narrative fuckery.

The dragon in the painting will not exist in relation to Vecna/God, hence it doesn't appear in Nancy's vision. The military does exist as an adversary to Vecna/God, hence the beast appears in Nancy's vision.

Adversary. Satan.

In true Creel fashion, it's time to loop back to the very beginning of this post.

Jericho. The working title of ST5. What did I say about the Battle of Jericho?

There was no Devil. Lucifer exists vaguely, somewhere offscreen. We don't know where he is. Satan, though, simply translates to adversary.

It was just God, an earthquake, and Jericho.

There is no "Evil Devil" in Stranger Things' rendition of the Book of Revelation. Henry may exist, but he also may have been dead before the plot even began. We don't know where he is. Our figures of Satan are just a collection of adversaries against Vecna.

It's just Vecna, an earthquake, and Hawkins.

Right?

Well. We've missed a couple figures here, haven't we?

Jesus, the Archangel Michael, and the Holy Spirit.

Will Byers (Guillermo Maldonado?) and Mike Wheeler...and the Shadow.

This is where we come back to the tone of the Book of Revelation in comparison to the tone of the New Testament.

The Book of Revelation is very out of place in comparison to Jesus' teachings of love, peace, and forgiveness. God goes ham in Book of Revelation, to the point of frankly unnecessary pain, harm, and cruelty. So why would Jesus, Mr. "Loves Saves All", get involved in that? Why would Archangel Michael, "healer of the sick and champion of goodness", get caught up in that?

Logically, they shouldn't. Unnecessary cruelty goes against everything they seem to advocate for.

Everything Vecna does goes against everything Will and Mike stand for. Byler won't have a villain arc. Byler will not join Vecna. Jesus is not going to join God, here...and neither will Archangel Michael.

Archangel Michael fights Satan's red dragon, which we discussed as nothing but a narrative distortion of Vecna and Henry when present in Will's painting.

However, the painting is not biblical. Will didn't literally paint Mike fighting the devil. It's DnD. That dragon is likely Tiamat, the evil mother of all dragons. She is very similar in personality to the Whore of Babylon, who rides upon Satan's red dragon, and who reeks of Virginia...and by extension Karen.

Mike is fighting the mommy issues dragon. He's fighting the physical manifestation of his neglectful relationship with his mother, and Will is going to be be his side to help him.

Classic Byler W.

Finally...The Shadow, our Holy Spirit.

I'd like to call attention to some wording surrounding the Holy Spirit and the Shadow especially in relation to Jesus.

Luke 4:1: Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.

Matthew 10:20: For it is not you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

John 16:5-7: Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone, I will send the Spirit to you.

Acts 2:1-4: Suddenly a sound came from heaven. It was like a strong wind blowing...The flames separated and settled on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. 

In ST2, Will is possessed by the Shadow via Vecna. One might say he is full of the Shadow. When Will first sees the Shadow in one of his visions, there is a strong wind. He becomes more and more replaced by Vecna/the Shadow as time goes on. Vecna speaks through Will. Joyce asks "What happens when my boy is gone?"

In ST3, once Billy is all but gone, when Vecna can truly speak though him, he begins to send the Shadow to others. They were filled with the Shadow.

Then, in ST4, we see the Shadow in Russia. When asked about the freed/revived demodogs, the Russians say the Shadow "went into them". They were filled with the Shadow.

Are we convinced yet? Do we need more? How about this:

The Holy Spirit acts at God's command; it is an agent of divine action.

The Shadow acts at Vecna's command; it is an agent of his action.

All this, all these hundreds of words to say a few things:

In Stranger Things, Jericho = Book of Revelation.

There is no "Evil Devil" figure in Stranger Things. God is the bad guy.

Vecna is God, and so is Brenner.

Vecna is most likely Edward Creel.

Via the canonical time-travel powers of at least one Creel boy, Edward Creel and Martin Brenner are likely the same person.

Henry Creel is Lucifer.

Henry Creel is also innocent.

We don't know if Henry's alive or not, and if he is alive we don't know where he is.

Mike's dragon is most likely Tiamat, the DnD Mommy Issues Dragon.

The Duffers ship Jesus and Archangel Michael. Deadass.

A few interesting but ultimately unnecessary details below the cut:

In 1984, the same year ST2 is set in, Depeche Mode released Blasphemous Rumors. It's a song about the perceived cruelty of God. In it, a girl attempts suicide and fails. She finds new life in the church, only to be struck by a car and killed. The chorus goes: "I don't want to start any blasphemous rumors, but I think that God's got a sick sense of humor // and when I die, I expect to find Him laughing."

U2 released Joshua Tree in 1987, the year ST5 is supposedly going to be set in and/or skip. It was immensely popular and jam-packed with biblical references. The Mormons (Suzie!) named the physical Joshua Tree is named after biblical Joshua...the same Joshua from the Battle of Jericho. Here's some more about The Joshua Tree:

Book of Revelation is a wartime piece. It's highly debated as to whether it's an actual vision, or if it's just John of Patmos, a second-generation disciple embittered by Jesus' failure to return as promised to save his people from the Romans, writing a fix-it fic where God brutally kills everyone except John's people. Is it a vision? Is it God? Or is it just the vengeance-porn work of a traumatized second-generation disciple who feels abandoned? No one actually knows. Is Vecna literally God? Or is he just a traumatized, abused boy who wants vengeance on the society that harmed and abandoned him? No one actually knows.

Kronos, in Greek mythology, is the god of time. He's the father of the Greek gods, all of whom he tried to consume. He is equated to Father Time in modern folklore. Edward (?) Creel has time travel abilities...god of time...Father Time...Papa...Brenner...consuming the Greek gods...consuming the numbers...just something to chew on.

Henry's costuming seems to be modeled after altar boy robes, both as a child and as an adult. We all know about the rape scandals with altar boys in the Catholic church. The Pope, God's official mouthpiece to the world, let it happen. Priests, also referred to as Father (cough Papa cough) were involved in raping boys...and the Pope covered it up. God, essentially, let it happen. Both our God figures being rapists, specifically of children/boys, may be a commentary on this scandal.

[space-invading-pigeon]

Steve Harrington's hero is his mother, who is kind and fierce and also off the rails crazy when she's pissed.

Steve's mom flushes his dad's heart medication if he doesn't speak to her with respect.

Steve's mom once put a body builder in the ICU because he called her baby boy a bastard child.

Steve's mom taught him how to knit and showered her only son in so much affection that in the one year she was traveling with his father, Steve was practically starved for affection.

Steve's mom offered to legally adopt Robin after the mall fire.

Steve's mom is the only lawyer/civilian to know what happened each time the Upside Down reared its ugly head.

Steve's mom arm has a standing Girl's Night with Wayne Munson (they watch football, drink, and gush over their teenage sons).

Steve's mom hugged Eddie when she was officially introduced to him and promised that she would treat him like a son for as long as he treated her baby right.

Steve's mom attacked Henry Creel during the final showdown and may have severed one of his arms; she doesn't quite remember but she does know that that Wheeler girl is twice as scared of her now.

[ronanceautistic]

nothing in this entire show breaks my heart like nancy wheeler nodding when joyce is saying “it’s okay, i’ve got you.” that poor girl had so little comfort she had to pretend joyce was talking to her.

duffer brothers, natalia dyer, henry creel, you will be hearing from my lawyers

[foundtherightwords]

The Hollow Heart - Chapter 14

Pairing: Hellcheer, Gothic AU

Summary: To escape her mother's control and the stifling society of Gilded Age New York, heiress Christabel Cunningham impulsively marries Henry Creel, a charming and seductive stranger, and accompanies him to his remote mansion on the West Coast. There, as Henry grows cold and cruel, Christabel must uncover her husband's sinister secret before it's too late. But can she trust Kas, her husband's enigmatic assistant, who seems to be her only ally in this strange place, or is Kas's loyalty to his master stronger than his attraction to Christabel?

Chapter warnings: none

Chapter word count: 4.4k

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12 - Chapter 13

Chapter 14 - The Doleful Tale

Other than Joyce and the grocery wagon, the only outsider that came to Creel House was the mailman and his truck, a gleaming black vehicle with "United States Mail" emblazoned on the sides. The mailman was a taciturn fellow, far less chatty than Joyce, and as Creel House was often the last stop on his delivery route, Christabel didn't blame him for not wanting to linger around for a chat. Still, in the past couple of weeks, she had taken to wait for the mailman, not for some gossip as she did with Joyce, but to intercept his delivery. She was expecting a letter from her lawyers, informing her that the transfer of her inheritance to Henry was completed. All that was required was her signature on the deed. Once Henry had it, he would have no more use of her.

That was why she had to have a hold of the paperwork. She was still kicking herself over her stupidity with the transfer, but it was too late to do anything about it now. The deed was her only bargaining chip. If Henry was happy enough with the money she'd put in his account and granted her a divorce, then she would throw away the deed and keep the rest of her money. If he fought the divorce or demanded more, then with the deed in hand, she could negotiate how much she was willing to give him in exchange for her freedom.

She knew she could've simply waited for Kas to pick up the mail and met him then, but she had not told him of her plan yet. She didn't know how long the divorce procedure would be, or even if Henry would agree to the divorce at all, and she didn't want to raise any false hopes. And she couldn't forget that desperate, beseeching look in Kas's eyes when he asked her to leave him behind. She was afraid that when it came down to it, Kas may choose to stay with Henry so she could go free. She would not force him to make that choice.

On a fine April afternoon, the tides were low, and Christabel went down to the shore to wait for the mailman as usual. The sun was out and Kas could not accompany her, not without raising Henry's suspicion, so she went alone, keeping a wary eye on the sand dunes. For a few days now, she had been feeling a lurking presence amongst them, a creeping sensation on the back of her neck, like she was being watched, but when she turned around, there was no one and nothing there.

The mail truck hadn't stopped by since last week, when it delivered some of the blank wax cylinders she'd ordered, and Christabel watched the winding road along the cliff with impatience and dwindling hope. As the sun dipped below the horizon, she sighed and resigned herself to another fruitless afternoon.

Just when she was about to return to the house, a black dot appeared on the road. It drew near and grew, and was indeed the mail truck. The mailman slowed down upon seeing her but didn't stop the engine. "Mrs. Creel," he said, touching his hat. "Got a letter for you here."  

He handed her a thick envelope bearing the seal of the firm of Murray and Hopper. Christabel took it with trembling hands, almost forgetting to thank the mailman in her excitement. This was it. This letter could decide her future—hers and Kas's.

As the mail truck turned around and went back the way it came from, Christabel fumbled to tuck the envelope into the waistband of her skirt and cover it up with her jacket, hoping that she wouldn't run into Henry on her way back and that he wasn't in a physically demanding mood.

"Mrs. Creel?" said a voice behind her.

With a startled cry, Christabel whirled around. A man was coming toward her in the falling light.

Fear knotted her stomach, but she tried to stay calm. "Who are you?" she asked, slowly and surreptitiously stepping toward the bell. "What do you want?"

"Please, I mean no harm," the man said, raising both hands in a placating gesture. "My name is William Hargrove. I just want to talk. You are Mrs. Creel, are you not? I've seen you, with him, outside the bank..."

He came closer, and Christabel recognized him—the man who had accosted Henry outside the bank, right before Christmas. His hair was longer now, matted with dirt, and his unkempt beard covered most of his face, which must have been handsome once. Only his eyes still burned with that same desperation.

"What do you wish to talk about?" Her back had hit the bell, and it gave a little chime. Ringing it would do little good if the man attacked her. By the time Kas reached her, it would be too late. Could she outrun him? He may look tired and dirty, but there was power in his build, and though he was keeping his distance from her, he could easily close that distance with a few leaps. Still, some strange force—curiosity, intuition, or pure presentiment, she did not know—kept her on the shore and listening to him.

"About the man you are married to, the so-called Henry Creel," Hargrove said.

"What is it about him?"

"He's not who you think he is."

Christabel almost laughed. If only this man knew that she'd discovered that bitter truth for herself a while ago...

Unfazed by her lack of response, Hargrove continued, "His name isn't Henry Creel, or at least it wasn't when I first met him. He called himself Peter Ballard then. He was married to my sister, Maxine."

Christabel recalled his shouting accusations outside the bank as the security guard hauled him away.

"You said he kidnapped her," she said slowly.

"He did! He married her and took her with him, and I haven't heard a word from her since." Hargrove sat down on the sand, slumping forward, his lank hair covering his face. "Perhaps it was my fault. I drove her away. She was my stepsister, you see. My father was a widower, and he married Maxine's mother when I was a boy. I didn't treat Maxine very well, I'm afraid. I blamed her and her mother for coming between me and my father. We were living back East then, near Chicago. When Maxine met Ballard—or Creel—he charmed her and my stepmother right away, but I wasn't fooled. I thought he was only interested in her money—her father left her an inheritance, you see." Hargrove shook his head. "I played right into his hands. He used my opposition to convince the poor kid that I was trying to prevent her happiness, and she agreed to run away with him."

Hargrove's story struck Christabel with an eerie sense of familiarity, and goosebumps broke out all over her skin. It could have been her story. She, too, had been trying to escape her old life. She, too, had been convinced by Henry that he was her way out. Was this what he did, seek out naïve young women for—for what? For their money?

"How long ago was this?" she asked.

"1891." He still looks exactly as he did fifteen years ago...

"Mr. Hargrove, I'm afraid you're mistaken. My husband is thirty-two years old. Are you saying that he married your sister when he was seventeen?"

"No, no, that's the thing." Hargrove got to his feet, agitated. "Maxine was eighteen when she married him. He was already thirty-two then."

"I don't understand."

"That's how I recognize him right away, you see. He hasn't aged a day. He may tell you that he's thirty-two, but he's much older."

Hargrove was sounding less and less sane by the minute. Christabel's mind was telling her to leave, to walk away, but that strange premonition kept her rooted to the spot.

"I'm sorry about your sister, Mr. Hargrove," she said, trying to sound reasonable, "but I'm not sure what you want from me. Even if my husband was married to her previously, which I very much doubt, she could have—passed away from natural causes."

"No!" Hargrove hissed. "He did something to her! I know it!"

"How?"

"I dream of her. About a year after she went away, both her mother and I started having these dreams of Maxine. She never says anything in them. She just stands looking at me, with this huge gash on her chest. That's how I know. She's gone, but she did not go peacefully."

Cold. She felt cold. A freezing wind rose from the sea, or perhaps from Creel House itself, blowing away any remnant of the spring sunshine that still lingered amongst the dunes. Christabel stared at the older man, unable to utter a word, for her throat had suddenly become dry, as though she'd swallowed sand. 

"Look, I'm sorry to have bothered you like this," Hargrove said, mistaking her silence for offense. "I know how this sounds. Before my stepmother died, she entreated me to find out what happened to Maxine. She said, 'Bill, you have to find Maxine, find her, and bring her home.' I've been searching ever since. And this is the best lead I've had. Perhaps your husband is not Peter Ballard. But it can't be a coincidence that he looks so much like the man I've been searching for. They could be brothers, father and son, or cousins..."

"My husband has no family," she managed to say.

"All right, but would you mind taking a look at this picture anyway?" Hargrove pulled a tintype in a leather case out of his pocket—the leather was greatly worn, evidence that he had been carrying it around for a long, long time—and showed it to her. "Perhaps you have seen her likeness somewhere?"

Christabel glanced at the tintype, and whatever warmth that remained in her body drained out of her, leaving her frozen and numb. The tintype was a family portrait. An older, hard-faced man and a tired-looking woman sat in the foreground. Behind them stood Hargrove, younger and clean-shaven, but still recognizable. And next to him was a young woman, not a great beauty but pretty enough, with a bold and direct gaze.

Christabel had seen her, yes. Just as Hargrove had described her. A silent ghost, her chest wound dripping blood.

"Did she—did your sister have red hair?" she asked. Her voice sounded like it was coming from far away.

Hargrove's eyes widened. "Yes! How did you know?"

"What was her maiden name?"

"Pardon?"

"She was your stepsister. Before she married my—before she married Henry, or Peter Ballard, or whatever his name is, what was her maiden name? Was it Hargrove?"

"No, she never took my father's name. It was Mayfield. Maxine Mayfield."

***

Maxine Mayfield. M.M. The final piece of the puzzle. Except it didn't clear up anything, because even though the puzzle was complete, it showed nothing but white mist, giving more questions than answers.

Christabel returned to Creel House in a daze, without hearing Hargrove's barrage of confused questions. He didn't follow her.

Frederick Benson. Patrick McKinney. Maxine Mayfield. Three names, three ghosts. All with some sort of connection to Henry and Creel House. Coincidence, or was there something more sinister? And where did she, Christabel, fit into that? There had been money or some material goods involved with all three—Benson's business venture, old Mr. McKinney's lighthouse, and Maxine's inheritance. And of course, Christabel's own as well. Was Henry some sort of murderous conman, killing people for their money? It was certainly the most plausible answer. And if it was true, then her life may be in danger.

She realized that Henry had never spoken of how he'd lived after his parents died, whether he had been taken in by relatives or not. Could it be that Hargrove was speaking the truth, that Henry was much older than he appeared? As for those strangely prophetic dreams...was she doomed to become just another set of carved initials on a cypress tree? No, she was not going to think about that now.

There was only one person who had been around Henry for long enough, one person she trusted to give her an answer.

She found Kas in the hothouse. He was digging up some seedlings to transfer outside—he'd promised her a border of hydrangea around the house. Hearing her footsteps, he turned around and smiled at her, a smile that lit up his face and never failed to send warmth all through her, even now, when she was cold with fear and confusion.

"Did you have a nice walk?" he asked. Then he saw her face. "What happened? Are you ill? Here, sit down." He guided her to the bench and knelt in front of her, taking her limp wrists in his hands. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" he asked in such a tender voice that it broke through her daze. She took a deep breath and tried to focus on his strong hands, clutching them like they were her anchor to life, to safety, to reality itself.

"Do you know a woman named Maxine Mayfield?" she asked.

Kas dropped her hand and stared at her in consternation. "Where did you hear that name?"

"You do know her, don't you?" She scrutinized him. Fear and guilt chased each other across his features, and he turned away, refusing to meet her eyes. Suspicion took root in her mind. "She was the previous Mrs. Creel. Henry was married to her, wasn't he?" Joyce had called Christabel the new Mrs. Creel when they first met. Could it be that Joyce had been thinking of Maxine as the former Mrs. Creel? Christabel continued, her voice rising in accusation. "The man said it was fifteen years ago. How could Henry have been married fifteen years ago? How old is he, really? Thirty-five? Forty?"

"Which man? Who told you these things?"

"His name is William Hargrove. Maxine was his sister, stepsister. He's been looking for her."

"How could you know that what he said was true?" said Kas. "He may be lying to you, or he may be mistaken himself."

"No, he's not. He showed me her picture, and she looked exactly as I've seen her."

Kas's head snapped up. "What do you mean, you've seen her?" he asked in a horrified whisper.

"In my dreams, Kas," she said. "I've seen her, and Patrick McKinney, and Frederick Benson." She watched his eyes widen in horror, and understood. "You've seen them too, haven't you?" she said, taking his hands and squeezing them so hard that her rings left dents on his palms. "That's why you gave me the phonograph. You know it would keep them away. Something happened to them here at Creel House, didn't it? What was it? I know you know something. Tell me!"

Kas remained kneeling, his eyes full of sorrow, silently pleading with her. "I can't," he said.

"You can't, or you won't?"

There was a rustling sound, and Henry came into the hothouse. Christabel and Kas darted away from each other like two criminals.

"There you are, darling," Henry said to Christabel. "I thought you were taking a walk."

"I was, but it got rather cold so I came back," said Christabel, getting to her feet, surprised at how steady her voice and her legs were.

"Mrs. Creel was just telling me where to put the hydrangeas, sir," Kas chimed in.

"The hydrangeas will have to wait. You're taking me into town tonight," said Henry.

Kas gave Christabel a quick glance. "Yes, sir."

"Where are you going?" she asked Henry.

"To Chinatown, on business. I'm afraid it's going to take all night, so don't wait up for me, darling." Henry brushed the back of his finger down her cheek, and she had to fight the urge to pull away. "We leave after dinner," he said to Kas. He then turned on his heel and left.

As soon as Henry disappeared into the house, Kas turned back toward Christabel and grabbed her arms. His initial fear seemed to have vanished. "Listen to me," he said in an urgent whisper. "You need to leave."

Now it was Christabel's turn to stare at him. "What?"

"Take whatever you need and leave. Tonight. You'll have to walk to Sutro Heights—no, wait, I'll send a message to Joyce and ask her to come pick you up. Go to the station, get on a train, or go to the wharf and get on a ship. Just leave. Don't look back."

"What—what are you saying?"

"You've promised me, remember? This is your chance. I'll hold him off for as long as I can, but please, you have to be as far away from San Francisco as possible by tomorrow."

She couldn't understand his urgency, and it frightened her. "Why? What's going to happen?"

"I don't know. But this is the longest he'll be away from the house. You have to go."

Christabel seized his wrists. "I'm not going anywhere without you!"

"Please, Christabel. I'm not worth it."

"Yes, you are." She took his face in her hands and kissed him, hard. "You're worth everything to me."

His eyes softened, but he shook his head, even as he leaned close to her. "Don't," he said in a despondent whisper. "You've promised that you'd leave."

"Can we just leave now, together? Let's take the car and drive as far away as we can."

"And live as fugitives for the rest of our lives? I'm not doing that to you."

Desperation gripped her. She lifted his face so he would look her in the eye. "Please, Kas," she begged. "If you love me, please tell me what's going on! What is Henry planning?"

Kas jumped up. He turned away from her, pacing in an agitated circle and running a hand through his curls, gripping it so hard that she was afraid he was going to pull the hair clean off. "I don't know. I don't know. He never tells me anything. I—" He looked back at her and paused for what felt like a hundred years, searching her face, his eyes brimming with love and anguish. Then he seemed to have come to a decision. "Go to the attic," he told her. "See for yourself. Look in the icebox. Look in his desk drawers."

"The attic? But the door's locked—" After Christabel had stumbled into the attic on her first day at Creel House, Henry had taken to locking the door at all times, even when he was home, even though Christabel never wanted to set foot in that cursed place ever again. The key he wore on his watch chain.

"I'll find a way to get you the key," said Kas. "I have a key that looks similar, I can try to swap it." He sat down next to her. "Just... as soon as you've found your answer, go. Don't stay for me."

Christabel touched the envelope still tucked into the back of her skirt, feeling all the hope she'd put into it slipping away by the minute. They should have run away months ago, money be damned. Now they were stuck. She knew she should go up to her room, hide the transfer deed, and perhaps prepare to leave, but she remained on the bench, leaning against Kas's shoulder, not wanting to part from him. Something told her that whatever she'd find in the attic, she would not be staying in Creel House for very long, and she wished to spend as much of her remaining time with him as possible.

***

Dinner was tense, silent. The key gleamed on Henry's waistcoat, taunting Christabel. She'd never thought about what he kept up there in that room with its snakes and spiders, and now it loomed in her mind like a dark cave. Kas went around the table serving the food as usual, but he avoided making eye contact with her and kept a white-knuckle grip on the tray.

Even Henry noticed something was wrong. "You've hardly touched your food, darling," he said, indicating Christabel's still-full plate. "Are you not feeling well?"

"No, no, I'm fine." She forced herself to swallow a bite, though she had no idea if it was fish or chicken or beef—it all tasted like dirt in her mouth. "Must you go out tonight?"

"Worried about being on your own, aren't you?" Henry smiled. "No need. You'll be perfectly safe here. And we'll be back by morning."

"What are you doing there?"

Henry regarded her over the rim of his wineglass with surprise, and—she thought—mistrust as well. Belatedly, she realized she might have aroused his suspicion by showing an interest in his work, where she had shown none before. But he answered anyway.

"I've been studying traditional Chinese medicine," said Henry. "Tonight, an herbalist is preparing a very special potion, and I was privileged enough to be invited to watch him at work."

"Then why do you need Kas to accompany you?"

Henry drained his wine. His eyes were like two shards of ice as he fixed them on Christabel, and she was sure her face was burning up under his scrutiny. "Why do you need Kas to stay home then?" he asked.

"That's not what I meant," she protested weakly.

Not taking his eyes off of her, Henry signaled for Kas to refill his glass. The key reflected the candlelight, glinting banefully. Behind Henry, Kas discreetly palmed something small and metallic in a napkin as he picked up the wine bottle, and finally caught Christabel's eyes.

In an instant, she understood what he was going to do. While Kas moved toward Henry with the bottle, she got to her feet. "I think I may have walked too long this afternoon," she said, making a show of rubbing her forehead. "I can feel a headache coming. I should go to bed."

Kas fumbled, seemingly not knowing whether to continue pouring the wine for Henry or to put down the bottle and pull her chair back for her. The bottle tipped forward, and red wine spilled all over Henry's shirt front.

"Will you watch what you're doing, you idiot!" Henry shouted.

"I'm so sorry, sir," said Kas, using the napkin to blot the spill.

"Darling, are you all right?" cried Christabel, moving toward Henry with her own napkin. There was great confusion as she and Kas both fussed over Henry, ineffectually wiping the wine off of his shirt, while Henry pushed them both away.

"Just leave it!" he screamed, jumping from his chair. Kas took a step back. Christabel glanced at Henry's watch chain—the key was still dangling there, but was it her eyes, or did it look slightly different, more scratched? Kas gave her a discreet nod, and she let out a relieved sigh.

"You should go and change," she said to Henry.

He shrugged, unconcerned. "There's no time. We're late. Kas!" he barked, and Kas jumped. "Bring the car around. We're leaving."

"Yes, sir."

There was no time for Kas to hand her the key. Had their effort been for nothing?

Christabel followed Henry to the front door, a feeling of foreboding rising in her chest, making her heart beat with jerky, painful thuds and leaving her hands and feet icy cold. She didn't know what was happening that night, what Henry had been doing, and what he was going to do, but she was going to lose Kas, she could feel it. Or Kas was going to lose her. She didn't know which would be worse.

"May I come with you?" impulsively she asked Henry. Kas, who was waiting by the door, stared at her in alarm, but Henry only smiled thinly as he shrugged on his coat.

"After what happened last time, I didn't think you'd want to return to Chinatown," he said.

"I'm not afraid." She lifted her chin and squared her shoulders, trying to put on a brave face.

"But this is no pleasure trip, darling. I'm there to observe a very important ritual." Seeing Christabel open her mouth to protest, Henry put up a hand. "Women are forbidden to attend, I'm afraid. Besides," he added, "I thought you had a headache."

She deflated. There was nothing else she could say or do but watch them leave in dejection, like a child being punished.

As Henry got into the car, she heard Kas say, "Sir, I forgot my gloves. I won't be a minute."

"Oh, for God's sake," Henry grumbled. "Hurry up!"

Kas ran back up the front steps and slipped into the hall, where Christabel still stood, bewildered, fearful, not knowing what to do. The moment the door closed behind him, he caught her face between his hands and kissed her as he'd never kissed her before, passionately, desperately, as though it was the last time they kissed. He then pressed the key into her hand and closed her fingers around it, just like he'd once closed her fingers around his kiss.

"Find what you need, and go," he said. "Be safe."

She clung to him, pulled him to her for one more kiss, but he stepped away with a heartbreaking finality.

"I love you," he whispered. He was out of the door and disappeared into the fog before she could reply.

Christabel stood in the hall, clutching the little key in her palm, listening to the sound of the car's motor fade away down the drive. Then she went to her room and packed her valise with some essentials, putting the transfer deed, still in its envelope, amongst the clothes for safekeeping. This done, she came back to the corridor, and, with the memory of Kas's lips giving her strength, she climbed the little staircase leading to the attic.

She wished she'd had the presence of mind to say "I love you" back to him. She wished she had insisted on coming with them. She wished she had been braver, cleverer, stronger, so she wouldn't have landed in this predicament in the first place. But she was here now, and she could only try her best to find her way out of it. And to see Kas again, and to tell him how much she loved him.

She put the key in the lock and turned it.

Chapter 15

[aemiron-main]

in ur bio when u say "henry creel's defence lawyer" is that a joke or are u actually trying to excuse his actions?

it’s not a joke but i’m also not trying to excuse his actions. i mean “henrys defense lawyer” in the sense that he Literally Didn’t Do 99% of the shit he’s accused of. I don’t even think he’s vecna (see: all of my edward creel posts in my pinned post). so i’m not excusing shit/saying xyz action is Okay, im saying He Didn’t Do It

[scythc]

ver masterlist: canon only muses are exempted ( canon div // crossover )

directory

sylvain : crimson flower

haibara* : sherry , ova 9 , civilian // bnha , death note , hp , dnd/fantasy , fe3h , black butler/victorian , d:bh , tlou/apocalypse

mephisto* : young god , legacy , eldritch // lawyer/hitman , dnd , d:bh , bnha , fe3h , hp

henry : divergent // spn cw

sujin* : old money , harpist , influencer

seungho* : influencer , mua , college

jordan : modern , historical // stranger things

lady : youth , queendom , modern // spn cw

laurent : escapee , unchanged // hp

robin : survivor , modern

* verses are explained in depth within respective biographies

sylvain, crimson flower : defected to the adrestian empire. post-war, he is granted control over old gautier territory, though it is renamed to fit the meritocratic values of emperor edelgard's rule. also appointed as an emissary of state and sent on missions to sreng and almyra. by his own proposal request, he is ultimately appointed an indefinite stay in almyra for the purpose of working on the fodlan-almyra treaty and improving bi-lateral relations.

HENRY CREEL

divergent : after escaping from the facility, he does not kill his parents and attempts to rejoin the play due to patty's request. however, after suffering dr. brenner's provocation during the play and causing of patty's fall, he is dismayed. believing patty to be dead and feeling completely betrayed by his parents, he flees hawkins in search for people like himself.

spn cw : a boy with impure blood. unexplainable things happen to him; even though he tries his hardest to be good, something compels him to do dark and evil things. though, on second thought, is it really so bad to feel like he's been chosen for something special...? ( one of azazel's children. )

JORDAN BAKER

modern : sports science student. on scholarship as a pro-golfer.

historical : a noble who grew up defying the stereotypes of her time. learning how to cast on a specific veneer in order to please society and working through those constraints to rise into a position of power, she secured marriage to a figure-head who was content to let her run things as she preferred .

stranger things : a final-year student at hawkins high. a young girl with dreams of making a name for herself in the golfing world. all she just wants to keep her head down, graduate asap, and get into a big college with a sports scholarship. as far as she knows, the disappearances & weird happenings around town have absolutely nothing to do with her.

LAURENT DURAND

escapee : managing to escape the suspicion and psychological warfare of camille's mother, he leaves therese for dead along the banks of the river seine and attempts to starts a new life elsewhere . however, rotten roots struggle to take hold. he is left disturbed, wandering and bereft; a little darker & changed for good .

002. unchanged : having never met therese , he spends the rest of his university life in a haze of hedony . graduates on his father's dime & rides coattails to become an opportunistic , corrupt lawyer . this is a man who's learnt the ins - and - outs of the judicial system for the sole purpose of exploiting its loopholes .

hp : neutral pureblood slytherin. takes his father's position in the ministry for-granted, seeing it as a given that he'll ascend ministry ranks in the same way. he's not entirely wrong: after graduating, he becomes part of the dmle before being promoted as a wizengamot trial judge merely 5 years after. since, he has work where he worked during the commencement of the battle of hogwarts .

LADY MACBETH

youth : a bastard daughter, shunned by the head of house. the unfortunate circumstances leave her ambitious & power-hungry, and she vows to improve her societal position, no matter the cost.

queendom : sanity hangs on by a thin thread. ghostly whispers surround her, a cacophony of agony, voices of the good men she had clambered over to reach the bloody top. this is her happy ending, she tells herself. and when night comes, she washes her hands clean . sin, absolve, and repeat. madness is her old friend.

modern : a cutthroat business woman. runs macbeth industries as a shadow director.

spn cw: growing up unnatural in a highly religious community is a sin. since youth, she's had an unusual sensitivity towards spirits and hears voices in her head. they drive her mad and compel her to do terrible & unexplainable things. ( angel / psychic )

[henrysglock]

anyway henry creel they tried to make me hate you...but they knew they would never succeed tbqh. i can't believe i have to be your defense lawyer in 20-fucking-24. it's been two YEARS mike.

[henrysglock]

Hey is there a chance that El actually killed those kids in one of the timelines bc it kinda sounded like you were saying that about one of them (right over left 002 I think??) And seeing as we've got lawyers for Victor, Henry, and Kali I think it seems fair that I step up for El, 011, Jane, and Eleanor, whichever is which, because I AM willing to die on the hill that they are all based and blameless but also I was only like 50% sure I understood half of Crack Theory

Yep! That’s what I’m saying! There’s at least one, if not two, timelines where it’s Not Henry/Edward, and the killing style is distinctly reminiscent of El.

We have 3 known outcomes thus far: Gate, Dematerialization, and None.

There ought to be two for each, with left and right mirror alignments for each different event.

So we have Eleanor and Jane, and they both ought to have one of each.

I’m 100% absolving Eleanor/Jane of their sins. Already. We know already that she doesn’t attack unless she feels attacked (see: Angela, the orderlies in ST1, the military police in ST1). Just like Little Henry/Edward in the Creel house, whatever happened with our Little 011s in HNL was 100% self defense.

My daughter has done NOTHING wrong. Keep her free.