Judas Is the Demon I Cling To

“’Top-notch’ hunters. Amateur nancys is more like it.” Dean growled into the steering wheel as he glared out the Impala’s windshield.

I shifted my weight in the passenger seat so that my upper back could rest against the door. I studied my brother’s face carefully, noting the hardness in his jaw and the angry furrow of his brow. Years ago, I would’ve been scared to be this close to him in this type of mood. Now, I actually found it comical. He takes this stuff so seriously. I shook my head and sagged further into the leather of the seat, letting my head loll back and my eyes close.

“How can he say that? How can he even say that?” Dean exclaimed, asking no one in particular. I felt my eyes roll behind my lids. An involuntary reaction to most things my brother said.

“Dean, seriously. Just let it go.” I opened my eyes and looked at him once more, trying to make my voice sound as impassive as possible.

Dean turned and studied my face, and his instantly became darker. He had obviously seen some trace of annoyance I hadn’t bothered to smooth over.

“’Let it go’? That’s your plan, Sam?” His lips pursed together and I could see the skin around his eyes begin to wrinkle in disapproval. “That’s not a very good attitude. That’s not what we do.”

“You mean it’s not what you do, Dean.” The words popped out before I had a chance to check them.

Dean’s nostrils flared once and he opened his mouth, only to snap it shut a moment later and turn his attention back to the road. I glanced out the window and nearly jumped as a road sign whizzed by so fast, I couldn’t even make out what it said. I sat up and leaned to the left, looking over the steering wheel at the speedometer.

110

“Jeez, Dean. Lay off, will ya?” I shifted back to my former position. “There’s no sense getting us both killed over something so stupid.”

“I just can’t believe you’re not the least bit pissed about this!” Dean pounded his fist down on the steering wheel once, but let off on the accelerator slightly. “I mean, since when does anyone know how to do this job better than us, huh? Name me one time that anyone Bobby knows has bagged a bigger, better bad guy than us?”

I sighed again. I could practically see fumes emitting out of Dean’s ears.

“He didn’t say they were better, Dean. He just said someone was already working it. Someone good. He said it was handled and that we should find a different hunt and not waste our time.” I saw Dean’s grip on the wheel relax a bit and felt the Impala slow about five more miles. “Besides, it’s not like we have a history of playing nice with others. Er, you don’t, anyway.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just... Never mind what it means. I take it back.” I threw my arms up in defeat, hitting my knuckles against the bottom of the car’s roof as I did. “All I’m saying is, no one said we couldn’t handle the job. Just that it would be a waste. We’re needed elsewhere.”

Dean squinted out the windshield, considering my words. I could see him turning each one over in his mind, looking for some loophole in my logic. Something he could hold over my head.

“Okay, well let’s say you are right. In theory, that is.” He turned and pointed at my chest in a gesture that clearly said But you’re not right. “If you’re right, then we should just turn around and haul ass to some other tormented, plagued city. Or whatever.”

I nodded my head, wondering if there was an actual point he was trying to make.

“That doesn’t excuse the fact that, right now, we’re here. In Kentucky. Extremely close to Ohio. Where these bad things are happening. Right now. And have been happening for two months.”

I shook my head slightly and widened my eyes. “Dean, point. Please.”

“Keep your shorts on!” He growled back at me. “My point here is, we’re in Kentucky. A state away from where the bad guys are feeding on innocent people. If there’s a hunter there now that’s worth any bit of salt, he would’ve stopped this thing weeks ago.”

I opened my mouth to interrupt, but Dean held up a hand to stop me.

“Now, I’m not saying this other hunter isn’t ‘good’. But if people are still dying, it’s obvious to me that he can’t handle whatever this thing is. So I say, we do the right thing and help him, before this thing decides it’s chow time again.” Dean turned his head toward me slowly, letting it loll against his shoulder as he smirked at me, an ’I gotcha there’ light in his eyes.

I folded my arms across my chest. He does have a point. The mental concession must have registered somewhere on my face, because Dean’s smirk widened into a full blown grin. I groaned.

“Whatever. Fine. Just, promise me one thing.”

“Shoot.”

“First off, this isn’t going to turn into some sort of ‘alpha-male’, pathetic contest with this guy.” Dean opened his mouth, but it was my turn to silence him. “I mean it. You have no clue how annoying and painful that is for me.”

Dean consented with a roll of his eyes. “Yes, mom.”

“Another thing,” I began. Dean turned to look at me, a pained expression on his face.

I laughed and glanced quickly out the windshield. I froze.

There, in the middle of our lane, stood a woman. Her head was thrown back and she was looking up at the sky. Her arms were spread wide as if she were waiting there to embrace the Impala as it hurled toward her.

“Dean! Watch out!”

Dean’s head snapped forward and he looked straight through the windshield to the road beyond.

“Shit shit shit! Hang on, Sammy!” He yelled and slammed down on the brake.

The entire car shuddered and groaned as it jerked forward, slowing but being propelled forward by momentum. I was tossed forward. I heard a loud crack and felt intense pain spread across my forehead as it connected with the glove box. Instinctively, my hand flew to my forehead, and I righted myself, sitting up and looking out the windshield once more. The woman remained in the middle of the lane. Dean didn’t even have time to swerve. She was too close. It was too late.

Where had she come from, anyway? The logical part of my brain wondered as the instinctive part readied myself for the impact I knew was coming. I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch.

But my hearing remained.

A loud thunk sounded as the Impala’s front end impacted the woman. I heard a series of thuds that could only be the noise of the woman being swept up onto the car’s hood and propelled onto the windshield. I heard her roll across the roof and drop down onto the trunk.

It felt like hours before the Impala finally came to an abrupt halt. I opened my eyes slowly and glanced over at Dean. He was drenched in sweat. His eyes were wide in horror. His knuckles white as they gripped the steering wheel. He turned to look at me, his mouth open in astonishment. As one, we spoke the only words that came to mind in the shock of everything that had just taken place:

“What the hell just happened?”