A Lesson in Devil's Traps
[This is a deleted scene from chapter four of The Winchesters Three.]
A few uneventful minutes of box stacking later, the four of them began to make their way out. Adam trailed behind the group and, when he was sure that he was properly out of awareness, he slipped over to the filing cabinet where he had found the photo and grabbed the only item he had left behind. As bittersweet as the memories it carried were, the baseball was one of the only things he had left. Hell, it probably was the only thing. It was a sobering thought but it was quickly dashed aside when someone shouted from the entrance ahead.
Adam pocketed the baseball in his jacket and rushed to see what the commotion was about.
“-sure it was complete when we walked in,” Adam caught Sam saying and the boy slowed to a halt just behind a large stack of wooden crates.
“Devil’s traps don’t just break themselves,” Dean replied from out of sight.
“Maybe it was Adam…” Sam suggested and Adam felt a surge of indignation. Why did it have to be him? He hadn’t been the only person in here and he was sure that he hadn’t broken a single thing since being here.
“Speaking of which, where is he?” Dean asked. The eldest Winchester began to shout for him when he popped back into sight. “Ah, there you are. Ya had us worried there for a sec, runt.”
“Yeah, okay,” Adam said, not bothering to touch that particular subject. “What’s happened?”
“Devil’s trap-” Sam began, stopping to point at the ground and it was then that Adam saw that there was some kind of large symbol or diagram or something marked there. It looked to be made from white paint. “See those lines?” he asked and Adam nodded mutely. “Those are what make up a devil’s trap and a devil’s trap is a kind of ward that traps a demon within its boundaries. It completely neutralizes their powers and prevents them leaving it.”
Adam nodded. “So, it’s sitting here to prevent demons from just walking in through the door and taking whatever they want.”
“So, what’s the problem?”
“Well, the devil’s trap stops working if any of the lines are broken.”
Adam licked his lips as the point became clear and, with a sinking feeling, he recalled dragging his feet on his way into the lockup. “How do we fix it?”
“That’s what I’m going to show you,” Sam said.
Adam looked at him in surprise. “You are?”
“Yep,” he replied. “Jump over to this side of the trap and I’ll run you through fixing it up. We won’t cover it all right now - we don’t have the time - but I’ll do that at least.”
With a shrug, Adam carefully made his way across the devil’s trap, taking care not to break any of the lines this time around. Sam clapped his shoulder once he was on the other side, shaking a large pen-like object in his free hand.
“This is a paint pen,” Sam explained, popping the cap off it. “But it’s got a special paint mixture in it. Demons are vulnerable to iron so we’ve mixed this with powdered iron. It’s not perfect but it helps.”
“So, what, demons can’t touch iron? How do they get anywhere when we use iron everywhere?”
“Well, it needs to be pure iron for it to be effective and it needs to touch the demon’s meatsuit before it has any effect,” Sam replied, crouching down to the lines on the floor. “Essentially, you just need to reconnect the lines. It’s fairly easy enough to do but it does help if you know how to draw the trap to begin with. Connecting the wrong lines together is another way to have to whole thing become a waste of time.”
“You should tell him about that hunter who got it wrong,” Dean said. “Ho boy, whatta mess.” He shook his head sadly and Adam looked on incredulously.
“You’re joking, right?”
“Ignore him,” Sam said. “That never happened. He’s just being an idiot.” Dean gave them his characteristic smirk.
Sam traced the outer ring with his finger. “The trap is essentially a pentagram surrounded by a complete circle. There are some more complicated symbols on the inner part of the trap but I’ll go over them at a later point. This outer ring is the only line that’s broken luckily.”
As Sam spoke, he began fixing the devil’s trap, drawing over the broken section of the ring with the pen. Though Adam suspected the paint was meant to be a pure shade of white, it came out as a slightly grey off-white and he guessed it was due to the iron powder mixed into it. “Why are you telling me all this?” he blurted out, remembering how opposed Sam had been to him getting involved in all of this.
Sam licked his lips before replying. “I know what you’re thinking. What I said in the bunker - it wasn’t that I never want you to join us on a case. Hell, I’d love to have you come along.” Sam broke into a grin, “You’d get to find out just how loudly Dean can snore. But before we can do that properly, you need the proper training.”
“I can handle myself,” Adam said, and even he knew how hollow that sounded.
Sam stopped drawing the line to look up at Adam with a doubtful look. “Do you even know how to use a gun?”
“No,” Adam said, jaw tight. “But what good will a gun do against an angel?”
“Good point; it wouldn’t,” Sam admitted, returning to completing the trap.
izzy806
discoholicmusic
blakekathryn
yousharknotpass
