Chapter 8- La Llorona
Jacob was listening to a song titled "Listen My Son" by The Unseen Ghost driving in the middle of nowhere Massachusetts on their way to Boston. They were almost to New Jersey which was the last place Sam and Dean believed Lucifer was. He was watching everybody sleep, especially Stephanie, as much as he hated it he was falling more and more in love with her each day. But just like how Adam and Celine couldn't be together, they couldn't either.
Sam and Dean Winchester were in a dingy motel room in the middle of an arid desert in Arizona. Sam was beat and could barely move, Dean went straight to the fridge to grab two beers. Sam knocked off his shoes and fell flat on the dirty bed, Dean handed him the ice cold beer.
"Dammit! We were so close! I can't believe he got away!"
"He's one of the best Sam, what do you expect? Hell he might even be better than Crowley."
"Yeah but we got rid of him before, why is this time so much harder?" Dean couldn't answer his brother, for once he had nothing to say back, no words of wisdom. "I guess we should tell them to come here, it might be easier to get rid of him with their help. Especially since Celine and Adam know Lucifer better than us."
"Yeah I agree." With that he tried contacting Adam, who wasn't picking up his phone.
A young beautiful blonde high school cheerleader was getting in her brightly polished red car. It was nightfall and she was in a dimly lit parking lot, her high school basketball team had just won their game. She waved to her fellow cheer mates, but something wasn't right, she felt an eerie chill in the air. So she rushed to unlock her car, but she dropped her keys as she was shaking frantically. Beyond the parking lot she saw a figure dressed in an old colonial dress wearing a laced veil. The teenager was mesmerized and followed the crying, without a trace she was gone and so was the woman in black.
Jacob pulled up to a bridge in a small suburban town; the bridge was wrapped around with caution tape and a young teenage girl was sprawled out on the hood of her car, dead as a doornail. Sam and Dean Winchester were asking the officer questions until they saw the blue mustang pull up. The officer left to deal with the crowds of teenagers lighting candles and leaving flowers, all sad over the death of the most popular girl in school. Stephanie got out of the car first and rushed over to Sam and Dean, giving them hugs. It has been a while since they last saw each other, and now she was in better circumstances than the first time they met.
"Sam, Dean! How are you two? I've missed you!"
"We've missed you too…" Dean said noticing Celine coming out of the back, he was still a bit skeptical that she was there helping them out. Adam came out and Dean was thrilled to see his half brother, giving him a giant hug. "Adam, how are you doing? I see Celine is still hanging around." He whispered.
"Yeah she has actually been a big help, I know it's weird having a half demon around but right now she is human. We can trust her." Celine could hear them talking about her as she was catching up with Sam, so could Stephanie and she was a bit annoyed.
"So what's the case?"
"Seventeen year old girl dies here on the bridge, her body found on the hood of her car. Only thing is she was drowned and wet when she was found. Also I was asking around and a lot of her friends said that there was no reason for her to be on this bridge, unless she was going to kill herself. But everybody said she wasn't in that kind of state and was on her way to her boyfriend's party."
"So what are we thinking?"
"I'm not sure I want to look around her house and talk to relatives or friends, we don't have a lot of information yet." Stephanie looked around at the dead body and her friends, suddenly a young handsome boy came running up to the girl's body, crying and in shock. Sam noticed Celine's eyes light up as she recognized the boy, it was the same one from the coffee shop in Chicago, the same boy who she fell in love with when she was sixteen years old.
"You ok?" Sam asked grabbing Celine's shoulder.
"I'm fine, it's just that I know him…" She stared at the boy as everyone else was staring at her.
"Who is he?"
"He was the first boy I ever fell in love with…" Adam turned to look at her, shocked, she had never talked about people from her past so everything that Jacob, Stephanie, Sam and Dean were learning about Celine, he was learning about for the first time too. The young 23 year old looked up hearing Celine talk, however he didn't look shocked to see her.
"Celine?" He ran up to her, embracing her, Adam was getting extremely jealous. They were now standing quietly around the boy, at his Aunt and Uncle's house. Apparently the girl who had died was his cousin, they were best friends, although Celine didn't remember him mentioning that he had a beautiful cousin who lived in Arizona. His name was Brady and Celine had known him since grade school, they dated for a while in high school, she lost her virginity to him, or at least she thought. Celine was listening to his story, but none of it made sense, he talked about his "cousin" as if they were brother and sister, but she had no memory of this girl. "Everybody thinks she killed herself, but she wasn't depressed or having problems. She just got a full ride at Brown, why would she want to kill herself? Why would her body be found, with signs of drowning, on top of her car?" Celine rubbed his back, making Adam squeamish, everybody could tell he was extremely uncomfortable, even Celine.
"It's ok Brady, everything will be alright."
"Hey ugh Celine can we talk to you?" Adam was wondering why Dean would ask that so abruptly. "Alone…"
"Yeah, sure. Do you think you guys could watch him?" Stephanie rolled her eyes and scoffed.
"Yeah… we can do that."
"Thanks, Adam."
"So do you believe this guy?"
"I'm not sure, I knew him my entire life and I never heard anything about his family in Arizona. I didn't even know he had any other family, and if he did they were all in Chicago."
"Chicago? So he's from your hometown."
"Yes, Dean and something isn't adding up right… When I was in Chicago visiting my old friend, I saw him at a coffee shop. I was so freaked out and ran away before he could say anything."
"Well as of right now he is the only one who can help us, is it possible that you were with him when you were a demon? Maybe he told you about his family here when you were incompetent?" Sam politely suggested.
"I honestly don't remember." They went back into the living room.
"Ok so, I want to examine the body and talk to the coroner, Jacob you can come with me. Adam and Sam maybe you can do some research on any other cases like this. Stephanie and Celine I think it would be best if you stay here with Brady."
"What? I can't stay here with these two love birds. I want to help, how can I kill Lucifer if you won't even let me help you with cases like this!" She realized she might've just said too much.
"What is she talking about, Lucifer?" Celine knew Brady was a devout Christian and knew all about the devil, but not in the context they knew of.
"Stephanie!" Dean grabbed her and took her outside, Celine looked into Sam's eyes knowing she had to tell him everything. As Celine was telling Brady about demons and angels, heaven and hell, the devil and god, he didn't seem to budge. Dean and Stephanie were in an argument outside, Adam was in the kitchen trying to get away from all of this, Sam and Jacob were watching Brady not move the entire time Celine was talking.
"Brady?" Celine was done. "Brady, you there?"
"Yeah I'm here sorry, just a little bit overwhelmed. I didn't think any of this stuff actually existed. But I guess it makes sense, all of those weird guys constantly at your house, and your dad never around, now I guess there was a reason for it."
"Yeah I just learned that I was half demon, so you could imagine my face when I found out."
"So do you think it was a demon that killed my cousin?"
"It's possible, but we have to conduct more research."
"Are you sure your ok? This stuff can be very overwhelming for a lot of people." Sam asked concerned.
"Yeah I'm alright I always kind of believed in that stuff, I'll believe anything though if it proves that my cousin didn't kill herself." Stephanie came into the room pissed off and angry at the world, she went straight to the kitchen to grab a beer. Jacob followed her to calm her down.
"How did that go?"
"Worse than I thought it would. How'd everything go in here?"
"Better than expected, so should we get ready?" Dean nodded his head.
"Celine are you going to be alright here with Brady? The only way I could get Stephanie to calm down is to come with Jacob and I."
"Yeah I'll be fine, there is one person however who I don't think will be fine." She looked into the kitchen seeing how upset Adam was. They were all getting ready to leave, but Celine wanted to make sure Adam was alright with everything. "Adam are you ok?"
"I'm just great… The girl who I am in love with is going to spend the entire day alone with the guy she fell in love with first."
"Adam that was a long time ago, I even forgot about him for a while when I was trapped in hell with you. You have to know that you can trust me, and any feelings that I once had for Brady are gone."
"I know, I just wish you could trust me enough to tell me about him." Adam left with Sam in the Impala to go to the library. Jacob, Dean, and Stephanie went in the mustang to head off to the police station. Celine plopped on the couch next to Brady bending her head down upset at herself.
"You alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine…"
"He loves you doesn't he?"
"Yes and I love him too, but we can't be together."
"Why not?"
"Because my kind can't be with humans, especially ones who are hunters."
"If you are still the girl who I fell in love with six years ago, then I know that you never follow the rules. What is stopping you from being with him?" The truth was Celine didn't know the answer to that question and she didn't want to be talking about this with her ex. So she had to think of something to distract him, she pulled out her journal. "What is that?"
"My mother's journal on everything creepy and weird she apparently hunted. I'd figure we might as well try to help instead of sit here and do nothing all day." He smiled and looked at the strange little black book with graphic drawings of werewolves, vampires, and god's he didn't even think existed.
"You know I've missed you." She smiled and continued to look through the small book.
Six Years Ago…
Seventeen year old Celine was in bed with nothing but socks on next to Brady whose muscles glistened in the yellow light of her room. He was rubbing his hand on her shoulder, making the hair on her arm stand up straight, they were playing footsy at the end of the bed. Celine's head was laid on his bulky yet soft chest, she was tracing the outlines of his Pecs. They were playing a game of never have I ever after just sleeping with each other for the first time.
"You can't give up, we still have eleven questions to ask each other!" They were playing with each other's hands as Brady was trying to muster up a statement.
"Ok, never have I ever gone skinny dipping…" She didn't reply, and if she didn't reply it means she has done that. "What, little miss innocent Celine has gone skinny dipping!?"
"It was after homecoming freshman year and it was a dare. Trust me I didn't want to do it, the water was freezing cold. But the fact that you haven't done it makes me think that you are more perfect than you say you are."
"Well of course, the water would be freezing especially if you went in the beginning of fall at night. And trust me I am far from perfect."
"Ok, never have I ever had a crush on a teacher." She knew Brady had a crush on Mrs. Chambers in his freshman year of high school, every boy in their class did.
"Oh ok you got me, you got me good! I admit to having a crush on Mrs. Chambers, but what do you expect from a horny fourteen year old. I mean her boobs were like this big." He was moving his hands in a rounding motion to show how big her boobs were, he was exaggerating of course.
"They were not that big!" She slapped his chest, leaving a red mark of her hand.
"Ok they weren't that big, but they were pretty big to a freshman." He smiled and thought of something else. "Never have I ever fallen in love with anyone…" Celine was a bit confused. "As much as I love you…" She looked into his big beautiful blue eyes and smiled.
"I love you too…"
"You do?" She nodded her head and leaned in to kiss him.
Present…
Stephanie was blankly staring at the dead girl's body lying stiff on the cold metal table. She was disgusted at all of the organs in the jars, it grossed her out more after the Eighty Acres of Hell case. The coroner was examining the body once more, and explained to Sam and Dean that there was really nothing more to show.
"So you didn't come across anything weird the first time you examined the body? Like weird objects or some sort of illness?" Dean asked sternly.
"Nope nothing out of the ordinary. Although it was strange that the body was found half way across town from where she was supposed to go, and that she was sprawled out on her car after she had supposedly killed herself."
"But you said there wasn't any signs of her killing herself." Stephanie replied.
"Yes, there wasn't. But there were signs of someone possibly strangling her." He lifted up the head and they all noticed the marks on her neck, they looked like someone's fingernails. "That was the only thing that looked unnatural." Jacob, Stephanie, and Dean all walked outside of the hospital looking very confused.
"This doesn't make any sense why would anyone strangle her and then leave her body on her car? Wouldn't they just let her flow wherever the river took her?"
"That is what you would think… This just doesn't make any sense, I'm going to call Sam and Adam to see if they came up with anything." Dean went off a few feet away to get some private time, he didn't want Stephanie breathing down his neck. He called Sam and Adam, but they weren't able to find any connections to the supernatural with this case. They were about to give up and went to Brady's house, Adam walked straight inside seeing that Celine was lying on Brady's shoulder. He went out to the backyard, slamming the screen door shut waking up Brady, who was drooling. Stephanie went to the kitchen and grabbed two beers, then following Adam to the backyard. Celine woke up from Brady moving and saw that everybody was back.
"Oh hey guys? What time is it? Did you find anything?"
"No, but I see you two were hard at work." Jacob scolded while opening a can of beer.
"Actually Jacob we were working, I was looking through my journal to see if I could find anything. But I must've fell asleep, because there was nothing to find in my journal. Where's Adam?" Jacob rolled his eyes and went outside, Celine saw Stephanie consoling Adam.
"Adam you can't let him get to you, you and I both know that Celine is absolutely in love with you. She would never do anything with that guy, because she knows she would be stupid to do so." He took another gulp of the beer. "If you can't trust her now, then no one can." Stephanie suggested.
It was about midnight, everybody was asleep except for Stephanie. Even though she seems alright to everybody else during the day, the truth was she has been having terrible nightmares ever since Lucifer killed her mother. The only thing from making her not go completely insane was doing these cases, that's why she wants to go to the police station or hospital with Dean and Jacob. She needs to keep busy or else everything in her mind will think of Lucifer. Celine was also having trouble sleeping, and the fact that someone from her past was here wasn't helping. She kept having nightmares of being in Hell when she was human, they were awful and kept her awake most of the nights. Stephanie and Celine were both staring at the ceiling trying to fall asleep but afraid of what might happen when they fell asleep. Suddenly Stephanie heard something across the street, calling to her. She looked out her window, but didn't see anything. She was lured in and curious of this beautiful enchanting voice, suddenly she was out in the street, unaware of her surroundings. Suddenly a women dressed in black with a veil was behind the beautiful Stephanie, she wrapped her hands around her neck. Stephanie struggled and screamed. Celine heard the scream and looked outside the window to see Stephanie being strangled in the middle of the street. She ran down the stairs, grabbed Jacob's pistol and ran outside shooting the ghost. Stephanie fell to the floor, in shock, and wondering how she got here.
"Stephanie, Stephanie, are you alright?" Stephanie was crying madly and in pain, she couldn't speak and was rubbing her neck. "Hey, it's ok! Everything is alright, your fine!" Celine was rubbing her back as Stephanie's head was lying on her chest. Suddenly everyone in Brady's uncle and aunt's house came out into the street. Jacob ran straight to Stephanie thankful that she was safe, Stephanie ran into his arms and he immediately consoled her whispering thank you to Celine. Everybody was watching, even the ghost of Stephanie's brother Max, but Celine was in shock as well and just needed to tell Sam and Dean what she think killed Brady's cousin.
"Celine you alright?" Sam asked.
"I need to tell you guys something." Sam and Dean followed her to the living room, she sat down flipping through the pages of her journal. She stopped at a page with a picture of the exact figure she saw almost killing Stephanie. "This is what we are after, this is who we need to kill." Dean grabbed the journal that was thrown onto the coffee table, Adam could tell that Celine was in shock and sat down next to her rubbing her back.
"La Llorona or the Weeping Woman; a Spanish peasant of the conquistador days named Maria, bore two children. She was extremely beautiful and the men would always gather around her, but it was always tough for her to have a long lasting relationship because of her two children…"
"Dean we already know about the weeping woman, remember Constance Welch? What makes you think this is what we need to kill, Celine?" Dean was recalling the woman in white who they vanquished over ten years ago.
"Because I saw her with my own two eyes, there have only been a few cases of where the actual Weeping Woman was doing the killing. Usually it is women who have killed themselves and who have a vendetta. I remember my mother telling me stories about Maria, basically telling me to not walk home alone, but I never heard of the ghost killing teenage girls. It was always children."
"Why do you think this is the actual weeping lady though?" Sam kept bugging Celine because he wanted to be positive about this.
"Because she was wearing a colonial black dress and veil and singing the lullaby that she would sing to her children. The one she sang to them before killing them." It was the next day, and yet another tragic day in the suburban town of Arizona. Yet, another cheerleader was murdered, the body found the same way as Brady's cousin, Brie. So in order to be sure that the murderer was the actual La Llorona the boys and girls would go to the local high school and question the high school cheerleading team and basketball team. Usually the woman in white or weeping lady would have a reason for killing it's victims, so they were trying to figure out what that was, and who was possibly the next victim. Celine and Adam were interviewing the girl who was next in line to be the head cheerleader.
"She was such a wonderful girl, I mean who on earth would kill her, because she sure as hell wouldn't kill herself." She was weeping madly, it was difficult to understand her.
"Do you know anyone that would want revenge on her?" She looked up at the two "cops" and began crying even more. Sam and Dean were interviewing the quarterback and captain of the basketball team, the victim's boyfriend.
"So there wouldn't be any reason as to anyone having a vendetta against her?"
"What no, she was perfect, everybody loved her." Jacob and Stephanie were interviewing another cheerleader, who didn't seem to happy to be questioned right now.
"Everybody on the cheerleading team believes that you know Brie more than everybody else. Can you tell us anything that might help us find something."
"I knew Brie the most…" The young girl replied to Jacob.
"Sorry?"
"You said know as in present tense, but she is dead so you would need to use it in past tense."
"A smart cheerleader…" Jacob replied, Stephanie hit him in the back.
"Is there anything you can tell us that might help us, anything at all?" Stephanie asked nicely, the young cheerleader pondered at the question and finally thought of something.
"Well there is one thing, one thing the two of them had in common…" They leaned in to find out what that was. They were now in the principal's office with Sam, Dean, Celine, Adam and Brady.
"Apparently Brie and Lily weren't as perfect as everybody perceived them to be. They were both in a long-term relationship, but they were both cheating on their boyfriend's. Brie wasn't crossing that bridge for no reason, she was going to see her other boyfriend who lived on the other side of town."
"Well that's reason enough to kill someone, but do we know who else she might be after?"
"But why did the weeping lady try to kill me? I'm not cheating on anyone." Stephanie asked.
"Maybe it was to distract us, maybe she knew we were on to her and wanted to make it seem like there was no connection to the victim's?" Adam suggested.
"Makes sense, but anyways Chantal told us that the only other cheerleader who was dating anyone is a girl named Malory. She might be the next victim." Jacob continued.
"And where might we find her tonight?"
"Chantal said anyone who is trying to hide a relationship might go to the beachhead by the bridge." It was finally nightfall; Malory was exactly where they thought she would be. She was in her car under the bridge where the other two girls were found. She was on top of a football player from her rival school, kissing his chest and going down to his crotch area. Sam and Dean pulled up to the bridge, Jacob, Celine and Adam were parked on the other side of the bridge. They just sat there waiting for the ghost to make her move, it took about two hours before the ghost showed up.
"Go, now!" Dean ordered the young hunters, they turned on their headlights blinding the ghost as she was about to lure the teenage girl. She was blinded by the light not aware of which way to go. She crystallized into thin air and was now on top of the bridge, somewhere she hasn't gone in a while. According to legend she drowned her children in a river underneath a bridge and then murdered herself by falling off the bridge. Sam and Dean got out of their car to perform the vanquishing spell but all of a sudden two young children appeared asking for their mom. The woman in white was scared and threatened by her children.
"Why did you kill us? Why are you killing all of these innocent children?" The children began to sing the lullaby, she covered her ears, her head spinning. Celine, Adam, Stephanie and Jacob ran up the bridge witnessing the freak show. The children walked closer and closer to their mother eventually hugging her, suddenly they blew up into thin air and were no longer there. The young cheerleader had driven off after witnessing the entire thing and scared of what she saw.
"Is it over?" Stephanie asked.
"Yeah, it's over…" It was now morning, they were all on their way to go their separate ways. Adam, Jacob, and Stephanie were all saying goodbye to Sam and Dean. Celine was in Brady's room about to say her last goodbye to him.
"So how are you feeling, now that the murderer of your cousin is gone?"
"Yes, thank you again for saving her."
"It wasn't just me, I barely had a role in this case."
"But you did help, even though you probably thought it was weird that I had a whole family out here in Arizona when I never spoke of them."
"Yeah, why didn't you tell me about them before?"
"I didn't really know them until a couple of years ago, they visited my mother when she got sick. Brie and I got extremely close." Dean came upstairs and knocked on their door.
"Hey Celine they are ready to leave."
"Ok thanks Dean I'll be out there in a few minutes." He left nodding his head.
"So I guess this is the last time I'll be seeing you for a while."
"Hey, well if you ever need anyone to vanquish a demon, ghost, vampire, or werewolf ever again I will be there right away."
"Thanks." They hugged each other. "You know I wouldn't be mad if you and Adam ended up together, he's a good guy and you deserve a good guy to make you happy." Celine was shocked at that comment.
"It's just a lot more complicated then you think." They stared into each other's eyes on last time and headed outside. Adam said goodbye to Brady, they seemed to make up with each other. Celine was putting her duffle bag in Jacob's car, Stephanie walked up from behind her.
"So looks like those two made up?"
"Yeah I guess so." Celine looked at her two close friends. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm good still a little bit shaken up, I just wanted to say thanks for saving my life. I don't think I actually said that."
"It was no problem."
"I know I've been giving you a hard time with everything, but the truth is I think you are awesome. Sure you do things that annoy me, but I realized we have a lot in common and I was thinking how much this would actually suck if you weren't here…" Stephanie paused. "It's just usually I put up a wall around people I begin to like because I always think of the worse… that they'll just run away or die when I need them most. Like what happened with my brother, mother, and friend."
"Well you don't have to worry about me going anywhere." Jacob watched the two girls seeming to get along, which he thought would never happen.
"Hey, Jacob so I was thinking you know with everything that you accomplished with those three you really don't need us anymore." Dean and Sam came up to him.
"Really?"
"Yes, really. So Sam and I thought that you guys are ready to go off on your own, hunting things. The only thing we will be contacting you about are updates on Lucifer."
"Wow, thanks I guess…"
"But if you do something stupid we will be right up on your tail watching your every move." Dean smacked Jacob's back. "Oh and if you even try to lay a hand on Stephanie, I will smack you upside your head so hard you wish you weren't even born." With that everybody said their goodbyes and drove off onto the long winding road of a hunter's life.