Seven Bridges Road

IX. Faith

Sam, Dean and Johanna parked and opened the trunk. Dean pulled out three tasers.

"What do you have those amped up to?" Sam asked.

"A hundred thousand volts," Dean replied.

"Damn."

"Yeah, I want this raw head extra frickin' crispy. And remember, you only get one shot with these things. So make it count."

They moved down the basement stairs with guns and flashlights.

A noise caught their attention and they moved towards a cupboard.

"On three," Dean whispered. "One. Two. Three."

Dean swung the door open, revealing a young boy and girl crouched inside, covering their ears.

"Is it still here?" Sam whispered and the kids nodded.

Dean looked at the boy. "Okay. Grab your sister's hand, come on, we gotta get you out of here. Let's go, let's go." They moved towards the stairs. "All right, go!"

Sam and Johanna started to take the kids upstairs, but a hand grabbed his legs, knocking him back down. The children screamed and ran to the top of the stairs.

"Sam! Johanna!" Dean called.

Dean shot his taser and missed. "Sam, Johanna, get 'em outta here!"

Sam threw his taser to Dean. "Here take this!"

Sam and Johanna ran up the stairs and moved the children out of sight.

Dean moved around the basement on high alert, shining his flashlight into corners. "Come on!"

A ragged, hairy creature leapt up and shoved Dean backwards. Dean lost his weapons and flashlight as he fell. He glanced around, scrambled across puddles of water to grab the taser and pressed it on the creature as it moved towards him, electrocuting him. Electricity moved from the creature through the water and to Dean. The creature fell, and Dean lost consciousness.

Sam and Johanna ran down the stairs and saw Dean in the corner, unmoving. "Dean!" They ran over and half lifted Dean, holding his face. "Dean, hey. Hey."

HOSPITAL

Sam and Johanna stood at the desk with a receptionist.

"Sir, miss, I'm so sorry to ask," the receptionist said. "There doesn't seem to be any insurance on file."

"Right. Uh, okay." He pulled a card from his wallet and handed it to the receptionist.

The receptionist glanced at the card. "Okay, Mr. Burkovitz."

Sam and Johanna saw two cops waiting and walked over.

"Look, we can finish this up later," one of the cops said.

Sam shook his head. "No, no, it's okay. We were just taking a shortcut through the neighborhood. And, um, the windows were rolled down, and we heard some screaming when we drove past the house, and we stopped. Ran in."

"And you found the kids in the basement?"

"Well, thank God you did," the second cop replied.

Sam and Johanna noticed a doctor walking towards them and glanced at the cops. "Excuse me."

"Sure. Thanks for your help."

"Hey, doc. Is he..." Johanna trailed.

"He's resting."

"And?" Sam and Johanna pressed.

"The electrocution triggered a heart attack. Pretty massive, I'm afraid. His heart... it's damaged."