Chapter Two
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Dean was totally immersed in the old western he was watching on Bobby's antediluvian television set, his booted feet plonked comfortably down
on the low table, chewing blissfully on the pop-corn and liquorice that the older man had stocked up on from his shopping trip into Sioux Falls
earlier in the day; therefore when his phone trilled right at the apex of the big shoot-out, he studiously tried to ignore it.
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He sighed in frustration as the damn thing kept on ringing and he grudgingly pulled himself up and went to retrieve it from Bobby's desk
where he had thrown it earlier. He put it to his ear, eyes still on the TV screen.
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A young female voice addressed him. "Mr. Winchester? It's Claire."
Dean was momentarily baffled. He'd met more than one girl with that name on his travels but when she added her surname into the mix,
he had no trouble in recalling exactly who she was. Claire Novak, Jimmy's daughter, but why would she be calling him?
Something must be wrong.
Castiel! His blood ran cold, maybe he had harmed the mother and daughter in some way.
Cas had gone off the deep end recently with all this Purgatory business, and who was to say what went through his head now,
not that it had ever been easy to interpret exactly what was going on in the emotionless angel's mind.
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"Where did you get my number?" he asked. "My mom had it in her phone, Mr. Winchester," her voice was shaking.
"There's something not right with my mom, she's different! I'm scared she's been taken over by one of those awful things that tried to kill us before.
She's acting really strange and I'm frightened to stay in the house."
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"Listen, Claire, is there nowhere you can go, a friend, a school, a relative or something?"
"We've just moved here and I don't really know anybody yet. Can you not come down and check out my mom or something.
I've been having terrible nightmares since…well…since Dad; since everything that happened with Dad, you know…"
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Yeah, Dean did know and he felt sympathy for the poor girl.
"Where are you calling from, Claire? "he asked.
"We moved to Minneapolis."
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Not too far from here, mused Dean.
"Listen, go back home, act normally and go to your room. Even if there is something different about your mom,
if she was going to harm you she would have already done it, so I think you'll be okay for tonight.
Send me you address and we can be there for tomorrow morning."
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"Thank you so much and please, please hurry."
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He closed the communication just as Sam and Bobby entered the room. They had both been down in the Panic room going over the notes
that Bobby had transcribed. It seemed that Purgatory was filled with the most variegated bunch of monsters you could think of.
All the creatures that had once been human and so in possession of a soul had finished up there; vampires, shape-shifters, wendigos,
rugarues, skin-walkers and certain types of ghosts; just to name a few.
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According to Eleanor the souls remained in Purgatory, although very rarely, millennia rarely, there would be a tribune set up to judge souls
that were meritorious of ascending to Heaven, or too evil even for Purgatory and so sent down to Hell.
Usually only two or three of these monster souls were ever moved out of Purgatory at a time, either Up or Down, although she had never been
witness to this herself.
She had also told Bobby where the passageway was situated. She had stumbled across it accidentally, without even knowing what she had discovered.
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"Was that the phone, Dean? Anyone I know?" Sam asked curiously, as Dean slipped it into his jean's pocket.
"Dean braced himself."You remember Claire, Sammy?"
He saw the blank look in Sam's eyes which he knew would quickly change when he added her surname. "Claire…?"
"Novak," Dean specified.
"Novak, as in Cas…?"
"The very one," nodded Dean.
"And she wanted?" Sam's voice was hard. Anything that had to do with Cas wasn't on his happy list at the moment.
"She says that something may be wrong with her mother, supernatural wrong; possession maybe," Dean shrugged.
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"No, Dean," Sam almost yelled. "We are not going anywhere near the Novak family. This could be a trap or something. No way, man!"
"Calm down, Sam. I'm not stupid."
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Sam breathed again. He was afraid that his impulsive brother would jump into the Impala and go off to rescue this latest damsel in distress.
"Fine, then we'll ignore the call," Sam declared with finality, waiting for Dean to agree; agreement that was not forth-coming.
"Dean?"
"I've been thinking, Sammy," he began.
"No, no, no, dude," Sam interrupted knowing that whatever his brother was going to say would not sit well with him.
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"Listen, we've been hiding away here for more than three weeks now but we can't continue for ever;
we're gonna have to leave sooner or later, or are you intending that we bury ourselves in here forever, even assuming that
Bobby would let us," he finished off."
Bobby kept quiet. He knew better than to get between the Winchesters when they were gonna have it out with one another.
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Sam looked away from his brother and sighed heavily. Dean was right, they couldn't hide away for ever but the alternative was worse.
They had been lucky twice but if it happened again…..!
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Dean stayed silent giving Sam time to time to think things through, knowing that his brother's logical mind would come to the right conclusions.
He sighed again. "You're right; Dean, but we can't make ourselves easy prey for Crowley and Cas either."
Dean smiled. "Well, Sammy. We'll just have to come up with a plan. We're stronger now anyway.
I've got my angel mojo going and your demon banishing powers are as strong as ever. We're not as defenceless as we once were," he smirked.
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This little speech only earned him an adequate bitched expression from Sam.
"Yeah, the most your angel power can do is to shatter rocks; you would be great in a quarry, and I can take out only one demon at a time,
not an entire army all at once!"
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"I think we should go and see what Claire wants; if she's telling the truth, we'll give her a hand and if it's a trap of some kind, we'll at least go in prepared.
The angels can't track us because of the sigils on our ribs and we've covered the Impala with anti-angel wards, so we're safe enough inside her.
So, what do you say, Bro?"
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§ I don't know who's the bigger fool here Dean. You, for suggesting we walk into a potential trap or me for going along with it. §
§ That's my boy, Sammy. I know you always respond well to my logic. §
Dean chuckled at the exasperated expression on his sibling's face.
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And so it was that a few hours later the Impala with its two passengers set out for Minneapolis, wondering just what they were driving into.
They parked at the end of the street that Claire had given as her address. It was a typical middle class suburban area.
At seven in the morning all was still relatively quiet and Sam dozed restlessly in the passenger seat as Dean controlled the area with his binoculars.
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The ring-tone of Dean's phone brought Sam to full awareness, as his brother answered the call.
"Claire, yeah, we're down the street from your house. You come out to us. "
The brothers exchanged looks.
"Dean, I've got a really bad feeling about this," Sam's worried eyes met his brother's.
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A rap on the passenger window took his attention away from Dean. Sam slowly rolled down the window as the girl started to thank them for coming.
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Dean opened the door and exited the Impala just as Sam yelled at him to get back in, for he had felt something off with the girl, but it was too late
as two demons appeared, latched on to Dean and disappeared into thin air.
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He heard his brother's voice in his mind.
§ You were right all along, Sammy. §
Sam blocked it out. He was sure that Dean wouldn't be harmed, at least for the moment, or they would have just killed him on the spot.
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"Sam," the voice coming from the young girl's throat, had changed timbre and Sam had no problem in recognising it. "Cas," was all he said.
The angel couldn't take him, for he couldn't enter the car because of the wards.
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"Sam, I am sorry that it had to come to this. You are both my friends, but you have to see that my goal is for the good of all, Raphael must…... !
Sam had had enough! "Screw you Cas! I'm fed up with your bleating. Give me back my brother. It's a good job you have a "special bond" with him
for if you didn't, I'd hate to see what you'd do to him!
Let me guess, you want my soul and you'll give him back unharmed! How much time do I have?"
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"I will give you a reasonable time to think about it. One week, no longer. Rest assured Dean will be unharmed.
He will still love you even without your soul. Sam."
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"Know this Cas, if you hurt one hair of his head, soul or no soul, god or no god, you won't live to enjoy it."
Cas looked into Sam's eyes and he felt a chill run down his spine at the fierceness in their depths.
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"I will see you here in one week. I'll give you back Dean and you will surrender your soul voluntarily."
And he disappeared leaving Sam to re-open the link and reach out to his brother.
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§ Dean, are you alright? Where have they taken you? §
Sam didn't bother to hide his concern and his panic for the fate of his brother.
§ I'm in Hell Sam. § His brother's tense voice came back through the link.
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XXXX TBC XXXX
I hope that no glaring grammatical mistakes have slipped through.
Thanks to al those who reviewed. :)