I do not own Supernatural or related creations made by the SP Crew.
GARTH
I stared at the screen, a little uncertain why he would be calling back so quickly.
"Hello, Garth, is everything alright?" If he noticed my confused and mildly concerned tone, he ignored it.
"Oracle, those cookies were amazing, where did you buy them?" He sounded happy.
"I made them. You called to tell me the cookies were good?" I asked with obvious disbelief.
"Yeah, they were great. Oh Yeah, Thanks for all the useful IDs and such, and that research was really great. Turns out those kids had tried to fake a burglary. Literally scared the poor guy to death." He was talking rather excitedly. If I didn't know any better I would say he was gushing.
"You called to thank me?" Honestly, my experience with hunters had not been super positive. Quickly I realized what the tone of my voice must have been, especially when this guy paused briefly.
"Wait, has no one said thank you?" He seemed mildly concerned by that thought.
"Apparently, I have only worked with assholes previously. I really appreciate the call Garth. Please let me know if you need anything, anything at all." This was a nice change of pace and I was pretty happy with this Garth guy.
"Thank you ma'am. Can I give your number to other hunters?" I could hear the trepidation in his voice. I could also hear a small voice in the back of my head saying that this was a terrible idea, but I knew I could track monsters better with more information
"Yes, In fact if you stay there I will have a fresh lunch and some cards to hand out. Give me about an hour." I waited instead of hanging up this time.
"Okay, are you sure it's no trouble?" He seemed cheerful but unsure.
"Absolutely." I hung up then and hurried to make a triple stack, triple meat sandwich with seasoned mayo and various toppings.
I threw in the rest of the cookies and a small box of cards I had made mostly to annoy the Campbells and Crowley.
They had the same text that was on the boxes: Oracle Courier Services: Don't ask how, You probably don't want to know. With the exception of having a phone number and the symbol for hunters in the background.
I sent a text to Ana.
DELIVERY.
Ana appeared shortly and stared at the box. "Independent hunter?"
I nodded, "If we are lucky there will be more."
She frowned, "I will have to tell his…..Crowley"
She still reverted to referring to Crowley with respect when she felt I was stirring up trouble. I waved her off, "It will be fine, I know what I am doing. It will be to his benefit in the end."
After a brief pause I added, "You are still invited to movie night if you want to join me."
She rolled her eyes and disappeared with the box. I had begun to write the name and addresses on them, Ana didn't like small talk and preferred to read and go. Personally, I thought the names I used for some deliveries were amusing, but I never could tell with demons. They weren't really the emotional type.
Then again, demons were practically drama club teenagers compared to angels. The angels I had interacted with so far had the personality of dry toast. Castiel was pleasant but definitely limited on his expression of emotion.
As far as hunters went, I only really interacted with the Campbells and most of them detested me. The exception was Samuel, who saw me as both a necessity of working with Crowley and the only person not sick of helping him with technology.
There was another exception, Sam. I didn't know much about him, except that he only worked with the Campbells from time to time and was considered family. It occurred to me that maybe, it was something I should change.
The phone rang a couple of times before he picked up, I heard the soft click and immediately began to speak.
"Hello, This is Oracle. I have a case for you." I was met with a short silence.
"Why are you calling me? Don't you work with the Campbells?" Sam's tone wasn't rude, just curious.
I decided that honestly was probably the best policy here.
"I don't get along with most of the Campbell clan. They tend to be quite rude with the exception of Samuel." I hesitated before adding to my statement.
"I was under the impression that you were one of the family and you have always been civil to me." I trailed off, uncertain how he would respond.
There was a brief pause before he asked me what the case was. He didn't seem like the social type but at least he wasn't rude.
I had just sent the package containing a sandwich lunch with Ana who seemed particularly shaken by having to make this delivery when Crowley appeared.
The glass of lemonade I was holding exploded when he tapped me on the shoulder. "Seriously Crowley, we talked about this."
He smirked, "I do recall you asking me to stop sneaking up on you. However, you get an opinion, not a vote."
He leaned in to have an impromptu staring contest before grabbing my hand and examining it. He held it up for me to see a tiny cut heal. "You are tapping into demonic abilities passively now. Time to push you further."
I sighed, "The last time you said that I had a seizure and was unconscious for two days."
He waved a hand, "I fixed it."
I corrected him, "Castiel fixed it."
Crowley ignored my statement, "Also, Ana tells me you want to help hunters that do not work for me." There was an underlying steel to his statement.
I rolled my shoulders back and stood a little straighter. "Ana lacks an understanding of what you are trying to accomplish. More hunters means I get more information for you. I will have favors to cash in and more importantly, none of them will hesitate to share info with a resource that helps them at no cost…...besides I am very bored."
As soon as I said it, I regretted it. Crowely smiled a genuinely happy smile, the regret grew stronger.
"I would hate for such a valuable employee to be so unhappy." He raised his hand and snapped his fingers, forcing the demon currently inside my body to exit. It hovered over my head as a literal dark cloud as I coughed and choked from it's sudden departure.
I finally gathered my voice, "Why did you feel the need to do that without warning?"
Crowley smirked, "Are you still bored?" He barely paused before continuing, "I want to see if you can stop a possession entirely before it takes hold."
My eyes flicked up to the cloud above me, "I am not sure I can do that, I have never done it before. What makes you think I can?" I looked back down to Crowley and noticed he had his serious face on.
He walked over, placing a hand on my chin forcIng me to look him in the eye, "It's easy to miss, but I think housing a demon may be changing you."
He let go and took a step back, "Now, first attempt to stop it while prepared, nod when you are ready."
I took a deep breath, I didn't think it was possible but I would try, there was no arguing with Crowley when he felt like playing scientist. I decided to try to focus on the present moment and place during this. It helped with panic attacks at least.
I took another deep breath before nodding to Crowley, who snapped his fingers again. There was instantly a haze of black smoke surrounding me.
Five things I can see. Crowley, my computer, my kitchen table, black smoke, the ceiling.
Four things I can hear. Wind (The smoke I think), Crowley tapping on his phone, my mother crying….Wait no, my phone is ringing, yelling (I think it might be me.)
Three things I can touch. I can feel the fabric of the jeans I am wearing, the sensation of smoke trying to force its way into my throat and nose, carpet under my hands….that's not right I am standing up...my fingernails digging into my palm.
Two things I can smell. The strong odor of sulfur and the remnant smell of pot.
I opened my eyes to glare at my brother. This was another memory, I knew that but I couldn't stop myself from reliving it anyway. In some ways it was a relief to see my brother, then again, this was not a happy memory.
He held my mother in one of his arms, not a hug. He was shouting at my aunt that he would break our mother's neck if my aunt came any closer to him.
I had already tried to get her free and my brother batted me away like a small annoying bug with almost no effort at all. That wasn't a surprise, at the age of eleven I was maybe ninety pounds soaking wet.
He looked down at my mother, voice blended between rage and sorrow, "Why'd you call the cops, You shouldn't have called them!"
My mother simply sobbed, she had thought she was doing the right thing. Finding drugs in her son's room had frightened her and she didn't know what else to do. He had run away several times at this point and she found that she could not reach her sixteen year old son by any amount of talking or therapy. So she called the police, they came, took the drugs, and put a warrant out for his arrest. I think she thought that Juvie would do what she couldn't.
Now he was threatening her life, high on anger and probably some illegal substance. I sat there uselessly on the floor, the side of my face throbbing from the punch I took, gripping the carpet of our apartment in my hands. I glanced up to see my uncle sneaking behind my brother with a cast iron pan. Maybe it was the look on his face, but my uncle was going to swing with all his might and it didn't seem to occur to him that my mother was still there.
Another thought struck me, that pan could kill my brother. Did I want him to die?
I saw my uncle heft the pan over his shoulder and began to panic. Before I knew it I had closed my eyes, uncertain who exactly I was concerned for and shouted, "NO! DON'T!"
When I opened my eyes again I was sitting in my computer chair breathing heavily, Crowley was smiling at me like he had just finished torturing someone. At least he seemed pleased.
"15 minutes, You kept from being possessed for 15 minutes." He was very pleased indeed.
I stared at him in disbelief, "15 minutes, It felt like seconds." I stood up to pace and immediately regretted it as my legs gave out from under me.
Crowley walked over to stand over me, "This is great, with more practice, I won't need to worry about my secrets being stolen from your head. I was concerned that I would have to fire you." He feigned a sad look.
I lifted myself onto my elbows to look at him, "You mean kill me." Then I felt nauseous and aimed for Crowley's shoes.
Crowley laughed, "These are Italian and coming out of your salary."
I laughed before throwing up again and losing consciousness.
I woke up still on the floor, next to a dried puddle of vomit. I took a small amount of joy in the shoe shaped voids left by Crowley's ill fated shoes before scraping myself off of the floor and sitting back in my chair. My phone was ringing again so I picked it up without checking the ID.
"Oracle." I winced at the rough sound of my voice.
"Hey, I got your number from another hunter, he said you were good and a nice lady to boot. You got anything that can melt a diamond? Sorry to be rude, but we are running out of time here." The voice sounded stressed out but sincere.
"Something is haunting a diamond?" This was genuinely interesting. The hunter filled me in immediately.
"At first I thought it was a cursed object but it's a ghost, an old one. No body, so I burned the ring, but the ghost is still around. The diamond didn't burn. That has to be what the ghost is attached to." The guy didn't sound panicked, but definitely sounded like he had no idea what to do.
"You can destroy a diamond at around 1,000 degrees….mostly. What's your location?" I really liked this part, helping people help. Maybe it was cheesy but there it was.
"Scottsbluff, Colorado. 1,000 degrees?" The concern in his voice was valid.
"Don't worry, I got you covered. Get safe for the next hour. I will call you back with a plan." I hung up and took a deep breath. I knew what I had to do, I just wasn't one hundred percent sure that I could pull it off.
I looked up cemetery and funeral home combos in the area. There was a catholic cemetery with a church and full service funeral home on the site within an hour of the town. Perfect. I called the church number. It was the evening so at least I wouldn't disturb anyone too badly.
A man with a gentle voice answered the phone. "St Mary's, This is Father Paul, how can I help you?"
I hesitated, I was about to lie a whole bunch to a priest, was this really okay? Then I remembered who I was employed by and inwardly sighed. "Father, I was hoping you could assist me with a rather strange request. Could you go and speak to my brother? He is having a crisis of faith and I am deeply concerned for him. He is an hour out and you are the closest catholic priest to him. Please, we recently lost our mother and I can't make it to the area until tomorrow at the earliest."
The Priest seemed to hesitate for a moment before asking me for an address. I gave him one an hour and a half in the opposite direction of the hunter, thanked him profusely and ended the call.
Thirty minutes, that took less time than I thought. I decided to call the new hunter back. "Oracle here, you need to haul ass to the address I am about to send to you. They have a crematorium that burns hot enough to destroy the diamond. It won't completely melt but it should get the job done. I have cleared the main inhabitant, but you have a time limit and it's possible others may be present. Give me an address to send a goodie bag just in case."
There was a pause, before the hunter hesitantly asked, "Will there be cookies?...Garth said you gave him some pretty tasty cookies."
I held back a laugh, "Sure, I will send cookies as well. Chocolate chip or Snicker doodle?."
He simply asked, "Both?" and then he gave me an address.
It didn't take long to pack up some iron rings, extra salt, and a pile of cookies.
Honestly, I didn't think that of everything in my life, the cookies would be the thing to haunt me endlessly.
It started slowly, I would get calls mostly from Garth, the Campbells, and shockingly enough, Sam. He had apparently enjoyed the free lunches that came with interacting with me and decided to call me more often. He even engaged in conversation with me. However, on occasion I began to get calls asking for "The Cookie Lady."
I thought it was a joke, as I had only sent cookies to two people, so I told the callers they had the wrong number. It wasn't until the third call that someone said, "Why would Garth give me the wrong number?" that I had the sinking feeling I knew who "The Cookie Lady" was.
"Wait, Garth gave you this number?" I asked, hoping to catch this hunter before he hung up.
"Well, yeah, said you helped hunters and gave him the tastiest cookies he ever had. Said I should call you if I ever needed anything." The guy seemed more excited about the cookies rather than anything else.
"Yeah, he gave you the right number, but my name is Oracle, not 'The Cookie Lady." I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice as he told me what he needed and asked if I could make White Chocolate macadamia nut cookies. I really hated that I knew the recipe.
After sending off another package with Ana, I called Garth.
No answer. So I sent a text, asking him to call me back regarding how he introduced me to people. No immediate response, but a few hours later I received a response from him that simply stated:
Everyone loves cookies.
I knew three things right then.
One. I could never let Crowley, demons, angels, or the Campbells find out about this.
Two. Apparently, I needed to have a stockpile of cookies on hand.
Three. Garth was going to pay for this somehow.