Chapter Four
The three of them were sitting around Anna's kitchen table drinking coffee. Dean was still pissed at being dragged in here, with the tasteful furniture and matching drapes. He felt dirty just looking at the nice sofa with the big television in front of it. The hoodoo queen looked like she lived well, Dean couldn't even see any evidence of her craft around.
Sam had pretty much pushed him onto the porch and though the door into the house. When they entered they were greeted by Metallica's Enter Sandman blasting from an IPod that was hooked up to a pair of speakers in the corner. The place was really nice as much as Dean hated to say. At least there wasn't a feminine atmosphere, everything was clean and functional. Anna had shown them to the kitchen and offered them coffee. Dean was going to refuse, until he smelled it brewing, and then he couldn't turn it away.
Sam cut the silence, 'So what are we going to do? How does this work?'
'Well,' she began, 'like I said outside, I've been tracking you two for a few weeks now. I knew you were coming and I knew that I had to help you. So I've been gathering some intel on the situation.'
'What do you mean intel?' Dean interrupted rudely. 'How do you gather intel and how do you know it's reliable?' Dean was his father's boy after all and any marine knows the importance of good intelligence information.
'I…' she began, but was interrupted again by Dean.
'And how do we know this will work?' Dean was just shy of yelling. 'I mean look at this place, it doesn't exactly look like any shamans place we've seen before.' He gestured wildly around him, 'this place doesn't exactly scream "Demon Aficionado" to me.'
Anna looked him calmly in the eye before responding. 'Firstly, just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there. I've found that hidden wards are more effective, besides, who wants to look at those awful symbols all day? They scream reminders at me that I can't have a normal life.' She gestured randomly around the kitchen, 'The signs are there for those who know how to look for them…I like that I'm able to hide them.' She nodded her head at the window, 'Sam, go look at the curtains for me and tell me what you see.'
Sam got up and went to the window, lifted the curtain into his hand and studied it. 'I don't see…wait a minute…the stitching!' He exclaimed. 'There are symbols stitched into the hems,' he explained to Dean. 'They're so small, you wouldn't know they were there.'
'They're protection wards. I have them hidden all over the place. The lovely picket fence that surrounds the property has runes and sigils carved into every piece, so do the railings and wind-chimes on the front porch. There are iron bars embedded in the walls below every window so that demons can't enter, there's also a devil's trap painted on the underside of the door mats.'
'So this place is Fort Knox to demons then?' Sam asked as he sat back down at the table.
'Pretty much,' she said while taking a sip of her coffee.
'So what about this intel you said you gathered?' Dean asked, impressed that she was able to hide her craft, but not about to tell her so.
'Well, there are a number of demon traps buried in the yard, they're made from solid sheets of metal and let me tell you, they were a bitch to get made.' She closed her eyes and laughed, 'you should have seen the guy's face when I told him I'd curse him if I saw one welded joint.' She straightened herself out and continued, 'any way, in the last few weeks, there's been more than one night when I was woken up by the spirits, to see someone standing, locked in place in my yard.'
'Demons?' Sam asked.
'Demons,' she agreed, 'black eyed, pissed off, rip your head off demons.'
'What did you do?' Dean asked, forgetting to sound pissed off and annoyed.
'Interrogated them, then sent them back to hell where they belong.' She paused and looked at Dean. 'They want you quite badly Dean. They gave your contract to some big brass in the pit.' She leaned on her elbows and leaned closer to him. 'When they say demon army, they have the army part right. There's a hierarchy in the demon world, the longer you've been there, the more powerful you become and the higher you rank. You made the deal with a corporal, the contract is being held by a general. Getting you out of this deal is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done.' Anna took a sip of her coffee and placed the mug back on the table.
'So how are we going to break this deal?' Sam asked softly.
'Never fear Sam,' Anna said as she patted him gently on the cheek, 'I have a plan.'
'So let's hear it then.' Dean said, anxious but not wanting to get his hopes up. Anna seemed to know what she was doing and Dean was now willing to hear what she had to say at least.
'It's quite simple really. We summon the demon into a demon trap, kill him with that lovely pistol of yours, and presto! Debt free Dean is back to using women as he pleases, and out there fighting this war at his brother's side.' She gave Dean a cynical smile that Dean took to mean he could eat shit and die.
Dean and Sam looked at each other, knowing that the other was thinking 'oh shit, the colt!'
'How do you know about the colt?' Dean questioned.
'That question is getting a little old, Dean. I know about lots of things that I shouldn't.'
'Well there's a problem with your plan,' Sam cut in, 'we lost the colt. Actually it was stolen from us and we haven't been able to get it back yet.'
Anna held up her index finger and said, 'Just one sec.'
She got up from the table and knelt in front of a corner cupboard near the sink. She began to pull out pots and pans from the cupboard, scattering them on the floor around her knees. Dean and Sam confusedly watched her, not knowing what she was up to. When the cupboard was empty, she leaned into it, nearly crawled half way into it so that only her ass was sticking out. Dean allowed himself to admire the view for a moment before remembering that he didn't much like the bitch, and looked elsewhere.
After a moment Anna re-emerged with an old metal box in her hands. She placed it on the table between him and Sam, a satisfied smile on her lovely face. There were symbols painted on the surface of the box and Dean was curious what was inside.
'That's a demon lock-box!' Sam whispered.
'It's a curse box!' Dean exclaimed, jumping up and knocking his chair over in an attempt to put space between himself and the box.
'It's both,' Anna said quietly as she lifted the lid.
Sam, who had also jumped up when Dean did, peered over her shoulder and exclaimed, 'It's another colt!' He made to reach into the box but Anna slapped at his hand and he pulled back.
'It's your colt, boys.' She reached into the box and lifted out the long, heavy antique pistol that was guaranteed to kill anything. She showed them the carving on the hilt to prove it to them.
'But...but, how?' Dean stammered, coming closer to examine the colt that has been stolen from them weeks ago. Anna held it out to him and he took it from her, relieved to have it back in his hands.
'Bela Talbot called me two weeks ago, asking if I wanted to reconsider the sale of a personal item of mine. She said she had something of great value that I might find useful in my line of work, and that she would trade.'
'Wait, you know Bela?' Sam asked, shocked.
'Unfortunately, yes.' Anna lip curled at the admission. 'That miserable bitch is the biggest snake in the grass, pain in my ass, hate the site of her beautiful face…wish she'd fall into a pit and leave me alone for the rest of my life.'
Dean smirked because that was how he felt about Bela too.
'I don't understand,' Sam said, a look of confusion on his face. Dean was glad Sam said so because he wanted an explanation too and Anna didn't seem to like answering his questions. 'What did you have that Bela was after? Something that she was willing to trade the colt for; because she could have got a lot of money for it on the black market.'
Anna sighed. 'Bela had been after me for the last year for a certain item of mine. Twice she came back, offering more money each time, and each time I turned her away. She must have got the picture that it wasn't for sale because then she came in the middle of the night to steal it.'
'Bela tried to break in here?' Sam asked, incredulous.
'Yeah, but the good thing about spirits are that they are like guard dogs that don't sleep. They woke me up the second she stepped on the property.'
'So you caught her?' Dean questioned.
Anna shot him a scathing look and said, 'I had the home turf advantage…and a warning. Bela is good at what she does, but I had the drop on her. When she came to, she was tied to that chair you're sitting in right now.' She indicated the chair Dean was sitting in and he was pleased that Bela had been bested by someone, because he and Sam had been screwed by her so many times.
'What did you do to her?' Sam sounded in awe.
'Oh, I let her go. But I made it perfectly clear to her that if she tried to steal the mirror, that I had a particularly nasty curse protecting it and it would be all lined up for her. Bela's a lot of things, but she's not stupid, you don't mess with hoodoo curses.'
'But you traded her what she wanted for the colt,' Sam whispered, 'what did she want that badly?'
Anna exhaled, 'A very old, very powerful scrying mirror. It had been in my family for generations.'
'I've heard of scrying bowls, but not scrying mirrors, what are they and what do they do?' Dean asked, working hard to sound polite.
'A scrying mirror works the same way a bowl works, only it's white magic instead of black. Instead of blood or entrails, you pour a little holy water on the surface.'
'Why don't more people use mirrors than instead of bowls?' Dean questioned. In his mind, the mirror thing sounded a lot less disgusting.
'Almost any silver bowl can be used as a scrying bowl. The mirror needs to be blessed by a Cardinal,' Anna replied. 'That's why they're so rare, because Cardinals just don't support witchcraft. According to the records they used to burn anyone even remotely connected to magic or herbology, or someone with just enough common sense to know that simply praying won't cure an illness.' Anna was quiet a moment before continuing. 'As far as I know, there are only six that were ever made, I don't know how many still exist, mine may have been the last.'
A heavy silence fell on the threesome. Each considering what they have learned so far. Dean ran his thumb along the handle of the colt, wondering how much it had cost Anna to get it back for them. Sam spoke up, 'Besides the obvious money factor, why would Bela go to all that trouble for that thing?'
'Oh I don't imagine she wants to sell it,' Anna responded. 'I think she wants it for herself. Probably to further her already lucrative business of locating "rare items for select clientele." She adopted a fake accent to match Bela's that was surprisingly close.
'But Bela uses talking boards and tarot cards, why the mirror?' Sam asked softly.
'Cards and boards are unreliable, they don't always work, spirits can lie. The mirror lets you truly communicate with the dead, no lies or deceptions. It's also supposed to be able to speak with spirits that have, shall we say, passed beyond the veil. Bowls can only communicate with spirits and demons that are on earth. Not to mention it's not as gross as a bowl of blood or entrails.' Anna's lip curled at the corners a little. 'It's not like I even used it, I don't have to…not with my – abilities,' she gave a sad little laugh. 'My Grandmere used to use it, so it just had sentimental value to me.'
Dean allowed himself a moment to dream about looking in to the mirror and being able to talk to his dad again, his mom.
'I'm sorry,' Sam said. 'It seems like this gun cost you a lot.'
'Yes, well, the colt is more useful at the moment than an old mirror. Sentiments don't get you much when you're dead.' Her voice thickened a little at the end and right then Dean decided that he would steal the mirror back for her after this was all over. It was the least he could do. Besides, he and Sam owed Bela big time.
Anna seemed to straighten her back a little and said, 'After she left I put the gun in this box, it was the box I kept the mirror in and I felt it needed all the protection I could give it.'
Before Dean could stop himself, 'So you hid it with the pots and pans?', slipped out of his mouth and earned him yet another dirty glare from the woman standing on the other side of the table from him.
'This box has a heavy curse laying on it,' she bit back. 'You may have noticed that I stopped your brother from reaching for the colt when I opened the box. If he had removed the gun from the box instead of myself, the curse would have fallen on him and things would be very bad for him right now.'
'What's the curse?' Sam asked softly.
'Your worst moments…nightmares, every bad thing that has ever happened to you during your life is replayed in your mind over and over. You can't think, you can't sleep, anguish and despair take over, and eventually, it will literally drive you mad,' Anna replied with a heavy voice, 'a blathering, drooling idiot.' Sam gave a low whistle.
Dean thought about how much bad shit he and Sammy had been through and how terrible it would be keep reliving it. The memory of Sam falling in the mud after Jake had stabbed him in the back, and having him die in his arms, flew into his mind and Dean knew that image alone would be enough to eventually kill him.
'That is fucked up.' He spat, and stalked away from the table.
'Dean…' Sam called, but Dean was already standing in the living room rubbing his hands across his face, desperately trying to rid himself of the image of Sam's eyes going blank.
'Dean…' Sam's voice came from behind him and was full of worry.
'It's alright,' he answered gruffly, 'I just need a second.'
Dean watched his brother go back into the kitchen, back into the same room as the witch, or whatever she was. He wondered how he didn't see it before, back in that bar, back in his motel room. 'Must have been thinking too much with my downstairs brain,' he thought. Dean outwardly groaned, and knowing there wasn't anything else to do, headed back into the kitchen.
Striding purposefully into the room he said, 'Alright,' pointing at Anna he barked, 'You're not coming with us so tell us what we need to do.'
'Firstly,' she snapped, pointing her own finger back at him, 'do not speak to me like that in my own home, I will not be bossed about like some spoiled child's servant.' Dean drew back a bit at the venom in her voice. 'Secondly, you need me.'
'It'll be dangerous, we should do it on our own,' Dean insisted.
'You don't know the demon's summoning name.'
'You could tell us,' he countered.
'You don't know how to draw the summoning circle.'
'You could teach us.'
'You don't know the chants or how to recite the invocations.'
'You…' Dean stopped, knowing that chants and invocations aren't something you learn in an afternoon, and they are something that you definitely don't want to get wrong.
'You see,' she said smiling sweetly, 'you need me.'
Dean glared at his brother who had been watching the two of them like it was a tennis match, 'Sam! Back me up here!'
Sam shook his head, 'Dude, we need all the help we can get.'
Dean threw his hands up in the air in frustration, turning his back on the other two who were apparently ganging up on him.
'Lovely,' Anna chirped, 'glad that's settled. Now,' her voice went all business, 'we have a lot to do tonight, we can perform the ceremony tomorrow night and I won't do it on anything less than consecrated ground, so we'll use an abandoned church I know of. I suggest that you stay here instead of a motel,' she held up her hands when Dean made to protest. 'It will be safer for all of us to stick together. If you don't think that the demons are moving in on us, you're a bigger fool than I took you for. This house is as safe as it's possible, there are spare rooms upstairs, you can take your pick.'
Dean gave Sam a disgusted look when he nodded at what Anna was saying.
'Also,' she continued, ignoring the mutinous look on Dean's face, 'it's getting late and I'm starved. Let's make some supper, there are some steaks in the fridge, and we can prepare for tomorrow night afterwards.'
Dean's stomach growled at the word 'steak' and he chastised it for it too being against him.
Anna tossed Sam a set of keys. 'Sammy!' He caught them easily.
Dean expected Sam to snap at her for calling him Sammy, but was dumbfounded when he didn't. 'What the hell?! I'm the only one who gets to call him that!' Dean thought angrily.
'Sammy, be a dear and pull my car further up in the drive so you can park behind it. Cars on the street tend to get broken into around here but no one will mess with it if it's in my driveway. Also, there are some bags in the trunk, will you bring them in for me?'
'Sure, no problem,' Sam replied, smiling at her.
He turned away and Dean made to follow him when Anna said, 'Don't go anywhere Dean, we need to talk,' she looked pointedly at Sam. 'Privately,' she emphasized.
Sam nodded and said, 'I'll take my time,' before giving Dean a smirk that plainly said that he deserved everything she was going to say to him. Sam walked away and Dean groaned inwardly, dreading what was coming.
'Anna, look…' he started, but was interrupted.
'Shut up Dean,' she snapped. 'There's something I haven't told you yet about the ceremony that I didn't want Sam to know.'
Dean was startled. He was expecting her to chew him out on skipping out on her in the middle of the night, not this. 'What aren't you telling us?'
'Demons tend to attach themselves to certain people they're interested in, and when you summon them, you need a little bit of that person in the circle to draw them in. Usually a little blood is all you need.'
'That's no problem,' Dean interrupted, 'I'm not squeamish about spilling a little blood.' He smiled cockily at her. Blood, ha!
'I'm afraid that blood isn't going to be enough for this excursion,' she replied acidly, wiping the smile off Dean's face. 'Blood is only enough when the demon in question is on this side of the grass. Your demon is still in the pit, and after summoning him, he needs to be possessing a body in order to kill him. You can't shoot a black cloud Dean. Your pistol will only work on a demon possessing a body.' She paused to let that statement sink in.
Dean's mind was running full tilt now, processing what she just told him. 'Someone needs to be in that summoning circle,' he stated. Anna looked intently at him. 'I need to be in the summoning circle.' Anna nodded solemnly. 'The demon will possess me and I'll get shot with the colt, killing both me and the demon.'
'Yes,' she whispered, 'I'm afraid so.'
Dean exhaled loudly, the gravity of the situation settling on him. 'And you didn't want to tell Sam, why?'
'It's obvious isn't it?' She replied, shocked. 'Sam will never let you waltz into that circle Dean. He's getting so desperate, he's as likely to abduct some homeless man and use him. And I will not shed innocent blood to save your soul!' She poked him hard in the chest.
'Sam will never shoot me,' Dean stated.
'I know.'
'You'd have to do it.'
'I know.' She had a hard look on her face, but it didn't reach her eyes, they looked near to tears.
'Have you ever killed anyone before?' Dean asked and the look on her face was enough to say that she'd really never harmed anyone before, much less shot someone. Dean sat down heavily in a kitchen chair. Burying his head in his hands, he let the grave situation settle into his mind. 'Sam won't let you shoot me either,' his voice was muffled by his fingers.
'I know, we'll have to ditch him long enough to do it ourselves. The invocations aren't as hard as I made them out to be. When the circle is drawn, I'll send Sam back to the car, telling him I forgot something. When it's clear, you step into the circle and we'll summon the demon. As soon as it's inside you, I'll shoot. We'll have to act fast, a demon as powerful as this one will have to be dealt with quickly. A demon trap will only slow down this guy for a moment; he'll be too powerful otherwise.'
Dean looked up and stared her full in the face. 'So tomorrow night, I'll be dead,' he stated baldly.
She nodded and whispered, 'but your soul will be yours.' She pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down. She started to reach for his hand, but caught herself, and rested it in a closed fist on the table top instead. 'Dean,' she said softly, 'you knew you weren't going to survive this deal. At least this way, your soul won't be roasting in the pit.'
'But I still had a few months left with Sam, can't we do this later? More towards the end of my time?' He was looking at her and he knew he was pleading but couldn't stop himself.
'And if you're killed before then?' She questioned. 'Your line of work doesn't exactly come with an insurance plan Dean. You are not guaranteed the full year. If you die before this ceremony is completed, you'll spend eternity in hell,' she reasoned. 'This needs to be done as soon as possible, the demons are circling in on you and Sam. There isn't much time left and soon you'll be surrounded.'
Dean stared down at the table top, not wanting to look up and risk Anna seeing the tears that were threatening to form. She placed her finger under his chin and forced him to look at her. She whispered 'We can't save your life Dean, but we can save your soul.'