[h3] Anna [/h3]

Anna sighed, scrunching her nose to try to quell the tears as Sam said everything she could possibly want to hear. He was in the same boat with Hell that she was. He was chased by the same brand of demon that she was. His fate was basically written for him, and ended the same way as hers. As he finished, Anna’s breath caught in her throat and she wasn’t even sure she could get it back if she tried.

[I]“You go down, then I’m going down with you.”[/I]

The words echoed in her mind a few times as she stared at him. She didn’t want him to die with her. She didn’t want him to die at all. She just wanted him to be safe, and to not blindly follow his brother but the idea that he would be careful if it meant making her comfortable made her heart flutter, her heartbeat breaking contact with his, which was rare when they were together.

Not only had he just admitted that he refused to live without her, and fully planned to ‘blaze of glory’ things to die with her, but he also admitted that she was the love of his life. That was something that seemed so petty in the moment, but to Anna…it was overwhelmingly open for Sam. It was the most open he had ever been with her.

Taking a deep breath, Anna unfolded her legs, her brain trying to decide how to handle the rage of emotions in her mind. Every part of her wanted to run away, just open the door and run. But a small part of her mind kept her in place, stuck. Maybe it was their hearts which were hammering in unison, or the demon blood calling to the demon blood in his veins. She couldn’t place it.

After a moment of thinking it over, she moved onto her knees and her hands came up to brush through the hair behind both his ears, a gesture that had always comforted her when they slept together, quieting the images and voices in both their minds. She clenched his hair in both hands, and pressed her forehead to his tightly, “I’m with you.”

[h3] Dean [/h3]

Dean flinched, having to force himself to keep his eyes open at Esme’s sudden outburst toward him. He nodded at her proposal to burn the asylum down. He was more than happy to let her, but her next words struck him a bit. Why couldn’t she go with him? What had he done that was so bad she couldn’t come home with him? Even when they weren’t together, off and on all those years ago, there wasn’t a single moment that she wouldn’t have followed him out of this room.

And then it came. 

Duke was dead. He had died in the hospital and none of them knew, except Esme, who had stayed with him. Cason turned his eyes down to the floor and Dean shook his head in disbelief, his eyes filling with tears as she stared at Esme. Everything inside of him wanted to scream, or kill something, or go and try to make a deal for the one person in this world that deserved a chance. Duke deserved a chance to be happy, and for a moment he was. He and Esme both were. But that moment was over, and Dean’s heart shattered in that moment.

“Esme…” Dean started, but Esme’s voice grew louder as she continued the ascent into exploding. He watched her, his breathing uneven as the tears took over his eyes and began to fall down his face. He would save her, if he had to go down with her.

When she warned them to leave, Cason recognized what was happening immediately, and he nodded, grabbing Dean’s arm to pull him through the door. “Let’s go. Dean let’s go.”

“NO! You go. You take care of my sister. You get Mika out of here. You go.” Dean ordered Cason, shoving him toward the door. Cason stared at him with wide eyes, astounded and in disbelief. Cason grabbed the collar of Dean’s jacket, trying one more time to convince him to come with him and when Dean turned and made eye contact with him, his eyes flooded in tears, Cason sighed and disappeared.

Dean instantly ran over to Esme, reaching back to shove Ruby’s knife in the back of his jeans. He then stepped up to her, ignoring the heat that was radiating off her skin. If he burned, he burned, but he wasn’t letting her die alone.

“Please…” Dean begged her, raising his shaky hands to place them on her nearly fire hot cheeks so that he could try and get through to her. His first instinct was to pull his hands back, the second he felt the heat, but he refused. “Please come with me. Please. I’m not leaving here without you. If you jump…I jump. Remember that? I still believe that. I still believe that, Esme. You can burn this place down. You can blow it to pieces…but not like this. I will help you burn it down. I will light the fire myself.”

Dean closed his eyes tightly and looked down, a little more afraid than he would let on. He was probably about to die in this place, which seemed poetic, considering Natalia’s history there. Taking a deep breath, Dean whimpered quietly, a tear trailing down his cheek, “Just please come with me. Don’t jump…If you can’t do it for me, do it for Duke. He wouldn’t want us to go out this way.”

[h3] Cason [/h3]

Cason landed in front of the Impala, without Dean. He knew what that meant and he knew what was coming next. He instantly stomped toward Mika, no emotion on his face as he wrapped an arm around her and pushed her back toward the car. “Get in the car.”

His words were simple, but told everything. Dean wasn’t coming with him. Chances were, Dean was going to die in the asylum, being the self sacrificing idiot he tended to be. But he had made a promise to Dean, and he had made a promise to Nat a long time ago. Both these girls were leaving with him.

“Get in the car. Nat, get in the car.” Cason repeated, opening the backseat of the car for them both to get inside. He turned back to Mika and grabbed her wrist. “I will break your legs if I have to but you have to get in the car!”

He stood next to the Impala, waiting for the girls to follow orders, which he was expecting a massive fight with. Glancing up at the asylum windows, he saw the glow from the room he had just escaped, and a pang of regret flooded the back of his head, the human emotion burning like acid. There was no way that the wayward group would survive losing Dean Winchester…as much as he wanted to murder the guy.