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Elena set the third dusty volume of the evening down on the shining table with a soft thud and sigh. Her first week at Whitmore was officially over, but she was more stressed than ever.
Glancing over at her stack of syllabus papers, she groaned and sank into a seat. When she’d received her acceptance letter, she knew it wouldn’t be all partying and good times, but she thought she’d at least celebrate finishing her first week in college.
Instead, she sat in the university library, combing through reference books to slop together a paper due by next Friday. Okay, maybe she had a little time, but the fear of falling behind was enough persuasion to sit herself down and read rather than lift a solo cup in the air.
Combing her fingers back through her hair, she pulled it tightly into a messy ponytail and snapped the hairband into place. Taking a long swig of coffee that smarted her throat pleasantly, she opened the chapter as directed by one of her many syllabi and began reading, highlighter in hand.
The lamp to her right flickered out of the corner of her eye, and she glanced up. Looking toward a window she wondered if a storm might be brewing, but seeing the cloudless night, Elena looked back down at her text.
Breathing out, she watched a rising plume of air escape from her. As though she were outside on a winter night. Shuddering, Elena wrapped her arms around her torso and sat up straighter, more alert as she tried to detect the reason for the sudden temperature change.
No windows were open; if they were, it wasn’t nearly cold enough to see your breath yet.
It was late August.
Every light in the library flickered before sizzling out, leaving the entire place dark. Goosebumps trailed over her body. This time, it was fear that guided them, not the cold.
Quickly, she took her phone from the table and tried to open the flashlight, but the screen remained black. Frowning, she hit the back of her phone against her palm, but it was hopeless. As if she’d let the battery die when she knew she’d been on 67% before sitting down.
Looking up, Elena took a slow, deep breath and stood.
“It’s just the breaker.” She told herself before venturing forward into the inky darkness.
The moonlight outside was the only break from the shadows, but with the bookcases blocking much of the window view, much of her vision was compromised. She reached her arms forward, willing herself not to panic as she approached the door.
It was a simple fix- she’d leave and report the outage.
Elena’s heart trilled in her throat as she tugged on the door and pushed, but the handle only wiggled uselessly.
Don’t panic.
A low chuckle rumbled behind her. She turned and let out a shrill scream, covering her arms over her face.
The lights flickered back to life with a hum, but Elena was gone.
The Impala ripped along the back roads of Virginia.
“Ah, college girls.” Dean grinned, tapping his fingers to Paradise City on the steering wheel.
“Focus, Dean.” Sam said from the passenger side, looking at the GPS. “Take a right.”
Dean grinned, already daydreaming about where he’d spend his time after this hunt as he slowed and turned the wheel. The thought of morning after with a cup of coffee always relaxed him.
“Oh, I’m focused.”
“On the case,” Sam replied flatly.
“Yes, on the case,” Dean rolled his eyes, “What do we got?”
Sam nodded, looking through the papers he’d printed off. “Five college students have gone missing from Whitmore in the past five years.”
Raising a brow, Dean glanced over at him. “Seriously? Half of those could be chalked up to a party gone wrong.”
“Maybe,” Sam nodded, “except that they all disappeared while studying in the library.”
Dean snorted and chuckled under his breath. “Who goes to college to study?”
“People, Dean. People do. I think it’s worth checking out,” he flipped through another page, “they were all women. Look to be about the same age, and get this, all brunettes.”
“Ah,” Dean nodded, “so if this is a spirit, we know he has a type.”
“Exactly.”
Spinning through the parking lot, Dean pulled up to the front entrance and cut the engine before hopping out. Scanning the area, they made their way toward the front doors. Passing the front security guard playing a sodoku puzzle book, Dean nodded at him with a grin.
“Going on a tour.”
The guard didn’t even look up as they passed, which was probably for the best. It was a small enough facility that they found the library without trouble. Dean glanced over his shoulders before opening the doors and peaked inside.
Empty.
“Hm,” Sam frowned as they entered, and Dean closed the door behind them, “weird, no one is here on a Saturday morning.”
“That’s weird to you?” Dean asked, raising a brow. “Wow, you must have been the life of the party.”
Sam rolled his eyes. “I’m just saying study groups on Saturdays aren’t uncommon, and there’s no one here. Not even a librarian.”
Dean shrugged as he walked down the aisle, then stopped halfway down the center walkway. “Well, someone was here.” Stepping into the nook, he looked over the pile of books, a cell phone, and half-finished coffee. Picking up the phone, he looked it over and pressed the on button but shook his head.
“Dead.”
“Yeah,” Sam frowned, “that’s what I’m afraid of.”
They exchanged a look before Dean took the folder from him to review the case. “So they all disappeared within the first week of school. Why wouldn’t anyone question that?”
“Probably think of them as drop-outs,” Sam shrugged, looking under the table and nearby chairs, “assume they can’t handle the pressure and write them off.”
Dean removed his scanner from his pocket and watched the lights at the top as he walked through each aisle. He took slow, careful steps. Waiting for any hint of energy. Stepping in front of the center bookcase at the back wall of the library, the device screamed at him.
“Alright then, haunted books,” he looked up at the weathered spines, “but what’s behind the haunted books, I wonder. Sammy! Found a spot. Let’s start digging Scooby-Doo style.”
Together, they took off every book from the shelf. Dean tossed the books to the floor while Sam laid them gently on the table, but soon enough, the entire back wall was bare aside from the shelving.
Dean walked quickly to the far corner of the room and wheeled over a tall ladder. Climbing up, his fingers combed through the dust and cobwebs of every shelf searching for anything that might give away some sort of passage.
“Nothing?” Sam shook his head with a sigh.
“Maybe,” Dean shrugged, “maybe not. Be right back.” He jogged back through the library and out the door, leaving Sam to wait as he pillaged through the trunk of the Impala. Taking out a crowbar, he walked back through, tipping the metal toward the security guard with a smirk.
The guard, again, didn’t look up.
“No wonder people disappear here,” Dean muttered as he returned to the library.
Sam stood at the back wall, hands in his pockets, watching Dean with a raised brow.
“What are you doing?” He suddenly shielded his face as Dean jammed the crowbar into one of the edges of the paneling behind the shelves.
Dean grinned over at him. “Saving the life of a hopefully hot college girl. What are you doing?”
Sam simply sighed and moved forward, using his hands to help pry away the panels.
“It’s just going to lead to a brick…wall…”
“You were saying?” Dean asked with a raised brow, staring into a gaping hole beyond the wall they’d torn down.
Removing his flashlight, Dean put the end of the handle between his teeth and gripped the shelving as he slid one leg in and then the other.
Soon, they were both on the other side, shining their lights down a narrow passageway.
“Alright then.” Dean breathed out, seeing the plume of his breath, and smiled. “Let’s go.”
Elena woke with a start.
She sucked in a sharp breath and looked around, letting out a panicked whimper as her eyes adjusted to the blurred darkness. Pressing her fingers to her forehead, she withdrew them to reveal the blood that dripped.
“Ah…” She hissed softly in pain before pressing her hands against the stone wall she was against and carefully pulling herself up.
The room was small- cold and damp. She looked up with squinted eyes and covered her mouth as she sank low. Above her, roosted in a colony of sparkling eyes, were dozens of bats.
Instinctively, she searched her back pocket for her phone, realizing the next moment she’d left it on the table in the library. It wasn’t like it mattered after it mysteriously died anyway.
What was it this time?
Another vampire that’s come to steal her blood?
A witch with a vendetta?
Elena heard the drag of the chains before it stepped into the doorway. Her breath, now trapped in her lungs, made her body ache, but she was frozen as she stared at the thing in front of her.
Towering near the ceiling was a man- or rather, what was left of one. His skin sagged under his outdated prison uniform. His limbs were elongated as if he’d been stretched.
Jaw slack and holes of black for eyes, just looking at him sent Elena’s heart racing and her palms sweating, but still, she couldn’t move.
The thing with chains at its feet, dragging a ball of iron, shuffled toward her.
Elena, still holding her breath, moved carefully to the side. Trying to put as much distance between herself and her captor as possible. Lifting her right foot, she stepped down.
Crunch.
Slowly looking down, her stomach churned as she lifted her foot from the brittle human skull. She gasped, and all at once, the room became a flutter of leather-winged movement.
Letting out a scream, she darted the only way she could.
The doorway.
“Nyuh!” She shoved through the thing leering down at her like a revolving door, slamming into the wall opposite, and took off running down the pitch-black corridor.
Dean and Sam froze mid-step as a scream pierced the air.
“I think she’s still alive.” Dean raised his brows.
“Ya think?”
Sam took out a canister of salt while Dean removed his gun from its holster, checking that there were plenty of iron bullets.
“I’ll go this way,” Dean pointed ahead with his gun, “you go the other way. Cover more ground. I imagine the thing wraps around full circle, but if it doesn’t, I’ll see you on the other side, Sammy.”
“See you on the other side.” Sam nodded and turned and then began walking in opposite directions.
Elena rounded a corner and stopped, gripping the wall as she tried to catch her breath and hold the stitch in her side. She looked over her shoulder, letting her eyes and ears search for any indication the bats or creature had followed her.
Nothing- not a sound.
Slight relief flooded her as she let herself rest against the wall, but turning to her right, she was met with gaping, hollowed-out eyes and a mouth filled with too many teeth moving toward her. As though about to eat her whole.
Elena screeched and fell backward, kicking out her legs.
“Hey!” A deep voice bellowed from around the corner.
The thing looked over as a gunshot echoed off the walls, ringing in Elena’s ears. She covered them and watched with a dropped jaw as the thing vanished into a misty cloud.
As she pulled herself up against the wall, her heart thundered in her chest as a man stepped around, gun raised, but it wasn’t fear that filled it.
It was utter relief.
“You alright?” He asked, brows drawn together as he looked around. As if trying to spot the creature.
Elena’s voice shook as she nodded. “Yeah,” she dusted her hands on her jeans, “yes,” she said more firmly.
Holstering his weapon, he offered his hand to her.
When she hesitated, he offered a broad grin. “I’m Dean. I’m gonna get you out of here.”
Elena let out a slow breath and nodded, taking his hand and letting him pull her close. She sucked in a soft sound as her body pressed against his, looking up at him as he frowned.
His thumb lightly ran across the dash of a cut on her forehead. “Don’t worry, you’re safe with me.”
She believed him.
“Look out!” Elena cried as the creature morphed behind Dean and wrapped a chain around his throat before yanking him backward against the stone wall.
“Son of a bitch!” Dean called out hoarsely, pressed flat against the stone wall. Elena could only watch in horror as the chain tightened with each passing second. “SAM!” He yelled as loud as he could.
“Oh my God,” Elena gasped.
Bonnie would know what to do, but Bonnie wasn’t there.
Lurching forward, she tried to dig her fingers under the chains. It was impossible to pull them away, but she could at least give him a little more breathing time until she could find another solution.
Elena looked into his eyes with her wild ones, but his stone calmness helped keep her grounded.
Footsteps sounded from the corner she’d run through moments ago, and she scrunched her eyes. Waiting for another chain to wrap around her own neck.
They would die here and leave nothing but skeletons like the one she’d stepped on.
“Dean!”
Elena gasped and looked over her shoulder at a man with shaggy brown hair holding a can of- was that salt?
“Close your eyes!” The man yelled, and she did as he flung salt across the space. The chain around Dean’s neck sizzled away, and he breathed in a lungful of air.
Elena stepped back, a new wave of relief flooding her.
“You good?” The one who must have been Sam, the one Dean called for, asked breathlessly.
“Yeah,” Dean said, rubbing his throat, “let’s find this sucker and torch it.”
“Torch what?” Elena asked with knitted brows.
Sam nodded and handed her a can of salt. “Here, if you see it, throw a bit of this. It’s a spirit that took you, a nasty one. We need to find his remains, salt them, and burn them.”
Elena nodded slowly, realizing they were hunters of sorts.
“There were skeletons in the room he took me to.” She offered, glancing over at Dean.
Dean raised his brows, a small smile quirking his lips. “How would you feel about leading us there?”
Elena swallowed back her fear and brought out the girl that faced down vampires.
“Let’s torch this sucker.”
Dean grinned and gestured his hand for her to lead the way, which she did. Elena guided them along the corridor she’d come from- it was a bit of a maze, but she eventually found where she remembered the bats spewing out. A few still hung from the ceiling in the hallway.
“Careful, bats.” She said, stepping over their droppings and peering around the corner and into the room where human remains littered the floor. “This is it.”
“Alright,” Dean said, “stand back.” He reached into the duffle, slung across Sam’s back, and took out a half-full bottle of lighter fluid while Sam liberally dusted the bones.
How often did they do this?
Elena kept at a safe distance as Dean doused the salted bones and set it ablaze.
Together, they watched the flames lick over the bones. Slowly turning them into nothing more than ash.
Leaning back against the wall, she let out a sigh.
Screw studying- after this, she was going to be sleeping her weekend away or getting plastered. One of the two.
Looking down, she watched her breath form a cloud before her.
“Dean?” She asked just as frigid chains wrapped around her neck and torso, pulling her against the wall and dragging her down the hallway as if she were a rag-doll.
Elena tried to let out a scream, but nothing came out.
Panic set in as she couldn’t inhale.
Struggling against the chains, she tried to put her fingers between the links against her throat, but more leaked from the wall and took hold of her wrists.
Pinning them to her sides.
Dean raced through the corridor, calling over his shoulder. “Find it and burn it back to Hell! He was wearing a prison uniform- he’s gotta be here somewhere!” He growled, sliding to a stop when he saw the girl against the wall.
Her lips were already blue, and she wasn’t squirming nearly as much as he’d have wanted.
“Keep fighting,” he said desperately and jammed his fingers under the, “I’m here. I’ve got you. Don’t give in.”
Dean gritted his teeth as the chain tried to cut through his fingers, cutting the blood flow completely as he fought against the tightening links.
“What’s your name?” He asked, trying to keep the light from leaving her eyes.
“Elena…” she rasped, and Dean smiled.
“Elena, I’m going to get you out of this, okay? Just keep breathing.”
Dean met her eyes, but behind them wasn’t the fear he’d expected. It was determination- resilience. Suddenly he knew if anyone could survive this, it was her.
A gut feeling, he supposed.
Then, Elena took in a full breath of air and fell forward into his arms. He pulled her closer, checking her neck for any injuries as she panted.
“He did it,” he smiled, “got the son of a bitch.”
Elena was next to crawl through the hole in the wall and back into the library. She took Sam’s hand as Dean lifted her legs so she didn’t scrape them against the splintered wood.
Sighing, she ran her fingers through her dusty hair.
“I need coffee.”
Dean chuckled as he crawled through. “You’re taking this taken by a ghost thing pretty well.”
Elena smiled over at him. “What can I say?” She shrugged, biting her lip. “Not my first rodeo.”
A flush trailed her body as Dean’s eyes scanned her over. Swallowing hard, heart pounding, she looked at the gaping hole in the wall.
“What about all that?” She asked.
Sam nodded, picking up an armful of books. “We cover it with books and hope no one notices.”
Pursing her lips, Elena nodded and got to work. She would hand stacks of books to Dean, who stood on the ladder.
It seemed to take ages before they stepped back to admire their handiwork. Elena had to admit, no one would notice unless they removed the books, and even then who would they blame?
“Thank you,” she nodded at them both, “for saving me.”
Dean smirked. “How about I get you that cup of coffee?”
Another blush dusted her cheeks, and she blinked, nodding.
“And that’s my cue.” Sam shook his head with a smile, leaving the library as quickly as he could.
“Pie and coffee for breakfast?” Elena smiled from the opposite side of the table from Dean.
Dean grinned as he shoveled in another bite. “Don’t knock it til you try it.” He winked.
Rolling her eyes, she smiled, took her fork for her eggs, and reached forward, stabbing a bit of his pie.
Licking it off with a crooked smile.
Dean watched with a clenched jaw. “I’d be really upset right now if that wasn’t so hot.”
With a laugh, she sipped her coffee. “Hm, I suppose you’ll be leaving soon?”
Nodding slowly, he watched her.
“Yeah, we have to hit the road. Get on another case…” he paused and swallowed before swiftly changing the subject, “when you said this wasn’t your first rodeo.”
“My best friend is a witch.” She smiled. The less she revealed, the better, no matter how good his intentions seemed.
“Ah,” Dean nodded knowingly, “that ghost picked the wrong college girl to mess with.” He chuckled.
Elena matched his grin and laughed. “I’d like to think that, but if it weren’t for you and your brother, I’d be another skeleton in the walls.” She shuddered, and he reached forward, taking her hand in his as if on instinct.
“I gotta go,” Dean said, a bit under his breath, “but…” he reached for a pen in his pocket, took a napkin from the stand, and wrote his name and a phone number. “If you ever find yourself in trouble, I’ll be here.”
Elena smiled sheepishly. “I hope my run-in with dark spirits will be at a minimum.”
With a crooked grin, he nodded. “Then I guess I’ll just have to find a reason.”
The blush from earlier reached her cheeks again, glancing up at him. Gazing into his dazzling green eyes.
“I’ll see you when you find one then…” She said, voice a little lower as her heart thudded a bit harder against her ribcage.
With his smile still in place, he stood and left a tip on the table.
“Take care, Elena.”
Offering a soft smile, she watched him go- letting out a breath as she looked out the window. Watching him saunter to a black Impala, where Sam sat patiently in the passenger seat.
Dean slid into the driver’s seat and sighed, looking through the windshield and at Elena in the window.
“Figured you’d stay longer.” Sam rose a brow, glancing over at his brother.
Dean slowly shook his head.
“No.” He murmured and backed up to pull out onto the road. “She’s not a one-and-done.”
Turning up the radio, he accelerated away from Whitmore before he could find enough sense to change his mind.
“Turns out the guy was an escaped convict from back in the day. He must have hidden in the library walls from the cops, but he couldn’t find another way out when he did and died there.”
Sam relayed, but Dean didn’t respond, letting Led Zeppelin drown out the desire to turn back.
Maybe one day he would.