It was pretty close to four in the morning when I got bored of writing. I tucked my pen and notebook back into my duffle and kicked the duffle under the bed. I hadn't unpacked any of my things because I hadn't seen the point. If I was only spending the night, it was pointless.
I walked over to the door and opened it, hearing few noises from the building. I closed the door behind me and just started walking; a few lefts and a few rights put me outside of Henry's computer lab. I ducked my head in and was surprised to find him tapping away at the keyboard.
He turned around like he'd heard me, despite the fact I was pretty sure I hadn't made any noise. "Hey." He said.
"Hey. Sorry. I didn't mean to bother you. I was just kind of wandering around aimlessly." I told him.
He smiled. "Yeah, I do that too. Not tired?" He asked.
"Ha, no. Sleep and I don't get along well." I told him, coming to sit in an empty chair near his desk.
"When was the last time you slept?" He asked.
Honestly, I had to think about it. "Three nights ago. I caught the motel curtains on fire." I told him.
He looked like he disapproved, but he didn't say anything. "Did the temperature not help?"
I laughed nervously. "Are you kidding? It was freezing in there." I said, trying to take some of the tension out of the conversation. "What are you doing?" I asked, nodding to his four computer screens.
"Oh, uh. I'm just coding a little bit." He told me.
"A little bit? It's on three of your four screens." I told him with a smile. Henry was apparently the modest kind of geek.
He shrugged. "It's only a little for me."
I nodded. "I never got computers. Or at least, I haven't in the last year." I told him, trying to read the code on one of the screens.
"Why only the last year?" He asked.
I redirected my attention to the hard wood floor, realizing my slip up. "Nothing." I told him.
After a minute of silence, I glanced up at him and he was watching me curiously.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. "I got this fire thing in Hell. And when I got top side, I couldn't remember who I was before that. Hell was all I could remember." I told him, picking out dirt from under my finger nails.
"Hell? Like… Hell?" He asked.
I kind of smirked. "Yeah, that one."
"No, but you were seriously down under and they let you come back?" He asked.
I made a face out of instinct. "They didn't exactly let me out. I caught a ride out."
Henry blinked. "You escaped Hell?"
"You make it sound so much more melodramatic than it is." I said quietly.
"No, but this is a big deal." He said, leaning to rest his elbows on his knees. I had his full attention apparently.
"Got put in a psych ward for it. I was there for eight months before I got rescued." I told him.
He nodded, apparently seeing that I didn't really want to talk about it. "Well, if anybody can help you, its Magnus." He told me with a smile.
I quirked my lips. "Yeah, well. I'm not holding my breath." I told him.
He nodded, understandingly. "I had doubts about what she could do too, but she does miracles with the abnormals."
I tilted my head a little. "Abnormals?"
He looked a little confused looking at me. "Yeah. That's what they're called. We're called." He said, gesturing between us.
"I didn't know. I just always called them monsters." I told him.
He looked like he was processing information. "Monsters." He said, like he hadn't thought about it that way. "You're a hunter."
I blinked. "A what?"
He shook his finger at me. "I knew it. You're a monster hunter." He told me with a smile.
"How could you possibly know that?" I asked me.
Henry just smiled. "I'm no shrink, but I can read people sometimes."
"That's good. I'd hate to call you the geek shrink." I told him with a smile.
He grinned like he liked the nickname. "Well, I've probably had worse."
I nodded, not sure what to say, but still wanting to talk to him.
"So why do they call you Blaze?" Henry asked.
I shrugged. "I didn't remember my real name when I got topside and the nurses at the hospital put me in as Jane Doe. So when the guys busted me out, Dean thought Blaze was as good as any."
"Who are the guys?" He asked.
"Oh, Sam and Dean. They were like my big brothers. Watched out for me, made sure I was doing ok." I told him, bringing my knees up to my chest to rest my chin on.
"Were?" Henry asked.
I gave him a sad smile. "I realized that as long as they were around me, there would be a point in time when I couldn't control the fire anymore and I'd kill everything close to me. So I put as much distance between us as I could."
He nodded slowly. "That's why you've been carrying your bag since Oregon."
I nodded. "We had a job right over the border from Idaho. Supposedly it was a vamp nest. That's what Sam told us. But our intel was all wrong. It was this giant ass spider thing. It attacked us and I fried it before I could even think about it."
Henry smiled. "Big spider thing, huh?" He asked, turning back to the only screen without code. "Like this?" He asked, typing and pulling up a picture.
"Just like that. How'd you know?" I asked.
"This is what Magnus and Ashley went after. It's called a Shelob. It's endangered." He told me.
"Hey. I was endangered when it freaking charged me." I told him.
He smirked. "I'm sure you were. There's got to be a giant nest there too, right?" he asked.
I nodded. "Hundreds of eggs." I told him, shivering from the thought of all those big spiders.
Henry nodded. "Well I've got to finish this code. You can hang out here if you don't want to go back to your room." He told me.
"The worst part of leaving the guys has been being alone." I told him thoughtfully. "So I'll stay here if its ok with you."
He nodded, turning back to his computer screen. I leaned back in the chair and observed the room. He had a big L shaped desk in the farthest corner from the door. The wall opposite the desk was filing cabinets and the wall the desk was against had bins that stored different parts and pieces. The short wall nearest the door held a bunch of guns.
"Do you miss being with Sam and Dean?" Henry asked and I turned to see him watching me.
I smiled. "Would you miss Will if he fell off the face of the Earth?"
Henry smirked. "I don't know. He can be kind of obnoxious." He joked, turning back to his computer.
"Yeah, I miss them." I told him. "The only family I can remember."
He nodded, like I made sense to him. "Magnus rescued me when I was little. I don't remember my parents at all."
"Don't tell me you built your first computer at age ten." I said, rolling my eyes.
"I was actually fourteen. They called me a late bloomer." He said with a smile as he typed away at the keyboard.
I shook my head. "I'm not good at anything except shooting."
"Is that right?" He asked.
I smiled. "Dean didn't want me to carry a gun, but Sam said I should have one. After the basic instruction, I took to it like a secret agent. I can even do this really cool thing where I spin it in the air, catch it, and shoot."
Henry smiled at his computer screen as he tapped away. "That's funny. I can barely hold one correctly."
I smiled. "But you also built your first computer when you were fourteen, where I can hardly use one."
He nodded as to say 'fair enough'.
"So you don't sleep?" I asked him.
He shrugged. "I ended up more nocturnal. I take a nap in the day once in a while. But I don't usually sleep long at night."
I nodded. "I'm gonna go find some coffee. You want some?"
Henry didn't reply for a short minute and I just sat there. "Actually, I'm done. I'll show you the kitchen." He said with a smile.
He stood up and we walked down the hall together. The building made a few noises here and there, but everything was pretty quiet. We walked into the kitchen and he hit a light switch. I found the coffee pot and automatically started making a pot.
When I turned back to him, he was watching me carefully. "What?" I asked.
He shook his head and looked out the dark window.
"No, you were thinking about something. What was it?" I asked.
Henry shrugged like it didn't matter.
"What kind are you?" I asked, looking over at him.
He turned to me, confused.
"You said abnormals like us, and you pointed to the both of us." I explained, gesturing the same way he had.
He nodded. "I would tell you, except you're a hunter."
I cocked an eyebrow. "The hunter thing is kind of over for right now. I'm staying the night in Monster Ville."
He shrugged, keeping his eyes downcast. "I've got to get back to my office. Check on the EM fields." He told me, ducking out of the room before I could say anything.
I got my cup of coffee and wandered back to my room. I wrote for another few hours until there was a knock at my door and I realized the sun had come up. I went to the door and opened it, slightly surprised to see Bigfoot standing there.
Bigfoot… is a butler…?
"Will wanted me to bring you breakfast." He said.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't know you could talk." I said, standing off to the side so he could put the silver tray on the table. "I'm really sorry about yesterday. I didn't know you were friendly or anything. I just figured you were going to hurt me."
He looked at me for a moment and it unnerved me. "I won't hurt you as long as you don't hurt us."
I nodded. "I find that more than a fair arrangement."
He nodded and left the room, leaving me with a plate of breakfast.
I went over to the table and pulled the lid off. French toast, pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, and toast. "There's no way I could eat all that." I mumbled.
I polished off the French toast, sausage and bacon when there was a knock on my door. I stood up to answer it and saw Will standing there with a brunette lady who looked only a few years older than him.
"Hello. I'm Doctor Magnus. Will said you arrived last night." She said with a smile as she held out her hand.
"Uh, yeah. It's nice to meet you. I'm Blaze." I told her, gingerly shaking her hand.
She looked alarmed. "You have a temperature. We should get you to the infirmary right away."
"You didn't tell her?" I asked Will, who looked like he'd been thrown under the bus.
"I didn't think I had any business." He said.
"Tell me what?" Magnus asked.
I took a breath and slowly eased some of my ever constant panic into my chest, filling me with fire. I snapped my fingers and a little flame danced across my forefinger.
She stood there, looking bewildered. "That's marvelous. How long have you had this ability?"
"Um. A little more than a year." I told her, dousing the fire.
"This is a new development." She said, thinking. "Would it be alright if I gave you an evaluation? To get a better idea of your body chemistry?"
"Guess I don't have a choice." I said. At least they were more gracious than Crowley's men…
Magnus looked confused before glancing at Will and back to me. "Of course you do. I just think it'd help us understand your physiology better if we did some tests."
I nodded, not entirely sure if I believed her or not. Doctors were hard to trust sometimes. I shrugged, digging my hands into the front pockets of my jeans. "As long as you aren't shoving rods into my head or cutting me open, I'm all yours, doc."
Magnus and Will looked worried at my words. "Have you had either of that done to you?" Will asked.
I shrugged again, pulling up my bangs. I kept them long to hide the row of circle scars that formed a perfect line around my head; three of which could be seen on my forehead. I pulled down the collar of my t-shirt to show the marks that were made in my chest. "Torture is pretty potent stuff in Hell."
Magnus looked pained while Will just looked confused. "Yes, Crowley. We've been trying to keep tabs on him, but he moves much quicker than we'd previously thought."
I smirked to hide my worry. "Like I said, doc, I'm all yours."
"Are you finished with breakfast or would you like more time?" She asked.
"Oh no. I finished it. I apologized to the big guy for yesterday." I said, glancing at Will before I turned around and picked up my tray of half eaten food.
"I can take that for you." Will said.
"No, it's ok. I've got it." I told him as Magnus turned and led us down the hallways and into the kitchen.
"She's not talking about hell, hell right?" Will asked in front of me.
"I believe so, yes." Magnus said quietly.
We got to the kitchen and on autopilot; I washed all the dishes on my tray and set them in the drying rack.
"You're move around a lot." Will told me when I turned around. Him and Magnus just kind of stood there, watching me.
"Was that a question or a statement, doc?" I asked with a smile.
"Statement." He told me. "You've got two different kinds of mud on yours shoes. I can also tell that as much as you're glad to not be outside starting fires, you're scared of being here."
"If we're gonna play this game, Doc," I said, spitting out his title. "You can poke and prod me until your little heart's desire. But you're not getting in my head."
Will crossed his arms defensively while Magnus watched us. "Why not?"
I walked over to him and looked him hard in the eye. "Because you won't be able to handle it."
"I believe now would be a good time to start your evaluation, if it's alright with you of course." Magnus said.
"Whatever you say, doc." I told her, turning and following her down the hall.
She pulled open a door that said 'infirmary' and I was reminded of the nurses office at the mental hospital. "If you'll sit right here." She told me, gesturing to the steel examination table.
I turned, but the shiny steel didn't look like it was in this big clean room; it was in a tight stone room and it had shackles attached for my head, hands and feet. I backed away from the table; unable to move myself into sitting on it. "I-I c-can't." I said, still seeing the small stone room.
"Hey, hey. It's ok." Will said, blocking my view of the examination table.
I could feel my temperature rise and I forced it back down. "Sorry. Sorry. I just, uh… I can't be near that table." I told him.
Will and Magnus nodded.
I got to sit in a normal chair as Magnus took blood and skin samples. I barely felt the needle as it pierced my skin. "I appreciate you being so cooperative with us." Magnus told me as I just looked around the room.
"You can call me Blaze ya know." I told her.
She smiled. "Blaze doesn't seem like a real name in my view."
I shrugged. "It's what Dean called me when he found me." I told her.
"You don't know your real name?" Will asked.
"That part of my memory was killed off in the pit. I got top side with no family, no friends and I had nightmares to scare the devil. I wasn't exactly popular at dinner parties." I told him, examining the art work on the wall.
Magnus laughed and glanced at Will. "Seems that's a trait we've in common."
I said nothing as she took a skin scrape.
"Magnus, we've got a breach on the outer perimeter. It bounced right off the shields and no fluctuation in power, but thought you should know." Henry came into the room with a kind of tablet computer.
"Henry, have you met our newest guest? She likes to be called Blaze." Magnus said. "Henry is a technologic wizard."
"We met yesterday." Henry said with a smile, despite the conversation he left this morning. At least he didn't hold it against me.
"Right then." Magnus said, her arm grazing mine. She stopped and turned to me. "Now about that temperature."
"I'm on fire. Of course I have a temperature." I told her with a smile.
She shook her head, standing up and coming over to me with a thermometer. I put it under my tongue and pretended I didn't look like I was a little kid. It beeped and I handed it to the doc. Her eyes went wide. "One hundred and twelve point six."
"Internal organs melt at a hundred and eight, depending on the doctor you ask." I told the room.
"This changes things drastically. Henry, did you have our guest set up in the climate controlled rooms?" Magnus asked.
"Yeah, but she said she doesn't sleep. So I'm not sure it'll do us much good." Henry said with a shrug.
"What do you mean you don't sleep?" Magnus asked. Her tone implied she was under the impression this was part of my condition, which I suppose it was.
"Sleep causes nightmares. Nightmares cause fires." I told her.
"I see." She said, obviously thinking my situation over. "When was the last time you slept?"
I had to think about it again. What had I told Henry this morning? "Like, three days ago?" I said.
Magnus didn't look happy. "You've got to get some rest."
"As much as I appreciate your concern, doc; I'd hate to burn this lovely establishment to the ground." I told her.
"What's the biggest fire you've ever created?" She asked, as if daring me to prove her wrong and it bugged me that Henry and Will were in here. I didn't want them to be afraid of me.
"Do we have to, doc?" I asked, nervous about the situation I was thrown into.
"Or else I should have to give you a sedative." Magnus said.
I crossed my arms and took a breath. "Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital in Toledo, Ohio."
Henry tapped away at his tablet and I groaned inwardly. I didn't want them to actually read it, but I supposed they had to know. "The Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital was stuck by tragedy when the facility burned to the ground the evening of August 13th, 2013. Officials refuse to comment, but an anonymous tip says that it was a patient that started the fire." Henry read out loud.
"Despite the fact police are unaware of the cause of the burn, city officials have given the paper a count of seven dead bodies and twenty-eight injured staff and patients." Henry read.
"They sedated me because I wouldn't stop screaming. I was screaming to keep myself awake. Dean and Sam came in as FBI guys and made sure my Jane Doe name made the casualty list." I told them.
Henry typed away at the tablet and I wondered what he was doing. "Toledo police listed two Jane Does in the fire; one fits Blaze's description."
"You didn't have any ID or anything on you?" Will asked.
I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "I didn't wake up from a bender on the side of the street. My memory was drilled out. Crowley doesn't want me to remember, so I can't."
"But why? No offense, but what's so special about you?" Will asked.
"It's possible because of the fire power." Magnus said.
I shook my head. "If I was that important, he would've found me already."
"Or maybe he just wants to keep tabs on you." Henry suggested.
"Like what?" Will asked.
"Well, like maybe he didn't know he drilled out her memory. Maybe he was trying to get a hold of somebody she knew before hand." Henry said with a shrug.
"We won't be able to tell until we can find out who you are." Magnus told me. "Henry, will you take Blaze with you and upload her picture for facial recognition?"
"Sure thing doc." Henry said.
"Oh, and Blaze?" She asked and I turned to her. "Get some rest."
"Sleeping is one hundred percent out of the question. I've got at least another day before I crash and burn again and I'll take full advantage of it." I told her sternly.
"The body wasn't built to be awake constantly. You need sleep to reenergize yourself." She told me.
I shook my head. "That's why there's coffee."
Magnus made a face. "You people and black sludge."
I shrugged. "Believe me, you'll know when I fall asleep." I told her, taking Henry's elbow as I walked us out of the lab.
