Demon Game 04/?: Supernatural AU
Title: Demon Game
Author: yami_faerie
Words: ~4,000
Ratings/Warnings: Rated PG-13, or R if you're offended by the "f" word, language, some violence, spoilers for seasons 1-5.
Disclaimer: This isn't my world. I just like to imagine it is.
Summary: It's finally time for Sam to join the competition in Cold Oak, South Dakota. Will Dean and Bobby be able to find Sam and the other special children with him before it's too late? This is a retelling of 2.21 and 2.22 "All Hell Breaks Loose" and features my OFC Danielle Young.
Chapter Four: Chain Reaction
November 27, 2006
Ava stood outside for several minutes, feeling around in her own brain to learn what she was now capable of. She could sense Hailey's emotions, and she could vaguely tell where Ronald and Jordan were located. It was so strange, but the best of her new abilities, she quickly realized, were ones she knew Sam had, such as the ability to sense demons. There was even a demon hovering nearby in a way that made her think it was there for her to command. But maybe Ava could command it, could control it completely. She wondered if Sam also had this capability, but had never realized it because of the mind control thing he already had going on. It made sense to her.
Of course, it didn't really matter, did it? By the time Sam showed up, she was going to be the best of them all. Nothing was going to stop her from getting back home to Brady. Nothing.
Ava placed her hands to her temples on concentrated hard on the demon she felt, feeling pleased when it approached her seconds later. Of course, the headache that followed as a result hadn't been unexpected, but it still hurt a lot.
The cloud of black smoke that shifted its way through the falling flakes of snow solidified into the shape of a small girl when it reached Ava's location. Ava could sense its displeasure at having to follow the commands of a human, but Ava quickly asserted her dominance and made her request.
If one could call it that, anyway.
"Go and kill the girl," she said, "kill Hailey."
The little girl-shaped demon hissed, face contorting and fingers stretching into claws, but it still slunk into the silent shadows, right towards Hailey.
The poor redhead never stood a chance.
Hailey's screams were awful to listen to, but Ava steeled herself, repeating over and over in her mind that it was necessary and only brought her one step closer to freedom. She slumped to the ground, rubbing at her temples and scrunching her eyes shut against the building headache.
Clearly, this was going to take some getting used to.
Ava suddenly realized that Ronald and Jordan were quickly approaching the store and forced herself back to her feet. She had a role to play, she understood that now, and it wouldn't do to show her hand before she could kill both boys. Ava staggered back into the store and dropped to her knees when she spotted Hailey's corpse.
It was horrible, and Ava couldn't stop from retching at the sight.
When Ronald and Jordan burst into the room, Ava found she was able to cry hysterically. "Oh my God," she gasped out. "She's dead!"
"What happened?" asked Jordan, dropping down to her and pulling her away from the upchucked contents of her own stomach.
"I just - I only stepped outside 'cause I had to go!" Ava managed to say. "No bathrooms here, but I had to -" She broke off and found herself sobbing ever more. Damn, but being a killer was harder than she'd expected. "And then I heard Hailey scream and when I came in…" Ava took a deep breath and started crying all over again.
"I don't get it," said Ronald. "Hailey didn't leave, and we didn't go near the forest, so why is she dead?"
"Could there be someone else here?" suggested Jordan.
"I don't see how," said Ronald. "That - that demon would've said so, right?"
Both boys looked at Ava, and she gave a helpless shrug.
"We're gonna have to stick together from now on," Ronald said decisively after a moment. "We're not playing this sick game, and we're not dying, okay? Now, we should probably move to another spot -"
"We don't have to," Ava cut him off. She wiped at her tears and took a few shaky breaths. "I mean, this is awful, but I just - I don't wanna move…" She trailed off and felt more tears slip free.
"Okay then," Ronald sighed, "we'll stay here, but me and Jordan are gonna have to move Hailey's body, all right?"
Ava had to admit as she nodded that Ronald made a good leader. Too bad he was going to die, she thought as she watched the two men move Hailey into another room before returning to the fire Jordan had created earlier.
They all took turns sleeping, and Ava struck when it was her turn, calling on the little demon-girl once more to rip both men to shreds. This time, she made herself watch and spent ten minutes afterward spitting up bile from her empty stomach.
"It gets easier," Azazel called from the other side of the room. "I'll send in a team to clear out the remains, and I'll have another bring you proper nourishment. You might want to relocate to another building in the meantime, though."
Ava felt anger at both Azazel and herself for her actions. But, she had made her choice, and she knew now that there was no going back. She was a monster. Slowly rising, she wiped at her mouth and pulled off her gloves.
She never noticed when her engagement ring fell off.
April 25, 2007
Bobby insisted on driving over to his place to grab some extra supplies with the argument that they had no idea what they were gonna find when they finally reached Cold Oak. Dean didn't like it, but he could certainly accept it. No way were the demons playing fairly by any means at this point, and it made Dean more desperate to find his little brother.
Sam's fine, he told himself repeatedly. I'm gonna find him and save him and kill Azazel once and for all.
He didn't allow himself to think about the fact that Azazel was the one who had the only weapon capable of killing him. He had to focus on Sam for now.
"So," Bobby said as they neared his home, "you said that you and Sam weren't talking?"
Dean sighed. "We were Hunting a Djinn, and it captured me, stuck me inside my head in the 'perfect' life while it pumped me full of drugs and drank my blood."
"Ew," Bobby commented.
"Yeah," Dean agreed. "Anyway, we kinda got into this fight because part of me wished I hadn't left that life."
"Were your parents alive?"
Dean smiled slightly. "Dad wasn't, but our mom was, and so was Jess, but me and Sam…" He shook his head. "We barely spoke to each other, didn't get along at all."
"But you wanted to stay, anyway?"
Dean couldn't bring himself to look over at Bobby. "Normal life, working on cars, dating a hot nurse, Sam achieving his every dream and desire… It was a good life, you know? Normal." He felt his eyes burn but blinked the tears away. "I want normal, but it really hurt Sam because said he doesn't believe in normal, anymore."
"Can't say I blame 'im," Bobby said after a moment. "You never tried living a normal life after your mom died, but Sam did, and he lost it."
"Yeah," Dean murmured. "I know." He paused before saying, "It wasn't his fault we weren't talking."
He spotted Bobby's nod as he pulled into the salvage yard and drove up to the house. He put the Impala in park and turned off the engine. "So," he said after a moment, "what do we need?"
"I'm thinkin' mostly medical supplies," Bobby said, "food and water, too."
"Works for me," Dean said. "What if there's others there with him?"
Bobby shrugged. "More food? We should take two cars out there just in case."
Dean snorted softly and exited the car, Bobby following suit and leading the way into the house. "I'll grab my med kit," Bobby said. "You put together food like sandwiches. Oh, and don't forget the water."
Dean nodded and headed for the kitchen. He put together several sandwiches and stuffed them into a cooler with as many bottles of water as he could find. He hauled it out to the Impala and checked the beer cooler he and Sam had before heading back inside and snagging a bottle of whiskey while Bobby was too busy to notice. Ten minutes later, Bobby was finished gathering his medical supplies and they slid into their respective cars, peeling out of the salvage yard and heading north.
"Heya, Sammy."
Sam's eyes snapped open and he shot to his feet, iron poker still clutched in his hands as he stared at Azazel's form in the doorway of their safe room. Jake didn't react, and Danielle and Andy were still sleeping soundly, slumped on the old wooden table and a faint line of drool slipping from Andy's open mouth.
"This is a dream?" Sam asked cautiously. Azazel grinned and nodded.
"We need to have a little talk," the yellow-eyed demon said, gesturing with one hand for Sam to follow.
"I'm not following you anywhere," Sam said, and Azazel let out a chuckle.
"And I'm not giving you a choice in the matter," he replied, lifting one hand and snapping his fingers.
Just like that, Sam found himself standing back on Cold Oak's main street, Azazel calmly walking away with his hands shoved in his pockets. Sam clenched his jaw, but forced himself to follow.
"What the hell is goin' on?" Sam finally asked, keeping his distance from the demon. "Why are we here? What happened to everyone else, to Ava?" He wasn't sure if the bastard's patience would wear out abruptly, especially since this was only a dream, but he was still too curious to not say anything.
"This?" Azazel turned, arms lifted to each side. "It's a competition, Sammy."
"It's Sam," Sam snapped, and Azazel barked out a laugh.
"You let Dean call you that," he pointed out.
"That's Dean," Sam said with a shrug. "If Dad was alive, I wouldn't stop him, either, but I hate you."
Azazel grinned. "Of course."
"So, competition?" Sam prodded.
The grin got bigger. "I left you under a false impression last year," he said. "My army is gonna consist of demons, but my leader will be 100%, pure human."
Sam furrowed his brow. "What about the demon blood?"
"Oh, well, there's that, too," Azazel said quickly, "but the point is that no demon gets to possess my leader. I've got something much better in store."
Sam really didn't like how that sounded. "Does it have something to do with that convent you slaughtered back in '72?"
Azazel's eyes narrowed and Sam took a step back without thinking.
"What did that old man tell you?" the demon asked softly, and this was the fearsome creature that had possessed him briefly, that had possessed his father and nearly killed Dean.
"Nothing," Sam said quickly. "Well, nothing that made a lot of sense. I thought you wanted a leader, but that the others were still useful as soldiers."
Azazel moved closer, and Sam forced himself to stand still. "What else? I know you heard more than that before the old man's heart finally gave out."
Sam swallowed hard. "Lehne mentioned someone called Lilith," he said quietly, "and a cage and seals. That's it. Nothing else." He wasn't sure why he was surrendering that information so easily, but he got the feeling that his life really was at stake, now.
Azazel stepped closer and stared at Sam for another long moment before turning away. "As I said, this is a competition," he spoke in a much lighter voice, and Sam felt his shoulder's relax against his better judgment. "I only need the best and brightest of you crazy kids."
Sam considered this and could only come to one conclusion. "Ava Wilson's dead, isn't she?"
Azazel glanced at Sam over his shoulder as he continued down the street, Sam following warily. "Speared by that iron poker you found, actually," he said with another grin. "She had a lot of potential, too, but she got too cocky in the end."
Sam didn't say anything for a moment. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I'm giving you the inside track," Azazel said, turning to face Sam with raised eyebrows and shrugging. "See, even if I disregarded everything that happened in that lovely warehouse back in L.A., you're still my favorite."
Sam frowned, tensing up again as he remembered his blood addiction.
"You're a soldier, Sammy," Azazel continued. "Daddy created the perfect warrior when he chose to raise you and your brother to be Hunters. You're tougher than Jake, smarter than Andy, filled with more anger than Danielle…" He shrugged again. "You are everything I could want in a leader, Sam. So I'm telling you, only one of you crazy kids gets to walk out of this place alive, and my money's on you."
"I'm not killing the others," Sam said firmly. "I'm not that kind of person."
"But you're capable of it," Azazel pointed out. "I heard about that cop in Baltimore after Buck dosed you full of drugs." Sam closed his eyes shut for a moment, hating to remember. "That was an accident, but that man meant to kill your brother, right?"
Sam nodded silently.
"You're capable of so many wonderful things," Azazel said softly.
"But I choose not to take that path," Sam said, surprised by how steady his voice was. "You can't rig this competition, Azazel. You can't make me kill the others."
"No, but you can make that choice," Azazel shot back. "I always knew that you had to be the one from the day I met your mother. Of course, if it hadn't been for Dean, I might never have crossed paths with her or your father."
Sam blinked. "What are you talking about?"
Azazel blinked, too. "That's odd," he remarked, stepping closer to Sam. Sam backed away without thought, arms raised defensively. "You don't remember."
"Remember what?" Sam said tersely.
Azazel tilted his head to one side. "I already told you," he said, "unless -" He broke off before breaking into a large grin. "Angels. Figures."
"What?" Sam said.
"Dean time-traveled back to 1973," Azazel said, fixing Sam with his yellow-eyed grin. It was disturbing to look at, as always. "He tried to stop me, even got his hands on the Colt, but all he did was shove Mary right in my face. She was very attractive back then," he told Sam with a look in his eyes that made Sam want to punch him, "so young and tough, and I just had to get closer. So, I possessed your grandpa, and you know what Dean told me?" The demon stepped closer and Sam had to force himself to stand still once again. "He said he was Samuel's grandson, and that he'd been sent back in time to stop me from completing my plans. I snapped grandma's neck and tracked Mary down to where she and John were hiding. They were planning on eloping, you know, escaping Samuel's tight ship. Samuel didn't like John much."
Sam swallowed hard. He didn't want to hear this.
"If Dean hadn't shown up, then Mary and John would have been safe from my plans," Azazel said lightly. "Instead, I snapped your daddy's neck and forced your mother to make the Deal that allowed me access to your nursery exactly ten-and-a-half years later, like the perfect chain reaction." The grin was back. "Good times."
Sam looked away. "You're lying," he said.
"I wouldn't lie to you about this, Sammy," Azazel said, voice taking on a hard edge. "It's because of your big brother that you're a freak, kid, and I don't regret a moment of it."
"Shut up," Sam whispered, backing away.
Azazel started laughing. "Did I hurt your feelings, Sammy? I'm not sorry, not for any of it."
Sam fought the urge to turn away, not trusting Azazel even in dream form. "I want to wake up, now," he said.
"Sure thing," Azazel said, grin still in place. "Just remember… I'm rootin' for ya." And then he snapped his fingers.
Sam's eyes opened and he shot up in his chair, taking in the room and seeing that everything was still the same.
"You okay?" asked Jake quietly.
Sam swallowed before nodding. "Yeah," he said, voice a little rough, "just uh… just had a weird dream."
There was a moment of silence.
"You dreamed of the man with the yellow eyes before," Sam finally said. "Azazel. Why'd you lie about it?"
"Who gave you permission to read my emotions?" Jake shot back.
"Danielle pointed it out to me," Sam said calmly, "but normally we don't play lie detector. It was more of an issue of the fact that neither of us knew you, let alone whether or not to trust you."
"Do you?" Jake asked.
Sam nodded. "You still lied."
Jake rolled his dark eyes. "I just thought they were weird nightmares," he admitted. "He only ever said that I had some grand destiny and that I should hone my strength as much as possible."
Sam nodded again. "Sounds like Azazel, all right."
Danielle snorted awake suddenly. "Wha' time s'it?" she asked, voice rough from sleep as she rubbed her eyes.
"Late," Jake said and Sam huffed a small laugh as Danielle stretched.
"Oh," she sighed, slowly rising. Andy twitched and slowly sat up a moment later with a wide yawn, wiping away the drool from his mouth. "Still no signs of any demons?" Danielle asked, stepping over to the windowsill and staring out into the darkness.
"Nope," Jake said. "Still nothing to tell us why we're here."
Danielle looked over at Sam. "You said that none of the others came back."
Sam nodded. "I think they're all dead."
Andy froze mid-stretch, eyes wide as he lowered his arms.
"But you said this demon was making an army," Jake said, sitting up straighter. Sam sighed.
"That's what I thought," he said, "but Azazel… I think he purposely misled us, made me think that we all had a choice, a… a chance."
"Then what's the point?" Andy asked, Danielle nodding as she lightly rested one hand on the salted windowsill.
Sam slumped in his chair. "A leader," he said. "If everyone else is dead, it's because he's weeding out the best one to lead his army."
Neither Jake, Andy nor Danielle looked pleased by the news.
"Then I guess we're not supposed to get outta this place together, then," Andy said slowly.
"I… I don't know," Sam said softly.
There was a long moment of silence.
"This whole situation sucks," Danielle said at last.
"I hear ya," Jake said with a small scowl. "Trapped in a ghost town…" He shook his head and scrubbed at his face. "You know the army's gonna think I'm a deserter if I turn up on American soil?"
"I doubt they'd believe that a demon did it," Sam joked dryly, and Jake snorted.
After another minute of silence, Danielle spoke up. "Sam, I gotta go."
"Me, too," Andy chimed.
Sam sighed at the information and forced himself to stand, only now realizing that he was still holding the iron poker Azazel said had been used to skewer Ava.
Suddenly, he found he didn't much want to hold the thing, anymore.
"Let's go," he said to Danielle and Andy, nodding to Jake as they stepped out of the room.
About two minutes later, Sam was startled when he felt the Acheri approaching once more. "Danielle!" he called out urgently. "Andy, we've gotta get back inside now!"
"Shit!" he heard Andy swear. A moment later, both he and Danielle emerged from wherever they had gone, Danielle grabbing her jacket pocket where she had stored the knife she'd found earlier, and Andy struggling to do up the button on his jeans.
Sam grabbed Danielle's free hand and turned to run back to the safe room when he saw the demonic smoke zoom into said room through the space where the closed window met the frame. "No," he whispered, gripping the poker in his hand even tighter when he heard Jake cry out in obvious pain.
"Sam -" Danielle said, but he pulled her over to the building and up the stairs as Jake kept yelling, Andy scrambling to keep up. Sam burst into the room -
It was too late. The Acheri had caused too much damage to the tall soldier for him to survive, and it had already fled the scene. That was when Sam saw the salt line on the windowsill was broken.
"What?" he whispered, running forward and fixing it before turning around. "How'd that happen?"
Jake gasped and Sam watched as Danielle dropped to her knees beside him. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Oh, God…" She looked up at Sam. "Can't we do anything for him?"
Sam closed his eyes and shook his head. He couldn't look at the expression on Andy's face as he finally reached the top of the stairs.
"Jake, what happened?" Danielle asked quietly. "How'd it get in?"
"It - the salt…" Jake coughed wetly. "Salt line was broken."
Sam watched as Danielle's mouth fell open, his heart clenching. "Someone moved the salt?" she asked incredulously.
"Didn't see how -" Jake cut off, coughing once more. "Demon was… was fast, you know? Couldn't react fast enough…" The coughing started once more, and Sam was unable to do anything but watch as Jake died.
Then Andy let out a scream, and Sam cursed himself for being distracted and not realizing that Andy hadn't crossed the doorway and into safety. He shoved past a shocked-looking Danielle, but Andy was tumbling down the stairs, the Acheri screeching and the small man still screaming before suddenly going silent.
"Stay here!" Sam shouted at Danielle as he ran down the stairs, letting the iron poker in his hands swing out once more. The Acheri was forced to flee again, but the damage had already been done.
Sam stared down at Andy, silently taking in his snapped neck and the gashes that ran deeply down his back. "Sam?" Danielle called down the stairs. "Is Andy -?"
"No," Sam said hoarsely. "Neck snapped during his fall."
Just like that, the number of special children dropped to two.
TBC...
Chapter Five
Author: yami_faerie
Words: ~4,000
Ratings/Warnings: Rated PG-13, or R if you're offended by the "f" word, language, some violence, spoilers for seasons 1-5.
Disclaimer: This isn't my world. I just like to imagine it is.
Summary: It's finally time for Sam to join the competition in Cold Oak, South Dakota. Will Dean and Bobby be able to find Sam and the other special children with him before it's too late? This is a retelling of 2.21 and 2.22 "All Hell Breaks Loose" and features my OFC Danielle Young.
Chapter Four: Chain Reaction
November 27, 2006
Ava stood outside for several minutes, feeling around in her own brain to learn what she was now capable of. She could sense Hailey's emotions, and she could vaguely tell where Ronald and Jordan were located. It was so strange, but the best of her new abilities, she quickly realized, were ones she knew Sam had, such as the ability to sense demons. There was even a demon hovering nearby in a way that made her think it was there for her to command. But maybe Ava could command it, could control it completely. She wondered if Sam also had this capability, but had never realized it because of the mind control thing he already had going on. It made sense to her.
Of course, it didn't really matter, did it? By the time Sam showed up, she was going to be the best of them all. Nothing was going to stop her from getting back home to Brady. Nothing.
Ava placed her hands to her temples on concentrated hard on the demon she felt, feeling pleased when it approached her seconds later. Of course, the headache that followed as a result hadn't been unexpected, but it still hurt a lot.
The cloud of black smoke that shifted its way through the falling flakes of snow solidified into the shape of a small girl when it reached Ava's location. Ava could sense its displeasure at having to follow the commands of a human, but Ava quickly asserted her dominance and made her request.
If one could call it that, anyway.
"Go and kill the girl," she said, "kill Hailey."
The little girl-shaped demon hissed, face contorting and fingers stretching into claws, but it still slunk into the silent shadows, right towards Hailey.
The poor redhead never stood a chance.
Hailey's screams were awful to listen to, but Ava steeled herself, repeating over and over in her mind that it was necessary and only brought her one step closer to freedom. She slumped to the ground, rubbing at her temples and scrunching her eyes shut against the building headache.
Clearly, this was going to take some getting used to.
Ava suddenly realized that Ronald and Jordan were quickly approaching the store and forced herself back to her feet. She had a role to play, she understood that now, and it wouldn't do to show her hand before she could kill both boys. Ava staggered back into the store and dropped to her knees when she spotted Hailey's corpse.
It was horrible, and Ava couldn't stop from retching at the sight.
When Ronald and Jordan burst into the room, Ava found she was able to cry hysterically. "Oh my God," she gasped out. "She's dead!"
"What happened?" asked Jordan, dropping down to her and pulling her away from the upchucked contents of her own stomach.
"I just - I only stepped outside 'cause I had to go!" Ava managed to say. "No bathrooms here, but I had to -" She broke off and found herself sobbing ever more. Damn, but being a killer was harder than she'd expected. "And then I heard Hailey scream and when I came in…" Ava took a deep breath and started crying all over again.
"I don't get it," said Ronald. "Hailey didn't leave, and we didn't go near the forest, so why is she dead?"
"Could there be someone else here?" suggested Jordan.
"I don't see how," said Ronald. "That - that demon would've said so, right?"
Both boys looked at Ava, and she gave a helpless shrug.
"We're gonna have to stick together from now on," Ronald said decisively after a moment. "We're not playing this sick game, and we're not dying, okay? Now, we should probably move to another spot -"
"We don't have to," Ava cut him off. She wiped at her tears and took a few shaky breaths. "I mean, this is awful, but I just - I don't wanna move…" She trailed off and felt more tears slip free.
"Okay then," Ronald sighed, "we'll stay here, but me and Jordan are gonna have to move Hailey's body, all right?"
Ava had to admit as she nodded that Ronald made a good leader. Too bad he was going to die, she thought as she watched the two men move Hailey into another room before returning to the fire Jordan had created earlier.
They all took turns sleeping, and Ava struck when it was her turn, calling on the little demon-girl once more to rip both men to shreds. This time, she made herself watch and spent ten minutes afterward spitting up bile from her empty stomach.
"It gets easier," Azazel called from the other side of the room. "I'll send in a team to clear out the remains, and I'll have another bring you proper nourishment. You might want to relocate to another building in the meantime, though."
Ava felt anger at both Azazel and herself for her actions. But, she had made her choice, and she knew now that there was no going back. She was a monster. Slowly rising, she wiped at her mouth and pulled off her gloves.
She never noticed when her engagement ring fell off.
April 25, 2007
Bobby insisted on driving over to his place to grab some extra supplies with the argument that they had no idea what they were gonna find when they finally reached Cold Oak. Dean didn't like it, but he could certainly accept it. No way were the demons playing fairly by any means at this point, and it made Dean more desperate to find his little brother.
Sam's fine, he told himself repeatedly. I'm gonna find him and save him and kill Azazel once and for all.
He didn't allow himself to think about the fact that Azazel was the one who had the only weapon capable of killing him. He had to focus on Sam for now.
"So," Bobby said as they neared his home, "you said that you and Sam weren't talking?"
Dean sighed. "We were Hunting a Djinn, and it captured me, stuck me inside my head in the 'perfect' life while it pumped me full of drugs and drank my blood."
"Ew," Bobby commented.
"Yeah," Dean agreed. "Anyway, we kinda got into this fight because part of me wished I hadn't left that life."
"Were your parents alive?"
Dean smiled slightly. "Dad wasn't, but our mom was, and so was Jess, but me and Sam…" He shook his head. "We barely spoke to each other, didn't get along at all."
"But you wanted to stay, anyway?"
Dean couldn't bring himself to look over at Bobby. "Normal life, working on cars, dating a hot nurse, Sam achieving his every dream and desire… It was a good life, you know? Normal." He felt his eyes burn but blinked the tears away. "I want normal, but it really hurt Sam because said he doesn't believe in normal, anymore."
"Can't say I blame 'im," Bobby said after a moment. "You never tried living a normal life after your mom died, but Sam did, and he lost it."
"Yeah," Dean murmured. "I know." He paused before saying, "It wasn't his fault we weren't talking."
He spotted Bobby's nod as he pulled into the salvage yard and drove up to the house. He put the Impala in park and turned off the engine. "So," he said after a moment, "what do we need?"
"I'm thinkin' mostly medical supplies," Bobby said, "food and water, too."
"Works for me," Dean said. "What if there's others there with him?"
Bobby shrugged. "More food? We should take two cars out there just in case."
Dean snorted softly and exited the car, Bobby following suit and leading the way into the house. "I'll grab my med kit," Bobby said. "You put together food like sandwiches. Oh, and don't forget the water."
Dean nodded and headed for the kitchen. He put together several sandwiches and stuffed them into a cooler with as many bottles of water as he could find. He hauled it out to the Impala and checked the beer cooler he and Sam had before heading back inside and snagging a bottle of whiskey while Bobby was too busy to notice. Ten minutes later, Bobby was finished gathering his medical supplies and they slid into their respective cars, peeling out of the salvage yard and heading north.
"Heya, Sammy."
Sam's eyes snapped open and he shot to his feet, iron poker still clutched in his hands as he stared at Azazel's form in the doorway of their safe room. Jake didn't react, and Danielle and Andy were still sleeping soundly, slumped on the old wooden table and a faint line of drool slipping from Andy's open mouth.
"This is a dream?" Sam asked cautiously. Azazel grinned and nodded.
"We need to have a little talk," the yellow-eyed demon said, gesturing with one hand for Sam to follow.
"I'm not following you anywhere," Sam said, and Azazel let out a chuckle.
"And I'm not giving you a choice in the matter," he replied, lifting one hand and snapping his fingers.
Just like that, Sam found himself standing back on Cold Oak's main street, Azazel calmly walking away with his hands shoved in his pockets. Sam clenched his jaw, but forced himself to follow.
"What the hell is goin' on?" Sam finally asked, keeping his distance from the demon. "Why are we here? What happened to everyone else, to Ava?" He wasn't sure if the bastard's patience would wear out abruptly, especially since this was only a dream, but he was still too curious to not say anything.
"This?" Azazel turned, arms lifted to each side. "It's a competition, Sammy."
"It's Sam," Sam snapped, and Azazel barked out a laugh.
"You let Dean call you that," he pointed out.
"That's Dean," Sam said with a shrug. "If Dad was alive, I wouldn't stop him, either, but I hate you."
Azazel grinned. "Of course."
"So, competition?" Sam prodded.
The grin got bigger. "I left you under a false impression last year," he said. "My army is gonna consist of demons, but my leader will be 100%, pure human."
Sam furrowed his brow. "What about the demon blood?"
"Oh, well, there's that, too," Azazel said quickly, "but the point is that no demon gets to possess my leader. I've got something much better in store."
Sam really didn't like how that sounded. "Does it have something to do with that convent you slaughtered back in '72?"
Azazel's eyes narrowed and Sam took a step back without thinking.
"What did that old man tell you?" the demon asked softly, and this was the fearsome creature that had possessed him briefly, that had possessed his father and nearly killed Dean.
"Nothing," Sam said quickly. "Well, nothing that made a lot of sense. I thought you wanted a leader, but that the others were still useful as soldiers."
Azazel moved closer, and Sam forced himself to stand still. "What else? I know you heard more than that before the old man's heart finally gave out."
Sam swallowed hard. "Lehne mentioned someone called Lilith," he said quietly, "and a cage and seals. That's it. Nothing else." He wasn't sure why he was surrendering that information so easily, but he got the feeling that his life really was at stake, now.
Azazel stepped closer and stared at Sam for another long moment before turning away. "As I said, this is a competition," he spoke in a much lighter voice, and Sam felt his shoulder's relax against his better judgment. "I only need the best and brightest of you crazy kids."
Sam considered this and could only come to one conclusion. "Ava Wilson's dead, isn't she?"
Azazel glanced at Sam over his shoulder as he continued down the street, Sam following warily. "Speared by that iron poker you found, actually," he said with another grin. "She had a lot of potential, too, but she got too cocky in the end."
Sam didn't say anything for a moment. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I'm giving you the inside track," Azazel said, turning to face Sam with raised eyebrows and shrugging. "See, even if I disregarded everything that happened in that lovely warehouse back in L.A., you're still my favorite."
Sam frowned, tensing up again as he remembered his blood addiction.
"You're a soldier, Sammy," Azazel continued. "Daddy created the perfect warrior when he chose to raise you and your brother to be Hunters. You're tougher than Jake, smarter than Andy, filled with more anger than Danielle…" He shrugged again. "You are everything I could want in a leader, Sam. So I'm telling you, only one of you crazy kids gets to walk out of this place alive, and my money's on you."
"I'm not killing the others," Sam said firmly. "I'm not that kind of person."
"But you're capable of it," Azazel pointed out. "I heard about that cop in Baltimore after Buck dosed you full of drugs." Sam closed his eyes shut for a moment, hating to remember. "That was an accident, but that man meant to kill your brother, right?"
Sam nodded silently.
"You're capable of so many wonderful things," Azazel said softly.
"But I choose not to take that path," Sam said, surprised by how steady his voice was. "You can't rig this competition, Azazel. You can't make me kill the others."
"No, but you can make that choice," Azazel shot back. "I always knew that you had to be the one from the day I met your mother. Of course, if it hadn't been for Dean, I might never have crossed paths with her or your father."
Sam blinked. "What are you talking about?"
Azazel blinked, too. "That's odd," he remarked, stepping closer to Sam. Sam backed away without thought, arms raised defensively. "You don't remember."
"Remember what?" Sam said tersely.
Azazel tilted his head to one side. "I already told you," he said, "unless -" He broke off before breaking into a large grin. "Angels. Figures."
"What?" Sam said.
"Dean time-traveled back to 1973," Azazel said, fixing Sam with his yellow-eyed grin. It was disturbing to look at, as always. "He tried to stop me, even got his hands on the Colt, but all he did was shove Mary right in my face. She was very attractive back then," he told Sam with a look in his eyes that made Sam want to punch him, "so young and tough, and I just had to get closer. So, I possessed your grandpa, and you know what Dean told me?" The demon stepped closer and Sam had to force himself to stand still once again. "He said he was Samuel's grandson, and that he'd been sent back in time to stop me from completing my plans. I snapped grandma's neck and tracked Mary down to where she and John were hiding. They were planning on eloping, you know, escaping Samuel's tight ship. Samuel didn't like John much."
Sam swallowed hard. He didn't want to hear this.
"If Dean hadn't shown up, then Mary and John would have been safe from my plans," Azazel said lightly. "Instead, I snapped your daddy's neck and forced your mother to make the Deal that allowed me access to your nursery exactly ten-and-a-half years later, like the perfect chain reaction." The grin was back. "Good times."
Sam looked away. "You're lying," he said.
"I wouldn't lie to you about this, Sammy," Azazel said, voice taking on a hard edge. "It's because of your big brother that you're a freak, kid, and I don't regret a moment of it."
"Shut up," Sam whispered, backing away.
Azazel started laughing. "Did I hurt your feelings, Sammy? I'm not sorry, not for any of it."
Sam fought the urge to turn away, not trusting Azazel even in dream form. "I want to wake up, now," he said.
"Sure thing," Azazel said, grin still in place. "Just remember… I'm rootin' for ya." And then he snapped his fingers.
Sam's eyes opened and he shot up in his chair, taking in the room and seeing that everything was still the same.
"You okay?" asked Jake quietly.
Sam swallowed before nodding. "Yeah," he said, voice a little rough, "just uh… just had a weird dream."
There was a moment of silence.
"You dreamed of the man with the yellow eyes before," Sam finally said. "Azazel. Why'd you lie about it?"
"Who gave you permission to read my emotions?" Jake shot back.
"Danielle pointed it out to me," Sam said calmly, "but normally we don't play lie detector. It was more of an issue of the fact that neither of us knew you, let alone whether or not to trust you."
"Do you?" Jake asked.
Sam nodded. "You still lied."
Jake rolled his dark eyes. "I just thought they were weird nightmares," he admitted. "He only ever said that I had some grand destiny and that I should hone my strength as much as possible."
Sam nodded again. "Sounds like Azazel, all right."
Danielle snorted awake suddenly. "Wha' time s'it?" she asked, voice rough from sleep as she rubbed her eyes.
"Late," Jake said and Sam huffed a small laugh as Danielle stretched.
"Oh," she sighed, slowly rising. Andy twitched and slowly sat up a moment later with a wide yawn, wiping away the drool from his mouth. "Still no signs of any demons?" Danielle asked, stepping over to the windowsill and staring out into the darkness.
"Nope," Jake said. "Still nothing to tell us why we're here."
Danielle looked over at Sam. "You said that none of the others came back."
Sam nodded. "I think they're all dead."
Andy froze mid-stretch, eyes wide as he lowered his arms.
"But you said this demon was making an army," Jake said, sitting up straighter. Sam sighed.
"That's what I thought," he said, "but Azazel… I think he purposely misled us, made me think that we all had a choice, a… a chance."
"Then what's the point?" Andy asked, Danielle nodding as she lightly rested one hand on the salted windowsill.
Sam slumped in his chair. "A leader," he said. "If everyone else is dead, it's because he's weeding out the best one to lead his army."
Neither Jake, Andy nor Danielle looked pleased by the news.
"Then I guess we're not supposed to get outta this place together, then," Andy said slowly.
"I… I don't know," Sam said softly.
There was a long moment of silence.
"This whole situation sucks," Danielle said at last.
"I hear ya," Jake said with a small scowl. "Trapped in a ghost town…" He shook his head and scrubbed at his face. "You know the army's gonna think I'm a deserter if I turn up on American soil?"
"I doubt they'd believe that a demon did it," Sam joked dryly, and Jake snorted.
After another minute of silence, Danielle spoke up. "Sam, I gotta go."
"Me, too," Andy chimed.
Sam sighed at the information and forced himself to stand, only now realizing that he was still holding the iron poker Azazel said had been used to skewer Ava.
Suddenly, he found he didn't much want to hold the thing, anymore.
"Let's go," he said to Danielle and Andy, nodding to Jake as they stepped out of the room.
About two minutes later, Sam was startled when he felt the Acheri approaching once more. "Danielle!" he called out urgently. "Andy, we've gotta get back inside now!"
"Shit!" he heard Andy swear. A moment later, both he and Danielle emerged from wherever they had gone, Danielle grabbing her jacket pocket where she had stored the knife she'd found earlier, and Andy struggling to do up the button on his jeans.
Sam grabbed Danielle's free hand and turned to run back to the safe room when he saw the demonic smoke zoom into said room through the space where the closed window met the frame. "No," he whispered, gripping the poker in his hand even tighter when he heard Jake cry out in obvious pain.
"Sam -" Danielle said, but he pulled her over to the building and up the stairs as Jake kept yelling, Andy scrambling to keep up. Sam burst into the room -
It was too late. The Acheri had caused too much damage to the tall soldier for him to survive, and it had already fled the scene. That was when Sam saw the salt line on the windowsill was broken.
"What?" he whispered, running forward and fixing it before turning around. "How'd that happen?"
Jake gasped and Sam watched as Danielle dropped to her knees beside him. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Oh, God…" She looked up at Sam. "Can't we do anything for him?"
Sam closed his eyes and shook his head. He couldn't look at the expression on Andy's face as he finally reached the top of the stairs.
"Jake, what happened?" Danielle asked quietly. "How'd it get in?"
"It - the salt…" Jake coughed wetly. "Salt line was broken."
Sam watched as Danielle's mouth fell open, his heart clenching. "Someone moved the salt?" she asked incredulously.
"Didn't see how -" Jake cut off, coughing once more. "Demon was… was fast, you know? Couldn't react fast enough…" The coughing started once more, and Sam was unable to do anything but watch as Jake died.
Then Andy let out a scream, and Sam cursed himself for being distracted and not realizing that Andy hadn't crossed the doorway and into safety. He shoved past a shocked-looking Danielle, but Andy was tumbling down the stairs, the Acheri screeching and the small man still screaming before suddenly going silent.
"Stay here!" Sam shouted at Danielle as he ran down the stairs, letting the iron poker in his hands swing out once more. The Acheri was forced to flee again, but the damage had already been done.
Sam stared down at Andy, silently taking in his snapped neck and the gashes that ran deeply down his back. "Sam?" Danielle called down the stairs. "Is Andy -?"
"No," Sam said hoarsely. "Neck snapped during his fall."
Just like that, the number of special children dropped to two.
TBC...
Chapter Five