Saints or Sinners | {BOOK 3}

27| Memories

I ran along the riverbank, breathing heavily as I put more distance between me and the Leviathans that were chasing me. There were too many of them for me to handle alone, so I had fled. The past six months had been hard on me. I was all alone and apparently had some crazy monster beacon or something, because I never seemed to be able to catch a break. It kind of made sense, in a way.

I figured the part of me that was divine or whatever was the problem. Something told me there weren't a lot of things like me coming to Monster Hell all the time. I tried to use my gun and a knife I had stolen from a vampire I'd killed a while back whenever I could, but sometimes I'd had to resort to using my powers. And when I did, I was basically sending up a giant neon sign saying, 'Here I am! Come try and eat me!'

There was a part of me that wondered if Dean or Cass were here somewhere. After all, they'd been standing right next to me when Dick exploded, so it only made sense that they had gotten blasted to Purgatory with me. However, after six months and not seeing any sign of either of them, I was losing hope.

"Gah!" I cried out as I tripped on a tree root that was sticking up just a bit too high.

"Eleanor?"

"C-Cass?!"

⁘

"Ellie! Come on. We think we got a lead on Kevin."

I rubbed my eyes, trying to shake the memories of Purgatory. Swinging my legs out of bed, I trudged back downstairs. I had retreated to one of the bedrooms to rest and escape the tension that hung in the air between the two Winchester brothers. And to escape Dean in general. It had been a long and exhausting couple of days.

"You got a lead on Kevin?" I asked when I saw Sam.

"Yeah, Centreville, Michigan. We think he went to visit his high school girlfriend. Let's go."

I followed him out to the Impala where Dean was loading up to head out.

"Hey," Sam called, throwing Dean the keys.

"Well, no visible signs of douchery- I'll give you that," Dean told him as he inspected the car.

We all climbed into our respective seats and I wrinkled my nose and Dean glanced at the backseat.

"Smell like dog to you?"

"In the car?" Sam asked, sniffing.

"You tell me."

Sam just shrugged and Dean hummed, starting her up.

⁘

When we got to Centreville, we checked into the Palm Motel. While Sam took the bags into the room, I noticed Dean watching two little boys running across the parking lot shooting toy guns at each other. But his eyes were out of focus, like he was thinking about something else, and I knew he was thinking about Purgatory. Then he looked over and caught my eye and his whole demeanor changed. I sighed softly to myself as he headed into the room.

Dean blamed himself for what happened. I knew he did. With how long it took him to find me and Cass. And then how things ended... I forced myself to head toward the room and go inside, not wanting to go down that rabbit hole. Sam was leaning in the bathroom doorway and Dean was sitting on the edge of one of the beds talking when I walked in.

"Yeah, Kevin's not getting any more found," Dean said.

"The kid survived a year without us. He'll be okay for twelve hours. Besides, when was the last time either of you slept?"

Dean gave me a quick glance, humming to himself.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Nothing," Dean shook his head. "Is that, uh, that how you rationalized taking a year off? People will be okay?"

"People were okay, Dean. You and Ellie are okay."

"Wow."

"Look, I did what we promised we'd do. I moved on," Sam said. "I lived my life."

"Yeah, no we're getting that."

"Look, it wasn't like I was... just oblivious. I mean, I read the paper every day. I saw the weird stories..." Sam sat on the other bed facing Dean, "...the kind of stuff we used to chase."

"And you said what? 'Not my problem'?" Dean glared at his brother.

"Yes. And you know what? The world went on."

"People died, Sam."

"People always die, Dean. Or maybe another hunter took care of it. I don't know, the point is, for the first time, I realized it wasn't only up to me to stop it."

"Hmm. So that was it, hmm? What could possibly make you stop just like that? A girl? Was there a girl?"

"The girl had nothing to do with it."

"There was a girl."

"Yeah. There was. And then there wasn't. Any more questions?"

I crossed over to the bathroom since I wasn't really part of the argument between the brothers anyway.

⁘

"This is a bad idea, Eleanor."

"Would you chill out, Cass. It'll be fine."

I peeked out from behind the tree where Cass and I were hiding. He had grown a beard since first arriving nearly a year ago and was as dirty as I was from fending off the monsters. We'd been sticking together for a couple months now. 

"Eleanor, you need to get out of here."

"No, Cass, I'm not losing you again. Let's go."

I moved out into the clearing nearby, still keeping an eye out. There was a fallen tree in the center blocking the path. As I went to jump over it, three vamps came rushing in to ambush me. I managed to behead one of them and then found myself cornered against the fallen trunk by the other two. Cass was nowhere in sight. Right as I was about to kill the one on my left, another person tackled the one on my right.

I beheaded the other one, then watched as the newcomer ripped the other vamp's throat out with his teeth. He was also a vamp. However, as I went to attack him as well, my arm was stopped by someone new.

"Dean?!"

"Ellie," Dean smiled. "We found you."

The live vamp stood up then, turning to face us.

"Dean, let me go."

"No. You can't hurt him."

"Why not?"

"He's a friend."

"He's a monster!"

"A monster who just saved your ass," the vamp cut in, voice thick with a Cajun accent.

"Nobody was talking to you, freak," I spat at him. "Dean, let me go."

"Not until you agree not to hurt him."

"Have you lost your mind?!"

"We need him, Eleanor. He knows the way out of here."

I looked from him to the vamp and back.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," the vamp nodded. "But first we got to find the angel."

"Well, he was with me until five minutes ago."

"What?" Dean asked.

"Cass and I were sticking together. I thought he was right behind me, but I guess I was wrong."

"Alright, can I let you go now, or are you going to try and kill our tour guide as soon as I do?"

"You can let go," I said reluctantly.

"Nice to meet you," the vamp said when Dean let go of my arm. "The name's Benny."