Welcome to the Club

I have this feeling that my luck is none too good
This sword here at my side don't act the way it should
Keeps calling me it's master, but I feel like it's slave
Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave.

Black Blade, Blue Oyster Cult

Dean had driven for 30 minutes when his cell phone rang. He was going to make sure that it didn't take them another 30 minutes to get back to Kole's. His foot was getting heavier and heavier on the gas pedal.

"Dean," Sam said, knuckles turning whiter at the same rate that Dean's foot got heavier, "I'm all for getting back as quick as possible, but we need to get there in one piece." Dean's eyes never left the road, but his lips got tighter. "Just… remember that the roads are slick."

The return trip was taking only half the time. When they pulled off the state route, Dean slowed a bit. The back roads are never as clear as the main, and he knew that the temperature outside had only gotten colder so there was no chance of the slush melting.

"So," Sam said after taking a deep breath, "what's the plan? We don't know what's going on. How can we be ready when we don't know what we're up against?"

"Right now," Dean told him, eyes scanning the whole of his surroundings, "I'm more worried about not giving anyone the head's up that we're coming. You know how quiet it was at Kole's. How are we going to sneak up in the car through slush? And the grass is frozen…"

But Dean stopped mid-sentence and they both heard it. Music. Incredibly loud music that seemed to be coming from Kole's house.

"I don't think sneaking up will be a problem," Sam said, baffled. Dean pulled the Impala to the curb in front of the house and they both got out, shutting the doors lightly even though the music was so loud that they could have slammed the doors and no one would have noticed. The large front window was shattered with only a stray jagged edge here and there.

The music was coming from the back of the house, as well as a strange orange light that Dean and Sam were all too familiar with. Fire.

As they crept around the house, they saw students, about 100 if they had to guess, in the yard. They were singing along to the music and dancing as if they were at a party. In fact, with the bonfire and the alcohol, there was no doubt that this was a party.

Instantly, Sam figured out who the hosts of the party were. While everyone seemed to be wearing homemade pentagrams or upside-down crosses or other such symbols, there were half dozen male students that were dressed all in black with red tape on their backs that looked a bit like the letter 'Z'.

Pointing the 'Z's out to Dean, Sam started walking toward a familiar face.

"Marcus," Sam called to him. The kid turned around and almost tripped over his own feet, clearly drunk.

"Hey man," Marcus slurred, "awesome party, huh?"

"Yeah," Sam said with sarcasm that Marcus was too inebriated to notice, "what's it for?"

"Oh," Marcus hiccupped and almost fell again, this time knocking into the girl he had been dancing with, "you know. We're just havin' some fun, blowin' off steam. Pretty cool, yeah?"

After almost being knocked over, the girl with Marcus made her drunken way over to Sam.

"It's, like, a trick, you know," she babbled, "'coz'a that teacher. She's always talkin' 'bout this kinda stuff. So, Marcus decided to have it for real!" She laughed and Sam smelled the stale beer on her breath. "See!" She pointed to the back of Marcus' shirt.

"Yeah, man," he laughed, "it means fire!"

"No," Dean stepped in, "it means 'yew'." Marcus and the girl were clearly confused by what Dean had said, but Dean didn't notice. "That," he said, nodding toward the back of Kole's house, "means fire."

Sam followed Dean's glare. Between the house and the bonfire, there was a small deck. Walking out of the back door onto it were men dressed in scarlet robes and masks, and each had a gold chain around his neck with the correct symbol for fire hanging from it. At the end of the procession came a man pushing a wheeled office chair in front of him.

Before the man had even removed the scarlet hood from her head, Dean and Sam knew it was Kole. And, by the way the hood was bowing forward; they knew she was not conscious. Or rather, they hoped that she was merely unconscious. She was taped to the chair with duct tape. Her forearms were wrapped to the arms of the chair, palm up. Her ankles and feet were awkwardly taped to two of the wheeled chair legs.

Dean and Sam began moving toward the deck as inconspicuously as they could, but the partiers were too drunk to notice anything but their own dancing and drinking more beer, and the robed men were too involved in reciting a chant that neither Winchester could hear.

"Now what?" Sam asked Dean. "This doesn't look familiar to me. How do we get her away from them…" But he didn't have time to finish the thought.

The robed men had apparently finished their chant and were ready to move on. The hood was removed from Kole's head and one of the men walked forward and gave her a vicious backhand across her face. She slowly came to with the shake of her head and tried to process what was happening.

"OK," Dean said, "there're nine of those guys. How many do you think you can handle?"

"What?" Sam stared at him in disbelief.

At that point, the robed man who seemed to be the leader walked behind Kole and the rest of the group parted, half to each side of the deck. Kole had begun trying to twist in the chair to free herself from the tape, but the leader leaner over and said something in her ear. She flinched but then looked determined and started moving around again.

The man then grabbed her by the hair, pulled her head back, and removed a knife from somewhere inside his robe that made Crocodile Dundee's blade look like a pairing knife. Dean and Sam began making their way through the crowd of drunken students toward the deck as quick as they could. But, before they could get there, Kole had managed to slip one of her feet out of her immobile hiking boots and kick back.

She knocked the leader off guard and while he staggered, she removed her other foot from her boot. The man righted himself, spun her around to face him, and swung the knife across her arms. She almost kicked herself backward enough to get out of the way, but not quite. The blade sliced across both of her palms. She clenched her teeth and cried out in pain.

The commotion on the mock-altar was finally noticed by a student or two and the murmurs began filtering through the crowd. The kids stopped dancing, which helped Dean and Sam forge a path much easier. They were able to take the robed men on one side of the deck by surprise, but that still left four men advancing on the two of them.

Luckily, the robed men didn't draw out any knives of their own. Also, they didn't seem to know what to do when the boys fought back. The Winchesters easily out-maneuvered them, but that still left the knife-wielding leader.

The leader had pulled the weapon back again to strike, but with her legs free, Kole dug one heel into the ground and kicked the other directly at the man's knee. When the two connected, he let out a howl, dropped the knife, and stumbled backward.

Dean and Sam reached her and each began peeling at the tape on her arms.

"Look out!" she yelled, as a couple of the robed men and some of the students started to rush at them. Dean ran and dove into the small mob while Sam wheeled Kole the opposite way.

But, because neither of them were looking forward, the leader was able to take them by surprise. Just as Kole turned, he struck her with a right cross that sent both her and Sam off the deck. Sam took advantage of the damage Kole had done to the man's knee, leg-locked him, and knocked him off his feet without much difficulty. He then ripped the last of the tape from Kole's wrists.

"You OK?" he asked as he helped her to her feet.

"Yeah," she said as she trembled, "where's Dean?" Sam whipped his head around and ran over to where his brother had nearly finished off the last of the drunken college students. One of the robed men was coming up behind Dean unnoticed and Sam stepped in before the man could land a punch.

Without warning, Kole's house began spewing flames. The students, who had been hypnotized by the battle, now came to life and began screaming and scampering about. Dean and Sam jumped from the deck and away from the fire, but they were separated by the flock of students.

"Sam!" Dean yelled. He looked around and saw the robed leader running the best he could toward the school and realized that he must be chasing Kole, but his bother was being propelled toward the front of the house in the opposite direction. He reached into his pocket for the keys to the Impala and, when Sam met his eyes through the crowd, Dean threw the keys to him.

Sam caught the keys easily over the heads of the students. He saw Dean turn around and make his way towards the college. Unlike Sam, Dean was not being slowed down by students and he quickly disappeared from sight. Once Sam got to the car, the problem became steering clear of the still-frantic kids.

Dean sprinted as fast as he could through the trees to try and catch up with Kole. He was gaining, but luckily the robed leader wasn't because of his injured knee. Dean didn't see Kole, but was able to follow the trail of blood she was leaving behind.

When he reached the college quad, the blood trail stopped, but he had a pretty good idea of where she went. He finally caught up with her in the South Hall.

"Kole!" She whirled around, ready to strike, but Dean caught her hands before she could do any harm. She let out a relieved sigh. "You OK?"

"I'll be fine," she said, taking a deep breath. "I just need my stuff." Dean looked at her, but then shook his head.

"OK," he grabbed the doorknob to her office but it wouldn't turn, "I don't suppose you have the key on you."

"Dean," she little more than whispered, "my boss just tried to kill me. I'm really not worried about the door staying intact." She took a step back and took a breath as she positioned herself to drive her shoulder into the door.

"Wait," Dean told her, and then kicked the door in himself.

"Thanks," she mumbled and ran into the office. She grabbed a backpack that was behind her desk, threw the leather case of DVD-Rs into it, and zipped it. Then, just as quickly, she pulled out a case that, to Dean, looked like something a sniper would carry his rifle in. She yanked the laptop cord from the wall and shoved it all unceremoniously into the case. "OK," she said.

"OK," he said back, and grabbed the backpack from the desk.

They made for the door, but as Dean was passing the threshold, the robed leader was running in. They collided and the force knocked them both backward. It was an immediate domino effect as Dean then fell back into Kole, who in turn stumbled and hit the concrete wall. Hard.

Dean was quicker to stand than the robed man and, deciding that he had had enough, punched him, left then right, and knocked the man out cold. He turned around to see Kole struggling to remain conscious herself, and immediately knew why. There was blood on the wall and a fresh gash across her temple.

"OK," he said, putting her arm around his shoulder and his around her waist, "you can do it. We're almost done. We're almost out of here." He grabbed the backpack and the laptop case; they stepped over the robed man, and left the office.

Dean was careful to take in his surroundings. He wasn't about to let one of those freaks catch him off-guard again. They made it outside just as Sam skidded to a stop in front of them.