Purgatory Line

"and i'm so sorry, but not really, tell the boys where to find my body."

"and i'm so sorry, but not really, tell the boys where to find my body." - i've got all this ringing in my ears and none on my fingers - fall out boy

content warnings: graphic descriptions of violence & blood, mention of death, descriptions of physical/mental/emotional abuse, mentions of parental death, descriptions of torture, parental abandonment

Jude debated calling Dean, but realized that her phone was in Desmond's truck. He always went to the Roadhouse after a hunt, so it's not like she didn't know where he was headed, it was just a matter of getting there. Jude couldn't drive, not legally. She had the ability, and the capability to hotwire but honestly? Was it worth the risk? Just because one had the technology did not mean that they had to use it.

If Jude decided to hitchhike, everything could go tits up. It usually did for Jude, like some fucked up genetic predisposition to danger. She'd end up somewhere that was decidedly not the Roadhouse, or she'd end up putting a bullet in some fucking human that saw a twelve year old girl and thought she was weak. Jude eventually decided to walk. It was not only the safest option, but one that could go the least wrong.

You know, that's at least what she thought.

She mapped it out, sitting in the diner that Dean had taken her to the night before. It would really only take her three days of constant walking to make it there, but that didn't count stopping to rest or stopping to pilfer food from somewhere. Eventually Jude had to move on, packing her map in between the worn pages of her grandmother's journal. She pulled the hoodie, which she had stolen and was just a little too large for her, over her flannel shirt and hoped her layers would keep her warm. She was ready to leave when a waiter, the same one from last night, approached her. Jude did her best to ignore him, instead making haste out the door. Alarms sounded in her head, something she fondly referred to as Kill Bill Sirens. Why would the waiter follow her into the parking lot? That's not what waiters usually did, nor what they should do.

The waiter grabbed her elbow and spun her around, his face emotionless. "Dude, what the hell?" Jude jerked away from him, her hand sweaty on the knife tucked into her hoodie pocket. It would be faster and more effective than her pistol. "Get the fuck off of me."

"You didn't think that I'd notice that Winchester boy leaving you alone?" The waiter snarled, his face twisting. "Bet he'd come running back if he knew I had you." Jude felt herself pale as the man's hand secured a grip on her elbow again. She tried to shake it off, but he was impossibly strong. Something in her shifted, but it was like a bus stuck between two brick walls: not moving in the near future. Jude tried to backaway, but the waiter just jerked her closer to him. "He really made a mistake leaving you here, girl."

"Jesus Christ!" She blasphemed, trying again to jerk away. Jude felt her heart stop when the man's eyes flashed involuntarily. Her stomach was in her throat, then, and she felt like she was drowning in panic. "Oh, fuck." The man grinned again and she felt like she was Augustus being sucked down the chocolate pipe. Pressure suffocated her from every side, every angle, and she felt like she had lead in her lungs. When it was all gone she collapsed, falling against a tree. "I don't know who you think I am to the Winchesters, but I'm nothing." She gasped, eyes still rolling in her head as the world spun around her. The demon clicked his tongue, and very suddenly several other people appeared in the trees around them. Jude's head was still spinning.

"I know that Dean Winchester doesn't just have a soft spot for anyone, girl." The demon procured a knife from the apron of his diner uniform. "Come on, just tell us where they are." Jude panicked. She didn't know, but that wouldn't stop the demons. They obviously thought that there was some connection there, something tying her to the Winchester family, but she didn't know why. She had eaten dinner with Dean, and that was it. Jude choked out a laugh, slightly hysterical and slightly terrified - if there was a difference in those two sounds.