CAN'T CATCH ME NOW. Olivia Rodrigo.

But I'm in the trees, I'm in the breeze
My footsteps on the ground
You'll see my face in every place
But you can't catch me now
Through wading grass, the months will pass
You'll feel it all around
I'm here, I'm there, I'm everywhere
But you can't catch me now
No, you can't catch me now

SCARLETT HARGROVE sat cross-legged on the worn rug in her dimly lit room, her fingers resting on her temples. The faint glow of the nightlight cast soft shadows across the space, but her eyes were closed, and her focus was elsewhere-somewhere deep within the recesses of her mind. For months, she had been slipping into the void, searching for any sign of Max. She reached out again, her breaths shallow and quick.

"Max," she whispered, her voice trembling with desperation. The silence in her head was deafening, as it always was. She tried to push harder, clawing through layers of blackness, grasping for a memory, a spark, anything.

Nothing.

The void pushed back against her, cold and unforgiving, forcing her to snap out of it. Scarlett gasped as she opened her eyes, her hands falling limply to her lap. Tears welled up but didn't fall. She had cried so much in the past year she sometimes wondered if she was even capable of it anymore.

1987 was supposed to be a fresh start, but it only felt like a continuation of her nightmare. Max was still in the hospital, lifeless and still, her chances of waking up growing slimmer with every passing day. Scarlett felt the weight of it every second-every glance from her classmates, every awkward smile from a teacher, every hushed conversation she overheard.

"She's the girl with the sister in a coma."
"She's gone crazy, I heard."

Those words were daggers. Hawkins High had become unbearable, the halls a maze of judgmental stares and whispers she pretended not to hear. The only thing that kept her going was Mike. He was her rock, the one person who didn't treat her like she was fragile. Even so, he and her mom, Carrie, had cornered her into going to therapy.

"It'll help," Mike had said, his eyes earnest and pleading. "You don't have to do this alone."

Scarlett hated the idea, but she went. For Mike. For her mom. For the thin shred of hope that maybe, just maybe, it would dull the ache in her chest.

Yet therapy felt like a chore. Talking about her feelings didn't bring Max back, and it didn't stop the nightmares or the void's emptiness. It only made her angrier. The therapist would smile and say things like, "You're carrying a lot on your shoulders, Scarlett. It's okay to lean on others."

Scarlett wanted to scream at her. What did she know about fighting monsters, losing your sister, or being consumed by a darkness you couldn't escape?

The Party tried to help, too. They all missed Max, but Scarlett couldn't handle their sympathy. Dustin's jokes fell flat. Lucas's quiet sadness mirrored her own too closely. Even Eleven, with her powers and determination, couldn't reach Max. It only made Scarlett feel more alone.

Now, Hawkins was buzzing with a new darkness. People spoke in hushed tones about strange disappearances and eerie occurrences. Scarlett could feel it, like static in the air, buzzing at the edge of her awareness. She knew it wasn't over.

"The end of the beginning," she muttered to herself, staring at the ceiling. She was no stranger to the Upside Down, and if it was coming for them again, she would be ready.

But first, she needed Max.

Scarlett pulled her knees to her chest, her eyes flickering to the photograph of her and Max taped to the wall. Max's smile was bright, her arm slung over Scarlett's shoulder. Scarlett traced her sister's face with her finger.

"I'll find you," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I promise."

The room seemed to hum faintly, as if the void were calling her back. Scarlett took a deep breath, bracing herself. She wasn't sure what was coming, but she knew one thing-she wouldn't stop fighting. Not for Max. Not for Hawkins. Not for herself.

COMING SOON THIS YEAR...
SCARLETT HAS ONE MORE STORY TO TELL
SHE WILL BE SAVING MAX WITH THE HELP OF ELEVEN.

VOL IV, cant catch me now
stranger things, season five