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it wasn’t fair.
finney watched as the cops knocked on his door, looking for a griffin stagg. his dad scoffed and brushed them off, reeking of alcohol and cigarette smoke.
they knew better than to pressure him, having heard the complaints from neighbours, (“when terrence blake gets stressed, he makes the kids pay for it… every night it gets worse.”) but the cops had better things to do than to deal with silly children getting beat.
what hurt more than the blatant ignorance, though, was that, when everyone stopped looking for griffin, billy showalter never gave up.
watching him stop in front of griffin’s house everyday while handing out newspapers, teary eyes as, instead of throwing it like usual, he walked to the door, his dog followed behind, ears flat and whining softly, was truly heart wrenching. it was tragic.
what no one expected was for, months later, billy showalter to go missing, too.
one evening billy had been delivering newspapers, and he had just vanished.
boys in this town seemed to do that. a lot.
barely anyone looked for billy.
it was sad, really, as he gave out the morning newspapers and without him most men from this godforsaken town wouldnt, couldnt, get up and go get it themselves.
he was forgotten pretty quickly, seeing as he was never really remembered to begin with. hell, even finney forgot, and he wasn’t gonna sit there and lie about it.
it was quiet for a while before someone else was gone. they got some peace, for a couple of months.
until vance hopper’s pinball score was beaten and he wasnt there to beat the person black and blue, or at least get his high score back. some people were glad, really.
said the streets felt safer without a delinquent like vance wandering around.
vance was never mean to finney. sure, finney was scared shitless of vance, even held the door open for the cops when they were dragging him out of the grab n go, but vance never really tried ro hurt finney.
so, even if they werent friends, watching as the cops immediately gave up with vance hopper hurt finney.
and it certainly took a toll on bruce yamada, who would proudly hang around vance hopper, gripping at his shirt when in crowded spaces and always patching him up after fights.
it didn’t really matter, though, cause he was gone too, ten months later.
finney had started counting how long it was before disaster struck again. it was the sad reality he lived in.
the whole town went wild for bruce yamada.
at least, at first, they did.
at the top of every class, star baseball player, friendly. known. liked. he didn’t fit the criteria of the grabbers victims. at first they had thought bruce yamada was a completely different case, surely it couldn’t have been the grabber. no.
the grabber only took nobodies.
which was why the town was shocked when in a couple of weeks, robin arellanos photo was plaster everywhere around denver.
it only took him weeks to take his best friend, and finney thought that taking robin was unfair.
cause robin wasnt a nobody. everyone knew robin arellano.
everyone feared robin arellano. sure, they also feared vance hopper and he was taken too, but, blame finney for being biased.
robin arellano was everything.
sure, finney held him on gods level, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it.
he adored robin, all bruised knuckles and long hair and bandanas and pretty eyes.
he was infatuated with him.
he looked everywhere, even when the police stopped, he promised ms arellano he wouldn’t.
he even looked under fucking rocks as if robin could comically shrink, like in those cartoons they had planned to watch that evening if robin arellano hadn’t been grabbed.
maybe finney blamed himself, but maybe if he wasnt so lazy that day and went to the store with robin, his best friend would still be here.
and he wouldn’t be locked up in the same basement his best friend had previously been.
finney hadn’t counted the days this time, too busy looking for his bestfriend, but he was sure it had only been a week. one fucking week.
it was so unfair how little it took for the police to stop looking. how little it took the grabber to get rid of robin arellano.
robin arellano who always stood up for himself. robin arellano who always stood up for others.
robin arellano was a hero, in finneys eyes.
the door opened and finneys head snapped up, eyes wide.
there he stood. only the bottom of the mask on, an ugly frown finney had been seeing for the past days. but this time it felt different.
“finney… nothings going as planned.” his voice seemed distant, and finney stared blankly at him, hugging himself tighter. “i might have to get this over with… earlier than planned.”
“wha-what?” finneys voice was raw with emotion, eyes filling with tears. surely, he wanted this nightmare to end but, god, he didn’t want to die.
“shut up! shut… up!” albert grabbed at his hair and smacked his head a bit. “you make it so hard for me, finney… so, so hard.”
finney watched as the grabber reached into his back pocket and retrieved a knife. he felt lightheaded, like his head was a balloon getting filled with helium.
everything was still and silent for a couple of minutes, and next thing he knows, the grabber pounced on him, yelling as he let the knife penetrate every part of finneys body he would reach.
finneys body went limp. there was nothing he could do but cry and mumble incoherently.
his vocal chords wouldn’t let him shout.
after what felt like hours, albert let the grip he had on finney go, the boys head lolling to the side. the boy was sobbing silently, his face painted with pain and voice pleading, the grabber almost pitied him.
“please, mr grabber, i dont want to die.”
and minutes later, albert shaw watched the life leave finneys eyes, tearful and empty.
he chuckled at himself, removing the bottom part of his mask, now bloodied and sweaty.
now he needed another boy.
it was a pain looking for boys, it took him weeks. but he needed it, it was almost an addiction.
there was a knock on the door, but the grabber just sat there, in the basement, blocking out the noise. that is, until the door was broken down and there were footsteps everywhere.
that was it, and albert shaw knew it, it was over.
___________
gwen watched as the cops broke into albert shaws house, a house gwen had led them to days earlier.
and just as they went in, albert shaw was escorted out, face painted in white, stained with blood and washed out with sweat. a smile painted his face and he looked purely filthy, unwashed.
she watched bodies being wheeled out of the house across the street, she counted five bodybags, heart sinking to the bottom of her stomach.
it almost felt like it wasn’t beating anymore.
and she knew it wasnt when she watched a sixth bodybag being wheeled out of the house she had been standing next to, followed by a confused max.
finney was gone.
finney was gone and gwen didn’t know what to do with herself.
she was alone now.