A Man of Many Masks || 'The Grabber' x Reader

Reunited

a lot of people—understandably—thought that the story ended with last chapter, but don't worry, this book is gonna be active for a WHILE. And if I ever feel like ending it, then I have an ending set up that I can insert whenever I feel like it 🙃

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You were gone. 

He let you go.

And still, you were all he could think about.

After he'd watched you run away,—your confused and almost petrified eyes staring into his just before darting out that door and down the street as fast as your shaking legs could take you—he seemed to think about you even more than he previously had. Or maybe he just didn't notice how much he thought about you before. 

If a person has anxiety about anything, whatever it is is normally extremely hard to get out of their mind. And as it turned out, having a person locked up in your basement while your brother is upstairs trying to find them is something that can give a person a shit ton of anxiety. As a result, he thought it was normal how he could never get you out of his mind. All of the other children... any thoughts of them were cleared from his mind the moment they stopped breathing. From then on, they were just things he had to discreetly discard of. Like breaking something that wasn't yours and needing to find a way to throw it out where no one will look before anyone finds out. 

Albert had told himself that he couldn't stop thinking of you because you were still alive, but for some reason he wasn't entirely sure about that. He should've felt at least a bit more at ease after reading the paper a few days ago. Apparently you had found your way home from his house, and told your mother that you'd been kidnapped, and so she took you to a police station. It said you told them that you went for a walk one night and got kidnapped. It said you were knocked out by a man who you didn't know and taken to an unfamiliar house where you were kept tied to an exposed sink pipe in a bathroom. Only kept alive by the occasional scraps the masked kidnapper would give you and the drops of water that would leak from the sink pipe. According to you (apparently), "he never talked... never looked me in the eyes... (not that I would've been able to even see his eyes through that creepy fuckin' wolf mask)... I wouldn't have even thought he was alive if I hadn't heard his breath hitting the inside of the mask." It said you escaped by finding a way to untie your hands from the sink and breaking through a window in the bathroom. Albert didn't know why you chose not to tell the truth, but he didn't even want to think about it. He didn't want to think about it because any reason he came up with had to do with you having some sort of feelings towards him (platonic or not), and he didn't want to disrespect you like that. All he knew was that he was safe for a while. But you hated him. He knew that. He was fine with it. 

But he did think it was funny how anyone who'd tried to get a broken window fixed had gotten the cops called on them. 

It had been a little over a week or so since you'd left, and things had felt... off. Max left, no new people had gone missing, and the voice always telling him to do all those things had gotten quieter. Like it was preoccupied with something else. All this at once was definitely a tad strange, but one thing that he just couldn't shake was the need to talk to you. To be in the same room as you. Fuck, he'd even settle with just being able to look at you. Albert knew that he couldn't risk it, though. He didn't know why you didn't tell the truth about being kidnapped, but he didn't want to accidentally be seen by you and have you tell everyone the truth. 

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Albert woke up to the familiar sound of his alarm clock on what was the eighth day since you left him. He shut of the alarm, and started getting ready for the day. On the way to the hardware store he thought he saw you walking by on the sidewalk, but decided that once again he was just dreaming of bumping into you.

Albert had been at the store for about half an hour, and was taking inventory when Earnie came up to him, "Mr. Shaw.. hey."

"Morning Earnie." Albert's tone of voice was flat, and he didn't even bother to glance at the young man.

"Uh, man, I was... well my mom's in the hospital and I promised that I'd visit her today."

Finally Albert stopped what he was doing and turned to him. "Sorry to hear that." He gave a deep sigh before stating the reason Earnie came up to him. "So, i'm guessing you want me to take your shift at the register?"

"Just this once! Please? I-I promise I'll change my schedule to only visit on weeken-"

"No need, I'll cover for you whenever you need me to, kid." Albert shot him a half-hearted smile.

"Awh, thanks man! Uh- Sir!" Earnie half-shouted while jogging out the door, leaving his apron behind the counter.

Albert put a hold on taking inventory and made his way to the counter until Earnie returned. It was a pretty slow day, so he decided to sit back and glance through some of the magazines they had behind the counter. About ten minutes went by and only three people had come through the door. Eventually he heard the sound of the door opening again and looked over to greet whoever it was who stepped in. "Good morning, can I help you find any...thing..." When he saw who it was, his face fell, along with the magazine he was holding.

"Actually I-uh was.. just hoping to find you."

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!ATTENTION, ALL SIMPS!: Okay so for future purposes i'm gonna need you guys to come up with some gender neutral substitutes for good/naughty boy. Don't ask why just yet ;)

-Bowie <3