Book of the Damned Part 1
Lebanon, Kansas
Sam and Dean sat in the Men of Letter's library, Sam was researching on his laptop, when suddenly his phone started ringing.
"Cas?" Sam answered.
"Can I just kill him now?" Castiel's voice rang through.
"No, we need him alive for now." Sam reminded. "Look, after he gives you your grace back, you can do whatever you want with him."
"Well, I'd like to kill him slowly," Castiel muttered. "Anything on the Mark of Cain?"
"No." Sam sighed heavily. "I mean, I've been digging for something, for anything, but… I don't know, Cas."
"There is an answer out there. We will find a cure for Angela." Castiel assured. "Well, just keep digging."
Sam looked up to see Angela entering the library with Grace on her hip. "Yeah, uh, no one here by that name. Sorry." Sam hung up the phone before looking up at Angela. "So, I've been checking through everything again, double-checking and triple-checking, and…"
"The mark is a curse." Angela interrupted.
"Yeah," Sam scoffed lightly. "Tell me about it."
"No, guys, it's a… it's an actual curse." Angela clarified.
Dean's brows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"Crowley told me," Angela replied. "Or rather, Rowena told him after she tried and failed to kill me."
Sam's brows shot up. "What the hell happened?"
"The mark protected me. Rowena doesn't really have a beef with me." Angela shrugged. "She was pissed at Crowley because she thinks he's going soft."
"She's not wrong." Dean shrugged.
"Yeah, well, after he and Mommy Dearest got into a fight…"
"Mommy Dearest?" Sam interrupted Angela.
"Rowena is Crowley's mother," Angela replied, earning surprised looks from the brothers. "More about that later. So, then he came and told me what she said. The mark is an actual curse. So, anyway, I'm sorry. I probably should've told you that."
"Yeah." Sam agreed.
"Yeah." Angela pursed her lips as Sam's phone started ringing. "Winchester Accounting," Angela answered. "How may I help you?"
"Angie?" Charlie's voice rang through.
"Charlie?" Angela frowned in concern. "What's going on? Where are you?"
"Uh, uh, I'm exhausted and… and I'm bleeding." Charlie explained. "And I'm in a phone booth. A phone booth. I didn't know these things existed outside of Bill and Ted's…"
Angela immediately put the phone on speaker. "Okay. Hey, hey. Take a deep breath, Charlie. Uh, we're all sitting here. Tell me what happened. Why are you bleeding?"
"I, uh—I got shot," Charlie started. "Did you know dental floss works great on stitches? I only passed out twice, and I'm pretty sure my wound is now minty fresh."
"Charlie, you probably need to go to a hospital," Sam replied concernedly.
"No, no, I-I'm fine." She assured. "I just got to get someplace safe. These guys are still after me."
"What guys? Who?" Dean questioned.
"Some southern fried d-bags. They've been after me since I dug up 'The Book of the Damned.'" She answered.
"You found it?" Sam's eyes widened. "Where?"
"After some near misses and some broken into museums, I found historical documents that led to a monastery in Spain," Charlie replied. "It burned down years ago, left for dead, but, uh, I had this hunch about it. Turned out I was right."
"Okay, Charlie, what does it say about the mark?" Angela asked curiously.
"I have no fracking idea," Charlie replied. "The language it's written in, I've never seen anything like it. I, uh, I found some research notes in the monastery crypt, though, by the Friar that buried it. 'The Book of the Damned' is a spell book for creating or undoing any kind of damnation there is. We translate the thing, I think we can get the Mark of Cain off you, Angie."
Angela smiled a small, relieved smile. "Charlie, you're a genius."
"A genius fugitive. I—these dudes following me, they are well trained." Charlie stressed. "One of them keeps talking about his family."
"Family? Did you get a name?" Dean asked.
"No clue." Charlie sighed. "I-I-I spotted a tattoo on one of them. Might be a family crest. It seems occulty. Soon as the book was out of the ground, they were all over me. I, uh… I don't know how much more running I got left in me. T-they're tracking the book somehow."
"Alright, then we need to get you off the grid, Charlie. Where are you right now?" Sam asked.
"Uh, just south of Des Moines," Charlie replied.
"Uh, okay, you know what? Our—our friend, Bobby, has a whole bunch of cabins scattered all around, places for hunters to crash." Dean recalled. "You know, it's not much, but there's some gear and lore books, stuff to keep you busy till we get there."
"Okay, brings snacks. And every Men of Letters decoder ring there is." Charlie instructed. "This book is old and scary, and I've never seen anything like it."
~/~\~
Sam and Angela were packing files in a file box in the library while Grace sat on the floor playing with her baby doll.
"Hey, check it out." Dean walked in, carrying a box. "I found this in the storage room. It's lead-lined and warded. If those guys are tracking this book, pretty sure this bad boy will take it off the radar. You guys ready?"
~/~\~
Sam stared at Angela as she hummed along to 'The Boys are Back in Town' as it blared through the Impala's speakers. Feeling Sam's eyes on her, she turned to look at him, brows raised.
"What?"
"Nothing," Sam shut off the radio. "Nothing, I just haven't seen you like this in a while, that's all."
"It's a good song, baby." Angela defended.
"Gotta agree with her there, Sammy." Dean chimed in as he drove.
"Yeah, it's…" Sam trailed off.
"Look, Sam, it has been one crap sandwich after another for the past few weeks, okay?" Angela sighed heavily. "You heard Charlie. We got a shot at fixing this thing, so if that doesn't put gas in your tank, well…"
"If by 'shot' you mean a spell in a book that we can't read that's currently being tracked…" Sam scoffed.
"We're due for a win, okay?" Angela shrugged. "Overdue. I'll tell you another thing, if this actually does work, we're gonna take some time off."
"What, like a vacation?" Dean quirked a brow.
"Mm-hmm." Angela hummed. "And I'm not talking just like a weekend in Vegas or sitting in some crap motel. No, I'm talking about a beach. Drinking cervezas, go for a swim… When was the last time any of us went to a beach?"
"Never," Sam replied obviously.
"Sand between our toes, Sammy. Sand between our toes." Angela murmured as she turned the radio back on.
~/~\~
Blaine, Missouri
The Impala pulled up in front of a cabin by a picturesque lake. Sam, Dean, and Angela entered the cabin. Sam carried Grace in his arms.
"Charlie?" Dean called out.
Charlie was sleeping at a table and bolted up with a post-it note on her face. "Merry Christmas!"
"Hey." Angela greeted softly.
"Hello." Grace waved at Charlie.
Charlie grinned and walked over to Sam, taking Grace from him. "Hey, cutie. You are getting so big!"
"I know, right?" Sam agreed. "She's growing up way too fast."
"How are you feeling, Charlie?" Angela asked concernedly.
"Um… I may have just passed out, but better." Charlie shrugged. "Were you followed?"
"No, no." Dean shook his head.
"Where's the book?" Angela asked curiously.
"Okay," Charlie started as she handed Grace back to Sam. "Here's what I've learned so far. About 700 years ago, a nun locked herself away after having visions of darkness. After a few decades squirreled away by herself, she emerged with this." She pulled the book out of her backpack. "Each page is made out of slices of her own skin written in her blood. I told you, it's eekish." She added as she handed the book to Dean.
Angela stared at the book, almost longingly. It was almost as if the book was having some strange effect on her.
"According to the notes I found, it's been owned and used by cults, covens, and the Vatican had it for a while." Charlie continued. "There's a spell inside that thing for everything. Talking some black mass, dark magic, end-of-times nastiness. As far as what language it's written in, I'm thinking it's some kind of… uh…"
"Angie?" Sam called out. "Angie!"
Angela was across the room and looked up from the book suddenly in her hands. "Wh-what?"
Sam, Dean, and Charlie each exchanged concerned glances.
"I don't think it's a good idea if I touch this." Angela closed the book and handed it back to Charlie. "I'll go get the rest of our bags."
"Right," Sam muttered as Angela walked outside.
"What the hell was that?" Charlie demanded.
"She's not getting better," Dean replied gravely. "She's trying to cover, but… We need to find that cure, fast."
A/N: Hey, guys, I hope you liked this chapter! I love any episode that Charlie is in. Let me know what you think! Love y'all, xoxo :)
~Emily