"Do you think they have a salad bar?" Claire asked.
"No.. But maybe they have an all-you-can-eat meat-fest?" I grinned at her and she rolled her eyes.
"Cute." She bent down to lace up her sneakers.
"I know I am." I pulled my sneakers on. I never untied them, so I rarely had to worry about lacing them up. I like shortcuts.
"Let's go." Claire left, and I followed. We headed left, where we knew the front desk would be eventually. We were planning on asking if they carried any sort of food, we were starving and the raging storm outside had kept us locked away in the little motel we were staying at.
We wandered for awhile, not seeing anyone else or anything familiar, before I stopped. Claire, sensing that I wasn't following, stopped and turned around. "What?"
"Claire.." I started, but chickened out. Something wasn't right, but I couldn't figure out what it was. The longer I tried to recall what had bothered me, the more I couldn't remember. "Claire.. I don't feel good." I sat down on a seat I hadn't noticed before, ducking my head between my legs as I started to take deep breaths. I knew that if I had kept my eyes open any longer, I was sure to throw up the non-existant breakfast I had.
"Claire." I took another deep breath, and looked up, to look her in the eyes. But she was gone. I could feel the panic start to build. If she left, wouldn't I have heard her? I looked to my right and my left. There weren't any doors, just wall. And it was a long way to the ends of the hall. She wouldn't have had time, unless she ran. And I would've heard her.
"Claire!" I called out. I decided to go to the right, hoping it led back to our room. I honestly had no idea where I was, none of it seemed familiar. Out of nowhere, I tripped, sending me sprawling to the floor.
"Need a hand?" I heard. I grabbed the outreached hand and hoisted myself up, noticing as I got stable that it was Claire who had helped me. I tried to look at her clearly, but I couldn't. I could see her outline, I knew it was her.. But in the center of her figure, it was almost a black smoke, with features that definitely didn't look human. I knew my eye sight had gotten affected by whatever had made me dizzy to the point of almost passing out, but I would worry about that later. I seemed almost back to normal.
"Claire, where did you go?" I asked. I could feel myself tipping a little, and I went to put a hand out to the wall to steady myself, but Claire put her left hand in my right, keeping me steady.
"Claire went on a little.. Fieldtrip. Hope you don't mind." Claire's eyes turned back, then her right hand slowly crept up my neck to the back of my head. "This might hurt." She grinned, then threw me headfirst into the wall. Once I crumpled to the floor, I was able to flip myself onto my stomach. I groaned in pain and without thinking, tried to drag myself away.
Claire stepped on my back, sending shooting pains throughout my entire body, like electricity. I cried out. "Hey!" I heard from down the hall. It sounded vaguely like a mans voice, but for the life of me I couldn't concentrate on anything except the main. My head throbbed like it was going to burst open any minute. I could feel the blood rushing down the side of my face, staining my hair and anything else it came into contact with. My back felt like it had locked up, I couldn't move it at all.
My vision started blurring everything else together. I could remember seeing two sets of feet run past me, shuffling and loud noises, then everything went black.
"Hey." I looked up at the sound of the greeting, seeing a tall man with shaggy brown hair, and dark brown eyes. His facial features showed he was mildy amused, but his eyes held torment.
"Hey yourself." I smiled and put the bookmark back into my book, pushing it to the side. The man kept looking at me, so to avoid an awkward staredown I said, "Sit.. Please?"
"Yeah. Yeah, sorry." He sat. "You just look familiar."
"Is this where the "How was your trip?" line comes in?" I asked. He laughed, which made me smile.
"No, I mean it.. I think I've met you before." I waited while he continued to stare at me. Then I could almost see the lightbulb flash on at the same time he said "Oh!"
"Ha ha, I take it you remembered?" I smiled politely. He seemed good natured, but I had to remember that I couldn't trust him. Once I remembered that, I started shaking a little, I had to leave.
"Yeah.. Your friend." He frowned a little. "Claire, I think?"
I stared at him. How had he known about her? Unless.. "You're.. Sam. Sam Winchester." I took a deep breath. "Wow. I didn't think I'd ever see you again."
"Yeah, alot has happened the last couple years." He laughed nervously. "How are you holding up, after..?"
"Oh. Well, you know. Things happened." I wasn't about to tell him I was a hunter. Some things you just don't tell people, even if they saved your life. "How are you?"
"You know, living." He smiled, but I caught the hint of pain in it.
"That's good.. And Dean?" As soon as I mentioned Dean's name, I could tell I hit a raw nerve. Sam was still smiling, but it wasn't even remotely happy. It was painful to look at.
"He's good. As far as I know." Sam looked away towards the bar, ordering himself a beer.
"I'm sorry to hear that." I said to everything that Sam didn't say. He turned around and looked at me for a few moments.
"Thanks." He smiled a little again. "You know, I never got your name."
"Oh. It's Cara Warren." I smiled back at him. "Also, Sam.. Thank you for saving my life. If you and your brother," I avoided saying Dean's name. "hadn't been there when you were, she would've killed me. So.. Thank you." I reached both of my hands across the table. His flinched, but he didn't pull away. "I know what it was." I ventured. I didn't know how they had killed the demon that had possessed my best friend, or if they had merely exorcised it. Either way, it was gone and I was still alive.
"You know about demons?" He looked shocked, and he pulled his hands away. "We never told you what it was." I knew from his expression that he knew all about that world. I could trust him, to an extent.
"Sam.. After that demon possessed Claire." I shook my head. "I had to find out what happened. Why her, why me. I was scared."
"You became a hunter?" He spat out, almost like he was angry.
"Of course I did! After what happened, did you think I could just go back and try to live an apple pie life?" I sat up straight, pulling in whatever courage I had. "I'm not that same, innocent girl you knew back then, Sam. That night changed me, forever."
"That doesn't mean you should become a hunter, Cara! You're an amateur, you're going to get yourself hurt, or worse!" He slammed his hands on the table. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into."
"For your information, I've been 'in' for 3 years now." I stood up. "I can do whatever I want, okay? It's a little late for you to try to protect me." I gathered up all of my things, shoving my book into my bag. I put a few bills on the table to pay for both of our drinks. "Again, thank you so much, Sam, for coming to my rescue all those years ago. Say "Hello" to Dean for me when you see him." I walked away from him. I knew that last line was a low blow, but I was past guys trying to tell me what to do. With my family, ex boyfriends, fellow hunters. Guys were dicks, even if their heart's were in the right places.
That night I didn't get any sleep. So when I left the next morning at 5am, I was exhausted. But if I had to be honest with myself, I never got any sleep. After I jumped out of the shower, I quickly got dressed. Once the memories of the night before replayed in my head, I was too angry to even stay in the same city. I had to leave. I quickly packed my things and left, heading for anywhere I could think of.
After about a two hour drive, I stopped at a diner that was located right off the highway. I went in and sat down, noticing that there was only about 4 or 5 locals in the place. I was about to mock the diner in my head until I realized it was a little after 7, and everyone would be at work.
"What can I get for you?" A waitress asked, walking up to me. She seemed bored, and not all that friendly.
"Uhh. What sounds good?" I opened up the menu, as I noticed a guy off to my left shift a little in his chair.
"Everything sounds good." The waitress said, eyeing me like I was stupid.
I laughed, which is usually what I do when I have nothing to say. "Okay, well I'll have a cup of coffee for now." She quickly wrote it down, snatched the menu from my hand, and walked off without another word. About 5 minutes later, she finally came back with a cup of coffee. She turned to leave before I caught her. "Excuse me." She turned around and glared at me, obviously annoyed. "Where am I?"
"You're in a diner. You know what that is?" She grinned, enjoying the fact that she seemed smarter than me.
"No, dumbass. I meant what city." She promptly walked away, then I realized what I said. "Oh.. Whoops." I muttered sarcastically under my breath, which was picked up by the guy to my left.
"You're in Cicero, Indiana." He said, facing me.
"Thanks, dude." I flashed him a quick smile, then took out a notebook and a pen. I started to scribble down anything that came to mind, which was my newest form of therapy. I stopped two minutes in to reread what I had written, since I didn't pay attention until I was done. All I had down was one sentence. "How did I find Dean Winchester?"
I looked up at the man, and really looked at him. His short brown hair, green eyes, muscular build, and slight smirk definitely gave him away.
"Have we met?" He asked. "You look familiar."
"Yeah, Dean.. We've met." I took a deep breath. Honestly, I was freaked out. Out of everywhere in the entire country, I end up in the same town and diner as Dean, right after seeing his brother. This couldn't be a coincidence.
"Right, you're the girl-" I cut him off.
"Yeah. You saved me from my best friend, Claire, who was possessed by a demon." He looked a little shocked, but I had already gone through this with Sam, I didn't have the patience for it again. "Yes, Dean, I'm a hunter now. I know you and Sam are, too. You can skip the speech about how I'm an amateur and could get hurt. Sam already laid it out last night." With that last line, Dean actually jumped up and ran to me. He grabbed my arms roughly, picking me out of my seat and almost holding me in the air.
"You know where Sam is?" He said, his breathing so shallow that his voice came out in a whisper.
"Dean, you're hurting me." I tried to wiggle out of his grip. I could feel the bruises already forming on my arms, and I could feel my girl instinct to the situation sting my eyes. But I wouldn't let him see me cry.
"I'm sorry." He let go. "Where's Sam?" He said again, his eyes churning with a hundred different emotions. I opened my mouth to tell him where I had left Sam the night before, when I felt a fuzzy feeling deep in my stomach. Like the feeling of when you have to throw up, but without the vomit or the gagging.
"Dean?" I heard to our right. We both turned to see a guy with dark brown hair and a long tan trench coat staring at us in astonishment.
"Cass?" Dean turned toward the new arrival. "What are you doing here?"
"I came for Cara." He said matter-of-factly.