2.
Both of the guys gasped due the sound of Lauren's sudden voice, and they turned to look toward the girl standing at the bathroom door, now closing it after herself. She looked surprisingly serious when she walked forward, drying her hair with a towel, her gaze directed on the floor.
"There are far more repulsive things out there than demons", she continued tensely, exchanging a remarkable look with each of her cousins. Dean looked irritated.
"Could you quit sneaking around?" he inquired her, his eyes narrowing. Lauren only cocked her shoulder at him indifferently.
"One would think you to already have gotten accustomed to it", Lauren responded curtly, now fluffing her black curls until took some of them into her hand, examining them to try to see were they in need of cutting. Sam instead examined her demeanor and thought about her earlier words, them making him contemplative again. He followed Lauren's actions, trying to understand the meaning behind her odd words, when she then walked to the window and gazed at the moon outside, full by the looks of it, which had just appeared behind a curtain of clouds.
The pale light of the full moon created stripes on Lauren's already wan complexion while streaming in through the Venetian blinds. She sighed, turning her irises from the big white globe down, once again speaking.
"I understand that girl. All that pain, feeling of betrayal and hate… How easily love, which should be the purest of all things, can blind you so that you cannot notice its filth soil you. How deceitful all that you thought as good truly is. If it had been me… I would've done exactly the same as she did."
Sam noticed that same, already familiar become sorrow take over Lauren's face. And there now was something dark in her. In her eyes, in her expression. Her whole exterior turned somewhat gloomy as she stared at the faucet stubbornly, her fingers then starting to squeeze the sink's edge so tightly they turned white. He frowned for confusion. What was with her all of a sudden? Sam couldn't fathom this odd sorrow often displaying on her usually so well guarded face. Was it because of the way she had become one of those repulsive beings herself? He didn't know, but wanted to. It was just that Lauren's overall so radically changed personality prevented him and Dean from asking her straight what was going on with her. As something clearly was up.
Lauren was leaning against the table, her hands still squeezing the edge relentlessly. Both of the brothers noticed the tension in her, but from the two it was Sam who was truly bothered by the matter. How was it possible that such a happy and sweet girl he remembered her as had become this sad, bad-tempered, her true personality locking and hiding person? Or maybe "person" was the wrong term. And possibly the exact answer for that question. After all, Lauren was not completely human anymore…
The fallen silence was then cut by Lauren's low laugh. "But of course I wouldn't kill innocent people while at it", she added, now finally flashing that rarely seen, her true smile. "I mean nowadays I wouldn't."
Sam gauged Lauren's face once more. That shade of grief was once again concealed from sight. But his further observations were denied by Lauren, who turned her head to gaze at Dean.
"You look shocked Dean", her voice continued, finally also interrupting and cutting Sam's quite inconclusive train of thought.
Dean looked up at Lauren. She smirked.
"Did you really think me to have snapped?" she asked him, snatching her own remaining portion from the plastic bag. She opened the box, and after a fraction of the second she made a face. "Pork? Really?"
"The big right down the hatch, princess", Dean said, munching his chicken at the same time, the amount of it between his jaws making him look like a chewing cow. Lauren was close to laugh for this thought, but managed to hold herself at bay when Dean then released a loud, long belch. Both Lauren and Sam quirked their eyebrows at him, where Dean simply wiped his mouth and took one more swig of beer to wash the last of his food down. Until then he dropped back on the wrinkly sheets, relaxed.
"Better eat up. There'll be no fake blood for you to sip", he stated to Lauren, smiling slightly in the end. She feigned a smile.
"Funny", she replied, sneering. But into her eyes then appeared a gleam which told Sam everything, no word needed to tell him how hurt she had been by Dean's last remark. But then he saw something else, that gleam turning into a twinkle of amusement and he once again could predict her thoughts, him now leaning back in his chair while followed Lauren's actions. Small smile twitching the corners of his lips.
Lauren approached Dean, walking slowly, then finally when beside his bed then leaning as close to him as could undetected. His eyes were closed again so he could not see her there, and that was exactly where the joke laid. She smiled rather nastily.
"Personally I'm more into quality goods", she told him, quietly. Dean didn't react at first, but that predatory tint suddenly edged into her voice made him wonder. And noting this, Lauren's smile turned into satisfied smirk. She stared at Dean's closed eyelids, closely, feeling his rather delicious scent fill her conscious. She leant closer.
"In fact now when I think about it, I am very thirsty", she added, her voice only a menacing whisper.
Sam hold back laugh. Of course Lauren wasn't serious, but luckily Dean didn't know it to spoil the joke. And so his eyes now shot open in slight shock and he stared deep into Lauren's brown irises, having her half on top of him and eye back at him above him. And from her gaze he indeed could now see one certain thing. Hunger. Gnawing hunger. Of him. The usual adrenaline kicked in, made his hunter senses trigger and his heart started to beat faster when he returned his cousin's endless stare.
Dean's hand next automatically inched toward the knife hidden under his pillow. Due this Lauren grinned again and leant even closer. But just as Dean was about to pull out the weapon to possibly use it, Lauren placed her rather strong hand on his wrist, deterring him and smiling down at him only in great amusement. Then laughing. And for Dean's dismay she next used her free hand to stretch even further forward, but not to take a hold of him but to grasp his beer bottle form his nightstand, then straightening and taking the bottle into her possession.
Lauren leant backwards, glancing between the frozen Dean at the bottom of the bed and Sam sitting a small distance away, who had moved forth to sit at the edge of the chair to see what she'd been up to. Lauren scoffed.
"You guys need to relax a little", she stated, to both of them, making a bored browlifting when then lifted the bottle on her lips. Drinking the rest of Dean's beer in one gulp. Dean looked quite sour again, shoving the knife back to its place while leered at Lauren.
"It's kinda hard to relax when you have a vampire as your roommate", he stated, indeed grimly. Lauren lifted her brows as looked down at him.
"Half."
Sam couldn't hold back his amusement any longer but released a laugh, gazing at Lauren. "I already thought you were serious", he remarked sarcastically. Lauren gave him a matter-of-fact look back, shrugging.
"I was", was her sincere response, and she waved the bottle a little. "I was thirsty, and it seems this isn't even that same cheap bottled crap you usually drink. But god how bad this is regardless."
Sam smiled as she turned up her nose, staring at the bottle until put it back on the nightstand, standing and returned back to her box of Chinese. Lauren answered his smile with a questionable stare.
"Haven't you come to know me yet at all?" she queried. "Do you think that after months of, no, two years of fast I all of a sudden would slip back to the dark side? Then you have still lot to learn about me, boys."
Dean glanced at Sam unsure expression taken over his features, rising to lean on his forearms. "You can never be too careful. Look what happened to Skywalker", he said then as a joke, but after a moment of staring Lauren only dropped her gaze into her food. The smile had faded from her lips, her being once again her gloomy self. She soon frowned in irritation, placing the box on the table next to her, suddenly losing her appetite. And both of the guys realized the change in her mood, having seen it before.
"Hey", Dean called out to her, as well standing. "I didn't mean…"
"Fuck you Dean", Lauren retorted pointedly, her temper once again flaring as she directed a dangerous glare at Dean, causing him to flinch. Yes, he had hit a nerve. Deeply. Lauren was suddenly fuming and she shook her head slightly.
"You indeed know shit about me, so you'd better keep your fricking Star Wars references to yourself!"
Lauren dug out a cigarette, next taking her lighter into her hand and soon releasing the first smoke cloud into the room. But then her risen anger was soothed by something, which Sam saw once again in her eyes when they stared away from them. Into emptiness.
"Well how can I actually blame you for your fear when it's after all true", she remarked, her voice dark. Sad. She took another inhale, but now even smiled blue. "You are right Dean. You can never be too careful with the likes of me."
It was clear she hadn't taken Dean's words as a joke he had intended them. And actually he now regretted to have such a big mouth at some times, when he stared at Lauren with Sam. Scanning her profile as she smoked in silence, not bestowing them a single look for a long time, until her cigarette burnt out and she dumped it in the ashtray.
"Lauren", Dean started again, taking a step forth, but was once again interrupted by now much calmer Lauren.
"You don't have to worry about me", she told them, meeting their gazes briefly until hers once again descended to the floor, her speech pausing. "Besides… if I would ever lose my self-control, I'd get as far away from you as I could. Many enough people have already died because of me."
Lauren's lips quivered when she said that last phrase, her voice somewhat lifeless. But before the brothers could detect the fear mixed sorrow slipped on her face, Lauren took a hold of herself and locked these feeling away. Shoved them deep within inside her, into the deepest, dark part of her soul where no one but she was able to find them. She swept her gloominess away with a somewhat smile. But as she then took another cigarette and lit it, it was Dean's turn to turn up his nose when some bitter smoke flew in his direction, causing him to cough.
"Can't you do that outside?" he inquired from her, once again irritated himself. "The smoke's going to stick."
"Screw you Dean", Lauren replied, but now more good-humoredly, though it was obvious she almost ignored him. Dean followed her smoking a second or two and then had one of those cheeky faces on.
"It's a good thing you can't die for cancer, but how many of those are you exactly going to smoke? Are you an addict?" Dean said, finishing with a tainting query. Lauren rolled her eyes.
"This calms me", she told him, Dean inclining his head remarkably.
"Says the addict."
"Would you please stop bitching about my smoking? It makes you sound like one", Lauren retorted once more, her eyes narrowing until she then released another smoke cloud from her lungs. Straight onto Dean. She smiled in amusement when he started to cough again, now his temper rising.
"Then go and get yourself a full throat of goo, but do us a favor and let us pass the opportunity", he stated, waving the smoke away. Sam as well now rolled his eyes. "Passive smoking is as bad for people."
"God!" Lauren exclaimed, then sighing and eventually put out the half burnt cigarette, giving Dean a slight leer. "Calm down, you make yourself a fricking drama queen for nothing! I'm going."
"Where?" now Sam spoke as saw Lauren abandon the ashtray, walking toward the front door. She didn't look at him while answered.
"Just to get some fresh air."
"In that outfit?" Dean remarked questionably, Lauren's hand stopping on the door handle. She could feel his eyes wander around her and eventually stop to stare at her rear, her then sighing in frustration and glancing at her own clothing as well. T-shirt and shorts. Well yes, not maybe the best to wear while going to a late evening stroll in early fall, but in the end what difference did it make? At least it didn't to her. Dean was just being a jerk like usual, in a way only he could be. But she just had to get out of that room. Away from them and their blasted curiously examining stares, trying to see past the wall she had shielded herself with.
And so without saying a word she now left the room, the guys following how she vanished in a blink of an eye, the door locking after her.
Sam frowned. "Do you think its wise to let her go out there alone?" he questioned from Dean, giving him as well an inquiring gaze. Dean snorted the least worried.
"Believe me, she'll be fine. More than fine. She's got one extra row of teeth as her ace, so nothing else than her rash behavior can threaten her safety", he answered, then letting the matter slip out of his mind. But he did then let out a couple of curses as complained about the cigarette smoke all over the room, eventually dropping to the bed in slight foul mood.
Sam sank into his thoughts for a moment, until happened to glance at the door again. "What you think is going on with Lauren?" he asked again, Dean now as well breaking off from his train of thought and he started to ponder this himself. Not coming up with anything.
"What'd you mean?" he asked back instead, turning his head a bit toward Sam.
"You saw it yourself just now didn't you? Her face", Sam clarified, looking worried. "And the way she just flipped all of a sudden. She always acts like that when it's about her…"
For some reason Sam couldn't finish his sentence, as his mind once again was filled with same questions which had bothered him for months now. What had happened to Lauren to make her change so much? Dean dwelled on this matter for a short moment until came up with an answer.
"That's exactly what I've been thinking", he admitted then, his expression then turning less serious due worry as well. "That isn't what she used to be years back. She's different, very. But I reckon all this rebellious, teen tantrum crap she's putting up has pretty much a lot to do with the death of her family."
Sam had a realization and he felt a sting of pity in him. Yes, she had lost her family too.
It had been ages when he and Dean had last visited Lauren's house with their father, back at the time to celebrate her 12th birthday. He and Dean had learnt some years later from their father that Lauren's family had been found murdered from their house, but only Lauren hadn't been among to dead. Their father had suspected that their death hadn't been the work of any normal robber like the police believed, as like the brothers' mother, also their uncle Ethan ergo Mary's brother, Lauren's father, had been raised in a family of hunters. And hunters always had something coming at them, especially if they lived pretty much a normal live at a suburbia like Lauren's family had.
But even the brothers' father had tried to find out what had happened that night in Ethan Campbell's house, there was nothing to find to tell what creature had been responsible of the killing. And so also the three of them had only known Lauren to have vanished mysteriously the night of her family's death, until also some years later Sam and Dean had stumbled upon her on a hunt. And since that day she had traveled around States with them, working on cases. But she hadn't yet revealed them anything of her life after the murder of her family, and rather her cousins hadn't dared to ask about it. Reckoning it to be something unpleasant for her to talk about. And neither had them inquired of the way she had become a vampire. Half vampire like she said, as strange as it was. But when Sam now reeled all this in his mind, and thought about the happened change in their younger cousin, he realized that from those faraway childhood days it indeed had been years since that one birthday party when Lauren had been a totally normal, happy young girl.
"I've always felt wrong that our mother was taken from us when we were young. But Lauren was robbed of all her family at once. I can't understand how she has deserved her current life, Dean", Sam said then, a little sad himself, talking for the first time for minutes.
"I'd wish I knew Sammy", Dean replied. "But it must be tough to live forever without a single person to call a family. But even the two of us are just that to her now when her parents and brothers got whacked, neither can we life forever like she can."
Soon the two hunters got to bed. And while Dean was deep in sleep, snoring loudly, Sam still remained awake. Staring at the ceiling, as it was the only thing he could do now when his thoughts didn't let him have a closed eye.
At first he'd been concerned when Lauren hadn't returned from her trip for fresh air after two hours of time, but then his mind had drifted back to the mystery surrounding the said girl.
Sam started to come up with a possible explanation to Lauren's constant broody state of mind, not succeeding. He neither managed to come to fathom what had changed the happy girl he remembered so thoroughly, as it couldn't be all caused by her personal loss. Also he and Dean had lost their dad not that long ago, but they had gotten over it and weren't same kind of messes like Lauren was. Because that she evidently was. A true mess, which neither of her cousins could understand. And the least Sam when he now tried to understand her. But after all giving up he then sighed deeply.
She doesn't even smile the same way she used to in the past, he thought while returned back in time some years once more, recalling a certain moment in the past, before his inevitable surrendering for sleep which made his eyelids weigh like led. And so, not at all more clear minded about Lauren he finally fell asleep. As well returning back into the past in his dreams.
Early in the next morning the guys found Lauren sleeping inside the Impala. And even more than her odd choice of place to sleep, they got surprised by seeing her fully dressed, her hair and make-up also already done like usually, even they hadn't at all heard her to have returned from her nightly stroll. But quickly they dismissed this perception, and Dean leant down. Knocking the window once, loud.
This caused Lauren to gasp awake and she lifted her head from her arm, which had worked as her contemporary pillow, glancing up at her cousins faces peeking through the window. And then yawning she sat up stiffly, opening the door's lock to get out.
"Morning", she wished, standing. Sam wished the same smiling, then directing incredulous glance toward the car before once more examined Lauren.
"Were you out all night?" he queried from her. She flashed one amused smile.
"What, were you worried about me?" she asked back, eyeing at the guys, until lifted a brow. "No. You were already sleeping when I got back."
"Where were you by the way?" now it was Dean's turn to inquire, as well a bit interested. As now when he stood close to Lauren, as well measuring her composed exterior, he could separate that faint scent of alcohol which lingered on her. But she simply just shrugged at him, bypassing his question.
"Nowhere really. Just ambled about", she told him, lied. As in truth she had sat of a roof of a nearby church after breaking into a small convenience store, a bottle of whisky keeping her good and faithful company whole night, all the way to the morning. And she almost never drank. But regardless of her white lie, Dean had caught a whiff of the truth, though did not question her offered excuse. Just stared at her in doubt for a moment, gauging her, until let it go.
"We came to ask you to tag along for breakfast", he said then instead, going to check that the other three doors of his baby were securely locked. Lauren sighed, indeed feeling her stomach to make a agitated rumble due the mention of food. She had missed the dinner after all…
"Perfect", she stated with a smile, imagining the taste of freshly baked scrambled eggs with delight, as slammed the remaining open door shut maybe a bit too forcefully. Dean's reaction was expected as he jolted.
"Careful", he hissed. Lauren gave him the usual bored stare, inclining her head as then lifted her hands up.
"Sorry."
She started to walk toward the diner small distance away from the motel building, while Sam directed a browlifting toward his brother as saw Dean now gaze at the car like always, almost adoring, and smoothed its hood tenderly. As if it were a beloved family pet. Well it was his beloved for sure… One thing Dean loved equally as much was only pie… But as Sam then shook his head to these thoughts, still not being able to comprehend Dean's sometimes overboard relationship to that car, Lauren's voice captured the guys' attention.
"Are you coming or what?" she shouted, turning her head a bit questionably while made a small spin, still walking, giving her cousins as enquiring look until her back was to them again. And not but a second after both Sam and Dean followed her steps, now all of them walking toward that hive of fried goods.
Inviting scent of coffee and the said greasy aroma of bacon and eggs floated into their noses as they stepped inside, that usual small bell chiming their coming. The place was rather full regardless of the fact that there were almost none guests at the motel, but the three managed to find a table for themselves from the faraway back. Lauren stopped stretching her aching limbs not until they reached the table, sitting down. And this caused Dean then come up with something typical for him.
"Tough night?" he questioned, at first quite indifferent looking, but his voice then turned rather hinting as a smirk spread over his lips, him bestowing as well allusive glance to Lauren behind his menu. She got his hint, but like always didn't feel like concerning herself by his annoying remark, and simply only inclined her head while as well skimmed through the different portions offered for breakfast, turning the menu.
"Well, the backseat of your car isn't really a featherbed", she replied. "My whole body is stiff and full of knots because of that."
"Wow, no details!" Dean stated, his gaze rising. Lauren squinted.
"You're an idiot, Dean", Lauren retorted, hedging her shoulders with a slight leer. "You're more interested about my nightly ventures, than the fact what is it exactly that I do in your car."
Sam let out a laugh after listening their usual bickering, as well now turning a page of his menu. Dean stared back at Lauren silent for a moment, speechless, until gave his little brother a silencing look. And now he lifted a fork, pointing it at Lauren to stress his following words.
"Lauren", he started, his voice tense. "Let it be the last time you ever break into my car."
Lauren said nothing, but once again lifted her hands up as a sign of consent, when then a waitress arrived to take their orders. And within half an hour they received their portions, them eating mostly in silence, each fallen into their own thoughts while the murmur of other customers filled the space instead.
Sam finished his breakfast the quickest, and habitually took out his laptop to check where there anything observable to look into. And soon Dean asked the question while munching away his sausages.
"Anything?" he queried after 15 minutes of Sam's internet surfing, mouth full of his toll-free second helping. As well Lauren gave her cousin a questionable look from the corner of her eye, finishing her coffee. Sam frowned.
"Not really… There has been some cattle killings in Texas, and in Michigan three people have vanished… But that's pretty much everything", he answered, lifting his eyebrows as scrolled the page he'd been examining up and down a little. Dean put another sausage in his mouth.
"Anything off in those disappearances?" he asked, drinking some juice. Sam clicked open the police database.
"Maybe, um… here it is. The police reports say that from the two of the vanishing locations blood was found, presumably the victims', but not so much that I'd believe some supernatural thing being behind those disappearances... But look at this…"
Sam inclined his head remarkably as his eyebrows rose once more due a discovery he'd made, Sam now turning the computer to face Dean and Lauren, who dropped their eyes from him to the screen. Sam pointed at the bottom of it, at a certain mention in another report.
"Already six people have been found dead in a week", he informed them, both Dean and Lauren's eyebrows rising, until both of them read the report, seeing some photos of the said victims.
"Where?" Dean asked.
"Albany, New York. The majority of the victims were sucked dry from blood", Sam answered, turning the computer back to himself to read more about these cases. Dean frowned as well.
"Vampires?" he suggested, thought it was pretty obvious. A stack of bloodless bodies were a pretty clear cue of vamps. Sam nodded.
"Looks like it. Police found bite marks from the bodies, so the deaths were regarded as some bizarre animal attacks", Sam said as response. Dean tilted his head.
"As always", he stated, then making a face. "Nasty dicks", he mumbled, skewering another sausage, until then remembered Lauren to be sitting right next to him, hearing him. But surprisingly she didn't seem to be paying any attention to his comment, though usually she would've lashed out at him, this time only staring blankly forward. Dean frowned now for confusion, until Sam's voice woke his attention. Sam looked odd as continued.
"Though I'm not fully sure Dean. This case isn't as simple as it looks… These seem like vampire kills, but there's something off here. It says in the reports that the bite marks were rather ragged and the victims' flesh was badly ripped, the lethal gashes focused mainly to wrist areas. As if the ulcers had been made by claws instead of teeth. So that wouldn't be odd if these deaths were the work of a rogue wild animal, but what vampire kills by clawing their victims open? It doesn't make sense."
Lauren had stayed silent this whole time, listening, but now she suddenly bolted. The brothers gave her an odd look as some of her remaining coffee now spilled on the table due her violent gasp, her then turning around in a flash to look at Sam.
"Show me!" she exclaimed quickly, somewhat strangely agitated all of a sudden, then perplexing especially Sam as yanked the laptop closer. Starting to scan the written police report once more, more carefully, her eyebrows retreating into a deep, severe frown. The guys gawked at her in confusion, surprised by her so intense reaction and glanced at each other from time to time, until their wondering eyes always found Lauren again when she read the report in silence. Seeing images of the bruises found on the bodies. Spectrum of emotions displayed on her face when she skimmed through the report over and over again, until it was soon taken over by taunt expression. Her gaze rose, that same dark look in her eyes the brothers had witnessed before.
"Lauren?" Sam called, a bit worried, examining his cousin's serious profile.
"Let's go", she instantly urged as a reply, standing in a blink of an eye, her dark eyebrows truly wrinkled together into one line. The guys looked once more baffled.
"Come again?" Dean asked in turn, looking up to her with lifted eyebrows himself, as clumsily made way to the girl who was hurrying out of the booth they sat at.
"I said let's go! We can make it there before noon if we hurry", Lauren retorted even more intensely, directing a quick look from the corner of her eye to the brothers, until was already gone. Flouncing across the diner to the door, gathering other wondering gazes as well besides her cousins' as rushed out of it. And soon Dean and Sam saw her lean figure march straight toward their motel room.
Still standing Dean turned to face his brother, having a weird look on his face. "What's with her now? Does she have some complex to go all avenger on the rest of her kind, just because she hates herself?" he questioned, exchanging a look with Sam, until both of them turned to stare at Lauren's faraway retreating back. Sam sighed, shaking his head.
"I don't know", he admitted, pushing the screen of the laptop shut until rose from his seat, Dean throwing some money on the table before the pair of them as well exited the diner. Only to have their already packed traveling bags tossed on their faces after stepping into their motel room, locking gazes with as agitated Lauren as ever.
"Let's go", she repeated, not giving the guys much time to reply or react for that manner, as herself grabbed her own bag and strode outside to the parking lot. Dean was close to make an eye-roll, when he and Sam weren't left any other choice but to follow her lead.
"What's going on with her?" he asked from himself again, bored, but then followed Sam out of the room, closing it. Lauren was already sitting on her place at the backseat of the car, now sending her cousins annoyed look.
"Are you coming, or do I have to go by myself?" she demanded impatiently from the window, folding her arms. Her fingers started to tap her forearm furiously, as another sign of her great, unexplained impatience. Dean only closed his eyes briefly for boredom, until he then realized his keys to have gone missing while dug is pockets. Not finding them. He got confused for a moment, until then realized to be staring at the culprit straight into the eyes.
"You didn't…" he started, his now sharp gaze drilling into Lauren. And indeed she now dropped the car keys from her palm, waving them back and forth before his eyes, tiny smile twitching her lips. She always enjoyed a chance to annoy her cousin, was it only just a minor thing like pickpocketing the keys to his baby from him. But of course, to Dean such an act meant much more than met the eye. Clearly he got antagonized.
"You dare to drive my baby without permission!" he snapped, once again starting to approach the car with long strides after a moment of wonder about the key's disappearance, where Lauren only shrugged unconcernedly.
"Relax Dean, I'm not going to steal your car. That is the one heck of a big nail I don't want to have hacked to my coffin. Besides, who'd even want to be seen driving this thing… It's like ancient, and in serious need of updating…" she calmed him, but immediately once again caused Dean's anger level to rise as she next pointed toward the old gazette tape player, lifting her brows. "This is the 21st century Dean. Wouldn't it be a time for you to start to live it, and leave this crap to those who lived when these were used?"
Sam happened to look at Dean, seeing he was once again clearly pissed. No one ever yipped the car. No one, even Sam knew that. But like always, Lauren simply cared not, even it was of course clear to her too how important this car was to her older cousin. She just occasionally wanted to see Dean to be enraged by her snarky comments, and like often, also this time succeeded.
But surprisingly Dean said nothing as dismissed Lauren, catching the keys she now returned to him, and walked straight to the driver's side. Going into the car. Though in his mind, as he started the engine when Sam had also taken his place in the car and shut the door, Dean actually was considering the possibility to knife Lauren if she ever spoke so disrespectively about his baby again. And obviously satisfied by her achievement Lauren now smiled wider, before her thoughts then returned back to the case they would now go to solve. She leant to the seat and stared outside the window, falling into her gloomy reverie.
So he was in New York? Well he'd better be. Because when she would find him, he would earn her once lost love back the hard way. She would kill him. For everything he'd made her go through before this day, when they would finally meet again. After years of separation, they would finally meet again. And thinking this, Lauren then made a dark smile, after all slipping to recall his cursed features in her mind. His voice when it had said her name that cursed night when her family had died. And when she as well, had died.
But all of a sudden loud sound of rock music cut her train of thought. Her now seeing from the corner of her eye as Dean started to tap the steering wheel in the beat of the song, totally into it. Lauren sighed as examined both of her cousins a little while. To whom she had not planned to run into, and with whom she hadn't planned to round the States in search of supernatural. And if she was honest, she actually regretted that she hadn't in fact taken Dean's car and left to New York by herself. Because she didn't like the fact that both Sam and Dean could now learn something of her she rather wished to hide. Her past, and how she because of her own stupidity and credulous nature had become like this. A vampire.
Sam endured the dominant obmutescence for five minutes, until he then gave in and first glanced at his brother lip-syncing Led Zeppelin which indeed roared in full volume from the radio, until his attention was directed to the girl sitting at the backseat. Him seeing from the corner of his eye that Lauren had stretched her long legs across the seat as usual, staring at the passing scenery which seemed to be as glum as was her mood suddenly. Telltale of that being the muscles which regardless of her such laid back position remained clenched and stiff, her eyebrows still drawn into that nervous line as her hands were tangling her bowman pendant restlessly, in deep thought Sam couldn't go guessing what kind. So as was so consumed into her ponders, she didn't notice the stare of her younger cousin before he made his observation known. Leaning forward to look at Lauren directly, concerned.
"Hey Lauren, you okay?"
Lauren woke from her rancorous recollections and her brows arched when she turned to face Sam, returning his worry by simple indiffrence. Inclining her head, the pendant falling upon her chest as she turned into a proper sitting position. Crossing her legs, placing her arms on the backrest with a carefree smile.
"I'm fine."
Sam made a slow nod, taking in her features which seemed to be nonchalant, displaying a smile but somehow he knew her to be lying to him. Lauren was a excellent liar, he gave her that, no outer signs telling him of her dishonesty. But something contrasting between that all of a sudden jumpy, agitated girl back at the diner and this as quickly turned normal and calm cousin of his made him doubt her statement. In that sense Lauren was very much like Dean, gathering all the sorrows and every single troublesome sentiment within her, mostly withholding them from him and Dean besides those teeny tiny nuggets of revelations she occasionly let slip past her well kept reserve. So well aware of this fact Sam didn't want to force Lauren to say what was on her mind and instead decided to leave her alone. Yet again, turning away after a quick smile.
"Good."
But even if she said so, indeed she was far from fine. As when Sam leant his elbow on the window sill, from the rear-view mirror he spotted her true expression, her looking even more restless as tied her hair into a messy ponytail. Starting to toy with the bowman necklace again. He had to ask about that peculiar thing some day…
Sam sighed. He was pretty much fed up with Dean's non-sharing, no-chick-flick-moments type of too self-reliant lifestyle, and now it truly appeared Lauren to be like female version of him. Besides all the licker consuming, presumptuous retorts, eating habits like a pig and embarrassing attachment to his car and internet porn. Well she had her fair share of violence and bad language too… And oh yeah, she was a sarcastic one too when she wasn't that gloomy irritated young woman.
"What are you sighing about?" Dean's voice cut his reverie, Sam meeting his gaze as it was curtly cast away from the road ahead to the younger brother, Dean turning the wheel. "You okay?"
Sam shook his head, turning his eyes away from the rear-view mirror as noticed Lauren's reflection to be now looking straight at his. Spotting him. "Everything's fine."
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