Chapter 27: I Feel Fine

Jo looks good in a dress. I didn't think I'd ever see her in one because it's not really her style, but she cleans up nice. She struts around the house fixing her hair and makeup. She walks hard and swishes her hips around, partly because she's wearing heels and partly because she's hoping that Dean will watch her. It's so subtle and yet so glaringly obvious that she's trying to get him to look at her. He does, but just for a glance, and only when she's not looking. No, I don't think he's ever banged her and I don't think he ever will. Jo isn't his type. She's too sweet and she likes him too much. Dean wouldn't know what to do with a girl who would care as much as Jo does.

"Ready?" He asks her when she stops strutting

"Yeah" She says and tilts her chin up to show that she means business.

Jo plays up two demons at the gate and Sam swoops in for the kill. He takes both out with Ruby's knife and Dean hands Jo a bag with wire cutters. In retrospect, she didn't really need to get all dolled up for this, but I think that baiting those demons isn't the only reason Jo picked out this outfit to go with. Someone should tell her that Dean is more of a blue jeans and ponytail kind of guy.

Crowley is not what I expected. With a name like Crowley, I was thinking someone tall and muscular, and maybe kind of scary looking. This guy was short and wearing a suit and British. The first thing he did was complain about how we messed up his rug with a devil's trap. Demons appear behind Sam, Dean, and me and hold us.

"This is it right?" Crowley says and waves the colt in the air "this is what it's all about?"

He points it towards us and fires three times, killing the demons around us. He says something but I can't hear him above the high pitch ringing in my ears from the blasts.

"Jeez! You couldn't have just asked them to leave?" I wince and try to clear up my ear with my fingers.

"I like to make an impression" I can hear him say vaguely as my hearing begins to restore. We follow him into another room and Dean gets uneasy.

"What the hell is this?" He demands

"Do you know how deep I could have buried this thing? There's no reason you or anyone should know this even exists, except that I told you"

"You told us?" Sam glares

"Rumors, innuendo, sent out on the grapevine"

"Why? Why tell us anything?"

"I want you to take this thing to Lucifer and empty it into his face…"

It was all so simple. Crowley just handed the damn thing right over to us and let us go. Aside from the mild tinnitus that has almost completely subsided from my ear, we all left Crowley's mansion in one piece. Now all we have to do is ice the devil and the apocalypse will be over before it begins. I'm excited to get it over with although back at Bobby's house, everyone else is a little more dismal. I sit down at a table with Ellen, Jo, and Cas, and even though Ellen hesitates for a half a second, she pours shots for all of us.

"What the hell" She shrugs as she fills up my glass. Jo drinks a beer and I take one shot while Ellen takes down five.

"All right, big boy" She says to Cas who has five shots lined up in front of him too. He takes them all one after the other in a matter of seconds.

"I think I'm starting to feel something." He says

Jo laughs and gets up for another beer.

"Get me one?" I ask her. She ruffles my hair and starts for the fridge.

"So angels can get drunk too? I gotta see this" I say and pour five more rounds for him, which he finishes instantly with the same deadpan emotionless face. This is fun. Over my shoulder I see Dean and Jo talking by the fridge. If there was ever a time these two could pull something off, this is it. Jo leans up to him for a kiss but then she laughs and walks back over to us, leaving Dean alone with his beer in the kitchen.

"What was that all about?" I ask her as she places my beer down on the table

"Nothing. Just Dean being Dean" She smirks.

"Whatever" I sigh and take a sip. Like I said, she's not as smart as we give her credit for. Bobby calls us over because he wants to take a picture. He says he wants something to remember us by.

"Nothing's going to happen to us" I say as I position myself in front of Ellen and Dean.

Cas says that Bobby's right, and it's our last night on Earth; just as the camera snaps. Everyone is frowning except me, but at least I'm not smiling either or I'd look like an idiot.

"I wouldn't want to put this on my mantle if I were you" I tell Bobby

"You all better be careful out there," He warns, "especially you. Listen to your brothers and don't do anything reckless"

"I'm always careful"

"I mean it. If there's any chance that you can make it back alive-"

"We're all coming back alive. Stop worrying so much. Nothing's going to go wrong."

Everything starts going wrong after Cas disappears and Meg shows up. I've only seen Meg in ghost form before, and she was blonde so I don't recognize her until Sam says her name out loud.

"Shouldn't have come here, boys." She says

"Hell, I could say the same thing for you" Dean says and aims the colt at her

"Didn't come here alone, Deano"

I hear something splash in a puddle near her feet. It's growling. Hellhounds. I move an inch closer to Dean.

"Yeah, Dean. Your favorite. Come on, boys. My father wants to see you"

"I think we'll pass, thanks." Sam snaps

"Your call. You can make this easy or you can make it really, really hard"

"When have you known us to ever make anything easy?" Dean says and Meg shakes her head and Dean shoots one of the invisible hounds.

"Run!" Sam yells and we all take off down the street. I hear Jo shout out Dean's name and I stop dead in my tracks. I look back and Jo is firing at a hound that attacked Dean just as one takes her down from the side. In an instant her side is ripped to shreds. Dean scoops her into his arms and we duck into a hardware store.

I tear a sleeve off of my shirt; Ellen grabs it from my hands, and puts pressure on Jo's wound.

"We just need to get Cas in here. I'll go-"

"No" Sam says and points to the doors. There are chains all around the handles, "You'll die if you go out there."

Time drags by as we spend the majority of the day trapped inside the hardware store watching Jo bleed to death in Ellen's arms. Dean spends a lot of time on the radio talking with Bobby, and then he's back talking to Sam about how to get Jo out of here. She won't have any of it. She wants us to build a bomb and let the hounds in. She'll detonate it while we make an escape. Jo is so badass, I can't think of any reason why we didn't take her hunting with us all of these years. Ellen is sobbing now. She says she's staying with Jo.

"No!" I shout, "What are you talking about! I'm not leaving you in here!" my voice is booming loud

"Evan-"

"No! Don't 'Evan' me, Ellen, get your ass up we have to go"

"Evan, don't" Sam says softly

"What am I sup- what am I supposed to do without you?" Tears are running down my face now, "Ellen, no please don't leave me. Please don't leave me. I don't have anyone-anyone else to talk to El, please don't. Why do you want to go?"

"I have to" She sniffles, "but listen to me"

"No, no, no" I cry into her shoulder. She lifts my head and looks into my eyes,

"Yes" She says and runs a hand through my hair, "you're a good boy. You have a good heart. You know right from wrong so do what's right, and listen to your brothers. You have to go, now. Go."

"Ellen, don't. What about me? What am I-?" I cry. I can feel a large hand on my shoulder urging me to go

"Get out of here" She snaps. Dean bends down and pries my fingers off of her and suddenly I'm being swung like a ragdoll away from her.

"Go!" Sam barks gruffly but my legs feel cemented to the ground. Dean gives me a tug as he runs past me toward the fire escape. I can't feel my legs. Sam scoops one arm across my stomach, hauls me off of my feet and runs. It's nighttime already the cool air stings my hot face. Sam puts me down and gives me a push. Dean shouts at me to come on. I feel dizzy but I start to move forward slowly. Sam climbs down the ladder first, then I go, and then Dean and we start towards an alley. I can't run any more. I look back at the store for a moment and suddenly I'm being lifted again, this time I'm slung over Sam's shoulder. I watch the hardware store bounce farther and farther away until glass shatters and it explodes into flames. I slide down the front of Sam's chest as his arms fly up in shock. I wrap my arms around his waist while I watch the fire grow and death engulf another person I love.

The calm comes quickly and pumps through my body like blood. I'm done crying before the black smoke covers the sky in a blanket thicker than the clouds that brought in the torrential rain the night the police removed me from my mother's house after she died. When we start running again, I feel nothing at all.

From down in the bushes, we can see dozens of men standing in lines a field.

"Guess we know what happened to some of the townspeople" Dean mutters

"Okay"

"Okay"

"Last words?" Sam asks

"Nah, I'm good"

"Me too" He agrees, "Evan?"

"Let's go" I say and rise to my feet. Dean crouches low and creeps away for the ambush. A man is filling a hole with dirt. I guess that's supposed to be the devil. I'm not impressed.

"Hey!" Sam shouts at him and the man stops digging. Sam steps in front of me so I sidestep from behind him. His arm reaches out a little for me and I ignore it.

"You wanted to see me? Sam continues

"Oh, Sam, you don't need that gun here. You know I'd never hurt you… Not really" Lucifer says as Dean appears before him

"Yeah? Well, I'd hurt you" Dean says, "So suck it" and he pulls the trigger. Lucifer crumbles to the ground. And then he gets back up again. I guess you can't kill the devil with a six-shooter. Who would've guessed?

"Ow! Where did you get that?" He cries out and punches Dean, who goes flying into a tree.

"You son of a bitch!" I roar and run over to Dean. Sam checks his pulse.

"Can we talk a little more privately?" Lucifer says a few seconds before I knock out cold.

When I wake again, we're back at Bobby's. The Ellen's shot glasses are still overturned on the table where we sat the night before. Bobby takes the only picture we have of Ellen and Jo, and tosses it into the fire. Ellen's picture goes up in flames just like she did. I go to the kitchen and pour myself a bowl of cereal. I haven't eaten all day. Dean stands in the doorway to the kitchen and jams his hands in his pockets. He looks like he's going to say something, but he doesn't. He just backs up and leaves. Sam does the same a few minutes later, but he says goodnight first. As I drain the milk in my bowl, I think about The Roadhouse and how it exploded right after Ellen left for supplies, and how Jo's dad died because he got his guts ripped out by some creature. I don't know much about irony, but this would be a homerun for literary symmetry in Chuck's books. It's actually a little funny, and I can't help the smile that creeps across my face as I head to bed.