Okay guys! Here's chapter two. This will be the last little prelude until we get into actual Supernatural terrain. I won't put too much of a note here, other than I hope you like it! I really hope at least some of you who make it this far choose to stick around and follow Ariella's story with me! Enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn
San Francisco – September 17, 2005
Ariella checked her gun for what felt like the hundredth time, ensuring the silver bullets were still in the magazine and the safety on, before letting out a sigh and leaning forward, slipping it into the band of her pants. She pulled her jacket over it once it was secure, then grabbed hold of the silver dagger from her passenger seat, slipping it into the holster hidden under her jacket sleeve. She had spent the last week tracking down a werewolf in the area. The local police force had been convinced it was a serial killer, taking the hearts of its victims as his trademark, but Ariella knew better. She had traced the killings down to a man she had high suspicions of being a werewolf, holed up in an abandoned house on the edge of town, and now all that was left to do was finish the job.
She pushed the door open and stepped out into the rain, boots squishing down into the mud that had accumulated throughout the long thunderstorm. She had parked quite a distance away, not wanting to give the creature any clues that she was coming, so she pulled up the hood of her jacket before beginning her trudge through the mud. It was a cold rain that poured down on Ariella as she made her way towards the abandoned house, but she found herself grateful for the cover it gave to her scent at least.
It took about ten minutes to walk the half mile from her car to the werewolf's hiding spot, and by the time she got there she was soaked to the bone. She crept up to the house as silently as she could, using a small slit between one of the boarded up windows to peer inside. At first she didn't see anything, but just as she pushed herself up higher on her toes to get a better view, something walked past the window, startling her. She jumped in surprise as a body dropped to the ground in front of the window, blood squelching as it hit the wooden floor.
Ariella pulled away from the window as much as she could, scared the werewolf would catch sight of her, before she heard the sound of flesh being torn apart as it feasted upon its newest hunt. She felt her stomach give a flip as the sounds filled her ears, before she forced her feet to move again. Knowing the thing was occupied, she quickly made her way towards the other end of the house where she had seen a basement window. Once she made it to the windowpane, just big enough to slip through, she got into position, the bottom of her boot resting against the glass. She silently waited for her chance, and once the next bolt of lightning lit up the sky she drew in a breath before waiting for the following thunder. As the crack of thunder filled the air, she reared back and thrust her leg into the glass, hoping the storm would be enough to mask the sound of shattering glass.
She froze for a moment afterwards, straining her ears for any sounds of the creature coming to check in on the sound. After a minute of hearing nothing but the falling of rain, she dropped down to the ground before slipping inside the opening she had made, careful not to catch herself on the jagged pieces of glass still clinging to the frame. She dropped down to the concrete floor as gently as she could, feet crunching on the broken glass under her as she landed. Her eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness she had landed within, the basement having but traces of light filtering through it.
She moved as quietly as she could after catching sight of a set of stairs to her right, praying they would not creak under her weight. As she hesitantly placed her foot on the first step, she gradually placed her weight on top of it, thankful when it gave no sounds of protest. She let out a relieved breath before fishing the gun out of her waistband. Quickly flipping the safety switch, she held it out in front of her before continuing her ascent.
The steps only gave a couple small creaks as she moved up them, and as she pushed open the door at the top, she took a moment to center herself and calm her frantic heart before moving into the main level of the house. As silently as she could, she moved towards the room she knew the werewolf had been devouring the human within, hearing the familiar sounds of it hitting hers again as she crept closer. Unfortunately, just as she was about to move into the doorway, her foot hit a spot in the floorboards that gave a soft squeak under her weight and she froze again.
The room went silent after that, the sounds of the feasting stopping in an instant, and Ariella was left to wonder if the creature could now hear her rapidly pounding heart within her chest. Knowing she had to act fast, she spun around the frame in one swift movement, gun held out in front of her. As she rounded the corner, she came face to face the thing, standing over the mangled body and covered in fresh blood. It was the man she had seen within the CCTV footage of all the victims' frequent haunts, and she was hit with instant gratification that she had been right. "Gotcha." She said with a smirk before pulling trigger.
The creature let out a loud roar as the gun went off, flashing her with a mouth full of pointed, blood covered teeth. The bullet hit him in the chest, eliciting another loud roar from him, but it wasn't enough to bring him down. The beast ran at her, moving far quicker than a human could, and Ariella pulled the trigger again and again. The bullets pierced into his flesh one after another, and as the fifth bullet entered his body, he dropped to the ground at her feet. He reached for her, drawing in a pained breath as he did, his features slowly transforming back to that of a normal looking human as his blood began pooling around him.
His unnatural eyes rolled up at her as he fought to draw in a breath, but instead his chest stopped rising and falling all together. As he stilled and his eyes went vacant, Ariella let out a breath she had been holding, her hand shaking as she watched him die. A wave of surprise washed over her then, not having been expecting the hunt to go that smoothly. Her eyes swept around the gory scene left behind then, inwardly groaning. "Right." She said, knowing she had to cover her tracks. She slipped her gun back into her pants before leaving, needing to retrieve the tools necessary for cleaning up the mess.
She practically ran back to the car, the adrenaline in her system pushing her feet easily, before slipping in and driving herself back to the house. Once back, she pulled the gas can out of her trunk before returning to the room she had left the werewolf's corpse in. As she entered the room, however, she paused in her tracks. The corpse was still there, as dead as she had left it, yet it was not in the same position she was sure it had been.
Before she could fully process what that meant, something slammed into Ariella's back, a white-hot pain overtaking her senses. She let out a scream as she was pushed forward, slamming into the ground on her front. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move. An excruciating pain had filled her senses as she felt her hot blood seep through the clothes covering her back, realizing that something had struck her. In the next moment, she felt something collide into her ribs, sending her flying back into the wall. She slammed into the drywall with another scream, it cracking under her weight, before she crumpled onto the floor. She watched with wide, fear-laced eyes as a woman stormed towards her, and as she took in the furious woman's deformed features, Ariella realized she had made a huge mistake. There had been two of them.
She went to draw her gun in a panic, only to find that it was not in her possession. Her eyes darted around the room, finding it on the floor well out of reaching distance. It had been knocked loose when she had been kicked across the room, and now the werewolf stood between her and it. "YOU BITCH!" the irate female screamed as she loomed over her, grabbing hold of a fistful of Ariella's hair to pull her up into the air. "You're dead! You hear me?! DEAD!"
Ariella, suspended in her grasp, had but a moment to react as she watch a mouth full of deadly teeth strike at her. Moving on instinct, she pried the silver dagger out from under her sleeve, before thrusting it into the other woman's chest with a scream. The werewolf's menacing face fell as she plunged the blade deep into her heart, the warm slickness of her blood spreading across the back of Ariella's hand.
Ariella dropped free from her hold in the next moment, collapsing into a pile at her feet, before the female wolf fell to the ground next to her. As the room went silent again, Ariella felt the pain radiating from her back slam into her like a tidal wave. She realized that she must have been clawed by the werewolf and, with a sharp intake of air, knew it had to have been bad. She rolled herself over, letting out a cry of pain as she did, until she was left staring up at the ceiling in a puddle of growing blood.
Fear blossomed in her chest as she registered the cold setting in around her limbs, knowing if she stayed there like this, she was sure to bleed out. The problem was, however, that she couldn't seem to move. With a sob, she dug into the front pocket of her jacket, pulling out her cellphone with shaking hands. She flipped it open, struggling to punch in the numbers with her blood smeared fingers, before hitting the call button and sending a silent prayer that he would pick up.
After three rings, Sam's voice hit her ears and a stream of tears unconsciously fell from her. "Hey, Ari. What's up?" he asked.
"S-sam." She gasped out, struggling to keep her voice even as she spoke.
Sam must have known something was wrong the moment she said his name, for she could hear the shift his voice took when he spoke next. "Are you okay?"
"I…I don't know." She said honestly, voice shaking with fear. "I'm hurt." She tried explaining. "I…I can't….Sam, I can't move." She cried out. "A-and there's t-too much bl…blood."
"Where are you?" he demanded, low and serious. Ariella pulled the phone away from her ear to text the address into a message. After struggling to get it down, she pulled the phone back up to her ear. "Ariella!" he was shouting worriedly.
"I s-sent it." She told him before drawing in another shaky breath.
The line was quiet for a moment before his voice hit her ears again. "I'm on my way!" he told her.
Ariella felt the tears well up in her eyes again as she contemplated how numb her body had become. It would take Sam nearly a half hour to make it to her, and she had dwindling hope that he would make it to her in time. "I-I'm scared." She told him, feeling her eyesight begin to waver, the lines of the ceiling tiles going in and out of focus.
"Just hold on Ari!" he nearly shouted, though Ariella could barely hear it. It suddenly sounded as if her head had been plunged under water, and in that moment, she knew she was dying.
"I'm sorry." She breathed out as the darkness began speckling into the peripherals of her vision. "Sammy, I…I'm so sorry." She whimpered.
She could hear Sam shouting her name then, screaming at her to wait for him, but she couldn't hold on any longer and, as the darkness enveloped her in its numbing embrace, she sent a prayer out to anyone who would listen.
Ariella didn't know how long she had been lost to the darkness. All she knew was one moment she was accepting her death, and the next she was blinking up at a light so bright, for a moment she thought it was heaven. But something was wrong. Her body was heavy and throbbed with pain, and she wondered how, even in heaven, she was not liberated from her pain. Her other senses began catching up to her then, sounds and smells that she knew all too well suddenly filling her. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision as the smell of alcohol hit her nose and the steady thrum of a heart monitor filled her ears, suddenly realizing she was not in heaven, but a hospital.
"Ari?" she heard a familiar voice call out, and she rolled her head away from the blinding light to find Sam sitting next to her, a look of worry coloring his face.
"Sammy?" she asked in a scratchy voice, struggling to make sense of her jumbled thoughts. His worry morphed into relief as she spoke, before he reached forward to brush her bangs away from her face. As Ariella's thoughts caught up to her and she registered the feelings filtering in through her senses, she remembered all too well how she had managed to end up on death's doorstep. "I'm alive?" She gasped out.
"Yeah." Sam breathed out in response, that worried look of his washing over his face again. "But it was close." He told her with a shake of his head. "Don't you ever, ever do that to me again." He told her then, tears filling his eyes as anger flared in him. "That was too close, Ari." He said, the doctors having told him but mere hours ago that she was likely not to make it. "The doctor said just a little deeper and your spine would have been severed. Do you get how serious this was? Do you know how worried I've been?!"
"I'm sorry." She told him with furrowed brows, suddenly feeling horrid for having caused him so much distress. "There were two of them and I…I didn't know until it was too late." She tried to explain before a wave of horror washed through her. "Wait! You didn't tell Bobby, did you?!" she asked, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach with the thought of worrying him too.
"I should have." Sam told her with another shake of his head. "Maybe if he knew what you've been up to, he could convince you to stop being so god damn reckless!" he nearly shouted in frustration. "You know how it is, Ari! Hunters that work alone, die alone."
Ariella's jaw snapped shut at his outburst, feeling like a child being berated by a disappointed parent. She was silent for a moment as she fought to keep her tears in check, refusing to look at Sam. After a while she just lifted a shoulder, not sure what she could say in defense of herself. "I…." she said quietly, eyes falling back on him. "This is all I have, Sam."
Ariella spent the next three days in the hospital. She was riddled with stiches along the deep gashes in her back, and even had to undo go a skin graft for the worst of it, but she knew it could have been worse…much worse. Sam told the staff that her injuries had been sustained from an animal attack, so they didn't ask too many questions, but Ariella had never had the best experience when it came to hospitals, and so, as soon as she was strong enough to stand on her own feet again, she had convinced Sam to break her out.
Sam had been willing to slip her out of medical care but had been adamant that she returned to Stanford with him to stay with him and Jessica while she finished healing. Reluctantly, and because she had no other alternative, Ariella agreed. She had hitched a ride back to Sam's apartment, when she was put up in the guest bedroom.
To come up with a believable cover story, Sam had told Jessica that Ariella had been attacked by a rather large dog while doing her last home inspection. Seeing as the narrative wasn't too far off from the truth, it was easy enough to play off. During the first couple of weeks, Sam and Jessica had fussed over her constantly, hardly letting her out of their sight at all, and while endearing, it had quickly grated on Ariella's nerves to constantly have to shoo them away every time she did something as mundane as use the toilet.
Though Ariella hated being left in such a helpless state, and willed her back to heal quickly so she could leave their constant oversight, she also found herself thankful to have the chance to spend so much time with the pair. Ariella had never really had friends growing up, apart from Sam and Dean, so the time she got to spend with Jessica was a pleasant bonus to her ineptitude.They would stay up late and watch movies together and Jessica would paint her nails while they complained about boys. It was nice…it was normal.
About a month into Ariella's prolonged stay at Sam's apartment, she had poked her head into the kitchen one night to scrounge together something to eat when she noticed Sam sitting at the kitchen table. Jessica was in the shower, so when Ariella stepped up behind him, unintentionally walking with silent steps, he had no idea anyone was behind him. She gazed over his shoulder curiously, wondering what he was working on, and when her eyes took in what was displayed on his laptop screen, her mouth dropped open in shock.
"Is that an engagement ring?!" she asked, startling Sam enough to make him jolt forward in his seat.
He spun around with wide eyes before waving his hands around frantically. "SHH!" he said, trying to hush her. His eyes darted to the hall behind her and went quiet as he listened for the steady sound of the still running shower. After a moment of realizing Jessica was still in the bathroom and well out of hearing distance, he visibly sagged in relief.
"Oh my god!" Ariella breathed out before fully registered what this meant. "Sam, oh my god!" she said again, wide eyes moving from the screen over to him.
"Look, it isn't-" he began, reaching behind him to slam his laptop shut. "It's just something I've been thinking about, okay?" he said, running a hand through his hair then. "I just…what do you think?" he asked, looking up at her like he was lost and confused. "Do you think it's a good idea?"
"You want my honest opinion?" Ariella asked.
"Always." Sam told her with a nod.
"Are you sure?" she asked. "Because people always say that, but then when they get it they-"
"Ari." Sam said seriously, stopping her. "Please." he said, sounding almost desperate.
Ariella let out a sigh as she dropped herself down into the chair next to him before running a hand through her own hair. "Sam, Jessica's a great girl." She began, honestly feeling torn by the revelation.
"Why do I hear a but coming?" he asked, knowing that tone of hers all too well.
"But-" Ariella added. "She only knows half of you. They best parts, sure, but there's still so much that you're keeping from her."
Sam sagged in his chair at her response, his face falling into a frown. "You know perfectly well why." he said lowly, knowing she was right, yet not wanting to hear it.
"Look, I get it." she said, letting out another sigh. "You think that by telling her everything, you'd end up pushing her away, right?" By the way Sam refused to look at her, she knew she was correct. "And maybe she would." she added with a shrug. "But by keeping her in the dark like this…all you're doing is hiding a part of yourself."
"So what? You think I should tell her?" he asked, really not liking the sound of that option.
"I'm not going to sit here and tell you what to do on this one, Sammy." Ariella told him with a frown of her own. "God knows I'm not the poster child for functional relationships." She admitted with a huff. "But Sam, if you love Jess…and I mean really love her…you should be asking yourself if lying to her for the rest of your life is fair to her."
The sound of the shower stopped then, and Ariella gave Sam a tight-lipped smile as she stood back up. Knowing nothing more could be said on the matter, at least for now, she instead dropped her hand down on Sam's shoulder and gave it a squeeze as she left him to process his thoughts alone, suddenly not feeling very hungry.
Later that night, after he and Jessica had gone to bed, Ariella lay wide awake, thoughts circling around restlessly. Marriage had never really been something that Ariella had imagined for herself. Life as a hunter was complicated at best, and to drag someone else into that mess was unimaginable. True, Sam had a real shot at things, but that was only because he had gotten out. He was done with that kind of life. Ariella, however, would never be done. Hunting was all she had…hunting was all she knew. Sam had said it best himself when she had woken in the hospital. A hunter that works alone, dies alone. And that….that was the only future Ariella envisioned for herself.
She tossed restlessly in bed, thoughts only spinning faster and faster, when she heard a thump from within the apartment. Shooting up in alarm, she strained her ears, only to hear another soft thump, followed by the sound of struggle. Reaching under her mattress, she pulled out her gun before rushing out of her bedroom. She moved down the hall as quickly as she could as she pulled off the safety, coming out into the kitchen to find Sam on the floor, struggling with another person. Her feet were moving in an instant.
"That's because you're out of practice." She heard the man on top of Sam say as she crept up silently behind him, raising the gun to the back of his head.
"I'm not." She said as she tapped the barrel against his skull, letting him know she had a weapon trained on him. The man turned his head slowly, and when he turned around enough that the light hit his face, Ariella felt a surge of conflicting emotions roll through her as her breath caught in her throat. "Dean?"