A/N: This chapter's song is Fade to Black by Metallica because I have to have Metallica in here somewhere. Don't worry Sam and Dean will be back soon.
Chapter 3: The Black
Life, it seems, will fade away
Drifting further, every day
Getting lost within myself
Nothing matters, no one else
I have lost the will to live
Simply nothing more to give
There is nothing more for me
Need the end to set me free
Things not what they used to be
Missing one inside of me
Deathly loss, this can't be real
I cannot stand this hell I feel
Emptiness is filling me
To the point of agony
Growing darkness, taking dawn
I was me, but now he's gone
No one but me
Can save myself
But it's too late
Now I can't think
Think why I should even try
Yesterday seems as though
It never existed
Death greets me warm
Now I will just say goodbye
Bye...
Ty didn't move, some illogical part of her believing that as long as she remained still, the death the ghost had pressed into her skin wouldn't progress any further. But it didn't matter. She could already feel it somehow, something sinister and deadly sliding through her veins and up her arm. It actually startled her when Alex dropped to the ground next to her.
"Let me see." He demanded, batting her other hand away and carefully taking her hand in both of his, turning her wrist so he could examine the mark, "Shit."
Ty just blinked at him, evidently in shock. That, almost more than the Dead Man's Pinch on her arm, was really freaking him out. Over the past few months of hunting together (minus her trip abroad), Alex had come to know Ty probably better than almost anyone else in his life. She was tough, undoubtedly the strongest person he knew, and practically fearless. Alex frowned and tightened his grip on her hand.
"Hey! Snap out of it!"
Ty sucked in her breath and seemed to shudder briefly as she came out of whatever funk she'd been in. She met his gaze briefly, then glanced down at her wrist, before looking up again with a wry smile on her face.
"Oops."
Alex bit back the hysterical laugh that threatened to jump out of his mouth. He was panicking and he needed to get a grip just as much as she did.
"So...uh...what do I do?" Ty asked, twisting her wrist a little in his hands.
While Ty had more practical hunting experience than Alex (despite being raised by hunters, his parents had kept him out of the actual hunting for most of his life), Alex had more knowledge, more exposure to the lore. Even when his parents had kept him out of the field, they'd depended on him doing the research. But nowhere in his memory was there anything about curing a Dead Man's Pinch. Most Scandinavian folklore tended to end when someone or other wound up dead. Not a lot of happy endings. Hence, his panic.
Alex shook his head, but refused to give up yet, "Let's call Bobby."
Ty nodded, but when she dug her cell out of her pocket, it was clear it had not fared well on the trip through the lake. She tilted it to the side and more water dripped from the case. Alex dug in his own pockets and when he finally located his phone, found it wasn't in any better condition.
"Okay, we're going to Bobby's." Alex amended, climbing to his feet and pulling her up after him before finally releasing her hand, "If you can get the truck ready, I'll rebury this jackass and we'll be back on the road in ten."
Ty nodded, picking up the jug of holy water she'd dropped nearby. As she walked back to the truck, an idea struck her. She jiggled the jug a little as she thought it over before she figured, what the hell, the mark was going to kill her if she didn't do something. Couldn't get much worse than that, could it? With a shrug, Ty upended the jug over her wrist, pouring the holy water on the damaged skin.
Ty cried out in surprised pain. The water burned the mark on her wrist, just like it had burned the ghost.
"Ty?" Alex called anxiously.
"It's okay!" She called back, trying to keep the pain from her voice, "I'm okay."
When the pain subsided, Ty examined her wrist again. The mark was still there, dark and ominous, but that feeling she'd had, the feeling of poison spreading through her veins, was gone.
"Okay." Ty nodded to herself, "That's something, at least."
Tossing the now empty jug into the back of the truck, she climbed back into the driver's seat. Her wrist still kind of hurt, a weird mix of dull ache and stinging numbness, but as long as she didn't feel it spreading, she figured she could handle it and would be fine to drive. Now it was just a question of how long the holy water's effect would last.
It turned out, not nearly long enough. Ty almost wrecked the truck when the spreading hit her again. It was worse this time, almost like fighting it with the holy water had pissed it off. Now, it felt like fire under her skin, burning a trail up her arm from her wrist. Folding over her arm in pain, Ty gasped at the excruciating sensation. Luckily, Alex managed to grab hold of the wheel before they hit anything and Ty managed to grit her teeth and focus enough to apply the brakes.
"Jesus, Ty." Alex said once the truck was stopped. Looking at her, it was obvious the pain was bad and probably getting worse, "What can I do?"
Ty forced her response through clenched teeth. Even if it did make it worse, she didn't have any other options. She needed to buy more time to get to Bobby's, "Holy water."
The relief that brightened Alex's eyes at something he could do for her was almost worth it in itself. He slipped out of the cab to go get more water and sanctify it. Ty, meanwhile, scooted across the bench seat to the passenger side. So much for being okay to drive.
By the time Alex returned, the fire in her arm was almost up to her shoulder. Ty awkwardly yanked her overshirt off her left arm and held it out the open door for him to douse. Before the water hit her skin, she could see the dark marks, like inky tendrils, branching out of the blight on her wrist. When the holy water touched them, it was like they recoiled from it, but it also felt like razor wire being dragged across her flesh. She couldn't stop the scream or the tears of pain streaming from her eyes.
Alex pulled back, worried about the pain he was causing her, concerned he might be making things worse.
"Alex!" Ty hissed, surprising him. She gestured with her right hand for him to keep going.
Reluctantly, Alex continued to soak her arm, forcing himself to ignore her screams until the tendrils were gone, leaving only the original mark. When he was done, Ty's arm looked unscatched but felt like it had gone through a garbage disposal. She was panting through her clenched teeth and her tears had left streaks through the dirt on her face. Alex swallowed hard past the worried lump in his throat and hurried to get behind the wheel. He'd be surprised if he didn't set a new land-speed record for pickup trucks by the time they reached Bobby's.
Unfortunately, they had to halt their progress twice more on the trip, once for gas and once to douse Ty's arm again. Each time seemed to be worse and Alex wasn't sure how much more she could take. By the time he finished with the latest round of holy water, Ty had passed out from the pain.
"Hang in there, partner." Alex said quietly, taking a moment to brush her long, now somewhat scraggly hair after the night's events, out of her face and make sure she was secure in her seat.
Ty was out for the rest of the trip, something Alex wasn't sure if he should be worried about or thankful for. When he finally pulled up at Bobby's, the sun was up and beating down at them, almost mocking him with the promise of a beautiful day. Alex didn't even bother turning the engine off, but leapt out of the truck and ran to the front door.
"Bobby! Bobby!" He yelled, banging on the door, "Wake up, dammit! It's Ty!"
When Bobby finally opened the door, it was clear he'd just woken up, but he didn't miss a beat. He flung the door open, his eyes already searching for the blonde hunter.
"Where?" He demanded.
Alex immediately led him back to the truck, opening the passenger door carefully in case Ty had shifted against it while she was out. The girl in question was already awake again and the mark had again spread up to her shoulder. Ty was clutching her arm so tightly, she was leaving bruises on her own skin, but she didn't seem to notice. She was also shaking, like she was cold, but Alex could also see sweat beading along her brow and dripping down her forehead.
Bobby took in Ty's condition quickly, swearing under his breath, before turning to Alex, "Help me get her inside."
Alex nodded. He wrapped an arm around Ty's shoulders and eased her out of the truck. She swayed a bit when her feet hit the ground and he automatically reached out to take her arm and steady her, but she flinched away, refusing to let him touch it. Alex put his hands on her sides instead and guided her after Bobby, back into the house. Bobby had already vanished somewhere inside, so Alex directed Ty around the ever-present mountains of books to the sofa.
"What was it?" Bobby called from another room.
"Gjenganger!" Alex called back.
Bobby swore some more, but after a moment, he reappeared carrying a dusty book. He brushed it off, wiping the dirt off his hands and onto his pants before cracking the book open and setting it on the coffee table.
"This collection of Scandinavian folklore has a section on healing rites and prayers. But a Gjenganger isn't like your regular, everyday spirit. I don't know if…"
"Try it." Alex interrupted and Ty nodded her agreement, unable to speak around the pain.
The black marks were starting to spread across her throat and chest and it felt like they were cutting off her air, constricting her like a snake. Her vision was starting to blur around the edges again, blackness seeping into her sight like an echo of the death creeping under her skin, but she fought it. Something told her that if she passed out this time, she might not ever wake up again.
Bobby dragged a chair over to sit in front of Ty. He pulled the book closer with one hand. In the other, Ty now saw he had a rosary wrapped around his fingers. He let the cross dangle over her arm, but when it brushed her skin she nearly jumped off the couch. It felt like a hot iron brand or like acid searing her skin, but when she looked, there was no such mark. Just the spiny black tracks moving determinedly towards her heart.
Bobby began reciting the prayers from the book. Ty wasn't sure if it was one long prayer or if he was going through every option on every page. It was too hard to focus to know for sure. It was really all she could do to just keep trying to suck air into her lungs. She felt like she should try and say something to the pair trying desperately to save her, but she just couldn't seem to get enough air to form words.
She was practically hyperventilating. Alex hated how helpless he felt watching her. He had to do something. Acting instinctively, and heedless of the fact that he knew she didn't want her arm touched, he joined her on the sofa and wrapped his arms around her, "I got you. Just breathe. You can do it, Ty. Breathe."
Despite his efforts, her breathing was getting worse and her eyes were losing focus. Alex's grip tightened, as if he could physically hold her there and prevent her from slipping away from them, "Bobby, it's not working!"
Bobby cut the rite he was saying short with another curse. He scowled at the book and flipped a couple pages, "Okay, if this don't work, I don't think anything will."
Before launching into the new ritual, Bobby took the rosary and wrapped it around Ty's wrist. Despite how she had reacted to it before, she didn't even seem to notice now. Not a good sign. Bobby then stood up and quickly moved over to a shelf on the far side of the room, grabbing something Alex couldn't immediately identify.
"Hang on, tiger." Alex muttered under his breath, "Just hang on."
Bobby started reciting the prayer, unscrewing a mason jar while he spoke. Sticking his fingers in, he made sure they were coated before he reached over to trace a cross on Ty's forehead with the material. She gasped when he finished drawing the sign, the first indication so far that a rite he was performing was affecting her at all, so Bobby continued. Dipping his hand into the jar again, he drew another cross on the girl's chest. The black tendrils that were spreading under her skin retreated from the symbol. It was working!
Bobby kept up the chant and drew more crosses on Ty's skin, forcing the blight back until finally it was just her wrist again. Ty's breathing was coming easier now, but her eyes were still unfocused. Bobby pressed on. He shook more of the contents of the jar out into his hand so he could fully coat her wrist. He came to the end of the prayer, but decided on impulse to tack on one further blessing, gently placing his hand on the young hunter's head. The damn girl had wormed her way into his old leathery heart. He couldn't lose her now.
When he finished the blessing, Ty took a deep breath, then sagged in Alex's arms, all the tension leaching out of her body and her eyes drifting closed. Both men watched her anxiously, but she continued to breathe deeply and easily and while there was still a shadow around her wrist, like an old bruise, there were no further marks on her arm.
"I think she's okay." Alex finally announced, shifting his hold on her so he could ease her down onto her side on the sofa and slip out of the way. He knelt to untie her boots and pull them off before lifting her legs up onto the sofa, as well. Bobby appeared next to him a moment later and draped a blanket over her, "Thanks, Bobby."
Bobby just grunted in acknowledgement, "I'll keep an eye on her. Go get cleaned up."
"Thanks." Alex repeated, but he paused another moment, watching his partner. That had been too close. Ty was the first person he'd really gotten close to since losing his parents and he'd almost lost her, too. Thinking about how close it had come to that left him feeling chilled to the bone.
"Go on, git." Bobby prompted, snapping him out of it, "You look like hell."
Alex nodded, flashing the older man a grateful smile before leaving the room to go get a change of clothes from his truck and find the shower.
Bobby waited until he heard the water running before grabbing his phone. He debated with himself for just a moment while he stood over the sleeping girl, then with a scowl punched in the familiar number. She might not like it, but sometimes she could be a damn idjit, too.
"Dean," Bobby said when the line picked up, "Yeah, it's me. It's Ty. No, she's okay, but it was a close one. Yeah, she's here."
Bobby paused, listening before his scowl deepened.
"Listen, you supid son of a bitch, you get your ass here. I'm sick of this bullshit."
With that, he hung up and tossed the phone onto the chair. Whatever other stupid nonsense that boy might have to say, he wasn't in the mood to hear it. With an aggravated sigh, he wondered if it was too early for a drink. These kids would be the death of him.
Ty began to stir a couple hours later. By that time Bobby had traded off with Alex in the vigil over her. Alex had stubbornly refused Bobby's orders to get some rest, insisting he was fine. Bobby had eventually given up arguing with him and instead put on a pot of coffee and started making some breakfast. It may have been the smells wafting out of the kitchen that coaxed Ty back to consciousness and Alex smiled when he heard her stomach grumble. He set down his cup of coffee and leaned forward, eager to see his partner awake and on the mend.
Ty groaned and slowly opened her eyes. Her left arm ached like she'd been lifting weights all day, but when she pushed herself up and the blanket someone had placed over her fell off, she could see there were no black marks there. Well, except for her wrist. Ty unwrapped a rosary from her wrist that she didn't remember being put there, setting it aside to examine her wrist more closely. The Pinch mark wasn't as dark and obvious as it had been before, but it was definitely still there. She wondered with a slight frown if it would always be there now. Oh, well. Just one more hunting scar really.
Alex couldn't stand it any longer, not being terribly patient under the best of circumstances, so he jumped in, "How are you feeling?"
Ty looked up at him, taking in his anxious eyes. Her lips quirked up a bit in the hint of a smile, "Hmmm...kinda like roadkill?"
Relief washed over Alex and he felt his own lips tugging upwards in an answering smile. He turned the expression into a grin instead, raising an eyebrow at Ty as he looked her over before replying teasingly, "Yeah, you kinda look it, too."
Ty glanced down at herself. She expected she was something of a 7-layer casserole of gross at the moment. She'd sweated, dug in the dirt, jumped in a lake, stuck her hand in a bucket of charred human remains, fought on the ground with a ghost, and...huh, what was this crusty gray stuff all over her arm? She picked at it a little before shooting a questioning gaze in Alex's direction.
"Bobby did some kind of…" Alex began to explain.
"Ancient Christian healing blessing." Bobby interrupted as he entered the room, carrying a heaping plate of food and a glass of water he placed in front of Ty, "Had to use some ashes to combat the Dødningeknip. Problem with a Gjenganger is they've murdered someone with their bare hands while they were alive so they've got more evil juice in their touch. Needed ashes from a good man to fight against the touch of a bad one."
Ty froze, immediately stopping in her picking at the flaking ash on her arm. The ashes of a good man? She paled and suddenly felt nauseous as it flashed through her mind whose ashes these might be. She didn't dare ask, couldn't bear to have her suspicion confirmed. Any desire for food she might have had was now gone and all she could think about was getting clean, washing everything off. She immediately jumped to her feet, planning to high-tail it up to her room to lock herself in the bathroom for at least a half-hour.
She probably shouldn't have stood up so fast after everything she'd just gone through. She felt herself sway a bit and put her hands out to catch herself.
"Woah, slow down, tiger." Alex rebuked her, also jumping to his feet and reaching out to steady her, "Where's the fire?"
Ty shook her head, still trying to keep the gorge rising in her throat under control. She swallowed hard before she replied, "I just...need a shower."
"Sure." Alex agreed, moving to her side, "Don't blame you. Just take it easy."
Alex shared a look over Ty's head with Bobby, the pair silently agreeing that they should continue to keep an eye on the girl. Alex kept the steadying hand on Ty's shoulder and gently directed her towards the stairs, following a step behind. Under normal circumstances, he knew Ty would shrug his hand off and send him some sort of sarcastic remark or witty barb with a grin. The fact that she didn't confirmed his worry that she hadn't immediately bounced back from what had happened. It was understandable, of course, but he'd secretly hoped that she would somehow just brush it off with a laugh and everything would be back to normal. If she could do that, then he wouldn't have to face his own issues the ordeal had dredged up.
When they reached her room, Alex paused in the doorway. For some reason it hadn't occurred to him until that exact moment how awkward this situation could be. He didn't want to leave her alone, but…
"Do you...uh...need some help…?" he asked uncertainly.
Ty turned back to him and the slight blush on his face and the way he was awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to the other was enough to momentarily distract her from everything else. She was surprised to feel herself smiling. She thanked whatever power had brought this guy into her life 'cause at this point she wasn't sure what she'd do without him. He was really there for her, had her back.
'Unlike...him,' she thought bitterly.
Without stopping to consider what she was doing, Ty crossed the distance back to her hunting partner, lifted her hands up to cup his face and pressed a kiss against his lips.
Alex froze, not moving, not breathing. What the hell was happening? Sure, back when he'd first met her, he'd checked Ty out. She'd been very flirty and sort of sultry when she'd been possessed and he wasn't a monk or anything. After he'd realized she was with Dean, his feelings had changed. He didn't like people who played with others' emotions on purpose. It was definitely a turn-off. Then, after they'd discovered she was possessed and it had all been a demon using her to get what it wanted, he'd wiped the slate clean. When he'd eventually gotten to know the real Ty, she'd become his best friend and anything romantic between them had never really even crossed his mind because while she never talked about it, it was obvious she was in love with Dean Winchester. So what the hell was this? Some kind of weird reaction to almost dying?
After a moment, Ty slowly pulled back. She avoided looking at Alex, turning away and putting distance between them again.
"I'm fine. Don't worry." she said, answering his earlier question like nothing had happened in the meantime.
Alex still felt frozen in the doorway, staring at her, mouth hanging slightly open. Ty glanced sidelong at him and saw he wasn't moving so she added, "Will you go see if Bobby can make me a cup of tea for when I'm done?"
"Uh...yeah." Alex answered dumbly before retreating back down the stairs.
Ty sighed and closed the door behind him. If anything, she was the dumb one. Why had she done that? She loved Alex, she knew that, but that kiss confirmed more than anything else probably could have that it was purely platonic. Nothing had stirred inside her when her lips met his, not like with…
Ty growled to herself and resisted the urge to punch the wall. Instead, she yanked off her thoroughly soiled clothes and chucked them angrily into the corner of the room. Damn it. Why couldn't almost dying be the worst part of her day?
