Hillview Apartments
Early the next day….
Dean eased open the door of the one-bedroomed abode and carefully poked his head around the frame. Inside, the apartment was in darkness, but that didn't mean there wasn't a Rottweiler somewhere waiting to chow down on his leg.
The hunter let a hand glide down either side wall until his fingers met the familiar shape of a light switch and he flicked it, immersing the room in a soft opaline glow.
"Looks like nobody's home…" He stepped quickly inside, allowing Sam enough room to follow and quietly click the door shut behind them. "You sure this is our next victim?"
Sam bit his bottom lip but nodded. Tim DaNozza looked to be a perfect match. He was a local student just a little younger than Sam, he'd lost both parents at six months, and he was the latest witness to the whole Lawrence mothman phenomenon. "It has to be DaNozza. The other witnesses were either too old or still had living parents."
Living parents…Sam didn't allow the sting the words caused to show on his features. Flauros had gotten to him. Hell, the thing had gotten to them both. It was better that Dean didn't have to see that in his brother right now.
Dean peeked into the bedroom and grinned at what he saw; unaware of what his sibling was suffering. While the rest of the apartment was clean and tidy, their guy's bedroom looked like the back seat of the Impala on a bad day.
Several crumpled beer cans littered Tim's bedside table, and an abundance of creased, discarded clothes covered the floor.
"I'm thinking Tim is my kind of party animal…"
Sam sighed. "He isn't going to be any kind of animal if Flauros finds him before we do."
"Well, party boy isn't home yet, if he's Flauros' next target, that's good news." Dean closed the bedroom door and moved on into the kitchen. Spotting the refrigerator, he quickened his pace. He'd had little to eat since before summoning the demon, and his stomach was churning up a storm. "Aw, man, that's just gross…"
Sam's staid expression crumpled and he broke into a grin. Dean had opened the refrigerator door to find most of the items inside were green enough to have cultured a year's supply of penicillin. "Hey, I've seen you eat worse," he declared with a look that said "don't deny it."
Dean slammed the heavy door closed and moved on towards the nearest cupboard. "Yeah, but I wasn't sober." He leaned down, intent on searching for more food when something made him pause. His eyes darted around the tiny work area until they settled on an air conditioning vent in the far corner. "Sammy…"
Sam saw the flash of recognition on his brother's face and instantly followed his gaze. At first, he had assumed quite wrongly that the startled look meant Tim was home, but now, he could see it was something far more dangerous.
Seeping through the vent was a billowing black smog that undulated and writhed until it began to take human form.
As the midnight-black elements began to coalesce together it moved forward, spawning a trail of iridescent, smoking flames in its wake.
"Dean! Move!" Sam yelled across the kitchen as the scene suddenly turned into the nightmare scenario he'd been so afraid of all his life.
Dean didn't flinch, he simply waited. Flauros had come here to take a life, but he wouldn't be granted that wish. Dean would see the thing back to hell first, even if it meant he took a one-way trip with it. Dad died for nothing…I won't let another innocent life be wasted that way…
What's it going to be..?
Tessa's voice abruptly gnawed into his subconscious, dissolving his composure, but he fought it. She had been a lie. It all had, and he'd be damned if he was controlled by a demon like that ever again.
"Show yourself, you sonofabitch!"
"Dean forget the damn demon, the fire's spreading!" Sam watched in fascinated horror as the flames from Flauros seemed to spread outwardly across the kitchen as if gasoline had been tossed on the floor.
The ever-increasing carpet of orange and yellow hues seemed not only to emanate from the demon's presence, but seemed to feed off it, suggesting Flauros was the main source of combustion in the room.
The fire was surrounding them, trapping them in a prison of smoke and flame, and Dean didn't even seem to notice.
"It's nice to see you again so soon, boys." Flauros was nothing more than a fiery shell now, flames licking over every limb on his demonic body until only the evil feline eyes remained truly visible. He lifted a blazing hand, making a small, sarcastic salute to the Winchesters. "Touché, my friends. It would seem you're worthy adversaries after all." He laughed, his scorching cackle sending a fresh shower of sparks across the already blazing apartment. "Of course, I will still find DaNozza…"
"Not if we find him first…" Dean moved forward, closer to the ever-growing flames, closer to Hades, maybe. He likes to taunt us, I can use that…
The elder hunter was so close to the demon he could feel the heat emanating across the room, scorching, searing, destroying. He could sense the oxygen being sapped from the atmosphere, leaving nothing but the choking, acrid smoke of death. There's no triangle. He won't be forced to tell the truth here…and yet, he will if I face him…
Dean felt Sam's huge hands slide around his left arm and begin to pull. Sam wanted out. He wanted to escape without ever knowing the truth, but Dean just couldn't let it go at that.
Dean tensed, fighting his brother's strength to stay within spitting distance of the demon. Sam didn't understand. How could he? Dad died for me…my worthless ass…for nothing…for this…
"You know, don't you? You know the way the future plays out. You know whether we defeat the other yellow-eyed bastard?" Dean lunged towards the demon, not caring if its fiery mass engulfed him. At the last moment, Sam's tenuous, desperate grip held him back until tears began to form in his eyes – not from the smoke, but from anger. "How did I live back in Missouri? How did we live in River Grove..?"
Flauros seemed to inhale, smoke billowing into his ungodly nasal passages instead of out as he savored the scent of fear in his foes. "Your brother is the key to everything. He could even have saved your father when he flatlined, if only he'd known…"
"Known what?" Dean's plea remained unanswered.
Flauros turned, his inner flaming mass growing until he was nothing more than a ball of pure, white-hot energy. Around him, carpets burned and electrical items exploded, sending shards of deadly metal flying through the air.
"Dean!" Sam lunged at his brother and tackled him to the floor, the pair narrowly avoiding a section of airborne shrapnel from Tim's stereo system. If it means punching Dean out to get him to leave…
Dean struggled, wafting at his jacket as a stray ember landed on his sleeve and began to burn through.
"Dean, will you just friggin' let it go!" Dean finally nodded, gulping down stale air that had long since been fit to breath as Sam tugged him back up to his feet. "The door…we have to..."
Dean agreed with a bob of his head, coughing as he stole one last glance towards Flauros.
The demon was pure fire now – his element, and soon, he would engulf the apartment and the Winchesters with it if they didn't escape.
Your brother is the key to everything
Dean didn't care if he died here, but for Sam, he made a dive for the door, dodging fiery, sizzling tendrils as they licked across the apartment's main room.
Sam made it to the doorway first and instinctively turned back. He had to be sure Dean was following. He had to be sure big brother wasn't trying anything stupid.
Putting a hand over his eyes from the glare, Sam realized all-too late that escape had perhaps evaded them after all. Just as Dean was in an arm's length of the corridor, the thing that had once been Flauros' earthly form exploded.
It was like a tiny atom bomb detonating in a bright flash of white light.
Sam felt the energy as the fire in the room intensified and seemed to blow outward towards him – towards a very exposed Dean.
The blast only lasted seconds, maybe less, but as Sam's body was lifted from the floor and blown backwards into the hallway, he was forced to watch as Tim DaNozza's apartment was turned into ashes and his brother was tossed by the crescendo like a rag doll.
Dean!
The younger brother's mind screamed out in panic, in fear. Why was he always so helpless? Why did Mother Nature always make sure it was Dean who drew the short straw?
Your brother is the key to everything
Maybe Sam was the key. Maybe his current gifts hadn't even begun to scratch the surface of what he was capable of, but right now, Sam felt numb, useless.
The sensation continued for all of a millisecond. Then, the back of Sam's skull impacted with the far corridor wall, his body crumpling as he slid to the floor into welcome oblivion.