"Sorry about this," Lou apologizes as she padlocks the door for the third time. Once in the barn, Lou took Lizzy to a small partitioned off corner of the wide open barn. The door is a simple metal frame with bars running the length of it, much like an old fashioned jail cell.
"Whatever," Lizzy responds with letdown, though really she's pretty ok with being locked away in the enclosed area. She can't be gotten to easily by the other vampires scattered around the room and, if she's stealthy enough, she'll be able to use her phone without being seen.
"I am sorry," Lou insists. "I don't ever want to do anything bad to you. I just don't have much of a choice right now."
"Dinner has arrived!" a man shouts with sheer glee from the front doorway and the vampires in the barn all whoop their excitement as they stand and hurriedly walk outside. Lizzy notices the change in Lou's demeanor with the announcement. She's not excited like the rest. She looks disappointed almost.
"I'll be right back," Lou says with a thin smile that seemed more like a frown while turning her back and joining the others. As the terrified cries for help from two very unfortunate men meet her ears, Lizzy screws her eyes shut and forces herself to focus. She only has a short amount of time before they all come back inside after feeding and she needs to see what she can get away with.
Lizzy quickly glances around the room at her makeshift cell. Bare bones, she thinks while reaching into her jeans to retrieve her phone. No windows, no cracks, no weak spots to exploit. The only things in the cell with her are a deep pile of hay in the back corner and a rusting bucket that she quickly recognizes as her new restroom. She walks over to the barred doorway to continue searching. What a pit. It's old and rundown. Cobwebs and dust coat the ceiling and old rusting machinery scattered around. There is a loft over the south door that looks like it has fresh hay scattered across it. Must be where they sleep as she notices that the few windows up high on the walls are boarded up to keep the sunlight out during the day. There are red stains coating the dirt floor at the center of the room and it makes her assume that they normally feed inside. She makes a mental note to thank Lou for keeping that whole scene away from her for now.
Reaching to the padlocks on her cell door, she feels the key holes in each one. Damn, she really wishes she had her lock pick with her right now. Lizzy keeps looking as she dials Dean's number. She notices both sides of the main barn entrance to the south are lined with hooks, some of which have guns hanging from them… big guns. The kind of guns that will tear through a human like a hot knife through butter. Other hooks have assorted knives and rope. These dudes are will prepared. Better make sure her guys are up to speed before they come find her.
Packing up the last of their possible effective weaponry, Dean closes the trunk and heads back inside. Sam's still plugging away at his laptop and Bobby's snatching up Lizzy's clothing from the floor. The older man gives Dean a true look of hatred when he picks up her bra and Dean avoid the look altogether, dropping his duffle on the bed nearest the door.
His heart nearly jumps out of his chest when his phone vibrates again… this time in a steady, ongoing pattern. Dean snatches his phone from his back pocket and answers it immediately, having just caught the name on the screen.
"Lizzy!?" Dean's voice rushes out in a panic.
"Yeah," she simply responds from her holding cell, keeping a keen eye on the barn door, not wanting to get caught.
"Are you okay!? Are you hurt!?" he questions rapidly, eyes bouncing between Sam and Bobby to make sure they're listening.
"I'm fine. No one's gonna hurt me, not if Lou has anything to say about it. I'm safe for now," she assures him.
"Oh, thank god," Dean sighs, a hand washing down his face.
"But not for long. Lou's gonna turn me, Dean. That's her whole plan here."
"We figured something like that," he responds. "Sam's getting the GPS turned on for your phone. Whatever you do, don't turn it off!"
Lizzy smiles a little with relief. "So, you got my text I take it?" Her boys were already on it. She takes in the lone comforting thought.
"Yeah. Where are you?"
"In some abandoned barn outside of the city, I'm not exactly sure where. Took about thirty minutes to get here. I can tell you that we took a right out of the lot then headed north on route thirty-five for a little bit, then east on route forty-four for most of the trek. After that I'm not sure. It's pretty rural and dark out here."
"Alright, we're coming."
"Uh, maybe you should wait until daytime, when they're asleep," Lizzy suggests, trying to think this out in the most safe and effective way possible.
"Is Lou gonna hold off that long?" Dean has to wonder.
"I can get her to hold off. She's still my best friend in there somewhere," Lizzy assures him. "Also, be very careful with these guys. They are heavily armed with some pretty bad ass looking artillery."
"Good to know," Dean nods absently before he sighs. "Look, Lizzy… I'm sorry. I should have known…"
"No way! Don't play the fucking blame game now, Winchester. Get your shit together," she tells him strongly, not looking for his pity party crap to start. "If you get here and I'm already a blood sucker, blame yourself then. For now just shut up and come get me… oh, shit."
The line goes dead.
"Lizzy!?" Dean calls into the silence of the phone. "L!?"
Nothing. Looking at the screen he knows the call was ended.
"Shit, she's gone," Dean tells the others in the room.
"How'd she sound?" Bobby wonders, pure concern in his expression.
"She's hanging in there," Dean tells him. "She's kept her shit together."
"Got it!" Sam says as he closes his laptop and stands up. "I know where she is. Let's go."
Lizzy shoves the phone down into her boot as Lou and a few others begin walking back into the barn. Pacing the floor and observing the characters as they enter, she recognizes one of the vamps. It's the one that she saw hunched over Lou in the ally. It's the one that turned her best friend. He smiles menacingly at Lizzy, his teeth still a little stained with blood.
Fucking bring it asshole, Lizzy thinks to herself as she returns the smile with a cold stare. The second she gets the chance, that son of a bitch is dead.
"Hey," Lou greets as she jogs across the dirty floor, interrupting the moment Lizzy was having with her nest-mate. "Miss me?" She smiles while trying to keep the mood as light as possible.
"Still do," Lizzy grumbles while fidgeting. Lou gets a concerned look on her face at Lizzy's words but chooses to ignore the comment. Her friend has always been a stubborn ass so she shouldn't be surprised that she's being one now. Lou takes a seat, sitting Indian-style in front of the barred door.
"Uh, I appreciate that you didn't do… that in front of me," Lizzy thanks in a timid voice. It was very considerate on Lou's part to spare her the gory details. Hearing it was more than enough for her.
"No problem. Still trying to get you on my side so I thought you seeing that might fuck things up a bit."
"It would have," she concurs.
"Would it help if I told you they were dicks?" Lou asks while looking up at her friend with an innocent look.
"What do you mean they were dicks?" Lizzy questions, wanting to know exactly what she's talking about.
"One of the guys we just fed on was a convicted child molester and the other dude just got out of jail for manslaughter," Lou tells her with nonchalance. She shrugs. "They were dicks."
Lizzy stands still for the first time and looks at her best friend. She contemplates what Lou says and somehow, it does help deep down. Only slightly though.
"It's a new policy I put into place. I refused to eat until they got me deserving jerks for dinner," Lou says happily after watching Lizzy mull the idea over. "See! Still cleaning up the streets. Only now I go after evil in human form."
"Well, I guess if you're gonna kill people…" Lizzy trails off.
"Right?" Lou says happily, thinking Lizzy could be coming around. The two grow quiet for a moment before Lou keeps the conversation going. "So, are they coming?"
"You know they are," Lizzy states with annoyance. This should be obvious to Lou. "Even if Iwasn't here, you know Dean and Sam would come."
"Yeah, I kinda figured you'd get them on the Case of the Turned Best Friend pretty quickly," Lou jokes lightly. "And that's okay." Lou winks at her and Lizzy swallows hard with fear.
"Why would that be okay?" Lizzy asks while slowly easing herself down to the floor on the other side of the door, mirroring Lou's position. "They're gonna come and kill you, Louie. That shouldn't be okay."
Lou smirks at her. "How dumb do you think I am, Lizard?"
"Not dumb at all, which is what scares me shitless right now," Lizzy speaks honestly.
"Look," Lou begins to explain with her hands wrapped around the bars in front of her. "You and I both know that Sam and Dean Winchester are fucking great hunters, if not the best, and now I am A-number-one on their shit list. I can run all I want, but I can't hide forever. The whole nest knows it too."
"At least they aren't dumbasses," Lizzy comments in a surly tone.
"They aren't," Lou tells her. "So… instead of run away and constantly live our lives while looking over our shoulders, we all collectively decided to let them come to us. Bring the fight to our turf and be ready for them."
Lizzy takes a moment to contemplate how bad a plan this seems to her. The three hunters are being underestimated by the nest. Sure, they've got the artillery to kill hundreds of humans, but the rescue mission was not stocked with ordinary humans. They've gotten out of stickier situations with little more than a black eye and a couple scratches.
"You stupid bitch," Lizzy says with a slight laugh. "You seriously think they don't expect you to be ready for them? You don't think they can handle a handful of vamps? Maybe you are dumb, Louie."
"Of course we know they'll be expecting an ambush!" Lou gets angry. "I'm still a hunter, dumb-dumb. I still know how a hunter thinks. But if all of us are ready for them and with my unique insider perspective, we feel we can take the two of them on. I know the way those two think and fight from firsthand experience. I have a hell of an advantage."
Two? Lou doesn't know Bobby is here! They still have something over the vamps. Hopefully the phone battery holds out long enough and she can get the message to them at some point before they come in on Mission Rescue Lizzy's Dumb Ass.
"You know Sam's really broken up about all this, right?" Lizzy tries a new angle. Sympathy, appeal to the formerly human side of Lou. While locked up in this cell it's all Lizzy has, really.
"I thought he would be," Lou says looking down at the dirt and flicking a few rocks around with her index finger, sad that he has to go through that. "He'll be fine though." She says it with ease and sounds so sure.
"I don't think that he will," Lizzy says in all honesty. "After what happened with Madison don't you think it's a bit similar for him?"
"I can see how they are kinda the same," Lou answers, looking up at her friend. "But like I said, he'll be fine."
"Sam's a pretty emotional dude, Louie. He doesn't bounce back very easily and he takes everything to heart."
"I know that," Lou angrily says while over emphasizing her words and boring her gaze into Lizzy. She only gives that look when she is trying to tell Lizzy something without saying it out loud. With their strong bond, it usually worked. "I'll make sure he's okay with it."
It doesn't take long for Lizzy to figure out Lou's plan. Of course she knows Sam will be okay.
"You're gonna try to turn him too, aren't you?" Lizzy asks after putting it together. "You've got to be fucking kidding me! With everything he's done for you, for both of us, that's how you're gonna repay him!?"
"Think about it!" Lou shouts, needing Lizzy to see her plan as brilliant like it is. "He's strong, incredibly smart, and perfect for the position really. He'd be an asset."
Lizzy runs her hands through her hair. What the hell has happened to the woman she used to know so well? How is this the same person she'd give her life for in a heartbeat? The same person she grew up with?
"So you're not just gonna turn me but Sam and Dean too. It's that easy you think?"
"No way. It'll be a hell of a fight. But it's not one I plan on loosing." Lou huffs out a laugh. "And who the fuck said anything about turning Dean?" She shakes her head at the absurd idea.
Lizzy doesn't respond. She just marvels at the sadistically evil thing that sits before her. She already knew that Lou was lost for good but seeing it, having it confirmed, is crushing.
"You hate him that much?" Lizzy asks with shock. She knew her sister harbored a lot of ill will for the man who fucked up pretty badly and put Lizzy through a lot of anguish, but this is extreme. "You hate him enough to kill him?"
"You would too if you could see him like I do," Lou darkly responds.
"He was an ass to one person for a year and so he deserves to die?" Lizzy appalls. "You view him the same as a child molester and a killer?"
"No one messes with my best friend. Especially not now." He light eyes stare strongly and fearfully into Lizzy's.
And Lizzy stays quiet, unsure of how to deal with the situation that seems to be getting worse by the second.
"So… when do our guests of honor arrive?" Lou asks, her easy, breezy ways back as she leans away from the cell door, relaxing a touch.
"The hell would I know?" Lizzy responds with a lie. She knows they won't try anything until sunup but Lou can't know she's spoken to them.
"Oh, I just assumed Dean would have told you when you called him." Lou grins menacingly.
Lou knows. She knew all along.
"I fucking hate you," Lizzy says quietly to the floor when a hopeless feeling washes over her. Lou set her up. She let Lizzy call them to ensure that Sam and Dean would be coming.
"Hand it over," Lou demands calmly while extending her hand through the bars for the phone. Lizzy sighs and retrieves it from her boot. She contemplates for a moment before placing it in Lou's hand. Once she has is, Lou begins to pull her hand away but before she can Lizzy grabs tightly onto her wrist with both hands. She pulls hard until Lou's body is pressed against the bars and brings herself close until their faces are an inch apart.
"I am telling you this one time," Lizzy warns fiercely, face set in determined anger. "You do anything to those two, touch a single fucking hair on their heads, and I will make sure I am the one who cuts your fucking head off." Lizzy nearly explodes with anger as Lou simply smiles back.
With lightning speed Lou releases Lizzy's grip on her and grasps onto her throat through the bars.
"Don't threaten me," Lou boastfully says as Lizzy chokes under her hold. "You don't stand a chance with me anymore. You're not the strong one now. And I will do what I want with them." Lou glares at her for a second longer before releasing her hold.
Lizzy backs up, gasping for air and coughing while Lou walks away, putting the phone in her back pocket and telling the now alarmed vampires all around them to relax after seeing the struggle. Lou joins the group and takes up a bottle of whiskey as Lizzy's forces to stand by and watch the group celebrate her capture and drink into the night.
