Chapter Seven
~California~
It was around noon when the impala pulled up in front of Mark's place. Castiel was in the back seat, still studying that coded language from Sam's dreams. He obviously wanted to make sure he didn't have to worry about taking time with the next translation. If anything popped up in Sam's dreams again. He had slept for most of the trip, hoping something new would happen, but no such luck.
Hopefully they would have better luck with Mark's dreams.
Pocketing the keys, Dean got out of the car, waiting for Sam and Cas before leading the way to the door. He knocked, keeping an eye out for anything weird. And an ear, too. He was prepared to bust the door down if he heard anything from inside.
All he heard at first was a dog bark. Chica. The wait for the door to open wasn't much longer after that. Mark stood there, telling Chica to quiet before inviting the three of them inside. "Amy went out shopping, probably meeting up with Kathryn," he said as he closed the door and followed the others into the living room. "You got here a lot faster than expected. But at least you called first."
"Do you remember seeing a mirror in your dream?" Dean asked, not wanting to waste time with small talk.
"A mirror?" Mark asked then paused to think. After a moment he shook his head. "If there was a mirror, it wasn't too important."
Sam handed over the paper with the message on it. "That was the message that was in my dream," he explained. "If our dreams are connected, we hope to find the mirror in your dream."
Mark looked up from the paper. "You're making it sound like you're going INTO my dream," he said.
"Pretty much, yeah," Dean said with a nod. "Don't worry, you won't feel a thing. And it'll only be Sam and Cas. I volunteered to stay out here when Dark shows up."
"So Dark IS coming?"
"It's for just in case," Sam said. "But after everything we've gone through with Dark in the past, I think it's safe to assume he's coming back."
"Safe?" Mark asked. "Wrong choice of words, but I get it. Thinking Dark was gone for good was too good to be true anyway."
"Next time we'll know better than to trust Celine to close the door," Dean said, noticing the look on Mark's face. "She closed the door, right?"
"Uh...not really, no," Mark confessed. "She was going after Dark. But she said she would make sure Dark didn't come after us."
"And you believed her?" Dean shook his head in anger. "We should've taken care of her when we had the chance!"
"She helped us," Mark said. Why was he defending Celine? But he HAD spent a year alone with her. He might not have fallen for her, but he still cared about her. And that was dangerous if Celine and Dark showed up working together.
Sam knew what Dean had been thinking. "She has no interest in helping Dark," he said. "And she can't leave the World Between Worlds without dying."
"If that was the truth," Dean said. "She probably told us that so she could spring a surprise trap on us later."
"She can't now, can she?" Sam said. "We'll be prepared for them both if they show. We've got the upper hand this time by being here first."
Dean nodded and that was that. He really wanted them both to show. He needed to relieve some stress.
But if Dark really was the big bad Castiel had talked about, would Dark even be stoppable?
~World Between Worlds~
Dark had left. Amy wasn't completely sure of where, but she had a good idea of where he had gone. Why else would he help Celine steal her body? So he could get at Mark. Amy really wanted to yell at Dark more, but that was probably why he had left.
Amy dropped down onto a chair, hating how hopeless her life was now. And how dirty she felt for falling for Dark's tricks. It was clear he had never loved her. He just made her think that so he could use how she felt against her.
She had felt something for him once, but after this she was over it. If she ever saw Dark again, she wanted it to be witnessing the end of his life.
And to make matters worse, Dark had left open a window to her world so she could watch Celine live as her. She had left the room when she had to sit and watch Celine pretend to be her and become intimate with Mark.
She wished she could be the one to kill Celine.
"That kind of mentality gets you screwed over."
Recognizing the voice, Amy whirled around, but who she saw standing there wasn't who she expected. He was wearing a black suit and his hair was slicked back, but he wasn't anything like Dark, she could tell that much. The ribbon pinned to his lapel had a word stitched into it: Mayor. Which told her this wasn't the Mark she knew and she could guess who he was.
The one who stole Damien's body.
The Mark Dark was after.
