Sam finally walked out of the bathroom carrying his freshly scrubbed, damp shoes. He walked quietly over to the bed where Ella was sleeping and snoring, and sat down on the edge of it, doubling over to rest the shoes on the floor to dry. Straightening, he looked over at Ella and smiled before turning his attention to the bed Dean and Oshea shared. Oshea was curled up close to Dean, and he had casually flung one arm over her. Things were finally starting to go back to normal, and Sam couldn't be happier. He was just about to climb into the bed beside of Ella, when he heard his phone beeping, indicating that it was finished charging. He walked to the table and unplugged it, sitting down in the chair when he saw that he had a voice mail. After pressing a few buttons, he held the phone to his ear.
"Sam, this is Chuck Shurley!... why did I just say my last name? That's weird.. anyway! Listen, I just had a vision and I know that you and Ella wanna wrap things up, but don't go into the-... who am I kidding. Just call me. I know that you left your phone and you won't get this message until it's too late anyway."
Sam's brows furrowed and he dialed the prophet's number. It barely rang once before he answered. "Right on time."
"You knew I was-"
"Hello... prophet?"
"Right.. sorry. So what was the voicemail about? What's going on, Chuck?"
"Sam... the spirit that you were going after is the carrier of this major ghostly disease. When she touched you, she gave the disease to you."
"Well that explains why I felt so weird... so.. what is this disease? Is it anything like that one that Dean caught where he was scared of everything? That was kind of fu-"
"Sam, focus! This is really serious. This is nothing like that. Sam, you're going to die."
Sam froze, feeling as if his heart had stopped. "I... I'm.."
"I'm sorry, Sam."
"So... uh... what... what's going to happen to me?"
"It's going to be a slow process... you'll start getting weak and tired... it's going to get harder for you to breathe, almost like you have asthma... you'll probably start coughing blood... maybe fevers... think of it like... like a kind of supernatural cancer..."
Sam already felt like he couldn't breathe. He looked over to Ella and swallowed hard, feeling a lump gathering in his throat. "I... come on, Chuck, there.. there has to be something I can do. I have Ella... Judith... I haven't found Judith... I..." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "How long do I have...?"
"Maybe a year? And that's not even the worst part," Chuck said softly.
"Oh great... more good news..."
"You're going to Hell, Sam."
"What...?"
"That's part of it... the spirit infects people and marks their souls for Hell after the disease kills them. I can't remember why, it's something to do with revenge and all that..." After a moment of silence, Chuck spoke up again. "Are you okay, Sam...? Sam...?"
Sam hung up the phone without another word.
xx
Ella awoke the next morning with a throbbing headache and the urge to vomit. She groaned as she sat up in bed and looked over at Sam, who was across the room at the table staring intently at his laptop screen.
Dean stepped out of the bathroom, brushing his teeth. He stopped and smirked at Ella, pulling the toothbrush out of his mouth for a moment. "Good morning!" He said loudly.
"Arghh," She covered her ears, wincing a little. "Not good morning. Bad morning. Very very bad morning."
Oshea winced and pushed the ends of the pillow over her ears as Dean shouted to them. "Ella, I hate you." She said with a groan as she turned over and pushed her head beneath the pillow, holding down the sides. Sam did not acknowledge any of them, he merely stared away at his computer screen, tapping a few keys and clicking every now and then. He looked like he hadn't slept.
"I feel like I was hit by a truck," Ella complained as she dragged herself out of bed and pushed passed Dean, stealing the bathroom from him.
As the door closed, Dean glanced at Sam. "You look even worse than Ella does. Did you sleep any?"
Sam glanced up, rubbing his eyes a little then shook his head. "Uh... no, not really. I was doing some research." He said quietly.
Dean arched a brow. "Okay... on what?" He started to walk over to him.
"Nothing important," Sam said quickly, shutting the laptop before Dean could see what was on the screen. "Um...Bobby called yesterday, right? While the girls were off getting drunk. Where did he say we needed to go next?"
Dean nodded. "Yeah, uh.. Minnesota. Suicide rate has skyrocketed lately along with a bunch of other weirdness... Two people, wait for it... eating each other alive. On a date."
Sam arched a brow. "Eating each other? Yeah, sounds like our kind of gig. Should we go then?" He asked, packing away his laptop.
"Yeah, we've got a long drive ahead of us, we should leave soon... Let's just wait a few hours though? So they," He nodded over to Oshea. "Are a little less hungover. I'm not having anyone vomit in my car."
"Oh my god, please don't mention eating," Oshea said from beneath the pillow. Sam forced a little smile and nodded.
"Probably best after what happened to my shoes."
