Chapter Nine

Dean stood next to Sam in front of the house where all the tragedies had begun. "So this is where the demon first showed itself to you?" he asked Jaenelle who stood a few feet in front of them.

With her back to him, she nodded. "I think we somehow drew its attention to me when Sondra, Marsha and I played with the Ouija board."

"Another well-learned lesson never to mess with those things," Dean told her as he stepped closer to her.

She turned her head to look at him and managed to give him a small smile. "Lesson learned, indeed." She looked back at the small house that had once belonged to Marsha. She took a deep breath and reached out to grasp Dean's hand in hers.

It had only been a few hours since Dean had woken up in Jaenelle's bed with her lying peacefully asleep next to him. Reality had come flooding back to him as he had stared at the demon-mark on her wrist. She was in trouble and he had to save her. He had almost lost her two years before, but he wasn't going to let that happen this time.

"You ready for this?" Sam asked from where he stood on the other side of Jaenelle.

She nodded again. "As ready as I'll ever be." She grasped Dean's hand in hers and gave it a squeeze before letting go and started walking towards the house.

Sam moved to walk beside Dean and whispered, "You sure this is such a good idea, Dean? She should be in a protective circle where she'll be safe."

The corners of his mouth twisting up into a wry smile, Dean glanced at his brother. "I tried to talk her into staying home, but she wouldn't have it." He stopped walking and looked Sam in the eye. "Trust me, I want to see her safe more than anyone else, but she's stubborn. She'll never lay low just because we tell her to. She already survived a demon attack and she's determined not to let it happen again. All we can do now is stay with her and keep her from sacrificing herself to this thing."

Dean could see the sympathy in Sam's eyes, but wisely his brother didn't say anything. Instead he only nodded and resumed walking into the house.

Jaenelle stood at the door, looking down at the doorknob. Dean stopped next to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Jaenie? What's wrong?" He glanced at the doorknob but didn't see anything.

She snapped her head up and stared at the door. "I can't remember how I got away," she mumbled.

Dean looked at Sam and upon seeing his brother's confused look, shrugged. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I remember the demon burning the scar on me, I remember it killing Marsha, but I can't remember how I got away." She turned her head to look at him. "I shouldn't have survived. Why didn't it kill me?"

Dean tried to catch Sam's eye, but Sam looked away from him, hiding his expression. Dean had seen his brother do it more and more often these days, as if Sam didn't want to show Dean what he was thinking or feeling. It wasn't unlike him, but the level of brooding was definitely reaching an all new high.

Choosing to ignore it for now, he reached out his hand and turned the doorknob, pulling open the door. When it swung open outward, he saw that yellow police tape was hung diagonally across the doorframe. He stepped in front of Jaenelle and bent down to pass underneath the tape. Pushing away all nagging thoughts about Jaenelle's safety and Sam's odd behavior, he focused on his surroundings. To the left was a doorway into the kitchen which had been untouched by the fire. A little further on there was another doorway to the right that led into the living room. He stepped through it and nearly gagged. The smell of burnt flesh was still overly present and smoke had permeated the walls. He held his hand in front of his nose and mouth and tried not to breathe too deeply.

Near the window facing the back of the house, a large patch of carpet had been blackened and he could see the wood of the floor below peeking through. "Jesus," he muttered, covering his mouth with the sleeve of his jacket.

Sam and Jaenelle stepped into the room behind him. He wanted to go over to Jaenelle and hold her, comfort her, but he really needed to look over the room, see if he could spot something that would help them. Battling his urges, he stepped more into the room, looking from left to right.

"My God," Sam spoke up from the doorway.

Jaenelle pointed to the spot of blackened carpet. "That's where it killed her. She was standing there, shocked, when it…" Her voice trailed off and she looked away.

Sam laid a hand on her shoulder and gave it a light, hopefully reassuring squeeze. "We'll find whatever did this to her. I promise, Jaenelle."

She looked back at him and managed to give him a small smile. "I have faith in your abilities," she said softly. She turned her head to look at Dean who was searching the room and then shook it. "I need to get out of here."

Sam nodded. "Sure. I'll go with you."

Jaenelle shook her head. "No, you help Dean. I'm fine."

Dean stopped his search while Sam raised an eyebrow at her. Before Dean could get a word in, Sam said, "No. If you want to go somewhere, one of us will go with you. It's safer that way."

She looked between the two of them and smirked at them. "And what are you going to do when the demon shows up? Shoot it with rock salt?" She snorted. "That's not going to help."

Sam shot an exasperated look at Dean. His brother just shrugged at him and resumed his search. "I don't know what I'll do," he answered Jaenelle, "but I do know that there is no way we're going to let you be alone right now."

Jaenelle sighed and threw her hands up in the air. "Fine. Whatever. Can we go now?"

"Dean, I'll take her outside," Sam called over to his brother.

"Yeah, I'll be right out," Dean answered.

Sam followed Jaenelle out of the house and back to the car, where she sat down on the hood. The wind blew her hair into her face and she roughly pushed it away. Grumbling under her breath, she pulled her hair back in a ponytail, held it in place and then pulled up the hood of her sweater.

"It's just so frustrating," she suddenly said out loud, startling Sam. He opened his mouth to say something, but she kept on going. "I mean, this thing is after me and why? We don't even know what it wants with me. If it wanted to kill me it could've done that easily two nights ago. Instead, it burned its mark on me and is trying to lure me out by burning down my hometown." She looked up at Sam and he could see the anger and pain in her eyes. "Can you explain it to me, Sam? I really wish someone would tell me why this thing is after me."

Sam sat down next to her, his hands in his jean pockets. "I wish I knew so I could tell you, but I don't. There wasn't a lot of information on this demon on the Internet." Her hand collided with his arm so fast that he barely felt the sting it until he realized what she'd done. "What did you do that for?"

"Maybe we shouldn't look on the Internet. Some things can't have been put up on the 'net yet. Maybe this thing is written down somewhere in a book," Jaenelle said excitedly.

Sam chuckled. "Yeah. Maybe. We'll check it out at the library later."

They continued to sit together in silence, Jaenelle studying her fingernails and Sam scanning the area around him. When Dean stepped from the house a few minutes later, Sam stood up from sitting on the hood of the Impala and walked towards his brother.

"Did you find anything?" he asked as soon as he was in earshot of his brother.

Dean shook his head. "Nothing that can help us." He looked back over his shoulder at the house. "I don't like that we can't find out what this thing is, Sam. The EMF-meter barely even registered anything. Something's weird about this one."

Sam nodded. "I know. It's like it's eluding us consciously."

Dean snorted. "Demons like fights. The chaos it brings to the people is what they live off of. This one is doing nothing but scaring Jaenelle."

Sam frowned and kept looking at the house. "So there's no connection here that we can do anything with."

Dean shook his head again and walked away from Sam, heading towards Jaenelle still sitting on the hood of his car. Sam stayed put for a few seconds then followed his brother.

"Anything?" Jaenelle asked when Dean stopped in front of her.

"Nothing," he replied as he leaned against the car.

"What's going on here?" Sam asked. Jaenelle looked up at him with a question clearly in her eyes. "We have a demon burning down houses, but for what purpose is it doing that? Is it trying to scare you or make you come to it?"

Jaenelle shook her head. "If I could get into the head of this thing, which I can't and don't want because ew, I'd tell you all you needed to know. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Dean asked.

"For getting you guys out here before I knew anything. I should've waited until I knew what this thing was," she said as she slid off the hood of the car.

Sam and Dean shared an incredulous look, then Dean turned to Jaenelle. "You did the right thing, Jaenie. If you'd waited any longer you could've died. We're here now, though, and we're going to figure this bitch out."

Jaenelle stood facing Dean, her hands in the pockets of her jeans. The hoodie of her sweater covered her hair and her eyes were red, but she'd never looked as beautiful in his eyes as she did right then. And when she smiled at him – in that smile he could read that she was truly glad he was there – he wished he'd found his father already, killed the demon that killed his mother and could stop hunting.

It was such an unusual thought for him that it shocked him. He masked his feelings a second before Jaenelle could read it on his face and smirked at her. "Let's go," he said and turned to walk to the driver's side door. He stopped halfway in the turn because he smelled something he shouldn't be.

He coughed and gagged and heard Sam and Jaenelle do the same thing. "Shit," he said around a few coughs. "What the hell?"

When he stopped coughing and started breathing through his nose, the smell only got worse. He resorted to breathing through his mouth.

"Dean," Sam said from behind him but there was an underlying message in his brother's voice that made Dean turn to face him. When he fully saw Sam and Jaenelle, both were looking past him. Jaenelle's eyes were round, her pupils dilated in fear. He spun on his heels to see what he would find and, shocked, took a few steps back.

The thing in front of him looked to come right out of a nightmare. He'd heard Jaenelle's description of it, but he'd imagined it to be an ordinary demon. This was no ordinary demon. It stared at him with its red eyes and there was intelligence there. This thing worked on its own. No one would be able to summon it and stop it from killing them, which led him to the conclusion that this demon hadn't been summoned at all.

He moved back, step by cautious step until he could feel Jaenelle's labored breath on his neck. If this thing attacked in any way, it was crucial that it didn't get to Jaenelle. Dean knew this and took on a protective stance in front of her. Sam stood next to Jaenelle, as helpless as Dean, not knowing how they could kill it. But they would protect her, no matter what.

When it opened its mouth to speak, it seemed as though the earth let out a shiver of fear. Leaves that were on the ground started to slowly drift away on an unfelt breeze; branches above them moved to that same invisible wind. The most unnerving thing of all was that a heat seemed to emanate from its opened mouth.

"So much power," it rumbled, lifting its head high and sniffing the air with a nose that was half rotted away. "I shall have you. Sooner or later, you shall be mine and I shall be whole again."

Its red eyes roamed over all three. "No longer you," it murmured and raised a hand. Dean tensed, ready to do anything to protect her. When it only flicked its wrist, he was surprised. He became even more surprised when within a second the demon seemed to disappear with a pop.

Jaenelle moaned behind him. "I think it's gone," he said cautiously, looking from left to right to see if the demon was still around.

Jaenelle moaned again and this time he caught the pained quiver in it. He turned to look at her and found her holding the wrist that had been branded by the demon. Worried, he caught her hand in his and made her release her wrist. She struggled, holding her hand tight around it.

"Jaenie, let me look," he pleaded gently while tracing small circles on the back of her hand. "I need to see what it did to you."

Jaenelle furiously shook her head. "No. I don't want to know. It's exactly like how it branded me in the first place. A small movement and I had a burn." She held her hand against her chest and started rocking back and forth on her heels. "It's done something worse now, I just know it."

Dean laid a hand on her forearm and made slow movements towards her hand as he spoke. "Jaenie, don't you think we need to know what it did? If we ever want to know how to get rid of this thing, we need to see what it did to you." He pleaded with his eyes to let him in. She frowned, but let go of her wrist. Turning her head, she held out her arm for Dean to inspect. What he saw surprised him more than finding the demon mark the first time. "What the hell?" he muttered, gently turning her wrist to see if maybe it was somewhere else. But no matter how he turned it, he couldn't see the burn.

"What? What is it, Dean?" Jaenelle asked, her voice quivering with fear and pain.

Dean looked up at her and frowned. "Whatever it did, I don't understand why," he said as he let go of her wrist.

Jaenelle turned her wrist around and around as Dean watched, trying to do the same thing he had just done. When she realized the same thing, she focused confused eyes on him. "It's gone," she mumbled, frowning. "The mark's gone."

Dean nodded. He looked at Sam who seemed as puzzled about all of it as him.

"Dean," Sam said, "We need to kill this thing. Fast. I don't like the looks of it."

Jaenelle locked eyes with Dean, holding their gaze together. She seemed to want to tell him something with just her eyes, but he didn't get the message. He tilted his head, confused as to what she was trying to convey to him. She rolled her eyes at him.

Utterly confused by the demon and Jaenelle, Dean shook his head. "I know, Sam," he finally answered his brother. "We will." He turned his body towards the car and walked to the driver's side door. He opened it and slid in behind the wheel while Jaenelle got in the back. Sam kept a slow pace, looking down at the ground and his hands in his pockets.

A hand touched Dean's shoulder. He turned his head to look at Jaenelle. She was frowning. "It removed its mark from me, Dean. Why?"

Dean shrugged. "I don't know," he said as Sam opened the passenger side door. "But we'll figure it out, I promise."

Jaenelle shook her head. "You don't get it, do you? What it said. It marked me a few days ago because it wanted me for something. Now it's removed it." Again she tried to convey something through her eyes.

It finally clicked with him. He looked at his brother who was listening as well. "What were its words again?"

"No longer you," Jaenelle answered. "Which I think means its not coming after me any more."

Dean closed his eyes and softly banged his head against the headrest. "Damn."

Sam was the one who finally voiced everyone's thoughts. "It's going after someone else."