Chapter 3. Love Bites
The next morning Bobby woke up to the sound of knocking at his door. He slowly got up, vision still a bit blurry, stumbling up to get his gun behind his back and then went to check the peep-hole.
Sam and Dean were standing outside arguing about something, Bobby felt like not opening the door because of their bickering but he did anyway. "We went to check out the Roadhouse before we got here." Dean said. Bobby tossed his gun on the bed and it landed gently down.
"Yeah?" Bobby asked as he returned to his bed sitting on the edge of it. Sam placed In-n-Out on the table by his bed. "Did you find out anything about why it's been reopened?"
"Not really." Sam said. "All it says is that the 'roadhouse has been reopened ready for businesses and it's been getting great ratings."
"Yep." Dean added. "It was great, they had this hot bartender, they even have this band just for the bar, great singer, she was pretty hot herself and uh—"
"She wasn't hot." Bobby said annoyed.
"You just said hot." Dean said getting a look from Bobby. "I mean … who do you mean?"
"Nothing, never mind." Bobby got up and went to get himself a burger out of the bag. "Has anyone been reported dead since I got here last night?"
"No, I checked about an hour ago, no one's died, or been reported dead or missing." Sam replied.
Bobby stumbled back on his bed but quickly got balanced and sat up eating his cheeseburger.
"Bobby, you don't look to good." Dean said. "You have a rough night or something?"
"…or something." Bobby muttered.
"What's up?" Sam asked.
"Everything…" Bobby replied. "It doesn't matter; I'll deal with it after we find out whatever is doing this."
"Alright, we'll leave once you're ready." Dean said.
"I'm not going." Bobby said back. "I'll stay here and do some research."
"So you're not going?" Dean said getting more and more confused and impatient with Bobby.
"Bobby, is there something you aren't telling us?" Sam asked.
"It's complicated." Bobby replied sounding like a little kid with his arm folded in the other while the other held a burger.
"Complicated… Bobby from what's happened to us these past years and a few months ago with Cas, complicated isn't really an answer, so what's up?" Sam pressed on.
Bobby hesitated for a moment and thought how he would put what was going on through his mind in words. "Well…" He began. "Balls…" he muttered finding it harder than he thought to actually say it. "Her name was Mary and I think her daughter is the lead singer."
"That's it?" Dean asked. "You don't want to go because you got the hots for her mother?"
"No, idjit!" Bobby snapped. "I have a bad vibe about the place, about her … she's too much of a spitting image of her mother not to be… that don't matter, listen you two and listen good, I'm staying here but if you need my help, well, you know what to do."
"Okay…?" Dean said feeling unsatisfied with Bobby's answer. 'At least now we don't have to stay in this awkwardness…' Dean thought.
BOBBY'S P.O.V.
Back to the night of July 4th; we drove for hours on end around the quiet town, I think she purposely did it to show me that night was different from day, so much different. I think it was Van Gogh who said it once "I often think the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."
The only reason I knew that quote was because of Mary of course but Van Gogh was right.
That was the first time I saw the night come to life with its dark and silent colors and scenery.
Mary stopped at a top of a hill that over looked the whole town it was miles away from the town but that's where we were watching the town gleam below us. We got out of her car and sat at the edge eating beef jerky and drinking beer.
"Happy fourth of July, Bobby." She said to me with beef jerky sticking out of the side of her mouth.
"Happy Independence day…" I said hardly believe it really was something to celebrate, it wasn't some teenage rebellion thing it was just our country has been a country for almost two hundred years now and we're still at war, what's the independence in that? I mean sure we've got our country and we're safe but if we are so independent if we are so free why aren't we free of war?
I'm only so bitter about it because of my brother who died a few years back because of war and fighting to keep our country's independence.
"Hey dumbass." She said catching my attention. "You're going to be okay without me, right?"
"Of course, I was alright without you before, you just wouldn't leave me alone." I joked she punched me playfully on the shoulder and let her body fall back on the ground and looked up. "Van Gogh man…" She trailed off. "He was right, either he was on LSD or he was right… maybe both." She laughed and I laid down next to her our feet dangling at the edge.
That became my spot for the next few years when ever I felt like yelling I'd yell it was until one day that it became Karen's spot too. I never wanted to bring anyone except myself and if by any chance Mary came back her, but one day Karen came along and changed that.
Karen was head strong and got what she wanted with one intimidating glare. "Bobby Singer you come back here!" Karen said to me one day angrier than I have ever seen anyone.
We had a science project and it was seven months after my mother passed away I was eighteen years old.
"Leave me alone Karen." I said. "I'll get my half done just go away."
"We're science partners, Bobby." She said. "We have to make a speech for our presentation." She trailed off or at least I wasn't listening I got into my 1970 Chevelle. Just as I got into it she slipped into the other seat and buckled herself up refusing to leave.
"I'm staying." She finally said after we sat in the car yelling at each other for five minutes. Karen was different we always got into arguments and of course she always won, well usually.
"Fine, it's your funeral." I told her and drove like a crazy drunk. Karen didn't show any fear if she did have any she did a great job at hiding her true emotions.
As we made it out of time she spoke. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Up there." I said pointing at the mountain with my one free hand.
"That's an hour away from here." She said. "By the time we get back it'll be dark."
"So?" I said smugly.
That kept her silent for another half hour but after that half hour she spoke again with a gentler voice this time. "Everyone talks about you now, ever since Mary left and especially now that your mom's passed away, they say you go up there and scream your lungs out because you're crazy."
"They're right." I said she quickly turned to face me. "About me screaming my lungs out…" I added. She nodded. "Not the whole 'crazy' thing."
"Why?" She asked, in all the years since Mary left no one ever asked me why.
"I'm not sure." I said after a while. "I just feel … free." I laughed at the word.
"What?" Karen asked smiling in a way someone would smile a bit confused.
"Freedom, independence…" I laughed. "I feel free there, really free."
Once Sam got out of the Impala he accidentally tripped over the motorcycle parked next to them. "Be careful!" A biker said Sam straightened himself up. "That's a classic chopper man." The biker was your typical stereotypical biker but with less leather and more denim. Sam looked down at the cherry red Harley Davidson. "Sorry." He told the man.
"Yeah you better be."
Dean laughed at Sam and got a quick blow to the gut as they went to go into the Roadhouse.
Sam and Dean walked into the quiet bar, there were only six other people beside themselves, Craig who was bar-tending and Marla who was serving the drinks and cleaning up.
"You two actually came back." Marla said as she walked back to the bar with two empty cups.
"Yeah, we just needed to check up on our friend." Dean said. Marla nodded and took the broom off from where it was leaning on the bar stool.
"You should have brought him along." Marla said. "The more the merrier." She smiled sweetly as she cleaned the floor next to the stage.
"Maybe next time." Dean said. "Our friend Bobby, doesn't really like to drink though."
Sam tried to suppress his laughter but it came out as a bit of a choke and cough. "Is your friend sick?" Craig asked a bit grimly.
"No, at least I don't think so." Dean said giving Sam a glare.
"I hope he don't." Craig said. "People have been getting sick here and ..." Marla glanced over warningly at Craig cutting him off.
"'And...?' and what?" Dean pushed on.
"It's just-"
"Nothing." Marla said.
"We should tell them, I mean we owe our costumers that much, Marla." Craig said.
"Fine." She said sourly making Sam and Dean give short glances at each other.
"A few weeks back people started getting sick and dying, they were getting feverish, or so they think." Craig began after a short cough then Dean sat himself comfortably down on a seat while Sam leaned on one of the arches. "I was in the car with my friend Max..." Craig trailed off for a moment. "Then he just started to flip, I saw this fire inside his eyes, literally, and he sort of melted inside, when the blood flooded out his mouth it was hot as hell man, like boiling water and it was drying up really quickly."
"Then what?" Sam asked.
"That's enough for today." Marla said after sweeping up the mess off the ground and throwing it into the trash bin.
"Two beers." Dean said.
"What?" Marla asked.
"We want two beers." Dean pressed on.
"How about a whole pack and I'll let him tell you the whole story." Marla replied.
"Fine." Dean gave her money and she got them a round of freshly brewed beer.
"I can't believe your using Max's death for money." Craig said.
"He would have done the same thing with either of us and I wouldn't fucking mind." Marla shrugged.
"Can we hear the rest of the story now?" Sam asked. "In no disrespect to your friend Max."
"Tell us more about the 'fire' you saw in his eyes." Dean said before Craig began again.
"It was like those charcoal things in the grill when you go barbequing in the park, you know what I mean, it was just where his pupils were though." Craig told them.
"How many other people died that way beside your friend?" Sam asked.
"As far as I know it's only been Max and Linda." Marla told them after Dean finished chugging down the beer. "Good huh?"
"Yeah." Dean said. "It's kind of sweet."She poured him another beer.
"Whose Linda?" Sam asked getting their attention back.
"The blonde he was flirting with last night." Marla said and gestured to Dean.
"That's a shame." Dean said. "She was really-"
"Save it." Marla said and took a cigarette out from her coat pocket. "I'll be back." She left the Roadhouse and Craig began to speak again.
"Anyway I know at least seven other people beside them have died that way." Craig told them.
"Seven?" Dean asked; Sam gave him a look and they both understood there was more to what they were dealing with than what they found out, whatever it was, was getting sloppy.
"Yeah." Craig replied at that moment as if on cue Marla walked back into the bar, everyone looked over to her she looked furious.
"Out." She told Sam and Dean. "Get the hell out!"
"What's got your panties in a twist, sweetheart?" Dean asked.
"Cut the cute, and get the hell out before I call the cops." She retorted.
"What's wrong?" Craig asked.
"I know what you are." She told them, Craig gave her a look. "Folks," Craig said. "We're closing early today."
The people on the other end of the bar shrugged and left. "I love drunks." Marla laughed.
"Wait, what's going on?" Dean asked.
"You two are hunters, aren't you?" Marla said as she swiftly reached for her knife at her back pocket, Sam and Dean armed themselves quicker than she did though, guns in front of them, one pointed at Marla the other at Craig who now held a double barrel.
"From the weapons I'm guessing you two are hunters too?" Dean smiled mockingly.
"Ex-hunters." Craig said. "But I guess out of impulse we got this place rebuilt and working better than before."
"Location, location, location." Marla smiled. "My mother was a hunter and it was because of other hunters that she died, now I know you may think you're doing the right thing by trying to find and kill the human-torch but you aren't."
"Human torch?" Sam echoed.
"That's right sweetie." Marla said. "The thing that's been killing these people, the reason the Roadhouse burnt down in the first place."
"No, we knew the people here." Dean said. "That's not the reason."
"Wait...what?" Marla asked. "You knew the Harvelles'?" She slowly loosened her grip on her knife.
"I'm guessing you knew them too?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, sort of... my mom knew Ellen way back when... but whatever you think was the real cause gentleman, it wasn't."
"What was it then?" Sam asked, Marla looked to Craig to tell the story he put his double barrel down on the counter and folded his arms as he leaned down on the counter.
"The 'human-torch', Ellen and Jo were on its trail, really close, but something went wrong and it found it's opening when they left town to go look for it, demons were attacking the place and boom, as a warning it brunt the place down."
"Son of a bitch." Dean said. "I swear when I find that thing I'm going to fry it's ass."
"It's ass is already fried." Marla said. "Besides why get so worked up over the Roadhouse being burnt down?"
"Because our friend Ash was in it while it burnt down." Sam explained to her.
"What?" Marla said almost screaming. There was a cold silence that was broke when Craig fell to the floor suddenly. "Craig?" Marla screamed the three of them ran over to him as he began to choke on his own blood. He lips burnt as the blood spilled out of his mouth, it steamed and his skin boiled like french fries being deep fried.
"Craig...!" Marla's nose was red and she tried her best not to cry but she did anyway. She held tightly onto him her own skin being burned in the process.
"Let go of him!" Dean screamed at her.
"NO!" She retorted. "He's my best friend!"
"It's okay..." Craig managed to say.
"No... no, please Craig no!" She screamed.
"I'll be with Max now." Craig said.
She laughed between sobs still not letting go. "You're too gay sometimes." She told him before he smiled at her for the last time and fell lifeless quickly getting colder and colder.
Marla removed her hands from Craig's body and Sam and Dean helped her get something to put on them. Her burns were bad but she wouldn't be able to hold anything for a few days.
"That's fucking it." She muttered as Sam bandaged her hands.
"What?" Sam asked.
"Whatever that thing is it's been following me my whole damn life." She told him, my mother, my husband," she gave a smile. "Carter," then trailed off. "...I find out that Ash was in here when it burnt the place down, and now this!"
"Calm your tits." Dean told her. "Listen, you can't go after it guns blazing when you can't even hold a gun."
She closed her eyes impatiently and opened them again after a moment. "Then what do you think I should do?"
"We have a friend, his name's Bobby Singer, I think he can help you find it, but you have to come with us." Sam told her gently, she nodded.
"I just need to lock up."
Within five minutes they were headed off to meet up with Bobby.
BOBBY'S P.O.V.
I couldn't understand it at first; Karen put up with me all the weeks we were supposed to do our project but that moment when we were up alone on the hill Mary and I had been on a few years back I understood, Karen cared, she was as warm hearted as any other girl underneath the up-tight attitude she always showed.
"You see that over there." She pointed to the Laundromat right next to the water tower. I nodded. "That's were my mother got out of the car and kept on walking, my dad never went after her until he realized she wasn't coming back, it was too late when he realized though."
"I'm sorry." I said. There's a difference between having someone you love die and having someone you love leave, it hurts more when they leave because some part of you believes that even though it's sad that they're dead at least they're at peace. When they leave it's a whole different thing.
"It's fine, I hated her guts." Karen told me. "She left because she kept saying how bad my father was, he wasn't perfect but I know he was way too good for her, and maybe it's just cause I'm still a kid but I hate her, I always will."
There was this awkward silence that she broke with a scream I jumped back a bit because I had never heard a girl scream so loudly before, there was something amazing about it, I mean she sounded like a dying lion to be honest but somewhere in there something about not being alone on the mountain and Karen screaming because she felt that life was too much and understanding that feeling ... it was amazing.
She turned to face me with tears in her eyes. "I have never told anyone that before." She said and began to laugh. "You of all people..." she cut herself off now sobbing again I walked over to her and held her tightly, wrapping my arms around her; Karen smelled like vanilla, she was soft and felt welcoming she was so different from Mary, it felt good. "I wanted to come here to help you, but instead ... well now I'm crying and you're helping me." She laughed between sobs. "I miss her though, it's weird, how could you miss someone you hate so much?"
I knew that feeling too and it killed me to know and understand. As much as I loved Mary I hated her too, resented her for leaving and not even calling or writing these past years, I hated her for not being there when my mom died, I hated her for making my life so much better than I thought it was and letting me fall back down and further than where it was before. I hated her smile, I hated cigarettes and oranges, I hated Van Gogh, I hated a lot of things because of her and I hated her for making me hate so many good things in life. She made me bitter but slowly and quietly like a cancer Karen crept up inside of me, inside my heart and refused to leave.
I looked down at Karen's beautiful smiling face, her blue eyes, her blonde hair curled perfectly around her face; her tears fell and her skin was still somewhat damp from them, her lips were pink and before I knew it I wasn't only seeing her lips I was feeling their soft and cherry tasting lips
I was kissing her and she was kissing me back.
There are other things about those weeks with Karen and the science project that I fail to mention and also the first time we met and the first thing she told me, which was "You smell like ass!" That was because I called her fat, but I didn't mean it in a bad way, she wasn't, I just said "if you keep eating all that food you'll get fat."
Karen was so much more than woman could ever be, no one could ever replace her, and even now that she's gone she's still refuses to leave my heart and I don't mind one bit.
This chapter was a bit sloppy and I know and I'm sorry! A thanks to LastBishop :)