Hi guys, sorry for the wait. I didn't have internet for a few days. Hope you enjoy this chappie please R&R. :)
Chapter 16: - Rock Salt.
Alex jogged across to the Camaro, shivering in the rapidly cooling damp night air. Opening the door and climbing in, she started up the engine, turning the heater on full blast.
"We're in deep shit," Sam muttered, as he climbed in beside her, thinking of how he'd left the Impala.
"Nice to see you so positive," Alex said, sarcasm dripping from her lips. "I'm sure it's not that bad. We'll have it out of there in no time!"
"I wasn't just thinking about the Impala," Sam confided, thinking back to what had happened out on the road. "We've not even seen this bloody demon that we're supposed to be hunting, just been royally screwed by it."
Alex smiled. "It'll be okay. You guys are too stubborn and foolhardy to start losing battles now. You saved my life, and that wasn't exactly the easiest job you've ever done."
Sam smiled at her sadly, thinking how he'd failed to protect his mother and Jess. "Maybe, but I really don't want to worry Dean anymore. Look at the state he's in!"
Alex smiled weakly. "At least you're not alone in this. We just need to do some serious ass kicking and you'll feel a lot better."
Sam laughed weakly, his eyes showed doubt. Well at least Alex was here and he wasn't totally alone in fighting off this demon. With Dean out of action, he needed a back up and given her past record; Alex was someone he could trust. She wouldn't let him fall into a trap of self-pity without a fight; she was nearly as stubborn as he and Dean were.
The demon, who had been lurking across the parking lot, having followed Sam after its last attack, watched them leave. Slowly it crept into Sam's mind. Feeling the strength of power within him, it explored his mind, tapping into Sam's troubling visions. 'Christmas has come early,' it thought, as it whispered persuasively to Sam's subconscious, using Sam's power against him.
Sam's mind felt suddenly heavy as Alex turned on the radio quietly. He couldn't tell what it was, but an overpowering urge to dream fell upon him. Giving into the half-awake state, Sam glanced out of the window, watching the trees whip by.
Turning his head back towards the driver's seat, he did a double take as he saw Jess sitting beside him. Watching her, she smiled happily, talking to him with a carefree ease that had filled their lives before his visions had started the week before that fatal night.
'But how can Jess be here,' he thought sluggishly, his responses slow and lethargic. 'She's gone.' Within him, a niggling voice said, 'But is she? She's sitting here right beside you.' Sam smiled, taking in his girlfriend's beautiful face, a face he had come to know as well as his own. Her blue eyes were clear and sparkling, her cheeks flushed with a healthy glow, a smile playing across her lips as her long blonde hair rustled in the breeze emitting from the vent.
Alex looked at him out of the corner of her eye as his face struggled for a composed look, concealing the battle between fact and fiction that was ragging silently within.
"What are you thinking?" she asked.
Sam gazed at her unfocused.
He watched as Jess spoke to him, but his ears couldn't pick up her voice. An unnatural stillness settled within him, the calm before the storm. Instead, he watched as her pretty mouth moved animatedly, but no sound came out.
Snapping out of the haze slightly, he shifted in the seat, the battle still ragging somewhere within him. 'Something wasn't right,' he thought. 'Jess was trying to communicate with him.' Another stronger voice countered, saying, 'But she can't be, she's gone. Then who or what was sitting in the car next to him?' Panic filled his mind as his thoughts raced. 'If it wasn't Jess, it was something that looked like her. But what? A demon? A shapeshifter? My god,' he thought. 'I'm sitting in a car with a monster! This wasn't good, wasn't good at all.'
As panic bubbled up inside him, he shouted, "STOP THE CAR!"
Alex, staring at him in alarm, slammed on the brakes as Sam pushed the car door open and jumped out, crashing to the floor in a heap.
"What's wrong?" she shouted, as she threw open her door and ran round the car to him, trying to help him to his feet.
Sam, regaining his balance, pushed her away hard. "Get away from me. You're dead!"
Alex, stumbling from the shove, looked at him in confusion. 'This was a dream. This had to be a dream,' she thought. She watched in horror as he drew out a gun loaded with silver bullets, releasing the safety.
"Shit Sam, it's me, Alex!" she said desperately, paralysed on the spot as he stalked towards her, the gun aimed at her head. 'This wasn't good, this wasn't good,' she thought, frozen in fear.
As he pressed the gun against her forehead, cold hatred burning in his eyes, anger rose within her, adrenaline pounding through her veins replacing the fear. 'This wasn't Sam, this was the bloody demon, and she wasn't about to roll over and die for this son of a bitch in a hurry.'
Alex's hand flew up to her face, knocking the gun out of Sam's hand, as she staggered backwards, fear, anger, hate and love all pumping through every atom of her being, making her tremble with energy.
Sam, glancing at the gun that had shot across the road, looked up at her, sneering. Snatching a gun loaded with rock salt, from his back pocket, he aimed and shot, hitting her square in the chest.
Alex, seeing what was happening a second too late, felt the impact of the rock salt on her chest. Blown off her feet, she fell backwards stunned. Staring up at the black sky coughing, struggling to breathe, her lungs protested with every painful gasp.
Tilting her head, she saw the demon's physical form out of the corner of her eye, from where it stood half hidden in the trees lining the road. Hatred caused through her heart, her head pounding with anger and determination. She had not felt so angry since she had left Covesville, since her town had tried to kill Dean. Now she was angry. No, more than angry, she was livid. It was one thing screwing with someone's mind, but it was another to force someone to kill another.
She looked at the demon's deathly shadow, his stone grey eyes, his yellowing teeth, which seemed to glow with menace, to Sam, whose face showed utter confusion. His body rebelled against him, his mind no longer his own, his actions forced by something whose only aim was to kill.
She snapped. Focusing all her energy on Sam, who had bent over, picking up the gun loaded with silver bullets and pointing it at her, she stared at him, reaching for him, reaching past the demon trying to find him.
Looking at him with a penetrating gaze, feeling for his soul, she could sense the fierce battle raging within him, the demon fighting for ultimate control, Sam fighting for his life. Sam's spirit screamed, "Help me!" as the demon strangled him with thoughts of Jess, talking to his unwitting subconscious, making him believe the woman that stood before him was the woman he'd loved and lost nearly a year ago.
Alex, using all her energy, shouted to him, "Sam it's me, Alex. It's the demon trying to control you, don't let it do this. Force him out!"
The demon, sensing a foreign presence within Sam's tortured mind, looked round angrily trying to find her.
Alex continued as the demon lost its focus on Sam's thoughts. "I'm not Jess," she said reaching for his soul, trying to pull him free. "Jess is gone. Please don't let it hurt me. I don't want to die."
The demon, anger bubbling within it, tried to force her out of Sam's mind, trying to reassert absolute control.
"Let go of him," she shouted, as she felt the demon's concentration transfer to her, letting Sam breathe free.
The demon smiled, she was weak. Her desperate attempt wasn't a threat, it could break her easily. She was just an irritating bug that needed to be squished. Focusing on her spirit, that tried to hold its ground within Sam's mind, the demon grinned menacingly as it threw her influence within Sam off easily. Alex reeled as her conscious struggled to break free.
The demon laughed as it ejected her spirit out of Sam's mind, her body jerking violently as her spirit and physical being snapped back together forcefully.
Her head throbbed painfully as it rested against the tarmac, the gun in Sam's hand, still pointing down at her ready to fire. She racked her brains furiously as Sam struggled against the demon within him, not strong enough to break free.
She looked at the demon's physical being where it stood nestled in the trees. Focusing hard, she tried to remember how she had done it before. She focused on his enormous body, his creepy aura, his yellowing scummy teeth and his cold stony grey eyes. Breathing deeply, she swiped her hand through the air, the demon's body going flying.
As its body connected with a rock, making a sickening crunch, the demon within Sam felt a violent pain shooting through its demonic soul. Its mind froze as its spirit was ripped free from its victim's body, re-entering its own with force.
Sam, breaking free from his prison, gratefully seized back control of his body and mind.
The demon, lying injured but livid, retreated into the night, its plan in ruins.
Sam shook his head and blinked hard against the pain that reverberated round his skull. He looked down to find Alex lying at his feet, not daring to move.
"Whoa," he muttered, rubbing his temples gingerly. "That was, ehh different."
Alex smiled weakly, still surprised at her own power.
"My head feels like it's had a rock party held in it," he continued, trying to fill the awkward silence.
Alex glanced at him, still seeing the barrel of the gun pointing at her. "It was getting very crowded in there," she breathed, wincing as she moved her bruised ribs. "Emm, do you mind lowering the gun?"
"Yes, sorry," he said, dropping it to his side before kneeling down next to her, looking her over anxiously. "You okay?"
"I'll live," she grimaced, struggling to breathe as the adrenaline within her began to dissipate. Nursing her winded chest, the rock salt blast having knocked her for six, she glanced up at him. "Just promise me your not gonna jump out of a moving vehicle and go crazy on my ass again."
"I promise," Sam smiled guiltily, helping her to her feet as she clutched her ribs, standing slightly hunched over.
Groaning, she muttered, "This is the last time I ever agree to help Dean out. You guys are dangerous, you attract trouble."
Sam grinned sheepishly as Alex began to straighten up, her muscles slowly relaxing as her lungs began to recover from the blast.
Finding a gravel entry back up to the main road, half a mile ahead, Alex climbed in behind the wheel of the Impala, accelerating gently as Sam pushed hard to free it from the mud it had sunk into, Sam becoming covered in mud again.
Finally after much pushing and shoving, they managed to coax it gently back up to the main road. Alex drove it into town, Sam flowing close behind in the Camaro.
As they pulled up outside a small supermarket, Alex laughed as Sam, dripping with mud, climbed out of the driver's seat. "You're gonna have to clean my car when you've finished.
Sam smirked as he glanced down at himself, screwing up his nose as the smell of slimy mud reached his nose. Alex, laughing, took pity on him. She walked round to the trunk of the Camaro and rummaged through it, trying to find a towel.
"Here," she said, throwing it to him as she rooted round for a shirt that would fit him.
Sam gratefully wiped his face and arms clean. As he handed back the towel, pulling off his T-shirt and jacket, he shivered as the cool air bit his naked skin. He took the one offered in Alex's outstretched hand hurriedly, and yanked it over his head.
"Thanks," he muttered. "Where did you get this?" Curiosity twinkled in his eyes as he looked at her expectantly.
"Oh, it's yours," she said embarrassedly. "It was the one you gave me to wear after the beach incident in Covesville. Everything happened so fast, I forgot to give it back. I still have Dean's jeans in here somewhere."
Sam smiled as he straightened himself up. Looking half way decent, they ducked into the shop and hurriedly bought enough groceries to last them a week, neither fancying another trip like this one.
After paying, they walked out of the doors and back across the parking lot with the groceries, neither bothering to hurry as the heavens opened.
Alex feeling the rain pounding down upon her head, said, "You reckon Dean's okay?"
"I dunno," said Sam thoughtfully, as he unlocked the Camaro and threw the groceries on to the back seat. "I guess so. We'd have sensed something if he wasn't."
"How are we gonna draw this demon out into the open," Alex said, coming to a halt beside him, the rain running down her neck as her soaked hair clung to her face. Wiping it out of her eyes, she looked up in to his own earnestly.
"I'm not sure," Sam replied honestly, watching as the rain drops ran down her nose, making her tanned skin look translucent underneath the street lights. "But I know one thing. You weren't in my vision."
Glancing at him nervously, she said, "I'm not sure I like the sound of that." As she stared into the distance, she continued, "Why hasn't this thing just killed us already, like it did the others. It seems to be playing with us, toying with Dean."
Sam, his face shining as the rain cascaded down his cheeks, looked at her solemnly. "I don't know. I mean it's tried. I … I almost shot you."
"You did," Alex smirked, feeling her stiff bruised chest.
"I meant with the bullets. I don't know why it's not killed Dean though. Maybe it's because Dean's fear is more complicated or difficult to reach than most. He's seen and had to deal with things most people will never see in a lifetime."
"I can believe that," Alex laughed dryly. "He hardly ever let's his guard down, he's as closed as a book." She looked down at the ground as the rain bounced against the concrete beneath her feet. She didn't care that it was raining, that she was soaked and freezing. She felt safe, if only for a moment.
Sam glanced at her, lost in thought as he watched his breath come out in a thin wispy mist. It had been a long day and his mind was letting out a dull throb. He needed sleep. He needed this hunt to be over.
"If this demon's supposed to be going after Dean, why is it coming after us like it did?" Alex whispered, a shiver creeping into her voice.
Sam, breaking out of his silent reverie, looked at her as she began to shiver more and more violently until her whole body was trembling.
"Come on, we need to get out of this rain or we'll catch hypothermia," he smiled.
"That'd just finish our day off," Alex grimaced, as Sam shifted beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"You okay to drive back to the motel in the Impala?" he said quietly, rubbing her arm trying to warm her up.
Alex nodded as she opened the door and slid into the driver's seat. "You follow in the Camaro."
Sam smiled in agreement, moving back to where the 1967 Chevy stood. He had to admit, Alex had chosen a very nice car after getting rid of the old Jeep she used to drive. As he started the engine, it purred like a kitten.