"What the hell?"
Dean had immediately gone to Bobby and told him all about what he had just seen and heard. Bobby was looking over the articles.
"This is impossible. You killed the yellow-eyed demon."
Dean was pacing around the room, trying to figure out what was going on.
"I know. There's no way it's him." Dean shook his head, still pacing like a caged animal. "Something else is doing this. It's finishing that demon-bastards work and recruiting more 'soldiers' or whatever that twisted son of a bitch called those children whose lives he ruined."
Bobby looked at some pictures he found from the Arbor House fire. He shook his head sadly.
"This is bad, real bad."
Dean flicked up his eyebrows.
"Yeah." He stopped in front of Bobby and put his hands on the table, resting forward against the back of his palms.
"Except this time, we know what to look for and we can stop it before anyone else is killed."
Bobby took in a deep breath, letting is out slowly. "Ya think the same thing that's doing this controls the army of demons as well?"
Dean shrugged a little but looked confident in Bobby's suggestion. "If so, we need to hunt it down. If it is the leader, he'll know where Sam is."
Bobby could hear the hope rising in Dean's voice; a tone he hadn't heard in a long time.
"What do you want to do?" He asked quietly after a moment.
Dean bit his lip and let his eyes wander around the room as he thought.
"We keep our eyes open for more signs." He pushed off the table and straightened up, returning to his pacing of the room. "And we need to-" Dean stopped as his attention was drawn away from finishing his sentence. A man was standing in the doorway, looking straight at him.
"Who the hell are you?" Bobby stood up quickly, caught completely off guard by the unfamiliar and unexpected visitor.
The man's face kept the same blank yet determined expression as he seemed to not hear Bobby's question. He lifted a large, silver gun at arms length and pointed it at Dean.
"You're getting too close." The man's eyes turned into seemingly bottomless pits of black as he squeezed the trigger. The bullet exploded out of the gun, missing Dean by a few centimeters as he dropped to the floor in avoidance of the fired shot. He rolled quickly behind a piece of furniture as another shot went off. Dean searched around for anything that might suffice as a weapon. The shots continued, missing Dean barely as he managed to dodge them each time. Dean heard the hiss of holy water sizzling against impure skin as he ducked behind a wall that separated the room. He heard one more shot and then the sound of a body hitting the floor. The silence that followed startled Dean and fear started to creep over him. "Oh God, Bobby..." Dean jumped to his feet.
"Bobby!" He started towards the spot where he'd heard the thud of dead weight, but stopped before he could go a few steps. The shooter was sprawled out on the floor with a gash trickling blood down the right side of his face, small snakes of steam still rising from where the holy water scorched his skin. Bobby stood at the feet of the possessed, flask in one hand and a baseball bat in the other. He looked up at Dean, a pleased smile teasing at the corners of his bearded face.
"I'm good."
Dean's face relaxed and he laughed a little out of pure relief. He kicked the gun across the floor, far out of the unconscious man's reach.
"That's one way to find out we're on the right track." Dean smiled and looked down at the man on the floor. He shook his head and wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Looks like the demons are keeping an eye on us." Said Bobby, leaning the bat against a wall.
Dean sighed and frowned. "Great."
They both stared at the demon-possessed man who had just tried to kill Dean, taking a few moments to allow the adrenaline in their systems to creep back down to a normal level.
"Well..." Dean said after a minute. "...Looks like we may get some answers sooner than we thought." Dean motioned Bobby to the man's feet as he took hold of his arms. They lifted the unconscious man up and carried him into the other room, placing him in the invisible bars of the protective circle drawn on the ceiling. They secured him to a chair and went about gathering all the things necessary to perform an exorcism.
Bobby readied some holy water and Dean leafed through his father's journal, searching for an appropriate exorcism.
"You ready?" Bobby looked up at Dean finally. Dean had found what he was looking for and he nodded, handing the open journal to Bobby. He put his hand in one of the buckets and scooped up a handful of holy water. Dean threw it on the possessed man's face, getting an immediate reaction. The demon sprang to life and screamed out in pain. Its black eyes glared up at Dean through the steam rising off its cheeks and a wicked laugh escaped from its lips.
"He told me killing you wouldn't be easy."
Dean smirked. "It never is."
He looked up at Bobby and made a motion with his head, indicating for him to start reading. Bobby nodded and started reciting the Latin words scribbled down on the opened page of the journal.
"Regna terræ, cantáte Deo, psállite Dómino..."
"Who sent you?" Dean looked down with disgust at the demon staring back at him through its stolen eyes.
"Our leader." The man said simply.
"Oh yeah? And who's that?"
The demon just stared, seemingly amused, at the man in front of him. Dean's lip twitched and he bent closer to the demon's face.
"Where's my brother?"
The demon laughed, tugging at its restraints in attempts to lunge at Dean. Dean didn't move an inch; he didn't even flinch.
"You're brother?" The demon continued to cackle. "He's not your brother anymore."
Dean looked away and stood up, walking over to the table a few feet away.
"He hasn't been your brother for a long, long time, Deany-boy. If you saw him now you probably wouldn't even recognize him." The demon raised the man's voice in a taunting manner.
Dean picked up one of the buckets and threw its contents on the possessed man. The demon threw its head back and screamed in agony, steam rising from all over its host's body. Dean threw the empty bucket aside and approached the demon. He gripped its face and pulled it forward to look at him.
"If you know what's good for you, you'd answer my questions." Dean's voice was low and his green eyes reflected the intensity that that sounded through it. The demon glared daggers at him, breathing hard.
"Where...is...Sam." Dean asked again, slowly.
The beginning affects of the ritual finally reached the demon. It clenched its eyes shut and groaned heavily. Dean released its jaw, forcing its head back a little as he did so. He straightened up and took a step back, keeping his eyes steady on the demon. The man's body trembled as the evil within cringed against the Latin words that reached his ears. The demon finally opened its eyes, staring out at Dean.
"Our leader? He's gonna continue what he's doing. Recruiting children, killing their mothers, burning houses to the ground." A malicious smile twisted up the possessed face.
"And when he's done with that...He's gonna kill you."
Bobby stopped and looked up from his reading. He looked between Dean and the demon in front of him.
"He's gonna make you scream. He's gonna bleed you until you don't have even have enough energy to blink."
The cold words sent a chill of fear down Bobby's spine, but Dean just stared at the demon, a vague look of amusement turning up the corners of his mouth.
"Why didn't he come here and do the job himself then? He sent one of his bitches instead."
The demon looked Dean once over slowly and smiled after a minute.
"You know that little deal you made? That's what sent Sammy over the edge."
Dean's face hardened, his jaw clenching into a frown.
"He was having a good ol' time in heaven, but you pulled back and..." The demon made a "poof" sound. "...You damned him."
"Dean..." Bobby took a few steps towards him, but Dean put up his hand and nodded reassuringly. Bobby stopped and continued reading.
"You're in no position to talk about 'the damned', you demonic son of a bitch."
The demon could tell it had gotten to Dean by the way his voice faltered a bit mid-sentence.
"Oh, so you admit you made him into what he is?" The demon pushed on.
"He could have been resting in peace. Reunited with mommy dearest and beautiful Jess. You screwed him out of being so very incredibly happy."
Dean couldn't take it any more. He lunged forward and brought his fist into direct contact with the possessed man's nose. The force knocked the chair over, sending the demon to fall hard on its back.
"Dean!" Bobby knew what the demon was saying had to be getting to Dean, but he didn't quite expect him to act on what he felt.
Dean kneeled over the man and clutched his collar tightly in his hands.
"Keep this up and I will personally escort you back to hell!" Dean's features were livid as he yelled in the demon's face.
The demon gasped a bit as a trickle of blood ran over its lips. Bobby grabbed the back of Dean's shirt and pulled him off the possessed. Dean violently released the collar gripped in his strong hands and stood up, shrugging off Bobby's touch.
"Dean! You know the rules!" Bobby spoke firmly as he scolded, but Dean would not meet his gaze.
"This man didn't do anything. You can't punish him for wh-"
"Just read." Dean mumbled through clenched teeth as he turned and walked back to the overturned chair. Bobby watched after him with concern, but he continued after a moment.
Dean bent down and took the demon's collar again. He put his left boot on the bottom wrung of the chair and violently pulled the man, chair and all, into an upright position. The demon sniffed and twisted its nose up, wincing slightly.
"At least I won't have to deal with that later."
"Where is your so-called leader going next?" Dean asked flatly.
The demon shrugged. "Why should I know? I was just sent to off you."
Bobby read reached the second of the three mile markers in the exorcism. The demon recoiled more fiercely this time and the lights in the room started to flicker. The words continued to hit the demon hard, causing it to writhe and protest against them.
"Where?!" Dean demanded loudly as the panes in the windows began to rattle in their frames. The demon bent over a bit and breathed hard as its hands clutched at the chair's armrests. It made a low growling noise.
"Harlen! The family's name is Harlen!"
Dean quickly motioned Bobby to stop. "Why should we believe you?"
"You've got nothing else and you know it." The demon spat bitterly as its chest heaved.
"Where are they?" Dean persisted.
"Close, ok? Close. Are you happy now?" The man glared at Dean as his form shook all over from the nearly-purged demon inside him.
Dean smirked and shook his head.
"Almost." He looked up at Bobby and nodded.
Bobby continued with the final part of the exorcism. The possessed clenched its teeth and groaned as it spoke in halted gasps.
"I hope he makes you beg! I hope he kills you nice and slow!"
Dean kept his eyes fixed as the room around him started to shake; the exorcism was nearly complete.
"I hope you rot in hell." Dean retorted with venom burning in his voice.
The demon clenched its eyes closed and screamed through clenched teeth. It managed to laugh and it opened its eyes, their blackness focused on Dean.
"I'll see you there...s-soon!" The man was able to choke out the harsh words before the black smoke exploded out of his mouth and disappeared into the protective circle drawn on the ceiling. After the demon was completely expelled from the man's body, he slumped forward a little, his chest still rising and falling heavily.
Dean rushed over and knelt down before the man. The man lifted his head a little and winced. Dean began untying his bounds.
"Are you alright?"
The man blinked at him. "My...My head is killing me."
Dean smiled nervously. "Yeah, sorry about that. Do you remember anything?"
The man narrowed his eyes a bit, thinking it over.
"I was driving home from work today and I felt... funny. Then I...lost control of my body." His brow furrowed and he looked up at Dean.
His eyes grew wide after a moment. "Oh my God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shot at you. I tried, but I couldn't stop myself."
Dean chuckled and shook his head, untying the man's feet. "Well, I'm uh...sorry I clocked ya."
The man moved his nose and made a pained face. "I suppose I had it coming."
"Are you hurt?"
The man shook his head. "What the hell happened?"
Bobby came up with an ice-pack and handed it to the man.
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you."
The man looked up at Bobby with a confused look and took the ice-pack, placing it over his nose. He moved his eye to the younger man standing in front of him, and then took a look around the strange room.
"I usually don't believe people when they say that, but I think I'll take your word for it this time."
Dean looked at Bobby. "Take him to the hospital. I'll see what I can find on the Harlen's."
Bobby nodded, helped the man out of the chair, and led him out to his old pickup truck. Dean searched for everything he could find on the Harlen family. After awhile, he discovered that all three of the signs indicating a demonic attack had cropped up in the town of Miltona, Minnesota; the town in which the Harlen family resided. Dean found all information he could on the family including a street address and the fact that they had two daughters; the younger of which was turning six months old that very night.