Chapter Eleven
Ella
We walk into a comic book store and dressed as FBI agents as normal and we see the cashier at the register.
"Uh, can I help you?"
"Sure hope so, agents DeYoung, Best, and Shaw. Just need to ask you a few questions."
"Notice anything strange in the building the last couple of days?" Sam asks.
"Like what?"
"Some other tennats reported flickering lights," I tell him.
"Uh, I don't think so. Why?"
"What about noises? Any skittering in the walls kind of like rats?" I wasn't sure if my facts were right but no one said anything.
"And the FBI is investigating a rodent problem?"
"What about cold spots?" I ask again. "Feel and sudden drops in temperature?"
"I knew it! You guys are LARPing aren't you?"
"Excuse me?" Dean says.
"You're fans."
"Fans of what?" Sam asks.
"What is LARPing?" Dean is frustrated.
"Like you don't know." We look at him like, well we don't so please explain. Well I do. "Live-action-role-play. And pretty hard-core too."
"Sorry, we have no idea what you're talking about," I tell him.
"You're asking questions like the building haunted. Like those guys from the books. Though they didn't have a girl with them. What are they called? Supernatural. Two guys use fake I.D.'s with rock aliases to hunt down ghosts, demons, vampires. What are their names? Steve and Dirk? Sal and Dane?"
"Sam and Dean?" I ask, hesitantly.
"That's it!"
"You're saying this is a book?" Dean says.
"Books," the clerk clarifies, "it was a series. Didn't sell a lot of copies though. Kind of a more under ground cult-following." He gets up and we follow him. He looks in the bargain bin and hands me the book. "Ah there. That's the first one I think."
"Supernatural by Carver Edlund." I turn it over. "Along a lonely California high way a mysterious woman in white lures men to their deaths." Sam and Dean are shocked. Sam grabs it out of my hands and I let him take it.
"We're gonna need all the copies of supernatural you got." Sam tells him.
"This is freakin' insane," Dean says after reading about half of one of the books. "How does this guy know all this stuff?" Sam is doing research to figure out who Carver Edlund is.
"Are all of these, your guys' hunts?" I say, reading the one called Heart, and I'm at the part where Sam is kissing Madison in bed. "Did Madison and the sex really happen? It's pretty detailed in here." Dean takes the book out of my hands.
"I don't want you to read my brother having sex." I roll my eyes and pick up another to skim through it. I look at the cover and it's called Route 666. "Everything is in here. Everything. From the racist truck to me having sex."
"Sam too."
Dean ignores what I just said. "I'm full frontal in here dude."
"You really are Dean." He takes the book out of my hands again.
"Don't let her have anymore books unless you're certain there is no sex in it," Dean tells Sam. "How come we haven't heard of them before?" Dean gets up and sits next to Sam at the table.
"They're pretty obscure. Almost zero circulation. Started in '05. Publisher put out a couple dozen before going bankrupt. And the last one, No Rest For The Wicked, ends with you going to hell." Sam turns the laptop to Dean to show him.
"I reiterate, freakin' insane. Check it out, there's actually fans. Not many of them, but still. Did you read this?"
"Yeah."
"Although for fans, they sure do complain a lot. Listen to this Sympatico says 'The demon story line is trite, clichéd and overall craptastic.' Yeah well screw you Sympatico, we lived it."
Sam chuckles. "Yeah well keep on reading. It get's better."
"There are Samgirls and Deangirls and what's a slash fan." I start laughing.
"As in, Sam/Dean. Together."
"Like together together?"
"Yeah." I laugh at how disgusted they are. It's like that with every book and TV show and movie.
"They do know we're brothers right?"
"Doesn't seem to matter."
"Oh come on, that's just sick." Dean closes the laptop.
"Don't worry Dean. No one wants you to get with your brother. It's fiction." I go to them. "How about this, there's a convience store just down the road it's a quick walk, and I go get you some pie? That sound good?"
Dean looks up and smiles. "Yes."
"Sam, you want anything while I'm out?"
"No, I'm all right." I nod and slip on my boots. Dean tosses something at me and I catch it. It's the keys.
"It's quicker." I roll my eyes and go while they continue to talk.
Dean eats his pie when I get back and he loves it. I just picked out the one that looked the best and it happened to be apple. Though I do take a bite sometime in the middle of him eating his pie. I just wanted some and he looks and me and I smile at him, then kiss his cheek. Sam and Dean decide that the next day we should go to the publisher and find out Carver Edlund's real name. So we leave the next morning.
"So you published the supernatural books?" I ask.
"Yep. Yeah, gosh. These books. You know they never really got the attention they deserved. All anybody wants to read anymore is that romance crap. You know, Dr. Sexy M.D. Please." I smile because I know Dean has a soft spot for Dr. Sexy.
"Well we're hoping that our article can shine a light on an underappreciated series," Sam tells her.
"Yeah, yeah because you know if we got a little bit of good press, then maybe we could start publishing again."
"No, no, no, no. I mean, would you want to do that? It's uh, such a complete series with Dean going to hell and all."
"Oh my God, that was one of my favorite ones. Because Dean, was so strong and sad and brave. And Sam, I mean the best parts are when they cry." I try so hard not to laugh and I hide behind Sam so she doesn't see me. "Like in Heart when Sam had to kill Madison, the frist woman since Jessica he really loved. And in Home when Dean had to call John and ask him for help." I'm shocked that Sam killed her. I was going to get to there after the sex but, no. Dean had to take the book away from me. I'll read it tonight. The publishing lady is almost in tears. "If only real men were so open and in touch with their feelings."
"Real men?" Dean asks, offended.
"No offense. How often do you cry like that?" All the time lady. Every hunt there's always the part at the end when we are driving away and they have a heart to heart.
"Well right now I'm crying on the inside."
"Is that supposed to be funny?" Now she's offended.
"Lady, this whole thing is funny." He chuckles under his breath.
"How do I know you guys are legit?"
"Oh trust me, we're legit."
"Well I don't want any smart ass article makin' fun of my boys." Your boys? Mine, lady, back off.
"No, no, no, no. Never," I tell her.
"We are actually big fans."
"You've read the books."
"Cover to cover," I tell her, kicking Dean in the shins for not letting me read them.
"Year and model of the car?"
"1967 Chevy Impala," I answer before Dean. I've wanted his car since before I was in middle school.
"What's May 2nd?"
"That's my uh... That's Sam's birthday."
"January 24th is Dean's." I kick him again because he never told me any of this. How rude of him. Both of them.
"Sam's score on the LSAT?"
"1...74?" Sam says acting unsure. He knows what he got, it's a high score.
"Dean's favorite song?"
"It's a tie. Between Zep's 'Ramble On' and 'Travelin' Riverside Blues'." I tell her. I actually knew this one. She smiles.
"Okay, what do you wanna know?"
"What's Carver Edlund's real name?" Sam asks.
"Oh, no. I'm, no. Sorry. I can't."
'We just want to talk to him. You know get the 'Supernatural' story in his own words."
"He's very private. Just like Salinger."
"Please. We're big, big fans." He unbuttoned his shirt and shows her his antipossession tattoo. Dean pulls down his shirt a little and shows her. She looks to me.
"Don't make me pull my pants down." I got one after Dean and I got together the first time in the Impala because he told me it protects against possession and I just wanted to be safe. It's on the back of my thigh. She looks at me. I unbutton my pants and I pull them down over my ass and I turn for her to see it. Sam politely looks away while Dean is staring. She smiles when I stand back up.
"I got one too." She pulls her pants down and her's is on her ass. I cover Dean's eyes until she puts her pants on. Sam can gladly look, not Dean. "Okay, his name's Chuck Sherley and he's a genius so don't piss him off."
We leave and head to his address which is just over ten miles away from the publishing house. We walk up and Dean presses on the door bell.
"Chuck Sherley?" I ask. "The one who wrote the supernatural books?"
"Maybe, why?"
"I'm Dean, this is Sam and Ella. The Dean and Sam you've been writing about." He's shocked but shuts the door. Dean presses on the doorbell again. And he opens the door, again.
"Look uh, I appreciate your enthusiasm, really I do. But it's nice to hear from the fans, but for your own good I strongly suggest you get a life." He starts to shut it and Dean puts his hand out.
"See here's the thing. We have a life, you've been using it to write your books." They barge in and I am behind them walking in and slowly closing the door.
"Now wait a minute, this isn't funny."
"Damn straight it isn't funny."
"Look," I start, "we just wanna know how you're doing it."
"I'm not doing anything."
"You a hunter?" Dean asks.
"No, I'm a writer."
"Then how do you know so much about Demons, and tuplas and changelings?"
"Is this some kind of misery thing? Ah it is isn't it? It's a misery thing!" Dean exchanges a look with me and I shrug.
"It's not a misery thing, believe me we are not fans."
"Well then what do you want?"
"I'm Sam, and that's Dean. She's Ella." Chuck is again shocked.
"Sam and Dean are fictional characters. I made them up. They're not real!" I walk outside and they all follow after asking. Dean opens the trunk and shows them what's in it. "Are those real guns?"
"Yep, and this is real rock salt, these are real fake I.D.'s," Dean tells him.
Chuck giggles a little. "I gotta hand it to you guys, you really are my number one fans. That's awesome, so I think I got some posters in the house."
"Chuck, stop," I order.
"Please, wait, please don't hurt me."
"How much do you know?" I ask. "Do you know about the angels? Or Lilith breaking the seals?"
"Wait a minute, how do you know about that?"
"Question is, how do you?" I ask.
"Cause I wrote it."
"You kept writing."
"Yeah, even after the publisher went bankrupt. But those books never came out. Okay, wait a minute. This is some kind of joke, right? Did that.. Did Phil put you up to this?"
"Well, nice to meet ya, I'm Dean Winchester and this is my brother Sam and my girlfriend Ella Jackson," Dean introduced, linking our fingers together.
"The last names were never in the books. I never told anybody about that, I never even wrote that down. Ella is a new character introduced in these new books. She's Dean's girlfriend." He goes inside and we follow. Chuck takes a shot of alcohol, don't know what kind, and turns to us. "Oh! Oh you're still there." Dean agrees. "You're not a hallucination."
"A good synonym for hallucination is phantasmagoria. With a 'ph' at the beginning."
"Well there's only one explanation. Obviously, I'm a God."
"You're not a God," I retort.
"How else do you explain it? I write things and then they come to life. Yeah, no, I'm definitely a god. A cruel, cruel, capricious god. The things I put you through, the physical beatings alone."
"Yeah, we're still in one piece."
"I killed your father. Both of yours. Burned your mother alive. Your's was kidnapped and God awful things happened." I turn quiet and I start wandering the house, not listening to the rest of it.
"I'm going out to the car," I tell Dean." I walk outside before he can say anything. I sit in the back of the car and I fight tears. I don't cry, why am I almost in tears now?
The boys come out a bit later and we leave to go to the laundromat to do laundry. I separate my clothes and I stick them in two washers while Sam and Dean are talking. I'm still quiet and Sam gives me a worried look, It's uncommon for me to be so quiet, usually I'm throwing in a smart ass comment or two. I sit on the table next to the bag Sam is grabbing clothes out of.
We finish out laundry in a couple of hours and we leave to head back to the room. We get out and Dean holds me back a till Sam goes inside.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Dean asks. I know I shouldn't snap at him but I do.
"Nothing."
"Ella,"
"Just drop it Dean, okay?" I stalk away from him and go into the room. I walk into the bathroom and slam the door right as he walks in. I don't lock the door but I want to. I turn the shower on and I undress and step under the spray. I wash my hair and I sit down, opposite of the spray so my hair doesn't dry out. Not like, not wet dry but not soft dry. The tears come and I can't help but cry. I don't want to, but I know I won't feel better till I do. I'm a silent crier, thank goodness and I can turn off the water after a while. I sit on the floor in my towel crying against the tub for at least a few minutes. I can't stand crying and I don't want the boys to see me cry again.
Why did Chuck say anything in front of them? I didn't want them to know and I sure as hell didn't want to remind myself of what happened that night. I'm not particularly fond of my mother but I still care because I'm a caring person, I've always been told and I've come to believe it. I'm upset that Chuck brought it up after eight years of not thinking about it.
I come out of the bathroom in my towel and I dig around in my bag for a shirt and some underwear and shorts. I go back in the bathroom and lock myself in. I get dressed and as I'm rinsing my face so it doesn't look like I've been crying, there's a knock on the bathroom door.
"Ella?" It's Sam.
"What?" I say through the door. Did Dean think it would be a good idea to see if I would open up to Sam instead?
"Dean left to go get some food. I just wanted to talk to you." I don't say anything. "No, Dean didn't put me up to this. It's all my own." I sigh and open the door. His puppy dog eyes are turned up all the way and it's almost impossible to deny him of anything.
"I'm not talking about it."
"That's fine, I just wanted to know if you were okay."
"Not really." He nods.
"I'm here." I don't do anything to tell him I heard but I do wrap my arms around his waist. I just need a brotherly hug right now and he's the closest thing I've got to a brother at the moment. My actual brother is still in Kansas.
"Sam, I just really need a hug from the closest 'relative' I have so, please hug me back." He does.
"You know, Dean's worried about you."
"I want to say he shouldn't worry but maybe he should. It's not like I'm going to do anything drastic, maybe just not be as talkative for a few weeks. Maybe a month. It's not good when old memories get brought up."
"Okay, as long as you tell one of us before we die, we're good."
I chuckle. "Deal." I pull away as I see headlights and the rumble of the Impala pull up to the motel. I lay down on the bed, I'm sure Dean and I are using and I turn to Sam who is sitting on the other bed. "Did you really have to kill Madison? I get that she was a werewolf but it totally spaced that it was something that y'all usually kill."
He's quiet for a second before he answers. "Yeah. But that was two years ago."
"Dean took the book away before I could finish it."
"Here," he says digging in his bag. He finds it and hands it to me. "Read the rest. Skip the sex, please? That's not something either of us wants you to read."
"Will do Sammy." He smiles and I open the book as Dean walks in.
"Oh you gave her the book again," Dean complains.
"She's skipping the sex, don't worry." Dean rolls his eyes. I close the book, my finger marking the spot I'm on. I get up, the book in hand, and I walk over to get the burger than Dean got me. I kiss him fairly quickly when Sam turns to go back to the bed.
Dean wraps his arm around my waist, setting it on my hip of course. "You good now?" He whispers in my ear.
I shake my head. "Not really," I whisper back. "It's been one of those days."
"Are you?"
"No, not for another week or two." He nods and kisses my cheek, letting me go before this gets awkward for Sam. "Let's go eat."
The next day Chuck calls us and we head on over. He's pacing and we're waiting for him to finally start talking. He hands me the pages.
"You wrote another chapter?"
"This was all so much easier before you were real."
"We can take it," I tell him, "just spit it out."
"You especially are not gonna like this."
"I didn't like hell," Dean comments.
"It's Lilith. She's coming for Sam."
I'm stunned. "Coming to kill him?" Dean asks.
Sam starts in on the conversation. "When?"
"Tonight." I flip through the pages and find the part where she's with him. I'm not there.
"Where the hell am I in all of this?" I ask.
"Here, all day. Sam and Dean don't want you hurt and don't want Lilith to possibly use you as bait." I hand them back to Chuck.
"She's just gonna show up? Here?"
"Uh lets see." Chuck puts his glasses on. " 'Lilith patted the bed seductively. Unable to deny his desire, Sam succumbed, and they sank into the throes of fiery demonic passion.' " Sam laughs.
"You're kidding right?"
"You think this is funny?"
"You don't? I mean, come on. "Fiery demonic passion"?
"It's just a first draft," Chuck said defensively.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Lilith is a little girl," Dean comments. Wait, what?
"No, uh, this time she's a comely dental hygienist from Bloomington, Indiana."
"Great. Perfect. So what happens after the fiery demonic, whatever?" I ask.
"I don't know, it hasn't come to me yet," Chuck says, sitting on the couch with the manuscript in hand.
"Dean, look, there's nothing to worry about. Lilith and me? In bed?" Sam laughed.
Dean glares at Sam then turns to Chuck. "How does this whole psychic thing of yours work?"
"You mean my process?"
"Yes, your process," Dean retorted.
"Well, it usually starts with a headache. A really bad headache. Aspirin is useless, so... I drink. Until I fall asleep. The first time it happened, I thought it was just a crazy dream."
"The first time you dreamt about us?" Sam asks.
"It flowed. It just, it kept flowing. It still does. I-I can't stop it, really."
Sam laughs. "You can't seriously believe..."
"Humor me." Dean gets up and is about to ask for the pages when Chuck hands them to Dean. "Look, why don't we, we just take a look at these and see what's what. You.."
"Knew you were gonna ask for that. Yeah."
"All right, Sam and I are gonna head out," Dean tells me as he walks out of the bathroom.
"Okay. Be safe. Don't get hurt." He nods and bends to kiss me. He leaves and I fall onto the couch. "Chuck, if I'm going to spend all day and maybe tonight with you, I don't want to leave you with unanswered questions. Spit it out."
"Why are you with Sam and Dean? Did the angels tell you?"
"You mean you didn't see when Cas came to me explaining everything when I blamed him for my father's death?"
"I did actually."
"So why are you asking?"
"I didn't know if, uh, maybe you knew something I didn't."
"Well I probably don't. Why did you bring up my mother yesterday?" He shrugs. I stand and get into his face although I'm 5'3" and he's 5'6" at least. "Because it really pissed me off. I was hit with flashbacks to that night and I don't like that, Chuck. I don't want to be reminded of it, let alone remembering exact details every time it's brought up. So do me a favor, and just not bring it up. Ever again." I turn and I sit on the couch again, pissed off.
I fall asleep at some point in the night and when I wake in the morning, Chuck is nowhere to be found. I'm mad again and I go to the bathroom. When I come back out, Dean is in the living room.
"Ella, where's Chuck?"
"No clue." I go up to him and I kiss him.
"Brought some clothes." I smile and kiss him again.
"Thank you Dean." I go back to the bathroom and I change. When I come back out, Cas is out there with Dean and Chuck. I hand Dean my clothes.
"Hello Ella."
"Hey Cas."
"If you three will please excuse me one minute." Chuck walks upstairs where I just came from.
"Him? Really?"
"You should have seen Luke."
"What's going on?" I ask.
"Chuck is a prophet of the lord," Cas clarifies.
"Why'd he get tapped?" Dean asks.
I sit while Cas starts explaining what he knows. "I don't know how prophets are chosen. The order comes from high up on the celestial chain of command."
I look at Cas. "How high?"
"Very."
"Well, whatever. How do we get around this?" Dean asks, irritated and itching for an answer.
"Around what?"
"The Sam-Lilith love connection. How do we stop it from happening?"
"What the prophet has written, can't be unwritten. As he has seen it, so it shall come to pass," Cas tells him in the most proper way possible, then disappears. I sigh and so does Dean.
"Dean, come here." He does after a second. "We're going to figure this out. I know you don't want to face Lilith, frankly I don't either, but you can ask for help. Remember that." He nods. "All right big boy. Go fight. Or get ready to drag Sam's large body out of that motel room."
He laughs. "Be safe." It's my turn to nod. I kiss him and he leaves. I get up and I get a glass of water and as I'm doing that, Chuck comes back downstairs and he's on the couch, sleeping. Great. I'm bored, I've got nothing to do. I look back to his computer. I go sit down. I love being one of the smart ones at school because I was taught how to hack into computers to see all of the person's files and I still remember how to do it. I go and I start reading his latest books.
After a few hours of reading, Dean bursts into the house. Chuck is surprised.
"What are you doing here? I didn't write this."
"Come on, I need you to come with me. You can come too Ella." I get up and I go straight to the Impala.
We go to the motel and Dean forces me to stay inside the Impala, like it's going to keep me safe from Lilith. I hear rumbling and the lights flicker inside the motel room and then at least ten seconds later it stops. I see black smoke rising from the roof of the motel. I stay inside the Impala for a few seconds before I realize that I have an antipossession tattoo so I am safe from possession.
Getting out, I close the door to the Impala and I go to the motel room door which is slightly ajar. I push it open and I see Dean on the other side of the threshold. I don't go any further for fear of a fight breaking out. Dean sees me and waves his hand, telling me it's cool to come in. When I do, I see Sam on the bed and Chuck next to Dean. Sam looks a little shaken, not stirred. I go to him and brush his hair back from his forehead.
"You okay?" I ask. He nods. "What did she do?"
"Wanted to make a deal."
"Were you?"
"I was going to try and kill her."
"Well I'm glad you tried. Come on, let's take Chuck home then leave this God forsaken town." He nods. I leave and get in the back of the Impala with Chuck who oddly smells like vanilla and alcohol. Maybe the vanilla is me. I think it's me not him.
When we are on the road again, I'm quiet as I listen to Sam and Dean talk. "So a deal, huh?"
"That's what she said."
"To call off the whole thing. Angels, seals, Lucifer rising, the whole nine?"
"That's the gist of it," Sam tells him, shifting to lean against the window.
I look at Dean through the mirror. "Huh."
"What?"
"You didn't think once about taking it?"
Sam sits up, astounded. "You kidding me? Dude you spent all day trying to talk me off the Lilith track." Dean mumbles something and Sam speaks again, "She would have found some way to weasel out of it. And it all would have cost us our lives. Anyway, that's not the point."
"What is the point?"
"The point is, she's scared. I could see it. Lilith is running."
"Running from what?"
Sam shifts to lean against the window again, saying, "Don't know. But she was telling the truth about one thing."
"What's that?"
"She's not gonna survive the apocalypse. I'll make sure of that."