Episode 1x18: Mutilation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery (Part 1 of 3)
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...
“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...