Chapter 10

I had not waited for news on the events concerning people on a grand scale for a very long time. There were constant reports of tragedies and sporadic violence as well as fringe preachers popping up on available street corner. The Apocalypse is near they would scream and there was a part of me that wondered if I shouldn't be in agreement with them. Bobby remained taciturn as he struggled to deal with his injury.

I went with him to his home and worked on getting the place wheelchair ready. Bobby remained silent as we continued to wait to hear from both Sam and Dean. I heard the phone ring before Bobby did. He stared at the half bottle of whiskey in his hand while he sat in his chair.

"Hello," I answered.

"Kelsey?" Rufus' voice sounded on the other end.

"Rufus, so you're safe," I said.

"Yeah," Rufus answered. "Where the hell is Bobby?"

"He's staring at a bottle," I explained.

"Why?" Rufus demanded.

"He got hurt Rufus," I said.

"What do you mean he got hurt?" Rufus chuckled. "Put him on the phone."

I glanced over to where Bobby sat. "He's not going to speak to you Rufus."

"Put him on the phone," Rufus insisted.

I turned and found Bobby next to me in his chair. He had his hand extended. I gave him the phone and retreated to the kitchen.

I began putting food together and saw the Impala driving up with only Dean in the car. I frowned, as that didn't seem to bode very well. I heard Bobby slam the phone down and went to open the door before Dean reached it. He looked at me sadly and I wondered what had happened to Sam.

"Where's your brother?" Bobby's growl sounded over my shoulder.

"Sammy decided to take a break from hunting," Dean replied as he walked into the house.

I looked at the both of them and felt the irrational urge to go into Bobby's tool shed and wield a shovel.

"Kelsey," Bobby's voice was gruff. "I know that look."
"What look?" I asked.

"That I'm going to go find a shovel and use it look," Bobby stated.

"Where's your brother?" I repeated.

"I don't know," Dean shrugged. "We had a conversation and he left."
I stared at Dean with my mouth agape. Bobby shook his head before he rolled the chair out of the way.

"Well," he said. "I suppose Kelsey will just cook less then."
I tilted my head at them. "You expect me to cook?"

"Can you find him? I mean now that Cass has etched those symbols into his ribs?" Bobby asked.

"Hmm, good point," I agreed. "Fine, I'll go cook."

"It'll make you feel better," Bobby agreed.

I left them alone to discuss what they felt that they must keep secret from me. I stared out of the window for a moment and began putting food together in the kitchen. Things felt different to me and then I turned and saw Dean staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"The Four Horsemen?" Dean sighed.

"They were released when Lucifer was," I shrugged.

"But they've not been caged," Dean scowled.

"No," I shook my head. "They just weren't actually able to take corporeal form. For the Apocalypse to be in effect, they have to be actually physically present."

I heard the squeak of the wheels of Bobby's chair in the passageway. He entered the kitchen and grabbed a plate. I shook my head and I pointed to the casserole dish on the table. He smiled as he dug into the lasagna. Dean also picked up a plate and took a share. I glowered at the both of them as I stirred my batter.

"Pie?" Dean asked.

"Apple," I nodded.

Bobby continued eating.

"So," Dean narrowed his eyes. "You were explaining about the four Horsemen."

"You met one?" I turned to him.

"War," Dean threw a ring on the table. "We cut that off his finger."

"Hmm," Bobby mused as he picked up the ring.

"Bastard vanished though," Dean said around a mouthful of food.

I stared at the ring for a moment and then shook my head. Sometimes they did just get lucky.
"How did you figure out the ring?" I asked.

"He kept spinning it," Dean shrugged. "It didn't take a genius to figure out that the ring contained his power."

"Like a Lord of the Rings type deal," Bobby guessed.

"Pretty much," I nodded.

"So," Dean pressed.

"War likes conflict and turmoil," I replied.

"Yeah," Dean agreed. "He turned a whole town against itself. Making people believe that the other side were demons and therefore had them killing each other."
"Paranoia," Bobby shook his head.

"Conflict and turmoil," I repeated. "War feeds on it. The power that is generated from fear."
"Why not anger?" Bobby said.

"Anger isn't nearly as powerful as fear," I answered. "It has to do with the level of panic in a person's system. A soldier on the battlefield who has never fired before is going to be producing a lot of energy from fear. One who is battle – hardened, is calm in the face of danger. There's not much fun, I suppose in that."
"War is fun?" Bobby scoffed.

"To the Horseman it is," I smiled. "However, I suspect that he revels in the chaos of it all."

"What about the other three?" Dean asked.

I placed the filling in the pie shell and popped it in the oven. Then perched on the back of a chair before them.

"Famine is hungry," I replied. "Hunger drives him like an never ending need. He constantly needs to feed and is never full. He's perhaps the weakest of them all. But since you managed to trounce War... I'm not too sure."

"Disease?" Bobby stopped eating.

"Disease is cruel," I nodded. "He likes to experiment in human misery. He also is the most likely to be very upset if you interfere with his creations."

"Like Ebola?" Dean asked.

"Yep," I agreed.

"Damn," Dean sighed. "What about Death?"

I thought carefully about Death. I looked at the both of them and thought that Sam should be there with them to help them face this. There was no way that this could be done alone, but Sam had to stop running away.

"Death," I sighed. "Death is inevitable."

"What the hell does that mean?" Bobby snapped.

"It means," I shook my head. "That Death takes no sides. He is the most neutral of them all. He only comes to mop up after them. He's only interested in the balance of life. He is what he is."

"That is very odd," Bobby observed.

"So is Death," I nodded.

"How do you know so much?" Dean asked.

I smiled at him. "Because it's my job to know."

"That's not an answer," Dean growled.

"Well," I hopped off the table and pulled the warm pie out of the oven. "That's the only answer that you're going to get."

I left them with the pie and headed for the front door. I opened it before the knock sounded. I stared at Ellen and Jo. Ellen frowned as she stared at me.

"Kelsey?" she sighed. "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to not kill people," I smiled.

"Uh huh," Ellen nodded.

"Jo," I said to her. "Go in the kitchen and save some food and apple pie for your mom, before Bobby and Dean eat everything."

Jo laughed and walked in the direction of the kitchen.

"Where's Sam?" she asked.

"Good question," I replied.

"What happened with those two?" she narrowed her eyes at me.

"You can go work on Dean," I told her. "I'll go locate Sam and see if I can kick some sense into him."

"Don't you mean knock?" Ellen tried to suppress her grin.

"Oh," I shook my head. "If I knocked Ellen, I'd probably knock his head clean off. But before that I better kick it from where he stuck it." I left to the sound of her laughter.