Bella POV
I was getting frustrated with all swearing everyone this house insisted on using. You couldn't have a single conversation with anyone in the house without them cursing. It was just their everyday speech, but it was not mine. I wasn't sure why that bothered me so much, considering everything that was going on around me. Every time someone swore for more then three times, i vowed to hide Mara's mercedes keys, Dean's keys to his impala and Sam' laptop.
The only one who didn't swear was Castiel, who insisted we call him Cas. That concept was weird in itself, an angel with a nick name, it seemed redundant with all the power you could feel whenever he was around. Bobby took my threat to burn some of his books more seriously then the other three, and hasn't sworn once.
We were alternating with my training. In the morning, i'd do my usual work out and Mara would show me something new. In the afternoon we'd practise my shielding and opening my psychic links. I'd usually end up going to bed early, all of the pressure and exhaustion taking it's toll. But the more i practised, the stronger i got.
I could run twice as fast as i had when we'd first trained, i was still pretty clumsy. My body seemed to understand the need to focus much more during the training then when any other time of day, but i still woke up bruised from tripping. The fighting was a little trickier, both Sam and Dean wanted to train me, worried she might let the sparring go too far. She never did though. That and she had insulted them, saying their training was inadequate compared to his. I didn't voice my agreement. Plus hers was more interesting then flat out military training. She let them do the weapons training thought.
Mara was glaring at Castiel who continued to loom over both of us annoyingly, to add he kept trying to tell me how to train in combat. He wanted to keep an eye on us, in case she taught me something she wasn't allowed to, not that it wouild matter all that much. She wanted to teach or show something, she would.
"Dont be a female dog Castiel!" Mara shouted at him, who had told her not to let me jump off the roof of Bobby's house. Dean grinned, and i quirked an eye brow at the demanding tone. Dean was on the ground level, with Sam, just in case i didnt make the jump.
"My vessel is not a canine nor is it female," he said, puzzeled expression.
"Wow," was all she could say, at a total of words. Neither of us was used to how literal he took things. Sometimes it was funny, mostly because of his expressed confusion. I heard Dean chuckled from down on the ground, Sam rolling his eyes.
"The impact could paralyze her, i implore you," he said staring at her with that usual intensity, as if that scary would freak her out.
"You dont want to watch, then go away," she said scowling. I admit i was a little nervous about the whole jumping thing. I'd seen the way she moved, what her own body was capable of. It was exciting to know i'll be able to move that lithely. I just hadn't thought this was how i'd get here.
"I will not 'go away' when you are putting your sister intentionally in danger," he said giving her a look.
"She'll be fine!" she said, aggravated, turning to me. "Do you think your ready for this?"
I hesitated and nodded, she turned back to Cas, "there she knows what she's getting into. You have two options; get the hell out of her way or i'll set you on fire and push you off the roof myself!"
"You would attempt to attack an angel?" he asked, his tone sounding dangerous.
"Only if they dont get the hell out of my way," she said evenly. They stared at each other, before he relented, appearing on the ground level in between Sam and Dean, who flinched.
She turned to me, giving me a nod, and moved to the ledge stepping off of it. She hit the ground instanly, knees bent sligtly, her left leg forward, and the right back some, both hands in the same direction. She made things like that look so easy.
I took a deep breath, about to move off when a voice broke in, startling me, 'what are you idj-," Bobby cut off as i lost my balance falling. I let my shield expand a foot off the air, and it disappeared as i fell on my ass.
We all turned to glare at Bobby. "What the hell is going on?" he asked gruffly in a suspicious tone.
"Bella's trying to pull a superman," Dean said sarcastically.
"Wouldn't that be super woman?" Cas retorted, i just rolled my eyes.
Mara and i were sitting on Bobby's deck quietly, not speaking. It had pouring all day and i could see how restless she was getting. It had been days since we'd left the house. We hadn't gone anywhere since going to pick up our stuff in Phoenix.
"I've been thinking where we should go next, i'm thinking Vancouver," she said, not really looking for an opinion, just thinking out loud.
"What's in Vancouver?" based on the last few places she'd taken me, or shown me, i was excited. If i liked any kind of surprise, it was this kind.
"Gypsy Time Pools," she said smiling slightly.
"What?" i asked, not understanding what that meant.
"There are caves and watersystems under this huge waterfall. The property is owned by a clan of gypsys. To protect it. There made for visions and clarity. It'll give you a temporary clarity. I suppose it's not really giving you a vision, a sort of knowing. You'll just have these gut feelings, like whether or not your in danger, stuff like that. Plus it's beautiful in there," the door opened, Dean walked out onto the porch.
We'd been here for three weeks know and you could feel the intensity between them a lot of the time. They didn't show it though, whenever they were in the same room or talking you could see the look on both of their faces. Like talking to each other made them at ease. Even Sam noticed, we'd share looks everytime they did that and everytime we'd just get up and go elsewhere. Like right now.
Sam was tapping away at his laptop when i found him up in his room. I could just barely see through the crease in the frame. i grinned, getting an idea. I bit my lip, concentrating a little. He got the weirdest look on his face when his laptop began to shake, as if it was possessed.
"What the hell?" i heard him mutter, and made it float upwards a little. It paused in the air and he reached for it. I pulled it just out of his reach again. He had the most confused expression on his face. I pulled it away again as it backed out of his reach one more time.
Realization dawned on him and he scowled at the door, "i know that's you Bella."
I snickered a little and he glared even more as i pushed open the door. "Mara and Dean are eye stripping each other again," i said, flopping onto the bed on my stomach when he moved over.
He snorted, "think they'll do anything about it?"
I shrugged, "only if neither of them gets laid any time soon."
He chuckled, both of us sitting quietly. "Mara wants to check out Gypsy Pools in vancouver or something."
His eyes went wide, "Gypsy Time Pools? Seriously?" he asked grinning.
I gave him a weird look, surprised with his sudden excitement. "Yeah, you know about them?"
"I've read stories about them, but i always just thought they were legends or something."
"Your line of work and you thought they were a legend?"
He shrugged, "it's hard to know what's fact and what's myth."
"Did you want to come or something?"
"Think your sister would let me?" i shrugged, i didn't see why not.
"Will Dean let you, i mean, sounds like he doesn't want you doing anything with your abilities," Mara had told me that Sam had demon inside of him, that it was permanent. I think it just scared Dean, i mean, you do fear what you dont understand. Maybe if he had some sort of latent power or something he wouldn't make such a big deal about it.
I believed my sister when she said it's about the person, not the blood line. I didn't feel evil, i felt different even since first meeting her, but not evil. I just felt, stronger, i guess is the best word for it. I was more confident, knowing i could actually help when problems came up, instead being a burden and getting hurt all the time. I've seen how bad it could go if i got hurt, everyone around me would get distracted and someone ended getting more hurt then me.
"Dean's just worried i'll go darkside, has been ever since our dad died," he said frowning.
"Why?" i asked, puzzled. If his dad was gone, wouldn't that make it less of a pressure to reach his standards.
Sam eyed me for a moment, debating something internally. "When he died, he said something to Dean. He told Dean to protect me, to save me, and that if he couldn't save me, then he'd have to kill me."
I felt my eyes going wide, his words setting in. "What an ass, who says that to their kid when there dying," i said in disgust. "Based on what i've heard, you John seems like a colossal douche."
He laughed a little, "he was. He's had some kind of a falling out with just about everyone we know."
We sat quietly, i happened to enjoy Sam's company more then Dean's. Dean always seemed to be so lost in some bad memory, it would make me think about things i'd rather not. Or maybe it was just the fact that he'd been in hell before. Which was weird, because i didn't feel that way about Mara. She may be an uber bitch sometimes, but she still liked to go out an have fun. Even said we'd checking out her favourite club soon.
Sam was always quiet, but he would just end up focussed on whatever he was researching. If he was researching anyways. Dean made a lot of comments on Sam watching porn. It was hard to tell if he was actually joking sometimes, almost everything that fell out of his mouth sounded sarcastic one way or another.
I heard my sister laugh, a moment later i could hear Dean too. The window was wide open and his bedroom was over the porch, so we heard everything perfectly. Both of us turned to the window, the laughter cut short, and then started up a moment later. I dont think i've heard her laugh like that before. I guessed Sam didn't hear his brother laugh to often either, considering his expression. He looked a little happy, happy for his brother? Then his smile dropped, becoming weary as if he was remembering something.
"What was your sister like, before we met you two?" Sam asked, listening to his brother said something, it was muffled, but we could still hear the smile in his voice.
"Scared, she's good at putting on a good show, but so was i, it's easy to see the signs," i said frowning. "She was cold."
"Cold?" he repeated, frowning. "She's cold now."
"I know, but it was a different kind of cold. She'd say things that made me wonder if she'd ever really been a good person. Not say, but just feeling it. She has no regard for human life. Just doesn't care about anyone really. It's hard to imagine, seeing as i didn't meet her until a few months. But something must've made her that way right?"
"She cares about you," he pointed out. i shook my head.
"She only cares about me because she needs me, when this whole war is over i wouldn't be surprised if we went our separate ways."
"Do you think hell made her that way?" he asked, "when Dean got back he was different. Had nightmares, didn't trust anyone, sometimes he doesn't even trust me."
"I dont know, she never really talks about her friends or what her life used to be like, just that she did a lot of terrible things, and i can tell she doesn't care about them. I think that's why she doesn't talk about her past, doesn't want to scare me," he nodded, agreeing with me.
"What's hell like anyways?" i had been meaning to ask someone that. Mara just brushed off the question.
"She didn't tell you?" he asked, eyebrows raised. I wondered if he would still tell me knowing she wouldn't.
"She said, and i quote 'ponies, rainbows and pretty flowers, all that and a bag of chips'" he chuckled humourlessly. I wasn't sure i really wanted to know, but i felt like i needed to. Maybe i'd understand her better if i got a better of how bad it really had been down there. Did hell really change her that much or was she always like that? It was question that went through my mind constantly.
"It's hell," Sam said shrugging. "it took Dean months to finally let me in and tell me what had happened down there. I could see how it affected him, this huge burden. But he felt guilty about hell. It just gnawed at him day in and day out. He was a wreck, still is. Hell just broke him, you know? Even more then he already had been."
"But what's it like? How long was he even down there?" i asked, not liking the sound of that. I new Dean was a little mesed up, but he made it sound like hell chewed him up into tiny pieces, spit him back out and then did it all over again.
"It's torture, they torture you, in every way they can. All the time. The first seal that needed to be broken was that a righteous man had to shed blood in hell. That was him, it took them thirty years to break him, make say yes, so he would torture people, not the other way around."
"Forty years?" i asked confused.
"Time is different down there, up here he had been dead for four months, down there it had been forty years," i stared in horror. If one month equalled ten years, she had been down their for hunders, around five hundred years.
"How long was she in hell for?" Sam asked slowly, seeing my face.
"She died four years ago, i'm pretty sure anyways," my words sunk in and he stared blankly, doing the math.
"She was just a kid," he whispered, looking pale.
"She was around fourteen," he didnt know what to say. Frankly, neither did i.
"She really has no idea how she got out?"
"If she does she's never going to tell us."
