Disclaimer- I do not own Supernatural or any of its characters.
Still a pitiless monster.
So sue me.
Chapter title borrowed from AC/DC.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed!
On with it, shall we?
CHAPTER EIGHT- IT'S A LONG WAY TO THE TOP
"No! Please, no!"
I used to be the one begging.
The tables have definitely turned.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Alistair lounging casually in the corner of the room.
"Ten years with Lucifer and you broke," He mocks. "I'm not surprised."
He is right.
I turn my eyes back to the soul tied down on the rack.
This is the first person I will torture.
I hate myself for what I am about to do.
I'm sorry.
I pick up the scalpel and move forward.
The soul's screams reverberate through the room.
The last few dregs of my humanity slip away.
~Supernatural~
My hands are slick with blood, and my breath comes in short, painful gasps.
This is worse, so much worse, than being tortured myself.
Yet... there was a part of me that enjoyed it.
I close my eyes.
Self-loathing is too mild a word to describe what I'm feeling now.
The tears prick at my eyes, but I do not let them fall.
Weakness is not tolerated in hell.
I've learned that the hard way.
I have become what I once used to hunt.
A monster.
Odette Slessor is gone, leaving nothing but a monster in it's place.
This is all that's left behind.
I am all that's left behind.
The scalpel clatters to the ground.
Alistair claps slowly, wheeling the gurney away.
"I'm sorry," I whisper slowly to it, trying to make it understand.
I see only hate and fear in the soul's eyes.
"Exquisite," Alistair says delightedly.
"Such rage... you have potential, darling."
My fists clench together.
"Never in all my years..." Alistair continues.
"Exquisite," He repeats.
That's when the room begins to shake.
~Supernatural~
Jared's voice suddenly echoes in my head.
It's a devil's gate, Odette! This is your only chance. Run!
I take advantage of Alistair's confusion, running from the room.
A devil's gate is opening.
It's my only hope.
Alistair snarls, lunging for my ankle.
"You're never getting out," He hisses.
But Alistair has forgotten how much stronger I am.
How much my powers have been growing.
How much I've been training.
I send him careening to the other end of the room with a short burst of energy.
It will not last long.
Not against a demon of Alistair's caliber.
I race through the pits of hell, ignoring the agonized wails.
I have screamed long enough with them.
I force myself to stop.
I cannot leave without Jared.
Jared, where are you?
I stifle my shriek as a blood-soaked hand wraps around mine.
Somehow, he has come through for me.
As always.
"Come on!" He urges.
We flee through hell.
Occasionally, we encounter demons, but they never catch us.
I jerk to a stop as I see the thrashing mass of demons around the rip in hell's atmosphere.
The gate.
"We'll fight our way through," Jared says grimly.
So we do.
I claw my way through the line of demons, kicking and punching and maiming, pulling Jared along.
It is easier than I expected.
Amitiel has trained me well.
I am close enough now to see the gate, a swirling vortex of black.
It is getting smaller by the minute.
So I fight harder, struggling in the roiling mass of bodies.
We are almost there.
But the gate is only a thin slit now.
There is room for only one person to slip through.
"You're going," Jared says instantly.
"No." I reply stubbornly.
"I'm not leaving you, and if that means staying in hell, so be it."
Jared's eyes flare.
"Listen to me, Odette. Lucifer can get out, and get out he will. You have to stop him. You have to save Dean, find Sam. Let me go, Odette. Find your real family. "
My eyes fill with tears as I stare at him.
How can I bear to let him leave me again?
How can I let him go?
"GO!" Jared roars, pushing me towards the gate.
I hang on to his arms.
"I love you," I whisper brokenly.
But now, it's not enough.
Jared has no chance to answer me as two demons pull him away.
He screams in pain.
I turn around at once, trying to get to him, but I am too close to the gate.
I can feel it.
"JARED!" I shriek, but it's too late.
It's pulling me up, twisting me around, and I'm falling, trying to get to Jared, but I'm being reeled upwards, and the blood is roaring in my ears...
And suddenly I hit the ground.
I huddle on the grass as the black smoke of the demons whooshes over me.
The gate finally shuts.
Once I'm sure they are gone, I shakily get to my feet.
I stare uncomprehendingly at my slim, smooth hands.
No blood, no scars.
I'm really free, then.
I've escaped hell... but Jared hasn't.
The sound of my own sobbing scares me.
It's a terrible price.
Jared is burning in hell, and I am free.
It should be him standing here.
The irony of this situation does not escape me.
The day I'm finally free from hell is the day I deserve to go right back in the pit.
I glance around at my surroundings.
This is the same clearing where Cas left.
Even now, just thinking of him twists a knife in my heart.
This doesn't make sense.
My body should be dust and bones by now.
Yet it is just the same as before.
I look at my reflection in the puddle of water at my feet, and jerk back a step.
I am almost unrecognizable.
My hair is matted and tangled, my face is covered with tear-tracks.
My clothes are ripped and tattered, and there are long scratches down my arms and legs.
But the worst are my eyes.
They are almost black, and hooded, haunted even.
They do not look human.
I can almost see hell burning in my eyes.
I look wild and alien, inhuman.
Feral.
I realize with a slow roll of nausea that I look exactly like the Odette I saw in Mary Worthington's mirror.
I let out a single, tortured scream.