Dean's POV
Ten minutes ago she passed out.
Seven, she started talking to herself, mumbling fearful words, full of resentment.
Two, she started moving; kicking, hitting her chair, thrashing her neck.
Now, her eyes flash open.
She flies upwards but I shove her right back down, allowing Cas to finish up the extraction. Her eyes remain wide open, panting and sweating as if she'd just finished a marathon. She looks like hell.
"Jack?"
"Oh my god. Oh my god... What..." She grabs onto my arms and doesn't let go. Her eyes, looking wild and crazed but exhausted at the same time, fly around the room as if searching for something.
They only stop when they go past my shoulder, locking on to something behind me. She sits up once again, and this time I can't hold her down, seeing as she is holding onto my own arms for dear life.
"Dean! Hold her down!" Cas yells at me.
I watch as Cas tries to hold the syringe steady, but to no avail. Jackie is freaking out, staring behind me with her eyes locked on some unseen object. Blood now runs down her neck from where the syringe begins to cut at her skin.
I turn around and look for whatever she's staring at with wide, scared eyes. "Get away from me!" She yells, panicked, over my shoulder.
"Jackie, there's nothing there." I hold her back down with my hands on her shoulders, her hands still grasping my wrists tightly. Behind me, I hear Sam and Bobby come down the stairs, alerted by all the noise.
"Hey, hey," I try to shush her. "Jackie!"
Her tense body all of the sudden loses its strength and I watch as she goes limp, her head falling to her shoulder. Her eyes stop following around the invisible imposer and lock onto mine, her eyelids looking heavy. As she falls back, I catch her head, holding it at an angle so Cas can finish.
"Make it stop," she whispers. She finally closes her eyes and passes out again, drops of tears and sweat the only thing moving on her face.
"What the hell is happening down here?" Bobby's gruff voice sounds out from the doorway, him finally finding his voice. I slowly remove my hands from Jackie's shoulders, still shocked at what had happened.
"I dont know- she just... Cas, you said removing the grace would stop all of this! What was that?"
"I don't know," he says as he finally removes the syringe from her neck. It is now full of the mystical, blue glow of angel grace. Bobby and Sam both enter the panic room again and together we watch as Cas rests his hand on her forehead. "All of the grace has been extracted from her body. I can't sense any more traces of it."
Bobby makes his way to Jackie's side, practically shoving me out of the way. I simply let him and step aside, giving him space. Bobby grabs her hand with one of his own, and with his other, starts wiping the blood off her neck with a towel. Bobby's eyebrows stay narrowed and his mouth remains in a stiff line. Sam and I exchange careful glances.
"This damn better have been worth it," is all he says before pulling up a chair from the side of the room and sitting next to her quietly.
I motion Cas over towards the door and we step outside of the panic room, Sam in tow.
"Is she okay?" Sam asks.
"I don't think anything went wrong-"
I cut Cas off right there. "Cas, what do you mean nothing went wrong. Did you see her?" I whisper yell, careful not to catch Bobby's attention.
"Yes, Dean, I did. But we've also successfully removed the grace from her, which is what we wanted. We can't say whether or not removing it helped or not until she wakes up."
"Yeah I guess so. From the looks of it she'll be out for a while," Sam states quietly, turning his head to look at a passed out Jackie.
"Fine, we'll wait," I say, feeling agitated.
"I advise you keep Jackie inside the panic room until we are sure Azrael did not notice us tampering with the mark. Or at least until she's able to... stand up." Sam and I agree with a nod. "The room is warded against angels, and it should protect against Azrael despite his archangel powers. Unless he somehow gets past them. In that case-"
"Okay, Cas, we get it," I interrupt, to which he looks to the floor. "What are you going to do with the angel grace then?"
"The Garrison would have much of it. It could be used as a locator spell for Azrael, just as we used the Gadreel's grace from you, Sam. However, explaining to them where I came across it would raise some questions... I would obviously have to explain Jackie's situation to them-"
"Woah, no. You can't do that. Those angels would be all over her and us if you did that."
"So you're saying the grace should be kept from them? Hide it?" Cas suggests innocently.
I shrug. It's for the best I guess. Sam looks at me, knowing there will be consequences but agreeing with me completely.
"We'll keep it with us. The angels won't get a hold of it and we'll have it if we ever need it," I offer.
Cas clearly let's out an exasperated breath. "Okay, but if the Garrison finds out-"
"They won't," I say. "And it's up to you to keep it that way."
"We need the Garrison off of our trails for now, Cas. We can't afford them breathing down our necks with everything going on," Sam adds in.
Cas nods, agreeing to our terms, then hands me a capped flask. Inside, a gentle blue glow radiates from a viscous liquid- the angel grace.
"I assume you have a safe place for it?" Cas asks Sam and I.
Exchanging a side glance with Sam who gives me a look that mirrors my own, I shrug. "We'll figure it out."
I send one last glance over at Bobby who still sits grasping Jackie's hand as she lays peacefully, then turn and head out of the panic room. Trudging up the stairs and outside onto the porch, I breathe in the desperately needed fresh air.
I drop heavily onto the old porch swing, paying no attention to the squeak it makes as it rocks back and forth. My fingers play with the flask of grace in my hand. I roll it across my palm, watching as the liquid substance moves up and down the tube.
How could this have caused so much trouble?
* * *
Jackie's POV
I stand alone in the middle of a leaf-covered hallow, surrounded by dead trees.
Far above me, branches twisted like distorted limbs reach out towards me. The monstrous mass of a tree towers over me, creating a shadow pool at my feet.
My heart immediately begins to race, a rythm that doesn't pause for a single beat.
What is this place?
My eyes scan the area slowly, and my ears focus on all sounds that surround me. I take in the dark and faded browns of dead leaves on the ground. They catch each and every shadow made by the eerie light that comes from a full moon in the sky above. My eyes only cease their movement once they come across simple etchings on a tree trunk a few paces away.
Feeling as if I am being watched, I take another quick glance around before taking a slow step towards the tree. For the first time, I realize that my feet are covered by my typical boots, and the rest of me bares simple dark jeans and a jacket.
I don't think much more of it when I come to realize what exactly it is that my eyes caught on the tree in front of me.
I reach out, and to my surprise, my fingertips brush up against the rough and scratchy surface of tree bark. And scratched in with what would have had to have been a knife, three simple symbols. Three simple digits.
The number 666.
I immediately stepback, my breath getting caught in my throat as my foot gets caught up on a twisted root coming up through the ground. A shock of pain runs through my ankle and I fall back, elbows catching me before I hit my head on the ground.
I scramble backwards away from the tree. Sitting on the ground and glaring up at it, my heart lurches at a thought that races through my mind.
Am I in hell?
I can't be- I was at Bobby's. In the panic room. And Cas was-
What happened after I passed out? Did Azrael come? Did he send me here?
Am I dead?
"Oh sweetie, you're not dead." The mysteriously familiar voice echoes out from behind me. I couldn't place the voice, though. I practically roll over on the ground in search of its owner, too shaken up to stand.
I reach into my boot in search my knife, or a gun, or anything. I never have nothing in there. But I guess I failed myself this time- my boot is empty.
I squint my eyes in attempt to find the owner of the voice. The only light comes from the moon above, and the shadows it creates throughout the forest only makes the task harder. Standing up as to better protect myself, I ignore the slight pain when I step on my left foot.
A shimmer of light, almost like one of a reflection, glimmers in the corner of my eye. "Who's there?" I ask, trying to make my voice sound strong as I stare at where I thought I saw the light. However, my words come out shaky, sounding like someone who was scared and hopeless.
Suddenly, all around me, the leaves that had been laying unmoving on the ground fly up in a gust of wind. I cover my face with my arms when dirt comes up through the air as well, threatening to go into my eyes.
"Don't be scared."
The wind stops. The leaves float back down to the ground, and specks of dirt pelt my arms as they fall. From behind my arms, I see a shadow on the ground at my feet. And when I look up and let my arms fall to my side, I finally find the one whose voice sounded so familiar.
Me.
Same clothes, same dark hair. The only difference is our eyes- both are a soft brown, yet mine show fear, and hers are full of menace.
"You'll soon understand everything." I, well, the other me, says softly. "Soon enough, you'll be everything you've been destined to be."
I let the fact that another me is standing not even five feet away slide and just let my frustration out- frustration that comes from my confusion and fear.
"I don't want to be part of anyone's stupid prophecy! Azrael's little games have nothing to do with me!"
I watch as my mirrored self cocks her head slightly to the right and smiles a smile that I am sure I will never make again. "You don't have a say in that. We don't."
"I don't care. I'm not doing what anyone wants. Now send me back- send me back, away from this hell hole and leave me alone."
"You know I can't do that, Jackie." She gives me a look, one that suggests I know more than I'm saying. One that I've seen before, just on someone else's face.
"Azrael." I stumble away from her- Well, him.
"Oh," she laughs. "I'm not Azrael. Well- you're not Azrael. With a body like this, why would I waste it pretending to be him?" She scoffs in such a way that scares me since I do it myself so often.
"Don't you get it?" She says, taking a step forward as I take two back. Before I know it, my back hits a tree. I grab it with my hands as to keep myself upright and to keep weight off my ankle as much as possible.
"This." She gestures around us with both hands.
"Is." She locks both of her eyes on my identical ones.
"In." She doesn't finish before she disappears in a greyish smoke.
I have time to look to my left and right once each before both my shoulders are shoved against rough bark. I once again stand in front of myself.
She takes one hand and runs it up my neck and to my cheek, then stops at my temple. With one finger, she pokes the spot forcefully.
"Your head." She finishes.
"This isn't real." I shake 'me' off, and she disappears in the same fashion as before. I step away from the tree, turning in circles looking for anything familiar, anything to get myself out of here.
"This is a dream," I tell myself. "Dean! Bobby!" Nobody answers my pleas for help. I'm only given an unsatisfying silence. "Someone! Please help!"
"Look at you."
I turn around. I see her appear again.
"Yelling for help. Always. Yelling. For help." She stresses every word, and with each one, a shiver runs down my spine, scaring me to death.
My breath shakes. "Stop," I whisper, tears starting to form in my eyes.
"Its pathetic, Jackie."
"Stop- just stop it, make it stop," I cry.
"Stop what? The dreams?" She disappears one last time, and to my dismay, another figure appears behind me, just in time to add in a deeper voice "The hallucinations?"
This time it was a male voice, and I don't need to turn around to know it was Azrael himself.
"I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself. Of course it's me. I'm so changeable." he whispers sweetly right behind me. "Now, tell me what you want. What do you want stopped, Jackie? I'll stop it."
"I want to not be scared," I whisper, tears now streaming down my cheeks. I'm tired of the sickening feeling in my stomach. "Of you. Of this."
"Hmm, I don't know what I can do about that, but let me just say, there's nothing to be scared of," he says, comforting me. His words make me nauseous. "You have so much potential," he whispers into my ear, his lips practically brushing my skin while his hot breath fans out across my neck.
"I promise, soon enough you will be great. Great enough to the point where nothing would even try to scare you. How does that sound?"
"No," is all I can manage to say, pulling away from him and turning around to look his way.
He laughs lightly. "You say that now..." He shakes his head lightly then looks at me as if I were a prized possession. Suddenly, he looks toward the sky, a small smile on his lips. The stars hold a story that I cannot read.
"Tell everybody hi for me."
A gunshot rings out, echoing through the dark forest. A fog settles over the ground, and my eyes go out of focus slowly.
"No!" I scream.