Part Ten
John kept the Colt fitted against his ribs as he broke speed limits in three states trying to put enough distance between his boys and his trail on the demon. The butterfly strips on his cheek stuck to the tiny whiskers of his beard as he guzzled cup after cup of drive-thru coffee on his way to California.
Fort Bragg was a sprawling coastal city filled with happy people and beach covered shores. It didn't look like the kind of place a demon would hide in.
Two hospitals later, John had found no reason for the damned thing to be haunting the coast of sunny California.
Until he found the church.
Nestled out on the top of a fucking cliff, the old church was rumored to be the oldest building for miles, owned by the old priest and his family- the Patersons- for generations.
The city's library was overstuffed and filled with Fort Bragg's history, right down to the very date the church was built, who built it and who had owned the land.
Colt.
Thunder clouds rolled in over the ocean as John rubbed his face tiredly and counted the days of signs- six. Azazel would show up that night and despite his plans otherwise, John was going to be there to meet the fucker, the Colt in hand.
The Redwood coast was an accident waiting to happen.
"Are you sure this is the place, Sam?" Dean asked for what seemed like the millionth time. They'd had to ditch the impala at the bottom of the hill- the road was nothing but rocks and washed out mud this time of the year.
"I'm positive. It looks exactly like the place in my vision."
Harry was still reeling over watching the youngest Winchester fall to the floor of their motel room, clutching his head like it was about to split in two. The scene had been eerily familiar; reminding the older hunter of a time when painful visions were par for the course.
Sam faltered on the path, sliding back into Dean's chest as he tried to lead them up the side of the cliff. Harry had to grab a hold of the oldest brother's backpack to stop them both from tumbling down over the rocky edge. He pulled them back sharply, frustrated and more than a bit worried.
"Do I have to take point?" He snapped, his hand still wrapped in the strap of Dean's bag. "Because I will."
"You don't even know where to go!" Sam exclaimed, his cheeks pale in the moonlight. To be honest, the youngest hunter didn't look anywhere near well enough to be hiking, let alone facing off against a demon.
"Top of the cliff, right?" Harry shot back. "I highly doubt I could mess that up, even if I tried."
Sam opened his mouth again but his brother cut him off with a gentle tug.
"Harry's right. We go up smart or not at all."
The brothers looked like those people on the news who'd gotten lost in the woods for days, stumbling out covered in cuts and scrapes and world-weary expressions. Some of the panic in Sam's eyes dimmed as Dean grounded him with his simple presence.
"Let's go."
They reached the top of the cliff in fifteen minutes, silently taking in the quiet of the trees and the lack of wildlife. It was as if nature itself has deserted this place in preparation for what was coming.
"Remember seeing this before?" Dean asked his brother, as Harry cocked his shotgun.
"Yeah, Blackwater Ridge. Windego hunt." Sam added for the only non-Winchester.
"Evil scares off all the animals." Harry answered back as they all looked around the lumpy, uneven land at the top of the cliff for any sign of John.
"You said he falls off the edge? About where?" Dean asked gruffly. Sam started towards the sudden drop, peering out over at the ocean below, like perhaps they were too late.
Dean joined him and Harry rolled his eyes at the pair of worrywarts they made when their father was involved. He pulled them away from the drop, gesturing with his head at the church.
"The earth hasn't been disturbed. There are no other footprints Nobody has fallen off of here. Now can we please get our heads back into this hunt and perhaps check out the church? You did see him standing beside it, no?"
Sam nodded. "Yeah, he was standing right in front of the door."
"He's probably inside, scoping the place out." Dean guessed, quickening his pace. Harry jumped over a bolder-sized rock, landing silently beside the older brother when the doors to the church flew open and John strode out angrily, the expression on his face stopping them all in their spots.
A greying older man dressed in what looked to be a priest's robe stood behind him, blinking out at them curiously as John bellowed "What in the hell are you boys doing here? I told you to stay away!"
He was furious.
"You're in danger!" Harry supplied, not used to feeling John Winchester's wrath. The man could intimidate the devil if the mood took him.
"Dad, I had a vision." Sam said once his father had gotten close enough to speak to. "I saw you fall off the cliff top."
John paused at the revelation, a brief flicker of uncertainly steeling over his face as he turned to his oldest. "This true, Dean?"
"Yes sir. Sam remembered being here a few years back and it didn't take much to find out where the church was."
John rubbed his beard, looking around…almost nervously. "I don't like being out in the open like this, let's get back inside."
He turned back towards the church.
"Father Paterson, these are my boys, Sam and Dean and this here is their friend, Harry."
Each hunter nodded at their name, shifting anxiously as the quiet continued. John gave the older man a wan smile. "If we could continue our discussion inside-"
Father Paterson chuckled, shaking his head in a way that set off alarms in Harry's head.
He shuffled closer to John, who had no weapon at the ready and aimed his shotgun at the priest.
Sam and Dean were seconds behind him.
"Why go anywhere, Johnny-boy?" The priest asked in a strikingly different speech pattern. "The party's right here."
Paterson's eyes flashed yellow as an invisible force slammed into the four hunters. Sam collided with the boulder Harry had jumped earlier, his gun slipping from his grasp with a pained groan.
John hit the side of the church, pinned and helpless as Harry and Dean flew in opposite directions, the latter hitting the ground with unnatural force.
The former wizard's shotgun bounced off the hard, rocky surface of the edge of the cliff and skidded back towards his outstretched hand. Harry grabbed it and staggered to his feet- strangely unsurprised to find the demon had not pinned him like it had the Winchesters. It didn't think he was a threat.
The sound of the shotgun going off echoed loudly in his ears, mixing with the quick tattoo of his heart. The possessed priest jerked as the salt round hit him in the chest, not the least bit deterred as Harry made to pull off another shot.
Yellow-clouded eyes looked up from the mess of the old man's chest before Azazel laughed mockingly.
"Now, that's kind of annoying." He smirked as Harry tried to reload- a fat load of help rock salt was going to be against the demon- and threw his hand out, telekinetically catching the other hunter in the chest. "Time to take out the trash."
Harry sailed backwards, bouncing harshly on the rocky ground. His hands grappled for purchase as he skidded over the muddy rocks.
Dean's voice was the last thing Harry heard as the cliff top abruptly stopped and the ground disappeared from underneath him.
It was almost surreal, each Winchester pinned down by Azazel, forced to watch as Harry disappeared over the edge of the cliff in John's place. Dean thrashed from his spot on the ground, kicking his legs out angrily as the demon laughed at him. The muscles in Sam's neck strained as he tried to peer over the rock at his back, hoping against hope that Harry had somehow not fallen to his death.
The cliff top stayed horribly empty.
"Son of bitch!" John roared, trying in vain to inch his hand to where the Colt was hidden in the small of his back.
Azazel turned to him sharply, a cruel smile pulled across the priest's face. "Aw, come on now, Johnny. You had to know someone was going over that edge." It laughed again.
"Just be thankful it wasn't you."
It crept closer now, a dark edge creeping into its tone. "No, I still have plans for you. Give me the Colt."