Sam Winchester

It takes only a day or two to collect everything Ruby needs for the spell, the two of them raiding a few of the stores that have already been broken into before finding an empty storage facility in which to cast it.

He paints the necessary symbols on the cement floor in bright orange spray paint while she... does whatever it is she needs to prepare. Despite what she's done to help him in the past few months and despite what he's done himself, this kind of thing still makes him uneasy. Reminds him of just how much has changed since Dean's deal came due.

This one is more unnerving than most as Sam stands to the side, watching as Ruby kneels in the center of the floor, Dean's knife in front of her.

"I need the necklace," she says, looking back over her shoulder at him.

Sam frowns. "What? Why?"

"For the ritual, genius. I need something that belonged to him, and unless you're hiding his hair follicles or a vial of his DNA, that's the best you've got."

"I have his gun," Sam points out, but Ruby only narrows her eyes at him.

"Look, you want to do this or not?"

For a second, Sam considers that. Because answering this question is only going to bring up a hundred more. If the knife is fake, then who made it and why? If it's real, how did this Neil kid get ahold of it? And who or what is he? What does it have to do with this town they can't seem to find their way out of?

Moreover, will any of this get them any closer to finding Lilith?

It really isn't any question, though. He has to know.

Still, his reluctance is clear as he pulls the necklace off over his head and hands it to Ruby, her eyes flicking to his only briefly before she drops it into her mix of ingredients.

She starts chanting almost immediately, her words making the air around them shift and swirl, a swooping, gradual roar of wind and noise. Sam crosses his arms over his chest and watches, stomach churning and adrenaline pumping as her eyes turn black and her voice grows more and more heated. The knife shakes on the ground, rattles and then flips to stand up on its tip, twirls in a way that defies all laws of physics before dropping with a clatter back to the cement just as the air goes suddenly still.

Sam waits a moment, expectant, his ears ringing in the sudden silence.

"So?" he says, impatience getting the better of him. "What is it?"