Thirteen – Sioux Falls, South Dakota

The house smelled of death and blood, an all-too familiar scent for Jo Harvelle.

The smell was crawling up her nose and down her throat. It was poisoning her from inside. Everyone was dead, except for her: Charlie, Meg, Castiel, Jessica, Jody Mills, Claire Novak, and Alex Jones.

Jo was weak, beaten, battered, and worse for wear. In the house that was splattered with all kinds of blood, human, angel, and demon, she recounted the recent events in the back of her head. She'd watched as Not Sam and Not Dean had struck down each of her comrades, even Castiel.

It was in their merciless deaths that Jo knew that Sam and Dean weren't strong enough to fight the demons possessing them. If their angel couldn't help them break through, Jo certainly believed she couldn't get the job done. But I should try. Even if it's not worth two shits, They'd try, in their dying moments. And she meant everyone who was dead, or possessed, in the house.

"Well, well, one left," said Not Dean. Not Sam lingered behind him, both held murderous looks in their black eyes. The demons refused to show the Winchesters' true iris colors.

Everything about the demons in the brothers screamed different. They held the bodies they were possessing differently, with a dominant superiority. An air that reeked of arrogance and pride. The demons made the boys look even older and more traumatized.

"You want to take her, even out the score?" asked Not Sam, who tossed a knife nonchalantly in his hand. "Or have you had enough carnage?"

"You can never get enough of that."

Jo hung her head, but Not Dean picked it right back up with a gruff hand. Jo didn't want to look Not Dean in the black pits they called eyes, but she had no choice. He refused to let her look anywhere else. He pressed a sharp blade against her right cheek.

"You and I are gonna have some fun, princess," said Not Dean. Even his voice sounded nothing like Dean Winchester's. Everything looked wrong about this possessed man before her. "Unlike your pals, I'm gonna take my time. Get to know each other a little bit, infuriate good ole Dean-o who can see everything we do."

A sneer curled onto Jo's lips. "He can beat you. Sam can beat his demon too."

Not Dean chuckled. "That's what Castiel said, and look where that got him." Jo's head was turned, and she was forced to stare at the angel's bloody, tattered corpse. If Not Dean hadn't been diverted elsewhere, the angel would have been botched to pieces. "It's gonna get you to the same destination."

"What, Heaven? It'll be my second round." Jo spat in Not Dean's face, to which he shoved her down, and she landed on Charlie's bloody body. A dried, crusted, red smile across the redhead's neck greeted the blonde hunter. She normally wasn't queasy when it came to this stuff, but this was someone that she knew. That she fought alongside. That she saw get cut down right in front of her...

Jo Harvelle's stomach was in terrible knots.

"Oh, no, no. Your pretty face isn't going to Heaven, I'm not letting that happen. You see, none of you were ever going upstairs. You picked a fight with us and stuck your nose where it doesn't belong. For that, you get the finest rooms in Hell."

Jo gritted her teeth. Not Dean reached, grabbed the collar of her shirt, and hoisted her to her feet. Her body erupted into throbbing pain. With little struggle, she was pulled out of the carnage of the house, with Not Sam taking lead.

Jo was not much for prayer, but just this once, she was praying for an angel—for Castiel—to come back and put some fight back into her. She was running low on it, and even though she was going to do her damn hardest to hold out as long as she could, she knew she was going to lose.

***

Jo rocked around the passenger seat, which caused her to wake.

Charlie pulled onto a small driveway, in front of a small rancher. A sheriff's vehicle was parked, as well as a truck.

The four women hopped out of the Impala, and Jo was the one to take lead to the front door. Just as she got her hand ready to knock, the door swung open. Cas was waiting for them.

"Good, shit hasn't hit the fan yet," said Jo, slightly relieved. "You felt us coming, didn't you?" She sighed irritably as she heard Meg snicker behind her. "Ignore her, I try to."

Cas moved aside so the women could be let into the house. Three women, well, two girls rather and a woman, were inside the small, homey living room. The woman had to be Jody Mills, Jo concluded. Her hair was dark brown and short, almost like a men's cut; she was dressed in non-sheriff gear. The first girl had ratty blonde hair, and she dressed similar to how Jo pictured Sam and Dean dressed: a layer of flannel in the midst of other layers. The third girl had longer, dark hair.

"Jody, Claire, Alex," said Cas, "this is Jo Harvelle, Jessica Moore, Meg, and Charlie Bradbury. These are the women I mentioned."

"So, you guys know what's up?" asked Charlie.

Jody nodded solemnly. "Cas thinks they're heading this way for us."

"It wouldn't be a total stretch. Did he tell you everything?"

"About how Sam and Dean are possessed and offing hunters, yeah, he mentioned it. I didn't want to believe it, because I know those boys aren't stupid."

"Define your definition of 'stupid'," Meg drawled.

"We think someone removed their anti-possession tattoos before they let the demons in," Jo told Jody, cutting Meg off.

"That can happen?" asked the sheriff.

"Well, I'm sure they didn't do it with lasers," muttered Claire. "I'll bet they were put through the worst thing imaginable. Those boys are Most Wanted in monsters' books."

"Okay, Castiel, we're here," said Meg. "Do we start planning? Do I really need to be here? Seems like you got more numbers, you can lose one right?"

"No, we're not," Jessica insisted to the demon. "You've got powers, you can stand a good chance against the demons. We need you to help us."

"Aw, sentiment. It makes me want to puke."

"We were talking about a plan prior to you arriving," said Cas. "But...it requires some bait."

Jo noticed some widened eyes at the word "bait". "What did you have in mind?" she asked.

"We hide Devil's traps throughout the house and try to lure Sam and Dean into them. We get the demons out, and we get them back. But we need to make them think that Jody and the girls don't realize they're here for them. We need them to act dumb until the right moment."

"I would've used oblivious, not stupid," said Claire.

"I never said stupid, I said dumb."

"They're synonyms," Alex muttered. "They mean the same thing."

"What if the demons know that's coming?" asked Jessica. "We can't kill them, that can do damage to Sam and Dean. We want them alive, Cas."

"Then we place traps outside the house, too. Cover them so if they give chase, we lead them out. All we need is them in one trap long enough to get them out with an exorcism."

"And you're sure this isn't gonna blow up in our faces?" asked Meg, who folded her arms. "'Cause this sounds like that type of plan."

"If the plan fails, we improvise," said Jo. "All part of the job." Though, and Jo didn't want to admit this out loud, there surely had to be a better plan than placing traps everywhere in hopes Not Sam and Not Dean were oblivious enough to run into one.

"Do we have an ETA on them?" Jody asked.

Cas shook his head.

"Well then," said Jo. "We better get this into motion."