Chapter 26: The Witnesses
A/N: Hope you guys enjoy!
"So, that was an angel that rescued you? Castiel?" Sam clarified.
The four of them were back in Bobby's house that next morning getting a debrief from Dean about his interaction with Castiel that occurred while Mia and Bobby were rendered unconscious.
"I don't buy it," Dean muttered, "feels like a cover story."
Sam snorted in disbelief, "What other being would be able to survive rock salt, silver, regular bullets, devil's traps, and Ruby's knife?"
"I don't know, okay?! But don't you think if they existed, someone, somewhere would have seen one?" Dean argued.
"You just did!" Sam exclaimed.
"Hey, chuckleheads," Bobby interrupted, "get over here."
The boys headed over to the living room desk where Mia and Bobby sat pouring over theological books.
"There's lore on angels dating back centuries," Mia told them, "I found in this book, that an angel can rescue a soul from Hell."
"Dean!" Sam cried out, "This is great news! That means you were rescued by one of the good guys!"
Dean remained unenthused, "So if there are angels then what there's a god? A god that cares about the needs of me personally? I'm sorry, Sam, I just don't buy it. Why save me? I'm no saint, sure I've saved some people but why give a damn about me?"
"Because it sounds like you've got an important role to play for the man upstairs," Sam offered.
Dean shook his head dismissively and sighed before turning to Mia, "So what else can angels do?"
Mia scoffed, "What am I, Ask Jeeves? There's plenty of books around on the subject, pick one up and get to reading."
Dean scowled at her in irritation then turned to Sam, "You're getting me pie."
Sam chuckled but agreed, he took food orders from everyone and then took off.
Twenty minutes into reading, Dean was already getting tired. He glanced up from his seat to gauge how Bobby and Mia were doing. Bobby hadn't moved from his first spot but Mia was sitting sideways on the couch with her feet up. He couldn't help but smile at her, despite how much she'd changed in other ways it was nice to see some things about her hadn't changed, like her inability to sit still for long periods of time.
Mia sat up abruptly, holding the page closer to her face as though she'd read something extremely shocking. No words were spoken but she stared intently at her page as though memorizing every detail of it.
"What did you find?" Dean finally asked.
Mia turned to face him, "I think I know someone who can help us with this angel situation."
"Who?" Dean questioned.
Mia ignored him and began to pack up her messenger bag.
"Bobby, can I borrow this for a bit?" Mia asked, holding up the book and the man nodded, although his expression was befuddled.
"Where are you going?" Dean attempted again.
Mia tossed the book into her bag. "To talk to a friend, I'll be back soon, keep me posted!" With that remark, she darted out the door and towards her motorcycle.
"Should someone go with her?" Dean turned to Bobby.
Bobby shrugged, "Ever since you disappeared, she's come into her own as a hunter. She's damn good at what she does, I wouldn't worry about her."
"Who's this friend she keeps mentioning?"
"Family friend, I haven't met him, but apparently, he's involved in the hunting world," Bobby dismissed, "let's get back to work."
Mia drove for hours, stopping only once to refuel. The person she wished to see was halfway across the country at the moment and was refusing to answer his phone so she had no other choice. When her phone finally vibrated against her pocket, she pulled over to take the call.
"Daniel? Where have you been?" She exclaimed.
"Uh, who's Daniel?" Dean's voice answered.
Mia sighed in disappointment, "The friend I've been trying to get a hold of. What did you guys find?"
"Something weird has happened, we went to check in on a hunter friend of Bobby's and she was dead, torn to pieces. She had salt on all the doorways and an EMF reader, we think it was a ghost that did it."
"A ghost rip someone to shreds? What was this the ghost of a werewolf?" Mia asked in shock. She'd never heard of a case where a ghost had ever torn into someone before, it seemed like a wild notion to consider.
"No idea, but more of Bobby's hunter friends have been turning up dead in the same way. We think some ghosts are targeting hunters. Sam just got attacked at the gas station restroom by the ghost of someone we used to know. You need to head back to Bobby's we're headed there now."
"Okay, I'm turning around but I'm still a few hours away, I'll go as fast as I can," Mia told him.
"Rock salt guns still work on them, do you have yours on you?"
Mia cursed, "Left it at Bobby's."
"Just be careful and try not to stop on the way, I'm gonna call Bobby to check on him," Dean reiterated before hanging up.
Mia raced back to Bobby's, certain she would be pulled for speeding at any moment.
Sam and Dean reached Singer Auto Salvage within an hour of their call to Mia. The boys were both panicked that Bobby wouldn't answer the phone or respond to his name being called. They decided to split up and search the house and grounds.
Dean covered the indoors, stalking into every room, gun in hand. He froze when he noticed a young woman with shaggy dark blonde hair and dark brown eyes. She smiled at Dean.
"You don't recognize me, do you? This is what I looked like before that bitch demon cut my hair and changed my clothes," The young woman said.
Dean frowned then remembered her face, her sharp features, and hair dyed blonde and cropped short, "Meg?"
"Hi, it's okay, I'm not a demon anymore. I'm just a college girl, sorry, was just a college girl until one day I got possessed, trapped inside my own body, and forced to watch myself do completely horrific things!" Meg cried out.
"I'm so sorry," Dean replied gruffly.
"Sorry, you threw me off a building? Sorry, you failed to save me? You only needed a couple words of Latin a little earlier and maybe I'd still be breathing and you wouldn't need to be sorry!"
She shoved Dean to the ground.
"I'm sorry, we didn't know-" he gasped.
"STOP SAYING SORRY! I kept screaming at you to help me! Did it ever occur to you there was an innocent girl trapped in here? No! You just went in guns blazing and kicked the shit out of me!"
At this, Meg began to repeatedly kick Dean on the ground.
"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO HELP PEOPLE! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SAVE PEOPLE LIKE ME!" She shrieked.
She paused her attack. "Did you know I had a little sister? Yeah, she thought the world of me, she was devastated when I went missing, and when she saw my broken and bloody body in the morgue, you know what she did? She killed herself! SHE'S DEAD AND IT'S YOUR FAULT DEAN! YOUR FAULT!"
Dean crawled into one of Bobby's empty bedrooms as Meg followed. He pulled out his regular gun and Meg scoffed.
"You can't shoot me with a regular gun, I'm still a ghost."
"I'm not aiming for you," Dean told her before firing at the iron chandelier above her which crashed down on top of her causing her to dissipate.
Sam searched the auto yard in vain, crying out for Bobby. His head wound from where he'd been attacked earlier throbbed, making his vision slightly blurry. He continued through the rows of cars pleading that Bobby would make a sound or cry out.
He searched until he noticed a car that was seemingly frosted over, despite the September heat. Sam recalled that moments before he saw his ghostly attacker the bathroom mirror had frozen just like this.
"Bobby, I'm coming!" Sam cried as he used the iron crowbar he'd picked up to pry the frozen door open. He saw two little girls holding Bobby captive. One leaped towards Sam and he swung his iron at her to make her disappear. Bobby, whose limbs were free, swung at the second girl and breathed a sigh of relief, finally free from the girls for a moment.
"So these are all ghosts of people we know that have died," Sam clarified once he, Dean, and Bobby were back in Bobby's living room.
"People we couldn't save," Dean offered to Sam, "hey did Meg have a tattoo when she was alive?"
Sam frowned, "No but I saw one on Henricksen and those little girls."
Sam grabbed a pad of paper and a pencil and sketched the design for Dean who nodded in agreement at the design. Bobby took the paper and stiffened.
"We need to get out of here, follow me."
Bobby led the boys to the basement and pulled a shelving unit away from a wall to reveal an iron vault, with a devil's trap in front of the door on the floor. He opened the door and brought the boys inside the room.
"You built a panic room?"
"I had a free weekend," Bobby joked to Dean who grinned.
"This room is solid iron infused with salt with every trap imaginable, this will keep us safe from the ghosts until we can come up with a plan," Bobby added.
The boys decided to fill more iron and salt bullets while Bobby rifled through his books.
"Has anyone heard from Mia?" Sam asked, "Does she know this room exists?"
Bobby nodded, "Hell, she helped build it. I put her to work when she stayed with me for a few weeks."
"I knew I'd seen that symbol, this isn't a tattoo mark its a brand. The mark of the witnesses, these are people that died unnatural deaths, they've been forced to rise from the dead and they are PISSED OFF, like rabid dogs," Bobby explained.
"Forced to rise from the dead? As in, someone raised them on purpose," Sam clarified.
"Yep, someone with something big planned. It figures into an ancient prophecy," Bobby responded.
"Oh yeah, and what book is this ancient prophecy from?" Dean asked.
"It's from the Book of Revelations in the Bible…. It's a sign, boys, a sign of the apocalypse."
"The end of days, as in the end of the world, that apocalypse?" Dean exclaimed.
"The very same, but luckily there's a spell to put all the witnesses back down. The only thing is I need more ingredients and it has to be cast over an open fire, we'll have to head back upstairs to the study."
"Uh, just not appealing as a ghost-proof room," Dean groaned but nonetheless the boys got ready to head out.
Mia could almost smell her tires burning as she pulled into Bobby's place. She noted the Impala was parked nearby meaning the boys had made it back in one piece.
She descended her bike and ran for the house but was clotheslined by an outstretched arm.
Mia rubbed her head and slowly rose from the ground. She froze when she recognized her assailant.
"Cleo?" she choked at the specter of her dead childhood best friend.
The blonde girl grinned, "In the flesh, well, not exactly."
"How are you here?"
"I think the better question, is why am I here, babe," Cleo remarked coolly, "I see you've become this big and strong hunter, but the question is, why couldn't you have figured that shit out just a tiny bit earlier."
Mia's face fell, "I didn't know what was going on with you, I couldn't do anything."
"Couldn't, or wouldn't?" Cleo glared, "You knew that me going to that party was a bad idea, you felt a presence when you dropped me off yet you said nothing."
"I never thought you were in danger of being killed! Please, I would have done anything to save you, I killed that ghost for you!" Mia cried out, tears welling up in her eyes.
"YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED ME! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN AT THE PARTY AND STOPPED WHAT HAPPENED YOU COULD HAVE HELPED ME BUT YOU DIDN'T AND NOW I'M DEAD!" Cleo shrieked and scratched at Mia.
Mia shoved Cleo back hard and watched her as her friend disappeared into a puff of smoke. She frowned in confusion but then realized the ring she wore on her right hand was made from pure iron which had sent Cleo's spirit running. A handy and fashionable weapon she thought with a smile before sprinting towards Bobby's doorway.
"Ronald Resnick, it's good to see you, man," Dean breathed, seeing the apparition of their old friend from the bank heist at the top of the basement stairs.
"You were supposed to help me, you got me killed!" Ronald exclaimed and stood to attack but before he could take a step, Bobby shot him with his rock salt gun.
"YOU DON'T STOP TO CHAT JUST SHOOT!" Bobby thundered.
The three men ran up the stairs while Bobby called out for ingredients, he sent Sam for his hex box upstairs and Dean for ingredients in the kitchen.
Sam encountered Meg who screamed at him for working with Ruby, burning through the bodies of the possessed. He quickly shot at her and returned to Bobby.
Dean was approached by FBI Agent Henricksen who'd attacked Sam earlier at the rest stop. He'd worked with the boys on a case but was killed by Lilith. He told Dean that he'd actually been brutally tortured and killed by Lilith before he died. The angry ghost then shoved his hand into Dean's chest cavity to rip out his heart.
"TELL ME WHY IT'S FAIR YOU GET SAVED FROM HELL-WHY DO YOU DESERVE ANOTHER CHANCE AND I DON'T!" Henricksen screamed.
"Because of his perky nipples," Mia shot at the specter with her recovered rock salt gun.
Dean collapsed and Mia ran to his side, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," He insisted but allowed her to help him up.
They returned to the living room where Sam and Bobby were putting the spell together.
"You're back!" Sam sighed in relief and Mia shot him an appreciative smile.
"Mia, good to see you, grab a corner while I work on this spell to put these ghosts back in the grave," Bobby called.
The two little girls holding Bobby captive earlier appeared in the hallway and Sam promptly shot them with rock salt.
"I've got your 6," Mia told Sam moving to the right of Bobby to be behind Sam and facing the rest of the room.
Dean picked up his gun and stood in front of Bobby facing the kitchen door. Cleo materialized in front of him and he hesitated.
"Who are you?" Dean called out.
The furious teen pointed at Mia, "Ask her."
"She was my best friend before she became possessed by a spirit and died," Mia told them sadly, "it was her death you were investigating when I joined you guys."
Cleo made a move towards Dean and was shot by Mia, disappearing for only a moment. After that, Bobby began to chant in Latin as Meg, the little girls, Ronald, Hendricksen, and Cleo repeatedly appeared and were shot by Sam, Mia, and Dean while Bobby mixed the ingredients for the spell.
The ghosts caught on quickly to the weapons being used and Meg slammed Sam into a wall, pinning him with a piece of furniture. Dean attempted to shoot at Meg but his gun was thrown across the room by Hendricksen.
"Cover Bobby, I'm gonna get Sam!" Dean shouted to Mia who was currently firing at Ronald.
He dove over to his brother swinging an iron poker.
Mia stepped in front of Bobby and shot a few times at incoming ghosts but panicked when she realized her gun was empty.
She looked over to see Dean struggling to free Sam while the other ghosts were coming right at her. She used her right hand to punch them with her iron ring but eventually, the remaining ghosts pinned her to the front of the desk and Cleo shoved her hand into Mia's chest. There was no other choice.
Mia took a deep breath and concentrated hard. She screamed and a massive surge of blue light emitted from her blasting five ghostly beings backwards into the kitchen where they all disappeared. Mia quickly recovered in time to see Meg standing behind Bobby had moved from Sam and Dean to shove her hand into Bobby's back.
Bobby suddenly cried out and Mia extended her arms sending Meg flying backward into the fireplace where she vanished once again.
Bobby caught his breath and threw the concoction into the flames which burned blue for a moment before all of the ghosts finally vanished for good.
Mia looked to see that Sam was free from the wall but beside him, Dean looked as though his eyes were going to burst out of their sockets.
"How the hell did you do that w-"
But before Dean could finish his sentence Mia's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped to the floor.
Sam nonchalantly scooped her up and deposited her on the couch as though putting a child who'd fallen asleep in the car into bed.
Dean exploded, "WHAT WAS THAT?"
Although he repeatedly demanded an explanation, Bobby, and Sam dodged his questions, giving off the impression that they did know how Mia managed to perform her magic, but knew she wanted to tell Dean about it herself. Eventually, they decided to follow Mia's lead and head to sleep.
Still furious with the lack of explanation, he refused to sleep at first then slowly drifted off but was awakened by a noise in the kitchen. He stood and entered to find Castiel standing by the sink.
"Excellent job with the witnesses," Castiel commended.
"Wait, you guys knew about all of this and didn't do anything? I thought angels were supposed to be guardians?"
"We are warriors of the Lord," Castiel corrected flatly, "and we had bigger battles to fight today. There is information you must know, the raising of the witnesses is one of 66 seals broken."
"I'm guessing that isn't a Seaworld show," Dean joked.
"No, these seals are being broken by Lilith, she cast the spell to bring the witnesses back and sent them on hunters. We lost dozens of good hunters today."
"But we put the witnesses back to rest, doesn't that count for anything?"
"Unfortunately not, the seal is broken there is no way to fix it. Think of it as locks on a door, once all 66 are broken the door opens and Lucifer walks free," Castiel explained.
"Lucifer, as in the devil? I thought he was made up to scare people," Dean retorted.
"You did not believe I existed until recently, why do you think we are here on earth, we are trying to prevent Lucifer from rising," Castiel replied.
"Bang up job so far," Dean said sarcastically.
Castiel rounded on Dean with an irritated expression on his face, "Listen, there are bigger things happening here, I lost six of my brothers today in battle. Do you think you are the only soldier in this fight? Show me some respect, I pulled you out of the pit, and I can throw you back in just as easily."
With that statement, Castiel vanished leaving Dean in shock.
That next morning the hunters gathered in Bobby's kitchen to brew some coffee for breakfast.
"Is Mia dead?" Dean asked flatly noting that his friend had slept for almost 10 hours straight.
"She needs a lot more sleep these days," Sam offered as he poured milk into his own cup of coffee.
"While we're waiting," Bobby put down his coffee and looked up at Dean, "I heard talking downstairs last night, what happened?"
Dean paused for a moment, stirring his cup, mulling over what to say.
"You guys believe in angels and that there's a god, right?"
Bobby raised an eyebrow and Sam nodded taking a long sip of coffee.
"Then that must mean you believe there's a devil," Dean prompted.
"Would you stop with the theological inquiry, and just spit it out," Bobby muttered.
"Fine, Castiel showed up last night, he gave his compliments for how we handled the witnesses then he confirmed what you said Bobby, that this is a sign of the apocalypse, but specifically the apocalypse is referring to Lucifer being freed from hell."
"How does something like that even happen?" Sam frowned, "I thought in the Bible, Lucifer was supposed to be imprisoned forever."
"Well, apparently there's a loophole in that contract," Bobby grunted, "what else did Clarence tell you?"
"There are 66 seals that need to break to release Lucifer, the raising of the witnesses was one of them, once they're all broken, he walks free."
"Wait, so who is doing this? Who would want to free the devil?" Sam asked.
Dean glared at the ground angrily, "Who's the biggest bitch we know-Lilith. She's the one orchestrating all of this."
Sam stood up straighter, "All the more reason to hunt her down and kill her once and for all."
"It's not that easy, she's a slippery character, hard to track," Bobby told Sam, "we got lucky she was stationary once, but I doubt she'll make the same mistake. I think we just have to keep doing what we're doing and hope this angel friend maybe gives us more of a warning next time."
With that, Bobby stood from the table and packed up, explaining that he needed to check in on a friend of his who finally got back to him about the witnesses.
"I'm going to head out too," Sam told his brother as he finished his coffee, "I'll grab us some breakfast."
Sam stood up and paused before glancing at Dean who was glaring a hole into the back of Mia's head.
"Be nice to her, okay? What she's going to say sounds nuts but it's true."
Dean nodded. He watched Sam drive away and then headed over to the couch where Mia was still snoozing. His instinct was to wake her up but watching her sleep he felt guilty for even thinking it, she was so peaceful. He was just about to leave her alone when she sat up and stretched.
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," Dean smirked, "how was the 100-year-long nap?"
Mia rolled her eyes, "Very funny," she yawned, "I think we need to find Bobby a better couch, I spent the whole night tossing and turning, I felt like I was sleeping on sheet metal." She stood up to perform a full body stretch and Dean chuckled spotting something on the couch.
"Yeah, you were sleeping on Ruby's knife."
"Geez! How did I not realize that!" Mia cried out as she picked up the knife from where it was embedded in the couch.
"Listen, I'm glad your back isn't cut up to smithereens but I have an important question for you."
Mia nodded sheepishly and sat back down. She knew this conversation was long overdue but had no idea how to explain everything to him. Luckily she'd been able to talk to Bobby and Sam while she was going through things so they already knew what was going on with her but she feared Dean's reaction to her explanation.
"Right, yeah, I've been wanting to tell you everything but there's been a lot going on the last few days, with you coming back and us trying to figure out who did it and such."
"Well, I'm all ears," Dean told her and pulled a chair over.
Mia tugged on her necklace anxiously. "When you died, Lilith-"
She was interrupted by the sound of flapping wings and the appearance of Castiel.
Thank you so much for reading! If you're still out there I can't thank you enough!
Next Chapter: We take a trip to the distant past and learn about Sam and Dean's family as well as Mia's.