Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death Chapter 3
Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
Chapter Three
Course for Winds of Fortune
Dean glanced over at Cass but his expression remained neutral.
“Sam, are you sure about this?” John asked him. “I need you to be sure.”
“I am sure,” Sam answered as he sucked in a deep breath. “What I saw wasn’t just a dream or my imagination, I wish that I could explain it but it was real. What I saw, was real.”
“This can’t be a coincidence,” John replied. “The same time that we learn about Azazel, Sam does too?”
“Cas, you have any idea what’s going on?” Dean asked.
Cas looked perplexed and Dean would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious.
“I’m not sure,” Cas told him. “Everything that we thought we knew about what happened to Sam, who was responsible, the reasons why… we were wrong.”
“Yeah well that much is obvious,” Dean replied.
Cas narrowed his eyes and shifted on the arm of the chair. “Yes, but my point is that now we know there is more at play here; our strategy moving forward has changed.”
“To what?” Dean asked. “We barely even knew what we were doing before this, how has anything changed other than the fact that we know it wasn’t one demon who killed Jess but another. Does that really make any difference?”
“It could make all the difference.”
“Wait, didn’t Meg say something about Azazel being in hell?”
“Michael banished him to hell about a century ago,”
“So how did he manage to kill Jess then?”
“Until a few minutes ago I assumed that he was still in hell but if Sam is correct, and Azazel is responsible then clearly he has found a way out.”
“He found a way out.”
Dean glanced toward the kitchen door where Meg was standing.
“Fuck, why do you have to keep doing that?”
Meg stepped into the room and stood at the end of the couch. “Because it makes me oh so happy. I wish that I wasn’t about to say this but… Azazel is in fact topside. He used a Hell’s Gate in Wyoming to get free, that was seven months ago.”
“I don’t understand,” Cas replied. “There has been no indication of his being free, how is that possible?”
“What I want to know is what the fuck is a Hell’s Gate?”
“It’s fairly self-explanatory cupcake,” Meg responded with a smirk. “It’s literally a gate to hell.”
“How did they open it?” Cas asked her.
Meg drew in a deep breath and then folded her arms over her chest. “Turns out the Colt is in play.”
Cas looked stunned which didn’t help ease Dean’s fear about the whole thing.
“What is the Colt?” Sam asked.
“It was created in the mid 1830’s by Samuel Colt, the story goes that it’s special, that it can kill anything but until now it was thought to be lost.” Cas explained.
“If it can kill anything, then we could use it to kill Crowley?”
No one said anything and Dean wasn’t really sure what to make of that.
“Can we worry about this tomorrow?” Sam asked no one in particular. “I just really can’t deal with this right now.”
“Yeah, of course,” Dean replied. “You should try and sleep.”
“I’ll take Jo back to her car.” Cas offered.
They all turned to look at Jo who just sat there, a stunned expression on her face.
“Are you okay?” Dean asked her.
“I uh… yeah I guess so. It’s just a lot to take in, I mean it all sounds so…”
“Insane, yeah pretty much.”
Jo exhaled sharply and turned her attention to Sam and then gave him a quick hug.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
He nodded back but stayed silent.
“We should go.” Cas told her.
Dean waited until Sam had closed his bedroom door before he turned to look at his father.
“Do we really believe that it was Azazel who killed Jess?”
“Well fire is kind of Azazel’s thing,” Meg pointed out. “I believe it.”
“But why though?” John asked. “Why go after her?”
“To get to Sam,” Meg said. “All of this, right from the start, it’s been about Sam.”
“Again, why?” John wanted to know. “We all heard the story Crowley told us but there are two other Winchesters, so why are they so fixated on him?”
Meg thought about it for a moment. “Why don’t we ask him.”
Dean cocked an eyebrow at her. “Sam? How is he supposed…”
“Not Sam,” Meg replied, cutting him off. “Crowley.”
Dean sighed heavily and muttered under his breath.
“What was that?”
“That’s what I thought,” Meg said. “So, we try a different approach, we could summon him.”
Dean stared blankly at her.
“What do you mean summon him?” John wanted to know.
“There’s a spell that we could use,” Meg explained. “I can’t guarantee that it will work but it’s worth a try.”
“Are you fucking kidding me,” Dean cried out. “You couldn’t have told us this six damn months ago?”
Meg rolled her eyes. “Well if it was that easy then I would have mentioned it. The spell itself is not too difficult to track down, the complicated part is that we need something personal of Crowley’s.”
“That would mean being able to find him and if we could do that…”
“I have an idea about that actually but I’m fairly certain that you’re not going to like it.”
“She is out of her damn mind,” Dean cried out. “It’s crazy, right? Cas tell me that this is crazy and not even possible.”
“Actually,” Cas replied. “It is completely possible.”
“Okay, say we do this,” John said. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to stop all of this from happening in the first place?”
Cas narrowed his eyes and stared at John for the longest time. “It doesn’t work like that. You can’t change what has happened, this is a delicate matter and if you interfere and change even the slightest detail it could have far reaching consequences.”
“Cas, do you honestly believe that this could work?”
Cas inhaled a deep breath. “I’m perfectly competent and I can complete the task. As for it working, I can’t think of a reason as to why not.”
“Where is Meg again?”
“She’s gone after the summoning spell, according to her, it shouldn’t take very long.”
Cas pulled his coat off and draped it across the back of the chair.
Dean was already in bed, one arm tucked under his head and his eyes were closed.
“At least we will have a few days to relax before she returns.”
“Ha, relax,” Dean replied with a chuckle. “That’s funny.”
“It is?” Cas asked as he sat down on the bed.
“Forget it, it’s one of those things that I can’t be bothered to explain.”
“Okay.”
Cas lay down and adjusted the pillow but he couldn’t seem to get comfortable.
“Are we going to be okay?” Dean asked him. “I can’t help but think that this is going to end up being a disaster.”
“We will do everything we can to make sure that the outcome of this falls in our favor.”
“Yeah well.”
“We can worry about all of this in the morning. You should get some sleep.”
The alarm clock on the nightstand read 4:18am.
Cas sat up and glanced over at Dean, who was fast asleep.
After a moment, he climbed to his feet and quietly made his way out of the room and into the hall.
Stepping up to Sam’s door, he pushed it open and saw Sam lying in bed.
So, it wasn’t Dean nor Sam who was currently in distress.
A small noise at the front of the house caught his attention.
As he made his way into the living room, he could see John pacing back and forth, the phone clutched tightly in his hand.
“John,” Cas said as he stepped into the room. “What’s going on?”
John turned to face him but he didn’t say anything at first.
“Mary didn’t come home from work, and I can’t get hold of her.”
“No, I don’t want to wake them up yet,” John told him. “It’s only six o’clock, let them sleep a while longer.”
“You have already called everyone you can think of,” Cas pointed out. “And I can’t narrow down her location.”
John slumped down in the chair and dropped the phone onto the coffee table. “Sam and Dean are not going to be able to do any more than I can. I’ll give it a few more hours and then I’ll call the police.”
“John, I don’t want to get ahead of myself but we have to consider the possibility that…”
“No,” John snapped at him. “I’m not going there; I can’t let myself that like that.”
Cas lowered his gaze to his hands in his lap, he felt awful for even bringing it up but it did need to be said.
“I was not suggesting that she was… John, we learned of Azazel’s possible involvement in all of this at the same time that Sam was having his vision. It’s quite possible that Mary has been missing since last night.”
“What are you saying?”
Cas glanced toward the doorway, he thought that he heard something but when no one appeared he let it go.
“We have to consider all possibilities, I understand that you don’t want to hear this but under the circumstances…”
John wiped at his eyes. He was so exhausted, after everything that had happened to the family; did they really deserve more heartache?
It was relentless and he couldn’t see an end in sight.
“What are we supposed to do?” John asked. “We can’t even track down Crowley, how are we supposed to find Azazel?”
“I may have to seek some assistance.”
John narrowed his eyes. “Should I bother asking.”
“Asking for what?”
They both turn toward the door. Meg was standing there, a piece of paper clutched in her hand.
“Is that the spell?”
“It is,” she replied with a nod. “What’s going on?”
John shifted in the chair; he didn’t want to say it because he didn’t want it to be true. “Mary is missing.”
“And I can’t track her.” Cas added.
Meg cocked an eyebrow. “Okay wow, that’s not good.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” John demanded.
“It could mean anything really,” she answered. “It doesn’t mean anything bad necessarily.”
“How does that help?”
“It doesn’t,” she said. “Cas, do you remember that incantation you used a few months ago to protect that woman in Michigan.”
“Of course.”
Meg walked further into the room and sat down on the arm of the couch. “I think that you need to use it on Ash and Jo.”
“You believe that they will be targeted?” Cas replied. He glanced over John, a concerned look in his eyes. “I think it would be wise then if we had Bobby return.”
John nodded back at him. “Yeah, I’ll call him.”
John picked up the phone and dialed a number.
Cas leaned toward Meg. “Would you be able to use your connections to try and find Mary?”
Meg crossed her arms over her chest and stared back at him. “I’m risking a lot helping you, if Azazel manages to find me or figure out what it is that I’m doing, it won’t end well.”
“Do what you can without drawing too much attention to yourself.”
Dean made his way out to the kitchen just after eight o’clock and was more than a little surprised to find John, Cas, and Meg sitting around the table, he was more surprised though, to see Bobby was there.
“Okay,” he said as he poured himself a cup of coffee. “Clearly I’ve missed something.”
“I found Bobby earlier,” Cas announced. “I thought it was important that he be here.”
Dean nodded. “Yeah okay, that wasn’t really what I was referring to though. I meant what’s with the meeting around the breakfast table?”
Before anyone could tell him anything, Sam appeared beside Dean.
“What’s going on?” Sam asked as he glanced around the room. “You’re all here but where’s Mom?”
Dean swallowed the lump in his throat that appeared when Sam said that.
He knew that something had happened when the room stayed silent and he knew that it was bad.
“Dad, where is she?”
John hesitated for a moment before answering, he wasn’t exactly sure what to say but he knew that he had to say something. He drew in a deep breath and rested his hands on the table. “No one has seen or heard from her since seven o’clock last night.”
Sam narrowed his eyes. “What the hell are you talking about, where is she?”
“We don’t know.”
Sam glanced over at Cas, a small amount of hope flickering in his eyes. “Can’t you do your thing and find her?”
Cas pursed his lips and looked over at John for some sort of confirmation that it was okay to say anything, John nodded ever so slightly.
“I’ve tried everything I can,” Cas answered. “There is no connection there.”
Dean wasn’t really sure what to make of that, it had always worked. Cas had always been able to detect them.
“What does that mean?” Sam asked, breaking the silence. “Is she…”
“Sam,” John said. “Don’t.”
Dean lifted his hand to his face and wiped at his eyes, he’d only been awake for half an hour but he was already exhausted.
A silence hung over the room as they pondered the possibilities of what had happened.
“This is ridiculous,” John said. “She’s not dead and I won’t have anyone sitting around acting as though she is.”
He got to his feet and pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’m going to check out a few places, talk to some people. Dean, I want you and Sam to stay here, do you hear me? You’re going to stay here and keep working on the plan to find Crowley.”
“Dad, come on,” Dean replied. “I should go with you.”
John stepped up to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. “No, you’re not going anywhere, no arguing.”
“Dad.”
“Not another word about it Dean, I won’t tell you again.”
Sam reached out and placed his hand on Dean’s arm. “It’s okay, we’ll stay here and he’ll call us if he needs anything.”
He glanced over at John.
“Won’t you?”
“Of course.” John replied.
Dean didn’t believe him.
They stood there and watched as John disappeared out of the room and a moment later they could hear the front door slam.
“Okay,” Dean said with a heavy sigh. “What’s the plan?”
Cas motioned for them to sit at the table, Sam took John’s seat while Dean leaned against the counter.
“We need something personal of Crowley’s, yes?” Cas said.
Sam narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure out what they were talking about.
“How do we do that?”
“This part, to me at least,” Meg said with a grin, “Is the fun part. Cas is going to send you and Dean to 1927.”
“I’m sorry but what the hell?” Bobby asked.
“We need a time period where Crowley won’t recognize you,” Meg explained. “But we also need a specific date to send you to, one where we know he will be and the only one that we have is July 20th, 1927. The day he finally convinced Charlie or William or whatever the hell his name was, to cause all that chaos.”
Dean stared at Cas. “Fuck, you want to send us to the mental institution? Surely there is another place he’s been where he won’t recognize us and isn’t the hospital?”
Meg gave her shoulders a shrug. “Well, if the shoe fits… and no, it’s the only date we have that we know for sure.”
“This is a bad idea, you know that right,” Sam said. “What if something happens?”
“Then Cas will do his thing and get you out of there,” Meg told them. “Right now, this is all we have and not to rain anyone’s parade, but it could be the only choice.”
Dean folded his arms over his chest and glared back at her. “I don’t like it. There are too many things that could go wrong.”
“There are a lot of things that could go wrong,” Bobby added. “I don’t like it either.”
“Whatever,” Meg responded. “It’s the only date that we have right now so deal with it. When you get there, because you are going, it might be wise for you to get your hands on I don’t know… some orderlies’ uniforms.”
“How long exactly do you plan on us being there?”
Meg glanced at Cas before looking back at Dean. “I have no idea but just in case it takes a few hours, better to be safe than sorry.”
“Okay,” Sam said. “Just walk up to Crowley and ask for… something personal? How was he even in there without anyone else noticing?”
Meg cocked an eyebrow at him. “You mean to say that the docs didn’t believe the freaks who were prattling on about a demon? I’m shocked.”
“Sam is right though,” Bobby pointed out. “What do you get that is something personal to him?”
“I imagine that it would be anything on his person,” Cas replied. “Whether it was his for a day or a decade, it he touched it, wore it, held it, then we could use it as a connection.”
“Of course, blood would be best though,” Meg added. “But you know, whatever.”
“And if we’re going to do this then it needs to happen as soon as possible.”
“Where?” Sam asked but he knew what the answer would be.
Cas tried to reassure him with a slight smile but it failed. “The institution I’m afraid.”
Sam ran a hand through his hair as he glanced at Dean. “I don’t think that I can go back there.”
“We’ll protect you, Sam.” Bobby told him.
“Of course,” Cas added. “We will have a protection barrier up, you’ll be safe.”
~~~***~~~
“This is a terrible plan,” Dean said as they made their way across the courtyard.
It looked exactly the same as it did the last time they were there.
Trash was strewn from one side to the other, there was broken glass and debris and it gave Dean the creeps.
He glanced over his shoulder. Bobby and Meg brought up the rear while Cas and Sam were in front of him.
“How long is this thing going to take?” Dean asked.
“Sending you back to 1927 shouldn’t take long at all,” Cas told him. “As for how long you will be there, I’m not sure. That will depend on you I suppose.”
“Great, that’s overwhelmingly comforting.” Dean retorted.
They slowly made their way inside the old building. It looked even more derelict than it had before and Dean wasn’t the only one who felt it.
There seemed to be a lurking presence in the air, he could feel eyes on him and it sent a shiver down his spine.
“Do you think that we really did let other ‘things’ out when we rescued Sam?” Dean wondered.
“I’d be shocked if you didn’t,” Meg said as she pushed past him. “Sam wouldn’t have been the only one who was desperate to get out and Sam wouldn’t have been the only one who was close to the veil.”
“What does that mean, exactly?” Dean replied. “Close to the veil?”
“There would have been spirits, demons, and so forth who wouldn't have been here very long; they would have a better chance of getting out. The ones who had been here since say, the 1920’s, it would be harder for them to get out; they would have spent more time trapped than being free so…”
Cas pointed toward the room and Meg walked in first followed by Bobby. Cas glanced at Dean for a moment before he walked into the room.
Sam stopped just in front of the doorway and Dean could see how nervous he looked and he couldn’t blame him.
He rested his hand on Sam’s shoulder to try and offer some sort of reassurance. “I get it, you’re freaking out, but Cas promised that we’d be okay.”
Sam nodded back without saying anything.
“We should do this,” Dean continued. “The sooner we get it done, the sooner we can come back.”
Sam glanced at him and exhaled sharply. “I have a bad feeling about this Dean, maybe we shouldn’t do this.”
“I agree but we don’t have any other choice Sammy, if we did…”
“Yeah.” Sam sighed dejectedly.
After a moment, he stepped through the door.
It was the same room they had used when they had freed him that night and being back there was like torture.
The smell was the same, that dank, mildew, rotting smell. He guessed that over time he had somehow gotten used to it but being back, smelling it again, it almost made him gag.
Cas had already began setting up; there was a symbol on the floor that he created by pouring salt.
It only took a few minutes for him to set everything up and at almost midday, Cas motioned for Sam and Dean to step into the circle.
“This isn’t going to hurt, is it?” Dean asked.
No one answered and that did very little to ease his fears.
Cas began speaking in a language that he had never heard before and as he closed his eyes, he felt Sam grab his hand.
As he sucked in a deep breath, he felt himself being pulled forward but he was too afraid to open his eyes.
“Uh, Dean.”
Reluctantly he opened his eyes and allowed himself a brief moment to let them adjust to the light.
He was stunned at what he saw.
They were still standing in the same room but instead of rotting wooden walls and a hole in the floor, the walls were white and there were two beds and a large white dresser sat between them.
What may have surprised him the most was that someone was standing right outside of the door.
Dean instantly recognized who it was by the coat that he wore.
Dean stepped toward the door and Sam quickly followed after him.
He reached out for the door handle but Sam stopped him before he could open it.
“Dean, I think that we should wait a minute.” Sam told him.
“He’s right there.”
He tried to open the door again but Sam pushed him to the side so he could look through the small glass panel.
He watched and waited until he saw Crowley again, this time he was further across the room but Sam waited just a little longer before he opened the door.
Cautiously he pulled the door open but stopped when he felt Dean’s hand on his shoulder.
“Perhaps it would be wise if you didn’t go out there.”
They spun around and came face to face with Crowley.
“I don’t… what is happening?” Dean asked.
“A funny thing actually,” Crowley replied. “When your boyfriend started reading that Enochian spell, I felt it.”
“Uh, okay.” Dean said.
“So, for my own self-preservation I thought that it would be wise for me to follow you, see what you’re planning.”
“What makes you think that we’re doing anything?” Dean retorted.
Crowley cocked an eyebrow at him. “Well for starters, you’re in 1927, and going off what I know about the two of you, time travel doesn’t seem to be a hobby.”
“Well you know what they say about assuming.” Dean smirked at him.
“You can’t change what happened,” Crowley responded. “You can’t stop me and you can’t stop William from killing all those people.”
Dean gave his shoulders a shrug. “Uh well again, not necessarily why we’re here.”
Crowley sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’m intrigued.”
“Great,” Dean replied. “Does that mean that you’d be more than happy to answer a few questions?”
Crowley sighed and leant back, resting his head against the wall. “Sure, why not.”
“How did you know we would be here?”
Crowley smirked at him. “I already told you. Enochian is a powerful language, he started reading and it sent out a ripple. I’m a smart cookie, I put two and two together.”
“Was this your idea?” Sam asked.
“Was what my idea?”
Sam sighed heavily and folded his arms over her chest. “Coming here and making William do this.”
Crowley’s eyes lit up and he sat up a little straighter. “So, it took you that long to figure it out. How are you ever going to get anything done? You’ll be in a rest home before you solve this mystery.”
“So, you’re just someone’s bitch then.” Dean replied with a grin.
“The good thing about time,” Crowley replied. “Is that one learns from their mistakes. I don’t work for anyone, anymore.”
Sam shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Why did you do it? Why did you trap me in this place?”
Crowley tapped his finger against his chin for a moment. “Clearly the both of you are as dumb as I thought so I’ll drop a little knowledge on you. I was helping a demon named Azazel, he had this ridiculous plan to free Lucifer from his cage.”
When neither Sam nor Dean seemed surprised, he continued.
“The only problem was that Azazel was banished to hell. What I was doing was supposed to help him get topside but before the final step could be completed, I learned what was actually going on.”
“None of that tells me why though.”
“You have no idea, do you?” Crowley said with a chuckle. “That boyfriend of yours isn’t much of a talker, is he?”
“Just answer the damn question.”
“The Winchester line, as much as I hate to admit it, is a big deal. There was a point when Azazel got close to getting out, after I refused to help and I knew what would come next if he did. In 1997, I came up with a solution to stop Azazel from getting what he wanted.”
“Are you going to get to the point anytime soon?”
“It wasn’t until 1998 that it all came together,” Crowley explained. “I trapped you here so that Azazel couldn’t get his hands on you and for ten years it worked. Then you lot damn well undid it all.”
Dean glanced over at Sam who looked more freaked than ever and he sucked in a deep breath before he returned his attention to Crowley.
“Okay I’ll ask it,” Dean said. “Why does he care so much about Sam?”
“Azazel wants Lucifer free and the only way Lucifer can do that is with Sam.”
Crowley got to his feet and rested his hands on his chest. “You're dating an angel, you know demons, so you understand how vessels work, yes?”
“Yeah, what about it?” Dean snapped at him.
“Well obviously Lucifer needs a vessel to come topside,” Crowley continued. “But the thing with him, being Lucifer and all, he needs a specific vessel.”
“Sam.” Dean said.
Crowley nodded this time. “Indeed, because Sam is Lucifer’s true vessel.”
Bobby glanced over at Cass who was sitting cross legged on the floor while Meg paced near the door.
“Do we have any clue as to how long this will take?”
“Hopefully not long,” Meg told him. “There is a wicked amount of energy stirring and I don’t want to be here when it breaks.”
Dean glanced at Sam but he couldn’t read his brother’s expression and that concerned him.
There was one thing though, was Crowley actually telling them the truth?
“Did you do something to our mother?”
Crowley looked thoroughly amused but cocked an eyebrow all the same. “What?”
“No one has seen her, she’s missing.”
Crowley let out a small chuckle. “I don’t even like my mother, why would I want yours?”
“So, you had nothing to do with it?”
“I’ll happily admit that I had nothing to do with it.”
Sam and Dean shared a look, neither one was entirely sure what to believe.
“What about Jess?” Sam asked. “Did you kill her?”
Crowley sighed over dramatically and waved a hand in the air. “Is there anything else that you want to accuse me of? Didn’t she perish in a house fire, terribly sad.”
“I know that it wasn’t you,” Sam said. “You didn’t kill Jess, Azazel did.”
Crowley’s eyes widened a little and Dean wasn’t 100% certain but he thought he saw a glimmer of fear.
“Azazel huh? I know he’s all powerful and blah blah blah, but I doubt it.”
Dean could see that Crowley hadn’t managed to convince himself.
“I saw it,” Sam told him. “I saw him kill her.”
Crowley scratched the side of his head. “You positive about that?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Well then,” Crowley said. “Turns out that I’m the least of your problems if Azazel is topside. You have no idea what’s coming.”
Dean exhaled sharply and glanced toward Sam. “What do you want to do with this?”
“Would you like me to leave so that you two idiots can discuss what will surely be a disastrous plan?”
Dean whipped his head around and glared at Crowley. “You know what, you got us into this damn mess so you’re going to help us get out of it.”
Crowley broke into a fit of laughter. Dean was less than impressed and folded his arms across his chest.
“You quite done?”
“Do you honestly believe that I would ever help you?”
“Why not?” Sam retorted. “It’s obvious that you’re just as afraid of Azazel as we are.”
Crowley cocked an eyebrow at him. “I’m not afraid of him. Sure, he’s psychotic but I don’t plan to be around when he unleashes his psycho-ness on everyone.”
“But in your own twisted way weren’t you helping us when you tried to protect Sam from Azazel?” Dean said with a smirk.
“I guess that’s one way to look at it,” Crowley replied, “but I was doing that more for me, less for you.”
“Whatever you say,” Dean told him. “But I have a feeling that you’re going to come around to our way of thinking.”
Crowley tapped a finger on his chin. “Is that right, I’m sure that you would like to think so.”
Dean glanced at Sam again, he felt bad for what was about to happen next, he knew that he should have told Sam what was going to happen but they only had one chance at this and it had to work.
He felt the small blade in his jacket pocket, it had been sitting there the entire time and he fully intended to use it.
Of course, he wasn’t entirely sure of how just yet, Crowley had the irritating knack of disappearing in the blink of an eye.
“So, got any other plans to fall back on?” Crowley asked. “Or was that it? Because I have to say, it’s a little pathetic.”
“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”
Crowley shook his head. “Wow, just wow. After all this time, I thought that the Winchesters were at least a slight threat but it turns out that you’re as dumb as a bag of rocks, don’t I feel silly.”
Dean’s anger began to rise up again and he knew that it was now or never.
Sucking in a deep breath, he pulled the knife from his pocket and dropped his arm to his side.
The part of the plan that they hadn’t told Sam about was that they were in fact going for Crowley’s blood.
Before he had a chance to himself out of going through with this, he lunged forward and dug the blade into Crowley’s chest.
He wasn’t entirely sure what he was expecting to happen but he was pretty sure it wasn’t what followed.
The blade didn’t seem to faze him at all and he reached up and pulled the knife free before tossing it to the ground.
It clattered across the floor and came to a stop under the edge of the bed.
“I can’t believe I ever worried about you being a threat,” Crowley told them. “Good luck with your Azazel problem.”
Crowley snapped his fingers and disappeared from the room.
“What just happened?” Sam asked, still in disbelief at what he just saw.
Dean walked over to the bed and reached down to pick up the knife.
“Dean, what’s going on?” he asked again. “I thought that we were just supposed to…”
Dean gave his brother a sheepish look. “I know we should have told but we got what we needed, didn’t we?”
“He could have killed you, Dean.”
Dean scrunched up his nose and slipped the knife back into his pocket.
“Sam, we have to go.”
Dean walked over to the wall and pulled what looked like a piece of charcoal from the pocket of his jeans and he begins to draw a symbol.
He glanced over at Sam once more before he motioned for him to step closer.
After a moment, he tucked the charcoal back into his pocket and pulled out a small pocket knife.
“What else have you got in there?” Sam asked him.
Dean cocks an eyebrow at him but doesn’t say anything. He opened the pocketknife and ran the tip of the blade across his palm.
Sam suddenly felt queasy and had to look away.
Dean raised his hand and pressed his palm flat against the symbol on the wall and the entire room was engulfed with a harsh white light.
Bobby had to shield his eyes from the white light that filled the room.
When he was able to see properly, he saw that Dean and Sam were standing in the middle of the circle.
He let out the breath he’d been holding in.
“You’re okay?”
Dean nodded back. “Yeah, how long has it been?”
He noticed Meg staring at him and rolled his eyes. “What are you talking about, it’s been like 40 minutes.”
“Right, of course.”
Meg exhaled sharply. “Did you get what we need?”
Dean reached into his pocket and pulled out the knife that he had used on Crowley.
“Wow, you actually did it.”
Dean narrowed his eyes and glared back at her. “I’m not completely incompetent.”
“Well…” Meg smirked at him.
“But now that I’m thinking about it, it was way too easy.”
Meg stepped toward the circle. “What do you mean, what happened?”
“What happened was that he straight up stabbed Crowley in the chest but he barely reacted and then he just tossed the knife on the ground.” Sam explained.
“Does it matter?” Meg replied. “We got what we needed.”
Sam glanced over at Dean and shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Meg held out her hand and Dean gave her the knife. “Now comes the part I really don’t like.”
Cas got to his feet and stepped up to Dean and pulled him into a hug before he turned to face Meg.
“You are the only one strong enough to ensure this,” Cas told her. “I would…”
“Yeah, but you have to be able to protect the cupcakes,” Meg replied. “It’s fine, I can handle it, I just really don’t like it.”
“There are some things that we need to tell you,” Dean said. “Things that Crowley told us.”
“And you believe him?” Meg asked.
“Well yeah because some of it kind of made sense.”
Bobby stepped toward Dean and folded his arms across his chest. “What did he say?”
Dean glanced at Sam. “You okay with everyone knowing this?”
Sam thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, it’s okay.”
“To start with, he told us that he had nothing to do with mom.” Dean said.
“He also said told us that he was working with Azazel in 1927 but once he found out what Azazel was planning to do, he refused to keep helping.”
“Like he didn’t know,” Meg said.
“Maybe he didn’t,” Cas added.
“I still don’t buy it,” Meg replied. “What else did he say?”
“He explained why Azazel was so obsessed with me in particular and why he trapped me here.”
“Just come out with it already, I’m not feeling very patient.”
“He told us that I’m Lucifer’s vessel.”
Dean noticed that both Cas and Meg looked horrified.
“Okay, we’re clearly missing something.”
Meg chuckled to herself. “Clearly you have because otherwise you would know just how screwed we are.”
Chapter 4