Into The Fire~A Stranger Things fanfiction

Final Battle/Love And Sacrifice

   

The next thing I knew, Robin, Steve, Erica, and Dustin came out from behind the counter, my girlfriend helping me to stand, and I groaned in pain, my vision blurry and edging on black, waves of dizziness causing me to be unsteady on my feet. "Ana? Ana, hey, are you okay?" Robin's panicked voice faded in and out of focus, and it was all I could do to lean on her without passing out. "I will let you know when everything stops spinning.. I think I'm going to-" Before I could finish my sentence, I tore myself from her grip, barely making it a few inches to the right where some fake plants were, before throwing up into the leaves, not able to hold it in, my stomach in agony, along with the rest of my body. "I think I may actually need a doctor at this point.. Even I can only take so much."

I slid down onto the floor, breathing shakily, sharp pain lancing through my whole body with every breath, and watched as El, Lucas, Max, Johnathan, Nancy, Mike, and Will all hugged my fellow vigilantes, listening to them talking and laughing. My eyes moved away from them, though, as El moved away from the others, a look of confusion and fear on her face, before she covered her ears, like the world was too loud for her, even though it was pretty quiet inside of the mall. "Guys? Not to be an asshole, but-" They ignored me, and I groaned, wishing they would listen to me, and swore in Russian. Before I could get another word out, she went down hard on the floor, and everyone rushed over to her, except me. I basically dragged myself over to see what the hell was going on, and nearly threw up again, seeing the deep, bloody wound in her left leg, but then, what happened next was even worse, Something started moving beneath her skin, as if it were alive, causing her to shriek.

A chill went down my spine, as whatever that thing was wriggled beneath the surface, moving around the inside of El's leg like it was trying to hide itself, and I flinched, as one of El's hands firmly gripped my own. My eyes met her teary ones, and I laced my shaking fingers with hers, gently squeezing her hand, offering her a tiny, forced smile. "It will be okay. Your friends will help you.. They seem to know a lot about the shit they're doing." At the sound of my Russian accent, everyone except Steve, Robin, Erica, and Dustin looked at me, but they didn't say anything. They were probably too worried about El to ask any questions at the moment, which I was thankful for. I mean, how was I supposed to explain who and what I was to people I hardly knew, let alone the few of them that were complete strangers, besides me knowing their names?

As Mike and his friends turned El onto her side, Robin spoke up, trying to be the helpful person she is, and said, "You know, it- It's not actually that bad. There was the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, and this girl slid into her leg, and the whole bone came out of her knee six inches or something. It was insane!" Steve said, "Robin", and when she replied, "Yeah?", he told her, "You're not helping", and I shot him an icy glare, before looking at my girlfriend. "It's okay to be scared shitless. You're only trying to help the best you can, and make everyone not panic." She shot me a weak smile, but it faded, as Johnathan raced back to us from wherever he'd gone, holding a knife. He pulled on some plastic gloves, and shoved a wooden spoon in El's mouth, and that's when I realized the plan he had. "Oh, God-" I kept holding El's hand, but looked away, right before I heard Mike say, "Do it." I flinched, the sound of sharp metal squelching through flesh causing me more nausea, and tried not to gag as I could hear Johnathan's fingers scrape against bone, digging in El's leg.

El shouted, "Stop! Stop! I can do it", and let go of my hand, which caused me to turn my head to look at her again. As she raised one hand over her leg, I realized what she was about to do, then felt my whole body flinch in fear, as she started shrieking in pain, whatever was inside her leg squirming hard against her power, trying to escape it, not wanting to be ripped out of her flesh. Her screams grew louder and louder, until, eventually, the glass display window behind her shattered from it, the lights flickering inside of the mall, and I saw her using her powers to hold up some squirming little creature, its veiny and dark body reminding me of the fleshy thing I saw inside of the dark place. She sent it flying about fifty feet away, and it began squirming off, but the sole of a boot slammed down on top of it, squashing it into nonexistence, and all out eyes slowly lifted to reveal Chief Jim Hopper in all his glory, Joyce Byers, and a man I sadly knew all too well, a groan coming out of me.