"Seize the Day, Suffer the Night Hour 1 & 2," Rated R, Supernatural
A Supernatural AU
by Laurel (Sailorhathor)
Chapters: 1 of 24 (Hour 1: 12:00AM-1:00AM)
Rating: Overall, rated Adult for horror, sexual content, and bad language. Some chapters could get by with a warning for kids under 13.
Dates: This chapter was written April 2007
Word Count: 2,816
Summary: Today is the longest day in Dean Winchester's life. This hour, Dean and Brook grift some poker players out of their money, while Sam encounters a phantom child who mentions a deadly agreement they made many years ago.
Timeline: Alternate Universe after the Supernatural episode "Crossroad Blues."
Warning: Winsister AU! Contains spoilers for several episodes of Supernatural, especially the second season. Even though Dean would make good on his threat to go into Sam's pants, this is not a Wincest story. I want to present a more realistic brother/brother/sister relationship this time. One chapter will have Wincest (Sam/Winsister) overtones, though, due to a succubus, but there will be no actual sex. The actual sexual content happens between Winsister/OFC, Sam/OFC, Dean/OFC, and Dean/OMC in future chapters.
Author's Notes: "Ashes of Dreams and Bloodstained Streets" is a Winsister universe in the "Supernatural" fandom. There were so many good choices for a live action model for the sister of Sam and Dean that I decided to use them all, just in different stories. In this multi-chaptered tale, Brook Winchester resembles actress Danielle Fishel. (Her name won't always be Brook, either; that way, I can use all the names I liked too, hee.) The phrase "Ashes of dreams and bloodstained streets" comes from the Motley Crue song "In the Beginning."
I've always been really into the idea of the boys having a sister. It's a psychological thing with me. Dean's such a great big brother that I'd love for him to be that protective of a sister too. Wish I had a brother like him.
Megumi is very, very loosely based on a character from an episode of Kadokawa Mystery and Horror Tales, "Last Day as a Teenager." The images of her come from this episode.
Fanfic Challenges: "Seize the Day, Suffer the Night Hour 1" was written for the following fanfic challenge prompts... 24_prompts: #9 Career Choice & album_mix: Bon Jovi, New Jersey #1 "Lay Your Hands on Me" (They're playing CARDS! Lay your HANDS on me. Get it? HA! Hahaha... um. Ahem. ^_^)
12:01:57... 12:01:58... 12:01:59... 12:02:00AM...
"Dean, are two ladies better than two A's?"
Dean leaned over to look at his sister's cards. "No. Two Aces beat two Queens."
"Oh, darn."
The other two players at the poker table, Ross and Mark, glanced at each other and grinned. The look they exchanged said, "What a ditz."
Dean leaned over again. "Brook?"
She carefully examined her cards with an almost pained expression, nibbling on a fingertip. "Uh huh?"
"You're not supposed to let the other players know what cards you have."
Looking at her older brother, she seemed surprised. "Oh, you're not?" Brook turned back to the other players. "How embarrassing. Forget what I just said, okay?" Then she added a little giggle. "Teehee."
The two men Dean had suckered into playing high-stakes poker tried not to show too much satisfaction in reaction to Brook's apparent inexperience. Ross and Mark both thought they were about to take all the money the Winchesters had.
"I call," Dean said.
Brook only had a pair of Queens. "Do I lose?"
"Sorry, little lady, but you do," Ross replied with a smirky little grin.
"Shit." She pouted, running her hands through her dishwater blond hair and making sure to toss it around playfully for the wandering eyes of the two men. "I'm sorry, Dean, I keep losing all our money."
"Just keep your poker face on this time," Dean angrily scolded. He gathered the cards to shuffle them.
"You mean like this?" Brook did her best to make her face look as blank as possible.
Ross and Mark held back derisive laughter.
Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like that."
"Why do you play with this ditz, Winchester?" Mark asked.
Brook glared at him with her mouth open, offended.
Dean shrugged. "What can I do? She's my kid sister."
"Yeah! He's stuck with me," Brook amended, as if this was truly the best comeback she could come up with.
They played several more hands, with Dean and Brook losing at least seventy-five more dollars. Dean appeared to grow more and more frustrated. The other two men plainly became overly confident that they would take all of Dean and Brook's money before the night was through. They started to drink, thinking their victory was assured.
The more questions Brook asked, the more Ross and Mark snickered and shook their heads.
"Dean, how do you make a Full Flush?"
"Dean, if you have two Kings and a Jack, does that make Three-of-a-Kind? But they're all men..."
"Dean, why do they call this thing that looks like a doggie paw a Club?"
They were down almost $150. Dean practically had his head on the table in shame. Ross and Mark couldn't stop laughing between gulps of beer. "Can we switch partners? Please?" Dean begged.
Brook smacked his arm as hard as she could. "Shut up and peel the cards!"
"That's DEAL!"
The bets were big on the latest hand. At least $80 on the table. Dean was whispering to his sister, "Fold, Brook. Come on. Just fold."
"No! I've got a good hand this time." She seemed to notice that Ross and Mark were listening. "I mean..." Brook put on the blankest expression she could manage.
Ross chuckled so hard he dribbled beer out of his mouth, which he wiped off his chin with his hand. "I call."
Brook had a Straight Flush. Dumbfounded, the two men stared at her hand and didn't speak. A cigarette hung on Mark's lip, stuck to it with his own saliva, before finally falling out of his mouth. He suddenly and frantically began slapping at his smoking pants.
"I think I win. How about some Five Card Stud?" she said, and smirked, gathering up the money. Then she added, "Teehee."
They started to catch on when Brook curiously began to win, whipping out Full Houses and Three-of-a-Kinds left and right. Dean's luck also improved, although not as much, because his hadn't been as bad as hers to begin with. Because of their pride, Mark and Ross kept trying to win their money back, convinced that this airheaded twenty-something and her pretty boy brother couldn't possibly be beating them after losing almost all of their money. They didn't realize who they were dealing with until they were both down to less than ten dollars.
"How could this happen?" Ross asked the nearly empty bar room. "We were winning..."
"Tell you what..." Dean began, smiling in a charming way, "I'll lend you ten dollars. Double or nothing, winner take all."
It was strange how Dean always had that Royal Flush just when he needed it most.
Ross and Mark were licking their wounds when Brook excused herself from the table, counting the money in her hands. The Winchesters had netted more than $300 for their trouble. Not bad for a little over an hour of "work." A minute later, Dean said he was getting them another round of beers and would be back in a moment. "I'm going to give you the chance to win back your money only because I like you," were his parting words, which he gave them with a wink.
Shortly thereafter, he stepped into the women's restroom. A lady gasped and rushed out the door. "I really gotta go," he said to her, holding his crotch. When she was past, he looked over his shoulder to check out her ass (not bad...), and then knocked on the door of the only locked stall. "Brook, we better get outta here before they sober up."
She flushed and came out, resuming her counting of their money. "So what is it tonight? Out the window, or do we sneak past them?"
"Out the window. They're angry, so they're going to be looking for us. By the way..." Dean tried to take the money from her, but she casually passed it from one hand to the other and kept counting. "...you were laying it on a little thick out there. Next time, not so much ditz, okay? I mean, did you have to do that 'teehee' thing?"
Brook shrugged. "Guys like that think women can't even play poker. If I went a little overboard, it was only because I was so disgusted with their attitude." Grinning, she ran a few bills between her fingers. "We taught them a lesson, huh?"
"Well, we learned from the best." Dean caught hold of the wad of cash, but Brook wouldn't let it go. They stared at each other. "Lemme hold onto it, okay?"
Brook snatched the money out of his fingers. "That's alright, I got it." She stuffed the bills down her shirt, into her bra.
Raising an eyebrow, Dean remarked, "Do you think I won't go in there?"
She just smiled back, tight-lipped. "You do and you'll draw back a bloody stump."
"Oooooh, I'm scared."
Someone knocked loudly and furiously at the door. "Winchester, are you in there? We need to talk to you," Mark's voice said.
"I think they figured it out. I'll soft-soap them; you get to the car and I'll meet you and Sammy there," instructed Dean.
With a nod, Brook headed for the window.
12:45:57... 12:45:58... 12:45:59... 12:46:00AM...
Sam rarely wanted any part of the poker games. It wasn't that John hadn't taught him the art of grifting people out of their gambling money too, it was just that it made Sam feel bad, even if some people desperately deserved the Winchester treatment. He knew it wouldn't take long, so Sam waited in the Impala, ready to slide over and get the car started if they needed to make a quick getaway.
He was currently watching the front door of the bar. Sam's attention was occasionally stolen by the mountainous terrain nearby in the California hills. Earlier, he thought he'd spotted a coyote roaming around. He knew they weren't as much of a danger to him and his family as they were to rabbits and housecats, but still, he wanted to watch an animal like that this close to populated areas. Sometimes, they attacked children.
Like the little girl currently standing on the side of the rocky hill. A young Asian girl in a dark dress with a little white collar. Why was a child out here all alone, at this time of - Sam gasped in shock when he realized he recognized her, and where he recognized her from. It had been eleven years. He was the only Winchester left alive who knew what had happened all those years ago, when Sam was 12, Brook was 14, and Dean was 16.
"We'll take care of it," John had said at the time, when Sam couldn't hold it in anymore and confessed everything that had happened, everything that had been wiped from the memories of the rest of his family. "We've got eleven years to figure it out."
But like so many other things, this deal young Sam had made at the foot of the Nakamura's stairs had been forgotten with the passage of time. Perhaps Sam didn't want to remember it, had deliberately stopped thinking about it, because he hoped it would just go away.
Apparently, the creature harbored by the Nakamuras hadn't forgotten. She stood almost still, just staring at him through the Impala's window with a serious expression. Megumi. Isn't that what they called her? It means 'blessing.'
Sam shouldn't have been able to hear her from that distance. Despite that, he could make out her words clearly. "The day we agreed upon has come," Megumi said in a deep, inhuman voice.
Sam screamed and nearly jumped through the roof of the car when the back door opened and quickly closed. Brook had slipped in unnoticed, except for the sound of the door. She watched him nervously run a hand through his mop of hair, listened to him take a ragged breath. "Did I scare you?" she asked jokingly.
"No, I was trying to learn to highjump right here in the car," Sam replied with irritation. He looked carefully out the window, not seeing the little girl anymore. Had she really been there at all, or had he been dreaming? Sam had been napping shortly before... maybe he hadn't awakened at all until Brook got in the car, slamming the door and waking him up. "Did you see a girl out there? A little Asian girl in a dark dress?"
Brook shook her head. "No. There was nobody out there but some drunk guy leaning on his truck." She looked out the window too. "Did you see a kid out there?"
Sam settled back. "I think I was dreaming."
Brook leaned up on the front seat, next to his head. "Did you see something weird?"
He didn't want to tell her about it. It had been a secret between him and his dad for eleven years. Sam hoped he could keep it that way. "Just your face."
She stuck out her tongue at him, then reached over and stuffed the wad of cash into the front of his pants. Sam tried to recoil in surprise, but there was nowhere to go. "What are you doing?"
"Hide that. Don't tell Dean you have it. He's playing Brook's Just a Girl again." She sat back and tried to look innocent.
They both saw Dean coming across the parking lot. He got into the driver's seat and closed the door. "Those two guys are waiting for us. I told them we were having a powwow because you wanted to keep the money and I wanted to give them another chance to win it back. We should leave before they get impatient." Dean glanced over at Sam, then watched Brook's eyes in the rearview mirror. "Sam, gimme the money."
Jerking in his seat like he'd been shocked, Sam barked, "What?"
"You think I don't know my own brother and sister? You two look about as guilty as a succubus in church." Watching Sam's nervous eyes and where they led, Dean paused for a moment before his eyes went down, passing over the same area. "You think I won't go in there?" he asked, gesturing at Sam's pants.
Brook sighed in exasperation. "Just give the baby his bottle, Sammy."
"That's right, you can't hide anything from me," Dean laughed as Sam dug the money out of his pants. He handed it over with a sigh as deep as Brook's to show he, too, was not amused. After he'd pocketed the money, Dean started the Impala.
"You're a jerk, you know that?" Brook told him as he pulled out of the parking lot. "I can hold onto the money just as well as you can."
"Yeah, you'd just make us stop at a mall and spend it on shoes."
"Screw you."
Dean chuckled again. "You wish."
"Oh, ew."
As they pulled away from the bar, Sam watched the hills to their left with fear in his eyes. Like he expected to see something he hoped would never surface again.
Dean looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "Something wrong, Sammy?"
Sam took his eyes off the mountainside. "Nothing."
Brook leaned on the seat between her brothers. "Where are we going again?"
Dean, grinning, said, "I got us two gigs in one of the most exciting places in the world: Hollywood."
Brook rolled her eyes. "I should have known. You want to pretend you're a director so you can bed some starlets on the casting couch."
"I was thinking more the casting waterbed," corrected Dean.
"Or the casting hot tub?"
"Which case are we working first?" asked Sam.
"Actually... we're working them both tonight," Dean replied sheepishly. "But I don't think the first one will take long. The other needs to be investigated way after hours anyway, because, you know, some things come out more in the middle of the night."
Giving the back of Dean's head a shove, Brook questioned, "And exactly when did you expect us to get any sleep?"
"Aw, come on, Sixxer," protested Dean, using an old nickname for her. "You gettin' too old to stay up all night?"
"Whatever." She laid down in the backseat. "We must be crazy, taking you to Hollywood. You'll wind up in a porn movie." Then, wanting to get even with him for his comment about the shoes, added, "And you'll spend all our money on cheapass movie souvenirs."
"Quit your bitchin' and take a Midol."
Her hand came up over the edge of the seat with only her middle finger extended.
Dean put on some Judas Priest, and they stopped talking for a little while.
As they drove out of town, Sam watched the hills go by Dean's side of the car and slowly began to relax. Maybe it was all a bad dream.
12:59:57... 12:59:58... 12:59:59... 1:00:00AM...
Seize the Day, Suffer the Night (c) 2007 Demented Stuff
Supernatural is (c) 2005+ Kripke Enterprises, Wonderland, & Warner Brothers/The CW Television.
Hour 2: 1:00AM-2:00AM
Chapters: 2 of 24 (Hour 2: 1:00AM-2:00AM)
Rating: This chapter, Parental Guidance Suggested for Children Under 13. Overall, rated Adult for horror, sexual content, and bad language.
Dates: This chapter was written June 2007
Word Count: 3,256
Overall Summary: Today is the longest day in Dean Winchester's life. Over the next 24 hours, he'll have to win a prank war, fight wise-cracking demons, rescue his siblings from a succubus, figure out why the patrons at a strip club are spontaneously combusting, save his brother from a deal he made with a blood-thirsty Asian creature eleven years ago, and all without getting sacrificed. And on his birthday! Do big brothers ever get a day off?
This Hour: Sam remembers what happened eleven years and one day ago to cause him to make the deal that's come back to haunt him today. He and Dean discuss what Dean remembers, which is limited, and then Dean sets off another prank war. The hour ends with the Winchesters finally, for once, getting "paid."
Timeline: Alternate Universe after the Supernatural episode "Crossroad Blues." (There's also a Winsister, but many of the events of the series have still happened.)
Warning: Winsister AU! Contains spoilers for several episodes of Supernatural, especially the second season. I do not plan for there to be any Wincest in this story; I want to present a more realistic brother/brother/sister relationship this time. One chapter will have Wincest (Sam/Winsister) overtones, though, due to a succubus, but there will be no actual sex. The actual sexual content happens between Winsister/OFC, Sam/OFC, Dean/OFC, and Dean/OMC in future chapters.
Author's Notes: I got Kripked again. It happened last year with the season finale, and it's happened again with this story. STDSTN was planned out and begun well in advance of "All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2," but it shares some similarities with it anyway (the whole "one brother saves the other from a deal they made in the past to save the other's life" storyline). Oh well. I'm still writing it. I'll just say that Megumi is most definitely not a Crossroads Demon and leave it at that.
Thanks to Rekka for help with the Japanese. You rock, Rek!
I am a huge Japan geek and love staff weapons/polearms. You'll see that love reflected here.
I just made up the empathy demon.
Recently I asked if anyone wanted me to name a character after them for fun. One person to respond was my friend Moosie, whose real name is Heidi. Because she's fun to mess with, expect there to be as many Heidis in this story as I can cram into it. *evil grin*
Fanfic Challenges: "Seize the Day, Suffer the Night Hour 2" was written for the following fanfic challenge prompts... 24_prompts: #22 Lie, album_mix: Motley Crue Shout at the Devil Track #1 "In the Beginning", paranormal25: #49 Demons
1:04:36... 1:04:37... 1:04:38... 1:04:39AM...
There is yelling coming from the top of the stairs. Dean is screaming something and Midori responds in an angry tone. The commotion draws Sam's attention from his practice.
Midori's voice is authoritative; Sam cannot make out what he is saying. But Dean is screaming loud enough for anyone to hear.
"Stop protecting that thing! I'm warning you, get out of the way!"
Midori is saying something else as Sam makes his way to the living room to see what's going on. Dad calls from another room, "What's all the fighting about in there?"
"I figured it out, Midori!" Dean yells.
Midori says something in that authoritative, cold tone.
Dean growls back, "No, you'll regret it! Get out of my - "
Sam gets to the bottom of the stairs just in time to hear the scuffle. He looks up and gasps. "Dean!"
Dean is making choked noises of pain. His hands close around the blade, but Midori still slides it in deeper, and Dean lets out a wail through gritted teeth, his eyes squeezed shut. Only the tips of his toes are on the sixth step now. He dangles there.
"Deeeean!" Sam hears himself scream.
Blood drips on the stairs below John Winchester's eldest child. There is a wet sucking sound, and Dean tumbles limply down the stairs, landing facedown at Sam's feet.
Now, the room fills with screams.
Sam kneels beside Dean and turns him over into his lap. "Dean... Dean?" He shakes him. The blood forms a pattern like an orchid blooming in the fabric of Dean's white shirt. Flecks of blood on full lips. There is no response.
"What... oh Christ... what the hell have you done?!" Dad screams from somewhere to Sam's right.
A girl starts to cry. It's Tenshi. "Midori, what happened?!"
Midori says nothing. Just stands at the top of the stairs with the little one at his side.
Dad is breathing so loudly that his breath comes out in angry howls. "You son of a bitch... you killed my son... you killed my son!" Sam recognizes the next sound very well; it is the ch-chick of a shotgun being cocked. "I don't care if you are a kid, I'll fucking kill you!"
Sam cannot take his eyes off Dean's face, which is almost peaceful. He sees feet moving to one side. First, Dad's brown hiking boots charge toward the stairs. Smaller, feminine feet clad in sandals step in front of him and brace as Tenshi pushes against Dad. "No, NO, Mr. Winchester, don't, please, no! You can't kill my cousin! Please, no, put the gun down!"
"Stay out of this, Tenshi!"
"Mr. Winchester, pleeeeeease!" she wails.
"Let go of my gun!"
Sam is unaware of the fact that his sister has even entered the room. He now sees her familiar plaid sneakers coming slowly toward him, so he looks up. Brook's face is a mask of shock and potential hysteria as she gazes down on the lifeless shape in his lap. "Sam, what's going on? Is he... Dean's hurt..." She bonelessly goes down on her knees, looking at Dean. "He's breathing, isn't he?" Brook asks in a shaky voice.
Tenshi continues to beg for her cousin's life. "Oba-san, tell Mr. Winchester to put the gun down! You can convince him. He wants to shoot Midori! Tell him he can't!"
"Look what he did to my son!" Dad yells.
Sam is unable to see anymore because his eyes blur with tears. They form prisms through which he sees his sister reach out to shake Dean's shoulder. "Dean... Dean?" she says with growing panic.
"Winchesutaa-san, remember that you are a guest in this house," the grandmother reminds him calmly. Sam always knew there was something deeply disturbing about that woman; this just confirms it.
Dad yells again, "Do you see what he did to my son?!"
The tears roll down Sam's face and he can now see Dad take aim.
Tenshi screams. Her arms go up and freeze in mid-air as a voice from halfway down the stairs commands, "Ugokuna!"
Sam shudders at the inhuman sound of the voice. He wipes his eyes on the back of his hand, clearing them again, and realizes that everyone is frozen in place like statues. Everyone except him, the grandmother, Midori, and the child on the stairs.
Megumi. She's never spoken before. "Oyasumi!"
The frozen people close their eyes and simply fall to the floor, unconscious.
Sam looks around him, sobbing in shock and confusion. "What... what... what did... you do?" he stammers.
Megumi walks slowly down the stairs, stepping callously into the puddle of blood that had run from Dean's body. The boy, Midori, stays at the top and looks down upon the scene. Sam can hardly take his eyes off those black patent shoes standing in the middle of the crimson puddle. That is, until she speaks again.
"Sam-kun," Megumi begins, "do you want to save your brother?"
"Yes!" he immediately cries. "Is it possible? Tell me how!"
The child smiles without opening her mouth. The look she gives Sam is predatory. "I believe we can make a deal."
"Sam? Sammy?"
Dean's voice startled Sam out of his thoughts. He blinked and looked at his watch. 1:22AM. Funny how memories running through a person's head could consume their time so completely. "Uh... hey."
"Are you okay? You seem distracted."
"Just thinking about stuff."
Dividing his attention between watching the road and Sam, Dean asked, "What kinda stuff?"
Sam tried to make it seem like no big deal, giving a shrug. "Just stuff in general."
"You seemed kinda freaked out," Dean pressed. "The look on your face was pained."
Brooding to himself, Sam didn't say anything for several seconds. He picked absently at a loose string on his jeans. "I was just thinking about the time we stayed with the Nakamuras. Remember that?"
Dean started to smile, then looked confused, but ultimately settled on an uneasy grin. "Ohhh yeah, I remember. Tenshi's family. That was quite a while ago; why are you thinking about them?"
"I was just wondering what you remember about the two weeks we stayed there."
"Hm." Dean obviously searched his memory, as he was quiet for a short time, staring out the windshield into the dark. "Dad took us there to train. Tenshi's father is a hunter and martial arts expert, and Dad thought that would be good for us. Remember, we each had to pick a weapon and try to master it?"
Sam tapped his first two fingers against his bottom lip, almost lost in thought. "Yeah. I picked sais. Brook picked the naginata." He had to smile a little at that memory; Brook had, at first, chosen a weapon Nakamura-sensei thought would be too hard for her to master because she was a girl, which had made her feel insulted. She wanted to master whatever her brothers could master. Tenshi had stepped in to try to smooth things over by showing Brook how "cool" the female martial art of naginata-jyutu and its weapon could be. In the end, Brook was happy.
Dad had threatened to tan both the boys' hides if they teased Brook about it being "just a girl's" martial art because it would probably upset her, and after all they had gone through to make her happy, Dad didn't want to do it all over again. There was nothing easy about Brook's training, but John knew how boys could be with their sisters.
Dean grinned too. "Yeah. And I picked the zanbato."
The blade, dripping with blood, juts out from between Dean's shoulderblades. Sam shuddered all over. "Uh huh. The zanbato."
"Damn, that thing was heavy. I thought I was such a badass." Dean suddenly fell silent, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Did I ever master it? I can't remember."
Swallowing hard, Sam replied, "No." He shook his head a little. "No."
"Yeah, well, it was a long time ago. Midori and I trained pretty hard. It's a shame I didn't pass my test. I think we had to leave early because Dad got a lead on the demon, or something."
Sam nodded. "Or something."
"They had their grandmother living with them, too. She was pretty creepy," Dean laughed. "And some kid... I think she was Midori's little sister. Masami...?"
"Megumi," Sam corrected in a choked voice. He cleared his throat to cover for his fear of what the day held.
"Yeah." Growing quiet briefly, Dean pretty much forgot the child as soon as he'd mentioned her, thinking instead of Tenshi. Tenshi was three years younger than Dean, and one year older than Sam. She and Dean still saw each other whenever they had an itch that needed scratching. "I last saw Tenshi about two months ago. That is one sweet piece of - "
"Dean..." Sam gave him that look that said he was about to say something piggish.
"Have I ever shown you the picture I took of her in a bikini?"
"Only ninety-nine times."
"Wanna make it a hundred?" Dean snickered.
He accidentally drove over a large rock, shaking the car. Brook snorted in her sleep and mumbled, "The hamburger's mine," from the back seat.
Dean and Sam looked at each other and chuckled. "Talking in her sleep. Watch, watch." Dean chuckled again and spoke loud enough for Brook to hear him. "The hamburger, Brook?"
"It's my hamburger," she repeated, sounded disoriented. "I got it."
"Oh? Well, if it's yours, why don't you show it some love and give it a great big hug?"
Sam snickered quietly, peeking over the seat to see if his sister would do it.
Brook clumsily hugged the air. She made an unintelligible "mmuh" sound when she did.
"Oh, God, Brook, you squeezed it so hard that ketchup squirted out all over your dress," Dean said, his voice shaking with repressed laughter.
Her face scrunching, Brook groaned, "Ohhh."
The two boys laughed to themselves. "Watch this." Dean let out a mock scream and tapped the brake hard.
With a surprised "woooop" sound, Brook slid forward and connected less than gently with the back of the front seat. Boosh! She then flopped helplessly down to the floorboard with a loud bump.
Sam giggled heartily into the back of his hand. Dean feigned innocence, saying, "Oops."
A second later, Brook's annoyed face popped up over the top of the seat. She grabbed the back of Dean's head by his hair. "Are you suicidal?"
"Hey, watch the hair!" He batted at her hand.
"You're asking for it, onion head. It's on," Brook declared.
Sam knew instantly what she meant. "Oh no, no no no! Not another stupid prank war!"
"You want it, you got it," Dean replied.
"No!" Sam gestured wildly like a referee calling time-out. "You guys are not doing this."
"You don't have to participate if you don't wanna, Sammy," Dean said with a shrug.
"Yeah, right. I always get pulled in against my will."
"So just give in now and make it easier on yourself." Brook started sucking on the end of her finger.
Looking at her out of the corner of his eye, Dean said, "You give me a wet willy and I won't buy you anything at Taco Bell."
"Taco Bell? Yay..." She started to climb into the front seat between them.
1:49:22... 1:49:23... 1:49:24... 1:49:25AM...
"The drive-through should be open for at least twelve more minutes..."
"I've got ten."
"Your watch is fast, Sixxer."
"Oh, and they just love it when people pull into the drive-through right before closing."
"Put a sock in it, Sammy. I'm hungry."
Dean drove the Impala up to the speaker. A voice came through it that said, "I'm sorry, but our drive-through equipment isn't working properly. Please come into the dining room to order."
Looking confused, Dean mumbled, "Then how did you just... okay!" He parked nearby. "What do you guys want?"
Dean memorized all the Supreme Tacos and Burrito Supremes and stepped out of the car. "Okay, three Tacoed Supremes, a Surrito Bumpreito, and a couple of Diet Cokes..."
Brook gave him a dubious look. "Dean? Don't fuck with our food."
He returned an impish grin. "Now would I do that?"
As soon as Dean got inside Taco Bell, Brook took out her cell phone.
"Who are you calling at this hour?" Sam asked.
"Dean." She dialed and waited for him to answer. They watched him through the large glass windows of the restaurant.
"Hello?" said Dean.
"Is Rick there?" she questioned in a funny voice, trying to disguise her own.
"No, you got the wrong number."
"Oh, sorry. Just tell him Heidi called when you see him."
"I don't know anybody named Rick," Dean replied in a slightly annoyed tone.
Brook hung up with a grin.
"What are you doing?" asked Sam.
She snickered. "See, we're going to call Dean all day asking for Rick. Then, at the end of the day, you call back telling him you're Rick and you want all your messages."
Shaking his head, Sam chuckled as he said, "I'm not getting involved in this."
"Oh come on, you know it'll drive Dean crazy." Brook grabbed one of his ears, pulling him closer. "And you know we're going to drag you in anyway."
Swatting off her hand, Sam paused as he gave it some thought. "What about Caller ID?"
"I blocked it."
"Star 69?"
"You can block that too," she sing-songed, rolling her eyes. "You think I'm going to prank call someone without knowing how to do it right?"
"Hm." Sam paused again, looking up at the car's roof. "I'll consider helping you if you promise to go easy on me."
"It's a deal, bruthah." They linked their pinkies and shook on it.
"Hey, you know what, I just realized something." Tapping his watch, Sam continued, "After midnight. It's January 24th."
Brook grinned. "Dean's 28th birthday. Ooh, let's pretend we forgot, then right before midnight tomorrow night, spring a surprise party on 'im."
"That's really cruel." He watched Dean through the windows, giving the teenager at the counter their order. "Let's do it," Sam finished with a devilish smile.
As they both snickered, looking at Dean in the fast food restaurant, something small and black zipped past their older brother, slamming into the condiment island. It grabbed handfuls of ketchup packets and squeezed them. Ketchup squirted up into the air like a fountain.
The employees behind the counter, and Dean, began to laugh like they'd never seen something so funny.
Sam and Brook both jumped. "What the hell is that thing?!"
"I don't know. Some kind of demon," Brook replied, and leaned over the seat to get the duffel bag they kept in the floorboard of the backseat, half stuffed under the front seat, for emergencies. Both their voices became hurried and frantic.
Sam watched the creature for a moment, trying to figure out what it was so they'd know what kind of weapons to take. "It's got a face like a Comedy mask."
"Like those drama masks? Tragedy and Comedy?" Brook labored to drag the bag over the seat as quickly as she could.
"Yeah." Sam watched as the monster's face changed into the Tragedy mask. It turned to Dean and the Taco Bell employees, and they all grew sad. Some began to cry. "A small black creature, the size of an adult raccoon, with an expressive face that makes you feel whatever emotion it wants by just showing it to you. What did Dad say that was?"
Brook brought the bag into her lap, and she and Sam started digging through it. "Uhhh... covered in fur... feeds off emotion and the center of human feeling, the heart. Very fast, reminded Dad of the Gremlins..."
"Real gremlins?"
"No, the ones from the movies."
"Empathy demon!" Sam suddenly yelled, and grabbed a curved sickle-like knife. Brook took one of the handguns. They piled out of the car.
"How do we kill it?!" she called as they headed toward the restaurant, where Dean was currently trying to aim his own handgun at the demon while it hopped from table to table. He was also hindered by the fact that he couldn't stop crying.
"Either cut off its head or deprive it of emotions."
Brook nodded. "You can kill practically anything by cutting off its head."
He gestured toward her gun. "That'll hurt it, but won't kill it. Drive it toward me," Sam instructed, holding up the knife.
Several minutes later, the Taco Bell was a shambles, with overturned tables and thrown food everywhere. The empathy demon lay in the middle of the counter with its tongue sticking out, dead. One of the employees was shaking Dean's sleeve to try to get his attention.
"You killed it, you killed the monster! That thing has been terrorizing us for months. How can we ever repay you?" she asked.
Taco Bell was officially closed, and the Winchesters were on the road to Hollywood again. Dean munched on a Crunch Wrap Supreme. His lap was full of them.
Sam and Brook happily chewed on their own favorite Taco Bell goodies. There were more where those came from piled around them.
With a mischievous grin, Dean said, "I love it when we get paid," and drove on.
1:59:57... 1:59:58... 1:59:59... 2:00:00AM...
Japanese:
Oba-san = Grandmother
Ugokuna! = Don't move!
Oyasumi! = A way of saying 'Goodnight.' Sort of like telling someone to take a rest, take a nap. XD
-kun = A suffix used when addressing a boy.
Hour 3: 2:00AM-3:00AM
Seize the Day, Suffer the Night (c) 2007 Demented Stuff
Supernatural is (c) 2005+ Kripke Enterprises, Wonderland, & Warner Brothers/The CW Television.
by Laurel (Sailorhathor)
Chapters: 1 of 24 (Hour 1: 12:00AM-1:00AM)
Rating: Overall, rated Adult for horror, sexual content, and bad language. Some chapters could get by with a warning for kids under 13.
Dates: This chapter was written April 2007
Word Count: 2,816
Summary: Today is the longest day in Dean Winchester's life. This hour, Dean and Brook grift some poker players out of their money, while Sam encounters a phantom child who mentions a deadly agreement they made many years ago.
Timeline: Alternate Universe after the Supernatural episode "Crossroad Blues."
Warning: Winsister AU! Contains spoilers for several episodes of Supernatural, especially the second season. Even though Dean would make good on his threat to go into Sam's pants, this is not a Wincest story. I want to present a more realistic brother/brother/sister relationship this time. One chapter will have Wincest (Sam/Winsister) overtones, though, due to a succubus, but there will be no actual sex. The actual sexual content happens between Winsister/OFC, Sam/OFC, Dean/OFC, and Dean/OMC in future chapters.
Author's Notes: "Ashes of Dreams and Bloodstained Streets" is a Winsister universe in the "Supernatural" fandom. There were so many good choices for a live action model for the sister of Sam and Dean that I decided to use them all, just in different stories. In this multi-chaptered tale, Brook Winchester resembles actress Danielle Fishel. (Her name won't always be Brook, either; that way, I can use all the names I liked too, hee.) The phrase "Ashes of dreams and bloodstained streets" comes from the Motley Crue song "In the Beginning."
I've always been really into the idea of the boys having a sister. It's a psychological thing with me. Dean's such a great big brother that I'd love for him to be that protective of a sister too. Wish I had a brother like him.
Megumi is very, very loosely based on a character from an episode of Kadokawa Mystery and Horror Tales, "Last Day as a Teenager." The images of her come from this episode.
Fanfic Challenges: "Seize the Day, Suffer the Night Hour 1" was written for the following fanfic challenge prompts... 24_prompts: #9 Career Choice & album_mix: Bon Jovi, New Jersey #1 "Lay Your Hands on Me" (They're playing CARDS! Lay your HANDS on me. Get it? HA! Hahaha... um. Ahem. ^_^)
12:01:57... 12:01:58... 12:01:59... 12:02:00AM...
"Dean, are two ladies better than two A's?"
Dean leaned over to look at his sister's cards. "No. Two Aces beat two Queens."
"Oh, darn."
The other two players at the poker table, Ross and Mark, glanced at each other and grinned. The look they exchanged said, "What a ditz."
Dean leaned over again. "Brook?"
She carefully examined her cards with an almost pained expression, nibbling on a fingertip. "Uh huh?"
"You're not supposed to let the other players know what cards you have."
Looking at her older brother, she seemed surprised. "Oh, you're not?" Brook turned back to the other players. "How embarrassing. Forget what I just said, okay?" Then she added a little giggle. "Teehee."
The two men Dean had suckered into playing high-stakes poker tried not to show too much satisfaction in reaction to Brook's apparent inexperience. Ross and Mark both thought they were about to take all the money the Winchesters had.
"I call," Dean said.
Brook only had a pair of Queens. "Do I lose?"
"Sorry, little lady, but you do," Ross replied with a smirky little grin.
"Shit." She pouted, running her hands through her dishwater blond hair and making sure to toss it around playfully for the wandering eyes of the two men. "I'm sorry, Dean, I keep losing all our money."
"Just keep your poker face on this time," Dean angrily scolded. He gathered the cards to shuffle them.
"You mean like this?" Brook did her best to make her face look as blank as possible.
Ross and Mark held back derisive laughter.
Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like that."
"Why do you play with this ditz, Winchester?" Mark asked.
Brook glared at him with her mouth open, offended.
Dean shrugged. "What can I do? She's my kid sister."
"Yeah! He's stuck with me," Brook amended, as if this was truly the best comeback she could come up with.
They played several more hands, with Dean and Brook losing at least seventy-five more dollars. Dean appeared to grow more and more frustrated. The other two men plainly became overly confident that they would take all of Dean and Brook's money before the night was through. They started to drink, thinking their victory was assured.
The more questions Brook asked, the more Ross and Mark snickered and shook their heads.
"Dean, how do you make a Full Flush?"
"Dean, if you have two Kings and a Jack, does that make Three-of-a-Kind? But they're all men..."
"Dean, why do they call this thing that looks like a doggie paw a Club?"
They were down almost $150. Dean practically had his head on the table in shame. Ross and Mark couldn't stop laughing between gulps of beer. "Can we switch partners? Please?" Dean begged.
Brook smacked his arm as hard as she could. "Shut up and peel the cards!"
"That's DEAL!"
The bets were big on the latest hand. At least $80 on the table. Dean was whispering to his sister, "Fold, Brook. Come on. Just fold."
"No! I've got a good hand this time." She seemed to notice that Ross and Mark were listening. "I mean..." Brook put on the blankest expression she could manage.
Ross chuckled so hard he dribbled beer out of his mouth, which he wiped off his chin with his hand. "I call."
Brook had a Straight Flush. Dumbfounded, the two men stared at her hand and didn't speak. A cigarette hung on Mark's lip, stuck to it with his own saliva, before finally falling out of his mouth. He suddenly and frantically began slapping at his smoking pants.
"I think I win. How about some Five Card Stud?" she said, and smirked, gathering up the money. Then she added, "Teehee."
They started to catch on when Brook curiously began to win, whipping out Full Houses and Three-of-a-Kinds left and right. Dean's luck also improved, although not as much, because his hadn't been as bad as hers to begin with. Because of their pride, Mark and Ross kept trying to win their money back, convinced that this airheaded twenty-something and her pretty boy brother couldn't possibly be beating them after losing almost all of their money. They didn't realize who they were dealing with until they were both down to less than ten dollars.
"How could this happen?" Ross asked the nearly empty bar room. "We were winning..."
"Tell you what..." Dean began, smiling in a charming way, "I'll lend you ten dollars. Double or nothing, winner take all."
It was strange how Dean always had that Royal Flush just when he needed it most.
Ross and Mark were licking their wounds when Brook excused herself from the table, counting the money in her hands. The Winchesters had netted more than $300 for their trouble. Not bad for a little over an hour of "work." A minute later, Dean said he was getting them another round of beers and would be back in a moment. "I'm going to give you the chance to win back your money only because I like you," were his parting words, which he gave them with a wink.
Shortly thereafter, he stepped into the women's restroom. A lady gasped and rushed out the door. "I really gotta go," he said to her, holding his crotch. When she was past, he looked over his shoulder to check out her ass (not bad...), and then knocked on the door of the only locked stall. "Brook, we better get outta here before they sober up."
She flushed and came out, resuming her counting of their money. "So what is it tonight? Out the window, or do we sneak past them?"
"Out the window. They're angry, so they're going to be looking for us. By the way..." Dean tried to take the money from her, but she casually passed it from one hand to the other and kept counting. "...you were laying it on a little thick out there. Next time, not so much ditz, okay? I mean, did you have to do that 'teehee' thing?"
Brook shrugged. "Guys like that think women can't even play poker. If I went a little overboard, it was only because I was so disgusted with their attitude." Grinning, she ran a few bills between her fingers. "We taught them a lesson, huh?"
"Well, we learned from the best." Dean caught hold of the wad of cash, but Brook wouldn't let it go. They stared at each other. "Lemme hold onto it, okay?"
Brook snatched the money out of his fingers. "That's alright, I got it." She stuffed the bills down her shirt, into her bra.
Raising an eyebrow, Dean remarked, "Do you think I won't go in there?"
She just smiled back, tight-lipped. "You do and you'll draw back a bloody stump."
"Oooooh, I'm scared."
Someone knocked loudly and furiously at the door. "Winchester, are you in there? We need to talk to you," Mark's voice said.
"I think they figured it out. I'll soft-soap them; you get to the car and I'll meet you and Sammy there," instructed Dean.
With a nod, Brook headed for the window.
12:45:57... 12:45:58... 12:45:59... 12:46:00AM...
Sam rarely wanted any part of the poker games. It wasn't that John hadn't taught him the art of grifting people out of their gambling money too, it was just that it made Sam feel bad, even if some people desperately deserved the Winchester treatment. He knew it wouldn't take long, so Sam waited in the Impala, ready to slide over and get the car started if they needed to make a quick getaway.
He was currently watching the front door of the bar. Sam's attention was occasionally stolen by the mountainous terrain nearby in the California hills. Earlier, he thought he'd spotted a coyote roaming around. He knew they weren't as much of a danger to him and his family as they were to rabbits and housecats, but still, he wanted to watch an animal like that this close to populated areas. Sometimes, they attacked children.
Like the little girl currently standing on the side of the rocky hill. A young Asian girl in a dark dress with a little white collar. Why was a child out here all alone, at this time of - Sam gasped in shock when he realized he recognized her, and where he recognized her from. It had been eleven years. He was the only Winchester left alive who knew what had happened all those years ago, when Sam was 12, Brook was 14, and Dean was 16.
"We'll take care of it," John had said at the time, when Sam couldn't hold it in anymore and confessed everything that had happened, everything that had been wiped from the memories of the rest of his family. "We've got eleven years to figure it out."
But like so many other things, this deal young Sam had made at the foot of the Nakamura's stairs had been forgotten with the passage of time. Perhaps Sam didn't want to remember it, had deliberately stopped thinking about it, because he hoped it would just go away.
Apparently, the creature harbored by the Nakamuras hadn't forgotten. She stood almost still, just staring at him through the Impala's window with a serious expression. Megumi. Isn't that what they called her? It means 'blessing.'
Sam shouldn't have been able to hear her from that distance. Despite that, he could make out her words clearly. "The day we agreed upon has come," Megumi said in a deep, inhuman voice.
Sam screamed and nearly jumped through the roof of the car when the back door opened and quickly closed. Brook had slipped in unnoticed, except for the sound of the door. She watched him nervously run a hand through his mop of hair, listened to him take a ragged breath. "Did I scare you?" she asked jokingly.
"No, I was trying to learn to highjump right here in the car," Sam replied with irritation. He looked carefully out the window, not seeing the little girl anymore. Had she really been there at all, or had he been dreaming? Sam had been napping shortly before... maybe he hadn't awakened at all until Brook got in the car, slamming the door and waking him up. "Did you see a girl out there? A little Asian girl in a dark dress?"
Brook shook her head. "No. There was nobody out there but some drunk guy leaning on his truck." She looked out the window too. "Did you see a kid out there?"
Sam settled back. "I think I was dreaming."
Brook leaned up on the front seat, next to his head. "Did you see something weird?"
He didn't want to tell her about it. It had been a secret between him and his dad for eleven years. Sam hoped he could keep it that way. "Just your face."
She stuck out her tongue at him, then reached over and stuffed the wad of cash into the front of his pants. Sam tried to recoil in surprise, but there was nowhere to go. "What are you doing?"
"Hide that. Don't tell Dean you have it. He's playing Brook's Just a Girl again." She sat back and tried to look innocent.
They both saw Dean coming across the parking lot. He got into the driver's seat and closed the door. "Those two guys are waiting for us. I told them we were having a powwow because you wanted to keep the money and I wanted to give them another chance to win it back. We should leave before they get impatient." Dean glanced over at Sam, then watched Brook's eyes in the rearview mirror. "Sam, gimme the money."
Jerking in his seat like he'd been shocked, Sam barked, "What?"
"You think I don't know my own brother and sister? You two look about as guilty as a succubus in church." Watching Sam's nervous eyes and where they led, Dean paused for a moment before his eyes went down, passing over the same area. "You think I won't go in there?" he asked, gesturing at Sam's pants.
Brook sighed in exasperation. "Just give the baby his bottle, Sammy."
"That's right, you can't hide anything from me," Dean laughed as Sam dug the money out of his pants. He handed it over with a sigh as deep as Brook's to show he, too, was not amused. After he'd pocketed the money, Dean started the Impala.
"You're a jerk, you know that?" Brook told him as he pulled out of the parking lot. "I can hold onto the money just as well as you can."
"Yeah, you'd just make us stop at a mall and spend it on shoes."
"Screw you."
Dean chuckled again. "You wish."
"Oh, ew."
As they pulled away from the bar, Sam watched the hills to their left with fear in his eyes. Like he expected to see something he hoped would never surface again.
Dean looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "Something wrong, Sammy?"
Sam took his eyes off the mountainside. "Nothing."
Brook leaned on the seat between her brothers. "Where are we going again?"
Dean, grinning, said, "I got us two gigs in one of the most exciting places in the world: Hollywood."
Brook rolled her eyes. "I should have known. You want to pretend you're a director so you can bed some starlets on the casting couch."
"I was thinking more the casting waterbed," corrected Dean.
"Or the casting hot tub?"
"Which case are we working first?" asked Sam.
"Actually... we're working them both tonight," Dean replied sheepishly. "But I don't think the first one will take long. The other needs to be investigated way after hours anyway, because, you know, some things come out more in the middle of the night."
Giving the back of Dean's head a shove, Brook questioned, "And exactly when did you expect us to get any sleep?"
"Aw, come on, Sixxer," protested Dean, using an old nickname for her. "You gettin' too old to stay up all night?"
"Whatever." She laid down in the backseat. "We must be crazy, taking you to Hollywood. You'll wind up in a porn movie." Then, wanting to get even with him for his comment about the shoes, added, "And you'll spend all our money on cheapass movie souvenirs."
"Quit your bitchin' and take a Midol."
Her hand came up over the edge of the seat with only her middle finger extended.
Dean put on some Judas Priest, and they stopped talking for a little while.
As they drove out of town, Sam watched the hills go by Dean's side of the car and slowly began to relax. Maybe it was all a bad dream.
12:59:57... 12:59:58... 12:59:59... 1:00:00AM...
Seize the Day, Suffer the Night (c) 2007 Demented Stuff
Supernatural is (c) 2005+ Kripke Enterprises, Wonderland, & Warner Brothers/The CW Television.
Hour 2: 1:00AM-2:00AM
Chapters: 2 of 24 (Hour 2: 1:00AM-2:00AM)
Rating: This chapter, Parental Guidance Suggested for Children Under 13. Overall, rated Adult for horror, sexual content, and bad language.
Dates: This chapter was written June 2007
Word Count: 3,256
Overall Summary: Today is the longest day in Dean Winchester's life. Over the next 24 hours, he'll have to win a prank war, fight wise-cracking demons, rescue his siblings from a succubus, figure out why the patrons at a strip club are spontaneously combusting, save his brother from a deal he made with a blood-thirsty Asian creature eleven years ago, and all without getting sacrificed. And on his birthday! Do big brothers ever get a day off?
This Hour: Sam remembers what happened eleven years and one day ago to cause him to make the deal that's come back to haunt him today. He and Dean discuss what Dean remembers, which is limited, and then Dean sets off another prank war. The hour ends with the Winchesters finally, for once, getting "paid."
Timeline: Alternate Universe after the Supernatural episode "Crossroad Blues." (There's also a Winsister, but many of the events of the series have still happened.)
Warning: Winsister AU! Contains spoilers for several episodes of Supernatural, especially the second season. I do not plan for there to be any Wincest in this story; I want to present a more realistic brother/brother/sister relationship this time. One chapter will have Wincest (Sam/Winsister) overtones, though, due to a succubus, but there will be no actual sex. The actual sexual content happens between Winsister/OFC, Sam/OFC, Dean/OFC, and Dean/OMC in future chapters.
Author's Notes: I got Kripked again. It happened last year with the season finale, and it's happened again with this story. STDSTN was planned out and begun well in advance of "All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2," but it shares some similarities with it anyway (the whole "one brother saves the other from a deal they made in the past to save the other's life" storyline). Oh well. I'm still writing it. I'll just say that Megumi is most definitely not a Crossroads Demon and leave it at that.
Thanks to Rekka for help with the Japanese. You rock, Rek!
I am a huge Japan geek and love staff weapons/polearms. You'll see that love reflected here.
I just made up the empathy demon.
Recently I asked if anyone wanted me to name a character after them for fun. One person to respond was my friend Moosie, whose real name is Heidi. Because she's fun to mess with, expect there to be as many Heidis in this story as I can cram into it. *evil grin*
Fanfic Challenges: "Seize the Day, Suffer the Night Hour 2" was written for the following fanfic challenge prompts... 24_prompts: #22 Lie, album_mix: Motley Crue Shout at the Devil Track #1 "In the Beginning", paranormal25: #49 Demons
1:04:36... 1:04:37... 1:04:38... 1:04:39AM...
There is yelling coming from the top of the stairs. Dean is screaming something and Midori responds in an angry tone. The commotion draws Sam's attention from his practice.
Midori's voice is authoritative; Sam cannot make out what he is saying. But Dean is screaming loud enough for anyone to hear.
"Stop protecting that thing! I'm warning you, get out of the way!"
Midori is saying something else as Sam makes his way to the living room to see what's going on. Dad calls from another room, "What's all the fighting about in there?"
"I figured it out, Midori!" Dean yells.
Midori says something in that authoritative, cold tone.
Dean growls back, "No, you'll regret it! Get out of my - "
Sam gets to the bottom of the stairs just in time to hear the scuffle. He looks up and gasps. "Dean!"
Dean is making choked noises of pain. His hands close around the blade, but Midori still slides it in deeper, and Dean lets out a wail through gritted teeth, his eyes squeezed shut. Only the tips of his toes are on the sixth step now. He dangles there.
"Deeeean!" Sam hears himself scream.
Blood drips on the stairs below John Winchester's eldest child. There is a wet sucking sound, and Dean tumbles limply down the stairs, landing facedown at Sam's feet.
Now, the room fills with screams.
Sam kneels beside Dean and turns him over into his lap. "Dean... Dean?" He shakes him. The blood forms a pattern like an orchid blooming in the fabric of Dean's white shirt. Flecks of blood on full lips. There is no response.
"What... oh Christ... what the hell have you done?!" Dad screams from somewhere to Sam's right.
A girl starts to cry. It's Tenshi. "Midori, what happened?!"
Midori says nothing. Just stands at the top of the stairs with the little one at his side.
Dad is breathing so loudly that his breath comes out in angry howls. "You son of a bitch... you killed my son... you killed my son!" Sam recognizes the next sound very well; it is the ch-chick of a shotgun being cocked. "I don't care if you are a kid, I'll fucking kill you!"
Sam cannot take his eyes off Dean's face, which is almost peaceful. He sees feet moving to one side. First, Dad's brown hiking boots charge toward the stairs. Smaller, feminine feet clad in sandals step in front of him and brace as Tenshi pushes against Dad. "No, NO, Mr. Winchester, don't, please, no! You can't kill my cousin! Please, no, put the gun down!"
"Stay out of this, Tenshi!"
"Mr. Winchester, pleeeeeease!" she wails.
"Let go of my gun!"
Sam is unaware of the fact that his sister has even entered the room. He now sees her familiar plaid sneakers coming slowly toward him, so he looks up. Brook's face is a mask of shock and potential hysteria as she gazes down on the lifeless shape in his lap. "Sam, what's going on? Is he... Dean's hurt..." She bonelessly goes down on her knees, looking at Dean. "He's breathing, isn't he?" Brook asks in a shaky voice.
Tenshi continues to beg for her cousin's life. "Oba-san, tell Mr. Winchester to put the gun down! You can convince him. He wants to shoot Midori! Tell him he can't!"
"Look what he did to my son!" Dad yells.
Sam is unable to see anymore because his eyes blur with tears. They form prisms through which he sees his sister reach out to shake Dean's shoulder. "Dean... Dean?" she says with growing panic.
"Winchesutaa-san, remember that you are a guest in this house," the grandmother reminds him calmly. Sam always knew there was something deeply disturbing about that woman; this just confirms it.
Dad yells again, "Do you see what he did to my son?!"
The tears roll down Sam's face and he can now see Dad take aim.
Tenshi screams. Her arms go up and freeze in mid-air as a voice from halfway down the stairs commands, "Ugokuna!"
Sam shudders at the inhuman sound of the voice. He wipes his eyes on the back of his hand, clearing them again, and realizes that everyone is frozen in place like statues. Everyone except him, the grandmother, Midori, and the child on the stairs.
Megumi. She's never spoken before. "Oyasumi!"
The frozen people close their eyes and simply fall to the floor, unconscious.
Sam looks around him, sobbing in shock and confusion. "What... what... what did... you do?" he stammers.
Megumi walks slowly down the stairs, stepping callously into the puddle of blood that had run from Dean's body. The boy, Midori, stays at the top and looks down upon the scene. Sam can hardly take his eyes off those black patent shoes standing in the middle of the crimson puddle. That is, until she speaks again.
"Sam-kun," Megumi begins, "do you want to save your brother?"
"Yes!" he immediately cries. "Is it possible? Tell me how!"
The child smiles without opening her mouth. The look she gives Sam is predatory. "I believe we can make a deal."
"Sam? Sammy?"
Dean's voice startled Sam out of his thoughts. He blinked and looked at his watch. 1:22AM. Funny how memories running through a person's head could consume their time so completely. "Uh... hey."
"Are you okay? You seem distracted."
"Just thinking about stuff."
Dividing his attention between watching the road and Sam, Dean asked, "What kinda stuff?"
Sam tried to make it seem like no big deal, giving a shrug. "Just stuff in general."
"You seemed kinda freaked out," Dean pressed. "The look on your face was pained."
Brooding to himself, Sam didn't say anything for several seconds. He picked absently at a loose string on his jeans. "I was just thinking about the time we stayed with the Nakamuras. Remember that?"
Dean started to smile, then looked confused, but ultimately settled on an uneasy grin. "Ohhh yeah, I remember. Tenshi's family. That was quite a while ago; why are you thinking about them?"
"I was just wondering what you remember about the two weeks we stayed there."
"Hm." Dean obviously searched his memory, as he was quiet for a short time, staring out the windshield into the dark. "Dad took us there to train. Tenshi's father is a hunter and martial arts expert, and Dad thought that would be good for us. Remember, we each had to pick a weapon and try to master it?"
Sam tapped his first two fingers against his bottom lip, almost lost in thought. "Yeah. I picked sais. Brook picked the naginata." He had to smile a little at that memory; Brook had, at first, chosen a weapon Nakamura-sensei thought would be too hard for her to master because she was a girl, which had made her feel insulted. She wanted to master whatever her brothers could master. Tenshi had stepped in to try to smooth things over by showing Brook how "cool" the female martial art of naginata-jyutu and its weapon could be. In the end, Brook was happy.
Dad had threatened to tan both the boys' hides if they teased Brook about it being "just a girl's" martial art because it would probably upset her, and after all they had gone through to make her happy, Dad didn't want to do it all over again. There was nothing easy about Brook's training, but John knew how boys could be with their sisters.
Dean grinned too. "Yeah. And I picked the zanbato."
The blade, dripping with blood, juts out from between Dean's shoulderblades. Sam shuddered all over. "Uh huh. The zanbato."
"Damn, that thing was heavy. I thought I was such a badass." Dean suddenly fell silent, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Did I ever master it? I can't remember."
Swallowing hard, Sam replied, "No." He shook his head a little. "No."
"Yeah, well, it was a long time ago. Midori and I trained pretty hard. It's a shame I didn't pass my test. I think we had to leave early because Dad got a lead on the demon, or something."
Sam nodded. "Or something."
"They had their grandmother living with them, too. She was pretty creepy," Dean laughed. "And some kid... I think she was Midori's little sister. Masami...?"
"Megumi," Sam corrected in a choked voice. He cleared his throat to cover for his fear of what the day held.
"Yeah." Growing quiet briefly, Dean pretty much forgot the child as soon as he'd mentioned her, thinking instead of Tenshi. Tenshi was three years younger than Dean, and one year older than Sam. She and Dean still saw each other whenever they had an itch that needed scratching. "I last saw Tenshi about two months ago. That is one sweet piece of - "
"Dean..." Sam gave him that look that said he was about to say something piggish.
"Have I ever shown you the picture I took of her in a bikini?"
"Only ninety-nine times."
"Wanna make it a hundred?" Dean snickered.
He accidentally drove over a large rock, shaking the car. Brook snorted in her sleep and mumbled, "The hamburger's mine," from the back seat.
Dean and Sam looked at each other and chuckled. "Talking in her sleep. Watch, watch." Dean chuckled again and spoke loud enough for Brook to hear him. "The hamburger, Brook?"
"It's my hamburger," she repeated, sounded disoriented. "I got it."
"Oh? Well, if it's yours, why don't you show it some love and give it a great big hug?"
Sam snickered quietly, peeking over the seat to see if his sister would do it.
Brook clumsily hugged the air. She made an unintelligible "mmuh" sound when she did.
"Oh, God, Brook, you squeezed it so hard that ketchup squirted out all over your dress," Dean said, his voice shaking with repressed laughter.
Her face scrunching, Brook groaned, "Ohhh."
The two boys laughed to themselves. "Watch this." Dean let out a mock scream and tapped the brake hard.
With a surprised "woooop" sound, Brook slid forward and connected less than gently with the back of the front seat. Boosh! She then flopped helplessly down to the floorboard with a loud bump.
Sam giggled heartily into the back of his hand. Dean feigned innocence, saying, "Oops."
A second later, Brook's annoyed face popped up over the top of the seat. She grabbed the back of Dean's head by his hair. "Are you suicidal?"
"Hey, watch the hair!" He batted at her hand.
"You're asking for it, onion head. It's on," Brook declared.
Sam knew instantly what she meant. "Oh no, no no no! Not another stupid prank war!"
"You want it, you got it," Dean replied.
"No!" Sam gestured wildly like a referee calling time-out. "You guys are not doing this."
"You don't have to participate if you don't wanna, Sammy," Dean said with a shrug.
"Yeah, right. I always get pulled in against my will."
"So just give in now and make it easier on yourself." Brook started sucking on the end of her finger.
Looking at her out of the corner of his eye, Dean said, "You give me a wet willy and I won't buy you anything at Taco Bell."
"Taco Bell? Yay..." She started to climb into the front seat between them.
1:49:22... 1:49:23... 1:49:24... 1:49:25AM...
"The drive-through should be open for at least twelve more minutes..."
"I've got ten."
"Your watch is fast, Sixxer."
"Oh, and they just love it when people pull into the drive-through right before closing."
"Put a sock in it, Sammy. I'm hungry."
Dean drove the Impala up to the speaker. A voice came through it that said, "I'm sorry, but our drive-through equipment isn't working properly. Please come into the dining room to order."
Looking confused, Dean mumbled, "Then how did you just... okay!" He parked nearby. "What do you guys want?"
Dean memorized all the Supreme Tacos and Burrito Supremes and stepped out of the car. "Okay, three Tacoed Supremes, a Surrito Bumpreito, and a couple of Diet Cokes..."
Brook gave him a dubious look. "Dean? Don't fuck with our food."
He returned an impish grin. "Now would I do that?"
As soon as Dean got inside Taco Bell, Brook took out her cell phone.
"Who are you calling at this hour?" Sam asked.
"Dean." She dialed and waited for him to answer. They watched him through the large glass windows of the restaurant.
"Hello?" said Dean.
"Is Rick there?" she questioned in a funny voice, trying to disguise her own.
"No, you got the wrong number."
"Oh, sorry. Just tell him Heidi called when you see him."
"I don't know anybody named Rick," Dean replied in a slightly annoyed tone.
Brook hung up with a grin.
"What are you doing?" asked Sam.
She snickered. "See, we're going to call Dean all day asking for Rick. Then, at the end of the day, you call back telling him you're Rick and you want all your messages."
Shaking his head, Sam chuckled as he said, "I'm not getting involved in this."
"Oh come on, you know it'll drive Dean crazy." Brook grabbed one of his ears, pulling him closer. "And you know we're going to drag you in anyway."
Swatting off her hand, Sam paused as he gave it some thought. "What about Caller ID?"
"I blocked it."
"Star 69?"
"You can block that too," she sing-songed, rolling her eyes. "You think I'm going to prank call someone without knowing how to do it right?"
"Hm." Sam paused again, looking up at the car's roof. "I'll consider helping you if you promise to go easy on me."
"It's a deal, bruthah." They linked their pinkies and shook on it.
"Hey, you know what, I just realized something." Tapping his watch, Sam continued, "After midnight. It's January 24th."
Brook grinned. "Dean's 28th birthday. Ooh, let's pretend we forgot, then right before midnight tomorrow night, spring a surprise party on 'im."
"That's really cruel." He watched Dean through the windows, giving the teenager at the counter their order. "Let's do it," Sam finished with a devilish smile.
As they both snickered, looking at Dean in the fast food restaurant, something small and black zipped past their older brother, slamming into the condiment island. It grabbed handfuls of ketchup packets and squeezed them. Ketchup squirted up into the air like a fountain.
The employees behind the counter, and Dean, began to laugh like they'd never seen something so funny.
Sam and Brook both jumped. "What the hell is that thing?!"
"I don't know. Some kind of demon," Brook replied, and leaned over the seat to get the duffel bag they kept in the floorboard of the backseat, half stuffed under the front seat, for emergencies. Both their voices became hurried and frantic.
Sam watched the creature for a moment, trying to figure out what it was so they'd know what kind of weapons to take. "It's got a face like a Comedy mask."
"Like those drama masks? Tragedy and Comedy?" Brook labored to drag the bag over the seat as quickly as she could.
"Yeah." Sam watched as the monster's face changed into the Tragedy mask. It turned to Dean and the Taco Bell employees, and they all grew sad. Some began to cry. "A small black creature, the size of an adult raccoon, with an expressive face that makes you feel whatever emotion it wants by just showing it to you. What did Dad say that was?"
Brook brought the bag into her lap, and she and Sam started digging through it. "Uhhh... covered in fur... feeds off emotion and the center of human feeling, the heart. Very fast, reminded Dad of the Gremlins..."
"Real gremlins?"
"No, the ones from the movies."
"Empathy demon!" Sam suddenly yelled, and grabbed a curved sickle-like knife. Brook took one of the handguns. They piled out of the car.
"How do we kill it?!" she called as they headed toward the restaurant, where Dean was currently trying to aim his own handgun at the demon while it hopped from table to table. He was also hindered by the fact that he couldn't stop crying.
"Either cut off its head or deprive it of emotions."
Brook nodded. "You can kill practically anything by cutting off its head."
He gestured toward her gun. "That'll hurt it, but won't kill it. Drive it toward me," Sam instructed, holding up the knife.
Several minutes later, the Taco Bell was a shambles, with overturned tables and thrown food everywhere. The empathy demon lay in the middle of the counter with its tongue sticking out, dead. One of the employees was shaking Dean's sleeve to try to get his attention.
"You killed it, you killed the monster! That thing has been terrorizing us for months. How can we ever repay you?" she asked.
Taco Bell was officially closed, and the Winchesters were on the road to Hollywood again. Dean munched on a Crunch Wrap Supreme. His lap was full of them.
Sam and Brook happily chewed on their own favorite Taco Bell goodies. There were more where those came from piled around them.
With a mischievous grin, Dean said, "I love it when we get paid," and drove on.
1:59:57... 1:59:58... 1:59:59... 2:00:00AM...
Japanese:
Oba-san = Grandmother
Ugokuna! = Don't move!
Oyasumi! = A way of saying 'Goodnight.' Sort of like telling someone to take a rest, take a nap. XD
-kun = A suffix used when addressing a boy.
Hour 3: 2:00AM-3:00AM
Seize the Day, Suffer the Night (c) 2007 Demented Stuff
Supernatural is (c) 2005+ Kripke Enterprises, Wonderland, & Warner Brothers/The CW Television.