First - thanks to everyone who's reading this and extra thanks to you who've taken the time to write a review. You are the reason I stay motivated to write - especially on times like these when I'm feeling low and kinda just want to give up. So yay, thank you all! I'm sending so many hugs your way. 3
Second - you know golems, right? The big scary monsters made out of clay or dirt. I've loved golems since childhood when I first visited Prague and got to know about the folklore of golems as protectors of Jews in Eastern Europe. That's how golems are to me, and I'm sticking to that. I know there is a golem in Supernatural, season 8 I think (I haven't seen that episode though), and there he looks like a very big human - but to me, golems don't really look like that, so I've stuck to the image I've had in my head for 30 years or so, of a golem being made of clay altogether. So don't be confused - I took some liberties here.
Anyhow - strawberries, champagne, and golems in one chapter. Man, I love writing fanfiction, lol!
The day had turned into night. Through the vast windows of Jackie's hotel room, the panels of glass that reached from floor to ceiling, Sam watched the sky that was painted with all the shades of gold, as the setting sun fell behind the horizon.
Jackie hadn't come home.
Sam tried not to worry. She hadn't told him what time she'd be here exactly - he had only assumed that after work meant something like six. But now he'd been waiting for her for two hours and she still wasn't here, so it was hard not to worry.
She wasn't answering her phone either - but if she was working, then probably her phone was turned off anyways.
Working.
Thinking about that bothered Sam more than he liked to admit since he still had pretty much no idea what was it, that she actually did to pay for this luxury hotel room.
She sure as hell didn't work in a diner, though. Her lie at the breakfast table had made Sam uneasy - mostly because he knew Dad hadn't believed it. And when Dad knew someone lied to him, there was always trouble.
He could only hope that Dad would let it pass. That he cared so little of Sam, of his happiness, that he wouldn't keep thinking about Jackie and the things she had said. That Dad would do what he always did, go on a hunt, have something else to obsess about, and that Jackie and her lie would slip off his mind-
Besides - that lie didn't have to last forever.
Sam only needed to endure a couple of more weeks of this life. A couple of weeks, no more, and then there would be graduation and after that, a new life - moving to Stanford and leaving Dad and Dean and all of this behind-
Hopefully not Jackie, though.
He hadn't been joking when he had asked her to come to Stanford with him.
That would be so perfect. Jackie could study too if she wanted to. Sam was sure she'd have no problem in getting to Stanford - she was one of the smartest people he had ever met. And if she didn't want to study, she could work - whatever that meant. It didn't matter what she'd do there, though, not really. The only thing that did matter was that they would be together.
They could get a flat, live there as a couple. He would go to school every day, and when he came home after a long but fulfilling day of studies, there would be no Dad yelling at him - always angry, always disappointed - no Dean with his rude jokes and endless pranks. There would be only Jackie waiting for him when he got home, maybe already naked in their bed, with that naughty smile on her lips, the one that made him weak in the knees - and it would all be so fucking perfect - he would just let his schoolbag fall to the floor, as he walked to her, pulling off his shirt, opening his belt, and she would laugh at his eagerness but would want him all the same, and-
Sam groaned at that thought.
He would literally give anything to get Jackie to come with him to Stanford. No matter what anyone else thought. No matter that they had only known each other for a couple of weeks and that he still knew very little of her.
All that mattered was that she held his heart in her hands.
He loved her. He wanted her. And he desperately needed for her to come to Stanford with him, for if she didn't-
If she didn't, Sam wouldn't want to go either. And that would mean giving up the only dream he had ever had.
With conflicted emotions, Sam stared at the bottle of Champagne in the cooler. He had brought it, for he knew that it was Jackie's favorite (even if buying wine with a fake ID felt like such a childish thing to do). Strawberries too - because she had once said to him that there weren't many things she enjoyed more than strawberries and champagne naked in the bed after having sex-
Well, Sam was a guy after all.
If buying champagne and strawberries for Jackie increased his chances of getting laid, he would buy them every fucking day from this day to eternity.
Not that Jackie usually needed encouragement to have sex. On the contrary. Sam had never even dreamed that he would get as lucky as he had, that he could hook up with a girl as hot as Jackie, a girl who wanted him - for some reason he didn't quite understand - with a passion that matched his own.
It had been only this morning that she'd blown him in a way that still left him shaken - but already he missed her like her absence was a black hole in his core like someone had carved out the marrow of his bones.
If she didn't want to come to Stanford with him-
With a sigh, Sam glanced at his watch, pulled his phone from his pocket, and tried Jackie's number once again, in vain.
Where the fuck is she? Why isn't she picking up?
Even thinking about sex couldn't distract Sam from worrying. The ice cubes in the champagne cooler had melted, the smell of the strawberries filled the room, sweet and sticky and-
Something huge emerged from the emptiness into the middle of the room with a thunder-like roar, knocking over a couple of chairs, a glass table that shattered to pieces.
The hunter instincts kicked in - Sam was on his feet in a nanosecond.
The monster was so huge, its head reached the ceiling. The shape of its enormous body was vaguely humanoid but looked like it was made of clay or earth-
And in its giant fists - a slender girl that was cursing and kicking, red hair flying in the air, and scarlet streaks running down her face-
"Jackie-!"
But she was already flying through the air, as the enormous being threw her to the opposite wall. She hit it with a loud 'thump' and Sam's stomach wrenched as blood splattered everywhere - the drops in the air glimmered like rubies. Jackie fell to the floor, rolled to her stomach, but the monster was already rushing after her, reaching for her with an arm that was thicker than Sam's waist.
Without even stopping to think, Sam grabbed a chair, raised it over his head, and smashed it to the creature's back.
It barely noticed - didn't even turn around. An enormous fist grabbed Jackie's ankle and picked her up as if she was nothing but a toy. Jackie was screaming and cursing, and blood sprayed from her numerous wounds, painting the carpet red-
Sam grabbed the nearest thing he could get in his hand, smashed the bottle of Champagne to the creature - to no effect.
It was like he wasn't even there.
"How do I kill it?!" Sam shouted, crashing a lamp on the monster's head. "Jackie, how?!"
"Sam-!" The words came out uneven, as the thing was shaking Jackie, who was hanging upside down in its grasp. "It's…. a fucking golem! Run! You can't-"
A golem?!
Sam knew he should know this - how to deactivate a golem. He was sure he had read it somewhere, it was something about a scroll in its mouth, changing the letters in it, or something, but-
How the fuck am I gonna get the scroll from that thing's mouth?!
He groaned in desperation as Jackie went flying through the air again, to another wall. The blow would've killed a human, no doubt, and Sam felt his heart stop.
"No-!" he made a throaty cry, finding another chair, flinging it towards the beast, trying to make his way towards Jackie.
She was on her belly, crawling away from the golem, but she was slow and trembling and Sam saw her arm - oh God, her arm! - white bone sticking out through flesh and torn skin, and blood was pouring, pulsing out of the wound, so much of it, the smell of iron thick in the air
That thing is gonna kill her. It's gonna kill her and I can't do anything-
"Get off her-!" he growled. "Leave her alone!"
He threw himself at the golem again, his fists meeting with hard muscle - but it wasn't muscle, it was earth or clay-
Digging his fingers into the thing's arm, he tore. A lump of clay came off, turned into dust as it fell from his fingers.
For the first time, the golem seemed to notice him. It turned to face Sam - the emotionless eyes nothing more than black holes in its enormous face, the mouth a sharp-edged slit - like it had been cut into the clay with a knife. The time turned slow and fast at the same time - suddenly Sam was painfully aware of his rapid pulse, of Jackie's ragged breathing, of the smell of strawberries, champagne, and blood - and the fact, that he had nothing to protect himself with, no way of getting away-
He tried to duck, but the golem was faster. One punch to his sternum with a fist that was the size of Sam's head, and he flew back, hit the floor, and felt his ribs breaking with a sickening crunch. The pain surged through him like a lightning bolt and he tasted blood as his vision blacked at the edges.
Fuck. This is really bad-!
Taking shallow breaths through the searing pain, Sam struggled back to his feet.
"How do I kill it?!" His voice broke mid-sentence, he tasted the steel of panic, iron on his lips.
"My safe!" Jackie was screaming, as the beast gripped her again, picked her up with its giant hands. "There's a blade-"
"On it!" Sam was already running - if you could call it running. He stumbled on his feet, his head was spinning as the pain ripped his core apart, but he knew where the safe was - Jackie had once shown him various items she held there. "The pin code?!"
"The day-!" Jackie's voice was cut mid-sentence, it turned into a wail of pain, but Sam couldn't turn around now, he couldn't, his hands were opening the closet where the safe was, and-
"Tell me the code!" He yelled. "Jackie, the code-!"
"The day-" Sam heard the sickening crunch of breaking bone. "-we met-!"
The day we met!
Sam's fingers flew on the buttons. The door swung open. Inside lay a simple blade, like a long silver dagger.
He grabbed it, it was cold and heavy and smelled like open sky and clouds-
And suddenly everything was so silent.
Sam turned around, fingers grasping the cold hilt that fit his palm perfectly like it was always meant to be there.
Jackie wasn't screaming anymore.
She lay limp in the Golem's giant claws, but it was still beating her, and with every punch, there was the sound of something breaking in her, bone and muscle and-
Without thinking, Sam threw the blade. It entered the Golem's back like a knife that sliced butter.
For a second that lasted for an eternity, he thought it had had no effect. A sickening fear with the pain in his ribs brought him to his knees. There was nothing he could do, nothing, nothing-
She's dead.
It felt worse than the knowledge that soon he would no doubt be dead too.
But then-
The thing crumbled like a sandcastle in rain. First, the head - lumps of clay and earth coming loose, dirt falling in landslides - then shoulders, then the thick arms and giant fists that were holding Jackie, and-
Oh God, oh God, oh God-!
Sam was crawling towards her on the floor, tasting blood on his lips. Briefly, he wondered about the taste of iron in his mouth - had a broken rib pierced his lung? He was short of breath but didn't know if it was the fear or the pain or the fact that he was choking on his own blood, but it didn't matter. Jackie was lying on the floor, half covered with the pile of dirt and clay that just seconds ago had been the golem, her face the color of ivory where it wasn't painted with blood. Sam reached her side, tried to wipe the dirt off her face, the dirt and the sticky, dark blood-
"Jackie-!" he cried. "Jackie, come on, please don't be dead-!"
She made a groan, shifted under his touch.
A relief so huge that it could've leveled mountains rushed through Sam's system.
"Sam…" she breathed, blood falling from her lips to her chin. "Stupid-"
"I'll call 911." he managed. "Just… hang in there. I'll get help-"
"No human doctors." Jackie wailed through her teeth - trembling with pain. "They… don't know a shit."
"Jackie, I have to! Your arm-"
Though it was barely the only thing that was broken in her. She was so covered in blood that he couldn't tell for sure - but the way the golem had been beating her, she probably had more broken bones than unbroken ones. He didn't even know how to start helping her - if he even dared to move her.
He needed to get her to the hospital, as soon as possible. Preferably now.
"I'm calling 911."
"No! Call Joe-" Jackie stammered. "She'll help-"
Something in her eyes told Sam to obey.
The phone was still miraculously in his pocket. Jackie had given him Joe's number (for emergencies, she had said, and if this wasn't an emergency, Sam didn't know what was). As he dialed, his hands were slippery with Jackie's blood - or was it his own? He was coughing violently now, and when he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand it came away red. Shit - definitely not good. Now he was pretty sure he had blood in his lungs, as the pain was getting worse by the moment and it was harder and harder to breathe, but he didn't care.
If he had to choose between saving Jackie and saving himself, well, there really was no choice to make.
He didn't call 911. He called Joe - and by the time she answered he was hardly conscious, his breathing was whining and gurgling and he leaned his back to the wall near Jackie, one hand holding the phone, one hand on Jackie's shoulder, her cold, trembling fingers gripping his, and despite it all, he knew it had been worth it.
I'm gonna die here. I'm gonna die, saving her life.
"What is it, boy? I'm in the middle of something." Joe's voice at the other end of the line sounded like it came from so far away, from another universe, another time altogether.
"Emergency." Sam groaned, coughing blood. "A golem. Jackie's hurt - pretty bad. Joe-"
Before he could finish that sentence there was the familiar flash of darkness and in it a tall slender figure wearing a lab coat, her black hair flying around her shoulders.
The last thing Sam's eyes took in before the darkness claimed him, was the sight of Joe's phone falling from her grip to the dirt and blood on the floor.
I bet you didn't see this coming!
Will either one of them survive or is this gonna end like Romeo and Juliet? Let me know what you thought.