Chapter 7: Good Old Reliable Jake (intro)
Doctor Renee Tilly sighed and brushed her orange bangs away from her eyes. Paper work she possessed no desire to complete littered her desk. The paper only added to the already cluttered space the doctor was given to work in. Pens lay scattered on her desk and floor. Renee's coat was draped sloppily—along with her bag—atop an unused chair. Her shelves held dusty diplomas, family photos, awards and several ancient gifts from her brother the archeologist. Such gifts included fossils, crystal like rocks, and a surprisingly intact once human skull. All the debris gave her tiny office a claustrophobic feel.
Renee allowed her feet to slip from the restraints of her heels as she rubbed her temples and mentally reviewed the tiring events of her day. Ash had snapped and attacked another patient! Here she thought she was actually making progress with that SOB and he goes and gives a nineteen year old near catatonic his best left hook. What was he thinking? The doctor thought to herself, oh that's right, demons. It had been demons all over again. The girl was possessed, they were coming for him, everyone was in danger…the girl had had a seizure. Dr. Tilly had tried to explain to him during their meeting but he just wouldn't hear any of it. Never had she seen him so crazed (she hadn't been at the hospital long enough to view Ash when he first arrived). His demeanor was…frightening. Renee shuttered at the memory of Ash's suggestion to her that afternoon:
"Kill the girl, get rid of her, you have to!" he moaned inside his straight jacket. The sedatives had begun to take effect.
"Ash…" for a moment the doctor found herself speechless. The man before her pinned his gaze to her in a flash. His eyes were ravenous. She realized then that she had never called him by his first name before.
"She's already dead…" he sighed heavily, "cut her up, they've got her and there's no coming back. They've got her…" his eyes began to roll and spittle formed in the corners of his mouth, "we're all gonna die," Ash gasped before passing out.
"Dr. Tilly?" Renee jumped at the sound of the voice outside her office door, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare ya!" the pudgy man in the dimly lit threshold immediately chuckled after the doctor's reaction to his sudden appearance.
"That's alright Jake," she attempted to keep her voice pleasant and untroubled.
"It's just," the mild mannered security guard shrugged, "it's getting late Doctor." That's right. Jake was in charge of the night watch with its limited staff number. A few nurses, orderlies and guards were all that remained in this place after six. Renee peeked behind her at the clock mounted on her office wall. It read 8: 04.
"Oohhh," she hissed, "You're right Jake, I should be getting home."
"Now, I'm not tryin' to throw you out or anything Dr. Tilly," he assured her as she rose from the seat at her desk.
"No, no," Renee replied, hunting for her shoes beneath the cavern of her desk, "I'll be out of here in five—" no sign of her left shoe, "maybe ten minutes," she sighed with a laugh, "thanks for reminding I have a life outside these walls, Jake."
Jake responded with a grin of his own, "Not a problem, Doctor," he tapped a flashlight against the door frame (no lights on in the halls after six, saves electricity), "I'm just gonna be finishing up this round. Either myself or Darryl we be at the desk to let you out when you get down there." Another hospital nightshift policy, only way in or out was with the proper ID and a security escort.
"Thanks again,"
Jake nodded, "You can count on me."
"So whadda we do, Sammy, kidnap the guy?!" Dean jokingly suggested to his baby brother, "They're won't exactly be thrilled to let us back into that place." The Winchesters left Sunny Meadows psychiatric hospital on rather unpleasant terms.
Sam sighed. He turned his face away from Dean to watch the passing silhouettes of trees as the Impala sped by them. He had nothing to say, no suggestions on how the brothers could find their way back into Sunny Meadows to chat with Ash. Unless of course, one counted the obvious break in attempt, but in a place full of the criminally insane ready rat you out to the nearest rent-a-cop that didn't really seem like the best option.
"I don't know…" the youngest brother finally replied, crumpling his burger wrapper into a ball and tossing it into the backseat.
"Well you're the one who suggested we go back and talk to this guy some more in the first place," Dean turned to his brother, tearing his eyes from the road before him, "Gotta figure out something!"
"Well I just don't know right now, Dean!" Sam shouted, throwing his hands up in frustration. In an instant his face froze, "Dean!" he shouted again, much to his brother's confusion, "Dean look out!" Sam pointed a shaky figure at the windshield.
The eldest brother's focus snapped back onto the road just in time to feel the impact of the object that collided with the car's bumper. "Jesus!" Dean hissed, slamming his foot onto the break pedal too late. The object rolled over the hood and smashed against the windshield with a sickening crunch. Liquid and matter dispersed from the organism and splattered over the car in a twisted trail of crimson. Both brothers stared, unspeaking, at the gooey windshield once the Impala rolled to a halt. It was pointless for either to mention that the mass their car had demolished had a very human shape to it.
Sam was the first to exit the black vehicle. Without a word to his brother he sprinted back to the Impala's victim now twitching in a wretched sprawl of twisted and broken limb. He nearly gagged at the sight of the creature, twitching its last muscle spasm as he approached. A leg was bent completely backward, bone protruding from a busted knee cap. The other was torn from its socket and lay motionless, crushed, and oozing fluid several feet from the rest of the shattered body. The torso contained dozens of gashes, one huge and gaping in the center of its chest. The place where torso meets hip was crooked from the impact. One arm was twisted three hundred and sixty degrees, barely clinging to its dislocated shoulder. The second arm was bent and broken in several awkward positions. Everything—well what was left of anything clothing the body was stained red. The face was so gnarled it hardly even looked human anymore.
"Dean…Dean!" Sam gasped for his brother who still clutched tightly to the wheel of his car, "Dean!" Sam cried a third time. At the sound of his brother's panic stricken voice Dean gulped a deep breath and shot from his seat toward the scene of the crime.
"Dean you hit a person…" Sam rasped, grabbing his brother's arm once he got close.
"Shit…" Dean whispered, drinking in the grotesque sight before him, "I-I couldn't have done all this…" he surveyed the body's severe amount of damage, his voice was breathless "no way, Sammy l-look at this…" he gulped again, "maybe he…he was probably already dead…"
"No way, he was standing up right and you saw it,"
"Shit!" Dean rubbed a thumb to his temple, "you saying I just killed an innocent person with my car?!" he didn't wait for the reply, "Shit!" he turned away from the body to kick a stone across the pavement. His brother followed, reaching for his arm.
"Dean—"
"You will diiieeee…" a sickly voice groaned behind the pair. The brothers pivoted to face the noise at once, bracing themselves for an unwelcomed stranger. What they saw was a long since dead body that showed a new sign of—for lack of a better term—life, "you shall diiiieeee." It hissed, blood and a strange milky fluid spurted from its blistered lips as it chocked. Limbs had also begun to resume their lifeless, taskless spasms.
"What the fuck…" the eldest Winchester muttered, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.
"You shall never retrieve the Necronomicon!" the demon growled. The boys each took a half step backwards at the mention of the book, "You shall die and the Necronomicon shall be ours!" The creature howled its unearthly laugh as it spat more blood into the night.
The boys retreated back to the Impala, speaking in hushed voices.
"How in the Hell did it…" Dean began.
"I don't know," Sam finished. The trunk was popped.
"Jesus Christ, Sammy, is that what—" Dean was unsure how to finish his sentence as he loaded his shotgun. No salt this time. What the heck did make that thing? The book the tape?
"Sure doesn't look like any other demon we've seen," Sam likewise loaded a pistol, "did you see its eyes?" he asked in a shaky voice. He received no immediate reply from his brother, "Dean?"
"What? Uh, yeah…" he agreed. But Dean had remembered seeing a demon with matching milky white eyes before. Only one and she was one demon Dean couldn't wait to unleash some payback upon.
Sam grabbed a trusty bottle of holy water and prepared to recite an exorcism passage he now knew by heart , "Ready?' he prompted.
His brother nodded, "yeah."
"You shall never retrieve the Necronomicon!" the beast howled, "You will all diiieeee, and we shall swallow your souls!"
"Yeah, that's nice," Dean grumbled, he took the bottle of water from his brother's hand and released a stream into the demon's mouth. It shrieked, smoke emerged from its crying throat along with blood and the strange white substance, "Tell us where it is."
"Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaa!" the monster cackled at Dean's command, withering still from its burned esophagus, "Never will you find it! We shall rise again, and you will all die! We shall conquer this land, and take over each and every soul of the living!"
"I'm gonna ask you one last time," Dean barked, "Where is the book?!" another blast of holy water showered the creature's decaying flesh.
The demon screamed the most inhuman and unholy sound the brothers had ever heard. The wretched thing then continued to speak as it wailed in pain in its other worldly octaves, "The Necronomicon shall be ouuuuurrrrrrssss. You will diiiiieeeee. You will all suuufffeeerrrr!"
"I've had just about enough of this, Sammy."
With a nod the youngest brother began to coldly recite the exorcism passage. The beast cried out once more. This time it's painful shrieks were accompanied by bubbling flesh, oozing pus and the odor of rotting skin as it burned, smoke rising from the living corpse.
"I'll swallow your sooouuuullll!" it moaned, the brothers ignored its remarks, "you will all diiieeee!" it spat blood, preparing weakly for its last words, "and your Hero shall be ours!" it snarled, "Your Hero shall join us or diiiiieeeee…"the demon squawked.
"What was that last part?!" Dean yelled too late. The creature was silenced, nothing left of it but pieces of rotting carcass.
"I, um," Sam swallowed, "I think we should get over to that hospital."
"Yeah."