Shadows & Nightmares
By Simarillion

Fandom: Supernatural RPS
Universe: Alternative Universe
Rating: R/NC-17
Pairing: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki, others
Warnings: slash, M/M, violence, gore
Word Count: 628 word (5,089 words total)
Summary: The hunt is on.
Disclaimer: None of the herein presented happenings and events are true. Everything is 100% fiction and that includes the sexuality of the characters. I don’t claim to be in the know about their relations and private affairs, and I don’t make any money with the creation of this story.
The title of the story was taken from the Shadows & Nightmares compilation by Two Steps From Hell.
Author’s Note: This storyline stems from my wish to write some kind of horror/thriller plot. Listening to Two Steps From Hell’s Horror and Thriller albums didn’t help any.

Masterpost


06.
The first couple of days sleeping in the bed he used to share with Genevieve and opening the closet to find her clothes hanging neatly next to his own are pure hell. More than once he finds himself closing his eyes to block out the reality that stares him so blatantly in the face, only to see images tainted with blood and filled with screams. Screams of his girlfriend dying. Even Megan staying with him at the apartment doesn't really help with the situation.

At work people come up to him at all times. They think they are helping by telling Jared how sorry they are for him, but the truth is that he could do well without the supposedly comforting words. Their pitying looks and their useless advices grate on his nerves until they are raw.

They only thing that helps at all is exercise. So, Jared runs. As soon as he returns home from the office he changes his clothes and heads out. There's a park just two blocks down. It's rather large with an artificial lake, meadows and trees, paved paths cutting through the green and leading the visitors around the oasis in the middle of the cities.

The repetiveness of his shoes hitting the pavement, the zenlike state he reaches when controlling his breathing into the right rhythm and the relief the exertion brings, ensure that Jared has at least an hour of peace before he has to return home where he is back into the nightmare that is his life.

Just like everyday he heads out with a short goodbye to his sister and jogs down the sidewalk to the park. Today had been especially bad at work. The wife of a colleague had been visiting and since she had met Genevieve at the last Christmas party she had felt obliged on telling Jared (more than once) how sorry she is for him and what a tragedy and waste of life the death of such a nice young woman is.

With every slap of rubber on the pavement another tense knot in his shoulders and neck losens. Jared takes deep breaths and exhales, letting the go of the worries that had been weighing him down all day. There's the middle aged woman with her Golden Retriever who smiles at him everday they cross paths while running. Next he meets the homeless guy who's settling down for the night behind a bench. At the shore of the lake there's the young mother with the stroller, holding her baby to her shoulder and talking softly to it.

It's almost like a schedule. The same people at the same places at the same time.

Jared keeps on running until he has to return home. The customary nod goodbye to the middle-aged woman and her dog and he's heading out of the park, back to the apartment. Daylight is getting shorter with the winter drawing closer and while he had been jogging dusk had started, heralding the coming night with bright colors.

As he passes by a dark sidestreet there's the sound of something falling over. He glimpses into the dark and his breath gets caught as bright yellow green eyes shine back at him. It's the same eyes that he saw back in the woods.

Jared stops and stares at the wolf that is hiding out in the sidestreet, between cardboard boxes and a dumpster. It's impossible to make out the body but the eyes can be seen. They are brighter than Jared remembers and they send shivers down his spine. Just as he wants to take a look closer a motorbike turns into the sidestreet, the noise distracting him for a second.

When he looks back to where the wolf was, it is already gone.



=> 06.2