― 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅.
❝ you never knew the stars had
a flavor until you first kissed him.
it turns out they taste like ambition
and ancient fire, desperation, and
dark matter, and the mind-numbing
fear of bei...
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STARCROSSED (book one). °• CHAPTER TEN •°
" IT'S DIFFERENT NOW. I'M DIFFERENT. "
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IT TAKES EVERY LAST BIT OF STRENGTH ELIJAH WOLFHART HAS TO NOT BREAK DOWN. Every second that passes is a further step closer to the line that once crossed, he'll fail and fall apart. His adrenaline had finally died down. It left him so overwhelmed that he was close to sobbing with his temple pressed against the cool, glass window of his car. The knowledge that Steve was sat next to Nancy in the seats behind him didn't ease him either. Too much was happening at once. Elijah could hardly keep up without allowing it to destroy him.
Elijah's gaze dart to the crack that allowed him to see the stars in the sky. They glimmer back at him and his lips twitch into a small, sad smile. He wished he was there. The part of him so in love with the stars that made him feel as if he was born from there just wanted to go home. Elijah wanted to be as calm, still, and beautiful as a star that could shine no matter how much dark there was surrounding them.
The only other thing that shone brighter than the stars was the red and blue lights of ambulances and police cars waiting for them at the Hawkins Middle School. The kids they thought were safe here were scattered around, either in the back of an ambulance or on the staircase, blankets draped over their shoulders. Their faces are blank, sneakers splattered with small spots of blood, eyes blurred with tears. Elijah slams the car door shut at the sight. He knows something's wrong.
The one kid he doesn't see is Eleven.
Elijah hopes maybe he's wrong. He prays that the kid escaped somehow once she saw all of the attention around the parking lot in fear that she'd be taken back to the Lab. She was... God, she was just a child. That should've been enough. They shouldn't have left them alone in the first place. Elijah can deny it all he wants, but when the truth none of the traumatized children could speak stares him straight in the face, he knows one of them hadn't made it.
They burned that thing alive and it did nothing. It came back. It'll always come back.
Elijah's hand had wandered to his bandaged palm without him realizing it. All of his nerves had gone numb and he felt nothing at all. The night's cold wind nipped at his skin and he couldn't feel the sting. The damp pebbles dug into the soles of his sneakers and he couldn't feel it poke into his skin. Even the punch hitting his gut wasn't soft, but he doesn't cry out. And Elijah doesn't feel his thumb piercing the healing cut on his hand or the blood that starts to stain his skin once more. He expects the pain even when it doesn't come. It doesn't burn like he expects, not at first.
