Later that night, the boys enter the park from an area where not a lot of people pass by and where the foliage is pretty thick. They hope that no one will see them and think that something suspicious is going on. Also, they hope to not alert any pervert or monster who might be lurking in the park. The brothers tread cautiously through the underbrush as they make their way to where they earlier found the footprints. They see a shadowy figure standing in roughly the same place where they found the deep footprints. He is standing by himself and is fingering an axe. The brothers nod to each other and with grim faces begin to creep forward to the lone figure. They pause as a young lady jogs nearby and passes the shadow. Once she is gone they hear an audible sigh and the man's axe hangs loosely from his left hand. A deep, dark voice suddenly fills the air.
"Why did you let her go?"
The man jumps in fright and pulls out an old style lantern that illuminates the scene. The boys barely manage to hide from the light in time.
"Stop lurking in the shadows, if you want to speak, then come and face me!"
"Brave words boy, but they do not mask the fear you feel in my presence."
The Winchesters see that the man with the axe and the lantern is Jack Bower. He looks really uncomfortable.
"I repeat, why did you let her go? She would have been a perfect candidate for the lantern."
"I-I don't know… I mean, I already have plenty of trees to cut down and make into edel oil, so I figured it might not be necessary. Plus… plus, she reminded me of her, alright? She looked like Maggie, and so… I just couldn't bring myself to do it."
Dean mouths to Sam, "what the hell?"
Sam just shrugs in bewilderment to his brother. he looks around but cannot see the source of the voice.
"You are a fool," the voice breathes. "Only a foolish man would not do everything in his power to save the woman he loves."
"Shut up! You know I'll do anything for her," Jack shouts to the night.
"Really? Then learn some wisdom boy: the edel oil burns quickly. A soul is a powerful thing and needs constant nourishment in order to survive without a living vessel. That warmth and love you feel emanating from the lantern is a beautiful soul that needs fuel. Take heart that your Maggie is such a wonderful soul, because otherwise she might have gone out already. But a flame such as she needs the oil. A small of family of edel trees is not enough! But I already explained this to you. I feel like you don't really love her."
The voice says that last bit with real contempt, like a vicious sneer.
"But I-"
"Don't worry, Jack. You are in luck. There are two men here in the woods trying to stop you. Cut them down, and free yourself from their interference, as well as keep your fiance's soul burning brightly."
The boys look at each other in surprise as Jack shouts out, "Show yourselves!"
He swings the lantern in their direction. Dean heaves a sigh and shows himself.
"Dean, no!" Sam hisses.
"Come on Sam, we need to do this," Dean mutters. "Ho, Jack. What are you doing here?"
"Agent? What are you doing here?"
Sam reveals himself as well and then says, "Jack, we heard what is going on. Do you really think that Maggie would want this?"
Jack suddenly looks like he might cry as he says, "I don't know! She just collapsed one day from a sudden illness. A week before we were to get married! No one helped me. I prayed for help and he came. I knew she was going to die if I didn't do something; she's my world!"
"Yeah, but you are destroying the lives of others. I cannot imagine that any woman would want that, no matter how much you loved her," Dean retorts angrily.
Jack looks down at the ground, a look of utter despair on his face. He puts down the axe and lantern. The boys approach cautiously. Suddenly, Jack leaps at them and decks Dean across the face before wrestling Sam to the ground.
"I was in the marines! I can take down guys like you all day," Jack snarls as he strangles Sam. Sam manages to get a good hit in and kicks Jack off of him. Dean catches Jack from behind, but the Marine drops his weight and lands low. He kicks out Dean's feet and the wrestles his gun away.
"Look, all I wanted was to-"
Sam shoots Jack in the leg and drops him. Jack doesn't shout in pain but suddenly and frantically scrambles on all fours towards the lantern.
"No, I have to get away! Maggie! Please!"
Dean gets up and kicks Jack in the wounded leg, causing him to finally cry out and stop just short of the lantern.
"Alright Jack, the game is up." He walks over a picks up the lantern, causing Jack to shout out once more in dismay. "You can have this back, but only after you answer some questions of ours."
"Anything. Please, just don't drop it! Her soul is in there!"
"Dean, that doesn't look like any receptacle for a soul that we have come across before," Sam observes.
"Well, we'll find out soon enough. So, you killed everyone who has gone missing?"
"Yes," Jack pants.
Sam meanwhile looks around them trying once more to find out the source of the voice they heard.
"The Millers, too. I… I killed them," Jack confesses. "It was this guy. He came to me and Maggie once she collapsed from the strange illness. He-"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
Two bright eyes appear in the distance and a dark figure stalks forward.
"Stay there," Sam says. "Don't come any closer or I'll shoot!"
The figure laughs and Sam drops to the ground writhing in pain and foaming from the mouth. Dean rushes over to him and puts down the lantern by his brother. Music begins to fill the air, the same music the brothers heard in their dream.
"Dean Winchester," the figure says as it draws nearer. "I know that if your brother dies right now, there is no bringing him back. Neither of you can cheat death again. Except through one way."
"What do you mean?"
"Sam is dying right now, and will succumb in a few minutes, but you can save him if you put his soul in the lantern and feed it. That way you can have him with you constantly."
"No way, you did this to him. You can stop it!"
The shadow draws near the light of the lantern and a towering figure with curling horns sprouting from its head like an ancient tree approaches. A billowing cloak shrouds most of the body and rest remains in the darkness.
"Sadly, I cannot. But I feel like this may be a deal that you'll leap at. If I put your brother's soul into the lantern he will live on forever and you will become my woodsman. With the skills you already possess as a hunter and equipped with my knowledge and weaponry, you will live a full life alongside him and always be able to keep him safe. Is that not the duty of the older brother, Dean?"
Jack gets up shakily and shouts in dismay, "But what about Maggie? You promised me that she would be safe! You-"
He gets choked off as the Beast makes a lazy gestured with his shadowed hand. Jack teeters and falls to the ground silent. Sam is thrashing a lot less and is expiring quickly.
"Dean," the Beast says soothingly, "Let me help you. You can still save him, just let me put his soul into the lantern."
Dean looks at his brother in dumbfounded desperation. He is scared and and all the gears are spinning in his mind as he tried to figure out what will be best.
"Sam… Sam, please forgive me… I-I…"
He looks at the lantern next to him and reaches for it.
"That is right Dean," The Beast encourages. "Take up the mantel of lantern bearer and save your brother."
An expression of anger crosses over Dean's face.
"Look here, you fugly son of a bitch, I have had it up to hear with you and your lantern! Just… Wait a moment…"
"Sam doesn't have a moment," the Beast interjects.
Dean picks up the lantern and gets up. A realization begins to dawn on his face as he says, "You know, at first I just thought that you had a creepy obsession with this lantern. But that wouldn't make sense. You are a creature with a purpose, you have a plan. Why would you care about the souls of other people's loved ones, just to have countless others killed. No, none of that would make any sense."
He walks up the Beast and opens the lantern.
"I think it's your soul inside of here."
"No! Don't do anything foolish! Your brother will die without my help!"
"If he does, that is on me. But he would never forgive me if I sucked his soul out and killed innocent people just so I could keep him around a bit longer. Death comes for us all, and now it comes for you."
The Beast screams a darkness shoots out to consume Dean, but he calmly and quickly blows out the lantern's light and the darkness immediately abates. The creatures falls forward in a tangled heap and ceases to move. The darkness abates. Sam stops thrashing and foaming and groggily sits up.
"Dean, what just happened?"
"I figured out that the Beast kept his soul in this lantern and so I blew it out," Dean answers. He goes to help his brother up as Jack begins to crawl towards the corpse.
"You lied to me," he whispers. "She's gone.. she's gone…"
The Beast is in a heap of mouldering old coats and scattered bones and Jack begins to pull them apart.
"Poor guy," Sam says a little breathlessly.
"Yeah, that monster really took him in," Dean mutters.
"What do you think we should do with him," Sam asks.
Before Dean can answer Jack gives a cry of surprise.
"Maggie!?"
The brothers hurry over and see a young lady in the middle of the coats and bones. She is very pale, but appears to be breathing. The Winchesters help Jack untangle her from the mess. Sam begins rifling through the clothes and finds an ancient looking book. They decide that taking Maggie to the hospital will be the best. Dean helps Jack get her into the Impala, while Sam burns the remains of the Beast for good measure.
Once at the hospital and Maggie is admitted, the boys pull jack to the side and talk with him.
"Look Jack, you have done pretty screwed up things, but we know why you did it," Sam says. "The right thing to do would be to turn yourself in for the murders that have happened here. That would mean though not being with Maggie, who you tried to save. We understand if you want to be with her. If you decide to stay with her, then you need to get out of here, assume a new identity and stay away from the supernatural for the rest of your life."
"Otherwise you will have to deal with us. Just this once, we are giving you the chance to get off the hook," Dean puts in.
Jack looks down and says, "Thank you. I-I will need some time to think about it. Thank you for saving her and freeing us from that monster. I will talk to her and we will decide what is best. Once she has recovered."
"Alright," Sam responds. "This is rough, but we hope that you make the choice that you can live with."
The brothers leave the hospital and go to the Impala, which has the lantern, the ax, and the book stashed in the trunk. As the brothers climb into their car, Sam turns to Dean and says, "Look Dean, thank you."
"For what?"
"For making the choice that you did, back there in the park. It is scary knowing that this life is our last. No more second, third, or whatever chance we are on now. But you did the right thing by fighting the Beast rather than taking the easy choice."
"I knew neither of us could live with that decision… The Beast was right that it is the older brother's duty to look out for his younger brother. But he was only half right. Both brothers have to be at peace with what they do. We are partners, and that means we work together, not that I dictate to you how we live and die, or the other way around."
"I get it," Sam says with a small smile. 'Let's get this stuff back to the Bunker and see what these collectors are going to do with it."
