Pyro: And yet another chapter from the dastardly duo you have hopefully come to know and love—Pups and Pyro. This chapter was hard, and yet it's very important so pay attention or I feed you to Eric…
Pups: You guys better listen to her, she's serious! LOL this was a hard one, but I hope you guys enjoy this one! Standard Disclaimer applies, check out chapter one if you need to read it once more.
Chapter Seven: Watching…
Charis couldn't even begin to explain the agitation swirling around in her gut. Bobby was the closest thing that the Winchester's had to a father—and she was much more attached than Sam and Dean were. Bobby and Ellen pretty much raised her before she met her brothers, and to think that Bobby could end up like Olivia and Jed…Charis was half tempted to kick Dean out of the driver's seat and put the pedal to the medal herself. Her hands trembled as she clenched the black leather upholstery. There was the slim possibility that she could be over-reacting. But, as Bobby had been there for her, she needed to be there for the man that took her in and taught her all she knew.
"Dean, can't you make this rust bucket go any darned faster?" Charis bit out, tension making her voice harsh and shaky.
"Charis!" Dean turned to her shocked. He knew exactly how much she loved the car. Hell, he taught her how to fix it after her nagging to get a chance to touch the precious engine. "This car is sensitive!" Patting the steering wheel softly, he gave his attention back to the road. "Don't take it personally, baby, she didn't mean to be so cruel." Charis tried so hard to swallow the frustrated scream bubbling from her throat. Furiously, she threw herself back into the seat, crossing her arms over her tight black singlet. Not once more did she speak as the sleek black car ate the miles.
When they finally got to Bobby's, Charis was the first one out of the car, her black converse sneakers pounding up the dirt and gravel drive to the house. But before she could get there, Dean grabbed her waist and pulled her back. His dark glare said all as Sam reached them. They would go into the house first. Frustration once more bubbled up at their actions before reason slowly sunk in. Dean was always in the hero mindset, as was Sam. They both had the same reaction when she took matters in her own hand. She had to let them go first, take out the risks before letting her follow. Otherwise, Charis was left with furious silent treatment followed by angry shouting.
"Stay outside, Charis," Dean ordered, sliding easily into the fierce hunter.
"No," she replied, staring him down. "Bobby may need my help, we don't know what has happened."
"A good reason for you to stay out here," her brother countered.
"And what? Let whatever may have been here come after me cause the two of you are scoping the house and leaving me alone? I'm safer with you." Sam nodded behind her in agreement. Sighing, Dean looked around. "Fine, how about this? We split up, I'll stay out here and scope out the cars−"
"Sam will go with you and I'll check out the house on my own," Dean broke in decisively. "And no more arguing."
Charis closed her mouth, glad to have back up. Impatiently, she looked at Sam, eager to start looking. Dean was more than equipped to take care of himself. He had been in this lifestyle longer than either of them, and had learned more than Sam at the side of John. Sam took a hold of her free hand and they started to head towards Bobby's car yard, a shiver of apprehension slithering down her spine. Quickly, she broke free of Sam and rushed back to the car, pulling out her medical bag. There was a very high possibility that Bobby was hurt, even dead. If he was hurt she could heal him but if he was dead…she decided then and there not even to think of that as a possibility. Sam took hold of her hand once more, silently offering the reassurance that she needed. For a while, the only sound she heard was the gravel crunching underneath their feet and the subtle hush of the tree branches swaying in the wind at the edge of the property. They came up to a large pile of cars.
"Lets check over here." Sam told Charis, letting go of her hand slowly and pointing up to a pile in front of them. Charis' sense of foreboding rushed back at her as she shifted her weight.
"It's a big car park maybe we should—"
"—No." Sam told her, cutting her off and shrugging as she scrunched up her nose again. "You're sticking by me and that's the end of the discussion." She gave a small growl of irritation.
"You know it would be a lot easier to find Bobby if one of you two would pull the stick out of your asses and let your sister walk through some wrecked cars on her own. Besides…Cas would never let anything happen to me…he's always there when I need him to be." Charis replied with forced calm.
Sam smiled a little at his baby sister, wanting desperately to believe that if Charis was in trouble then Castiel would swoop in out of nowhere and save her if she needed the saving, but he just couldn't take that chance with her. Charis was his and Dean's responsibility, and he couldn't be responsible for her getting herself into any kind of danger. So he stood by his decision and Charis sighed.
Neither of them aware of the kind of danger that Bobby was in out near one of the wrecked cars. He was looking at two little girls, twins with white dresses on and long black hair, and they were rather angry with him, trapping him in one of the wrecked cars with them. They were sinister in their innocence. Their purity marred by the ash grey aura around them, as though they came from a realm of smoke.
"Are you scared, Bobby?" One of the little girls asked him, her voice childlike and yet mildly evil.
"We were scared, Bobby." The other added, looking at Bobby with deep eyes of hurt and malice
The first one nodded. "When the monster came for us…"
"…and grabbed us tight."
"We couldn't even scream." One of them stroked his hair softly, her face blank from expression as she stared back at her sister. Bobby's heart pounded. He could feel his death coming for him out the corner of his eye. Praying he begged the man upstairs for help, for forgiveness, and for the safety of the Wincesters. It was only a matter of time before they came after there. The other twin tugged his hair sharply, forcing his attention back to them.
"You were right there, Bobby."
"You were in the house."
"You were so close." The second told him matter-a-factly, and she reached out to cover his nose and mouth so he couldn't call out for help. Outside he could hear Charis and Sam, calling for him and searching cars.
"Sam, help me with this would you?" Charis said, putting her pistol in her waist band and tried to open a trunk. She felt ill as time when on without any sign of the grizzly hunter that she held so close to her heart. Sam came over to her and helped to open the rusted hunk of tin. Nothing, still nothing, just like the previous ten trunks she had checked before.
"You could have saved us Bobby. We're here, Bobby. You walked right past that door." The little girl told him, shaking her head at him.
The other nodded. "The monster had us."
"And you didn't find us…and now they won't find you." The girl with her hand over Bobby replied, pinching his nose to make him stop breathing. He started to thrash and cry out, the sound muffled by the lack of air. As he started to black out, the car got colder and colder, his blood feeling like it was going to freeze.
"SAM!" Charis cried out as she turned in dismay of the empty truck and saw a car with ice on its windows.
Sam nodded. "Like the ice in the bathroom. Bobby! Hold on, Bobby! We're coming! Bobby!"
No sound came from the car. "Why isn't he saying anything?" Charis asked Sam, panicked. Something had happened. She rushed forward, ignoring Sam as she scrambled up the other cars, not even aware when rusted metal tore through her jeans and skin. She tugged furiously at the door handle, vaguely noting Sam doing the same on the other side.
Sam disappeared for a moment when he realized that he couldn't open the door, only to return a moment later with an iron bar. Charis could only stare in horror as she took in the scene before her. Two insubstantial twin girls had managed to subdue her father figure and was slowly killing him, depriving him of the air he so desperately needed to survive.
Bobby stared into her hazel green eyes, silently screaming his terror and pain. With a steal scream, the door on Sam's side gave way. With a desperate swing, he tore through the ghostly silhouette. The pain in Bobby's eyes was something so familiar it caused tears to sting her eyes. All she wanted to do was figure out what the hell was going on and stop it before everything got worse. She helped him out slowly, careful to help him down the rusted car.
"Where's Dean?" Bobby asked shakily after he got his breath back.
Sam pointed to the house. "We split up to search for you—you weren't answering your phone."
Charis nodded and hit his arm. "You scared me!"
Bobby smiled briefly at his little Charis and took her hand in his, squeezing it to reassure her that he was fine. Sam broke their little moment, saying that they needed to hurry to Dean. They both were more than willing to go and find Dean, so they hurried into the house and found him coming down the stairs.
He looked a little roughed up and Charis got to him immediately to look him over. Bobby pointed towards his library, at the moment they all seemed pretty safe from the apparitions showing themselves, and yet Sam and Bobby seemed to be close to a theory and what better place to research and think than Bobby's library?
"I saw Meg." Dean said as they entered.
Sam nodded. "So, they're all people we know?"
"Not just know, Sammy—people we couldn't save by the looks of it." Charis corrected him. Pulling Bobby down on a chair, she pulled out swabbing alcohol and cleaned the small amount of blood on his temple. He looked up at her with a soft smile before turning to his books.
"Charis is right—and I saw something on Meg. Did she have a tattoo when she was alive?" Dean asked the others as he cleaned and reloaded his shotgun.
"I don't think so." Charis told him as she pondered. "But I wasn't really around back then. Sam?"
"Nope, no tattoo," he replied. "What did it look like?"
Dean sighed. "Well it was like a…a mark on her hand. Almost like a brand."
Charis' eyes lit up as Sam mentioned that Henriksen had one as well and Bobby asked Sam to draw it for him. Suddenly her mood took a downturn. Whatever was happening was a lot bigger than what they normally dealt with if every hunter was susceptible to the onslaught of attacks. If every ghost of every person that couldn't be saved was showing up, then it was only a matter of time before Charis would have to face her own skeletons, and she wasn't ready for that. As a hunter, when they couldn't save someone, as much as it weighed on their conscience afterwards, they had to move on for the sake of their sanity, and for the mentality next hunt.
"I may have seen this before." Bobby told them as he took a look at the piece of paper and then grabbed some of his books as some lamps started crackling. "We got to move."
"Whoa." Sam replied as Bobby thrust some books at him, Charis grabbing a pile of her own and followed him out of the room.
Bobby headed towards the library exit. "Well, come on."
"Okay. Where are we going?" Sam asked, standing there still as Dean stood up with his gun in hand.
Bobby turned to him and gave him a look as Charis joined him at the door. "Some place safe, you idgit."
Charis chortled with laughter at the way Bobby insulted Sam and Dean, and followed after him quickly as he took them down a flight of stairs. She had always known that Bobby had a basement, and she'd been in it before, but there was something new about it…something off almost.
Then she saw it: a giant armored-like door and an aeration grid that looked like a Devil's Trap. When Bobby switched on the light, Charis took a good look at the symbol on the floor, the arsenal against the wall, the desk and the bed and realized just what Bobby had done as Sam touched the wall while Dean came in and looked in awe, Bobby closing the door behind them.
"Bobby, is this…?" Sam began with an astonished look on his face.
"Solid iron. Completely coated in salt. 100% ghost-proof." Bobby replied.
Charis laughed a little. "Wow, Bobby."
"You built a panic room?" Sam asked with a bubbled laugh of wonder.
Bobby shrugged. "I had a weekend off."
Charis giggled again and realized just how much she enjoyed being around the three most important hunters in her life—besides Ellen of course. She always felt so safe and at home with them, and though being with Ellen with Castiel near would be her ideal situation, this was good too. Besides, just the fact that Bobby had spent so much time working on a place that he could hide out in to be able to regroup and then go out for more, reaffirmed her love and respect for him. Unfortunately, it also made her wish that it didn't mean that there really was a war at their doorstep…a war she wasn't sure she was ready to fight in.
"Bobby?" Dean asked him.
"What?" Bobby replied. Charis threw her older brother a curious glance.
"You're awesome." Dean told him with a large grin on his face and then he saw a poster that had Bo Derek in a swimsuit from the movie Ten. "Oh!"
Shaking her head, Charis laughed at her brother's silliness. "As cool as it is and as much as I'm sure Bobby loves the way you two are fawning over the manly things…can we get down to business please? The more time we spend in here is the more time spent not helping the hunters out there that are being killed off."
"Your sister is right—you should listen to her more often." Bobby told Sam and Dean, sending Charis a smirk as she grinned at him.
Dean and Sam chuckled and rolled their eyes before turning back and prepared more salt rounds. Sooner or later they knew they'd have to venture out into the ghosts again, and they had to be prepared. Bobby seemed worried most about Charis, mainly because sooner or later he was sure she would be face to face with some ghosts of her own that the boys had no clue about. Sam was busy trying to figure out why the ghosts were here and why the brand was on their hands and Dean was feeling a little more like he had a leg to stand on in his God argument.
"See, this is why I can't get behind God." Dean said at once.
Charis swallowed and looked at her brother. "Yes, Dean?" her heart pounded. She needed him to be on God's side. All she had was her brothers and her faith and if her brother wasn't by her side on this one, she had no idea what the hell was going to happen.
"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?" Dean asked out loud, and neither Sam nor Bobby wanted to even try to answer the question.
"I'm sure God has a plan, besides…you need the bad." Charis replied softly, more than willing to debate.
Dean looked at her sister as he continued to prepare his gun. "Well since you're the one who's all churchy and everything would you care to elaborate?"
Charis rolled her eyes. "Don't get borderline annoyed with me, Dean—you have to go through the bad, otherwise you won't appreciate the good. If everything was all sunshine and rainbows are you seriously telling me you wouldn't take it for granted?" Dean continued to stare at her, taking in her words and thinking them over. He glanced over at Sam who agreed absently in agreement.
"Charis has a point." Sam said with a nod. "Besides if God just kept us all safe and wrapped us up in warm love and everything, we wouldn't get to experience the full array of human emotions—and you wouldn't be able to whore yourself out."
"Good point…that would suck." Dean told them, mentally clinging to his almost rock star lifestyle.
Sam and Charis couldn't help but laugh at their brother and his vulgar mind. To be honest, Charis thought to herself, Dean really wasn't one to use his upstairs brain for much thinking, and if he did, he wouldn't be the brother his younger siblings knew and adored. Bobby even thought the eldest Winchester was rather entertaining, and shook his head as he kept in his laughter, his eyes going wide as he found what he was looking for. He swallowed and looked up, Charis looking over at him as she heard the hunter grunt a little in discomfort.
"What is it, Bobby?" Charis asked him.
Bobby sighed. "The symbol—the brand you guys saw—it's the Mark of the Witness."
"Witness? Witness to what?" Sam asked him, scrunching up his face in confusion.
"The unnatural, Sammy." Charis told her bother, standing up and heading over to Bobby to look at the book he had in his hand. "These ghosts were forced to rise." Sam let out a silent 'oh' in understanding, his usual go-happy expression distant.
Bobby nodded. "None of them died what you'd call ordinary deaths, so when 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?" Bobby replied with a look of annoyance on his face. "But whoever it was used a spell so powerful that 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."
Charis swallowed as Bobby began to explain to Sam and Dean that it was from the Bible—from Revelations. Dean seemed skeptical and worried, and Sam looked completely miffed when Bobby mentioned the apocalypse. Was that why the angels had pulled Dean out of Hell? Did they know that the apocalypse was coming and after all of this Castiel didn't even have the decency to let Charis know what the Hell was going on? And that was almost just it…Hell…on earth. A rush of betrayal flooded her body.
Throwing the book back on the table, she ignored the surprised glances the others gave her and stalked towards the door. Her hand touched the door handle. Gripping it tightly, her muscles clenched as she made to open it, but she couldn't walk out, she couldn't go up and scream her anger at the angel that perched on her shoulder so often.
Dean walked up to her, his large hand landing on her shoulder gently. Letting out a shaky breath, she turned back to him, a large fake smile before walking back to her chair and slouching down. although she wanted to rant and rage at her Casper, she just couldn't. throwing Dean and apologetic smile, Charis turned her attention back to the conversation, not noticing his confused expression as he continued.
"The apocalypse?" Dean repeated for the third time as he looked Bobby square in the eye.
Bobby sighed. "Yes, Dean!"
Dean nodded slowly. "As the apocalypse, apocalypse? The four horsemen, pestilence, $5-A-Gallon-Gas apocalypse?"
"That's the one. The rise of the witnesses is a mile marker." Bobby explained. Charis' elbows rested on her thighs as she buried her head into her hands in hopelessness. But, they had a job to do, and even though she wasn't much of a fighter, she was going to be right there with her brothers at the front lines.
"So then what do we do now?" Sam asked them all.
"Road trip." Dean suggested as Charis rolled her eyes at the prospect of not helping out as much as they could—they were after all hunters aware of what was going on. "Grand Canyon. Star Trek experience. Bunny ranch."
Bobby chuckled a little. "First things first. How about we survive our friends out there? There's a spell that we can do to send them back that should work."
Charis agreed quickly as Sam started being a smart mouth about how it 'should' but might not work, and Dean and Bobby set to discussing the spell. They'd need an open flame which meant the fireplace in the library, which meant they'd have to wade through ghosts a little bit.
Charis tuned them out a little bit, reflecting inwards. It was usually around this time when her Casper usually showed, giving her the reassurance that gave her the strength to continue. She was worried. Castiel wasn't anywhere around, but maybe he had better things to do…maybe his orders had him placed somewhere away from her. Still, Charis knew that she'd feel a whole lot safer with Castiel by her side—even if she felt safe with the three hunters in the 'panic room' with her. Dean's voice broke through her thoughts, bring her attention back to reality.
"That's just not as appealing as a ghost-proof panic room, you know?" Dean told Bobby, who pointed to the door. They gathered their tools, guns, salt rounds and iron, preparing themselves for a fierce dirty and dogged fight to end the spell. Charis was terrified. Still with no sign from Castiel, she continued to arm herself, letting Dean check her over and touch up her mistakes. His hand reached around to the back of the neck, forcing her eyes to meet his. Soulful and serious, loving eyes gazed into hers.
"I want you to stay on my ass, keep close okay? I won't let anything happen to you, baby girl." Tears stung her eyes as the reassurance and security that she needed flooded through her.
"I promise, Dean," Charis replied. "I won't let you down."
"Good," he smiled, "You have all the ammo." Her mouth dropped open as he turned and walked to the door, pausing to wait for her. Sam and Bobby stood there, waiting for them with sawed off shot guns at the ready. Charis listened when Bobby said they had to cover each other and shoot before they talked.
His words swirled around her head as she turned and saw him, her breath catching in her throat. Distantly she was aware the others kept moving, but she felt frozen, unable to go on. Flashes of her worst memory pushed viciously into her mind as she stared at the boy in torn clothing. Unconsciously she aimed the pistol at him, but her finger refused to touch the trigger. Charis, you could have stopped it, he whispered, the others too far to pull her out of it. They thought her able to take care of herself.
Like a hypnotist, he caught her, pulled her in with his victimized voice. Brown shaggy hair framed his eyes that gleamed at her with unholy brightness. His large white shirt hung off him in shreds, covering the waist band of his light blue jeans. Faded orange blood stains covered his front, stemming from the tears. You could have stopped it, he repeated. You could have gotten there before it dragged me out the window.
Charis swallowed, a lump in her throat making her voice strangled. "I didn't get upstairs in time…it didn't want me to save you and I wasn't strong enough." He took a few steps towards her. Mouth dry, Charis found that she couldn't move. Bobby and she had tried everything in their power to get to the shape shifter and destroy it, but they failed, the whole job.
The shifter got the boy and made his escape, his taunting childish laughter echoing in her ears. It was that hunt that caused her to question her beliefs, the hunt that made her who she was now. The guilt killed her a little more as the days took her further and further away. So she hid herself behind a saying: help when she could, pick her battles and don't go in without a back up plan.
She wasn't made for the hunting world like Dean and Sam. She wasn't bred for it. A voice called her name, pulling at her, trying to take her away from the boy that shaped her to who she was. Dean's voice broke through the spell, the salt tearing through the tenuous shadow as she whispered her apology. He pulled her away, tearing her from wallowing in guilt. But her voice of reason mumbled to her, whispering that the ghosts blamed them, but it was her own guilt that drew them to her. Everything had been out of her control. As they got to the stairs, another ghost blocked their way, Victor Hendrickson. Charis could barely comprehend the words spoken before Dean started to talk him down.
"It's my fault you're dead. I left you behind. And the minute I heard about that explosion, I thought, 'I should have known'. I should have protected you." Dean told Hendrickson, and he took a step back but Hendrickson sent his shotgun flying as he realized the hunter would go for it.
Unh- Unh. Not so fast. You think you left and Lilith came and we all died in a beautiful blast of white light? If only. 45 minutes. Hendrickson explained.
Dean swallowed. "What?"
Over 45 minutes. Lilith said she wanted to have some fun. The secretary was first. Remember her? Nancy, the virgin. Lilith filleted Nancy's skin off piece by piece right in front of us, made us watch. Nancy never stopped screaming. No. That was the last. Hendrickson told him and as Dean started to try to make him see reason again, he plunged his hand inside Dean's chest and compressed his heart. Charis stood there, staring at the wrist poking out from her brother's chest. Tell me how it's fair—you get saved from hell…I die. Why do you deserve another chance, Dean?
"DEAN!" Charis yelled as she finally was able to comprehend what the hell was going on. Sam swooped in at the same time and taking the man out. With a ragged shaky breath, Dean coughed his relief as the started to move again, an unusual urgency lending their bones speed.
"Library—now—we have to protect Bobby while he's doing the spell. I drew a line of salt, but that could only last so long if they find a way around it—or a way to break the line." Sam said but as they neared the doors to the library, Ronald blocked their path, right in front of Dean again.
"Ronald. Hey, come on, man. I thought we were pals." Dean protested, moving backwards and pulling a few shells out of Charis' belt.
"That's when I was breathing. Now I'm gonna eat you alive." Ronald replied with a friendly smile.
Dean loaded his shotgun. "Well…come on, I'm not a cheeseburger."
Charis aimed her pistol as well but Ronald disappeared so they hurried forward into the library where Bobby started the spell. However, as he did so the windows flew open and the wind broke the line of salt Sam had placed down while the other two were downstairs. Charis, Sam and Dean started to shoot at the spirits, them popping in and out, wearing down their resources until they ran out of ammo. The line broke. Meg used her telekinesis to pin Sam behind some furniture, and Ryan took care of pinning Charis to the wall. Dean watched in almost helplessness before Sam yelled instructions.
"Cover Bobby!" Sam managed to yell at Dean. Charis and Sam watched in horror as Meg appeared behind Bobby, who remained oblivious as he finished the mixing of the spell.
Dean nodded and while he did so making eye contact with Sam, Meg plunged her hand into Bobby's back to compress his heart as Hendrickson had done to Dean. Bobby lost hold of the bowl that had the contents for the spell in it, but Dean managed to catch the bowl and tossed the contents into the fire. The minute he did so the ghosts all disappeared and Sam and Charis both regained their balance and the four hunters looked at each other—this was only the beginning and they knew it.
"Nice catch." Charis told Dean, and he shrugged as he grinned.
"I know—I'm amazing." Dean replied, pulling Charis into a hug. "We need to talk about what happened before." She nodded and kissed his cheek, relieved that it was all over for the moment.
Sam rolled his eyes. "And so modest."
Charis laughed and the four hunters checked on things and picked up a little. However, the picking up a little turned into most of the day, and mainly Charis cleaning while the others sat around. Finally the nightmare ended with Bobby telling them to get some sleep so that they could check up on things after some good, healthy rest. Like gentlemen, Sam and Dean let Charis sleep on the couch, knowing the last thing she wanted was to was sleep alone in her own room, while they slept on the floor.
It wasn't much of a sleep though—at least not for Dean. Waking up in the middle of the night, he found Charis watching him from the couch, a peaceful grin on her face as she took him in. Suddenly, they both felt a presence in the room. He felt like he was practically being stalked by the angel, but Charis was different. She had a smile on her face as she felt his warm presence. Angry with him or not, Castiel made her feel like nothing could possibly be as bad as she thought it was. Following Dean, they walked into the kitchen, trying to avoid waking the others.
"Excellent job with the witnesses." Castiel told Dean and Charis, leaning back on his hands on the sink. He was framed by the moonlight, giving him an otherworldly, regal air. Charis blushed and ducked her head as he turned her gaze towards her.
"You were hip to all this?" Dean asked him as Charis tried to fight back the attraction she was feeling for the cocky angel before her.
Castiel nodded. "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?!" Dean asked him angrily.
"Dean come on…let him say what he came here to talk to us about." Charis chided.
Dean sent her a look. "Don't defend him! I thought angels were supposed to be guardians. Fluffy wings, halos…You know, Michael Landon. Not dicks."
"Dean Lucas Winchester!" Charis exclaimed, smacking her brother lightly in the arm. "Is that seriously anyway to speak to an angel?"
Dean sent his sister a look and then glared at Castiel as he saw the angel smile fondly at Charis. He wasn't certain of much as far as angels and God were concerned, but he was certain of one thing—this angel should not be looking at his sister the way that he was, and she shouldn't be feeling so safe with him. It was bad enough that Castiel had been following her for the last two years and now they were making eyes at each other practically—not okay…not okay at all.
"He's a warrior—it says so in the bible." Charis told Dean, and then looked at Castiel.
Castiel nodded. "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? And what do you mean you don't perch on shoulders? You sit on my sister's shoulder!" Dean asked him.
"There's a God." Castiel replied as Charis closed her eyes and shook her head. "And your sister is different, God has a very serious plan for her."
She understood that Dean was having a hard time trying to grasp the concept of all of the angel and God things that they needed to believe now, but he was also putting up more of a fuss than he needed to be. Castiel had obviously come to them to explain what his next orders were, seeing as how Dean had been so important that Castiel had been ordered to bring him out of Hell. Charis still wanted to know exactly why that was, but she knew Castiel would tell her all in good time…wouldn't he?
"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?" Dean asked Castiel. "And I'm not even going to touch on what you said about my sister today!"
"The Lord works—" Castiel tried.
"—if you say "mysterious ways", so help me, I will kick your ass." Dean warned and shot his sister a look as he saw her hand move in the corner of his eye. "So, Bobby was right…about the witnesses. This is some kind of a…sign of the apocalypse."
"That's why we're here: 'the rising of the witnesses' is one of the sixty six seals." Castiel explained.
Charis blushed a little as his blue eyes met hers but waved it off by shrugging it off. "Sixty six seals…they're being broken then? Someone—or something—is bringing about the apocalypse by breaking these seals?"
Castiel nodded. "Lilith. She raised the spirits and now the seal is broken."
"So what…the seals are like…locks on a door or something?" Dean asked Castiel who nodded at him. "Okay so last one opens and…?"
"Lucifer walks free." Castiel replied.
Charis swallowed—well that was just peachy. If Lilith was able to actually break the sixty six seals that she needed to break then Lucifer was going to rise out of Hell and she didn't want to listen to Dean and Castiel contemplating Lucifer's real existence. She just wanted to know how to stop the end from coming and she knew they were both probably going to get testy with her but this was no time for some kind of male pissing contest. Charis snapped her fingers loudly as Dean started to chide Castiel on his 'bang up job' with the witnesses, and sighed as Castiel got in his last words.
"There are other battles and 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." Castiel told Dean, who was starting to understand just how much Castiel was not to be trifled with. "You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of hell. I can throw you back in." Charis shivered at the sheer menace that Castiel conveyed. He threw her an unreadable glance.
"CAS!" Charis chided, but he vanished before she could try to get the two to call a truce, and she and Dean found themselves waking up that morning with a start, Sam already getting himself put together for the morning. "Morning, Sammy."
"You two all right?" Sam asked, and then looked over Dean's expression. "What's wrong, Dean?"
Dean swallowed. "So...You got no problem believing in...God and angels?"
Sam laughed a little. "No, not really. Charis and I have always pretty much believed in them."
Dean nodded. "So, I guess that means that you believe in the Devil?"
"Why are you asking me all this?" Sam asked his brother with worry on his face. Charis and Dean shared a look before pushing their brother into a chair.
