Chapter 12
As it turned out, the reason Bobby went downstairs was to let John and Dean know that the library was set up for them.
Not wanting to waste any more time, John turned the latch and released Sam from his iron prison so he could join them upstairs. Sam had eyed his father warily before leaving the panic room. He didn't seem to trust himself anymore as his sobs had silenced and became silent flowing tears.
Seeing the look of pure desperation on Sam's face, Dean stepped in reassuring his little brother that he wouldn't let anything happen to him while he was upstairs and that everything would be alright as soon as this demon told them everything they needed to know.
Sam scoffed silently; it wasn't himself he was worried about if they let him out.
Hesitantly, Sam finally stepped into the basement and the men stomped up the stairs into the main house. John bringing up the rear closed the basement door behind him once they all reached the kitchen.
Once gathered in the kitchen, Dean grabbed his fathers' sleeve as he was about to walk into the library to start the summoning. John looked back at his son with annoyed curiosity, but didn't bother to speak.
That's when Dean handed his father the note that he had found with the girls' head. John grabbed the note from his sons' hands and his eyes scanned the paper quickly. He paused for a moment as he lifted his head, his face a mask of emptiness, and then he lowered his head and read the note over again.
"I'm gonna kill him next time." John swore under his breath angrily.
"Now hold on a sec, John." Bobby tried to reason, "I hate that son-of-a-bitch too, but he's still human."
"I don't care!" John snapped, "He came after my family, not once but twice! He's dead meat."
"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Sam wondered aloud as he wiped his nose with his sleeve.
"We were right, Sam. It was Gordon who came after you the other day." Dean told his brother truthfully.
"Me in particular?" Sam asked sounding slightly surprised, "Does he know about the curse?"
John and Dean exchanged pointed looks before turning back to Sam and nodding in unison.
John then held up the note in his hand as his angry eyes peered at his youngest son. "And telling from this note, it looks like Gordon was here tonight too…"
His voice trailed off as he swallowed the lump in his throat, finding it rather difficult to give Sam any more bad news.
"And…?" Sam asked, getting impatient.
"The dead body out there…it was the girl you -" Dean interjected before his voice failed him too.
"It was Kelly?" Sam asked sounding surprised, "Was she cursed?"
Again, John and Dean looked at each other hoping one or the other would be the one to break the news to Sam. He already had one bombshell dropped on him tonight. They weren't sure how he would take this. So John and Dean looked back at Sam, and nodded solemnly.
More tears sprang to Sam's eyes as he nodded to himself slowly.
"I examined her body myself before torching it." Dean said in a hoarse emotional voice, "She had claws…and Gordon's note said that she killed her boyfriend."
The truth was, Sam didn't know Kelly all that well. It sucked that she had died, it truly did. But he wasn't upset because he became attached. He wept because he had taken some innocent girl, and cursed her…for nothing. It was his fault she was dead – it was his fault her boyfriend was dead. And Sam hadn't even known she had a boyfriend!
Seeing the hopeless look on Sam's face as more tears fell from his dark golden eyes, Bobby was filled with a hard determination. He grabbed Sam's shoulder, causing the kid to look at him sadly. Truthfully, Bobby's heart wanted to break then and there from that look – it was as if the weight of the world had once rested on his shoulders…and then let it down. He looked that desperate.
Bobby swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat forcefully before speaking. "Come on. Let's go summon this demon, and try and fix this."
Sam looked over at Dean and his father for a reassuring look, but found John's face a blank canvas. His brother on the other hand wasn't looking back at him, but at Bobby and nodded curtly.
A little ray of hope shone through, as well as in inkling of terror. Maybe this demon could tell them how to fix what was happening to him, make him human. But then again…this is a demon – it also had the potential to make things much, much worse.
xXx
John and Dean Winchester stood shoulder to shoulder in Bobby's library, both with their arms crossed over their chests as they stared down at the chalk-drawn symbol on the hardwood floor. Sam sat in Bobby's chair that was usually behind the desk but was now stuck in the corner of the room, while the desk was moved to the wall to make more room for the Devil's Trap and everyone that would want to take turns at interrogating this demon.
Bobby on the other hand stood just outside the Devil's Trap which was drawn on the ceiling, directly in front of the roaring fireplace – which was the only light in the room. In his hand was a piece of paper with Latin scribbled sloppily on it; he held his hands at his sides and his eyes scanned the room warily once he had ceased reciting the words on the paper.
It had only been a minute, but so far nothing had happened.
"Where is this son-of-a-bitch?" Dean asked impatiently with a long drawn out sigh.
"I dunno." John replied sounding a little disappointed, "Should we pack it up?"
"You wanna pack it up?" Sam asked with wide eyes, almost sounding alarmed as his claws dug into the arm of the chair.
"Yes. I think it's clear this bastard's not coming." John said with clear authority lacing each word.
Dean looked over at his father and nodded with a sigh. "Fine."
John rolled his eyes and bent down as he reached for the contents inside the symbol that was used for the demon summoning but paused before his hand grasped the stone-carved bowl when he heard the clicking of Dean's gun just beside him.
His head snapped up to see Dean pointing his .45 at his head with a cautious grin on his face. John raised his hands in surrender and widened his eyes at his son as he stood up straight.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" John demanded, clearly startled.
"You can stop pretending, now." Dean snapped, the pistol in his hands unwavering.
John looked past Dean and saw that Bobby and Sam also kept their eyes fixed on him. Bobby had dropped the paper in his hands, and folded his arms over his chest as he glared at John with clear amusement. Sam on the other hand had relaxed back into the chair as he took in deep calming breaths.
"Pretending?" John asked sounding alarmed, "What the hell are you talking about, Dean? Put the gun down!"
"Not likely." Dean spat as he grabbed his father by the sleeve of his jacket, and shoved him into the center of the Devil's Trap in front of the fireplace.
"What?" John asked giving a half-smile, "You think I'm possessed?"
"Oh we know you are." Dean replied confidently as he clicked the safety back on his pistol, and hid it from sight in his waistband, "See…my dad offered his body up just so we could get down to brass-tax without you hurting anyone. And trust me…you won't be."
At Dean's words, John's shoulders relaxed and his smile turned from a hostile one to a smug one as his blue eyes suddenly flashed black.
"Is that so?" The demon asked dangerously.
"Yea." Dean said with a smug smile of his own as he went to the corner where Sam sat, and gathered a white bucket that was filled with water. He stomped over to where he was standing before, and emptied the contents of the bucket on the creature that was in his fathers' skin.
Instantly, John screamed a bloodcurdling scream as his skin began to steam and blister harshly when the holy water touched his body.
"So…" The demon panted as it desperately tried to breathe, its beady black eyes trained on Sam, "I've been had, it seems."
No one said anything. Dean stood there at the ready holding the bucket in his hands still, while Sam kept his eyes fixed on the demon guardedly. Bobby on the other hand had gathered his leather-bound journal and kept it open to the demon exorcism page.
"Sammy…" The demon cooed, sending chills up Sam's spine. He hoped no one ever said his name like that ever again, "How ironic...you becoming something you hunt."
"That's so funny." Dean interjected as he lowered the bucket to the ground, "That's actually why we called you here."
"Oh, what a coincidence!" The demon said with obvious sarcasm.
"You're gonna tell us about the curse that Elizabeth Godrick put on her husband. You're gonna tell us how to fix this, and get him back to normal." Dean demanded, the humor now gone from his voice.
"Oh I am, am I?" The demon chuckled.
"You are." Dean replied bluntly, "Or we send you straight back to Hell."
"Is that the best you can do, boy?" The demon instigated with a daring smirk, "Where's your imagination?"
"You really want me to put my imagination into hurting you?" Dean asked with a mirthless chuckle, "I could…but I don't see any need for this to get nasty just yet."
"I could make it nasty." The demon inside John offered sounding almost alarmingly seductive.
Dean backed away a half-step with a look of alarm on his face. "Um…ew…no, thank you."
The demon backed off then and shrugged in humorous defeat. "Your loss."
"Enough fooling around!" Sam snapped as he rose to his feet, his wolf eyes fixed on the demon in his fathers' skin, "Tell us how to fix me."
At the sight of Sam in the light, the demon started actually laughing so hard that tears sprang to his eyes as he grasped at his stomach.
Bobby and Dean moved in at either of Sam's sides to back him up as the demon started to straighten himself up and compose himself.
"I-I'm sorry!" The demon cried as his laughter died into chuckles, "…I didn't realize h-how far along…you were in this already, Sammy."
Another chill crept up Sam's spine, but he bit down a growl as he kept his threatening gaze on the thing possessing his father.
Suddenly the demons composure completely changed from loose and giddy to threatening and serious. "It must be so hard for you…feeling that other thing in your head claw at your being every second of every day trying to take control. You can feel it, can't you? It's getting stronger…"
Sam gulped, but didn't reply. Dean looked at Sam's distress, and quickly stepped in.
"Enough! Tell us what we need to know, right now."
As emphasis, Bobby grabbed another bucket of holy water from the same corner Dean had gotten the other bucket. Only, Bobby put this bucket down instead of tossing it on the demon. He then went to the desk that was pushed against the wall, and retrieved an empty whiskey glass that he had been using as a paper weight.
With the glass in hand, Bobby walked over toward where he left the bucket, and dipped the glass into the bucket – filling the whiskey glass full of holy water.
"I'm not gonna ask you twice." Bobby said threateningly as he held the glass up so the demon could see. "Tell us how to fix Sam, right now…and you won't have to know what this feels like going down your throat."
The demon eyed Bobby warily, searching the older man for a bluff, and when he saw how serious Bobby was – the demon gulped.
"Fine." The demon ground out grudgingly.
"Good choice." Bobby remarked, still not faltering.
"None of you will be happy with it." The demon noted with a shadow of a smile creeping on his face, "It will be painful."
"Go on." Sam ordered angrily.
"Being a witch just on principal alone is a slippery one-way ticket to Hell." The demon explained, "From what I understand, when Elizabeth Godrick made the deal with the other demon…she sold her soul over to that demon in particular – and that's a big deal."
"How so?" Bobby egged on, seemingly interested.
"Think about it old man!" The demon continued with an eye-roll, "Having a regular human soul as your personal pet is one thing, but if you had a witch to torture and push to certain limits…it signifies ranks. Having a witch for you to convert gives you certain…Free Pass on some things."
"What kind of Free Pass?" Dean wondered aloud.
"You don't wanna know, Sport. Let's just leave it at that." The demon promised with a coy smirk, "So usually, we don't wait with witches to collect their souls if the opportunity springs up. But this demon gave the witch ten years just like anyone else, anyways…I don't know why; maybe the son-of-a-bitch was feeling sympathetic or something that day. But during the witch's last ten years she had a child with another man…as I've come to understand."
"She had a child?" Dean asked sounding surprised.
"Yes…a son who she named Jeremiah…after her late husband." The demon remarked with a giddy smile, "She then killed the father of her unborn child and left him to rot in the woods. Elizabeth then went and told her townspeople that she had conceived before her husband died, and they bought it – letting her live another day."
"What does that mean?" Dean wondered aloud.
"Back then, kid – if women went and had kids with no father they were accused of witchcraft, you moron." The demon replied with an eye-roll, "Anyways…she taught her son everything she knew about witchcraft. And from what I've heard, the kid was a chip off the old block. Sooo…long story short – Elizabeth was dragged to Hell, and Jeremiah was left to have kids of his own and so on and so forth."
"And…what does this have to do with helping Sam?" Bobby asked impatiently.
"Basically…he has to kill the one who cast the curse." The demon explained.
"You're serious?" Dean asked with disbelief, "That's it?"
"Not just kill the originator…but eat his heart. And you're actually quite lucky. Each line in the family has only ever had one son, so the last name stuck throughout the years."
"Seriously?" Sam asked suddenly alarmed. Why did this all seem way too easy to him? There had to be a catch…there always was.
"But there's a catch…" The demon continued with an excited smile plastered on his face, Sam stiffened but wasn't the least bit surprised, "The originators' only surviving heir…is only five years old."
Sam's eyes widened in terror and his breath held still in his chest. He couldn't bring himself to kill a child. He knew he couldn't do it.
"What's his name?" Dean asked harshly.
"Dean!" Sam argued, "I'm not gonna kill a kid!"
"You may not have a choice!" Dean snapped angrily.
Suddenly, before their attention could be turned back toward the demon – John's mouth opened wide and a loud scream was heard throughout the room as a large cloud of black smoke ejected itself from John's mouth toward the ceiling.
When the smoke was out of John Winchester, he crumbled to the ground in an unconscious heap as the demon fled through the fireplace and up the chimney, leaving the strong scent of sulfur in its wake.
"I can't kill a kid." Sam repeated as more tears glistened in his eyes.
"We'll talk it over once your dad gets up." Bobby promised sympathetically as he placed a gentle hand on Sam's tense shoulder.
Dread filtered through Sam's being at the thought of killing a child and eating his heart. He looked down at his blood-soaked shirt and thought of it as a childs' blood.
An awful shudder ripped through him at the thought…there was no argument though, Sam knew that he couldn't kill a child. Not even to save his life.
Oh man...am I terrible for leaving it off this way? Hmm...Haha. :D