Master of Puppets

Note: Thanks, girl in the forest. Glad you're still enjoying the story. And yeah, it was Sumpter all along. Good to know that it wasn't that obvious. I wanted them to be misled and only slowly find out who's responsible for all this.

Title: Master of Puppets

Chapters: 8 of … well okay, 9. Change of plans g; Part I of a series of 5 stories that are supposed to end Season 3 'our way'.

.

Master of Puppets – Chapter 8

It was quiet in the theater hall, the dim lights they had lit before just enough to illuminate the far upper left corner of the rows of seats where Sam and Meggie had decided to perform their first half of the ritual. The burning herbs laid a sweet and spicy scent over the hall before Sam put them out with a few drops of the wash water. He nodded towards Meggie who blew out the candle just in the second they heard noises somewhere from the stage.

Shooting around and turned towards the source of the noise, Sam tried to listen more closely and recognized the faint sounds of screams, doors rattling and things bumping together.

Meggie looked at him with slight shock in her eyes, her gaze silently asking whether they should rush to their siblings' aid or go through with the plan. But even before Sam could utter a reply, a door was noisily being pushed open somewhere on the stage.

"That's Quentin", he said, already starting towards the aisle between the seats and down towards the stage when two things happened within only a second: A bursting, rattling noise resounded from the stage where suddenly the board Sumpter and his kids normally sat on to direct the puppets, came rushing down towards Quentin; and then the lights went out, leaving the room to complete darkness. Only a very faint shimmer of light still came from the half-opened door to the puppet room, illuminating nothing but shadowy silhouettes around where Quentin was releasing bloodcurdling screams of pain and fright.

There was no question about going to the washrooms that were located in the east corner of the building and finish that ritual now.

"Come on!" Sam grabbed Meggie's hand, hurrying down the stairs towards the stage as quickly as possible but having to mind his steps, did he not want to fall and pull Meggie with him.

"Kat?" she called out, and there was a hint of desperate worry audible in her voice that Sam could very well comprehend.

They were not even halfway down the rows of seats when suddenly, Sam bumped hard into something where nothing should have been, losing his balance and only barely managing to catch his fall on one of the chairs.

He had lost hold of Meggie's hand.

A sharp pain shot through his left calf the second he heard a startled cry from behind him, drowned by the screams still coming from the stage where God knew what was going on.

"Sam?" he heard his brother call from the stage.

Letting out a groan he got back up to his feet, ignoring the stabbing pain in his leg. "I'm okay!" he called back, looking around to spot any sign of Meggie but seeing nothing in the pitch-black darkness.

A split-second later he felt something touching his back, hurling around but being relived to hear the sound of Meggie's slightly panted breathing. "Sam."

"You alright?" he asked quickly.

"Yeah, but something attacked me… Ow!" He felt her kicking around at something that swooshed past their legs.

Quentin was still screaming in pure agony.

"What's going on there?" Meggie shouted. "Kat?"

"She's okay", Dean replied, voice hoarse with strain while he must be doing something to help Quentin, only that Sam had no idea what. "Go finish the ritual."

He felt Meggie's grip around his wrist, heard her breathing in, and, without seeing it, knew she was looking up in his direction again, asking what to do.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, damnit. Go!" He heard Dean groan with effort as if he was trying to lift something and then grunting out in frustration. "Son of a bitch!"

"Help me! Please help me! Oh God!" Quentin cried out hysterically and Sam knew they had to stop the puppets, did they want to save both him and their siblings who were right in the center of danger.

"Let's go", he said curtly and pulled Meggie towards the upper end of the hall and out into the lobby, back into light.

xOxOx

Dean was breathing hard, trying desperately to lift the goddamn board off Quentin's body, but it wouldn't give. The whole endeavor was only strengthened by some of the ghastly puppets attacking him from behind, tiny wooden hands trying to choke his throat before he had to let go of the board again to rip the figure off of him.

"You okay?" he heard Kat calling from within the puppet room.

"Miss Piggy just tried to choke me. Sure, I'm peachy", he answered ironically while Kat's steppes came closer towards him.

"Give me a hand here?" he called over the noises of Quentin still screaming, wondering if the guy wasn't simply exaggerating a bit. As far as he still had air in his lungs he couldn't be hurt that badly.

Kat must have barely been able to make out his silhouette, as well as the board's, getting on the other side and trying to lift it by the iron railing, but to no avail. The thing was simply too heavy.

"Where are Meggie and Sam?"

"Washrooms, finishing the ritual", he grunted out, attempting another try in vain.

"Please help me, get this thing off of me, please!" Quentin cried.

"We're trying, alright?

"Oh God, my legs hurt. It hurts so much."

"Good, because that means your back isn't broken", Dean just replied while he heard Kat fumbling with something at the side of the stage.

"There's a chain. If we can pull – Ow! Fucking shit!"

The moment he rushed towards her he heard the doors of the theater hall being pushed open, already expecting to see the outlines of Sam and Meggie but spotting two visibly shorter figures.

"Dad?"

Oh freaking great!

"Get out of here!" he called out towards Susanna and who he thought to be Lucas by her side, but even before they could react, the doors swung shut again.

"Get back outside!" he shouted again, tolerating no protest but hearing them rattling against the door that simply wouldn't give. One of the puppets must have blocked it from the outside, hell knew how.

"We can't. The door's locked!" Lucas shouted.

"What's going on here?" Susanna wanted to know. Then she screamed with terror.

xOxOx

The second they had extinguished the candle, Sam and Meggie heard a female scream coming from the theater hall that they knew wasn't Kat's.

Staring at each other in surprise for a second they both hurried towards the door of the lady's washroom.

"Please let that not be Sumpter's kids", Meggie murmured, checking her watch as they went. "School's out. They must've come in while we went to the washroom."

"But it should be over now, right? We've finished the ritual", Sam said as they both stood on the hallway, pondering for a moment which way to go.

Meggie looked at him, brow twisted above her blue eyes, shrugging softly and looking clueless. "It should."

They just headed towards the lobby and the main entrance of the theater hall when they heard footsteps behind them and then a male voice. "We can't get in anywhere!" Palmer.

"Good, just stay in your office where it's safe", Sam called over his shoulder, seeing that both Palmer and Sumpter were still following them.

The moment he and Meggie reached the door, trying to open it, they noticed it was tightly shut.

"Oh God", he heard Sumpter moan out, and then another scream resounded from within the theater.

"Susie? Susanna?" Fierce fright suddenly shook Sumpter and he pulled the door handle, trying to open it but failing. "Susie?!"

"Dad!" came the faint reply from inside, accompanied by low screams somewhere further away that must belong to Quentin. So at least he was still alive.

Sam pushed Sumpter away from the door gently enough but determined before he started to slam his full weight against the wooden surface. But it wouldn't give, even not after his shoulder already hurt like hell and he knew he would be bruised all over.

"Dad? What's happening?" another voice sounded from inside and the man was already close to tears as his palm rested against the door, as if he could get closer to his children that way.

"Is there another way into the theater?" Meggie asked quickly.

Palmer, who stood behind Sumpter, one hand resting on his shoulder in a calming gesture but looking quite freaked out himself, shook his head. "Only through the puppet room and another side door. They're both blocked."

Sam gritted his teeth, suppressing a frustrated sigh and pondering what to do. Why the hell the ritual hadn't worked he had no clue, but either way, they had to get the others out of the theater before it was too late.

Finally turning towards Sumpter who was still limply leaning against the door, shock and fear written all over his face, he reached for his shoulders, urging the man to look at him. "Tell us exactly what you did, Mr. Sumpter. We've got to stop this somehow."

The man shook his head softly, tears in his eyes and a look so full of guilt that Sam really felt sorry for him. "There… there's a sigil. It was in the book. I… I didn't know what it would do, I swear! I never wanted any of this to happen."

"Where is it?" Sam asked, tone sensitive but resolute.

"In the basement… below the stage."

"Okay, Mr. Sumpter, you have to get us there", he ordered, hoping that the access to the basement, at least, wasn't blocked as well.

xOxOx

Dean frantically looked back and forth between the direction he heard Sumpter's kids and Quentin on the ground, once more wondering what to do first. "What's happening up there?" he called out towards the kids.

"I don't know", he heard Susanna's tearful reply. "Something hit me. There's… God what is this? Are those animals?"

"No", Dean just replied while he still heard Kat trying to pull up the chain of the board.

"I can't turn the handle, it's fixed somewhere", she groaned.

Dean finally decided that, Quentin be damned, he'd have to look after the kids first before something serious could happen to them. He was just about to leap forward when something tackled him from behind and he fell face forward onto the stage, feeling the dull pain of something hard banging against his head.

He tried to toss around to shake the attacker off that persistently kept drumming a hard item against his skull. Not much longer and he'd lose consciousness if he couldn't find a way to get rid of the puppet. If only those damn things weren't so small and nimble.

He finally staggered to his feet, seeing the faint light of the puppet room beside him and having the life-saving idea in mind. With one big step he pushed his body backwards, banging the puppet that was wrapped around his neck and shoulders against the wall. He already felt it loosing its grip and balance when suddenly, something between his feet made him stumble to the side, into the doorway to the puppet room. This time, however, he landed on his side, able to roll himself away from the attacker and then, as he shook himself free of any oncoming dizziness, recognized who had maltreated him all along. The fucking princess!

"I think I got it!" Kat shouted at the same time Lucas let out a startled yelp.

Quentin was only whimpering in pain now.

The pink puppet, however, got back to her feet, looking at Dean with her ridiculously smile as she held a small paint can in her hand, hauling out to smash it into his face.

xOxOx

The sounds from the theater were only audible as a dull, chaotic mixture of shouts, rattling and hitting in the dark basement below the stage area. Luckily, the door had been open, leaving Sam to guess that the puppets had only blocked any possible entrances to the theater itself so they could wreak havoc in there without being disturbed.

Sumpter quickly led them through a narrow hallway between a niche with electrical fittings and another door that read 'boiler room' through an entrance at the very end of the basement. As soon as Sumpter had switched the light on, Sam spotted a huge red circle on the concrete floor, strange symbols in its midst that he hadn't seen before.

"This is all you did?" Meggie asked, making sure that this really was the last part of the spell they had to destroy.

Sumpter nodded faintly and again his eyes seemed to beg for forgiveness, worry about his children written in them.

"It said this was a spell to fend off anybody who wants to harm your house. I didn't know what it would really do."

"It's okay", Sam answered quickly, knowing there was no time now to ease the man's conscience. He was somehow glad, however, to observe that Matthew Palmer had already taken over that part, standing half behind Sumpter again, one hand on his upper arm in a soothing gesture, compassion written on his features.

"Okay, so now what?" Meggie asked. "We wash this off? What is it anyway?" She had bent down, her fingers briefly running through what looked like dark red paint.

Sumpter swallowed faintly. "Chicken blood."

Immediately, Meggie grimaced slightly and wiped her fingers on her jeans.

Sam was already looking for a water tap, about to ask Sumpter where they could find anything to clean the floor, when Palmer spoke up.

"Um… I don't think washing it off will be enough."

Brow furrowed slightly, Sam looked at him, his gaze indicating for him to elaborate.

"It's blood magic, which means that it's permanent unless it's being magically cleansed. The only thing that can reverse blood magic is fire."

"Didn't you say you don't believe in hoodoo and never even read your book?" Sam asked, still a little surprised about the sudden information.

Palmer chuckled ironically. "My grandmother taught me the one or other thing when I was a kid, if I believed in it or not. That's what I remember."

"Do you have any fuel or oil here?" Meggie asked then, obviously thinking the same as Sam.

"There's a canister in the boiler room", Sumpter answered, his voice never having gotten back its strength, shock still present in his posture and features.

Sam nodded towards Meggie just before she left the room and then turned towards Palmer again. "Anything else we need to do?"

Above them, the wooden ceiling creaked dangerously.

xOxOx

Dean's back hit the floor painfully, and he had to blink for a second when all air seemed to be pushed out of his lungs. How the hell an approximately twenty inch puppet got so strong that it send him flying to the ground he had no idea, only knowing that this was simply ridiculous!

Despite the seeming hilarity of the situation, the grip of the princess' hands around his neck was threateningly hard when she jumped onto his chest, pink veil in her blonde hair tickling his nose to add to the annoyance of being choked by a frigging puppet!

Behind him, Kat was groaning with each pull on the heavy chain, and even though he couldn't turn to look it sounded like the board was finally lifted from Quentin's body who had now started to whimper softly instead of screaming. At least one improvement of the whole situation.

"Let go of me!" Susanna bellowed in the back, and he heard the sound of something flying into a wall. At least the kids seemed alright enough to fight off their attackers.

His throat felt sore already as he pulled and ripped at the thing on top of him that just wouldn't give in.

The chains of the board rattled and something creaked in the floor boards of the stage.

Finally, Dean's hand got a tight grip on the small puppet, straight around her stupidly grinning face. Just good she wasn't talking too. Rolling around, he was half above the thing, pinning it down with his weight before, with a violent and quick movement, he twisted the puppet's head around, hearing the relieving sound of wood cracking and seeing her head bop to the side by only a thin strip of cloth.

Breathing out with exhaustion, he felt a grin spreading on his lips. "I broke your neck, bitch!"

xOxOx

Sam took out the lighter from his jeans pocket, bending down towards the fuel-soaked symbol on the floor and bringing the flame to it. As soon as the fire spread around the whole circle, he took a step back, watching as the flames changed from a warm orange-red to a cool green all of the sudden.

Sumpter gasped slightly, and Sam too would have found this weird, had he not seen enough strange things in his life.

The flames danced higher, getting much bigger than he would have expected, and he instinctively shielded Meggie with his body, seeing out of the corner of his eyes that Palmer did the same with Sumpter, both men standing as far as possible against the wall and away from the flames.

Sam hoped, mentally crossing his fingers, that this was going to work. So far the sounds from above hadn't died down yet.

xOxOx

Getting back to his feet, Dean rushed to Kat's side, and they were pulling on the chain together, finally lifting the board high enough for Quentin to go completely free. Then Kat fixed it back on the hanger while Dean leapt forward to pull the whimpering mess of a man out from underneath the heavy board.

Quentin winced and cried out in pain when he was being pulled away, but Dean didn't have time to pay attention to that. He suddenly saw a giant puppet, literally a giant, running through the door of the puppet room, a huge club in hands that he aimed straight at Kat's head.

"Kat, watch out!" Dean yelled, alarmed, letting go of Quentin who dropped back to the ground with a yelp.

It seemed to Dean like things were suddenly going in slow motion, the brunette turning around to look at him, still not seeing the puppet and the possibly very dangerous attack; him hurrying forward to tackle the thing before it could strike its blow.

If only he had seen the stupid alligator tripping him up.

xOxOx

The flames rose a final time, so high that they reached the ceiling and Sam already worried they might burn through the stage. Then, they died down so suddenly that it almost startled him, leaving nothing but a faint greenish-reddish glow in what seemed like completely darkness compared to the bright fire before.

Blinking the light spots in front of his eyes away, Sam looked around. Everyone seemed fine, but all of them had their heads raised, listening into the distance. The sounds above them were gone.

"You think it worked?" Meggie asked.

"I hope so."

Before Sam could say anything further, Sumpter let out a low gasp, rushed through the door of the room and out of the basement, followed by the other three of them.

"Susanna? Lucas?" he called out while he ran, up the stairs and to the back entrance of the puppet room.

Sure, Sam hadn't expected the place to look as tidy as it had the last time he had seen it, but what his eyes spotted then made his forehead twist, eyes widening slightly. There were puppets all over the floor, none of them on their shelves anymore, plastering the ground like a giant stack of bodies that made it harder to get through and to the stage door. Sumpter was still the first to make his way through, and when Sam and Meggie followed they saw the lights back up in the theater, revealing more chaos.

The whole stage board had come down, tangling up on one side by a chain, behind it a hardly conscious Quentin who was whimpering, gripping his legs with both hands and murmuring confused words of shock. Other puppets lay on the ground, some of them all the way up to the seats in the back of the theater where Susanna and Lucas stood, breathing hard.

"Dad!" they both shouted at once, running towards their father who met them in the middle, arms wrapped around them the instant he got to them.

A muffled groan led Sam's and Meggie's gazes to the right and both their eyebrows shot up in the same moment when they spotted Kat lying flat on her back, Dean on top of her, face buried somewhere between her breasts.

"Get off me!" the brunette huffed, pushing Dean aside and scrambling to her feet while Dean shook himself, also getting up. There was a hint of a dirty smirk on his features when he looked at her.

"You're welcome."

Sam only shook his head with a faint, relieved chuckle, breathing in deeply for the very first time in a long while. Seemed like everything was back to normal.

xO TBC Ox

Okay, as this part of the showdown already got quite long I decided to split the final chapter into two parts. There's one more following after this.