Twilight – chpt 10.
by: sifi.
--
"Oh my God..." Shep breathed, his gold-green eyes fixing on the cornflower blues of his nephew who nodded with his hand over his mouth.
They could see, from their vantage on the floor above the oubliette, peering through the grate of its trap-door, two females. One with blonde Shirley Temple curls and ruby lips against alabaster skin on the floor. Dark red blood had left a trail from her nose and the corner of her mouth down toward the floor. At first each man thought for a moment that the flicker of movement he was seeing was an illusion. But to their combined horror, they realized after a moment of ceaseless observation that she was still alive, sort of.
Their eyes moved up, toward the back of the cell where more horror imprinted itself upon them, leaving both seasoned hunters wondering just how on earth there could still be something that made them want to retch.
From where they were, they were unable to figure out how exactly she was affixed to the wall, and in all honesty they weren't sure they wanted to find out either, but they had to do something. Even if they hadn't been there as a favor for Dean, neither man could have ignored an atrocity like this.
The woman's arms dangled at her sides, every now and again reaching up to try and feel something behind her. Her t-shirt had been cut open and they noticed it appeared she was covered in a dozen or more black or bloody patches. A whiff of the air confirmed their suspicions, the smell of burning flesh was all too familiar to both hunters for them to be mistaken. The wall behind her glistened darkly and seemed to be slick the way her bared feet sought purchase only to slide off jarringly, leaving a whimper behind to stain the air.
Tommy nodded to Shep who rose grasping tightly the ring that opened the door and dropped the staircase. He saw her head snap up, and even heard it hit the wall as her mouth dropped open, "No! Don't!" she called breathlessly.
"It's okay, we're gonna get you outta there..." Tom assured as his uncle shifted his grip on the door to flip it the rest of the way open.
She shook her head violently, held out her hand in a universal stop gesture and pushed with both her feet and the free hand. She seemed to go into spasm as the wall behind her ran fresh with blood, "STOP!" she shrieked as Shep held the door up at its balance point.
"Holy crap Shep don't move the door!" Tom called noting the strand of silver both men had missed that seemed somehow attached to a raw wound in her side.
"What? What!" he barked holding the door still while his nephew leaned down peering into the cell.
"Oh man... that's effed up right there..." Tom groaned looking up into the older man's curious expression. "Just hold the door right there until I tell you its okay," he said grasping the rim of the entrance and lowering himself into the man-made bit of hell, careful not to touch the line of wire that led from the woman to the counterweight behind the stairs.
"There's clippers on the table..." she panted and looked heavenward before sighing, "Thank you..." a moment later with a metallic 'ping', the tension on her wound was gone and a blonde haired, blue eyed lanky man was giving wide berth to the twitching ruby lipped bitch on the floor.
It didn't register immediately, but as he approached her, he grasped something that sent shivers through him. The child on the floor was possessed. Her eyes were solid black and the host's body was dying. Why is it still in there? he wondered.
"Okay Shep, t'sall good," he called over his shoulder, grimacing as he looked the woman up and down, wondering how she was stuck up there, "Laura Finnegan?" he asked.
He said Shep... their friends from...? Oregon? She wondered unable to recall much more at the moment. Slowly she nodded.
"I'm Tom Daykin, that's Shep McGregor... we're friends of..."
"The boys..." she nodded with a tight smile, "...they're in trouble... the thing, the marauder... it's gonna... they have...it's gonna kill them..." she dropped her head, her eyes going to the half dozen swooping gray-black figures, with their smoky appendages sweeping beneath the girls' skin, drawing out handfuls of Demon and stuffing it bit by bit into their voracious twisted maws. That's right you bastards, feast away, live it up while you can...
"What happened?" the older man asked then looked at Tom, "We need to get this thing bound."
"It can't hurt us anymore," she indicated the girl then answered his first question, "I couldn't take any more... and she wouldn't tell me anything else..." she nearly whispered as Tom leaned down looking at her side. I gotta get to them, I gotta tell them but...she looked from Tom to Shep, I'll let Dean make that choice... it's his decision to make, not mine...
"You did that?" Shep asked.
Laura nodded curtly as he pulled Tom away from her and unscrewed the top of a flask showering her with a spate of holy water.
"Stings a little in the burns," she admitted dryly as the men exchanged a look.
Shep moved forward holding the neck toward her, "Take a swig," he ordered.
She nodded and did as instructed.
"Sorry," he nodded once he was fairly convinced she wasn't possessed.
"I dig," she moaned letting her head roll forward in a faint nod while they approached her again, Shep peering behind her at the wall to see how she was pinned, and Tom examining how the wire had been run through her.
"Oh man..." the older man grunted.
"A few more millimeters on that door and this woulda torn right through..." Tom muttered clipping the wire close to the skin and after making sure there were no barbs at the back side, sliding it out of her and tossing it aside, his lips curled in distaste. He caught sight of deep bruising and crooked fingers on her left hand and grasped her wrist gently before looking into her eyes and motioning to Aileen, "She did this?" he asked noting the four broken fingers.
She nodded, "I need to get to them... please, I have to..." stop this, she pleaded, unable to hold back the streams of tears any longer, "... please..." she dropped her hands onto Tom's shoulders.
"She's hooked..." Shep sighed looking at the younger man then at her, "They look retractable, do you know which way they move?" he asked.
She shook her head, "Just... cut... we're running out of time..."
"Are you crazy?" popped out of Shep's mouth before he could stop himself.
Her left arm and both her legs clamped around Tom as she pulled and strained, using him and his initial instinct to retreat to try and pull herself off the wall. Her move took both men by surprise, "Get me off of these things!" she hollered twisting furiously before her left side broke free leaving her held with one hook through the muscle of her upper back on the right.
"Shepard!" Tom passed his uncle the clippers, his right arm wrapping around the woman clinging to him, giving whatever support he could, his eyes fixed on the patch of pink and red meat dangling from the hook.
A snip and a howl later her weight went dead and if he hadn't been holding her, she would have crashed to the floor.
"Oh shit... oh man, Tom... jeez dude..." Shep groaned watching his nephew grow stained red, "She needs a hospital man..."
A glint at the base of the wall caught his eye and he crouched down sweeping away straw and dirt. "Holy crap..." he sighed grabbing a short board with probably close to a hundred four inch long, blood covered nails hammered into it. "What the hell?" he asked turning back to cast another look at the twitching teen.
"What the hell is right man...what the hell went on here Shep?" Tom asked.
"I don't know youngun, let's just get out of here, drop this chick at a hospital and get to the boys," he urged drawing his gun and trying to shatter their eardrums with the blast that echoed in the pit.
What happened next froze them for a long series of moments that made their blood run cold.
The teenager's body jerked one last time with the invasion of the sanctified slug into her brain, but where they expected a streaming screaming jet of living dark dust that identified the essence of demon as it escaped from its once-upon-a-host; no such thing burst out into the air around them. Instead, through the hole his bullet made in her head, bubbling out over the speckles of red and gray were rolling bundles of that demonic darkness. Bits that blazed and flew twisted like smoke from a violent fire under normal circumstances simply seemed to ooze out, as if there was no 'life' to propel it. But to make matters even more curious, before those 'bubbles' of essence could even drop to the floor, some of those gloppy tendrils seemed to reverse course for a moment before literally disappearing from sight. Not through flight, not through any means Shep or Tom had ever seen before. Almost in fact as if the essence were being 'sucked' out of existence.
"Have you... ever...?" Tom asked.
"Never," Shep answered.
"Okay, that is really creepy..." Tom shuddered meeting Shep's also visibly disturbed expression as the girl in his arms started to come around again.
He lowered her feet to the ground but kept an arm around her just in case, "Can you walk?" he asked.
"Yeah," she nodded and stumbled as the ankle the Marauder had slammed in the car door buckled and she reached out clutching Tom, "...with a little help," she smiled tightly, "either of you seen my shoes?"
The sight of those sinister mottled gray faces, their warty pointy tongues slurping up the slowly bubbling demon remains while their eyes shifted from her to the men with her, sadistic gleeful hunger visible in their expressions turned her stomach. Without the current banquet to satisfy their gluttony she knew they'd gladly start working on Shep and Tom, attacking the 'demons' of their own human nature, each morsel their kind touched would spread and grow even the tiniest bit of corruptive darkness in a human's soul. The result was a rotting plague of personal decimation that provided a food source that would last until the person could no longer bear the weight of their own life. When it was time, they would descend en masse and fight over the last tattered remnants of the soul in question.
Shep spotted the gym shoes across the pit and grabbed them as Tom led the woman up the stairs, her eyes dripping as she followed the brown smears and splatters on the wall that they were all fairly sure came from the eldest Winchester as he made his escape.
A brown splotch on the stairs drew her attention as she shucked off Tom's assistance and hobbled in a half run to the stain, the finger tips of her good right hand touching the sign of his passage. A choking gasp tore from her closing throat as she was given glimpses of what he'd been put through just two nights ago.
"Take me to my men," she said softly, the look on her face and something in her voice left them unable to resist the plea.
--
"Nah! NO! Fight back you worthless... waste of..." the thing within the child beside him ground through clenched teeth, the girls hands pulled the sunglasses off her face leaving those red-orange sockets visible to examine the world around them, "No! NO! KILL HER!" she yelled, her fury growing palpable inside the vehicle.
Special Agent Hendrickson felt his heart start to race and struggled to contain the triumphant cry that wanted to erupt from him, Something tells me your plans aren't coming together quite right you evil...it's the woman from last night, she's gotta be putting up a fight, whoever you are, you GO girl... he quickly clamped down on the thoughts while flossy tendrils of energy zipped through the car making him glad he kept his hair short. Otherwise he had a feeling he'd be sporting a full-on fro with the way his hackles were standing on end. His breath came short, his chest growing tight as the abomination pushed back in the seat, maybe watching something inside, maybe searching for something, or maybe just seething. It's amazing how much eyes tell us even when they're not lookin' at us, he thought and allowed his foot to lift slightly from the accelerator.
It was standing before the Emissary inside the child's mind, they were talking almost civilly, "...you're wrong, we WILL find a way to stop it, if you personally won't turn your back on whatever beef you've got with me there are going to be a lot of demons out there who will, at least long enough to drive back this son of a bitch and its troops," Laura rationed.
"You're the one who's wrong emissary... to think I care about what happens to this world? He wants your power, he wants yours, the Chosen's and the Champion's, but he doesn't need it," it could feel the smile on Aileen's lips, "he might even forgive me for killing you so long as he gets the Chosen and his Champion..." the demon sneered.
"At least let me know who's right hand is going to kill me," the emissary requested.
Aileen's body leaned forward and her mouth sneered simply, "No."
It was then that the situation fell apart. With a twist of her lips, the harbinger, the earthly representative of one of its enemy's incarnations brought her hands together, the brackets that were supposed to have held her indefinitely to the wall, slid out of the cement like a fine blade from flesh, the hands, one full of useless fingers, the other still in tact, grasped the teen's head, gripping it mercilessly despite the demon imbued strength behind its struggle to break free, "Show me EVERYTHING!" the emissary demanded.
As the demon sought to escape the child she drew her in pressing her jaw closed, and clamping those broken fingers over the nose.
Another bracket flew out of the wall from one of her ankles while the leg wrapped around the child, keeping the demon and host close so the emissary could maintain control.
"You can NOT escape..." she ground through clenched teeth.
Even this far removed, the raw power behind the will could be felt and the abomination inside the empty husk of Rachel Fairbanks quelled a shudder, 'foolish! idiotic demon! FIGHT BACK!' it commanded but the distance was too great. The emissary's will wrapped around both demon and child, binding them together until the human body it inhabited died. "KILL HER..." it tried again, but its command returned unheard.
"I want EVERYTHING you know..." the emissary spoke, her eyes glowing fiery luminous copper as her mouth descended onto those ruby lips drawing out every last bit of knowledge the demon possessed.
"NOOOOOOOO!" the marauding abomination screamed as the air around it began to crackle with fury, 'the Chosen and the Champion... I can use them against her, I can kill her with them... but I have to get to them first...'
When the emissary was done, the demon inhabited body of Aileen Fairbanks was dropped to the ground where the entrapped demon became food for the marauders nearby troops.
--
Sam completed his third counterclockwise circuit around the motel room and buried the orange ember of the Palo Santo shaft into a brass bowl of salt, Thank You Tamara... he acknowledged gratefully. The last time she'd gone down to Peru she'd made certain to send a few lengths of the Holy Wood to Bobby, both for himself as well as for Sam and Dean, she'd also included some very detailed instructions for a wide variety of its uses, not the least of which was its Holy essence as a means to confound the 'sight' of those who would cause willful harm.
"How's it working Bobby?" Sam asked over the cell once the ritual was done.
"Great, not even the GPS can get a bead on you," he said. Sam could tell he was smiling on the other end, "Listen you just get yourselves taken care of, the others should be there in just a couple hours so keep your heads down okay?"
"Will do Bobby, thanks, for everything," Sam smiled half collapsing into the chair, his eyes falling on Dean who sat propped up in one of the beds still holding pressure against the pile of reddish-brown gauze on his chest with his good arm while his bad arm was bent and wrapped tightly in the hopes of keeping the bleeding under control.
"I'll call you with the results of the biopsy as soon as they call me alright kid?" he sighed wondering how many more problems these boys he loved like his own were going to have to face before they earned a little peace.
"We'll be waiting, thanks again..." Sam ended the call and dug into the box of medical supplies for the fifth of whiskey Laura had left with them.
"Aawww dude you are my freakin hero!" Dean grinned as his little brother unscrewed the cap and took three long gulps that twisted his face comically.
"That's better..." Sam sighed handing the bottle over.
"You must really be hurting..." Dean observed taking several long swigs himself, "Want me to see if I can get the bullet out of there?"
Sam spocked an eyebrow at his big brother, "Yeah cause you're so much better off than I am right now... I feel like I'm gonna throw up...we need food Dean..."
"Ugh, don't say 'throw up' man... I don't think I can handle another heave session," Dean groaned, "Call out and order something, something bread-y, you're not crossing that salt line or leaving the circle. Did Bobby say it was gonna be okay for them to cross it to come inside?" he asked.
"Yeah, the spell is literally to repel anything evil, which apparently includes 'The Seeking Eye'..." Sam groaned looking over the short list of nearby restaurants that delivered.
"Then what Sam? We can't hide here for the rest of our lives. Hendrickson's that... thing's puppet, if she can't find us with her supernatural freak-o-vision, then he will with good old fashioned investigative technique... How much deeper can we go man?" Dean wondered aloud and swigged from the bottle again.
Sam dialed one of the restaurants, holding the phone to his ear with his right hand and snagged the bottle from Dean for another three long droughts before handing it back, "I'm tellin' ya man... Yemin... it's the place to be..."
--
tbc.
Please R&R.
Thanks.
sifi.