Fic: Fellowship of the Nine 12/23
Chapter 12
There was a scream and an awful rumble and then a second of silence while I tried to figure out if those noises were part of a dream or if I'd actually heard them. Then I was out of the bed and at the door with Cole right next to me. So he had heard the same noises and for a heartbeat I didn't dare to open the door, afraid of what I might find. But then other doors opened and voices asked what happened.
And then there was another scream, Andrea or Brenda, I couldn't really tell but it was high and female and Eric shouted: "Vincent!"
When Cole and I finally got out of the room into the narrow hallway, the master bedroom was at the far end so we were the last to see what had happened. But a cold fist in my stomach told me to expect the worst.
I stood shoulder to shoulder with Sam when I finally managed to have a look down the stairs. Brenda and Dean were down there in crouched positions over a motionless Vincent.
"Is he ...?" Cole asked unable to finish the sentence. Down at the bottom Dean moved and I saw the unnatural way Vincent's neck was twisted in. No way he was still alive.
I took in the scene without really getting what it meant. Vincent was dead. He lay there on the cold floor and was dead. He had been alive a few hours ago. Had joked and laughed with us and now he was dead.
In numb silence we all stood there. Brenda backed off from our dead friend, hands covering her mouth and little sobbing cries creeping out behind them.
Then Dean looked up and his eyes met Sam's. Slowly Sam made his way down the stairs. With a gentle touch he guided Brenda over to the fireplace and helped her to settle down. A moment later he was back with a blanket and when Dean nodded he covered the body with it.
The body. I wasn't even thinking of it as Vincent anymore. This wasn't a person, this was just a body. I wanted to throw up.
"What happened?" Cole asked, his question directed at Eric who was on his way down the stairs. We others followed, eyes fixed on the blanket and the still form underneath. It didn't even look like a person anymore. Just something lumpy under a blanket.
"Dunno." Eric answered and he was practically choking on the word. "I woke up when he left the room. Didn't say where he wanted to go."
The bathroom was my first thought but for that he wouldn't even have to get near the stairs. So maybe the kitchen for a glass of water or a midnight snack. And then he tripped and fell down the stairs.
"What ..." Andrea started but broke up when her voice cracked. "What are we going to do now?"
"We have to call the police." Brenda answered. For now she had herself under control again.
"The road is blocked." Cole reminded her. "They'll have to send a plow first." He sighed and stepped around the blanket in a wide circle. "I'll make the call but it'll take a while till somebody gets here."
"It was an accident, wasn't it?" Eric asked. "We're not getting into trouble for this, aren't we?" With big eyes he looked from one to the other but I avoided to meet his eye and so did the others. All except for Sam and Dean.
"It was an accident." Sam reassured him. "We'll have to talk to the police but this was clearly an accident."
Cole came back from the kitchen were he had left his phone to charge. Now he hold it up with a frown on his face.
"I've no reception." He told us.
Glad to have something to do except for looking at the blanket in the middle of our little group we all went back to the rooms to get our phones.
Mine had no reception either.
"Damn weather." Eric muttered. He was the last who checked and he couldn't get a call out. Nobody could.
Not knowing what to do we stood there and tried really hard to not look at the blanket. Eric had his arm around Andrea's shoulder, I wasn't sure who was supporting whom, and Brenda stood close enough to Sam for him to hold her as well. For a minute or so we were the Fellowship again. Minus Vincent, which was a hard part to miss, and plus Dean who stood between us like some intruder.
"You said the plow will come on Monday." Dean spoke as if there wasn't a dead friend of ours laying behind him. "If we get reception back before that we'll call the police, if not we'll ask the plow guy to get one of us back to town to call it in."
It sounded like a plan. Like he knew what to do. Like he had dealt with this kind of situation before.
"What are we going to do with ... Vincent until then?" Eric asked and tightened his grip around Andrea's shoulder.
"Sam and I'll take him outside." Dean said as if that was obvious. As if carrying a dead body was no business at all. And as if he expected Sam to be okay with carrying a dead friend of his. "I saw a shed at the side. That's where you store your firewood?" The last part was directed at Cole who just nodded.
"Okay, that should work." Sam spoke up and with one last pat on Brenda's arm he unwound himself out of her grip. "It's cold enough outside."
He didn't elaborate that but it was clear that he was thinking of decomposition.
I have to admit that I was glad that I didn't have to touch Vincent. The thought of him being dead was bad but actually touching him now? I had never seen a dead body in my life.
However, without a word Sam and Dean went to work. They got dressed and a few minutes later they were ready to … carry Vincent out.
With what looked suspiciously like practiced moves they wrapped the blanket tight around the body and then carried it outside. Cole went with them to hold the door open and to show them where they could put Vincent.
While they were out I had time to think. Before Dean had shown up everything had been fine. And now Vincent fell down the stairs. Just like Sam not long ago.
continue to chapter 13
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