Disclaimer: Don't own anything from the CWs Supernatural
The chapter is kinda short, but it had to be cut down or it would have been longer...not to mention I really liked the cliff hanger at the end!
Alison's eyes snapped open. Or they would have had they not weighed eight thousand pounds. She could barely open them to slits, but it was enough to see that she was in a dimly lit warehouse. Her mouth was dry and she tried to swallow, but it seemed to take too much effort so she forgot about it.
She glanced at the ground and noticed for the first time that she was suspended. Her bare feet were hanging loosely as her toes just barely grazed the ground. She closed her eyes and bit her lip as she stretched as much as possible to push herself up with her toes and slipped on something wet on the floor. Pain shot through her shoulders as gravity pulled her back down. Hard. The pain was so intense that she dropped her chin to her chest and almost threw up from the black dots that appeared in front of her eyes.
She moved her fingers and realized, belatedly, that her hands were secured behind her back and she was not suspended by them. Rather she was hanging from her shoulders somehow.
She sensed movement just off to her left and was able to move her head enough to see him.
He was wearing a black Italian suit and had short, black hair. He had a rich, pretty boy face and his blue eyes glowed laughingly at her. His disguise was flawless and it made her sick to know that she hadn't seen through it. That he had so easily conned her. That he had so quickly found the most vulnerable part of her.
You want to be different. The thought flowed through her head, and even though she had not seen his lips move she knew that it was him talking.
She stared into his eyes and somehow they just weren't as appealing as they seemed to be before. She tried to push him out of her head, trying desperately to get more strength.
He smiled ruthlessly at her and was standing in front of her in a heartbeat. He moved so fast that she barely saw him. His elegant face was only inches from her own. He brought up one of his hands to her face and she swallowed at what she saw.
His nails were long and sharp enough to be called claws. His eyes flashed and he grinned right before pain sheered down her neck as he slowly dragged one finger down her it. She decided that they may have looked like claws, but they felt like talons, still…she didn't flinch. Didn't scream. Didn't move. The only sign that she had even felt the sting of his touch was the flicker in her green eyes.
She watched in disgust as the demon's nostrils flared at the metallic smell of her blood.
Sam straightened and let his hands rest loosely on his hips. "How the hell are we going to find her, Dean? This is Denver, not some waterhole town."
Dean ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "I don't know, Sam, but we will." They stood there in silence, each trying to think of a plan. "Wait." Dean sighed. "Last night, I remember reading something about it taking it's victims to high ground."
Sam bit his lips and nodded sarcastically. "That's great, Dean. And just where the hell is high ground in a city?"
"On top a building? There's lots of places that are high ground in a city."
"Exactly, Dean. There's just too many damn places."
"Okay, well it'll be somewhere close. That narrows it down. So what are the highest buildings that this bitch could take her?"
"The torture screams would be heard on top of any building." Sam grimaced at the word torture and clenched his teeth.
Dean nodded. "So, he's going to want seclusion, somewhere that he won't be bothered." Dean raised his eyebrows and cocked his head. "Warehouse?"
Sam nodded and for the first time that night felt like they were getting somewhere. "It'll be nearby then."
They started walking back to the Impala. "We'll get her back, Sam, and she'll be fine. I promise." Sam didn't answer, but Dean knew that he desperately wanted to believe his brother. "I remember seeing some old warehouses down in an abandoned part of the city when we were driving in. They were about four blocks from here."
Sam picked up his pace. "Good, we'll start there."
Do you really think that you are fine the way that you are?
Alison's eyelids had become even heavier, if that was even possible. Whatever the demon had used to freeze her body was now coming out, as she could feel with excruciating intensity the two pins in her shoulder blades holding her body suspended.
She could feel something running down her face, but she wasn't sure if it was blood or tears.
You're a freak of nature, do you honesty believe that you could be something else in this cruel human world?
She really didn't feel like listening to a demon tell her the way that life worked. Yes, she had learned long ago that the world was not fair, but there were good people, if only a few.
As though he could sense that he was losing her attention he walked around behind her.
Are you still following Alison?
He wrapped his arms around her stomach and smelt the blood that was soaking through her shirt where the pins were in her shoulders. He took eight of his fingers and, using the sharp nails, pushed them ever so slowly into the skin of her stomach. She couldn't stop the whimper that came out of her mouth, mixed with blood. He pressed them farther in and she could feel them moving inside her. She coughed up more blood.
He pulled his fingers out quickly, making sure to tear the entrance holes more.
Now that I have your attention again, don't you think that something as…unnatural as yourself should be destroyed?
Alison closed her eyes and tried to swallow again. It was pointless, so she just coughed up more blood and spit it onto the ground.
That is afterall what you do for a living, is it not? You get rid of the bad things in this world.
Although Alison had once believed that, she now knew better. She wasn't a bad thing and she wasn't evil.
The demon grinned, reading each and every one of her thoughts. Let's test that theory, shall we?
He came around to the front of her and knelt down, putting one hand on the outside of each of her legs. He looked up at her and there was a look in his eyes that she never wanted to see again. He slowly dragged his nails up her legs, ripping open the skin and leaving three gashes on each of her legs.
Her spine straightened and she snapped her eyes closed as the need to change engulfed her. Her face furrowed in concentration and it took everything that she had left in her to prevent the hair from pushing its way out.
You're an animal, Alison, isn't it about time that you started acting like one?
For a second, just one second, Alison was about to let herself change. It would have been so easy, and if she hadn't been so beaten up she could have ripped the sorry bastard's throat out…but she couldn't. Add that to the fact that if she did change she would either still be hung up, or the pins would break her shoulders and she'd be just as screwed as she was already was.
Oh, you are smarter than most aren't you? You have no idea how many others I have gotten to kill themselves just from pushing them so far…unfortunately for you, I'm growing tired of waiting for you. So let's speed this up.
He anchored his thumb into the soft part just under her jaw and swiftly pushed it up. Her eyes opened wide as she felt his thumb brushing the bottom of her tongue.
Dean could tell that Sam was just barely holding it together, and after checking three warehouses with no luck, Dean could hardly blame him. Afterall, Dean knew from personal experience what it was like to loose someone to something evil and not be able to find them.
They entered another warehouse and instantly Sam's posture changed. He had begun to get fidgety and as soon as they had entered the warehouse he seemed to calm down slightly. He turned to Dean.
"She's here."
He said it with such sincerity that Dean had to believe him…either that or Sam had really gone over the deep end.
They didn't busy themselves with checking the lower levels, they moved straight to the highest level and began to methodically check the storing rooms. As they moved out of one, Sam caught a barely audible wheezing sound followed by a whisper of a choke. He glanced over at Dean for a conformation that he had also heard the noise. Dean nodded.
They entered a dark room with a high ceiling, and Sam almost dropped to the floor when he spotted Alison hanging in the middle of the room. He tried to rush forward, but Dean held a hand to his chest and glared at him.
Of course the demon was more than likely still in the room and Dean still had his head on enough to remember it.
They moved slowly, checking around them in the dark corners of the room and as they got closer Sam noticed the pool of blood at her feet. He stopped moving as he looked over her body. It was ripped up, badly, but he was too far away to see if she was even still breathing. Although he could make out the dark red blood stains that covered her body.
Sam almost ran forward again when he saw her head come up to look him in the eye.
Alison had felt the eyes on her again. The demon had left her after giving her another hole to breathe out of. Now she figured that he was back to finally go through with all the threats that he had been giving her. All she could think was that there was no way in hell that she was going to let it kill her without her staring him down.
But instead of seeing the demon's blue eyes when she looked up, she saw the chocolate brown eyes that she had longed to see one last time. If the demon was playing tricks on her, then she would thank him for taking the form of Sam, but the look in his eyes when she looked at him made her realize that he had actually found her. She started crying and in the process began choking up more blood.
That was all that it took for Sam to take off running towards her.
"No Sam!" Dean yelled.
Sam ignored his brother's order and just before he got to her Alison was yanked towards the ceiling by the chains that were secured to the pins on her back. Her piercing scream of pure agony filled the empty room.
The blue eyes appeared in the back of the room and a second later the demon walked out of the shadows. The brothers simultaneous raised their guns and the demon just smiled at them.
Sam started shooting first, taking all his frustration and anger out in a single second. Before the bullets even hit the demon, Sam was flung across the room and into a steel support column. Dean started to shoot, but the gun was whipped from his hands and he was thrown against a wall. The demon kept him pinned there and appeared in front of him.
He smiled and dragged three fingers down Dean's cheek, ripping open his skin. Dean felt the demon go stiff, and the glow of his blue eyes went to gray and then to white before he crumpled to the ground. Sam was standing behind the demon and let the piece of quartz drop to the floor with a ting. Sam turned and they both looked up to where Alison was still hanging from the ceiling.
Sam's brows furrowed and he stood rooted on the spot. The scene before him had an eerie sense of familiarity.
Dean pushed past Sam. "Snap out of it, dude, and help me find the chain to lower her."
Sam swallowed and tore his eyes away from her body. He didn't say anything as he followed the wall to the right and Dean went to the left.
Dean knew exactly what was going through his brother's head. "It's nothing like Jessica, Sam. Alison isn't going to die."
Sam didn't answer right away as they searched in the darkness. "Are you looking at the same bloody body as I am, Dean?"
"We've had bad before, Sammy." Sam was about to answer when Dean's hands clasped a chain on the wall. "Found it." He called to Sam. He unwound the chain from the hook on the wall and grasped it tightly to prevent it from slipping through his hands. He slowly began to lower her. Sam was waiting right under Alison to catch her in his arms. He threw one arm around her waist and the other around her upper back.
That's when he felt the pins.
"Damn it." He whispered viciously. Dean jogged up to them and Sam gazed at him helplessly. It was in those moments that Dean wished with everything he had that he could protect Sam from losing another person that he loved. But seeing her body close up Dean was beginning to see that his promise to find her fine and safe was slipping from him. "Dean, you gotta take the pins out."
Dean nodded and went to work unscrewing the nuts from the pins. As Dean gently pulled out the first pin in her right shoulder Alison's body convulsed and Sam held her tighter against his chest. He pressed his lips to her throat, but it was less comforting than it was supposed to be when he barely felt a pulse.
When Dean removed the second pin in her left shoulder her body didn't move.
They left the warehouse in a rush, with Sam moving as fast as possible without jarring her body too much. He waited for Dean to open the Impala with Alison resting limply in his arms…then he had a flash in his head.
"I know that we haven't really gotten along, and you may not like me, but you have to know that if anything happens to Alison I need you to bring her back here."
Derik's voice nagged at him.
Dean opened the back door and Sam managed to position himself in the back with Alison still nestled in his arms. Dean rounded the front of the car and quickly jumped in the front and started the car.
He looked at Sam in the rearview mirror as he pulled onto the road. "What do you want to do, Sam?" If they had been any other people than the ones that they were, the answer would have been obvious. The hospital. However, they weren't ordinary people and it wasn't and ordinary situation. Going to a hospital meant questions…and most that couldn't be answered logically to a doctor. Nevertheless without a hospital Alison had an almost one hundred percent chance of dying.
Another image went through Sam's mind. It was of the first time that he saw Alison, when their father had brought her to their make shift home. John had walked through the door, blocking the entire frame with his shoulders and Sam and Dean had went to meet him at the door, just to make sure that he had made it home in one piece.
John had told them that he had found someone that needed their help, and that she was going to be staying with them for awhile. Dean had perked up at the 'her' and Sam had perked up at the 'she needed their help'. John walked through the door and there stood Alison right behind their father's massive body. She didn't look at either of them and stayed right close to John…apparently having already formed the strong bond that had remained between them.
She had mumbled a greeting to them when John had introduced them and other than that, had shied away. John didn't tell them why she had needed their help, but they had found out that night when she had her first nightmare and had changed infront of them both.
"Sammy?" Dean was still staring at him.
"Sam, you have to trust me on this. Alison needs to be brought back here if anything should happen."
Ignoring Derik's voice, Sam looked down at Alison's pale, cut up, bloody, tear streaked face and remembered the first time that she had smiled at him. It had been the next morning when he had said that Dean got the same way when he didn't have coffee. Her bright smile and laughing green eyes had made his day. Sam answered Dean without looking back up. "Find the nearest hospital."