What Would Be But Never Was (A Supernatural AU Fanfic)

Chapter 9 - Eclipse (no not Twilight)

        Norman paced back and forth in the small office of the family owned motel; he'd been a part of it ever since it was renamed their home when he was 14. The floor boards creaked frantically as he did so, as if they were doing their best to keep up with his spastic feet. Sweat was in a bead-like line on his brow, and his left eye twitched slightly. The clock on the wall behind the counter ticked loudly, filling his ears with its deep, impending clicks.

        The familiar small red car parked outside caused his hands to clam up and his already easily anxious temperament to flare. He knew who that car belonged too - the plates had changed sure, but he knew the scratches and dents on its chipped bow like the back of his hand. Even if the few glances he'd tossed towards it were momentary (and were incidentally made several years ago), he basically had a photographic mind. His mind flitted through the pictures he'd obsessively drawn of the boy who'd come by with his family the night before the woman showed all those years ago, and worry lines were quickly indented in his fragile, pale skin. What if she somehow finds them?! What if she recognizes me off the bat (of course she will) and kills me like she didn't before!?! the questions were endless as they zipped around in his head like a thick flurry of snow, the answers obscure through the blinding whiteness of it all.

        He jumped suddenly when the bell on the door rang, throwing him out of his stupor. "HowmayIhelpyou?!" He asked, his words jumbled in a nervous rush. It was her. He gripped the counter behind him for support, feeling the edges of it cutting into his back. His eyes were large like a deer in the headlights, and the woman chuckled a little too easily; like they were old friends. His nose crinkled at her and the thought.

        "What do you want from me?!" He asked hurriedly when she hadn't really answered his first question. She shrugged.

        "Well, for one I'm glad you didn't decide to kill yourself, cause I could use you're motel with its fairly dark past right about now." She admitted in a hushed voice - full of secrets, I'm sure, he thought to himself, pursing his already thin lips.

        "But you have to trust me (as crazy as I'm sure you think that is). Please, I'm in a tight spot and need a room for two. Don't ask. Just hand me the right key and let me be on my way. I'll be around for four days or so, then we- I'll leave. Promise." She caught herself, tripping on the one word bringing an essential question to his curious and quite un-trusting mind. Narrowing his eyes at her, he asked who the other person was. She closed her eyes and breathed out a sigh. He noticed she wasn't exactly how she'd been since he'd last been confronted by her. She seemed more...weary - distracted even. Not her usual condescending self, that's for sure.

        "Look, can you just give me the damn key? I can pay in cash." She added when he sighed and turned to grab a key off the plaque of many hooks. Handing her one, their hands brushed momentarily, sending a cold shock through his muscles from her icy touch. He hissed inwardly, but outwardly jerked his hand back as soon as the money was lightly transported into his grasp. He popped it into the register and tried giving her back change (which she'd paid nearly 10 dollars over), but she quickly shook her head in decline and made her way out of the office building before he could protest.

        His heart hammered inside his chest like a bird wanting to be freed of its cage, and his hands hadn't stopped sweating. He'd find out why she was there if it were the last thing he did. After all, he'd given her the bedroom with two beds that he'd watched the boys (and admittedly several other people as time had rolled on after them) from through the hole in the wall.

                       ______________________A few hours later______________________