The (Other) Nephilim

Chapter Thirteen

A/N: Here's an extra long chapter for you guys. You've earned it.

"Lucas, good, I was worried you wouldn't hear me," Castiel said in a monotone voice. "Now listen-"

"Wait," I interrupted. "I heard you in my head. How did you do that?"

"I prayed to you."

"You WHAT?" I exclaimed, "I-I thought that you could only pray to God!"

"Well, technically he prefers to be called Chuck," he corrected me. "And actually no, you can pray to any angel, which also applies to you and Jack, since you are part angel. And before you object, it does make sense, actually. Now listen to me, something has happened to Sam. He's convinced his name is Justin Smith and that he lives in this town with his wife. Everyone here is under some sort of spell, and I'm sure that the witch who did it is Sunny, the girl who makes the milkshakes everyone seems to enjoy so much. I didn't have one, but Sam did, and now you and I need to get Sunny to remove the spell."

Taking a deep breath, I nodded. "How? Err, what's our plan?"

"Intimidation," Cas said curtly before flying into the diner, me following directly behind him. There was a girl with red hair and a pink uniform putting cups down on the counter. Turning around, she saw us and let out a gasp. "I think we should talk," Cas told her, tilting his head.

"I-uh. Okay, about what?" Sunny (as I gathered by her nametag and Cas's information) stammered nervously.

"About how you're a witch," the angel deadpanned.

"A witch?"

"About how you brainwashed my friend and about how you've done something to this entire town."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she shook her head.

"Oh yes you do. You wrote these," Cas said, holding up a handful of red, pink, and white letters. "You wrote them to Conrad." He threw them onto the counter. "And between various steamy, erotic musings, you begged him to leave. Why is that? Because you were afraid you'd hurt him?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Sunny defended herself.

"Okay, then tell me."

Sunny stared at him, then suddenly tried to make a break for it. I jumped in front of her and Castiel grabbed her arm. "Tell me, or I'll rip it from your mind," he threatened, making his eyes glow. Sunny gasped and glanced at me, and I made mine glow as well. "Fine. Have it your way." He held his hand above her head, ready to dive into her mind.

She shook her head fearfully and exclaimed, "No, no, please! It's not me! It's him! He's out of control!"

"Who is?" I asked.

"Well now..." a plummy voice spoke up behind us. We turned around to see a short man in a fedora with three men behind him in tweed suits, including Sam, who had his hair in a ponytail and was wearing glasses. "That's not very nice," the man in front chided. Sam shook his head.

"So you did this," Cas stated.

"What, did you think it was the milkshakes?" he chuckled.

"What are you?" Cas narrowed his eyes and Sunny shuffled away from us.

"Well, I like to think of myself as a kind of Good Samaritan," the man said, taking off his gloves. "You know, I've always been lucky. I've always had an intuition about what people are gonna do or say. Made me the king of poker night." He removed his hat and looked oddly wistful. "But then the mill shut down. And this town - the town I love - had started to die. Then my sweet wife, she passed away. And the world kept gettin' worse, and they called it "modernization," and no matter what I did, people would turn to drink or drugs, they'd move away," he sighed and sat down. "They just weren't happy. Thing's kept getting worse, and I started to hear noises - voices. And I screamed at these voices. I said, 'Just make things better!' And you know what happened next?"

"No, but I have a feeling you're gonna tell us," Cas deadpanned again.

The man smiled slyly. "The very next day, I thought - just thought - 'I wish there was more people in the soda shop.' And I came in here that day, and it was packed. And that's when I figured it out. I can make people do whatever I want."

"So you're some kind of mind-control psychic?" Cas muttered.

He put on another evil smile and I knew Cas had hit the spot. "I re-made this town. I gave everybody new names, new lives, I made everybody happy. Well, most everybody, and, uh, the ones who fought it, well -"

"You'd murder them."

"I was just protecting my home!" he snapped.

"And you," Castiel looked at Sunny. "you knew all about this."

"Well, she knew enough to play along," the man turned in his chair to look at her. "but uh... my tricks never worked on Sunny. She's too much like me."

"I am nothing like you," she squeaked, and I was reminded of Jack and his sincerity of not wanting to have anything in common with his father. Sunny and Jack were in similar situations, I realized. Not exactly the same, but close enough.

The man looked back at me and Cas. "But you. Why can't I change you two?"

"Because we're not human," he shot back.