Agoraphobia - Prologue
Title: Agoraphobia
Author: Silver (skewed_believer)
Fandom: Supernatural/NCIS
Theme: Suspense/Angst
Rating: PG-13
Summary: When a navy seal is brutally killed in her own home, NCIS goes to investigate, and when things turn out to be more then they appear, the Winchesters do too.
Disclaimer:
NCIS and its characters belong to CBS (-twitch,twitchytwitchttwitch), not me, and I am only using them for my entertainment.
Supernatural and its characters belong to Eric Kripke and the CW, not me. I’m just using them for my own entertainment. (But if he ever decides he doesn’t want them I’ll take Dean kthx.)
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PROLOGUE
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
-- Bertrand Russell
Fear is a terrible thing, the anticipation of what is to come is worse when you are sure that it is there. Faith is supposed to be ones companion, to keep the little angel on your shoulder as a guide to keep your monsters at bay. For Rachel Abbott, that didn’t even seem remotely possible. It was the first day of December, her first time she actually had a break in what almost felt like years, and she was spending it curled up in a chair a pack of cigarettes next to her, that would have generally already been half gone. But tonight she just couldn’t bring herself to light a single one of them up yet. She a flask next to her too, that looked like it could be filled the any type of liquor, even if it was filled with the exact opposite, and the television was quietly buzzing, Miracle on 34th Street playing as it always did on those very late nights in December. It was a bit comforting, and at the same time a bit ironic. She hated it.
Rachel’s intensified hazel eyes glanced up at the digital clock on the top of her television. 1:45 a.m. That had to be a good sign, right? Maybe it meant it wouldn’t be back for her tonight. Of course that was just wishful thinking, they had said that they would be back for her soon, and with the seemingly warm, holiday-like atmosphere, why wouldn’t the bitch show up now? It was just too in character for them to pass up in Rachel’s mind, after all their purpose was to cause chaos after all, why not do it at the most inconvenient time? Alright, granted, maybe Rachel was just being paranoid, but something was telling her she had to be, and she was taking every precaution she could to keep anything this thing could throw at her away. She read all the books, she dug up anything she could, and she wasn’t sure she could believe any of it, but she had to try.
“I believe... I believe... It's silly, but I believe.”
Rachel groaned at her own train of thought and the amount of irony of what was going on in her head and the television. Despite her absolute lost of sanity at the very moment, Rachel still knew she was pushing it, and that she probably should’ve been going to call it a night already. After all, what was the worst that could happen, they get rid of her in a different room, or they stop her from sleeping? For the first time since she was eleven years old, Rachel was grateful that Freddy Krueger was only fictional. She could mind having to deal with paranoia and insomnia, but being killed in her dreams? No, that was just too much crazy shit for her to handle.
Slowly getting up from her seat, Rachel grabbed her cigarettes and shoved them in her pants pocket. Damn, she hadn’t even changed yet? She must have been more distracted than she had thought. She shook her head at her own actions before going to grab the flask as well. Then she heard it. Grrrrgrug. Rachel couldn’t really tell if it was a growl or a gurgling noise, or a mixture of the two. Shit, how many times did she have to tell her neighbor to keep their dog in at night, it’s the holidays; didn’t they have any form of respect? She rolled her eyes and she was glad for once for the past twenty-four hours that she was finally back to reality for a moment. Her stupid-ass neighbor Diane that always left her stupid mutt out was at it again. Rachel wasn’t even sure what breed of dog it was supposed to be, she figured it was a mix of the a few, but either way it was ugly, loud, and annoying.
She let out an exasperated groan and but the flask right back down and floated over to the door. She paused for a moment before she heard the sound again, though it sounded a bit more aggressive this time. Grrrrrrgehhhh. Great, that was the last thing that Rachel needed, stoned-out Diane’s dog on her property probably killing some poor animal. She unlocked the door and flung it open, shouting as she did. “Get away from my house you god damn mutt!” As she yelled, Rachel could hear a loud, obnoxious barking coming from the house next to her. And she recognized the bark as well, but it was fainter than the growls had been.
There was no way that that dog was that quick. And as far as she knew, Rachel hadn’t acquired sonic hearing anytime soon. She blinked, looking around at her driveway and yard. There was nothing, just the trees, the darkness and the glare of the multi-colored Christmas lights that had already been put up across the street. Rachel could feel it in the pit of her stomach that there was something completely and disastrously wrong. Still, she just stood for a moment, silent feeling the cold wind from outside begin to pick up.
“Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.”
Rachel smiled softly at more of the irony, and she could feel her hand shaking on the knob of the door. Something was telling her, that she should’ve started running, getting away from her house and staying away from it. But something else in her felt like she didn’t have a choice anymore. Fate is fate, chaos is chaos what could she do about it? Closing her eyes, Rachel left out a deep sigh that felt so good that it seemed like it had come from her toes.
She felt stupid, she felt like the last bit of sanity she had was now completely gone, and it wasn’t in a good way. “Maybe sometimes common sense is better, and I’m being faithful that it is.” Rachel whispered the statement to herself before taking a step back and slamming the door. She wind was gone now, and all she could feel was the warmth of her house and the movie still playing in the background. For a moment that’s all she could hear, and she rested her head on the wooden door, letting out another sigh, this time in relief.
And then she heard the crunching behind her. It wasn’t something that would bother anyone else, but to her it was now the second worst sound in the world. And soon after it came the first.
“Hey Rach.” A voice of a woman greeted from behind her, in a silky yet at the same time devious tone.
“Oh God, fuck, help me.” Rachel could feel the tears already starting to slide down her face. As they did she could hear the woman behind her make a clicking noise with her tongue.
“Awhhhh, poor Rachel doesn’t know what to do with herself now. You know, I will give you some really good kudos, you made your house pretty much safe to everything, and you did your homework. You were a good little girl scout weren’t you? You got pretty much everything you needed to keep away or try to get rid of ghosts, most demons, and hell, even a few things I never even thought of using on you. But luckily for me, you forgot to look up one little thing.”
At that, Rachel turned around and looked at her. The woman fit what she was supposed to be, long flowing blonde hair, piercing aqua eyes that were currently filled with victory. She was disgusted by it. “And I forgot what exactly?” She replied, trying to make herself sound as strong as possible. She was sure she had checked almost everything to keep herself safe, and somehow she was still in deep shit.
The blonde smiled and the growling sounds started again. “While he’s not exactly the little doggy in the window, he’ll do for this job.” Rachel shot the woman a confused expression which seemed to amuse her even more. “You checked ghosts, you checked demons, you checked almost everything you could think of but you forgot hellhounds didn’t you?”
Now Rachel was really confused, that was definitely not something that had ever crossed her mind, unfortunately, and she could feel her pulse starting to race faster than it already had been before as she came to the realization that now not only was she going to die, she had no idea what was going to kill her. Her eyes widened as she heard the growling get deeper and what seemed like closer. The blonde-haired woman looked at her and gave one last devious smile, “Run, Rachel, run. Scream until you lose your voice, go for it. Poor animal.”
With that, the woman disappeared completely, but the growling was still there, so Rachel decided to do what was in her best instinct to do, exactly what the woman said. She bolted out of her living room and down her hallway, and she could hear what sounded like the thing following her. She got close to her kitchen where there was a back door entrance before she felt herself stopped abruptly. And she could hear the ripping, luckily it was only her jeans at the moment and Rachel had a hold of a corner of the wall, but she knew that nothing was going to save her now. She made her mistake, and now she was going to get this.
She might as well have enjoyed it.
Grabbing her pack of cigarettes from her pocket as she clung onto the wall one hand, trying to keep a hold of it as long as she could with the strength of the grip getting close to unbearable, Rachel grabbed one of the cigarettes out of it, dropping the rest of them, not like it really mattered now, and then reached back into her pocket and tried to find her lighter.
Once she grabbed it, she could feel the things teeth getting closer to her leg instead of just her jeans, and she flicked the lighter open as quickly as she possible could to light the cigarette. When she finally managed, she dropped the lighter and let go of the wall, letting the thing completely drag her along where ever he pleased.
“You win, bitch.”
A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.
-- Jean Paul Ritcher