milliadoc-brandybuck-fanfiction

[milliadoc-brandybuck-fanfiction]

(SPN FIC) The Five Points of the Pentagram: Episode 1 | New Kids on the Block | Act 1

MATURE. FEATURES MILD HORROR AND EXTREME GORE. 

The silence of the main courtyard of the large college campus was only occasionally interrupted by a dog barking, trees rustling or the wishing of the winds. Not a person was in sight on the quiet night in early August, only the sounds of nature and the distant orange glow of the nearby town present, which was noticed and appreciated by janitor Jimmy Michaels, who moved as quietly across the campus as the breeze itself. Tired and feeling low, he had finished his 10-hour shift and was ready to leave for the night, though took his time so as to appreciate the peaceful atmosphere that he knew would be lost once the kids moved back in. He felt his mood lower deeper, however, as he realised that this was the only time when he felt truly at peace.

But amongst the apparent calm, shadows crept along the sides of buildings and through the whispering bushes. Slowly and steadily, they stalked the janitor, who was unaware of any break in the status quo. They waited, biding their time until he was cornered without even knowing it. Sliding along tiles, over walls and across the concrete of the path he was on now… slowly approaching and ready to pounce on this unsuspecting prey…

Jimmy stopped. He felt an odd chill brush past him, and suddenly felt quite a sickening feeling, as though he was being watched…

He turned around.

Nothing.

Taking a breath and turning his head back around, he tried to look past it, tried to convince himself it was just the wind and he was being paranoid. He continued on.

Immediately he was met with a searing fire of pain, staring in his chest and spreading fast through his torso, arms, legs, hands and feet, before creeping up his neck and infecting his mind, forcing him to emit a scream of anguish that struck terror in him like he had never felt. He pushed against the pain and pressed his hands onto his head with great difficulty, feeling like there was a great force of red hot ropes holding his wrists back. He continued to shriek in horror, hoping amongst his nightmarish thoughts that someone, anyone, would hear him and come to help him out of this hell that was killing him in the most hideous and cruel way possible.

But alone on the large campus so late at night, no one heard his screams in time.

***

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP-

Lory’s alarm screeched at her repeatedly on the bedside table. This would have been really annoying, had she not already been awake for at least two hours. Her hand finally reached out and switched it off, and she rolled onto her back to continue staring at the ceiling for a few more minutes.

Today was college move-in day for the freshman crowd. As a sophomore she had moved back into her dorm a week early, and had been spending almost every waking moment dreading the mass of new faces and difficult new classes and teachers she’d be up against. She knew all week, all summer even, she’d have to face it, especially the socialising. There was no way she could have avoided all human contact for four years. Make no mistake, she’d thought about how she might be able to enough times, but there was no way around it.

After a further five minutes of ceiling-staring, Lory closed her eyes, took one last breath, and rose up from her bed. She glanced over at the window where she could hear the noise of some new students bustling around with their parents and moving boxes. Lory let out a loud sigh and swung her legs out of bed, beginning the first few phases in facing the day.

***

On the farthest end of campus, a ‘67 Chevy Impala was slowly driving through the dorm house roads. Inside were two brothers, one looking around curiously, the other looking around sceptically. The sceptic-looking one let out a grunt, which caused his brother to roll his eyes.

“What now, Dean?”

Dean bit his tongue and made a face before answering. “Just don’t feel right here. Like I really don’t belong here.”

His brother let out an ironic chuckle. “Yeah, well, unless you’re about to tell me that you also put in an application to come here nine months ago then you’re not far off on that.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, I’m just- I’m sorry, okay? I just meant that you’re not the one who has to stay on campus all the time, only temporarily. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Dean snorted. “Yeah, I wish that was true. I wouldn’t exactly call this job worry-free, Sammy.”

Sam didn’t reply, knowing full well that Dean was right and reminding him why they were really here, something that Sam had done his best to forget for the duration of the journey. Turning back to the various scenes of parents helping their kids unpack and move into their dorms, the sight suddenly struck a chord in Sam’s heart. Dean apparently felt the same.

“What dad would say if he saw us now…” Dean noted.

“Yeah, well, dad’s not here. We are.” Sam replied softly. Dean took it more as a comment of comfort than rudeness, and relaxed a little.

Suddenly hearing some more aggressive tones, Sam’s gaze fell upon a girl staring straight ahead with her arms crossed, standing at the bottom of her dorm house steps, facing who he assumed was her father, who was the source of the aggression and standing several feet away by his car. The interaction didn’t look dangerous, just like strict parenting, but even so that same chord was struck again and Sam felt sorry for the girl. He felt selfishly grateful when they were out of view; he and Dean didn’t need more reminders of their special family life.

***

Surely coming to college meant that she could escape her parents’ grasp? Did moving out not mean that she was her own person, and didn’t need to be told what and what not to do? Apparently her father had other ideas. He was standing on the farthest edge of the sidewalk from her, one hand already on the open car door, whilst she was stood by her dorm house steps. Both of them were so close to freedom, to not having to care about each other for a good few months, and yet he insisted on staying and giving her the talk of what he expected from her whilst other students and their families awkwardly walked past.

“-and we expect you to make the most of this… opportunity, you’ve given yourself. We won’t support you if you slip up, in any way, got it?”

“Yes dad, I understand.” She said flatly, trying not to sound too annoyed so as to avoid another lecture.

Her father didn’t even say anything to that. He just lowered the hand he had been pointing at her with and nodded, like he’d won. Always trying to make it a competition, she thought.

“Come on, Mike, let’s get going.”

Her father briefly looked away to the inside if the car where her mother couldn’t wait to leave. He turned back to her.

“Stay out of trouble.”

Unlike the other kids around her, it was more of a command than an affectionate little parental joke. She didn’t even respond, vocal or physical. She just watched him get in the car, and as soon as she heard the engine start, she turned around and walked up the steps into the house at last.

Breathing out a huge sigh of relief through her mouth, she was greeted by one of her three housemates, who didn’t even notice her entrance at first. She was clicking away on her flip phone, texting one of the thousand people she had already got the number of and added to her little group. She looked up at the sound of Gwen picking up one of her boxes, but immediately looked back down at her phone and continued typing before she even said a word.

“Oh, hey. We were gonna head down to the Courtyard if you wanted to come too, I guess.”

The lack of energy in her voice was outstanding. Gwen looked past it, however, and politely smiled.

“I think I’m just gonna stay here and unpack, actually, get used to my new room-”

“Yeah, they said you probably wouldn’t wanna come anyways, it’s cool.”

Taken aback by this bluntness, Gwen blinked and began busying herself by walking over to the stairs. As she started heading upstairs, another of her housemates bounded in and showed the first something so absolutely scandalous that they both burst into a fit of high-pitched giggles. Out of sight, and knowing they wouldn’t notice her anyway, Gwen rolled her eyes, leaving them to giggle away downstairs.

The room Gwen was staying in - the last in the house to be filled- was right at the end of the corridor, the sounds of hectic families (whomst, for once, she did not envy in their stress) filtering in through the open window at the end. Gwen couldn’t wait to step away from all the fussing around her, all the gossip and glamour of her new housemates, and her room offered her a wonderful excuse to be anti-social for at least a few hours.

Opening the door to her room was something that Gwen hadn’t expected to be so important to her until it actually happened. Her breath hitched for a second as this fresh start was displayed right in front of her eyes; blank walls, empty shelves and window sills, and barren notice boards for her to stick random reminders and study notes onto. Her college identity was a clean slate waiting to be shaped, and the room, stupid as it may sound, seemed to make her realise that for the first time.

She placed the box down on the floor and walked over to the window, taking in the room as she did so. She peeked outside to the ground below briefly,somehow even more crowded with move-ins than when she’d been down there, before looking back upwards and resting her elbows on the window sill. She placed her head on her arms as she took in the clear blue sky above her, barely a wisp of a cloud about.

Honestly, this might be really good. This might be my chance to take some control again, she thought hopefully. I think I can start to be myself again.

***

Lory came downstairs to see one of her new housemates, a girl called Meredith, amongst an abundance of cardboard boxes and plastic bags, looking lost.

“Need a hand?” Lory asked kindly.

Meredith turned to her and her face lit up. “Yeah, thanks.”

Lory picked up a few plastic bags.

“Ooh, those are for the kitchen!” Meredith said.

“Got it.” Lory replied walking over to place the bags on the kitchen counter. “You sure have a lot of stuff. Your grandma in there somewhere too?”

Meredith laughed, and Lory instantly felt happier hearing it. “I’m just terrible at getting rid of stuff. And my family are terrible at resisting giving me even more stuff. Pretty sure my mom gave me half the kitchen supplies from home, and my little sisters drew me about fifty thousand pictures of them in case I forgot what they look like whilst I’m here. Plus my dad gave me a bunch of his old clothes from when he was in college, y’know, ‘just in case’.”

Emerging from the kitchen, Lory grinned. “That’s cute. Sounds like they really care about you.”

Meredith smiled fondly, as if revisiting happy memories. “Yeah, we are pretty close, I suppose.” She said almost to herself.

It was sweet to see such love emitting from one person. Still smiling and feeling happy, Lory picked up one of the heavy boxes.

“Where to, chief?”

“Up to my room, first door on the left, thanks.”

Nodding, Lory walked over to the staircase. Catching onto a thought, Meredith turned around suddenly.

“You wanna check out the Eastern Courtyard?” suggested Meredith. “Apparently they’ve got it all: singers, performers, club sign-ups, free giveaways...”

“And have to socialise with random people before they have any alcohol in them? Yeah, no, I’m good thank you.” replied Lory, but with a playful smile.

“Oh, come on,” grinned Meredith. “It might surprise you!”

Lory laughed, continuing to talk as she disappeared upstairs. “The only thing that surprises me about this college is the free parking.”

As Lory disappeared from sight, Meredith shook her head, both amused and concerned. She rifled through one of her own boxes, feeling an oddly-shaped object that she didn’t recognise. She pulled it out, revealing a small item wrapped up in blue-grey tissue paper. Unwrapping it carefully, Meredith let out a soft gasp when she recognised the sharp curves and dents of her family crest, sized down and with a thin chain around it. She didn’t remember packing it… Her grandfather must have slipped it in when she wasn’t looking.

Meredith was only vaguely aware of her family’s heritage and bloodline. She had only really been told about it in the last few months before her leaving for college, a little by her mother, briefly by her sister, but mostly by her grandpa, who loved to go into great detail when exploring the family history. But this time he did seem different about it, like he was warning her. All this talk about ‘protect yourself’ and ‘watch out for trouble’. Meredith had assumed he only meant to say this because she was moving out, and that he was just looking out for her as she moved into adulthood.

She set the tissue paper down and took the crest in her finger tips, moving them along the small gems and edges that ran through it. It felt… strange to her touch; she expected the metal to feel cold, but it felt warm as soon as she held it, her finger tips barely grazing it before she felt the heat radiating from it. It was almost welcoming, familiar.

But it was no less unnerving. In fact, it was probably more so.

She blinked and shook herself out of it, breaking her trance. She wrapped it back up in the tissue paper. Not yet. Not in freshman week. There are enough things to deal with right now without this too.

Turning away from the bag with the necklace in it, Meredith picked up a box containing her notebooks and began the trek up the stairs after Lory. She was determined to make this week count for her, and wanted to begin in a happy state of mind, as ever.

***

The door sharply shut behind Gwen as she stepped back out into the fresh air. For once she didn’t care how loud it was, she knew her housemates wouldn’t notice the noise being too engrossed in themselves and random Facebook profiles (“Oh my God, her hair is unreal!”) to have any awareness. Initially she hadn’t wanted to go outside, but her housemates had chosen to stay inside being loud and generally disruptive (much to her annoyance), forcing her to go outside anyway to get away from their constant laughing and shrieking.

Wrapping her oversized dark patterned cardigan around her and folding her arms into it, Gwen began walking along the sidewalk and away from the house, in desperate need of a semi-peaceful walk, which she could have now that the streets had cleared up and most students had properly moved in. There was only a distant cluster of voices coming from one of the nearby ‘freshman zones’, of which Gwen had no intention of going to. A walk around the quiet campus seemed much more inviting. Besides, she wasn’t alone, not really; there was a cool autumn breeze that danced around her feet and made her feel safe.

***

After an hour of seemingly endless nagging, Meredith had finally managed to convince Lory to leave their shared dorm house and come out into the world. Despite this small victory, it proved to be short-lived as they headed down to the Eastern Courtyard and Lory’s moaning and excuses filled the air.

“Seriously, I don’t have time for this.”

“Yes you do.”

“I really don’t, I have somewhere to be.”

“I’m sure your bed is very comfy but that’s not where we’re headed.”

“I didn’t mean that.”

Meredith, being fairly patient, said nothing, though had to refrain from rolling her eyes at Lory’s constant whining. As they rounded a corner, a figure coming from the opposite direction rounded it too. When they came into view, Meredith saw that it was a girl walking alone in a large patterned cardigan. She perked up; here was an opportunity. As the girl approached, Meredith broke into a warm and friendly smile.

“Hi!” She said brightly.

The girl’s head snapped up, as did Lory’s, and Lory thought she saw panic flash in the girl’s eyes for a moment. When she saw that Meredith and Lory really meant no harm, she averted her gaze and smiled awkwardly.

“Oh- uh, h-hey.” And with that she continued walking, possibly quicker than she had been before. The girls watched her go for a moment before Meredith sighed.

“Oh well. Worth a shot, I guess not everyone wants to be friends.” She continued on, Lory following behind, still begrudging.

“I’ll bet everyone’s just like her, not wanting to talk, just wanting to get on with things. A smart move if you ask me.”

“Aw c’mon, it’s gonna be great!” Meredith replied, ever the optimist, it seemed. “You might meet some new friends whilst we’re there!”

Lory huffed. “Why would I need any more friends when you’re already soooo perfect?” She mocked with a fake smile.

“Ha ha,” Meredith grinned. “Flattery, fake or otherwise, won’t get you out of this, hun.”

Lory groaned, knowing, sadly, that she was right.

***

The harsh white lamplight hit the desk as Sam sat down and dumped his notebook onto the table, opening it up on a new page and immediately beginning to scribble out notes and to-dos. Dean stood behind him, admiring the room.

“Gotta say, not a bad place to crash for a few months.” He remarked. Sam ignored him, engrossed in his writing. Dean leaned against one of the walls and continued regardless, “Actually looks better than most of the motel rooms we stay in. Maybe I should try out this college thing, might get a decent night’s sleep out of it at least…”

He looked over at Sam’s reaction to the joke, but was met with his brother’s back leant over his desk. Dean sighed loudly.

“All right, something’s gotta be interesting if me saying I’m thinkin’ about signing up for college doesn’t get your attention. What’re you writing?”

“Class times for tomorrow,” Sam replied shortly.

Dean stared at him. “That’s it?” He looked disbelieving of this underwhelming answer. “God, you are such a geek.”

“I’m the one actually trying to get a degree here, Dean.” Sam replied without looking up again. “Some of us aren’t here just for the job.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, I’m gonna go find somewhere to stay for the night. I’ll call you when I’ve got a place.”

“‘Kay.”

Shaking his head and smiling slightly, Dean pushed himself off of the wall and left Sam to his constant scribbling.

***

In the Courtyard, Meredith was walking around, talking to people, introducing herself, and generally lighting up the atmosphere. Behind her, Lory was dragging her feet, looking as bored and disinterested in the activities and sign-ups as she felt. Meredith tried to pretend not to notice, but she was starting to feel guilty for bringing Lory to a place where she clearly felt so uncomfortable.

“Hey, look!” She exclaimed, beckoning Lory over in an attempt to spark some enthusiasm. “They’re having a two for one deal at the local pizza house for all freshman!”

“Wow, better call the twelve-year-olds, they’d go wild for a deal like that!” Lory replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Meredith drooped slightly, lowering the flyer and placing it back on the table. Lory instantly felt guilt wash over her.

“Look, Meredith, I’m sorry, it’s just… this isn’t really my kind of thing. Especially since I’m not a freshman anymore. And please don’t take this the wrong way, but, you know I’m a mature student, and I just kind of feel like I’ve… outgrown this sort of deal. But don’t think that means that you shouldn’t do it yourself, or that I’m not happy, okay?”

Not being able to lift Lory’s social spirits made her feel like she’d failed somewhat, but Meredith gave a small smile all the same. “Okay. You go do your own thing.” She said encouragingly, tapping Lory’s arm briefly.

Grinning, Lory raised her eyebrows as if remembering something. “Speaking of my own thing,” she said. “I’ve gotta get to work. Have fun.”

She swished past a confused Meredith, who turned around and called after her, “You have a job?”

Lory looked back, still walking. “Yeah, I work at one of the bars in town.”

It was not possible for Meredith to look more taken aback than she did in that moment. She gaped at Lory as she continued to walk away, and when she finally opened her mouth she had to shout after her.

“You work in a bar?! One of the most social environments on the whole planet?”

“I said I didn’t like to socialise with people who didn’t have alcohol in them! Byee!” She called, the smirk in her voice very evident.

Meredith was left in the middle of the crowded courtyard, shaking her head in disbelief and holding back a smile.

***

Despite having not encountered anyone else for nearly half an hour, Gwen was still cringing at how awkward she had been with those two girls. They hadn’t looked threatening, they hadn’t seemed to be too giggly or gossipy like her delightful housemates had been; the one with silver hair had some pagan tattoos, so at least there was someone else she could relate to in that, and had looked really cool; the one with the bouncy, long curly brown hair was actually incredibly pretty. Perhaps that was what threw her off, they were both too cool and too attractive for her to not act like an awkward mess around them. Sometimes, Gwen really hated her stupid social ineptity to the point where she wondered if it was possible to burn it out of her soul. Permanently. Please.

As she walked along the empty streets, she finally noticed how the temperature had gone down and the light had begun to fade from the day. She also noticed how she was in a part of campus she didn’t know, which made her realise that she didn’t know where anything on campus was because the campus was huge and she’d never been able to remember where anything was on those silly little tours. So she was lost. And it was getting dark. Awesome.

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she thought rationally. She came from the North side, so all she had to do was walk back the way she… thought she came. That was her best option right now. Gwen placed her hands on her head and ran them through her hair, resting them on the back of her neck as she looked out over the dorm houses. Then she replaced her hands into her pockets, turned around and began to walk away.

Something suddenly didn’t feel quite right. Gwen could feel an odd change in the air that had nothing to do with the growing night. She looked around her, brows furrowed, and noticed that the trees seemed oddly still, even though she could feel a sharp breeze travelling over her skin. She sped up slightly, wrapping her cardigan tighter around herself and firmly crossing her arms.

From a silent hideout, the shadows watched her. The temptation to follow was strong… but they could not strike. Not yet.

But soon.

***

Perhaps Lory had been right. Meredith was starting to become tired of the number of people who had approached her as a prank or with dumb joke questions, or asking if classes started tomorrow - on a Saturday. She decided to head back to her dorm house and muster up something at least edible. Thanking the person who handed her the umpteenth flyer of the afternoon, she turned and began walking back in the direction of the dorm.

As she approached the centre, a scream broke out and echoed throughout the campus. Disturbed but concerned, Meredith began running towards the source of the scream, which sounded like it came from the Eastern Courtyard. Other students were running through the arch ways leading to it already, having clearly heard the horrible sound as well. She reached the arch way and rushed to where a crowd had gathered. Pushing through slightly, she made it to the inner edge, and almost fell backwards in shock.

On the stone ground was a young girl’s body, blood pouring out of her ears, eyes and nose, white as a sheet and veins popping on her neck and face. Several staff members were attempting to block her from view and contacting the emergency services. Students surrounding the scene were whispering, some even screeching themselves in shock, some crying. Meredith could only watch in terror. She couldn’t look away. But she felt sick and empty at the sight.

Someone suddenly came up behind her, calling her name.

“Meredith! Meredith, are you okay, what’s going-”

Lory stopped as soon as she saw the body too. She let out a deep, terrified breath.

“Oh God…” She whispered in a low voice.

***

She had managed to get lost and ended up in the one place she never wanted to be in the first place; the Eastern Courtyard. But as Gwen approached, that awful feeling crept up on her again, and almost instantly after she heard a horrid scream. Fearing the worst, but praying like mad that it wasn’t anything to do with the changing winds, she ran to the source. The sight she met was awful, even worse than she could have possibly imagined. She couldn’t bring herself to look away from the girl’s face, covered in bold blue and purple veins and completely sheet-white. And all the blood… The blood was deep crimson and in a giant circle around the body, spread out so far that it was a shock that the human body could hold so much of it. Gwen felt a pang of fear at the thought that this feeling and this event… was there a connection…?

Glancing over the rest of the crowd, Gwen spotted the two girls from before opposite her. The girl with the curly hair was in a state of pure shock, whilst the silver girl, who still looked horrified, put an arm around her for comfort. A sudden burst of energy emitted from the two of them that made Gwen blink suddenly and take a sharp breath. She stared at them, stunned and confused, before the silver-haired one put an arm around the other and led her away from the crowd and out of sight. Then, to her right, Gwen sensed an even stronger energy, and her head whipped in its direction. Her sight set on a tall guy with brown hair, who did not look as shocked as the other students but more… panicked. He quickly glanced around the gathering circle of students and backed out of the crowd, as two security guards stepped up to move the students back and away from the scene. A couple of them pushed on Gwen’s side too, forcing her to break her gaze on the guy, but she quickly turned and pushed herself through the crowd to get a look at the guy.

But when she emerged, he had vanished. She looked around, circling on the spot whilst students brushed past her, but he had gone. His energy was lost, and Gwen breathed. She was left confused and almost breathless at the events that had unfolded.

Who the hell were all these people?

***

Hiding around a dark corner out of sight, Sam had already pulled out his cell phone and had typed Dean’s number before he could even think about anything else. He waited impatiently, and when Dean picked up on the fifth ring, he went straight into it.

“It got someone. Someone else. It’s started moving again.”