6. Demon Sunday School (4.02)
"It just fell?"
Sam and Andy had found Bobby locked in a car in the junkyard, held captive by two ghost girls, and now the four of them are gathered in the study, listening to Dean explain what has happened between him and ghost Meg in the upstairs hallway.
"Yeah," Dean nods. "My gun hadn't even gone off yet and the damn thing just fell."
"Maybe the Angels are watching over you," Sam jokes, and Dean gives him a look.
"Wait, does this mean they're all people we know?" Andy asks.
"Not just know. People we couldn't save." Andy's eyes drop to her feet and Dean clears his throat. "Hey, I saw something on Meg. Did she have a tattoo when she was alive?"
"I don't think so," Sam says with a shake of his head.
"It was like a-a mark on her hand-almost like a brand."
"I saw a mark on Eliza, too," Andy says.
"What did it look like?" Bobby asks.
Andy grabs a piece of paper and starts sketching, holding up the drawing after a moment for Dean to compare.
"That's it."
"I may have seen this before," Bobby says. "We gotta move, follow me."
"Okay, where are we going?" Andy asks.
"Some place safe, you idiot." Bobby grabs several books off a bookshelf, shoving them into Sam's hands, and then grabs another stack of books before walking out of the room to lead Sam, Dean and Andy down into the basement. Stopping at an iron door, he pounds on it with his fist and yells, "Felix, open 'er up!"
The door swings open a few minutes later to reveal a grinning Felix, who gestures for them all to come into a circular room that has a pentagram and Devil's traps etched into the floor. To the right of the door is a wall of weapons, a metal cabinet, and a desk sitting under a cork board covered in a bunch of papers. Next to the shelves full of food and the mattress that is attached to the wall, sat another desk that holds an assortment of radio equipment, books, and a map of the United States hanging above it.
"Fee!" Andy gasps, hugging her girlfriend tightly. "I was wondering where you were!"
"Bobby sent me down here when those ghosts started attacking. He said I'd be safe."
Sam's mouth drops open as he prods the wall. "Bobby, is this . . ."
"Solid iron. Completely coated in salt. 100% ghost-proof."
"You built a panic room?" Andy says, staring wide-eyed at the wall of weapons.
The Hunter shrugs. "I had a weekend off."
"Bobby," Dean says, turning toward the man with a sniper rifle in hand.
"What?"
"You're awesome." He glances around, eyes landing on a poster of a swimsuit model above the leather chair, and he nudges Andy.
"Niiiice," they chorus.
Ten minutes later, Felix is curled up in the leather chair and sketching the room, Andy lounging on the mattress as she flipped through a book on Angels, and Bobby sits at the desk near the weapons as he writes in a notebook. At the radio desk, Sam watches as his brother angrily packs rock salt into a bullet casing, immediately knowing something was on his mind.
"See, this is why I can't get behind God," Dean says after a moment.
Andy's head snaps up, blue eyes narrowing. "What're you talking about?"
"If he doesn't exist, fine. Bad crap happens to good people. That's how it is. There's no rhyme or reason-just random, horrible, evil-I get it, okay. I can roll with that."
"I'm sensing a 'but' here," Felix says, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear.
"If he is out there," Dean says. "What's wrong with him? Where the hell is he while all these decent people are getting torn to shreds? How does he live with himself? You know, why doesn't he help?"
"Dean . . ." Felix bites her lip nervously, glancing over at a furious Andy.
"I ain't touching this one with a ten-foot pole," Bobby says.
"Better yet, where are the goddamn Angels? Why isn't that Castiel guy helping us?"
"Did you ever think that the Angels are busy, Dean?" Andy snaps. "That maybe they're busy doing things that are just as important as what we're doing?"
Dean looks surprised. "Um, no, sorry, Andy, I didn't think about it."
"Found it," Bobby says.
"Found what?" Sam asks, relieved the subject has changed.
"The symbol Andy and Dean saw-the brand on the ghosts . . ."
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Mark of the Witness."
"Witness?" Andy murmurs. "Witness to what?"
"The unnatural. None of them died what you'd call ordinary deaths. See, these ghosts-they were forced to rise. They woke up in agony. They were like rabid dogs. It ain't their fault. Someone rose 'em . . . on purpose."
"Why would anyone do that?" Felix asks, dropping her sketchbook in the chair as she walks over. "Who would do that?"
"Do I look like I know?" Bobby says as Sam comes over. "But whoever it was used a spell so powerful it left a mark, a brand on their souls. Whoever did this had big plans. It's called 'the rising of the witnesses.' It figures into an ancient prophecy."
"Wait, wait," Dean says, getting to his feet. "What-what book is that prophecy from?"
"Well, the widely distributed version's just for tourists, you know. But long story short-Revelations. This is a sign, children."
"A sign of what?" Sam and Dean chorus.
"The apocalypse," Andy says with wide eyes, and Bobby nods. "It's a sign of the apocalypse."
"Apocalypse?" Dean asks. "The apocalypse, apocalypse? The four horsemen, pestilence, five-dollar-a-gallon-for-gas apocalypse?"
"That's the one. The rise of the Witnesses is a-a mile marker."
"Okay, so, what do we do now?" Sam asks.
"Road trip. Grand Canyon, Star Trek Experience. Bunny Ranch," he says as plops back down in his chair, and Felix laughs.
"First things first. How do we survive our friends out there?" Andy says.
Dean runs his hands over his face. "Any ideas aside from staying in this room until Judgement Day?"
Bobby taps the piece of paper in front of him with his pencil. "It's a spell to send the witnesses back to rest. Should work."
"Should," Sam says. "Great."
"If I translate it correctly. I think I got everything we need here at the house."
Andy raises an eyebrow. "Any chance you got everything we need here in this room?"
"You think our luck was gonna start now, all of a sudden?" Bobby gets to his feet and stops in front of the door. "Spell's got to be cast over an open fire."
"The fireplace in the library," Sam groans.
"Bingo."
"I think I like the ghost-proof panic room, better," Felix says. "Can I make a vote to stay here?"
"No," Andy tells her, and minutes later they are all armed and ready.
"Cover each other. And aim careful. Don't run out of ammo until I'm done, or they'll shred ya. Ready?"
"Just do what you gotta do, Bobby," Sam says. "We'll handle the ghosts."
They make their way out of the panic room and toward the stairs, startled to see the ghost of a portly young man in his early twenties blocking their path. He has curly hair and is wearing a blue vest.
"Hey, Dean," he says with a grin. "You remember me?"
"Ronald, huh? With the laser eyes? I wish I could say it's good to see you."
"I am dead because of you. You were supposed to help me!"
Bobby raises his gun and shoots at Ronald, glaring at Dean over his shoulder as they head up the stairs. "If you're gonna shoot, shoot. Don't talk." Once they make their way into the living room, Andy creates a salt circle and Felix starts the fire. "Sam. Upstairs, linen closet-red hex box. It'll be heavy."
"Got it," he says.
Two little girls appear in the living room and one of them says, "Bobby,"
Dean shoots at them.
"Dean," Bobby says. "Kitchen. Cutlery drawer. It's got a false bottom. Hemlock, opium, wormwood."
"Opium?"
"Go!" Bobby snaps. The girls reappear as Dean left, and Bobby tries to keep his focus on the chalk drawing he is doing on the desk.
"Bobby. You walked right by us while that monster ate us all up," one of the girls says, and Andy raises her gun, shooting the ghost in the face.
"You could have saved us," the other girl says, and Felix swings the iron poker like a bat.
Upstairs, Sam finally finds the red box, but when he turns around Meg is there and he instantly fires at her.
"You saw how I suffered for months," she says. "I thought you might have learned something. I thought I died for something."
"Meg," Sam says.
"But what you're doing with Demon, Ruby . . . How many innocent bodies has Ruby burned through for kicks? How many girls just like me? And you don't send her back to Hell?" Her face twists in fury. "You're a monster!"
Sam raises his rifle and shoots Meg.
Back in the kitchen, Dean's looking for the false bottom in one of the drawers when the doors to the kitchen suddenly close.
"Dean?" comes Bobby's voice.
"You alright in there?" Andy asks.
"I'm alright! Keep working, Bobby!" FBI Agent Victor Henriksen's ghost appears next to Dean. "Victor," he says, surprised.
"Dean."
"I know."
"No," the tall black man says, his face twisting in anger. "You don't."
"It's my fault you're dead. I left you behind. And the minute I heard about that explosion, I thought, 'I should have known.' I should have protected you."
Dean grabs for the gun lying behind him, but it goes flying across the room.
"Unh-unh. Not so fast. You think you left and Lilith came and we all died in a beautiful blast of . . . white light?" Henriksen scoffs. "If only. Forty-five minutes."
Dean's eyes widen. "What?"
"Over forty-five minutes," Henriksen sneers. "Lilith said she wanted to have some fun. The secretary was first. Remember her? Nancy, the virgin. Lilith filleted Nancy's skin off piece-by-piece. Right in front of us, made us watch. Nancy never stopped screaming."
"No," Dean says. He squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head. "No."
"I was the last."
"Victor . . ."
Henriksen reaches inside Dean's chest and grips his heart. "Tell me how it's fair," he growls. "You get saved from Hell-I die. Why do you deserve another chance, Dean?"
Dean shakes his head. "I don't know. I don't know. I-"
Sam bursts into the room and shoots Henriksen, rushing to check on his brother as soon as Henriksen is gone. "You alright?" he asks.
"No."
"Let's go." Sam helps Dean to his feet, and he and Dean carry the hex box and other ingredients to the library.
Ronald appears again as Dean is reloading his gun. "Ronald. Hey, come on, man. I thought we were pals."
"That's when I was breathing. Now I'm gonna eat you alive."
"Well . . . come one, I'm not a cheeseburger."
Dean cocks his gun and points it at Ronald, but he vanishes. Bobby recites some Latin words and the windows blow open, the wind that fills the room moving the salt so that they are no longer protected. Eliza appears and Andy quickly shoots her while Bobby continues to recite the spell. Ronald appears again and the boys shoot him, continuing to fire as the ghosts appear. Henriksen knocks Dean's gun out of his hands while he's reloading and approaches He grabs another gun and shoots it, only to find it empty, and Felix tosses him the iron rod so he can hit Henriksen.
A man in jeans and a band t-shirt appears in front of Felix and she makes a distressed noise, her hand shaking as she brings her gun up to shoot him. Meg appears and pushes Sam against the wall, trapping him there with a desk, which Sam tries to push away but with no success.
"Sam!" Dean exclaims.
"Cover Bobby!" his little brother grunts.
Bobby continues to recite the spell as Sam struggles against the desk, the two ghost girls sitting on the and waiting. Meg suddenly appears behind Bobby and plunges a hand into his back, causing him to drop the bowl with spell ingredients.
"Dean!" he shouts, as the eldest Winchester dives for the bowl. "Fireplace!"
Dean throws the bowl into the fire, which turns blue. The ghosts disappear and Bobby falls to the ground. "Bobby?" he asks when Sam finally pushes the desk away.
Felix and Dean help Bobby to his feet, who nods that he's okay.
Later that night, Sam is asleep on the couch in Bobby's living room while Felix is passed out at the desk, head buried in her arms. Andy is asleep on the floor nearby, next to Dean, and snaps awake at the sound of fluttering wings. She lifts her head to find Castiel standing in the kitchen and she nudges Dean awake, pointing to where the Angel is looking at them expectantly. Dean checks on Sam to see that he's still asleep, Andy doing the same for Felix before they both walk over to join Castiel.
Dean notices immediately that the Angel looks a bit weary, his blue eyes tired, but he didn't know that Angels could get tired.
"Excellent job with the Witnesses," Castiel says.
"Wait, you were hip to all this?" Dean asks.
The Angel's eyes shift from Dean, to the floor, then back to Dean. "I was, uh, made aware."
"Well, thanks a lot for the Angelic assistance."
"Dean," Andy scolds. "The Angels have their own problems to deal with."
"She's right," Castiel says.
"I almost got my heart ripped out of my chest!"
"But you didn't," and Dean frowns, because if that was the Angel's way of making a joke then it wasn't funny.
"I thought Angels were supposed to be guardians. Fluffy wings, halos-ya know, Michael Landon." He crosses his arms against his chest. "Not dicks."
Andy scoffs. "Have you ever read the Bible, Dean? Angels are Warriors of God. Castiel is a soldier."
"Yeah? Well, then why didn't he fight? Why didn't he help us?"
"I'm not here to perch on your shoulder, Dean," Castiel snaps, and the sound of his name on the Angel's lips sent a shiver down Dean's spine. "We have larger concerns to deal with."
"Concerns? There were people getting torn to shreds down here!" he hissed angrily. "And, by the way, while all this is going on, where the hell is your boss, huh, if there is a God?"
"Of course there's a God!" Andy protests at the same time Castiel replies, "There's a God."
"I'm not convinced. 'Cause if there is a God, what the hell is he waiting for, huh? Genocide? Monsters roaming the earth? The freaking apocalypse? At what point does he lift a damn finger and help the poor bastards that are stuck down here?"
"The Lord works . . ."
"If you say 'mysterious ways,' so help me, I will kick your ass," Dean snaps, and Castiel smirks, lifting his hands in surrender.
Andy wraps her arms around her body, staring at Castiel with the hint of fear in her eyes. "Are you saying Bobby was right about the Witnesses? That this is some kind of sign of the apocalypse?"
"That's why we're here. Big things afoot."
Dean glances at Andy, then back at Castiel. "Do we want to know what kind of things?"
"I sincerely doubt it," Castiel tells them, "but you need to know. The rising of the Witnesses is one of the sixty-six seals."
"'Kay, I'm guessing that's not a show at SeaWorld."
"Those seal are being broken by Lilith."
"She did the spell," Andy says, surprising Dean. "She rose the Witnesses."
"Mm-hmm," Castiel nods. "And not just here. Twenty other Hunters are dead as well."
"Of course," Dean mutters in realization. "She picked victims that the Hunters couldn't save so that they would barrel right after us."
"Lilith has a certain sense of humour."
"Well, we put those spirits back to rest."
"That doesn't matter," Andy says after a moment. "The seal was broken already. Right, Castiel?"
Castiel nods again.
Dean sighs, running a hand through his hair. "So why break the seal anyway?"
"You think of the seals as locks on a door."
"Okay. Last one opens and . . ."
"Lucifer walks free."
"Lucifer?" Dean says. "But I thought Lucifer was just a story they told at Demon Sunday school. There's no such thing."
"You didn't believe in Angels until three days ago," Andy replies, looking pointedly at Castiel, who is eyeing Dean curiously.
"Why do you think we're walking among you now, for the first time in two-thousand years?"
"To stop Lucifer," Dean breaths.
"That's why we've arrived."
"Well . . . bang-up job so far," Dean scoffs. "Stellar work with the Witnesses. That's nice."
"We tried," Castiel stressed. "And there are other battles, other seals. Some we'll win, some we'll lose. This one we lost." Dean scoffs and the Angel steps towards him, blue eyes glowing with a hidden anger. "Our numbers are not unlimited. Six of my brothers died in the field this week. You think the armies of Heaven should just follow you around. There's a bigger picture here." Dean is starting to feel unnerved by the way Castiel is staring at him-maybe it's because the goddamn Angel still hasn't blinked yet. "You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of Hell. I can throw you back in."
Castiel vanishes before their eyes, leaving Andy and Dean alone in the kitchen. Later, Dean wakes up with a start. He instantly locks eyes with Andy, who had snapped awake beside him with a gasp.
Sam and Felix are already up and about, the redhead handing his little brother a mug of coffee as they come back into the living room.
"You alright?" Sam asks, noticing Dean's startled expression. "What's wrong, Dean?"
"So . . ." Dean asks, sitting up. "You go no problem believing in . . . God and Angels?"
Sam shakes his head, smoothing his bangs back from his face. "No, not really."
"Does that mean you believe in the Devil, too?" Andy asks, and Felix eyes her girlfriend curiously.
"What're you talking about? What's with the questions?"