CHAPTER THREE

Speaking the word Cristo or any form of the word God had no effect on Julie or the possible demon within, so Sam and Dean resorted to retrieving the holy water from the trunk of the Impala. Julie then made it known that she preferred Sam to commence any and all tests on her. It was apparent her reservations toward Dean ran deep, but why?

"Is it going to burn?" Julie asked pitifully. Sam looked at her sympathetically, nodding his head.

"If there is a possession and the entity is from Hell," he explained. Julie took a deep breath and gave him permission to proceed.

"What does it mean, being possessed?" she asked nervously. "I mean ... did I do something wrong?" Sam shook his head.

"No," he answered, looking her straight in the eyes. "None of this is your fault. Sometimes demons think they can become human again through possession; sometimes they just want to do evil. It has nothing to do with the people they possess."

Meanwhile, Dean and Janelle sat on the sofa in the living room across from Spencer in the recliner. Silence engulfed the room as there wasn't much to talk about except what was going on in the kitchen, and nobody cared to discuss this. Dean, however, noticed how wonderfully Janelle smelled. Like some exotic perfume.

"Have you heard from your sister?" Spencer broke the deafening silence. Janelle looked up at him, knowing he was referring to Jenna, who was living in another state while she attended college in the medical field.

"No," she replied quietly. "But she said she'd be busy this week with exams."

Suddenly a scream filtered throughout the entire house. It was Julie, but there were several volumes to it; a low octave usually associated with a male, and a high pitch that was more feminine. Dean closed his eyes, knowing the meaning behind it.

"Dean!" Sam yelled, his call full of stress and fear. A dish broke behind the swinging kitchen door, and Dean jumped up.

"Stay here!" he commanded of Janelle and Spencer, who were ready to follow him into the kitchen. Janelle wasn't about to listen, but Spencer held her back for fear of losing another child.

Dean kicked through the door to the kitchen and found Julie had Sam shoved against a wall, her hand on his neck and his feet dangling near the floor. Dean hurried to his brother's aid, yanking the much-smaller woman back, but her grip on Sam's neck only tightened. He stared into her blood red eyes as she cackled at his pain and her power over him.

With his arm tight around Julie's neck, Dean reached for the bottle of holy water behind him on the table. Just as his fingers brushed the edge of it, Julie's free hand claimed his neck and she threw him against the wall next to his brother. Sam and Dean tried their hardest to peel her hands off their necks, but she was powerful beyond that of any human.

"It's not ..!" Sam shouted.

"Julie!" The brothers' eyes slid sideways to see Janelle in the doorway. Julie suddenly dropped Sam and Dean and then passed out, falling hard to the floor. The men rubbed their aching necks and coughed to clear their throats. Sam unknowingly leaned against his older sibling with eyes closed, allowing the fear to withdraw its grip on him.

"It's not just a demon," Sam repeated, moving to stand up. "It's the demon." Dean knew immediately who his brother spoke of, and Sam pulled him to his feet.

"How do you know it's him?" Dean asked, taking a deep breath before scooping Julie's lifeless body into his arms. As Janelle led him to her sister's room, Sam followed closely.

"He told me," he replied, still in pain. "There's only one demon I know of that's been around for thousands of years and hasn't been able to completely take over a human yet." Dean sighed and rolled his eyes. Did Sam always have to explain everything in such ridiculous detail?

"All right, all right," he mumbled. Janelle opened Julie's door, and Dean carefully maneuvered through the room, laying the possessed woman on her bed. Dean finally took a moment to catch his breath and enjoy the pain in his neck.

"What happens next?" Janelle asked. The brothers looked at her and ushered her out of Julie's bedroom. "Actually, scratch that, tell me what the hell's going on." Dean closed the bedroom door and leaned against it.

"Your sister is possessed," Sam informed her. "By, basically, the Judas of the demon world." Janelle stared at him, waiting for more explanation. "This demon has been around the world looking for the perfect soul, the perfect ... host."

"Why?" Janelle whispered. She seemed to be handling the news fairly well, but Dean wasn't sure it had completely hit her yet.

"If it found someone strong enough, it would be able to channel all the evil in Hell onto Earth," Dean said. "Creating a sort of ... Hell on Earth, if you will."

"The end of the world?" Janelle asked angrily. She was furious that this demon had chosen her sister, who had never done one ill thing to another person in her life. Julie didn't deserve what was happening to her.

"Not exactly," Dean said. "But close enough." Janelle gulped, inhaled long and hard, and crossed her arms over her chest.

"All right then," she exhaled, glancing up at Sam and Dean. "What can you do for her?" The siblings shared a concerned look that Janelle caught. "Please, please tell me you can help her."

"We're going to help her," Sam told her sincerely, gaining an odd gaze from Dean, who was quite unsure of how to help Julie. The girl's possession surpassed that of any other since there wasn't just any demon inside of her; they were dealing with Elathan – the demon from the Underworld who was most feared right after Lucifer himself. "It's just ... going to take some time."

"What do you mean?" Janelle ordered. "I want that thing out of my sister! Now!"

"Calm down," Sam gently said.

"Look," Dean started, irritated with this wasting of time. "Normally, all it would take for any other demon is an exorcism and some holy water, but this isn't just some demon."

"You're going to have to have a lot of patience with us," Sam explained. Janelle hated what she was hearing, but she had to trust them as they knew far more about this stuff than she did.

"Fine," she sighed, wiping her eyes before tears could fall. "So what now?"

"We'll need to talk to both you and your father," Sam said. It was times like this when Dean admired his brother the most for knowing precisely what to say at the right moment. Had it only been Dean in the situation, he would have locked Julie in a room, and continued at his own pace.

When Sam and Dean were sitting in front of Spencer and the only daughter he had to hold on to at the moment, even Sam faltered at his explanation. He hated having to tell them that it was very possible Julie could die during the possession and possibly even the exorcism, that she could remain in a vegetative state after the demon was expelled, that she may experience post-traumatic stress syndrome, and that there was only a very little chance she would walk away unscathed. But Sam illustrated everything as best he could and assured them Julie would be fine.

"Will it be very painful for her?" Spencer questioned sadly. He'd been in denial for quite a while that anything other than epilepsy was wrong with Julie, the youngest of the triplets by little more than six minutes, but John Winchester had been very trustworthy and now his sons wanted to put all their energy into helping Julie.

"A lot of it will be painful for her, yeah," Dean answered truthfully. "But it's worth it. When she comes out of it, she won't remember anything." Spencer smiled briefly.

"You sound very confident," he said. Dean grinned proudly and nodded.

"Yes, sir," he replied.

"But I don't understand why it's going to take so long," Janelle said exasperatedly, referring to Sam's estimate of a week just to pull of a full exorcism.

"It might not take that long," Sam said. "A week is as long as it could take." Spencer hugged Janelle closer and kissed her temple. She could almost feel the grief emanating from him.

"Well, do whatever it takes," Spencer sighed. "We'll pay you anything ..."

"That's not necessary," Sam refused, holding his hand up. "But we will have to ask that you ... stay out of the room when we're working. There's a lot of things you wouldn't want to see." Janelle and her father nodded in stipulation.

"Where are you staying?" Janelle asked.

"The Travel Lodge," Dean answered.

"You're more than welcome to stay here," Spencer proposed, and Janelle eyed her father wearily. She trusted Sam and Dean just as she'd relied on John Winchester, but they were still perfect strangers.

"We don't want to be any trouble," Dean said, standing. Sam stood as well, but disagreed.

"Might be a good idea," he said, and Dean looked at him. "Do you really trust them to stay here alone with a woman possessed by Elathan?" Dean complied, but he'd noted the look on Janelle's face.

"Well ..." he sighed. "If it's not going to be any trouble for you."

"Of course not!" Spencer exclaimed. "It's the least we can do!" He looked down at Janelle. "Right, Janie?"

"Sure," she nodded reluctantly. "I guess ... one of you can have Jenna's room and the other one can have my room. I'll sleep on the couch."

"No," Dean shook his head as well as his hand. "We'll sleep here in the living room if that's not a problem." Janelle quickly agreed to this idea, but she did offer to bring them pillows and blankets. She also asked if they'd eaten and if they were hungry. They refused.

"This isn't as easy as you think it will be." Everybody jumped and spun around to face Julie, who was standing near the bottom of the staircase. Sam went for the holy water in his jacket.

"Don't," Julie warned, her eyes wide and glued to the floor, but her long finger was aimed at Sam. "I've got my host all picked out." Janelle's jaw clenched; a demon with a sarcastic sense of humor? Elathan was speaking with Julie's voice, but her body was shaking wildly. "And there's nothing you can do about it."

Julie roared in mocking laughter and suddenly removed a knife from her back pocket and brought the blade to the palm of her hand. Sam and Dean lunged at her, knocking the knife away, but not before she made a long incision.

"We're going to have to tie her up," Dean resolved. Sam nodded.