12
A constant patter of heavy rain belted onto glass ahead of me and to both sides of me.
"No, we take the next exit." a female voice said in front of me.
"Beth, I know where I'm, going. I've taken this road every week for years." a male one said.
"Alright, but I thought they said it was under construction."
"Snow. Momma, snow." a little voice said. This is when I opened my eyes. I was in the middle of the backseat of a car. In the driver's seat I could see a head with balding dark hair. Next to him was a short haired blond woman with glasses who turned around and looked back at me with a smile.
"It is, baby. When we get to Uncle Fisher's, we can get your sled out. How's that sound?" her soft voice asked.
"Yes." the little, squeaky voice almost squealed with excitement, stretching the s far more than necessary.
"Alright." she smiled then turned back to the road ahead of her. The windshield was blurry with condensation and the pelting sleet. I looked out the window to my left and saw that the mix was turning more to snow than anything else then smiled at the sky. Snow was always so exciting.
"Daddy, how much long?" the little voice asked, not finishing her words properly.
"Just a little while longer, kiddo." he said. I could hear the smile in his voice. We were going to visit Uncle Fisher for the weekend. The floor around me was full of bags of clothing, and a dipper bag. The seat next to me held in a dark leather bag that belonged to my mother. Most likely filled with books on myths and legends. She was always one for fantasy and occasionally she would write a short story for the local paper. Dad's much smaller dark green bag was on my right, full of only the essentials; clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, and a contact case. He packed lightly for our weekend trips we took every month to see Uncle Fisher. Jim was already in listed in the military and was away for months at a time, so we would take time to get out of the house as much as we could. Mother would worry so much when we were stuck in the house, so getting away helped her de-stress.
"See, ramp 7 is closed." mom pointed out.
"Damn, we'll have to back track about thirty miles through farm country." We pulled off at the next exit and started making our way back north, going down a winding highway. At one point we ended up a hill that made the road curve at sharp turns. On one side of the street was a little bed and breakfast next to a small gift shop. Both were unusually busy. At the base of the hill was a historic farming town that had a few museums which were popular in the summer and spring. The other side of the road was a slight drop off at the corner of the bend then it slightly flattened out into a rocky hill with damp trees that lead down to a decent sized, dreary lake.
Dad was just turning on the radio as we passed the little bed and breakfast when mom shouted, "Steven, look out!"
"Oh my god!" dad yelled then then viciously turned the steering wheel to the right, thrashing the car around something in the middle of the road. As we went around it, I could see the tall dark figure standing in the middle of the road. We were almost all the way around it when underneath the car I felt us slide. We'd hit black ice that sent us into the guard rail on the right side of the road, but we were too heavy for that to stop us alone. We slammed through the rail and hurtled down the drop at the end of the road.
I screamed along with my mother and father for the few long seconds it took for us to hit the ground, grill of the car facing down. One hard SLAM! I shrieked and felt tears running down my face as the windows shattered around me and glass flew everywhere. Another hard CRASH, this time on the right side of the car. Bags few past me. One hit me in the head on its way back down to my feet. "OW!" I could smell smoke now and something bright flashed in the front of the car, something red and yellow and hot. Two more SLAMS, one above me then another under me. We stopped hard after one more BASH above me, then we rocked back and forth for a few moments then we stilled.
The car was quiet and nothing moved. I was hanging by my car seat upside down. Two scared tears rolled off my face. I yanked at the straps around me as I called out, "Momma, Daddy." No one answered. "Mama!" I screamed, but she didn't turn around. Red dripped off her nose and her arms dangled down to the roof of the car under her. "Daddy!" Nothing. Their eyes were both closed and they were silent, motionless.
After three more tugs at the straps around me, I was able to free myself. I fell with a thud to the roof below me. A puff of smoke started to burn my eyes and I had to cough. I crawled towards momma and reached for her hand when something started to creak beside me. I gasped and turned to watch the creaking twisted door bust open with a grunt. The door was pulled off its bent hinges and was sent flying to the ground.
A set of legs bent down and knelled on the muddy ground beside the new opening and out flew the smoke. A cough came from outside and a face appeared in the opening, frantically looking around the car. A set of eyes settled on me after a few quick sweeps of the car.
"Hey, come here." a gentle voice said. I didn't obey, not wanting to leave mommy and daddy. Another large cloud of smoke was pushed through the air into his face and he had to back out to cough. I stayed low where I could breath and just watched the man come back down to the car and he held out a hand towards me. "Come on, honey. Come here." A slight franticness started to edge into his voice as he looked past me towards momma then at the bent dashboard.
I slowly gave in and crawled forward, reaching out for his hand. He took my hand and carefully pulled me out of the car and held me up to his face where he looked me over. He brought his thumb to my forehead and wiped something red away from my eyes. He looked at the red on his finger as it mixed with the melting snow, falling from the sky.
"Momma?" I breathed, my breath visible in the cold, moist air. My hair was dripping now with snow and rain.
I was brought closer to the man's chest, under his coat that he was folding around me as he said, "It's going to be alright, sweetheart." His heartbeat thumped in my ear. A steady beat that lulled me. He stood up and looked around before starting up with hill with me in his arms. A loud growling came from behind him, towards the car that we were leaving. I tried to look around his coat to see the growling, but he wrapped the coat around me tighter. "What's that?" I asked. He didn't answer, just started to run up the hill then jumped behind a big rock when the growling got louder. His muscles stiffened up around me and the coat was tight around us when a loud BOOM went off and a bright light flashed. The man looked up over the rock after a few seconds before balling up again when one more BOOM!
"Satine!"
"AH!" I bolted up covered in sweat and screaming. I crossed my arms across my chest and held myself.
"Satine," I turned over, breathing heavily, and looked at Castiel who looked more than concerned. I let out a breath and fell forward.
"It was just the dream." I whispered as a stray tear made its way out of my eye. "Just the dream."
"Are you alright?" he asked quietly, putting a hand on my back, looking me over. I sat up after taking in deep breaths and looked at Castiel.
"Yeah." I sighed.
"What happened?"
"It's just a dream that I have sometimes."
"You were calling out for your mother and father."
"I was?" He nodded. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean you wake you." I laid back down and rolled over to face the wall. I saw that the sun was coming up, but after that dream, I was never ready to get up. I never needed pictures to remember me of my father or mother's faces, I always had that dream to remember them. Their voices from that day were still fresh in my memory.
"What happened to your parents, Satine?"
"They died in a car accident." I said to the wall.
"Was that the dream, remembering the news?"
"No." I paused. Many people didn't know about that day. Only my close childhood friends and my family. "I was in the car with them." I rolled onto my back and pushed the hair up from my forehead to show him the scare that I was left with. "I don't really talk about it."
He surprised me when he bent forward and kissed the scar then laid down with his head touching my shoulder. I could feel him looking up at me like he was waiting for me to speak anyway. I took in a deep breath went I started, "I was three when we on our way to my Uncle Fisher's house while my brother was off fighting in the war. We had to take a detour that day in sleet up through the hills of New York. Someone was in the middle of the road and we hit ice swerving out of the way and drove off the road down the hill. The car flipped when we crashed and landed upside down.
"The car was on fire but I was too young to understand it so I stayed close to my mother and father who we either dead or unconscious."
"What made you leave?"
"A man must have seen the crash and ran down to the wreck and pulled off the door off the twisted metal and got me out. Just in time too. A few seconds later it exploded with my mother and father still inside."
"Who was the man?" The question brought me back to the memory. The man's face was never clear. Nothing about him was ever clear. I knew it was a man and that was it. His face was hidden from me as well as anything about his voice. All I remembered was that it was kind and gentle. I remembered him hiding behind the rock with me. In his arms I cried as the fire blazed close by. He took another look at the car and stood up.
"Shh." he hushed and rocked me in his arms. "What's your name, sweetheart?" he asked as he turned and started back up the hill.
"Satine." I said through my tears.
"That's a pretty name. Satine, where were you going?" he tried to keep me talking.
"To Uncle Fisher's house."
"Where does he live?"
"Mallard street." Mother had gone over with me uncle's address every time we went out there, but numbers meant nothing to me yet, only names.
We were just about up the hill when we were greeted by a women in a white shirt and blue apron and an older man in red and brown, running towards us. "We called an ambulance." the women said, frantic. "Is she alright?"
"Yeah," the man in the coat answered.
"Anyone else?" the other man asked. The one above me shook his head.
"Where's mommy?" I asked him as we crossed the wet road. I looked to where the person had been in the road, but no one was there. It was empty, like no one had ever been there. No foot prints in the slush. Nothing.
"Baby, it's alright." the woman assured.
The man looked down at me then asked, "Are you hungry?"
"Yes!" I never turned down food, never.
"Phil, get Mark going with pancakes." the woman said to the man in red. He nodded and ran ahead of us to the bed and breakfast. People saw the commotion and were starting to gather at the broken guardrail and a few were running up to me.
"Is she okay?" "Is everyone alright?" "Is anyone else down there?" "We heard the wreck." "Anything we can do?" We were getting crowded and I pushed closer to the man, frightened.
"Unless, you're a doctor, get out of the way!" he commanded and pushed through the crowd to the building, covering my head with his large hand. We crossed the parking lot when a harsh wind blew past and then we were in the warm building. The woman sat us down at a booth close to the back of the dining room. The man sat me down on the edge of the table and lifted up my hair. "I think it's just a bruise and cut." he said.
The women left and came back with a few napkins that she dabbed my head with. "Does anything hurt, sweetie?"
"My head." I said. She looked my head over, under my hair, my neck, but I only had the one injury.
Then a large man dressed in all white with a tall hat came from the kitchen with a plate of pancakes in his hand. The man in red, Phil, followed close behind him as he sat the plate down beside me on the table. The man with the coat sat me down in the booth then turned sharply at the crowd that was building near us. The man in white and Phil shooed the people along as the man with the coat took a knife and fork and started cutting up the pancakes.
He got up when they were all cut and talked with the woman. I'd eaten a good chunk of pancakes when I heard a loud siren outside. Red and blue lights flashed from the parking lot.
"Satine, we have to talk to the men with the truck now." the woman said. I looked at her then down at the pancakes then back at her. "Don't worry. They'll wait."
The man with the coat put his arm around my waist and put me in his arms close to his chest under his coat again before heading back outside. It was windier than before and bitter cold. We walked towards a white and blue truck with the flashing lights as a big red truck drove to the edge of the road where the car had gone over. Two teams of people ran down the hill towards the wreck and a woman in dark blue came up to us.
"Is she hurt?" she asked.
"I don't think so." She looked down at me then led us to the truck where I was sat down on a thin bed with wheels. An orange blanket was wrapped around me after I was looked over quickly and a bandage was put on my forehead.
"Do you know her?" The man shook his head. "Any other survivors?" Again he shook his head.
"A man and a women in the front seats." he was able to report.
"Has she said anything?"
"Her name is Satine. She said they were on their way to her Uncle Fisher's house on Mallard street."
"Right, we'll call around." the women headed to the front of the truck and spoke to someone inside. "Thank you, sir. We'll take over from here." she said when she came back. He stepped away after a hesitation then he disappeared into a crowd of people who were put behind yellow tape.
Soon a silver car drove up and out came Uncle Fisher. He ran over to the guardrail and covered his mouth. "Did anyone make it out?!" he shouted looking around. The women in dark blue went over to him and pointed to me. Uncle Fisher ran over to me and kissed the top of my head and threw his arms around me. "You're alright. You're alright." he repeated over and over then kissed the top of my head.
"Uncle Fisher, when is momma and daddy coming back?" He didn't answer, just held me tightly. "Hurt." I said, asking him to let me go.
"Is she going to be alright?" he asked the women in dark blue.
"I think she'll be fine, but we're going to take her to the hospital just to be safe."
"Alright. Babe, I'll be right behind you the whole way, okay?"
"Momma?" Again, nothing.
Uncle Fisher ran back to his car as a black and white car with flashing blue light drove up along with a white van with a large number ten on it. A women dressed in a bright red dress jumped out and opened an umbrella. A man with a large camera followed her closely.
"We're going to the hospital now." the woman in dark blue said as she jumped in the back of the truck with me. I took a look at the crowd of people in the parking lot as she closed the doors. I saw the woman in the apron, the man in white, the older man in red named Phil, and many other people. Many other faces where there too, only I had no connection with any of them, until I saw one towards the back. A man with light brown hair and hazel eyes. No. No, there was no way. I hadn't recognized him before. I didn't know him yet. It was Gabriel standing in the crowd. What the hell was he doing there, at the death of my parents.
"Satine?"
"Huh?" I snapped back.
"Who was the man?"
"I don't know. Every time I have the dream, I can't see his face, like I have no memory of it. His voice. Nothing. I just remember what he did. That's all." It always stumped me. Why could I never see his face? It was like I'd blocked it out. And why was Gabriel there? Of all the people, why him? And if he was there, why had he done nothing? My parents might still be alive if he'd done something. I knew he had the power. It was just something else to add to the list of things I didn't understand about him. "My uncle looked for him back at the bed and breakfast for days to thank him, but we never saw him again. I never saw him again. He was just passing through that day."
"He was a very kind man."
"Yeah, he was." I smiled at the partial memory of the man. I could see him walking away again, back to the crowd after he'd made sure I was safe again. Then I could see Gabriel again, his face standing out in the crowd. "Castiel?"
"Hm?"
"How do angels die?"
"At the hands of other angels. Why?"
"I wasn't sure that they could."
"Everything dies." Just that reminder made me role over to face the wall and breathe heavily out my nose. I didn't want angels to die. They were the good ones. The light in darkness. And that meant Castiel could die too. I don't think I would be able to pull myself together again if he died. Sam, Dean, any of them. They were the only things I had left.
Something nudged me gently on the shoulder then wrapped around my torso. I moved my face over slightly to see the angel hugging me to him. His eyes were closed and his face was burring into my neck. I wrapped my hands around his arms and hugged them tight to me.
It was quiet for a few minutes, before Castiel asked, "Satine, why do people do this?" His voice was muffled by my hair.
I smiled before answering, "To feel close with one another. The less boundaries the closer we feel." He wouldn't understand this, and why should he? This was all new to him. "It's just to be near to each other."
"Reassurance?"
"Yeah," I answered then went quiet for a moment. "Castiel? Why did Nora pick me? There are thousands of people. Why me?"
"There are too many reasons to give you a proper answer. I don't really know."
Out in the hall I could hear someone moving around. It had to be around nine and we needed to get up now. I'd have my answer soon enough, when we were face to face again, I'd rip it from her if I have to.
"Come on, time to get up." I sat up and pulled from Castiel's arms then moved to the bathroom. When I got back, Castiel was still sitting on my bed, looking at something. "What is it?" I asked, coming for a closer look.
"You can read this?" he asked quietly.
"Read what?" I looked over his shoulder at the note he had in his hands. Once I saw what it was, I reached forward and snatched it away from him. Next to him on the bed was the little black box, lid off, continence open to view by the world. I took the box away and closed it again and held it to my chest.
"Satine?" he asked carefully and tried to look into my eyes.
"Don't ever go in this box again." I commanded in a whisper.
"Can you read it?"
"Yes," I hissed. "Don't ever bring it up again." Knowing he crossed a line, I blinked and he was gone. Nowhere in the room.
I slid the box back under my pillow with extra care that no one who lay eyes on it again. That box was the most important thing I had to my name. I sat on the bed and pulled out the flower that was entwined with a father and turned them over in my hands. I could never let anything happen to that box. I needed to protect it, so I sat beside it for a while.
"Dean,"
"What's up, Cas?"
"I think I understand everything."
"Everything?"
"Why Nora was bound to Satine, why she was a proper vessel."
"Why?"
"She can read Enochian." Dean put down his drink and his eyes widened.
"How do you know?"
"She has a piece of paper in her room with Enochian written on it. She said she could read it. It's all starting to make since. She told me about her parents' death. We know about her brother and uncle's deaths. Everything is falling right into place."
"Cas, I don't understand."
"She isn't just any vessel. She's the vessel."
Knock. Knock. Knock. I looked up at the door as it slowly opened.
"Hey, you alright? I thought you'd be up for breakfast by now." Dean's voice said through the slightly opened door.
"Sorry, I got caught up in something. I'll be right out to cook."
"No, it's fine. Sam and I aren't hungry."
"Oh, you sure?"
"Yeah. Cas, told us you were pretty upset about something. You want to talk about it?"
"Not really. Just something about my mother."
"What about her?"
"It's- nothing, never mind." He looked at me, not letting my gaze go. "It just, I'm very protective of the only things I have left of her."
"Listen, I get it. The Impala was dad's and I have a hard time letting Sam drive it. It was my connection to him."
"Exactly. She left a few things for me that I don't let people see, let alone touch."
"Cas in everything?"
"Yeah," I sighed. "I know he doesn't know better, but it's just very important to me."
"Hey, you need your boundaries. Don't be sorry."
"I didn't frighten him off did I?"
"Don't worry about him. He'll come round soon enough." Dean stood up. "Kitchen is free if you were hungry." He left and I decided I needed to go somewhere. I ran outside and found my uncle's car in the drive way. I didn't even knew we had it but jumped into the car and took off.