Elizabethville, Ohio

Hilarie Galeotti brushed her fingers through her hair as she moved down the hallways of the Raven Hill Orphanage. A few young children scampered by her, and she chuckled, backing against the wall to allow them to pass. "No running in the hall!" She called good naturedly over her shoulder. Humming, she shook her head to herself as she found toys littering the edges of the hallway. "Addison, what have I told you about leaving your toys out here!" She bent at the waist and began to scoop them up. She coughed as she brought the limp rag doll and the stuffed bear to her chest. The coughing continued and she frowned as she felt pressure against her chest. She straightened, still holding the toys to her chest and continued toward Addison's room. She was about halfway there when she began to cough violently. The toys fell from her hands and clattered to the floor. She brought a hand to her chest and another toward her mouth, catching the blood and bile that was oozing from her lips. She groaned and dropped to her knees, shivering. Sweat beaded on her forehead and the color drained from her face as she looked down the hallway, seeing a child standing at the end of the hall, her brows furrowed. The child was wearing an old fashioned black, red and white plaid dress. Her hair was done in pigtails. Hilarie opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was blood and vomit. The child's form flickered then vanished as Hilarie finally fell still.

Boulder, Colorado

Two Days Later.

12:42 AM

The hotel room was quiet and moonlight was spilling through the thick curtains onto the queen beds that Sam, Ella, Dean and Oshea shared. The lights flickered and without a sound, a figure appeared in the midst of the room. Moving easily across the floor, he crossed over to the bed where Dean was sleeping. "Dean." He said lowly. He touched the pads of his index and middle finger lightly to Dean's forehead. "Wake up, Dean."

Dean's eyes opened instantly and he shot up in the bed. "Castiel… did you just use your angel powers to make me wake up?" He asked with a glare. "What do you want?"

"Yes," Castiel said calmly, unphased by Dean's obvious annoyance. "This is of the utmost importance. It could not wait until morning."

Dean sighed, rubbing his eyes and then letting him fall back on top of the covers on his lap. "What is it?"

"In an orphanage in Ohio, members of the staff are being killed." Castiel said slowly. "Over sixty have been killed. The most recent was killed two days ago. You and the others must go there and stop them from killing anymore people. If just three more die, it will be sixty six that have been slain. You cannot allow that to happen."

"Wait… what are you talking about?" Dean asked, shaking his head.

"You must listen to me, Dean. This is very important." Castiel's brows furrowed. "If the spirits are allowed to kill the last three then one of the 600 seals will be broken." He paused a moment then continued. "Think of the seals as locks on a door. If just 66 of the 600 seals are broken, then all Hell will break loose, quite literally. The earth will be completely destroyed."

Dean's eyes widened a bit as he stared at Castiel. "What are these seals? And why do you need our help stopping them from being broken? Why can't all your little angel buddies take care of this mess?"

"We're trying," Castiel said, his brows furrowing. "Several of my brothers and sisters have died trying to keep the demons from breaking the seals. Our forces are not unlimited, Dean. There are 600 seals, we cannot be everywhere at once. We have to prevent this seal from being broken at all costs."

Dean sighed. "Where'd you say that orphanage was, again?"

"Elizabethville, Ohio," Castiel replied.

"Okay then," he said with a nod. "I'm going back to sleep now, we'll deal with this in the morning." Before he finished speaking, Castiel had disappeared from the hotel room, leaving Dean as the only one who was awake.

xx

The next morning, Dean informed Sam, Ella, and Oshea of the "66 seals" situation over breakfast, also telling them about the yearly murders dating back twenty years at the local orphanage in Elizabethville, Ohio. Sam had brought his laptop along with them to the diner they were eating at, and was working on researching the past of Raven Hill Orphanage.

"You're not going to believe this," Sam mumbled as he pecked at the keys of the laptop. "Thirty years ago, a guy named Thomas Dekker became the head master. When he took over the position, the orphanage was overrun with kids and it was losing money. The city was threatening to shut it down. So Dekker started to poison the children by mixing embalming chemicals into their food. The kids would get sick and die and there would be more room, and Dekker was able to get more money from the city because he said the kids died because the facility was not able to be kept up on the funds they were already receiving. After the kids died, he would throw the bodies into unmarked mass graves on the property somewhere. Apparently some of the staff was in on the scheme, too, because no one found out about what he was doing until ten years later when these three kids, Laura Birkman, Andrew Callahan, and Daniel O'Hare figured out that something was going on. They saw the people in the kitchen putting things into the food and tried to tell other staff members, but of course they just went to Dekker, who of course denied everything. When Dekker found out which kids were talking, he put a huge dose in their food and staff members forced them to eat it. Needless to say, the kids died and he tossed them into the graves. After seeing those kids die that way, though, one of the staff members came clean and Dekker and his accomplices were arrested. Since then, there have been reports of staff members becoming sick and dying. Three a year. The last person that died, Hilarie Galeotti, died three days ago and she was the third for this year. That makes… 63..."

"So, three more and it's not just an orphanage with evil children spirits and a pile of dead staff members, it's also broken seal?" Ella said, leaning over and looking at the screen of Sam's laptop, and then looking at Oshea and Dean, eyebrows raised.

"Exactly," Sam said with a nod. "They've never killed more than three people in a year, so we should have plenty of time to figure things out right?" He said, looking up at the others. "All we have to do is find their remains and burn them."

"That shouldn't be too difficult," Oshea said. "They were buried in mass graves so all we'd have to do is find the graves and just burn everything."

Ella nodded. "Sounds simple enough. Does it mention where the graves are?" She asked, her eyes returning to the computer screen, looking over Sam's shoulder.

"No, but I'm guessing somewhere on the grounds… um…," Sam pulled open a map of the orphanage grounds and tapped the screen. "There is a big field out here and a small grove of trees. Probably back there somewhere."

"Okay, so I guess we'd better get over to Ohio and burn those bones. I bet the orphanage is going to love us having a massive bonfire out in their backyard," Dean said with a scoff.

"I don't know, Dean, this just seems too easy." Sam said as he closed his computer. "If all that we have to do to stop this is burn the bones don't you think the angels would have handled this already?"

Dean put the half eaten burger back down on his plate and shook his head. "I don't know, man, this whole thing just doesn't seem right. The angels say their numbers are limited, but they're pretty much the most powerful beings on the friggen' planet. I don't see why they're turning to four hunters when they've got who knows how many angels on their side."

"So, what should we do, Dean? This case is throwing all kinds of red flags up for me." Sam said with a frown, picking at his salad. "But we can't just not go and let the seal be broken."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, Castiel made it pretty clear that we had to save this seal."

"I say we go." Oshea said with a shrug, looking at the both of them. "Either way we're screwed. I say we go and torch the graves and get out. We'll just be very careful. Castiel said that the angels and demons were fighting over these seals so it's a good chance we'll be running into some. Ella, we need to call Scarlett and get her to send us the knife."

Dean arched a brow. "The knife? What knife?"

"A while back Ella and I came into possession of a knife than can kill demons." Oshea said, turning to Dean.

Ella nodded, pulling out her cell phone, and standing up from the booth. "Yeah, I'll go call her, I'll be right back."

When Ella left the booth, Dean turned to Oshea, his eyebrows raised. "So... there's really a knife out there that kills demons. Not just send them back to Hell, but actually kill them?"

Oshea nodded, brushing some of her hair behind her ear. "Yes, it kills them."

Sam glanced from Dean to Oshea. "I wish we had known about this knife before."

"Yeah, it really would have come in handy," Dean said, nodding.

Ella returned to the booth, putting her phone in her pocket as she slid into the seat next to Sam. "Scarlett's gonna ship it over to our P.O. box in Jefferson City, Missouri. We can stop by there on our way to Ohio."

Oshea nodded, "Thanks, Ella. So, we ready?"

Sam looked over to Dean. "What do you think, Dean?"

"I guess we're goin' to Ohio," he said with a shrug as he picked up his burger and started to eat.