Stranger Love [Billy Hargrove]

Stranger Love - Chapter Eighteen

Stranger Love

Chapter Eighteen – Sisters

The Chicago back streets were empty as Anya sobbed.

She sobbed for her father, for his untimely death. He died doing the thing he did best – helping people in need. Benny had been shot in cold blood, his murderer pulling the trigger without thought, without hesitation, without remorse.

It was evil. A cruel, sick joke that the universe had unjustly dealt her.

Then Anya sobbed for her own sake. El hadn't just revealed her memories of her father dying. Pandora's box had been opened and the events of the year before had come spilling out in all their shit show glory.

Barbara died at the jaws of the strange creature she'd seen when she crashed her car. In the labs, El had opened a portal to another dimension, the 'upside down' as it was referred to. Will Byers had been in the dark, cold parallel world the entire time he'd been missing. The kids knew about it, Hopper knew about it. Every single person she thought cared about her had been lying to her face for year – pretending they hadn't known the reason for her father's death.

Her mother had been lying too – but for much longer.

Her skin prickled with heat, a deep rage bubbling within her chest until she felt she may choke on it.

There was a whispering, somewhere in the back of her mind. The noise crackled, popped and licked at her brain. It did not form understandable words and yet Anya knew perfectly what it wanted. They surged over her, finally, after years of suppression, allowed to break free.

A few minutes went by before Anya realised her hands were on fire. She stared at them with widened eyes, both shocked and awed. How was it possible she could wield this power? Anya was just an ordinary girl from Hawkins – there was nothing special about her in the slightest. Yet standing in the middle of the abandoned street, Anya felt more powerful than she'd ever felt in her life.

The flames reflected in her watery eyes. She could burn them. Burn all the people who'd lied to her, made her feel like she was the one who was crazy.

Anya closed her eyes. What was she thinking? That wasn't who she was, or who her father would want her to be. The biggest question of all was simply this – what was she going to do now?

Her life had been mapped out in her head for so long, Anya had no idea what to do with it. The feeling of overwhelming anger and grief hit her like a brick as she fell to her knees on the wet ground. The flames on her hands fizzled and hissed as they encountered the dampness, flaring angrily for a moment.

"Stop it!" Anya voiced, and the fire immediately went out. Well, that was interesting. She wiped the tears from her eyes before staring at her hands for a moment. "Fire...start?" The flames flared up somewhat aggressively and Anya shrieked. "Stop, stop stop!" The fire extinguished again quickly as she panted for breath.

"Ok." In her mind, Anya imagined the small flare of a match lighting against coarse paper. Instantly, a few sparks flickered at her fingertips, growing as large as the flame of a candle with her avid concentration. Despite her earlier upset – Anya smiled, feeling the hot stickiness of blood dripping from her nose. The flames felt natural to her, because her gift was something she'd been born with.

Deciding she'd wallowed in self-pity enough, Anya made her way back to the abandoned warehouse. El was probably upset, and though Anya was angry, she couldn't blame the young girl for her father's death.

She found both El and Kali sat on the roof. The night sky was inky black, twinkling with a lack of stars due to the light pollution of the city. The curly haired girl stood up immediately, her brown eyes full of worry and sorrow.

"Anya-" Kali said in a warning tone, obviously unsure as to how this was going to play out.

"It's alright. I'm not going to cause a scene or anything. I just want to talk," Anya reassured Kali.

"You are angry with me." El stated forlornly.

"Yes. I was angry with you." Anya paced towards one of the chairs, taking a seat quickly. The others followed suit. "I'm not anymore,"

"It was my fault your papa died, I put him in danger,"

"My father died because those evil people killed him, they are the ones to blame." Anya felt tears well up in her eyes. "I am angry because people have been lying to me. I am angry, because I have this gift that I know nothing about. I don't even know why I have it, or what it's for...all I know is that it led me to you." She took hold of El's hand, then Kali's. "It led me to both of you. I never had any siblings, now...I have two,"

Kali was smiling through tears. "It's like...I just feel whole. Like a piece of me was missing...and now it's not...does that make any sense?"

"Yes," El agreed.

"I think you were both sent here for a reason...I think, Jane's mother knew we had to be together. This is where we were meant to be," Kali wiped her tears with her free hand, her mascara smudging a little beneath her eyes.

"Yeah...I think so too." Anya nodded, their hands squeezing together tightly. "El, don't look so worried. I don't blame you, I promise,"

The young girl smiled in relief, looping her arms around Anya's neck in an unexpected embrace. She gave El a tight hug back, Kali joining in until all three girls squealed as Anya's chair nearly rocked them all backwards onto the floor.

...

"Think about something in your life that angers you." Kali instructed.

Anya watched as El outstretched her hand towards a giant, rusted metal train carriage, whilst Anya did the same.

"Now channel it. Dig deeper. Your whole life you've been lied to."

Images of her mother flashed before her eyes. In the lab, where she'd been electrocuted into forgetting her gift, forgetting her friends. Her father's murderer, those callous blue eyes looking down at his corpse as if he were a piece of garbage.

"The bad men took away your family. Your father, your mother. They stole your life, your home, they lied and lied and made you think you were crazy!"

Kali's voice drowned out as El let out a scream, the metal dragging over the concrete. Anya willed the rusted iron to start to burn, told the flames to consume it. Within a second the entire structure billowed as it scorched from the heat, the metal glowing a bright amber.

Woops and hollers sounded to their right. The gang of miscreants seemed less horrified by their abilities than they were downright impressed – though it wasn't surprising considering Kali was their leader. Anya figured not many other people would be quite so open minded.

"Does this happen all the time?" Anya asked as she wiped the blood from her nose, feeling quite lethargic after using her powers. El had fallen to her knees with the effort of it, breathing heavily.

"Yes. It gets better the more you use your gifts – you haven't been able to use yours for a long time, so it might take a while for your body to get used to it," Kali said, helping El to her feet. A large chunk of the metal roof collapsed with a loud crash, sending sparks and pieces of metal flying into the sky.

"I better put that out," Anya muttered, stretching out her hands to simmer down the flames. It took her a minute, but she got there, opening her eyes to find the carriage smouldering.

"When you think you've seen it all," Axel said behind her shoulder, making her nearly jump out of her skin. She ignored his snigger, feeling quite light headed as she sank down on an old barrel.

"How do you guys feel?" Kali said with wide eyes full of sheer determination, looking at the two exhausted girls in front of her.

"Good," El breathed, taking a seat next to Anya.

"Good." Kali nodded her head with a grin of approval. "I think it's about time you guys learnt what we do around here."