11. A Game of Witch, Witch, Douchebag

We strike out at a few five-star hotels. Well, we didn't expect to find our three missing people on the first try. That never happens with anything like this.

We're on our fourth hotel now. We're armed, because we have no idea what exactly we'll get coming our way. I know I'll be prepared to fight and get the girls to safety. If that witch has something over them, or if she's hurt them...

It's bad enough the girls got roped into prostitution by demons, they don't need to be in the hands of a witch who we know nothing about.

"Damn, these places are nice," I comment as we walk the halls. I take point, my brothers flank behind me. I don't know why, but I feel like I should head this mission. Maybe it's my extra energy that comes with being a demon. "Why don't we ever book a room here?"

"Because our job doesn't pay well," Dean comments.

"Do we know who we're supposed to be looking for?"

"Guess we'll know them when we see them."

But I see them first. Well, I see the demons first. I see their true forms. Two demons, escorting three women. One has her mouth duct taped. I get the feeling that she is Rowena. The other women with her have to be the former prostitutes. They don't notice us.

I quickly see an opening, and I shove my brothers down another hall, hoping that the demons and the women turn our corner. I keep my batons at the ready at my sides.

"What about us?" I hear one of the girls. "I'm not going back to that place."

I hold my breath as the demons stop, turning to their captives. I hold my position.

"Operation skank has been terminated," says the female demon. "The only place you two are going is the dumpster out back."

And when the demon turns, we spring into action.

Dean deals with the female demon while I engage the male demon. In the chaos, Rowena and the girls run down the hall, away from us. I'm knocked away as the male demon pushes at Dean. Sam takes his turn with the demon and gets thrown to the ground. I sigh, taking a run at the demon. I sock him across the face with a baton before Dean kills him with an angel blade through his back.

"That shouldn't have been that hard," I pant.

"Come on, we can't let them walk out of here," says Dean.

The three of us walk calmly and turn the corner. Rowena and the girls are in a panic.

"Don't worry, ladies," says Dean. "Our beef's not with you. We're here for the witch. Rowena."

"Always nice to be recognized," says the redhead, Rowena. She's got a thick accent to her—Scottish I believe.

"Do something—a spell!" says one of the girls, the blonde.

Rowena looks to the blonde. She places something in the girl's hand. "That's an excellent idea. Impetus bestiarum."

The blonde bends over, head down, screaming.

"What did you do to her?" I demand.

Rowena laughs as the blonde picks her head up. I stumble back as I notice her eyes. They're blood-red, and blood is gushing down her nose. She attacks, knocking out my brothers with a punch to the face each before engaging me. She's a rage monster, and I can barely fend off her attacks with blocks of my own. I find myself on the floor—I tripped over Sam in the process. I quickly jump up, facing the snarling blonde woman. From the corners of my eye, I see my brothers on their feet now.

"Go!" Sam shouts, pushing Dean and I away. "Go!"

"Sam—" I try.

"Come on, Jo!" Dean says, and he pulls me away before I can figure out what I'm doing.

"But Sam—"

"He'll be fine. You'll be of more help to me catching the girls than with him."

We burst out of one of the back ways out of the hotel, which leads out into an alley.

"There!" I say to Dean, pointing.

The other girl just punched Rowena in the face. She stalks down the alley, stomping away from the witch. With a nod from Dean, we sneak up on Rowena from behind.

"Occideris ingrate," Rowena hisses.

"Not another word!" I snap. Dean clicks the gun and has it right at the back of Rowena's head. Rowena slowly turns, frowning, staring at the barrel of Dean's gun. "Lady, your luck has just run out," I say.

Rowena laughs. "I'm pretty sure that's not true."

"Oh for God's sake." I hear the click of a gun behind Dean and me.

We both turn at the sound of a whistle. I've never seen this guy before, but I'm about ready to bash his head in and paint the alley wall with his blood. I feel the anger bubbling.

"Pal, we got to work on your timing," says Dean.

"Drop the gun, Dean-o. Batons down too, chicky."

"'Chicky', really?" I deadpan.

"All right, she may not look like much, but letting this one go—big mistake," Dean says to the guy.

"Uh-huh," says the guy.

"You heard the boy," Rowena chimes.

I lick my lips, giving this guy a cold, hard stare. He gestures with the gun. "Put them down, or I put you down. Your choice."

I roll my eyes. As if a bullet is gonna do anything. But for Dean's sake, I lay down my weapon as he lays his gun down. I sigh through my nose as I hear Rowena's heels clacking further and further away from us.

"Give me the chance, and I'll rip him to bits, Dean," I say out of the corner of my mouth.

"Hold it together, Jo," Dean tells me gently. He's not taking his eyes off of this guy, whoever the hell he is. "Look, man, I am sorry about the last time we met, okay? I'm sorry about a lot of things. I'm not the same person that I was."

"You're not a person at all," the guy snaps. "See, I know all about your kind now."

I look at him questioningly.

"My kind?" says Dean. "Listen—"

I recoil as the guy splashes something on Dean's face. Wait. This guy thinks Dean is a demon? Well, he's wrong. My brother is cured. I'm not. But he doesn't know that. I've never met this guy.

"I'm not a demon anymore," says Dean.

"What about her?"

"Hey!" I snarl as the water gets thrown at me. I hiss as the water burns my neck and face. "Oh, you bastard!"

"Hey, hey!" Dean says, preventing a fight. "Your beef isn't with her, it's with me."

"Who is she, then? A friend of yours? You seem like the kind of person to run with that kind of crowd now," says the guy.

"She's not important to this. This is between you and me. Leave her out of it."

"Oh, no, let him bring me into it," I say, gasping as I feel the sting slowly fading. "He poked the wolf, he's gonna be ribbons."

"Jo, I mean it. Keep it in control."

The guy looks at Dean. "So, were you a demon when you murdered my father?"

"No."

"Then you're still a monster."

I jump onto the guy as he knocks Dean's face with the gun. I scream in pain as he throws more holy water onto me. He throws me off, and I go scraping my arms against the concrete ground. I flip around long enough to see Dean pull the guy away, and they both wrestle for the remaining gun. Dean recovers the weapon and punches the guy in the face. I get to my feet, waiting to pick my moment.

The guy raises his hands in a fight stance towards my brother. "Let's go."

Dean and the guy clash, and I find myself cutting in. I beat up the guy more than he beats me up, or more than Dean beats the guy up. I don't appreciate the guy taking one of my batons and using it against me. I snarl, sending the guy off his feet. The impact when he hits the ground makes him release my baton. I kick one up to my hand by getting my foot under it.

The guy is close to his gun, but Dean's there to beat him to it. Dean picks up the weapon and points it at the guy.

"Don't," he growls.

I slowly make my way towards the guy, feeling a little vengeful. I grab a fistful of his hair, and he tries to dislodge my hand.

"You ain't going anywhere, pal," I say sweetly.

"Easy, Jo," Dean warns me.

"You give the word, I'll rip his head off." I shrug. "But I'll let you do what you want with him first."

"What are you waiting for?" the guy spits. "Do it."

"No," says Dean. "Now, I'm gonna clean this mess up once and for all. You're gonna give me five minutes, and we're gonna talk. Jo, let him up."

Reluctantly, I let the guy get to his feet. He shoots me a dirty look over his shoulder, and I scare him a little with my demon eyes. Dean gives me a scalding look and I revert them back to their normal green color.

"After that...If you don't like what you hear..." Dean approaches the guy, turning the gun so that the butt of it is out. "You still want me dead, you take your shot."

I look at my brother with wide eyes. The hell are you saying that for?! I'll kill him if he kills you. I'm right here!

The guy snatches the gun and points it at Dean.

"What I do, what we do," says Dean, nodding to me, "is hunt monsters. Cole—your dad was a monster."

"Yeah, you say that now, but last time we fought, you couldn't even remember his name," says Cole.

"Two thousand-three, Nyack, New York, Ed Trenton. I was working a case. Three dead—livers ripped out and eaten by your father."

"Livers?"

"Yeah, I tracked him down that night to your house."

"Well, you say he was a monster. What kind of monster was he?"

"I don't know. Never seen that kind before, never seen it again. All I know is that he came home that night looking to kill—could've been you, could've been your mom."

"No."

"The only reason that didn't happen was because I was there to stop him."

"I heard his voice. It was a human voice, and he begged you to stop."

"It's a ploy," I say softly. "It's a monster's trick." Some things you just never forget. One thing I remember is that monsters will do anything to help them get away with what they plan to do, whether it's escape or kill or something else.

"I know what you heard," Dean tells Cole, "but know this—that was not your father, Cole. Your father was already gone."

"Sam!" I say, as my younger brother has come into the picture. He's got a gun pointed at Cole. "Put it down!" Sam just looks at me. "I know, but just go with it."

Cole looks over his shoulder, giving him more reason to keep his gun on Dean.

"Cole, it's fine," Dean tells him.

"Jo? Dean?" Sam says, his question in our names.

"Sam," I say, nodding towards his weapon. "Put it down."

"Cole, hey, right here," Dean says, getting Cole to focus on him again. "We're talking, okay?"

"How can I believe you, huh?" Cole asks. "How can I believe you?!" I cringe at the loud tone. "My whole life, I've been..."

"I get it. That was your story. Look, man, I got one of those, too. Okay, but those stories that we tell to keep us going? Man, sometimes they blind us. They take us to dark places—the kind of place where I might beat the crap out of a good man just for the fun of it. The people who love me, they pulled me back from that edge.

"Cole, once you touch that darkness...It never goes away. Now, the truth is...I'm past saving. I know how my story ends. It's at the edge of a blade or the barrel of a gun. So, the question is, is that gonna be today? That gonna be that gun?"

"You've got a family, Cole," says Sam. Both Cole and Dean, hell even I, look at Sam. "I heard you on the phone that night. I'm guessing they need you to come back, and they need you to come back whole."

I slightly relax as Cole, overcome with emotion, in tears, hands the gun back over to Dean. I remove myself from the situation, because I know the fact of knowing what I am is bothering Cole. I hope that Cole doesn't tell Sam what he's seen. Dean knows, he saw me when he was a demon.

I'm not ready to tell Sam the truth. I don't think I'm ready to show him. There are some things that have their ripe time to be told. Escaping Hell and becoming a demon has yet to have a good time to come out.

In the end, Cole packs up in his Jeep and starts backing out of the alleyway, leaving Dean, Sam, and myself still in the alley.

"He say where he's going?" asks Sam.

"Home," says Dean.

"Good for him," I say.

"Rowena?" asks Sam.

I clear my throat. "In the wind."

Sam looks to Dean. "What you said earlier, back there, about being past saving—were you really—"

"I was just telling the guy what he needed to hear. We better go."

As Dean heads the walk back to the Impala, I hear his talk with Cole in my head. I know how my story ends. It's at the edge of a blade or the barrel of a gun. So, the question is, is that gonna be today?

Either Dean is a really good actor, or he's speaking the truth and just covering his tracks by saying it was for Cole's benefit.

**That moment when you wanted Jo to rip Cole's head off but then you realized she needed to be reined in. [sigh] Oh well.

Oh, and the title? Almost like Duck, Duck, Goose, only with witches and Cole [in case you didn't realize, he's kind of the douchebag in this scenario]**