Next chapter time. Thanks for the reviews :D
Chapter Ten
The building Ruby led him to was old and rickety to say the least. Sam wondered why demons had to inhabit dark and dingy buildings rather than ones that didn't look like they were about to collapse at any moment. He supposed it made them look more evil and ominous than they would if they were in a bright and airy apartment.
"We're here," Ruby said in a low voice; as if that was enough not to alert the demons to their whereabouts.
"Why are we here?" Sam asked her although he already had a very strong suspicion as to why they were there.
"I have something to show you," she told him as they reached the window with the cracked glass.
She pointed at the demons and Sam's gaze followed the finger. There were several demons spread around the room; some were sitting in threadbare chairs whilst others leaned against bare walls. They all seemed to be having the time of their lives; laughing and joking as if they didn't have a care in the world. In all honesty, they didn't have a care in the world; they were demons after all so as long as they were wreaking some sort of havoc then they were happy. It disgusted Sam to see them like this; he wanted to kill them all.
"East there Sparky," he heard Ruby say. It was as if she had been reading his mind. "You gotta hear what they have to say first."
Sam stood and listened to them. Their voices were quiet and at times he couldn't make out what they were saying but the overall theme was quite clear. They were talking about Joanne. He could hear them bragging about her death, laughing at how she had died. It made his blood boil to hear them speak about her like that. The anger must have shown on his face because Ruby grabbed hold of his arm.
"Not yet," she hissed; forcibly stopping him from running into the building and killing them all with his bare hands. "You're not ready. If you try then they will kill you without a second thought. You are weak at the moment, consumed with grief. If you do anything rash then it will all be over and you will never get your revenge."
"What do I need to do?" Sam asked; for the first time conceding that he needed Ruby's help. "How can I fight them?"
"That is what I'm going to teach you," she told him as she led him away from the building and back into the cold afternoon air. "They don't know we were here," she reassured him as he eyed the building nervously. "They're too stupid to know we're here."
"Who are they?"
"They work for Lilith."
"Who is Lilith?"
"She's a demon and she really doesn't like you."
"Is that why she killed Joanne?"
"Probably. Or maybe it's because she's a vindictive little bitch but whatever her reason is she is desperate to have you dead."
"Why?"
"Because you're the biggest threat to her power. Now listen to me very carefully," she moved closer to Sam and lowered her voice even further as she spoke. "I'm going to show you how to do this but you have to be careful. Don't do anything rash and don't tell your brother about this, he won't understand."
"Fine," Sam told her.
"Good, I'll meet you later and we'll begin," Ruby said before she turned around and walked off.
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When Sam returned to the motel room it was beginning to go dark. He had been out for hours just walking around thinking about everything that had happened. He was so close now. He could feel it and it made his stomach turn with fear and nervousness and excitement. He knew he shouldn't feel excited but he almost had his revenge against those who had killed Joanne and that was not something to ignore.
He found Dean in the room; sitting on the bed and staring at the floor. His hands were twisted together so tight that his knuckles had turned white. He was deep in thought, so deep he hadn't even noticed that his brother had returned. He had a pained look on his face and Sam instantly felt guilty about the secrets he was hiding from Dean.
"Hey," he said to get his brother's attention; cringing at how lame it sounded. Dean finally looked up.
"Hey," he repeated. "Where've you been?" It was a simple question; there was no accusatory tone nor anything that made him push any further if Sam didn't want to."
"Just out," Sam replied but didn't offer anything further. "What about you? I saw you talking to some guy out there earlier."
"Yeah, that's a long story," Dean smiled sadly. "But to cut it short he told me where I can find Shelly."
"He did?" Sam asked excitedly; feeling happy for his brother. Then something occurred to him. "Wait, how does he know where she is in the first place?"
"Because he's an angel," Dean replied; his voice still sounded shocked at the thought that angels actually existed. "He's an angel," he repeated as if trying to convince himself more than anything.
"And he told you where to find Shelly?"
"Yeah, he said that she was important to some demon and that they wanted her but when they came that night she had already been taken."
"Are you going to get her?"
"As soon as it's dark. I'm gonna head over there and I'm gonna get my daughter back. Are you coming?"
"I can't," Sam replied regretfully. "There's something that I have to do."
Dean smiled sadly again. "There's always something that you have to do. Can't you just do what I want for once? Can't you just stop this destructive path you're on and help me?"
"I'm sorry."
"Whatever," Dean said in a defeatist tone. "You can do whatever you want, I won't stop you but I am going tonight and I am going to get my daughter back."
Sam felt guilty about not wanting to go and help Dean; he was after all going to find his daughter after she had been missing for weeks but Sam felt this was more important. He had to sit and wait for Ruby to show so she could start to teach him. He was impatient and wanted to learn everything quickly and he couldn't do that if he went with Dean. So regretfully he had to decline Dean's offer.
"I'm sorry," Sam told his brother and he genuinely was. "I just can't."
"I'm not going to argue with you, Sam," Dean told him. He was tired of the arguing, tired of the constant tension between the two of them. He wasn't going to force Sam to go with him if his heart wasn't in it. "You don't have to go," his voice sounded weary; like he didn't have the energy to fight Sam anymore; he just wanted Michelle back. "You can stay here if you want. I just don't want to fight with you anymore."
"I don't want to fight with you either."
"I just want to go and get my daughter back so I can stop all of this," he sighed. He just wanted to sleep and not dream. He wanted to forget the nightmares that he was suffering from. He wanted everything to go back to the way it was. Before Joanne had died, before Shelly had been taken. A time when Sam smiled, a time when his baby brother was happy and not the shadow of a man that stood before him. He stood up and grabbed his jacket before he picked up a gun and tucked it safely into his jacket. "I'll see you when I get back," he said to Sam before he headed to the door and left.
Sam stood there in silence as he heard the roar of the Impala's engine. He just stood there and didn't do anything at all.
"Good, he's gone," he heard Ruby say from behind him. "We can begin now."
"What do I have to do?" Sam asked; keeping his voice even and emotionless.
"Listen to me."
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Dean had left the Impala on a street a few blocks away from his destination so not to draw attention to himself. He then walked the remaining distance on foot until he was stood outside the small, dark house.
It looked so normal, he thought. Not at all like he had imagined. It was two stories high and painted a quaint kind of cream colour. Ivy crawled up the wall; bent and twisted in the wooden trellis. It didn't look like the place he would have expected his daughter to be held. He had imagined somewhere darker and gloomy, looking more like a prison than a house. But it didn't. It looked like the kind of idyllic house people grew old together living in. A picture perfect postcard even.
But he was so close now he could practically feel it. His stomach was turning; the butterflies were going crazy at the thought that he might see his daughter again. He took a step towards the house and pulled the gun out of his jacket. He removed the safety and held it close to his chest as he prepared to attack.
The door wasn't locked. When he tried it the door swung open with ease. Lifting his guard up; Dean tensed himself and prepared for the worst. This all seemed a little bit too easy to him and he wasn't going to let himself be caught off guard by whomever or whatever the hell was in the house. He stepped inside and headed towards the living room. The house was dark and threatening on the inside. It was also empty. There was no furniture in the room; it was completely bare. Now Dean was beginning to think he was in over his head.
There was no-one in the room so he turned around to head back for the door. His plan had been to head up the stairs to see if he could find Shelly but something stopped him. And it wasn't what he expected.
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"This isn't working," Sam growled; frustrated by his lack of progress. Ruby had been teaching him for the last two hours but he just wasn't getting the hang of it. She had turned up with a demon and they had trapped it so he could practice his powers.
"You have to have patience," Ruby told him. "It's not gonna come straight away; you need to practice."
"I don't have time to practice," Sam uttered. "They'll figure out we're here eventually and when they do they're gonna come after us. We need to strike now and stop them before they kill us."
Ruby sighed as she realised that Sam wasn't going to focus in the slightest until he fought these demons so she gave in for now. She pulled a knife out of her jacket and thrust it into the throat of the trapped demon. She took a great amount of pleasure as it screamed in pain as it died. She then turned to Sam; who looked more than a little shocked, and handed him the knife.
"This knife kills demons," she explained; rather redundantly since he had already seen what the knife could do. "You can use it for now to kill those demons but after that you have to learn how to do it yourself."
"Okay," Sam promised as he took the knife from her hand. He took a moment to stare at it before he placed it in the inside of his jacket. "Thanks," he said to her as he turned and walked out of the room. Ruby was left alone, standing in the darkened room with a corpse. Sighing softly to herself she grabbed the dead man and pulled his body away.
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Sam stalked the demons in the dark; they had no idea he was even there. He was determined that he was going to enjoy every single minute of this. That was how much they had hurt him. He could still hear them laughing and the anger rose up high inside him. Abandoning all sense of reason he kicked the door down and attacked.
The first demon he killed with great ease, sticking the knife into its throat. It choked and fell to the floor with a hard thud. The next two demons attacked in sequence but they were no match for Sam and the knife. He took them out one at a time and didn't give them a second thought as they crashed to the floor.
The final demon was the one that had been gloating about killing Joanne but now he didn't look so confident. He looked terrified and he tried to run but Sam caught up with him and shoved him hard against the wall.
"Wh... who are you?" He stammered. "Wha... wha... what d'you want?"
"I want to kill you," Sam growled menacingly and placed the knife up to the demons throat. "You took someone very special from me and now you are going to pay," there was no hint of joking in Sam's voice; he was deadly serious. He was going to kill this demon nice and slowly.
The demon realised who he was and what he was talking about. His eyes widened as he attempted to shake his head; but couldn't since he was impeded by both Sam's arm and the demon killing knife. "No," he cried out. "No I didn't kill her. I swear to you I didn't kill her."
"I heard you gloating to your demon friends."
"I lied," he said quickly. "I told them I did but I never. I went to kill her but by the time I got there she was already dead."
Sam dropped the demon in shock; not really believing his confession but at the same time he knew it was true. Letting his anger get the better of him; he killed the demon and watched as the lifeless corpse of some poor innocent fell slowly to the ground. He didn't feel any better; in fact he now felt worse.
Ruby had lied to him. She had told him it was a demon and he had chosen to believe her because that was what he had wanted. A demon could be killed, he could have had revenge. Now all that was left was a sick feeling in his stomach and the realisation it had all been in vain.
Then he remembered Dean.