ROUTE 666 PART 4
The night was cold and muggy as Sam and Dean waited by the murky swamp. Both boys wore heavy jackets as their breath hazed the chilly air. Dean held a towel in his hand and glanced over to his brother. For the entirety of this case, he knew something was bothering Alice, but now he finally had a chance to talk to Sam about it.
"So what's wrong with Alice? She's not thinking about a divorce, is she?" Dean wasn't sure how to bring it up, so he decided to just be blunt. "She's been acting weird for a little while now."
Sam chuckled a little at his brother's sly commentary. "No, no. She's not asking for a divorce. It's…a lot simpler than you think. Alice is…" He paused for a moment, thinking about how to explain it. "Alice is jealous. Which is making her stressed and distant."
Dean made a face. Like he had a hard time processing the idea of Alice being jealous. She always acted confident and tough; it was hard even to think Alice could ever be jealous. "Of what? Cassie?"
"That's exactly it," Sam nodded.
"Does she have any idea how long ago that was for me. Yeah. Cassie was…well, a lot of things. But not anymore."
"She does. She understands it more than anyone. But I guess she just can't help it." Sam looked back to the murky waters just as Alice emerged, soaking wet but having successfully attached the wench to the real demon truck below the surface. "Did you do it?"
Alice grimaced as she stepped out onto the cold grass. Wearing nothing but shorts and a tank top covered in sticky swamp water. "You guys owe me," she said dangerously low, pointing to each of them.
"You're the best." Dean couldn't help but smile adoringly at her light threat. He wasted no time and wrapped the towel around her wet body, rubbing her shoulders to try and get some heat going. He knew she was cold by how much she was shaking.
"Damn right I am," Alice breathed, a ghost of a smile faint on her lips.
Dean gave her a quick kiss before passing her some clothes to wear in the meantime. A zip-up hoodie and a pair of baggy sweatpants. He stood back and watched her slide the clothes on. In the meantime, Sam walked away to give her some privacy to change.
"You enjoying the strip show?" Alice teased as she zipped up the hoodie and threw the towel over her head.
Dean chuckled a little and gave her a playful shove on the shoulder. He felt his heart become lighter at the banter. He loved moments like this. When Alice felt more honest and open with herself, and not cold and distant than she would usually default to. At this moment, when she acted like this, Dean truly felt that she was comfortable around him.
Once Alice was settled, Dean walked over to the tractor and hopped in the driver's seat. He turned the machine on and began to inch forward. Alice and Sam stood by the water and watched as the giant, rust-covered pick-up truck emerged from the surface, spilling water from every crevice.
"Stop! You're good!" Sam called back to Dean.
Dean shut off the tractor's engine and returned to Sam and Alice standing by the truck.
"Nice," Sam snickered.
Dean nodded. "Hell yeah." The two brothers then headed to the Impala and popped the trunk to get to the weapon arsenal.
"All right. What am I getting?" Sam asked.
"Gas, flashlight."
"Got it, got it."
"All right, let's get this done." Once they had everything they needed, Dean closed the trunk and walked back to Alice waiting by the truck. He tossed her a flashlight and watched as she shined the light into the dirty windows. He knew something was in there right away when he saw her grimace. "What?"
"Yeah. He's still in there." Alice said, taking a step back. "Get to it."
"Yes, ma'am."
Dean hesitated for a moment and grabbed the handle; with one hard yank, he pulled the door open, and a dead, cold, wet body slumped to the side. It was mummified from the years but was still quite fleshy from the time it spent underwater.
Once the initial disgust was out of the way. The boys got to work by digging the body from the front seat and tossing the remains on a table. They doused it in gas and sprinkled it with salt until satisfied with the amount. Alice quickly lit a match and tossed it onto the body. Once the flames started to climb, she stepped back beside the boys and watched it burn.
"Think that'll do it?" Sam asked.
As the words fell from his mouth, their souls left their bodies in a blink of an eye as the cold night was filled with the sound of a revving engine. All three of them looked up in a heartbeat and saw the bright headlights of the demon truck sitting idle a couple feet away down the road.
"I guess not," Dean grimaced as he stepped back, grabbing Alice by her waist to pull her beside him.
"So burning the body had no effect on that thing?" Sam said sharply while Alice pulled him back by his shoulder.
"Sure it did. Now it's really pissed," Dean said.
"But Cyrus's ghost is gone, right?"
Alice shook her head. "Cyrus's body and the truck had been underwater for so long; they had practically been fused together." Alice pulled Dean's hand off her and marched over to the Thunderace. She didn't bother to grab her helmet, shoes, or even her riding jacket. She had gotten on and started the engine.
Dean noticed what she was doing and quickly grabbed the handlebars. "Where you going?"
"Gonna have a little race. See if I can draw that thing away. You and Sam gotta find a way to burn the truck."
"How the hell are we supposed to burn a truck, Alice?!" Sam shouted back, not daring to move. He did notice that the truck seemed to have reacted to Alice moving away from them, slowly shifting in her direction. "You think you can outrun that thing?!"
For some reason, Alice snickered when she heard that. She looked over to Sam with a cocky smirk on her lips. "This is a Yamaha YZF1000R Thunderace. That rusted piece of shit ain't gonna catch me." She revved the engine a little, momentarily drowning out the sound of the idling truck. This gave Dean enough sense to let go of the handlebars and step away.
"You gonna come back, right?" Dean asked out of the blue, but there was clearly a different story in his eyes as they bared into her sharp blue ones.
Alice made quick eye contact with him before gesturing him over. Dean approached in one step, capturing her lips with his, kissing her strongly. He broke it after a moment and stared at her, feeling her cold fingers against his cheek.
"Burn the truck," Alice said coolly in an authoritative tone.
Dean nodded and stepped back, hiding out of view with Sam as Alice turned her bike down the road and started to drive off. They watched as the truck followed after, but in the blink of an eye, they heard Alice drop the gear down in her motorcycle…and she became nothing but a blur on the road, disappearing into nothing but a red haze as the truck sped off in hot pursuit.
Once the truck and Alice were gone from sight, Sam shot up and grabbed his father's journal. As he combed through the pages, Dean hurried over to the truck and looked inside the front driver's seat. He hated what he was feeling right now. Like he didn't know what to do. His heart was beating like mad, and his mind was racing with the thought of Alice and the truck that was after her.
"Alice was the one who set the torch to Cyrus, right? Is that the reason why it's after her?" Dean asked, looking back to his brother.
Sam shrugged, still flipping through the pages. "I don't know. Maybe it did, or maybe it marked her when she stood her ground against it back at Cassie's place. No telling."
Dean pulled out his phone and began dialing Alice's number, but after a second, he heard her phone going off beside Sam, in the pocket of her riding jacket she had left behind. Dean's eyes widened when he realized what Alice had done. So there was no way of contacting her to see if she was safe.
"That's not good," Sam grimaced while pulling out Alice's phone. He tossed it to Dean, who stormed past him in a fury. "Do you think she'd still be in area?"
"Even with a killer truck on her ass, I don't think Alice would go far." Dean then had a look about him and turned to Sam. "Please tell me you got a plan."
Something like that. I need you to head out there and do two things for me. Find Alice and have her draw the truck in."
"In where?" Dean exclaimed, feeling panic start to swell as the minutes went by.
"I'll have to get back to you on that one. Just go!" Sam insisted.
Dean didn't waste another minute of precious time and got into the Impala, driving off the first moment he could. As Dean disappeared down the road, Sam pulled out his phone and started to dial Cassie's number.
"Cassie? It's Sam. Okay, I need some information and it has to be exactly right."
Dean drove like a bat out of hell down the frosted roads lined with trees on either side of him. Snow gently started falling from the night sky and hitting his windshield, which he desperately looked out of. He had his windows rolled down to see if he could hear the sounds of distant engines. Either the pitched hum of Alice's motorcycle or the low rumble of the demon truck. To his relief, he heard both.
After a moment of searching, Sam finally began to call him. Dean picked up in a flash and practically yelled into his phone. "What am I doing?"
"Where are you?
"I don't know! Wait…!" Dean looked out the window just as he drove up past a sign. "Decatur road, about two miles off the Highway."
"Heading east?"
"Yes!" Just as he shouted, bright headlights blinded him as he saw a red blur flying past him on his right side, soon followed by the demon truck a moment later. Dean actually had to swerve a little to avoid getting hit by either of them. "I found them! Well, I mean…they found me!" Dean looked up in the rearview mirror and saw Alice slowly curving up the road like she was trying to find the opportunity to turn around. "She knows something up," Dean realized.
"Is she following you?" Sam asked.
"Looks like it! But what am I doing?!"
"Okay, uh, turn right." Sam ordered.
Dean was a little startled by the sudden directions he was given, but as the turn came up, he slammed on the brakes and made the turn last moment.
"Did you make the turn?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, I made the turn!" Dean yelled back, a little frustrated by Sam's last-minute directions.
"Is Alice following you?"
Dean looked back up into his rearview mirror and saw the distant headlights of both Alice and the truck. It looked like they were nearly on top of each other, but Alice's bike was a lot more agile than the truck, and she was able to swerve away, making the same sharp turn to follow after Dean.
"She's on me!" Dean said, smiling widely at Alice's skills.
"Good! Now, turn left."
"What?!" Dean took his eyes away from Alice to see the next road coming up. He slammed on his brakes again and made the turn, fishtailing the back end of the Impala as he tried to take back control. "Okay. Now what?
"Do you see anything ahead? Some old formations? Walls? Something that looked like an old building stood there. Once you see it, stay there and wait for Alice."
Dean strained his eyes to look ahead. As the melted snow fell away from his windshield, he caught a glimpse of an old wall that stood alone beside the road. Once he was nearly upon it, he slammed on his breaks one last time and came to a complete halt right past them.
Dean didn't bother to turn off the Impala and immediately got out. He looked up the road and saw Alice approaching fast. As the headlights of her motorcycle got closer and closer, he began to make out her frame sitting on top of it. Of course, the truck wasn't far behind either.
Dean stood back beside the Impala as Alice flew past him. The truck was right there too. It sped up and drove straight ahead. Just as it was going to hit him, the truck suddenly ran into something nearly invisible. A gate made of mist broke apart as the truck rammed right into it, disappearing in a fury of smoke and twisted metal.
A little startled, Dean looked up and saw that the truck was gone. Completely gone. He shuddered and looked back at Alice, who had gotten off her motorcycle and run over to him. He couldn't help but smile, opening his arms and letting her run right into him. He embraced her tightly and kissed the side of her head, beyond thankful to see her again.
"What the hell was that?! What happened?" Alice said with wide eyes.
Dean broke away for a moment and pulled his phone back out. He was still on the line with Sam. "We're alright, but…where did it go?"
"Dean, you're were the church was?" Sam answered, taking a breath of relief when he heard Alice's voice in the background.
"What church?"
"The place Cyrus burned down and murdered all those kids."
Dean kept a firm hand on Alice's waist as he looked around at the ruins. "There's not a whole lot left."
"Church ground is hallowed ground. Whether the church is still there or not. Evil spirits cross over hallowed ground…sometimes they're destroyed. So, I figured maybe that would get rid of it."
A dawning look crossed Dean's face. "Maybe? Maybe?!"
Alice quickly took the phone from Dean's hand. "You risked both our lives on a hunch? What if you were wrong?" She raised her voice into the phone.
Without seeing his face, Alice could already imagine the smile Sam was probably wearing right now. "Honestly, that thought hadn't occurred to me," Sam chuckled a little.
Alice hung up the phone. The look in her eyes was both stunning and angry. She looked like she wanted to smile but tried to keep it down. "I want to kill him…but I also want to give him a pat on the back."
Dean scoffed. "You can give him that pat on the back. I'm gonna kill him." His face broke out into a scowl as he brought Alice back into a hug.
"My mother says to tell you thanks again," Cassie said as she, Dean, and Alice walked over to the Impala and Thunderace. She smiled a little before speaking again. "You know…it never would've worked out."
Dean was slightly surprised by this comment but couldn't help but laugh a little. He glanced at Alice and saw her trying to hide her smile while getting ready to head out.
"You're right. It really wouldn't have," Dean agreed. "You always been a realist. There was never any hope."
Cassie nodded and suddenly whispered low enough to where Alice couldn't hear. "Yeah, but…I see that with you and your girl. She's a good woman, Dean Winchester. You'd do good to hold onto her."
Dean smiled widely and lowered his head. "That was the plan. I'll see you around, Cassie."
"Goodbye, Dean."
Feeling some sort of weight off his shoulders, Dean wrapped his arms around Cassie and hugged her very briefly. He felt content with himself at that moment. Cassie was his first love, and he had to leave with hurt feelings the first time, but since things had been resolved, well…he felt good about the result. There were no hard feelings anymore.
Dean pulled away and got into the passenger's side of the Impala. Just for this single day, he decided to let Sam take the wheel. Cassie stepped back and watched as Alice started up her motorcycle. The Thunderace roared to life and slowly pulled out, taking the lead with the Impala close behind.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I got one more short follow-up chapter after this one. I don't really have the time to finish it right now, but it'll come out soon in a couple days.
I appreciate those that are enjoying my story and hope to see you again.