Supernatural: Meeting the Angels

Chapter 17

Sam searches through all the houses cautiously, unsure of what could be waiting for him in them. He finds a rusty iron pole in front of a fireplace, which he grabs quickly as protection from ghosts, or even just people if they decide not to trust him. You can never be too safe.
Sam goes through house after house, pole in hand, ready to defend himself if he has to. He calls out "Hello!" in them all, hoping that if there's anyone there, they'll hear him and they won't attack if he surprises them. By the time he gets to the last houses, he's losing hope. It doesn't seem like anyone else is here. Maybe the disappearances weren't all connected. Maybe it's just the four of them.
As soon as he leaves the last house, he freezes. Next to it, hidden behind the wall, is a pile of rotting corpses. It only takes one moment for Sam to realize he can't decide what killed them by the wounds, which appear to be created by humans, but could have been anything with a weapon. He's found the missing people, though. It's possible it isn't the rest of them, but Sam didn't see anyone as he walked through the abandoned town, so he finds it unlikely he'll see anyone on the walk back. He debates continuing the walk away from town and through the woods, but only for a moment until he remembers the others that are hopefully still waiting for him. It's at least a twenty minute walk back, so Sam starts running, not wanting to waste anymore time. He must have been gone for at least an hour, and they may not be waiting anymore. He needs to get back before they all decide to leave, so he jogs the whole ten minute way back. It may seems like a long time to some, but thanks to his father's intense training, he isn't even out of breath when he gets back.
Fortunately, everyone is still in the kitchen, standing around silently. They look at Sam as he walks in, and Sam sees their worried looks as they lay eyes on his metal pole. He hadn't even thought about what that would look like to the others, him coming in with what he was going to use as a weapon. He doesn't put it down, though, because he wants to make sure that should anything come in the room, someone has a weapon.
"Just a precaution," Sam explains vaguely, holding up the pole.
"Did you find anyone?" Ellie asks.
"Well..." Does he tell them? If he does, they'll undoubtedly freak out, but if he doesn't, they may keep asking questions. Plus, if they find out he kept something from him, he'd lose their trust and wouldn't be able to protect them. With that in mind, he says, "Okay, don't freak out, but yes, I did find some people. I'm guessing it's everyone else that disappeared, or at least most of them. But they were dead. Ah, there goes the freaking out I was talking about," he grumbles, and just stands around as they have their moment to panic before he continues.
"What killed them?" the boy asks. "Demon, ghost? Hellhound?"
"It looked human," Sam tells him. "Which isn't very helpful at all, because a lot of things and kill people in human ways."
"But it's not a hellhound, right?" he asks hopefully.
Sam shakes his head. "No, probably not. It doesn't mean there aren't hellhounds here, but it's looking less likely."
The boy nods, processing this. "Well, now what do we do?"
Sam shrugs. "I guess we just get comfortable. Hey, what's your name, by the way?"
"I'm Jacob, and that's Alyssa," he tells me, gesturing at the girl he came with. "And it seems you know Ellie."
Sam nods. "Yep, but probably not as well as you. I basically showed up here like 'Hey I'm Sam get in the salt bye!'"
Jacob chuckles. "Well, I'm glad you did. It's nice to have someone that know what's going on with us."
Sam doesn't feel compelled to tell him that he really doesn't have any idea what he's doing right now. He's never been a leader; he always follows John or Dean's lead with these things. Still, he's doing the best he can do.
"I never asked; why are you here? What's your power?"
"I have telepathy," he says, meaning the ability to move objects with his mind. "Alyssa can shoot fire out of her hands, apparently, and Ellie can float, but I guess it's only, like, a few inches."
Sam nods to show he's listening. "Wow," he says, wishing he had their powers.
"Ellie said you have premonitions or something?"
Sam nods again. "Yeah. It's not a whole lot of help in a fight, but that shouldn't be an issue, I hope. We just have to sit tight and wait for my brother to show up, which he'll be doing any moment now, I'm sure, and just not kill each other." He adds the last part as a sort of joke to lighten the mood.
"And that's where you're wrong, Sammy boy," a man says as he enters the room. Everyone takes a step away from the door except Sam.
"Christo?" He says it as sort of a question, not sure what he's looking at. When he flinches, Sam knows it's a demon. Christo is an old trick John taught him to identify them. He's not sure exactly how it works, but that doesn't really matter. What does matter is that he now knows what brought him here, and, more importantly, he knows he's protected from it.
"Ah, good job, Sam," the demon drawls, walking up to the edge of the salt slowly. "Yes, I am a demon. The name's Azazel." He meets Sam's eyes, and Sam notices they're yellow. Isn't that the same as the demon that killed him mother?
"You're not..." Sam trails off, not sure he wants the answer.
Azazel grins. "Oh, you do remember me! I was afraid 15 years would be too long."
"What do you want with us?" Sam asks, keeping his voice steady.
"What I want is a leader," the demons tells him. "Someone who will help me free the demons from Hell. And it will be one of you. You will fight each other, and one of you will come out alive. They will be by my side as we bring Hell to Earth."
"And why would we ever do that?" Sam spits.
"Because otherwise, you'll die." He looks at each of the four people in the room. "If you fight, you have a chance at survival; at something better. If not, you all die. It's your choice."
"And if we just wait in here?" Sam asks.
Azazel just grins and steps into the devil's trap. He looks at it from the inside as Sam quickly moves people out of it. Why would the demon do that? He's stuck now, of his own free will.
"It's a nice system you've got going on here," the demon compliments him, sounding sincere. "I made sure there was no paint or anything, but I never thought you'd make one of thee things out of salt." He looks up at Sam. "Too bad someone ruined on of the lines." Sure enough, the line near the center of the circle is broken. "You've had your fun," Azazel says. "Now you're going to do what I say, and fight."
"And if we don't?" Sam asks. "You need us. Otherwise you wouldn't have brought us here."
"Really?" The demon just grins. "I wouldn't be so sure about that." He holds out his arm in their direction, and with a quick and sudden twist, Ellie is on the ground, neck bent in an unnatural way. "So, what's it gonna be? Fight, or end up like poor little El over here?"
Sam glances at the two people next to him. Alyssa looks deathly afraid, and understandably so. Jacob looks ready to do whatever is necessary to get out of there, and Sam would rather not get in a fight with a telekinetic boy, so he does what he knows is one of the stupidest things ever.
"No game," he says, throwing his metal pole to the ground. He waits for the sudden attack of the demon, but it doesn't come.
"You might want to check with the rest of the committee," he suggests tauntingly.
Sam realizes how much of an idiot he is in that moment. It has nothing to do with what the demon said, but rather his brain in overdrive, searching for what his father would have done. Quickly, he says, "Exorc-" suddenly, he's silenced.
"Nice try, but no dice, Sammy." He looks around at the three people in front of him one last time. "Good luck to you all, and I'll see one of you shortly." With that, he's gone, leaving Sam with two people in very different mindsets.
"I can't believe this just happened," Alyssa says. "A demon. A demon was just talking to us. There was a demon talking to us. What is my life right now?
"Alright, calm down," Sam commands. "Just sit tight. We can fix the devil's trap again. If he comes back, we can trap him for real. Until then, we just wait. Okay?"
"Sorry, Sam," Jacob says. "I don't think we can do that this time. You heard him. He'll kill us all if we don't fight. I don't know about you, but I don't want to die today, so I'm going to do what I have to so that I don't."
"No, Jacob, don't-"
"Sorry, Sam," he repeats, and suddenly, Sam's iron pole flies up to his neck.