She Talks to Angels | {BOOK 2}

23|Finding Ellie

Dean's POV

Ellie was missing. Ruby had been, too, before she showed up bloody along with Alastair and another demon. Castiel and Uriel had also showed up because I'd agreed to hand over Anna after Uriel threatened to kill Sam if I didn't. There was a giant fight that broke out between the angels and demons, and at some point in the middle of it, Anna managed to get her grace back from Uriel. Ruby disappeared again pretty soon after Cass and Uriel vanished to go after Anna.

I walked out of the barn to find Sam sitting on the hood of the Impala with a beer. I walked over and leaned against the side near him and got my own bottle.

"I can't believe we made it out of there," I scoffed.

"Again," Sam agreed.

I held my bottle out and Sam clinked his against it.

"I know you heard him," I said as we drank.

"Who?"

"Alastair. What he said... about how I had promise."

"I heard him," Sam nodded.

"You're not curious?"

"Dean, I'm damn curious. But you're not talking about Hell, and I'm not pushing."

"It wasn't four months, you know."

"What?"

"It was four months up here, but down there... I don't know," I shook my head. "Time's different. It was more like 40 years."

"My God," Sam breathed.

"They, uh... They sliced and carved and tore at me in ways that you... Until there was nothing left. And then, suddenly... I would be whole again... like magic... just so they could start in all over. And Alastair... at the end of every day... he would come over. And he would make me an offer. To take me off the rack... if I put souls on... if I started the torturing. And every day, I told him to stick it where the sun shines. For 30 years, I told him. But then I couldn't do it anymore, Sammy. I couldn't. And I got off the rack. God help me, I got right off it, and I started ripping them apart. I lost count of how many souls."

A tear rolled down my cheek and I closed my eyes.

"The- the things I did to them," I said, my voice shaky and breaking.

"Dean..." Sam interrupted. "Dean, look, you held out for 30 years. That's longer than anyone would have."

I was openly crying now as I thought about what I went through during my time in Hell.

"How I feel... This... inside me... I wish I couldn't feel anything, Sammy. I wish I couldn't feel a damn thing."

⁘

The next case Sam and I went on we originally thought was a ghost, but it turned out to be a brother and sister hiding in the walls of the house; two humans. I'd said it before, and I'd say it again: demons I got, humans were crazy. After that, we went after a magician who was killing others in the circuit and then turning himself young so he could remain on top. One of his friends, an old guy named Jay, ended up killing him and Jay ended up being alone and depressed since his friends were dead.

Throughout both cases, Sam and I both felt Ellie's absence tangibly, but anytime one of us tried to reach out, she wouldn't pick up. I even tried tracking her phone, but she must have deactivated the GPS because it didn't show up. Part of me had a feeling she had run off to be with Brigham, but since I didn't know where he lived, we couldn't just run off after her. However, everything changed on our next case.

Truman High, home of the bombers. Sammy and I had attended for about a month when we were younger, and a student killed another girl in the bathroom. When Sam questioned the student, April, he said it kind of sounded like demonic possession without some of the usual signs like seeing black smoke or smelling sulfur. Sam thought we should look into it, which was how I found myself in a pair of bright red gym shorts, a white Truman High polo, knee high socks and sneakers with a red sweatband around my forehead.

I blew the silver whistle around my neck before addressing the class in front of me. I had a ball tucked under one arm.

"Today, you will have the honor of playing one of the greatest games ever invented. A game of skill, agility, cunning. A game with one simple rule... dodge."

I threw the ball at one of the students, who didn't dodge. It hit him squarely in the stomach.

"Ugh!" he groaned.

"Sorry," I apologized.

"Uh, Substitute Coach Roth," one of the students, Colby, raised his hand.

"Yes?" I asked him.

"Ms. Boudreaux never lets us play dodge ball," he informed me.

"Well, Ms. B's in Massachusetts getting married, so we're playing," I replied.

"She says it's dangerous," Colby insisted.

I blew the whistle again.

"Take a lap!"

"But-" Colby started to protest.

A flash of red caught my eye by the gym entrance, and I looked over to see Ellie standing there, a smirk on her face as her dark hazel eyes moved up and down my body. I threw the bag of balls for the kids.

"Go nuts," I told them, walking over to her.

She was wearing a white blouse and ankle length floral skirt with heels.

"Having fun?" she asked when I stopped next to her.

"The whistle makes me their God," I smiled.

"Right. Nice shorts," she smirked.

"What are you doing here, Eleanor?"

"Same as you, I presume. Investigating the death of that student," she shrugged.

"And where have you been over the past month?"

"Here in town," she shrugged again. "I was laying low, but then I got the whiff of the potential case, so here I am."

Sam walked in then, wearing a janitor's uniform.

"So, I've been over the entire school twice. No sulfur," he said as he walked over, then stopped. "E-Ellie?"

"Hey, Sam," she smiled.

"No sulfur, no demon. No demon, no case," I said, ignoring the little interaction.

"I don't know," Sam shrugged. "Maybe I was wrong."

"Well, it happens to the best of us," I clapped my hands together. "I say we hit the road, huh? But after lunch- it's sloppy joe day."

"Unless it's not a demon," Ellie suggested.

I glared over at her as there was a groan from one of the kids and Colby ran past us, holding his nose.

"Good hustle, Colby! Walk it off!" I yelled after him.

Ellie rolled her eyes and turned on her heel, skirt swishing around her ankles as she left the gym.