Croatoan Part 8/?
Disclaimer: Supernatural and its characters belong to Eric Kripke and the CW
Spoilers: none
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Child death... child depression... thats about it...
Parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven.
Alice woke groggily, the smell of leather and after shave, strong and very close. She opened her eyes are it took her a moment to realize her surroundings. She was still sitting in her own little rectangle, Dean by her right side. Actually, Dean was a lot closer than just her right side. He was right next to her, and Alice realized that it was her who was right next to him. Sometime in the middle of her slumber, she must have leaned against him, because her head was now nestled in the crook of his shoulder. She sat up and moved a little ways away from Dean.
“Hey,” she said to Dean as she rubbed at her eyes.
“Hey, how do you feel?” Dean asked as he turned and faced her. She stretched and yawned.
“I feel like shit, that’s how I feel,” Alice said below her breath. Dean must have caught it because he gave her a sympathetic look. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just with Jeremy…” she trailed off.
“No,” Dean started, looking her in the eyes, “I get it, I do. You have the right to be upset. Losing someone like that is never easy.”
She scoffed. “Tell me about it. I just hope,” She swiped her right hand over her face and spoke quietly, “I hope that Alex is okay.” Dean put a hand on her shoulder and turned his head to look passed the chain-linked fence. She stretched again and caught the leather jacket that began sliding off her shoulder.
She held it in her hand and analyzed it, not recognizing it from anywhere and not remember seeing it before. Dean looked over at her and noticed her puzzled look.
“Oh, that’s uh, that’s mine,” he said as he reached for it. Alice followed his movements with her eyes as he stood and slipped it back over his broad shoulders.
“I thought I smelt leather,” she said as Dean sat back down next to her, “but it thought it was just my jacket.” She pulled at the lapels of her own, smaller leather jacket. Dean smiled.
“No, it was mine. You started to shiver in the middle of the night so I put it over you. You also fell asleep on my shoulder,” Dean teased, “but I think you picked up on that.” Alice blushed a little and rubbed her neck.
“Oh, yeah, sorry about that,” she breathed. Dean just laughed and slung an arm around her shoulder.
“It’s cool, kid,” he laughed, “Sammy used to do it all the time while my dad drove us all over the place.” Alice smiled up at Dean and shook her head.
“Get offa me,” she joked as she lightly shoved Dean away. He chuckled and lightly slugged her on the arm.
“Yeah, whatever, kid,” Dean joked back. Alice rolled her eyes. “Ready to go back?” Dean asked in a quieter-than-normal voice. Alice’s face went from joking to serious as she nodded her head. “Okay, let’s go.” He rose to one knee and used it to push himself all the way up. Dean extended a hand to Alice and she accepted the extra help, using him to get on her own two feet.
Alice made it to the fence first and pulled her keys from her duffle to unlock the gates to their haven. They cautiously made their way back to the gates, making sure they didn’t step on any debris, or kick any rocks. They didn’t want to attract any more potential attention to themselves than necessary.
“Did you get any sleep?” Alice asked quietly, just to break the silence.
“Nope,” Dean replied brusquely. Alice looked at him.
“What?” she whispered harshly, “why not? We need as much strength as we can get right now.” She returned to her forward-facing position. They inched around a corner, guns brought up to their face, ready to take aim and fire. Luckily, there was nothing around that corner.
“Too busy looking after you, making sure nothing decided it was a wise idea to come out of nowhere and attack us,” he answered, stepping over another dismembered car. Alice smiled.
“Thanks, Dean,” she said softly. He looked down at her and smiled.
They had made it halfway through the parking lot of the school (there more for past use than now) and they could just begin to make out the neighborhood they came from. The Croats seemed to have left most things untouched, save for a corner of a building and a piece of what might have been a stray dog. Alice groaned in disgust as she stepped over the bloodied mess and continued with their voyage back to the house.
Once the black gates of the school were in view, Alice paused, her brain shutting down and her legs locking. She let go of her assault rifle and let it hang by its strap.
“What?” Dean asked, turning to face her.
Alice shook her head. “I- I can’t. I can’t go over there. What if Jeremy… what if he’s just laying there, all bloody and ripped to bits?” Dean let his shoulder relax.
“Look,” he pointed to where the gates were. “Look over there and tell me what you see.” Alice looked to where his finger pointed and squinted to see past the gates. “If he was there, we would be able to see him from where we are. His body’s not there anymore, he was taken away.” Dean rested a hand on Alice’s shoulder. “M’kay?” Alice nodded and they continued forward.
They reached the fence in good time, and Alice stepped from the parking lot’s asphalt to the neighborhood’s concrete. She kept walking, her gun raised and her feet ready to run if it was needed. Dean stepped in front of her to scope out anything that might be troublesome up ahead. While he scouted Alice scanned her surroundings, eyes landing on a thick strip of blood on the ground. The strip of blood dragged on down the alleyway they were standing in, and it continued to curve around a corner.
Dean returned to Alice’s side from his scouting just in time to watch her eyes follow the trail of thick blood around the corner of another torn down building. She took a step to follow it and Dean grabbed at her elbow.
He shook his head and said, “Don’t,” and Alice caught on. She nodded, swallowed hard, and turned away from the bloody scene. Both Alice and Dean knew that the Croats had dragged Jeremy away to feed, and that trail of blood would lead them to what remained of the boy. It wasn’t something either of them needed, especially after what had happened to them in the past day.
As they made their way down towards the panic room, a million things ran through Alice’s mind. Many of them consist of prayers to an absent God that little Alex was okay. Her heart told her to hope for the best, but the life she lead told her to prepare for the worst. She reached the door and undid the lock. As the door swung open Alice could the small shape of Alex sitting up against the wall, her small figure outlined in shadow. When Alex saw Alice and Dean, she let her knees that were drawn up to her chest relax. She pushed up on her hands and shakily stood.
“Alice,” she whimpered.
“Yeah, sweetie, it’s me,” Alice answered. At those words, Alex ran forward and Alice knelt down to catch her in a long-overdue hug. She gripped her tightly to her chest as she stood and turned to look around the panic room. She looked around and saw that there was a small section of the panic room wall that had been broken through. “What happened there, Alex?”
Alex ran her hand under her nose and answered, “I was looking out of a hole in the wall to try to see Jer’my and the monsters hands broke through and tried to grab me.” Alice looked back at the hole in the wall and noticed the gruesome amount of blood that was now drying on the metal and plywood of the panic room wall.
“Did they get you, Alex? Did the monsters touch you?” Alice asked as she put Alex down and looked at her in the face. There were three small cuts in the side of her face that seemed to now be putrefying and festering. The edges were dotted with a few speckles of blood, and that check was red and hot to the touch. Alex nodded and looked at the ground.
“They scratched my face before I moved away,” Alex answered, shifter her weight from left foot to right, and back to left again. Alice took a deep breath, trying hard to keep her face steady.
“Okay,” she said as she picked Alex up again. “It’s gonna be okay, kiddo. Everything’s going to be fine.” They made their way back to the house, Alice still holding Alex, and Dean up ahead again.
Alice never thought she would be so happy to see the poorly lit stairwell that led up to her apartment. However, in this moment, it could have easily been the stairway to heaven. She took each step with a heavy foot, the call of a secure house calling out to her like a siren’s spell. She handed Alex off to Dean as she reached the door and undid all of the locks. The door creaked as it open, and Alice stepped inside and walked around the front room. The place felt different, and even though there were three people here like she was used to, she could tell that it was off because Jeremy was no longer with them. Dean entered the house and closed the door behind him. He gestured to Alex and pointed to the back of the hallway. Dean deposited Alex in her bed and made his way back to the front room.
Alice sat on the couch with her head in her hands. She was still getting a grip on the fact that she would never see Jeremy again. When Dean made his way back into the front room, Alice spoke.
“The last time I spoke to him, I was yelling at him. I was always yelling at him,” Alice said. Dean walked over to her and sat on the cushion next to her. It was the first time they’d ever sat on the couch together.
“You couldn’t have guessed what would have happened, no one could have. You were trying to keep Alex and Jeremy safe by telling him to go back, it wasn’t your fault,” Dean assured.
“Do not defend me, Dean,” Alice snapped. “He’s gone and I’m never going to able to see him again, and the last thing I said to him was to go back to Alex. He always wanted to go with me on supply runs and stuff like that, and each time I shot him down.” Dean didn’t exactly know where to go on from there, but he tried to ease his way into the next, and at this point in time, more endearing subject.
“Alice. Alex isn’t well, she isn’t healthy,” Dean said. He fiddled with the edge of his leather jacket before looking up at Alice, whose eyes were trained on him.
“What do you mean ‘she isn’t well.’?” Alice ground out between clenched teeth. Dean shifted under her gaze, the dark hair falling into her face adding to the intensity of her stare.
“I mean I think she’s infected.”
“No.” Alice stood up and paced before stopping in front of Dean and facing him. “No, no, I just lost Jeremy, please, please tell me that I’m not going to lose her too. She’s barely three!” Alice ran her hands through her hair and huffed out her breath. Dean gave her a sympathetic look, walking over to her to stop her pacing.
“I’m sorry, but you know that she’ll only get worse with time. Her cheek is turning to a deeper red color, and the fever’s already starting to spread through her,” he said, adding another “I’m sorry,” at the end. Alice pulled away from his grip to sit back down on the couch, cradling her face in her hands, shoulders rising and falling in a crippled sigh. Dean’s heart tugged in his chest and he felt unrelenting remorse for a child who had lost so much. He moves over to her side and places a hand on her shoulder.
“Just, get it over with,” Alice chokes out between a sob. Dean winces at the pain in her voice and stands up, removing his pistol from the back of his jeans as he makes his way to the back room. Alice raises her head in time to hear a childish whimper and a gunshot that rings in her ears for minutes after it’s gone off. She flinches at the loud sound and her eyes sting as they fill with more tears.
Dean pulled the trigger and the gunshot rang out in the empty room, Alex’s body going limp on her bed. Dean leaned up against the doorframe and ran a hand through his hair as he sunk to the floor. It wasn’t the first person he‘d killed, it wasn’t even the first kid-gone-monster that he’d killed, but it tore his chest in two to have had to pulled that trigger. He blinked away tears that threatened to spill over, and stood up from the floor. He drew in a deep and shaky breath before walking towards the limp body of a three-year-old and wrapping it in the quickly soiling sheets. He picked up the lifeless bundle and carried it out of the room, passed Alice, and out the door, walking to the percolation ponds and dumping the body in one of the emptied holes. He stood and looked down into the pile for a few minutes before he turned on his heels and walked back to where a torn apart child awaited him. Neither one of them ever set foot anywhere near the ponds again.
Part Nine Here: http://superfan12345.livejournal.com/3492.html
Spoilers: none
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Child death... child depression... thats about it...
Parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven.
Alice woke groggily, the smell of leather and after shave, strong and very close. She opened her eyes are it took her a moment to realize her surroundings. She was still sitting in her own little rectangle, Dean by her right side. Actually, Dean was a lot closer than just her right side. He was right next to her, and Alice realized that it was her who was right next to him. Sometime in the middle of her slumber, she must have leaned against him, because her head was now nestled in the crook of his shoulder. She sat up and moved a little ways away from Dean.
“Hey,” she said to Dean as she rubbed at her eyes.
“Hey, how do you feel?” Dean asked as he turned and faced her. She stretched and yawned.
“I feel like shit, that’s how I feel,” Alice said below her breath. Dean must have caught it because he gave her a sympathetic look. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just with Jeremy…” she trailed off.
“No,” Dean started, looking her in the eyes, “I get it, I do. You have the right to be upset. Losing someone like that is never easy.”
She scoffed. “Tell me about it. I just hope,” She swiped her right hand over her face and spoke quietly, “I hope that Alex is okay.” Dean put a hand on her shoulder and turned his head to look passed the chain-linked fence. She stretched again and caught the leather jacket that began sliding off her shoulder.
She held it in her hand and analyzed it, not recognizing it from anywhere and not remember seeing it before. Dean looked over at her and noticed her puzzled look.
“Oh, that’s uh, that’s mine,” he said as he reached for it. Alice followed his movements with her eyes as he stood and slipped it back over his broad shoulders.
“I thought I smelt leather,” she said as Dean sat back down next to her, “but it thought it was just my jacket.” She pulled at the lapels of her own, smaller leather jacket. Dean smiled.
“No, it was mine. You started to shiver in the middle of the night so I put it over you. You also fell asleep on my shoulder,” Dean teased, “but I think you picked up on that.” Alice blushed a little and rubbed her neck.
“Oh, yeah, sorry about that,” she breathed. Dean just laughed and slung an arm around her shoulder.
“It’s cool, kid,” he laughed, “Sammy used to do it all the time while my dad drove us all over the place.” Alice smiled up at Dean and shook her head.
“Get offa me,” she joked as she lightly shoved Dean away. He chuckled and lightly slugged her on the arm.
“Yeah, whatever, kid,” Dean joked back. Alice rolled her eyes. “Ready to go back?” Dean asked in a quieter-than-normal voice. Alice’s face went from joking to serious as she nodded her head. “Okay, let’s go.” He rose to one knee and used it to push himself all the way up. Dean extended a hand to Alice and she accepted the extra help, using him to get on her own two feet.
Alice made it to the fence first and pulled her keys from her duffle to unlock the gates to their haven. They cautiously made their way back to the gates, making sure they didn’t step on any debris, or kick any rocks. They didn’t want to attract any more potential attention to themselves than necessary.
“Did you get any sleep?” Alice asked quietly, just to break the silence.
“Nope,” Dean replied brusquely. Alice looked at him.
“What?” she whispered harshly, “why not? We need as much strength as we can get right now.” She returned to her forward-facing position. They inched around a corner, guns brought up to their face, ready to take aim and fire. Luckily, there was nothing around that corner.
“Too busy looking after you, making sure nothing decided it was a wise idea to come out of nowhere and attack us,” he answered, stepping over another dismembered car. Alice smiled.
“Thanks, Dean,” she said softly. He looked down at her and smiled.
They had made it halfway through the parking lot of the school (there more for past use than now) and they could just begin to make out the neighborhood they came from. The Croats seemed to have left most things untouched, save for a corner of a building and a piece of what might have been a stray dog. Alice groaned in disgust as she stepped over the bloodied mess and continued with their voyage back to the house.
Once the black gates of the school were in view, Alice paused, her brain shutting down and her legs locking. She let go of her assault rifle and let it hang by its strap.
“What?” Dean asked, turning to face her.
Alice shook her head. “I- I can’t. I can’t go over there. What if Jeremy… what if he’s just laying there, all bloody and ripped to bits?” Dean let his shoulder relax.
“Look,” he pointed to where the gates were. “Look over there and tell me what you see.” Alice looked to where his finger pointed and squinted to see past the gates. “If he was there, we would be able to see him from where we are. His body’s not there anymore, he was taken away.” Dean rested a hand on Alice’s shoulder. “M’kay?” Alice nodded and they continued forward.
They reached the fence in good time, and Alice stepped from the parking lot’s asphalt to the neighborhood’s concrete. She kept walking, her gun raised and her feet ready to run if it was needed. Dean stepped in front of her to scope out anything that might be troublesome up ahead. While he scouted Alice scanned her surroundings, eyes landing on a thick strip of blood on the ground. The strip of blood dragged on down the alleyway they were standing in, and it continued to curve around a corner.
Dean returned to Alice’s side from his scouting just in time to watch her eyes follow the trail of thick blood around the corner of another torn down building. She took a step to follow it and Dean grabbed at her elbow.
He shook his head and said, “Don’t,” and Alice caught on. She nodded, swallowed hard, and turned away from the bloody scene. Both Alice and Dean knew that the Croats had dragged Jeremy away to feed, and that trail of blood would lead them to what remained of the boy. It wasn’t something either of them needed, especially after what had happened to them in the past day.
As they made their way down towards the panic room, a million things ran through Alice’s mind. Many of them consist of prayers to an absent God that little Alex was okay. Her heart told her to hope for the best, but the life she lead told her to prepare for the worst. She reached the door and undid the lock. As the door swung open Alice could the small shape of Alex sitting up against the wall, her small figure outlined in shadow. When Alex saw Alice and Dean, she let her knees that were drawn up to her chest relax. She pushed up on her hands and shakily stood.
“Alice,” she whimpered.
“Yeah, sweetie, it’s me,” Alice answered. At those words, Alex ran forward and Alice knelt down to catch her in a long-overdue hug. She gripped her tightly to her chest as she stood and turned to look around the panic room. She looked around and saw that there was a small section of the panic room wall that had been broken through. “What happened there, Alex?”
Alex ran her hand under her nose and answered, “I was looking out of a hole in the wall to try to see Jer’my and the monsters hands broke through and tried to grab me.” Alice looked back at the hole in the wall and noticed the gruesome amount of blood that was now drying on the metal and plywood of the panic room wall.
“Did they get you, Alex? Did the monsters touch you?” Alice asked as she put Alex down and looked at her in the face. There were three small cuts in the side of her face that seemed to now be putrefying and festering. The edges were dotted with a few speckles of blood, and that check was red and hot to the touch. Alex nodded and looked at the ground.
“They scratched my face before I moved away,” Alex answered, shifter her weight from left foot to right, and back to left again. Alice took a deep breath, trying hard to keep her face steady.
“Okay,” she said as she picked Alex up again. “It’s gonna be okay, kiddo. Everything’s going to be fine.” They made their way back to the house, Alice still holding Alex, and Dean up ahead again.
Alice never thought she would be so happy to see the poorly lit stairwell that led up to her apartment. However, in this moment, it could have easily been the stairway to heaven. She took each step with a heavy foot, the call of a secure house calling out to her like a siren’s spell. She handed Alex off to Dean as she reached the door and undid all of the locks. The door creaked as it open, and Alice stepped inside and walked around the front room. The place felt different, and even though there were three people here like she was used to, she could tell that it was off because Jeremy was no longer with them. Dean entered the house and closed the door behind him. He gestured to Alex and pointed to the back of the hallway. Dean deposited Alex in her bed and made his way back to the front room.
Alice sat on the couch with her head in her hands. She was still getting a grip on the fact that she would never see Jeremy again. When Dean made his way back into the front room, Alice spoke.
“The last time I spoke to him, I was yelling at him. I was always yelling at him,” Alice said. Dean walked over to her and sat on the cushion next to her. It was the first time they’d ever sat on the couch together.
“You couldn’t have guessed what would have happened, no one could have. You were trying to keep Alex and Jeremy safe by telling him to go back, it wasn’t your fault,” Dean assured.
“Do not defend me, Dean,” Alice snapped. “He’s gone and I’m never going to able to see him again, and the last thing I said to him was to go back to Alex. He always wanted to go with me on supply runs and stuff like that, and each time I shot him down.” Dean didn’t exactly know where to go on from there, but he tried to ease his way into the next, and at this point in time, more endearing subject.
“Alice. Alex isn’t well, she isn’t healthy,” Dean said. He fiddled with the edge of his leather jacket before looking up at Alice, whose eyes were trained on him.
“What do you mean ‘she isn’t well.’?” Alice ground out between clenched teeth. Dean shifted under her gaze, the dark hair falling into her face adding to the intensity of her stare.
“I mean I think she’s infected.”
“No.” Alice stood up and paced before stopping in front of Dean and facing him. “No, no, I just lost Jeremy, please, please tell me that I’m not going to lose her too. She’s barely three!” Alice ran her hands through her hair and huffed out her breath. Dean gave her a sympathetic look, walking over to her to stop her pacing.
“I’m sorry, but you know that she’ll only get worse with time. Her cheek is turning to a deeper red color, and the fever’s already starting to spread through her,” he said, adding another “I’m sorry,” at the end. Alice pulled away from his grip to sit back down on the couch, cradling her face in her hands, shoulders rising and falling in a crippled sigh. Dean’s heart tugged in his chest and he felt unrelenting remorse for a child who had lost so much. He moves over to her side and places a hand on her shoulder.
“Just, get it over with,” Alice chokes out between a sob. Dean winces at the pain in her voice and stands up, removing his pistol from the back of his jeans as he makes his way to the back room. Alice raises her head in time to hear a childish whimper and a gunshot that rings in her ears for minutes after it’s gone off. She flinches at the loud sound and her eyes sting as they fill with more tears.
Dean pulled the trigger and the gunshot rang out in the empty room, Alex’s body going limp on her bed. Dean leaned up against the doorframe and ran a hand through his hair as he sunk to the floor. It wasn’t the first person he‘d killed, it wasn’t even the first kid-gone-monster that he’d killed, but it tore his chest in two to have had to pulled that trigger. He blinked away tears that threatened to spill over, and stood up from the floor. He drew in a deep and shaky breath before walking towards the limp body of a three-year-old and wrapping it in the quickly soiling sheets. He picked up the lifeless bundle and carried it out of the room, passed Alice, and out the door, walking to the percolation ponds and dumping the body in one of the emptied holes. He stood and looked down into the pile for a few minutes before he turned on his heels and walked back to where a torn apart child awaited him. Neither one of them ever set foot anywhere near the ponds again.
Part Nine Here: http://superfan12345.livejournal.com/3492.html