The Devils you know

CHAPTER 1: BAD BOYS

There was an awful noise coming through my hall right into my bedroom. At first, I thought I must have been dreaming, who in their right mind would be trying to slam my front door down in the middle of the night...well, I had a few ideas, but my home was well protected. I was well protected. Managing to open my left eye, the light from the windows caused an instant headache. I looked at the clock beside my bed, it said 1.00 P.M. . Crap. I should've been up already. Working on my paper..due..well, in three hours. Crap.

- »Open the goddam door , Ally! Come on! Get the fuck up, we know you're there!«

Ugggh. The voice sounded familiar. I knew that voice. I would recognize it anywhere, anytime. That voice saved my ass a couple of times. I owned my life to it. Or, at least, what's left of it.

Not even bothering to put the rest of my clothes on, I walked to the door in my old Black Sabbath T-shirt, which used to be actually black, but now It was just a pale shade of grey. Having slept just couple of hours for days, I must have looked just the way I felt. Repetedly yawning, I scratched my scalp, realising my hair was in a mess and needed some serious grooming.

Puting my hand to the door knob, I pulled it towards me.

» Sam. Dean.« This was not a salutation. It was mearly a question what were they even doing here.

»Didn't Bobby call you?« the taller one asked, looking with a slight concern at my present state.

»Bobby?...No...no, why? What's wrong?« If those two were at my door, something must be wrong. And probably hell related wrong.

»There's a job here. We thought you might be interested.« Dean wasn't wasting his time chit-chating.

» I thought you didn't work with other hunters?«

»We dont. But you're more like family now. And besides, we had to make sure you were still breathing.« Dean smirked.

» Come in, tell me what's up«

The three of us walked back in to my appartment and while I went to get dressed properly, Dean's head was already in my frige, looking for beer. Sam sat on the couch and looked around at the mess of papers and books that were covering basically every surface of the place, still pressing his lips toghether with the same old expression of concern. But then, that was Sam. Being troubled and concerned was practically a primal aspect of his personality. Considering what he's been through, not just in this couple of years, but most of his life, he was holding up good. Normal people, weaker people would have gone crazy long ago.

»Um, so, you haven't been hunting much? I mean, Bobby said you didn't contact him in a while and...« Sam didn't even finish his sentence, he obviously left it to me.

»Um, yeah, no...I haven't. I needed a break. You know, last few years weren't easy for me, and probably I just...cracked. But just a bit. I'm fine. Really«

The voice coming from the frige was saying something sarcastically:

»So you decided to go back to university? Finish what's left? »

»I don't know. No. There's no going back to that life, but, as I said, it's just a break.« This wasn't a lie. Actually, it's the first truth that came out of my mouth in weeks. Even when talking to myself in the mirror. Especially when talking to myself. There was no going back. No apple pie life. But it was nice to pretend for a while.

The Apocalypse was over three years ago. Two boys, an old drunk and a fallen angel ended it. Sam was back from Hell, leaving Lucifer and Michael in the cage with Adam. Their third brother. Well, half-brother. We all knew the unimaginable torments he must be suffering there, being the archangels' chew toy for so long. But for now, we had no way of opening the cage again, even though we tried. God knows the boys tried to rescue their brother. Not even Castiel, who brought Sam back, had enough angel-mojo in him to lift up Adam. The cage that kept Lucifer and Michael away wans't ordinary, and it surely wasn't situated in a reachable limbo of the Hell. No, they were deep down in the pit, detached from most creatures inhabiting it.

So life was back to normal, you'd say. Bobby, the walking-talking-whiskey drinking hunter encyclopediae was digging up various kinds of books and picking up phones, saving our asses pretending to be our FBI suprerior when we got into more trouble than we could handle. And that wasn't at all that rare. Dean and Sam were working on jobs together, keeping their minds occupied and in that way safe from the mini-apocalypse that was going on inside them and between them. Castiel was...well, nobody knows where Cas was at the moment, or at all. He claps with his wings and appears here and there, but mostly when Dean calls him. Only when Dean calls him. We all know there's something wrong with Cas, it has been for a year or so, he's distant, quiet, puzzling and not giving straight answers. But, he's an angel, maybe that's normal for them. The point is, something definately is wrong. Upstairs. In Heaven. We can feel it, heck, even the monsters we hunt can feel it. And when it happens, it's going to be bad. And Cas is going to be involved in it, one way or another.

And as for me, as I said, I was just taking a break. When Death comes to town and demons posses your whole family, with you included, and then kill them, there is no going back to college. No more friends, no more parties, no barbecues during the weekends.

I don't know how Sam and Dean saved me. Or why did they even bother. But I'm glad they did. While death would have been the easiest way out, that would hardly have been my case. The demonic son of a bitch that was in me used my body for killing and torturing people. Older people. Children. People I knew. And the whole time, I was there. Conscious, present, aware of the pain, torture and fear I was causing, but completely unable to react. It's like you're both psychically and physically paralysed. So when they exorcized the demon out of me, my body was untact, I was still alive. And angry. Thirsty for revenge. For blood. Dean tried to warn me off, to get me back »on the right road«, to convince me to go back to living my normal life, because the life of hunters is dangerous not just for them but for everybody they love. But there was nobody left for me to love anymore. And they knew that. I looked into Sam's eyes and saw he undestood me, the anger, the wraith growing in me. He could relate. But Dean was just sad, because he blamed himself, yet again, for destroying the possibility of an »apple pie« life. Something he wanted so bad for himself.

Nevertheless, for me, it was never just about revenge. Once I got started, I saw how many people I could help, so many people I could rescue, maybe try to make the world a better place, to make a difference.

I was wrong.

No matter how hard we tried, how hard we fought, they were always coming back at us, just growing in numbers, in strenght. And every single Apocalypse that the »Team Free Will«, as we liked to joke about them, stopped, another one accured. There was no end of the line. Not for the boys. Even if they died, they would bring them back. God, Angels, Devil...it didn't matter.

What hurt Dean, probably more than Sam and Bobby, was the knowlege that Heaven was no better. Angels were maybe even bigger dicks than demons. And God? God just gave up on all of us. We wre all on our own, and humans... no wonder we were losing the fight. After all, there was just a small number of us, aware and trained for this war.

A voice coming behind me snapped me from my thoughts.

» You know, I wish I could tell you that some lame high school teaching position is in your cards. But after everything, I doubt it.« Turning around, I looked at Dean, leaned on the wall, with one hand resting on his hip,casually drinking the beer but hiding what seemed to be sadness in his eyes. –» I'm sorry, kid.«

»Yeah. I know.« I swallowed hard. »- So, what monster brought you to this part of the country anyway?« I guessed it was time to change the subject.

» Skinwalkers.« was the short answer coming from the older Winchester brother, still standing behind my back.

» Exactly. But, not any regular kind of skinwalkers. We think there might be something new about them. Like they have...evolved. » Sam sounded as if he was not sure about his choice of words.

» What, like Pokemon?«

» Well, creepy kind of Pokemon, anyway. They feed on people. With the preference for teenage boys. »

» Oh, shit«- I laughed-» that's a bit pedophiliac even for monsters«

»No shit, Sherlock«- Dean was raising his bottle in a sing of a toast.

»Anyway, they found their way to infiltrate to middle schools in this area. As a consequence, we now have at least 6 boys missing, two from every school, maybe more, 4 of them have been dead for sure. »

» Bobby thinks they come in pairs, you know, they hunt toghether for meat, change their form to adolescents, kidnap the boys and feed on them afterwards. They move on then.« - Dean explained.

» Wait, so what, they take a human form, in this case teenage boys, so they can get close to others, kidnap and feed on them later?«

»Something like that, yes.« - Sam confirmed

»He told you, evolving like Pokemons, monsters theese days. »

»Ok then, so I guess you have a traced them now?« - I asked, interested in this case, which made no fucking sense considering all we knew about skinwalkers.

»Kind of. There are only a few schools left in this area, we've already checked one, so that leaves another two. You coming with us?« - Dean sounded impatient.

»Well, sure. Why not. Just let me call my girls, they'd want in, I know it. »

Dean rolled with his eyes. It wasn't that he didn't like them, Chris and Tina, he just didn't want to be responsable for possible deaths of anybody else.

The two girls were hunters, just like me. We've been friends for a long time, since we were 7, which was 15 years ago. They, too, have lost their families when the forth horseman of Apocalypse came to town.

Couple of hours later, the five of us was sitting in the Impala and heading towards a middle-school in the area that hasn't been checked yet. Chris was the first to speak.

-»Ok, give us some more information, what kind of skinwalkers are we dealing with ?«

- » Here's the problem« Sam said-» We think it's a Leshy. A Slavic forrest monster that can posses a form of any living being and change sizes. They be as small as a leaf of grass or as tall as a freaking Sequoia. Not to mention, they are able to shift to an actual Sequoia. Leshys usually imitate human voices and lurke their victimes to their in human form, their eyes glow red. But the fun part, they don't eat the victimes. And they also usually don't leave the are considered to be some sort of protectors of animals and forest creatures, which means they attack humans only if they see them as a threat.«

- » And we're sure they have fed on the boys because...?« -Tina was not convinced

-» Because we found the bones of some of them. With bite marks, that weren't human teeth. In the caves. In the woods. » said Dean sharply.

-» Shit. Ok, so how do we kill it? Silver?«

-» Yap. Silver knife through the heart should work. We hope. They are also known to run towards a fire in the forest and try to extinguish it.«

Dean pulled the car in front of a big building, sorrounded by a concrete jungle and just a cople of trees. A pretty sad look for a middle school. They have already changed their clothes to "respectable FBI agents, Johnson and his partner Kirk« and headed to the main entrance in order to talk with the principle. Chris and I went to the back door and tried to cause as little noise as we could, while observing the pupils walking down the halls and sitting in their classrooms. Tina stayed in the Impala and observed the place from the outside. For the life of me, I couldn't find anything awkward going on. All of the children looked normal and in the moment where I was to give up and go outside to wait for the brothers, two boys passed by me. I couldn't see their eyes, but a strange feeling just sent shivers down my spine. As I turned around to follow them, they already dissapeared in the mass of children.

-»So, the principle said no kids were missing from his school, and also no suspicious newcomers in last few days. He's aware of the situation and kids going missing so he's introducing some safty measures, but for now, we've got squat. »

-» What's next? The second school?« -I asked

-» Yeah, but first, we've got to feed my baby here, she's been howling for hours!«- Dean patted the roof of his car and we got in.

As we stood on the gas station, Dean »feeding« his precious and Sam inside buying something to eat, I noticed a schoolbus full of children stopping next to us. It looked like they have just retured from camping or some kind of excursion. There was nothing suspicious about them, except...I couldn't quite put my finger to it, but those two boys over there looked familiar, where have I...o shit! Those were the same two boys I saw roaming down the school halls just minutes ago!

-» That's them, that's them, look at their eyes!«- I was growing impatient- »Dean, Dean! Look at those two, they're the ones we're looking for!« He turned around to see them, but they have already noticed us and jumped in some car. They were pulling away as we spoke.

-» Sammy! Get in the car!«- Dean yelled. In one second, we were chasing and old blue Volvo, driven by a couple of fake 14 yearolds. –»Go faster, we're loosing them« -»Shut up, kid, I'm going as fast as I can!« The fact that it was 4 p.m and a rush hour didn't help much. We kept avoiding the cars as much as we could, causing two or three crashes as we passed the red lights on the crossroads or took advantage while turning left, then left again and right. The Leshys turned off the engine and ran to the nearest building. A school. »

-» We're going in, we have to capture them!«

-»Dean, are you nuts?! You can't just run right into a middle-school and stab a bunch of kids. And for all we know, they might have shifted again already!- Sam was trying to be reasonable.

-» Sammy,we don't have time. We're going in. You three, wait here by the car and be prepared to run!« Just seconds later, we heard sirens coming from the main road. The police. Great, just what we needed. But Sam and Dean were already in the building.

-» They didn't see the police coming! I have to warn them«- I yelled and ran after them.

A bell rang signalizing the end of the school for the day and the halls were filled with children, teachers heading towards the door. I saw Sam and Dean running up the stairs, chasing the Leshys. Unfortunately, so did a teacher.

-»Hey, you two! What are you doing, leave those boys alon! HELP! Call the police! There are some men trying to hurt the kids!« But the police was already there, cuffing Sam and Dean. And the monsters? They were gone. We've lost them.

Few minutes later, we were in front of the school, and Sam and Dean were getting in the police car. In a split second, Dean looked at me, while the police officers were busy interrogating to the teacher.

-» We'll get out in no time, don't go hunting on your own, they're too dangerous.«

-» But Dean...«

-» No! Listen to me, wait for us! And call Bobby, the silver doesn't work.«

- » Wait...What?!«

-»Call Bobby. And don't do anything stupid!«- He sure tried to emphasize those last few words.

And they were gone.

I turned around and looked at the two friends behind me.

-» What did he say?«

-» Silver doesn't work. We need to call Bobby. And get this bithces. »

We took the Impala and drove away from the school.

-» Hey Bobby, it's Ally.«

-»What happend? Are those two idjts ok? Are you ok?«- came the response from the grumpy voice on the other side of the phone.

-» Yeah, we're alive. Sam and Dean are on the police, they got them. But that's not the problem. The Leshys are. Silver doesn't work. We don't know how to kill them. And, yeah, we lost them.«

-» Balls. Ok, give me an hour, I'll se what can be found.«

-» Ok, thanks Bobby.«

I looked at my friends. –»So, what do we do next?« Tina was the first to speak: -» Lets go through the schools that haven't been atacked yet, maybe...« - she was interrupted by the phone ringing in the Impala.

-»It's Dean's phone, the fake number«- that sounded more like a question than a statement. I picked up .

-» Hello, agent Johnson? Um, It's principal Vernon, we spoke earlier today...«

- »Um, hello principal Vernon, mr. Johnson can't come to the phone in the moment. I'm his secretary. How can I help you?«

- »Oh, ok. Could you please tell him I've called, about the case he was here before. Um, two boys weren't in the school anymore when their parents came to pick them up...«

- »How old were they, mr. Vernon?«

-» 14«

-» I see. Thank you for calling. I'll let him know immediately.« I put down the phone.

-» Seems we're going back. They've attacked.«

-» Do you know where could they've hidden the bodies? Didn't Sam mention some kind of caves in the woods?

-» Yeah, but the school is surrounded by freaking concrete. There are bearly trees here. »- I said, as we left the car on the parking lot of the school. We decided to take a look around and find a place that seemed good enough for skinwalkers to hide their prey. Everything happened quite quickly so they couldn't have gone far, they couldn't have gone to the woods and were probably forced to find a suitable place in the school area. My phone rang again. It was Bobby, hopefully with good news.

-» Hey, bad news, kid.«- crap. Fuck. – »You'll need bullets that have been rolled in infant's ashes.«

-»Excuse me, we'll need what?!«

-» But don't worry, Castiel should be able to acquire those for you.«

-» And how do I get to him? He isn't exactly answering his prayers...«

-»I've talked to him. He'll be there in a minute.«

-»Wait, Bobby...«- but he already hung up. I took a deep breath and looked around. We were hunting skinwalkers, unarmed and waiting for help from an angel who seemed to be ignoring us for months now. In that moment we heard a familiar noise that sounded like a pair of wings landing somwhere near. A tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed man in a dirty trenchcoat materialized next to us.

-»I have what you need. Don't miss«- came from a deep voice, looking straight foreward him, as if he didn't even

-»Cas! Where have you been, man? We've been trying to reach...«- but he just handed two bullets and was gone. Wonderful. Well, at least we had weapons against them now. We just had to find them now. And hope the children were still alive. Wandering around the school property, trying to pass unnoticed, we were looking for anything that looked suitable for draging teenage boys in it. Suddenly, Chrissy started caughing, sweating. She became pale as a wall. –» Guys, I'm dizzy, I'm gonna be sick...« but instead of sitting down and taking a rest, she ran towards a small garage near the school gym. The two of us followed her. We bursted through the door, aiming at the creature that grabbed Chrissy by her neck. It wasn't in it's human form any more. It wasn't a tall creature, but it had long twig-like arms with sharp fingernails and pointed teeht. His back and legs were covered with something that looked like dying leafs. It screamed at us, making us cover our ears, and jumped in the whole that it previously had dug in the ground, taking Chrissy with it. Tina and I looked at each other, shruged our shoulders and followed it.

When we hit the ground, we found ourselves it a place that looked like a cave, there was mud, leaves everywhere. But the creature was gone, so we starded running down the only path that was there. Not long after, we heared children screaming and begging for help. The place was of round shape, with the lost boys chained to the walls. Four of them were still alive. Other ones, just bones. The two creatures looked at us and started screaming again, trying to disarm us, but this time, we were prepared, having our earphones. Tina and I gabbed our guns and shot the creatures directly in the forehead. They fell to the ground, dead.

-» Is everybody ok? We're here to help, we'll get you home.« As the creatures died, Chrissy was feeling herself again, so she helped us rescue the boys. With help of each other, the seven of us managed to climb up the cave and we found ourselves on the surface again. »Look, what you saw, you were halucinating. Those bad man druged you and wanted to hurt you. But they were just men, we know what you think you saw, but don't worry.« I had a feeling our consolations weren't about to work and those poor children would be scared for life, knowing that the monsters under their beds and in the dark were real...

The next day, I was sitting in the local jail waiting room when I saw both Dean and Sam walking towards me. That was strange, were they allowing two of their suspects for attacking children talk to each other and to a visitor? They seemed as confused as me.

-»So the job is done«- there was a bit of gloating in my voice, but Dean was looking at me with dissaproval, his hed tilted just a bit to one side.

-» How did you do it?«- Sam was wandering with his usual concern.

-»That's the funny part. Well, not so funny. Gross actually. We needed bullets rolled in newborn infant's ashes.« Now, both brothers were looking at me with dissaproval, and a bit of disguist.

-» Need I ask how the hell did you get to that in the little time you had?«- demons. He was considering me talking to demons, making some kind of deals, quid pro quo. But making deals with the Devil was more in their hobby description, not mine.

-» Don't worry. Nothing like that. Cas gave them to us. How did he get them and what angel laws he broke now, I don't know.« At the sole mention of the angel's name, Dean lowered his look and pressed his lips together. I could see the pain in his eyes, the guilt he feels just by saying his name. Castiel is like family to them, he is their friend, but for Dean, he is much more. Besides Sam, he is the only person in the whole creation, Heaven, Earth or Hell that he would risk everything for. And he did, lots of times. As did Castiel. For Dean, to help him, to save him, he rebelled against his own kind, against his brothers, been tortured, killed and brought back. Too much heart was always Castiel's problem. But that heart, in some way, belonged to Dean. He was his angel, his protector. And when his whole family of angels, his own brothers rejected him, Dean kept Cas by his side, safe. A part of the family, a part of himself.

So now, when something was happening with Cas, when he wasn't answering our prayers, wasn't talking to any of us anymore, not even Dean, but he didn't gave up on his angel. Every night he kept praying to Cas, begging him to let Dean help him, to come back home to him, but there was no answer. Inevitably, Dean feels guilty. Somehow, again, whatever is happening with Cas up in Heaven, it's his fault. If he didn't beg him to stay, to listen to his heart and act upon his free will, Cas would be safe and everything would be ok. But he doesn't understand that Castiel never had a choice. Not since he pulled Dean back from Hell, all those years ago. That made a profound bond beteween them, a bond based on trust and love that not even Heaven could break. As Dean said, they were family. They needed each other.

-» You talked to Cas?«- Sam was interested in the way the story was going.

-» Not so much as talked. He just gave us the bullets and flew away. But Bobby might talked to him, at least so he said« - Dean raised his eyes to meet me, running hand over his mouth, still looking devastated.

-»Does Bobby have any idea how get us out of here?« Dean finally spoke.

-» I don't know. But we'll come up with something, I promise. We won't let you rot in here for much longer.«

-» Good. We've got jobs to do. People to save«

-» You sure you're not just using hunting again as an escape from the shitload of bad stuff happening in your life right now?« -Unespected, the words came out of Sam's mouth.

-» Shut up, Sammy«- and here he was, again, staring at the blank table before him with an expression that was breaking our hearts, because we knew there was nothing we could do that would bring Cas back to him.

- » Um, guys, I'm kind of worried here. What if something bad is happening? I mean, evolving skinwalkers immune to silver?«

-»Please, don't jinx us, please, don't even start thinking about another fucking Apocalypse...«

-» No, really, Leshys kindaping and feeding on children? So far from the woods? »

-» You think somebody is making new monsters? Better ones, improved? Monsters 2.0? » Sam was asking this quietly while looking around the room, as if he found something to be suspicous. He ran fingers through his hair, and leaned more foreward on the table.

-» I hope not. I really hope not. »- my voice was tired, as was I, so I just closed my eyes and slammed my head to my hands. Two brothers kept talking, with their voices lowered, almost whispering.

-»She is right Dean, there's definitely something going on. Don't you see it... it's been all too quiet last few months. Almost zero demon possesions, the angels are keeping quiet, and the monsters are steping out of their zones. Look at this, Lesys feeding on children? Out of the forests, attacking instead of protecting the woods?! it's just too strange. »

-» So you think we're really facing another end of the world? Again? Maybe they're coming from Purgatory...«

-» But we shut the gate, Dean, there's no way from monsters to get back from Purgatory to Earth. Even so, that wouldn't explain the whole evolving thing.« - While Sam was turning around nervously and crushing his fingers during this conversation, Dean's form remained intact. His shoulders down, hands before him on the table and eyes focused on the empty table.

-» Dean, uh, were there so many guards when we steped in this room? Don't make any sudden movements, but raise your head. There's something happening right now, right here. Ally, wake up, I think we'll might need to fight.« Dean slowly liftted first his eyes, then his head, and checked the room. I followed his example. Trying not to breathe heavily, my heart started pumping like crazy. Sam was right, there was about dozen guards and some prisoners standing all around our table, blocking every possible exit from the room. This had every predisposition of turning into a very, very, bad day. Before we managed to actually do anything, lights on the ceiling started flickering. The three of us just slowly lifted our eyes up, as if trying to convince ourselves that this was, unfortunately, real and not merely a dream.

-»Ooooh, no.«- whispered Sam. A well known voice with a thick Scotish accent greeated:

-»Hello, boys.«