~Dean~
I really hadn't expected Casey to come off so strong, and I liked that about her. I was extremely glad to have her begin to loosen up a bit, but I felt like there was something she was hiding. I mean sure, we all hide things. Me and Sam, we have hidden some big life changing things from each other. But for such a young girl, hers seemed dangerous and harmful. I could read people like that, and whatever it was I would just have to dig a bit deeper to find.
"Dean! Lunch is ready! Come on Dean, come here boy!" I heard Sam yell, calling for me like I was a dog. Laughter echoed off the tiled walls of the kitchen and rang throughout the house as I walked in. Casey sat next to Kevin, blushing furiously. I grinned and winked at him and he shook his head and shrugged, looking confused.
"So…you're a prophet?" I heard Casey ask.
"Case, have you ever had a boyfriend?" I asked. She looked at me angrily.
"That's none of your business!" I looked at her. "But for the record, yes I have. One," she mumbled quietly.
"Well what happened? With a pretty girl like you no one would break your heart," Kevin said with a wink. Smooth move, I thought. Older boy for Casey. Hm.
"I caught him cheating on me a few days after-" she stopped abruptly.
"After…?"
"After homecoming. It was a great night, but I was looking forward to having my first kiss and I didn't get it. Few days later, he was hooking up with some girl in the middle of the hallway." Something told me she as lying, but I ignored that.
"Hold up. You're fifteen and you've never even had your first kiss?!" I didn't think her face could turn any redder, but it did.
"Dean!" Sam scolded. "Just because you were hooking up with girls at 13 doesn't mean everyone else was."
"Sorry, sorry, I'm just curious. You're nice, funny, pretty-" even redder- "Why no first kiss?!" Sam awkwardly looked down and scratched his head.
"So we found a hunt!" he announced. "Just a few hours away from here, in a place in Idaho. Looks like it may be vampires, but we need to check it out just to be sure." I saw Casey gulp nervously.
"Kevin, you need to stick with the tablet," I said.
"Just as I thought I was getting a break," he grumbled to himself. I shook my head.
"Sorry, kid. It's a rough life." I looked at Casey who was pushing her mac and cheese around the bowl with her spoon. The bowl was only half empty. "Are you feeling alright?" I asked. She looked up.
"Yeah, fine! Just not that hungry." I shrugged.
"Okay." More awkward silences followed that. "So, um, we leave tomorrow morning," I said. "Just pack your bag with a few spare changes of clothes that you may need."
"Right. Got it." No one was willing to make conversation. Casey kept looking up at Kevin and Sam was silently eating his food. I sat there drumming my fingers on the table. If Casey wasn't here, there would probably be conversation, but it wasn't her fault.
"Well…I'll go pack," Casey said.
"Wait! Are you gonna eat your mac and cheese?"
"Um, no! You can have it!" She sprinted upstairs in a rush to get away from us.
"She hasn't been eating much lately," I said casually, trying to hide the worry and concern in my voice.
"It's probably just the shock. She'll be eating in no time," Sam said, but I saw in his eyes he looked concerned too. Casey was hiding a secret from us, and I was determined to find out.
I was hiding in the staircase, listening in on their conversation. They were catching on to me, they saw I wasn't feeling well. I knew I should have been concerned, but being a cancer patient, I was really prone to sicknesses. My immune system hadn't worked the way it should have ever since I was diagnosed, and I had a cold or stomach bug at least once a month, so I figured it wasn't really anything to be worried about. I crawled off to my room and threw a few changes of clothes into my duffel bag. It still smelled like home. I wanted to cry, but it was like I had no tears left. I pulled the bandaids off my arm. Red, bumpy scratches had formed on my arm. What Sam and Dean didn't know was that I had snuck one of the smaller knives in my pocket. I stuck it in a hidden pocket in the duffel bag that I had made when I was younger because I didn't want the people at the airport seeing my stuffed animal. My mom laughed when I told her, she said that they would find it anyways and I got so scared that right before we sent it back, I had to go through my duffel bag to get it out. I carried it through the whole airport. The memory finally brought more tears to my eyes, and I zipped up my bag through blurry vision. Trying to take my mind off of memories, I thought about the hunt. Vampires. I hadn't exactly wrapped my mind around the fact that vampires were real. I rubbed my pounding head, which had suddenly hit me. "I just want to go home," I said quietly. If my family wasn't dead, I would be feeling differently. But they were. I changed into a cute outfit of jeans and a black jacket with my black wedge boots that weren't too tall and easy to walk in.
"You're looking like a real hunter," Kevin remarked when I walked back down. I blushed for the thousandth time.
"Where are Sam and Dean?" I asked.
"Packing the car. Look. I need to talk to you," he said seriously.
"Sure."
"This hunting crap is really serious. I know it may seem easy and fun at first with the guys, but it isn't. I almost got killed before, Case." He was getting rather close to me. "I know you want to, but it isn't the best idea. And it's most certainly not safe." He was now close enough so that he was whispering. "And I don't want you hurt."
Dean chose the wrong moment to burst in.
"Sorry, was I interrupting?" he asked loudly. I shot a look at him, grabbed my bag, and angrily stalked out.
~Dean~
Leave it to me to get the mood swings going. I just had to burst in at the wrong moment, and now we would have to deal with a grumpy teenage girl for three hours. And those would be painful hours. When we said good bye to Kevin, he lightly kissed Casey on her cheek and she smiled happily. Under normal circumstances, I really would not care. I'd probably be happy for Kev. But with Casey, I felt overprotective. I shot a glance at Kevin, who looked confused. "Stay safe," Sam said, not really caring about that. Thinking about it, he probably didn't even notice. We jumped in the car, and just like that we were off. And I was nervous. Me, Dean Winchester, I was nervous. I was never nervous. I was actually over confident most of the time. But Casey was so fragile. She sat in the back seat with headphones in, staring out the window. When she saw me looking at her in the mirror, I made a face, and she gave a small smile. Trying to think of ways to make her laugh, or maybe just annoy her since she was technically a new member of our…family, I decided to blast (I mean blast) my AC/DC.
"Dean!" she yelled over the music, ripping her headphones out.
"Yeah, DEAN!" Sam yelled too. I belted out the lyrics. Sam shook his head while Casey tried but failed at suppressing her smile. Before I knew it, her voice had joined in.
"You know AC/DC?!" I yelled.
"YES! And I also know you're driving on the wrong side of the road!" I looked out the window and saw a large truck, its horn blaring. I swerved the car on the right side, and she was laughing her head off.
"Dean Dean Dean," Sam muttered, as he turned down my music. "You get used to that," Sam said to Casey. "We've almost died on several occasions. I would like to drive, but he's too overprotective of this piece of crap."
"Don't listen to him baby, he doesn't mean it," I said, patting the wheel. Casey stared at me, her mouth slightly open.
"Um. I uh, really don't know how to answer," she said. I grinned and nodded.
"This car is not a worthless piece of junk. It's our dads." She looked at me.
"Sorry I know it's personal but…what happened?" Sam swallowed.
"Demon deal. Dean was…Dean was dying. He sold his soul to save him." She nodded.
"I'm sorry."
"It was long ago. It's done," I said, my hands gripping the wheel. Silence filled the car once more.
The three hour car ride was rather uneventful, other than the beginning. I had my earphones in most of the time, choosing to listen to my alternative rock rather than Dean's classic rock. A lot of the songs were the ones my dad had listened to, but I grew so accustomed to them that I had started to like them, than I loved them. Memories kept filling my mind, like the Pearl Jam concert my dad took me too. Or the hectic Black Friday shopping I did with my mom. And each memory was like another stab in my heart. I wanted the knife so bad, but they couldn't find out. We got to Idaho around 7 pm, it was already dark. The town was rather suburban, and we found a small and gross motel on a highway that led out of town. "This is lovely," I said as we entered the room. My arms were shaking with the weight of my bag, which wasn't even heavy. I dropped it on the floor and sat down on the bed, getting the chills.
"Are you alright?" Sam asked.
"What? I'm fine, just cold. Tired too."
"It's only seven!" Dean exclaimed.
"Dude, no bars," Sam said, reading his mind. He frowned.
"Come on!" he whined. I giggled.
"You guys go ahead, I'll get some rest." Sam looked reluctant to leave me. "I'll be fine," I promised, putting my hand on top of his.
"You're freezing," he said, taking my hand in his.
"Sam, just go! I need sleep, ok, I'll be fine." Dean placed a gun and a machete looking thing on the table.
"Just in case. I doubt anything will happen. No, nothing will happen, it's just in case," he said. I saw worry in his eyes, so I got up and looked at him, doing something very daring.
"Go," I said, gently kissing his cheek. "I swear, I'm fine." He smoothed my hair back.
"Alright. Sleep tight, kiddo."
As soon as they left, I collapsed in bed, but no sooner than that, I felt something wet on my face. My nose was bleeding.
"No," I whispered to myself. Blood poured down my face, and I stumbled to the bathroom. I grabbed several tissues, or more like the whole box, and held them to my face. Dread filled my stomach. Right before I'd had relapses, which was twice, I had gotten these awful nose bleeds. I refused to think that was happening. It was just a nose bleed. Maybe it was from the cold. Then I realized it wasn't even cold out, I had just gotten the chills. Eventually the nose bleed stopped, and with a dark feeling in my stomach, I pulled the knife out of my bag. "I'm sorry mom and dad," I whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."
Half an hour later, and a long and deep scratch up my arm, I was nestled in bed, crying softly. That was how I fell asleep.
~Dean~
We had come home to find Casey soundly sleeping in bed, but tear stains covered her face. But what genuinely frightened me were the bloody tissues in the trash can.
"Sam!" I called.
"What the hell…," he said quietly.
What was she hiding from us?
The next morning, I woke up around 8, showered, and put on my FBI suit. Sam was out getting us coffee and hopefully breakfast.
"Morning bed head," I teased Casey, when I saw her stretch. She immediately pulled the covers over her head.
"Go away!" I heard her muffled voice.
"Hey, it's a judgment free zone here," I said, laughing.
She rolled out of bed.
"I'm showering."
"Nice to know!" I called after her. Half an hour later, when she was showered and changed and Sam had brought back food, I sat her down.
"Something wrong?" she asked, wide eyes.
"Um, well no. We just need to talk." I saw her shaking hands. "Me and Sam saw those bloody tissues last night."
"Oh that!" she laughed. "Dean, I fell out of bed and hit my face!" Something was telling me that wasn't the honest answer.
"And?"
"And what? I got a god awful bloody nose, I'll tell you that. Used up the whole tissue box." Sam breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wow, thought something went wrong."
"I'm a clumsy person, what can I say. So question."
"Shoot," I said. I wasn't 100% convinced of her little cover up.
"How the hell do you kill a vampire?" I held up the machete sword thingy that I liked swinging around.
"Cut the head off. Nice and easy."
"Easy. Right," she said nervously.
"Look, were gonna start by looking at the bodies. Well, I'll do that, Sam will question the victim's parents. Who do you want to go with?" I asked her.
"You," she said to me quickly. "Questioning is boring." I nodded.
"Very boring. Sorry Sammy, I'll meet you back here in a few hours?"
"Yep. See you soon."
We both got in the Impala. It was a little awkward, with neither of us talking. "So…anything I need to know about you?" I asked her, trying to fill the silence. She grimaced and shook her head.
"My life has been nothing but boring." Well I was hoping she would go along with the conversation, but that didn't really work.
"Um…"
"Dean Winchester," she laughed. "You really don't know how to make conversation with teenage girls, do you?" I smiled and shook my head.
"Sorry to disappoint, Case, but no I really don't. You know, picking up chicks at bars I can do. In fact, that's probably my area of expertise. Works every time. But teenagers I don't do." She laughed and turned up the radio.
"Well, get on it Dean. Who knows how long I'll be with you." Which struck me as a sudden though.
"How long will you be with us, Casey?" I asked seriously.
I would be with them until I died. And for me, that was soon. I had been pushing the thought off for so long until now, and it hit me. I would die. And I would die soon. I looked him in the eyes as we came to a red light. "Until the day comes when death greets us," I said seriously.
"When will that be?" he asked quietly. I swallowed.
"Whenever the time comes." The rest of the car ride we sat in a horrible depressing silence. "Sorry to bring the mood down," I said softly as we pulled into the parking lot. Dean laughed and patted my leg.
"I always love a good conversation about death! Now come on, let's see these bodies."
I followed him inside, and for some reason I felt myself getting really hot. It was only 65 outside, too.
"FBI," Dean said, holding a badge up. "She's with me, no arguments." I bit back a grin as the guy at the desk looked at me, but I kept a straight face.
"We're here to see the three most recent bodies. The victims of the killings."
"Right, follow me," he said seriously. Dean winked at me and we followed the man back.
"Are you alright?" he asked, falling back to walk with me.
"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked with a grin.
"Well, for one thing, you're sweating rather horribly." He was right. I wiped my forehead with my hand.
"Just hot!"
"Hot and cold flashes…isn't that a sign of menopause?" he joked. I smacked his arm. "Ow! Jesus!" I smiled.
"I'm not fifty, Dean. Go away."
We made it into the room that held the bodies, and three of those drawer things were pulled out, revealing the body. The man held out a box of plastic gloves.
"Of course," Dean said, taking a pair and handing them to me. I wiped more sweat off and pulled them on.
"Call me when you're done," he said. Dean nodded curtly.
"Alright," he instructed once the guy was gone. "Check the neck, tell me what you see." I looked at him and he grinned. "You wanna be a hunter, I wanna see you do something."
"O-ok." I pushed the first woman's blond hair back, and examined the neck. "There are two small holes in the neck…" I made a circle with my thumb and forefinger to indicate how small they were. The same exact marks were on the other two victims.
"Definitely vamps. Man, for once I'm wishing we had a harder case. No research, all we gotta do is find the damn creature and kill it," Dean said, mostly to himself. That was the last thing I remembered.
