SKIN PART 3
"Damn..." Alice thinned her lips the longer she stared up at the clock that continued to tick away her precious time. "Where the hell are they?"
She's been sitting alone in the motel room for about an hour now and has had nothing but silence from her phone after she sent that text to Dean. She knows they're not hopeless children who were new to this life. Sam and Dean are professionals when it came to hunting, so they could take care of themselves. Yet, shifters are kinda tricky. When they change shape and keep their victims alive, they're able to 'download' that person's memories and use it to their advantage. She and Aiden had a couple of run-ins with that problem in the past.
Alice tapped her fingers against the table when this dreading, cold feeling like needles in her spine halted her fingers, making them twitch with growing anticipation. Never realizing it to now that the shifter...might have taken another shape.
"Damn..." Alice jolted up from her seat and knocked the chair over. She grabbed her jacket, gun, and holster off the table and began to head for the door. "Son of a bitch, I freaking screwed up."
Dean grit his teeth through the pain and was finally able to crawl out of unconsciousness. Everything was blurry at first but his eyes quickly adjusted to the dim lights. He looked up and saw Alice's familiar blue eyes staring down at him. "Alice?" He said in a groggy voice.
Alice smiled at him, but it was different. It didn't have that snarky sense to it and felt more menacing and lacked the humor in it. This wasn't Alice. It was the damn shifter who was still taking his girl's form.
"Oh, you son of a bitch." Dean cursed through his teeth and immediately felt irritated. He was tied up, dragged to this sewers and was now being taunted by a bastard who was taking Alice's form on purpose.
The shifter cocked her head to the side, her smirk still present on her lips. "Is that any way to talk to your crush?"
Dean gave a sharp laugh. "I swear, when I get out of this, I'm gonna shoot you in the face."
The Alice-shifter cocked a brow. "You had your chance, handsome. You couldn't pull the trigger."
"I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice." He growled. "What the hell did you do with my brother and my girl."
"Well, the real deal for this sexy hunk of leather is back at the motel room as she said she was, and your brother..." The Alice-shifter looked up and gestured her head to the other side of the room where Sam laid unconscious and half-covered with a tarp.
Dean called out but his brother didn't answer him. "Sammy?" He could see that Sam was still alive so that was a big relief. "If you did anything to him, I swear-"
"Shoot me in the face. I know." The Alice-shifter said with a crooked grin. "Still, pretty cold, don't you think? Killing me despite everything we have done together. What I've done for your boys-"
"Don't give me that crap." Dean cut in harshly and didn't give the shifter a chance to play with him. "That was Alice. Not you. You don't even know a damn thing about her."
She was quiet for a moment before the biggest and most twisted grin stretched to her lips. It gave him this unsettling feeling. "I know my mother passed away from cancer and Aiden died two years back during a Wendigo hunt. Funny enough we actually met on a similar hunt back in Colorado." She waited as Dean's face contorted with shock before she belted out a laugh. "That it! That's the face I wanted to see." Her grin fell and she winched in pain, grabbing her head as it throbbed with Alice's memories. "Hell, even I have to admit that you're a good-looking man."She fought a grin.
"How the hell do you know all that?" Dean demanded and looked horrified that this monster knew such crucial information.
The Alice-shifter gave an innocent look and shrugged. She then kneeled in front of Dean and tried to grab his gaze. He looked away but not for long till the shifter grabbed his face and forced him to look at her blue eyes.
She spoke with this sickly sweet voice. "You really can't look at me without seeing your Alice, huh."
From the striking and define blue eyes, the snarky grin, her low and mischievous that can grow very serious and cold. Damn. She really did look like Alice. But despite all that...it seemed all wrong. This monster was wrong and he could see it now. It may look like Alice but all the mannerisms were nothing alike. The Alice-shifter was nothing but a cheap knock off from the original.
"It's cute though. You look at her when you think she didn't notice, and she looks at you when you don't." She chuckled. "Trust me...she looks at you a lot...It's unfortunate though, cause she won't even give you the time of day to act on those feelings that you both have."
Dean said nothing and forced his face away from her.
The shifter got up. "Anyways. I don't have time to break it easy to you. I got a date with little Becky. Just..." she looked down at herself. "Just not with these clothes."
She walked away and left Dean alone with his thoughts, the words playing on repeat in his head.
"Christ-all-mighty." Alice let out an exasperated and growling sigh to vent her frustration of having to go back into the sewers once more.
It was dark as hell and her single light wasn't helping much to pierce through the pitch blackness, and every water splash from a dripping pipe made her body clench up with anxiety. Alice wasn't sure if her mind was playing tricks on her, but she felt like it stunk more then usual.
Alice's hand never left her gun holster and her eyes stayed firmly focused on the murky path in front of her as soon as she saw the piles of shifter skin and hair. Her eyes narrowed when she noticed in the corner of the path was a new pile of skin, hair and female clothes. A gray tank top, leather jacket, dark blue jeans, and black wedges.
"Son of a..." Alice gritted her teeth and picked up the top before staring down at herself, wearing the exact same clothes. "You gotta be kidding me." She threw the top down and marched further down into the freaks lair. It would make sense of the shifter used Alice's form to trick them if that was the case.
After a moment, a very distinct voice shouted through the long tunnels. "That better be you, Alice and not that freak of nature!" She heard Dean's voice echo out from the halls.
"Dean? Sam?" Alice jogged down the end of the long, dripping halls of filth and came into a room where she saw Sam and Dean tied up to large pipes. "You guys alright?" Alice moved over to Dean to get him untied first.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Dean quickly cut in and Alice halted. "How do I know your not the shifter?"
"Are we really gonna have this conversation right now?" Alice protested and ignored Dean's warning. She kneeled in front of him and whipped out a knife from her back pocket. "If you wanna attack me after I get you loose, then go ahead."
Sam was still a bit groggy after waking up but even he can tell it was her with that remark. Besides, why would the shifter free them after going through the trouble of locking them up in the first place? "Dean said the shifter went to Rebecca's in your shape." He called out, cranking his head over his shoulder.
Alice froze after cutting the rope tied around Dean. "Oh...not quite, boys. I found a fresh pile of skin along with the exact same clothes I wear. The shifter changed its shape. It could be anyone right now." She got up and moved over to Sam and cut him loose.
"The shifter said it was going to Rebecca's," Dean yanked the ropes off him. "So who else could it choose to go as?" He saw Alice's face turn grim. "What?"
Alice finally freed Sam from his bonds. "I got a guess..."
Alice and the boys finally made it back to the surface after searching for an exit out of the sewers. They wandered the streets till they came upon a store that displayed TV screens reporting the news. It didn't take them long to figure out what damage the shifter did in the short time he was away. A rough sketch of Dean's face popped up as the perpetrator for Rebecca's assault. Lucky it said she was still alive but the shifter got away.
Of course, Dean was less than pleased. "Man! That's not even a good picture." He complained.
Alice and Sam looked around cautiously at everyone to make sure no one was watching them since they were in the open.
"It's good enough," Sam said.
Alice looked around to make sure no one was watching and shoved the boys into an alleyway where it was dark enough so no one would see them.
"They said attempted murder. At least we know-" Sam was cut off.
"I didn't kill her," Dean snapped.
Alice looked over her shoulder a couple of times as they walked. "Sam can go check up on Rebecca tomorrow. Make sure she's fine and all."
Dean was still fuming about the whole ordeal. "All right, but first I wanna find that handsome devil and kick the holy crap out of him."
"We don't have enough weapons, much less silver bullets," Alice cut in.
Dean stopped them. "Guys, the guy's walking around with my face, okay? It's a little personal, I wanna find him."
"We will. Just hold up for a moment. Listen. I'm thinking he drove to Rebecca's place and the news says he fled on foot."
Dean picked up on what Alice was saying. "I'm betting it's still parked there."
She snapped her fingers. "Bingo."
Dean thought it over for a moment and clenched his fist tightly. "The thought of him driving my car." He growled.
"Suck it up. Come on."
The streets were pretty empty around the time they got to Rebecca's neighborhood. No one was around and they could see their goal in sight. The Impala in all its beautiful glory, right under a street lamp like a beacon of hope and heavy artillery.
Dean was beyond relieved to see the shiny coating of the black paint once more. "There she is! Finally, something went right tonight."
Any kind of hope was replaced with flashing blue and red lights with the unmistakable sound of a police siren. A patrol car appeared around the edge and parked right next to the Impala.
Alice's hands shot up and stopped the boys from taking another step "Crap." She hissed and pushed them back into the opposite direction just when yet another patrol car appeared and began to head towards them. They were trapped
Sam looked at his brother. "You go. We'll hold 'em off." They backed up to a fence.
"What are you talking about? They'll catch you."
"They can't hold us."
Alice gave Dean a shove on the back. "Forget about us. Just go! Sam will go to Rebecca's and watch over her. I'll meet you back at the motel and we'll head to the sewers together. Okay?"
Dean nodded and began to scale the fence but stopped when Alice called back to him.
"I mean it! Wait for me!"
"Yeah, yeah!"' He disappeared on the other side just as the patrol cars surrounded Sam and Alice.
Sam and Alice weren't back yet but Dean couldn't wait any longer. That bastard shifter not only used Alice's form to trick him but is also using his own face to commit crimes he didn't do. This was too personal for him now. "Sorry, Alice." Dean apologized while arming himself with his weapons from the Impala's arsenal.
Dean was back in the sewers after nightfall, but this time he was alone and armed. It didn't take long either to find its lair with all the lit candles and revolting piles of skin and blood on the floor.
"What the..." He mumbled and looked around the lair that was stone silent. No noise, or anything. The shifter wasn't even here. "Oh, come on...Seriously?" He stomped his foot on the ground and pulled out his phone, having no choice but to call Sam first. He knew Alice would give him an ear-full and he wasn't yet ready for that.
Sam's urgent voice broke through the call "Dean?" He heard his little brother say before he unloaded hell into his eardrum. "Where the hell are you? Didn't Alice tell you not to go to the sewers alone? She just called me saying you weren't there!"
Dean flinched and pulled the phone away from his ear for a moment and waited for Sam's chewing out to end. "Yeah, yeah. You can kick my ass later, but we got a bigger problem."
Sam's voice changed when he heard that. He sounded deeply concerned now. "What do you mean? Are you alright?"
"It ain't here. The bastard's gone."
"What?"
Alice was pissed. Dean had disobeyed her orders and went hunting for the shifter alone. Then again, she could talk, cause that definitely sounded like something she would do. Hell, she's been hunting solo for two years now and has had reckless moments of just plain stupidity. Still, 'Do as I say and not as I do.'
The sound of the door being unlocked made Alice freeze in her spot and stop sharpening her knife. "Dean?" She called out and waited for a reply.
"Yeah, it's me." Dean walked in, shutting and locking the door behind him. "And I know what you're gonna say and I get it." He legit flinched when she suddenly stabbed the newly sharpened knife into the table.
"You serious?" She jumped up from her chair and fought the ever-growing desire to strangle him. She closed her hands into fists and took in a deep breath to calm her murderous attributes. "Did you kill him?" She may have growled out those words against her better judgment.
Dean shrugged and groaned. "He wasn't there. Hell, I don't even know if he's wearing my face anymore."
Alice cocked a brow and stared at him for a second. She blinked and frowned. "Did you talk to Sam yet?"
"No. Not yet." He shook his head and began to pat around for his phone.
Alice's face contorted up into a scowl and she mumbled a 'dammit' under her breath. She turned her back to Dean just as a wide smile crept to his face. Under the pale light of the motel room...his eyes shifted. The monster lurched forth towards Alice quickly, leaning his arm all the way back before aiming his fist at the back of her head.
Back at the sewers. Something caught Dean's attention that made his blood run cold. He paid no mind to Sam calling out to him, demanding why he suddenly got all quiet.
"Dean? Dean! What's wrong? Did something happen?" Sam called out, his voice sounding desperate with every plea.
"Did something happen?" Dean reached down to the floor and picked up a picture. It was a new picture of Alice that had her head inside the motel room, looking over her shoulder too. "Sam?"
"What?"
Dean could feel his heart began to speed up. "I think...that bastards going after Alice."
The shifter sucked in a deep breath when fingers curled around his fist and stopped it dead still. Alice looked over her shoulder at him and squeezed his fist tightly in her outstretched hand. She twisted his arm around and shot her knee up into his elbow and heard a loud CRACK! It was like lightning struck his body and everything went cold than burning hot like a white iron setting fire to his skin. The pain set in fast for him and he quickly yanked his arms away and held his broke elbow that burned, throbbed, electrified him to the slightest touch.
"Son of a..." The shifter took in a shallow breath and fell to his knees, hugging his elbow close to his body while Alice stared down at him.
Her hands moved to her hips and this most chilling and bored look held to her relaxed face. "Come on...I could tell what you were the moment you walked in. If you're gonna impersonate my guy...then make sure you get his mannerisms down first." She cocked a brow. "Thinking that you can trick me with such a stupid set up, it's...it's just offensive really."
The impersonator gave a rumbling growl that came from deep in his lungs. His bone snapped back into place quickly and he charged at Alice, tackling her on top of the bed. All the air evaporated from her body when she was knocked back. His physical strength was definitely not normal for any human. He was a monster after all and can easily strangle her to death if she didn't move fast enough. Alice was becoming lightheaded and her vision was beginning to blur with every passing second with the Dean-shifter's finger around her throat.
The fight wasn't over yet, not even close. Luck was on her side because It was her's and Dean's bed she landed on. Alice wasn't close enough to get her gun but her arm was right by Dean's pillow that she knew had a silver hunting knife under it. She slapped her hand down on the sheets and fumbled around for the knife as her vision started to turn black. The handle of the blade glided across her fingertips and an adrenaline rush shot through her veins like an addictive drug that spring life into her eyes once more. She broke free from his hands and slammed her forehead up into his face. She finally grabbed the knife and lifted it over her head and stabbed it down into his shoulder blade. He screeched like an unholy creature and backed away when his skin began to sizzle from the effects the silver had on him.
Alice felt free once more and the air returned but it burned her lungs. Her face was just as flushed as her neck was that had obvious bruises wrapped around now. "You little..." Alice choked and hacked her intestines up. Her eyes were bloodshot but she didn't feel any pain from her neck because of the adrenaline.
The shifter yanked the blade out from his shoulder and tossed it across the room so she wouldn't get to it. Since he had Dean's memories, he knew that a gun loaded with silver bullets was under her pillow, but a demented and pissed off Alice was between that and his doom. If this Cromwell lady got her hands on that gun then it would all be over.
Alice moved in quick and didn't even get this man time to react properly. It was an all-out brawl with the shifter losing ground to this woman who was able to attack and defend herself at the same time. Her knees shot up into his stomach and she jabbed her hand against his throat. The shifter choked on the very air he breathed when she finally delivered the blow that caused his head to go into a vertigo spiral. Alice spun around to get momentum and struck the hard part of her wedged shoe right below the ear and above the neck of his head. He could no longer hold the weight of his own heavy body and fell limp against the ground. His legs refused to move and he watched hopelessly as Alice walked over to the bed and pulled out the very thing that will give him a free pass to hell...a gun loaded with silver bullets.
"Wait...!" He spat out and held his hand out to stop her. Surprisingly she did stop to listen. "Please..please, Alice." He knew that Alice had strong feelings for Dean, so could she actually pull the trigger on him when he's wearing his face of the man she loved? "You...you don't have to do this, sweetheart...please-"
Her eyes went wide. Alice raised the gun to his head and pulled the trigger before he could utter out a single word. The loud banging noise caused a ringing in her head while she silently watched as his body crumbled to the ground.
"Shut up..."
After a moment to make sure he was stone cold dead, Alice walked over to his body and hunched down over it, seeing Dean's necklace he always wore and yanked it off.
The real Dean finally broke down the locked door and busted it off its hinges. "Al-" He stopped when he saw his shifter-counterpart laying dead on the ground with a hole in his head and a gun in Alice's hand. "Holy..." He stumbled back in shock. For a moment, it felt like an out of body experience when he saw the Dean-shifter.
Alice tossed Dean back his necklace and frowned. "He wasn't in the sewers." She said dryly.
Dean was still trying to process the shifter that laid dead on the ground. It wasn't him but just the thought of Alice ruthlessly putting him down like a dog sent a chill up his spine. His stomach twisted a bit when he looked down at his necklace. "Yeah...he wasn't."
It was the next day after the case and Dean and Alice were already packing up shop and getting ready to hit the road for at least a couple hours. That was something she wasn't looking forward too and was really starting to consider taking her bike back to her family's isolated cabin and rid with the boys if all three of them were gonna stick together for a while.
Alice wasn't out of the clearing yet though with Dean's constantly hounding her about killing the shifter that looked like him.
He frowned and followed Alice."I can't believe you shot me...in the face!"
Alice walked over to her bike. She had a bag slung over her right shoulder and a map in her left hand. "If I had shot you in the face you wouldn't be here now to complain to me about it. I shot a shapeshifter in the face."
"Yeah, but don't you feel bad about it?" He shrugged. "Like the dude was wearing my face."
Alice tossed her bag over the back of the motorcycle and began to strap it down. "No. I didn't feel bad about it. It wasn't you." She folded up the map and stuffed it in her bag. "The shifter pissed me off actually because he was using your face to trick me."
It wasn't like Dean was mad or anything, he was thankful that Alice knew him just enough to notice that the shifter was impersonating him. He wouldn't know what to do if the shifter managed to get the drop on her. In fact, he didn't even want to think about it. Something was still bothering him though.
"It's cute though. You look at her when you think she didn't notice, and she looks at you when you don't." She chuckled. "Trust me...she looks at you a lot...It's unfortunate though, cause she won't even give you the time of day to act on those feelings that you both have."
"Alice, uh..." He struggled to speak and was even growing a bit nervous. "Back when Sam and I were caught. He...well it was a 'she' at the time...but the shifter said..."
Alice squinted her eyes when Dean began to act very strange. It finally clicked for her. "Oh God. Don't tell me that bastard said something to you. Did he?" Now she was starting to get nervous.
"I don't know why, but she had your memories. Like, she knew the things only the three of us should know."
"What else did she say to you?" Alice frowned and waited for the inevitable.
Dean looked reluctant. He bit down on his lips and looked away for a moment. "She said you wouldn't give me the time of day."
Alice felt small. She wanted the world to open up and swallow her whole, but that was not her fate just yet. Dean...was a man that she admired as well as felt very attracted too, but... "Unfortunately." Having a relationship with anyone was out of the question for her. It was a rule that she had followed for a long time and had never broken it and is not going to break it. Not even for a man like him as much as it pained for her say those words and see the surprised and slight devastation shift in his eyes. He hid it decently well though.
"So you're saying we wouldn't be able to make it work."
"That ain't it, Dean. The one who wouldn't be able to make it work is me." Her voice cracked with the overwhelming stress that began to creep up on her.
He looked confused, as a mixture of hurt and slight anger cross his eyes. "The hell is that suppose to mean?"
"I don't trust relationships between hunters to last." Alice shook her head and generally looked sorry which is strange for her to even express. He hadn't seen her look this upset when she told him about Aiden's death. "Let's say we do make it work, then something happens to either you or me. A hunters life is way too short to even have a chance at..." She had to take a moment to breathe. "A normal life."
Dean clenched his hand tightly. He wanted to shout and raise his voice but Alice didn't deserve that. It was because he understood why she made it a rule to not date people. He sucked up his anger and the last of his pride. "An apple pie life, huh."
Alice took in a shallow breath. "This life is all I've know...all I've ever done and what I was born to do...and I'll die one day became of it. You're a great guy, Dean. I can tell that every day I've been with you, but I can't risk a relationship. I can't do it...it's can't be me." Her voice was soft and she was generally trying to let him go easily. Alice reached her hand out to him but he looked away from it. She frowned and placed both hands on his face and force their eyes to meet. She tapped her forehead against his and took a moment of silence with shallow breaths. "I'm sorry. Really, I am."
They left Rebecca's as quick as they could after learning that she was going to be alright and that Zack, her brother, was going to be released. The cops were now thinking that the taps might have been tampered with and that they're blaming the murder on the Dean-shifter, who is dead as far as they know. It was one reason why they left as quick as they did to now draw attention to the real deal.
Sam noticed that something was strange with his brother and Alice. They both seemed that quiet to each other and even a bit distant. This wasn't like Dean though. He wasn't saying anything, much less a wise-crack as they drove down the roads with Alice in front of them.
"Did something happen?" Sam couldn't help to ask since it was now starting to freak him out. "Well, you know, Alice did shot your doppelganger so I understand why that would freak you out-"
"It ain't that." Dean cut in. He rolled his eyes. "Alice, she... I got rejected."
Sam cocked a brow. "Alice rejected you?"
"Yeah... She said something like 'It can't be me', whatever the hell that means." He slapped his hand against the steering wheel and sighed.
Sam was quite taken back by this and was at a loss for words "So..are you going to give up?"
Dean scoffed and looked at him from the corner of his eyes like he was crazy. "No."
Author's Note:
Man, I'm tired. Working nightshift really does hammer my energy to work on Alice's story (I still don't like people enough to work day shift though). Hell, got it done because it was starting to get overdue. I'm pretty sure I might go back in the future and edit this a bit more as I did with 'Wendigo' and 'Death in the Water'. But that's for another day.
Aw, poor Dean. (I wouldn't reject him, I'll say that). But that is was Alice grew up to believe. She likes him but doesn't wanna commit to a relationship and just suddenly lose him. She's afraid. And yeah. Alice does have a very cold nature and ruthless nature about her. She really doesn't regret killing a shifter that looked like Dean. It really only pissed her off. I will though be exploring her coldness in later chapters and stories. This is only the beginning of a very long journey for Alice and our boys.
I always liked the idea of the shifter changing course and going after Alice. He might have figure out that she would be more of a pain in the ass to deal with, little did he truly know that our girl...can kick some serious ass. He didn't even stand a chance. I was pondering the fight scene between Alice and the shifter for a while though and how I was going to write it. I spent a lot of time at work just daydreaming on what I was gonna do. Fights are hard to write (But I still love doing it) and if I learned anything about writing, is that try to keep them short and don't do step by step take on what your characters are doing because that's just boring and doesn't flow well. Write more of the feeling then the fighting is what I say.
Anyways, sorry that this was kinda late. But next up will be...Hook Man! Ah...What in the hell am I gonna do for that one...Well, whatever! I'm sure it'll be fine in the end.