In the morning, they're gone. I can't say what I expected them to do, but that wasn't it. Maybe Castiel warned them not to mess with me.
I press a hand to my face as I walk up main-street. How much damage did I do last night? A small earthquake won't do much to earth, but when it's veil sourced... How many spirits did I wake? Not to mention the angels I must have pissed off, and the damage the veil itself might have sustained.
It could be that my parents are too busy trying to fix my messes again to watch me set off.
I cross the street to an antique store, figuring the good-old-boys would know how to get to the Chase family's address.
Instead of the tired old men I expected would hang out in an antique shop, I see a group of middle-aged women. They smile as I enter.
"Hello, dear," the woman at the register says. The other three say their goodbyes and excuse themselves from the store.
"Now," she says, setting down the dustcloth she'd been using and smiling brightly.
"I'm actually looking for directions to a local address," I say.
"Well, you've come to the right place," she says, "My husband delivers the mail, and he's just upstairs painting the apartment. Give me a moment and I'll fetch him."
She closes the open register and steps out from behind the counter. She quickly disappears behind the piles of curios, but I can here her making her way to the back of the store. Soon she returns with a man who's stout and much shorter than her.
"I hear you need directions?" he says, smiling as brightly as she is. It's almost disconcerting. "My wife seems to think I remember everything, but I'll help you if I can."
I hand him the address and the pair start laughing.
"What is it," I ask, starting to laugh myself.
"That's our address!" the woman shouts, "I'm Abigail Chase, nice to meet you." I shake her outstretched hand.
"Martin Chase," the other man says, still laughing while he shakes my hand. "How can we be of service?"
"My name's Cassie," I say once the two stop giggling. Their faces grow serious.
"I take by your expressions that you've heard of me?"
"Once grandpa Efram died, the angels told us there was a new seer," Abigail says, "Of course we were curious. We didn't have to look far, either. You're big news, more than Efram ever was."
I tilt my head, but quickly put it back. Old habits die very very hard.
"I expect you'll want to talk to the rest of the family?" says Martin, "Abby and I aren't hunters, the rest of them are."
"We didn't want that for us or our kids," says Abigail.
"You could just point me in the direction-"
"Wouldn't dream of it!" Martin interrupts, "I'll grab the truck from around back and we can drive."
To my surprise, Abby closes the shop. I guess in a small town, you don't risk much being closed one day.
The ride down dusty back roads is unsettlingly quiet. No one reaches towards the truck's radio dial, and we sit in silence. I try, once, to start a conversation, but the subject runs short and I don't attempt it again. Instead, I close my eyes and touch the veil.
I can see the souls of the two in the front seat. Neither have ever been demon possessed, which is lucky for hunters. The pale glow of a human's soul is dark with them all the same. That tells me they've taken lives, not a surprise for a hunter. I notice, too, that they aren't soul mates. It always makes me a little sad, that. Some people just don't find them in time.
I hear voices and feel my body lean. I figure we must have turned into their driveway. In the distance there's a pillar of light I'm surprised I didn't see before. I pull back and open my eyes. The two aren't looking at me. We park and I step out of the car and onto the gravel driveway. Their grass is surprisingly green in the heat, and several old-growth trees shield the house from passers-by.
I'm very interested in meeting the others, but I remember what Castiel told me the night before. Although I don't think they killed Efram without reason, I'll be wary of the Chases for my family's sake. Speaking of, I expected to see them here. Even in the veil, I didn't feel Castiel's warmth tugging at the web. I'm here alone.
"Come right in," says Abigail, leading the way into the house. The interior is slightly dim, and my eyes take a second to adjust from the mid-morning sunlight. The rustic furniture looks comfortable, and the books on the bookshelves are primarily in Latin and other foreign tongues.
To my right the kitchen is cluttered with clay pots and glass jars. More rooms extend from where I stand in roughly the same condition. It's almost like I've stepped back in time, and it's exactly what I pictured a hunter's house to look like. They implore me to explore and introduce myself to the others, and I approach the stairs. In the hallway, I pause and gasp.
There's a strange feeling deep in me that I've been here before. It's not like any deja-vu that I've ever experienced, and I used to get them a lot. It's sinister. And I'm suddenly very afraid.
I take a few steps forward and the feeling fades away. I'd bet my life I just stepped through the pillar of light I saw upon arriving.
I take deep breaths while I take steps towards the stairs. I am not OK with this. I want to leave. But I came all this way, I want to learn something, and it won't be that my family was right.
When I feel strong enough to climb the stairs, I do and enter a hallway that's, you guessed it, dim and cluttered. To the left is an open door. An old woman sits on the bed facing a window.
"He married me when he was already very old, you know," she says to no one in particular. "Nineteen years he's been gone. That's nine plus ten, the ages of Mallory and Greg, my grandkids."
She turns to me and I gasp slightly. She has no eyes.
"Come in and sit down, my dear. I'm not crazy," she says. She's not convincing me.
"How did you know I was there?" I say. I was fairly quiet.
"You don't have to be a high and mighty seer to feel when someone's watchin' you."
She says none of this with malice and I feel safer than I have since I was in the truck.
"So, you are..."
"Please call me Paige," she says, "It's not my name, but I like it."
"I'm-"
"You think I don't know who you are?" she says with a laugh, "I felt you coming a mile away. Married to a seer as long as I was, something must have rubbed off on me, I swear. You gotta keep a lookout when you're married. He's gonna get all kinds of smart."
It's a good thing I don't plan on getting married.
"What are you here for, Castiel Winchester," she says, her voice now sounding a little strange. I decide not to correct her with my nickname. It isn't crucial, not like my questions are.
"What am I supposed to do?" I ask her, hoping that somewhere in her, she knows.
"What do you want to do?"
I wasn't expecting her to answer a question with a question.
"I-" It takes me only a second to recollect my thoughts, "I want to be a hunter. Like my parents were back before they had me." I look away from the figure by the window and instead turn to the photo on her desk.
"I want to help people."
The figure to the left in the photograph must be Paige. She looks middle aged; still unblemished by time, but tired of it. The man to her right, I know must be Efram. I pick up the frame and she hears the clatter.
"Oh, that old thing. That's Efram and I. Back before you really saw the difference."
I blink.
"The... difference?"
"Our ages never looked the same, my love."
Now her speech is deteriorating, and I feel a chill. Her voice is loose like her lips are hot taffy.
"Paige?"
"No," she says, "No, no. No more pretending. I am Lily. Lillian. That's what he called me, Lillian! I was supposed to die first. I was! He was supposed to live forever." She turns around again, her eyeless face no longer a shock. "He did live forever! Before he had me, I mean. This family we made... It's what got him in the end."
I see now what's making her sound so strange. The left half of her face is starting to sag. I know very little about strokes besides that my grandmother died of one when my mom was young, but I can tell that this is one. I turn from the woman and burst into the hallway.
"Help!" I shout. I knock over a stack of books. "Please, someone help!" I run down the stairs and feel the chill as I pass through the awful spot in the hall before racing into the kitchen. It's empty. The living and dining rooms are empty. As I run around, I see that the whole house is empty. It scares me more than Lily's stroke does.
My stomach twists in knots as I stand by the front door, debating running off down the road. I turn back around and race up the stairs. Lily is on the floor and I rush to lift her into her bed.
"How can I help?" I beg her, "Please, tell me how I can help."
Her mouth is half open. "Efram," she slurs. She lifts her right hand to my face. "I'd know that chill anywhere."
I hold still as her cold, soft, hand touches my cheek. The place where her right eye used to be crinkles up, like she would cry. Then, it falls flat. Her hand drops, and I feel her soul drift away. I close my eyes and touch the veil. Watching death is my favorite part of being a seer.
Right above me, I see her colors. She led a brilliant life. She found her soul mate. Normally, there would be something connecting her soul to his, but I don't know about the soul of a seer. Did Efram exist, or was he just a vessel.
Do I exist?
Maybe I can't figure out who I am because I'm not anyone.
My thoughts and emotions shock the rising soul. I want to apologize to her. Her journey to heaven should be sweet. She has nothing to fight about. No one she would stay on earth for.
While she has children and grandchildren, that's not the kind of relationship you decide to stay on earth for. I have no doubt, she won't be haunting anyone.
I open my eyes to the horrified face of Abigail.
"You killed her," she says, eyes wide.
"No, I-"
"You killed her!" Her face twitches and dread blooms in my stomach.
"It was a stroke, I tried to-"
She screams wordlessly, standing in the doorway. I leave the bed and step around it, my eyes never leaving her face. This woman was raised a hunter. If she wanted to kill me, she probably could. There are tears in her eyes now, and her gaze has left me. She kneels by her mother's body, reaching out for her hands.
I reach the wall and feel for the window. Martin appears in the door and Abigail turns towards him. I use this opportunity to spin around and throw the window open. There's nothing below me but the hard ground, so I climb out and hang from my arms to get lower to the ground.
The landing is still a shock to my legs, but I don't have time to nurse them. I hear two pairs of footsteps stomping down the stairs inside.
I run to the street and back the way we'd come, almost crying when I see the impala in the distance. I throw open the door and climb over my dad to get it.
"Let's go," I say, as if it was my idea they be here.
The drive is quiet. I expect they don't want to say 'I told you so.' I'm squished between my mom and my dad and I couldn't feel more defeated.
I sigh. "You told me so."
They still say nothing. I find myself leaning against my dad. He puts an arm around me and I pull my legs up onto the seat.
"I'm sorry," I whisper.
We drive out of Wimberly and north towards home.
Don't worry, guys. Cassie hasn't given up just yet. Plus, Sam and Ada have a surprise for her. ;)