A Torn Family

Chapter 19

"So this is it. This is everything I know." Dad finished his long winded presentation on the demon. "Our whole lives we've been searching for this demon, right? Not a trace, just nothing, until about a year ago. That's when I finally caught a trail.
   
"That's when you first took off."
   
"Right." Dad looked down. "That's right. The demon must have come out of hiding or hibernation."
   
"It's not a freakin bear, Dad." I scoffed, and Sam elbowed me in the gut.
   
"So, what's this trail you found?" Dean asked.
   
"It starts in Arizona, then New Jersey, California." Dad rubbed his chin. "Houses burn down to the ground. It's going after families, just like it went after us."
  
"Families with infants?" Sam asked, and I couldn't help but sharply inhale.
   
"Yeah." Dad looked down. "The night of the kid's 6-month birthday."
   
"I was 6-months old that night?" Sam met Dad's eyes, glancing quickly at me.
   
"Exactly."
   
"Wait, I was 6 months too. Why didn't it go after me- not that I'm complaining."
   
"What do you mean it didn't go after you?" Dean furrowed his brow. "It went after all of us. Our whole family-especially the two of you."
   
"I don't think so." I sighed. "Sammy has powers. So did the other kids who were 6-months old the night the demon attacked their houses. I don't."
   
"Yes, you do." Sam looked confused. "The seeing dead people thing."
   
"Wait- Sam has powers?" Dad shook his head.
   
We ignored him.
   
"Yeah, Lu. Pretty sure that qualifies as a power." Dean laughed.
   
"No, that's gone. I don't know where it went."
   
"What?"
   
"I just felt it." I looked at my hands. "It was like something left me. Like I was being possessed. Whatever was inside of me, whatever was giving me those powers, it's long gone."
   
"Well, you definitely had powers." Dad looked at me. "You saw your mother."
   
"Was it just Mom, though?" I asked. Dad nodded. "Then maybe it had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with her. Maybe she knew something about the demon. Maybe she was trying to reach me."
   
"Don't be ridiculous." Dad snapped at me. "Your mother knew nothing of this life, otherwise she wouldn't be dead right now."
   
I shrunk away from Dad.
   
"Back on track... the demon is going after these kids for some reason." Sam shook his head, rerouting the conversation to our earlier discussion. "But it's going after the kids, AKA me. Maybe Luce too, I don't know anymore, this is all very confusing."
   
"Sam-"
   
"No, I'm not finished." Sam cut Dad off. "So Mom's death, Jess's death- it's all because of me?"
   
"We don't know that, Sam." Dean tried to reason.
   
"I'd say we're pretty damn sure!" Sam yelled. "I mean, I get freaky visions because a demon is after me, and my sister gets nothing. Whatever the hell happened is because of me, not her. Why the hell isn't anything wrong with her, too?"
   
"Nice, Sam." I grumbled, and he shot me a look. I knew he didn't mean to offend me.
   
"For the last time, what happened to them is not your fault." Dean raised his voice, finality ringing through his tone.
   
"It's not my fault, it's my problem." Sam yelled louder.
   
"It's not your problem, it's our problem." I snapped at Sam.
   
"Okay, that's enough." Dad stood from his chair.
   
"So, why is it doing this?" Sam's voice cracked, and I moved to stand closer to him. I leaned into Sam's side, and he slung an arm over my shoulders. "What does it want?"
   
"I wish I had more answers. I do." Dad seemed frustrated with us. "I've always been one step behind it. I've never gotten there in time to save..."
   
There was a long silence.
   
"All right, so how do we find it before it hits again?" I broke the quiet.
   
"There are signs." Dad wouldn't meet our eyes. "It took me a while to see the pattern, but in the days before these fires, signs crop up in an area. Cattle deaths, temperature fluctuations, electrical storms. And then I went back and checked-"
   
"Those things happened back in Lawrence."
   
"You shouldn't know that." Dean looked at me. "You were a baby, how do you know that?"
   
"I don't." I grasped at my stomach. "Something told me- whatever it is that's giving me powers. I think it's trying to possess me. It's feeding me information. Dad, I don't think these are powers- I think it's Mom trying to reach us."
   
"Stop it, Lucille." Dad slammed his hand down onto the desk. "You have a curse. This is not your mother's doing."
   
"She's right though." Dean looked between me and Dad. "She wouldn't know that- Mom would."
   
"Mary's gone." Dad snapped, before starting off into space. "But yes, she's right. It all happened the week before your mother died. And in Palo Alto- before Jessica."
   
Sam's eyes filled with sadness, and I squeezed his torso tighter.
   
"These signs- they're starting again."
   
"Where?"
   
"Salvation, Iowa."