The Darkness, It Wants
Part 2
Supernatural/Miracles
Dean/Paul
Rated R for m/m sexual content and violence, including several murder scenes
15,380 words (each part is about 5,000 words)
Spoilers for Miracles "Hand of God" and "The Ferguson Syndrome." Spoilers for Supernatural "All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1" and the pilot. Spoilers for a classic Star Trek episode I don't know the name of. One scene contains homophobic language.
"You wanna see this digital camera I got? It takes movies too." Savannah knelt by her bag and dug around in it. "Hm, wouldn't that be fun, Dean? Making a movie?"
As he looked down at Savannah and the way she was looking at him, Dean felt like the last morsel of food at a shipwreck. "Gee, Savvy, I think you're trying to tell me something."
Eric snickered.
"You're a genius, Winchester. I haven't had a good lay in months; of course I'm throwing myself at you. Don't pretend you don't enjoy it."
Maybe before, he would have responded differently, but now... all Dean could do in response was picture himself making that movie with Paul. It bothered him, the hold Paul Callan had on him. No one could tame Dean Winchester. "You know me, Savannah. I'm smoother than that."
Snickering again, Eric said, "Not like Sav. She might as well be sprawling on the ground for you right now."
Savannah smacked his arm hard.
Eric, laughing, added, "With a sign in her crotch that says, 'Free buffet.'"
She rubbed quickly at his arm, trying to give him a friction burn. He just chuckled at her and pulled away.
Dean suddenly looked down and grinned. "Hey, a twenty." He bent over and picked up the bill. "It's my lucky day."
"No fair. Eric only brings me quarters," Savannah lamented, referring to Eric's abilities.
Dean remembered her describing for him how whenever Eric was around, she was always finding quarters. No other type of coin, just quarters. It was some sort of strange byproduct of the karmic displacement. "I guess he likes me better," Dean joked.
Eric looked embarrassed, laughing shyly.
"Seriously, look at what this camera can do, Dean." Savannah pointed to various features, demonstrating what she could do with them. "I can even take a panoramic picture."
"Oh, that'll come in handy, taking photos of people," Eric said sarcastically.
"Do you want me to hit you again?"
She held the camera at arm's length, taking a picture of herself pressed closely to Dean, then showed him what it looked like on the camera's viewscreen. "Isn't that quality nice?"
"Yeah, it's good." He noticed how close she was to him, and again, his mind turned to the wild fantasy she had brought up and whether or not he could go through with it, and why he even had doubts. "So, when I, uh... use the gun on you... you don't want it to be loaded, do you?"
His mind clearly blown by the absurdity of that question, Eric started to laugh. "Oh my God that's so twisted."
*****
The injuries to his face healed, Chad sat in a college lecture hall, trying to write down notes as the professor spoke. The imposter Tommy stood in the aisle, trying to get his attention.
"Chad? Chad? I know you can hear me." He waited for Chad to answer. Chad tried to ignore him. "I've been coming to you for months now. You know I'm not going to give up until you answer me. What's it going to be?"
Keeping his eyes to the front of the room, Chad remained silent.
Tommy sighed, pacing the small space between one row of seats and the other. "I know I freaked you out the other night when I brought up you finally realizing your destiny. It seems extreme, doesn't it? But you must do it, Chad. Only you can do it. You're a warrior of God, and you must pave the way for him."
"Shut up. I'm in class," Chad muttered. A couple of his fellow students who were sitting nearby glanced at him with confused looks.
Tommy turned, the light hitting his eyes at an angle. Again, Sam and Paul saw the red flash. "I had a dream about Tommy before I met him. His eyes looked normal at first, but by the end of the dream, his eyes looked like that, with the red irises," Paul said. "And that black tear was there. I don't understand that, though, because Tommy, the real Tommy, remembered the dream too. He had the same dream."
"Maybe it was Tommy at first," Sam suggested, "but by the end of the dream, this imposter took over."
"Then this thing... whatever it is, that manipulated Chad Goodwell... maybe it tried to manipulate me too."
The fake Tommy ignored Chad's commands for him to stop. "What can I say to convince you? Can you not understand that time is short? Does God have to come in here Himself and talk to you?"
Chad shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He wanted to point out that Tommy didn't talk like any kid he'd ever heard, but he couldn't say it out loud because of where he was. Instead, he thought it at Tommy, knowing that the child could read his mind.
"Oh, really?" responded Tommy. "Well that's because I'm no normal child. Why else do you think God chose me as His messenger?"
Paul shook his head. "That's not Tommy." He looked at Sam, clearly frustrated. "It's not Tommy."
Sam nodded at him. "I believe you." He regarded Tommy critically. "What do you think happened just now? Did he read Chad's mind?"
"Seems like it."
"Jeez." Sam scoffed. "Can you imagine having that thing around all the time, talking to you, and no one else can see it? And it knows your every thought?"
Considering that, Paul felt great sympathy for Chad for perhaps the first time. "It tortured him. It tortured the kid for months. If only Chad had someone he could talk to who would believe him, someone he... what's that?"
Sam had noticed it too; black mist in the shape of a man floated in through a door at the back of the lecture hall. As it drifted down the stairs, hovering several inches above them but still moving its "feet" as if it was walking, the students on either side of the aisle wrinkled up their noses like they smelled something unpleasant.
Both Sam and Paul mirrored their actions as the odor reached them too. "Sulphur," Sam said quietly.
"A demon?" Paul suggested.
His stomach sinking, Sam didn't respond.
The misty shape stopped next to Chad's chair. Chad also seemed to smell it, but obviously could not see it. The shape put a hand over the boy's ear and began to speak to him.
"Chad... this is God," the shape said.
Chad froze, eyes going wide. He looked around for the source of the voice.
Another student nearby checked his watch. He tapped it, put it to his ear, and made a disappointed sound.
"His watch stopped," Sam whispered harshly.
Paul noticed he was shaking. "Sam?"
Again, Sam did not respond.
Tommy shrugged his shoulders. "You made me do it, Chad. You have to be convinced that this little task I've been talking to you about is part of your destiny. I had no other choice but to call in the big man."
Two glowing lights appeared in the head of the black shape, like it had opened its eyes.
They were yellow.
*****
"I've done something to indicate to you that I'm suicidal, Winchester?" Savannah asked, a hand on her hip and a grin in her tone of voice.
Eric began to giggle.
Rolling his eyes, Dean replied, "I never said that I wanted the gun to be loaded, I just asked if you wanted the gun to be loaded - "
"That's sick, Dean."
Eric giggled harder.
"You know, some people like a little danger in their sex; it gets them off... like, they want to do it over a pit of venomous snakes. That kind of stuff."
"Oh, I think being fucked with a loaded gun would be more than a little dangerous."
Eric was outright laughing now.
"Look, this is your thing, Savvy." Dean, obviously frustrated, continued to try to defend himself. "You're not going to characterize me as the sick one here."
She smiled ferally. "Oh no, I'd never paint you as being the sicko. A guy who once asked me to watch while he had a threesome with two strippers."
"That's a totally normal male fantasy, not at all sick. Just ask Eric if he wouldn't like that."
Laughing so hard his voice shook, Eric said, "I think it'd be pretty sick if I wanted my sister to watch me have sex with anybody, Dean."
Now Savannah laughed.
Dean swatted angrily at Eric's head. "You know that's not what I meant."
"Dean, just face it," Savannah began. "You're a big sicko like the rest of us."
This seemed to placate him; he settled down, tilting his head thoughtfully. "Good. You finally admit you're a pervert too."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Dean."
They stopped talking for a few seconds, Savannah and Eric's laughter tapering into breathless giggles. Then Dean asked, "So does that venomous snake pit thing sound hot?"
*****
The vision had changed locations again. Sam wasn't used to this; his visions usually ended after one scene. This one just went on and on.
Chad was in his dorm room, his hands over his ears. His face was etched with pain and torment. "Please stop it. I don't want to hear anymore."
The yellow-eyed shape hovered to one side of him. "Covering your ears won't keep you from hearing me, Chad. Innocent babies will die. Their parents will die. All people will suffer unless you kill these nine. Only nine people, Chad. Is that really a big price to pay to save the world?"
The youth shook his head desperately. "No, no, no. I can't kill anyone."
"But you must. You're my warrior. I chose you for a reason, Chad. You saw the words spelled out in your own blood. God is Now Here. I am now here."
Sam seethed with anger; Paul could feel it. "You're not God!" he hissed, although no one but Paul could hear him. "I know who you are. When I find you, I'm going to kill you for what you did to Jessica and my mother. I'll rip those goddamn yellow eyes out of your head and feed them to you!"
Paul wished there was something he could do to soothe the raving man next to him. This demon that had manipulated Chad Goodwell seemed to be the same one that had killed his mother and girlfriend.
Tommy appeared in the room just in time to hear the demon say, "You have to stop them before they get their act together, Chad. Those nine people are going to do horrible, wretched things to everyone on this planet."
Nodding, Tommy added, "They are The Darkness."
Chad began to cry. "I can't kill people."
"You're a lot stronger than you think, Chad. What if I showed you the power you have?" The demon turned his indistinct head toward Tommy and a wisp of mist turned up in what looked like an evil smile. "You could finally get revenge on those jerks who are always harassing you. The ones who beat you up all the time?"
That actually seemed to give Chad pause for a brief moment. Then he shook his head, hands in his hair. "No, no."
"Well..." The demon sighed. "I guess I just have to show you what the world will be like if these people have their way."
Chad's eyes were already closed. He suddenly jerked in his chair and wailed, almost screaming. His eyes flew open. "Oh God... oh Christ, what was that?"
"A taste of what the nine people are going to do. The nine people who saw the words all wrong."
Chad swallowed hard, panting. "God is Nowhere."
"Yeeeeees. Only you and the new savior of the world have seen the words the right way. These nine people dream of him, they cower before his might, because they know only he can stop their master plan." That feral smile came to the face of the indistinct mass again. "Only you can help him, Chad. Only you can dispense of as many of them as possible before he takes over."
"Paul Callan?" Chad asked.
"Yes. Yes, Paul Callan."
Paul looked as if he might be sick. "Such evil lies."
The scene before them stretched and changed again. Now, Chad stood in the doorway of another dorm room, one that belonged to his friend Hannah. She sat at a computer desk with a girl and the boys from the field hockey team around her.
They were laughing.
She put her finger on the laptop's screen. "See? He thinks because he friends-locked this post that you guys would never know what he said, but I'm on his friends list so I can see it," she said. "You guys aren't going to be happy when you read this one."
"Hannah?" Chad said, his voice full of hurt.
She turned around with a gasp. "Chad! You can't knock?" Hannah asked. Her own voice betrayed that she knew she'd been caught, and she didn't like it.
"You? You were the one who showed them my posts? I knew someone was leaking them to Gary and the others, but you... you pretended to be my friend," Chad said.
"I, uh... I'm sorry, Chad. But Vicki and I are on the same team, and Gary is her boyfriend... I see them all the time. You know how it goes." Hannah shrugged.
"So you had to show them my posts? Betray me?!" Chad yelled.
"They're my friends too, Chad! And you were talking shit about them! What did you expect me to do?"
"Yeah," Gary chimed in, putting an arm around Vicki's neck.
The demonic form floated up behind Chad. "You see? Was I telling the truth or was I telling the truth?"
"Yes, you were," Chad replied. "Everything you said was right."
"What?" Gary said, looking at the others.
"Now take your revenge, Chad," the demon commanded. "I will give you the power to show them what happens to those who do evil. Warriors of God deliver these lessons in my name. Just concentrate, like we discussed."
His eyes flashing with anger, Chad glared at the group before him.
"You bastard," Sam growled. "You manipulated him to do that. Just like you hurt everyone who crosses your path!"
Gary, Vicki, and the others grimaced and began to make sounds of discomfort. They all grabbed at their heads, knees buckling, fingers grasping at table edges for balance. All but Hannah, who stared in horror at everyone around her.
"What the hell is this?" Gary forced out between grunts of pain.
"Oh God, Chad, please don't do it," Paul breathed.
Although Chad couldn't hear Paul, it almost seemed as if he did, because he waited until his tormentors were on the floor and then released his hold over them. They gasped and panted but were clearly out of danger.
"Felt like my brain was exploding," Gary ground out.
"That's what happens to people who do evil against me," Chad declared. He looked straight at Hannah. "The ones who weren't really involved, like Vicki, they suffered because of you. If I find out you've betrayed me again, I'll finish it." Then he added, "Bitch," and left the room.
"Shit. What do you think that girl thought later, when Chad murdered all those people?" Sam remarked to Paul.
The scene darkened. Slowly, the lights of an apartment burned through the dark of night. Chad stood outside one of the windows. He panted with the effort of controlling his fear.
A dark-haired girl walked by the window. Chad hid, but peeked in at her, then flattened himself against the side of the building.
The demon and Tommy were several yards away, out of Chad's earshot. "This one's going to be interesting," the demon chuckled. "His first kill."
"The first of the God is Nowhere people," Tommy added.
"Yes. But this one will be fun for more reason than that. You remember me telling you about my generations, my generations of psychic children whom I visit in their nurseries?"
"Of course, Boss."
Sam gasped.
The demon confirmed what Sam had just been thinking. "Chad is one of them," the demon said. "The generation of 1983."
"Holy..." Sam exclaimed.
For his own part, Tommy whistled, impressed. "Cool... that's how he was able to attack those kids who beat him up. His power?"
"Yeah." They both laughed mischievously. "I just activated 'im."
"Oh Boss, that's rich. And he thinks God gave him the power. But it was his own."
"I'm a funny one, aren't I?" They shared another raucous laugh.
"So, is she one too?" Tommy indicated the girl in the apartment.
"No, that's Donna. She's not one of my generations." The demon leaned down, closer to Tommy. "But her girlfriend is."
Tommy started to snicker. "Ooh. Tell me she's coming home soon."
The demon sarcastically pretended to check a watch he wasn't wearing. "Any minute."
Tommy hopped up and down with excitement. "Are you going to turn on her powers too?"
"I was thinking of it. Just to keep things interesting. Although... her powers are quite deadly. She could kill Chad without even knowing what she's doing." The demon thought it over. "If she succeeds in killing him, we'll have to find someone else to do our dirty work. And after all the work we've put in..."
"Well... we could just move on to Paul Callan a little earlier," suggested Tommy.
The demon nodded. "I like you're thinking. Now, go on over there and coach Chad into the apartment. The little idiot forgot to bring a weapon, so I'd suggest to him that he use that brick on the ground over there. Bash her head in good."
"Right, Boss. Hey, he could say he's the other girl's friend. That'd get him in easy," Tommy said with a grin. "What's the girlfriend's name?"
The demon replied, "Lily."
*****
"...The guy goes, 'Hey baby, you want a ride?' And I said sure. And then Eric pops up from the bushes and I go, 'Can my brother have a ride too?' You should have seen the guy's face. He thought it was just me." Savannah noticed the troubled look in Dean's eyes. "What's the matter?"
"I dunno, I just got this really uneasy feeling," Dean replied, nervously sliding his hands up and down his thighs. He reached out for Paul through their link, and found great upset. Sadness and anger. That wasn't exactly normal, coming from someone who was just sitting in his apartment, drying off from a shower. He looked up at Paul's window. "Something's wrong."
Savannah offered, "You want me to feel out for anybody, see what's up?"
"No, that's okay. I need to head back upstairs. I'll call you, alright?" Dean clapped Eric on the shoulder on his way by, then jogged back toward the building.
Looking disappointed, Eric mumbled, "He's always doing that."
Savannah put her arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry about it. We'll see Dean tomorrow or something." As they walked away, she held up the credit card Dean had given her. "How about some ice cream? It's on Chris Robinson."
*****
"Hi, I'm a friend of Lily's," said Chad. "Is she here?"
The guy had instantly set off alarm bells in Donna's head. For one thing, his mannerisms screamed intense nervousness as he fidgeted in the doorway, his hand constantly going in his coat pocket. And he was sweating. "Where do you know Lily from?"
"College." Chad tried to smile. His hand brushed the brick in his pocket again. "We have two classes together."
"Oh yeah? Which ones?"
"Um... English. And that, uh, science class where..."
Tommy rolled his eyes. "Damn it. You've already screwed up. Just force your way in."
Chad, his hand in his pocket, finished, "...you look at the stars a lot." At the same time that he brought the brick out, Donna tried to slam the door in his face. Chad shoved on the door so hard that she lost ground and he was able to get his arm through. He hit Donna in the side of the head with the brick. She cried out, one hand going to her temple, the other trying to hold the door closed.
"Push harder, Chad!" Tommy urged. "Before someone hears!"
His desire not to be caught got Chad to take a step back and run into the door with his bent arm, putting all his weight against it. Donna was thrown back. She almost fell, but regained her footing just in time to see Chad raise the brick. "You sick - " Donna began, but was cut off when he bashed her over the head as hard as he could. She fell to the floor, semi-conscious.
Breathing hard, Chad quickly shut the door. "Oh God, her head is bleeding."
"That's the idea," Tommy reminded him. "Put her on the bed."
Doing as he was told, Chad picked the girl up around her ribcage and dragged her over to the bed. Donna moaned. "Lily's not taking any science classes," she slurred.
To distract himself from the horrible act he was committing, he thought about superfluous things, like how small the apartment was, how it was just a one-room efficiency with a small kitchenette and a bathroom. Chad tossed her onto the bed facedown. What kind of rug was that on the wall? "Okay, now what?"
"Finish her off." Tommy pointed to the brick.
"Jesus," Paul choked, and closed his eyes.
The noises were almost as bad as the actual image of Chad hitting the girl over the head repeatedly. Chad's grunts of effort, her pain-filled moans, and the crunch of splintering bone. Sam opened his eyes for a second and instantly regretted it; it was all splattering blood and Chad's tormented face.
"Is she dead yet?" he asked, sounding and looking sick.
Tommy sighed tiredly. "Why don't you check if she's breathing?" He glanced at the demon as if to say, This kid, he wouldn't be able to find his ass with a full-scale topographical map of his body.
The demon shook his head.
He checked. "She's dead." Chad breathed out harshly. "Oh God, I killed her."
"Again, that was the point. Now, you should make it look like a rape. We don't want the police to easily connect these murders. And never use the same weapon twice."
Chad nodded obediently.
Pointing at Donna, Tommy instructed, "Tie her hands behind her back. Then remove her bottoms."
Chad made a face. He clearly didn't want to touch her anymore. "Okay."
Lily came in when Chad had Donna's shorts down to mid-thigh. She saw this stranger straddling her girlfriend, taking off her pajamas, hands tied... oh Christ, her head... hair soaked in blood... the odd shape of her skull... and that bewildered, almost stupid look on the guy's face when he realized he'd been caught. If Chad had made it out of this alive, he would have never forgotten the shocked look on Lily's face, like someone had just reached into her chest and ripped out her heart.
Next thing either of them knew, Lily was howling and tackling Chad off the bed, smacking him in the head with her open palms.
Tommy seemed disappointed. "Damn. She's got on mittens."
The demon nodded. "Yes, it's a bit chilly out. Unseasonable for southern California." Watching his two chosen ones fight on the floor, the demon still enjoyed it. A tendril of mist curled up in a proud smile. "She's always cold."
Lily was screaming. Yanking at Chad's hair and screaming, "You bastard, you fucking bastard, what did you do to her?!"
Chad held his arms in front of his face, trying to protect himself.
"Fight back!" Tommy yelled. "Fight back or she'll kill you!"
Hearing that, Chad shoved at Lily with all of his might. It got her off of him and he was able to get up and run for the door. Lily was up off the floor and right behind him. She got enough of a hold on the back of his coat to swing him around, throwing him up against the sink. The motion pulled off her right mitten.
"Alright, this is about to get interesting!" Tommy laughed.
Screaming like a wild woman, Lily ran at Chad with her bare hand raised, ready to smack him again. At the last second, Chad cowered away with a frying pan from her own kitchen protecting his face. Lily struck the pan. She shrieked, holding her hand in pain.
"Awwww," Tommy groaned.
In a last ditch effort to escape, Chad hit Lily across the face with the frying pan, knocking her down, and went for the door.
"Run, Chad!" yelled Tommy. "Get out that door and just keep running! Don't look back!"
Chad slammed into one of Lily and Donna's neighbors on his way out the door. He had been coming to see why Lily was screaming like that. Bowling the man over, Chad just kept running as he had been told, and did not look back.
"Hey!" a second neighbor called. He started to chase the fleeing man. But as Sam and Paul knew, he did not catch Chad Goodwell.
The first neighbor looked in through the door and put a hand over his mouth. "Oh... God..."
Holding her rapidly bruising face, Lily crawled over to the bed. She put her other hand on Donna's leg and began to cry. "Donna... Donna... no..."
The demon shook his head. "Chad's more resourceful than I first guessed. I thought Lily had him for sure. If she had touched Chad with her bare hand, his heart would have stopped dead." He seemed disappointed. "I had my heart set on seeing that."
tbc
Supernatural/Miracles
Dean/Paul
Rated R for m/m sexual content and violence, including several murder scenes
15,380 words (each part is about 5,000 words)
Spoilers for Miracles "Hand of God" and "The Ferguson Syndrome." Spoilers for Supernatural "All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1" and the pilot. Spoilers for a classic Star Trek episode I don't know the name of. One scene contains homophobic language.
"You wanna see this digital camera I got? It takes movies too." Savannah knelt by her bag and dug around in it. "Hm, wouldn't that be fun, Dean? Making a movie?"
As he looked down at Savannah and the way she was looking at him, Dean felt like the last morsel of food at a shipwreck. "Gee, Savvy, I think you're trying to tell me something."
Eric snickered.
"You're a genius, Winchester. I haven't had a good lay in months; of course I'm throwing myself at you. Don't pretend you don't enjoy it."
Maybe before, he would have responded differently, but now... all Dean could do in response was picture himself making that movie with Paul. It bothered him, the hold Paul Callan had on him. No one could tame Dean Winchester. "You know me, Savannah. I'm smoother than that."
Snickering again, Eric said, "Not like Sav. She might as well be sprawling on the ground for you right now."
Savannah smacked his arm hard.
Eric, laughing, added, "With a sign in her crotch that says, 'Free buffet.'"
She rubbed quickly at his arm, trying to give him a friction burn. He just chuckled at her and pulled away.
Dean suddenly looked down and grinned. "Hey, a twenty." He bent over and picked up the bill. "It's my lucky day."
"No fair. Eric only brings me quarters," Savannah lamented, referring to Eric's abilities.
Dean remembered her describing for him how whenever Eric was around, she was always finding quarters. No other type of coin, just quarters. It was some sort of strange byproduct of the karmic displacement. "I guess he likes me better," Dean joked.
Eric looked embarrassed, laughing shyly.
"Seriously, look at what this camera can do, Dean." Savannah pointed to various features, demonstrating what she could do with them. "I can even take a panoramic picture."
"Oh, that'll come in handy, taking photos of people," Eric said sarcastically.
"Do you want me to hit you again?"
She held the camera at arm's length, taking a picture of herself pressed closely to Dean, then showed him what it looked like on the camera's viewscreen. "Isn't that quality nice?"
"Yeah, it's good." He noticed how close she was to him, and again, his mind turned to the wild fantasy she had brought up and whether or not he could go through with it, and why he even had doubts. "So, when I, uh... use the gun on you... you don't want it to be loaded, do you?"
His mind clearly blown by the absurdity of that question, Eric started to laugh. "Oh my God that's so twisted."
*****
The injuries to his face healed, Chad sat in a college lecture hall, trying to write down notes as the professor spoke. The imposter Tommy stood in the aisle, trying to get his attention.
"Chad? Chad? I know you can hear me." He waited for Chad to answer. Chad tried to ignore him. "I've been coming to you for months now. You know I'm not going to give up until you answer me. What's it going to be?"
Keeping his eyes to the front of the room, Chad remained silent.
Tommy sighed, pacing the small space between one row of seats and the other. "I know I freaked you out the other night when I brought up you finally realizing your destiny. It seems extreme, doesn't it? But you must do it, Chad. Only you can do it. You're a warrior of God, and you must pave the way for him."
"Shut up. I'm in class," Chad muttered. A couple of his fellow students who were sitting nearby glanced at him with confused looks.
Tommy turned, the light hitting his eyes at an angle. Again, Sam and Paul saw the red flash. "I had a dream about Tommy before I met him. His eyes looked normal at first, but by the end of the dream, his eyes looked like that, with the red irises," Paul said. "And that black tear was there. I don't understand that, though, because Tommy, the real Tommy, remembered the dream too. He had the same dream."
"Maybe it was Tommy at first," Sam suggested, "but by the end of the dream, this imposter took over."
"Then this thing... whatever it is, that manipulated Chad Goodwell... maybe it tried to manipulate me too."
The fake Tommy ignored Chad's commands for him to stop. "What can I say to convince you? Can you not understand that time is short? Does God have to come in here Himself and talk to you?"
Chad shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He wanted to point out that Tommy didn't talk like any kid he'd ever heard, but he couldn't say it out loud because of where he was. Instead, he thought it at Tommy, knowing that the child could read his mind.
"Oh, really?" responded Tommy. "Well that's because I'm no normal child. Why else do you think God chose me as His messenger?"
Paul shook his head. "That's not Tommy." He looked at Sam, clearly frustrated. "It's not Tommy."
Sam nodded at him. "I believe you." He regarded Tommy critically. "What do you think happened just now? Did he read Chad's mind?"
"Seems like it."
"Jeez." Sam scoffed. "Can you imagine having that thing around all the time, talking to you, and no one else can see it? And it knows your every thought?"
Considering that, Paul felt great sympathy for Chad for perhaps the first time. "It tortured him. It tortured the kid for months. If only Chad had someone he could talk to who would believe him, someone he... what's that?"
Sam had noticed it too; black mist in the shape of a man floated in through a door at the back of the lecture hall. As it drifted down the stairs, hovering several inches above them but still moving its "feet" as if it was walking, the students on either side of the aisle wrinkled up their noses like they smelled something unpleasant.
Both Sam and Paul mirrored their actions as the odor reached them too. "Sulphur," Sam said quietly.
"A demon?" Paul suggested.
His stomach sinking, Sam didn't respond.
The misty shape stopped next to Chad's chair. Chad also seemed to smell it, but obviously could not see it. The shape put a hand over the boy's ear and began to speak to him.
"Chad... this is God," the shape said.
Chad froze, eyes going wide. He looked around for the source of the voice.
Another student nearby checked his watch. He tapped it, put it to his ear, and made a disappointed sound.
"His watch stopped," Sam whispered harshly.
Paul noticed he was shaking. "Sam?"
Again, Sam did not respond.
Tommy shrugged his shoulders. "You made me do it, Chad. You have to be convinced that this little task I've been talking to you about is part of your destiny. I had no other choice but to call in the big man."
Two glowing lights appeared in the head of the black shape, like it had opened its eyes.
They were yellow.
*****
"I've done something to indicate to you that I'm suicidal, Winchester?" Savannah asked, a hand on her hip and a grin in her tone of voice.
Eric began to giggle.
Rolling his eyes, Dean replied, "I never said that I wanted the gun to be loaded, I just asked if you wanted the gun to be loaded - "
"That's sick, Dean."
Eric giggled harder.
"You know, some people like a little danger in their sex; it gets them off... like, they want to do it over a pit of venomous snakes. That kind of stuff."
"Oh, I think being fucked with a loaded gun would be more than a little dangerous."
Eric was outright laughing now.
"Look, this is your thing, Savvy." Dean, obviously frustrated, continued to try to defend himself. "You're not going to characterize me as the sick one here."
She smiled ferally. "Oh no, I'd never paint you as being the sicko. A guy who once asked me to watch while he had a threesome with two strippers."
"That's a totally normal male fantasy, not at all sick. Just ask Eric if he wouldn't like that."
Laughing so hard his voice shook, Eric said, "I think it'd be pretty sick if I wanted my sister to watch me have sex with anybody, Dean."
Now Savannah laughed.
Dean swatted angrily at Eric's head. "You know that's not what I meant."
"Dean, just face it," Savannah began. "You're a big sicko like the rest of us."
This seemed to placate him; he settled down, tilting his head thoughtfully. "Good. You finally admit you're a pervert too."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Dean."
They stopped talking for a few seconds, Savannah and Eric's laughter tapering into breathless giggles. Then Dean asked, "So does that venomous snake pit thing sound hot?"
*****
The vision had changed locations again. Sam wasn't used to this; his visions usually ended after one scene. This one just went on and on.
Chad was in his dorm room, his hands over his ears. His face was etched with pain and torment. "Please stop it. I don't want to hear anymore."
The yellow-eyed shape hovered to one side of him. "Covering your ears won't keep you from hearing me, Chad. Innocent babies will die. Their parents will die. All people will suffer unless you kill these nine. Only nine people, Chad. Is that really a big price to pay to save the world?"
The youth shook his head desperately. "No, no, no. I can't kill anyone."
"But you must. You're my warrior. I chose you for a reason, Chad. You saw the words spelled out in your own blood. God is Now Here. I am now here."
Sam seethed with anger; Paul could feel it. "You're not God!" he hissed, although no one but Paul could hear him. "I know who you are. When I find you, I'm going to kill you for what you did to Jessica and my mother. I'll rip those goddamn yellow eyes out of your head and feed them to you!"
Paul wished there was something he could do to soothe the raving man next to him. This demon that had manipulated Chad Goodwell seemed to be the same one that had killed his mother and girlfriend.
Tommy appeared in the room just in time to hear the demon say, "You have to stop them before they get their act together, Chad. Those nine people are going to do horrible, wretched things to everyone on this planet."
Nodding, Tommy added, "They are The Darkness."
Chad began to cry. "I can't kill people."
"You're a lot stronger than you think, Chad. What if I showed you the power you have?" The demon turned his indistinct head toward Tommy and a wisp of mist turned up in what looked like an evil smile. "You could finally get revenge on those jerks who are always harassing you. The ones who beat you up all the time?"
That actually seemed to give Chad pause for a brief moment. Then he shook his head, hands in his hair. "No, no."
"Well..." The demon sighed. "I guess I just have to show you what the world will be like if these people have their way."
Chad's eyes were already closed. He suddenly jerked in his chair and wailed, almost screaming. His eyes flew open. "Oh God... oh Christ, what was that?"
"A taste of what the nine people are going to do. The nine people who saw the words all wrong."
Chad swallowed hard, panting. "God is Nowhere."
"Yeeeeees. Only you and the new savior of the world have seen the words the right way. These nine people dream of him, they cower before his might, because they know only he can stop their master plan." That feral smile came to the face of the indistinct mass again. "Only you can help him, Chad. Only you can dispense of as many of them as possible before he takes over."
"Paul Callan?" Chad asked.
"Yes. Yes, Paul Callan."
Paul looked as if he might be sick. "Such evil lies."
The scene before them stretched and changed again. Now, Chad stood in the doorway of another dorm room, one that belonged to his friend Hannah. She sat at a computer desk with a girl and the boys from the field hockey team around her.
They were laughing.
She put her finger on the laptop's screen. "See? He thinks because he friends-locked this post that you guys would never know what he said, but I'm on his friends list so I can see it," she said. "You guys aren't going to be happy when you read this one."
"Hannah?" Chad said, his voice full of hurt.
She turned around with a gasp. "Chad! You can't knock?" Hannah asked. Her own voice betrayed that she knew she'd been caught, and she didn't like it.
"You? You were the one who showed them my posts? I knew someone was leaking them to Gary and the others, but you... you pretended to be my friend," Chad said.
"I, uh... I'm sorry, Chad. But Vicki and I are on the same team, and Gary is her boyfriend... I see them all the time. You know how it goes." Hannah shrugged.
"So you had to show them my posts? Betray me?!" Chad yelled.
"They're my friends too, Chad! And you were talking shit about them! What did you expect me to do?"
"Yeah," Gary chimed in, putting an arm around Vicki's neck.
The demonic form floated up behind Chad. "You see? Was I telling the truth or was I telling the truth?"
"Yes, you were," Chad replied. "Everything you said was right."
"What?" Gary said, looking at the others.
"Now take your revenge, Chad," the demon commanded. "I will give you the power to show them what happens to those who do evil. Warriors of God deliver these lessons in my name. Just concentrate, like we discussed."
His eyes flashing with anger, Chad glared at the group before him.
"You bastard," Sam growled. "You manipulated him to do that. Just like you hurt everyone who crosses your path!"
Gary, Vicki, and the others grimaced and began to make sounds of discomfort. They all grabbed at their heads, knees buckling, fingers grasping at table edges for balance. All but Hannah, who stared in horror at everyone around her.
"What the hell is this?" Gary forced out between grunts of pain.
"Oh God, Chad, please don't do it," Paul breathed.
Although Chad couldn't hear Paul, it almost seemed as if he did, because he waited until his tormentors were on the floor and then released his hold over them. They gasped and panted but were clearly out of danger.
"Felt like my brain was exploding," Gary ground out.
"That's what happens to people who do evil against me," Chad declared. He looked straight at Hannah. "The ones who weren't really involved, like Vicki, they suffered because of you. If I find out you've betrayed me again, I'll finish it." Then he added, "Bitch," and left the room.
"Shit. What do you think that girl thought later, when Chad murdered all those people?" Sam remarked to Paul.
The scene darkened. Slowly, the lights of an apartment burned through the dark of night. Chad stood outside one of the windows. He panted with the effort of controlling his fear.
A dark-haired girl walked by the window. Chad hid, but peeked in at her, then flattened himself against the side of the building.
The demon and Tommy were several yards away, out of Chad's earshot. "This one's going to be interesting," the demon chuckled. "His first kill."
"The first of the God is Nowhere people," Tommy added.
"Yes. But this one will be fun for more reason than that. You remember me telling you about my generations, my generations of psychic children whom I visit in their nurseries?"
"Of course, Boss."
Sam gasped.
The demon confirmed what Sam had just been thinking. "Chad is one of them," the demon said. "The generation of 1983."
"Holy..." Sam exclaimed.
For his own part, Tommy whistled, impressed. "Cool... that's how he was able to attack those kids who beat him up. His power?"
"Yeah." They both laughed mischievously. "I just activated 'im."
"Oh Boss, that's rich. And he thinks God gave him the power. But it was his own."
"I'm a funny one, aren't I?" They shared another raucous laugh.
"So, is she one too?" Tommy indicated the girl in the apartment.
"No, that's Donna. She's not one of my generations." The demon leaned down, closer to Tommy. "But her girlfriend is."
Tommy started to snicker. "Ooh. Tell me she's coming home soon."
The demon sarcastically pretended to check a watch he wasn't wearing. "Any minute."
Tommy hopped up and down with excitement. "Are you going to turn on her powers too?"
"I was thinking of it. Just to keep things interesting. Although... her powers are quite deadly. She could kill Chad without even knowing what she's doing." The demon thought it over. "If she succeeds in killing him, we'll have to find someone else to do our dirty work. And after all the work we've put in..."
"Well... we could just move on to Paul Callan a little earlier," suggested Tommy.
The demon nodded. "I like you're thinking. Now, go on over there and coach Chad into the apartment. The little idiot forgot to bring a weapon, so I'd suggest to him that he use that brick on the ground over there. Bash her head in good."
"Right, Boss. Hey, he could say he's the other girl's friend. That'd get him in easy," Tommy said with a grin. "What's the girlfriend's name?"
The demon replied, "Lily."
*****
"...The guy goes, 'Hey baby, you want a ride?' And I said sure. And then Eric pops up from the bushes and I go, 'Can my brother have a ride too?' You should have seen the guy's face. He thought it was just me." Savannah noticed the troubled look in Dean's eyes. "What's the matter?"
"I dunno, I just got this really uneasy feeling," Dean replied, nervously sliding his hands up and down his thighs. He reached out for Paul through their link, and found great upset. Sadness and anger. That wasn't exactly normal, coming from someone who was just sitting in his apartment, drying off from a shower. He looked up at Paul's window. "Something's wrong."
Savannah offered, "You want me to feel out for anybody, see what's up?"
"No, that's okay. I need to head back upstairs. I'll call you, alright?" Dean clapped Eric on the shoulder on his way by, then jogged back toward the building.
Looking disappointed, Eric mumbled, "He's always doing that."
Savannah put her arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry about it. We'll see Dean tomorrow or something." As they walked away, she held up the credit card Dean had given her. "How about some ice cream? It's on Chris Robinson."
*****
"Hi, I'm a friend of Lily's," said Chad. "Is she here?"
The guy had instantly set off alarm bells in Donna's head. For one thing, his mannerisms screamed intense nervousness as he fidgeted in the doorway, his hand constantly going in his coat pocket. And he was sweating. "Where do you know Lily from?"
"College." Chad tried to smile. His hand brushed the brick in his pocket again. "We have two classes together."
"Oh yeah? Which ones?"
"Um... English. And that, uh, science class where..."
Tommy rolled his eyes. "Damn it. You've already screwed up. Just force your way in."
Chad, his hand in his pocket, finished, "...you look at the stars a lot." At the same time that he brought the brick out, Donna tried to slam the door in his face. Chad shoved on the door so hard that she lost ground and he was able to get his arm through. He hit Donna in the side of the head with the brick. She cried out, one hand going to her temple, the other trying to hold the door closed.
"Push harder, Chad!" Tommy urged. "Before someone hears!"
His desire not to be caught got Chad to take a step back and run into the door with his bent arm, putting all his weight against it. Donna was thrown back. She almost fell, but regained her footing just in time to see Chad raise the brick. "You sick - " Donna began, but was cut off when he bashed her over the head as hard as he could. She fell to the floor, semi-conscious.
Breathing hard, Chad quickly shut the door. "Oh God, her head is bleeding."
"That's the idea," Tommy reminded him. "Put her on the bed."
Doing as he was told, Chad picked the girl up around her ribcage and dragged her over to the bed. Donna moaned. "Lily's not taking any science classes," she slurred.
To distract himself from the horrible act he was committing, he thought about superfluous things, like how small the apartment was, how it was just a one-room efficiency with a small kitchenette and a bathroom. Chad tossed her onto the bed facedown. What kind of rug was that on the wall? "Okay, now what?"
"Finish her off." Tommy pointed to the brick.
"Jesus," Paul choked, and closed his eyes.
The noises were almost as bad as the actual image of Chad hitting the girl over the head repeatedly. Chad's grunts of effort, her pain-filled moans, and the crunch of splintering bone. Sam opened his eyes for a second and instantly regretted it; it was all splattering blood and Chad's tormented face.
"Is she dead yet?" he asked, sounding and looking sick.
Tommy sighed tiredly. "Why don't you check if she's breathing?" He glanced at the demon as if to say, This kid, he wouldn't be able to find his ass with a full-scale topographical map of his body.
The demon shook his head.
He checked. "She's dead." Chad breathed out harshly. "Oh God, I killed her."
"Again, that was the point. Now, you should make it look like a rape. We don't want the police to easily connect these murders. And never use the same weapon twice."
Chad nodded obediently.
Pointing at Donna, Tommy instructed, "Tie her hands behind her back. Then remove her bottoms."
Chad made a face. He clearly didn't want to touch her anymore. "Okay."
Lily came in when Chad had Donna's shorts down to mid-thigh. She saw this stranger straddling her girlfriend, taking off her pajamas, hands tied... oh Christ, her head... hair soaked in blood... the odd shape of her skull... and that bewildered, almost stupid look on the guy's face when he realized he'd been caught. If Chad had made it out of this alive, he would have never forgotten the shocked look on Lily's face, like someone had just reached into her chest and ripped out her heart.
Next thing either of them knew, Lily was howling and tackling Chad off the bed, smacking him in the head with her open palms.
Tommy seemed disappointed. "Damn. She's got on mittens."
The demon nodded. "Yes, it's a bit chilly out. Unseasonable for southern California." Watching his two chosen ones fight on the floor, the demon still enjoyed it. A tendril of mist curled up in a proud smile. "She's always cold."
Lily was screaming. Yanking at Chad's hair and screaming, "You bastard, you fucking bastard, what did you do to her?!"
Chad held his arms in front of his face, trying to protect himself.
"Fight back!" Tommy yelled. "Fight back or she'll kill you!"
Hearing that, Chad shoved at Lily with all of his might. It got her off of him and he was able to get up and run for the door. Lily was up off the floor and right behind him. She got enough of a hold on the back of his coat to swing him around, throwing him up against the sink. The motion pulled off her right mitten.
"Alright, this is about to get interesting!" Tommy laughed.
Screaming like a wild woman, Lily ran at Chad with her bare hand raised, ready to smack him again. At the last second, Chad cowered away with a frying pan from her own kitchen protecting his face. Lily struck the pan. She shrieked, holding her hand in pain.
"Awwww," Tommy groaned.
In a last ditch effort to escape, Chad hit Lily across the face with the frying pan, knocking her down, and went for the door.
"Run, Chad!" yelled Tommy. "Get out that door and just keep running! Don't look back!"
Chad slammed into one of Lily and Donna's neighbors on his way out the door. He had been coming to see why Lily was screaming like that. Bowling the man over, Chad just kept running as he had been told, and did not look back.
"Hey!" a second neighbor called. He started to chase the fleeing man. But as Sam and Paul knew, he did not catch Chad Goodwell.
The first neighbor looked in through the door and put a hand over his mouth. "Oh... God..."
Holding her rapidly bruising face, Lily crawled over to the bed. She put her other hand on Donna's leg and began to cry. "Donna... Donna... no..."
The demon shook his head. "Chad's more resourceful than I first guessed. I thought Lily had him for sure. If she had touched Chad with her bare hand, his heart would have stopped dead." He seemed disappointed. "I had my heart set on seeing that."
tbc