Stranger Love [Billy Hargrove]

Stranger Love - Chapter Twenty

Stranger Love

Chapter Twenty – No Such Thing As Normal

"These are the bad men, as you call them El. The ones we believe are still alive," Kali said as the group of people stood opposite a wall collaged with photographs and notes written in red ink. Anya regarded the display wearily. The sheer amount of individuals involved in the 'experiments' was overwhelming to say the least. How many of them were out in the world right now, living normal lives as if they hadn't participated in the horrific deeds of the past? How had so many of them managed to find themselves working for a madman such as Brenner?

She could still picture his cruel, calculating eyes. The man her mother had put so much faith in, the man who'd completely destroyed El and Kali's childhoods.

Anya paced forwards, peering at a photo of two men in lab coats, one with a large cross over his face. "I'm guessing the ones crossed out are...."

"Dead? Yeah." Axel finished for her, running his finger over his throat.

"You killed them?" She regarded the group.

"Does that scare you, Prom Queen?" Dottie asked her, tilting her head in a taunting way towards Anya, her make-up smeared messily around her eyes and lips.

"Doesn't exactly make me feel great, Harley Quinn," Anya bit back, earning snickers from the entire group.

"She got you there," Mick said, dodging a sharp elbowing from Dottie with a smirk on her mouth.

"Do you recognise any of them, Anya? El?" Kali, ever the serious one, got back to business quickly. Anya wasn't sure she wanted to point one of the many people out – she figured it was as good as signing their death sentence.

"Him," El spoke up, pulling a newspaper article from the cork board. El held up the picture of a balding man in his 50's who Anya recognised from her new set of memories. The words RETIRED made the title, the smaller print unreadable to her as Kali retrieved the piece of paper.

"Ray Carroll."

"He hurt mama," El said.

"He did more than hurt your mama," Kali informed her. "He hurt me, tortured me, made my life a living hell,"

"I remember him, he was the one who electrocuted me...." Anya visibly remembered him standing over her, holding an elongated taser towards her quivering form. "Did he do that to you too?" She queried El, who nodded. Anya grit her teeth. "Bastard."

"The bad men like Ray know about us. It's made them hard to track...but maybe not anymore," Kali finished her words by looking pointedly at El. Anya bit her bottom lip, feeling a surge of panic rise into her throat. Kali wasn't going to ask El to find this man, so they could actually kill him, was she?

"You want me to find him?" El flashed her brown eyes from Anya to Kali unsurely.

"Yes,"

"No,"

Both girls answered simultaneously, the pair staring at each other – Kali in surprise and Anya in sheer determination.

"You can't ask her to do that, it's not fair," Anya said, taking the photo from Kali.

"Why not? He hurt us! He is bad, and we need to get retribution for his crimes!"

"I know they hurt us, but it's not exactly that black and white, is it? My Mom supported Dr Brenner at the beginning. She handed me over to him! What are you going to do? Find her and kill her too?" Anya stressed. "Why isn't her picture up here on the wall of doom, huh?"