January 6th - January 7th, 2008

I waited in the car while Sam and Dean spoke to the widower of Janet Dutton. Janet's teeth randomly fell out to the point that she choked on her own blood and teeth.

They emerged from the house after about twenty minutes. Sam pulled out a pouch of something and handed it to Dean. As Dean peered inside, he made a disgusted face and then gave the pouch back to Sam as they continued their way to the Impala.

Once they got in, Dean slammed his door. "I hate witches."

"It's a witch?" I asked, slightly excited.

Dean raised his eyebrow at me in the rear-view mirror. "What?"

I shrugged. "I don't know... they're a little cool."

Dean shook his head. "This isn't your Harry Potter crap."

I gasped. "Bite your tongue."

Dean looked over at Sam. "This is your fault, you know."

Sam chuckled and looked back at me. "He's right, real witches are nothing like Harry Potter." He handed me the pouch. "It's a hex bag, look inside."

I opened the pouch and looked inside to see small bones and teeth. "Ew," I said and handed it back.

"See?" Dean asked. "They're always spewing their bodily fluids everywhere."

Sam nodded. "Pretty much."

"It's creepy, ya know, it's downright unsanitary," Dean said.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, well, someone definitely had it out for Janet Dutton."

"Yeah, someone who snuck into that house and planted the bag." Dean shrugged. "So, what are we thinking, we're uh, looking for some old craggy Blair bitch in the woods."

Sam shook his head. "No, it could be anyone." He shrugged. "Neighbor, coworker, man, woman... that's the problem, Dean, they're human, they're like everyone else."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Great. How do we find 'em?"

"This wasn't random; someone in Janet Dutton's life had an ugly ax to grind. We find the motive..." Sam said.

Dean nodded. "We find the murderer."

"Yeah," Sam said.

Dean started the Impala and pulled away from the curb.

Since the victim's husband, Paul, was our only lead, Sam and Dean figured it would be best to stick around and keep an eye on him.

After the sun went down, Paul left the house, and we trailed him, but he only ended up getting some food from a drive-thru. So, we sat and continued watching until he opened his car door and collapsed to the ground.

We quickly got out of the car and ran to him.

Dean checked on Paul, who was choking and yelled at Sam. "Check the car!"

Sam quickly searched the car for a hex bag while Paul continued to choke.

"Sam!" Dean yelled.

"Got it!" Sam shouted and then pulled a hex bag out of the car.

Dean pulled Paul up off of the pavement. "Come on."

Sam lit the bag on fire and dropped it to the ground. As it sparked, the flames turned blue and green. Paul recovered and leaned back against his car.

"You okay?" Dean asked.

"What the hell is happening to me?!" Paul shouted.

"Someone murdered your wife and now they're trying to kill you, that's what's happening to you," Dean said.

"That's impossible!" Paul shook his head. "There's no way—"

"If we hadn't have been following you, you'd be a doornail right now. Now, who wants you dead?" Dean asked.

Paul thought for a second. "I... uh..."

"Come on, think," Dean urged.

"There's a woman... uh..." Paul sighed.

Dean nodded. "A woman, okay?"

"An affair—" Paul shook his head. "A mistake, she was unbalanced, she was blackmailing me, and I put an end to it a week ago."

"What's her name?" Sam asked.

"Wha—" Paul stuttered, "What could she have to do with—"

"Paul!" Dean yelled. "What is her name?"

Paul told us the woman's name was Amanda and where she lived. So, we made our way over to her house.

Dean picked the lock, and we walked in. Sam and Dean had their guns drawn.

We walked through the house until we found the living room, but when we walked in, Amanda was lying bloody on her coffee table.

"That's a curveball." Dean scoffed.

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

Dean approached Amanda and lifted her right arm with the barrel of his gun and revealed three deep gashes in her wrist.

"Three per wrist, vertical. She wasn't foolin' around," Dean said.

Sam put his gun back into his belt. Then he covered his nose and knelt over scattered remnants of an altar and rotten food. "Yeah, looks like she was working some heavyweight evil here."

Dean nodded. "Yup." He turned around and jumped when he almost ran into a dead rabbit hanging from the ceiling. "Oh, god! Friggin' witches! Seriously man, come on!"

I frowned and looked at the poor rabbit. "You guys are right. Witches are gross."

Sam stood up. "Guess we know where she got the rabbit's teeth from."

"Well, Paul sure knows how to pick 'em, huh?" Dean asked. "It's like Fatal Attraction all over again."

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

"And why does the rabbit always get screwed in the deal?!" Dean shouted. "The poor little guy."

"Ya know what I don't get?" Sam asked, "If she was so bent on revenge, why do this?"

"Well, she got Janet Dutton, thought she finished off Paul, decided to cap herself and make it a spurned lover's hat-trick," Dean said.

Sam shrugged. "Maybe." He bent down and looked under the coffee table.

"I mean, this doesn't exactly look like the TV room of a bright and stable person, ya know?" Dean asked.

"No, but then..." Sam said as he pulled a hex bag out from under the table and tossed it to Dean. "There's this."

"Another hex bag? Come on!" Dean shouted as he tossed it down next to Amanda on the table and pulled out his phone. "Looks like we got a hit, huh? A little witch-on-witch violence?"

Sam shrugged. "I guess."

Dean dialed a number into his phone and held it up to his ear. "I'd like to report a dead body, 309 Mayfair Circle." (...) "My name? Yeah, sure, my name is..." He clicked the phone off. "Why are witches ganking each other?"

Sam shrugged. "I don't know, but I think maybe we got a coven on our hands."

The next morning, we pulled up in front of one of the several houses we were stopping at in the Dutton's neighborhood. However, this house had a woman with wavy brunette hair, tending her very full and healthy garden in the middle of winter, which seemed pretty suspicious.

So, while Sam and Dean went to talk to her, I waited in the car. A few minutes into their conversation, two other women, one with shoulder-length blonde hair and the other with short brunette hair, walked up to join the conversation.

The body language the women were putting off was almost protective of the first woman like they didn't want Sam and Dean there. Eventually, the women got what they wanted, and the boys returned to the Impala.

"What was that about?" I asked when they got in.

Dean shook his head. "I don't know. Something seems off about them."

I shrugged. "Well, you said it's a coven. It wouldn't be weird to think they live in the same neighborhood. They can keep an eye on each other that way."

Dean pulled away from the curb and nodded. "Let's look around the neighborhood a little more. Hit the library and head back to the motel."

Sam and Dean met with a few more neighbors, but no one caught their attention as much as those three women did. So we went to the library where Sam printed out some information on them.

Then we sat down to read some of it, but we were quickly ushered out because the library was closing for the night. So, Sam read on the way back to our motel.

"Well, I'm already sold on that Elizabeth chick. Did you see that victory garden of hers?" Dean asked. "Belladonna, wolfsbane, mandrake, not to mention that little flinch she threw when we mentioned the occult."

I bit my tongue, trying not to make any Harry Potter references.

Sam nodded. "Well, she's definitely had a good run lately, gone up a few tax brackets... won almost too many raffles. Kinda thing a little black magic always helps with."

"Yeah." Dean agreed.

"I don't think she's alone either. Looks like Mrs. Renee Van Allen," Sam said mockingly. "Has won almost every craft contest she has entered in the past three months."

"Yeah, a regular Martha Stewart, huh?" Dean asked. "Except for the devil worship. I'm thinking that was the coven we met back there, minus one member."

"Amanda was clearly going off the reservation. What do you think? they killed her to keep up appearances?" Sam asked.

"Seems like an appearance kind of crowd, don't you think?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

"If they killed the nut-job, should we uh, thank them or what?" Dean asked.

"They're working black magic too, Dean. They need to be stopped," Sam said.

"Stopped like... stopped?" Dean asked.

Sam furrowed his brow at Dean.

"They're human, Sam," Dean said.

"They're murderers," Sam said.

I nodded. "Yeah, and if they're willing to kill once. They're probably willing to kill again."

Dean stared at Sam for a second, then looked at me in the rear-view mirror and shrugged. "Burn witch, burn."

Just a moment later, the Impala started to stutter and choke up.

"What the hell?" Dean asked, angrily.

The headlights started to flicker, and then the Impala came to a complete stop in front of a female figure in the middle of the road. Sam got out of the car and Dean, and I followed.

"Ruby?" Sam asked as he approached her.

"Sam, listen to me, there's no time," Ruby said, hurriedly.

"For what? What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"You have to get out of town," she warned.

"So, this is Ruby, huh?" Dean asked as he raised the colt at her. "Maddison, get back in the car." He cocked the colt. "Never had the pleasure."

I ignored his request and stood behind him, watching the encounter play out.

"Dean!" Sam shouted.

"I was hoping you'd show up again," Dean said.

"Point that thing somewhere else," Ruby snapped.

Dean laughed. "Right."

"Sam, please. Go. Get in the car and don't look back," Ruby pleaded.

"Why?" Sam shook his head. "I don't understand."

"Hey, hot stuff, we can take care of a few kitchen witches, thanks," Dean said.

"I'm not talking about witches, you jackass. Witches are whores. I'm talking about who they serve," Ruby said.

Realization crossed Sam's face. "Demons. They get their power from demons."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. And there's one here, now."

"Oh, what? you mean besides you?" Dean asked.

Ruby ignored him and stared at Sam. "Sam, it knows you're in town, and it's gonna come after you, and it's way more than you can handle."

"Oh come on, what is this, huh?" Dean asked and looked at Sam. "Please tell me you're not listening to this crap!"

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Put a leash on your brother, Sam, if you wanna keep him."

"Dean, look, just chill out," Sam said.

"No! No!" Dean shouted. "She's messing with your head. God knows why... that's who they are!"

"I'm telling you the truth," Ruby snapped.

"And I'm telling you to shut up, bitch," Dean growled.

"I'm sorry, why are you even a part of this conversation?!" Ruby yelled.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because he's my brother, you black-eyed skank!" Dean shouted.

"Oh, right, right. You care about your brother so much. That's why you're checking out in a few months, leaving him and your sister all alone?" Ruby asked.

"Shut up." Dean scoffed.

"At least let me try and save them since you won't be here to do it anymore," Ruby said.

"I said, shut up!" Dean shouted and pulled the trigger.

"Dean, no!" Sam yelled and pushed Dean's arm away as the colt fired.

The boys struggled with each other.

I ran up and shoved them. "Hey! Hey! Enough!"

They stopped instantly, and we looked over to where Ruby had been standing, but she had vanished. The boys pulled apart, and Dean shot Sam a look of disappointment, before throwing his arm around my shoulders and ushering me back to the Impala.

Dean sped us back to the motel in silence, but when we walked into our room, he let it all out.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Dean yelled.

"What?!" Sam asked, with his arms out. "What the hell was I thinking?" he asked sarcastically.

"She's a demon, Sam. Period. All right? They want us dead. We want them dead," Dean said.

"Oh, that's funny. I remember that demon chick in Ohio, Casey? You didn't want her dead," Sam said.

Dean nodded. "Yeah, well, she wasn't stringing me along like a fish on a hook."

Sam shook his head. "No one's stringing me along! Look, I know it's dangerous. That she is dangerous, but like it or not, she's useful."

"No! We kill her before she kills us," Dean demanded.

"Kill her with what? The gun she fixed for us?" Sam asked.

Dean shrugged. "Whatever works."

"Dean, if she wants us dead, all she has to do is stop saving our lives," Sam said.

Dean shook his head and turned away, walking into the bathroom and turning on the sink.

Sam sighed. "Look, we have to start looking at the big picture Dean, start thinking in strategies, and— and moves ahead."

Dean splashed some water on his face.

"It's not so simple, we're not— we're not just hunting anymore. We're at war," Sam continued.

Dean turned off the sink and dried his face with a towel, turning back to Sam. "Are you feeling okay?"

Sam sighed and sat on the foot of one of the beds. "Why are you always asking me that?"

"Because you're taking advice from a demon, for starters. And by the way, you seem less and less worried about offing people. Ya know, it used to eat you up inside," Dean said.

"Yeah, and what has that gotten me?" Sam asked.

Dean shrugged. "Nothing, but it's just what you're supposed to do, okay? We're supposed to drive in the friggin' car, and friggin' argue about this stuff. Ya know, you go on about the sanctity of life and all that crap."

Sam furrowed his brow. "Wait, so— so you're mad because I'm starting to agree with you?"

Dean looked at Sam and exhaled sharply. "No, I'm not mad, I'm— I'm— I'm worried, Sam—" He sat down on the foot of the other bed. "I'm worried because you're not acting like yourself."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I'm not." He shrugged. "I don't have a choice."

Dean shook his head. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Sam sighed. "Look, Dean, you're leaving... right? And I gotta stay here in this craphole of a world. I've gotta keep Maddi safe. So, the way I see it, if we're gonna make it, if we're gonna fight this war after you're gone, then I gotta change."

I looked down and sat on the couch, feeling almost ashamed that the worry of keeping me safe weighed so heavily on my brothers.

"Change into what?" Dean asked.

"Into you. I gotta be more like you," Sam said.

I looked up when I heard Dean groan painfully. He was clutching his stomach and looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"What's going on with you?" Sam asked, concerned.

Dean moved around in pain, still clutching his stomach. "I don't know." He bent over and gasped. "Oh... something's wrong... bunch of knives inside of me—"

Sam and I quickly approached him.

"Dean?" Sam asked and knelt in front of Dean, who now was bent over completely.

"Son of a bitch..." Dean groaned.

"Dean?" I asked as I rubbed his back, not knowing what to do.

"The coven... it's gotta be the coven." Dean groaned.

"Don't worry," Sam said and then got up, starting to search the room for a hex bag.

I ran into the bathroom and pulled everything out of the cupboards when I heard Dean scream out in pain. I turned and ran back into the room to see him coughing up blood and kneeling on the floor.

"Oh, god! Dean!" I ran to him and tried to support him. "Sam?!" I screamed as Dean collapsed onto his back on the floor, clutching his stomach and coughing up more blood.

Sam pulled out a knife and sliced through the mattresses but looked at me desperately. "I can't find it." He quickly rummaged through Dean's bag and pulled out the colt. He opened it and checked for bullets.

"Sam, what are you doing?" Dean asked weakly as he coughed up more blood.

Sam got up and looked at me, ignoring Dean's question. "I'm going to take care of this, you stay here with him."

I nodded, not even considering arguing.

"Sam!" Dean yelled as Sam ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

I sat next to Dean as he writhed in pain and coughed up more blood. I rubbed his back and brushed my fingers through his hair, tearing up, knowing all I could do was watch him die.

"Maddison..." Dean coughed.

"Yeah?" I sniffled.

"I just want you to know..." Dean coughed up more blood.

"Don't!" I cried. "Don't you do that... you're not going to die."

"Maddi..." Dean coughed.

I shook my head as tears streamed down my cheeks. "Not tonight... I'm not ready."

We jumped as the door was kicked in. We both looked up to see Ruby charging into the room.

"You wanna kill me? Get in line, bitch," Dean growled.

Ruby shoved past me, pushing me back. She grabbed Dean's collar and slammed him on the bed. I jumped up and ran over to her, but when I approached her, she was squirting black liquid from a leather bag into his mouth.

I grabbed her arm, trying to pull her off. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Maddi, it's okay," she said calmly as she continued squirting the liquid into his mouth.

Dean choked on the liquid and spit some back out, but he instantly stopped clutching his stomach and coughing up blood.

"Stop... calling me bitch." Ruby panted as she stood up.

I let go of her arm and stared at her in amazement. A moment later, Dean sat up.

Ruby backed off. "Next time you point that gun at me, I'm not gonna just disappear, understand?" She tossed Dean a sawed-off.

"You... saved my life," Dean said in awe.

Ruby shrugged. "Don't mention it."

"What was that stuff?" I asked.

Dean shook his head. "I don't know, but, god, it was ass. It tasted like ass."

I furrowed my brow at him.

Ruby rolled her eyes at him. "It's called witchcraft, short bus." She turned and walked out of the room, leaving the door open behind her.

Dean frowned. "You're the short bus... short bus," he mocked and then stood up, pulling me into a hard hug. "I'm not leaving you yet... okay?"

I nodded as a few more tears escaped, thinking about how close we had come to that not being true.

He kissed the side of my head. "Let's go."

After we made it back to the coven's neighborhood, Ruby showed us which house Sam was in, and Dean ran in. I chased after him, but when we entered, Sam was being held up against the wall by an invisible force.

The short-haired brunette woman turned to us with black eyes and then slammed Dean and me up against the wall by just raising her hand. "Three for one. Lovely."

Ruby entered a moment later. "Wait." Her hands were up in surrender. "Please. I just... came to talk." She put her hands down.

"You made it out of the gate. Impressive. That was a bitch of a fight, wasn't it?" the demon asked.

Ruby shrugged. "Doors out of Hell only open for so long."

"What do you want, Ruby?" the demon asked.

"I've been lost without you." Ruby advanced toward the demon. "Take me back. That's why I led the Winchesters here."

Dean looked angry and mouthed, "I told you so," to Sam.

"They're for you... as a gift," Ruby continued.

The demon raised her eyebrows. "Really?"

"Let me serve you again. I've wanted it— I've wanted you... for so long," Ruby said, almost seductively.

"You were one of my best." The demon smiled.

Ruby and the demon stared at each other for a moment. Then Ruby pulled out her knife and tried to stab the demon, but it caught it mid-air.

"But then again, you always were a lying whore," the demon said and sent the knife flying across the room.

Ruby and the demon fought, but the demon eventually sent her flying into the TV. Ruby got up and kicked the demon, but as she moved to run past her, she was clotheslined and fell flat on her back. The demon pulled Ruby up and threw her into a bookcase and then walked over to the fireplace and grabbed a poker.

Before the demon walked over to Ruby, she glared at Elizabeth, who was cowering next to the fireplace. After she looked away, Elizabeth slipped away into another room.

The demon walked over to Ruby, poker in hand. "You're really telling me you threw in your chips with these three here?"

Ruby panted as she tried to get up, but the demon hit her across the face with the poker.

"Come on. Get up!" the demon yelled.

Ruby panted, not moving, as blood dripped from her nose.

"I said, get up!" the demon yelled again, then tossed the poker to the side, and crouched over Ruby, grabbing her by her jacket and pulling her up. "We've been here before, haven't we?" She chuckled and looked at Sam. "She didn't tell you?" She turned back to Ruby. "Pretty mortifying, I guess. She was one of mine. I turned her out a long, long time ago. Ruby here was a witch. Of course, that was when you were human."

I furrowed my brow, not realizing that demons could have been humans in the past.

The demon threw Ruby back down on the debris of the bookshelf and stood up. "Didn't want your friends to know that all those centuries back, you sold yourself to me? Embarrassing, I guess. But don't worry, love, no secrets where you're heading, remember?" She started chanting, "Monyé valack forsa..."

Black demon smoke began curling out of Ruby's mouth.

"Ulu iri regatt ruac, fieesh nieesh forthsa lé inmist infirum forthsa por un betest a té un fornalles ecclaisee—" The demon stopped as she began to cough up blood and pins.

The three of us dropped from the wall, and the demon smoke re-entered Ruby's body. The demon looked up angrily in the direction that Elizabeth snuck off. She raised her right hand and clenched it into a fist.

Dean quickly jumped up while she was distracted, snatched Ruby's knife, and stabbed the demon in the back several times. The demon's body lit up and then dropped to the floor. Dean walked over to Sam and me and put a hand out to each of us, helping us up. We moved toward the door but stopped to look at Ruby, who was now standing.

"Go," she said, looking slightly embarrassed as she wiped the blood off her face. "I'll clean up this mess."

Dean nodded. "Come on."

We started walking but looked back at her one more time.

Ruby turned to us, and her eyes went black as she glared. "Go."

Dean turned and urged us out of the door.

When we made it back to the motel, Dean wanted to take a walk to get some air. Sam went into the bathroom and washed his face. I sat down on the foot of one of the beds and laid back, taking in everything that had happened.

"You all right?" Sam asked from the bathroom.

"Yeah..." I sighed. "Sam...?"

"Yeah?" he asked as he walked out and sat on the bed with me.

Tears filled my eyes as I looked up at him. "We have to save him."

Sam nodded and brushed his fingers through my hair, tears in his own eyes. "I know."