Chapter 31
Later on, into the early hours of the morning, the hunters worked hurriedly and meticulously to find an exact Demon Summoning ritual. John Winchester would be the first to admit that summoning a demon twice in one week was stupid, but if it meant saving Sam, then he didn't care.
They sat in the library in silence, all trying to ignore the enraged animalistic howls coming from the basement which hadn't ceased since The Beast regained consciousness.
Dean hadn't spoken much since the news was given to him that there was still a chance to save his brother. He hadn't bothered to come up for air as he researched, either. His entire time was now entirely dedicated to finding a way to get this demon to Bobby's, and killing her. He was going to make this bitch pay deeply.
He had his nose buried in one of Bobby's older books, his arm supporting his head while his elbow rested on the desk. Dean shifted in his seat to get a bit more comfortable, which didn't go unnoticed by Bobby.
The elder hunter stood from his seat behind his desk in front of the fire place with a sigh as he paced casually into his kitchen.
Dean's eyes finally rose from the book, and tracked Bobby as he disappeared into the next room, before going back to his research.
A couple seconds later, Bobby came back into view with three bottles of beer in his hands. He headed toward the table where Dean sat, and placed a bottle next to the book in front of the younger hunter. Without looking up, Dean mumbled a quick 'thanks', before returning to his reading.
Bobby nodded silently before heading toward where John sat, in one of the chairs behind the table where Dean was. He handed John a beer without speaking, which John took seemingly thankful for the distraction.
John lowered the book to his lap, as he managed to open his bottle quickly. He tilted the neck of his bottle toward Bobby in a silent 'cheers' before putting his lips to the bottle and taking a long swig.
A couple minutes ago, a nasty thought niggled at the back of his mind. Realization had struck him as he tried desperately to find a proper demon summoning ritual, which caused him to pause for a moment.
There was only one bullet left in the Colt, and they hadn't yet killed the Yellow-Eyed Demon who had destroyed their family.
Would John really put that behind him, in order to save his son? He never brought the thought up in conversation, knowing how Bobby and Dean would react to the question because John knew the answer as well.
Of course he would use it to save Sam.
Mary was already gone, and John knew there was nothing he could do for her. She was the love of his life, and he would continue to love her until the day he finally died…but Sam was still alive (for all intents and purposes).
There was still a chance to save Sam with this bullet, and John was more than willing to take that chance.
They would just have to find some other way to kill the Yellow-Eyed Bastard.
"No luck, yet?" Bobby asked nonchalantly as he sipped at his own beer.
John shook his head gently as he rubbed at his temple, trying to relieve the migraine that had formed behind his eyes. He knew it was from the stress and all the research…and of course the Beast's constant howling wasn't helping matters either.
"How 'bout you, Dean?" Bobby asked, as he pulled his bottle away from his face.
"Nothin'." Dean mumbled without looking away from his book.
Bobby sighed before going back to his desk where his papers lay in askew piles, covering books and print-out pictures. Truthfully, it all looked like the scribbling of a mad man - but in ways, it did make sense. The elder hunter took up his seat, and continued looking through older texts.
Finally, after what seemed like forever – John came across something that should probably work. They had the demons name, so they could summon her specifically.
Relief flooded through John as he called his eldest son and his friend over to take a look at the ritual he had found.
Bobby wasted no time in looking it over carefully, his eyes scanning once, twice, and then one more time just to be certain.
Bobby turned his head toward Dean who now had his eyes fixed on the book Bobby had snatched from his father, and nodded.
"So we got it, then?" Dean asked, happily. It took every ounce of strength he had not to burst into tears of relief at that moment. Was this nightmare about to finally be over? Was he about to get his little brother back?
"Well, yeah…but - ", John began sounding hesitant before Dean cut him off.
"No! Come on, let's get to summoning!" Dean snapped impatiently as he rose from his chair with wide eyes trained on his father imploringly.
"We need a plan, Dean." John replied sounding much calmer than his son.
Dean sighed, and instantly tried to calm himself down. He rolled his eyes to himself, knowing that his father was right. They couldn't just go ahead and summon some demon with no plan.
"Fine." Dean mumbled his agreement below his breath, ready to listen to what his father had to say.
xXx
The Beast growled and roared as it paced its prison yet again! The humans had gotten the drop on him, and placed him back into the tiny room where it started from.
Deal be damned, The Beast thought to itself furiously. When it got out, it was going to rip Human-Family to pieces and bathe in their blood.
At that thought, the Beast felt a fearful tickle in the back of its mind. Its violent thoughts had awoken its Human-Side, and was scaring him. It could tell that Human-Side was wary about telling the Beast to stop because if he did, than that meant Human-Side broke the deal first – making his family fair game.
The Beast howled angrily at the iron door as it rammed its body into it repeatedly, trying desperately to get back into the open space. It wanted to feed; it needed the feel of warm blood on its face, and in its mouth.
After a moment, the Beast felt Human-Side slide back into a deep corner of its mind, which made the creature pause.
It hadn't tried to coax Human-Sam back into hiding; he had gone there on his own as he had before. Curiously, The Beast reached back to where Human-Side was hiding in their shared mind, only to feel the most intense pain the Beast had ever felt, causing it to flinch visibly.
It came back to its presence of self, definitely happier than it was just a moment before. Human-Sam was so tired, so drained; he had retreated into the deepest darkest corner of his mind to hide.
Human-Sam had given up, and all he wanted now was to just be released from the monsters mind so he could rest.
The Beast had broken him.
As these happy thoughts ran through the Beasts' head, it heard the basement door open – shortly followed by a stampede of heavy footfalls heading down the stairs.
Family reunion, the monster thought to itself grudgingly as it snarled at the door.
The sliding peephole opened, and on the other side of the door stood Human-Father, Human-Brother, and Human-Friends – both the man and the woman.
Upon seeing all of them looking back at the creature, it lifted its upper lip into an angry snarl as it charged at the heavy door again.
"Jeez!" The Human-Woman whispered in surprise as a loud 'BANG' resounded through the entire basement upon the Beast's impact with the door.
Ellen had never really seen Sam like this, but she knew what to expect. She had seen him when he was so far gone, but there was still a bit of Sam left in him…this thing..? This thing, she would have never have guessed had ever been Sam.
"Sammy…" Dean murmured brokenly as his shining green eyes looked down at the monster on the other side of the door, "I know you can hear me in there, kiddo – come on."
The Beast reared backwards away from the door, keeping its golden wild eyes on Human-Brother. It looked mirthful, and happy to notice that Human-Sam hadn't acknowledged his brother. But whether Human-Sam was ignoring the calls or just hadn't heard them, the Beast wasn't sure.
"I need you to hang on in there, Sammy." Human-father spoke up, sounding almost desperate. "We're gonna get you back, just…just promise me you'll be in one piece when we do."
The Beast grumbled, and turned its back to the Humans in a clearly irritated sort of fashion. Why couldn't they just accept that Human-Sam was dead for all intents and purposes?
When the Beast turned back toward the Humans, it noticed that Human-Man-Friend, and Human-Woman-Friend weren't standing there anymore. But it could smell them close by as well as hear them tinkering with knick-knacks on the other side of the door.
What were they up to? The Beast wondered with a growl.
Bobby and Ellen had knelt down on the other side of the door. Ellen started drawing on the cement floor with chalk, a circle to summon the demon in - as Bobby began filling a tiny clay bowl with a strange yellowish powder.
When Ellen was finished drawing the circle, Bobby placed the bowl in the center as Ellen withdrew a different assortment of herbs from her front pocket, and began placing them on certain points of the circle.
Moments later, the circle was complete and Bobby and Ellen got to their feet. Satisfied that it looked correct, John looked over at Dean who gave an encouraging nod before looking back into the room which contained the angry Beast.
Without further hesitation, John stepped beside the circle, and snatched a sharpened blade from his pocket quickly. He sighed deeply, clearing his thoughts – and then began to mutter a Latin chant over the circle.
Dean kept his eyes on his father warily, not knowing how long it would take for this demon to show up. But he was ready for her; she wasn't getting any older than tonight.
When John finished reciting the Latin call, he held up the blade and ran a deep slash through the palm of his hand – letting the blood run into the clay bowl full of powder.
Instantly, the bowl sparked up and sizzled as smoke began to rise from its contents. And just as quickly as it had started, it stopped…leaving behind a smell of rotten eggs.
Everyone was silent now as their eyes scanned the dark basement cautiously, all except for The Beast who had started growling again once it smelled John's blood after he cut into his palm.
Dean wished the Beast would quiet down, so he could listen for anything out of the ordinary. It was hard to keep his senses open with that persistent growling.
When suddenly, the growling was cut off with a tiny whimper, which definitely alerted all of the hunters. Everyone's eyes instantly averted toward the large iron door, and through the peephole to see The Beast looking as submissive as they've ever seen it. Its ears were plastered to its head, and its tail sunk between its legs as it slid to the ground.
Looking at it now, Dean thought it looked more dog-like than Beast-like.
"You called?" A strange female voice asked teasingly from behind the hunters.
Immediately, everyone turned around to face the demon who had taken over a young brunette, just barely out of her teen years. Her long hair cascaded over his shoulders, and stopped just short of her breasts. She wore an all black cocktail dress, bringing out her slender figure in the dark lighting.
When her eyes changed from bright blue to black, John knew he was right by calling her.
"You're Elizabeth Godrick?" John asked sounding as threatening as he could muster.
"I was." The demon replied with a slick smile, "Before I became something better."
"I want you to lift the curse you originally placed in Wisconsin." John demanded, no argument in his voice.
"That's cute, John…" Elizabeth snorted, seemingly amused, "But why would I do that?"
"If you don't, then I'll kill you." Dean interjected flatly.
Elizabeth laughed mirthfully, clearly in on some joke that they weren't. She then turned around, putting her back toward the hunters as if she were about to walk away.
But she was stopped. It was as if she ran smack into an electric fence without the pain, but with an overpowering force that wouldn't allow her to move.
Curious, the demon looked up at the ceiling and noticed that she was standing directly under a sloppily spray painted Devil's Trap, trapping her.
The demon turned around to face her captors, and immediately turned her black beady eyes toward Dean as she considered him for a quick moment, her eyes inspecting as she sucked on her bottom lip.
"You have The Colt." She said sounding interested, it wasn't a question.
"We have The Colt." John confirmed spitefully.
"Hm…what if I made you a deal..?" Elizabeth asked, obviously trying to squirm out of the hunters' grasp, "What do you say, you give me The Colt – and I'll let little Sammy go."
John looked over at Dean as if he were considering the offer, but Dean never looked away from the demon. He wanted her dead after all the pain she had caused Sam, after all the pain she caused their family. In his mind, this bitch was just a step under the Yellow-Eyed Demon.
"Come on, Dean…" Elizabeth said, sounding almost impatient, "You don't even know if killing me will lift the curse or not, so why even risk it? This way, you'll know Sam will go back to normal."
The Beast on the other side of the door picked that moment to resume its growls of anger and impatience.
Originally, the plan was for John to summon the demon and distract her with trying to coax her into releasing her hold on Sam…and when she was least expecting it, Dean would shoot her. John had entrusted the Colt in Dean's hands, and had instructed him not to miss.
At that moment, Dean couldn't explain it…but he suddenly just knew everything would be okay. Everything was going to be just fine.
Dean turned his eyes toward his father imploringly, to see John was looking back at Dean curiously.
Nodding to himself, and knowing this was the moment – Dean withdrew the Colt from his waistband, and in one swift movement, pulled back the hammer and aimed it at the demons' head.
With a loud protest from John, Dean immediately squeezed the trigger – and watched as the final bullet in The Colt embedded itself directly into Elizabeth Godrick's skull.
Hm...quite the cliffhanger, here. Haha.
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