"…Sometimes I feel like giving up,
but I just can't
It isn't in my blood…"
—In My Blood, Shawn Mendes
Katherine ended up being the first to return to the townhouse, or at least as far as she could tell, and much like when she first arrived she beelined straight for the bar. Pulling a bottle of rum from the shelf, she hunkered down behind the bar after pulling out a bag of salted pretzels from underneath the counter.
"Kat?" Georgie hedged, sitting at the base of the booze shelf, "Kat? Are you okay?"
"IT's back!" Katherine laughed a little hysterically, "Mikey was right! IT's back! Holy shit! Can we really do this? I mean I know my childhood fears are probably pitiful compared to the shit I've been through now, but…what if he shows me shit from hunting?…What if he shows me Nogitsunes? Or Djinns? Or Wendigos? Or—"
"KATHERINE!"
"Eep!"
"Calm down! You'll be okay!"
"How can you say that? Reapers don't show up early to a scene unless something major is going down!"
"…I know, trust me, I know. But you need to calm down! You have the most experience in this field, and you're no use to anyone if you're like this!"
"Y-yeah" Katherine heaved a shuddering sigh as she clasped tight to the bottle in her hands, "You're right"
"I know I am"
"Bossy"
"Mngh!" Georgie childishly poked out his tongue at the hunter. Leaning her head back against the bar counter behind her, Katherine closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to collect herself once more. Pushing the fear aside in favour of logic, Katherine began to make a list of things to do.
"Okay, okay. First things first, Mikey mentioned a ritual—" Katherine placed the bag of pretzels in her lap so she could fish her cellphone out of her jeans' pocket, "—So let's start there"
"Who are you calling?" Georgie asked.
"Garth" Katherine replied, skipping over the numerous notifications about missed calls and unseen messages from the Winchesters and Castiel. A little ways down, she found the number she was looking for. Tapping the number on the screen that sat beneath a rather goofy image of the hunter in a printed cowboy hat and frilled suede jacket. She only had to wait for a moment or two before the other end was picked up.
"Yo, Katie! What'cha got?" Garth Fitzgerald answered, his Missourian drawl floating through the phone.
"Hey Gar, you got anything on rituals?" Katherine asked, getting right into it.
"Rituals? What kind? We talking witches, demons?"
"No clue, just got a name"
"What is it?"
"Uh, the ritual of Chüd"
"Chüd, Chüd, Chüd…Sounds native; hang on" There was the sound of shuffling papers as the werewolf hunter flicked through his collection of tomes; some of which he'd inherited from Bobby. " 'ere we go; you got a pen?"
"Uh hang on…" Katherine tucked the cell between her ear and shoulder as she searched underneath the counter for something to use. Thankfully she was able to find a notepad and pen tucked away amongst the menus. "Yeah, go on"
"Right, says 'ere the ritual of Chüd is a battle of wills"
"Huh?"
"There's not much here. It just says that tokens have to be burnt in a vessel whilst the chant is recited"
"Chant?" Katherine paused in her note-taking, the messy shorthand easily taking up the page.
"Doesn't say"
"Thanks anyway, Gar"
"What are ya hunting that need this anyway?"
"Oh…it's a humdinger of a monster, that's for damn sure"
"Well, best of luck and be sure to return the Winchester's calls"
"…They called you, didn't they?" Katherine hung her head with a sigh.
"They're just worried 'bout ya, Katie" Garth's voice took on a fatherly tone as he replied.
"They've got their own things to worry about. 'Sides, I did leave a message 'fore I left"
"They said it was a quick message on a sticky note you stuck to the fridge"
"Yeah, well, I knew they'd read it eventually"
"Why didn't you tell 'em yourself?"
"…You know how they are, shoot first, questions later and all that. This was something I needed to do myself, and no manner of explanations would have deterred them"
"Yeah, sounds like them" Garth sighed, "You be careful now, ya hear? I wanna hear how everything went when you're done"
"Alright, I will" Katherine smiled, "Thanks Gar"
"See ya, Katie"
CLICK
"What'd he say?" Georgie asked when she ended the call.
"Apparently it's all about wills" Katherine sighed, running down her face in exasperation.
"Wills?"
"Yeah, something 'bout facing your fears and all that"
"Oh"
"Heh heh, this'll be fun" Katherine's voice took on a little hysterical note again as she downed more of the rum in her hand.
She sat there for a moment or two more before restlessness took over. "Nope. Can't do it. Can't do it!" Katherine jumped out from behind the bar, and made her way towards the front door as she headed straight for her Jeep parked outside. Shifting through the junk in her trunk, Katherine pulled out a couple of silver-bladed daggers (one of which was an angel blade she had nicked at some point), as well as her trusty knuckledusters, plus a round of silver, salt and mountain ash bullets…really all the gear she would typically need to face a shapeshifter.
Grabbing the whetstone and cloth from the glovebox, she headed back inside and towards the bar where she had left her bag of pretzels and the opened bottle of rum on the counter. Situating herself, she set to work pulling apart the pistols (still tucked in at her waist) and cleaning the individual pieces, if only so it would give her hands and mind something to do.
Soon enough, the others began to arrive but they paid her no mind as continued her task. Plugging in one of her earphones, she half-listened to the old rock ballads playing in her ear, and half-listened to the conversation in the foyer. Over in the foyer, Ben and Beverly's voices floated out from the stairs. Katherine kept quiet as she listened in. "Hey" Beverly softly greeted.
"Hey" Replied Ben in the same tone, "So…what did you see out there?"
"Something I wished I hadn't"
You and me both, sister. Katherine snorted.
"So what? We just…we-we kill IT and then we just forget everything again?" Ben asked as he moved to sit down.
"I hope so" Beverly replied, "Don't you?"
"I dunno, I…I-I guess I wanna hold onto the good stuff, y'know?"
"Mm"
"C'me on! There must be something in the past that you don't wanna forget again"
"…I remember being scared shitless"
"Cold"
"I remember you guys in your tidy whities"
"Okay, please forget that"
"I remember this—" She spoke fondly as rustling sounded when Beverly moved and unfolded what sounded like a piece of paper, "—I remember the boy who wrote it for me…Not him so much, but…how he made me feel and…a kiss…It's all still blurry, but the longer we're here, the more I can see it, the more I can see that moment, and the more I can see…Bill. I think"
Oh Ben! Katherine sighed quietly, well aware of the blonde's crush on the redhead. It hadn't exactly been a secret when they were kids, nor when they had returned.
"I dunno, do you remember…?" Beverly trailed off.
"Bev, uh—" Ben heaved a sigh and plucked up some courage but was cut off by the sound of the front door slamming open and then shut again as someone stormed inside.
"Move. Move!" Richie demanded as he stormed up the stairs.
"What's wrong?" Beverly asked, moving slightly so that the bespectacled man could move passed.
"I'm leaving"
"What? You can't leave man! If you split, we all die!" Ben tried, rising to his feet.
"Yeah, I'll take my chances. We're gonna die anyway" Richie retorted.
"Rich! Rich!" Ben followed his friend up the stairs as he tried to convince him to stay. Soon enough, the door opened again to reveal a rather putrid-smelling Ed who also stormed up the stairs towards his room, ignoring Beverly's worried calls as he did so.
Turning back to the task at hand, Katherine absent mindlessly noted that Bill had arrived and was talking to Beverly in quiet tones. The rhythmic sounds of the angel blade sliding against the whetstone in tune with the sounds of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire' filled her ears and she was reminded of the days when she would tuck herself away with a couple of rocks and her little rock hammer; carving creatures out of nothing. A fond smile melted onto her lips at the thought as she hummed along to the song.
"GUYS!" Ed's yell cut through any lingering thoughts and Katherine launched herself from the bar, quickening tucking the weapons away save for the knuckleduster which she slipped on. "Kat?!" Ben squeaked when the young woman emerged into the foyer, but she merely brushed passed him by and followed Beverly up the stairs. Ben soon followed after.
"Ed?" Beverly questioned quickly taking the stairs two and at time.
"Holy shit!" Katherine cursed upon finding not IT as she had imagined, but Ed bleeding from the face where a large gash had sliced through his cheek.
"Bowers' is in my room" He gurgled, knees collapsing under him as he fell to the floor. Thankfully, Beverly was there and helped him to sit against the wall. "In the bathroom…"
While Ben wasted no time in rushing in to confront Bowers in the bathroom, Beverly did her best to pinch the wound shut. "Don't worry, Eddie" Katherine gently knelt down next to the two on the floor, "We'll get ya stitched up. You'll be good as new" She smiled, gently turning his chin to the side so she could see the wound better. "You're lucky, it's not that deep. What he do, anyway?"
"Stabbed me in the face with a fucking knife" Ed spat, blood dribbling from his mouth.
"Mm" Katherine hummed as she rose to her feet and headed towards the bathroom where the room's medicine cabinet was kept. "I should've hit him harder"
"What…?" Came Beverly's voice from the hallway as Katherine pulled dental floss, a needle and bandages from the medicine cabinet.
"You mentioned Bowers the other night…" Ed called.
"Yeah…" Katherine replied over her shoulder. She spared a quick look over at Ben who seemed to be glued to the window frame that held the shattered glass. "Ben?" She gently touched his arm, jolting him from his thoughts "You all right?"
"Yeah…" Ben nodded unconvincingly "Yeah, I'm fine…Ed…! We should…"
"I've got it…" Leading the way out of the bathroom to where the two still sat in the hall, Katherine quickly set the items down and got to work.
"Do you know what you're doing, Kat?" Ben questioned.
"Uh huh" She nodded, easily taking Beverly's place, "Try not to move, Ed, this'll hurt—drink the rum, it'll help"
While Ed took a couple of swigs from the bottle, she did her best to wipe away as much of the existing blood as she could before she prepped the needle. With the needle sterilised in the rum and then the point heated by the lighter she had stuffed in her pocket, she proceeded to thread the dental floss through the eye of the needle before turning to a rather pale Ed who had watched her practised hands with trepidation.
"Ready?" She asked. All Ed could do was nod. "Right, here we go…" With practised hands, she pierced his skin, unflinching as it disappeared into the flesh and came back out again. The butterfly stitches ran along the thankfully clean cut, pulling his face back together again as if she were darning a sock.
"You've done this before…" Beverly noted, watching the younger woman's practised hands with ease whilst Ben looked away, unable to watch the needle pierce his friend's skin.
"Mmhm" Katherine hummed, sticking her tongue out in concentration, "I couldn't tell you how many times I had to stitch myself up after a pissy pest decided they didn't want to be evicted"
"Really?"
"Uh huh, I think the worst one was from a pregnant fox I had to pull out of a water drain…" More like the demon with the BDSM fetish…
"It bit you?!"
"It gave it a damn good go. Nah, it's mostly been a couple of shallow scratches and cuts over the years, nothing too serious, y'know?" Lie. "Can you pass me the gauze and tape, Bev?" Katherine asked as she tied off the last of the stitches. After receiving the items from the ginger, Katherine quickly cut out a square to the right size and taped it to Ed's face with the medical tape. "All done"
"You okay, Eds?" Beverly asked, hauling him to his feet.
"Yeah, yeah, I think so" Ed nodded, clutching on to the mostly empty bottle of booze as he took another couple of swigs from it; whether do to the soreness of the newly stitched wound or just because, Katherine didn't know. But she wasn't going to ask, it wasn't like she wouldn't have done the same.
"What happened to Bowers?" Beverly asked Ben.
"He, uh, jumped outta the window" He replied, cautiously following after the others as they slowly made their way down the stairs and back into the foyer proper.
"What?"