3: Think Outside the Box
"Ergo, draco maledicte et omnis legio diabolica, adjuramus te…"
"Nothing like a good ol' exorcism, eh, Sammy?"
"…cessa decipere humanas creaturas, eisque æternæ perditionìs venenum propinare…"
"Except the thing is… you're the third one this week. And we haven't had that many of you black-eyed bastards to deal with since the apocalypse."
Dean Winchester was pacing in circles around a man sitting in a chair with his arms tied behind his back, while his brother, Sam, stood off to the side quickly reciting an exorcism from an old brown book. A devil's trap shone bright red on the ceiling.
"So my question is… What's going on? Did Crowley open the gates of hell?"
Dean leaned forward, putting his hands on the arm of the chair, rage pulsating through the look he gave their prisoner. The man in the chair gave a snarl and a manic smile, turning his black eyes to face the oldest Winchester. From his other side, Sam increased the intensity with which he was reciting the exorcism.
"…Humiliare sub potenti manu Dei, contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili Nomini…"
The demon winced in pain, black smoke beginning to leak from the corners of his mouth. He roared with rage, turning it into a desperate laugh.
"You idiots, you know Crowley can't open that gate. Not yet anyway, not without the other half of the tablet…"
"…quem inferi tremunt…"
He choked. More black smoke sprayed out. Dean planted his stance and fixed him with a glare, unmoving as he watched the demon struggle.
"…Ab insidiis diabolic…"
"THERE'S SOMEONE NEW."
It sounded as though the words had been ripped from the demons mouth unwillingly. Sam froze midsentence and Dean's brow furrowed.
"There is a new leader now. He's building an army, letting as many of us out of hell as he can, giving us freedom again. We can do what we please as long as we are ready to do his bidding if he calls us. We've never had it this good, even under Crowley."
"A new leader, huh? And can we get a name on this new leader?"
The demon laughed. "If you think I'm going to tell you…"
"Sam, finish it."
"Libera nos…"
"No," the possessed man lurched forward, gagging as more black smoke shot out.
"We need a NAME," Dean snarled.
"MORIARTY."
Sam stopped again, just before the final word of the exorcism. Dean gave the demon an incredulous look.
"Excuse you?"
"Moriarty. That's him. I promise."
"That doesn't even sound like a real name. Is that a name?"
"That's him, I swear."
Dean glanced over at his younger brother, who shot him a look full of knowing and gave him a nod. He nodded back.
"Finish it."
"Domine."
The demon's shriek of rage was cut off as the rest of the black smoke still left in the man went spewing out of him and down through the floorboards, disappearing beneath them. The man, left alone now, gasped and blinked rapidly.
"Wh-where am I? What's going on?"
"Alright buddy, it's going to be okay. We're going to get you out of here."
As Sam bent down to untie the man, memories started to dawn again on the man's face.
"There… there was this thing inside me for weeks… I couldn't move my own arms or hands… But it did terrible things…"
"I know. But it's going to be okay. It's gone now," Sam's voice was calm, collected, and soothing as the last of the ropes finally fell. The man's breathing became more even and he rubbed his burning wrists. Suddenly, he looked back up.
"It was telling the truth, you know. About that new leader. The name."
"Moriarty?" Dean walked forward again urgently.
"Yes."
"Okay. Thanks so much for the info. Come with us, we're going to get you home."
As Sam helped the man out of the room, supporting the extra weight with his looming frame, Dean followed slowly, taking one last look back at the chair where the exorcism had just taken place before shutting the door.
When the newly-exorcised man had been sent on his way with some extra money and an anti-possession talisman around his neck, the Winchesters were left with silence in the Impala again as they drove for the nearest motel. There wasn't time to make it back to the storehouse tonight, so they would have to make do the old-fashioned way. Dean didn't even turn on the radio, letting the hum of the road beneath the Impala be the only background noise as he tried to sort his thoughts. He could tell Sam was thinking too. He didn't know about his brother, but he wasn't so fond of the conclusions he was starting to draw.
Finally, Sam spoke.
"Dean… This is bad."
"I know."
"No, but really. Have you ever heard of somebody who can hold that much power over that many demons, other than Crowley? Or Lucifer?"
"Yeah, except I have never heard of this guy. Moriarty? You're Mr. Research, have you ever heard of any demon or creature anywhere with that name?"
"No. Which is weird. You'd think someone with that much power would have shown up by now. Where was he for the apocalypse?"
"You tell me."
They fell silent again as Dean slowed down and pulled into the parking lot of the motel. When they had paid and dragged their duffle bags inside the dingy room, Sam immediately pulled out his laptop and began typing furiously, while Dean went to splash cold water over his face, still trying to clear his head. It was getting late, and he was starting to get tired. When he walked back out of the bathroom, Sam was still sitting staring at his computer screen intently, brow furrowed.
"Finding anything?"
"Yeah, actually. But it doesn't really make much sense."
"Sounds like our M.O, then. Hit me with it."
"There has been a Moriarty in the news recently, or in the news from England anyway. Jim Moriarty. Arrested a few weeks ago on a ton of murder and theft charges. He broke into the case where the crown jewels are kept in Buckingham Palace, while simultaneously opening a vault at the Bank of England and unlocking all the cells at Pentonville Prison."
"How did he manage that?"
"The report says he used his cell phone. He must have a pretty big network."
"But it he's human?"
"I mean… yeah. There's nothing here that seems to indicate otherwise. I mean, what he did was crazy hard to do, but not impossible for a normal person with a lot of connections in the crime world…"
"Is there a picture?"
"Yeah. There's one in the article. They took it in the vault when he broke into where the crown jewels are hold on, let me… oh."
"Oh what?"
"Just… just look."
Sam turned around his laptop and Dean leaned forward to get a better look at the picture. There, an unsettling, serene smile on his face as he sat wearing the crown and holding a scepter, was the same man that had come to their door asking for help mere weeks ago.
"Jim. That's Jim. But we helped him! He said he knew Bobby. He wasn't even British or whatever… His said his name was Jim Moore, right?"
"Yeah which is only a few syllables away from Jim Moriarty."
"Okay so we're dumbasses. But why did he trick us? What did he need us for? All we did was take down a demon for him."
"I… I don't know," Sam shrugged, staring at the picture. Dean looked back at it again, noticing something new.
"Hey, what's that he wrote on the glass?"
Sam narrowed his eyes.
"I think it says… 'Get Sherlock'."
"'Get Sherlock'? What's Sherlock? Isn't it like a poison or something?"
Sam turned his laptop back and his eyes started skimming the screen again.
"I think you're thinking of hemlock. Sherlock is, apparently, a person. It says here that Sherlock Holmes was the name of one of the people who testified against Moriarty in court, but Moriarty got off anyway."
"So Moriarty might have something against this guy."
"I guess so."
"But why would he tell the police to get Sherlock? He was acting like he wanted to be caught…"
"No idea."
"This trial happened a few weeks ago. That's not long before he came to see us. So why would somebody who is the head of a crime ring try to steal the crown jewels, get acquitted in court, and then immediately come find us with some phony story about being in trouble so we would kill a demon for him? And now some other demon is telling us that he's the new big scary demon ruler?"
"And what does Sherlock have to do with any of it?'
Neither brother seemed to be able to come up with an answer to any of their questions. Dean scratched his head in frustration and turned around, beginning to think it might be better to go to bed now and figure out the rest in the morning, but he was stopped short by the silent and abrupt appearance of another man right in front of him. He jumped.
"Dammit Cas!"
The angel blinked at him, but did not apologize. Instead he stepped forward in urgency, worry furrowing his brow.
"Another important artifact has gone missing. Straight from under the noses of the current heavenly order."
"Cas, if this is another freakin' tablet…"
"It is not a tablet. Actually, temporarily, the tablets have been put on secondary priority while everyone has been dispatched to look for this instead. It is considered top priority and its disappearance could mean the entire world is in danger."
"Oh good, because it wouldn't be a normal day if the entire world wasn't about to eat it."
"This is a serious matter, Dean, we don't have time for your—"
"What exactly is missing, Cas?" Sam cut in.
"The box."
"What box?"
"The box. The box that unleashed it all."
The Winchesters stared at him blankly.
"Pandora's Box."
Finally, the weight of the situation registered with the brothers. Or at least, it registered with Sam, whose eyes widened.
"Pandora's Box is real?"
"Well it's really more of a jar, the box thing was a mix up in translations some thousand years ago…"
"What the hell is Pandora's Box?" Dean demanded.
"In Greek mythology, the titan god Epimetheus was given the first woman in creation, Pandora, to marry. She sort of came with this box—"
"Jar."
"-Sorry, Cas- a jar, which contained all the evils and hardships of the world. She was commanded not to open it while her husband was away, but she did so anyway out of curiosity and wound up unleashing all of the terrible things inside the jar upon the world. The only thing still left in the jar by the end was hope."
Sam finished his story to a look of incredulity from Dean. "Seriously, man, I will never figure out how you remember all this stuff."
Castiel ignored Dean's comment, addressing both brothers, "this part has not passed through into modern tellings of the myth but the jar was actually a gift to Pandora from Lucifer. The ancients interpreted the jar as letting out all the evils of the world, but in actuality the jar had the ability to summon and control demons to do the bidding of whoever summoned them."
"How many demons?" Dean asked.
Cas fixed him with a grave stare. "The possibilities are endless. The person who possesses the jar could raise a whole demon army of their own."
"Wait…"
Sam and Dean exchanged a glance.
"Cas, we know who took it."
At that very moment, there was a loud knock on the door.