Fight, Boy, Fight

Chapter 31

I was trying to do a handstand without using a wall, or a tree, or a brother to help me balance. Sam was getting food, Dean was on the phone, either to Bobby or leaving Lisa a voicemail.
Then I heard Dean say" River, let's go." I fell forward, I yelped as I hit the ground face-first. I scrambled up, wiping blood from my nose," Remind me to buy you a helmet. Wannabe stunt man." Sam handed me a hotdog, I followed them to the impala.
———
I was waiting for them to get back in the impala, I squirmed around, then pulled out Rexxy. I held him to my chest and pulled my knees up, my body was humming, the power inside me wanted out. It got used to the outbursts, so now it expected them, but I don't really have outbursts anymore. Man... I'm really sleepy, but my body just won't let me sleep much.
I saw them come out, I pressed my face to the window, watching them walk up, then split once they got to the car. Sam got in, first, then Dean, I crawled into the front seat, then dug my head under Dean's arm, closing my eyes.

Dean was on the phone,
He said" Hey. Did you find anything?" I looked at him," Awesome. Yeah, my skin crawls being in the same room with him. Why don't you look that up? I don't know how much longer I can do this, Bobby." He grabbed a beer," You got to figure out what the hell he is and fast." He sat down, what's going on now," What, Satan's my co-pilot? Yeah, I know." Is this about Sam, and how he's acting weirder than normal." Well, then what? I gotta go. You got a day, Bobby, and then I'm handling this." He hung up on Bobby, then took a sip of beer, Oh, I'm so gonna have to be the one to keep him from killing Sam, aren't I? He called someone else but ended it, then Sam came in.
He said" There was another one."
" Yeah? What?"
" Dentist drilled a guy to death."
" You mean the... non-sexy kind of drilling, right?" I tilted my head, huh?
" 50 bucks says he's mixed up in all the crazy."
" You think?"
" Yeah. Let's go talk to him."
" Okay. Uh... Why don't you go ahead? I'll catch up. I'm gonna do a little research."
" You sure?"
" Yeah. We got to know what we're up against, right?"
" Yeah. Yeah, good idea." Sam walked out, I looked at Dean, Dean looked at me,
" You know anything, little insomniac?" He sat on the bed in front of me, looking at me,
I said" If I knew anything, I'd tell you. You really think it's Lucifer?" I gulped, he sighed,
" Uh, maybe. We don't know for sure, okay? Don't worry, I've got it handled."
" What if it is Lucifer? What if Sammy's trapped in the cage alone?! Or what if he's trapped in his mind?! That's a million times worse than being trapped in hell! What if we can't-" Dean covered my mouth, pulling me closer to him, I breathed heavily, the room was shaking. He hugged me to his chest, I copied his breathing pattern, till the room stopped shaking.
" Everything's gonna be okay, River, I swear. I've got it handled. Look, buddy, you need sleep, I've got the bruise the size of a football to prove you barely got any real sleep last night. And you've barely gotten any sleep the last week. You're 9 years old, you need more than an hour or two every few days to function."
" I've survived this long."
" Just lay down, ground yourself and try to get some sleep. If you do, I'll give you 10 bucks."
" Fine... but you gotta stitch Rexxy's cut later, okay?"
" I will, I promise." I crawled to the top of the bed and dug my head under the pillow, holding Rexxy with one arm as I closed my eyes." Get some sleep, buddy." I felt him rubbing my back, I sighed, my body stopped humming and I was out like a light.

I woke up, sitting up, rubbing my eyes, I saw Sam and Dean, with a cat skull.
Dean said" Demon?"
Sam said" God. Corey was so desperate for the truth about her boyfriend's cheating heart, she went digging around. Nothing panned out, so she went looking for a different kind of help."
" Opened a door she couldn't close."
" Yeah. Now anyone in town who asks aloud for the truth invokes Veritas. And she doesn't just give it to you. She slams you with it until you kill yourself and she gets her tribute."
" So, all that tribute vanishing from the morgue. What do you think, uh, soylent-green situation?"
" Gods got to eat, too. Which means we got to take her out or you're on the menu."
" All right, well, what do we know, besides crazy cat lady?"
" Well, dogs are her achilles heel."
" Naturally."
" And she was a pretty hands-on goddess back in the day. Her thing was coming down from the mountain to speak truth to the masses. She wanted more than tribute. She wanted to be worshipped."
" An attention whore."
" If you want to put it that way."
" And what is the 21st-century version of speaking truth to the masses?" They looked at each other,
I said" What's going on?" Dean raised his eyebrow while looking at Sam, I rubbed my eyes.
Sam said" Dean's cursed, we need you to not talk till he's not cursed." I tilted my head," Because you have the anger of a giant all packed into your 4'5 body. Mainly pointed at us. We'll pay you."
I grumbled" Fine, even though it's totally not fair."