The Other Side Of Purgatory

Chapter Five

When he started, it was like a dam broken with a flood of words. He was talking and I wouldn't stop him. It was simple at first about him and Sam and them growing up then he was talking about his Dad and some Bobby but never his mom. Finally, I asked about her and he said, "She died when we were little. Sam was just a baby." A moment of silence passed. A quiet respect shifting in the air between us. "She was killed by a demon. A yellow eyed demon called Azazel. Dad spent the rest of his life tracking that demon down to get revenge." He shook his head and fell quiet, maybe lost in memories. I gave him his space to think but the reality of this man's life was landing on me heavy. I started to imagine his life where his father was a hunter and he had raised Dean to be a hunter, too. Of course he had, and so much about Dean Winchester made much more sense. 

Suddenly there were all these names I was trying to sort and remember. All these people with lives who were real to him and important.

"Wait, so Sam's girlfriend was a demon? I thought she was murdered by Azrael?"

"Azazel, Ric, keep up."

"The same one who started this whole mess?"

"Yeah. Oh, when that happened." He gave a tiny head jerk to the side, gesturing to conversation long past. "Dude showed up that night to drip his demon blood into Sam's mouth."

I recoiled, reacting more to the the disgust in his voice. Demons don't need to make sense, though, and that isn't the worst thing I'd ever heard. "How did you know about that? You were just a kid then."

"I found out later... Anyway, Azazel thought Sam was this... I'm getting ahead of myself. He did kill Sam's first girlfriend, though. Ruby was, I don't know, she had him convinced that he was doing a good thing by pumping himself full of demon blood. I love Sam but he can be stupid sometimes. Ruby really messed Sammy up, man. She was his friend. She was his dealer. She was his girlfriend. She was his teacher. He loved her. He honestly thought he was doing good."

I mulled on that for a few moments.

"How'd you get out of Hell, anyway?"

"I'm getting there." But he wasn't. He'd been telling me about everything leading up to Hell and now about Sam and whoever demon after Hell but nothing about Hell or getting out. He had danced his way all around it.

"Hell."

"Okay, man. Okay. I remember Lilith and her Hellhound. That was all kinds of pleasant then I wake up in this box -"

"You don't remember Hell at all?!"

"Ric, seriously! Can I tell this?"

I raised my hands to mimic him when he displayed conversational defeat. "You have the floor, buddy."

"Right. So I wake up in this box and have to dig my way out. Have you dug yourself out of a coffin, Ric? No, didn't think so. It's dirty and not fun and I walked to this little store down the road and ended up breaking in to get some water and food because I was parched, dry to the bone, man, and starving. I'm shopping when the whole place goes super sonic. The building was shaking and all the windows blow out. It was crazy."

"Sounds it."

"I steal a car and go to Bobby's. Once I convince him that I'm me it didn't take long before we tracked down Sam. He'd been... well, with Ruby."

"I thought you said he tried to get you out of Hell?"

"He did. No one would deal with him."

"Ah."

"So we track him down and I had to convince him that I was me."

"You live a life without much trust, don't you?"

"You can't trust anyone or anything up there, Ric. It's not like down here. It used to be everything was clear cut. It was either good or evil. But it's just not so simple." He glanced me over then continued, "Anyway, So Bobby knew this psychic, Pamela, who was going to contact whatever pulled me from Hell by touching on this brand -"

"Brand?!"

"Dude, yeah. I had this gnarly brand on my shoulder in the shape of a hand. She's got us set at this table all holding hands and candles lit. She touches my brand and just calls him up. Then she said it, his name, and she..."

"What?" I asked but he shook his head.

"He didn't want to do it. She was summoning him and he tried to protect her but she refused to back down. It... When she saw him, in his true form, it melted her eyes out of the sockets. Just liquefied."

"Damn."

"Tell me about it. But he told her he was an angel. She never trusted angels after that. Can't say that I blame her. But he didn't mean to do it..."

"So who was it?" I had the niggling in the back of my mind and a tiny smile tugged at me while I wondered if the angel we were tracking was this same angel, but this man sure was defensive of something he was hunting...

"I'm getting there, man. Remind me when we get topside to never see a movie with you. Jesus, it'd be the opening credits and you would be asking how the movie ends already." I fell silent beside him and he looked smug. "That's better. So like I said, we were trying to find out who had pulled me from Hell and why. Bobby and I found this way to summon an angel which seemed sketchy at best. We spent all day at this old barn painting demon traps and shit on the walls from every monster and lore and spell we could find. It was actually kind of funny, getting to the rafters to do the ceiling but..."

I coughed and he huffed.

"Fine. So we did the spell and waited. Then waited some more. It was hours before anything happened. The wind outside picked up and the roof is shaking and bits are blowing off. It was like a savage storm had just landed on top of us, man. I was terrified, to tell the truth. I've been up against a lot of shit but I had no idea what to expect. The doors to the barn blow open and, I shit you not, it's just this little nerdy, normal looking guy in a trench coat comes strutting at us but he's walking right through all our traps and the fucking lights are blowing out as he passes under them and - dude, it was the most impressive thing ever. He just walks up to me and, of course, I go to stab him with the demon knife and it sinks clean into his chest. Then he's staring at me with this look like I've told an amusing joke and he just pulls the blade back out and drops it." He paused and glanced to me. "Ric, I can't even lie, I was scared. Then Bobby tried to come at him and he just touches Bobby and the man lays down and, I didn't know, he could have been dead. So it's just me and this obviously powerful, lethal, unable to be harmed being and he said, dude you won't believe his voice until you hear it, he said 'I'm the one that gripped you tight and raised you from perdition.' "

I whistled in appreciation. "That's a damn good line." He hummed, non committal, but I'd say in agreement.

"Then he tells me he is an angel of the lord. That's how he said it. 'I am an angel of the Lord.' Hellfire and Brimstone. And his name."

"What is it?"

"What?"

"His name. You haven't said."

"Oh." and he was obviously thinking like maybe he didn't even want to say it and I wondered if maybe he couldn't but then he said, "Castiel." I nodded but this wasn't making any sense at all.

"Why did he pluck your ass out of hell?"

"Ah, uh. God told him to. That's the best explanation I've gotten from him."

"God? As in the God?"

"That's the one."

"Let me get this straight. You land yourself in Hell by making a deal with a crossroads demon for your brother's life and God himself sends one of his own angels in to pull you out? Is that right?"

"Yeah, just about."

I'm shaking my head and can't stop the grin from spreading and it's his turn to, "What?" and I laughed. 

"Do you know how many people God has pulled from Hell?" He turned away and his shoulders hunched. 

He was quiet for far too long and I was afraid I said something wrong. We moved through dead leaves and grey trees at this steady pace with nothing but the thump of his heart to keep us company.