Searching Purgatory [COMPLETED]

Chapter Ten

Sam was relieved to have Lauren back. The only downside was that she'd been unconscious for hours. Gabriel had said that she would wake up soon and Sam was anxiously waiting for that to happen. But since that was talking a while, the group preoccupied themselves with talking about Zoe. Sam probably should have gone to bed, but he wanted to be awake when Lauren got up so he poured himself a cup of coffee and prayed that the caffeine would be enough to keep him awake.

"Do you know what happened, Sam?" Sage asked, her eyes sad and pleading. Sage hadn't known Zoe for too long but the two girls had grown quite close in the month that Lauren was missing.

Sam shook his head. "All I know is that when I went in the room, Dean was sobbing over her dead body. He wouldn't tell me what happened." His eyes shifted to Castiel. If Dean didn't tell Sam, there was a slight chance that he told Cas.

Cas shook his head. "Dean wouldn't tell me anything."

Sam sighed. Whatever had happened, it was bad. Then an idea came to him. "Wait, Zoe's a monster, right?"

Sage glared at him. "I don't think her species really matters any more, do you?"

Sam shook his head. "That's not what I meant. Guys, if she's a monster, she's in Purgatory."

It took a second but the rest of them seemed to catch on.

Sage smiled. "If she's in Purgatory that means..."

Sam nodded. "We can get her out."

"You know where the entrance to Purgatory is?" Meg scoffed. "I didn't know they were putting up signs now."

"No," Sam sighed. "I have no clue where the entrance to Purgatory is. But I do know how to get into Purgatory."

"Sam," Cas interrupted, "there aren't any leviathans roaming the planet."

"I'm not talking about ganking a leviathan. I'm talking about rogue reapers."

"What?" Meg asked, sitting up and suddenly interested in the conversation.

Sam nodded. "They can get you into Hell but they do it through a door in Purgatory. Granted, we'd only have twenty-four hours and...shit."

"What?" Sage asked.

Sam shook his head. "We left her body back in the mansion with the..." He groaned and put his head in his hands. "With the demons. I doubt they're the 'respect the dead' type." He looked up at Meg. "No offense."

"None taken."

Gabriel grinned. "Never fear, I am here." He snapped his fingers fiercely snapped his fingers. Zoe appeared on the table, her shirt still stained with blood and her eyes still open and staring.

Meg jumped back from the dead eyes staring straight at her. "Creepy," she shivered.

Sam reached over and shut her eyelids. "Thanks, Gabriel, but does she have to..." he waved his hands at the table, "you know, be on the table?"

Gabriel frowned. "Sorry." He snapped again and she was on the floor. Sure it wasn't as comfortable, but at least they didn't eat there.

Sam sighed. "I'll go get Dean. He should probably know about our idea."

* * * * * * * * * *

Zoe's eyes shot open and she was staring up at a dark, cloudy sky. Where was she? She sat up and looked around. The ground beneath her was covered in fallen leaves and trees surrounded her. What had happened? She was supposed to be saving Lauren...

Pushing herself to her feet, she reached out to touch the closest tree. Yup, it was real. She pinched her arm just to make sure that this wasn't a dream.

She remembered going in the mansion, being with Gabriel and Dean. But then she had found Crowley and become Crowley. And then...there was Dean.

She could just kick herself. Of course, she had no clue how Crowley did what he did--something about witch mojo or something--and it was like she had been trapped inside the douche, but she had tried to tell him. She should have told him a long time ago that she was a shape shifter. Maybe then he wouldn't have been so quick to stab Crowley.

Zoe looked around, realizing that she was obviously dead, and wondered if this was Heaven or Hell. It didn't look too Heavenly but there wasn't any fire and brimstone, which was all she'd heard about Hell.

A tree branch snapped behind her and she whirled around. The scared part of her wanted to call out "Who's there?" But she'd seen enough horror movies to know that if you did that you died. So she just stood there and squinted into the trees, hoping to see when something moved.

She'd only been looking for a second before three people jumped down from the trees right in front of her. It didn't take very long for her to realize that they were vampires, their fangs were out for the world to see. The first was a tall guy with huge biceps and a mean looking club. The second was a well figured girl with dirty dread locks and what looked like a home made sword. The third was short, fat, and old. He wasn't carrying a weapon but looking like a very cranky, very smelly leprechaun's grandfather.

Zoe stared at them, sneering at her like she was their next meal. "Hey, guys." They all snarled in reply. Zoe had nothing; no weapon, no plan, no clue what was going on. She scanned the surrounding area for anything she could use to get out of this. She was realizing that she was stuck when a fourth character entered the scene.

"Come on, guys," the new guy said, "you wouldn't pick on a newbie would you?" He had two killer weapons in his hands and was standing protectively in front of Zoe.

"This isn't your fight, Benny," the angry leprechaun snarled.

"She doesn't even have a weapon guys," the newbie said. "Go pick on someone your own size."

They all growled but were obviously not too eager to take this guy on even though there were three of them and one of him. Without another word, they turned tail and ran in the opposite direction.

The guy watched them leave for a second before spinning around an pointing one of his knives at Zoe, just inches from her throat. She raised her hands in surrender.

"Well I was gonna say thank  you," she murmured, "but now I'm not so sure I want to."

He smiled menacingly, showing off his own set of fangs. "Don't move." He had a heavy Southern accent and deep blue-grey eyes. He was just as dirty and grimy as everybody else here and his coat was tattered.

"And to think that a few moments ago you were my hero," Zoe sighed.

He chuckled. "Humor. I like it. What are you? Okami? Werewolf? Something rare and valuable?"

"Shifter," Zoe scoffed before he could keep guessing. "You planning on selling me to the Monster Market or something?"

His smile turned from menacing to almost warm. "I'm a vampire. So other than creepily changing into other people, what skills do you have that should keep me from driving this dagger through your throat?"

Zoe shrugged. "I'm a pretty decent fighter."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Really?"

Zoe smiled before gripping the blade at her throat and ducking under it, twisting around so that she was standing behind him, holding the knife to his throat. "Yeah, really. Next time, don't stand so close." She released him. If three vamps weren't willing to take him on, she probably shouldn't do something stupid.

He nodded his approval. "What's your name, Shifter?"

Zoe didn't know if she enjoyed the nickname but responded. "Zoe. And yours?"

"Benny. Benny Lafitte."