Forbidden Love
"Well, then tell me what else it could be." Sam says to Dean as we sit in the kitchen at Bobby's house
"Look, all I know is I was not groped by an angel."
"Okay, look, Dean. Why do you think this Castiel would lie to you about it?" Sam asked
"Maybe he's some kind of demon. Demons lie."
"A demon who's immune to salt rounds and devil's traps...and Ruby's knife?" I asked him
"Dean, Lilith is scared of that thing!" Sam adds
"Don't you think that if angels were real, that some hunter somewhere would have seen one... at some point... ever?"
"Yeah. You and Lexi just did, Dean." Sam points out
"I'm trying to come up with a theory here. Okay? Work with me."
"Dean, we have a theory." Sam mentioned
"Yeah, one with a little less fairy dust on it, please."
"Okay, look. I'm not saying we know for sure. I'm just saying that I think we..." Sam began to say
"Okay, okay. That's the point. We don't know for sure, so I'm not gonna believe that this thing is a freaking Angel of the Lord because it says so!"
"You three Chuckleheads want to keep arguing religion, or do you want to come take a look at this?" Bobby asked us fromt he other room and we walk over to him, "I got stacks of lore - Biblical, pre-Biblical. Some of it's in damn cuneiform. It all says an angel can snatch a soul from the pit."
"What else?" Dean asked him
"What else, what?"
"What else could do it?" Dean asked
"Airlift your ass out of the hot box? As far as I can tell, nothing."
"Dean, this is good news." I tell him
"How?"
"Because for once, this isn't just another round of demon crap. I mean, maybe you were saved by one of the good guys, you know?" I said
"Okay. Say it's true. Say there are angels. Then what? There's a God?"
"At this point, Vegas money's on yeah." Bobby says
"I don't know, guys."
"Okay, look. I know you're not all choirboy about this stuff, but this is becoming less and less about faith and more and more about proof." Sam told him
"Proof?"
"Yes." Sam says
"Proof that there's a God out there that actually gives a crap about me personally? I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it."
"Why not?" I asked him
"Because why me? If there is a God out there, why would he give a crap about me?"
"Dean..." I started to say
"I mean, I've saved some people, okay? I figured that made up for the stealing and the ditching chicks. But why do I deserve to get saved? I'm just a regular guy."
"Apparently, you're a regular guy that's important to the man upstairs." Sam said
"Well, that creeps me out. I mean, I don't like getting singled out at birthday parties, much less by... God."
"Okay, well, too bad, Dean, because I think he wants you to strap on your party hat." I tell him
"Fine. What do we know about angels?" Dean asked and Bobby picks up a pile of fat and weighty looking books and puts them in front of us.
"Start reading." He says and Dean looks at the pile of books, and turns towards Sam.
"You're gonna get me some pie." He told him then grabs a book from the top of the pile and I do the same.
"Keep the engine running." Bobby said to Sam who got back to the house as we loaded up Bobby's car
"Why? What's going on?"
"I got a friend one state over - Olivia Lowry. I've been trying to reach her for three days on this angel thing. It's not like her to ignore this many calls." Bobby told him and I pulled the clip out of my gun checking it thenn out it back in.
"Olivia Lowry - a hunter, right?" Sam asked Bobby
"Yeah. We're gonna go check on her. You guys follow me." Bobby says then me and Dean walk over to the car and I get in the back while Dean gets in the front
"Scoot over." He tells Sam then grabbed the bag from Sam and looked in it, "Dude?"
"Yeah?"
"Where's the pie?" Dean asked and I shook my head
Bobby enters the house, armed with a gun, followed by, me, Dean and Sam as we search for Olivia, "Olivia?" Bobby asked and we see Olivia dead and covered in blood on the floor. Bobby walks away and out of the room.
"Bobby?" I asked him but he kept going
"Salt line." Sam says and I looked at what he was pointing at then Sam and Dean look around the room as I crouched down next to Olivia's body
"Olivia was rocking the EMF meter." Dean pointed out holding it in his hand
"Spirit activity." Sam said
"Yeah - on steroids. I never seen a ghost do this to a person." I mentioned and Bobby walks into the room with his phone in his hand.
"Bobby, you all right?" Dean asked him
"I called some hunters nearby..."
"Good. We can use their help." I said standing up
"...except they ain't answering their phones either." Bobby finished
"Something's up, huh?" Sam asked
"You think?" Bobby says then walks out of the room and we share a look of concern.
Me, Dean and Sam walk down the stairs exiting the house while Dean is on the phone with Bobby, "We're in Jackson. It's not pretty. He looks even worse than Olivia. What about you?" He asked him and there was a pause, "What the hell is going on here, Bobby? Why did a bunch of ghosts suddenly want to gank off-duty hunters?" He asked, "We're on our way." He tells him and we get in the car then drive off
I wake up in the car seeing Dean still asleep and I get out to stretch then looked around for Sam when suddenly I hear a crashing sound come from the bathroom so I grabbed the shotgun out of the trunk and ran over to it opening the door and seeing Henriksen standing there above Sam who was beaten up and I shot the ghost who then disappeared then looked at Sam.
Dean is driving while on the phone as I cleaned up Sam's face from the back seat while he was turned slightly so I could reach, "Damn it, Bobby! Pick up!" Dean yelled, "How you feeling, huh? How many fingers am I holding up?" Dean asked him
"None. I'll be fine, Dean." He tells him and I finished up then he faced forward
"Henriksen?" I asked him
"Yep."
"Why? What did he want?" Dean asked
"Revenge, 'cause we got him killed."
"Sam..." I started to say
"Well, we did, Lexi."
"All right. Stop right there. Whatever the hell is going on, it's happening to us now, okay? I can't get a hold of Bobby, so if you're not thinking answers, don't think at all." Dean said to us
We enter Bobby's house with our guns cocked and ready, "Bobby?" Dean called and we see an iron poker on the ground, "I'll go. You check outside, Lexi you try looking around down here." Dean tells us and I nodded as Sam walks outside and Dean headed upstairs. I checked the spare bedroom then made my way to the basement door then stopped.
"Come on you chicken, you fight monsters and demons on a weekly basis, you can handle the damn basement." I said to my self and began walking down the stairs pointing my flashlight when suddenly I see my breath
"Boo." I hear behind me and turned around seeing a familiar face
"Bella?" I asked and she chuckled
"Surprise." She says and pushed me making me fall down the stairs the rest of the way
"Oh, damn it." I groaned slowly getting up then I felt her grab my hair and litft me up then threw me into a wall.
"Nice to see that you're still alive, I thought any woman who hung around those boy ended up 6 feet under."
"Yeah well it helps if you know how to avoid things that kill you." I tell her and she laughed.
"Like you or your brothers could have done to help me with the hell-hounds?" She asked and I raised my shot gun up but before I could shoot she dissapeared then reappeared next to me and before I could aim the gun at her she smacked me across the face making me crash into a self, "The three of you claim that you save people but when I ask for help, no help comes."
"Because you stole from us not once but a few times after that, tried to get us killed, should I go on?" I asked standing up feeling the pain coursing through my body, "Look, I'm sorry we didn't come to you but you have to know that you reaped what you sewed."
"Shut up!" She yelled then hit me across the face
"Ok, I've had enough." I groaned the grabbed the pipe next to me and swung it at her before she could hit me again and she vanished, I dropped the pipe and sighed then slowly made my way up the stairs.
"So, they're all people we know?" Sam asked while we gathered in the study and I held an ice pack to my head
"Not just know. People we couldn't save." Dean says as he loaded the shot gun while sitting next to me, "Hey, I saw something on Meg. Did she have a tattoo when she was alive?"
"I don't think so." I answered
"It was like a-a mark on her hand-almost like a brand." He told us and I thought back to Bella's ghost then remembered seeing one on hers
"I saw a mark, too, on Henriksen." Sam says
"Bella too." I add
"What did it look like?" Bobby asked
"Uh, paper?" Sam asks and Bobby hands him one, Sam holds the drawing up for Dean and I to compare.
"That's it." Dean told him and I nodded then he showed Bobby
"I may have seen this before." Bobby says and walked over to a book self when suddenly the radio next to me starts to static and the lights flickered, "We got to move. Follow me." He told us and I stood up then grabbed the books he handed me
"Okay, where are we going?" Sam asked him
"Some place safe, you idjot."
Bobby leads us down to a room in the basement, which is made entirely of iron and covered with pentagrams and Devil's traps, "Bobby, is this..." I began to ask
"Solid iron. Completely coated in salt. 100% ghost-proof."
"You built a panic room?" Sam asked him
"I had a weekend off."
"Bobby." Dean says
"What?"
"You're awesome." Dean told him and I chuckled then noticed the poster on the wall then looked at Bobby
Sam and Dean are making bullets while I sat next to them reading in one of the books, "See, this is why I can't get behind God." Dean says and I looked up at him.
"What are you talking about?" I asked him
"If he doesn't exist, fine. Bad crap happens to good people. That's how it is. There's no rhyme or reason - just random, horrible, evil - I get it, okay. I can roll with that. But if he is out there, what's wrong with him? Where the hell is he while all these decent people are getting torn to shreds? How does he live with himself? You know, why doesn't he help?"
"I ain't touching this one with at 10-foot pole." Bobby said
"Yeah."
"Found it." Bobby told us and I set my book down
"What?" I asked him
"The symbol you saw - the brand on the ghosts..."
"Yeah?" I asked again
"Mark of the Witness."
"Witness? Witness to what?" Sam asked
"The unnatural. None of them died what you'd call ordinary deaths. See, these ghosts - they were forced to rise. They woke up in agony. They were like rabid dogs. It ain't their fault. Someone...rose them...on purpose."
"Who?" Sam asked
"Do I look like I know? But whoever it was used a spell so powerful it left a mark, a brand on their souls. Whoever did this had big plans. It's called "the rising of the witnesses." It figures into an ancient prophecy."
"Wait, wait. What - what book is that prophecy from?" Dean asked him
"Well, the widely distributed version's just for tourists, you know. But long story short - Revelations. This is a sign, you three."
"A sign of what?" Me, Dean and Sam asked at same time
"The apocalypse."
"Apocalypse? The apocalypse, apocalypse? The four horsemen, pestilence, $5-a-gallon-gas apocalypse?" Dean asked
"That's the one. The rise of the witnesses is a - a mile marker."
"Okay, so, what do we do now?" I asked
"Road trip. Grand Canyon, Star Trek Experience. Bunny Ranch." Dean says and I sighed
"I'm not going to the Bunny Ranch, Star Trek convention yes but not the Bunny Ranch."
"Wha.." He started to ask me
"First things first. How about we survive our friends out there?" Bobby asked us cutting him off
"Great. Any ideas aside from staying in this room until Judgment Day?" Dean asked him
"It's a spell to send the witnesses back to rest. Should work."
"Should. Great." Sam doubted
"If I translate it correctly. I think I got everything we need here at the house."
"Any chance you got everything we need here in this room?" I asked him
"So, you thought our luck was gonna start now all of a sudden? Spell's got to be cast over an open fire."
"The fireplace in the library." Sam pointed out
"Bingo."
"That's just not as appealing as a, uh, ghost-proof panic room, you know?" Dean asks and we get ready to leave the panic room.
"Cover each other. And aim careful. Don't run out of ammo until I'm done, or they'll shred you. Ready?" Bobby asked us and we made our way out of the room, and head towards the stairs but we see a ghost siting there with curly hair.
"Hey, Dean. You remember me?" He asked him and I thought back to it
"Everybody on the floor now!"
"He's got the laser eyes."
"Ronald, huh? With the laser eyes? I wish I could say it's good to see you."
"I am dead because of you. You were supposed to help me!" Ronald yells and Bobby shoots at Ronald.
"If you're gonna shoot, shoot. Don't talk." He said to Dean and we make our way to the living room. Sam makes a salt cirle and Dean starts the fire while I help Bobby set up, "Upstairs, linen closet - red hex box. It'll be heavy." He tells Sam
"Got it." Sam says and leaves then two girls appear in the living room.
"Bobby." One of the girls says and I shoot them making them disappear
"Kitchen. Cutlery drawer. It's got a false bottom. Hemlock, opium, wormwood." He says to Dean who headed to the kitchen
"Opium?"
"Go!" Bobby yells and the girls reappear as Bobby draws with chalk on the desk and tries to focus on this while the girls are there.
"Bobby. You walked right by us while that monster ate us all up."
"You could have saved us." The girls taunt and Bobby picks up his gun and shoots at the girls.
"You could have turned around and helped me, but you Winchesters chose each other over an innocent." I heard Bella say and I shoot at her then the doors to the kitchen close suddenly.
"Dean?" I asked
"I'm all right, Lexi! You and Bobby keep working!"
Sam and Dean carry the hex box and other ingredients to the library then Ronald appears again as Dean is reloading his gun, "Ronald. Hey, come on, man. I thought we were pals."
"That's when I was breathing. Now I'm gonna eat you alive."
"Well...come on, I'm not a cheeseburger." Dean says and cocks his gun and points it at Ronald, but Ronald has vanished. Bobby recites some Latin words and the windows blow open and a wind fills the room. The wind moves the salt so we were no longer protected by it. Meg appears and Sam quickly shoots at her, as Bobby continues to recite the spell. Ronald appears and they shoot at him. Bella pops up and I shoot her, then me, Sam and Dean continue to fire as the ghosts appear. Henriksen knocks Dean's gun out of his hands when he is reloading, and approaches him. Dean grabs another gun, and shoots it, only to find it empty. He quickly picks up an iron rod and hits at Henriksen. Meg appears and pushes me against the wall, trapping me there with a desk. I try to push the desk away without success.
"Lexi!" Dean yells
"Cover Bobby!" I tell him as Bobby continues to recite the spell and I keep trying to get out from behind the desk while my brothers fight of the ghosts. The two girls are sitting on the desk waiting. Meg plunges a hand into Bobby's back and Bobby drops the bowl with spell ingredients.
"Bobby!" I yelled
"Dean!" Bobby says and Dean catches the bowl, "Fireplace!" Dean throws the bowl in the fire, which turns blue. The ghosts all disappear and Bobby falls to the ground.
"Bobby?" Dean asked and Sam pushes the desk away from me then Dean and Sam help Bobby up. He nods, indicating he is okay.
Dean POV...
I woke up later that night to find Castiel standing in the kitchen, I check on Sam and Lexi and see that they are both asleep then walked over to Castiel, "Excellent job with the witnesses."
"You were hip to all this?" I asked him
"I was, uh, made aware."
"Well, thanks a lot for the angelic assistance. You know, I almost got my heart ripped out of my chest." I tell him
"But you didn't."
"I thought angels were supposed to be guardians. Fluffy wings, halos - you know, Michael Landon. Not dicks." I said
"Read the Bible. Angels are warriors of God. I'm a soldier."
"Yeah? Then, why didn't you fight?" I asked
"I'm not here to perch on your shoulder. We had larger concerns."
"Concerns? There were people getting torn to shreds down here! And, by the way, while all this is going on, where the hell is your boss, huh, if there is a God?" I asked him
"There's a God."
"I'm not convinced. 'Cause if there's a God, what the hell is he waiting for, huh? Genocide? Monsters roaming the earth? The freaking apocalypse? At what point does he lift a damn finger and help the poor bastards that are stuck down here?" I ask him out of anger
"The Lord works..."
"If you say "mysterious ways," so help me, I will kick your ass." I told him and paused, "So, Bobby was right... about the witnesses. This is some kind of a... sign of the apocalypse."
"That's why we're here. Big things afoot."
"Do I want to know what kind of things?" I asked him
"I sincerely doubt it, but you need to know. The rising of the witnesses is one of the 66 seals."
"Okay. I'm guessing that's not a show at Seaworld." I mentioned
"Those seals are being broken by Lilith."
"She did the spell. She Rose the witnesses." I concluded
"Mm-hmm. And not just here. 20 other hunters are dead."
"Of course. She picked victims that the hunters couldn't save so that they would barrel right after us." I said
"Lilith has a certain sense of humor."
"Well, we put those spirits back to rest." I told him
"It doesn't matter. The seal was broken."
"Why break the seal anyway?" I asked
"You think of the seals as locks on a door."
"Okay. Last one opens and..." I start to say
"Lucifer walks free."
"Lucifer? But I thought Lucifer was just a story they told at demon Sunday school. There's no such thing." I mentioned
"Three days ago, you thought there was no such thing as me. Why do you think we're here walking among you now for the first time in 2,000 years?"
"To stop Lucifer." I replied
"That's why we've arrived."
"Well... bang-up job so far. Stellar work with the witnesses. That's nice." I said sarcastically
"We tried. And there are other battles, other seals. Some we'll win, some we'll lose. This one we lost. Our numbers are not unlimited. Six of my brothers died in the field this week. You think the armies of Heaven should just follow you around? There's a bigger picture here. You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of Hell. I can throw you back in." He tells me then vanishes
Lexi POV...
"You all right?" I asked Dean who finally woke up and I finished getting my boots on
"What's wrong, Dean?" Sam asked him
"So... You got no problem believing in... God and Angels?" Dean asked
"No, not really."
"So, I guess that means that you believe in the Devil." Dean pointed out and I looked at him confused
"Why are you asking me all this?"