Bobby is sitting at his desk while the other three are in the kitchen. Dean is standing up while Sam sits at the table and Larissa puts brownies in the oven, setting a timer.
"Well, then, tell me what else it could be." Sam says. Larissa lets out an irritated sigh as the brothers have been fighting for the better part of half an hour.
"Look, all I know is I was not groped by an angel." Dean says.
"Okay, look, Dean, why do you think this Castiel would lie to you about it?" Sam asks.
"Maybe he's some kind of demon. Demons lie." Dean says.
"A demon who's immune to salt rounds and devil's traps? And Ruby's knife? Dean, Lilith is scared of that thing!" Sam states.
"Don't you think that if angels were real, that some hunter somewhere would have seen one... at some point... ever?" Dean asks.
"Yeah. You just did, Dean." Sam says.
"I'm trying to come up with a theory here. Okay? Work with me." Dean says.
"Dean, we have a theory."
"Yeah, one with a little less fairy dust on it, please."
"Okay, look, I'm not saying we know for sure. I'm just saying that I think we--"
"Okay, okay. That's the point. We don't know for sure, so I'm not gonna believe that this thing is a fucking Angel of the Lord because it says so!"
"All right, you two keep arguing, I'm whacking you both over your stupid heads with this fucking frying pan!" Larissa threatens, holding the pan up. "You wanna be annoying now?"
"You two want to keep arguing about religion and getting threatened by a pissed off woman, or do you want to come take a look at this?" Bobby asks.
"You better fucking walk." Larissa quietly says. Dean raises his hands in surrender, walking over to Bobby's desk and Sam follows. Larissa rolls her eyes at them, putting the frying pan down, and walking over to Bobby's desk.
"I got stacks of lore. Biblical, pre-Biblical. Some of it's in damn cuneiform. It all says an angel can snatch a soul from the pit." Bobby informs.
"What else?" Dean asks.
"What else, what?" Bobby asks.
"What else could do it?" Dean asks.
"Airlift your ass out of the hot box? As far as I can tell, nothing." Bobby says.
"Dean, this is good news." Sam says.
"How?" Dean asks.
"Because for once, this isn't just another round of demon crap. I mean, maybe you were saved by one of the good guys, you know?" Sam suggests.
"Okay. Say it's true, say there are angels. Then what? There's a God?" Dean asks.
"At this point, Vegas money's on yeah." Bobby says.
"I don't know, guys." Dean says.
"Okay, look, I know you're not all choirboy about this stuff, but this is becoming less and less about faith and more and more about proof." Sam says.
"Proof?" Dean asks.
"Yes." Sam nods.
"Proof that there's a God out there that actually gives a crap about my personally? I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it." Dean says.
"Why not?" Sam asks.
"Because why me? If there is a God out there, why would he give a crap about me?"
"Dean--"
"I mean, I've saved some people, okay? I figured that made up for the stealing and the ditching chicks. But why do I deserve to get saved? I'm just a regular guy."
"Apparently, you're a regular guy that's important to the man upstairs."
"Well, that creeps me out. I mean, I don't like getting singled out at birthday parties, much less by... God."
"Okay, well, too bad, Dean, because I think he wants you to strap on your party hat."
Dean stays quiet for a few moments, quietly clearing his throat. He looks between the three, glancing at Larissa who gives him a sympathetic smile.
"Fine. What do we know about angels?" Dean asks.
Bobby puts a pile of books on the desk.
"Start reading." Bobby says.
"You're gonna get me some pie." Dean orders Sam, grabbing a book, and walking away.
+++
They get to Olivia Lowry's house since she hasn't answered any of Bobby's calls the past few days. They creep into the house, all having their shotguns at the ready.
"Olivia?" Bobby calls. They walk further into the house and find Olivia's body on the floor, her stomach open and her ribs sticking out. Bobby quickly walks out of the house.
"Bobby?" Dean calls after him.
"Salt line." Sam points out as the three walk into the room Olivia's corpse is in.
"Olivia was rocking the EMF meter." Dean says, holding the device up.
"Spirit activity." Sam mutters.
"Yeah, on steroids. I've never seen a ghost do this to a person." Dean says. "Bobby, you all right?" He asks as the man walks back in.
"I called some hunters nearby." Bobby says.
"Good. We can use their help." Dean says.
"Except they ain't answering their phones either." Bobby says.
"Something's up, huh?" Sam asks.
"You think?" Bobby retorts, walking out of the room.
~ ~ ~
Larissa sits in the passenger seat of Bobby's truck as he drives to the next hunter's house.
"Are you okay?" She quietly asks.
"I'm fine." Bobby says.
"Are you--"
"I'm good." Bobby sternly states.
"Okay." Larissa whispers, nodding. She doesn't believe him, but she knows better than push.
~ ~ ~
"Yeah, we're at Jed's. It's not pretty. He looks even worse than Olivia. What about you?" Dean asks over the phone.
"I checked on Carl Bates and R.C. Adams. They've redecorated... in red." Bobby states.
"What the hell is going on here, Bobby? Why do a bunch of ghosts suddenly want to gank off duty hunters?" Dean asks.
"I don't know, but until we find out, you guys better get your asses back to my place."
"We're on our way."
+++
Larissa and Bobby are at his house and are in the living room. Suddenly their breath becomes visible and Larissa tenses up.
"Bobby?" She quietly asks.
Before he can say anything, they hear laughing. Bobby gets up and walks to the noise, grabbing an iron poker from the fireplace. The lights flicker and the radio starts playing.
"Rissa." She hears her name in a creepy sing song voice. Her head spins around to the kitchen where it came from. Larissa glances at Bobby who is at the bottom of the stairs. She gets up and slowly goes to the kitchen. She looks around, coming to a sharp halt, as her eyes widen when she recognizes the person in front of her.
"Hey, babe." He smiles.
Larissa darts for the iron frying pan and goes to slash him with it, but he quickly grabs her wrist, and hits the frying pan on Larissa's head, knocking her out.
+++
It's daytime and Larissa is lying down in the backseat of a car. Her ghost ex-boyfriend is straddling her, his hand planted over her mouth in a firm grip.
"Bobby? Rissa?" She hears Sam's voice call out. "Rissa? Bobby?"
"You knew that that monster was targeting people like me. Guys, brown hair, on the football team. You knew it would come after me." Logan whispers. Larissa rapidly shakes her head, his hand staying over her mouth.
"You didn't even try to warn me. Even after I didn't call you a freak when you said ghosts were fucking real. I knew I should've just hooked up and then ditched you." Logan tsks. "You stood there, crying, when that vamp sunk its teeth into me... and ripped my throat out."
"No." Larissa says, it being muffled by his hand, as tears stream down her face.
"You just watched and-and cried. Why were you crying? It's not like you fucking died." Larissa lets out a quiet sob. "See, now-- now you do have a reason to cry. Because this time, it's gonna be you that dies. You're gonna feel that pain."
Larissa appears to give up on fighting making Logan smirk at her in defeat. However, when he glances away for a split moment, Larissa lifts her leg, managing to kick the back window, it shattering open.
The moment of shock gets Logan to look back at the window and Larissa bats his hand away from her mouth.
"Sam!" She screeches.
She tries to move, but Logan quickly slams her back onto the seat, his hand wrapping around her throat.
"No. Hell, no. What? Calling out for your new boyfriend now? Really? He isn't gonna save you." Logan sneers. His grip around her throat tightens, Larissa starts to see black dots.
Suddenly Logan disappears and Larissa coughs and gasps for air. She's able to make out both Sam and Bobby.
"Hey, hey, Lissy." Sam moves the front seat forward, allowing her space to get out. "Come on. Come on." He gives his iron crowbar to Bobby while he helps the brunette out. "Hey. Hey, you okay?"
Larissa leans against the car as she catches her breath.
"Rissa, you all right?" Bobby asks.
"Yeah. Yeah, of course." She nods, rubbing her throat. "Nothing like getting strangled."
"You sure you're okay?" Sam asks.
"I'm fine, Sam." Larissa states.
"Okay." He awkwardly mumbles. "Come on, we should go make sure Dean's good."
~ ~ ~
"So, they're all people we know?" Sam asks as the four are in the living room.
"Not just know. People we couldn't save. Hey, I saw something on Meg. Did she have a tattoo when she was alive?" Dean asks.
"I don't think so." Sam says.
"It was like a-a mark on her hand. Almost like a brand." Dean says.
"I saw a mark, too, on Henriksen." Sam says.
"What did it look like?" Bobby asks.
"Uh, paper?" Sam asks and Bobby gives him a piece of paper and pen. "Thanks." He quickly draws the mark he saw. He holds it up to show Dean.
"That's it." Dean nods.
"That was on Logan's hand." Larissa says.
"I may have seen this before. We got to move." Bobby says. "Follow me."
"Okay, where are we going?" Sam asks.
"Some place safe, you idiot." Bobby says. He grabs some books and leads them downstairs and into a panic room. It's completely made of iron and has symbols all over the walls.
"Bobby, is this..." Sam asks.
"Solid iron. Completely coated in salt. 100% ghost proof." Bobby states.
"You built a panic room?" Sam asks.
"I had a weekend off." Bobby shrugs.
"Solid reasoning." Larissa shrugs, a small smile on her face.
"Bobby." Dean calls.
"What?" He asks.
"You're awesome."
~ ~ ~
"See, this is why I can't get behind God." Dean says.
"What are you talking about?" Sam asks.
"If he doesn't exist, fine. Bad crap happens to good people. That's how it is. There's no rhyme or reason -- just random, horrible, evil -- I get it, oaky? I can roll with that. But if He is out there, what's wrong with Him? Where the hell is He while all these decent people are getting torn to shreds? How does He live with himself? You know, why doesn't He help?"
"I ain't touching this one with a 10 foot pole." Bobby says. "Found it."
"What?" Sam asks.
"The symbol you saw. The brand on the ghosts." Bobby says.
"Yeah?" Sam asks.
"Mark of the Witness." Bobby says.
"Witness? Witness of what?" Sam asks.
"The unnatural. None of them died what you'd call ordinary deaths. See, these ghosts -- they were forced to rise. They woke up in agony. They were like rabid dogs. It ain't their fault, someone rose them... on purpose."
"Who?" Sam asks.
"Do I look like I know? But whoever it was used a spell so powerful it left a mark, a brand on their souls. Whoever did this had big plans. It's called "the rising of the witnesses." It figures into an ancient prophecy."
"Wait, wait. What-- what book is that prophecy from?" Dean asks.
"Well, the widely distributed version's just for tourists, you know. But long story short -- Revelations. This is a sign, kids." Bobby says.
"A sign of what?" Sam and Dean ask.
"The apocalypse." Bobby states.
"Apocalypse? The apocalypse, apocalypse? The four horsemen, pestilence, $5 a gallon gas apocalypse?" Dean asks.
"That's the one. The rise of the witnesses is a mile marker." Bobby says.
"Okay, so, what do we do now?" Sam asks.
"Road trip. Grand Canyon, Star Trek Experience, Bunny Ranch." Dean says.
"First things first. How about we survive our friends out there?" Bobby suggests.
"Great. Any ideas aside from staying in this room until Judgment Day?" Dean asks.
"It's a spell to send the witnesses back to rest." Bobby informs, pointing to a piece of paper. "Should work."
"Should. Great." Sam says.
"If I translate it correctly, I think I got everything we need here at the house." Bobby says.
"Any chance you got everything we need here in this room?" Dean asks.
"So, you thought our luck was gonna start now all of a sudden?" Bobby retorts. "Spell's got to be cast over an open fire."
"The fireplace in the library." Dean says.
"Bingo." Bobby nods.
"That's just not as appealing as a, uh, ghost proof panic room, you know?" Dean says.
"Cover each other. And aim careful. Don't run out of ammo until I'm done or they'll shred you." Bobby says as they get ready to leave the panic room. "Ready?" They nod and Bobby opens the door, the four walking out.
They go to the stairs, being stopped by a man in his 20s and he has curly hair.
"Hey, Dean. You remember me?" He asks.
"Ronald, huh? With the laser eyes? I wish I could say it's good to see you." Dean says.
"Laser eyes?" Larissa whispers.
"Somewhat of a long story." Sam mumbles.
"I am dead because of you. You were supposed to help me!" Ronald shouts. He disappears after Bobby shoots him.
"If you're gonna shoot, shoot. Don't talk." Bobby says. They go up the stairs and into the living room. Sam makes a salt circle and Dean starts the fire.
"Upstairs, linen closet -- red hex box. It'll be heavy." Bobby tells Sam who rushes upstairs.
"Bobby." The twin girls appear in the living room and Dean shoots them.
"Kitchen. Cutlery drawer. It's got a false bottom. Hemlock, opium, wormwood." Bobby says.
"Opium?" Dean asks.
"Go!" Bobby shouts and Dean rushes to the kitchen.
"Rissy." She turns to see Logan. "You know you could've saved me. You just had to get close enough. You let it kill me." She shoots him making him disappear.
The doors to the kitchen suddenly close while Dean is still in there.
"Dean?" Bobby and Larissa call out.
"I'm all right! Keep working!" Dean shouts.
Sam and Dean soon get to the living room through the kitchen. They put the box and other ingredients down.
"Ronald. Hey, come on, man. I thought we were pals." Dean says.
"That's when I was breathing. Now I'm gonna eat you alive." Ronald says.
"Well... come on, I'm not a cheeseburger." Dean says. He points his gun at Ronald, but he vanishes. Bobby starts the spell as the windows blow open, wind picking up in the room. It messes up the salt line, the four knowing they're no longer protected.
The ghosts appear and the brothers and Larissa shoot at them as they appear and make them disappear, only for them to reappear moments later. Henriksen appears and knocks Dean's gun out of his hands. Dean grabs another one, but it's empty. He quickly picks up an iron rod and slashes at Henriksen when he goes to attack Dean, the ghost disappearing.
Larissa goes to shoot at Logan as he appears again, but her gun clicks. She tries again, her eyes widening as Logan gets closer.
Logan flings the gun out of her hands and puts his hand on her head, using her hair to yank her head back. Larissa cries out in pain and she goes to hit at Logan, but he holds her wrist back.
"Larissa!" Sam yells from where he's pinned by a desk that the ghost twin girls are sitting on. Larissa whines in pain.
"Sam!" Dean shouts.
"Cover Bobby!" Sam yells.
Logan sticks his hand into Larissa's chest, gripping her heart, making her scream out in pain.
"Lissy!" Sam screams. Larissa groans and cries out as the pain worsens.
Bobby recites the spell until Meg plunges a hand into his back. Bobby drops the bowl.
"Dean!" Bobby shouts and Dean catches the bowl just in time. "Fireplace!"
Dean throws the bowl into the fire and the flames turn blue. The ghosts all disappear and Larissa falls to the floor, gasping for air and groaning as the pain still subsides.
While Dean checks on Bobby, Sam pushes the desk away from him and rushes over to Larissa.
"Hey. Hey." He puts a gentle hand on her back. "Hey, you okay?"
"What the fuck do you think?" Larissa whines. She groans in pain.
"Yeah, sorry." Sam mumbles. Larissa whines, falling sideways and into Sam who catches her before she hits the floor. She's in too much pain to really care that she's currently mad at him, willing to accept the comfort of anybody at the moment.
~ ~ ~
They got most of the place cleaned up and Larissa is currently sitting at the table and eating pie she made a few days ago. She doesn't look up as Sam sits across from her.
"You okay?" Sam asks.
"I'm fine." Larissa mumbles.
"So, um... who-who was Logan?" Sam asks.
"Sam, even if I did wanna relieve my tragic past, you are the last person I wanna talk about this with." Larissa states.
"Right. Sorry." He whispers.
Larissa looks up and sees his puppy dog eyes. She clenches her jaw, having a weird pull to tell him. Which she hates because he doesn't need to know anything. He hurt her first. He doesn't get to make her feel guilty for trying to help him.
"He was my high school boyfriend." Larissa quietly starts. She doesn't do this to give him peace of mind, but maybe it'll help her get through it. "We were fifteen. There was, um... some sort of monster that started picking off the football team one by one. It was a vamp. It actually ended up being the coach, he just really hated his team."
"I didn't think to warn him somehow. Or protect him. He'd think I was a freak. I found out it was the coach and went to his place when Logan had gone missing the day prior. I get there and... Logan's there, tied up on the floor, the coach standing over him."
"I didn't move fast enough. He bit into Logan's neck, tore his flesh out, got his blood spraying everywhere. I froze. I couldn't move, I was stuck watching."
"You were hunting alone at 15?" Sam asks.
"Well, I wasn't supposed to be. I did eventually move and kill the vamp. Had Ellen worried out of her fucking mind when I got back to the roadhouse. I just... it took me a while to get over."
"I get it." Sam says. "I, um... my college girlfriend, Jess, she... I wasn't there to protect her. Dean came and got me back into the hunting life and-and when I got back, it... it was already too late."
"Sorry." Larissa mumbles.
"I'm sorry, too." Sam says. "For more than that." They share a knowing look. Larissa gets up, putting her fork in the sink.
"Just an FYI. Trauma sharing... doesn't mean I forgive you." She tells him before going upstairs.