14. Late Night Getaway

Needless to say Sam and I didn't hang around long in Oklahoma after Lucifer's visit to our motel room. Now, I was expecting another night or two in the motel. We didn't get another twenty-four hours in since Sam was so keen on hightailing it out of here.

I had no idea where we were heading, I didn't think either of us were sure. I sat shotgun in the car, with Sam at the wheel. He looked like he was tiring, but he was fighting his hardest to stay awake. I was running on fumes at this point, and I definitely showed it.

"We could have been proper guests and left in the morning," I said through a yawn.

"Did you grab everything? I'm not turning back now."

"Yeah, yeah, I got everything." I yawned loudly again.

I looked at the car's dashboard. It was sometime after four in the morning. I rubbed my eyes. Like I said, I could have left in the morning with a proper night's rest. Not that I assumed I would have gotten a proper sleep tonight, what with the Devil showing up in our room in the middle of the night disguised as Sam's dead girlfriend.

"Think we can stop for food somewhere?" I asked tiredly.

"Dakota, do you know what time it is?"

"I'm not saying now, I'm saying for later."

"You want to use your money already?"

"Hey, hey, who said I would be paying in full for food?" I raised an eyebrow. "You need to sleep, Sam."

"Sleep isn't a luxury I've been able to afford for some time, Dakota. I'm used to running on a few hours."

I looked at him oddly. "Don't make me turn maternal on you, Sam."

"I don't think you'll be awake long enough to. Just knock out. I promise I won't get us in an accident."

"Mm, sure." I leaned back in the seat. "You know...Dean should know about this."

"Why don't you call him, then?"

"Good idea. I don't trust you having a phone in your hand while driving. Gah." I cringed away from the bright light as I broke into Sam's phone. I found his contacts and scrolled until I found his brother's name. I made sure to put it on speaker as the phone dialed. "You think he'll answer this late?"

"Damn it, Cas, I need to sleep!" came Dean's groggy voice.

"That answer your question?" Sam asked. "Dean, it's me."

"Sam? It's quarter past four."

"This is important."

"Tinkerbell still with you?"

"It's Dakota, and yes, I am." I closed my eyes but forced them back open. "Nice to hear from you too, Dean. I didn't realize I u-upgraded to a Disney fairy now."

"Start talking or I hang up."

"Okay, okay. Lucifer dropped by."

I almost thought Dean fell asleep on the other end, but it was just shock silence. "Say that again."

"The Devil's been hanging around for a few days. How he found us, we aren't sure."

"He must've used you."

"No, he didn't," Sam voiced. "He wasn't aware that Dakota was with me until tonight."

"Well, that's just swell."

"So, needless to say I'm not going anywhere for a long time," I said bitterly. "And it turns out that Sam is Lucifer's vessel. How fun, the both of you are vessels of angels! Damn, I feel left out." I faux pouted.

"That's not something I'd want, Dakota," Sam scolded me.

"So, you're his vessel, huh, Sam? Lucifer's wearing you to the prom?" Dean cut in sleepily.

"That's what he said."

"Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in, huh, Sammy?"

"So, that's it? That's your response?"

"What are you looking for?" Dean sounded a bit offended. The lack of sleep probably wasn't helping.

"I don't know. A—a little panic? Maybe?"

"I guess I'm a little numb to the earth-shattering revelations at this point. That's why you've got Tinkerbell there, she'll give you the reactions you want."

"What are we gonna do about it?" I asked.

Dean groaned loudly. "Right, you can't escape this now, either. What do you want to do about it?"

"I want back in, for starters," Sam bargained.

"Sam—"

"I mean it. I am sick of being a puppet to these sons of bitches. I'm gonna hunt him down, Dean."

"Oh, so, we're back to revenge, then, are we? Yeah, 'cause that worked out so well last time."

"Not revenge. Redemption."

"So, what, you're just gonna walk back in and we're gonna be the dynamic duo again?"

"Trio," I corrected Dean. "Unfortunately now it's a trio."

"How about you sleep, Dak?"

"Settle on a nickname, would you?" My hand closed tighter around the phone. I closed my eyes so I could give them a cat nap.

"Guys," Sam called us to order. "Look, Dean, I can do this. I'm gonna prove it to you."

"Look, Sam—it doesn't matter—whatever we do. I mean, it turns out that you and me, we're the, uh, the fire and the oil of the Armageddon. You know, on that basis alone, we should just pick a hemisphere. Stay away from each other for good."

"But I've seen you guys together! You two are at your strongest!" I whined. "Granted, I haven't seen a lot, but I'm sure I'm right."

"Dean, it doesn't have to be like this," Sam pleaded. "We can fight it."

"Yeah, you're right. We can. But not together. We're not stronger when we're together, Sam. I think we're weaker. Because whatever we have between us—love, family, whatever it is—they are always gonna use it against us. And you know that. Yeah, we're better off apart. We got a better chance of dodging Lucifer and Michael and this whole damn thing, if we just go our own ways."

"Dean, don't do this."

"Bye, Sam." The call disconnected.

I threw a side glance at Sam. "You want me to throw the phone some place in anger so you don't have to?"

"Don't, because then I'll have to get another one."

I sat the phone in my lap. "I've got to invest in one." I stretched as much as I could in the car. Hearing the engine was background noise and was calling me to sleep the hours away and forget everything. "I'm with you, Sam. I don't think Dean's right about being apart. Isn't there a saying along the lines of 'we're stronger when we're together,' or something?" I sighed tiredly. "Well, you've got me in any case."

I knocked out before Sam could talk to me.

***

I stood before my house—well, where my house used to be. It was nothing but dirt and ashes, torn down by the very thing that had ruined my life to begin with. I stared at the dirt, trying to picture the house's interior: the small living room, the stairs up to the bedrooms and bathroom, the kitchen. All those rooms held memories for me.

Those were all I had left of my family, of my home: memories, and nothing more.

Once I pulled my eyes away from the dirt, I noticed everything around me was gone. Not gone as in vanished, but gone as in demolished. There were remnants of houses in the forms of debris. My mouth went agape. Fences were blackened, some charred. Grass was black and ashy. Cement was cracked and missing pieces on the road. Streetlights had been taken down, lying in the road, creating an obstacle course.

I blinked rapidly. What happened here? What happened to my neighborhood, the heart of my college years?

"Like it?"

I stiffened at the voice, the voice I thought I wasn't going to hear ever again. Her voice had faded from memory, almost, not unlike my parents'. I swallowed before I turned. A strangled gasp came out of my mouth as I took in my sister.

She was how I remembered her in her last moments: a fully blossomed blood spot on her gut, her skin eerily pale, her hair pulled back into a messy bun. I sniffled.

"Mon?" I whispered.

"Sorry, Monica isn't home right now." She blinked, and her blue eyes were replaced with black pits. Her eyes were entirely black, not just her irises. Demon's eyes. I inhaled sharply. She blinked again, and her eyes became normal. But I knew Monica wasn't really Monica. It was the bastard that ripped my family apart.

"Did you do this?" I asked lowly.

"Who, me?" She shook her head. "I wish I did all this. No, no, the Winchesters made this all possible." She looked around, a wild look in her eyes. She laughed, making my skin crawl. "Those two morons were way in over their heads. I mean, kill Lucifer, the Devil? That's a pretty ballsy thought alone."

"Where are they?" I demanded.

"Oh, they're gone." She smiled impishly. "As is most of the world's population. Whoever's left are just waiting to lie down and die."

"Shut up!" I stomped my foot.

"Oh, look at you, throwing a temper tantrum!" she cooed. "How adorable."

"Give me Monica back, you son of a bitch!" I demanded.

"Nah, I don't think I will. Your sister is a nice home. I think I'll keep her." The smile grew on her face. "It's only a matter of time before someone claims house in you, Dakota."

***

I roused myself with a tiny jolt. I rubbed my chin to see I had drooled a little. I rubbed it until it disappeared. Gross, I hadn't done that for years. The last time had been in middle school sometime.

As I blinked the goop out of my eyes, I realized Sam had pulled over and cut the engine off. But he wasn't asleep. He looked like he had been just recently. Like someone had roused him from sleep...

"Oh, Sam, I'm sorry," I whimpered. "I woke you."

"I'm a light sleeper." He rubbed his forehead.

"Sorry. When did you stop driving?"

"About an hour ago."

"Only an hour?" I frowned. I looked out the car windows. The sun wasn't up yet, so Sam couldn't have continued on too much longer after I had went to sleep, or tried to. "I promise I won't do it again, whatever I did. Next time, throw me in the trunk." I turned over, back facing Sam.

"Dakota."

"Yeah?"

"Who was Monica?"

"Y-you know her, Sam. She's my sister." I couldn't use past tense with her just yet. I wasn't ready to tell Sam the backstory of how I came to be here, homeless, now riding along with him. "Younger sister."

"You sounded pretty upset."

"It was a bad dream." I used my hands as pillows. "Those happen." I shrugged. "'Night, Sam."

"'Night, Dakota."

I bit my lip, letting the silent tears fall. I never realized how I somehow feared demons until that nightmare. It wasn't that I physically feared them, or the idea of them. I feared that one would nest inside of me and take control, use my body and ruin whatever I had good left in my life. I saw what it had done to Bobby and what had happened when he had broken through and fought back. If I ever got possessed, I'd want to end up like Bobby: a survivor with, hopefully, all body parts functioning like they're supposed to.

If I was never strong enough to fight off a demon inside me, I'd make sure someone got it out of me. That would perhaps do me in, being possessed. I would hate to be in the backseat as someone else, some monster, took control over my body and pretended to pass off as me. I would hate to not be able to do a damn thing about it.

I never wanted that to happen to me, just like I never wanted it to happen to Monica.

**So...now you get some insight to Dakota's past. It's not much, but it's definitely something. And she has a very plausible fear: who'd want to be in the backseat of their own body while someone else took over?

So, let me pose a question: Out of the two, demon or human, which would you want to be and why?**