𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃.
𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐇 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃.
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"I destroy everything around me. I care too much about you to let you get hurt."
"Well, I'm not letting you p...
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I used to remember these afternoons
When you sat there by my side
You saw through my heart, my emptiness
And told me you would listen
-Erik Jonasson, Like a Funeral
"GO, GO, GO!" Steve shouted the second the fire began. He grabbed Olivia's hand and spun her around, taking off into the tunnels with her in tow.
Dustin cursed loudly behind them, and Olivia could hear the rustling and squeaking rubber of the kids gear as the middle-schoolers followed them into the unknown at a full sprint.
The flames chased them as the tunnels started wailing. Olivia ran harder than she ever had in her life, her useless arm pulled close to her stomach. She fought back the urge to vomit as Dustin shrieked at the top of his lungs.
"OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OHMYGOD..."
They ran and ran and ran, the putrid air burning Olivia's lungs as they pressed forward. She had fallen into a steady rhythm, on foot after the other.
Just like that night a year ago when she had run from Hawkins National Labratory, away from an old life and into a new one.
She was so focused that she almost missed Mike's screaming. "HELP! HELP! HEEEEEELLLLLP!"
Steve nearly skidded backwards as he turned around. He was yelling before the others could even register what was happening. "Hold on!"
Mike had gotten himself caught in the middle of a thicket of squirming vines, which had gotten a hold on his ankles. They were climbing up his legs. threatening to drag him down deeper, deeper...
"Steve, pull him out!" Dustin was bellowing.
Max gripped Olivia's good arm, her eyes wide and horrified. "Can't you- can't you use your powers?"
Olivia already knew the answer, but she tried anyway. Tears burned her eyes and she couldn't hold back the yelp as she aimed at the vines. Immediately, another world of pain split open in her mind, unlocking a level of torture she didn't know possible. She was abruptly knocked to her knees, a layer of sweat sheet across her skin. Her hair clung to her face and her entire body trembled with pain except her ruined, dead arm.
And all for the tiniest tremble in the air.
"It's gone," Olivia's voice cracked as Max hauled her to her feet. Mike was climbing to his as well, Lucas and Dustin clinging to his arms to support him. "My gift... it's gone."
Olivia suddenly felt hollow. She had known- there was no way her powers had been able to work after what that monster had done to her, but they had still been a part of her for long.
