Dean and Hermione are questioning Paul about Janet as Sam is searching the bathroom for clues as to what happened.
'She was so scared. I couldn't help, I couldn't do anything to stop it. And I've talked to the police, and I've talked to the medical examiner and no one can explain it,' Paul explains.
'Well, that's why they put the call in to us Mr. Dutton,' Dean responds.
'But the CDC, that's disease control, right? What do you think, is it some kind of virus?' Paul asks. Sam closes the door to the bathroom and looks more thoroughly through things.
'We're not ruling anything yet. Mr. Dutton did Janet have any enemies?'
'I'm sorry?'
'Anyone that might have a reason to hurt her?' Hermione asks.
'Wait, what are you saying? That somebody poisoned her?' Sam looks under the sink in the bathroom and finds something as the questioning continues in the bedroom.
'We're just saying we have to cover every base here,' Dean responds.
'Well I mean, what kind of poison? You think a person could have done this?'
'Would anyone want to?'
'What?! No, no, there's just no one that could've—' Sam opens the bathroom door.
'Mr. Dutton?' Hermione asks.
'Uh, everyone loved Janet,' Sam nods at Dean to let him know that he was done investigating.
'Okay. Thank you very much. I think we've got everything we need. We'll get out of our way now,' Dean informs Paul.
It's raining as Sam, Dean and Hermione walk out of the house towards the Impala.
'That dude seem a little evasive to you?' Dean asks.
'I don't know I was under a sink, pulling this out,' Sam takes a hex bag out of his pocket and hands it to Dean. They stop as Dean takes the bag from Sam and opens it. 'Hex bag,'
'Awww gross,'
'Yeah, there are bird bones, rabbit's teeth. This cloth is probably cut from something Janet Dutton owned,' Dean looks back at the house for a second and turns back handing the bag to Hermione and walks towards the Impala again.
'So we're thinking witch?' Dean asks looking over at Hermione who was looking at the stuff inside the bag.
'Uh, yeah, and not some new age wicked water douser either. This is Old World black magic Dean, I mean, warts and all,'
Dean gets into the car and tursn to Sam. 'I hate witches,' Sam gives Dean a glare trying to stop him. 'They're always spewing their bodily fluids everywhere,'
'Pretty much,'
'It's creepy, you know, it's down right unsanitary,'
'You two know that I don't need a piece of someone to curse them right?' Hermione asks in the backseat, looking at the boys.
'Ofcourse but you aren't like them,' Sam explains.
'Right,' Dean responds.
'Well then let's lower that witch hate shall we?' Hermione asks, raising her eyebrows.
'Yeah, well someone definitely had it out for Janet Dutton,' Sam says shifting the subject.
'Yeah, someone who snuck into that house and planted the bag. So what are we thinking, we're uh, looking for some Blair witch in the woods,' Dean suggests.
'No it could be anyone. Neighbor, coworker, man, woman—that's the problem, Dean, they're human, they're like everyone else,'
'Great. How do we find them?'
'This wasn't random, someone in Janet Dutton's life had an ugly axe to grind. We find the motive—,'
'We find the murderer,' Hermione points out.
'Yeah,' Dean starts the Impala and pulls away from the curb, driving off in the rain.
They drive down a road and see Paul fall out of his car onto the pavement hunched over. Dean stops the car and rushes over towards him with Hermione following him and yells at Sam.
'Check the car!' Sam searches under the dashboard and steering column as Dean and Hermione try to help Paul. 'Sam!' Sam gets up removing the hex bag he found as Dean pulls Paul up from the pavenment. 'Come on,' Sam lights the hex bag on fire and drops it to the ground as it glows with blue and green flames. Paul recovers from choking and leans back against his car. 'You okay?'
'What the hell is happening to me?!' Paul asks.
'Someone murdered your wife and now they're trying to kill you, that's what's happening to you,' Dean explains.
'That's impossible! There's no way—'
'If we hadn't been following you, you'd be a doornail right now. Now who wants you dead?'
'I-uh...'
'Come on think,'
'There's a woman—uh—'
'A woman, okay?'
'An affair—a mistake, she was unbalanced, she was blackmailing me and I put an end to it a week ago,'
'What's her name?' Sam asks.
'Wha–What could she have to do with—?'
'Paul! What is her name?' Dean asks.
Dean picks the lock and enters the house of the woman that Paul had an affair with, followed closely by Sam and Hermione, with his gun drawn. They enter the room and find Amanda lifeless on the table covered in blood and switch on the light. The flames are still burning, so she didn't die that long ago.
Dean stares at the body. 'That's a curveball,'
'Yeah,' Sam responds. Sam and Dean approach Amanda's body. Hermione stayed back not sure what to do in this situation. Dean lifts Amanda's right arm with the barrel of his gun then looks at the other as well.
'Three per wrist, vertical. She wasn't fooling around,'
Sam puts his gun in the back of his jeans and bends down to look at the scattered remnant of the altar holding his nose to the smell of the burnt rotten food. 'Yeah, looks like she was working some heavyweight evil here,'
'Yep,' Dean turns around, then jumps back, startled—he had nearly walked into a rabbit, hanging from the ceiling, dead. 'Oh god! Freaking witches! Seriously man, come on!'
'Guess we know where she got the rabbit's teeth from,'
'Well, Paul sure knows how to pick them huh? It's like Fatal Attraction all over again,'
'Yeah,'
'And why does the rabbit always get screwed in the deal?! The poor little guy,' Dean asks towards Hermione. She doesn't respond and Dean could hit himself on the head.
'You know what I don't get. If she was so bent on revenge, why do this?' Sam asks changing the subject.
'Well, she got Janet Dutton, thought she finished off Paul, decided to cap herself and make it a spurned lover's hat-trick,'
'Maybe,' Sam starts to look under the glass table that Amanda is on.
'I mean, this doesn't exactly look like the TV room of a bright and stable person, you know?'
'No, but then...' Sam reaches around and pulls out another hex bag that is tucked under te table and stands up tossing it to Dean. 'There is this,'
'Another hex bag? Come on!' Dean opens the bag and it filled with a similar content that was in the bag that they had found in Janet's bathroom and he tosses it on the table reaching for his phone. 'Looks like we got a hit, huh? A little witch-on-witch voilence?'
I guess,'
Dean dials the phone and hold it up to his ear. 'I'd like to report a dead body, 309 Mayfier Circle. My name? Yeah, sure my name is—' Dean clicks the phone off. 'Why are witches ganking each other?'
'I don't know but I think maybe we got a coven on our hands,'
Elizabeth is turning the soil of her garden with a small trowel when Sam, Dean and Hermione walk up her driveway to question her.
'You must have a green thumb,' Sam points out.
'Excuse me?' Elizabeth asks.
'Getting these herbs to grow out of season like this, quite impressive,' Sam explains. 'I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself first,' He reaches on the pocket of his suit jacket and takes out a badge. 'I'm uh, Detective Bachman, this is Dective Turner and Detective Thornton,' Dean and Hermione take out their badges out of their jackets and flash it at Elizabeth.
'Hi-ya,'
'We're following up on Amanda Burns death, going around the neighborhood and talking to neighbors and all that,' Hermione explains.
'But didn't she—I mean she killed herself right?'
'Maybe, maybe,' Sam thinks out loud.
'We heard you were friends with the deceased right?' Dean asks.
'Yeah, I guess so,'
'Did you have any idea about her practices?'
'I'm sorry, what kind of practices?'
'Well see, her house was littered with Satanic paraphernalia,' Sam explains.
'A regular Black Sabbath,' Dean adds.
'No, the—but she was an Episcopalian,'
'Well, then we're pretty sure she was using the wrong Bible,'
'Elizabeth, you all right?' A woman asks behind the brothers and Hermione. They turn around and notice two women standing there.
'I'm fine uh Renee, these are detectives. They say Amanda was—she was practicing—'
'I'm sorry detectives, you can tell that Elizabeth is a little bit upset,'
'Of course, Miss...?' Dean asks.
'Missus. Renee. Van Allen,' She says slowly and emphatically. 'Would you like me to spell it for you?'
'I'll get by, thanks,'
'This Amanda business has been hard for Liz. For all of us,'
'Yeah. I mean, you think you know a person,' The other woman adds.
'Well, I guess we all have secrets don't we?'
'Well, thanks, um, we'll be in touch,' Sam says to the women.
'Have a nice day,' Hermione adds.
Hermione walks behind the boys not listening to their theories. Sam looks behind him and notices Hermione not paying attention.
'You okay?' Sam asks. Hermione looks up and nods but doesn't say anything. He looks over towards Dean. 'Why don't you already walk to the car,' Dean shrugs but doesn't object and walks further along. 'You've been quiet,' Sam points out.
'I've been thinking,'
'About?'
'About stepping down in this hunt,'
'Why?'
Hermione stops for a moment and crosses her arms. 'Because it feels wrong,'
'Is this because of what Dean and I say about witches. We don't see you as one of these witches, you know that right?'
'I know it's just. I...I'm a witch and I feel like I'm betraying my kind,'
'But these witches aren't your kind. Hermione in every hunt we needed you but with this one we need you the most. And that's not fare I know. But you need to know that these witches are nothing like you or your kind. They prey on the innocent and kill them. You save them. I will never force you into killing them and I won't hold a grudge if you do step down, but do know that you are the only one that is stronger than these witches,' He puts his arm around her.
'Thank you Sam,'
'Just think about it,' She softly smiles and they walk back towards Dean.
Dean is driving the car as Sam is in the passenger's seat and Hermione between them in the backseat.
'Well, I'm already sold on that Elizabeth chick. Did you see that victory garden of hers? Belladonna, wolfsbane, mandrake, not to mention that little flinch she threw when we mentioned the occult,' Dean points out.
'Well, she's definitely had a good run lately, gone up a few tax brackets, won almost too many raffles. Kinda thing a little black magic always helps with,'
'Yeah,'
'I don't think she's alone either. Looks like Mrs. Renee Van Allen has won almost every craft contest she has entered in the past three months,'
'Yeah, a regular Martha Stewart, huh? Except for the devil worship, I'm thinking that was the coven we met back there, minus one member,'
'Amanda was clearly going off the reservation. What do you think, they killed her to keep up appearances?'
'Seems like an appearance kind of crowd, don't you think?'
'Yeah,'
'If they killed the nut-job, should we uh, thank them or what?'
'They're working black magic too, Dean. They need to be stopped,'
'Stopped like stopped?' Sam gives him a look that says of course. 'They're human, Sam,'
'They're murderers,'
Dean looks at Sam for a second with surprise and then shrugs in agreement. 'You okay with this?' He asks towards Hermione.
She shrugs in the backseat. 'I don't know anymore. They are murderers but they're also witches,'
'There are always bad seed I'm a right?' Dean asks.
'I guess so,' Suddenly the Impala stutters and starts to choke up.
'What the hell?' The head lights of the Impala flicker off and then back on again as it slowly comes to a stop in front of a figure standing in the middle of the road. Hermione recognises the woman as the one that was there to save her and Sam from the sins. Sam gets out of the car first and Dean with Hermione following shortly after.
'Ruby,' Sam says.
'Sam, listen to me, there's no time,' The woman named Ruby explains.
'For what? What are you talking about?'
'You have to get out of town,'
'So this is Ruby, huh?' Dean asks. He raises the Colt and aims it at her, cocking it. 'Never had the pleasure,'
'Dean!' Sam shouts.
'I was hoping you'd show up again,'
'Point that thing somewhere else,'
'Hahahah! Right,'
'Sam, please. Go. Get in the car and don't look back,'
'Why? I don't understand,'
'Hey, hot stuff, we can take care of a few kitchen witches, thanks,'
'I'm not talking about witches, you jackass. Witches are whores. I'm talking about who they serve,' Sam glanced over towards Hermione but her face didn't show any emotion. Dean looks at Sam confused with what Ruby meant.
'Demons. They get their power from demons,' Hermione explains.
'Yeah. And there's one here, now,'
'Oh, what, you mean besides you?' Dean asks.
'Sam, it knows you're in town and it's gonna come after you and it's way more than you can handle,'
'Oh come on, what is this, huh? Please tell me you're not listening to this crap!'
'Put a leash on your brother, Sam, if you wanna keep him,'
'Dean, look, just chill out,'
'No! No! She's messing with your head, God knows why, that's who they are!'
'I'm telling you the truth,'
'And I'm telling you to shut up, bitch,'
'I'm sorry, why are you even a part of this conversation?!'
'Oh, I don't know maybe because he's my brother, you black-eyed skank!' A small smile formed on Hermione's face. Ruby may had called her kind whores but Dean just called her out as a skank.
'Oh right, right. You care about your brother so much! That's why you're checking out in a few months, leaving him all alone?'
'Shut up,'
'At least let me try and save him, since you won't be here to do it any more,'
'I will still be there,' Hermione points out.
'I said shut up!' Dean moves to fire the Colt at Ruby.
'Dean no!' Sam pushes Dean's arm away from Ruby as he fires the Colt, and Dean tries to fight against Sam's hold, they lock arms and both look to where Ruby was standing to see that she has vanished. Dean gives Sam a look of disappointment and goes back to get in the Impala followed by Hermione, as Sam looks around in vain for Ruby.
Dean walks into the motel room first and switches on the light, Sam and Hermione follow right behind him.
'What the hell were you thinking?' Dean asks.
'What?! What the hell was I thinking?' Sam asks his brother in a sarcastic tone.
'She's a demon, Sam. Period. All right? They want us dead, we want them dead,'
'Oh, that's funny, I remember that demon chick in Ohio, Casey? You didn't want her dead,'
'Yeah, well she wasn't stringing me along like a fish on a hook,'
'No one is stringing me along! Look, I know it's dangerous, that she is dangerous, but like it or not, she's useful,'
'No! We kill her before she kills us,'
'Kill her with what? The gun she fixed for us?'
'Whatever works,'
'Dean, if she wants us dead, all she has to do is stop saving our lives,' Dean turns away from Sam and Hermione and goes to the sink turning on the water. 'Look, we have to start looking at the big picture Dean, start thinking in the strategies and—and move ahead,' Dean splashes water on his face. 'It's not so simple, we're not—we're not just hunting anymore. We're at war,' Hermione unknowingly moves her hand towards her left underarm.
Dean turns off the water and looks at Sam in the mirror above the sink, grabs a towel to dry off his face and turns back around to Sam. 'Are you feeling okay?' He asks.
Sam sighs. 'Why are you always asking me that?' Sam sits on the foot of one of the beds in the room, and Dean moves back towards Sam. Hermione walks to the table in the room and leans against it.
'Because you're taking advice from a demon, for starters. And by the way, you seem less and less worried about offing people. You know, it used to eat you up inside,'
'Yeah, and what has that gotten me?' Sam asks.
'Nothing, but it's just what you're supposed to do, okay? We're supposed to drive in the freaking car and freaking argue about this stuff. You know, you go on about the sanctity of life and all that crap,' Dean rubs his stomach uncomfortably.
'Wait, so—so you're mad because I'm starting to agree with you?'
Dean looks at Sam and exhales. 'No, I'm not mad, I'm—I'm—I'm worried, Sam—' Dean moves and sits down on the foot of the other bed in the room. 'I'm worried because you're not acting like yourself,'
'Yeah, you're right, I'm not. I don't have choice,'
'What is that supposed to mean?' Hermione asks.
'Look, Dean, he's leaving—right? And we got to stay here in this craphole of a world. Alone. So the way I see it, if I'm gonna make it, if I'm gonna fight this war after you're gone, then I got to change,'
Dean has been looking increasingly uncomfortable during Sam's last speech, and is now clutching his stomach in discomfort and leaning forward slightly. 'Change into what?'
'Into you. I got to be more like you,'
Dean shakes his head, then tightens his face in pain, and leans further over, still clutching his stomach and side with his left hand. 'Ah!'
'What's going on with you?'
Dean moves around in pain, still clutching his stomach, and he can barely force words out. 'I don't know,' He bends over and gasps. 'Oh—Sam, Mione something is wrong—bunch of knives inside of me—'
'Dean?' Hermione and Sam move off the bed and table before kneeling in front of Dean who is now leaning all the way forward with his head almost between his legs.
'Son of a bitch—'
'Dean, hey,'
'The coven man, it's got to be the coven,'
'Don't worry,' Sam gets up and rushes into the the bathroom opening the cupboards below the sink looking for the hex bag as Dean yells in pain and lies back on the bed, his face still twisted in pain. Sam pulls things out of the cupboard throwing them aside.
Hermione grabs her wand. 'Accio hex bag,' But nothing happens. Dean leans fowards again falling to his knees in front of the foot of the bed, spitting out blood, choking and sputtering. Sam is still looking for the hex bag, in another cupboard pulling out pillows and when he finds nothing, he moves to the bed while Dean is still choking on blood and spitting it out of his mouth. Sam pulls off the covers to the bed tearing back the sheets and slices the mattress open with his knife and still cannot find the hex bag. Hermione was crawling on the ground looking underneath the table and beds.
'Dean, I can't find it,' Dean falls over sideways and looks weak, hurt and still in pain. 'No,' As Dean continues to cough blood more weakly now, Sam rummages through his bag and pulls out the Colt and opens it to make sure there are bullets in it.
'Sam, what are you doing?' Hermione asks. Sam gets up and moves towards the door. 'Sam?!'
'Stay with him!' Sam leaves closing the door behind him.
'Sam!' Dean shouts. He groans in pain. Hermione grabs her bag to grab her potions and books, trying to find anything that could help Dean.
'Just hold on okay,' Hermione flips through the books and looks at her potions. Hermione grabs her wand and mutters some words to Dean. Dean is leaning over a pool of blood he has spit out, gasping and coughing blood but it did became less as Hermione kept muttering different spells. She wouldn't be able to stop but she would be able to slow it down. There are quick footsteps outside and the door is kicked open. Hermione stops muttering and looks up hoping it was Sam but instead notices Ruby.
'You wanna kill me? Get in line bitch,' Ruby goes over to Dean and pulls him up by the collar tossing him on the bed. Hermione pulls her wand out and looks Ruby in the eyes.
'If you take one more step,'
Ruby sighs. 'Fine then you do it,' She hands Hermione a bag who looks at it confused. 'You wan't to save Dean or not?' Hermione takes the bag and walks over towards Dean.
'Don't—'
'Please drink this,' Dean takes the bag from Hermione and drinks from it. He chokes on the liquid and spits some back out.
'Stop...calling me bitch,' Ruby points out. 'Next time you point that gun at me, I'm not just disappear, understand?' Ruby tosses a sawed-off shotgun over to Dean who is back to sitting on the foot of the bed. His face is somewhat cleaned off from the blood and liquid cure that Ruby gave him. Hermione walks over towards the sink to get a cloth wet.
'You...saved my life,'
'Don't mention it,'
'What was that stuff?' Hermione asks.
God, it was ass. It tasted like ass,' Dean points out.
'It's called witchcraft, short bus,' Ruby responds. She turns and walks out of the room, closing the door behind her leaving Dean and Hermione on the bed, slightly offended.
'You're the short bus...short bus,' Dean responds.
'I just asked a question,' Hermione adds.
Dean and Hermione quickly rushed over towards the house to find and or help Sam. Dean kicks open the door. He runs in with his shotgun drawn and Tammi turns around, easily throwing him over the sofa, and when he gets up, she pins him to the wall behind him.
'Two for one. Lovely,' Hermione suddenly uses her magic and throws Tammi towards the ground. Tammi quickly gets up. 'Well well. What do we have here,'
'You know I wasn't sure about this hunt, but you being a demon and hurting my friends made this a lot easier,'
Tammi starts to laugh. 'You really think, that you can kill me? A punny witch,'
'Stupify,' Tammi get blasted by the spell but also reflecting a bit of the spell towards Hermione. Who gets hit before being pinned against the wall.
'Wait,' Ruby walks in with her hands raised in surrender. 'Please. I just...came to talk,' She puts her hands down.
'You made it out of the gate. Impressive. That was a bitch of a fight, wasn't it?'
'Doors out of Hell only open for so long,'
'What do you want, Ruby?'
'I've been lost without you,' She continues to advance. 'Take me back. That's why I led the Winchesters here,' Dean looks angry, and mouths ''I told you so'' to Sam. 'They're for you...as a gift,'
'Really,'
'Let me serve you again. I've wanted it—I've wanted you—for so long,' Dean lifts his eyebrows at this demon-chick on demon-chik flirtation. Hermione rolls her eyes as she notices Dean. She was still trying to get out of the grip.
'You were one of my best,' Ruby and Tammi look at each other. Ruby pulls her knife out and tries to stab Tammi, but Tammi catches it in mid-air. 'But then again, you always were a lying whore,' The knife is thrown sideways out of their hands across the wood floor. Tammi and Ruby fight, and Tammi throws Ruby into the TV, but she gets up, kicks Tammi and goes to run past her, but Tammi clotheslines Ruby causing her to fall flat on her back. Tammi pulls Ruby up and throws her into a bookcase and gets a fireplace poker from the stand on the hearth, looking at Elizabeth who is still cowering from Tammi, before she walks back to Ruby with the poker in her hand. 'You're really telling me you threw in your chips with Abott and Costello here?' Ruby, panting, tries to get up, and Tammi hits her across the face with the fireplace poker. Elizabeth runs to the altar and dumps a bunch of pins out of a bow onto the cloth with the demonic symbol on it. Elizabeth is unseen by Tammi, who is still paying attention to Ruby. 'Come on. Get up,' Ruby is panting and not moving, with blood coming out of her nose. 'I said, get up!' Tammi tosses the poker aside and crouches over Ruby, grabbing her by the jacket and pulling her up. 'We've been here before, haven't we?' She chuckles to herself and looks over at Sam. 'She didn't tell you?' She turns back to Ruby and continues. 'Pretty mortifying, I guess. She was one of mine. I turned her out a long, long time ago. Ruby here was a witch. Of course, that was when you were human,' Dean and Sam both look surprised even though they are still both pinned to their respective walls. Tammi throws Ruby back down onto the debris of the bookcase she crashed through and stands up. 'Didn't want your friends to know that all those centuries back, you sold yourself to me? Embarrassing, I guess. But don't worry love, no secrets where you're heading, remember?' Tammi begins to chant and black smoke rises out of Ruby's mouth curling and hovering inches above her mouth. 'Monyé valack forsa, ulu iri regatt ruac, fieesh nieesh forthsa lé inmist infirum forthsa por un betest a té un fornalles ecclaisee—' Tammi begins to cough and Elizabeth is chanting under her breath at the altar. As Tammi coughs harder, Hermione and Dean are dropped from the wall. Dean falls forward but Hermione was able to land gracefully by her magic. Sam also falls from the wall and drops to the floor as Tammi brings her hand up to her mouth. She coughs up a handful of long pins into her hand, her mouth bleeding in the process. She looks at the pins and raises her right hand, clenching it into a fist. Elizabeth's breath catches and her eyes go wide as her heart stops and she falls onto the altar, dead. Hermione throws Ruby's discarded knife in Tammi's back. Dean comes up behind her and stabs her in the back repeatedly with the knife. Tammi dies as well as the demon that was inside of her and she falls to the floor. Dean looks at Ruby and goes to help Hermione with getting Sam up and they move towards the door. They stop to look at Ruby.
'Go,' She looks at them, slightly embarrassed, and wipes the blood away from her mouth. 'I'll clean up this mess,'
Dean starts to walk towards the door, helping Sam on his way. 'Come on,' They stop and look back at Ruby one more time.
Ruby turns her eyes black and glares at them. 'Go,' Dean, Sam and Hermione walk out the door. Ruby leans over Tammi's body, takes her knife out of Tammi's back and holds it up. The knife is covered in blood, and is smoking.
Sam is splashing his face with water and looks in the mirror above the sink with a worried expression etched in his face. Hermione was sitting on the foot of one of the beds. Sam walks over towards her and sits next to her.
'What changed your mind about joining us?' Sam asks.
'Well, them getting their powers from demons definitely changes it. Besides they hurt someone I care about,'
'You care about Dean?' Sam asks softly.
'He's grown on me,' He sadly smiles at her as she lays her head on his shoulder and he puts his arm around her.