Chapter 6: What Could I be Forgetting
Having left the motel room as the sun rose, Crowley was not sure how exactly to think of the previous night's affair. It had been, without question, one of the creepier things he had ever done. Sleeping next to a girl who didn't know he was there. But, on the other hand, he had tortured people until their souls blackened, so what was it to him if he was a little ungentlemanly? It isn't as though he hurt her in any way. But still, he had been a bit uncouth. He was thinking too much, he had to do something to improve his mood.
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The opportunity to better his mood didn't present itself for a few days, but when it did, he could not resist. News of another attack the night before had alerted him. He had avoided he girl, unsure he was willing to repeat the night's advances, as much as he may have wanted to feel her curling up against him again.
He appeared very near where he had been, just across a thin wall as it happened, though now fully dressed. He crept, as he had done before to the girl, over to the bed of a slumbering Dean Winchester. He was going to call this research.
Very softly he slipped down onto Dean's bed and carefully petted his short hair. Unlike the girl, however, Squirrel shot up immediately, a gun drawn from under his bed, fully awake and glaring, bedraggledly at Crowley.
"Don't get up on my account, darling," Crowley cooed at him.
"What the HELL, CROWLEY!" Dean shouted, "You're just gonna turn up here while I'm sleeping and pet my hair?"
Crowley cocked his head and grinned, "disappointed I'm not Castiel?"
By this time Sam was also awake and alert, scrambling to his feet, Crowley stayed where he was, relaxed and contented.
"How are you coming with your little case, boys?"
Crowley gave them awhile to settle down, listening a bit to their squawking complaints that he had "infringed on their privacy" and it was "creepy as hell" which made him snicker, and "what did he mean disappointed it wasn't Cas?"
Only then did they consider his question, "We've got jack on the case, I thought you were so excited to help out?"
"I am, I will, take me with you today, you have something important to do I'm sure."
Sam nodded, "We're going to the coroner to look at a body, maybe figure out what killed it."
"I'm coming with you for that," Crowley said matter-of-factly.
"I don't think so." Dean barked.
"Try to stop me." Crowley hissed.
Dean laughed shortly and looked at Sam, "Cute how he says that like we never tied him up in a dungeon."
Crowley scowled and disappeared.
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He did, however, join them to go to the coroner. Sam had apparently won Dean over that Crowley might be helpful because he didn't make much of a fuss.
Crowley was not feeling particularly warmly toward Dean, at the moment. Regardless of her slumbering cuddliness, she had, while awake, been far too enraptured with the handsome hunter hunk. He, however, couldn't really dwell on that, there were pieces of body to examine.
The victim this time, the fifth so far in the town, had been that of a middle aged woman, mother of three. The children themselves were in the hospital, broken bones being mended from their trip out a second story window. Crowley planned on talking to them next, or letting Sam goggle his comically giant eyes at them until they wept the whole story.
Their dead mother, though, was on the slab before him. As before, she had been torn apart, chest ripped open, insides eviscerated. And again, she felt odd. He had been thinking a lot about the last body and as he neared this one he got that same chilly sense. Like there was some vital, humany piece gone.
Then it struck him.
"Her soul is gone."
The boys looked at him, Dean rolled his eyes, "of course her soul is gone, she's been dead for almost a day."
Crowley looked at him as though at a tiny noncomprehending child, "No, you buffoon, her soul was stripped from her body before she was killed, pulled out of her, eaten out of her by the looks of it." This was churning even Crowley's stomach.
Sam grimaced, "So…what does that?"
Dean shrugged, "Hellhounds?"
Crowley stared at him, "You think, perhaps, if hellhounds were doing this I MIGHT HAVE NOTICED?"
Dean only smirked and looked back and the body and Crowley realized the brainless bulk of muscle had been trying to get a rise out of him.
"Alright," Sam said, "So whatever we're looking for eats or pulls out souls or something, then rips the bodies apart…then why are there other dead people sometimes, like the three in the last town back, with their throats slit?"
Dean nodded, "And can look like some innocent girl. God, I swear I know her from somewhere."
Crowley shifted, "Do you now? Old flame perhaps." This idea made him agitated, but he wasn't going to let that on.
"No, she just looks really familiar."
They lingered for awhile more over the body, but it became quickly apparent that they couldn't glean anything more from it, and the creeping feeling it gave off drove them out of the coroner's office.
Their next stop was those children. As they drove across town, as Dean insisted on driving, Crowley brooded in the back seat about the monster capable of ripping out a soul. He hadn't heard of one, couldn't comprehend what it would be like. Dangerous though.
The children proved to be in a terrible state. They had been, it seemed, thrown from a window rather unceremoniously on top of one another. The eldest two, a girl and a boy, were unconscious still. The youngest, a girl of seven had been thrown last, and was awake, although sporting a broken leg and fractured ribs.
They crowded around her bed and she shrunk, looking scared. Crowley scowled at the other two and crouched next to her, so she was at his eye level.
"Hello, darling," he said in a soft voice, you've had quite a scare, haven't you."
She bit her lip and nodded.
He turned and fetched a pudding cup from the table behind him, opened it for her, and offered it to her with a spoon. "Here, you deserve a treat for how brave you've been."
She gave him a rather stricken smile and nibbled on a little of the pudding. Crowley continued, still using the same soft, soothing tone, "Now, Amy, it's Amy isn't it?"
She nodded.
"Amy, I need you to be just a little bit more brave. I need you to tell me what happened, everything you remember. Can you do that, Amy?"
She looked at him with big quivering eyes and sucked in her bottom lip. Then she looked down and shook her head.
He, very gently, tucked a curl behind her ear, "Look, little thing, I'll make you a deal okay?"
Behind him Dean made an aggressive noise, Crowley swiftly glared up at him before looking back at the little girl. "All you have to do is tell me exactly what happened, and I'll make sure your brother and sister are okay."
She made a face, "How will you do that?"
He clicked his fingers and a squashy teddy bear appeared in his hands. He tucked in under one of her arms, "I'm magic." He whispered conspiratorially.
She cuddled the bear and sucked on her lip, then in a sweet little voice whispered, "okay."
He gave her a pleased smile, "Alright, Amy, to make it work, I've got to seal the deal," then he leaned forward and kissed her softly on the top of the head.
"Now, all you have to do is tell me just what happened last night."
She pulled the bear up under her little chin and looked at her lap. "Momma tucked me in and I was almost nearly asleep but then my Melly, my sissy, she got up cuz she sleeps there too and she said there was noises. So I was scared, I didn't hear anything but then I listened and I heard scratches and stuff from downstairs and then Momma screamed real loud and the window broked downstairs and then Melly ran out cuz she wanted to get Reed, my brother. Then I was all alone and then the door opened and there was a lady."
She stopped here to take a few quick breaths before plunging back into the story.
"The lady picked me up and she said it was gonna be okay but I wanted to go downstairs because I wanted my mamma, but the lady took me toward Reed's room and I kicked her cuz I wanted to go to my mamma, but then I saw behind her and there was a –"
She was breathing hard and fast now, tears were coming out of her eyes and she was clutching the bear tight despite her ribs, "And there was a monster. He came up the stairs and he was all red and he walked but his feet were all like claws and his head was teethy and I screamed because I was scared and I'm sorry I didn't mean to I made a mess."
Crowley petted her hair, "That's alright, darling, tell me exactly what the monster looked like."
She took a deep breath, "He was like a guy but his eyes were all dark and big and slanty and his teeth were really big and sharp and stuff and his hands were like big claws and they were all gray. And he had wings."
"Wings?" Crowley prompted, "What sort of wings?"
She big her lip and considered, "They were really flappy, and they had some feathers but not a lot like falling off and yucky."
"Is that all you remember about the monster?"
She nodded.
"Ok, tell me what happened after that."
"The lady carried me into Reed's room and shut the door but the monster was gonna get through it so she opened the window and told us to climb out but we couldn't because it was a big drop and she started tying up a sheet but then the door broke and it came inside and and and then the lady picked up Reed and just threw him out the window and he screamed and there was this big crunch and then she threw Melly and then I was crying and she picked me up and threw me out the window and I don't remember after."
Amy was crying now, big wet tears.
"It's alright, little thing, you did so good, I'll make sure your brother and sister are good as new." He gave her one last pat on the head and stood up, turning to the Winchesters. Dean was looking at him, perplexed as they left the room.
"Well that was nice of you."
"The word you're looking for is pragmatic, we needed to know what she knew."
"You could have threatened her."
"Is that what you would have done? Threatened the seven year old?"
"No, but I'm not the King of Hell."
Crowley rolled his eyes, "well boys, I have a deal to keep." And he did keep it, of course. It wasn't a large matter to knit up the broken children, although they were rather badly damaged.
His mind, however, was occupied. If Mary had had only enough time to toss children out of the window, children she had obviously been trying to save, what had become of her? Had she escaped the clutches of Amy's monster? She could be dying, she could already be dead.
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He rematerialized outside of her motel room and peered in anxiously. She was there, collapsed inside the door, lying motionless on the floor. He flickered inside hurriedly, kneeling beside her. He turned her over and felt for breath. It was there, but shallow. A gash was opened across her shoulder, cut deep, to the bone. Blood pumped steadily out of it, but that was not the only thing issuing from the wound. It bursts and gasps small bits of blue light trickled out, disappearing into the air.
Crowley's breath was coming fast, he didn't know how to heal a wound like this, was that her soul leaking out of her?
One of her eyes opened partially. Her focus waivered, "Crow, hey….are you okay?"
He frowned, confused, of course he was ok, she blinked a few times, "Can you help me to the bed? Where are we? Are we home?"
He lifted her carefully and laid her out on the bed, "No, love, we aren't at home." He didn't know what she meant but he wasn't about to needle her for information when she was this out of sorts.
"Why?"
"Shh," he said, "I'm going to fix you." He couldn't just magic her back together, that would take a deal, and he didn't' think now was the time to be negotiating, perhaps old fashioned stitching her up.
She laughed, sort of, in halting jerks, "You always do this, get all lost, you know how to fix this, get the knife."
He pulled the elegant knife from her sheath and held it in his hand. It fit him, perfectly, each of his fingers slid without hitch into the tooling of the hilt, the weight was perfect, and it was gorgeous.
"What are you waiting for? Burn it closed."
He rose to heat the knife, but at his thought flame licked up its blade until it seared. He used one hand to carefully hold the wound closed, and the other to burn the wound shut step by step down her shoulder. The smell of burning flesh filled the little room, but she didn't scream out, just clenched her teeth, as though this was nothing to be overly concerned about. When he was finished, the blade cooled itself and he returned it to her sheath. She gave him a crooked and pained smile, "You all done?"
He nodded then realized she had shut her eyes again and said, "Yes,"
She seemed to be fazing in and out of delirium but was obviously not aware, it was convincing him, without doubt, however, that she knew him. But he still had not memory of her. She was acting as though she not only knew him, but had worked with him, had worked with him fighting this monster. Perhaps he had.
He suddenly had a sinking, creeping sensation, the monster clearly did damage to souls, could that affect memory? Had he forgotten this girl? She acted as though they had been lovers, but more than the lucrative and political lovers he had had in the past, like Lillith, she acted as though they had been companions.
Had he had a girl like this? Who so intrigued him, who trusted him to find her and heal her, perhaps had found and healed him? Had he had a companion such as that and forgotten about her?
A bizarre heat filled his chest. That wasn't fair. He knew, of course, that it didn't matter that it wasn't fair, that the world didn't dole out due to fairness. But, and he hadn't realized until now, when one had been draped in front of him, he had wanted a companion, someone on whom he could rely. He had never been able to trust anyone. And to have someone who he knew was on his side, who he knew would heal him when he was injured, or defend him, someone who would never betray him, or trick him, or con him. He burned for that. Had that just been taken away from him? Had that monster taken that away from him?
She was unconscious now, but her vitals were stronger, she seemed to be taking the still smoking burn and loss of an incredible amount of blood much better than a regular human. She was, he thought, more sleeping than unconscious. He would stay with her, though. He leaned down and brushed his lips across her forehead. He was determined, at least, to know what he had lost.
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AN: Hey guys! Thanks for reading! As always, throw some review's my way (THEY FUEL MY HEARTFIRE AND MAKE ME SQUEEL!) And if you want, find me on tumblr as VoteKingCrowleyFanfiction!
Until next time, darlings!