As soon as Charlie opened her eyes, she was blinded by a bright white light, and the only way she could even begin to figure out where she had ended up was to listen to the low, murmuring voices around her. However, the only thing she knew was that they were all women, and that she would basically be clueless until her sight adjusted.
A hand stroked her forehead, gently prising strands of red hair away from her face, and she felt fingers prodding her side, as though she were a foreign object that they were examining. However, before she could push them away, a pair of hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her to her feet, brushing off the dry blood that she could feel stuck to her forearms and face.
Gradually, things became clearer to see, as though the light was dimming, and she could suddenly see an older woman with blonde hair who smiled at her like she was the most important person in the world.
'Charlie?' the woman said softly, reaching across to take the redheads hand in hers.
'Uh, yeah. That's me.' She replied, glancing at their hands in confusion.
The blonde laughed, pulling away from her and then waving forward a group of others behind her, all appearing to be female, though she couldn't quite see the faces of the ones at the back.
'You don't know what this is, do you? I'm Mary Winchester, by the way. The eldest human of the group, as Meg likes to constantly remind me.' Mary rolled her eyes, turning around momentarily to shoot a teasing glare at a short, brunette stood behind her, whisky bottle clasped in her hand. She waved it in the air, shrugging.
'You need reminding, Winchester. S'not hard to forget up here.' She joked.
'Wait. So you're Mary Winchester? Sam and Dean's mom? And what do you mean you're the eldest human? What else is up here? Oh crap. There aren't any Leviathan, are there? They give me the creeps.' Charlie cringed, wrapping her plaid shirt tighter around herself with nerves.
Mary laughed, before gesturing in turn back to several of the girls.
'Okay, well for a start, Meg there is a demon,' she began, biting her lip to hold in excessive snorting as the demon flashed her eyes black as a welcome to the newcomer.
Charlie shrieked, jumping away from them all.
'It's alright. She's a real softie,' Mary assured Charlie, before carrying on.
'Over there, you've got Emma. She's an Amazon, and also my granddaughter.'
A small girl with dirty blonde hair waved half-heartedly, before reaching over to swipe the whiskey from Meg. The demon kicked her in the shins, forcing her backwards, and Emma slumped against the wall, frowning. However, just as Charlie went to look back at Mary, she swore she saw the demon secretively pass the kid a shot glass, winking.
But then Charlie thought… If that was Mary's granddaughter that meant…
'Granddaughter?' Charlie squeaked as sudden realisation sunk in.
'Dean's daughter. She died very young. I expect he never mentioned her?' Mary sighed, glancing over at Emma with sadness.
The hunter shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other, not wanting to make Dean seem like some closed off, heartless monster, but there was something about his mother that made her feel extremely guilty about lying.
'I don't… I can't…' Charlie trailed off, tugging nervously at her shirt sleeves.
Mary groaned, like she already knew the answer, though the redhead hadn't said a word.
'Sounds exactly like my son. Always keeping secrets…' She sighed, before continuing to introduce the other women.
'Okay, so that one over there- The brunette- Is Lenore. She's a vampire. And the other brunette sat on the floor next to her. That's Madison. She's a werewolf. Any of the others will introduce themselves in time, I'm sure. The rest of us are human.'
Nodding, Charlie sat down on one of the chairs, slightly dazed, and then closed her eyes, unable to handle everything that was happening. Of course, she was almost certain that she was dead because of the fact that literally every person that had died for the Winchesters was right there. But since she wasn't ready to accept her fate yet, she just sat in silence.
That was, of course, until someone sat down opposite her.
She was blonde, like Mary, except this girl was younger, and somehow, Charlie knew who she was straight away.
'Jessica, right?' The redhead checked.
The blonde chuckled, nodding.
'That's me. Note the burn scars?' Charlie had been trying to ignore the marks on both Jessica and Mary's skin, but once the younger girl had pointed it out, she felt a little more relaxed, like she had been invited to see them and that it wouldn't matter so much if her gaze lingered for too long.
'Right. But I thought this was Heaven. Aren't all injuries and imperfections supposed to be healed up here?' she asked, confused.
'Everything but scars. For example, Meg has some pretty neat ones from her death, and her time on the rack. And then there's Pamela, she's got them under her eyes from where she looked at Castiel's true form…' However, before Jessica could finish listing all the walking wounded, the demon spoke up.
'You talking about my angel? He's okay, right?' She sounded slightly panicked, though Charlie was impressed with how well she hid it.
Jessica laughed.
'Stop worrying. You're feathered lover is just fine.' Jess told her.
Meg sank back into her seat, relaxing. Her reaction had confused Charlie though, and so Jessica, seeing this, explained.
'Meg and Castiel had a thing. She worries about him.'
Charlie's jaw dropped momentarily, before she regained herself out of modesty.
'Right. That's normal.'
Jessica shrugged.
'Yeah, well you get used to it.'
The two of them sat in silence for a while, Jessica peeling red nail varnish off her nails and Charlie running her eyes over the thick crowd of women. A few came over a while, some introducing themselves, some simply launching straight into a conversation. Charlie couldn't say she minded either way, although it was nice to know someone's name before they began discussing the pros and cons of death.
To her surprise, she learnt that Jessica and Sarah- an old flame of Sam's- got on quite well, and that they spent most of their time trading stories on how they used to like the softness of Sam's hair, and the way he would smile like his life wasn't a total fuck up. Jessica just wished that, like Sarah, she knew about the hunting before she died. It would have made meeting Mary in Heaven so much easier on her.
Pamela took Jessica's seat after a short while, the blonde leaving to talk to yet another fair haired girl- who Charlie discovered was called Jo- and her mother who had earlier announced that her name was Ellen.
'You look like you need a drink. Or seven.' Pamela joked, pushing a pair of black sunglasses back up her nose as they slipped. Charlie recalled Jess telling her how the woman across from her was blind.
'It's probably because I'm dead. Really takes a toll on a person, you know?' Charlie teased.
Pamela grabbed a glass seemingly from mid-air and gestured for Meg to pass her the whiskey. The demon obliged, taking a seat next to them at the table at the same time.
'Meg Masters, since we were never formally introduced. I'm pretty chill but don't think I won't break your legs if you piss me off. Welcome to the, 'Women Killed For or By the Winchesters Club.'' Meg announced, reaching over to shake the hunter's hand.
'Who let you name the club?' Pamela complained.
'God.' Meg rolled her eyes sarcastically.
'Fuck off.' Pamela grinned.
Meg took a swig of whiskey.
'Girl Scouts Honour.' She swore.
Charlie glanced between the two of them in amusement. Suddenly, it didn't seem to matter that they were all dead, or that Sam and Dean had probably discovered her body by that point. It wasn't so bad in the after-life, or whatever the Hell you call it. At least she wasn't alone. That had to count for something, right?