Chapter Twenty Five

I landed in Dean's waiting arms, and he and Sam sat me on my feet at the bottom of the stairs. I turned quickly, fully prepared for the angel to be inches from me. But it wasn't.

It stood at the top of the stairs, right in the doorway. It's face was uncovered, and it's head was tilted to the side, as if it was looking at us in curiosity.

"What in the hell is it doing?" Sam asked, nudging me.

I didn't look away from it, I just shrugged, "I have no idea."

"We need to back up, get out of its line of sight." Dean said, as he grasped my arm, pulling me backward. "It's not going to come down the stairs with the three of us watching it."

"Oy! I could use some help over here." Donna called from around the corner. I glanced to see her balancing the mirror on her own.

"Sorry Donna," Sam rushed over to her side.

"Let's back up." Dean nodded at me, and I nodded back. We took two full steps back, and it was out of our sight.

Nothing happened. The four of us stood there, and nothing happened. "Where's the Doctor?" Donna asked.

"Excellent question." I muttered. "We lost him in the cemetery, I have no idea where he is."

"I'm going to look again," Dean stepped forward, and I grabbed his arm.

"Wait! It could be a trap." I whispered.

"Wait, what? The Doctor disappeared? How are we going to find him?" Donna let go of her side of the mirror, and Sam grunted with its sudden weight.

I looked from Dean to Donna, wondering which I should handle first. Dean took advantage of my distraction and stepped forward.

He stood on the bottom stair. "Um guys? You might want to see this."

Sam lowered the mirror, and the three of us stepped to the bottom of the staircase, next to Dean. The angel was still there, standing completely still on the top step.

"It hasn't moved." Sam said.

"Exactly. It's just sitting there, what's it game?" Dean went up another step, and I instinctively reached out to stop him. "I think it's...smiling?"

I looked at the angels face. He was right, it wasn't smiling exactly, but it looked quite smug.

I looked around us. "Oh crap." I muttered, I walked in a circle in the basement, and ended up standing where I started. "It's smiling because it's won."

Dean looked down at me over his shoulder, "how do you figure that?"

I motioned with my hands, "look around you. There is no way out of here except that doorway. It doesn't want to come down here, it won't be fooled like that again. But it has managed.."

"To trap us all down here like rats," Sam finished my thought.

I nodded. "Exactly. Either we touch it getting out of here, or we sit down here till we rot."

I sat at the bottom of the staircase cross legged looking up at the angel. It looked back at me with the same expression it had been wearing for hours now. Sam sat next to me, and Donna sat against the wall, chewing her fingernails. Dean paced. He had been for over an hour now.

His shadow jumped all over the walls, the flames on the candles we lit to keep the basement out of complete darkness, bending with his movements.

"Dean, just sit down and chill. Your driving me crazy." Sam said what we were all thinking.

"Let's call Bobby." Dean stopped next to Sam.

"And have him do what exactly? He is at least a two day drive away, and what's he going to do, dig us an exit?"

"Well we have to do something Sam. I'm going freaking crazy just sitting here."

"I'm guessing that is exactly what it was hoping for. You doing something rash, or stupid." Donna said. She got to her feet and stretched her arms. "The Doctor will come. He won't leave Alice and I like this. He wouldn't do that."

I nodded, "I agree. Donna is right, the Doctor would never just walk away if we were in trouble."

"Maybe we should take turns and try and get some sleep. It's the middle of the night, and I'm assuming the rest of you are as exhausted as I am." Sam laid down on his back on the cold basement floor, crossing his arms under his head.

"It's freezing down here." Donna rubbed her arms, "and there is no way I could sleep with that thing watching us." She pointed up the staircase.

I slipped out of Dean's jacket and handed it to Donna. "Put this on, it will help."

"Should be enjoying Christmas dinner with some French people in the seventeenth century right now." She muttered as she thrust her arms through the sleeves. "They probably had pudding and everything." She sat next to me by the stairs on the floor.

"You're going to get cold now." She motioned at me.

I smiled back at her, "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

Dean grunted and muttered something, and then settled in behind me, pulling me back against his chest and putting his arms around me.

"Sorry, what was that? I didn't quite understand the mumbling." I smiled at him over my shoulder.

"I just said that I would keep you warm, and that I was happy to do it." He lied with a smile.

"Uh, yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what you said." I responded sarcastically.

"It's just... Well Sam and I aren't really used to playing defense here. We usually do the attacking, not sit around waiting to be attacked."

"I did bring down the shotgun." Sam leaned up on an elbow to see us. "If it makes you feel better, you could try shooting it in the face a few times."

"That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea." Dean responded, and we all chuckled.

"It moved." Donna jumped up suddenly, and pointed a shaky finger back up the stairs.

Sure enough, we had all been distracted, and been a bit too relaxed. It was down the stairs and within feet of us.

"Shit," Dean jumped to his feet, lifting me with him, and backing us both against the wall.

Sam too was on his feet, he limped around the corner and picked up the shotgun. He pumped the gun with one hand, and came back around the corner. He raised the shotgun and fired it directly into the angel's terrifying teeth bared face.

Nothing, it didn't even flinch. "We need to get out of here, and the only way to do that is to let it get to the bottom of the stairs. We can't go anywhere with it where it is." Dean muttered into my ear.

I nodded, and he grabbed my hand pulling me to the side of the staircase. Sam and Donna were the only ones in its eyesight now.

Dean motioned toward the mirror, and I picked it up quietly. The two of us held it up in front of us, and Dean simply said "Sam?" And Sam gave an imperceptible nod.

"Move Donna, over with everyone else." Sam pointed at us.

She looked terrified to look away from the angel, but she did. She saw us with the mirror, and then looked at Sam. "No, you are too slow on that ankle. I'll go last." She said in a shaky voice.

Sam shook, his head, "Together then?" Sam reached out for her hand, not looking away from the angel.

"Why not sunshine." She took his hand.

Dean looked down at me, "listen, if this doesn't work..."

"Shhh." I reached up, and pulled his face down to mine in a kiss. "Shut up Winchester. It's going to work."

"One.." Sam whispered, "Two... Three."

Sam grabbed Donna, and pulled her around the corner of the stairs. Both of them landing at Dean, and my feet, just below the mirror.

"Dean behind you!" It was chaos. I was pretty sure it was Sam that shouted.

The angel had gone around the stairs in the opposite direction and was now right behind us. I tried to turn, but we were in an awkward jumble, and the shadows being thrown by the candles made things even more confusing.

And then I tripped, over what or who, I can't say, but it was enough. The mirror was pulled from Deans hands, and I fell with it. It crashed to the ground, shattering underneath me into a million pieces.

I heard Dean shout, "Does someone have eyes on it?"

And I think someone responded. My head was ringing, I must have hit it on the floor. I raised my hand to rub it, and felt warm sticky blood running down my arm. "Dean I broke the mirror." I muttered, trying to get the words out.

I realized the gravity of what I had just said, "Dean!" I said louder, "I broke the mirror, it's broken, I don't know what to do."

I think he responded, but I didn't hear. I felt his arms lift me from the ground, I tried to say how sorry I was that I fell, but I couldn't seem to get my mouth to work.

The stars closed in, and I knew I was going to pass out. But suddenly it didn't matter, my ears filled with the sound I loved more than anything on any world.

The Doctor leaned against a wall with a smug look on his face. As the Tardis appeared around the angel, he hoped it had experienced the terror it so easily bestowed on so many humans.

It stood in the center of the room he had dedicated to it. It's face uncovered, it's teeth fully bared.

"Welcome. This is your new place of residence. You're probably not going to be a big fan." He stepped closer to the angel, just out of its outstretched hand's reach. "I saw you in the cemetery, and I know you saw me. You probably thought you scared me off, eh?"

The Doctor circled the statue like some form of prey. "I realized you probably wouldn't follow me if I was with my friends, so I left them to get this ready for you."

He stepped back in front of the angel, and spun around as if showing off the room. "What do you think?" Every wall in the 12x12 room was covered in mirrors. "It took every mirror on the Tardis. Wellll not every mirror, I mean I have to have one for myself."

He leaned in closer, "my hair doesn't just do this on its own you know."

Just then there were voices, "Doctor? Where are you? We need help, Alice is hurt!"

The Doctor pointed at the speaker on the ceiling where Donna's voice seemed to be coming from. "Sounds like I need to go. Those are my friends looking for me."

He suddenly got a very serious look on his face. He stepped around to the angel's back, and leaned in close to its ear. "You should probably start praying now that my friend Alice is okay. You might not enjoy your new home here, but I promise you, if she is badly damaged? Well, this is paradise compared to what I will have in store for you."

He turned his back and left the room, leaving the angel alone permanently.