I can't believe I actually have to stop Dean from dragging me into the hunt right away. I'm usually the one who is overly eager to go killing monsters with my mother. However, this time around, I'm not only in charge of my own security, but also Dean's. Thus, I managed to convince him to go back to the motel and prepare for the hunt before leaving at dusk.
"So you live here?" He eyes the room curiously. I low-key expect him to make an unpleasant comment about it, but he doesn't. There's not even pity in his gaze, which I appreciate.
"Yes, Lily and I stay in this room. My mother stays in the one next door. She took most of the weapons for her hunt, though I have some here." I say as I drag the heavy bag from under the bed.
Dean approaches as I go through the contents of the bag. My sister Lily is nowhere to be seen, and I guess she must be now at the party I recommended her not to go. It's not a surprise she doesn't listen to me much.
Right after I spilled my guts to Dean in the cafeteria, we decided to take a walk around the park while he told me a little bit about himself. I'm still a bit unsure about my decision to open up to him. As much as I think about it, it has nothing to do with the fact that Elena wants us to keep quiet about the supernatural. It's mostly given how new it is to me to accept that someone besides my family knows about our tragedies.
For what it's worth, Dean was very understanding and promised not to tell anyone about it. Ultimately, I ended up sharing basic information about monsters with him, and the beginning of hunting as the family business. I tried not to share too much information about my father's death. Not that I knew much about it. I was fairly young when it happened and my mother only ever told me that it was a yellow-eyed demon during a house fire. I had a small suspicion she knew more than she let on.
"What about your sister? Is she coming to the hunt too?" Dean asks as he inspects a wooden stake.
I take it from him and place it back. In his place, I hand him a sharp axe. He seems happier with that weapon. "No, Lily has never liked hunting. She's probably at that party they're throwing."
"Fred's party." Dean nods as if he knows of it. When I ask him about it, he looks at me as if I'm crazy. "Everyone knows about Fred's parties." He narrows his eyes at me, "have you been living under a rock during school time?"
I shrug, "I mostly focus on hunting and sometimes classes. No time for socializing." Dean has an interesting look in his eyes, almost as if he's considering my words. "Aren't you going to the party? Don't you... prefer that over coming with me?"
He considers my words carefully. "Do I rather go to a party that happens nearly every weekend, or to hunt a vampire with you like a badass?" Dean smirks, "I think the answer is pretty obvious." And as much as I'm getting used to his presence, it doesn't prepare me for what comes next. Dean winks at me.
As much as I might know about hunting, I've never given myself the time for flirting. I can't claim to be clueless, more like it hasn't been a priority. So, attention from a cute boy like Dean comes as a pleasant surprise that makes my cheeks instantly blush. I pretend to concentrate on the bag of weapons before he can notice. Lily is usually the extroverted one, she loves boys and boys love her. And I'm ok with that. I'm not ok, however, with Dean Winchester distracting me from what matters.
"Killing vampires is relatively easy if you have the... guts to do it." I begin to explain, "not everything can hurt them, though."
"Stake through the heart?" Dean asks.
"Myth, it doesn't work unless you only seek to slow them down." I take out another axe from the bag. "The most savage yet common way to do it is beheading." Dean looks at his own weapon with interest. "Careful, they're sharp."
"Wait... you actually have to take their heads off?" He glances at me with deep surprise in his green eyes.
"Yes, that's why I said it's kind of savage." I grimace. "Still, you might've noticed that I didn't kill Rodney or Mary Anne that way..."
Dean nods, "you shot them."
I take out The Colt from the back of my jeans. I carry it with me every chance I have. "This is a special gun one of my ancestors created. It can kill almost anything."
Dean extends his arm towards the gun, and I reluctantly let him hold it. "I thought you said you weren't hunters before your father's death."
"We weren't," I take The Colt back. "This is something that we discovered after. That's also why I think my father's death is more complicated than my mother says." I stare at the object in my hands pensively. "Anyway, you just let me handle the vampire. You can use the axe if it goes rouge, but I'll try to shoot it." I don't want him traumatized by headless monsters.
He narrows his eyes at me. "I can help, you know?"
"I know you can, but you've literally never hunted before... which brings me to my next question; are you sure you want to come?" I don't know why, but a part of me hopes for him to say yes, while the other expects the opposite. It would be better if he stayed, right?
At my question, Dean puffs out his chest in a fake gesture of bravery. "I can handle it!" The image of him nearly puking his heart out earlier comes to mind.
We decide to take Dean's car to the place where the vampire is supposed to be hiding. Well, Dean's father's car. It was either that or taking the bus, and I did not feel like walking with a potential threat on our backs. Much to my luck, Dean brought his car over. As it turns out, his father John Winchester is a cop, and mostly uses his patrol car. So Dean gets the perks of driving the Impala around and to school. I compliment the car out of politeness, but the way he beams at me makes me wish I did it truthfully.
We place our weapons in the trunk, and he drives to the destination. It's dark by the time we arrive there. The place is a rundown barn in the middle of nowhere. I don't know if this is too disappointingly cliché or a trap. Either way, Dean doesn't think twice before climbing out of the car, rapidly collecting his axe from the back.
"Wait," I half-whisper. He clearly wants to jump into the action, considering the way his fingers twitch holding the wood. "We can't just go in there, guns blazing," I explain to him.
"Why not?" he complains.
"Because even if Rodney said there was only one left, we need to have a plan. Vampires are fast, you know?"
"Well, what is the plan? It's not like we can wait for him to come out, is it?"
I roll my eyes at him. "One of us goes through the back and the other one through the front. There aren't many places he can hide."
With our plan of action covered, Dean headed to the front of the barn while I went in the opposite direction. A part of me still felt a little wary about letting him tag along, but there was no turning back now. I just hope the brief lesson on vampires I gave him in the car was enough. At least not to get him killed.
There is no clear entrance through the back, except for a large glassless window I have to climb through. The other side didn't give me a clear view of the barn. It seems I'm in some sort of adjacent room. I whip the gun around, looking for the possible vampire perhaps lurking in the shadows. The place is empty except for a dirty sofa and a few belongings. Even if no one is around, it's clear that someone has slept here recently.
The place is dirty, and the floor is painted in what resembles too much of blood. It's incredibly amusing how someone could sleep in such conditions. Given what Rodney told me, though, Sydney had recently moved into town and was eager to start a colony. Too bad he chose teenagers as first disciples. Sydney could clearly control his thirst considering the blood bags littering the floor. The same couldn't be said for Rodney or Mary Anne. Maybe he should've kept being a loner.
A loud crash can be heard from the other room. I'm snapped out of my thoughts with worry over Dean's safety. I rush in almost sear-panic to the other room. Maybe splitting up was a bad idea. On the other side of the barn, a tall man is swinging himself at Dean. They are moving too much for me to have a good shot. I try to aim at the vampire, but Dean is too close for my comfort. The last thing I need is to shoot him. Frustrated, I put the gun in my pants and take hold of the axe. When I approach, the creature instantly takes notice of me. I gotta hand it to him, Dean put up a good fight. However, one hunter is rarely enough to take out a vampire.
I raise my weapon and aim for the head, but Sydney is too fast for me, and he knows what I'm planning on doing. He ducks has the last moment, and Dean has to take an abrupt step back to avoid getting nicked. For a second, it feels like Sydney is toying with us. The middle-aged man sports a smile on his face as he glances back and forth from Dean to me.
"Maybe I ought to keep you both," he comments with a laugh.
Perhaps it is the annoyance of being mocked in front of Dean, or maybe it's just the disgust of becoming a vampire if I fail. Whatever the cause, there's a pregnant instant on where Dean and I work in sync. With ease, he throws a kick at Sydney while the vampire is distracted by me. It causes him to fall forward, and I take advantage of the opportunity by raising my axe and bringing it down to his head. Sydney doesn't even have the chance to understand what's happening before his head is severed from his body.
With the threat eradicated, we try to catch our breath. The vampire corpse is in front of us, I'm so used to the scene that I don't even blink. The blood trickles from the wound, which leaves our shoes splattered. I can see that my companion is torn between looking elsewhere and making sure the vampire stays dead. I guess Dean has taken hunting so naturally that I forget this is technically his first time. So, I really cannot help the comment that comes to my mouth.
"Have you done this before?"
He raises an eyebrow and answers sarcastically. "Oh yeah, I chop vampires' heads every Sunday right after church." I roll my eyes, but I don't comment anything further.
The next lesson I have to teach Dean is how to get rid of the evidence. With Mary Anne and Rodney, I only placed him in charge of digging, now I'm more thorough with the steps. He's a good student, but there are times he almost seems to want to vomit. By the time we're done, we're just dirty and exhausted.
We climb onto the Impala and I look at the time. "It's nearly eleven, we should go home," I murmur. My eyes feel like closing on their own. It has been a long day. I can only thank we aren't harmed.
"Only eleven?" He laughs in amusement, "come on! Let's go celebrate our victory." He shoots me a boyish smile that has my cheeks turning pink.
"What? Aren't you tired?"
He shrugs, "a little, I guess, but don't tell me you don't treat yourself to something after the hunts?" He has my answer when I remain quiet. "Damn, well, that's about to change. We deserve it after our hard work." Deam nods to himself as if he's agreeing with his own words. Before I can protest, he's gassing up the Impala.
"Where are we even going?" I wonder.
"Well, we could go to Fred's party if you're up to..." he sees the look on my face and barks out a laugh. "Fair enough, what about going back to that dinner..."
"Dean," I sigh. "I'm exhausted, and we're covered in blood. I think it's best to call it a night." The look of disappointment is not something I can easily miss.
He complies. "Alright, I'll take you home, then."
Despite his insistence on celebrating, within the hour I'm back at the motel. Dean drives away without further comment, and I figure he's finally processing what has happened today. Elena's car isn't in the parking lot, so I assume she's still on her hunt. It's probably a good thing because Lily hasn't arrived from her party either. I'm too tired to worry, so I just take a quick shower and crawl into bed. My head barely touches the pillow before I'm out.
It has been a while since the last time I've woken up so tired from a hunt. It's not my body that is protesting but my mind. A lot has happened, and I still have the obligation to go to school this morning. Yawn. Elena is already back from her hunt by the time I wake up, she's sleeping in her room. Luckily for us, she doesn't wake up by the time Lily and I leave for school. She usually spends the day sleeping whenever she comes back from a hunt. At least that way, she won't notice Lily's hangover or my post-hunt mood. My family says that I have a certain... face whenever I come back from monster killing. Whatever that means. Most of the time, my sister doesn't give a fuck about my hunting escapades as long as I don't snitch about her parties. We live in a comfortable balance of bad behavior.
The day goes by at an incredibly slow pace. I don't see Dean in any of my classes. Even though I have never really paid attention to him, I'm sure we share at least one. When he doesn't even show up for lunch, I know he didn't come to school. Perhaps everything was a bit too much for him. Or maybe the vampire did more damage than I thought. Whatever it is, I can't avoid thinking about him.
Dean doesn't come to school until two days later. By that point, I'm losing my mind believing that maybe the vampire bit him when I wasn't looking. I keep an ear out in case someone has heard about him, but no luck. It comes to the point that I consider approaching his little brother to ask about their address. On the third day, though, Dean Winchester walks in as if nothing is wrong.
I have to wait until the hall clears out and drag him with me to an empty classroom. "What the hell happened to you?"
"Hello to you too, sweetheart." He says mockingly. "You know, if you wanted me alone, you only needed to ask." The wink Dean sends my way has the color rising to my cheeks.
"Stop it! I thought the vampire had bitten you or something." I frown. "You disappeared, are you positive everything is fine?"
For a second, Dean only stares, deep in thought. "Well, besides the fact that I just figured out monsters are real, and then went to kill a vampire, yeah. Everything is peachy."
His words instantly make me feel bad. I know now why my mother never wants us to involve civilians. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this," I sigh. "I really am."
Dean nods, "I know, but it's not your fault... I mean, I kind of dragged myself into it, didn't I?"
The statement does nothing to console me, but I still find myself asking what has been in the back of my mind. "Why did you follow me into the woods?"
"I thought you were going to do something with Rodney. Like, you know..."
"Make out with him?"
He looks at me oddly, "yeah, or more."
"And what if I was? I mean, you didn't really talk to me before then."
Dean laughs awkwardly. "To be fair, you don't talk to anybody." When he sees that I'm not amused in the slightest, he continues. "I just, Rodney always gave me bad vibes."
I think that there's more to it than he admits, but I don't pry further. "Ok, either way, I'm sorry you had to go through that. And don't worry, I will keep my distance from now on."
This is apparently not something that he wants, because Dean replies instantly. "Are you kidding? I mean, it was insane, yeah, but also very badass. No way you're keeping me out of coming with you to the next hunt."
The smile he gives me has my heart beating just a tiny bit faster. Dean's eyes sparkle at the promise of the adrenaline the next monster will bring. Or perhaps it's something else. Why am I not even denying the companionship this will bring? Why am I as excited as he is? Damn it, I guess I'm stuck with Dean Winchester now.
A/N: Hi everyone, I hope you liked the chapter. Don't forget to leave your like or comment.