SUPERNATURAL
THE PARCAEX RITUAL
Note – This prologue is simply my written version of the final five minutes of Season Three, so it makes no difference whether you read it or not – Skip to the first chapter if you like.
Either way, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.
Review thanks!
Prologue
They knew it was over.
'Could Lilith get past the sprinklers?'
Sam and Ruby moved swiftly through the dark hallway, knowing, that with so little time left, there was very little chance of saving Dean from the fate that beckoned him.
'At her pay grade she could sweat in the holy water,' Ruby replied sourly as they walked into the next room, listening to Dean's attempts to evacuate the horrified family from the house, the anxiety of what he was about to face clearly expressed within his voice.
It was all Sam could do to keep himself standing upright as the time crept ever closer to midnight, much too quickly.
'Okay, you win,' Sam declared, turning to face Ruby, a solemn expression on his face, 'What do I have to do?'
'What do you mean?'
'To save Dean,' he said desperately, 'What do you need me to do?'
Dean, who had just entered the room, pulled Sam away, hissing, 'What the hell do you think you're doing?'
'Just shut up for a second,' Sam insisted, throwing Dean off him, his heart rate rising rapidly along with his impatience, and the fear for his brother's life was tearing him up inside. 'Ruby!'
'You had your chance.' she snarled, pushing him out of her face. 'You can't just flip a switch. We needed time.'
With two minutes left until midnight, Sam was now utterly desperate, 'There's got to be something, some way! Whatever it is… I'll do it!'
Dean, who had heard first-hand from Ruby that there was no way of saving him, grabbed Sam by the shoulder again.
'Don't – Dean! I'm not going to let you go to hell! Dean-'
'-YES YOU ARE!' He let Sam go, their eyes piercing one another's, and Dean stared at his brother, a determined look etched into his face as he whispered, 'Yes you are.'
Sam opened his mouth to retaliate, but Dean continued, fighting to keep his tears back. 'I'm sorry. I mean, this is my fault, and I know that. But what you're doing, it's not going to save me,' he sighed, 'It's only going to kill you.'
Sam stopped, tears swelling in his eyes and knowing that what his brother said was true, just refusing to accept it. He just couldn't step aside and watch his brother die like this. 'Then what am I supposed to do?'
He half-expected Dean to come up with some joke or witty remark that would break the tearful moment between them – but it didn't come.
Sam couldn't believe what he was seeing. Dean had given up.
After a whole lifetime of fighting, after everything they had done this past year in an attempt to free Dean from his dead, his brother was bowing to the fact that he was going to Hell.
'Keep fighting,' Dean whispered, 'Take care of my wheels. Sam, remember what Dad taught you, okay?' A crystal droplet fell from Dean's eyes and plummeted to the floor, the first of many to come and he made no attempt to hold them back, 'And remember what I taught you.'
A weak smile broke the lines on his face, and a harsh silence pierced the night, the fatal silence ensuing and the sharp breeze deadly against their eyes.
A thousand emotions poured through Sam's mind as he gazed into his brother's teary eyes, a mutual understanding lying between them that the time had come to say goodbye once more – for Dean to part this world, never to return.
The chiming of a bell broke the silence, and they looked over at the source. Sam, Dean and Ruby all read the time engraved upon the grandfather clock hanging upon the wall, tall and menacing above their heads, and they each knew exactly what it meant.
12:00am.
Midnight.
Dean's time was finally up.
'I'm sorry Dean,' Ruby said, 'I wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy.'
And at last they heard it. The horrific sound of barking in the distance; an omen of death to signify that there was, indeed, no hope for Dean now.
Sam refused to stop staring into Dean's eyes, attempting to preserve the memory of his brother that would soon be lost into shadows, into the darkness of hell itself, never to be seen by another living soul. The pain was overwhelming, and Sam strained to keep himself from collapsing in tears and crying for his doomed brother.
But not just yet.
Perhaps there is still hope, Sam insisted. Perhaps there is still a way to save him.
'Dean, we-' Sam began, but abruptly stopped as he noticed the look of horror etched into his brother's face. 'What is it?'
Dean gulped, 'Hell Hound.'
'Where?'
'There.'
Sam followed Dean's eyes, and he could not see the creature. But he sure as hell could hear it; the snarling growl of a monstrous animal ready to pounce, to strike it's victim dead. The three of them braced themselves, ready for the moment that they knew would come.
And sure enough, it came.
In an instant, the three of them simultaneously sprinted through the doors to their right, through the dining room and into the study, locking the door and pressing their weight upon it, attempting to keep their worst nightmares at bay.
With sharp adrenaline pumping through his veins, Dean could hear the hound throwing itself upon the door; feel the phenomenal weight crashing against his thigh and taste death on the tip of his tongue as they listened intently to the sound of their barking that echoed throughout the house.
After a single moment's hesitation to clear his mind, Dean left the door and ran to the table set in the center of the room, pulling a bag from it's surface. He then hurried back to Sam and Ruby, pouring the contents at their feet and surrounding the door with a white salt known as sulphur.
The barking and destruction upon the door instantly ceased, and the atmosphere around them became silent again – deathly silent, and it sent a cold, nauseating chill up Sam's spine. Dean didn't waste any time, moving to the window and bordering it with sulphur as well, though they all knew that it wouldn't hold for too long.
'Give me the knife,' Ruby demanded; reaching out her hand for the weapon, 'Maybe I can fight them off.'
'What?'
'Come on! That dust won't last forever!'
Sam hesitated, and then pulled the infamous demon-killing knife from his jacket.
'Wait!' Dean's voice echoed through the room and Sam stopped in his tracks. Ruby gave dean a look of sheer wonder.
'You wanna die?' She snarled.
Dean looked at her in suspicion. Through the severity of her voice he caught a tone quite unlike her own, but familiar none-the-less.
'Sam,' he whispered, 'that's not Ruby. THAT'S NOT RUBY!'
Sam lifted the knife and prepared to strike, but he wasn't fast enough. He was thrown backwards by an invisible force, hitting the back wall with a harsh thud, and hanging there, incapable of moving. Dean was thrown back in the same instant, landing on the table with his arms spread and utterly defenseless, a crooked smile now tightening on Ruby's – or rather, Lilith's – face.
'How long have you been in her?' Dean growled, fierce anger swelling within his stomach.
'Not long,' she admitted, 'But I like it, it's all grown up and pretty.'
'And where's Ruby?' Sam asked.
Lilith grinned, 'She was a very bad girl. So I sent her far, far away.'
'You know, I should have seen it before,' Dean said, 'But you all look alike to me.'
Lilith ignored him and kept her attention focused on Sam, her smile growing wider with each passing second.
'Hello, Sam,' she walked towards him, 'I've wanted to meet you for a very long time.'
She leaned forward, and – quite unexpectedly – with Sam unable to stop her, she kissed him.
'Your lips are soft,' she whispered.
'All right,' he said, 'So, you have me – let my brother go.'
Lilith laughed coldly at him. 'Silly goose. You want to bargain? Well you've got to have something I want… Which you don't.'
'So this is your big plan, huh?' Dean spat, 'Drag me to hell, kill Sam… And then what? Become Queen Bitch?'
She turned to him, smirking, 'I don't have to answer to puppy chow.'
And with that same sick smile upon her face, Lilith slowly backed away towards the door. Sam and Dean were powerless to prevent it, and she bent down, scratching a path in the line of sulphur, all that was keeping the Hell Hounds from tearing Dean apart.
'Sick 'em, boys!'
The door swung violently open, a putrid smell filled the room and Sam watched helplessly as his brother was dragged from the table by a creature he could not see, his shirt being torn apart by invisible claws, and his screams echoed from the ceiling in conjunction with the roars and hungry growls from the Hell Hounds.
Within seconds Dean's body was bleeding terribly, and his wails slowly faded into the night, the life leaving him forever.
The sickening taste of blood filled Sam's mouth before he realised that he'd been biting his lip. As he watched his brother die, slowly and painfully, agony beyond anything he'd felt before rushed over him as Dean was torn apart quite literally by the Hounds, peeling the flesh from his skin and leaving him in complete bone and vein, blood dripping from his knees.
And then there was silence.
The screams subsided, the Hell Hounds couldn't be heard anymore and Sam felt his own body go numb as he took in what had just happened. Torrents of blood flowed from Dean's mutilated body, and the light from his eyes faded forever into the sinister darkness of Hell.
'NO!' Sam couldn't take it. He wanted nothing more than to black out in that moment, to simply die and not have to withstand this kind of pain.
'Yes!' Lilith growled hungrily, moving forwards towards him and reaching out with her palms flat towards him. A blinding white light emitted from her outstretched hand, and Sam – with newly freed limbs – blocked the light from his eyes, crouched into the corner and waited for the end.
But almost as soon as it had come, the light disappeared again, and Sam looked up to see Lilith standing before him, eyes wide with shock at the ineffectiveness of her attack.
Standing with an unfamiliar confidence washing over him, Sam advanced towards her. 'Back!' Lilith yelled, thrusting her hand forwards again. 'I said back!' There was a hint of fright in her voice now.
For a reason unknown to him, Sam was immune from her attack. But he did not dwell upon this. Bending down to pick up the Demon-killing knife they had brought with them, he swung it high in the air and smirked at the cowering Lilith.
'I don't think so,' he grinned, plunging down with the knife. But before he could strike her, a thick black smoke erupted from her mouth and evaporated through the ceiling, a lifeless shell of her formerly inhabited body hanging loose for a moment before slumping to the floor.
The body of Ruby crashed at his feet, but Sam cared not for her or Lilith at that moment. He didn't think he would care for anything else ever again as he crouched down, a terrible sadness filling his mind, beside the mangled body of Dean. Lifting his brother's head, whose lifeless form stared up at the ceiling, Sam cradled it in his arms.
'Dean,' he sobbed, attempting to form words, but the pain was still too near. 'No… Dean!'
Through the faded green eyes that were once Dean's, a pain worse than death had befallen Sam's brother.
Deep inside the fifty thousand square mile darkness of Hell, a tightly constructed network of retracting chains and crashing thunder echoed through the darkness, flashes of lightning erupted from the varying patches of darkness and light, and right in the center – suspended between a set of chains and meat hooks embedded into his wrists, ankles, rib cage and shoulders – lay Dean, excruciating agony befalling him in the most gruesome place known to man.
As Sam moaned over his decaying body, Dean's screams echoed into the darkness around him. 'Sam! God, NO! HELP ME!'
Inside, he knew that no matter how loud he screamed, nobody would ever hear him, and his howls of terror and pain would simply keep echoing away into the distance. But he didn't stop. 'Save me somebody! PLEASE!'
'SAAAAAAAAM!'
And now, let the story begin.
Keep reading, and I hope you enjoy!
Cheers =D
