slipping into twilight
Aug. 1st, 2007 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
obeetaybeeTitle: slipping into twilight
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
obeetaybee
Rating: R for language and violent images
Pairings/Characters: Charlie, Dean, Kat, Sam and OFC
Spoilers: Through Season One. Future fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine. I just like to take them out and play with them every once in awhile, so please don't sue.
State: New Jersey
Summary: “You dug up his corpse and then salted and burned his body. How can I not see the parallels between last night and what happened the night you were arrested for murder? Do you really need me to point out you seem to have an affinity for grave digging?”
Author's Note: Thank you so much forelohvee for the speedy beta. All remaining mistakes are mine. Written for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
spn_50states
slipping into twilight
“Tell me about the night of September 24th.”
The girl doesn’t answer. Instead, she turns her head toward the barred windows, tilting her face to the absent sun, imagining for a moment she can feel the heat sliding along her skin, entering her veins, warming her for the first time in years.
The doctor asks again.
“You’ve read my file. Everything you need to know is in there.”
“I have read your file. I’m particularly interested in the police reports of the night in question. Of your initial statement. I want to know why your story changed. ”
“Because in the hours I sat in the State Police barracks and bled on their nasty tile floor the detectives were quite clear on just how insane my story was. How insane I was. Because,” she makes a noise somewhere in between a snort and a sob and wipes her nose with the back of her hands. The handcuffs around her wrists jingle and clank and a plastic id bracelet slides down her thin arm. “It was my fault she died. She didn’t want to be there.”
“So why don’t you finally tell me the truth of what really happened that night?”
“Because it was fucking insane, that’s why! And I never imagined it would become what it did—they made it look easy!”
The sound the doctor’s pen makes as it scurries across the paper slices through the silence. “Who made what look so easy?” The doctor flicks through pages of the file until she stops and points her pen over a photocopied paragraph. “Sam and Dean?”
The girl’s head shoots up at the mention of their names. “They’re nobody. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe I am insane like everyone wants me to be. But there was evidence –”
“Evidence that I will admit makes no sense taken in the context of the police report. So help me make sense. Only you can do that,” the doctor says, crossing her pantyhose-covered legs under the barren metal table, and a sound emerges that reminds the girl of humid summer nights and flickering fireflies. The memory hurts.
The doctor puts down her pen and folds her hands in front of her as she leans forward. “Listen to me. I want to know why you should stay and not be transferred to a maximum security prison. I want to know why last night you slipped your medication and managed to escape your room. And I want to know why--” The doctor pauses until the girl looks at her before speaking again.
“You were found on the grounds desecrating the body of Harvey Jacobson.”
“I didn’t desecrate the body of Harvey Jacobson.”
“You dug up his corpse and then salted and burned his body. How can I not see the parallels between last night and what happened the night you were arrested for murder? Do you need me to point out you seem to have an affinity for grave digging?” The doctor leans back in her chair. “Regardless, you broke the law. Again.”
The girl shrugs her shoulders. “Doesn’t say much for the security in this place does it?” Her smile fades as she glances over the doctor’s shoulder at the shadows waiting just outside the door. Retribution will come after lights out and she shivers violently. She’ll be drugged and helpless while they humiliate and violate her body. She slumps in her seat and pulls her knees to her chest, wrapping her bound arms around her legs. “Bastard deserved it. He wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“He’s been dead for six months!”
Dropping her head onto her knees, the girl turns her head and stares at the doctor through the fall of her hair. “You really think being dead matters? It doesn’t. They can still hurt you. There are things out there you believe are myths--”
“But you don’t.”
“No. No I fucking don’t believe in myths. Not since I was sixteen and that thing whispered in my ear. They're real. Every myth and legend is based in truth. And the fucking truth is still out there killing people.”
“So then tell me the truth of what happened that night. Explain to me how these myths of what you speak can kill people. Let me help you.”
“Whatever.”
~*~
September 24th
Kat wasn’t afraid, not anymore.
Afraid was when she first swam up from the black of unconsciousness, head pounding and blood running into her eyes. Afraid was when she remembered the rustling of bushes behind them and then suddenly she was flying through the air and then—
Charlie. Where was Charlie? Oh, God. Where was Charlie?
She rolled over onto her hands and knees and used the tree that dented her head to pull herself standing. Moaning, Kat breathed deeply, waiting for the wave of pain stabbing deep into her brain to crest and then retreat. Moonlight illuminated the ground, the sand shining white under the low-growing bushes. Kat stumbled, retracing her steps until she found Charlie.
Her palm was up, one long manicured finger extended outwards while the others curled inwards. Charlie’s face was turned away, her long blonde hair matted in patches of sticky black blood. Kat began to shake, her mind at first refusing to comprehend there were parts of her insides now on the outside.
“Oh God, Charlie,” she whispered as she dropped to her knees and stroked Charlie’s hair away from her open eyes. “I’m so sorry.” Kat leaned down until her forehead was pressed against Charlie’s, the tears from her eyes dripping onto her friend’s lifeless face.
It dropped from the trees above onto her back so suddenly and Kat was thrown against Charlie. Kat reared back and screamed, dislodging the creature and throwing it across the clearing. It landed on two legs and stalked around Charlie’s dead body, hissing and showing rows of sharp teeth in a face that at once resembled a dog and horse and nothing Kat had ever seen before, even in nightmares.
Without thought, Kat reached behind her and in a split second said a Hail Mary it hadn’t fallen out before pointing and pulling the trigger of the pistol. The monster screamed, the noise polluting Kat’s head as it vaulted across Charlie’s body towards her.
Kat ran. Puffs of sand struck her back as she tried to shake the creature stalking her in the trees above and when she finally felt as if her heart would burst if she took one more step, she collapsed.
The tree she knelt behind bit into her back as she fought to control her breathing and with a gasp, she dropped the pistol into her lap and peeled off her blood-soaked shirt. She ran a quick hand over chest under her tank top. The skin was whole and unbroken. It was Charlie’s blood caked along her upper body.
A sob bubbled up her chest and she stifled it behind her fist. Breathe. Don’t think about what it did to Charlie. Don’t think about the sound it made when it turned and came after you. Think about getting out of this alive. Kill this motherfucker before it kills you.
The insects suddenly went silent.
Afraid was before when it all seemed to make sense. Fucking terrified was now. Terrified is what ran through her veins like ice and shortened her breath.
She stood, feet sliding in the sand, the tree bark against her back coughing in the silence of the night. Taking a deep breath, she glanced at the stars above and closed her eyes against the pregnant moon hanging low over the scrub pine trees. Bringing the pistol up, she opened them slowly, listening for the tell-tale rustling of branches above.
~*~
“Did you see that?” Charlie said, her body straining forward over the steering wheel, staring up at the night sky through the windshield. “What the hell was that?”
“You don’t think, I mean. I think it was. It had to be. We’re in the fucking Pine Barrens of all places. Stop the car. Stop the car, Charlie!”
“I don’t think this is a good idea, Kat.”
“Why not? How long have we been doing the little stuff? I’m sick and tired of digging up corpses, Charlie. Don’t you want to branch out a little bit? Hunt something a bit more dangerous? I know I do. Stop the car.”
Charlie slowed and pulled the car over, the tires on Kat’s side sinking into the soft sand. “Why do you think you’re ready for this? I’m not ready for this—Kat listen to me,” she said as Kat opened the passenger side door, got out and thumped on the trunk.
“Open it, Charlie.”
Charlie sighed and found the trunk release button before sliding out.
They stood behind the car on the side of the dark road, hazard lights flashing as Kat pulled a pistol from her suitcase and loaded it.
“What the hell, Kat?” Charlie said as she stared down at the pistol. “When did you get a gun?”
“A while ago. When we first started hunting. Sam and Dean had them, remember?”
“And you never told me, why?”
“Because I knew you’d freak out. Like you are, right now.”
Charlie turned her face away from the chill wind and pulled an errant piece of hair out of her mouth. “We’re not Sam and Dean, Kat. We’re just two college roommates who discovered we knew the same people once.”
Kat tucked the loaded pistol into the back of her pants. “Why did we realize it, Charlie? Do you remember? Because I do. It was because you woke up screaming about Bloody Mary. Don’t you think it was a bit odd out of the fifty million people in the world we end up knowing one another? ”
Charlie shook her head and shivered. “I don’t. It was coincidence.”
Kat took a flashlight from the hatch before shutting the trunk. “That’s bullshit and you know it. It was fate. You wanted to do this, remember? You were all into looking up strange shit on the internet and driving us places and helping people.”
Throwing up her hands, Charlie said, “I do want to help people! But tell me Kat, how is hunting a mythical creature you’ve done next to no research on helping people?”
“Because it’s there and it’s not natural. And it’s what Sam and Dean would do. If you’re not going to come with me then stay out of my way. Go get back in the freaking car, Charlie.”
“No. I’m not letting you get yourself killed because of them. I’m coming with you.”
~*~
It was on her before she had a chance to focus her eyes, all teeth and claws. She screamed as something as sharp ripped a path down her arm from her shoulder and throwing herself to the ground, she rolled away before it could land on her back. She kicked and punched, fighting for her life against the slashing claws and fanged teeth. Managing to get her hand under the creature’s horse-like jaw, she pushed with one hand while keeping the teeth away from her throat and slid the hand holding the gun towards the monster’s heart. One heartbeat as she pushed the barrel of the gun against the leathery skin and then the sound of a gunshot deafened her.
The monster fell against her, dead weight pushing her into the sandy soil of the Pine Barrens, suffocating her, killing her just as affectively as if it slashed open her belly like it had Charlie. Stars exploded behind her closed eyes as it crushed her chest.
Down, down drown.
And then the weight was lifted. Sweet, sweet air tinged with salt filled her lungs. The full moon surrounded the head of her savior like a halo. She nodded and grasped his hand with her other and pulled herself up. Bright while light flooded her vision as someone else shined a flashlight over her face. Instinctively, she brought her forearm up to cover her eyes.
“Jesus,” someone hissed and pulled her arm down from her face. He drew it towards him, the flashlight illuminating the long, bleeding scratches. Once noticed, the pain of the deep tears in her skin hit her in the chest like a knife. She flinched away, groaning as she pulled her arm from his hand, clasping it tight against her stomach, silently willing the blood to stop.
“It’s gone. Where did it go? I shot it and it was killing me and where did it go?”
“Hey, calm down. It’s okay,” the taller of the two said. “Don’t be afraid.”
“I’m not, not anymore, it has to be dying. I mean, I shot it point blank in the chest,” she said, backing up. Charlie was still out there. She needed to get back to Charlie.
“Look, my name’s Dean. That skinny guy over there is –“
“Sam,” she said, hysterical laughter bubbling up and escaping before she could stop it.
The two brothers exchanged a look. “Do we know you?”
“You won’t remember me,” she said as she turned away and began to retrace her steps. “Everybody calls me Kat.”
“Well, Kat. You’re right,” Dean said as they followed her. “I don’t remember you. But you want to tell me what the hell you’re doing out here?”
“We were hunting.” She stilled as a piercing, inhuman scream echoed through the dark forest somewhere to the east. “It must be dying, it has to be,” she murmured under her breath.
“I think you need to go to the hospital,” Sam said as Kat bent over and retrieved her dropped flashlight.
“I’m not going anywhere yet.” She shook the casing of the light and switched it on, flinching at the spilled blood it illuminated on the ground.
“I’m not gonna leave Charlie here,” she said as she continued walking, ignoring the muttering and bitching behind her. She pressed her shirt against her back, her shredded arm throbbing in time with her heart. “I didn’t ask you to come with me. I can do this myself.”
“Wait a minute,” Dean said as he caught up with her and grabbed her arm.
“Ow, ow, let go letgolet GO-“ Kat cried as she wrenched her arm from his grasp. Hot, bitter tears of pain spiked behind her eyes and she stared up at the star-filled sky, desperate for the tears to not spill down her face.
“Jesus,” Dean dropped her arm like it burned. “I’m sorry.”
Dean waited until she pulled herself together before exploding. “What the hell did you two think you were going to accomplish out here? That thing’s immortal. It can’t die. Christ, didn’t you do any research before you rushed out here and almost got yourself killed?”
“Dean,” Sam said, turning around to face his brother. “Come on, give her a break.”
Kat turned to look at him for a moment at the edge of the clearing where Charlie waited. “I need to call the police. I’ll stick to the truth as much as possible, we were on a road trip to Atlantic City, we stopped because something flew in front of our car, we investigated—“
“No, seriously. You need to answer me, right now.” Dean pointed his gun at the ground for emphasis as she walked away from him.
“—and then we were attacked.” Kat stopped and stared down at Charlie. She was numb. Her body was covered with the sensations of pins and needles, and her vision threatened to go dark. She blinked rapidly until her eyesight cleared and then she began to speak. “We met at college three years ago. Roommates. She started to have nightmares about Bloody Mary and I would calm her down. Finally, she told me about something that happened to her and her friends, to her and I could tell she didn’t want to, was afraid I’d think she was crazy. Afterwards, I told her what happened to me and my boyfriend one night at this old abandoned asylum,” Kat looked up at Dean and Sam, incredulousness written on both their faces. “Remember us now?”
Without waiting for their response, she turned and stalked back to the car. When she heard them come up behind her, she pulled the heavy duffle bag from the trunk of the car, wincing as it pulled open the cuts on her arm. “I need you guys to hold on to this for me. I don’t think it would look very good if the cops come and find I’ve got a trunk full of guns and shit. Do you think you could do that?”
“You’re awfully calm about all this,” Sam said as he picked up the duffle.
Kat laughed harshly. “You think so? I’m a freaking mess. I’m--” her voice broke. “I think I’m going insane.”
“I don’t think calling the cops is a good idea,” said Dean.
“Why not?”
“Do you really think they’d believe you? Look, we’ll help you bury the body.”
~*~
“There was no one else there, Katherine.”
A song, a piece of music floats in her mind, coming closer before retreating once again. She plucks a long golden hair from her head, laying it across her knees to join the others.
The doctor slams her hand down on the table, and Kat jumps, golden hair glinting under the harsh florescent lighting as they float to the floor. “Stop humming ‘Smoke on the Water’ and listen to me. There was no one else there that night. You were found by the New Jersey State Police with a gun beside you as you were digging a shallow grave in the sand alongside the dead body of Charlene McNamara. There were no other foot prints found besides your own. You led the police on a goose chase through the Pine Barrens looking for a monster that was never found because it does not exist.”
“Never found?”
“No. Never found and does not exist.”
“Of course it was never found. Sam and Dean must have found a way to kill it. I'm sure they buried it. I told you that.”
The doctor sighs and pulls her glasses from her face and rubs the skin over the bridge of her nose. “Katherine, I’m referring your case back to Doctor Fletcher. The events of last night have clearly caused you to relapse. I believe he will be more than willing to help you uncover what really happened during your psychotic break from reality four years ago. You’ll be transferred to the maximum security wing and placed under twenty four hour observation. Your medication will be increased and administered by injection.”
She closes the folder in front of her and stands from her chair.
“I want you to find peace, Katherine,” she says just before tapping on the metal door to leave.
Kat doesn’t hear this. She begins to hum again as she stands and moves closer to the windows. She’s down below, third in a trio sitting in a black ’67 Chevy Impala, engine purring as it eats the pavement. Dean stretches his arm across the back of the front seat as his eyes meet hers in the rearview mirror. “Interested in listening to some Deep Purple, Kat?”
Kat returns Sam’s over the shoulder smile as the heavy, blues infused four-note melody blares from the speakers. She relaxes against the cool leather of the back seat, smiling.
There was hunting to be done.
Author:
obeetaybeeRating: R for language and violent images
Pairings/Characters: Charlie, Dean, Kat, Sam and OFC
Spoilers: Through Season One. Future fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine. I just like to take them out and play with them every once in awhile, so please don't sue.
State: New Jersey
Summary: “You dug up his corpse and then salted and burned his body. How can I not see the parallels between last night and what happened the night you were arrested for murder? Do you really need me to point out you seem to have an affinity for grave digging?”
Author's Note: Thank you so much for
elohvee for the speedy beta. All remaining mistakes are mine. Written for spn_50statesslipping into twilight
“Tell me about the night of September 24th.”
The girl doesn’t answer. Instead, she turns her head toward the barred windows, tilting her face to the absent sun, imagining for a moment she can feel the heat sliding along her skin, entering her veins, warming her for the first time in years.
The doctor asks again.
“You’ve read my file. Everything you need to know is in there.”
“I have read your file. I’m particularly interested in the police reports of the night in question. Of your initial statement. I want to know why your story changed. ”
“Because in the hours I sat in the State Police barracks and bled on their nasty tile floor the detectives were quite clear on just how insane my story was. How insane I was. Because,” she makes a noise somewhere in between a snort and a sob and wipes her nose with the back of her hands. The handcuffs around her wrists jingle and clank and a plastic id bracelet slides down her thin arm. “It was my fault she died. She didn’t want to be there.”
“So why don’t you finally tell me the truth of what really happened that night?”
“Because it was fucking insane, that’s why! And I never imagined it would become what it did—they made it look easy!”
The sound the doctor’s pen makes as it scurries across the paper slices through the silence. “Who made what look so easy?” The doctor flicks through pages of the file until she stops and points her pen over a photocopied paragraph. “Sam and Dean?”
The girl’s head shoots up at the mention of their names. “They’re nobody. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe I am insane like everyone wants me to be. But there was evidence –”
“Evidence that I will admit makes no sense taken in the context of the police report. So help me make sense. Only you can do that,” the doctor says, crossing her pantyhose-covered legs under the barren metal table, and a sound emerges that reminds the girl of humid summer nights and flickering fireflies. The memory hurts.
The doctor puts down her pen and folds her hands in front of her as she leans forward. “Listen to me. I want to know why you should stay and not be transferred to a maximum security prison. I want to know why last night you slipped your medication and managed to escape your room. And I want to know why--” The doctor pauses until the girl looks at her before speaking again.
“You were found on the grounds desecrating the body of Harvey Jacobson.”
“I didn’t desecrate the body of Harvey Jacobson.”
“You dug up his corpse and then salted and burned his body. How can I not see the parallels between last night and what happened the night you were arrested for murder? Do you need me to point out you seem to have an affinity for grave digging?” The doctor leans back in her chair. “Regardless, you broke the law. Again.”
The girl shrugs her shoulders. “Doesn’t say much for the security in this place does it?” Her smile fades as she glances over the doctor’s shoulder at the shadows waiting just outside the door. Retribution will come after lights out and she shivers violently. She’ll be drugged and helpless while they humiliate and violate her body. She slumps in her seat and pulls her knees to her chest, wrapping her bound arms around her legs. “Bastard deserved it. He wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“He’s been dead for six months!”
Dropping her head onto her knees, the girl turns her head and stares at the doctor through the fall of her hair. “You really think being dead matters? It doesn’t. They can still hurt you. There are things out there you believe are myths--”
“But you don’t.”
“No. No I fucking don’t believe in myths. Not since I was sixteen and that thing whispered in my ear. They're real. Every myth and legend is based in truth. And the fucking truth is still out there killing people.”
“So then tell me the truth of what happened that night. Explain to me how these myths of what you speak can kill people. Let me help you.”
“Whatever.”
September 24th
Kat wasn’t afraid, not anymore.
Afraid was when she first swam up from the black of unconsciousness, head pounding and blood running into her eyes. Afraid was when she remembered the rustling of bushes behind them and then suddenly she was flying through the air and then—
Charlie. Where was Charlie? Oh, God. Where was Charlie?
She rolled over onto her hands and knees and used the tree that dented her head to pull herself standing. Moaning, Kat breathed deeply, waiting for the wave of pain stabbing deep into her brain to crest and then retreat. Moonlight illuminated the ground, the sand shining white under the low-growing bushes. Kat stumbled, retracing her steps until she found Charlie.
Her palm was up, one long manicured finger extended outwards while the others curled inwards. Charlie’s face was turned away, her long blonde hair matted in patches of sticky black blood. Kat began to shake, her mind at first refusing to comprehend there were parts of her insides now on the outside.
“Oh God, Charlie,” she whispered as she dropped to her knees and stroked Charlie’s hair away from her open eyes. “I’m so sorry.” Kat leaned down until her forehead was pressed against Charlie’s, the tears from her eyes dripping onto her friend’s lifeless face.
It dropped from the trees above onto her back so suddenly and Kat was thrown against Charlie. Kat reared back and screamed, dislodging the creature and throwing it across the clearing. It landed on two legs and stalked around Charlie’s dead body, hissing and showing rows of sharp teeth in a face that at once resembled a dog and horse and nothing Kat had ever seen before, even in nightmares.
Without thought, Kat reached behind her and in a split second said a Hail Mary it hadn’t fallen out before pointing and pulling the trigger of the pistol. The monster screamed, the noise polluting Kat’s head as it vaulted across Charlie’s body towards her.
Kat ran. Puffs of sand struck her back as she tried to shake the creature stalking her in the trees above and when she finally felt as if her heart would burst if she took one more step, she collapsed.
The tree she knelt behind bit into her back as she fought to control her breathing and with a gasp, she dropped the pistol into her lap and peeled off her blood-soaked shirt. She ran a quick hand over chest under her tank top. The skin was whole and unbroken. It was Charlie’s blood caked along her upper body.
A sob bubbled up her chest and she stifled it behind her fist. Breathe. Don’t think about what it did to Charlie. Don’t think about the sound it made when it turned and came after you. Think about getting out of this alive. Kill this motherfucker before it kills you.
The insects suddenly went silent.
Afraid was before when it all seemed to make sense. Fucking terrified was now. Terrified is what ran through her veins like ice and shortened her breath.
She stood, feet sliding in the sand, the tree bark against her back coughing in the silence of the night. Taking a deep breath, she glanced at the stars above and closed her eyes against the pregnant moon hanging low over the scrub pine trees. Bringing the pistol up, she opened them slowly, listening for the tell-tale rustling of branches above.
“Did you see that?” Charlie said, her body straining forward over the steering wheel, staring up at the night sky through the windshield. “What the hell was that?”
“You don’t think, I mean. I think it was. It had to be. We’re in the fucking Pine Barrens of all places. Stop the car. Stop the car, Charlie!”
“I don’t think this is a good idea, Kat.”
“Why not? How long have we been doing the little stuff? I’m sick and tired of digging up corpses, Charlie. Don’t you want to branch out a little bit? Hunt something a bit more dangerous? I know I do. Stop the car.”
Charlie slowed and pulled the car over, the tires on Kat’s side sinking into the soft sand. “Why do you think you’re ready for this? I’m not ready for this—Kat listen to me,” she said as Kat opened the passenger side door, got out and thumped on the trunk.
“Open it, Charlie.”
Charlie sighed and found the trunk release button before sliding out.
They stood behind the car on the side of the dark road, hazard lights flashing as Kat pulled a pistol from her suitcase and loaded it.
“What the hell, Kat?” Charlie said as she stared down at the pistol. “When did you get a gun?”
“A while ago. When we first started hunting. Sam and Dean had them, remember?”
“And you never told me, why?”
“Because I knew you’d freak out. Like you are, right now.”
Charlie turned her face away from the chill wind and pulled an errant piece of hair out of her mouth. “We’re not Sam and Dean, Kat. We’re just two college roommates who discovered we knew the same people once.”
Kat tucked the loaded pistol into the back of her pants. “Why did we realize it, Charlie? Do you remember? Because I do. It was because you woke up screaming about Bloody Mary. Don’t you think it was a bit odd out of the fifty million people in the world we end up knowing one another? ”
Charlie shook her head and shivered. “I don’t. It was coincidence.”
Kat took a flashlight from the hatch before shutting the trunk. “That’s bullshit and you know it. It was fate. You wanted to do this, remember? You were all into looking up strange shit on the internet and driving us places and helping people.”
Throwing up her hands, Charlie said, “I do want to help people! But tell me Kat, how is hunting a mythical creature you’ve done next to no research on helping people?”
“Because it’s there and it’s not natural. And it’s what Sam and Dean would do. If you’re not going to come with me then stay out of my way. Go get back in the freaking car, Charlie.”
“No. I’m not letting you get yourself killed because of them. I’m coming with you.”
It was on her before she had a chance to focus her eyes, all teeth and claws. She screamed as something as sharp ripped a path down her arm from her shoulder and throwing herself to the ground, she rolled away before it could land on her back. She kicked and punched, fighting for her life against the slashing claws and fanged teeth. Managing to get her hand under the creature’s horse-like jaw, she pushed with one hand while keeping the teeth away from her throat and slid the hand holding the gun towards the monster’s heart. One heartbeat as she pushed the barrel of the gun against the leathery skin and then the sound of a gunshot deafened her.
The monster fell against her, dead weight pushing her into the sandy soil of the Pine Barrens, suffocating her, killing her just as affectively as if it slashed open her belly like it had Charlie. Stars exploded behind her closed eyes as it crushed her chest.
Down, down drown.
And then the weight was lifted. Sweet, sweet air tinged with salt filled her lungs. The full moon surrounded the head of her savior like a halo. She nodded and grasped his hand with her other and pulled herself up. Bright while light flooded her vision as someone else shined a flashlight over her face. Instinctively, she brought her forearm up to cover her eyes.
“Jesus,” someone hissed and pulled her arm down from her face. He drew it towards him, the flashlight illuminating the long, bleeding scratches. Once noticed, the pain of the deep tears in her skin hit her in the chest like a knife. She flinched away, groaning as she pulled her arm from his hand, clasping it tight against her stomach, silently willing the blood to stop.
“It’s gone. Where did it go? I shot it and it was killing me and where did it go?”
“Hey, calm down. It’s okay,” the taller of the two said. “Don’t be afraid.”
“I’m not, not anymore, it has to be dying. I mean, I shot it point blank in the chest,” she said, backing up. Charlie was still out there. She needed to get back to Charlie.
“Look, my name’s Dean. That skinny guy over there is –“
“Sam,” she said, hysterical laughter bubbling up and escaping before she could stop it.
The two brothers exchanged a look. “Do we know you?”
“You won’t remember me,” she said as she turned away and began to retrace her steps. “Everybody calls me Kat.”
“Well, Kat. You’re right,” Dean said as they followed her. “I don’t remember you. But you want to tell me what the hell you’re doing out here?”
“We were hunting.” She stilled as a piercing, inhuman scream echoed through the dark forest somewhere to the east. “It must be dying, it has to be,” she murmured under her breath.
“I think you need to go to the hospital,” Sam said as Kat bent over and retrieved her dropped flashlight.
“I’m not going anywhere yet.” She shook the casing of the light and switched it on, flinching at the spilled blood it illuminated on the ground.
“I’m not gonna leave Charlie here,” she said as she continued walking, ignoring the muttering and bitching behind her. She pressed her shirt against her back, her shredded arm throbbing in time with her heart. “I didn’t ask you to come with me. I can do this myself.”
“Wait a minute,” Dean said as he caught up with her and grabbed her arm.
“Ow, ow, let go letgolet GO-“ Kat cried as she wrenched her arm from his grasp. Hot, bitter tears of pain spiked behind her eyes and she stared up at the star-filled sky, desperate for the tears to not spill down her face.
“Jesus,” Dean dropped her arm like it burned. “I’m sorry.”
Dean waited until she pulled herself together before exploding. “What the hell did you two think you were going to accomplish out here? That thing’s immortal. It can’t die. Christ, didn’t you do any research before you rushed out here and almost got yourself killed?”
“Dean,” Sam said, turning around to face his brother. “Come on, give her a break.”
Kat turned to look at him for a moment at the edge of the clearing where Charlie waited. “I need to call the police. I’ll stick to the truth as much as possible, we were on a road trip to Atlantic City, we stopped because something flew in front of our car, we investigated—“
“No, seriously. You need to answer me, right now.” Dean pointed his gun at the ground for emphasis as she walked away from him.
“—and then we were attacked.” Kat stopped and stared down at Charlie. She was numb. Her body was covered with the sensations of pins and needles, and her vision threatened to go dark. She blinked rapidly until her eyesight cleared and then she began to speak. “We met at college three years ago. Roommates. She started to have nightmares about Bloody Mary and I would calm her down. Finally, she told me about something that happened to her and her friends, to her and I could tell she didn’t want to, was afraid I’d think she was crazy. Afterwards, I told her what happened to me and my boyfriend one night at this old abandoned asylum,” Kat looked up at Dean and Sam, incredulousness written on both their faces. “Remember us now?”
Without waiting for their response, she turned and stalked back to the car. When she heard them come up behind her, she pulled the heavy duffle bag from the trunk of the car, wincing as it pulled open the cuts on her arm. “I need you guys to hold on to this for me. I don’t think it would look very good if the cops come and find I’ve got a trunk full of guns and shit. Do you think you could do that?”
“You’re awfully calm about all this,” Sam said as he picked up the duffle.
Kat laughed harshly. “You think so? I’m a freaking mess. I’m--” her voice broke. “I think I’m going insane.”
“I don’t think calling the cops is a good idea,” said Dean.
“Why not?”
“Do you really think they’d believe you? Look, we’ll help you bury the body.”
“There was no one else there, Katherine.”
A song, a piece of music floats in her mind, coming closer before retreating once again. She plucks a long golden hair from her head, laying it across her knees to join the others.
The doctor slams her hand down on the table, and Kat jumps, golden hair glinting under the harsh florescent lighting as they float to the floor. “Stop humming ‘Smoke on the Water’ and listen to me. There was no one else there that night. You were found by the New Jersey State Police with a gun beside you as you were digging a shallow grave in the sand alongside the dead body of Charlene McNamara. There were no other foot prints found besides your own. You led the police on a goose chase through the Pine Barrens looking for a monster that was never found because it does not exist.”
“Never found?”
“No. Never found and does not exist.”
“Of course it was never found. Sam and Dean must have found a way to kill it. I'm sure they buried it. I told you that.”
The doctor sighs and pulls her glasses from her face and rubs the skin over the bridge of her nose. “Katherine, I’m referring your case back to Doctor Fletcher. The events of last night have clearly caused you to relapse. I believe he will be more than willing to help you uncover what really happened during your psychotic break from reality four years ago. You’ll be transferred to the maximum security wing and placed under twenty four hour observation. Your medication will be increased and administered by injection.”
She closes the folder in front of her and stands from her chair.
“I want you to find peace, Katherine,” she says just before tapping on the metal door to leave.
Kat doesn’t hear this. She begins to hum again as she stands and moves closer to the windows. She’s down below, third in a trio sitting in a black ’67 Chevy Impala, engine purring as it eats the pavement. Dean stretches his arm across the back of the front seat as his eyes meet hers in the rearview mirror. “Interested in listening to some Deep Purple, Kat?”
Kat returns Sam’s over the shoulder smile as the heavy, blues infused four-note melody blares from the speakers. She relaxes against the cool leather of the back seat, smiling.
There was hunting to be done.
