Title: The Shadows Behind the People
Author: Cyberchick2007
Rating: PG-13, for violence and language
Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the supernatural characters. Some characters such as Alex and Deb are make-believe right out of my mind.
Summary: When they stumble upon an 18-year-old girl that they have things in common with, does she have a secret? A gift? Takes place after Pilot but they are not on their way to Black Water RidgeNot beta-ed yet!
!WARNING: This chapter contains many references and mentions of suicide! If you are not comfortable or okay with reading it please do NOT read this chapter!
Chapter 4- The Thing!
It was about 4pm and they had been on the road for about four and a half hours. They were on their way to Utah.
"Tell me again why we're going to Utah again?" Alex asked from the backseat where she was laying.
"Well, in Utah at a lake called Big East Lake there have been ten deaths in the last three months and thirty in the last year. They were all reported to be suicides but all the blood was just…gone. It had disappeared. It sounds pretty supernatural to me." Sam answered her from the passenger seat of the Chevy.
"It sure as hell sounds like our kind of work if you ask me." Dean interrupted.
Sam and Dean both saw Alex nod from the backseat but she seemed distracted, lost in her thoughts.
"Are you okay?" Dean had to ask her.
She put on the fake smile again. "Yeah, of course, why wouldn't I be?"
Both brothers just looked at each other. They both were mildly worried about her. She had been quiet and withdrawn in her thoughts ever since they started their journey and neither of them believed her smile.
She continued staring out of the window at the trees outside.
What happens if I do find my father? Will he be happy to see me or will he run away from me again? Was I stupid to come looking for him? Maybe I should've just stayed in Nevada where I belong. What if he's not even alive and I don't ever find him? I'm so scared of what we might find or what we won't find like the thing that killed my mother and Eric. They think I'm so strong and okay but they don't know what sorrow and pain is hidden inside…
Before she knew it, it had been another hour. They only had about 2 hours left until they reached Utah. She jerked back into reality when she felt the car slowing and turning into a diner's parking lot.
"Why are we stopping?" Alex asked confused why they were slowing.
"We have been on the road for hours and I'm starving plus it's 5:30pm, dinnertime, so were stopping." Dean retorted to the back seat as he pulled into a parking spot.
"Okay, okay." Alex replied as all of them got out of the car and headed towards the door to the diner.
Once they entered the diner, a young girl about the age of sixteen sat them at a booth, Sam and Alex in one booth and Dean in the other across the table. The girl all gave them menus and walked away.
She returned a few minutes later and took their orders.
" I would like the chicken wings and French fries with a coke please." Sam ordered.
"I'll take the same. Thanks. Alex?" They turned to Alex to get her order.
"Just a Dr. Pepper please." Alex answered. The girl walked away to get their orders filled in the kitchen.
"What the hell? First you don't tell us what's wrong in the car and now you wont eat. Why don't you just tell us what's bothering you? We're all friends on this trip together, you know?" Dean said to Alex in a harsher voice than was intended. Sam gave him a not-so-hard look.
"I'm just not hungry. I just have some things I need to sort out. There's nothing you can do to help. I just need some time. Okay?" She insisted.
"Alright." Sam answered for Dean as the lady waitress placed their drinks in front of them and went back to wait for the food. "If you need to talk, you know we are here for you. If something's bothering you, we'll listen."
"I'm fine. Just need to sort through some things…that's all."
They ate their food and talked about the case in Utah. They had decided they would stay in a motel the first night and get as much info as they can about this thing and the people it's killed. The second night they would camp at the lake to try to figure it out and see what they find on the lake where all the people had been killed.
They finished their meals, paid for them and then got back in the Chevy Impala. They headed back towards Big East Lake.
It was about 7pm when they finally got to Utah. They first went to the lake and observed a bit. They looked around at the surroundings. They then decided to go check in at a motel they had passed on the way and then try to find out some info from the people around about the deaths.
They entered The Grand Motel. It wasn't so "grand" after all. They walked up to the counter.
"Two rooms please." Alex put the money on the counter and the seventeen-year-old girl picked it up. When she handed Alex the keys to the rooms, Alex gasped as flashes filled her mind and she got woozy.
Two girls camping, one was the receptionist. Then the other girl running through the woods. The receptionist was calling the girl's name, Melinda. The receptionist then found Melinda on the ground, her arms slit up and all the blood drained. It then showed tears and this black outline of the creature.
Alex gasped for air after the vision. She was now very nauseas and dizzy.
"Miss, are you okay?" The receptionist asked as she and both brothers looked at her worriedly.
"You knew one of the victims in the woods, weren't you?" Alex asked. The girl's expression changed from friendly to very tense and sad.
"Yeah, I did but how do you know that?" she answered with tears streaming down her face.
"Lucky guess" Alex answered. "We need to talk to you about the murder. We're investigating the murders and you seem to be a witness."
Sam and Dean both looked at each other impressed by Alex's cover story.
"Well Melinda was my best friend. We decided to go camping together. She had gone to get wood for a fire and I heard her scream. Well I went looking for her. By the time I found her she was dead. Her arms were all slit up. It looks like she had committed suicide but I know she wouldn't ever do that." The girl finished, sobbing very hard.
"So you didn't see anything else?" Sam asked. The girl shook her head no. "Thanks." Alex, Dean, and Sam all walked to the elevator to get to their rooms.
Alex was still woozy and nauseas in the elevator and the moving up motion didn't help.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked as he and Dean watched her already pale sick looking face get paler as she crouched down on the elevator.
"Yeah, I think so. Why do the visions make me so sick though?" Alex questioned.
"Well you need to get more familiar with the gift and use it more, is my guess." Sam answered as Dean butted in.
"So what did you see in this vision?" Of course Dean had to know.
"Pretty much what the receptionist said. I saw her and her friend camping and then her friend running through the woods. She called her friends name and then it showed her friend with her arms all slit up and the blood was gone. It then showed tears and this big black shadow of the creature, I'm guessing." She answered as the very old, slow elevator reached their floor and they slowly walked down the hall to their rooms.
They decided just to go into one for the moment where they could talk and figure out what to do next. As soon as the door was open Alex made a dash to the bathroom where she got sick.
Dean walked out of the room and down the hall where he found a drink machine. He bought a bottle of water and returned to the room finding Sam still standing outside of the bathroom door and Alex still inside.
As soon as Alex walked out of the restroom, Dean opened and handed her the bottle of water. "Thanks." She replied sipping the water. She actually looked a bit better and wasn't so pale but they worried about her since she hadn't eaten since breakfast.
They all went in sat in the two beds that were in the room. The two boys could tell Alex still didn't feel that well but Alex wouldn't let it show.
"So what should we do now?" Alex asked the brothers.
"Well, I think we should bring our belongings up here, see what else we can dig up about the attacks, and then go find people and get some first hand info. What do you think, Dean?" Sam responded, them both looking Dean's way.
"Sounds like a damn good plan to me." He answered. They all stood up and walked out the door and towards the elevator.
"I think I'm going to take the stairs instead. I don't trust that old elevator." Alex told, covering up the fact that she still was ill and the elevator didn't help.
"Okay. I think we should all take the stairs." Dean replied as they changed their direction from the elevator to the stairs.
They walked down the stairs, out of the motel, and out to the car. They all grabbed their duffel bags, Sam grabbed his laptop, and Alex grabbed her mini backpack. They then walked back up the stairs to the room. Sam pulled out his laptop and started typing away.
After about fifteen minutes of typing and searching, "I found something." He yelled from his laptop. The other two ran over there and Sam began to explain.
"Like I said before, there has been thirty deaths in the last year at the lake and they all seem to be suicides but the blood just vanishes. Well, I found some articles. It turns out that there is one person that survived. It says here that someone found her in the woods with her arm slit up pretty badly. The girl was unconscious when she was found and was treated for attempted suicide. I think we should try her first and then see where that leads." Both, Alex and Dean nodded.
"I think that's a good idea. What's the girl's name? And where is she now?" Dean responded.
"Her name is Riley Haynes and she lives at 251 Rosemary Drive. By the way it looks on the map it's about fifteen miles."
"Okay. Then let's go." Dean concluded as they all walked out the door once again, down the stairs, and to the Chevy. They got in a drove the fifteen miles.
They finally found the house number and pulled into the driveway. The brothers turned to find Alex caught up in her thoughts and memories. They could tell she wasn't comfortable about something but they didn't know what.
Sam and Dean got out of the car and Alex did soon after. They walked up the pathway to the beautiful one-story light blue house and rang the doorbell. A woman about the age of sixteen or seventeen answered the door. "May I help you?"
"Hi. We're investigating the murders that occurred at the lake and we know that you were involved and we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions." Sam announced to the lady.
The lady tensed and a scared look appeared on her face. "They were just suicides and so was mine so if you don't mind I would like to be left alone." She tried to close the door but Alex stopped her.
"We know that you didn't try to commit suicide. We also know that they murders, so please just tell us what happened." Alex reasoned in a sympathetic and understanding manner.
"Come in." The woman waved the gang in to her house and seated them in the living room. "Well, it wasn't an attempt. I was just camping alone in the woods like I do sometimes to get away from everyday stress. I went to get wood for a fire and this thing appeared. It was pretty dark so I couldn't tell what it was but I know it wasn't human. Well it pushed me down on the ground before I could run. It then pulled my arm out…"
The girl stopped talking because the tears were streaming down her cheek so fast. "I'm sorry." She replied for the crying. "No, it's okay. Please continue though." Alex reasoned handing the lady a tissue.
Wiping her eyes the woman continued. "It pulled my arm out flat and it had claws that were razor sharp and started to slide one down my arm slitting it open. It held my arm and let it bleed. It started to drink the blood when everything went black. Then when I woke up I was in the hospital being treated for depression for attempting suicide. I never told anyone what really happened because they would think I'm insane."
"I'm so sorry that happened. Thank you for telling us. It will help a lot." Sam finished up as they all stood up and shook hands and walked out the door and back to the car. They went back to the motel to their room.
"So what all do we know about this son of a bitch?" Dean asked as Sam typed on his computer once again.
"Well, we know it likes blood, has razor sharp claws, likes the dark since all the victims were killed at night, slits the arm to get to the blood, and…damn!" Sam exclaimed in a surprise tone.
"What?" Dean and Alex both asked at the same time in a surprise, curious tone.
"Looks like this thing likes females the most. Out of the thirty in the last year, twenty-five have been female. Looks like it only resorts to males when it needs blood."
They all looked at one another. "I'm going to try to figure out what this thing is."
"It's getting late. I think I'm going to head to my room right next door and get cleaned up. I'll be back when I'm finished to see what you've found." Alex responded as she took her key from the dresser and her duffel and walked to her room.
Once inside she threw the duffel on the one bed in her room. She then threw herself onto the bed beside the bag and let out a sigh. This whole "hunting" thing was hard on her mind with her memories and they had barely begun.
She laid thinking for a few minutes and then got up, got her things from the duffel, and jumped in the shower. She spent about twenty-five minutes in the nice hot shower. It made her feel better since she was still not feeling well.
She got out of the shower, got dressed in blue pajama pants and a white spaghetti strap tank with her pentagram, of course. She walked back over to the brothers' room and found Dean already showered.
"Sorry I didn't realize he was in the shower. I'll come back." Alex said realizing Sam was in the shower now and starting to head back out the door.
"No, it's okay. Come on in." Dean replied sitting on the bed looking at his brother's laptop. "He'll be out in a minute. Did you enjoy your shower? You look a lot better. You feeling better?"
"Yes I did enjoy it and I'm feeling a whole lot better. Thanks." Just as Alex said that Sam stepped out of the bathroom all wet but dressed.
"That's good that you're feeling better." He replied going back to his laptop.
"So what did you two geniuses find while I was in the bath?" She questioned them in a sarcastic but playful tone. They both glared at her and she busted out laughing and the two brothers just smiled.
"Well, we don't have much to go on." Sam went on after returning to seriousness. "It could many things, el chupacabra, a manticore, a Troll, maybe even a vampire. We don't know. It could be a number of things."
"Damn!" Alex yelled. Both boys looked at her. "Sorry. I just want to find out what's doing this."
"Yeah. We do too. Well tomorrow we're going hunting in the woods to see what we can find and we're camping tomorrow night so we should get some sleep."
"Good night." Alex replied walking out the door to her room.
"Night." Both brothers yelled back at her as she shut the door.
Alex then went to her room and got in bed but didn't go to sleep. She had a lot on her mind. After about two hours her mind settled and she drifted off to sleep.
The audition had gone so well. She was going to be a star and that's what she always wanted and she knew her mom would be proud. She ran into the house but every time she opened a door another would appear. Finally after getting frustrated and opening fifty doors, she opened the last door to find her mom burning and her dad gone. She fell to the ground in tears just as the floor disappeared and she started falling.
Alex woke up terrified b her dream. She looked at the clock, which read 3:30am. She got out of bed and grabbed her duffel bag. She pulled out her album and started fingering through it again. It was the only physical evidence left that her parents ever existed other than her necklace.
She looked at the pictures for an hour, the ones of her birthdays, their camping trips, their vacations, and may other events. Finally around 4am she decided to put it away. She then grabbed a few books out of her bag and started going through them. They were books of creatures such as gargoyles, poltergeists, and many more.
She tried for hours to find something that might fit the description. She didn't find anything. She drifted back into a sleep around 7am with the book on her chest.
At 8:30am Sam and Dean rolled out of bed. They both wondered if Alex was awake. Since they had her spare key, they decided to go in and see. If she wasn't awake they decided they would wake her up.
They opened her door and found her still asleep with the book of creatures. Dean picked it up and held it up for Sam to see. They both gave each other a questioning look. They looked down at her and saw the tear marks on her cheeks. They both kind of felt sorry for her with all the crap she had been through.
"Alex." Sam softly called to Alex while sitting on the edge of her bed. He put his hands on her shoulders and gently shook her. "Alex… time to get up…" She shot straight up into a sitting position quickly grabbing Sam's wrists and everyone tensed.
"You alright?" Dean asked from the side.
"Yeah, just a bad dream. Sorry Sam." Alex apologized.
"No problem." He shrugged it off but they were both worried about her. "So where did you get the books?"
"Something I've had for awhile now. I've always dreamed of finding what killed my mom so I had them. I knew it was worthless to look in them last night but I had to give it a try. Plus it was worthless to sleep."
"Let's go get something to eat. I'm starved." Dean replied snapping everyone out of the serious situation.
They all headed out the door and to a restaurant across the street…
A/N: The creature in this chapter and the next few ones is not real. It is one I made up! I hope you enjoyed it. If you liked it you need to leave me a review so I will be motivates to continue updating!
Thanks to all my reviewers so far. These chapters were made possible by you! wink Thanks again and any suggestions are welcome and will be taken into consideration!