A/N... I have been sick. I still am, I ended up with this wretched flu. Then, instead of posting a new chapter here, I decided I would enter the Big Bang Challenge, so wrote up a 20,000 word story for that. (In one day. Yay for me) So, I know, I have been so late in posting, but I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again...
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"So why me? Why do they keep coming after me?" Joanie lifted her head from her hands and looked from one brother to the other, her face twisted in a pale, confused expression.
Sam turned in the passenger seat of the car and gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "It's bad luck, really. You are the only surviving descendant of Viktorius Afterfall. See, we figured out Vikki had a daughter who was only a baby when her father died, then after Vikki passed she was raised by the church, and most records of her were lost or destroyed."
Sam handed her a photocopied page from an old book. "Here, look, this makes you a double descendant. You are the only survivor of the Afterfall or Winters bloodline, and that also makes you a descendant of Hermanatie"
Joanie frowned. "Is that why they got my sister?"
"No. No, we don't think so" Sam flicked a glance at Dean. "See, your sister was not a descendant. This came down from your mother's line, not your father's. Your mother, she passed away, didn't she?"
Joanie nodded. "Yeah. She did, when I was a baby, I'm adopted. And my mother, she was an only child. So was her mother...hey, now that you said something, as far back as I know, we were always girls, and always only children!"
Dean turned his car into an industrial estate and slowed, looking for an empty building. "See, Joanie, that was what this Herman dude did. He gave one child. One. When Cassie abused the gift and got herself knocked up with thirteen kids, well, old demi god Herman cracked the sads and took matters into his own hands."
"He killed all of the girls"
"Yup. Bled from the eyes, nose mouth, etcetera"
Sam handed Joanie another paper. "Hermanatie keeps coming back to put a stop to the restless spirits that are killing teenagers every few decades. But there's two other players, here. Vikki the witch is hanging around, we aren't real sure of her agenda at this stage, and Celia Goodwife is always trying to stop her and the kids. So, you kinda have three different parties wrestling for control of you"
Joanie groaned. "Three? There's three demons trying to possess me?"
"No, no, not three demons" Sam replied. "You got a spirit, a demon, and a demi god. So, um, I guess that's not as bad?"
"Nothin' like the silver lining, there, Sammy" Dean muttered as he pulled the car into the drive of a very empty looking warehouse, a dilapidated 'For Sale' board leaning precariously at the front.
"You're caught up in a battle between these guys, coz something about your bloodline makes whoever possesses you stronger" Sam turned as Dean pulled up to the roller door. "Here? Really, Dean? It looks like it's condemned"
"Pretty much what we're used to. No one will look for us here"
"I don't understand" Joanie sounded close to panic. "Why can't you stop them getting in me, you know, taking possession of me?"
Dean turned to face her. "Well, here's the thing. We kinda need the help of old Herman to help gank the other guys. If we stop anyone from possession you, we don't have much chance" He paused, taking in her near panic, her fear radiating from the rear seat in waves. "But we'll only do this if you're okay with it. We won't force you. If you want, we can protect you from these things and they'll never get near you"
Joanie looked back at him, then met the soft, emotional eyes of Sam. She sighed.
"I don't want to, of course I don't. But if we can get the things that killed my sister and those other kids, then I think it's something I have to do" she took a deep breath. "Yes. I'll do it. But you guys have to be right there with me"
"Of course" Sam told her.
"Let's get inside, and we'll work out a plan" Dean got out to open the roller door as Sam slid across to drive the car in.
"So you guys hang out in abandoned buildings all the time?"
Sam gave her a smile in the rear view. "Only sometimes. No one will expect us to be here"
"Then how will Hermanatie find us?"
Sam moved the car in as far as he could and Dean closed the roller door behind them. "He hasn't had any trouble before, so I guess there's no reason to think he will now"
"Great. I have a supernatural beacon"
The abandoned building wasn't so bad inside, there was an office area that had a couch and a few chairs surrounding a usable table.
"So who was the boy at the cemetery?" asked Joanie when they had all taken a seat, Sam with his computer open at the table in front of him.
"I'm thinking that was Hermanatie. Because of the white smoke. Demons are usually black smoke" Dean explained.
"Have you seen the demon?"
"Yeah. She's the one that hit us at the hospital. Don't know where she is now, though"
"So who was in me at the cemetery? God, that sounds so dirty"
"That was one of Cassie Winters' thirteen children. There was another in the girl. Good news, though" Sam told her. "We burned their bones, so they won't be back"
"Wasn't there thirteen kids?" Joanie gave him a pained expression.
Dean Leaned forward, elbows on the table. "There were three girls in the town with you, weren't there? If Hermy-guy zapped them like the two in our motel room, then that means five are down. That leaves only four spirits to deal with"
Sam smiled at his brother. "Dude. That leaves eight. And the grandmother, Cassie. Nine"
"Great. I'm sure that helps." Joanie yawned.
"Why don't you lay down on that couch for a while, Joanie?" Sam suggested. "We got a couple of things to do, you may as well grab a little sleep, if you can"
"I don't think I can sleep with everything that's happened" she answered, but lay down anyway.
Within minutes they could hear her soft snore. Sam looked over at his brother. "I bet she hasn't slept for days"
"Know what that feels like" Dean grumbled.
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"Okay, kids, you know the drill. Mr Hammerstead's late, so just go ahead and make your breakfasts, I'll let you know what to do if he doesn't show" called the English teacher, Mrs. Williams.
The class of teenagers mumbled their replies and did as they were told, this was the 'troubled' kids class, about sixteen youths that had been caught by the law, or been reported by social workers as being a risk. Mr Hammerstead ran the class, starting the day with a nutritional breakfast for these children, and he mentored them throughout their school day, and most of the time, way beyond school hours.
It wasn't like him to be late, but it also was not entirely out of the ordinary, as he often picked one of his troubled students from the police station in the morning.
As they all made their various breakfast meals they wandered over to the common area where they sat on various bean bags, cushions, or straight onto the shaggy grey rug.
"Hey guys, you hear what happened last night?" A young dark haired girl spoke up.
"Yeah. I heard. Andi and Vince." A red haired fellow stuffing his face with a bagel answered her. "Man, that sucks. I was supposed to go with them last night, too"
"Did you see what happened?" the dark haired girl asked him.
"No. I didn't. I only saw the police and the ambulance all around the house. But I heard them talking. It was the same thing that killed the other kids"
"Really? Like, the witch thing?"
"Geez, you are a real retard, aren't you?" another girl propped herself in the middle of the kids. "That's all bullshit. There's some kind of virus that's killing people. My dad told me"
"Your dad is a crack head that never comes home. He wouldn't know a virus if it drove a bus over him"
The blonde threw a pillow at the boy who had said that. "Seriously, you guys, how can a witch kill people? I mean, seriously, I've heard so many stories. Like, you know, if you say Celia Goodwife backwards three times you'll call her. Or if you say Cassie Winters three times, or say their names together, they appear and you all die"
"Cool. But you know, it's been done. Like the Candyman movie. Or Bloody Mary" The boy talking yawned and stretched his arms over his head. "Why don't they think of something cooler? Like the Exorcist, when the demon comes in and posses that girl. Or, you know, killer zombies. I love me a good zombie movie"
"This is real life, douche bag" The blonde girl kicked his feet. "Not the movies. But you're right. It's like, the more it get's told, the stupider it gets. Cassie Winters, Celia Goodwife, blah blah blah"
"Yeah, I know, right? My mom used to scare me with Cassie Winters stories when I was little. She would say…" the girl's voice drifted off as the overhead lights flickered.
"Well, that's weird!" laughed the boy, but they all gasped and squealed when the globes blew and the room shook.
Just as suddenly as the shaking started, it stopped.
The kids looked around at each other, wide eyed, not quite sure of what had just transpired.
"Fuck me. Was that an earth quake?"
A few short, nervous laughs and a squeal started to break the tension, until a loud rapping on the window brought them all to a stunned silence again.
No shaking, no lights exploding.
All was silent, only the frightened breathing of the teenagers could be heard in the large room.
One of the boys got up to open the blinds.
"Don't do it!" squealed the dark haired girl. "That's what happened in the stories, and everybody dies!"
"But we didn't do anything that they did in the stories"
"I think we did. I think we said her name, like, three times"
"Whose name? It's all rah, rah, rah, bullshit. You guys know that"
"She's right, don't do it!"
"Nah, don't worry, I told you, that's all total bull shit" he scoffed, reaching behind himself and pulled the blinds clear in one fell swoop.
The screaming of his class mates made him turn around to look behind himself, through the second floor window.
Into the eyes of a young girl, pale in features, dirty white dress.
Blood dripping from her eyes.
He screamed and screamed, until he felt his own blood start to drip, then he screamed some more….
X
Mr Hammerstead heard the screaming as he rounded the corner of the corridor. He knew it was probably a dead rat one of the boys was throwing at the girls, or something just as stupid.
He was already having a bad morning, with his power going out, he slept right through with no alarm to wake him, then finding a flat tire as he went to start his car.
He slammed the door to his class room open, in no mood to put up with any shenanigans, but the sight that greeted him set his bones to ice.
All of the children were screaming, and they were bleeding, from their eyes, their nose, their mouth…there seemed to be blood everywhere.
He looked towards the window and was confused to see another teenager outside.
They were on the second floor.
She must have balanced on the guttering.
She was also bleeding.
Worried, confused and certainly in a state of shock, Mr Hammerstead rang to the window and flung it open, grabbing the girl with both hands.
There was nothing of her, she was cold, bony and frail.
He pulled her through the window and pulled his jacket off, wrapping it around her frozen shoulders, then picked her up in his arms.
"Has anyone called nine one one?" he yelled to his kids, but they were too panicked, they just screamed and backed away from him.
He ran into the hall and bumped into other school staff who had finally heard the panicked screams coming from the class room.
"Call emergency, call nine one one!" he yelled.
The staff just looked at him, at the child he was holding, and backed up, away from him.
"What's wrong with you? These kids are dying! Call for help!"
They still backed away. One of them, a Mrs Browning from admin, pointed to the child Mr Hammerstead held in his arms.
Mrs Browning's face was white, and she trembled with fear.
Mr Hammerstead looked down at the child he was holding.
He screamed.
He screamed so hard his throat bled.
And yet, he continued to scream.
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"Dean, we kinda need to figure out what Vikki is after."
Dean nodded, one hand on the back of his neck as he kneaded the tired, much abused muscles there. "Of course, Captain Obvious, I hadn't thought of that" He stood up and went to his jacket, retrieving his flask.
"What can she be after? She's got her own agenda, sure, but what?"
Sam rubbed his eyes. "Demons tend to follow orders, unless they're high up on the pay scale. So. Um. I don't get the feeling this Vikki is. But, we need to figure out why she's still loyal to her family. I mean, don't all those ties get broken in hell? When they're torturing the humanity out of someone, wouldn't she lose all interest in her kids, or what they do?"
Dean looked down at his brother. He unscrewed the cap off his flask and took a gulp.
"Yeah. They make you forget. Everything. No family, no friends, no comfort, no nothing." His voice was very quiet, his face pale. "But, then, after you, um, after you get out, well, I guess maybe she remembered. Or something triggered her to come back. I dunno."
Sam nodded. He hadn't meant to stir up those feelings in Dean. He hadn't meant to remind him of the time he must have forgotten his own brother, so tortured and agonized that not even his own name would be a memory.
"She did not remember"
Dean looked at Sam, then turned around to see Joanie sitting up, her eyes white.
"She did not remember them, Sam Winchester. You are right'
"Herman? Is that you, dude?" Dean asked.
Joanie smiled, but the smile was not her own. "My name is Hermanatie, boy, and you shall address me as such"
Dean raised a brow. "Yeah, sure, whatever, dude. Now get up to the table here and tell us what you mean"
Joanie shrugged. "Of course. As you and I are after the same resolution, our working together shall be mutually beneficial"
Dean pulled out a chair. "Fine. You want coffee?"
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The dark haired woman looked out over the windswept plans. She felt her heart grow heavy, her loss and sorrow overwhelming.
There were no words to describe how she was feeling, no way to undo what had been done. She was sure her actions would bring about the down fall of many a soul, and there was nothing she could so to stop it.
Not now. It was too late.
Way too late.
She had tried, god knows she tried.
But it hadn't worked.
"You think that, but you're wrong, honey" the voice behind her sent her spinning around, fear and shock making her eyes bright and her skin pale.
"You played a good hand, there, you know" the girl speaking to her was about half her age, curly brown hair framed her luminous green eyes and full, pouting lips in a heart shaped face.
"Who are you?" the dark haired woman gasped.
"Oh, Wendy, you know who I am" the young girl replied, and for a moment her eyes flashed red. "You called me"
Wendy shook her head. "No, I didn't. Not this time. Not for ten years"
The girl laughed. "Foolish, foolish thing. You sold your soul to me, and I told you, back then, all those years ago, the deal was binding. You couldn't get out. Nothing you could do would break it. See, I knew you were a clever thing and made sure that was in the terms and conditions. You did read the terms and conditions, didn't you?"
Wendy took a step backwards but didn't answer.
"You see, my dear Wendy, I had a feeling you'd try to pull something like this. Hell, I was counting on it! You know us, my dear, chaos and fear is our playground! And you, well, you have unleashed chaos onto this world in a big, big way…"
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A/N...I need reviews. That's it. Nothing else. Except for cash...