OAK PARK, ILLINOIS
A man, in his 30s, with red hair and a beard, exited the house with a bag of garbage. He took it out to the garbage cans and stuffed it in. As he walked back to the house, the garbage cans rattled. He stared and walked cautiously towards them. They continued to rattle and he looked up to see a demonic cloud swirling over the Chicago skyline in the distance. Panicked, her ran back towards the house, but topped before he got there. A tendril of demon smoke poured into his mouth. He opened his eyes, revealing them to be demonic black. The possessed man stood, looking towards the rest of the demonic cloud streaming through Chicago and smiled.
ONE WEEK LATER
Sam was sitting in the Impala, reading a book. Kit was sleeping in the back, her thumb in her mouth. The header at the page Sam was reading said Dr. Faustus. He looked up to see Dean inside the house across from him; he was wearing only an undershirt. Dean grinned and gave Sam a double-thumbs up, and Sam shook his head, smiling fondly. A woman joined him and Dean shut the curtains. They were undressing each other in silhouette. Sam's phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Sam," Bobby greeted.
"Hey, Bobby."
"Whatcha doing?"
"Oh, same old, same old."
"You buried in that book again?"
Sam paused and Bobby grimaced before he continued. "Sam, you want to break Dean free of that demon deal, you ain't gonna find the answer in no book."
"Then where, Bobby?"
"Kid, I wish I knew. So, where's your brother?"
Sam, without missing a beat, said, "Polling the electorate."
"What?"
"Never mind."
"Well, you boys and girl better pack it up. I think I finally found something."
Sam hung up. "Wait here."
He got out of the car and walked inside the house. He knocked on the bedroom door and opened it slowly.
"Dean?" Sam called, entering the room. "Dean, you -- you conscious? Bobby called, and he thinks that maybe we-" He stared in horror. "Oh, God."
Dean got in the car and they started driving.
"Let me see your knife," Sam said.
"What for?" Dean asked.
"So I can gouge my eyes out."
"It was a beautiful, natural act, Sam."
"It's a part of you I never wanted to see, Dean."
Dean chuckled and slapped Sam on the thigh. "Hey, I appreciate you giving me a little quality time with the Doublemint Twins."
"No problem," Sam replied quietly.
"Really? Well, I got to say, I was expecting a weary sigh or an eye roll, something."
"Not at all. You deserve to have a little fun."
"Well, I'm in violent agreement with you there." He chuckled. "What's Bobby got?"
"Not much. Crop failure and a cicada swarm outside of Lincoln, Nebraska. Could be demonic omens."
"Or could just be a bad crop and bug problem."
"Yeah, but it's our only lead."
"Any freaky deaths?"
"No, nothing Bobby could find -- not yet, anyway."
"It's weird, man. I mean, the night the Devil's Gate opened, all these weirdo storm clouds were sighted over how many cities?"
"17."
"17. You think it would be "Apocalypse Now," but it's been five days and bupkis." Sam looked at him. Dean paused. "What are the demons waiting for?"
"Beats me."
"It's driving me crazy. I tell you, if it's gonna be war, I wish it would just start already."
"I don't know, man. Be careful what you wish for."
The next morning, Dean, Sam and Kit pulled outside a farmhouse. Dean got out munching on a hamburger. The air was filled with the sound of cicadas.
"Hear those cicadas?" Sam questioned.
"That can't be a good sign," Dean commented.
"I has?" Kit asked, reaching for the burger.
"No. No, it can't," Sam said.
Dean gave Kit a small piece of his burger and she happily nibbled it.
Bobby walked up and greeted them. "So, we're eating bacon cheeseburgers for breakfast, are we?"
"Well, I sold my soul," Dean replied. "Got a year to live. I ain't sweating the cholesterol."
"So, Bobby, what do you think?" Sam questioned. "We got a Biblical plague here or what?"
"Well, let's find out," Bobby answered. "Looks like the swarm's ground zero."
Dean pounded on the farmhouse door. "Candygram!"
They picked the lock and opened the door. Dean entered first and Sam behind him with a gun drawn. Kit had been instructed to stay in the car, which she'd agreed to after a fuss. They covered their noses and disgust.
"That's awful," Sam said.
"That so can't be a good sign," Dean noted.
They crept through the house, stopping in the second room and heard what sounded like panicked screams.
"You hear that?"
They kicked open the next door. The sounds were coming from a television set. A family of three was seated on the couch, several days dead. Sam and Dean recoiled at the increased stench.
"Oh, my God," Sam muttered.
Bobby entered the other side of the room and recoiled in horror.
"Bobby, what the hell happened here?" Sam wondered.
"I don't know," Bobby replied.
"Check for sulfur," Dean suggested.
"Yeah."
The three of them investigated the room. Dean heard a noise out front and signaled to the others that they were going to check it out. Bobby and Sam circled around the other direction.
Out front, Dean exited cautiously, gun drawn, and looked around. As he came around the house, Dean was knocked to the ground by a man with a shotgun; Isaac. His wife, Tamara, came up behind him.
Bobby came up from the other side. "Isaac? Tamara?"
"Bobby," Tamara called. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I could ask the same," Bobby said.
"Heya, Bobby," Isaac greeted.
Dean raised an arm pitifully from the ground. "Hello. Bleeding here."
ISAAC AND TAMARA'S PLACE
Dean was on the phone. "Jenny! That is such a beautiful name. That's my sister's name, actually."
Kit walked up with a book and held it out to her father who gave her the one minute finger. She stomped her foot and frowned.
"Honey? Where's the Palo Santo?" Isaac asked.
"Well, where'd you leave it?" Tamara questioned.
"I don't know, dear. That's why I'm asking."
Sam frowned. "Palo Santo?"
"It's holy wood, from Peru," Tamara explained. "It's toxic to demons like holy water. Keeps the bastards nailed down while you're exorcising them." She dug into a bag and pulled out a large, pointed stake. She handed it to Isaac with an affectionate smile.
"Thank you, dear," Isaac said.
"You'd lose your head if it wasn't for me."
"So, how long have you two been married?" Sam asked.
"Eight years this past June."
"The family that slays together..." Isaac began.
"Right," Sam agreed. "I'm with you there. So, how'd you get started?" There was an awkward silence. "Oh, you know... I'm sorry. It's not -- that's none of my business."
"It's -- it's all right," Tamara reassured.
Dean finished his conversation on the phone. "Well, Jenny, if you look as pretty as you sound, then I'd love to have an appletini." He made a face. "Yeah. Call you." He hung up and addressed the group. "That was the coroner's tech."
"And?" Sam pressed.
"Get this -- that whole family, cause of death? Dehydration and starvation. There's no signs of restraint, no violence, no struggle. They just sat down and never got up."
"But there was a fully stocked kitchen just yards away," Bobby said.
"What is this, a demon attack?" Sam asked.
Bobby glanced at him. "If it is, it's not like anything I ever saw."
"Well, what now? What should we do?"
"Uh, we're not gonna do anything," Isaac replied.
"What do you mean?" Sam questioned.
"You guys seem nice enough, but this ain't "Scooby-Doo," and we don't play well with others."
Kit dropped the book and grinned. "'Cooby Doo!"
"Well, I think we'd cover a lot more ground if we all worked together," Sam said, picking up his niece.
"No offense, but we're not teaming with the damn fools who let the Devil's Gate get opened in the first place."
"No offense?" Dean repeated.
Tamara, in an admonishing tone, said, "Isaac. Like you've never made a mistake."
"Oh yeah, yeah. Locked my keys in the car, turned my laundry pink. Never brought on the end of the world, though."
"All right. That's enough," Dean told them.
Sam spoke quietly. "Guys, this isn't helping. Dean-"
"Look, there are a couple hundred more demons out there now," Isaac warned. "We don't know where they are, when they'll strike. There ain't enough hunters in the world to handle something like this. You brought war down on us -- on all of us."
Tamara pulled Isaac away. "Okay. That's quite enough testosterone for now."
"Kit, get your book," Dean said.
Kit picked up her book and took her father's hand.
They left the room. Later, Bobby looked out the window, then shut the curtains. Out of the darkness beyond, a mysterious young woman stepped into the light. She stared at the house, calculating.
SHOP
The redheaded man walked into a clothing shop. He approached a blonde woman. "Excuse me."
"Yes?" the blonde woman asked.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and nodded towards a shoe display across the room. "Those are... nice shoes."
The blonde looked at them. "Oh, yeah. They are nice."
She approached the display, where a brunette woman was looking at a pair of green pumps. She stared at them covetously.
"Those are nice shoes," the blonde said.
"Aren't they?" the brunette agreed.
"I want them."
"Sorry. Last pair." She took them and went to the register; the blonde woman stared after her intensely.
The blonde woman followed the brunette woman, who was carrying a shopping bag out to her car.
"Excuse me," the blonde woman said. "I want those shoes."
"What, are you crazy?" the brunette replied. "No. What?"
The blonde woman attacked, slamming the brunette woman's head into the windshield of her car. She cracked open her head and blood gushed out of her eye socket, staining the window. The blonde woman took the shopping bag and walked off, unconcerned.
Policemen were taking forensic evidence at the murder scene as Sam, who had taken Kit, watched before going into the store.
Dean was chatting up a witness. "What happened outside makes you realize how fragile life really is. You got to make every second count."
Sam, still holding Kit, approached, clearing his throat.
"Excuse me, us, a minute, would you?" Dean said.
The witness left and Sam asked, "Dean, what are you doing?"
"I'm comforting the bereaved. What are you doing?"
"Working. Dead body, possible demon attack -- that sort of stuff."
Dean coughed pathetically. "Sam, I'm sorry. It's just, I don't have much time left, and... got to make every second count."
"Yeah, right," Sam chastened. "All right. Sorry."
"Apology accepted."
Bobby entered in a suit with his hair slicked back. Dean and Sam looked at him, impressed.
"Whoa." Dean whistled. "Looking spiffy, Bobby. What were you, a g-man?"
"Attorney for the D.A.'s office," Bobby answered. "I just spoke to the suspect."
"Yeah? So, what do you think? Is she possessed or what?" Sam asked.
"Don't think so. There's none of the usual signs -- no blackouts, no loss of control. Totally lucid. Just, she really wanted those shoes. Spilled a glass of holy water on her just to be sure; nothing."
"Maybe she's just some random whackjob," Dean guessed.
"If it had been an isolated incident, maybe, but first the family, now this? I believe in a lot of things. Coincidence ain't one of them. Did you boys and girl find anything around here?"
Sam shook his head. "No sulfur, nothing."
"Well, maybe something," Dean said, nodding to a security camera in the ceiling. "See? I was working."
SECURITY ROOM
Sam and Kit were seated, watching the security footage as Bobby and Dean hovered.
"Anything interesting?" Dean asked.
"I don't know yet," Sam replied. "Might just be a guy..." They watched as the redheaded man approached the blonde woman. "Or it might be our guy. Kit, stay with your dad."
Sam left the store and walked up the street, hands in his pockets. The mysterious woman who'd been watching the house slipped onto the street several paces behind him and followed. Sam sensed he was being followed, stopped, and turned. The woman was gone.
BAR
Dean and Bobby were staking out a bar, sitting in Bobby's car. Kit was asleep in her car seat.
"What time is it?" Bobby asked.
"Seven past midnight," Dean replied.
"You sure this is the right place?"
"No. But Kit and I spent all day canvassing this stupid town with this guy's stupid mug, and, supposedly, he drinks at this stupid bar."
There was a loud pounding on the window; Bobby and Dean both jumped. It was Sam, who grinned at their discomfort and slipped into the backseat next to his niece.
"That's not funny!" Dean complained.
"Yeah," Sam said. "Uh, all right, so -- so, John Doe's name is Walter Rosen. He's from Oak Park, just west of Chicago. Went missing about a week ago."
"The night the Devil's Gate opened?" Dean questioned.
"Yeah."
"So you think he's possessed?"
"It's a good bet. So, what, he just walks up to someone, touches them, and they go stark raving psycho?"
Bobby glanced at Sam. "Those demons that got out at the gate -- they're gonna do all kinds of things we haven't seen."
"You mean the demons we let out?"
Something caught Dean's eye and he called, "Guys."
The redheaded man got out of his car and walked towards the bar.
"All right. Showtime," Dean told them.
Bobby's voice stopped him. "Wait a minute."
"What?"
"What did I just say? We don't know what to expect out of this guy. We should tail him till we know for sure."
"Oh, so he kills someone and we just sit here with our junk in our hands?"
"We're no good dead! And we're not gonna make a move until we know what the score is."
"Hey, Bobby, I don't think that's an option," Sam said.
"Why not?"
Sam nodded, indicating that another car had just entered the lot. Isaac and Tamara got out and headed towards the bar.
"Damn it!" Bobby cried.
INT. BAR
A woman put a song on the jukebox. The bartender slid a beer towards the redheaded man, who was sitting at the bar. At a table, a waitress set down drinks for Isaac and Tamara.
"Thanks a lot," Isaac said.
"You're welcome," the waitress replied.
Isaac pulled out a flask of holy water and Tamara eyed him. The redheaded man walked past them towards the bathroom.
"Pull the car in back," Isaac instructed. "We'll be right out."
"I love you," Tamara told her husband.
"I know."
As Isaac headed towards the bathroom, the bartender grabbed his arm and stopped him.
"What do you think you're doing?" the bartender asked.
"I'm just hitting the head," Isaac replied.
"No." He grabbed the flask of holy water and tossed it aside. "I mean, what do you think you're doing here?" The bartender's eyes flashed black. Tamara stood behind Isaac and they both recoiled in fear. "I don't like hunters in my bar."
The hunters turned to see the waitress stalking towards them, and saw that the rest of the employees and patrons had turned towards them. The redheaded man walked back from the bathroom. He and everyone else in the bar closed in around them; all had black demonic eyes.
There was a loud pounding on the door and everyone turned towards it.
EXT. BAR
Bobby and Dean slammed themselves against the door, trying to force it open.
INT. BAR
"Man, you really walked into the wrong place," the redheaded man said.
"Hold on. I like the girl," the waitress stated.
"Wish I had me a girl like that."
"I can think of about a thousand things I'd like to do to her."
"You're not gonna lay one filthy finger on her!" Isaac yelled.
The plaid-shirt guy approached Isaac. "I got something for you." He lifted a large bottle of drain cleaner. "Here. Have a drink on me, hmm?"
"Isaac?" Tamara asked in a panicked tone.
"On the house!" the redheaded man cried.
Tamara, restrained by the waitress, screamed, "Isaac!"
Isaac took the bottle and began pouring its contents down his throat, as Tamara screamed in the background and the demons cackled wildly.
Tamara continued yelling. "Isaac, no! Baby, please!"
Isaac drained the bottle, shaking, and dropped it to the floor. He gagged in agony. Foamy liquid and blood bubbled from his mouth. He choked and collapsed to the floor, dead.
"Oh, he's down!" the redheaded man said, turning to Tamara. "All right, honey. Your turn!"
With a screech of tires, Bobby's car burst through the front door of the bar. Dean, Sam and Bobby got out, armed with holy water, which they flung violently into the crowd of demons. They backed up and Sam grabbed Tamara, who was still screaming frantically for Isaac.
"Come on, we got to go!" Sam told her. "He'd dead! Get in the car!" He noticed Dean still immersed in the fight. "Dean, come on!"
Dean had entered combat with the redheaded man. Dean opened the trunk he ran out of holy water and the redheaded man grinned. Dean overpowered him, and stuffed him in the trunk, which was inscribed with the Devil's Trap. The redheaded man screamed. Dean tumbled into the front seat of the car.
"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" Dean cried.
ISAAC AND TAMARA'S
The redheaded man was tied to a chair, under a Devil's Trap on the ceiling. In the next room, an argument was ongoing.
"...and I say we're going back -- now!" Tamara cried.
"Hold on a second," Sam said.
"I left my husband bloody on the floor!"
"Okay, I understand that, but we can't go back."
"Fine. Then you stay. But I'm heading back to that bar."
"I'll go with her," Dean said.
"It's suicide, Dean!" Sam exclaimed.
"So what? I'm dead already!"
"How are you going to kill them? Can't shoot them. You can't stab them. They're not just gonna wait in line to get exorcised!"
"I don't care!" Tamara shot back.
"We don't even know how many of them there are!"
Bobby entered the room. "Yeah, we do. There's seven. Do you have any idea who we're up against?"
"No," Dean replied. "Who?"
"The seven deadly sins, live and in the flesh!"
Dean paused and grinned. ""What's in the box?!" Brad Pitt? "Se7en"? No?" Bobby shot him a look. "What's this?"
""Binsfeld's classification of demons,"" Bobby replied. "In 1589, Binsfeld ID'd the seven sins -- not just as human vices, but as actual devils."
"The family -- they were touched by Sloth," Sam realized. "And the shopper..."
"That'd be Envy. I couldn't suss it out at first, until Isaac. He was touched with an awful Gluttony."
"I don't give a rat's ass if they're the Three Stooges or the Four Tops!" Tamara yelled. "I'm gonna slaughter every last one of them!"
"We already did it your way. You burst in there half-cocked and look what happened! These demons haven't been topside in half a millennium! We're talking medieval, dark ages! We've never faced anything close to this! So we are gonna take a breath..." he shouted. "And figure out what our next move is!" His voice dropped. "I am so sorry for your loss."
DEMON-HOLDING ROOM
Envy chuckled. "So you know who I am, huh?"
Bobby narrowed his eyes. "We do. We're not impressed."
"Why are you here?" Sam asked. "What are you after?"
"He asked you a question," Dean said. "What do you want?"
Envy chuckled condescendingly as Dean opened a flask of holy water and splashed him. "Ya! Ohh! We already have what we want."
"What's that?"
"We're out. We're free. Thanks to you, my kind are everywhere. I am legion, for we are many. So me, I'm just celebrating. Having a little fun."
"Fun?" Sam repeated.
"Yeah. Fun. See, some people crochet. Others golf. Me? I like to see people's insides... on there outside."
"I'm gonna put you down like a dog," Tamara told Envy.
"Please." He laughed. "You really think you're better than me." He continued laughing. "Which one of you can cast the first stone, huh? What about you, Dean? You're practically a walking billboard of gluttony and lust. And Tamara. All that wrath. Ooh. Tsk, tsk, tsk. It's the reason you and Isaac became hunters in the first place, isn't it? It's so much easier to drink in the rage than to face what really happened all those years ago."
Tamara's face twisted in anger, and Tamara smacked him, hard, until Dean and Bobby pulled her back.
"Aah!" Envy cried. "Whew!" He laughed. "My point exactly. And you call us sins. We're not sins, man. We are natural human instinct. And you can repress and deny us all you want, but the truth is, you are just animals. Horny... greedy... hungry... violent animals. And you know what? You'll be slaughtered like animals, too. The others -- they're coming for me."
"Maybe," Dean said. "But they're not gonna find you... 'cause you'll be in Hell. Someone send this clown packing."
"My pleasure," Tamara stated, starting the exorcism. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica..." As she continued, the other left and Envy screamed.
NEXT ROOM
"I don't think we're gonna have to worry about hunting them," Bobby told the others.
"What does the mean?" Sam asked.
"I think maybe this joker's right. They're gonna be hunting us. And they're not gonna quit easy."
"You guys, why don't you take Tamara and head for the hills?" Dean suggested. "I'll stay back, slow them down, buy you a little time."
Sam frowned. "You're insane, Dean. Just forget about it, okay?"
"Sam's right," Bobby said.
"There's six of them, guys. Even with an even amount, we're outgunned. We'll be dead by dawn," Dean replied.
"Maybe, but there's no place to run but they won't find us."
Sam looked between them. "Look, if we're going down, we're going down together, all right?"
"Then let's not make it easy for them," Dean decided.
From the other room, Envy gave a final scream. The house shook and a gust blew out the candles.
Tamara slammed the book shut and entered the other room. "Demon's out of the guy."
"And the guy?" Sam questioned.
"He didn't make it," Tamara replied coldly.
Dean was seated on the floor with a row of candles behind him loading shotguns. Sam was across the room, filling flasks with holy water. He looked over at Dean who was looking back at him. They watched each other silently for a moment until the lights began to flicker. They looked around. Dean looked at his sleeping daughter and a small smile crossed his face. An old radio sparked to life, playing a scratchy tune.
Dean cocked the shotgun and stood. "Here we go."
Outside, a demon in Isaac's body approached. "Tamara! Tamara! Tamara! Tamara! Help me! Please!"
Isaac continued calling out, "Tamara! I got away, but I'm hurt bad! I need help!"
Bobby glanced at Tamara. "It's not him. It's one of those demons. It's possessing his corpse."
Isaac pounded on the door. "Baby! Why won't you let me in? You left me back there. How could you do that? We swore... At that lake in Michigan. Remember? We swore we would never leave each other!"
Tamara began sobbing. "How did he know that?"
"Steady, Tamara," Bobby told her.
"You just gonna leave me out here?" Isaac asked. "You just gonna let me die?! I guess that's what you do, dear! Like that night those things came to our house... came for our daughter! You just let her die, too."
"You son of a bitch!" Tamara screamed.
"Tamara, no!" Bobby cried.
She pushed the door open, breaking the salt line and tackled Isaac down the steps. She landed on top of him and raised the Palo Santo.
"You're not Isaac!" She plunged the wood deep into his chest; it sizzled and he screamed.
The other six demons crossed the broken salt line and entered the house. One, an overweight middle-aged guy cornered Bobby, who backed up slowly. He stalked towards Bobby confidently, smiling, until he stopped as if he'd run into an invisible wall. He looked around, confused. He was under another ceiling Devil's Trap. He looked at Bobby, pleading.
Bobby smiled. "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."
In another hallway, Dean was cornered by the waitress; Lust. They fought and she advanced on him.
Bobby began an exorcism for Sloth, the demon he had trapped. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica..."
Dean was backed into the bathroom. "I suppose you're Lust."
"Baby, I've whatever you want me to be," Lust replied.
"Just stay back."
"Or what?"
"Good point."
"I'm not gonna hurt you -- not yet. Not unless you want me to." She ran a hand along his shoulder; he looked down at her, then fell into her embrace and they kissed passionately.
Upstairs, a demon kicked a door in clear across the room. Sam looked around as the demon - a young man in a business suit - entered.
"Here's Johnny!" the business-suited demon cried.
The business-suited demon advanced confidently as Sam backed up, then stopped, holding up a hand to hold back the two demons flanking him. He looked up to the Devil's Trap on the ceiling and smirked.
"Come on," the business-suited demon stated. "You really think something like that is gonna fool someone like me? I mean, me?"
"Let me guess -- you're Pride," Sam said.
Pride grinned and gestured to the ceiling. A long splitting crack appeared, destroying the symbol. "The root of all sin. And you... are Sam Winchester. That's right. I've heard of you. We've all heard of you. The prodigy. The boy king. Looking at you now, I got to tell you, don't believe the hype. You think I'm gonna bow to a cut-rate, piss-poor human like you? I have my pride, after all. And now with your yellow-eyed friend dead, I guess I don't really have to do a damn thing, now do I? You're fair game now, boy, and it's open season."
In the bathroom, Dean was backing up, still kissing Lust, until he hit a shower curtain. In one move, he flipped them around, pulled open the shower curtain, and plunged her face-first into the bathtub. It was filled with holy water, which caused her to scream in agony.
Upstairs, Pride knocked Sam to the ground, then pulled him up with an arm wrapped around his throat and began strangling him. The mysterious young woman appeared, a knife strapped to her right thigh. She pulled the knife out, gritted her teeth, and slashed the throat of the first demon, Gluttony. Very light appeared in the cut, and he went down -- dead.
"You!" Greed yelled.
She turned to the second demon, Greed, who punched her twice, then plunged the knife upwards into its chin. Greed went dow. Pride let Sam go to tackle the mysterious woman. Sam pulled him away and punched him in the face, putting him right into the path of her knife. She plunged it upwards into his chin, and he collapsed in a shower of sparks and demonic energy.
"Who the hell are you?" Sam asked.
"I'm the girl that just saved your ass," the mystery girl replied.
"Well, I just saved yours, too."
She chuckled. "See you around, Sam."
"Wait!" He went into the hall to follow her, but she was already gone.
The next morning, Sam and Dean piled the corpses of the demons that didn't survive into a shallow pit and began pouring salt and fuel over them. Several yards away, Tamara was standing in front of another pyre; Isaac's.
"Think she's gonna be all right?" Sam asked.
"No. Definitely not," Dean replied.
Kit walked up to the adults, rubbing her eyes. "Dada? Up?"
Dean picked her up and she cuddled into his arms.
Bobby exited the house, looking exhausted.
"Well, you look like Hell warmed over," Dean commented.
Bobby shot him a look. "You try exorcising all night and see how you feel."
"Any survivors, Bobby?" Sam asked.
"Well, the pretty girl and the heavy guy, they'll make it. Lifetime of therapy bills ahead, but, still..."
"That's more than you can say for these poor bastards," Dean said.
"Bobby, that knife -- what kind of blade can kill a demon?" Sam wondered.
"Yesterday, I would have said there was no such thing," Bobby replied.
Dean glanced at Sam. "I'm just gonna ask it again -- who was that masked chick? Actually, the more troubling question would be, how come a girl can fight better than you? Even Adeline fights better than you."
"Three demons, Dean," Sam replied. "At once."
Dean slapped Sam on his shoulder. "Hey, whatever it takes to get you through the night, pal."
"Yeah, well, if you want a troubling question, I got one for you."
"What's that?"
"If we let out the seven deadly sins, what else did we let out?"
"You're right. That is troubling."
Dean lit a matchbook, making sure to be careful of Kit and to keep the flame away from her, and tossed it onto the pyre.
The bonfires eventually settled down and they prepared to leave.
"See you gents and little girl around," Tamara said.
"Tamara?" Bobby called. "The world just got a lot scarier. Be careful."
"You too." She got in her car and took off.
"Keep your eyes peeled for omens. I'll do the same."
"You got it," Dean replied.
"Wait, Bobby. We can when this war, right?" Sam asked.
Bobby paused a moment and didn't answer Sam's question. "Catch you on the next one."
"So, where to?" Dean questioned.
"Uh, I don't know," Sam answered, putting Keira into the car. "I was thinking Louisiana maybe."
"Little early for Mardi Gras, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Listen, I was talking to Tamara, and she mentioned this hoodoo priestess outside of Shreveport that might be able to help us out. You know, with you -- with your demon deal."
"Nah."
""Nah"? What does that mean, "nah"?"
"Sam, no hoodoo spell's gonna break this deal. It's a goose chase."
"We don't know that."
"Yes, we do. Forget it. She can't help. We're not going, and that's that. What about Reno, huh?"
"You know what? I've had it. I've been bending over backwards trying to be nice to you, and... I don't care anymore."
"That didn't last long."
"Yeah, well, you know what? I've been busting my ass trying to keep you alive, Dean, and you act like you couldn't care less. What, you got some kind of death wish or something?"
"It's not like that."
"Then what's it like, Dean?"
"Sam-"
"Just tell me."
"We trap the crossroads demon, trick it, try to welch our way out of the deal in any way? You die. Okay? You die. Kit dies. Those are the terms. There's no way out of it. If either of you try to find a way, so help me God, I'm gonna stop you two."
Sam sighed. "How could you make that deal, Dean?"
"'Cause I couldn't live with you dead. Couldn't do it."
"So, what, now I live and you die?"
"That's the general idea, yeah."
"Yeah, well, you're a hypocrite, Dean. How did you feel when Dad sold his soul for you? 'Cause I was there. I remember. You were twisted and broken. And now you go and do the same thing. To me. To Kit. What you did was selfish."
"Yeah, you're right. It was selfish. But I'm okay with that."
"I'm not."
"Tough. After everything I've done for this family, I think I'm entitled. Truth is, I'm tired, Sam. I don't know, it's like there's a light at the end of the tunnel."
"It's hellfire, Dean."
"Whatever. You're alive, I feel good -- for the first time in a long time. I got a year to live, Sam. I'd like to make the most of it. So what do you say we kill some evil sons of bitches and we raise a little hell, huh?"
"You're unbelievable."
"Very true."