PK: I know you sent a number of critiques. Maybe you can send her a get-well e-card too? I can answer the trilogy question. Part 2: The Sins of Fathers, and Part 3: The Plague of the Second Born - TA
This is the last chapter I have. Will have to wait for Nomi to post or email me more from now on. So, enjoy chapter 5 -TA
A/N: This is a more fractured chapter. I could not think of a better way of doing it. I hope it works. I've only read two SN-H-XO, First Impressions and Close Encounters by Phx. If anyone knows any others. Please let me know. Thanks.
The OneThat Got Away
By Nomi
CHAPTER FIVE
Out of Time
Dean was idly flicking his way through the various channels, waiting for Sam to finish his shower when something caught his attention.
Ten O'clock Breaking News: The unknown serial killer had strike again, not more than an hour ago, this time killing a Margaret Gogh, widowed owner of a horse farm and riding school located on the outskirts of Bayport. The son caught a glimpse of the killer and described him as a dark-haired, tall muscular young man. Police appealed to any witness who saw anything suspicious activity between 8:30pm and 9pm to come forward with information.
Sam was missing during that time and he could not recall where he went, Dean could not help that first thought from flashing through his mind. He remembered all to well what happened the last time Sam went missing without his memory back at Twin Lakes.
"Could it be me?"
Dean swiveled round at the sound of his brother's voice. Sam stood still by the bathroom door, a bath towel wrapped around his waist, his eyes glued to the TV screen.
"No," he finally answered a while later.
"How can you be certain?" Sam asked a haunted expression on his face. "I was gone during that time, I had no idea what happened, and someone died… just like last time…" Then he spluttered when Dean doused him with some water. Holy water, he realized.
"No adverse reaction, see?" Dean announced coolly. "And even if it's your body that does the killing, it's still the demon, not you, little bro. You did not kill those hunters back at Twin Lakes, and you certainly did not kill that woman an hour ago."
Then he realized Sam was no longer listening to him. His brother's eyes ware glassy and unseeing.
"Sam?" He called out, but also reached for the other bottle of holy water just in case.
"Time… time… out of time…" Sam mumbled.
Suddenly, Sam's eyes cleared and his brother was grabbing his pants and getting dressed.
"We have to find that woman… NOW!" Sam said tersely as he threw his brother's clothes over. "It's going after her, now, tonight. It must kill her by tonight…"
"What…"
We have to find her before it does. And Dean, you're right. She's the one that got away. And if she dies… I saw terrible things happening if she dies… she CANNOT die…," Sam told his brother as he started to pull all his gear into his backpack. "We have to find her first!"
"Erm… How do you suggest we go find her at this hour of the night, Sam?" Dean asked even as he pulled on his pants and slipped the loaded colt into the small of his back.
"Bayport Nursing College," Sam answered. "Instead of going in as inheritance lawyers tomorrow, we're going to break in tonight. She's on that graduation photo, so there must be some sort of alumni record somewhere with the information we need."
---supernatural---
It was half past ten, and a young man could be seen storming out of a double-storey house located on the eastern end of Bayport. One could almost see an aura of fury and anger swirling about him as he strode down the lane and back onto the main road.
He got the wrong woman again! Where the hell could she be hiding? The creature within the human host raged. He'd be hunting her for weeks now…
It could not remember what it was, or if it had a name. It only knew that it was suppose to kill a particular woman. It failed that night sixteen years ago, and it could not remember why. It was almost destroyed in its attempt. It survived only because it stubbornly refused to die. But it was weakened, fractured, and sought refuge within this human body. For years it slept and rested, safe within its unknowing host. Only to find out later that it could not break through the power of a mother's love. Then, just over three months ago, the mother died in a car accident. And it capitalized on the sense of loss, slowly turning it into resentment and anger, fed on those fiery emotions until it successfully possessed its host.
Time… it's running out of time…
The creature could feel an inexplicable fear rising. It knew must find that woman before time runs out for it. It had no idea what happened to creatures like itself who failed their tasks, but the deep-seated fear at the thought of failure was enough to convince it that failing was not an option.
Now, where else could it look? It stopped to search its sketchy fractured memories and that of its host. He smiled and his eyes turned an opaque oily black. He turned around and headed towards Elm Street.
---supernatural---
"Down!" Dean hissed at Sam as he shoved his brother's tall frame down and behind a table.
A beam of light flashed pass several times. It was the night-watchman making his rounds. Soon, the tip-tapping sounds of footsteps could be heard echoing down the empty hallways, growing quieter and quieter until silence again rules the air.
Both brothers slowly crawled out from under the tiny old wooden table, brushing the dust from their jackets.
"Found what we needed yet?" Dean asked.
Sam returned to the last cabinet he was fiddling through.
"Her name was Laura Avallach… here's the folder… now where's the contact address… 'Look under Laura Hardy'. Darn! Now, where are all the 'H' files kept? Here it is," Sam muttered as he continued searching through the new cabinet for 'Hardy, Laura'. "And… here! Address… address… Got it!"
"We better head out before the night watchman comes back for the second round!" Dean whispered back and the two of them swiftly sneaked out of the building and back to their car.
"Okay Sam, where to?" Dean asked as he started his car engines.
"77 Elm Street," Sam answered. "And I have a feeling we better hurry…"
---supernatural---
Fenton stood outside the Gogh's Farmstead and watched his team go about their work. He already had a very bad feeling that his forensic team would find nothing that would help identify the killer. That thought was actually more terrifying than it was frustrating. And Fenton knew it was in the way this murder was committed.
The killer left footprints, clearly, showing the path he took to Mrs. Gogh's room. The son, Vincent Gogh, was in the house, just like in the Carson case. And just like the Carson case, he ran up to his mother's bedroom when he heard a scream just in time to see his mother pinned to the ceiling before exploding into flames. The heat forced him out of the bedroom. But not before he saw the shadow of a young man leaping out of the window. By the time Vincent raced down to the ground and opened the door, the killer was gone, leaving behind nothing but a vague description that could fit anyone above six feet in height. The phone line as usual was cut – burnt. So Vincent had to drive two miles to the nearest farmstead to place that call to the police when he realized his cell phone was somehow also damaged.
The killer's growing bolder, deliberately leaving clues to taunt his pursuers; the investigative team noted that with dread. Usually when that happened, the killer starts to get careless. However, that also meant that more would die while the police wait helplessly for the killer to make his first mistake.
He rubbed his eyes tiredly. He had taken a cursory look at the crime scene, checked that everyone knew their job, and interviewed the lone witness. There was nothing more that he could do here. In the meantime, he should really head home and grab a good night sleep. He had no doubt he would have a long hard day tomorrow. And he really wanted to be home, to feel his wife snuggling against him safely in bed. He headed towards his car.
His cell phone rang. It was Ezra Collig. He picked up the call.
"We have another murder tonight. Mrs. Eliza Hall living on 24 Maple Drive… Both parents were murdered this time," Ezra said and added in a grave tone. "The two officers keeping an eye on the house from their car only realized something happened when they saw the fire coming out of the bedroom window."
Fenton felt his heart missed a beat. Eliza's dead. The killer stuck twice tonight. And why not three times? Laura…
"Ezra, I need to go home now," he told his friend. Ezra would understand that he needed to check on his family.
"I've already radioed some officers there. And I am heading there myself right now… and Fenton," Ezra hedged.
"What aren't you telling me?" Fenton demanded as he opened his car doors and searched desperately for his keys.
"We lost contact with Officer Murphy and Officer Brown who were keeping an eye on your place…"
---supernatural---
The creature approached the stately house located on the corner of High and Elm Street. There it stood for a moment observing the house that it had been into several times and recalled the locations of the doors. She must be the one! It thought. She's the last one with blonde hair left in that photograph. It could feel excitement tingling down its host's spine. Yes, it told its host, no one else should have their mother when his was gone, ripped from him by a most cruel accident. And it watched in macabre satisfaction as the muscular teen started up the pavement and headed towards the back door.
"Stop where you are, and hands in the air," a deep male voice called out softly and firmly. "Then turn around slowly."
It halted in its track and stayed still for a moment to scan its surroundings. That was when it spotted the patrol car partially hidden by the shadows of a tree with its extensive peripheral and night vision.
"I repeat, put your hands in the air and turn around slowly."
It could now see that there were two of them with their guns pointed at his host. It smiled. The host's eyes turned black. In an incredibly fast move, the teen turned around and swept his hands before him. The older officer was lifted into the air and then thrown forcefully onto the windscreen of the patrol car as the other younger officer watched, frozen in shock. A second later, the younger officer was in the air and landed two hundred feet away, his neck at an awkward angle, and his sightless eyes staring at the stars twinkling merrily in the sky above him.
Then it continued its journey towards the house. A flick of its mind, and all security wires, including the phone line was burnt off. Another push with its mind and the back door opened.
It stepped into the house and made its way to the master bedroom.
---supernatural---
In the master bedroom of the Hardy residence, three people were sleeping fitfully. The mother slept, buried under her quilt on the king-sized master bed. Her sons slept in their sleeping bags on the floor in the space between the bed and the bedroom door. The clock on the wall read half past eleven.
Suddenly, a pair of eyes snapped opened, the vivid blue orbs staring straight and hard at the shadows dancing eerily on the ceiling. Then it shifted to the walls, the door, and finally the windows. The light from the street lamps filtered in through the windows, casting dancing shadows of tree branches swaying in the night breeze just outside the window.
Joe sat up slowly, his heart pounding hard in his chest. Something woke him up, and it was not those shadows, he knew. It was something he heard. The softest of a dull and muffled 'thud', as if something heavy was dropped on something hard some distance away. And there, he heard it again! Then there was the slightest rustling beside him and he knew Frank heard it too.
"Wake Mom up and call 911," Frank whispered as he reached for his father's handgun.
But Laura was already awake. Unlike her sons, she never slept. She was too worried to. And the sound of her sons moving and whispering had already alerted her to the fact that something's not quite right.
"The line's cut," Laura said after picking up and phone and noting that there was no ring tone.
She had expected that anyway. So she reached for her tazer and quietly slipped out of bed, joining her sons down on the floor.
"Seems like all our cell phones are fried too," Joe added wryly as he went through all their cell phones.
"Don't worry," she told her sons. "If the killer breached the doors, he'll trigger the alarms and help will be here in minutes. We'll be fine."
Laura did not really believe in her words. She knew the Dexter's and Mariner's homes were breached despite the top-notch security systems installed. But saying it made her feel like she was doing something. And doing something helped calmed her.
Joe suddenly tensed.
"He's in the house," he said.
"The alarms did not go off," Frank noted calmly as he moved swiftly and quietly towards the bedroom door to check that it remained locked.
"Now moving through the kitchen… he picked up a knife from the drawer… at the stairs…" Joe continued his monologue.
He did not bother to ask Joe how he knew. That was irrelevant at this point. He knew from the case notes that the Dexter's and Mariner's home security system was totally disabled before the women were killed. Then he stilled.
…creak…
The three occupants in the room held their breath and stay totally still as they strain their ears. They could not be sure if they just heard something. A fraction of a second crawled by, followed by the rest of it.
And there was the sound again.
Crrreeeaaak…
"He's coming up the stairs," Joe said.
Frank removed the safety catch on his father's handgun. Joe reached for the second gun that his mom just removed from the drawer by the bed. He swiftly checked that it was loaded, and then removed the safety catch.
"If there's any shooting to be done, it will be by me," Frank told his younger brother. There was no need for both of them to get their hands bloody, and being big brother, it was his duty responsibility.
"Frank…" Joe started to protest, but…
Crrreeeaaak…
"Dammit Joe, just listen to me this time, okay!" Frank hissed back as he moved forward closer to the door.
He placed himself behind the wardrobe where he had some cover and a clear view of whoever comes in. The killer would have to get pass him first before reaching his brother or his mom. Joe pushed Laura behind the old dresser, and shielded her with his larger frame. It was true that the killer used knives, but his many successful escapades from the very competent and experienced officers of the law told the brothers that caution was paramount.
They waited, hearts pounding loudly in the deafening silence. Seconds dragged by as if it were hours.
Then the door knob started to turn just so very slowly.
Frank slowly lifted his arm and aimed the gun at the door.
The door knob stopped turning. It hit the lock, Frank noted. A side-long glance told him Joe had noted the same thing, and also had his gun trained on the door.
Silence resumed.
Frank could feel the sweat gathering on his brows. He had no idea why he felt so threatened. After all he had faced down many hardened criminals with his brother, including a number of professional terrorists and assassins. But this… this felt… different.
The door knob started to turn again. This time, it did the full turn, as if the door was never locked in the first place.
Whoever that person was must be an expert lock-pick, Frank marveled, he was even quieter and faster than Joe! And Sam Radley, who taught them both that skill, swore Joe's a natural at it. The best he had seen.
Slowly, the door opened.
Frank applied the lightest of pressure on the trigger, and make sure the gun was firmly pointed at the doorway.
A shadow slipped in.
There were three quick and deep indrawn breaths as they recognized the intruder.
"Martin?" Laura gasped.
It could not be! Laura thought. Martin Greenwood was the sweetest boy around, and was good friends with her sons. He and his mother were always helping out at the aged shelter, and a talented wide receiver on the school's football team. Until three months ago, when his Mrs. Greenwood was killed in a hit and run accident. There were talks about him being offered a sports scholarship as well. Why would he go around killing people? There must be some mistake.
"You! It must be you! There's no one left," Martin growled as he advanced on the woman, a knife held loosely in his left hand.
"So why don't you tell us why you're going around killing all those women, Martin," Frank asked calmly as he slowly stepped out from behind the wardrobe, his stance relax, as he prepared to move in to take down the person he once knew as Joe's classmate, his friend and their team mate on the football field.
Joe pushed his Mom behind him as he noted Frank moving in to intercept Martin. Then he noticed that the knife was held in the left hand… but Martin's right handed. He took another closer look at the face and paled. The eyes… He shouted a warning to his brother, but it was too late.
Frank never had a chance. One moment, he was reaching out to disable the teen and the next he was shoved back violently and pushed against the wall. And to Joe's and Laura's disbelieving eyes, Frank stayed there on the wall.
Joe automatically lifted up the gun, ready to shoot. He did not hesitate – this was not a situation to debate the ethics and consequences of shooting to kill. Still, it wasn't fast enough. An invisible force swept his hand aside and the bullet ricochets harmlessly pass the black-eyed killer and buried itself in the ceiling. Next he knew he was in the air, and a sharp pain radiated up his back as he bounced off the bed, crashed onto the wall, and stayed there.
The creature quickly cornered the woman, a wide evil grin lighting up its otherwise inhumane expression.
"You escaped your fate for sixteen years," it grated out in a harsh dry voice through its host's mouth. "I did not know how you survived all those years back, but tonight, tonight you die..."
Laura backed into the wall, her heart racing in terror, as the creature reached for her neck. She saw what happened to her sons, and her mind was still trying to work itself around to accepting what she saw. She was already half paralyzed with terror. Then she gagged as she felt the cold hands on her skin.
She could feel the sharp edge of the knife against her stomach as the hands tightened around her throat to prevent her from moving. Suddenly, Martin let out a strangled cry of pain and his gripped loosened. Laura took the opportunity to gather her frozen nerves, and jabbed her tazer into Martin's stomach.
The creature, shocked by whatever hurt it from Laura's neck, retreated instinctively. Next it knew a high voltage current was coursing through its body, disrupting its focus. It let go of the two teens it held against wall using only the power of its mind. A series of disjointed images flashed through its mind. The creature smiled. It knew what it was now. A demon and a very powerful one; it could not remember its name for now, but it was confident it would remember later. And it had a plan, one that would shake the balance of power in two worlds. That woman was a mother of one of those special children that it was harvesting for its master plan… They would not get away today…
Frank and Joe both felt the pressure on them eased, and next they knew, they were falling towards the floor. Frank did not know what exactly happened. But he still had enough sense to know when not to fight a losing battle. Martin was already recovering – unbelievable. He reached over to drag his mom with him. From the corner of his eye, he saw Joe reached for the gun near him and turning towards the door.
"Joe! Frank! Get out of here… Now!" Laura screamed at her sons as she pushed past the killer and head towards the door.
The door slammed shut on them. Then all three were pulled back into the room again. Frank recovered first and tried to take Martin down with a flying tackle. He ended up on the ceiling for his troubles. He watched horrified as Martin made to stab his mother.
Joe inserted himself in between the knife and his mom. To his surprise, the knife did not pierce him. Instead, Martin held the tip of the knife at his stomach, leaned forward and stared him in the eye. Joe felt as if those black oily eyes were reaching into his mind and going through his thoughts and memories. He felt like puking, but could not. He wanted to move, but could not. That was worse than the worst nightmare he ever had and remembered.
Then the demon smiled a nasty smile.
"I liked Sammy a lot, but I think I'm going to like you too, Joey…" The demon said before carefully moving him aside and pushing him against the wall before returning his attention to Laura. "Too bad you still have to die, mommy…"
The demon lifted his knife and prepared to strike again when the door burst open. He swiveled around and was shocked to find himself staring into the barrel of that one weapon on Earth that could kill him. Fear of death obliterated all thoughts as he moved desperately aside. The bullet flew past him and shattered the glass window behind him. Anger coursed through him. He roared his fury and everyone was thrown violently backwards against the wall; they all collapsed half stunned on the floor. The remaining windows shattered under the force of the demon's psychic outburst.
The demon ripped the gun from Dean's hand and threw him against the dresser. The elder Winchester brother landed on a pile of broken wood with a painful groan. He ignored Sammy started to reach out for Frank.
Time… out of time… the words reverberates through the demon's mind again.
There was a time frame within which he must kill that woman, he suddenly remembered. Or else… or else what? It could not remember, but knew the consequences could not be good. He turned to throw his knife at Laura, aiming straight for the heart.
---xxxSUPERNATURALxxx---