Cherry Pie

The Famous Final Scene

[Rayne]

It was almost funny how in a moment when my life should have been flashing before my eyes, my mind instead became hyperaware of my present.

Dean's hand instantly wrapped around mine — holding onto it tightly. I couldn't tell if it was because he was nervous or simply getting prepared to bolt with me in tow. Sam stepped closer to me; his arm brushed mine. I could feel the course fibers of his plaid button-up against my bare skin.

The woods were completely still around us.

Bobby and John stood up straighter, already reaching for their weapons. The angels were silent behind me, but I could still sense their presence. Something deep within me was beginning to stir. It felt like there was a string running from the top of my head all the way to the bottoms of my feet and it was starting to split — one end stretching towards Castiel behind me and the other towards Tom before me.

The Light and Darkness. The good and the bad.

Once again, I was being torn in half by the powers swirling inside of me. I didn't know how it was possible, but icy heat shot up and down my whole body.

Fight or flight. Run or attack.

Carmen's premonition came back to me like a whisper on the wind.

"There is one future in which you die protecting those you love."

Was this that future? It didn't seem so bad if it meant I could leave my hunters behind unscathed.

"There is one where the dark forces that are after you overpower you and force you to do their will."

Tom's eyes flashed with a multitude of silent messages that all seemed to say the same thing. It was like he could hear my thoughts and this was the future that he was betting on. His dark brown hair was spiked to perfection. His features were sharp and straight — lined with the first hints of age. He was handsome, I realized with some primal sense of aversion. But it was like finding a lion handsome — it didn't make his teeth any less sharp. 

"And there is another where you walk away from it all. That's the future in which you run away, but it's also the only one in which your life gets spared."

The demon watched me with such persistent hunger that the third option started to sound dangerously appealing. How much easier would it be to just run away?

"Of course, the others in your life aren't as lucky."

My stomach twisted in pain at that last thought. The people next to me did so much for me — I couldn't just leave them behind. I wouldn't.

"You're unusually silent for being the bad guy," I found myself saying.

Tom smiled like we were old friends and I had just made some particularly funny inside joke. "Bad guy..." he repeated and smacked his lips as if he was tasting the words on his tongue. "Such a subjective term."

I dared to send him a glare. "No — I'm pretty sure it's universal."

He waved his hand in dismissal at that. "Okay, Rayne; I'll give you that one. I know I'm a demon, and we usually get pinned down as nothing more than the "bad guy"," he said, making air quotations around the two words, "but there's so much more to me than just being bad. I'm a complex guy. I have dreams, ambitions. And I'm trying to be good! I really, truly am." His head lowered but his brown eyes looked up at me eagerly. "So...shall we get on with the show?"