Supernatural: Next Generation

- THEN -

NOW

Claire couldn’t keep her eyes open for much longer than a few seconds at a time; the yellow lights rushing past, the momentum and sway of Jesse’s body beneath her, every step he took jarred splinters of pain through her bones. She couldn’t even cling to him due to the broken ones; her head simply lay limp on his shoulder.

“The others,” she whispered into his shirt. “There are others they took.”

“We’ll come back for them,” he said firmly. “First, I’m getting you out.”

The basements were quiet as they went through, but when he came up on the first floor, it was obvious the cavalry had been notified.

The lobby was packed. People of all shapes and sizes, colors and ages stood in silent attention, all staring directly at Jesse and the unconscious woman in his arms. Some had the dull, lifeless gaze of the familiar human slaves. Others, their eyes were completely black.

[-- him him it’s him --]

[-- serve him --]

[-- love him --]

Jesse could feel the Nephilim among them, shifting closer, their eyes bright. Despite the adrenaline racing through him, he could pick out the beats of his heart, slowing, steady. Gently, he set Claire on the floor, giving her one last look before he stepped over her. She didn’t move; she was barely breathing.

( “I am your master. You were born to serve /me/” )

***

It was as though the world was coming to an end. Ben had never been in an earthquake before, and outside of an exhibit at a museum once when he was a kid and all the drills they’d been forced to participate in, he hadn’t even known how to respond. Luckily Kat and Lucas were quite familiar, and he barely had time enough to throw his bag over his shoulder before they were barreling out of the shaking building as fast as their legs could carry them. He’d watched as a crack through the ceiling chased them all the way out the door, just in time for the building to start to collapse inward on itself.

Sarah hadn’t made it. Ellis had to bodily hold Rebecca back from going in after her mother, but there was no way she could have survived that kind of impact. Car alarms were blaring everywhere; the few people who had gotten out of their own homes safely sobbed openly in the street. It was pure chaos, and Jesse and Claire were both gone. The cell networks were down in the area. Ben was completely helpless.

Amitiel, please, Ben prayed hands clasped hard and head bowed as Kat openly cursed up and down about her car having gotten destroyed by a nearby fallen light post. Help me. Tell me what to do.

“Ben!” The voice was a ways away, but it sure did carry, even over all the noise. “Ben! Where are you?!”

Ben would have heard that voice even if he were deaf, and he was pretty sure Jesse’s panic was fueling the volume, along with the added bonus of wanting to be heard. Relief flooded him.

“JESS!”

“Ben!” There, shoving past an ambulance, came Jesse. Claire lay in his arms and he had tears on his cheeks. He was covered in blood. Panic shoved the relief right out of Ben.

No no no no no, no, no! Please!

“Oh god--”

( “She’s okay, she’s fine, I got her.” )

***

Ben couldn’t help feel exhausted after the insane four days they’d had, but there was no way he had any intention of stopping until they were far enough away. After changing out of her destroyed clothing and mopping what she could off her skin with a handful of wet-naps, it hadn’t taken long for Claire to fall asleep, curled against Jesse in the back seat, his arms wrapped around her tightly. He drove with his foot all but embedded into the floor as he tried to put as much distance between them and La Grande as possible.

It had been six hours, but he wanted to put in at least four more before they made a pit stop. If it were up to him, he’d drive through the night. There was certainly urgency enough to move them. The radio played mutely in the background as they drove on through the darkness:

”...An estimated $8 billion worth of damage have been done to the streets and buildings in the neighboring towns. Reported death and missing are still on the rise, with the last recorded number in La Grande at 286 dead and over three thousand injured...”

Sarah had been among them. Ben hardly knew her, but guilt settled like a stone, heavy in his gut. If he hadn’t phoned Lucas and demanded that he help, Sarah might have lived.

Everyone you’ve ever loved, everyone you’ve ever known, will burn.

( “You know that amulet from Rockville?” )

- THEN -

NOW

It would have been just as easy to break into a new age store and simply steal everything they needed, especially for Jesse, but Ben didn’t want to risk any additional or unwanted attention being turned their way. They’d gathered what they needed from Kat’s texted list, avoiding the shopgirl’s polite small-talk as to what they needed everything for, then raced back to the nearest abandoned farmstead they’d found on the drive through town. Ben found the box of white chalk and moved to the wooden boards they’d dragged in earlier, drawing up the greater seal of Solomon, meant to trap and render a demon unable to use its power. It was much more elaborate than the typical devil’s traps he was used to using, but he had to be sure.

Jesse sat on the floor, watching him with red, sleepless eyes. His stomach clenched with nerves, and he felt like a traitor for it. They had to do anything they could to get Claire back, it was as simple as that. He shouldn’t feel anything else.

“Can I help?” he asked, his voice a bit rough.

( “Get another piece and draw that summoning sigil just on the outside of this. I’ll get the ingredients for the spell after I’m done here.” )

***

Chinese water torture seemed like a ridiculous idea. What harm could water really do? And it wasn’t like Claire hadn’t been through much worse.

Which didn’t explain why it was such a relief when she heard a door open to the small room. There was a click, and a dim yellow light turned on overhead. Restraints kept her from looking over, but she didn’t need to. A face leaned over her, young and smiling.

“Hello,” the boy said. He couldn’t have been more than sixteen years old, his near-black hair tucked back in a ponytail. His expression was serene, almost impassive.

Had she not been strapped to a table and assaulted by drops of water for hours, confusion might’ve been Claire’s first reaction. The kid now blocking the piercing light should’ve been on the set of some kitchy Disney channel show, or waiting in line for the newest video game with his friends--not grinning down at a kidnapped hunter in the middle of a demon nest.

She didn’t fully trust her senses right then, either, but hallucinations didn’t typically hang around so long. Or did they?

Claire closed her eyes, regardless of how they twitched every time another drop hit her on the forehead. Weak from lack of food, water, and sleep made even the most subtle rise in her blood pressure feel like hot tar moving through her veins. She opened her eyes again, hoping the kid wasn’t there. Of course, he was.

His smile widened. “Water bothering you? I’d turn it off, but you might as well get used to it, so.”

“Oh, I’m used to it,” she lied with another twitch. After the first hour, her muscles had knotted up from stress to the point where she doubted she’d be able to walk right. ( “Nothing like a good shower.” )

****

The time had long passed since Claire answered every question or demand with an insolent attempt to break free or sarcastic jab. After the first two hours, it’d boiled down to a matter of pride, which had flared as hot as the piece of hard wire that’d already shredded the back of her shirt and skin beneath it. When the black-haired kid reddened the end of it with a blow torch--that’s when Claire stopped speaking all together. Of course, she still made noise.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t satisfactory either.

All sensation now blended into a indiscriminate roar of pain. The barbed wire that held her wrists wide apart snagged into her skin every time she jerked, spilling a blood and sweat mix that ran sick trails down the length of her body. No one cut, bruise, or burn distinguished itself from any of the others at this point--not until each time he delivered a fresh one. Claire was still panting from the last strike which cut across the less-abused area of her hip and around to the front of her thigh, taking bits of dirty denim and skin with it. There was a long pause, waiting for the next blow, but instead a hand twisted in her hair, yanking her head back.

( “How’s my girl doing? You gonna be good for me?” )

****

“There’s a little hotel on the edge I want to work out of,” Ben was saying into the phone as they drove. Driving on the main highways all but guaranteed a cop would pull them over, so they were following a back road perpendicular to the highway. Unfortunately, there were a lot more bends and hills. “Just outside of town, called the Hot Lake Hotel? It’s remote enough that we won’t be followed back. We’ll meet you there.”

“Just don’t do anything stupid, Shaggy,” Kat’s tinny voice replied on the other end. “Wait for back-up. There’s no telling how many other demons’ll be there.”

Got all the back-up I need, Ben thought, casting a quick sideways look at Jesse in the passenger’s seat. “Yes, ma’am. Seeya soon.” He ended the call and immediately started ringing up Lucas.

“Any news?” Lucas answered.

“We got a location. We’re gonna need a few more eyes though, if they can be spared,” Ben said. ( “How many we got in eastern Oregon?” )

****

It’d been hours--or at least, that’s what it felt like, since the light went out. Maybe it’d only been one hour. Maybe it’d been fifteen minutes. Claire hadn’t been able to follow the time in a long, long while, and she’d stopped whispering the prayers of her childhood aloud when her mouth became too dry to speak.

The pitch black had eventually faded by the faint slit of light that still managed to peek through the bottom of the closed door. She only knew about it by the ghost of a shadow her battered body cast on the opposite wall; her back facing the tiny glow. Claire looked at the dark shape in front of her, poised on her knees with her arms spread wide, held fast by what felt like rusted wire. She didn’t dare move; the stillness she settled into kept the pain at a tolerable roar--but the weight of her own head had become too much for her neck to support.

Slowly, she dropped her chin toward her chest, eyes squeezing tight against the rods of hot pain the movement caused. Her mind zeroed in on the imagined shape of her father. She repeated his words without any sound to her voice: They’re coming for you. They’re coming.

The light suddenly snapped on, causing the bulb it emanated from to buzz loudly.

( “Hello, little hunter.” )

****

Even as physically weak as Claire was, in the hours after Issac left with a crucial piece of her forearm, her consciousness refused to yield. In the dark, she shivered and bled, whispering prayers that provided less and less comfort as the time went on. More than once, she called to Kadiel, and received no answer, each time remembering the angel’s words; the place is barred, you must get away.

But the wires around her wrists felt like they were part of her actual bone structure at that point. Even her broken fingers contained no feeling from the lack of blood. Every breath cracked the dried black crust on the shreds of her shirt and reopened another wound somewhere. She wouldn’t have been able to stand, even if she were somehow able to get herself untangled.

Claire’s head hung, her eyes closed and burning like the rest of her. The last hour had gone by with memories of Ben and Jesse, no longer focused on when they would arrive and this Hell would end. Only their smiling faces; the sound of Ben’s laugh when he’s slightly drunk, and Jesse’s tendency to shriek like a girl when tickled.

“I’m so sorry,” she mumbled tightly into the dark, slowly resigning to the knot in her throat. “I love you.”

( There was the sound of rushing wind from somewhere distant, but it became louder as it approached. )

****

Lucas had called them when they were still a few hours out. They’d found a place swarming with demons; the Hot Lake Hotel. It was going to be a tricky thing, especially since so far only Kat and three other hunters had been able to join them. They were hunkered in a hotel in La Grande. When Jesse and Ben arrived, they kept the greetings short. The three other hunters were a family, the Mathers. Ellis was tall, blond, and weathered and didn’t seem a man of many words. Sarah was red-haired and freckled with eyes always crinkled in a smile. Their daughter Rebecca was blond and probably a few years younger than Jesse, though she seemed pretty sure of herself.

Convening in Lucas’ room, he quickly brought Ben over to a map pinned on the wall. “Hot Lake isn’t too far away, and observation is pretty easy,” he said. “It wasn’t too hard finding the blueprints online. The only trouble will be deciding where they might have Claire. How...important do you think they’re treating her?”

“They’d want her in isolation,” Ben said, feeling a clench in his chest as he tried not to focus on the details. “And with enough obstacles in the way that if she did get out, she’d be easy to stop.”

“So either up high or as low as they can,” Sarah chimed in from her lean against the far wall. Rebecca nodded absently, looking down at the phone in her hand; she was texting her father, who had just checked in from his stake of the place.

( “Doubt they put her in a penthouse.” )

***

If there was one thing Jesse had learned, it was that security was always generally focused on keeping people out. Once you were in, it might as well be your own house. Which meant he had a distinct advantage. He came up in the basement; that’s where they had figured Claire might be, so it was probably the best place to start. The place was quiet, except for a high, far off noise he couldn’t quite place. The halls were dim and he walked carefully along. Just as he was about to turn a corner, a man beat him to it.

“Stop. Don’t make a sound,” Jesse ordered. The man instantly complied, his eyes going wide. He looked to be in his thirties, but Jesse knew by the twist in his stomach that he was much older. “Where is Claire Novak?”

The demon looked confused, but answered in a gravelly voice. “Storage room five.”

Jesse rolled his eyes. “How do I get there?”

“Down the sub-basement stairs, second door on the right.”

( “Great, thanks. Now go to Hell.” )

TO BE CONTINUED...

Getting groceries took surprisingly longer than he expected, and Ben found himself all but squirming as he pushed the little half-cart out through the doors and toward the car. He got all of five steps before he saw Jesse’s body on the ground, curled up at an awkward angle. It felt like all the air had been squeezed out of his lungs.

“Jesse!”

The cart forgotten, Ben raced toward him, crouching down and checking immediately for a pulse. It was weaker than it should have been, staving his panic by fractions. Ben shook the older man.

“Jess, c’mon, wake up! Wake up!”

Head lolling, Jesse gave a groan, his face squinching up as he brought a hand up to cover his eyes. “Fuck. Light.”

Ben finally took a full breath, his heart still racing as he helped Jesse sit up.

( “You all right? Where’s Claire?” )

****

Consciousness didn’t come back for Claire all at once. Like a slow tide rolling in, the first thing she was even remotely aware of was movement. The subtle lean in her equilibrium as well as the vibration of an engine and an uneven road paved the way to the opening up of the sounds that surrounded her. A distant song played on a radio, turned down. Other cars rushed by.

For an instant, she automatically assumed she was just laying down in the back of the GTO, but the next second, the dull ache in the side of her neck triggered the memory of its sharp origin. A body had pressed against her from behind in the truck stop bathroom, pinned her to the sink and jabbed something sharp and burning into her neck.

Claire opened her eyes and tried to suck in a breath, but it only collapsed the duct tape across her lips. Her hands twitched hard against the plastic zip tie that kept them together at her back. Full consciousness set in, finally, with a flood of barely suppressed panic on its heels.

“All right there, sweetheart?” came the tall, English vowels of the driver. A slim hand rose to adjust the rearview mirror in her direction, green eyes catching her form before wrinkling in the corners. ( “Sorry for the precautions, but I had to be sure you didn’t try and end the party early.” )

****

The conversation with Lucas had been a short and painful one. It was hard not to go into details about what happened, but with Jesse uncharacteristically quiet in the seat, Ben had no other choice but to direct the flow of conversation. It was going to take at least twenty minutes for the man in Las Vegas to hack into the system and activate the GPS in Claire’s phone.

Assuming, of course, that it hadn’t been disposed of. Claire normally kept the phone on silence unless she was expecting a call, and even then there was no guarantee that the demon who had snatched her hadn’t frisked her.

While they were waiting for Luke’s call, Ben had called Izzy and asked her to send out feelers through her connections. It was a wide net, but there was no guarantee anyone would bite or even make the effort to go looking for her. There was, however, at least one hunter who would no doubt drop what she was doing and search about as hard as they were planning to. Ben felt his chest constrict as he thumbed the number from the contact rolladex. It rang twice before there was an answer:

“Shaggy. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Just hearing Kat’s voice was enough to make Ben’s stomach twist a little harder.

“Where are ya, Kat?”

“Illinois. Why, what’s wrong?”

Ben took a breath, then let it out.

( “Claire’s been snatched.” )

****

It’d taken an forever to discreetly pry up a tiny corner of the tape over her lips, without the sharp eyes in the cruiser’s rear view mirror catching on. Claire sat slumped in the hard plastic back seat, most of her face purposefully hidden by her hair. She moved achingly slow, drawing the side of her cheek on the seat only a little at a time. Bit by bit, the tape released more of her skin, then the corner of her lips.

She had to fight her own impulse to do it any faster, even concentrating on the deep burn in her shoulder joints from their unrelenting strain. It got more difficult as the time and the miles rolled on, but eventually, she was able to move her lips--and speak. On her first breath, she wasted no time.

“Exorcizamus te,” Claire whispered through her teeth just under her breath, and staring through her hair at the back of the demon’s head. “Omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas--”

The car screeched to a sudden stop. If they’d been on the high way, no doubt there would have been an accident, but Claire had noticed that they were taking the back roads in the midst of her slow process. The force of the sudden breaking sent her lurching forward, her head knocking hard against the grating. With a hard grunt, pain shot through her temple as skin scraped on the mesh. A warm tickle crawled down her brow bone and across her cheek, smearing as she braced a foot on the back of the seat.

“Omnis incursio infernalis adversarii!” There was no reason to hide it now. Claire’s voice was harsh and growled with hatred--the incantation picking up speed. “Omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica!”

The door was thrown open, and moments later hers was also. Before she even had a chance to react, the demon yanked her out of the car by her hair, then slammed her head against the metal corner near the glass with significant force.

( The next thing she knew was the smell of apple pie. )

****

Ben seemed to be trying to make up for not knowing where they were going by driving there as fast as he could. Jesse didn’t comment. It wasn’t like he was any help, and it least they had a general direction.

He’d fallen into silence, hardly saying two words the whole trip. There was one more thing he could do, one more person--thing he could talk to. He didn’t think Claire would approve, but that didn’t matter as much as getting her back.

The only problem was Ben. Jesse immediately dismissed the idea of just popping out to see the demon without saying anything. He didn’t know how long he would be, and Ben was panicking enough. If he told Ben everything, though, that might not lessen the panic any. He might even try to stop Jesse from going. To be honest, he was nervous about trying to come back to a moving car again. If they could stop, just for a half hour or so, he could chase the demon down.

As if hearing his thoughts, Ben pulled off the next exit, turning into a gas station.

( “What’s wrong?” Jesse said quickly. )

***

It was dark again when Claire woke with a startled muffle into the tape around her mouth, jarred back into consciousness by a noise so loud, her first panicked thought was crash. But she wasn’t suddenly engulfed in spilled gasoline or flames. There was moisture in the air, in the wind that pushed through the cruiser, since something had opened the door. It was raining sheets, and the loud noise had been a peal of thunder.

Strong arms grabbed her around the middle, throwing her over a tall shoulder before steadily marching through the rain. In less than ten wide steps they were under cover again, the doors thrown open by an unknown force. Even as she was taken inside, distant screams of pain met her ears.

“Took you long enough,” a gruff male voice called out.

“They were in Maryland. I got back as fast as I could.”

“Whatever,” came the sharp retort. ( “Stick her in processing with the others.” )

***

Sleep was impossible, at least for him. Jesse stood in the middle of the hotel room, staring down at Ben’s naked form curled on the bed. He had his back to Jesse. All Jesse wanted to do was go on a walk, but he couldn’t without Ben. He walked around to the other side of the bed to face him, but Ben’s back was to him again. He walked quickly back, and again, but no matter where he moved or how fast, Ben always had his back to him.

He heard the click of the door latch and spun around just in time to see long, blond hair disappear through.

“Claire!” he shouted, sprinting through the door and right into thick woods. He caught another glance at her hair as she ducked around a tree, running from him. He didn’t slow down. “Claire! Claire, stop!”

“She can’t.”

A tiny voice echoed off the trees, off the fog, off the very darkness that surrounded him before becoming solid. Right behind him, an adolescent girl in a Catholic school uniform stood on a log. ( Her yellow hair was pinned back at one side, but otherwise swallowed her small shoulders. )

TO BE CONTINUED...