CROSSROADS ☁︎ Supernatural

PART 7 - RILEY

A clock on the hospital wall was ticking away another sleepless night for Riley. Since the doctors let her in, she wouldn't left John's side, she sat there just watching him, hardly blinking, afraid that the moment of darkness could take him away and when she would see him again, he would be hurt like the last time.

Images of last night kept flooding her mind but those were not only her memories anymore. Her over-active imagination colored them and they became a perfect torture.

So she prayed even harder for them to go away, for John to get better and for those horror nights to end forever. She repeated those lines in her head over and over, asking, pleading for it all to stop and go away. And as she was finishing her plea, just to start it all over again, one of the brutal images startled her once again. It was impossible to get used to them. John was undeniable reminder of the trauma they both went through.

This last flashback was so lively, she was forced to shut her eyes in defense. She didn't manage to open her eyes and check on John, but she opened them to a whole another terrifying image. The door flew open and two men barged in.

"Dad?" said the guy in the leather jacket who entered first.

"Dad!" Repeated the later much quieter in relief. They immediately rushed to their father's bed. Before Riley could pick herself up, the leather jacket was in her face.

"Listen here, missy! You're gonna tell me why you're in the hospital with my dad or ..."

"Dean!" the taller guy touched his shoulder, dragging him back. "I'm sorry, this is Dean, I'm ..."

"Sammy," she whispered mesmerized. His dad painted him quite vividly and she finally got to see him in his impressive height.

"It's Sam," he corrected her.

"My fault," Riley said. "Your dad told me about you and he would use Sammy every time he ...'" She tried to explain herself, but Dean wouldn't let her finish.

"Why would our dad had any business telling you about us." His voice was deep, like animal growl.

"You tell me," Riley turned to him, irritated he wouldn't let her say anything. "He just sat me down and started talking," she shrugged. She really didn't know what she did wrong that he needed to treat her that way.

Luckily, Sam talked to her in much more peaceful manner but she could feel uncertainty between his lines as well.

"How about we sit down", said Sam, "and you tell me all that happened."

"There's not much to it but okay," she nodded and he led her to the table by the window.

___

"So you just found him lying there," Sam's eyebrows shot high leaving exactly three deep horizontal wrinkles in the middle of his forehead. He's been sitting facing Riley for a while now so they both had plenty of time to study each other expressions. And there weren't many - either they were worried or puzzled.

They were going through the same stuff over and over again to make sure they didn't miss anything but there was nothing more Riley could say that she hadn't before. Everybody knew the story by heart by then.

"Yeah, that's right," she nodded again. "I came out of the library, locked the door, looked to the curb and there he was, he... He was lying on the ground..."

"And you didn't hear anything." Sam went on verifying that he got her words right.

"Not a sound. It was dead silent. It was ... dead silent."

Riley  looked up straight into Sam's eyes just for a second in realization. And there it was, completely new expression in her face. Her skin went pale and her eyes were wandering like she was seeing pictures moving really fast right in front of her.

It never came to her, because when she found John laying on the ground all she heard was her blood rushing in her ears. But now, thinking back about it... there was absolutely nothing. World should never be that silent.

It was like everything just stopped existing. Everything hit pause, everything living just played dead. Dogs weren't barking, insects crawled back into it's dark holes, even leaves stopped trembling. The air was smothering, just hanging in there almost solid, filling the space, supporting her body so it wouldn't wear out.

And there in the middle of all this was John, playing along with the post apocalyptic scenario. She would scream and got somebody to help them - help him - but there was no one passing by. There was no traffic, everybody was grounded like every other night.

And of course she could tell all this to Sam but how would this feeling of absolute emptiness and hopelessness help him in finding out about his dad's whereabouts. He would probably declared her crazy, over-sensitive at least. And if he wouldn't do that, his brother definitely would.

Dean was in the room with them as well but he was sitting by his dad's bed the whole time. He wouldn't move, nor talk, he was just staring blindly onto one spot, his jaws clenched together, looking like this all was his fault.

"What is it?" Sam tried to affect Riley again. "You need to tell us everything so we can..."

"No, n-nothing, it's nothing," she stuttered. "It's just that I'm really tired and it's so late ... And when you're finally here, I should go, leave you with your dad. I don't mean to interfere..." She was picking herself up, struck by her discovery.

"But ..." Sam wanted to stop her.

"Let her go, Sammy." Dean finally intervened. "She clearly has nothing more to say and why would she? It's not her dad lying in here."

It was really hard for her to forget it was, according to Dean, all her fault, their dad was here, in the first place. He let her know with his whole being, but she wouldn't let him treat her like that anymore. "Yeah," she said, "good thing my dad's lying in the ground."

Both brothers turned to stone, hit by her reaction. She was so patient so far. She tried to compose herself, breathe right, not to do that crazy tapping with her foot even though she was almost shaking. She knew from her dad how important it was to stay calm while being interrogated because that was exactly what those two were doing, even though Sam was asking all the questions. But Dean rubbed her the wrong way every time he opened his mouth.

Their dad was in bad condition, she got that, but he was still alive. Dean still acted like there was not a chance, feeling so guilty for something he could not prevent even if he stood right there, next to his dad. And Riley needed to clear that to him.

"You want to know what really happened?" Her voice was steady and she was looking Dean right in the eyes. "I was on my way from the library, he got out of the car to get my door. The lights then flickered and he was standing there one second and wasn't the next. I found him on the ground ripped open like this and took him to the hospital. The end of story."

She took her purse in an urgent need to get out. Sam inhaled, trying to say something but she was faster.
"I'll stop by tomorrow. Hope he'll be better by then. I know my way out." With that she walked out and headed straight to the exit.

She rushed by the nurses station, the nurse tired to stop her, sure that she wouldn't see her alive again, once she'd set foot out of the building at such an ungodly hour.

"Miss, where are you going, you can't..."

"Just let it try and get me!" Riley pushed through her teeth and walked right out into the night.