Salt and Blood 24/25
Chapter 24
I needed Harry that I understood now. He wouldn't go anywhere anytime soon and just by knowing that I gave in to the exhaustion and the pain a little more. Everything was dizzy and I broke out in a cold sweat, adrenaline wearing off and the painkillers took full effect now. I wanted to lie down and just sleep it off but the Winchester were arguing with Harry and I had to stay focused.
"Dexter." Harry crouched once again in front of me and I had no idea when he had changed position. "Breath through it. You can do it. Dexter." His words slurred to a comforting mumble but it was enough to ground me, to keep me awake more or less.
"Dude, we can't salt and burn him." I heard Dean saying but I had no clue what he was talking about. I followed Harry's instructions and breathed in and out in a slow and steady rhythm and after a minute my mind cleared enough to turn my attention back to the Winchesters. So did Harry.
After he had made sure that I wasn't about to double over he stood up and faced the brothers.
"I don't want to hurt anybody." He said and I nearly laughed at that. Hadn't that been the whole purpose of training me? So I could bring justice to the ones the law couldn't get? Okay, maybe he had been shocked in the end of what he had done but him being here was the ultimate proof that he felt responsible for what he had created.
"Dexter needs me." He didn't elaborate why I would need him but the Winchesters nodded in understanding.
"Not that we actually can do much about you." Dean said. "You ever turn vengeful, you ever hurt somebody we will find a way to banish you."
"That's only fair." Harry agreed. The brothers shared once again one of their looks and then Sam picked up the leather-bound journal and read some more Latin. When he had finished Dean blew out the candles.
"See you." Harry said to me and then with a flicker he was gone.
"Where is he?" I asked and looked around but he didn't come back. "What did you do?"
"We released him from the spell." With a tired sigh Sam dropped on the other bed and Dean sat down on the chair at the table. "He's where he always is when you don't see him. We haven't changed anything."
"And you will just leave it that way?" I had my doubt they could leave a ghost behind and move on. I knew for sure I would have my problems to let somebody go I knew belonged on my table.
"Yeah." Dean stretched his legs. "Looks like he is tied to you which means we would have to kill you and salt and burn your corpse to put him to rest."
I straightened at his words and automatically searched for a weapon. Neither of them made any attempt to attack me, though.
"Don't worry." Dean grinned at me. "You're human, we can't kill you."
"You never killed a human?" I asked but I already knew the answer.
"Of course not." He seemed really horrified by that idea. "We are busy enough killing the supernatural fuckers out there." He tried to play it down with a joke but even I could tell that he was hurt by that assumption. He was wanted for murder and I could only guess what that felt like when he was actually saving people. If I would ever be charged with murder it would be correct and I would have no reason to complain but being innocent? Or at least not guilty? Dean Winchester was many things but innocent wasn't among them.
They couldn't kill me because I was human and I couldn't kill them because they only killed supernatural monsters. Weird.
"What now?" I asked. I wouldn't mind if there would be my bed - or in this case my couch - in the near future and more painkillers.
They shrugged in unison.
"We will leave Harry for now." Sam said. He seemed tired all of a sudden. "Should you ever notice him changing …" He trailed of.
"Call us." Dean scribbled on a slip of paper and handed it to me. Their numbers. Not the one Dean had given Debra, though. That phone would got straight to voicemail for a while and then just turn dead, I guessed. I pocketed the note.
"I will." And I meant it. I didn't want Harry to turn into something he wasn't. At the moment he was just like he had always been but the "what if" was now constantly on my mind.
I tried a smile. "You think you can do something then?" Right now they were clearly at a loss with how to deal with Harry.
"To put him to rest we would have to burn you." Sam repeated. "But there are ways to banish a spirit temporarily. Hoodoo comes to mind. But we have to do some research on that."
"Hoodoo?" Okay, there was a whole world out there I had no idea about. Before Sam could answer I hold up my hands. "Never mind. I'll call if anything changes."
"Good." Sam seemed satisfied.
"Oh." Dean clicked his fingers. "You should make provisions for getting cremated after your death preferable with a bag of salt. Just in case."
"O...kay?" I guessed that made sense. Somehow. I looked at Sam in search for an explanation.
"Harry is tied to you." Sam helped me out. "In case of your death he'll maybe move on and that will be it or …"
"Or he'll lose his focus and will start to lash out on other people." Dean finished the sentence. So Harry could become like me without the Code. In a way I was Harry's Code. Like he was mine. If one of us left the right path he'd drag the other one down with him. We would negate each other. Good.
"I understand."
They gave me some more instructions but we'd already covered the basics. As long as I followed Harry's Code - not their words but that was what it basically meant - everything should be fine.
Then Dean drove me back to the cemetery where my car waited for me.
"You sure you can drive?"
"Yeah. Besides, Debra is waiting for me." I moved like an old man but I got out of Dean's car and started the long journey of a few steps over to my own one.
"Would you tell her goodbye for me?" Dean asked and rubbed the back of his head.
"Shouldn't you do that yourself?"
"Better not." Something flashed over his face but I couldn't place it. "You know, sooner or later she will find out who I am."
He didn't have to finish that thought. I nodded and he clapped my shoulder. Wincing in pain I promised him to call in case of an emergency and then he took off. I watched him till the car disappeared in the distance.
When I came home Debra was still awake waiting for me.
"Dexter? What happened?" She ask as soon as I was through the door. If she was worried because she noticed the shirt Dean had borrowed me or the scratches on my throat and chin from the rock salt or just because I looked like death warmed over I didn't know and at that moment I didn't care.
"I'm fine." I mumbled and made my way to the couch. It never had looked that inviting before. "Just tired."
I dropped on the couch and somehow managed to shoo my sister away. We wished each other a good night and with one last worried glance in my direction she closed the bedroom door behind herself. When I was sure she had settled in I made my way to the bathroom where I took another dose of painkillers.
In the morning I'd have to explain a few things and I'd no idea what I would tell her. With luck I could hide my injuries from Debra, how I should manage that with Rita I had no idea. Sex in the dark for the next weeks? Keeping the shirt on? That was another question I'd deal with tomorrow. Now I just wanted to crash on the couch and sleep. So I did just that.
In the morning I woke up and found Debra sitting beside me.
"Rough night?" She asked and handed me a glass of water and some more painkillers. "What the fuck happened? You had a fucking bar fight or what?"
"Something like that." I answered vaguely but I didn't have time to think of a better lie. "Met Sam and Dean, we went to a bar and things got a little bit out of hand, I guess."
"You were in a fight with Dean?" She tried to make sense out of the bits I gave her. Not that they did make any sense at all but I was still half asleep and my chest was on fire again because I had moved without thinking.
"Not with Dean." I corrected. "He actually saved me." The fog in my mind cleared and I managed to spin a half-ass story Debra seemed to buy.
Debra let me be and even offered to make breakfast for the both of us.
"Dean isn't answering his phone." She informed me over toast and scrambled eggs. "You think he's okay?"
"Sure." I said around a mouth full of eggs. "Said something about a family emergency. They wanted to get on the road early today." With my brain working like it should the lies came out of my mouth smoothly. "He didn't want to wake you so he ask me to tell you goodbye. He said he'll call you later." He wouldn't do that, I knew, but I didn't want to upset Debra more than necessary.
"Oh." She made and dumped her half eaten breakfast in the trash.
We went to work like every other day but to me it felt weird. There was a lot to think about, the supernatural in general and Harry in specific. I wondered how long it would take the others to ask about the Winchesters and their book they had pretended to write. How long would it take to identify them as the Winchester brothers? For Debra's sake I hoped never but I knew better.
I didn't see Harry the whole day but that wasn't unusual. He tended to appear in situations I was stressed and needed his support to clear my mind.
However, when I drove home that day suddenly Harry was there.
"You alright?" He asked and I said "yes" and with a nod he was gone.
At home I started my laptop. There was this one guy that had caught my eye. I clicked through the file. I needed to kill somebody.
Dean Winchester hadn't belonged on my table but dealing with the Winchester brothers had taken time I hadn't spent on finding my next victim. Combined with the events of the last days the urge to kill became even stronger. I would rush through the preparation, hurry with the process of making sure but Harry's Code and Harry himself were there to keep me on the right path. Don't get caught and never kill an innocent. And as long as I stuck to that Harry should stay sane as well.
"Hello, Mister Crane." I said to his mugshot on the screen. "We should meet."
continue to chapter 25
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