I don't own Firestarter; Stephen King does.
Please let me know what you think.
Stress Relief.
Charley looked at the devastation in the aftermath of her explosion of rage; the big white house the Shop was based at was ablaze following her attack on them, and all she felt was pure satisfaction and delight she had caused so much damage.
The Shop had now taken everything away from her - Charley knew her mother didn't blame her for setting her alight accidentally, and her dad had risked everything just to make sure her powers were kept out of reach of the Shop since her abilities were more powerful and dangerous than their own after those chemical experiments, but she had always felt guilty for the whole incident - they had hunted her and her father down like they were animals across the country, and no matter how many times she ended up incinerating them when she became angry or scared, they still hunted her down.
The death of her father by a man she thought she could trust… that was the last straw as far as Charley was concerned. And she hoped Rainbird was now burnt to death in the fire in the barn after what she did. As she looked around herself, Charley saw nothing but fires; in the distance were melted and twisted metal from a car and from a helicopter, but there was a burning tree after she had launched a literal ball of fire and it smashed him into the tree and set it alight.
The big white house the Shop was using as an office and a lab had been smashed to pieces by her fireballs (Charley wondered if her powers were growing stronger with age, or if they were just evolving, or if they had just been there the entire time and she hadn't even realised it until now)and as she watched, sobbing, Charley felt good despite seeing her father die right in front of her eyes. She had always felt a rush of pleasure and whenever she used her powers, but she had never used them to this extent. She had just been so angry with the Shop for hunting her family down like animals when they discovered her pyrokinetic abilities, being shot in the throat and being knocked unconscious when she and her father had assumed they had finally found a place to themselves after that mess at the farm, for the constant, never-ending experiments and their stupid excuses for using her; they had dressed them up, saying she was needed for the defence of the United States of America, and how she didn't really have a choice, their lies about her father telling her to cooperate - did they really think she would believe them after everything they'd put her through?
Charley sobbed as she looked at the burning building. "For you, daddy," she cried like an animal who'd been terribly hurt, and she had.
It was all the Shop's fault, but as Charley regarded the burning building - Charley was distantly aware the people who'd worked inside were still likely around, but she didn't pay them much thought; after seeing what she had done, and how many of them had likely been killed deliberately or by accident, the last thing they'd think of doing was try anything stupid, but she kept herself ready in case one of the scientists working for the Shop decided to prove her wrong - she felt as if a terrible weight had just been lifted clean off of her shoulders.
With the Shop chasing her everywhere she went, Charley's delight she had struck such a blow against the people who'd been stalking her and tried to dress their attempts to kidnap her up as some kind of twisted duty was very strong. She didn't know for sure if her actions tonight would only make their desire to capture and keep her alive as some kind of lab rat was now made even stronger, but as she stared at the big white house Charley felt physically sick as she realised what she was now destined to become…
She would never be able to live any semblance of any kind of a normal life and while she could appreciate her parents hadn't known what the consequences of their decisions to agree to the Shop's experiments would be, Charley had to work really hard to stop herself being resentful towards them, even if she had good reason for it.
But it made her bitter. Charley knew she could never go to school like a regular ignorant kid, who was completely unaware people who ran things like the Shop existed, while her parents were just normal, powerless people, and she didn't set things on fire.
But she didn't give in to her bitterness - her parents had done that quite a bit for her; Charley remembered the quiet, sad, melancholy which had haunted her mother for years although it wouldn't be until she was old enough to understand the reasons for the sadness. Her mother had always fretted and became sad whenever they stayed in one place for a long period, and Charley remembered how her mum and dad lamented how their own daughter could never live a normal life.
But as she looked at the burning building in front of her, Charley knew she couldn't stay here long. She might be sure the survivors of the fire were not going to attack her, but she knew that would not last. The Shop was as bad as an infestation of cockroaches, if they didn't come after her again, someone else would and Charley would be very surprised if that didn't happen.
They would be back.
All Charley needed to do now was to count down the days, and wait. Still, it occurred to her she might have a chance of getting a better life as quietly as she could without the Shop there to muck everything up.
Still, at least with the destruction of the big white house, she had gotten rid of a lot of her pent up stress. She just wished her mummy and daddy were still around to be there for her.