Supernatural - Chapter 6: Her Request (Patreon)

The next morning.

Murphy was awake, but she didn't look entirely conscious. She lay flat on the bed with her hands crossed over her chest like a vampire in a coffin, her expression perfectly serene.

That was how Ellen found her when she came into the room.

“Hey, Murphy? You awake?” Ellen asked uncertainly.

“Wide awake. I've never been more awake in my life,” Murphy replied quietly.

More than anything, she wanted to get out of this place. Better yet, she wanted to leave this world altogether and go back to her own boring but peaceful life.

Ellen gave a helpless chuckle. “You really are something. So I don't have to explain what happened last night, right? Want some breakfast?”

“Thank you, Ellen.” Murphy had been about to refuse. Then she remembered how Ellen had spent so long looking after her despite being exhausted herself, and Murphy couldn't bring herself to say no.

“Here. I went into town and bought you some clothes. They should fit.” Ellen handed her an outfit and gave her a sly smile. “I know your measurements now. Better than anybody.”

“Oh... thank you so much, Ellen.” Murphy curled up around the clothes, her voice growing quieter. “I don't even know how to thank you anymore.”

She didn't dare look Ellen in the eye.

“Don't worry about it. I'm glad I was here to help last night. That rough old Bobby wouldn't know how to look after a young woman.”

Murphy finally raised her head enough to sneak a glance at Ellen.

“But you should thank Dean and Sam, too. They're the ones who pulled you out of the bathtub. Remember?” Ellen added.

Murphy closed her eyes completely and resumed her peaceful corpse-like pose. “Oh... I only remember Sam carrying me upstairs. Thanks for reminding me, Ellen. I'll make sure to thank them both.”

Ellen regarded her fondly. Something about the young woman's endearing manner reminded her of her daughter, Jo.

“Come on, get downstairs. Breakfast is getting cold.”

...

After changing into the new clothes, Murphy went downstairs and found the brothers in the living room.

Sam was busy on his laptop, doing something she couldn't make out. Dean, meanwhile, was enjoying himself with a beer, despite the early hour.

“Morning, Sleeping Beauty!” Dean called loudly when he spotted her.

Murphy rolled her eyes inwardly.

Watching Dean act like this on television had always been adorable. Being on the receiving end was different. For some reason, he seemed to be asking for a punch.

“Ha ha. Very funny. Says the guy who's wrecking his liver first thing in the morning,” she shot back.

“Hmph. Funny how somebody's forgotten who saved her neck last night.” Dean glanced at the beer in his hand and pursed his lips.

Murphy was quiet for two seconds. Then she said sincerely, “...Thank you. You too, Sam.”

Dean had been ready with another wisecrack, but the unexpected formality of her thanks caught him off guard.

Sam finally looked up from the laptop he'd been studying all morning. He gave Murphy a small nod to show she needn't worry about it.

“So how'd you manage it?” Dean asked. “The whole almost-being-murdered-by-a-bathtub thing.”

Murphy had just been about to start breakfast. At the question, the fork on its way to her mouth stopped in midair.

“Okay, I need to make one thing clear first.” She cleared her throat. “I'd never taken a bath in a tub before. I didn't know that could happen.”

Dean's face went through several expressions. First came understanding, then bafflement. But before he could even ask another question, he lost interest. “Okay. Sure. Sounds reasonable. Whatever.”

“Hey, Murphy.” Sam closed his laptop and scratched his head. “At the cemetery last night, you said you knew how to save Dean?”

“Sam.” Dean's face grew serious. “I thought we'd already talked about this. Leave my deal alone.”

“I don't understand. Why?” Sam asked heatedly. “You're asking me not to save my only brother? I can't do that!”

“I said no, and that's final.” Dean adopted the stern authority of a parent.

“Then at least tell me why.” Sam met his gaze stubbornly.

“Hey!” Murphy shouted, drawing both brothers' attention. “Yes, I know a way to save Dean. But right now, I can't just cancel his deal. And Dean, don't get hung up on that demon's bullshit about Sam dropping dead on the spot if you break the contract yourself.”

Both brothers' expressions changed.

Sam immediately looked at Dean, trying to see if his reaction confirmed what Murphy had said. Dean, meanwhile, could only stare at her, shocked that she knew even this.

Had she been standing there watching when he'd made the deal with the demon?

He kept the thought to himself and asked, “How can you be sure the demon was lying? Does the future tell you that, too?”

“I won't lie to you, so I can't promise you the demon was lying,” Murphy said earnestly. “But I can tell you that Sam will live and you'll live, too. I know what happens over the next year, who holds your contract, and what you'll be facing when the deadline comes.”

“The contract isn't held by the crossroads demon?” Sam asked, confused.

“No.” Murphy hesitated. Should she tell them Lilith's name already?

What if revealing it early changed something that wasn't supposed to change?

Oh, whatever. There was no point worrying herself sick. She'd deal with problems as they came.

Surely nobody could outmaneuver someone who'd watched all fifteen seasons of the show.

“Lilith,” Murphy told Dean. “The demon holding the contract for your soul is called Lilith. She's an extremely old and powerful demon. But I don't know where she is right now. I can tell you her name, sure, but I don't think you could find her yet.”

“Wow. Thanks. That's incredibly useful.” Dean remained stubbornly sarcastic, though he knew having even one lead was better than searching blindly.

“Then when can we find her?” Sam pressed.

Murphy thought through the timeline of the original show before offering an approximate answer. “When Dean has about three months left on his deal. Around then, I'll know where she'll show up.”

The brothers looked baffled. They hadn't expected an answer that was so vague and yet so confident.

“Anyway, Dean's contract isn't the thing you most need to worry about right now,” Murphy added. “You saw what happened last night. Countless demons escaped when the Devil's Gate opened. And the death of the Yellow-Eyed Demon, Azazel, means the demons down there don't have a leader anymore. That's dangerous for you and for ordinary people. But according to the future I know, nothing truly major will happen in the next week.”

Both brothers stared at her.

She had just handed them so much information at once that neither quite knew how to process it.

“Does being from the future really mean you can know all that?” Dean asked dazedly. “Are you sure you're not some kind of prophet?”

“Ugh. I am not a prophet.” Thinking of who the prophets were in the original story made Murphy recoil, her face twisting in distaste.

“Are you sure it's safe to tell us all this ahead of time?” Sam asked thoughtfully.

“I don't know. It could absolutely cause some kind of butterfly effect. But I want to help you,” Murphy answered honestly.

“And what about you? Could it put you in danger?” Sam looked at her intently, trying to judge whether she'd be harmed by revealing the future.

Dean was watching her, too. Her earlier, earnest declaration that she wanted to help them had left him feeling conflicted.

“...I don't know that either. But if I suddenly appeared here, shouldn't there be some reason for it?” Murphy rubbed her arms and avoided their eyes. “I can't know something terrible might happen to you and just sit back and do nothing.”

“So something bad will happen to us later,” Sam concluded. “But from what you've said, at least we'll be all right for now.”

“All right, Sammy. Give the poor girl a break.” Dean patted his shoulder. “She hasn't even had a bite of breakfast yet!”

Sam fell silent, his mind apparently elsewhere.

Dean said nothing more either, merely turning the beer bottle against his thigh. Both brothers were trying to digest everything Murphy had told them.

Murphy hurriedly stuffed her breakfast into her mouth and chewed through it. She didn't have much of an appetite anyway.

“Actually, I have one more request,” she said after finishing in a few bites, breaking the silence between them.

“Let's hear it.”

“In one week, there'll be a very unusual family massacre in Nebraska. Originally, you were going to hear about the case from Bobby and follow the lead there.”

“Originally?” Sam immediately picked up on the word.

“But now I think we could arrive a little earlier and maybe save more people. Just not too early, and we can't tip the demons off. All I know is that more than one demon will be gathering there.”

“'We'?” Dean frowned. “What's this 'we' business? You want to come with us?”

“No, Murphy. You can't come along,” Sam said firmly.

She had almost died the night before. This time they'd be up against what she'd called more than one demon. Neither brother could guarantee her safety.

“That's what I was getting to.” Murphy wasn't entirely certain herself. “I have to go with you. That's my request. Sooner or later, I need to prove I can be useful, don't I?”

“Useful how?” Dean demanded with a frown. “Why are you so determined to prove your worth?”

“Because I know what's going to happen.” She looked at him. “If I know I can help and still hide here waiting for you to come back, then what's the point of my being here?”

Dean's expression changed slightly.

“No,” he said almost immediately. “Knowing a little about the future doesn't mean you should trade your life for it.”

“And what about you?” Murphy shot back.

Dean fell silent, but only for a moment. He recovered quickly. “Look at you. You only just woke up after passing out last night. You look like a stiff breeze could knock you over, and you don't even know how to shoot!”

“I'll learn,” Murphy answered without hesitation. “I learn quickly. I'm sure I can pick up whatever skills you need me to have.”

“You can learn,” Sam agreed first. “But you're already valuable to us because you know so much about the future. Isn't that enough? You don't need to come with us. It's too dangerous. How many demons are we talking about, anyway?”

Murphy hesitated. “...I can't give you an exact number. At least seven.”

“And you know that!” Dean exploded.

“Please...” Murphy softened her voice. “I'm the only one who knows how things were originally supposed to happen. If you go there early, you won't know who's supposed to turn up first, who was meant to live, who was meant to die, what each demon was going to do, or whether my being here has already changed any of that.”

“I don't know what happens once things go off course either. But I do know what originally happened. I can compare the two, spot when something's wrong, and at least warn you while there's still time.”

Her expression had grown almost pleading.

“Please don't make me regret telling you about the future.”

The brothers fell silent. They could hear how sincere she was, and somehow that sincerity made her request even harder to deal with.

“Take it from an old man...” Bobby had been standing quietly at one side of the living room, listening the whole time. “We could see how this idiot does over the next week. At least she really seems confident in herself.”

“Bobby...” Dean still didn't approve.

He couldn't accept taking an innocent, ordinary woman along on what was practically a suicide mission.

“Dean.” Sam seemed to have reconsidered. “Let her prove herself. I think she's old enough to take responsibility for her choices.”

Everyone, Murphy included, looked silently toward Dean and waited for his verdict.

“...You people are putting way too much pressure on me,” Dean complained.

But he remembered Ellen's daughter, Jo. Ellen had refused to let her hunt demons, so Jo had gone behind everyone's backs to investigate a case on her own and had nearly gotten herself killed.

At least this time they'd be able to keep an eye on Murphy.

“Then we'll see how you do,” Dean said through clenched teeth.

“Thank you, Dean.” Overwhelmed by the sudden swing in her emotions, Murphy impulsively stepped forward and hugged him.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Let go, little lady. This really isn't the time.” Dean went rigid and raised both hands as if warding her off.

The warm mood shattered at once.

Sam and Bobby watched the pair with amusement, and Bobby rolled his eyes for good measure.

“Dude, I'm twenty-six. Twenty-six years old, okay?” Murphy let go of Dean, who was as stiff as a plank, looking ready to punch him.

The tension eased, and smiles appeared on everyone's faces.

...

That evening, Murphy asked Bobby for a blank notebook.

Alone in her room, she sat with a pen in her hand, unable to bring herself to put a single word on the page.

During the day she'd spoken with such conviction, as though merely staying at the brothers' side would somehow let her change everyone's fate.

But she knew that having watched their story didn't mean she could survive an encounter with the demons herself.

Besides, the future had already started changing from the moment she appeared.

Finally, Murphy lowered her head and wrote a line on the title page:

If I don't come back, you'll know how to use this notebook.

She waited a moment, turned to the first page, and wrote down the first piece of information:

Never trust Ruby. Find a way to take the dagger from her.

Murphy stared at the words for a long time, searching her memories for anything else she could leave them.

A week was still a long time.