Ketch Me as I Fall

My car sat in a mostly abandoned parking lot across from an old abandoned brick building. It looked like it hadn't seen much activity past the occasional graffiti painter in twenty years or more. Vines of ivy grew up one side, obscuring the red brick on one side with a nice splash of green. What used to be the third story of the building was now a mass of rubble, the second story, at least from what we could see from here, didn't look much better. The ceiling had certainly collapsed in one spot and most of the windows had been broken or boarded up. The first story looked the most solid, but it still wouldn't have been a place I'd gone willingly had I had a normal life—a place for monsters.

It was always weird how you could tell a supernatural killer was in the area before doing any research. The world always felt quieter around their nests. Like even the birds and the stray dogs knew something was hiding here that they didn't want to mess with. It would have been unnerving had I not come to expect it by now.

"Are you sure this is where the Djinn should be?" Ketch asked, a file open in his hands as he lounged in the passenger seat.

"This is where I tracked the one I saw last night." I kept my eyes on the building in front of us. 

"And you're sure it was a Djinn?"

"Your lack of confidence in my hunting skills is hurtful," I said with mock offense, smirking a little at the end.

He looked up from the documents at me, a smile in those silver eyes. "I'm sure your hunting skills are fine." The smile on his face was teasing. "I just want to make sure we have the right person."

"Right, like Tuesday when I was right about the Kitsune?"

"That was one time, love." Ketch chuckled.

I smiled and refocused on the building. I wasn't sure what I was waiting for anymore. I knew this had been the building the thing had led me to last night. I had made a mental note to mark my path and remember it so we didn't get lost. It had become so much easier to hunt when one of us didn't have to sleep. But even with all that, I was starting to doubt just the smallest bit that I had forgotten which building it was. We'd already been sitting here most of the afternoon, and the day was starting to wane.

It had already been two weeks since I'd left the bunker to Dean. Sam had called in a few days after we'd left to check in and once again a few days ago to make sure I was still ok. And Dean had texted every morning. But I still hadn't heard anything from Elly, not that I expected to hear anything from her immediately or ever again. I knew I had hurt her deeply, deeper than any monster ever could, so it wouldn't be surprising if she never talked to me again. And if that made her happy, if that healed her in any way, then I would accept it and be happy too.

I forced myself back to the building as a glimmer of light came from one of the boarded-up windows on the first floor. I watched, waiting for it to come again. And then…there on the second story, a muffled blue light. That had been exactly what I was waiting for. The faint sign of a Djinn using its abilities.

"Time to go," I stated, spinning in the seat to grab a machete from the back seat before exiting the car. I knew the Djinn would be afraid of me once they figured out who I was, but it paid to be safe. Especially with Ketch here too.

I waited for him before stalking across the old road and towards the building. We were downwind as we crept into the growing shadows and across the gravel-covered block. We got to the far corner before the building split into a smaller shed-like attachment and stuck ourselves to it as I carefully peeked around. I could make out a figure standing against the wall next to a rusty metal door. Most likely a guard. But he'd be all too easy to take out.

I closed my eyes as a painful twinge hit my chest. The shallow memories of a past dream swam in front of my brain. The faces and names I no longer remembered from that all too perfect life. Why was I thinking of this now? I tried to snap myself out of it, bring my thoughts back to the hunt that was in front of us. I hadn't had a memory of that dream in years now and had fought plenty of Djinn after that without thinking of it. So why now? I slide back against the wall, holding my head as it pounded slightly, the memories of that child, so young so innocent, so…

Ketch' hand on my shoulder jolted me away from the blurry memories. I turned to him, concern bright on his face. "We can wait another day, love." He spoke low and soft. "I remember that look. You don't need to be distracted by that during a hunt."

"If we wait another day they kill another missing person." I sighed, closing my eyes hard before opening them again, "I'm fine. All I need is you by my side."

I smiled at him, trying to emphasize that I was fine and we could finish this hunt. He didn't look completely convinced but nodded anyway. Then he pushed off the sun-warmed brick wall, reached around me, cocked the pistol in his hand, and let a silenced shot of silver and lambs blood slide through the evening air before finding its target. The Djinn crumpled to the ground, a bullet hole clean between his eyes.

I blinked, fighting the urge not to abandon the mission just to mount the man in front of me. I swallowed as I looked over him, his body inches from me as he still looked around the corner, gun still trained on the door with one hand. I shook my head, clearing the new, yet preferred, thoughts.

"I call the next kill," I said, clearing my throat. "You've gotten better."

"I've had lots of time to practice," Ketch replied, his face serious. 

He wouldn't tease me right now. Not until the job we had come to do was done. The moment of kindness and concern he had just shown me was before we had killed anything before the hunt had set in. It made me sad in a small way. I missed the light-hearted hunts with…no. I couldn't think of her either right now.

"Let's go," Ketch said.

"Right." I nodded, sliding under his arm and off the brick wall.

I moved as silently as I could across the gravel until I got to the door. I kicked the dead Djinn to the side and pushed flat against one side of the door, listening now as I waited for Ketch to join me. We made eye contact, a silent conversation of 'ready?' 'go' before I stood back from the door and slammed my shoulder into it. It only took one hit before it burst open into a cramped entryway that turned right and onto the first floor. I pushed into the building, Ketch on my heels as I greeted the darkness and became part of it. I met his eyes once more and he nodded to the left, he would check that side so I went right. We were silent as we checked the first large room. It was open, cold, and somehow damp. But I was thankful to be able to see my partner in the shadows on the other side. 

We met again at the end, and the edge started to set into our veins as we started to come to the same conclusion at the next door. I reached forward for the knob and carefully turned it before pushing this door open too. I was the first in again, a demon shield in front of her all too mortal human. This time we didn't get far before coming across what we had been looking for and confirming our thoughts. There were nine people here, hooked up to individual crosses of metal that held them standing, even in their drained states. Clear plastic bags hung from them, most filled with varying levels of blood, save for the last one who looked the newest. But there were no Djinn.

I got closer to the victims, taking them in now that I could see their faces. We had expected there to be at least five from the missing persons reports we'd found. But all nine of these people were missing to someone, whether or not they had ever been reported. Each of them hung here now, their arms tied above their heads, skin pale and veins dark.

"We need to help them," I mumbled, taking another step toward a young boy. 

His name was Thomas, he was twelve. He had been playing in a nearby park with his friends when he'd been snatched three days ago. His mom had been looking for him frantically. And here he was, his white skin almost translucent, and his black hair plastered to his face with sweat as he dreamed. A part of me wondered what such a young person's perfect life would be.

I pulled back from him. "Do we have enough antidote? I know we didn't think there would be so many." My fingers gingerly went to Thomas' neck, finding his pulse. It was faint and stuttered against my fingertips. I carefully pulled the needle stuck in his neck free and healed the incision.

"We'll have to make it stretch. Not enough time to make another batch." Ketch replied as he kneeled on the ground in front of his pack and dug through it. "They'd all be dead by the time we could come back for them."

I nodded, freed my machete from my hip, and started cutting the victims down, Thomas first. I cut him free carefully, supporting his small body the best I could until he was slumped against me. I carried him over to where Ketch was preparing a few syringes of a milky blue liquid. I lay the young boy carefully next to him and went back for the next one. This was a teenage girl. Her name was Amanda. She was tall, African American, and beautiful. She liked to play piano and was part of her high school debate team. I could see the smiling picture in her file, even though that same face was now contorted in weirdly blissful pain, her long black hair tied back instead of free. I carefully freed her the same way I had Thomas. 

I had read all the files, or at least the ones on the five people who had known were missing. At this point I was sure I knew them better than Ketch did, I had been reading through them during the long nights he got to sleep through. Their stories had been better company than any of the other thoughts in my head.

I lowered Amanda to the ground and turned again for the next. I didn't know this man's name. He looked old enough to be a father. Probably as old as fifty, with short dark brown hair cropped at the sides, and a thick chevron-style mustache above his top lip. He looked peaceful as he dreamed, and I had no doubt it was because of how close to death he was, the surgical bag next to him almost full of blood. 

The next face was also unfamiliar to me. But she looked to be no older than ten. Her pastel purple dress was dirty and covered in small blood stains. Her small body was so light compared to the others as I lifted her. Ketch sighed as I laid her down on the cool concrete and I knew we thought the same thing. She was so young. The dreams alone may be too much to pull her back from.

The next was Peter. An older Hispanic man. A tattoo ran down his right arm to just above his elbow. It looked unfinished. His family had reported him missing. They had suggested checking old car shops or raceways. That was his hobby. He had a new baby at home too.

Then there was Carly. The young blonde had been the first taken from our records. She was a tennis star at the local high school and worked at Starbucks to save money for college. Maybe she knew Amanda.

Megan was next. She was a single mother of two and had been leaving the grocery store, rushing to return to them and make dinner, when she'd been snatched up in a white van. We'd just barely been able to catch the face of a Djinn in the CCTV footage when trying to connect her case. She'd be able to see those boys again.

I didn't know the names or stories of the final two, an older woman who could've been in her sixties and another quite young boy. But there were still people that someone was missing. Someone somewhere loved them. Was looking for them.

I looked back at Ketch as I laid the final down and he threw aside the first of two antidote bottles. I watched as he injected the ten-year-old girl with some of the pastel blue liquid. We'd only grabbed one syringe. I sighed. We should have planned this out a little better. I shook myself and went back to the first person, Thomas. I knelt next to him and pressed a gentle hand to his head, healing any other injuries and tracking the progress of the antidote. Once I confirmed he would wake up, I moved to the next, going down the line until I had touched them all. 

"How are we supposed to get them all out of here?" I asked, a hand going to my head as I stood up too quickly. I wavered for just a second, the sudden lightheaded feeling unpleasant and unwelcome. "We can't fit them all in my car."

"We call an ambulance then." Ketch stood up, taking a step back from the line of people. "They'd be able to help them more than we can now."

"Where are they, Ketch?" I asked, taking another look around the room. I had been on high alert while we freed everyone, but I hadn't heard even a pin drop while we'd worked. "A single Djinn doesn't need nine people." I still couldn't see anything. Empty. No boxes, no discarded furniture, nothing. But there was another floor above us still… "Call for an ambulance. Say we stumbled upon them when we heard someone scream. And give me your gun."

Ketch gave me a disapproving look but passed the pistol to me anyway. I nodded and waited until he'd pulled his phone from his pocket before stepping away. I tried to give him a reassuring smile before disappearing into the shadows and towards a small staircase that led to a landing with a door not far away. I looked up it, and no light was shown on the old rusty stairs, either blocked out by the fallen rubble or dark from the passing day outside. The metal groaned underfoot as if they hadn't been used in years and weren't sure if they knew how to hold up a person anymore.

The remains of the metal door hung loose at the top, just barely covering this entrance. I pushed it gently and it swung open with no resistance. Another set of stairs lay beyond it, these made of old rotting wood. I looked back to where Ketch stood with his phone still to his ear. I took a deep breath before heading up to the second floor proper.

The stairs emptied onto the second floor without another door in the way. I let the gun lead the way as I carefully stepped out into a room that was nothing but windows for walls. The quiet up here was thick. A quiet that made my footsteps uncomfortably noticeable. Made worse by the shards of broken glass that littered the floor. I kept my feet on a swivel as I surveyed the room, still met by eerie, dark nothing. But I knew they were here, I could feel them now, built into the darkness like nothing human ever could.

I looked around for anything and found another door. According to the floor plan we had found early this morning, it was nothing bigger than a large closet. But that didn't mean the wall behind it hadn't fallen away with the rest of this floor. I hesitated as I got closer to it. They were all probably here. There was nowhere else for them to have gone and, unless it was only one greedy Djinn, then I was in for a fight.

I turned the doorknob, confident of what I would find beyond it. But I wasn't given a chance to confirm it before my feet had left the ground and I flew backward. I smacked into the hard ground, my hand suddenly empty. I sat up quickly, meeting the glowing cerulean eyes of twelve Djinn. I scrambled backward, away from them as I looked for the gun, trying to keep an eye on them too. One of them waved their hand and half of them left for the stairs.

"Ketch!" I called out. Hopefully loud enough to warn him. 

My fingers met the butt of the gun as my back came up against the cold glass of one of the windows. I pulled it to me, swiftly took aim, and sent a bullet through the one closest to me. I sprung to my feet as the body hit the floor. A short-lived victory.

A strong body rammed against mine and I was thrown back against the glass. It gave way, shattering as if that had been what it was made for. I took a point-blank shot as I fell through it, killing the Djinn that came with me through the glittering shards before I knew we were falling. For a moment, I wondered if this was what it felt like to fly on angel wings. Perfectly weightless, the air around us grasping with faint tendrils like it was trying to catch us. And then my stomach rose as those thin tendrils failed.

The wind rushed into my ears, covering any other sound as I plummeted towards the ground. It felt so much further away than it had been than I knew it was. But there was the gravel, the sudden impact with it making my back arch and sending the air from my lungs. Glass tinkled to the ground around me as the pain ripped through my back.

I gasped for air, my lungs burning as they screamed for it. My right side screamed as I tried to push up from the ground, my wrist probably broken. I could feel the rocks and glass pierce further into my back as I fell back to the ground. My head swam as I tried to sit up again, this time leaning on the left side. That was easier, though my head spun more as I tried to get my feet under me before stumbling back and to the ground once again.

There were three Djinn in front of me now. Or maybe it was just the one. My vision swam, blurring reality with the monsters of my dreams. I was going to be sick. I did my best to raise the gun I still gripped tightly, my hand shook now. The monster had gotten to me now, and one of its strong hands took my shirt and ripped me from the ground. The tattoos along its arms and face glowed bright blue as it reached for me. I couldn't let it touch me. We didn't have any more antidote.

Don't let it touch you. 

Don't let it touch you. 

Don't let it touch you. 

The words echoed in my head as I lifted the gun to its chest and pulled the trigger. I screamed as the small explosion shot razor blades through my arm. I dropped back to the dirt as the dead Djinn lost its grip and fell to the side.

"Elly…" I gasped, hot tears rolling down my face, "Help."

I made out another figure racing towards me. I raised the gun, even if it suddenly felt a hundred times heavier as my body tried to heal, and took shaky aim.

"Stop!" I knew that voice. "It's me, Alex. Don't shoot." His accent always got deeper when he was worried.

"Arthur?" My voice cracked with a bone in my back as it replaced itself. 

"Yes, love." He scooped me gently into his arms. "Help is coming for the others. I'll take a look at you as soon as we get out of here."

"What…what about the other Djinn…" My head felt so heavy as it connected with his shoulder. I could feel the slumber of a long healing session coming for me. He was so warm. So safe. He wasn't an eighteen-foot fall. He would protect me.

He placed me into the passenger seat, gently wrapping a seat belt around me. My body still felt like jello, save for the hot burning flames that licked at my wrist and every other broken bone in my body. I would be dead if I were human.

I was in and out of a dark haze, the healing so very slow, until the car came to a harsh halt and my door was coming open. I looked over the Brit's face, it was nothing but concern.

"You need to let go of the gun," Arthur instructed gently as he gingerly took my right hand. I gasped, teeth clenching as he touched it. It felt like thousands of needles.

"What happened to the rest?"

"They're dead. Let go of the gun."

I could feel his fingers work to pry mine away from where they still clamped onto the gun. I couldn't make them move on their own, not with the focus on other parts of my body. I flinched away from a bright light as it came into my eyes after the gun was freed.

"Your…everything is broken. And I'm sure you have a concussion." He was so concerned.

"Take me to…Hell…" I ordered, I closed my eyes as my head began to pound. "Orion can heal…" I inhaled sharply as he gingerly touched my side, my ribs were probably broken too. "Can heal me, faster."

"Right. I need you to stay awake though, ok?"

The car started to move again. The engine sang to me sweetly amongst the jarring noises I was sure only I could hear as my body tried to repair itself. It was so painful.

"I want…Elly."

"I know, love. It'll be ok." So so sweet, that voice. "We need to get you healed up first."

"What happened to her?" This voice was different but still familiar.

I opened my eyes, trying to make sense of where we had gone and how we had gotten here. The room was lit by a lamp maybe. And I was on something soft. Pillowy. A bed. My bed? How much time had passed? I didn't feel much better than I had in the car so it couldn't have been long. 

"She fell out of a window."

"I'll get to work."

A scream clawed up my throat as fingers touched, prodded, and poked around my body. I looked down, catching Orion's hand as he touched skin that had turned black and blue. I could feel his power in my arm. It pushed, pulled, and dragged my bones back into place. It was agonizing, my other hand twisting into the bed sheets in a grasp for any sort of release.

"Elly!"

Why did I keep calling for her? Why did I only want her? Not Orion, not Dean or Sam, not Lucifer, not even Ketch. Only Elly. Her kind smile held the heat of fire. Her hair spun of bright copper and gold. Her laugh made the essence of summer jealous. Every time she had come into my life the day had never ended and smiles never faded. She was a siren who only led to happiness. The beauty with eyes as blue as young oceans.

She was the goddess of the sun and I wanted nothing more than to be burned by her. Anything from her that would save me from this crushing darkness that threatened daily to overwhelm my soul and erase every last part of me that was good. Anything to drag me from the pit of eternal darkness I had dug for myself. Anything to shake away this bitter cold that chipped away at my bones. Anything to even see her again.

"She'll be fine now. Probably just need a few hours to sleep. I don't have the same healing abilities she does. It's not instant. I had to use stamina from the body to speed it up." I heard Orion sigh above the rush of blood through my ears. "The best thing for her right now is to sleep. Whether she will or not is up to her."

I released a breath of air I had no idea I'd been holding, my body relaxing with it into the mattress. There was a deep ache that filled my body, another feeling I wasn't sure I had felt in a long time. Another feeling I had no place for anymore.

Then I was wrapped in something warm. Something that smelled like hard work, leather, and gunpowder. And it wasn't the sun, but a warm, gentle spring breeze that caressed me gently and hummed sweet notes into my ear. A safe darkness swept over me soon after.

"Alex?"

I shot up in the bed, startling the sleeping body beside mine as I lunged to cover him with my own. I snarled into the darkness, ignoring the bright ache that was still present in my bones. I was ready for a fight before I recognized the form in front of us.

"Ally?" I asked, all fear and protective nature leaving my body as I looked over the young girl. She looked distraught. "How did you get here? What's wrong?"

Her hand combed through her hair as she talked. "I know my dad left after a fight, but my mom's gone now too."

"Gone?" What do you mean gone?" I moved away from Ketch and to the side of the bed. I strode to the young girl, reaching out for her.

"Mom went on a hunting trip…and she hasn't been home in a few days."

Those words shook something in me as I pulled her to me. Some long-dead memory from so long ago. The words are so close to the same ones that had made my life what it is today. Words that had brought Sam back to Dean and me. I hugged the small girl tightly before letting her go.

"Where's my phone?" I asked, looking around the room for it.

"Bag," Ketch replied as he too slid from the bed and over to Ally.

I found the pack tossed aside on the floor and dug through it until I found my phone. It was a surprise not to see the screen cracked beyond use. I looked over my shoulder as comforting words came into the air, and found Ketch softly talking to Ally. I smiled softly, turning back to the phone as I turned it on. There was a mass of texts and missed calls. How long had I been out?

"How did you get here?" I asked her again as I skimmed through the texts. "How did you get to Hell?"

"I…I don't know. I just teleported here." Ally replied, her voice shaky. "You're the only person I could think of to go to."

"What about Sam or Dean?"

"Sam has been stuck at work with a big case," She took a deep breath. "And Dean, Cas, and Jack are on a hunt in Minnesota."

"They left you alone?" Ketch questioned.

"They weren't supposed ot be gone this long. And my mom was there. But they've been gone longer than they said, but they've at least texted me. I can't get ahold of my mom. She left her phone behind." Ally was speaking quickly like it was all one word she had to get out. She started breathing rapidly again, and Ketch took her shoulders, trying to center her.

"Your mom went alone?" I could feel the ugly anger begin to push forward again. What a stupid woman.

"I woke up five days ago with a note beside my bed that said she'd be back in a few days. But it's been too long." How stupid could Elly be? She knew it was rule number one ot never hunt alone. She knew hunting alone was a death wish.

A death wish…

"You worried I'll hurt myself or something?"

"Elly…" I whispered. "You stupid, foolish girl."

The messages I had received were mostly from Dean and Sam about Ally. They were asking for help because they couldn't catch a break between hunts and work. All their reasons were beyond valid. Sam was pushing the line with work with how often he had called doff recently. I knew how much that job meant to him, it was wrong of me to ask him to give it up again. And Dean was hunting down a pack of killer fairies that had the murder rate skyrocketing in a small town. I was sure none of them had heard from Lucifer either, even though I was sure he'd be no help here anyway. There was no reason for him to help, not after what I had done. 

So it was down to Ketch and I. Or…maybe just Ketch. Maybe That was all Ally needed. I wasn't sure I could bring myself to go. How could I do anything but make it worse again? That seemed to be all I was good for nowadays. 

But I knew all the same that Elly would need me, whether she liked it or not. And I would do anything to make sure she was safe.

"Ready for your first hunt kid?"

We were back in the bunker in the next hour, and I had busied myself looking through all of the notes and things Elly had left behind in her room. There had to be a clue here somewhere. Anything. But there seemed ot be nothing.

I felt stumped. I didn't know what to do. And it wasn't like I could find her in the normal ways a demon could either. She had wardings against it, just like the boys did. Cas had made sure of it after they'd come back. And she had left her phone behind, discarded as she had never even untouched it after I'd left. I had tried to open it to look for anything new, but it had opened to the camera just as I had left it, my video in the bottom corner of the preview screen.

"Alex!" Ally called.

I raced from the room and found her and Ketch around Elly's laptop on the map table. Ally had been looking over the search history. There was a map search for some town named Kittery, Maine. At least we had a decent starting point now. And a few searches further down, after a few unrelated searches, there was the name of an all too familiar band.

"Jefferson Starships," I whispered. "Those are supposed to be extinct."

"So are kitsune." Ketch pointed out. "They were always good at hiding. It's possible that they just hid away."

"God! She's so stupid and impulsive! She's like a brand new hunter." I pushed myself away from the table. "Why would she take on something so dangerous by herself?"

"Do they suck just as much as the band does?" Ally questioned.

It made me bark a laugh. "Yes. They're horrible and hard to kill." I answered, quoting my brother. "Decapitation and heart removal. Unless the kid here can snap them into dust."

"I can…what?" Ally asked, looking between Ketch and me.

I gave her a small smile. "Why don't you go pack? We'll be gone for a few days."

"Alright." She replied softly, standing from her chair and leaving us alone.

"Is it smart to bring her on something like this?" Ketch said skeptically. "They're not the easiest things to kill."

"Every hunt is dangerous Kethc." I sighed, heading for one of the cabinets in the hall that were filled with weapons. "She has to learn. This is the world she was meant to be in. She can't ignore it anymore."

"She's never been…"

"She already knows how to shoot a gun, and she knows self-defense. She's better off than I was on my first hunt." I made the point.

I checked a gun I had grabbed to make sure it was loaded, found it wasn't, and grabbed a small box of bullets to load it before setting it on the table for Ally. Ketch wore a disapproving look, his arms folded across his chest as he watched me push bullets into the clip.

"What?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"She's not ready."

"I'm going," Ally said, her voice interrupting our squabble as she came back into the room, tossing her backpack onto the table. She came over to me and took the clip from my hand, loading the remaining bullet herself. "I might no get along with my mom, but she's still my family and I'm going to get her back."

I looked from her to Ketch, who still looked irritated, but was silent now. He knew either way she was going to be coming with us, whether she came now or followed us later. There was no use in fighting it. 

"You don't know how to use your powers." Ketch tried one last time.

"I know enough to know how to control them." She stopped her work and met his gaze, those blue eyes as crisp with fight as her mothers had been. "Besides, you have no powers. If hunters can handle monsters with nothing more than a gun or knife then I can too."

And that was that. She had made my point for me, and he simply nodded, tossing the keys to my car to me. I caught them, matching the smile that now lined his lips.

"Then it's time to go ladies."