Hello, everyone. I'm back. By some cruel cosmic joke, I can't post on my computer back in college, but I can on my crappy, toaster/computer here back home. I'm on vacation for two weeks, so I'll be posting regularly. So, here's chapter 7. I give LittleWing my deepest gratitude for betaing this chapter, her comments and suggestions where a great help. Review!
After a cold sounding guard asked them who they were and what business brought them to the mansion through the intercom, the main gates opened up and Dean drove the Impala to the house.
As he was parking a short distance from the house, a maid opened the door. Noticing the look she gave his car Dean realized his brother may have been right, they should have rented a car more suitable for the owner of an interior design company, if just to keep up appearances.
The brothers got out of the car and headed to the door, where the maid awaited them. Passing by a large moving truck parked at the front, Dean looked inside more out of curiosity than suspicion. The back of the truck contained boxes and some old looking furniture. He was about to turn away when something caught his attention. Though the truck looked clean, Dean saw a small mound of dark soil next to one of the boxes. The earth didn't seem to be the same kind as the one on the surroundings. Deciding it was most likely from a flowerpot, Dean shrugged and continued on to the front door.
Greeting them politely, the maid guided them down a long corridor to a large, brightly lit living room..
The maid stood in the middle of the room and motioned for them to sit in a large couch facing a small coffee table. "Please sit, make yourselves comfortable," she said. "The Mistress will be with you shortly." She added. After they declined her offer for something to drink, the maid left.
The brothers gave the large room a quick evaluating glance. The walls of the entire house were white, decorated with some paintings. The furniture was scarce, giving the already large place the appearance of being wider. Sam suddenly remembered something he had seen in a movie about a dentist who had gone mad and started killing his patients. He didn't remember how the entire movie went, but he could recall something about filth hiding under seemingly white, clean surfaces.
Sam noticed a stairway on the side of the room when he heard quiet footsteps coming down. He looked up and his eyes widened when he recognized the woman from his visions as the source of the sound. Dean stood up when she got to the bottom of the stairs and Sam did the same.
Sam leaned towards his brother and coughed out, "womanfrommyvisions."
"What?" Dean asked, getting an elbow to the ribs for his lack of discretion.
"Woman – from – my – visions." Sam whispered through his teeth, annoyed.
"Really?" Dean raised his eyebrows. He didn't have time to say anything else, as Mrs. Weidman was walking across the room towards them.
"Good morning, Mr. Linton," the woman greeted warmly. "I hope I didn't make you wait too long."
"Not at all, Mrs. Weidman," Dean answered, and Sam turned to look at him with amused disbelief. He didn't doubt his brother could play any part necessary to get information during a hunt, but it was still funny hearing him talk with such reverence after muttering curses most sailors have never heard when a taxi ran a red light and almost hit them just twenty minutes before.
"Please, call me Aurora," she offered, while gesturing for them to sit back down and she sat in a wooden armchair in front of the coffee table and across from them.
"Aurora, then please call me Dean and this is my associate Sam Kinney," Dean said as they both sat down.
"Its a pleasure," she said, and Sam bowed his head slightly in response.
"So... Aurora," Dean said, pausing as if getting accustomed to the first name treatment. "What is it exactly you would like to remodel?"
"I guess you noticed the moving trucks parked in the front," she said, and Dean nodded. "My husband and I moved here about a month and a half ago." Dean looked directly at her nodding to make her see he was listening, but he was actually picturing the look his brother was giving him, asking if he had noticed that last statement. The Weidman's moving to the city matched the beginning of the disappearances perfectly.
"I've been meaning to furnish and decorate the house, but we have been very busy since arriving and the house is so big, I just don't have the time," she sighed. "So, you see what perfect timing meeting you in the art gallery was." She smiled.
All the while the woman was speaking, Sam couldn't shake the feeling that he knew her. Not just from his visions, but from somewhere else. He had that annoying sensation of being about to remember and suddenly forgetting again. He was snapped from his contemplation by his brother's voice.
"I see," Dean said. "Well, we'd be more than honored to help you decorate such a beautiful house. Why don't you show us the rooms you want to remodel and what style you had in mind and we'll come back with an estimate of the costs." He ended, waiting for her to comply.
"That is a great idea." She stood up. "Please follow me. There are just a couple rooms I want to get finished right away. We can discuss the others then," she said, guiding them around the house. "I don't like minimalist styles they make houses look empty and impersonal. A house must have character. I prefer renaissance styles." The three stopped at a large, empty room littered with boxes from the movers. Sam decided it was time to start working.
"Excuse me... Aurora?" Sam asked. The first words he had spoken since they had gotten there. She turned to him with her eyebrows raised. "Can you point me to a restroom?"
"Oh, of course. Right down this corridor, to the left," she said, standing next to the door and pointing down the corridor they had walked to get to the room they were in.
"Thank you," Sam said. He looked at his brother before leaving the room, telling him with his eyes to keep her busy. Dean nodded and Sam left. The woman watched as Sam left the room. Her eyes glinted and the corners of her mouth quirked up in a slight smirk that disappeared when Dean turned back to face her.
Sam found the bathroom Weidman's wife had said. Turning back to the room she and Dean were in, Sam made sure no one was watching him and walked quickly and quietly past the bathroom's door and into another area of the house. He was careful not to run into any members of the staff. He began snooping around, looking for any clues that might lead them to the missing people.
After a couple of minutes of quickly searching around a couple of rooms, he began getting frustrated. He didn't expect to find anything on their first visit to the house, but he could hope. He started walking back to where his brother and Aurora were. He didn't want to raise suspicions. As he walked out of the room he was in he saw a large painting sitting on the floor next to some boxes.
Walkingd over to where the painting sat, he examined it closely. It was a picture of a younger Aurora. Her green-gray eyes looking at the painter. The painting was done with a realistic style, similar to Davinci's, and the frame looked very old. The picture was much closer to the woman in his visions than the one whom he had just met, though they were the same person. Sam stood up and hurried to meet his brother. He had just gotten a strange feeling.
Dean pretended to pay attention to whatever Aurora said about the way she wanted the room done. It wasn't a difficult job because he literally couldn't keep his eyes off of her. Though she was an absolutely beautiful woman, and Dean always acted in a flirtatious way with anything that moved, he couldn't tell why he felt such a strong attraction to her. He felt drawn to her, and had to make a conscious effort to not act stupid. He had never met a woman, no matter how hot, who he felt nervous around.
She seemed to notice, and smiled. Sam got back into the room at that moment.
After looking at the rest of the rooms, the three of them returned to the living room. They sat down and a maid brought them coffee, they continued to discuss the rooms they had just seen.
A few minutes into the conversation, she leaned forward to take her cup from the coffee table and her blouse wrinkled, creating a small opening between the two top buttons. Both brothers looked at her cleavage discreetly. Tucked inside her clothes, hanging from her neck, a plain chain held a small pendant, which in turn held a black stone. Dean realized she had been wearing it at the art gallery, and wondered why a rich woman like her would wear something like that instead of diamonds or whatever it was rich women wore.
The woman settled back down into her seat, and looked up while taking a sip of her coffee. They both looked away at the same time. When Sam looked back at her after a few seconds, she was staring at him giving him an evaluating look. Her face was suddenly serious and he found himself unable to look away. All of a sudden, he felt as if the room was fading away and all he could see were her eyes, staring at him.
He remembered the feeling he had during the first vision, when the woman had been looking at him and screamed. Sam was shaken out of his trance by a chill running down his spine. The strange moment must have lasted just a couple of seconds because Dean was just now looking back at her.
Dean made a question about something stupid like 'why did you choose this house' or something like that, and Sam began replaying his visions while they chatted. He could somehow single out certain images or feelings which had been blurry now that he had her sitting right there in front of him. He remembered the painting he had found while searching the house and suddenly all the visions clicked together, like pieces of a puzzle. Now he could tell where he had seen her before.
Bolting from the couch, Sam stood up, his widened eyes looking at her. Dean turned to his brother, giving him a questioning look. She just stared calmly back at Sam as if she new what he was thinking, her eyes smiling though her mouth didn't.
"We... " Sam started, clearing his throat. "I'm afraid we forgot a very important meeting." He said, turning to his brother with a startled look. Dean, looked at him with confusion written across his face. "We have to go." Sam said in a more insistent tone, an almost pleading one. Dean caught the hidden message in his brother's voice. 'Danger'. He stood up as well.
"That's right," he said. "I'm so sorry, I forgot about that. Would it be OK if we rescheduled?"
"Oh, of course, it's no problem," she said, standing up. "I actually have a few errands to run. Please, go take care of this meeting and call my assistant to arrange the two of you coming some other time." She started walking to the front door with the two of them following. Dean looked sideways to his brother, and noticed Sam giving her cautious glances, his arms flexed slightly as if prepared to fight his way out of the house.
Once at the door they said quick goodbyes and walked to the car. Dean drove out of the mansion through the main gates and pulled over a couple hundred feet from the entrance.
"OK, what was that?" He asked, turning off the engine. He looked at his brother who seemed to be struggling with his thoughts.
"Do you know who we were talking too?" Sam asked, turning slowly to face Dean, his eyes still showed his surprise.
"What do you mean, Weidman's wife?" Dean asked in confusion.
"That was Lucrezia Borgia." Sam stated, chuckling nervously and running his hands through his hair.
"Who?" Dean asked, thinking his brother was loosing his mind.
"Lucrezia Borgia..." Sam said again. "She was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI..."
"I know who Lucrezia Borgia was." Dean spat angrily. "I also know she died almost five hundred years ago."
"I'm telling you, that was her," Sam said, calming down some. "I knew what I was seeing in my visions had already happened, but I had no idea when." Dean looked at his brother with his eyebrows raised while Sam went on, "at first I thought she lived in some of those restored castles, and that's why the place looked old. But when I saw the painting, it all made sense suddenly. I thought it looked old because of the technique, but then I realized it looked old because it was. I saw it hanging on the wall in my first vision, but didn't pay attention to it." Sam stopped his rambling when he saw his brother giving him a concerned look.
"OK, let's see, you are telling me that a five hundred year old woman was just having coffee with us?" Dean asked, trying to make sense from what Sam was saying. "And your visions were flashes of her life from back then?" Sam nodded and Dean scoffed.
The brothers looked back towards the house, and in the distance could see her getting inside a luxurious car. The driver walked around the car and got inside. He started the car and drove towards the entrance as the gates began to open, the sun reflecting on the windshield. They took that as their cue to leave. They had a lot of research to do.
Author's Note: What did you think? Like it so far? Please review :D