As predicted, Mom rejoins Sam and me in the kitchen after some time. The comfort food Dean and I brought back helps as a peace offering. Speaking of my uncle, he remains MIA from the kitchen but not from the house. I know he's somewhere, listening.
While Mom is far from happy about my abrupt departure, she accepts that this is better for the both of us, for now. However, she insists that we stay for dinner. She doesn't want me to go just yet, only because there's the unknown factor of how long I will be away once I leave again.
Dinner is a little less awkward, less frosty. Everyone attempts their best at civility, Dean most of all.
Cas must not want to feel like an intruder, because he never shows. Meanwhile, the weather is getting nasty. I fear Mom is a few minutes away from insisting we stay the night. Rain pelts the house from all angles and the wind at times howls fairly loud.
Currently, Mom has pulled out shoeboxes full of pictures of me. Of all the time Sam spent out of the picture. I'm not sure if it's a jab at him or not. The three adults have a respective pile of pictures. I lean forward on occasion to see them.
"Damn, kid, did someone punch your lights out?" asks Dean, flipping me one of my earlier school pictures.
"I had a lot of loose baby teeth then," I say, shrugging. "I wasn't scrappy."
"Oof, and these pigtails."
"What, jealous that I can pull them off?"
"This one's always been my favorite," Mom gushes, showing the three of us. Her and I, Christmas picture. Both dressed in red. I'm considerably younger, no pigtails to be seen. Mom's smile is genuine, mine looks as though she spent time tickling me so I gave a picture-worthy look.
I catch the sad look that fleetingly crosses Sam's face. How much does this hurt him, to see all this pictures without him in them?
The power goes out just as Mom is filing back Dean's latest pile into the box. We all look above, as though something flew into the lights to short them out. The weather sounds even louder now.
"This damn storm," Mom mutters. She, like myself, doesn't like to be in the dark. "I guess it's a call to the electric company." Rising from the table, she steps out of the kitchen, leaving me with Sam and Dean. The brothers look on edge.
"Something smell funky to you?" Dean asks Sam.
"Could be your ungodly BO," I comment as the two slowly rise from their seats.
"Not now, Wills. Besides, we shower."
"Yeah, when I see you at the bunker. I can't account for all the times you're on the road."
Somewhere in the house, Mom is on the phone with the electric company. A loud boom sends the house shaking. A brief strike of lightning gives us just enough light.
"You think something's about to happen?" asks Sam.
"Considering all that's gone on since we rescued Willa, yeah, I do. We should get you and your mom out of here, Wills," Dean tells me. "We'll get Cas to ship you and her back to the bunker."
"And leave you two to deal with non-existent enemies?" I ask incredulously.
"Hey, we've had each other's backs in far worse situations. Let's just hope this is minor."
"If it even is an incident. You guys flinch at any noise you hear!"
"It's a classic move, cutting power during a bad storm," Sam admits. "It's a good tactic, if you're trying to scare regular people."
"Unfortunately for them, they clearly don't know who they're up against," says Dean. "Wills, get Cas to come here."
I exhale. Castiel, if you hear my prayer, rush to the Routh house. A bad storm hit, and the power's out. They think something's up. Come here, they want you to get Mom and me out. Hurry, Cas.
"Well, depending on how fast these guys are," says Mom as she comes into the kitchen, "we may not get power back until tomorrow, if we're lucky." Her expression falls. "What's with the tense bodies, guys? It's just a power outage."
"It's never just that with us," says Sam. "You and Willa need to get out of here. You don't have wardings up to defend yourselves. Willa prayed to Cas to hopefully get him here." Sam looks to me. "You did pray to him, right?"
I nod. "Maybe it's a bad connection. Let me try again." Castiel, seriously, this is no time to play games. Sam and Dean legitimately think something's up. Come to my house, find us.
Mom busies herself with lighting some candles throughout the house, mixing scents in the air. Sam and Dean patrol through the house, quickly returning near Mom and me in the kitchen.
We all jump at a noise that's not storm related—a knock on the door. Mom starts to leave the kitchen.
"Wait." Sam grabs Mom's arm. "Since when does the electric company ever knock?"
"What if it's a neighbor checking in?" Mom retorts.
"Laura, please."
Mom is already out towards the front door. Dean motions for Sam to stay with me while he tries to wrangle Mom back inside the kitchen, which apparently is the safest room right now in the house.
Everything is quiet for a few heartbeats, until things aren't.
Something sounds as though it's broken open—the door. Glass shatters. Mom screams. Without regard to his safety, Sam dashes out from the kitchen. I hesitate, still in the safest room. Finn's blood vial rings a bell in the back of my mind. If now was ever a time to take a demon up on his free trial, this might be it.
Swallowing, I pull out the vial and dump the stuff into my mouth. I cough, gagging. If there's supposed to be an immediate effect, I don't feel it.
I rush out of the kitchen, into the living room.
Rain flies in from the openings in our house, as do random strangers—no, demons, they have to be. Mom is wrestling with three and stops when one has her by the throat. Sam and Dean are overrun. I dive in to help, punching, kicking, grabbing. My efforts get me tossed out of the living room, sliding on the kitchen floor.
"Willa!" Mom cries in a panic. Run—that's the word Mom probably wants to say, but she can't get it out.
A slow anger boils through my veins. Lip curling into a snarl, I rise from the floor, stalking back towards the living room.
"For the best of the business, you guys sure are disappointing," comes a familiar tone.
At the voice, I take cover behind the wall between the kitchen and living room. My heart is pounding. Fists are clenched. Slowly, I peek my head out to survey the situation.
In walks Finn, with a loud boom of thunder overhead and a splash of lightning for a more dramatic entrance. He looks rather chipper, even by demonic standards.
"It was only a matter of time before you morons slipped us and gave us a freebie," he drawls, not bothering to step over the broken glass in the house. He picks up a shard, turning it over in his hand. "Thanks for that. I'm starting to think you're slipping up in your old age, boys."
Cas, we're in serious danger now. Please come help us. Save us, even. I don't care. We need you, right now! Sam and Dean are subdued, and Mom is certainly in no position to do anything. The only good thing right now is that there aren't more demons searching the house for me.
"I'll skip past the cliché questions and get right to it." Finn pricks his finger on one of the corners of the shard. "You give me Willa, and I'll make sure minimal damage is done here." A scowl comes over his face as he looks around the house. "Though, this place might just need to get knocked down. Not the most cheerful of places."
"As if you would know," I snarl before I can stop myself.
Finn's eyes brighten at the sight of me. "Hey there, Willa. Oh, how I've missed seeing that fierce little face of yours."
I no longer hide in the kitchen, I stand in the open way. "If you don't take your goons away from here, this will be where you die."
"Oooh, dark words! I'm shaking." Finn chuckles. "Y'know, I took you for a smarty pants. But you do a lot of things that...aren't the smartest. Oh, sweetie, whose lack of brains did you inherit?"
My brain is working on a plan. Nothing will work, not without endangering the adults. There's nothing I can do. I don't know what this blood will do to me. I guess I need to find my moment to figure that out...if I get it.
"I'll make it simple for you." Finn meanders over to Mom, pushing a sharp point of the shard near one of her eyes. "If you want Mommy to not go blind, you'll be a good girl and let me take you someplace nice."
"If you weren't threatening my mom's life, I'd say it almost sounds like you're trying to flirt with me."
"Who says that I'm not?"
Do demons do anything nice? They even make flirting a turnoff.
"Hmm, okay, I see she's not enough incentive. How about...if you don't willingly surrender, everyone's throats will get cut open. I'll make you watch every single one. Maybe then you'll understand I'm not kidding."
"Hey!" I scream, panicked, as a pained cry comes from Dean.
One demon seems to start a chain. Mom wriggles around as some scrape cuts into her body. Sam tries to break free, but the tallest man in the room is brought down by vicious stabs.
"Stop it!" I demand frantically.
More demons pick up glass shards, picking their targets. None go for me.
I run to Sam, who is closest to me, trying to shove my body in the way so the demons will stop. I swat at any incoming glass shards, hoping the worst thing that happens to me is that I get a few thin cuts.
"Oh, this is very telling, right here," Finn drawls, snickering. "Out of three, your mother isn't the first choice. What does that say about you?"
"I can't exactly clone myself," I spit.
"You have the power to end this, Willa. I just need to hear the words."
"Go to Hell."
"Er, not the words I wanted to hear. Not the first demon who's ever been told that, either."
The low magic in my veins stirs, feeling my anger. My helplessness. I can't help Sam, Dean, and Mom at the same time, not unless I'm willing to surrender to Finn. If I do, the demons win. Recruiting me or killing me, they'll win either way. That's not how this works. My fingers twitch. My power has only shown spurts in rare instances.
If I let it out, this can either go really well or doom us all.
"Okay, now I'm growing impatient." Finn takes Mom from her captors, shoving the glass shard into her shoulder. She and I scream as blood spurts from her wound. She wants to crumple, her body shows it, but Finn keeps her upright. "You can end her suffering, Willa. She's got no involvement with us, she's an innocent. Well, not so much anymore."
The power in me stirs further. I eye the shard that Finn rips from Mom's shoulder. My hand extends out, and the shard actually flies from Finn's grasp. It lands into mine—except not in the way I want. Rather than catching it nicely like they do in the movies, the shard goes through my hand.
I sob, eyes widening, as my hand shakes.
Finn tsks. "You've got so much to learn, Willa." With my mom in tow, he creeps towards me. I cry out as he ruthlessly rips the shard from my palm, allowing it to weep red.
Something shoves me forward, and someone grabs my hair to pull back my head. I can't look anywhere except at Mom and Finn. Mom, who is in pain and a blubbering mess. Finn who thinks he's seconds away from victory.
"Don't be stupid, Willa," he coos to me. "Don't force me to do something I don't want to do. I don't want to leave your body here with theirs."
"Then don't," I rasp, my non-injured hand reaching for the hand in my hair. My nails dig in but the hand doesn't give.
"Willa—" Dean croaks warningly.
"I'm not letting them kill you. I'll—"
"Don't," Sam orders me through a grunt of pain. "You can't guarantee they won't leave us alive."
"Sammy boy has a point," Finn agrees.
"I need your word on it, then," I say.
"Their words are empty," Sam snarls.
"Depends on the demon." Finn shrugs. "I won't force you into a crossroads deal. I'll give you my word that they won't be killed."
I close my eyes briefly. I hear Mom sob. She knows what I'm about to do. It's not a hard guess for anyone in the room.
Thunder sounds overhead. Rain drops in through the shattered windows and the broken door.
"I won't run. I won't fight," I say calmly, though my throat feels tight. "Let me go. Let them go."
With a gesture, my head is released. Finn shoves Mom between Sam and Dean, all cut in some degree. The brothers try to rise but the demons push them back down.
"Wait, wait, hey!" I exclaim as the brothers are dealt more damage. "You said—"
"I said they wouldn't be killed. I didn't say anything about not having more fun with them."
I punch and push at Finn as he grabs me.
"Oooh, you did take it," he murmurs with a grin. "I can sense it. Congrats, Willa. That's just the first step in accepting your true power."
Something takes hold of me quickly, because the world goes black moments later, with Mom's shrill cries fading with me.
**Don't ask me why, but this was one of my favorite chapters in this book to write.
Wellness check: how are y'all doing??**