Seventeen

When Keith and I came through the other side of the portal, I gasped, seeing everyone look totally normal. There was no change from Tim and Brian, but Toby didn't have the scar on his cheek and his skin was healthier. Natalie had two green eyes with no stitches in her face, Jeff had brown hair, fair skin, no cut smile, and eyelids. Liu was the least changed, as the only thing what changed was the now lack of stitches in his face. Another thing that happened is that all of the blood on their clothes had disappeared, but they still wore their classic killing clothes that they were known for.

"Uh…... won't people kind of... you know…. Notice your classic killer clothes that are literally spread all over the internet?" I rushed, making everyone look at each other for a second before shaking their heads.

"Oh, Mellie. They'll be fine." Keith reassured, making me nod slowly.

"Okay."

Jeff pulled a phone out of his pocket, loading a map of something onto his screen. "right, this is where we are." He began, pointing to a red dot on the screen, "And this is where the shops are." He pointed to a large shape on the map that was labelled 'Rosswood shopping centre'.

"Rosswood?" I asked, looking over at Jeff.

"Brian and I used to live here... with some others… before the big man recruited us." Tim explained, his expression faltering slightly when he talked about 'some others'.

"Oh, uh… sorry if it brought back bad memories." I apologised, but the two men shook their heads.

"It's okay, it's in the past." Brian said, giving me a smile.

"So, how long will it take to get to the shopping centre? I have short legs y'know!" Natalie complained, making me struggle to hold in a snort.

"Natalie, we're the same height and I'll be fine so you will too." I deadpanned, making her groan.

"But…...but! Okay fine, yeah, I'm just trying to make an excuse. Let's go!" Natalie yelled, taking long strides down the pavement. Jeff looked down at his map before laughing.

"Natalie, you're going the wrong way!" He yelled at her, making her turn back with an embarrassed look on her face. She ran back to us, taking a look at Jeff's map before running the right way.

"I…...I'll go ca…...catch up…. with Nat…. Natalie." Toby said, before breaking into a sprint as he followed Natalie. Once they had run off, we began to follow them. We were only walking, and so I took this time to look at my surroundings. Light snow covered the ground, but luckily it wasn't deep. The air in general wasn't too cold either, which was good. If it were actually cold, I would have been begging to go back to the mansion.

It didn't take long for us to get to the shopping centre. We stood at the doors, seeing Natalie and Toby chatting inside as they were leaning against a wall. We went inside, meeting with the pair.

"Finally!" Natalie exclaimed when she saw us, "You took so long!"

"No…. Natalie we... we just came he...here faster." Toby stated, pushing himself up off of the wall.

"Uh…. so how are we going to do this?" Keith asked, looking between the group.

"We'll go in pairs." Liu said, making everyone look at each other with their eyes narrowed.

"I'm going with Mel!" Natalie yelled, grabbing my arm, and beginning to pull me away.

"Bye guys!" I yelled at the boys, waving at them with my free arm.

Natalie continued to drag me by the arm until we arrived in front of a toy shop. She let go of my arm, and I thanked her quietly. "So, why here?" I asked her, and she smiled as she looked up at the shop.

"Thought Ben and Sally would be the easiest." She said as we entered the shop. We went in two separate directions, as she went to the 'boy' section as I went to the 'girl' section. I looked through the many toys until I saw something that Sally would love. It was a medium sized stuffed arctic wolf. I plucked it off of the shelf, looking at the price what read £3.99. I kept it in my hands, making my way to the other side of the shop.

I met Natalie there, holding up the plush. "You think Sally will like this?" I asked her, making her eyes bounce around the plush before she nodded.

"Yeah, she'll love it." Natalie then looked at the shelves before shaking her head. "Nothing in this is good for Ben." She said, making me frown.

"Natalie…... does Ben have a Nintendo switch?" I asked her, speaking slowly. She shook her head, gasping.

"That's it. I'll go and grab some dolls for Sally and then we'll pay. Then we will go to the game shop and buy Ben a switch. I'll text the girls so that we can all get him some games as a group present." I nodded as we made our way to the doll area of the shop. Natalie's eyes scanned the dolls before she went and picked up five Monster High dolls. A Frankie, a Draculaura, a Clawdeen, a Lagoona and a Cleo.

She stacked the boxes in her arms, going towards the counter. I followed her as she dumped the dolls on the counter. I put the plush on the counter as Natalie pulled out her purse. The cashier scanned the items, putting them in a bag. "Those will be a total of £28.94." The cashier said. Natalie pulled out a £20 note, as well as a £10, giving them to the cashier. They took them, giving Natalie the £1.06 change.

We left the shop as Natalie pulled her phone out, calling Jane. "Hey, Jane, you haven't got anything for Ben yet, have you?" She asked, getting Jane's reply. "Good. Get uh…. Between, you and Nina get Minecraft, Mario maker 2, Super Mario Odyssey, and Pokémon let's go Pikachu. Mel can get him Animal Crossing New Horizons and Breath of the Wild. I'll get him the switch and Link's awakening." She stated, making Jane say her reply before they said their goodbyes.

"What about the money Natalie?" I asked her, stopping as we arrived at the game shop.

"We've got a lot left from what Slender had and we also stole a lot." She explained as we entered the shop. I went over to the switch games section as Natalie went to buy the switch. I picked up Animal Crossing, Breath of the Wild and Link's awakening, before going to the counter where Natalie stood. I gave her the games as the worker got the switch and bagged it. They also put the games in the bag before telling us the total price.

"So, all that will be £414.15." They said, making Natalie give them the correct money. We left the shop before looking at each other, faces blank.

"What about everyone else?" I asked, making her shrug.

"Right. I'll get Jeff a new knife, Liu a new scarf, Keith can have a new pair of sneakers, Tim, Brian, Toby, and Jack can all get new clothes, Nina can get some hair bow things, Jane can have a new dress, and I have no idea what you could have. What do you want?" I asked Natalie, but she only shrugged.

"Surprise me." Was all she said, so I grinned. Surprise her I will.

"How about we split up and meet back here in an hour?" Natalie asked, handing me £200.

"Yeah, okay. See ya!" I exclaimed, as we parted ways. First, I made my way to a clothes shop, buying some clothes for the boys, the dress for Jane, and Liu's scarf. That was a total of £75. Who knew clothes were so expensive? I then went to Claire's, a small accessory shop, and bought the hair bows for Nina. I then roamed around before finding a shoe shop, buying Keith a pair of black combat boots. I went to another shop, finding a cookbook and a set of knives. Once everything was bought, I only had around £25 left.

I strolled around the shopping centre, as I knew I still had fifteen minutes left. I eventually found a shop that took my interest: "The magic box?" I mumbled to myself as I entered the shop, seeing it devoid of people. The only person was the cashier, a short, old woman with gray hair and ice blue eyes.

"Hello, dearie. Is there anything specific you're looking for?" The woman asked, and I shook my head politely.

"No, nothing too specific. Is there anything here that could be a great use of protection though?" I asked her, and she nodded, leading me to a corner where there were gemstone pyramids. She picked up a pyramid that was ebony coloured, handing it to me.

"This pyramid is made from Black Tourmaline. It signals protection, banishing, and security. If you need protection, just keep this in your house and nothing with bad intentions will be able to step foot into your home." She explained, taking me back to the counter. "It's £9.99." She said, gently taking it from my hands. "Would you like it?" She asked softly, making me nod as she scanned the barcode. I gave her the money, telling her to keep the change.

"Um…. Is there anything that shows family love?" I asked her, looking back over to the crystal area.

"Why yes, the Rose Quartz shows Unconditional love, emotional healing and compassion." She led me back over to the crystals, showing me the rose quartz. "How many?" She asked, holding up a woven bracelet with three small chunks of the crystal on it.

"Four," I replied as we went back to the checkout. She scanned them, adding them to the bag. "How much?" I asked her, pulling out my purse.

"£2.99 each, so £11.96 in total." I handed her the money, waving at her as I left the shop to meet back up with Natalie. When I arrived back at our meeting spot, she was already there, leant against a wall.

"Hey." I said as we neared each other. "Ready to go find the boys?" I asked her. She nodded, staring at the four bags I held.

"Get everything you wanted?" She asked, staring down in her own bags. I nodded as we hurried to get to the entrance. When we finally got there, the boys were nowhere in sight.

"I'll call Toby." Natalie said, putting her bags down and getting her phone.

"Hey," She began, "Where are you and the others? Mel and I are already at the entrance." She stopped, waiting for Toby's reply. "Oh! Okay, see you four in a few then." She hung up, looking at me as she put her phone away. "They'll be right…. Oh, look there they are!" She exclaimed, picking up her bags as we met the boys.

The boys looked at each other with wide grins on their faces before they turned back to us.

"Got some drink," Jeff began, a smirk playing on his lips, "We're having a party tonight."