( MYSTERY GIRL )

      "Tamara! I got away, but I'm hurt bad! I need help!" Isaac/Demon yells.

      Bobby turns to Tamara. "It's not him. It's one of those demons. It's possessing his corpse." Isaac pounds on the door.

      "Baby! Why won't you let me in? You left me behind back there. How could you do that? We swore... At that lake in Michigan. Remember? We swore we would never leave each other!" Isaac yells.

      Tamara begins sobbing. "How did he know that?" She asks.

      "Steady, Tamara." Bobby says.

      "You just gonna leave me out here? You just gonna let me die?! I guess that's what you do, dear! Like that night those things came to our house... came for our daughter! You just let her die,too." Isaac says.

      "You son of a bitch!" She yells.

      "Tamara, no!" Bobby yells.

      Tamara pushes the door open, breaking the salt line, and tackles Isaac down the steps. She lands on top of him and raises the Palo Santo. "You're not Isaac!" She plunges the wood deep into his chest; it sizzles, and he screams.

      The other six demons cross the broken salt line and enter the house. One, an overweight middle-aged guy, corners Bobby, who backs up slowly. He stalks Bobby confidently, smiling, until he stops as if he's run into an invisible wall. He looks around, confused.

      He is under another ceiling-devil's-trap. He looks at Bobby, pleading. Bobby smiles. "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son." Bobby says.

      In another hallway, Dean is cornered by the waitress. They fight; she advances on him. Meanwhile, Elena is running down the hallway when someone knocks her to the ground. Wrath is standing above her. It picks her up and flings her to the wall.

      "Don't!" Elena yells and gets up off the ground.

      "You're weaker than I expected." He says.

      It grabs Elena by the hair and flings her to the ground once again. He gets on top of her and strokes her hair. "Get off of me!"

      "Come on, we can have a little fun." Before the Demon could kiss her, Elena kicks him in the chest and sends him flying into a table. She gets up and dusts herself off.

      "I am not weak." She sneers.

      The Demon smiles and also shakes himself off. "This'll be fun."

     He charges at Elena, but she easily dodges. The Demon is confused, but manages to get up and punch Elena in the stomach. Sam appears out of nowhere. "Elena!" He yells.

      He begins running, but all of a sudden, Elena grabs the Demon and twists him around. He screams in agony as she forces his arm behind his back, pulling it higher. "Who's weak?" She asks as she punches him in the face.

      Sam watches in astonishment. Elena notices another Palo Alto stake on a table and runs to get it. The Demon grabs her leg, but she kicks back and hits him in the head. He stumbles back and when she manages to get the stake, she stands on the table on jumps on him, stabbing him in the chest. The Demon sizzles and falls to the ground.

      "Elena..?" Sam asks as she looks up.

      Elena looks around and drops the stake. "I don't know what happened...did I just do that?" She asks and Sam nods.

      "Come on, forget it." Sam says as he grabs her hand. "We have to find Bobby and Dean."

      Meanwhile, Bobby begins reading the exorcism for Sloth, the demon he has trapped. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus Spiritus, omnis satanica..."

      Dean is backed into the bathroom. "I suppose you're Lust." He asks the good looking blonde.

      "Baby, I'm whatever you want me to be." She says.

      "Just stay back." He says.

      "Or what?" The Demon asks.

      "Good point." Dean says.

      "I'm not gonna hurt you-not yet. Not unless you want me to." She runs a hand along his shoulder; he looks down at her, then falls into her embrace. They kiss passionately.

      Upstairs, a demon kicks a door in clear across the room. Sam and Elena look around as the demon-a young man in a business suit enters. "Here's Johnny!" He advances confidently as Sam backs up; then stops, holding up a hand to hold back the two demons flanking him.

      He looks up to the devil's trap on the ceiling and smirks. "Come on. You really think something like that is gonna fool someone like me? I mean, me?" The Demon says.

     "Let me guess-you're Pride." Elena says.

      Pride grins and gestures to the ceiling. A long splitting crack appears, destroying the symbol. "The root of all sin. And you... are Sam Winchester. That's right. I've heard of you. We've all heard of you. The prodigy. The boy king." He says.

      "Looking at you now, I got to tell you, don't believe the hype. You think i'm gonna bow to a cut-rate, piss-poor human like you? I have my pride, after all. And now with your yellow-eyed friend dead, I guess I don't really have to do a damn thing, now do I? You're fair game now, boy, and it's open season." Pride continues.

      Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Dean is backing up, still snogging Lust, until he hits a shower curtain. In one move he flips them around, pulls open the shower curtain, and plunges her face-first into the bathtub. It is filled with holy water; she screams in agony.

      Upstairs, Pride knocks Sam to the ground, then pulls him up with an arm wrapped around his throat and begins strangling him. The mysterious young woman appears, a knife strapped to her right thigh. She pulls the knife out, grits her teeth, and slashes the throat of the first demon.

      Fiery light appears in the cut, and he goes down - dead. "You!" Greed Yells.

      She turns to the second Demon, Greed, who punches her twice, then plunges the knife upwards into its chin. It also goes down. Pride lets Sam go to tackle Ruby; Sam pulls him away and punches him in the face, putting him right into the path of Ruby's knife.

      She plunges it upward into his chin, and he collapses in a shower of sparks and demonic energy. "Who the hell are you?" Sam asks

      "I'm the girl that just saved your ass." She says.

      "Well, I just saved yours,too."

      She chuckles. "See you around, Sam."

      "Wait!" He goes into the hall to follow her, but she is already gone.

HOUSE
[ ☼ ]

      The next morning, Sam and Dean pile the corpses of the demons that didn't survive into a shallow pit and begin pouring salt and fuel over them. Several yards away, Tamara is standing in front of another pyre: Isaac's.

      "Think she's gonna be all right?" Elena asks.

      "No. Definitely not." Dean says. Bobby comes out of the house, looking exhausted. "Well, you look like hell warmed over."

      "You try exorcising all night and see how you feel." Bobby says.

      "Any survivors, Bobby?" Sam asks.

      "Well, the pretty girl and the heavy guy, they'll make it. Lifetime of therapy bills ahead,but,still..." Bobby starts.

      "That's more than you can say for these poor bastards." Dean says.

      "Bobby, that knife-what kind of blade can kill a demon?" Sam asks.

      "Yesterday, I would have said there was no such thing." Bobby says.

      "I'm just gonna ask it again-who was that masked chick? Actually, the more troubling question would be, "how come a girl can fight better than you?"" Dean asks.

      "Three demons, Dean. At once." Sam says. "And you should've seen Elena fight. It was amazing."

      "Hey, whatever it takes to get you through the night, pal." Dean says.

      "Yeah, well, if you want a troubling question, I got one for you." Elena says.

      "What's that?" Dean asks.

      "If we let out the seven deadly sins, what else did we let out?" She asks.

      "You're right. That is troubling." Dean lights a matchbook and tosses it onto the pyre.

      The bonfires have settled down and they prepare to leave. "See you gents around." Tamara says.

      "Tamara? The world just got a lot scarier. Be careful." Bobby says.

      "You too." She gets in her car and takes off.

      "Keep your eyes peeled for omens. I'll do the same." Bobby says.

      "You got it." Dean says.

      "Wait, Bobby. We can win this war, right?" Sam asks, stopping him.

      Bobby pauses, not answering the question. "Catch you on the next one." He says, then leaves.

      "So, where to?" Elena asks as they get into the car.

      "Uh, I don't know. I was thinking Louisiana maybe." Sam says.

      "Little early for Mardi Gras, isn't it?" Dean asks.

      "Yeah. Listen, I was talking to Tamara, and she mentioned this hoodoo priestess outside of Shreveport that might be able to help us out. You know, with your-with your demon deal." Sam says.

      Elena smiles. "That's great." She says.

      "Nah." Dean says.

      "'Nah'? What does that mean, 'nah'?" Sam asks.

      "Sam, no hoodoo spell's gonna break this deal. It's a goose chase." Dean points out.

      "We don't know that." Elena says.

      "Yes, we do. Forget it. She can't help. We're not going, and that's that." Dean says. "What about Reno, huh?" He averts.

      "You know what? I've had it. I've been bending over backwards trying to be nice to you, and...I don't care anymore." Sam says.

      "That didn't last long." Dean says

      "Yeah, well, you know what? I've been busting my ass trying to keep you alive, Dean, and you act like you couldn't care less. What, you got some kind of death wish or something?" Sam says.

      "It's not like that."

      "Then what's it like, Dean?" Sam says.

      "Sam-" Dean starts.

      "Please, tell me."

      "We trap the crossroads demon, trick it, try to welch our way out of the deal in any way? You die. Okay? You die. Those are the terms. There's no way out of it. If you try to find a way, so help me god, I'm gonna stop you." Dean says.

      Elena sighs. "How could you make that deal, Dean?" She asks.

      "Cause I couldn't live with Sam dead. Couldn't do it. And neither could you." Dean says.

      "So, what, now I live and you die?" Sam asks.

      "That's the general idea, yeah."

      "Yeah, well, you're a hypocrite, Dean. How did you feel when dad sold his soul for you? 'Cause I was there. I remember. You were twisted and broken. And now you go and do the Same thing. To me. What you did was selfish." Sam argues.

      "Yeah,you're right. It was selfish. But I'm okay with that." Dean says.

      "I'm not." Sam says.

      "Tough. After everything I've done for this family, I think I'm entitled." Dean says. "Truth is, I'm tired, Sam. I don't know, it's like there's a light at the end of the tunnel."

      "It's hellfire, Dean." Sam says.

      "Whatever. You're alive, I feel good-for the first time in a long time. I got a year to live, Sam. I'd like to make the most of it. So what do you say we kill some evil sons of bitches and we raise a little hell, huh?" Dean asks.

      "You're unbelievable." Elena says.

      "Very true."