w00t, ok, chapter 13... Ok, on with the craziness, darling readers. Grazi to those who inspired bits and such for this chapter.
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The next day, a Saturday, life seemed to go in slow motion for those dwelling in the fortune tellers' house. It was a quiet day, uneventful, void of drama, peaceful even; they spent most of it in small talk, card games, a couple of lessons between Sam and Nadia… there had even been a food fight in the kitchen and for a good hour or so, the four hunters were just a bunch of goofy kids in their twenties. Not worrying or caring about their evil-destroying duties, just living their lives as people, as four friends having a good time; two sets of siblings being just that… and normal; that is, until the dark stretched mercilessly over everything outside of the structure. Then that false world of simplicity came tumbling down around them, and not one of them could predict what was about to strike, not one of them was prepared for the hysteria.
Sam and Emily were giggling stupidly as they cleaned up the last traces of their food fight; Missouri had come in and scolded them, but toddled off shaking her head when she saw the four genuinely happy people covered in random condiments and other various foods. With all that lay before them, she could let this one messy fight slip.
Outside, Nadia sat smoking while was Dean trying to remove an unwilling bit of mustard from his ear, all the while laughing about the hilarity that had ensued during their provisions battle. As she finished and flicked her spent cigarette butt, she took out another from the box, bit down on the filter and yanked the cigarette away from her head, leaving behind only the filter between her teeth. "Stop… you're only going to push that crap further into your head." She giggled as she watched the, uh; interesting methods Dean was attempting to remove the mustard with, "Here… Q-tip MacGyver-style."
Sit still… you're worse than a fidgety five year old! She thought, and with a fake look of indignation, he stilled… of course, not without giving her his best annoyed-five-year-old pout. Giggling she cleaned out the last of the French's Honey Dijon from the side of his head; in her amusement, she neglected to pick up on the sudden shift in the man's emotion's. Otherwise she would have taken caution at how he went from being goofy and purposely impossible to somewhat aroused at the feel of her breath tickling at his neck. Of course, in her distraction from her empathic intuition, she also neglected to notice his arm shoot out and wrap itself around her waist, swinging her around until she sat on his lap with her upper body leaning back in a position which she found to be a bit awkward and uncomfortable…
Until he claimed her lips in one damned breathtaking kiss; instantly, she felt herself melt in his arms, a curious plethora of butterflies fluttered about in her stomach and her vision went a bit hazy around the edges. What is this… this feeling? What's happening? Her mind exploded into a big mushy pile of fleeting and converging thoughts, all speeding frantically in every which way, befuddling her to no end.
"What do you mean, 'what's this feeling'?" he asked when he finally pulled away.
"I—I don't know… I mean, I know lust; I know desire… I can pretty much tell you where this is going… but it's not a result of either of those two feelings… it's something entirely different…" her confusion grew at a worrisome pace as she took notice of how much she was stuttering; she never stuttered this badly.
Claiming her mouth a second time in a kiss twice as passionate as the previous one, he drove her to the brink of her sanity with a guttural moan before whispering as he took a breath, "Must be love then, huh?"
Instantaneously, her entire body stiffened, so this is what love is like? Hmm…
"What, you've never been in love before?"
"Never cared to go looking for it, and it certainly never cared to go looking for me…" She gasped, lightly pushing him away from her. Flashing his most winning smirk he smoothed back a Prego-caked chunk of hair.
"Well, you can't run from it forever." Murmured the Winchester as his right hand meandered blindly down her face, gliding over her neck, skimmed roughly over her chest and wrapping it once more around her waist to wrench her from lying down on the swinging bench to a more comfortable position of straddling his hips.
Hearing the blood pumping in her ears, she gave in to the fiery sensation burning through her veins, exciting every inch of her. They had both let go and were about to give into the heat of the moment when a foreign sound from the side of the house caught their attention, and as she turned her head in the direction of the noise, her eyes landed on the old willow tree she remembered sitting under years ago. You can't do this Nadia, don't hurt him like this…you know what the consequences are more than likely to be. Looking back at Dean, she almost jumped as realization struck her… the man from her first vision was… Dean. No, no… Oh god…get yourself out of there, Nadia! Get away from the situation!
"You hear that, too?" he inquired cautiously; nodding, she slid herself off his lap, inching towards the kitchen door.
"Dean, it's getting dark… we should probably go inside," she beckoned him towards the house as he began to stalk towards the willow tree. "Dean… please?" she hated begging, but for some reason the moment did more than just call for it… it demanded it. "C'mon, it was probably a bird or something. Let's just go."
As he faced her once more, he saw the raw fear that she'd displayed once or twice the day before. She'd reacted that way with good reason, unlike most chicks… not over something silly. His mind wandered back to her nervous breakdown when Emily and Missouri were MIA and possibly hurt… he'd been freaked out by the hyperventilation, knowing he would more or less act the same way if—no, he didn't want to consider the things that could happen to his brother, Dean reminded himself that he would never allow anything to happen to his geeky side-kick so long as he was around. "Ok," he said quietly, joining her at the door, "let's go inside."
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"… It nearly killed me to keep quiet and not just bust out laughing… but the look on his face when he tried to put down the beer bottle? Priceless," Sam recanted to Emily, who at this point was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her face; she could barely catch her breath, too. "He literally had to peel a layer of skin off his palm; which, as I told him… I wouldn't touch that line with a ten foot pole."
"Haha, yea, that just sounds so wrong! Ah man, I—" the sound of the doorbell in the next room interrupted them, she threw Sam a confused look before shrugging and walking towards the front door; reaching it just as the doorbell rang again, her hand rested on the top lock before calling out, "Who is it?"
"Nadia, is that you! Open up, it's Cristin… Cristin Camden. I heard you were in town and had to see it for myself!" replied the person on the other side of the door, Emily's eyes widened after a moment of thought and threw the door open.
"Hey Cristin!" She exclaimed happily as the young woman squealed and threw her arms around the younger huntress.
"Emily, oh my god… I haven't seen you in years!" She cried, not really taking notice of the younger girl's shock from Cristin's embrace, "How the hell have you been?"
"Good, good… Cris, you haven't changed a bit." Emily said, pulling herself away from her sister's old friend.
"In the past, what, nine years since the last time you saw me… really? You don't think so?" she asked, face scrunched and shaking her head as Emily did so. "You're sweet, but a liar… where's your sister?"
Biting her lip, Emily rolled her head in direction of the back door, keeping a sly and devilish glint in her eye, "In the back with her boyfriend… it's too bad you didn't drop by earlier, you missed a hell of a food fight!"
Cristin laughed lightly, but made no sign of remorse for missing cold spaghetti being thrown at her head. Instead, she walked inside after Emily motioned for the girl to enter, tossed her bag on the couch closest to the kitchen and walked straight back to the kitchen, "At least I'll be here for the banter fight… Nadia's the best at those, and you know I love a good—hi… who are you?"
Emily ran in to the kitchen finding Cristin and Sam staring each other down in some kind of who-can-look-more-confused contest. Laughing, she stood next to her fellow hunter, clapping him softly on the back before dealing out introductions.
"This is Sammy… Sam Thompson," she explained when she realized that Sam wasn't going to speak for himself… he just kept looking at her with confusion, "his big brother is Nadia's new man. They're actually old family friends… we just haven't seen them in years… or, I haven't anyway." Sammy, you know you can say something…she doesn't bite, though she does look like she will… I'll say that much…
There's something about her that creeps me out, Em… I don't know what it is, but I don't trust her. He thought with a shy smile, beside him Emily did her best to mask the shock at Sam hearing her thoughts and able to reply to them, also in thought form.
"Thompson, huh… like the gun?" Cristin asked, it was quite clear to both of them that she was flirting with Sam, "Nadia's never said anything about you guys, though I can see why… greedy little Nadia, keeping all the hot guys to herself."
Okay, yea, I really don't like her. His thought screamed through Emily's head as he nodded, both hunters grinned politely. The huntress tried to feel bad for Sam, but found too much humor in his discomfort.
Baby, "Gone mute all of a sudden, Sammy?" she chuckled, going back to her tea and uncle's journal at the kitchen table, ignoring the mental comeback he made as she retreated. Luckily for the younger Winchester, at that moment the back door began to open, both older siblings walked in; covered in now dry condiments. Quietly sighing to his relief, Sam watched the strange woman run over to Nadia and tackle her.
"Nadia, Nadia, Nadia! Shit girly, it's been too damn long!"
The older Coltier had no time to even react and brace herself, as the stranger knocked her to the ground she released a surprised yelp. Ahh, what the fuck and who the hell?
"What the fuck's going on here… Cristin?" Nadia cried in disbelief as she finally got a good look at the crazy, tackling stranger who was pretty much sitting on her. With a shit-eaten grin the girl nodded enthusiastically, and as recognition took hold, the huntress returned the hug with just as much fervor. "What, what are you doing here?"
"Coming back to visit silly, and who knew your crazy ass would be in town at the exact same time!" both girls laughed as they helped each other up from the floor.
"Oh shit, guys…this klutzy whore is my best friend from high school, Cristin Camden." She announced, motioning to Cristin while flicking her off at the same time. "I'm sure you remember Emmy, that's Sam…"
"Bitch please; Emily already introduced me to señor Hotness over there, however… I've yet to be introduced to this stud muffin next to you…" Nadia silently apologized to Sam upon seeing him blush, feeling even more uncomfortable. Glancing up at Dean when Cristin pointed at him seductively, she saw the amused little grin flash at everyone in the room, "who's the hunk, darlin'?"
"Unless you want a crash course in contortionism, Cris… I suggest you keep your sights off of him." Her growled threat caused both Winchester's to look at her in surprise, Emily simply scoffed, and Cristin relayed an expression of mock-hurt. "This is Dean…"
"Dean Thompson, just like I told Emmy and your little brother… your girlfriend is still the same selfish bitch she was in high school, keeping all the hotties for herself." The thin blond girl pouted; Dean couldn't help but feel awkward of her, there was something about her that just seemed evil. She was thin, pale with chin length stringy blonde hair, her chin looked pointy, as did her turned up nose; lightly dusted with freckles, even as Nadia threatened her, her green eyes (outlined in smoky black eyeliner) never left Dean.
"Hey... hooker," Nadia called lovingly, effectively distracting her old friend from ogling at Dean, "pay attention, I'm not repeating this again… keep your horny-ass gaze off the boyfriend!" as she said it, her eyes flickered over to her sister and Sam. Which one of you told her Dean and I were an item?
It was her, it was all her! Sam thought as he threw a thumb in Emily's direction, who was quick to glare indignantly at him. But seriously…isn't that the case?
Snitch!
Sam…I'll kill you later. Emmy, you're ass is grass…GRASS!
"Hey Nadia… you still cold-banging the school mascot... you remember… the donkey?" Cristin spat venomously.
Nadia threw back her head as she laughed sarcastically at the blow, "Speaking of Bestiality… How's your dad?" She smiled triumphantly as the room went silent as soon as she heard the glorious sound of deeply shocked gasps from all three hunters in the room.
"Damnit! You win again, Nadia… fuck you for knowing I can't top something like that!" her friend shouted in frustration, shaking her head both girls resumed laughing and embraced once more, "Ohhh, it's good to see you again, DiDi… you said you were going to keep in touch over the years and I've yet to get so much as a phone call!"
"Oh… that, um… my work… it-it keeps me pretty busy." She concluded the lie with a nervous chuckle.
"What to do you again?"
"I…I'm a gopher… at this detective agency in… pft, Florida…" She fibbed; nervous laughter flowed evenly throughout the entire line.
"Liar…" Cristin said with eyes narrowed, glaring at Nadia like she was scanning her soul, Nadia merely backed herself up with a mock-startled look. "You're an actual detective, aren't you… public or undercover?"
Opening her mouth to let out another lie, Emily grinned mischievously before she started to sing, "Secret aaaagent skank! Secret aaaagent ska-a-nk!"
Everyone else giggled mirthfully at Emily's remark while Nadia glowered mercilessly at her sister, If I could kick your ass just by looking at you… I would do it.
"…Lupae…" she retorted.
"Haha, still finding ways to practice your Greek, I see… sweetie, it'd been 8 years since high school, no one remembers the foreign language lessons they didn't want to take in high school after two years, how the hell do you manage to remember it after eight!"
Nadia simply shrugged as she walked between Cristin and Dean in her quest for the fridge and a can of Dr. Pepper, "I don't know… it's me… Still working for your dad, Cristin?"
"Yea, you know me… shackled to the family business til the day I die, just like you." Nadia was suddenly glad her back was turned to Cristin; otherwise she would have seen the pained grimace that passed quickly over her face. "Being a secretary at a law firm is like being Hell's Hostess… we're just missing all the flames and pitchforks."
When she noted that no-one found her comment even slightly entertaining, Cristin saw that making an exit would be a good plan right about now, "Anyway… I just came by to see if the rumors were true about you being back in town." Pausing she looked at Nadia, as if she were etching the way she was at that very moment permanently into her memory for purposes unknown, "We should go have a drink sometime while we're both in town… you free tonight?"
"Sorry, Cris-Cris, I may be on vacation… but I've yet to go on one without having a metric fuckton of research to do for my next job. Maybe some other time?" she apologized flatly, trying her best to seem sincere.
"Ok… well, you have my number in case you change your mind." drawing the girl into a tight hug one last time they said their goodbyes, "Don't let it be another eight years before we see each other again."
"I promise, take care of yourself."
"I will, bye little Emmy… you've gotten too big, go back to being the little squirt you were!" she said whilst hugging Emily, who looked a little peeved at being called 'squirt'.
"Yea, later…"
"… and you hot guys… take good care of my friends?" she demanded, walking backwards to find her purse and the front door; Sam just nodded and turned back to everyone else in the room looking a little shell-shocked.
"Bye…" Dean exclaimed, as soon as he heard the front door close he pivoted to look at the three of them, "What in the hell was that!"
"Not my best friend from high school… that girl, died a couple of weeks ago. I went to her funeral…" with arms crossed and eyes burning holes into the kitchen tile, she bobbed her head as her feet kicked at nothing, "Gotta say it, though… she looks damn good for a dead girl."
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Meanwhile… Outside the house Cristin stood on the curb, staring intently at the building… with black soul-less eyes. The wind picked up around her and a black mist collected and solidified itself into Big Bad, Cristin smiled sweetly at the demonic creature beside her.
"What did you learn, my sweet?" he asked in his usual wicked tone.
"They are guarded by the Winchester brothers…" she reported with little to no emotion.
"Just the brothers, John's not there with them?"
"No, sir."
"Good, very good; I'm sure you want to get revenge on the brother's for exorcizing you during your last little run-in with them… Meg Masters was a perfect host for you, mostly because she was alive… but this Camden girl will have to do for now. I'll leave you to your revenge, good luck, pet." He said as he began to return to a cloud of black smoke.
"Thank you, father, I won't let you down this time…" Cristin smiled evilly with her black eyes, "I'm going to pry the Colt from your cold, dead hands, Sammy… and use its last bullet on your precious brother." Cackling she walked off down the street, soon she'd follow through with her plans… once her father finished with what he had in mind for Daddy Winchester.
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A few hours later, Nadia stood in the shower as steam bounced off and enveloped her body; the water cascaded down her back as she leaned against the wall, beads of water slid slowly down her face. Snapping her eyes shut she tried desperately to calm herself; twisting the left knob as far as it would go she tried to burn off the honey scent of her deceased friend. In an attempt to stifle a sob, she buried her face in her hands, "Why Cristin… why her? Of all the people who've died in my life, why her?"
Tears intertwined with water as her mind sank back to her first day of high school…
The school bully had singled her out that day, it had been just her luck… that morning Missouri made her promise not to practice her fighting skills with any of the kids at school, and she couldn't take any of her weapons with her; she was helpless, quietly seething as she retrieved a text book from her locker. Thanks to her quick reflexes, she'd been fast enough to remove her hand from harms way as the bully slammed her locker shut. She refused to look at him, thinking if she didn't see him she wouldn't be tempted to beat the living tar out of him. His posse of friends surrounded as they laughed mindlessly, cutting her off from any possible escape.
Apparently, the bully didn't like it when his victims ignored him, so he grabbed a fistful of blood red hair and tugged as hard as he could; with a pained yelp, all the books she'd been holding fell to the floor. As she gave the bastard her most threatening glare, she heard the muffled clicking of heavy boots approaching them; from what she could tell from the sounds of the persons slinking, it was a girl. Chancing a look over the pudgy faced bastard who's hands were either yanking at her hair or traveling dumbly towards areas that would qualify him as a dead man, she saw a thin blond girl with black knee high ass-kicking boots, charcoal skirt, and a black blouse. The sinister look in her green eyes made her shiver… was she a friend of theirs?
The girl let out a bored sigh as she placed an elbow on bully's shoulder, grinning wickedly at everyone, including Nadia. Her voice emanated pheaux sweetness, "Hey guys… Whatcha dooo-in'?" the way she batted her eyelashes at them made Nadia flinch.
"Teaching Little Red here, a little lesson…" Soon-to-be-a-dead-man ground out.
"Oh…I see," her head swiveled as she spoke, reminding Nadia of some bad animatronic you'd see on a thirty year old ride at Disneyland, she sighed again sounding just as bored as she had the last time, "mind if I make a suggestion?"
Asshole finally turned and got a good look at the girl, sizing her up in a way that made Nadia want to throw up. "A suggestion…? Go home and bake me some cookies or something… but try not to break a nail. What would you know about teaching bitches like her any kind of lesson?"
Both girls raised an eyebrow at the comment, the girl scoffed and grabbed the bully roughly by the shoulder; he had momentarily let go of Nadia's hair, probably just to turn around and slap the girl… but she was faster, before he could do anything, she hissed out a single word, "THIS!"
And with 'THIS', she drew back her fist and knuckle punched the kid square in the nose; the boy went down quick and hard as a spray of blood erupted from the contact. The posse had gone silent and with a fleeting glare from the blond, they all ran off in various directions.
She only took a quick second to bask in her little victory before helping Nadia grab the last of her books from the ground, took her by the hand and ran off in the direction of the closest exit as one word floated past her to the young huntress, "Quick-ly…"
A few minutes later they were sitting behind the football stadium bleachers laughing hysterically over how quickly the bully had gone down. "Oh, it was beautiful… the spray of blood was a perfect touch; it just made the moment." Nadia giggled, doing her best to sound serious.
"Eh, the ol' fat fucker had it coming… you don't treat girls like that… especially when they already look like they can kill you without breaking a sweat!" the girl, who's name was Cristin, said in her defense. "Man, I know I've got some blood on my arm, but I can't tell for shit if any got on you… it blends too well with your hair! I dig the color though…how often do you have to dye it?"
"I… don't, it's my natural color…" Cristin had gasped in amazement.
"No way! That's so cool, it adds to your, I'm-not-afraid-to-kill-yo-ass appearance. Haha, well, I can honestly tell ya… I knew I was going to get into a fight with somebody on my first day at this hell hole, but I had no idea I'd end up skipping half the day laughing my ass off behind the bleachers." They laughed once more; Nadia's a bit more distant and less cheerful as her new friend's.
"I would say Missouri's going to kill me for skipping… but at least I kept my promise and didn't beat the crap out of anybody for looking at me wrong…" she mused, picking at the frayed hem of her jeans.
"Girly-girl, that's what I'm here for now… anybody messes with you… they'll get the steel-toe of my boots where it counts…" she declared matter-of-factly, pausing in realization, she turned to Nadia with a more serious face, "Missouri… Missouri Moseley, the town psychic?"
Nadia bobbed her head slowly, lost in her thoughts with a faint smile tugging at her lips.
"…Cool." They were 14 and rebellious as all get out, and from that day on until graduation…inseparable.
As the memory faded away from Nadia's mind's eye, she realized she'd been in the shower for a very long time… but damnit all to fucking hell if she couldn't get the smell of honey off her skin! Groaning in frustration, she was about to scratch fervently at her skin when a sharp pain began slashing at her mind; the pain was so great that any hope of fighting it was useless, all she could do was scream again and again, sobbing between the screams. She was terrified of what she might see when the images began to form in her head. All her years of training, all her experiences of going head to head with evil… none of it could possibly have prepared her for the things she saw. "Oh god…NO!" she managed, it was all she could force out before reaching out for anything to steady her; falling awkwardly, she brought the shower curtain down with her and clung to it for dear life while the continuous pain in her head refused to lessen.
Even as Dean kicked open the door for the three hunters to rush in to the rescue, the feel of a million daggers ripping apart the inside of her head would not relent.
"Nadia… what's wrong, what's happening?" Dean begged in frenzy, the girl just continued wailing miserably and even began to push away from him, turning her head away in shame before croaking out the only thing she had the energy or voice to say.
"He's dead… oh god, he's dead… get away, run away from me before you die too!"
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A/N: 'What the fuck
and who the hell' is my favorite saying, I use it whenever I find
the smallest occasion for it; ex: phone calls, he-he. Looks
like I'm leaving you with a cliff hanger for a couple of days until I
whip up a couple of more chapters... sorry. Anyway, review send
whatever comments you like; you guys are absolute dolls, so kind to me!
Lupae is Greek for Whore/slut/skank/ho... a term of endearment between
my little sister and me, ;)
love. CS
