Chapter 12: Hell Hath No Fury
Anna and Sam had taken Mary down off the wall and laid her down in the hallway. Tom was sitting with Samantha on the sofa, her head was in her hands as she sobbed. Dean had thrown open the windows on the ground floor to try and remove the smell of excrement and death.
Samantha took a big breath in to calm herself, and then looked up at Tom with a grateful smile.
'I'm sorry; I need to pull myself together.' She mumbled.
'Take your time,' Tom gently rubbed Samantha's back in reassurance.
'No,' She stood up and paused for a moment to steady herself, 'we need to check if they got what they came for.' Rubbing tears from her eyes she walked into the hallway. Not looking at the corpse that lay on the floor, she walked down the hall to a simple white, wooden door underneath the stairs.
'Mary kept the box hidden in her cellar.' Her eyes found Mary's body on the floor. She looked oddly peaceful now, her face looked like it should be smiling, her curly dark grey hair limp against her head.
Mary took another deep breath in and opened the door to the cellar. The stairs were old, rickety wooden things that made loud creaking noises as Samantha went down them, followed by Tom, Sam and Anna. At the bottom of the stairs was a Devil's Trap. The circle was perfectly formed, and the sigils within done with skill and the artistry of a calligrapher.
'This is good work.' Sam commented as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
'Mary is an expert at runes and sigils,' Samamtha sighed, 'sorry: was, an expert on runes and sigils.' She was at the other end of the cellar, picking an empty wooden box off the floor. 'And she was a sly one too.'
Sam crouched down by the sigil, staring carefully at its lines, 'This Trap hasn't been broken.' He flicked his gaze up to Tom, 'A demon couldn't have gotten through this.'
'It would have been a mistake for a demon to come down here.' Tom muttered. He had wandered over to one of the plastered walls, running his hands over the surface. 'The walls are absolutely covered in sigils.' Tom turned to Samantha and Anna.
'That Devil's Trap is nothing compared to the work on the walls. A demon wouldn't even be able to get in here, let alone leave. Or survive.' He said. 'It would take me days, weeks to study all of these, but see this here?' Tom pointed to a set of small lines on the wall, finely carved into the plaster.
'This is a passage from the Bible against spirits.' Tom paused, and then looked at Samantha with awe. 'It's not just demons; this room could ward off virtually anything not human.'
'So our friend's got help.' Anna mumbled. She turned to Samantha who was holding the empty box open, chuckling to herself.
'Samantha, are you okay?' Sam asked.
Samantha turned the box around to show Anna the note that was stuck inside the lid. 'It's Mary's hand writing.' Samantha explained.
'What's it say?' Tom asked.
Anna smiled at the note, 'It says, "better luck next time, bitches. Love, Mary".'
'I didn't think she would have hidden it here. Too obvious.' Samantha mumbled. Drumming her fingers on her lips, she started to make her way back up the creaking stairs.
'What's this?' Sam asked, pointing at a tracing on the wall. The lines of the symbol were glowing faintly. Every few seconds one would seem to reflect light that wasn't there.
'Tom?' Anna asked.
'I think it's Germanic,' He whispered, almost just to himself, 'other than that I can't be sure.'
'Why's it glowing?' Samantha asked from the staircase.
'It looks like it can't make up its mind.' Sam said, 'like it's only partially active.'
'I think I've got some stuff on Germanic symbols on my laptop,' Tom said, 'I can check it out later.'
'Samantha?' Anna called. Samantha had finished making her way up the stairs and was out through the landing door.
Tom, Sam and Anna found Samantha in the kitchen with Dean. Samantha had a cupboard above the worktop open, pulling out jars of herbs and spices. With a triumphant exclamation, she pulled a dark jar from the shelf.
Dean peered at the label in her hand, 'Cloves?'
Samantha twisted the top of the jar and pulled out a clear plastic zip bag, filled with grey ash and powder.
'Oh you sly witch, Mary,' Samantha smiled. 'She always used to say, the best place for hiding something is somewhere they won't bother looking.'
'This is good right?' Anna asked, 'We've still got the pixie dust.'
Samantha did her best to smile. 'Yes, this is a good thing. Here, take this.' She put the bag back inside the dark jar and handed it to Dean.
'I'll call the others and get them to meet at the store. The sooner we make a decision, the sooner you can get that stuff away from here.' Samantha sighed.
'Do you want us to come with you?' Anna asked. Samantha shook her head with a sad smile.
'No, you stay here. If they come looking for the box again, they're not going to look somewhere they've already been.' Samantha replied. 'It might take a couple of hours to get everyone together, but I'll try to be as quick as I can.'
Samantha walked out of the kitchen, stopping in its doorway, she called over her shoulder: 'Thank you.' She looked like she was about to say more, but started walking again.
The four people stood in the kitchen in an awkward silence.
'So uh, you guys play poker?' Dean asked.
The four moved into the living room to start playing. It wasn't long before Tom quit the game, pleading it was common sense against superior players. He left the room, closing the door behind him. With more than a little difficulty, he carried Mary's dead weight up the flight of stairs and laid her out on her bed. He noted that the wounds on her hands hadn't bled, and so thanked whatever powers there were that she had been dead before she had been pinned to the wall.
Back downstairs, Tom listened intently to the game being played in the other room whilst he boiled the kettle for tea. It sounded like Anna had lost her third game in a row to the two boys. Tom made himself a cup of tea, keeping his hands busy. He couldn't help but feel a sense of melancholia for the dead witch upstairs, and poker just didn't seem appropriate. Lost in his thoughts as he was, the sudden loud noise from a cookery book falling from its shelf made him jump and spill hot tea down his front.
'Tom?' Anna's voice called.
'All good.' He shouted back. He walked to the other side of the kitchen and picked up the book to put it back. Tom didn't recognise the women pictured on the front of the book, probably some celebrity chef, he decided. Picking it up by the cover, he paused when he saw its contents.
A book of recipes certainly, but these were magical by nature. Each page was filled with detailed notes of Mary's studies. There were pages and pages on symbols and sigils, how effective they were and how best to use them. Notes too, on rituals from many different cultures that she had had use for, coupled with their results.
Tom heard the chatter from the next room.
'Call it.' Anna said.
'Full house, kings over eights. No hard feelings?' Dean said. Tom heard the scrape of money being dragged across the table.
'Ah damn it.' Anna whined, 'I've just got two pair.'
'Don't worry about it, Dean's been playing poker since he was seven,' Sam said in a reassuring manner, 'what pairs did you have?'
'Well, I got two aces,' Tom heard cards being flapped against the table.
'Well, that's not bad.' He heard Sam say, almost patronisingly.
'And I've also got another two aces.' He heard the cards against the table. Tom could feel Anna's wolfish grin from the kitchen. 'Oh, I guess that's four of a kind. No hard feelings?'
Tom heard Sam laugh, 'Dude, you got played!'
'This is a game, isn't it?' Anna replied. Tom heard the coins being dragged to the other side of the table.
'Oh, I like you.' Dean rumbled. 'Deal, let's see what you got.'
The door to the kitchen opened as Sam walked in.
'I think I'm in over my head.' He said to Tom. 'What's that?'
'This,' Tom paused, showing Sam the cover of the book, then its contents, 'is one of Mary's cookery books.'
'This could be useful.' Sam muttered, flicking through a couple of pages. 'Do you think Samantha would let us take it?'
'I don't think so. They sound like a tight community, I can't imagine them letting something like this go.' Tom replied. 'Did you hear that?' Tom and Sam looked up at each other in silence listening. The only sounds being the occasional flick of cards in the other room.
'I don't hear anything?' Sam muttered, as soon as he did, there was a quiet knocking on the door.
Tom and Sam left the kitchen and met Anna and Dean in the hallway.
'That was fast.' Anna said.
Sam opened the door to be faced with the slightly dazed smile of Yulanda.
'Oh, hey.' Sam smiled, 'Yulanda, right? We were in your shop earlier.'
'Yes, I remember, the "gas inspectors".' Yulanda did her over-exaggerated quotation marks and then gave him an over the top wink.
'The others are in a moot at the store, so I thought I would come over to pay my respects to Mary.' Yulanda bowed her head, 'I also brought some incense to cleanse the house.' Anna rolled her eyes and walked back into the living room.
Yulanda almost skipped into the house passing a confused Sam who shared a surprised look with Dean. Tom just mumbled 'Don't ask' under his breath as he made his way back to the kitchen.
Soon, fragrant smoke wafted around the corridors and rooms of the house as Yulanda half skipped, half walked around the house. Anna and Dean had restarted their game, sitting opposite each other with stoic expressions whilst Sam and Tom were in the kitchen.
After circling the sitting room and corridors, Yulanda made her way into the kitchen. Tom had closed the book when he had spotted the blonde haired witch enter the kitchen and started a conversation with Sam about what the weather was like in England, doing his best not to notice Yulanda.
After a few moments, Yulanda left the kitchen and they heard her footfalls on the stairs.
'She seems nice and all,' Tom said, 'but can you imagine what she'd be like if she saw what was in this book?' Sam grimaced and nodded in agreement.
Moving back towards Mary's book, the cover flew open and the pages rustled as if being blown by a strong wind. The pages finally came to rest on a page near the back of the book. A symbol dominated the left-hand page, whilst the right was filled with Mary's small, neat handwriting.
'Slightly creepy.' Tom muttered.
'This is the symbol that was glowing downstairs.' Sam said.
Tom yawned, 'I knew it was Germanic.' Tom pointed to a small description of the symbol at the top of the page which detailed its origins.
'What's it do?' Sam asked, rubbing his eyes with a weary hand.
'Uh,' Tom squinted at the text, 'my eyes won't focus. I've just gotten really sleepy.' Tom slid the book across to Sam who slumped down in a chair.
'Same here.' Sam made a half-hearted attempt to read the text before giving up. 'This is wrong, why are we so tired?'
Tom was leaning against the counter and yawned again. He trudged over to the doorway of the living room.
'Uh oh.' He mumbled and turned to Sam. Sam pulled himself to his feet and stuck his head around the doorframe. In the living room, Anna's head was slumped forwards, her chest rising and falling peacefully. Dean had his head resting on his hands, lying forwards on the table.
'Bad sign. That's a really bad sign.' Sam muttered sleepily.
Sam moved into the living room and sat down next to his brother.
'Dean? Dean!' Sam shouted at him, shaking his shoulders as he called him. Tom returned to the book laid out on the counter. He leaned over it and did his best to concentrate on the tight script on the page.
'Come on Tom.' He mumbled to himself. He ran a finger under the line of text to help him focus on it. He gave up with a frustrated moan and pushed himself towards the sink. Splashing his face with water didn't help with the encroaching fatigue. He pulled the towel from the spice rack and wiped his face. He threw the towel back towards where he had picked it up from, knocking over a pepper pot which smashed on the floor. Tom paused for a moment, his head cocked on its side.
Tom grabbed a bag of salt from the cupboard that Samantha had been looking through earlier. He knelt on the floor with the book next to him, fatigue pulling him dangerously close to sleep. As carefully as he could, he drew out the symbol on the floor of the kitchen with the salt. Even in his sleepy stupor he recognised the lines missing from the symbol down stairs, the symbol that was only partially complete. With a sigh, he finished the last of the lines and threw the rest of the salt aside, making more of a mess over Mary's once pristine kitchen.
With what energy he had left, he crawled over to the doorway of the living room once more. Sam's hands were still on his brother's shoulders, but both were now fast asleep.
Stood behind the table, watching Tom with an evil glint in her calculating eyes, was Yulanda. Her hair was still a frizzy blonde mess, but her posture was confident, her gaze steeled, her smile cunning. She idly spun a hex bag around her finger. Finally catching it in her hand, she stalked over to where Tom had leant against the doorframe.
'All this talk of moots, cleansing and shit, it gets really boring.' Yulanda sighed. 'You know what got me, Tom? What got me to go "dark side"?' she did her air-quote fingers again with a sardonic smile, 'It wasn't the offers of power or wealth, although they definitely helped. No, it was the thought that the next time some asshole talked to me like I was stupid, I could make him choke on his tongue.'
Yulanda stroked Tom's hair as she watched his eyes flutter as he tried to stay awake.
'You know, I didn't even have to sell my soul? All I had to do was get this.' She held up the dark jar that contained the powder they were here to protect.
'Mary was a clever old biddy though, she never really did trust me, she didn't leave me much choice.' Yulanda sighed again, 'Did you like my little crucifixion? It had to be dramatic enough to get Samantha to call a moot, get her and all the other tree-huggers out the way, but I hadn't planned on your little entourage.'
Out of the corner of his eye, Tom saw the salt made symbol take on a subtle glow. He did his best to focus on Yulanda and to sit upright against the doorframe.
'Do me a favour?' He mumbled.
Yulanda laughed, 'What would that be?'
'Don't get your blood on me.' Yulanda stopped smiling and looked confused, Tom looked behind Yulanda and into the sitting room.
'Get her, Mary.'
Yulanda leapt to her feet and spun around, and there, stood on the other side of the room was a transparent Mary. She was barely 5 foot 3, her gray hair was in perfect circles around a plump face decorated with a content smile. Her flowery dress was half covered by an apron over the top of which she had her hands clasped, the holes from the fire pokers perfectly visible.
'Hello dear.' The spare chair at the poker table flew across the room and struck Yulanda on her side. It knocked her away from Tom, but not to the floor.
'No! I killed you!' Yulanda screamed at the ghost.
'No shit.' Yulanda narrowly avoided being pinned to the wall as the sofa sped towards her.
'You can't stop me! You can't!' Yulanda ducked as a vase flew past her head. Fixing the still smiling Mary with a gaze, she began muttering under her breath. Mary's smile faltered a little as her ghostly form flickered.
'My my, we have become well versed haven't we.' Mary's voice was distorted and static. No more furniture flew around the room, instead, Mary was gazing around the room as if looking for something. Finally, she raised a fading hand towards the sofa that was now pushed against the wall. A small black bag flew from its cushions towards Mary. As it reached her, its contents spilled out, scattering across the room.
Yulanda's voice was gaining in volume, and Mary's form was little more than an insubstantial wisp, barely noticeable in the light from the sun outside.
Mary's cookery book flew into vision as Tom smacked Yulanda's face with it as hard as his sleep addled limbs would let him. Now free from Yulanda's destroyed hex bag, the other three hunters began to stir.
Yulanda had stumbled back a few paces, her banishing hopelessly interrupted.
'Let's see how you like it, bitch.' Mary mumbled. One of the fire pokers that had been left on the floor darted across the room, narrowly missing Sam's rising head. There was a sickening crunch as it slammed through Yulanda's ribs, her heart, and into the wall behind her.
Yulanda stared at the poker sticking out of her chest, uselessly pawing at it as her heart stopped. When her last breathe had gone and her feet slumped, the fire poker held her to the wall.
Dean was the first to pull himself up and shake himself awake.
'What's going on, what did I miss?' He mumbled as he opened his eyes and saw Yulanda, 'Holy Crap!'
Tom slumped to the floor, still shaking off the last of the unnatural sleep. 'Bad witch.' He said, pointing at the dead Yulanda, then raised a hand at Mary in greeting.
'Awesome ghost.' He said. Mary smiled and nodded at him.
The dark jar containing the magic powder floated onto the table the three hunters were sitting at.
'Please, take care of this.' She whispered.
Sam took the jar and smiled at Mary, 'We will, we promise.'
'Uh, sure.' Dean mumbled in agreement.
'Thanks Mary.' Tom said, 'We owe you.'
Mary looked as if she were about to respond when she snapped her attention to the kitchen doorway.
'Well if this isn't just Brady Bunch revolting.' The woman said, in an English accent.
'Get out, Demon!' Mary had lost any pretence of calm as she screamed at the women. 'You have no power in my home! Leave!'
'You!' Anna shouted at the demon in shock. In the kitchen doorway was the demon from the airport and warehouse. Stood there in her smart gray suit and heels, she looked every part the business woman.
'Yes, me.' She smiled calmly, 'and we'll chat, but first, I hope you don't mind Mary, but I need to talk to these folks privately.' The woman gave Mary a quick wave, and with a thought, brushed the salt made symbol away. An enraged Mary disappeared from view, hurling some impressive abuse as she vanished.
'How rude.' The demon mumbled. The curly haired demon looked at the three who were now stood around the table, to Tom who had managed to pull himself up.
'My name is Elaine, it's nice to finally meet you face to face.' Dean levelled a gun at Elaine's head.
'Oh Dean, really?' She tutted. Dean was thrown sideways against the wall, pinned into place. His gun had flown from his hand towards the smartly dressed demon.
'Dean!' Sam shouted to his brother.
'I've completely lost my train of thought.' Elaine shook her head with a slight frown.
'I'm good Sammy.' Dean managed to rasp through the power that was pinning him to the wall.
Elaine looked over at the body of Yulanda and sighed.
'You know, I didn't think she would last, she just didn't seem stable.' Elaine said.
'You were the demon she made a deal with.' Tom said.
'Surprised? No. I didn't think you would be Tom, you are after all,' Elaine paused and flicked her eyes towards Anna, 'the smart one.' Elaine started to walk slowly around the living room. Whilst nobody moved, everybody kept their eyes fixed on the short woman.
'And all I wanted was the box, you know the one I mean.'
'It's in the basement.' Anna said, 'why don't you just go and get it?'
'Do you think I'm stupid?' Elaine shouted. 'I know about Mary's death trap of a basement! I wouldn't have bothered with that waste of space if I didn't.' Elaine, who was just a hair's breadth from Anna, gestured to the corpse nailed to the wall. Dean suddenly started gasping for air, the veins on his neck stood out as his face started to go a deep red.
'Give me the powder and I won't have to kill anyone.' Elaine smiled politely.
Anna punched her in the face. Hard.
Elaine stumbled backwards against the far wall. Her concentration broken, Dean slid to the floor gasping in air; Sam was at his side within moments.
Anna ducked down to the table, and rose with her katana in hand. Elaine had pulled herself to her feet whilst Tom moved around the walls of the room away from the demon.
'Fine, I'll just kill you then.' Elaine sneered. She ducked quickly as Anna spun her blade towards her, upper-cutting her as she came up. Anna slammed onto her back, landing next to Dean, knocked out cold. The demon moved towards the pair, but staggered when a shot rang out, the bullet digging into her arm. Sam was stood in the kitchen doorway, the smoking gun in his hand.
The gun flew out of his hand. Black eyes glared at him from the grey suited demon. Tom leapt from his position by the wall and grabbed the demon's arms. Elaine turned and threw Tom back into the wall as if he weighed nothing, then turned back to glance at Sam, managing to raise her arms before Sam smacked her with one of the chairs they had been sitting in playing poker.
She knocked the chair away and punched Sam hard in the stomach. With Sam keeled over, she grabbed him by the throat and smashed him through the table. The dark jar that had been resting on the edge of the table flew across the room, smashing at Dean's feet.
Elaine caught sight of the now exposed zip bag. Stepping over Sam, Elaine crouched down and picked up the bag with a smile.
'Thanks Dean.' She smiled at him. Dean pulled his hand out from behind Anna's back. He cocked the gun and smiled.
'Any time.' He fired. The back of her head exploded across the living room, destroying the demon's host.
Over the next hour, the four tidied the house as much as they were able, waiting for Samantha's return. Anna had a nasty headache, and Sam a few cuts on his back from where the table had splintered. Yulanda and what was left of Elaine were taken into the kitchen, covered in a blanket Anna had taken from upstairs.
Samantha eventually returned, and it was twilight before they properly explained what had happened.
'It was said that it was our duty to guard this,' Samantha said, gesturing at the powder, 'but it has been a curse. The moot agreed it would be better protected with you, and thank the Powers that they did.'
'You've been a great help, Samantha.' Sam reassured her. Samantha gave him a sad smile and nodded.
'Thank you for all you've done.' Samantha replied. 'You've routed an evil in our community, one that could have destroyed us.'
'Glad to help.' Dean chirped. Samantha held her hand out to Dean and shook his hand.
'Don't be shy.' She replied. Samantha handed the powder over to Tom and closed his hands around it.
'Protect it.' She said; Tom nodded.
'Right then,' Anna started, 'don't want to outstay our welcome and the hotel only serves dinner until 9.30.' Samantha laughed.
'You're in a hotel?' Dean asked her with a touch of jealousy.
'Yep, with a jacuzzi.' She said with a sly wink.
Samantha saw the four to the door and waved them goodbye. Walking back towards the Golden Cauldron, Sam looked over to Tom and Anna.
'So what are you guys going to do now?'
'We've still got some demon killin' to do.' Anna said.
'And a seal to save.' Tom added.
'That's us,' Dean said, pointing at his car, 'good luck, and save some demons for us.'
Anna shrugged, 'Maybe.' She smiled.
'Wait, Dean,' Sam said, 'we could do this one together. We did good back there.'
'Thanks Sammy, but we tend to work alone.' Anna said.
'We'll see you around, let's go Sammy!' Dean called over his shoulder as he walked towards his car.
Tom heard Sam mutter under his breath, 'Don't call me Sammy.' Tom and Anna watched the pair walk away down the quickly darkening street.
'You don't think pairing up would be a good plan?' Tom asked.
'Nope,' Anna shook her head, 'I got my partner.' She slapped him on the shoulder and walked around the corner to where they had left their car.
As they were buckling in, Dean pulled up next to the car with his window down.
'This is your car?' he whistled, 'she's a beauty!'
'That's an Impala!'
'1967.' Dean called back. Anna looked at Dean with a sly smile and revved her engine. The Impala gave an answering roar.
Without another word between Dean and Anna, the two cars roared down the street, racing for the first junction.
'Oh God...' shouted Tom.
'...there are two of them.' Muttered Sam.
