Against Time (3rd book in Winchester Girl)

The Road To Hell Is A Railroad Line

Mary's POV
We were driving to the hospital apparently Bobby and Hades are in a coma don't know how the king of hell can go into a coma. We ran in the hospital room and Persephone was sitting there holding Hades hand and Alison was pacing. "So, what's the diagnosis?" Sam asked the doctor. "We've tested everything we can think to test. They seem perfectly healthy." The doctor said. "Except that they're comatose." Ricky said. "Mr. Snyderson, you're his emergency contact. Anything we should know? Any illnesses?" The doctor asked Dean, wait Bobby has Dean as his emergency contact. "No, he-he never gets sick. I mean, he doesn't even catch cold." Dean said. "Doctor, is there anything you can do?" I asked sitting next to Persephone. "Look, I'm sorry, but we don't know what's causing it... so we don't know how to treat it. They just... went to sleep, and didn't wake up. I'm sorry if your father dies." He said. We all shared looks. We got to Bobby and Hades's motel room. "Weren't you here with them?" Ricky asked Persephone and Alison. "I was home." Persephone said. "Bobby's place." Alison said. We walked in and saw it was barren. "So, what was Bobby and Hades doing in Pittsburgh?" Kara asked. "Unless they're taking an extremely lame guys weekend..." Dean said looking around. "I mean, they must have been working a job, right?" Sam asked. "They were." Alison said. "Well, you think there'd be some sort of sign of something, you know? Research, news clippings, or a frigging pizza box or a beer can." Ricky said. Persephone walked over to the closet opened it and moved stuff showing all the research. "How 'bout that." Sam said. "Good old Bobby, always covering up his tracks." I said. "Hades does the same thing." Persphone said. "You make heads or tails of any of this?" Kara asked us. I read about a plant that makes you dream. "Silene capensis, which of course means absolutely nothing to me." Dean said. "Here. Obit." Kara said handing it to Dean. "Dr. Walter Gregg, 64, university neurologist." Dean read. "How'd he bite it?" Persephone asked. "Um.. actually, they don't know. They say he just went to sleep and didn't wake up." Dean said. "Sounds like drugs." Ricky and I commented. "That sound familiar to you?" Alison asked. "All right, um... So let's say Bobby and Hades were looking into the doc's death. You know, hunting after something that started hunting them." Sam said. "All right, stay here. See if you can make heads or tails of this." Dean said and took my hand. "What are you two gonna do?" Sam asked. "We're gonna look into the good doctor ourselves." Dean said. "When did I agree to that?" I asked. "Just now." He said and we left. We were now in the doctors office that had boxes ready to be taken away. "So you're Dr. Gregg's lab assistant?" I asked. "That's right." She said. "Well, his death must have come as a shock to you." Dean said. "Yeah, it did. But, still, go in your sleep, peaceful... That's what you wish for, right?" The assistant said. "Yeah. Right." I said. "Dr. Gregg uh.. studied sleeping disorders? Dreams?" Dean said. "I don't understand. I went over all of this with the other detectives." The assistant said. "You already spoke to other detectives?" I asked. "Yes. A very nice older man with a beard and the other one wore a hat." The assistant said. "Well, we'd love to hear it again if you don't mind." Dean and I said. "Thing is, I'm sort of busy. Maybe we could do this later?" The assistant said. "Sure. Yeah. Just bring you down to the station later this afternoon, and get your statement on tape, do it all official-like." I said she looked like a deer in headlights. "Look, okay, I didn't know about Dr. Gregg's experiments. Not until I was cleaning out his files." She said. "His experiments, uh...? The ones he was conducting on... sleeping?" Dean asked. "No one knew, okay? Not the university, not anybody. I already spoke with a lawyer and he told me I can't be held liable for anything." She said. "Maybe you couldn't, but that was before the new evidence came to light." I said. "New evidence? What new evidence?" She asked. "We're not at liberty to say." Dean said. "Look, I'm just a grad student. This was a gig to cover tuition." She said. "Maybe so. But, uh, still, this- this... this could go on your permanent record. Unless you hand over the doctor's research to us. All of it." I said. She handed it over. We walked out. "Knew how to scare her nice job Mae." Dean said. "You just have to know what their nightmare is." I said. He nodded. We found a guy, Jeremy, who was apart of the experiment we knocked on his door and Dean showed his badge. "Look, I don't know what the RA said, but, ah, I was growing ferns." Jeremy said. "Take it easy, Phish, that's not why we're here." I said. "Really? Oh, thank God. Okay." Jeremy said. "We wanna talk to you about Dr. Gregg's sleep study." Dean said. "Yeah. Dr. Gregg just died, right?" Jeffery said. "You were one of his test subjects, right?" I asked. "Yeah." Jeremy said getting two beers and a water. "Unless you're on... duty or, whatever?" Jeremy asked. "I guess I can make an exception." Dean said. "Now, Dr. Gregg was testing treatments for a, uh, "Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome"? Which means...?" I asked sipping the water. "Um.. I, uh.. I can't dream. I had this bike accident when I was a kid and banged my head pretty good and I haven't had a dream since. Till the study. You know. Sort of." Jeremy said, wow that's sad. "What'd the doc give you?" Dean asked. "It's this yellow tea. It.. it smelled awful, tasted worse." Jeremy said. "What did it do?" I asked. "Just passed right out. And uh, I had the most vivid, super-intense dream. Like a bad acid trip, you know?" Jeremy said. "Totally. I mean, no." Dean said forgetting he was in character. "That was it. I dropped out of the study right after that. I didn't... like it. To tell you the truth... it kind of scared me." Jeremy said. We were back at the hospital I was holding Hades hand and got flash of what looked like a cold wasteland. "How are they?" Sam asked as the other came in. "No change." I said. "What you got?" Dean asked standing up. "Well, considering what you two told us about the doc's experiments Bobby and Hades wall is starting to make a hell of a lot more sense." Kara said. "How so?" I asked. "This plant, Silene capensis, is also known as African Dream Root? It's been used by shaman and medicine men for centuries." Persephone said showing us the picture. "Let me guess. They dose up, bust out the didgeridoos, start kicking around the hackey." Dean said. "Not quite. If you believe the legends, it's used for dreamwalking. I mean, entering another person's dreams, poking around in their heads." Alison said. "I take it we believe the legends." I said. "When don't we? But dreamwalking is just the tip of the iceberg." Sam said. "What do you mean?" Dean asked. "I mean, this Dream Root is some serious mojo. You take enough of it, with practice, you can become a regular Freddy Krueger." Sam said we all looked at Hades and Bobby. "You can control anything. You could turn bad dreams good, you could turn good dreams bad." Persephone said. "And killing people in their sleep?" I asked them. "For example. So let's say uh, let's say this doc was testing this stuff on his patients, Tim Leary-style." Kara said. "Somebody gets pissed at him, decides to give him a little dream visit, he goes nighty-night." Dean said. "But what about Bobby and Hades?" Ricky asked. "I mean, if the killer came after them, how come they're still alive?" Alison asked. "We don't know." I said. We left the room after visiting hours. "So how do we find our homicidal sandman?" Dean asked. "Could be anyone." Persephone said. "Anyone who knew the doctor, had access to his dream shrooms." I said. "Maybe one of his test subjects or something?" Kara asked. "Possible. But his research was pretty sketchy. I mean.. I don't know how many subjects he had, or who all of them were." Dean said. I saw Sam had the I have an idea look. "What?" I asked. "In any other case, we'd be calling Bobby and Hades and asking him for help right now." Sam said. "You know what? You're right." Ricky said. "What?" Persephone asked looking at all of us. "Let's go talk to them." Alison said. "Sure. I think we might find the conversation a bit one-sided." I said. "Not if we're tripping on some Dream Root." Alison said. "What?" Kara asked. "You heard me." Alison said. "Its a good idea." Dean agreed. "You wanna go dreamwalking inside Bobby's and Hades head?" Persephone asked. "Well actually you, Mae, and Ricky go in Hades and the rest of us go in my uncle's head." Alison said. "Yeah. Why not? Maybe we could help." Dean said. "We have no idea what's crawling around in there." I said. "Well how bad could it be?" Ricky said. "Ricky, Hades was the king of hell for centuries." Persephone said. "Oh yeah." Ricky said. "Yeah but Bobby's can't be that bad." Dean said. "Yeah, you're right. One problem though. We're fresh out of African Dream Root, so unless you know someone who can score some." Kara said. "Crap." Dean said. "What?" I asked. "Bela." Dean said. "That bitch?" Persephone asked we have never heard her swear and we looked at her shocked. "You're actually suggesting we ask her a favor?" Kara asked. "I'm dirty thinking anout it. We were now sitting in the motel room I was looking at Sam and suddenly got an Imagine of Bela walking in and wearing nothing under a trench coat. "Ahh!"
I screamed. "What?" Persphone said. "I'm officially scared for life." I said. "Why?" Ricky asked. "I saw Sam thinking Bela naked." I said so only Ricky and Persphone heard. "Ew." Ricky said. I nodded. I saw a Bela opened the door and walking in. "Bela. As I live and breathe." Dean said. "You called me. Remember?" Bela said. "I remember you turning me down." Dean said. "Well, I'm just full of surprises. I brought you your African Dream Root. Nasty stuff, and not easy to come by." Bela said. "Why the sudden change of heart?" Ricky asked. "What? I can't do you a little favor every now and again?" Bela asked. "Come on, we wanna know what the strings are before you attach them." Persephone said. "You said this was for Bobby Singer and Hades Theodoropoulos, right? Well, I'm doing it for them. Not you." Bela said. "Bobby and Hades? Why?" Kara asked. "They saved my life once. In Flagstaff. I screwed up and they saved me, okay? You satisfied? So when do we go on this little magical mystery tour?"  Bela asked. "Oh, you're not going anywhere. I don't trust you enough to let you in any car, much less Bobby's or my husband's head. No offense." Persphone said. "None taken. It's 2 am. Where am I supposed to go?" Bela asked. "Get a bus ticket." I said. "Get a room. Ah, they got the Magic Fingers, a little Casa Erotica on pay-per-view. You'll love it." Dean said. Bela huffed and left. Persephone made the tea and handed it to us. "Uh, should we dim the lights and synch up Wizard of Oz to Dark Side of the Moon?" Ricky asked. "Why?" Sam asked. "What did you do during college?" Dean asked we about drank when Sam went. "Wait, wait, wait. Whew. Can't forget this." Sam said. "What the hell is that?" Kara asked. "Bobby's hair. "We have to drink Pa's hair?" I asked Persephone. "Already put it in ours." She said. We drank and we were in a cold wasteland. "When did the apocalypse happen?" Ricky asked. We heard a scream come from a cage and a saw a person. "This is Hell before I came." Persephone said wrapping her arms around me. We walked around I noticed a railroad. "Why is there a railroad in hell?" I asked. "Well everyone knows the road to hell is a railroad line." Persephone said. "I thought it was highway." Ricky said. "No, the slaves got it right on the road to hell there was a railroad line." Persephone said. We nodded. We got to what looked like a very dark and very ugly throne room and saw Hades getting tortured by a bunch of demons laughing. I heard thunder and saw Persephone's eyes glow blue and all the demons fall down. "Who are you?" Hades asked in awe since I don't think anyone could do that. "Hades, love your dreaming this isn't real." Persephone said. "I see." He said thinking. We are in hell and he's saying I see. "You are dreaming, she's your wife, I'm your adopted daughter, and he's just my weird friend." I said. He looked at me and was shocked. "I remember." He said kissing Persephone and hugged me. I grabbed Ricky to join in the hug. We woke up in the motel room and saw Sam, Dean, Kara, and Alison all looking midely freaked out. "What happened to you four?" I asked. "Kara and I almost got our brains bashed in." Sam said. "Alice and I had to convince Bobby he was dreaming you?" Dean asked. "We saw hell, before Persephone came." Ricky said. "What is it like now, Ma?" I asked. "Dark and not a lot of cages now they have their own room and specific demons for torturing them." Persephone said. "So one demon will torture me?" Dean asked. "Yes if it's going how we had it." Persephone said. We all got to the hospital where Hades and Bobby were awake. "Come here I need my wife and daughter." Hades said smiling I went over and got in bed next to him to make sure he's not hurt. I cuddled with him. "Hey, Bobby. That, uh... That stuff, all that stuff with your wife?" Dean asked. "That actually happen?" Kara asked. "Everybody got into hunting somehow." Bobby said. "Was hell like that before Ma came?" I asked. "Yeah I didn't know how to rule and if I didn't please all the demons the ones who didn't like it tortured me." Hades said. "Yeah, then when I came I saved his ass from being killed." Persephone said. We nodded now knowing hell can't be anymore scary. "So, uh, stoner boy wasn't in his dorm. My guess is he's long gone by now." Sam said coming in. "He ain't much of a stoner." Bobby and Hades said together. "No?" Alison asked. "No. His name's Jeremy Frost. Full-on genius. Hundred-and-sixty IQ. Which is sayin' some, considering his dad took a baseball bat to his head." Hades said. "Here's Father of the Year." Bobby said showing us a picture, he looked like a drug addict. "He died before Jeremy was 10." Hades said. "Looks like a real sweetheart." Kara said. "He reminds me of a hit man elf I saw at the mall when I was 6 and Jo was 5, also when Jo sat on Santa's lap he had a heart attack." Ricky said we all looked at him strangely. "My dad and I found it funny, mom didn't." Ricky said. "Injury gave him Charcot-Wilbrand. He hasn't dreamt since." Bobby said. "Till he started dosing the dream drug." I said. "Yep." Hades said. "How'd he know how to dig up your worst nightmare and throw it at you?" Persphone asked. "Hey, he was rooting around in my skull. God knows what he saw in there." Bobby said. "Probably got scared of mine." Hades said. "Yeah. How'd he get in there in the first place? Isn't he supposed to have some of your hair, your DNA, or something?" Alison asked. "Yeah." Dean said. "Yeahhhh. 'Fore we knew it was him, he offered us a beer. We drank it. Dumbest frigging thing." Bobby said. "Oh, I don't know." I said. "It wasn't that dumb." Dean said. "Dean, Mae, you two didn't." Hades said. "We were thirsty." Dean said. "That's great. Now he can come after either one of you."  Kara said. "Well, now we just have to find him first." I said. "We better work fast ... and coffee up. Because the one thing they cannot do – is fall asleep." Bobby said. It was two days later I was running off of coffee, energy drinks, sugary food, oh and Ricky slapping me to keep me awake. "I mean, this Jeremy guy's not a friggin' ghost. Where the hell could he be?" Dean said clearly pissed and tired. "Dean, you sure you don't want me to drive? You seem a little caffeinated." Sam said. "Well, thanks for the news flash, Edison!" Dean said. My phone rang I answered it and put it on speaker. "Tell us you got something." I said desperate. "Strip club was a bust, huh?" Bobby asked. "Yes." Dean said. "That was our last lead." Hades said. "What the hell, guys!" I yelled. "Don't yell at us, sunshine. We're working our asses off here." Bobby said. "Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just.. I'm-I'm-I'm tired." I said. "What's Bela got?" Dean asked. "She's got nothing." Hades said. "Great! Well, Mae and I'm just gonna go blow our brains out now!" Dean yelled. "No I'm not, I can take no sleep." I said and hung up on Hades and Bobby. Dean pulled up to the side of the road. "All right, that's it. I'm done." Dean said. "What are you doing?" Sam asked. "Taking myself a long-overdue nap." Dean said. "Same." I said. I heard the door open and Alison squeeze in. "Why did we pull over?" She asked. "We need to take a nap." I said. "What?! Dean, Mae, Jeremy can come after you two." Kara said. "That's the idea." Dean and I said in unison. "Excuse me?" Ricky asked. "Come on man, we can't find him, so let him come to us." Dean said. "On his own turf? Where he's basically a god?" Kara asked. "We can handle it." I said. "Not on your own." Sam said. "I felt two people yank out a strand of my hair. "Ow." I yelped and saw Ricky and Alison smiling. "I dot care." I said going to sleep. I looked around we were sitting in the impala but with no Sam, Dean, and Kara. "Okay we must've fallen asleep." I said, they nodded we got out and saw what looked like a normal library full of books. "This is interesting." They said. I nodded. We continued walking and got split up I saw dad standimg there looking directly at me. "You'll never be as good as Sam or Dean, couldn't even risk yourself and went to live with a different family." He said, of course my worst fear is my dad. "Yeah well I know this is just a dream." I said and snapped my fingers he didn't go away. "This might be a dream but this can't go away." I turned and saw Jeremy. "Yeah well here's the fun thing." I said and kicked him. He got up and he threw a punch I ducked and grabbed him by his shirt and hit him up against a wall my eyes glowed purple and I saw his worst nightmare his father killing him. I then woke up I saw Sam and Dean soon wake up. "Jeremy was terrified of a girl who showed his worst nightmare." Sam said. "Oops." I said shrugging. We were back in the motel. "Hey, you guys seen Bela? She's not in her room. She's not answering her phone." Dean said. "Must've taken off." Persphone said. "Well might as well get the Colt and head out." Sam said. I went over to our safe opened it and saw no Colt. "Did any of you guys get the Colt?" I asked. "No." They said. "Bela must've stolen it. "Well looks like we have to find that bitch." Ricky said. We all nodded.

A\N:New chapter and I posted the cast for season 4. In the new book Ashes Of Secrets.