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"Oh for Christ sakes, Lainey! What the hell were you doing?" I woke blearily from my slumber to find Julius glaring down at me and the papers that surrounded my head. I peeled my cheek off the keyboard of my laptop and winced at the throbbing deep in the back of my skull.
"I was just transcribing and I had a glass of wine to help me get through it.." I muttered and reached out to grab the bottle to my left; it was empty, as was the one next to it. "Oops."
"Oops is right, look at you! You're a mess and we're supposed to be conducting interviews."
"I told you I needed time to transcribe everything before we continued!"
"Yeah, 10 hours ago! Which is, by my calculations, 8 hours more than you said you were gonna need. What happened to calling me when you were done? I was getting worried."
"Worried? Oh please, like you give a damn about anything other than yourself! And give me a break, this is a a lot to handle." I idly shuffled the papers in front of me in a last ditch effort to try and ignore the nausea rising from the pit of my stomach.
"Oh right, because your job is so hard. You get to talk to these people all day, I have to be the one to actually track them down and convince them that you aren't as crazy as you sound!"
"It's beyond that! The people I talk to, I don't get to have a follow up interview with, or even a drink afterwards. They don't get to go home after, back to their friends or families. They're dead, they're all dead and there's nothing I can do to change that. You know how hard that is? I hear their stories, their pain, and yet can only give them ten minutes back here? Potentially the last ten minutes they're ever gonna have on earth and they have to spend it talking to a complete stranger about two guys they once knew." I explained irritably, "You don't' understand...Death is so fucking cruel.."
"Excuse me? I don't understand the cruelty of death? Let me tell you something, ever wonder what happens to a baby's soul when it dies? I've taken more than my fair share up to heaven. There was one child, five days old when it died and you bet it suffered the whole way through. It knew nothing of this world except pain and fear. The heaven it went to was an exact replica of its mother's womb, the only place that had given it any sort of comfort and sense of security. Death may seem cruel but it has nothing in comparison to the shit that goes on down here. I may lack the connection that you humans share, but that doesn't mean I don't understand it, that I feel nothing. Don't you ever dare question my thoughts on death because I guarantee they are far more complex than yours. Now pull yourself together, I'll give you ten minutes." The moment he stomped out of the room, I ran to the bathroom and emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet. Doing the best I could to clean myself up, I had just started to organize the papers on the table when Julius arrived again, still looking sour, with Pamela in tow.
"Hi! Sorry about the mess, I haven't had the chance to clean up from my research." I said as I hastily shoved a pile of loose leaf into my bag and shoved it under the bed.
"Had one too many glasses of wine did you?" She smirked slightly.
"How could you tell? Are you psychic or something?" I regretted the words as soon as O said them. It doesn't pay to sound stupid.
"Well yes, but you also left the empty bottles out and I can recognize the symptoms of a hangover when I see one. Had a fair few myself back when I was alive." She gave a short laugh and gestured to my chair. "Sit! We'll talk quickly and then you can take a nap or eat some bacon. Just avoid runny scrambled eggs if you don't want to puke again!"
I sat down with a sigh of relief and pulled my voice recorder towards me. "So, I know Julius probably told you that I wanted to speak with you about the Winchesters, but there's been a change of plans. " I hit the record button.
"Oh really? How so?"
"I want you to tell me about Castiel."
"Oh, the angel responsible for burning my eyes out. Pardon me if I'm not too enthusiastic about the subject." Pamela gave me a rueful smile.
"I'm sorry, it's just I feel like he's a key component in their lives."
"Oh that's for sure. That angle causes more trouble than he's worth right from the get go, but those boys are enamored with him."
"You were the one to first make contact with him?"
"Yes and no, Dean was technically the first, he just had no recollection of it. The Winchesters came to me after Dean got out of hell. They need someone to figure out just what it was that had saved Dean, they really had no idea at that point. I managed to make contact with this being and it told me its name was Castiel."
"And then what happened?"
"I demanded to see his face but he kept warning me not too...Of course I didn't listen and next thing I knew the world was dark and my eyes were gone."
"Jeez...Did you have any idea how powerful this being would be?"
"I had a hunch. It had to be something big to straight up pull a man out of hell, but I guess I underestimated the effect it would have on me. Humans can't looks upon the true face of an angel you know, I found that out the hard way."
"He wasn't menacing or purposely hurting you?"
"No, didn't seem to be. He wanted me to turn back but I didn't listen. Doesn't change the fact that I'm dead because of that whole mess but I will take some of the blame." She shrugged but look a little bit pissed off all the same.
"Alright...Now is there anything else you can tell me! It can be about anything at this point."
"Well...I don't know if this will be of any use to you, but I did tell Dean to say yes to Michael."
"Michael? Say yes?" I cocked my head at her.
"I said that it would be better for everyone, because everyone who died would go to heaven and they'd always be happy then. Heaven is wonderful. But I'm still glad he never listened to me." Pamela ran her hand lightly over the surface of the table.
"What would Dean say yes to?" I was hopelessly confused now and Pamela even noticed.
"Ahh, so you don't know...Well be sure to tell Cas I said 'hi' when you talk to him. That was the whole purpose of this interview wasn't it? To work up the nerve to interview him after? Well good luck with that." Pamela got up and left on her own terms, chased by Julius who wanted to make sure she crossed back over safely. I shook my head and looked down at the notebook perched near my elbow. The page was filled with elaborate question marks that I had scribbled on there when I was bored. Finding a clear space I jotted down the words "Michael" and "Yes?" Before closing it back up and eagerly awaiting Julius' return.
"All done for the day?! You deserve a day off! Take tomorrow!" I chirped at him and he looked instantly suspicious.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I need to talk to an angel and I feel that would cramp your style, so you don't have to participate."
"These are angels you are talking about, it's not a good idea to mess with them. And that goes against your original plan of speaking only to dead people!"
"Well angels and ghosts are kind of alike..."
"By that logic, I'm the fucking Easter Bunny!"
"That doesn't remotely make sense and this is really important! Julius, you have to understand that talking to him will help me so much with my research. This will be my one exception to the rule!" I pouted slightly.
"I understand your predicament and your thought process but I in no way understand you." He sighed irritably and rubbed a hand up and down his face roughly. "Ugh! Do whatever you want, but I am in no means being a part of this! If you want to mess with angels, go ahead, but aim taking that vacation day you said I could have. No take backs!" He shot one more look of loathing at me before storming out and I had a mini victory dance.
It was time for me to catch an angel.