Entanglement, or the Ghost Field - Part Six: Microcosm
Title: Microcosm, Part Six of Entanglement
Author: dracox-serdriel
Acknowledgement: A special thanks to my awesome beta reader, rince1wind
Status: Completed as part of horrorbigbang 2013
Rose dug the building plans from Sam's oversized duffel and laid them out.
"What're you looking for?" Molls asked.
"Nothing really," Rose replied. "But this building used to be a school. It was abandoned a while back till it was renovated, at least, in my universe. This is a bit old, but it shows they did the same there, too, where the FBI agents came from."
Molls scanned the plan over Rose's shoulder. "That looks nothing like this place," she commented. "Nothing at all."
"You're telling me," Rose said.
Telepathic translation definitely indicated alien technology. The walls were another clue: they were oddly stilted. To the casual eye, they were warped, but that wasn't it. They were constructed to have that slightly rippling shape. The schematics might be old, but they proved Rose's theory. There was no way all these rooms fit inside a building that was approximately one hundred feet by one hundred twenty feet.
"Doctor," Rose paged. "Doctor, I think I've got something for you."
"Rose?" Slade responded. "Are you looking for JD?"
"Yeah," Rose replied.
"Hold on," Slade said.
"Jeet!" Dean shouted as he helped Gwen into the room. "Little help."
Molls moved over so Gwen could sit on the large sofa. Irwin wandered into the room moments later, still shaking.
"Looks like we're the injury-prone members of our parties," Gwen said quietly to Castle.
"Good day to be a Castleberry," Castle replied. "Eh?"
"What the hell happened?" Jeet asked.
Dean looked up at Irwin. "He was possessed. He's better now, but there was a fight before that."
"I'm sorry I hurt you, Gwen," Irwin said darkly as he sat apart from everyone.
"Looks like your shoulder is dislocated," Jeet said. "I'm going to need to set it. I've only got a temporary sling for you, but it should be okay for now."
"When you say 'set'," Gwen began. "You mean - "
But she was stopped by a sickening POP! Jeet held Gwen's arm up for another minute, inspecting it. Gwen's shock was clear on her face.
"Ow," she finally said when Jeet let her arm go.
"Sorry, pathologist bedside manner," Jeet replied. "Let me get you that sling."
"When you say 'possessed,' what do you mean?" Rose asked. "Like a telepathic link or something?"
"Ghosts can possess people, but it usually takes a really pissed-off spirit to manage it. They take over your brain, body, everything. It's not telepathy or any of that science fiction crap you and your gangly friend peddle," Dean replied. He turned his attention to Irwin. "You okay?"
"No," Irwin said. "Not really."
For a few minutes, the room was silent as Jeet fixed Gwen up with a sling.
"Is it supposed to hurt still?" Gwen asked.
"It will be sore," Jeet replied. "If it's more than that let me know."
Rose paged the com again, "Slade?"
"Sorry, few more minutes," Slade replied immediately.
"What's he doing?" Rose asked.
"Uh, something very complicated-looking," Slade lied quickly. "Involving both his hands, and - honestly, no idea. But he's fine."
"It's you," Irwin said to Rose.
"It's who?" Dean asked.
Irwin stared at Rose. "Your voice. I heard you talking to that JD person in the hall. You're behind all of this."
"What are you on about?" Rose asked.
"Don't you dare," Irwin said, his voice rising. "I heard you and your... partner. He was telling you about how we're all waiting for the sun to rise, but it's never gonna come! You're part of this place!"
"JD didn't say anything like that to me," Rose replied. "If he had, you'd all know about it."
Irwin looked over to the two Gwens. "Castle, Gwen, can't you see it?"
Jeet sensed the impending danger. "Irwin, listen to me, this place is full of voices and echoes, you can't know - "
"I know what I heard!" Irwin objected.
"Look, Rose Tyler and JD Jones are the best members of - " Jeet began.
Irwin cut her off, "Of course you'd say that! You came here with them! You're part of this!"
"Dude, seriously," Dean said as he stood up.
"Oh, you!" Irwin spat, turning on Dean. "You and your partner have been holding out on all of us since the beginning."
"Me? The guy who just saved your life?" Dean asked.
Molls spoke up, "Calm down! Just calm down!"
Unconsciously, both Dean and Rose prepared to tackle him.
Irwin's body became rigid as he turned to Molls. "You want me to calm down? We saw you dead a few minutes ago, and he," he pointed to Dean, "wants us to just pretend we didn't. Let it be a surprise for you. If he can lie to you about that, what else is he hiding?"
"I'm not hiding anything," Dean said.
"Irwin, I know you're upset, but - " Rose began.
Fury finally pushed him over the edge, and Irwin lunged at the closest person, Rose. His movements were erratic, jabbing and slashing with his hunter's knife. Dean grappled Irwin, trying to disarm him with an arm bar. But Irwin smashed his elbow up and back into Dean's neck, dropping him to his knees as he gasped violently for air.
Irwin made another jab at Rose, who blocked the attack but received a slice along her forearm. Jeet finally got close enough to loop her arm around his right elbow. With a hard jerk, she broke his arm. Irwin screeched as Jeet took his other hand to cuff him.
Rose pulled back, cradling her arm, and swooped down to check on Dean, who was still stunned. When she looked up again, Irwin roared. With his good arm, he threw Jeet to the ground, and then he raced straight for Rose, his knife ready now in his left hand -
BANG!
Blood erupted from Irwin's neck, splattering the wall and dripping down either side. It took Rose a moment to realize what had happened: Jeet had shot him through the neck.
It seemed to take ages for his body to fall.
"Everyone okay?" Jeet asked.
Dean coughed, hard. "Getting there," he said.
"I'll be okay," Rose said. "Just a scratch... or a bit more, but it's okay. It's not that bad."
Jeet holstered her gun and stepped over Irwin's body to check up on Dean and Rose.
"You shot him," Castle said. "You shot him."
"Yes, I did," Jeet replied.
"Was he possessed again?" Gwen asked.
Dean shook his head, coughing. "No, that was all him."
"You didn't need to shoot him!" Castle said.
Jeet stood up straight and turned to Gwen, Castle, and Molls, who had all taken cover by the sofa. "I broke his arm, and he attacked anyway. Either that was a psychotic break of some kind, or he thought he was fighting for his life - "
"And apparently he was!" Castle barked.
"I. Broke. His. Arm," Jeet said without apology. "And he kept attacking. What else could I do? You expect me to let him kill - "
"Okay, okay," Rose spoke up. "Everyone? Can we calm down?"
Castle stared at Irwin's body. "He's dead," she said simply. "He's gone."
"I'm sorry," Gwen said to Castle. "Really, I am."
"Let me bandage up that arm," Jeet said to Rose.
Dean got to his feet and closed Irwin's eyes. "Sorry," he said. "Hell of an elbow, by the way."
The sound of running drew attention to the door, where the tall figure of Sam Winchester appeared. Vince-Vincent and Molly flanked him and followed him into the room.
"What the hell happened?" Sam asked. "The salt lines are all broken - "
"Irwin," Dean said. "This place got to him."
"He attacked, and I had to shoot him," Jeet explained.
Dean searched through Irwin's jacket, retrieving salt rounds and such. He found Dawn Redding's camera tucked in the lower left pocket.
"Well, it makes a bit more sense now," Dean mumbled.
He turned to Sam. "He got possessed by a very pissed off spirit," Dean said as he held up the camera. "When he found this. Got it out of him, but he was sold on some kind of conspiracy thing. That's why he lost it."
"Possessed?" Molly asked. "What does that even mean?"
Before anyone could answer, the room erupted with movement. The sound of metal and wood clashing together, intertwined with violent screams and roars of triumph.
Everyone froze, transfixed by the apparitions of several dozen people throughout the room, some of them intersecting with furniture or people and paying no mind. They were in pairs, fighting and dying and sounding off. And then a moment flickered through them. Their eyes were drawn up to the sky, and horror etched into their features.
Fire fell from the sky, billowing out until the room was filled.
In the next instant, everything evaporated, leaving the room as it had been. Everyone had instinctively ducked or taken cover before the fire hit, save for Castle, who remained leaning against the sofa.
"That's what I saw," she said.
"You saw that?" Sam inquired.
"That battle. That fire from the sky. It was too dark to leave, but I tried. I tried to crawl out of the Trine in absolute darkness. My leg was trapped by something, and I saw that."
"That's it," Sam said.
"Sorry, what?" Rose asked.
"We've been going about this all wrong," Sam began. "The Trine. It exists, apparently, across two universes. Whatever caused it must have major mojo."
"Mondo mojo," Dean added.
"We should be looking at the stories," Sam said. "About how the Trine began."
"First things first," Dean said. "Salt lines."
"And Irwin," Molls added.
She and Castle wrapped Irwin in a sheet. Gwen stepped in when Castle's leg prevented her from carrying the body.
"If we could figure out how the Trine started, the first stories around it, maybe we could pinpoint the power that generated it," Sam said.
"You think that something created the Trine?" Gwen asked.
"Places like this aren't normal," Sam said simply. "Something caused it."
"Yeah," Rose said. "And I know some of the technology here isn't from Earth, but I haven't been able to identify it."
"I'm talking about the stories," Sam explained. "That's always the key to a haunting. And in this case, I think they'll be the key to figuring out whatever... alien technology might be involved."
"I cannot believe you just said that," Dean replied.
"We've run into aliens before," Sam pointed out.
"No, we ran into a Trickster punishment of aliens and fairies pretending to be aliens, not actual aliens," Dean said.
Rose didn't know what that meant, but she knew one person who knew the stories of the Trine better than anyone.
"Doctor," Rose paged. "Doctor, you there?"
"He's doing something else," Slade hedged. "Still very complicated looking. Sorry I can't be more descriptive."
"You keep an eye on him, you hear me?" Rose asked.
"Will do," Slade replied.
Dean coughed loudly, reminding Rose to get on to business.
"Slade," Rose paged again. "Do you know how the Trine began?"
"Uh right," Slade replied over the com. "There're a few stories. One involves a cataclysm cursing the land evermore. Another said that a demon terrorized the forests, and when the people finally killed it, its blood poisoned the earth and tainted the souls for ten generations, perpetuating the festering evil."
"Dramatic," Rose said.
"Oh, and one more. It's not as popular as the others, but it's pretty good," Slade replied. "A very long time ago, a young boy fled the wrath of his father, who killed his wife for producing only one son. So the child ran, trying to win his freedom by sheer distance. But no matter how long and hard he ran, he was still under his father's shadow. After many days he reached the Trine, and his tears were so big that they soaked the ground. And from the ground formed the messenger of the Brownies. The messenger asked the boy what he wanted, and the boy said, 'All I want is to be free of my father, who wants nothing more than to kill me.' And the Brownies granted his wish by wrapping him in the Trine, a place of shadow and mystery that would conceal him forever."
"A wish," Sam repeated. "The Trine was begun with a wish."
"That could be," Dean replied. "But freaking fairies didn't do it. Did they?" He stopped. "I can't believe I just said that out loud."
"You sound crazy," Molls said baldly. "All of you."
"Lady, we're in crazy town," Dean said. "Get used to it."
Navigation
Entanglement, or the Ghost Field <<< Previous Part:
Part Five: Ricochet Primary Post Next Part: >>>
Part Seven: Long Road out of Eden
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Microcosm (Philosophy)
n. a phenomenon that encapsulates the characteristic qualities or defining features of a larger counterpart
Author: dracox-serdriel
Acknowledgement: A special thanks to my awesome beta reader, rince1wind
Status: Completed as part of horrorbigbang 2013
Rose dug the building plans from Sam's oversized duffel and laid them out.
"What're you looking for?" Molls asked.
"Nothing really," Rose replied. "But this building used to be a school. It was abandoned a while back till it was renovated, at least, in my universe. This is a bit old, but it shows they did the same there, too, where the FBI agents came from."
Molls scanned the plan over Rose's shoulder. "That looks nothing like this place," she commented. "Nothing at all."
"You're telling me," Rose said.
Telepathic translation definitely indicated alien technology. The walls were another clue: they were oddly stilted. To the casual eye, they were warped, but that wasn't it. They were constructed to have that slightly rippling shape. The schematics might be old, but they proved Rose's theory. There was no way all these rooms fit inside a building that was approximately one hundred feet by one hundred twenty feet.
"Doctor," Rose paged. "Doctor, I think I've got something for you."
"Rose?" Slade responded. "Are you looking for JD?"
"Yeah," Rose replied.
"Hold on," Slade said.
"Jeet!" Dean shouted as he helped Gwen into the room. "Little help."
Molls moved over so Gwen could sit on the large sofa. Irwin wandered into the room moments later, still shaking.
"Looks like we're the injury-prone members of our parties," Gwen said quietly to Castle.
"Good day to be a Castleberry," Castle replied. "Eh?"
"What the hell happened?" Jeet asked.
Dean looked up at Irwin. "He was possessed. He's better now, but there was a fight before that."
"I'm sorry I hurt you, Gwen," Irwin said darkly as he sat apart from everyone.
"Looks like your shoulder is dislocated," Jeet said. "I'm going to need to set it. I've only got a temporary sling for you, but it should be okay for now."
"When you say 'set'," Gwen began. "You mean - "
But she was stopped by a sickening POP! Jeet held Gwen's arm up for another minute, inspecting it. Gwen's shock was clear on her face.
"Ow," she finally said when Jeet let her arm go.
"Sorry, pathologist bedside manner," Jeet replied. "Let me get you that sling."
"When you say 'possessed,' what do you mean?" Rose asked. "Like a telepathic link or something?"
"Ghosts can possess people, but it usually takes a really pissed-off spirit to manage it. They take over your brain, body, everything. It's not telepathy or any of that science fiction crap you and your gangly friend peddle," Dean replied. He turned his attention to Irwin. "You okay?"
"No," Irwin said. "Not really."
For a few minutes, the room was silent as Jeet fixed Gwen up with a sling.
"Is it supposed to hurt still?" Gwen asked.
"It will be sore," Jeet replied. "If it's more than that let me know."
Rose paged the com again, "Slade?"
"Sorry, few more minutes," Slade replied immediately.
"What's he doing?" Rose asked.
"Uh, something very complicated-looking," Slade lied quickly. "Involving both his hands, and - honestly, no idea. But he's fine."
"It's you," Irwin said to Rose.
"It's who?" Dean asked.
Irwin stared at Rose. "Your voice. I heard you talking to that JD person in the hall. You're behind all of this."
"What are you on about?" Rose asked.
"Don't you dare," Irwin said, his voice rising. "I heard you and your... partner. He was telling you about how we're all waiting for the sun to rise, but it's never gonna come! You're part of this place!"
"JD didn't say anything like that to me," Rose replied. "If he had, you'd all know about it."
Irwin looked over to the two Gwens. "Castle, Gwen, can't you see it?"
Jeet sensed the impending danger. "Irwin, listen to me, this place is full of voices and echoes, you can't know - "
"I know what I heard!" Irwin objected.
"Look, Rose Tyler and JD Jones are the best members of - " Jeet began.
Irwin cut her off, "Of course you'd say that! You came here with them! You're part of this!"
"Dude, seriously," Dean said as he stood up.
"Oh, you!" Irwin spat, turning on Dean. "You and your partner have been holding out on all of us since the beginning."
"Me? The guy who just saved your life?" Dean asked.
Molls spoke up, "Calm down! Just calm down!"
Unconsciously, both Dean and Rose prepared to tackle him.
Irwin's body became rigid as he turned to Molls. "You want me to calm down? We saw you dead a few minutes ago, and he," he pointed to Dean, "wants us to just pretend we didn't. Let it be a surprise for you. If he can lie to you about that, what else is he hiding?"
"I'm not hiding anything," Dean said.
"Irwin, I know you're upset, but - " Rose began.
Fury finally pushed him over the edge, and Irwin lunged at the closest person, Rose. His movements were erratic, jabbing and slashing with his hunter's knife. Dean grappled Irwin, trying to disarm him with an arm bar. But Irwin smashed his elbow up and back into Dean's neck, dropping him to his knees as he gasped violently for air.
Irwin made another jab at Rose, who blocked the attack but received a slice along her forearm. Jeet finally got close enough to loop her arm around his right elbow. With a hard jerk, she broke his arm. Irwin screeched as Jeet took his other hand to cuff him.
Rose pulled back, cradling her arm, and swooped down to check on Dean, who was still stunned. When she looked up again, Irwin roared. With his good arm, he threw Jeet to the ground, and then he raced straight for Rose, his knife ready now in his left hand -
BANG!
Blood erupted from Irwin's neck, splattering the wall and dripping down either side. It took Rose a moment to realize what had happened: Jeet had shot him through the neck.
It seemed to take ages for his body to fall.
"Everyone okay?" Jeet asked.
Dean coughed, hard. "Getting there," he said.
"I'll be okay," Rose said. "Just a scratch... or a bit more, but it's okay. It's not that bad."
Jeet holstered her gun and stepped over Irwin's body to check up on Dean and Rose.
"You shot him," Castle said. "You shot him."
"Yes, I did," Jeet replied.
"Was he possessed again?" Gwen asked.
Dean shook his head, coughing. "No, that was all him."
"You didn't need to shoot him!" Castle said.
Jeet stood up straight and turned to Gwen, Castle, and Molls, who had all taken cover by the sofa. "I broke his arm, and he attacked anyway. Either that was a psychotic break of some kind, or he thought he was fighting for his life - "
"And apparently he was!" Castle barked.
"I. Broke. His. Arm," Jeet said without apology. "And he kept attacking. What else could I do? You expect me to let him kill - "
"Okay, okay," Rose spoke up. "Everyone? Can we calm down?"
Castle stared at Irwin's body. "He's dead," she said simply. "He's gone."
"I'm sorry," Gwen said to Castle. "Really, I am."
"Let me bandage up that arm," Jeet said to Rose.
Dean got to his feet and closed Irwin's eyes. "Sorry," he said. "Hell of an elbow, by the way."
The sound of running drew attention to the door, where the tall figure of Sam Winchester appeared. Vince-Vincent and Molly flanked him and followed him into the room.
"What the hell happened?" Sam asked. "The salt lines are all broken - "
"Irwin," Dean said. "This place got to him."
"He attacked, and I had to shoot him," Jeet explained.
Dean searched through Irwin's jacket, retrieving salt rounds and such. He found Dawn Redding's camera tucked in the lower left pocket.
"Well, it makes a bit more sense now," Dean mumbled.
He turned to Sam. "He got possessed by a very pissed off spirit," Dean said as he held up the camera. "When he found this. Got it out of him, but he was sold on some kind of conspiracy thing. That's why he lost it."
"Possessed?" Molly asked. "What does that even mean?"
Before anyone could answer, the room erupted with movement. The sound of metal and wood clashing together, intertwined with violent screams and roars of triumph.
Everyone froze, transfixed by the apparitions of several dozen people throughout the room, some of them intersecting with furniture or people and paying no mind. They were in pairs, fighting and dying and sounding off. And then a moment flickered through them. Their eyes were drawn up to the sky, and horror etched into their features.
Fire fell from the sky, billowing out until the room was filled.
In the next instant, everything evaporated, leaving the room as it had been. Everyone had instinctively ducked or taken cover before the fire hit, save for Castle, who remained leaning against the sofa.
"That's what I saw," she said.
"You saw that?" Sam inquired.
"That battle. That fire from the sky. It was too dark to leave, but I tried. I tried to crawl out of the Trine in absolute darkness. My leg was trapped by something, and I saw that."
"That's it," Sam said.
"Sorry, what?" Rose asked.
"We've been going about this all wrong," Sam began. "The Trine. It exists, apparently, across two universes. Whatever caused it must have major mojo."
"Mondo mojo," Dean added.
"We should be looking at the stories," Sam said. "About how the Trine began."
"First things first," Dean said. "Salt lines."
"And Irwin," Molls added.
She and Castle wrapped Irwin in a sheet. Gwen stepped in when Castle's leg prevented her from carrying the body.
"If we could figure out how the Trine started, the first stories around it, maybe we could pinpoint the power that generated it," Sam said.
"You think that something created the Trine?" Gwen asked.
"Places like this aren't normal," Sam said simply. "Something caused it."
"Yeah," Rose said. "And I know some of the technology here isn't from Earth, but I haven't been able to identify it."
"I'm talking about the stories," Sam explained. "That's always the key to a haunting. And in this case, I think they'll be the key to figuring out whatever... alien technology might be involved."
"I cannot believe you just said that," Dean replied.
"We've run into aliens before," Sam pointed out.
"No, we ran into a Trickster punishment of aliens and fairies pretending to be aliens, not actual aliens," Dean said.
Rose didn't know what that meant, but she knew one person who knew the stories of the Trine better than anyone.
"Doctor," Rose paged. "Doctor, you there?"
"He's doing something else," Slade hedged. "Still very complicated looking. Sorry I can't be more descriptive."
"You keep an eye on him, you hear me?" Rose asked.
"Will do," Slade replied.
Dean coughed loudly, reminding Rose to get on to business.
"Slade," Rose paged again. "Do you know how the Trine began?"
"Uh right," Slade replied over the com. "There're a few stories. One involves a cataclysm cursing the land evermore. Another said that a demon terrorized the forests, and when the people finally killed it, its blood poisoned the earth and tainted the souls for ten generations, perpetuating the festering evil."
"Dramatic," Rose said.
"Oh, and one more. It's not as popular as the others, but it's pretty good," Slade replied. "A very long time ago, a young boy fled the wrath of his father, who killed his wife for producing only one son. So the child ran, trying to win his freedom by sheer distance. But no matter how long and hard he ran, he was still under his father's shadow. After many days he reached the Trine, and his tears were so big that they soaked the ground. And from the ground formed the messenger of the Brownies. The messenger asked the boy what he wanted, and the boy said, 'All I want is to be free of my father, who wants nothing more than to kill me.' And the Brownies granted his wish by wrapping him in the Trine, a place of shadow and mystery that would conceal him forever."
"A wish," Sam repeated. "The Trine was begun with a wish."
"That could be," Dean replied. "But freaking fairies didn't do it. Did they?" He stopped. "I can't believe I just said that out loud."
"You sound crazy," Molls said baldly. "All of you."
"Lady, we're in crazy town," Dean said. "Get used to it."
Navigation
Entanglement, or the Ghost Field <<< Previous Part:
Part Five: Ricochet Primary Post Next Part: >>>
Part Seven: Long Road out of Eden
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Microcosm (Philosophy)
n. a phenomenon that encapsulates the characteristic qualities or defining features of a larger counterpart