Tip: If you don't remember where we left off in the present, go check out the prologue :)

This chapter switches between present and past.


"Trust your instincts, and make judgements on what your heart tells you. The heart will not betray you."
~David Gemmell, Fall of Kings

The Present

Jane couldn't fight the despair anymore. She dashed out the door, letting it slam behind her. Fumbling with her keys, she struggled to focus through her tears, her vision blurry. Finally unlocking the Cadillac, she jumped in and shoved the key into the ignition and the car roar to life, speeding out of the parking lot. As she left the motel in the distance, she couldn't help but fight with herself. She knew that she was the only thing standing in between them and their plan. It was idiotic, to think that the four of them could take on such a powerful and ancient force as He was.

The tears kept falling as she sped off into the darkness. Nothing had happened in their favor before. Nothing. Why did they have so much faith in this plan of theirs? In her? As her thoughts drifted to the boys, her car drifted to the left side of the road. There was a pair of headlights glaring at her through the night, sparking a moment of clarity in her that was enough to make her swerve back to the right side. Her heart raced as she pulled to the shoulder of the road and onto dirt and gravel.

That's when her tears became waterfalls. Why did she have to leave? Why did she have to go against what they thought would work?

She knew why. It was because it had already been tried. Not by them of course, but nevertheless it had been tried. And it failed. Jane slammed her hands against the steering wheel in conflicting anger.

"I thought if I left, it'd stop them from going through with it!" She sobbed, "But I should have known better. I know them better than that! They'll go through with it. They'll go through with it!" She screamed. It stung her throat and she felt sick to her stomach. No matter what—she knew—they would try anything to save the world.

"They can't be füçking martyrs for everyone! They can't d..." Jane sniffed, her eyes widening in horror. They were going to die. All three of them. If she wasn't there, they would have an even lesser chance of survival. Sure they had Castiel with them, but the plan required both him and her.

There was another thing too. How would they even get the chance to carry it out? How would they even get close enough? They needed help, and if she was going to go back to them—every particle in her body was screaming at her to turn her red Cadillac around and speed back to that hotel—then she would have to find help, and she knew just where to go, even though she didn't like it.

The only issue now was time, of which she virtually had none.


The Past

Dean placed Jane's limp body in the back seat of the Impala, taking off his jacket to cover her as he and his brother rushed back into the bakery. They had no idea how much time they had before another wave of vampire teenagers were on their tail, and they weren't planning on sticking around to find out.

"Alright, the back room."

"Jane's stuff must be back there." Sam said as he climbed over the counter and made his way to the dark room, pushing open the door with an old "Employees Only" sign dangling from the handle.

Dean followed, taking a deep breath in as he clicked on his flashlight.

"Oh..ugh. What the hell is that smell?"

"Well, now we know where his boss went." Sam coughed out, aiming his flashlight at the corner of the room, where among the shelves of various baking tools, laid the rotting corpse of an old man.

"What do you think? About two or...three days old?" Dean mused, tilting his head as he inspected the dead, scrunching up his nose.

"At least. Nothing like having a human blood bag around during your lunch break."

"Yeah. Oh hey, check it out." Dean stalked towards another corner of the room, where a pile of torn rope and a back pack sat. The back pack's jagged edges were from whatever had been stuffed inside, sticking out and trying to force its way through. "Man. He tied her up and everything. No wonder she wanted to kill him. Do you really think she would bring her weapons in here? She doesn't seem like the type who would let someone get the drop on her easily."

"Maybe she didn't know," Sam supplied, "but we can ask her later. Right now we need to find her clothes and anything else that might give us answers." He grabbed the back pack and slung it over his shoulder. It looked tiny in comparison to his broad build, making Dean chuckle as Sam adjusted the strap.

"Alright Dora, can you look through the backpack and see if you can find her keys?" Dean smirked, looking around on the floor for Jane's shirt and shoes.

Rolling his eyes in exasperation and ignoring his brother, Sam found the keys in no time. "Max must have gone into her car to make sure his suspicions about her were true?" He mused.

"What, his suspicions about her being a hunter? You'd think her flannel shirt would be enough." He laughed, trying to find amusement in Sam's face, and upon finding none, he awkwardly quieted himself. "Anyway," he cleared his throat, "whoever that guy was, he sure won't be bothering her again."

"Yeah, she sought to that."

"How do you think she..."

"I don't know. I guess that's just another question we'll have to add to the list." Sam shrugged.

"Yeah, right. So we better hurry it up here." Dean said, going back to searching the floor in the dark recesses of the store.

Sam located a switch on the wall. Flipping it made the darkness quickly disappear with the flickering of overhead lights. He squinted his eyes as they adjusted to the brightness, taking in their surroundings. The room was smaller than Sam had pictured, with faded teal walls and a dusty concrete floor. There were piles of bakery supplies in one corner, a door that Sam suspected led to the kitchen, a desk with papers like taxes and drawings of what appeared to be cake designs along the wall facing him. On the wall opposite, two hooks, with leather straps hanging stiffly from them, were spattered in red with torn ropes strewn on the floor below.

"How much you wanna bet that Max guy was into S&M?" Dean said, pursing his lips in distaste at the sight. Sam turned to him in annoyance, but his brother continued to stare.

Dean cleared his throat, "Seriously, seeing this, imagining what he did to her...I'm glad Jane killed that sonofabitch." He said, his voice low.

"Me too." Sam nodded. He started rummaging through the papers on the desk, looking for something, anything to aid their understanding of whatever Max had 'warned' them about. If something was coming for them, they needed to be as prepared as possible.

There were mountains of receipts and piles of useless papers, nothing even remotely close to what they were looking for, whatever that was. Sam dug through the drawers, feeling around blindly under more stacks of papers for hidden compartments. Next, he got on his knees and checked under the desk, brushing his fingertips across the wood finish lightly. In the center of the wood plane, he found something roughly carved and jagged under his touch.

"Dean," Sam called as he pushed away the chair and laid onto his back, scooting under the desk.

"Did you find something?" Dean asked as he got down on his knees.

"Yeah, I think so. It's carved into the wood, but...I don't recognize it. Do you have your phone on you?" Sam asked, holding out his hand and pushing some stray hair out of his face with the other.

"Yeah I do, scoot over." Dean said, moving to lay down beside him.

"What? No. Just give me the phone!"

"Remember the last time I 'just gave you my phone'?" Dean mocked, shoving Sam against the side of the desk to make room for himself.

"It was an accident! How was I supposed to know at the time that we were dealing with Gremlins? I needed a light."

"Well, there's this new thing I like to call a flashlight." Dean retorted, briefly shining his in Sam's face and snickering.

"Would you just take the picture already?"

"Yeah, yeah." Dean shoved his way in next to his brother, "What the hell?"

"What do you think it is? Enochian?"

"Cas would know, I guess."

"Of course Cas would know." Sam said. Dean rolled his eyes and as he shimmied out from under the desk.

Sam followed, having a bit of a harder time due to his moose-like build. "Nice find, Sammy. Let's head home. Did we get all of Jane's stuff?"

"Uh, yeah I think so. Did you find her shoes and shirt?"

"Yep. Let's go." Dean helped Sam up and they headed out of the bakery, turning off the lights and taking a pie from the display case for the road.

"Are you serious?" Sam said as he watched his brother in disbelief, although the action didn't exactly surprise him.

"What? It's apple." Dean said as he walked out the door, Sam chuckling and following him.