Hey there ^_^ ! This chapter is a bit long, but I don't think anyone will complain ;) ! Enjoy your reading ^_^ !
(I realized I made a little mistake ! This happens before Civil War not after uh, so they're still all BFFs)
Chapter 7 : The glass cage
"Oh no..." muttered Dean.
"I think we've found him..." concluded Sam.
They had closed the door behind them. Castiel stepped forward.
"Who are you ?" he asked with a voice that wanted to be obeyed.
Bruce Banner -well, the demon that was in him- stretched, and crossed his arms in front of him, before looking down on the group. Contrarily to what Anna had heard on the news, Banner had lost his typical American accent for a British one.
"Well, well, well... What do we have here ? An angel, the Winchesters and... Adramelech, is that you ?"
Anna stiffened and on her lips you could read a curve of disgust.
"Absolutely no", she spat at him.
"Too bad... we would have had the biggest fun in here. If I had thought about it earlier, I would have fetched you out of Hell to play some games, just like the good'ole times, you know..."
The demon made the sounds linger on his tongue like honey, making the young woman's skin crawled. Dean frowned and asked Anna :
"Do you know him ?"
Anna sighed, she could feel both the anger and the anxiety rise in her being, and she was starting to shake.
"I think this is... Valafar ?"
The demon slowly clapped with a smirk :
"Good job, meat suit !"
Anna turned her back to the glass room, she was shaking uncontrollably now. She remembered.
"Are you alright Anna ?" wondered Sam.
"Valafar is... Duke of Hell..."
"Grand duke of Hell !" insisted the demon. "I've earned that title, I expect people to respect it."
Anna was on the verge of tears, and she tried to breathe-in and breathe-out slowly to calm down.
"Anna, what's wrong ?" repeated Dean.
"He... He is a friend of Adramelech... Sometimes he would join... us... in the killings... of all those kids."
Valafar chuckled, while slowly walking around in his cage.
"Oh, those good memories... Tiny legs, tiny arms... The sound of the breaking of kids' bones are of a higher-pitch, it is a real delight."
Anna couldn't help but cry at the remembrance. Her legs were shaking but she still managed to stand on her feet. She hid her face in her heads and sobbed quietly, her jaws clenched.
"What... are you doing here ?" yelled a voice from behind.
They turned to the entrance door, and there stood Tony Stark, his phone in his hands, and a hostile look on his face. He had a glove of his Iron Man armour already on, ready to shoot.
"How did you get in ?" he shouted at them.
"Tony..." tried Anna, wiping the tears from her face.
"Natasha and Thor told me how quick you left," he cut her with a very distant tone, "I was wondering what could so important that you wouldn't stay to appreciate the company of two Nordic gods, you who love mythology, apparently."
"Mister Stark, please hear us out..." attempted Sam.
"FRIDAY," called Tony, "Warn the rest of the team, they have to come down here."
"Right away, sir," answered the mechanical voice over their heads.
Tony was not aiming directly at them, but they could all hear the energy ready to be used for an attack.
"I can take care of him," suggested Castiel.
"No !" intervened Anna. "Tony, listen, we can help, we know what's wrong with him, that's why he's in a cage, right ?"
Tony Stark stopped being as aggressive. He looked at Anna, trying to decipher if she was lying or not. She had her hands in the air as to show she meant no harm, as Sam and Dean. She was speaking with a low voice, as to calm him down.
"What did you say ?" hesitated Tony, inviting her to speak again.
"Your friend, Dr Banner, there is something wrong with him, we know what it is, it is a demon. Dr Banner is being possessed by a demon, hence the black eyes and the sarcastic tone."
She had gone from terrified to threatened in one second, she had almost forgot what Valafar had reminded her, but she was still shaking a bit, which made Tony uneasy.
"A demon ? Come on, demons can't be real !"
"Tony, you fight aliens that come from another dimension, you invited two Nordic gods to your gala tonight, demons totally fit in that scenario. There are monsters on our planet. My friends here, their real names are Sam and Dean Winchester, they are called hunters, they hunt those monsters."
That is the moment the rest of the Avengers entered the room. They were all startled and ready to fight, maybe except for Loki, who seemed just curious, at the back of the group. Steve Rogers had his red, blue, and white shield on his arm, and Thor was holding his Mjölnir high. Natasha aimed at the intruders with two guns, and Clint had prepared his bow and arrow.
"How did they get here ?" wondered Steve.
"I stole the security card from the guard upstairs, I'm sorry," admitted Anna. "I'll give it back."
"How did you know he was here ?" interrogated Natasha with a straight voice, a murderous voice.
"We followed the omens," explained Sam. "Demons provoke omens, like temperature fluctuation or electrical storm. With him, it must be hard to keep all the lights on upstairs, right ?"
Tony hesitated. Anna could see in his eyes that what they were saying, Sam and her, was confirming what Tony had found unusual this last week.
"A demon, you said ?" he repeated slowly.
"Yes, Tony, you have to believe us."
As to back up their plead, demon Bruce spoke up in a very dramatic way :
"You unveiled my true nature, Adramelech, how foul of you !"
"Adra... what ?" said Tony.
Anna did not turn to the glass cage and closed her eyes a second to regain some countenance.
"Tony, before I entered McKeen Industries, I was possessed by a demon too, a demon named Adramelech, for a long time, I know what it is, and these gentlemen know it too, please let us help you."
"How can we be sure you're not lying, and that you're not his associates ?" Steve contested.
"I can assure you we hate those sons of bitches." said Dean with a grin.
Anna slowly lowered her hands and took a step forward towards Tony. Clint Barton bended his bow as a warning.
"Not an inch closer, missy."
Anna stopped, but looked at Tony straight in his eyes :
"I am not lying. We've been following the omens to here, we can help you. Sam, please, start exorcising Dr Banner to show the Avengers our good faith."
Sam started reciting the exorcism in Latin. They all witnessed the demons having a kind a seizure, then balancing his head, and they all saw the black smoke slowly leaving Bruce Banner's body. All the Avengers, maybe except the Asgardians, had wide eyes and a terrified look on their faces. A few more words, and Sam was done. The smoke had left Bruce, who had fallen unconscious on the floor. However, contrarily to what they would expect, the smoke slowly turned around in the cage, trying to find a way out, but could not find any, and crawled back inside Bruce's body. Bruce opened his eyes, plain black again. However, this time, the demon had lost the smirk, and was raging ; he brutally punched the glass wall with his two fists and yelled :
"You think I haven't already try that ? You imbeciles !"
Sam and Dean exchanged a perplexed glare, and turned to the others to see Anna being as concerned, and the Avengers astonished after what they just saw.
"It can't leave... the demon can't leave," observed Sam.
Anna turned to Tony, who watched with despair his friend battle against the glass.
"Tony, what is this cage made of ?" she asked.
"Uh... Some alloys, extra strong glass, that's pretty much it..." he said while hesitating.
"Any iron, or salt in the material ?"
"Uh... I use sea water to cool down the whole system."
With the three vodkas she had earlier, Anna started to feel a little light, and forgot for a moment that the Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America, and Thor, god of thunder were just waiting for the slightest movement from her to attack. She exulted in joy :
"Sea water ! Tony you are a genius !"
Thor and Loki exchanged a concerned look, what could be so great about salt to defeat this unknown enemy ? Annabelle put her hand on Tony's arm, a big smile on her face, and rosy cheeks.
"Demons can be trapped by iron, salt, or demon traps," explained Sam. "Your mechanism must have sea water all around the glass cage, right ?"
"Uh... yeah. Under, actually, a round pipe on two rows, one above the other, that are related to this" he pointed at the wall where all the piped and electrical cables gathers to exit the room.
Tony looked down at the woman clutching his arm, trying to understand why she suddenly grabbed his arm as if they were the biggest friends in the world, despite the situation. He raised an eyebrow and frowned his nose when he smelled the vodka in her breath.
Sam and Dean had noticed too, Anna's sudden self-confidence, and the spark in her eyes. The Linguist turned to Valafar, and walked up to the cage, where the demon was so frustrated Bruce's traits were almost deformed.
"Ha ! Looks like you're never getting out of here ! It's such a pleasure to see you rot in there, gilipollas."
The demon threatened her in demonic, to which she laughed before he had even finished his sentence, staggering on her heels, obviously under the effect of alcohol. She faced Sam and Dean :
"He's such a joke, grand duke of hell, my ass !"
Dean gently took her wrist :
"Anna, you should tone it down, now, or you're gonna be shot by an arrow or a bullet..."
She pulled her wrist out of Dean's hand, and went back by Tony :
"He's pretty stuck now, you should be able to keep him here, however you couldn't keep out the demons that are probably rumbling around, trying to find out a way to get Zeppy out of here. Ce serait dommage de le perdre maintenant qu'on l'a attrapé, нeт ?"
Sam nodded at Dean, and slowly went to Anna :
"I think she had a bit too much of a drink upstairs..."
"I have, haven't I ?" she smiled at Sam.
Tony focused on the current problem, while the Avengers were slowly lowering down their weapons. Thor stepped forward :
"Since you know what is wrong with doctor Banner, can you help us heal him ?"
"That's why you were all here tonight, isn't it ?" asked Sam, "To find a solution ?"
"Yes," answered Tony. "We asked Thor to come down here, but apprently there are no demons on Asgard."
"Or in the other Realms." finished the God of thunder.
"How did it happen ?" proceeded Dean. "When did it begin ?"
"Bruce lives outside of New York, in a small town. Approximately a week ago, he came here for a football and science evening, he was complaining of huge head aches, and memory loss. He would wake up on the floor of his living room, for no reason. I ran a couple of neural tests in my lab, but nothing unusual showed up, even the little extra spike for his unconscious, but we've always attributed this to the Hulk. He stayed for the night, and in the morning, Pepper and me found him lying unconscious in the kitchen. Fearing that he might turn into the Hulk, we put him in the glass cage, and monitored him carefully. When he finally woke up a few hours later, he was... this." he finished, pointing at Valafar.
"It makes sense," reassured Sam. "Normally, demons can take over humans in a second. They lie first in the unconscious but steer the humans from the consciousness. He might have had some trouble settling in the unconscious due to the Hulk."
"Yeah," intervened Valafar from his glass cage "This monster gave me some difficulties, but nothing I couldn't handle... Hm, I think your friend here is totally drunk."
All looked at Anna, who was leaning on her side against the glass, laughing and talking to herself.
"Hey, meat suit" Valafar called her.
Then he started talking demonic to her, and Sam and Dean saw her face slowly turning from laughter to sadness to enraged, and she punched aggressively the glass.
"Woh, there !"
Dean jumped next to her and retained her by her waist, sermonizing her :
"Stop it now !"
"You bitch !" she yelled at Valafar, who was glad his little mind-tricking worked on her.
Dean turned her away from the demon, but kept his grasp on her arm, while Castiel was securing the other arm. The hunter leaned to her and whispered to her ear :
"You're only making yourself miserable, stop it."
She sighed and starting talking in Enochian to Castiel, he did not pay attention to her, so she talked to herself in some language they could not identify. Tony and Sam resumed their conversation :
"And what can you do ?"
"First, we have to get him out of this cage, to exorcise him, because the demon can't leave, it will always go back to doctor Banner's body. We should make two lines of salt and a demon trap just at the entrance, and we'll exorcize him then."
"Couldn't we be possessed after that ?" asked Clint. "It needs a host, right ?"
"Not exactly, it does not need a host, or a vessel, as we call it. Once we would have exorcized it, it's going straight back to Hell."
"Hell ?"
Natasha and Clint exchanged a glance. They both found it really unconventional, but again, Clint fought aliens with a bow and arrow. Without a word, they understood each-other, and focused again on the intruders, ready to jump at them at any suspicious occasion.
"Ok, then what," asked Thor, "Bruce Banner will be freed from this... demon ? We have fought against many evils, but never against some of this kind, isn't Loki ?"
Loki, suddenly called, just raised an eyebrow :
"Probably." he hesitated in his languid tone, not really sure yet if he wanted to be part of this or not.
"Yes," reassured Sam, "Your friend will be himself again, nothing should go bad."
"Should ?" repeated Tony. "Is he going to be wounded after that ?"
Not if he hurt himself. He is going to feel a bit dizzy maybe at first, but nothing a good night of sleep won't fix."
Tony glanced one last time at Sam, and turned to his friends. They gathered to discuss in a low voice. Sam went back to his brother, Castiel, and Anna between them.
"God, is she... drunk ?"
"She's been talking to herself for a good five minutes now, though I can't understand what she says. She seemed pretty upset after what Valafar told her, I wondered what he said..."
Anna shook her head and looked at Dean :
"Er sagte, dass..."
"Anna, English," pleaded Dean.
"He said that... That he would make his very personal business to bring back Adramelech to teach me how to behave, and that they would visit a primary school just after that..."
Dean winced, and despite the fact that Anna was slightly smiling because of the alcohol, he saw in her eyes that fear that the trauma she had lived became her reality again, the same glimpse that he could catch when looking in the mirror. He released her from his grip, so did Castiel. She stood in between, and Valafar called at her :
"Hey, meat suit !"
This time, it was Dean who responded : he pointed at the demon and warned him with a throaty voice :
"I'm gonna crisp you back to Hell so bad you're gonna call for your momma, I promise you that."
Valafar dramatically put his hands on his cheeks with fake terror :
"Oh no ! Dean Winchester is threatening me ? How will I survive ?"
"Pfff..." Dean chose to ignore him.
Tony came back to them, followed by Thor and Steve Rogers. Apparently they had accepted what Sam had presented them. Castiel took Anna by the arm to take her further away from the glass door, near Natasha and Clint, who still had not put away their weapons. At Sam's request, Tony unearthed a marker, and commanded FRIDAY to be ready to stop the cooling system.
"Ready when you are, sir," answered the AI.
"You know I'm not stepping into that ?" pointed out Valafar as Sam was drawing the demon trap at the entrance. "You'll have to force me in."
"I will make you." volunteered Thor.
"Wait, you can be possessed too, I don't think it's..."
"It should work," intervened Castiel.
The Avengers turned to the dark-haired man in a trenchcoat they had not heard before.
"By the way, who are you ?" asked Steve.
"I am Castiel, angel of the Lord," he responded with his hoarse voice.
"Yeah," continued Anna, "Demons" -she pointed at Valafar-, "So angels too" -pointing at Castiel. "The wings, miracle and stuff."
Steve gasped and detailed Castiel in his trenchcoat, totally not the image he had of an angel. Anna caught his glare, and explained :
"Angels, just like demons, can't walk this earth without a vessel."
"My true form is as tall as your Empire Building" insisted Castiel.
"We got it Fluffy" Anna cut him.
Steve narrowed his eyes and hesitated :
"You mean... angels... possess people ? Just like... demons ?"
"Yeah, except they can't get you as their meat suit if you don't agree. You have to say ''yes'' to an angel, whereas a demon just... takes you." remarked Annabelle.
Steve walked up to the angel and the Linguist :
"So... there is someone... in there ? This person..."
"His name is Jimmy Novak, and he actually prayed for this." defended Castiel.
Anna saw a little something break in Steve's eyes. She felt sorry for him, it was always hard for a true believer to realize how horrible angels could be, she had seen a lot of those glances when she was possessed by Pahaliah. She tried to give a sorry smile to Steve, who just looked down and then back at the black-eyed Bruce Banner. But the alcohol in her veins made her look like she was making fun of him instead. Fortunately, no one noticed.
Sam had finished drawing the demon trap, and Dean had put salt around the cage and sigil together, so the demon could not escape.
"So, Thor can go ?" took over Romanoff.
"Yes, answered Castiel. Humans are divided into two : soul, and physical form, however, I cannot see the difference in... them. As in humans, the two can be separated and so taken individually, but in your friends, I can only see one entity. Their spirit cannot be torn from their physical form, so no one can enter them and take the spirit's place like demons and angels do. It will work."
Thor suspended Mjölnir at his belt, and walked to the door. He stepped into the demon trap with precaution. Everybody got ready. Clint bended his bow again, Natasha verified one last time, just by habit, that her guns were loaded, and Steve secured his grasp on his shield. Anna felt Castiel preparing his energy to defend himself or to fly away.
Dean took out his flask of holy water, and opened it, and Sam repeated the last words of the exorcism just for himself. Tony and the Winchesters nodded at each other, everybody was ready.
"-FRIDAY." called Tony Stark.
"Yes sir."
The background noise of the cooling system diminished, and the glass door opened. Valafar looked at everybody ready for battle, and could not help but laugh :
"You all look very cute, all of this just for me ? Is it my birthday ?"
Thor stepped in the cage, and got closer to Valafar. The demon did not try to resist when the Nordic god grabbed his arm and forced him out of the cage into the demon trap. He stood next to him to prevent him from fleeing -he had not really yet understood that the demon couldn't have stepped out of the sigil on the floor anyway.
Sam began the exorcism out loud. But he could not reach the second sentence before the lights flickered. The Winchesters, Castiel, and Anna were immediately alarmed and Dean took out the Knife.
"Demons." announced Castiel. "I wasn't paying attention." he continued with an angry tone.
He disappeared, at the Avengers' greatest surprise. Anna had nothing to defend herself, so she walked back to Sam, and yelled at him to continue the exorcism, which he did. Suddenly, the brawl started. Black-eyed guests ran in the room and started to attack the Avengers from behind. Anna saw too late a demon run towards them, hustling her, and tackling Sam. Thor saw his friends fight, trying to get rid of the demons without killing the guests, which could not be done easily.
"CAS !" shouted Dean, so the angel would come back and help them here.
The lights flickered, again, longer this time. Cas re-appeared, and attacked a woman in a gala dress. Sam was battling with the demon, and Anna would have continued the exorcism, but she didn't know the exact words. She started reciting some prayer in Latin, hoping that it would help, but Valafar only laughed at her, still under Thor's control. She cursed the Winchester for not taking her journal, where the exorcism was written down. There was now a dozen demons in the room : security guards, guests, regular employees. A black-eyed tall black man headed straight to Thor, Valafar, and her, apparently determined to free his boss. Anna was still under the effect of alcohol, and held her hand out, and started speaking demonic, but her lips were trembling, and the power of the language could not operate. The man took out a gun and was going to point it at her head, when Thor intervened : he let go of Valafar, and crossed the circle of salt, breaking it involuntarily in the process, and defended Anna with a swing of Mjölnir. The Linguist took a step back in reflex, and caught a demon trying to erase the demon trap on the floor with a knife. She did not hesitate, and ran to him, trying to grab his hands, but she stepped in the circle, and was at Valafar's mercy. He grabbed her by the neck, and brought her back to him. After slaying one demon, Dean caught a glimpse of the scene, but was attacked by another black-eyed monster. He could only witness Valafar whispering something into Anna's ear, and step out of the faded demon trap. Valafar threw Anna on the floor, and the second after, him and all the other demons had vanished. The Avengers, Sam, Dean, and Castiel, found themselves suddenly without any enemies.
"Sammy !" shouted Dean.
"I'm fine !" answered his little brother a few metres away.
"Cas !"
"I am okay, Dean."
Dean then ran to Anna, she was lying on the ground.
"Oh my god..." whispered Sam. "Is she... ?"
Dean knelt at her side, so did Thor, and he put a hand on her forehead.
"No, she's alive, just a bad blow apparently."
Tony ran to them, looking all around the room.
"Bruce ! Where is Bruce ?!"
Sam stood up, and took a look around. All the demons had vanished. He looked back at Tony, with concern in his eyes. Tony caught the glimpse, and shook his head.
"No... No ! You said it would be safe !"
He walked up to Sam and grabbed his shirt which had been torn by the brawl :
Bring him back, bring him back !"
"Valafar took him, somewhere." stated Castiel. "I can't sense him."
"Brother !" called Thor.
"I'm here," answered Loki, "While walking up to them."
"Are you alright ?" worried the big blonde brother.
"Yes," stoically answered the younger, while replacing his crumpled tie.
Just like the other Avengers, Loki was not hurt, he had may be taken some bad hits, but nothing serious. Natasha's hair was a bit messy and Clint had mostly hit with his bow, but everybody was fine. Thor turned back to Dean who had Anna in his arms, she was awake, trying to regain all of her spirits. She was pale, and felt really sick. She urged Dean to help her get her back on her feet. She had lost a shoe in the battle, and brought it back closer to her with one of her feet, and put it back on.
"You all right ?" asked Dean.
"Yeah, yeah..."
She pushed him away, looking down with concern in her eyes.
Dean took a look around : there was absolutely no demons, they had only left a strong smell of sulphur. Sam got closer to them. He only had a bad cut on his cheek, and was stroking the back of his head, where his skull had impacted the floor when tackled.
Tony was breathing slowly, trying to calm himself down. He was running his hands on his face, devastated. Steve came up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, which the Iron Man pushed away. Steve understood the gesture, and turned to Sam :
"Where can we find him now ?"
The younger Winchester shrugged his shoulders with a sorry look.
"We will work on it for now, but..."
"No, that's enough !" shouted Tony. "You're leaving this place, NOW, I don't ever wanna see any of you again, you've messed this up enough ! He was safe in there, and you allowed this... demon to take him away ! Now leave !"
The Winchesters understood that nothing they could say would calm down Stark, and they grabbed Castiel and Anna and quickly left the room, then took the elevator downstairs, in an awkward silence. Their thousand-dollar suits were crumpled and had some blood stains on it, as for Anna's dress, it was torn in several places. She sighed and flattened the black fabric as much as she could, but nothing she did could really fix it. They left the building and headed straight to the Impala. Anna was really silent, looking down at her feet, pale.
"You're okay ?" asked Sam.
She shrugged and smiled, but without looking at him, and just sat in the back seat, while he closed the door after her. His brother had sat behind the wheel, unbuttoning his jacket and untying the bow-tie. Sam did the same, and turned to his elder :
"What should we do now ?"
"We will try to find this Dr Banner, and exorcize him before another hunter kills him. We should probably give a heads-up to Bobby so he can see if any other hunter's seen the guy hanging around. Is your head okay ?"
"Yep, don't worry, I'll probably have a bump, nothing too serious. We should get some sleep, and back to Bobby's tomorrow. Anna, any place we could crash in ?"
The brothers looked back at her. She made the effort to look back at them and tempted a fake smile, which deceived neither of them, and said :
"We can go to my apartment, but Fluffy here can't come because my place is protected."
"It's okay." answered Castiel. "I have other matters to deal with. I'll come back to you if I find anything."
And he vanished from the backseat. Anna gave them the directions to her apartment. They drove for half an hour in complete silence, if it wasn't for the occasional ''c'mon on !'' from Dean who didn't like the driving of other cars. They arrived at the building, and Anna granted them access to the underground parking lot. Before leaving the car, Sam and Dean filled their duffel bags with rifles, holy water, salt, and everything they could need, just in case. They climbed up the stairs, and arrived in the main hall. She waved at the entrance guard from a distance but didn't say a word, aiming straight for the elevator. She pressed the ninth floor button, and the doors closed after them. They got up to the said floor, and she led them to her door step. The door was fractured, due to the Winchesters' entrance a few days before. She just had to push the wooden panel, and entered.
"Sorry about that..." apologized Sam.
With a gesture of her hand telling him not to worry, she let them in, and closed after them. She grabbed a chair from the bar near the entrance, and lock the backrest under the door knob. The boys watched her do, and raised their eyebrows in a positive surprise when they saw her take off the poster she had on her door, to reveal some sigil, what was probably the ''protection'' she was talking about.
"Well, at least we know we'll sleep in somewhere safe, god knows it does not happen often." tried Dean, as to try to make Anna talk again.
She glanced at him, and see that he was just trying to restore communication in her sudden awkward silence. She smiled, but her lips had something of a sad curve. They noticed it, but didn't dare to say a word about it. She seemed pretty messed up after what Valafar had told her. Reminding her of her hurtful past so directly might have really shaken her. She was a lot less sassy than the days before, when she didn't hesitate to answer back at Dean. The living room had a sofa and a coffee table on their right, and a kitchen space with a bar on their left. Ahead of them, two doors. The one of the left, they knew, led to her room, and they followed her through the one on the right. It was her office, with the walls covered in books, and a wooden desk with a laptop. A door led to a balcony outside. She turned to them :
"You can sleep in here for tonight. I have a couple of futons in my closet, just let me get them for you. Here, just on your left, there is the bathroom."
She left the room for a couple of minutes. Sam and Dean exchanged a concerned look.
"I don't know what Valafar told her, but really affected her..." started Sam.
"Yeah." continued Dean. "Plus, we pissed off Tony Stark and the Avengers. She's probably gonna lose her job if you want my opinion. She's been through a lot, is it our fault ?"
"Uh... yeah, Dean, that's totally our fault. According to what Valafar said, I'm pretty sure the demons had forgotten about her, but know she's part of it again, and we dragged her back into it."
"It's okay." they heard from the entrance.
It was Anna, with the two futons in her arms. Sam came to help her out, and they lied the futons down.
"No, I mean, we're sorry." added Dean. "We know you've had it pretty bad before..."
Anna sighed, while flattening the blankets of the second futon. She stood up and glanced at Dean :
"It's not like they would have left me alone for the rest of my life, right ? I'm only in my twenties, I'm not sure they would have left me alone forever. It had to happen one way or another. But I'm definitely losing my job, though. You don't get to offend Tony Stark and get away with it..."
Sam looked back at her with sad eyes. She turned around to fetch the pillows. In a glance, Sam and Dean understood that she was yet another person whose life they had ruined by stumbling into it. Anna came back with a couple of pillows and towels.
"You two have a good night. I'll just go to bed now. See you in the morning."
She didn't wait for any answer, and left the room. The boys each took a quick shower, before sliding into their futons. While Sam snoozed in with no difficulty, Dean tried to keep his eyes closed to go to sleep, but the events of the day kept him awake, just as usual. Chasing monsters, sleeping in motels, seeing people miserable because they had lost their loved ones, it had become their lives. He had dragged Sam back into it, and now they were dragging Anna too. The faces of the wives and husbands destroyed after discovering the world was full of monsters and that their kid or significant other had died because of them passed before his eyes, and with them came back the cries of pain of all the souls he had tortured in hell...
He sat up in his futon, his forehead in sweat. He looked upon his little brother, who was fast asleep. He gently stroke his head, curling one of the long strands of hair on one of his fingers, and couldn't help but smile at the view of his baby brother safe asleep. It helped him, sometimes, when he woke up in the middle of the night, haunted by faces deformed by pain and terror, just to take a look at his little brother sleeping, mouth open or his face closed in a very serious expression, his hair in a mess. Sam had no idea, and that was maybe why Dean kept on doing this.
Dean silently got up, and headed to the door to the balcony. He took a look outside, and saw Anna, leaned onto the guardrail. He stepped out, as silently as he could, not to wake up Sam. Anna looked at him getting out with a faint smile. Apparently she wasn't the only one who could not meet Mister Sandman this night. Her long hair was flowing in the wind, and she was wearing a pink silk dressing gown. In her right hand, she had a bottle of whiskey, half empty. That hand was covered in white bandage. Dean pointed at it :
"You're okay ?"
"I guess I hit this glass cage too hard for my little white-collar hands. It's probably going to be bruised tomorrow. For all I care... Want a bit ?" She finished, handing out the bottle to Dean.
He raised his eyebrows, but accepted it anyway, and took a sip. He leaned at the guardrail next to her, then took another one, before handing it back to her.
"Can't sleep, eh ?" he said.
"Just as usual. I drink, maybe it will help. I'm not completely down from the vodka I had at the gala, so I'm trying to stay hammered. I need a lot."
"Yeah, looks like it..."
"Don't call me an alcoholic, my mother and all my friends already tell me that."
"Oh, believe me, I can't judge you on that, or I'll have to judge myself too, and believe me, I'm not willing to."
She smiled at him, and took a sip, before giving the bottle to Dean. She closed her eyes to the feeling of lightness that came with the alcohol, letting the wind fiddle with her hair. She breathed in deeply, and shuddered at the cold air. Dean took a look on the city around them. There wasn't much to see but the busy street downstairs, the nearby buildings and the windows that were still lighted up. A couple was out, smoking on the balcony, another old man was with a telescope, looking at the stars.
"This one, he is my favourite neighbour." she said, interrupting him in his contemplation.
She was pointing at another building, where a man was out, sitting in a rocking chair, and what seemed like a book in his lap. He was reading at candle light.
"Your favourite neighbour ?" laughed Dean.
"Yeah, he's like mysterious and all. He's not at home for the whole day. He leaves early in the morning, and comes back late at night. When he comes back, he always has some take-out, and he eats it in his rocking chair, reading. During Christmas time, he wears a red and white beanie, and that's it. It's been like this since I moved in two years ago."
Dean took a sip and smiled.
"Do you hold rankings of your favourite neighbours, or is it just this one that's really particular ?"
He gave her back the bottle, and she drank from it before answering :
"I love that couple, over there, they always take their smoke break together. You can tell when they're fighting, because when they do, she smokes at the balcony, and he smoke at the kitchen window. It's beautiful because they can't smoke together, but they still have to do so at the same time. I think it's cute. By the way, I have cigarettes, you want one ?"
He refused politely :
"One addiction at a time, sorry !"
She laughed, and went back into her room for ten seconds, before re-appearing with a cigarette between her lips. She lighted it with a lighter, and took a deep breath in of it, before breathing out smoke, her head up facing the sky. Dean pointed at the old man :
"I wonder what he can see with his telescope, you can barely see any stars from here."
"I know, right ? It's such a shame. I miss the stars."
A few minutes passed when there was nothing but occasional honks from cars, and Anna puffing on smoke. Dean breathed in the cold air, and it helped him soothing his thoughts a bit. The whiskey was warming up his stomach, while his lungs were colder with every respiration, a strange but yet calming contrast. There was nothing to be said, just enjoyment of the night noises in the city, and the fresh air.
"So, what's our next lead ?" finally asked Annabelle.
Dean was drawn back from his white thoughts, and without looking at her he said :
"We'll go back to Bobby's, and do some research. We will probably notice a lot of omens with this big son of a bitch and all his little followers. We'll chase his ass. But you know, I think you've done enough, we'll take this from now."
Anna sighed.
"Tempting idea. I hoped that I would be safe... Tomorrow, McKeen is probably going to call me to tell me that I'm so fired I better not set a toe back in the headquarters. I guess it's not like there wasn't any job to take in New York or anything. When I entered my room again, all it reminded me was the blow I received at the back of my head. I don't really feel safe in here anymore. I'm not sure I want to stay here. I can't just drop this hunt, it's also my fault if Bruce Banner is being piggy-backed by the grand duke of Hell. I have to make this right. I've enough money so I can stop working for a couple of months. I'm sorry, but you're not going to get rid of me for now, you'll have to stick with me till we find Dr Banner."
"That's a deal." he answered. "We could use a know-it-all, glowing-blue-eyes Canadian."
"Right, you've never had that on your team before, I bet ! Plus, I kinda know how to fight, I won't be a dead weight."
"Well, I hope you won't, or we'll have to refuse your application, missy."
"Oh, you're from Hunters High, now ?" she laughed.
"Well, our dad made sure we went to Hunters High anyway so, I guess we could call it this way."
He said this last sentence with a sad smile. Anna saw it, and gently pushed the bottle back into his hands.
"Have a good night, Dean Winchester," she said with a smile, before taking the other door of the balcony, leading to her room.
He watched her leaving the balcony, and stayed for a couple more minutes, and left himself after one last sip. He went back into the office, and left the bottle on the desk. He lied back in his futon, and even if it was still difficult for him to fall asleep, he managed, and had a dreamless sleep.
Hello everyone ! This story has made more than a thousand and two hundred views ! I can't believe it got so much haha ! I'm so amazed at the countries people are from, Denmark, China, Panama, Puerto Rico, France, Malaysia and such ! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my chapters ! I'm not a native English speaker, so I hope some formulations are not too weird haha ! I cannot thank you enough really, I'm so glad you all are reading it !
Please consider reviewing, I'd love to know what you guys think ! About anything, really, the story, the canon characters or my OC, the plot, anything ! Also please consider following/fave' so you'll be told as soon as the next chapter is out !
I'm giving a big shout-out to Daughter of Ironman06, Emergency70, Hppunkgirl, Lewis Puller, Tartarusheaven, KhaosDeath and schizo-nephalim who are following and/or fave' my story, I hope you're still enjoy it !
Just to make a bit of self-advertisement here, I started a new story entitle "Asset : Longing & Rusted" it's under the "Captain America" category, with Bucky/The Winter Soldier as main character, happening during CAWS. If you enjoy much darker stories, I recommend it, of course ! It's only two chapters long for now, but there are around 10,000 words. If you're interested, don't hesitate to check it out ^-^ !
See you next chapter ;) !