We're all caught up! If you've read this recently, but you haven't read the rewrites, I completely changed everything before this chapter. The plot is going to be the same, but it's very different from the story it was before. At this point, unlike in the original, Sang hasn't even met all of the boys yet.
Some people have had trouble reading the new chapters. If you have this problem, just remove it from your library and then add it back.
Hope you guys enjoy!
Sang's P.O.V.
Michael holds on for dear life as I speed to the bar.
"Now would you explain what is going on?," he asks.
"Jami's uncle, Walter, showed up to the bar. He was an awful man and he's also been dead for seven years," I let out a loud sigh. "Another reason we need to close this damn portal."
Jami doesn't talk about him much. She told me that he was abusive and that she ran away at a pretty young age. She didn't go into detail about what he did, but I have my theories.
"Alright," he says. "Are you sure you don't want me to drive? I'm sure we will be more help if we make it there alive."
He makes a point to look at my hands gripped tightly around the steering wheel.
I shake my head. "I'm fine."
I will make it before anything happens this time. The night I met Taylor, I didn't. People died, people I could have saved.
That thought only makes me go faster.
"Watch out," Michael says as soon as I see a deer run into the road. I slam on the breaks and slightly swerve to avoid hitting it. Michael lurches forward in his seat as the car stops abruptly.
This certainly didn't help my case. "You alright?," I ask.
He gives me a disapproving look. "Yes, I'm fine."
"Great," I nod before stepping on the gas again.
Michael doesn't say anything else about my driving, he just continues with his disapproving looks.
When I finally pull up to the bar, I don't feel an evil presence. Are we too late? I grab my gun before getting out of the car, Michael right behind me.
The door to the bar is cracked open. It always stays closed. It's concerning how quiet it is. Even on our slowest days, the place is always so lively.
As I'm about to enter, Michael pulls me back by my arm. "What?," I ask, feeling slightly irritated.
"We should do a perimeter check before going in. We do not want to be taken by surprise," he says.
"Yeah," I nod. "You're right."
Michael might be good for me in more ways than one. I sometimes rush into things without taking extra safety precautions.
So, I follow Michael and everything seems to be all clear. When we get back to the door, Michael stands in front of me and slowly pushes the door open.
I hate to admit it, but I'm afraid of what we might find. We walk over broken glass and my fears are only heightened when I see the state of the bar. Tables and chairs are flipped over, there's broken bottles all over the ground, and there's no sign of a dead uncle or the girls.
"They might be in the back," I say quietly.
We move silently to the back. The door to Jami's office is closed and Michael turns the doorknob slowly before opening it.
He's met with Jami holding her shotgun at his face.
"It's us," I say quickly, before Jami gets trigger happy.
She lowers her gun and lets out a sigh. Taylor goes around her and throws her arms around me. "Thank God," she says.
"Are you guys hurt?," Michael asks before I can.
"We're fine," Taylor says before pulling away. "Jami got a few good shots in, not enough to kill him, but enough to get him to leave. He promised that he'd be coming back though."
"Okay," I nod. "Then we'll be waiting for him when he does."
We all move back to the front, and Jami looks around the bar with a solemn look on her face. I know this is hard for her. Jack's is her happy place, and to see the man that abused her in her has her obviously shaken up.
"Why don't you tell me what happened?," I ask.
Jami glances over at Taylor. "You tell her."
She gives Jami a guilty look before turning to me. "There was a maintenance issue, so Jami had to shut the bar down until someone could get down here to fix it. Jami was in the back when a man came by, he said he was making a delivery. People are making deliveries at odd times of the day, so I didn't think anything of it and let him in. Nothing seemed off about him," she turns back to Jami. "It's my fault he got in. I'm so sorry."
"You're not to blame," Jami says.
That doesn't seem to make her feel better, but she continues her story. "As soon as he stepped foot inside, he asked for Jami so I went to go get her. She froze and that's when I realized something wasn't right, but it was too late. Everything happened so fast after that. Jami managed to shoot him a couple of times, but not after he nearly destroyed the bar. We hid in her office and called you and Henry. You were the only one to call back, I think he's doing a job."
"I don't know how you do it, Sang," Jami shakes her head. "He was terrifying. Even more so than when he was alive."
"We're going to get rid of him," I promise her.
"I know," she says. "And you, who are you?," she asks Michael.
"Michael," he introduces himself.
She gives me a sly look, but doesn't say anything about it. She looks around the bar again. "Fuck, he really messed this place up. I guess I should get started cleaning up before he shows his face again."
Taylor starts helping her by grabbing a broom to clean all the glass up.
"You guys start that, and Michael and I will go outside to put up some extra protection," I say. "I'll help you guys with this when we're done."
Michael follows me outside. "I'll show you how it's done today, and next time we meet, I'll teach you. Sound good?"
I nod. "That's fine."
I expect him to say some words, maybe an incarnation of some sort. He stares at the bar for a moment and I can feel the difference in the atmosphere, like I can feel his energy.
"Done," he says with a proud look on his face.
"You made that look extremely easy," I say skeptically.
"You do have to remember that I have years of practice," he says.
"I know," I grumble. I kick a rock with my foot. "I just have so much to catch up on."
"You are learning quickly," he reminds me. "We just have to remain vigilant with your training."
"I guess that's all I can do for now, annoying as it is," I say. I'm torn. The longer this portal is open, the worse things will get. But I need more time. As confident as I like to act, I'm nowhere near prepared for what's coming. "I should probably help them clean up," I say.
"Sure, I'll help," he says.
"Sang, would you tell Taylor to go home before something happens to her?," Jami asks as soon as we walk back into the bar.
I freeze, not wanting to be caught in the middle, while Taylor gives Jami a look. "I can handle myself. Just because I can't fight like Sang doesn't mean I can't contribute anything."
"Well, I don't think hacking computers is going to be our solution today," Jami says.
Taylor eyes quickly well up, before she turns around and walks out of the bar. I take one last look at Jami before following after her.
She stands near the road with her hands wrapped around herself protectively.
"Jami can be hard sometimes, you know how she is," I say in an attempt to break the silence.
"She can have a shitty temper," she nods. It's very rare to see Taylor like this, she's the positive one out of the four of us.
"I'm not making excuses for her, because what she said was uncalled for. But I have a pretty strong feeling that her mood has a bit more to do with seeing her scumbag uncle more than it has to do with you."
"It's not just that though," she says. "I don't understand her, and that really gets to me sometimes. She can be really sweet one moment and then the next she just shuts down for no reason. Do you think its's my fault?"
"Absolutely not," I tell her. "It's just not easy for her to open up, you know? I don't think she knows how to show it sometimes, but I do know that she is just trying to protect you."
"She just doesn't put in any effort," she sighs.
"What I'm about to say, is coming from a place of love," I tell her. "You are obviously more open about your feelings, but you haven't talked about any of this with her. She's the one you need to have this conversation with."
She groans. "I hate when you're right."
I put my hand on her back to comfort her, "This will all sort itself out."
She gives me a small smile. "Yeah. I think I need some time alone to think about everything."
"Okay," I nod. "I'm going to leave the door to the bar open just incase her uncle comes back, so call me if you need me."
I leave her before going back into the bar. I immediately notice that Michael is nowhere to be seen.
"Where did Michael go?," I ask Jami.
"He's in the back making a call," she tells me. "And before you even start, you can save the lecture."
"You've known me long enough, you should know lectures aren't my thing," I say before turning serious. "Taylor is really upset."
"Well, she should still go home. Something bad could happen to her if Walter comes back."
"I know that you are only trying to protect her, but she's an adult. She has every right to stay and help if that's what she wants to do. Let's be real, she's the smartest out of all us and really resourceful."
"That she is," she says. "And you know just how much I care about her. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to her because of me. She's already lost too much because of demons."
"I wouldn't let anything happen to her, but even if something did, it wouldn't be your fault. It's her decision to stay here, and as much you want to protect her, you can't take her decisions away," I remind her before pausing. "What you can do is talk to her about how you feel."
These two just need a little push. I feel like a hypocrite, but they need to discuss things between them. Both of them are afraid for different reasons, but they're crazy about each other.
"I am who I am, okay?," she says defensively.
"You and I aren't so different. We both have our walls really high," I say.
Jami smirks. "Then you're probably the last person I should be taking advice from."
I can't help but laugh. "Maybe."
It's at that moment that Michael comes back out. I wonder if he could hear us talking and tried to give us our space.
"I hate to do this, but I have to get going," he says. "I am needed for a possession up in Columbia. Are you guys going to be good?"
"We'll be fine," I assure him.
"Alright. Just keep in mind what I taught you today," he says.
"Don't worry, I plan on putting it to use," I say.
He comes closer and takes my hand before placing a bullet in it. It's gold with a blueish tint, like the bullet I found in the cabin. "I wanted to give you this earlier," he says. "Just in case."
"What is this?," I ask.
"It is a celestial bullet," he tells me. "These are extremely rare."
I tilt my head. "What's so special about them?"
"They don't send a demon to Hell. Whatever demon these are used on cease to exist."
"Shit, I didn't even know this existed," I say. Michael just keeps on surprising me.
"Like I said, they are extremely rare, so only use it in an emergency," he says. "And let me know how everything goes."
"I will," I promise and then he's gone, leaving the two of us to finish cleaning things up. Eventually, Taylor comes back in and the two act like nothing happened.
I hope they talk about everything later, but I certainly don't want to get involved again. Relationships aren't my strong suit, so I'm not the best at advice.
One hour of waiting turns into two and still no sign of the uncle. But I'm determined to send this bastard back to Hell tonight. Jami is his main target and I refuse to let her leave until it's safe. If we don't get him here, he'll go looking for her elsewhere, maybe even her house which isn't protected.
A man strolls into the bar and looks around, surprised that nobody else is in here.
"Sorry, we're closed. Maintenance issues," Jami says.
"If that's the case, why don't you close and lock the door? Or turn the sign at least?"
"Thanks for the advice. I'll take it into consideration," Jami says.
The man leaves, not without grumbling something under his breath. He's upset that he's not getting his beer tonight, but by leaving the bar he's safe.
A few others also come in, all of them turned away by Jami.
Although we're all bored, I keep my eye on the open door.
"I need a drink or else I'm going to go insane," Jami says. "Y'all want anything?"
"I'll take a beer," Taylor says.
"I'm good for now," I say. I want to be as sharp as possible when he gets here.
Not even a few minutes later, I feel the shift. I get the all-too-familiar bad feeling in the pit in my stomach that I get anytime there's a demon around.
"He's here," I say quietly to the girls.
And then I see him walking up to the door. I put my hand on my gun, but don't pull it out right away. I don't want him running off.
He doesn't attempt to walk in right away, he just stands in the doorway.
"Slow night?," he grins right at Jami. "Can't say I'm surprised you're running this bar into the ground. You always were useless."
Jami doesn't let it show that his words have any impact on her. "You don't know a thing about me."
His grin doesn't falter. He goes to walk in the door, but he's suddenly thrown back. This is my first time seeing Michael's protection charm at work and I have to say I'm impressed.
He picks something off the ground, before quickly getting on his feet. "So you learned a new trick. Gotta say, I'm surprised."
I close my eyes as Jami talks to him. It's easy to enter his mind. No surprise that he's a basic. Like Michael taught me today, I visualize him and then I throw a mental punch. He stumbles before charging forward.
I don't let up. I send kick after kick and punch after punch until he's collapsed.
I quickly open my eyes while he's still on the ground and exit the bar, gun in hand.
Then I turn to Jami. "Do you want to do the honors or should I?"
Walter tried to get up, but I shove him down with my foot. Evidently, mentally fighting somebody takes a bigger toll on them.
There's no hesitation on Jami's face as she walks forward. "I would love to."
I hand her my gun and she takes it without taking her eyes off the demon underneath my foot.
Walter lets out a dark laugh. "You may get rid of me, but I'll just come back. Now that Astaroth has opened the portal, I'll come back and finish what I started," he says. "Your friend won't be around to protect you all the time. We can have some fun like we used to before I gut you."
I grit my teeth and then I remember the bullet in my pocket. "I wouldn't count on coming back," I say before pulling the bullet out and handing it to Jami.
I don't think this is what Michael had in mind when he gave me the bullet, but I can't think of a better use for it.
He immediately recognizes it and struggles to flee. "I was just messing around and trying to freak her out."
"Michael said this was for emergencies," Jami forces it back into my hand before pointing my gun at his chest. "You can keep coming back all you want, because I will get to send you back to Hell over and over. Because I'm not afraid of you anymore."
She shoots Walter right in the chest and then he's gone.