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Goodbye Is Never Forever
Chapter Six: Confession
Wilmington, Ohio — 07:11PM.
Dean followed Alison's car for hours, only becoming more and more curious by the second. From the short distance he kept behind her car, he could clearly hear the music baring through her open window. Any time she had stopped for gas, to pick up some food or a drink, there had been nothing but a smile on her face. She looked happy, like she didn't have a care in the world. A million different scenarios had crossed his mind as he drove, and he still couldn't even begin to think of where she was going. He honestly had no clue. All that he knew was that she was driving in the complete opposite direction of California. Dean had always thought he knew everything about his little sister. He knew her every facial expression and her every emotion. He knew when she was upset, even if there was a smile on her face, he could tell clearly when she was lying, at times it was as though he knew her better than she knew herself. He could read her like a book. Or so he had thought.
As he drove behind her, he tried to think what could have changed so dramatically in her life to make her the way she was now. When he had left, there was nothing that Alison wouldn't tell her family. She was like an open book. Sure, if something really bad happened, something that truly hurt her, she would close herself off, but someone, usually him, would always get it out of her in the end. She never fought too hard to keep anything a secret, not the way she was doing now. It just wasn't like her. Alison had never been a liar, not to this extent.
He and Alison had always been so close, they had been more like best friends than siblings. If something happened she would tell him, that was the way it had always been, so why was she so closed up all of a sudden? Why was she fighting with everything she had in her to stop him finding out what she was doing, and where she was going? He had a feeling he wasn't going to like what he found when she actually did stop. Was she in some kind of trouble? Was she in danger? Why was she fighting him? The two of them never fought, ever, not each other. They fought other people, together. If Dean was in a fight with someone, Alison backed him up, whether he was right or not, the same as he did for her. But they didn't fight each other. Until now.
It was as she pulled into the parking lot of an old, run down motel, that he finally lifted his foot from the gas pedal, thanking god that she had finally stopped driving. It had been over ten hours since she had set off, and it crossed his mind, was this where she was headed all along, or was she simply stopping because she was tired? He looked around, he had no real clue where they were, he'd lost track a long time ago. The motel seemed remote, and if she hadn't stopped there he was sure he wouldn't have even noticed it. He was pretty sure that neither of them had ever been there before. But, it seemed too random for her not to have known she was heading there. So what was she doing there?
He watched as she climbed out of her car and headed over to the reception office, pushing her sunglasses to the top of her head as she did, and sat there until she had checked herself in. She took the key to the room from the man behind the desk with a smile and headed out again, returning to her car. Dean ducked down slightly to ensure that he wouldn't be seen, and waited until she had pulled out of the parking lot before straightening himself up again.
"What the hell are you up to, Ali?" he asked, shaking his head to himself as her car turned a corner out of sight. He was beyond suspicious.
Dean climbed out of his own car and headed over to the reception office. He pushed open the door and stepped inside. The man sitting behind the desk gave a brief glance up at him from behind the newspaper he was reading, but said nothing, simply returned his attention to the pages before him. He cleared his throat in some attempt to gain the man's attention, but nothing. "Hey." He spoke, and with a heavy sigh he dropped the newspaper to the desk. "The, uh, the girl who just checked in here, which room is she staying in?"
The man frowned a little, confused. "And, you are?"
"I'm her brother." The man looked him up and down, dubious, and scoffed. "What's the problem?"
The man shrugged. "You tell me, pal." he muttered, voice gruff. "You could be anyone."
Dean narrowed his eyes at him for a moment, debating the idea of fighting a confession out of him. He had come too far not to find some real answers. His attention fell to the book lying open on the desk, and his eyes quickly scanned the page. Even upside down, he could clearly see that his sister's name wasn't on it. Although, her handwriting was. Next to the words Room Six, she had written a name — Ashley Scott.
"You know what, forget it." Dean stepped back and offered him a smile. "Doesn't matter."
Dean headed out of the office and towards the rooms. He glanced back over his shoulder through the bright sunlight, just to ensure that the man wasn't watching him, and he came to a stop outside of the door. He tried the handle, sceptical, to find it locked. Closing his eyes, he knew what he had to do. He wasn't proud of himself, but it had to be done. He turned and headed around to the other side of the old building. The motel looked crappy enough to take the chance. He ducked under the window of the office and found the path around the back of the rooms. The grass there was overgrown and almost reached his knees, but he barely noticed. He found the room he was looking for and smirked, stepping forwards and pushing on the bathroom window. For a moment it didn't budge, and he was certain he was going to have to go and sit in the car, but, with a harder shove, it opened, and he found himself climbing through it.
He stepped out of the bathroom and into the room, flipping on the light as he did.
He was in, and she was busted.
Now it was just a case of sitting and waiting for her.
Wilmington, Ohio — Motel Room — 08:13PM.
There was a smile on Alison's face as she pushed open the door to the motel room, one which instantly faded at the sight of the man sitting on the end of the bed closest to the door. Her face completely dropped, and she looked torn between running back out of the room and fainting. "What the hell are you doing here?" she asked him, glancing around the room, and he knew she was making sure that it was just him there.
Dean smiled at her, smug, because he knew that he'd caught her out. "I could ask you the same thing, Ashley."
Her face paled at the name. "What?"
"Ohio." he pondered, standing from the bed to face her properly. "It's hardly California State." Alison opened and closed her mouth, she was lost for words. "I told you this wasn't over, Ali. I think you forget, I've been your age, I'm the one who taught you how to lie to mom and dad. You can't get this stuff past me. So, come on, what are you up to?"
"Dean..." She tried to say something, but, he could tell, she couldn't find the words.
He narrowed his eyes at her, trying to work out what was going on. Even there, knowing that she had been caught out, she still couldn't tell him what it was. That's how he knew, it had to be bad. "Please, god, tell me you aren't some kind of prostitute."
Her head snapped up at that. "What?" she exclaimed. "Why would you even ask me that?"
Dean shrugged. "Well, why the hell else would you be checking into some seedy motel under a fake name? Huh?" He shook his head at her. "Normal people don't do that, Alison."
Alison sighed, shaking her head to herself, and shrugged. What did he expect her to say? She stepped further into the room and dropped the bag she was carrying to the floor before she shrugged out of her jacket, tossing it carelessly to one of the beds. "I can't believe you followed me up here." she muttered, more to herself than to him. A part of her was more annoyed at herself that she hadn't even noticed the same car behind her for the past ten hours. "Kinda stalkerish, don't you think?"
"Well, you didn't really leave me much of a choice, did you?" he said. "I mean, did you honestly believe that I was gonna let you go running off alone like this? Thought you knew me better than that, kiddo. So, come on, you already know you're busted. Spill it. What are you hiding?" He narrowed his eyes at the bag she had dropped beside the bed, almost out of sight, as though she had wanted to hide it before he had noticed it. It wasn't the one she had left the house with that morning. "What's in the bag?"
"Nothing." she muttered, as though it wasn't a big deal.
"Really?" he pressed, dubious. "Looked pretty heavy for a bag with nothing in it." he commented. "Show me."
"What?" She huffed a laugh. "No."
"Alison." he warned. "Show me."
"Are you kidding me right now?" She scoffed. "You wanna search my bag?"
Dean's face was like thunder. He wasn't screwing around anymore. "Do I look like I'm kidding?" he asked her. "So, unless you want me to haul your ass back to Kansas with me right now, hand it over."
Alison sighed, reluctant, but picked up the bag all the same. She was already busted, it was going to come out eventually, it might as well be now. She dropped the bag down onto the bed in front of him and took a step back with a shrug. "Knock yourself out."
Dean narrowed his eyes at her for a moment, before he turned his attention to the bag before him. He opened it, he didn't know what to expect. He wasn't all that sure that he even wanted to look inside it, but it was the only way that he was going to get any answers. What he saw inside it was the last thing he had ever expected. He pulled it out, eyes wide, and looked to her. "This is a gun." he stated simply. "Why do you have a gun? How did you even get a gun?" He dropped it to the bed and turned his attention back to the bag. "Oh, and not just a gun, a shotgun, too." He pulled out something else, raising his eyebrows. "Bag of rock salt." he commented. "That's...normal."
Alison closed her eyes, it was almost painful to watch. "Dean—"
"Lighter fluid." he said, pulling a bottle out of the bag and tossing it to the bed. "And, a packet of matches."
"Dean—"
"Wow, Alison. Just, wow." He looked from the bag to her and shrugged. "What the hell am I supposed to make of any of that? You know, I didn't think it was gonna come to this, but I am literally begging you, what's going on?"
It took Alison a long moment to respond to the question, she looked up at him, and her eyes found his, pleading with her for some kind of an explanation. "You really wanna know what I'm doing here? Fine." She looked down, shaking her head slowly. "I'm hunting a ghost."
Dean blinked, and then blinked again, frowning as though this time he really did think that she had lost her mind. For a moment he was sure that he had heard her wrong, that she was screwing with him on purpose, but her expression didn't change. She had to be messing with him. It was all one big joke, that's all he could put it down to. "A ghost?" He raised his eyebrows, anything but impressed. "Really? That's the best you can come up with?" He scoffed. "Look, Ali, if you're doing something you shouldn't be, you know I wasn't serious, I won't tell mom and dad, just, come on, give me some credit."
"I wasn't kidding, Dean." she stated bluntly. "I'm hunting a ghost."
It was as though she really believed what she was saying to him, and it was starting to worry him ."Ghosts aren't real, Alison." he told her, and he stepped forwards, pressing the back of his palm to her forehead. "Are you feeling okay?"
Alison rolled her eyes at him. "You see, this is why I didn't wanna tell you. You think I'm insane." She smacked his hand away from her face and frowned. "I'm fine. I know what I'm talking about." But he didn't look the least bit convinced. He quirked an eyebrow, sceptical. "Look, I'm not crazy, alright? I'm not deranged, I'm not screwed in the head."
Dean simply looked confused. "Alison—"
"I knew you wouldn't believe me." she muttered, she almost sounded hurt, disappointed. He never questioned her, on anything, if Alison said something, generally, he would believe her. He never doubted her and he never asked for proof. But, even she knew, this time it was a step too far. It was too much to ask him to believe. "You know what, you think I'm nuts, stick around. You'll see."
"Oh," Dean huffed a laugh. "I'm not going anywhere, Alison. Don't you worry about that."
With a sigh, Alison dropped down heavily to sit on the bed. "I can't believe this is happening." she murmured.
"You and me both, sister." Dean commented. He sighed lightly and moved to sit down on the bed beside her. He softened slightly. "Look," His voice was calmer, quieter. "Whatever you are doing here, whether you're hunting a ghost or not, I'm guessing you're not doing anything tonight, right?" She glanced up at him and shrugged. "Right, so how about tonight we just forget all of it and just hang out, huh? We don't have to talk about any of this until tomorrow. And, don't get me wrong, you are still so, so busted. But I don't wanna stay here all night in a fight."
Alison nodded slowly. "Yeah," She smiled. "Sounds good."
