Authors:
sailorhathor and Riguel
Fandom: Supernatural RPG
The Second ComingRating: Adult
Date Written: April 2019
Word Count: Each post will include as close to 10,000 words of RP as we can get, although I'll break it up into stories.
Category: Drama, Horror, Romance
Summary: Dylan and Sacha enlist Val's help to figure out what happened with their last dreamwalking session. The answer is revealed by a search of Dylan's room with EMF detectors.
Warnings: Language, adult themes
Played by Riguel: Sacha, Val
Played by Sailorhathor: Dylan, Skylar, all others
At times, the action may seem to backtrack when one player responds to the other. This is the nature of RP and a story written by two people. I inserted an extra line after each player finishes writing their part to try to help the reader keep it all straight.
Dylan sighed at Sacha's question. "No, babe, it's not your fault. That's the wrong way to think of it. It's almost like your abilities were greatly enhanced. I haven't been dreamwalked on before, no, but it's never been this intense with us, has it? Sacha and I have shared several dreams, but we've never pulled all this crap out with us before." He began ticking items off on his fingers. "We were rolling around on the ground in the dream, getting frisky, and we both woke up with dirt all over us. Lynxcha and I played a chase game and he bit into my shorts to keep me from getting away - just bit into my clothes, not my butt - and the shorts ripped into pieces. When I woke up, my shorts were in tatters. Then there was the bottle - "
Dylan stopped himself, his cheeks flushing. He realized he was about to tell Val about the lube tree, and that was somehow embarrassing, because it went into too much detail about their sex lives. "Um... there was a tree there with bottles hanging off it, a really weird tree that would only appear in dreams, and a bottle fell from the tree and hit me on the head as I was waking up. It came out of the dream, and it's on the floor of my room. I mean, how could we go from pulling nothing out of our shared dreams to pulling multiple things out?"
Chewing at a thumbnail, he thought about it a bit. "We should search my room. Maybe I've got a magickal object in my stuff that I forgot I have, or someone else brought it in. It's like Sacha's dreamwalking went haywire. Something, maybe, is enhancing this psychic connection we have." Dylan tapped his bottom lip with his fingertip as he considered it. "Will you two help me search my room? I bet we can figure out what it is."
Thankfully Dylan had stopped himself before stating there was a tree growing lube bottles in their dream too. At that point, Sacha was already flustered anyway, on top of feeling bad for being the cause of all these way too vivid dreams. From the explanations Val gave, he interpreted them as clear signs that it was his shifter nature and whatever vibe he had that were the source of the problem, even if Dylan denied it was an issue.
“A bottle fell from a tree in the dream and it actually fell on your head as you woke up?” Val asked to make sure he had understood correctly. “Are you sure you’re not some kind of magical creature yourself?” Val asked Dylan. “Because that kind of thing is pretty much up there... In terms of spell or mental power. You remember what I did last night? Taking the rope from the garage here before falling asleep and using it in the dream and then waking up and still having the rope with me? Moving physical objects from the real physical world into dreams and back, or vice versa, this is stuff few people can do, unless they have very unusual abilities or have mastered some not very known mental techniques. It took me several years to achieve that.”
“What could be in your room? Nobody goes in there, just you and me, and Kerry,” Sacha said.
“It’s worth checking,” Val agreed. “Do you have magic artifacts in your room?”
"Yes, that's exactly what happened, and yes, it presents a great deal of power at work," Dylan said with a nod, agreeing with Val that the lube bottle falling on his head was incredible. "As far as I know, I'm not a supernatural creature. However, my Mama Dawn used to say that I had a 'touch of empathy' all the time. So I may have a light case of one psychic power."
Dylan continued, "I haven't spent any time developing this ability, and although Sacha has used his, he hasn't had time to get it to this level, where we'd be pulling all these things out of the dream and all. Sach, you're awesome, but you're not this awesome. Something amplified your powers."
To Sacha's question, he replied in a hushed voice, "We don't actually know or spend time with everyone in this bunker. I barely know Lilly. Or perhaps, Steven could have passed something to Kerry and hypnotized her into bringing it in my room and hiding it." Dylan turned to Val. "Yeah, I do have a few magickal objects in my possession that I could have in my bag or suitcase. I packed in a hurry and could have thrown something in there for protection. I'll feel better if we can identify the object or rule it out."
Dylan signaled for Sacha and Val to follow him. "Hey Skylar!"
His reply came from the library. "What?"
"Did you bring any of your EMF detectors with you?"
Skylar met them in the hall. "Yeah, I always have one with me."
"Would you get it? We need to search my room for a magickal object that's fucking with us."
"Sure. You have some detectors with you too, don't you?"
Within a minute, they each had a black box in their hands that Dylan referred to as an EMF detector. An antenna stuck up from the top of it and a dial with a moving needle showed how much electromagnetic energy was in the immediate area. "Powerful supernatural objects give off a lot of electromagnetic energy. I want you guys to walk around the room and wave the detector around and over everything. Don't skip even the smallest thing. Make sure you check under the beds and furniture. When the detector finds our powerful object, the needle will jump into the red area and it will beep. Understand?"
Skylar nodded. "I'll do this area over here." His EMF detector buzzed lightly with static, as all the detectors did, while he slowly swept the area around Dylan's bed.
Dylan and Kerry's room was made up of the two beds, a dresser, the TV stand and television, a nightstand, a small table with two chairs, and a closet. He and Kerry each had a suitcase and a duffel bag on the floor. The sheets had been stripped off both beds, piled into a plastic laundry basket, and covered with dirty clothes that also needed to be washed.
Dylan went to the dresser and opened a drawer, then waved the detector over the clothes and personal things there, waiting for a reaction.
People would normally have not liked being told they were not as awesome as expected, but in this case, Sacha was relieved that there was maybe an explanation to all this and that it was not only because of him.
Val noted the remark that Dylan made about himself. “Again, this probably doesn’t explain everything, but if you have some empathic skills, it’s no wonder that the side effects of Sacha’s dreamwalking, amplified through whatever magical mean or object, are so strong. You’re probably responding to him much more than any other person would.”
Val’s eyes went from Sacha to Dylan and back to his cousin. “You definitely found each other for a reason...” he said with a side smile that meant he wasn’t only talking about the dreamwalking.
Once they were in the bedroom, Sacha started to scan around another area, not to interfere with the spots that Dylan or Skylar were searching. Val also had a detector in his hands, but he was more busy looking at everything around than scanning. He looked at his cousin and thought of something. “Maybe we should scan your lynx,” he said.
Sacha lifted his head and smiled. “Nice try.”
“No, I’m serious. He’s not a normal, simple animal. Would be good to know if he’s emitting any kind of magic power on his own.”
Sacha shook his head. “He’s just a big cat.”
“A big cat that shifts into a human.” Val turned towards Dylan and Skylar. “Is it safe if we pass the detector over an animal? The lynx won’t feel it, right?”
Sacha squinted his eyes and stared at his cousin. “You just want to see the lynx, admit it.”
Val smiled. “I haven’t seen him in years and now you’re much more at ease with it... I’d like to say hi.” Val put his hand over Sacha’s shoulder and scratched under his chin with his other hand. “But I will still scan him too, just to be sure...”
After listening to Val's theory, Dylan nodded. "I see what you're saying. It's hard to explain, but I see how the two abilities could compliment each other, and how it could cause turmoil if the abilities were amplified."
Then Val made a comment about them finding each other for a reason, and Dylan smiled. "We already know that reason," he said, gazing at Sacha with admiring eyes.
Val seemed to be in a merry mood; he suggested that they scan Lynxcha so he could see and interact with the big cat after a long absence. Dylan said it was okay to scan him with the detector. "He won't feel anything."
Even Skylar stopped scanning the area around the bed to watch what was about to happen, a little grin on his face.
Sacha felt several pairs of eyes on him. Val knew what he was doing and he was good at persuading people. He sighed and tried to glare at his cousin, but failed. It had been a long a time since he had had this type of interaction with him. They were not seeing each other often and they had not grown up together, but he had always thought of Val as his little brother.
“Shit, why can’t I say no to you?” Sacha said to Val.
He took a few steps away from everyone and took off his t-shirt. He kicked off his shoes and removed his socks and then turned around to give them his back while he was taking off his jeans and underwear, like he had done the very first time he had shifted in front of Dylan in his apartment.
The shift was smooth and fast, as usual, and a big grin appeared on Val’s face when the lynx turned around and looked up at the three guys in front of him. He growled and Val started laughing at the raspy sound that didn’t sound very scary to him.
“I didn’t recall it was so... Strange and natural at the same time,” he said, obviously a bit in awe at what his cousin could do. He knelt down to be at a better height for the animal. “You’ll let me pet you? Then we’ll scan you, in the name of science,” he added while looking up at Skylar.
When Skylar realized Sacha was going to take off his pants, he quickly covered his eyes with a little "eep" sound.
The detector that Sacha had placed on Kerry's nearby bed let out a sudden whine when he transformed. The needle jumped up into the red zone, but soon calmed down.
"Huh. Neat," Dylan said in reaction. Apparently, Sacha's transformation gave off a burst of electromagnetic energy. He sat cross-legged on the floor in front of Lynxcha. "Hi Beautiful. Can I have some kisses?"
Skylar kept his distance, not wanting to overwhelm Lynxcha. Once he seemed to be more comfortable around all the people, he would move closer to pet the beautiful cat. It was obvious, though, that Skylar was delighted with the sight of the lynx from the giggles he let out when he saw him. "Yes. Science."
The lynx's attention was a little divided. He was happy to see Dylan of course, but hesitated a bit when he saw the other people around. Val lowering himself to his level made him more at ease. In his head, Sacha knew it was Val and somehow, the lynx could feel the good energy flowing out of the shaman, but he wasn't used to seeing him.
He moved closer to Dylan, happy to see the familiar face and hear his voice. Dylan's request for kisses was understood by the lynx as headbutting gently against Dylan's forehead and then poking his slightly cold and wet nose on his face. Val took advantage of the fact that the big cat was relaxed with Dylan's presence and started to pet his back and his flank.
"It's so funny to think I'm petting my cousin," Val joked out loud.
After a moment, the lynx looked up at Skylar. That was a totally new person in his universe. New smell, new sounds, and looking new too. Sacha wouldn't have been able to explain it better in words, but he could sense that his lynx didn't know Skylar, although he - Sacha the human - knew him.
The lynx took a few careful steps, moving past Dylan and keeping Skylar in his sight. His ears moved back and he meowed at him a couple of times. His amber eyes scanned the area and landed on one of the EMF detectors that had been put on the bed for now. The lynx tilted his head to the side and a second later, jumped several feet up and forward. He landed gracefully on the bed and began to inspect more closely the little black box, looking and sniffing around it. He gave it a quick little poke with one paw and then retreated by a few inches. When he saw that nothing bad happened, he moved more confidently toward the unknown object and started to bat at the antenna with his right paw, not really caring anymore about the stranger standing next to him.
"It's okay, they're friends," Dylan said, hoping to put Lynxcha at ease with the new people.
He held the cat's face, massaging and scratching his jawline, as they headbutted and rubbed faces. Dylan kissed him on the cheek. "Hi there. Hi my beautiful boy."
Once they'd greeted each other, Lynxcha began to explore. "Isn't he the most beautiful cat you've ever seen?" Dylan watched Lynxcha leap up onto Kerry's bed. "I mean, I know it might be a little awkward since he's your cousin, but you have to admit, he's quite the handsome kitty." He petted Lynxcha's side where he could reach him.
Skylar had been keeping his distance, and laughed to himself when Lynxcha meowed at him. "He knows we're cool when he's a cat, right? He won't attack us?"
"Lynxcha won't hurt you," Dylan assured.
Skylar laughed. "Lynxcha..."
They watched the lynx explore the detector, batting at it. Dylan and Skylar chuckled at him. "He's curious," Skylar said. He held his EMF detector over Lynxcha and waved it back and forth; the needle moved a little toward the middle, but then calmed back down, lying prone to the left of the dial. It made a few staticy sounds. "Lynxcha's clean. Just a big human... kitty... guy." Holding out his hand to the cat, Skylar grinned at him, hoping he would rub against the back of his hand.
Val nodded while he continued to pet the lynx. “Yes, he’s a big, beautiful wild cat... supposedly there are lynxes up North in Lapland and Sweden, but I’ve never seen one in the wild. I thought they were a little smaller, like a very big house cat, but Sacha is quite big. Maybe shifter animals are bigger.”
Sacha was a bit relieved to notice that the detector didn’t catch anything special about his lynx. The lynx himself hadn’t even noticed that Skylar was moving something over him. He was still busy playing with the other detector’s antenna.
“I remember Sacha told me he can still hear us and understand us when he is in this form, so it’s safe. I’m sure he would not let the lynx do anything bad,” Val added to reassure Skylar after Dylan had also told him it was okay.
At one point, a hand appeared in front of his face. The lynx stopped assaulting the detector and moved his head towards the fingers. He smelled the skin and looked up. The hand belonged to the person he didn’t know. Skylar must have seemed friendly enough, though, because the lynx started to rub the side of his nose against the human hand.
"Yes, I believe Lynxcha is bigger than your average lynx," Dylan commented.
He grabbed the detector but kept it on the bed, and began to move it back and forth so the antenna would move under Lynxcha's paw. He and Skylar giggled at the lynx's reaction to the wiggling cat toy.
"Hi!" Skylar squeaked when Lynxcha rubbed against his hand. The big cat reacting to him delighted and scared him at the same time. He knew the lynx was Sacha, but wasn't used to having a large wild animal so close to him. Skylar moved his hand back and forth over Lynxcha's cheek and the side of his nose. "He likes it," he said. "Just like a house cat. Does he purr?"
Dylan nodded. "And how!" He pointed to the closet. "Skylar, open that door. Sacha, I'm going to put your clothes in here. When you're ready to switch back, go in the closet and close the door and you can get dressed in peace."
"Great idea, Dyl." Skylar opened the door so Dylan could toss the clothes in. "They'll get all wrinkled like that." He crouched down to arrange and fold the clothes with his EMF detector still in his hand. As he reached forward to place his detector on the floor out of the way, it began to whine loudly, the needle jumping into the red zone.
Dylan and Skylar froze, looking at each other and Val with surprised expressions. Skylar hovered the detector over something in the back of the closet and it continued to react. "What is this?" He pulled an object out that was covered by a blue blanket, something that had appendages sticking up and out of it sharply in a few directions. Putting it on Dylan's bed, Skylar stood back, wary of touching it any more.
The situation dawned on Dylan suddenly as he realized what it was. "I totally forgot I brought this back here." Whipping the blanket off, he revealed the antler that had come out of Steven's magick door.
Val bit back a laugh when he heard Dylan mentioning to the lynx he could go into the closet to switch back and dress. At the same time, it was quite in character for his cousin to not want to prowl around naked in front of other people. He wouldn't embarrass him in front of Dylan and Skylar, but Val was quite interested in hearing from Sacha about his new attitude with his animal side. From what he remembered, in the past he'd barely want to talk about it with him. Now he was comfortable enough to shift in front of a few people. Was it all thanks to Dylan's influence?
Val's train of thought disappeared quickly when he heard louder and repetitive noises coming from the detector that Skylar was still holding.
"What did you find?" Val asked when he saw Skylar place on the bed something wrapped in a blue blanket.
Sacha's head snapped to the right in the direction of the closet. He let out a loud hiss before Dylan had time to remove the cover and show everyone what it was.
Val looked at the trophy-style object and frowned. "Is it something you hunted?" he asked Dylan.
"No, I didn't hunt this," Dylan said, shaking his head. "I can't remember if I've told you any of this story. I know Sacha knows where this antler came from, but the rest of you... I'll tell you the story too. Skylar, do you remember learning about witchcraft in Sunday school and the most popular spells done by witches and other magick users?"
"Uh huh." He winced and put a couple fingers to his temple, but in such a nonchalant way that Dylan was not immediately alarmed.
"Remember the spell to create a magick door that actually worked? You could draw it on a wall or something like that and enchant it so it would actually open and take you somewhere?"
"Yeah."
"Steven Dophim's got one."
"Oh fuck. How did he manage it? It's really hard to get those things working... properly..." Whimpering, Skylar looked around the room. "I've got to go stand in the doorway. This thing is affecting me. Making me see things. Like I'm sleepwalking while awake." Skylar hurried to the doorway and opened it, standing there to suck in air until he started to feel better. "Wherever that thing came from, it has a lot of power." Skylar held onto the door jamb to steady himself.
"It came from Steven's door. A few days ago, the morning that Steven went into the hospital, something tried to come through it to get at him. No one opened the door for it so it went away, but it left this antler behind." Dylan ran a finger over the antler; as it had before, it felt like regular bone, except it seemed to sing with electricity, light, tingly electricity. "I couldn't leave it there. Antlers are basically bone, and if Dophim used them in his spells, they would give him great power. The antler came through the door and was snapped off when the connection was severed between whatever wore this antler and the door."
Dylan sat down on Kerry's bed. "This is it. This is the item that supercharged Sacha's powers in the dream."
"But where did it come from?" Skylar wondered out loud. Still panting a bit, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "What tried to get through the door?"
"A magic door?" Val said out loud while Dylan was talking. He scratched the side of his head as he thought for a moment. "I don't remember if it was you or Sacha who told me about a magic door already. One drawn on a tree around the bunker here. Was it the same thing?"
Val walked closer to the bed to inspect the antler. It looked like a regular one. He reached out and touched it. A sudden surge of energy moved through Val's body from the contact of his palm with the animal part. He gasped and withdrew his hand right away. "Wow!... That's... Weird," he said as he shook his head. He looked at Dylan and then Skylar and noticed he was looking unwell and steadying himself on the door frame. He walked up to him. "You feel or see something?" he asked him with a bit of concern while he put a hand on Skylar's shoulder.
It seems both of them were affected by the item, in different ways. Skylar was more sensitive than most people to electromagnetic fields. As far as he was concerned, it wasn't the electromagnetic aspect that was resonating with him, but more the connection to nature. Whatever or whoever these antlers were coming from, Val guessed it was something related to nature and the forest and the power he was more familiar with.
While they were now all focused on the item that Dylan had retrieved from Steven's hotel room, Sacha had shifted back and quickly dressed. He was finishing to put his t-shirt back on when he joined the others around the bed. "How did you smuggle that out of the room without anyone noticing?" Sacha asked.
"Yeah, that was one of Steven's doors too. So he could sneak into the forest around the Bunker. That was before your spell," Dylan replied. He suddenly remembered Lynxcha and looked around for him, and saw him going into the closet. Good, Sacha understood what Dylan had told him.
Once Val touched the antler and gasped, Dylan asked him, "Feel that power coming off it? It probably belongs to a powerful creature, or the creature's animal companion."
When Val approached him, Skylar held fast to the door frame, for it looked to him like the white-haired man was walking through a dark forest. He squeezed his eyes shut. "I am in Dylan's room, it's daytime, I'm 32 years old," he babbled to himself. Val touched him. It helped. He peeked and saw Dylan's room, and then nodded to Val's question. "Yeah, I keep seeing a forest I dream about." With a deep breath, Skylar put his hand over Val's and tried to smile. "Thanks for being there."
Dylan looked up when he heard Sacha's voice. "I didn't have to smuggle it out. Bailey let me in to examine it while Amy was at the hospital, and I took it then. This was several hours before Aunt Rain arrived." He took Sacha's hand. "I'm sorry, if I had known it was going to cause all these issues, I would have hidden it somewhere else." Sighing, he said, "I think it's most like an elk horn. Sometimes me and Uncle Jed went out and shot deer or elk to supplement our food; feeding all those kids can get expensive. This definitely resembles half of an elk's rack."
Making another noise of discomfort, Skylar squeezed Val's fingers.
"I'm going to get this out of here, hide it on the side of the Bunker that no one's using, in one of the rooms. Skylar, stand aside."
Skylar stumbled into the room, standing near Kerry's bed and leaning on Val as Dylan passed with the antler. Within a minute of the object being gone, he stood up straight again and seemed to feel better. "That was very disorienting."
Dylan came back a few minutes later and checked on his brother. "Better?"
He nodded. "Better."
Patting his shoulder, Dylan walked toward Sacha and ran a hand through his hair. "Now I'm worried. What if this thing that lost its antler comes looking for it? As long as it doesn't get through the door... and most of us are well armed, right?" He crossed his arms. "We can always send Kerry after it, with her broom..."
Val looked at Skylar, who was getting better after Dylan had left the room to move the antler away. “Why do you think it is affecting you so much?” he asked when Dylan walked back in. “It was in the closet all this time and didn’t seem to affect you. I was only feeling its power if I touched it.”
Sacha shook his head when Dylan mentioned what he was concerned about. “We’re okay here because of the protection ring, but further away from the bunker... We don’t know. We have to be careful.”
Val sat on the other bed and volunteered some comments too. “If this belongs to someone or something that was going after Steven through a magic door, it’s maybe not something from here. It might not be able to reach us unless there is a special door to pass through.” Val kept glancing in Skylar’s direction as he was talking, to make sure he was okay again. “If an animal lost this... It’s ok. Elks and deers lose antlers as they fight or hurt themselves. If it belongs to someone, though... They might want to get it back, especially if they know it has some powers for us. If the Horned God lost one of his antlers... I think he might be looking for it,” Val said.
"I don't know," Skylar replied. "I guess in the closet, under the blanket, it was just far enough away. Seeing the antler didn't help either. Somehow, seeing it... When I looked at it, it glowed."
"These things affect people differently. Of course, I'm making an educated guess, since I have no idea exactly what we're dealing with," Dylan added, and sighed.
"That's just the thing - no spell can protect us from every physical threat that's out there. Psychic attack, we're probably safe, but I'm not sure that if Steven took another shot at me, I wouldn't come away with another black eye." Dylan thought it all over; everyone could see the wheels turning in his head by the way he tapped his lips with his fingertip and focused his eyes on nothing, seeing instead the things in his mind. "It also depends on what we're dealing with."
Val put in his thoughts, to which Dylan nodded and let out a breath he'd been holding. "You're right; it's very possible that the antler won't be missed. Still... Once Steven wakes up, I'm going to question him. He's going to hear about the being knocking at his door and tell me what he knows. When he wakes up, he'll be weak and helpless. He's been in a coma several days already. If he doesn't want this visitor to get him, he will need to cooperate."
Dylan chuckled and added, "The Horned God, huh? Jesus, I hope we're not dealing with something that powerful."
After a moment, he shook it off as best he could. "Good thing is, we know why we pulled so much real stuff out of our dream." Taking Sacha's hand, Dylan kissed it, then held it between his own. "You're not a supercharged Freddy Krueger."
Val walked up to Skylar and rubbed his hand on his back reassuringly, as if it was the most natural thing to do to soothe him back from visions he didn’t really want or understand. ‘’You saw it glow?’’ Val was pretty sure he hadn’t seen anything glow, but Skylar could apparently see other things. ‘’You mean you could visualize the energy coming off from the object?’’
‘’Given what you just said, is it a good idea that you go and talk to Steven?’’ Sacha asked. ‘’Maybe he’s just waking up from a coma, but he might recover quickly. We don’t really know what he’s capable of doing. He’s supposedly still in a coma, but he was in Val’s dream last night. If you go and talk to him, I’ll come with you.’’ Sacha had actually no idea what he could do to help or protect Dylan from this man, but his protective instincts just wouldn’t allow Dylan to go alone.
‘’Actually, the protection barrier that’s surrounding the bunker should also work against physical threats,’’ Val said. ‘’I never tested it in real life as a protection measure, but… That’s what happened when I dreamwalked last night. When Steven came in his wolf form, the trees grabbed him and held him back. I know it sounds crazy, but… The trees around here should do the same.’’
Val blushed and fumbled with his hair to give himself some composure. ‘’I know the trees can… Animate themselves and do things.’’ He didn’t say more and hoped that the others wouldn’t ask him too many questions about how and why he knew about that since this wasn’t something he would usually talk about.
For the first time, watching Val comfort Skylar in such a familiar way, with such a caring look on his face, Dylan wondered if they had become involved.
"Yeah, that's probably what I was seeing. The power coming off of it," Skylar agreed, then looked up at Val and grinned. "The antler had an aura."
Oh. Skylar gazed back at Val the same way.
Dylan shrugged. "Okay. You can come along if you want to. Booger's got to wake up first, though." He patted Sacha's arm. "You can hold him down while I beat his ass up," he joked.
Dylan and Skylar listened to what Val was saying, but they weren't sure they heard him right. "The trees... You're saying the trees will move to grab an intruder that tries to come in through the woods? Like, not in a dream, but when we're all awake?"
Skylar, who was sitting on Kerry's bed, looked up at Val again and began to laugh. "Holy shit, how did you manage that?!"
“I’ll make sure you don’t provoke him. He already hit you once. And I’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt you,” Sacha continued.
Val nodded to confirm they had understood him right. “That’s the meaning of the protection incantation. It’s supposed to summon the power of the trees and nature, literally. I only witnessed it in dreams as the result of the incantation, but...” Val paused and glanced at Skylar, who was laughing. He didn’t take it bad nor as if he was mocking him. Val understood it was hard to grasp and imagine. “I didn’t really manage anything. They... I mean, the trees managed it on their own. I saw it. Let’s park the why and how for now,” he said.
Maybe he’d explain more to them later, but at this moment, it wasn’t necessary that he’d disclose more.
Smiling at Sacha, Dylan hugged him around the chest and gave him a kiss. "My strong, brave boyfriend who wants to protect me. The only reason Steven hit me before is because he caught me off guard. I'm not going to let him do it again, but just in case he does something supremely sneaky, it's good to know you'll be there to watch my back."
"Awww, they're so cute, aren't they Val?" Skylar said with a mischievous grin.
"You're just jealous," Dylan replied, and turned up his nose at his brother. Skylar laughed in reaction.
Val explained the situation with the trees without fully explaining it. "But wait, Val, you have the power to ask trees to do things like move in ways no one has ever seen them move, to grab people and keep them from acting out physically? That's fucking amazing! Did you accomplish that kind of communion with nature through your meditation?"
Suddenly excited, Dylan said, "Can we go get Steven and put him in a wheelchair and set him out in the woods? I gotta see these trees in action!" He jumped up and down. "Seriously, I gotta see that happen!"
Skylar bounced on the bed, looking up at Val. "You've made us very happy, Val."
"I'm totally baiting that bastard into the woods once he wakes up." Dylan clapped with mischievous excitement. "Well, it would still be possible for someone to approach the Bunker from the road, although some of the trees near the road are very tall... Maybe they could reach... Val, you've made me feel a lot better about this thing with the antler. If it does come at us here, we've got more of an arsenal to deal with it than I understood." Grinning from ear to ear, Dylan hugged Val while hopping on his feet with mirth.
Skylar took his phone out of his back pocket to check the time. "Hey guys, it's close to one. We've found our magickal object, so Val and I need to go load my car now. Have fun sneaking Steven out of the hospital."
Dylan snickered, sounding gleeful, like a naughty little boy. "Thank you for your help."
Sacha raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything when his boyfriend told him Steven would probably not manage to catch him again. He wanted to believe that and he was sure that Dylan was a trained hunter and probably knew how to fight, but something still told him it’d be better if he were around.
Val laughed at Skylar making fun of the cute couple. ‘’Totally cute, indeed.’’
What Val had started to explain about the results of the protection incantation and the trees was quickly spinning out of control with Skylar’s wild enthusiasm and Dylan’s plan to bring Steven back to the forest around the bunker. ‘’Guys, let’s calm down. I cannot ask trees to do something. The protection ring around the house will work. If necessary, the trees will do something, which means they could move to prevent something or someone from approaching. They could do other things too, I think. I cannot just talk to them and make them do things. It’s a bit more complicated, it’s...’’
Val’s attempts at trying to make it all sound much less exciting than it apparently was ended up being a pointless exercise. Dylan gave him a big hug and then continued to plot his strategy out loud and tell them how reassured he was now that he knew this was a much more powerful defense mechanism than he thought at first. Val looked at Sacha and Skylar for help.
‘’You know all that stuff, Val. Don’t look at me for help,’’ Sacha smiled. ‘’I’m just a big cat. I don’t know trees.’’
Val pouted at him once he realized that Sacha wasn’t going to try to talk his boyfriend out of whatever idea he had to get info out of Steven.
At that moment, Skylar interrupted everyone to remind them it was almost time to leave. ‘’Okay, I’ll go get my things,’’ Val said. ‘’I’ll meet you in the garage.’’
Sacha put his arm around Dylan and playfully poked him in the chest. ‘’Now, let’s get serious for two minutes. You don’t bring Steven here while everyone is away. It would be better if the Winchester brothers and Val and Skylar are here to help us out. It’s…’’ Sacha’s phone began to ring. Sacha took it out and checked the screen. It was a masked number. ‘’Hello?’’ The person on the line didn’t speak right away, leaving an odd silence to linger for a few seconds.
"I’d like to speak with Alexander Romanov."
Sacha didn’t recognize the voice. He didn’t think too much about it and just answered back. ‘’That’s me. Who am I speaking to?’’ There wasn’t any reply and then Sacha heard the sound of the end call. He looked at his phone, a bit puzzled. ‘’That was weird,’’ he said to himself.
"Val, we understand that you can't command the trees like they're trained dogs. 'Trees, get 'im!'" Skylar pointed dramatically, like he was ordering the trees around. "We know magick doesn't work like that. It isn't foolproof. But just the idea that it could happen is very exciting!"
Dylan rubbed his hands together and cackled like a mad scientist.
"Okay, my car is the teal BMW X6," Skylar said. "I'll get the snacks and drinks."
Skylar's car
Dylan just grinned at Sacha scolding him for what he wanted to do with Steven. "But, he's in a coma. He wouldn't even remember it," he joked. Truthfully, it would be pointless to do anything to a man in a coma; Steven couldn't tell them anything like that. When he woke up, though...
Then, Sacha got a phone call. "What was weird? Did they ask you if your refrigerator is running?"
Val would find Skylar's car near the main door. One of the back windows was cracked and covered in clear plastic, but other than that, it looked okay.
Val left and went to his room to get his backpack and the things he prepared to take with him for the trip. He hesitated to take his laptop, but then chose to just take his iPad with him and his phone, plus an extra battery and the charger cable. He put on his hoodie and walked to the garage.
He didn’t have any trouble locating Skylar’s car. It was a big BMW. Val walked around it, pretty impressed by the size of it. Then he remembered he was in the States and people tended to have larger cars than in Europe. He noticed that one of the windows was damaged. The car was locked, so he just leaned against it and waited for Skylar to join him.
Back in Dylan’s room, Sacha put his phone back in his pocket. A sense of confusion was still clouding his mind after the brief phone call and he didn’t immediately react to Dylan’s question. When he did, though, he looked even more confused. ‘’Why are you talking about my freezer?’’ Sacha put his shoes back on. ‘’I don’t know who called. They had my name and wanted to speak to me, but when I asked them who they were, they just hung up,’’ he said with a shrug.
Skylar made his way out to the garage with a backpack full of snacks and drinks, at least three of each per person. "Hey, I'm sorry, I forgot it was locked." He pressed a button on his key fob and the car made a "whoop whoop" noise. At the same time, the locks disengaged and the doors all unlocked at the same time. "I told my dad we were heading out so we have time to hit the farmer's market on the way out of town. Do you want to bring the other shaman a gift? I've been told he loves peaches." Opening the driver's side door, Skylar put the backpack behind his seat and got in.
*****
The corners of Dylan's mouth twitched as he willed himself not to burst out laughing. "You've never heard the old prank call joke that goes 'Is your refrigerator running? You better go out and catch it'?"
He shrugged too and said, "Do you recognize the phone number?"
Val opened the door to the back seat on the passenger’s side and put his backpack there. ‘’Peaches? Oh, sure. Is it the season for those here already?’’ he asked. ‘’That’s a good idea. I will also give him something from me, more personal and that I use for rituals. I didn’t bring many things with me, but I found something.’’
Val saw he had brought quite a lot of food. ‘’Did you make some sandwiches as well or do we have to go prepare them still?’’
*****
Sacha shook his head. ‘’No, never heard of that one.’’ He watched Dylan’s face and could see how much of a struggle it was for Dylan not to laugh. ‘’You can laugh, you know. I’m not gonna be offended,’’ he said with a side smile.
‘’It was a masked number. I didn’t see it. I thought it was some marketing company trying to sell me things, but… I don’t think it was.’’ It was really nothing, but for some reason, it was still bothering him. Sacha anyway decided not to care about it and shrugged it off. ‘’Whatever. So what is the plan now? You’re calling Rain to see if Steven is waking up? Or does Bailey know something?’’
"In season? Well, it's a couple weeks 'til peach picking season, but they always have some that they grow in green houses under special conditions other times of the year. The ones grown May through August are the biggest and juicest, but I like to have some fruit year round - I just can't wait." Grinning, Skylar turned on the car so they could have air conditioning in the stuffy garage. "Oh, cool, what did you find to give him?"
Glancing back at the bag, he described what they had to eat. "We each have a sandwich, an apple, and some pretzels and cookies. We also have three bottled drinks each. Would you grab me a pineapple soda out of there? I'm thirsty."
Val would know which drinks were his because they were what he asked for.
"This will be our lunch. While we're in Topeka, we'll have dinner. Feel free to eat whenever you get hungry."
Skylar drove the car toward the door and pushed a button on the wall to open it. He pulled the car out into the tunnel. "So what kind of things could we do to trigger the trees to grab someone besides throwing Steven out there?"
*****
"It's a pretty old joke, but I guess not in Russia." Dylan chuckled.
Sacha seemed troubled by the call. "I don't get it. What was the point of calling just to ask if you're you and hang up? It's weird." If Sacha was worried, maybe he could help him figure out the purpose of the call.
"Let me give Bailey a call and see what's up. She's already at the hospital." Dylan selected her number in his phone and placed a call to her. "Hey Bailey, what's the word? ... Really? You're serious? ... So how is he? ... Oh. ... Well, how long until I can interrogate him? ... You're not blowing smoke up my ass, are you? ... Okay, okay, chill out. Call me if anything changes. Okay, goodbye."
He sighed and then said, "Steven's awake. But because he was in a coma, he's disoriented and can barely speak. He's going to need physical therapy before he can even walk." Dylan thought things over. "Would it be rude if we went down there to at least warn him about the thing with the antler looking for him, and also try to speed up his recovery a little? Surely we can find a way to communicate."
''Oh, okay. I thought that the farmers' market meant they would only sell what they grow in season, but I guess it makes sense. Also it's warmer here than back home, so I guess that's why I wasn't expecting peaches.''
Val turned in his seat and reached out to the back seat where he had put his backpack. He got something out of it. It was wrapped in a piece of fabric, so at first Skylar wouldn't see what it was. Val put the object on his lap and uncovered it. It was a small rattle drum with a leaves design on it. ''I've had it for a while, but I'm not really good at percussion or rhythmic things, so I will give it to him. Maybe he has a musical fiber and can make good use of it.'' Val ran his index finger around the edge of the small instrument. "I think I bought it because it looked nice with the leaves drawn on the drum skin, but I don't use it."
Skylar started the car. Val carefully wrapped the little drum and put it back in his bag. He grabbed a bottle of water and put his seat belt on. Skylar still seemed curious about the enchantment of the trees. ''It's not so much what we can do, it's what will trigger them. They feel the negative energy and vibes. They react to it, so if someone comes around and crosses the circle area around the bunker and wants to do harm, they will respond." Val took a sip of water, pondering whether he should add something or not. "They can inundate the area with water or turn the soil into quicksand... Trees can do many things. They can also do good things. I know it, I've..." Val stopped himself. He turned his face away and looked through the car window. There wasn't anything to see yet since there were still in the tunnel leading out of the garage, but he could feel himself blushing and didn't want Skylar to notice. "They're... Like humans, just that they are more fair."
****
Sacha smiled. ''You know I've been living here for a while, but I don't watch tv much, so if it's a movie reference or joke, I don't know it, sorry."
"It's okay, I'm sorry. It was nothing. Just a strange call. It's just..." Sacha seemed to zone out and think for a long while. "The voice of the man was... A bit strange. Or not strange actually, but it made me feel strange. I don't even know why. I didn't recognize the voice."
"I know you a little by now. I know you want to go there, so let's go to the hospital and you can see for yourself how he really is and if he can communicate. At least if he's in that state, he is maybe weak enough not to be too dangerous."
"This is a very progressive farmer's market we got here," Skylar said with a smile.
He watched Val interact with the little drum and grinned to himself. "That's a great present. Are you sure you can part with it?"
"Somehow, we have got to find a way to trigger these trees. I really want to see them move." Skylar listened to the things Val said and thought he picked up on something. "Have you seen the trees move? When you were awake? Do they have a more even temper than people?"
While they were talking, Skylar drove them through the tunnel, out the door, and toward the highway.
*****
Dylan had to giggle. "It's not a movie reference, it's just a dumb old joke you hear as a child when you're making prank calls." Putting his arms around Sacha's neck, he gave him a kiss. "Don't worry about it."
The things Sacha said about the man's voice worried him. "Sacha, I'm going to keep an eye on you. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but there are creatures out there who can entrance you through their voice. You could..." He stopped, laughing at himself. "I'm seeing the world through my job, aren't I?"
"Yeah. You're right." Dylan nodded. "I do want to see what Steven is like now. I imagine he will recover faster than the average person because he's not fully human, but that doesn't mean there won't be a period of weakness where he's safe to just talk to without getting hexed. Or punched."
Kissing him again, Dylan asked, "Are you okay to spend a little time at the hospital? We can play later." He ran his hand through the hair on the back of Sacha's neck, scratching lightly. "As long as everything goes smoothly with Kerry today, we can go sleep over at your place tonight, if you want to."
“I’m sure, yes. It’s a pretty object, but as I said, I am not a musician, so someone else will enjoy it hopefully.”
Val had said too much, obviously. Skylar was still asking questions and he wanted to see the trees in action.
Soon enough, they were out of the tunnel and Val could pretend to look at the landscape, but he knew Skylar was waiting for an answer from him. “I’ve seen trees move, yes.” He ran a hand in his long hair and pushed it back. He looked at Skylar. “Can we talk about it another time?” Val could picture it. Lying in bed with Skylar, relaxed and ready to fall asleep. That would be the right moment to tell him about what he had seen and experienced. “It’ll do for a good bedtime story.”
It was the right moment to change the conversation subject. “This car is really fancy. Your job pays well, it seems.” Val looked around the car. He noticed the broken window he had seen when he saw it for the first time in the garage. “What happened to the back window there?”
****
“Dylan, it was a man who called me, ok? I don’t give my phone number to weird creatures,” he chuckled.
It was amusing how Dylan kept on referring to their fooling around as playing. Sacha closed his eyes while Dylan caressed the back of his neck. “It would be nice to spend the night at my apartment. Just us and nobody around... I guess Val won’t mind sleeping here by himself. I think he’s getting along well with the rest of the guys, especially your brother.”
"A bedtime story? Okay." The secrecy only made Skylar more curious; what could have happened to make him so introspective about the subject? But the promise of a bedtime story meant Val was interested in fooling around more, which Skylar liked the sound of. "I can put the conversation on hold."
He laughed, sounding a little embarrassed. "Yeah, I make a good living as a Chemist and substitute teacher at the college. Once I finish my Ph.D., I'll be able to do even more specialized work and make more money. The college does research into environmental issues and I already help with that, but I can do more, run my own experiments and such, once I finish my studies." Skylar turned at the crossroads and continued on toward the east. "The last few days, I've been telecommuting, which is really nice, but I'll need to spend actual time at the lab this weekend."
He swallowed audibly when asked about the cracked back window, then took a drink of his soda. "I broke it sleepwalking. I was dreaming I was trying to break into a car and wound up attempting to break into my own car in my sleep." There was no humor in his tone as he spoke on the subject, something that had the potential to be funny, but wasn't funny to him for some reason. "It cracked. The sound woke me up. I live a block away from campus, so the campus police were there; luckily, I'm friends with one of the cops who found me out there and he could vouch for me." For a moment, he was quiet, just driving, and then finished, "I need the car to get around, so I haven't had a chance to get it fixed."
*****
Dylan didn't know how to make sense of the feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach now, so he dropped the subject along with Sacha. But, for at least the next few days, he would be keeping an eye on his boyfriend to make sure he was safe.
When Sacha said that Val and Skylar were "getting along" well, Dylan chuckled hard, picking up his keys. "Yes, they seem to be 'getting along' quite well." He laughed some more, having a ball with the idea of how good Val and Skylar were probably getting along. "Come on, we'll take my car."
“I don’t know why I have a hard time imagining you teaching... Though if my science teacher had looked like you, I might have given it a harder try,” Val chuckled. “So you’re going to stay at the university this weekend? I guess I will spend time catching up with Sacha then. He doesn’t work on Sunday, he told me. That is if he and Dylan can spend a moment away from each other. They seem very into each other. Your brother has a good influence on my cousin.”
“What experiment are you hoping to do when you’ll be on your own?”
Val waited till Skylar was done telling the story of how his car window got broken. He could sense he wasn’t finding it funny and Val shared the feeling. Sleepwalking could be dangerous. “Sorry to hear that. I hope you’ll find a way to get it under control. You could have been hit by a car while walking outside. Have you tried hypnosis?”
****
Sacha grabbed his jacket and followed Dylan to the garage. He wasn’t sure what was so funny about his cousin and Skylar at first, but then when Dylan repeated his words and added his own tone to the expression, the penny dropped. “You think that Val and your brother...? Val just arrived here,” he said as if it would prevent anything, forgetting completely that Dylan and him had ended up in bed the day after they had met.
Chuckling, Skylar replied, "Thank you. You're pretty hot yourself." He winked at Val. "Oh, I also do tutoring for a few students. It keeps me busy when I'm not spending my time with fascinating people."
"Yeah, I'll be in Topeka all weekend, using the university chemistry machines. You and your cousin should spend some time together, most definitely. He and Dylan do seem really good for each other. The idea of my brother being a good influence on someone is really weird," he laughed. "But I get how you mean it. I wish you luck in getting them out of the bedroom long enough to do something."
"Oh, I'd be doing the same experiments the university always does, I'd just be leading them instead of following the directions of others."
Val asked him if he'd ever tried hypnosis. "Once. A friend from the university had taken a hypnosis class and wanted to practice. It's not really something you should do to another person with so little training. She put me under and forgot to put in the suggestion that would help her wake me up when we were done. I started reliving that night..." Skylar watched the road pass under the wheels of his car for a short time, saying nothing. Then he went on. "...She couldn't wake me up. I wound up curled in the corner, shivering and crying for my mommy. Eventually, my friend brought her dopey boyfriend in to help and he said, 'I know how to wake him up,' and kicked me in the balls." At this point, he did laugh a little, able to see the humor in this situation. "It worked, but on the whole was a very unpleasant experience."
*****
"Skylar has past issues with Marianne. He said something about sleeping in Val's room last night so she couldn't mess with him. I think someone's delicate flower petals may have been opened." Dylan opened the door out to the garage. "The fact that Val just got here means nothing to the smooth operator."
"Who's the what now?" Uncle Jed and Marianne came up behind them in the hallway, carrying their luggage. "Were you just going to leave without saying goodbye?"
"Oh shit, I'm sorry. I was so caught up in the case, I forgot you guys were leaving." Dylan helped them load their luggage into Jed's car and gave each of them a hug.
Marianne was obviously surprised and hurt that Skylar had left without telling her goodbye. "Well, I guess tell Skylar I'll see him again sometime. It was nice meeting you, Sacha."
"Yes, very nice meeting you." Jed offered his hand to him. "Don't forget, Marianne, we'll see Skylar and his friend at the reservation. For a little bit, anyway."
"Oh. Oh, yeah." The cunning smile returned to her face.
Both cars pulled out of the garage and went in different directions.
*****
Rain did not look happy when Dylan knocked on the door of Steven's hospital room. "What are you doing here? He's too weak to deal with you right now."
"There are questions I need answers to. With him being weak in bed, it's a perfect time to get those answers." Dylan tried not to sound too angry; after all, it wasn't her fault her brother was an asshole. "Besides, he needs to be warned about the antler."
"The what? Oh, that. And you're the one to tell him?"
"I know things you don't."
"Somehow, I doubt that. However..." Rain sighed. "My brother did you wrong. I'll give you five minutes to speak with him, but you can't hurt him. I know you two don't like each other and I know he's vulnerable right now, but that's precisely why you have to behave yourself." She turned to Sacha. "You have to keep a tight leash on him. Control him so he doesn't hurt my brother."
"Tight leash?" Dylan huffed. Obviously, he didn't appreciate her choice of words.
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