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

TWENTY

The Upside Down

The group carefully walked down the hallway and into the living room, Catherine gasping in pain with every step she took. She held onto the wall as they entered the living room, looks of confusion on each of the teen's faces as there was no sign of the Demogorgon at all.

Catherine stumbled as she began to feel more light-headed. She looked down at her hand and saw that the white bandage was completely red with blood and the bandage becoming an even darker shade of red as more blood began to cover it. Cat looked over to Steve, a few black spots entering her line of vision, and saw him muttering to himself.

"This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy." He kept repeating. "This is crazy! This is crazy! This is crazy!" He ran to the phone and began to dial. As he put the phone to his ear Nancy ran over and snatched it out of his hand. "What are you do- What are you doing? Are you insane?"

"It's going to come back!" Nancy yelled at him. "So you need to leave."

"She's right." Cat muttered, tiredly leaning against the wall and attempting to keep her eyes open.

"Right now." Nancy added. Steve looked at a loss for words as he ran out of the house, closing the door behind him. Barely a minute after he left, the electricity began pulsating again and the flickering lights nearly made Cat throw up the contents of her stomach, which wasn't much. "Where is it?" Nancy asked as she and Jonathan circled the room back to back.

Catherine limped over to the other side of the living room where her gun was. She bent down to grab it, not able to see anything through the rapidly flickering lights. "Shit." She muttered, her fingers barely gripping the gun. She slowly stood back up, unable to see a thing.

"Come on. Come on, you son of a bitch." Jonathan muttered. "You see it?"

"No. Where-"

"No."

"Come on. Where are you? Come on!"

The lights went out completely.

"Fuck. Is it too late to mention the fact that I'm absolutely terrified of the dark?" Cat muttered, her hand gripping tightly onto the gun.

"Maybe." Jonathan shrugged.

"Only slightly too late." Nancy agreed, gripping tightly onto her gun.

There was a low growling sound and Nancy turned around towards Jonathan, screaming when she saw the Demogorgon behind him. "Jonathan!"

"Holy shit!" Catherine screamed, barely able to see the monster tower over Jonathan before it pulled him to the ground and leaned over him.

"Jonathan!" Both girls screamed.

"Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" Nancy yelled, shooting at the creature.

It moved towards her but stopped when Catherine started shooting it. The Demogorgon roared and turned around, making it's way towards her. She took a shaky step back, her leg giving out under her as she fell to the floor, her head colliding with the wall. The monster towered over her and Cat couldn't help but think back to a few days ago when she was in this exact scenario in the Upside Down.

A claw collided with her chest, digging into her skin and dragging all the way down to her stomach. Catherine screamed, unable to move as she was cornered into the wall. Nancy tried to shoot at it but she had run out of bullets, her gun being rendered useless. More black spots covered Cat's vision as another claw ran down her side. Tears poured down her face as she desperately tried to push the monster off of her. It didn't move, it wouldn't. She was too weak. It had made up it's mind. It was going to kill her. She was going to die.

She closed her eyes, accepting her fate as she weakly pushed at the creature when out of nowhere it fell away from her. She opened her eyes, blinking to try and rid herself off the black spots in her vision, to see Steve hitting the monster with the spiked baseball bat. Her mouth fell open in shock.

"Steve!" Nancy yelled in shock as the monster let out a roar. Steve continued swinging the bat at the Demogorgon, leading it into the hallway towards the bear trap. He swung the bat at the monster and hit it, sending it into the trap.

"He's in the trap!" Jonathan yelled, running over to the trail of gasoline. Catherine pushed herself up, attempting to stand so she could see what was happening but collapsed back to the floor after a second.

"He's stuck!" Steve yelled as he ran back towards the others in the living room.

"Jonathan, now!" Nancy yelled.

Jonathan stepped in front of both Steve and Nancy, Steve holding the bat in the air, and flicked the lighter before throwing it into the gasoline. The carpet erupted into flames, the monster shrieking as it burned. Cat covered her ears, trying to block out the sound.

Jonathan grabbed the fire extinguisher, pointing it at the flames. "Get back!" He yelled as he smothered the fire in foam. The teens began to cough, Cat managing to stumble over to the others as she did so, holding onto the wall for support.

They all slowly inched their way towards the bear trap.

"Where did it go?" Nancy asked.

"No. It has to be dead." Jonathan replied and Catherine nodded her head slightly as she coughed. "It has to be." Jonathan panted.

The sight of what was left of the Demogorgon pushed Cat over the edge as she turned around and vomited and coughed, blood being the main fluid leaving her mouth.

***

All the teens looked up as one by one the Christmas lights began lighting up. They slowly began to back up down the hall as the lights followed them. Cat stumbled slightly and her hand gripped onto Steve's arm so she didn't collapse. The lights began to light up one by one, heading in a line towards the living room. The teens watched in confusion and anticipation for the monster to attack them again- although they were sure they had killed it. They followed the trail of lights and watched as they led to the front door.

"Mom." Jonathan breathed out. "Is that you? Mom."

The teens followed Jonathan outside the house. The street lamp started to flicker and Cat's grip on Steve's arm got tighter. She was completely and utterly terrified at the thought of the Demogorgon coming back, although there was a chance Jonathan was right and it was just his mom and Hopper in the Upside Down.

"Where's it going?" Nancy asked.

"I don't think that's the monster." Both Nancy and Steve looked at him in confusion.

Suddenly, Cat's grip on Steve's arm loosened and she felt herself collapsing to the ground, her head spinning and her vision disappearing. Steve turned around at the loss of contact and was quick to grab the shorter girl before her head connected with the concrete porch. Both Nancy and Jonathan turned around and the former gasped when she saw how much blood her friend was losing.

***

Edited: 12/4/2020

Edit 2: 9/9/2021