Fic: The Road To Heaven Bestrewed With Amaranth (12/21)
Title: The Road To Heaven Bestrewed With Amaranth (12/21);
Rating: overall R for language, violence, blood and sexual themes;
Genre: romance, adventure, time travel;
Pairing/Characters: Dean/Castiel, Sam, Bobby, OFC;
Spoilers: The fic starts from the middle of season 6 and alternates the end of it, but also has spoilers for 7x1;
Beta: eridanie;
Word Count: WIP;
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Masterpost
Chapter 12
I See Dead Puppies. Part I
April 2001,
Redmond, WA.
It was a beautiful day at the end of April. The weather had already started to feel like summer, but it wasn't hot enough to make you dream of nothing but a cold drink and a cool shower every time you stepped outside.
It was Friday, a little bit after six PM and the street was busy with people whose working day was over and were hurrying home to be with their families, or to change clothes and go out with friends to celebrate the end of the working week.
Everyone was in hurry, but one.
Andrew exited the gates of an enormous office building and walked towards his silver Lexus. He stood there for a moment with the car keys, pondering opening the door, but decided against it. He slid the keys back inside the pocket of his expensive black slacks and walked away.
Laid off. The notice that was printed on a small piece of paper had changed his life forever. It wasn't even his fault, it was just that the project he had been working on for what seemed like his entire life had been shut down. The directors had failed to see it's necessity.
Andrew walked several blocks down the street wondering what to do with his life now. He wasn't in a hurry even though he knew his pregnant wife and four-year old son were waiting for him at home. Home. Now they would probably need to vacate it and move into something cheaper. It wasn't that he thought he would never find a decent job, he was a talented computer software engineer, it was just that no other job would allow he and his family to pay off their three-story house in a very wealthy neighborhood. How could he hurry home only to bring that kind of news?
Andrew didn't know how he'd reached a small park with a playground for kids. It was very busy, filled with nearly a dozen children running around, and nearly the same amount of parents or nannies who made themselves comfortable on the benches around the playground, reading books or talking on phones while watching the kids with one eye.
Andrew took a seat on one of the benches, watching the children with an ache in his heart. He'd had so many plans for his own kids, he'd planned to give them everything, to take them around the world on vacations, send them to Harvard or Oxford when they grew up. Now he would have to change all those plans. Andrew closed his eyes massaging his temples with the tips of his fingers.
"Hey mister, do you like my puppy?" he suddenly heard a high pitched voice next to him say.
Andrew opened his eyes and spotted a small girl. She looked no older than six years old, and she was dressed in a pastel pink dress with a picture of Tinkerbell printed on it. One of her hands was raised like she was petting something. Young children had such vivid imaginations.
"Your puppy must be really big if you need to reach this high to pet him." Andrew said smiling.
"Oh yeah, I feed him lots!" The girl smiled.
"And what do you feed him?"
"Human souls!" She laughed.
Andrew raised his eyebrows, wondering how a little girl could come up with such a morbid idea. She'd probably heard it somewhere on TV. Some parents were just too careless and didn't control what their kids were watching.
"I don't think that's a good food for a puppy. Maybe you should get him some dog snacks instead?" Andrew looked around trying to see if any of the parents looking at them. Usually they wouldn't like random strangers talking to their kids for so long, and he didn't want to be accused of pedophilia. Surprisingly he saw no one. Literally no one: the whole playground, had been filled with people just a moment ago, but now was absolutely empty.
Something rather huge growled next to the him, breathing heavily into his face. The breath smelled like a mix of burning matches and rotten eggs. 'Sulfur' crossed Andrew's mind.
A wave of panic suddenly enveloped him, making him break out in goose bumps.
The girl giggled innocently waving her little hand. "Oh, Andrew, you're so silly!"
"How… how do you know my name?" He asked.
"I know everything about you. I know you were laid off, I know you have no idea what to do right now, that you don't know how to bring this news to your loved ones." She took a seat next to Andrew, looking at him with a soft smile.
"Who are you?" The guy asked nearly shivering in fright.
"I'm the one who can help you." The girl explained and just for a split of a second, Andrew could swear her eyes turned red. "I can make it so that you suddenly find your own way of doing things, not relying on the people above. You will become your own boss, you will build a corporation which will stomp out any other companies on the market. Your kids will grow up not knowing how it feels to live from one paycheck to another, trying to save every cent. They will get the best education, will have great careers, isn't that what you want? You want them to never have the childhood you had."
Andrew still didn't believe his ears. It must have been a dream, or a nightmare. He'd probably fallen asleep on the bench in the park. "And what will you get out of helping me?" He asked anyway.
"Your soul." The girl replied simply, making him laugh suddenly.
"My soul, really?"
But the girl looked him right in the eyes and it suddenly stopped sounding so funny.
"I will give you ten years. Ten long years to spend with your family, watching your kids grow. And then you will die, leaving a fortune for them."
"And what if I refuse? I'm still pretty sure I will be able to earn decent money. Maybe not enough for living in a mansion, and going to the best universities, but plenty for having a normal childhood."
"In that case I will simply leave and you will see me never again. But there will be a small complication. You see, your wife is going to die. No, no! I swear I haven't done anything to her, I will not affect your life in any way. It is just… her fate, to die while in childbirth. But I can stop it too, like a bonus for our deal. Absolutely free."
Andrew gulped looking at the little monster girl. Her invisible companion growled again scratching the ground with its claws, leaving enormous marks on the asphalt.
"So, Andrew Moor, What is your answer?"
***
April 2011
Sioux Falls, SD
The three hunters were sitting in Bobby's study room, concentrating on their research. The whole room was piled with hundreds of books they had moved from the Campbell's archive. It was an unpleasant work, but someone had to do it. Some of the items in the Campbell's collection were so rare that copies probably didn't exist anywhere else. The worst part was that no-one could guarantee their success: they could spend several days working on it, and not be able to find anything useful.
"At least we will sort them, so I will be able to add them to my own library." Bobby sighed placing one of the books he was looking through in a one of the already sorted piles. "Any luck on your side?" Bobby addressed to Dean who was sitting on a chair backwards with the book Camuel had given them, using the back of the chair as a trestle for his elbows.
"Nothing." Dean announced gloomily. "I've looked through it like four times already and still have no clue why an angel-freak would give us this!" Dean threw the book on the table.
"Only I feel like a creep reading it."
The book consisted of four stories and narrated their life starting from the moment Lucifer got free, to the moment when Dean returned from a nightmarish future created by Zachariah. Those weren't nice moments to remember.
"But there should have been a reason Camuel gave it to us. Maybe a mention of something? Something which you considered unimportant, but was actually vital?"
Sam stood from the couch, moving towards the bureau table to pick up the book, but suddenly Dean covered it with his palm, looking at Sam like a hungry dog someone was trying to steal a piece of meat from.
"Dean?" Sam raised his eyebrow suspiciously.
The older Winchester deflated and finally moved his hand away from the book. Yes, the book likely had some moments, some emotional outburst of Dean's that he didn't want anyone to know, but it was stupid to try to hide it when the safety of the world was depending on someone else knowing it. Plus the book had many moments of Sam's life Dean didn't want to know, but had to read through them anyway.
"I will go check on Mary." Dean sighed and left from the room.
Dean found his daughter in the back yard of Bobby's house. The girl had put targets on some half-ruined cars and was shooting at them with a bow she had taken from the basement. Dean watched an arrow hit one of the targets right in the center. Several other targets had been shot in the same manner. To the hunter's surprise Mary turned out to be a good shot.
"Did I teach you that?" Dean asked with a whistle.
Mary turned her head giving her father a cold and nearly indifferent look. "No, I used to go to an archery club." She answered before launching yet another arrow.
People who knew Dean had always considered him to be blind to the emotions of others. But Dean wasn't blind. He rarely talked about feelings, he never was the one starting it. But this was only because Dean was sure that pitying other people in the hunting sphere, asking them if everything was all right, was only making those people weaker. And being weak for hunters could only mean death.
"What is it?" He finally asked with a sigh, taking a seat on the hood of a rusted Ford.
Mary turned to face him, her cold gaze softened turning into an upset one.
"I was useless." She said moving her eyes to the floor and clenching her fists. "I looked at Tawa, I knew that it was someone who could kill us all, and yet, I couldn't shoot. It was like my hands stopped listening to me."
"There is nothing wrong with not being able to kill." Dean said seriously.
"But there are so many things wrong with not being able to protect yourself if your last name is Winchester." Mary growled, dropping the bow to the ground.
"Mary…"
"No, don't even start your speech about me having a normal life. My life is anything but normal, and you won't be around forever. In fact, I'm not sure if I can still consider you as being around considering the fact that in my timeline you'r dead!"
Mary was speaking fast, her tone was filled with anger and Dean could see her fighting back tears.
Dean stood up from the hood of the car and moved towards Mary, embracing her. He knew how she felt, he remembered it well. When he had seen a Shtriga over the bed of his little brother, sucking the life force out of him and he couldn't do a thing.
"I know that you've never wanted me to grow up a hunter," she continued, "now, seeing everything for myself, I understand why. There is nothing fun or heroic in it. There are no happy endings, there is only pain and death." Now she started to cry, hiding her face in Dean's shoulder. "I dreamt about becoming one of you… I did. But now I don't want it. But… I have to."
"Mary…" Dean tried again.
"No, you don't understand!"
"Yes I do!" Dean finally lost the facade of calm he tried to keep. He pushed his daughter away. "Yes I do!" He repeated tugging off his shirt.
"Huh?" Mary said, surprised.
"What? I love this shirt, I would be pissed to tear it while training." Dean explained. "Close your mouth and come over here, I'll show you some moves."
~ooo~
Sam had finished reading the first fifty pages of the 'Supernatural' book when the phone in Bobby's kitchen started to ring. The old hunter mumbled something about people who never want to leave him alone before disappearing in the kitchen.
Sam didn't hear the conversation the old hunter had in another room because he was too concentrated on reading in an attempt to not get angry with the way that the exact details of their life were described in here, and not to think about how many people had read it. And not only people. Every monster could now just simply walk into a bookstore and purchase the book, allowing them to find out everything about their weak spots.
Bobby returned from the kitchen looking even more annoyed then when he left.
"Anything happen?" Sam inquired.
"Have you ever heard of people calling me to tell that the weather is great today?" Bobby replied sarcastically.
"So, who was it and what did they want?" Sam asked not paying attention to the sarcasm.
"Answering the question of who, I would say that it was a pathetic excuse for a hunter named Garth. There is something really weird going on in Redmond, Washington."
"Weird, like?.." Sam asked.
"Like… I dunno. Demon omens, werewolf attacks, vampires. If I didn't know Garth I would say this is something really weird even for us. But it's Garth, he probably messed up the details again. Anyway, it would be better if you and Dean could go there and take a look yourselves." Bobby explained returning to his working place.
"All right, I gotta go and find Dean then." Sam nodded standing up.
When Sam walked into salvage yard he couldn't believe his eyes. Here, in the very middle was standing a shirtless Dean, trying to explain Mary how to move her torso right, if she was captured by someone, so that she could get free. Then Dean asked her to try it out, grabbing her by the neck with his arm. Mary easily pushed him to a side, wrenching Dean's arm which would have been painful if she didn't hold back.
"Wow, that was awesome!" Sam chuckled making the both of them to turn their heads.
"Thanks!" Mary smiled.
"Anything you need?" Dean asked massaging his elbow. Looked like Mary wasn't holding back as much as Sam thought.
"Yeah, we have a job!" The younger brother nodded.
***
The ride to Redmond had been mostly spent in silence. They had to stop for a night nearby Butte in Montana where Sam started to interrogate his brother about his sudden decision to take Mary with them. Dean wasn't hiding that Mary had convinced him of the need to teach her more about hunting. He explained it to Sam as well as he could, and in the end his brother seemed to calm down enough to finally agree with him.
Of course Dean didn't have any intention of allowing Mary to jump in the middle of any fights, they had agreed that she would only stay in the motel, and help them with another set of fresh eyes and brain since she was really smart for her age and had knowledge on the topic.
Dean still worried about it though. He kept blaming himself for the fact that his daughter was now was forced into the middle of everything he and his brother were going through. He thought that maybe he made a mistake allowing her to. On the other hand. Mary was right. She might not have needed to know how to hunt before, and maybe she still didn't, but what was done was done, at the very least she had to know how to defend herself in case Dean wasn't around.
The weather in Redmond was different than it had been on the road. It was windy, the whole sky was covered with black heavy clouds and the bolts of lightning were nearly reaching to the ground. Entering the city after hours spent on a sunny road was giving the Winchesters a feeling like they were entering an anomaly zone.
Garth met them on the parking lot, smiling so wide that it looked creepy. If Dean didn't know about this guy from Bobby, he would assume that he was a demon himself.
"Heeey guys!" He greeted approaching the Impala and trying to give Dean a hug.
Dean nearly jumped in surprise, trying to get away. Unfortunately Garth didn't notice his confusion, and the way of retreat was blocked by Dean's own car, so the smaller guy managed to hug him in the end. The same course of actions were repeated on Sam.
And then Garth noticed Mary. But instead of hugging he grabbed her hand placing a kiss on her knuckles.
"I apologize for my ignorance, but no-one told me that a beautiful lady would be joining us." He smiled, still keeping her hand in his. "So, what your name, beautiful?"
At this point Dean suddenly started to consider hitting Garth with something heavy.
"Mary…" She replied awkwardly trying to pull her hand away.
"So, you're traveling with Sam and Dean, any particular reason for that?" Garth asked.
"Ok, Garth, that's enough questions," Dean interrupted tugging the smaller guy away from his daughter.
"We have business in here, so let's concentrate on it." The guy raised his eyebrow and gestured to Mary with his head. "Yeah, she is aware." Dean confirmed.
***
All of the clues and documents Garth was able to collect before the Winchesters arrival were in such a mess that it was difficult to understand what part of which piece of papers belonged where. Sam had always considered his brother the most disorganized person he knew, but seeing Garth spilling pictures of victims out of a small black trash bag he decided to rearrange his ranking.
"So, what are we dealing with?" Dean asked, looking through the pictures of dead people.
"Beats me," Garth sighed. "We have two bodies killed by a large animal, presumably a werewolf."
Garth pushed several pictures with dead men torn apart by something that reminded her of claws. Their whole bodies were defaced to the point it was impossible to see any of their features. Sam wasn't even sure what gender the killed people were.
"Did they have missing hearts?" Mary inquired from another corner of the room.
At first she tried to look at the evidence the other hunter had provided, but after seeing those pictures she excused herself and moved to a further end of the room and was now communicating with the three hunters from there.
Garth blinked several times, glancing at Mary and then returned to the pictures. "I suppose." He nodded.
"What do you suppose?" Dean asked.
"That they are missing hearts, of course! It was a werewolf!"
Sam covered his face with his palm fighting the urge to smack the other hunter. The guy didn't even check everything and jumped into conclusion about werewolves. It seemed that Bobby was right about him. Now he and Dean will have to start the investigation from the beginning, going to the morgue and talking to the family members.
"All right, what about the other victims?" Dean sighed and Sam could see that his brother was just as frustrated as he was.
"Here" Garth moved five other pictures to the Winchester brothers which looked more decent than the previous ones, since the people in them were mostly intact. "The reason for death is blood loss, but no visible injuries on the bodies."
"So, what could this be in your opinion?" Dean hummed looking at the photos.
"Vampires?" Garth shook his shoulders.
Involuntarily Sam hit the wall he was leaning on with his head, wondering it was that Garth was still alive. He saw Mary standing up from the bed and walking to the parking lot. Well, at least one of the Winchesters had decided to play it smart.
***
Mary approached the Impala and climbed on its hood. The atmosphere in the room wasn't exactly what she had expected when she went on a job with her father and uncle. Mary had met Garth before, but she was ten years old and didn't remember it clearly. Later on the guy got married to a girl named Becky and quit the business, moving to the other side of the country and had never had the chance to visit again. She had also heard stories about his nonstandard approach to things, but meeting Garth in real life had turned out to be another story. To tell the truth she couldn't recall any other person who could annoy her this much. The grace inside her suddenly started to thud loudly.
"Damn." Mary sighed, realizing how negative her thoughts were. To tell the truth there wasn't anything that annoying about Garth, but for some reasons her being filled with negative emotions had caused her to dump it all on the guy.
"What is happening to me?" She asked the emptiness of the parking lot, laying herself down on the hood of the car. She suddenly started to feel ashamed of her unreasonable anger.
Mary looked at the gray sky above her head trying to calm herself down. It was chill and windy and the heavy clouds looked like they were about to explode in a heavy rain any moment, but for now Mary still had several moments to relax and think.
Her thoughts were distracted as she heard a bark from somewhere close to her. Mary opened her eyes looking around the parking lot and spotted a large black Rottweiler staring at her from another side of the lot.
"Hey there!" She smiled to the dog, trying to call it.
The Rottweiler growled and didn't move.
Suddenly something beeped in her pocket, distracting her from the dog. Mary reached into her pocket extracting her slim phone out of it and looking at the screen. "Welcome to the test launch of Alpheon Network!" was written on the screen.
Mary blinked several times, surprised that her phone connected to a network which supposedly wasn't existent in the time period she was currently in, but considered the best one in her time.
When Mary looked around the parking lot again, the Rottweiler was nowhere to be seen.
***
The morgue where the all of the dead bodies were transported was situated at the far end of a several storey high hospital, which wasn't different from any other hospitals Mary had ever been to. It was just plain and simple structure consisting of several long corridors, painted in light blue with the distinguishing smell of chloride and medication.
While Dean and Garth went to the police station to find more information about the victims Sam and Mary had been sent here to look at the bodies. Of course it was Sam who went to the morgue by himself as Mary looked too young to pretend to be an FBI agent, and more importantly, she didn't want to deal with anything gross.
So here she was sitting in the large hall of the hospital looking over the crowd of people in case she could see anything suspicious. But for now the only suspicious person in the whole hall was herself, sitting here alone. Several times she was approached by a staff member asking her if she wanted anything, and each time Mary replied that she was only waiting for her uncle, who had come to visit his sick friend.
Mary sighed stretching her arms and noticed a lamp above her head starting to flicker. A wave of cold air brushed over her face making her exhale a puff of steam. Her heart jumped in her chest as she recognized the evidence of ghost activity. Mary quickly looked around, reaching for the angel blade strapped to her side under her shirt and noticed a pale man standing in the middle of the hallway looking at her. He was dressed in a business suit and looked absolutely out of place standing in the middle of the corridor. A nurse passed him by, shivering suddenly from the cold and muttering something about air conditioners being set too low.
Mary slowly stood from the chair, moving toward the ghost whose gaze had never left her, but other than that hadn't shown any signs of aggression. She took several steps closer but the ghostly guy flickered and disappeared from view, reappearing closer to the reception table and pointing at it with his pale hand.
Mary looked at the desk trying to figure out what the ghost wanted to tell her. It looked clean, and every item lying on top was in place and well organized. The brochures of different medical insurance offers were placed on a metal stand in the corner, and several advertisement papers and business cards were stacked in neat piles next to it. Other than that and a glued to the table surface pen, which looked rather cheap, the desk didn't have anything else.
The light flickered again making the screen of the computer behind the desk blink. The receptionist, an elderly but well groomed woman, glanced at it with distrust and kicked at the computer's slick side several times. She attempted to return to work, but then she noticed Mary standing in front of her and smiled.
"Anything you need?" The receptionist asked.
"Just decided to stretch my legs." Mary lied. "Actually, would you mind giving me a blank piece of paper? My uncle takes so long for some reason, and I forgot my drawing pad in the car and don't have keys."
"Sure thing, dear." The woman nodded and offered the paper and a pencil.
"Thank you." Mary smiled with appreciation.
On the way back to the chairs she also grabbed every version of the advertisements they had.
***
"So, now there is a ghost we also have to deal with?" Sam sighed looking at the portrait Mary had drawn while waiting in the hospital lobby as he dropped to a chair in the motel room.
The portrait was well drawn and looked realistic, making Sam wonder when Mary had time to learn how to draw this well, considering she was only eighteen and was mostly preoccupied with school. Just a moment ago Sam had finished checking the hospital database but couldn't find anyone that looked close to the drawing, who had died there in the past twenty years.
"Maybe one of the patients is carrying something which binds the ghost to it?" Dean proposed. "It would make sense."
"His face looks familiar." Garth Suddenly announced, nearly tearing the sheet of paper out of Sam's hands. "Wait, I should check something." He added reaching for his black trash bag he happened to keep all of the case evidences.
He emptied the bag all over one of the beds, starting to dig through the piles of paper and pictures till he finally was able to find what he was looking for. "Aha!" he smiled victoriously showing a file of missing people. "David Morten, thirty six years old, working as a program engineer at ASC, disappeared five days ago together along with several others of his colleagues."
"His colleagues?" Asked Sam
"ASC?" said Mary. "You mean the Alpheon Software Corporation?"
Garth moved his eyes from Sam to Mary, raising his eyebrows. "Yes, his colleagues. The ones whom the werewolves and vampires killed, remember?" he replied. "And yes, I mean Alpheon. Although it's just a company, not a corporation."
Dean rushed to the files checking every victim file Garth had. "Garth, why didn't you tell us this from the beginning?" he nearly yelled shoving the documents into his brother's face. "All of the dead and missing people worked at this ASC place!"
"Just what is this ASC?" Asked Sam, taking the papers out of Dean's hands. "I thought that I was aware of every software company out there."
"Oh, it's a pretty big deal over here." Garth weaved his hand "They were a humble but well respected company, but then, several months ago they announced the launch of a large network which, as they claim, can cover the entire globe, providing better quality and cheaper internet and mobile services. Haven't you been watching the news?"
Dean and Sam exchanged surprised looks. To tell the truth, no, they hadn't had any time to watch much TV lately, or read the newspapers.
"Garth…" Dean sighed. "You're telling us this only now, because…"
"Do you guys think it might be important?" He asked.
"Yeah, Garth…" Sam smiled mockingly. "That could be important!"
"But… Alpheon should have been launched five years from now…" Mary added.
"Wait, are you familiar with this name?" Dean asked.
"Familiar?" Mary replied, "I think, you can say so..."
TBC...