24The quartet strolled lazily through the nature reserve, Tripp had placed two sleds on the pack Daisy had stored their lunch. Their picnic outdoors had gone swimmingly, much to Daisy's surprise—she had practically given up hope of Carlton and her husband getting along.
At that very moment, Tripp playfully threw a snowball at Carlton's direction, both laughing as they found themselves in the chilliest battle of the century. The battle stopped when they realized Shawn had disappeared into the trees, panicking they scramble to the edge of the clearing.
A massive blanket of snow plummeted down on the men's heads before they realized what was going on.
"It looked like you needed a chill pill~!" A crooked grin matched the equally terrible pun and was easily seen within the heights of the pine trees.
"Shawn, how did you get up there?" Daisy up looked at the scrawny man in surprise. She had not realized his lack of activity had not made him weak. In fact he seemed as strong as any other man. She supposed Abel had something to do with that.
"Well, when I was eight I climbed up a similar tree to run away from my dad, I had put glue in the washing machine, so I guess climbing comes naturally. However, I think I'll need help getting down. Those ribs were so good they caused the heavens to break the branches I used to get up here." He said sheepishly. Tripp laughed heartily dropping to the ground; face red with cold and exertion.
"Always one for action first, weren't ya, Slim?" Tripp looked around, scratching his frosty beard looking for a method of getting him down safely.
"Carlton, help me out for a sec, will ya?" He figured Shawn was about twenty or so feet off the ground, the snow was about two feet deep around the base of the tree. Giving the density of the snow, Tripp figured he could make a pillow to break the dummy's fall.
"What do you have in mind?" Carlton saw Tripp's eyes rove around the field, eventually figuring out what he wanted to do before the giant even opened his mouth.
Shawn heard rustling behind him and suddenly he looked panicked. "Guys! What if there is raccoons up here?!" His one arm not gripped to the pine flailed sporadically.
Without a word, Carlton walked over to the pack and grabbed the plastic sled, walked back over to the tree and yelled "Shawn grab onto this!" and chucked the sled up into the tree tops
Sunlight quickly rolled through the sky as they built the mound. Shawn, uneasy with staying in a possibly raccoon infested tree overnight, decided that the 8 foot mound they had was sufficient enough to get down.
"Get out of the way!" Carlton and Tripp looked up from what they were doing, only to gap at the idiocy of what they were witnessing. With a tongue stuck out in concentration, Shawn leapt from the tree, the sun going through the plastic making a glowing blue orb streaking across the sky momentarily.
Luckily, the snow cushioned, just as Tripp was hoping for and Shawn slid down the mound relatively unscathed, though more than likely bruised.
"Ow…" As the sled slowed to a stop at the edge of the clearing, Shawn rolled off and flopped down into the snow.
"You idjit! What the hell were you thinking?!" Tripp's words were laced with hysterical laughter, grabbing the smaller man, lifting him up by the waist.
"I don't like raccoons, man." Shawn said simply, brushing off the snow from his soaking winter jacket.
Daisy stood, arms folded next to Lassiter as she process what just happened. Caught between amusement and plain worry for his sanity, she sat there with a bemused grin on her face.
"You boys are gonna' catch a cold at this rate. Ya'll bunch of grown ass men..."She rolled her eyes, dark aura flashed in the corner of her eye, drawing her attention away from the group.
She could hear her boys arguing on in the background, Shawn attempted to tackle Tripp only to be stuck up on top of his shoulders. She would have laughed when her husband dropped him in the snow, but the silence of the forest seemed too consuming.
"Boys...we gotta' go." She whispered almost inaudibly. Smokey tendrils bled through the darkness, Lassiter too caught up in their shenanigans barely had his radar turned on. But hers, it was always on.
Flashes of a nun, with gorgeous blue eyes, and a sense of self-sacrifice burned into her brain. Images of a priest, but not priest, love and lust burning in the smoking embers. The closer the aura got, the more intense the carnage became. Blood and fire, Lassiter and a women from a long era ago...the images were pelting her, and she wanted to hide.
The boys ignored her first words, thinking she was just getting impatient with the weather and the time. But she repeated again, louder and voice edged with something they thought they would never hear: fear.
"Look here, boys. It's getting dark near soon, we definitely need to head back." She could tell something was off with the forest just beyond her gaze. She tried pushing further, past the haze of shadows and falling snow. A women with red hair and a biker jacket controlled the descending doom. She had an aura of locust storm-just buzzing with destruction.
Tripp noticed the change in his wife's vacant stare into the forests, amber eyes twitching between the trees. He couldn't sense the things that went bump in the night, but he could tell by the frown marring her gentle features, that whatever was there was bad news.
Shawn saw Tripp stop and stare at his wife, prompting Lassiter to do the same. They both felt what was coming, Cain and Abel screamed from the barracks in their minds. Either Lucifer rose from his cage or something really evil was coming their way.
Abel broke through Shawn's defenses quickly, "Cain, do not turn me away again. I can help." Lassiter turned towards the empathic voice of his brother, confusion locking his brain.
"No." He was resolute, his brother and Shawn needed to stay out of this. Abel's bright gold eyes darkened back to the grey hazel of Shawn, who looked ready to fall over.
"He possessed me again, didn't he?" Shawn was cursing himself, he shouldn't have left his guard down for so long. He could hear Abel almost whining like a scared dog in the back of his mind, obviously upset he couldn't aid his brother.
"Lassiter...What are you doing?" Realizing that Lassiter was turning towards the shadows, arms glowing red. Lassiter remained silent has Shawn started to walk towards him, Tripp restrained him from moving any further.
"Shawn, to the car. Quick, like a rabbit." He shooed a reluctant Shawn away from the clearing and into the jeep down the road. Lassiter turned his attention to Daisy, whose frown was being forced into a cocky smirk.
"Carlton, I don't suppose you invited some of your friends? They look 'bout yea-high with black eyes?" She held her hand up slightly above her head.
The grin slowly melted off, "She knows you…" Daisy gripped her head as information swirled around, it was becoming too hard to make sense of it all.
That familiar aura of evil draped and smothered Lassiter, until he could barely think over Cain's craze howling. Cain, an admittedly repressed entity, knew what was coming for them, or him. And he knew that Tripp and Daisy would be torn to pieces.
Tripp pulled up the road with Shawn strapped in the back seat. "Daisy, my dear, like you said 'we need to go.'" His limbs were tense at the shoulders, his feeling of unease made him jittery to get out of there. Daisy looked torn, while fear gripped her, she did not want to leave Carlton on his own.
"Carlton...You mustn't be thinking of letting loose! Your walls will fall down, you won't remember yourself!" She gripped her small hands around his shoulders, shaking him vigorously.
"Repeat after me: I will keep control, do you understand me? I will keep control." Her eyes were ablaze with grit and for a moment, Lassiter was reminded why he was so determined to live amongst the humans. They got balls.
"I promise I will not lose control...Now you need to get into the car! Go...that is an order!" He was trying to save her, damn the consequences. He raked through his lengthening hair savagely, strands falling like a curtain showing his own fear, the fear of lying to both of them.
"Both of you need to get to the car now. Take Shawn and head back to the cabin, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. Tripp, remember those markings I showed you? Mark all the windows and doors—Get the ceilings, if you can. I'll call when I have this covered. But go now." He said calmly.
Tripp tensed, remembering the devil traps and barriers; he wasn't sure he could handle all of that just yet. But, he'd do it anyway, because there was no other option.
"Alright. Daisy, time to go." He saw her reluctance to leave; her eyes betraying what would happen if they left. Death. Sorrow.
"My moon, that might happen if we stay." She looked at him sadly, eyes looking far older than her actually 32 years of age. He felt ice creep in his soul when her eyes went blank and her wall of silence went up. She was hiding something.
"Sorry, dear. I don't know what came over me." Worry still held tight around her eyes, forcing an uncharacteristically forced smile upon her face.
Only satisfied that they got in the car, Lassiter watched as the humans entered the jeep and rode off towards the house. He'll transport back there when he had sent the demon packing.
The mist was licking at the like, the inky black tendrils flowed like oil through water. An unfamiliar woman stepped from the shadows.
"Hello, Cain." Bright red hair glistened from the burning embers of the fading sun. A beautiful woman with a long lean frame exited the forest cover, blue eyes showing nothing but contempt and lust. Stitching wrapped around her throat like a collar. She must be a strong demon to survive a beheading.
That foul presence though, it reeked of the abyss where he was raised.
"Abaddon. I thought you were dead." His voice felt disconnected, disjunctive from his mind. Reeling and spinning-he wanted to kill her over and over, until only a pulpous, twitching mass of bones and meat remained.
"Is that anyway to greet an old friend?" Ruby lips pulled into a crooked grin. Fire and brimstone burnt his mind, making him loosen his control. Daisy's words of promise echoed in his mind, forcing the Lassiter of himself tighten the reigns. Cain thrashed wildly, roaring and foaming, furious that Abaddon was still breathing.
"You are no friend of mine, you bitch." He snarled, he was so tempted to give in and go in for the kill, but that grin of hers made him stay his hand. She looked at him like she had something up her sleeve-cunning and unafraid.
"You don't want to know why I'm here?" She seemed genuinely shocked. Obviously Abaddon was toying with him, like a cat and a mouse. A mouse that can incinerate you, but still…
"You have thirty seconds, or I will do what I should've done a long time ago." By her aura, she seemed more powerful than before. Or had he gotten that much weaker? No…He refused to go dark again—he couldn't.
"Well, you see…I became the Queen of Hell, and it seems Crowley is ill-advised as to go to the Winchester brothers for aid. Namely, gain the First Blade. I know you know where it is, Cain." The grin turned into an ugly frown.
"Why would I tell you? After all that you'd done, you expect me to help you?" He laughed incredulously that she thought he would actually help her.
"You'll have to pry the knowledge from the ether, because I'll never tell you, Abaddon." He sneered; he set his shoulders square and stood in full height, fully puffing up like a territorial predator.
"Oh, please…We both know you hold no true power without that blade. I could just pay your human pets a little visit, hm?" Blue eyes stared innocently, a terrifying grin marring her beautiful features.
"Don't you touch them." Kill her, he needed to kill her now. His hands shook from the strain of his restraint. So close...He felt his legs moving towards her, suddenly he was upon her, blinking out of sight, actually causing her to jump. He smiled despite his horror.
it was almost as if he was no longer in control of his body, he grabbed her shoulders and squeezed until he heard the cracking of the scapula breaking, the rotator cuffs crumbling and her screams of pain turning into crazed laughter.
And like an elastic he snapped back to reality, he scampered back, fearing he lost control. He watched as her shoulders crushed down to the neck, hung like potato sacks begin to shift and crack back into position. Her healing factor had rose significantly since the last time he saw her.
"You know, you're going to have to do better than that." She lunged at him snarling. Horror shifted to excitement as he realized she would be a challenge, a feeling the pleasure of getting into a fight had been such a long time coming, finally he could let loose.
"Alright then." He felt power course through his arms and he started teleporting sporadically. She snarled angrily as she couldn't land a hit. Her nails elongated to fine-tipped blades, and she swung to kill. He feigned a left as she swung at him with her right, claw like talons barely ripping at his jacket.
His abilities allowed flame to rotate around his arms, making him a demonic torch. He spun quickly, making himself into a tornado, his own claws extended to strike where the flames missed.
He caught her on the stomach, blood and guts spilt to the floor. The fight stopped momentarily as she merely sighed, annoyed that her host was being shredded.
"Damn, I'm going to kill you for that." Electricity bolted from her palms, as she shifted into a low, controlled stance.
He realized he was going to need to go on the defensive soon, as she brought her hands forward.
His host was his own body, so any damage would hurt him spiritually, while as Abaddon would be able to just shake it off.
She was upon him with mighty thrusts of claws and gnashing of teeth, she got a few hits in, knocking some of his teeth loose. He was quickly losing ground, he could release the seal on Cain, and he would win quickly, but he would never be able to hold onto his sanity.
So he ran, ducking and bobbing out of the way, winding through the trees and snow, looking for some way to lose her in the forest.
The heat rising off his arms, created a misty barrier, warming the frosty air…He found his smoke screen.
He channeled all his power into his arms and the swirling mists became thicker and thicker. It swirled with the smoke from burning branches and wet leaves to create a thick blanket to hide him within.
Crouching low next to an old spruce, he cut the flames and laid low. He watched as the blue electric volts crackled through the mist off to the east, roughly seventy feet away. He grinned, suppressing his aura to that of a mouse.
If he couldn't when with straight combat, he would at least get away by strategic use of the land. His depth perception allowed him to see far deeper into the forest than she would ever be able to.
A waterfall, a half mile to the west, if he could just lure her there—maybe just maybe he could create a trap.
He sent bursts of demonic flame as bait into the fog, watching satisfactorily as Abaddon started heading in that direction. He used his teeth to tear his wrist, blood rushing down in rivulets across his sleeve. Daisy was going to murder him.
"You can't escape me, Cain. You can't escape this life." She taunted into the mist, she knew Cain was planning a trap rather than fight head on. She'd play his little game. Mother always said you shouldn't play with your food.
She was always such a bad daughter.