Circle of Life (Book Three / The Life Series / Supernatural)

When the Levee Breaks

Dad, Dean and I were in the living room, listening to Sam call for help. "Guys! Get down here! Something's coming! Don't. No, no, don't. Don't, don't. No—stop! Stop! Alastair—please. Please. No. Alastair, please. No, no." He screamed. "No. No. God, no! Please! Please, please. God!" I poured three glasses of whiskey, handing one to Dad and Dean each. "Stop! Stop!"

"How long is this gonna go on?" Dean asked.

"Here, let me look it up in my demon-detox manual," I told him sarcastically. "Oh, wait. No one ever wrote one. No telling how long it'll take. Hell, or if Sam will even live through it."

The phone rang.

Dad sighed, answering the phone. "Hello? Suck dirt and die, Rufus. You call me again, I'll kill you."

Dad hung up.

"What's up with Rufus?" I asked.

"He knows," Dad told us. The phone rang. Dad answered. "I'm busy, you son of a bitch. This better be important."

~~~

Dad hung up, looking at a laptop in front of us. "The news. The news ain't good."

I looked at the laptop over his shoulder. "This is what Rufus called about? 'Key West sees ten species go extinct'."

"Yep," Dad answered. "Plus Alaska. 15-man fishing crew all stricken blind, cause unknown. New York, teacher goes postal, locks the door, kills exactly 66 kids. All this in a single day. I looked them up. There's no doubt about it. They're all seals. Breaking. Fast."

"How many are left?" Dean asked.

"Who knows?" Dad asked. "Can't be many. Where the hell are your angel pals?"

"You tell me," Dean told us.

"I'm just wondering," Dad told us.

"What?" I asked.

"The Apocalypse being nigh and all... is now really the right time to be having this little domestic drama of ours?" Dad asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, I don't like this any more than you do, but Sam can kill demons," Dad told us. "He's got a shot at stopping Armageddon."

"So what?" Dean asked. "Sacrifice Sam's life, his soul, for the greater good? Is that what you're saying? Times are bad, so let's use Sam as a nuclear warhead?"

"Look, I know you hate me for suggesting it," Dad told him. "I hate me for suggesting it. I love that boy like a son. All I'm saying is maybe he's here right now instead of on the battlefield because we love him so much."

~~~

The next day, Dean told us that he swore obedience to the angels to stop the Apocalypse so that Sam wouldn't have to.

"Bobby!" Sam called. "Help! Ness! Dean! Help! Hey! Hey! Guys! Guys! Help! Dean!"

I looked at Dean. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you willingly signed up to be the angels' bitch?" Dean gave me a look. "I'm sorry. You prefer 'sucker'? After everything you said about them, now you trust them?"

"Come on, give me a little credit, Ness," Dean told me. "I've never trusted them less. I mean, they come on like shady politicians from Planet Vulcan."

"Then why in the hell did you—" I started.

"Because what other option do I have?" Dean asked. "It's either trust the angels or let Sammy trust a demon."