Blackbird
Chapter 2: Bad Company
"Dean, you are way too excited about this."
"Aw, come on, Sammy! It's a college Halloween party! Sorority girls in skimpy outfits, beer, free candy. It's pretty much a perfect storm of awesomeness."
"You know, when you said you wanted to investigate what was going on at this school I kind of thought that we would be doing more actual investigating."
"Hey, if you want to figure out what's going on, we're going to need to interview witnesses, see if there have been any other incidents. This just happens to be the best way to do it."
"Right, so you don't have any ulterior motives."
"I never said that." Dean scoffed. "Now which costume do you think I should get, zombie or werewolf?"
Sam rolled his eyes and walked away. Dean decides to go with zombie.
Jessica is waiting near the front of the costume shop. "I picked mine out. Are you guys ready?"
"I am. Sammy hasn't picked anything yet."
"I told you that I'm not dressing up. And quit calling me Sammy."
Jessica pouted. "But Sam, it's a costume party! Everyone else is going to be dressed up."
"I'll pass, sorry."
Dean could see that Jessica wasn't going to push any further so he decided to step in. "Come on, Sam, it'll be fun. You could go as a doctor since your girlfriend is going as a sexy nurse, make it a couples costume."
"Ooh, yeah, that would be fun!" Jessica agreed eagerly.
Sam flushed and looked at the floor.
Bingo. They had him sold.
The Halloween party was in full swing, and Dean was really enjoying himself. He could definitely see the appeal of this place- though judging by Sam's judging glare, his brother did not share his appreciation of the finer things. He wondered if Sam was just allergic to fun or something. It certainly would explain why he had always been so sullen.
Dean slid next to a brown haired girl in a Wonder Woman costume. "So how about that blackout a couple days ago? Crazy, right?"
She didn't give him any new information about the case, but she did give him her number so he marked that conversation as a win. He was about to go and brag to Sam about it when he saw a lamp near the drink table flicker.
He walked over to investigate, but there was no EMF, no smell of sulfur or any signs of anything supernatural. "Faulty wiring maybe?" He muttered under his breath. No sooner had the words escaped his lips then did the lamp explode in a flash of sparks. The party guests around it jumped and then immediately passed it off as nothing with a bit of nervous laughter but Dean was on high alert now.
Damn it. This was supposed to be information gathering only. Most of his supplies were still in the trunk of the Impala. He had his dads journal, of course, but not many weapons. At the moment, he only had a hidden silver knife, a hand gun, and a small flask of holy water on him, he wasn't ready for a supernatural confrontation, especially when he didn't know what he was up against.
A demon. He remembered the voice from the telephone saying. A demon is coming for Sam.
Acting more on impulse then anything, he poured the holy water into the punch bowl, hoping that, should they need it, it would give them a bit more ammunition to use against the thing if the man on the phone's bizarre prediction turned out to be true. He needed to warn Sam, tell him that something else might be here.
A demon- how do you kill a demon?
As far as he knew, you didn't. Exorcising the thing was the best you could do, but demons were so rare that he had never bothered to learn an actual exorcism, and he doubted that Sam knew one either. However…
He flipped through his dad's journal. Sure enough, tucked between the entries about Windegos and Shifters were the words to an exorcism chant. He folded the paper and put it in his pocket.
Now to find Sam and figure out what to do next.
Sam was, naturally, laughing with a group of his friends when Dean found him. Jessica stood beside him, laughing right along with him. The sight caused a brief flash of some unnamable emotion to stir within Dean. He hadn't seen Sam look this happy since- Hell, he couldn't even remember when. As much as he hated to admit it, it looked like Sam actually had managed to make a life for himself here, one that let him have friends, a girl that he was obviously head over heels in love with, and the possibility of a job that didn't end in bloody death. This life- it suited him. Even if it didn't suit Dean.
There's no place for you here.
Dean pushed the thought down and walked over. There was still work to do, he could fall apart later.
"Hey, Sam!" He called, walking over to the small group of people.
He saw Sam roll his eyes, apparently annoyed that Dean had interrupted him mid sentence. "Dean- These are my friends, Mike and Brady."
One of the friends, Brady, apparently, broke into a smile. "Oh, so you're Dean. I've heard a lot about you."
"Good things, I hope." Dean laughed before turning to Sam. "Hey, could I talk to you for a second?"
"Oh, sure." Sam said, breaking away from his group of friends.
"I guess I'll just finish telling you that story later then!" Brady called. Mike laughed and said something about getting drinks for everybody.
As soon as Sam was out of the groups earshot he became immediately serious. "What's up?"
"I think something's here."
"What, now? Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm not sure! But I just saw a lamp freaking explode next to the drink table, and considering all the other weird electrical shortages that have been going on around here, I'd say that it's a strong possibility."
"Crap." Sam said, summing up the situation concisely. "What do we do?"
"I don't know, man, we don't have much equipment and we have no idea what we're up against. But I think that our first priority has to be getting all these people out of here."
"How are we going to do that?"
Dean looked around, eyes eventually settling on the sprinkler system installed on the ceiling. "We could pull the fire alarm."
"That's your plan?" Sam asked.
"Have you got any better ideas?"
Sam paused. "Not really. All right, let's do it."
They never got a chance to though as at that precise moment an unearthly cry of pain was let out. Sam and Dean both turned towards the sound of the disturbance and saw that Brady had collapsed on the grounds. Mike was kneeling over him. "Hey, dude, are you okay?" He asked, sounding concerned.
Brady looked up, eyes black.
Dean was barely able to shout "Demon!" before Brady drove his hand through Mikes chest. Mike sputtered, coughing up blood before collapsing to the ground, a gaping cavity in his stomach. All around, the party dissolved into panicked screams, as the guests crawled over each other in their attempts to flee. The demon in Brady stood up slowly, impossibly calm amongst the chaos, his gaze cycling through Dean, Sam, and Jessica, who had collapsed in shock at his feet. Dean began to reach for the exorcism in his pocket, but Brady seemed to catch the movement, swinging an arm towards him and an invisible force knocked Dean off his feet and flung him across the room.
He hit the ground hard, breaking a couple of chairs along the way. The force didn't let up however, just kept pressing him against the floor, his arms stretched uselessly at his sides. He gritted his teeth, struggling as hard as he could, but no matter what he tried, he couldn't move.
It was around this point that Dean really realized just how bad this situation was. Demons were rare, and powerful, while Dean was unprepared, immobile and, basically, totally screwed.
"Now this is… inconvenient." The demon muttered, walking over to a stunned looking Sam.
"Get out of him." Sam growled. Brady just laughed.
"Or what? You'll exorcise me? You and I both know that you haven't been doing your homework. To busy playing house." At that last word, the demons eyes drifted lecherously towards Jessica. Sam looked like he was barely holding off the urge to tear the demon apart with his bare hands.
"Too busy even to notice that one of your closest friends had been possessed. It's been a long time, Sam. Over a year, with your friend screaming inside his head for help. You never did help though, did you? Didn't even notice that Brady wasn't in the drivers seat anymore."
"But… why?" Sam asked, and damn it if his voice didn't sound broken. Full of guilt. Dean felt a sudden surge of anger. How dare that… thing try and get Sam to blame himself for this.
The demon smiled. "My boss's orders. He just wanted me to watch you for a while. You're important Sam, you know that? So important, in ways that you can't even begin to understand."
The demon raised a hand, and Sam went flying into a nearby wall.
Shit. Dean thought. If he could just reach his pocket, then he might have a chance at exorcising this thing, but his hands might as well have been super glued to the floor.
The demon turned to Jessica, smile widening.
Shit.
"I was really supposed to leave this message when you were sleeping, Sam. I wasn't planning on getting found out. I guess I'll just have to improvise now, won't I?"
Jessica went flying to the opposite wall, facing Sam. She looked at the demon, eyes wide with fear and confusion.
"How?" She whispered, in between panicked breaths. "What are you?"
Brady made an expression that could have been mistaken for sympathetic if it hadn't been so twisted.
"Poor thing. Didn't Sammy ever tell you about his past?"
"Leave her alone, you bastard!" Sam shouted something wild and desperate in his voice.
Shit, this is my fault. Dean realized, cold pit settling in his stomach.
"Didn't he ever tell you about his mother?" The demon cooed and Jessica began inching up the wall.
No, no, no, don't let this happen. Don't let this happen again because of me. Shit, please, let me move, let me do something-
"About how she died?"
Jessica was halfway up the wall.
Sam was shouting something incoherent.
Please, I'm begging, please-
As if in response, Dean felt a strange rumbling through the floor as a high pitched humming sound charged the air with electricity. Jessica stopped, mid ascent and the demon looked around, confused.
The lights all exploded as one, and in the brief shower of sparks that followed Dean could have sworn that he saw the demon jump. In the darkness, the noise grew louder and louder before being replaced by another, different ringing.
The sound of the fire alarm.
The sprinkler system above them activated. The demon in Brady screeched in agonizing pain, skin steaming under the water.
Holy Water. Dean realized. Someone filled the sprinklers with freaking Holy Water.
And just like that, the demons hold on the three of them was released. Jessica collapsed back onto the floor and Sam was beside her in a heartbeat. Dean pulled the exorcism out of his pocket and started reading, knowing that this was the best and probably only opportunity that he was going to get.
The demon cried out, pain mixing with rage, yet he was unable to do anything to stop him in the unending onslaught of Holy Water. Thick black smoke burst from his mouth and he collapsed.
"What the Hell…" Dean muttered, not really understanding a single thing that had just happened. Sam and Jessica both looked at him, looking about as shaken and confused as he felt.
"How did that happen?" Sam asked, voice far softer then what Dean was used to.
Dean stared at his brother numbly, wishing that he had some sort of explanation. "I have no idea."
