There's No Place Like Hawkins//Stranger Things. SH

SIXTY SEVEN

Vecna's Curse

"And then Vicki laughed." Robin told Steve, recounting to him about her interaction with Vicki at the game the evening before. "And it wasn't like a cheap, fake laugh either." She added, placing the VHS's on the shelves. "It was like... It was a real, genuine laugh." Robin walked around the shelves into the next aisle where Steve was restocking the films.

"Of course. It's my Muppet joke. It's hilarious."

"My point is," Robin continued, following him down the rest of the aisle, "that Vicki laughed and everything was just like... It was perfect."

"But?" Steve prompted, looking over his shoulder at her. He stole a quick glance at the clock, wondering what time Cat had her break that day. She would always come into 'Family Video' on her work breaks, but her manager never gave her a consistent time to leave. This would result in Cat turning up to the video store often unexpectedly- not that Steve didn't mind, he always looked forward to seeing his girlfriend when either of them were allowed to pause their work days.

"But I'm having this problem where it's like, I should stop talking." Robin told Steve, beginning to ramble. "I have said everything I need to say. But then I guess I get nervous, and the words keep spilling out, and it's like my... my brain is moving faster than my mouth," She now walked in front of Steve as he wheeled the cart of VHS's around the shop, stacking them onto the shelves as he went. "Or... or rather my... my mouth is moving faster than my brain. And it's like I'm digging this hole for myself, and I want to stop digging, I'm trying to stop, but I can't. And I'm doing it right now, aren't I?" Robin sighed, spinning around to face Steve.

The boy leant his arm against one of the shelves and nodded his head. "Yeah, you are."

Robin exhaled as she shook her head, walking backwards until she was leaning on one of the posters that hung on the walls of the shop. "Oh, I'm hopeless." She sighed.

Steve shrugged his shoulders, moving over to Robin and leaning his back against the same poster. "We both are." Robin sent him a quizzical look and gestured for him to elaborate. "I mean, I can't even get up the courage to ask Cat if she wants to start living together. Because every time I do, something comes up and she gets majorly distracted. Or it's just not the right time to ask her. And then there's the fact that she's always on the verge of doing something that could get her killed." He sighed, tilting his head back against the wall.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked him. "Does this have to do with Cathy wanting to visit Creel House?"

Steve ran a hand over his face as he nodded his head slightly. "This all stemmed from a parcel she received in the post the other day. Someone had sent her a package from Hopper, which included her father's old jacket and a letter from the old Chief."

Robin straightened out her posture, intrigued by what Steve was telling her. "What did the letter say?"

"To sum it up," Steve said, "Hopper said something about how Cat's father is possibly still alive. That his death was faked and instead of being in a car crash, he went to investigate Creel House that night." Robin nodded her head slowly, her lips parting in an 'o' shape. "And then the imaginary rabbit Cat keeps seeing all but confirmed this, putting the idea in her head that she'd find the answers and maybe even her dad if she broke into Creel House."