Cheer Up ✔️

Ghost Town For Demons

As natural as it is for the boys to just go in to a demon infested area, you can't help but feel a little nervous. It has been nearly a year - maybe even more! - since you've properly hunted. And it was granted that they were the Winchesters, but with rusty skills, and entering a demon infested site, you just felt one step shy of being the weakest one around.

How long ago had it been since that team up you did with Dean to slay vampires? Too long, your subconscious replied. Maybe it was because you'd lived out now two realities since that point. Or something.

"We are nearly there," Castiel announced.

"Everyone ready?" Sam chimed. Always the optimist.

Gabriel hummed in disappointment. "I'm the one who does the announcing of things," he picked at non-existent fluff on his bomber jacket. "Hey, _____, don't be worried. It'll be simple. Clean and easy."

You laughed. "Nervous? Me? Get out, I'm a hunter, I - I guess I have a few pre-hunt jitters."

Dean turned from the wheel and gave you a smile that made your insides jump. "Don't fret," he assured you, winking. "We've got your back."

You nodded.

The scenery outside the car blurred together, and before you knew it, all of you were out of the Impala, and standing in defense without the opponent visible. Sam huffed, gripping his knife tighter, and Castiel frowned. "Father said that this is where Crowley said it was located," his angel blade slid down his sleeve, "Yet I cannot sense it."

"Same here, Cassie," Gabriel hummed.

You closed your eyes. It wasn't as if the abandoned ghost town was any good to look at anyway; it seemed to only get in the way. And if that was anything to go by...now your eyes were closed, you stilled. You could hear your friends' breaths. The crunch of gravel under their boots. A creaking store sign nearby.

And a gentle whirr of energy a few meters away.

"North-East from here," you gasped, eyes wide. "It's - it's subtle. I can feel it." You glanced to Dean. Your eyes must have looked wild, spooked like a lost horse; it wasn't like you'd always been a walking freak case. Oh wait.

"North-East?" He repeated, striding to your side.

"Yeah. I think...I think it's in a person?" You confessed, heartbeat as wild as a racing horse without a track.

Gabriel nodded. "Sounds about right, kiddo."

"Let's move out," Castiel announced. "_____, take lead. Show us what you need to take."

You nod.

Moving forward, the band of hunters and angels following, you gravitate to the power. Ever since the screwy background story took your identity as a normal kid, turned you into a hunter, God screwed you over with an alternate universe and left you with a fear of procreating, just to find you were the Vinculum - whoever wrote this in the book of life, had a screwy sense of humour and a flair for the dramatic.

"It's here," you whisper. You're in front of an abandoned butcher's shop, the sign holding on by a single rope and luck. Dean raises his arms to signal the group, and they gather around.

You pause.

"Are those voices inside?" Sam questions.

Quickly, and without warning, the door swings open. The man you met before, the one who disappeared in the middle of your apartment is there, wearing an apron that seems to be stained in either blood or runny jelly.

"Darling!" Crowley smiles. "Rocky, Bullwinkle, Feathers...more Feathers," he greets. "I got them. Ready for extraction."

You freeze.

"Do I have to - to torture?" You stammer. No. You can't do that. Not in a million years, not to a demon, or the human body that houses it. Not after what God did to you.

Crowley rolls his eyes. "Yes, and we'll make a big deal out for it and I'll make you do it at gunpoint. What, do you think I don't know what you've done to me?" He sighs. "Kidding. Except, you have done worse to me in other lives."

"Quit screwing around, Demon," Gabriel sets his jaw. He might be all sunshine a and sugar, but the toffee-haired angel has some spice.

You're still unsure. You can't remember all these lives they talk about, and they do. It's something short of infuriating.

"______, I've already done the torture, you just extract it." He levels.

Slowly, your head nods. Feet move forward. Mind whirls. Inside the room, the old butchery tools are still on the walls, glass display cases covered, as if they are waiting to reopen, signs still displaying the specials. It's quaint, and reminds you of a time you'd rather be than here.

Inside the middle of the room, however, is something new. A woman is strapped into a chair, eyes black with her soulless demon colours, mouth gagged. You don't look at her shirt and jeans. Her arms. She's been tortured for a while. Maybe all the time it took to drive here.

"And I just...extract it?" You ask everybody, nobody.

Castiel clears his throat. "She harbours it inside of her. When you take it, it will form a residency inside of you."

You nod.

Why couldn't have your two thousand year old previous self been more proactive and not caused all this calamity?

You seem to move like a ghost toward the demon. She has an anger in her eyes which you've seen before, but also a fear. Maybe she had been cursed to keep this burden. You're lifting it. You're doing good.

"I don't know if this will hurt," you tell her.

"Nothing will hurt as much as the torture I gave her," Crowley sounds smug behind you.

"...but I'll try not to." You continue. Fingers outstretched, you feel a pull on your hand, migrating your limb upwards, up to her forehead. This power, it's strong, it's overwhelming, it's here and you can feel it -

Your hand brushes her brow.

It's then you feel a burst of a foreign energy invade you. It isn't like a possession at all, but something more: it's like sharing a twin consciousness in yourself. Waking up a dormant side. Waking a volcano.

And as quick as it starts, it's done. The woman is lax in the chair, sleeping. The hunters behind you are in awe. And you face them, heart racing out of your chest.

"Did I grow a third eye? Another arm?" You joke. They're still staring.

Dean shakes his head. "______ ... you're glowing."