𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒

fourty-four

"why." sam breathed, watching as nancy stopped moving, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.

the group all moved into eddie's room, leaving erica and steve with nancy in case she started to levitate like max once had. "what exactly are we looking for?" lucas asked, flipping through multiple tapes and cds of metal bands he'd never even heard of.

"steve says you need to hurry!" erica then yelled, running into the room.

"yeah no shit!" dustin yelled back, still on an adrenaline high from the vecna trance back to back.

"we're trying, we can't find anything!" max agreed as she looked through some vinyls.

robin, who was on the floor, turned to eddie. "what is all this shit?"

"what are you even looking for?" he asked, pacing his own room.

robin shuffled through the cassette tapes in her hands, all of which were bands nancy never would've listened to. "madonna, blondie, bowie, beatles?" she suggested. "music! we need music!"

eddie snatched one cassette from her hands. "this is music!" he yelled. sam growing more anxious for nancy, who had been in a trance for a little less than 2 minutes.

"hey, nerds!" erica yelled, making everyone stop yelling and look at her. "she's awake."

nancy had collapsed to the floor, and steve had lifted her head up onto a pillow to let her slowly adjust to the surroundings. she was shaking, understandably, but overall okay. "can we go somehwere, maybe that isn't accessible to anything up there." robin said, glancing up at the hole in eddie's ceiling.

"our place is across the street." max suggested, looking over to her sister.

everyone was feeling quite shocked, but sam found herself looking over at eddie, who was the newest to all of this. "hey." she called, watching as he walked by her side. "thank you."

"for what?" he asked.

she scoffed. "saving my life."

he smiled. "what, no biggie." he then laughed. "how'd you know it was me?"

sam shrugged. "i doubt max had a police cassette, and we'll...we were in your trailer."

"did it..?" eddie trailed off. "was it scary?"

she let out an awkward laugh. "great question."

"was it? i looked terrifying."

"it was terrifying." she agreed. "but...i'm here now. that's all that matters." she shrugged.

eddie smiled. "yeah, that is all that matters."

sam and eddie caught up to steve and dustin, who were walking in front of them. while eddie and dustin started talking, sam turned to steve. "sorry for falling behind, i just was thanking him for-"

steve shook his head, turning to look at her, "you don't need to explain yourself. i get that i'm.. like really overprotective of you, and that i get jealous. but i trust you. and i know you trust me, too."