10. It's A Pleasure Meeting You

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A rewrite of the ending of The Boxtrolls, though I sprinkled in some of my insights to spice things up.

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"Eggs wait," Winnie called out, running towards him with a concerned expression on her face as she fears that she may not reach him in time.

As soon as Eggs opened the lid of the sink hole though, he stopped, but he didn't turn his head to look at her.

Instead, he sighed angrily, avoiding her gaze on him. He should've known better than to beg for her help in the first place. He should have known.

"You said fathers were supposed to help," Eggs spat, knitting his eyebrows at her as she approached him warily. "That they took care of kids," he added, as she kneeled beside him.

Winnie looked at the ground beside her, as her worried expression turned into a sad one. She knows that he's mad at the whole situation, and that most especially he's mad at her.

Mad at her for letting him down, despite trying her best to help him out, as she said she would.

"Well, they're supposed to.." Winnie's voice trailed off, as her eyes landed on him, fearing that he'll just run away and hide like he did for ten years.

In reality, she doesn't want him to give up. She wants him to fight, and she wants to let him know that she'll always be there for him, even though she feels like she already broke her one promise; and that is to help him.

Winnie sees something in him that she wants to show him, because he doesn't see that specific something himself. And that something, before all of this happened, is his strength.

"People are just mean and selfish. They're monsters," Eggs ranted angrily, glaring at the huge mansion in front of him, before carefully shooting himself into the sink hole.

In his mind, at this point, he doesn't even know what to believe in anymore. He doesn't know who to listen to, now that everything he once believed in was shattered right in front of his eyes.

"Not all of us," her soft and gentle voice broke through his train of thought, but he still refused to meet with her eyes.

The only pair of eyes that had ever gave him the courage to fight. The only pair of eyes that had ever believed in him. The only pair of eyes that had made him believe in himself.

"You aren't." If he wants to leave and hide once again, at least Winnie had let him know that she cares about his well-being, and she sees him for who he truly is, and not some freak who lives underground unlike what most people think.

Because if everyone knew him the same way she knows him, maybe everyone would stop listening to all the lies that Snatcher told them.

"Well, I don't want to be a boy anymore." Eggs had already made his decision to turn his back at her, ignoring the voices in his head, encouraging him to reconsider her delicate words.

Winnie frowned at his declaration, though she resisted the urge to pull him towards her and give him the comfort that he needed.

She knows she can't do that. Not without reimagining what happened between them in the one dance they shared. Not after the incident that happened at the party.

Not after knowing that she had let him down, that she had broken her promise to help him.

Eggs sighed, lending his hand out towards her. "It's a pleasure meeting you," he said silently, as she frowned at his sudden gesture.

Because at the end of the day, the adults around them thinks that they're just kids, that they don't know any better.

He completely hates himself. Hates himself for believing that he can make a change. Hates himself for believing in such an impossible thing.

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