I've done lots of work with the plotline, and I realize it'll take some 'building up' for it to really become a good plotline. I'll make it as interesting as I can; I'm actually excited for this story.
Thank you so much for the review, too!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs.
Life With You
Chapter Two: Back in the Ring
September 7, 2012
Mariah made the stupid mistake of acting completely independant and strictly business when around other hunters. She didn't realize her behavior would follow her and leave a trail of assumptions.
She was always expected to act tough and fearless, and dive head first into any situation without hesitation.
But Mariah could never hide the fact there will always be a time when the dam breaks, and everything floods out.
Which was exactly why Mariah preferred working alone. The pressure of feeling like she needed to live up to standards was overwhelming, and letting someone down was something that would not go well on Mariah's part. It would eat at her until there was nothing left.
People just assumed Mariah Daniels was some emotionless killer, which is exactly what she didn't want to be. And now, her goal was to change that aspect about herself.
Perhaps more collaborative hunts would help.
Until recently, Mariah never once cried of the death of a monster, even when she made a mistake that could have been easily avoided if she just listened. There had only been a few times Mariah let herself shed a couple tears when she couldn't save an innocent life. Or when she made a mistake that costed the life of another.
And it only made whatever situation worse, when someone said, "You can't save everybody, Mariah."
Those words never helped anyone.
If someone asked, Mariah would be completely unsure on how to describe her feelings about the now-solved-problem revolving around Cooper. If anything, Mariah knew for a fact she was not being strong about this, at all. A mere thought of Cooper doing something as simple as running around in the house made Mariah nearly break down into a sobbing mess.
From the start, Mariah didn't want to believe that her best friend was a monster, but as soon as she touched him with the knife, Mariah knew what had to be done. No matter how many times she'd deny it, and how many times she'd try and convince Dean that Cooper could change, everyone in that room knew what the right decision was.
And that was to shoot Cooper.
Mariah completely blamed herself for being oblivious, because when she first tested Cooper, she had touched his shoulder with the silver knife. She never put together that shifting weight was a sign of discomfort. Perhaps she should have just touched his nose in the first place. And maybe, just maybe, she shouldn't have touched his shoulder that had nerve damage because of a dog fight.
Yet, she knew how things worked. How she never saw a burning sensation was beyond her.
But, it was probably better that way, anyway. There was a high possibility Cooper would've snapped sooner or later, and would either kill Mariah or turn her into one of them. It wasn't rocket science, but for some reason, it sure felt like it to Mariah.
She wanted there to be a possibility where Cooper survived and could have changed.
Mariah blinked and rubbed her temples. Her head was reeling, and trying to force herself to stay focused on the case she was working didn't help with the ache.
She was sitting in a small coffee shop that she legitimately just waltz into; she didn't even look to see what the shop was called. (Mariah noticed she does this often, and knows she needs to work on the habit). It was quite a ways from her house, and she was researching a case mainly to keep her mind off Cooper, even if it wasn't particularly helping.
She had gotten back into hunting because she realized she had nothing to go back home to anymore, and couldn't force herself to sit at home and wait for the next day to arrive.
Not when her house now held a bad memory, and felt completely empty.
Mariah's sudden traveling didn't go unnoticed, since her mother usually visits her from time to time. When she figured out she hadn't been in town for a while, she called. She had asked why she decided to start traveling again, and Mariah begrudgingly used Cooper's death as an excuse.
Before she was able to finish her sentence, her mother was spilling out all sorts of comforting words and apologies. Mariah just told her it was an accident waiting to happen. With his weekly escapes, he was more than likely to be hit by a car.
But, everything happens for a reason, right?
Mariah groaned.
So far, she had put together that she was hunting an Arachne. She figured she was hunting a witch at first, but with more information, she realized she wasn't hunting a witch at all.
She hadn't run into many of these particular monsters, actually, she has only run into one in her entire time of hunting, but she knew how to take them out.
Three teenagers, two boys and one girl, had gone to investigate a house three days ago that had been reported to be consistently infested with all sorts spiders, excluding any sort of abnormally large spider, and was abandoned a while back because of it.
The general idea of checking out a house that had been said to be infested with spiders was absolutely insane on Mariah's terms.
The normal possible reason for the infestation was because the house was located somewhat near a lake, but even then, spiders didn't usually infest houses.
Actually, Mariah had never heard of a spider infested house.
And Mariah was about 99.9 percent sure Arachne couldn't control spiders.
All three teenagers were attacked, but only the girl managed to make it out.
Mariah read more about the house's past, and found that it was abandoned back in the 1890's. She wasn't sure about Arachne lifespan, but there was a possibility it was the same one. Small amounts of disappearances would happen when people wandered too close to the house, pretty much giving away its location.
Mariah didn't complain about that.
In reality, Mariah had no idea why people were being taken by the Arachne; she was sure the monsters didn't eat people. There was so much more to figure out.
Mariah managed to question the girl, but she was still pretty shaken up and didn't reveal much. (She never figured out the girl's name, which Mariah regretted.) When Mariah asked how the girl managed to escape, she didn't know herself. Fortunately for Mariah, she did described her attacker as what looked like a man, but seemed to have multiple eyes.
Out of all the information Mariah received, she made sense of it the best she could, and dug deeper about the case.
"Is that Mariah?"
At the sound of her name, a strange wave of anxiety from only God knows where washed over Mariah.
She knitted her eyebrows together while scanning her surroundings through her eyelashes, her head remaining tilted down at her notes. She didn't think much of it, other than the fact it was a male voice but didn't sound familiar, and the fact there were more than a million Mariahs' in the world.
"Only one way to find out."
That sounded familiar, for some reason.
"Don't-"
"Mariah?"
When Mariah's head raised, she pretty much gave away she was shamelessly eavesdropping on a quietly spoken conversation. But, she might as well look for whoever said her name, just in case they were actually talking to her.
She scanned the café, before her name was called again, a little louder than the quiet tone from before, and her head turned left. She spotted the two who were trying to capture her attention sitting only about a few feet from her, in a booth. Mariah sighed.
Sam and Dean.
Usually those two didn't bear good news.
"Winchesters," Mariah greeted with a tight smile, her voice hiding something behind the word. She leaned her elbows on the table and grabbed her arms. She shifted her gaze between them, before her eyes finally landed on a stiff-looking Dean. "Ah, Dean. I haven't seen you since you shot my dog." Her fake smile seemed to widen as she spoke, and just played along with her false happy tone.
Dean figured that Mariah was going to bring that up, and already looked about one-hundred percent done with her. "You're not going to let that go, are you?"
Mariah narrowed her eyes at his ignorant response and gave a slight shake of her head. "Not unless you apologize."
"Apologize?" The look of disbelief Dean offered Mariah caused her to questioned why she decided to engage in a conversation with him in the first place; honestly, she probably should have just spoken to the younger of the two.
When she glanced at Sam because of Dean's inability to understand common sense, Sam just looked like he was feeling second-hand embarrassment or disappointment. It could have been a combination of the two.
At the sight of Mariah's growing frown, however, Sam piped up and changed the subject. "What're you doing all the way out here?"
Mariah sighed again and looked at her notes. "Well, after the whole incident, I decided to get back into hunting." She admitted, tapping the end of her pen against her notepad. "Especially since almost everyone in the neighborhood would consistently check on me because the sound of a gunshot came from my house." Mariah alluded, possibly hinting at the fact the brothers pretty much wrecked her normal life.
Sam looked down at what appeared to be his own notes, or a journal. "That's to be expected." Sam murmured, almost too quiet that Mariah nearly missed it. His fingers tapped against the trackpad of his laptop distractedly.
Mariah took a quick pause and gave Sam an observant look. She was confused on what he meant by that, but dismissed it. She continued on before Dean could say anything smart about eyeing his brother.
"And I couldn't really stand the fact the woman who owned the house I sent you both to was found dead with her dog lying right next to her, with a bullet in her head." Mariah spoke as if it was the most interesting thing in the world, but Sam and Dean automatically knew it was fake. Mariah's eyes narrowed. "You shot Maggie?" She asked, her voice dark with accusation.
Guilt flashed across their faces.
"Mariah," Dean began, looking as if he was preparing to explain in MLA format why he was sticking his hand in the cookie jar after he was told specifically not to.
But Mariah cut him off before he could continue.
"Don't try to explain it, Dean. It'll just make your case worse." Mariah said quietly, sounding somewhat disappointed. She removed her hands from her arms and moved to crack her knuckles, eyes averting away from the brothers and towards the door to the café.
The exit looked pretty inviting.
Desperate to rid the cloud of sadness that had been trailing Mariah for a while now, she turned back to Sam and Dean and gave a slight smile. "Other than that, I have case." Mariah went on, tone sounding much more cheerful despite previous topics.
"Arachne?" Sam guessed.
Mariah nodded. After a moment of hesitation, she stood, grabbed her notes, coffee cup and made her way over to their booth. "Scoot." She said curtly, and Sam did as he was told. Mariah lowered herself down into the seat, and went right into the case. "I'm assuming you already knew that three teenagers decided to take a trip to this house that was infested with spiders and all that crap, and that the only teen that came back was the girl?"
They nodded.
"And I'm assuming you know the main reason it became abandoned was because the spiders kept coming back, and people didn't like that very much, of course."
Both Sam and Dean could tell right off the bat Mariah was excited to be hunting again just by the way she spoke, and the way her eyes sparkled with something similar to mischief mixed with how a kid would look at a brand new toy in the toys section of a store. Honestly, it was always oddly pleasing to watch someone talk about what they enjoyed.
At least, Sam thought it was.
"Seems like a reasonable...reason to abandon a house." Dean commented absently, gazing upward as a waitress appeared and placed a plate of apple pie in front of him. Mariah could tell that Dean's mood just got about ten times better.
"Uh-huh." Still, Mariah raised a brow. "Anyway, one of the boys was apparently a spider freak and suggested the whole idea in the first place. The other two just went for the hell of it." Mariah flipped back and forth through her notes, then looked up. "Oh, and I'm just going over what the girl said. You were able to speak to her, right?"
Dean shook his head, but Sam spoke before he could. Not that he could in the first place, since his mouth was stuffed with apple pie. "No. Her parents told us to leave before we even finished introducing ourselves."
Dean made a noise of agreement after he swallowed. "She told us someone else already came by and didn't want to go through it again."
"Ah, I beat you," Mariah snickered.
Dean looked up. "What?"
"What?" Mariah put on an oblivious expression, then continued with the case before she lost it. She almost did when she took a quick look at Sam, who seemed to be over her competitiveness. But, Mariah didn't miss his small smile.
Dean didn't either, and looked completely lost.
"Moving on. In the newspaper, there was no address to the house. Hell, they barely mentioned it. The girl tried to describe where she thought she was, but I can't really relay them as directions." Mariah almost sounded apologetic. "She did say that the house was pretty much filled to the brim with large spiderwebs, most hanging from the ceiling and attaching to the floor."
Dean made a weird expression. "Gross."
Mariah's nose scrunched slightly at Dean. Honestly, she was questioning if she was talking to the same person that burst into her house two weeks ago. She looked back at Sam as if searching for the answer to her unspoken question, but Sam just shrugged.
Honestly, her impressions of them weren't very solid, as Mariah believed they still had plenty of time to show their true colors. But as of now, Dean was proving to be some sort of mellow idiot when not on the job while Sam acted the same on and off cases, which wasn't a bad thing.
"Yeah." She said slowly. "Even better, she told me she thought she saw someone insideone of the webs. That was right before she was attacked."
That caught their attention.
"Despite what the girl told you, do you have an idea where it is?" Sam asked, folding his hands on the table after shutting his laptop.
Mariah looked over at him and nodded. "It was very vague, though. So, if I'm wrong, don't blame it on me."
The sound of Dean's fork clinging against his empty plate after he dropped it pulled Mariah's attention away from his brother. "What did she say?"
"She said she saw a lake somewhat in the distance while she was running, and then said she made it to a road shortly after. When I asked, she told me the road sign she saw."
Dean looked like he was in pain by the end of her sentence. "Please don't tell me it said, road work ahead."
Mariah grinned. "That's exactly what it said. After a bit of digging, I found out the road near Pibel Lake is getting repaved."
"Well, let's get this show on the road."
Mariah was thrilled to start hunting again, and was about to get up out of her seat when her phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her back pocket and checked the notification. "Ah, crap." She breathed out.
"What?"
"What is it?"
"Amber alert." Mariah looked up. "Someone just reported another teenage girl. Not sure if it's the same place, but we should hurry."
The forest itself was pretty tedious; the trio stayed quiet nearly the entire time, and the lack of conversation gave Mariah the ability to hear everything around her. From the birds that flew over head, to the sound of their own footsteps. The noises weren't abnormal, but felt weird.
Everything gave off a weird vibe, as if something was watching them. Watching Mariah. She supposed it was just nerves; the ones hunters got every time before they engaged in the 'action part' of the hunt.
But maybe it was just Mariah.
They were walking in a single file line, Dean, Mariah and Sam in that order. It gave Mariah the weird advantage of glaring at the back of Dean's head just because she still couldn't look at him without distrust in her eyes. But even then, it was just something to do, since they've been walking for how long?
Sam could obviously tell Mariah was glaring up at Dean; she physically tilted her head up and her figure stiffened. He didn't mention it though, Dean seemed to know he was being stared at. Every now and then, he'd take a weird step.
Getting bored of her petty game, Mariah began to think. She figured the only thing bad about this case, was that she wasn't alone.
In all honesty, Mariah liked working alone just because she didn't have to worry about the safety of others. If spoken aloud, it sounded selfish. But Mariah would be unable to forgive herself if someone got hurt whilst hunting with her.
She still hasn't forgiven herself because of an incident that happened about a year ago, even if the person who got hurt was completely fine now, minus the hearing issue.
It was taking them a while to reach the large cabin, but Mariah could already feel her nerves slowly morphing into excitement.
Mariah viewed hunting as a learning experience, and to meet new people. As long as strangers proved to be good people, Mariah loved company. She was definitely someone who was "ask questions first and shoot later", contrary to popular belief.
About ten minutes into walking through the dense foliage, Dean reached up and gingerly pushed a thin, low-hanging yet outstretched branch of a bush out of his way so he wouldn't have to walk into it. But as soon as it no longer concerned him, he dropped his hand back down to his side.
Mariah was looking down whilst deep in thought, and didn't realize until after the branch swung back and whacked her across the face that she realized what Dean did.
Mariah was instantly aggravated. "Dean, what the hell?" She hissed, shoving the branch out of her face with an unnecessary amount of force. But Dean just waved his hand at her. Or, that's at least what Mariah saw through squinted eyes before she whipped around at what sounded like a quiet laugh coming from Sam.
"...sorry."
"Keep it down."
Mariah looked forward again and glared at Dean. She honestly wasn't even that loud, hell, Dean was louder than he when he told her to stay quiet. Jerk.
When Mariah saw Dean continue walking, she followed suit.
Only a moment after the minor disaster, Mariah found herself partly annoyed despite her ever growing excitement about the hunt. Annoyed because Dean was taking charge of the case and was acting like the tough asshole again from before, and was seeming to walk a lot faster than Mariah could manage.
Or he could have been walking normally, and Mariah just couldn't keep up.
But she also was slightly amused, because it didn't get past her that Sam was purposely taking shorter strides to stay in pace with Mariah after he moved to walk beside her when the foliage thinned out.
Yet, she didn't mind. Preferring to work alone didn't mean she disliked company altogether.
Another five minutes of silence later, Sam finally piped up. "How are you, Mariah?" The question was quietly asked, but it caught Mariah completely off guard. She had to process his words first before she could even respond in a remotely correct manner.
She blinked up at him, and saw that he was facing forward, but had the slightest of smiles on his face. Mariah gave him an unsure look, but grinned anyway. "What kind of question is that?" She asked instead, grabbing the straps of her backpack.
"Just wondering." Sam answered easily.
Mariah took a small pause, her cheeky grin turning into a smile. Questions like that could either reveal too much or too little, yet it gave Mariah some sort of impression that he cared about her wellbeing. Even if it was the "you're still a stranger to me but I wouldn't trip you if something is chasing us" impression. Honestly, Sam was proving to be more of a pleasure to talk to than his counterpart.
Sensing he was being stared at, Sam looked over and down at Mariah, giving a slightly embarrassed grin. "What?" Mariah definitely didn't miss the small blush on his face.
Before Mariah could answer, Dean turned around, causing the two to stop in their tracks. He gave them both a curious look before his serious expression came back. "I can see the cabin. Stay alert." He warned quietly, then turned again and stalked through the forest.
Mariah saw Sam's expression harden before he followed after Dean. But Mariah stopped him before he got too far, so that it didn't become an awkward amount of space between them. "Sam," she started lowly.
He stopped and turned half way, expression softening. "Hm?"
"I'm good."
Soon enough, the cabin came into full view, and the forest thinned out almost completely, creating somewhat of a ring around the cabin. Mariah could see the lake just between the trees; it wasn't too far away.
When Mariah look back at the house, she grimaced. It looked just about as any old, abandoned house would; dull, chipping, and really uninviting. The house itself seemed to sway ever so slightly when the wind blew, causing it to creak under its own weight.
After a moment of silently analyzing the house, Mariah agreed with herself about the plan she came up with.
They would need bait as a distraction, so it would be easier to get the girl and anybody else who hadn't been infected out of the house. It seemed only reasonable; the Aranche would be too busy with the bait to realize what was going on backstage.
Mariah slipped her backpack off her shoulders and set it on the ground. "Bait." She stated bluntly, quickly unzipping her bag.
"What?" Sam and Dean said in unison.
"We need bait." Mariah replied, briefly looking upwards as she dug into her backpack. The Winchesters exchanged a confused look, as Mariah didn't exactly elaborate her thoughts.
But Dean shook his head. "We're not using bait for-"
"Yes, we are." Mariah interrupted, grabbing a flashlight and a small knife from her pack. She straightened and adjusted her grip on her tools. "And it's going to be me." She concluded firmly.
"No!" They spoke together again, a little louder than before. It startled her about the fact they both seemed completely revolted by her idea. Either they didn't want her risking her life or they thought she was stupid. Mariah took the latter.
Mariah's eyes widened, her expression revealing she was alarmed by their instant response, but she continued to hold her ground. "First of all," she pointed her small knife at them. "Neither of you give a shit whether I get infected or not, so don't-"
"That's not true." Sam cut her off, and she was about to snap back before his expression made Mariah realize how genuine his statement was.
But she didn't give in, not when they were this close.
Mariah took a short pause and hung her head, then looked up at both of them. "It's the only way we could possibly save the girl, if this is where she even disappeared in the first place." She went off softly. "I can be the distraction." Mariah could tell her attempts at persuading them weren't working very well. Again.
"We aren't taking that chance," Dean started.
Mariah's shoulders sagged slightly like a child who was just told no more candy. Except instead of a sad look, Mariah looked angry. "Dean-"
"What if something happens?" He hissed, unwilling to explain what "happens" means.
Mariah looked away and raised her arms, letting them fall and slap against her legs. "This is so stupid, I don't know why I'm even arguing with you about this." She raised her hands to her head and rubbed her temples with her thumbs. "You'd decapitate me without a second thought, am I right? I'm a sibling too, I know for a fact you're not going to let Sam go in by himself and vice versa."
"Mariah,"
"We've wasted so much time over this stupid argument; just let me do this." She was pretty much walking backwards when she asked, but all she got was a blank look from Dean and the shortest of nods from Sam, she gave a small smile. "Thank you."
Mariah turned and made her way away from the Winchesters.
Mariah walked cautiously towards the front of the house, looking over her shoulder to see that the brothers were now nowhere to be seen.
She approached the front of the house with only a small amount of confidence, knife held firmly in her left hand. She didn't really need to do much; she just needed to be caught then get a conversation going.
Easier said than done.
She paused at the start of the staircase, sighing heavily just at their appearance. After a moment of encouraging herself, she inhaled and walked carefully up the weak, wooden steps. She already hated how they groaned under her weight after the first two steps.
Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised if she fell through.
When she made it to the porch, she moved toward the broken-looking door, and attempted to open it with a few light tugs. When that didn't work, she wrenched it open. Mariah was pretty sure that if she put any more force into her pull, she would have torn it off its hinges.
This caused Mariah to question how the three teenagers managed to get inside in the first place, unless it functioned as a normal door before the Arachne did something to it.
Mariah peered through the doorway and clicked on her flashlight and immediately started observing the room.
Mariah would have been lying if she said she didn't feel shivers running down her spine. The girl she questioned definitely wasn't fibbing about large spider webs; they were all over the room. As soon as Mariah took her first step through the door, she already felt the weird tingly feeling of the webs on her arms and face.
Ignoring the uncomfortable sensation, she continued onward.
She shone her light down at the ground for a brief moment, and almost let out a shriek at the sight of two or three spiders scurrying away from her feet to avoid getting crushed. Honestly, spiders were not Mariah's thing.
Inhaling deeply for the umpteenth time in attempt to keep her cool, Mariah made sure to refrain from pointing her flashlight at the ground again.
She stalked slowly forward, and came up on a particularly large spiderweb. Squinting, Mariah let out a short sigh of disappointment in herself. The person inside the web looked hauntingly familiar; it was one of the boys from the newspaper. Mariah stepped back, and looked around a bit more.
She looked towards the kitchen, and was shocked to find someone in the corner; it was the girl.
Mariah was quick to enter the kitchen, setting the knife and flashlight on the cold ground. "Hey, hey. Are you alright?" She asked, assessing the girl who was hugging her knees to her chest and hiding her face.
The girl looked up, and her eyes instantly widening before she screamed.
All Mariah saw was a dark figure before a sharp pain, then black.
The first noise Mariah made was a pain-filled groan when she came to, reflecting the throbbing ache in her head. Her head was tilted down, hair hanging down and framing her face. Her eyes slowly opened but remained half closed to help adjust to the new lighting, but her vision stayed completely blurry. She expected to see her legs, but instead saw...white. Mariah assumed it was the Arachne's web.
Fuck, it felt like she was hit in the head with a metal baseball bat.
Well, at least her part of the plan worked in her favor.
The feeling of the webs against her bare arms caused Mariah to cringe, but she spoke nothing of it. She slowly raised her head so the ache wouldn't increase its intensity, her eyes still adjusting to the light that shone directly over head.
"Ah, you're awake."
That gravelly voice made Mariah jump in her seat, as she didn't even notice someone else was in the room. Her head whipped around to see who spoke, which was a bad idea to begin with and caused her to make a noise that sounded like groan mixed with a shout.
Mariah was beginning to believe she was actually hit in the head with a metal bat.
Maybe even a sledgehammer.
Her eyes focused on the monster that caused her the pain, and when the Arachne's features became distinguishable, Mariah's face twisted into a look of disgust. Multiple white and milky eyes, crusty skin; the whole package. The Arachne was leaning casually against the wall as if he'd been waiting there the entire time with his arms crossed.
"Dear god, I wish I wasn't." Mariah mumbled, looking away pointedly as soon as she made eye contact with him.
Mariah wasn't surprised when he reacted negatively to her statement, she hadn't really intended to be nice in her first place. The Arachne's eyes narrowed. All of them. "Words hurt, my friend." He said calmly.
"I'm not your friend." Mariah ground out, daring to look at him.
The Arachne just laughed at Mariah's confident response, something telling Mariah it was just a pity laugh. Or maybe a fake laugh altogether. "You're not like the rest, are you?" He inquired, head tilting as he observed Mariah's tense figure.
Mariah offered a cocky smile to mask her discomfort under his scrutinizing stare. "Well, I am a twenty-eight year old woman." She said matter-of-factly, then looked at the Arachne with a look of fake offense. "What, am I not your forte?"
"Age is not what I am talking about." The Arachne replied darkly, head tilting downwards.
Mariah rolled her eyes. "Of course not."
"You're a hunter." He told Mariah; she just gave him a look that said duh. "I don't get many of your kind."
"What gave it away?" Mariah replied instantaneously, struggling minimally in the web throughout their entire conversation. "What's with the infestation of spiders?" Mariah switched topics, genuinely interested how he managed to get a house abandoned just by a hoard of spiders.
"You're all the same." He hissed instead of answering her question, pushing off the wall and making his way closer to Mariah. He moved slowly in a circle around her. "Know-it-alls with some bitchy attitudes." Mariah swore he sounded proud for knowing that particular information.
Mariah shrugged, or did something that looked similar. "Well, you're not wrong."
The Arachne stopped in front of Mariah and crouched low enough so he was eye-level with Mariah. He smirked. "I like you." He said softly, and Mariah felt her skin crawl.
Instead of replying immediately, Mariah had to will herself to not gag at his proximity. "...you are just festering ugly." Mariah muttered after a moment, almost laughing at his slightly stunned expression.
"See? Right there." He pointed at Mariah and straightened, shifting his weight to one side. Mariah subconsciously leaned back against the chair when she was pointed at. "You're slimming your chances of staying alive." He threatened.
"Well, I don't really seem to care."
"I should just kill you right now."
"Why don't you?"
"Or maybe, I should just turn you into one of my kind."
"Why don't you?"
"Well, if since you insist." The Arachne leaned closer and aimed to place his mouth right on Mariah's neck. Mariah couldn't help but make a noise of protest and lean away from him, even though she didn't go far. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the sharp feeling of a bite, but it never came.
Because it sounded like someone from the other room deliberately threw something against a wall.
The Arachne stopped just short, a look of concentration on his face that she couldn't see. Mariah was frozen in place, eyes wide. "What was that noise?" He growled out, causing Mariah to flinch. He stepped back and away from Mariah, who let out a sigh of complete relief.
"What noise? I didn't hear anything." Mariah lied, a little too quickly for it to be even remotely true. Plus, her lie didn't have much support in it, since whoever made the noise did it purposely to be heard. But, Mariah couldn't really take any chances. She wanted to give the boys as much time as they needed to get the girl and anybody else out.
"You brought more of your hunter friends? How delicious." The Arachne smirked, his tone sounding sadistic. Mariah couldn't help but look disgusted, again. "Hang tight." He ordered. With that, the Arachne retreated into the other room.
Only a moment after the monster left, the sound of fighting and objects breaking filled Mariah's ears.
Alright, I can get out of this.
Mariah let out a large exhale, as if she'd been holding it the entire time. Okay, now, to think of an escape plan. Mariah scanned the room, and noticed how neither her knife or flashlight were in the room. Fantastic. No way was she going to chew herself out of this situation.
She looked down at the spiderweb and attempted to use her arms to break it from the inside out by pushing outward. When that didn't happen, she groaned. Tilting her head back, she closed her eyes and racked her mind to figure out a possible way to get out of her bindings.
Okay, maybe I can't.
When she opened her eyes, she saw someone looming next to her, and nearly screamed. Fortunately for both of them, she remained silent. "Jesus!" She breathed out. "Fuck, Sam, give me a warning next time." She whispered, looking a little annoyed. Why was he cutting her out? Wasn't he supposed to be with Dean?
"I'll keep it in mind." He whispered back, sounding apologetic while whipping out a knife skillfully and cutting through the spiderweb. As he did so, he subconsciously kept looking up at Mariah, as if giving her a brief check up. "Did he bite you?" He asked, tone worried.
Mariah shook her head. "No, nearly did, but no." She reassured quickly, watching as Sam's expressions flicked through concentrated, disappointed, angry, then back to focused. "He's one of the most talkative Arachne I've ever met." Mariah admitted with a smirk.
When Sam finished his work on the web, he straightened and gave a lopsided grin. "Monsters can be pretty talkative." He helped Mariah up out of the chair as he spoke, before reaching into his bag to return Mariah's knife and flashlight.
They jogged out of the room the way Sam came in, Sam leading Mariah out and around the house, then towards the forest. Mariah looked over her shoulder, straining her ears. Mariah could no longer hear fighting. Either she was too far away, or Dean managed to finish the job.
She found it unlikely he'd die from an Aranche, for some reason.
At the edge of the forest, the girl who went missing recently was sitting on a log. She looked terrified, and a little scraped up, but definitely alive, and luckily wasn't bitten. Though, from the way she was cradling her arm, it appeared that it was broken.
Mariah approached her and crouched, placing a gentle hand on her unharmed shoulder. "Are you alright?" She asked quietly. The girl just nodded and hugged her arm tighter to her chest. "We're gonna get you home." Mariah reassured with a small smile, glad to see the girl mirror her expression.
She then stood back up and walked over to Sam, who was leaning against a tree and staring at the old house. "You think Dean is alright?" She asked, hinting at that she'd be willing to go back in and assist.
"Yeah." Sam said quietly, turning to look at Mariah. "He took it upon himself to take care of the Arachne."
"You don't sound very pleased." Mariah pointed out, cocking an eyebrow. She crossed her arms, shifting her weight to one side. "Was there an argument?"
"I would be lying if I said no."
"I knew it. You Winchesters are so stubborn."
Sam scoffed. "Like you aren't?"
"You got me there." Mariah raised her hands in surrender. "Hey, what was that loud noise before you came into the room?"
"I threw a chair against the wall."
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"I was supposed to be the distraction."
"Are you getting jealous of a chair?"
"No, that's ridiculous." Mariah said defensively, frowning. But when Sam smiled at her, her face flushed and she looked away pointedly. "Shut up."
A few minutes later, Mariah and Sam spotted Dean moving quickly down the stairs and heading their way. "You good?" Mariah asked, watching as Dean wiped specs of blood off his face with his sleeve, grip tight on his bloody machete.
"Swell." He pointed at the girl. "Let's get her to the hospital."
The trio managed to get the girl checked into the hospital with little to no problems, the only one being that they had to avoid the police.
When they walked by, they all acted like they were doing something important and faced away from them. And when the girl was questioned by the police, they had to take a short walk elsewhere.
It always worked; police weren't that observant.
During their walk, however, Dean revealed why he took so long in the house after some pressing from Mariah. The two boys had already been infected, and had to be killed.
That specific information put her out of the mood, but Sam reassured her.
When they returned to the patient's room, the doctor revealed to the three that the girl, whose name turned out to be Laura, would be just fine, and told them she actually asked if she could see them.
They complied, and were rewarded a huge thank you in return. That, was exactly why Mariah loved her job.
Mariah even offered, insisted, to let Laura use her phone to call her parents, to let them know she was alright.
It wasn't long before they all left the room after her call ended, and promptly continued to leave the building. They all walked silently to the '67 Impala, occupied by their own thoughts. When they arrived next to the car, Mariah smiled at the brothers.
"Thanks for letting me tag along." Mariah said, shoving her hands into her jean pockets. "I'm known to be difficult to work with."
"Difficult." Dean repeated, eyes practically rolling into the back of his head.
"Hey, you gotta admit, I was a little helpful." Mariah replied defensively, then sighed. "I'll get out of your hair. I'll see you around, hm?"
Dean shook his head; Sam nodded.
Mariah laughed, raising her hand in goodbye. "Bye boys."
With that, she turned and walked away.
Yay, new chapter. What did you think?
Also, just for some sort of description of Mariah, she looks similar to Lindsey Morgan.
'Til next time
- Pastel