Cherry Pie

The End Of The Road

May

[Rayne]

Spring came early to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and with it, a sense of great disquiet.

Time felt like if had been running out, and we still had nothing tangible on how to kill Tom. Everyone was exhausted. Late night trips to visit hunters, out of state drives to look for ancient texts, endless hours spent reading old books — and all for nothing, it seemed. It would have stripped even the strongest of their will and determination.

And still, my group of unusual suspects did not complain. They trooped on. They kept fighting even when I wanted to give up. They encouraged each other when I beat myself up over forcing them to set aside their lives for me and mine.

That particular Sunday morning, things seemed more hopeless than they ever had before. The previous night, Cas and Daniel came back from yet another fruitless time-travel mission. They had been in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatia (which was the modern territory of Ukraine), visiting the Amazons: a group of warrior women, which, as legend had it, possessed a weapon that was said to be able to kill any demonic manifestation.

"It turned out that it was really just a legend," Castiel said as he and Daniel materialized in the living room without warning.

Bobby and John left earlier that day to take care of a nearby Buruburu, which had been infecting nearby citizens with something that Bobby called "ghost sickness", and that left Dean, myself, Sam, Sera, and Astrid to do more research back at the house.

"The Amazonian women are quite a merciless bunch," Daniel said with a slight shudder, thinking back to something that had occurred thousands of years ago, but which, for him, only just happened.

The morale of the group noticeably withered after that. We had all truly thought that that would be it. Even worse was when, not even ten minutes later, Astrid announced that she felt a sudden shift in the atmosphere.

"What does that supposed to mean?" Dean asked, setting the book he had been reading back down on the desk behind him and then pulling me towards him to stand in between his legs.

"Something's changed," she murmured, her eyes far away. "I've been monitoring Tom's energy, and it's just doubled."

"Doubled?" Sam asked. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know." She shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe while we were here trying to find a way to destroy him, he was busy finding ways to become stronger."

"So I guess only one of us was successful in their quests, huh?" I said, feeling my heart drop.

Dean's arms encircled my waist from behind and pulled me closer against him. "How did you get rid of him the last time?" he asked the young witch. "Back at the motel? Can't you just do that again?"

She shook her head. "I just deterred him for a while. Sent him to a place in between dimensions. It's the equivalent of covering someone's eyes, spinning them until they're dizzy, and then asking them what direction they were originally facing. It did nothing more than disorient him for a bit. Threw him off our scent. It doesn't actually hurt him."

"Well, whatever," Dean replied after a moment's pause. "That doesn't mean anything. If we find the right weapon, it should kill him regardless of how powerful he is." Nobody disagreed with him, but clearly no one was fully convinced either.

The next day, Dean and I woke up early and headed downstairs into the kitchen. The house was quiet. Still. But it was not a peaceful silence. I was consumed with the perpetual feeling of foreboding and dread. My 'angelic sixth sense' had been dormant for the last several months. For the past few days, however, it was on hyper drive.