Alone, No More (Harringrove)

Chapter 18//Hunger Game

A/N: Aaaaaaand I'm back. I have a few chapters already written that I'm going to pop into an edit and then they'll up as well. Thank you for your patience <3 

-B

Chapter 18:

Jim Hopper was not a docile man, nor was he easily persuaded, but it had been several days since he had eaten -or smoked- and the growl that rumbled from his belly sounded angry and demanding enough that he felt like caving. Weeks shackled to a wall in someone's dingy basement had taken a toll on him.  

Like every day, when the sun blinded him from the lone basement window, he thought back to his daughter. Often he thought about how, on that fateful evening when he was abducted, Jane was dancing with her new friends. He wished he was home when she returned and it broke his heart that she had to go home to it being empty; much less from him to not return at all.

A door slammed upstairs catching his weary attention, followed by heavy footsteps on the hardwood flooring leading to the basement door. A lock on the door jingled as if whoever was trying to unlock it was struggling with it, but soon the door cracked open, and jostled on it's hinges from the force.

"Jimmy!" greeted a man who Jim had become all too familiar with in the past couple weeks; his ugly sneer ingrained into the cop's mind.

As the man approached like they were old friends, Jim scanned his appearance, trying to memorize every inch for when he could arrest him. Jim was hungry and missed his family, so he worked to hold his tongue, especially because he had learned the hard way to keep the snide remarks to himself. He just didn't feel like getting hurt today.

Jim simply nodded in response, ignoring the soreness of his neck, watching the wild man in front of him with tired eyes. He desperately needed food, soon, or his stomach would start to eat him from the inside out. 

"Awe Jimmy boy, you hungry?" the man asked with a raspy voice that suggested he consumed more nicotine than oxygen.

Jim's belly groaned loudly in response, rousing a dry smirk from his captor; his dull grey eyes flashed with predatorial excitement. There had been a few people to visit him in his basement jail cell, mostly just to drop nearly inedible food near his crossed legs, but none more sadistic than this one. 

The man, who Jim had known as Riley, turned around to a bag he had brought down stairs, his ugly long stings of hair swayed like uncooked noodles on his shoulders. When he faced the cop once again, he lifted a bag of old bread and a carton of coffee creamer, his eyes large and wild.

And while it wasn't much, Hop's sense of self-preservation had been thrown out the tiny window, and suddenly he was ravenous . His mouth watered at the slight smell of the food, and he couldn't bring himself to care if it was stale or passed it's due date.

"Piggy hungry?" Riley asked in a mocking tone, his expression in faux concern, and opened the bagged loaf to sniff the contents. His nose wrinkled and his brows drew in as he scowled.

At the mercy of his belly, Hopper nodded, making Riley's sneer grow into a Cheshire-like grin.

"Sorry," Riley picked the butt-end of the loaf from the bag. "What was that?" he asked the cop, and popped the whole slice into his mouth, not without struggle. Jim watched the action open mouthed.

"Pl-please," Jim begged, his voice sounding like sandpaper. "I'm...I'm so h-hungry".

Riley's mouth stretched further, if even possible, and his eyes glinted in excitement, "Yeah, I bet!"