Okay, so I know it's taken longer for me to update this time, but I've had serious drama. My mom and dad had to move because their house got foreclosed on because my dad is a lazy bum (but that's a story for another time) but anyway, I've been helping move and getting things in order and stuff. So...yeah. And they've been staying with me for the week and my dad and I don't get along very well, so I haven't really felt like writing. He kinda sucks the life out of the room when he's around, so...yeah. Anyway, enjoy. :)
Hot as Hell
Part One
When we arrived in Columbus, Ohio, we understood why Bobby was concerned about the heat. It was blistering and probably hot enough to make the rubber on the car tires melt. The overheated air was enough to take your breath away, and I just wanted to get inside an air-conditioned room. Fast.
When we reached the motel Bobby was staying, we got straight to work. According to Bobby, thirteen people had disappeared this week alone.
"And that's assuming that's everyone. But I'm not sure," Bobby said. "There could be more. Homeless or people like that. People no one will miss."
"That makes sense," I said. "Have you figured out why they're going missing? I mean, is it because of the raising thing?"
"Probably," Bobby said. "I'm not sure yet, but that's the best bet."
I looked around and noticed this was the type of room that had a stove and a microwave and a small refrigerator. This was obviously a case that Bobby thought was going to take a while - he'd taken the time to get long-staying accommodations.
I didn't, however, see any food. Apparently, Bobby hadn't been grocery shopping.
"What have you been living on?" I asked. "You don't have any food here."
"Take out, mostly," Bobby said. "That's not what's important here."
"Right," I said, getting back to business. "Missing people. Lots of 'em."
"Right, now…I'm not sure what they're raising or who's doing the raising, but if the people are sacrifices, they may be alive. We've gotta find them."
"Agreed," Dean said. "Where do we start?"
"I wanna say the school board," Bobby said. "Most of the people who're missing are teenagers - high school or college age."
"That Alex guy, he's new at the school board…maybe he has something to do with it," I suggested.
Bobby nodded. "I did a background check on him. Graduated from high school with honors, same with college. Lived here growin' up, moved away for college, came back when he got the job."
"Oh. Have you talked to him?"
"I have an appointment with him tomorrow."
"Oh." I nodded. "Well, then today I'm gonna go shopping. I need food." I looked at Dean. "Can I have the keys? It's too hot to walk."
Dean dug his keys out of his jeans and tossed them to me. I had a feeling that he'd do anything I asked if it would give me some semblance of happiness. Anything but be with me, anyway. I was sure, though, that if I wanted to go take a tour of Europe…Dean would find a way to make it happen.
As it was, I just wanted to get away for an hour or two, so after I caught the keys, I left. I began to sweat as soon as I stepped outside. I saw heat waves coming off the asphalt.
I felt sort of depressed as I got in the front seat of the car and started her up. Things had changed so much. I'd been a perfectly normal girl, growing up. I'd had friends, I'd taken school pictures, I'd lived in the world. Then my mom had died and I'd come on the road with Sam and Dean. They'd become my new family, in a way.
I'd fallen in love with Dean, the beautiful man who couldn't even see his own worth, the man I knew was the one, and now…I couldn't be with him.
I shivered. Even in all this heat, I felt like I was drowning in icy water.
Before I put the car in drive I felt Ruby's presence. She appeared outside and got in the passenger seat.
"Ruby. Now really isn't the time or place." Dean would have a fit if he knew she was in his car. "Get out."
"I'm here to give you something if you'd just be patient."
I sighed impatiently just to spite her. "What?"
"Here." She handed me a piece of paper with writing on it. "Meet me at this address."
"Why?"
"Just do it," she snapped and disappeared from the car.
I glanced at the paper. I didn't recognize the address but that didn't mean anything. I wasn't familiar with the area.
I decided I would find the place alone; neither Sam nor Dean would agree to go to the address Ruby had given me because of the fact she was a demon.
Not to mention it could be a trap, and if it was it would be best to be alone so no one else would get hurt.
I didn't have a death wish. My reasons for going alone were practical. I didn't want them hurt. It didn't even cross my mind that if I got hurt…it would affect them the same way it would me if they got hurt.
When I arrived at the address, I was immediately alerted to the fact that Ruby was nowhere in sight, but I could feel her; maybe she was inside.
The address had led me to an old dilapidated building - looked like an old warehouse and it was in the bad part of town. There were a few kids - they weren't really kids, they were around my age - who looked like they were dealing drugs standing on the corner. A girl was leaning up against a streetlight; a runaway, maybe. The type that had to struggle on a daily basis just to stay alive.
Poor girl - and she was only about fifteen, maybe younger.
As I got out of the car I sent a silent prayer up stating that I didn't want anyone to steal Dean's car. This was exactly the type of neighborhood where cars would go missing.
Making sure the windows were rolled up and the doors were locked I went toward the entrance of the warehouse. I walked by another group of teenagers - a group of boys with a small radio. As I passed by the pack, one of them let out a whistle and I felt as someone placed a firm smack on my behind.
I froze and gritted my teeth. That was so disrespectful.
"How much for a lap dance, girl?" one of the guys said.
I fought against the urge to turn around. I wanted to break the guy's wrist that had done it, but I ignored him. It went against my instincts to ignore him, but I did. I walked away.
"Hey, don't be like that," the same guy said.
I ignored him again and went to the front door of the warehouse. I suddenly wondered if I didn't make a mistake coming here. Ruby was a demon, and if this was a trap, it would surprise me.
I walked in, following the feeling that was Ruby through the building. That's when I heard the scream. It was male, I could tell that much. It was loud and frantic, as well.
It took me a few seconds to decide where exactly the scream had come from and then I took off down a hallway and then up a set of stairs. I took in my surroundings when I reached the top.
The walls were a stale gray. The stairs had led to a huge room. There were papers on the floor; there were dust particles floating in the air, seen because of the sunlight beaming in through the few windows in the room. It looked like it has been an office space.
More importantly, however, was the fight going on. Two women were beating on a guy; two other guys were running up another flight of stairs across the room - the length of the room seemed to be at least a hundred feet; two more people were fighting.
My weirdar zeroed in on Ruby. She was one of the one's that were fighting. I hesitated, not knowing which side to join. Then I moved past Ruby's fight and grabbed one of the girl's beating up the guy. I kicked the other one behind the knees, sending her, well, to her knees.
I looked at the one I was holding onto and noticed she had blue glowing eyes. What the hell was this thing? And why couldn't I feel it? It looked human other than the eyes.
I glanced at the other woman that had been beating the guy up. She was blue-eyed, too. I snapped both the things necks with just a thought, and then did the same with the one Ruby was fighting. I privately though she was doing just find and didn't need my help. She'd been kicking ass.
"Get the other ones," Ruby said. "They have a girl - a teenager - they're gonna kill her!"
I hadn't seen a teenager with the two that had been going up the stairs. I'd only seen the two.
"Fine," I said, thinking maybe I could've missed something. "Get the guy out of here."
Then something caught my eye. There was smoke coming from the stairway the two guys had been running up. Were they…burning the poor girl?
When I reached the top of the stairs, I saw Ruby had been right. There was a girl; she was cowering in a ring of fire. Were they burning her?
The two guys I'd seen running up the stairs were…trying to get to the girl, but the fire kept them from her. It was protecting her.
"Hey," I said, gaining their attention - the two guys were blue-eyed, too. I snapped their necks fast.
After that, I creeped toward the girl, amazed by how the fire didn't spread. It stayed in a perfect circle. As I moved closer, I noticed the girl was shivering and crying. She had a bruise on her cheek and a cut on her lip. Her hair was blond and slightly wavy, it reached halfway down her back. Her face was heart shaped and pointed.
"Be careful," Ruby said, appearing behind me. "She's a fire starter."
"A fire starter?"
"She was born that way," Ruby explained. "She can't control it yet."
I looked at the circle of fire pointedly. "I'd say she's controlling it pretty well."
I moved closer to the flames and used my own abilities to push the flames down. It shocked the girl out her…shock.
She stared at me suspiciously. "Who are you? How did you do that?"
"My name's Alyson. What's yours?"
"Rachel," she said hesitantly. "Are you friend or foe?"
"Friend. Definitely friend." I stepped closer. "If I help you up, you're not gonna burn me to death, are you?"
"No," she said softly. The low flames vanished almost like there was no oxygen left.
"What did those guys want?" I asked, pulling her to her feet.
"Me."
"Noticed that," I replied. "Why?"
"I don't know," she said. "I don't know. They took me to this place a few days ago and locked me up. In a cage."
"They?" I asked. "They - the blue-eyed guys?"
"Uh-huh."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Scarred for life, but yeah. I just wanna go home."
"Where's home?" I felt as Ruby disappeared - probably because I'd been leaving her out - and Rachel's eyes darted to the now empty space.
Idiot demon.
"She just -" Rachel stopped, mouth wide. "What was she?"
"A, uh…a demon."
"A…demon…" She looked at the two guys on the floor. "Are they?"
"I don't know," I said, shrugging. "Anyway, if you're really okay…I should get you home."
"I've been missing for three days. My parents are probably…freaking out. First Alicia, now me."
"Alicia Allen?" I wondered. "You're her sister?"
"Cousin. Her parents died when she was three."
"Oh…"
She eyed me suspiciously. "How do you know about her?"
"I read it in the paper," I lied - sorta. "Come on. I have a car outside. Or, hopefully it's still there."
Luckily, the car was still there.
"So, what're you planning on doing? They're gonna keep coming after you."
Rachel looked like she knew that, she just hadn't wanted to say it. "I don't know."
"I can protect you," I said. "But you're gonna have to come with me."
"Where?"
"To a motel. I have three others with me. We…do this all the time. Help people. Speaking of people…there was another guy in there. Did you know him?"
"No. He was squatting when we got there."
"Oh." I vaguely wondered where he was now. He wasn't in the building and he wasn't out here. "Are you going to come with me?"
She shrugged. "I don't really have a choice, do I?"
"You have a choice. You could come with me. You could run away. You could go home, wait for them to come after you again…"
"I don't wanna die," she said softly, staring at me. I noticed her eyes were green.
"Okay," I said. "Okay. If you come with me, you won't." Probably.
Back at the motel room, food forgotten, I explained to the others what had happened. From the time Ruby gave me the address to now.
Dean got a little…angry. "Oh, you went because Ruby told you to? What're you gonna do next? Have a sleepover and braid each other's hair?"
"Don't start with me." I glared at him. "I knew it could've been a trap, that's why I went alone."
Part of me just wanted to wrap my arms around him, let him know I was okay, and let him feel the love inside me radiating just for him. Another part of me couldn't believe that I couldn't, couldn't accept that that was my reality now. And it was my reality. It would make his decision to stay away from me harder if I kept throwing myself at him or wrapping my arms around him.
Dean fumed for a second and then appeared to let it go. "Well, I'm glad you're okay."
"Thank you," I said sincerely. I then focused on Rachel. "Now, this fire starter thing…how powerful are we talking here?"
A clouded expression filled Rachel's face. "I can burn people from the inside out." Her eyes filled with water and guilt. "I don't mean to. It only happens when I'm scared or angry."
She couldn't help it. But, God, what if she got mad at one of us? I knew I could counter her power - I'd done so already - but would I be able to do it on time, without hurting her?
"Okay, well, first thing on the menu is teaching you to control yourself." It would probably be like me learning to control mine, right? Although it had taken me a while to control my outbursts, and I still slipped sometimes.
She couldn't hurt anyone else, we couldn't let her. But she was an innocent in all this - she hadn't asked for any of this to happen. Would any of us have it in us to kill an innocent girl? An innocent teenager, not much younger than myself?
I inwardly cringed. If she were a real threat, and nothing else could be done…we'd find out.
Leaving Sam and Bobby with the research and Rachel, Dean and I went to the grocery store. He'd specifically asked me to come with him and when we got to the car he started in on me.
"You could've died, you know that?"
"I can die any day, Dean. It sorta comes with the territory."
He started the car angrily. "Don't do that. Don't you dare do that. You shouldn't have gone alone. Especially without telling anyone where you were going."
"Fine," I said, mostly to get him to stop almost-yelling at me. "I did something stupid, can we move on? Besides, I totally took care of it."
"Yeah, I know. Five demons, by yourself. You're getting wicked-powerful."
I took a small breath. "Does it…scare you?" He didn't say anything; he just started to drive. "It scares me sometimes," I admitted. "It's okay if you think it's scary. But you need to tell me. If it bothers you…" I sighed. "If it bothers you…I won't do it anymore." Though it did make things easier sometimes.
"It bothers me sometimes, yeah," Dean said, anger gone. "But you can't hold yourself back for me. That would be wrong. You can't pretend to be less than you are."
"Hm…" I paused. "What're we gonna do about Rachel? We can't let her kill anyone else. And we can't let those things get her again. Especially since we don't know what they want with her." Something then occurred to me. "She's accepting everything a little too well, wouldn't you say? I mean, she didn't try to attack me even though she saw what I could do. When Ruby disappeared all she wanted to know was what she was. Then she accepted the offer to come with me way to eagerly."
"You think she's dangerous?"
"Well, yes," I said. "And no. I was alone with her, she could've killed me if she really wanted. But…I do believe she's dangerous; she's killed before."
Even though I was pretty sure she wasn't a threat to us we called Sam and told him to be careful with her. And to maybe subtly do a background check on her.
And because of my revelation we decided to just stop and get something rather than take the time to shop. We wanted to hurry back to the motel to begin questioning Rachel. If that was even her name.
And so the interrogation began.
Rachel's name really was Rachel and she really was Alicia Allen's cousin, the background check proved that.
"What were you doing at the warehouse?" I asked.
Rachel sighed and bit her lip. "I knew you would figure it out eventually. I thought it would take longer."
"Sorry to disappoint," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
"It's Alex Thompson - the new guy at the school board. All the teachers practically worship the ground he walks on. He's very persuasive. Before he moved here - or back here - he donated a bunch of money to the school systems around here. The teachers eat out of the palm of his hand. He uses them and then when he's done with them…"
"He kills them?" Sam asked.
"Yeah," she answered, nodding. "He's powerful. Maybe not human. He's immune to my ability."
"And the blue-eyed people? How do they fit in?"
"They're his lackeys." Rachel sighed again. "They killed that secretary. She worked at the high school. Then that teacher that had a stroke…it wasn't a stroke."
"Those two people that were burned alive…" Dean began.
Rachel looked away. "I meant what I said. I didn't mean to do it."
"What your connection to Alex Thompson?" Bobby asked.
"A couple days after he came here I met with him at the school. He wanted to meet with me specifically. He was really nice. I was suspicious because he knew what I could do. But he said not to worry, that he just wanted to keep me safe."
"Why?" Dean asked.
"He said it was needed, that he needed it. He told me he knew what it was like to be different but I didn't have to hide with him."
"What happened then?" Bobby asked.
"He took me to this meeting. Other kids, kids I knew were there. Alex has…followers, so to speak."
"So it's a cult," Dean surmised.
"Definitely. People fell to their knees for him."
"They…" I shook my head. "Why? He doesn't sound all that great to me."
"Well, I didn't bow down to him," Rachel snapped. "He kept going on about…stuff. Half of it I didn't understand."
"Well, how about you tell us what you did understand," Dean said.
"He wants to rule us. Dominate over humanity."
Tension thickened the air around us, making it hard to breathe.
"What?" I asked; my voice didn't make it past a whisper.
"Yeah. He calls it bringing order to all the chaos, but that's just sugar coating it. Nobody else seems to get that. Or almost nobody."
"What does that mean?"
"There was one guy. Dylan something. He got scared…tried to back out. Got killed for his efforts. I…killed him. Alex called me his weapon."
"You killed him. Dylan…" I hadn't read about that yet. "Why?"
"So it wouldn't be me dying," she said simply. She seemed to feel remorse for killing the guy, but she was more worried about herself. I'd have to remember that.
"Did you pledge your loyalty to him?" I asked.
"Yes," she said quietly. "I didn't want to, but I didn't want to die, either."
"How many innocent people have you killed just so you wouldn't die?" Dean questioned, clenching his hands into fists.
"No more than necessary," she claimed. "I was supposed to kill you -" she looked at me - "today at the warehouse. It was a trap."
"Ruby -"
"No," Rachel said. "Alex. He wants you out of the equation for good. He thinks it's risky, you being alive. You could ruin everything."
"Hm."
Dean instinctively moved closer to me. He wasn't loving all the talk about me being killed. I wasn't too fond of it, either.
"Why didn't you kill me? You had me all to yourself."
Rachel shrugged indifferently. "You saved me. Or thought you had, anyway. You're different than Alex said you were."
"Oh?"
"He's telling everyone that you won't stop them, you won't be much of a threat."
"Them?"
"Followers. Mostly people like me, who feel they don't have a choice." She sighed. "But he's scared of you. Wouldn't have wanted me to take you out if he weren't. He told me he thinks you're the most powerful human on this earth. You guys are to Alex the most powerful force of good. He doesn't want you getting in the way."
"Where're his meeting being held?" Dean asked.
Rachel shook her head. "I dunno. He picks a different spot, sometimes the high school, the college, somewhere else."
"Hm…all these people going missing, he have something to do with that?" Dean asked.
"Yeah. I don't know how many he needs, but he's got plenty. He'll use his followers if he has to."
"How many followers?"
"At least a hundred."
"I have a question," Bobby said. "How did this Alex guy convince everyone?"
"I told you, he used the cover of wanting to bring order to the chaos of this world. Then there was me. My flame thing proved that nothing is normal or sane. They believe now."
"And they're scared of you and Alex," I said. "And of betraying Alex."
"Yeah, he got what he wanted. The ones who don't love him are terrified of him. He got the heat and the weapon - me - he needs to do all this."
"Are you causing the heat wave of the century?" Dean asked.
"My blood. He used my blood. Now I can't control it."
"Why're you telling us all this?" I asked, tense because she had to have an angle. "If Alex is as bad as you said he is, he'll know you told us, and he'll come after you. Send someone after you. You'll be considered a traitor."
Rachel shrugged, her blond hair bobbing up and down. "You guys will protect me."
Listening to Rachel talk, we learned a few things. First being that she looked out for number one; she didn't care who got hurt in the process. Her main priority was saving her own ass.
Second…Alex Thompson wasn't trying to raise a demon, he was trying to escalate his own power, and if Rachel was telling the truth, she didn't know what that meant.
Bobby insisted on keeping the appointment with Alex Thompson until Rachel reminded him that he knew who we were.
I glanced at Dean and gestured to the door with my head. I needed to talk to him, alone.
After we got outside, I began. "I wanna read her mind. Make sure she's telling the truth."
"Are you sure? It took you a while when you tried with me."
I nodded. "I know. But I'm stronger now. More focused."
"A'right. You can try. But don't push yourself too hard, okay. If you can, you can. If not, we'll find some other way." He shook his head, smiling softly. "I'm surprised you're asking, actually. I was under the impression you didn't care what I thought anymore."
I winced internally. I deserved that. I'd told him he had no say-so in anything I did anymore.
"I always care what you think. I was just hurt and frustrated, and I shouldn't have said that. I never meant that…"
I touched his hand and sent a thought of 'I love you' to him and he closed his eyes against it.
"Don't. I'm not trying anything, I promise. But I do love you. I feel like I'm freezing to death without you."
"Aly, please. Don't."
"I'm not. When you told me you couldn't be with me anymore, my first instinct was to fight you. But you're right. I won't try anything again. I'll make it easier for you." I felt my chest tighten painfully at my words. Everything in me was telling me not to do this. "But Dean, I'll always be here for you whether we're together or not. I just…I've gotta be an adult about this. I've gotta respect your decision."
It hurt me to say that, but he was right. In the long run, he was right.
