Darkness Ch. 2

Sarah stumbled back as Alex pushed past her and over to the car. Sarah could see the slumped over form of the semi truck driver against his steering wheel but another gut instinct told her that she shouldn’t go near him. Instead she hesitantly followed Alex and stood back as her sister came within inches of the totaled car. She halfway wondered what Alex was going to do and even more wondered what she was doing there at all.

Alex came up to Dean’s window and reared her fist back before punching out. The glass shattered around her hand and she reached inside to gently push Dean’s body away from the door. Her vision caught hold of the two men in the front seat and a flood of images assaulted her mind. Both of them were familiar to her and her memory told her that she knew them. Her mind told her that she had laughed with them once, fought beside them, cared for them and loved them. She felt as if she were looking into a distant life that she no longer lived and she couldn’t quite fit all the pieces of it together. Even so her heart told her that they must be rescued as well. They could hold the key to her past that she had been seeking for the last few months.

Alex felt her eyes shift rapidly, sliding from brilliant blue to black and back again. She closed her eyes tightly and shook her head, growling under her breath. When they were blue she knew that her eyes were generous, loving, and open. When they were black she knew that they were as cold and lifeless as the bottom of the ocean. When her emotions and memories became confused her eyes shifted and she felt feelings inside her dead heart that she didn’t know existed. At this very moment she felt love, deep and passionate, when she stared at the man in the backseat that had been haunting her dreams and memories.

Alex looked past him suddenly to a shift of movement in the backseat. A small girl huddled there and the moment their eyes met the girl shrank back as far as she could go. Alex took in her disheveled and fragile appearance. She studied the overly large white sundress that hung off the girl’s right shoulder and the cut that decorated it, presumably from the car crash. Her face dripped blood from a small laceration on her forehead and her brown eyes stared at Alex with fear and tears mixed in them. Alex stared hard at the girl and recognized pain across her features. The girl tried to squirm away but Alex realized quickly that she couldn’t.

She didn’t recognize the small fragile creature in the backseat and her face elicited no memories. All the same there was something in her eyes, the pain that was evident there, the innocence that seemed to permeate everything about her, that made Alex’s heart twist. Her eyes shifted again, maintaining their crystal blue color for several seconds before shifting back.

“Hold on,” she said sharply. “I’ll get you out.”

She grabbed onto door that the now shattered window provided access to and ignored the shards of glass that sliced into her palm. The cuts on the top of her hand sewed themselves shut quickly and disappeared with no trace that they had ever been there. She jerked with all her strength and the door groaned in protest but came off the car. She picked up the door and tossed it away behind her and into the night. Alex repeated the process with the driver’s side door and blood ran freely from her hands and down her arms.

“Alex,” Sarah called. “Be careful. We don’t know how badly hurt they are.”
Alex snarled under her breath and gently placed her hand under Dean’s neck and the other around his legs. She lifted carefully and brought his six foot frame to rest again her own more slender body. From the backseat the girl reached out for him. She tried to move across the car but couldn't. With every movement of her legs pain shot through her tiny body. She turned and walked a short distance away to place him gently on the ground.

Sarah dashed to the driver’s side and stared into the backseat at a brown haired, doe eyed girl that she didn’t recognize. She smiled gently, seeing the pain evident on her features.

“It’s okay honey,” she said quietly. “My name is Sarah. We’ll get you out, I promise. You’ll be okay. You’re safe now. I won’t let anything else happen to you.”
Emily's head turned quickly when she heard another voice. She stared at Sarah with slightly less fear. There was something about this girl that was less threatening. She began pulling Sam out with caution as Alex returned to the backseat to extract the terribly frightened girl. Emily remained silent. It wasn't until Alex appeared next to her in the car that she finally spoke. Emily looked back and forth between Alex and Sarah, but it was obvious she spoke to Alex. "D... De... Dean," she whispered. Her voice was soft and hoarse, much like the first time she spoke to Dean. There was a childlike quality to her voice that seemed to make it echo in the silent remains of the Impala.Alex hesitated at the edge of the car, her head stuck in the door and her braid falling down over her shoulder. She met the girl’s eyes and for a moment she became lost in them. Her eyes shifted wildly as memories of love and laughter flooded her being. She reached out a hand and gently touched the girl’s arm. She came further into the car and grabbed hold of her upper body.

As the girl leaned closer Emily did her best to back away. She was trembling uncontrollably. With each subtle movement Emily felt a fiery pain shoot through her body.

“I’m sorry but this is going to hurt no matter which way I do it,” Alex warned her.
Alex pulled back, taking care to keep her legs as straight as humanly possible, until the girl’s body was in a better position to be picked up. Alex eased her arm under the broken legs and tightened her grip to allow minimal movement. She didn’t want to cause the girl anymore pain than she was already in.

“You really might want to hold your breath,” Alex advised her. “I’m going to have to carry you over to Dean and your legs are broken so it’s going to hurt.”

Every movement was painful for Emily. She was a strong girl though and she bit her lip and shut her eyes as tight as she could. She took sharp breaths every once in a while when the pain was too great but she wouldn't cry out or scream. She didn't know who this woman was, or what she was for that matter, but at the moment she trusted her, or at least trusted her to enough to let the woman, Alex, take her out of the car.

She lifted gently and brought the girl’s tiny frame to rest against her own. She was light as a feather, easily carried, and Alex strode across the grass to where she had laid Dean. His face was pale in the moonlight and the blood was beginning to dry across his handsome features. She felt a lurch in her stomach and the remnant of a love so deep in her heart that she took a gunshot for him. Her mind spun. She heard the sound of a gun firing echoing in her head and saw herself jump in front of Dean to take the bullet. The memory receded and she was left with confusion.

Alex reached the place where she had laid Dean and set the girl down carefully next to him. Emily moved towards Dean, almost shielding his body from the woman. It had been dark in the car and she hadn't gotten to see Dean clearly. Now, with the light from the cars, Emily was finally able to see the damage. She stared down at Dean with the most horrified expression. Her heart ached as she saw him. All Emily could think of was that he was dead and she was left all alone. Emily leaned down and ran her hand across his face. "Don't go," she whispered to him. Then she looked up quickly when she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. Sarah came up then, dragging Sam’s body as she wasn’t strong enough to carry it. Alex ignored Sarah and returned to the car to retrieve John Winchester. When she returned with him over her shoulder she eased him down onto the ground next to his sons and surveyed the land around them. The highway was empty of any help.

“Alex,” Sarah whispered.

Alex turned her head to regard the younger woman and followed her finger to where it lay pointing over a hill. Alex made out three figures coming toward them at a steady pace. Inside the semi truck the driver was starting to get out and Alex knew immediately that they were all demons.

“They’re coming to finish the job,” Alex stated.

“We can’t let them!” Sarah cried, falling to her knees beside Sam.

Alex popped the sore muscles in her neck and let her eyes fall on each of the car crash victims. She returned her steady gaze to the approaching figures.

“Stay with them,” she commanded and she left no room for argument with her tone. She reached down to her boots and slid out two wickedly curved and serrated blades, gleaming silver in the moonlight, and perfectly matched. She flipped them around deftly in her hands until the blades were resting against her forearms and the hilts in her palms. “I’ll take care of the problem.”