✓ | 1. subject thirteen [STRANGER THINGS]

eight.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
THE SAVIOURS

[ THE MONSTER PART II ]

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          In the afternoon, when THIRTEEN's hunger caught up to him and he realised he couldn't just sleep off an empty stomach, he and ELEVEN navigated out of the woods and followed an empty, rainwater-stained road leading past Benny's abandoned diner, back toward Hawkins, where they found a shop named Bootles standing just on the edge of the small town.

They hesitated at the edge of the parking lot, which sat on a slope rising away from the shop, and watched the people wandering about their daily lives with rattling trolleys, heading to their sleek red and blue and even yellow cars.

"Ready?" THIRTEEN asked.

"Don't say that," ELEVEN said, voice quiet but harsh, assertive. "Sound like them. Like Papa."

"I'm sorry," THIRTEEN mumbled. He brushed his hand along the back of ELEVEN's shoulder kindly, prompting her to look up at him, and he gave her a warm, apologetic smile.

Then, together, they headed down the slope and entered through the glass doors of the shop, walking beneath the peeling BIG BUY! signs and faded red SALE! signs plastered on the once red but now grey-brown brick wall above the doorway.

Two young women with brown bags full of groceries gave the two of them strange, confused and slightly disgusted glances as the subjects passed brought the tills and entered the main shop. One man in red uniform did the same, though ELEVEN and THIRTEEN paid no mind to any of them. THIRTEEN was much to focused on the jingling, cheery music playing from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"What should we get?" THIRTEEN asked ELEVEN, glancing down at her.

She stopped looking around her in awe and looked up at him. "Eggos," she said.

THIRTEEN gave her an unamused look. She blinked at him, not understanding the stare, so he decided to just look away and focus on finding her godforsaken Eggos.

They started to the left, passing a Christmas stall decorated with golden tinsel and a small green pine tree, a star positioned precariously on top. Gifts were lined up along the stall, positioned carefully in neat rows along a deep red tablecloth. Christmas. THIRTEEN remembered Christmas.

Together, they turned up a random aisle. Much more focused on grabbing something and leaving than his female counterpart, THIRTEEN tugged a dazed and in-awe ELEVEN along by her hand as he searched along three to four aisles, glancing left to right in search of the familiar box of waffles. They'd been searching for a good five minutes before he spotted the familiar yellow packing through a glass fridge door in his right.