Author's Note
So in case you couldn't tell by the first sentence of this story, there's going to be a little bit of language. If you don't like seeing that kind of thing, then this might be a good time to find another story to read- Ella tends to get very… creative with her insults. (AKA this is what happens when you let me watch Archer)
Okay, now that I've gotten that warning out of the way, I hope you enjoy the story, and don't be afraid to review- I'm always looking for feedback on how I could make the story better :)
"I TOLD YOU THIS SHIT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!" I screamed at Dean as he, Sam and I ran out of the warehouse to a symphony of blaring alarms. Turns out that real agents showed up about five minutes after we did, and managed to leave quietly- and then the alarms started. We got to a gated exit with barbed wire along the top, and Dean threw his jacket over the wire and climbed over the fence. Sam quickly followed him, leaving me on the other side of the fence. I swore loudly, grabbed the two sides of the slit in my skirt, and ripped the skirt up to my thigh before hurling myself over the fence and landing hard on the other side. I looked up at Sam and Dean, who were staring at me in shock.
"Uh…. Ella, that was…." Sam stuttered.
"AWESOME!" Dean yelled, giving me a high five before tearing towards the car. Rolling my eyes, I sprinted after him, Sam right behind me. We threw ourselves into the car and peeled out of the lot, and once we were safely on the road back to the airport hangar, I leaned forward so Sam and Dean could hear me over the music.
"I swear to God, if anyone ever puts me in a skirt to go undercover EVER AGAIN, I am going to KILL THEM!" I hissed. The two boys were silent for a moment before cracking up, and I tried my best to be stoic but gave up, and we spent the next five minutes howling with laughter.
By the time we got back to the hangar, I had put my jeans back on and thrown the jacket at Sam's head, and I felt much more like myself. I took my hair out of the tight ponytail it was in and shook my head, and my hair fell around my face in its usual wild curls. We stepped out of the car and made our way to Jerry's office, and he greeted us brightly. We handed him the bag of yellow dust from the emergency door handle and he grabbed a microscope to get a closer look. After a few minutes, he spoke up.
"Huh. This stuff is covered in sulfur."
"Are you sure?" Sam asked, looking at the monitor where the slide was replicated from the microscope.
"Take a look for yourself," Jerry said, standing up and stepping away from the table. Suddenly, we heard loud banging noises coming from outside the office, followed by a loud string of swear words. Jerry sighed.
"If you guys would excuse me, I have an idiot to fire."
He stepped out of the room, and I walked over to the microscope to get a better look.
"So what are we thinking?" I asked, turning to face Sam and Dean.
"Demonic possession?" Sam suggested, and Dean turned to him and nodded,.
"It would explain how a mortal man would have the strength to open up an emergency hatch."
"Yeah, but something seems off. We've seen demons possess people before, but using them to take down a plane? Have you guys ever heard of anything like this?" I asked, spinning the chair away from the table to face them.
"Never," Dean answered, and Sam shook his head.
"Well, I guess it's research time," I sighed, and both boys nodded before we said goodbye to Jerry and headed back to the hotel.
Once we got back, we started our research. Sam sat at the table with his laptop, Dean was sprawled across one of the beds with a book, and I was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a heavy book in my lap and my laptop next to me.
"So, every religion in every world culture has the concept of demons and demonic possession, right? I mean, Christian, Native American, Hindu- you name it," Sam asked, looking up at Dean.
"Yeah, but none of them describe anything like this," Dean answered, closing his book and raking his hand through his hair.
"Not exactly, but listen to this- according to Japanese beliefs, certain demons cause certain disasters. There's one that causes earthquakes, ones that cause disease.." I said, looking up at the two brothers.
"And this one causes plane crashes?" Dean questioned, getting up from the bed to walk around the room. "All right, so, what- we have a demon that's evolved with the times and found a way to ratchet up the body count?"
"Possibly- this might not be its first rodeo," I said, and Dean snorted and turned away.
"What?" Sam asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.
"I don't know, guys. This isn't our normal gig. I mean, demons, they don't want anything- just death and destruction for its own sake. This is big." Dean hesitated before continuing. "And I wish Dad was here."
"Yeah. Me too," Sam chimed in, smiling weakly. Then, seemingly remembering something, he turned to me and opened his mouth.
"Hey El?"
"Yeah, Sammy?" I asked, looking up at him. He slid to the ground from his chair so that he sat in front of me, and hesitated for a second before continuing to speak.
"I asked Dean something earlier, and he told me to ask you… Why was he so worried about you going into that psych hospital?"
My heart sunk. I hoped that he had forgotten about that, but I should have known better- Sam wasn't exactly the unobservant type. I looked down at my lap for a moment before I responded.
"Sam…"
Dean came and sat on the floor next to me and reached out for my hand, and I turned to look at him.
"Listen, El- you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he said quietly, but I shook my head and managed a smile.
"I'll be fine, Dean. He needs to know." I squeezed Dean's hand and turned back to Sam, who was anxiously waiting for my response.
"After you left for college, things got bad. John went on hunt after hunt, leaving me and sometimes Dean in motels for weeks at a time. Dean tried to stay with me whenever he could, but your Dad wasn't exactly easy to reason with," I said, and Sam nodded his head in agreement before waiting for me to continue.
"Anyway, one day, Dean and John went on a hunt in Texas- a demon was wreaking havoc on a small town. I wanted to come so badly, but John said no. They were gone for two weeks- Dean called when he could, but the calls became less and less frequent. And then they stopped." I paused to catch my breath, and Dean put his arm around my shoulder, sensing I was getting overwhelmed. I smiled at him gratefully before taking a deep breath and continuing.
"I stopped sleeping. I waited by the door all night, hoping that they would stumble in at midnight. I did this for a few nights, but on the last night, things changed. The lights kept flickering, and I started to hear whispering in the walls. And then the power went out. That's when the panic attack started," I said, my voice breaking. Dean pulled me closer to him and I leaned into his shoulder, not daring to look at Sam.
"I couldn't breathe- I was gasping and clutching my chest, fighting for air, and screaming for someone to help me. I crawled to a corner and spread a circle of salt around me, and grabbed the knife that Dean had left under his pillow." The tears started falling down my face, but I kept talking.
"That's how the police found me. Someone had called them when they heard me screaming, and when they came in… they took one look at me and called the paramedics. They sedated me, and I woke up the next morning in a hospital bed with restraints around my arms. The doctors told me I was suffering from a psychotic break caused by lack of sleep- the flickering lights and whispers were just hallucinations. They tried to ask me questions, but I refused to say anything- I knew they wouldn't believe me." I finally broke down, and Dean pulled me into a hug and let me cry on his shoulder while he rested his chin on my head.
"They sent you to a psych hospital, didn't they?" Sam said quietly, and Dean nodded.
"She stayed there for a week before she started talking again. The first thing she said was my name and cell phone number, and the hospital called me. I came and got her and took her back to the motel." Dean continued for me.
"Then we moved on, and everything went back to normal- but every time I enter a hospital, it feels like I'm back there- that's why I was so out of it when we went to see Max," I finished, and finally managed to look up at Sam. He looked stunned, and was speechless for a minute before scooting over to me and wrapping me up in a hug. I started crying all over again, but Sam just hugged me until the tears had stopped. Then he brushed my hair out of my face and looked me in the eyes before opening his mouth to speak.
"El, I'm so sorry that happened to you… I wish I had been there to protect you," he said quietly, and started to say something else before I cut him off.
"It wasn't your fault, Sam. It wasn't anybody's fault."
"How did you keep hunting?" he asked, looking at me in amazement. I laughed, remembering what Dean had done.
"Well, Dean told me that someone needed to keep his ass out of trouble, and taught me how to throw knives," I said, and Dean smiled at the memory.
We all laughed, but were interrupted when Dean's phone rang. He reached for it and answered the call.
"Oh, hey, Jerry," he said, before putting the phone on ground between all of us and putting him on speaker.
"My pilot friend, Chuck Lambert is dead."
We all froze, before I managed to speak up.
"Oh my God… Jerry, I'm so sorry. What happened?"
"He and his buddy went up in a small twin about an hour ago. The plane went down about sixty miles west of here, near Nazareth."
"I'll try to ignore the irony in that," Dean responded, and I reached out to smack him.
"I'm sorry?"
"Nice work, jackass," I hissed, going to smack him again. This time, though, he managed to dodge my hand.
"Nothing. Jerry, hang in there, all right? We'll catch up with you soon," Dean said before hanging up. I sighed, and grabbed my bag before hopping to my feet. The two brother quickly followed.
"Well, I guess we're going to Nazareth," I said, and started towards the car. "I call shotgun!"