◖𓈈﹗﹙chapter seven﹚
❛ ▬▬ crazy people. . . ❜
Lilith woke up blindfolded to the sound of the wheels grinding against the road. Her first instinct had been to stay completely still with her muscles tensing and her heart racing with the terror of a kidnapping. The last thing she remembered was talking on her cell phone to Dean and a second later the shadows surrounding the Impala formed a black cloud hiding the bodies of the people who had beaten her and dragged her into a white van.
She was so scared, who wouldn't? The whole situation she had been experiencing for the past few days made it clear she was involved in a mysterious case.
The coincidences stopped being in the back of her head to calm her down, it was time to act maturely and affirm something strange was going on around and her mother was the main piece to start understanding. That statement completely changed the little woman's attitude all of a sudden. Tears leaping from her eyes. She tried to calm herself to think about how to get out alive, because —as a soap opera soundbite— she had been kidnapped.
"The boss answered?" When she heard a male voice, thick and deep, she felt how her chest began to ache from how tense it was. Hearing a man's voice didn't bring anything good, "We can't go on like this, she was with hunters, this fucking girl was talking with one on the phone, Dean Winchester. They must be looking for her".
"And they wouldn't let us kill the other one, the giant," said now a female voice, raspy, to her left with some sadness. Little by little she could locate herself. She was in the midlle of two people.
"That's what i'm doing," answered a man from the front, annoyed, as if it was not the first time he was asked. Great, there were three people and she was just a small girl with nothing to defend herself with. "Damn! Fuck! What the fuck are we doing with this fucking girl now!"
"We can stay on two until we get some information," commented the woman who spoke before. "Pierre?"
"SHUT UP, STUPID!" shouted the same one who had shouted a number of insults in a row, "Fuck! Why the fuck don't they answer a fucking phone call! Are they one-armed?! I will left the little girl in the middle of the streets! Years of study to end up kidnapping a little girl because we're not enough," he muttered under his breath. "Can't believe it. Is she still asleep?"
Lilith relaxed as much as she could and adopted a realistic unconscious attitude. She untensed her body and shifted to slower breathing.
"It seems so," replied the man to her right.
"No, it seems not idiot, you confirm it," said Pierre, who was the ringleader.
The man ran his filthy hand across her chest and stopped at her heartbeat, then he descended in an abusive way to her naked thigh and stayed there for a few eternal seconds. Lilith wanted to jump and hit him until the blood stained her knuckles but soon her intelligence warned the imprudence that would result, since, to remain in a state of unconsciousness in front of her kidnappers denoted a higher position against her weakness because this way there was the possibility of hearing the plans they has for her or the reason why they captured her.
Silence was her best weapon for the moment. And she could use it efficiently, she might find a way to save herself. So far she had gathered the following information: There were at least four people, one on each side and two in front, the one called Pierre being the ringleader, and there was some planning. This situation was susceptible to purpose. Someone, whom they called the "boss," had given an order to capture her. Why her?
"Yes, she's still asleep," he confirmed "and she's very hot. "They just said not to hit her, they didn't say anything about having a little fun with her."
"Don't touch her asshole, we have to take her unharmed, raping her is harming her."
The main reason Lilith had reacted in the worst way upon discovering that a man was in the same van was exactly why women suffer from anxiety when walking alone at night. She was disgusted, but resisted her emotions for the greater good.
"Am I going to two?" asked a new male voice, she assumed it was the driver.
"Yes, where else?" Pierre answered. "The hunters will be chasing us, so when we arrive you two will stand guard outside until we get orders on what to do."
Lilith hoped the Winchester brothers could get her out of this situation. She sounded like a princess in distress, and even though she had nothing against them —in fact, people despised them— she was going to need their help because the chances of getting out alive were a few, although she would do everything in her power, even going to extremes.
She soon remembered so vividly the advice her mother had told her when she first discovered people moved for their own benefit, regardless of everyone else: "no one is going to care as much about you as you care about yourself, except me, but that's because I'm your mother and I love you so much." She wondered if Dean had been able to see what happened, or identify the van. The sequence little could be explored by her mind, there were gaps that left her bewildered and with no recollection of the exact moment she closed her eyes. She assumed it was the panic of the moment.
"After this I will go to Europe, witchcraft is taken more seriously there," said the woman.
Witchcraft? Lilith wondered immediately, would they do witchcraft to her? Was she in a van full of witches? Of course she was going to be! What would be the reason for the woman to comment on it if she wasn't currently practicing? Bobby had told her witches weren't like she imagined at eight years old, they were evil and she had better never ever go near one. There was no such thing as black or white magic, magic was magic and very dangerous to weak and stupid humans. When she was younger she dreamed of learning magic, it was something that fascinated her and she still did, but she was already aware of the problems it brought and the sacrifices involved for such an ordinary life as she had; and due to the privilege of knowing the supernatural world, she experienced the strongest feeling of weakness in her life so far.
It was a matter of a couple of minutes before the van stopped, and Lilith found herself in a complicated situation of choosing her next step: she could opt for a passive attitude, feigning weakness so that they would underestimate her intelligence. She was very good at acting. The young woman, frightened but determined, moved feigning clumsiness and let out a whimper that simulated her first reaction.
"She woke up!" exclaimed the woman. "Oh no no no no honey, you're going to leave the blindfold on and stay very still and obedient, okay?" she said as if talking to a baby. However, for Lilith's convenience, she agreed to the conditions by applying a realistic struggle and elbowing the man who had groped her, even though she would like to have punctured a lung.
"I'll take her and you guys keep watch outside, understood?" said Pierre getting more annoyed.
Her other senses were heightened to extract information from the outside that would be helpful. Soon she felt a strong hand —the leader's— on her arm and drag her outside. She had stepped onto the ground and the cicadas and mosquitoes buzzed freely, then stopped and she heard the sound of a typical American garage door opened. Lilith breathed in a foul smell, musty and decaying. The floor was cement, slippery and cracked, from which she could determine the vastness of the place through the echo of footsteps. The first thing she thought of was a factory —surely abandoned and remote—, they had no inconvenience in hiding it, indeed, it seemed to her that they transported herin the sight of the whole world.
"Don't resist, it will be worse for you, I warn you" Lilith continued with her role and let the tears soak her face. "Don't cry, if you cooperate you won't be harmed. Although I can't guarantee anything... don't make us angry."
No, they wouldn't hurt her and he said it, but she couldn't rush to make assumptions either, because she still hadn't figured out the purpose of all this, and that really scared her. Why witches? Why her? What the fuck did she have to do with a couple of crazy people and demons?
"Why are you doing this to me?" Lilith tensed her body as Pierre dug his fingers into her arm. Her question, aside from being acting worthy, was completely true.
"Don't be melodramatic and shut your mouth," was all she got.
They went through another door which enlarged the poor mental scheme in her head. She had been going straight the whole way and this was the first time she had turned right. She already knew which way she had to run if she managed to escape. She was guided until the man pushed her unsuspectingly to the ground, like a garbage bag, and she was agile enough to prevent her face from being smashed with both hands,
"All right, little girl, that's where you're going to stay. If you want you can think about your future or spend your energy trying to escape, whatever you feel like. I'll be back in a while."
The first thing Lilith did was to take off her blindfold as quickly as possible so she could see the back of the leader leaving the room: a tall man with wavy golden hair was all she could glimpse with the little light that penetrated when the door opened. She was in pitch darkness, as if it were some kind of nightmare come true. She had always been very afraid of the dark, she did not know why she still could not get rid of that psychology, but what she was able to define was the anguish she felt. Not understanding anything at all and acting on pure instinct was driving her crazy.
Lilith shook her chained foot in a futile attempt, her whole situation was useless and she wondered if she had done something different she would be in a more advantageous one. She couldn't see anything to help herself or give her a minimum of information.
Waiting was the only thing she could do. Shouting for help would be a waste of time. Waiting until the brothers could track her down was the hope that kept her more or less sane. Witches, witches, witches, she couldn't stop thinking about it, how could she defend herself against witches!. There was no way she was going to got an answer, it's not like the hunters gave her a list specifying how to kill every monster. She was in deep shit, terrified and helpless.
Lilith tried to make silence her ally, to perceive sounds from outside that would indicate some kind of progress, hope, she'd like to hear the wheels of the impala. The boys were the best hunters, and she was blindly confident that they were looking for her right now. Silence.
She was unaware of the passing of time, but Lilith preferred being alone. The door opened with an eerie creaking sound and the face of a man she could barely see sharp features and marked cheekbones due to closing her eyes from the sudden light, very strong after getting used to the darkness, which manifested itself again after a resounding knock.
"Couldn't you untie yourself?" He mocked, "Do you want me to get you a tool?" Lilith didn't answer and didn't flinch. The shadow that could barely perceive moved towards her. "Very well, if I ask you a question it's for you to answer, do you want to answer or do you want punches?"
"I'm going to answer" said Lilith self-consciously.
"Very well, you are intelligent or very obedient," Pierre moved around her, like a predator to its prey. "You must be asking yourself a thousand questions, ha ha ha. Let's see, tell me a little about yourself."
An idea crossed her mind."My name is Lilith Arduenn," she answered in a feigned voice.
"Yes, I know that," he interrupted, "Do you study? What is like a normal day in the life of Lilith Arduenn?"
"I, um... I go to college, Havard, I study political science and government. I'm just a very normal girl, classes all day, on the weekend I try to go out and have fun and not much else. I like to sing if it brings something to the table...."
"Everything counts" Without seeing him, she could imagine a peculiar, thin-lipped smile. Pierre made a groan, as if he was finishing to understand something, "So, what's the strangest thing that has happened to you?"
"Apart from this, you say? Nothing."
Pierre let out a dense and horrible laugh for a man who had not yet reached the age of forty. "And funny, aren't you a dream woman?
"No, I'm not," She replied with a scowl and annoyance, though she didn't stop with her plan to find out information and buy time until something happened, and that would have to be the appearance of the Winchester brothers. However, Lilith knew very well how to move after finding some weak point in people and, frankly, Pierre had an ego problem. "You are the leader right?"
"Of course I am."
"Yes, I can tell, you have a leader's attitude. You seem to be the only one with a brains."
"Why do you say that?" Pierre's interest certainly formed a special charm in his voice.
"Because of the way you speak and command respect, there are people who have that gift naturally, without the need to be aggressive. Presence kills words, imagine having that ability" Lilith feared she had screwed up with such an obvious lie, but to her surprise, the man was a tremendous fool not to connect two neurons and think that a few seconds ago he threatened to hit her.
"It's not like that, if it was, believe me I wouldn't be doing this nonsense."
"Money?"
"The more I think about it, the more depressing it gets," he concluded in a silence that could bring the conversation to a close. "You are too calm to have been kidnapped and tied to the floor..."
"I espected.... in a way. After what happened to my mother, and believe me, the last few weeks have been hell. I didn't expect miracles or my life to be solved by magic" she took a chance and hoped that the subtlety of her accusation would be answered according to her hopes: coming from the subconscious.
"Speaking of magic, what do you know about it? You were with two hunters, I hope you're not surprised by the existence of monsters."
"No, since I was very little I know they exist, as well as magic, but I prefer to stay away from that world. I'm not a hunter, I'm just a young girl going to college and some day I will work for big international companies. But you are ruining my life and it seems you are doing it for pure pleasure," she mumbled the last part and her heart pounded. She begged Pierre to miss one more detail that would confirm her theory related to her mom.
"You don't know anything about magic! Nothing! Pathetic!"
Lilith questioned the tone in which he spoke, as if she should know everything about magic. She was paying attention to every detail and needed more. "It's not the first time youu've done this, is it?"
"No," he answered, "I'll come back later. Nice talking to you Lilith."
She was not left alone for long, because minutes later the door opened again. However, it was not in the same way Pierre had entered —her first guess—, but distrust was a better possibility.
Barely light began to enter slowly, in a slow movement, making as little noise as possible. Lilith pulled her chain back the instant a male body cast a shadow that overtook her. As soon as the darkness caught them, her heart sensed fear. It was like a bloody horror movie scene in which every second until the moment of ecstasy was eternal. She listened as her heart pounded in exaltation and predicted the danger of that encounter. In the emptiness she heard an object fall and roll to some point near her. It had been a thud and only audible through the shattering silence, it sounded like a thing containing other smaller, metallic objects. Lilith cursed to herself and stood perfectly still, waiting for something else.
"How quiet you turned out to be, don't even think of screaming," she quickly recognized the voice of the disgusting man who touched her, "or that thing I threw will open your stomach. Lilith repeated to herself that she had heard them say that they could not harm her, whoever kidnap her wanted her alive. Anyway, there was no intention to make him angry, this idiot definitely had a totally different temperament than the leader.
The flame of a candle suddenly appeared, creating an atmosphere worse than darkness. She knew the man's face: wrinkled, non-elderly, elongated face that refused any color. He was extremely pale and deep blue-eyed and sunken above a hooked nose with a slight twist of septum; his hands were just as bony and he was tall, very tall, more or equal to Sam. She was afraid of him and didn't want to talk, she wouldn't get anywhere compared to Pierre. This one was dangerous and if the situation was not at all advantageous, she couldn't only defend with words, she needed a knife for him.
In fear and not knowing what to do, she did not let the man out of her sight."Don't come near me," Lilith demanded, moving away after he took a step forward.
"Shhhh, you talk again and you'll wish you never did," he warned getting closer and closer. "I'm going to untie you, we have to get out of here. Shhhh, you look prettier when you're quiet."
Lilith walked away once again, not trusting. It made no sense to her, she was in charge of Pierre and after sweetening his ego with fallacies, she was sure that this situation was unaware of the leader's order. She preferred Pierre over this lunatic. But, she understood everything when she heard her name spread throughout the place, behind the door that imprisoned her. Dean was calling her name, and although it took a great amount of relief off of her, it set off the man's nervousness. He lunged at her and slammed her to the floor. She tried to fight against the hand covering her mouth, bit him, and shook it off. She had prejudged him, the man had much more strength despite his skinny, dilapidated appearance. She felt the air rush out of her and she couldn't gain an opening to scream for Dean.
In a constant flailing, she managed to punch the man's nose and knock him down. She took the opportunity to call out to the hunter and get revenge for daring to touch her without her consent. She took a kick and one of the male hands were trying to reach her neck, grabbed her shoulders and somehow managed to pull down both straps of her dress. No, she wouldn't let him touch her one more time. Lilith grabbed his head and slammed it with all her strength against the cement, she did it one more time. One solid hit, and one more, that was all she managed to do because she fell on her side running out of air. Her lungs weren't working and no one physically prevented her from breathing, but she couldn't.
"Dean?" she tried to say.
"No, Dean must have been captured by Pierre, you're coming with me."
The man climbed on top of her and began to choke her. That was it? That's how she would die? Lilith squeezed both of the man's hands to remove them from her neck, fighting for her life and against the magic he had made her not to breathe. Soon her eyes were blinded by a white light.
"No, I wasn't captured by anyone asshole," Dean attacked, then watched as in the blink of an eye a bullet impacted the man's head.
Her neck was free, but her lungs held a last gasp of air. Dean ran to her and didn't take two seconds to start looking for something with his flashlights.
"Don't move, hang on Lilith," she obeyed with unwanted tears spilling from her eyes. Her chest hurt like hell and no matter how hard she tried to breathe there was still something in the way. "I've got it here, that's it."
Dean burned a small cloth bag and when the first flame burned, his lungs freed and so she breathed like she had never breathed before. After the shot, Lilith was stunned. She had never seen a person die in front of her eyes with a dry shot to her skull. Her eyes were positioned on the limp man. She searched for an overriding emotion, because it would be the normal thing to feel something after brutally hitting someone for the first time. The strange and surprising thing was that —apart from her momentary shock— she didn't care about that death at all. The thoughts that inhabited her mind had no correlation with her drenched and frightened face. She sat down on the floor and adjusted the straps of her dress, which, fortunately, needed a t-shirt underneath. She would not have liked to have been taken advantage of by a warm-up. She hated him, hated him, hated him, and still felt like sticking a knife in him until she felt she'd had enough.
"Are you okay?" Lilith answered in a nod. Dean bent down and shined a light on her chained foot. Cover your ears, in the trunk I think I have something to open those kind of handcuffs."Dean pointed at the chain and fired two shots, breaking it.
"What about Sam?"
"He had to stayed in the motel to stitched his arm, but he's all right all things considered. Come on, let's get out of here," Dean took her hand carefully and helped her up, but after that he didn't let go and Lilith didn't want to let go either. "Did that asshole do something to you?" he asked, making it obvious where his concern was going.
"No" she answered and apparently it wasn't enough for Dean, who stopped and looked at her completely serious. "No, I want to go home."
• • ⛧ • •
Being in the impala led to the immediate memory of what had happened. It was hours where the horrible experience began and ended, but Lilith was betting that her life was about to begin and in the worst way. Although it was a new day, the events of yesterday were still so present. A chain of dominoes that was falling bit by bit and each time the levels were worse and worse. She had experienced death so closely and with her own hands —which still possessed a slight tremor—, she felt the scent of the witch's blood, the sound of her skull hitting the ground; the movie was transmitted in her mind, scene by scene, so vivid that if she closed her eyes she could teleport herself back to an hour ago.
Lilith clung to the window and rested her head on the cold glass, the moon following in her footsteps. An old slow rock compilation was the only music she'd been listening to since she'd come back calming songs that Dean had put on, but far from it, she had a barrier in her mind that only focused on mom's case. From the letter with the seal to the kidnapping, all happening in a matter of hours. There was so much information fueling the theories, how would she even begin to talk to Bobby? Just the fact that mom had been through the same thing made her anxious. What if she was kidnapped too? What were they doing to her? Would she be mistreated, trapped in a filthy, cold place, with cruel people, without food or a glass of water? Why?
"Hey!" Dean parked the Impala on the side of the road as soon as he noticed the young woman's behavior: her hands were shaking, her breathing had become dense and scarce, paralyzed with glassy eyes and pale skin. "Look at me, it's normal, okay? When you kill a monster that looks like a human your body isn't going to react much different, it still doesn't realize you've killed a monster, a monster. It can be a psychopath and you're still going to feel nauseous and sick. Lilith?"
"No, no, no, no," she tried to communicate, but soon regretted it. She didn't manage to speak anymore, so she shook her head and rolled down the window a bit so the new air could calm her down.
"Come," Dean took her hand, squeezing it with a strong, sure touch, squelching her trembling, and tugged her closer to him. "Good," he took her other hand when they were barely a space apart. "Take a deep breath and let go, it's going to be okay. You're safe here."
"They literally pulled me out of here."
"That's because you weren't with me, I'm better than Sam," Dean smiled soothing the tense atmosphere. "He didn't do anything to you, did he? You're not lying to me?" Again she found inquisitive green eyes looking straight at her.
"No, he just choked me and hit me, he didn't do anything else."
Dean finished nodding in conviction and released her hands."Are you better? I can't drive and watch out for you not having a seizure and crashing into the window.
"I'll be fine, just drive please."
"Do you want to sleep?" He asked her before starting the engine, "We still have an hour's drive."
"No, I won't be able to," she felt how that gave her mind free rein to torture her.
The hunter settled back into the seat and the little woman had made an attempt to return to the window when Dean's arm pulled her to lean against his shoulder.
"Yes you can," he encouraged her, "it's been a lot for you in one day."
Lilith tried to listen to him because she really had had enough. She settled on Dean's shoulder, crossed her legs and tried to close her eyes as she thought that everything was going to be all right no matter how many times she repeated to herself that it was all lies and misleading assumptions. She let herself be intoxicated by the soft music and when she woke up she would be at home, with both brothers who had always taken care of her, ever since she was a baby. Minutes later she had managed to regulate her breathing and stay calm, the rocking of the Impala in a few minutes would have the possibility to make her sleep and allow her aching body to rest, the marks of the hands on her neck still transmitted a pressure, false, but so mentally alive that when she swallowed saliva she felt choked.
The Impala stopped at a red light just as Lilith was about to fall asleep, but a kiss on her forehead interrupted it, and she was awake again, without opening her eyes.
💬 ！▬ @strxapose
(author's note)
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⛧.