When Dean invited him to come along, Henry's first instinct was to refuse. Staying out of Winchester business felt safer. The less attached he was, the better his odds of not getting dragged into something bigger than he could handle.
The gunshots echoed from outside.
It wasn't distant. It was close enough to carry the sharp crack of panic with it. A scream followed, ragged and desperate, before cutting off abruptly.
Henry's hesitation weakened.
He already knew the town's name from this body's memories. River Grove, Oregon.
The burning cars outside, the violent outbursts, the chaos spreading through the streets—it all matched. The earlier system notification replayed clearly in his mind: Demon Infectee Eliminated.
The man with blood smeared across his mouth who tried to force himself onto him wasn't just insane. He had been trying to infect him.
Croatoan didn't spread through the air; it spread through blood and contact. The aggression. The erratic behavior. The desperate need to get close.
He was in the middle of the Croatoan outbreak.
Demon experimentation. An entire town turned into a test site.
Of all the timelines to land in, it had to be this one.
His luck truly was terrible.
Staying alone in that house while River Grove tore itself apart was not survival. It was suicide. At least with Dean and Sam there were weapons, experience, and, most importantly, transportation.
Henry made the decision without further argument.
"Alright," he said. "I'll come."
If he was trapped in this mess, getting a ride out of this hellhole was the most practical move he could make.
He grabbed a duffel bag from the bedroom, shoved in a few clothes without overthinking it, then hesitated before taking the framed photos off the wall. Whatever this life had been before he arrived, it still mattered now.
A few minutes later, he slid into the backseat of the Impala.
The door shut with a heavy, solid sound.
Dean started the engine without saying anything, the low rumble filling the silence as they pulled away from the house.
Henry leaned forward slightly from the back seat. "Can I ask something?"
Dean kept his eyes on the road.
"Why are people acting like rabid dogs?"
Dean didn't answer.
Sam turned halfway in his seat. "The whole town's infected with something. It makes people violent. Paranoid. They turn on each other and try to spread it."
Henry nodded slowly. "So it's a virus?"
"Something like that," Sam said. "It spreads through blood."
Henry glanced out the window at the burning cars they passed. "Then shouldn't we just get out of town?"
Dean's grip tightened slightly on the wheel. "We tried. The only road out's blocked."
Henry leaned back into the seat and sighed, letting his head fall against the leather.
Inside, he was screaming.
Great. Trapped in an infected town during demon experimentation. Fantastic.
Dean glanced at him through the rearview mirror. "You're taking this pretty calm," he said. "Your neighbors are tearing each other apart, and you don't look all that surprised."
Henry shrugged lightly, forcing his tone to stay even. "Strange stuff doesn't shock me anymore."
Dean's eyes narrowed slightly. "Oh yeah?"
"Once I saw something I couldn't explain," Henry said. "Looked like a ghost."
Sam raised an eyebrow. "And?"
"I told people," Henry continued. "They called me an idiot. Said ghosts aren't real."
Dean's mouth twitched faintly at that.
"Yeah," he said dryly. "People usually do."
The Impala stopped outside the local medical center. The building was small, lights still on, but the parking lot was almost empty.
They stepped inside quickly.
Dean walked straight to the doctor. "Doc, check him for signs of infection."
The doctor didn't argue. She already knew what they were looking for. If this was what they suspected, sulfur would show up in the blood.
Henry cooperated without complaint, rolling up his sleeve while the sample was taken. Dean stood nearby, watching. Sam stayed close to the door.
When the doctor stepped away to run the test, Sam turned to Dean and lowered his voice.
"Dean, what are we going to do with him?"
Dean didn't look away from Henry. "What do you mean?"
"I mean he's family," Sam said quietly. "If this town's being used for demon experimentation, they'll notice him sooner or later. Leaving him alone after this… that's dangerous."
Dean kept his voice low, but firm. "What else, we teach him to hunt."
Sam didn't answer right away.
"We just found out we've got a cousin," he continued. "You really want to drag him into this life? You know what it does to people."
Dean finally turned to look at him.
"What choice do we have?" he asked evenly. "He already got attacked. If demons are behind this, they've probably clocked him by now. You think leaving him somewhere is going to keep him safe? He'll be dead in a week."
Sam let out a slow breath, the tension clear on his face.
"We teach him to hunt," Dean repeated. "At least that way he has a chance."
"Dean," Sam said, frustration slipping through despite himself, "this isn't a good life."
Dean didn't argue with that.
"No," he admitted. "It's not. But it's the only one we know."
On Henry's side, he stayed quiet and watched Dean and Sam carefully, trying to predict what would happen next.
Then the timeline lined up in his head.
The demon would come soon. The nurse was already infected. In the original events, she would try to infect Sam. The whole situation wasn't chaos; it was a test. The demons wanted to see if Sam was resistant to the Croatoan virus, to confirm that he was different.
At the same time, another thought crossed his mind.
If killing an infected human triggered the system and gave him the lottery channce… what would happen if he killed a demon?