Chapter Three- Not Quite Right

Shortest chapter yet, but that's to attribute it to the lack of action and the fillerness of this chapter. Sorry. Though, some stuff does happen.

Somewhere along the line,
Things get chipped away.
This place keeps going down.
Get a little worse every day.
I see the hate and greed;
This world's a messed up town
-The Offspring

The car's engine hummed softly, the only sound for a few moments as each of its three occupants made an attempt to get their bearings. But Gabriel only felt his chest continuing to constrict as he realized how little he'd understood about what had happened back there.

Castiel looked back at their new companion through the mirror, his too blue eyes piercing. "We're Hunters, too."

"Yeah, yeah." Gabriel's tone was condescending. "That's wonderful. Comrades in arms and all that." He withdrew a mint from his pocket and pushed it around his mouth.

"Can you tell us what just happened?" Castiel asked, ignoring his brother. But his voice made it clear this wasn't a request.

Adam looked out the window a bit longer, watching the road markers and signs. He frowned. "Hey, where are we? I'm in Pennsylvania?"

Castiel looked a bit displeased that he had been ignored. Gabriel nodded though. "Edinboro, if you want something exact. We just finished a case in the middle of Vermont, and we were heading to Ohio when we got blinded by whatever firecracker that was." He hit the accelerator with a little more force than necessary, throwing both Cas and Adam back against their seats. "Now, hows about you answer my brother before I drop you off and watch you walk?"

Adam was clearly irritated with the authoritative turn in Gabriel's voice, but clasped his hands. He appeared to understand there was little more stalling that could be achieved here. His face took on a more weathered and worn look, uncharacteristic of any nineteen year old. "I don't even know where to start, if you didn't know about any of that."

"Then answer our questions," Castiel suggested, eager to find out what exactly they had just come across. "Who were those men that came? What'd you do to them?"

This appeared to take Adam off guard. "What sort of Hunters are you? Those were demons. I exorcised one, and killed the vessel of the other one."

The Novaks met eyes in the mirror, simultaneously gaining understanding. Their stolen journal, from which they'd learned most of what they had about Hunting, had mentioned demons three times- describing separate encounters. Demons, they'd gathered, were exactly what they sounded like- demonic in origin, possibly coming from hell itself. A human soul twisted beyond recognition, according to the lore. And extremely dangerous and powerful, beyond your everyday monsters.

But no, they'd never come across one. It suggested they were way below the demon radar, and if they were honest neither were exactly eager to go after something beyond the likes of what they'd seen thus far.

"We're the type that haven't had to tangle with them yet," supplied Gabriel, knuckles white on the steering wheel as though he were put too much focus into driving.

Dusk had given way to night at some unnoticeable point, and the lights of the interstate lit up Adam's features as he sighed. "Well, I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you this; but they know who you are now, and they have connected you to what went on back there-"

"And what was that, exactly?" Castiel questioned firmly. "What exactly happened there?"

Adam lifted his shoulders and then let them drop. "Hell if I know. I was just tracking those two when you guys showed up and forced me to deal with them before I could get any information!" The last statement was snapped and accusatory. Gabriel looked at him through the rear view window, looking unsure if he should be irritated or placating.

"Hey, kid-"

"Adam," ordered the kid with an air of someone used to being in charge.

Gabriel ignored him. "- it's done. It's over with. What's your plan now?"

The question, rather than make him think, appeared to make Adam grow stoic. "I guess I'll rest for the night, and make sure you two survive through it by some miracle. You've never met a demon before? Seriously?

This question seemed mostly directed to Castiel, which confused the younger Novak. He shook his head though. "Not that we're aware of. We know how to deal with them, though."

Neither brother expected Adam to scoff. "Oh, you've read about them, is that it? So of course you're prepared." Sarcasm dripped from him easily as water. He grew serious in an instant. "Your little book is not going to do much for two hunters who have never so much as seen one of them. They're smart, they're sadistic, and you can't underestimate them or you'll die."

Castiel turned his head to look back, preferring it to using the mirror to speak. "You look exceptionally young to be a Hunter on your own," he observed, eyes surveying him. Adam frowned and look down at himself as though he had never heard this before. But then, he shrugged.

"It doesn't matter. I'm still more experienced than either of you, apparently. And I'm probably your only shot at staying alive. So I'm going to stick around, show you what to do, and you're going to listen." With that, he sat back in his seat and crossed his arms; unmoving.

"Well," Gabriel said after a few moments of awkward silence. "I guess that's that."

The motel in Youngstown was on the worn down side, but far from the worst place either Novak had stayed. The brothers sat on the edges of their respective beds and watched when Adam reentered their room with a bundle of rock salt, a jug of water, an ornate bowl, and a jar of red paint. The ease with which he carried what should have been a slightly heavy load seemed disproportionate to his figure, but neither chose to comment on it; they'd pretty much accepted that Adam was an anomaly, for the moment.

The young man dropped the items on the motel's kitchen counter and got immediately to work, talking as he did.

"Do you guys know the weaknesses of demons?" There was a note of arrogance in his tone as he yanked off the cross necklace that sat on his neck and dropped it into the bowl.

Gabriel rolled his eyes in Castiel's direction, visualizing his annoyance with Gabriel. "Yeah, yeah. We know. Holy water burns them, salt deters them, and demon traps hold them. And an exorcism can send them back to hell."

"Sometimes," Adam corrected, pouring a large amount of the water jug into the bowl and closing his eyes, something about him seeming almost pained as he prepared for the blessing. "Take the rock salt and cover all entrances while I do this, if they decide to come for you it won't hold them a whole bunch. But it will do." Adam held his hand over the bowl as he began to chant in Latin, something unfamiliar to either listening ears. But they both got the hint and jumped to their feet.

Castiel grabbed mugs from the kitchenette and handed one to Gabriel for better scooping ability, and both quickly understood salt barriers were tedious work. The mugs were fairly small and they didn't get much better than half the door before having to return for a refill. Ten minutes later, when they thought they were done, Adam snapped something about a bathroom window and Gabriel groaned with the realization that windows counted as entrances, and started again.

The room was fully covered in salt and the water had been purified of all hellish property, Adam busted open the paint can.

"You'll want to get used to hauling this around," the young Hunter explained as the lid cracked off.

"What do you mean by 'used to'?" Castiel questioned, after having made another run to the kitchenette for supplied silverware. Adam frowned in the way Gabriel was starting to recognize as his expression for confusion and surprise both, then shook his head and took the silverware from Castiel.

"You two are on demon radar. And demons are immortal. Until you learn how to deal with them much better, you'll want to take extra precaution."

Gabriel stood up on his feet and took a deep breath, and then gave an unamused smile. "Well, that's positively fantabulous. But what do you mean by extra precautions? More than this?"

"I have a few things, but mostly not to trust anyone unless-" He received a flick of droplets on his face and his expression froze. He seemed stunned, and it took him a couple seconds to look over at Gabriel. Gabriel was drying his hand of holy water on his pants, and shrugged.

"Nothing personal kid. But you are kind of strange."

Adam bit his cheek, then dipped the back end of the fork into his bucket of red and stood on his feet. He held out his hand. "Trust me for a few seconds, and give me your arm."

Castiel could tell Gabriel was struggling between indeed offering up the trust and showing he wasn't a coward, and refusing and showing he was cautious. In the end, Adam's young face and extended hand as though a peace offering won over, and he bared his own arm.

The paint was cold and heavy, but Adam made a point of not being rough as he drew a symbol that was actually rather fascinating. Pentagrams were well known for devil warding so he trusted that this wasn't some sort of demonic trick, but he was still confused. The pentagram was encircled with a ring of what seemed akin to flame. The kid's face was concentrated on his task, and the sigil was drawn with the neatness of a practiced hand. When it was completed, Adam rubbed the red off the fork and onto his jeans.

Gabriel inspected it and waited to see if anything changed, but he felt nothing. He shrugged at Adam. "So... what is this, then?"

"Anti-possession," Adam said with a wry smile and he knelt back beside the can. "That's not the actual name for it, but that's it's function. Unless that's rubbed off or broken, no demon can take you for a joyride no matter how much they want to."

"Uh huh," Gabriel said slowly, making an effort to hold his arm out and away from his body while it dried. "Do you have one?"

Adam paused for a few moments in his process of beginning work on Castiel's arm. After a few moments, he nodded. "Yeah. Demons can't jump me, either. It's useful, you should remember it."

When Cas sported an identical symbol, Adam pulled over a chair and set the can on the table beside it, and stood on top of the chair to begin painting on the ceiling. At the collective confusion of the room's other occupants, he brushed it off by explaining, "They'd expect it on the floor. Less likely to look up."

The devil's trap on the ceiling took a significantly longer time to complete than anything else, and about halfway through Castiel filled a flask with holy water and declared that he was going to go grab weapons from the trunk and get extra supplies from the grocery store, to which Gabriel advised him to be careful. Castiel laughed as though this were humorous and left Gabriel largely unsatisfied that he would be so.

Once the door was shut and the salt repositioned, Gabriel asked Adam a question that had been weighing on his mind for a bit. "So you don't know what those wings were from?"

Adam's answer was quick, and sure. "No clue. Must be something important though, if the demons reacted so fast."

"What makes you think it was fast?" Gabriel pointed out. He remembered the white light , he remembered the feeling like being blinded; he didn't remember Adam showing up until after this was over. It was possible the incidences- the light and the wings- were unrelated, but he found that prospect unlikely.

Adam brushed off that question, as he had proven he had a habit of doing. "I'm assuming. You two stopped for that light, and they showed up hardly a minute later. Obviously that meant something." Adam finished painting and stepped down with a few globs of red paint in his hair and on his face. Despite the arduously long day he must have had, his eyes were bright with energy and he hadn't slowed once yet, and Gabriel was impressed with his resilience.

"It was a very pretty light," Gabriel said sarcastically. Adam snorted appreciatively but seemed distracted as he snatched up the complimentary notepad and pen and scribbled something down in a flourish. He held the paper out and with a moment of hesitation Gabriel took it and glanced. It was a ten digit phone number. "Yours? You're a very pretty man Adam, but you're not quite my type." He mock-winced.

Adam rolled his eyes as though washing himself clean of the suggestion and nodded, brushing his hands on his pants and stepping up to the elder Novak. "Yeah, it's mine. I can't stay, I have to follow the trail while it's fresh."

Gabriel waved his hands, visually pushing away the explanation. "Hey, hey! We haven't finished asking questions yet." It was true, and there were still holes in Adam's story that were greatly aggravating Gabriel, though he had done nothing thus far but help them that didn't make him not mysterious or threatening.

Adam looked down at the ground and nodded to himself, then met Gabriel's eyes firmly. "Too bad. Call if you need me." And just like that he walked out the motel door and closed it behind him with a click, signifying its finality.

Gabriel ran after him with full intention of dragging the kid back in until he knew everything- Adam was definitely hiding something or another- but there was no one in sight. He frowned and did a full circle, squinting off into the night, but no. Adam was gone, and he had no idea where he'd gone.

Gabriel huffed in annoyance and stepped back inside, repositioning the salt yet again only to have it disrupted by Castiel returning with a small bag of groceries in hand.
The younger Novak looked around in curiosity, then tilted his head at Gabriel. "Where's Adam?"

Gabriel groaned.