(1) The Devil's Hybrid (D. Winchester)

Chapter Forty-Six

In Pike Creek, Delaware: A man (his name is Nick) walks along the side-walk to his house. He opens his front gate, which creaks, and lets it swing shut behind him. A wind picks up, swinging the gate forward and back, and Nick turns back to look. The gate bangs open and shut.

.................

Nick lies in bed, alone and restless. He pulls his hands out from under the blankets: they're bloodstained. He tosses the blankets back and there's blood all over him and the sheets, a lot of it, as though someone bled to death a moment ago. Nick gets out of bed and switches on the bedside light. There's no blood.

"All right, keep it together. Keep it together, man" Nick turns off the light and lies down. He rolls over and there's a woman in bed next to him, blood on her cheek. He sits up, shocked: he knows her—her name is Sarah—and the last thing he expected was to see her.

"It's you, Nick. You're special. You're chosen" Nick shakes his head, disbelieving, and covers his eyes with one hand. When he looks back, Sarah is gone.

................

Sam and Dean drive in a rented car, the radio playing as they sit in silence.

"—and Governor O'Malley urged calm saying it's very unlikely an abandoned convent would be a target for terrorists, either foreign or homegrown"

"Change the station" Dean tells Sam. Sam pokes a button on the digital radio.

"—Hurricane Kinley, unexpectedly slamming into the Galveston area"

"—announced a successful test of the North Korean nuclear"

"—a series of tremors"

"—swine flu" The radio shuts off. Sam sighs. Silence.

"Dean, look..."

"Don't say anything" there is a pause between them. "It's okay. We just got to keep our heads down, find Erika and hash this out, all right?"

"Yeah, okay"

"All right, well, first things first—How did we end up on Soul Plane?"

"Angels, maybe? I mean, you know, beaming us out of harm's way?"

"Well, whatever. It's the least of our worries. We need to find Cas"

....................

Erika lifts a wolf figure from the dresser in the room and raises an eyebrow at it, before she smirks and throws it at the wall, it shatters on impact. She laughs and then swipes her arm over the rests of the dresser, sending the contents flying.

"Show your faces, Cowards" she growls. "You can't keep me here!!" she gets no answers, she takes a deep breath before she throws the dresser across the room.

.....................

Sam and Dean walk through the devastated house. A noise, and they both turn: nothing. They keep looking around. Chuck jumps out and hits Sam on the head with a toilet plunger. Sam stumbles back, hand to his head.

"Geez! Ow!"

"Sam?" Chuck asks.

"Yeah!"

"Hey, Chuck" Dean greets.

"So...you're okay?" Chuck asks Sam.

"Well, my head hurts"

"No, I mean—I mean, my—My last vision. You went, like, full-on Vader. Your body temperature was one-fifty. Your heart rate was two hundred. Your eyes were black"