Standing Outside the Fire

49

[As Time Goes By]

A boy was asleep in bed. A man in a hat and coat stood watching the boy. The man sat down on the bed and pulled the covers up around the boy, who woke. "Hey, sport. Sorry about that."

"Where are you going?"

"Work. I just wanted to check on you before I left."

"What's that, pops?"

"One day, I'll tell you all about it. Now get some shut-eye. See you first thing in the morning." The man lifted a music box from a small bedside table and wound it up. It started playing As Time Goes By. The man turned off the light and walked out the door. Good night, son." The man closed the door behind him.

The man walked down the street and past a jeweler's and a supper club. He stopped at a door and knocked twice, then once, then three times. The door opened and he entered. "Good evening, sir."

Inside the building, the man walked down a hallway. A woman in an evening dress was sitting on a bench by a stained-glass window. She stood and he took off his hat and smiled. "Josie. No one told me this initiation was a formal affair."

"Well, someone had to class up the joint, right, Henry?" Josie asked, adjusting the pin on Henry's tie.

"Ain't that the truth?"

"The hard part's over, right? We made it."

A man wearing a hooded cape opened a door. "Ms. Sands?"

Henry smiled at Josie and nodded slightly towards the door. Josie walked to the door and paused to look back at Henry, who smiled again. She walked into the room and the door closed behind her. Henry took off his hat and coat and sat down in front of the stained glass window. There was screaming and banging. Henry ran into the room where he found two men wearing capes dead on the floor in pools of blood.

A second man wearing a hooded cape was standing in front of Josie, speaking loudly in Latin. "Secura tibi facias libertate. Servire, te rogamus, audi nos!"

A third man in a hooded cape, with bloody eyes, spoke from the floor. "Henry. Do not let Abaddon get it." He handed Henry a small wooden box, which had the same symbol carved onto it.

Abaddon, possessing Josie, grabbed the second hooded caped man, who was still attempting to exorcise her, by the throat. "That's impossible! How?"

Abaddon, with black eyes, screamed and snapped his neck. Her eyes returned to normal. Henry ran from the room and Abaddon, in her bloodstained dress, walked after him. Henry entered a room where there were ingredients in glass breakers and locked the door behind him. As he prepared the spell, Abaddon flung doors open telekinetically. He took ingredients from a shelf and added the ingredients to a bowl. Henry grabbed a knife and cut his palm. He let the blood drip into the bowl and drew a symbol on the door with liquid in the bowl.

Henry began speaking, "Kah-nee-lah... Poo-goh."

Abaddon tried to open a door, but was met with resistance. The symbol Henry was drawing glowed gold.

"Kah-nee-lah... Poo-goh. Kah-nee-lah... Poo-goh." The door shook and the spell was complete. "Kah-nee-lah... Poo-goh.

Henry fell through the door in a burst of light.

MOTEL ROOM

Dean was tying his boot laces, Sam stood at the mirror and Francesca was folding her clothes. Henry fell out of the closet. "Which of you is John Winchester?"