A/N: OK I get it. No love for Sarah. But what about the girls and boys? Anyway, I'm babysitting 8:30 A to 5 P Monday through Friday now so I should work on this more often. R&R!!!
Chapter Seven
He drove her to an old little used warehouse in a rundown part of the town where they wouldn't be seen. Though Autumn found this to be stupid. A car like hers would attract attention in this area. It wasn't going to be easily forgotten. He laughed at her logic. No one would see them. He checked her trunk rifling through her weaponry. It pleased him. He was almost giddy about the contents. "We'll have fun with these." He told her unsheathing several of her knives. After a severe inspection her blades he chose his favorite and attached it to her belt. It had an advantage over the other larger, sharper blades of looking like the sort of knife any deer hunter would own. It wouldn't be so noticed or feared. Now was time to go find His little girl.
While the demon drove Autumn played with Him. She pestered Him with question after question. Occasionally falling back on flat out name calling. If she could distract Him maybe she could keep him away from any innocents. Despite her efforts they still crept closer toward the more family oriented part of town. He seemed to be humoring her answering her questions and throwing an insult back for everyone she gave Him. Several times the room of her mind she was in had shrunk. It seemed to happen the most when she played with the door trying to get out. The room was painfully familiar. It was identical to her parents bedroom. The room her mother had over dosed in and her father had blown his brains out in. It was the room Martha and Billy-Jack had occupied while living at Autumn's farm. A lot had gone down in this room. Very little of what had stuck with her over the years had been good. She knew the feeling of having the walls close in on her.
"Do you know what I like best about you hunters?" The demon mused.
"Our spunk?" She questioned sitting on the bed folding her arms over her chest and glared at the door. She knew He smirked though she couldn't see Him. His voice was emitted through the room like an over powered PA system.
"Every one of you thinks you come from some dark twisted past. Like you've already been through Hell."
"Sorry. I forgot coming home from school to find your father's brains splattered on the wall happens all the time. You know that was the best episode of the Brady Bunch." She retorted.
"Oh yes that's sooo horrible." He said in a taunting baby voice. "You love the blood, guts, and gore. That's why you do this. You have everyone fooled. They all think you're in it to escape beatings. You're just in this because you love the power. Holding the life of an inferior creature in your hands and snuffing it out. You get off on it, don't you Aut?" She bit her lip refusing to rise to His bait. "We're not that different, baby doll. One day, while you're sitting in hell waiting for the end of eternity you'll realize how weak and pathetic you humans really are. You'll get the same thrill. The same high, as you start snuffing out the lives of your former fellows."
"Go to Hell!" She snapped.
"I've been there and done that. Even have the T-Shirt want to see?" The room tightened again. She'd pissed Him off somehow this time. She fell silent for a few minutes re-evaluating her position. "Mmm what have we here?" He was way too pleased with himself as they pulled into the small parking lot of a subdivision's park. A man about her own age was holding onto his daughter's bike as she took her first few careful pedals toward freedom without any training wheels. Her long blond hair was pulled back in the sort of messy ponytail that is produced whenever a father treads on the foreign grounds of female hair care, and her big blue eyes hid behind purple rimmed glasses. "Take a good look Daemon, she's ours."
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Three hours after walking out of the motel room Dean as no closer to finding Autumn than he was when he'd stepped out. He had stopped at every gas station, asked every pedestrian he'd seen but no one could remember seeing his girl or her car. His head dropped on the steering wheel as he sat at a long red light. He wasn't yet defeated. Athena and Sam were working on another route. They would have Autumn before night fall tomorrow. Then he was going to throttle her. How could she do this? Had he not asked her to stay put? She knew how dangerous this job was and yet she seemed to enjoy putting herself in danger. Not only was she going to get herself killed but he'd be right after her in the grave just from worrying about her. The light changed and he sped forward causing the photo album on the dash to come back and land open on the seat. He glanced down at the book and swallowed hard seeing the two pictures staring up at him. In one Autumn sat on the porch swing last Thanksgiving, baby Nick in her arms and the girls huddled around her. In the other picture was the triplets, all in their best dresses. The way Kendra sat her blue shorts could be seen under the pastel pink skirt, and she had a hold of Kelly who was about to run out of the picture. Kayla sat next to her leaning into the stronger girl. He'd never noticed before the bruise on her little arm. For a brief moment he completely understood why Autumn was doing this.
He twisted and turned into the rundown, abandoned portion of the town, where bankrupt factories stood. He searched for anything. Any sign of Autumn or the Mustang. There was a group of teenagers standing at the mouth of one of the alley ways smoking and drinking out of bottles stuffed in brown paper bags. He pulled up to them rolling down his window. "Hey!" He called. They looked over at him with amused expressions. "Any of you seen an older model red mustang go through the area?"
"With a hot little bitch to match?" One of the boys asked sidling over, hitching up his pants before the fell below his knees. Any other day he'd have taken the time to teach this kid some respect. Women could be idolized and ogled but you don't talk about them like that. Few actually deserve it.
"Yeah," he nodded.
"I don't know. It'll cost you." Rolling his eyes Dean produced a twenty from his wallet handing it over.
"She was through here about a hour ago. Went up there and turned right back toward the yuppies."
"Get yourself a belt, dude." Dean instructed before following the boy's directions. After a few blocks he spotted an elderly man walking a mangy looking dog who confirmed the boy's story. Not to get their hopes up, Dean called Sam's number to tell what he knew and see what they'd found.
"Find her?" Sam asked in a hushed hurried voice when he answered.
"Not exactly. I'm following about a hour behind her. She could still be anywhere." Dean admitted and Sam relayed the information to Athena. "You guys have any luck?"
"Its not as easy as it was with Archer. This girls have grown a bit. They'll be harder to find. There were a few apartment building set on fire about four years ago. Three women died in one building, two in the other. A few of them made it to the hospital and died there. They were trying to get their kids out. Well other than one Agnes Hartford who was saving her chiapets."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, she was 75, and had some dementia. I don't know why they didn't have her in a home instead." Sam said a little sadly. "We're trying to narrow things down but its going to take some time."
"OK. How's Teen holding up?"
"Pick up a bag of blowpops on your way back." Sam told him as an answer. Dean half wondered if she hadn't smoked sometimes the way she was with her candy. Suckers were the worst. She chainsucked lollipops. The more nervous she was the worse it got too. He couldn't count the number of times she'd ridden with him and fallen asleep with a sucker in her mouth leaving him to retrieve it before she choked on it.
"Don't let her out of your sight." He ordered.
"I won't. Dean, I've got to go if I'm going to get any work done." Dean sighed.
"Yeah, right." He agreed and hung up. He drew a slow deep breath and started working his way down the streets of his second subdivision.
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