Lions
Request: Could you write a songfic for the Song lions by skillet?
Word Count: ~4 000
Warnings: cursing, gore (blood, multiple stab wounds, gunshots), reference to previous gore (internal bleeding), angst/sadness all around
A/N: sorry i had exams and then writers block and yeah it’s a lame excuse but that’s all i got for you right now:/ also i didn’t really know what to write for this fic (but i managed!! I think) so i kinda just took how this made me feel and tried to write it out :)
Y/N shifted the car into reverse and pulled out of the dirt sideroad Dean had parked on only 12 hours before. The impala hummed underneath her as she backed out onto the road. The smooth road was all she could focus on as she drove straight by their motel. They had all they needed, and there was only a few clothing items that were there. She couldn’t bring herself to stop for even a moment; any second she wasn’t focused on the road blurred her vision and pushed down the gas pedal a little bit farther. She drove right out past the Come back again soon! sign that marked the town exit without much of a second thought.
There wasn’t anything she really wanted to think about anyways.
Breathe.
Somewhere along the way, she’d realized that her brothers weren’t behind her. Maybe between the gash dripping into her eyes and the way her ankle popped in and out of place every couple seconds had distracted her. Maybe she only noticed when she broke the edge of the clearing and slowed for a second to look for the sleek black car she knew so well. Maybe she just thought them invincible; the Winchesters, notoriously infamous for scaring off even Death himself. She could trust them enough that they’d overcome anything that came at them.
But you can’t defy death and live to tell the tale.
Y/N stood at the edge of the clearing for another couple minutes before trudging right back in. Even wounded, her brothers often ran ahead of her. Not too far that they couldn’t reach her in a moment’s notice, of course, but it wasn’t likely that they were ahead of her. Now, as she scanned her surroundings, something began to build up in her chest. Flashes of every hunt gone wrong sped in front of her eyes, a collage of curses and blood and shallow breathing she couldn’t hear over her own. Suddenly it was dizzying, and she was lucky to catch herself on something- she couldn’t quite see what it was- before she crumbled. Dean’s voice, bright and clear as her vision, rang through her head.
Breathe.
She swallowed. Straightening herself up only proved that the clicking noise in her back wasn’t always harmless. Gritting her teeth, she shuffled her way pack, slowly picking up the pace until she was running back to the old house she’d just managed to escape. Her breath hitched in her throat.
Fighting angels and demons and everything in between had let Y/N’s memory slip; the werewolves had been stronger than she anticipated, and something of confusion washed over the three before they realized that they couldn’t rely on prophets and lone supernatural entities for tips and tricks for each of their hunts. They were still good at what they did (“Winchesters!” one of the older ones had shouted before they attempted to break down the doors that had already been boarded up) but being out of practice began to show when they’d reduced the pack to fight one-on-one.
Until Y/N noticed one slip out through the door they’d come in through.
Obviously, her first instinct was to rush out and deal with him. Somewhere in the back of her mind she heard her brothers call out to her, telling her to stay, but it was all white noise in the back of her mind; she could do this. She had to.
It was clear that this was their first fight. Y/N had dealt with them in less than ten minutes before leaning against a tree for some support. Her brothers, she had assumed, would be there soon. It wasn’t that long of a hunt, and none of them were eager to stay any longer than they had to. She had caught her breath for a minute more before turning around.
If only she hadn’t waited.
The cabin was quiet when she came back. Of course, her brothers naturally knew not to make noise, but this… this was different. It rang through the woods and pricked up the hairs on the back of Y/N’s neck. Her footsteps thundered and echoed down the hallway like a metronome, fading into the background as she stepped over pool after pool of wetness that drew up bile in her throat. It finally led to the main room where she’d last seen her brothers. A startled sound of something between a moan and a gasp escaped her mouth like a sob of relief when she saw one of the werewolves on the floor. Her eyes wandered over to the staircase across from her, the faintest trace of a bloodied footprint imprinted on every other step. It was too small for her brothers, quite clearly.
“Someone’s in a rush,” Y/N murmured, stepping over the body and making her way up the stairs, careful to not disturb to the prints.
Y/N’s feet made no sound as she entered the upper level and checked the first three rooms. All were empty of bodies or blood, but the fourth door was opened just a crack. Lights were on inside, halting Y/N. She held her breath, waiting for some sort of sign that might lead her to her brothers. There was nothing. She nudged open the door with her boot.
There was barely any time to register the clatter of her gun on the floor before she was shoving the door open, denting the wall where the knob slammed into it as Y/N rushed over and dropped down to where she saw her brother.
Sam was on the floor, limbs splayed at uncomfortable angles that made Y/N bite down her lunch that was working its way up her throat. Her hands hovered restlessly, afraid to touch him like he’d bite her if he did. Finally she rested two of her right fingers on his neck checking for a pulse. Feeling nothing, she pushed harder.
“Damn it, Sam,” she whispered. Her voice cracked on her brother’s name, swallowing thickly when she shuffled back hurriedly to flip him over.
His front was covered in blood, red and staunchy and dried at the edges. Where Y/N dared to look, she saw multiple stab wounds. Her hands were suddenly climbing his, like they could coax life back into them. She noticed bruises around his wrists, matching the ones on his neck. He had been bound. And stabbed. Six times.
Y/N threw up against the far wall. Her instinct threw her away from her brother’s body, as though Sam would magically get up and reprimand her for getting his jacket dirty.
But he wouldn’t wake up. He’d never wake up. Because Sam was dead and he was gone and there was no way she could bring him back because Dean wouldn’t let her-
Dean.
Her eyes flew around the room, throat burning from the upheaval that suddenly didn’t even matter anymore. She was vaguely aware that her eyes strayed as far as possible from Sam’s body, but paid it no mind. Dean could help her. Dean would solve this problem. He always did.
But Dean wasn’t there.
“Dean.” She stood up, shaking legs and shuddering breaths hiding themselves behind a strong voice that Y/N didn’t know she had. It echoed in the room, the only noise in an otherwise silent house. She began to make her way out of the room. “Dean, where are you?”
About halfway through the door, her body froze. Sam was still there. He was still in the room, cold and alone and bleeding out on the rug so intensely that Y/N couldn’t tell what colour it was. She fought another wave of bile.
She would come back. It killed her and she wanted to slump on the wall and let the tears and snot run down her face and have Sam wake her up from the nightmare this surely was and tell her that it’d be okay, that he was still alive.
But he wasn’t. So she couldn’t.
Y/N walked down the hall.
There were no other floors. Y/N vaguely remembered seeing a widows walk on the roof, but doubted either Winchester would venture up there. Dean would piss himself. She smirked at the thought before remembering her situation.
Dean hadn’t responded to her calls earlier. Obviously, there were multiple explanations for that, but Y/N didn’t really like any of them. Best case scenario, he was being held captive for some sort of ransom or whatever. Worst case….
Didn’t matter. She’d find him. She always did.
The second floor was made up of a hallway that circled around the walls, with rooms on the outside, with the first floor visible from anywhere Y/N had walked. It was a simple rectangle, meaning that she had a view of every space in the main room on the first floor. It was a mess, to say the least; fighting monsters wasn’t exactly a clean fight, in any sense of the word. By now, Y/N had circled the top landing, checking in rooms and calling out her brother’s name every few minutes. Dean would scold her. Sam would take her side, but give her that look that said you should know better, please be safe, don’t you ever do that again. She risked it, but it didn’t really feel like she was taking a chance with anything. She had nothing to lose.
Her brother was dead. Her other sibling was missing. She wanted to throw up- again.
She jutted her jaw out to the side, sucking her cheeks into her mouth in that way Dean always made fun of her for. If he could see her right now, he’d laugh, shoving her gently as he taunted her with things like nice duckface and if that’s how your first kiss is gonna be then I’m not sure you’ll get a second one and all those things that never failed to make her roll her eyes.
“Move y’r jaw any farther over an’ it’ll unhinge,” a voice called from behind Y/N. Her gun was trained on the source before her eyes focused on it. They laughed.
Oh no.
Oh no.
No.
“Dean?” her voice shook almost as hard as her hands, body tensing as she heard his rumbling laughter.
“You’re gonna drop th’ gun if y’don’t stop shakin,’” he chuckled. She was by his side in a second, gun haphazardly dropped somewhere along the way. The room was dark, but her eyes quickly adjusted when she saw the deep stain in his chest. Her hands hovered uncertainly, for the second time today, as she tried to slow her thoughts and breathing and just take a second to pull herself together.
“Gun, gauze, get outta there,” she whispered; her mantra after years of training coming forward compulsively after her father had drilled it there. “Gun gauze, get outta there. Gun, gauze, get outta there. Gun, gauze-”
“Hey.” Dean’s hands came up to hers where one had reached out for her gun while the other reached in one of her jacket pockets for one of the bandages Y/N had used to save her brothers’ lives more than she cared to count (they still made fun of her, saying she was overprotective; she still kept them in her pocket). “Y/N, s’alright. M’fine. Really.”
“Bitch, you’ve been stabbed.” She looked at him in exasperation, peeling away the layer of his outer jacket. “Let me get you out of here.”
“You know I’m not going anywhere.”
Y/N froze. Her body began to shake; not like before, vibrating like she was feeling the aftershocks of an earthquake. She was trembling like the moments before the ground would open up and swallow her whole. It was the shakey tremor of an untrained hand like the first time she stitched herself up- the minute quivers that seized up her body, her mind, her everything she relied on and she couldn’t bring herself to do anything but look at her brother and will herself to speak.
“Don’t you say that,” she finally whispered. “Not you. You don’t get to leave me.”
“Y/N,” he tried softly.
“No,” she tried again, harder. “You can’t. I- I can’t- Dean, not you too. I can’t lose you, too.”
Dean stilled his movements.
“Too?”
Her eyes moved to his hairline, counting every strand like they weren’t starting to blur together. She moved her hands towards the gauze, moving her hand to sit Dean up when he grabbed it.
“Y/N.” His voice was low, wary; Y/N hated it, hated that nothing good ever came when he used it. “Tell me-” It broke off before he could finish. He cleared his throat. “Tell me. Is- is Sammy…?”
Y/N didn’t even realize she was crying until her lips tasted salty. Dean’s face matched hers.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I wasn’t there and- and by the time I got there… Dean, he was- he already-” Y/N hurriedly moved her hand to wipe away at her face. “I’m sorry. I tried. I couldn’t do... I couldn’t do anything.”
Dean didn’t say anything. He just looked at her. She couldn’t handle it.
“You gotta sit up, Dean,” she said. Her voice wobbled as she spoke, but it was better than breaking and whispering and all those things. “I gotta bandage you, Dean. Then we can….”
In all honestly, she wasn’t really sure what they could do. Her brother was dead, and by the looks of it her other sibling would join him soon. Y/N pushed the thought out of her mind.
“Y/N-” Dean started, coughing into his shoulder.
She couldn’t tell if the blood had already been there before.
“Take it easy.” Her hands hovered over his body, unsure of what to do. He was only shot; she’d dealt with worse.
But she’d had both of her brothers then.
Y/N rocked back onto her knees, taking in a shuddering breath. She tried swallowing down the lump in her throat, but eventually she had to open up her eyes and look at Dean and realize that he wasn’t looking back.
Dean wasn’t looking back.
“Dean-” her hands shook his shoulders. “Dean, stay awake. I’m here. Stay- stay with me.”
Dean mmed at her, eyes fluttering at random intervals as his gaze slowly hooded over. A twitch passed his lips, barely enough for Y/N to catch- but still enough.
“What is it?” she pressed. Another time she would smack him around a bit, get him to move, but he looked as though anything resembling an attack would-
No. Y/N wasn’t going to go there.
“Y’re always so w’rried,” Dean mumbled, eyes sliding shut. “I nev’r knew why you’d bring s’much extra. Guess there wasn’t ‘nuff this time, huh?”
“Don’t joke about that,” Y/N whispered sharply.
“S’rry,” he slurred. “Jus’ tryna lighten th’mood.”
“We’ll joke once you’re outta here, okay?” Y/N smiled at him, knowing but refusing to acknowledge that he couldn’t see it. “Then you can make fun of me all you want. Promise I won’t retaliate.”
“Then what’s th’ point?” He tried to let out a laugh, but it sounded more like a choke that sent icy sparks up Y/N’s spine.
“Currently,” she tried for humour,” to get you out of here. Can you get up? Just need to carry you-”
“Both know m’not goin’ anywhere,” he muttered. Y/N froze.
“Dean-”
“Can you do something for me?” Dean cut her off. She pursed her lips.
“Anything,” she ventured, “but leave you here.”
“Then…” he trailed off, scaring up her heartbeat for a moment until he continued. “stay with me. Until-”
“Yeah.” She smiled, plastic and fake and everything that was wrong in this moment wrapped up in one brief moment. “Anything you need.”
“R’member th’ song….” His brow flickered into a frown for a moment. “Was ‘bout cats. You liked it.”
“The cat song?” Somehow, in the midst of all the shit going down, she managed to sound incredulous.
“Big cat or somth’n,” he grinned. “Lions?”
“Son of a-” she laughed, wet and false but somehow comforting. “You mean that Skillet song?”
“Yeah,” he chuckled- or, tried to- at her voice. “Always liked it.”
“I’m pretty sure I distinctly remember you yelling at me to shut the hell up, as you oh-so poetically put it,” she grinned.
“You should sing it t’me,” he smiled softly. Y/N blinked.
“I-”
“I’m dyin’ here,” he huffed. She winced. “Least you could do ‘s sing f’r me.”
Y/N pursed her lips, flattening them quickly as she remembered Dean was still there (not for long, a nagging voice in the back of her head told her) and worrying her bottom lip.
Well, it was the least she could do.
It was all she could do.
Her voice shook as she sang; wobbled with uncertainty and quietly as she tried to keep her voice low enough to still hear Dean’s shallow breaths. It took a few verse before she began to let her voice carry. It was soft and deep and a little creaky after a few months- or rather, years- of disuse, but fine all the same.
It reminded them both of another time; Dean had, again, been seriously hurt. Sam and Y/N tried to persuade him to go to the hospital (“Y/N is good, but she can’t do anything about internal bleeding, Dean,” Sam had half-shouted at him.) but he only said he needed to rest. Obviously, it was bull. Dean was hurt. Dean was bloody. Dean was almost fucking crying.
But Dean still wanted to hear her sing.
Y/N only ever sang when she was safe. Singing was Y/N’s way of soothing herself; focusing on the melody, the words, the beat and the tune. Sam and Dean, on the very rare occasion they could catch her off-guard, would stand motionlessly and simply listen. Y/N wasn’t phenomenal, they all knew that, but her singing was just one way that they could all remember they were okay. Maybe that was why Dean asked her to do it when he was scared (not that he would admit that, of course); because he needed to know that she was safe, they were safe, everything would be okay.
Slowly, she felt as Dean’s chest began to rise a bit less every time; she watched as his eyelids opened less frequently, his grip slacken a bit more every few seconds. Her face was a mixture of tears and snot and blood coating her grimy cheeks, but it didn’t even occur to her for a damn second to focus on anything other than Dean.
Her vision was blurred, so she wasn’t quite sure which rise and fall of Dean’s chest was his last. She wasn’t certain when his hand no longer gripped onto hers, only held to her chest because she gripped it so hard Dean would’ve complained that she’d break his fingers. She didn’t care about that. She didn’t care about anything.
Sam was dead. Dean was dead.
Y/N was dead.
The sun filtered in through the window she hadn’t noticed earlier by the time she could regain the basics of her surroundings. Her hand was numb from where her fingers had clutched at her brother’s arm, like letting go of Dean would mean letting go of Dean. She couldn’t do it. She could never. But Y/N had to.
It was day. The hunt was over. Sam probably still had matches in his pocket- Y/N’s next breath caught when she thought of him- and Dean definitely still had a lighter of some sort on him. The Winchesters were not supposed to still be here, not like this. They were supposed to be two towns over from the place that “mysterious fire” had cropped up from; new names using old alibis, fresh scars and worn out flannels the smelled of leather seats and cheap beer and diner fast-food and home. Y/N refused to linger on the word. It held nothing. It meant nothing.
She wasn’t quite sure what home was anymore.
The house was up in flames in less than an hour. It had to be burned down anyways, and Y/N couldn’t bring herself to move her brothers out of the cabin, anyways. All she could do was carry them into the front room, laying beside each other. Y/N had carried her brothers more than once after a hunt, and she was by no means weak, but somehow their bodies seemed to weigh more after the light left their eyes. She tried not to think about that. Her mind tried to take itself somewhere light, recollecting memories as she carried Sam down the stairs, sitting for a minute before climbing up to get Dean.
Even in death, they’d be together.
It was probably sometime around midday when Y/N watched the last few flames die down. The house wasn’t a fire hazard, as Sam would have made sure, so she felt safe enough knowing that anybody who came by would just see a recently burned house with nothing but ashes inside. The bodies would be cremated; Dean found some spell that ensured it, so it was quickly memorized and often utilized. Her way back to the impala was short and did not register in her mind, but she paid no notice. Nothing caught her attention.
Like clockwork, Y/N fell onto the back seat. She sat expectantly for half a moment before realizing that her brothers weren’t going to sit in the front seat. Sam wouldn’t ask how she was holding up while Dean teased him for asking her while he looked like that, before giving her that look that asked the same damn thing. She couldn’t tell them that she was fine, that she desperately needed whatever fast food she was craving to survive, that at least she wasn’t on her period (often followed by groans and a fake ‘blech!’ sound from Dean that cracked them all up). Y/N could never say those things to them.
She slid into the front seat. Part of her expected to hear Dean’s gruff voice ask her what the hell d’you think you’re doing, but none came. There were no sounds other than her shallow breaths and the occasional car from the road they had driven off of. Shakily, her hands pulled the clinking keys out of her pocket and started the ignition. The engine rumbled, soft and familiar and coaxing her to tears that refused to spill.
There was so much grief, so much anger, so much whatever the fuck this is that Y/N felt that it overwhelmed her and nulled every emotion that brought itself up in her. She wanted to cry; she wanted to cry and scream and pull out her hair and beat her hands against the steering wheel until they bled and scream out to whoever would listen and ask why them, why them when they only helped people and didn’t deserve this in a thousand years. Nothing came out.
Y/N shifted the car into reverse and pulled out of the dirt side road Dean had parked on only 12 hours before.
@zeusmyster @mogaruke @assbutt-still-in-hell @spn67-sister @sammysbeanie @thyotakukimkim @lemonadegazeelle @obsessivecompulsivespn @peteyparkerson
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Yellow Fever
Pairing: DeanXsister!reader, SamXsister!reader
Disclaimers: minor mentions of depression and suicide, blood, vomit, heart attacks
Word Count: 10.7K
M A S T E R L I S T
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My chest burned with the pressure of my racing heart as I pumped my arms and legs, propelling myself forward and away from the incessant barking coming from behind me.
I chanced a look over my shoulder, fear inching its way through every bone in my body as it chased me, figuring this would surely be the end if I couldn’t pick up my pace.
I rounded a corner down the long, dark alleyway I’d been running down when suddenly I was crashing to the ground after having collided with a shopping cart full of trash. I groaned, flopping onto my stomach as I pushed myself to my feet. My eyes bounced up to the man whose cart I’d fallen over, “Run! It’ll kill you!”
The man looked from me and down to where I was pointing where the small Yorkie looked back up at me with those beady, dark eyes. The pink bow nestled in between its ears could’ve fooled anybody- but I could see right through it. I could picture it now: the minute it got a hold of me, it would tear me apart. I’d be dead within minutes.
Quickly, and with adrenaline still pumping heavily through my veins, I turned quickly on my heels and began to sprint in the opposite direction, desperately trying to outrun that tiny, vicious ball of evil.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Rock Ridge, Colorado.
43 Hours Earlier
“Agent Tyler, Agent Perry, Agent Kramer, meet Frank O’Brien.” the coroner said as he unzipped the body bag, revealing the face of a middle-aged white man.
“He died of a heart attack, right?” Sam asked.
The coroner nodded, “Three days ago.”
“But O’Brien was 44 years old and, according to this,” Sam opened up the manila folder in his hands as he read from it, “a marathon runner.”
“Everybody drops dead sooner or later,” the coroner simply shrugged, “it’s why I got job security.”
“Yeah, but Frank kicked it here.” Dean said, “Now just yesterday, two perfectly healthy men bit it in Maumee...all heart attacks. You don’t think that’s strange?”
“Sounds like Maumee’s problem to me. Why’s the FBI give a damn, anyway?”
“We just want to see the results of Franks autopsy,” I said, nodding to the coroner who gave me a confused look.
“What autopsy?”
I smiled the best polite, fake, smile I could, the one that suggested he really didn’t have a choice in the matter, “The one you’re gonna do.”
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Sam, Dean, and I watched on as the coroner began the first incision, beginning at the base of the chest cavity and down to the middle of Frank’s abdomen. “First dead body?”
“Far from it,” Dean said as he watched on, his arms crossed. They always seemed so unfazed by the entire cutting open of a dead person gig. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.
“Oh, good,” the coroner said as he pulled back the sides of Frank’s stomach, unsettlingly reminding me of the time I had to dissect a frog in high school, “’cause these suckers can get pretty ripe.” the coroner nodded toward the metal table next to me, “Hey, hand me those rib cutters, would you?”
My hand hovered over the tools when I spotted the one that most resembled a pair of pliers, handing them over to the coroner. I winced as he broke numerous ribs in order to get through to Frank’s chest.
The coroner pulled out layers of muscle, piling it up in his hand as he looked to me again, “Hold this for me.”
“Oh, I’d really rather not-”
Before I knew it, I had a handful of muscle as Sam and Dean smirked at me as I held it far, fat away.
“Is this from a wedding ring?” Dean asked as he eyed Frank’s hand where, sure enough, a small patch of skin on his ring finger looked as if he were still wearing it, “I didn’t think Frank was married.”
“Ain’t my department.”
Sam picked up Frank’s arm, revealing his skin that looked as if it’d been burned off. However, as I looked closer, they weren’t burn marks at all. They were scratches.
“You know what? When you drop dead, you actually tend to drop. Body probably got scraped up when it hit the ground...huh.”
“What?” We said in unison as the coroner peered inside the body.
The coroner shook his head, “I- I can’t find any blockages in any of the major arteries.”
We watched as the coroner then stuck nearly his entire forearm into the chest cavity. My eyes went wide with horror as he felt around for something and, when he successfully grabbed a hold of it, tore it from the body, eliciting a wet and cracking sound. He held Frank’s heart up under the spot light.
I gagged slightly, covering my mouth with my upper arm in an attempt to keep my lunch down, the muscle in my hands feeling heavier than ever.
“Heart looks pretty damn healthy.” the coroner said, looking to Dean as he held the heart out, “Hold that a second, would you?” Suddenly, he shoved the heart into Dean’s hands, making him look to Sam and I in confusion.
I smirked at him this time, mocking him for making fun of me. Sam smiled beside himself at the picture of Dean and I as the coroner went back to work, cutting something deep in Frank’s chest when is spurted upward and directly into Sam’s eyes.
“Oh, sorry.” The coroner apologized, “Spleen juice.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sam, Dean and I sat in the police station silently as the lower-ranking officer sat across from us at a large desk, smiling as if to distract us from how long we’d been waiting to speak to the Sheriff.
“Hell’s bells, Linus, have you seen my-” the Sheriff asked, poking his head from his office, stopping as he spotted the three of us. Sam, Dean, and I stood from our seats. “Who are they?”
“Federal agents, I uh-”
“And you kept them waiting?”
“You- you said not to disturb-”
“Come on back, agents.” The Sheriff said, ignoring him as he motioned us inside, stopping us before we could enter his office. “Shoes off.”
We raised our eyebrows at the odd request, but, nonetheless, kicked our shoes off on the welcome mat outside the door. The office was lined with showcases of trophies and medals, framed achievement awards and a file cabinet. He obviously kept busy.
“Al Britton,” he introduced, shaking each of our hands. “Good to meet you. Take a seat.”
Pulling the chairs out on the opposite side of his desk, we sat down, watching as he pulled a large bottle of hand sanitizer from his desk drawer, pouring a generous amount into his hand, watching the three of us in uncomfortable silence before he finally decided to sit down. “So. What can I do for Uncle Sam?”
“Well, we’re looking into the death of Frank O’Brien.” Sam said, looking to Dean and I before looking back to Al. “We understand a few of your men found his body.”
Al’s face fell slightly, “They did...me and Frank, we were friends. Hell, we were gamecocks.” Dean wheezed slightly, quickly closing his mouth as Al raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s our softball team’s name. They’re majestic animals.”
I nodded slowly, “So, uh, how long have you known Frank?”
“Since high school. To be honest, I just this morning got up the strength to go see him. Frank was...he was a good man.”
“Yeah,” Dean said, “big heart.”
“Bigger muscles,” I confirmed, nodding as Al nodded along in agreement.
Sam quickly interjected, “Before he died, did you notice Frank acting strange, maybe, scared of something?”
“Oh, hell yeah.” Al said as he clasped his hands together on his desk. “Real jumpy.”
“You know what scared him?”
“No. Wouldn’t answer his phone. Finally, I sent some of my boys over to check on him, and, well, you know the rest.”
Al coughed twice into his hand after that, a labored cough that nearly sounded like someone who’d been smoking for years, at least. We watched, eyebrows cinched together as he poured more hand sanitizer into his hands, vigorously rubbing them together. “So, why the feds give a crap? You don’t really think there’s a case here?”
Dean looked to us, opening and closing his mouth, unsure of what to say, “No, no. It’s probably nothing. Just a heart attack.”
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“No way that was just a heart attack.” Dean said once we exited the police station.
“Definitely no way.” I said, shaking my head, “Three victims, all with those same red scratches, all went from jittery to terrified to dead within 48 hours.”
“Something scared them to death?” Sam joked. “Alright, so, what can do that?”
“What can’t?” I clarified. “Ghosts, vampires, chupacabra, it could be a hundred things.”
“Yeah, so, we make a list, start crossing things off.”
“Alright. Who’s the last person to see Frank O’Brien alive?:
“Uh, his neighbor, Mark Hutchins.”
As we continued down the sidewalk, I caught sight of the group of people in front of us, huddled together at the end of the road. I quickly grabbed Sam and Dean’s arms, pulling them back, “Hang on.”
“What?”
I glanced from them to the ground, trying not to make eye contact with the group, “I don’t like the looks of those teenagers down there. Let’s walk this way.”
Before they could intervene I quickly darted across the road, keeping my head low as I approached the other side of the street, crisis averted.
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“Tyler, Perry, and Kramer,” Frank’s neighbor, Mark Hutchins said as he stroked the long garden snake that was resting over his shoulders, “just like Aerosmith.”
“Yeah, small world,” Sam said. Mark’s living room was littered with every animal known to man. Small ones and big ones, skinny and fat, long and short, scales and tongues that darted out against the glass enclosures they were encased in. I caught the eye of a lizard who whipped his head to mine, making me jump slightly, returning my attention back to Mark, “so, the last time you saw Frank O’Brien?”
“Monday. He was watching me from his window.” Mark gestured with his head toward the window across from us, “I waved at him, but he just closed the curtains.”
“Did you speak to him recently? Did he seem different...scared?”
“Oh, totally. He was freaking out.”
I wrung my hands together as I side-eyed the small crocodile in the tank next to me, his beady eyes always watching me, trying to keep my focus on what they were talking about while fear pumped through my veins.
“Do you know what scared him?” Dean asked as he crouched down to look at a bearded dragon.
Mark thought about it before answering, “Well, yeah, witches.”
“Witches?”
“Well, ‘Wizard of Oz’ was on TV the other night, right?” Mark began. He gestured wildly with his hands and I kept my eyes trained on the snake around him. “And he said that green bitch was totally out to get him.”
Sam, Dean and I raised our eyebrows at the odd accusation, nodding slowly. This Frank guy was beginning to sound bat shit crazy, “Anything else scare him?”
“Everything else scared him. Al-Qaeda, ferrets, artificial sweetener, those Pez dispensers with their dead little eyes, lots of stuff.”
As Mark listed everything off, I began to bounce my leg in anxiousness, unconsciously cracking my knuckles as I surveyed the area around me, my heart picking up more and more speed as I noticed a new animal each time I looked around the room. A tarantula, a bullfrog, a chameleon that constantly changed colors.
“So, tell me, what was Frank like?” Sam asked.
Mark hesitated, “I mean, he’s dead, you know? I- I don’t want to hammer him, but he got better.”
“Got better?”
“Well, in high school he was- he was a dick.”
“A dick?”
“Like a bully.” Mark clarified, “I mean, he probably taped half the town’s butt cheeks together,” I couldn’t help myself but laugh lightly at the thought of it, quickly snapping my mouth shut when Mark gave me a deadly glare, “mine included.”
“So he pissed a lot of people off,” I said, “you think anyone would have wanted to get revenge?”
“Well I don’t...” Frank paused, eyes darting across the floor before looking back up at us, “Frank had a heart attack, right?”
Dean came back around the room after having examined each reptile before sitting back down in a chair next to Sam, “Just answer the question, sir.”
“No...I don’t think so.” Mark shook his head in confusion, “Like I said, he got better. After what happened to his wife.”
“His wife?” Dean asked, raising an eyebrow to Sam and I, “So he was married?”
“She died, about 20 years ago,” Mark said, sadly, “Frank was really broken up about it.”
I grimaced at the snake that now laid still in Mark’s arms, feeling as if at any moment it could strike. I sat on the edge of the couch, trying to settle my racing heart. Mark looked at me, confused before laughing, “Don’t be afraid of Donny. He’s a sweetheart. It’s Marie you gotta look out for. She smells fear.”
As if on cue, a fat, yellow spotted python began to peek over the couch, its body slowly slithering over the cushions next to my shoulder. I snapped my head forward, inhaling sharply as I felt it nudge my arm, its head nearly the size of my fist. I watched Sam and Dean in desperation, took scared to move as the snake came down over my shoulder and down across my lap.
My eyes trailed to Mark pleadingly, my words coming out in short bursts of air, “Little help here.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I sat in the back of the Impala, repeatedly itching my inner arm mindlessly as Dean read through article after article in the front when he dramatically groaned, “Y/N would you stop scratching that thing already?”
My hand suddenly stopped, not realizing how loud the material of my jacket was. “I’m telling you Dean, it was one of those dumb animals.”
Sam pulled the car door open then, sliding in next to Dean, “Any luck at the counter clerk’s office?”
“Not sure I’d call it luck.” Dean said as I scooted to be in between their shoulders as Dean passed me a printed copy of an article of a missing woman, “Frank’s wife, Jessie, was a manic-depressive. She went off her meds back in ‘88 and vanished. They found her two weeks later, three towns over, strung up in her motel room- suicide.”
“Any chance Frank helped her along to the other side?” Sam asked, nicking the article from my hands.
“No, Frank was working the swing shift when she disappeared.” Dean turned the engine over, the Impala rumbling to life, “Airtight alibi.”
Dean immediately sped off down the road, making me grip the door handle as I watched him fly down the road with no regard to the speed limit. I swallowed roughly, my heart beginning to race again. What if he got into a wreck? What if he hit someone walking across the road?
I tried my best to push all of the bad thoughts out of my head and tried to focus on something else, “How was Frank’s pad?”
“Clean,” Sam said, “searched it top to bottom. No EMF, no hex bags, no sulfur.”
“So probably no ghosts, no witches, no demons.” Dean said, “Three down and 97 to go.”
As we entered the city limits, Dean began to go faster, the cars and buildings on the other side of the road looking like smudges as he gassed it. I gripped tighter onto the door, “Dean, you’re gonna get us killed.”
Sam turned halfway in his seat to look at me, his eyebrows cinched together in confusion as Dean’s eyes darted to mine through the rearview mirror. “I’m going five over.”
“Is safety a crime now?!” I nearly shouted, “And why doesn’t this damn car have seat belts, anyway?”
Dean widened his eyes slightly as he shook his head, coming to a stop at an intersection. I nearly stuck my head out of the window to see the oncoming traffic.
“Y/N, get back in the car!” Dean nearly shouted as he slammed on his breaks. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Dean, were you really going to make a left-hand turn onto oncoming traffic!?” My wild eyes darted to Sam who stared at me in confusion, “Is he suicidal!?” I sat back against the seats as Dean turned anyway, as I held my breath, thinking about what I’d said. “Did I just say that? That was kind of weird wasn’t it?”
As we pulled in front of the motel room, a low whining came from the front seat, almost like static, making Sam look around the car, “Do you hear something?”
Dean and I looked over to Sam who felt around his jacket pockets before pulling out the EMF detector, holding it out for us to see, the lights on top going crazy as he moved it over him and Dean, the lights disappearing. However, as he hovered it over the backseat, the red lights lit up like a Christmas tree.
My heart fell as I stared at them, wide-eyed. “Am I haunted?” When Sam and Dean didn’t say anything, I began to panic, “Am I haunted!?”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I laid against the Impala’s seats, the warm sun beating down on my face through the back window. Sam and Dean had gone across the street to get breakfast, but the last thing I was going to do was walk across a busy street just for some donuts and possibly encountering a bakery robber? No thanks, I wasn’t insane.
Eye of the Tiger began filtering through the car speakers, the bass rumbling beneath me as I started to play the drums along with the beat, getting ready to belt out the chorus when two rhythmic slaps on the roof of the car made me fly up in my seat. I muted the music, laying a hand over my chest, Sam and Dean watched me in confusion from outside the car.
I quickly threw the door open, “You guys, look at this.” I rolled the sleeves of my shirt up, revealing three short scratches on my inner arm that almost looked like they’d come from a cat.
“I told you to stop itching that thing, Y/N,” Dean said, cocking an eyebrows as he grabbed a donut from the box in his hands. “We talked to Bobby.”
“And?”
Sam and Dean glanced at each other, having one of their silent conversations, “It’s ghost sickness.”
“Ghost sickness?”
“Yeah.”
I leaned back against the car, sighing, just the name of it giving me the creeps, “God, no...” I shook my head, “I don’t even know what that is.”
“Some cultures believe that certain spirits can infect the living with disease, which is why they stopped displaying bodies in houses and started taking them off to funeral homes-” Sam began, but I really wasn’t interested in a history lesson at this point.
“Okay, get to the good stuff.”
“Symptoms are you get anxious,” Dean began, his voice muffled as he spoke around the donuts coating his mouth, “and scared, then really scared, then your heart gives out. Sound familiar?”
I ran my tongue over my teeth, watching the two of them, “Yeah, but, we haven’t seen a ghost in weeks.”
“Well I doubt you caught it from a ghost. Look, once a spirit infects that first person, ghost sickness can spread like any sickness through a cough, a handshake, whatever. It’s like the flu.”
Dean threw the box of donuts into the open window of the car, licking the powder off of his thumb, “Now, Frank O’Brien was the first to die, which means he was probably the first infected. Patient zero. Our very own outbreak monkey.”
“Right.” Sam confirmed. I switched my attention to him, worrying my lip between my teeth now, “Get this- Frank was in Maumee over the weekend. Softball tournament...which was where he must have infected the other two victims.”
“Were they Gamecocks?” I asked, thinking back to the Sheriff.
“Cornjerkers.” Dean clarified, rolling his eyes at the name.
I sighed, “So, let me get this straight. Ghost infected Frank, he passed it on to the other guys, and I got it from his corpse?”
“Right.”
“So now, what, I have 48 hours before I go insane and my heart stops?” I asked, already feeling my impending doom.
“More like 24.”
I nodded, “Super...how do we stop it?”
“We gank the ghost that started all this. We do that, the disease should clear up.” Sam said, making it sound like a simple task.
“You guys thinking Frank’s wife?” Dean asked.
“Who knows why she killed herself, you know?” Sam shrugged. I ran both of my hands through my hair as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“What are you doing waiting out here, anyway?” Dean asked, eyeing me.
My eyes bounced up to his and then to the motel behind us. I stared up at the tall building, the numerous floors. Just the thought of being all the way up there made me queasy, “Our room’s on the fourth floor. It’s uh...it’s high.”
Sam and Dean laughed lightly, raising their eyebrows at me, “I’ll see if I can move us down to the first.”
“Thanks.” I said quickly, shaking my head as I slid back into the Impala, ready to get rid of this sickness.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I sat at a table in the motel room, an open lore book sitting in front of me. I was supposed to have been reading it while Sam and Dean were out talking to victims families. Now just the idea of having to get into that hunk of metal Dean called a car looked more like a moving death trap to me.
I desperately tried to focus on the pages but I found myself reading and rereading the same three sentences over and over again because the clock above me continued to tick, tick, tick as if it were reminding me just how little time I had left.
I stared at the clock, shaking my head as if to clear the noise. I looked back down at the book which now seemed to be on a completely different page. Two graphic images looked back up at me, a man, vomiting pools of blood onto the ground and the other, a woman’s chest looking as if it’d been ripped from the base of her throat to the middle of her stomach.
I coughed twice, my throat suddenly feeling raw. As I leaned in closer to the book, where in the middle of a sentence, the words, You’re dying. stood out among the page. I cinched my eyebrows together as I continued to read. Again. I rubbed at my eyelids, I was just tired. Yeah, that was it.
I looked back down at the pages. You gonna cry? I pushed the book away, my heart racing as the ticking of the clock above me seemed to become louder and louder until it sounded like atom bombs dropping. I covered my ears with my arms, clasping my hands behind my head but the ticking only increased, faster and faster, I could nearly feel myself fading away-
In one swift motion I flew up from the chair, nearly knocking it to the ground as I punched a fist right through the middle of the clock, glass scattering as I threw it onto the floor, the ticking finally ceasing.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I laid across the couch, staring at the dirty motel ceiling, my hands clasped over my stomach, enjoying the silence when they came back. I felt their eyes on me as they looked from the shattered clock on the floor to where I was put up.
“Everything okay?” Dean asked, setting plastic bags of takeout onto the table.
“Oh yeah,” I sighed, “just peachy.” I sat up on the couch, throwing my legs over the side as I held my head in my hands, “Find anything?”
“Yeah,” Sam said, coming to sit across from me, “Jessie O’Brien’s body was cremated, so we’re pretty sure she is not our ghost.”
“Hey,” Dean said, nudging my foot that was propped on the coffee table now, “stop picking at that.” I looked down to where I’d been subconsciously scratching at my inner arm, my hands falling to my sides. “How’re you feelin’?”
“Awesome,” I smiled sarcastically, “it’s nice to have my head on the chopping block again. I almost forgot what that feels like.”
“We’ll keep looking.”
I raised my eyebrows slightly as I began to cough again into my hand. Bringing it away, it was splattered with blood, my eyes going wide as I continued to choke, bringing my hands to my chest as I punched a closed fist around it.
“You okay?” Dean asked, the two of them at the edge of their seats now. “Hey!”
I gagged, unable to answer them from something blocking my airways as I ran to the bathroom, the two of them close on my heels as I hovered over the sink, my hands gripping the counter. I dry heaved multiple times, desperately trying to get air past the thing clogging my throat when suddenly, it flew from my mouth.
Sam, Dean and I stared at it as I picked it up, rinsing the blood away under the faucet as I held it up. A small, rectangular wooden piece with strange engravings on the front.
Sam examined it closely, “We’ve been ignoring the biggest clue we have...you.”
I rolled the block in my hand, “I don’t wanna be a clue.”
“Sam’s right,” Dean said, eyebrows raised in understanding. “The abrasions, this, the disease...it’s trying to tell us something.”
“Tell us what?!” I nearly shouted, holding up the block, “Wood chips!?”
Sam laughed halfheartedly, “Exactly.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dean drove up in front of the rundown lumber mill, throwing the car into park. As we filed out, I stared up at the abandoned building, running my teeth over my bottom lip as I surveyed everything that could go wrong in there. Bodies, ghosts, one scratch against a rusty nail and one of us could get tetanus.
“I’m not going in there,” I said, shaking my head as I turned to them.
“We need you in there, Y/N,” Dean said as he rounded to the trunk, pulling open the weapons arsenal, “c’mon, it’ll be good for you!”
I scoffed slightly, rolling my eyes as I stuffed my hands into my pockets, “Yeah, real good.” I watched as Sam and Dean each pulled out their guns as they passed mine to me. Usually, I would’ve taken it with no hesitation, but this time, a feeling of dread washed over me at the sight of it, “Oh, I’m not carrying that.” Sam and Dean cocked their eyebrows at me, “It could go off!” My eyes raked over the trunk before reaching for what looked the safest, holding it close to my chest, “I’ll man the flashlight.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I followed close behind Dean who lead the way into the lumber mill, sandwiched between him and Sam. I made sure to keep a firm grip on the back of Dean’s jacket. The last thing we needed was to get separated. I shone the flashlight over the high walls and outdated machinery that sat unused for what had to have been more than fifty plus years.
We made it nearly a hundred feet into the building when the EMF detector in Sam’s jacket went off, the lights going crazy as he held it out in front of him.
“EMF’s not gonna work with me around, is it?” I asked, slightly hopeful they’d send me back to wait in the car.
“You don’t say,” Sam said as he pocketed the EMF detector, “come on.”
I groaned slightly as we walked deeper into the dark when suddenly, Dean stopped, the quick movement making me jump. He leaned down close to the ground as he picked up a small, silver ring, reading the engravings, “To Frank, Love Jessie.” He looked to Sam and I, “Frank O’Brien’s ring...What the hell was Frank doing here?”
“No idea,” Sam shrugged as we pushed ourselves up off of the ground as we rounded a corner. It was much darker down this hallway, the only light coming from small windows high up on the walls.
We seemed to be walking aimlessly, randomly picking which doors to go through and which to avoid. It was an extremely dangerous method if you asked me, but I couldn’t find it in myself to mention that to either of them.
“You know, this isn’t so bad-” I began when, as if on cue, a loud rattling came from fifty feet ahead of us, the noise nearly making me jump out of my skin. I gripped Sam’s shoulder for leverage as I watched with wild eyes, Dean walking toward the source.
A row of lockers sat in a small, square room where the noise seemed to be getting louder, my heart rate picking up as I watched Sam slowly reach for the locker. I whimpered lamely as he counted down from three and I suddenly wished I’d taken them up on that gun.
“One...” Sam began counting, “two...three!”
In one swift motion, Sam yanked the locker open, a cat flying from the top shelf, making me scream horror, my voice incredibly high, the screeches echoing through the small room. Both Sam and Dean watching me with wide eyes as I panted, my hands resting on my knees as I caught my breath, adrenaline pumping through my veins as I looked at them, “That was scary!”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The next room was littered with loose papers, fallen bookcases and empty desks. It looked like it could’ve been an office at one point. We surveyed the area, checking out the everything we could that could lead us to the ghost we needed to get rid of in order to cure me.
“Luther Garland,” Sam said from one side of the room after examining an ID. I looked over his shoulder, shining the flashlight on the picture of the man.
“He’s creepy.”
“Hey!” Dean said from over a desk. He was holding up a drawn portrait on yellowing paper, “This is...this is Frank’s wife.”
“Plot thickens,” Sam said, the two of us coming to look at the picture, comparing it to the missing persons article Dean had in his pocket.
“Yeah, but into what?”
Dean ripped the portrait up from the table when a loud noise filtered through the building, like machinery coming to life. I jumped, turning around as I flashed the light over the room, once, twice-
My flashlight stopped at a figure in the corner, my blood instantly running cold, my heart stopping. He was facing away from us, a big, bald man. My hands shook, I tried to call out to Sam and Dean but to no use. I slowly brought my free hand up to Sam, hitting his arm. “G-ghost.”
Sam and Dean quickly turned around, training their shotguns on the ghost, “Hey!” Dean shouted, “Hey, asshat!”
I saw this as my chance. I dropped the flashlight onto the ground and sprinted out of the revolving doors, pumping my arms and legs until I was outside, quivering as I squatted down low behind the car, but not before snagging Dean’s bottle of whiskey he kept in the driver’s side door, quickly gulping it down, letting the alcohol wash over me.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“This is the Garland file,” the deputy said, handing Sam a manila folder. It was the same deputy, the young one who wouldn’t let us see the Sheriff for nearly an hour. Dean and Sam examined the file as I stood back, not wanting to get any glance at the bloody crime scene photos. The deputy’s eyes traveled past Dean’s shoulder and over to me where I was fiddling with my suit jacket, “Is...is she drunk?”
“No,” Sam said quickly as he motioned for me to sit down.
“Deputy, according to this,” Dean said, pointing to a document in the file, “Luther Garland’s cause of death was physical trauma. What does that mean?”
“They guy died 20 years ago- before my time. Sorry.”
“Can we talk to the Sheriff?”
“He’s out sick today.”
Sam nodded slowly, “Well, if you see him, will you have him call us? We’re staying at the Bluebird.”
“Sure thing,” the deputy said as Sam and Dean began to head toward the exit. I shifted on my feet, smiling at him.
“You know what?” I slurred slightly before pointing at him, “You’re cute.”
The deputy blushed, smiling, “Uh, thanks. You too.”
I smiled sheepishly, stumbling before Dean grabbed me by the back of my neck and forced me out of the police station.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“I can’t believe you drank half of that bottle,” Dean said as we walked through the nursing home where Luther Garland’s brother was said to be living.
“I can’t believe you keep alcohol in your car,” I said, rubbing my aching head as the alcohol began to wear off. “This isn’t gonna work.” I shook my head, “These badges are fake. We could get busted, we could go to jail!”
“Y/N, shh!” Sam reprimanded, stopping me in the middle of the hallway, “Calm down. Deep breath, okay?” Sam demonstrated the deep breathing, in through his nose and out through his mouth. “There. You feel better?”
I slowly shook my head in fear as Dean grabbed the two of us, “Just- come on!”
Dean lead us into the nursing home’s rec room where a nurse said Garland spent most of his time. Sure enough, at a table by himself, a man with long, thinning hair in a wheelchair sat next to a tall window.
Sam cleared his throat, getting the man’s attention, “Mr. Garland.” He looked up at us, eyebrow cocked, “I’m Agent Tyler, this is Agent Perry and Agent Kramer- FBI. We’d like to ask you a few questions about your brother, Luther.”
Mr. Garland sat back in his chair, clasping his hands in front of him, “Let me see some ID.”
I whipped my head to Sam and Dean, shakily opening my badge as we handed them to him. Mr. Garland studied them closely before eyeing the three of us.
“Those are real.” I assured, “Obviously.” Dean cleared his throat, giving me a deadly glare. “I- I mean, who would pretend to be an FBI Agent, huh? That’s just nutty!”
Sam stomped lightly onto my toes making me stop mid sentence as I grimaced at Mr. Garland who handed the badges back, “What do you want to know?”
Sam held up the folder given to him by the deputy as we all pulled out chairs across from Mr. Garland, “Well, according to this, your brother Luther died of physical trauma.”
Mr. Garland scoffed, shaking his head as Dean raised his eyebrows at him, “You don’t agree.”
“No I don’t.”
“Well, then what would you call it?”
Mr. Garland ran a finger over the rim of his coffee mug, “Don’t matter what an old man thinks.”
“Mr. Garland,” Sam said, “we’re just trying to get the truth on your brother. Please.”
Mr. Garland hesitated, reaching across the table toward the file as he plucked the ID we’d found in the lumber mill, “Everybody was scared of Luther. They called him a monster. He was too big, too mean-looking. Just too...different.” Mr. Garland ran his thumb over the picture as he described his brother, “Didn’t matter he was the kindest man I ever knew. Didn’t matter he’d never hurt no one. A lot of people failed Luther,” he said, tears brimming his eyes, “I was one of ‘em...I was a widower with three young’uns, and, I told myself there was nothing I could do.”
Sam nodded sympathetically as he unfolded the portrait of Frank’s wife, “Mr. Garland, um...do you recognize this woman?”
"It’s Jessie O’Brien,” he confirmed, “her man, Frank, killed Luther
I raised my eyebrows as Dean took the words right out of my mouth, “How do you know that?”
“Everybody knows. They just don’t talk about it.” Mr. Garland looked to the three of us, and when he realized we wanted the full story, he sighed at the memory, “Jessie was a receptionist at the mill. She was always real nice to Luther, and he had a crush on her. But Frank didn’t like it. And when Jessie went missing, Frank was sure that Luther had done something to her. Turns out the old gal killed herself, but Frank didn’t know that...they found Luther with a chain wrapped around his neck. He was dragged up and down the stretch outside that plant till he was past dead.”
“And O’Brien was never arrested?” I asked, finding it hard to believe someone could get away with doing something like that.
“I screamed to every cop in town. They didn’t want to look into Frank. He was a pillar of the community, my brother was just the town freak.”
“You must’ve hated Frank O’Brien,” Dean said.
Mr. Garland nodded, “I did for a long time, but, life’s too short for hate, son. And Frank wasn’t thinking straight. His wife had vanished. He was terrified. A damn shame he had to put Luther through the same, but...that’s fear.” Mr. Garland’s gaze settled on me, as if he knew what was happening in me, “It spreads and spreads.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Now we know what these are- road rash,” I said as we exited the nursing home, motioning to my inner arm, “and I’m guessing Luther swallowed some wood chips when he was being dragged down that road.”
“Makes sense,” Sam said, setting the case file onto the top of the car, “you’re experiencing his death in slow motion.”
“Yeah, well, not slow enough, huh? I say we burn some bones and get me healthy.”
“Y/N, it won’t be that easy,” Dean cautioned.
“No, no. It will be that easy.” I clarified, my eyes darting between him and Sam, “Why wouldn’t it be that easy?”
“Luther was road hauled. His body was ripped to pieces. He was probably scattered all over that road. There’s no way we’re gonna find all the remains.”
My breathing quickened at Sam’s logic, steadying myself on the car, “You’re kidding me.”
“Look, we’ll just have to figure something else out.” Dean said as he pulled his keys from his pocket. I slowly pulled the backdoor open before slamming it shut again.
I shook my head, taking off away from the car, “You know what? Screw this.”
“Woah, woah!” Dean nearly shouted, him and Sam following me, “Come on-”
“No! I mean...come on, you guys.” I stared at them both wide eyed, feeling lost and confused and angry because I didn’t want to die. Of all the ways I thought I’d go out, dying of an illness was not one of them. “What are we even doing!?”
“We’re hunting a ghost,” Sam said slowly as if to help me better understand.
“A ghost! Exactly! Who does that!?”
Dean squinted his eyes at me as if trying to figure out if it was a trick question, “...us.”
“Us? Right.” I panted, feeling like I was going crazy. Every detail of our lives hitting me like a train, “And that- that is exactly why our lives suck! I mean, come on. We hunt monsters! What the hell!?” Sam and Dean watched me closely as I ranted but quietly listened nonetheless, “I mean, normal people, they see a monster, and they run but not us- no, no, no, we- search out things that want to kill us. OR EAT US! You know who does that? Crazy people! We, are insane!” I began to walk circles around the car, ticking off everything on my fingers as I rambled, everything I’d kept inside about our lives finally bubbling up, “You know, and then there’s the bad diner food and then the skeevy motel rooms and then the truck-stop waiter with the bizarre rash, I mean, who wants this life?! Do you actually like being stuck in a car with me eight hours a day, every single day? I don’t think so! I mean, I get car sick and I belt out the same five albums over and over and over again, and I’m annoying, I know that. And you two- you’re gassy! And it’s not just Dean, either, Sam, you eat half a burrito, and you get toxic! I mean, you know what, you can forget it.”
I panted, throwing my hands in the air as I walked toward the sidewalk, away from the car as Sam and Dean called after me, “Where are you going?”
I quickly turned on my heels, pointing at them, “Stay away from me! ‘Cause I am done with it. I’m done with the monsters and- and- and the hellhounds and the ghost sickness and the damn apocalypse. I’m out. I’m done. Quit.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I wiped the sweat from my forehead as I fell down on top of the motel bed. That damn dog from hell with it’s damned pink bow chased me all the way back to the Bluebird, giving me no choice but to come back.
The motel door was thrown open, Sam and Dean confused but relieved nonetheless at the sight of me, “We looked for you everywhere, Y/N! How the hell did you get here?”
I ground my teeth, trying to keep the dog out of my head, “Ran.”
“Don’t ever do that again,” Dean warned, pointing to me as him and Sam came to sit on the beds.
We sat in silence, knowing our options were slim-to-none. I glanced at the two of them, “What do we do now? I got less than four hours on the clock...I’m gonna die.”
“Yeah, you are.” Sam agreed, Dean nodding his head along with him. I sat back slightly, cinching my eyebrows together, “You’re going back.”
“Back?”
“Downstairs, Y/N. Hell,” Dean clarified, not a trace of sadness in his voice, “it’s about damn time, too. Truth is, you’ve been a real pain in our ass.”
At his words, Sam and Dean looked to me, Dean’s eyes pitch black while Sam’s were glowing yellow. I quickly stood from the bed but was thrown back against the wall, a pressure on my chest so strong I could hardly move my fingers.
“Get out of my brothers!” I yelled, only eliciting a laugh from them, “Bitch!”
Sam and Dean stood to their full heights as they smiled, “No one’s possessing us, Y/N. This is what we’re going to become.” They drew closer until they were inches from my face, “This is what we want to become.” Sam laid a hand on my shoulder, “and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“I can take this from here,” Dean said this time, coming to stand where Sam was as he suddenly gripped me around the throat, squeezing, cutting off every airway-
“Hey, hey, hey! Y/N!” Dean shouted and suddenly, I could breathe again. I scratched at my throat, my eyes flying up to him as I pushed them both away slightly, their eyes back to their normal colors. Sam and Dean watched me closely, “You’re okay. It’s alright.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Sam’s POV*
I leaned against the Impala, waiting for Bobby to bring me the lore book he said could be of some use. Y/N was too scared to even stay alone in the motel by herself, the threat of a burglar in the middle of the day too big of a threat for her that she insisted Dean stay with her.
The low rumble of a car came up behind the Impala where Bobby came to a stop, “Howdy, Sam.”
“Hey, Bobby. Thanks for coming so quick.”
“Where are the other two?” Bobby asked, referring to Y/N and Dean.
I laughed lightly, trying my best to make light of a pretty dark situation, “Uh, home sick.”
“So, have her hallucinations started yet?”
I nodded, thinking back to how she’d freaked out on Dean and I, “Few hours ago.”
“How we doing on time?”
“Well, we saw the coroner about 8 AM Monday morning,” I checked my watch, the realization of just how little time he had hitting me, “so just under two hours.”
Bobby nodded as he handed over the lore book, a small, blue leather bound. “’Encyclopedia of Spirits’, dates to the Edo period.”
I flipped the book open, staring at the foreign lettering, “You can read Japanese?”
“Not the point,” he said, “this book lists a kind of ghost that could be our guy. It uh, infects people with fear. It’s called Buruburu.”
“It say how to kill it?”
“Same as usual: burn the remains.”
I sighed, fearing he’d say that, “Wonderful. Is there a plan ‘b’?”
“Well, the Buruburu is born of fear. Hell, it is fear. And the lore says we can kill it with fear.”
“So we have to scare a ghost to death?” I asked. This job just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
Bobby shrugged, “Pretty much.”
I nodded slowly, “How the hell are we gonna do that?”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Y/N’s POV*
I sat at the edge of the chair I was in, mindlessly scratching my inner arm over the gauze Dean had wrapped over it, blood seeping through the bandages.
“How many times do I have to tell you to knock that off?” Dean asked from the other end of the couch.
I groaned, rolling my eyes as I watched the cartoon on the small TV, smiling slightly when the cartoon donkey was wrung around the neck by a rope, getting dragged away by a buggy.
I grimaced slightly, snatching the remote off of the table, “Not helping.”
Dean’s phone began to ring, Sam’s caller ID lighting up. Dean quickly reached for it, putting it on speaker, “Hey.”
“Hey. So, uh, just have Y/N ride out the trip, okay? She’s- she’s gonna be fine. We got a plan.”
I cocked an eyebrow skeptically as I switched the TV off, “What is it?”
“Uh, just a good plan, alright? Hang in there.”
Sam ended the call, leaving Dean and I to helplessly look at one another, praying it would work.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Sam’s POV*
“This is a terrible plan.” Bobby said as he loaded the rock salt rounds into his shotgun at the trunk of the Impala. We were back at the lumber mill in the hopes we’d be able to get rid of Luther Garland’s ghost once and for all.
“Yeah,” I said, pocketing the phone, “tell me about it.”
“I know I said ‘scare the ghost to death’, but this?”
“Hey, if you’ve got a better idea, I’m listening.”
Bobby shrugged, shutting the trunk as he followed me into the mill, walking aimlessly around the ground floor, waiting for Luther to make an appearance.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Y/N’s POV*
I ran a hand down my face, trying to block out the sound of my racing heart and the sound of the dogs barking-
Dogs barking?
I quickly looked around the room, the sound eerily similar to that of Hellhounds. I gripped the sides of the chair, mentally cursing Dean for leaving me here to get food from across the street.
My heart rate quickened, listening as the sounds of the snarling dogs seemed to come closer and closer until the motel door began to shake as if the dogs were pounding on it.
I lowered myself onto the floor, hiding behind the chair I’d been sitting in. I watched the door as it shook and shook and shook until it was kicked inward, splinters of wood flying into the room.
This is a hallucination, I’m hallucinating. I told myself but it was all too real when Sheriff Britton stepped into the room, his chest heaving. I slowly stood, “Sheriff? what are you doing here?”
My eyes traveled down to his hand where he was holding a gun, making my body freeze in panic.
“Why are you looking into Luther Garland’s death?” Al asked, his eyes feral.
I opened and closed my mouth, trying to think of something to say when I spotted his arm, his uniform sleeve coated in blood. “Hey, hey, you’re- you’re sick. Just- just like me, okay? You gotta relax-”
Suddenly, Al swung the butt of the gun into my temple, making me momentarily see stars. I shuffled backward against the wall, holding my head.
“Frank O’Brien was my friend.” Al said, “So he made a mistake. So I didn’t bust him. So what? And you’re gonna bring me down over that!?” I rested my head against the wall, balancing myself as he pointed the gun at me, “No, ma’am.”
Without thinking, I smacked the gun out of Al’s hand just from the fear of looking down its barrel. We both stood, slightly stunned that’d actually worked. I only had a few seconds before I was forced against the wall, Al’s arm pressed against my throat. I groaned, pushing his face away from mine, but doubled over in pain as he relentlessly punched my stomach, once, twice.
Focus, Y/N!
I shook my head as if clearing away a fog and took the opportunity when Al’s side was exposed, punching his abdomen with all of my strength, but he was too strong for me.
Al banged my head against the brick one more time, my vision spotting but before I had the chance to black out, I took notice of his now black eyes. It was enough for me to throw his body off mine, sending him crashing onto the glass coffee table next to us.
I stood back, watching hesitantly as Al writhed on the floor, gripping his chest, “Get away from me!”
“Al, you gotta calm down!”
“Step back!”
I watched helplessly as his struggling became worse when suddenly, his movements stops, his fingers unfurling from his shirt as he laid motionless on the floor.
“Y/N!” a voice yelled from the hallway, Dean skidding to a stop in the doorway, his eyes wide at the sight of Al and then looking to me, “Are you okay? What happened?”
I hesitated, the severity of the situation feeling worse than ever. My eyes raked over his lifeless body before looking to Dean, “He’s dead.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Sam’s POV*
I entered the next room, shotgun held out in front of me when Bobby’s voice came over the walkie-talkie at my hip, “Any luck?”
When I figured the coast was clear I let the gun fall beside me, bringing the walkie-talkie to my mouth, “I don’t know what’s wrong, Bobby. Last time he came right at us. It’s almost like he’s, uh...” I thought about it, really thinking about the kind of person Luther’s brother painted him as when it hit me, “it’s like he’s scared.”
I looked down at the gun in my hand, slowly lowering it to the ground as a sign that I wasn’t a threat to Luther, hoping my thoughts were true.
“So now what?”
I sighed, “Guess I gotta make him angry.”
I ran up to where Dean had found the first portrait of Jessie, remembering how Luther came when Dean had accidentally ripped it. Rummaging through each desk drawer, I found a pile of drawn portraits, all of them of Jessie.
I picked one up, “Hey Luther!” I shouted as I tore it down the middle before crumpling it into a ball, ripping each one multiple times. I began to hear the familiar sound of machinery starting up, the whirring of electricity as it came to life, “Come on, Luther! Where the hell are you!?”
I searched through the desk one last time before finding the last portrait. It was the largest of them all, and by far the most detailed. This was my last chance to get Luther where I needed him. My last chance to save Y/N. I breathed in deeply as I tore that one down the middle, too.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Y/N’s POV*
I sat at the end of my bed, ruthlessly scratching at each of my arms, blood and skin beginning to pool under my fingernails when Dean came back into the motel room, panting after having gotten rid of Al’s body.
“Hey, hey.” Dean said, coming to squat in front of me, gently taking my hands away from my arms. I looked down at him, scared out of my mind as their words echoed in my head.
“You’re going back.”
“It’s about damn time, too.”
Dogs barking.
Pounding heart.
Dean’s ticking watch.
I looked down at Dean’s wrist, “Take it off.”
“What?-”
“I said take it off!” I nearly shouted, making Dean throw the watch into his duffel bag under his bed but I could still hear it, the ticking of the seconds hand winding counting down the moments until my heart stopped beating.
I covered my ears, doubling over so my head was hovering above my knees. I opened my eyes, spotting a black book poking itself out from under the bed frame. I slowly pulled it out, the Bible staring back at me as if to tell me even God couldn’t help me now.
Regardless, I brought the book close to my lips, closing my eyes as I did the one thing I hadn’t done in years: I prayed. I prayed until I could no longer hear the ticking, my heartbeat drowning out when I heard a young voice that shook me so deep into my core my eyes flew open, my heart sinking.
“Hi, Y/N.”
I slowly turned toward Lilith who sat on the bed next to me, “No. No.” I growled as I gripped the Bible tighter, looking around the room for Dean who seemed to have vanished into thin air.
“Yes!” She said, “It’s me, Lilith.” Suddenly, she grabbed me on my shoulder, hugging me, “Oh, I missed you so much! It’s time to go back now.”
I slithered out from under her grasp, standing from the bed, “You- you’re not real!”
“What’s the matter, Y/N? Don’t you remember all the fun you had down there?” I couldn’t even look at her, just her voice was something that haunted me years after I was dragged out of the pit. Lilith stood from the bed, walking toward me, “You do remember. Four months is like 40 years in Hell. Like doggy years. And you remember every second.”
For every step she took toward me, I took one back, trembling when a sharp pain reverberated in my abdomen, making me double over, “You are not real.” I gasped out, clutching my stomach.
Lilith yanked my head up so I was looking into her now all-white eyes, “It doesn’t matter. You’re still gonna die. You’re still gonna burn.”
I gritted my teeth, “Why me? Why’d I get infected?”
Lilith pulled her hands from my face, bringing her hands to her hips as her eyes rolled back to normal, “Silly goose. You know why, Dean. Listen to your heart.”
“What?” I asked, watching her.
“Ba-boom.” she said making me flinch in pain at the sudden sharpness in my chest. “Ba-boom.” I gasped in pain, falling onto my side, my hand clutching my shirt as my heart began to pound faster and faster, “Ba-boom. Ba-boom! Ba-boom!”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Sam’s POV*
Luther threw me to the dirt floor, kicking my side in. I groaned in pain, reaching for the shotgun just out of arm’s reach but he picked me up by my heels, dragging me farther and farther away.
Luther flipped me over onto my back, rhythmically pounding me into the floor, almost to the beat of a heart.
The third time he threw me to the ground, I reached behind me, grabbing hold of anything I could when I felt an iron chain. Bringing it over my head, I quickly wrapped it around Luther’s neck, his eyes going wide.
“BOBBY! PUNCH IT!”
I heard the rumble of the Impala outside of the mill doors as the car roared to life. I rolled out of the way just in time fore Luther to be dragged across the dirt floor, getting dragged out of the revolving doors.
I struggled to my feet, running outside where I watched Bobby drive faster and faster away, Luther right on the end. I checked my watch. Five seconds and Y/N would be dead.
Five.
I watched as Bobby maneuvers through light poles as the comes up on concrete.
Four.
From where I stand, it looked like Luther was trying to unwrap the chain from around his neck.
Three.
Bobby picks up speed, throwing Luther around like a rag doll.
Two.
Luther reaches again around his neck, nearly has the chain off.
One.
Suddenly, Luther starts to disintegrate, his body coming out in black rolls of smoke until finally, all that’s left is the car, and an empty chain.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Y/N’s POV*
My vision begins to fade in and out as I watch Lilith, eyes wide, thinking surely this is the end. I clutch my chest tighter, struggling to breath as I begin to accept my fate. Who would’ve thought this was how I’d go.
I took one final, shaky breath and my heart stops, a cold, dead feeling of dread washes over me, a blinding white light before suddenly it all comes rushing back, sending me flying forward through space time when I gasp for air. Dean is next to me, holding my shoulders as I cough, gulping in the air greedily.
“Holy shit,” Dean mutters as I desperately search out his hand, gripping it tightly when I find it, gagging for air. Dean pulls me close to him, “you’re alright. You’re alright.”
I slow my breathing, looking around the room, Lilith gone now. I slowly sit up, rolling my sleeves, the scratches were gone, too. “Sammy did it.”
Dean let out something between a cry and laugh of relief, “Yeah, Sammy did it.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“So you guys road-hauled a ghost with a chain?” I asked as we stood around the car, raising my eyebrows at Sam and Bobby.
“An iron chain etched with a spell word.” Sam clarified, drinking from the beer in his hand.
“Hmm,” Dean said, “now that’s a new one.”
“It’s what he was most afraid of. It was pretty brutal, though.”
“On the upside, I’m still alive, so uh, go team.” I said, nodding to them at that point, I didn’t really care how they’d done it, just that the job got done.
“Yeah,” Sam nodded, “how you feeling by the way?”
“Fine.” I said, not making eye contact with Dean who had to have known I was seeing a hallucination right before I nearly bit it.
“You sure, Y/N?” Bobby asked, “‘Cause this line of work can get awful scary.”
I ran a tongue over my teeth, I wasn’t about to worry them about some hallucination I knew wouldn’t come true, “I’m fine. You want to go hunting? I’ll go hunting. I’ll kill anything.”
Sam and Dean smirked at Bobby, “Aww.”
“She’s adorable,” Bobby smiled as the three of them laughed. “Well, I gotta get outta here. You kids drive safe.”
“You too, Bobby. Thanks again.”
Bobby waved Sam off as he drove away, dust collecting up under the back tires. We watched until his car was out of sight, until it was just the three of us leaned up against the car.
“So, uh, so, what did you see?” Sam asked. “Near the end, I mean.”
I squinted at him, blocking my eyes from the sun as I glanced to Dean who cocked an eyebrow at me. He definitely knew something. I sighed, “Oh, besides a cop beating my ass?”
“Seriously.”
I chewed on my bottom lip as I looked up at the two of them and, for an instant, I swore I could see their eyes flash. Dean’s, black, and Sam’s, yellow. I widened my eyes slightly before shifting my focus to the ground, “Howler monkeys. Whole roomful of them. Those things creep the hell out of me.”
“Right,” Sam laughed.
“No, no, just the usual stuff,” I said, trying to sound more sincere about this lie than the last. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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