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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄
𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘴
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Delaney Winchester sat in the front seat of the Impala with her older brother, Sam Winchester, that sat parked in front of the window to their motel room. She was sat with her back leant against Sam's left arm as the duo flipped through multiple lore books.
It had been a week since the opened the Devil's Gate, since Yellow Eyes was killed by Dean (finally), and since Dean had sold his soul to save Delaney's life. It had also been a week since both Delaney and Sam both started to dive into research on how to get Dean out of his deal before the year was up. Sam, though he was optimistic in the beginning, started to lose faith the more the week went on and it only seemed like Delaney still had limitless fuel. Not that Sam had showed any doubt, but Delaney could tell that he had dwindled a bit since they first started.
Delaney didn't necessarily blame Sam because what they were doing was impossible. She didn't think the Crossroads Demon would give up the deal. However, it didn't hurt to try because what Delaney used to think wasn't possible was in fact possible. So maybe, just maybe, Delaney could find a loop hole and save Dean's soul like he had saved hers.
The eldest Winchester, Dean, showed up in the window in just a white tank-top and his jeans and Delaney glanced up to see him give both her and Sam a double-thumbs up. Her and Sam had been kicked out of the motel room so Dean could have some... fun... and so the research had been moved to the Impala. She smiled fondly at her brother, glad to see him so happy and her eyes quickly moved back to her book when a woman stepped over to Dean in just a black lace bra and panties.
Delaney's phone buzzing in her back pocket startled her and she dug in her leather jacket pocket for her phone, pressing it to her ear. "Hey, Uncle Bobby."
"What you guys doing?"
"Same old, same old," Delaney replied, placing the phone between her shoulder and ear so she could read the book easier while also talking to Bobby.
"You buried in that book again?" Bobby sighed sadly. "Sweetheart, you want to break Dean free of that demon deal, you ain't gonna find the answer in no book."
Delaney frowned and slouched more against Sam who shifted slightly so she could more comfortable against him. "Then where, Bobby?"
"Sweetheart, I wish I knew. So, where's your brother?"
"Oh, Sam? He's right next to me," Delaney mused and laughed softly, glancing to the window to see Dean running around the motel room with his bed buddy. "Uh, polling the electorate."
"What?"
Delaney cleared her throat, shaking her head. "Never mind."
"Well, you and the boys better pack it up. I think I finally found something."
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Delaney sat in the back seat of the Impala as Dean sped down the empty, dark streets that lead to Nebraska. She wasn't sure if the nausea was from Dean's reckless speeding and the constant bouncing of the Impala or if it was from seeing her brother butt-naked when she had to go grab Dean for the possible case Bobby found for them.
"Dee, let me see your knife."
"What for?" Dean questioned, the smile falling from his face as he glanced into the rearview mirror in concern for his baby sister.
"So I can gouge my eyes out," Delaney mumbled, rubbing at her eyes as if that would rid her of the mental image of Dean's bare ass.
Dean chuckled softly and focused his attention back on the road ahead. "It was a beautiful, natural act, Della."
Delaney shuddered at the memory and gagged dramatically, earning her an eye roll from Dean. "That was a part of you I never wanted to see, Dean. Next time we have to get you, I'm sending in Sam."
Dean smiled at his baby sister in the rearview mirror. "Well, I appreciate you both giving me a little quality time with the Doublemint Twins."
"No problem," Delaney dismissed with a wave of her hand.
"Really?" Dean asked and he sounded shocked by Delaney's response. "Well, I got to say, I was expecting a weary sigh or an eye roll, something."
Delaney leant forward and poked her head into the front seat between Dean and Sam. "Not at all. You deserve to have a little fun, big bro."
Dean smiled fondly when Delaney kissed his cheek and sat back in her seat. "I can't disagree with you there, baby girl. What did Bobby have?"
Sam shrugged and glanced down at the notes he quickly scribbled down while Bobby explained to him what happened and Delaney ran inside to get Dean. "Not much. Crop failure and a cicada swarm outside of Lincoln, Nebraska."
"Could be demonic omens," Delaney noted.
"Or could just be a bad crop and a bug problem," Dean countered.
"Yeah, but it's our only lead," Sam informed, tossing the notes onto the seat between him and Dean. "No freaky deaths that Bobby could find - not yet, anyway."
"It's weird, guys. The night the Devil's Gate opened, all these weirdo storm clouds were sighted over how many cities?"
Delaney paused to think for a second, a lot of the demonic omens that had happened within the past week merging together in her mind. "Uh, seventeen."
"Seventeen. You think it would be Apocalypse Now, but it's been five days and bubkis. What are the demons waiting for?"
Delaney had wondered the same thing as Dean. Sure, she was supposed to lead all these demons in whatever war that had been planned, but now that Yellow Eyes was dead... did that title still even hold? Were they waiting for her? Or was there a bigger part to the puzzle that Yellow Eyes never told Delaney before he died?
"Beats me."
"It's driving me crazy. I tell, if it's gonna be war, I wish it would just start already," Dean ranted.
Delaney grimaced and fiddled with her thumbs in her lap, feeling horrible that she still hadn't told the boys about the demon blood or the fact she was supposed to lead the war that Dean wanted to happen. "I don't know, Dee. Be careful what you wish for."
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The three siblings stopped outside of a farmhouse that sat just outside of Lincoln, Nebraska. As they stepped out, the sound of dozens of cicadas could be heard around them and it made Delaney flinch slightly. Something about the sound just sent shivers down her spine.
"Well, that can't be a good sign," Delaney said, shutting her door and walking over to Bobby that was leant against the trunk of his car a few feet away.
Bobby leant off the trunk and shot Dean an odd look when he saw the bacon cheeseburger in his hand. "So, we eating bacon cheeseburgers for breakfast now?"
Dean wiped his mouth to rid the grease that sat around his lips. "Well, sold my soul for Della. Got a year to live. Not exactly sweating the cholesterol."
"So, Bobby, what do you think? We got a biblical plague going on here?" Sam asked, stuffing his hands into his jean pockets.
"Well, let's find out. Looks like the swarm's Ground Zero," Bobby replied and climbed the porch steps that lead to the farmhouse's front door.
Dean banged on the door three times, but had received no response. He took out his lockpick tools and opened the door, gagging when the stench of death wafted out the door.
Delaney held her breath and stepped into the house after Dean. "Oh that's awful."
Sam kept his fist up by his mouth and nose to limit the amount of stench he actually smelled. "That so can't be a good sign."
The group slowly crept through the house with their guns drawn and stopped in the second room when they heard panicked screams. Dean had kicked open the next door and they found the screams came from the TV that displayed an episode of Dallas. A family of three - a mother, father and son - sat on the couch in front of the TV and looked as if they had been dead for several days.
Delaney recoiled back into Sam when the stench of death and decay multiplied ten fold and she nearly gagged at the smell. She seriously would never get used to the smell of death no matter how long she stayed in the business. It was the type of smell that you just couldn't ever get over. "Bobby, what the hell happened here?"
Bobby breathed through his mouth, dropping his hand from his nose. "I don't really know."
"Check for sulfur," Dean instructed.
The three slowly walk around the room and inspect it for any black substances on the windowsills or furniture, but froze when Dean whistled to gain the other three's attention. He signaled to the trio he was going to go check it out and Bobby motioned for the two younger Winchesters to follow him around the other side so they could get the intruder from the other side.
When they rounded the corner to go back to the front of the porch, they saw that Dean was on his back and a dark skinned man held his rifle up to Dean's chest while his wife stood next to him.
"Isaac? Tamara?" Bobby questioned, walking over to the couple with Sam and Delaney following. "What are you doing here?"
Dean groaned and held his hand up, waving it in the air. "Hello. Bleeding here!"
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A few hours later, the Winchesters and Bobby found themselves inside Isaac and Tamara's house. The couple actually turned out to be quite nice and Delaney inspected the multiple artifacts and hunting gear that hung around the room she stood in with everyone.
"Honey... where's the Palo Santo?"
"Well, where'd you leave it?" Tamara asked.
Isaac rolled his eyes fondly at his wife. "I don't know, dear. That's why I'm asking."
"Palo Santo?" Sam asked, never hearing of the thing before now.
"It's holy wood from Peru. It's toxic to demons like Holy Water," Tamara explained, digging through a large duffle bag that sat next to Isaac's arm. "Keeps the bastards nailed down while you're exorcising them."
Isaac took the large stake from Tamara when she held it out to him. "Thank you, dear."
"You'd lose your head if it wasn't for me."
Delaney sat on top of a table that was across from the one that Tamara and Isaac stood at, smiling softly at their loving argument. It reminded her of the ones she and Will used to have with each other and how Will would always say he'd be dead if it weren't for Delaney. If only she had known back then how ironic that statement truly was.
"How long you two been married?" Sam asked, leaning against the table next to Delaney.
"Eight years this past June."
Isaac kissed Tamara's head and she smiled affectionately up at him. "The family that slays together..."
"Right. I'm with you there," Delaney said, swinging her legs back and forth. "How did you guys get started?" Her face fell when she noticed the solemn expressions that took over Isaac and Tamara's face. "Oh, you know... I'm sorry. It's not - that's not any of my business."
Tamara waved Delaney off and rocked back on her heels. "No, no. It- it's alright."
"Well, Jenny if you look as you pretty as you sound, then I'd love to make an appletini," Dean said into the phone, walking into the room and making a face at the drink he mentioned. Yeah. Call you."
Delaney crossed her arms and gave Dean a look. "So did you get anything besides a date, Dean?"
Dean cleared his throat and stuffed his phone back into his jacket pocket. "Shut up. That was the coroner's tech. 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 back up."
Bobby furrowed his eyebrows as none of what Dean said made any sense. "But there was a fully stocked kitchen just yards away."
"What is this, a demon attack?" Delaney inquired, never having heard of anything like this before.
"If it is, it's not like anything I ever saw, and I've seen plenty," Bobby replied.
"Well, what do we do now?" Dean asked.
Isaac shook his head and leant his hands on the table. "Uh, we aren't going to do anything. You guys seem nice enough, but this ain't Scooby-Doo, and we don't play well with others."
Delaney scoffed softly and turned her attention to Isaac across from her. "We'd cover a lot more ground if we all worked together."
"No offense, but we're not teaming with the damn fools who the let the Devil's Gate get open in the first place."
Delaney went to move off the table, but Sam was quick to hold his arm out before Delaney could do anything stupid. He gave her a silent look to cool it and she shot Isaac a heated glare and wished that looks could kill.
"No offense?" Dean repeated, sounding just as irritated as Delaney felt. At least she wasn't alone.
"Isaac," Tamara chastised and shot Isaac a stern look. "Like you never made a mistake before."
"Yeah, locked my keys in the car, turning my laundry pink. Never brought on the end of the world, though."
Dean chuckled humorlessly and clenched his fists at his side. "Alright. That's enough."
Sam sighed and made sure to keep his arm out in case Delaney decided to get smart and leap at Isaac when he moved. "Guys, this isn't help. Dean, Delaney - "
Delaney mocked Sam and ignored the unimpressed look he had given her, silently calling her a child.
"Look, there are a couple hundred more demons out there now. 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," Isaac snapped.
"I can bring war down on you right now, if you like," Delaney threatened and was held back by Sam.
Tamara grabbed her husband's hand and began to tug him out of the room. "Alright, that's quite enough testosterone for now.
"Real nice friend you got there, Uncle Bobby."
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The next morning, the group showed up at a local store where a woman had her head smashed against her own windshield and then had her shoes stolen afterwards. Sam and Delaney scoped out the outside while Dean ran in to talk to the manager that had been there when the attack happened. When they entered the store, they could hear Dean flirting with the manager and he excused himself when his siblings approached.
"Dean, what are you doing?" Delaney questioned.
"I'm comforting the bereaved. What are you doing?"
"Working. Dead body, possible demon attack - that kind of stuff," Delaney retorted.
Dean brought his fist up to his mouth and faked a cough. "I'm sorry, Della. It's just I don't have much time left, and..." He paused to dramatically cough some more into his fist. "Got to make every second count."
Delaney stared at Dean incredulously as she shook her head at his antics. "I - you're so freakin' dramatic, Dean Winchester."
"Aw, apology accepted, baby girl," Dean reached out and pinched Delaney's cheek, who quickly swatted his hand away from her face.
Bobby stopped next to the small circle the siblings made and fixed his tie in the mirror next to Dean.
Dean whistled as he took in Bobby's appearance of slicked back hair and a suit. "Whoa, looking spiffy, Bobby. What were you, a G-Man?"
"Attorney from the D.A.'s office," Bobby corrected and turned to face the siblings. "I just spoke to the suspect. I don't think she was possessed. 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 wack job," Dean suggested.
"If it had been an isolated incident, maybe, but first the family and now this? I believe in a lot of things. Coincidence ain't one of them. Did you guys find anything around here?"
Delaney shook her head and crossed her arms with a heavy sigh. "No. No sulfur, nothing."
"Well, maybe something..." Dean trailed off and nodded his head towards a security camera that sat above them in the corner of the ceiling. "See, Delaney? I'm working."
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After they watched the camera feed, the hunters found out that it was a redheaded guy that turned out to be their guy. Delaney broke off from the boys to go find out anything she could on the redheaded guy they saw in the camera feed, a printed out photo of his face in her pocket. She walked around the bustling sidewalk and slowed down a bit when the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, as if someone had been either following her or staring at her. She slowly turned around saw that was no one was close enough behind her to elicit that kind of reaction.
Weird.
Delaney spent the better part of the day running around the town to try and research any place that could give her any information on the guy that they believed to be their demon. She finally got information on him after spending hours at the library and hospitals and rushed off to the bar that Dean had told her him, Sam and Bobby scoped out because that's where the guy usually drank at.
In the dark parking lot, there were only a few cars and she could point out Bobby's rusted old van from a mile away. She could see Dean in the passenger side and not paying attention but to the bar across from the van.
"Oh, this is just too easy," Delaney laughed to herself and banged obnoxiously loud on the window, causing Dean to jump in his seat and her laughter to erupt even more.
Dean glared at Delaney when she opened the passenger door. "That is so not funny, Delaney Elizabeth."
Delaney rolled her eyes and pushed the back of Dean's seat forward so she could climb into the back with Sam, effectively squishing Dean uncomfortably until she pulled the seat back to its original position. "Yeah, yeah, you big baby. Alright, 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? So you think he's possessed?" Dean asked.
"It's a good bet," Delaney responded, shrugging lamely as she had no other options for them at this point. "So, what, he just walks up to someone, touches them, and they go stark raving psycho or something?"
"Those demons that got out at the gate - they are gonna do all kinds of things we haven't seen," Bobby warned the siblings.
"You mean the demons we let out?"
Bobby gave Delaney a look and turned when Dean rapidly hit Bobby's shoulder and pointed out the windshield to show the trio that Walter Rosen had just stepped out of his car and made his way towards the bar.
"Showtime!"
Bobby pushed Dean back in his seat when he tried to get out of the van. "Wait a minute, Dean. 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?" Dean barked.
"We're no good dead!" Bobby shot back at Dean. "We're not gonna make a move until we know what the score is."
Sam sat forward and pointed his finger out the windshield to where Isaac and Tamara walked across the lot the bar. "That's not really an option anymore."
Bobby slammed his hands on the wheel and let out a frustrated yell. "Damn it!"
The group exited the van and walked over to the doors to get into the bar, but when they pushed on the doors, they didn't budge. Delaney furrowed her eyebrows and slammed a shoulder against the doors, but they didn't give. Someone had locked the doors from the inside, which meant Isaac and Tamara could be in trouble.
"Boys, something is wrong."
Bobby, Sam and Dean threw their weights against the doors, but it was still useless. Nothing worked and Bobby eventually walked off to the van, hopping into it and starting it up. The three Winchesters backed up out of the way of Bobby's van and watched as Bobby floored the van backwards towards the double doors of the bar and burst through them.
The four hunters rush into the bar armed with holy water, which they flung violently into the crowd of demons. They backed up and Delaney grabbed Tamara, who screamed frantically for Isaac who laid dead on the ground in a pool of blood and drain cleaner.
"Tamara, come on! We have to go. He's dead," Delaney yelled over the chaos that happened around her and Tamara. She knew how much it hurt to lose your other half, but Tamara wouldn't be good dead either. She began to tug her towards Bobby's van and noticed Dean, Sam and Bobby still immersed in fighting with the demons. "Boys, come on!"
Dean entered combat with Walter and he opened the trunk just as he ran out of Holy Water. Walter grinned maniacally at Dean, stepping closer to him to attack. Dean overpowered him and stuffed him in the trunk, which had been inscribed with a Devil's Trap. He stumbled into the front seat where his siblings, Bobby and Tamara all were and shouted for Bobby to go.
Delaney had never been more happy to escape a bar in her life.
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At Tamara and Isaac's house, they were able to tie up Walter to a chair underneath a Devil's Trap that had been inscribed into the ceiling and one on the ground below his feet. The group of hunters stepped into the next room away from Walter to discuss what they wanted to do, even though with Tamara's screaming, Walter probably heard everything anyway.
"And I say we are going back - now!"
"Hold on a second," Delaney said and held her hands up to calm down Tamara, but it was no use.
"I left my husband bloody on the floor!"
"Okay, I understand that, but we can't go back," Sam yelled over Tamara.
Tamara narrowed her eyes at Sam and poked a finger into his chest. "Fine. You stay, but I am heading back to that bar."
"I'll go with her," Dean offered, but we pushed back into the room by Delaney.
"It's suicide, Dean!"
"I'm already dead! So, what's it matter?"
Delaney curled her hands into fists and fought against the urge to knock Dean in the side of the head. It pissed her off how blasé Dean was about his impending death. It was almost as if he didn't care at all. "How you gonna kill 'em, then? You can't shoot 'em. You can't stab 'em. They are not gonna just wait in line to get exorcised!"
"I don't care!" Tamara cried.
"We don't even know how many of them there are!" Delaney snapped at Tamara.
"Yeah, we do," Bobby corrected, entering the room with a book in his hands. "There's seven. Do you have any idea who we are up against?"
Dean blinked and shared a look with his siblings before he turned back to Bobby. "No. Who?"
"The seven deadly sins. Live and in the flesh!"
Dean paused for a long moment before a wide grin broke out on his face. "WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!" He noticed the room fall into an awkward silence and held his hands out to the side. "Se7en? Brad Pitt? No?"
Bobby shot Dean an unamused look and shoved the book into Dean's chest, causing him to stumble back a few steps. "Binsfeld's Classification of Demons. In 1589, Binsfeld I.D.'d the seven sins - not just as human vices, but as actual devils."
"The family - they were touched by Sloth. And the shopper..."
"That's Envy's doing," Bobby finished for Sam. "The customer we got in the next room. 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! I am gonna slaughter every last one of them!"
Bobby stepped closer to Tamara and it was obvious in his face that he was over Tamara's attitude. Sure, her husband had just died and Delaney felt her pain, but she needed to keep her mouth shut because if her nor Isaac had showed up at that bar then he wouldn't be dead. The couple should have just listened to the Winchesters and Bobby in the first place.
"We already did it your way! You burst in there half-cocked and look what happened to Isaac! Now I don't want to lose anyone I care about, so we're doing this my way. These demon haven't been topside in half a millennium! We are tracking medieval, dark ages! We never faced anything close to this. So we will be taking a deep breath... and figure out what our next move is!"
Tamara and Bobby had a long, awkward stare off between two before Tamara stormed off in an emotional wreck.
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Envy chuckled darkly as Bobby, Tamara and the three Winchesters circled the chair he sat in. "So, you know who I am, huh?"
"We do. We're not impressed," Bobby quipped.
"Why are you here? What are you after?" Delaney questioned, stopping to stand in front of Envy's chair while her brothers continued to circle the chair slowly and Bobby and Tamara stood on either side of the chair.
Envy just smiled at Delaney, keeping his mouth shut.
Dean gripped the back of Envy's hair and pulled it back harshly, earning a small hiss from the demon. "I believe the lady asked you a question, asshole. What do you want?"
Envy just laughed maniacally when Dean pushed his head forward and shouted in pain when Dean flicked Holy Water at his face. He groaned softly as his skin continued to sizzle. "We already have... what we want. 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, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, fun. See, some people crochet. Others golf. Me? I like to see people's insides... on their outsides."
Tamara stepped threateningly closer to Envy with a sneer on her face. "I'm gonna put you down like a dog."
"Please," Envy scoffed and showed no signs of fear. "You really think you're better than me. 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 yelled and lunged forward, taking multiple swings at Envy's face until Bobby and Dean pulled her away from Envy.
"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 are coming for me."
"Maybe," Dean said, leaning his hands on his knees so his face was a few inches from Envy's. "But they're not gonna find you... cause you'll be in Hell. Someone send this clown packing."
"My pleasure," Tamara said and grabbed the book to begin reading off the exorcism as the other four hunters left with the sound of Envy's screams ringing in their ears.
Once they were far enough away into the next room, Bobby turned to the three siblings that sat on the table together. Delaney momentarily wondered how the table didn't give out with all their weights combined on it. "I don't think we're gonna have to worry about hunting them. I think maybe this joker's right. They are gonna be hunting us and they aren't gonna quit easy."
"You guys, why don't you take Tamara and head for the hills? I'll stay back, slow them down, buy you a little time."
"You are insane, Dean. Just forget about it, okay?" Delaney huffed.
"Laney's right," Bobby agreed, earning a triumphant grin from the youngest Winchester.
Dean ran his hands over his face and threw them in the air. "There's six of them, guys. We're outnumbered, we're outgunned. We'll be dead by dawn."
Bobby lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. "Maybe, but there's no place to run that they won't find us."
"Look, if we're going down, then we are going down together, alright?" Sam demanded.
"Let's not make it easy for them," Dean said.
Envy's final scream echoed through the house and Tamara stepped into the room just seconds later. "Demon's out of the guy and he didn't make it."
Delaney raised an eyebrow as she watched Tamara walk away. "Huh, who would have thought there would be someone with worse sarcasm and sass than me?"
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Later on that night, Delaney sat on the floor of one of the rooms in Tamara's house as she loaded up guns and filled up Holy Water flasks with her brothers who both sat across from her. The trio looked up at each other silently and watched each other for a long moment before the lights above them flickered and the radio suddenly clicked on, playing We Shall Not Be Moved.
Dean cocked his gun and stood to his feet along with his siblings. "Showtime."
Delaney split up from the boys and took her position upstairs in one of the rooms and stood against the wall across from the door, gripping her shotgun in hand and her Holy Water sat nestled in her inner jacket pocket.
Suddenly, the door was kicked in and flung across the room as a man in a business suit, flanked by another man and a woman stepped into the room.
"Here's Johnny!"
The three demons began to advance on Delaney until the business man held his hands up, stopping the two behind him from walking further. They all glanced up to see the Devil's Trap located on the ceiling just a few inches from where they were about to walk.
The business man chuckled darkly and snapped his black eyes back to Delaney. "You really think something like that is gonna work on me? Me?"
"Let me guess - you're Pride," Delaney quipped.
The business man grins and gestured to the ceiling, creating a crack in the ceiling where the Devil's Trap and held his hands out to the side. "The root of all sin. And you... you are Delaney Winchester. That's right. I've heard you. We've all heard of you. The Prodigy, the Girl Queen. 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. Now with your yellow eyed friend dead, I guess I really don't have to do a damn thing, now, do I? You're fair game now, sweetheart, and it's open season."
Pride smirked at Delaney and advanced on her, knocking her to the ground. He pulled her back up with his arm wrapped tightly around her throat, choking her. She struggled against the vice grip of Pride and just as black spots appeared around her vision, Pride pushed her away and she gasped in a lung full of air.
Delaney turned around and spun Pride back around to face her, punching him hard in the face. Pride had gone stumbling forward and a blonde haired, blue eyed boy that looked to be her age, plunged a knife straight through Pride's throat. Fiery light appeared in the wound and Pride went down, dead, next to his two other companions that the boy must have killed.
Delaney coughed and wheezed, her chest heaving as she stared at the boy across from her. "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm the guy that just saved your ass," the boy replied and wiped blood that dripped down from his nose.
"Well, I just saved yours, too," Delaney breathed.
The boy smirked at Delaney and backed towards the door. "See you around, Delaney."
Delaney balked for a moment, wondering how in the world that this boy knew her name. "Wait!" she called after him, rushing out of the room after him. Only, when she made it into the hallway, the boy was nowhere to be found. "What the hell?"
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The next morning, Sam and Dean piled the corpses of the demons that didn't survive into a shallow pit and began to pour salt and fuel over them. Several yards away, Tamara is stood in front of a funeral pyre: Isaac's.
"You guys think she's gonna be alright?" Delaney asked, sadly glancing over her shoulder at Tamara.
"No, definitely not," Dean replied honestly. He turned as Bobby walked over to them, looking way more tired than the trio did. "Well, you look like Hell warmed over."
"You try exorcising all night and see how you feel," Bobby remarked, rubbing a hand tiredly over his face. "Thankfully, we had two survivors. The pretty girl and the heavy guy, they'll make it for sure. Lifetime of therapy bills ahead, but, still..."
"That's more than you can say for these poor bastards," Dean added.
Delaney chewed on her lip as her eyes shifted from the pile of bodies below her and over to Bobby. "Uncle Bobby, that knife that guy had last night - what kind of blade can kill a demon?"
"Yesterday, I would have said there was no such thing."
"I'm just gonna ask it again - who was that masked dude?" Dean asked, crossing his arms. "Actually, better a question - how did you let a guy save your ass? You hate being a damsel in distress."
Delaney shot Dean an exasperated look. He had been teasing her all night that the guy had to jump in save her because she couldn't do it herself. As much as she hated needing someone to help her out because she didn't want to appear weak, she was glad that guy showed up when he did. "Three demons, Dean... at once."
Dean pat his sister on the head patronizingly and smirked at her. "Aw, whatever it takes to get you through the night, baby girl."
Sam sighed and shifted where he stood in between Bobby and Dean. "Yeah, well, if you really want a troubling question, I got one for you - if we let out the Seven Deadly Sins, what else did we let out?"
"You're right, that is troubling," Dean replied after a long moment of silence, lighting a match and dropping it into the hole, setting the bodies on fire.
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Later on, once all the bodies have officially stopped burning and the siblings parted ways with both Bobby and Tamara, they made their way towards the Impala to get back on the road.
"Where to?"
"Uh, I don't know. I was thinking maybe Louisiana," Delaney suggested, stopping by the hood of the Impala.
"It's a little early for Mardi Gras, isn't it?" Dean teased.
Delaney shook her head and stuffed her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, rocking back on her heels. "Uh, no. Listen, I talked to Tamara earlier, she mentioned this hoodoo priestess outside of Shreveport that might be able to help us out, you know, with your - with your demon deal."
Dean made a face at Delaney's suggestion, almost looking as if he had smelt something foul. "Nah."
Delaney scoffed and furrowed her eyebrows at Dean. "Nah? What do you mean nah?"
"Delaney, no hoodoo priestess spell is gonna break this deal. It's a goose chase."
"We don't know that," Delaney argued.
"Yes, we do. Forget it. She can't help."
Sam nudged Dean in the side to get him to lay off Delaney who had just been trying to help. "It doesn't hurt to go look, Dean."
"We're not going and that's that. What about Reno, huh?" Dean offered and went to walk over to the driver's side but was tugged back by Delaney.
"You know what? I've had it," Delaney snapped, finally reaching her breaking point with Dean's attitude towards the whole demon deal situation. "I have bending over backwards trying to be nice to you, and... I don't care anymore."
"That didn't last long."
Delaney narrowed her eyes at Dean and crossed her arms across her chest. "Yeah, well, you know what? Both Sammy and I have been busting our asses 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?" Delaney demanded, needing answers because she was quite literally losing her mind over the whole thing and Dean couldn't even be bothered to care that he would be dead in less than three hundred and sixty-five days.
"Delaney - "Dean cut himself off, sighing heavily as if not knowing how to word what he was gonna say. "We trap the Crossroads Demon, trick it, try to welsh our way out of the deal in any way, you die, okay? You die. Those are the terms. There's no way out of it and I will be damned if I have to watch you die again. The first time tore me apart enough to last me a lifetime. It's not happening, Delaney."
Delaney rolled her lips into her mouth, tears welling in her eyes as she realized why Sam had started to lose faith so quickly. He had to have realized that there would be no way out of it. "How can you make that deal, Dean?"
"Cause I couldn't live with you dead. Couldn't do it, Della."
"Neither could Sammy, but you didn't see him throwing himself at a Crossroads Demon to sell his soul for me," Delaney gestured to Sam who stood next to her, rubbing her back comfortingly as her voice shook with emotion. "You are such a hypocrite. How did you feel when Daddy sold his soul for you, huh? 'Cause I was there, I remember. You were twisted and broken and now you go and do the thing... to me. How do you think it makes me feel to know you're gonna die in less than a year? How helpless do you think that makes me feel, Dean? Huh? It was selfish."
"Delly..."
Dean licked his lips and nodded. "You're right, Della, it was selfish. I'm okay with that."
"Yeah? Well, I'm not."
"Tough, Delaney. After everything I have done for this family, I think I'm entitled," Dean admitted, dropping his arms to his side tiredly. "Truth is, Della, I'm tired. I don't know, it's like there's a light at the end of the tunnel."
"That's Hell fire, Dean," Delaney quipped.
Dean shrugged lamely and pat Delaney's shoulder. "You're alive, I feel good... for the first time in a long time. I got a year to live, Della. I'd like to make the most of it and not spend it with you hating me, okay? What do you say we kill some evil sons of bitches and we raise a little Hell, huh?"
"Pretty sure we raised most of Hell," Sam mused and earned laughs from both of his siblings, lightening the mood just a bit.
"You're unbelievable," Delaney said to Dean as he passed her by.
Dean stopped by the driver's side door and sent her a knowing smirk. "Tell me something I haven't heard before, baby girl."
Delaney closed her eyes and fought the urge to send Dean off to Hell three hundred and fifty-seven days early.
AUTHORS NOTE
Hi hey hello
WELCOME TO BOOK THREE OF DARKEST SECRETS, PEOPLE! I have changed this story from DARKEST DAYS to HIGHWAY TO HELL because I felt it was more fitting and I'm gonna use DARKEST DAYS for one of the future books in this series. Buckle up, folks, the Winchesters are about to be on their craziest rollercoaster ride yet!