The End | {BOOK 5}

53| Belphegor

I swallowed hard, staring around at the zombies surrounding our little group.

"Sam! Dean! Eleanor!" Cass yelled.

He picked up Jack's lifeless body and took off running, leading us away from the zombie fight. We followed him, dodging monsters and graves.

"Guys, this way!" Sam said.

He took the lead, hurrying over to a stone mausoleum with a heavy wood and iron door. Inside, Sam and Dean worked on barricading the door while Cass set down Jack's body. While Sam, Cass and I took stock of the area, Dean stared down at Jack's body.

"He didn't deserve this," he stated.

"Cass, is he here?" I looked from the body to the angel. "C-c-can you... Can you...?"

"I don't think so," Cass shook his head sadly.

"So, what?" Dean changed the subject. "Chuck throws friggin' zombies at us now?!"

"I don't know if they're zombies, Dean," Sam piped up. "I think... I think whenever the souls came up from Hell that they... they just..."

"They what? Just jumped into the nearest body?" I asked.

"I guess, yes," Sam shrugged.

We all looked over as the not-zombies rattled the door, the barricade looking precarious.

"Is that thing gonna hold?" I queried.

"The doors are banded in iron, so it... I hope," Sam shook his head.

I hated this. This trapped, helpless feeling. We were like caged animals, unable to escape. From the way Dean had begun to pace, he seemed to share my feelings.

"Chuck... He said, 'Welcome to The End'," Dean recalled. "What... What does that mean? Cass? Come on, man! Ideas! Can you smite your way out of here?"

"No. You saw them. I would be overwhelmed, Dean," Cass shook his head. "Even if Eleanor helped me. I... I don't know. They... They're ghosts, technically. Maybe... Maybe we can burn their bones."

"Burn their bones?" I echoed. "Cass, their bodies could be anywhere."

"Great," Dean groaned. "So we go outside, we get ripped apart. We stay in here, w-what?, starve to death?"

"Well, I wouldn't starve," the angel pointed out unhelpfully.

"Well, good for you," Dean rolled his eyes. "Good. Son of a bitch. Chuck. Man, I knew it. I knew he would do something like this. He's always so squirrely, you know, with the... with the... the robe and the beard, and... the smile that's like, half nice, half 'I'm gonna rip your throat out.'"

I looked at him as he continued in a mocking tone.

"'Oh, let me play you a song.' Ugh!"

While Dean ranted, Sam had moved to the back wall, kneeling down and putting an ear to the stone.

"What do you got? Sam," I asked him.

"You guys, I think I hear water. There must be a-a drainage pipe or something."

"Maybe a sewer line," Dean shrugged.

"Yeah. Come on. Come on," Sam nodded us over.

"Yeah."

Together, Sam, Dean and I used our iron rods to pry away the stone, and then break the brick wall we found behind it.

"Cass, a little help here," I shot at him.

One of the zombies crashed through the broken wall and Cass lifted a piece of stone, crushing it. The ghost possessing it flew away.

"Well, so much for pipes," Dean grumbled. "What the hell are we gonna do now?"

When we turned, Jack was standing up, waving at us.

"Hello," he said.

"Jack?" Sam asked. "You're alive?"

"That's not Jack," Cass said. "That's a demon."

"What?" I asked.

"Yeah," Not-Jack nodded. "Sorry about that."

"How in the hell?" Dean demanded.

"Look, I just got here, and, uh, I needed a body, so..."

"So you're a demon," I finished.

"Yeah. Look. I-I'd do the whole eyes thing, but, uh, yeah, no eyes," Not-Jack shrugged, gesturing to the two burnt out holes in his face.

He wandered over to the corner of the mausoleum and grabbed a pair of sunglasses, putting them on.

"You... what the hell are you doing?" Dean asked him.

"Blending."

"Get out of him," Cass growled.

"Uh, look, uh, I know it's weird. Okay? Uh, where do I start? Like the first day of school. Uh, hi. Uh, my name is Belphegor. And I'm, uh, here from..."

The demon was cut off as Cass shoved him against a post, putting his angel blade to his throat and growing angrier.

"Ooh. Whoa," Belphegor gasped.

"I said get out of him," Cass hissed in his face.

"Whoa. Whoa. Hey," Belphegor protested.

"I'm not gonna ask again."

"No. I can help. Okay? I can help."

"Cass, let him speak," I instructed the angel.

"He's an abomination!" Cass countered.

"You're an abomination with that stupid, dumb trench coat," Belphegor quipped.

I grabbed onto Cass, pulling him off the demon.

"Cass, Cass. Hey. Hey. We need the help."

"He is defiling Jack's corpse!"

"But if he can help... Jack's gone, alright? So let's listen to what the demon has to say. If we don't like what he says, then we stab him."

"Cass. Ellie's right," Sam said, then looked at Belphegor. "Alright. So, we are..."

"The Winchesters and Eleanor Dawson. I know," the demon nodded. "I read the papers."

"You have newspapers in Hell?" Dean quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, the Wi-Fi sucks," Belphegor scoffed. "Anyway, I'm guessing this whole, uh, Hellmouth thing is kind of, uh, you?"

"No. It was God," Cass corrected him.

"Yeah, sure," the demon laughed, but we all remained stoic and his smile vanished. "Oh, you're serious."

"It's a long story. It... It..." Sam stammered.

"Okay, okay," Belphegor held up his hands. "Look. I-I'm not some crossroad demon. I'm not even one of those black eyed goons who crawled up here to eat, you know, virgins and puppies and, uh, virgin puppies. Look. Downstairs, I punch a clock. A soul comes in, I torment it. I-it's what I do."

"What's your point?" Dean asked.

"The point is, I like my job. I like Hell the way it is... or... or was. So, all those bad guys? You want them back where they came from, right? Well, me too. Okay? We're... we're twinsies, guys."

"Oh, we are not twinsies," Cass growled.

I put out a hand, gesturing for Cass to chill out while Sam addressed the demon.

"Can you fix this?"

"Um, no, but I can get you out of here."

"How?"

"Ohh. Little spell. You know, nothing major. Alright. Uh..." he bent over, scooping up some dirt. "Just need some graveyard dirt... and some, uh, angel blood."

We all looked over at Cass expectantly.

"Cass," Sam said.

Cass sighed, reluctantly cutting his hand and bleeding onto the pile of graveyard dirt. Belphegor dramatically clapped his hands together over it and suddenly the noises stopped outside the door.

"Huh?" Belphegor grinned. "You're welcome."