Astoria is a beautiful city, full of lies and deceit. Just like any other city Fas had ever been in.
The demon took a deep breath and felt the coastal air. Fas liked to stroll along the empty quays and indulge in her pipe dreams. Once upon a time she had been a simple crossroads demon. A dull but terribly boring job. She hated humans, so when she worked with them she felt only despondent and dismissive. And then it all went to shit!
Fas would never forget how Caroline had locked her in the mirrors of her house, condemning the demon to watch the world from a distance for a decade. From the world of the Looking Glass, where only loneliness and darkness surrounded her. At times she could break free, inhabit the body of a man whose mind was weak and foolish enough to resist, but the prison beckoned back.
The waterfront was empty, which was to be expected from a small town of no more than ten thousand people.
Fas couldn't move. It stressed her terribly. She used to treat her helplessness in the realm of teleportation normally, but at the moment the demon regretted that she had once traded the ability for a young body, which, to Fas' great regret, turned out to be defective. Demons cheat on each other too. No diabolical solidarity!
Fas decided to get out of town quickly, but to do so she would have to find a car. But the demon's ability to drive the strange contraption was nil. She had no choice but to hitch a ride and flee from the hunters and their feathered friend.
He stumbled upon the notorious Winchesters! Their fame had seeped even into her little prison.
Fas sensed danger as she turned off the boardwalk toward the local bar. The Winchesters were looking for her, but the demon wasn't ready to face them now. Strength, already, was barely enough for the witch who fought hard for her body. Even her fears did not help her victory.
A motel caught the demon's eye, its shabby sign warning of its cheapness, but Fas had no choice but to lay low there. At least until the Winchesters lost her from their radar. Though the demon couldn't figure out how they found her.
Inside the motel it smelled musty and musty and human sweat. There was a kid in a wrinkled T-shirt at the front desk. His nametag read "Colin," which Fass thought was a hideous name. But the demon was attracted by his appearance. Fas smiled predatorily at Colin.
- I need a spare room. Now. And you won't ask for anything in return.
Colin sank into the demon's hypnotic gaze and handed her the key to the room as if in a haze.
- Good boy," Fas said and patted the boy's cheek. - Perhaps I'll play with you again.
Caroline Blackwood was not herself. At least Archie saw the witch moving chaotically around the house in a panic. From corner to corner. And wiping away her tears. The lad didn't know how to comfort an elderly woman who had lost her husband, whom she probably loved to pieces. Archie sighed heavily as silence fell in the house. The lad heard no more footsteps. This alarmed him. As was the fact that his dream from three years ago was coming true with phenomenal accuracy.
The witch froze in place and stared through the wall. Blackwood seemed to have aged several decades. She'd wrinkled her face, seen the shadows beneath her eyes.
- It was my fault! - A shrill voice boomed through the room, making Archie feel even more regretful. - I should have checked the mirrors more often. All the deaths are on my conscience. My daughter, now Kevin. How am I going to live without him?!
- You shouldn't blame yourself. It could have happened...
- No! Caroline interrupted Archie. - Я. Just me. Bad mother. Always thinking only of the greatness of our kind. I was always pushing my daughter with my dreams of powerful magic. Cassie bonded with a demon because of me, because of my ambition. My daughter made a deal that her firstborn would be a vessel for the demon in exchange for powerful magic. And she died. The demon tricked her.
Archie got up from his chair and walked over to the elderly woman. He couldn't bear to watch her tear herself apart any longer. Archie put his arm around the witch and stroked her back.
- You, like any mother, wanted the best for your child, for your family. You made Cleo into a wonderful person.
Mrs Blackwood pulled away from Mitchell.
- You're a good boy, Archie. I'd love it if you really were my granddaughter's boyfriend.
- Did you know?!
- I should probably get some fresh air. I still can't believe he's gone. Maybe I should go after Kevin. I can't imagine life without him.
- Don't be ridiculous.
The Winchesters had been searching for the witch all over Astoria for the past hour. Dean doubted SHE was here, but Cass insisted - Cleo's soul was still in this town, so the demon was nearby.
- Your radar's malfunctioning, Cass! One minute we're looking for her on one side of town, the next she's on the other. - Dean pressed harder on the gas as the car headed for the coast.
- She's close. I can feel it. - said the angel and listened for something, probably keeping an eye on Clio. Except how, he didn't explain.
- Why can you feel her? - Sam turned to the angel. - Earlier you said Clio was hidden from you.
Sam paid attention to the angel's appearance. There was tension in his whole posture and even in his gaze, as if the angel was running through everything his ward was feeling.
- I'm not sure exactly, but it's probably because I'm a guardian angel. For the moment. And I saw her body and her soul. She is just as I imagined Clio to be. The girl flickers occasionally in my thoughts.
Dean grimaced at Cass's last phrase.
- You know, even though I don't know Clio at all, I don't like you paying attention to her body and soul. She is, after all, my sister. Even if she is a witch.
- Oh! You're finally admitting to the addition to our family? - Sam looked at Dean with interest.
- No!" Dean barked, and pushed the accelerator even harder into the body of the car, as there was no one in the driveway. - But I don't like the idea of someone, like an angel, picturing the Winchester in his head.
- I don't understand you, Dean. Guardian angels often see the souls of their charges. I can assure you Cleo's soul is pure and burns brighter than the sun, even now. In fact, her hair is also connected to the sun. Sometimes the body is a reflection of the soul.
- I told you so! - Dean exclaimed, gripping the steering wheel tighter.
- Don't mind him, Cass. My brother's probably just pouting because you weren't his Guardian Angel.
Cass sometimes didn't understand Dean. Winchester remained an enigma that was hard to solve. Castiel loved his best friend. In his own way, but loved him nonetheless. Lately, however, there had been some tension between them. Dean often watched his friend for a long time, as if searching for something. Angel could not understand Winchester's behavior and tried to avoid Dean, who looked as if not at him, but only at his vessel.
He couldn't think of his best friend right now, though. The same song played in his mind. Clio probably loved it and was trying to soothe himself that way. It wasn't that Angel heard the girl's voice, he felt it more. The soft timbre enveloped every particle of Castiel's mind. The girl couldn't sing, but there was something mysterious hidden in every word that made the angel's vessel heart flutter. Cass put it down to the malleability of the human body, but he knew deep down that he was the malleable one.
The words of the song became clearer and clearer. Angel could feel the despair mingled with fear in every line of the song. His ward was suffering and perhaps seeing the death of a complete man.
- Dean, stop the car. She's here. Close by.
Dean complied with Cass's order or request, though he didn't know what to call what he was doing himself. Angel got out of the car and froze near the intersection. Passers-by looked at him obliquely. Not only was he a stranger in a town where everyone knew each other by sight, but Cass was also acting suspicious as he twirled his head from side to side, trying to catch a glimpse of direction.
After a few minutes, Angel returned to the car, but didn't get into it, just pointed his brothers to the shabby sign of a cheap motel.
Clio was back in her dorm room. There was silence all around. Not a single memory haunted her for hours. Or days. Clio was confused, though. The girl had always had trouble feeling herself in time and space.
The girl's heart beat anxiously in her chest. Clio sensed a loss. But the witch couldn't understand the reason. Something terrible had happened-a deep sadness lodged somewhere deep within. She could not allow herself to move as if her very soul opposed every action - one swing and shards scattered on the ground. The girl lost a piece of herself, tears welling up in her eyes.
Clio often listened to her senses. Often the premonitions proved true.
Just like that time.
His name was Tom. A very ordinary name and appearance, but Clio literally idolised her boyfriend's every action. Thomas was sweet and funny, his eyes splashed with bitter chocolate mixed with tart whiskey, and a funny smile played on his face all the time. Clio loved him, or so she thought.
A first love doesn't go away without a trace. Thomas gave the girl the best memories from her teenage years, the ability to play the guitar and the eternal longing for his smell.
The smell of gingerbread and cheap cigarettes.
Thomas loved Clio, but never insisted on more. Kissing was fine with him, he was always reverent even about it. Clio was a ray of light to him in the dark realm of a drunken father and a promiscuous mother.
But life is cruel. Clio was now twenty-four and Tom was still a sixteen-year-old. The car hit his vital organs. Died on the spot, and with it died the love just gaining momentum in the young witch's heart.
The rosebud had not yet blossomed and it had already been brutally cut by the gardener on the orders of his mistress. God of Death.
After Thomas's death, life was divided into before and after. Childhood was over. Clio had grown up and completely lost the sense to go on living. Not to see his brown eyes, not to touch his lips - her heart clenched every time Clio remembered his elusive gentle touch.
Since Tom's death, Clio hadn't been able to build a normal relationship. For eight years the girl had been in mourning. Attempts had been made, but in each one Clio looked for Tom. A ray of light. But she couldn't find it.
- Silence and coldness all around, as if a nerve wire had been ripped out.
Clio decided to calm herself by singing the very song Tom played in the evenings on his guitar. It reminded her of him, gave her warmth and peace of mind. Even though the content of the song was disgusting.
After wiping away the tears that had formed, Clio got up from the floor and resolutely headed for the exit of her dorm room. The girl decided that she was the mistress here. The demon was in her mind, after all, and Clio would make sure that Fas herself would want to leave her body as soon as possible.
"Clio, can you hear me?"
The girl flinched in surprise and immediately covered her ears. The voice was loud and echoed around her as if it had come from nowhere. It was quite low and deep, belonging to a man.
"We'll help you soon."
- Who are you? - Clio said and turned the doorknob, intending to leave her dungeon. The girl heard nothing else but the all-consuming emptiness of her own mind. Silence. Deaf and impenetrable.
- Am I already having auditory hallucinations, or is this another of the demon's tricks?
There was a blackness outside the room, Clio suspected that the cause of the darkness around her was her long depression, the psychologist sessions were not helping much, and the desire to die or go to the edge of the world was growing exponentially. Neither university, nor work, nor friends helped. Everything got mixed up, turning into a huge pile. A heap of his own waste.
The darkness was surprisingly light and didn't press on Clio, but because of the darkness the girl didn't know where to go. There was nothing around.
The girl wandered around the back of her mind for quite some time. Nevertheless, the darkness had stopped thickening and the colour was changing.
The demon was pretty easy to catch. Dean even rejoiced at the event and clapped the angel on the back. But neither Cass nor Sam shared the same sentiment as the older Winchester.
- What?!
- We only managed to catch it, but there's hard work ahead. We need to exorcise the demon. - Sam said and gently placed Clio's body in the backseat.
Dean didn't like having his sister's head on the angel's lap. Let it be just a body. Winchester couldn't accept having an adult sister with her own life, her own family. Without him. Without his recriminations about boys. And once again his father was cheating, hiding everything from them, as if his daughter had never existed in his life.
Cass felt a strange shudder, feeling the weight of another man's body in his lap. Or rather it wasn't a foreign body. It was Clio. His ward. The most beautiful creature he had ever met. He could not describe the girl's appearance in words, but he could feel her soul with precision. Gentle, kind and broken.
All that mixed with despair. But Clio didn't give up. She struggled - Castiel could feel the witch taking one step at a time, emerging from the darkness of her mind. The angel couldn't see what was happening around Clio, but he could feel it.
- We'll help you soon. - Cass said and stroked the girl's head, hoping that the touch would be felt by Clio and not the demon.
- Who are you? - the body whispered, startling everyone, including the angel, who hadn't expected the answer.
- If it's a demon, knock it out without a second thought. - Dean said, and pushed the gas even harder.
- It's not a demon. Cleo heard me. She's very strong. She's fighting. Just not much strength left.
Suddenly the bright light came through the Impala, and her hair gleamed like gold.
- It was true - the sun!