Lori was sitting in a pue by herself. Head down, hands clasped before her. Alex was kind enough not to startle the poor girl and dragged his feet a little on the floor as he walked. She heard it and turned toward him.
"Who are you?" Her voice cracked slightly as she spoke, and in the moonlight filtering in through one of the windows Alex could see the tears glistening on her cheeks.
"I'm a friend of Sam's. Is everything alright Lori?" He'd reached her by now and squatted low beside her, looking her directly in the eye. She turned away from him, her eyes to the parapet at the far end of the church. A noise from behind him made his head snap to the back of the room, his hand dropping instinctively to the blade now resting in its sheath again.
The faces of Sam and Faith appeared from a small doorway at the back of the church. The figure of Dean slowly followed them as they walked toward where Alex was. Alex turned back to Lori, his expression softening as fresh tears rolled across her face.
"I understand now. God was punishing them. I've read in the bible about avenging angels. That's what this is." Her hold over her emotions began to break as her hands moved up to cover her face. A light, but cold wind quickly shot through the church, the candles over to Alex's left all but blowing out. A hand reached out over Alex's shoulder, grasping Lori tight as Sam's voice echoed all their sentiments.
"Trust me, this guy... he's no angel." His hand touched her shoulder affectionately, but she turned away from him. Tears took over her again. She sniffed, regained some composure and tried to explain.
"No, I understand now, they didn't deserve to be punished. I do." She paused for a second, took a deep breath. "I killed Rich, Taylor too. I nearly killed my father." A sound caught Faith's attention. She turned to the back of the church. A flicker of a shape, nothing discernible, but she knew instantly what it was. She snapped back to the group.
"Dean, go check the fire. Sam, get Lori out of here. Me and Alex'll hold him off." Nobody moved. Alex stood up, pulling his smooth iron blade up to his chest, ready. Dean and Sam just looked at her. A smash from the front of the church made them all look over. The window was broken, and through it they could make out the figure of a tall man, with a silver hook glinting in the moonlight.