Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural, but by golly it would be a blast to just rent the men from supernatural for an evening or two wouldn't it! Just think of the stories I could write with that kind of incentive!
Hunted
John Winchester is hunted by more then just demons.
Chapter twelve
It was four thirty in the morning when John quietly locked Missouri's front door and loaded his bags in the truck. Before pulling out of the driveway he though to himself, but knew he was sharing. Take care Missouri. I'll return when I can, when I know it's safe.
He made it as far as Vernal Utah before he stopped for the night. It had taken nearly fifteen hours of straight driving. After checking in to a small, but nice motel he found a diner and ate. He was tired, but not particularly sleepy so he chose a roadhouse not far from his motel. He ordered a beer and watched people play pool. He didn't really need cash, but he did enjoy shooting pool. It had been Daniel Elkins who suggested he use his skills as a pool player to earn extra cash. He'd been right, as usual, it was a good idea.
He had passed not far from Elkins place on this trip and had seriously considered stopping. He missed the old guy. John could admit, at least, to himself that the argument they had, had been his fault. He was so stubborn back then, so driven.
He would have to make things right with Elkins sometime soon. The older hunter didn't deserve the way John had treated him after all he'd done for him and his boys. Most of what John knew about hunting had come from Elkins. He owed the man more then he could ever repay.
John watched several games judging the skills of the players and their level of inebriation. He also tried to choose a mark that looked like they could afford to loose some cash. One thing he hated was taking money from someone who really needed it. Of course if they needed it they had no business gambling it away, but some people just didn't think they could loose.
His gazed slipped from table to table as the games were played. It returned regularly to the table in the far corner where a man continually beat his opponents. John watched as one by one five players lost to the skills of the six foot biker that ran the table. John smiled as he watched the man pocket the cash from his latest victory. He went to the table and placed his quarters on the table indicating that he would have the game after the one being racked currently.
John knew the biker would beat the man racking the balls. He'd watched the man play a game on a different table and he was certain the man was way out of his league on this one. Sure enough the game was over within minutes and John was racking the balls for his game with the biker. As he racked them he knew the biker was sizing him up trying to decide what kind of player he was. John saw him nod to himself and knew the man had decided John was going to be a good player so he was surprised when the man offered to bet fifty dollars on the game.
"That's a hefty bet for a game we both know is going to be close." John told him.
The man laughed. "I've been playing with these losers all night long, waiting for someone who can actually play the damn game and make it interesting. I think you are going to give me a run for their money and that's worth it to me, even if I loose everything I just won."
John grinned at him, "Just remember you said that," he told the biker, "because I plan on relieving you of it."
John was enjoying himself. Something he hadn't done in a very long time. He won the first two games, but the biker had actually taken him on the third. The only person who had beaten him at pool in several years was Dean. They played four more games John won three and the biker won the last one.
He grinned at John, "While your rack um, I'm gonna take a leak. I'll be right back."
John racked the balls and as he finished the waitress came by and he ordered another beer for both of them. He looked around the room as he waited for the biker to return. It was getting late and there weren't very many people left in the bar. The waitress came up with their drinks just as the biker returned. John paid her and held out one of the bottles to the other man.
"You ready to get beat again?" John asked him with a smirk.
"I think it's definitely your turn." The man said his eyes turning solid black as he said it. "And I'm not talking about a game."
Caught almost completely off guard, John tried to duck out of the way, but the bottle he had just given the man was smashed hard against the side of his head. It shattered spilling beer and blood and causing him to spin away and slam into the pool table. The waitress stepped between the biker and John in a vain attempt to stop the fight and not realizing the extent of the danger she was in. John recovered from his fall and tried to save her, but he was too late. He watched in horror as the biker sunk the broken beer bottle into the woman's stomach and pulled up ripping her belly open with a laugh.
John caught her as the possessed man pushed her off the bottle into his arms. "Here is another one that died for you and you couldn't save. I came to tell you that your boys are next. They just sent a friend of mine back to hell and I think it's time they paid for it. No matter what the boss says those boys of yours are going to suffer for what they just did. I may not be allowed to kill them yet, but I can make them suffer."
John gently lowered the dying woman to the ground while anger rolled through him in a wave of cold fury. He said nothing to the demon instead he grabbed a pool stick from the table and before the demon could react John hit him in the face with a force fueled by all his rage. The man was knocked against the wall and slid down unconscious.
John checked the waitress, but as he suspected it was already too late. She was dead. He walked out to his truck retrieved the items he would need and walked back into the bar. Several people were still in the bar including the barmaid who told John an ambulance was on the way.
He walked to the biker turned him onto his back and poured holy water on his chest. Steam rose as the holy water burned the man's skin and he began to wake up and struggle. John sat on his chest and began the incantation that would send the son of bitch straight back to hell.
Paramedics arrived and went first to the waitress. John watched them out of the corner of his eye as he continued the ritual. When they approached him and the biker he gave them a look that stopped them in their tracks. They knew a dangerous situation when they saw one. They just didn't know that the man on the ground was the more dangerous person until the ritual was complete.
The demon struggled harder and John poured more holy water on it. He looked the demon in the eye and stopped the Latin ritual. "Tell your boss I said hello you son of bitch. And tell him he better keep his sorry ass away from my family. Or I will march straight into hell and destroy every one of you evil son's of bitches," he said with a fierceness born of anger.
He completed the last line of the ritual as the police arrived and began to pull him off the biker. He didn't fight them as they yanked him back and snapped on the handcuffs. They all backed up away from the biker as he arched his back and screamed. Black swirling smoke that was the demon rose from his mouth, nose and eyes. It swirled in a vortex of darkness before seeping down into the floorboards and disappearing back to hell.
John sank to his knees between the officers as everyone in the room silently watched the final minutes of the demons existence in this realm. He wanted to scream out his despair. Another woman was dead because he couldn't protect her. He needed to leave before his emotions overwhelmed him. But knew that was not an option.
"What the hell was that?" One of the police officers asked.
John didn't answer. He was afraid to say anything until he got his anger and despair under control. He knelt between his captors passively as they tried to make sense out of what they had just seen.
"Holy Mary, Mother of God," One of the other patrons said pointing at John. "That man just performed an exorcism on the other guy. That was a damn demon that just… Oh, God I'm going to be sick."
"A what?" asked the officer.
"An exorcism," the barmaid said choking back tears. "You have the wrong man in custody. The other guy killed Sally, this man tried to save her."
The paramedics approached the now conscious biker. They removed his shirt and checked the burns on his chest, but where earlier the skin was hot enough to be bubbling it was now just raw red splotches. The EMT checked the man for any other damage, but other then a lump where John had hit him with the heavy end of the pool stick there were no other injuries.
John on the other hand was bleeding badly from where the bottle had struck him. He was also nauseous though he wasn't sure if that was from his injury or from looking at the now dead waitress that had tried to help him and ended up paying the ultimate price for it.
One of the paramedics noticed John's injuries and came to help him. John didn't make a sound as the man quickly and efficiently took care of him. "Sir, you have a concussion. It would be best if you went to the hospital and had this checked out," he told John. John replied by negatively shaking his head.
One of the police officers cuffed the biker and brought him to a sitting position. He looked dazed and confused and had a difficult time answering the officers many questions. Until finally the man said the smartest thing he could under the circumstances. "I want a lawyer." After that the officers left him alone fearing they might ruin the case against him.
Statements were being taken by the officers and everyone agreed about two things. John was not the aggressor, he had only defended himself. And John had tried to save the waitress.
John still had not answered any questions that had been asked of him. The police had his wallet with his real identification in it. Thankfully all his fake ID's were in the locked compartment in his truck. They had run his drivers license and it came back no wants no warrants as he knew it would.
Then, to his amazement he was uncuffed and his property returned. "Mr. Winchester everyone here is telling us the same thing. You didn't do anything wrong. The thing is though we need to hear from you what happened. Why don't you sit with me over here at this table and tell me what happened."
John told the man everything exactly how it had happened and for once leaving nothing out. There was no way to put the demon back in the bottle so to speak so he had to hope the officers believed their own eyes. The Winchester family motto of we do what we do and we keep quiet about it was just not going to work this time. This whole thing had been a cluster fuck because John was having to much fun and neglected the danger.
Even though he had watched the end result of the exorcism the officer taking John's statement was skeptical about what John had said. Evidently demons shooting pool was just a bit much for the man.
Some time later John was allowed to leave with a stern warning not to leave town. John assured the officer that he had already checked into a motel and was entirely too hurt and too tired to drive anywhere.
Two hours after the incident as John was passing through Salt Lake City he called Pastor Jim and asked him to see if he could find out what his boys were doing. He needed to make sure they were no longer in Pennsylvania. John didn't tell Pastor Jim about what had just happened, but the man knew something was wrong. He offered for John to come stay with him for a day or two, but of course John refused.
It was too dangerous. These damn demons would kill anyone who got in their way and John would not use his friends as cannon fodder. From now on he would have to be very careful about contacting or seeing any of the people who normally help him. Their lives were in danger just because they knew him.
Pastor Jim called back in just a few minutes and told John what he wanted to here. The boys had completed the job they'd been working on and were on their way to Toledo Ohio.
It was nearing morning when exhaustion finally forced John to stop. He was somewhere in Nevada in another no name town at another tiny motel, but this time it didn't matter. He was too tired and to emotionally drained to care where he was. He salted the door and window then lay down on the bed fully clothed. He had a gun in one hand, and a knife in the other. He could no longer afford to take chances. People around him were starting to die again.
A/N Please read and review, I hope you are all enjoying the story. Please let me know what you think about it. Reviews help me write. Good reviews and even those that contain constructive criticisms. Again, thanks for taking the time to read it!