Yeah I know it's been a while but I had writer's block regarding this chapter, which is why it's going to be mostly filler. I literally wrote just 50 words a day for the past two weeks regarding this chapter, deleting most of it by mistake and rewriting the whole thing, but this is the final copy! Hope you like it!
Chapter 9
I was really looking forward to this day. Some time off with my new friends (and Dean). But I could tell Dean was anxious the minute he parked the Impala in the parking area across the street from the local shopping mall. He took his time in parking the car, and he kept drumming his fingers against the steering wheel.
"Would you stop it, Dean?!" Carrie snapped. "You're giving me a goddamn headache."
"Are you okay?" I asked him from the backseat (Sam was obviously riding shotgun), leaning forward.
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" Even a blind person could see right through him. He didn't convince me one bit. "Okay, Sam, Carrie. Out of the car."
"Why?" Sam frowned, confused.
"You heard the lady, baby. Let's go grab a smoothie." Carrie told Sam as she stepped out of the car. Sam sighed and reluctantly got out. "Take all the time you need, guys!" And with that, they left hand in hand.
"Dean, you're nervous about something." I said in concern.
"I'm not!" He turned round to look at me, and I gave him the stop-kidding-yourself look and he sighed. "It's just... people make me nervous."
"So your brother, his girlfriend and I aren't people?" I joked.
"No that's not what I'm saying!... Okay, you really wanna know?" I nodded. Duh! "I've never been to a mall before."
I raised an eyebrow. "Like... ever?"
He nodded. Poor Dean. "Never had the time, you know, with the whole huntin' thing. I mean, what if something bad happens? What if the demons there?"
"I'd sense it." I replied with an encouraging smile and a hand on his shoulder. "And nothing bad ever happens at this mall. The worst thing that's happened was a lost child a few years ago. Other than that, nothing. But if it makes you feel better, you can stick with me."
Dean nodded and I let out a small chuckle. "After you protecting me numerous times, now I'm the one protecting you."
"Psh... please..."
"I kinda like scared you." I winked before stepping out of the car, probably leaving Dean speechless. By the time I got inside the mall, Sam and Carrie were already eating hot dogs. Carrie had two large shopping bags in one hand.
"What happened in the car?" Sam asked me.
"Dean got scared at the idea of being in the same building as... people." I added the last part with a slight giggle.
"Wait, we' no' people? Sin' when?!" Carrie exclaimed, still chewing on her food.
"Babe, chew, swallow then talk." Sam told her, smiling warily. I couldn't help but grin. Sam and Carrie despite being two completely different people, were so compatible. Was this what me and Dean would look like if—
"Hey, so I'm really hungry." Dean rushed past me. "You need need anything?" He asked, turning round to look at me. I nodded.
"Chocolate ice-cream with sprinkles for me. Haven't had one in ages!" Dean grinned and walked to the ice-cream shack.
"So, what kind of shops are there here?" Carrie asked. "I only remember being underneath this place to dig up a corpse."
I frowned. "Have you two ever been to a mall before?"
Sam raised his hand like a student. "I have."
"Carrie, malls are full of shops. Food, hardware, clothes, toys, customer services, offices... everything. I don't get why you and Dean are freaking out about being in a mall." I really didn't, but maybe that was because, unlike myself (and Sam during his college years), Dean and Carrie never had the pleasure—and time—to go shopping. While doing the laundry, I realised Carrie still owned clothes from years ago, which was both sad and slightly weird.
"The people, man." Carrie replied, eyes wide as saucers. I could feel the fear and anxiety bottling up inside her. "All happy and oblivious of the fact that there are monsters out there... demons!"
A few by-passers, some of which I knew, walked past us with puzzled looks on their faces. I chuckled nervously. "It's a metaphor." I told them, then added, The monsters and demons are our everyday battles!" My smile vanished as soon s I turned back to Carrie. "Are you out of you mind?!" I hissed. "Never talk about what you really do in front of people! They'd think you're insane!"
"Uh, they're the ones who are insane! They don't know what's out there!"
"Can we stop talking about this? Please?" Sam, always the peacemaker, urged us. "Let's just... enjoy this day, unwind a little and then head back, okay?"
Carrie rolled her eyes and gave Sam a reassuring kiss on the lips. "Let's shop til we drop!"
"Nah-uh, no shopping til we drop goin' on today or ever." Dean retorted from behind me, ice-cream in front of my face. "Here you go, princess."
"Thanks, Dean." I smiled, taking the ice-cream cone in my hand. He put his arm round my neck and when I felt the confusion coming from Sam and Carrie. "What?"
"What?" Sam repeated innocently.
"Sam, I'm empathic, therefore I can tell you tow are confused about something" I replied, pointed from him to Carrie. "Why are you confused?"
"Because... that..." Carrie simply said, pointing at me and Dean. "What happened yesterday?"
"We hung out." Dean shrugged.
"Dean!" Sam whined. "Not her too!"
"Her too what?" Now I was the one who's confused. "Guys, let's just go shopping already. I need to buy some clothes... and so does Carrie."
"You two already slept together?!" Sam exclaimed incredulously.
"What?!" me and Dean exclaimed in unison. Was Sam high?
"No!" Dean insisted. "I'm not that shallow, Sammy."
"And as if I'd let this guy anywhere near my—" I was about say 'vagina', but Carrie groaned, interrupting us.
"Enough arguing, enough accusations and let's just..." She took a few deep breaths, and calmly added, "shop. Then we can have lunch and head back."
"That sounds really good." Dean replied with a nod, and we started walking. "Hey, Ari. Uh, can I talk to Sammy for a sec? You and Carrie can go and, you know, do what girls do best in malls. Here." He took a few—exaggerating, they were definitely NOT a few—bills from his wallet and gave them to me. "Have fun but not too much fun. It's gonna take a while."
I leaned close to his ear and whispered seductively, "It's gonna take a while or you to be back... or for us to have some alone time?"
Dean shuddered and closed his eyes. "Princess, you're hurting my lower half a little." he murmured.
"We heard that!" Sam and Carrie dead-panned.
"Okay, we'll meet here in... an hour?" Dean told me.
"Nah, make it three. I'm gonna take Carrie for a spa treatment." I winked. "She really needs it."
"Yeah! Good! Uh, if anything happens, call either me or Sam, okay?"
"Sure thing, Batman."
"Aaaaaah, this is nice...!" Carrie groaned inwardly as the beautician worked on her massage. I let out a small smile, trying not to mess with the facial I currently had. "So this is what it feels like being normal? Is this how you spend your free time? This is the freaking life!"
"It's not what I normally do in my free time, but I've done it a couple of times. Alone, obviously. I'm glad I'm doing this with you too."
"Foot massage?" the beautician asked me, looking up at me. I smiled calmly and nodded, sinking into my chair. I giggled, the first few touches making me ticklish.
"So hey, you and Dean... I mean, is there something between you? Anything at all?" Carrie murmured, still under the soothing effect of her back massage.
"No... I mean yeah... kinda..." I sighed. "I think it's complicated. We like each other. We kissed last night."
"You know what? If Dean had to date any chick in this whole universe for the rest of his miserable life... I'm down for her being you. You have that effect on him." Carrie pointed out. I could almost see the smile starting to form on her lips. "Even Sam could tell. You make him... normal."
"What do you mean?" I asked, and let out a moan of pleasure as the beautician hit a weak spot on my foot I didn't know even existed.
"He used to be a miserable, drunken, badass son of a bitch who slept around. He comes here, meets you, falls for you and all of a sudden he's a homebody." she looked up at me with a soft smile. "While you and Sam were asleep, he told me about what he wants to do after Sam's detox. He said he'd start huntin' part time and move in with you."
He told her all that, he actually did, which meant he wanted to do it. He wanted to cool down on the hunting and live a semi-average life. With me. ME. "He-he mentioned that?"
"Yeah, all smiley and fluffy too. You, Ariana, have turned Dean into a Nicholas Sparks novel in a month. I didn't think anyone could ever, but you did."
After that, we didn't talk much except for the random comment on how good this spa treatment was. Dean was actually considering moving in with me. While it was really unbelievable, I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit guilty that I was changing Dean. He was personified as a guy who loved to drink and sleep with frisky women, and now he likes me and wants to be with me, just me.
Once the treatment was done, I paid the beautician—well, it was actually Dean's money so he was paying—and went to a few shops, where I bought some clothes for Carrie (with one of Sam's many credit cards), which she obviously needed so badly even she admitted it, and then she went on to buying me lingerie... for no reason!
"Just think about it though." I said. "What's the point of buying sexy lingerie if they're not gonna stay on me for long?"
"Flares up the foreplay. And believe me, Dean loves foreplay." she replied, and then shuddered. "One time a few years ago, I was in the room across the hall and I could hear him and the chick at it. The foreplay was so loud people from the convenience store next to the motel heard them."
"Oh."
What else was I supposed to say?
"It's okay, Ari. He'll be slow with you... I think." she then added with a murmur. On our way to meet the boys, we bumped into Paolo. Yay.
"Hey, Ariana!" he exclaimed from across, running towards us.
"Want me to punch him in the balls?" Carrie murmured.
"No, not yet." I murmured back, and then flashed a smile at the man. "Hi, Paolo."
"Hey, you were at the yoga class the other day, yeah?"
"Yeah." Carrie simply said. She was known as using monosyllabic words when talking to people she doesn't like.
"This is Carrie. She's an old friend of mine. Carrie, this is Paolo..." I blushed. "... also an old friend of mine."
"You were with the floppy-haired guy and the other one at the back of the class!" he happily commented. Wrong move, pal...
… and what was this strange feeling I felt bottled up inside him?
"Sure."
Silence. "Uh, so what's that? Are you hurt?" I pointed at his bandaged hand. He looked down at it subconsciously and nodded.
"Uh, yeah. There was a fire one town over and I burnt my arm." Then he added "But I'm not badly hurt. It's already healing a little." Psh, as if I cared! What I did care about was the strange aura surrounding us. I had to get out of this. Now. "Are you okay, Ariana?"
I looked Paolo in the eyes—god were they captivating!—and whispered, practically inaudible, "Christo." And I saw it. It was a flicker. A split second. Yellow eyes. My breath hitched when my eyes landed on his bandage. Right at the bottom I could see what looked like the bottom the rose tattoo of the man me and Dean saw last night.
He smiled innocently. "Ariana? Is everything okay?" He gave me the ever silent 'say anything and I'll kill you' stare, which intimidated me immediately.
"Um, yeah! Yeah I'm fine. Just... fine." I averted my eyes. "Listen, it was nice seeing out and all..." NOT "... but me and Carrie need to catch up with the guys. I'll see you around or something." I grabbed Carrie's hand and dragged her behind me.
"I'll see you very soon, Ariana!" he yelled from behind us. I turned us round the corner and Carrie yanked her hand from my grasp.
"What the fuck was that?!" she exclaimed angrily. "I mean I know we hate the kid, but you actually scared me a little there."
"We need to get Sam and Dean and get the hell out of here. NOW." I snapped. I didn't mean to be so mean to Carrie, but I just wanted to get out of here, and fast.
"I'll call them right away." Carrie assured me, already tapping in one of their numbers. "Hey, babe, it's Carrie. Where are you guys?... Uh-uh. Listen, something just happened and Ari won't say anything until we're all by the car... Tell Dean she's fine. Just shaken up. Just be by the Impala in five minutes."
We ran out of there as fast as we could and as soon as we got to the parking lot, the boys rushed towards us.
"What happened?" Sam asked me. He was dead-scared.
"It was Paolo." I looked at Dean then down with shame. "The man we saw in the woods was Paolo."
"I don't recall seeing a rose tattoo on his arm at yoga class..." Sam frowned.
"I think he got it afterwards. But I swear I saw it. And I saw the yellow eyes, but for a split of a second."
Carrie gasped. "But I was there! I didn't see anything! How'd you—?"
"I whispered Christo and his eyes flickered from the normal colour to yellow. It was all so quick." I explained.
"Let's get outta here." Dean said, opening the door.
"Good idea." Sam replied as he stepped inside the car. Me and Carrie hopped inside and soon we were out of the parking lot and our way home.
"So here's the plan: no matter the reason, nobody is allowed to leave the house. Got that?" Dean looked through the rearview mirror and our eyes locked. I nodded and smiled weakly. He returned the smile but it faded quickly. "We are to salt all doors, windows, air-ducts... anywhere connected to outside in any way."
"I do salt rounds every night, so there shouldn't be any problems." I told him.
"Well, we double-check them each time. We need to be extra careful not to let that son of a bitch anywhere near." he said.
"Now that I think of it, all of this adds up." Sam pointed out. "I mean, we're here, and exactly a month later, as if on clockwork, this guy shows up. The same night, he's in the woods where you and Ari happened to be, and now he was at the mall."
"Something big's gonna happen. I can feel it in my bones and it's fucking scarin' the living crap outta me." Carrie shuddered, rubbing her hands against her forearms. Knowing we were just down the road from my flat, I smiled with relief and looked up. My smile vanished almost immediately.
"Oh my god." I simply said. The other looked ahead.
"What the—?" Dean stopped halfway as he pulled up a block away. The road was blocked with police tapes and by-passers.
But that wasn't what really hit me. It was the fact that the lot where my bookshop and flat were was covered in smoke. I let out a shaky breathe and covered my mouth with one hand. Carrie pulled me to her side, hugging me.
My home was burnt to the ground.
Dra-maaa! Next chapter will have some special guests and even more drama so if you want more, make sure you review! Remember to check out my other stories and review them too. Until next time!
