WARNING: DO NOT ENGAGE [stranger things] [1/2]

XXI - Witchy Woman

"Raven hair and ruby lips

Sparks fly from her fingertips

Echoed voices in the night

She's a restless spirit on an endless flight"

•  

Rosemary leaned on the side of her car, head looking up to the sky and eyes closed. It had been a long day, a long few days. She wasn't in control anymore, and she didn't know what to do about it besides try her best to hide what she really was. Not that she really knew what she was,

(something strange, something scary, a danger to all)

maybe human but barely. A very bad one, with bloodthirst and anger and hands covered in red. It was only a matter of time before something went wrong, before she slipped up

(they would scream, run, call her murderer and beast and never look her in the eye again)

and blew her cover. Or, god forbid, she ended up hurting someone she loved. Whether it be Susanita, or Mike, or Karen, or Nancy. Even Eleven, whom she barely knew anymore. She didn't think she could ever forgive herself if she hurt any of them

(she would never forget their blood, their crying, their screaming. their face would haunt her forever and by the time she gets to hell she will have already lived it)

and she didn't think she'd want to forgive herself either. She was entirely capable of hurting them, she knew that. She was dangerous and a liability, destined to be left a monster and a freak so long as she lived. Foolish to believe she could ever live the facade of a normal girl, living a normal life. She barely ever did that, getting in fights and letting her abilities overpower the human inside her

(it wasn't her fault she was so dangerous, it was them who turned her from a girl who could communicate better with animals than people into a girl who was more animal than person, who shared the same wild instincts as the beasts humans dared control)

but it was a ghost of a normal life. She knows now, she can not stay here forever. She can not run the risk and put her feelings above other peoples safety.

She has decided this by the time Nancy arrived at her car, scared and jittery and a story on the tip of her tongue. She shakes Rosemary out of her trance and they get into the smoke smelling car, and the words come flowing. She tells Rosemary of the police, of her mothers argument, and tells her she paid a grieving boy a visit

(Rosemary berates her, says he isn't worth her time of day and Nancy ignores her, too caught up in mysteries to see the danger)

and tells her of the monster in the photograph. Rosemarys nails dig into the steering wheel and she nods along, asking if she was sure and what it looked like. Her vision blurs and her ears ring, and Nancy orders her to pull over, worry flooding her body as her friend leans forward, burying her face in her hands with rasping breath. Rosemary runs her fingers through her hair, her hands stopping at the back of her neck as she wills her body to return to normal

(Nancy has never seen her friend so weak, never seen her not in control, never seen her so broken down. she feels herself sinking as she watches the strongest person she knows struggle to breath)

and it is then that Nancy sees the rips in her jacket, and smears of blood peeking under her sleeve. It is then that our story takes a different turn, and it is then that Rosemarys fears become a harsh reality.