"Holy crap!" The words come out of my mouth on their own as I fall backwards at what I've seen... My mouth opens and closes, speaking in word form.
Unlike the black-eyed man I expected, what I saw on the other side of the door was a completely inhuman creature; Its dark, rotten-looking skin, ram's legs with curly, knotted fur, and twisted twig-like horns try to grace the ugliest ram's head I've ever seen.
My gloved hands rub against grains of salt that have fallen to the floor as I stand in bewilderment.
"What the hell..." I think. The sentence itself giving me the answer even before I finish the questioning. 'Devil...' That's it.
'What I'm seeing is the demon's true appearance.' I conclude, in my mind passing multiple scenes from the series in which Dean, when close to death and other creatures with a certain spiritual affinity, mentioned being able to see the real face of the demon underneath the human shell. Almost always saying how ugly they are.
'And now I know they weren't exaggerating one bit.'
Well, I think I should credit this scare to my file: [Sense of the Veil(Intermediate)], thank you very much.
I bite my lower lip, lifting myself off the floor and checking that I haven't accidentally dropped anything or broken any salt circles. 'Hell... It's already the second fall this night alone.'
(A/N: he also fell in the previous chapter to the past.)
*Lock sounds* My thoughts are cut off by the noise coming from the doorknob. It spins back and forth several times with rigor, the demon is trying to get in but failing due to the line of salt I placed on the door.
'Focus
My heightened hearing focuses on Sam and Jessica's bedroom, picking up the low creak of the dais generated by someone getting out of bed. The knocks, or my fall to the floor, or both, woke Jessica up.
'Oh crap... Couldn't have worse timing.' Thinking as fast as I can, I put my superhuman legs to work and make it from the entryway to the bedroom in less than a second.
"H-!" Jessica, who, as my hearing indicated, was on her feet and walking out of the room, doesn't even have time to give a startled cry when I seal her lips with my right hand. In that moment of hurry I can't adjust the shape so well, so when I approach it I end up pushing it against the wall, generating a sound that makes me guess that it hurt a little.
"Sorry, really sorry, but you can't scream! Not now!" I whisper as low as I can manage, not wanting the gentle devil behind the front door to overhear us, and simultaneously my facial expressions work twice as hard to compensate for the lack of sound, becoming as cartoonish as Jim Carry's.
Of course, my overly expressive face only makes Jessica even more scared of me, thrashing as hard as she can, slamming her fists against the wall, and squealing muffled by my biker glove. "N-no! Stop! Stop! Stop!" She doesn't hear me at all, causing me to start looking around for something that might help... I notice the weapons I have with me.
'Oh no, no no...' The moral part of my mind denies it while the rational part says, 'Oh Yes, yes, yes...'
...And well, the reason is what brought humanity here, isn't it?
Seeing no other option, I use the great strength of my hand containing her mouth to keep her to the wall as I pull one of the glocks off with the other. "H..." As she turns teary eyes on the gun, it immediately quiets down.
I let out a long relieved sigh. "Thank God..." Oh, it's not, the God here doesn't give a damn.
Details aside, I turn my attention back to our surroundings, my hearing does not detect any other noise, either coming from outside the apartment or from inside. Maybe 'Brady' (The demon) has given up attacking tonight.
"That's good, very good..." I tell myself, my hand holding the woman loosening for an instant with my relief, which is enough for her to break free of me and try to run out of the room, probably towards the exit door. But of course I can't.
With full advantage of reflexes as well, I grab Jessica's left wrist immediately as she tries to move more than a step away. Her pulling with everything she's got, desperation written all over her face, it's not a pretty sight.
But necessary.
"Hey!" I speak at above average volume, still restrained so I don't bounce off the walls, making sure she sees again that I have a gun here.
She stops again and I tighten my grip so I don't make the same mistake a second time.
"Yeah... Here's the thing..." I soften my face to try to convey some reassurance (Wow, like she can feel even a little bit reassured in this situation.), but my voice gives away some of the nervousness I'm feeling. . "This might be weird and fake as fuck... But, I didn't come here to do you any harm."
You can just see in her eyes that she didn't believe it. A look that, while fearful, has some strength in it. She has grit. "...So what do you want? Money?" Bravely she answers me.
I shake my head. "No, no, I'm not a burglar either." Super convincing saying that while holding a gun in one hand and her wrist in the other.
"So you?" Her face returns to express more fear, looking at herself in only sleep shorts and a Smurfs shirt.
'Oh no, she thinks I...'
I shake my head in denial even harder than the first time. "No, God! No!" Cool, now a little confusion as to whether or not she should be offended has also added to the other emotions in the gaze.
"HuHrum…" I clear my throat. "I mean, no offense, you're really pretty...but, no, I don't have any interest." Maybe this conversation is getting a little off track.
Jessica appears to have at least believed my answer, as her face shows an expression of slight understanding with her. "I get it. You're gay."
I'm about to nod my head in agreement when I process right through what she's told me. "Huh? What? No! I'm Completely straight...I mean, almost completely if you factor in a slight interest in 'different' women..." The blonde whose hand I'm holding gives me a slightly disgusted look at this . "Oh, that's beside the point!.."
"The thing is, no! I'm not gay!" I state with conviction, with the same amount of conviction that I have that this conversation really has lost all its bearings.
"What is it? Thinking I'm gay because I'm not interested in you? Do we switch to some kind of B-movie comedy?" She gives me a confused look again.
"Okay, sorry, that was just a little rant." I feel more comfortable talking now, are we getting closer? I don't know, but I swallow my saliva and return my thoughts to the right place.
"Getting back to what matters, I'm going to be simple and straightforward with you, Jessica." I look her in the eye with complete seriousness, causing her to shift back into her more worried posture. "Someone...something is aiming to take your life tonight. I came here because I want to stop it."
"Someone? Something?" She responds by furrowing her brows, clearly being difficult to understand. "Why would they be out to kill me? I'm just a student nurse."
I nod. "Yes, you are. But your boyfriend, Samuel, him and his family are very important, and this thing wants to kill you to affect him."
With me bringing up the name of Sam, the boyfriend she obviously cares about, I seem to gain a little more credibility as Jessica starts to seem to digest. "Let's say you're telling the truth…" She takes a deep breath. "Because it's important to him? And what are you referring to by 'thing'?"
'Okay, the conversation is working, I think it's ok to proceed with this.'
"I myself can't say exactly how, but the Winchesters are a key player in great events to come." In fact I know very well how, but it's too risky to let any hint of my meta-knowledge do. "And as for what I mean by thing..."
I lower my head a little, hesitant to reveal it like that. 'There's no way.'
I lift my face, looking back at her. "Devils." Total seriousness in my bonbon brown countenance. "Demons are the things that want to kill you."
"..." She looks at me wordlessly. Really, it's a lot to hear all at once. "Fine, it may take your time to process. But know that I am an ally in this battle." Believing it to be safe, I let go of her wrist and lower my gun.
"..." Jessica walks slowly, eyes wide open, thoughtful, no signs that she's going to run, so I just follow her into the living room.
She walks past the salt circles without saying anything, perhaps wanting to notice them depending on how agitated her thoughts are, and sits down on the couch, still in shock. "..."
"So..." She breaks the silence 30 seconds later. "Demons, from hell, from the Bible... They want to kill me, because my boyfriend is important to their plans?"
"And that." I calmly agree.
Jessica looks at me, letting the silence reign again. Our eyes spend some time locking when... She runs. 'Cum! It's obvious she's going to run!'
With all the speed that adrenaline can grant her legs, Jessica arrives at the exit door, turning the handle, which, when it does not open, makes her start pulling and knocking on the door. "HELP! SOMEONE! HELP!" She screams while at the door.
"So as to!" I get up, running towards her, pulling her to the door. She grips the doorknob so tightly that the item is snatched away, remaining in her hands when I return her back to the couch. "SOMEBODY! HELP!"
"Fuck, stop! I already explained the situation to you!" Her legs land a kick right between my legs, making me double over.
"Bull... Eye..." A hellish pain gripping my pelvis.
"My boyfriend is a chosen one and Demons are after me? YOU ARE CRAZY!" She screams, once again getting up from the couch and about to head for the door, when we both hear the screeching sound of breaking glass.
We were both quiet.
We both began to hear the footsteps of shoes stepping on broken glass, coming from the same direction as the previous crashing sound, from Jessica and Sam's room.
'Shit... The windows... I didn't have time to put salt in them.'
The smell of rotten eggs begins to flood the apartment...
"Oh dear Jessica... The hunter is saying it's true." A male voice I don't know.
The sense of urgency makes the pain in my groin pass, allowing me to stand up and see who the caller was. And as it turns out, it's the hideous creature with rotten meat and mutton legs that I saw on the other side of the peephole.
"Brady?" Jessica asks, making the evil being smile.