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.

45. Live While We're Young

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.

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 45

Previously in At Hell's Gates:

Back at Bobby's house, the news was playing on the small TV in the living room, providing background noise. Bobby was holding the picture he had taken only days before in his right hand, just staring down at it sadly. He wheeled himself over to the fireplace and threw the black and white picture into the fireplace, the Winchester siblings and Kellan watching as the picture burned in the bright orange and yellow flames. Alex held back a sob as she stood between Kellan and Sam. She had one arm around Kellan's waist and her other arm was resting on Kellan's chest, her hand resting directly over his heart as she clutched at his black t-shirt. Kellan reverently kissed the very top of her head, holding her close as he grieved for his only family.

The next morning, Alex rolled over in the bed that was sharing with Kellan for a little while, the cotton and polyester sheets tangled up in her legs. She felt around on the other side of the bed, expecting to come into contact with Kellan's masculine form, but all Alex felt was the sheets beneath her hand. She opened her eyes, suddenly alert, and blinked at the bright sunlight now streaming into the room from all of the windows. She sat up in bed, making sure that the sheets covered her naked form. She glanced over to the side table and groaned as she saw that it was only 6:30 in the morning. She ran a hand through her tousled blond hair, stepped out of the bed, and grabbed a gray cotton t-shirt of Kellan's from off of the floor, slipping it over her head. Although it covered her butt, she also slipped on a pair of black boy shorts panties and opened the bedroom door, heading for the kitchen.

Alex walked into the kitchen and saw Kellan sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee beside his right hand and a plate of untouched scrambled eggs sitting directly in front of him. His back was facing her as h stared off into nothing. She sighed and walked into the kitchen, wrapping her arms around Kellan's shoulders and kissing his scruffy cheek. He squeezed her hand.

"Hey, baby," he said.

Alex walked around and sat in his lap, straddling him. She forced him to look into her eyes.

"Kellan, what's wrong? Why are you awake so damn early?"

Kellan sighed and looked into her bright blue eyes.

"I'm going on a road trip for a little while."

"Why, baby?" asked Alex, concern lacing her tone.

"I just need to do this. Joe…"

Kellan choked up at the mention of Joe's name and looked down into his lap where Alex sat. Alex kissed his forehead and hugged him close to her.

"Joe and I were gonna go on a road trip a long time ago and we never got around to it. I want to do this for him, for us," finished Kellan.

He looked back into Alex's eyes and smiled weakly.

"And you're sure that you can do this alone? I can tell Sam and Dean-"

Kellan shook his head and kissed her, causing her to stop talking.

"I'll be fine, babe. I need to do this alone. For me. I'm sorry."

Alex smiled and kissed him gently. Once she pulled away, she looked at Kellan once again.

"Don't ever be sorry for something like this. I'll miss you like crazy though," she said.

"I know you will. I'll miss you too. But I'll talk to you every day and when I'm back, we'll spend a whole day together. In bed."

Kellan smirked, winking at her and Alex kissed him again, just harder this time, her tongue slipping into his mouth and mingling with his. She felt Kellan respond to her kiss and she groaned into his mouth. When they separated for air, Kellan began kissing down her neck.

"Kellan, touch me. Please," begged Alex, her voice coming out in a breathy whisper.

Kellan looked at her face, his eyes wide with alarm.

"But what about your brothers? And Bobby?"

Alex smirked at him.

"Oh, honey. They won't be awake for at least another hour."

Kellan smirked and slipped his hand underneath Alex's shirt, plunging into her panties. Alex groaned as Kellan finally touched her, slipping two fingers inside her. She threw her head back and began to ride Kellan's fingers, her lip pulled in between her bottom teeth.

"Holy fuck, you look so hot in my clothes, baby. Are you close?" asked Kellan.

Alex nodded her head and looked into Kellan's eyes. Keeping his own blue eyes locked onto hers, Kellan used his free hand to pull up his shirt that Alex was wearing and take one of her pert nipples into his mouth. As he released her nipple from his mouth seconds later, he blew onto it, sending Alex over the edge. She cried out as her orgasm washed over her and Kellan fiercely caught her mouth with his own, swallowing her cries of pleasure with his mouth. He pulled his fingers from inside her and Alex watched as Kellan stuck them into his mouth, sucking them clean and then kissing her. Alex moaned as she tasted herself on his lips. She placed a gentle kiss onto his lips and then stood up from Kellan's lap. She sat down in the chair next to him and pulled his plate of eggs over to her, grabbing Kellan's fork and diving into his uneaten breakfast. Kellan stood up and kissed the top of her head, placing his nearly full coffee cup into Bobby's kitchen sink.

"I'm gonna go take a cold shower now and then I'm off. Love you, babe."

"Love you too," said Alex, watching him walk back to their shared guest room and bathroom.

About an hour later, Kellan was all packed up and ready to head out on his road trip. Sam, Dean, and Bobby were also awake now and watched as Kellan slammed the trunk of his truck closed. Sam patted him on the shoulder, Dean shook his hand, and Bobby gave him a nod. Kellan smiled sheepishly at Alex, but she smirked and grabbed him by his shirt collar, pulling him into her for a deep kiss. As Kellan's hands strayed close to Alex's ass, Dean cleared his throat deeply and Kellan pulled away from Alex. Alex rolled her eyes at her oldest brother.

"I'll see you when you're back, huh?" asked Alex.

Kellan nodded and pulled on his Von Dutch trucker hat. He leaned down to kiss her once again.

"I love you, Alexandra Marie Winchester."

Alex smiled gently, still wearing Kellan's gray t-shirt over her favorite pair of hip-hugger jeans.

"I love you more, Kellan Chase Garwin."

Kellan smirked, climbed into his black pick-up truck, and started it up. Alex leaned into Sam's side as she watched Kellan pull away, gravel kicking up from his tires as he drove away. They all watched until Kellan was completely out of sight and then they trudged back inside to look for a brand new job.

A couple of weeks later, Alex and her brothers were sitting in the head psychiatrist's office at the Glenwood Springs Psychiatric Hospital in Ketchum, Oklahoma. The head doctor had his glasses on and had Sam's fake file open in his hands. He appraised the three of them quickly before turning back to the information in the file.

"You were referred to me by a Dr. Babar in Chicago," said the doctor.

"That's right," said Dean, nodding solemnly.

The doctor set down their file on his Birchwood desk, sighing.

"Isn't there a children's book about an elephant named Babar?"

Dean shook his head.

"I don't know. We don't have any elephant books whatsoever. Look, Doctor, I think that the Doc was in over his head with this one."

Dean pointed over to Sam.

"Because my brother's, um…"

Dean trailed off and circled his finger around his ear once or twice, whistling as he did so to indicate that Sam was crazy. The doctor held up his hand, his palm open towards Dean, to stop him.

"Okay, fine, thank you, that's really no longer necessary. Why don't you tell me how you're feeling, Jason?" asked the doctor, nodding over to Sam.

Sam sighed deeply. He also exhaled a deep breath.

"I'm fine, honestly."

Sam scoffed and then rolled his eyes dramatically, continuing on.

"I mean, okay, I'm a little bit depressed, I guess."

"Alright. Any clue why?" asked the doctor, writing something down onto the spiral, but small notepad that was now in his hands.

"Probably because I started the damn apocalypse," said Sam, shrugging nonchalantly in his chair.

The doctor glanced over at him, his eyes peering at Sam over the top of his small eyeglasses.

"The apocalypse?" asked the doctor.

Sam nodded.

"Yep, that's right."

The doctor then briefly glanced over to Alex and Dean, who smirked sarcastically.

"And you believe that you started this apocalypse?" asked the doctor, looking back at Sam again.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I killed this demon, Lilith, and then I accidentally freed Lucifer from Hell by doing all of this. So now he's topside and we're all trying to stop him."

"Um, who is trying to stop Lucifer?" asked the doctor.

"Oh, um, me and these two over here," said Sam, pointing in between Alex and Dean.

"And this one angel," finished Sam, looking back to the doctor.

"Oh, you mean like an angel on your shoulder," said the doctor, pointing to his left shoulder.

"No, no, his name's Castiel. He wears a brown trench coat," said Sam.

The doctor sighed and began scribbling quickly on his notepad once again. Dean sighed.

"Do you see what we mean, Doc? I mean, the kid's been beating himself up about this for months on months. The apocalypse wasn't his fault," said Dean.

"It's not?" asked the doctor, looking up at Dean then.

Dean shook his head and inhaled a very deep breath.

"It was actually this other demon, Ruby," answered Alex, nodding earnestly.

"Yep, you see, she got him addicted to demon blood. I mean, near the end there, he was practically chugging the stuff," finished up Dean.

The doctor looked from Alex to Dean and then back over to Sam, who was now looking down into his lap and licking his lips.

"My brother's not evil. He was just…" began Dean, searching for the correct words.

"High," finished Alex.

Dean snapped his fingers and pointed over to her.

"That's exactly right! High," said Dean.

"So can you fix Jason up here and have him all put right so that we can all get back onto the road hunting monsters?" asked Alex, her smile gleaming.

The doctor nodded cautiously, holding up one finger to all three of them. He grabbed for his black desk phone with his free hand and called his secretary.

"Irma? Please cancel my lunch," said the doctor.

Dean nodded and patted Sam's arm gently to reassure him.

The three siblings followed an extremely happy nurse in navy blue scrubs and gleaming white tennis shoes down a narrow hallway.

"Dr. Fuller would like to keep you three here under observation for only a couple of days," explained the cheery nurse.

"All of us? Us too?" asked Alex, pointing between herself and Dean.

The nurse nodded, not even looking back at them to answer Alex's question.

"Yes, darling. The doctor thinks that that would be best."

Alex looked to Sam and Dean, who each gave her a shrug.

Alex and Dean watched as Sam walked into the community living room area. Each of them were wearing black house slippers, a pair of blue scrubs pants, a white V-neck t-shirt, and finally, a blue robe. They both nodded to their brother and then Dean began glancing around the room. He saw one lady flipping through a magazine, another lady playing with a stuffed pink bunny rabbit, and a man was asleep on the Chinese checkerboard.

"I can't believe I let the two of you talk me into this," grumbled Dean.

Sam rolled his eyes.

"Hey, it's the absolute least we could do. Martin saved Dad's ass more times than we can count. He's a great hunter," said Sam.

"Was. Until Albuquerque," said Dean.

Sam sighed deeply and Alex rubbed her temples.

"Besides, I thought it was best if we kept ourselves busy, that's all," said Alex.

Dean looked down at her and Alex pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth.

"Dean, you've just been worrying me and Sam these past few weeks, that's all. With Ellen and Joe dying, you can't just keep all of your feelings all bottled up inside like this."

Dean raised his eyebrows.

"Watch me, Alex."

He took a swift glance around the living room area once again and finally spotted Martin, another hunter. He was sitting at a corner table, staring out the window beside him, never even flinching.

"Look, there he is," said Dean.

He walked over to Martin with his siblings following suit. Sam cleared his throat as they finally reached Martin's table. Martin looked over at the three siblings. His eyebrows shot up as he recognized the three of them and he hurried to stand up from his chair.

"Sam. Dean. Alex. Wow. Wow, you three got big. You all look great," said Martin, taking in the three of them and shaking all of their hands.

Sam smiled warmly at the older man.

"Thanks. You look good too, Martin."

Martin nodded and motioned for all of them to sit down at his small corner table. Alex sat in the chair across from Martin while Sam and Dean grabbed two more chairs from other unoccupied tables, bringing them over to sit in them.

"Well, thanks for coming. In the old glory days, I could've taken care of this whole thing with both of my hands tied behind my back, but… Well, now…"

Martin trailed off and looked down at the Formica tabletop. Alex smiled warmly and gently at him.

"So, what do you think it is that we're dealing with here, Martin?" asked Sam.

"I don't even know yet. A ghost, maybe? A demon, a monster. Animal, vegetable, mineral," joked Martin, chuckling slightly at his own humor.

Dean nodded, smiling slightly. Martin looked over to Sam on his left.

"This hospital's had five deaths in the last four months. The doctors around here keep calling them suicides, but they're all wrong," said Martin, finishing with a whisper in his voice now.

"So you've actually seen this thing then?" asked Alex.

Martin looked down at his table, shaking his head slightly.

"Has anyone actually seen this thing?" asked Dean.

"Well, um, a couple of patients have, um… had glimpses, but that's not an awful lot to go from," answered Martin.

"Are they reliable sources?" asked Dean, smirking slightly.

Martin just looked very confused with Dean's question.

"Well, sure, why wouldn't they be reliable?"

Dean cocked his head to the side, his grin fading. He glanced behind him to where a woman was humming a strange tune, dancing around with herself. Dean looked back to Martin.

"Gee, I don't know why they wouldn't be anything but reliable," he said sarcastically.

Martin placed his hands on the table in front of all of them, sighing.

"Look, I know that you all think that I have a lot of loose screws and you definitely wouldn't be wrong. But I wouldn't have called you three here unless there was something seriously wrong. And I can feel this in my gut," explained Martin.

Sam nodded and looked over to his siblings, who also nodded along with him. Sam looked back over to Martin.

"We believe you. Have you checked any of the bodies? Found any signs of an attack?"

"Well, um, no. I don't… I don't go around dead bo…"

Martin closed his eyes, struggling suddenly to get all of his words out.

"I don't go around dead bod… bodies anymore," finally finished Martin.

"Jason. Eddie. Stephanie. I'm glad to see that you all are making friends. Why don't you and, um, Mr. Creaser here join us all for group, hmm?" asked Dr. Fuller, looking at all four of them.

They all stared at each other curiously.

"Please. Um, right this way," said Dr. Fuller, motioning behind him to the group forming in a circle of chairs.

Alex followed Martin and Sam to the group, but Dr. Fuller stopped Dean, placing a hand up on his chest to stop him and smiling warmly at him.

"Actually, I'm going to be placing you into the afternoon group," explained Dr. Fuller.

"What? Why?" asked Dean, glancing behind Dr. Fuller to look at his siblings.

"Well, to be quite frank and honest here, um, the relationship that you have with your siblings seems dangerously co-dependent. So I think that a little time apart from both of them will do all of you some good," explained Dr. Fuller.

Dr. Fuller nodded at Dean and then walked over to join the group that he had just called altogether. Dean held up a hand as a wave to his siblings and Martin. They sat down in their chairs while Dean stood around the living room area awkwardly.

In the group therapy session, Alex sat in between Sam and Martin. Dr. Fuller gently smiled at all of the patients.

"Alright, so, who would like to start all of us off?" asked Dr. Fuller.

One man's hand shot straight up into the air and he almost wriggled out of his seat as he shook his hand around to be called upon. Dr. Fuller sighed and glanced around his group of patients in the circle.

"Is there anyone else?"

No one else began speaking, so Dr. Fuller just sighed, licked his lips, and sat back in his chair.

"Alright, Ted. Calm down," said Dr. Fuller.

The man who had his hand up first brought his hand back down into his lap and looked down at the floor as he spoke.

"I am calm. And I'd very calmly like to talk about the monster that's hunting all of us," said Ted.

Sam and Alex looked shocked and taken aback that this topic had so easily come up in a conversation. They glanced over to Martin, who had his eyebrows raised, but just shrugged over at them.

"Ted, we're not going to have that discussion again, it's not good for this group," explained Dr. Fuller.

"Well, I agree. You know what else isn't good for group? A monster eating all of our faces off!" yelled Ted.

Dr. Fuller became frustrated then.

"Alright, thank you, Ted. Is there anyone else-" began Dr. Fuller, but he was caught off almost immediately by Ted once again.

"I saw it! When it killed Susan."

Sam and Alex looked over to this Ted person, curious now.

"I did too. It had big lobster claws," said another patient in the group therapy session, a woman with short blonde hair.

Ted looked over to her, his eyebrows pulled together with confusion.

"No, it didn't."

"Yeah, and it was like an alien like on The X-Files," she continued on.

"No, stop this! Stop it! Stop helping! Listen to me! We're all dead!" cried Ted.

"Now, that's enough!" yelled Dr. Fuller.

He leaned forward in his seat, removing his glasses from his face and resting his forearms on his thighs.

"There is absolutely no monster in this hospital. Now, Ted, do you need me to call the orderlies?" asked Dr. Fuller.

Ted shook his head rapidly, murmuring under his breath.

"Or can you behave?" asked Dr. Fuller, his eyes looking over at Ted menacingly.

Ted nodded now.

"Behave," agreed Ted.

The other patients, along with Dr. Fuller, let out great sighs of relief at this solution while Sam, Alex, and Martin all looked at one another.

Alex watched Dean pass by in the hallway right outside of her room so she ran out the door, calling out his name and causing him to stop directly in front of her room.

"Dean, hey. Are you okay?" she asked him, taking in his disgruntled appearance.

"Well, I just had a meeting with my shrink where I just got thraped. So no, I am not alright. Please tell me that you and Sammy have found something, anything really," pleaded Dean.

Alex nodded enthusiastically.

"Actually, yes, we have. This guy says that he saw the dreaded creature. So naturally, we should talk to him. Want to meet back here in an hour with Sammy in tow?" she asked him.

Dean nodded.

"Yes. The sooner we take care of this thing, the sooner we can all get gone. This place seriously gives me the creeps."

Dean raised his eyebrows and turned back around. A beautiful, dirty blonde woman stood directly in front of him. She forcefully grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down to meet her lips. After they had made out for a full two minutes, Alex crossing her arms over her chest and waiting for them to separate.

"Hi. I'm Wendy," said the girl, once she had pulled her lips away from Dean's.

"Well hello there," said Dean, smirking at the girl in front of him.

She smiled back at him and walked past him and Alex, smacking Dean's ass as she passed by him. Dean turned to watch Wendy walk away from the two of them, smirking still.

"Well, maybe this place isn't so bad after all," smirked Dean.

Alex rolled her eyes.

"Dean, seriously, you cannot tap that," warned Alex.

Dean stared after Wendy, who was now rounding the corner of the hallway that the two siblings were currently standing in.

"Oh, I'm so torn," whispered Dean, still staring after Wendy.

Alex sighed, rolled her eyes once more, and walked back into her room, leaving Dean standing in the hallway with a lustful gaze still upon his face.

Later that night, Dean and Sam met Alex right in front of her room. Dean sighed as Alex walked out of her room, sticking her lock pick in the pocket of her blue robe.

"Geez, it's about damn time, Lex. The nurses are on their rounds so we've got about 15 to 20 minutes. Where is this Ted guy anyway?"

"Um, Room 306," answered Alex.

Dean nodded and led the way around the corner. As they rounded the corner and walked into another hallway, a loud scream rang out. The Winchester siblings began running toward the screams, which were coming from Ted's room, Room 306. Sam began picking the lock.

"Hurry up, Sam, hurry up, man!" yelled Dean, watching through the small window in the door.

"Jesus, back off, Dean!" yelled Sam.

Once the door was unlocked, Sam pulled the door open, but it was way too late. Ted was hanging from his ceiling, a white bed sheet tied tightly around his neck.

The next morning, Alex glanced behind her to make sure no one was around as Dean and Sam pulled Ted's body out from where it was being kept in the morgue. They slid it out into the open and pulled the white sheet off of his face. Dean began inspecting Ted's hands and fingers while Sam inspected his face and neck.

"Hey, I found something," said Sam.

Dean quit his own inspection of Ted's body while Alex rushed over to see what Sam had found.

"What do you got?" asked Dean.

"It's right here. Give me your hand," said Sam.

Dean held out his palm and Sam placed it in the middle of Ted's cold neck. There were two small holes on each side of Ted's neck. Alex saw the holes as well. Sam reached over and grabbed a long cotton schwab off of a silver instrument tray. He stuck it through one hole in Ted's neck, the long Q-tip making a disgusting squishing noise as Sam pushed it through Ted's skin. Alex gagged as Sam continued pushing the Q-tip into Ted's neck. Sam's eyes widened as the Q-tip would go no farther. He looked up at both of his siblings.

"This hole goes all the way through to his brain," explained Sam.

Dean looked down at Ted's dead face with disgust.

"And what the hell does that mean?" he asked Sam.

Sam sighed and looked around the morgue, spotting a saw on another small silver instrument table.

"Let's find out."

"Ugh, gross. Seriously?" asked Alex, looking from the saw and then back to Sam.

Sam nodded.

"Alex, you might wanna keep watch."

Alex nodded and stood up straight, heading for the doors labeled "Morgue." She stood outside of them, cringing as she heard the saw start up. After a few minutes, Alex heard a door sound from down the hall. Her eyes widened and she rushed into the morgue.

"Look! His brain's been sucked dry!" exclaimed Sam, his own eyes wide as he held up Ted's deformed brain.

"Wow, that's truly fascinating, Sammy, but someone is coming down here right now," said Alex, biting her lip nervously.

Sam and Dean rushed around, Sam replacing Ted's brain and the top of his skull, Dean covering up the body and sliding it back into its proper place. As soon as Sam removed his bloodied latex gloves and threw them into the small green trashcan behind the door, the door was pushed open by a cheery nurse in blue scrubs. She stopped at the sight of the three of them.

"What are you three doing in here?"

Sam and Alex began laughing absurdly while Dean made strange faces. The nurse sighed and gave them all a smile.

"Alright, come on."

She let the three siblings lead the way out, following right behind them.

Dean chuckled at the pictures of clowns hanging on a board in Martin's room.

"I painted those," said Martin.

Dean's smirk faded suddenly and Alex just rolled her eyes.

"Let's get back on point, please. Um, so, whatever this thing is, it Slurpee's your brain, sucks you dry," explained Sam, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah, and then it makes all of the deaths look like suicides," commented Alex.

"Any ideas over there, Martin?" asked Dean, turning from all of the clown paintings over to face Martin.

Martin looked deep in thought for a moment and then he spoke, still looking own at the ugly tiled floor.

"Yeah. But a bad one."

He headed for the small dresser in his room and pulled out the large bottom drawer. He pulled out a leather journal just like their father's and flipped it open to a certain page. This page held a pencil drawing of a scary looking, long-haired creature.

"What is it?" asked Dean, just staring at the picture in front of him.

"I bet you one chicken dinner that it's what we're up against here. It's a wrathe. They crack open skulls and feed on brain juice," answered Martin.

"Have you ever tangled with one before?" asked Alex.

"No, never. Never wanted to neither."

"So how do we kill it?" asked Dean, looking at Martin now as he straightened up and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Silver. If you even just simply touch a wrathe with the stuff, its skin will crackle so that's the good thing. The bad news is that they can easily pass as humans. It could be any Peter, Paul, or Mary in this damn joint," said Martin, glancing over his shoulder cautiously.

"Oh, that's just simply fantastic. So how do we find it then?" asked Alex.

Martin began fidgeting with his hands as he looked between all three of the siblings.

"A mirror. Lore claims that a wrathe will show its very true form in a mirror," explained Martin.

"Okay, well let's find ourselves a spot and start checking every patient and staff member," ordered Dean, looking over at his siblings.

Sam and Alex nodded.

"Okay. Yeah," said Alex.

"But, I mean, what's it doing at a mental hospital?" asked Sam.

"The nuthouse, I mean, it's a perfect captive victim pool," explained Dean.

"Sure. Who's going to believe a patient when they say that they saw a damn monster, Sam? It's the perfect hunting ground," said Alex.

Sam nodded and they all split up to head for the different mirrors located around the premises. Dean leaned against the front desk of the mental hospital, looking at the convex mirror directly in front of him. After standing there for a while, Dean sighed, having seen nothing. He nodded at Dr. Fuller as he passed by him.

"Morning," said Dr. Fuller.

"Hey there, Doc," said Dean.

He quickly glanced up at the mirror and saw the face of a wrathe looking back at him. Dean's eyes widened and he watched Dr. Fuller's back as he walked away.

That night, Sam walked up to Dean, Alex, and Martin in a hallway, handing each of them a silver letter opener.

"Alright, I had to raid three nurses' stations to get these things. Now, they're only silver plated, but they should work just fine," said Sam, handing out their weapons.

"Right. Fuller is on call tonight, so we'll have to hit him after lights out. All four of us," explained Alex.

Martin's head shot up to stare over at her.

"What? No!"

"Martin. We've got to get past the security, past the orderlies, and then cut the boss man's throat, alright? Now, it's definitely gonna suck from start to finish, but we could really use the back-up help," explained Dean.

"No, I can't. I can't," whispered Martin, shaking his head and beginning to walk away.

"We know what happened in Albuquerque," said Sam, stopping Martin directly in his tracks.

Martin took in a very large and deep breath, still not facing the three siblings.

"You don't know the half of it."

He whirled around, looking between all three of them as he spoke harshly.

"God, I used to be just like the three of you. I used to think I was invincible. And then… Well, I found out that I'm not actually invincible."

"Martin, you are still a hunter," argued Dean.

"No, I'm not! I'm useless. Why do you think that I checked myself in here? Now look, I would give anything to help all three of you, I really would. But I-I can't. I'm sorry, but I can't," cried Martin.

He gave them all a sad, forlorn look and then whirled around, heading for his room. Alex sighed and followed her brothers to Dr. Fuller's office. Once there, they burst through his office door, ready for a fight, but there was no one in there. Dean walked over to his desk and picked up a set of keys.

"He's still in the building if his keys are still sitting in here. You two take the west wing and I'll take the east," said Dean.

The three siblings headed back out of the office door, Sam and Alex heading one direction and Dean heading in another.

Alex walked behind Sam, both of them holding the sharp letter openers in their hands. They walked slowly and cautiously down an empty hallway. As Sam's face peered out around the right corner of the hallway, a man came walking towards them, his face hidden in the darkness of the hallway. Sam rested his body firmly along the wall, pushing Alex against the wall as well. They heard the footsteps sounding and as they neared, Sam launched himself from the wall. He saw that the man was Dr. Fuller and he swiped cleanly across Dr. Fuller's forearm, leaving a deep gash that began to bleed almost immediately. Sam tried to swipe at him again, but two men in white scrubs grabbed him and began leading Sam away. Alex's eyes widened in horror as she saw that Dr. Fuller's cut was doing nothing more than just bleeding and she realized that they had the wrong man. Sam elbowed one man in the stomach and then threw the other one into a window head-first, shattering it. As glass rained down upon the floor, Sam rounded on Dr. Fuller, who ran for it. Alex cursed under her breath and ran after him, but as she saw Sam tackle Dr. Fuller to the ground and stand over him, Martin grabbed Sam's arm, holding him back.

"No! Sam, look at his arm! That cut's not burning. It's not him! It's not him," cried Martin.

Sam looked at Dr. Fuller's cut, saw that it was indeed just bleeding, and opened his palm, the letter opener falling onto the tile floor with a loud clang. Sam was still breathing very heavily, but he looked down at Dr. Fuller's wide eyes with an apologetic look of his own.

Dean and Alex snuck into Sam's room later, seeing Sam sitting up on his bed.

"Hey, are you alright?" asked Dean.

Sam shook his head.

"No, I am not okay. I… am… awesome," said Sam, speaking very slowly and chuckling at himself.

"Did they give you something?" asked Alex.

"Oh yeah, they gave me… everything. It-it's spectacu… lacular," said Sam, laughing loudly at his own made-up word and looked up at his darkened ceiling.

Alex and Dean both shook their heads at him.

"You know, you always were a happy drunk," said Dean.

Sam laughed once more and then he straightened up, his face now suddenly serious. He grabbed onto Dean's arm and pulled him down to his eye level.

"Dean, the doctor wasn't a wrathe," said Sam.

"I know. But I don't understand, I mean, I saw it all in the mirror and it definitely wasn't human," explained Dean.

"Or you're just seeing things. May-mayb-maybe you're actually going crazy," said Sam, shrugging his shoulders and widening his eyes.

"I'm not crazy," said Dean.

"Well, come on, I mean, you've been at least… half crazy for a long ass time. Ever since you got back from Hell or since before that, even. I mean, we're in a, a, um, mental hospital."

Sam chuckled.

"Maybe you finally cracked. You know, maybe now you are really… for real crazy."

Dean nodded sarcastically.

"I made a mistake. That's all. I'll find the thing, alright?"

Sam nodded feverishly.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I know, I know."

Sam placed both of his hands on Dean's shoulders and squeezed them gently, almost encouragingly. Alex giggled from behind Dean. Dean glared at Sam's hands on his shoulders.

"Hey, hey. Look at me. It's okay. 'Cause you're my brother. And I still love you," whispered Sam.

Dean gave Sam a sarcastic smirk and then stood up straight. Alex gave Sam a small good-bye wave and Sam waved back very enthusiastically. Dean and Alex left the room discreetly and then headed back down the hallway together. As Alex and Dean passed through a doorway, Dean's very gorgeous shrink approached him, talking to Dean about their missed session earlier in the day. Alex began to take a different route back to her room. As she slowly walked away, she heard Dean yelling. Alex's eyebrows pulled together with confusion as she walked swiftly back over to Dean.

"Calm down," said a man who was a few feet away, wearing his white scrubs.

"Who the hell are you and how did you know all of that stuff about me and my family?" yelled Dean.

Alex looked into Dean's face.

"Dean, who are you yelling at?" asked Alex, looking around her and only seeing the orderly in the plain and pristine white scrubs.

"Her, my shrink!" yelled Dean, pointing directly in front of him where Alex was now standing, very much alone.

"I said, calm down," said the orderly once again, walking towards the two of them slowly now.

"Dean, what's going on?" asked Alex, whispering now and looking into Dean's panic-stricken face.

"What are you, blind? She's right there," yelled Dean, pointing to his shrink once again.

The orderly just sighed.

"I'm telling you, sir, there is no one standing in front of you right now."

Dean looked back at his shrink, his eyes now wide with horror.

"I'm not real, Dean. You really are going crazy in here," said the shrink.

Dean looked over at the orderly.

"Just leave me alone!" yelled Dean.

He grabbed Alex roughly by her left wrist and began pulling her down the hallway. With each mirror that they passed, Dean looked into it, seeing a wrathe in every single face reflected into the mirror. As he and Alex reached the door at the end of the hallway, Dean struggled to pull it open. He looked around at all of the people in the hallway and slowly slid down the wall next to the door, his hands over his ears. Alex sat directly in front of him, biting her lip nervously and holding her wrist in her lap, red marks forming from where Dean had just grabbed her only seconds earlier.

"Dean, you're seriously scaring me. What's wrong?" asked Alex.

Dean looked over at her, seeming as if he had only just now noticed her.

"Alex," breathed Dean.

He pulled her closer to him and sighed as he hugged her. Alex rubbed his back comfortingly, wondering what was wrong with him.

Alex looked up as Sam walked up to the table that she and Dean were currently sitting around in the living room area.

"Hey, guys," said Sam, walking up to their table.

Sam took in the confused and scared look on Alex's face and the tired and exhausted look on Dean's face. He stopped short of their table.

"Whoa, what's wrong?" he asked the two of them.

Dean stood up slowly, his face pale white.

"It's not the demon blood, Sam. It never was," said Dean.

"What?" asked Sam, cocking his head to the side with confusion.

"The problem was you. It was always you. The lies, your arrogance, the black spot on your soul," continued Dean.

"And now we're all gonna die because of you," said another woman, staring up at Sam.

Suddenly Sam was surrounded by a hoard of people, all telling him how horrible he was and how he should go to Hell. One even pushed him, so Sam retaliated, pushing them back. He punched one man in the face and just kept punching all of them. But none of it was real. Sam stood in the living room area, punching and pushing at absolutely nothing. Two orderlies grabbed Sam by the arms, holding him down.

"No! Leave me alone!" yelled Sam.

Alex sprung up from her chair at her table with Dean and rushed over to Sam, trying to get his attention.

"Sammy! Look at me, Sammy, please look at me," begged Alex.

But Sam couldn't hear her. He continued yelling even as he was dragged out of the living room area by two orderlies. Alex fell to the floor, sitting cross-legged on the floor and crying into her hands. Dean sat at the table that Alex had just vacated to try and help Sam, doing absolutely nothing to help his little brother or sister.

"What is happening in here?" cried Alex into her hands.

"What's happening?" whispered Dean, holding a puzzle piece in his hand.

Alex screamed as Martin woke up suddenly, holding the letter opener that Sam had given him earlier and holding it up to her and Dean as they snuck into Martin's room.

"Martin, Martin, it's us, it's Alex and Dean," whispered Dean.

Martin let out a large sigh of relief and replaced the silver letter opener back under his pillow.

"Man, you two look like hell. Where's Sam?" asked Martin.

"Lockdown. He went crazy," said Dean.

"What?" asked Martin.

"I'm going crazy too. I'm seeing and hearing things, both Sam and I are. Crazy is the clue," said Dean.

"What do you mean?" asked Martin, whispering along now.

Martin's eyes were wide.

"Crazy is the clue. I mean, the things that we have all done, the things that we have seen will probably make us all go crazy eventually. No offense," said Alex, filling in for Dean as he became distracted looking over at Martin's room door.

"None taken," offered Martin.

"But both Sam and Dean freaking out on the same day? It-It's gotta be the…"

"The monster," whispered Martin.

"What if this thing doesn't just feed off the insane? What if it makes people insane? Is that even possible, does that seem real?" asked Alex.

Martin looked down at his tangled white bed sheets before answering.

"Well, I'm not the most reliable source on what is real, but it makes a lot of sense."

"Okay. Okay, so we got infected, alright? Something shot us up with crazy, something…"

Dean trailed off, his eyes wide as a thought overtook him.

"Dean, what is it?" asked Alex, whispering.

"Maybe it's the ghost of my dad," whispered Dean, almost sounding hopeful.

"What? No, Dean, focus here! The wrathe," said Martin.

Dean shook his head and stood up, pacing a small area of the floor.

"Right, alright, the wrathe, the wrathe, the wrathe. Um, it infected us maybe with venom. You know, by touch, or venom, or… saliva."

Dean's eyes widened once again.

"Wendy."

"What? Who's Wendy?" asked Martin.

"Damn it! Wendy, that bitch who kissed you in front of my room one night and then went and kissed Sam the next night right before we all split up to find Dr. Fuller!" exclaimed Alex, slapping her forehead as she realized how stupid they had all been.

Martin nodded and got out of his bed, moving his covers over to the side and following Alex and Dean over to his door. Once outside, Dean began walking in a very weird pattern, avoiding all of the cracks within the tiles making up the floor. Both Martin and Alex glared back at him.

"Dean!" finally yelled Alex.

"I can't step on any of the cracks," explained Dean, just shrugging his shoulders as if Alex and Martin should have already known his obvious answer.

Alex rolled her eyes and turned back towards the front, but a shrill scream sounded out from somewhere around the corner. They all rushed towards it and burst into some girl's room. The girl was tied down to her bed, her wrists slashed very deeply. The extremely cheery nurse who had checked all of them in only a few days prior smirked over at the three of them. Dean glanced over at the mirror hanging on the wall directly across from the bed, saw the nurse's face reflected back as the wrathe, and looked back over to the nurse, his eyes wide.

"Is this real?" asked Dean.

The wrathe continued smirking and removed her one claw-like finger from the poor girl's neck. The wrathe licked it clean of the blood and brain matter and then retracted it back into her wrist, the mysterious claw disappearing directly underneath her palm.

"Oh, sugar, this is very real," replied the nurse.

Dean ran at her, so she threw him into the wall next to the mirror. Martin charged at her next, his weapon held in his hand, but she pushed him out into the hallway. Alex grabbed the wrathe, but the wrathe elbowed her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of Alex. Dean got up, rounding on her, but the wrathe punched him continuously in the face. Alex finally stood up, charging towards the wrathe and slashing her left palm with the silver letter opener. The wrathe screamed out in pain, but then backhanded Alex hard, knocking her down to the floor. Martin tried to attack her once again, so she shoved him into the room with Alex and Dean, held her burning hand to her chest, and left the room, slamming the door closed behind her. Alex was the first one to stand up, so she rushed over to the girl tied down on her bed. The girl blinked slowly and Alex's eyes widened.

"She's still alive!" yelled Alex.

She looked over to Martin, who was now standing straight up. Dean was still lying against the wall, blinking his eyes rapidly.

"Dean, can you hear me? Dean! You've gotta get out there and kill that thing. Martin and I will take care of her," said Alex, watching as Martin began to wrap Wendy's slit wrists up with her bed sheet.

"I-I can't," replied Dean, the room spinning in front of his eyes.

"Dean, you have to. Alex will go with you. You two have no choice," replied Martin.

Alex rushed over to her older brother and helped him stand up just as the door burst open and two orderlies ran into the room. They tried to grab Martin, but he slammed both of the men into the nearest wall.

"Run! Run!" yelled Martin.

Alex led a stumbling Dean out into the brightly lit hallway outside of Wendy's room. Dean kept stumbling, so Alex managed to get him around the corner, where he fell into the wall. Alex grabbed his silver letter opener from inside his robes and crouched down to Dean's eye level.

"I've got this one, big brother. Just stay here and don't move, alright?" begged Alex.

Dean continued staring up at the ceiling and cringing. Alex kissed the top of his head and headed off down the hallway, following the blood trail that the wrathe had left behind. Alex followed the blood trail all the way to the solitary confinement room where Sam was currently being held. She burst into the room just as the wrathe sat down next to Sam. The wrathe turned to look at her.

"Get away from my brother," said Alex, glaring daggers at the evil monster.

"Do you really think that this is gonna end well for you, kiddo?" asked the wrathe, smirking over at Alex as she stood up from her perch on Sam's bedside.

"I'm fairly sure. You never touched me, unlike my brothers."

Alex smirked then as the wrathe's smile faded.

"That's right. I'm not going crazy, bitch."

Alex pulled out one of the silver letter openers from her robe pocket and held it in her hand. The wrathe stalked towards her and threw a punch, but Alex ducked. Unfortunately, the wrathe was much faster and grabbed the front of Alex's robe, throwing Alex into one of the many padded walls. She punched Alex square in the face and kneed her in the stomach. As Alex struggled to catch her breath, the wrathe pinned her to the wall. The wrathe extended her claw and pushed it towards Alex's skull. Alex reached up, grabbed the weapon, and pulled, breaking it clean in half. The wrathe screamed as bright red blood began spurting from her wound. As she continued screaming, Alex pulled out the silver letter opener that she had stolen from Dean, held it up, and stabbed the wrathe straight through her chest. Alex's chest heaved from her deep breaths and she turned to look back at Sam.

"Are you still crazy?" she asked her twin brother.

Sam shook his head and Alex began undoing the ties that held him down to the bed.

"We've gotta get out of here, Sammy."

Once one of his hands was released, Sam began undoing the rest of his ties. As he reached his feet, a very shrill alarm began to sound. The twins exchanged wide eyed glances and Sam rushed to free himself. He followed Alex back to where Dean was now standing. They collected Dean and then ran for the nearest exit, running away from the mental hospital as fast as humanly possible. Sam sighed once they had reached the Impala hidden in some nearby woods.

"Sammy, are you alright?" asked Dean.

Sam shook his head.

"No. The wrathe was right."

"No, she wasn't. She's dead, alright? Now, let's hit the road. I need a drink, or 12," said Dean.

"Most of the time, I can hide it. But I am angry. I'm mad at everything. I used to be mad at you and Dad, then Lilith, and now it's Lucifer. I make excuses, I blame Ruby or the demon blood, but it's not their fault, it's not them, it's me. It's inside of me and I am mad all the time without any reason why," exclaimed Sam.

"Stop. Stop it right now. So what if you're always mad? What are you gonna do, take a leave of absence? Say yes to Lucifer? What, Sam?" asked Alex.

"No, of course not," said Sam.

"Exactly. That's exactly what you're gonna do. You're gonna take all that crap and you're going to fucking bury it. You're going to forget about it because that's how we always keep going. We don't end up like Martin and that's why!" yelled Dean.

He stared at Sam's unmoving form.

"Are you with us?" asked Dean, pointing to himself and Alex.

Sam didn't answer.

"C'mon, Sam, are you with us?" asked Alex.

Finally, Sam nodded.

"Yes, I'm with both of you."

"Good. Now let's get the hell out of here," said Dean.

He climbed into the Impala, Alex and Sam walking slowly to the car. Alex stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Sam's scruffy cheek. Sam smiled sadly at her and Alex took his hand, leading him over to the car and climbing inside first.

A few days later, Sam walked up to the bar and sat down on a barstool. He flagged down the bartender.

"Evening, barkeep. I would like to purchase some alcohol please," he said, pulling out his wallet."

"Uh-huh. And what can I get you?" asked the bartender, looking bored and not looking at Sam.

Sam held up his ID.

"Well, I'm 26. As you can see. On my license."

Sam smirked and held the license closer to the bartender and then pulled it back to himself. The bartender nodded.

"Congratulations, what can I get you?"

"A banana daiquiri, my good man," said Sam, putting his ID back into his wallet.

The curly-haired blonde woman sitting beside Sam smiled at him.

"I'm Crystal," she said.

Sam looked over at her.

"What's your name?" she asked him.

Sam held up his hand for her to shake. She took it.

"Hi, Crystal, I'm Gary," said Sam.

He removed his hand from hers and Crystal smiled at him.

"Gary, I don't mean to embarrass you, but you are just… you are just a stunning looking man."

Sam scoffed.

"I know, right?"

He tucked some hair behind his ears and Crystal's smile faded. He looked at himself in the mirror located behind the bar, making a duck face. His drink was set down in front of him then and Sam's eyes widened as he took in the frozen drink and the little umbrella resting on top of the glass.

"Ooh, thanks!"

Sam took a sip from his drink.

"So, Gary, are you having a great time tonight?" asked Crystal.

"Mmm. Thank you for asking, Crystal, this is like… the best night ever," answered Sam, chuckling at the end of his sentence and sipping from his frozen drink.

"Do you think we could make it any better?"

Crystal sized him up once again and winked at him. Sam just shrugged.

"Probably. I don't know!"

"I mean, do you want to get out of here?"

"Well, I kind of like this bar. And I did just order this daiquiri," said Sam.

Crystal stirred her own drink with her straw.

"I mean, do you want to get out of here with me?"

Sam quit slurping his drink and set it back down onto the bar. Crystal smirked over at him.

"Are we talking about sex?" whispered Sam, looking over at Crystal with his eyebrows raised.

"Well, I, um…"

Crystal chuckled, stirred some more of her own frozen beverage, and then looked over at Sam.

"Yeah, I suppose we are."

Sam sucked in a deep breath and looked over at Crystal, his eyes sparkling.

"Crystal, I would love to have the sex with you."

Crystal laughed and dropped her straw back into her drink.

"Great. Then let's go."

The bartender walked by them then and it was revealed that Sam wasn't really Sam. Instead, a kid was dressed up in Sam's clothes, his baby face full of delight as Crystal spoke to him.

"I love that jacket on you," she cooed.

"Thanks. Actually, the whole outfit is new," said the kid, pulling on the lapels of his brown khaki jacket.

**HOUSATONIC, MASSACHUSETTS**

**36 HOURS EARLIER**

Dean drove the Impala into the small town, his windshield wipers wiping away the slight drizzle of rain landing on his front windshield as he drove. He pulled the car up to a medium-sized white house, parking it in the small driveway. The three siblings climbed out of the Impala and walked onto the front porch, ringing the doorbell. A middle-aged blonde woman answered, smiling softly at the three of them.

"Alex, Sam, and Dean Winchester. So how long has it been?" asked the woman.

She was sitting across from them on a small loveseat, her teenage daughter sitting beside her. The Winchester siblings sat across from her on a couch.

"The summer before sixth grade," answered Sam, smiling.

"Mmm-hmm, I remember. You assigned yourself your own reading list," said the woman.

Sam smirked while Alex and Dean laughed.

"That's right, I totally forgot about that," said Dean.

"Your mom happens to be the best babysitter we've ever had," explained Alex, looking at the shy teenage girl.

The girl looked to her mom, who looked at her daughter.

"Well, when I was a maid at The Mayflower Hotel out on the interstate, long before you were even an idea, their daddy used to pass through town and leave these three with me while he went off to… work. One time he was even gone for two whole weeks."

The siblings' smiles faded.

"Two weeks?" asked the daughter.

Her mom nodded, beginning to pour glasses of lemonade for everyone.

"Mmm-hmm. But he always came limping back eventually. He loved the three of you dearly."

"Do you know what he did all of that time?" asked the daughter.

Sam and Dean looked away while Alex looked at the girl sadly.

"Well, little Sammy always kept trying to tell me. Course, I never believed him. Not at first, anyway," said the woman.

She smiled at the three siblings sadly. Sam finally sighed.

"Katie, our dad, um, happened to be an expert at hunting ghosts. And now, so are we," explained Sam, looking at the daughter.

"That's why I called them, sweetie, because they can help us," said Katie's mom, placing her hand on her daughter's knee.

"Sounds like you guys have a poltergeist," explained Alex.

She watched as the husband came downstairs, lugging suitcases with him.

"It started about a month or two after we moved in here," he explained.

"Yeah, at first it was just simple bumps and knocks and scratches all over the walls. And then it started breaking things," said their old babysitter.

"And then it attacked Katie," stated Sam.

The teenager looked over at him quickly and then looked down at the floor. Her father nodded.

"That was two nights ago."

"Can you show them, honey?" asked her mom.

Katie nodded slowly and stood up, removing the quilt from over her jean-clad legs. She lifted up her pale pink t-shirt and showed them the words carved into her stomach.

"Murderd chylde," read Sam.

"Katie, everything's going to be fine, alright? I promise," said Dean, leaning forward in his seat to look at the young girl.

She smiled softly over at him.

"Now why don't you guys take yourselves a nice little family vacation and we'll take care of this problem here?" suggested Dean.

The father nodded and the mother let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you," she said.

Alex sat beside Sam in the booth at the local diner. Dean was standing at the counter, waiting to grab their food. The kid read off their order and Dean nodded, grabbing the tray of food. He sat back down in their booth, the kid watching him. Alex and Dean both watched as Sam poured dressing onto his salad, which was in a large plastic cup instead of a bowl. Sam looked at them as he shook up the salad.

"Oh, you shake it up, baby," said Dean.

Alex laughed and dug into her bacon cheeseburger. Dean did the same with his own burger.

"You know, poltergeist aside, Donna looked pretty good, don't you think?" asked Dean.

Alex and Sam sighed.

"Dean, please don't tell me that you still have the hots for our old babysitter," said Alex.

"What? No. That's weird," said Dean, looking away from his siblings.

Alex and Sam looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"Look, all I'm saying is, you know, that she's doing well for herself. You know, with her husband and her kid and this whole Amityville thing being thrown at them and they're still hangin' tough," explained Dean.

"Yeah," agreed Sam.

"Do you ever think that you'd want something like that? Wife, rugrats, the whole nine?" asked Dean, looking at Sam, who shook his head.

"No. It's not really my thing anymore."

Alex ate a few more fries from her plate. Sam looked back at his laptop screen.

"So what do you got?" asked Dean.

"Um, well, that house of theirs is old, like really old. Hundreds of years, actually. I found a legend, which is unconfirmed, but still. Supposedly, in 1720, this house was owned by a guy named Isiah Pickett," explained Sam, turning his laptop around so that Dean could see it.

"Legend has it that he hung a woman in his backyard for witchcraft. A woman named Maggie Briggs."

"Okay, so an angry ghost witch," stated Alex, wiping her hands with a napkin.

"If it's true. But it still doesn't explain what murderd chylde means," said Sam, pulling the laptop back around to face him.

Alex felt a prickling sensation in her neck as if someone was watching the three of them. She turned to look at the kid standing behind the counter. His hat was askew on top of his curly black hair and he was smirking smugly at the three of them, especially Sam.

"Where's the bitch buried?" asked Dean, slurping down his drink.

Alex returned to their conversation, but first, she memorized the kid's facial features.

"Well, it's a long way back, but I can see if I can find something in the town records," said Sam.

"It's worth a shot," responded Alex, looking over Sam's shoulder at his laptop screen, all while discreetly glancing at the teenager behind the counter.

"See you in a few then," said Alex, Sam on the phone with her.

"Alright. See you," said Sam.

He hung up his phone and began walking to their motel. He heard a twig snap behind him, so he turned around slowly, looking for the source of the noise. As he turned back around to face the front, a dart was shot into his neck. Sam groaned and held a hand up to his neck where the dart was protruding from. Sam looked up at the sky, his vision becoming blurry. His eyes rolled back into his head and then he fell face first onto the leaf strewn ground.

A clap of thunder sounded, waking Sam up from his slumber. He sat up slowly, finding himself still on the ground. He looked down at himself and saw that he was wearing a work uniform, a name tag attached to his shirt. Sam felt his neck, but felt nothing wrong. He stood straight up and began heading for the road, walking down it towards his motel. As he walked, a police siren sounded from behind him. Sam turned around to face the police officer. The police car stopped directly beside him.

"Mr. Frankel. Mr. Gary Frankel?" asked the police officer.

"Who?" asked Sam.

"Your family's worried sick about you, son."

Sam's eyebrows rose.

"My-my family? You mean, my brother and sister called you?"

"Come on, get in before you freeze solid," said the police officer.

Sam looked very confused, but he climbed into the backseat of the police cruiser. The officer took off down the rain slicked road, driving for about 15 minutes before pulling in front of a typical suburban home. The officer got out first and then opened the door for Sam.

"Thanks. Um, where are we?" asked Sam.

"Your home, son."

Sam's eyebrows rose.

"No, no, Officer, I'm not staying here," explained Sam.

"Gary! Oh my God, Gary! Oh God, Gary," cried a woman, running from the house and throwing herself into Sam's arms.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but, um, what's going on here?" asked Sam, gently prying the woman off of him.

"What do you mean?" asked the woman.

"Lady, who are you?" asked Sam.

"Young man, are you drunk?" asked the man standing beside the woman, looking sternly over at Sam.

"And who are you?" asked Sam, looking at the man with disbelief.

"Gary. Are you drunk? Answer your father," said the woman.

"My father? Look, I-"

Sam glanced back at the police cruiser and saw his reflection then. His mouth fell open in shock as he saw that he was now a baby-faced teenage boy.

"Who is that? Who the hell is that?" demanded Sam, looking back to the three people standing in front of him and pointing to the kid in the window reflection.

"Young man, I'm very surprised at you," said the father, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah. Tell me about it," said Sam.

Alex and Dean walked back into their motel room to see Sam standing in the middle of the room. Alex's eyebrows rose and Dean tossed his cell phone onto his bed.

"Sam. Where the hell have you been?" asked Dean.

"I picked up some food. Two bacon cheeseburgers, a large chili cheese fry, and a large regular fry. Right?" asked Sam, holding up the to-go bag from the local diner.

Dean removed his leather jacket and set it on the back of a chair. Alex sat down at the table and Dean grabbed the bag from Sam, bringing it over to the table.

"Sorry, man, I just… lost track of time. I didn't mean to freak you guys out," said Sam.

Alex and Dean looked to Sam.

"Thanks," said Alex.

"I have no clue why it took you two hours, but thanks," said Dean.

Sam shrugged on a plaid flannel shirt and then slipped on his shoes.

"Oh, and you two are going to want to eat on the road. The maid came in, saw those, and freaked out," said Sam, pointing to all of the guns lying out on Dean's bed.

"Why'd you let the maid in?" asked Dean, rounding on Sam.

"It just happened!"

Dean eyed Sam strangely, but then just shrugged.

"Whatever. I've gotta hit the bathroom and then we'll take off," said Dean.

"Alright, I'll be outside," said Sam.

He turned around and saw Alex still sitting at the table. She looked at him strangely, her head cocked to the side. As she turned around to shrug on her own black leather jacket, Sam grabbed Dean's phone and stuck it in his back pocket. He then headed outside, opened the Impala's passenger side door, searched through the glove compartment, and threw all of the phone he found in there away in the dumpster outside. He then climbed into the passenger seat and waited for the other two.

"You ready?" asked Dean, pulling open his driver's side door to talk to Sam.

"Absolutely," said Sam.

"Um, Sammy? Aren't you going to let me in?" asked Alex, standing outside the Impala and waiting for Sam to open his door to let her climb into the backseat.

"Oh, sorry," said Sam.

He climbed out and Alex climbed inside. Once Sam was back in his seat, he turned to Dean, smirking.

"Hey, can I drive?"

Dean looked over at Sam, shrugged, and the two of them switched places. Once Sam was in the driver's seat, he started up the car and felt it rumble. He smirked.

"Whoa, this is so sweet!"

"Let's go, Sam," said Alex.

Sam nodded and put the car into gear. Dean watched him.

"Reverse. Reverse. Reverse!" yelled Dean, but Sam stepped on the gas and launched the car backwards, straight into the metal dumpster directly behind the Impala. Dean glared over at Sam and Sam hesitantly looked at Dean.

"It's in reverse," said Dean through gritted teeth.

"I am really sorry," apologized Sam, getting out of the car and switching places with Dean once again.

"Shut up," said Dean, climbing back into the driver's seat and taking off from the motel parking lot.

"This is Dean's other other cell. You know what to do," said Dean's voicemail message for one of his many phones.

The real Sam sighed and hung up the phone, throwing it onto the dresser in the bedroom where he was currently pacing the floor. He looked into the full-length mirror on the back of the closet door and saw the same baby-faced teenager looking back at him that he had seen last night in the sheriff's cruiser window.

"Who are you?" asked Sam, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

He sat down on the double bed and grabbed the phone once again.

"Alex!" he said, dialing his twin sister's phone number and praying that she would pick up.

Alex was leaning against the hood of the Impala while Dean and Sam were off using the restroom in the convenience store. She frowned at the unfamiliar number, but answered anyway, knowing that it could be someone asking her and her family to complete a job.

"Hello?" she answered.

A sigh of relief sounded from the other end.

"Oh, thank God. Alex, it's me, Sam."

"Sam? Why are you calling me from the restroom?"

"Alex, I'm not with you. Look, I know that this is going to sound extremely crazy, but I think I'm in the wrong body. I'm in some teenage boy's room right now and when I look in the mirror, I don't see me."

Alex's eyes widened.

"So you think that this teenage boy is in your body?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I think."

Alex looked over and saw Sam and Dean approaching the Impala.

"Okay, Sam, look for anything that tells you this kid's name. I'll try and get Dean alone to tell him."

She hung up then and smiled as the boys approached her.

"Who was that?" asked Sam, looking at her curiously.

"Oh, wrong number," said Alex.

She climbed into the Impala's backseat and began formulating a plan to save Sam.

Back in the teenager's bedroom, the real Sam began sifting through items and clothes. He found folders for advanced placement subjects and rolled his eyes when he saw all of the Star Wars t-shits hanging in the closet. Sam scoffed.

"Virgin," he muttered.

He then searched under the bed, finding a rather large shoebox there. He pulled it out and put it on top of the bed. He opened the shoebox lid and pulled out a porn magazine.

"Frustrated virgin," remarked Sam.

He tossed the porn magazine off to the side and kept digging around in the shoebox. He finally found a dagger and a piece of cloth with some sort of satanic symbol drawn onto it. Sam sighed.

"Witchcraft, huh, Gary? You little satanic bastard," whispered Sam.

He shook his head and then heard Gary's mom calling for him downstairs.

"Leave me alone," remarked Sam.

He threw the witchcraft items to the side and continued digging around in the shoebox. Only a few seconds later, Gary's mother called out to him once again.

"Gary!"

"Alright, I'm coming!" yelled back Sam.

He threw all of the items back into the shoebox, stashed it back under the bed, and then grabbed a blue and black horizontal striped hoodie before heading downstairs for breakfast.

Sam sat down at an empty seat at the table, Gary's father across from him and Gary's sister right next to him. A plate of eggs and bacon was set down in front of him and then Gary's mother sat down in the last chair available.

"So, Gary. I would like to know what happened last night," said Gary's father.

Sam scoffed.

"So would I. Believe me."

"I meant what happened with the plan, buddy."

"The plan?"

"SATs, MIT. The plan. If you want to be an engineer, you need a full ride. So tell me, how does getting drunk fit in with the plan?"

"Right, yeah, um, listen, buddy. No offense, but at the moment, I could really give a rat's ass about your damn plan," said Sam.

Gary's sister looked down at her plate full of eggs and bacon, holding in her smirk and laughter.

"Excuse me?" asked Gary's father, looking rather taken aback.

"Um… Listen, have I seemed, um, moody lately? Withdrawn maybe?"

"Wow," said Gary's sister.

"Any cult fixations?" asked Sam.

"What?" asked Gary's mother.

"Let me guess. I'm amazing at Latin," said Sam.

Gary's mother smiled brightly and nodded.

"You just have an ear for languages, honey. It's really a gift," she said.

"Hmm. Um, any of the neighborhood pets go missing recently?" asked Sam.

"Are you smoking drugs?" asked Gary's father.

Gary's mother rounded on him.

"Leonard. He is not smoking drugs," she scolded.

"Have any one of you seen with a book? It would be big and old, leather-bound. Maybe with some very strange writing on it? Or frankly, I'm probably hiding it," said Sam, stealing a piece of toast off of Gary's mom's plate and taking a huge bite out of it.

"Gary, no!" scolded his mother.

"What?" asked Sam, looking strangely at all of them.

"You're allergic to wheat gluten," she answered.

Sam stopped chewing on the toast while Gary's sister began laughing. Sam threw down the piece of toast.

About an hour later, Sam walked out of the bathroom clutching his stomach. He leaned against the banister of the staircase, Gary's sister standing in the doorway of her bedroom with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Gluten," said Sam.

"You have seriously sprung a leak," she said.

"What?"

"If mom and dad found that creepy old book of yours, you would probably be grounded forever. And now you're suddenly bringing it up at breakfast?"

Sam's eyes widened.

"So there is a book. Sydney, where do I keep it?" asked Sam.

Alex trailed behind Dean and Sam as they walked along the pier.

"So where are we going," asked Sam, looking over at Dean.

"To work," answered Dean, looking at Sam strangely.

Sam looked down at his feet.

"The case?" offered Dean.

"Oh, right, yeah. The case, of course. Where, um, do you want to start?" asked Sam.

"Well, since you couldn't manage to find where Maggie Briggs was buried, now we have to do an all-day tombstone search to see if we can't dig her back up," explained Dean.

"Wait, Maggie Briggs? You mean like the witch Maggie Briggs?"

"Yeah, Sherlock," said Dean.

"She's in the basement," said Sam.

Dean looked over at him over the top of the Impala.

"Come again? What basement?"

"Isiah Pickett's house. Okay, there's this legend that he hung her, but he didn't. The real truth is, is that she was carrying his illegitimate child and so he killed her, burying her in the basement," explained Sam.

"Murderd chylde," whispered Alex, looking over at Dean.

"That would explain all of the scratches. But how do you know all of this?" asked Dean, looking back at Sam.

"Oh, I've done all kinds of research on this."

Dean and Alex stared at Sam.

"I mean, last night," said Sam, nodding.

"Yeah, alright. Nice work, I guess," said Dean.

"Yeah, nice work. Sam," said Alex.

She brushed past Sam to get into the backseat first, stepping on his feet purposefully. Sam looked at her, gulping loudly as he realized that she knew his secret. He climbed into the car, Alex glaring at Sam through the rearview mirror.

Sam strode down a set of stairs into the high school, looking down at his feet as he walked.

"Gary," said a voice from behind Sam.

Sam turned around and saw a teenage boy and girl looking worriedly at him.

"Are you alright?" asked the girl.

"Yeah, I'm Gary. Um, Gary is just fine," said Sam.

The red-haired boy looked at Gary.

"So we're referring to ourselves in the third person now," he said.

"We heard about last night, what happened?" asked the girl, clutching her binder and books to her chest.

"Got drunk, no big deal. Look, um, what's my locker number?" asked Sam.

"What, are you still drunk?" asked the boy, while the girl chuckled nervously.

"Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm seeing like three of you right now. So what's my locker number?" asked Sam.

The boy and girl in front of Sam exchanged nervous glances.

Sam walked to Gary's locker, his hands in his pockets. He located the correct locker number and pressed his ear up to the locker. He began twisting the combination lock, listening for the clicks. Sam had the locker opened in a matter of seconds and he began swiftly searching through the small locker. He found a dark, hunter green backpack and he unzipped it, searching through it. When Sam saw that there was nothing of importance inside of it, he looked at the locker again. He sighed when he saw the old book that he was looking for. He grabbed it and pulled it out, holding it in his hands.

"Oh no, Gary," whispered Sam.

He flipped open the book, sifting through the pages.

"This is a very, very bad book to have," whispered Sam.

He quickly replaced the book bag back into the locker and tucked the old witchcraft book under his arm.

Dean led the way down the wooden stairs leading into the basement of Donna's house. Sam was next and then Alex was in the back. Each one of them held a flashlight in their hands.

"Booyah! Master Chief is in the house, biznatches!" said Sam.

Dean turned to look at him.

"Sam, are you alright?" he asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," answered Sam.

Dean gave him a once-over and then continued forward into the basement. Dean spotted a corner of the basement that was covered in a very light green substance.

"Well, I'll be damned. Willow moss," said Dean.

"Yeah, right, it's a… supposed to grow over witches' graves, right?" asked Sam, smiling.

Dean turned back around to look at Sam once again.

"Yes," said Dean.

Alex brushed past Sam, deliberately knocking her shoulder into his and causing him to stumble. She joined Dean near the willow moss and they got to work, Dean beginning to shovel the dirt up off of the grave. Alex stood beside him, watching as Dean shoveled. Sam raised his sawed-off shotgun, aiming it at the back of Dean's head. He licked his lips as he placed his right index finger on the trigger.

"Hey, man. I'm really sorry about all of this," said Sam.

"Sorry about what?" asked Dean.

As Sam began to pull the trigger, he was flung back into the wall behind him, knocking down a bunch of shelves. Dean dropped his shovel and rushed over to him, helping Sam stand back up.

"Sam! Hey, man, are you alright?" asked Dean.

"Let's just get the hell out of here!" yelled Sam.

"Whoa, we've still gotta burn the body, you dumbass. Come on," said Dean.

Alex watched as Sam and Dean walked towards her. However, when they reached the middle of the room, Dean was flung backwards into the wall this time. A ghost appeared in the middle of the room, glaring over at Dean. As she stalked towards him, Alex grabbed the gas, poured it over the body, and struck a match, throwing it down onto the skeletal bones. As the witch ran towards Dean, she disappeared into thin air and a flash of orange flames. Sam smirked as he looked from the burning grave to Alex and then back over to Dean.

"Guys. That was so sweet!" he exclaimed.

Dean gave Sam a sarcastic smirk.

Sam glanced behind him as he walked away from the high school. The two people he had met earlier were tailing him.

"Hey, Gary, wait up!" called out the boy.

"Where are you going?" asked the girl.

"I've got something very important to do," yelled back Sam, not turning around to face the two of them.

"You're skipping class, you," said the teenage boy.

Sam finally whirled around to face them, taking in their faces of curiosity and disappointment.

"I'm just… not feeling like myself, alright?" explained Sam.

"Well, whatever it is we can talk it out, bro. Come with us."

"Look, I don't have time and I've gotta go. I'm sorry."

Sam sighed and turned back around, beginning to walk away.

"Hey!" called out the teenage boy.

Sam turned back around and the boy had pulled out a dart gun. He shot it and a dart hit Sam straight in the neck. Sam fell to the ground while the girl looked horrified.

"Trevor!" she yelled, staring at the boy next to her.

"Well, what else was I supposed to do?" asked Trevor, glancing behind him to make sure that no one else had seen him shoot Sam.

Alex watched from the bar as Dean sat at a table with Sam and threw back a strong tequila shot. She sighed and bit her lip, wondering why Sam hadn't called her in a while. She began thinking of ways to pull Dean away from Sam, but when she looked back over at the table, she saw that Dean was looking at Sam suspiciously while Sam spoke. She watched as Sam left the bar with a random woman and she swiftly walked over to Dean's table. She sat down in Sam's vacated seat and looked at Dean.

"Alex. Where the hell have you been all night?" asked Dean.

"I've been at the bar. Look, Sam's not Sam. He's actually in someone else's body right now and we need to save him," explained Alex.

Dean nodded.

"I know, Sam's been acting weird ever since we got here," replied Dean.

"Thank God you finally noticed. Sam called me hours ago, Dean. I've been trying to get you all alone to tell you ever since."

"Sorry, Lex. Let's figure this shit out," said Dean.

He slapped a few bills down onto the bar table and grabbed his jacket, heading out of the bar with Alex.

Sam awoke and his eyes widened as he realized that he was tied up tightly to a chair in someone's basement. He began struggling until Trevor entered the room. The girl was standing off in the corner, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Hey! What's going on?" asked Sam.

"You can scream all you want, but no one can hear you, my parents are out of town!" yelled Trevor, holding his cell phone up to his ear and smirking over at Sam.

"Gary," said Trevor as someone picked up on the other end of the call.

"T. What up?" asked Gary.

"Where are you?"

"Um, I can't really tell you right now, but man, you wouldn't believe it."

"Well, where are Dean and Alex?" asked Trevor.

Sam suddenly stopped struggling and looked over at Trevor.

"Um, they're staying at the Clover Leaf Motel off of Route 6. Why?" asked Gary.

"You mean you haven't killed them yet?"

"What? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, what do you mean? Kill Alex and Dean?" yelled Sam.

"I'm building up to it."

"Gary, we've got problems here. For one, I'm looking at your body right now. With this other dude in it," explained Trevor.

"What?" asked Gary.

"Yeah, he's been in your house, he's hanging out with your parents."

"Okay, just calm down because whatever he says, no one's going to believe him, right? I mean, we're still good," said Gary.

"Would you just hurry up and kill those sons of bitches already?"

Sam's eyes widened and the girl looked over at him.

"Don't rush me, I'll do it."

"Yeah, you better."

Trevor hung up his cell phone and stuck it back into his jeans pocket. He looked at the girl.

"I don't think that he's gonna actually do it."

"Just relax, this is Gary we're talking about," she replied to Trevor.

"What the hell is going on here?" asked Sam.

The two teenagers looked over at him then.

"How do you even know who Dean and Alex are?" asked Sam.

"Everyone knows Dean and Alex. Dean is Hell's most wanted and Alex is just collateral damage," explained Trevor, walking over to stand only a few feet away from Sam.

Sam threw back his head, looking at Trevor sadly.

"Oh no, no. Have you idiots been talking to demons?"

"Oh, right, we're the idiots," said Trevor.

"You're just kids. You have no clue what you are messing with here."

"Well, we know that there's a price on Dean's head and we're the ones that are going to collect the prize," explained Trevor, pointing back to the girl.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Sam, his eyebrows pulling together with confusion.

"About a month ago, we were down here-"

"Nora," warned Trevor, rounding on the girl.

Nora just stared at Trevor incredulously.

"What? Are we not allowed to talk about him?"

Trevor just stared at her so she continued on.

"We were down here goofing around with that book."

"Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call praying to our Dark Overlord 'goofing around.'"

"Don't be a loser, Trev."

"Yeah, Trev," agreed Sam.

Trevor gave Sam a glare while Nora went over and began flipping through the dark book. She removed a plain white sheet of paper from somewhere inside the book's many pages and walked back over to show it to Sam.

"Anyway, all of a sudden the lights began flickering and Gary went into this weird sort of trance. He closed his eyes, picked up a pencil, and drew this."

Sam looked at the drawing, which was a pencil sketch of Dean. Sam's eyes widened once again as he took in the picture.

"And you know what's really weird? Gary can't draw at all," said Trevor.

"He said that he heard a voice inside his head. The demons were putting out a bounty on this guy," continued Nora.

"A bounty?" asked Sam.

Nora nodded.

"Yeah, like to every witch or Satanist across the country. But Gary… Gary's the one who spotted you three first."

"And this Freaky Friday crap?" asked Sam.

"Oh, just another spell from the book. Gary's idea. He's really smart," said Nora, smiling.

"That is if he has the balls to go through with this plan," said Trevor.

Nora looked back at him scathingly.

"Listen to me. You three are making a horrible mistake. I mean, we're talking about a demon deal. Killing people. This isn't a game. You three are crossing a line that you won't be able to come back from. Believe me," pleaded Sam.

Nora suddenly looked nervous as she turned around to face Trevor again.

"What?" asked Trevor, taking in her panic-stricken face.

Nora just shook her head.

"Nothing, I…"

Nora trailed off and looked down at the floor as she began nervously messing with the hair on the top of her head. Trevor walked over to stand only inches away from her.

"Nora, please don't tell me that you're actually listening to this jerk."

"I don't know. I mean, maybe, what if he has a point?" asked Nora.

"I don't believe this. First Gary and now you? I can't-"

Trevor trailed off as well and stared into Nora's nervous face.

"You know what? Fine. You want something done right…"

Trevor walked over to the dark magic book and picked it up, beginning to flip through it.

"So what, you're just gonna go kill Alex and Dean yourself, tough guy?"

Nora laughed nervously until Trevor held up the book to show her the page that he was on.

"I won't have to. I can do this."

Trevor smirked as Nora took in the demon summoning page that he was on. She rushed over to him.

"No, no, no, you can't be serious," she said.

"I'm calling up one of these bastards, turning these punks over, and getting paid. Dolla' dolla' bills, y'all!" yelled Trevor.

"I don't think that that's a great idea, Trevor."

"It's not, it's actually a very, very bad idea," chimed in Sam.

"No one asked you," said Trevor.

Nora looked back to Trevor, her eyes full of fear now. Trevor turned his back on Nora and Sam.

Gary carefully walked into the dark motel room to see Dean and Alex asleep in their beds. He saw a gun lying out in the open on a chair, so he carefully picked it up, cocked it, and aimed for the lump that was Dean first. Dean and Alex stood waiting in the shadows of the dark room. When Gary as Sam turned to see them standing beside him, Dean grabbed the gun and then punched Gary in the face. He pulled Gary up by the lapels.

"You're not Sam," said Dean.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Alex.

"Ow," exclaimed Gary.

Trevor stood over the end table where he was performing the summoning of a demon. Nora stood behind him.

"Don't do this, Trevor. I'm begging you," pleaded Sam.

"Trevor, I think he's right," said Nora.

"Hey. You want to get into Vassar, don't you?" asked Trevor, facing Nora and smirking.

"Please. Stop!" yelled Sam.

Trevor ignored him and continued speaking in Latin.

"You're going to get us all killed!" yelled Sam.

Trevor just kept reading from the large, old book so Sam continued struggling with his bonds. When Trevor threw the last ingredient into the bowl, he looked up from the table expectantly. Sam looked around as well, but not a single demon appeared. Trevor looked back down at the dark magic book.

"Maybe I said something wrong."

He looked behind him to see Nora lying on the floor. She was slumped against the bar in the basement. Trevor crouched down to be at her level.

"Nora? Nora, are you okay?" asked Trevor.

"Don't! No, don't touch her!" yelled Sam, but it was already too late.

Trevor had reached out his hand and had touched Nora's left shoulder gently. Her head shot up, her eyes black as night. She smirked at Trevor.

"Oh, yeah. I'm just peachy," she said.

She stood up and stared at Trevor.

"So what'd you call me here for, kid?"

Her eyes went back to normal as she paced a circle around Trevor.

"Unless… It's dinner time?"

"What? No. We have Dean Winchester," explained Trevor, smiling nervously.

Nora stopped pacing around Trevor.

"You do? Where is he?"

"Trevor, keep your mouth shut," warned Sam.

"The Clover Leaf Motel over off of Route 6," answered Trevor.

Nora gasped a small gasp and then she looked over towards where Sam was currently tied up.

"Sam? Is that you in there?" asked Nora.

She stalked over to him, laughing once she reached him. She grabbed his cheek, pinching it.

"Well aren't you just 98 pounds of nothing!"

"The kid is a moron. He doesn't have any idea where Dean is," said Sam, glaring over at Trevor.

Nora just laughed once again. She turned her attention back over to Trevor then.

"So if Sam's in this body, who's in Sam's?"

"A dangerous warlock. Named Gary," said Trevor.

"You mean to tell me that you've got Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester's meat suit, an empty vessel just waiting to be filled. And you're gonna hand them both over to me?" asked Nora.

"Um, yeah, I guess so," said Trevor, nodding his head feverishly.

Nora smirked and licked her lips.

"Well, I've gotta hand it to you, kiddo. I'm very impressed."

"Thanks. Um, so if you don't mind my asking, there's a reward?" asked Trevor.

"Sure. My undying gratitude," said Nora.

Trevor looked from her to Sam and back again. His smile faded.

"What, are you completely serious?" he asked her.

"Be quiet, you dumbass!" yelled Sam.

"Consider yourself lucky, kid."

Nora chuckled darkly and whirled around on her heel.

"Wait a minute. We worked our asses off down here and I want my reward!" yelled Trevor, looking angry suddenly.

Nora's face darkened considerably and she turned back around angrily to face Trevor. Trevor took one look at her face and backed down.

"Please," he whispered, chuckling uncomfortably.

"Okay. I'm sorry. You're right. What can I get for you?" asked Nora, batting her eyelashes at Trevor.

"How about a million dollars?" offered Trevor.

"For God's sake, Trevor, how about you just shut the hell up and run away?" offered Sam.

"Well, a million dollars doesn't actually buy much these days, so why not make it ten million dollars?" asked Nora.

"Okay, ten million then," said Trevor, laughing.

Nora chuckled and nodded.

"And I also want… I want Mindy Schwartz to fall in love with me."

"Ah, young love, money. I see that you're sticking to the basics. I can respect that. But here's my counter offer."

Nora's smile suddenly faded and she stuck her hand straight through Trevor's chest. Sam cringed as he watched this happen. Nora twisted her hand around in Trevor's chest cavity until blood began dripping from his mouth. She removed her hand then and Trevor fell down onto the carpeted floor, dead. Nora looked at her hand and held it up to her face, licking the blood from it.

"Yum. Tastes like moron."

She glared down at Trevor's now dead body and then smirked over at Sam.

Alex glared at Gary as he sat tied up to a chair, his eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot.

"Alright, pal, either you start talking or I start torturing," offered Dean.

"Oh, God, please don't hurt me, please, I'm so sorry! I'm so so sorry!" cried Gary.

"Okay, pull it together, champ," said Dean.

He placed a hand on Gary's shoulder.

"I don't want to die, I really don't want to die," whispered the kid.

"Where's Sam?" asked Alex.

"In my-my friend's basement. His parents are out of town."

Dean's eyebrows rose.

"Parents? How old are you, exactly?"

"I'm 17."

"17?"

Gary nodded profusely.

"Huh," said Dean.

Suddenly, he was flung across the motel room, landing on the only dresser in the room and knocking over a lamp. It shattered as it hit the floor and Dean was knocked unconscious from the force of his fall. Alex stood up as she saw Nora enter the room, Nora's evil smirk present on her teenage face.

"Nora?" asked Gary, his face now confused as he took in the girl.

Nora flung Alex into the other wall and then she crouched down in front of Gary, turning her eyes black.

"Not at the moment," said Nora.

Alex raised herself up on her hands and knees, catching her breath, but Nora pushed her down again. Alex's head hit the corner of the bed frame nearest her, knocking her out cold. Nora walked behind Gary to untie him.

"Tell me, what is it you want? Anything at all," said Nora.

"Anything?" asked Gary.

He pulled the untied ropes over his head and stood up as Nora walked to stand in front of him. She nodded.

"Lay it on me."

"I want to be a witch. For real. And really powerful too."

"Hmm. Good choice. And I totally get it. No Daddy, no MIT, no plan. You get to be all big and strong and no one can tell you what to do any longer."

Nora had walked over to stand right beside Dean as she spoke. Now she whirled around to face Gary, a smile on her face.

"But there's just one small formality first."

Gary looked confused.

"You've gotta meet the big boss."

"The boss?" asked Gary.

"You know, your satanic majesty or whatever you kids are calling him these days," said Nora, just simply shrugging.

"You mean the devil?" asked Gary.

Nora nodded, smirking.

"Um, no, okay? Um, it's really alright because I don't really want to bother him anyway."

"Oh, but he's going to want to meet you, Gary. Relax. It'll be really easy. You see, he's just going to ask you one little teeny tiny question and all you've got to do is simply say yes. And then, you get your whole reward."

Running footsteps sounded from behind Nora and she whirled around to see Dean rushing towards her, the demon-killing knife held in one of his hands. She grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, throwing him to the ground once again. Gary looked away as Nora began repeatedly kicking Dean in the stomach. Dean looked over at Gary, flinching as Nora kicked him once again. Alex began stirring then, groaning in pain from her head wound, which was a large gash right above her hairline directly on the corner of her head. Gary looked back at her and then turned his attention back to Nora and Dean. Gary began chanting in Latin so Nora whirled around to face him once again.

"What was that?" she ground out.

"Um, nothing," answered Gary.

"Were you trying to exorcize me?" asked Nora, walking towards him.

She shoved the chair in the middle of the room to the side as she grabbed Gary's throat and lifted him up into the air.

"You little piece of shit!"

Gary tried to pry Nora's hands from around his throat, but she was holding him way too tight. As Alex finally managed to sit up and take in the scene in front of her, Dean began chanting the rest of the exorcism.

Nora let go of Gary's throat to go after Dean, but then Gary began speaking. The two boys would switch off chanting the Latin exorcism. Dean had the last word and he finished the Latin.

"Adios, bitch," said Dean.

"Um, it's actually adinos," corrected Gary.

Dean glared over at him and then they watched as the demon was exorcized from Nora's small body. The large cloud of black smoke disappeared through the air vent in the room and then Nora's unconscious form fell down to the carpeted motel room floor. Alex stood up then, holding one of her hands, palm side to her head. She sighed with relief and Dean smiled weakly over at her.

Sam sat in front of Gary as Gary chanted the spell in Latin that would switch them to the correct bodies once again. Gary threw some herbs into the bowl and then it caught on fire. As both Sam and Gary flinched, the fire suddenly burned out as quickly as it had started and Sam stood up quickly to look into the nearest mirror.

"So are we finally good again?" asked Alex.

Sam nodded, sighing with relief.

"Yeah, we're good. Oh man, it's nice to finally be back."

"Yeah, awesome," said Gary, his tone very sarcastic as he stood up from his cross-legged position on the floor as well.

"So, Gary," began Dean, but Gary already began nodding.

"Yeah, I know. My bad," said Gary, looking over at Sam and then back to Dean, who just scoffed.

"'My bad?' Kid, my bad isn't going to cut it. See, if you were of voting age, you would already be dead by now because we would have killed you."

Gary looked to Sam, who nodded slightly, and then to Alex, who also nodded imperceptibly. He then looked back up into Dean's face.

"So either you straighten up and start to fly right or we will kill you," threatened Dean.

Gary gulped loudly.

"Are we clear?" asked Dean.

Gary nodded, smiling slightly.

"Crystal," answered Gary.

"Good. Now go get in my car."

Gary nodded and he and Nora headed outside, the Winchester siblings following behind the two teenagers.

"Crap," said Gary, climbing out of the backseat of the Impala and staring up at his house.

Sam sighed deeply.

"Gary, please take this from someone who knows. Chin up, man. Your life is seriously not that awful."

"Um, you met my parents," stated Gary.

"And yeah, so what? It's your life and if you don't like their plan for you, then tell them to cram it! Rebel a little bit, but in a healthy, non-Satanic way, of course," said Sam.

Gary finally cracked a smile and looked over towards his front door where Nora was standing with Dean and Alex. Sam looked over there too and waved to Nora, who gave a small wave back to Sam.

"By the way, do you even know why Nora's into witchcraft?" asked Sam, turning back to face Gary.

"What do you mean?" asked Gary, shaking his head as he stared up into Sam's face.

"She doesn't like Satan, you moron, she likes you."

Gary looked taken aback.

"Really?"

He glanced over at Nora once again.

"You-you think?" asked Gary, lowering his voice a little as he looked back up at Sam.

Sam nodded once.

"Yes, I know so. I'm telling you, Gary. I wish that I had your life."

"You do?"

Sam just simply shrugged. He nodded. Dean and Alex exchanged looks.

"Thanks, Sam."

Gary smiled warmly at him and Sam stepped aside so that Gary could head inside his own home.

"Now get on out of here," said Sam.

Gary headed for his front porch, the wind and rain beginning to pick up then. Sam clapped Gary once on the back and then sighed deeply. The three siblings watched them walk inside the house safely and then both Dean and Alex looked over at Sam.

"That was a really nice thing to say there, Sammy," said Alex, smiling over at her twin brother.

Sam nodded and heard the front door of Gary's house slam shut.

"Yeah, and I totally lied. The kid's life sucked ass."

Dean's face fell and Alex giggled. Sam opened the passenger side car door and let Alex climb inside first. Dean looked back at the front porch, shrugged, and then climbed into his car through the driver's side door. Sam sighed.

"All that apple pie family crap, it's incredibly stressful. Trust me on this one, guys, we didn't miss a damn thing," said Sam, shaking his head.

"Or we just don't know what we're really missing," said Alex.

Dean and Sam sat in silence for a few seconds, thinking about their sister's words before Dean started up the Impala. He backed out of the driveway, Alex staring wistfully at the nice house that they were leaving behind.

Dean sat in a chair at the end of a small stage in his current dream. As two girls, one dressed up as the devil and another dressed up as an angel, leaned towards one another, they suddenly disappeared, causing Anna to appear. Dean's face looked startled.

"Anna. I was just, um, working on a case," lied Dean, looking around the room in his dream, which clearly resembled a strip club.

Anna smiled warmly.

"So this is what you dream about," said Anna.

Dean slightly nodded and then looked down at the floor.

"This is awkward," he whispered down at the floor.

Anna stepped down from the stage and sat down beside Dean, who looked at her.

"Why are you gate crashing in my head? Why didn't you just swing by the motel?"

"I can't find you."

"Oh. Cas did this thing…"

"Cas. Right. Now there's a friend who you can count on."

"What?" asked Dean, looking confused.

"He didn't tell you," stated Anna.

"Tell me what?"

"Where I've been. But of course not, why would he?"

"So where have you been?"

Anna looked away for a split second before deciding to answer him.

"Prison. Upstairs. All the torture, but twice the self-righteousness."

"Why wouldn't he have told us where you were?" asked Dean.

"Because he's the one who turned me in."

Dean looked over at Anna, his eyebrows raised. Anna just shook her head, a sarcastic grin upon her lips.

"Yeah, well, don't look so shocked, he was always a good little soldier. He would do anything under orders."

"I didn't know. Are you okay though?"

Anna looked straight into Dean's face as she answered.

"No. And I don't have very long. I broke out, but just barely. They're currently looking for me and if they find me…"

Anna trailed off, her sentence too horrible to even finish.

"Okay. Then what do you need from me?" asked Dean.

"Meet me at 225 Industrial. And please, just hurry," begged Anna.

Dean's eyes opened suddenly and he sat straight up in his motel room bed. He took in deep breaths as he went over what Anna had just told him. He sighed and decided to call on Castiel.

The very next day, Dean watched as Castiel drew some sort of symbol on the black end table in their current motel room. Sam sat in an armchair and Alex was sitting on one of the arms of the armchair that Sam was currently occupying.

"Really? Anna? I don't believe it," said Dean, his hands on his waist.

"Well, it's true," said Castiel, not even looking up from his work.

"So the plan to kill me, would it actually stop Satan?" asked Sam, his elbows resting on his knees.

"No, Sam, come on," said Alex, rolling her eyes.

Sam ignored his twin sister.

"Cas, what do you think? Does Anna have a point?"

Castiel finally looked up from his work and glanced over at Sam, Alex, and Dean.

"No," answered Castiel.

"So I don't get it. We're looking for the chick that wants to gank Sam? Why are we doing that again?" asked Dean.

"Anna will keep trying and she won't give up unless Sam is dead. So we have to kill her first," said Castiel.

He poured some sort of liquid into a yellowish-gold kettle and then began chanting in a foreign language. All three of the Winchester siblings looked on curiously. After his chant, the mixture in the kettle burst into bright pink flames and Castiel stumbled backwards, using a chair around the dining room table to catch his balance.

"I found her," he said, his eyes closed.

"Where is she?" asked Dean.

Castiel opened his eyes then and looked up.

"Not where. When."

He stood up straight and looked over at all three siblings.

"It's 1984."

"What?" asked Alex and Sam in unison, suddenly standing up.

"Why 1984, I wasn't even born yet," said Sam.

"You and Alex won't be. If she kills your parents."

"What?" asked Alex, her eyes wide with horror.

"Anna can't get to you, Sam, because of me. So she's now going after them," explained Castiel.

"Take us back right now," said Dean, his voice eerily calm as he looked down at Castiel.

"And deliver you right to Anna. I should go alone."

"They're our parents, Cas, we're going," argued Dean.

"It's not that simple," said Castiel, turning away from all three of them.

"Why not?" asked Alex.

"Time travel was extremely difficult, even with the powers of Heaven at my disposal."

"But now you're cut off," said Sam.

"Listen, I am telling you that taking this trip, with passengers, no less, it will weaken me immensely."

Dean stepped towards Castiel.

"They're our Mom and Dad. And if we can save them, and not just from Anna, if we can set things right, then we have to try, we need to try."

Castiel looked into Dean's face for a few seconds before nodding imperceptibly. As he began packing up all of his things in a duffel bag, the siblings got ready as well. After Castiel was done, he turned around to face the three of them.

"Ready?"

Sam scoffed and hoisted his large duffel bag onto his shoulder.

"Not really."

"Bend your knees," ordered Dean.

Alex stood between her two brothers and grabbed for Sam's hand as Castiel touched their foreheads with his fingers. Sam gripped her hand tightly. A few seconds later, the three siblings landed on an asphalt road, a slight drizzling of rain falling down. A car horn sounded from directly behind them, so the three siblings rushed over to the sidewalk on the right side of them.

"Did we make it?" asked Alex, gently prying her hand from Sam's as she took in the small shops around her.

"Well, I would say yes, judging by the old ass car that almost hit all of us," answered Dean.

He stepped back slightly and saw Castiel lying against a parked car, his nose bleeding.

"Cas?" asked Dean.

He rushed over to Castiel, Sam and Alex right behind him.

"Take it easy, alright?" said Dean.

"I'm fine. I'm much better than I expected," ground out Castiel.

He suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood onto the gray sidewalk. Castiel's eyelids fluttered closed and he fell back against the car. Sam held his hand up to Castiel's open mouth.

"He's breathing. Sort of," explained Sam, placing his hand back down at his side.

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

Alex and Sam chuckled as they saw a couple pass by them, the man sporting a huge mustache. Dean came out of the small motel in front of them and chuckled as well.

"So I paid five nights for Cas in the honeymoon suite. I told the manager, do not disturb no matter what and you know what he said in reply?" asked Dean.

Sam and Alex simple shrugged.

"'Yeah, don't sweat it. Want to buy some dope?'"

Sam chuckled and Alex just rolled her eyes.

"Dope. Man, we ought to stick around here and buy some serious stock in Microsoft," said Dean, smiling.

"Yeah, we might actually have to if Cas doesn't recover quickly," said Sam.

"Is he alright?" asked Alex, biting her lip nervously as she looked over at her older brother.

"What do I look like, an angel doctor? He'll wake up, he's perfectly fine. He's tough for a little nerdy dude with wings."

"Well, if he landed like that, then hopefully Anna did as well, which should buy us some serious time," said Sam.

Dean nodded and then looked down at the phonebook page in Alex's hand.

"Did you two find our parents?"

"Yep. Um, the Winchesters. 485 Robin Tree Lane," said Alex, holding up the phonebook page with glee and triumph.

Dean nodded once again.

"Great. Now, let's go pop in on our folks."

He brushed past his siblings and began walking down the sidewalk, Alex and Sam having no choice but to follow him.

Once it was dark out, Dean pulled the blue car that he had stolen up across the street from their parents' house. Sam was the first to climb out of their stolen car, Alex and Dean following his lead. Sam walked swiftly towards the house, but Dean grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks.

"Dean, Anna could be here at any second," said Sam.

"And what exactly are we going to march up there and tell them, Sammy?" asked Dean.

"The truth?"

"What, that there's a group of hunters back from the future to save them from some psycho angel? That sounds extremely convincing," said Alex, crossing her arms over her chest and arching only one eyebrow up on her face as she glared over at Sam.

"Well then, we'll tell her there's some demon after her. I mean, she thinks you're a hunter, right?" asked Sam, pointing over to Dean.

"Right, a hunter who straight up disappeared right when her father died. She's really gonna love me."

Dean glanced up towards the house and then sighed.

"Just follow my lead," he instructed.

Sam sighed, but Alex immediately began following her oldest brother. Dean rang the doorbell hesitantly and waited for someone to answer. Mary was the one who pulled open the front door and her face fell as she saw Dean standing directly in front of her. Alex let out a small gasp as she took in her own mother's face.

"Hi, Mary," said Dean.

Mary Winchester shook her head to focus herself and her thoughts.

"You can't be here," she said.

Dean nodded understandingly.

"I'm sorry if this is a bad time-"

"No, you don't understand. I'm not-"

Mary trailed off as she took in Sam and Alex standing beside Dean.

"I don't do that anymore. I have a normal life now and you have to go," she finished, looking back over at Dean once again.

She began to close the vibrant blue front door, but Dean held up his palm to stop her from doing so.

"I'm really sorry, Mary, but this is really important. Okay-"

Dean straightened up as John Winchester came to stand beside Mary. She smiled adoringly up at her husband.

"Sorry, sweetheart, they're just…"

"Mary's cousins. Yeah, we couldn't stop through town without swinging by and saying hello, now, could we?" answered Dean, smiling over at the extremely young version of his own father.

Dean chuckled awkwardly and then held out his hand for John to shake.

"I'm Dean."

"You look familiar," said John, cocking his head to the side with confusion, his eyebrows all scrunched up together in the middle of his forehead.

Dean glanced over to Mary quickly and then back to John.

"Really?" asked Dean.

Mary looked to her husband and then back to Dean. Dean smiled nervously.

"You know, you do too actually, you know? I must have met you sometime. Small towns, you gotta love 'em."

John smiled and then held his hand out for Alex to shake. Alex shook it almost hesitantly, introducing herself. Finally, it was Sam's turn.

"I'm John."

Sam stared down at his father's outstretched hand, his eyes full of unshed tears. He took his dad's hand.

"This is Sam," said Dean.

"Sam. Um, Mary's father was a Sam, actually," said John, briefly glancing at his wife still by his side.

"Oh, it's a family name," said Dean.

John looked down at where Sam was still holding onto his hand. He smiled nervously and then looked back up to Sam.

"Are you alright, pal? You look a little bit spooked there."

Sam glanced down at their hands still joined and quickly removed his, shaking his head quickly.

"Oh, yeah, yeah. I just, um… Whoo, long trip," said Sam.

"Yeah," said Alex, smiling at her parents.

"Well, these three were just on their way out," said Mary, looking at Dean.

"Oh, what? But they just got here. We're always happy to meet folks from Mary's side of the family, please come in for a couple of beers," offered John.

Dean smiled and began to lead the way into their house, all while Mary glared daggers at him.

Once they were all settled into the living room, Sam had a hard time looking away from their mother. Mary gave him a side-eye glare.

"Are you sure you're okay over there, Sam?" asked John, looking at the twins.

"Oh, yeah, I, um… You are just so beautiful," he said, looking at Mary and smiling.

John's smile faded and he leaned forward in his armchair across from the three siblings. Dean's eyes widened and then he chuckled nervously.

"He means that in a wholesome family kind of a way," explained Dean.

"Yeah, right," said Sam, clearing his throat uncomfortably.

"I mean, the three of us haven't seen Mary in quite some time and she's the spitting image of our mom," explained Dean.

"I mean, it's eerie," said Alex, glancing over at Mary.

"Well, you two look so much alike too," said John, pointing between Alex and Mary.

Alex's eyes widened infinitesimally. She bit her lip for a split second before laughing nervously.

"Oh, do we? I hadn't even noticed. I guess I just take after my mom."

Alex coughed into her hand, avoiding looking at Mary. The truth was, they did look eerily similar, with the same long blonde hair and bright, crystal blue eyes, among other facial features. Alex picked up her beer bottle and took a large sip from it, staring up at the ceiling.

John nodded and looked back over at Dean once again.

"So how are you three related to Mary again?"

"You know, um, very distantly," answered Dean.

"So you knew Mary's parents then."

"Yeah, yeah. Mary's dad was, um, pretty much like a grandfather to us," said Dean.

John looked between the three of them, nodding.

"Oh. Well, it's tragic. A heart attack," said John.

He placed his hand on his wife's thigh and she stroked his forearm, returning his look of love and affection.

"Yes, it was. Extremely tragic," said Dean.

Mary looked over to him and then ducked her head down when Dean met her ashamed gaze. John finally looked away from his wife and back over to the siblings.

"So what are you guys doing in town anyway?"

"Um, business, you know," said Dean.

"Oh, yeah? What line of work?"

"Plumbing," said Dean, at the exact same time that Sam replied with, "Scrap metal."

Mary suddenly let out a gentle, tinkling laugh and stood up from her armchair seat beside her husband, John.

"Oh gosh, it's almost 7:00 o'clock! I hate to be rude, but I've got to get dinner ready."

"Maybe they could stay," offered John, looking up at his wife.

Mary looked over at Dean, her face hard and cold.

"No, I'm sure that they have to leave."

The phone began shrilly ringing in another room as Mary stared at Dean coldly. Once she heard the phone, she turned to look in its general direction as John looked at his kids.

"Look, um, please stay? It would mean an awful lot to me, I really haven't met much of Mary's side of the family."

He gave them a genuine smile and then left the living room area to go answer the still shrilly ringing telephone. Once he was completely gone, Mary looked over at Dean once again. The three siblings stood up as Mary faced them full on.

"You three have to leave right now," she whispered, glancing back into the other room to make sure that John wasn't coming back into the living room where they all now stood in a stand-off.

"Okay, look, please just listen," began Dean, but Mary shook her head, cutting him off.

"No, you listen. Last time I saw you, a demon killed my parents. And now you waltz in here like you're all just some part of my family? Whatever you want, just no. Now leave me the hell alone," demanded Mary.

"Listen, you and John are in danger," said Sam, leaning closer to his own mother.

Mary's breathing sped up and her eyes widened as she looked from one sibling to the next.

"What the hell are you three talking about?"

"Something's coming for you two," explained Alex.

"A demon?" asked Mary.

"Well, not exactly, no," answered Dean.

"Well, what is it, then?"

"It's kind of really hard to explain, alright? It's an-" began Dean, but Sam cut him off once Dean hesitated in revealing the truth.

"An angel."

Dean and Alex looked over at Sam, their eyes wide and surprised. Mary laughed and scoffed.

"What in the hell are you talking about? There's no such thing as angels," she said.

"I wish you were right, Mary. But they're twice as strong as demons. And much bigger dicks," explained Dean.

"But why would an angel want to kill us?" asked Mary.

"It's a really long story and I promise that we will all tell you the whole entire thing, but for right now, you've just got to trust all three of us and we've got to leave, right now."

Mary still looked skeptical as she looked over into Dean's face, so Dean straightened himself up and spoke directly to her.

"Please look at my face and tell me if I'm lying to you."

Mary looked straight into his eyes for a few seconds and then closed her own eyes briefly, nodding as she did so.

"Alright, okay. But where do we go?" she whispered.

Dean glanced over at his siblings, who nodded. He then looked back to face his own mother.

"Just out of here. But we've got to move now though."

"Okay, but what do I tell John?"

"Alright, just tell him…"

Dean trailed off as he looked over to the place where John had disappeared when he left to answer the ringing telephone. He noticed that there was no noise as there should be when one was on the telephone with another caller.

"John?" called out Dean.

There was no reply, so Dean and his siblings moved fast, swiftly walking out of the living room area and into the small white kitchen. The black telephone was hung back up in its proper place on the kitchen wall, but John Winchester was nowhere to be found. Mary looked at the small clipboard and yellow spiral notepad hanging right beside the phone for messages to be written down upon it. There, in John's sprawled handwriting, were the words, "Went to the garage, back in 15. J." Mary pulled the clipboard and spiral yellow notepad off of the wall to read the note more closely, the Winchester siblings reading it quickly from over her shoulder. She whirled around to face the three of them immediately after she was done reading her husband's short note.

Mary led the three Winchester siblings to the garage where John worked, Dean rushing inside first. He watched as Anna threw John Winchester across the garage effortlessly. Dean ran towards her, his knife in his hands, but Anna whirled around much too quickly and grabbed Dean by the throat.

"I wish I could say that it's good to see you, Anna," choked out Dean.

"You too, Dean," replied Anna, her voice monotone and her face serious.

She picked him up and launched him out of the closest window. The glass shattered and Dean fell to the pavement, unconscious. Anna turned around as she heard Mary Winchester pick up the knife that Dean had dropped. As she circled around Anna, John Winchester slowly got to his hands and feet from behind one of the cars in the garage. He watched as his young wife began running towards Anna to attack her, nicking Anna's palm with the knife in her hand. Mary kicked Anna directly in the stomach, causing her to bend forward with pain. Anna then disappeared and Mary began walking backwards to locate Anna. Anna appeared directly behind her, grabbing her elbow.

"I'm sorry," apologized Anna, throwing Mary into a car, causing the windshield glass to shatter completely.

As Anna slowly watched and stalked Mary, Mary began climbing onto the hood of the red car in the garage, trying to distance herself from the angel. But Anna only stalked towards her still, looking very eerie and creepy as she did so. Mary stumbled once she climbed off of the car's trunk and she grabbed an iron crowbar off of the workbench directly in front of her. As Anna finally reached Mary, Mary whirled around quickly and stabbed Anna directly in the right shoulder with the iron crowbar. Anna groaned in immense pain and coughed up a small mouthful of blood, but then, with her eyes directly on Mary's petrified blue ones, she removed the iron crowbar slowly from her shoulder using both of her pale white hands.

"Sorry, sweetheart. It's not that easy to kill an angel," said Anna, staring into Mary's panic-stricken face.

"No…" yelled Alex from across the garage, causing Anna to look over towards her and Sam.

Sam held up his bloody right palm and stuck it into some sort of trap that he had drawn using his blood.

"But you sure can distract them for long periods of time," finished Alex, smirking over at Anna.

Anna suddenly disappeared in a blinding flash of pure white light. Mary then looked over to her young husband, who had not only a look of pure fear, but also one look of disgust on his handsome face.

John Winchester's knuckles were white as he clutched the wheel of his beloved Impala.

"Monsters. Monsters?" he stated, looking over to his wife in the passenger seat.

Mary sighed, annoyed, as she answered her husband.

"Yes."

"Monsters are real," stated John.

"Look, I'm sorry, I don't know how to-" began Mary, but John abruptly cut her off.

"And you fight them? All of you?" asked John, finally looking away from his wife to look into the backseat where Dean, Alex, and Sam were sitting.

"Yeah," stated Sam.

John looked back to the black asphalt road in front of him, his hands still clutching his black steering wheel. He took in a few deep breaths before asking his next question.

"For how long?"

Mary hesitated briefly, but didn't look up from her lap.

"All of my life?"

John scoffed. Mary rolled her eyes.

"John, just please try to understand…"

"She didn't exactly have a choice…"

"Shut up, all of you! Look, not another word or so help me, I will turn this car around," said John.

Dean's face turned serious then as he followed his father's direct orders. Sam glanced from Mary and then to John. Dean turned to his siblings.

"Wow. Awkward family road trip," whispered Dean.

Alex raised her eyebrows while Sam scoffed.

"Yeah, no kidding," whispered back Alex.

A couple minutes later, John pulled his beloved Impala up to an old, rundown house. Mary led the way inside the place, flipping on light switches as she walked in.

"This old place has been in my family for years."

She walked into a room where a rather large rug was placed and flipped some of the rug up, revealing a Devil's Trap underneath it, painted onto the floor.

"Devil's Trap."

She walked on, turning on even more lights.

"Pure iron fixtures, of course. There should be salt and holy water in the pantry, along with knives, guns…"

Mary trailed off as she looked at the three siblings. Sam shook his head.

"All that stuff will do is piss it off," he explained.

"So what will kill it? Or, at least slow it down?"

Sam took in a deep breath.

"Not much."

Mary scoffed and let out a sarcastic chuckle.

"Well, that's just great."

"He said not much, but not nothing. We packed," explained Dean, holding up his green duffel bag.

He walked over to the wood table in the center of the next room over and set his bag down onto it. Mary stood right beside him as he unzipped it to reveal its contents. Alex and Sam walked into the room as well, John slowly and reluctantly following them. Dean removed a few items from his large duffel bag.

"If we put this up and if she comes anywhere even close… We can beam her right off of the starship," explained Dean.

He turned away from Mary and Alex held up a medium-sized urn full of holy oil.

"Now, this is holy oil. It's kind of like a, um, Devil's Trap, but for angels only. Come on, I'll show you how it works," offered Alex, leaving the room.

Mary turned to leave with her, stopping only when she saw John's face. He looked both sad and confused. She briefly glanced at him and then she followed Alex out of the room. John stepped forward towards the table where Sam and Dean were still removing items from the duffel bag.

"Hey, what's the thing on the paper?" asked John, pointing to the white piece of paper that Dean had taken out of the duffel bag first thing.

"It's a sigil. That means-"

"Look, I don't care what it means. Where's it usually go?" asked John, cutting Dean off.

Both Sam and Dean stopped what they were doing and looked at their father.

"On a wall or a door," answered Sam.

"How big should I make it?" asked John.

Dean and Sam both hesitated then, Dean speaking up first.

"John-"

"What? Look, you all might have treated me like a fool, but I am not useless. I can draw a damn… whatever this is, a sigil," said John, becoming angry.

John's eyebrows pulled together like Sam and Alex's always did when they were either confused or angry. He grabbed the piece of paper with the sigil drawn onto it and stuffed it into his jacket pocket angrily.

"Just go help Alex out, alright? Because this stuff, it's gotta be done in… in human blood," finished Dean, raising his eyebrows at his own father.

John looked at Dean, looked at Sam, and then grabbed the knife from the corner of the table where Sam had set it down while he and Dean were unpacking the large duffel bag. John cut his left palm, not even flinching as he did so. He grunted as he slid the knife over his smooth skin. He set the knife back down onto the table and looked over at Dean once again, his black eyebrows raised with defiance.

"So? How big?" he asked once again.

Dean nodded and grabbed the duffel bag.

"I'll show you."

He looked over at John's cut palm and gave a small chuckle.

"What?" asked John.

Sam looked over to his older brother, also curious for his response. Dean smiled warmly over to John.

"All of a sudden there, you reminded me of my father," explained Dean.

He brushed past John to head into another room and John looked over at Sam then. Sam smiled at him and nodded his head.

"Come on," urged Sam.

Alex walked into the room where John was finishing up his final sigil. He wrapped a torn piece of fabric around his palm and Alex looked at the sigil, her hands on her slim and tan hips.

"That looks really great," she said.

John looked from her face to the sigil and then back again.

"Have you come to check on me?" he asked her.

"Well, um, I wanted to say that I'm sorry about all of this happening. I know that it's an awful lot to take in."

"How long have you known about this… hunting monsters and other stuff?"

Alex gave a small uncomfortable chuckle and ran a hand through her long, wavy golden blonde hair.

"Pretty much forever. My dad raised me in it," she answered, biting her lip as she glanced up at her father.

"You're serious? Who the hell does that to a child?" asked John, his tone anger and hate filled.

Alex just shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, I mean, for the record, Mary's parents did."

"I don't care. I mean, what kind of irresponsible bastard lets a child anywhere near… You know, you could've been killed!" yelled John.

"Well, I, um, actually came kind of close once. Alright, a couple of times probably."

"The number it must have done on your mental health. Your father was supposed to love and protect you."

"He was trying really, really hard. He died trying to protect me," whispered Alex.

Her eyes filled up with tears and she scoffed, wiping them away with her jacket sleeve.

"Believe me."

She walked over and sat down on the wooden window seat across from John. She sighed deeply.

"I mean, my twin brother used to be so mad at him, I used to be so mad at him too. But Sam, he used to… to hate him. I could just feel it radiating from him, you know, twin telepathy and all of that nonsense. But now, I get it. We all get it. He was just doing the best that he could. And he was trying to just keep it all together in this horribly impossible situation."

John looked at Alex strangely, confused even, and Alex smiled gently. She didn't see Sam leaning against the doorway a couple of feet behind John, listening to her every word.

"You see, my mom… She was the most amazing mother. She was so beautiful and she was the absolute love of his life. And then she got killed and I think that he would've gone completely insane if he didn't do something."

John looked down at the floor, taking in Alex's sad life story.

"The truth is, my dad died before I got to tell him that I understand. Why he chose to do what he did. And I completely forgive him for what it did to us, I truly do. And I just… I really love him," said Alex.

She looked up at John, who was looking down at her sadly. She stood up quickly as her tears began to fall more rapidly down her pretty face.

"I'm so sorry," she said, as she ran from the room.

As Alex stepped from the room, Sam grabbed her and pulled her into his chest. Alex sobbed into her twin brother's arms as Sam gently stroked her back, kissing the top of her hair.

"Shh, it's okay, it's alright. He knows now, Dad knows," he whispered to her into her ear.

Dean walked into the front room where Mary was pouring holy oil onto the floor in a circle. She stopped working as she saw Dean in the doorway.

"Okay. So you said you would explain everything to me when we had a minute," she said.

Dean looked at her curiously from the doorway. Mary just simply rolled her eyes, another one of Alex's many traits.

"We have a minute. Now, please explain to me why an angel wants me dead."

Dean licked his lips, wondering what to tell his own mother.

"Um, because they're just dicks," he answered.

Mary scoffed and a playful smile crept onto her lips.

"Not good enough. Listen, I didn't even have any clue that they all actually existed and now I'm their main target?"

Dean looked down at the rotted hardwood floor.

"It's very complicated."

"Fine."

Mary stood up from her crouching position and looked straight at Dean. She threw her arms out.

"I'm all ears."

"Look, you're just gonna have to trust me on this one, alright?"

"I've been trusting you all damn day."

Dean stared at her straight on.

"This one's really kind of hard to believe," he explained in a last-ditch effort to thwart her attempts of figuring out the truth.

Mary scoffed, a playful smirk on her beautiful young face. She turned slightly away from Dean.

"Alright, then. I'm just walking out that door now."

"I'm your son," blurted out Dean.

Mary suddenly whirled back around, her playful smirk quickly fading.

"What?" she asked him, her tone of voice a mixture of distrust and immense surprise.

Dean actually walked into the room then, stepping closer to his own mother until they were only a couple of feet apart from one another.

"I'm your son. I'm really sorry, but I have no clue how else to say that. We're from the year 2014. An angel, not the one that attacked you, but a friendlier one, zapped us back here," said Dean.

"You can't expect me to believe that," said Mary.

Dean nodded slightly, but still looked into his mother's face.

"Our names are Dean, Sam, and Alexandra. Winchester. Sam and I are named after your parents, Alex after John's younger sister who only lived for a few days after her premature birth."

Mary's eyes widened immensely.

"When I would get sick as a kid… you would make me tomato and rice soup. Because that's what your mom always made you. And instead of a lullaby, you would sing 'Hey, Jude.' That's your favorite Beatles song."

Mary's eyes were now full of tears and she shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"I… I don't believe it. No," she whispered, her voice full of tears.

"I'm sorry, but it's true," said Dean.

"I raised my children to be hunters?"

"No. No, you didn't."

"Oh, God. Why would I do that to you three?"

"No, you didn't."

Dean stepped even more closer to her, his hands clutched together.

"Because you're dead," said Dean.

Mary's eyes widened even more.

"What-what happened?"

"The yellow-eyed demon. He killed you and…"

Dean looked around to make sure that no one else was around as he spoke the next part.

"John then became a hunter to get revenge. He raised all of us into this life."

Mary looked up to the ceiling, her eyes still full of tears as she tried to control her emotions.

"Listen to me. A demon comes into Sam and Alex's nursery exactly six months after they are born, November 2nd, 1988. Please, remember that date, and whatever you do… Do not go in there. You wake up that morning and you take the twins and you run," said Dean, his tone urgent.

"That's not good enough, Dean," said Sam.

Both Dean and Mary turned to look at Sam as he entered the front room from another room. Alex was at his side, her eyes bloodshot and red-rimmed from crying earlier. Mary looked at the two of them as they walked into the room, Sam sighing deeply.

"Wherever she goes, the demon's going to find her. Find me."

"Well then, what?" asked Dean.

Sam exhaled a deep breath.

"Then she can leave Dad, that's what," he answered.

Mary's eyes bulged out of her head as she stared at her son.

"You've gotta leave John," said Sam.

Mary raised an eyebrow and let out a slight laugh on a shaky breath. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"What?" she asked Sam.

"When all of this is over, just walk away. And never ever look back."

"So we're never born," whispered Alex.

"He's right," said Dean, lookin back to his own mother.

Mary just simply shook her head.

"I can't. You three are saying that you're my children and now you're saying…"

"You have no other choice," said Sam.

"There's a big difference between dying and never being born and trust me, we're okay with all of that, I can promise you that," said Dean.

"Okay, well I'm not," stated Mary, her voice full of tears once again.

"Listen, you think that you can have that normal life that you want so bad, but you can't. I'm really, really sorry. It's all gonna go rotten and you are going to die. And then your children will be cursed," whispered Alex, biting her lower lip nervously.

Mary shook her head, looking from the twins and then back to Dean.

"There has to be a way."

"No, this is the only way. Leave John," said Dean.

"I can't," said Mary, her teeth gritted together.

"This is bigger than us. There are so many more lives at stake here."

"No, you don't understand. I can't. It's too late," whispered Mary.

She looked down at the floor and Alex smiled warmly at her through her own tears.

"You're already pregnant," said Alex.

Mary looked over at her, nodding. She then looked back at Dean.

"I'm-I'm pregnant," she whispered.

As both Sam and Dean's eyes widened, John came rushing into the room, breathing heavily.

"Hey, we've got a problem," he ground out.

All four of them turned to look at him.

"Those blood things, those sigils? They're gone," said John.

"Gone as in…?" trailed off Sam.

"I drew one on the back of the door and when I turned around to look back again, it was only a small smudge," explained John.

Dean walked back to stand in the archway between the front room and the front hallway. He saw that the sigil on the back of the front door was no longer a vibrant red but a dark brown.

"He's right," said Dean.

"There's no more holy oil," said Mary, bending down on her knees to check the floor.

The lights began flickering then. Sam drew out his knife as a loud ringing noise began. The noise steadily increased, causing all five of them to cover their ears with their hands. After a few more painful seconds, the windows were blown out of their panes and the lights fully flickered out. A shrill wind began blowing through the place and the ringing still continued on. As the wind died down, the ringing also died away. They all removed their hands from their ears and looked around slowly. The front door suddenly burst open, causing them all to turn and face it. For a few seconds, no one appeared in the doorway. Then a bulky black man sulked into the dark room and Dean glared at him as he looked the angel up and down.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Dean.

"I'm Uriel," answered the angel, unbuttoning his shirt cuffs.

"Oh, come on," cried Dean.

Alex and Sam pushed themselves in front of their parent.

"Go," hissed Alex, pushing her parents into the next room.

But Mary and John stopped abruptly as they saw Anna standing in the next darkened room beside all of them. The siblings looked from one angel to the other. Dean looked to Sam.

"Well, here goes nothing," he said.

Sam nodded and he launched himself at Anna while Dean launched himself at Uriel. Alex stood in front of her parents, protecting and guarding the two of them while Dean and Sam were thrown around. Uriel began kicking Dean repeatedly in the stomach while he was down on the ground. Before Alex even knew what was happening, John let go of Mary's wrist and grabbed Sam's knife that had fallen on the carpet. Anna stuck her foot out over the top of it, pulling John slowly up by his handsome chin. Once he was standing straight up, she pushed him backwards. John flew all the way through a window, shattering it as he landed outside, a few feet away from the old house. Mary glanced down at the silver knife on the floor and then over at Sam. As Sam ran to protect both Mary and Alex, Anna grabbed a long and splintered piece of wood. As Sam bent down, she rammed the piece of wood very roughly into Sam's stomach.

"Sammy!" yelled both Alex and Dean.

Blood immediately began pouring from Sam's wound and mouth. He stumbled backwards into the wall behind him and then slid down it slowly, falling over onto the floor.

"Sam!" yelled Dean, as Sam's eyes closed.

Alex ran over to her twin brother and pulled his head onto her lap.

"Sam?" she whispered, watching as blood from Sam's mouth and stomach wound got all over her hands and jeans.

Anna walked over to Mary then, who was looking down at Sam with horror and fear evident on her face. Uriel smirked as he held Dean down by his throat, Dean beginning to struggle to breathe.

"I'm really sorry," apologized Anna.

"Anna," said a very deep voice from behind her.

Anna whirled around and her eyes widened as she took in John Winchester, the angel Michael currently possessing him.

"Michael," whispered Anna.

John Winchester placed his palm face-down onto Anna's left shoulder. As he did this, Anna began having trouble to breathe. Alex turned away as Anna's body began slightly convulsing, her arms and legs flailing where she stood. Her head lolled backwards and a bright white light erupted from her eyes and mouth. Her body then burst into flames and her ashes fell to the floor once her body was done flaming out. John then turned to look over at Uriel. He had let go of Dean's throat and was walking towards John.

"Michael. I didn't know," said Uriel.

"Goodbye, Uriel," said John.

He snapped his fingers on his right hand and Uriel was suddenly gone, vanishing directly into thin air. John looked over to Mary then, a small smile on his face as he looked her over.

"What did you do to John?" asked Mary, her voice now firm instead of scared.

"John is fine."

"Who… What are you?"

"Shh," said John, holding a finger up to his lips.

He placed two fingers up to Mary's forehead and her eyes rolled back into her head before she fell to the floor. Dean managed to stand up straight then, his grimace of pain indicating how much Uriel had kicked the crap out of him.

"Well, I'd say that this conversation is long overdue, wouldn't you?" asked John, who was still possessed by the archangel Michael.

Dean pointed over to Sam and Alex.

"Fix him," whispered Dean, his throat very scratchy.

"First, we talk. And then I fix your darling little Sammy."

John looked down at Sam, whose head was still in Alex's lap. John placed two fingers to Alex's forehead, causing her to fall back, unconscious just like Mary. Dean glared at his father.

"How did you get inside my dad, anyway?" asked Dean, cradling his hurt arm to his chest.

"Well, I told him that I could save his wife and he said yes."

"I guess they oversold me being your one and only vessel, huh?"

"No, you're my true vessel, but not my only one."

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"It's a bloodline."

"A bloodline?" asked Dean.

"Stretching back to Cain and Abel. It's in your blood, your father's blood, your family's blood," explained John.

"Awesome," whispered Dean, his tone very sarcastic.

He looked back over at his father.

"So what do you want with me, exactly?"

"You really don't know the answer to that already, Dean?"

"Well, you already know that I'm not gonna say yes, so why are you here?"

"Look, I just want you to understand what you and I have to do."

John stepped closer to Dean then, who raised his eyebrows menacingly.

"Oh, I clearly understand. You've got beef with your brother. Well, get some therapy, pal, don't take it out all over my damn planet!"

John shook his head, his smile understanding.

"You're wrong. Now, Lucifer defied our father and he betrayed me, but still, I don't want this anymore than you would want to kill Sam or Alex."

John walked away from Dean then and looked at Alex and Sam lying on the floor.

"You know, my brother, I practically raised him. I took care of him in a way that most people could never understand and I still love him. But I am going to kill him because it is right and I have to."

"Oh, because God says so?"

"Yes. From the very beginning, he knew that this was how it was going to end."

"So you're just going to do whatever God says?" asked Dean, throwing his hands up with frustration.

"Yes, because I am a great son," answered John as Michael.

Dean scoffed, a sarcastic smirk on his face.

"Hey, well, trust me, pal, take this from someone who knows. That is a very dead-end street."

"And so you think that you know everything better than my Father? One unimportant little man, what makes you think that you get to choose?"

"Because I've gotta believe that I can choose what I do with my… unimportant little life."

"Well, you're wrong. And you know how I know that? Think of a million random acts of chance that even let John and Mary be born? To meet, to fall in love, to have the three of you. Think of the million random decisions that you make and yet how each and every one of them brings you all that much closer to your true destiny. Do you know why that is, Dean?"

When Dean didn't answer, John smirked.

"Because that's not random. It's not pure chance. It's one large plan that is still currently playing itself out perfectly. Free will is an illusion, Dean. And that's why you're going to say yes."

Dean's face looked sad and John chuckled.

"Aww, buck up. It could be much worse. Unlike my brothers, I won't leave you a drooling mess when I'm done wearing you."

"And what about my father?" asked Dean, his glare now cold and serious once again.

"He'll be much better than new. In fact, I'm going to do your mom and your dad a favor."

"What?" asked Dean, his face scared once again.

"Just scrub their minds. They won't remember me or you."

"You can't do that," argued Dean.

"I'm just giving your mother what she wants. She can go back to her husband, her family," said John.

"She's going to walk right into that nursery!"

"Well, obviously. But you always knew that that was going to play out one way or another. You can't fight City Hall, Dean."

John knelt down next to Sam and touched two fingers to Sam's forehead. Sam disappeared in a flash of bright blue light. He then did the same to Alex. Once he was finished, John stood up straight once again.

"They're both home. Safe and sound," said John.

He walked back over to stand in front of Dean.

"Your turn," said John.

He adjusted a lapel on Dean's leather jacket and then looked into Dean's face.

"I will see you soon, Dean."

Dean glared at John as Michael and as John placed two fingers to his forehead, Dean closed his eyes.

The next day, Alex screamed as Castiel appeared behind her, seeing his reflection through the mirror she was currently standing in front of. Sam and Dean rushed over to Castiel, each one of them grabbing one of his arms to hold him steady and upright.

"Whoa, Castiel," said Sam.

"Castiel, you son of a bitch, you made it back," smirked Dean.

Castiel looked at his left palm.

"I know. I'm quite surprised myself actually," said Castiel.

He smirked and Alex laughed, but then Castiel's eyes rolled back into his head.

"Whoa, you're alright," urged Sam.

He and Dean dragged Castiel's limp form over onto one of the freshly made beds. They laid him down on top of the comforter and sighed.

"Well, I could use that drink now," said Dean.

"Yeah," agreed Sam, nodding his head.

Alex grabbed three shot glasses and filled each of them up to the brim with whiskey.

"Well, this is it," said Dean.

"This is what?" asked Sam.

"Team Free Will. One ex-blood junkie, one drop-out with sixteen bucks to his name, one little sister, and then Mr. Comatose over there. Awesome," said Dean, downing his own shot.

Alex nodded grimly and did the same.

"That's not funny, man," said Sam.

"Notice how we're not laughing," said Alex, motioning between herself and Dean.

Sam sighed deeply.

"They all say that we'll say yes."

"I know and it's getting really annoying," said Dean.

"What if they're right?" whispered Alex, looking between her two brothers.

"They're not," answered Dean.

"I mean, why would we, either of us, but… I've been weak before," said Sam.

"Sam."

"Michael got Dad to say yes."

"That was different. Anna was about to kill Mom."

"And if you could save Mom? What would you say?" asked Alex, looking at her oldest brother.

Dean stared down at his little sister, not quite sure what to say. Alex poured herself another shot and downed it within a matter of seconds.

"Because I would say yes to save our mom," said Alex.

She walked into the bathroom then, slamming the door closed behind her.

A few days later, the three siblings were at another job once again. Sam was at the scene of the crime, looking at a prayer card with an image of Cupid printed upon it. Blood stained the prayer card as it hung on the fridge.

"So, you were the one who found the bodies?" asked Sam.

The short girl with the brown curly hair nodded sadly as she fixed a few photo frames on the fireplace mantel.

"There was blood everywhere. And… other stuff too," she answered, clearly looking disgusted.

The girl took a few photo frames off of the mantel.

"I think that Alice was already dead," she continued on.

Sam's eyebrows rose.

"But Russell wasn't?"

The girl walked over to a large cardboard box, placing the photo frames in her hands into the box and sighing.

"Well, I think he was mostly dead. Except he was still, sort of… chewing a little."

The girl looked down at the box and Sam looked taken aback.

"Oh. Uh-huh."

He turned around to face the kitchen, looking down at the floor. The blood stains were still there, just darker.

"I mean, how could two people even do that? Eat each other to death?" asked the girl.

"That's a really great question," said Sam, staring down at the tile floor and clenching his jaw.

After a few more seconds of staring at the floor, he turned to face the young girl once again.

"Now, the last few days. Did you notice her acting erratically?" asked Sam.

"How do you mean?"

"I mean, did she seem unusually hostile or aggressive?"

The girl scoffed and grabbed a pile of books to move into the box now.

"No way. Alice never drank, she never even swore. She was a nice girl, and I'm talking like a nice girl. Like, she still had her promise ring, if you know what I mean."

Sam's eyebrows rose once again.

"She was still a virgin," stated Sam.

"No premarital. I used to wonder how she did it. I mean, you know, didn't do it."

Sam took another glance behind him towards the kitchen floor. The girl packing up all of Alice's things smiled warmly as she picked up a pure white stuffed bunny rabbit from off of Alice's coffee table.

"This was her first date in months. She was so excited," said the girl, her voice cracking as her eyes began filling up with tears.

Sam cocked his head to the side for a split second.

"Apparently they were both very excited," he answered.

Dean and Alex both looked up as Sam entered the room, a to-go bag of food in his hand and a straw to his mouth as he walked into their motel room.

"How'd it go?" asked Alex.

Sam removed the straw from his mouth.

"Um, no EMF, no sulfur, and ghost and demonic possession are both probably out," answered Sam.

"Hmm. That's where I was putting all of my money," said Dean, messing with the empty beer bottle on the table in front of him.

"Sorry, but no," said Sam.

Dean sighed and rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands while Alex flopped down onto the bed she shared with Sam.

"Well then, what then?" asked Alex.

"Dude, you didn't see these bodies at the coroner's. I mean, these two started eating and they just… kept going. I mean, their stomachs, were completely full," said Dean.

Alex made a gagging noise from the back of her throat while Sam looked disgusted as he sat down at the table across from his brother.

"Well, we got our feelers out. There's not too much more that we can do tonight," said Sam.

Dean and Alex both nodded. Sam flipped his laptop around on the table to face him instead of Dean.

"Alright. I'm going to go through some files, so you can go ahead and get going," said Sam.

Alex sat up on the bed, looking at Sam curiously. Dean leaned forward in his chair.

"Excuse me?" asked Dean.

"Go ahead. Unleash the Kraken. Alex and I will see you tomorrow morning," responded Sam, typing away on his computer.

Alex let out a large burst of laughter.

"Dean, it's Valentine's Day! Your favorite holiday, remember? I mean, what do you always call it, the Unattached Drifter Christmas?" laughed Alex.

Dean smiled a sarcastic grin and stood up from the table.

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, be that as it may, I don't know. I guess I'm not really feeling it this year."

Sam and Alex stared up at him as he leaned against the counter.

"So you're not into bars full of lonely women?" asked Sam.

Dean opened a brand new bottle of beer, threw the bottle's cap into the sink, and shrugged.

"Eh, I guess not."

Sam and Alex continued to stare at him curiously.

"What?" asked Dean.

"It's just like when a dog doesn't eat. That's when you know something is really truly wrong," said Sam.

"Nothing's wrong, alright? Are we gonna work now or what?" asked Dean.

He sat back down at the table across from Sam, beginning to flip through the small stack of white papers in front of him. Sam glanced over at Dean from over the top of his laptop. Alex sighed from her spot on her bed.

"I wish Kellan was here," she pouted, sticking out her lower lip.

Dean rolled his eyes.

"Suck it up, little sis. We've got lots of work to do tonight."

Alex let out a huff of anger and stood up, pulling a chair up alongside Sam and beginning her own set of work on the case.

As Sam, Alex, and Dean walked down the hallway to get to the coroner's morgue the next morning, Sam looked at a man passing by them. Sam looked stressed and tense until the man passed.

"Sammy, are you alright?" whispered Alex, looking at her twin brother strangely.

Sam shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm good."

Sam glanced behind him again just as the man rounded the corner. Alex looked straight ahead as she and Dean led the way into the morgue. The old, pudgy coroner smiled at the three of them.

"Agents Marley and Boone. You two just can't stay away, can you?" he teased them.

"Well, we heard that you just tagged another double suicide," said Dean.

The coroner glanced behind him at the body covered up with a gray sheet.

"Well, yes, I just finished closing them up."

Dean nodded.

"Dr. Coleman, this is our other partner, Special Agent Cliff," introduced Dean, pointing his thumb to Sam.

Sam shook the doctor's cold hand.

"Agent Cliff."

He let go of Sam's hand then and shrugged off his white lab coat, hanging it on the coat-rack in one corner of the room.

"I just finished sending organ samples to tox," said the doctor.

"Great. Would you mind if we took a look at the two new bodies?" asked Sam.

"Not at all, but like I said their insides are already put away."

The doctor pulled open the medium-sized gray and silver door open directly beside him to reveal containers full of internal organs.

"Super," whispered Alex, watching as Dr. Coleman closed the fridge door.

"Just leave the keys with Marty up front. And please, refrigerate after opening," said Dr. Coleman.

He tossed the keys to Dean, who caught them effortlessly. He then slipped on a brown fedora and a black trench coat before winking at Alex and then leaving the morgue.

Alex stood behind Sam, looking over his shoulder as he and Dean looked at the internal organs of the most recent victims. Alex gagged as Sam looked closely at one of the hearts. Finding nothing, he placed it back into its container and took out the other heart. Before he could place that one back into its container though, Alex grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"These two hearts have identical marks," said Alex, pointing to marks on both of the hearts.

Dean stopped looking at a set of intestines and leaned closer as Sam put first one heart and then the other under a microscope.

"You're right, Alex. It looks like a letter," said Sam, squinting to see the markings more closely.

He sighed and cursed under his breath as he made out what the symbol was.

"What is it?" asked Alex.

Sam pushed the microscope away from him.

"I think that it's Enochian," answered Sam.

"You mean like angel scratches?" asked Dean.

"So you think that it's like the tagging on all of our ribs?" asked Alex.

"I don't know, guys," answered Sam.

Dean removed his latex gloves and then fished his cell phone put of his pocket.

"Ah, hell," muttered Alex, running a hand through her long blonde hair.

Sam began looking at the hearts once again while Alex looked over his shoulder and Dean held his cell phone up to his ear.

"Cas, it's Dean. Yeah, Room 31C, basement level. St. James Medical Cent…"

Dean trailed off as Castiel was now standing directly in front of him.

"I'm there now," said Castiel, still speaking into his own cell phone.

"Yeah, I understand that," said Dean, also still speaking into his cell phone.

"I'm gonna hang up now," said Castiel.

Dean nodded and they both hung up their cell phones. Castiel walked over to where Sam and Alex stood, plunging his hand into one of the containers and holding a human heart in his bare hands. He closely inspected the markings on it.

"You're right, Sam. These are most definitely angelic marks. And I imagine that you will find similar marks on the other couples' hearts as well," said Castiel.

"So what are they? Well, I mean, what do the marks mean?" asked Alex, looking over at Castiel.

Castiel sighed.

"It's a mark of union. This man and woman were intended to mate."

He placed the heart back into its contained and flung the excess liquid and body fluids into the container from off of his hand, Alex cringing as he did this.

"Alright, but who put the marks there?" asked Dean, looking over at the angel.

"Well, your people call them Cupid."

"A what?" asked Sam, raising his eyebrows.

"What human myth has mistaken for Cupid is actually much lower order of angels. Technically, it's a cherub, third class," answered Castiel.

"A cherub?" asked Dean.

"Yes. They're all over the entire world, there are dozens upon dozens of them."

"You mean the little flying fat kid in diapers?" asked Dean.

Everyone turned to stare at him after this remark.

"They're not incontinent," said Castiel.

"Well, anyway, what you're saying is-" began Alex, but Castiel cut her off.

"What I'm saying is that a Cupid has gone rogue and now we all have to stop him. Before he kills again."

Sam smirked sarcastically.

"Naturally," said Sam.

"Of course we do," said Dean.

Alex sighed as she sat next to Sam in a booth at a fancier restaurant that had decided to deck itself out for Valentine's Day. The waitress set down the plates of food in front of the three siblings as Castiel scanned the place for Cupid.

"So what, you just happen to know that he likes the drinks at this particular place?" asked Dean, lifting up his hamburger bun to squirt some ketchup onto his cheeseburger.

"This place is a nexus of human reproduction. It's exactly the kind of garden that Cupid will come to pollinate," said Castiel, staring at Dean as he fixed up his meal.

Sam dug into his salad while Alex ate her chicken tenders, dipping them in ranch dressing. Dean picked up his burger, looked at it, and then set it back down on his plate. Alex and Sam stared at him.

"Wait a minute," said Alex.

"You're not hungry?" asked Sam.

Dean glanced down at his plate and then back at his siblings.

"No," answered Dean.

Sam and Alex still stared at him.

"What?" asked Dean, throwing up his hands.

"So then, you're not going to finish all of that?" asked Castiel, pointing down to Dean's completely untouched plate.

Dean shook his head, so Castiel slid the plate over to rest in front of him. Castiel picked up the cheeseburger and opened his mouth to take a large bite, but then his eyes widened suddenly and he set the burger back down onto the plate.

"He's here," said Castiel.

All three of the siblings looked around the restaurant.

"I'm not seeing anything," said Alex, scanning the crowd.

"He's right there," said Castiel, his eyes locked on someone.

The three siblings followed his gaze to see a man and a woman sitting on the exact same side of the booth, making out.

"You mean the same side of the booth couple over there?" asked Alex.

"Meet me in the back," said Castiel.

When all three siblings turned to look at Castiel, he was gone, having vanished into thin air. The three of them quickly, but subtly, got up from their table and headed for the back of the restaurant. They found Castiel and rushed over to him.

"Cas. Where is he?" asked Sam.

"I have him tethered," said Castiel, his arm outstretched and his palm held forward, but there was nothing in front of him.

He began chanting in Latin and the three siblings exchanged rather curious glances with each other.

"Manifest yourself," finished Castiel.

He lowered his arm and glanced around the room then. The three siblings did the same.

"So where is he?" asked Dean, throwing his arms up in question.

Dean's feet suddenly left the floor as a huge man picked him up from behind.

"Here I am!" yelled the man, laughing.

He moved Dean up and down while laughing obnoxiously. Alex, Sam, and Castiel just simply stared at the two men.

"Help!" yelled Dean, his eyes widening.

Cupid laughed at Dean for a few more seconds, but then spotted Castiel. He quickly set Dean down on the floor and brought Castiel in for a bone-crushing embrace.

"This is Cupid?" asked Alex, disbelief coloring her tone.

"Yes," nodded Castiel.

"And look at you two!" yelled Cupid, letting go of Castiel and walking over to the twins.

"No," said Sam, but Cupid grabbed the two of them and hugged them to his chest, tight.

"This is their handshake," explained Castiel, standing right beside Dean now.

"I don't like it," said Dean.

"No one likes it."

Cupid finally let go of Alex and Sam with a final pat on Sam's back. He sighed deeply and walked into the center of the room, Castiel and Dean facing him and Alex and Sam behind him.

"So what can I do for you?" asked Cupid, a large grin on his pudgy face.

"Why are you doing all of this?" asked Castiel at once.

"Doing what?"

"Your targets, the ones you've marked. They're slaughtering each other."

Cupid's stupid grin faded from his face as he took in Castiel's words.

"What? They are?" he asked, sounding deflated, sad, and scared.

"Listen, birthday suit, we know. Okay? We know that you've been flitting around, popping people with your poison arrow, and making them murder each other!" yelled Dean.

"What we don't know is why," said Castiel.

Cupid turned to face Castiel, his hands on his face.

"You think that I…?"

Cupid bowed his head and began to cry uncontrollably.

"Well, um, I don't know what to say," he sobbed into his palms.

He brushed past Dean and placed his back to all of them, crying into his hands. The siblings and Castiel met in a circle, Sam's eyes on Cupid's bare back.

"Should… Should someone maybe… go… talk to him?" asked Sam reluctantly.

"You know what, that's actually a really great idea. Give him hell, Cas," said Dean, slapping Castiel on the shoulder.

Alex nodded and Sam slapped Castiel's back encouragingly, also nodding over at him. Cupid still sobbed, albeit much quieter now, as Castiel approached him on his left side.

"Um… Look… We didn't mean to… um…" began Castiel.

He turned back around to look at the Winchesters, who all gave him megawatt, encouraging smiles and thumbs-up signs. He then turned back around to face Cupid's back.

"Hurt your feelings," finished Castiel.

Cupid then whirled around and pulled Castiel into him for a hug. Cupid rested his head on Castiel's shoulder.

"Love is more than a word to me. I mean, I seriously love love, I love it! And if that's wrong, then I don't want to be right!" cried Cupid.

"Yes, yes, of course. I… I have no clue what you're saying," said Castiel, pulling away from the hug.

"I was just on my appointed rounds. Whatever my targets do after that, well, that has nothing to do with me! I was just simply following my orders! Please, brother, read my mind. Read my mind and then you'll see," pleaded Cupid.

He stood straight up and looked into Castiel's face. After a few silent seconds of this, Castiel turned to face the three Winchesters.

"He's telling the truth," explained Castiel.

Cupid let out a large sigh of relief from behind Castiel.

"So you said that you were just following orders," said Dean.

Cupid nodded.

"Mmm-hmm."

"Whose orders?" asked Dean.

Cupid began laughing loudly and obnoxiously.

"Heaven, silly, Heaven!"

Dean looked from Cupid to Castiel and then back to Cupid again.

"Why does Heaven care if Harry meets Sally?"

"Oh, well, mostly they don't. But, you know, certain bloodlines, certain destinies. Like yours," said Cupid, pointing to Sam and Alex.

"What?" both of them asked at the same exact time and in unison.

"Yes, the union of John and Mary Winchester, a very big deal upstairs, top priority arrangement, in fact."

"Are you saying that you fixed up our parents?" asked Alex, whispering her question and biting her lip nervously.

"Well, not me personally, but… yeah!"

Cupid laughed.

"Oh, and it wasn't easy either, whoo, they couldn't stand each other at first. But once we were done with them, perfect couple!"

"Perfect?" ground out Dean.

"Yeah," said Cupid, laughing gleefully.

"They're dead!" yelled Dean.

Cupid's gleeful grin faded.

"I'm sorry, but… The orders were very clear, you three needed to be born. Your parents were just, um, meant to be. A match made in Heaven," sang Cupid.

Dean reached out and punched Cupid in the face. Cupid frowned, but Dean grabbed his fist in pain.

"Son of a bitch," ground out Dean through his gritted teeth.

Cupid then disappeared, Sam throwing up his hands with frustration as he looked around for him.

"Where is he?" asked Dean, forgetting the pain in his hand.

"Where'd he go?" asked Alex, still standing directly by Sam's side.

"I believe that you upset him, Dean," explained Castiel.

Dean's eyebrows furrowed together with anger.

"Oh, upset him?" yelled Dean.

Sam stepped forward then.

"Dean, enough," said Sam.

"What?"

"You just punched a Cupid!" yelled Alex, throwing up her hands.

"I just punched a dick!"

Sam exhaled a large breath of air through his nose.

"So are we going to talk about what's been up with you lately or not?"

Dean's face hardened, his jaw clenched tight.

"Or not," he said.

He brushed roughly past his siblings and Castiel, leaving the back room of the restaurant. Alex sighed and rubbed her temples with her fingers as she stared at her twin brother.

The next morning, Alex smiled down at her phone as Dean was on his cell phone with Sam on the other end of the call.

"Yeah, well, I just went through the police blotter and counting the most recent guy that you just took a look at, that's eight suicides since Wednesday and nineteen OD's," said Sam.

Alex barely listened to her brother's phone call as she read the text from Kellan to herself.

I'm sorry we couldn't be together on Valentine's Day, baby. I love you. Stay safe for me. - Kellan

Alex began typing back a response to Kellan almost immediately.

"Yeah, alright, we'll see you in ten, Sammy."

Dean hung up his cell phone and stared at Alex. She cringed and held a hand up to her forehead. Dean looked at her curiously.

"Lex. What's wrong?" asked Dean.

"I don't know. I was typing back a text to Kellan and my head suddenly started hurting. It was only for a split second though, it's gone now."

Dean nodded and turned back around to face the research lying in front of him on the wooden table. Alex bit her lip nervously as she realized that the only times her head hurt like that in the past was when Sam had been drinking demon blood.

Once Sam was back, he placed a black briefcase on top of the table and explained that he had found a demon and had taken the briefcase from him. The three of them stared down at the black briefcase in silence.

"What the hell does a demon have to do with any of this, anyway?" asked Dean, glancing over at Sam.

"Believe me, I have no clue," answered Sam.

He continued staring down at the briefcase. Alex reached for his hand, grabbing his long fingers and squeezing them.

"Are you alright, Sammy?" she asked him very gently.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be alright," said Sam, nodding and smiling at his little sister.

"Let's crack her open, then. I mean, what's the worst that could happen, right?" asked Dean, smirking.

Alex dropped Sam's hand as they all knelt down on the carpet, both Sam and Dean reaching for the combinations that had the briefcase locked. After a few seconds, the two of them had unlocked the briefcase and the three siblings turned away as a blinding bright white light burst from the briefcase. After about a minute, the light burned out and they all faced the briefcase.

"What the hell was all of that?" asked Dean.

"That was a human soul," said Castiel, from behind all three of them.

Sam, Dean, and Alex turned around to face him then. Alex saw that he was holding a to-go back in his hand and Castiel took a bite from a small cheeseburger before continuing on.

"It's all starting to make sense."

"Now, what about that…"

Sam pointed to the now empty black briefcase.

"Makes sense," finished Sam.

"When did you start eating?" asked Dean, also looking at the cheeseburger in Castiel's hands.

"Exactly. My hunger. It's a clue, actually," explained Castiel, pointing over to Dean, his mouth still full of food.

"For what?" asked all three siblings at the same time and with the same tone.

"This town is in suffering from some… love gone wrong effect. It's suffering from hunger. Starvation, to be exact, specifically… famine," said Castiel.

"Famine?" asked Alex, raising her eyebrows.

Castiel nodded eagerly.

"As in, the Horseman?" asked Sam.

"Great. Oh, that's… That's just freaking perfect, great," said Dean, very sarcastically.

"But I thought that famine meant starvation, like as in, food," stated Sam, pointing to Castiel's own hamburger.

"Right, exactly. But not just food because everyone seems to be starving for something. Sex, attention, drugs, love," listed Castiel.

"Well, that explains the puppy lovers whom Cupid shot up," said Alex.

"Right, yes, the cherub made them crave love and then Famine came and made them rabid for it."

Castiel took another bite from his cheeseburger.

"Since when do angels secretly hunger for White Castle?" asked Dean.

Castiel looked down at the cheeseburger in his hands.

"It's my vessel. Jimmy. His, um, appetite for red meat has been touched by Famine's effect," explained Castiel, taking yet another bite from his hamburger.

"So Famine just rolls right into town and then everyone just goes crazy?" asked Alex.

"And then will come Famine. Riding on a black steed. He will ride into the land of plenty and great will be the Horseman's hunger for he is… hunger. His hunger will seep out and poison all of the air. Famine is hungry. He must devour the souls of his victims," said Castiel.

"So that's what was in the briefcase. The Twinkie dude's soul?" asked Dean.

Castiel nodded.

"Lucifer has sent his demons to… care for Famine. To feed him and make certain that he will be ready."

"Ready for what?" asked Sam.

Castiel turned to face all three of them head-on now.

"To march across the land."

Castiel sat down on one of the two beds and kept eating while Sam headed for the bathroom to cool down. Alex sat down next to Castiel and Dean paced in front of the two of them.

"Famine?" asked Dean.

Castiel nodded fervently.

"Yes," he said, his mouth full of food.

"So, what, this whole town is just going to eat, drink, and screw itself to death?" asked Sam, the bathroom door wide open so that he could speak to all of them still.

"We should stop it," said Castiel.

"Hey, now, there's a wonderful idea. How?" asked Dean.

"Well, how did we stop the last Horseman that we met?" asked Alex.

Dean looked away from Castiel and Alex, heading for the coat-rack in the corner. He began digging through the pockets in one of his many jackets.

"War got his mojo from this ring that he was wearing. And then after we cut it off, he just tucked tail and ran," explained Dean, holding up the ring that they had taken from the Horseman, War.

"And everyone that was affected, it was like they just woke up from out of a dream. Do you think that Famine's got a class ring too?"

"Oh, I know he does," said Castiel, looking down into his lap.

"Well, alright, let's track him down and get to chopping off some fingers," said Alex, standing up from her position on her bed.

"Yeah," said Castiel, looking down into his empty bag.

Dean rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly. Alex ignored them and walked closer to the bathroom, watching very discreetly as Sam ran a cold hand towel over his neck and face, exhaling a large breath every few seconds. He closed his eyes as he struggled to breathe normally.

"Sam, Alex, let's roll," called out Dean.

Alex whirled around to face her older brother, but Sam stood in the doorway of the bathroom, leaning against it.

"Dean, I… I can't. I can't go," said Sam.

"What do you mean?" asked Dean, looking very confused with Sam's statement.

Sam hesitated for a split second before answering.

"I think that it got to me, Dean. I think I'm hungry for it."

"Hungry for what?" asked Dean, but Alex shook her head and looked at her twin brother.

"No, Sam, please, no," whispered Alex.

"Are you talking about demon blood?" asked Dean, his tone hard.

"You've gotta get him out of here, you've gotta beam him to anywhere but here," said Alex, turning her pleading eyes towards Castiel now.

"It won't work, he's already infected. The hunger's just going to travel with him," explained Castiel.

"Well then, what do we do?" yelled Dean.

"You and Alex go cut that bastard's finger off, that's what you two do," said Sam.

Dean and Alex looked at their brother and then Dean looked at Castiel, nodding.

"You heard the man," said Dean.

"But Dean, before you go, you better… you better lock me down. But good," said Sam.

Dean nodded curtly and he began locking up Sam as Sam had instructed him to. Alex stood in the doorway of the bathroom, leaning against it as Dean locked Sam up. Once Dean was finished, he looked into his little brother's face.

"Alright, you just hang in there. We'll be back as soon as we can, alright?"

Sam nodded.

"Be careful. And please, hurry," begged Sam.

Dean nodded once, slapped Sam lovingly on the shoulder, and then left the bathroom. Alex knelt down right next to her twin brother and leaned forward, kissing his forehead.

"You will be fine. I know it."

Sam nodded to her and then Alex left the bathroom as well, Dean shutting and locking the door behind them. Castiel pushed the wooden wardrobe in front of the bathroom door for an extra measure of protection for Sam. Castiel then led the way outside.

Dean walked down the hallway of the morgue, smiling at one of the other doctors as he approached Alex, Dean, and Castiel.

"Hey, Marty. Is Dr. Coleman around?" asked Dean.

Marty stared into Dean's face.

"Oh, no. You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

Marty sighed sadly at them and nodded his head towards the swinging doors of the morgue.

"Follow me, you three," said Marty.

He led the way into the morgue and then over to the dead body closest to them. Marty folded back the sheet to reveal Dr. Coleman's dead face.

"The guy's been dry for the last twenty years. But this morning, he left work, went home, and drank himself to death," explained Marty, looking down sadly at Dr. Coleman's closed eyes and face.

"It's Famine," said Castiel suddenly.

Alex and Dean both gave him death glares.

"Pardon?" asked Marty.

"Would you give all three of us just one moment, please?" asked Dean, glancing over to Marty.

"Sure."

"Thanks."

Marty walked away from them and then out of the morgue, the doors swinging closed behind him.

"Well, crap. I really kind of liked this guy," said Dean, walking around the metal table where Dr. Coleman's body was currently lying to stand where Marty had been standing only seconds previously.

Castiel placed his left hand, palm down, onto Dr. Coleman's protruding stomach. Alex and Dean watched him curiously until Castiel removed his hand.

"They haven't harvested his soul just yet," said Castiel.

"Well, if we want to play follow the soul to get to Famine, then our best shot starts with the doc right here," explained Dean, his eyes widening.

Back out in the Impala, Dean and Alex were carefully watching the entrance for any sign of demons looking for the doctor's still intact soul. They briefly heard the flap of large angel wings and then Castiel was sitting in the backseat, unwrapping a cheeseburger from his White Castle bag in his lap.

"Are you serious?" asked Dean, glancing in his rearview mirror to see Castiel take a large bite of one cheeseburger.

Instead of answering him, Castiel smiled down at the food that was currently resting in his lap. Mustard was on the corner of his lip.

"These burgers make me… very happy," sighed Castiel.

Both Alex and Dean rolled their eyes at the exact same time. They returned their attention back to the medical clinic's entrance.

"How many is that, exactly?" asked Dean, turning back to face Castiel.

"I wouldn't know, I've lost my count. It's probably in the low hundreds, though," answered Castiel.

Alex's eyes widened while Dean let out a short and high-pitched whistle, his mouth forming a perfect "O" shape.

"What I don't understand is… What is your hunger, Dean?" asked Castiel.

"Huh?"

"Well, slowly but surely, everyone in this town is falling prey to Famine, but so far, you seem completely unaffected," explained Castiel, looking between the two siblings as he chewed up his current bite of cheeseburger.

"Hey, when I wanna drink, I drink. When I want sex, I go get it. And the same goes for a sandwich or a fight," answered Dean.

"So, you're saying you're just extremely well adjusted?"

"God, no. I'm just well-fed."

Dean smirked at Castiel and Alex nodded.

"Same goes for me. I called Kellan 24 times today just to have phone sex," said Alex, cringing as she realized what she had just said out loud.

Dean gagged at the thought of his little sister having any type of sex, but then Castiel nodded towards the medical clinic that they were currently parked across from, watching the door for signs of demons carrying human souls.

"There," said Castiel, nodding towards the front door of the medical clinic.

Both Dean and Alex turned to see a man in a full black suit emerge from the medical clinic, looking in both directions, left and right, before leaving the medical clinic completely. He then walked a short distance and climbed up into an all-black SUV. Castiel chowed down on his cheeseburgers while Dean started the Impala and made a quick U-Turn to follow the black SUV full of demons. As they drove, Alex's head began throbbing and she knew that Sam was in trouble. She kept herself quiet though, biting her bottom lip nervously.

Dean shut off his headlights as he pulled the Impala into a small local diner's parking lot. There were still a decent number of cars sitting in the parking lot and Dean shut off the Impala completely when he saw the demon walking into the diner with his briefcase.

"Demons," muttered Dean, watching as the two who were standing guard outside of the doors when they arrived walked back inside to join the rest of them.

"Do you two want to go over the plan one more time?" asked Dean.

Alex shook her head, but Castiel was distracted by one of his burger wrappers.

"Hey, Castiel! The plan!" yelled Dean.

Castiel looked startled at Dean's yelling, but looked over to face him anyway.

"Um, I take the knife, I go in, I cut off the ring hand of Famine, and I meet you and Alex back here in this parking lot," recited Castiel, holding up the demon-killing knife in his hand.

"Well, that certainly sounds just foolproof," joked Alex, smiling grimly.

She and Dean looked out of their windows then, but when Dean checked in the backseat for Castiel not even a minute later, Castiel was gone, having vanished into thin air as usual. Dean and Alex sat out there for another minute before looking at each other.

"Well, this is taking way too long," both of them said, opening their doors at the same exact time.

They each grabbed a sawed-off shotgun and slowly crept towards the diner with Dean leading the way and always making sure that Alex was directly behind him. He rounded the corner into the small diner first through the back door, the lights all off and the moonlight the only light coming into the place. They were currently in the kitchen, and Dean stopped walking when he saw Castiel kneeling on the ground, eating raw hamburger meat from a large, steel metal container.

"Cas!" whisper yelled Dean.

As Dean leaned forward to see what Castiel was scarfing down, Alex saw a demon sneaking up behind them through a glass case in front of them. She threw her elbow back, hitting the guy directly in the nose. As she cocked her gun to shoot him, another demon came up from behind Dean and grabbed him, throwing him roughly into the wall behind him.

"Dean!" yelled Alex, as Dean slid down to the floor, contusions and lacerations now covering his face.

Both of the demons smirked at Alex and she raised her shotgun, cocking it back. As one charged at her, the other came up from behind her and held her arms back, preventing her from making any sudden movements. She attempted to throw her head back to head-butt him directly in the face and nose, but he was too quick and dodged her attempt. She kicked at them as one demon dragged her into the room where Castiel was, the other demon dragging Dean along. They held the two siblings up as they stopped in front of a very, very old man who was currently sitting in a motorized scooter, an oxygen mask in his nose and a tank at his side.

"So you're two of the three Winchester siblings," said the man, wheezing with every breath that he took.

"What did you do to him?" asked Dean, looking back at Castiel.

"You two sicced a dog on me, so I just threw him a steak," answered Famine, smirking as best he could.

"So this is your big trick? Huh? Making people cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?" yelled Dean.

Famine scoffed.

"It really doesn't take much, honestly. Hardly a push, really. Hunger doesn't just come from the body, it also comes from the soul."

"That's funny because it doesn't seem to be coming from mine," sneered Dean.

Alex's gaze shot over to him suddenly, her crystal-clear blue eyes never leaving the side of his face.

"Why yes, I noticed that. And have you wondered why that is? How you could even walk in my presence?"

"Well, I like to think that it's because of my strength in character."

"I disagree," said Famine.

He propelled his motorized scooter forward towards Dean and the demon holding Alex had to pin her tighter as she struggled to get to Dean. Dean also struggled against the demon holding him tight. Both Dean and Alex watched as Famine slowly reached out and placed a hand onto Dean's upper chest. Dean cried out with immense pain and closed his eyes with pain as Famine simply laughed lightly. He removed his hand and Dean cried out with relief at the removal of Famine's hand.

"That's some deep dark nothing you've got there, Dean. But you can't fill it, can you? Not with food or drink, not even with sex."

"Oh, you're so full of bullshit," said Dean, smirking evilly down at the Horseman.

"Oh, yes, you smirk and you joke, you even lie to your siblings and you lie to yourself, but you won't lie to me! I can see inside you, Dean, straight into your damn soul! I can see how truly broken you are, how defeated you are. You can't win and you know it, but you just keep fighting. You keep going through all of your daily motions, but you're not hungry, Dean, because inside, you're already dead," said Famine, finishing in a whisper.

"Shut the hell up! That's not true!" yelled Alex.

She finally succeeded in escaping from the demon who currently held her and she launched herself towards Famine, but another demon grabbed her around the waist and yanked her away from him. The demon yanked Alex's hair back in his hand, wrapping it around his fist, stopping her from making any sudden movements.

"Let them go," said a deep voice from behind Famine.

Famine turned his chair around and his mouth widened with surprise as he saw Sam Winchester standing behind him. Both Alex and Dean looked shocked as well as they stared at their brother. Sam looked menacing, almost like pure evil.

"Sam Winchester," stated Famine, almost delightfully.

"Sammy, no," pleaded Dean.

Two demons wearing suits and black sunglasses walked towards Sam and Sam braced himself for their approach, but they were stopped by Famine's yell.

"Stop! No one lays a finger on this sweet little boy," warned Famine.

Sam worked out the kinks in his neck by leaning it from side to side.

"Sam, I see that you got the snack that I sent for you," said Famine.

Sam ceased all of his little movements and stared at the Horseman directly in front of him now.

"You sent?" asked Sam.

"But don't worry, you're not like everyone else, you won't die from drinking too much demon blood because you're the exception that proves the rule. So, cut their throats! Have at them!" yelled Famine, raising his palms upwards with joyfulness and glee.

The menacing look came back into Sam's eyes as he faced all of the demons directly in front of him now.

"Sammy, no!" cried both Alex and Dean.

"Please! Be my guest," cried Famine.

Sam looked at all of the people in the small diner and then closed his eyes briefly. Once he opened his eyes once again, he raised his right palm up towards the demons directly in front of him. He closed his eyes once again and all of the demons began pouring from the vessels that they were currently occupying, large clouds of black smoke pouring from peoples' throats. As the demons holding Dean and Alex both let go suddenly, Dean grabbed the demon-killing knife from off of the floor beside Castiel. Dean and Alex stood watching, wide-eyed, as the demons began falling to the ground one by one. Famine chuckled amongst them all and Sam had an evil, menacing grin all over his face. Once he was finished, Sam slowly lowered his hand back down to his side and looked directly into Famine's old, wrinkled face.

"No," said Sam.

Famine's smile faded, but for only for one brief, split second, and then it was plastered back onto his old face.

"Well, fine! If… you don't… want them… then I'll… have them," wheezed out Famine.

Alex and Dean's eyes widened even more as Famine opened his mouth as wide as possible, drawing in an impossibly large breath of air, and swallowing all of the black clouds of smoke that were still in the small diner's front room where they were all currently standing. The siblings watched with horror as he swallowed every single one of them in a matter of thirty seconds. Famine closed his mouth and then he gulped all of them down his throat. His evil smirk returned. Sam stepped closer to the old man and threw up his right palm once again, attempting to exorcize Famine, but Famine simply smirked even more.

"I'm a Horseman, Sam. Your… power doesn't work on me," laughed Famine.

"You're right. But it will work on all of them," responded back Sam.

He closed his eyes and began to exorcize all of the demons from inside of Famine's old and wrinkled body. Famine's smile faded and his mouth was opened wide as Sam began succeeding, black clouds of smoke erupting from Famine's stomach. Sam's nose began to bleed black blood profusely as he struggled to complete his task, Famine much stronger than a usual monster and fighting Sam's power through every step of the process. As the black blood dripped onto Sam's bottom lip, the demon clouds of black smoke all burst from Famine's wide-open mouth. Finally, with Sam breathing extremely heavily, Famine lay very still, dead from Sam's use of powers. Dean and Alex stood on either side of Famine's chair, staring down at the old, wrinkled man. Castiel began standing up straight now that Famine's curse was broken over the small town and everyone currently in it. Alex and Dean looked to Sam then, both of their eyes wide.

Alex buried her face further into Dean's chest as they stood outside of Bobby's panic room in his basement, Sam screaming for their help. Castiel stood right beside the panic room's door, his right ear pressed against it. As Sam screamed for help once more, loudly, Alex covered her ears with her hands. Dean rubbed one hand down her back and used his other, free hand to take a drink from his large bottle of beer.

"That's not him, Sam, in there. Not really, anyway," explained Castiel, breaking the stirring silence between all of them.

"Dean, Alex, help me!" screamed Sam.

"We know," answered Dean, not looking over at Castiel.

He continued rubbing Alex's back comfortingly.

"Dean, Sam just has to get this all out of his system. And then he'll be-"

"Listen, I just, um, I need to get some air," said Dean.

Without looking at Castiel, Dean grabbed Alex by her hand and dragged her upstairs with him, away from Castiel, the angel. He and Alex walked outside into the night air, which was extremely cool, and they stopped right beside Dean's precious and beloved Impala. Dean's eyes welled up with small tears as he looked up towards the cloudless night sky, thunder sounding off from somewhere in the distance. Alex stood by her older brother's side as he stared up into the night sky.

"Please. I can't…"

Dean trailed off for a few silent seconds, regaining his thoughts.

"I-We need some help down here. Please?" begged Dean, asking the angels and Heaven for all of their help.

As he lowered his head down from the sky and his tears finally began to fall rapidly, Alex threw herself into his arms. Dean grabbed onto his little sister, using her as an anchor while they both cried for Sam. He buried his head into her shoulder and kissed the top of her head, thanking God for her.