Chapter 9: I'm Not a Killer

"How long you been standing there?!" one of those phony detectives from before snapped at me, practically spitting right in my face. Honestly, how rude.

"Long enough," I shrugged. I followed the screams.

I fixed my eyes on Doc Tilly, man did she look a mess. Her snappy professional attire was completely drenched in what I'd bet money on was somebody else's blood. Her legs were covered in scratches, and those cuts can sting. The Doc's normally well maintained hair due was a wreck. Orange wisps fell from her bun to frame her face, hiding one of her icy blues behind them. Her body quivered after she noticed me surveying her, and not in a good way.

"We have to get out here," she panted, hugging herself, voice full or tears. Her eyes never left mine when she spoke.

"Not gonna happen," I reminded those screwheads. I tried to keep my voice down not to startle anybody but apparently it had the opposite effect.

"How the hell do you know that?!" that same rowdy kid jumped at me. Then, for a moment, I wasn't in Sunny Meadows Hell Hole in the Wall for the Criminally Insane. I was back in the woods, in my old car, the Delta. My sister Cheryl sat opposite me; even in the darkness surrounding us I could see the smoke of her frightened breaths. Her crying eyes pleaded with me to believe her, to take her out of this place. God…I'd almost forgotten how awful she looked. Cheryl's hair was wild with twigs and leaves caught in the tangles. Her clothing was torn, her feet bare and muddy, cheeks dirty and tear stained.

She spoke, "it's not gonna let us leave, Ashley!"

I had to shake myself free of the memory before things got real ugly, "because," I told them, sounding despondent, "it won't let us leave."

"What do you mean it won't let us?" The calmer of the two asked me, probably just in time too. If the other had opened his mouth again I was sure it was going to be to bite my head off.

"That's what it does," I tried to explain, "the…" I racked my brain for the right word, "force."

"Force?" he questioned in disbelief. Yeah, I bet if I was hearing it for the first time I wouldn't believe it either.

"As in 'May it be with you` type of force?" his partner snorted.

"Listen I don't know exactly what it is!"

"Then what do you know?" by this time the calmer partner had a hung a protective arm over the shivering psychiatrist.

"Just that it's always out there, and once some sucker," generally me, "lets loose those incantations there ain't no easy way to stop it," by the grumpy expressions on all their faces I knew this explanation alone wasn't good enough, "those incantations give the…Evil things in that Evil force license to possess the living, and then, well, all hell breaks loose. Nobody is safe." I warned them, hoping I wouldn't have to do it again.

"What are they?!" my doctor cried hoarsely.

I inhaled slowly. Time to shatter her perfect harmless little world forever; "demons," I said.

"If they're demons then why the hell didn't our exorcism work?" jumpy snapped. Well, that certainly wasn't the reaction I was expecting.

"Uhh…"

"This can't be happening," Doc sniffled, "none of this can be real. This can't be happening!" now that's more what I expected: denial. She wiped the mascara smudged under her eyes away and allowed one of those strange guys to help her onto shaky legs, "I don't believe this…" she mumbled.

"Well?"

"Huh?" was my smooth reply.

"One of those things downstairs followed me and my brother here," oh so they're brothers, "after we thought we had exorcised that thing back to Hell!"

Damn. They already knew. They knew everything that had happened was of a supernatural origin (maybe even more than I do by the sound of it); Ward's untimely death, the tape recorder, twice stolen `evidence` and those stupid questions about the Evil. They were just trying to play dumb before. For the first time I took notice of the artillery these guys carried. They've done this before.

"Hey, you wanna know something funny," I pretended to laugh, "I still don't know who you creeps are." I scowled.

The one with his arm around the good doctor abandoned his post at her side for me and his brother, "our names are Sam and Dean," He said in a sort of rehearsed manner, "and—"

"We're hunters," his brother finished.

"You're what?"

"Hunters," Sam continued, "we travel, hunting things like what's downstairs, and…saving people."

"And you're here because you wanted to know about the Necronomicon," I filled in the blanks.

"Yeah. We wanted to find and destroy it before—"

"Before Hell on Earth could be unleashed?" I interrupted again. Sam opened his mouth to continue speaking but I wasn't quite finished yet, "and you figured since I seem to be the last guy to ever come in contact with the book—or so you assumed given my current residence and bloody tale—that I'd know exactly where to find it, and how to not only destroy it but those nasty little demons too, and that I'd be more than willing to assist."

"Yeah," he answered, his tone not pleasant due to my conclusions. Neither looked at all happy with my attitude. Oh well, that's their problem.

"Sorry to burst your bubble boys but you're not gonna find the Necronomicon anywhere," I legitimately chuckled.

"Why not?" Dean questioned, his anger rising.

I smirked, "I burned it. Twenty seven years ago, in an old cabin in backwoods Tennessee."

Their jaws fell. Dean's eyes blazed with fury, "then how the fu—"

"The tape recorder,"

"How do we stop it," Sam asked me, his voice grave.

"For good?" he nodded, I sighed, "I don't know. Nothing I've ever tried worked for very long. The only way to keep those demons from rippin' you to pieces is to rip them first," an eyebrow raised. I' I had to spell it out more clearly, "the only way to stop them is through the act of bodily…" wait a second, "dismemberment…" the brothers tossed more quizzical glances at the sound of my distracted voice, "it's here!" I didn't wait for the obvious question to be asked before answering it, "the tape! I heard it, Professor Knowby's voice on that tape while I was out. It's here in this building I swear it," their stares were still skeptic. Don't blame them for not willingly taken the word of supposed madman, "it's what's springin' them up here, the demons, the tape is bringing them back to this place."

"Why?" Sam wasn't sarcastic in his curiosity, as I anybody would surely have been. I paused for a long moment. Sure I could think of one very specific reason why this place. I'm here aren't I? The Evil and I have never had a very civil relationship. It came back when Ward played the tape, then stole the tape back from the police…and with the tape were the missing pages; including a page depicting the image a great 'hero' defeating this same Evil seven hundred years ago. Yeah, somebody's pissed.

"I don't want to stay here," Dr. Tilly whined. Her attention drifted from me to the boys to the smear of blood spread thick across the linoleum and back again. Her mind was clearly cloudy—if that makes any sense—trying its best to comprehend the close to utterly hopeless situation we were in.

Sam sighed, "We have to get her out of here," he mumbled to his brother, possibly interpreting my lack of reply for lack of answer to his previous question, "she's falling apart," he said softly to keep the fragile lady from hearing.

"No," I tried to warn them again. Weren't those two listening? There is no way out.

"We've got to try," Sam's eyes shot daggers at me. I guess I was misinterpreted again.

"He's right," Dean backed his brother up, sighing, "we can't stay to fight something we're not prepared for," he grimaced, reluctant to retreat, "not with all these people in the way," huh, does he mean the missing staff the patients or both? "We'll regroup, find out how to stop it, lure it away," now he was just pulling stuff out of his ass, "destroy the tape, come up with some plan."

I couldn't believe this. Hello, fellas?! There is no chance for regrouping, for planning, for anything! Don't you get it! "What do you think if you just walk out of the building the damn thing will follow you, spare some lives along the way in a fit of mercy, wait till you've checked Encyclopedia Britannica for `destroying Evil Forces` and are ready for a grudge match?!," their muscles tightened as I shouted. Doc winced a few times too, averting her eyes from the guy wielding a sharpened piece of scrap metal, "because that's what this is, really! A grudge match!" I slammed my makeshift weapon against a pristine wall. Instinctively the brothers Grimm retreated a step, holding up their palms in that universal `whoa, horsey` gesture. Except one had an axe in his hand and a pistol in his belt while the other had a sawed off shotgun and whose know what other tricks up their sleeves combined. My good doctor remained frozen in place.

I inhaled deep, attempting to calm my frustrated nerves, "Hey," I begin again, with a more 'positive' tone, "if you think it's gonna work by all means," I motioned for them to move right on past me, "go ahead and scurry on outta here with your tails between your legs," they grunted. I placed a finger on my chin in that universal `intellectual` pose " or, here's a thought, you could find out why those Evil sons of bitches are coming back and how to stop them before it spreads too far. I'll give you a hint on the first part: me," I exhaled, "like I said. It's a grudge match."

"Ash?' this was Renee's whimpered call to me. I figured since she started referring to by my first name might as well return the favor.

I adjusted my pose as she approached me on shaky legs, her chin down and orange locks curtained her face. Still, I softened the eyes up a bit, relaxed the shoulders and did my best at sounding suave when I replied, "yes?"

SMACK

She slapped me one right on my left cheek. I could feel the heat from her palm leaving a welt seconds after contact. All I could do was blink through the sting as the doctor began to spew her verbal acid in my face, "You did this!" she shouted, poking a bloody finger at my chest, "this is all your fault! You did this!" her boney digit pushed me back a step, "You're behind all of this! You're killing us just liked you killed them!" she sobbed and shrieked, "All of them! Jake, Darryl…those kids!"

"My friends?" I immediately corrected, injecting some venom of my own, "my sister? My God damned girlfriend?!" that last part came out as a snarl. Sam had to throw his arm out to keep me from lunging at the hysterical woman. Dean likewise took a firm hold of her shoulders, "what on this earth, lady, makes you think I would willingly put myself through the same Hell that virtually took away everything I ever cared about?! I had to watch as some of the people I loved most died and came back to murder me! My own parents died without ever saying a word to me again because of what you people accused me of! I am not a killer!"

"Ash! Ash! Calm down!" Sam yelled, pushing me back against the wall. I wasn't aware that I had been struggling with him.

"You're a fucking mad man!" Tilly spat, literally, shook herself free from Dean's restraint and stomped past Sam holding me back, "I'm leaving and I hope you die here!"

"Yeah, well best of luck surviving the night without any help from me!"

"Enough!" Sam nearly threw me to the ground.

"Doctor! Renee!" the other brother shouted after the woman retreating down the darkened hall with only moonlight guiding her. She didn't turn back as she flipped us all off. "Hey!" Dean shouted again right before catching up, "Hey Doc, chill we need to stick together in here, alright!"

"Don't tell me to chill!" she swatted at him.

At that point I felt the cold breeze blow straight through my bones, and it was picking up speed. "Uh oh," I mumbled as it sped past Sam, he too sensing the unholy presence unseen.

"Dean!" the young man yelled for his brother just before the sound of metal crashing against metal pierced the hall.