CROSSROADS ☁︎ Supernatural

PART 17 - DEAN

"Dean, what is it?" Sam found Dean sitting in the kitchen rubbing his tired eyes out when he should actually be making the demon talk.

"I think I've killed her, Sammy." Dean didn't even looked at him. He was beating himself up, he believed he failed.

"What? Who, Riley? You can't actually do that to a demon, you know that." Sam's so good at defending people. He really would make a good lawyer.

"I know but ... after the carving I did a week ago, the demon's been ... I don't know, different. More ... demonic. There's nothing human about it anymore. And last few hours it's been unbelievably silent. No humming, nothing. And it was on it all the time just to get on our nerves. I think it's time to call it. We waited way too long anyway."

"But ... what about Dad?" Sam couldn't let it go down just like that.

"We're not learning much about him this way anyway. And maybe we can still save her. Or at least free her."

"Maybe we should talk to Bobby ..." Sam was already getting the phone.

"No, Sammy, enough," Dean stopped him right there. They were all exhausted from the constant torture they all underwent. Dean was done with it. "I mean ... I can't cut into her anymore. I just ... can't. The screams ... I can't take it any more than you do," he confessed.

"Dean, stop ..."

"No, Sam, it's ..."

"Shhh ... what's the ... can you hear it?"

"What the hell?" Dean's hand went straight to his gun.

Rumsfeld, Bobby's dog, went crazy for the past few days. He just wouldn't stop barking and they eventually had to let him go from the chain Bobby kept him on throughout the day, because it wouldn't stop rattling. But now, he just squealed and stopped.

Everything went dead silent. Except for one sound.

"Can you hear that?" Sammy whispered, grabbing the container with holy water from the counter.

"Scratching!" Dean stood up whispering as well.

"When did it start?"

"I don't know. Where is it coming from?" They moved as quietly as they could, turning around to localize the sound.

Finally, they both turned to the living room. They were still listening, breathless, that was why they had to cover their ears when the noise came. Riley was screaming her lungs out.

They rushed to the other room, seeing the last bits of red smoke leaving Riley's body heading to the fireplace and outta the chimney. So much for their exorcising ritual.

What happened next happened in the slow motion for Dean. Riley was still limp, lying on the ground and immediately after the last red particle left her body, every cut he ever made on her forearms appeared again. Her wounds were opening one after another like flowers in bloom.

Riley would move if she weren't in so much pain but it paralyzed her. All kind of bruises in every color of the spectrum were creating a map on her body.

"Riley? Are you there?" Dean landed on the ground next to her. The circle around her was broken.

Cindy's English accent was falling heavy on every word the demon said so Dean couldn't be happier to hear it was gone even though Riley's words were coated in agony. "It's... me again," she drew out of her.

"It's her, Sammy," Dean sighed in relief, "get the kit."

They had to restore the salt and holy water stock, but the emergency kit Bobby prepared weeks ago when they brought her in was still lying on the kitchen counter. The demon healed itself, Riley wasn't that lucky.

Sammy grabbed the kit along with some kitchen towels and took a place on the other side of Riley. They put pressure on both of her hands in order to stop the bleeding. Thank god Dean didn't cut her deep enough to rip the arteries open.

Dean scanned her pale face. She was losing consciousness and seeing things, looking above herself, turning her head to sides, mumbling under her breath. Every once in a while her eyes would turn inside her head.

"We need to call an ambulance, Dean. We'll tell 'em she tried to kill herself."

"How many times exactly, Sammy? She looks like lawn mower went over her. Just ... sew it up."

"We are not surgeons, Dean. She's not gonna make it." Sam couldn't see this ending well. But Dean wouldn't allow it any other way as long as he could help it.

"Listen to me! We're going to patch her up and then she'll sleep and she'll be just fine, okay? Are you hearing me, Sammy? SAM!" Dean had to snap his younger brother out of his panic attack.

The second Sam cleared his head he knew Dean was right, there was no time to wait either way. They had to act without any delay. "Yeah," he put gloves on and took the needle from the kit, "yeah, okay. Hold her down. This won't be pretty."

Riley was so high, she didn't even realize what they were doing. They sanitized her arms and Sam started to erratically stitch her arms at full blossom back into tight buds. She fell unconscious halfway in the procedure. Her body finally decided to take it easy on her. On the other hand, Dean's mind was upside down.

"I did this to her," he kept watching Sam's hands working tirelessly.

"We had no choice. The demon..." Sam spoke on autopilot.

"No, this was all me," Dean's guilty conscience put heavy weight on his back. "We should've exorcised it right away. Save the poor girl all the trouble. If it wasn't for Dad..." There was nothing more he could say. They did it for Dad.

"The things we do for the man," Sam shook his head in disbelief continuing fitting Riley back into her skin.

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Author's Note: Welcome back! Well, that was a long wait but I believe there's a lot of catching up to do. 📚 The next part is coming soon.

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Feel free to barge in anytime, I won't get mad and I won't even make you go back and vote on every part. 😂

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