At Hell's Gates

by mrsemmettcullen12

What if Sam had a twin sister? This is the story of Dean and Sam with a sister, Alex.

43. Night Changes

This is my first story, so please be nice. Tell me what you think.

I do not own any of the characters (except for Alex) and I do not own any of the storylines. I am SO sorry that it has taken me forever to update. School has started up again and I'm a whole lot busier than I had anticipated! Anyway, this story is getting a little long, so I may begin writing the sequel/continuation soon! Thanks for sticking with me and still reading! It is very much appreciated!

Chapter 43

Previously in At Hell's Gates:

Sam looked down at the floor, trying to force himself not to cry in front of Lucifer. When he looked up again, Lucifer was gone, having vanished into thin air. Sam sighed, letting another tear escape from his eye and roll down his face.

Dean parked the car on the curb outside of a local hotel. He and Alex climbed out, Dean slinging a brown duffle bag over his shoulder.

"Excuse me, friends. Have you taken time out recently to think about God's plan for you?" asked a man, who was passing out flyers on the sidewalk.

Dean looked at the man, his eyebrows raised.

"That's too freaking much, pal."

Alex chuckled and she followed Dean up into the hotel room that they had rented.

"Are you talking about, the Colt? As in, the Colt?" asked Dean.

"We are," answered Castiel.

Dean was currently on the phone with Castiel, pacing around the small hotel room that he had rented while Alex flipped through large books open on the kitchen table. Dean closed the curtains on the window.

"Well, that just doesn't make any sense. Why would the demons keep a gun around that kills demons?"

"What?! Dean, I didn't… I didn't get that," said Castiel, glaring at the large bus as it passed him.

Dean chuckled into his cell phone.

"You know, it's kind of funny, talking to a messenger of God on a cell phone. It's like watching a Hells Angel ride a moped."

"This isn't very funny, Dean. The voice says I'm almost out of minutes," shot back Castiel.

"Okay, okay. Alright, I'm telling you Cas, they've melted down the gun by now."

"Well, I hear differently. And if it's true, and if you are still set on the insane task of killing the devil, this is how we must do it."

"Okay. Where do we start?" asked Dean, sitting down on his bed now.

Castiel paused for a brief second.

"Where are you and Alex now?" he asked Dean.

"Kansas City. Century Hotel, Room 113," answered Dean.

"Okay. I'll be there in a second."

"No, no, c'mon, man, I just drove, like, 16 hours straight, okay? I'm human. And there's stuff I've gotta do."

"What stuff?"

"Eat, for starters! And in this case, sleep. I just need, like, four hours every once in a while, alright?"

"Yes," said Castiel.

"Okay, so you can pop in tomorrow morning?"

"Yes. I'll just…"

Dean had already hung up before Castiel could complete his final sentence. Castiel stared at his cell phone and then hung up as well.

"Wait here then," finished Castiel.

Alex groaned as she heard a loud vibrating noise from beside her head. She reached over on the nightstand between her and Dean's beds and grabbed Dean's cell phone off of the top of the nightstand, where it was incessantly vibrating. She held it up to her ear, pushing the green talk button in the process.

"Damn it, Castiel, Dean's sleeping and so am I!" yelled Alex.

There was a pause from the other end and then a deep sigh.

"Alex, it's me," said Sam.

Alex's eyes widened and she sat straight up in her bed.

"Sam?" she asked.

She glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table beside her.

"It's a quarter past four in the morning," she groaned.

"This is important," said Sam.

Alex sighed and leaned over, prodding Dean to wake up. Dean cursed, but sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his tired eyes. When he was ready, Alex handed him his cell phone.

"It's Sammy. He says it's really important," she whispered.

Dean's eyes widened, but he took the phone from her grasp. He stood up from his bed and walked over to the fridge, pulling out a bottle of beer from a six pack he had in the fridge.

"So you're Lucifer's vessel, huh?" asked Dean.

"That's what he said," answered Sam.

"So just when you thought you were out, he pulls you back in, huh, Sammy?"

"So that's it. That's your whole response?"

"Well, what are you looking for?"

"Oh, I don't know, a little panic, maybe?"

"I guess I'm a little beyond the earth shattering revelations at this point."

"What are we gonna do about it?"

"What do you wanna do about it?"

"I want back in, for starters," said Sam.

"Sam-"

"No, I mean it. I am sick of being a puppet to these sons of bitches. I'm gonna hunt him down, Dean."

"Oh, so we're back to revenge then, are we? Yeah, because that worked out so well last time."

"No, not revenge. Redemption."

"So you're just gonna walk back in?" asked Dean.

"Look, Dean, I can do this, I can. And I'm gonna prove it to you."

Dean closed his eyes, deep in thought for a few brief seconds.

"Look, Sam. It doesn't matter. Whatever we do. We should just pick a hemisphere and stay away from each other for good."

"Dean, it doesn't have to be like this. We can fight it."

"Yeah, you're right, we can. But not together. We're not stronger when we're together, Sammy. I think we're weaker, in fact. Because whatever we have between us: love, family, whatever it is, they are always going to use it against us. And you know that. We're better off apart. We've got a better chance of dodging Lucifer and Michael and this whole damn thing… if we just go our own ways."

"Dean, don't do this, please."

"Goodbye, Sam."

Dean hung up his phone, closing his eyes and sighing deeply as he sat down in a dining room chair, setting his unopened beer bottle on the table in front of him. Alex sighed from her spot on her bed and shook her head, lying down and turning away from Dean. Dean sighed deeply and opened his beer bottle to take a drink from it.

The next morning, Dean woke up to see Alex standing over him, biting her bottom lip and looking worried. Dean sat up, looking around him. He was currently lying on a bed frame, a cracked alarm clock sitting beside him. Dean sat up quickly then, looking around at the rest of the room. The room was bare and the walls were cracked and black. Dean walked over to the window in the hotel room, Alex watching him. The glass had been shattered and the wind was blowing incredibly loudly. The town outside was a disaster, car wrecks were abandoned on the road and sidewalk, wreckage strewn everywhere. The clouds in the sky were dark and ominous. Dean pulled his head back inside the room and looked over at his little sister.

"Dean, what's going on?" whispered Alex.

Dean just shrugged.

Dean led the way downstairs and outside into the eerily abandoned town. Dean led the way down the street, which was covered in litter. There was no sign of life and Alex grabbed Dean's hand as they walked farther down the street. Holding Alex's hand, Dean led the way past the abandoned movie theater next to their hotel. Both Alex and Dean looked behind them as often as possible, making sure no one was following behind them. As they stopped by a particularly grisly looking car accident, both Winchester siblings heard the sound of glass shattering. They followed the direction of the sound and walked into an alleyway. Alex gasped as she saw a small girl crouched down in the alley, a fluffy teddy bear a few inches away from the girl's hands.

"Little girl?" asked Dean, letting go of Alex's hand to creep closer towards the child.

Alex inched towards the child along with Dean, both of them moving very slowly towards her so as not to scare her.

"Little girl?" called out Dean again.

The girl continued to cry.

"Are you hurt?" asked Alex.

Dean shrugged and they finally reached the little girl. Both of them crouched down to be closer to her size and as they crouched down, a thick trail of saliva and blood left the little girl's mouth.

"You know, this whole not talking thing is really creeping me out," said Dean.

Suddenly, the little girl yelled and jumped up, grabbing a shard of glass from beside her and slashing at Dean's arm. Dean and Alex both jumped backward, away from her. She continued screaming, bringing her arm back again to cut Alex this time, but Alex got to her first, slamming her fist into the girl's face. The girl fell, facedown, into a dirty old mattress, Dean and Alex breathing heavily from the exertion of fighting the feral little girl. Alex glanced farther down the alleyway, her face turning white as she saw what was painted on a brick wall near the end of the alley. She reached out, grabbing Dean's arm.

"What?" asked Dean.

"Dean, look."

Dean looked up and saw what Alex was looking at: the word Croatoan was painted in blood on the brick wall. Dean's eyes widened.

"Oh, crap," he whispered.

Just as he spoke, a group of four burly men walked into the adjacent alley. They smirked evilly at Dean and Alex. As Dean and Alex stared, more people began joining the group. Alex began backing away slowly, Dean following in her footsteps.

"Run," whispered Dean.

Alex nodded and she and Dean took off out of the alley and back into the street where they had recently emerged from. As they ran, Alex hit a trash can, knocking it over. She winced, but pushed herself to run faster. Dean was right behind her, the group gaining on him and Alex. He heard one of them step into a puddle, the splashing noise louder than normal in the abandoned town. As Alex and Dean rounded the corner, they reached a chain link fence. They both turned around to face the group of vicious humans and just as the group got closer, a set of tires squealed and the group went down, all of them being shot at now. A tank had emerged behind Dean and Alex. Dean pulled Alex down to the ground with him as the tank shot at the group of people. Men in full Army uniforms emerged from the large tank, putting bullets into all of the infected people. Dean crawled forward, leading Alex out of the range of fire and around another corner. They ran into another alley behind a chain link fence that was actually open. Dean looked at Alex, as she shielded her ears from the sound of gunfire flying around them.

That night, Dean crawled under the fence that barred anyone from entering into the city. He helped pull Alex out from under the fence and then they both stared at the large sign on the fence. It read, "No Entry by Order of Acting Regional Command. August 1st 2019. Kansas City."

"August 1st, 2019?" asked Alex.

She looked over at Dean. Dean nodded towards the car behind them and he and Alex climbed inside. Dean started the car and they headed away from Kansas City. Once they were on the road, both Dean and Alex got out their cell phones, looking for service.

"Fuck," said Alex, locking her phone and shoving it back into her pocket.

Dean did the same and then reached for the radio dial. Once it was on, all they could hear was static. Dean flipped it back over to off.

"Well that's never a good sign," said Dean.

As they drove on in silence, Alex glanced into the backseat and gasped suddenly. Zachariah was now sitting there, smirking at the two of them.

"Croatoan pandemic reaches Australia."

"I thought I smelled your stink on this future crap," said Dean, glaring into his rearview mirror at Zachariah.

"President Palin defends bombing of Houston. Let's see what's happening in the sports, shall we?" asked Zachariah.

He flipped through the paper he was holding and then looked up.

"That's right, no more sports. Congress revoked the right for groups to assemble."

"How did you even find us?" asked Alex.

"Human informants. We've given your image to unorthodox Christian groups and told them to be on the lookout."

"Ah, the little freak outside the hotel," said Dean.

"Send us back now, you sadistic son of a bitch," threatened Alex.

"Ooh, check out the mouth on you! You'll get back, all in good time. We want you two to marinate a bit," explained Zachariah.

"Marinate?" asked Dean.

"You two will be here a few days. Three days exactly, to see where this takes you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Dean.

"It means that your choices have consequences," said Zachariah, showing Alex and Dean the newspaper he was holding.

"This is what happens to the world if you continue saying no to Michael. So, have a little look and see," said Zachariah.

He disappeared from the backseat of the stolen car and Dean slammed his palm down onto the steering wheel with frustration.

The next day, Alex and Dean pushed open the door to Bobby's house. The door creaked open creepily.

"Bobby?" called out Dean.

"Bobby, we're coming in!" yelled Alex.

The two Winchester siblings walked further into the house, looking for Bobby. As they walked into the study, they saw Bobby's wheelchair lying on the floor, Bobby nowhere in sight.

"Oh no," whispered Dean.

He walked over to the wheel chair and set it upright. He and Alex both looked at it, seeing what looked like bullet holes in the fabric.

"Where is everybody, Bobby?" whispered Alex.

Dean stood up straight and headed for the fireplace in the study. He cleared some cobwebs off of the mantle and pulled open a secret compartment. Dean grabbed a journal from out of the secret drawer and began flipping through it. As he looked through the pages, Dean stopped on a black and white picture that was wedged into the book. Bobby was in the front of the picture, sitting in his wheelchair and holding a shotgun. Four other men surrounded him, but Dean noticed the sign that was located next to all of them.

"Camp Chitaqua," whispered Dean.

"Did you find anything?" asked Alex, walking over to her brother.

"Yeah. Come on, we've gotta go to Camp Chitaqua," answered Dean.

"Camp Chi-what?" asked Alex.

But Dean ignored her and headed for the front door, Alex following closely behind him.

Dean and Alex walked past the sign welcoming them to Camp Chitaqua, walking slowly. As they reached the chain link fence, they saw a lock on the fence. As they stood there looking into the campgrounds, they saw two men walk past, talking freely and holding shotguns on their shoulders. As Dean watched the men walk away, he spotted his Impala. He let out a strangled yelp and Alex rolled her eyes.

"Aww, baby, no," whispered Dean.

The Impala was in a field full of weeds. The tires were gone and rust colored the car. Alex followed Dean over the fence and they silently crept toward Dean's Impala. As they got closer, they saw a lot of dirt covering the roof of the car and the doors were completely off of the car.

"Oh no, baby, what have they done to you?" asked Dean.

Alex whirled around and screamed as someone knocked her over the head, knocking her unconscious. Dean turned around and the man knocked him out as well, knocking him in the head. Once both of them were unconscious, the man looked between them. The man who had knocked the Winchesters out was the future version of Dean.

Dean and Alex awoke to find themselves handcuffed to a metal ladder. As they looked around, they saw the future version of Dean sitting before them, loading his shotgun.

"What the hell?" asked the regular Dean.

"I should be asking you two that question, don't you think? In fact, why don't you give me one great reason why I shouldn't kill you both right here and right now," said the future Dean.

"Because you'd only be hurting yourself?"

"Very funny."

The future Dean continued loading and preparing his weapon, ignoring both Dean and Alex.

"Look, man. I'm no shape-shifter or demon or anything, alright?"

"Yeah, I know. I did the drill on both of you while you were out. Silver, salt, holy water. Absolutely nothing. But you know what was funny, you had every lock pick, lock cutter, and switchblade that I also carry. Do either one of you want to explain that? You can also explain the resemblance while you're at it."

"Zachariah," said Alex.

The future Dean stood up, his gaze trained upon her.

"Come again?" he asked her.

"I'm you from 2014. And this is Alex, your little sister, also from 2014. Zach plucked us from our beds and threw us both into the future five years," explained Dean.

"Where is he? I want to talk to him," said future Dean.

"We don't know," said Alex.

"Oh, neither one of you know."

"No, we don't know. Look, we just want to get back to our own freaking year, alright?"

The future Dean nodded.

"Alright."

He knelt down in front of Dean and looked him straight in the face.

"If you're me, then tell me something only I would know."

The regular Dean scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Rhonda Hurley. We were, um, 19. She made us try on her panties. And you know what? We kind of liked it."

Alex looked grossed out and she made a retching sound with disgust. Future Dean nodded, a smirk on his face.

"Touché," said future Dean.

He stood up and walked back over to the table that he was using as a work table.

"So Zachariah just zapped you two up here to see how bad it really gets?"

"Yep, we guess," said Alex.

The future Dean loaded a smaller gun while Alex and regular Dean looked towards him.

"The Croatoan virus, right? That's their end game?" asked regular Dean.

Future Dean nodded.

"It's very efficient. It's incurable and it's scary as all hell. It turns a whole lot of people into vicious monsters. It started hitting all of the major cities about two years ago and the world really fell apart after that."

"What about Sam?" asked Alex.

The future Dean paused, his face hardening.

"Heavyweight showdown in Detroit and from what I understand, Sam didn't make it out alive."

"You weren't with him?" asked regular Dean.

"No. No, I wasn't. Me and Sam haven't talked in… Hell, five years."

"And we never tried to find him?"

"We had other people to worry about. Like baby sister, for example."

The future Dean nodded over at Alex as he slung a duffel bag over his shoulder, grabbing his gun.

"Wait, where are you going?" asked regular Dean.

"I've got an errand to run."

"And you're just going to leave us here?" asked Alex.

"Yes. I've got a whole camp full of twitchy survivors out there with an apocalypse hanging over their heads and the last thing I need to see right now is a version of the freaking Parent Trap! So yeah, you both stay locked down."

"Okay, alright, fine. But you don't have to cuff us, man."

The future Dean gave them one last look before walking out the side door of the room he had them locked up in.

"What a dick," whispered Dean.

He looked over at Alex, who had her bottom lip pulled in between her teeth.

"Lex? What's wrong?"

"Dean, what happened to me? I mean, he didn't say anything about a future me. Am I dead?" asked Alex, her voice ending in a whisper.

"Alex, stop that. We'll figure this out, okay? You're not dead. Now, you've got to help me find a way out of this. Hurry, let's try and pull a nail out of this floorboard."

Alex nodded and she and Dean went to work, looking for a nail close by and within reach to help them get free.

After about thirty minutes, Alex and Dean had managed to free themselves from the handcuffs they had been bound with. They slowly crept out of the small red cabin that they had been housed in, looking around before they crept away from the safety of the cabin. Once they realized that no one was around, they began heading towards the exit, Alex behind Dean.

"Hey, Dean. You got a second?" asked Chuck, walking towards them.

Dean quickly shoved Alex behind him as he turned to face Chuck.

"No. I mean, yes, I guess. Hey, Chuck," said Dean.

Chuck looked up at him. His smile brightened when he saw Alex peeking around Dean's side to look at him.

"Oh, hey, Alex! I think Kellan was looking for you. Melina's been pretty irritable lately, I guess. And I think John was causing some problems too," said Chuck.

"Oh, um, alright," said Alex, pretending like she knew who Melina and John were.

"So, um, listen, Dean, we're pretty good on canned goods for now, but we're down to next to nothing on perishables and hygiene supplies. People are not going to be thrilled about this, at all. So, what do you think we should do?" asked Chuck.

Dean looked very confused.

"I don't know. Maybe, um, share?"

"Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be out on a mission right now?"

"Absolutely, and I will be. Very soon."

Suddenly, a woman came up behind Dean, attempting to punch him in the face. Dean ducked and as the woman tried to bring up her knee and kick him in the groin, Dean moved behind Chuck, using him as a human shield. Alex stepped away from all three of them.

"Jesus! What the hell, lady?!" yelled Dean.

"Reesa," corrected Chuck.

"Reesa!" yelled Dean.

Reesa looked absolutely furious.

"You spent the night in Jane's cabin last night, didn't you?" asked Reesa.

Alex rolled her eyes at Dean.

"Uh, what? I- did I?" asked Dean.

Chuck nodded quickly and uncomfortably.

"I thought we had a connection," said Reesa, putting air quotes around the word "connection."

"Well, I'm sure that we do," said Dean, smirking over at Reesa as he fully checked her out then.

"Oh yeah?" said Reesa, walking past Dean and glaring at him.

"Hi, Reesa," said Chuck, giving her a small smile before she completely walked away from them.

"I'm getting busted for stuff I haven't even done yet," whispered Dean, turning back around to face Chuck.

"Huh?" asked Chuck, looking thoroughly confused now.

Dean shook his head.

"Just… Never mind. Hey, Chuck, is Cas still here?"

"Yeah. I don't think Cas is going anywhere," said Chuck, laughing slightly.

After Chuck had left them, Dean grabbed and he discreetly led them over to Cas's cabin. They walked up the steps to enter Castiel's cabin and instead of a door, there was a large curtain of multi-colored beads hanging from the doorway instead. Dean carefully pulled the beads aside and both he and Alex poked their heads through the doorway. Castiel was sitting in a circle on the floor. A large carpet was underneath him and four women surrounded him in the circle on the floor. Dean slowly moved inside, Alex right beside him. Castiel glanced over and saw both Dean and Alex. He then turned back and smiled at the women, excusing himself to go converse briefly with Dean. The women all left the cabin so that Alex and Dean could talk to Castiel in private.

"What are you, a hippie?" asked Dean.

"I thought you'd gotten over trying to label me."

"Cas, we've gotta talk."

"Whoa. Strange," said Castiel, turning to look at both of them.

"What?"

"You… are not you, not now you, anyway."

"No! Well, yes. Yes, exactly."

"What year are you from?"

"Who did this to the two of you? Was it Zachariah?" asked Castiel.

"Yes."

"Oh. Interesting," whispered Castiel, scratching his chin.

"Oh yeah, it's freaking fascinating. Now, why don't you strap on your big old angel wings and fly us back to our year?" asked Dean.

As Dean spoke, Castiel smirked and began chuckling.

"What is it? Why are you laughing so much?" asked Alex.

"I wish I could, um, just strap on my large angel wings, but I'm sorry, no can do."

Castiel began laughing profusely once again and Alex and Dean just stared at him.

"What are you, stoned?" asked Dean.

Castiel turned back to face the two of them.

"Oh, generally, yes."

Dean and Alex looked taken aback.

"Castiel, what happened to you?" asked Alex.

Castiel just shrugged.

"Life."

Suddenly, the sound of cars rolling onto the gravel drive caused all three of them to slowly walk outside. The future Dean emerged from one of the three Jeeps and tossed a beer to one of the other men. The two men chugged their beers together and just as the future Dean pulled a gun out to shoot the man in the back of the head, the regular Dean emerged from the trees, yelling.

"Whoa, watch out!" yelled the regular Dean.

But it was way too late. The future Dean shot the man in the head as he turned around to face him. The other two men looked at the regular Dean and then at Castiel and Alex, who were right behind him.

"Damn it," whispered the future Dean under his breath.

"I'm not gonna lie to you, me and him? It's a pretty messed up situation we've got going on here. But believe me, when you need to know something, you will know it. But until then, we all have work to complete," explained the future Dean to his two comrades.

The future Dean shoved the regular Dean back into his cabin, Alex following behind the both of them.

"What the hell was that?" asked the future Dean.

"What the hell was that? You just shot a man in cold blood!"

"We are in a quarantined zone. Got ambushed by some Croats on the way out."

The regular Dean and Alex looked confused with the term "Croats."

"Croats, Croatoans. Anyway, one of them infected Yaeger," clarified the future Dean angrily.

"How do you know?"

"Because after a few years of this, I know. I started seeing symptoms in him about a half an hour ago and I knew it wasn't going to be long before he flipped. I didn't see a point in troubling a good man with bad news."

"Alright, look-"

"No. You look. This isn't your time, it's mine. You don't make the decisions, I do. So when I say stay in, you stay in!"

The future Dean went over to his kitchen sink and grabbed a bottle of pure whiskey, pouring some into a couple of glasses.

"Look, man, I'm really sorry. I'm not trying to mess you or… me… us up here-"

"I know."

"Well, this has been one really wacky weekend," said regular Dean.

The future Dean walked over to him, handing him a glass. He also offered one to Alex, who was still standing by the front door. She walked over to them, grabbing the third glass from off of the table.

"Tell me about it," said the future Dean.

The three of them each drank their small glass of whiskey, cringing as it burned on the way down their throats.

"What was your mission anyway?" asked Alex, looking at the future version of her oldest brother.

The future Dean looked at her and then looked at the regular Dean. He pulled his duffel bag closer to him and pulled out the Colt from within its depths.

"The Colt?" whispered regular Dean.

"The Colt," said future Dean, nodding solemnly.

"Where was it?" asked Alex.

"Everywhere. They've been moving it around. It took me five years, but I finally got it. And tonight… Tonight, I'm gonna kill the devil," explained future Dean.

"So, that's it? That's the Colt?" asked Reesa.

She was with Castiel, regular Dean, and future Dean as they stood in a large room in the future Dean's cabin.

"If anything can kill the devil, this is it," assured future Dean.

"Great. Have we got anyone who can find Lucifer?" asked Reesa, her tone biting.

"Are you okay?" asked future Dean, looking at her strangely.

"Oh, we were in Jane's cabin last night. And apparently we and Reesa have a connection?" said regular Dean.

Castiel chuckled while future Dean glared at regular Dean.

"We don't have to find Lucifer because we already know where he is. The demon that we caught last week, he was one of the… big guy's entourage. He knew."

"So you just believe him?" asked Reesa.

"Oh, trust me. He wouldn't lie."

"And you know this how?"

"Our fearless leader, I'm afraid, is all too schooled on getting the truth from people, even demons," answered Castiel, his face turning morose.

"Torture? Oh, so we're torturing again?" asked regular Dean.

Dean, Castiel, and Reesa all turned to look at him.

"Real classy," said regular Dean, winking sarcastically at himself.

Castiel chuckled and the future Dean looked over at him. Castiel just shrugged.

"What? I like the past you."

Future Dean spread out his map over the large wooden table and pointed to a particular spot in the middle of it.

"Lucifer is here."

"Oh, great, it's right in the middle of a hotzone," said Castiel.

"Full of Croats, yeah. Are you saying my plan is reckless?" asked the future Dean.

"Are you saying we just walk straight up the driveway, past all of the Croats, and shoot the devil?" asked Castiel.

"Yes. Are you coming or not?" asked the future Dean.

Castiel sighed.

"Of course. But why is he? I mean, he's you five years ago. If something happens to him, you're gone, right?"

"He's coming," said the future Dean, leaving no room for discussion.

"Well, okay. I'll, um, get the grunts working," said Castiel.

"We're loaded and on the road by midnight!" called out the future Dean.

"Alrighty!" yelled back Castiel, Reesa following him out of the front door of the cabin.

Once they were gone, the regular Dean turned to look at his future self.

"Why are you taking me?" he asked himself.

"Relax. You'll be fine. I mean, Zach's looking after you, right?"

"No, that's not what I mean. I want to know what's going on."

"Yeah, alright. You're coming because I want you to see something. I want you to see our brother."

"What do you mean, see our brother?" asked Alex.

Both versions of Dean turned to look at her. She was standing in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Sam? I thought he was dead," said the regular Dean.

Alex walked over to join him and the future Dean looked at the both of them. He sighed deeply.

"Sam didn't die in Detroit. He said yes to Lucifer."

"Yes?" asked the regular Dean.

"Wait. You mean-" began Alex.

"Yes. The big yes to the devil," answered the future version of Dean.

"Why would he do that?" asked Alex.

"Hell if I know. Now it's in him and we don't have a choice, it's not coming back out. We've got to kill him, Dean. And you need to see it. The whole damn thing, how bad it gets, so you can do it different."

"What do you mean?" asked the regular Dean.

"Zach said he was going to bring you two back, right? To 2014? Well, when you get back home, you say yes. Do you hear me? You need to say yes to Michael."

"That's just crazy. If I let him in, then Michael fights the devil. The battle's gonna torch half of the planet!"

"Look around you, man! Half the planet's better than no planet, which is what we have right now. If I could do it over again, then I would, in a heartbeat!"

"No, there's gotta be another way!" yelled the regular Dean.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I thought too. I was cocky and arrogant. I never thought I'd actually lose. But I was wrong. Because you know what I lost? I lost Sam!"

Suddenly, the front door to Dean's cabin burst open. A little girl burst inside, giggling as she headed straight for the future version of Dean.

"Uncle Dean!" she yelled.

The future Dean let a huge smile break out onto his face as he crouched down, letting the little girl run straight into his arms. He picked her up and spun around with her in his arms as she giggled even louder. He kissed her cheek as a man and woman entered the cabin together, holding hands. A four year old boy trailed behind them, smiling when he saw the future version of Dean as well. He ran towards him and the future Dean smiled, scooping him up in his other available arm.

"What's up, buddy?" asked the future version of Dean, tickling the boy's stomach and making him giggle.

The man and woman stopped walking forward as they spotted Alex and the regular Dean in the middle of the room.

"Babe, what's going on?" asked Kellan, turning to look at the Alex who was still holding onto his hand.

"Um, I'm not actually sure, honey. Dean?" called out Alex, never taking her eyes off of the regular Alex.

The future Dean stopped spinning the little girl and boy around and turned to look at his sister.

"I'll explain it all. Kellan, why don't you take John and Melina here and get them some ice cream?" asked Dean.

Both of the children's eyes lit up as the future Dean put them both back down on the ground. He kissed their foreheads and then Melina ran for her father. Kellan picked her up, grabbed John's little hand with his free one, and then kissed the future Alex, who was still standing by his side, before leaving the cabin, shutting the front door behind him.

"What the hell is this? Why am I here, but also standing over there?" asked the future Alex, pointing to the regular version of Alex.

The regular Alex noticed the rings on the future Alex's left hand and gasped, putting a hand up to her mouth.

"I married Kellan?" she whispered.

The future Alex glanced at the engagement and wedding rings on her left ring finger, smiling gently as they flickered brightly in the fluorescent lights.

"Four years ago. It was the best day of my life. Well, besides the nights that Melina and John were born," smiled Alex, putting her hands on her stomach gently as she smiled.

"You're… I'm pregnant again, aren't I?" asked the regular Alex.

The future Alex gasped, looking over at herself.

"How would you know that? I just found out yesterday!"

"I'm you from the past! We're the same person, I know everything about you! I mean… I know everything about me! God, this is so strange! Anyway, long story short, Zachariah plopped us five years into the future to see what's going to happen to us, so that's why I'm here and why this Dean's here as well," explained Alex.

The future Alex looked taken aback, but she nodded slowly after a few minutes.

"Well, alrighty then. Bro, I'm going to go get some ice cream with my gorgeous family, all right? Call me if you need anything," said the future version of Alex.

She walked over to the future version of Dean, kissed him on the cheek, and then glanced once more at the regular versions of Alex and Dean. She shivered, feeling slightly freaked out at seeing the past version of herself and her older brother, but she gave them both a small smile before leaving the cabin to join her new family.

"That was your daughter, Melina Reese. She's three years old and quite the handful. She has all of the little boys and even the older men in this small village of survivors wrapped around her little tiny finger. And that little boy is your four year old son, John Andrew. They're fairly close and Melina follows him everywhere," said the future Dean, finishing with a small chuckle and a small smile.

The regular Dean smirked.

"That's right. Let me guess, you spoil them as much as you can in this God-forsaken village and see them every single day?" asked the regular Dean.

The future Dean nodded, smirking with agreement. The future Dean went over and grabbed a picture from off of his desk in his small office area. He handed it over to Alex, Dean looking at it from over her shoulder. Alex smiled as she took the picture from the future Dean. Kellan was holding their adorable little girl, Melina, in one arm, her bright blonde curls hanging around her cherub-like face. The little boy, John, was in Kellan's other arm, laughing and clapping his hands together as he looked at his father playing with his little sister. Kellan was kissing the little girl's cheek as Melina giggled in the picture, her two front teeth the only ones showing as she smiled and laughed. Alex looked over at the future Dean.

"Can I please keep this picture?" she whispered.

The future Dean nodded.

"Of course. I have about a million more in this damn cabin. They're my whole world. Alex… You, Kellan, and those two kids… well, almost three kids, apparently, are the only family I have left in this horrible world. They brighten up this place."

Alex smirked.

"Sounds like I taught them well then."

Alex then stuck the picture gently into her pocket and hugged her brother. The regular Dean held her close and then kissed her temple.

"Be safe out there tonight, big brother," she whispered.

Both Deans nodded and they headed out the door to kill Lucifer.

"So you're really from 2014, huh?" asked Chuck, walking with the regular Dean.

"Yep."

"Some advice? If you ever get back there, you need to hoard toilet paper. Hoard it like it's made of gold."

"Thanks, Chuck."

Dean threw his duffel bag into the bed of the trunk he was riding in and climbed into the passenger seat, the future version of himself driving them. Chuck waved them off as they drove away from the camp.

A few hours later, both of the Deans and Castiel led the rest of their group through the abandoned city. The regular Dean was on the lookout while he took in the unusual sight of such a large city that was now abandoned. They found a large building and the future Dean got out his binoculars to scope it out.

"There. The second floor. We go in there."

"Are you sure about this?" asked Reesa.

"He'll never see us coming. Trust me. Now, weapons check. We're moving in five," ordered the future Dean.

"Um, me? Can I talk to you for a second?" asked the regular Dean.

The future Dean sighed, but stood up, leading the regular Dean away from the group a short distance.

"Tell me what's going on," demanded the regular Dean.

"What?"

"I know you. You're lying to all of these people and to me. You see, I know all of your lying expressions. I've seen them all in the mirror. There's something you're not telling us!"

"I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Oh really?"

The future Dean finally sighed.

"Look, this place should be white hot with Croats. So, where are they?" asked future Dean.

"They cleared a path for us. Which means that this is a-"

"Trap. Exactly. So, we're definitely not going in through the front. But the rest of them are. They're the decoys. You and me, we're going in through the back."

"So you mean to tell me, you're going to sacrifice your friends? You want to use their deaths as a diversion? You're making decisions that I never would have made. I wouldn't sacrifice my friends."

"You're right. You wouldn't. It's one of the main reasons we're in this mess."

"These people count on you. They trust you."

"They trust me to kill the devil and to save the world. And that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"No, not like this you're not. I'm not going to let you."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah," said regular Dean.

The future Dean came back with his fist and punched him in the face, knocking himself unconscious.

The regular Dean awoke to the sounds of gunfire in the near distance. He groaned as he lifted his head up. He saw flashes of light and gunfire in the large brick building nearest him. He quickly stood up and headed for the building. As he raced around to the front, he saw himself on the ground, Sam's foot on his neck. The future Dean stared at the regular Dean before there was a sickening crunch and the future Dean's eyes closed as he died. As Dean's neck crunched, lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and Sam turned to look at the regular Dean.

"Oh. Hello, Dean. Aren't you a surprise? You've come a long way to see this, haven't you?" asked Sam.

Dean looked Sam over thoroughly as the lightning and thunder continued to rage above the both of them.

"Well, go ahead. Kill me."

"Kill you?"

Sam looked past Dean to look at the dead, future Dean.

"Wouldn't that be a little… redundant?" asked Sam, looking back at the very much alive Dean.

Sam sighed deeply as he stared at his brother.

"I'm sorry. It must be painful, speaking to me in this… shape. But it had to be your brother. It had to be," said Sam.

He walked towards Dean, reaching out to put a hand on Dean's shoulder, but Dean backed away from Sam's hand. Sam put his hand down.

"You don't have to be afraid of me, Dean. What do you think I'm going to do?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe deep fry the planet?"

"Why? Why would I want to destroy this stunning Earth? This is the last, perfect handiwork of God Himself."

"Look, my stomach's almost out of bile, so I don't need to hear any puke inducing stories, alright?"

"Do you know why God cast me down?"

Dean didn't answer Sam.

"Because I loved Him. I would have done anything for Him. Anything. And then God created…"

Sam smirked and chuckled briefly.

"You. The little… hairless apes. And then He asked all of us to bow down before you. To love you more than Him. And I told him that I couldn't do that. I told him, these human beings are flawed. And for that, God had Michael cast me into Hell. Now tell me. Does the punishment fit the crime? Especially since I was right."

"You're not fooling me, you know that? With this… sympathy for the devil crap. I know exactly what you are. You're the same thing, only bigger. The same brand of cockroach I've been squashing my whole life. An ugly, evil, supernatural son of a bitch. The only difference between cockroaches and you is the size of your ego," said Dean.

Sam cocked his head to the side, smirking sympathetically over at Dean.

"I like you, Dean. And I get what the other angels see in you. Goodbye, Dean. We'll meet again soon."

Sam turned away from Dean, walking away swiftly.

"You better kill me now!" yelled Dean.

"Pardon?" replied Sam, turning back around to face Dean.

"I said, you better kill me now! Or someday, somewhere, I will find a way to kill you. And I won't stop!"

"I know you won't. And I know you won't say yes to Michael either. And I know you won't kill Sam. So whatever you do, you will always end up… here. Whatever choice you make, every detail you alter, we will always end up… here. So I win."

Dean began crying, tears running down his face.

"You're wrong, Sam."

Sam smirked sarcastically.

"I'll see you in five years, Dean."

A large flash of lightning appeared and then Sam was gone, having disappeared with the lightning. Dean stood looking at the spot where Sam had previously been standing before him. He whirled around and Zachariah appeared, touching his fingers to Dean's forehead.

Dean and Alex both breathed heavily as they reappeared back into the year of 2014. Zachariah stood before them, smirking over at them.

"Oh, well, if it isn't the ghosts of Christmas screw you," growled Dean, glaring over at Zachariah.

"Enough. Dean, enough. You saw it, right, you saw what happens. You're the only person who can prove the devil wrong. Just say yes."

"And how do I know that this whole thing isn't just one of your tricks? Huh? Some angel hocus pocus?"

"The time for tricks is over. Now, give yourself to Michael. Say yes and then we can strike. Before Lucifer even gets to Sam. Before billions of innocent people die."

Dean walked around Zachariah, brushing past him. Alex pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth nervously as she watched her older brother pace around their hotel room.

"No," said Dean.

"No?" repeated Zachariah.

Dean turned back around to face him, nodding.

"Are you telling me that you two haven't learned your lessons?" asked Zachariah.

"Oh, we learned a lesson, alright. Just not the one that you wanted to teach."

"Well, I guess I'll just have to teach it to you two again because I've got you now, boy, and I'm never letting you…"

Zachariah trailed off as Dean and Alex suddenly disappeared. He was now standing alone in the hotel room.

"Son of a…"

Dean and Alex whirled around, Castiel standing behind them. The street beside them was empty.

"That's some pretty nice timing, Cas," said Dean, smiling over at Castiel.

"Well, we had an appointment."

Alex and Dean smirked together. Dean placed a hand on Castiel's shoulder.

"Don't ever change," said Dean.

"So, how did Zachariah find you two?" asked Castiel.

"Long ass story," said Alex, watching as Dean pulled out his cell phone from his pocket.

"Let's just stay away from Jehovah's Witnesses from now on, alright?" asked Dean.

Alex giggled while Castiel nodded, looking very confused.

"What are you doing?" asked Castiel.

"Something I should've done in the first place," answered back Dean.

He held his phone up to his ear, listening to it ring from the other end.

A couple hours later, Alex and Dean were leaning against the Impala in a field beside a local bridge. They watched as a bright yellow Chevrolet pulled up beside both of them. The car was put into park and Sam climbed out of the yellow car, walking towards his siblings as they walked towards him, causing them all to meet in the middle between the two vehicles.

"Sam," said Dean.

Sam said absolutely nothing, so Dean pulled out their demon-killing knife from inside his jacket and held it out, the handle side facing Sam and the serrated blade facing Dean and Alex.

"If you're serious and you really want back in, you should hang onto this. I'm sure you're rusty."

Sam reached out, grabbing the knife from Dean's open palm.

"Look, man, I'm really sorry. I don't know, I'm whatever I need to be, but I was wrong," said Sam.

"What made you change your mind?" asked Sam.

Dean scoffed sarcastically.

"It's a long story. But the point is, maybe we are each other's Achilles heel. And maybe they'll find a way to use us against each other, I really don't know. I just know that we're all we've got. But more than that, we keep each other human," explained Dean.

"Thank you. Really, thank you. I won't let either one of you down," said Sam.

Dean raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, don't I know it. I mean, you are the second best hunter on the planet," smirked Dean.

Sam smirked as well.

"Hey!" yelled Alex, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning.

Dean chuckled and pulled Alex over to him, into his side, kissing her temple as he pulled her in close.

"So what do we do now?" asked Sam.

"We make our own future. All three of us," said Dean, looking at all of his siblings.

"I guess we have no other choice," said Sam.

Dean and Alex nodded and the three of them all climbed into the Impala together. Alex climbed into the backseat and pulled out the picture of Kellan and Melina that the future Dean had given her.

"Hey, Sammy! Want to see your niece and nephew?" asked Alex.

"Of course!" exclaimed Sam.

Alex passed the picture up to Sam and Sam smiled down at it.

"Alex, they're both gorgeous. Now let's make sure we can all watch them grow up, not just you and Dean," said Sam.

Alex smiled and Sam passed her back the picture. Alex ran her fingers over the picture reverently and then gently placed the picture back into the back pocket of her jeans.

A few days later, Dean was driving as Alex slept in the backseat and Sam questioned Dean about the job they were currently heading for.

"So, what's with this new job?" asked Sam.

"Dude suffers a head-on collision in a parked car? I'd say that's something worth checking out," answered Dean.

"Yeah, definitely! But, um, we have much bigger problems, don't you think?"

"I'm sure the apocalypse will still be there when we get back."

"Right, yeah. But I mean if the Colt is really out there somewhere…"

"Sam, we've been looking for three weeks and we have absolutely nothing."

"Okay. But, Dean, I mean, if we're gonna ice the devil-"

"This is what we're doing, alright? End of discussion. It's just that this is our first real case back together again, just the three of us. And I think we should really just ease right back into our old routine. Sound fair?"

Sam nodded and faced forward, looking out his passenger side window.

They arrived in Canton, Ohio just as the sun began to rise, bringing with it the brand new morning. Dean roused Alex awake from her slumber in the backseat and they rented out a motel room, getting ready for the day.

Dean, Alex, and Sam all flashed their fake F.B.I. badges to the man who greeted them at the police station.

"We're agents Bottom, Cartland, and Marshall."

The police officer nodded.

"Officer Rick Carnegie. Good to know you," he said, reaching out and shaking all of their hands.

"So you're here on account of Cale Hawkins' death?" the police officer asked the three of them.

Alex nodded, a polite smile on her face.

"That's right," she said.

"Well, I'm very afraid that you came a long way for absolutely nothing. We've already booked the man who did it."

"Um, I'm sorry, but who do you think did it?" asked Sam, exchanging nervous glances with his siblings.

"Follow me," said the police officer.

The siblings followed him into a small interrogation room, where a TV was rolled in and set up. The officer, Rick, popped a DVD into the DVD player located underneath the TV. They watched the footage, seeing the man's view as he held the video camera. He discovered his friend's dead body through the windshield of his car and subsequently screamed, dropping the video camera to the floor and thus ending the film.

Officer Carnegie shook his head and turned off the TV.

"The sicko even taped his own handy work."

"We're not really following here," said Dean, leaning forward in his seat and resting his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward, closer to Rick Carnegie now.

"Well, it was obviously Jim Grossman who killed Cale."

"Wait, what?" asked Alex, her eyebrows pulling together with confusion at this man's seriously skewed logic.

"Well, he was the only one on the scene for miles."

"And they were best friends?" asked Sam, clarifying.

"Most violent crimes are committed by someone close to the victim."

"And how exactly did Jim slam Cale into the windshield with all the force of an 80 mph crash?" asked Dean, his eyebrows raised as he stared at the police officer, Rick.

Rick paused for a couple of seconds before answering.

"I don't know. Drugs, maybe? Look, this ain't brain surgery here, folks. Whatever it looks like, that's what it usually ends up being, alright? It's simple, really."

"Simple. Right," said Alex.

"Right. Um, if you don't mind, we'd really love to speak to Jim Grossman anyway," pressured Sam, smirking over at Rick Carnegie.

"I was in the house when it happened, I swear I didn't even see it," explained Jim, staring up at the three siblings from where he sat behind a large, metal table.

"So for arguments' sake, let's say we believe you," explained Dean, staring at the man with no emotion whatsoever in his face.

"Well, why would you three if the cops didn't?"

"Well, we're not your typical cops," explained Alex.

"Please, just tell us what you saw," pleaded Sam.

"It's not what I saw, it's what I heard. Tires squealing, glass breaking."

Jim Grossman sighed before continuing on with his story of his close friend's death.

"It was the car that did it."

"The car," stated Alex, looking a bit incredulous.

"I mean, I've heard about the curse, but I just thought it was a load of bullshit."

"Curse, what do you mean, curse?" asked Dean, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his black slacks.

"The car. Little Bastard."

Dean's eyebrows shot up with disbelief.

"Lit-Little Bastard? As in, the Little Bastard?" asked Dean.

"Um, what's Little Bastard?" asked Sam.

Alex and Dean both rolled their eyes at Sam's question at the same exact time.

"It's James Dean's car. It's the one he was killed in," answered Dean.

"Mmm, James Dean," whispered Alex, smirking to herself.

"Yeah, that's the one. Cale'd been looking for it for years. I mean, hell, we both had been looking for it for what felt like forever. But then he found it first," said Jim Grossman, a tone of disdain now coloring his voice.

Dean leaned over, getting close to both of his siblings.

"Oh, we are so checking this out now," he whispered to the both of them.

They headed over to the evidence garage. They approached the car, Dean walking around it and staring at it reverently.

"Well, enlighten me," said Sam, standing by the trunk of the Porsche.

Alex crossed her arms over her chest and smirked, staring over at Sam.

"Well, after James Dean died, his mechanic brought the wreckage and fixed it up. And it repaid him by falling on him. And Tony McHenrie was killed when it locked up on him on the racetrack."

"I mean, Sammy, death follows this car around like it's exhaust. No one who touches it even comes away in one piece," finished Dean, leaning over the car door to look inside.

"Hmm," said Sam, his eyebrows furrowed together in the middle of his forehead while he was in thought.

"Then in 1970, it vanished off the back of a truck. And no one has ever seen it since. I'm telling you, man, if this… If this car is Little Bastard, I'll bet you a million dollars, it's what killed this guy," said Dean, smirking.

"So how do we find out if it's the real Little Bastard?" asked Alex, looking over at Dean now.

"Well, Cale matched the VIN number, but the only real way to know is through using the engine number."

"So I'm guessing the engine number is of course…"

"On the engine, right," answered Dean.

Alex bit her lip with nervous frustration as she looked over at her brothers.

Dean and Sam removed their jackets and were now just staring at the small car. Alex rolled her eyes at their scared behavior.

"Do you want me to do it, you pussies?" she asked.

"No. No, no, I've got it," said Dean.

Alex and Sam slightly stepped back so that Dean could walk forward toward the car. Dean took in a deep breath and then smirked nervously.

"Okay, baby. I'm not going to hurt you, so please, don't hurt me."

Dean climbed down and slid under the bottom of the car with a small pencil in between his lips. Once he could see the engine number on the engine, he grabbed the pencil from his mouth. The car shook ominously and Dean took in a quick, scared breath.

"You need a flashlight?" asked Alex, ducking her head down next to Dean's.

"No. Now, don't do anything. Just go away," said Dean.

"Um, okay," said Alex.

She stood up slowly and took her place beside Sam again. Once Alex was back to her place by Sam, Dean pulled out a small piece of paper to write the engine number on. The car creaked and shook once again. Dean placed the small piece of paper up onto the engine number and used the pencil to scratch the number onto the paper. He grimaced through this process and slid out from under the car as quickly as he could, breathing in and then letting out a large sigh of relief as he stood up. Sam and Alex just stared at him, their hands on their hips. Dean handed the slip of paper over to Sam, who glanced down at it in his left hand.

"Find out who owned it. But not just its last owner, you've got to take it all the way back to 1955."

"But that's a lot of research," said Sam.

"Well, I guess I just made your whole afternoon then, Sammy."

Sam's face looked defeated while Alex clapped Sam on the shoulder encouragingly before she followed Dean out of the police station's evidence garage.

Alex sat with Sam at the motel room kitchen table. Papers were strewn all over its surface, but they had found what they needed. Sam was now on the phone with Dean.

"Hey. It took me and Alex a while, but we finally traced down all of the car's previous owners."

"Did any of them die super bloody?" asked Dean.

"Actually, no. In fact… Wait a second, Dean, are you in a bar?" asked Sam.

Dean's eyebrows rose guiltily at Sam's question.

"No, actually, I'm in a restaurant," lied Dean.

"Here's your beer," said the bartender.

Sam shook his head on the other end of the line, hearing her.

"A restaurant which happens to have a bar."

"Alex and I've been working our asses off over here. You know what, never mind. You didn't actually need a drink because the car's first owner was a cardiologist who drove it until he died in 1972," said Sam.

"So you're saying…"

"That Porsche is not, nor has it ever been, James Dean's car. It's a fake Little Bastard," answered Sam.

"So what was it that killed the guy?" asked Dean.

"Good question!" yelled Alex, throwing her hands up with frustration and then slamming her head down onto the wooden dining room table.

Sam sighed with frustration as well.

The next morning, Sam, Dean, and Alex walked into the new crime scene, heading up the stairs to the actual scene of the crime, the victim's office.

"Heard you've got another weird one," stated Dean, as Officer Carnegie stepped past them through the office doorway.

"Well, it's a little bit strange on the surface, I'll admit. But once we look at the facts…"

"William Hill died from a gunshot wound to the head. With no gun, no gun powder, and also no bullet," explained Alex, her eyebrows raised as she stared at Officer Carnegie.

"Nope, absolutely nothing strange at all about that," said Dean.

The police officer sighed deeply.

"Well, there's got to be a reasonable explanation, there always is."

"Well, what's your reasonable explanation?" asked Sam, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he spoke to the police officer.

Officer Rick leaned forward, speaking very softly now.

"Professional killer," he whispered.

"Come again?" asked Alex.

"CIA, NSA. One of them trained assassins. Like in Michael Clayton!"

"Right," said Dean, exchanging glances with his siblings.

"Look, you're welcome to take a look around, but these pros don't leave fingerprints."

"Mind if we talk with the sole witness?" asked Alex.

"Sure, be my guest. She's not making any sense. And she's not making any sense in Spanish either!" yelled Officer Carnegie, shaking his head with frustration.

"Consuela Alvarez?" asked Dean.

He, Alex, and Sam had walked back out of the house and spotted the sole witness sitting on a bench right on the front lawn. The woman nodded and they flashed their badges once again.

"Great. Now, you said you saw something unusual in the window last night?" asked Alex.

The woman nodded once more and began speaking in rapid-fire Spanish. She began crying and Dean looked at Sam, raising his eyebrows. Sam sighed and slowly sat down next to the woman on the wooden bench. She looked at him expectantly.

"Um…"

Sam trailed off and looked at his siblings, trying to remember any Spanish he had previously learned before in school. Finally, it came to him and he asked her a question.

"Nice," said Alex.

She and Dean fist-bumped. Sam smirked.

"Freshman Spanish," said Sam.

He quickly turned back to face the woman as she began speaking once again. Once she was finished with her sentence, Sam turned to face his siblings.

"Okay, um, tall man, very tall with a long black coat and a… a beard?"

The woman nodded eagerly beside him, indicating that he was correct with his translation.

"Sombrero," said the woman.

"The dude was wearing a sombrero?" asked Dean, his eyebrows raised once again.

"A hat, not an actual sombrero," filled in Alex.

"Sombrero alto," said Consuela.

"A tall hat?" asked Sam.

"Oh, like a top hat," said Dean, nodding.

Consuela shook her head.

"Sombrero alto. Muy alto!" she said.

"So, you mean like a stovepipe hat?" asked Alex.

Consuela nodded with agreement.

"Si."

"Oh yeah, like Abraham Lincoln or something," said Dean.

Consuela began crying once again.

"Si. El presidente Lincoln."

Sam, Alex, and Dean looked worried now.

"Abraham Lincoln killed Mr. Hill!" sobbed Consuela, clutching her blanket tighter around her shoulders now as she cried next to Sam on the wooden porch bench.

"Huh," said Dean.

Later that afternoon, Sam, Alex, and Dean were all on separate laptops, perusing the Internet for any indication of what was happening in Canton, Ohio.

"Whoa," said Alex, freezing a frame of Jim Grossman's video.

"What is it?" asked Sam.

Alex flipped her computer around and held it up so that both of her brothers were able to see it at the same exact time.

"This is a freeze frame of Jim Grossman's home video. Now, am I crazy or does that look like James Dean in the reflection of that wheel well?" asked Alex.

Sam sighed and answered her question.

"No, you're not crazy because that definitely looks like James Dean."

Alex nodded and flipped her computer back around, setting it back down directly in front of her.

"So, we've got Abraham Lincoln and James Dean? Famous ghosts?" asked Dean.

Sam looked deep in thought over at his laptop computer.

"Maybe," said Sam.

"Well, that's just silly," said Dean, looking back down at his own computer screen.

Sam and Alex looked over at him.

"No, actually, there's a ton of lore on famous ghosts. More than the, you know, no famous kinds. I'm actually pretty surprised that we haven't ever run into one before," said Sam.

"Yeah, alright, but now we have two of them? Two extremely pissed off spirits?" asked Dean.

"Who are apparently ganking their biggest fans," said Alex.

"What do you mean?" asked Dean, looking over at his little sister now.

Alex looked down at her computer screen, beginning to read from it.

"Well, Professor Hill was a Civil War freak. He dug Lincoln, basically," explained Alex, shrugging.

"Which means Cale was obviously a James Dean freak. I mean, he spent 17 years of his life tracking down the guy's car," said Sam.

Alex nodded.

"So, you're saying that we've got two really famous, super pissed off ghosts killing their… super fans?" asked Dean.

Alex just shrugged.

"Well, that's certainly what it looks like! What the big question is, is what in the hell are they doing here in Canton, Ohio?" asked Alex, scrolling back down the page of her computer screen.

"Yeah, very true. I mean, ghosts usually haunt the places they lived. I mean, I'd understand if Abraham Lincoln were at the White House," said Sam.

"Yeah, or James Dean at a race track, but… What the hell are they doing in Canton?" asked Dean.

Alex and Sam both shrugged in response to his question.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," said Sam, looking down at his laptop computer screen.

Alex and Dean walked over to him, leaning in to read his computer screen more clearly.

"You've got to be kidding me," said Alex, reading the screen as well.

An hour later, Alex, Sam, and Dean were touring the Canton Wax Museum. Sam was looking through the President's display in the wax museum. Abraham Lincoln was there, along with John F. Kennedy. Dean stared at the wax figure of Ghandi, his head tilted to the side as he just stared at the wax figurine. Alex walked over to join him, giggling at Dean's tilting head and very confused face.

"Dude, he's short," said Dean.

"Hey. Ghandi was a wonderful, great man," said Alex, smacking Dean's shoulder.

"Yeah, for a Smurf," whispered Dean under his breath.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. This is our busiest time of the year," said a man, walking briskly down the set of stairs to Sam's left.

"This is busy?" asked Dean, looking around and seeing no other people in the wax museum with the three of them plus the man.

"Well, not right now, but it's still fairly early in the day."

"It's 4:30," said Alex.

"So, what can I do for you?" asked the man, smiling over at them and completely ignoring Alex's last remark about the time of day.

"Um, well, we are writing a piece for Travel magazine," began Sam.

"Yeah, on how totally non-sucky wax museums are," said Dean.

Alex rolled her eyes at his phrasing of words.

"Oh, well, that's simply fantastic! A little press is exactly what we need these days."

"Great. We're particularly interested in just a couple of your exhibits, specifically Abraham Lincoln and, um, James Dean," explained Sam.

"Well, those are two of our most popular displays," explained the man.

"Oh yeah? So they each bring in a lot of visitors?" asked Alex.

"Yes, we have our regulars."

"I don't suppose that, um, William Hill and Cale Hawkins were regulars, were they?" asked Dean.

"As a matter of fact, they were. Fairly frequent visitors, actually. I heard what happened to the both of them. It's tragic, just tragic, really. Oh, that's not going to be in the article, is it?" asked the man, suddenly looking worried at the fear of bad press for his museum.

"Oh, no. No, no, of course not," assured Alex, giving him a genuine smile.

"You know, that Lincoln figurine is so unbelievably lifelike, you know, you can just imagine him just moving around. You ever seen anything like that at all?" asked Dean, laughing and smirking.

The man turned back around from staring at the Lincoln wax figurine, the smile now gone from his face.

"Um, no, I can't say that I have ever seen anything like that at all."

"Well, is there anything that you can think of that would make your museum a little more… unusual than most normal museums? Just for the sake of the article?" asked Alex.

"Oh, well, I'll say! There isn't any other place like us, not anywhere at all."

"How so?" asked Sam.

"Well, for one…"

The man turned to face the Abraham Lincoln wax figurine.

"That's Honest Abe's real life hat!" he said, pointing to the hat on the wax figurine's head.

"It is, is it?" asked Alex, laughing slightly.

"Almost like his… remains," said Dean, looking at his siblings.

The man turned back to face them once again.

"Um, I guess so," he said, looking at the three of them strangely.

The three siblings chuckled together good-naturedly.

"Now, you wouldn't happen to have any of James Dean's personal effects, would you?" asked Sam, his face now serious once again.

"Yep, we, um, have got his keychain. We've got a bunch of stuff, actually. Ghandi's bifocals, FDR's iron lung. This," said the man, tugging on the leather jacket that he was currently wearing.

The siblings all looked over at him then.

"And who did that belong to?" asked Alex, her eyes wide with worry for the man.

"The Fonz. Seasons two through four," said the man, his smile widening and giving them a thumbs-up signal.

"Well, wow, yeah, that's really cool… ish," said Sam.

"Well, this is nothing. I've been working on a new collection of figures. Stuff that will really wow the kids."

"Oh, wow, the kids," said Alex.

"Yep. Gen-Y. Computer games, cell phones. Sexting. They're all just dumb fads. But I'm going to make wax museums hip again," said the man.

He shot them another geeky thumbs-up signal, sticking out his tongue this time with it. Dean chuckled humorlessly and Sam gave him a slight thumbs-up sign.

Alex sat on her bed while Dean was on the phone with Bobby. Sam reentered the room from loading the car with the proper weapons. Dean had his back turned, but Alex saw Sam enter the room again.

"Yeah, James Dean and Abraham Lincoln. You know, I don't know what has them so killing crazy, maybe it's this damn apocalypse that has them all so hot and bothered. Yeah, we all know who's fault that is," said Dean.

Sam heard this and sighed, shaking his head. Alex bit her lip as she watched Sam slam the motel room door closed, alerting Dean of his presence finally. Dean whirled around to face Sam and Alex.

"Yeah, I'll just talk to you later then. Alright, bye."

Dean hung up his phone, sticking it into one of the many pockets of his jeans.

"What's going on?" asked Sam, walking closer to Dean.

"Did you get the trunk all packed up?" asked Dean, ignoring Sam's question completely.

"Yeah, the trunk's all packed. Who was on the phone?"

"Bobby."

"And?" asked Sam, raising his eyebrows as he waited for an even longer explanation from his older brother.

"Nothing," said Dean, shaking his head.

Sam nodded slowly, smirking sarcastically.

"So are we just gonna pretend that I didn't hear what I just actually heard?" asked Sam.

Dean just shrugged.

"Pretend or don't pretend. Whatever floats your boat, pal."

"This was supposed to be a fresh start, Dean."

Dean turned away from Sam then, grabbing his leather jacket off of his own bed.

"Yeah, well, this is about as fresh as it gets. Now, are we going or not?" asked Dean.

He walked past Sam and headed for the motel room door, pulling it open and heading outside for his car. Sam took in a deep breath, exhaling with an angry sigh. Alex stood up from her bed, shutting off the lamp beside her and slipping on her shoes. She walked over to Sam, pulling on his arm so he would face her.

"Sammy, let it go, please. I'm giving you a fresh start, alright?"

Alex smiled sweetly at him and Sam broke down, smiling faintly back at her. She leaned forward, pressing her face into his chest and wrapping her arms around him, embracing him. She stood up straight and on her tip-toes, gently kissed her older twin brother's cheek. Sam exhaled into her hair and kissed her temple before they both walked out the door, following Dean to his beloved car.

The three siblings walked into the wax museum late that night, way after the museum was closed. Dean walked over to the Abraham Lincoln figure and removed his hat. He put it on his head and Alex and Sam both gave him disapproving looks.

"Hey, look, check this out. Four score and seven years ago, I had a funny hat," said Dean.

"Dean," said Sam.

He just shook his head while Dean removed Abraham Lincoln's hat from his head.

"What, I can't have any fun with any of this?" asked Dean, almost whining now.

"Seriously, let's just torch the objects, torch the ghosts, and then let's get out of here, alright?" asked Alex.

Dean nodded.

"Yeah, alright, I'll just go grab East of Eden's key chain," answered Dean.

Sam and Alex nodded and Dean headed for another, smaller part of the wax museum. As Sam and Alex stood there, their backs to the Presidents display, Alex felt chills run up and down her spine quickly. She suddenly reached out, grabbing Sam's hand. Sam lurched at her touch, pulling away from her.

"Alex, what the hell? Your hands are freezing, they're almost like… ice," said Sam, trailing off and his eyes widening with realization.

Alex's eyes were wide as well and they both exhaled. They could see their breath in the museum room display. Just as they came to this realization, the doors separating their display from Dean's slammed closed suddenly and sharply.

"Dean?" called out Sam, whirling around to face the doors that were now closed.

Sam walked towards the doors, Alex standing in the middle of the room.

"Dean," called out Sam.

He tried the doors, but they were locked.

"Of course they're locked," yelled Alex.

She exhaled once again and still saw her breath. Both she and Sam held up their shotguns, ready for the enemy ghosts to arrive and begin attacking them. Both Abraham Lincoln and Ghandi were still in their correct places. Sam slowly walked forward towards where Alex was still standing in the middle of the large room when a creak sounded from somewhere beside him. He whirled around to face his left side when his sawed-off shotgun flew out of his hands.

"Sam!" screamed Alex, watching as the ghost of Ghandi jumped onto Sam's back.

Ghandi wrapped his arms around Sam's throat, but Sam was prepared. He backed up into the wall, knocking Ghandi off of his back quickly. Sam watched Ghandi closely, but he was much too fast to keep an eye on all of the time. Ghandi crawled towards him quickly and jumped onto Sam's back once again before Sam had time to comprehend this course of action on Ghandi's part. Alex raised her sawed-off shotgun, but couldn't take the shot with Sam throwing himself around the room display so much. Sam fell onto a wooden table in John Wayne's Western display, but Ghandi was once more back on top of Sam's back before Sam could even fully sit up. Alex jumped as the doors suddenly burst open and Dean came bursting into the display room that Alex and Sam were in.

"Dean!" yelled both Alex and Sam.

"Is that Ghandi?" asked Dean, squinting slightly to see who was on Sam's back, strangling him.

"Yeah!" called back Sam, still struggling with Ghandi.

"That dude is one squirrely mother fucker," said Dean, quite calmly.

"Get them!" yelled Sam, nodding his head towards Ghandi's wax figurine display. Dean ran over towards it.

"Get the what?" asked Dean.

"Glasses!" yelled Sam and Alex at the same time.

Dean nodded and quickly grabbed Ghandi's bifocals off of his wax figurine. Sam began gasping for air as Ghandi pulled on Sam's neck tighter and tighter. As Sam's eyes began rolling into the back of his head from oxygen deprivation, Dean threw Ghandi's pair of eyeglasses into the metal bucket the three of them had brought with them. Dean threw a match on top of it and watched as the ghost of Ghandi suddenly disappeared. Sam caught his breath, blinking his eyes quite a few times. Dean scoffed.

"You couldn't have been a fan of someone cool?" asked Dean.

Sam looked over at him, his eyebrows slightly raised.

"Really, Ghandi?" asked Dean.

Alex chuckled as she walked over to Sam, helping him stand up.

"You two ready to blow this Popsicle stand?" asked Dean, throwing even more of his clothes into his duffel bag the next morning.

"Dean, didn't it strike you as strange the way Ghandi just sort of… vanished?" asked Sam, zipping up a small bathroom bag as he stood in their motel room bathroom doorway.

"Strange how?" asked Alex, watching as her brothers packed their suitcases.

"No screaming, no big flame out. I mean, that isn't the usual way that ghosts really go, right?" asked Sam.

"Well, yeah, but still. I mean, I torched his relic and then he vanished. Sounds alright to me," said Dean, throwing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans into his duffel bag.

"Yeah, but I…"

Sam sighed before continuing on.

"Also, I feel like he was… trying to take a bite out of me," explained Sam, looking confused at his own thoughts.

"A bite?" asked Alex.

"Yeah, like he was hungry. But the thing is, Ghandi, or the real Ghandi, he was a…"

Sam stopped and Dean raised his eyebrows, looking over at his little brother.

"Yes? Go on," prodded Alex.

"He was a fruitarian," explained Sam.

Dean began laughing.

"Let me get this straight. You're, um, ultimate hero, was not only a short man in diapers, but he was also a… fruitarian?" asked Dean.

"Look, that's not even the whole point here," said Sam.

"Oh, this is great. That is good. Even for you, Sammy, that is just great."

"Look, I'm just saying that… I'm not so sure that this whole entire thing is over just yet."

"It was a ghost. It was a weirdly, super-charged, apparently fruitarian ghost, but it was still just a ghost. Now, let's go," said Dean.

Sam scoffed. Alex bit her lip nervously, sensing a fight between her two brothers.

"So first you drag me and Alex into town and now you're dragging me right back out," said Sam.

Dean threw his duffel bag over his right shoulder.

"Look, you're not steering this boat, pal. Let's go, chop-chop. You too, Alex."

Dean began heading for the door, but then Sam sighed.

"You know, this really isn't going to work," said Sam.

Dean whirled back around, raising his eyebrows at Sam.

"What isn't going to work?" asked Dean.

"Us. You, me, together. I thought it could, but it can't."

"You're the one who wanted back in, kid."

"And you're also the one who called me to come back in."

"Well, I still think that we've got some trust building to do."

"So, how long am I going to be on double secret probation?"

Dean just shrugged, his lip curling up along with his shoulders shrugging.

"Until I say so, Sammy."

Sam nodded slightly, his hands on his hips now.

"Look. I know exactly what I did. What I've done. And I am trying to climb out of that hole, I really am, but you're definitely not making it much easier. Any easier at all, really," explained Sam.

"So, what, am I supposed to just let you off the hook?"

"No. You can think whatever the hell you want to believe. I deserve it, and much worse too. Hell, you and Alex will never be able to punish me as much as I'm still punishing myself. But the point is, if the three of us are going to still be a team, this has to be a two-way street."

"So, we should just go back to the way we were before?" asked Dean.

Alex sighed, releasing her lip from between her teeth.

"We were never that way before! Before didn't work, obviously. I mean, how do you think we all got here, Dean?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Dean, one of the reasons I went off with Ruby… was to get away from you," said Sam, sighing.

Alex sighed as well, shaking her head sadly and looking down at the bedspread which she was sitting on top of, the comforter an ugly brown color. Alex picked at a thread in the top of the comforter.

"What?" asked Dean, raising his eyebrows once again at Sam's previous statement.

"It made me feel stronger, like I wasn't just your kid brother anymore," said Sam.

Dean shook his head to clear his thoughts and focus on his conversation at hand with Sam.

"Are you saying that this is all my fault?"

"No, I'm saying that it's all my fault. All I'm saying is that if we're gonna do this, we have to do it differently, we can't just fall into the exact same rut as before."

"So, what do you want me to do?" asked Dean.

"Well, for starters, you're going to have to let me grow up."

Dean nodded as his cell phone began ringing fairly shrilly in the silence of their motel room. Dean threw his duffel bag down on the carpeted ground and pulled his cell phone out of his jeans pocket, flipping it open.

"Yeah?" he answered the caller.

He listened to the caller on the other end, glancing over at Sam and then Alex as well.

"Yeah, alright."

Dean hung up his call a minute or two later, glancing over at Sam once again.

"I guess you were right about this thing not being over."

The three Winchester siblings pushed open the double doors that led into the main officer of the police station, looking around for Officer Rick Carnegie. They spotted him sitting at his office desk, looking very forlorn. They walked over calmly.

"Sheriff Carnegie?" asked Sam.

Sheriff Carnegie looked up at the three siblings.

"Sheriff Carnegie, what happened?" asked Alex.

"I, um, I really don't know."

Sheriff Carnegie threw up his hands in frustration and pointed to the room behind him. Two younger girls were sitting in the room that Sheriff Carnegie was currently pointing to. The siblings headed for the room.

"Excuse us, girls?"

The two girls looked up at the three of them.

"Hi. We're with the FBI. Can you tell us what happened?" asked Sam.

The girls sniffed, trying to hold back the rest of their tears.

"It was horrible," cried one of the two girls.

"Way horrible," cried the other girl.

"Um, what, exactly was so horrible?" asked Alex.

"I thought she'd be nice."

"I still can't believe it."

"Um, believe what?" asked Dean.

"She took Danielle!" yelled one.

"Who did?" asked Sam.

The two girls exchanged a look with each other.

"It's okay, girls, you're safe with us, you can tell us anything. Please, tell us. Who took your friend?" asked Sam.

"It was… Paris Hilton. She looked really good though."

"Skinny and fast."

"Um, where did they go, exactly?" asked Alex.

"We don't know. They just vanished," said the girl closest to them.

"Girls, would you excuse us for one second please?" asked Dean.

He pulled Sam and Alex off to the side, standing in the doorway.

"Paris Hilton's not dead as far as we know, right?" whispered Dean, his eyebrows raised.

"Right. I'm pretty sure she's not, at least," said Sam.

"Which means it's not a ghost," answered Alex.

"Right," said Sam.

"So, either Paris Hilton's a homicidal manic or…"

"We missed something," answered Sam.

"So what do you two wanna do?" asked Alex glancing back at the two crying girls.

Sam sighed, but Dean and Alex nodded.

About thirty minutes later, Dean and Alex watched as Sam walked out of the county's coroner's office. They stood up from the bench they were sitting on and listened as Sam spoke to both of them.

"I can't believe we missed this."

"Missed what?" asked Alex, walking in between her brothers now.

"I went back and looked over the other two victims. There was blood loss. Major. I mean, more blood loss than a head wound and car crash should cause. It was almost like-"

"Something's feeding," whispered Dean, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"Exactly," said Sam.

"Oh, great. Awesome," said Alex, very sarcastically, rolling her eyes as well.

"And look at this," said Sam, taking something out of his pocket.

"What the hell are those?" asked Alex, leaning forward to look at the little brown rock looking things that were trapped in the small bag that Sam was currently holding.

"Yeah, they're seeds, and they were in both victims' bellies."

"Gross. I hoped you washed your hands," said Dean, making a very disgusted face.

"They're unlike any other seed I've ever seen before, guys."

Alex rolled her eyes and Dean walked around to the driver's side of the Impala.

"Wow. And just when I thought you couldn't get any geekier," said Dean.

Sam sighed, but climbed into the passenger seat after Alex was in the backseat.

A few hours later, Sam smirked as he typed away on his computer.

"I've got it!" he yelled.

Dean and Alex looked over at him.

"Well, what is it?" asked Dean.

"These seeds are definitely not from around here. In fact, they're not from any tree or plant in this country at all. They're from Eastern Europe. From a forest in the Balkans, which isn't even there anymore. It was chopped down, like, 30 years ago," answered Sam.

"So what does that mean for us?" asked Alex.

"Well, local legend has it that the forest was guarded by a Pagan god, whose name was Leshi. Um, a mischievous god who took on infinite forms…"

"And let me guess. He liked to lunch on his fans," said Dean.

Sam scoffed.

"Yep, you would be correct. It says here that he could only be appeased with the blood of his worshippers. He would drain them and then stuff all of their stomachs with the seeds," read Sam from off of the online article.

"So how's he doing all of this stuff?" asked Alex.

"So, what? He touches James Dean's key chain and turns himself into James Dean?" asked Dean.

"Hmm. That's as good a guess as any I would've had," said Sam.

"Yeah, well, whatever. How do we kill him anyway?" asked Alex, leaning over Sam's shoulder to look at his bright computer screen.

"We have to chop off his head with an iron ax," read Sam.

"Well, alright. Let's go gank ourselves a Paris Hilton," said Dean, nodding.

Dean held the old iron ax as the three Winchester siblings walked into the wax museum. As they walked farther into the place, there was a fork in the road. Sam and Alex took one hallway and Dean walked down the other path alone. Alex stayed close to Sam's side while they walked, holding the flashlight and biting her lip anxiously. As Sam and Alex reached the end of their hallway, they paused in front of a wooden door that had a sign on the door reading "Construction Under Way. Keep Out!" Alex and Sam exchanged a look and then Alex whistled, calling Dean's attention over to them. Dean heard the whistle and turned around, heading toward the direction of his siblings. Dean and Sam pulled open the wooden door blocking their path and Alex followed them inside. They pushed past a tan tarp hanging over another doorway and found themselves in a very fake wooded area. Alex turned off her flashlight as light streamed in through the windows located in the ceiling. They walked a few steps into the new exhibit and Sam grabbed Dean's arm.

"Dean, look."

Sam and Dean ran over to a wax tree off to the side of the path that they were currently standing on. A girl was tied to the tree, her head lolling forward. Sam held two fingers up to the girl's neck.

"She's alive, but barely," whispered Sam.

As he began to untie the girl from the tree, Dean's iron ax flew from his grasp. It stuck into a fake tree and then Paris Hilton appeared in front of Dean, smirking. She punched him in the face repeatedly until he fell to the ground. Alex fell to her knees to help Dean up as Sam charged at Paris Hilton. Paris grabbed him and threw Sam all the way across the room, Sam landing in a heap by the large fake white house in the middle of the exhibit. Sam's eyes closed as he fell unconscious. Paris Hilton smirked and then slammed her foot down onto Alex's head and then onto Dean's as well.

Alex was the first to wake up, Dean following seconds after her. She glanced over and saw Paris Hilton sharpening her nails on a rather ominous looking knife. The three Winchester siblings were now also tied to trees just like the girl that they had been trying to save. Paris Hilton looked over at the two of them just as Sam woke up as well.

"Oh. I'm so glad that the three of you are awake for this. Because this is gonna be huge."

"Super. I would never want to miss it," smirked Dean.

He began moving his wrists around, trying to free himself.

"Well, I've been stuffing myself with fast food lately, so it's nice to do the ritual right. It's time for me to prepare a nice slow meal for a change, finally."

"Just like the good old days, huh?" asked Sam.

Paris Hilton turned her face to look at him, her true form showing for a few seconds before her face returned to normal.

"Oh, you have no clue. People adored me. They used to throw themselves at me with huge smiles on their faces."

"Yeah, I guess these days no one gives a flying fuck about some backwoods Pagan god, huh?" asked Dean, glaring over at Paris Hilton.

Paris Hilton glared right back.

"No. Not since they cut down my forest and built some power plant instead."

"March of progress, sister," said Alex.

"For years now, I've been wandering around, hungry and scared. Scrounging for scraps, which is so not sexy. But then, the best thing that could ever happen to me, happened."

Paris Hilton set down her knife, smirking over at Sam.

"Someone trip-started the apocalypse. And I thought, what the hell, right? I'm tired of watching what I eat. I wanna pig out. So I found this little place. It's awesome. Adoring fans just stroll right through that door," explained Paris Hilton.

"Yeah. But they're not exactly all your fans," said Alex.

Paris Hilton just shrugged.

"So what? They worship Lincoln, Ghandi, Hilton. I'll take what I can get, whatever."

"You're definitely not the first god we've met, but you are certainly the craziest," said Dean.

"No, you people are the crazy ones, alright? You used to worship gods, but now you worship this instead?" asked Paris Hilton, indicating her body.

"Celebrities? What have they all got besides small pets and spray tans? You people all used to have old time religion and now you have US Weekly."

"Oh, I don't know, I'm more of a Penthouse Forum man myself," said Dean.

He winked over at Paris Hilton, who looked very taken aback by his actions. She stood up slowly.

"Maybe. But there's still a lot of yummy meat on those bones, boy."

"Well, I hate to break this to you, sister, but, um, you can't eat me. You see, I'm not really a big Paris Hilton super fan. I've never even seen House of Wax," said Dean.

Alex's face fell while Sam looked ashamed.

"I love that movie," whispered Alex, her bottom lip sticking out with a pout.

"Oh, I know you haven't. But I can totally read your mind, Dean. I know who your real hero is. Your daddy. Am I right?"

Dean said nothing, but his smirk faded quickly. He began working harder to free himself from his binds. Paris Hilton's smirk widened and she turned around to walk back to her large knife collection.

"And this belonged to him. Didn't it?" asked Paris Hilton, reaching the tree that had the iron ax stuck into it.

"Poor little Dean. All you ever wanted was to be loved by your ultimate idol. So one distant father figure coming right up."

Just as Paris Hilton reached up to grab the ax out of the fake wax tree, Dean released himself from the ropes binding him and ran over to her, pulling her down with him as he tackled her to the fake ground. Sam and Alex began struggling against their own binding ropes as Paris Hilton punched Dean straight in the face. She knocked him over and then climbed on top of him, beginning to punch him repeatedly in the face. As Sam and Alex finally broke free right around the exact same time, Dean had finally gained the upper hand in his fight and was punching Paris Hilton in the face. Paris Hilton fell over as Sam pulled the ax free from the wax tree. Dean and Alex turned away as Sam took the first whack at Paris Hilton's head. He continued hacking at her head, blood splattering all over his face and clothes by the time he was finished chopping off her head. Her severed head fell to the left of her body. Alex looked down at Dean, helping him up and smirking.

"Not a word," said Dean, looking at his smirking siblings.

"Dude, you just got wailed on by Paris freaking Hilton!" yelled Sam, chuckling with blood all over his face.

"Shut up," said Dean, wiping down his jeans and then pointing a finger warningly at his younger siblings.

"Sheriff Carnegie just called. Danielle's going to be alright," said Dean.

He hung up his phone and stuck it into one of the many pockets of his jacket as they walked over to the Impala later the next morning.

"I'm glad she's alright," said Alex, walking in between her brothers as usual.

"It gets even better. The sheriff's putting out an APB on Paris Hilton. That oughta be good," chuckled Dean.

He grabbed his keys and began unlocking the trunk of the Impala. The three siblings threw all of their larger duffel bags into the trunk first, followed by their smaller ones last.

"So, listen, I was thinking about what you said yesterday, Sammy. About me keeping too tight of a leash on you? You know, maybe you're right. I mean, look, I'm not exactly innocent throughout this whole mess either, am I? I did break the first seal."

"You didn't know, Dean," said Alex.

"Yeah, well, neither did Sammy. I'm not saying that demon blood was really a great way to go, but you did end up killing Lilith."

"And start the apocalypse."

"None of us saw that coming, that killing Lilith would become a bad thing. The point is, I was so worried about watching your every move that I didn't see what it was doing to you. So for that, I'm really sorry."

Sam nodded, squinting as the sunlight came into his eyes.

"Thanks, Dean."

Dean nodded as well and slammed the trunk door closed. He looked around the empty street.

"So, where do we go from here?" asked Alex.

"Well, the way I see it, we've all got one chance at surviving this whole apocalypse thing," said Sam.

"And what's that plan?" asked Dean.

"Maybe I am on deck for the devil, maybe it's the same way for you with Michael, and maybe there's no changing that."

"Well, that's really encouraging," said Alex, rolling her eyes as sarcasm laced her tone.

"But we can stop wringing our hands all over it. We've gotta just grab onto whatever's in front of us, kick its ass, and go down fighting," explained Sam.

"I can get on board with that," said Dean.

Sam nodded while Alex's smile grew wider.

"Alright. But we're gonna have to do it on the same level here, Dean."

Dean smirked slightly.

"You've got it, Sammy. Now, what do you say all three of us get the hell out of here, huh?" asked Dean.

Alex nodded.

"Thank the Lord."

"Hey," said Dean.

Both Alex and Sam looked over at him. Dean held out the keys to Sam.

"Do you wanna drive?" asked Dean.

Alex's mouth gaped open as Sam's eyebrows pulled together.

"Are you sure, Dean?"

"Yeah, I could, um, I could use a nap," answered Dean.

Sam smirked, chuckling. He grabbed the keys from Dean's open palm and walked over to the driver's side.

"You're seriously letting Sammy drive? Dean, you never let me drive!" whined Alex.

Dean laughed as Alex crossed her arms over her chest and stuck out her bottom lip. Dean pulled her into his arms, hugging her and kissing the top of her head.

"Someday, Lex. Someday, I'll let you drive," answered Dean.

"Well, can I at least sit in the passenger seat while you nap? The backseat is much more comfy, I promise."

Dean looked at her and she used her puppy dog eyes as she looked up into his face. She stuck out her bottom lip and batted her eyelashes as she looked up at him. He sighed and Alex knew she had won this particular battle. She smirked and leaned up to kiss his scruffy cheek before stepping out of his embrace. She allowed Dean to climb into the backseat and then she climbed into the passenger seat as Sam pulled out onto the street.

"Agents Page and Plant, FBI," said Dean, flashing his badge to the doctor standing in front of him.

Sam flashed his badge as well and the doctor nodded.

"Gentlemen. What brings you by here today?" he asked them.

"We need to see Amber Greer's body," explained Sam, sticking his badge back into his suit jacket pocket.

"Really? What for?"

"The police report said something… clawed through her skull?" asked Dean.

"So I'm guessing you two didn't read the autopsy report that I e-mailed out this morning then?"

"We had, um, server issues," said Sam.

The doctor nodded and walked over to the wall where they kept the dead bodies. Sam and Dean followed him as he opened one of the silver containers and pulled out the slab that contained the dead body of Amber. He lifted up the white sheet and Dean whistled as he and Sam took in the dead girl's face. Large claw marks ran up and down the right side of her face, marring her otherwise blemish-free skin. Sam sighed.

"When they brought her in, we thought she was attacked by a wolf or something."

"Yeah, or something," said Dean.

"Yeah, well, we were wrong," said the doctor, picking up a small plastic bag from beside the dead body and holding it up.

Both Sam and Dean squinted to get a better look at the object inside the bag.

"Is that-" began Sam, but the doctor nodding his head cut him off.

"A press-on nail, yes. We found it in her temporal lobe."

"Is that even remotely possible?" asked Sam.

"So, wait. You're insinuating that she did this to herself?" asked Dean, his eyebrows raised.

The doctor nodded.

"Uh-huh. She scratched her brains out. It would take hours and it definitely hurt like hell, but, sure, it's possible."

"How?" asked Dean.

"Pick any acronym. OCD, PCP. Any one of those. My guess though? Some kind of phantom itch. An extreme case, but one none the less."

"A phantom itch?" asked Sam.

"Yeah. All it takes is someone talking about an itch or even thinking about one and then suddenly you can't stop scratching," explained the doctor.

He covered Amber's face up with the sheet once again and pushed her body back into the wall, shutting and locking the door.

"Thanks, Doc," said Sam.

The doctor nodded at the two of them and then stepped off to talk to another staff member. Both brothers reach up, Sam scratching his neck and Dean scratching his ear. Sam sighed and walked out of the morgue, Dean following him.

"Okay, now some of these questions may seem a bit odd, but please, just bear with me," said Sam, looking at the couple sitting in front of him.

"Have you noticed any cold spots in the house?"

The man looked over at his wife and then shook his head.

"Um, no."

"Okay, how about any strange smells?"

"Smells?"

Dean heard less and less of the conversation as he pulled out his cell phone, noticing that Alex had recently tried to call him. As he headed for the next room in the house, he stopped in an entryway when he spotted a young boy staring at him.

"What 'cha lookin' for?" asked the boy, staring up at Dean.

Dean stuck his cell phone back into his pants pocket and stepped slowly into the room.

"Don't know yet. Your name's Jimmy, right?" asked Dean.

The boy nodded, still staring at him warily. Dean smiled.

"So Amber was your babysitter, huh?"

"Yes, sir," answered Jimmy.

Dean smirked.

"Yeah, most of my babysitters sucked. Especially Miss Chancey, she only cared about two things. Dynasty and bedtime."

Dean chuckled, but Jimmy stared at him strangely. Dean's smirk faded as he cleared his throat.

"Did you, um, did you see anything strange that night?"

"No, sir."

Jimmy looked away from him quickly.

"You sure about that?"

"Look, I would tell you if I knew something, anything, I promise. 100 percent, cross my heart."

"Well, Jimmy, I… I happen to know you're lying."

Jimmy shook his head. Dean stared him down for a few seconds before leaning down, placing a hand on Jimmy's shoulder.

"Jimmy. Are we gonna start telling the truth or will I have to escort you downtown?"

Sam laughed as he and Dean left the house, Dean holding up an empty bag of itching powder.

"The kid said he put this on the babysitter's hairbrush."

"Dean, there's no way that itching powder made that girl scratch her brains out! It's just ground up maple seeds," explained Sam.

"Well, if you have any other theories, I'm open to them."

Sam sighed as his phone rang. He answered it, seeing that it was Alex.

"What's up, little sis?"

"I swear to God, if you two ever leave me here again while you go out on a job, I'll cut off your penis," threatened Alex.

Sam's face paled and he cleared his throat.

"But you were sleeping and you looked so peaceful. We didn't want to wake you," argued Sam.

"Whatever, asshole. Anyway, I've got a lead on this Amber girl. Get back to the hospital fast. I'll meet you two there."

"Yeah, we'll be right there," said Sam.

He hung up, placing his phone back into his pocket. He climbed into the Impala and told Dean to head back to the hospital.

"What happened?" asked Sam and Dean, walking up behind Alex and Dr. Keith as they saw a body wheeled from the room.

"Some guy got electrocuted. No idea how, maybe a loose wire or maybe a piece of equipment shorted out. So far we haven't found anything," explained the doctor.

"Any witnesses?" asked Sam.

"Yeah. That guy in there, Mr. Stanley. He says he saw it, but he's not making any sense at all."

The three siblings nodded, and Alex smiled at Dr. Keith as he walked away. She followed her brothers into the hospital room.

"Mr. Stanley?" asked Sam.

"It was just a joke. I didn't know that it would actually work," whispered Mr. Stanley.

"What would work?" asked Dean.

The old man finally turned to look at the three siblings.

"All I did… was shake his hand," cried Mr. Stanley.

He held his palm out towards them and he held a small, silver buzzer in his palm. Alex looked at Sam, who shrugged slightly.

Back in their motel room, Dean put on goggles and thick, black rubber gloves, inspecting the silver buzzer that Mr. Stanley had held out to them.

"You two ready?" asked Dean.

Alex and Sam nodded, putting on their own sets of black goggles. Dean slowly placed the hand with the buzzer down onto a thick slab of pork and the three siblings watched as the buzzer roasted the pork in a matter of seconds. They all looked on in disbelief. Sam and Alex walked closer once Dean had let go of the slab of meat, removing their goggles.

"What the hell is going on here? That shit isn't supposed to work!" exclaimed Alex.

"This thing doesn't even have batteries," said Dean, removing his gloves and setting them down gently on the table in front of him.

"So… so, what, are we looking at cursed objects?" asked Sam.

"Yeah, that sounds pretty great to me. Very logical. Maybe there's a powerful witch in town or something," said Dean.

Alex and Sam looked on as Dean pulled out his switchblade and cut off a piece of the pork. He stuffed it into his mouth.

"Is there any link between the joy buzzer and the itching powder?" asked Alex.

"Um, one was made in Chine and the other was made in Mexico, but they were both bought from the same store," explained Sam.

"Hmm," said Dean.

He cut off another piece of pork, offering it first to Alex and then to Sam. They both shook their heads no, so Dean ate the piece of pork, chewing with his mouth wide open.

Later that afternoon, the three siblings walked into the little town's joke store, taking a look around. The bell over the front door signaled their arrival, but no one was behind the front counter.

"Guys, look," whispered Dean.

He held up a Whoopee Cushion, sticking his tongue out with glee. Both Sam and Alex rolled their eyes and walked away from him. Dean held the item in his hand as he walked forward, passing by the front counter. As he walked by, a man emerged from the back room.

"Welcome to the Conjurarium, the place of magic and mystery," said the man.

Sam and Alex walked over to join Dean.

"Are you the owner?" asked Sam.

The man nodded and stepped forward.

"Yes."

"Have you sold any itching powder or joy buzzers lately?" asked Alex.

The man smirked.

"Yeah, one of each. They aren't exactly big sellers. Are you folks here to buy something?"

Dean held up his Whoopee Cushion and then dug around in his pocket for a few dollars. He held it out to the man, who took it and placed it in the cash register.

"So, do you get very many customers?" asked Sam.

The man shrugged.

"A lot of kids come in here. They sure don't buy much, but they're more than happy to break stuff. Look, these days all kids care about are their iPhones and those vampire kissing movies."

Alex quickly stuffed her iPhone back into her pocket, clearing her throat lightly and smiling sheepishly.

"The whole thing just makes me so…"

"Angry?" filled in Dean.

The man looked over at him and nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, I am angry. This shop has been my life for 20 years and now it's wasting away to absolutely nothing!"

"Which is why you hate all of them?" asked Sam.

"I suppose."

"So you wish there was something you could do about it?" asked Alex.

"Yeah, I guess I do."

"So you're taking revenge…"

Dean pulled a fake rubber chicken off of the shelf right beside the front counter and slammed it down onto the counter.

"With this," finished Dean.

He stuck the joy buzzer into the chicken, causing it to begin melting all over the counter. The man jumped back in fear, yelling. As Dean continued to burn the chicken, the man fell to his knees, whimpering. The siblings all looked on, their eyebrows pulled together with confusion.

"Yeah, something tells me that this guy isn't a powerful wizard," whispered Alex.

Sam nodded with agreement and Dean licked his lips.

"Sorry," apologized Dean.

He quickly turned and fled the magic shop, Alex and Sam following directly behind him.

The next morning, Sam, Alex, and Dean were standing outside a man's hospital room, watching as a nurse helped him drink from his cup using a straw. Sam and Alex sighed as they turned away from the sight. Alex rolled her eyes as she turned and saw Dean flirting with the young nurse on duty. Sam cleared his throat and the nurse gave Dean one last flirtatious glance before walking away.

"So, what's up with the toothless guy in there?" asked Dean.

"Well, he wrote up a description of his attacker. 5'10", 350 pounds, wings and a pink tutu. He claims that it was the tooth fairy," explained Sam.

"So he's obviously out of his mind on these painkillers," said Dean.

"Maybe, but whatever it was got past locked doors and windows without triggering the alarm," said Alex.

Dean's eyebrows rose.

"C'mon, guys, the tooth fairy?"

"And it left 32 quarters under his pillow. One for each pulled tooth," finished Sam.

Dean sighed.

"Well, I will see your crazy and raise you some. Some kids upstairs with stomach ulcers say they got it from mixing pop rocks and soda. Another guy, his face froze… that way," said Dean.

"Froze what way, Dean?" asked Alex.

Dean discreetly looked around before pulling his mouth wide open using his hands and crossing his eyes. He quickly let the pose go and looked down at the floor.

"He held it for too long, I guess, so it… stuck. They're flying in a plastic surgeon today."

"I got nothing. What the hell is going on in this damn town?" asked Alex.

She began walking, so Sam and Dean fell in step on either side of her.

"I thought sea monkeys were real," said Dean.

"They are. They're brine shrimp," said Sam.

"No, I mean like in the ads, you know? Real. I mean, I was young, but I still believed it," said Dean.

"My point is, maybe that's the connection here. The tooth fairy, the pop rocks with soda, the buzzer that shocks you, they're all lies that little kids believe," finished Dean.

"And now they're becoming real," said Alex.

"Yeah, but this thing is reshaping reality. It has the powers of a God," said Sam.

Alex sighed and let out a dark chuckle.

"Or a trickster," she said.

"Yeah, one with the sense of a humor of a nine year old," said Dean.

Sam and Alex nodded.

"Or you," suggested Sam.

Dean scoffed.

Sam walked into the motel room, setting down a large map onto the table. Dean and Alex walked over to him.

"I think I found something. Here, look. The tooth fairy attack was here…"

Sam pointed to a house close to the edge of the map.

"Pop rocks and soda was here, and you've got itching powder, face freeze, and joy buzzer all located within a two mile radius," explained Sam.

"So we've got a whole area of weird where fantasy becomes reality," said Dean.

Alex nodded.

"Sure looks like it. What's that area in the center?" asked Alex.

"Four acres of farmland and a house," said Sam, standing up straight.

Dean stood up straight as well and stopped chewing his sandwich.

"Our motel wouldn't happen to be located within that area, would it?" he asked Sam.

Sam nodded.

"Yeah, it is. Why?"

Dean held up his palm, which had hair growing all over it. Alex laughed and Sam looked away.

"Aww, dude. That's not what I think it is, is it?" asked Sam.

"I got bored. And that nurse was really hot," smirked Dean.

"Dean, you're a fucking dumbass! You can go blind from that too, you know," said Alex.

Dean's smirk faded and he nodded solemnly.

"Give me five minutes and then we'll all go check out that house," said Dean.

He walked past his siblings and headed for the bathroom.

"Don't you dare touch my razor, Dean!" yelled Alex.

"Don't use mine either!" yelled Sam.

About 15 minutes later, Dean pulled the Impala up outside of the mysterious house. He parked the car across the street and the three siblings climbed out, looking at the ominous house. They quickly crossed the street and walked up the three white front porch steps. Dean readjusted the demon killing knife that was in a holster on his side while Sam pulled out a bobby pin, beginning to pick the lock on the front door. As he began picking the lock, the door was opened and a little boy looked up at the three of them. Sam stood up straight quickly.

"Can I help you?" asked the little boy.

"Hi. What's your name?" asked Alex, smiling down at the little boy warmly.

"Who wants to know?"

Alex looked taken aback, but she and her brothers pulled out their fake FBI badges and showed them to the little boy.

"The FBI," answered Dean.

"Let me see that," said the kid, grabbing Dean's badge out of his hand so that he could get a closer look at it.

"So, what, you guys don't knock?" asked the kid, handing the badge back to Dean.

"Are your parents' home?" asked Dean.

"They're working."

"Well, would you mind if we ask you a few questions then? Maybe take a quick look around your house?" asked Sam.

The kid looked between the three of them for a split second. He sighed deeply, shrugging.

"I don't know."

"C'mon, kid, you can trust us. We're the authorities," said Dean, smiling down at the little boy.

The kid glanced between the three of them again and then stepped aside, letting them all come inside. He shut the door behind the three of them and then walked past them into the kitchen. He turned the stove down, where he was cooking a can of tomato soup.

"What's that?" asked Alex.

"It's called soup. You heat it up and you eat it," said the little boy.

He pulled the soup off of the stove and brought it over to the small kitchen table while Alex scoffed.

"Right, I know, it's just that… I used to make my own dinner too. When I was a kid," said Alex, smiling down at him.

"But I'm not a kid."

"Right. No, we know. I'm Cassie, by the way," said Alex, reaching down and shaking the little boy's hand.

"I'm Jesse."

"Jesse? Nice to meet you," said Alex.

"Did you draw this?" asked Dean, showing a picture to Jesse.

The picture was a drawing of a bearded man in a tooth fairy costume. Jesse nodded.

"Mmm-hmm. That's the tooth fairy."

"So that's what you think the tooth fairy looks like, huh?" asked Dean.

"Yeah. My dad told me about him. Didn't your dad tell you about the tooth fairy?" asked Jesse.

"My dad? No, my dad told me different stories," said Dean, setting the drawing down on the old kitchen table.

"Well, the tooth fairy isn't a story," said Jesse.

The three siblings exchanged wary glances.

"What do you know about itching powder, Jesse?" asked Sam.

"That stuff will make you scratch your brains out!"

"What about pop rocks and soda?" asked Dean.

"You mix those two and you'll end up in the hospital. Everyone knows that."

Dean nodded and pulled the buzzer from his pocket. Jesse's eyes widened.

"You shouldn't have that!"

"Why not?" asked Dean.

"Because it will electrocute you!"

Dean smirked.

"Actually, it can't. This is just a wind-up toy, it doesn't even have batteries. It's totally harmless."

"So it can't shock you?" asked Jesse, his eyebrows pulling together with confusion.

"Nope, not at all. I swear it," said Dean.

Jesse nodded slowly.

"Oh. Okay."

"I mean, all it does is just shake in your hand, it's really kind of lame, actually. See?"

Dean reached over and slammed the buzzer into Sam's shoulder, shocking him for a few seconds. Sam glared at Dean, but Dean, Alex, and Jesse all chuckled.

"What'd you say your name was again?" asked Dean, looking down at Jesse.

Sam, Alex, and Dean walked down the steps of Jesse's house.

"Dude. What the hell?" asked Sam.

Dean chuckled.

"I had a hunch so I went with it."

"You risked my life on a hunch?"

"Relax. Besides, now we know who's turning this town into a nightmare," said Dean.

"The kid," said Sam.

"His name is Jesse," said Alex.

"Yeah, everything he believes comes true," said Dean.

"But convince him that the joy buzzers don't really work and they go from killing machines and back to regular toys," said Sam.

"He probably doesn't even know that he's doing it," whispered Alex, biting her lip nervously.

The three siblings looked back at the house and Dean waved to Jesse as he appeared in the middle window in the second story of the house.

"Yeah, but how is he doing it?" asked Dean, turning away from the house and heading for the Impala.

Dean and Alex looked up as Sam returned to the motel room.

"So, I dug up what I could on Jesse Turner. It's not much. B student, won last year's Pinewood Derby. But get this. Jesse was adopted and his birth records, they're sealed," explained Sam.

"So you unsealed them and…?" asked Dean.

"There's no father even listed. But Jesse's biological mom is named Julia Wright and she lives in Elk Creek, on the other side of this state."

Alex groaned and pulled a pillow to her face, yelling into it.

The next day, Sam, Dean, and Alex were in Elk Creek, Nebraska. They slipped past the gate marked "No Trespassing" and walked around to the front of the house. The door was tightly closed, so Dean rang the doorbell.

"Whatever you're selling, I'm not interested," said a woman's voice from inside.

"We're not selling anything. Ma'am, we're agents with the FBI," explained Dean.

The three of them pulled out all of their badges and held them up to the peephole.

"Put your badge in the slot, please. All three of you," said the woman inside the house.

Dean gave his siblings an exasperated look, but he shoved all three of their fake FBI badges through the mail slot in the middle of the front door. They waited patiently and after about a minute, the front door began being unlocked, the woman unlocking at least five locks before pulling the door open. She handed the badges back to the Dean, who gave them back to his siblings.

"Well, we, um, just had a few questions for you, ma'am. About your son," explained Sam, sticking his badge back into his jacket.

"I don't have a son," said the woman.

Sam sighed.

"He was born on March 28th, 2001 in Omaha. You put him up for adoption?"

"What about him?"

"We were just wondering, um, was it a… was it a normal pregnancy?"

The woman stared at Sam.

"Was there anything strange about it at all?" asked Dean.

Suddenly, the woman flipped out and slammed the door closed.

"Stay away from me!" she yelled.

"Mrs. Wright, wait!" yelled Alex.

Dean caught the door before she could close it completely. She ran through her entryway, into her kitchen, and then into her pantry. Dean stopped her from closing the pantry door. He burst inside and Mrs. Wright threw salt onto all three of them.

"You're not demons?" she asked.

"How do you know about demons?" asked Alex, speaking slowly with her eyebrows raised.

A little while later, Mrs. Wright was sitting across from the siblings at her small kitchen table. She set down her cup of tea and took in a deep breath before speaking to them.

"I was possessed. A demon took control of my body and I hurt lots of people. I even killed some people."

"That wasn't you, though," said Alex.

"Yeah, but I was there. I heard a woman beg for mercy, I felt a young girl's blood drip from my hands."

"That's how you knew about the salt," said Dean.

Mrs. Wright nodded.

"Yes. I begged and begged. She was in my head for months."

"Nine months?" asked Alex, whispering.

Mrs. Wright nodded.

"So your son…?" asked Sam, trailing off.

Mrs. Wright nodded again.

"The whole time. During the pregnancy, at birth. All of it. I was possessed. The night the baby was born, I was alone. And the pain, it was… overwhelming. I screamed and it came out as a laugh. The demon was happy. It used my body to give birth to a child. And when it was over, something changed me. Maybe the demon was tired or the pain helped me fight it, but somehow I took control. And the demon wailed inside me, it pounded against my skull, I seriously thought that my head was going to explode. But… I knew. I knew what I had to do. And when I was finally all alone, with the newborn baby, part of me… part of me wanted to kill it right then and there. But I couldn't do that. So, I put it up for adoption and I ran away."

Alex nodded, her eyes filling with tears as she stood up.

"Excuse me," she said.

She gave a watery smile to Mrs. Wright and then walked out of the room, heading straight for the front door and walking outside onto the wraparound front porch.

"Who was the father?" asked Dean.

"I was a virgin."

Dean and Sam exchanged looks.

"Have you seen my son? Is he even human?"

"His name's Jesse. He lives in Alliance. He's a good kid," explained Dean.

Mrs. Wright nodded, smiling slightly.

Alex heard Sam and Dean close the front door behind them. She wiped away her remaining tears and stood up quickly, swiping under her eyes to get rid of any black mascara streaks underneath her eyes.

"Don't," said Alex, watching as Sam opened his mouth to apologize.

"Lex," said Dean, his voice shaky.

Alex smiled briefly and then more tears spilled from her eyes.

"How is that fair? How is it that a fucking demon can possess a woman and have a demon child, and yet my child doesn't even get to be born? Huh? Tell me, how is that fair? How? Why don't Kellan and I get to be happy? I mean, I know we're not perfect, but we're not fucking demons," cried Alex.

"Alex, I don't know what to say," said Sam.

"Just stop, Sammy. There's nothing you can say. It just doesn't make sense. It's not fair!"

Alex continued crying and Sam stepped forward, pulling her into his arms slowly.

"I'm so sorry, Alex. I'm so sorry," whispered Sam.

Alex sobbed into his chest as Sam held her, gently stroking her hair while Dean looked on sadly.

Dean carried Alex into their motel room, Alex asleep against his chest. Sam flicked the lights on and saw Castiel standing in the middle of their motel room. Castiel watched as Dean set Alex gently down on the bed she shared with Sam.

"I take it you got our message then?" asked Sam.

"It's lucky that you even found the child," said Castiel.

"Yeah, real lucky. Now what do we do with him?" asked Dean.

"Kill him."

"Cas-"

"This child is half demon and half human, but it's far more powerful than either. Other cultures refer to this type of hybrid as something different, but you all know him as the Anti-Christ."

"I don't get it. Jesse is the devil's son?" asked Sam.

"No, of course not. Your Bible gets more wrong than it does right. The Anti-Christ is not Lucifer's child, it's just demon spawn. But it is one of the devil's greatest weapons in the war against Heaven," explained Castiel.

"So then, what the hell's he doing in Nebraska?" asked Dean, throwing his hands up with frustration.

"The demons lost him a long time ago. They can't find him, but they're looking."

"And they lost him because…?"

"Because of the child's power. It hides him from both angels and demons alike. For now, at least."

"So, he's got like a, force field around him. Well, that's great, problem solved now," said Dean.

"With Lucifer risen, this child grows even stronger. Soon he will do more than just make a few toys come to life. He will do something that will draw all of the demons to him. The demons will find this child. Lucifer will twist this boy to complete his purpose and then with one word this child will destroy Heaven."

"Now, wait. You're saying that Jesse's going to nuke all of the angels?" asked Sam.

"And we cannot allow that to happen," said Castiel.

Dean sat back.

"Wait. We're the good guys here, we don't just kill children!" yelled Sam, standing up from his chair.

Castiel stood up from his chair as well.

"A year ago, you would've done whatever it took to win this war."

"Things change," said Sam.

"Okay, look. We are not going to kill this innocent child, alright? But we can't just leave Jesse here either and we know that. So, we take him over to Bobby's, alright? He'll know what to do," explained Dean.

"So you'll kidnap him? Listen, whatever's going on in this town right now is what happens when this thing is happy. You cannot imagine what it will do if it's angry. Besides, how will you hold him? With a single thought, he could be halfway around the world."

"So we-"

"So we tell him the truth. You say Jesse's destined to go dark side, fine, but he hasn't done that yet. So if we just lay it all out for him, what he is, the apocalypse, everything, he might then make the right choice," said Sam.

Castiel leaned forward, getting in Sam's face.

"But you didn't. And I can't take that chance again," threatened Castiel.

Dean looked down at the floor and with a loud flap of his angel wings, Castiel was gone from the room. Sam sighed deeply.

"Damn it."

A few hours later, Sam, Dean, and Alex burst through the front door of Jesse's house, Dean kicking down the door. Jesse was in his living room, cowering in the corner.

"Was there a guy here? In a trench coat?" asked Dean, breathing heavily.

Jesse pointed down to the floor. The three siblings looked down and saw a small action figure on the ground. Dean knelt down to pick up the small action figurine and saw that it was Castiel, a knife raised in his right hand. They looked over at Jesse, whose bottom lip was trembling with fear. Dean walked over and set the Castiel action figure down onto the fireplace mantle while Alex led a frightened Jesse over to the couch, sitting down beside him.

"Was he your friend?" asked Jesse.

"Him? No," answered Dean.

"So I did that to him. But how did I do that to him?"

Dean looked from the Castiel action figure and then looked over at Jesse. He shrugged, holding up his hands and smiling.

"You're a superhero," said Dean.

Jesse's eyes widened and his eyebrows rose.

"I am?"

Dean scoffed.

"Yeah. Yeah, man, I mean, who else could turn someone into a toy? You're Superman. Minus the cape and the go-go boots. You see, my partners and I, we all work for a secret government agency. And it's our job to find kids with special powers, just like you. In fact, we're here to take you to a very hidden base in South Dakota where you'll be trained to fight all kinds of evil things," explained Dean.

"Like the X-Men?" asked Jesse.

"Exactly like the X-Men! In fact, the guy we're taking you to, he's even in a wheelchair just like Professor X is. You'll be a hero, Jesse. You'll save lives, you'll get all the girls. It sounds like a lot of fun, right?" asked Dean.

Suddenly Dean was flung into the wall, his head slamming into the wall as he hit the wall. Sam and Alex stood up, watching as a possessed Mrs. Wright walked straight through the open front door and into the house. She flung Sam into the wall as well and smirked as Jesse hid behind Alex, grabbing onto Alex's hand for comfort and security.

"Aww, how adorable. Too bad I'll have to break you two apart," said Mrs. Wright.

She chuckled and held up her palm. Alex fell to the floor in pain, holding onto her abdomen.

"Leave her alone!" yelled Jesse.

Mrs. Wright stared down at her son, stepping forward towards him.

"Jesse. You're beautiful. You definitely have your father's eyes."

"Who are you?" asked Jesse, staring into his biological mother's face.

"I'm your mother."

"No, you're not," said Jesse, shaking his head.

"Mmm-hmm. You're half human, half one of us."

"She means demons, Jesse," said Dean.

Mrs. Wright stood up straight and twirled her hand into a fist. Dean and Sam both groaned in pain, Jesse watching curiously. Once she was satisfied, Mrs. Wright leaned back down to talk to Jesse.

"Those people that you call your parents, they lied to you too, you're not theirs. You never were theirs."

Jesse looked confused now, his eyebrows pulling together with confusion.

"But my mom and dad love me very much."

"Do they? Is that why they leave you all alone all day, because they love you so damn much? These people, these imposters, they told you that the tooth fairy was real and that your toys could hurt you and one hundred other things that just aren't true. They love you so much that they made your whole entire life just a lie."

Jesse looked down at the floor, more confused than ever now.

"Look into your heart, Jesse. You've always known you weren't theirs, you've always known that you were very different from all of the other kids at your school. Everyone has lied to you. These three aren't FBI agents and you're not a superhero."

"Then what am I?"

"You're very powerful, Jesse. You can have anything you want in this world, you can do anything you want."

"Please don't listen to her, Jesse!" yelled Alex.

Mrs. Wright scrunched up her fist and Alex hunched over in pain once again, causing Alex to begin coughing up blood.

"Everybody's lied to you, Jesse. Doesn't that make you really angry?"

Jesse clenched his fists and the lights started to flicker, the fire flared up in the fireplace, and the house shook briefly. Mrs. Wright stood up, smirking.

"See? It does make you angry. But I'm telling you the whole truth, Jesse. Wouldn't it just be better if there were no more lies entirely? Come with me where we can wash it all clean again. We can start over. Just imagine it. A world without lies."

"Jesse, she's right, alright? We lied to you. But I'll tell you the truth right now," began Sam.

Mrs. Wright clenched her own fists and Sam began gasping for air. Jesse looked over at Sam and then he looked back over at Mrs. Wright.

"Stop it. I want to hear what he has to say," said Jesse.

Sam fell down from the wall and the house quieted down.

"You're a lot stronger than I thought, Jesse," said Mrs. Wright, sounding awed and impressed.

Sam stood up, catching his breath and looking over at Jesse.

"We lied to you and I'm sorry. So here's the truth. I'm Sam Winchester. That's my brother, Dean, and my twin sister, Alex. We hunt monsters."

"Except when you are the monster. Right, Sammy?" chimed in Mrs. Wright, smirking over at him.

"And that woman right over there, her name is Julia. She's your mother. But the thing inside of her, the thing that you are currently talking to, it's a demon."

"A demon?"

"He's done nothing but lie to you since the moment you met him, don't listen to him. Punish him," said Julia, looking over at Sam and smirking once again.

Jesse glared over at her then.

"Sit down and shut up!" he yelled.

A chair appeared from the corner of the room and Julia was forced into it. She tried to speak and leave her chair, but Jesse's powers wouldn't allow her to move at all.

"There's, um, kind of a war between angels and demons going on right now and you're a part of it."

"But I'm just a kid!" cried Jesse.

Sam nodded sadly, his face one of despair and grief.

"You can go with her, if you want," said Sam, nodding over to Julia.

"I can't stop you from going with her, no one can. But if you do go with her, millions of people will die."

"She said I was half demon. Is that true?" asked Jesse.

"Yes," nodded Sam.

"But you're half human too. And you can still do the right thing here, Jesse. You've got plenty of options here, Jesse. But if you make the wrong choices, it will haunt you for the rest of your life."

"Why are you telling me this?" cried Jesse, yelling as his voice cracked and his eyes filled up with tears.

"Because I have to believe in someone and that that someone will make the right choice. Even if I couldn't," whispered Sam.

Jesse looked at him, nodding slightly. He then glared over at Julia.

"Get out of her," he demanded.

The chair in which Julia was sitting in flew backwards, thudding against the wall behind it. Julia's mouth opened wide and a large cloud of black smoke flew from out of her body, disappearing into the still burning fireplace. Jesse watched the demon disappear, the flames in the fireplace burning out along with it. Dean fell from the wall, landing on his own two feet while Alex slowly stood up, Jesse helping her stand up completely.

"How did you do all of that?" asked Dean, catching his breath.

Jesse just shrugged.

"I just did."

"Kid. You're awesome."

Alex smiled down at him, wiping her blood off of her chin with the sleeve of her jacket.

"Is she gonna be all right?" asked Jesse, looking over at Julia.

Dean nodded.

"Yes, eventually."

Dean bent down and picked up the Castiel action figure. He glanced over at Jesse as he held it in his hands.

"Look, um, the truth is, he's kind of a buddy of mine, so is there any way that you could, um, turn him back?"

"He tried to kill me."

Dean's eyes widened.

"Right, um, but he's a great guy and he was just confused at that point in time."

Jesse just continued to stare at Dean. Dean sighed.

"Right, okay. Well, it's been a long night, so we'll just talk about that later then," said Dean.

He carefully placed the action figure of Castiel back onto the mantle.

"So, what now?" asked Jesse.

Dean looked back at Sam and Alex briefly for advice, who both just shrugged. He turned back to look at Jesse.

"Now, we take you someplace safe. Get you all trained up. You'd sure be handy in a fight, kiddo."

"But what if I don't really want to fight?"

"Jesse," said Sam, stepping forward to talk to him.

Sam bent down to be at Jesse's eye level.

"You're powerful. More powerful than… pretty much anything that we've ever even seen. And that makes you-"

"A freak?" asked Jesse.

Sam paused while Alex sighed sadly.

"To some people, maybe. But definitely not to us. You see, we're already kind of freaks ourselves."

"I can't stay here, can I?" asked Jesse.

"No, sweetie. I'm sorry," said Alex, smiling sadly down at him.

"The demons now know where you are, so more will be coming," explained Dean.

"I won't go without my mom and dad."

"There's absolutely nothing more important than family. We understand that. And if you really want to take them with you, we'll back your play. But you've also got to understand, Jesse, it's going to be really dangerous for them too," explained Sam, looking at Jesse sadly.

"What do you mean?"

"Our dad… He would take all of us with him wherever he went," answered Dean.

"Well, where is he now?" asked Jesse.

"Dead. A demon killed him," answered Alex.

"Look, Jesse. Once you're in this fight, you're in it until the end. Win or lose, rain or shine," explained Dean.

"So, what should I do?" asked Jesse, looking between all three of the siblings.

"We can't really tell you. It's your call. It's not fair, I know," said Sam sadly.

"Can I go see my parents?"

The siblings all exchanged wary glances with one another, which Jesse caught onto.

"I, um… I need to say goodbye to them," he explained, looking down at the hardwood floor and toeing it with his shoe.

"Sure," answered Dean, nodding.

After a little while, Alex looked over at her brothers.

"He's been up there an awfully long time," said Alex, biting her lip nervously.

Sam set down the Castiel action figure he had been messing around with as they all headed up the stairs. Sam opened Jesse's bedroom door and they saw that he was gone. They looked around, but a voice sounded from behind the three of them.

"He's gone," said Castiel.

The three siblings turned to look back at him, standing in the bedroom doorway.

"Where?" asked Dean.

"I have no clue. But Jesse put everyone in town back to normal. The ones still alive, at least. And then he vanished," explained Castiel.

Alex glanced at Jesse's bed and saw that there was a folded up piece of paper lying on top of Jesse's pillows. She reached over, grabbing it from off of his bed.

"Hey," she called out quietly.

All three of the men turned to look in her direction. They all saw the folded up note in her hand.

"What does it say?" asked Sam.

Alex unfolded it and read quietly to herself.

"That he had to leave to keep his parents safe. That he loves them and that he's very sorry," read Alex.

She folded the note back up as Dean looked back over to Castiel.

"So, how do we find him?" asked Dean.

"Well, with this boy's powers, we can't. Not unless he wants to be found," answered Castiel.

Dean and Alex sighed together simultaneously.

Dean was driving the Impala out of town later that night.

"Do you think Jesse's gonna be alright?" asked Dean.

"I sure hope so," answered Sam.

"You know, we destroyed that kid's life by telling him the truth."

"We didn't really have any other choice, now, did we, Dean?" asked Alex, rolling her eyes and sighing deeply with frustration.

"Yeah. You know, I'm starting to get why parents always lie to their kids. I mean, you want them to believe that the worst thing out there is mixing pop rocks and soda. Protect them from the real evil out there in the world. They want them to go to sleep feeling safe every single night. And if that means lying to them, well, so be it then. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I wish that Dad would've lied to us all the time," said Dean.

"Yeah, me too," said Sam.

"I agree. Poor Jesse," said Alex.

She sighed from the backseat of the Impala and blew some stray hairs out of her face. Dean stared straight ahead at the road before him, wondering how Jesse was getting along out in the real world all alone.