Chapter Twenty-Four
Cigarettes
Piper let out a deep breath as she finished off wrapping El's ankle, making sure it was nice and tight to keep it from bleeding. Once she was done, Piper moved to sit down across from her on the other side of the aisle. El rested back and closed her eyes as she took a few deep breaths. Both sat there listening as they heard Max talking to Lucas and the muffled talking between Jonathan and Nancy. Piper rested her head back against the shelf behind her as she felt her energy slowly drain out.
"Does it hurt?" Piper asked as she moved her head to look towards El.
El shook her head and looked up towards Piper. "Not. Not really any more."
"Good"
Piper moved to gather the supplies and place them into the empty bucket that Nancy had found not too long. Both girls turned their heads towards the sound of footsteps and looked to see Mike walking towards them. Piper could tell by the look on his face he was nervous about something, and when she looked down towards El she could see the same nervousness. They are going to need a moment.
"I'm gonna step out and get some air." Piper spoke as she stood from the ground, before quickly walking down the aisle and towards the front of the store.
Piper stopped short at the register counter at the front of the store, eyeing the packs of cigarettes behind the counter. She thought about it for only a split second before she walked around and grabbed the first pack she saw and a lighter. God I've needed you for a while, she thought as she walked through the broken glass door. The moment Piper stepped into the cool air she lit the cigarette and placed it between her lips. She took in a deep inhale, held it in her lungs till they burned before slowly blowing outwards. The smoke pushed out past her lips and swirled around her face before dissipating.
"You feeling ok?"
Piper turned quickly to look over her shoulder back towards the door to see Jonathan walking out behind her, his hands fisted into the pocket of his jeans as he stood beside her. Piper shrugged her shoulders before taking another drag of the cigarette.
"You know I haven't had one of these in nearly two weeks." She chuckled before dashing the ash from the tip off to the side. "Billy was helping me quit...guess it was all for nothing."
"I'd say this is a circumstance where that's ok." Jonathan spoke softly "H-How are you holding up."
"Barely." She spoke quickly "Remember when I came to your house, after everything that happened with Will and the Demo-whatever."
"Yeah." He answered quickly.
"This is so much worse than that."
Piper looked towards Jonathan with a slight shake to her hand and her eyes quickly filling with unshed tears. He took a step towards her and placed a comforting hand onto her shoulder.
"We're going to figure this out, Piper."
"Are we, Jonathan? Are we?" She sniffled and flicked the cigarette off to the side, stomping it with her foot, but keeping her eyes on Jonathan. "Because I think this is far worse than any of us have every seen or could ever imagine. He has a fucking army! A army made up of our friends and neighbors led by my boyfriend." She chocked slightly on her words and reached up to wipe her tears. "You didn't see him, Jonathan. He's scared. Billy is so fucking scared and I couldn't help him. I had him! I fucking had him for a moment and I...I had to walk away." Piper tried to take a breath but came up short, feeling a tightening starting to form in her chest. "I...I left him...I left him."
Jonathan's eyes widened in horror as he watched his friend start to fall apart in front of him. Piper's leg shook slightly and he moved quickly to catch her in his arms and slowly bring her to sit on the curb outside the store. Piper's breaths were shallow as tears cascaded down her cheeks.
"Place your head between your legs, Piper." Jonathan spoke as he moved to kneel in front of her. When he looked up towards the door he could see Nancy watching from inside the store, her face deep set in worry for her friend. "Take deep...slow breaths for me...that's it Piper...that's it."
Piper closed her eyes tightly as she tried to control her breathing, feeling her legs quiver as she gripped to her calves tightly. It took a few minutes, but slowly, she sat up and looked towards Jonathan. His eyes scanned over her slightly reddened face and caressed her cheek.
"I can't lose him...I can't lose him." She repeated as her eyes vacantly looking towards him. "I love him, Jonathan. I can't lose him. Not him too. I lost my parents and I sure as hell am not going to lose Billy."
Piper smoked two more cigarettes before she was able to full calm down. She could see a few of the group looking towards her with worried eyes. She knew that she was falling apart at the seams, but also knew that now wasn't the time for that. Piper needed to stay focused and make sure she was able to think clearly. Not only was Billy on the line right now but so was her sister. She couldn't control losing her parents, since they were taken from her in a accident. But this. This Piper could control, or at least try with all her might.
"Are you sure he said 'gate'?" Max asked as they placed fireworks into the half empty cart, discussing the transmission from Dustin not too long ago. "Maybe he said, 'great'. I mean El did see him at the movies."
"I'm pretty sure it was 'gate' that makes more sense with what we are dealing with right now." Mike spoke.
"Well we better hope that Lucas's idea works, cause we're only gonna have one shot at this." Jonathan spoke as they slowly pushed the cart towards the car.
Piper followed behind the group and looked around, making sure nothing was left behind, before everyone piled back into the car. She moved to sit towards the front next to Jonathan as he started it up.
"We're gonna make it through this." He spoke, his eyes on the road, but Piper knew that he was talking to her. He reached across the center console and gripped her hand tightly. "We're gonna make it through this and then you and Billy are going to be happy. Ok?"
Piper turned to look towards him and just simply nodded her head, not able to form words. She knew that Jonathan meant well. But not even he could make that big of a promise.
Piper was one of the first out of the car as they pulled up in front of Star Court Mall. Everyone piled up and followed behind her towards the back entrance of the mall. El was close beside her as they entered through the second level of the mall. The neon lights casted over them as they walked through the empty mall. Piper pressed her hand against El's chest, causing the girl to stop for a moment, before she slowly walked towards the banister that looked down over the first floor. As she stepped closer, Piper was able to hear the soft static of a walkie system, along with footsteps. She froze for a moment and was able to see a few men down below, guns drawn, as they scoped through the mall. Piper raised her hand up, signaling for El, as the other stayed back a few feet.
"There is a car down there, think you can use that?" Piper whispered towards El.
El nodded her head before walked up towards the banister, Piper stood back as she heard the sound of the car alarm going off. Making the loud noise vibrate through the building and causing her to flinch slightly. Piper slowly began to walk off to the side and watched as El used her powers to flip the car towards the men, killing them almost instantly. There was a moment of silence before the heads of Steve, Dustin, Robin and Erika peeked over the counter.
"Steve! Robin" Piper yelled as she rushed down the steps and towards her friends, everyone following behind her.
Steve pushed off the counter and ran as fast as he could towards Piper, ignoring the pain in his body, a feeling of relief as he saw her face. A smile graced her face as she wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly against her chest, before moving to do the same to Robin.
"Oh my god I was so worried about you guys." Piper sighed and pulled back, before looking between both their faces. "Holy hell, you look like shit."
"Could say the same about you, Canon." Steven chuckled softly "We were worried for a second you wouldn't have figured out where we were."
"El was able to find you pretty quickly. It was just a matter of getting here." Piper smiled, before looking towards Robin again. "You ok?"
Robin's eyes moved from the crashed car, back to Piper, before looking over the group that stood in front of her. "I-I'm sorry...I...I don't fully understand what just happened."
"Oh," Piper took a small step back and placed her arm around El's shoulder. "This is my sister, El..."
"And she has super powers. Able to move stuff with her mind." Steve finished off for her.
"I'm sorry...what!" Robin's eyes widened more as her brain tried to processes what was being told to her. "Super...what?"
"Super powers. Come on keep up." Steve chuckled slightly.
"It's a lot at first, but take my word for it, it's better to just play along." Piper spoke before pulling away from El.
"What happened to you guys?" Mike asked looking between the two older teens in front of him.
"Russians." Steve and Robin spoke in unison.
"I'm sorry.." Nancy stepped forward "Who are you?"
"I'm Robin. I work with Steve."
"I don't think that's the important part right now, Nancy. I'm more worried about the Russian part of this conversation." Piper spoke as she crossed her arms at her chest. "Please, clarify."
Quickly everyone around Piper began to bicker and talk over each other. She rolled her eyes and looked over the group and quickly realized that El was missing. Fear crept up into her chest and held tightly to her breath as her eyes scanned over the court for El. A few feet away she noticed the bright yellow of El's shirt and saw her hunched over gripping tightly to her ears.
"El?" Piper spoke before she watched El drop quickly to the floor. "El!" Piper screamed before pushing past Robin and Steve towards her sister.
Piper moved quickly to her knees and caressed El's forehead as she whimpered in pain, from behind her, Piper was able to hear everyone else follow after her.
"What's wrong?" Piper spoke towards her sister, trying to not let the panic seep into her voice.
"M-My leg." El whimpered.
Quickly Piper moved her hands down towards El's leg and pushed up her pant leg, Mike helping with unbinding the bandage that Piper had placed on earlier. When the bandage was fully removed, it exposed to what look like an infected would.
"Holy shit!" Lucas spoke, basically saying everything that was everyone's mind.
El let out another scream of pain drawing Piper's attention back towards her. She moved to push back her hair as El cried out in pain.
"What the fuck is going on?" Steve spoke, anxiously running his fingers through his hair.
"Uh...t-there's something in her leg...it's moving!" Max screamed
"Keep her talking!" Jonathan spoke before nearly rocketing from beside Piper and heading towards the counter that Steve and the others were hiding behind earlier.
Piper reached down and gripped El's hand tightly as she continued to cry and wither in pain.
"Hey...hey remember a couple weeks ago? When we stayed up all night and watched movies." Piper spoke, El nodded her head and replied with a soft yes. "Remember all the ice cream we ate and how Hop got all mad cause we ate all the chocolate?"
"I-I remember." El spoke and tried to laugh, from the memory, but it came out more as a struggled gasp.
"We're gonna have another night like that when this is all over. Ok? I promise." Piper spoke as she pushed back El's brown hair.
El nodded her head and gripped tighter to Piper's hand before letting out another cry in pain. When Piper lifted her head she was met with Jonathan once again kneeling down in front of her.
"This is gonna hurt a lot." He spoke towards El before looking around towards everyone. "I'm gonna need your help holding her down."
Piper moved quickly to lift El up off her back, and having her lean against Piper. She wrapped her arms around the shaking girl to be as comforting as possible, as Mike moved to hold down her leg with the help of Lucas and Dustin. Max moved towards Piper side and held onto El's hand tightly. Jonathan pushed the pant let up higher, to expose more of her leg, before tightening his hold on her ankle. He looked up towards El with sympathetic eyes, before taking the knife in his hand and pressing it into her skin. El moved violently, as much as she could, as he cut through the skin.
"It's ok El. It's ok." Piper whispered softly, El screaming louder as Jonathan moved his fingers around to try and find whatever was beneath the skin.
"Jonathan! Get it out!" Nancy nearly screamed in panic as she watched him fail to bring out whatever was hurting El.
El pushed out of Piper's arms and sat up "Stop! Stop! I'll get it."
"Are you sure?" Jonathan asked as he looked up towards her.
El nodded her head. "I can do it."
Piper watched in horror as she heard the screaming coming out of El as she used her powers to pull out whatever had embedded into her skin. The scream had grown loud enough in volume that Piper
reached up to cover her ears. In a matter of moment El was able to pull out a small piece of something. Before she throw it across the mall, glass shattering around them as she fell back against Piper.
Everyone sat there stunned for a moment, before their attention was drawn towards the sound of a small shriek. When Piper looked up the relief and happiness that ran through her body couldn't even be fully described. It was like the fear that had been clenching at her chest was finally gone.
"Hopper." Piper whispered softly, as her Uncle rushed towards them. Joyce and another man following close behind.
Will rushed off towards his mom, as Hopper bent down and wrapped his arms around both Piper and El. Both girls gripped tightly to him as he whispered to them softly, saying how relieved and happy he was to see them both. Piper bit down on her lower lip to hold back her sob as Hopper pulled away to look at both of them.
"Hey, hey now. No crying." He reached and wiped the tear that fell down Piper's cheek. "I've got you now."
"I'm just so happy to see you." Piper spoke softly, before moving to bury her face back into the crook of his neck and her hand holding tightly to El.
AN: The Star Court battle is probably within two chapters and I have decided what is going to happen. Some of you might be happy and the others might be mad or sad. But I have thought it through a couple times and it's the ending that I am most satisfied with. I do think after the "battle" there is going to be maybe two or so more chapters after that. So in all roughly five chapters are left in the story. Which makes me sad cause like I said before I'm attached to Piper. I think this is a story where I fully feel attached to the story and the character. Maybe my degree is finally kicking in and I'm now confident in my writing. Please leave a review with your thoughts. The next chapter is already written out and just needs to be edited. Stay safe!