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

SEVENTY THREE

Cat couldn't help the gasp that left her mouth. She reached her hand up and patted Lucas' shoulder, knowing that he'd been friends with the boy. "Oh my God." She whispered, eyes wide in shock.

"His limbs..." Powell continued, reading from the small notebook he carried. "His body, it was disfigured." He went on to describe how the body was found, his words painting a similar picture to how Eddie described what happened to Chrissy's body. "We have also identified a person of interest." Powell added, and Cat's heart broke as she knew exactly who they were going to blame. "Eddie Munson." He held up a photo of the boy so that people watching the news could see what Eddie looked like. "We encourage anyone with information to please come forward."

"Oh man." Steve sighed, his thumb rubbing circles across the back of Cat's hand. "This is not good. Really not good."

"You've got a lot of questions, and I'm going to answer as many as I can." Powell addressed the herd of reporters. "Two o'clock at town hall, where anyone from the Hawkins community is welcome. But right now, I've got some work to do, and I appreciate your understanding."

"Dustin, can you hear me?" A familiar voice sounded from the walkie-talkie in Dustin's backpack. "Wheeler? Henderson the Elder?"

Cat grabbed the radio from the bag as the group walked away from the news van. "Jesus, Eddie. You alright?"

Eddie shook his head as he spoke into the walkie. "Nah, man. Pretty... Pretty goddamn far from okay."

"Where is he?" Robin asked.

"Where are you?" Dustin asked into the radio.

"Skull Rock." Eddie answered. "Do you know it?"

A small smile formed on Cat's face. Skull Rock was the place the two of them would go to star-gaze during the time that they dated. During the ten months they were together, Skull Rock became their safe space to talk about what was on their minds. "Um, of course. It's near Cornwallis and-"

"Garret, yeah." Steve said. "I know where it is." He began walking back towards Nancy's car, the group following behind him.

"Hold tight." Dustin spoke into the walkie-talkie. "We're coming."

***

"Dude, I'm telling you, you're taking us the wrong way." Steve argued as he and Dustin led the group through the woods.

"It's north. I'm positive." Dustin replied, looking between the compass and the map he was carrying. "I checked the map."

"You do realise Skull Rock, it's a super popular make-out spot?" Steve asked.

Dustin shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah. So? And please don't tell me that that's where you take my sister on your dates, because I don't wanna hear it."

"No, that's not..." Steve sighed, running a hand through his hair. "What I was going to say was, it wasn't popular until I made it popular. All right? I practically invented it. We're heading in the wrong direction."

"Steve's right." Cat spoke up, patting the boy on the shoulder as he started walking off in a different direction, Dustin walking quickly to catch up. "But he's also wrong."

"Don't you start, too." Steve sighed, shaking his head at her. "How many times do I have to tell you, I know where I'm going."

"No, I get that you know where we're going." Cat said. "But you didn't invent Skull Rock as a... make-out spot. Well, maybe you did. And I won't argue that you're not the one who made it popular. But I believe that I was the first person here to start using Skull Rock."