I certainly hope readers have stuck with this fic. I'm sorry it's taken so long to post this next chapter, unfortunately life has had its claws in me, and I simply haven't had the time. Plus this is quite a significant chapter, and I wanted it just right. I'm not sure I've quite got it to my absolute liking as yet even though I've found myself proofing and editing endlessly… But now I've decided I should stop toying with it and just post it!
I hope you enjoy.
Chrissymi…
Dominion Springs,
ARKANSAS
Dominion Springs, in daylight, was quite a beautiful town. Much of the township was barely more than dilapidated ruins, however small patches of overgrown gardens were flush with pretty blooms and butterflies. Some of the quaint period houses maintained enough character to reflect how pretty the town had once been. It was hard to imagine it had been the site of a Devil's gate just a few weeks before.
Sam had been in two minds about returning. Dean already had some major issues, and bringing him back to Dominion Springs could very well tip him completely over the edge. And for what… a demon? Maybe Dean was right, maybe this was futile lunacy. Sam knew Ruby had lied and deceived him, manipulated them both. There was only one reason that he kept telling himself, over and over again, to come back for her, (well aside from getting his cell phone back, of course); she'd saved Dean. She'd put her life on the line for Dean.
"I guess we'd best start at the church." Sam muttered as they drove towards St Dominic's. The church itself was in ruins, just as they had left it. It was as if some greater being had taken a huge sword to the building and severed it in two, which Kalfu pretty much had. Everything around it was dead; the grass, the trees, the bushes… there were no colorful butterflies, or blooms or birds within the church grounds. Sam glanced at Dean and noticed that his expression had set into a hard callous look of indifference; Sam didn't believe it for an instance. "You ok with this?" He hedged cautiously.
Dean peered at Sam, his stoic expression firmly plastered on his face, however he refused to answer.
It wasn't as if the brothers hadn't ever returned to the 'scene of the crime', so to speak. They'd often had to return to the precise location of a hunt gone wrong, where one, the other or both had been injured. Dean had even welcomed his cherished Impala back, all twisted and trashed, after the fateful night when Azazel had almost succeeded in killing him in it… but somehow this was different. Even though, as hunters, they faced death every other day, on every hunt, and generally in no pleasant fashion, this was still so much different. They'd never had to face death head on before, knowing it was coming, knowing when, and how brutally vicious it would be. But worst of all, knowing that only Hell lay in wait once it was done. Sometimes ignorance was a wonderful state… The fact that Dean had survived didn't seem to lessen the gravity of the event. Evil had sent its savage hounds of death to ravage him. Evil had opened the doors of Hell, and Evil had shoved Dean right into its depths...
"Ok then." Sam replied. "You want to wait in the car?" He asked Dean as he parked the Chevy beside the church entrance.
"No." Dean replied and swung himself out of the vehicle, wincing as his actions tugged on the raw, blistered flesh of his shoulder. Dean grunted ever so slightly. His burned shoulder, courtesy of Devoratus, pained him.
Dean paused once out of the car, surveying the surroundings, absorbing the scenery and landscape of the desolated town. His gaze eventually fixed on the church itself, and he seemed to subconsciously force a grin to himself, if only slightly.
Sam speculated he was processing the information; he had hardly been in any condition to have noticed much of the town, or church when he and Ruby had brought him here. In fact Sam speculated Dean probably couldn't remember very much at all of the night, not with his injuries, the blood loss and his semi-conscious state. Didn't erase the fact that he did know he had almost died, and had almost been tossed into the very pits of Hell – right here.
He noticed Dean's caged expression. "You sure you're ok?" Sam cautioned to query.
Dean's gaze turned incensed. "I'm fine!" He snapped as he made his way towards what was left of the church, trying to hide the fact that he cradled his left arm, taking the weight of his injured shoulder. The force of Devoratus's fireball had probably aggravated his fractured collar bone as well.
Sam passed by Dean when he paused at the base of the steps. Dean hesitated briefly, turning to examine the surrounding landscape, frowning with, what Sam believed, was trepidation. Sam tucked his head down and proceeded to enter the church. He was compelled to ask Dean yet again if he was ok, but knew better… he bit his tongue and hoped he was.
The church steps were mostly intact, even if they lurched drastically at an angle. The open entrance was hardly welcoming. The doors remained splintered and dislodged half way into the entry foyer, much of the timber floor was laid bare to the floor joists, exposing the scarred soil beneath. The Devil's Gate had thankfully sealed tight, leaving nothing more than a ragged line of pulverized rock and earth, some of which had been scorched glassy black by the intense heat. The stench of smoke, baked earth and sulfur still lingered in the air, and brown smears of dried blood were still evident across the floor. Not much remained of Bobby's precautionary measures to protect them from Kalfu and his Hell Hounds. The roof was almost entirely nonexistent after Kalfu's destruction, and the elements had obliterated what little was left of the goofer dust and salt lines.
Sam moved forward and collected Bobby's length of rope that was still wrapped around the baptismal font, and found one of their missing shotguns not far away, in a shadowy corner. Sam examined the site in amazement. The church seemed much smaller in daylight, not nearly as menacing somehow, with the bright afternoon sun streaming in through the gapping roof. The floor remained littered with a glistening array of brightly colored glass from the shattered stained glass windows. He moved into the center of the vacated church and examined a number of deep claw gouges in what remained of the floor. It was where Ruby had tried to fend of the Hell Hounds' vicious attack.
Sam noticed as Dean cautiously inspected the church visually, from the shattered doorway, before entering. He paused in what remained of the small foyer, his eyes scrutinizing every shady nook and cranny. He seemed to suspect evil in every dark shadow. He fingered the Colt, tucked into his waistband, reassuringly. He was visibly on edge and Sam wondered if Dean's stoic façade was finally crumbling.
"Obviously nothing here…" Sam muttered ambiguously; hoping to reassure his brother, as much as to convey the obvious… Ruby wasn't there either. "I'm gonna scout around outside, see if I can't pick up Ruby's trail." He informed Dean as he made his way back outside; the church still gave him the heebie-jeebies. "You comin'?" He asked Dean.
Dean shook his head. "In a minute…" He replied as he took guarded steps into the church.
Sam wanted to object, to urge him away from his obvious source of trepidation. However he thought better of it. Maybe this was exactly what Dean needed; to face the reality of his near-death experience, to realize that he hadn't been ok at all, and to finally admit that everything was not fine.
"Ok…" Sam replied. "I'm just outside."
Sam gave Dean a concerned glance as he left the church. Dean stood with his back to him, his shoulders held back, his head held high in a defiant stance. Sam made his way out of the church, with a shiver of apprehension shuddering him as he left. If he never had to return here, it would be too soon.
Dean examined the church with a detached interest. He walked silently through the debris. As he turned around and inspected the yawning fissure that had hacked itself through the floor, he smiled with victory. He stood peering into the cavernous, gapping hole that had been ripped through the church floorboards revealing the earthy scar Hell had left on the ground below. Before him had been Hell's gateway to the Underworld.
He really had climbed out of Hell.
As he walked past the baptismal font he paused, gave a slight smirk and pushed it over. The font shattered as it crashed to the floor, spilling what remained of Bobby's holy water out across the dusty floors, the weight of the impact almost smashing through the timber floorboards beneath it.
Something made his skin crawl, and the hairs at the back of his neck warned him that something was very off about his surroundings. He peered into the shadows, expecting someone, or something, to pounce upon him…
oooOOOooo
Sam moved off towards the church grounds. He leapt down the askew stairs and bounded to firm ground. He began inspecting the dry dirt with an intense scrutiny. Sam's eyes searched for any clues as to Ruby's whereabouts.
The younger Winchester scanned the desolated surroundings. 'Something musta made that call from my phone!' He muttered to himself.
Sam's expression seemed to regain a glimmer of hope. He considered that Ruby may not even be there anymore. She was a demon, and demons had ways of getting about that still had him somewhat stumped. Sam's eyes searched for any clues as to Ruby's whereabouts.
He noticed a number of deep gouges in the sun baked earth, and what may have been dried blood, protected from the elements by what remained of the church eves, now some feet lower than when they had been built. As he rounded what remained of the weatherboard wall, Sam gently dabbed at more brown smears of dried blood.
She had apparently been pursued into the cemetery behind the church. An overturned grave marker had more blood smeared across it. As he trekked further into the cemetery, rounding headstones and markers, he followed a tentative trail of the claw marks and blood. Sam found two sites where the hounds must have gotten the better of her, for the desecration to the tombstones and grave markers was extensive, as was the blood and savage claw marks.
"Shit!" Sam muttered to himself as he moved towards one of a dozen, or so, huge mausoleums. The door to which had obvious tell-tale signs of a struggle. It was blood splattered and long, deep claw marks scarred the hard-wearing timber.
He tried to force the door open, but he was met with an obstinate resistance. The door was apparently locked solid, and stubbornly refused to open, despite Sam's vain attempts. It finally gave way, when the aging hinges, rusted through, snapped with Sam's sheer strength in his one, last desperate heave. Daylight streamed into the dusty, suffocatingly stuffy crypt. It was clear the mausoleum hadn't seen fresh air for well over a century. His mood became somber; Ruby had never made it into the tomb…
"Shit!" Sam complained. "Ruby!" He yelled into the landscape with a hint of desperation. However, the cemetery remained deathly silent. "Ruby!" He realized… maybe she couldn't get the door open either… the hounds may have killed her… right here…
Sam made his way back to St. Dominic's. He glanced at the church as he passed by the double entry door and contemplated entering, and then decided not to. His emotions were already churning. He knew he shouldn't, it was against everything he'd ever been raised to feel, but he was worried about Ruby. Demon aside, she had become an ally. With the blood and devastation about them there was every chance she really was dead; phone call or not! And now he was pretty certain that even if most man-made weapons and injuries to the demon's host couldn't actually kill the demon within, he was pretty sure Hell's own creatures could. And the Hell Hounds had certainly ravaged her…
Dean may have been right… she probably was dead.
For all he knew his phone had simply shorted out, or a damned rodent had sat on it, pushing all the right buttons… But it saddened him to think of her dead. And he needed to deal with his unexpected remorse and his perplexed sense of grieving. Because he knew Dean didn't share his sentiments, which was something of an understatement. In actual fact Dean violently opposed them, and Sam just couldn't deal with that right now. Dean certainly didn't hide his animosity towards Ruby, strange, considering she'd been the one who'd effectively saved his life.
It seemed both Winchester brothers had issues they needed to deal with…
Sam made his way to the Impala and leaned against her fender. His gaze was lost on the church before him, his mind elsewhere, deep in his tumultuous thoughts and emotions. He didn't want to think… His fingers subconsciously traced small swirls into the dusty surface across the Chevy's bonnet. Strangely his attentions focused on the smudges his fingers left behind; a multitude of symbols and sigils of demons and creatures. His gaze examined the monotonous pattern the dust had created across the Impala's bonnet, with its dirty pock marks and rivulet streaks from the frequent rains… But still his thoughts returned. He briefly considered why Dean hadn't raised Heaven and Hell to clean the car yet, she was in desperate need of some TLC. But then Dean hadn't quite been himself, he told himself. Maybe this visit, to the very site of his near destruction, could help mend his damaged psyche. He shook his mind free of its aimless meandering.
He pulled the Impala's keys from his pocket and contemplated driving through the town in search of some trace of the demoness. It just didn't seem right that she should be dead, not when they had all survived… Sam just wasn't sure how he should be feeling. Logic sided with Dean; she was a demon, therefore she was evil, deceitful, conniving, manipulating… well the list was endless! But she had a definite flip side. She'd never lied about lying, which in some contorted, alternate, lateral thought could have made her sincere, or Sam tried to convince himself. She'd certainly never brought them harm, hell she'd saved their asses on more than one occasion. So just where did that leave her? Friend or foe? And why did he have such a heavy sense of sadness in the pit of his stomach, and an asphyxiating lump of sorrow in his throat? Why did he even wonder how he felt about her? He rubbed at a slight wetness at the corner of his eye. He'd never admit it was a tear of sadness; it was just the result of the dry, dusty wind that seemed to be the only thing that moved through the church grounds.
oooOOOooo
She felt the trepidation even before she entered the church grounds. Something tainted with evil had poisoned the entire graveyard. Not a living plant, bush or tree remained. No animals, no birds or insects. Everything was dead. Hell's own had desecrated the grounds here…
Ruby had avoided it with good reason, and had kept well away. Sacred ground had almost been the death of her. Had weakened her to such a state she could barely defend herself against Hell's hounds. She stood a better chance once she managed to flee the church grounds... Even so the hounds had mauled her to a point she was at dire risk of dying, herself. And then the hounds had simply vanished. She knew then it was over. But in her weakened state she hadn't the energy to submit her weary host's body to another round of holy poison and she stayed clear of the church. Dragged herself away… Close to death herself, she barely realised when the hunters left town, leaving her behind.
She'd lain close to expiration for almost a week, too weary even to leave her host's body. Instead she'd held up in the saloon, with the ghost of a crazy dead drunk. After two weeks with the angry spirit she knew why somebody had obviously seen fit to execute him with a bullet to his head. She wished she could do the same with his spirit. But she wasn't about to satisfy her irked desires with a revisitation to the graveyard in search of his remains. And he'd given her some company as her soul... and her host's body… healed. It seemed as good a place as any to hold out, and she'd found an abandoned stash of, now, well aged whiskey in the cellar that had its own soothing comfort... The hounds had taken their toll on her, as had the poisons of sacred ground. She'd need her strength before she could walk out of the small town, to some sort of civilisation. She simply didn't have the strength to convey herself in any other way. She still didn't…
Then she'd found Sam's phone, tucked at the bottom of her jacket pocket and she'd figured, with her valiant attempt to save Dean, Sam at least owed her a lift…
And here he was. She cradled his phone in her hands, for reassurance, and a kind of Dutch courage. It made sensing him easier when he arrived. Even though, as she felt him getting closer, a feeling of angst and uneasiness had accompanied his coming. She'd felt him as he arrived, with an overwhelming disturbing manner. A feeling of animosity and odium seemed to fill the town. She was fearful at first, until she heard the unmistakable rumble of the Impala.
As she approached St Dominic's she could sense, though, that something very powerful and very evil had left its mark on the small church and grounds. Whether it was the desecrated, violated church grounds and the remnants of Kalfu himself or the residual effects of the consecrated grounds, she could not tell. However she was filled with an all consuming dread and fear.
She figured, as soon as she saw Sam… With everything that had transpired here at Dominion Springs… When things had gone so terribly wrong… There was just no way possible Sam and Bobby could have defended Dean against the likes of Kalfu… Not without the Colt, and she had no idea where it had gone after the Hounds had ripped into her… certainly wasn't anywhere close to Bobby's protective circle in which all three hunters had been! She simply presumed Dean was dead… there just could be no other alternative!
And she figured Sam would be pretty devastated and monumentally pissed with her failure. She had failed to deliver as promised. The mighty Winchester brothers were no more! And he certainly seemed devastated, as he leaned against the unusually filthy Impala. His shoulders were slumped and dejected, he unconsciously ran his fingers through the red dust that coated the Chevy as he toyed with the car keys in the other; both sure signs that Dean was absent.
He turned away slightly as he swept the back of his hand across his cheek, leaving it glistening in the sun with moisture…
It only confirmed her suspicions; Dean was dead.
With a growing trepidation she entered the church grounds, surprised when the usual nausea and angst didn't swamp her weary body. Everything sacred and holy had been desecrated, steeped so deep in Hell that the grounds actually invigorated her, instead of weakened her. She hadn't expected that – at all.
And yet the surrounding, ambient flow of energy and atmosphere had been left in a state of flux, in erratic conflict between what it should be; sacred and holy, and the evil that had infected it, through and through. It left her feeling confused and disorientated, her instincts and intuition tumbled and tossed about like a bouncing ball.
"Sam?" She whispered as she paced slowly up towards him.
He was startled by her appearance; he had definitely been somewhere else…
"Ruby?" He frowned, almost in awe.
"Hi Sam…" She ventured cautiously. He could certainly be forgiven for wanting to kill her right there and then…
"I've looked everywhere..." He muttered, still in astonishment.
"Sam, I'm sorry." She consoled. "Kalfu would have…"
"What?" He stammered, lost for words, and wondering if he was actually seeing a ghost. Her clothes were as ragged and dishevelled as when he'd last seen her; still blood stained and torn. Even the demon within had failed to successfully heal her wounds, not when they were inflicted by Hell's own Instrument of Death; the Hell Hounds. Her body was marred by ragged wounds, still scabby and raw. She hunched as she stood, favouring her abdomen, and her left arm. Deep gouges ran down the side of her face and neck and had only just begun to heal.
"I tried..." Ruby peered at Sam with solemn eyes. "I really wish I could have saved him; there was just no way…"
"What?" Sam repeated. He was obviously too overwhelmed to comprehend the connotation of her apology.
"Dean… I'm sorry about Dean." She reiterated. Maybe not all too much, though, because, of course, Dean's death would allow her the freedom to woo Sam into her own manipulations…
"Why?" He queried as he tilted his head.
"Because we couldn't save him…" She replied, a little confused herself.
"No… we did… Your plan worked… we did save him." Sam interrupted her.
"You what?" She queried with disbelief.
"He's alive." Sam replied. "… and you're alive… I thought, when we couldn't find you…" He reached out to her, placing his hand on her arm and ensuring she was actually corporeal and not a hallucination of his own desires. His fingers examined the wounds to her arm, he found her skin was cold to the touch and it reminded him that she wasn't really human after all… "You're hurt?"
"I'm healing…" She replied softly. She retorted from his touch, turning away ever so slightly, and hugging what remained of her shirt around herself. "The hounds… takes a little longer…" What was left of her tattered garments hardly covered her. Her petite bosoms were laid bare to her black, lacy bra, revealing further wounds. It embarrassed her that he could see her in her most weakened state. "Dean's really alive?" She eventually muttered with disbelief.
"Yeah… he's really alive." Sam nodded, respecting her need to deal with her wounds in her own way. He realised how viciously the Hell Hounds had savaged her, when he mentally compared her slow rate of recovery to Dean's.
"So you… killed… Kalfu?" She queried, pulling her shirt tightly about herself, wincing with the still painful wounds.
"Yeah… I killed him." Sam grinned reluctantly, with humbled pride.
"But how? Everything's still… amiss… its… something's off… unbalanced… It's like I can still feel… Kalfu… and Hell… here." She replied.
"Yeah… well he kinda…" Sam admitted tentatively. "Kalfu opened a Devil's Gate…"
"What?" Ruby demanded in horror. "Why the hell… How the hell did he open a Devil's Gate?" Ruby demanded, more of herself than of Sam. Ruby had a certain condescending inflection in her comments that had Sam feeling like a second grader again. "Kalfu must have been desperate…"
"What?" Sam queried.
"To have opened a Gate." She replied. "I never realised how powerful he must be…"
"Yeah, well he certain wasn't your run of the mill demon…" Sam nodded in agreement.
"No, really Sam..." Ruby frowned at him. "…opening a Devil's Gate is not exactly child's play, hell it doesn't even come close to rocket science! I'm not sure I could even name more than a handful of demons that could actually do it. Dominion Springs, this church… it must be on some natural breach, or a thinning of the walls… But the energy it must have taken… And dicey… I mean it'd be risky, unstable… it must have zapped his energy dry…"
"What?" Sam had to take a few seconds before his mind could process her ramblings into any kind of sense.
"It takes a hell of a lot of power to open a Devil's Gate. So much he would have been so close to… to death… and I mean the demon within!" She muttered softly. "I'm amazed he didn't exorcise himself through sheer lack of energy to maintain possession…"
"Maybe that's why I could kill him." Sam mused.
"You really killed him?" Ruby queried in disbelief, the lingering sense of him still very strong.
"Yeah…." Sam stated confidently. "I shot him, with the Colt…"
"And you killed him?" She probed. "Dead… Sam? Seriously I can still sense him here… Did you see him really die; lights extinguished… no chance he escaped. He didn't get, even the smallest chance to vaporize… did he?"
"Umm…" Sam couldn't actually remember. His only thoughts at the time were that Dean was dead. "I shot him in the leg… I think he… may have… got sucked back into Hell." Although, now Sam wasn't exactly 100 percent sure.
"So he did… vaporise?" She probed.
"Yeah." Sam sighed. "Maybe…"
"You know, then, he may not be dead?" She warned solemnly.
"No... he's gotta be dead!" Sam argued.
"I sure hope so…" She gazed at him with what appeared to be genuine sincerity.
"Well, he hasn't come back for Dean, if that's what you mean." Sam replied.
"I suppose that's something…" She muttered. "But he may just be so exhausted he hasn't the strength or energy yet…"
"No…" Sam retorted. "I shot him and he burned up. He, like, self cremated, and then he, his soul, got sucked back into Hell…"
"He must have burned himself out…" Ruby speculated.
"He what?" Sam queried edgily.
"After opening the Gate…" Ruby explained. "And being shot by the Colt… he must have pushed his ability and strength too far. He couldn't maintain his host, or his possession and… he burned himself out – literally."
"So he is dead?" Sam hoped so.
"I don't know. I certainly hope so… If you really did… kill him…" She sighed. "I just don't know. But, if he's not dead… if you didn't kill him, he'd have to find a new host. I'm not sure he even could, he wouldn't have the strength to fight the rightful soul… He'd be so drained it would take him weeks, maybe longer, to regain his full potential, to build up his energy and his powers again..." She gazed at him with a solemn expression. "Seriously, Sam, if he's still loose… when he recovers, and he eventually catches up with the two of you… Neither of you stands a chance! I'm not sure anyone does…"
Ruby was concerned. There was just no way Dean could be alive, not if Sam was too… Not if there was a remote possibility Kalfu was still alive, and if he'd had time to vaporize… if his essence had been sucked back into Hell there was every chance he'd be back… for what was owed him… for Dean and then probably Sam too.
"We'll just have to find him first then..." Sam muttered, wondering if Dean's new found 'Demon ESP' hunting skills could help them.
"Yeah, well good luck with that, I don't like your chances!" Ruby sighed. "If he's alive he's probably on your tail as we speak! But, Sam, more importantly, if he opened a Devil's Gate: What did he let out?"
"Nothing." Sam replied instantly.
"Nothing?" Ruby retorted with disbelief. "He must have opened it for a reason. You sure nothing…" She didn't seem convinced.
"No, nothing... Only Dean." Sam replied
She stopped abruptly. "What? Dean was… in Hell?"
"Well not all the way in… One of the hounds shoved him into it the abyss…" Sam explained, feeling like a reckless fool again. "He somehow landed on a ledge… I had to climb in to save him. We only just made it out, once it started to shut it closed up pretty fast." Talk about 'Reader's Digest's' condensed version...
"So he opened it… just to toss Dean in?" She couldn't quite understand why, when the Hounds would just as effectively drag his soul to Hell anyway. And then to let him out again… Hell wasn't usually too keen on letting its newest recruits go, not without and induction of hell fire and brimstone and several centuries of torture and torment! Her mind searched for a reason. "And nothing got out… he didn't try to summon anything?"
"No…" Sam replied.
"Then, I suppose it wasn't expected…" She muttered; if nothing got out, and nothing was summoned, then maybe it had been his plan all along… "You're sure nothing got out?"
"Yeah, definitely." Sam conferred. "I don't know why though, it didn't take long in Wyoming for hundreds of demons to escape…"
"He would only have opened it for as long as he needed to... which makes me wonder... only Kalfu could have kept it open… if he had really died, it would have snapped shut straight away." Ruby mused.
"You think he wanted to let something out?" Sam muttered in contemplation.
"Or in… I think he probably wanted to..." Ruby began, but went suspiciously quiet. "I suppose… Maybe…" Ruby muttered dubiously, not quite verbalising her true thoughts. "You may be right, maybe nothing did get out. Back in Wyoming, we knew Azazel's plan; knew he planned for the gate to open, so we waited…"
"Oh." Sam nodded with acknowledgement.
Ruby glanced at him and realised, for a demon hunter he had no real concept of Hell at all. "There are several echelons of Hell, Sam. Those incarcerated closest to the top are your basic run of the mill thieves, adulterers, blasphemers… lawyers; you know the kind… just damned souls. The longer you're there the deeper they drag you in. Your fully fledged, really evil, high level demon, they're interned in a maximum security kinda Hell, deep in the very guts... where even the fires of Hell can't survive!"
"So that's why nothing got out?" Sam queried.
"Yeah." She nodded. "Trust me; the expression 'when Hell freezes over' isn't exactly an impossibility."
"Really?" Sam muttered, still coming to grips with her disclosure. "So... they just couldn't?" Sam repeated.
"Well, not unless he summoned something directly… released it from its incarceration." She replied. "Trust me it takes a hell of a lot of planning and fighting to even get close to escaping. Alcatraz is a walk in the park in comparison. And your basic damned soul can't actually vaporize; they'd have to physically climb out. It takes a few centuries to actually become a… you know… a real demon and all. Even then it takes a while to get the hang of it." She explained. "You're lucky… this time. The others, the real demons, probably just couldn't escape their confinement in time."
There was a lengthy pause as Sam contemplated her revelation and Ruby contemplated the possible implications of a Devil's Gate. Ruby just couldn't fathom why Kalfu had to open a Devil's Gate… was Dean's soul so special? Had she overlooked his value and worth? Was he such a threat to the Underworld that Kalfu saw fit to ensure he couldn't escape? But a Gate? It was certainly going to extremes. She could only speculate that Kalfu had some other, ulterior motives…
Neither spoke for sometime.
"Dean, is he… Is he ok?" She eventually queried. She had a patronizing manner that always made him feel so incompetent and inept…
"Yeah! He was pretty beat up, but he's mostly ok now." Sam replied. "Why?"
"People don't usually get tossed into Hell and climb back out Sam, not without…" Ruby fell silent, and pursed her lips. "If Kalfu isn't dead, he wouldn't just let him go… Are you sure he's ok?" She went silent and contemplative.
"I'm not sure I know what you mean…" Sam muttered.
"I'm just trying to work out just why Kalfu opened a Devil's Gate." She explained. "And considering he may not be dead at all, after opening the Devil's Gate, and being shot with the Colt, he'd be so drained, so vulnerable, he wouldn't even be safe in Hell… he has his own blood-thirsty opponents down there… but he could maybe appease them with… at least until he'd got his strength back… if he had a host he could easily possess…"
"What are you getting at?" Sam hesitated to ask, although, deep down, he really did…
"Sam… Are you sure he's really Dean?" She demanded.
Sam's jaw worked overtime conspiring to give her an answer. Should he tell her that Dean had undergone a complete character change, that he had lost a chunk of memories? That somehow he'd changed into the cold blooded killing machine that Kalfu had insinuated. Should he tell her that even he didn't want to admit to how fast Dean had recovered from his wounds? Or that he just didn't feel like his brother at all? And that every night Sam feared that he hadn't quite got his Dean back? That somehow Dean had brought a sizeable chunk of Hell back with him…
He didn't need to answer her. Somehow she knew…
"Where is he?" She demanded.
"Inside the church…" Sam replied. "See for yourself…" His voice trailed off as his fears and thoughts bounced around in his skull like an avalanche. She was wrong… she had to be!
As they walked towards the church he could sense her discomfort. Even he had to admit, the place gave him the eerits too. And he didn't actually have a problem with holy ground – if that's what it could possibly still be.
She could certainly still feel Kalfu's presence there, but then her senses felt like they'd been twisted and knotted, turned inside out and eviscerated. There was a sense of confusion about her; of souls and atmosphere in conflict. She didn't know just what to expect. But she did know, for sure, that Kalfu wouldn't just let Dean go, or Sam…
Not unless he got what he came for…
She stepped through the gapping church doors. Devastation and a strong sense of Hell overwhelmed her. And a sudden fear enveloped her, making her gasp with dread. Every nerve ending screamed at her to run, warned her that something was very, very wrong. Evil and hell pulsed through the church in powerful waves.
"So the Bitch, Witch-Whore still lives!" Dean remarked as she entered the church, almost as if he was expecting her. He was standing the the shadows of what remained of the roof.
"Dean?" She queried as she moved into the church.
Dean stepped forwards, into the light. She frowned with disbelief as she gazed at him shaking her head. Ruby backed away with a sudden flash of fear across her face. It wasn't Dean Winchester that terrified her…
"Sam that's…" Ruby turned to Sam. However Sam's attention was focused solely on Dean. The elder Winchester was glaring at Ruby with pure hatred in his eyes. In an instant he had pulled the Colt from his waistband and fired it at Ruby. Instinct had Sam lunge at the demoness just as Dean shot the weapon at her. His impulsive momentum sent them both sprawling across the floor in a flurry of limbs.
Once they finally came to a stop, in a cloud of dust and debris, Sam heaved his superior weight off the lithe, slender blonde. Sam recoiled at the sight of her trembling body; iridescent veining bloomed from the bullet wound in her upper shoulder. She seemed to gag and convulse uncontrollably. Her eyes meet his, with fear and desperation within them.
Dean approached, with the Colt, ready to shoot her again. Sam knelt over her trembling body in a protective gesture.
"Don't!" Sam snarled at him where he hovered.
She clutched at his jacket, pulling herself closer into the safety of his embrace. Sam scooped her up into his arms as she gasped frantically, suddenly desperate to whisper something to him. He lowered his ear to her and she managed to reveal, with her final breaths, what was so vitally important.
"That's… not… Dean…" She whispered in an almost inaudible tone. Sam wasn't even sure he'd heard her, certainly didn't think he had heard her right. "Dean's… gone! It's Kalf…"
She could only speculate Kalfu had decided, for what ever reason, to walk the earth in Dean's form. With Kalfu drained and suffering the effects of the Colt… and with Dean so close to death, it would be the only way Kalfu could survive the possession without resistance from Dean's soul… And in order to steal his body and cast his soul into hell… a Devil's Gate would be the most reliable means… even if it meant abandoning ownership of Dean's soul.
Sam had enough sense not to let Dean know that she'd said anything at all. Not until he had time to really mull over the significance of it all…
"Ruby hang on." He urged, but that was the problem. The bullet had missed its mark, it wasn't a kill shot. But the longer Ruby remained within her host's body, with the potentially lethally charmed silver bullet imbedded in her shoulder, the more certain it became that Ruby, the demon, would eventually die. For all the suspicion and trepidation he had ever felt for her, he suddenly realized she really had come to mean something to him, demon aside that was. She was a friend and confident like no other, even if he still had reservations about her trustworthiness.
"I'm sorry…" He muttered.
Ruby continued to tremble and panted for breath as iridescent electric waves surged from the wound. She wheezed softly and then shuddered violently in his arms. As her body snapped into rigidity, a black miasma of smoke poured from her mouth and spewed into the room. She made her escape from her now lethal host.
Even before Ruby's spirit had left her host, blood began to seep through the girl's garments as the wounds, both recent and those long healed by Ruby, opened up as fresh as if they'd been inflicted there and then. All the lacerations inflicted upon her by the Hell Hounds, and slashes, grazes and bruises miraculously appeared from far too many battles and altercations. Then, as the girl's eyes snapped open, and the true human owner of the body awoke, she gagged and gasped for breath, as blood swiftly soaked the front of her chest. As quickly as she had awoken, she was silent once more. A fatal bullet wound through her chest had narrowly missed her heart, but had, however, torn through her liver and caused massive internal bleeding; Bobby was one hell of a shot, even if it was well over a year ago…
Dean stared at the couple with loathing in his eyes, resentful that the demon had not died.
As Ruby's essence swirled about the room, then darted towards the open roof Dean began chanting, in something certainly not Latin, but definitely a dead language of some sort. It was a ritual Sam could not recollect having heard before. The smoky haze halted, as if an invisible glass had suddenly sprung up around her, and her escape was halted. As Dean's mantra continued the smoke seemed to dissipate into itself, like a black hole had suddenly been created from within. Dean's focus was so intense Sam could almost have sworn his eyes had caught the sun's final rays, and set them ablaze with rage and abhorrence. He was exorcising her from the face of the Earth…
"No Dean…" Sam pleaded suddenly. At this point she still had a chance, even if it meant finding a new host to possess. "DEAN!" Sam shouted when he ignored him. Sam dropped the body of Ruby's host to the floor and sprang towards him. With a huge lunge Sam tackled Dean and they crashed to the ground. He wrestled the Colt from his hands, but was stunned when Dean started to chuckle contently.
Sam glanced around, just as Ruby's essence folded in on itself and vaporised in a sudden burst of fire. Dean sniggered at his accomplishment. He had successfully exorcised Ruby back into Hell…
Sam howled with anger, shoving Dean aside with brutal strength. "What the hell?" He glared at Dean with pure odium. "Dean, you didn't have to try and kill her!" Sam justified.
Dean's anger exploded instantly. "Like Hell I didn't!" He snapped as he fisted Sam's jacket lapels. "She's a bloody Witch whore! A Demon, remember?" He snarled with venom like Sam had never heard before. "A lying, conniving, deceitful demon! She wanted you Sam… wanted to turn you for her own gain… and she'd have led you straight to…" He stopped short, as he reigned in his anger.
"What, to Hell?" Sam demanded. "You saying I'm gonna turn evil?"
"She wanted you to." He snapped back angrily. "At least now she's back where she belongs. It'll take her the next century to fight her way out of the Hell I just sent her to."
"Yeah? And just where, the 'hell', did you pick up that little piece of ancient lingo anyway?" Sam queried with out and utter awe. Dean was hard pressed to remember the basic Rituale Romanum; a piece they must have recited over a hundred times! Or was Ruby right? Was this really his Dean… or, what had she said… Kalfu? Sam couldn't bring himself to believe her… After all, Demons lie!
Dean avoided answering Sam. "Doesn't really matter, Sam. She was a demon; a lying, conniving bitch." He demanded instead, deflecting the attention back onto the exorcised demon.
"What?" Sam asked incredulously. "Getting a bit paranoid aren't you? What in hell makes you think that?"
"She did!" Dean snapped angrily, shoving Sam roughly against the wall, his grip still tightly fisted in Sam's jacket. "All she ever wanted to do, was manipulate and confuse you; tried to turn you against me."
"Ease up Dean!" Sam snapped back, trying to force Dean's hands from his jacket, to no avail. "Let go of me!" He demanded angrily.
In honesty, Ruby's final words echoed through his mind. And as much as Sam tried to ignore them, wanted to ignore them, they repeated in his thoughts. They gained a little more acceptance with each repetition and even more so with every harsh action dealt against him, and every vile word that was spat from Dean's mouth.
Dean shoved Sam back into the wall behind them, with a loud snap. Sam felt his shoulder blades bruise with the impact, certain the wall had fared no better. Sam kept repeating his objections over and over, to drown away Ruby's accusations. Demons lie… demons lie… demons lie…
"She never intended to save… me! She wanted you to herself all along! She wanted you to lead the Legions Sam, with her by your side… She just didn't count on the hounds getting her first!" He smirked.
"No way!" Sam countered, his mind reeling with confusion. "I seriously think you need to cool down." He knew he had to… he knew he need time to think, to get a grip on Ruby's disclosure. Ruby's revelation bounced around his thoughts, reeling in his mind. The accusations screamed in his mind, loud and clear. And Sam knew, if she was right, if he was going to play charades with whomever this Dean imposter was, he had to play hard ball. He was less likely to raise suspicions if he reacted as he would if he was certain the man before him really was his brother. And he still held desperate hope that maybe Ruby and his instincts were wrong.
Dean eventually relinquished his anger, shoving Sam aside as he spun around and stormed out of the church. "I seriously think you need to reassess your allegiances!" He demanded as he stormed out.
Sam was left standing in a dazed stupor. He trembled all over and felt suddenly nauseous. He gazed at the Colt in his hands, the weapon that had almost killed Ruby. Even if he hadn't succeeded, Dean had still managed to eradicate her from their lives. He concealed the weapon safely into his waistband. His attentions were then drawn to the girl, Ruby, if that was the Demon's real name, or her host's he didn't know. She was still slumped on the floor. It seemed strange to think she was dead… again! He wondered if her spirit had survived, and if she would ever escape Hell again. He knelt by her side and tenderly closed her blank gazing eyes. Gently he reclaimed his phone from where it was still grasped in her hand.
oooOOOooo
Three days later...
Alstonville, MISSOURI
"Bobby?" Sam whispered cautiously on his phone.
Dean was nowhere in sight, probably still at the bar Sam speculated, even so he was still guarded. He and Dean had hardly spoken two words to each other since Dominion Springs. And it had been something of a relief to Sam. Sam had been left empty and confused by Ruby's words, and the insinuation was constantly twisting and turning in his mind. He just didn't want to believe it, couldn't believe that Dean wasn't Dean. Not after everything…
And he could easily have pushed the uncertainty from his thoughts if only Dean was behaving like Dean. Only there was hardly a scrap of Dean-ness about him. He still hadn't demanded to take the driver's seat in the Impala. There was no more mullet rock. No more practical jokes… No real recollections of their lives before... something was really off and the more Sam churned Ruby's words around in his thoughts; the more he started to believe her. After their latest kill, or more precisely, Dean's kill, he was almost certain.
Dean had been adamant about a new gig; suspected demonic activity in Alstonville, Missouri, after a string of premature aging cases, all resulting in death, of apparently healthy young men. But three hours: That's all it took for Dean to track the culprit down and exterminate the demon. Again there was no exorcism, he'd used the Colt and with a sniper's accuracy he'd killed the perpetrator, even before they'd established any certainty that the man was actually possessed.
Dean had taken a liking to celebrating too. But there was a heartless callousness about his celebration, without a sliver of remorse for the human life he had once more taken. Dean found a familiar comfort in the seedy strip joints, and dingy bars he now frequented. Sam didn't bother any longer to ask him where he'd been, even when he stayed out all night. Instead he fed his suspicions, and tried desperately to dispel them. Only now he'd run out of plausible excuses for Dean's erratic behaviour.
And Sam was left with an uneasy suspicion. Bobby was the only one he felt he could turn to for advice.
"Sam?" Bobby grunted sleepily, not quite awake enough to realise Sam had called on his own cell phone, or contemplate the possibility that Ruby had actually called him again.
"Yeah, it's me." Sam replied softly.
"What, Sam? Is that you?" The seasoned hunter queried again, as he rubbed sleep's persistent veil from his eyes.
"Yeah…" Sam whispered back, a little louder, in reply.
"What, the hell, time is it?" Bobby demanded grumpily.
"Sorry Bobby, it's nearly three." Sam replied, and he meant in the morning. "Only… Bobby… It's… it's, umm… I'm sorry... it's Dean."
"Sam? What's the matter?" Bobby demanded, now instantly awake. He could read the brothers like a book and he knew by Sam's stilted whisper something was askew.
"There's something… wrong with him." Sam muttered hesitantly.
"What, he's not hurt again?" Bobby demanded nervously, waking up fully.
"Umm… no, not really." Sam replied. "I'm not sure… he's… maybe…"
"What is it Sam, just spit it out for pity's sake!" Bobby demanded impatiently.
"We found Ruby." Sam began to explain. "Dean exorcised her."
"He what?" Bobby sighed.
"Actually, he tried to kill her, with the Colt." Sam clarified. "When I stopped him, he exorcised her."
"Wow... He really did hate her!" Bobby knew the perspective Dean was coming from: Ruby was, after all, a demon! However he had to admit she had done everything in her power, to save Dean. He figured he should at least recognise that much. And he had to give her credit, where credit was due: They had saved Dean, using Ruby's plan. "Why?"
"Honestly, I think because she knew…" Sam replied hesitantly, but wasn't quite able to put his concerns into words.
"Knew what, Sam?" Bobby urged.
Sam sighed in defeat. There was no way around it; he just had to say it. "That he isn't really Dean…" Sam dropped the bombshell; he figured he'd best put it out there, even if it was just to keep Bobby off his back, for not having told him days ago.
"Sam, you been drinking?" Bobby queried. Sam really couldn't hold his liquor; not like the other Winchesters.
"No Bobby, I'm serious." Sam barked. "I really think Dean is possessed… it would explain so much…"
"Possessed?" Bobby just wasn't sure.
"There have been things... I didn't want to believe it at first either, but..." Sam muttered.
"Hmm." Bobby didn't actually seem to agree, but then he didn't outright disbelieve him either. "Possessed?"
"Something's been off about Dean…" Sam continued to explain. "… ever since Kalfu…"
"Yeah…" Bobby hedged to concur. "So, have you tried some holy water or something on him?" Bobby queried, without the expected doubt or antagonism. Wouldn't be the first time a Winchester had been possessed.
"Umm… No… not yet…" Sam admitted; he really had no solid proof.
"Sam…" Bobby drew the query out as he ran the information through his still drowsy thoughts. "Who do you think is possessing him?"
"I umm…" Sam stammered uncertainly. "I'm not sure… Ruby seemed to think… maybe… that Kalfu isn't dead."
"Kalfu?" Bobby went deathly quiet for some time. Sam made no attempt to break the silence. "You think Kalfu's possessed Dean?"
"I'm really not sure…" Sam whispered. "But Bobby… his wounds, they healed so fast. That whole deal with Devoratus… the way he's tracking down and executing demons… The memory loss… everything has been so wrong Bobby. I knew it was... I just didn't want to admit it."
"Yeah…" Bobby agreed. "Actually… I have to agree… I kinda had the same feeling."
"I'll try the holy water." Sam stated nervously, thankful they were in some sort of agreement.
Bobby was quiet again as he contemplated the situation. "No… Maybe not." He eventually decided. "If he really is possessed… and he finds out that you know… it could be too dangerous… especially if it's Kalfu… holy water may not even work on him. Sam you wanna make damned sure that you hold all the cards if, or when, you expose him. We gotta do this right. If Dean is possessed, we gotta be able to pin him down long enough to exorcise him. If you're right, if he is possessed by Kalfu… well, we just gotta do this right is all. You promise me, now Sam…"
"Yeah Bobby." Sam replied. "But how?"
"We'll work it out, you just keep acting like nothing's wrong." Bobby warned. "Only, Sam, I don't understand… if Dean really is possessed by Kalfu, then why hasn't he tried to kill you, kill us both?"
"I don't know. He must have some sort of an agenda." Sam replied. "Or… umm maybe… Ruby mentioned that opening that Devil's Gate and gettin' shot with the Colt, it would take all his energy. Maybe he just isn't strong enough yet."
"Is that so?" Bobby mused.
"Maybe…" Sam muttered. "Umm… and Bobby…"
"Yeah Sam." Bobby sensed Sam hadn't quite revealed the entire gravity of the situation.
"Ruby said…" Again Sam went silent. "She umm…"
"What Sam?" Bobby urged patiently.
"She said that… Dean was gone…" He whispered.
"Gone?" Bobby queried, uncertain as to Sam's inference.
"Yeah. She said Dean was gone." He reiterated.
"Dean's gone?" Bobby repeated, mulling over the significance.
"What do you think she meant?" Sam ventured to query, he had his own horrific thoughts… he hoped Bobby would come up with an alternative interpretation.
"Sure hope it's not what I'm thinking…" Bobby replied, imagining that maybe Dean never climbed out of Hell after all.
"Bobby?" Sam was close to breaking point, if his choked query was any indication.
"Yeah, Sam?" Bobby replied, with almost equal trepidation.
"You think Dean really made it out?" Sam whispered hoarsely, verbalising both their fears. "Of Hell?"
"I sure as hell hope so." Bobby replied, although not at all certain. Bobby mulled the information over in his mind, tossing substantiations and refutations about like a tennis match. Only somehow it all made sense. The complete character change, the memory loss... if Dean really was gone, if a demon possessed him, it wouldn't have anything to go by, no memories or consciousness to tap into. A long silence followed.
"What should I do?" Sam eventually queried.
"Let me think about it." Bobby replied. "I'll make a few calls, see what we can do… see if there's anyway to be sure…"
"You'll let me know?" Sam almost begged. "You'll call me?"
"Yeah, as soon as I can. Sam… you just take care." Bobby replied. "And for your sake, don't let on about any of your suspicions!"
"No Bobby, I won't." Sam sighed.
"Don't do anything until I get back to you." Bobby replied. "For now you be very, very careful."
"I will. Thanks Bobby." Sam sighed as he hung up, relieved that he could share his emotional burden.
oooOOOooo
Please R&R… I'd love to know what you think.
Did you like my conniving? Did you see the evil twist coming?
Is Dean really Dean? Or is Ruby still playing the brothers?
I hope you'll take the time to read my next chapter to find out. I'm working on it, but it still needs some polishing… and proofing and editing…