When a Monster Strikes

Chapter Fifty-One: To Kill a Witch

    Dean pulled off on the side of the road and rustled out another phone...a different phone. Chloe watched him turn it on and tap on it. He launched an app...Find my Device.

    "You think that either of them have their location service on?" Chloe knew Jess would. That's how she'd found her when Sam and Dean had been shot up.

    "I know for a fact Sam does...alright. Anyway, he said something about a library. They could be there but it isn't like them to not answer their phones." The elder hunter said and as they watched the app work it's magic. The screen zeroed in on a large building...the Kirkwood Public Library.

    "Found 'em." He laughed before dropping the phone on the seat and putting the car in gear. Chloe let out a sigh. It seemed as if Sam and maybe Jess if she was with him, had never made it out of the library...which meant that the witch probably worked there. Chloe voiced that opinion outright.

       "So if they're still at the library. You know they've been there for hours then the witch that started all of this probably works there. Good thing it's closing time." She said as she watched them pass a park.

    "Uh yeah. Good catch. I was actually thinking the same thing." Dean grunted and Chloe said nothing more. Her mind on Jess and she guessed Sam.

• • • • • •

    (Jess's POV)

    A voice rang out, the sound echoing off the walls. Jessica followed the sound into the main patron seating area. There was no one in sight but Jess followed the sounds to a side office. The light made her eyes hurt but she pushed through and looked blearily at the screens.

    The security cameras were on and there was a lady faced away from the camera. She was standing over something...or someone but the picture was too fuzzy to see anything but that. Of course, the public library had bad cameras, that's probably all they could afford because a lot of people used laptops now to... 'Focus Jess, finding Sam is the priority.' Jess thought.

    The same voice from before rang out and on the screen, the body straightened up. Clearly, something bad was about to go down. It was like something out of a B-rate horror flick that Dean always watched.

    Jess ran from the security office and headed back towards the voices. The witch was gonna kill Sam and that definitely was not gonna happen today.

    Back in the darkened hall, the chanting got louder and louder until Jess stopped at a cracked door. She peeked through and saw Sam tied to a chair. His face was bloody and he wasn't looking too good but Jess was sure he'd be fine. He had to be...because he was Sam.

    The witch...the old woman from before...the librarian that had seemed so nice had a knife and was mixing something in a bowl. She walked over to Sam and drew stuff on his chest...some sort of sigil Jess didn't recognize. She wanted to burst right in there but this lady was a witch and Jess didn't really feel like being jinxed or melted; so she waited.

    Sam struggled against the rope and looked over at the witch. "Why are you doing this?"

    "I've been alive for quite a long time and I don't intend for it to end today." She sneered and continued the ritual.

    "You should have thought of that before creating a blood bond...seems like they end pretty messy." He said as the witch kept writing the sigil on his chest, her back turned away from the door.

    Jessica looked down and saw Sam's gun on the floor. She made eye contact with him as she moved forward and grabbed the gun. She aimed at the witch and took a breath...her mind racing with everything she'd been taught by the boys and Bobby.

    The witch turned right then and smiled sickly at Jessica.

    "I don't think that gun is gonna do much sweetie...I'm a witch after all."

    Jess made sure the safety was off and with a look of determination on her face."Good thing these are witch killing bullets." She said and fired the gun.

    The old witch's eyes widened as the gun fired and she tried to jump out of the way but it was too late. She fell and hit the ground dead. 'Oh.' Jess thought and looked down at the lady, a feeling of dread filled her stomach. She'd just, well she'd just killed someone. She froze. Even though the witch was bad and was trying to kill them. She killed her.

    Of course, Sam and Dean had said at some point she might have to kill a monster. She just didn't think she'd feel like she'd want to vomit.

    "Jess. Jess. Hey, look at me." Sam said and she blinked down at him. Sam was still sat in the chair across the room.

    "It's okay Jess. She would've killed me...Jess?" He said and she momentarily snapped out of her head.

    Jess put the safety back on and tucked the gun into her waistband before coming over to Sam. He was covered in ritual blood and some weird powder that smelled like spicy garlic.

    "I'm so glad to see you." He said.

    "Likewise." She said and helped him untie his hands that were still bound behind the broken swivel chair, her hands slightly shaking. She helped him up and he briefly hugged her before they slowly made their way out of the room and into the hall.

    "So did the crazy witch tell you anything?" Jess asked to force her mind to focus on anything but what she had just done. 

    "Yeah...it's just like we thought. She and her friend made a blood bond to combine their magic or something but one of them died. She said she was being hunted down by the balance itself...whatever that means. Fate...destiny...an angry god with issues..."

    "So it could have been a number of things. Not to brag...but, it seemed easier than I thought it be," She said as they got closer and closer to the front of the library. "Hey by the way...do you have my pocket knife?"

    Sam felt all his pockets and then dug into one, bringing out her weapon. "She took it...I grabbed it while she wasn't looking." Well, at least he would've had a weapon if she wouldn't have made it in time.

    Jessica smiled and took the knife from Sam. "I know it's just a knife but it was from Bobby and I wanna make sure I keep it since he trusted me enough to actually give me one...you know." She confessed and held the front door open for the younger Winchester.

    "No. I get it, Jess. Really I do. So?

    "So?" She echoed.

    "You alright?" Sam asked her as they left the building.

    She nodded outwardly at him to reassure Sam but Jess couldn't shake the feeling of guilt off her. If she hadn't shot the witch, Sam definitely would've been harmed. Sacrificed just like all the others. Jessica knew in her heart that she couldn't have let Sam die. She knew even before she pulled the trigger that the witch had to die.

    Though she hadn't even stopped to consider that could have been another way. To take out the witch without killing the lady. There didn't seem to be any other way and for a long time to come, it would bother Jessica.