CHAPTER ONE
"Remember, hope is a good thing Red, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
- Stephen King
It was the sight of the familiar house that finally tugged on Dean's heartstrings.
The front lawn was admittedly patchy and overgrown, he didn't think Bobby Singer even owned a lawnmower. He definitely wouldn't be winning any award for his yard in any case. But the sight of the sunflowers growing determinedly in the flower bed was perhaps the most welcoming sight that he could imagine.
They bobbed cheerily in the wind, as if greeting him, the yellow bright and eye-catching. He had been there when Ariel had planted those seeds, hadn't he? He had seen her marching out front with the packet in her hand, expression the same determined one that Dean had always associated with their father.
Despite Dean insisting that the sunflowers wouldn't grow, and he had been so sure they wouldn't, Ariel had persisted, planting the seeds and watering and waiting patiently for weeks, eventually coaxing them forth from the earth in that gentle, giving manner that she had.
Everything Dean had done since crawling out of the ground had been methodical, but it was this, seeing those sunflowers that reminded him of Ariel's warm smile, that made him stop to really process the fact that he was alive.
Bobby would be inside this house and Ariel too, completely unaware of what was about to happen. They would be surprised, of course. But happy. Dean knew they would be happy just as sure as he knew they had grieved when he had been taken to Hell.
That had been the last time he had seen Ariel too, panic-stricken and screaming and watching as a hellhound tore him apart.
And Sam…
There was no telling where Sammy was, but asking Bobby and Ariel was probably a start.
Maybe he would be here. Maybe he was sitting on the couch with Bobby, drinking a beer. Maybe Ariel had just snapped a picture of him, catching him by surprise while she grinned like a Cheshire cat from behind her camera.
Maybe Dean had died but things had progressed as usual in his absence. Maybe, as far as the people he loved most in the world went, life was good.
But the feeling in Dean's gut told him otherwise. The fact that he was back, in the flesh, meant that life was not good and things had not progressed as usual.
He wasn't sure if it was a crossroad demon that had brought him back, but he could just imagine Sammy making the deal or, God forbid, Ariel. He doubted it was the latter, however. He couldn't see Ariel having the heart or the stomach for it and Bobby was so protective of her that Dean doubted she could have done something so drastic without her uncle knowing. After all, Bobby hadn't even entertained the possibility that it was Dean when had had called after reaching that gas station.
He walked up the front path, mostly grown over with grass and weeds now, heart thudding in his chest as he tried to anticipate what would happen when he knocked on the door.
He could see the towers of cars stacked high behind the house, the junkyard just the same now as it had always been. A yellow bike with a white wicker basket was leaned against the railing of the front porch. Everything was so...mundane. Unassuming.
This house was one he had seen hundreds of times before, this pathway to the front door one he had taken more times than he could count. Everything about it was familiar, from the bright blue fingerprints staining the porch railing to the delicate lace curtains hanging in only one of the upstairs windows.
Dean mounted the steps of the front porch, hesitating for a moment as he looked at those blue fingerprints, left behind by an eager Ariel when he and Sam and Dad had dropped by unexpectedly one morning. She had been fingerpainting on the porch when they had pulled up and he could still remember the way she had leaped to her feet, squealing excitedly, hands a mess of colors as she peered over the railing, eyes bright and smile vibrant.
That had been a long time ago, and things had changed drastically since.
Sucking in a deep breath, Dean raised his fist and rapped his knuckles fiercely against the door.
A moment later the door was opened, and Dean was staring into the face of Bobby Singer who squinted in the bright sunlight, taking in the fact that it was Dean Winchester standing on his front porch who, last he checked, was very very dead.
"Surprise," Dean offered, giving Bobby a tired smile.
"I- I don't-"
"Yeah, me either," Dean said, cutting off Bobby's stuttering, stepping inside. The house was just as he remembered, smelling of dust and old books and beer. The familiar smells comforted him in a way. "But here I am."
Dean moved forward again and Bobby lunged, quick as a cat, lashing out at Dean with a knife but Dean was faster and grabbed Bobby's arm, twisting it behind his arm until he dropped it. Without much thought on the matter, Dean kicked it away until it was well out of reach. Bobby broked free, turning to backhand Dean across the face.
The action stung but there was no real force
"Bobby, it's me!"
"My ass!" Bobby growled, glaring at Dean.
He could see the fear written across the older man's face, could sense the doubt and disbelief. It wasn't that Bobby didn't want to believe him, it was that every hunter instinct in him was telling him that it was too good to be true. Dean knew this because if the positions were reversed, he would be acting in the exact same way. With that in mind, Dean reached out to grab a chair, moving it until it was between himself and Bobby. Better to have an obstacle in the way, he decided.
"Wait," Dean said, holding his hands up in surrender. "Your name is Robert Steven Singer. You became a hunter after your wife got possessed. You uh...raised my little sister Ariel since she was a baby and...you're the closest thing I have to a father."
Bobby stared at him again, gaze unwavering until he suddenly dove for his silver knife once more, swinging it out in Dean's direction.
"I'm not a shapeshifter!" Dean insisted, ducking.
"Then you're a revenant!"
Dean reached out, grabbing Bobby's wrist and prying the silver knife from his grasp, the other man glowering at him.
"Alright," Dean sighed, rolling the sleeve of his shirt up. "If I was either could I do this?"
He drew the blade of the knife slowly across the skin of his exposed right forearm, leaving a line of blood in its wake. He looked up at Bobby, waiting for some sort of reaction but he just stared, eyes wide with disbelief.
"Dean?" He asked finally
With a huge sigh of relief, Dean nodded. "That's what I've been trying to tell you."
Bobby broke, rushing forward to pull Dean into a hug, gripping the fabric of his shirt as if he were afraid Dean would disappear.
When they finally pulled away, Bobby smiled warmly. "It's good to see you, boy," He said.
"Yeah, you too," Dean replied.
"But...how did you bust out?"
"I don't know," Dean admitted. "I just uh...woke up in a pine box."
Suddenly, Bobby splashed water from a flask in Dean's face, leaving him spluttering as he spat it out.
"I'm not a demon either." He sighed heavily.
The sound of a cocking gun from behind him had him freezing, hand half-raised to his face to wipe away the excess water.
"I don't care what you are," a voice from behind him said coolly. "My brother is dead. And I won't be fooled by some cheap imposter."
"Ariel, it's really me." He insisted, turning to face her slowly.
She stood there, shotgun level with his chest, eyes narrowed in a calculating manner. Dean had never seen his baby sister look so cold in his entire life. Not that her doubt was completely unwarranted. The last time she had seen him, it had been when a hellhound was killing him.
"I saw a hellhound rip Dean open," she said pointedly. "His soul was dragged to Hell."
"And it's back now," Dean told her. "In my body, I mean. Which is no longer ripped open."
"I think it's really him Ari," Bobby said from his spot behind Dean.
At her uncle's words, Ariel slowly lowered her shotgun, her lower lip beginning to tremble as she looked at Dean, tears beginning to brim in the corners of her familiar blue eyes. He understood suddenly how much self-control it had taken for her to appear so cold and uncaring. It just wasn't in his sister's nature.
"Dean?"
There was the little sister he remembered. Emotional, not the stone cold badass who had been ready to shoot him dead.
"Hey, Ari."
She lunged forward then, all five feet of her as she threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his chest. He hugged her tight, resting his chin on her head until she finally moved, tilting her head back to look at him.
"I thought you were dead, asshole!"
"I thought I was too," Dean offered.
She stepped back, reaching up to wipe at her eyes, leaving a smear of grease across the bridge of her nose. Her hands were filthy, Dean noticed and he knew immediately that she had been out working in the scrap yard.
"Sorry. For pointing a gun at you, I mean. You can't be too careful." She said, leaning the gun against the wall.
"I would have done the same thing," Dean told her.
For a moment Ariel looked like she wanted to say something in response but thought better of it, stepping past Dean into the kitchen.
"Hey, are you hungry?" She called suddenly over her shoulder, pulling the door to the fridge open and peering inside.
"Hell yeah!"
Hastily eaten gas station food was one thing, but actual cooked food was something else entirely. And anyway, it had been...what? Four months since Dean had eaten a decent meal.
"What's on the menu, Ari?"
"Okay...what?" Ariel furrowed her brow, staring at her brother in confusion.
"That doesn't make a lick of sense," Bobby added, shaking his head slightly.
"You're preaching to the choir." Dean sighed, before sucking the remaining bacon grease from the tips of his fingers.
Ariel curled her nose slightly at the sight, exchanging a look with Bobby. Truth be told, she was still in shock. She had spent the last four months believing she would never see her oldest brother again. He was dead. She had watched him die. She had been there crying and screaming and watching as the hellhound tore into him. She had cradled his body afterward, not giving any thought to Dean's blood oozing into the denim of her jeans and shirt. She had helped to dig his fucking grave.
As much as it sucked and as much as she loved her brother, she had grown resigned to the fact that he was gone. And yet here he was, sitting across from her at the kitchen table, eating bacon and eggs and toast and making a fucking mess.
"Dean," she said patiently. "I was there. I saw you die. That hellhound turned you into Kibble 'n Bits. Even if you did manage to slip out of Hell, how is your body like...in tact?"
"I know I should look like a Thriller video reject," Dean confirmed, bobbing his head in agreement. "The truth is I don't know what happened.
"What do you remember?" Bobby asked.
It felt wrong, sitting her questioning the why of how her brother was back from the dead. It felt more like it should have been a cause for celebration. Instead, it filled them all with unease.
"Not much. I remember I was the hellhound's chew toy, and then...lights out. Then I came to six feet under. Actually," he looked between Ariel and Bobby then, face twisted in worry. "Sam's number's not working. He's not...uh…"
"Dead?" Ariel asked, raising a brow. She stood, stacking all three dirty plates together. "No. He's alive as far as we know. Not for lack of trying though." She walked over to the sink, setting the plates down before retrieving a bottle of beer from the fridge, setting it on the table in front of Dean.
"What does that mean?" Dean asked, turning to look at her.
She shrugged slightly. "He hasn't willingly talked to use for months. He only answers when I spam call his phone. And...we've heard from other hunters that he's uh...thrown himself into work."
"On his own?" Dean asked sharply, turning to glare at Bobby as if it was his fault.
"He was dead set on it," Bobby explained.
"You two should've been out looking for him." Dean snapped.
Ariel rolled her eyes. Back from the dead and her brother was still just as stubborn as she remembered. Not even hell could change that she figured.
"You think we didn't try?" She asked, swatting the back of Dean's head, partly in exasperated affection and partly in annoyance. "But Sam is as stubborn as you. He didn't want us to find him. And you know these past few months haven't exactly been easy on any of us."
"What do you mean?"
She gave him a long look. "We had to bury you, dumbass."
"Why did you bury me, anyway?" Dean asked, looking between them once more.
"I wanted you salted and burned, usual drill. But they wouldn't hear of it." Bobby said, tilting her head in Ariel's direction.
She shifted, moving to sit down once more and crossing her arms over her chest. "I just didn't want to have to burn my big brother's body." She told him finally, with a sigh. "Sam though...he kept insisting that you would need a body to return to when he finally brought you back."
"What?"
"He was quiet. Real quiet. And then he just took off. Only answered Ariel's calls once in a blue moon. We tried to find him but he didn't want to be found." Bobby explained.
"You think he brought you back?" Ariel deduced quickly, expression thoughtful as she looked at her brother. In all honesty, Ariel wouldn't have been surprised if it was Sam behind this. As smart as he was, Sammy could be really stupid sometimes. Ariel had enough common sense to know that meddling with the balance of life and death never went well. Her brothers, apparently, did not have that same common sense.
"Yeah," Dean confirmed with a simple nod. "But whatever he did was bad mojo."
"What do you mean?"
"You should have seen the gravesite," Dean explained. "It was like a nuke went off. And then there was this...force, this presence, I don't know, but it blew past me at a fill-up joint. And then this."
He stood up, pulling off his jacket and draping it over the back of his chair before rolling up the sleeve of his flannel to reveal his shoulder.
"What the hell?" Ariel stood, crossing around the table to examine the raised welt in the shape of a handprint that stood out so starkly on Dean's skin.
"What happened?" Bobby asked, moving to stand behind her, looking at the mark.
Dean shrugged. "It was like a demon just yanked me out. Or rode me out."
"But why?" Bobby asked, sitting back in his seat, crossing his arms and looking troubled.
"To hold up their end of the bargain," Dean replied simply, sitting back down as well.
"You think Sam made a deal?"
"It's what I would have done," Dean nodded, rolling the sleeve of his shirt back down.
Ariel sighed, shaking her head. "Here's what I don't understand," She began. "Lilith wanted you dead. She wanted you dead so much that there was no getting you out of your contract, no matter what kind of deals we tried to make. So then...what changed? Wouldn't she still want you dead?"
Despite the fact that the Impala had originally belonged to John Winchester, Ariel had always associated the car with her brother. It was, after all, the car that Dean had taught her to drive in. And it was Dean who taught her all the mechanical ins and outs when it came to touch-ups and repairs (though Bobby had refined her knowledge over the years). It was Dean who would wake her in the middle of the night and drive her to the local twenty-four-hour diner where they would sit and eat fries and burgers and drink shakes and choose classic rock to be played on the jukebox.
It may have been John's car first, but it was Dean who loved it the most.
Ariel loved the car too. Loved it because Dean loved it and it had been ingrained into her very bones since childhood. But she also loved it because Dean had pressed the keys into the palm of her hand before he had died. Dean had trusted her with it
She also loved it because, in the last four months, sitting in the driver's seat of that car was the closest Ariel felt to her brother.
In the hours that had followed Dean's death, she had gripped those keys as tight as she could in her hand, a painful reminder that the anguish she was feeling was real. After they had buried Dean she had sat in the car for hours and cried. No amount of coaxing from Bobby could lure her out, and no attempts from Sam to get her to hand the keys over and let him take the Impala could convince her.
Sam had had months with just Dean, on the road hunting. He had memories. Ariel was getting the goddamn car.
As protective as she had grown over her ownership of the Impala, it felt almost wrong to drop the keys into Dean's hand once more, and the satisfaction on his face as he wrapped his fingers around them was almost like salt to the wound.
Seeing the dejected look on her face, Dean offered her a grin. "You'll be the permanent owner one day, kiddo." He assured her.
She huffed, turning to open the passenger door of the Impala to slip inside. "I'm not a kid," she snapped.
Dean snorted, walking around the hood to open the driver's door to sit. "You'll always be a kid to me, kid sister."
She rolled her eyes, sighing heavily. Back five minutes and her brother was already being a prick. Ariel didn't know why she had expected anything different.
As if he were able to sense her thoughts, Dean looked at her from the corner of his eye. "You're the one who wanted to ride with me. There's still time if you want to go get in Bobby's car."
Ariel shook her head quickly, buckling her seatbelt as if the accentuate her decision. "You've been dead for four months Deano. I'm riding with you."
He grinned, turning the keys in the ignition and making the car hum to life. Renegade by Styx played from the radio and Dean's grin widened into a full-fledged smile as he started to sing along, his deep voice echoing back off the dashboard. He put the car in drive, his fingers drumming on the steering wheel along with the beat.
"You seem awfully happy about this one song," Ariel commented. "What, did they only play smooth jazz in hell?"
Dean glanced at her in surprise. "What?"
"What?" She blinked innocently.
"I just...didn't expect you to ask about Hell I guess." He responded.
"Why? Because I'm your sensitive, emotional little sister and you don't think I can handle it?" Ariel scoffed, shaking her head. "I'm not nearly as delicate as you seem to think I am Dean. I am a hunter. I can handle it. So...spill. What happened down there?"
Dean was quiet for a moment, his grip on the steering wheel tightening as he stared determinedly out the windshield. They had only just started the drive and Ariel had already made things awkward.
"I don't remember," Dean said finally.
"You don't remember?" Ariel asked disbelievingly.
Dean shook his head. "Nope. Maybe whatever pulled me out doesn't want me to remember."
Ariel narrowed her eyes, staring at her brother for a long time. His explanation felt a little too convenient, a little too easy. It seemed almost as if he was forcing his good mood. It felt wrong. But if he wasn't telling her then it was his prerogative, she couldn't force him. And Ariel also knew her brother well enough to know that any attempts to tell him that talking about what happened to him in the pit might help would be ignored.
And maybe Dean was telling the truth. Maybe he really didn't remember.
Ariel shrugged, sitting back in her seat. In the rearview mirror, she could see Bobby's car trailing behind them, no doubt enjoying a quiet drive.
The song on the radio changed, Styx being replaced by the more feminine voice of Blondie.
"What about you, Ari?" Dean asked. "Four months is a long time. What's new?"
"Nothing," Ariel replied with a shrug.
"Nothing?" Dean asked. "Nothing new in four whole months?"
She shrugged again. "Hunts mostly. I did go on a date a couple of weeks ago with a guy named Aaron who attends the community college in Sioux Falls."
"A date?" Dean's brows raised in surprise.
Ariel didn't blame him. She pointedly avoided dating, mostly because the life of a hunter was not kind to the loved ones. But this guy had been cute and sweet. Ariel had figured what the hell.
In addition to being cute and sweet, she had also quickly found out that he was boring. To his credit, Aaron had picked her up right on time and had shaken Bobby's hand and had opened the car door for Ariel. He had been perfectly polite but at the end of the night when he had gone in for a kiss, she had ducked her head and scurried into the house, leaving him standing awkwardly on the porch until Bobby had turned the porch light off with a chuckle.
"So are you going to go out with him again?" Dean asked curiously.
"Uh...no."
"Why not? He wasn't an asshat, was he? He didn't try anything? Do I need to go kick his ass?"
"No Dean," Ariel snapped impatiently. "I just don't like him. Can we like...not talk about my non-existent love life? Pretty sure we have other things to worry about."
"Geez," Dean let out a low whistle. "So defensive. I figured you'd be happy to get the chance to talk about yourself. I guess you want to spend the whole car ride discussing how I got out of Hell."
Ariel was very quiet, glowering slightly as she stared out the window. No, she didn't want to talk about how Dean had gotten out of hell. She wanted to tell him how glad she was that he had and that it was a miracle. Only Ariel was smart enough to know that nothing was ever that easy and all miracles came with a price.
She was worried that Sam was going to have to pay it and, as happy as she was to have Dean back, Ariel didn't want to get one brother back just to lose the other.
"Sorry," she said. "I'm just...worried, I guess. If there's one thing I've learned it's that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. I just want to figure this out to make sure that Sam didn't do something stupid."
"It's Sammy. Chances are-"
"I know. We have every reason to believe that he did one of those stupid, impulsive things that the two of you have the habit of doing."
"Hey!" He said defensively.
Ariel couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "Sorry. One of those stupid, noble, impulsive things that you have the habit of doing."
"We'll figure it out, Ari. I'm not going anywhere." He assured her.
"Yeah well...we were supposed to figure out a way to keep you from dying too."
Her words hung heavy in the air between them and for a long time the two of them stayed silent, both mulling over what she had said. Ari remembered how hard she had searched for a way to get Dean out of his deal without killing Sam. But she had been unsuccessful and ultimately had failed both of her brothers. And in the end, she and Sam had been forced to watch Dean die while they remained useless, unable to help.
Though it had been Dean's death that had haunted her nightmares in the months following, that feeling of helplessness had stuck with Ariel.
Finally, when she was unable to stand the silence anymore, she leaned forward, turning the radio up, allowing the sound of classic rock to fill the car.
Like most of the hotels that hunters stayed at, the one Sam had chosen looked like it had seen far better days.
"How come hunters never stay in nice places?" Ariel asked as they walked down the hallway, curling her nose up at a mysterious stain on the hallway. She couldn't tell what had caused it but if the grimy yellow color was anything to go by, she probably didn't want to know.
"We're a simple sort of crowd," Dean said pleasantly.
She imagined if any of the patrons staying at the hotel that night were to open their doors and see Ari, Dean, and her Uncle Bobby striding down the hall purposefully they would probably be a little intimidated. They would look like a group on a mission, determinedly headed towards the room at the very end of the hallway, the door looming there just waiting for them.
"I want you to stay behind Dean and me, Ari," Bobby said gruffly as the approached the door.
She frowned, turning to look at him. "Uncle Bobby, no! I'll be fine."
"We don't know what's behind this door. If Sam made a dealing with a demon it could still be around." Bobby insisted, ignoring the fact that his niece was glaring at him.
"He's right Ari." Dean's tone left no room for argument and, knowing that her options were to listen or be forcibly moved behind them, Ari let them move ahead of her, shuffling behind with her lips pursed in annoyance.
It was always like this when it came to the important stuff, Ari had noticed. Despite the fact that Ariel was a hunter just like them, it almost seemed as if nobody actually believed she could hunt anything. They always treated her like she was some fragile thing made of glass. Ari knew that they felt like they had to protect her but what she longed to say was that she didn't need protection. She needed them to get their heads out of their asses and acknowledge the fact that Ariel was just as capable as any of them.
Dean raised his fist, wrapping his knuckle against the door to the hotel room that the woman at the front desk had told them Sam was staying in.
A moment later it was answered by a woman who stood there wearing only a tank top and a pair of panties. She frowned, placing her hands on her hips, seemingly uncaring of the fact that she didn't have on pants.
"So where is it?" She asked expectantly, looking over the three of them.
"Um...what?" Ariel looked between Dean and her Uncle Bobby, confusion clearly written across her face. Whoever this woman was, it clearly was not Sam.
"The pizza…" The woman prompted. "That takes three people to deliver." She gestured to the three of them, clearly unimpressed.
"I think we got the wrong room," Dean said, starting to turn away.
Sam stepped around the corner then, standing in the doorway, looking remarkably tired.
"Hey is-" He looked up, seeing them standing there in the doorway and immediately fell silent, expression twisting into one of surprise. For a moment he could only look between them.
"Heya Sammy…" Dean said, his words quiet but hanging heavily in the silence between them.
Ariel stared at Sam, gauging his reaction. He certainly didn't look like someone who had expected their brother to return from the dead. He looked gobsmacked, utterly amazed to find Dean Winchester standing outside his hotel room. Ariel recognized the emotions that flicked across Sam's face because they were the same emotions she had felt when she had come inside from the scrapyard to find Dean standing in the living room talking to her uncle.
Dean moved forward, stepping beyond the threshold of the bedroom, the woman stepping aside to let him. As he approached, Sam suddenly lunged forward, whipping out a knife with the speed that Ariel had come to associate only with seasoned hunters.
The woman screamed, flattening herself against the wall as Sam attempted to slice at Dean with the knife. Dean, to his credit, had reacted just as speedily and was keeping Sam at bay but it didn't stop Ariel and Bobby from rushing into the room to try to separate the two.
"Who are you?" Sam yelled, still trying to get at Dean. He looked furious, deadly.
"Like you didn't do this!" Dean shouted back, jaw tense.
"Sam it's him," Ariel yelled, finally managing to interject herself between the two, placing her hands on his chest. Physically she wasn't such a strong barrier, but her presence between them was still enough to make Sam pause, expression faltering as he looked between them. "It really is," she added gently.
The fight immediately left Sam's body and he looked at Ariel with his confused puppy expression before looking past her at Dean, looking on the verge of tears.
"What…"
"I know. I look fantastic, huh?" Dean asked, advancing cautiously, eyes still on Sam as if he expected him to lash out again.
Slowly, Ariel lowered her hands, stepping back out of the way, eyes shifting between her brothers. She wasn't quite sure what she expected, but she couldn't help but tense up when Sam rushed forward.
He threw his arms around Dean, pulling him into a desperate hug. Dean wrapped his arms around Sam, the brothers embracing for a moment. Ariel smiled softly, exchanging a look with Bobby who looked like he was about to cry himself. She knew they would have to figure out who was behind Dean coming back from the dead but for now, it was nice seeing her brothers like this.
Finally, Sam pushed back, holding Dean at arm's length as he looked him over, still appearing confused.
"So are you two like...together?" The strange woman asked, drawing all of their attention.
Her expression flickered between confusion and amusement as she looked at the scene before her.
Ariel couldn't help but snort slightly in amusement at the question, turning to look at her brothers, smirking slightly.
"What?" Sam asked, absently as if he had forgotten the woman was even there at all. "No, no. He's my brother."
Despite the fact that Ariel definitely felt like she was closer to Dean, it had always been Sam who understood and was willing to talk about more complex emotions. Dean may have been the one who showed Ariel how to drive and who taught her how to ride her bike and he showed her how to change the oil in a car and change a flat and rebuild a motor, but it had always been Sam that Ariel went to when she was upset or angry or scared.
Except for the four years when Sam was away at Stanford being normal. Living with his girlfriend, studying for law school, leaving his family behind. Ariel understood that it was John and Dean that Sam had left behind, but she couldn't help but feel as if he had abandoned her as well.
Not that she could blame him really. She supposed every hunter, at one point or another, has the right to choose to live a normal life if that's what he or she wants to do. She just couldn't ever see herself doing it.
Regardless, Sam had left once leaving Ariel with her choice of three gruff, grumpy men to try to talk about feelings with. And though she tried not the blame Sam for leaving, she couldn't help but resent him slightly for it.
Of course, all of that had changed when Sam came back, determined to help Dean find her missing father. So their already absentee father was even more absent than usual. Ariel had both her brothers back.
But then Dean died and Sam disappeared again, returning Ariel's calls sparingly. She knew it was his attempt to put her worries at bay but really he only succeeded in making her feel like an afterthought. Oh yeah, I have another sibling.
Stanford she could understand, but disappearing after Dean's death was what really pissed her off. When she had first seen him in the doorway of the hotel room she had felt nothing but anticipation. They were about to find out if he had gotten Dean back from the dead. He was about to see their brother who had been dead for months.
But now...well, it was like Ariel's bad mood had expanded to fill the whole car.
She sat in the back seat, arms crossed over her chest, glaring at the back of Sam's head. She supposed she could have ridden with Bobby but she was not so keen to let her brother's out of her sight. It had been months since she had seen either of them.
"You really pissed her off, Sammy," Dean said, looking at him from the corner of his eye.
Sam shifted in his seat, turning to peer at Ariel and offering her an apologetic smile. "I am sorry, Ariel," He said.
"Mm-hmm," she hummed in acknowledgment.
"I just...had to try to get Dean back. Or kill the bitch who killed him."
"Well you didn't get Dean back so disappearing for that reason was kind of pointless," she snapped. "And as far as killing Lilith goes, I don't think I have to remind you that dad's misguided attempts to get revenge are what ultimately got him killed in the end."
Her words were harsh and both Sam and Dean frowned, exchanging a look. It wasn't what they expected from Ariel but the past few months hadn't just been hard on them and she had never been the type to try to disguise feelings or hide them. She had always worn her heart on her sleeve.
"Dad was just doing what he thought was right," Dean defended but Ariel shook her head.
"This isn't about Dad," she said. "This is about Sam. Who should have had enough common sense to know that disappearing and leaving behind the only family he had left was not the right thing to do. God Sam, a three-minute phone call every few weeks didn't make up for the fact that Uncle Bobby and I didn't know where you were. We were worried, you asshole. I'd already lost Dean and you made me feel like I had lost my other brother too."
Her words hung heavy in the air, making Sam's expression soften. "Ari…"
"Don't apologize," she said. "Just do better in the future. You're better than Dad. So act better."
Part of her felt bad for saying it, made her feel as if she didn't love her dead father enough, but it was true. John Winchester was winning no father of the year awards on any front. And both Sam and Dean had grown into better men that John Winchester had ever been.
"Damn Ari, how long have you been holding that in?" Dean asked with a chuckle.
"Oh, about four months give or take," She replied without missing a beat.
"Four months," Dean mused. "It sounds like it was such a long time."
"It was a long time," Sam insisted.
"So what happened? You know...after I bit it. How are you two even still alive. Lilith was there. I figured she would have killed you both."
"She tried," Ariel explained, leaning forward between the two seats. "She went after Sam first. But she couldn't do it."
"What do you mean she couldn't do it?" Dean asked, furrowing his brow.
Sam shrugged slightly. "She fired this, like, burning light at me, and… didn't leave a scratch. Like I was immune or something."
"Immune?"
"Yeah, I don't know who was more surprised, her or me. She left pretty fast after that." Sam continued.
"The only reason I'm alive is because she decided to go after Sam first," Ariel added.
"Huh," Dean was quiet for a long moment, considering what they had said. "What about Ruby, where is she?"
"Dead," Sam said simply. "For now, anyway."
"Good riddance," Ariel huffed, leaning back in her seat.
"So uh," Dean bit his lip, as if he wasn't sure about what to say or not. "You been using your freaky ESP stuff?"
"No," Sam answered immediately.
Dean looked at Ariel through the rearview mirror, the look on his face clearly asking her if she believed him. She shrugged slightly.
The truth was she didn't know what to believe. She had no idea what Sam had been up to in the past four months so she had no reason to believe or not believe what he said.
"You sure about that?" Dean finally asked. "Well, I mean, now that you've got… immunity, whatever the hell that is… just wondering what other kind of weirdo crap you've got going on."
"Nothing," Sam insisted. "Look, you didn't want me to go down that road, so I didn't go down that road. It was practically your dying wish."
If Ariel recalled correctly, Dean had had quite a few dying wishes. She could still remember that clearly, could remember the resignation in his eyes. He had been ready to face his death, ready to face the price for bringing Sam back.
Ariel could remember, in those moments of calm before she and her brothers and Ruby had entered the house of Lilith's meat suit, Dean looking at her and placing the keys to the Impala into her hand, curling her fingers around them. He had told her to take care of his car and she had agreed because what the hell else could she do?
When she was watching Dean get torn apart by the hellhound it had been the keys, gripped so tightly in her hand that she had made herself bleed, that reminded her that the scene before her was real.
"Yeah well, let's keep it that way," Dean said before falling silent again.
If Ariel were to make a list of people that she looked up to, Pamela Barnes would be one of the names near the very top of the list.
To say that Ariel was fond of the woman was an understatement, the two had hit it off the first time they had ever met and since Pamela had become the much needed female figure that Ariel needed in her life.
It was for that reason when Pamela opened the door to her house, Ariel rushed forward to embrace her with a squeal, the older woman laughing lightly as he wrapped her arms around Ariel.
"Hey kiddo," she said, ruffling Ariel's hair. "I take it the two studs are your older brothers?"
Ariel pulled back, beaming and nodding as she moved aside so that Pamela and Bobby could hug.
"You are a sight for sore eyes," Bobby told her fondly.
Finally, Pamela turned her attention fully on Sam and Dean, looking them over appraisingly and humming her approval.
Ariel couldn't help but grin slightly, amused. This is exactly what she had expected from this meeting.
"Guys, this is Pamela Barnes. The best psychic in the country." Ariel told her brothers firmly.
"Hey," Dean said flirtatiously, waggling his brows at her.
"Hi," Sam said awkwardly.
"Mmm-mmm-mmm Dean Winchester. Out of the fire and back in the frying pan, huh? That makes you a rare individual." Pamela smirked at him, still looking him over shamelessly.
"If you say so."
"Come on in," Pamela tilted her head, gesturing them inside as she stepped back, allowing the group to enter.
The house was dark and comfortable, with the same air of ease that Ariel had come to associate with most of Bobby's associates.
It also looked exactly how Ariel remembered it looking the first time she had met Pamela. That had been a long time ago when she was very young and Pamela was still recovering from Jesse. Bobby had been working a Tulpa case in the area and had been directed to Pamela for help. Ariel, still to young to actively participate on a hunt, had been resigned to the fact that she would likely be stuck in hotel rooms while Bobby worked the case but Pamela had offered to watch her. The two had spent most of the week eating junk food and watching Disney movies.
Ariel moved through the house with the familiar ease of someone who had been there before
"So you hear anything?" Bobby asked, trailing behind Ariel.
"Well, I ouija'd my way through a dozen spirits," Pamela replied. "No one seems to know who broke your boy out, or why."
"So what do we do?" Ariel had wandered over to a bookshelf and had been looking it over but now she turned, facing Pamela with a curious expression on her face.
"A séance, I think. See if we can see who did the deed."
"No summoning though, right?" Ari asked, unsure if she should be concerned for all of them or for Pamela trying to summon the thing.
"No, I just want to get a sneak peek at it. Like a crystal without the ball," she added, looking at Sam and Dean.
"I'm game," Dean said with a grin.
Despite Pamela's ease, given everything that had happened lately, Ariel didn't think that things would go as smoothly as she thought.
Sam had been unsurprised to see Ariel rush to embrace the psychic. He had known for a long time that Ariel could get along with just about everyone. It was on the list of reasons he admired his little sister, along with her compassion and kindness and empathy.
Ironically, those things were also at the top of the list of reasons Sam worried most about his little sister living the hunter lifestyle.
Sam spent a lot of time worrying about his little sister, especially as of late. She seemed almost too good, too pure for the life. Ariel should be off at college, studying to do something with her life. He had thought about that a lot at Stanford, had thought about the kind of person Ariel would grow into. He had gotten away, he had escaped. But would Ariel, when the time came?
Sam had never really stopped to consider the fact that Ariel didn't want to. She had grown up a hunter, but unlike Sam, she hadn't grown to resent it. She took pride in it.
It scared Sam sometimes, the idea of his sweet baby sister growing into something cold. It's the way the life of a hunter worked, it took something from you, sucked the softness out.
That is if it didn't kill you first.
Sam was seated at the table between Ariel and Bobby, pointedly ignoring the looks Dean was shooting in Pamela's direction. At the pace they were going, Sam suspected the two would end up falling into bed together before the night was through.
You're invited too, Grumpy.
That was not an invitation Sam had any interest in taking up, thanks.
From across the table, Pamela caught Sam's eye and smirked, offering him a little wink. She was attractive, Sam would give her that.
"Right," Pamela said, catching everybody's attention. "Take each other's hands."
They did, Sam gripping Ariel's small hand in one and Bobby's larger one in the other.
"And I need to touch something our mystery monster touched," Pamela continued.
A split second later, Dean jumped slightly, turning to look at Pamela in surprise.
"Whoa! Well, he didn't touch me there," Dean said.
"Ew," Ariel huffed quietly and Sam turned to exchange an equally disgusted look with her, snorting slightly when he saw the expression on her face.
"Pamela if you wanna screw Dean it's fine. Just please don't subject us to this weird voyeurism foreplay." Ariel said, shifting awkwardly.
Pamela laughed, nodding slightly. "Sorry, Ari. Where did he touch you, Dean?"
Dean looked around the table before reluctantly starting to peel off his button-down, leaving him in just his t-shirt. After another moment of hesitation, he rolled up his left shirt sleeve to reveal the handprint there. Immediately, Dean looked at Sam, gauging his reaction.
Sam could only stare at it, surprised. He knew that something strong had to have pulled Dean out of Hell, but he had no idea what could have left a mark like that. He looked between Ariel and Bobby, neither of whom looked surprised. Clearly, he had already shown them.
Slowly, Pamela laid her hand across the mark. "Okay," she breathed, closing her eyes. The others did the same.
"I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle," Pamela began, her words making the flames of the candles in the center of the table flicker ominously. "I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle. I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle."
The sound of static suddenly filled the room. Beside him, Ariel jumped slightly and Sam opened his eyes, looking at her in concern. She had already opened hers and was looking past him, eyes wide with surprise. Slowly, Sam turned to look to see that the television had turned on, the screen snowy with static.
"I invoke, conjure, and command… Castiel?"
Sam turned his attention back to Pamela, brows rising in surprise as she spoke what he could only assume was a name.
"No. Sorry, Castiel. I don't scare easy."
"Castiel?" Dean asked, opening his eyes now. Pamela's remained closed.
"Its name. It's whispering to me," Pamela explained. "Warning me to turn back."
Sam wondered, fleetingly, if perhaps they should listen. As if to emphasize this errant thought, the table began to vibrate, the sound of white noise filling the room around them.
"I conjure and command you, show me your face. I conjure and command you, show me your face. I conjure and command you, show me your face. I conjure and command you, show me your face."
The white noise grew louder, almost deafening and the table began to shake almost violently. Sam could barely hear Ariel's yelp of surprise, her grip on his hand tightening slightly.
"Maybe we should stop," Bobby suggested.
"I almost got it," Pamela snapped stubbornly. "I command you, show me your face. Show me your face now!"
Suddenly, the flames on the candles flared up and Pamela began to scream her eyes glowing with white-hot light. Then, just as suddenly as she started to scream she stopped, collapsing where she stood.
Bobby rushed forward, catching her before she could hit the ground and cradling her body.
"Pamela?"
Ariel stood abruptly, starting to move around the table to rush to her friend's aid, but Sam stood as well, reaching out to stop her. He didn't know what was going on, but until he did he was determined to keep his little sister safe.
"Let go, Sam!" Ariel demanded, struggling in his grasp. But Ariel was tiny, and Sam was much larger and stronger than her. It wasn't difficult to stop her.
"Call 9-1-1!" Bobby ordered.
Dean immediately rushed into the next room, pulling out his phone as he went.
"I can't see!" Pamela wailed. "I can't see!"
"Pie is not going to make me feel better about Pamela, Dean." Ariel sighed, resting her chin in the palm of her hands.
After the séance, Bobby had ridden with Pamela to the hospital while Ariel stayed with her brothers. Sam and Dean had made the executive decision to go get a bite to eat and despite the fact that Ariel really wanted to make sure that Pamela was okay she had gone along with them.
"It's cherry," Dean said as if that made all the difference.
"You like cherry pie, Deano," she reminded him.
Dean smiled slowly, nodding once. "You're damn right I do?"
Ariel rolled her eyes, sighing again.
"They have milkshakes," Sam offered, scanning over the menu in front of him. "Strawberry?"
"Maybe…"
Ariel's cell phone began to ring then, from where she had set it down on the placemat in front of her. She immediately lunged for it, taking a second to read the caller I.D. before flipping it open and pressing it to her ear.
"Uncle Bobby? How is she?" She asked urgently.
"Blind," he said immediately, causing Ariel's hopefulness to deflate immediately. "But she'll be okay, kiddo. She's out of I.C.U. and she's stable now."
"Uncle Bobby, if she's blind, she won't be okay." Ariel pointed out. Sam and Dean looked at her in surprise at those words and she held up a finger, indicating that they needed to give her a minute.
"Pamela is tough," Bobby reminded her. "She'll figure it out, Ari."
"Just...tell her I'm sorry I guess."
"You didn't blind her.
"I'm still sorry," Ari mumbled. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to it. I love you, Uncle Bobby."
"Love you too, Ari."
Ariel flipped the phone closed, setting it back on the table and meeting her brother's concerned looks steadily.
"Well Pamela is blind now," she announced. "Thanks to us."
"Thanks to me," Dean corrected, ignoring the glare Ariel immediately threw in his direction.
"You don't get to shoulder the blame for this all on your own, Deano. We all went to her for help." She told him.
"Ariel is right. We all went to Pamela." Sam said. "But she also knew that there could be risks to helping us."
"At no point did any of us say 'Hey, by the way, this motherfucker could blind you'." Ariel huffed. "The way I see it, we're all assholes for asking for her help in the first place."
Sam sighed, running a hand tiredly over his face. "And we still have no clue who we're dealing with," he admitted.
"We did get a name," Dean pointed out. "That's something."
"Castiel," Ariel mused. "Sounds like some sort of laundry detergent, doesn't it?"
Dean smirked slightly, reaching forward to take his glass of water and taking a sip. "With the right mumbo-jumbo, we could summon him. Bring him right to us."
"You're crazy," Sam scoffed. "Absolutely not."
"We'll work him over. I mean, after what he did." Dean defended.
"Sure, that'll go great," Ariel rolled her eyes, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms over her chest. "He only burned Pamela's eyes out of her skull. But sure, we'll be fine."
"You got a better idea?" Dean asked expectantly.
Ariel frowned, huffing as she shook her head. "Well, no…"
"Well I do," Sam said importantly. Both Dean and Ariel turned to look at him with keen interest. "I followed some demons into town, right?"
"Okay…"
"So we go find them. Someone's gotta know something about something."
"Well I'm not sure I like that plan much better, honestly," Ariel sighed, massaging her temples in soothing circles. She had forgotten over the months when Dean was dead, apparently, that having her brothers together tended to be headache inducing.
Ariel immediately felt guilty at that thought. They were just trying to figure things out, even if both of their suggestions felt reckless. Summoning some unknown creature? Trying to get dependable information from demons. As far as Ariel was concerned, both of her brothers were crazy.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by their waitress suddenly setting down three plates of pie, getting a happy sigh from Dean who looked down at the dessert almost lovingly.
A second later, the waitress sat down in the free chair at their table, smiling slightly.
"Uh…"
"You angling for a tip?" Dean asked with a smirk, obviously not finding the waitress sitting herself down as odd as Ariel thought it was.
She exchanged a look with Sam who's brow was creased with confusion. He didn't know what the hell was going on either.
"I'm sorry," the waitress said sweetly. "I thought you were looking for us."
She immediately flashed coal black eyes at them, making Ariel shift in her seat, her instincts willing her to stand, to get her weapon from her bag and do something. But Sam's hand shot out, gripping her firmly around her wrist and ceasing her movement. He tilted his head, gesturing behind her and Ariel turned in her seat, seeing that both the cook and the utility worker who had been eating at the bar.
As she watched, the utility worker stood, walking over to lock the door of the diner.
How in the hell was it that the Winchesters luck was so shitty that they ended up alone in a diner full of demons?
"Dean," the demonic waitress purred, eyes returning to normal. "To hell and back. Aren't you a lucky duck?"
"That's me," Dean responded coolly.
Ariel had always admired how he could remain so calm in situations like these, bantering with the enemy. Meanwhile, she was sitting stark still in her seat, itching to pull the flask of holy water from her bag or to mutter just a little bit of Latin to get these demons gone for good.
But Sam's grip around her wrist was still tight, unrelenting, and the look he had given her had been clear. Don't do anything. Even if it did go against her very instincts as a hunter.
"So you just get to stroll out of the pit, huh? Tell me, what makes you so special?" The waitress asked.
"I like to think it's because of my perky nipples," Dean replied without missing a beat. "I don't know. Wasn't my doing. I don't know who pulled me out."
"Right," she scoffed disbelievingly. "You don't."
"No, I don't."
"Lying's a sin, you know," She said coyly.
"I'm not lying," Dean responded simply. "But I'd like to find out, so if you wouldn't mind enlightening me, Flo…"
"Mind your tone with me, boy. I'll drag you back to hell myself."
She wasn't even trying to hide the threatening tone in her voice and, having just gotten her brother back Ariel was entirely unwilling to tolerate it. She shifted, moving as if to attack but Sam's grip tightened, almost to the point of being uncomfortable, and Ariel paused, half out of her seat as she glared at the demon.
"I'd like to see you try," She snapped, her tone cold as steel.
"Easy there, little rabbit," the demon sneered, looking more amused than anything. "You don't scare us."
"She should," Dean told her, tone deadly serious. "We all should. And we do. That's why you're empty threat will stay empty. You won't drag me back to hell."
"I won't?"
"No, otherwise you would have done it already. Fact is, you don't know who cut me loose. And you're just as spooked as we are. And you're looking for answers," Dean said tauntingly, obviously finding the situation more amusing than anything. "Well, maybe it was some turbo-charged spirit. Or, uh, Godzilla. Or some big bad boss demon. I'm guessing at your pay grade they don't tell you squat. Because whoever it was, they want me out. And they're a lot stronger than you. So go ahead. Send me back. But don't come crawling to me when they show up at your front doorstep with some vaseline and a fire hose."
"I'm going to reach down your throat and rip out your lungs," the waitress growled, eyes narrowed dangerously.
Dean leaned towards her, the picture of calm, a pleasant little smile on his face. Then without warning, he lashed out, striking the demon across the face with his fist. When she made no move to attack back, he did it again.
Ariel, startled by the sudden attack jumped slightly, eyes round as she watched the scene unfold. Dean really was the most badass guy she knew.
The demon only half-heartedly glared at him and with a smirk, Dean stood, pulling his money out of his pocket and dropping a ten on the table.
"For the pie," he sneered before looking at Sam and Ariel. "Come on."
The sheets smelled vaguely of cheap laundry detergent and cigarette smoke. The mattress creaked every time she shifted. The pillows were lumpy. The blankets were scratchy and thin. In short, the beds the hotel had to offer were less than comfortable, and they certainly couldn't hold a candle to Ariel's bed at home. But it had been a long day and she was exhausted.
She had been asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
In her sleep came the dreams, flashes of golden fire and glowing white light and a face with burning blue eyes.
Ariel had never been the type to succumb to nightmares, she had been conditioned to deal with the monsters under her bed since she was very young, but this dream had her tossing and turning, tangling herself in the sheets.
If Dean or Sam had noticed, perhaps they would have woken her, shaking her from sleep with a worried look on their faces, but Dean was asleep in the other bed only a few feet away and Sam was gone, not asleep in the chair that he had been relegated to.
It was the sound of the television flicking on that woke her, making her bolt upright in bed, eyes stretching wide as she stared at the now familiar static, the last vestiges of her dream slipping away in favor of what was happening in reality.
"Dean," Ariel whispered, sitting stock still, fingers gripping tightly around the sheet.
A split second later the radio hummed to life, whining sharply and jolting Dean out of sleep. Her brother grabbed at the shotgun sitting by his bed and, following in her brothers lead, Ariel slipped her knife out from under her pillow.
Whatever this thing was it had managed to catch both Ariel and Dean by surprise.
"Where's Sammy?" Ariel asked quietly, finally noticing their brother was gone. Dean glanced at the chair, grimacing slightly when he saw that it was empty.
Suddenly the high-pitched noise started again, making both siblings wince as they covered their ears, Ariel looking desperately at Dean for some kind of direction. He was only covering his right ear, his free hand still gripping the shotgun.
The noise level grew higher, seeming to rattle in Ariel's bones and, finally, the mirror on the ceiling shattered, sending shards down towards them.
With a gasp, Ariel rolled out of the way, out from beneath the mirror. She hit the ground on the other side of the bed, crouching there between it and the wall, the noise still buzzing ominously.
The rest of the glass in the hotel room shattered then, and Ariel screamed, fear and surprise coursing through her. She ducked her head, tucking it between her knees as she curled into a fetal position.
Distantly she heard the sound of the door to the hotel room slam open. The noise still vibrated around her body and, with a start, Ariel realized her cheeks were wet. She had been crying.
"Ariel? Dean?"
She heard her uncle yell out their names and with a sob she cried out for him, yelling his name over the white noise.
And then just as abruptly as it all started it stopped, leaving her ears ringing.
For a moment, Ariel stayed like that, in a fetal position, her senses slowly coming back to her.
Suddenly she felt ridiculous. She was a hunter and yet here she was, crouching in the floor, terrified because of a static-y television and a little white noise.
But whatever logic she tried to apply to it, her limbs were still trembling, her heart still pounding in her chest.
"Ari," Dean called softly. There was the sound of crunching glass as he stood and started around the bed, towards her hiding spot.
Slowly, Ariel stood as well, swiping at her face to try and wipe away the very visible tear tracks there. A cut on her cheek stung from where she had been nicked by a shard of glass. Her uncle and brother looked at her in concern
"It was that thing again," she said softly, wrapping her arms around herself. "Castiel."
"That's a hell of an art project you two have got going on?" Dean commented from where he stood by the table, examining the weapons they had assembled.
"Traps and talismans from every faith on the globe. Courtesy of Ari's research," Bobby explained, starting on another symbol.
"I'm nothing, if not thorough. How are you doing over there Dean?" She asked, glancing over her shoulder at her brother.
"Stakes, iron, silver, salt, knife. I mean we're pretty much set to kill anything I ever heard off."
But what about things they hadn't heard off. Ariel didn't think that voicing that concern would help much and so she kept her mouth shut, continuing the task at hand.
"This is still a bad idea," Bobby said, expressing his doubt for the utmost time. Ariel couldn't help but agree with him.
"Yeah Bobby, I heard you the first time," Dean said, not disagreeing. "Now, you need to go wait in the car Ari," he added, just as Ariel finished the symbol she was working on.
She frowned, turning to face Dean with her brow furrowed slightly. She still held the can of white spray paint in her hand, having painted numerous symbols all over the ramshackle building.
"Huh?"
Bobby paused, turning to look away from the symbol he had been working on. From the look on his face, he could clearly tell that this conversation wasn't going to go well.
"It'll be safer."
"Screw safe!" Ariel snapped, slamming the can of spray paint down on the table. "You lied to Sam to keep him away and now you're sending me to the car? No, screw that Dean and screw you for thinking that I would walk out and leave you to summon this thing with just the two of you. I'm an adult Dean and a hunter. I don't need you to protect me!"
"I saw you after what happened in the hotel room, Ariel. I'm not letting you anywhere near this thing." Dean responded back, making Ariel flush in embarrassment.
She wasn't proud of how she had reacted in the hotel room but it wasn't like Dean always kept his composure either.
"Well," Ariel began. "It's a good thing it's not your decision. And it isn't yours either," she added when she saw Bobby open his mouth to say something. "I'm staying. Now, are we going to summon this thing or not?"
She stood there, looking between Dean and Bobby, crossing her arms over her chest, challenging either of them to say anything.
Dean stared at her, mouth open, clearly wanting to say something. But Ariel was a Winchester, and if nothing else, stubbornness ran in the family. There would be no talking her out of this. Seeming to realize this, Dean sighed, running his hand over his face in exasperation.
"Fine,' he sighed grudgingly. "Let's summon this bastard."
With a satisfied smirk, Ariel watched as her Uncle walked over to the large bowl on the table, sprinkling salt into it from a smaller bowl and beginning to chant in Latin. The bowl began to smoke ominously.
Ariel bit her lip nervously, anticipation making her tense as she waited for her Uncle to finish the ritual. Slowly she placed a hand on the table, ready to lunge for one of the weapons as soon as Castiel revealed himself.
Finally, Bobby finished the ritual, the smoke from the bowl dissipating quickly. He glanced up, looking at Ariel and Dean in confusion. Ariel wasn't sure what she had expected when he finished, but it certainly wasn't silence.
There was literally nothing happened, everything remained calm in the room and the night outside the abandoned warehouse remained quiet. There was nothing out of the ordinary here, except for the three hunters in the old warehouse who were armed to the teeth.
"Well that was anticlimactic," Ariel said finally, putting into words what everyone else had been thinking.
"Where is this thing?" Dean growled, looking around the room as if expecting something to suddenly appear.
"Maybe he didn't get the memo," Ariel offered, not very helpfully. She sighed, hoisting herself up to sit on the edge of the table. "Should we try again?"
"Or we wait," Bobby suggested.
Dean, still glaring at the shadows in the corners of the room, sighed and turned to face them, shrugging. "Nothing else we can do. If it didn't work the first time why would it work the second time? Unless… are you sure you got the Latin right, Bobby."
"Boy, watch your mouth," Bobby growled, narrowing his eyes at him. "Of course my Latin was right."
"Okay, okay," Dean said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I was just checking."
"So we wait," Ari sighed. "I mean, that's what we do, right?"
"Yeah," Dean nodded. "That's what we do."
So that's what they did, the three of them sitting in silence as they waited for something to happen. Ariel kicked her legs idly, eying the only entrance into the room.
"Did you get the ritual off the back of a cereal box, Uncle Bobby?" She asked, finally breaking the stifling silence.
Her uncle turned slowly to give her a look of disdain, clearly not amused.
As if on cue, the roof to the building began to rattle, catching them all by surprise.
The three immediately sprung into action, grabbing shotguns off the table and moving to the far end of the warehouse, opposite the door. This is what they had been waiting for all night and this thing had still managed to catch them by surprise.
"Wishful thinking," Dean said. "But maybe it's just the wind."
And then the door burst open, revealing a man wearing a long trench coat.
Ariel stared, her jaw dropping as she realized she recognized him. Her dream, disjointed as it had been, came flooding back to her then and this man's face had been one of the things that had stuck out to her.
Slowly the strange man began to walk towards him, the lightbulbs over his head shattering as he moved passed them, making Ariel's stomach drop. This wasn't a man. This was something else entirely.
Spurred on by that thought, Ariel fired a shot, jolting both Dean and Bobby into action, the two of them fire as well, each bullet lodging itself into the strange man's torso but failing to hinder his movement.
"I didn't realize we were summoning Michael freaking Myers!" Ariel gasped, lowering the gun when she ran out of bullets. Her blood ran cold as the man drew closer. All of their weapons were on the other side of the damn room.
Dean stared, wide-eyed and slack-jawed as the man reached them, standing only a few feet away. "Who are you?" he asked, finally.
"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition."
Oh.
"Castiel?" Ariel asked softly, her question ringing out in the room and drawing this man - this thing's - attention to her.
"Yes," he said slowly, and perhaps if Ariel were not so scared she would have been angry. This was the thing that had blinded Pamela.
But this was also the reason that Dean was alive.
But really the only thing Ariel could think about was the fact that she had seen him in her dream, could remember those blue eyes of his vividly, burning through her.
"I saw you," she managed finally. "In a dream."
Before Castiel could respond, Dean lunged forward, pulling out his demon-killing knife and lashing out with it, driving it deep into the man's chest where his heart would be.
Castiel frowned, looking down at the knife before looking back up at Dean in exasperation before slowly wrapping his fingers around the handle of the knife and pulling it out. Before he could do much else, Bobby rushed forward, swinging his now empty shotgun to attempt to hit Castiel over the head.
Instantly he turned, reaching up to grip the shotgun in one hand, completely stopping Bobby in his tracks, before reaching up to press two fingers to Bobby's head.
He crumpled, falling to the floor motionless.
Ariel let out a cry of shock, rushing forward to fall to her knees beside her uncle's body.
"Uncle Bobby?" She shook him, trying to get him to move or something. With shaking hands she reached up, placing a finger at his pulse point, terrified of what she might find there.
Had this thing, this Castiel, killed her uncle? She couldn't lose Bobby, she just couldn't. He had raised her, had been the one to feed her and clothe her and take care of her. John Winchester may have been her father, but Bobby Singer was her dad.
She released a breath she hadn't even realized she had been holding when she felt his pulse thumping steadily under her finger.
"He's okay," she told Dean, who had gone pale with worry himself.
"We need to talk Dean," Castiel said slowly, his tone ominous. He turned then to look at Ariel crouching on the floor. "Alone."
Ariel looked down at Bobby again, realization flickering across her face. She had only just started to scoot back across the floor to get away from him when he reached out towards her, brushing to fingers across her forehead, just as he had done with Bobby.
Abruptly, the world fell away around her, everything going dark as Ariel slumped to the floor of the warehouse in a dead faint.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Guess who is back with a new story! Now I know I haven't update anything else in a while but officially, everything else is on official hiatus while I write this story which has been in the works officially for months now.
I'm so excited about this story guys! More excited than I've been about a project in a while. I love Ariel and I love this story and I hope you guys end up loving them as much as me. This is my first time delving into writing for the Supernatural fandom. Anyway guys, let me know what you think!
I am probably being really optimistic saying I want to post weekly or, at the least, every other week but I am going to try to stay on top of it! Anyway, let me know what you think guys, and I'll be back soon with the next chapter.
By the way, if you're interested in checking out any of the edits that have been made for this story, you can find them at . com!