Hello, I hope you enjoy my story. Authors notes will be in bold and I do not own any of the Supernatural characters. Please review! -xoxo
"Hi, how can I help you?" The man standing behind the counter asked me, his eyes glazing over from his dull job. I didn't blame him; standing at a desk for more than five hours collecting people's towels is not the most exciting occupation in the world.
"Yeah, can I exchange these for four new towels? Thanks." I hand the towels over the edge of the counter, stifling a yawn. Even thought it was barely ten pm, the pool and the beach tired me out beyond belief. Not to mention keeping up with three Cali girls, who grew up at the beach. Not me, for I grew up in cold Vermont, where the only way I could get a sunburn would be from the sun's reflection on the snow whilst skiing.
Receiving four fresh towels, I thanked the man, and began the short walk back to the room. Our hotel in Florida was gorgeous, with four double beds, and a full kitchen. The balcony looked over the beach, and it was stationed right between the pool and our favorite restaurant. I strolled through the dark pool area, glancing at the bright full moon shining over my head.
Along the path back to the room, there was a fake forest accompanied with a real river. I'm not sure how the river got there, since it was not connected the the ocean, but it was pretty to look at from the small bridge which allowed me to cross it.
Walking through the fake palm trees accompanied by plastic flamingoes, I made my way to the wooden bridge. A soft dripping was audible from the underside of the bridge. I paused. This was not normal for the bridge because the river never touched any part of the bridge and it had not rained recently. I placed the towels down on the wooden grain and got down on my knees to look under the bridge.
That's when I noticed the small river of red flowing into the larger one of blue. Thinking that it must have been the light of the moon that made it look this way, I didn't take it into account when I stuck my head upside down to get a glimpse of the source of the dripping.
Staring back at me, with glassy eyes, a woman was tied to the bottom of the bridge, blood dripping from her- well, her everywhere, but more specifically, her throat. She had no left hand, and her left arm hung limply, skimming the surface of the water.
I screamed and pulled my head back upright with a snap, causing little black spots to appear in my vision. I shook them away and bolted upright, abandoning my towels and I ran to the end of the bridge. But something grabbed my ankle and threw me to the ground of the bridge, before dragging my fighting body off the into the river.
My back spasmed from the fall as I tried to kick my way to the surface of the thin river. It was much deeper than I expected and I could barely touch the ground, which wasn't saying much, seeing as I was only 5'5". I choked on the water forcing its way into my mouth as I attempted to scream, but all that came out was a pitiful gurgled.
I swung my head around, trying to find the person or thing that has caused me to end up in the water, but there was nothing there, only a constant pressure forcing me down into the water. I struggled, treading water for as long as a could, bobbing up and down trying to get a breath of air so I could scream. I knew I couldn't keep this up forever, so I attempted to splash my way to the bank of the water. At first, I thought I was succeeding, slowly making my way with the process of treading, bobbing, breathing, and screaming. I was almost to the wood chipped edge of the river when I felt a sharp pain in my left wrist.
I looked down, and through the blurry image of the water, I could see a gash in my left wrist widening with every move I made. The blood loss was making me dizzy, and I was losing the battle with the invisible force. I couldn't keep my head from going under water for, what I thought would be the final time. I struggled weakly against the pressure on my head pushing me to the bottom of the river. I closed my eyes, thinking I was done for.
Then, the pressure released me, and I floated to the top of the water. I could barely move; my wrist was still bleeding out with what I thought was an impossible amount of blood. As I broke the surface, I struggled to paddle my way to the shore, cradling my arm to my chest.
I heard voices surrounding me. All of a sudden, a strong pair of arms lifted me as though I was weightless, which I was not, out of the water and back on the bridge. I screamed, thinking it was the same thing that had pushed me into the water.
"Hey, hey- it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you, alright? You're safe now." I whirled around, my head spinning more than ever to see two boys, one crouching down next to me, the other grabbing my towels.
"Sam, give her one of these- she's shaking like a leaf." The other one tossed the towels to the boy next to me, Sam. Sam wrapped the white towel around my back, rubbing my arms through the coarse fabric. The towel began to absorb some of the blood coming from my wrist, and I tore the towel off, trying not to stain it.
"What's wrong?" The other boy asked, glancing at the towel I had tossed aside.
"Well, it's not my towel, it's the hotel's, and-" I gestured to the bloody mess that was my left wrist, "I didn't want to stain it."
"Shit, Dean, her wrist- the cut is really deep," Sam said, carefully picking up my limp hand and inspecting it.
"Screw the hotel, just take the towels," Dean strode over quickly and knelt down, gently wrapping my wrist in one of the towels. A blossom of red began to appear from the white fabric. So much for clean towels for the girls.
I put my weight on my other hand, pushing down to stand up on the bridge. I swayed, almost falling back into the river, but Dean sturdied me. I closed my eyes waiting for the dizziness to fade.
"We should get her back to her room, maybe there's a first aid kit there we can use for her wrist." One of the guys said, lightly pressing on the small of my back, providing support.
"Wait!" I exclaimed, not opening my eyes. "What about the woman?"
"What woman?" I had opened my eyes and Sam was speaking.
"The one under the bridge. She's dead, and-" I cried, beginning to take in what I had seen under the bridge.
"Hey, shhh, you're okay, you're okay." Sam grasped my shoulders and comforted me against his chest. "We can talk about her later, let's just get you back to your room, okay?"
I nodded, and let them guide me softly with my directions back to my room. As I got to the flight of stairs that led to our door, I stepped onto the first stair and fell back, my world spinning with stars in my eyes. I braced myself for the painful landing, but Dean caught me, and, swinging my legs up bridal-style, he mounted the rest of the stairs with ease and placed me down slowly in front of my door. I gave him a feeble smile of thanks, and slid the card through the scanner, opening the door to my three best friends.