Chapter 8: My Plan
A couple of hours later, I awoke to Sam's watch beeping—midnight. Six hours left.
Sam still had his arm on me, slouched against the couch and asleep. I turned to look at him and jolted—his neck was torn open, his neck muscles and bones ripped and exposed. Blood covered his chin and neck and soaked into the blue, collared shirt.
My scrambling backwards jerked him awake. I blinked, and there was Sam: healthy, fine, tiredly blinking at me.
I puffed out the breath I had been holding and leaned forwards with closed eyes. Maybe I would die from a heart attack.
Sam's phone rang, and Sam hurried to answer. The conversation was brief. "Dean's on his way back."
I gave a nod, still not ready to open my eyes.
"Kate, do you want coffee? A sandwich? Anything?"
I gave a nod. "Coffee." Tentatively, I opened an eye—and was hit with immediate regret. My speaking brother was nowhere to be found. The only thing I saw was Sam's dying body, coughing blood and piercing me with accusing eyes. A large knife protruded from his abdomen, causing a pool of blood to flood his shirt and slink beneath him.
I hurriedly reclosed my eyes. "Not real," I whispered to myself. "Not real, not real."
It was a full forty-five minutes before Dean got back, his boots stomping dejectedly up the porch steps. I stayed on the couch, eyes closed.
"Katie?" Dean's voice was worried and coming towards me.
I waved, but I didn't move or dare to open my eyes.
"It… got worse," Sam said.
"Worse?"
"She can't really see anything but… us dying anymore," Sam explained. And that was putting it lightly. Every time I opened my eyes, there was Dean with his flesh filleted open and intestines spilling out, Sam dangling from the ceiling by a fat hook through the neck, Dean begging me to end it because his bones were piercing through his skin, Sam with his skin splitting open at unnatural seams and his earsplitting screams of agony, Dean with—
"Jesus."
"She can tune it out better if she ignores the visuals and focuses on our voices," Sam said.
I imagined Dean was rubbing his hand down his face at this point. "That bitch wasn't at any of the possible locations."
"Maybe… we can get Kevin to do a locating spell?" Sam suggested.
Dean scoffed. "Yeah, I'm sure convincing the guy tied up in the basement to help us will go over real well."
"We gotta try something, Dean."
"I KNOW!" (Even I flinched at Dean's words.) Softer this time, Dean repeated, "I know. Look, we'll—"
I stood up and kept my eyes focused on the floorboards in front of me. I ignored the pools of blood creeping into the edges of my vision. "Let's check out the woods."
"Kate." Sam had his condescendingly pitying tone out. "We can check, but—"
I looked up at the decaying images of my brothers, and I forced out the words, "I don't care if you think I was hallucinating Hazel earlier. It's a good plan, and God knows we could use any plan right about now."
Our watches beeped for 1 AM, reiterating my point.
Dean's voice came from the air to my left, as his corpse rotting on the floor was the only thing I saw. "Look, we'll go check out the forest. But you're not coming with."
I gritted my teeth. "Yes, I am."
"No, you're not," he shot back. "You'll get yourself killed out there, Kate!"
"I'll get myself killed in here!"
"No! You go out there, you'll be defenseless because there's no way in hell you can use a gun right now."
"Kate." Sam's voice floated from my right, over his shredded and bloodied remains. "You wait here, and we'll check it out. You know you're seeing things right now."
I immaturely flopped back onto the couch, closing my eyes again. "Fine."
A hand came to the back of my head. "We'll be right back," Sam promised. His boots walked across the hardwood towards the front door.
Dean nudged my shoulder. "Don't do anything stupid or I'll come back here and bust your ass."
I couldn't help the smirk that came. "Don't make promises you can't keep, big brother."
As he walked towards the door, he grumbled to himself about idiot sisters.
The door slammed, and I sat on the couch, essentially waiting for my death.
After a few minutes of keeping my eyes closed, I was beginning to drift back to sleep.
"Kaaaaaate…"
I perked up but remembered to not to open my eyes.
"Kaaaaaate…" The voice was faintly echoing around me.
I stood up, trying to locate the sound without sight.
"Kaaaaaate…"
Screw this. I opened my eyes—and stumbled backwards. Sam's pale, ghostly figured stared at me with haunted eyes. His neck was slit open, straight to the bone. He opened his mouth, and blood dribbled down. "Kaaaaaate…."
Tears welled up as I walked backwards. "You're not real."
Sam's eyes grew more despaired. "Kaaaaaate…"
I turned around, dashing away the tears. This was going to end. I was going to end this. I headed straight for the stairs to the basement.
"Kaaaaaate…!" Sam's figure was always there, always in my line of sight. I shoved past him, and stomped into the basement. Estelle and Kevin snapped awake, both still gagged and tied to kitchen chairs.
"You're going to end this!" I commanded. "You're going to make this stupid spell go away right now!"
Estelle's eyes carried a triumphant gleam; Kevin looked uneasy. Bingo.
I marched up to him and tugged his gag down. "How do I end this?"
He looked back up at me. "Death."
I pressed my lips together and tried again. "I did nothing to deserve this, Kevin. You know it. I came here to help people. So why am I being sentenced to die?"
He shrugged. "I'm just a student; I don't make the judgment calls."
Oh, please. "Man up! It's your own damn life—do you think my death is fair or not?!"
His eyes snapped to mine. "I don't know—who let who stay tied up in a basement all night?"
I glared at him. "I'll owe you a favor, then."
He scoffed. "Playing my humanity didn't work so now you're going for a bargain? I don't think so, bitch. You can't offer anything I want."
I leaned forward and raised a challenging eyebrow. "I have access to a powerful coven. One that doesn't have batshit crazy Estelles or curse-casting lunatics like Hazel. I can get you in." (Well, there was no saying I could get him in per se, but I did know of a coven on the east coast.)
His jaw clenched as he considered. "How do I know you're not lying?"
I shrugged and straightened. "You don't. But right now, your options are help me and get better witch teachers or burn alongside these ancient hags." Estelle's eyes narrowed on me.
Kevin looked around before puffing out a breath. "Fine. But I wasn't lying when I said I couldn't cancel your curse."
I clenched my jaw and moved to tug his gag back into place.
"But, but, but, but!" He urgently looked up at me. "I can find you Hazel. I swear."
I stared at him, considering. But, honestly? Right now, my options were to be the sitting duck or trust this douchebag. I went to untie his hands.
