Chapter Eleven

In the car, I couldn't help but bounce my leg up and down. At every red light, the car would shake with my incessant leg bouncing.

"Calm down," Jared said coolly.

"I can't be calm!" I fought. "How are you so calm?"

He answered back quickly, assuredly, "Because I know the outcome." He twisted back in the passenger seat so he was facing the front again. The light turned green and we began to move again.

"Oh, so what – you know the future now?"

Jensen took my hand in his again. That did manage to soothe me a bit, but I was still terrified of what we were about to do. I'd only ever had one encounter with a demon, and that was at the convention where I got my minor concussion oh-so-long ago.

As we neared Gurnee, Jensen went over with me how to use a gun again. I tried remembering everything about the safety and the best way to aim and shoot. I still had never shot one because we didn't know who would be attracted to the loud shot, so he told me, "Just beware of the noise it's going to make. It'll hurt your ears, and you'll probably hear a ringing for a while."

I swallowed nervously. "You make it sound like I'm going to shoot one off today."

He handed me the small pistol. "Let's hope not."

We managed to pull right up to the warehouse. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it – a large, metal-framed building, marked "12" above the garage door. A smaller metal door was to the side. There weren't even guards standing outside like I thought there would be.

"Smell that?" Jared asked, turning to me as Jim shut the engine off.

I sniffed and caught a slight whiff of rotten eggs. "Sulfur."

Jared smiled. "We're in the right place."

Everyone got their things together and Rachel appeared near the console of the car. She smiled at me reassuringly.

"Don't worry. I'll be here the entire time."

Of course she isn't worried, I thought, She's already dead.

"Everyone ready?" Jim asked, peering back at Jensen and me.

My heart was beating faster than ever, and I looked at Jensen, terrified for him.

"Come back in one piece," I told him, palms sweating.

Without a word, he grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me into him. We kissed long and hard like you would see in old movies of soldiers going off to war kissing their wives one last time before boarding a train to somewhere far away. Only this was a different war that could turn out disastrously if just one thing went wrong.

He moved away from me and, pressing his forehead to mine, whispered, "I'll be back soon, and with your friend."

I tried to smile but all I really wanted to do was cry. I wished this wasn't real. I wished I didn't come down to this. I wished that I could just live a normal life, free of worry about Lucifer and demons and ghosts and angels.

He let go and nodded to Jared and Jim. They each opened the car doors and closed them lightly, so as anyone inside the warehouse wouldn't hear them slam. I wished the knife in the show was real – the one that with one stab killed the demon inside the host body. Unfortunately, it was all for the show and instead they only had bullets with special markings that sent the demon back to the pit.

I saw them slowly and quietly head towards the metal door. They leaned their heads against the building to see if they could hear anything. Within a second, they were inside and I lost sight of them. For a moment everything was silent and I worried that we had the wrong place, or that the demons had gotten wind that we were coming and moved. But soon enough, I nearly jumped out of my skin when the first bullet was shot. Someone was yelling, but I couldn't tell who it was or whose side they were on. I closed my eyes and prayed – hard – that everyone got through this okay.

I imagined Jensen inside, fighting like the brave warrior I knew he was, especially for taking a task like me on. I could just see him shooting up the place, battling for the life of my friend.

I didn't know what was worse – the fact that everything in every horror movie or ghost story was true, or that I was tripping head over heels for a celebrity I barely knew. But as I heard him shooting inside the warehouse, I knew. I knew he was the oh-so-magical "One." I didn't know what would happen to us after this nightmare was over, but I knew I couldn't leave his side. He was my drug – I needed him to live.

Well, that was if we made it out alive, at least – and that had no guarantee.

I was hiding in Jim's car, peering above his front seat. They told me to lay low, so nobody saw me. But they should know by now that I wasn't really one for rules.

Suddenly, everything went quiet. There was no more shooting or shouting. Just pure silence. I foolishly thought everything was finally over, so I stepped out of the black car and shut the door, it making a large squealing noise as it did.

Within a split second, something hard hit the back of my head with a thump and everything went black.

The last thing I heard was Rachel yelling, "No, Andy, don't!"

I woke up with a huge headache, only assuming that I had a welt the size of Hawaii (all of the islands) on the back of my head. The first thing I realized was that I was sitting. The second was that I couldn't move. My hands were bound behind my back, and my feet tied to the legs of the chair.

I looked up drowsily and had to wait for my eyes adjust to the dark to find out I was inside the warehouse.

Warehouse.

No! This wasn't supposed to happen!

I fought against the tight zip ties that nearly cut off the circulation to my hands and feet.

I looked around me quickly, my heart racing wildly. Even wilder than before, which I didn't know was possible. I saw four chairs with only three bodies on them. I recognized Jared, looking way too big for the small chair he was on. Next to him was Jim, looking pretty rough. Cuts and welts all over his face from some brutal battle that must have occurred with one of the demons. Then, across from me was Erin. Finally, there was a chair on the other side of me that was empty. From what I could tell, we were the only ones in this room. It was small – maybe specifically built for this reason. There was one door, which was probably heavily guarded from the outside. I was the only one awake so far.

I looked around the room, trying to find the other person. There was no one, which led me to the worst conclusion of all.

Jensen was dead.

I wanted to wail. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry so hard that I passed out and never woke up again. It was only moments ago that I realized I was in love with him, and a second later he was dead. It was a cruel, cruel joke that someone was playing on me. I didn't want to play anymore. I didn't want this exciting thrill of an adventure, not if it meant losing Jensen. I thought imagining a world without Erin was bad, but now imagining a world without Jensen… I wanted to die.

After a moment of self-pity and wallowing, I whispered, brokenly through my growing tears, "Rachel? Rachel where are you?"

She didn't come.

Iron, I realized. The room that was built for us was constructed solely of iron. There was no way Rachel would be able to get in, let alone hear me calling for her.

I tried to move my chair closer to Jared next to me. The chairs were bolted to the ground.

"Jared," I mumbled, my nose getting all snotty from tears now. "Jared wake up." My voice cracked. I tried getting my mind off Jensen. "Jared!"

With a start, his head popped up and flicked his hair out of his eyes. Just like I did, he had to blink a few times and he looked around, taking in all his surroundings. Then he saw me and his eyes went wide. "Andy?"

I looked towards the door, hesitating a moment to see if anyone barged in. No one did.

"Is… Is Jensen…?" I asked slowly, barely able to say words.

Jared looked around again, noticing his companion wasn't in the room. He looked just as confused as I was, which wasn't a good sign. I could see his face going red, either from anger or that he was about to burst out wailing like I wanted to.

I interrupted whatever was about to happen by asking, "Jared, what happened? I thought you said this was going to be easy!"

He sniffled and looked me as if he forgot I was there for a moment. He shook his head and closed his eyes.

"We weren't prepared. There were more than a hundred of them here. A hundred against three. We… we had no chance." He stopped to take a few breaths. "We came in, and everything was dark. We couldn't see anything except for a huge, iron box in the middle of the warehouse, which I assume we're now in. We didn't see any of them until it was too late. They came running at us, all at once."

Hundred? I wondered. Why had Rachel guessed fifty? A pit started forming in my stomach. She was working with them. But how? I didn't think ghosts and demons lived on the same plane, but then again I guess anything is possible at this point. But why was the box we were in made of iron? The only reason that would be needed would be if they specifically didn't want me to contact anyone on that side.

Jared continued without missing a beat:

"We shot and fought as many as we could, but we knew it was a losing battle. Jensen yelled for us to retreat, to head back to the car." I could hear his voice wavering. "I should have listened. I should have just run like he told me. But I stayed, it felt like, for only a few more seconds. That's when everything went black."

My throat constricted. "And Jensen?"

I saw him shake his head. "I don't know," he whispered.

I squeezed my eyes shut. It was all I could do. I couldn't scream. I couldn't punch a wall. All I wanted to do was go back in time and change everything.

"Can…" I said through tears, "Can you wake up Jim? Maybe he knows something." It was a half-hope that maybe, just maybe, Jensen was alive. I didn't know how, and neither did Jared, but there had to be hope.

Jim took a bit more coaxing to wake up than Jared, but eventually he groaned to consciousness. Jared filled him in for a brief moment while I looked around more at the box. There were no windows, no holes. Bolted to the cement ground, just like our chairs. Maybe they're hoping to suffocate us. But why wouldn't they put Jensen in with us, even if he was… dead? God, even thinking that word was physically painful. But, even if he was dead, why wouldn't they place him in here, solely for the purpose of hurting us, specifically me? Even if they had no clue about our relationship (or whatever you want to call it – we never really discussed terms of what we were) they still knew that we must have grown close after all these secluded months together.

"He got out," I heard a half-conscious Jim mumble. My head immediately shot towards his direction, and I saw the vague, dark shape of his outline in the darkness.

"Jensen?" I asked, my heart finally lifting. "He's alive?"

Jim paused. "I wouldn't say that. I saw him leave the building. After that, though, I don't know. They could have caught him. I just don't know."

He was holding it together better than either of us, probably because he had been through his fair share of loss in his life, with his widower status.

I swallowed, facing the truth for the first time. It was easy to deny it back at the house. But here, now, in this position, I had to face it. Everything was true. The demons were here to kill me, to set free their king.

"I'll get you guys out," I said to them, "and Erin. It's me they want, not you. I'll – I'll try to strike a bargain or something."

"A bargain?" Jim said, aghast. "Andy, don't you get it? If they win, we all die. Lucifer will be free to rein terror down on the entire human race. There is no 'bargain' to be struck."

I shook my head. "Maybe–Maybe there is. Maybe I can offer my life up, so that even if he does start the whole apocalypse or whatever it is he plans to do once he's free, you four and your families will be safe." I said four because I refused to acknowledge that Jensen was dead. I looked at Jared and added, "And your families, too. Gen and Thomas," I glanced at Jim, "and Maddie included. It's me they want, and it's me they'll get – at a price."

"What makes you think they will even want to strike any sort of bargain? What makes you think that they won't just barge on in here and kill you without listening to a word?" asked Jared.

I shrugged. "They haven't killed any of us yet. There has to be a reason. Why else would they have set up this room? Somehow, they must have known we were coming. I don't know if Rachel was in on it with them or what, but look at how this place is set up!" I looked around me. "Four chairs inside an iron box? They knew we were coming, and what I was capable of."

Just then the door creaked open, and I had to squint my eyes from the light beaming in. The door remained open, so when my eyes finally adjusted, I was able to look the figure in the face as they stared at me.

It was a man – young and good-looking. His hair was neatly coiffed and he wore a tailored suit to his muscular, lean, tall body. From what I could tell it was a deep, navy blue color matched with a blue and white tie and white pocket square. It all paired well with his black, black eyes.

My first demon since Lina at the convention.

"So – you're Andy?" his deep voice asked, sounding a bit disappointed. Surprisingly, it had a Brazilian accent. I couldn't see the color of his skin very well, but I assumed it had a nice, South American tan. "Don't get me wrong, I was just assuming someone more… well, different."

I swallowed, attempting to look a bit more confident. In reality, I was scared shitless.

"And who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?" I asked, voice wavering a bit.

He put his hands into his tailored trousers' pockets, looking almost astonished I had asked such a question. "This host's name was Pedro," he answered, accent thick, "but my real name is Beelzebub."

The name sounded vaguely familiar, but it rang no bells in my mind. I tried thinking back to the show, or even back to Sunday School but still the name drew a blank. However, Jim and Jared seemed to know. I heard them gasp at the name.

Without hesitation, Beelzebub launched forward and connected his fist against each of their faces. They let out a loud grunt as he did so, and a moment later Beelzebub was standing straight, slicking back a hair that had strayed out of place.

"You'll do well to only speak when spoken to," he hissed at them.

My breath was coming in rapid gasps, my heart exploding from my chest. Who was he? And why did Jared and Jim seem to know who he was?

Beelzebub looked at me, stepping closer. "Forgive me, but I just didn't picture you to be so… well, small. Your ancestors were much, much taller."

I blinked quickly, my eyebrows pressing together in confusion. "My… my ancestors?"

He looked confused as well for a moment, and then a smile spread across his face. He let out a loud, quick laugh. A sadistic laugh. "You… you don't know?" He chuckled again and stepped back towards Jim and Jared. "You never told her?"

I glanced at the two of them, wanting to ask what the hell he was talking about. Tell me what? They knew, though, what he was talking about, whatever it was. Their faces hardened and they only looked at him, and not me.

Beelzebub looked over at again and shook his head. "Fascinating. They wanted to keep you to themselves, didn't you, boys?"

"No, Andy, don't listen to–" Jared began to say before Beelzebub punched him into silence again.

Beelzebub clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and shook his head disapprovingly. "You are terrible with directions, Mr. Padalecki."

"Stop it!" I yelled, sensing that he would punch him again. Beelzebub's head turned inhumanely quick towards me as he leered over Jared, malice on his face. "Don't – don't hurt him. It's me you want, right?"

Within a split second the malice was gone replaced by a sickening smirk on his lips.

"You?" he said, sounding surprised. "Why, I could never hurt you. At least not yet. You're too important."

"Important?" I asked. "Important for what?"

I was somewhat terrified of the answer.

"Why, for the pathway, my dear."

What. The. Hell. Literally.

After a long silence, I finally said, "Me? What pathway?"

Beelzebub clicked his tongue again. "I can't believe you don't know. Then again, your sacred book has been rewritten so many times over the centuries that it's no real surprise. Though, really, your friends must surely know."

"Just tell me!"

"Would any of you two like to tell her? No? Well alright." Beelzebub straightened up and walked slowly towards me once more. When he spoke, I could tell he was reciting something he'd probably read or heard thousands of times:

"'…for when the son of man and the son of Creation create new life, after thirteen generations there they shall have the power to open the pathway to Hell and eternal damnation.'"

I shook my head, probably still groggy from being passed out. "English, please."

"It's quite simple, really. Thirteen generations ago, one of your ancestors chose a … well, let's just say, undesirable mate. Rosier, once so powerful and mighty and beloved by God, went wicked and began philandering with the humans, impregnating one. And so the prophecy began. The moment your Creator realized what had happened, He cast Rosier out of Heaven and into the depths of Hell where we accepted him wholly.

"Since then, the Angels have done their best to stop the prophecy from coming true but… well, obviously they have failed. You, Andy, are the thirteenth generation. And the fact that you have remained alive this long after your accident… well, your soul is beyond priceless, now."

I couldn't speak. I couldn't even think. This had to be a joke. Maybe, if I'm lucky, these past few months have all been one, massive joke Erin must have pulled. Across from me, she was still passed out. Actually, I couldn't even see her chest rising or falling. She was sickeningly still. I ripped my eyes away from her, still trying to wrap my mind around what Beelzebub had just said.

"I'm… what?" I gasped. I looked at Jared and Jim, hoping for some sort of explanation, but they couldn't look at me. That's when I knew what Beelzebub had just said must be true.

Beelzebub smiled at me. "We've been waiting a long, long time for you, Andy. The angels," he spat out the word, "have tried desperately to end your line. We, the demons, have done everything in our power to promote it. The deaths of your family members as you grew up were no coincidence. Your mother and father's plane crashing in 9/11? Your grandparent's house fire? Even your own car accident – all of it was planned and orchestrated by them. All to prevent your life."

I shook my head. "I was born by the time 9/11 happened, and my grandparents died after my parents were already born. If they didn't want me alive, they wouldn't have waited."

He shook his head, kneeling down to my height, making me meet his eyes by grabbing my chin. "Everyone has their moles. We had someone on the inside, feeding them false information. Each time they killed a member of your family, they had a false hope that they had won. Aamon, you see, knows all past and future events. Those idiots upstairs actually believe he's on their side when he's been working with us since the moment Rosier stuck his little prick inside your ancestor."

I shook my head, trying to disbelieve all of this, but the facts kept mounting up. It was true that my grandparents' on both sides died soon after giving birth to my mother and father. My mother's parents died in the house fire and my father's parents died from a robbery. That was how they met – at an orphanage. Their parents didn't live long enough to have any other children, so both my mother and father were only children. My mother and father were told by doctors that they would never be able to conceive children so I was their one and only miracle child. I can only assume the near-infertility was the angels' doing. I had just entered middle school when my parents were on the American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston (our original hometown) to LA for a small vacation. They crashed into the Twin Towers and died. It was all true.

My voice was barely above a whisper when I asked, "And you think I have what it takes to open this 'pathway to Hell'?"

Beelzebub winked at me. "Beautiful and smart. Jensen Ackles picked a good one, I must say."

You disgust me, I wanted to say, but I was afraid of what he would do to me if I spoke out, despite his promise earlier that he would do no such thing.

"What makes you think I'm willing to do that?" I asked. "Why would I want to open this pathway and let all of Hell – literally – loose?"

Beelzebub sighed, shaking his head. "The stories you grew up on, on how evil we demons are? It's all a bunch of bullcrap. It's just propaganda thrown in your face to believe that we are bad. Do you know why the majority of us were cast out of Heaven?" I stayed silent so he continued, "We were thrown out because we believed that humans should have the same amount of knowledge as we do. Is that so bad? Why do you think we tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit? The only reason it was forbidden was because it contained all the knowledge of the Heavens.

"God didn't cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden, like your sacred book tells you. No, he killed them. Started a new breed of humans, ones who were mortal and believed that learning – sinning – was bad and would lead you to Hell. We demons – we tap into the inner souls of people, teaching them the truth of the world. Everyone has urges, my dear. We just simply tell them to let their inhibitions go."

"And how is that any less evil?" I asked.

Beelzebub sighed. "You're not understanding, Andy. These urges are only bad because you've been told they are bad. Sex before marriage? Eating pork? C'mon – you know better than that."

"Murder?" I asked. "Is that not bad?"

He held his hands up. "Those are simple animalistic desires everyone has. Darwin understood. Kill or be killed, that is the law of the land. Humans, by murder, have reached the height of the food chain because of these desires."

I shook my head. "How do I know it's not you that's brainwashing me, huh? Why can't I decide for myself?"

Beelzebub nodded furiously. "Why, of course! You can decide for yourself! We could easily force you to bend to our will, to finish the prophecy. But we haven't. I have just simply given you the truth, Andy. You can decide what to do with it."

I breathed hard, thinking about what exactly to do. What if what he was saying was all true?

"What if I don't? What if I decide not to open the pathway?" I asked.

Beelzebub's glinting white smile faded. "A prophecy is a prophecy only if it is guaranteed to come true."

I looked away from his dazzling face. If I was going to decide, I was going to do it on my own terms.

"I have conditions," I said to him, "before I decide anything."

He looked surprised but didn't say no. "Go on."

I looked beyond him at Erin. "First of all, if I'm going to do any thinking, I can't do it tied up to this chair."

His eyes darkened, as if that were even possible. "I'm sorry but we can't let you leave until you've made your verdict – or if you choose to go against us and kill even more of us."

"What would be the point?" I asked. "You outnumber me. I wouldn't be able to leave if I tried."

His smile began to return. "You speak the truth." After a moment of thought, he added, "Alright, I will unbind you. Any other terms?"

"I need proof that Erin is alive."

He looked aghast. "Why, of course, she is alive."

I grit my teeth together. "I need proof."

He looked a little annoyed, but he stood up and walked over to my unconscious friend. He lifted her head up and smacked her cheek lightly a couple times. It took a few moments, but eventually her eyes opened. She squinted in the light that was thrown on her face before she realized that there were other people in the room with her.

Then her eyes rested on me. She had to squint some more to see, but when she recognized me, her face lit up.

"Oh my god!" she said in a raspy, dry voice. "Andy – is that really you?" Her eyes began to well up, as did mine.

"Erin… Erin oh my god you're alive!" I gasped.

Beelzebub sighed and snapped his fingers. In an instant, Erin was unconscious again. I gasped and saw her head loll back forward as he let her face go.

"ERIN!" I yelled.

"Oh hush," muttered Beelzebub. "She's still alive, just… quieter."

My eyes stared into her face. One moment she was awake and fine, and now she was passed out again. It was so good to hear her voice again. I swallowed to try and steady my voice before saying, "One more condition."

Beelzebub tucked his hands into his pockets again. "What now?"

"Jim and Jared and Erin go free."

Beelzebub actually laughed, and hard. He thought this was hilarious, for some reason, while I kept my face stone solid. I could feel the guys' eyes on me, but I refused to glance in their direction like they had for a while now.

"You're joking, right?" Beelzebub gasped. "Let those two – the people who have worked for over a decade to eradicate my kind – go? And your little friend here – Erin, is it? – she's the only leverage we have. Let all three of them go, and what do we have?" He paused for dramatic effect. "Disaster, is what we have, my dear."

"Leverage?" I shook my head. "You said so yourself – a prophecy is only a prophecy if it will come true. You don't need leverage."

Beelzebub squinted at me, looking at every inch of my body. "You'll notice one of your… companions isn't here."

Jensen.

"What did you do with him?" I asked viciously.

Beelzebub let a small smile creep across the corners of his lips. "Ah, yes, Aamon told me about your little trysts with Mr. Ackles. Well, you should know we don't have him. The second he ran out of here like a little dog with its tail tucked between its legs he disappeared. Poof. One of my best, Berith, ran after him and exited only seconds after Mr. Ackles, but he was already gone.

"See, we have no guarantee that your little friend won't come back, with an army, to save you and the others. Let them go, and that only adds fuel to his fire. No, we need something as leverage not only for you, but for him."

He's alive, I told myself. He's alive, he's alive. Somewhere, he's alive.

There was silence for a long time, then finally I spoke up saying, "So are you going to untie me or what?"