Young Blood [SUPERNATURAL]

Part 21: Into the Darkness

warnings: mentions of death, mentions of blood, possibly disturbing imagery, implied thoughts of suicide kinda 

a/n: yes, vague, if you are confused after this chapter, i hope to make it clear later but feel free to ask any questions, leave me a comment :0

ASH FELT THE BLOOD flowing from her neck, confusion weighing her down. Her hands pushed at Wyatt's chest, but her strength was failing. It hurt- her neck, her head, her jaw, but what hurt worse was that Wyatt was feeding from her. No- right now, he was killing her.

Her lips struggled to produce his name. Immense drowsiness started to take hold, the front of her shirt damp with the blood running down her neck, down between her breasts. 

Beyond the physical pain, Ash felt something snap inside of her like a rubber band. Snapped from the pressure of this betrayal, the pressure of her own disappointment. Consciousness was slipping out of her hold, and she felt herself slipping, too. Slipping away the same way that she had when she was younger and alone in the orphanage. She was a tree in winter; everything nonessential was sucked up into the core, leaving the outside grey and hard and dead. There was a momentary reprieve, during which she heard Wyatt sobbing -"It was never about me...the hunters...trap-". But she ignored the words as blackness formed a kaleidoscope in her vision. Suddenly, she didn't care if she was dying. She imagined a tunnel unfolded before her, empty and black, and she was ready to walk to the end. If she was dying at the hands of someone she loved, there was nothing left. Nothing to trust. If this was how it had to be, she was ready to wander into the darkness. 

There was a flash, just before Ash began to slump, and Wyatt was knocked away from her. There was a faint smell of perfume, as her eyes fluttered closed, and cold hands adjusting her against the wall. Ash moaned weakly. She was dying, bleeding out. She quickly went limp, unaware of the woman crouching beside her. The woman's face was expressionless as she produced a small blade. Silently, she cut a deep gash across her own palm. In the dark, she brought her hand to Ash's parted lips. Blood, dark and thick, seeped from the stranger's hand, into the dying girl's mouth. Involuntarily, the blood trickled down Ash's throat. Slowly, Ash's senses strengthened. Consciousness became palpable, and within a minute of the blood touching her mortal lips, her eyes were opening again, light and afraid. The taste of the blood was overwhelmingly metallic in her mouth as the woman before her came into focus. 

You're not dying. Not now. Not today. Not anymore. 

Wyatt was unconscious beside her. His face was splattered with blood- her blood, she realized with a roll of her stomach. Color had returned to his flesh, and even his dark eyes appeared light again. Ash realized that before, he must have been starving. Not that it made her feel any better about being his meal. 

The woman before her looked familiar in the worst way. Like when you remember something from childhood, remember how it made you feel or what it smelled like, but now that it's before you, it feels like a memory from a different life. The petite woman was blond and pretty in a pinched, hard sort of way. Her face was angles and hard features, and worst of all, there was a necklace around her colorless throat. The same necklace that was around Ash's throat. A leather necklace with a single pearl bead. 

Ash panted into the humid air. The smell of blood and sweat was so strong she thought she would be sick. Her lips were slick with blood from the stranger's wrist, which didn't make her any less nauseous. She was disgusted, confused. Ash was aware enough to know that before the blood had entered her mouth, she had been dying, and now, she was saved. She just didn't understand why. 

"Hello, Ash." The stranger's voice was flat and unfeeling. Not matching the face, really. 

Ash felt a surge of questions press against her lips, but she held them in. She wasn't even phased that the stranger knew her name. Something about this woman was frightening. Ash felt like a trapped animal, too weak to fight, too injured to escape. It was peculiar, though. She felt a warmth spreading throughout her body, reaching further and further with every beat of her pulse. It felt like life, felt like strength. Another few minutes of breathing had Ash feeling entirely better. Now she could open her eyes entirely, devoting all of her attention to the unblinking woman before her.