Discovering Hell [COMPLETED]

Chapter Four

"It's been a week," I grumbled furiously. "A whole week, Sam, and no progress."

"That's not true," he argued, shaking his head. "Could you make things float before?"

I bit my lip. "No. But still..."

"So, there has been progress. Now, just concentrate. Go again."

I was in the process of trying to make an empty beer bottle float over to where Sam stood. So far I could only get it to whiz angrily past his face when I was frustrated. I folded my arms across my chest and took a few steps back so I could get a clear view of the bottle.

It sat, just as bottle-y as ever, on the big table in the war room. I was getting used to the Bunker and all of it's rooms and books and artifacts. In my free time (not that I had much of it with Sam as a trainer) I read a lot of the books on the shelves about different monsters and spells. Some of them were in different languages and Sam had to help me struggle through those. He was actually pretty book smart, something I could have used while studying for tests in high school and even back at college. 

I was thinking about my classes and my roommate when Sam hollered, "Lauren, you're doing it!"

I looked at the beer bottle levitating a foot or two off the table top and groaned internally. So all I had to do was focus on something completely different and the dumb bottle would float.

"Great," Sammy encouraged. "Now just send it over to me."

I sighed and pictured the bottle floating, gently, over to Sam. Instead it jerked downwards, making my stomach do flips.

"I can't do it, Sammy." I knew I was whining but I didn't care at this point.

"Yes you can." Okay, sure, if I completely forgot that that's what I was trying to do and instead thought about a major life choice.

I sighed in frustration. I almost gave up but Sam was looking at me so hopefully. Instead, I focused on the bottle. I stared at it until my eyes started watering, willing it to float to Sam. Still, nothing happened. So I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped for the same thing; that it would go to Sammy.

"Woah..." Sam said after a second. Excited, I opened my eyes just in time to see the bottle fall and shatter on the table.

"It didn't work," I grumbled.

"Lauren," Sam said, "that was so cool. How did you do it?"

I looked away from the shattered glass at Sam to see that he was, in fact, holding a beer bottle. "But..." I pointed at the table.

"Exactly. One second the bottle was hovering and you shut your eyes and then I had one in my hand. But not that one."

Dean shot up out of the chair where he'd been sitting on the laptop and was standing next to me in a second, suddenly interested in what was going on. "Wait. So you can just, poof, make things appear?"

I shrugged, about as sure about what happened as they were. "Uh...I guess?"

"I'll have a double bacon cheese burger, please," Dean said, smiling smugly.

"Hey, we're not gonna abuse this," Sam interrupted.

"It's not abuse," Dean argued. "It's practice."

"How is giving you lunch practice?" Sam raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"If she's gotta make stuff appear out of nothing, it might as well be my lunch."

Sam looked at me with concern but also curiosity. "Don't do it if you don't want to."

"I don't even know if I can..." I said. I felt so small suddenly. Sure I could pull stuff out of thin air, but that singled me out--made me some sort of freak.

"Just try," Dean urged, eager for his stupid burger.

I couldn't really see why not so I closed my eyes and concentrated. I found that I could only picture a Wendy's bacon burger. Dean would have to deal with that.

I didn't open my eyes until I heard Dean say, "That is so awesome!"

"Are you tired?" Sam asked, placing a hand on my shoulder and leading me to a chair so I could sit. "Do you feel drained at all?"

I shook my head. "No, not really. I just feel normal, I guess. The second time was a lot easier."

"And you aren't tired at all?" He kept leaning closer to me and I wondered if he had any sort of personal bubble. I sure did and he was definitely invading that bubble. 

I let my eyes fall into my lap and wrapped my arms around myself. "I'm fine, Sam."

"How do you do it?" He asked, not moving away from me.

I shrugged lightly and let my head fall a little. "I thought if I closed my eyes, I'd be able to concentrate better. Apparently not."

I felt him pull away and allowed myself to look up at him, dispelling the butterflies in my stomach which I told myself were only there because I was being interrogated. He was studying my face as if he had discovered a new species, which I guess, he had.

"I wonder what else you can do," he muttered.

There was a flapping noise and Castiel came back from wherever he had been. I'd learned in the past week, that Cas didn't really stick around unless he was needed. But he brought food back this time, which was good.

"Cas," Dean said excitedly, "look." He waved his burger in the angel's face.

Cas just stared at it. "Yes, Dean. It's a burger. "What's special about a burger?"

Dean shook his head. "Nothing really. A burger is just a burger. But this burger, in particular, was brought into existence by our good friend, Lauren." He gestured to me. "Try it."

"Hey," I interjected, "do you see a sticker with those words on me? No. You don't just 'Try Me.'" I looked at the boys who were all staring at me with different emotions: curiosity, confusion, excitement. I sighed. "Fine. Cas," I threw my arms out, "what do you want?"

He thought for second. "Dean says pie is good...So I'll try some of that."

"There are a lot of flavors of pie," I said. "Can you be more specific?"

"Apple. Apple pie."

"Okay..." I closed my eyes and imagined pie. A really quaint looking piece of apple pie with a dollop of whipped cream on top on a little plate.

I opened my eyes a moment later and Cas was holding a plate of delicious looking apple pie.

"Eat it, Cas," Dean urged. "It tastes real too."

Cas lifted the fork that was sitting on the ceramic plate and took a bite. He seemed very unsatisfied and set the plate, rejected, on the table. "But if that's just a basic ability, what else can you do?"