"Hey, I need you to stay late tonight, Tristen called in."

Kate looked up from the battered radio she was marking down for clearance, narrowing her eyes at the balding man that stared at her from across the counter. Her boss, who Kate and her friends referred to as simply "The Capitalist", stood a few feet away, gangly arms crossed over the front of his crisp button up. Dropping the should-be-garbage radio onto the counter with a heavy sigh, Kate braced herself for whatever argument this offense to her weekend was sure to spark now that the effects of her morning toke with Eddie had worn off.

"Why can't you do it? I already did an extra shift this week, and last week, and the week before-"

"Because I'm going to the game tonight."

'What if I want to go to the game?"

The Capitalist snorted, the sound forced and sarcastic as he shook his head at her.

"You don't."

"Okay, but I have plans, I have somewhere to be."

"You can cancel your cult meeting, there will be another full moon next month."

"It's not even a full moon tonight."

Unamused at her quip, he snatched the radio from the countertop, tucking it under his arm as he left her to seethe over his final blow.

"You're staying or we can talk about your hours, that's final. I'll see you on Monday."

Kate collapsed into the countertop, letting her forehead bang onto the glass hard enough to rattle the display case. She didn't move, not until she heard the office door close and then open once again, a jingling of keys signaling the flight of the Capitalist. Lifting her head, Kate yelled out the front door before it could float closed.

"Say hi to Tristen for me! Hope you two have fun!"

A passing couple turned their heads at her outburst, squinting through the window at her overly enthusiastic wave before they continued down the sidewalk past the busted down Radio Shack that she was now shackled to. Dropping her chin into her palm, Kate muttered a few expletives to cool her nerves. It was a long time until she moved, finally breaking her furious staring out of the front window to finish marking down the damaged product and subtracting a few extra cents for good measure. Her tiny protest to the man was interrupted when an older woman came in looking for a new radio, Kate forced away from her attempts to sneak undamaged product onto the discount rack to ramble through the specifications of each model. The most popular model won the competition, as she predicted, knowing it had been featured in an advertisement in last Sunday's newspaper. She'd just finished helping load it into the back of the beat up Ford when a ringing startled her, Kate rushing back into the store after pocketing the couple of dollars she was given for her service to catch the phone before the line hung up.

"Radio Shack, America's technology store. What can I do for you?"

"It's Eddie."

Kate blinked, pulling the phone away from her cheek to look at the speaker before tucking the phone against her shoulder.

"What's up?"

"Hey, uh, I was wondering- Do you still have your character sheet? I'll let you start at a higher level so you're-"

Her heart sank into her stomach, her heavy sigh going unnoticed in his rambling until she took pity and cut him off.

"Eddie, I can't make it tonight."

"Jesus Ch- What happened?"

"The pig is making me pull a double because of the damn basketball game."

"Stupid laundry basket bull- Shit I'm sorry, this isn't your fault, today is just weird."

"Is something wrong?"

It was easy to tell when Eddie was riled up, she could almost hear the grinding of his jaw as he ground his teeth together in an irritated grimace that tinted his words sour.

"There's this fucking article in a magazine- I'll show you it later, it's absolute horse shi-Anyway, Sinclair is bailing, Henderson and Wheeler might be able to find a sub but I didn't want to leave the rest of the party hanging if they don't pull through. I was hoping I could talk you into covering if we needed you, I know you haven't really played but it was worth a shot."

"Shit. I'm sorry Eds, I wish I didn't need this stupid job or I'd be there, you know?"

"Yeah, even if I don't get why, you're better than this place…"

Kate froze, pausing in her slow pacing behind the counter to sink her teeth into her lips. He wasn't wrong, working part time at an electronics store wasn't the greatest use of her talents, as few and far between as they may have been. It was the best she could do while staying in Hawkins after Starcourt burned down, and anything outside the city limit, well, that was another story entirely. Fearful that her extended silence would bring too much attention to her, Kate offered what she could as she leaned her weight against the counter.

"Well, uh, if there's anything I can do from here, you know where to find me. Hell, you could even come in if you wanted, I'm flying solo until closed."

"I would but I've got that thing after school, if you know what I mean."

"The cheerleader, Chrissy, right? I almost thought I'd made that up…'

"It's weird, but hey, a deal's a deal."

"She's cute."

Fuck. She was saying too much now that she was frazzled and could hear the undertones of disappointment creeping into her voice. It wasn't fair to any of them for her to feel like this, Chrissy was a nice girl as far as Kate was concerned, and Kate was unattached to this situation. It didn't matter, and she would continue to tell herself that as Eddie caught her attention again.

"Her fuckin' boyfriend's not."

"Oh?"

She wanted to slap herself for sounding too relieved. Kate had no right to have even a tint of jealousy staining her green in this situation, as hilarious as the color clash of green with the warm tones of her hair would have been. Digging her nails into the inside of her forearm, she tried to recover.

"Wait, Eddie, how the hell are you calling me? It's-"

Kate glanced at the clock on the wall, squinting at the dots on the inoffensive white face.

"Like, right after lunch, don't you have class?"

"Study hall, I'm on the payphone."

"Sorry for keeping you, and sorry for not being able to be more helpful."

"Don't worry about it, it's not your fault."

"Yeah, but it sucks."

'I'm not gonna lie and say that we won't miss you, but-"

"But I'll see you after, okay? You can even bring the kids if you want, I think we still have juice boxes."

Eddie snorted a laugh, audibly shuffling the phone as he paused. She could almost see him, shoulders slumped as he leaned against the wall beside the outside payphone on campus, flicking his lighter on and off as he talked. Her visions were interrupted by the chime of the door opening, Kate glancing up at the two older men who entered the store with a short sigh. Eddie spoke up again, talking more quickly as the sound reached him through the receiver.

"Shit, sorry. I should get back to the library anyway-"

He didn't sound as apologetic as he meant to, a smile tilting his words with amusement at the monotony of her workday. Lifting her tone into a more pleasingly official tone, Kate answered as the customers meandered towards the counter with obvious intent for service.

"I'm very sorry that we don't have what you're looking for sir, but I'd be happy to talk you through our options in person if you have the time to come in."

It was a losing battle to keep herself from cracking as Eddie fell into a fit of giggling on the other end of the line, Kate taking a beat before speaking again, slipping into a slightly more sarcastic tone than before.

"Great! We'll see you later then, have a great rest of your day!"

"See you later."

Composing herself quickly after his rushed response, Kate turned to the customers with a more genuine smile than her customer service façade usually allowed.

"How can I help you?"

"And, here's your receipt, have a good day gentlemen. Come back and see us."

She realized her voice had fallen completely flat over the last hour or so she'd spent helping the scattered customers that came in to begin their weekend shopping, but she couldn't really bring herself to care. Kate's head was beginning to throb at the monotony of it all, feeling the twist of irritation tighten the muscles of her shoulders as she answered the same stupid questions from the same stupid people over and over again. Finally, she was alone again, able to sulk in the silence of the store and down a well needed pain pill to dull the ache in her skull. It took her a while to reorganize after the geriatrics had torn through her inventory, the store silent except for her quiet grumbling at the state of things as she worked.

Finally, with things back in more order and the sun sinking lower into the sky, Kate was able to address the lack of music playing from the show radio. It only took a short moment of her shifting through the tapes that were stored beside it for her to sigh at the lack of selection, her irritation colliding with the bubbling anger at the overall downward spiral that was today's mood in a spark of rebellion that pushed her out the front door. She pulled her car keys, unlocking her door and leaning into the tiny VW to reach into the box of cassette tapes that sat in the floorboards. Stacking a few choices together, she closed the door with her heel, stopping to scan the bottom of the driver's side door for any new scratches due to her carelessness.

Then, a bell tolled.

"Holy shi-!"

She covered her mouth at the expletive, turning her head wildly to find the source of the sudden noise that had startled her out of her contemplation. Kate turned first to the library across the street, squinting at the clock tower in the dying light and finding it far from any time that would warrant its bell to chime. The street was empty except for a single truck moving towards her, an unlikely candidate still idling a block away at a stoplight. With no clear answer in sight, Kate turned to return to the store as a honking floated down the street towards her, prompting her to quickly move back inside to save herself from a further migraine with only a fleeting thought towards the grandfather clock that sat in the secondhand store's window as she passed.

"Take a look to the sky just before you die. It is the last time you will. Blackened roar, massive roar fills the crumbling sky… "

Uncaring of the opinion of whoever may pass by in the last hours of opening, Kate twisted the stereo's knob until the music consumed her, disappearing into the back room to grab her forgotten lunch.

"Crack of dawn, all is gone except the will to be. Now they see what will be, blinded eyes to see… "

The chips she let scatter across the counter did nothing to cure her boredom, Kate allowing the clock to count down to an hour before the scheduled closing time before she hopped the counter and headed towards the front door. She locked it, the keys dangling from her fingers as she changed tapes and flicked off the main lights for the store before she returned to the register. With the drawer secured, she swept the crumbs left behind onto the floor and sprayed the glass displays with whatever toxic concoction they kept behind the counter, wrinkling her nose at the scent of bleach as she haphazardly wiped away the residue. The vacuuming that followed drowned out the music momentarily, Kate frowning as a favorite was interrupted and pulling the cord from the wall with a sharp tug to prove her disappointment.

"The bitch is hungry, she needs to tell. So give her inches and feed her well.

More days to come, new places to go. I've got to leave, it's time for a show… "

Kate bounced through the rest of her closing chores, gathering the rest of her things and twisting the knobs on the stereo to max before she locked the door behind her. She fell into her car, preparing herself for the earful she was sure to get during her next shift as she shoved the unfinished cassette into her tape deck. The sound once again consumed her as she reversed onto the road, her headlight sweeping across empty store windows.

"It seems to me, a nightmare becomes reality. The last days of the paradise are gone for you and me, we're living in the crossfire and we'll be killed at first… "