I see trees of green and red roses to
I'll watch them bloom for me and you
and I think to myself what a wonderful world
..

Ben Speaks

The warm air billowed in through the open car window, my forehead already beading with sweat with the early morning heat. My car was a nice car but I didn't want to kill it by having the air-con on every time it got a little warm. Jesse seemed fine in the passenger's seat, resting back in the chair with his own window down. Claire should have been sitting there but we waited an extra half hour in the kitchen, waiting for her to wake up but by that time we let her be, she had been through enough; hell if I had gone to sleep, I probably wouldn't have gotten out of bed either.

It was a rough hour's drive from Adams; I had already forgotten the name of the place. At least it was a bit of a scenic route, the suburbs giving way to some sort of forest reserve. The last time I saw any trees that tall was when Claire and I were hunting down the Waldgeist, I just hoped that these one didn't talk or kill.

'So… this town, you said a demon?'
Jesse rolled his head to stare out the front, nodding slowly before he touched his temple. I focused back on the road, still feeling the tension between us, more likely from me. He was an anti-Christ and he and Claire…
'Three demons now.'
I kept driving, my hands tightening on the steering wheel.
'How do you do that?'
He shrugged and gazed back out the window before he turned his attention back to me.
'Just one of my many gifts I guess.' He chuckled and I grinned back but there wasn't much meaning behind it.
'Why can't you just gank them from here? You could do that couldn't you?'
'Could you spend another minute in that house?' at this I laughed, shaking my head, 'I thought it would do us some good to just be normal.'
'Normal hunters you mean.'

Not that it was a normal hunt. It seemed to be cheating with a half demon on your side, Jesse could sense the creature miles away, could see its face for what it really was. We might only be on this hunt for five lousy minutes, but at least it was five minutes being our sort of normal.

We pulled into the small town; honestly I couldn't be happier to have a change of scenery and out of the car. Most of that trip was in silence, he wouldn't even let me have my music up loud; it was like driving Miss Daisy. It was relatively quiet for a Thursday morning, a few locals going about their shopping and some already sitting at the pub.
'What would demons be doing here?'
'What are they doing everywhere?' Jesse asked, not expecting an answer, we still weren't a hundred per cent sure why they were gathering in certain places, but this one seemed pointless.
'Do you think, maybe… if you can sense them, they can sense you? Keeping an eye on us?'
Jesse gave me a nervous look, I knew he didn't use his powers all the time in case it did draw attention, but what if that dream attack he had a few nights ago revealed to Zeno where they were?

By now we were close to the end of town and I looked around for somewhere to park, not that the streets were busy. The diner looked quiet and I licked my lips, Jesse raising an eyebrow.
'You ate like a whole carton of eggs and a stack of pancakes a few hours ago.'
I thought about it but pulled a face.
'I have a fast metabolism.' I turned the rumbling engine off, stepping out and taking my jacket off. Jesse rolled his eyes and followed, taking a seat in the diner as an elderly lady hobbled over to them.
'Morning, what would you like? Special is cheese sausage with baked tomato and bacon.'
'I'll take one with coffee, black.' I smiled at her and she returned it, turning to Jesse with the same grin.
'Latte.'

I relaxed back in the comfortable booth seat, staring out the window and Jesse leant forward, fiddling with the sleeve of his blue shirt.
'Sense anything? Are you able to pin point them?'
Jesse rubbed his temple, looking out the window.
'Not exactly, just a rough guess; it's kind of like how they can only find me when I use my powers, I can sense them, know where they are but not exactly.'
Nodding my head, I thanked the lady as she slid the cup of black coffee in front of me, Jesses tall cup of Latte steaming in front of him.

For me it was impossible not to be sitting here, in a diner in some small town, like everything was normal, that half a million people never died in a war a few years ago; it was surreal. I thought that I would have died in that war, died on some hunt but yet here I was, fighting another war to try and save the world. This time it was different, of course it was; I had Jesse here on my side and Claire and Adam. Four against an army of god knows how many and of what, how many suckers would be pulled into Zenos plan, to think that he was going to help them eradicate humans and allow them to control the world.

'Ben?'
I snapped back, almost spilling the hot coffee down my chin.
Food was slipped in front of me next and I grinned, instantly hacking into my food. Jesse just grimaced , mumbling something about my stomach exploding but I was enjoying my early morning tea.
'Pin pointed a rough area?'
Jesse nodded, sipping his drink and I chewed my mouthful, waiting for an answer which I thought would never come.
'A small place just outside, on a farm; two are there, I can't see the third.'
'Should be quick and easy then, quiet at least.'

I continued eating, Jesse half way through his latte when I scrapped up the last of the tomato with a piece of bread.
'Quicker to get back to Adam and Claire…' I dropped the words like some sort of bait, brushing off crumbs from my black shirt and relaxing.
He looked at me like he was so innocent, nodding his head.
'I just thought it would be good to get out.'
'Say we kill the demons, will that just help them find us quicker?'
Jesse thought about it but shook his head; 'hopefully he has bigger things to worry about than us.'
'I kind of hope not.'

Paying the waitress, I dropped into my car, eyeing the town suspiciously as Jesse made his way. It was such a small town, wouldn't the people get suspicious of new comers? Then again the demons could take anyone they wanted. Sometimes I had the suspicion that the president was a demon or a shifter.
'Have there been any reports on anything here?'
Jesse sat down, buckling his seat belt but shook his head.
'It's all clean, but for how much longer?'
'Right. Where to Navman?'
Narrowing his eyes on me, Jesse pointed to the road leading out of town and I obeyed, pulling out and waiting for Jesse to say when.

The farm house wasn't too far from the main road, but at least it was shielded by trees; would block out whatever noise there was that we were going to make. I stopped the car a good distance away, getting my gun ready and watching the place for any movement but Jesse was already on it, pointing to where the two were located in the house.
'Should we do it now? It's almost midday, town might get busy.' Jesse hesitated but I wrinkled my nose.
'It is farm land; if we shoot it can just be farmers shooting a fox or something.'
Opening the door quietly, I grabbed my bag off the back seat, finding a tin of spray paint and some rope; may as well try and get what we can out of them if we can.

'Can't you just do it from here?' I asked, slinging the rope over my shoulder.
'And let you get sloppy?'
He had a point and making sure my gun was in my hand and ready to go, we stalked up to the house, Jesse behind me a few paces. I gestured for him to head around the back and in a blink of an eye he was gone.
'Show off.'

The front door was unlocked, why would it need to be? The place was sparse, a few photos about of a family but the layer of dust on everything made the likelihood of them still alive slim.
Heading around the corner, I saw Jesse making his way through the kitchen, his only weapon being his hands. The two were sitting at the table, a deck of cards being shuffled between them.
Demons playing poker? It was almost as strange as bull dogs playing.
Jesse nodded and I shot my gun, more of a distraction than to kill and Jesse lifted his hand, the demons pinned to the wall before Jesse crushed his hand, black pouring from their mouths and vanishing into nothing. Their screams stopped and they dropped to the floor in a heap, unable to really comprehend what it was that I just saw. I wanted to question them!

'What was that?'
'They knew nothing.' Jesse said, stepping over to check the bodies, sighing when he felt no pulse. I tucked my gun back into my jeans, wiping the sweat from my forehead, the crickets starting to become loud and annoying.
Whipping out the spray can, I pulled a chair from the table, getting to work on setting a Devils trap on the ceiling. It was rough, but it would do the job. Jesse had sat the people against the wall, the two men the father and son I saw in the picture earlier and I sighed; another dead family.

'Is the third nearby?'
Jesse peered out the window, nodding his head and I got to work quickly making a seal under a carpet; whichever entrance it used, it was going to be caught. I pushed myself back against the wall, Jesse making a sharp gesture with his hand and ducking himself.
When the war had first started, the number of demons that were active leapt dramatically and I think I spoke for most hunters when we had hoped that they would just slowly trickle away again but they were still here, still causing mischief but at least it kept us in the job. With this Zeno character though, it could be worse than ever.

Sure enough the back door clicked and I braced myself, waiting for the demon to walk through but when he didn't, I shared a glance with Jesse before I stepped around the corner, staring through the empty kitchen to the back door.
'Expecting someone?' the voice hissed in my ear and a cold hand grabbed the back of my neck, lifting me from the ground.
'Sure were.' I hissed and tipped a flask of holy water over my shoulder, the demon dropping me as he tried to wipe it from his face. I was knocked aside, Jesse standing to take my place as he managed to stop the demon in his tracks, for a moment anyway before he was pinned to the table, spread eagled by an invisible force.
'Sit tight pretty boy, I have someone who is expecting you.'

I tried to crawl back, heading towards the carpet and the demon stalked me, slowly taking his time with each step, a sick grin on the beared face. Black eyes were laughing at me when he kicked the carpet out of the way.
'All these years I have been top side; you hunters can never come up with anything new.'
I groaned, twisting until I was on my feet and kept moving back and I grinned to myself, the demon tilting its head.
'And demons always seem to forget to look up.'

It narrowed its black gaze at me and looked up at the ceiling, the red spray paint still damp and it growled, almost like a hopeless laugh. It tilted its head around to see the two bodies sagging against the wall, closing its eyes like it was sad but I steeled my own eyes, noting Jesse still pinned to the table.
'Let him go.'
'Or what?' the demon snarled, the body it was possession had awfully yellow teeth.
Now it was my turn to grin, but luckily my teeth were not yellow.
'Filins, imperat tibi dens spiritus sanctus.'

The demon groaned, rolling his shoulders and Jesse sat up, rubbing at his chest.
'Was that so hard?'
Black eyes snapped back to me before they disappeared to a human brown, a smirk on its face. Jesse moved across to stand beside me, eyes intensely focussed on the prisoner.
'Still haven't got the hang of it yet have you Jess?'
It laughed at Jesse, tapping its own temple and humming a noise that was meant to sound like telepathic powers. Neither of us made a sound and the demon crossed his arms.
'Just get on with it. I'm not giving up anything.'
'But you were so willing a minute ago to take my friend to him.'

Frustrated the demon ran at me but the invisible barrier kept him at bay, although I still did take a nervous half step back.
'Let me out and I'll show what I do to humans like you!'
I glanced at Jesse, checking to see if he could get anything from the demon but he shook his head.
'All I can get is what we already know.'
I groaned and the demon chuckled, stopping slowly when I laughed myself.
'I wouldn't be laughing. Let me show you what we do to things like you.'
Its face dropped and I nodded at Jesse, who seemingly crushed the demon with his hand. The demon roared as it was forced from the body and soon the man dropped, the demon vanishing to where ever it was they went.

Jesse sagged slightly and I patted his shoulder and sighed at the third body we had to deal with.
'What do you want to do with them?'
Taking a few seconds to think about it, Jesse flicked his wrist and the seal on the sealing broke before he dragged the body to the where the others were.
'It cannot be linked back to us, call it in I guess.'
Nodding, I pulled out my phone and dialled, looking up at the ceiling and to Jesse who cleaned the seal under the carpet as well before moving to wipe down anything and everything we touched.

We were half way back to Adams, the car trip still a quiet one when Jesse sat up in the passenger seat, alarmed.
'I'll be back.'
And like that he was gone.

I sighed; I wish he would stay gone. Did I really mean that? I don't know, some part of me really did, wanted to punch the shit out of him but he was a good guy and Claire said there was nothing between them. Then again she could have said that to keep me in the dark. No she wouldn't lie to me.

I continued driving, since that was all I was good for any more and turned my music up loud. We had hope to get more information from the demon but it proved to be a complete and utter waste of time, a risk as well. Killing one demon would mean that more were on the way and I rubbed my temple as I thought of the world being ruled by one, a half demon, but he didn't want to rule did he? No he wanted to be God in it.

Everything, all of this may end up being nothing but ash in the next week or so. Hell it could be gone tomorrow and us along with it. If Zeno was going to make this world a better place to live in, he was going the wrong way about making it so, I wouldn't vote for him.

Jesse appeared beside me suddenly and I jumped, turning the music down and frowning at him.
'What was the whole alarmed face for?'
Rubbing dirt off his clothes, Jesse sighed and relaxed back into the seat.
'I drew the demons off; they'll be flocking to Arabia before here.'
Grinning, I felt an edge of my tension slip from my shoulders; I would hate to have been leading an army of demons back to Claire and Adam.

'You think Claire is alright?' Jesse asked and I felt that tension slide back on, only in the form of jealousy. Did Claire tell Jesse that there was no hope for them? Stopping my blood from boiling I shrugged my shoulders.
'I hope so. She did lose a close friend only yesterday, she just needs some time to herself.'
'Yeah, she is pretty tough.'
'Absolutely.'
He nodded slowly and I knew that he had good intentions, that he really did care about her a lot but what he needed to know was that I cared for her more.

The house was still there when we got back; I don't know why I thought otherwise but as I turned the car off, the horrid thought of returning and finding an empty house, to find a burning house plagued me. Jesse got out, grabbing my bag for me and slinging it over his shoulder and I made my way onto the porch. The front door was unlocked and I sent a glance to Jesse, who readied himself, my own hand dropping to my gun as I pushed the door fully open.

'Adam?' I called out, the house silent and that uneasy feeling only became worse. Adam pointed to the study, sensing something by the way he was twitching his fingers and closed the front door; we didn't want anyone sneaking up behind us. I stalked around the corner, not seeing anything Adam snored in the chair, Pearls ears pricking up when she saw us.

I dropped my gun, sighing heavily and even Jesse dropped his shoulder, rolling his shoulders and calming.
'Dammit Adam! We could have blown you half way to hell!'
Adam jolted in the chair, and I prayed that he missed the last comment; he had been to hell and back, I'm sure he didn't need a reminder.
'Your back…' he rubbed his eyes lazily, checking his bottle only to find it empty and scan the room for the next one. Pearl made a bee line for her bowl, pawing at the cupboard; Jesse surrendering and giving her a feed.
'Why did you leave the door open Adam? Scared the crap out of us.'

Adam stumbled to his feet, stretching and I saw numerous scars on his abdomen, cringing at the thought of what would have caused them.
'Claire must have left it open when she left.'
Both myself and Jesse paused and I raised my eyebrow, looking up the stairs hoping that she was there. Adam was rubbing his neck and pouring himself a drink as he pointed to a piece of paper discarded on the lounge.
'Yeah, a few hours ago now. I thought while the kids were gone I'd get some winks.'
'Where did she go?' I demanded, concerned that she was going to be doing something stupid and snatched up the paper. Jesse had a worried look as he looked at the note and I thrust it at him once I had read what was on it.

'Did you know about this?' I growled, now really concerned about what I had just read and what it meant for Claire. Jesse had his mouth open, but no words came out straight to start off with.
'Last night it was dropped off and I-'
'From who?' He visibly bit his tongue and I groaned, snatching my bag back off the floor and Jesse grabbed my shoulder, trying to slow me down.
'I didn't read it! I didn't want to be rude but I'm sure she is fine.'
I thrust the note to him, and his eye widened slightly, but ultimately I knew he wouldn't understand.
'This is something that she would jump into head first, Claire will not be thinking clearly!'

Waiting patiently, I was going to see if Jesse would let me go or even come with me, if he didn't want me to go God knew he had the power to stop me. Adam was confused by his desk but didn't ask what it was about; he looked more hurt than anything, hurt because he let her go? Or hurt because he knew and she left anyway?

Finally Jesse nodded and I sighed in relief, looking at the note, now to find her.
'I can try and search for her; do you have anything of hers?'
Going to say that there was more than likely something in her room, I was cut short when there was a knock at the door. I noted that Adam wasn't too surprised that someone was knocking and I pulled my gun out, nodding at Jesse who stepped behind the door, myself turning the handle and needing it to be Claire.
'Hey Ben.'
I stepped back; it wasn't Claire but there was no way in hell that I would have thought it would be him.

Dean stepped over the threshold, eyes on me until he waved at Adam, who waved back and Jesse shared a confused glance with me.
'Good to finally see you kid.' He said, stepping closer to me and patting my shoulders. I felt my stomach become light, with nerves or happiness or sorrow I couldn't pin it down but I felt my jaw slacken as Dean smiled at me.
'Dean, what are you doing here?'
'That's the first thing you have to say to me?'
I shook my head, grinning to myself slightly before I steeled my gaze on him.
'No, it should be hold out your arm.' I said, and Deans smile grew even more as I pulled a silver knife from my boot.

Not a shifter and with the help from Jesse, not a demon or anything else that could be dangerous, he was just plain old Dean, my father.
Only now did I hug him, Dean just shorter than me and he chuckled as he stood back, taking in every detail of me and I did the same. He wouldn't be that much older than me, mid-forties or so? But a life of hunting and drinking had taken a toll on his body, his skin a little more wrinkled that it should have been and his frame not as strong as I remembered, but he was still the same as I remember when I was a kid.
'You turned out taller than I would have thought, but that's a good thing.' He laughed, shrugging his bag onto his shoulder more comfortably.
'Your shorter than I remember.'
'And when did you become such a man, you're not that geeky, scrawny kid that use to break things and call me in a panic.'
I laughed with him, it was just strange to have him here, have him physically here to punch if I got mad at him or hug him when I forgave him.

'Dad, I'm glad you're here but Jesse and I were just on-' I looked around but Jesse was gone, Adam moving out of his study, glass in hand to pat Deans shoulder.
'Go do what you need to.' He smiled, wiping holy water from his stubbled chin, 'Adam here gave me a call, going to fill me in on everything that is going on so I can help you out, son.'

Let me hear your thoughts

Silver-Kirin
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