The stories of Elenna Fee

THEN

Lenna went back to the motel room while the Taxi drove off. She was about to unlock the door, but before she could push it open, it got pulled open from the inside.

“Jesus, Lennie where the frakk have you been? I came back from Trixie’s place and you were gone. I thought you were safe geeking out here in the room, but no.” Rome pulled the surprised Lenna in a bone-crushing hug.

“Dude... can’t... breathe... need... air...”

Rome let her go but just enough to look at her closely.

“Stop staring at me, I’m fine, you are not the only one who has a little fun from time to time. I went to the bar a couple of blocks down the street. The bartender was cute and we had a little thing going on—“

“A little thing?!”

“He wasn’t bad, I had better guys before but he wasn’t bad.” Lenna grinned. She was a bit tipsy but not so much that she didn’t know what she was doing.

“Okay, okay, whatever, I don’t wanna know the details. Next time, leave a note. I thought you were kidnapped by…something.”

“Oh Rome do you really thing they would kidnap me? I would be far too annoying.”

“Exactly. You’d be dead before they left the room with you.”

Lenna rolled her eyes. “Fine next time I’ll leave a note. Now can I go and shower off the grease of Tom?”

Rome looked actually a bit disgusted, which made Lenna smile.
Weird how much I enjoy the company of the twins, well one of them. Before I met them no one cared when I was out.

...

NOW

They needed some supplies, like new clothes and shoes, so Rome and Lenna went shopping in a small shopping mall. The day ended in a coffee shop.

“I’m telling you, Rome, these are nothing more than some missing people, yeah okay here are more missing people than anywhere else but they just left, nothing supernatural is going on here.”

Lenna sounded annoyed. She appreciated that Rome started to look for jobs but his definition of a job wasn’t hers.

“Look, Lennie, they’ve disappeared without any trace. They haven’t been found yet, and, check it, their cars disappeared, too.” Rome sounded desperate, maybe because Raws was gone since 3 weeks and in this time he hadn’t contacted them. Rome always got nervous when this happened. Lenna knew that after 5 month with the boys. But just because he was worried about his retarded (a word she would never use in front of them) brother didn’t mean she would run after hideous jobs.

“Gee, Rome I’m not investigating stupid human missing cases. They run away from the sh*t hole and who can blame them?” Lenna was about to lose her temper, and he caught that:

“Fine.”

“I’m going back to the motel, you wanna drive with me back or do you wanna stay here and stare at the girl in the Victoria’s Secret’s shop?” Lenna was already out of the coffee shop and on her way to escalator. Rome seemed to be unsure, he checked out the girls in the shop hoping to get a glimpse of the girls in it but he wasn’t lucky. He bought two more coffees and followed Lenna, just minutes after Lenna. Rome thought Lenna would wait at the bottom of the escalator but she wasn’t there. So he thought she went outside. The Stang was still standing in the same spot, but there was no sign of Lenna.

“Elenna?” Rome looked around to see where the girl was hiding but he didn’t found her. Some kids were standing not far from him.

“Hey guys, have you seen a short brunette? She was wearing jeans and a white shirt with This is my zombie-killing shirt on it?”

“Dude, can’t you see that we’re busy?” said one of them before he turned back to his girlfriend. It looked like he was eating her face.

Rome walked back to the Stang. It looked normal, until he saw the key in the driver’s side door. That was wrong. Lenna would never leave the key with the Stang and then go. She had only just started to leave the keys in the ignition if he was waiting in the car.
It was a sunny day, in a frigging mall parking lot, full of teenagers and other weirdos Lenna didn’t even like parking her boy next to them. Why would she leave? This moment Rome knew something was off. He ran around the parking lot, yelling for his friend:

“Lenna? Lenna! Come on, this isn’t even funny. ELENNA!?”

For a moment Rome considered to go to the police.

Frak, bad idea, still a fugitive. I can’t risk getting caught. But for Elenna? Okay, nothing drastic yet, take a deep breath, Rome! How can I find Elenna if no one even saw her?

Rome spotted a camera monitoring the parking lot.

“Yes!”

He unlocked the Stang and, sliding into the driver’s seat, thought, Sorry Lennie, I know you hate it when I drive, but this is important. Something is wrong.
He drove back to the Motel, making sure he wasn’t driving too fast. He really didn’t need the attention of the police now. Not when he planned to do something illegal.
Back at the motel room Rome pulled his laptop on his lap and went to work hacking into the security system of the mall to get the footage of the cameras…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lenna stepped out of the coffee shop; she didn’t feel like waiting for Rome. Not that she was pissed at Rome, but she was in a way pissed that there was no hunt here. She had hoped there was. It was a week since their last hunt and she had looked pretty stupid in this hunt…
It was a simple hunt, just a ghost. Rome was distracting the ghost while she was digging up the grave outside, but the stupid ghost realized what she was doing and attacked her. She ended up in a tree and needed Rome’s help to get out of it, not to mention that she was just wearing underwear. The ghost thought it was funny to take her clothes. Rome was still laughing hours after he burned the remains.

Lenna put the car key in the Mustang’s door, she was lost in thought when she felt someone close behind her, but before she could turn around someone knocked her out.
She woke up a couple of minutes later, in the back of a car. Her hands were tied together behind her back and she was blindfolded. The car was moving. She tried to speak but she couldn’t.

What the hell is going on? Rome, it would be really handy if you could turn on your ESP and find me right now, I’m in trouble.

Lenna tried to remember the way they drove but the knock over her head was worse than she hoped. She managed to sit up. When the car stopped Lenna fell over which made her hit her head another time. The trunk opened and Lenna got roughly pulled out of the car.
Lenna tried to speak but it was just muffled sound that came out of her, even so she wanted to say Who are you? She was frustrated and scared and angry that this made her cry. What kind of hunter started crying when captured?

The kidnapper pulled her up by her hair and dragged her from the colder outside into a warm moist room. It smelled like dirt and blood. Lenna got pushed into a cage. It was not a large cage, she couldn’t stand in it and it wasn’t as long as she is either. As it seemed a second person pulled her to the other side of the cage while the door was closed. Just before they left the room in which the cage was. Lenna took a couple of deep breath to calm herself down.

Okay think, Lenna, make a plan. First get my hands free, get the blindfold off and get the gag off. Then find out where I am and get out. Okay let’s see how I can get rid of the bonds.

Lenna fought against the ties on her back, it cut in her wrist. She seemed to be tied with a wire strap, no knots to untie. She needed something to cut it. But first she needed her hands in front of her. With some struggling and pain she managed to climb through her tight hands to get them in front of her. That allowed her to take off the gag and the blindfold. It was more or less dark in here, so she still couldn’t see very much.

“Oh that is not good. I’m in big trouble this time.” Lenna leaned her aching head against the cold metal bar. She knew it was foolish but she closed her eyes. She felt dizzy and her head was killing her. As suddenly a thought popped in her head. My knife! Lenna checked her ankle for the small hidden silver knife. “sh*t, they took it.”

Lenna leaned back against the cool metal. “Rome this time I really, really need you.”

Lenna hugged her knees; she didn’t want to but not to know what was going on scared the crap out of her. She turned 19 a couple of weeks ago and was hunter, but right now she felt like a lost little girl. This feeling wasn’t completely wrong the last thing she remembered was being with Rome in the mall, so she did get lost like a little girl. Silent tears were running down her cheeks. Lenna was cold, her head hurts, she was scared and she didn’t know what was going to happen with her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rome had accessed the past hour of the security footage from the parking lot and the mall, but found nothing anywhere. Lenna wasn’t on a single frame.

“Frakking hell, where is she? How can she not be on the videos? One of the cameras must have caught her, when she left the… The escalator’s here, and the door right to where we parked the Stang… So I should see something right… here. Frakk!”

Rome saw Lenna going on the escalator but that was it. Apparently, not all the security cameras were working, or some of them were just dummies.

“Why would they have freaking cameras if they’re not even freaking real?”

Rome looked frustrated at the screen before slamming the lid down on the laptop and throwing it on the bed. His toys were letting him down and it was really pissing him off.

“Maybe I should go back to mall and ask around; maybe there I’ll find her.”

Rome was helpless. He had no idea how to find Elenna.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lenna had no idea how long she was here, but she knew it was some hours, and it was probably getting to be night outside. It took some time for her eyes to become accustomed to seeing in the dark room. She couldn’t see much, but it was enough to know that she was in some kind of barn and there were several cages like the one she was in. There was just one door—at least she just saw one door—and no windows. No light entered through cracks in the walls or ceiling. Her cage had no lock she could find to pick, and she didn’t have anything to pick it with anyway. It looked like the door was opened by an electrical mechanism from a panel on the far wall. She couldn’t find anything to untie her hands with, which didn’t made it any easier to be locked up.

“Oh, Rome, do you wonder where I am? Maybe they were stupid enough and left my phone on and Rome is tracking the GPS in it. No, he would first have called it and they would have turned it off and the GPS can’t be tracked when it is off.”

Lenna felt lost and it was cold. She realized for the first time that she was half-naked. Her shoes, socks, jeans, and jacket were gone, leaving her shivering in just her t-shirt and underwear. Wisconsin wasn’t a state in which you want to be locked in a barn in winter without hardly any clothes.

Suddenly bright light was turned on; it was so bright that it hurt Lenna’s eyes.

“What the hell do you want from me?”

“Shut up, witch!” The male voice sounded harsh and angry, and the cage shook violently as someone kicked at it.

Lenna thought she misheard him. Why should he call her a witch? First, she wasn’t a witch, and second, even if he knew about her… abilities, well, it didn’t make it witchcraft.

“Why am I here?” Lenna tried to sound brave, but she wasn’t sure that her voice was stable and fearless.

“You are just like the other witches. And you will die like all of them.”

Now her eyes became accustomed to the light, and she looked around her and saw two or three (it was hard to tell) mangled bodies in various horrible positions around the room. She gasped and tasted vomit in her mouth.

“I am not a witch!” she shouted when she regained her composure. “I’ve never been in this town before—whatever you think I did, it wasn’t me! I swear! Do you hear me?” As she stared at the horrible sights surrounding her, she noticed that the barn was much larger then she had previously thought. It looked like some kind of medieval torture chamber, with a few instruments she recognized from movies and books and some she didn’t want to guess at how they worked. This was more and more beginning to look really bad.

“I can smell a witch from a mile away, and you stink like a powerful witch. You will suffer; I know what you witches do.”

He now went to the control panel and punched a few buttons. The room around her creaked and groaned, and the cage she was in began to rumble and move. Something lifted it from above, and crouching in the cage she was lifted across the ground over to a large hold in the floor. It was full of water.

Ice cold water, she realized as she was lowered down into it. She screamed as the cage lowered further into the water. For a moment, there was an inch of air above her, and she glued her lips to the top of the cage to try to suck in more air, but then the machine jerked again and she was fully submerged. She thrashed and kicked and pounded on the bars, screaming as what little air she had left in her lungs escaped, but the cage didn’t budge, and she only succeeded in bruising herself.

Just as black spots began to swim before her vision and she began to think all hope was lost, the crank above her groaned and the cage began to rise out of the water. She choked and spluttered for some time before her lungs were cleared to breathe, and she continued coughing even as the cage was settled once more on solid ground.

“That was just to show you how serious I am. I’ll be back, and next time, witch, you’ll wish I’d killed you quickly. I still might, if you’re willing to sell out the other members of your coven.”

Elenna coughed again, clearing the last of the water from her lungs. It was cold before that in the barn, now it was freezing. The room went dark again and the guy left.

Lenna was shivering. She felt her stomach twist from some of the water she’d accidentally swallowed—it tasted like moldy socks—but she kept it down, not knowing when she would next have a drink of water. Lenna curled up in a ball and tried to keep warm. After some time she started humming all kinds of songs. Rome would have been proud to hear what songs she was humming. She didn’t hum them on purpose she just felt alone and needed this little reminder that someone out there missed her and was looking for her.

~~~~~~~~

Rome was back at the mall and trying to find someone who had seen this girl:



Luckily he had taken a picture with his phone just a couple of days ago. But there was no luck, no one still at the mall had seen her. He went to the security of the mall as the man was locking up the doors. “Sir, I lost someone, my friend, and she—she’s diabetic and needs her insulin. I went home to see if she came back but she’s missing and no one’s seen her. I need to find her, her name is Elenna, she’s….yeah, okay, she’s actually my sister—my little sister. I promised our parents I’d look after her and I need to find her! Please.”

“Look, kid, she’s not in there, I can promise you that. If she’s been missing all day you should probably speak to the police.”

“But—“

“I’m sorry, son, but she must have left the mall, and I’m definitely not equipped to help in a missing person’s case. I can give you a ride to the police station, if you like?”

“Uh, no, no! I mean, uh, no, I think—I have a buddy who’s a cop, I’ll get in touch with him. Thank you, sir,” Rome said as he politely and quickly backed away from the doughnut-eating rent-a-cop.

What he was thinking was, sh*t. I can’t go to the police, can I?

No one had seen his sister—uh, Elenna. She had disappeared into thin air. But people don’t just disappear…other people stop looking for them. Rome sighed, his shoulders drooping. It was very quickly looking like there was only one option left to him. And it sucked out loud.

~~~~~~~~

It didn’t take Lenna long to dry herself:

“Wasser das hier ist, ich befehle dir verschwinde!”

But it did cost her a lot of her energy. It was worth it, though. Her few clothes were dry, which meant she was a bit warmer.

This game was getting old, they would let her sit in the cold and the dark, lying on painful metal bars which dug into her skin, still coughing wetly from the water, for a few long hours, until they would return suddenly and turn on the light, which blinded her and hurt her head. For the first time they opened the cage, pulled her out by her hair and threw her into the middle of the floor between two big guys. Seeing that she had now her hands in front of her and had removed the blindfold and gag, one guy cuffed her across the face and another kicked her in the back when she fell to the ground.

Before she could concentrate again through the pain, her wrists and ankles were being clamped in iron chains and tied to opposite ends of a long table. The wheel on one end of the table gave her a pretty good idea what she was in for.

“What did you do to her, witch?! Where is my family?” The guy turned the wheel a few screws, until her muscles were straining. She yelped.

“I don’t know! I don’t know your family! I’ve never been here before. You have the wrong witch. I’m not the one you are looking for. Let me go, please!” Lenna didn’t care that she sounded scared.

The man grinned horribly and turned the crank again. “Tell me!” He bellowed.

She felt something give in her shoulder, and Elenna screamed and started crying. “I don’t know! I can’t tell you anything! I don’t even know who you—“

“Stop lying!” He cranked the wheel again. “Where is my family?” Another turn. Her other shoulder was aching now, too, feeling like a rubber band straining to break. “I know you have them, along with the rest of your kind! What—“ crank “did—“ crank “you—“ crank “do?!”

The shoulder gave out with a disgusting pop, and Elenna’s vision started to go black. How were these guys expecting her to say anything through this amount of pain?
The next thing she was aware of was a splash of cold water, which made her yelp and gasp, and her involuntary jerk made something give out in her knee.

“Wake up, witch, I’m not finished with you! Next time, you’ll die if you don’t tell me where my family is. Do you hear me, witch?” He slapped her across the face for emphasis, but she barely felt it. She was presently loosed from the rack and thrown unceremoniously back into the cage, her hands still bound by that tiny annoying painful cable tie. The room went dark and Lenna was once again left alone in the cage. She could hardly move but she curled up as best she could and started sobbing.

I never thought I’d die alone in a dark scary barn. She took a deep breath then, and resolved herself: Fine, let’s give it a try and see if I can help Rome find me.

“Feuer, Erde, Wasser und Luft auf meinen Befehl vereint euch, lasst Rome wissen wo ich bin. Ich weiss nicht wie, aber ich befehle es!“

Lenna closed her eyes and just hoped that either way she first died or Rome would find her.

~~~~~~~~

Rome took a deep breath as his hands gripped the steering wheel. He had been sitting here in front of the station for nearly twenty minutes debating whether to go in and get the police involved on Elenna’s disappearance, and risk getting himself caught, or go at it alone and risk losing her. Of course it was no contest, but he offered plenty of excuses: it was just as likely she’d be lost permanently even if the chuckleheads in blue got in on the case—they hadn’t found any of the other missing persons yet—and then Elenna would still be missing and he would be in jail, unable to help her. Also, it was looking more and more like this simply wasn’t the police’s kind of gig. It was a job for a hunter.
But, still, what kind of hunter was he? Without Elenna, not much. And Rawson wasn’t around to help. Alone, he wasn’t much good.
So there really was only the one choice. These were just excuses. He had to get her back, even if the only way he ever spoke to her again was through a phone and a glass window pane while wearing an orange jumpsuit and ugly shoes.
He had just grabbed the door handle to let himself out and face the music when he felt really weird. The world spun and warped, and then there was a flash of bright white light, and then:

A van driving down a street. The van stopped in front of a farm. He saw Lenna in the barn, inside a cage, tied up and beat to crap. He saw the faces of her attackers, saw one of them slam a heavy boot into her back, and she screamed. A flash of red rage threatened to block out the vision, but then a sign appeared, and he saw the van’s licence plate. He heard her calling for him, pleading: “Rome, help me! Save me, Rome, please!” And then she was chanting in German, and then someone threw a bucket of water on her, and then with a great white flash of blinding light, the vision was gone.

“Lenna!”

Rome was breathing heavily; this was not like one of his normal visions. It didn’t hurt as much as normal, and this felt more like someone put it in his head. Someone like his little witch. He pulled his smartphone out—this puppy wasn’t even out on the market yet—and looked up the name of the farm on his GPS. It wasn’t more than twenty miles away. He put the Stang back in gear and drove as fast as he could, not caring if the police saw him now. He knew he had to hurry. His stomach tightened at the thought of her hurt until he felt ready to throw up, and his vision went red around the edges and stayed that way. Also, it wasn’t likely he’d be getting a repeat performance of the vision, as Lenna probably couldn’t use her powers like that again.
He recognized the van from his vision, confirming he was at the right place when he pulled up to the farm. The gravel flew out in all directions when Rome screeched the Stang to a halt in front of the place. Rome took his .50 caliber Desert Eagle, pocketed an extra magazine, and exited the car in record time.
He didn’t wait for anyone to come out and greet him: Rome marched with bloody purpose into the farmhouse adjacent to the barn.

“Who the hell are you?” The man didn’t look to happy to see him.

“You have someone who’s very important to me. Where is the girl?”

“There is no girl!”

“Stop messing around!” Rome bellowed, cocking the gun and advancing on the man homicidally. “I want to know where she is NOW, or you’re gonna be picking up your teeth off the floor with your elbows because I’m gonna shoot your frakking hands off!”

The man grinned evilly, psychotically. Rome noticed that the man’s knuckles had blood on them.

“Your friend is no girl, son, we did you a favor. She was a witch, a practitioner of dark arts and a menace to society. She got what she deserved.”

At the man’s use of the past tense, Rome lost his temper and shot him in the knee. The size of the bullet practically tore the limb in half.

“Where is she?” He shrieked. His voice cracked a little, and he stepped over the man, shoving the gun in his face. “What did you do to her?”

“She’s dead! I killed her myself, the little sorceress! And she suffered for that last little spell!”

Rome’s face went stony. He shot the man in the other knee. A little blood splattered on his shirt. He didn’t care. He turned and left the man wallowing in his misery and blood and headed for the barn.

“Hey!” There was a man waiting for him at the door of the barn, holding a shotgun.

Rome shot first and asked questions later. Like, after the man didn’t have much of his arm left.
He grabbed the man by his shirt collar and dragged him to his knees, holding the barrel of his gun against the guy’s chin. “Where is she? And no more freaking games, or you’ll end up like Special Olympics back there. And how many more of you douchebags are there?”

Lucky for him, the guy caved immediately. “She’s in the barn.”

Rome forgot he had asked a second question, forgot that he had just shot and probably sentenced to death two people, forgot that there was anything else in the world except for this barn, and, dropping the guy to the dirt, rushed inside.

Rome shot the lock off the barn entered the bar in Marine mode, gun drawn, safety off, in case of any other attackers, although he had only seen two in his vision. He wasn’t trying to be quiet, hoping to draw the scumbags out, but nothing else greeted him except a horrific stench and an even more appalling sight. When he found a lightswitch and flipped it on, he wished he hadn’t, because the inside of this barn looked like a torture chamber straight out of a movie.
And in the middle of the room rested a cage, and in that cage lay Elenna, just as he had seen her in his vision. Or maybe even worse. The sight of her like that filled him at once with rage and terror.

He rushed to the cage to get a look at her. She was breathing—but barely. She was also soaking wet, and her clothes were gone. Her wrists were bloody from a strip tie and too much rough handling, and her limbs lay awkwardly. She was covered in bruises. Rome took a knee at the cage.

“Lennie? sh*t, Lenna, baby, open your eyes, you with me?”

“Rome?” her voice was faint.

“Hang tight, chica, I’m gonna get you out of there,” he said, standing and looking around frantically.

“Rome!” Elenna’s body made a funny jerk as she appeared to try to sit up, but with her hands tied and her body in its condition, she only managed to cause herself more pain. “Rome, don’t go!” she was bawling openly.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, chica! Easy, easy, don’t move. Don’t move, I’m not going anywhere, kiddo, I swear.” He stuck his finger through the cage and touched her hand. Through the bars, her fingers hooked into his, and she bit her lip apprehensively. “Okay? I’ll be right back, chica, easy.” He considered asking her if she knew where the release button was before he spotted it himself, not that he was even entirely sure she’d be able to give him a coherent answer anyway. He ran across the room towards it before she could freak out again, or his heart had time to break.

He unlocked the cage via the control panel and sprinted immediately back to her, wrenching the door open and crawling inside next to her, afraid to move her, almost afraid to touch her, although he touched her hair and rested his hand on her arm where it looked like it wasn’t hurt.

Elenna smiled. The smile worried Rome, because she didn’t look all there. “Rome, it worked. You’re here, you found me. You got my message.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure thing, chica, loud and clear. Now talk to me, where you hurt? How bad?”

Elenna’s eyes focused briefly, and she frowned in thought. Then her frown deepened and tears began to stream down her face. She looked like she wanted to cry loudly or throw a fit, and the only thing stopping her was that she lacked the strength. “Everywhere,” she sobbed.

“Okay, okay, easy, easy, sorry, I gotcha, okay? Just take it easy, all right? Rest for me, okay? I gotcha.”

Elenna was suddenly terrified again, and shook her head. “Rome, what if they come back?” She struggled against the strip tie on her wrists, and then grunted in frustration. “Let me go, Rome! Please, help me! You’ve gotta let me go, why won’t you let me go?”

“Whoa, whoa, easy, easy!” If she was moving this much, she had to be okay, so Rome flicked out his boot knife and cut the tie. “Easy, chica, easy,” he told her, and, ever so gently, scooped her up and held her tightly, pinning her against his chest to keep her from hurting herself. “Okay, okay, no moving, I gotcha, okay. I got the bad guys, it’s okay. We’re okay. I gotcha. Yeah?”

Elenna’s fingers grabbed hold of his shirt in a deathgrip, but otherwise she stilled, and nodded.

“Promise?” she sniffed.

“Yeah, Lennie, duh, chica. Let’s go, baby, we’re moving out.”

Still holding Lenna with one hand, Rome located his gun and stuck it in the waistband of his jeans—a rookie move—but he hadn’t had time to grab a holster and he certainly wasn’t leaving his gun behind, or leaving her alone to get one. He took off his jacket, and although it wasn’t much, wrapped it around her. Briefly he got a notion of how badly she was hurt, as the joints in her shoulders caved weirdly. Both of them looked dislocated, which was disgusting, and had to be fixed sooner rather than later. But he was going to get her to the car first.
Lifting her elicited another whimper, more because she didn’t have the strength to scream again and less that she was trying to be brave. Then her eyes closed and her head rolled limp against his shoulder.

“Rome, I’m fine,” she insisted sleepily. Her voice was weak and broken, and he was pretty sure she was still crying, judging by the wet patch forming on his t-shirt. She was shivering and holding on to him as if she wanted to make sure he wasn’t leaving her. “I can walk.”

“Yeah, right, chica. You looked in a mirror lately, kid? Because you look like Jiminy Cricket could blow you down by whistling. You look awful.”

“Rome, you said you don’t like Disney movies.”

“Yeah. Um, shut up. Let’s go. Close your eyes.”

She didn’t listen to him, unfortunately, so when they walked by the bodies—they were bodies now, nobody lasted long with a holes in them that size—she gasped and lifted her head.

“Holy sh*t, Rome, gross! Did you do this?”

“Oh. Uh, yeah, I guess so. Sorry? Except I’m not really sorry—they were major douche silos that deserved worse, and…I guess I’ve done worse to better people, so…” He got a faraway look in his eyes, though from guilt or something else, Elenna couldn’t tell.

“It’s okay, Rome,” she whispered, resting her head against his neck again. “Take me home. You don’t even have to buy me dinner first.” Lenna forced a smile, but between the dirt, blood and bruises on her face, and the white tear-marks carved into her features, she didn’t look much better for it.

But Rome laughed at her attempted joke. “Consider it done. Room service, champagne, mirrors on the ceiling.”

“Ugh. I think those are stupid.”

“What? No, way, it’s great for when she’s on top—“

“Dude,” Lenna groaned, and Rome laughed.

“Okay, okay, sorry.” Rome grinned. “Rest now, we’ll get you home. Everything’ll be better when you wake up now, I promise.”

“You won’t go away with Trixie again? You’ll be there when I wake up?”

“Scout’s honor.”

“I bet you never were a boy scout.”

“And you’d be absolutely right. Just shut up, okay, and stop finding my plot holes. I promise I’ll be there. It’s probably gonna take me twenty million hours to put you back together anyway. I think both of your shoulders are dislocated, and your knee’s all swollen. What did they want from you, anyway?”

“They were witch hunters. Do you know what they did to witches two hundred years ago?”

“I’m trying not to think about it, Lennie.”

Elenna sound half asleep. “Don’t call me Lennie, I’m not a toddler. Anyway they wanted to know the other names of my coven. Wait I’m hanging out with you, does this mean we are one coven?”

“I haven’t even given you the good stuff yet, Lennie, and already you sound stoned out of your gourd. This is gonna go well.”

“He thought I killed his family, Rome. He was just protecting his own.”

“And so am I.”

Rome eased Elenna into the backseat of the Mustang and wrapped her in a blanket. Elenna looked exhausted and seemed glad to finally be safe.

“Geez, chica, you’re really cold. I think you need—“

“Don’t try it.”

“Yeah, sure,” Rome snapped back. “You can sit here and be a prude or I can keep you from freezing to death.” Without waiting for any further protest, Rome reached beneath the blanket and, as gingerly as possible, cut her remaining clothes off. They were sopping wet and smelled funny, so he let them drop outside the Stang. Then he grabbed the first aid kit from the glove compartment, and placed two extra-strength painkillers on her tongue, followed by a sip of water. She coughed a bit on it, and her cough was thick and wet, deep in her chest. It didn’t take a huge leap to assume she’d gotten water in her lungs.
This was looking worse all the time.

They made it back to the hotel in record time. Elenna was shivering and barely coherent. “Don’t go away; promise me not to leave me alone. Not a second!” she cried, looking really scared but her eyes out of focus.

“No worries, I’m not going anywhere chica,” Rome smiled at his friend as he felt along her bare shoulders, bracing himself for what he had to do.

They did have some morphine, and it was probably better to have her out of it, but apparently Elenna also had a fear of needles he had been unaware of until she shrieked at the sight of him advancing with it.

“No! No, I’m telling you, I didn’t hurt your family! Leave me alone!”

“What?” Rome looked confused and hurt, and also every time she struggled or moved, the blankets moved aside and, well, it was just awkward seeing Elenna like that. “Easy, Lennie, it’s me, it’s Rome.” He put the needle behind his back, feeling like a dick, and advanced again as she relaxed. “Hey, look at that, Elenna, The Little Mermaid is on TV,” he lied, and before she could realize what he had done, he thrust the needle into her arm, depressed the plunger, and removed it.

She began to relax presently, enough that he was able to pop her shoulders back into place with only tears instead of screams, and iced her knee and was able to guide it back into place as well. Her wrists he bathed in warm water and wrapped in bandages slathered in antiseptic cream, and he pumped her full of antibiotics and hot tea as long as she remained conscious. When she was finally sleeping, covered in an electric blanket and bandaged and cared for in every possible way, Rome settled down next to her and resigned himself to a night of sleepless TV watching.

~~~~~~~~

A few days later the two of them were sitting in the Stang on the way out of town.

“If you ever tell anyone how scared I was acting, I’m gonna kill you.”

Rome grinned. “Aww, come on, that needle bit was priceless. You could have warned me you were scared of something so stupid as needles when you, I dunno, fight monsters for a living? How the hell was I supposed to know?”

Lenna looked at him and smiled back.

“Also: Dude, I can’t believe you lost me in a mall. Like a frigging five year old girl.”

“Tell me about it, infant. Next time we’re in a mall I’ll have to put you on one of those child leashes.”

Rome was laughing as they drove west into the sunset, Elenna joining him after she landed a solid punch in his arm.


Spell translation
"The water that is here, I command you to disappear!"
"Fire, earth, water and air meld together on my orders, let Rome know where I am. I don’t know how, but I command it!"

((This little background event is produced with the lovely Maeglin we had a lot of fun and I would totally torture Elenna again if that means I could have so much fun with Maeglin ))

Lenna was lying on one of the two beds. Raws was only God knew were and Rome was out chasing some girls. They were together at a bar, but Lenna got bored and had left earlier. She was reading for some time but she got tired and started to worry a bit about Rome, he tend to get himself into trouble. There was a crack in the ceiling above her bed. When she moved her head from one side to the other the like seems to turn the crack into a little snake sliding across the ceiling. Back and forth, back and forth...

Back and forth, the long flower was seesawing next to her. It was all so peaceful, the sun was shining warm in the garden and she was wearing...

“What?!”

Lenna looked down at herself seeing the wedding dress, but it felt weirdly right. She was a real bride. Someone was leading her down the aisle she couldn’t see who it was but she knew it was okay. But then there was a sudden moment of panic. She didn’t know anyone of the guest where are all her friends. Her steps became slower until she stop that was when something pink caught her eye. There she was her big Barbie sister. Georgie seemed to be the MOH. How come she knew words like MOH, weird she had a maid of honor, she was a bride. There next to Georgie was Aly in dark red and Morrigan in purple. They were her bridesmaids and more than that there he was her groom. A beautiful smile appeared on her face. This was what she always wanted, a normal live, a family, love.
You say the bride remembers her wedding day like through a veil, everything was a bit blurry but Lenna didn’t thought that all she would remember was her smiling and being really happy. She couldn’t remember what happened at the ceremony, the vows or anything. She didn’t remember the dinner, the toast of the maid of honor or the best man. And then she was in the arms of her Mr. Right, they were having their first dance. She was in his arms, this strong arms and she knew she could trust him forever. She knew he had her back, would always take care of her. She felt safe, and warm in his arms. The party was not less blurry as the ceremony. The next thing she clearly remembered was sitting in a car it was a pretty blue 911 Porsche convertible. She smelled something familiar just for a moment, but she knew it was a good smell something she knew so well but just couldn’t point a finger on what it was. Her friends were laughing and smiling as the newlyweds drove off in the sunset.

Lenna heard the softly purring of an engine, she felt the vibration of a car.

“Rise and shiny chica, it’s about time that you wake up. We had to leave, there were some… complications.”

Lenna looked sleepy at Rome.

“Did her boyfriend show up?”

“Something like that.”

Lenna grinned at Rome when she moved closer to Rome to lean against his shoulder to drift back into this wonderful dream.

“One day you find the right girl, Rome one day.”

Lenna fell back asleep, knowing she was safe. Rome looked at her.

“They're all either married, or want to marry me," he grumbled. "Thanks for nothing, God!”

Rome pulled the blanket more over his younger friend.

Dear diary                                                                  7th October 2005
I can't believe I really freaked out Georgie when I played hide and seek with her in the mall. She can be so overprotective, which is kind of cute. Well I say this now, after that it pushed me over the edge and made me run away. Stupid me. I know I should never doubt how much I can trust and count on Rome. It is funny he, Georgie and me are like the three musketeers. Okay no not really Rome and Georgie probable end up married one day. But he and me are best friends, no matter what or where or how he and Georgie are doing.

Lenna lost the thought and started drawing.

February 1989

“Okay, okay Chris I see why a three year old shouldn’t play with your big books.” Lorelai looked guilty at her husband.

They were on one of their family trips; the kind of saving people, hunting things, the family business. Christopher and Lorelai Fee were not the normal parents you know from next door. Christopher is a Reverend and Lorelai is a stayed at home mom, well she is now she does have a PhD in European folklore and myth. Together they are the Fees often known as the Fairys, they left Germany a long time ago to study in the States and they never went back. They have two lives one most people see and one just a few see. In their daytime life they are Reverend Fee and his wife Lorelai, but at night they are hunting well the best explanation is your nightmares, every monster you can thing of they hunt and kill, but lately they specialised in demons and European pagan gods. But this is not everything Lorelai and Christopher are. They are also parents of Nicklaas Jensen and Elenna Abigail Fee. Nicklaas is seven and Elenna is three. They are both sometimes too smart for their own good, Nicklaas found out about his parents night job three years ago when his little sister was born. He promised his parents never to tell her that their parents are heroes and so far he had kept this promise. But Elle, how he called her was crazy smart, and she finally learnt to say the letter ‘g’ which made it so much easier to understand her. She already had found her love to books, which cause their trip to the hospital.

“Mister and Misses Fee you daughter has a mild concussion and she should stay overnight, the only problem is that our hospital is fully booked but if you agree Elenna would stay with an older girl in one room to keep an eye on her. As soon there is any change in her condition we will phone you.” The pediatrician explained.

“Well if you say it is necessary, then I think it will be the best, I will explain Elle that she has to stay here.” Christopher kissed his wife on the cheek, she felt responsible for the accident. Even though Elle couldn’t read yet she liked to look at the books. She said they are her friends, and when Lorelai and Christopher were on a hunting trip and the kids stayed at home with a babysitter Elle always slept in her father’s study on the huge pillow between piles of books. But this time one of the books fell on her head, a book that had the size of a huge sidewalk flagstone.

“Buttercup,” which was Christopher’s nickname for his daughter, “You have a booboo so you stay here with all the nice doctors and nurses. Mami and Papi will be at the motel just around the corner. We will come in the morning and pick you up and then we go and visit a big library in the next town. Okay?”

“You come back?”

“”Yes of course Buttercup. You will be fine, I’ll promise.”

Elle nodded and felt sleepy from the medication she got. Christopher wrapped her in her Tinker Bell blanket, kissed her on the forehead. She fell asleep while Christopher left the room. He smiled to the other girl and wished her a good night.

“Don’t worry, we will give you a beeper and if anything is you will be contacted through it.” The nurse was sure it would be fine, even though they had a lot of patients they all seemed okay. But shortly after the Fees had left it got busy, emergencies, and queries never ended. Elle woke up very late at night, she wondered where she was when she saw the girl next to her. She was shaking, her eyes were white and there was foam at her mouth. Elle knew something was wrong, she was terrified, but still sleepy from the medication. She stood up in her bed, it had bars like a baby bed, and she couldn’t get out of her bed. Or reach through the bars the call button.

“Help!” But her voice was hoarse from the medication and the pain. She felt dizzy. She shouted again and again for help but no one came. At some point she fell asleep exhausted. The girl next to her had stopped moving. Elle woke up again when people were in her room, the cover of the other bed where pulled over something. It looked a lot like when one of her dolls was under her cover at home. Two nurses pushed the bed out of the room. While her doctor was standing next to her bed.

“Hey, did you have a nightmare?”

“The girl, she is sick.”

“There was no girl, Elenna.”

“What?” Horror was written all over Elle’s little face. Could it be that she just imagined the girl?

“Doctor? I have the medication for the girl.” The nurse came back in and had a syringe on a tray.

“No I’m good, not sick.” Elle remember that the other girl got an injection just before she was told to sleep.

“Nurse, please hold down the child.”

“Nooooo.” But to late Elle had gotten the injection, the sleepiness came instantly. Her eyes grew heavy and she fell asleep. The last thought she had was that she doesn’t wanna get white eyes, shake and spits bubbles like when she had given Nick soap to eat.

The next morning Lorelai came smiling in her daughter’s room. Elle was crying and a wreck. “Home, Mami! Bitte!” Lorelai was confused but signed all papers and took her baby home. Elenna never recovered, in her eyes doctors were dangerous and hospitals horror-houses.

2nd December 2005

I don't know what is wrong with me, but I act very weird. I even checked if I'm possesed by a demon, ghost or if i'm under the spell of a witch but nothing. I seem completely normal, but still I giggle sometimes for no reason. Have the urge to hide behind Rome or Georgie. And the worst I try to make the to angry but for some reason they are not seeing that something is wrong with me. I mean yes my hands are pretty much healed and physically seen to I look healthy and fine, but I feel funny. Maybe I'm finally losing my mind?

Lenna starred into the distance. As usual when she was subconsciously drawing in her journal.

((This adventure is written with the help of Maeglin it was fun ))


“Rome, I’ve got a request.”

“What is it?” Rome looked up from his laptop. He was… well doing something Lenna didn’t understand at all and it didn’t include homepages with pictures of naked women.

“Well there is this store in town, and I really would like to go.” Lenna was holding her right arm at her elbow with her left hand. She actually looked rather shy, which she hadn’t since a very long time when she was alone with her, as she was right now. Richard was off to a hunt or something like this and Georgie needed to do some serious shopping and she didn’t need any distraction. Apparently Lenna and Rome were lucky that she had left them a note, when she left during the night.

"Umm. Okay? You need me to give you some cash?" This was kind of an awkward scenario. Rome had really hoped to be left alone with his laptop today.

“No actually I was hoping you would tag along.” Lenna looked at Rome hoping. “We don’t get a lot quiet days and your laptop porn will be there later tonight.”

Rome rolled his eyes and snapped his laptop shut. "FINE," he sighed. It was kind of pathetic how he wasn't able to deny her anything. She was likely to get spoiled.

Lenna smiled happily. “It will be less exhausting like Georgie’s shopping trips. I promise. It will be like getting you new guns.”

"We're going gun shopping?" Rome brightened.

“Well, Lenna took the car keys and went outside. We could afterwards. Maybe.” She tried very hard not to show that she was freaking out on the inside. “It’s a shop I will get some more supplies for the spells I use, it will make them more powerful.”

"Oh. Um." Rome frowned, but followed her outside. He slid into the passenger seat as she started the car. After a silence. "We're sure that's safe, right?"

“What do you mean safe? It’s just shopping not vampire hunting. Of course it is safe.” Lenna didn’t tell him on purpose what she planned, she was worried that he was not so into buying stones, well crystals.
Lenna knew exactly where she was going and only after take eight wrong turns she arrived at the store, Healing Crystal Shop.

“Okay I need a few moonstones one large one and a few smaller ones, and I also need a Hematite, a turquoise and oh not to forget a tigers-eye. Actually while we are here we could have a look for a large amethyst.”

Lenna walked confident in the shop and was too excited to wait for Rome to reply or comment well or ask any questions.

"Couldn't I just buy you diamonds like a normal girl?" Rome sighed heavily, but followed her inside. The shiny things amused him for a bit, but not really long enough. "What the hell do you need a big stone skull for?" he yelped at the thing she was holding up.
“Um, there is this spell which makes me be able to call ghosts to talk to them. I thought it might be helpful.”

"Whatever." Rome pulled out his phone and flicked through it, holding the heavy basket in the other arm.

"Also there is this ritual that I can call protection against werewolves." Lenna was adding another stone actually seven of the same kind. “Those stones are called Pyrite, you might like they help you from premonitions and they don’t knock you out like the tea I made some time ago.”

"Yeah, maybe."

"Hey I promised I would never knock you out like that again. Didn't I?" Lenna nearly looked offended that he didn’t trust her, well she actually deserved it but still.

"Yeah, yeah," Rome said, poking through a box. "Hey, cool, shark teeth!" he exclaimed, hardly noticing as the basket grew heavier.

“It’s actually a fossilised tooth. And they had back there entire jaws, I have to go to that section anyway. They have another skull we need.” Lenna showed Rome the way to the jaw and stopped beforehand to look at the tiny carved skull made of something weird.

"Anoooother skull?" Rome whined.

"Yes it is a special skull, and actually not even a real one. It is just carved out of the hip bone of a Wendigo." Lenna's eyes where sparkling with excitement.

"Eww," Rome said, making a mental note not to touch it.

"It is very powerful. It will make sure my magic stays safe. It kind of stops me from accidently selling my soul for more power."

"Oh, super."

"Don't touch this it will cause you visions." Lenna said when Rome was about to touch a green-grey stone.

Rome jerked his hand back like it was hot, and looked around at the shop seriously for the first time. "Wait, you mean all this isn't just some new-age-wiccan mumbo-jumbo? Like, it actually works?" He reached his hand out almost to touch the stone, as if to test it, but pulled back again just in case.

"Dude do you really think I would go to a new-age-wiccan mumbo-jumbo? I get all this stuff to help us." Lenna grinned she actually knew Rome didn't think this works. She took a reddish stone with white streaks in it. She pressed it to her mouth and whispered. "Erwache." She pressed the stone in Rome's hand and waited for him to feel the nice feeling run through his body.

Rome immediately put the rock back in her hand. "No, no, no, no, no, no. That stuff gives me the creeps. Let's just get outta here, huh? I'm carrying around a basket of rocks," he whined, switching the basket to the other hand.
"Fine I think I got everything, and he stone would not have hurt you. I bet you would have liked the feeling that it would have given you." Lenna went to the cashier to pay... well let Rome pay everything. She knew it would be expensive.

Rome hardly looked at the clerk, shoving his black credit card forward until the man said "That'll be....three thousand twelve dollars and ninety-five--"
"WHAT?" Rome cried, looking at Lenna briefly in horror before he looked back at the nervous-looking clerk. "HOW much?"
"Th-three--"
"Yeah, I heard you the first time. Lenna!" he snapped, rounding on her again. "What the hell did you BUY?"

“Erm just a few stones. It’s like when you order all that online porn.” Lenna looked innocently at Rome. “And it is really not my fault you are spoiling me since the moment I met you, I got used to it. It’s like my addictions that you buy me whatever I want. Do you think there is a rehab for spoilt best friends?”

Rome bridled and blinked, incredulous, but he handed the credit card over. "Yeah, the rehab for spoiled best friends is to stop being spoiled, Jesus. And don't do any of that hoodoo weirdness at me or while I'm around, okay?" He added as they walked out to the car. "It's fine you got your hobbies, I got mine."

“Rome it’s not Hoodoo. It’s ancient rituals of the Greek Gods. And I really do appreciate that you buy me all those things and if you would say you are done spoiling me I would totally understand that. I got all my stuff before I met you. And I wasn’t bad flirting my way out of jail.” Lenna giggled.

"Okay, I don't even want to know," Rome groaned.

"I know you always get funny when I talk about my life before I met you." Lenna looked happy at the big box full of stones. "It was one thing for sure more lying to people."

"Well I'm glad we don't have that now," Rome said, in spite of himself smiling at her and patting her knee. "Let's go."

"Okay let's go." Lenna grinned evil. "I have a stone that makes Georgie dream of spiders."

((This adventure is written with the help of Maeglin it was fun ))


Lenna fell into the big armchair, they were at the Safehouse since a day now. They had fought fairies and ran again from the FBI that wasn’t the real FBI. They were all freaking out but right now they stayed low at the Safehouse. Georgie was sleeping a very, very long beauty sleep, Rome had watched TV but went upstairs in his room to watch some porn, and well Richard was gone with the wind for some secret hunt again. There was a group of hunter that just needed some shelter for a few hours most of them were drinking in the bar. Lenna was reading when the other hunters crashed her alone time.

“Hey there, what are you reading?” One of them said. He wasn’t bad looking, not at all. He was smoking which was kind of gross but Lenna didn’t plan on marrying the guy, and maybe she should try smoking she never had.

“Nothing interesting. Did hunt something good?”

“Yeah a couple of black dogs. You?”

“Nope nothing good, just a …” No way I can tell him we were hunting fairies. “…simple salt and burn.”

“Wanna have a drink and watch the sunset?”

“What drink?”

“I’ve got some scotch and you would look super hot when you smoke.”

Lenna got up and followed the guy out of the house they went a little further away and sat on the ground. He offered her a cigarette which she took a little shy, but after a couple of glasses scotch the cigarettes didn’t taste as bad anymore. “You always have been a hunter?” Lenna whispered she didn’t trust her stability of her voice anymore, she knew she wasn’t able to walk a straight line anymore.

“Yup bred, raised and always will be a hunter. No better life.”

Lenna realized that she had no idea what the name of the guy was who was just sticking his tongue down her throat. He tasted as bad as he thought he would. For a moment she thought why always the weird guys, but then she remembered that they were there only ones wanting her.

Meanwhile in the Safehouse Rome noticed that he accidently had taken Lenna’s laptop instead of his own. He went back downstairs in the living room to gets his own laptop, when he found the book she was reading dropped carelessly on the floor. Her coffee mug was still full. And something wasn’t right here. There were a few sleazy looking guys drinking and having fun.

“Hey man! You looking for your girlfriend? She went with Eddie they are having lots of fun outside, I hope your girlfriend like it rough.” The guys burst into loud laughter.

Rome put the laptop down with an air of calm he wasn't feeling. He had really intended this to be a quick trip downstairs to get back to business, but nothing killed a buzz faster than his Lenna being an idiot. As soon as he was outside he spotted the toolbag leaning over Lenna, who was either wobbling drunk or struggling to escape.

He didn't warn the guy. That would be stupid. And Rome had no pretentions to honor. He just walked up to him, pulled him off of Lenna, and punched him full in the face.

Caught off-balance, the man fell backward. A few other guys shouted and leapt up, and the sleazebag kissing Lenna scrambled back to his feet, wiping his mouth and cussing. "What the fuck was that, asshole? She didn't tell me she had a boyfriend."

Rome curled and uncurled his fist in the silence that followed as he tried to figure out how to answer that, before finally he pointed in the douchebag's direction. "She's not my girlfriend," he said.

Lenna looked shocked at Rome. “What the hell do you think you are doing?” Lenna rubbed her arm on which it was forming a bruise. She had difficulties to get up, she felt rather dizzy and drunk. “I don’t need you to act like my boyfriend!” Lenna tried to push Rome away, while Eddie took her hand and pulled her back into his arms. “So when he is not your boyfriend than he won’t mind that I make out with you. You taste good.” Eddie was kissing Lenna roughly and held her just as violent as before, but this time Lenna didn’t want him. It was like as if the moment Rome showed up she realized what an ass Eddie is, and he started to hurt her.

"Hey, look, asshole, I'm not gonna tell you again!" Rome bellowed, landing a sharp strike to the back of Eddie's knee. He ignored Lenna: she was clearly drunk. The guy staggered around, a wild, slow, stupid punch, which Rome dodged and clocked him on the side of the head before--

"HEY!"

Oh, shit. Tex.

"Ya'll do NOT fight in my house!"

"He started it!" Eddie said, pointing at Rome.

"I wasn't fighting," Rome insisted. "I was teaching this dickhead some manners."

"Lenna, what happened?" Tex asked her.

Lenna looked with glassy eyes at Tex, well she had troubles focusing on one of the two Tex she saw.

“Erm I was reading a book…” Lenna fell on her knees, “… whoops. And then I got some scotch and then I wanted to make out with…” Lenna turned around she saw Rome more or less clear since he was standing the closest to her, but the others guys were more a blur, “… them. But oh man my arm hurts.”

Lenna managed to get up but wasn’t sure where to go, she was mad at Rome for stopping her fun but she knew he was right. The guy whoever it was she was making out with, was a douchbag and she knew that but somehow she always ended up with douchbags. After a few steps she fell over her own feet, Rome caught her before she hit the ground with the face first. “I don’t like that you take all my fun away, but thanks for catching me Rome. Since when can you duplicate yourself?”

"I'm sorry about the mess, Tex," Rome said, with another glare at Eddie and his gang. "Let me take her inside and I'll get out of your hair for a few hours."

Tex stared hard at him. "I don't think you're the problem," she said, and turned to being shouting at Eddie and his Assholes to get off her property as Rome guided Lenna inside and up to her bed.

"I don't wanna go to bed, I'm not at all sleepy." Lenna whined. "Can we go drive somewhere. I like my bumblebee so much." Lenna tried to push, pull or drag Rome back to the door to get him back outside. "I'm not so much drunk I just had several glasses of the scotch. Man the guy tasted disgusting."

"What is it with you and assholes, chica?" Rome demanded, less nicely than he meant to. "You always go for the complete tools. Why is that hot to you? You know you could do better. Like, a LOT better."

Lenna looked surprised at him. "What like you?"

"Hell no, not like me better than me!"

Lenna shook her head, "You are making no sense and just so you know there is no one out there who would take me. I'm completely mess up and insane, that's why just weirdoes want me in the first place. So I either become a nun or deal with douchbags."

"Yeah, that's why you're stuck with me," Rome joked, and then frowned. That was wrong. And sad. But he didn't want to touch it with a ten-foot pole, especially not now. "You're drunk, chica. Go to sleep," he said, tucking her into bed on her side.

"I'm fine! Wait the sunset!" Lenna sat up suddenly and tried again to get passed Rome to watch the sunset. "I have a date Rome, let me go!"

"What? What the hell are you talking about?"

"I don't know but there was this guy and he gave me scotch and we were about to watch the sunset and make out. Oh man I am confused. I hate scotch."

"Scotch is good, but not that crap he was drinking. You and me, tomorrow night, we'll have a date. We'll watch the sunset and drink GOOD scotch, okay, chica?" he tried, petting her hair. "Just go to sleep now. I'll go get you some water."

"Mmmh good scotch sounds good!" Lenna's eyes were closing slowing even though she tried really hard not to fall asleep. "Rome? Don't ever leave me okay?"

Rome frowned again. "Sure, chica. Just gonna get you water, not leaving you."

"I like water, you should try it one time." Lenna mumbled already half asleep.

After there debacle in Boston they had crashed at the Safehouse and hadn't left it since three weeks.
Lenna was looked at the restless sleeping Rome, it was just the second before she woke him when she remembered a dark secret she never told Rome. She knew she should but she didn't know how. How do you tell someone that...

The Book Of Elements

Everything changes

17th November 2003

Lenna was sitting in the town bar, she was sipping at her scotch. She normally wasn’t a scotch girl but she was since nearly a month now alone and she hated it so she ended up with her fake idea in the bar. She was locked all those days in her room in Bobby’s house it was depressing.
She was sitting in a dark corner starring into her glass literally waiting for Bobby to find her and tear her a new one.

The Fee girl--only surviving offspring of one-third of the prophecy--was deliciously vulnerable alone at the bar. He saw her eye a few of the local talent hungrily--ugly boys, compared to the suit he was wearing--and Andre saw his opening.
"You look a little young to be here," he said, taking the seat next to her at the bar.

Lenna looked up suddenly and scared. It was not Bobby as she expected. It was a guy she never met before and for some reason he freaked her out.

“Well you don’t seem to fit in here either.” Lenna tried to sound braver than she was.

Andre smiled broadly, flashing the raven-boy's perfect teeth. "We could go somewhere else?" he tried, then, as she looked at him, wide-eyed, he laughed and shook his head. "I'm kidding." Her breathy little to-be-polite laugh eased the tension only slightly. "Let me get the next round. What are you drinking?"

“Honestly I don’t know it is some scotch. My uncle never lets me drink the good stuff so I ordered the most expensive stuff they have.”

Lenna looked suspicious at the guy.

“You know the way you look I expected to introduce yourself a little earlier.” Lenna started to sound as cocky as she could. Well and apparently she wasn’t bad. She never got the point of small talk.

He smiled again, this time a little more predatory. She liked to think she could handle herself and liked the bad boys? That was frankly adorable.
"Rome," he answered. "Like the empire. And how about you? Do you have a pretty little name to go with that pretty little attitude?"

“Rome? That’s a weird name. I’m Summer like the season after Spring. What did you stop at this town?”

For a second Lenna wished she would listen to Bobby and finally learn to shoot, but all she had was a flask of holy water, salt and her silver knife.
She wasn’t sure but something made her nervous about this Rome guy. Like why the hell did he talk to her when she clearly looked not older than sixteen and she just got in because everyone including the barkeeper was drunk?

"Summer. I like it, even if it's not your real name, Ms. Fee," Rome said, flicking his eyes away as he ordered two more of what smelled like an 18 year old Laphroaig that was frankly breaking his heart.

Lenna froze in her seat. This was so not good.”I have no idea what you are talking about I am Summer Roberts niece of Bobby Singer. And definitely not Ms. Fee.” She pronounced her name on purpose wrongly.

"Bobby Singer. Now THAT's a name I wouldn't want to get tangled up in for anything in the world." Andre took a sip of the scotch, enjoying the smell and the smooth burn in his throat. He kind of wished his host was around to enjoy it with him, and he poked the brainless frat boy to life. "Well, my apologies, Miss. Looks like I got the wrong lady, and what I got isn't for you," he said, standing up from the bar, leaving his scotch unfinished (which he was sure was a sin). As he nodded his head to her and turned to leave, his eyes flashed black.

Dammit, Lenna thought. She gulped the brown liquid in her glass coughed heavily and followed the guy outside.

“Looks like we both are not what we said we are. Who are you and what do you want from me?” Lenna was gently pushing the silver knife which was not just any silver knife but it was dunked in holy water many times a little in the guys back.

Andre laughed softly. "Oh, sweetheart, you don't want to do that," he said smoothly, raising his arms out in surrender.

“Give me a good reason why not, demon?” Lenna snapped back.

Andre's answer was to spin wildly. She was fast, but not fast enough, and cracked his knuckles against her head, sending her to the ground. "Because I do not appreciate being threatened by little brats."

Lenna was trying to get up but her vision was blurry. “What the fuck do you want from me?”

'Why the fuck did you just hit that girl?' said the tiny, stupid voice inside his head.
'Would you like to see me do worse to her?' Andre replied, pleased that the boy quieted immediately, before turning back to the girl and, snarling, said,
"Manners, for starters." Andre took a handkerchief out of his pocket to clean the blood from his knuckles. "Believe it or not, I'm here to help you," he added, punctuating this with a quick kick to her ribs as she tried to get to her feet. The knife had long skidded out of her grasp. "I'm here to teach you a lesson."

“And what the fuck is that? That all demons are douchbags? Guess what that’s why you all go to hell.” Lenna spit the blood out she had in her mouth because she bit her tongue.

“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursion…” Lenna stopped, she actually had forgotten the exorcism.

Andre laughed. "Can't even remember a simple exorcism? Well, not that something like that would work on something like me, but still, you could do better." He sidled over to her and put his expensive shoe warningly on her chest. "Actually, you might not even be worth it. I've killed people who were more capable hunters than you." And, just for fun, he pressed down with his shoe.
'Wait, stop! Don't!' the boy begged. Andre was pretty sure it was criminal how much he got off on hearing the boy beg helplessly.

Lenna had a hard time breathing, but she managed to get her flask with holy water and splashed it at the Rome guy, if this was his real name.

“I am still better than you ever will be.” Lenna was not at all crazy still insulting a demon that clearly could kill her.

"Aaaargh!" Andre cried, leaping back away from the little brat. "Do you even know how much this suit cost?" he screamed, before reaching down and grabbing her by the  shoulder.
There was a flash, and after a small exertion, they were in the middle of a corn field vaguely nearby, safe from prying ears and eyes. "Better," he said, looking about him satisfactorily. "Now. What were we doing again? Ah, yes, you were whining, which is, I believe, the only thing you have been known to do well, and I was trying to teach you a lesson about how pathetic you are," he said, and, zapping forward again, slapped her hard across the face--not to cause injury, but to insult.

Lenna stumbled a few steps backwards, before she caught herself. “You know what go screw yourself. You said you have something for me. So either give it to me or I am walking home.” Lenna turned around and was searching her sweatshirt pocket for her phone but she must have dropped it because it wasn’t there. She turned around suddenly back to Rome. “Maybe I am terrible hunter but at least I am not a dirty filthy cockroach like you are. Even if you kill me which you clearly won’t because I am still alive, someone will find you and send you back to hell. Have at least the decency to tell me your real name, Knoblauchkopf.”

"There's the tigress I've heard so much about!" Andre was really enjoying this, and he clapped his hands and bent almost double, his face exploding with excitement. "You really are precious, has anyone ever told you that? Boy rattling around in here sure thinks so. Wonders what I might do with you," he grinned wickedly and then shrugged. "That's his name, by the way, in case you need to look me up again. The meatsuit I mean: his name is Rome. Romulus Remington. Just follow the trail of blood with his name on it. My name is Andre."

For the first time Lenna saw a demon, well kind of. But right now for the first time she really saw the misery a demon was causing. She had read a lot about demons, and she recognized the demon a few minutes ago but right now here in the middle of nowhere hopefully still in South Dakota Lenna understood why Bobby was so worried that she would go after demons.

“Well that is something. Because now I know your name and I can hunt you down. Because I think you won’t kill me you just want to scare me which isn’t working. I saw my brother turn into a monster there is nothing out there that can scare me anymore.”

And suddenly it hit her, why would a demon take her out into the middle of nowhere and said he wanted to give her something. Did he really think she was stupid enough and make a deal with him?

“Let the boy go and you won’t be in trouble.” Lenna growled in a low calm voice.

"Did you just threaten me?" Andre asked, quirking a smile at her. "Look who thinks she's people. I don't know what the higher ups see in you, but, well, here I am. And you can't even get a stupid exorcism right. We probably shouldn't get the meatsuit's hopes up, now, am I right?" He leered, goading her on.
'You ready for your part, kiddo? There's that spell book I've got--you remember those wiccans we slaughtered? That book--if you get her to take it, I'll leave.'
'Wait, what?' Rome squeaked. 'Why? What book is it? Why does she need to take it?' He didn't trust this...demon, this Andre, but he was so tired, so scared, and the promise of freedom was debilitatingly tempting. 'You'll leave me?'
'Either that or I'll rape her corpse, I haven't decided yet, really. You're up, tiger,' Andre concluded as the girl began to chant in Latin again--

“Regna terrae, cantate Deo, psallite Domino qui fertis ascendit super caelum caeli ad Orientem Ecce dabit voci suae vocem virtutis,tribuite virtutem deo.” Lenna shouted against the wind and then suddenly Rome/Andre went all still like he froze and then suddenly he screamed like a six year old girl.

“Rome?”

Lenna didn’t dare to go closer but she eyed him carefully. After all the text she said wasn’t even an exorcism it was pretty much just a praising of god.

Rome was on his knees in the dirt, and someone was saying his name. And he was...free?
He flinched, staggering upright, and gasped in a breath of air like he had been underwater for a long time. "Oh my God, oh my God," he said, and as the girl loomed over him, he swatted her hand away, falling back on his ass. "Who are you? Where am I? Where's my brother? Is he--is Andre--is he gone?" His eyes were blurry, and his tongue was slow and slurring from disuse. His limbs didn't want to cooperate, and he realized he was shivering.

Lenna nearly jumped up and down in excitement. She did it she banished a demon. This was such an amazing feeling and it took her some time to remember that there was still this guy who had no idea what just had happened.

“I think he is gone. How do you feel? And do you know where the spell book is? Since a demon wanted to give it to me I don’t think it is a good idea to use.” Lenna crouched down next to Rome. “I’m Summer and you are Rome right? Andre told me your name.”

Rome threw up his hand as if to protect his face, still skittish. "Um. What? Book, yeah, book. He told me if he gave you the book he'd leave me alone. It's...umm..." He started patting himself down, unsure of which way was up much less where this mystery thing was. Eventually, frustrated, the girl approached him and began frisking him, eventually finding a medium-sized leather-bound book stuffed into the back of his jeans. "Oh. Found it, good. Gonna pass out now, maybe, yeah. Sleep sounds good. Call my brother, he'll...he'll come pick me up."

“What no you can’t pass out we are in South Dakota and it is nearly December. Dude wake up!”

Lenna quickly opened the book she didn’t like the idea of using a book a demon wanted her to have but maybe she could help Rome with it. First it looked all like gibberish to her but as she flicked through the pages she found something that would help.

“Feuer in mir, erlauchte und wärme uns!”

A large flame appeared in Lenna’s hand, she shrieked but noticed that the fire was not hurting her. He went from her hand and stayed on the ground like a perfect camp fire and it did even more it melted the snow and let it hover as large water drops in midair. Lenna scooped up one water drop and offered Rome to drink it.

After a demon riding him like a rodeo bull, a little girl creating fire out of nowhere and melting snow to trickle into his mouth out of her hand was, like, nothing on the scale of weirdness. "Thanks," he said. "Um. Where are we again? North Dakota? What day is it?" He forced himself to sit up under his own power, but he was shaking badly.

“Um, South Dakota I think we are still not too far from Sioux Falls. I think, but I am not sure where we are because Andre sapped me here. And unfortunately I can’t call anyone unless you have a phone because I don’t have one.”

Lenna looked at the book on the floor again. Why would a demon give her a book that actually helped her?

“Can you walk?”

"Ohhhh, yeah," Rome said, waving his hand cavalierly. Was he high? Or just super pleased to be alone in his own skull? "Nnnnooo problemo, chica." He lurched to his feet, with her help. He felt kind of numb. Numb and freakishly happy. "Can I kiss you?"

“Um I am only seventeen, but sure if you don’t mind go for it.” Lenna grinned sheepishly.

Rome laughed too long for something that wasn't that funny. "I...yeah. Thanks, I'm a lot warmer now," he slurred. "You know, that fire helps. Thanks," he said, looking at her until she turned away.
'Well played, boy, thank you,' Andre's voice filtered in.
'Wait, what? No! You said you were gone!' Rome practically cried--would have cried--if he had tear ducts to order around--which he didn't, not anymore, because Andre was taking over, and he was falling, fading into oblivion...

Lenna smiled at Rome, she was glad she had helped him. When suddenly his relaxed and friendly face changed back into the grim face it was not long ago. Lenna backed away as fast as she could, the fire disappeared.

“Shit!”

A last evil grin and he was gone. Lenna was shivering when she started to walk back in the direction she believed a street was. This was a really bad night, well and weird. The book did help the boy but why did a demon give it to her? As soon she was back at home she would try to find out more about the book.



((Thanks for writing this with me Maeglin it was fun))

From Boston to Kansas

… Lenna was sitting in a fancy hotel, but this time it was really fancy. She was about to call someone because she had important news… but it was all a little weird as if she didn’t really know what she was doing. And then a terrible thought hit her.

I am possessed.

“Christus.” She didn’t feel a shudder when she said the word, so she couldn’t be possessed. But something was still weird. Lenna picked up the phone and dialed a number she knew by heart.

“Gilmore residence who is speaking.” A friendly young girl’s voice answered.

“Hello, may I speak to Georgie please, this is Lenna speaking.” Lenna said politely.

“Miss Fee, of course just one moment please I’ll go and fetch Miss Gilmore.” Lenna didn’t recognize the voice it must be a new maid… again and something was odd when this maid called her Miss Fee.

“Brownie! You okay? Since when do you call the landline? My cell is working.” Georgie flirted at her best friend.

“I am very well thanks for asking Blondie.” Lenna giggled. “I’m in Vegas with him.” Lenna mumbled. She was suddenly scared to tell Georgie.

“Okay what’s up? You sound weird.” Georgie was down to business. She knew Lenna to well she heard in Lenna’s voice.

“Um, listen five days ago…” –Damn what did he keep me busy the past five days? – “… five days ago. Um he asked me… to marry him and… I said yes and we… well we drove all the way to Vegas and um got married.”

Silence on the other side of the phone. It was so silent that Lenna actually thought they got disconnected.

“Georgie?” Lenna asked carefully.

A deep sigh was her answer and then silence again followed by a second deeper sigh. “This is a really bad joke right?” Georgie’s voice was calm, dangerously calm.

“No.” Lenna mumbled, because she heard the hurt in her best friends… her sisters voice.

“You got married… and are telling me this five… five days later. What the fuck have you been doing all this time?” Georgie’s voice was ice cold.

“Georgie I am so sorry I… it was all in a heat of a moment. It happened so fast we killed this thing and were all covered in goo and then he looked at me and asked if I would marry him even though he is not the right kind of guy for me and I just kissed him and then we drove all the way to Vegas and got married still covered in goo and then we got um kind of carried away. He is um well honestly we needed a break so he is sleeping and I well I called you and… I’m sorry I wanted you to be there but I knew I couldn’t wait. It… He wanted to do it right this time and first get married and somehow he infected me with his thoughts and… Georgie? Don’t be mad, please.”

Georgie sighed again. “I’m not mad, a little disappointed but not mad. So you and him… he better be good to you or I’ll kick his ass. And he better not compares us… ever!”

Lenna giggled and started to relax…



Suddenly Lenna got up, her head was heavy and she felt sleepy. She was heavily breathing and for a few more moments she didn’t know where she was, until she noticed the world rush past her. She was sitting on the bag seat of her own car. Georgie was driving while Rome was playing with his laptop. She had one of those intense dreams, she hadn’t told anyone about those dreams somehow they scared her. Even when none of them was a bad dream they always exhausted her more than a dream should. Lenna closed her eyes and hoped none of her two best friends had noticed her waking up from the dream.