A/N: This chapter's shorter, but it's a set up for what's to come! Stick around and I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 10
The Impala was silent as Dean drove toward the Nature Park. Both men were lost in thought as the ground slithered beneath the tires of the car. Dean was concentrating completely on the road, and Sam's eyes were turned to the window where he was watching the scenery pass by in a blur that should have been slower. Dean had a tendency to speed. In times of crisis, such as this, the rules of the road seemed to slip his mind and he focused on one thing and one thing only. Actually, he focused on two things: killing the thing they were after and making sure Sammy made it through the ordeal alive.
"Modern measures won't work..." Dean was running through possibilities in his head, yet his thoughts were occasionally being voiced aloud.
"No." Sam answered.
"You're certain?"
"I think so." Sam replied.
"You think, you don't know?"
"Not for sure, but there's a good chance that I'm right."
"Getting a bit cocky, aren't ya, Sammy?" Dean asked, his eyes were still locked on the road and didn't turn to Sam.
Sam didn't answer. He didn't know how to respond to that. No, he wasn't certain that modern measures wouldn't work, but everything he'd learned from his visions told him not to count on killing it. Nobody attempting to do so had ever survived. That meant that the demon may have been able to be killed by the measures that he and Dean were used to, but there was still the ever-looming threat that both of them would end up like all those before them who had tried to do away with it and failed. Dead.
"Lemme see the papers, Dean." Sam requested. He'd read them before, but he wanted to be sure he wasn't missing something.
Distractedly, Dean plunged his hand into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the crumpled sheets of notebook paper that he'd torn from the book at the Dayton house. He handed then to Sam, who accepted them with a curt 'thanks' and unfolded them to read. Silence descended upon the interior of the Impala once again as Sam read the notes. Dean kept his eyes on the sunlit road.
The late afternoon sun was just beginning to settle over the town of Serenity and Dean wondered all at once where the daylight had gone. Then he remembered. He'd spent the vast majority of it in the hospital waiting for news on his baby brother, whom he cared so deeply for. That's where the light had gone, it'd slipped through his fingers without him even noticing, or really caring. His concern had lain with Sam. Now, the evening lights danced gracefully through the clouds and sent gentle glares against Dean's face. He quickly pulled the sun visor down and kept driving.
The sign for the Nature Park was not more than twenty feet in front of him and he looked for the road that would take him there. He found it, nestled in the trees, snuggled against the earth that sunbathed in the early evening light falling over them. The sky was turning dark, but there was still enough day to illuminate the way to where they had to go. Dean took the turnoff and settled the Impala into a parking space next to the green velvet of a freshly mowed lawn that hugged the edge of a dense forest. Dean could sense the many animals watching him, but none of them were what the brothers were hunting. No, the thing they were hunting was hidden in the deepest shadows that raided the forest and rampaged over the dimly lit earth.
Dean shut off the engine and the silence dove in to claim him once more. A deeper, darker silence than what had been invading the Impala previously. This silence held secrets that should never be told, it protected one of the many forms that evil took while walking amongst people. It was absolutely shattering and every nerve ending in Dean's body told him that whatever was waiting for them along that trail was nothing, but bad news.
He turned to Sam, who was apprehensively gazing beyond the glass and into the parking lot. His face was grim, and lines of tension stretched around his eyes and mouth. He held the papers in steady hands and the hastily drawn sketch of the demon stared up at him through the eyes that proved evil existed. The eyes that drilled into his soul and ripped savagely at his consciousness. The eyes of the demon that aimed at invisible targets on the backs of the Winchester brothers. The demon definitely wasn't something to look forward to, but he already knew that. He and Dean both knew that and nothing was going to change it.
"Find anything useful in those notes?" Dean asked finally. The words broke the silence that surrounded them into a million pieces too small for the human eye to see.
"It's a type of Saenu, but we already suspected that. However, it seems to be advanced. It can control or take the form of someone so that it can walk among the humans as convincingly as you or I are able to do. Also, it says here that it might possibly have the power to bend time, or use the black arts. It can summon the dead, Dean. It can summon the dead in spirit form to do its bidding." Sam replied, motioning to the papers he held. His words were hollow and his voice was coolly composed. Then again, why shouldn't it be? They fought evil everyday. They knew that the supernatural existed, it wasn't anything they hadn't seen before.
Actually, it was. They'd never seen this type of demon in their travels. Never had they encountered something able to do all that Sam had said. Saenu demons were supposed to be extinct. Clearly, one still walked and this one was more powerful than any that came before it. The hands that held the notes tightened their grip and the knuckles turned white with the force being exerted. Dean watched his brother's hands through eyes that held a world of guilt, anger and worry swirling deep within them. Sam swallowed, determined to do what had to be done without sacrificing himself, or his big brother. This thing might not be able to be defeated by modern means, but surely an old ancient weakness will stand true. Hopefully.
"Do we have any iron in the back? A pipe, a paperweight, anything?" Sam asked.
It has been known for centuries that many demons are weakened by iron. Sam hoped that this was one of those species. Dean nodded, but said nothing and got out of the car. Sam followed and walked around back to meet the older man. He watched as Dean opened the trunk and reached in.
"Tire iron." Dean said, and then he lifted the floor of the trunk to reveal the very colourful collection of weaponry that they stocked up on. He pulled a few things from their places and divided them up between he and Sam.
Salt, herbs, holy water, anything that would come in handy when fighting this thing. Sam filled his pockets and grabbed an iron bar that happened to be in stock. They were ready. They were as ready as they would ever be. It was now, or never. The brothers decided that now was the best way to go. Dean slammed the trunk into place and turned his intense gaze on Sam. The late daylight silhouetted the younger man and drifted against Dean's face.
"Ready?" He questioned. Sam nodded.
"Ready."
