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

ELEVEN

The Flea And The Acrobat

Jonathan opened the door to his house, closing it once Catherine had stepped inside. It wasn't uncommon for her to stay over at the Byers's and so Joyce wasn't too shocked to see the girl standing next to her eldest son.

"Hey, kid." The man who was sat next to Joyce on the couch greeted Jonathan, completely ignoring Cat. Catherine realised after a moment that it was Jonathan's father, Lonnie, who had left them. She had been there for both Jonathan and Will when he had walked out. She had spent a lot of time at their house, comforting the boys and helping Joyce tidy and clean the house. She knew what it was like to lose a family member. And the older woman was very grateful for the girl's help.

"What's going on?" Jonathan asked.

"Your dad's, uh, gonna stay here tonight." Joyce stammered. "On the couch."

"Yeah, I'm here as long as you need me, okay?" Lonnie added. Cat couldn't help but scoff. The man left them and all of a sudden decides to randomly turn up to support them? She thought it was ridiculous. "How are you holding up?"

Jonathan walked over to the blue sheet that was hanging up on the wall by the window. He moved it, revealing a large hole in the wall. Catherine stepped forward slightly, away from the door, in order to see it.

"What happened?" Jonathan asked his mom.

"Don't worry about that." Lonnie spoke, not allowing Joyce to explain.

"Mom... that thing you saw before, did it come back?"

"Jonathan, that's enough."

"Can we talk?" Jonathan asked his dad. "Alone?"

The two stepped out of the room and Cat walked over to sit next to Joyce, wrapping an arm around the woman. "I believe you, you know. I believe that you saw something. And I believe that we can sort out whatever weird shit is happening in this town."

Joyce lightly pressed a kiss to the teen's hairline. "Thank you, Catherine."

***

The next morning was the day of Will's funeral. Catherine was borrowing an old black dress from Joyce as she had forgotten to pack her own before arriving at the Byers's house the previous evening. She pulled her hair into a simple ponytail as she walked over to Jonathan, seeing him getting frustrated with his tie.

"Need help with that?" She asked quietly. Jonathan sighed and nodded his head. Cat did his tie for him, remembering the time she had to tie Dustin's tie just before their father's funeral.

***

Catherine stood behind Dustin as the Pastor spoke. "Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God." Cat scoffed. If God was real, then he wouldn't have let this happen to Will and Barb wouldn't be missing. If God was real, she'd still have her father. "I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. It's times like these that our faith is challenged. How, if He is truly benevolent... could God take from us someone so young, so innocent?" Cat felt tears roll down her face and she was quick to wipe them away before placing her hands on Dustin's shoulders, her fingers playing with the collar of his shirt. "It would be easy to turn away from God... but we must remember that nothing, not even tragedy, can separate us from His love."

Catherine tuned out the Pastor's words as she looked down at Dustin who was nudging Lucas and Mike, pointing over at a crying girl, Cat assumed she was in their year.

"Just wait till we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral." A look of confusion formed on her face at Dustin's words. Mrs. Wheeler shushed him and Cat sent her an apologetic look.

***

Catherine sat with Jonathan and Nancy on the grass away from all the people in the cemetery after the funeral. "This is where we know for sure it's been, right?" The boy said to the two girls that sat either side of him, as he pointed at places on a map.

"So, that's..." Nancy trailed off, pointing at one place in particular on the map.

"Steve's house." Jonathan confirmed. He pointed at another place that he had marked on the map. "And that's the woods where they found Will's bike and..." He pointed to another red cross on the map.

"That's your house." Cat said, finishing the boy's sentence.

Jonathan nodded. "Yeah."

"It's all so close." Nancy pointed out as the others agreed with her.

"I mean, it's all within a mile or something." Jonathan told them as the girls both stared at the map.

"Whatever this thing is, it's... it's not travelling far." Cat added.

"You two want to go out there." Nancy said, looking at them both.

"We might not find anything."

"I found something." Nancy told them. "And if we do see it... then what?"

"Here's an idea," Both Jonathan and Nancy looked at their friend. "Why don't we kill it and finally put an end to all the weird shit that keeps happening."

***

"What are you doing?" Nancy asked Jonathan who was breaking into his dad's car.

"Just give me a second." The boy said, pulling out a hand gun from the glove compartment.

"Are you serious?" Nancy asked him.

"What?" Jonathan asked her, shoving stuff from the glove compartment into the pockets of his jacket. "You want to find this thing and take another photo? Yell at it?" He climbed out the car, shutting the door behind him.

"This is a terrible idea."

"How do expect to kill it? It's a monster. It took Will and it took Barb." Cat told her, pulling her own hand gun from her handbag. Her friends looked at her in confusion.

"Where'd you get that from?" Jonathan asked.

Cat sighed. "Callahan. Stole it from him when he arrested me the other week." She shrugged. It was a known fact between her friends that she'd been arrested a couple of times for stealing, mainly packets of cigarettes, lighters and occasionally cans of beers. The stealing started when her and Dustin's father died and was a lot worse at first. But over time she stopped stealing as often. She saw it as progress- which, in a way, it was.

"It might be a terrible idea, but it's the best we've got." Jonathan told Nancy as Cat stuffed the gun back into her bag. Nancy looked worried. "What? You can tell someone, but they're not gonna believe you. You know that."

"Your mom would." Nancy said as Cat nodded.

"She's got a point."

"She's been through enough."

"She deserves to know."

"Yeah, and Cat and I'll tell her..." Catherine raised her eyebrows at her name, but she also knew that she would be with Jonathan when he eventually told Joyce about this. "When this thing is dead."

***

A/N:

Double update this week as yesterday's chapter was pretty short so, enjoy. (And so was this one tbh. Sorry x)

Edited: 5/4/2020

Edit 2: 08/07/2021