𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙

‿̩͙‿ ༺ ♰ ༻ ‿̩͙‿

𝕚 𝕔𝕒𝕟 𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦

The smell of bleach and medicine made Laurel scrunch her nose in disgust. If there was one thing about hospitals she could never get used to, it was definitely the smell. She sighed as she walked in and readjusted her hand bag on her shoulders. She shouldn't even be here. It was a Tuesday, Laurel wasn't even supposed to come in on Tuesdays.

Laurel always came into the local hospital Friday and Saturday, to volunteer and help with the nurses. Her academic counselor was ecstatic when she mentioned she had something along the lines of an internship at a hospital close by. She was in her 4th year of University working towards getting her medical degree and volunteer work and internships were a necessary part of her education. He told her that it was an excellent and easy way to refine her skills in the medical world. She remembered sitting in the academic office listening to him chatter on about all of his connections and if she needed anything to let him know. It was sweet of him honestly to look out for her. It's just Laurel knew that her academic advisor would not speak so highly of her if she knew the main reason she was volunteering.

Laurel sighed again as she went to the front desk to sign in. She really wasn't in the mood for talking today, her head had been killing her all morning. But as she walked closer Laurel silently groaned to herself. She saw tight red bouncy curls and immediately knew she would get no peace.

"Hi Laurel! What are you doing here! Oh my gosh is it Friday or something? I swear I don't know what day of the week it is anymore. Why are you here today?" Laurel couldn't help but wince at the shrill voice and rapid questions. Peggy was one of the receptionists, she was very sweet, and it wasn't that Laurel had a problem with her! It was just...well... Peggy was a lot. She reminded Laurel of a chihuahua on caffeine (she certainly had a squeaky voice that sounded similar to a bark)

"I'm here to visit my brother today," Laurel chuckled wryly as she reached for the pen in the small cup holder.

"Oh no, is he hurt?" Peggy asked quickly, her voice filled with concern "I clocked in 15 minutes ago. You wouldn't believe the day I had girl and my shift just started... haven't even had the time to read the charts." she muttered, curls bouncing as she shook her head.

"Yeah, he came in earlier today. Apparently he had an accident on his skateboard again." she replied with a small tone of disinterest. This wasn't exactly... a new occurrence. Her brother always was getting into some sort of trouble. Her mom said he had a young spirit, meanwhile her dad called it recklessness.

"Young boys are certainly crazy aren't they?" Peggy chuckled as she typed on her computer. Laurel smiled slightly in reply, she certainly wasn't wrong.

"Do you happen to know where his room is?"

"Oh yes, it's room 124." Laurel nodded and gave a small thank you in return.

She turned around and walked through the long white halls towards room 124. The Hospital in Sioux Falls was smaller than what people expected. It wasn't a huge trauma center, there were plenty of major hospitals nearby, but this little hospital could hold its own. It seemed to be busier than normal, she noted the two main trauma surgeons speaking together in worried, hushed tones. Something about a major crash, family of three, low chances. Laurel winced a little while listening. That conversation didn't sound too hopeful and if it went in the direction she thought it was going then it meant her headache was gonna get worse.

Slowly she stopped walking and found herself outside of room 124. Laurel took a deep breath to herself and began to count on her fingers. 1...2...3 and 1...2...3 and 1...2...3  again. Her headache seemed to lighten up a little allowing Laurel to focus on the more important issue at hand; her brother. She still hadn't decided whether or not she was going to be good cop or bad cop. She was never that great at being bad cop, that was a job her father excelled at. Laurel looked through the window and saw her brother playing games on his DS and laughing. Ugh... bad cop it is.

Laurel entered the room after she gave a small knock on the door (she originally was going to enter without warning but her grandmothers voice was shrill in her head reminding her it is always rude to enter without knocking). Her brother looked up from his DS and widened his eyes a little bit. He quickly shut it and shoved it under his pillow as if it would make a difference. He gave Laurel a sheepish look as she walked towards him. Laurel crossed her arms and gave her brother her best glare possible.

"Again, really?"

"It wasn't my fault this time I swear!" Laurel couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this

"Okay, then please explain."

"You see there was this squirrel right and he just wasn't moving. And I was coming down the hill fast right, I just couldn't deal with it if I hurt that squirrel. So I swerved and there just so happened to be a hill and a bunch of trees. Well, you know how gravity works, I mean of course you do because you're so smart! So it was difficult for me to stop myself. I ended up bashing into a tree and now I'm here."

"Lucas seriously-"

Before she could finish her brother interrupted her.

"Did I tell you that you look amazing today? Maybe it's the lighting, or maybe it's the fact you're a wonderful human be-"

"Lucas. Just lay down." Laurel rolled her eyes at his behavior. Flattery was going to get him nowhere.

Lucas gave her another sheepish glance before laying down on the hospital bed. He winced a bit, but quickly reassured his sister that he was fine. Laurel helped him readjust, she fluffed the pillows and pulled the blankets up over him.

"Have you been drinking water? I brought you a bottle anyway you know it's really important to drink your fluids right?" she said as she continued to fuss over him.

"And you know you need to be way more careful when it comes to skateboarding. I mean I know you're pretty good at it but seriously you get too reckless sometimes and-"

"Dude, Laurel I get it okay! Chill out a little bit." Laurel looked at him exasperatedly and gave a sigh.

"I just wanna make sure you're careful Lucas that's all"

"Hey! I'm not really complaining! Besides, you're looking like a true nurse right now!" he wore a shit eating grin as he said that

Laurel just looked at him blankly at first. Lucas stared back. She stared at him... and he stared back. He started to squirm a little bit and gave another sheepish grin. Slowly her face started to break into a smile and she started to laugh a bit.

"Dude you scared the shit out of me! I thought you were really pissed off" Lucas sighed in relief. Laurel giggled a little bit at that

"I decided to be bad cop before coming in here, was I good at it?"

Before Lucas responded a blonde nurse knocked and came into the room. The two of them straightened up and smiled at the nurse waiting for her to give good news. Or maybe even bad news (hopefully not).

"The doctor hasn't come in to examine him yet, so I don't want to make any final calls, but I think your brother may have broken his left leg and twisted his right ankle. We won't know exactly how long he has to stay here until the doctor comes in." she said

"And how long until the doctor comes in?" asked Lucas as Laurel grasped his hand

"Honestly we don't know? The hospital is really busy today and he's just taken in a family under critical condition." the nurse said absentmindedly while scribbling some notes down.

Laurel thought about the snippets of the conversation she heard earlier and took a sharp intake of breath. Lucas looked at her from the corner of his eye and quirked a brow at her. She seemed so drained at the news.

"Will the family be okay?" Laurel asked and the nurse shrugged her shoulders

"We can only hope." the nurse said as she left.

The air felt a little tense after that. Laurel removed her hand from Lucas to fiddle with her fingers and bit her lip. Her headache was bad enough, hell it had been bad all week. And now she had a feeling it was going to get way worse. 1...2...3 and 1...2...3 and 1...2...3 again and again. She was so deep in her thoughts she didn't notice Lucas reaching over and patting her shoulder. After a few moments of silence he finally spoke.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked gently. Laurel sighed and shook her head lightly, she didn't really want to talk about it.

"You should be worrying more about yourself. Considering you're the one with a broken leg."

"I wasn't talking about that." she grew quiet when he said that "I know that you don't like coming to the hospital when you don't need to. I also know that the last few days you haven't been getting a lot of sleep."

Laurel silently stared at her brother. She knew he was right, she hadn't been sleeping well. She actually hadn't been sleeping at all. She couldn't help it, the voices were getting louder and Laurel had no idea why. She finally worked up the courage to answer her brother.

"I would say I'm fine, but I'm not." he leaned in and motioned for her to keep talking.

"They're getting louder and I don't know why." she whispered dejectedly and took a deep breath before continuing. "But something seems to have disturbed them? I just don't know what."

At that moment she heard someone shouting and flinched yet when she turned to look at Lucas he stared blankly at her. Her heart started to sink into her stomach; he didn't hear it. He didn't hear it. Now her brother not hearing the voices that seemingly were in her head was normal but this voice was not normal. The normal whispers were all muted, almost like someone was talking underwater. Some voices would come through stronger but they were usually whispers, none of the voices had ever shouted before.

"Was that them?" Lucas asked carefully almost afraid of what her answer would be.

Laurel didn't even muster a reply, she just stared at Lucas and slightly nodded. His eyes widened and he gulped before spewing into a ramble but Laurel didn't hear a word. She was tuning everything out and desperately trying to listen to the voice. It, no not it, he sounded panicked. She strained her hearing even more to try and make out what he was saying. Shouts of why can't you see me were repeated over and over slowly increasing in panic as well as volume.

"Laurel!" she snapped out of her thoughts and turned to look at her brother. His face was filled with concern, borderline fear almost.

"Dude you've been zoned out for like 5 minutes? You're really starting to freak me out Laur." he continued. She looked at him apologetically. Laurel quickly looked around to see if anyone was listening in before responding.

"I'm hearing someone screaming I've never heard this voice before." she whispered in korean

His eyes widened "Do you think it's one of the people in that big car crash?"

"That's what I was thinking too." she said nodding in agreement. "I've gotta talk to him Lucas I'm sorry." Lucas stared at Laurel for a beat. His brow furrowed and a flash of worry crossed his face before it softened.

"Hey I get it Laur. Go talk to it.. or him.. or whatever it is. I mean it's not like I can go anywhere" he said with a little laugh as he gestured to his broken leg. It wasn't the most reassuring laugh but it was enough.

Laurel smiled and whispered thank you. She quickly grabbed her purse and headed for the door. Before leaving she turned around to look back at Lucas. He was already playing on his 'hidden' DS again with a smile on his face and she couldn't help but smile at the sight. She wished she could be young again. Laurel shook the thoughts away and left room 124 with a shaky breath.

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Laurel tried to play it cool while walking through the halls of the small hospital. No one knew of her special 'gift', if they did she would probably be locked up in the loony bin (no one wants to go to the loony bin). However the good thing about working in a small hospital was that there weren't that many people freely available. No one would question an innocent volunteer, in fact they would most likely ask for help with an errand rather than ask personal questions. Yet that didn't mean people couldn't pay attention. It was South Dakota and people were nosy. If her coworkers saw her talking to herself in the middle of the hallway it would be a very uncomfortable experience for everyone.

Laurel kept her eyes peeled while walking through the halls. She kept listening to the panicked voice getting closer and closer. It was like playing a game of hot and cold. She knew she was getting warmer and warmer; before she reached hot Laurel stopped in the hallway. What the hell was she doing? Hearing the voices was one thing but actually talking to them was a completely different matter. She hadn't answered the voices in a long time and Laurel was not sure she was ready to open that can of worms either.

She took another second in the hallway, debating what choice she was going to make. The voice was so loud, he was practically right there. The panic in his voice made her heart wrench and she winced, an uncomfortable feeling forming in her gut. She couldn't just do nothing. Laurel took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders and turned the corner into the lobby.

At first the picture seemed pretty normal. Doctors walking, people waiting in the waiting area, the janitor walking by. It was mundane, until she looked closer and it wasn't. In the middle of the lobby there was a man frantically walking around. She could see the sweat forming on his brow as her waved his hands in front of blank faces. His hair was blonde and he was quite tall. From what Laurel could see he was quite handsome.

Such a shame he's dead. she thought to herself.

Laurel shook her head at that thought which was super off topic and not the most appropriate. God where did that even come from? There was a more important matter at hand which was trying to flag down this ghost without making people think she's crazy. Apparently the mystery man was way ahead of her. He quickly turned in her direction, feeling her eyes on him. He stared right at her and she stared right back.

"Hey... hey can you see me?" he asked, striding over to Laurel with a hint of relief on his face.

Laurel only gave a small nod in response. It was too crowded and open to start talking yet.

"Oh thank god someone finally sees me. Hey I don't know what's going on but-"

"Shhh" Laurel shushed him quietly and looked around. The man looked at her indignantly.

"Did you just fucking shush m-"

"We can't talk here...people will hear me." she said looking around slightly panicked. It was too open, more crowded than usual. Laurel was already starting to panic and it was making this mystery man panic a little too.

"Well don't crap your pants about it. Listen what do you mean people can hear you if they can't hear me why would it be any different for you?"

Laurel winced and closed her eyes at this. God she dreaded this question, she wasn't qualified to answer it. He was staring straight at her with a panicked yet hard expression on his face: getting more impatient by the second. She sighed to herself and bit the bullet. She opened her mouth and with a whisper she said,

"It's different for me because I can speak to the dead."

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a/n:

dun dun dunnnn i love a little cliff hanger moment teehee! i hope you guys like the first chapter! i wrote this like in 2018 and i've been editing it a lot so it's well... better. the writing after this is gonna be a little different because i'm 20 and not 15 anymore

sorry for the wait! life has been so insane and college is actually killing me but I've been getting back into supernatural and as always i'm obsessed with sam winchester.

the next chapter will come next week! i'm trying to upload on the same day every week for some consistency for myself as well as you guys. lmk how you liked this chapter! and what do you think is gonna happen next :)