Chapter Text
***** Sorry, me again. Just fixing up this one too and then I might have the next one posted sometime tomorrow but considering my track record, don't be surprised if I don't seeing as I'm having to rewrite everything. As always, please let me know if you have any ideas one where you want this to go.**** 11/04/2023
Chapter Two- Carthage, Missouri
Jo’s POV
If someone had asked Jo Harvelle what she thought dying would have been like, she’d have said cold.
And you know what? She wasn’t half wrong.
After she laid her head on her mother’s shoulder and shuddered out one last breath, Jo was cold. But not in a bad way. The kind of cold that you feel after walking a mile under the hot sun and finally wander into a convenience store with the A/C on full blast. It was as soothing as it was instantly numbing.
The world had a white sheen over everything, sound muted and movement slow. There was a quietness that she’d never heard before, and even though she knew every sound that was being made around her, it was almost like she was listening through a ham radio. It was thick and sludge-like.
It was one if not the most unique experience she’d ever had, and it took her a couple of seconds to realize she was standing (it felt like floating) next to her mother, in the hardware store. Where she died.
Literally died.
Her heart stopped beating, her lungs stopped expanding, and her brain was mush. Grey jello in a bloody bowl.
And Jo felt something akin to sorrow for her mother, watching the tears that she rarely cried pouring down her cheeks. Emotions were slow though, like treacle. Thick, cold, and only partial.
Who’d ever have thought dying would make everything feel so slow?
She knew there would be no happy ending here. That her mom would die just like she did. But there was a comfort in that, Jo mused. Ellen would join her daughter in death, and they’d never truly be alone. Even if her mother didn’t know, Jo was here and watching.
Why was she watching?
As her mother’s last words washed over her, she didn’t dare look back as the doors opened, and the barking of the hounds overcame the choked-back sobs of her mother’s cries. Her mother was strong, vengeful, and righteous as she grasped her dead daughter's hand, and with a few spiteful words that only her mother would say, she pressed the button. Then it all exploded.
Her eyes were forced open as the world split, bright light encapsulating her vision. Fire bellowed from the barrels they had set and out the blown-out windows and the shrapnel tore through the dogs that she only vaguely realized she could see.
Though no heat or metal could touch her, she could almost feel the burn from those chemicals they had mixed, and the black smoke they produced threatened to blind her. But she could see how the hellhounds died.
How the fire scorched their already terrible faces, and the nails that embedded themselves into their bodies nearly melted from the sheer blaze that the flames let off. Their yelps didn’t last long, and they died too fast for her to really
It was bloody, but she didn’t care about that.
It was out fast, the sound and the blaze were so suddenly gone that it almost felt like it didn’t happen. But oh, the carnage that laid waste, was horrific.
Her and her mother’s bodies were unrecognizable, mixed with the corpses of the damned monsters (literally damned, get it?) that had ended her own life. Red viscera and guts strewn about like petals. Everywhere and absolute in their falling with no chance of a reconnection with their former body. Rubble, glass, and flames are all that remained of the building.
Her mother wasn’t there though, like Jo expected. Where the fuck did her mom go and why was she still here!?!
An awareness prickled to the edge of her peripheral and turning she saw what must be a Reaper.
It looked like a woman, no older than Jo, with pale but milky skin, eyes swirling and dark. She looked young, her hair was pulled up and out of her face. She wasn’t very tall, average height. She wore a tasteful suit, like one you might see on a funeral director. But her face was concerned and confused.
And she was staring right at Jo.
As soon as they made eye contact, the reaper gave an awkward little smile and a wave and walked closer to where Jo was standing, ignoring the bloodshed as if it was nothing new. And maybe to the Reaper, it wasn’t.
“Hi, sorry I know this much be incredibly painful for you to watch, but I’m not allowed to let you pass on just yet, my boss has a task for you. Please just hang on for just a little bit longer Ms. Harvelle.”
It was said in a tone that anyone who’d ever worked retail before would understand. The kind where your boss is making you say or do something dumb and you’re begging the customer to not yell at you for it.
“What do you mean you mean a task?” Jo asked icily, her eyes narrowing.
The Reaper cringed, and let out a sigh.
“You know what? I’ve got no idea. All I know is this little town is about to be an epicenter of a huge catastrophe and my boss told me he’s going to need you to help him get his friend out of whatever’s happening.”
Jo just stared for a long second, her brain trying to wrap her head around whatever the hell that meant.
“I’m sorry, did you just say your boss, AKA Death, big Daddy Grim Reaper, needs me, to help get his friend, which by the way how does Death even have friends, away from who I’m assuming is the literal DEVIL!?”
Jo screeched, unaware that the white overcast of everything was slowly darkening, shadows becoming more pronounced in her anger and irritation.
Holding up her hands in protest, the Reaper stepped closer, gesturing in a placating manner.
“I know, I know, it's all confusing, but I am going to need you to keep calm here Ms. Harvelle, you’re no longer bound by a body and your soul is in a very fragile state right now. I’m doing my very best to make sure that you get out of all of this unscathed, but I can only do so much. ‘
The Reaper closes her eyes and lets out a grim sigh. For such a young face, she looked older now.
‘Souls aren’t meant to stick around on the living plane for very long, it’s practically suffocating it. So, what we’re doing here is highly unconventional. And it’s taking a lot out of me to keep you stable and not thrown through a door to the afterlife. But emotions aren’t well regulated in souls, you don’t have the physical neurons and brain waves to help temper it.”
At this point, the Reaper was directly next to Jo, and while she was a bit shorter, the Reaper was practically pleading with her to understand.
Jo really didn’t have a clue.
‘The fuck did she mean by that? Souls, did she mean ghosts?’ She asked as such.
“Yes and no. Ghosts are a little more complicated. While ghosts are souls that have become untethered, that doesn’t mean they are untethered. As you hunters have figured out, ghosts have an object that they are attached to, and are tied to this plane via that object. Currently, I’ve tied your soul to me.”
Jo blinked.
“To you?”
“Yes, to me. While we reapers don’t technically have souls like you humans do, we still have an energy that powers us and is kind of alive. Therefore, I was able to tie you to me to help keep your soul stable. But it’s not an easy thing to do, and I’ve definitely never done it before. In fact, I don’t think any reapers have. And even more dangerous, my powers weren’t made to keep souls here, so it's really becoming quite tasking.”
True to her word, the reaper's brow was becoming creased, and an even whiter sheen had taken over her already incredibly pale face. Shaking her head, the reaper turned back out towards the rest of the town, looking off in the distance that Jo knows leads to the cemetery.
“Anyway, it won’t be much longer now. The Devil seems to be well on his way to completing his ritual. But before we head over there, I have some instructions for you.”
The Reaper spoke oddly calmly for this, but maybe when all you do is see dead people, a mass murder doesn’t really seem all that special. But something she said stuck out to Jo.
“Wait, what do you mean ritual? What the hell is Lucifer planning!?” Jo started walking out of the blown-up shop, trying to find her way to where Sam, Dean, and Cas must be headed.
What she wasn’t prepared for was the sheer number of Reapers standing in the street. People of all different sizes and faces littered the street, all facing towards where she assumed the ritual was taking place.
Warily, Jo continued on.
Walking was weird when you couldn’t feel the ground beneath your feet, but she didn’t let that stop her, making her way out onto the main street and heading for the signs that dictated where the old battle was held. You see that a lot in southern towns with not much else to boast about their historical relevance.
The shadows were getting thicker too.
Uncomfortable, the reaper trailed just behind Jo, eyes darting back and forth as they trailed silently through the masses, weaving in and out until they made their way to a beaten-down path on the far side of the main street, a sign informing them it was the entrance to the trail to the battlefield.
The Winchesters must already be there, getting ready to shoot Lucifer with the colt.
“Ms. Harvelle I must insist- “
“Jo, just call me Jo.” Jo barreled ahead, not willing to lose any more time and miss seeing the devil eat literal lead.
“... Jo. We really must be careful as we get closer, there’s still some things I need to tell you.”
“Help out your boss’s friend fright? What else is there?” Jo asked irritably. The trail wasn’t very well trodden, and overgrown.
With a frustrated grunt, the reaper stepped in front of Jo, blocking her path.
“The Colt can’t kill Lucifer.”
It took a moment but Jo’s anger nearly exploded.
The already dark path darkened further, and the trees on either side began to groan.
Taking a deep breath and clenching her jaw, Jo asked slowly.
“The. Fuck. Do. You. Mean. The. Colt. Can’t. Kill. Lucifer.”
Wincing, the reaper replier.
“Exactly that. Lucifer may have fallen, but he is still Archangel. And that’s one of the few things that gun can’t kill.”
Anguish bled through her, and her mother's face drifted through her mind.
“You mean to tell me that I died for nothing? That my mom died for NOTHING?!?!" Jo shouted. She desperately wanted to cry, and she could see her vision going in and out, the world was shaking.
“Hey, hey Jo, listen to me. It wasn’t for nothing!’ The reaper pleaded, placing her hands on Jo’s shaking shoulders.
“Do you know how many hellhounds you two took out? A whopping eight! With the sheer number of hounds and demons waiting in this town, you guys weren’t ever going to make it. And now, you get to help thwart the Devil.”
Jo was getting sick of how shocked she could get, but she was desperate.
“How?”
Looking almost guilty, the reaper gave a strained smile. She almost looked as though she'd just given blood, with the way she appeared to almost faint. Jo realized it was probably the strain of the tether, and having to anchor her soul. It was getting darker here in the woods.
“There’s, there’s something I haven’t told you yet. This ritual, that Lucifer is performing, it’s an old one. Age-old biblical, that is. To make a long story short, he’s going to bind Death, the Horseman himself, so that he has absolute control over him. Meaning, that no one dead or alive, is safe from Lucifer bringing forth the end times. And to make a longer story shorter, the friend that he’s got coming is the only one who can break that binding.”
Jo opened her mouth to ask why the hell she was needed if this friend was going to free Death anyway when the Reaper held her hand up.
“But the thing is, I’ve been informed that his friend isn’t going to be doing so hot when he gets here. And by that, I mean he’s barely going to be able to stand up straight. So your job is to tell him where he can go to hide from the Devil.”
“But, why can’t you reapers keep him safe?”
“Because, while we aren’t the same as Death, we are an extension of him. Meaning, that he can ask and demand anything of us. And by the end of tonight, Lucifer can too. So as long as I have no confirmed idea where he’s going, the safer he’ll be until he can free us from the Devil,”
A purpose was both a blessing and a curse and while Jo would rather she and her mother have lived, she’ll take whatever she can get to help stop the apocalypse.
Hell, she’d take even less just to help out Sam and Dean. Those poor idiots are going to need all the help they can get.
“Ok, it’s nearly time for the ritual to start so we’ve got to get over there. Fair warning there are a crap ton of demons, but they're probably going to die anyway. I’m going to do my best to protect you until you tell him the location, and after that, I’ll send you on up after your mom. But you’re going to have to be quick. I don’t know the exact nature of his powers, or how he’ll be getting away, but all you have to do is tell him where it’s safe. My boss has assured me that from then, it will go as he’s planned it. Any questions?” The Reaper asked impatiently, looking anxiously up at the now very dark sky.
Jo had a countless number of questions, but she really only needed to ask one.
“Yeah, what’s your name?”
The reaper gave a soft chuckle.
“Tessa, my name is Tessa.” Jo nodded before replying.
“Well Tessa, are you ready to piss off the Devil?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Then let’s go.”