𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘 - 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐎𝐍

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR; HOMECOMING

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR; HOMECOMING — Also known as The Hellfire Club, Part 1

• • •

"So, tell me Jennifer, what's new? What did you see?"

"Same old." I sighed while dropping my head into my hand. I threaded my fingers into my hair for comfort as I glanced fleetingly to Dr. Owens before casting my gaze back on to the inked crown on the inside of my wrist, "He told me he loved me and then he died but this time the Mind Flayer didn't die. I looked up to it, ready for it to kill me and when I looked back down to him he wasn't there. It was Steve instead, dying right in front of me."

"And this him you keep referring to? That's still Billy, correct?" Dr. Owens asked me.

I met his eyes briefly and nodded, turning to look out of the window. It was miserable outside and it felt reflective of my mood — horrible. The sky was grey and there wasn't a spec of sunlight in sight. It was drizzling, that exceptionally fine rain that soaked you to the bone within seconds. It was a bleak day and to be honest I couldn't remember the last time I looked outside of the window and saw that the weather was nice.

"And Steve, that's new." Owens probed me, "You've never associated him with that before."

"No." I shook my head, "I just dream of Russian's beating the crap out of him instead."

"Even though you didn't see it." He nodded.

I looked down to my tattoo again, a reminder that Steve was waiting just outside for me. He was all right — safe and no where near the dangers my mind liked to tell me he was in. It was cruel the tricks my subconscious played on me, it was almost like it wanted me to suffer.

I shrugged, "My mind envisions what happened. It finds ways to match the scenarios I create in my head."

He nodded while listening intently, "And these scenarios are—?"

"They differ." I told him, "He told me they beat him for information so I see that. I see a guard just hitting him consecutively and beating him unconscious. He told me they had a doctor who had an assortment of metal tools and contraptions. I see what my mind pictures as that doctor torturing him with what are probably medieval devices.."

I wasn't there, but I picture it vividly. Steve's body was proof of what he'd endured and yet he never seemed phased by what they'd done to him.

That night after the mall set on fire .. after the Mind Flyer died and we went home — Steve, Dustin and I — I'd been inconsolable. Dustin had managed to settle and get some sleep but Steve had to pull me out of the shower. I insisted I'd be fine, that I was only going to wash the sweat and grime off of my body but the second I caught sight of the dried black blood on my arm my knees began to shake and I had no choice but to slide down the wall.