Discovering Hell [COMPLETED]

Chapter Eight

I woke up, my internal clock screaming that it was too early for this. I felt as if I hadn't slept at all and the piece of crap mattress under me didn't help anything. I rolled onto my stomach and groaned into my flattened pillow. I remembered the dream from the night before and hated that. Normally I was pretty good at forgetting my dreams, but it seemed like this one was never going away.

I shuffled down the hall and into the larger room where Sam and Dean were seated at the table. The blonde girl was also awake and was pointing at something in the book that Dean was looking at. I cursed under my breath. Why hadn't they taken her to a hospital or something? She really shouldn't be getting involved in this stuff...

I sat down at the table next to Sam and across from Dean and the blonde lady and groaned as loud as I could, lobbying my head down in exhaustion.

"Why are you up this early?" Sam asked me, not taking his eyes off his computer screen.

"What time is it?" I grumbled, moving my head to look at him.

"Six forty-five," he responded after a second. "You haven't gotten up this early all week."

"I had a nightmare. I'll explain, but Cas had to be here. And..." I lowered my voice to a whisper, "uh, she has to leave." I jerked my thumb toward the girl sitting next to Dean.

She looked up from the book and I was shocked to see she had gold eyes. Freckles dotted her nose and she seemed to be sizing me up, just like I was doing to her.

"Name's Zoe," she finally spoke.

I blinked. She was pretty straight forward, to the point. It was nice after living for a week with these two who beat around the Bush every chance they got. "Hi," I replied. "Pleasure to meet you, Zoe. I'm Lauren and I'm assuming you've already met these two?"

She nodded and turned back to the book, pointing at the picture on the yellowing page. "What's that?"

Dean sighed. Apparently this had been going on all morning. "That would be a chupacabra," he answered.

"They're freaky. What do they do?" She leaned on her elbow and put her chin in her hand eager for the answer.

"The name means 'goat sucker.' In the legends, they torment the Mexican people by eating their goats. We don't get a lot them this far north but it has happened before."

She nodded and flipped the page, apparently too soon for Dean who sighed in exasperation. She pointed at the next picture and I sat back, folding my arms, and looked at Sam's computer screen. He was staring at news reports. But news reports I'd never seen before. Things about hearts being ripped out and people acting possessed.

"What'cha doing?" I asked innocently, leaning forward to get close to the screen.

Sam pushed the screen down. "Nothing. We should get started on your training."

"Don't you wanna hear about my nightmare? It's kind of important."

Sam stopped getting out of his chair and sat back down. "Fine. Tell me."

I frowned. "I already told you, Cas has to be here. And we shouldn't get this Zoe chick messed up in all of this."

"Cas isn't here and we tried getting her to leave. She won't do it."

"So pray. He's an angel. He has to show up right?" I decided to ignore the Zoe thing for the time being and focus on one thing at a time. This was all too overwhelming anyway.

"Not necessarily...But it's worth a shot." Sam cleared his throat. "Hey, Dean, wanna call Cas really quick?"

Dean seemed grateful for the break from Zoe. "Hey, Cas, not sure if you're busy doing whatever but we need you here."

I waited patiently for the fluttery sound that I'd quickly learned to associate with the angel. It seemed to take a million years but finally, I heard it behind me. I turned to see Castiel looking like complete crap.

"What?" He asked, his voice raspy and sharp.

"First, we've gotta..." I jerked my head towards Zoe. "What do we do with her?" I kept my voice as quiet as possible, but since I was the only one speaking...

"I can hear you, ya know," Zoe told me. I ignored her comment.

Cas got this look over his face as he looked at Zoe, like he knew something we didn't and wanted to keep Zoe around.

"Things are gonna get weird," Sam said, also recognizing the look. "She can't be around for that."

"What's gonna get weird?" Zoe asked, putting her elbows on the table and putting her chin in her hands.

I glanced at Sam and Dean before looking at Zoe.

"Uh..." Sam started, "things around here aren't what you would probably consider normal. It's about to get pretty crazy and we just wanna get you home safe before anything bad happens."

"What kind of crazy?" She pushed.

"Nothing," Dean told her.

She stuck her bottom lip out in a pout. "Just tell me."

I shrugged. If she wanted to know... "Like demon weird."

Sam and Dean both looked at me like I was insane for telling her. Which, let's be honest, I probably was.

But I pushed forward anyway. "Yup. We plan on calling the demon King of hell, Crowley, who also happens to be my father. He wants to trade something for me because these psychos practically kidnapped me to keep me from going dark side which would have been very, very bad."

By this point, everyone was staring at me, jaws open.

"Demons," Zoe said slowly. But it was a statement. Not a question.

"You seem to be taking this all very well," I pointed out.

She swallowed. "I read a lot of fantasy stuff."

"Can we please make the call?" Cas said, impatient with all the chit-chat.

"I'm surprised you didn't just make the call yourself," Dean said. "You seem real eager to find out what Crowley is dangling over our heads."

"He is the King of hell," Sam pointed out. "We've lost a lot of people. He could've brought any number of them back."

"So this Crowley, king of hell, guy can bring people back from the dead?" Zoe clarified.

"Sure," Dean shrugged. "If they're in hell."

"That's just awesome," Zoe grumbled, finding a sudden interest with the design on the table.

Cas pulled out his cell phone, not waiting anymore, and the business card the demons had given him. It took only a matter of seconds for him to dial the number and I realized I still hadn't told them about my dream.

"Ah, Castiel. I knew you'd call."