Crowley and I were staring at Cain in bewilderment.

"'Gone'?" Crowley repeated. "What do you mean, 'gone'? How? The spell brought us here to you, so it has to be here."

"Your spell brought you to the source of the Blade's power. Me."

Pulling up his sleeve, Cain showed off a mark burned into his arm. It looked kind of like a seven with two pointed circle-ish things beside it. Crowley shrunk back and made the sign of a cross over his heart.

"Really? Now?" I shot at him.

"It's the bloody Mark of Cain," Crowley defended himself.

"From Lucifer himself," Cain nodded. "The Mark and the Blade work together. Without the Mark, the Blade is useless. It's just an old bone."

"A bone?" Crowley asked, confused.

"The jawbone of an animal," I realized. "The jawbone you used to kill Abel because he was God's favorite."

"Abel wasn't talking to God. He was talking to Lucifer. Lucifer was gonna make my brother into his pet. I couldn't bear to watch him be corrupted, so I offered a deal- Abel's soul in Heaven for my soul in Hell. Lucifer accepted... as long as I was the one who sent Abel to Heaven. So, I killed him. Became a soldier of Hell- a Knight."

"And Lucifer ordered you to make more," I assumed.

"My Knights and I, we did horrible things- for centuries," Cain sighed. "Bringers of chaos and darkness."

"Then you met Collette."

"She knew who I was... and what I was. She loved me unconditionally. She forgave me. She only asked for one thing."

"To stop," Crowley breathed.

"When the Knights found out, they took retribution. They took Collette, so I picked the First Blade back up, and it felt so good to have it in my hands again, and I slaughtered the Knights of Hell."

"Not all of them," I pointed out.

"No. Abaddon possessed her, and when I moved to stab her Abaddon left her, so all I ended up doing was kill my wife. So I buried her, and I walked away."

"Well, I'm sorry- truly," I told him. "But I have to stop Abaddon. So, where is the Blade?"

"No," Cain shook his head, walking away.

"Hey!" I chased after him. "Listen, you son of a bitch. You may be done killing, but I'm not."

Cain turned back to me with sad eyes.

"You never give up on anything, do you?"

"Never."

"Well, I do."

With that, Cain disappeared.

"Cain? Cain?!"

There were noises outside, and Crowley and I looked out to see more demons preparing an attack.

"Well, I'll stay as long as I can," Crowley told me.

"Aren't you a peach?"

I looked back as Cain reappeared in the room, looking over at the picture of Collette.

"What the hell, man? You in or out? I'm getting head spins."

"I can give you the Mark, Eleanor, if that is what you truly want."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Mark can be transferred to someone who's worthy."

"You mean a killer like you," I translated.

"Yes," Cain confirmed.

"Can I use it to kill that bitch?"

"Yes. But you have to know with the Mark comes a great burden. Some would call it a great cost."

"Yeah, well, spare me the warning label. You had me at 'kill the bitch'."

"Good luck, Eleanor," he locked eyes with me. "You're gonna need it."

"Yeah, I get that a lot. Let's dance."

Cain grasped my right forearm with his and a line of red veins spread from Cain's Mark to burn an identical one on my forearm. I gasped out in pain as it was transferred.

"Ellie?" Crowley asked me.

"I'm fine," I gasped, not missing the fact that he'd called me Ellie for the first time ever. "Alright, where the hell did you stash the damn Blade."

"Nothing can destroy the Blade, so I threw it to the bottom of the deepest ocean. It was the only way I could keep my promise to Collette. You find the Blade, kill Abaddon, but make me a promise first. When I call you- and I will call- you come find me and you use the Blade on me."

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"For what I'm about to do."

Cain grasped both Crowley and my shoulders and in a flash we were outside the house. All the demons rushed inside, and a moment later a red hot light lit up the windows from the inside.

"They're all trapped in there," Crowley said.

"With him."

⁘

Crowley promised to find the Blade and bring it to me, but not before I threatened to kill him as soon as I was done with Abaddon. A couple days later, while I was listening to the police wire, a John Doe popped up that sounded a lot like Garth, so I high tailed it to Grantsburg, Wisconsin. In his room, just as I was about to give him an adrenaline shot, the door opened and I hid the syringe quickly, turning around. Sam and Dean walked through the door wearing their Fed gear.

There was a long silence as we all stared at each other before Dean finally spoke.

"Saw Garth's John Doe on the police wire. You?"

"Yeah," I nodded to confirm that I'd found out the same way. "Where you comin' from?"

"New Mexico," Sam answered.

"Well, that's a haul. Especially considering I got this, uh... pretty much covered, so if you want to..." I clicked my tongue, motioning to the door.

"You spoken to him yet?"

I shook my head.

"No. Assload of painkillers. He's been out since I got here."

"What's he been charged with?" Dean asked, noticing the handcuff on Garth's wrist.

"Killing a cow."

"Why?" Sam asked.

"I was about to see if I could find out. Lock the door."

Dean moved over to it to oblige, but stopped when he saw me pull the syringe out from behind my back.

"Whoa. Hey. What is that? Adrenaline?"

"Yes, sir," I smirked.

"You trying to jump-start him or kill him?" Sam demanded.

"I want some answers," I glared over at him and Dean. "He walked out on Kevin. He walked out on us. So, if you got a better idea..."

Sam sighed, then slapped Garth full in the face. Garth shot up in bed, screaming.

"Aah! Aah! Aah! Sam? Dean? Ellie? What is this? A hospital? Wait. Am I in Heaven?"

"Alright, take it easy, Garth," Dean said. "You're in Wisconsin."

"You were hit by a car," Sam added. "Do you remember anything?"

"I, uh... Vaguely," Garth groaned, pulling his hand up to touch his hand but was stopped by the handcuffs. "What's with the hardware?"

Sam moved to unlock the cuffs and remove them as I spoke.

"You tell us. And while you're at it, why don't you give us the lowdown on why you went AWOL for the past six months? Only way we tracked you down is that you offed a cow."

"Offed a... what? I-I-I was on a hunt."

"Hunt for what?"

"I- oh, no."

Garth turned green and looked like he was going to be sick.

"Oh, get back. Oh. Oh, God."

In a panic, he pulled all the monitors and IV off and ran into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. As the sound of gagging and retching carried through the door, I grimaced.

"Good thing I didn't give him the adrenaline."