EPOV

The sun was up now. Walking onto the porch of a familiar house, my face lit up with a smile as the front door opened and a woman I knew and loved stepped out.

"Lizzie!" She grabbed me and pulled me into her arms, squeezing me in a tight hug.

I laughed. "Pamela!" Hugging her back, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as my feet left the ground.

Putting me down, she shook her head. "I swear you get more gorgeous every time I see you." Still smiling, she looked to Bobby. "Bobby!" She stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, lifting him off the ground just like she'd done to me.

Sam and Dean shared a surprised look, waiting behind Bobby and Pamela.

"You're a sight for sore eyes." Bobby smiled, stepping back.

Pamela turned to the brothers, looking them up and down. "So, these the boys?"

"Sam, Dean. This is Pamela Barnes, best damn psychic in the state," Bobby introduced.

"Hey." Dean grinned, flirting- but not as much as he usually did.

Sam's response was a little more awkward. "Hi."

"Mm-mmm-mmm." Pamela chuckled lightly. "Dean Winchester. Out of the fire and back in the frying pan, huh? Makes you a rare individual."

"If you say so." He shrugged.

"Come on in." Nodding to the door, she ushered us in, first Bobby, then the brothers and lastly me.

"So, you hear anything?" Bobby asked, getting to business.

Pamela sighed, closing the door. "Well, I Ouija'd my way through a dozen spirits. No one seems to know who broke your boy out, or why."

"So, what's next? A séance?" I asked, a little excited.

Nodding, Pamela came to stand next to me, looking amused at my excitement. "We'll see if we can see who did the deed."

"You're not gonna... summon the damn thing here." Bobby didn't sound too confident.

"No. I just want to get a sneak peek at it. Like a crystal ball without the crystal." Pamela grinned, grabbing my hand. "Come on. You can help me set up."

DPOV

Sam and I stood back as Pamela, Bobby and Liz got everything set up for the séance. I wasn't too confident with the plan, but I was desperate enough to try anything at this point.

Watching the others move around, I stopped when I spotted Pamela squatting in front of a cabinet. The way she was bent over, I could see a tattoo scrawled across her lower back that read 'Jesse Forever'.

"Who's Jesse?" I asked.

She laughed. "Well, it wasn't forever."

"His loss."

Shaking her head, she stood and moved to the table, carrying several pillar candles. "Might be your gain." She grinned, passing me.

Once she was gone, I turned to Sam, my voice low. "Dude, I am so in."

He shook his head, smirking. "Yeah, she's gonna eat you alive."

"Hey, I just got out of jail. Bring it."

Coming back over to us, Pamela gave Sam a wink. "You're invited too, grumpy. Lizzie as well, if she wants." She gave me a knowing look before moving on.

I turned to Sam. "You are not invited."

He just chuckled. "What about Lizzie?"

"Shut up." I glared.

EPOV

The five of us sat at the table, each of us in front of a point of the pentagram painted on the cloth on the table. Six candles sat in the middle, the only light in the dark, black room.

Taking a deep breath, Pamela began. "Right. Take each other's hands," she told us, grabbing one of mine. "And I need to touch something our mystery monster touched." She slid her other hand under the table.

Dean jumped. "Whoa! Well, he didn't touch me there."

She laughed lightly, bringing her hand back up to the table. "My mistake."

Looking around nervously, Dean moved to take his outer shirt off one arm before pulling that sleeve up, revealing a branded handprint on his skin.

I gasped, wanting to reach out and touch it. "Dean..."

At the sound of my voice, his eyes locked on to mine, giving me a reassuring look. He was fine. I mean, he wasn't in Hell anymore, so he was fine. Right?

"Okay. " Pamela rested her hand on the mark before closing her eyes- which the rest of us then did as she began to chant. "I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle. I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle. I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle."

In the background, behind me, I heard a TV flick on and the sound of static buzz, but Pamela wasn't distracted by it as she continued.

"I invoke, conjure, and command-" Stopping for a moment, she spoke instead of chanted, "Castiel? No. Sorry, Castiel, I don't scare easy."

"Castiel?" Dean asked.

"Its name," she explained. "It's whispering to me, warning me to turn back." The static continued as the table began to shake, Pamela going on with the chanting. "I conjure and command you, show me your face. I conjure and command you, show me your face. I conjure and command you, show me your face. I conjure and command you, show me your face."

"Maybe we should stop," Bobby suggested, worrying smothering his voice.

"I almost got it," she insisted. "I command you, show me your face! Show me your face now!"

Suddenly the candle on the table flared up as Pamela began to scream.

My eyes snapped open as I moved to help her. She was collapsing to the ground, now unconscious. Falling to my knees, I held her to me carefully. "Pamela?"

"Call 911!" Bobby yelled.

Sam scrambled to his feet and rushed out of the room.

Pamela stirred, taking a deep breath. I watched as her bleeding and now badly burnt eye lids opened, revealing nothing inside. Her eyes were completely gone.

"I can't see!" she sobbed. "I can't see! Oh god!"

DPOV

"Be up in a jiff." The waitress smiled at me before walking off.

I was sitting at a table in a diner. Sam was outside on the phone to Liz. She and Bobby had gone to the hospital with Pamela after the ambulance took her away. I felt bad about it all, and wanted to go as well, but I knew there was more we had to do first.

Walking into the diner, Sam spoke into his phone. "You bet." He nodded, taking a seat in front of me as he hung up.

"What'd Liz say?" I asked.

"Pam's stable. And out of I.C.U."

"And blind, because of us." I felt so guilty. You don't understand how guilty I felt.

"And we still have no clue who we're dealing with," Sam added.

"That's not entirely true."

Sam looked confused. "No?"

"We got a name," I noted. "Castiel, or whatever. With the right mumbo-jumbo we could summon him, bring him right to us."

"You're crazy. Absolutely not." Sam shook his head.

"We'll work him over. I mean, after what he did?"

"Pam took a peek at him and her eyes burned out of her skull, and you want to have a face to face?"

"You got a better idea?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I do." He nodded. "I followed some demons to town, right?"

"Okay."

"So, we go find them. Someone's gotta know something about something."

The waitress came back to the table with two plates of pie and set them in front of us before she wiped her hands on her apron and took a seat next to us.

I looked to her expectantly, smirking. "You angling for a tip?"

"I'm sorry. Thought you were looking for us." Her eyes turned black.

My smile fell as my heart began to race. Looking around the room, I caught sight of the cook behind the counter and another person at a table. Their eyes were black as well. There was no one else. Just Sam, me and three demons.

The one at a different table stood and moved to the front door, locking it as he stood guard there.

Turning her eyes back to normal, the waitress looked from Sam, to me. "Dean. To hell and back. Aren't you a lucky duck."

"That's me."

"So you get to just stroll out of the pit, huh? Tell me. What makes you so special?"

I gave a tight smile. "I like to think it's because of my perky nipples." Shaking my head, I dropped the smile. "I don't know. Wasn't my doing, I don't know who pulled me out."

She scoffed. "Right. You don't."

"No. I don't."

"Lying's a sin, you know."

Watching her carefully, I couldn't help but feel as if she was fishing, trying to figure it all out as well... "I'm not lying. But I'd like to find out, so if you wouldn't mind enlightening me, Flo..."

"Mind your tone with me, boy. I'll drag you back to hell myself."

Sam shifted, getting ready to attack. Before he could do anything, I lifted a hand to stop him. He looked confused, but settled in his seat again, though stayed tense and ready for action.

I shook my head at the waitress. "No, you won't."

"No?"

"No. Because if you were you would have done it already. Fact is, you don't know who cut me loose. And you're just as spooked as we are. And you're looking for answers. Well, maybe it was some turbo-charged spirit. Or, uh, Godzilla. Or some big bad boss demon. I'm guessing at your pay grade that they don't tell you squat. Because whoever it was, they want me out. And they're a lot stronger than you. So go ahead. Send me back. But don't come crawling to me when they show up on your front doorstep with some Vaseline and a fire hose."

She glared at me. "I'm going to reach down your throat and rip out your lungs."

Leaning forward, a challenge in my eyes, I reached over and back handed her right across the cheek. She straightened up again, but I simple slapped her once more.

Doing nothing, she looked from Sam to me, glaring. But under that glare I could see nerves. She was scared.

I scoffed at her. "That's what I thought. Let's go, Sam." Standing up, I pulled out some cash as Sam left. Throwing the notes on the table, I looked down at the waitress. "For the pie."

Walking out of the diner, I tried to walk as causally as possible, while also trying to get out of there as fast as I could.

The moment I was on the street, the door closed behind me, I took a deep breath. "Holy crap, that was close."

"We're not just going to leave them in there, are we, Dean?" Sam asked as we crossed the road and headed for Baby.

"Well yeah, there's three of them, probably more, and we've only got one knife between us."

"I've been killing a lot more demons than that lately."

"Not anymore. The smarter brother's back in town."

"Dean, we've got to take 'em. They are dangerous."

"They're scared. Okay? Scared of whatever had the juice to yank me out. We're dealing with a bad mofo here. One job at a time."

SPOV

I looked over at Dean as he slept on the bed with a book on his lap. He'd fallen asleep a little while ago while researching. I'd been waiting to see if he would wake, wanting to get out of here. I was itching to do something, to let off some steam.

When I was sure he wasn't going to wake up, I snuck out of the room and started for the hotel exit. I wouldn't be gone long. I'd be back before he woke up, and before Lizzie and Bobby got back.

At least I hoped I would be. Last thing I need was for the three of them to start asking questions.

DPOV

The sound of static on the TV and the radio whining, woke me up. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked around. In an instant, I realised what was happening. It was here.

My eyes landed on the shotgun by the other side of the bed. Rolling over, I grabbed it and got to my feet, finger on the trigger, ready.

Sam's bed was empty, the bathroom light off. He was gone. I was alone. Great...

Aiming at the door, I waited for whatever was coming to break through. It was the only way in the building, the only way the thing could get me. I was sure that's what it wanted. Me. Why else would it drag me out of hell?

Just like at the store earlier, a high-pitched ringing noise started. Getting louder and higher until it was too painful to bear. Keeping the gun up with one hand, I used the other to press against one ear as my other ear pressed against my shoulder, trying to block out the noise.

The mirror on the ceiling shattered, the pieces falling on to me. Dropping the gun, I dropped to the ground, clutching both ears with my hands as all the glass in the room exploded into the room.

The front door burst opened at Bobby and Liz rushed in.

"Dean!"

Liz took one look at me and ran into the room, helping me to me feet and out of the room as she used her body to shield me from the glass as it continued to explode.

EPOV

I sat in the back of Bobby's car, cleaning Dean up. He'd insisted he was fine, but I knew better. He'd been cut up by some of the glass that had shattered, and his ear had been bleeding from the high-pitched noise we'd all heard in his room.

"How you doin', kid?" Bobby asked as he looked at us through the rear-view mirror.

"Aside from the church bells ringing in my head, peachy." Dean mumbled as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"Dean..." I sighed. "I'm not finished."

"I'm fine, Liz. Promise." He gave me a reassuring smile before dialling a number into his phone and then pressed it to his ear.

I knew who he was calling. Sam. There was no one else.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked him. There was a pause before he spoke again, "In my car?" Another pause. "Well, uh, Bobby and Liz are back. We're going to grab a beer." When I opened my mouth to speak, he lifted a finger to stop me. Nodding to the phone, he went on, "Done. Catch you later." He hung up.

"Why the hell didn't you tell him?" Bobby asked before I had the chance to.

"Because he'd just tried to stop us."

I frowned, not liking the sound of that. "And what would he be stopping us from doing?"

"Summoning this thing," Dean answered. At the shocked looks Bobby and I gave him, Dean added, "It's time we faced it head-on."

"You can't be serious!" Bobby clearly didn't like this plan, and to be honest, neither did I.

"As a heart attack. It's high noon, baby."

"Well, we don't know what it is. It could be a demon, it could be anything," Bobby noted.

"That's why we've got to be ready for anything." Pulling Ruby's demon knife out of his jacket, Dean looked over at Bobby. "We've got the big-time magic knife, you've got an arsenal in the trunk..."

I shook my head, eyes on the blade. "I'm not too sure about this Dean..."

Bobby nodded, agreeing with me. "She's right. This is a bad idea."

"Yeah, I couldn't agree more, but what other choice do we have?" Dean did have a good point.

"We could choose life," Bobby suggested.

"Bobby, whatever this is, whatever it wants, it's after me. That much we know, right? I've got no place to hide. I can either get caught with my pants down again, or we can make our stand."

The idea of this thing going after Dean, of it may be taking him away again, suddenly it didn't matter how dangerous it might be, I was willing to do whatever it took to keep Dean safe.

SPOV

Back at the diner Dean and I had been at earlier- only now it was closed seeing at it was the middle of the night- I snuck in through the front door after picking its lock. Looking over at the counter, I paused.

The cook from before was dead, face down on the floor, his hands bloody.

Moving over to him, I carefully rolled him on to his back. Just like Pamela, his eyes were gone, burnt and melted out of their sockets.

Out of nowhere, a figure came out from behind me, pushing me away from the body.

The two of us traded a few blows before I pushed whoever it was away long enough to see that it was the waitress. Only now, her eyes were gone too. Blood trails ran down her cheeks, and she was clearly scared out of her mind. She'd seen the thing too.

Lowering my hands- though still ready for a fight- I spoke up. "Your eyes."

"I can still smell your soul a mile away."

"It was here. You saw it."

She sobbed, nodding. "I saw it."

"What was it?"

"It's the end. We're dead. We're all dead."

"What did you see?" I pressed, wanting to know what this thing was.

Her sobs stopped as she sneered at me. "Go to hell."

"Funny. I was going to say the same thing to you."

Taking a step back, I shut my eyes to concentrate and lifted my hand towards the demon. Taking a deep breath, I focused on drawing her essence out, on pulling the demon from its human vessel. I could hear her choking at I continued. She struggled, but was no match as I finished pulling all the demon out of the human girl.

As I opened my eyes I looked down right in time to see the black smoke melt into the ground. Once it was gone I moved over to check the pulse of the woman, but she was dead.

I let out a sigh of disappointment. "Damn it."

The kitchen door opened as Ruby walked into the room. "Getting pretty slick there, Sam. Better all the time."

Getting to my feet, I looked down at the body on the floor. "What the hell is going on around here, Ruby?"

"I wish I knew."

"We were thinking some high-level demon pulled Dean out."

"No way." She shook her head. "Sam, human souls don't just walk out of Hell and back into their bodies easy. The sky bleeds, the ground quakes. It's cosmic. No demon can swing that. Not Lilith, not anybody."

"Then what can?"

"Nothing I've ever seen before."

DPOV

Standing at a table in a warehouse, Liz on my right, I looked over at Bobby as he finished spray painting a few symbols on the floor. The place was covered in symbols, the walls, roof, floor and door.

"That's a hell of an art project you've got going there," I noted as Liz kept setting up all the weapons on the table we were in front of.

Finishing up, Bobby walked over to us. "Traps and talismans from every faith on the globe. How you doin?"

I gestured to the weapons laid out before me. "Stakes, iron, silver, salt, knife. I mean, we're pretty much set to catch and kill anything I've ever heard of."

Bobby shook his head. "This is still a bad idea."

"Yeah, Bobby, I heard you the first ten times," I sighed. "What do you say we ring the dinner bell?"

Nodding reluctantly, Bobby moved over to the other table, taking a pinch of some kind of powder and sprinkled into a large bowl full of other ingredient which began to smoke as he began to chant.

Liz took a deep breath next to me, clenching and unclenching her hands. "Here goes nothing."

SPOV

Still in the diner, I seat across from Ruby at one of the table.

"So." She folded her arms over her chest. "Million-dollar question, are you going to tell Dean about what we're doing?"

"Yeah, I just gotta figure out the right way to say it." When she gave me a look, I sighed. "Look, I just need time, okay? That's all."

"Sam, he's going to find out, and if it's not from you he's going to be pissed."

"He's going to be pissed anyway. I mean, he's so hardheaded about this psychic stuff he'll just try and stop me."

"You think Lizzie will tell him?"

I shook my head. "If she was going to say anything she would have the moment she saw you. Besides, she's got secrets too."

"Yeah, but still…" She took a breath, shrugging. "Maybe I'll just take a step back for a while."

"Ruby-"

She cut me off, "I mean, I'm not exactly in your brother's fan-club. But he is your brother, and I'm not going to come between you."

"I don't know if what I'm doing is right. Hell, I don't even know if I trust you."

"Thanks," she responded, offended.

Ignoring her tone, I went on, "But what I do know is that I'm saving people. And stopping demons. And that feels good. I want to keep going."

DPOV

Bobby had finished the ritual a while ago, now the three of us were sitting on the tables, waiting, bored out of our minds.

I kept looking over at Liz who seemed focused on the ground in front of her. I couldn't help but feel like there was something different about her. Out of the million times I'd thought about how it would be like to come back to earth- which I did a lot of while in Hell- I'd always pictured our reunion different...

As I continued to watch her, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a container of little red pills. I frowned as she popped one of the pills in her mouth and swallowed, before putting the container back into her pocket. But before I could say or ask or anything, the roof began to shake suddenly.

The three of us jumped off the tables and grabbed our weapons, aiming them at the door as we stood at the far end of the warehouse.

"Wishful thinking, but maybe it's just the wind," I yelled over the noise.

The doors burst open, revealing a man in a suit and trench coat standing outside. He walked in, the light bulbs above his head shattering in a shower of sparks as he passes them. Moving in a slow, carefree pace, he kept walking towards us.

Altogether, Bobby, Liz and I lifted our guns and began firing at the man. But the shots didn't even slow him down.

Seeing that they were doing nothing, I dropped my gun on the table and grabbed the demon knife before I stepped in front of Liz protectively, watching the man as he stopped in front of me.

Tightening my grip on the knife behind my back, I spoke. "Who are you?"

"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition."

"Yeah. Thanks for that." Moving quickly, I brought the knife out from behind me and plunged it into his chest.

He just looked down at it, unconcerned, not even slightly hurt. As I pulled back, taking Liz with me, the guy reached for the handle of the knife and pulled it out before dropping the weapon to the floor.

Bobby- who was behind the guy- went to attack him.

Without looking, the guy grabbed the iron rod Bobby's been about to hit him with. Turning around, the guy lifted two fingers to Bobby's forehead and within seconds Bobby was out like a light, crumbling to the ground.

Turning back to Liz and me, the guy spoke again. "We need to talk, Dean. Alone." He gave Liz a pointed look.

I shook my head, moving to stand in front of her more. "You're not touching her. I don't know what you did to Bobby-"

"Your friend's alive." The guy gestured to Bobby. "He's just unconscious. And she should be too." As he took a step towards us, I took a step back, taking Liz with me still.

"Don't."

There was nothing I could do to stop him, but if he wanted to talk to me then he was gonna have to do it with Liz awake. There was no way I was letting anything happen to her, and there was no way I was letting this guy take away all my back up.

When he stopped moving towards me, giving up, I relaxed- ever so slightly. "Who are you?"

"Castiel."

I glared at him. "Yeah, I figured that much, I mean what are you?"

"I'm an Angel of the Lord."

Looking him up and down, I shook my head, not believing him. "Get the hell out of here. There's no such thing."

"This is your problem, Dean. You have no faith."

Lightning flashed, the light coming in through the open doors of the warehouse. Behind Castiel I watched as the shadow of great wings spread along the walls off the building. As the light flashed again, the image was gone.

So, sure, it might be true, but that meant nothing to me. Not after what he did to Pam. "Some angel you are. You burned out that poor woman's eyes."

"I warned her not to spy on my true form. It can be... overwhelming to humans, and so can my real voice. But you already knew that."

"You mean the gas station and the motel. That was you talking?" I asked, which he answered with a nod. "Buddy, next time, lower the volume."

"That was my mistake. Certain people, special people, can perceive my true visage. I thought you would be one of them. I was wrong."

"And what visage are you in now, huh? What, holy tax accountant?"

"This?" He looked down at his body. "This is... a vessel."

"You're possessing some poor bastard?"

"He's a devout man, he actually prayed for this," he said as if that made it all okay.

"Well, I'm not buying what you're selling, so who are you really?"

He frowned, confused. "I told you."

"Right. And why would an angel rescue me from Hell?"

"Good things do happen, Dean."

"Not in my experience."

"What's the matter? You don't think you deserve to be saved?" He took a step closer.

Liz's hand gripped on to the back of my jacket as she stepped closer to me. She may be staying quiet, but I knew she was there, ready to back me up. She was always ready to back me up.

"Why'd you do it?" I asked, looking to Castiel.

"Because God commanded it," he answered simply. "Because we have work for you."

Bamby