FIB, Chapter 5

Dean followed Alex as she ran upstairs and into her kitchen where she started to pace back and forth.

“Alex, what’s going on? Why do you think Sam’s in danger?”

Alex stopped and faced Dean. “When I came running into the living room and you asked me what was wrong? Well, I ran out there because I thought I heard somebody yell. And then when you were in the basement I heard somebody scream and felt a sting in my neck.” She stopped and waited, staring at Dean while she fidgeted with her fingers.

“How do you know it was Sam if you thought it was me?”

Alex started pacing the kitchen again and explained, “I thought I was mistaking Sam’s voice for yours. At first I thought it was Sam, but then I remembered he wasn’t with you. But then after you told me that I… read your mind, I figured it must have been him.”

With a sigh, Dean ran a hand through his hair. He glanced around the house before looking back at Alex. “Ok, so Sam was set up or something went wrong when he went to save Luisa… Wait a minute. You felt pain on your neck?” He watched Alex nod her head with arms folded across her chest. She was clearly uncomfortable talking about it, and he wondered if he should tell her the truth about her curse.

“Alex?” Dean paused, avoiding her gaze for a minute, and then looked back to her. “Do you think the pain in your neck was something that Sam felt? Earlier you said you could feel the pain I felt when I was…” He cleared his throat and continued. “Have you felt pain when you were awake before?”

“Yes.” Alex remembered the first night it happened, which was the night Dean had died. She woke up the next morning with bruises on her shoulder, hip and stomach. The idea of her dreams physically hurting her made her feel crazy. She never told Kyle, knowing he would freak out and be even more worried about her.

“Crap,” Dean muttered and started heading towards the front door.

“Dean?” Alex followed her cousin as he put his jacket on. “Where are you going?”

“I think the pain you felt was a vampire bite. And if that’s the case then I need to figure out where Sam is fast and get him out of there… and possibly to a hospital.”

“… Vampires?” Alex asked, wondering if she heard him correctly.

“Yeah,” Dean nodded and saw the stunned expression on Alex’s face. “We never told you about those, did we?” He watched Alex shake her head. “Huh… I’ll tell you later. Oh, and remind me to tell you about tricksters and witches.”

Sighing and closing her eyes, Alex said, “Please tell me that you are joking.”

Dean pursed his lips and went silent as he went to pull the car keys out of his pocket, remembering that he stole the car from the motel.

“Can I borrow your car?”

“You’re not kidding?!” Alex asked, knowing Dean had changed the subject, but before he could respond she spoke again. “And you stole a car.”

“I’ll tell you later, I promise. And I’ll just use the car that I… borrowed.” Dean looked outside, biting his lip. “Do you have a machete?”

“What?!”

Dean turned back to Alex and shrugged, “I need a machete to kill a vampire by cutting his head off.”
Alex blinked. “Of course you do.” She closed her eyes and shook her head, mumbling something about there being no difference from a horror movie and life.

Dean hesitated awkwardly. “Well, do you have one?”

“No,” Alex looked back up at Dean. “Sorry, I’m all out of machetes. I actually leant my last one out to a guy named Jason, but can I interest you in a steak knife?”

“Cute.” Dean turned and opened the front door. “If you hear anything in your, uh, head, call me. And if I don’t answer, call Bobby.” As he started walking to the car he turned back to Alex and sternly told her, “Whatever you hear, do NOT come looking for us. Got it?”

Alex nodded her head, “Yeah, ok. Just… be careful.” She stood in her doorway and watched Dean drive away.

Dean drove back to the motel and parked the car in the same spot he had found it in. After entering the room, he walked straight to the nightstand between the two beds and picked up the notepad. He turned the lamp on and angled the pad of paper until he could see a shadow of letters embedded into the paper from the previous page.

Dean found a pen and rewrote the address down on the pad, before ripping the top sheet off. After that, he went to the main office where he heard a guy complaining that his car was stolen.

“Yes, I checked the parking lot five times! It’s not there!” the man argued with the manager. “I’ll even check again if it makes you happy.”

The man turned and walked to the door and opened it a little, as Dean was looking for a map of Illinois in the pamphlet rack.

“What the… I swear that wasn’t there ten minutes ago.” He turned back to the manager. “It wasn’t!”

Dean frowned, realizing he no longer had a car, so he called up Alex after he left the motel, “Hey, I need to borrow your car… and a map.”

Alex arrived at the motel with Hana in a car seat in the back seat of her car. She climbed out of the car and unbuckled Hana from her car seat.

“Can you hold her for a minute?”

“Uh, sure,” Dean said, taking Hana from Alex.

Hana was all bundled up in a tiny jacket with a white knit cap on her head. Dean saw her silky light brown hair sticking out of the sides. She looked up at Dean, as he held her close, and smiled as she tried grabbing his nose.

After Alex got the stroller out of the trunk and opened it up, she saw Dean smiling at Hana as he was rubbing her back. She almost wanted to let him be, but she knew Sam was in serious trouble.

“Ok, we’re all set.”

Dean turned to the stroller and gently placed Hana in the seat, giving her a pat on the head before standing up.

“Here,” Alex said, handing Dean the map.

He took the map and said, “Thanks.” Then he held out his other hand, waggling his fingers.

Alex looked at her newly restored Trans Am and back to Dean, and hesitantly held the keys out for him.

“Don’t scratch it up,” she warned before dropping the keys in his hands.

“I’ll treat her as if she were my own,” Dean promised.

“It’s not a girl, it’s a boy,” Alex saw Dean’s confused face. “I’m kidding. Just, go save your brother,” Alex said as she started pushing the stroller towards the sidewalk.

Dean nodded and walked over to the passenger door of her car. As he pulled the door opened he remembered that this was the car that the Alex had her accident in, which was totaled. It was weird knowing that the very seat he was sitting in was the one that Alex was sitting in when he saved her.

After starting up the car, he opened the map and figured out how to get to Sam.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sam was barely conscious as warm blood drizzled down his neck and shirt. He wasn’t sure how much blood the vampire took before Kate came in with two other vampires. They had dragged Matt out of the room with blood drooling out of his mouth.

“Sorry about that, Sam. Matt got a little carried away. He seems to think that you’re crushing on his girlfriend.”

Kate walked over to the widow, looking down where she saw another male vampire carrying Luisa into the large corn field. She was unconscious with her hands and feet tied together, hanging limp over the vampire’s shoulder.

“Honestly, I don’t know why he cares. He has plans for her. And by the looks of it, I don’t think she’s going to survive,” she explained and turned to Sam again, “But I’m more concerned about you. I have my own plans for you and your brother.”

Sam weakly looked up at her. He was in pain and didn’t feel like talking to her. All that mattered now was an escape plan, which was not looking too good at the moment.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Three hours later, Dean found the address. Thinking like Sam, he drove past the place and ended up finding the spot where Sam had parked his car.

Sam had left the Impala unlocked and Dean was able to find a machete. As he picked it up, he couldn’t help but smirk at the comment Alex had made. But that smile quickly faded and he carefully made his way to the house.

At the edge of the woods Dean stood behind a tree, giving the house a once over. Right when he decided on a clear path to one of the windows, he heard the back door creak open and heavy footsteps going down a set of stairs.

Dean carefully moved through the trees, hiding behind them for cover. Once he was able to see the back door, he saw a young man walk out of the house followed by a woman. Dean recognized the woman, but he couldn’t remember where from. Had he hooked up with her at some random bar before? Then he remembered what he was up against.

Vampires.

Crap, Dean thought, realizing that she probably already knew he was there. But if she did, she definitely didn’t acknowledge him. She followed the other vampire into the corn field and disappeared from sight.

After weighing his options, Dean decided to get into the house the way he originally had planned. Kate may have gone into the corn field, but there was no way to know if or how many vampires were inside of the house.

With the machete in hand, Dean headed towards the window on the side of the house that was partially hidden behind a tree.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After putting Hana in her playpen, Alex rubbed the side of her neck. It had started aching after Dean had left her house. She walked over to a mirror that was hanging not too far away to see what was wrong.

Alex pulled back her hair and the collar of her shirt, revealing a purple bruise. This was odd, considering she didn’t see a bruise five hours earlier, after she got out of the shower. And she would have remembered doing something that would have caused this size of a bruise. Alex bit her lip after she let go of her shirt and hair, thinking. She finally turned around and walked over to her personal phone book that was sitting next to her living room phone.

Alex picked up the phone and dialed the number from her phone book. She closed the book as she hit the call button, and waited patiently as the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Bobby, its Alex… Sam and Dean’s cousin,” she paused, waiting for recognition.

“Oh, hey, Alex,” Bobby greeted her. “Is everything ok?”

“Um, kind of… Actually, not really,” Alex sighed, rubbing her shoulder with her other hand.