"Run that by me again?" Bobby said, his brows furrowing. Sam was sitting in one of the chairs of Bobby's panic room, sipping at a beer. Oshea was kneeling by Ella, finishing bandaging the wound in her side. Sam sighed and looked up at Bobby.
"Ellen attacked us. She was blaming us for her dying… or, well… Dean, specifically." Sam explained. "Oh… and it was strange, she had this weird mark on her hand…"
Ella nodded. "Our brother had the same one on his wrist."
"What'd it look like?" Bobby asked.
Sam stood up with a grunt and walked over to the desk, grabbing a small notebook and sketching it out. When he was finished, he held it up to show the others and when they agreed that was what they saw, he gave it to Bobby. Bobby looked at the paper and frowned thoughtfully. "I think I've seen this before." He said, grabbing one of his books and flipping through before he stopped on one of the pages. "Oh, this isn't good."
"It never is," Sam said as he sat down heavily back in his seat.
"What is it, Bobby?" Oshea asked, standing up from her crouching position by her sister.
"The brand on the ghost, it's the Mark of the Witness," Bobby looked up from the paper.
"Witness?" Sam asked. "Witness to what?"
"The unnatural. None of 'em died what you'd call ordinary deaths. These ghosts were forced to rise… Some one rose 'em on purpose. Whoever it was used a spell so powerful that it left a mark, a brand on their souls," Bobby sighed before he continued. "It's called Rise of the Witness. It figures into an ancient prophecy. "
Dean stood up and walked over to him. "Wait, what book is that prophecy from?"
"Well the widely distributed one's just for tourists, ya know, but long story short… Revelations."
The four of them stared at Bobby a moment.
"This is a sign."
"A sign of what?" Dean and Sam both said.
"The apocalypse," Bobby finally said after a moment.
"Apocalypse? As in apocalypse apocalypse?" Dean repeated, arching a brow.
"No, a fake one, full of ponies and rainbows," Ella rolled her eyes.
Dean ignored her. "As in... Four Horsemen, Pestilence, five dollar a gallon gas apocalypse?"
"That's the one," Bobby nodded. "The Rise of the Witness is a mile marker.
"Okay, so how do you suggest we survive our friends out there?" Oshea said, glancing over to Bobby.
"Yeah, any ideas aside from staying in this room til judgment day?" Dean asked.
"There is a ritual. To send the witnesses back to rest, should work," Bobby replied.
"Should? Heh. Great," Sam muttered.
"If I translate it correctly. I think I got everything we need here at the house."
"Any chance you've got everything we need here in this room?" Ella asked hopefully.
"And you thought our luck was gonna start now all of a sudden?" Bobby rolled his eyes and stood up from the chair, the five of them gathering the books and cocking their weapons. "Spells gotta be cast over an open fire."
"Fireplace in the library?"
"Bingo."
Dean sighed. "This is not as appealing as a ghost proof panic room, you know?"
"Alright, we'll get you the things you need." Oshea said, cocking her shotgun as they started upstairs. Bobby nodded as he pulled the books off the desk and began to draw a circle and a five pointed star in the center with chalk.
"I'll go with you," Ella said, wincing a bit as she stood up from the couch.
Dean shook his head. "I'll go with her, you should stay here with Bobby and help set things up. You shouldn't be moving around much," he said, nodding towards her side.
Sam glanced to Ella, "I'll be back." He said before he cocked his weapon and stepped away, going into the kitchen and grabbing cans of salt. He came back to the room where Bobby was setting up with Ella. He opened one of the cans and began to spread it in a circle about the desk and the fireplace. Oshea moved quickly with Dean through the house, helping him to gather the items that Bobby had told them to get.
Ella stepped away from the circle and looked over it. "Bobby, you really think this is going to work?"
Bobby nodded. "Yeah, it should do the trick." He looked up, frowning deeply as two young girls appeared just outside of the circle, glaring at him. "Just stay inside the circle." He said, trying to ignore the flickering young girls. He grabbed a shotgun with rocksalt and tossed it to Ella.
Oshea rushed back toward the circle and carefully stepped over the ring of salt, giving Bobby the things she had gathered up. "Dean should be here with the rest soon."
Ella joined her sister and Bobby inside the circle. Dean walked into the room, a handful of items for the spell. "I think this is the rest of it," he said, laying the items next to a large copper bowl on the desk. Most of the things were different types of herbs and leaves.
Bobby nodded and began to mix the leaves and herbs together as Sam stepped in from another room and joined them in the circle. Bobby flipped open a book to the ritual. "Just keep the spirits busy while I read off the ritual."
Dean stepped in the circle, a double-barrel shotgun in hand.
"You let us die, Bobby," the two little girls said together. "You were right there, Bobby, and you couldn't save us."
Bobby was reading off the ritual when the girls began to speak to him. He glanced up briefly and watched the girls a moment before lowering his eyes again and trying to concentrate on the ritual. He stirred the bowl a little as he spoke. Oshea looked up at the girls and started to aim the gun toward them, but stopped when her brother reappeared. She turned the gun toward him.
"You let me die, Oshea… you should have stopped this… you should have stopped it."
The windows suddenly were thrown open and a harsh wind blew through them, the window panes crashing against the walls. The wind tugged at the salt forming the circle and scattered it.
Ella looked down at the salt line that was close to breaking, her eyes widening a bit as she shot at Christopher's flickering form.
"Bobby, could you speed this up a little bit?" Dean said, shouting over the sound of the wind howling through the windows.
"Doing my best." Bobby said between reading the words of the ritual. Oshea shivered as she watched her brother's form disappeared again and she turned her weapon on the girls, making to fire on them, but they were gone. Bobby gasped as the girls appeared on the other side of the broken circle and attacked him. "Dean! Throw it in the fire!" He said as his grip on the bowl of herbs and leaves started to fall out of his hand.
Dean tossed the shotgun he was holding to Ella, who quickly caught it, and he dived towards the ground, catching the bowl just in time. He quickly sat up and threw the bowl into the fire place. As soon as the ingredients hit the flames, a bright blue and white light exploded through the house, immediately destroying the spirits.
The light faded after a few moments, and the only people left in the room were Bobby, Ella, Dean, Oshea, and Sam. Ella gasped, looking around. "It actually worked."
Bobby looked over at her and spread out his arms. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, I mean, I'm just surpri- I mean…. who wants some pizza?"
Oshea lifted a hand as she sat down on the couch, lowering her weapon. "I could definitely go for some pizza."
Sam chuckled and nodded. "I'll second that."
"Will there be pie involved?" Dean piped up. "I love me some pie."