[Book of the Damned]

A hooded figure with a sword sticking out of their backpack entered a dark, smokey alleyway and ducked behind a dumpster. Two men looked for the hooded person. Charlie slid off her hood. One of the men took out a special compass. After it pointed to the direction, he put it away, took out his gun, and pointed in the direction to the other man who already had his gun out. They went further into the alley and one man began looking in the dumpsters. When he lifted the second dumpster lid, Charlie stood up and stabbed him in the neck with her sword. She jumped out of the dumpster and kicked him out of the way and slashed the gun hand of the first man, Jacob Styne, causing him to drop his gun. He laughed.

Charlie pointed the sword at his chest. "Who the hell are you? And why are you following me?"

"I ain't following you." Jacob replied. "I'm following what you got in your bag there. That don't belong to you, girl. Belongs to my family."

"Yeah? Well, sorry Gambit. Finders keepers."

"It's beyond your understanding. Hell, you can't even read it."

"Are you always so condescending when someone's pointing a blade at you?"

"Now you look here. You can cut me down, but my people will never stop." He raised his hands. "And you can tiptoe through the tulips like you did in Russia, or you can stow away on the back of a train like you did in Alaska, but soon enough my kin will find you." Charlie noticed his tattoo on his wrist. "This ends with you being dead." Jacob grabbed the sword away from Charlie. As she ran away, he picked up his gun and shot at her back.

"Aah!" Charlie cried as she was hit in the back. She climbed through a hole in the fence and ran.

Jacob ran to the fence and kept shooting. "You can't run forever little girl."

BUNKER - LIBRARY

Sam was at his laptop and answered his phone. "Cas?"

Cas, from his car, said, "Can I just kill him now?"

"You know I can hear you, right?" Metatron told Cas.

"No, we need him alive for now. Look, after he gives you your grace back, you can do whatever you want with him."

"Well, I'd like to kill him slowly." Cas said.

"I am like two feet away from you."

"Anything on the Mark of Cain?" Cas asked.

"Every word--crystal clear."

"No. I mean, Holly and I have been digging for something, for anything, but...I don't know, Cas."

"There is an answer out there." Cas replied. "We will find a cure for Dean."

"I don't know why you'd want to cure that little firecracker now. He's finally interest..." Cas punched Metatron in the face. "Ooh!"

"Well, just keep digging."

Sam looked up to see Dean enter the library. "Yeah, uh, no one here by that name. Sorry." Sam hung up.

"Sam?" Cas called.

"Lose reception? Or did he just hang up on you?" Metatron wondered. Cas turned and looked at Metatron, who began laughing. "He hung up you, didn't he?" Cas punched Metatron in the face again. "Ooh!"

MEN OF LETTERS LIBRARY

Holly entered, eating a bag of pretzels as Sam said, "So, I've been checking through everything again, double-checking and triple-checking, and..."

"The Mark is a curse." Dean interrupted.

"Yeah, tell me about it."

"No, Sam, it's a...it's an actual curse."

"What are you talking about?"

"Crowley told me. Or rather, Rowena told him after she tried and failed to kill me."

Holly frowned. "What the hell happened?"

"The Mark protected me. Rowena doesn't really have a beef with me. She was pissed at Crowley because she thinks he's going soft."

"She's not wrong."

"Yeah, well, after he and Mommie Dearest got into a fight..."

"Mommie Dearest?" Sam asked.

"Movie starring Faye Dunaway." Holly clarified.

Sam rolled his eyes as Dean said, "Rowena is Crowley's mother." Sam and Holly looked surprised. "More about that later. So, then he came and told me what she had said. The Mark is an actual curse. So, anyway, I'm sorry. I probably should have told you two that."

"Yeah." Sam and Holly agreed.

"Yeah." Sam's phone rang and Dean took it and answered. "Winchester Accounting. How may I help you?"

Charlie's voice came through. "Dean?"

"Charlie? What's going on? Where are you?"

Charlie was in a phone booth. "Uh, uh, I'm exhausted and...and I'm bleeding. And I'm in a phone booth. A phone booth. I didn't know these things existed outside of Bill and Ted's..."

Dean turned the phone on speaker. "Okay. Hey, hey. Take a deep breath, kiddo. Uh, we're all sitting here. Tell me what happened. Why are you bleeding?"

"I, uh--I got shot. Did you know dental floss works great on stitches? I only passed out twice, and I'm pretty sure my wound is now minty fresh."

"Charlie, you probably need to go to a hospital." Sam said.

"No, no, I-I'm fine. I just got to get someplace safe. These guys are still after me."

Holly leaned closer, worriedly. "What guys? Who?"

"Some southern fried d-bags. They've been after me since I dug up The Book of the Damned."

"You found it?" Sam asked. "Where?"

"After some near misses and some broken into museums, I found some historical documents that led to a monastery in Spain. It burned down years ago, left for dead, but, uh, I had this hunch about it. Turned out I was right."

"Okay, Charlie, what does it say about the Mark?" Dean wondered.

"I have no fracking idea. The language it's written in, I've never seen anything like it. I, uh, I found some research notes in the monastery crypt, though, but the Friar that buried it. The Book of the Damned is a spell book for creating or undoing any kind of damnation there is. We translate this thing, I think we can get the Mark of Cain off you, Dean."

"Charlie, you're a genius."

"A genius fugitive. I--these dudes keep following me, they are well trained. One of them keeps talking about his family."

"Family?" Holly repeated. "Did you get a name?"

"No clue. I-I-I spotted a tattoo on one of them. Might be a family crest. It seemed occulty. Soon as the book was out of the ground, they were all over me. I uh, uh...I don't know how much more running I got left in me. T-they're tracking the book somehow."

"Alright, then we need to get you off the grid, Charlie." Sam said. "Where are you right now?"

"Uh, just south of Des Moines."

"Uh, okay, you know what? Our--our friend, Bobby, has a whole bunch of cabins scattered all around, places for hunters to crash. You know, it's not much, but there's some gear and lore books, stuff to keep you busy til we get there." Dean told her.

"Okay, bring snacks. And every Men of Letters decoder ring there is. This book is old and scary, and I've never seen anything like it."

Sam and Holly were packing files in a file box in the library.

Dean walked in carrying a box. "Hey, check it out. I found this in the storage room. It's lead-lined and warded. If those guys are tracking this book, pretty sure this bad boy will take it off the radar. You two ready?"

That night, the Impala drove down the road. The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy was playing. Dean and Holly were dancing to the song.

"What?" Dean asked after a moment.

"Nothing." Sam replied, shutting off the radio. "Nothing, I just haven't seen you like this in awhile. The same goes for you, Holly."

"It's a good song, man. Shut up."

"Yeah, shut up. How dare you turn the song off." Holly said.

"Yeah, it's..." Sam began.

Dean cut him off. "Look, man, sis, it's been one crap sandwich after another for the past few weeks, okay? You two heard Charlie. We got a shot at fixing this thing, so if that don't put gas in your tanks, well..."

"If by "shot" you mean a spell in a book that we can't read that's currently being tracked..."

"We're due for a win, okay? Overdue. I'll tell you another thing, if this does actually work, we're gonna take some time off."

"What, like a vacation?" Holly asked hopefully.

"Mm-hmm. And I'm not talking just like a weekend in Vegas or sitting in some crap motel watching pay-per-porn. No, I'm talking about a beach. Drinking Cervezas, go for a swim, mingle with the local wildlife. When was the last time either one of us was on a beach?"

"Never." Sam and Holly replied.

"Sand between our toes, Sammy, H. Sand between our toes." Dean turned the radio back on. The Boys Are Back In Town was still playing.

The Impala pulled up to a cabin by the lake and the siblings entered the cabin.

"Charlie?" Dean called.

Charlie was sleeping at a table and bolted up with a post-it note on her face. "Merry Christmas!"

Holly laughed softly. "Hey."

"Were you followed?"

"No, no." Dean said.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked.

"Um...I may have just passed out, but better."

"Where's the book?" Dean wondered.

"Okay, he's what I've learned so far. About 700 years ago, a nun locked herself away after having visions of darkness. After a few decades squirrelled away by herself, she emerged with this." Charlie pulled the book from her backpack. "Each page is made out of slices of her own skin written in her blood. I told you, it's eekish." She handed the book to Holly, who handed it to Sam, as she was disgusted by it. Dean was strangely affected by the book. "According to the notes I found, it's been owned and used by cults, covens, and the Vatican had it for awhile. There's a spell inside that thing for everything. Talking some black mass, dark mafic, end-of-times nastiness. As far as what language it's written in, I'm thinking it's some kind of...uh..."

"Dean? Dean!" Sam and Holly called.

Dean was across the room and looked up from the book suddenly in his hands. "What?" Sam, Charlie, and Holly exchanged concerned glances. "I don't think it's a good idea that I touch this." Dean closed the book and handed it back to Charlie. "I'll go get the rest of our crap."

"Right." Sam said as Dean exited the cabin.

"What the hell was that?" Charlie asked.

Holly frowned. "He's not getting any better. He's trying to cover, but...We gotta find that cure, fast."

Sam took the book from Charlie.

When Dean returned, Charlie said, "Okay, I got a pretty good look at his tattoo. It's something like this." She handed Dean a piece of paper with a drawing of the tattoo.

Dean was opening the box with the files. "The douche clan. Got it. Well, this is everything the Men of Letters had on occult families, so there should be something in here."

"Sam, Holly, got anything?"

Holly shrugged. "Don't look at me. Words fly."

Sam glanced at her before saying, "Maybe. Uh, yeah, it's all in an obscure Sumerian dialect. Actually found a rough match for it in this book."

"Great." Charlie muttered.

"I thought so, too. But I've been translating, but none of the translated words make any sense. It's all gibberish. I mean, maybe it's in a different dialect?"

"No, no, no. You're right, but I-I-I think...I think this is in code."

Holly groaned. "An entire book of unreadable text that's also in code. Awesome. I'm even less of a help."

Dean looked between Sam and Charlie. "And you call yourselves nerds. Come on. You got this."

"He's right." Charlie said. "Let's get our Alan Turing on. Decrypt this bitch."

Sam noticed Dean staring at the book. "You know what, Charlie? Why, uh...Um, why don't we stick with my notes for a little bit? This book is literally making my eyes hurt." Sam put the book in the lockbox.

"Okay, even the Bletchley Circle couldn't crack this thing." Charlie said. "I've tried every cryptographic algorithm there is. Goose egg." Dean and Holly were looking through the files.

"Well, maybe that's not such a bad thing." Charlie replied. "Those people following you...Hmm? All kinds of wrong. Talking multi-generational, centuries old wrong. The Styne family. Men of Letters' files have them dated back to the early 1800s. They used spells to create disease, to destabilize markets. Hell, they even helped the Nazis before they came into power, and they profited from all of it."

"So, they're like the supernatural Du Ponts?"

Holly glanced at Charlie. "Basically. All the spells they used came from a book of "unspeakable evil" which they lost nearly a hundred years ago."

"Okay, so they're bad." Sam replied. "So what. We faced worse."

"Sam, read the file." Dean instructed. "The way the book works, is when you use it, there is a negative reaction. I'm talking biblical negative. Dark magic always comes with a price. We know that. We've been down that road before."

"Well, let's at least translate it, see what it says." Charlie suggested.

"You guys don't understand. The book's been calling out to me ever since I laid eyes on it, okay? Calling out to the Mark. I can hear it like it's alive. It wants me to use it, but not for good. Look, I wanted it to be the answer too, okay? I really did. But we have got to get rid of that. Burn it, bury it, I don't give a damn. We'll just have to find another way to fix the Mark."

"Like what?" Sam asked.

"I don't know."

"So you're giving up?" Charlie questioned.

"No, I'm not giving up. Charlie, I don't have a death wish. Okay, even if I did, I can't die, not with this thing on my arm. What I can do is fight it as long as I can until..."

"Until what?" Holly interrupted. "Tell us. Until what, Dean? Until Sam or I watch you become a demon again? Until then? We can't do that. We won't do that."

"Well, then you two will just have to lock me up. Bind me to the bunker like you did last time."

"That doesn't solve anything." Charlie told them.

"Look, let's just translate this book, okay?" Sam said. "If there's a cure, we'll do it and deal with the consequences later. Holly and I can't lose you."

"Really?" Dean asked with a slight sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, really." Sam and Holly replied.

"You change your mind on that, cause that's not what you said last time. Holly's the only one not changing her tune."

"Oh, come on, man. You know I didn't mean that." Sam told him.

"This is my cross to bear, Sam, Holly! Mine! And that book is not the answer! Now we got to destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands, and that includes me! I'm gonna go for a drive. Uh, Charlie, we forgot to pick up your snacks."

"Dean, look..."

"We'll figure out another way. And Sam, Holly, I'll get my vacation. But not today. Not like this." Dean left the cabin.

"Sam, Holly, maybe he's right." Charlie said.

Holly shook head. "No, there's gotta be a way to fix it. There's gotta be."

Charlie looked at Sam. "What did Dean mean? When he said you changed your mind and that Holly was the only one not changing her tune?"

Sam glanced at her. "So, awhile back, we had a chance to, um...close the Gates of Hell. And in order to do that, I would've had to die. And, I was okay with that, and I am okay with that, but Dean and Holly were not. And so, they uh..."

"They saved you."

"Yeah, they saved me."

"And let me guess, in doing so, they did something you didn't want, and that pissed you off. And you said something that hurt him."

Holly raised a hand. "One half of that decision is right here."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Sam replied. "For the record, I don't blame Holly, as it was Dean's decision."

Charlie frowned slightly. "Brothers and their sister. You know, I haven't been a hunter for very long, but it feels like this is the life. Mostly ends in Sophie's choices, death, or tears. Usually, all of the above, huh? How did this become my life? I mean, I was gonna own my own start-up, marry ScarJo, invent something cool. Now I'm just...I'm happy to be alive."

"You know, when Dean and Holly came to get me at school, I-I told myself...one last job, you know? One more job. And then when--when, I, um...When I lost Jess, I, again, told myself one more job. There's always been one more job, you know? And one more job, and one more job, and then I was gonna go back to law--and back to my life." He noticed tears in Holly's eyes. "I'm sorry, Holly. I know you don't feel that way, but I do."

"You were the Dread Pirate Roberts of hunting."

"Yeah. I guess I really understand now that...this is my life. I love it. But I can't do it without my brother or sister. I don't want to do it without my brother or sister. And if he's gone, then I don't..."

"I got it. I-I do. Holly, you okay?"

Holly nodded. "Yeah. Just, uh, Sammy's confession. I-I didn't know you felt that way."

Sam looked at his sister and smiled. "Yeah. But I can't imagine it any other way."

"Are you?"

"Yeah, H&M. I'm sure."

Charlie frowned. "H&M? That's a store, isn't it?"

Sam turned to her. "It's also stands for Holly Mary."

Charlie smiled. "As said in The Monster at the End of This Book."

Dean made his way to a Gas n Sip and entered, seeing Jacob standing next to a dead body.

"Afternoon, sir." Jacob said.

"Howdy." Dean replied, grabbing some snacks and putting them on the counter. "There we go."

"That'll be it for you?"

"Uh, yeah, that's it."

"Okay, then, that'll be $15.75." Jacob told him as Dean took out a $20 and handed it to him. He noticed Jacob's tattoo on his wrist. "You heading home or you just passing through?"

"Just passing through." Dean answered. Jacob put the money in the cash register. Dean looked at the store mirror and saw the dead clerk behind the counter next to Jacob. "Must get awful lonely out here all by yourself."

"Oh, I get by."

Dean pulled out his gun and pointed it at Jacob. "Don't move. Hands where I can see them."

"Don't you want your change?" He threw the change in Dean's face and another man grabbed Dean from behind.

Jacob pointed his knife at Dean. "Now...who might you be?" He noticed the Mark on Dean. "Well, hello there. Where'd a back-roading nothing like you get their hands on something like that?"

"What's it to you, Mr. Styne?"

"My friends call me Jacob."

"Well, I ain't your friend."

"Those wouldn't happen to be treats for a redheaded little gal, now, would they? Y'all hid the book, didn't you? Lead-lined little number, I'm betting."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"You don't? See that? That man back there, well he said the same thing as all the others at truck stops and gas stations up and down the way. Nobody had seen that redheaded girl. And then a man bearing the Mark comes in here, to me. Well, there's coincidence, and then there's just providence. See, The Book of the Damned, it wants to be found. It wants to come home. Let me guess. You want to use it to get that gift off your arm, don't you? Power is wasted on the weak. Now the book...can remove the Mark. But you mess around with that, you're gonna do far more harm than good. So, why don't you do the right thing here, boy, and tell me where that book is."

"Yeah, sure, I'll tell you." Dean mumbled something.

"One more time. I didn't hear you." He leaned in closer to Dean.

"I said..." Dean headbutted Jacob and knocked the man holding him off. He dove to the ground to grab his gun. He was on the ground pointing the gun at the man coming at him. He shot as