First, if you don't mind my saying, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! As of 8:52 am Eastern Standard Time, I turned 17! Yay!
Well, as for you wonderful people, the next chapter!
In my homeroom class, we all got this long lecture about how to be politically correct, to with people 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas,' things like that. I get what they are saying, I do. Well, sorta. My teacher told me that I should say "My birthday is on December 24" instead of "My birthday is Christmas Eve."
Given that; tomorrow, as a Christmas present to all of you wonderful reader people, I'll be posting another chapter!
You're all awesome!
~Christianne
Nikki POV
Sam and Jake had just left to go look for Ava. Andy and I stayed back.
After they left, I told Andy that I was going stir crazy (which I was) and was going to see what was upstairs. I clambered up the steps, and walked around the empty halls. I ended up just crawling out onto the roof and sitting there, staring up at the stars.
It seemed so peaceful. You'd never guess that we were all being held here by a twisted demon.
I closed my eyes and exposed my sweaty neck to the cool breeze. I leaned back onto the roof so I was laying down completely, and let out a long sigh.
It didn't last long, a scream pierced the air.
I ran back down the stairs, and didn't stop until I was in the front room. I skid to a stop and gasped.
Andy. Andy was dead. Torn open on the floor, gutted like an animal.
"Nikki! Nik I just found him like this!" Ava choked out between tears.
"What-What happened?" I asked, trying to stay calm.
"I don't know." Ava sobbed.
"How did it get in here?" I asked, checking the salt line at the door, then moved to the windows. "Hey, where were you?"
"I just went out to get some water from the well." Ava said, trying to take slow breaths to stop crying. "I was only gone, like, two minutes."
"You know, you should have waited for one of us to go with you." I told her. "Stay in the salt line…" I trailed off when I saw a neat, clean line made, braking the salt line. I pointed to it. I had to say her name a few times, but eventually Ava looked at me. "Who did that?" I asked, my voice hardening.
"I-I don't know…Maybe Andy-"
"Andy wouldn't do that." I cut her off. "I was in here 5 minutes ago, Ava, that line wasn't broken." We just stared at each other. Ava, shaking, sniffing, and still crying, and me, glaring and stony faced.
"What? You don't think-"
"I'll tell you what I think." I cut her off again. "Five months. Sam, Dean and I were looking for you for five months. You're the only one with all that damn time that you can't account for. Sam told me about that headache you got, right before the demon got Lily."
"Nikki, Nik what are you saying?" Ava asked, sounding pretty confused.
"Don't call me Nik," I said harshly. "Only my friends can call me Nik."
"What, so, I'm not your friend?" Ava asked, hurt lacing her voice as she hiccupped back sobs.
"Right now, I don't know what you are." I told her. "What the Hell happened to you?"
"Nothing!" Ava insisted. I narrowed my eyes at her.
Ava kept up her sobbing, until she looked at the ground and sighed. She looked up, chuckling. "Had you goin', though, didn't I?"
I stiffened, ready to grab my knife.
"Yeah." Ava sighed, wiping her tears away calmly and flicking them off her fingers. "I've been here a long time, and not alone, either. People just kept showing up—special children, like us.
"Batches of three or four at a time." Ava continued, cocking a hip and putting her hand on it.
"You killed them, didn't you?" I realized. Crazy, demonic bridezilla.
"I'm the undefeated heavyweight champ." Ava said smugly.
I smiled cynically, shaking my head. "Oh God."
"I don't think God has much to do with this, Nikki." Ava said with that same smug smirk.
"What the Hell happened to you?" I asked. "Last time I saw you, you were practically a pacifist."
Ava glanced at the ground and shrugged. "I had no choice. It's me or them. After a while, it was easy. It was even kinda fun. You know what that's like, don't you?" I raised an eyebrow at her wordlessly.
"He came to me in my dreams, the man who created us; the man with yellow eyes. He told me that no matter how powerful I become, I will never be as powerful as you." She said, venom in her voice. I smirked proudly. "He also told me you're denying your abilities." She said, practically cooed; like she was talking to a small child. "That you're running at half capacity, and it makes you vulnerable.
"You see, I just stopped fighting it." Ava explained. "If you quit your hand-wringing, and open yourself up—You have no idea what we can do. The learning curve is so fast. It's crazy, the switch that just flips in your brain. I can't believe it just started with dreams. Do you know what I can do now?"
"Control demons is my first guess." I said sarcastically.
Ava snorted once. "Wow, you are as sharp as he says." She then put her hands on her temples, and closed her eyes. Black smoke began billowing out the window, and funneled through the break in the salt line.
"You said I have no idea what I can do if I just let go." I said, taking a deep breath, looking at Ava and the demon girl that had materialized between us. "You couldn't be more right."
I sat on the floor in the hallway, knees bent up and elbows resting on them. I was staring at my hands between my knees. They were spattered with a fine mist of blood.
Sam and Jake came running up the stairs and skidded to a stop in front of me. They probably heard that massive BANG! that broke all the remaining windows in Cold Oak and knocked birds of their perches'.
"Nikki! Nik, are you alright? Where's Ava?" Sam asked, all in one breath, squatting down to grab my shoulders gently.
Wordlessly, I used one of my blood smeared hands to point down the hall, into the room I'd just left. Jake jogged down to it, then called Sam into the room. He ducked his head in, then looked at me with confused, wide hazel-blue kaleidoscope eyes.
"She killed Lily." I said numbly. "She's been here, killing all the people like us that the demon nabbed.
"You…You did that?" Jake asked, shocked. He had good reason to be.
Ava was laying on the floor in that room, dead. Blood was pouring out of her ears, and covered her cheeks from where her eyes had burst and sizzled in their sockets. The demon had been reduced to a pile of sulfur.
"She was gonna kill us all." I said, still emotionlessly and quiet. "I didn't have a choice."
Sam swallowed, then walked over to me and pulled me up. I glanced up at him, and felt like crying.
I hadn't meant to kill her, just…just stop her.
"Ah!" Ava yelped, grabbing her head and hunching forward.
I'd already blown the demon child to dust with a wave of my hand. Now, I was focusing all my anger on Ava.
"Stop it!" She plead. "We-We can win together! As a team! Get rid of the boys and win!" She bargained, looking at me with pleading eyes.
"I'm not going to kill Sam and Jake." I said firmly, twisting my fist at my side. She screamed in pain.
"They're nothing!" She growled.
"I'm not killing Sam and Jake!" I growled back.
"They're-They're weak! They can't see what potential they have-"
"I'M NOT KILLING SAM!" I screamed at her.
"WHY?" She screamed back, mostly in pain as she put a hand over her ear, which had started to bleed.
"BECAUSE I LOVE HIM YOU DEMONIC BITCH!"
"Hey, just-just stay here." Sam told me, helping me out of the house and onto the porch steps. I nodded wordlessly and rested the side of my head on the splintered railing. I think Sam thought I was weakened by what I did to Ava.
I wasn't. Sure, I was in a little shock, but I felt better than I had in weeks.
I'd admitted to myself that I had feeling for Sam a long time ago, back when Dean was in the hospital. But I'd never—never—used the word love.
It just made everything more intense. The way he ever-so-gently helped me up from the hallway floor. How he ran a hand over my head, smoothing my curls before he went to talk to Jake…Everything.
I looked up, hoping to blink the tears away before they fell.
It didn't help, I just looked at the full moon.
It reminded me of the salvage yard. How that, however brief it was, was one of the best experiences I've ever had.
I sucked in a breath, and wiped my face with my hands. The tears on my cheeks wet the dried blood on my hands and smeared on my face.
I saw Sam, a few hundred feet away, take the knife he found off his belt and put it between him and Jake. Jake, in the same manner, put down his mangled iron rod.
Then, Sam was flying through the air.
Jake punched him.
"Hey!" I yelled, getting up and running towards Jake. He saw me coming, and turned towards me. I grabbed his shoulder, and with all my momentum, threw him and myself to the ground. He grunted, and looked up at me in shock. In his hesitation, I punched him as hard as I could, right in the face. He threw me off him, and I landed hard in the gravel road and skidded along my back for a few feet.
The pain was unbearable. The gravel cut through my jacket and shirt, dug into my back and burned.
Jake walked over to me, and looked down at me with remorseful eyes. "You know, I would have let you live." He told me, putting a large hand on my upper chest, thumb at my collarbone, and pushed my torso into the ground. It stopped me from moving, and made me whimper as the gravel dug into my back.
"If you hurt him…" I gasped through the pain. "I swear to God-"
Jake punched me in the temple; knocking him out.
I took a slow, shallow breath as I woke up.
It hurt to breathe.
I pinched my eyes tight in pain as I sat up.
I opened them when I heard Dean yell 'Sam!'
I looked to the left, and saw Sam standing over Jake's unconscious body, iron rod in hand. He was cradling his right arm as he looked over his shoulder.
"Dean!" Sam said, taking a few, tired steps towards Dean.
I put a hand to my head and blinked a few times, trying to get my bearings.
When I looked up again, Jake was grabbing the knife off the ground.
"No!" I said loudly, but it came out choked and quiet. I let out a series of painful sounds as I struggled to my feet. "No!" I yelled again, but it still came out choked and broken. I was crying. I struggled to run towards them, to try and do something.
"Sam, look out!" Dean yelled.
But it was too late.
Jake plunged the knife into Sam's back.
"SAM!" I screamed, falling to my knees. It was a screeching, heartbroken scream that ripped up my throat before I could even proses what I saw. I'd forgotten all about my back, I was focusing on the pain wrapping around my heart, pressing on my lungs and making it hard for me to breathe.
I forced myself onto my feet, and started running. It was a slow, sloppy, lazy run. I tripped three times. I ran right past Bobby, who looked like he was going to try and help me stand, and kept running towards where Dean was holding Sam's unmoving body. I forgot all about Jake. My only thought were about Sam.
Dean was saying things to Sam, assuring him he was going to be ok and promising that he was going to do his job and look after his 'pain in the ass little brother.'
Me? I did what my instincts told me to.
I skidded to a stop by Sam and Dean, more gravel digging into my knees.
I grabbed one of Sam's hands, hanging limply at his side. I put my other hand on the bloody wound on his back. "Corpore sano, sana animam meam. Do tibi vis, fac me in toto. Magia servo meo male, sicut Deus vult. Ad onera, ad imperium tuum precor supernae dilectionis tuae deum laver."