Disclaimer: All characters appearing in any of the stories posted here are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. I do not, in any way, profit from any story posted here and that all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
Chapter Four
Pulling into the Carnival, Bella had to shield her eyes from the harsh sun, she felt Sam stand next to her left and cast him a wide eyed glance as a three-foot-tall woman in a crazy costume passed by them. Sam and Bella both look at each other.
This was the weirdest job ever.
Bella hadn't been to a Carnival in a long time. Not since Renee had taken her when she was ten and she'd gotten sick after eating two cotton candy's and riding the swings. She shivered at the memory.
It was when Dean strolled up, chomping away on popcorn, that interrupted her thoughts.
"More murders?" Sam asked with a frown plucking a bit of popcorn from Dean's bag, he popped some in his mouth before opening his hand to Bella in an offering gesture. She grabbed a few pieces and mumbled her thanks.
Dean frowned and threw a piece of pop-corn at Sam's head before speaking, "Two more last night. Apparently they were ripped to shreds. And they had a little boy with them." he said and Bella winced.
"Who fingered a clown." Sam stated nonchalantly.
Bella coughed, and tried not to choke on the popcorn. Both she and Dean stared at Sam as if were crazy.
"What?" Sam questioned as he noticed their stares.
"You…." she started, unsure of what exactly to say but Dean cut her off, getting back to business.
"Yeah, a clown, who apparently vanished into thin air."
Sam tilted his head a bit, moving his hair out of his eyes before speaking. "Dean, you know, looking for a cursed object is like trying to find a needle in a stack of needles. They could be anything."
"Well, it's bound to give off EMF, so we'll just have to scan everything." Dean pointed out.
"Oh, good, that's nice and... Inconspicuous." Bella put in lowly. Seriously, how did they plan on running around with an EMF meter and not get noticed. She kicked the dirt in front of her but didn't add to her original comment. Dean must have thought of something because she could hear the slight grin in his voice as he spoke.
"I guess we'll just have to blend in." he said, nodding his head toward a 'HELP WANTED' sign.
Bella was already shaking her head.
There was no way she was going to work at a Carnival
As it turned out, Bella didn't have worry about that because Dean had sent her off to look around the Carnival while the Hardy Boys on steroids went to speak to Mr. Cooper.
Of course she really hadn't wanted to work there, but for him to not give her a choice, to make her walk around in circles doing nothing while they were on the job?
Why was she even here?!
Her temper was flaring.
There was no point in her being here! She wasn't doing anything! She wasn't helping anyone! And she sure as hell wasn't learning anything other then how to be pissy to everyone.
Throwing her dollar fifty down on the counter she grabbed her cool soft drink and stumbled on through the Carnival.
And she was by herself. What loser went by themselves to a Carnival?
Apparently she did.
Bella sighed and took a rather big gulp of her orange soda as she walked past the Merry-Go-Round.
Why couldn't Dean be more like Sam.
…easygoing. Was that such a difficult thing to ask? She didn't think so.
Over the next fifteen minutes she tried her hand at different games.
If she had to walk around by herself she would at least enjoy it a little.
She lost at all the games she tried except the one where you throw darts at the balloons. It was because of that win that she now carried large, pink llama in her left arm and a new super sized Orange soda in her left.
It hadn't turned into a total waste after all.
"Bella?" a voice questioned a head of her. Pausing mid-sip she glanced up to see Dean lifting a brow and walking towards her.
"Find anything?" he asked as they started to walk side by side. Bella hid her blush as being caught, well, doing nothing.
"I'm not even sure what I'm looking for, but I'm gonna say no. " she answered primly as she took another sip, before tossing it in a bin they passed by, then adjusted the pink llama.
"Fine, you seen Sammy?" he questioned as he ran his hand over his head.
"Not yet."
Its quiet between them and only the sound of giggling kids, ringing bells, and Carnival music stopped it from being dead silent.
Bella once again shifted on her pink llama. If I focus on this, maybe I'll forget about the awkward silence I'm standing in the middle of. she thought with little humor. She spared a glance at him, the frustrated set of his eyes, and the tense lines around his mouth showed that something was up.
He opened his mouth, but closed it quickly, shot her a quick look before looking away.
"How long did you know my dad." he finally blurted out after a minute of trying to catch flies. Bella looked up at him quickly, shocked that he would even mention it.
"About a year," she stuttered, then gave a paused, she made a face, "I know a year doesn't seem like a lot of time, but it seemed like much, much longer."
Imagine what he felt like, that was his father.
"And you were friends," Dean prodded a little more, as his tense face looked anywhere but her.
"Yeah, I mean, sure he was a grouch at times, but he…" she trailed off as her chest tightened, as did her grip on her prized pink llama. She felt, rather than saw, Dean pause and turn toward her.
"He what?" he asked, and as she looked up at his eyes, the swirling mixture of emerald glass and the obvious pain he tried to hide made her throat constrict. She looked down at her scuffed chucks.
"He saved me." was all she could say. She knew she wouldn't be able to fully explain just how much he'd saved her.
She'd never be able to explain what he meant to her.
Dean nodded his head jerkily and cleared his throat as they begin to walk again. "Yeah, he was good at that."
"Oh! Beautiful couple!" a deep accented voice rumbled in front of her, interrupting their friendly walk and startling her enough to almost drop her pink llama, a rough hand latched onto Bella's wrist, the other hand latched on to Dean's. "Beautiful couple want a picture!" the grimy man grinned showing his discolored teeth. Bella recoiled as Dean gave the man a small shove away from them.
This had to be the most unnerving place ever. Bella thought as she readjusted her pink llama and cast a look at Dean, who looked for once, just as awkward. The Carnival was someplace she would be happy never to return to. The loud screeching sounds, the horrible smell, the long lines, the people who didn't believe in personal space.
The tall familiar form of the younger Winchester moved in her line of sight, Bella let out a relieved breath and poked Dean's side.
"Dean, there's Sam," Bella told Dean before walking in Sam's direction. She could feel Dean walking slightly behind her.
"What took you so long?" Sam questioned as they finally caught up to him.
"Long story." Dean supplied with a wave of his hand.
"Mommy, look at the clown!" all three of their heads turned simultaneously to look at the little girl.
She was pointing at something.
"What clown?" the girls mother questioned the child.
Walking over slowly and peeking in, they realized that the little girl saw nothing. Bella fought off chills.
They space was empty.
"Come on, sweetie, come on." the mother shushed the child.
Bella, Sam and Dean all spared each other a glance.
"Like that's not creepy at all…." she frowned.
Not surprisingly Bella was mad.
Why did he even go along with what Bobby wanted if all he was going to do was shove her aside and make her stay put every time they had something to do?
Why did he have to be such a jerk. He obviously didn't think there would be anything useful at the Carnival if he'd told her to stay by herself.
Twice.
The place was so busy, so many people packed in, pushing and shoving. Loud cries of small children as they rode a 'scary' ride and the overwhelming smell of fried food wrapped around her. So after stashing her pink Llama in the van, she kept walking though, intent to do her job. She would keep an eye out. One never knew…..especially with her, when danger may pop up.
A quick staccato of percussion, loud and deep demanded her attention. Bella bit her lip slightly and looked around her for the source. Seeing nothing but faces, she walked toward the sound, each step she took the louder the sound came. It was faster now. Harsher. She quickened her pace and turned a corner. The beats quickly stopped abruptly and a subtle light tinkering of notes in a soft, haunting, yet entrancing melody took its place.
Fire
Fire, was the first thing Bella saw in the opening.
Dancing fire…
The next thing she saw was the tall man that seemed to dance with the fire. He was thin, lanky, shirtless, with a shock of the blackest hair she'd ever seen pulled back into a tight ponytail, high cheek bones, and dark azure eyes that seemed to glow red in the reflection of his dancing partner.
Bella watched mesmerized as he twirled the fire around and around. It was amazing. She watched entrapped by the slow movements and the peaceful look on his face. She didn't even notice when her gaze locked with his.
"Fear." he spoke, his voice low and rough, his lips quirking as he looked away from her. Bella furrowed her brow. "Do you have it? Do you feel it in your bones?" he spun around and flipped the one stream of flame to two. "What do you fear?"
Bella was to frozen to move. Was he talking to her? She let her eyes flick around her. No one was paying attention, everyone else seemed to be in line for some ride or some bad food. Bella looked back at the man and tilted her head.
"Do you fear death?" he questioned twirling the flames at different heights. "Why is it that we fear death? Is it the unknown? Why, if it is the unknown we fear, then we must fear everything, for everything is at one time, unknown." pieces of his inky hair fell loose and fell around his face, but he paid them no mind, instead let his dark eyes focus back on her.
What is going on? As confused as she was, she couldn't find it in herself to move.
"Or yet, Love. So powerful. So intriguing. So full of…. " the man flipped the fire once again and it turned to four separate flames. "fire and passion." he moved toward Bella, but so captured by his words and the dangerous dance, she didn't back away. He looked intently in her eyes. "Ah, yes, so afraid, so you shy away from the flames, away from the heat that feels sooo good. You fear being left in the shadows of the night, cast away from those dancing embers. You shy away, afraid you will get burned"
Bella swallowed, as her heart pounded. The man tossed the fire around and it went back to only two flames.
"You've been burned before. Did it leave you as smoldering ashes? Did the smoke ever lift?" he questioned and spun the two flames at an amazing speed.
"But you want the heat, don't you darling. You crave the flames licking at your skin. You don't want Ice do you? You want fire!" his voice was so soothing, so soft yet so strong. Bella's face flushed, and she wasn't sure why. Never taking his eyes from there locked position with hers he let go of the spinning flames and caught them as they merged as one, he continued to twirl the fire.
"Yet you fear all the while, embracing the flames. But embracing the flames…" he made a quick motion with his hands and the fire went out before he placed his hand near his mouth and breathed a few feet of fire. Bella shut her eyes cringed back, startled by the sudden burst of heat. But a low voice smelling of liquorish, breathed in her ear.
"but that's the part worth living, my dear."
Bella spun around only to see nothing.
The man was gone.
Placing a hand against her forehead, and the other against her racing heart, Bella glanced around trying to spot the mystery man with the flames.
What just happened?
Bella walked, or jogged through the crowd, her eyes darting around almost frantically trying to find him again, to ask him why he spoke to her.
This was insane.
Who was he?
A firm hand grasped her shoulder making her yelp and spin around, her distress etched clear across her face. A small bit of relief pooled into her chest, right next to the most miniscule amount of disappointment.
"Whoa, you okay?" Dean asked her, his features furrowed. Bella took a deep gulp of air and nodded with force.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." she stuttered over her words. She looked up at him, to see his green eyes darting over her featured to try and gauge if she was lying or not. He either believed her, or had other things on his mind, because he nodded his head.
"Come on, we think we know who it is." Dean said as he walked forward past a few tents.
"What is it?" Bella asked as she followed him.
"Rakshasa." he answered, and they briskly turned another corner.
"And that makes sense to me?" she replied as she tried to keep up with out falling. She heard Dean get his breath.
"It's a race of ancient Hindu creatures, they appear in human form, they feed on human flesh, they can make themselves invisible, and they cannot enter a home without first being invited. They sleep on a bed of bugs and have to feed a few times every twenty or thirty years. Slow metabolism, I guess. To kill it, legend says, a dagger made of pure brass, and there ladies and gents is the wiki-Dean version."
Before Bella could open her mouth to respond Sam meets with them, not stopping just matching their stride.
"We think it's Cooper." Dean finished before halting and turning toward her and Sam, "I'm going this way, for the brass, you two can check Cooper's bunk." he didn't leave it as a question and he left no room, or time for argument as he turned and jogged the other way.
Bella tossed Sam a look, who in return just shrugged his shoulders, and walked forward toward Cooper's trailer. Bella looked around nervously.
"Think maybe I should be lookout?" she whispered, and while it may have been reluctant fear that had the words spilling from her mouth, they did make sense. Sam shot her a look and shook his head, and began to pick the lock.
How did people do this kind of stuff? Bella was a nervous wreck, all sweaty palms and shifty eyes, a dead give away that she was up to some unscrupulous activity.
She was sooo going to get them caught.
The door opened slowly and they walked through quietly. Bella looked around at the dark place. While it was somewhat odd, it didn't really look like a monster den. She looked at a few things on a shelf as Sam pulled a pocket knife and began to slice the mattress open.
Ew, he meant it literally when he said 'slept on a bed of bugs'. Bella pulled a face, but froze completely, her eyes widening as she heard a gun cock behind them. She looked to Sam who had also frozen.
I told you I should have stayed as looking out! she shouted at him in her head.
Turning around slowly Bella saw that the gun was pointed at her. She felt as if her whole body tightened.
"What do you think you're doing?" Cooper growled. Bella raised her hands in the air and looked at Sam, her eyes widening as an idea struck her. Not giving herself time to talk herself out of it, she walked over to Sam and slid an arm around his waist.
"Just looking for a, a um, quiet place..," she stuttered, feeling the hot blush creep up her neck. She glanced up at Sam and he threw her a nervous smile.
"Sorry, man." Sam offered.
"You get outta here before I call the police!" Cooper ordered, his head hitching toward the door. Without another word Sam was pulling Bella out, jogging away from the trailer, and to the approaching form of Dean.
"Hey! Hey. So, Cooper thinks that we're pervs, but it's not him." Sam explained casting Bella a look, and attempting to catch his breath a little.
"Yeah, so I gathered. It's the blind guy, he's here somewhere." Dean informed them.
"Well, did you get the -" Bella tired to ask but was interrupted.
"The brass blades? No, such luck sweetheart." Dean said, tacking on that annoying 'sweetheart' just to ruffle her feathers. She kicked a small could of dirt at him and glared.
"I got an idea. Come on." Sam tossed in before taking off leaving Dean and Bella to chase after him.
All this running was going to get tiring.
Running around the corner Bella saw where Sam was running, and she was not pleased.
The Funhouse.
Gritting her teeth Bella jogged inside, false confidence in her step, stopping short when she crashed into Dean's back. As she tried to move back and mumble her automatic apologies the loud slam of a door separated Dean and Bella from Sam. Both of them shot forward and began pressing and pounding against the door.
"Sam!" Dean shouts and redoubles his efforts, Bella doing the same right beside him.
"Dean! Dean, find the maze, okay?" Sam yells back and Dean huffs before spinning around to her.
"Come on!" he urges and grabs Bella's arm and pulls her through the funhouse.
Later Bella wouldn't have been about to explain how they found Sam through all the mirrors, tricks, and corners they went passed. She wouldn't have even been able to say how long it took them, but when She and Dean turned one last corner she can see Sam at a pipe organ the is billowing stream through the room, he is pulling on the pipe, cringing at the same time from the heat.
"Hey." Dead greeted beside her while her eyes darted around the room.
"Hey! Where is it?" Sam panted the question.
"I don't know, I mean, shouldn't we see its clothes walking around?" Dean put in as he moved further into the room.
A slight glimmer of light grabbed her attention, realizing what was happening, Bella gave Dean a shove, pushing him over just enough so that the flying knife, pinned his sleeve to the wall instead of his chest. Pushing herself away from the wall, she watched as another knife barreled toward him with amazing speed, she watched as Dean threw himself to his left to avoid being impaled, only to slam his head against a pipe.
Bella sucked in a sharp breathe, her pulse racing, a galloping heart rate that raced at uncomfortable speeds. Ducking down and sprinting across the room, Bella rushed to him and checked his pulse.
Please! her mind screamed at her. Yes! More then just finding a pulse, he was slowly coming around.
Bella's head whipped up to look for Sam and she spotted him immediately. Pulling the pipe all the way off and moved very slowly forward. Bella looked around nervously, but yelped aloud as a knife whizzed past his head, and he moved to the side quickly.
"Dean, where is it?" Sam questioned, still not having seen them on the floor in the corner. Bella's throat convulsed, and she gave Dean another glance, willing him to get up faster.
"Dean's out of it right now, Sam." she informed him her voice a little high, her brown eyes trailing around the room. There had to be something. Anything.
Her eyes widened as she spots the lever on the next wall, springing up, Bella ran over, pulled the lever. A light hiss sounded all around her as more steam pours from the pipe organ. It was then that she saw the vague shape of the clown.
"Sam, behind you! Behind you!" she gasped out and pushed herself against the wall.
Sam shoved the pipe behind him, impaling the Rakshasa with out looking. As a quiet thump sounded through the room, Bella pushed herself away from the wall and walked back over to Dean to help him stand.
"Ugh." he groaned grabbing his head, by then Sam had made his way over as well and they all looked over to where it had gone down, only to see empty clothes and a bloody pipe.
"I hate funhouses." Dean groused. Bella couldn't help but nod enthusiastically.
It had been a nice ride back to Bobby's. It had been a quiet one. As Bella thought back on her first active hunt, one thing stuck out above all the rest.
embrace the flames….
…that's the part worth living, my dear
That mysterious fire dancing man, and his confusing words to her. What was she to make of it? Was she just supposed to forget about it and act like it never happened? For some reason, that she couldn't even explain to herself, the event wouldn't be forgotten.
The long creak of the back door made her wince and turn her head around. Dean met her look, and walked across the porch and settled next on the next stair with a beer in his hand.
"You weren't so bad out there." Dean offered as looked out across the trees.
"Thanks." she acknowledged, with a nod of her head. Her hand came up and pushed some of her dark hair behind her ear then play with the ends.
"Sure."
Bella leaned against the side railing and exhaled. Here she was once again, sitting on that creaky back porch with a Winchester. And even if it wasn't John sitting next to her. Dean wasn't so bad. He was just going through a very hard time. Her mind reeled back ten months ago when things changed forever for her.
She remembered the pain, the overpowering, suffocating and completely full body pain that she felt.
She remembered the regret.
Bella swallowed and blinked her eyes against the memory and looked at Dean.
"My dad died." she whispered, the wind seemed to carry her voice, making the words so much louder. She looked out across the lawn but she saw Dean tilt his head toward her. She pushed passed the aching lump in her throat.
"He died because of me. Something I did caused his death. John…." her voice was shaky and she wrung her hands together in her lap. The words hut to say, it was like prodding the gapping whole in her chest. "When I said John saved me, I meant more then just the first time I met him." Bella turned her head and deep brown locked with glassy emerald. "Don't ever doubt that I cared about him."
Bella didn't dare look at him, afraid of what she might see. So keeping her eyes locked on a bird that landed on a random log, she tried to not notice him staring at her. And in a move that had her eyes watering up from nostalgia, Dean bumped his shoulder against her.
"Well you didn't get us killed, and you're not dead. Maybe you wont be such a pain to work with. " He said before passing her his beer and disappearing back inside.
Bella looked at the brown bottle she held in her hand and couldn't stop her lips from tugging into a small, but genuine smile. Taking a small drink, she thinks, maybe this won the so bad after all.
A/N: Once again, thanks to all you guys! You're awesome! I seriously didn't expect such a nice response! I hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter, we got a little more info on Bella's past, the next will be coming soon. :-D
