A/N: This is my first story, I apologize in advance for any format or technical errors. This story is Supernatural Season 2 AU based. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural.
Chapter One
I woke up with an abrupt gasp of air. I had fallen asleep next to my laptop, on my very hard desk. I ran my fingers through my long, greasy hair and rubbed out the layered crust on my eyes. I stretched and - wow, I smelled, too. When did I shower last? It didn't matter. This thesis was going to sparkle, I was going to ace art history, and then this class could end for something less torturous after Christmas break. All of my other classes had finished for the semester, why didn't this one accept imminent death? Ugh, didn't matter at this point. Nothing mattered much, apparently. At least I had a singles room; the only one in this dorm building.
I made myself get up, slowly to avoid getting dizzy, and shoved myself into the dorm's bathroom with my toiletry bag.
"Wow Annie-B, you look like total shit," my floor mate, and best friend, Nadia noted.
"Love you, too. What time is it?"
"Afternoon o' clock, sweets."
"Crap. Missed breakfast. Whatever. I'm determined to finish this thing and turn it in by tonight, you know."
"Yes, everyone here and their grandma knows. Take a shower and eat first, though," she advised.
I muttered something back, but I didn't even know what I said.
A half hour later, I emerged. Hair straightened, clean clothes, light make-up, teeth brushed, the works.
I went back into my room, not surprised that there was sparsely anyone around. Most classes, as previously mentioned, were already finished. I snagged my laptop and shoved it in my bag, and shrugged on my coat to head to the main building that had almost everything, but most importantly, the cafeteria.
It wasn't long before I was sitting and indulging on mac and cheese sprinkled with tuna, one of my favorite dishes. Of course, that was accompanied with a large mug of coffee with a light sprinkle of sugar.
"Annie-B, I just don't get it. Mac and cheese is great, but then you ruin it with cat chow." One of the first friends I made here, Aiden, slid across from me.
"I happen to love my fine cuisine, and all complaints must be in the form of compliments today. I'm going to revise my thesis again, then I'm done," I grinned. Aiden was in the class with me, and had yet to reach the three quarter mark of his first draft.
"Yeah, about that..." he started wearily, putting down his chicken wrap. "I might just leave it as is, turn it in, and disconnect myself from Professor Bailey forever. I'm not getting anywhere," he sighed.
"It can't be that bad," I tried to comfort him. "What's giving you the writer's block? I could give you a direction to go in," I offered.
"Really? You're the best," he said, relief evident in his mannerisms.
I opened my laptop and notes, waiting for the computer to wake up and sipping on my coffee, when I heard a scream echo through the hall, followed by gasps and murmurs. I looked over, and lost my breath when I saw Nadia ... She had hung herself ... In the center of the hall above the hub ... No. No, she wouldn't do that. This wasn't real.
"Oh God," Aiden said, as shocked as I was.
I realized then I was crying. I had somehow made my way over to Nadia's freely swinging corpse and was sobbing. This wasn't happening. She was pulling some sort of sick joke, or Ashton Kutcher was gonna pop out from around the corner, or something. No!
I climbed up onto the ledge of hub, and tried to reach her body. She might just have a neck injury and I could still ... No! I was too short to reach! Only then did I notice Aiden next to me, and he stretched and, in agonizing slow motion, managed to lift Nadia's head out of the surprisingly loose noose. I got down, and Aiden held her there, bringing her body down to the counter, and he hopped down after me. I barely registered the crowd behind me, somebody calling 911, someone telling me it was too late. No.
"Nadia! Nadia, no! You have to stay, to graduate! Wake up!" I continued sobbing.
Aiden put down her hand.
"There's no pulse," he barely got out.
I looked away from Nadia's face, unable to face her. Unable to face myself.
"What are we even supposed to do?! She was our best friend, Aiden! Spent every day with us, we should've known if she was unhappy!" I sobbed even harder.
Campus police came up behind me, trying to calm me down, telling me and Aiden we had to move over, and other things that didn't reach my ears. I looked back at Nadia, feeling so guilty. This was real. This was very real. And I had to face it.
Grabbing Aiden's arm for support, we backed up and let the authorities do their job.
I heard my phone ringing somewhere in the room. I glanced at the clock; hours had passed since Nadia's death. I didn't want to move from my bed, so I decided not to answer, but then it started ringing again. I got up, rubbing my dry and sore eyes from crying, ripped open my bag, and swiped my phone screen.
"Hello?"
"Annabella! Sweetheart, I just heard what happened, I'm so sorry. Are you feeling okay? Holding up?"
"Mom, I'm not okay. It's just ... I mean ... I didn't even see it coming. Nadia was so happy..."
I cut myself off with sobs.
"Oh, sweetie! Everything will be fine, you'll see."
"Everything is not fine! Nadia is dead!" I exploded. It wasn't fair to my mom to act like a child, but I was so upset.
"Well, make sure to hand in your thesis and then you can come home, hmm?"
My thesis. Art history. Right.
"Yeah, mom. I'll call you later, okay?"
"Okay. Bye, honey."
"Bye."
I hung up and fished out my laptop from my bag. Slowly, it turned on and I printed out my thesis to the printer in the lobby downstairs. Screw revision, I was done.
I was downstairs when I caught sight of myself in the mirror next to the door; my eyes were beyond puffy redness, and my nose had swollen due to irritation. I didn't care.
I everything back together and headed out to Professor Bailey's office. Again, I forgot a coat but I was too stubborn to head back at this point.
I entered into the office building, sniffling. I rubbed my arms, attempting to warm myself up. I headed up the steps and knocked on the door.
"Open!" A sing song voice cheered from the inside. Cheery. Joy. Wasn't Nadia one of Professor Bailey's favorite student? Maybe she hasn't heard the news. But even my mom knew. Just turn in the paper, I thought.
"Professor?" I began, opening the door. "Here's my thesis. Thanks for all of your help." I rubbed my eyes after setting the papers on her desk.
"Of course, Annabella. Are you feeling well?" She asked.
"I don't...um...I'll see you after break," I answered hastily, getting back into the hallway. I felt my legs moving me toward the door. I was about to head down the steps when a strange smell pulled me back to a ... janitor's closet. Of course it smells, doofus, of cleaner product and whatnot, I told myself. But this scent was off, like year old moldy play-doh mixed with something else...
I opened the closet, curiosity getting the better of me. On the floor and across the walls was molten ... skin?! I slammed the door shut, and jog walked back to my dorm. No way. I was hallucinating. I barely even ate today, and I was suffering from trauma. What I saw was cleaner product that had ... contents under pressure. Right. And it imploded in the closet. That explained the smell, too.
I crashed onto my bed and fell asleep again.
My body was stiff when I woke up, like I didn't move an inch since I had fallen asleep. I looked at my clock. It was 8:32 am. FOOD, My stomach growled at me.
I mechanically changed into different clothes, grabbed my coat and headed out. It was snowing this morning. I entered into the cafeteria and texted Aiden.
[How're you holding up?]
I waited for a response as I sat down, having only grabbed a muffin with juice.
[If you could call it that,] he sent back.
I sighed, looking up from my cell. Two men in suits had entered the commons; the taller one had longer brown hair, and the other had shorter hair. They were both muscular, and I could tell by the way that they walked and interacted that they were very close.
[Yeah. Same.] I texted back to Aiden.
I rubbed my face, and looked up again to see that the two men were heading my way. The closer they got, the more I realized how tall they really were. Jeez, Mr. Long Hair was a giant. Why were they coming over here?
"Hello, Ms. Richards?" Mr. Long Hair asked.
"Yes, that's me," I replied hesitantly.
They showed me ... FBI badges?!
"I'm Agent Hetfield, this is my partner Agent Ulrich. We have some questions to ask you concerning the death of Nadia Slater."
"Uh...yeah, go ahead. You can sit down," I said, mostly feeling looked down upon due to their authority and how they towered over me. I'm only 5'1"!
"Thank you," he replied. They sat down, and my phone rang.
"Just a moment," I said, answering the phone.
"Mom, this isn't the best time..."
"I know, honey, but I just wanted to make sure you were coming home today," she said, concern coloring her voice.
"No, I mean, this isn't the best time right now at this moment. I'll call you back," and then I hung up. I saw that Aiden had texted me back too, but I turned my phone on silent and shoved it in my bag.
"Sorry," I mumbled, looking back at them. Wow, they both had beautiful eyes. Agent Ulrich had sparkling green ones and Agent Hetfield -
"No problem," Agent Hetfield said.
"Do you know of any reason Ms. Slater would have wanted to end her life?" His partner asked, moving us along.
"No. None at all," I said truthfully. "Nadia was happy. She was going to graduate this year, she just bought her own car, she ... I don't know." I said, finishing in a whisper.
"When did you discover the body?" Agent Hetfield continued.
"It was ... mid afternoon yesterday. Someone screamed and we all found her." I replied, starting to breathe heavily. -Keep it cool. You're fine, - I thought, trying to keep it together.
"It was in here, yes? Could you point out to us where she was?"
I felt a couple tears threatening to spill over, but I rubbed it away. I needed to help these guys out. Wait, why were FBI investigating a suicide, anyway? Was there something else that none of us knew about yet?
"On the rafter...above the hub," I said. The hub was like the ultimate ask-a-question-get-a-quick-answer center in the college. I looked over to point, but then it was like I was seeing Nadia's free floating body all over again and I looked away. -Keep it together. Keep it together.-
I grabbed a napkin and blew my nose, a little louder than I intended.
"Was there anything that seemed to be out of place?" One of them asked, but I had my head down, fiddling with another napkin, so I couldn't tell which.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Did you find anything else that seemed weird or unnatural at any time yesterday? It's alright if you feel that you won't make sense," Agent Hetfield said, as I lifted my head.
Weird? Unnatural? I went to a small college to avoid that type of thing. Wait...there was...
"Yesterday I opened a janitor's closet and there was this weird gooey ... skin-like molten material strung everywhere. But ... That was probably just pressurized cleaner that exploded. It's nothing," I said, retracting. Now I felt silly mentioning it.
The agents glanced at each other, and it looked like they were having a full blown silent conversation. These guys had definitely been through a lot together to be able to communicate like that.
"Thank you for your help today, Ms. Richards. Call us if you need help, at any time," Agent Hetfield said, handing me a card. Then the agents got up and left.
