The truth is stranger than all my dreams.
Oh, the darkness got a hold on me.
-Lord Huron
Chapter 7: Meet Me in the Woods
Daylight streamed through the blinds of my bedroom window, casting horizontal shadows across the wooden floor. I was alone, and I sat up groggily in an attempt to scan the room in search of Crowley. I thought he might materialize out of thin air, but he never did. He was gone. Again. Memories of the night before crashed through the floodgates of my mind, and I groaned outwardly in humiliation. He probably thought I was pathetically weak and emotionally unstable after all the things I said. Not to mention I practically begged him not to leave. Is there any possibility I could rewind and do it all over again? I felt exposed for speaking so openly about my feelings, I was never the type to completely open up to people, not even my parents. I feared the repercussions of letting someone in, but I had so willingly dropped my defenses for him. What kind of idiot confides in a demon? Apparently this one.
I drew myself a bath, soaking my body in the scalding water as he consumed my thoughts. Calm down, Scarlett. It wasn't that bad. I thought of myself on the verge of tears, holding onto him as though I would drown under the waves of my loneliness. He had been so gentle towards me. Nothing like his usual callous and snarky self. A pair of burning, hazel eyes that watched me without any hint of contempt or that he thought I was losing my mind. He was just there. There to listen. Only giving me kind words when I was the one who struck out at him with my own. I may have been right about him being here for himself, but that didn't mean he had to be there for me like that. He could have walked out of that room without a second glance, but he didn't.
When I was finished, I dried off and dressed myself. The afternoon went rather quickly as I spent most of the time searching for hunts on my laptop and the rest cleaning up leaves from the yard. I didn't get anywhere as far as searching for a new case concerned, but at least my yard looked somewhat put together. By nightfall I was in bed, reading the latest novel I had taken up, until my stomach began gurgling in an otherworldly fashion. I realized I had went all day without eating, so I quickly sat the book aside and went to raid my kitchen cabinets. The first thing I grabbed was a serving of Ramen, but I decided in order to have a 'well-rounded' meal I needed to have something else. So, naturally I chose a prepackaged, artery-clogging brownie. Like I said. Well-rounded.
By now I had slurped down the noddles and was going to town on the brownie when I heard a deafening bang sound from outside, shaking the house like there had been some sort of earthquake. "Goddamnit." I hissed under my breath as I ran to my room, throwing on my jeans and combat boots. I assembled some weapons which included my trusty pistol and a variety of knives, all of which I tucked into the holster I buckled around my waist. If I knew one thing, it was to always be prepared when weird shit happens. When I made it outside the wind was still and there were no crickets chirping from the crags in the rocks. It was unusually quiet, and I made sure to keep my gun pointed straight ahead at all times. My hand was steady as I surveyed the darkened forest, double-checking to make sure every shadow was just that. A shadow.
Trees towered over my head, and dried leaves crunched beneath my feet as I finally approached a clearing. I walked through a briar bush, it's thorns piercing my flesh, but I was too concentrated on the origin of the noise to notice. I was filled with the sense that I wasn't alone, the way a mouse may feel before being snatched into the razor-sharp talons of an owl. Eyes were watching me from somewhere in the darkness, and I was hoping it was Crowley playing some sort of twisted prank, but I knew better. This was not something friendly. I slowly turned in a circle, and once I made it through a total 360 I met a pair of blue eyes. I kept my gun trained on the woman, her hair a dark auburn and skin pale under the moonlight. She observed me curiously, like a scientist would an insect, tilting her head to the side. She wore an immaculate grey suit that was perfectly tailored, her hair pulled away from her critical expression into a tight updo.
"It's nice to finally be meeting your acquaintance, Scarlett." The woman dipped her head with a forced smile.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" I demanded, taking half a step back at the sight of her. I didn't trust the friendly facade she was trying to impose as she smiled wider at my reaction. It was far from genuine.
"My name is Naomi, and I'm an angel. There are some important things I wish to discuss with you." She explained, raising her hands as though to calm me.
I wasn't reassured by this as I remembered the bad reaction I'd gotten from Alfie. "And why would I trust you? Your friend went psycho on me at the auction."
"I apologize. It must have been quite a shock, but I assure you Samandriel was only reacting from the most primitive drive of angels. Protecting heaven."
I assumed Alfie and Samandriel were the same person as I put two and two together.
"And why would heaven need to be protected from me? What could I possibly do?"
"Because you're not human. Or at least, not completely."
I cocked my gun, gritting my teeth as I glared at her. "Both of my parents are hunters."
"Ah, that is what you have been led to believe, my dear, but truth is not always as black and white as it seems." She lifted her chin, clasping her hands behind her back as she stepped closer to me. "That's why I'm here. Have you ever wondered why you look nothing like your mother?"
"That's irrelevant." I snapped, my index finger inching closer to the trigger as my anger flared. "Plenty of kids don't look like one or both parents. Can you even prove that what you're implicating is true?"
"I can't." She stated simply as a fake smile played on her lips. "But in your heart I believe you've always known that something wasn't as it should be. Denying the truth can never change who you are."
"And what am I exactly?" I scoffed.
The look in her eyes was serious and intense as she continued to match my gaze. "A demon you humans know as a succubus procreated with your father while secretly possessing your mother's body. Succubi and Inccubi are unnatural in their own right, being spawn of a union between angel and demon."
I was in slight shock, and maybe even denial, but I kept going. "Is there a name for what I am?"
"There haven't been many others before you, and none of them lived to maturity. So, no, there is no name for your kind. You have a shield of sorts protecting you from being detected by humans, demons, and angels. Occasionally the more powerful among us can see past your camouflage, but only when we are up-close and personal. That's why your true nature was revealed to both the King of Hell and my angel Samandriel. Unlike Cambion or Nephilim, your abilities have remained dormant from birth, but there are ways to unlock them."
My mind was racing as I was hit with this information. I didn't know what to think. How could it be true? Why would she lie?
"Okay, so what happens now?"
"Crowley wants to use your abilities for the benefit of Hell, Scarlett. He has God's Demon Tablet, which has the potential to seal the gates of Hell forever. I'm afraid that your loyalties are invested in the wrong places." She replied.
"You think I would risk jeopardizing the entire world because of him?"
"I don't believe you would risk putting him in danger if given the choice." She lowered her head. "And there is always a choice. How can you possibly be clear minded when your affections are obviously held by a demon? It's a destructive path to travel. He could never truly love you in his current state. No matter how hard he may try."
"T-that's not true." I denied, shaking my head.
"You can't hide your emotions from me." She looked me up and down gravely. "After all, we are, in a sense, kin. You hold the otherworldly beauty of an angel, the emotions of a human, and the brutality of a demon. I've seen the aftermath of your slaughters."
"That's what hunters do. We take care of monsters."
"Then why didn't you kill Crowley while you had the chance?"
"I-I don't know." I stammered.
"Exactly. You have a soft spot for him." Her voice was cold and features calculating as she continued. "If your powers ever become fully imposed the end result would be catastrophic." A silver blade slipped from her sleeve and into her grasp. "That's why I can't let you live, Scarlett."
Naomi lunged at me, and I dodged her, shooting a string of bullets into her back. She was eerily calm as she turned to look at me with a unimpressed expression, and I disposed of my gun, replacing it with one of my machetes. We proceeded to clash weapons, running at each other without restraint as we locked into battle, using all of our strength to keep the upper hand. I howled with pain as she nicked my cheek with her blade, and a beam of light poured from the gash. What. The. Actual. Fuck.
"Handy little thing isn't it?" She waved the blade from side to side mockingly. "It's called an Angel Blade, and it appears you're susceptible to it as well. You can't kill me with any ordinary weapon, foolish girl."
I was feeling completely outmatched as she threw herself at me once more, but I wasn't going down without trying my damnedest to get out of this alive. We continued in our deadly dance, and I grabbed her, wrapping my hands securely around her upper arms. She flung me to the ground with superhuman force, where I skidded across the branch-infested ground. Bits of bark, rock, and dirt dug into my skin and clung to the fabric of my clothes, tangling into my hair that was now falling about my face untidily. She was on top of me in an instant, raising the blade into the air as she tightened her free hand around my throat, her fingers digging into my tender flesh. I was gasping for air, and I grabbed the wrist that was about to send the blade plunging into my chest, refusing to let her complete the deed. Slowly the weapon lowered, coming closer to my body with every moment that passed. I was filled with a refusal to let things end this way. I couldn't die. I wouldn't die. At least not today. Desperation raged through my veins like a roaring wildfire, consuming me in it's insatiable flames, and filling me with a sensation that could move mountains and destroy cities if it meant I would able to succeed. I was yelling at the top of my lungs, filling the empty woods with what sounded like a battlecry as I was surrounded by a veil of white light. The light was blinding, penetrating the surrounding darkness as an earsplitting ringing vibrated against my eardrums. When I could see again, Naomi was flying through the air, and I watched as she slammed into the trunk of a nearby pine tree. She was obviously unconscious when she landed, her body appearing limp and lifeless as I scrambled to my feet.
"Oh my God. Did I do that?" I whispered, looking down at my hands in disbelief, and then back at the angel. There was no doubting that I was the cause of this. I felt energized and ready to do just about anything, but I was scared. Scared to know that I was capable of taking on an angel with my bare hands. To know that this sort of power was lurking just beneath the surface.
I ran as fast as I could to the house, throwing anything and everything I might need into my travel bags. My house looked like it had been ransacked by the time I was finished, but I didn't care. I just knew I needed to get the hell out of there before that angel or Crowley showed up. It took me about five minutes to get everything loaded in the car, and probably another ten for me to carve sigils into various locations inside the vehicle. I made as many anti-angel and demon sigils that I could find in an old, worn-out warding book Dad had given me for my eighteenth birthday. I couldn't risk Crowley finding me, no matter how badly it hurt to keep him away. My powers were too unpredictable to trust around anyone, and I could only assume Naomi was right when she said he wanted them for Hell. I couldn't let that happen.
With no time to waste, I raced down my driveway, pulling out onto a deserted country road with a heavy foot on the gas pedal. I needed to get as far away as possible, but where would I go? Well, for starters I needed to stay away from the places Crowley would expect me to be at. If I heard the angel correctly, he could only pinpoint me by knowing my exact location due to my protective shield, so if I stuck to places I wouldn't normally go to I would probably be fine. That immediately ruled out my parents' house or any of the surrounding towns. I didn't care. If I was going to do this right, I needed to put hundreds of miles between me and the cabin. Maybe even go to the East Coast. I couldn't risk running into Crowley, because deep inside I knew the things Naomi said were true. My affections were far too tangled up in him to have the willpower to completely deny him.
By sunrise I was crossing the state boarder into Kentucky. It was only a matter of time before Crowley knew I was gone, and then not only would I have psycho angels chasing me, I'd have psycho angels and demons on my ass. This is bad. This is really bad. I thought as I watched the road disappear beneath my front tires. I was the target of a supernatural manhunt, and I wasn't sure if I could get away without slipping up. What if the angels caught me? They would kill me. What if Crowley got to me first? Who knows, but it probably wouldn't be good. Damn, I wish there was something I could do to make this stop, but there was no turning back. Maybe death would have been the better option.
The sound of my ringtone interrupted my thoughts, and my eyes went wide as I saw the number on the screen. 666. I took a deep breath, picking up the phone and watching as it continued to blare. Finally, I answered the call and held it to my ear. My heart was pounding erratically and I tried to calm myself by taking a series of deep breaths. "H-hello?"
"Scarlett, where are you?" Crowley's concerned voice came from the other end, and it did nothing to help my nerves.
"I really can't talk right now." I tried my hardest not to sound frantic, lowering my voice to a whisper.
"Is everything alright? Your house is more of a mess than usual."
"Everything's fine."
I was hoping he would believe me, but you could hear the strain in my voice.
"Tell me where you are." It was no longer a question, but a pointed demand. "I'll come get you."
"I can't. Something's come up." I sounded shaken, and I was. Anxiously I tapped my nails against the steering wheel, finding it hard to pay attention to the road ahead while talking to him. This was all too much. I was on the verge of a panic attack.
"Did something happen while I was gone?" He urged, suddenly sounding on the verge of desperation.
I took a deep breath, trying to get the nerve. "I know what I am." I could have lied, but I chose the truth. He would have found out eventually, anyway.
There was silence on the other end, and when he finally spoke I was jolted from the silence. "Let's talk things over, darling. If you just tell me where you are we can work this out. Together."
"You know I can't do that. I-I gotta go. Don't try to find me. Goodbye, Crowley." I was so worked up that the words just fumbled out of my mouth, and I let out a staggered sigh.
"Scarlett! Scarlett, wait-"
*Click.*
As soon as I hung up, the phone immediately started ringing again, but I ignored it. It rang nonstop as I drove, and before long I had to put it on mute, having missed nearly ten calls from Crowley. I had to nurture my already weak resolve and stay away from him. Tears were steadily tracing down my cheeks as I was wishing the secret could have remained just that. Secret. I had just started getting used to things, but of course the dominos had to come crashing down eventually. Damn Naomi. And damn Crowley. I couldn't stay with him, not while knowing what it entailed. Why did things have to be this way? The throbbing in my heart was becoming more and more prominent as I began to realize what this meant. There would be no more dinners with him, no more reading sessions, no more embraces in the dark, and no more having him in my life. This was where we had to go our separate ways, no matter how painful it was to do so. It felt like my heart was an open sore, seeping it's pain throughout the rest of my body. Incapacitating me when I needed to be stronger than ever.
"Damn it!" I screamed, pulling over, and then punching the steering wheel with all my might. When I was done I felt a little bit better, but I still felt like I had been completely gutted. Empty. I put the car back in drive and headed for the nearest convenience store. I bought a new, cheap cellphone. A flip phone no less, and while Crowley continued to call me I put the old phone on airplane mode, retrieved my contacts and slowly typed them into the new one. When I was done I threw my phone in the trash just in case Crowley could track me down via cell phone, and I got back on the interstate.
Leaving the only connection I had to him farther and farther behind.
