SIXTEEN
Lisbon, Maryland
January 21st, 2009
"Nobody move," Dean yelled. "We don't need to be stumbling around, smacking into each other in the dark. Let your eyes adjust first." Dean could sense someone close by. Sam, he guessed, considering where everyone had been standing before the lights had gone out. He heard a loud bang as someone knocked into something, followed by a curse under their breath. "Stay put, Ruby, and give it a minute," he ordered. A beam of light from a flashlight began waving around the room.
"I was trying to get the flashlights I put on the damn coffee table so we wouldn't have to wait," she snapped at him. She tossed one to Dean and Sam first before putting one into Reggie's outstretched hand.
"I have to go check on Frank," Reggie stated, weaving around the scattered furniture. Dean could tell she was worried about the ailing hunter being alone.
"I'll come with you," he offered, following her into the kitchen. "We should stick together, anyway." Dean bumped into her in the doorway.
Reggie was stopped dead in her tracks, her body rigid. With stunning realization, Dean saw that the room was empty. Frank was nowhere in sight. He realized, at the same moment Reggie did, that the back door out onto the porch stood open, the frigid storm winds banging the screen door against the jam.
"Oh god, Frank," Reggie gasped. She began calling her uncle's name, rushing to the door. Dean barely had time to grab her when a heavy-set, bald man appeared in the doorway, blocking Reggie's path. His white t-shirt was stained with food and his green sweatpants barely managed to stay up, hugging his wide hips just below his massive stomach. He grinned sadistically at them but didn't enter. There was still enough rock salt in the door frame to stop him from coming inside. "Frank," Reggie screamed, struggling to get free of Dean's hold. "Let me go. I have to get Frank. I have to get him back inside."
"Hey Dean, listen to the lady and let her come get her uncle," the man said tauntingly, his eyes flashing as he eyed Reggie.
Dean growled at the demon and spun Reggie around, grasping her arms tightly above the elbows. "You can't go out there," he yelled at her. She yanked her arms down, trying to break free of his grasp, but Dean held tighter. His stomach was in knots and agony had locked his heart in his chest. "It's too late, Reggie. I'm sorry, but it's…."
"Let go, Dean. I have to get him. I have to get Frank before they do," she cried. "Please, I have to get Frank." Dean could see the despair in Reggie's eyes, but he held her firmly in place.
"You could just wait for us to bring Frank to you, sweetheart," the demon purred. "We're taking good care of him for you, don't worry." Reggie screamed in fury and tried to twist out of Dean's grip, hitting him with her fists.
"I'm going to kill you, you bastard," she screamed. The demon laughed at her and slammed the door in their faces, cutting off the howling, freezing wind. Reggie slumped against Dean's chest, defeated and devastated. Dean let go of her arms and wrapped his own around her, holding her to his chest, her body racking with sobs. He had to be sure she wasn't going to make a run for the door the moment he let go, so he continued to hold her even after he felt her gain control of herself.
"I'm so sorry, Reggie," he murmured over and over again. He heard voices calling from the living room; Sam and Ruby asking about the noise. Sam's got louder as he came to check on them. He froze in the entryway, taking in the scene before him.
"What happened?" he asked, gasping as he counted the people in the room. "Where's Frank?" When no one answered, he stepped into the room. "Dean?"
Dean opened his mouth to answer, but Reggie beat him to it. "Outside. He must have gone out when they blew the transformer." She pushed against Dean's chest, but he held onto her. "Let go, Dean. I'm not gonna go running outside." Dean looked down at her face, saw that she was telling the truth, and let go. He turned to Sam, misery etched across his face.
"Reggie, I'm so sorry," Sam whispered.
"Sam, you and Dean better get out here," Ruby called again from the living room. Reggie pushed past them and rushed out of the kitchen. "I don't think you want to be here," they heard Ruby state, a hint of sympathy in her voice.
"Go to hell. Oh wait, you already have," Reggie snapped. "Just get out of my way, Ruby," Reggie continued coldly.
Dean and Sam came in just as Ruby took a step away from the window, getting out of Reggie's way. Sam put himself by the front door, partly in preparation in case he needed to stop Reggie if she made another attempt to get outside, but also because he really didn't want to see what was going on outside. Dean went to stand by Reggie's side, his stomach dropping like a stone at the sight outside the window.
Frank lay in the middle of the sloping front lawn, his lifeless body sprawled out on the accumulating snow. Blood from a large wound in the man's side, had turned the pristine white a disgusting cherry red. They all watched as another demon, this one possessing a short, black-haired Korean girl who was no more than sixteen, knelt down beside Frank's body and whispered something in his ear. The man's body twitched once, before laying still once more. Dean pulled Reggie from the window just as a snow ball hit the glass with a thud. A hairline crack in the window appeared at the point of impact.
"They're throwing snowballs with rocks in them," Sam growled. Everyone looked at Reggie, pity in their eyes.
"The windows will hold. It's treated, double-plated glass. It may crack a little but it won't break." All emotion was gone from Reggie's voice. Her eyes were blank, her face expressionless. Reggie looked dead inside. I recognize that look all too well, Dean and Sam both thought at the same time. "They're going to make their move soon. We should get ready."
Ruby looked at Sam for a moment before heading upstairs, taking her position in one of the bedrooms that looked out onto the backyard. "I'll take the kitchen," Sam offered.
The original plan had been for Dean and Sam to set up in the living room while Reggie watched the kitchen, and Frank, for the first shift. They had planned on circulating positions every two hours, hoping the change would keep everyone alert. With Frank gone, there was no need for any of it, making Sam feel awkward and sad.
Reggie shrugged, apparently sensing she would lose any argument if she objected, and sat down in one of the recliners, staring blankly at the big bay windows. Sam gave Dean a quick pat on the back as he walked past and left without another word.
Dean took a hesitant step toward Reggie. "I'm so sorry."
She looked over at him, still completely numb. "Why?"
"This is my fault. We came here to get your help and we brought death and destruction on you."
"I told Bobby to let you come."
"Yeah, but you didn't know what was going on. You didn't know we were mixed up in all this."
"Bobby gave me an idea. And I am a hunter, Dean, remember?"
"Yes, but this stuff doesn't often follow you home. You and Frank should have gotten out while you still could." Dean pounded his hand against the wall.
"I told you I wasn't going anywhere. I chose to stay." Reggie sighed and her eyes suddenly brimmed with tears. She slammed her clenched fists down on the arms of the chair. "My uncle is dead because of me. It's my fault." She fought against the emotions raging to get out; the despair, the pain, the anger.
"No, it's my fault. I should have made you leave." Dean glanced out the window and saw that at least three of the possessed people outside were gone now, probably trying to find another way inside.
"Don't," Reggie snapped, startling Dean with the fierceness with which she spoke. "I can see you seem to think that every person is your responsibility, that the world really is on your shoulders! That, because Castiel pulled you from hell to stop the devil from reigning hellfire on all of us, you're responsible for every heart that beats in this world. But you're wrong, Dean! Every person isn't your responsibility because you can't be everywhere! You can't save everyone.
"The plan is for you to stop Lilith and that's what will save people. Don't you dare take what happened to Frank as your fault. Don't you dare take what happened here to mean that you failed yet another person." Dean blinked at her as she glared at him, her breath ragged as the fury poured out.
"She's right," a voice stated from the top of the stairs, making them jump. Castiel stood looking down at them with a look of regality about him.
"I thought you were just going to watch," Reggie barked at the angel, turning her anger on him. "Not listen in on private conversations and add commentary."
"A wise woman pointed out earlier that I was ordered to offer assistance if absolutely necessary. I think the current situation may have become just that." Castiel proceeded down the stairs and into the living room, stopping beside Dean who had absently moved closer to where Reggie sat. "Of my comment - I was merely agreeing with you. You've just said to him what I have been trying to get him to see since the beginning," Castiel stated. "Not that he believes either of us."
"Hello? Still here in the room?" Dean called out in irritation, waving his hands in the air. "Can you stop talking about me like I'm not here, please?" Reggie looked at him and offered a weak smile.
"Get ready. Someone's coming towards the house," Ruby yelled from upstairs. "Looks like they're going for the windows downstairs." Just as she spoke, there was a crash from the only room Dean had yet to enter. He knew Sam had been the one to secure it with rock salt so he was confident the demon wasn't getting in.
Castiel seemed to read this in his demeanor and shook his head. "Expect anything, Dean. These demons are not the typical kind you've dealt with. Some of them are higher-level demons, like Lilith. Many of the protections you have set up may not work on them."
"They're trying to break-in in here, too," Sam called from the kitchen. The bay windows began to vibrate violently, the ground shaking as if they were experiencing an earthquake.
A crash resounded from somewhere above and Dean sprinted up the stairs, pulling out his gun as he raced down the hall. "Castiel, watch Reggie," he yelled to the angel as he disappeared into her bedroom.
Dean came face to face with a tall, gray haired woman dressed in a pale pink suit snagged in the devil's trap Reggie had drawn on the ceiling halfway through the room. He began laughing as the demon screeched at him, pacing the invisible circle in which she was stuck.
"I'm going to peel the meat from your bones," she roared. "It'll be just like it was in hell, Dean." This brought Dean's laughter up short and he pulled out a small tape recorder, pushing play, before setting it on the dresser.
Sam's voice began to chant from it. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii…" Dean chucked the demon the finger as he strolled from the room, it's screams of pain and outrage echoing down the hall after him.
"One down," he called, heading back downstairs. He could hear crashing and banging from the kitchen. "Sam?" he yelled, concern rising in his gut.
Castiel and Reggie were no longer in the living room Dean realized, but her tried to give it little thought as he raced through to the kitchen. He found Sam pinned against the fridge by the fat man who had taunted Reggie, a bottle of holy water just out of his brother's reach on the counter. The demon was choking Sam, a gleeful expression on his face.
Dean rushed to his brother's aide, yanking the man off and slamming him into the stove. Pots and pans clattered and spun into the sink and onto the floor around their feet. The demon roared and rushed at Dean. Sam was quicker and he threw the holy water into its face. The demon screamed in pain, raising his hands to his face, and stumbled backward through the open basement door. They heard him tumble down the stairs, the bones of the body he was inhabiting snapping loudly as they broke in the fall. Sam slammed the door closed and poured a circle of rock salt around it, sealing the demon inside.
"Thanks," he huffed, still trying to get his breath back. They both turned as a loud boom thundered through the house, rattling the cabinets.
"Need a little help up here," Ruby yelled as they raced into the living room, trying to find the source of the noise. Castiel was bent over the Korean girl, his hands on her head, chanting softly to himself. The girl screamed and thrashed, but remained trapped in the angel's grasp.
"Where's Reggie?" Dean asked the angel as he scanned the room again. Castiel glanced up at him for a moment.
"I believe she went that way," the angel said, nodding down the hallway. Sam took off up the stairs to help Ruby, who was battling two demons at once as Dean went to check on Reggie. Dean had only made it halfway down the dark hallway when he was suddenly sacked from behind, causing his gun to go skittering across the floor, out of reach. The black man from before picked Dean up as if he were a rag doll and slammed him into the wall, knocking the breath from his lungs.
"It will be my pleasure to dispose of you for Lilith," the demon snarled as he continued to slam Dean into the wall. Dean head butted the man, staggered when he was dropped as the demon grabbed his broken nose, then threw himself at the man's waist. They plowed through a wall into a small laundry room, banging into the washer and dryer. Dean stumbled out of the man's reach as he became caught in the devil's trap painted on the tile floor. Dean realized there was another door into the house from the washroom. That door now stood ajar. Dread turned his stomach to stone.
"Dammit Reggie," he cried, before rushing outside. He spotted her a few feet from the house, lying on her back on the ground, as a demon, this time a ten year old boy dressed in train-covered pajamas, advanced on her, raising a long metal pipe above his head. Dean put on a burst of speed, closing the distance in seconds, tackling the unsuspecting boy to the ground. Reggie scrambled to her feet and kicked the pipe from the boy's grasp.
"Can you hold him?" she asked.
"Yeah, I think so. Just hurry. We don't want any more of these bastards coming up on us while we're out here," Dean panted, grappling with the kid as he struggled to get free.
"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica…." Reggie began chanting. The boy screamed and Dean clamped a hand over his mouth, trying to muffle the sound.
They could hear the battle raging inside even over the howling wind and Dean longed to get back inside; to check on Sam. Reggie finished the incantation and Dean felt the boy's body go lax as a cloud of black smoke poured from his mouth and nose. "We better get back inside," she stated. Gun fire echoed across the yard from inside and a window on the second floor shattered above them.
Immediately, Reggie took off towards the house, heading for the laundry room. Dean grabbed her arm, stopping her. "I trapped a demon in there. We can't get back through that way," he yelled over the howling wind. She nodded and they raced around the side of the house to the back door and into the kitchen.
They rushed through the door and scrambled past the overturned furniture, heading for the living room. Dean took the stairs two at a time, Reggie close on his heels. Castiel was holding down a heavy set woman still in curlers and a bathrobe as Ruby fought with a guy dressed in all leather biker gear.
"Sam?" Dean yelled, trying to find his brother. As if in answer, Sam came hurtling out of an open doorway and crashed into the banister. Sam tottered there, his hands pin-wheeling in the air, before he toppled backwards over the railing. "Sammy!" Dean yelled as his brother plunged out of sight.
Dean lunged forward, but Reggie was already there, grabbing Sam's outstretched hand at the last second. "I've got you," she grunted, struggling to hold on to him. She had just managed to pull Sam up enough for him to grab hold of the banister and give her some leverage when the demon Sam had been attacked by stepped into the hallway.
The man was immense with bulging arms covered in thick, dark hair. If Dean hadn't seen a real werewolf before, he would have sworn that was exactly what this man was. The demon roared and lunged at Reggie's unprotected back. She screamed in pain and shock as it pinned her against the banister, rocking the railing forward with the weight. Dean picked up a gun, barely noticing that it was his favorite double-barrel shotgun, and fired into the man's back. The demon barely flinched and instead lifted Reggie into the air.
Sam let go of the railing and dropped onto one of the recliners, the very one Dean had sat in when they first arrived. It broke apart with a crunching sound, the chair taking most of the impact from Sam's fall. He rolled just as their father had taught them and came up in a ready stance, his eyes focused on the landing above. Just as Dean registered his brother's safety, he had to watch in horror as the monster before him threw Reggie into the air over the banister. Dean fired again at the man, who finally turned to face him.
"You've caused us so much trouble," the man said, his voice deep and filled with fury. "I'll enjoy putting your head on a pike." He advanced on Dean, chuckling as Dean brought his gun up again to fire. "You know that won't kill me. I barely even feel a thing. But you won't be so lucky, Dean. I'm going to make sure you feel every second of the pain I'm going to inflict on you." The demon grinned sadistically. "Alastair says hello, by the way."
Dean roared and launched himself at the man, his momentum causing them to fall down the stairs. They tumbled and rolled down the stairs entangled in each other. Dean hit the bottom first, his head bouncing off the hardwood floor, stars flooding his vision. He shook his head, trying to clear it, but was grabbed by the throat by two very strong hands, their grip a vice around his windpipe. They began to squeeze and the stars turned into solid red as the air - the life - was choked out of him. Dean could hear Sam calling his name but it sounded distant, like from down a long tunnel.
There was a loud bang and suddenly he could breathe again. He gasped for air, choking on it as it flooded his lungs. Dean felt hands on his back and tried to fight against them. "Easy, easy. It's me, Dean. It's Reggie," a voice hissed in his ear. He blinked his eyes rapidly, trying to clear the bursts of stars and red still lingering and saw that it was, in fact, the female hunter. She pulled him gently into the entryway and handed him a bottle of water.
"Where - where's - ?" Dean choked.
"Sam's fine," Reggie said, answering Dean's unspoken question. "Those are some powers he has. He forced that demon out as it was choking you." She shuddered. "I can see why it bothers you."
Dean gawked at her, trying to make sense of what she was saying. He began searching the room for Sam, spotting him standing over the slumped, unconscious form of the man that had just tried to kill them. Castiel stood at the top of the stairs looking down on the scene as Ruby hovered as far away from the angel as she could but still close enough to see the three hunters below.
"How'd you - " Dean began before a coughing fit doubled him over, his throat so raw it burned.
"Sam, actually," Reggie answered. "He managed to get the couch under me in enough time to break most of my fall." She winced as she tried to shift to help Dean sit up. "I think my leg might be broken. But, all things considered…" She shook her head. "It was close, for all of us, but it looks like we made it out all right."
"Dude, what were you thinking, taking on Bigfoot like that?" Sam laughed shakily, offering Dean his hand to help pull him up.
"I saved your ass, didn't I?" Dean grinned and took another swig of water, wincing as it burned his throat. "There's a demon caught in the laundry room and that guy in the basement has to be dealt with." He raised his eyebrow at Sam and waited.
"Fine. I'll go take care of them," Sam grunted, a smile tugging at his lips.
"I'll help you," Ruby called as she hurried down the stairs. Dean noticed Castiel was gone.
"Where'd Cas go?" he coughed. Reggie looked around, too.
"I guess he split." Reggie shrugged. "I mean, you survived, so his job's done. For now anyway." She eyed Dean for a moment, then shook her head. "Do you think you can help me up?" Dean nodded and helped her to her feet, letting Reggie lean on him as they headed into the kitchen.
Ruby was picking up the chairs as they entered and Dean eased Reggie into one. They could hear Sam's voice drifting up to them from the basement as he performed the exorcism on the overweight demon. A few moments later, he clomped up the stairs, weariness already settling on his young face.
"Did you get the one in the laundry room?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, I got him first." Sam handed Dean his gun back and slumped into one of the chairs, rubbing the back of his head. "That last guy was a monster," Sam stated, wincing as his fingers touched a lump on the back of his skull. "I'm not even sure where he came from. One minute I was checking the third bedroom and the next I'm being clubbed over the head." Sam shrugged and shook his head, which only caused him to wince again.
"Wait. Something's not adding up. We saw how many demons on the lawn?" Reggie asked, looking up at Dean and Ruby, then at Sam.
"Nine, I think," Sam said.
"Right, okay. That's what I thought. Dean and I took care of the little boy in the yard and he trapped the one in the laundry room. Then there was the one he got upstairs in the devil's trap. Sam took care of the one in the basement and the big guy. I think Castiel helped with two of them. That's only seven."
"Ruby?" Sam asked.
"There was just the one," Ruby replied.
"So that leaves one unaccounted for," Dean stated, pulling back the hammer on his gun. They all froze, waiting for an attack. They glanced around before Sam and Dean left the room, leaving Ruby and Reggie behind in the kitchen, waiting on pins and needles as Dean and Sam checked the house.
A few minutes later, the guys came back, looking relieved. "Huh." Dean shrugged and spun a chair around, sitting down and resting his arm on its back. "Guess it took off when it saw we were winning."
"I'm not so sure that's what it was doing," Reggie said, frowning. "I think maybe it was here to watch. To see if we made it out alive."
"Do you think they're going to send more?" Ruby asked.
"Probably, but how can we know for sure? I think maybe we should blow out rather than stick around to find out," Dean stated. He glanced at Reggie, worried about what was going to happen to her once they left. She couldn't stay in the house, that much was obvious.
"Don't give me that look, Dean," Reggie snapped. "I'm coming with you. I can't stay here and I have just as much right to be involved in stopping Lilith as you do." Sam and Dean looked at each other, knowing they couldn't argue with Reggie. Sam looked to Ruby.
"Oh, you know I'm not going anywhere," she stated.
Dean got up and pushed the chair back under the table. "Well, I guess we better start packing, then."