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

SEVENTY FIVE

Papa

Cat wasn't sure what had happened. One moment she was trapped in Vecna's mind, moments away from death. The next, her eyes were shooting open and she was falling to her knees in Eddie's trailer. Shakily, her hands reached up and lightly touched the skin on her neck where the vines had strangled her. Robin and Eddie were kneeling in front of her, faces creased in a mix of worry and relief. Catherine pushed the headphones off her ears, discarding them to the couch just behind her and switching the tape off. "Jesus Christ, Cat!" Eddie exclaimed. "Thought you were gonna float up to the ceiling and have your bones broken like Chrissy!"

"Sorry to disappoint." Cat forced a smile on her face as she rubbed at her throat. She could still feel a pressure around her neck as if the vines were still there.

"You okay?" Robin asked.

Cat nodded her head, looking around at the petrified and relieved faces on the kids. "Where's Steve and Nance?" She asked, eyes wide in worry. Her brain automatically assuming the worst had happened since she couldn't see them.

"Vecna took her too. Before she could climb up the rope." Max told her. "Steve's there with her, making sure she's okay until we can wake her."

Eddie pulled himself off the floor, holding his hands out to help Cat stand up. She smiled at him in thanks, pushing her hair away from her face. "Now that you're awake, we should probably go back to finding something to help Nancy." Robin said, as the group made their way back to Eddie's room- which was where he kept all his music. Erica stayed back in the living room, serving as a messenger between the two groups. Cat sat herself on the edge of the bedframe as the group scrambled through the various tapes owned by the metalhead, none of them being something Nancy would choose as her favourite song.

"Nancy, just stay with me." Steve's voice was loud as he panicked, not sure what else to do other than to try and speak to the girl in front of him. "Stay with me, okay?" His hands clutching her shoulders as he tried to wake her from the trance. "Whatever you guys are doing up there, hurry up!" Steve yelled, briefly looking up at the gate.

Erica nodded her head, wasting no time in running down the hall to the others. "Steve says you need to hurry!"

"Yeah? No shit!" Dustin yelled, glancing over his should at her as he and Lucas searched through a pile of tapes.

"We're trying. We can't find anything." Max cried.

Cat curled her knees up to her chest, becoming increasingly scared that she was going to lose another close friend to the evil that haunted Hawkins. She tried to stay focused and help her friends with their task, but Vecna's words kept rattling around in her head. And she couldn't help but think that he was right- it was her fault that those bad things had happened to the people she cared about, because she couldn't save them.

"Seriously! What is all this shit?" Robin yelled out in frustration, a handful of heavy metal tapes in her hands.

Eddie waved his hands around in the air, equally as frustrated and confused. He still didn't quite understand the significance of the music. "What are you even looking for?" He ran over to his bed, placing a few of his tapes just by Cat's feet.