Spare Your Sympathy

10. Faith

Sam, Dean and Cataleya parked and opened the trunk. Dean pulled out three tasers.

"What do you have those amped up to?" Sam asked.

"A hundred thousand volts," Dean replied.

"Damn."

"Yeah, Leya and I want this raw head extra frickin' crispy. And remember, you only get one shot with these things. So make it count."

They moved down the basement stairs with guns and flashlights.

A noise caught their attention and they moved towards a cupboard.

"On three," Dean whispered. "One. Two. Three."

Dean swung the door open, revealing a young boy and girl crouched inside, covering their ears.

"Is it still here?" Sam whispered and the kids nodded.

Dean looked at the boy. "Okay. Grab your sister's hand, come on, we gotta get you out of here. Let's go, let's go." They moved towards the stairs. "All right, go!"

Sam started to take the kids upstairs, but a hand grabbed his legs, knocking him back down. The children screamed and ran to the top of the stairs.

"Sam!" Dean and Cataleya called.

Dean shot his taser and missed. "Sam, get 'em outta here! Leya, go with 'em."

"Hell no!" she shot back.

Sam threw his taser to Dean. "Here take this!"

Sam ran up the stairs and moved the children out of sight.

Dean and Cataleya moved around the basement on high alert, shining their flashlights into corners. "Come on!"

A ragged, hairy creature leapt up and shoved Dean and Cataleya backwards. Dean and Cataleya lost their weapons and flashlights as they fell. They glanced around, scrambled across puddles of water to grab the taser and Cataleya pushed Dean away and out of the water and pressed it on the creature as it moved towards him, electrocuting him. Electricity moved from the creature through the water and to Cataleya. The two shook and twitched. The creature fell, and Cataleya lost consciousness.

Dean ran up to her and shook her, but she didn't stir and he muttered, "Damn you, Leya."

Sam ran down the stairs and saw Cataleya in the corner, unmoving and Dean holding her. "Dean! Catty!" He ran over and shook his friend. "Dean, Catty, hey. Hey."

Dean met his eyes. "She just... She risked her life for me."

HOSPITAL

Sam stood at the desk with a receptionist. Dean chose to stay in Cataleya's room, feeling guilty for what had happened to her.

"Sir, I'm so sorry to ask," the receptionist said. "There doesn't seem to be any insurance on file."

"Right. Uh, okay." He pulled a card from his wallet and handed it to the receptionist.

The receptionist glanced at the card. "Okay, Mr. Burkovitz."

Sam saw two cops waiting and walked over.

"Look, we can finish this up later," one of the cops said.

Sam shook his head. "No, no, it's okay. We were just taking a shortcut through the neighborhood. And, um, the windows were rolled down, and we heard some screaming when we drove past the house, and we stopped. Ran in."

"And you found the kids in the basement?"

"Well, thank God you did."

Sam noticed a doctor walking towards them and glanced at the cops. "Excuse me."