"Typical!" Anna screamed as she heater sputtered out a foul smell before it just stopped all together. "Come on!" The temperature was hovering around zero and the forecast was predicted to drop to minus six once the sun went down. Realizing that yelling at it wasn't going to fix anything she pulled over to the side of the road and pulled on her down winter coat with grey faux fur trim, the one she had nicked from a sporting goods store along with a new pair of gloves and thick woollen socks.
She didn't like stealing, and when she could she tried to pay for things but no one pulled a salary from hunting and the little savings she had left went to motel rooms. For petty cash she would pick up odd jobs, everything from washing dishes to sweeping floors. Nothing was beneath her; anything that paid was worth her time.
"Come on, be a simple fix, be a simple fix, be a simple fix." She chanted as cold air nipped at her nose. "Jesus H. it's cold!" She rubbed her hands together after she got the hood propped up. She spent ten minutes jiggling tubes and hoses trying to figure out what had jogged itself loose to stop the warm air from hitting her. She looked at the coolant levels and cursed. "Okay, it's going to be a cold ride." Anna hopped back to the car and started the engine again.
Thankfully it was a short ride into the suburb of a town and another quick jog over to the less nice side of town where she could find a motel she could afford. She pulled into a parking space at a motel named E-Z8 Motel. Some one had come around with purple spray paint and tacked and "SL" to the font of the sign so that it read 'SLE-Z8 Motel'. Anna could see why it was given the less than fortunate name. As she sat in her car debating if she was really that desperate for a place to stay she saw a woman with bleached blonde locks in a magenta fur coat and fishnets walk out of one of the rooms, counting her money while scraping lipstick off her front tooth.
No, no she didn't need a place that bad; she would sleep in her car if she were going to spend the night. It took her a minute before she realised that she was getting uncomfortable in her heavy jacket. It was too warm; she shucked her jacket and gloves. Anna rolled the windows down and stuck her hand out. She was clothed only in a light sweater and a worn pair of jeans; it wasn't exactly Michigan winter weather. She had lived with her aunt for a few years in a small suburb outside of Dearborn growing up and she could never remember a time when it had been this pleasant in the middle of December. She could remember freezing her ass off as her aunt made her walk to church every Christmas Eve. The old bat used to tell her that walking in the snow built courage and determination but all Anna got was a head cold three days later.
She drove around a little more, enjoying the feel of the sun mixed with the slightly nippy breeze; just enough to remind you it was Christmas. Anna parked next to a small bakery and treated herself to a buttery pastry and a cup of coffee as she walked around. She found a park and sat on a bench for what felt like hours. She didn't know what the hell she was doing there. She had no idea where she was going to and she had no leads on where Sam or Dean might be.
She had never really liked children. Small people annoyed her, and they cried, and they were sticky and loud. She liked her nephews but she would never choose to have children of her own, it wasn't a desire she had ever had. She remembered that day, one month after she had left Sam and Dean, she stared at the little stick in the bathroom of a quick stop. Two little lines, teasing her, spelling out the end of her life.
She didn't even know who the dad was; she had been sleeping around a lot. The only thing she knew for certain was that she couldn't have a kid.
Sitting in a waiting room in an uncomfortable plastic chair, that was the hardest part. It was like they made you wait on purpose, daring you to chicken out. Anna didn't chicken out, she waited the hour and a half that they kept her waiting, she answered the invasive and overly personal questions, survived the judgement when she listed her sexual partners, listened to all of her wonderful options. Like she would seriously consider keeping the child or adoption, half of her concern was actually harvesting something inside of her nine months not to mention pushing it out of her. Even the torture of looking at her ultrasound, listening to her small child's heartbeat, was nothing compared to sitting in those chairs.
And then it was over; they sent you home with a bag full of painkillers and a list of things to look out for in the next couple weeks. In a lifetime of bad decisions, a lifetime of regret and guilt, that was the one thing she never regretted. She wasn't ready to be a mom, she couldn't think of a time when she would be ready to be a mom.
Despite the dirty looks a mother sent her she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one before pulling out a small flask. Anna took a drink as she blew smoke out of her nose. Mockingly she gave the woman a lazy salute with her middle finger as smoke poured out of her mouth.
The park was depressing her so she kept walking and she was going to keep walking when she saw the familiar car pulled along a residential block of houses. They were so cheery; the lawns were decorated in what some people would call "Holiday Cheer", Anna just thought it looked like the sale section at 'Tuesday Morning' had thrown up on their lawn.
Anna leaned up against the hood of the impala. Resting her foot against the bumper she hoisted herself up so that she was sitting on the hood. She knew Dean would kill her if he saw her, smoking and scratching up the car. A small part of her liked that she was going to piss him off, she liked that their first meeting in years was going to result in a fight. She was just trying to see if he had changed as much as Bobby claimed he had.
She had been sitting there for a while and despite the weather being warmer she was starting to get cold just sitting out there. Anna stood up and walked up the driveway. She didn't want to step on any toes but she had been sitting out there for the better part of an hour and a half and unless they were in there for a tea party something was wrong.
Actually if she thought about it a little, if they were in there for a tea party something was definitely wrong. She knocked on the door first but there was no answer. Anna frowned and knocked again.
There was a whisper from behind the door before it swung open and Anna saw an elderly couple smiling at her.
"Yes dear, how can we help you?" The woman smiled as she leaned into the man Anna assumed was her husband.
"Hi, My name is Anna and I was hoping you might have time today to talk about our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ." She smiled, that was the only impersonation she had really mastered without people questioning the validity of her credentials. Sometimes people would let her in, most of the people she went to visit were terrified out of their mind and God was an easy idea to turn to.
"Oh fudge, we are just right in the middle of supper and old Ed, here, gets just the grumpiest if he doesn't get his supper just at seven." The woman smiled and Anna thought she might actually be sick. They were so happy. She wondered what Sam and Dean were doing in there. Maybe she had gotten the wrong house, or the wrong car. The only thing evil about these senior citizens was the hour that they were eating dinner.
"Okay, I'm sorry to have interrupted your dinner. Is that your car out there?" Anna asked as she turned to leave.
"No I can't rightly say that it is." The older man shook his head. "All righty you take care now." He waved and the sleeve of his Christmas sweater pulled slightly and she saw a red smudge. It could have been blood; it also could have been tomato sauce or lipstick, or any other possibility of things.
It sounded to Anna like they were anxious to get rid of her. She heard the door slam shut just as she turned her back and she flinched a little. Looking around she saw a small-unlatched gate over to the side that she assumed led to the backyard. She didn't have a reason to go snooping into these people's lives but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. In the end she decided to go snooping, the worst that could happen was that she was wrong and told to leave.
The gate creaked open and Anna walked back on an uneven footpath of faux stone pavers. She had made it half way back along the narrow path before she peaked up into a bay window that looked into the kitchen. Anna let out an audible gasp before she backed away and toppled over a large rake.
"Shit!" Anna cursed in a whispered as she struggled to find her footing again and looked up. There was no doubting what she saw. Sam and Dean were tied down in chairs in the kitchen; various cut and scrapes adorned them. "Shit, shit, shit!" Anna muttered as she saw the smiling old man turn towards her. "Crap, crap, crap!" She turned to run just as she heard the glass from the window shattering. Something powerful pulled her through where the window once was.
The greying man looked at her with a smile on his face as he held her up, forcing her onto her toes.
"Would you look at that sugar pumpkin? Another sacrifice, didn't we just hit the jackpot this year." He laughed while the portly woman giggled with wide eyes.
"Let go of me you old hag! Let me go!" She tried to force her way out of his grip but the old man was deceptively strong.
"Now those words just aren't very nice!" The woman scolded with a grin, like nothing could make her unhappy. "You take that back right now, we are very youthful."
"Fuck you!" Anna spat.
"Tisk, tisk, that language. I've already had to talk to this one about our word choice."
"Bitch!" Anna muttered as the woman walked closer to her and slapped her upside the face. She spit blood out of her mouth and glared at the woman. "Hey! I make my money off a pretty face. You break it, you buy it!" She growled.
"Oh fiddle faddle." The woman went right back to smiling as if nothing had happened. "Okay dearie, let's get you a seat."
Ed was still holding her by the collar of her sweater while the woman bustled off into the living room.
"Look I don't know who you are, but I promise I'm not a good sacrifice. Whatever god you pray to, I swear he doesn't want me."
Ed cut off her pleading with a tremendous laugh.
"Did you hear that Madge? Oh you little cutie! We don't pray to a God, we are Gods."
"Gods?" The panic in her voice raised an octave.
"That's right." He twitched his head a little in an almost robotic manner and moved her over only to slam her into a hard wooden chair. Anna glared but she didn't say anything, Gods were way out of her league. She was small time game, she would never knowingly take on a god because she knew she would fail and kill herself in the process.
Anna's wrists were strapped down to the armrests of the chair, her feet bound to the legs. She struggled but with less vigour as she came to terms with her own death.
"Oh shoot, I'm fresh out of meadowsweet." The woman snapped her fingers in frustration. "Not to worry, I have some in the basement, we weren't expecting so many sacrifices this year."
The elderly couple both left the room and Anna was left there with Sam and Dean.
"Hey guys." She panted. "You pissed off not one but two Gods? How stupid are you?"
"We aren't the one's that got caught!" Dean whispered back at her. She didn't have to see his face to recognise the anger in his tone.
"Oh no! You just trotted in here like the idiots you are and wreathed yourselves in your mother's spice rack!" Her tone implied yelling but her words were whispered.
"You don't know what the hell you're talking about." Dean whispered.
"That's me, I never know what I'm talking about. You haven't changed much have you?"
"What are you doing here?" Dean demanded.
"I heard you went and got yourself in some trouble -"
"What and you thought you would come and save me?" Dean cut her off.
"Don't flatter yourself." Anna had to hide her embarrassment because for a moment on her car ride over she had thought maybe she could think of a way to get him out of his deal. "I just came by for a goodbye fuck." She flipped her hair so that it landed in Dean's mouth. "You chose to give your soul away, it's not my job to get it back for you."
"You don't know what you're talking about." Dean grumbled.
"I'll tell you what, you get us out of his mess and you can tell me all the things I don't know." Anna seethed.
"If you two would quit fighting for all of three seconds and start thinking of a way out of this we would be out of here already." Sam scolded.
"Shut up! I got it." Dean informed them as he raised his hand. "Give me a second."
"God, you're slow. You're getting old!" Anna mocked but the fear had come back into her voice as she heard the old couple coming back.
"Just for that, I'm not untying you." Dean grumbled as he moved over to untie Sam.
They ran to block the doors to the kitchen just in time before the God's tried to barge the door open. Sam took one door while Dean barricaded the other. The two Gods shook the house in an attempt to get back in and Anna thought she might actually pass out from terror.
"Okay Dean, it was funny at first but now I want you to untie me. Now, untie me now." She demanded with a shaky voice.
"Just how do you want me to do that?" He asked with a yell.
"I don't care, just do it!" Anna screamed. "I'm not fucking dying here!"
"Glad to hear you've made that decision." Dean responded in a sarcastic tone.
"I'm serious!"
"So am I!" As he shouted the words at her the doors suddenly stopped shaking. Dean left the room first, followed by Sam out the other door.
"Hang on! Don't leave me here! Don't leave me here, come on!" She whispered the words as both men left her strapped to a chair, waiting to be sacrificed. "This is what I get for looking for you guys." She muttered before fighting against the bonds.
She heard the fighting more than saw it. Occasionally someone would go flying and she would see them through the door that was left open just a crack. From what she could tell Sam and Dean were on the loosing end of the fighting and part of her wanted to go out and help while most of her was confident that she couldn't help.
There was silence and then she saw her, from the window, creeping her way in, her body twisting in odd ways as she made is way to her.
"So who are you? Never heard of the God named Madge." Anna spat trying to hide her fear.
"Stupid little child. We were around long before this whole Jesus character became all the craze. Stealing our followers, all of our hard work gone up in smoke. But we didn't give up, we still got our fill. We used to take hundreds of sacrifices, they flocked to us, but now we only take a handful."
"I don't really care." Anna tried to pretend like she wasn't shaking as she felt the wreath of meadowsweet brushing against her neck.
"This is going to tickle just a bit." The woman smiled as she sliced into Anna's forearm with a large curved silver blade. Anna stayed silent but her teeth were clenched. "And this will just down right hurt." A pair of pliers was placed on the tip of her fingernail and Anna gasped in fear.
"No, no, no, please." She begged.
"It's your fault of interrupting our little dinner back there. If you could just have left well enough alone."
"Those are my friends, you bitch, and I wasn't about to let you eat them." Anna glared at her.
"Well that's okay dearie, we'll just eat you first." She grinned and batted her eyelashes a couple times but suddenly something was wrong. Madge pitched forward and her expression went blank.
"Oh fuck!" Anna exclaimed as she felt the full weight of the portly woman land on her. Something pokey pushed against Anna's chest and as she looked over the shoulder of the very dead woman she saw a tree branch sticking out of Madge's back. Her eyes were wide as she caught a glimpse of tinsel hanging off the branch. Above her was Dean, breathing hard; it was obvious he had killed the woman as he leaned back against the wall in an attempt to catch his breath. "Good job Cujo, you gonna untie me now?" Her sarcastic tone returned as she slowly overcame her fear.
Sam walked over towards her and pulled the woman off. Anna saw the blood over her sweater and grimaced.
"A thank you wouldn't be too much to ask for." Dean grunted as he cut the ropes keeping her tied down with the same ornate knife Madge had used to slice into her arm.
Anna didn't answer him as she launched herself into Sam's arms.
"I missed you so much!" She laughed. "I'm so sorry, I heard about your father and the demon. I'm so sorry." She pulled away only to pull him back into a hug.
"We should catch up somewhere else." Sam suggested and Anna frowned.
"Yeah, away from mister and missus Christmas." Anna looked at the dead God at her feet. "So anything new with you?"
"Yeah, yeah I'd say so." Sam nodded and Dean just glared.