Seren watched it closely. It looked to be a heart, pumping at a melodic pace. It writhed with blood, seemingly floating in midair. The blood swirled on it. She couldn't stop watching it, no matter how hard she tried.
She still couldn't take her eyes off of it when she felt a new presence with her. Seren wondered if she was dreaming. A cold shiver down her spine told her she wasn't. This had to be real. A sharp nail scraped lightly down her arm. It wasn't enough to scratch. It was only hard enough to scare.
"What is that?" Seren spoke. She tried to make her voice confident, but it only reflected her internal emotions. Her voice was shaky, a clear sign she was nervous. The presence laughed. It sent another chill down her spine.
"Isn't it obvious?" the presence spoke in a voice eerily similar to Seren's. It wasn't scared or riddled with anxiety. It was a voice that was cold and calculating, but it was still Seren's voice.
Seren took a deep breath. This was a dream. It had to be a dream. Sam and Dean assured her that nothing could get inside of the Bunker. The Bunker was a safe haven that could keep anything out. The presence laughed again.
"You believe that? You believe that the Bunker is safe enough to keep you out of your own mind?" the presence laughed. It was mocking Seren. She squeezed her eyes shut to keep its words out of her mind.
"So this is a dream," Seren bit out. Her eyes remained shut. She didn't want to see what the entity was doing. Closing her eyes wasn't any different from keeping them open. It was still as dark as it was before, but there was no heart to show her something was there.
"No," the presence said idily. It grabbed Seren's chin, forcing her to look up at it. Somehow, through the darkness, she could see it. "Little Seren, lost in her own mind. I pity your foolishness. It hasn't changed since your time in Hell. You never were the most mentally strong. That was always Charlotte."
Seren's breathing began to become erratic. Charlotte. How did she always come up in conversation? She didn't mean to do it. She didn't mean to. It didn't matter anymore, though. What's done is done. Seren couldn't change anything now. Her time in Hell was over.
"Get out," Seren said slowly. "Get out of my head."
Her voice had become raspy. Air whistled in and out of her nose. She wished that she could remain calm in everything she did. She couldn't remain calm, however. Not now. Not while this thing was there. She'd regain composure when she was back to reality.
"This is reality," the being hissed. Seren's eyes snapped back to it. "This is reality. That's your heart. Look at it bleed. It's mesmerising, isn't it? Remember when you used to rip out people's heart? The blood would dry on your hands, and the others would have to tell you to wash it off. You never wanted to wash it off, but you did. You loved the look of the rust colored water as it ran down the drain. You were always the one who brushed off your own pain on other people.
"But that still didn't make you mentally strong," the entity almost sang. It leaned away from Seren. "You were still weak in the head. So many weaknesses. I'm surprised they kept you in. Maybe it's because you were a sadist. Should I say were or are? I don't know. It's been so long since we've had a meeting like this."
Seren grasped at her head, clutching her hair between her fingers. "Stop," she pleaded. Her head felt like there was a knife repeatedly going through it. Seren didn't know how much more of it she could take until her head split in two. The entity persisted with its taunts.
"I guess being reborn really made you weak. The demons tried everything to continue to control you. Sometimes I still wonder how you managed to escape. They were very tight with security down in Hell. You should've brought me with you. I think we would've had a lovely life up there where we wouldn't have to worry about who was going to be thrown in the Ring next.
"You just had to go alone. Thought anyone else would just slow you down. I guess you were right, but that doesn't make you alright. There are still a lot of girls down in Hell just waiting until you get back down there so they can rip you piece from piece over and over and over again. Because in Hell, you don't get another chance like the one you did. You wasted your chances," the entity hissed.
A tear fell from Seren's eye. She wished it would stop. Had it not had enough mocking her already? It had to do something soon. Seren wouldn't mind if it killed her already. A thought ran through her head wondering if her head or the entity would kill her first. Seren didn't really care which one killed her first. Whatever killed her just had to do it fast. She just wanted mercy at this point, no matter if that mercy sent her to Hell.
The entity clasped her jaw again. "You think you deserve death? You're wrong, girl. You're wrong to think you'd ever get anything like that. You haven't done it yet. Once you finally do what you were sent to, then I'll kill you. It won't be fast, either. It'll be nice and slow, just how I like it. You're at my mercy."
When Seren opened her eyes again, blood was running down her face from her nose. She got up quickly, and her lungs felt restricted. She stumbled from her room and into the bathroom, clutching a towel to her nose. She looked around the bathroom as tears fell from her eyes and blood fell from her nose. Seren groaned to herself at the sight of a bloody handprint on the doorknob.
She was lucky enough that she didn't wake up either of the Winchester boys. She was especially glad she didn't wake up Dean. God knows what he would've done. They would've wanted to know what had happened. Even she couldn't explain it.
"Your nose should be done bleeding by now," a new voice spoke. Seren gasped, her heart skipping a beat. She looked wildly around the bathroom until she saw Castiel standing by the bathtub.
"I... didn't mean to frighten you," Castiel apologized. Seren bit her lip, waving it off. She took the bloody towel off of her nose. When her nose didn't start bleeding again, she put the towel down in the sink.
She turned the knobs, making a note to herself to clean all the blood off of everything. "It's okay," she spoke quietly. She scrubbed the blood off of her hands and arms, then tried to wash a little bit of the blood out of the towel.
Castiel observed her quietly. The Winchesters spoke of how she could be fiery at times, but Castiel couldn't see it. She looked paranoid. Her eyes were wild and her hair messy. She couldn't be that threatening if she looked scared of anything that crossed her eyes.
"Is there something you need?" Seren questioned quietly, rubbing the blood off of the sink. She dried it off with a clean towel. With the wet towel and dry towel in hand, she began to follow her path back to her room to clean off any blood she left behind. God knows what either of the Winchester boys would do if they saw blood all over the halls.
"I just wanted to make sure you were alright," Castiel said after a moment's hesitation. His blue eyes followed her every move as she got on the floor to wipe a drop of blood off of the ground.
Seren stopped her movements to look up at him. She had a slight frown on her face, her eyes big and wide as they looked up at him. "Why do I feel like you're lying?"
She wasn't wrong in that feeling. He was lying. Castiel hadn't come down just to make sure she was okay. That was a thing reserved for Sam and Dean. He came down to analyze her. The boys had told him of her freakouts. They had told him of her sometimes unnatural body temperatures. Only a few hypothesi came to mind, but he would not tell her of them. He came down to tell Sam and Dean, but she was a distraction.
Castiel wondered if Seren knew that she praid in her sleep. Sometimes he would hear desperate calls and pleas for someone to help her. No one ever did. There was something about Seren that kept all angels and other divine beings away from her. She held the presence of Hell, but she was no demon. She didn't seem to hold power, either. Therefore, she wasn't worth the kill.
"I need to make sure you're not a threat. I've dealt with angels and demons before, Seren. I want you to know that if you ever try to cross Dean or Sam, I will personally take care of you," Castiel warned her. His voice was cold and unfeeling. Seren got the point of his words. He didn't care about her. He only cared about Sam or Dean's safety. She was just another one of their pity cases to him.
Seren took a breath for a minute. Silence overcame them while they analyzed each other. "Are you threatening me? Or is this a fair warning to get out of the Bunker and never make contact with the Winchesters again?" she questioned. She didn't dare look away from Castiel's eyes. She would not lose their staring contest.
He didn't bother answering her. She knew which one it was. He meant both. The Winchesters had their own fair share of shit-shows to deal with. They didn't need hers. Castiel was telling her to get out because he knew that she was collateral damage. She was dynamite waiting to explode with Sam and Dean in the vicinity.
Castiel would do anything to protect the boys he had come to watch over. He defied heavenly orders and fell from grace for them. He was too far in this to let them die at the hands of a girl who didn't know who she was.
In the end, it was Seren who lost the staring contest.
/
A/N that is now a thing. i am trying to update more frequently because school is now out. since i started this so long ago and i really need to finish it, it is now my goal to update at least three times a week. hopefully sometimes there will be more.
seren's having a few troubles with her own mind, castiel doesn't like her, and i really need to go back and edit this book because i hate how short the first few chapters are and i intend to make them longer and more organized. i'm probably going to finish this and call it a draft, then completely rewrite it as a different book, post it, then delete this because this is the definition of trash.
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO ARE ACTUALLY FOR SOME REASON STICKING WITH THIS PIECE OF TRASH!