A/N Thanks for the lovely response to the first chapter!


At A Crossroads

When you read about death and loss in books, they always say in the days after that they passed with a blur. For Mary they didn''t- they crept by with agonising slowness, every moment she would remember clearly for the rest of her life. The feel of the scratchy motel bed beneath her as she stared at the ceiling and ignored the wails of her now only child.

The moments of that night replayed in her head like some creepy horror flick, it was all she could think about. John took control, like he always did. He fed Sammy, he organised the funeral, he talked to their few friends and tried to contact her only relatives. He did everything, dealt with everyone. While she stared into space.

Perhaps John thought she was in shock, which would explain how gentle he spoke to her when he handed her food. But she wasn't in shock, she was thinking.

Dean's death wasn't natural, something had done that to her boy and it was her job to find the thing and kill it before it hurt anyone else. She wasn't in shock, she wanted revenge, and she would get it. She just had to work out who or what was behind it.

As the days dragged on she narrowed down the potential monsters, it was hard she hadn't hunted in years and she didn't have any access to books or records that her family had owned and kept. But still, some things you never forget. The hardest thing was keeping John in the dark, which was harder than she ever thought possible. John was a clever man and although she'd always thought he'd had a closed mind, in this case he seemed to almost welcome the thought of the supernatural.

He hadn't outrightly said that he knew it wasn't a gas explosion, but he'd seen what she had seen. John was a wonderful man, but he was determined to a fault- he would never let this go. Mary had always protected this family from the monsters, she'd promised that she would never let her sons be raised in that environment and she would still keep that promise.

It hadn't even been a week since… that night and yet it seemed like an age. Sammy cried and cried like he realised something incredibly important was missing. A week ago she'd have held him and sang hey favourite song till he drifted to sleep, but she couldn't do that. She could barely hold him.

She had brought the monster into her house, she was sure of it. She had caused this, it was her fault he was dead.

She was so caught up in her own feelings and her own guilt that she failed to see the effect her apathy and guilt and the responsibilities dumped on John was having.

"Mary?" John questioned, shaking her by the shoulders. "Mary!" he said with more force. Mary tried to shrug him off, wrapping her arms around herself. "For fucks sake Mary!" She blinked heavily at that- John hardly ever shouted at her. "Mary" he sighed, resting his head on hers, pulling her into him- his scraggly beard that she'd not even noticed he'd grown scratched against her face.

"John, this is all my fault" she whispered against his chest.

"No Mary it isn't" he said angrily, staring over at her at the wall.

"It is, it is. I'm cursed. It's my fault the monster came to our house…" Mary muttered, her words lit a fire in her head, she remembered something- from long ago. She'd nearly forgot. She pushed him away from her and stood up, pacing across the small ancient motel room. John stared at her, his arms by his side in defeat.

"Mary…"

"No, John… I was never honest with you, I lied to you all these years." She said with passion, John looked thrown, she jabbed the air as she spoke awoken by this new revelation.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Mary, bit her lip, she didn't want John hunting or involved in this part of her life. Never had. But if she lied to him again, if he found out from someone else- he'd kill himself trying to kill it. "I know why someone broke into our house, I think I know who it was."

"Mary?" John said standing up, "who?"

"I never told you the truth. I never wanted you to know…"

"Just fucking tell me Mary, I have the right to know. Whoever did that to Dean- I have to know."

"My family, all my family, for generations hunted monsters," John went to speak but Mary silenced him with a glare "Vampires, ghosts, werewolves are all real." John shook his head, staring at her with wide eyes. "You know something killed Dean, you knew it wasn't human." She waited for him to protest, but he didn't "Years ago, when my parents were killed so were you."

"I, What?"

"It sounds mad, but you died and a demon, he gave me a choice. He'd save you but I had to give him something. I thought he wanted my soul… I was fine with that, I would have done anything to save you. But that's not what he wanted. He wanted something else, at the time I thought it would be fine," she said quickly, hands flying as she spoke.

"What did he want, Mary." Johns jaw was clicking, his eyes narrowed.

"He wanted permission to enter my house, he said nothing would happen all would be fine- as long as he wasn't disturbed."

"He killed Dean?"

"I think so, Dean, Dean must have heard Sam crying- gone to see what was wrong." She gulped. It was so like Dean, protecting his little brother- looking after him like a second mommy.

"But the demon was there." Mary nodded, tears welling in her eyes. He looked away, breathing heavily. He'd thought knowing the truth would help, would stop his insides aching so much. It wasn't helping. "So we kill it."

"No, John we can't just go after it. We can't. We have nothing to harm a demon, no way of finding it."

"But he could bring Dean back." John said, his eyes lighting up.

"I don't think he would," Mary was crying in earnest now.

"There has to be a way, with all these monsters and demons there has to be a way of saving Dean!"

"No, John… John" He had turned away, wouldn't make eye contact with her but she needed to tell him "John look at me," he did, his eyes meeting hers- tears pouring down his face. "I promise, we will kill the bitch that did this- but Sammy needs us. He's more important than anything. I don't want him raised as a killer. I don't want him to grow up with us dead."

"But how will he protect himself?" John asked, his eyes dropping to the drawer that was making do as a cot at the moment.

"He's a child John, we protect him. That's our job," She licked her lips, "promise me, please."

"I promise." He said softly.

Mary waited until John was sound asleep and crept out of the house with a satchel by her side. She had to make a few stops until she had all she needed but at last she was prepared. The Impala rolled to a stop on a deserted road made of dust. Mary unclicked her belt, breathing in deeply as she ran her hands across the steering wheel, the car smelt of John but the car reminded her most of her boys. Toys littered the floor along with sweet wrappers and tissues. The back seats looking deserted without her sons.

Mary pulled the tin box out of her bag and opened it to check the contents. She clicked it shut again and reached into her bag for a bottle of water and her knife, she slipped the bottle inside her jacket and the knife up her sleeve, her hand hovered over the paint before she snatched that up as well.. She took a deep breath and stepped out of the car.

She walked towards the centre of the roads and dug a hole in the soft dirt, she placed the tin inside and covered the hole. She stood, brushing the mud onto her jeans and waited.

No one came.

"You sons of bitches!" She screamed, turning, her blonde hair blowing around her as she looked across the crossroads. Each road was empty. "I'm here to make a deal! You filthy little maggots!"

"Well, well, well, I wondered when you would call," A voice said from directly behind her, Mary turned and slashed the air with her knife, the air was empty and the voice called again from the other side of her "Touchy, touchy."

The demon looked like a young woman, like most crossroads demons did. Her voice was sickly sweet.

"I'm here to make a deal."

"That was the assumption I made…" the demon called, circling Mary. Mary turned to keep her in her sights. "But I'm not in the dealing mood."

"It's a simple deal, my life for my son."

"Which son? Dead son or baby son?"

"Dean," Mary growled, her hand tightening on her blade. "Ten years, that's the normal deal? Right?"

"No can do."

"Five years"

"Nope," she said popping the p.

"My soul for his life. It's a good deal!" Mary said angrily.

"If this was anyone else, we'd take it straight away. But you see, I can't. Orders from above… or should I say below?" She laughed, "Dean was destined to be a real thorn in our side, our plans should be much easier without him."

"Just please, anything"

"Anything? Anything at all? Are you sure?"

"Yes"

"You give us Sam, and you can have Dean."

"No."

"You said anything." The demon taunted, walking up to Mary.

"There is no way in hell you are getting hold of Sam."

"It's too bad… because we already have."

Mary frowned, her hand slipping in her jacket for the bottle, "What do you mean?"

"What did you think yellow eyes was doing? Just hanging around taking a peek at the sleeping baby," she laughed again, throwing her head back. "I thought you were supposed to be clever."

"What did he do to my baby?"

"Nothing… nothing I'm sure." The demon stepped closer again and Mary threw her knife deep into the demon's chest, the demon stared at it before pulling it out, smiling "ouch". Mary had untightened the bottle and she threw the liquid at the demons wound. The demon screamed, falling to the ground as her skin sizzled. Mary began to recite the exorcism, the demon howled louder.

"What did he do to my son?"

The demon howled. Opening her mouth to escape her vessel but Mary's hand clamped over her mouth.

"Not so fast, whore. I may have been out of service for a while, but I'm not stupid." Mary stooped and brushed the dust away. Underneath, shining in the moonlight was the painted outline of a devils trap. "Not laughing now, are we?" Mary lifted her chin. "Now you are going to tell me everything you know, and I'll let you go."

"No"

Mary threw more holy water over her. "I don't care how long it takes, I've got all night. Plus I've been waiting for someone to take my anger out on, seems like you're the lucky son of a bitch."

The demon howled again. "S-top"

"Sorry? Didn't hear that?" Mary recited another line of the exorcism, the demon screamed louder.

"I'll tell you, I'll tell you what I know."

"I'm waiting."

"Yellow eyes, he's working on something. Lots of kids, the rumour is he puts a little of himself into them."

"And Dean?"

"Wrong time, wrong place," the demon rasped "but no crossroad demon will bring him back, he would have been our opposer."

"Opposer?"

"He would have been a threat. Now we are two steps ahead. They haven't even noticed."

"Who hasn't noticed?" The demon didn't respond, "Who hasn't?" But the demon wasn't looking at her anymore, she was staring into nothing, mumbling. "Who hasn't!" The demons mouth opened but no sound came out. Her eyes flashed black and she withered for a second before dropping to the ground. She was dead.

Mary jumped up, knife in her hand as she slowly turned. But she could see no one. She kicked the girl aside and dug up her tin. She walked back to the car, glancing behind her as she went.

She threw the car into drive and sped off, her mind running as fast as the car.


A/N Please review! They make my day.