A few days later...
Jumping Jack's Motel.
Seymour, COLORADO
"Bobby might have something. A haunting…" Sam mentioned to Dean a few days later. The elder gazed back at Sam with a bored expression. It seemed lately, if he wasn't killing demons, he just wasn't interested. They had just exterminated another demon... a seemingly harmless, garden variety, mischief type. This one took its pleasure screwing with peoples' sense of perception, making the general public see things like the Easter Bunny, drinking sodas at the local cafe, or fairies in their garden. Sam had been duped into thinking he saw a garden gnome, stalking his every move! Certainly no killings, or gore or frightening head spinning, or pea soup puking at all! How Dean had even found the demon, Sam had no idea. It only made him more certain; Dean (this new Dean) must really have some kind of Demon ESP! Or something more sinister…
"A haunting?" Dean scoffed.
"The old 'Cowboy' cemetery, out in Wyoming. Seems there's a dead cowboy haunting the locals…" Sam enlightened. "Some Wade Calhoun… "
"A ghost?" Dean snipped back unenthusiastically. "Why even waste our time?"
Sam glared at him for a moment. "It's Samuel Colt's cemetery…" Sam mentioned with a mischievous smile. "Could be more than just a ghost out there…"
Dean glared at him. "Samuel Colt's cemetery… with the Devil's Gate?"
"Yeah, that's the one." Sam replied, not overly impressed by Dean's recall. He reminded himself that even if Dean was possessed, Kalfu, or any other demon would know of Samuel Colt's Cemetery too. After all, a whole mass of them escaped Hell from there when Azazel opened the Gates... "Could be a demon of course…"
"No…" Dean replied flatly. "There are those deaths, and some cattle mutilations in Texas, I think it'd be a better choice."
"Well I kinda promised Bobby we'd go check it out." Sam replied stubbornly, reminding himself that he was most likely not negotiating with Dean at all. Even so, he wasn't backing down on this one.
More and more he was convinced Ruby had been right: Right about Dean not being Dean. And the time had come to put him to the test, to finally put an end to his suspicions, one way or another. Sam grinned confidently to himself, though. He'd soon know for sure, and even if Dean really was Dean, the elder Winchester couldn't deny him this little experiment. Because Dean, and Bobby, had faced the same dilemma, when he'd been possessed by Meg...
"Why? Can't the old coot handle it?" Dean demanded with ire.
"Unmarked grave…" Sam muttered in response.
"So what!" Dean scoffed. "Let the old man play Ghostbuster! I'm not!"
"What? Too good for a simple salt and burn, now?" Sam goaded. "It used to be you that had to convince me to do these gigs."
"Maybe I am!" Dean snapped back arrogantly. "Too good, that is."
"Seems a lot has changed since you cheated the Crossroad Demon." Sam stated blankly. "You sure Kalfu didn't mess with your head?" If Dean really was possessed, and the demon wanted to keep his cover, he'd just been shoved into a hard spot.
Dean went silent for a moment. He scowled at Sam, and then grunted in defeat. "Fine."
Sam smiled with victory to himself.
oooOOOooo
The following evening,
Samuel Colt's cemetery,
WYOMING.
The night was cool, with barely a lick of wind in the air. They pulled into the gravel driveway that meandered through the overgrown trees until they reached the dilapidated cemetery. The Impala's headlights illuminated Bobby's pickup, which sat outside already, although Bobby Singer was nowhere to be seen.
"Bobby must be around somewhere." Sam suggested as they exited the Impala.
"Sam, I'm telling you there's nothing here!" Dean snarked angrily turning his back on Sam as the younger opened the boot revealing their small arsenal of weapons. He obviously didn't want to be there. And, for whatever reason, he didn't think the place was haunted; of course he could have been right about that. At least, not haunted by anything dangerous… Bobby had created the whole scenario; based everything on an old job… the real Dean would have known that.
"According to the reports, there is." Sam cast back as he passed him a shot gun. "There was a bunch of high school kids…" He'd already explained the alleged background to Dean, and Dean continued to remain speculative, although never once mentioning any similarities to any other hunt.
"What? A pack of scaredy-cat teenagers pissing their pants 'cause the bushes went bump!" Dean grunted. "I'm telling you, they're wrong!"
"Got 'Ghost ESP' now too?" Sam goaded defiantly, slamming the Impala's boot closed in exclamation. Just how could he be so adamant? It certainly had Sam bothered that Dean seemed to know things lately, like where the demons were, and apparently he knew where ghosts lurked as well… or didn't!"What about the reports of a cowboy riding the property, from that middle-aged couple? The one about a cowboy, shooting at them, from behind the tombstones?" Sam objected. His doubts had definitely swelled over the past few days; doubts about Dean really being Dean. The eldest Winchester hadn't even attempted to confirm Bobby's bogus data, and yet he persisted in refuting every fact. The real Dean had enough sense to back his doubts with reasonable proof. Even if Dean was a reluctant researcher at the best of times, he'd have wanted the nitty-gritty before so adamantly debunking the entire situation. But then the real Dean should have recalled the hunt Bobby had based all his information on; just how extensive could post traumatic amnesia possibly be?
But then, even Sam couldn't make his mind up. Dean just didn't seem like Dean any more, especially with his new found demon-tracking radar, and apparently 'ghostie-sense' as well! But if Dean really was a demon and Kalfu no less, then why was he still breathing? Why hadn't the demon taken any one of innumerable opportunities to kill both he and Bobby? All Dean had killed so far were demons, and although they had been cold blooded, heartless executions, it was nothing they hadn't had to do before… And even Sam knew that Kalfu wouldn't simply be waiting to get his strength back; if he could exterminate demons with barely any effort at all, killing both he and Bobby certainly wouldn't pose any great difficulty. Humans were, after all, far easier to kill than a demon…
"So what? Anybody getting killed? Or hurt even?" Dean continued as they walked into the cemetery.
"Well lately, I didn't think that was a prerequisite for a hunt…" Sam snapped, loaded with accusation in regards to the mischief demon. "If it's shooting at people, it's only a matter of time…"
"You'll be waiting a while!" Dean shot back adamantly.
"Well there might be something else…" Sam added.
"There's nothing here Sam." Dean stated, with far too much confidence. "Nothing worth worrying about!"
"How can you be so sure?" Sam baited. "There might still be demons lurking, close to the Devil's Gate…"
"No there aren't!" He snapped back abruptly.
"You're so sure, are you?" Sam goaded with irritation. How, the hell, could he possibly be so sure? He wondered. With his doubts on the rise, almost everything Dean did and said made him even more suspicious. He was about ready to shower his brother in holy water and demand the truth. Was he really Dean?
"What, the hell, would a demon still be doing here?" Dean demanded, opting for a logical response. "A Devil's Gate's only good for getting' out of! Hell's the last place a demon's gonna wanna go back to! Besides, a demon's gotta find a host, and they prefer easy, living prey… not hundred year old corpses! Too hard to reanimate, let alone integrate into the living without suspicions! Trust me there ain't no demons here either!"
Sam had to admit; It was an excellent response, and even Dean could have figured that out for himself… still, how could he be so certain?
"I'm not so sure…" Sam speculated with inference. He couldn't shake that little voice of doubt, nagging at him in the back of his thoughts. He still had an inkling he was looking at one right now!
"I am!" Dean snapped back, a little irked by Sam's apparently flippant comment. He gave Sam a wary frown.
"I'm sure we'll see pretty soon…" Sam alluded as he swiftly strode away in search of Bobby, wondering if he'd unwittingly revealed his uncertainties. Best get on with it before Dean really did get suspicious! "Only we better find Bobby, we got about a half hour before Calhoun's likely to appear. Why don't you check down that way? I'll check over here."
"No." Dean stated flatly, shouldering his shotgun and turning to head back to the Impala. He had made no excuses for not wanting to join up with Bobby again, and now he seemed defiantly certain of it.
"What is wrong with you lately?" Sam snapped at him. Sam knew that maybe Dean was a little suspicious now, and certainly more than a little irritated by this hunt. But he was so close… he couldn't let Dean walk away now.
"Nothing, I just can't see why we should be chasing shadows, when there's an army of demons amassing in an attempt for total dominance!" Dean snapped back. "Isn't that a little more important?"
"Yeah, it is…" Sam had to admit, it was a good comeback. "Only, tell me Dean, do you know where they are? How many? What they're doing? Oh that's right, you've got some kind of Demon ESP now… some little trick you souvenired after your near incarceration in Hell, is it? Maybe we can make a Samuel Colt special machine gun and annihilate them all! If we can just find Bobby we can start that war!"
Dean glared back at him, his teeth ground together as he contemplated the wisecrack. "I don't need ESP to know things… And I know there's definitely some demonic activity in Texas…" He admitted. "...but certainly not here!"
"Demons in Texas? You've hardly read a newspaper and you haven't so much as switched the laptop on, or listened to a news report; so tell me Dean, you know this for sure, how?" Sam retorted angrily, prepared to push whatever buttons he needed to goad Dean into compliance; his growing suspicions lurked behind his accusations. Contradictory doubts flashed through his thoughts… If Dean really was possessed by a demon, if he was Kalfu, why hadn't he just vaporised him yet? Damn, he was confused… big time!
"It's just a hunch…" Dean backtracked noticeably, with a steely restraint in his glare. "It'll wait, I suppose." If he wasn't Dean, he wasn't about to risk revealing himself… not just yet.
"Well, we're here now, so let's just find Bobby!" Sam spat, sure he'd almost caught him out. "You can tell him all about your… hunches!"
"Fine, I'll check… over here!" He pointed in the direction Sam had already urged him to go.
Dean moved down the rickety isles of tombstones and timber crucifixes with reckless disregard for the aged, rotting timber, and crumbling granite and marble, even going as far as to deliberately kicking the grave markers over with his hefty, steel-capped boots in irritation. Despite the darkness he didn't turn his torch on, stepping into the shadows until they consumed him entirely. His eyes scanned the pitch black, with an intense scour. He moved silently across the gravel pathway.
"Bobby?" He muttered upon glimpsing the seasoned hunter standing cautiously in the distance, despite standing in the dark. He was leaning against a mausoleum, peering into the shadows, attempting to see him.
"Dean?" Bobby replied, as his eyes made out Dean's darkened silhouette some meters away.
"Tryin' to hide, Bobby?" Dean queried. "Ghost's can see in the dark, you know."
"Yeah, I know… just got here." Bobby replied in way of explanation. "I'm trying to fire up my lantern; flashlights have a tendency to fail, just when you need them the most." Especially when there's a demon about, using his powers… He thought to himself. "Gotta say, though, you got pretty good eyesight in the dark, Dean." He added with a hint of accusation in his tone.
"Could say the same for you… Bobby." Dean retorted tensely. He approached cautiously, almost certainly suspecting something was amiss…
"I sense you're not real keen on this gig…" Bobby commented, unpacking a collection of items from the duffle bag at his feet. They remained in darkness, the night's dark moon obstinately refusing to offer them even the smallest hint of illumination.
"I think you're hunting a ghost, that doesn't exist!" Dean snapped back. He had better things to do than play ghostbuster to a non-existent ghost. He had a whole world before him, to do with as he pleased…
"Why's that?" Bobby challenged. He had a hankering to push the hunter; just enough to see if he could get him to unwittingly reveal an indication… either way. He knew Dean would never deal out such a contradiction without some solid proof. Even so, he hoped, with every fibre in his body, that Dean really was Dean Winchester. He truly wished this hunt was one destined to fail…
"Maybe it just doesn't feel right." Dean replied tersely. He paused in his advance, sensing Bobby's antagonism. Nothing, just now, felt right.
Their brief standoff was interrupted by Sam as he hedged down around a mausoleum, with caution, with torch in one hand, the Colt in the other.
"Bobby…" Sam muttered as he strode up to the seasoned hunter. They exchanged a brief glance of support and fortitude. It was a silent, fleeting look between the two hunters that noticeably omitted Dean.
Dean's attentions snapped from one hunter, to the other. He could read their expressions like an open book. They'd plotted and planned and connived together. He knew that now, as he continued to gaze from one to the other suspiciously.
"So… somebody wanna tell me what, the hell, is going on?" Dean demanded anxiously.
"Just have to wait for Calhoun to make an appearance…" Sam replied casually. "See if we can't find his grave so we can salt and burn him."
"Can't see that we all need to be here for that!" Dean snapped back in annoyance.
"Probably not, but there's something else…" Bobby replied as he turned a gas lantern on by his side.
"Like what?" Dean demanded impatiently.
"Just a little experiment." Bobby smiled with insinuation.
"What? Damn it Sam, what are we doing here?" Dean barked with irritation.
"Actually, it's an exorcism." Sam replied, seemingly to Dean's surprise. Sam strode up towards Dean.
"A what?" Dean demanded nervously, glancing from Sam to Bobby and back again. "Who?"
"You." Sam informed him, desperately keeping his massing emotions and the doubts that were churning within him, on a tight leash. Nervously he aimed the Colt at the man who resembled his brother…
Dean took a step back cautiously, both shocked and wary of the Colt, aimed smack at his chest. "Damn it Sam, what the hell?" Dean frowned with trepidation, his gaze wavering between Sam and Bobby, until it eventually fell upon the older.
Bobby smiled and nodded to the ground. Dean was horrified to realize he was standing in a devil's trap, only just hidden beneath a layer of gravel. For good measure Bobby began circling him, spreading a line of salt around him.
"This some kind of a joke?" Dean shouted angrily. "You mad old coot!" He raised his shotgun and aimed it at Bobby, surprised when he squeezed the trigger with no result.
"It's not loaded…" Sam leered in explanation. Dean would have checked to see that the shotgun was loaded out of habit alone; their dad had drilled that precaution into them both since the day dot!
Dean glared at Sam, then back at Bobby, as he tried apprehensively to step over the trap. However he was unable to exit, ensnared by the devil's trap and salt. "I'm not possessed!" He stated adamantly.
"Then by all means step out." Sam snarked.
Dean was visibly shaken. "I can't…" He muttered. "Damn it, I was in Hell, sold my soul… maybe that's why!" He implored. "It's really me! Dean!"
"I really hope so… We'll soon find out." Sam replied as he passed the Colt to Bobby, who remained by Sam's side with a vigilant demeanour. Sam took his exorcism ritual out from his jacket pocket. "You know we gotta be sure… This shouldn't hurt at all if you really are Dean…"
"You're kidding aren't you?" Dean muttered warily.
"Exorcizo te, omnis spiritus immunde, in nomine Dei." Sam began reciting the Latin rite. He didn't actually need his journal; he knew it verbatim, however it helped him to keep his place should the possible demon distract him. And when it was Dean standing in front of him he strongly suspected he would get distracted.
"Damn you Sam… Don't you know it's me?" Dean snarled angrily. "What kind of brother are you?"
"Patris omnipotentis, et in noimine Jesu Christi Filii ejus…" Sam paused briefly in his recital. "One that knows his brother pretty damned well!" he challenged. "Domini et Judicis nostri, et in virtute Spiritus…"
"I don't think so…" Dean smirked.
"We'll soon find out…" Sam replied.
"I'm sure you will…" Dean simply laughed at their feeble attempt to restrain him. With a grim scowl and a wave of his hand the salt was blown away. Fire burned in his eyes, as the demon within revealed himself. Then, as he began to mutter his own incantation, a crack appeared between his feet, and proceeded to move towards the Devil's Trap symbol, sure to destroy their only means of keeping him contained. The ground beneath them all shuddered and vibrated with an intense quiver, until both Bobby and Sam staggered with the force of the mini-quake that was ripping the earth apart.
"Shit!" Bobby cursed as he glared at Sam. "I thought you said he was weak!"
Sam's face dropped as he contemplated the obvious.
"Underestimate the situation somewhat?" Dean smirked confidently, as the fracture through the soil and gravel continued to inch towards the Devil's trap.
"No… not at all." Bobby retorted as he cocked the Colt. Sam was horrified as he watched Bobby shoot his brother in the thigh with the revolver. The force of the shot thrust Dean to the ground with a surprised shriek of pain. The growing expanse of the demon's crevasse had thankfully been halted, at least for the moment.
"Bobby! What the hell?" Sam screamed with horror, the will to stop the older hunter injuring Dean, far greater than his understanding of his intent. Sam tackled Bobby with all his strength, his arms encircling the seasoned hunter, as they stumbled away from Dean with a lung bruising force.
"Damn it Bobby!" Sam pleaded. He gripped the older hunter in a firm grasp, fearful of the injury he had inflicted on Dean. "What are you doing? Dean…"
"You need any more proof that's not Dean, Sam?" Bobby demanded angrily. As far as Sam knew, Dean could never control the elements of wind or earth.
"It's still him… somewhere." Sam justified.
"Sam, I'm sorry." Bobby explained. "But if he gets away now, we're both dead. And so is Dean! Ain't no turning back now!" Bobby was deadly serious. "Remember Sam, we only got one option here; we gotta do this! And we do it right. And we do it now!"
Sam glanced at Dean's writhing form, as he struggled in pain with the gunshot. Smoke hissed from the wound as Dean snarled abuse at both hunters. Flashes of red and gold burst from his thigh, as electrical pulses jarred the writhing demon within, with repeated convulsions. Sam had his undeniable proof and Bobby his undisputable logic…
Slowly Sam made his way to Dean's side, studying his supposed brother with meticulous intent. And he knew now for sure… had all along if he'd only listened to his inner suspicions more closely…
"It's you, isn't it?" Sam demanded as he towered over the squirming figure of his brother. "Kalfu?"
At first there was a long pause, but even the demon knew his charade had been exposed, and yet he made no attempt to escape the now lethal body of Dean Winchester…
Kalfu!Dean laughed in response.
"Well now, gives tha boy a prize! Next Messiah, my ass! T'was Ruby, weren't it?" Kalfu!Dean demanded in his distinctive dialect. "The witch whore gaves me aways, didn't she? But I gots her good! An' I'll be gettin' tha' bitch, once an' for all… alls in due course… I'lls kill her eventually, and if'n I haves ta… you too, Samuel!"
"Well, she was right, wasn't she?" Sam snapped back with irritation.
"Ignore him Sam." Bobby warned as he made his way to Sam's side. He knew far too well how manipulating and conniving demons were. Knew that Kalfu had very nearly succeeded in fooling them both… and he knew Kalfu would try and needle himself under Sam's skin with whatever leverage he could muster.
Bobby fixed their salt circle, and checked the integrity of the Devil's Trap. Still firmly ensnared, Kalfu also seemed to be incapacitated by the Colt's bullet. If he really was weakened, the Colt must surely have undermined him further.
"Well I'll be… damned… ya actually gone and trusted her!" Kalfu!Dean chuckled as he taunted the mystified Sam. "Oh, I neva gives her credit for how truly schemin' and cunnin' shes really was! Oh, Samuel, she's actually gone an' made ya her very own Bitch! Ya ain't no Prince of Hell, ya ain't nothin' but a fool Samuel… if'n ya thinka ya can trusther… an' Ruby done knew it… She's surely mighty connivin' an' manipulatin'…" Kalfu!Dean laughed maniacally, cringing slightly with the discomfort of the gunshot. "All hails tha Queen of tha Underworld… tha Witch-whore, Ruby… an' at her feet, be her enslaved helot; the darned gullible Samuel Winchester! Pity ya mistress is back 'n Hell, probably partyin' withs ya brother... withs Dean… as'n he burns! He's a screamin' Samuel… jus' like a stuck pig!" Kalfu!Dean rolled his eyes and licked his lips as if he were imagining a roast diner…
"Shut up!" Sam snapped back resentfully. Kalfu was right, the truth hurt; he did trust her... had trusted her... and only now did he wonder what her motives really were. He stomped his boot over the gunshot wound to Kalfu!Dean's thigh vindictively, in retaliation, just to make the demon quit taunting him. Kalfu!Dean hissed in pain. The gunshot gave off a typically demonic pyrotechnic display, as electrical waves pulsed through his thigh from the wound.
"There's tha 'Messiah' we all been waitin' for!" Kalfu!Dean snarled with a victorious grin, obviously in pain. "Tha real Prince… Let him loose an' feel tha power… Cans ya feel tha darkness? Tha cold, ice ofs ya heart… tha hate, tha anger, tha fury; all bustin' its way outta ya guts? Is tha real Samuel Winchester's clawin' hisself to tha surface? Tha powerful, unadulterated Prince of Evil may jus' emerge yet…"
"Shut… Up!" Sam sneered again, wishing the Colt's bullet would hurry up and do it's job, however Kalfu was strong, and seemed capable of resisting its mystical powers, even if only just.
"Truth hurts, Samuel?" Kalfu!Dean sniggered. "Ya shoulds just lets tha true Samuel Winchester come outs ta play! Open ya'self to tha supreme power… Or is ya nothin' but a cow'dly impostor, hiding ahind ya brother's strength, alls this time?"
"Shut, the hell, up!" Sam screamed angrily… fighting those very same urges, turning his back on Kalfu!Dean… on the possible truth of the demon's accusations.
"Show ya true self Samuel!" Kalfu!Dean goaded. "Come outs, come outs, where eva ya ares…"
"Perhaps you should show your real self!" Bobby interceded with a snarl. He splashed Dean with holy water, however he was not rewarded with a response. But then, in all honesty, he hadn't actually expected one either, not if Kalfu had possessed him. He was too powerful a demon…
"Satisfied?" Kalfu!Dean leered defiantly, like a conceited Cheshire Cat. "Ya old fool!"
Unperturbed, Bobby dosed Dean with more Holy water, and muttered a command in Latin. "Ego imperare tu, Kalfu! Aperire tuus hospes!" Instead he demanded Kalfu allow Dean to surface. "I command you Kalfu! Reveal your host!"
Bobby repeated the action of dousing Kalfu!Dean with more holy water. The liquid bubbled and hissed as it made contact with the gunshot wound, and Kalfu!Dean flinched back with the pain. Kalfu!Dean forced a retaliative laugh. "He's a long gones! He's bein' tormented somethin' gruesome… in Hell!" He sniggered maliciously. "Bu' only bys tha best… only at tha hands of Hell's most 'steemed torturers! He's a screamin' Samuel, as'n tha flesh is hacked off'n him... an' as his bones be snapped like kindlin'… an' tha fires of Hell burn away his soul… An' t'was you put him there, Samuel! Damned him fa all 'ternity, ta Hell…"
"Answer me!" Bobby interrupted Kalfu angrily. "Ego imperare tu, Kalfu! Aperire tuus hospes!" Bobby repeated his demand, dousing Kalfu!Dean with more of the holy water, and pressing a crucifix against Kalfu!Dean's forehead. Kalfu!Dean shrieked unwittingly with the acerbic bite of the blessed, pure water, and flinched from the searing contact with the cross. He was weakening…
"Looks like you're screaming now!" Sam retorted angrily.
"Oh, believes me Samuel… Dean's a one screamin'…" Kalfu!Dean chuckled again defiantly. "… an' wailin'… an' cryin' likes a baby… from the deepest, darkest, torture dungeons in tha pits of Hell!"
"I command you!" Bobby persisted furiously. "Ego imperare tu, Kalfu! Aperire tuus hospes!"Bobby repeated his demand, with authoritive venom in his voice. He splashed Kalfu!Dean with the remaining holy water, and doused him with a handful of salt. The demon cowered with the consecrated attack. Sam had been right, Kalfu must have been weakened, and combined with the Colt's bullet, and now the holy water and salt; the demon was beginning to unravel.
"He's a GONE!" Kalfu!Dean yelled furiously, succumbing to Bobby's demands. "Dean Winchester is in Hell!"
Bobby nodded, seemingly accepting of Kalfu's response.
"You take it from here?" Bobby queried Sam. "We gotta get this done!"
"Oh, yeah!" Sam nodded confidently, with more than a little vengeance behind his declaration.
Bobby held the Colt to Kalfu!Dean's temple as Sam kneeled over the demon, planting his knee on the demon's chest and pinning him to the ground. Dean!Kalfu glared suspiciously at him as Sam pulled his hunting knife from his hip sheath.
"Ya ainst gonna shoot Dean… ainst gonna cuts up ya brotha eiva!" Kalfu!Dean blurted, with obvious trepidation. Sam knew then the demon was weak, just as Ruby had assumed, by the fear reflected in his darting eyes. Kalfu!Dean made no attempt to defend himself, but then it was only Dean, or more precisely Dean's body, that was at any risk. The knife couldn't possibly pose any risk to the demon within, not like the Colt could, and the shot hadn't as yet forced the demon from Dean's body either… Sam pondered the possibility the demon was reluctant to abandon Dean's body, or simply didn't have the strength to survive if he did…
Sam lunged forward with his hunting knife, as he reached out and grabbed Dean's amulet in his grasp. With one swift thrust he cut it free from Kalfu!Dean's neck and then swiftly passed it to Bobby.
Bobby nodded as he dangled Dean's valued possession from his fingers. "Now we do this…" He muttered to Sam with firm resolve, as he moved away, clasping Dean's precious talisman tightly in his grasp. He was swiftly swallowed by the night's cloak of black as he moved towards the mausoleum, on the other side of the cemetery clearing.
His figure came back into view as he lit a candle at his feet and the hunter's silhouette was haloed by the flickering orange glow. Bobby had come to a stop before Samuel Colt's huge towering crypt. At the entrance he had formed a sigil on the ground of his own; mapped out in stark white salt. He dropped Dean's amulet into a small silver chalice that he placed in the centre of the symbol. The small urn was already filled with a number of ingredients. Bobby had carefully prepared the mixture with a base of Oil of Abramelin and a concoction of specific herbs; acacia, dandelion, wormwood and sweetgrass. It required only one further, vital addition… Without hesitation he retrieved his knife from his sheath and swiftly ran the cool, surgically sharp, blade across his palm and allowed the chalice to fill with sacrificial blood. It dripped quickly into the cup. He wound a handkerchief around the wound once he had finished. He knelt by the short round white candle, placed beside the chalice, around which he had wound a length of silver chain, procured from a necklace. With nervous, trembling hands he opened his own leather bound compendium of rituals, that he began reciting from, by candle light.
"In nomine Dei Patris omnipotentis, et in noimine Jesu Christi Filii ejus, Domini et Judicis nostri, et in virtute Spiritus Sancti." Bobby chanted with eloquent precision. "Ego evocare Spiritus Dean Winchester. Ego imperare liberare eius spiritus. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum, qui venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos, et saeculum per ignem liberare hoc plasmate Dei…" However Bobby's words differed slightly to Sam's. Bobby's ritual was a summoning rite.
Kalfu!Dean grew nervous as he realized the potency of Bobby's ritual. "This ainst gonna work…" he snarled at Sam. "Ya ain't never gonna gets him back!"
"Yes, we will!" Sam replied coolly. Even if doubts and fears welled deep within, he'd never allow Kalfu to know. He'd learnt that much at least from Dean: Remain stoic and immune to all their threats and accusations. "Sancti, ut descedas ab hoc plasmate Dei Dean, quod Dominus noster ad templum sanctum suum vocare dignatus est, ut fiat templum…" Sam continued with his exorcism.
Kalfu!Dean groaned with discomfort. The combination of the ritual and the Colt's bullet was having a devastating effect upon the demon…
"No… don't!" Kalfu!Dean spat desperately. "I cans tells ya whats ya wants to know." He bargained frantically. "Abouts ya ma, abouts ya…"
"And why should I believe you?" Sam demanded vehemently. "Demons lie!"
"Cause'n ya wants ta know!" Kalfu!Dean chortled far too optimistically.
"Not from you!" Sam muttered.
"I cans tells ya why Azazel wanted ya so bad!" Kalfu!Dean persisted.
"Azazel's dead!" Sam retorted. "It doesn't really matter why…"
"T'was cause'n ya powers… An' I cans make ya invincible!" Kalfu!Dean claimed. "We cans be a mighty force; ov the world, an' Hell! We can make 'em all bow afore us!"
"Talk about delusions of grandeur!" Sam snapped snidely.
"No Samuel, ya be tha next great power. Ya haves strength an' abilities like'n no other. And I has tha 'mbition ta conquer. Wid you by my sides, as'n my right hands man, you 'n' me's be unconquerable!" Kalfu!Dean declared.
"I don't have any abilities." Sam declared stubbornly. "Not any more…"
"Jus'n 'cause ya finally learned ta control 'em, hows ta turn 'em off' ain't means they's gone!" Kalfu!Dean clarified.
Sam wondered if Kalfu was speaking truths, or simply hoping to delay him, just long enough, that he'd be able to escape the Colt's charmed power. Or was this exactly why Kalfu hadn't, as yet, killed him? Did Kalfu actually hope he could succeed in turning him into some Prince of Hell and create an ally in his bid for demonic dominance? But more importantly… Did he really have powers?
"No, once Azazel died. His powers died too." Sam snapped back. He didn't want to have any part of Azazel's demonic powers.
"Fool Boy! Ya powers ain't ever a'cause ov Azazel!" Kalfu!Dean chuckled at Sam's ignorance. "They's justs why he wanted ya so fierce. Ain't ya asked hows ya got tha Colt, hows it jus' jumped up inta ya hand, back in Domini'n Springs? Ya sure didn't reach for it Samuel… ya mind did! You's differen' Samuel… Sam… an' I'm s'spectin' even ya knows it." Kalfu!Dean smirked, implying that he knew so much more. "We coulds be mighty great 'agether."
"Never gonna happen." Sam rebutted.
"Ya ain't no idea ofs ya p'tential, buts I cans teach ya." Kalfu!Dean enticed. "Ya just needs ta open yaself ta ya true powers… jus' needs some'ne to guides ya… and who better'n ya brother ta do that? If'n that dammed whore hadn't 'nterfered! Ya wouldn't even'na known!"
"Don't delude yourself, I knew you weren't Dean." Sam snapped back.
"Maybe, deeps down… but, ya was so desperate ta have 'im back you'da convinced yaself otherwise." Kalfu!Dean smirked. "And I'da filled his shoes real fine."
"You seriously think I'd have allowed myself to be duped?" Sam rebuked with false bravado. And now it bothered him, because he seriously had hoped, despite all the signs, that he really was Dean…
"Ya already had, an' more an willingly. 'Tils Ruby came 'long." Kalfu!Dean frowned angrily. "Ya human's… ya so gullible! Jus'n like Dean. Darned fool sold 'is soul ta save ya… ta bring back the ups an' comin' Prince a Hell! He was sorely cheated, thinkin' ya'd never turn… an' he 'ccepted ya back, with'n his whole heart, an' from tha dead, no less! An' after a demon r'surrected ya! Kinda Biblical ain't it Samuel?"
"I am not a Prince of Hell! Dean was right. I've nevergone darkside." Sam snapped in his own defence, angry at Kalfu's insinuations. "And I never will!"
"Darkside? Maybes not yet… but Samuel… ya came close!" Kalfu!Dean interrupted. "An' believe'n me, after ya little… r'surrection ya was even closer 'gain… Jus' a little nudge, in tha right d'rection an'…" He 'clicked' his fingers to complete the remainder as he winked confidently. The Colt's bullet was taking its toll on the demon and his words were becoming more forced and slightly stilted. "Ya's close now Samuel… ta becoming ya true self! Can ya taste… tha tang of'n the grand power… that skulks deep inside ya, Samuel? Azazel may 'ave failed… ta change ya... An' once Dean darn killed 'im… ya was up for the takin' Samuel… ta who ever could turns ya… An' believes me, I can! I can sense ya real self, Samuel… The darkness in ya heart… is impatient an' hungry ta be released… All tha tribulations that infect your soul… all so desperate ta be unleashed… ta achieve their full potential… "
"No!" Sam glared at him, now even more determined to continue with the exorcism. "Dei vivi, et Spiritus Sanctus habitet in eo…"
"Dean's gone." Kalfu!Dean sniggered. "What da ya think… you'll 'ccomplish?" He was desperate to halt Sam's spiel.
"Bobby's getting Dean back… right now!" Sam smiled confidently.
"He's in Hell, Samuel!" Kalfu!Dean laughed with amusement. "Time ainn't exactly… follow ta ya… Earthly standards, not downs there… He's been 'ncarcerated… for a whole eternity… Samuel… He's so twisted… an' tortured… you'll be beggin' me… ta take his place…"
It was apparent that Kalfu!Dean was becoming distressingly uncomfortable. When Sam splashed holy water upon him, Kalfu!Dean cringed in pain from the acerbic liquid. Sam's heart broke, fearing he was inflicting the same pain on his brother. And yet he hoped he was, hoped Dean was still imprisoned somewhere in his body, and not in Hell at all. For it was far easier than fighting away the fear that he would never get his brother back.
"Never!" Sam snapped at him. "Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum, qui venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos, et saeculum per ignem."
"Just what… d'ya think… you'll get back?.. Ain't gonna be… Dean." Kalfu!Dean snarled manically. "He don't… exist no more… By now… there be so many…. Wan' retribution… He's been purged… of everythin'… that ya calls ya brother… his spirit's been… stripped 'pletely clean… an' the fires of Hell 'emselves… have burned 'way his humanity… from'n his soul… in a cleansing ya could never, ever… begins ta imagine."
Dean!Kalfu glared at Sam defiantly, with a leer of victory. He had after all sent Dean there…
"In odorem suavitatis…" Sam continued and Kalfu!Dean hissed with pain and snarled a string of explicit obscenities at his exorcist.
oooOOOooo
Bobby felt as the ground beneath his feet began to shudder, and Samuel Colt's Devil's Gate began to radiate an intense heat. He hadn't quite expected that, although he wasn't exactly sure what to expect, he'd never summoned a spirit out of Hell before. He had certainly never had the gumption to open a Gate to Hell to break someone out before either. The silver chalice rocked and teetered as the earth trembled, threatening to spill its bloody contents across the ground. He persisted with the rite, amazed that it was apparently working. He had the Colt ready, although he was still hesitant at using it – to actually open the Devil's Gate. They would be up against almost unbeatable odds!
At that moment Kalfu!Dean screamed with rage, still from within the confines of the Devil's trap. He tried to thrash out at Sam, like a wild animal. However Sam did not waver, his focus solely on his exorcism and on getting his Dean back.
The demon panted breathlessly, close to extermination if he remained in Dean's now toxic body for any length of time. However, Kalfu was not about to be out done. In desperation he shoved his fingers into the gunshot wound and, in an act Sam hoped would be futile, Kalfu!Dean sought to remove the offending bullet. His fingers delved deep into the bloody gore of Dean's thigh, without success. However, Kalfu wasn't about to give up. He hovered his fingers over the wound and grinned malevolently. Without so much as taking his eyes of Sam, Kalfu opened the wound up by will alone, with surgical-like precision, until a gapping gash appeared crossed Dean's thigh.
"Shit! Stop it!" Sam demanded. "Or I swear I'll…"
"Whats? Kill me?" Kalfu grimaced in pain and swayed precariously from where he sat, sprawled within the confines of the Devil's Trap, before resuming his malevolent glare. He laughed at Sam, as he plunged his fingers back into the now gaping wound, resorting to ripping the flesh apart with his bare hands, until he could pluck the slug out with ease. He laughed with triumph at withdrawing the toxic bullet as blood surged up from the wound in protest. "Yous gonna kill Dean too?"
Sam doused him with holy water in retaliation, and confirmation of his threat. Kalfu!Dean grimaced with pain, however remain defiant. The demon's energy was thankfully waning, and the task had taken a great deal of effort.
"I'lls rip his body… ta shreds… afore ya… gets me out!" Kalfu!Dean threatened with sadistic glee, realising his advantage. He raised the charmed bullet up in his bloody fingers and smiled victoriously at Sam, attempting to taunt the hunter's confidence even further. Despite his desperate act of salvation, the demon within continued to steadily wane. He panted breathlessly, and increasingly he showed signs of hazy consciousness. He was swiftly weakening.
Sam glared at him with loathing, now fearful the demon would continue to violate Dean's body in way of blackmail and leverage. However, nothing was going to stop him exorcising Kalfu from Dean's body. There was no way Dean was coming back so long as Kalfu possessed his body. So, for better or worse, Kalfu was going to be exiled back into Hell. And Sam knew if Bobby could summon Dean back, even if Dean's body died, at least his soul would be set free. Hopefully to go to a better place…
"Tu autem effugare…" Sam continued with determination, dousing him further with holy water.
Dean!Kalfu's head slouched to his chest. At first there was complete silence. Sam gazed at their captive with inquisitiveness. Kalfu!Dean appeared to have lost consciousness, he sat, slumped lifelessly, slouched forward upon the ground. Sam feared he had possibly gone into a trance… summoning more strength. Or he had simply succumbed to the Colt's bullet, or the exorcism… Just as Sam began to hope that it was over, Kalfu!Dean began to laugh, in a disturbingly vindictive manner. Sam watched in horror as Kalfu!Dean raised his head. He took several deep breaths, composing himself for something Sam knew was going to drain him…
The demon lifted Dean's wrist up in front of Sam. His hand was already coated in rich red blood that was steadily seeping through the fabric of his jacket sleeve. The Hell Hounds' puncture wounds and lacerations had burst open, as raw and fresh as the day they had been inflicted, and soaked his sleeve with blood. Then as Kalfu clenched his fist tight, he twisted Dean's savaged hand inwards until Sam could hear the bones snapping. As Sam continued to watch in dumbfounded dismay, the laceration across his brother's brow opened and crimson streamed from the wounds covering Dean's face, although it was still Kalfu's maniacal grin that was plastered, ear-to-ear, beneath.
The sickening sight forced Sam to pause, glaring with incredulity at Kalfu!Dean in repulsion. Helplessness swamped him, almost crushing him in one underhanded blow of emotional leverage. He gasped suddenly, not having realised he was holding his breath, and his knees threatened to buckle beneath him.
"…diabole; appropinquabit enim judicium Dei." Sam persisted, with a voice that quivered and grew dry and hoarse, no louder than a whisper.
"My hounds… left 'im… dyin'!" Kalfu!Dean threatened. "An' that's 'sactly hows I'll be leavin' 'im if'n ja persists!"
To add further influence to his claims, blood began to seep through Dean's jeans leg, from thigh to calf, adding to the crimson stain from the gunshot wound. And even more blood gushed from his shoulder, saturating Dean's shirt and the gauze pad that still covered Devoratus's burn, with a swift red bloom. Every wound the demon had healed was reappearing with savage déjà vu.
"Afore… I'ms gone… 'is body will be… mutilated! Dean'll be well 'n' truly dead!" Kalfu!Dean sniggered. Sam was sure he could hear as Dean's ribs started to snap, slowly in succession. Kalfu!Dean laughed as blood spewed from Dean's mouth, erupting like a crimson explosion.
Bobby was startled by the ferocity of the exorcism, and even more so by the bloody remains Kalfu was intent on leaving behind. His recital of the summoning ritual became more desperate, he was mere seconds from completing the rite... "In nomine Dei Patris omnipotentis, et in noimine Jesu Christi Filii ejus, Domini et Judicis nostri, et in virtute Spiritus Sancti."
As he completed reciting the rite Bobby shoved the Colt into Samuel Colt's Devil's Gate lock and turned the specially made key. The locks rotated and turned, in unison, clicking in mechanical accord, until the entire door snapped open.
"Ego evocare Spiritus Dean Winchester…" Bobby demanded Dean appear before him.
Thin tendrils of black smoke licked out from the restrained crack in the door. Bobby panicked when howls and screams, and fiery, clawing creatures became visible as they clamoured their way towards the opening, trying to make their way out of the small chasm. He'd opened the Devil's Gate, just like Jake had. And damned if he'd be the one to let another hundred Demons escape! He hoped Ruby's theories had been true. That the multitude of demons only escaped last time because they were expecting the Gate to be opened. This time would be unexpected, and hopefully none of the true demons would make their way out before they could summon Dean back to claim his body. And hopefully all that would escape would be Dean…
Bobby leaned on the huge Devil's Gate, only allowing the smallest crack of an opening, hoping desperately to contain the soul he'd willingly allow to escape, to that of only Dean. As the entities within forced their way up and slammed against the door Bobby fought to keep them from smashing their way out. He struggled to keep the door closed but for the smallest chink. He certainly wasn't confident that the crude line of rock salt he'd laid at the threshold could imprison any but the lowest echelon demons. He certainly hadn't expected more than one soul to be able to escape, and now he feared many more may be on their way up.
Bobby's heart raced as he considered ceasing the ritual. He promptly discarded his notion of being able to control just who could escape. He hadn't contemplated that his rite could open the gates of Hell to all and sundry. He fought to keep the gate closed, to encumber any possibility of a full fledged demonic escape.
ooOoo
"Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum…" Sam persisted with determination, blocking the image of his mutilated brother from his thoughts in order to continue.
As Sam delivered the final few lines of the exorcism Kalfu!Dean suddenly screamed, severing the silence of the night. His essence was brutally banished with time-tested, hallowed, exorcism influence, despite the demon's determination to cling to Dean's body by way of sheer willpower. Black murk spewed from his gaping, bloodied mouth, spilling out like a chemical explosion and filling the confines of the Devil's trap. He'd maintained his grisly possession, by tooth and nail, upon Dean's body to the very last. Sam glared at the agitated vapour, as it swirled around the convulsing body of his brother. The thick black haze quickly filled the air with its acerbic, sulphuric stench and suffocating throng. Sam suddenly feared actually inhaling the Demon's essence, feared it would simply try to jump from Dean to him… and wondered if his protective tattoo would shield him.
"Qui venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos, et saeculum per ignem…" Sam churned out anxiously; he knew he had to finish it.
With the final, devastating lines of the incantation, the murky miasma quickly darted upwards in what looked like an escape attempt, however it was swiftly halted, caged by the restraints of the Devil's Trap. It condensed and contacted in upon itself, until it looked as if it would form a solid, dense mass. Sam could hear a feint hum in the air, like the electrified atmosphere during an electrical storm that was steadily escalating. The charged disturbance intensified until a severe blue-white flash, like a lightning bolt, burst from the heart of the miasma. The haze blasted into the night sky, but was then reigned in equally fast. In an instance the enduring smoke imploded in upon itself, as if it had been sucked into a black hole. With a fiery explosion, Kalfu's essence disintegrated, accompanied by a sudden aftershock, with the force of a small bomb.
Sam was instantly propelled into the air, and the stunned hunter was cast several feet away and dumped unceremoniously into a tombstone with the sheer force of Kalfu's explosive exorcism.
Bobby stumbled backwards with the force of the blast. He staggered over his tools of summoning as he fought to regain his balance; he kicked the urn over, spilling its contents across the pitch black of the gravel. Dean's amulet spilled onto the ground and Bobby's own blood seeped into the dry dirt beneath. His staggering feet flicked at the base of the mausoleum door and his line of rock salt was severed. In that instant a sudden dart of demonic essence broke free from the door and spewed up into the night. It billowed up and out like a bat out of hell. As Bobby lost his footing completely he lurched backwards, falling against the Gate. Miraculously the door slammed shut, and the cogs on the lock rotated, clicking systematically until it once again locked the demons, and apparently, Dean within.
Bobby Singer blinked away the shock of the blast, from where he had fallen, back against Samuel Colt's Devil's Gate door. Instinctually his hands quickly moved to fix the salt line in fear of any other demons escaping.
As he sat before the Gate, Bobby could hear the screams of the tortured souls within, he could feel the heat of Hell's fires flickering against the door. Overhead the black haze of the escaped demons lingered above him, and he knew… He sighed with anguish and disappointment as he realised, the Gates of Hell had closed once more, once and for all.
"Damn it… DEAN!" Bobby cursed in hopelessness. He peered nervously at the Winchester brothers, as Sam crawled back to Dean's lifeless side. Sam hunched with despair over his brother's inert form slumped on the ground. It was painfully apparent that all that remained was an inanimate body, Dean's carcass and nothing else. Kalfu had been truthful in that respect: Dean was gone, and apparently he had remained gone. Bobby sighed with lament; his failure had most likely banished Dean's soul to an eternal ever after in Hell's pits…
As he peered at Dean's still, motionless and savaged silhouette Bobby realized, that most likely, he hadn't managed to summon Dean back from the depths of Hell at all. That Dean wouldn't be coming back... that Dean would be… was forever dead. And his soul evermore condemned to an eternity in Hell.
Unless… It took him a couple of seconds to recall just where in the ritual he had been before he was so roughly interrupted. He'd finalized the summon, he simply had to release Dean's personal possession, his amulet, from the chalice of blood and call for him once more… only the chalice, and blood and the amulet were now spilled across the ground. He collected Dean's amulet up off the ground and rubbed the bloody talisman between his fingers. He shook his head remorsefully as he began to worry; wondering how long Dean's body could remain in limbo, without a soul… and he wondered if he had the time, or the balls, to repeat the ritual…
Bobby could only acknowledge the fact that he had failed Dean, failed to save him from the infernal depths of Hell in the first place. And now he had failed to release him. And yet, with his disastrous attempt, he knew he had most certainly freed any number of demons; although he had no idea just how many had come through the seemingly minute chink in the gates of Hell.
Heaven and Hell alone would know how many demons he'd allowed to escape in vain…
Bobby slumped against the Gate in misery. He glanced at the Winchester brothers and seeing Dean's deathly form clasped in Sam's grasp only confirmed his fears; their plans had failed. They had successfully exorcised Kalfu from Dean's body, however the elder Winchester's soul was still lost… somewhere in Hell.
Bobby gazed at the darkness above him. The smoky miasma hovered over him, circling like an ominous cloud with a strange hesitation. Taunting him and casting his failure back at him with menacing audacity. Who knew how many more demons he'd just unleashed upon the world?
The black cloud hovered briefly above him, and then it swooped down at him, wrapping its hazy sulfuric stench and choking consistency around him. Icy air and a complete stillness enveloped him, the black haze blinding his sight and he feared the disembodied souls would seek him out as an easy victim in their need for a corporeal host. The haze twisted and turned about him, eddying around his torso in agitation. Wisps of black and hazy silver slithered through his fingers, wrapping around his hands and tugging at his grasp upon Dean's amulet.
Bobby's hand clutched the talisman firmly in his clutch as his other hand delved into his jacket and his fingers toyed with his protective charm, to guard him against possession, still secured safely in his pocket. Sam had his tattoo intact; it was only Dean who was vulnerable… however Dean's body was, for the time being, protected by the Devil's trap. And so the entities hesitated, seemingly insistent in tormenting him instead.
"Exorcizo te, omnis spiritus immunde, in nomine Dei." Bobby began reciting with fear. He knew he had to banish what ever he'd released, and quickly, before it disappeared into the night in search of easy hosts. "Patris omnipotentis, et in noimine Jesu Christi Filii ejus…" The demonic black miasma pulled away from him and swirled above him, churning and billowing in agitation.
There was something unusual about the haze, and its consistency. Bobby had exorcised enough demons to know exactly what their Hell-tainted souls looked like. As soon as he paused with the exorcism he noticed the vapour settle. And Bobby became acutely aware that there was more than just one consistency; certainly more than just one entity. There was a distinct variation in the colour of the smoky haze. Huge tendrils were pitch black, and distinctly sulphuric in door. Other wisps were translucent, almost silvery blue in hue and, for the most part, benign in scent.
Sam crouched by his lifeless brother's side. Dean's body lay inertly still; his green eyes gazed unresponsively to the skies above, as blood dribbled from his partially gapping mouth and gashed brow. Sam tried desperately to minister some sort of first aid to his brother's corpse, in a vain attempt to resurrect him. Blood seeped slowly from the numerous wounds, streaming out through Sam's fingers, in a mock joke insinuating that Dean still had a beating heart. Sam gazed despondently at Dean and at his blood that coated his hands, in an encore performance of just weeks ago. They were the same wounds the Hell Hounds had inflicted. Cautiously Sam scooped his brother up into his arms; Dean's head lolled about in his cradling grasp, already Sam could feel him going cold.
"Dean…" Tears rolled down Sam's face. "I'm sorry Dean… I'm so sorry." Tenderly he stroked Dean's cheek; crimson smeared beneath his touch, as Sam's tears splashed upon his brother's pale brow and mingled with oozing blood and trickled down the elder brother's face.
Bobby pondered as he studied the contradictory haze above him… and suddenly a thought struck him. He shuffled to Dean's side. The smoky miasma followed obediently above him.
"Please, please be Dean…" Bobby muttered as he placed the amulet back around Dean's neck. Sam was too heart broken to comprehend what Bobby had done. He rocked his brother's body gently in his arms, like a mother with her babe. His focus was on Dean's still face imagining that his lifeless eyes were in fact peering back up at him.
A strange eeriness descended upon them, like the air around them had suddenly disappeared. Then a cool breeze swirled past them, brushing gently by Sam's cheek, tousling his hair. It was almost unnoticeable, merely a hazy distortion to the cold air around them. Something was moving about them, sending shivers up their spines and goose bumps across their flesh. A ripple appeared in their vision, rather than an actual physical presence, and a transparent, slightly silvery tinged vapour funnelled itself into Dean's mouth.
Bobby gazed in awe. He scoured the dark skies for the other demonic essence. It lingered briefly above them, and then the black smoke dispersed into the night. He hoped the Devil's Trap would exile the demons from Dean's body, but he hoped, even more so, that it would, had, just allowed Dean's soul to return... And a few wayward demons would be worth Dean's life.
Sam gazed in stunned confusion at Dean's still lifeless form, not really sure he'd seen, or sensed, anything at all...
"Dean…" He sighed, as his hopes of getting his brother back alive slowly evaporated. Grief and heartache swelled up from within him and tears rolled freely down his cheeks, splashing across Dean's pale, still brow. Sam fisted Dean's jacket in his hands, as his hold about him tightened. "Please Dean…" he sobbed. "Please wake up."
Dean's head lolled about lifelessly, with no indication Bobby's ritual had brought about any inkling of a result. Dean was still dead…
"Dean, you have to…" Sam persisted. "Please Dean."
Dean's blinkless, lifeless gaze continued to peer back at Sam. Sam clutched him closer, wrapping his arms around his brother and willed life back into him. If Kalfu had been right about his abilities, then why couldn't he simply wish it to be so… Why couldn't he unleash the power?
But he knew why… Dean's very presence and unwavering belief in him persisted to the bone. Dean's belief was resolute: Sam was not, would never be, Hell's Prince. Even if Sam wasn't so sure…
"Please Dean…" Sam whispered into his ear. "I can't do this without you… I can't keep the darkness away… not without you!" He clutched him closer again. "Please… please…"
Dean suddenly gasped for breath and he began to gag and cough.
Sam and Bobby both gazed at Dean in awe as his face suddenly took on colour. Life and movement returned to his near-dead body. He hissed in fear and gasped in horror as his eyes blinked furiously and gazed about him in wild terror.
"NOOO…" He screamed breathlessly. Then as the pain of his injuries swamped his stunned body he arched back, groaning in agony and hissing with torment. He panted frantically, pushing away from Sam's tight embrace. Sam loosened his hold, instantly worried that he was causing his brother further pain and injury.
Dean lashed out at Sam, shoving him away in fright. Before either Sam or Bobby had the forethought to hold him down, Dean had leapt up and took off. He stumbled and hobbled, dragging his lacerated leg behind him in a desperate attempt to flee. Bobby and Sam took chase after him. He fought them off when they tried to restrain him, lashing out like a madman, with bloodied and lacerated limbs. Hesitant to scare him, or injure him further, the hunters tried to calm and reassure him, without physical contact.
"Dean… Dean… its ok… you're safe now…" Sam urged, hoping with every fibre of his soul this really was Dean. He hedged towards him, with his arms outstretched, corralling Dean towards Bobby.
"Calm down son…" Bobby pleaded. "Take it easy…"
However Dean was inconsolable. It was as if he saw only the demon's and creatures they hunted… or worse, his tormenters from the very pits of Hell itself. The severity of his injuries quickly stopped him. Although he valiantly fought the overwhelming haziness of impending unconsciousness, his ailing body succeeded in halting his escape. His leg trembled violently beneath him, until his knee buckled and succumbed to the gory wounds left in Kalfu's wake. Dean stumbled to the ground, clutching his mutilated arms about his fractured ribs, groaning with the excruciating agony as his collapse jarred his wounds. His breath gurgled and spluttered in his lungs, and blood erupted from his mouth with a fit of unrelenting coughing. Even so, he clambered across the ground, on knees and elbows, unable to raise himself to his feet, still trying to flee into the darkness of the night.
As Sam and Bobby gazed on in horror the lingering black demonic miasma that must have remained, hidden by night's cloak of darkness and hovering at the edge of the clearing, suddenly rammed itself down Dean's throat. The ailing hunter's eyes widened in further fear, as the smoke suffocated any attempt to force air into his traumatized lungs. He gasped in a long drawn out snatch for breath, then his eyes fluttered closed and silence and stillness befell the hunter again. He collapsed, face first, onto the harsh dried earth of the grave yard.
"Dean?" Sam urged, gently grasping Dean's upper arm. "Dean, please…" Sam rolled Dean over as he pleaded.
Neither hunter was sure if Dean had been possessed or had suddenly died at the hands of the suffocating demonic haze, or his injuries. He remained deathly still once more, as blood dribbled from his mouth with an ominous, pending doom…
Then he took a slow, calculated breath. When his eyes opened they revealed the oily black of the demon within. Demon!Dean smiled smugly as he gazed up at both Sam and Bobby in turn. The hunters cautiously staggered a few steps back.
"Get the hell outta him…" Sam demanded, his head spinning from the dizzying carousel of demonic possessions. "Exorcizo te, omnis spiritus immunde, in nomine Dei..." Sam began reciting, intent on exorcising this new demon from Dean's body.
"Relax Sammy…" Demon!Dean grinned, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "You exorcise me, and Deanie Boy dies. I can guarantee it."
"What?" Sam replied, hesitantly. "Who the hell?
"I'm crushed!" Demon!Dean feigned wounded pride. "Who else do you think would honestly want what's left of Dean's carcass? Kalfu sure left a freaking mess behind!"
"What?" Sam muttered as a glimmer of recognition prompted his reply. "… Ruby?"
"In the flesh." Ruby!Dean smiled mirthfully. "Well… in Dean's flesh! Or what's left of it."
"What the hell are you doing?" Sam demanded, ever more suspicious of the lying, devious demonic witch. "Get the freaking hell outta him!"
"Language Sam… You should be thanking me. At the moment, I'm keeping Dean alive." Ruby!Dean scoffed. "He's pretty... ripped up. Its like a slaughter house in here…"
"How do I even know it's you?" Sam demanded, now tenfold more suspicious.
"What, Sam? You want our secret handshake or something?" Ruby!Dean scoffed. "It's me! Your own fallen angel, remember?"
"And Dean?" Sam muttered, apparently accepting of her response. "Is he?"
"Oh yeah!" Ruby!Dean raised her brows in confirmation. "It's Dean in here…"
"But, how the hell did you…" Bobby stammered as he tried to assess just how she had escaped. "…get out?"
"What? Out of Hell?" She smirked victoriously. "I'm getting to be quite the expert, aren't I? Besides, I figured you'd try, sooner or later, to summon Dean out." Ruby!Dean replied. "I just made sure I stuck real close by. When I heard you begin the ritual, I sank my claws in… and hung on for dear… life!"
"Any others manage to get out too?" Bobby muttered cautiously. "Of the Gate?"
"No." She quipped back in expectation. "Nothing else got out. That rock salt kept them in, just lucky you broke the line though, or…" She paused and smiled, hesitating to reveal if Bobby's rock salt would have prevented Dean's escape as well. It seemed she was still intent on keeping some secrets to herself.
"If you think I'm gonna let you possess my brother…" Sam began to object. Dean would have his guts if he let Ruby maintain possession of him; he'd already made that quite clear.
"Fine, I'll leave; plenty of perfectly healthy, living hosts out there… hey Bobby?" She taunted them. "But Dean's dying Sam, I'd give him a few more minutes, a half hour tops, without medical attention… how far is it to the nearest hospital?"
Even Sam had to concede, Dean was in bad shape. "He can't…" Sam muttered despondently.
"Look, he's gonna die." Ruby!Dean reiterated. "I can keep him alive until you get him to a hospital. Trust me, its no bed of roses in here; I'm not staying any longer than I have to!"
"Ok, we'd better get going then." Bobby urged Sam to help Ruby!Dean to his feet. "Get you outta him as soon as we can!"
"Fine, gives me a better chance to find me a whole new look…" Ruby!Dean smiled mischievously. "I wonder what a pretty little nurse would be like…"
They made their way back to the Impala. Bobby drove whilst Sam sat with Ruby!Dean in the back seat. He tried to stem the bleeding, however Ruby slapped his probing hands away, reassuring him that whilst she possessed Dean, he could not bleed out.
"He's not getting any worse whilst I'm in him. Hell, you know I can heal him if I want to." She snapped with annoyance. "Of course, he'd start to die as soon as I leave… And I should probably warn you, he's a little… frazzled… right now."
"He's what?" Sam queried.
"He's freaking out… Big Time!" Ruby!Dean clarified. "He's all technicoloured Lunitunes!"
"He'll be… he'll be just fine!" Sam snapped back… he had to be.
"I don't think so, Sammy…" Ruby!Dean sighed. "He's bouncin' around in here like a freaking lunatic! Hell has a way of doing that to you. Without Kalfu there, his soul was pretty much up for grabs, and believe me the man has a few enemies down there, hankerin' for a piece of him. There's no subtle initiation into hell, no guided tour, with a brochure and convenient rest stops. And you don't want to know what the souvenirs are like!"
"No way." Sam snapped back. "Dean's tough, he's faced your kind of monsters and demons all his life. He can tackle Hell and as many demons they can toss at him for a few weeks…"
"Oh Sammy, Sammy, Sammy." She scoffed haughtily. "You really have no idea, do you? Time is a relative concept Sam. There are no days or nights in Hell, therefore there are no weeks, or months or years. It just is, for all eternity. And it is constant and unyielding; no weekends, no holidays, no coffee breaks, absolutely no reprieve… And trust me 10 minutes in Hell, compared to up here, is more of Hell's eternity than anyone can handle, before it would completely fuck anyone over. And if you think Dean was overlooked in any manner down there, think again. They were lining up to have a go at him… actually they were fighting each other, tooth and nail, just to get at him!"
"So how the hell did you get close enough …" Sam demanded, "… to sink your claws into him?"
"Well Sam, you took your time getting him out. At least it was a loooong time down there." Ruby!Dean smirked accusingly. "And in the thick of it, what's one more demon, more or less?"
"You were one of them?" Sam arced up. "So you had your petty revenge too?"
"Oh, Sam… I just stayed close…" She defended herself. "Wasn't much left of him but table scraps anyways…"
"Dean's tougher than you think…" Sam retorted swiftly.
"Trust me, there's not much left of your brother! Dean, the brother you remember… is gone." She seemed sadistically amused by her blunt statement. "All tortured and tormented, the fires of hell themselves, will have burned away any remaining traces of him. After that, if anything was left, it would have been hacked off him in chunks, until his soul was gnawed clean of him."
"NO! He's strong..." Sam gulped nervously; he simply couldn't comprehend anything bettering his brother. Sam was reluctant to admit it, but Dean had always been something akin to a super hero to him. He just had to be ok... he had to be invincible.
"Sam you have to face facts..." She sighed.
Sam began to prod at Dean's thigh, frowning with concern at the massive blood loss.
"Will you stop being so Nancy about this?" Ruby!Dean exclaimed, shoving Sam's probing hand away from the gory, hacked and torn, gunshot wound. "You know I can keep him alive! Although I'm not so sure you're gonna like what you get back…" She grinned with Dean's expression of 'I'm telling you now; I told you so!'
"Dean's tough!" Sam snapped back, determined to champion Dean's strength over adversary. "I've seen him face things worse than Hell!"
"No he hasn't." She sighed. "You could never comprehend it, Sam. You could never understand. There is just no way to describe Hell."
"Why don't you try?" Sam urged. "Tell me..."
"Fine, I'll try, but it's like trying to explain colours to a blind man! And… you probably won't want to know." Ruby!Dean replied with hesitation, knowing that she would be revealing far more to him about herself, than she was completely comfortable with. But then, maybe it would bring him closer into her confidence... "Mostly there's burning, like acid in your veins, and smouldering embers in your guts; burning to your very core. So hot and blistering you could swear you can feel your flesh being seared from your bones… Don't get me wrong, there is no real physical pain. Your body's dead, buried and rotting away six feet under… maggots an' all… topside. That kind of pain, pain of the flesh, doesn't exist in Hell. It's really your soul being tortured; even so, you can still smell the rancid, putrid smell of rotting, burning flesh.
And there's still pain. P.A.I.N. Like nothing you've ever experienced before. And that's all there is: An all consuming pain of cremation, of floggings, and flaying. Of having your flesh ripped, in strips, from your body by claws, teeth and daggers… of your bones systematically being crushed and shattered, over and over… and yet there is no physical body to simply die and put an end to it. No blood, no breath, and no heartbeat to stop… nothing can end it.
And that's the real Hell, knowing it will never, ever end.
Some of them, the really consummate, adept torturers, they're a little more inventive, and sophisticated. They use your emotions against you: Talk about freaking mind games. They can play your every fear and horror repeatedly through your mind: Replaying every death or disaster, of every loved one, in a never ending midday matinee of anguish and sorrow, at least until you forget who they are… And eventually you do forget. Eventually you even forget who you are. That's when just being and pure existence is all that remains… no memories, or thoughts, no sensations.
Nothing but the pain and torment. Its just Hell: It is. And that's it. You just are.
When there's nothing left to hack away. And believe me, when I tell you, that it takes hundreds of years, until the only thing left is the pain, and suffering, and despair, and misery… and the hatred and loathing and the need for vengeance. Once every last ounce of humanity is eviscerated from the soul, and then maybe, after cowering in the deepest, darkest crevices of the foulest dungeon of horror and torture, the strongest may eventually crawl out. Only the thing that crawls out, to seek their own vengeance, has turned into the very thing that stripped them of their spirit, their character, their humanity and their soul over the centuries. Its how Demons are created, at least the kind that you generally find."
"So, Ruby... how did you survive?" Sam queried after some minutes, if she could, Dean could too. "Why aren't you like all the other demons?"
"I guess they didn't quite cleanse my soul… of all my humanity..." She grinned dubiously.
Sam remained silent and in awe.
"There's others?" Bobby interrupted. "Other kinds of demons?" He had taken note of her subtle insight.
"Yeah… the original… the true Fallen." She replied.
"Those cast out of Heaven?" Bobby clarified. He knew the story.
"Yeah, for their insolence and rebellion against God." She replied. "I think the story goes that there were 200 in all, cast out of Heaven, and made to roam the Earth until Judgement day. Only most have already been banished to Hell, mostly by the likes of hunters like you. And believe me, the 'Once were Angels' are by far the most powerful, vengeful and sadistic of all demons. It was, after all, their refusal to bow to the likes of mankind that got them all exiled in the first place! And they have no love for mere humans!"
"You mean like Lucifer?" Sam ventured to ask.
"Yeah, some say." She shrugged Dean's mauled shoulders.
"So you don't even know if he exists?" Sam queried.
"Oh, and I suppose you have coffee and cake with God every other Tuesday?" She retorted with irritation. "At least I know for sure Hell exists!"
"Ok, point taken." Sam conceded. "But… how… you can, like, you have demonic powers. You know things and… I mean, how does that happen?"
"Evil has a way of rubbing off. It's what remains of those who touch you." Ruby!Dean tried to explain. "When evil touches you, to your very soul… it sticks, and it eventually fills you. It's what replaces your humanity. And with the evil comes the powers, the abilities… all passed on from the original Fallen… from God's own Angels!"
"That's why demons are so powerful?" Bobby remarked. He'd always had his own theories. "Demonic powers are somehow transferred…"
"Some more powerful than others…" She smirked. "And trust me, if you hadn't sprung Dean from the pit… once they were eventually through with him, with the powerful echelon of demons after a piece of his soul… he'd probably have end up being one of the most powerful yet."
"So it just keeps getting worse…" Bobby muttered. "Demons creating even more demons…"
"I guess it's the Fallens' only real vengeance on God himself." Ruby!Dean grinned. "First, tormenting God's own creations and then turning his prodigies, those made in hGod' own image, into that which he had cast away as rebellious and disobedient. Ironic really."
"Great! Why the hel…" Sam faltered briefly. "Why doesn't the Big Guy level the playing field?" Sam snapped with irritation. "I mean, how does he… how does God… expect us to fight this? Surely he could do something?"
"Maybe Hedoesn't exist?" She taunted him.
"If Hell exists, and Lucifer… then so does God!" Sam stated unequivocally.
"So, then… what makes you think he hasn't sent his own?" She frowned; surprised Sam hadn't considered there to be God's own... "I mean there are… beings out there… very powerful beings… doing 'the greater good'… aren't there?"
Sam peered at her with bewilderment. Surely she didn't mean he was… "Are there?"
"How, the hell, should I know?" She snapped grimacing with the pain Dean's wounds inflicted on her temporary sanctuary. "But there's always talk, about… the Avenging…"
"What? You mean, like, angels?" Sam scoffed. He was pretty sure now-a-days that Dean had that theory right; they simply didn't exist!
"Maybe." She smirked dubiously. "Or maybe they've all fallen… at least the Fallen get to have a little fun…"
Ruby groaned softly again. She frowned, diverting her attention to the blood gushing from the wound to Dean's thigh. Her babble, had distracted her, allowed the wounds to flare once more. And the wounds delivered by Hell's own were the worst by far. Every one was beginning to affect even the demon within. Ruby became aware of the startling fact: She was also beginning to yield to Hell's own inflictions… by proxy. She was succumbing to the hell hound wounds, to Devoratus's hellfire burn, and the lingering enchantment of the Colt's bullet. She wouldn't be able to maintain possession for much longer. "I think you better step on it." She muttered to Bobby. "Or there won't be much left of him to save. I can't fight Hells potency, or the Colt, for much longer."
"Nearly there..." Bobby replied, glancing at Dean's bloodied form in the back seat. "Can you hold on, we're about 10 minutes away?" He queried Ruby.
She nodded, wincing again with the pain that crept into her consciousness. Dean's panic-stricken screaming echoed through her ears, and his pain and his fears seeped into her own; mingling into a nauseating surge of overwhelming emotions. "Yeah… I can try." She tried to reassure the hunters, however slowly her eyes fluttered closed and Ruby!Dean slumped into Sam's arms.
"I sure hope so…" Bobby muttered to himself as he sped down the highway, glancing at Dean's lifeless body in the rear-view mirror as fear crept back into his waning optimism. His foot pressed harder upon the accelerator.
"Shit..." Sam muttered pressing upon the wound to Dean's thigh, as blood gurgled up through his fingers. He listened as his brother's lungs struggled and laboured for every breath, as they filled with blood. Ruby's assistance of artificial life support was steadily fading... and fast.
"Not far now Sam..." Bobby encouraged as he caught sight of a 'St. Anne's Hospital' sign. He estimated they were close. "Better cut his clothes up there Sam, docs might buy it if we say Dean got mauled by a pack of wild dogs, but they're likely gonna wonder how he got so savaged without a single tear in his clothes…"
oooOOOooo
The extracts of the Rituale RomanumI have quoted come from a version I found on the internet, and I ad-libbed the summoning rite. I have no knowledge of Latin, or exorcisms at all, so please forgive me any inaccuracies…
I hope you have enjoyed my tale so far.