The Road So Far . . .

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(This part is for friends and family who aren't fans of Supernatural ... everyone else can skip to Chapter One, Angel Food!)

Dean and Sam Winchester were trained by their father, John, to hunt all things supernatural after their mother was mysteriously killed in a fire in Sam's nursery. However, at twenty-two years old, Sam wants a normal life. He leaves his father and brother to attend law school at Stanford while they continue the Family Business. Then, John goes missing. Dean calls on Sam to help him find their father.

Together, the brothers continue hunting in John's wake. They come up against some awful truths amid all the monsters: A yellow-eyed demon killed their mother because she interrupted him feeding six-month-old Sam his blood. The demon later takes John's life and soul in a deal that saves Dean from a reaper. The demon blood within Sam grants him prophetic visions, but he isn't the only child so cursed.

Azazel, the yellow-eyed demon, abducts Sam and four others of "his children." He leaves them in a ghost town to fight in a battle royal. Azazel explains that he needs one of them, neither human nor demon and therefore stronger than either, to lead the armies of Hell during the upcoming Apocalypse. Sam, refusing to shoulder this fate, chooses not to fight. He is killed by another of the psychics.

Unable to accept the loss of his little brother, who, at four years old, he carried out of the nursery fire, Dean makes a deal with a crossroads demon: He gets his brother back at the cost of his own soul and one last year of life.

Meanwhile, Azazel's plan works up to a point. The psychic who took Sam's life opens a Hell Gate, releasing a horde of demons on Earth. With the help of John's spirit, Dean kills Azazel. Sam's psychic abilities go dormant in the process.

With Azazel gone, Hell's army sails rudderless until Lilith steps into Sam's intended place. She is the first demon created by Lucifer, the fallen archangel. She sends her hellhounds to collect on the deal the crossroads demon made with Dean. The hounds kill him and take his soul to Hell. Four months pass.

For those four months, Alastair, the Grand Torturer of Hell, rips apart Dean's soul. At the end of each day, he offers Dean a deal: Alastair will take Dean off the rack if Dean puts another soul on it in his place. However, time runs differently in Hell. After thirty years of telling Alastair no, Dean finally agrees. At that moment, though the brothers don't know it, he fulfills a prophecy. He becomes the "righteous man" who sheds blood in Hell. This is the breaking of the first seal.

After that, Lilith begins breaking the remaining sixty-five seals that keep Lucifer locked in his Cage. Another demon, Ruby, teams up with Sam to defeat her. Ruby says he is the only one who can prevent the Apocalypse and save the world. She feeds him her blood, a highly addictive substance, which reawakens and strengthens his latent psychic abilities.

Meanwhile, a host of angels lay siege to Hell to rescue Dean. Though they are too late to prevent the breaking of the first seal, the seraph Castiel grips Dean's tortured soul tight and raises him from perdition, hoping that Dean, restored to his body and life, will be able to stop Sam from using his demonic powers.

Until this point, no hunter on Earth knew that angels were real.

. . . now

image credit: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki

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