Chapter 6. Where the Heart Is
BOBBY'S P.O.V.
Marla rested her forehead on mine as I held her hands. "Bobby." She said in the pitch black darkness of my room, it was morning and the sun had already risen but we had drawn the curtains down to keep snug.
Before I continue I should tell you that before whenever she said my name I'd light up however now whenever she says it I die a little. It isn't that I'm not flattered that someone like her really does love me and loves me in this way, old. The thing is it breaks my heart knowing that I am old and she'll be young forever or for a long time.
"Yeah?" I asked as quiet as I could to maintain the sheltered quiet.
"Tell me about the night I left, again?" She said.
"You know what happened." I told her. "I hate talking about it, I told you."
"Please." She pressed. "I just need to know."
I began to tell her and I guess I did it a bit vaguely because she sat up with her confused smile. "Bobby, what's on your mind?" She asked.
"Remember that time you left?"
She nodded and settled back down and into my arms just under my chin. "That whole day, you said it'd be a week and thank God it wasn't but … I hated every moment of you not being there."
"Why?" She asked almost apathetically.
"The same reason you had to leave." I told her. "Because I loved you."
"Loved?" I could feel her coming closer, if that were possible.
"Love, I still do—"
"I know." She said. "I also know no one can replace me like you said before but I know you love someone else more."
"No!" I retorted quiet stupidly.
"It's okay, as long as you're happy." She said moving away again and sitting up. Marla didn't let me say anything after that she just walked away and peeked through the curtain; thin rays of sunlight hitting her bare sun kissed skin. "You have to get up." She said. "Your boys are here."
I gave a sigh and got up after she pulled my shirt over herself and walked out the room letting the door creak as it opened all the way. "If you need me, I'll be hiding in the panic room." She joked.
"When are you going to let me tell them?" I asked.
"As soon as I find out why they're here." She replied sounding further than she was only moments before.
I quickly got dressed and as if on cue Sam and Dean knocked on the door. "I'm coming!" I yelled.
Bobby opened the back door where Sam and Dean had come from. "Why are you two here?" Bobby asked.
"Sorry, it was an emergency." Dean said as he and Sam got in. Bobby closed the door behind them.
"Emergency?" Bobby echoed.
"It's Crowley," Sam said. "He said…" Sam looked at Dean for a moment.
"He said you were in danger." Dean said.
"Danger?" Bobby said. "From what?"
"He didn't say." Sam said. "But whatever it is we just want to make sure that we're here when you need us."
"Demons lie." Bobby said back. "What if this is one of Crowley's traps."
"You forget." Crowley's voice came. "I don't play that way."
"Son of a bitch." Bobby said. "Get out of my house!"
"Oh Bobby, how dare you?" Crowley said acting innocent. "May I remind you, you wouldn't be walking—or should I kiss you again to refresh your memory?"
There was a sudden noise coming from outside, sirens from Sheriff Mills' car. "That's Jodie." Bobby said and went out the front door as quickly as he could.
"Bobby!" Jodie said breathless. "There's something happening, people are killing each other… I don't know what's going on!"
There was a family in the back of Jodie's car, assumingly a mother and father and their son.
"Come on in." Bobby said.
"Let me just go and get them." Jodie said and quickly got them from behind the car, Bobby had already lain salt across the front door so it wouldn't be hard to find out if there was something wrong with them and for now there wasn't.
Dean glared at Crowley as the sound of footsteps filing in came to earshot. "What?" Crowley asked narrowing his eyes then smiling. "You think I'm doing this?"
"No, but I think you know what's doing this?"
"Why don't you pray for an answer… oh wait you don't do that anymore do you?" Crowley taunted. "What do you think it is, the Croatoan."
"What?" Sam hissed. "How?"
"On your way here, did it happen to rain?" Crowley asked already knowing the answer.
Bobby and the others walked into the kitchen where Sam, Dean and Crowley were. "Sam could you go get these people some sleeping bags, they might be staying the night."
Bobby looked over to Dean and then Crowley as if he had forgotten Crowley was even there. "Right, I should probably go."
"No!" The mother said. "They all—"
"—Gone crazy?" Crowley finished for her. "Thanks for the concern however I won't be staying long enough to be bothered about it." With that Crowley vanished.
"That son of a—" Dean cut himself off seeing the little boy. "He could have gotten us out of here."
"What, what'd he tell you?"
"The Croatoan."
"What?" Bobby hollered.
"How…?" the father began to say but Jodie cut him off.
"Stay here." She told them. He took himself and his family into the study where Sam had laid out the sleeping bags.
"What's going on?" She asked Bobby.
"Something not good." Bobby replied.
"We have to get these people into the panic room." Sam said once he got out from the study and out of earshot.
"NO!" Bobby suddenly said and received a distressed look from the three. "There was a rat in there, I'll just go and kill it." Bobby quickly went down into the basement where Marla had been, there was still fresh cigarette smoke in the air.
"Marla?" He whispered.
"I'm going." She said as she began to climb out.
"Marla, the Croatoan…!"
"I know what it is, I'm capable Bobby, I'll just sneak around and up into your room." She told him.
"Well be careful." Once Bobby said this the ladder fell down and hit the ground loudly.
"Sorry!" Marla said and quickened her pace as she got out. "I'll be right back." She said.
"Bobby?" Dean's voice called from the top of the basement stairs. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, just moving some things." Bobby said back.
"Alright."
Marla sealed the only escape route out and vanished.
"They're quarantined." Crowley said to Cas.
"Good." Cas said back. "Erase the rest of the people's memories once I've healed them and once we've got her cornered then I'll take it from there."
Crowley nodded and vanished again. Castiel had become more and more aware of what he was dealing with, a Ghost Rider.
A super human created by Lucifer himself. "That could be the downfall of any God, creating something so powerful, imaginative and infinite… human… they are flawed and almost always very pathetic but you and I both know, we all know up here and down there how much more valuable they are." Balthazar's voice echoed in his head.
Castiel thought back to that day a few days before he killed him. "Do they have a weakness?" Castiel asked him.
"Only one." Balthazar said. "Love."
Castiel thought of this for a moment and even then Balthazar continued. "Though, of course, Love can restore more than it can ever destroy, it's both a weakness and an advantage."
"Can it be used to defeat them?"
"No one's ever done it before." Balthazar replied leaning against the wall arch.
"What happens if you do?" Castiel said carefully. "I mean if ever we needed to put one 'to sleep' as they say."
"They pass it on to someone else, they can never really die."
"How can you prevent them from doing that?"
"You can't, they aren't the ones who choose who to give it to… in a way they are proof that we are souls with a body or they are souls with a body."
"Who does the choosing?" Castiel began to show his impatience with Balthazar's answers.
"Their creator." Balthazar said. "Only four angels can do that, our big brothers, Raph, Luci, Gabe and Mike."
Castiel's train of thought was interrupted with the sound of Alastiar.
"Cas." Alastiar said. "I've done what you've asked, I've brought her back."
"Good, now, kill Crowley."
"Yes." Alastiar said. "And also, thank you... for bringing me back."
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