❛ 𝔦 𝔡𝔬𝔫'𝔱 𝔴𝔞𝔫𝔱 𝔱𝔬 𝔰𝔴𝔦𝔪 𝔣𝔬𝔯𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔯, 𝔴𝔥𝔢𝔫 𝔦𝔱'𝔰 𝔠𝔬𝔩𝔡 𝔦'𝔡 𝔩𝔦𝔨𝔢 𝔱𝔬 𝔡𝔦𝔢. ❜
→ * . & ━━ a girl by the name
of sar, who can walk through dreams, finds
herself drawn to her hometown and into a
bigger m...
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SAR WASN'T QUITE SURE HOW SHE ENDED UP SHOPPING IN A HUNTING STORE WITH NANCY AND JONATHAN. Something about killing the monster? She was standing beside Nancy, who still seemed shaken, searching through the green shelves for weaponry of any kind. Nancy's fear radiated off of her, it was all Sar could feel. Fear of the monster, fear of the unknown—monsters, alternate worlds, what else was out there?—fear for herself and Jonathan, and surprisingly, Sar. Jonathan was in the row ahead of them, picking up a gasoline can. Nancy was testing out some kind of mallet while Sar picked up some long nails and threw them into Nancy's basket.
They'd looked at animal books that morning. Nancy had pointed out that it hunted alone, but at night, and was attracted to blood like a shark. They'd covered more ground on learning about this thing than Sar and Steve had done in a day. The two had seemed to have forgotten that this thing was a real creature-an animal-instead of just a mythical monster.
Sar continued down the aisle, throwing various kinds of things that looked they might come to use in Nancy's carry basket, including some matches and a new torch. Sar picked up a bear trap. It was heavy and old in her hands. She looked over at the two. "Hey, we could use this, yeah?" Jonathan just nodded at her as they made their way over.
Nancy nodded. "Yeah." Her eyes darted to the other two. Jonathan moved to take it. Nancy went to inspect the contents of the basket as Jonathan chucked in a small can of gasoline.
Sar's eyes focused on the wall behind the two. She pointed at it. Nancy and Jonathan followed her gaze in confusion. "I'm getting that axe."
"An axe?" Nancy asked her.
Sar walked up to pull the weapon off the wall with a tug. "Hey, you've got the spiked bat, I get an axe." She tested the weight of it. "There's no way I'm going up against a freakin' monster unarmed. I tried once with a gun, let's just say it didn't go so well." The three of them walked up to the counter. Nancy unloaded the large amount of items from the basket, while Sar just grinned at the clerk, trying to look innocent. He was looking at her strangely, at the number and wide range of objects that were being placed in front of him.
When Nancy finished laying out the items, Jonathan turned to the man. "And, uh, four boxes of the .38s," he added, nodding. The man raised his eyebrows but moved to grab the ammo.
Sar glanced over as Jonathan began rummaging through few notes in his wallet. She couldn't help but recall how his mother didn't even have enough money to send him to school. "Hey, I'll pay for it."
"Oh— no," Jonathan said. "I—"
"Jonathan, I've got it," she insisted. She gave him a smile as he looked over her with lowered eyebrows. "I've got it. It's okay." The smile on her lips was soft as she pulled out the cash from her purse. She had way more than she needed anyway.
The man slammed the boxes of ammo on the counter. "Will that be all?" he asked her.
Sar nodded as she handed him the money. "Yeah, thanks."
