◖𓈈﹗﹙chapter five﹚
❛▬▬ THE BAR . . . ❜
The next day she woke up to the sound of the television coming from the living room. Lilith went to the bathroom and the cool water woke her up after the long hours of sleep, she had rested so well she seemed to have calmed down after yesterday's detestable day. It didn't occur to her to say that today would improve or that her mood would remain friendly, however, the woman descended the stairs tying her long pearly hair into a high messy ponytail.
In the living room, the faces of both brothers, refreshed and as neat as a hunter who lived on the road could be, greeted her with a good morning.
"I like your shirt," Dean said, holding the same Spiderman mug. He followed her into the kitchen and was thoughtful about washing the mug and putting it in its place. "Where did you get it?"
"In a store around here, there's a men's size, if you want, I'll buy you one," Lilith answered, making herself a cup of coffee with milk, and then she opened some doors looking for cookies, but she couldn't find them. "Dean!" she suddenly shrieked. "Where are my cookies?"
"In my belly, they were delicious."
Lilith let a sigh guide her to find something else to feed her body with, she had been craving very strongly for a latte and cookies for breakfast, her guts were roaring at the thought of what could have been and it wasn't because of Dean and his extreme appetite.
Lilith stood on her tiptoes in front of a cabinet built into the wall and reached out with the desire to find something, she was a tall woman, but the depth of the shelves outweighed her lanky arm. She patted down a plastic bag and dragged it over.
"Water crackers?" Lilith turned away. "Dean!" She scolded him and hit him with a mop after she caught him staring at her butt. "Don't do that again." The hunter had at first played it cool, but when he realized it was impossible to deny it, a mischievous, unblushing smile of regret appeared on his face, making it clear what kind of man he was. Lilith struck him once more.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he raised his hands. "I won't do it again."
"I'd like to believe that," she said more to herself and in a serious tone that tried to camouflage it. Lilith had a lot of problems with the way Dean was obsessed with looking at women's bodies, it wasn't an attitude that went unnoticed, he did it shamelessly with any female that passed by. "You're already bordering on kinky; I don't think you'd like that a lot of guys the first thing they see of you is your ass..."
"Dean, come!" Sam saved the situation. Dean moved away as quickly as possible and crossed the dining room to the living room, which Lilith had a great view of from the kitchen: beyond the door that separated the rooms, Sam was leaning back on the couch while holding a newspaper. He was about to show his brother one of the articles in the back. "I think I found a possible case."
Lilith said nothing more and decided to take her breakfast to the couch to be near the boys. Normally Mom had gotten her used to eating breakfast together at the kitchen counter, while they talked about what they were going to do for the day or just listened to music. Not wanting to feel lonely, she followed Dean and sat down next to Sam.
"It's here, in the center," said Sam, passing him the newspaper. Lilith, interested, paid attention to the conversation. "A private detective murdered in his apartment."
A second later, the girl's breathing stopped and she slapped the paper away from Dean. She reached for the frame that was about to make her paranoid if the thought that crossed her mind in anguish was true:
───────────────────────────────
CAMBRIDGE CHRONICLE
sunday, July 15,2006
Bruce Pike, 46, was found dead in his apartment by strangulation inside his downtown Cambridge, Massachusetts apartment by his wife, Rose Pike, after 8 p.m. last night. The police department is awaiting an autopsy to determine the cause of death. There are no suspects yet.
───────────────────────────────
"What's going on Lilith?" Sam questioned mysteriously.
Lilith felt a strange chill run through her body, with the sudden feeling that things were going to change in a new day that was just beginning. She shuddered as she read the news, how had such a thing happened? Each word filled a new space in her memory, so much so that she repeated the reading until it took on a serious tinge of realism, she did not want to believe it and at the same time she wished that coincidences were not real.
With a bad taste in her mouth and two pairs of green eyes watching her closely, she handed the newspaper back to the older brother.
"I," she murmured, finding it difficult to accept the news of Detective Pike's death. "I had an appointment with him tomorrow. I was going to hire him to look into my mother's case, especially the law firm."
It seemed to Lilith that both boys thought exactly as her, but they decided to behave differently, although Lilith didn't want to make a big deal out of assumptions either.
"Okay," Dean stretched out the sentence as he finished reading, "Do you think it's a case? It sounds like a pretty standard murder."
"I talked to a local when I went to get the paper, she said her boyfriend lives in the apartment next door and claimed that no one had entered Pike's apartment all day until the cops arrived and found the body. She also said that Pike played the violin at four in the afternoon and that he had indeed heard him, so at four o'clock he was still alive and after that, no one enters his apartment and he is found strangled. What do you say?"
"Yes, you should check," Lilith said, hiding her insistence.
"Let me go to the bathroom first," Dean finished and went to the bathroom in the living room, which was next to his mother's office.
"Bobby called," Sam said. Lilith took a long drink of coffee "You were sleeping and we didn't want to wake you up for something you already knew, he didn't find anything. He said he would keep looking, but also finding nothing could mean someone made it up as a joke or for art, nothing really dangerous about monsters and demons."
"Okay, I guess I'll go find another detective."
"I have to admit it's a very strange coincidence. Should we check this out and go to the library? There's no trace of who might have put the letter in your house, but we can keep looking for an explanation for the seal"
Lilith Arduenn continued the day in her pajamas and spending hours on the web looking for some explanation for the seal until the day's waning sun began to descend casting shadows on the roadway and accompanying the Impala returning after a full day of work.
Detective Pike's death had turned out to be a supernatural case and the Winchester brothers were busy gathering extra information from the trail of sulfur they found in the apartment, a clear sign that a demon was the prime suspect.
It took them the entire afternoon to find the possessed person and practice an exorcism; so the little plan to go to the library ended up being cancelled.
Lilith did not make an issue of the altercation, she thought that, if Bobby had not been able to find a meaning in the gigantic library of her house —one of the best and most complete collection of the supernatural—, in such a common and ordinary place would not be the answer. Instead, she opted for the web.
She entered forums with similar designs, created herself a user on some sort of cult that worshipped Aleister Crowley an. Her butt was squashed on the desk chair in her room and frustration engulfed her face by the time the doorbell rang. Lazy to leave her room and because her mood was on the floor, she texted Sam telling him to use his lock picks to open the door because she wouldn't come down.
"Damn demon, I stink like a sewer," she heard Sam complain as they walked up the stairs. "My back hurts all over, I think I have a splinter in my back.... Lilith!"
Seconds later the brothers appeared through the door of her room, bringing an insufferable smell of rot and poop. Both had small cuts and bruises across their arms and mud-stained clothes.
"The demon put up a fight, huh?"
"Yes, can you help me?" Lilith nodded and got up to fetch a tweezer from the bathroom. When she returned, Sam was bare-chested and Dean was fiddling with his ornaments and pictures until a box where she kept all the cd's and cassettes caught his attention.
"Don't even think about sitting on my bed like that," Lilith stopped him with his ass about to touch her clean sheets. "And what about this little chocolate board?" she said with a chuckle, flattering Sam's torso. Confident that he wouldn't bother, she ran the tips of both index fingers as if she was playing a piano.
"For hanging out with Ronald," Sam replied, and they both let out a big laugh. Ronald was a classmate of Sam's who, apart from studying law, was a bodybuilder obsessed with his body. He had insisted to Sam that he needed to get, in his words, hot, but his proud best friend didn't want to.....
"You let yourself be swayed."
"No, I just agreed to go for a morning run. I didn't know that also meant doing sit-ups and lifting weights."
"I'll leave you two alone if you want to touch each other," Dean said from the floor, sitting cross-legged, pulling out the CD cases and reading the songs on the back. "Bobby said you have to move into his place in the meantime."
"What? Why? " She asked, trying to get the thorn out of Sam's skin.
"He doesn't want you to be alone and away from Siux Falls. Demons aren't creatures that are just killing people for the sake of it, it's more common to hear of crossroads demons, the ones you sell your soul to. But they are not walking among us and they can't necessarily go around killing people, it's pretty complicated Bobby said," Sam replied.
"Exorcisms are not common in our times and neither are demons, we told him about this thing that happened and Bobby says it may be a coincidence, but as far as we know there is not much of a coincidence and it is better for you to be safe with him."
"It's okay, I don't have a problem," Her nerves suddenly attacked her and her pulse lost control, stinging Sam's skin.
"It's just for the summer vacations, I'm sure when you go back to college everything will be back to normal."
As much as she wanted to believe Sam's words, her rational side kept her from falling into a trap like that. Mom had taught her that logic and a mind expropriated of fantasies and idealism was a more useful tool than feelings, she didn't say that emotions were useless in human life —since all animals had been endowed with the ability to feel—, however, Lilith realized, she failed the test. She could master what she had learned from mom in school and university environment, but when the final test came: she could not live without her. She loved her and needed her so much. Her plans would be happily concluded before she had to go back to college but something told her it wouldn't be that way.
"Do you think there is a connection we are missing?" Lilith asked with her cerulean eyes open to the mystery, totally devoted. She pulled out two thorns and held them in her hand, they were longer than they seemed.
"It is possible," determined the younger Winchester.
"We'll drop you off there in two days," Dean warned, still deep in the cd's. "How old are you? 21?"
"Nineteen, twenty in three months," she clarified. "Why?"
Dean made a head-to-toe inspection, frowning. "So you can't go to a bar to drink," he concluded and quickly moved on to another topic, "You have very strange taste here. How can these two things be in the same box?" He compared a Led Zeppelin cassette with a Madonna one "and then this: an AC/DC cd and Backstreet Boys?! Lilith, please, have some dignity."
"Well I'm not a bitter old man who sticks to music made before 1979 because his daddy told him disco and pop is boring and basic. Bitch needs to get out of his comfort zone, or is there some kind of prejudice you don't want to be called out ? Are you afraid you'll like it? Don't you think he would like to dance to Michel Jackson, Sam? You don't just dare; and I can go to a bar, as long as I don't drink. Are you going to go to one? You boys left me alone all day!"
Sam let out a loud laugh.
"You are right!" he took the opportunity to tease his brother, "Yeah, we were thinking of going to one, we're starving. Get changed and let's go to the one where half the world is in love with you. Can I use your bathroom? Dean will use the other one."
"Yes, but hurry up, I want to take a shower too," she said. "Dean go back and tidy up everything you took out of place! Now!"
• • ⛧ • •
The swaying of the Impala on the road made Lilith's long, straight, pearly hair take on the reflections of the lights on the road, like a disco ball. She had dried it so fast that it was still damp and reached below her waist, it was so long.
She watched through the window in silence, sometimes contemplating the face she had brought back to life with makeup: she covered one of her biggest insecurities under her eyes with concealer and awakened her mood with several layers of black mascara; then she highlighted her lips with a gloss that tasted like strawberry, it was delicious and addictive. Lilith settled the cool cotton dress with the black and white chess pattern over a white t-shirt top. Lilith really liked the style in her closet, simple, but with a very different touch from today's fashion that consisted of lots of jeans and tall cowboy boots.
She was thinking about the last fourteen days, from the first night she went to bed crying for hours because she didn't know where her mom was, if she was okay, and wondering how it was possible that she had disappeared; she thought about the five days she was with Bobby searching the streets, talking to the police, neighbors and friends; when she was left alone without ideas and until she found the damn letter and the tip of the sixth gentleman who was with her mother.
It was a series of uncertainties that prevented her from moving forward, she needed that bigger picture. What if her mother was really involved in something with this Thomas? Or if that man she never heard of had a more serious relationship with her mother? Why hadn't she told her about him, what made him different from the rest? Were Thomas and that man the same person? Why a demon killed Detective Pike? Why him and not someone else in all of Cambridge?
"Did you fall asleep Lilith?" Dean's voice brought her out of her thoughts.
"What?"
"I asked you if you really like rock or is it just an appearance, it's been a long time since I've heard you hum a song, when you were younger you listened to a lot more."
"Yes, I like it, but it's not what I listen to the most, It's funny, I started listening to rock just because you were a fan and I thought you didn't like me and if I listened to rock that would change and you would agree to play with me, and you know what, it worked because you are such a dog! You came to my room because your favorite song was playing, I asked you if you wanted to play Battleship and you. said. yeah. I forgive, but I don't forget."
"What can I say? I can't defend my 13-year-old me, so I'll just say I'm an easy guy."
They arrived at a very nice bar located a bit out of the way from downtown. Dean found a parking spot for their car and they got out past some red lights flashing the name of the place: Tommy's Bar. Lilith had been there a couple of times before, even hitting on her first one-night stand guy there last year.
She knew the owners and one of their sons was a classmate, Lewis Thompson, and it was thanks to him if she wanted to order herself a drink they would give it to her with the only condition that she didn't get that drunk. Lilith's stomach growled as she followed the brothers to a table along the wall parallel to the long bar with stools filled with men flirting with beautiful bartenders. While they waited to be served, Lilith went to the bathroom because she felt a horrible pang in her belly.
She quickly entered one of the cubicles fearing that her period had arrived, to her good or bad luck, a little blood came out of her. Good thing she always carried a tampon in her purse, so she put it in relieved and when she came out she found a giant mirror, well kept, surrounded by warm lights that let her appreciate her reflection. She made sure everything was in place, but she was soon joined by a tall, curvaceous woman with wide hips dressed in jeans and a black tank top that covered a prominent bust. Her hair was a copper-colored military cut and her long enviable eyelashes highlighted her brown eyes, which looked at her suspended and snooping for a few seconds as Lilith decided to return to the boys.
"What are you talking about? I know how to do my job without thinking with my other brain, you should think a little with your other brain. How could you have Lilith in her room in her underwear and not be the slightest bit curious? What kind of a monster are you? Wouldn't you sleep with her if you had the chance? Have you seen her?"
Dean's words left her petrified and she stopped her steps. A mocking smile originated on her face at the same time Sam had looked at her for a few seconds, but he decided to continue with the conversation.
"No, I wouldn't because I exactly think with my brain from above. Everyone has been telling us all our lives to be together, but no one understands that we just want to be friends, right Lilith?"
That, being her cue, sat back down next to Sam. Dean's face turned pale, with wide eyes and a ridiculous stammer. "Yeah, a lot of people don't understand that a man and a woman can just be friends," he answered naturally to the truth. "So you'd sleep with me if you had the chance?"
"Why didn't you tell me she was behind me?" He mumbled between his teeth, it was obvious he didn't know what to say or what were the right words to defend himself so Lilith wouldn't think he was an idiot as he indeed seemed to be.
"So that she would listen to the stupid things you say."
Lilith let her pointed fangs peek out in a wicked grin and the food and drinks arrived to save Dean from responding; fate loved him so much to save him twice in the same day. The Winchesters and Arduenn ate on a pleasant starry summer night.
For a few minutes she managed to forget about all the problems her unpleasant situation was causing her, she had needed it so much: to get out of her house and spend time in the company of friends, where she felt safe and loved. Some crispy fries and a salad took away her hunger and she had ordered herself a mojito because the beer still tasted too bitter. Dean hadn't brought up the subject all night and had been avoiding her gaze; Lilith had rolled her eyes, it wasn't as if it bothered her to know that Dean would sleep with her if he had the chance and she shouldn't generate a change in their relationship either, she liked being his friend.
"I notice a little tension here, I'm going to pee so you can talk," like a devil planning a massacre, he slunk off to the bathroom, chuckling under his breath. Lilith couldn't help but love him, that situation amused her and just that, she didn't want to get more than amusement out of it.
"Sam, don't be ridiculous, you're not twelve years old," said Dean following him with his head, "I'm sorry if it bothered you, can we leave it here?
"Yes," she agreed without further ado, "but I'd like to know why Sam told you that...."
She was interrupted.
"Excuse me," that woman with whom she had had a brief strange encounter in the bathroom approached the table with friendly expressions that hid her distress. "Are you Lilith Arduenn, Regina's daughter?"
"Uh" For a moment his brain stopped working. "Yes, that's me, who are you?"
"Vanessa Smith," she introduced herself. The name wandered through Lilith's memory "How is your mother? I've been calling her for days and she hasn't answered. I was going to stop by her house in the morning."The hunter's body leaned forward and gave her an insightful look, typical of a hunter who had seen horrible, unimaginable things. Lilith was dealing with some trouble concentrating, she kept looking up the name in her head, she was sure she had read it on some paper during the preparation of the file.
"How did you meet her?" She thought it would be useful to know this information for the future.
"I work very late at my dermatology office two blocks away, so I usually have lunch here. I used to come a lot with my ex-husband and one day we had a very embarrassing episode in public and, well it's not important, your mother offered to help me with the divorce and we became friends. Is she okay? I've noticed she's been a bit strange the last few weeks...."
She remembered! When she had been going through the call log, both on the work and personal phone, she saw a couple of calls with a Vani Smith. The emerald eyes, quiet and respectful, clashed against the girl's curious and mysterious ones, trying to send a message she didn't interpret or Lilith was needy enough for clues that she would do anything.
"Have a seat please," with her head she gestured to the free chair Sam had left. "My mother is missing, she just took off with a couple of things and I have no idea where she might be. I've been trying to gather information, asking neighbors, friends and at her work for any clues and you're the first person to come to me and tell me you've noticed her strange. Could you explain?" She didn't want to sound suspicious and rude. She looked at Dean for a second.
"She left," Vanessa said unsurprised. What did that mean? Why wasn't she surprised? "I've noticed her acting very strange the last few weeks, it was the smallest things Regina was trying to hide, but she can't with me. She would get scared of unexpected noises and was very distracted in her thoughts, she would say it was because of work. I would describe her as paranoid, disturbed. The thought of drugs crossed my mind, I know your mother is a very healthy woman, but it was my attempt to give her an explanation. I asked her and she denied it. I didn't know she was gone, I should have visited her sooner, I am so sorry."
Lilith was trying to stay strong and do everything her mother had taught her: big girls don't let themselves be seen as weak. The lump manifested in her throat would not let her speak quietly and the trembling of her hands had to be hidden under the table. She filled her lungs with air taking the time to ask the necessary questions, think with a cold heart and then free herself.
"Do you have any idea why?" Dean stepped forward, looking after her.
"No, it's something I've been trying to figure out. It was a progressive change, but nothing was happening in her life for her to start behaving like that," Vanessa was silent for a while, thinking with fear in her eyes. Lilith saw the expression Dean had made: a face that suddenly understood everything, a realization. She had some letters with a seal on them...." She had trouble saying the next word. "Special."
It was there that she understood Dean's attitude. Lilith Arduenn ducked her head out of the conversation because she couldn't hold it together. She wanted to be mad at mom, wanted to hate her for making her feel this way, wanted to be able to stop loving her so she wouldn't be worried about finding her dead. At that instant, she heard Sam come in.
"A red one? "she spoke forcibly recovering. Lilith reached into her purse and pulled out the original letter, but not before folding it so Vanessa wouldn't be frightened by its contents. "This one?"
"Yes," she confirmed. Lilith wanted to curse in every language. "Where is it from?"
"I don't know," she half-lied. "How long ago did you see her with these? Was it a lot of letters?"
"Two months or less, I only managed to see two in her purse. That was our fight, I tried to open one and she caught me," The woman's eyes were watery. "I'm so sorry, if I only knew I would have talked to you much sooner."
"My mom said something to you about some Thomas or a guy with golden hair?" Lilith swallowed all the feelings that were brutally hitting her and didn't dare to look the brothers in the face, for some reason she felt ashamed and very, very afraid.
"No," she answered thoughtfully. "No, I'm sure she didn't tell me anything."
"Thank you for your time, I will keep you up-to-date if I have any more information."
On Vanessa's face Lilith saw a very maternal face, compassionate to the tears that were about to come out of her eyes. She could believe that the woman was susceptible to the inner emotions that the people around her were suffering, she was kind in her words and gestures and did not continue to probe further to Lilith's relief because she already had paths crossed out and a big revelation that she needed to process alone, without friends and people around her.
"Let me write down my number, you can call me for anything you need. If you want to talk I know your home address, just call me and I'll come over," she reached into a large, black bag hanging from her shoulder and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. "Don't worry kid, time will make things better, you'll see."
When a moment of pressure was tormenting her as she was living, Lilith just wanted to run away to a place where she could be alone. She only shared her feelings with mom and Sam, but right now she needed a moment with herself, she would have time to cry on Sam's shoulder. However, her body was failing her and she couldn't move a muscle to run to the bathroom. She placed her heads in her hands and a couple of tears fell at the thought of struggle: she had to keep going.
"One of you go investigate that woman right now," she ordered firmly despite how sad she was feeling.
💬 ！▬ @strxapose
﹙author's note﹚
we have a peek of Regina's disappearance, i will love to read you coments!
⛧.