Fic update: In a Cursed Hour (chapter 3)
As promised, here's chapter three: "In Silence Hid". Quick recap, since it's been a while: Abaddon never destroyed the Men of Letters; Sam and Dean grew up in the bunker while John roamed the country in a secret quest to track down Mary's killer; Sam ran away from home to go on a roadtrip of his own and wound up in Boston with Jenn, his girlfriend; Dean went to him after John stopped checking in; Jenn, like Jess, dies in a mysterious fire. Sam's much the same as his canon self, but Dean, in an effort to please his father, has become a Men of Letter's Man of Letters, to the point of creating and giving himself secret tattoos with magical properties.
And now: On their way back to the bunker, Sam and Dean take a detour to Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin, to work a case and test their skills.
November drags along with the days getting colder and the sky greyer, rain turning into sleet and the trees steadily losing all their leaves. They’ve been driving in ever-increasing circles for almost two weeks, leaving Boston and eventually Massachusetts behind. Sam and Dean take turns at the wheel, take turns in small-town libraries with checking local newspapers, police blotters. Their dad is-well. Sam would say he’s a ghost, but he knows better.