Supernatural - Chapter 9: The Seven Deadly Sins (Patreon)

Night fell, and the neon sign outside the Old Terminal Pub flickered to life.

From the street, it looked like an ordinary bar. Muffled music drifted through the walls. More than a dozen cars filled the parking lot, and now and then somebody passed a window.

Except there was a good chance those “people” weren't human anymore.

The group parked their cars a block away and checked their assigned positions one last time.

They'd already laid salt lines across the side and back entrances, including the windows somebody might be able to climb through. They deliberately left the front entrance clear. It was both their way in and their escape route if the plan failed.

Bobby's car was parked closest to that entrance, a complete devil's trap drawn on the inside of its trunk.

Murphy felt for the recorder hidden inside her jacket. She'd checked it at least three times already, but her palms were still damp.

This was her first actual demon hunt. Several of the demons inside the bar were much stronger than ordinary people, and one mistake could cost someone their life.

“Nervous?” Sam asked, noticing her unconsciously gripping the hem of her jacket.

“A little. I've never done anything this dangerous before,” she admitted.

“So you do understand it's dangerous.” Dean lowered his voice, unable to believe she'd insisted on coming. “Remember, if things go wrong, you get out immediately. Don't do something stupid just to prove yourself.”

Murphy turned toward him. The neon lights by the door washed his face in alternating red and blue, tracing the bridge of his straight nose and the sharp line of his jaw. They only made his already striking features look better.

His green eyes seemed impossibly bright in the gloom, while his thick lashes cast faint shadows beneath them. Even with his brow furrowed as he lectured her, he was handsome enough to make arguing back seem almost unreasonable.

Murphy stared for two seconds before forcing herself to stop looking at that unfairly attractive face.

“Shouldn't I be the one saying that to you?”

Dean had no answer, so he turned away and pretended he hadn't heard. Sam watched them with a quiet chuckle. Those two were something else.

Bobby didn't let them keep bickering. He signaled for everyone to split up as planned.

Isaac and Tamara entered first, walking arm in arm and chatting with friendly smiles. They looked like an ordinary middle-aged couple out for the evening.

Dean and Murphy followed.

Before they went inside, Dean slipped an arm around Murphy's waist and gave her an affectionate smile, acting as though they were a young couple out for a little fun. Her body stiffened instinctively, but she made herself relax.

“Take it easy. I'm not going to kill you,” Dean murmured without changing his expression.

“I'm just not used to it. I've never been anywhere like this.” Murphy had no idea what to do with her hands.

Dean snorted. “Sounds like you've had a boring life.”

Watching her awkwardly fumble for somewhere to put them, he simply pulled her against his chest, pretending they were fooling around, and half guided, half pushed her into the bar.

The music was loud. A conspicuous red-haired man sat alone at the counter with a beer. The bartender was polishing glasses, and small groups of customers occupied most of the tables. Nothing looked out of the ordinary.

But as they walked inside, Murphy distinctly felt almost every pair of eyes pause on them for an instant.

The demons had noticed their arrival. They just hadn't figured out what they were up to yet.

Dean led her to a booth not far from the bar. He settled close beside her, pretending to be affectionate, and casually held up a drinks menu to shield them from the room.

Murphy took off her coat, using the movement to retrieve the recorder hidden beneath it. It was connected to a palm-sized battery-powered speaker. She secured it under the booth and concealed it behind the hanging tablecloth.

Elsewhere, Tamara headed down the rear corridor on the pretext of using the bathroom and hid a second device behind a cleaning cupboard. Isaac sat near the back entrance and slipped a third beneath a partition while adjusting his chair.

A few minutes later, Sam and Bobby came in.

Sam sat near the jukebox and hid the last device behind a nearby cabinet. Bobby didn't linger. Pretending to look for the restroom, he made his way down the rear corridor.

There was an electrical panel there, one they'd spotted while scouting the building from outside.

Bobby's job was to cut the power. The rest would start the hidden recordings as soon as the lights went out. Without music or lighting, the bar would fall into brief confusion while Latin exorcisms sounded from four directions at once.

The demons could sense that something wasn't quite right, though they couldn't say what. Some were already eyeing these incoming “ordinary people” with predatory interest, but none had made a move.

Everyone was in position.

Murphy glanced at the clock on the wall and slipped a hand beneath the tablecloth.

Three.

Two.

One.

A sudden scuffle broke out in the rear corridor, followed by gunfire. Everyone, demons included, sprang to their feet. Some of the demons seemed to realize what was happening and began closing in on Tamara and Murphy's group.

Then the lights and music cut out together. The abrupt darkness froze everyone for a split second. A few dark-red emergency lamps came on, casting eerie, indistinct shadows around the room.

At the same moment, the hunters stationed across the bar pressed Play.

A deep Latin chant rose from every direction.

Every demon went rigid. One pair of eyes after another turned pure black beneath the dim red lighting.

Shrieks nearly drowned out the recordings. Murphy and the others quickly regrouped. Bobby, looking the worse for wear after cutting the power, hurried back and joined them. Together they watched the demons warily.

Several demons nearest the speakers dropped to their knees, their bodies convulsing violently. Black smoke poured from their mouths and noses, yet seemed to be dragged back by some force, unable to escape their hosts immediately.

The Seven Deadly Sins reacted much faster.

The bartender smashed a recorder hidden beside the sound system with one punch. A young man in a suit flipped another table clean over. It struck the wall, shattering along with the device beneath it.

Unfortunately for the demons, those were only the two most obvious machines.

The recordings near the bathrooms, in the storeroom and in the corners of the bar kept playing.

Sam and Bobby drew their bottles of holy water and splashed approaching demons to keep them away from the equipment. Dean vaulted over a table and kicked the lunging bartender backward.

Murphy drew her gun too, but she avoided aiming at the hosts' vital organs. Her shots struck two demons in the knees, buying the recordings a few more seconds.

At last, the first complete exorcism finished playing.

Several masses of black smoke burst out of their hosts and disappeared into the ceiling. The freed people collapsed one after another. In an instant, the bar lost part of its overwhelming advantage in numbers.

The plan was working.

But less than half a minute later, the remaining Seven Deadly Sins had destroyed most of the equipment.

The man in the suit raised his head and fixed his black eyes on Sam. Recognition seemed to dawn almost at once, and a vicious smile spread across his face.

“Sam Winchester.”

Murphy's heart tightened. It looked as though they wouldn't be dealing with every demon in the pub tonight after all.

“Retreat!” She made no attempt to drag things out.

Isaac and Tamara immediately moved toward the front entrance. Bobby splashed holy water at the demons to cover everyone as they withdrew. Sam kicked the last working recorder beneath the bar counter, then hurried after the others.

The red-haired man, Envy, tried to follow them. But the moment he rushed through the front door, Dean was waiting outside to throw a whole bottle of holy water in his face.

Envy screamed and stumbled back. Isaac charged him from the side, slamming him against a car. Dean opened the trunk, and the two men wrestled the struggling demon inside.

The instant the trunk slammed shut, violent thuds sounded from within. But the devil's trap drawn inside kept Envy from escaping.

“Get in!”

Everyone piled into the two cars they'd prepared.

As they sped out of the parking lot, Murphy looked through the rear window and saw six figures appear outside the bar. They made no move to follow yet. They simply stood beneath the neon lights, their black eyes trained on the departing vehicles.

Murphy knew they wouldn't let the hunters keep Envy.

Sooner or later, they'd come after them.

...

Back at the safe house, they tied Envy to a chair in the middle of the living room, with complete devil's traps above his head and beneath his feet.

He showed no fear of being trapped. Instead, he studied the layers of defenses around him with open curiosity.

“You've really thought of everything.”

Murphy ignored his mockery and checked the recording equipment one more time.

The front door was the only entrance that wasn't completely sealed with salt. From there, the demons would have to move through the corridor into the living room, passing several traps designed to separate them.

Murphy couldn't promise the plan had no weaknesses. But if they could split the six demons apart and prevent them all from attacking the same person at once, they'd have a chance to finish the exorcisms.

The demon tied to the chair suddenly laughed. “They're here.”

The streetlight outside went dark in the very next instant. The lights inside the house began to flicker.

Murphy launched straight into the exorcism, hoping to send at least one demon back to Hell before the others arrived. Envy thrashed violently, throwing back his head and opening his mouth wide as a cloud of black smoke poured out.

At the same time, someone slowly pushed open the front door from outside.

The remaining six Deadly Sins entered one after another.

Sloth came first, inhabiting a balding, overweight middle-aged man. Pride, dressed in a black suit, brought up the rear. His gaze traveled over the salt lines and devil's traps, undisguised contempt on his face.

They'd clearly recognized the trap. None of them seemed remotely inclined to turn around.

Sloth was the first into the corridor. He stepped straight into a devil's trap concealed beneath the floor and stopped abruptly, pinned as though by invisible chains.

Bobby immediately switched on a backup recorder nearby. The Latin chant began, and Sloth convulsed violently as black smoke seeped slowly from his mouth and nose.

Wrath tried to skirt around him but was driven back by a splash of holy water from Tamara. He stumbled into another narrow space bordered by salt.

Everything was unfolding just as Murphy had hoped.

But Pride stood at the corridor entrance and glanced up at the devil's trap painted on the ceiling.

“You really think this is enough to hold me?”

The next moment, the walls shuddered violently. Cracks split the painted lines on the ceiling, and great flakes of plaster came raining down.

With the devil's trap ruined, Sloth could move again. He smashed the recorder that was still playing the exorcism with one punch.

“Fall back!” Dean shouted.

Everyone retreated along the route they'd established, toward the back of the living room.

Even with the first line of traps destroyed, the narrow corridor still restricted the six Sins. Sam started a second recording while Dean and Isaac held the front, using holy water and gunfire to slow the demons' advance.

They forced Sloth into the devil's trap at the center of the living room once more.

Bobby snatched the exorcism book from the table and resumed chanting where the recording had been cut off. Sloth roared in pain as black smoke streamed from his host, but he couldn't break free of the trap.

Elsewhere, Lust slipped around the living-room defenses and made straight for Dean.

She was still using the body of a waitress from the bar. Her smile was seductive and self-assured, as though the gun in Dean's hand didn't concern her in the slightest.

Dean backed away, deliberately drawing her toward the bathroom they'd prepared.

Lust kept advancing. She laid a hand on his shoulder and pressed nearly her whole body against his chest.

Murphy stole a glance in their direction just in time to see Lust tilt her face toward Dean. Their lips were almost touching.

Murphy's mouth twitched, and she rolled her eyes inwardly. Of course. Every kind of supernatural creature in existence seemed determined to get a little too close to Dean.

Then Dean abruptly switched their positions, yanked the shower curtain aside and shoved Lust bodily into the bathtub full of holy water.

A piercing scream filled the bathroom.

Murphy looked away, expressionless.

Good. For the moment, at least, Dean didn't need her help.

That didn't mean the rest of the fight was going any better.

Pride, Gluttony and Greed had broken through the second line of defenses near the stairs and were heading straight for Sam. They showed little interest in the other hunters. Sam had been their target from the start.

Murphy went after them, but Wrath intercepted her from the side.

He grabbed her collar and slammed her against the wall. Agony shot through her back, and her vision went black for an instant.

She couldn't afford to catch her breath. Murphy kicked Wrath's knee and flung the holy water she'd been holding into his face.

Wrath screamed and released her. But rather than retreating, he lunged for Tamara, the nearest hunter.

Tamara drew her hunting knife and met him head-on, but Wrath caught her wrist. In the struggle, the knife slipped from her grasp, and Wrath snatched it before it hit the floor.

The blade turned toward Tamara's stomach.

Isaac threw himself forward without a moment's hesitation. He knocked Tamara out of the way, but the hunting knife plunged deep into his side, soaking his clothes with blood.

“Isaac!”

Tamara caught her falling husband. Fear and rage took over her face in an instant.

Wrath smiled with satisfaction at her reaction. He was plainly waiting for her to lose control.

But Tamara cared more about keeping Isaac alive than getting revenge. She had to protect her wounded husband first. Gritting her teeth, she dragged Isaac behind the final salt line and pressed Play on the recorder in the medical area.

Wrath followed them straight into the devil's trap hidden beneath the doorframe.

The smile vanished from his face.

The exorcism began.

Murphy couldn't stay to check Isaac's wound. The sounds of fighting upstairs were growing louder.

By the time she arrived, Pride had caught Sam from behind and wrapped an arm around his throat. Gluttony and Greed guarded either side, cutting off every possible escape route.

Pride leaned toward Sam's ear, his voice dripping with mockery.

“Sam Winchester. The legendary prodigy. The future king of the demon army. And this is all you've got?”

Murphy raised her gun and shot both Gluttony and Greed, but she couldn't find an angle to hit Pride without risking Sam's life.

Two agonized howls sounded downstairs, one after the other.

Bobby had finally finished the exorcism, sending Sloth back to Hell. The recording in the medical area reached its end as well, and Wrath left his trapped host as a cloud of black smoke.

Dean dragged Lust, still burned by the holy water, into the devil's trap they'd prepared beside the bathroom and switched on the last recorder.

Murphy was about to rush Pride directly when someone appeared at the far end of the corridor.

A blonde woman drew the dagger strapped to her outer thigh and slashed Gluttony's throat with incredible speed.

Orange-red light erupted from the wound. Before Gluttony could even finish screaming, he collapsed with his host body.

For the first time, Greed looked genuinely terrified when she recognized the newcomer.

“You!”

She'd barely turned around when Ruby drove the dagger into her chest.

Another dazzling burst of light.

With Greed down, Pride finally released Sam and lunged at Ruby.

Sam seized the opening, grabbed Pride from behind and shoved him toward the blade that could actually kill demons.

The dagger drove up beneath Pride's jaw. A strangled rattle escaped him as light exploded inside his head.

Ruby withdrew her weapon and looked at Sam, who was still struggling to catch his breath. A faint, knowing smile played across her face.

“Looks like I showed up just in time.”

Sam watched her warily. “Who are you?”

Ruby didn't answer directly. She merely pointed out that she'd just saved his life.

Murphy looked at the dagger in her hand and laughed inwardly with contempt. Ruby. What a dedicated little demon.

Murphy knew exactly who this woman was, how she intended to worm her way into Sam's life, and what she really wanted in the end. But she couldn't let Ruby realize that she already knew the truth.

Her wary expression changed instantly to undisguised delight. She even stepped toward Ruby.

“Oh my God, you're amazing!” Her voice was noticeably higher than usual. “That knife can actually kill demons? Thank goodness you arrived when you did! We could all have died here today!”

The room went quiet for a moment.

Sam turned to look at her.

Dean had just come up from downstairs. Hearing those words, he stopped in his tracks.

He and Sam studied Murphy's dazzlingly bright smile, their expressions growing stranger by the second. Even Bobby, who'd arrived behind Dean, narrowed his eyes.

They hadn't known Murphy long, but they knew her well enough to tell that she was behaving nothing like herself.

Ruby, however, didn't know her. She gave Murphy a quick look and apparently took her for an inexperienced hunter seeing an unusual weapon for the first time. Her guard relaxed a little, just as Murphy had hoped.

“It's nothing.” Ruby twirled the dagger casually. “Just a little more useful than your weapons.”

“A little? You just took out three demons by yourself!” Murphy went right on lying with a straight face. “Are you a hunter too? Maybe we could team up sometime...”

“Murphy.” Dean finally couldn't keep quiet.

She turned to him with an expression so deliberately innocent that Dean held her gaze for two seconds and swallowed whatever he'd been about to say.

Ruby's eyes flicked between them before settling on Sam again.

“We'll see each other again, Sam.”

She clearly had no intention of staying. After sheathing the dagger, she disappeared down the corridor.

Sam went after her, but by the time he got outside, there was no sign of anyone.

At the same moment, Murphy's smile vanished completely.

Dean leaned against the doorframe, arms folded, and fixed her with a look. “That performance almost gave me goosebumps. William Shatner?”

“Why, thank you.” Murphy flashed him a fake smile. She had no idea who he was talking about, but knowing Dean, it couldn't have been a compliment.

“That woman was seriously suspicious.” Sam returned from outside, having recovered from the shock of nearly being killed.

“Yeah... I'm not even sure you can call her human.” Murphy didn't elaborate. “Let's go check Isaac first. He looked like he was in bad shape.”

Sam and Dean both realized the blonde woman might well be a demon. They exchanged a glance and kept their questions to themselves for now.

...

Isaac's wound was deep, but fortunately the blade had missed anything immediately fatal.

Tamara had already pressed bandages against it to slow the bleeding. After examining him, Bobby decided he needed to get to a hospital immediately. Otherwise, blood loss or infection could still kill him.

Dean and Sam helped lift Isaac into the back seat. Tamara thanked them briefly, then drove her husband straight to the hospital.

Isaac was deathly pale from blood loss, but he still turned his eyes toward Murphy before they left.

He didn't apologize for the way he'd treated her. Instead, he struggled to say, “You're... not a bad hunter after all...”

Murphy watched the car drive away and rolled her eyes. As if she cared about his assessment.

At last, only the four of them remained in the house.

Several exorcised hosts still lay on the floor, and there was no telling whether they were unconscious or dead. The bathroom and corridor were a wreck. Upstairs lay the three bodies of the demons killed by the dagger, and a faint smell of sulfur still hung in the air.

Dean closed the front door and turned to Murphy.

“All right, no outsiders left,” he said. “Who the hell was that blonde?”

Murphy was silent for a moment before answering. “Her name's Ruby.”

“You know her?” Sam asked.

“I know of her,” Murphy corrected. “And she isn't a hunter. I made that part up.”

The air seemed to go still. Everyone waited for her to explain.

“She's a demon,” Murphy said.

“But why?” Sam was baffled. “Why would a demon save me?”

“Why do you think? She's got something even worse planned!” Dean snapped. He hated demons, every last one of them.

“Yeah... I'm not arguing with that,” Murphy said. “I didn't want her to realize we'd seen through her, so be careful around her from now on. Especially you, Sam.”

“Why me?” Sam froze.

“She'll approach you on her own and pretend she's on our side. And for now, we still need a little help from her. So don't let her know we're onto her.” Murphy glanced between the brothers, whose reactions couldn't have been more different.

“Why? Why the hell do we need a demon's help?” Dean's voice had gone cold.

“Because that dagger of hers can kill demons, and we need to find a way to take it. Trust me, it's incredibly useful.” She paused, then added, “She also knows how to make the Colt work again, and she can make new bullets for it.”

The room fell utterly silent. Everyone looked stunned and thoughtful, though Dean was still visibly angry.

Murphy looked toward the corridor where Ruby had vanished and slowly let out a breath.

“She'll come looking for us again.”

She looked at Dean reassuringly. “And we need her to think her plan is working.”