Chapter 10
Part 1
Sam looked out into the hotel lobby as he had done the first time. But this time the surprise he got was for other reasons.
He looked around him but there was no sign of the blue-eyed girl.
He took a quick look behind him but he couldn't find any trace of the closed door.
However, he knew he didn't have time to worry about that now. How ever hard he had hit her Anna would be back on her feet…hopefully so would Alice.
He started making for the main entrance when he froze.
The security guards from last time were already there. Their bulky frames sealing the doorway.
He turned his gaze next towards the glass doorway that he had gone out with Alice. He could see it across the lobby. He would have to cross through the lobby and make towards the main doorway if he was going to reach it. But with some luck the lumbering giants would not reach it in time to stop him.
He started fast walking towards the glass doors, even as the two guards crossed the threshold into the lobby.
The lobby was as usual filled with a sprinkle of people, enough to create the illusion of a packed hotel.
However, things were different this time. To Sam's surprise the guests were no longer oblivious to his presence. Instead they all turned towards him when he reached the centre of the lobby.
Worse, he saw their eyes and they were the same as the two guards; milky white and blank.
They started lumbering towards him, they're hands stretched out; reaching for him.
He turned towards the guards. They were still someway away from where he was but still he would have no time to run around the guests.
He had no choice. If he wanted to make it to the other side, he would have to go through the lobby and the mass that filled it.
Sam took a deep breath and charged into the centre.
They were on him as soon as he was close enough.
Going for his neck; going for his body. They were either trying to pin him down until the guards got to him or they were trying to kill him. Sam realised that killing him would not have been a problem. They could always bring him back and wipe his memory. Would make things a lot easy for them.
The guests were like ants.
They were starting to overpower him and he struggled to get free of them.
He managed to get one hand free and used it to push and punch.
The flesh his hands contacted felt real.
Yet, though he was attacking them, they didn't change their actions. They were still trying to subdue him or strangle him. None of them seemed intent on defending themselves.
It didn't take Sam long to realise why not.
All the guests he knocked down were back up soon enough. Joining the pack and returning back to their previous act as if nothing had happened.
The two burly security guards were now closer and he was barely halfway through.
If he had hoped that a mass of bodies that converged upon him and circled him in a think mound of flesh would form some hinderance to the guards he was wrong.
The minute they neared the outer rim the people broke off letting the guards enter without any troubles.
It was like wading through quicksand for Sam, and just like quick sand he was drowning.
The guards were almost on him when he finally reached the glass doors.
He feared they might be closed but for his fortune he found they were open. He remembered what Alice had said before.
The words 'Hotel California' popped into his head.
'Was that true?'
'Or was that just another lie of hers?'
He didn't have time to worry about that now. Instead he ran out of the hotel and down the path that led to the forest.
He had a plan, or at least a vague notion of one.
He would head towards the waterfall and then follow the river it created to wherever it leads. He had no idea which way he would go, but one thing he was certain of was that it would lead sooner or later out of the hotel.
As for the waterfall, all he had to do was follow the path.
He looked back for a second.
The guests were all staring at him from beyond the glass doors. It was a good sight. It meant that they had no power outside the hotel. What concerned him was the two guards.
Sam didn't run.
He waited watching.
Until he finally saw the front line part and the lumbering giants made their way into his view.
He waited anxiously.
However, nothing happened.
The guards too stopped and just stared back at him.
Sam then turned and ran towards the forest.
The forest was not what he remembered it from last time. It was not bright and cheerful. There were no sprinkles of light falling like fairy dust. The forest he saw was more akin to what he was used to.
Weeping willows and dark menacing oaks circled around him. Twigs like skeleton hands reached out to him threatening to snare him in their iron grips. There were roots peeking out of the ground, promising to twist his ankle if he dared not worry where he went. The dark canopy high above was thicker and barely let any light through to the ground below.
Yet, on the forest floor grew smaller plants, and the grass was thick and spread across nearly the entirety of the floor. Covering in some parts, like a bald man's head, the path he was depended on.
Sam stopped running and shifted on to a fast walk.
As hurried as he was to get to the waterfall, he didn't want to risk a fall that would make escape harder.
He kept his eyes focused on the path ahead. Careful not to wander off even slightly. The forest grew thick and like the houses in the neighbourhood showed no marks he could have used to find his way through.
He was trying to remember how long it had taken to reach the falls the last time. But then he was too busy being awestruck by Alice to notice time passing by. His thoughts wandered to that time. But they didn't get the chance to linger too long there before a sound interrupted his thoughts.
The forest, like before was silent. Though the silence now was eerie and not peaceful like last time. So that the sound he heard came clearly and he had no troubles recognising it for what it was.
The bark of hounds…
As dangerous as it would be to trip and fall, Sam knew that worse was to get caught to the hounds.
He kept his eyes down on the path ahead. Fighting the urge to look back where the barks came from.
The limited light that fell through helped in no measure to the task and the adrenaline that helped him before hindered his vision now. He saw almost as if in flashes the footpath in front of him.
Sam's heart beat hard against his chest, and he felt his muscles ache. He felt fatigue creep up on him and the overwhelming desire to stop and take a break. Sweat poured down from his forehead and on to the wounds that the twigs and branches across his path had made. Sending surges of immense pain through his body. But they also fell into his eyes and blurred his vision.
He wanted to wipe the sweat off but his mind seemed fixed singularly on one task, and was uncooperative with anything else.
As much as Sam wanted to stop, knew he would have to soon enough. The sound of the Hellhounds on his track kept him going.
Fear of tripping and falling was kept at bay by the terrifying sound of the hounds.
Sam didn't know why he ran.
What he hoped to accomplish by trying to escape.
These were Hellhounds.
They were relentless.
They would never tire; never give up. They would hunt him to the ends of the earth.
'Sooner or later he would have to confront them, and when he did, would he survive?'
While Ruby's knife could kill a Hellhound, he had no doubt there would be more than one at his heels. So, even if he managed to get one, if they all attacked at once, he would still be done.
For a second Sam considered the possibility of giving up and letting the Hellhounds get to him. Be done with all the pain and misery he had endured.
Who knows, if Anna and the others were adamant about needing him to keep Dean, maybe they would pull him out of hell. Maybe even wipe his memories and leave only the happy life he had been denied.
'Would that be so bad?'
Just when Sam was ready to give up he heard something in the distance.
He heard the call of the Elysium Falls and it felt like the song of the siren beckoning him to his own doom.
The sound of the Hellhounds felt closer and Sam found himself running again; faster than before. No longer was he concerned about watching where he was running. He had only one thing going through his mind and it wasn't even his thought.
He once again reached the familiar opening in the forest. And the familiar roar of the falls greeted him.
He ran through without stopping or slowing down and found himself once again in the same familiar open meadow.
He stopped and stared at the falls before him. Its roar now deafening the barks of the hounds pursuing him.
He felt at peace and safe.
When he had reached the mouth of the clearing he had expected Elysium falls to take on the same gloomy and sinister tone that the forest had taken. But instead he found it unchanged from what he had seen before.
Sam found himself gazing once more, frozen in place, just staring at the magnificence of the falls.
Then his eyes wandered away towards the stepping stones that Alice had once used to reach the island throne.
Sam didn't know what compelled him to run towards them or what made him believe that the falls would protect him. But the memory of what Alice had told him about the falls, how she felt near them, drove him. Somewhere deep inside of him he felt that the falls would never let anything bad happen to him or any one else while in its purview.
Maybe it was the way it had remained as if blissfully unaware of the changes that were taking place in the rest of the city.
Sam rushed towards the stepping stones.
He hesitated only for a second before leaping on to the first stone.
He felt the soles of his shoes slip on the curved surface of the wet rock.
He felt his body tilting towards the crystal blue waters.
Somehow though he managed to keep his balance.
He heard the sound of the hounds.
Even above the falls he could hear their bark and he knew for certain they were close by.
He looked over his shoulder, the act itself almost tipping him off, and towards the tree line. But he couldn't see anything. Though he felt them there watching him from the edges.
Sam continued. Leaping from one stone to the other.
Memories of Alice flooded into his mind. He remembered how she had done it, how she had never hesitated nor stopped. Moving fast until she reached the other end. Sam knew that was the secret. Though he didn't have the grace of Alice, he followed her step and discarded any concern of falling and then rushed towards the island.
His feet barely touched the throne island when he heard a voice call out to him.
It startled him and almost tipped him over.
He turned carefully and found his eyes falling on to the familiar but grief stricken face of Jess!