Contrapasso Part 0
Title: Contrapasso
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural, h/c, action/adventure, Team Free Will, post the end of season 5
Characters/Pairing: Dean/Cas, Sam
Rating: R
Word Count: 59,800
Warnings: Violence, horror, language, sex
Summary: There's a town in Wisconsin that doesn't exist.
With no way in without human help, Castiel, seeking out a group of missing angels, asks for Dean's assistance. He finds Sam with his brother, alive and well and free from Lucifer, with no explanation and no memory of how he got out of Hell.
Inside the town that doesn't exist, there is murder and madness and a creeping cold that leave Dean, Cas and Sam fighting for their lives and for each other. As the town shifts and changes around them, descending into anarchy, the three of them find it increasingly difficult to tell what's real and what's not.
Notes: Thanks to hils for initial alpha duties, and to burkesl17 for her many useful observations and plot-hole spotting.
The very greatest thanks to cienna for her immense beta-ing work, her strict and amusing Americanish-picking, her encouragment, and for going on epic sorrow-drowning, plot-devising pub crawls with me. Suffice it to say, this would be a whole lot crappier, and shorter, without all of you.
Finally, to my artist, ekbe-vile, who saw right through my unsubtle hints, and who recognised the artist whose vision I had blatantly stolen from. Her wonderful accompanying art can be found here.
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EDIT 23/03/13: Finally, a version is now available at AO3 for your convenience here.
.Contrapasso.
0.
They'd planned to meet on the bridge that served as the only main highway into town.
Below the bridge ran a fast-moving river punctuated by deadly looking rocks, the roaring noise of the water making it hard to hear anything else. Old, towering trees surrounded the potted road they'd driven in on, and they made Dean feel small and trapped. There was definitely something wrong, something not quite right about the place. The air smelled clean and damp and alive and Dean couldn't help but think it was all just a little too beautiful, too natural to be anything but the opposite. He remembered other bridges and all the bad things they'd meant for him and Sam and Dad, and how the worst shit always happened in the nicest looking places. They'd only arrived ten minutes ago and Dean was already itching to leave.
If Sam felt anything like the unease Dean was nurturing he wasn't showing it, and Dean really wished he would. It was hard to think that Sam's obliviousness was nothing, that he was just tired or whatever, because Dean knew how observant and careful and wary and, for lack of a better word, sensitive Sam usually was no matter how shit he was feeling. But Sam was rummaging around the trunk of the Impala, not cautious or watchful, like there was nothing wrong with this setup. It was damn hard to remember that this was still the Sam Dean knew. Not that long ago Sam had shown that kind of faith in Dean, so it was the least Dean could do to suck it up and trust that things hadn't changed. That Sam hadn't changed, despite everything. That Sam hadn't lied.
It was hard, when Dean knew what it was like to come out of hell and just want to forget and to pretend it had never happened. To believe that if you ignored it, it would all go away.
It almost comforted Dean when Sam looked up and asked, "Are we sure about this?" Sam frowned at the Colt in his hand like he couldn't work out what it was doing there before looking back up at Dean. "This is Cas," Sam said.
Yeah, Dean knew that. He felt like a complete asshole for bringing the holy oil and an angel-killing knife when it was Cas they were meeting. Cas, who had given up his life and his family and just about everything he had for them, and Dean knew it was a dick thing to do, but he had to be sure and he had to keep Sam safe. If Dean wasn't one hundred percent sure about Sam then sure as hell no one else was going to be.
It was weird, but Dean thought that Cas might get that by now. Maybe he'd even expect it, because he had to know that when it came to Sam, Dean had to be sure.
"The last time I saw Cas," Dean told Sam, "he was fully powered up on angel juice again and about to go rule Heaven. I can't trust that."
"He was different?" Sam asked, moving closer toward Dean.
Dean shrugged. "He didn't hang around long enough to tell."
"Then what's with all the paranoid crap?" Sam waved the Colt vaguely in Dean's direction like he was trying to make some kind of point. It grated on Dean's nerves that Sam couldn't work it out for himself why they had to be careful. Why this meeting was so suspicious.
"You remember what happened to him last time he got his ass hauled back to Heaven," Dean said.
Even Dean realised this was a pretty lame excuse, but Sam should realise that something was wrong here. There was no way Cas just happened to suddenly need their help after months of being gone without a trace, or even a text to tell Dean he was alive and having oodles of fun with his dick brothers. No way was that a coincidence. In Dean's experience coincidences were just things that came together to try and kill you.
Dean was glad, at least, that Sam didn't believe his bullshit, and said so. He'd been a lot quieter, Dean had noticed, since he'd come back.
"You said he went back on his own this time." Sam was frowning, and sounded like he was choosing his words carefully. "That he was going back up there to work things out."
"That's what he said."
"You don't trust him?" Sam asked, and he sounded pretty shocked at that. Dean was pretty surprised at himself too. Except for where he'd learned not to trust anything, and Cas had just up and left him on his own and hadn't bothered to let Dean know what was going on. So yeah. Not much trust going on right now.
He still felt like a dick, though.
"Not right now, I don't," Dean said.
It was nearly eight in the morning, the time Dean and Cas had agreed on to meet. They didn't have time for this conversation but Sam was giving Dean his frustrated face and looked ready to argue. They hadn't argued since Sam'd come back either, Dean realised. Maybe Sam missed it too.
Sam was shaking his head. "I don't get it."
"Sam, you don't think it's weird that two weeks after you... come back, Cas, after not getting in contact with me at all for months, suddenly desperately needs my help with some angel business. I haven't heard anything that makes me think the angels are still hanging out on Earth since he disappeared. There's something not right here."
From the sour look on Sam's face he got it now.
Sam looked down at the road. They'd poured a ring of oil there, but you couldn't see it against the black surface.
"You think maybe Cas knows something," Sam said quietly. "Something bad." He didn't say, About me, but it was there in the way Sam hung his head and looked so damn tired.
"I don't know," Dean admitted. He turned fully towards Sam, because no matter how many doubts Dean was holding onto, he did trust Sam, and his brother had to believe that. They hadn't talked about Sam's magical reappearance. Not really. And now was maybe not the best time to start. "You're here, Sam, and you're you. That's all I know. I just have to be sure about Cas."
Sam gave Dean a weak sort of smile and nodded and let it go, so Dean turned back to the road, leaning against the trunk and facing the way they'd come an hour earlier. He waited, with Sam at his side, ready for whatever was coming. Dean really fucking hoped that Cas was Cas when the bastard finally showed up.
***
Cas was late, but Dean couldn't decide if that was Cas-like or not. It had always been right now or, when I can back when they were trying to stop an apocalypse and Cas's grace was dying out and Dean was going just a little more crazy everyday.
Next to him, Sam was fidgeting. That, at least, was familiar.
The sun should have started to warm the air up by now, but there was a lingering coolness that got to Dean's chest like something ready to choke him. Maybe it was just too shaded, Dean guessed, with all the sprawling trees, tightly packed together and arching towards each other over the empty space of the road.
He started to wonder if they'd gotten the right bridge to the right town.
There was no sign to tell them where they were. Now that Dean thought about it he hadn't seen a sign the whole way for the town Cas had told them to go to. Spring Green, he'd called it. There wasn't even much in the way of road markings, and it was starting to get really freaky how not a single car had passed for the two hours they'd been waiting. But Cas had given the directions, and if Dean was in the wrong place then it was the angel's own freaking fault.
Sam didn't say anything, and Dean was wary of letting his guard down to check a map or call Cas, so they waited another half hour.
And finally, finally, Castiel appeared.
He looked exactly the same as he had the last time Dean had seen him; trench coat, tie pulled askew, Jimmy Novak's face. Cas wasn't smiling, or looking in any way like he was pleased to see them, but then he never had.
He looked at Sam and Dean tensed.
Cas was standing about a foot outside the circle they'd poured and Dean couldn't think of a single thing to say to get him into it. Castiel's attention shifted to Dean, then he looked down at the ground, completely unconcerned. It was only then that Dean remembered, oh yeah, Cas could read minds again now.
"Would you like me to step into the circle?" Cas asked.
Out of the corner of his eye Dean saw Sam glance at him and shift nervously, but Sam made no move to reach for the Colt stuffed down the back of his jeans.
Dean decided to go for honesty, since Cas would be able to tell if he was lying or not anyway. "It'd make me feel better, yeah," Dean challenged.
Cas stared back at Dean for a long moment and it was just like he hadn't been gone at all and they were back to not being able to look away from one another again. Just like back then, Dean knew Sam was rolling his eyes.
Dean noticed how quiet it was. No birds. No wind. Just the roar of water, like a barrier to the rest of the world.
This wasn't the way Dean had wanted their reunion to go. If he was honest with himself he'd maybe sort of missed Cas and his weirdness and his brusqueness. He'd been loyal to them, and he'd fought hard, and Dean knew he deserved to go home, but it still stung how he'd just gone and dumped Dean after they'd stopped the apocalypse. Like none of it had meant anything. They'd been friends, Dean'd thought. Fucked up friends, sure, but still, friends.
Dean felt like even more of a tool when Cas nodded, like he'd expected this or something, and moved slowly towards the circle, hesitating for only a second before crossing the line. Dean wondered if this was some kind of challenge because then Cas stared right back at Dean again and didn't say a word.
"Err," Sam tried. He sounded hesitant and Dean couldn't blame him for that. "Hi, Cas. Been a while."
Without looking away from Dean, Cas greeted his brother.
"Hello Sam. It is good to see you again."
"You too," Sam replied.
"You knew Sam was back," Dean said.
"I had an idea." Which meant exactly nothing.
It was hard not to get mad at Cas, but Cas had always been vague and annoyingly cryptic. Nothing had changed there then.
"You wanna expand on that?" Dean asked testily.
Cas made no move. Just kept his hands stuffed in his pockets and his eyes firmly on Dean as he replied, "I sensed his return. That's all. I know as much as you do."
Cas wasn't smiting, or looking all gloom and doom, so Dean figured the angel couldn't have been getting any Lucifer or demon-harbouring vibes off of Sam. Not that Dean thought Sam had any, but it was weirdly reassuring that Cas didn't seem at all concerned by his brother's miraculous return from Hell. And Cas was standing in a ring of holy oil that could restrain him just to make Dean feel like he was in control of the situation, so he figured Cas was at least mostly on the level.
Or at least, that's what he hoped. Dean wasn't dumb enough to forget that Cas was fast enough and powerful enough to do whatever the hell he wanted with them now. But Cas wasn't doing anything except looking at Dean with a curious sort of understanding. Maybe he'd expected something like this after all.
Dean wanted to ask why Cas wasn't making anything of Sam being there.
Cas had once told Dean that it wasn't every day human souls got a free pass out of the pit, and if it wasn't angels who'd done this, then what else could? That was what really had Dean worried; that it was demons. That there were deals involved. And that Sam didn't even know it.
"So what do you need us for, Cas? We're just puny humans and you're all angel-boss now."
That fear in the back of Dean's mind just wouldn't go away. That there was no way Cas's calling them was a fluke. That this was all some elaborate set up and Dean was going to lose Sam all over again.
"You expect me to believe there just happened to be a case you need us for, now? After all this time?"
Cas looked at Sam searchingly, really looked at him for the first time since he'd arrived, and frowned. It was concern, Dean thought. If you knew how to look, it was all there in the grim set of his face and his thinned lips. At least he hadn't gone back to being Mister Roboto after seven months in Heaven, or wherever the hell he'd been.
"You believe in coincidences as little as I do," Castiel said.
Not so much what Dean wanted to hear, but it sounded like the truth.
"And?" Dean prompted. "So what are we doing here?"
Cas broke eye contact then, looking over Dean's shoulder towards the bridge.
"This town," he said in a low voice. "It doesn't exist."
***
Castiel, Dean thought, was a drama queen. No wonder he got along with Sam.
"Why did I have to leave the car behind again?" Dean wanted to know. Because there was leaving her somewhere safe when you were heading into a demon-infested war zone, and then there was leaving her on the side of a back road in Wisconsin.
Castiel shook his head and replied, "That would be unwise, and your car will be of no use to us."
"To you, you mean," Dean shot back. He hated walking when he didn't have to, and right now he didn't have to. There was a perfectly good road they were walking on, even if it was kind of creepily unmarked and untouched by the trees and the grass on either side of the road. They were across the bridge now, and the air felt cool and heavy with the morning damp. Dean couldn't see any sign of civilization anywhere even though Cas insisted it wasn't far.
"Dean," Sam said warningly. "He's just thinking of how much you'd hate it if the Impala got hurt." His brother turned to Cas. "Aren't you Cas?"
Cas stared at Sam for a long moment before nodding and agreeing. "I was just thinking of your car."
Complete and utter crap, and they all knew it.
"I see you haven't learned to lie any better then," Dean snorted, feeling kind of pleased. To his left, Sam was trying not to smile too.
Dean would've liked to believe everything was back to how it had been, before. He would've liked to believe he could trust Cas one hundred percent like he had before. But Cas had said it himself; there were no such things as coincidences. And the damn angel was doing that damn annoying not-actually-answering-any-questions thing again.
Castiel agreed, "I haven't," and Dean believed that much. "I can't set foot in the town without your help," he went on. Down to business, then.
"The town that doesn't exist?" Dean said.
"Yes."
Every time was like pulling teeth.
Dean was going to ask for some kind of actually useful elaboration on that, but then out the corner of his eye he saw movement between the trees to his right. It was fast moving, indistinct, and Dean felt his hands go cold. The thing, whatever it was, definitely wasn't human. The way it moved, the way it wasn't quite visible, Dean's instincts, all told him it wasn't natural, that it was a threat.
He knew Castiel had seen it too because while the angel was still walking forwards, his whole posture had changed to tense and alert, his head tilted towards the woods. To his left Sam pulled himself straight, throwing his duffel bag more securely over his shoulder, his hands hovering at his belt like he was preparing for a fight.
There was a sharp bend in the road up ahead and all Dean could see in front of them was a thick line of trees. He moved closer to Cas and Sam followed.
"Any ideas?" Dean asked under his breath as soon as he was close enough.
Undergrowth rustled and snapped in the woods around them and Dean knew there was more than one of whatever this thing was. They kept their distance, slowed up and sped ahead like they were testing boundaries. He hadn't seen one clearly, just caught flashes of black and grey among the green. They were being surrounded, Dean realised. They were being hunted.
Cas sounded irritated when he said, "They are guardians." He spared a glance at Sam and Dean before turning his gaze back to the woods, scanning, slowing his pace but not stopping. "They should not be here. You are armed."
Not a question, because they weren't idiots, but more an instruction to draw their weapons. To be prepared. Dean felt Sam at his back.
"They're fast," Sam commented. He pulled the Colt from his pants and pointed it down at the road, finger pressed against the trigger. Dean drew out the demon-killing knife, gripping its thick handle tightly. He'd leaned his lesson too many times over to rely on it, as well as the Colt, being able to kill anything.
The bend in the road was close.
"Are these gonna work on those things?" Dean asked. Cas seemed to know what these creatures were, and this close he felt the restless energy of Cas's body beside him, hands clenching and unclenching into fists like he was anxious. And a souped-up Cas being anxious could not be a good thing.
"They will," Cas affirmed. "But Sam is correct. They are faster than any creature of Earth. When they attack us, stay behind me."
When. Dean didn't even have a clue what they were doing here and already they were being followed by crazy supernatural guard dogs that were probably from Hell, or had a particular taste for Winchester flesh or angel blood or something equally disturbing. And Dean'd always thought he and Sam attracted trouble like it was going out of style. Cas really had hung out with them too much.
It hadn't escaped Dean's notice either that Cas didn't have any kind of weapon.
Dean could hear what sounded a whole lot like growling and it was getting louder, drawing closer. The sound reminded Dean of hell hounds, and the tearing, rending sound of his own flesh and bared teeth and fuck, fuck, fuck Dean really hoped these things weren't that.
Dean was going to call Cas on it, demand to know what these things were and how the hell he intended to protect them with only his trench coat and his pretty human face. But then, from out of the tree line on either side of the road one of the animals -or demons, or whatever they were- came at them so fast it wasn't much more than a blurry shape with very sharp, very pointy teeth. The sight of it, the sound of snapping jaws and angry growls, made Dean feel fucking sick.
If he'd had time to think about it, Dean would've been glad that there wasn't any time to think before the creatures were on them, and then all Dean could do was react. He lashed out with the knife, arching away from Cas and Sam, towards what he hoped was the beast's throat. There was a feeling of resistance against the blade as the thing streaked past, and Dean heard a high-pitched howling that split his ears and Dean knew he'd at least winged the fucker when it darted away, back toward the trees.
He'd gotten lucky.
For a second Dean thought about going after it, ripping the demon bastard to pieces, but then Sam stumbled against his back and when Dean turned around to see what the hell he was doing, there were two more of the creatures running straight at Cas. They leaped at him, going for his throat, but Cas somehow caught them with his bare hands. Or his freaky angel mojo, because they were about an inch away from Cas's outstretched palms, not touching, and Cas was gritting his teeth and motioning like he was trying to push the things away. They didn't budge an inch.
This close, Dean could see the creature clearly; all spiked blackened porcupine-fur and yellow-red teeth and white, staring eyes set into a sleek dog's head. The body was powerful looking, like a lion or something. Its claws were wicked sharp and tore at the air, stretching, trying to get at Castiel.
"Shoot them!" Dean shouted at Sam. He didn't know what his brother was doing, but Cas didn't look like he could hold them back much longer, and there was still one more out there, nearby, licking its wounds and Dean wasn't optimistic enough to believe it wouldn't be back for more. And soon.
"It's jammed!" Sam had the barrel pointed away, trying to pull back the hammer, but even from where he stood Dean could see the damn thing wasn't going to give.
"Fuck," Dean swore. "Fuck."
This was the worst day he'd had since the end of the damn apocalypse and it was all Cas's fault. But whatever, Dean wasn't about to leave Cas to get mauled no matter how much of a pain in the ass he was, so Dean inched his way around Cas, the knife held up. He'd nearly made it to a distance he could get at the creatures from when Cas realised what Dean was doing and blocked him with an elbow.
"I told you to stay behind me." His voice wavered like it was under strain, and really fucking pissed.
"Like I ever do what you say." At the same second as Dean prepared to push past Cas, Dean saw fast, fluid movement somewhere behind him and knew instantly what it was. He knew he should have gone after the damn thing.
The third creature was back, rushing at Dean while he was turned away.
Sometimes Dean really hated being right.
Turning sharply, hoping that Cas could hold on a little longer, Dean went down on one knee, thrust forward and up with both hands around the knife hilt, trying to get a good hit at the creature's exposed flank as it reared up to maul him. Its high-pitched shriek was evidence enough he'd wounded the thing. It veered away, backing off and bleeding and angry.
Cas shouted, "Sam, move!" and it was all the warning Dean got before the back of Cas's legs knocked right up against Dean's back, his shoes scuffing against the road surface. The pressure was gone almost immediately, but Dean swore under his breath, unable to take his eyes off the animal in front of him. Not able to look and see what the hell was going on behind him.
There was intelligence in the creature's eyes as it watched Dean, like it knew that Dean wanted to see what was happening with the others, and it was enjoying not letting him get it; keeping him glued to the spot and unable to help. Dean really wanted to kill the fucking thing.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Dean could see Sam stumble back like he'd been shoved. Dean guessed it must have been by Cas because as far as Dean could make out his brother wasn't bleeding.
Sam called out, "Cas!" and there was a screeching sound like nails against a chalk-board that made Dean's teeth ache before Cas was knocked back against Dean again for a second, crying out in pain, and shit, hadn't this day just gone to hell in record time.
Dean could feel Cas pushing forward, could hear his feet adjusting and re-adjusting like he was trying to find good footing, trying to push the creatures away.
To his left, Dean could make out Sam desperately working on the Colt again, and still the lion-hound animal in front of Dean didn't make any move, holding him there. The gnashing and the growling of the beasts tearing at Cas sounded more frenzied, more satisfied.
Fuck that. Dean had just damn well got Cas and his brother back and he wasn't about to let some pissy dog creatures ruin it.
Without letting himself consider if it was a good idea or not, Dean struck out, charging the creature in front of him almost recklessly. Dean grinned when he felt the knife bury itself in the thing's snout. It screamed and howled and backed away, blinded by pain. Dean's only regret was that the injury hadn't killed the fucking thing.
He knew enough about wounded animals not to disregard it as a threat, but there was no time to stop and kill it properly. Instead, Dean turned to face the other two animals, moving quickly to stand beside Cas.
One creature Cas still had held back with an outstretched hand, but the other was at his throat and his arm and his shoulder, biting and tearing easily with its long teeth at cloth and flesh. Blood stained a long strip from shoulder to wrist of Cas's damn trench coat, but still Cas was punching it in the head, at its back. No matter how many times he did, the thing just came back for more.
It was the blood, Dean thought. It had tasted Cas's blood and it wanted more.
Then, Cas dug his fingers into its eyes and Dean was gratified to hear the creature howl in agony. The fucking thing still didn't let go, instead clamping down its jaws around Cas's forearm. Cas hissed in pain.
Dean took his chance while the creature was too distracted chewing on Cas's arm to notice anything else. He pushed forward, stabbing the knife into the thing's neck, feeling warm blood flowing over his hand. It still didn't let go of Cas so Dean raised the knife high before forcing the blade straight down into its eye socket. Body instantly going slack, it fell to the ground. Dead.
"Dean," Sam warned. He was looking back towards the beast Dean had already wounded. Dean could hear it snarling. He turned to finish the thing off, trusting that Cas could still hold off the third animal, but Cas stopped him with his bloody arm.
The stupid mutt had its nose down, staring right at Dean again and it did not look happy.
"We need to move," Cas said, and without any more explanation than that, grabbed Dean's jacket and pulled him around behind him.
The strain was clear in Cas's eyes as he twisted the arm he still had extended, holding the hound-creature and pushing it back with that invisible grasp. Cas took a breath, another, all his attention on the animal. It strained and fought and snapped and growled but couldn't get away. Then, Cas turned his hand suddenly and there was a snap. The beast's head hung at a weird angle, its tongue out and its eyes open and dead. Cas had broken the damn thing's neck with his mind and that was goddamn scary.
"We run," Cas ordered, drawing back his arm. Cas's left arm shook, and Cas pulled it up close to his chest. The beast must have really sliced deeply, because the red staining the tan sleeve of Cas's coat was growing at an alarming rate, and there was blood dripping to the ground from Cas's wrist. If it was anyone else, Dean would've been worried about blood loss. "It's not far," he hold them, tipping his head back to indicate the way they'd been headed.
Dean wasn't convinced by this plan. "We can outrun them?"
"We can." Cas's tone left no room for argument. He turned towards Dean, eyes burning with irritation and pain. It made Dean wonder why he wasn't healing. "Go," Cas commanded. "Go now."
"We need to kill them," Dean argued, because as great as it'd be to just run the hell away, doing that went against every instinct Dean had. To leave the fuckers alive meant the chance that some poor bastard would come across the hounds some time later, injured and baying for blood, and get ripped to shreds.
"We can't kill them like this," Cas shot back.
"Guys," Sam interrupted. He'd given up on the Colt, and at some point had dug the shotgun out of his duffel. He had it pointed at the creature's head. "Vicious beasts. Can we focus please?"
"Shoot it, Sam," Dean ordered, not entirely sure why Sam was holding off, but Sam fired right between its eyes and the thing fell dead with a loud gun blast and a cut-off howl.
Dean looked back to Cas. "The dead monsters say we can kill them."
"They won't stay dead," Cas said testily then, pre-empting any further arguments he went on, "Now, run."
Dean had twenty reasons not to, but Cas had on his seriously pissed face and earlier he'd protected Sam, so Dean figured it was the least Dean could do to trust Cas with this. Maybe it was one of those times when only some obscure weapon from some obscure country would keep the monsters down. Fuck knew he'd seen enough of those in his time.
So Dean took Sam by the elbow and tugged him away, glad he had when he saw one of the beasts, the first one they'd killed with a knife to its brain, beginning to twitch.
Cas stood in front of the brothers, watching them closely, and told them, "The town will be safe. Run."
"But, Cas…" Sam protested.
"He's a big boy," Dean cut him off. "Come on."
Dean glanced at Cas, who nodded, still not taking his eyes from the creatures, and then Dean broke into a run, Sam beside him.
They sprinted as fast as they could, making it to the bend in the road in seconds and Dean was beginning to think about looking back because he couldn't hear Cas following, just a freaky whining that was all kinds of wrong.
He began to slow down, Sam matching his pace, but Cas called, "Keep going," and he sounded like he was running now too so Dean didn't stop.
Sam was ahead of him, rounding the bend, and it didn't take long for Cas to catch up.
"Give me your hand," Cas said. It was weird how he wasn't even a little out of breath when he spoke and ran at the same time, even when Dean was starting to feel the burn in his legs, panting for air.
Also, what the hell?
"What?" Dean asked.
Just up ahead, Sam's figure had disappeared behind the thick line of trees. Dean sped up.
"I need your hand," Cas demanded, extending his arm towards Dean. Dean was just glad it wasn't the injured one. That would had to have hurt.
"I'm not," Dean began, but Cas interrupted with a growled, "Give me your hand."
Not waiting for Dean to comply, he grabbed Dean's wrist, his hand slipping down into Dean's. As fucking stupid as he felt, Dean was pretty sure Cas had to have a good reason for doing this, so he just continued to run at full tilt without trying to yank his hand away. Cas's grip was strong, almost crushing, and Dean wasn't sure he'd be able to get away anyway. The hand was warm and dry, and it was a stupid thing to notice when he was running for his life.
Cas had better have a good reason anyway.
Behind them, close and getting closer, Dean could hear the beasts' feet hitting the blacktop, their claws clacking against the hard surface. They were panting heavily, howling and yowling and there were definitely three of them again. Except now they sounded angry and hungry. Dean really fucking hoped Cas knew what he was doing.
They made it to the turn, and as soon as they'd rounded the corner Dean could see the town ahead, a fence and a neatly mowed lawn bordering the first house not far off. Sam stood in the middle of the road a few feet away from it, shotgun held up and ready to fire.
"We pass the town limit," Cas said. "We'll be safe."
Opposite the nearest house, Dean noticed the sign proclaiming, Welcome to Spring Green, old and beat up and faded.
Dean guessed that was where they needed to be because Cas ran faster -much faster than he ever should have been able to- pretty much pulling Dean along. He was looking right at the sign. Dean's legs burned with the strain.
"Come on," Sam called back to them, "Hurry up!" Which was not even a little helpful because Dean knew that much and he was breathing hard, and his arm felt like it was about to be pulled out of its socket the way Cas was dragging him, and from the look on Sam's face the beasts were a lot closer to their heels than he'd like.
They couldn't have been more than ten feet from Sam when Dean felt something slice down the back of his shoulder like a knife. He couldn't stop himself crying out, but there was no way was he going to stop now so he pushed on, ignoring the burning pain. Cas fell back, letting Dean lead.
Five feet, then two feet, then right at the line of the town border. Suddenly, Dean hit some kind of resistance, like the air was somehow thicker for just a second, and then it was gone.
As soon as Dean was through, he was yanked back, his arm pulled painfully back where he was still holding on to Cas. He twisted around, not letting go of Cas's hand, somehow knowing that that would be a very bad thing, and he could see that whatever the resistance was it was trying to push Cas out and away.
"Sam!" Dean called, and immediately Sam was there, reaching out and grabbing hold of Cas's shoulder, pulling him in towards them.
Over Cas's shoulder Dean could see the beasts snapping at Cas's heels, trying to get a bite. Dean yanked harder and Cas's face twisted in pain, but slowly he moved forward, dragged through the resistance, and then, like there'd never been anything there, the barrier was gone and Cas fell forward into the two brothers, knocking them to the ground.
On the other side of the border the beasts hissed and growled and snapped angrily, prowling back and forth along the borderline, but they didn't try to cross into the town.
Dean didn't like to think what it meant that in front of them all three creatures looked back at him with sharp eyes, whole and alive and not a scratch on them.
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Fandom/Genre: Supernatural, h/c, action/adventure, Team Free Will, post the end of season 5
Characters/Pairing: Dean/Cas, Sam
Rating: R
Word Count: 59,800
Warnings: Violence, horror, language, sex
Summary: There's a town in Wisconsin that doesn't exist.
With no way in without human help, Castiel, seeking out a group of missing angels, asks for Dean's assistance. He finds Sam with his brother, alive and well and free from Lucifer, with no explanation and no memory of how he got out of Hell.
Inside the town that doesn't exist, there is murder and madness and a creeping cold that leave Dean, Cas and Sam fighting for their lives and for each other. As the town shifts and changes around them, descending into anarchy, the three of them find it increasingly difficult to tell what's real and what's not.
Notes: Thanks to hils for initial alpha duties, and to burkesl17 for her many useful observations and plot-hole spotting.
The very greatest thanks to cienna for her immense beta-ing work, her strict and amusing Americanish-picking, her encouragment, and for going on epic sorrow-drowning, plot-devising pub crawls with me. Suffice it to say, this would be a whole lot crappier, and shorter, without all of you.
Finally, to my artist, ekbe-vile, who saw right through my unsubtle hints, and who recognised the artist whose vision I had blatantly stolen from. Her wonderful accompanying art can be found here.
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EDIT 23/03/13: Finally, a version is now available at AO3 for your convenience here.
.Contrapasso.
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They'd planned to meet on the bridge that served as the only main highway into town.
Below the bridge ran a fast-moving river punctuated by deadly looking rocks, the roaring noise of the water making it hard to hear anything else. Old, towering trees surrounded the potted road they'd driven in on, and they made Dean feel small and trapped. There was definitely something wrong, something not quite right about the place. The air smelled clean and damp and alive and Dean couldn't help but think it was all just a little too beautiful, too natural to be anything but the opposite. He remembered other bridges and all the bad things they'd meant for him and Sam and Dad, and how the worst shit always happened in the nicest looking places. They'd only arrived ten minutes ago and Dean was already itching to leave.
If Sam felt anything like the unease Dean was nurturing he wasn't showing it, and Dean really wished he would. It was hard to think that Sam's obliviousness was nothing, that he was just tired or whatever, because Dean knew how observant and careful and wary and, for lack of a better word, sensitive Sam usually was no matter how shit he was feeling. But Sam was rummaging around the trunk of the Impala, not cautious or watchful, like there was nothing wrong with this setup. It was damn hard to remember that this was still the Sam Dean knew. Not that long ago Sam had shown that kind of faith in Dean, so it was the least Dean could do to suck it up and trust that things hadn't changed. That Sam hadn't changed, despite everything. That Sam hadn't lied.
It was hard, when Dean knew what it was like to come out of hell and just want to forget and to pretend it had never happened. To believe that if you ignored it, it would all go away.
It almost comforted Dean when Sam looked up and asked, "Are we sure about this?" Sam frowned at the Colt in his hand like he couldn't work out what it was doing there before looking back up at Dean. "This is Cas," Sam said.
Yeah, Dean knew that. He felt like a complete asshole for bringing the holy oil and an angel-killing knife when it was Cas they were meeting. Cas, who had given up his life and his family and just about everything he had for them, and Dean knew it was a dick thing to do, but he had to be sure and he had to keep Sam safe. If Dean wasn't one hundred percent sure about Sam then sure as hell no one else was going to be.
It was weird, but Dean thought that Cas might get that by now. Maybe he'd even expect it, because he had to know that when it came to Sam, Dean had to be sure.
"The last time I saw Cas," Dean told Sam, "he was fully powered up on angel juice again and about to go rule Heaven. I can't trust that."
"He was different?" Sam asked, moving closer toward Dean.
Dean shrugged. "He didn't hang around long enough to tell."
"Then what's with all the paranoid crap?" Sam waved the Colt vaguely in Dean's direction like he was trying to make some kind of point. It grated on Dean's nerves that Sam couldn't work it out for himself why they had to be careful. Why this meeting was so suspicious.
"You remember what happened to him last time he got his ass hauled back to Heaven," Dean said.
Even Dean realised this was a pretty lame excuse, but Sam should realise that something was wrong here. There was no way Cas just happened to suddenly need their help after months of being gone without a trace, or even a text to tell Dean he was alive and having oodles of fun with his dick brothers. No way was that a coincidence. In Dean's experience coincidences were just things that came together to try and kill you.
Dean was glad, at least, that Sam didn't believe his bullshit, and said so. He'd been a lot quieter, Dean had noticed, since he'd come back.
"You said he went back on his own this time." Sam was frowning, and sounded like he was choosing his words carefully. "That he was going back up there to work things out."
"That's what he said."
"You don't trust him?" Sam asked, and he sounded pretty shocked at that. Dean was pretty surprised at himself too. Except for where he'd learned not to trust anything, and Cas had just up and left him on his own and hadn't bothered to let Dean know what was going on. So yeah. Not much trust going on right now.
He still felt like a dick, though.
"Not right now, I don't," Dean said.
It was nearly eight in the morning, the time Dean and Cas had agreed on to meet. They didn't have time for this conversation but Sam was giving Dean his frustrated face and looked ready to argue. They hadn't argued since Sam'd come back either, Dean realised. Maybe Sam missed it too.
Sam was shaking his head. "I don't get it."
"Sam, you don't think it's weird that two weeks after you... come back, Cas, after not getting in contact with me at all for months, suddenly desperately needs my help with some angel business. I haven't heard anything that makes me think the angels are still hanging out on Earth since he disappeared. There's something not right here."
From the sour look on Sam's face he got it now.
Sam looked down at the road. They'd poured a ring of oil there, but you couldn't see it against the black surface.
"You think maybe Cas knows something," Sam said quietly. "Something bad." He didn't say, About me, but it was there in the way Sam hung his head and looked so damn tired.
"I don't know," Dean admitted. He turned fully towards Sam, because no matter how many doubts Dean was holding onto, he did trust Sam, and his brother had to believe that. They hadn't talked about Sam's magical reappearance. Not really. And now was maybe not the best time to start. "You're here, Sam, and you're you. That's all I know. I just have to be sure about Cas."
Sam gave Dean a weak sort of smile and nodded and let it go, so Dean turned back to the road, leaning against the trunk and facing the way they'd come an hour earlier. He waited, with Sam at his side, ready for whatever was coming. Dean really fucking hoped that Cas was Cas when the bastard finally showed up.
***
Cas was late, but Dean couldn't decide if that was Cas-like or not. It had always been right now or, when I can back when they were trying to stop an apocalypse and Cas's grace was dying out and Dean was going just a little more crazy everyday.
Next to him, Sam was fidgeting. That, at least, was familiar.
The sun should have started to warm the air up by now, but there was a lingering coolness that got to Dean's chest like something ready to choke him. Maybe it was just too shaded, Dean guessed, with all the sprawling trees, tightly packed together and arching towards each other over the empty space of the road.
He started to wonder if they'd gotten the right bridge to the right town.
There was no sign to tell them where they were. Now that Dean thought about it he hadn't seen a sign the whole way for the town Cas had told them to go to. Spring Green, he'd called it. There wasn't even much in the way of road markings, and it was starting to get really freaky how not a single car had passed for the two hours they'd been waiting. But Cas had given the directions, and if Dean was in the wrong place then it was the angel's own freaking fault.
Sam didn't say anything, and Dean was wary of letting his guard down to check a map or call Cas, so they waited another half hour.
And finally, finally, Castiel appeared.
He looked exactly the same as he had the last time Dean had seen him; trench coat, tie pulled askew, Jimmy Novak's face. Cas wasn't smiling, or looking in any way like he was pleased to see them, but then he never had.
He looked at Sam and Dean tensed.
Cas was standing about a foot outside the circle they'd poured and Dean couldn't think of a single thing to say to get him into it. Castiel's attention shifted to Dean, then he looked down at the ground, completely unconcerned. It was only then that Dean remembered, oh yeah, Cas could read minds again now.
"Would you like me to step into the circle?" Cas asked.
Out of the corner of his eye Dean saw Sam glance at him and shift nervously, but Sam made no move to reach for the Colt stuffed down the back of his jeans.
Dean decided to go for honesty, since Cas would be able to tell if he was lying or not anyway. "It'd make me feel better, yeah," Dean challenged.
Cas stared back at Dean for a long moment and it was just like he hadn't been gone at all and they were back to not being able to look away from one another again. Just like back then, Dean knew Sam was rolling his eyes.
Dean noticed how quiet it was. No birds. No wind. Just the roar of water, like a barrier to the rest of the world.
This wasn't the way Dean had wanted their reunion to go. If he was honest with himself he'd maybe sort of missed Cas and his weirdness and his brusqueness. He'd been loyal to them, and he'd fought hard, and Dean knew he deserved to go home, but it still stung how he'd just gone and dumped Dean after they'd stopped the apocalypse. Like none of it had meant anything. They'd been friends, Dean'd thought. Fucked up friends, sure, but still, friends.
Dean felt like even more of a tool when Cas nodded, like he'd expected this or something, and moved slowly towards the circle, hesitating for only a second before crossing the line. Dean wondered if this was some kind of challenge because then Cas stared right back at Dean again and didn't say a word.
"Err," Sam tried. He sounded hesitant and Dean couldn't blame him for that. "Hi, Cas. Been a while."
Without looking away from Dean, Cas greeted his brother.
"Hello Sam. It is good to see you again."
"You too," Sam replied.
"You knew Sam was back," Dean said.
"I had an idea." Which meant exactly nothing.
It was hard not to get mad at Cas, but Cas had always been vague and annoyingly cryptic. Nothing had changed there then.
"You wanna expand on that?" Dean asked testily.
Cas made no move. Just kept his hands stuffed in his pockets and his eyes firmly on Dean as he replied, "I sensed his return. That's all. I know as much as you do."
Cas wasn't smiting, or looking all gloom and doom, so Dean figured the angel couldn't have been getting any Lucifer or demon-harbouring vibes off of Sam. Not that Dean thought Sam had any, but it was weirdly reassuring that Cas didn't seem at all concerned by his brother's miraculous return from Hell. And Cas was standing in a ring of holy oil that could restrain him just to make Dean feel like he was in control of the situation, so he figured Cas was at least mostly on the level.
Or at least, that's what he hoped. Dean wasn't dumb enough to forget that Cas was fast enough and powerful enough to do whatever the hell he wanted with them now. But Cas wasn't doing anything except looking at Dean with a curious sort of understanding. Maybe he'd expected something like this after all.
Dean wanted to ask why Cas wasn't making anything of Sam being there.
Cas had once told Dean that it wasn't every day human souls got a free pass out of the pit, and if it wasn't angels who'd done this, then what else could? That was what really had Dean worried; that it was demons. That there were deals involved. And that Sam didn't even know it.
"So what do you need us for, Cas? We're just puny humans and you're all angel-boss now."
That fear in the back of Dean's mind just wouldn't go away. That there was no way Cas's calling them was a fluke. That this was all some elaborate set up and Dean was going to lose Sam all over again.
"You expect me to believe there just happened to be a case you need us for, now? After all this time?"
Cas looked at Sam searchingly, really looked at him for the first time since he'd arrived, and frowned. It was concern, Dean thought. If you knew how to look, it was all there in the grim set of his face and his thinned lips. At least he hadn't gone back to being Mister Roboto after seven months in Heaven, or wherever the hell he'd been.
"You believe in coincidences as little as I do," Castiel said.
Not so much what Dean wanted to hear, but it sounded like the truth.
"And?" Dean prompted. "So what are we doing here?"
Cas broke eye contact then, looking over Dean's shoulder towards the bridge.
"This town," he said in a low voice. "It doesn't exist."
***
Castiel, Dean thought, was a drama queen. No wonder he got along with Sam.
"Why did I have to leave the car behind again?" Dean wanted to know. Because there was leaving her somewhere safe when you were heading into a demon-infested war zone, and then there was leaving her on the side of a back road in Wisconsin.
Castiel shook his head and replied, "That would be unwise, and your car will be of no use to us."
"To you, you mean," Dean shot back. He hated walking when he didn't have to, and right now he didn't have to. There was a perfectly good road they were walking on, even if it was kind of creepily unmarked and untouched by the trees and the grass on either side of the road. They were across the bridge now, and the air felt cool and heavy with the morning damp. Dean couldn't see any sign of civilization anywhere even though Cas insisted it wasn't far.
"Dean," Sam said warningly. "He's just thinking of how much you'd hate it if the Impala got hurt." His brother turned to Cas. "Aren't you Cas?"
Cas stared at Sam for a long moment before nodding and agreeing. "I was just thinking of your car."
Complete and utter crap, and they all knew it.
"I see you haven't learned to lie any better then," Dean snorted, feeling kind of pleased. To his left, Sam was trying not to smile too.
Dean would've liked to believe everything was back to how it had been, before. He would've liked to believe he could trust Cas one hundred percent like he had before. But Cas had said it himself; there were no such things as coincidences. And the damn angel was doing that damn annoying not-actually-answering-any-questions thing again.
Castiel agreed, "I haven't," and Dean believed that much. "I can't set foot in the town without your help," he went on. Down to business, then.
"The town that doesn't exist?" Dean said.
"Yes."
Every time was like pulling teeth.
Dean was going to ask for some kind of actually useful elaboration on that, but then out the corner of his eye he saw movement between the trees to his right. It was fast moving, indistinct, and Dean felt his hands go cold. The thing, whatever it was, definitely wasn't human. The way it moved, the way it wasn't quite visible, Dean's instincts, all told him it wasn't natural, that it was a threat.
He knew Castiel had seen it too because while the angel was still walking forwards, his whole posture had changed to tense and alert, his head tilted towards the woods. To his left Sam pulled himself straight, throwing his duffel bag more securely over his shoulder, his hands hovering at his belt like he was preparing for a fight.
There was a sharp bend in the road up ahead and all Dean could see in front of them was a thick line of trees. He moved closer to Cas and Sam followed.
"Any ideas?" Dean asked under his breath as soon as he was close enough.
Undergrowth rustled and snapped in the woods around them and Dean knew there was more than one of whatever this thing was. They kept their distance, slowed up and sped ahead like they were testing boundaries. He hadn't seen one clearly, just caught flashes of black and grey among the green. They were being surrounded, Dean realised. They were being hunted.
Cas sounded irritated when he said, "They are guardians." He spared a glance at Sam and Dean before turning his gaze back to the woods, scanning, slowing his pace but not stopping. "They should not be here. You are armed."
Not a question, because they weren't idiots, but more an instruction to draw their weapons. To be prepared. Dean felt Sam at his back.
"They're fast," Sam commented. He pulled the Colt from his pants and pointed it down at the road, finger pressed against the trigger. Dean drew out the demon-killing knife, gripping its thick handle tightly. He'd leaned his lesson too many times over to rely on it, as well as the Colt, being able to kill anything.
The bend in the road was close.
"Are these gonna work on those things?" Dean asked. Cas seemed to know what these creatures were, and this close he felt the restless energy of Cas's body beside him, hands clenching and unclenching into fists like he was anxious. And a souped-up Cas being anxious could not be a good thing.
"They will," Cas affirmed. "But Sam is correct. They are faster than any creature of Earth. When they attack us, stay behind me."
When. Dean didn't even have a clue what they were doing here and already they were being followed by crazy supernatural guard dogs that were probably from Hell, or had a particular taste for Winchester flesh or angel blood or something equally disturbing. And Dean'd always thought he and Sam attracted trouble like it was going out of style. Cas really had hung out with them too much.
It hadn't escaped Dean's notice either that Cas didn't have any kind of weapon.
Dean could hear what sounded a whole lot like growling and it was getting louder, drawing closer. The sound reminded Dean of hell hounds, and the tearing, rending sound of his own flesh and bared teeth and fuck, fuck, fuck Dean really hoped these things weren't that.
Dean was going to call Cas on it, demand to know what these things were and how the hell he intended to protect them with only his trench coat and his pretty human face. But then, from out of the tree line on either side of the road one of the animals -or demons, or whatever they were- came at them so fast it wasn't much more than a blurry shape with very sharp, very pointy teeth. The sight of it, the sound of snapping jaws and angry growls, made Dean feel fucking sick.
If he'd had time to think about it, Dean would've been glad that there wasn't any time to think before the creatures were on them, and then all Dean could do was react. He lashed out with the knife, arching away from Cas and Sam, towards what he hoped was the beast's throat. There was a feeling of resistance against the blade as the thing streaked past, and Dean heard a high-pitched howling that split his ears and Dean knew he'd at least winged the fucker when it darted away, back toward the trees.
He'd gotten lucky.
For a second Dean thought about going after it, ripping the demon bastard to pieces, but then Sam stumbled against his back and when Dean turned around to see what the hell he was doing, there were two more of the creatures running straight at Cas. They leaped at him, going for his throat, but Cas somehow caught them with his bare hands. Or his freaky angel mojo, because they were about an inch away from Cas's outstretched palms, not touching, and Cas was gritting his teeth and motioning like he was trying to push the things away. They didn't budge an inch.
This close, Dean could see the creature clearly; all spiked blackened porcupine-fur and yellow-red teeth and white, staring eyes set into a sleek dog's head. The body was powerful looking, like a lion or something. Its claws were wicked sharp and tore at the air, stretching, trying to get at Castiel.
"Shoot them!" Dean shouted at Sam. He didn't know what his brother was doing, but Cas didn't look like he could hold them back much longer, and there was still one more out there, nearby, licking its wounds and Dean wasn't optimistic enough to believe it wouldn't be back for more. And soon.
"It's jammed!" Sam had the barrel pointed away, trying to pull back the hammer, but even from where he stood Dean could see the damn thing wasn't going to give.
"Fuck," Dean swore. "Fuck."
This was the worst day he'd had since the end of the damn apocalypse and it was all Cas's fault. But whatever, Dean wasn't about to leave Cas to get mauled no matter how much of a pain in the ass he was, so Dean inched his way around Cas, the knife held up. He'd nearly made it to a distance he could get at the creatures from when Cas realised what Dean was doing and blocked him with an elbow.
"I told you to stay behind me." His voice wavered like it was under strain, and really fucking pissed.
"Like I ever do what you say." At the same second as Dean prepared to push past Cas, Dean saw fast, fluid movement somewhere behind him and knew instantly what it was. He knew he should have gone after the damn thing.
The third creature was back, rushing at Dean while he was turned away.
Sometimes Dean really hated being right.
Turning sharply, hoping that Cas could hold on a little longer, Dean went down on one knee, thrust forward and up with both hands around the knife hilt, trying to get a good hit at the creature's exposed flank as it reared up to maul him. Its high-pitched shriek was evidence enough he'd wounded the thing. It veered away, backing off and bleeding and angry.
Cas shouted, "Sam, move!" and it was all the warning Dean got before the back of Cas's legs knocked right up against Dean's back, his shoes scuffing against the road surface. The pressure was gone almost immediately, but Dean swore under his breath, unable to take his eyes off the animal in front of him. Not able to look and see what the hell was going on behind him.
There was intelligence in the creature's eyes as it watched Dean, like it knew that Dean wanted to see what was happening with the others, and it was enjoying not letting him get it; keeping him glued to the spot and unable to help. Dean really wanted to kill the fucking thing.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Dean could see Sam stumble back like he'd been shoved. Dean guessed it must have been by Cas because as far as Dean could make out his brother wasn't bleeding.
Sam called out, "Cas!" and there was a screeching sound like nails against a chalk-board that made Dean's teeth ache before Cas was knocked back against Dean again for a second, crying out in pain, and shit, hadn't this day just gone to hell in record time.
Dean could feel Cas pushing forward, could hear his feet adjusting and re-adjusting like he was trying to find good footing, trying to push the creatures away.
To his left, Dean could make out Sam desperately working on the Colt again, and still the lion-hound animal in front of Dean didn't make any move, holding him there. The gnashing and the growling of the beasts tearing at Cas sounded more frenzied, more satisfied.
Fuck that. Dean had just damn well got Cas and his brother back and he wasn't about to let some pissy dog creatures ruin it.
Without letting himself consider if it was a good idea or not, Dean struck out, charging the creature in front of him almost recklessly. Dean grinned when he felt the knife bury itself in the thing's snout. It screamed and howled and backed away, blinded by pain. Dean's only regret was that the injury hadn't killed the fucking thing.
He knew enough about wounded animals not to disregard it as a threat, but there was no time to stop and kill it properly. Instead, Dean turned to face the other two animals, moving quickly to stand beside Cas.
One creature Cas still had held back with an outstretched hand, but the other was at his throat and his arm and his shoulder, biting and tearing easily with its long teeth at cloth and flesh. Blood stained a long strip from shoulder to wrist of Cas's damn trench coat, but still Cas was punching it in the head, at its back. No matter how many times he did, the thing just came back for more.
It was the blood, Dean thought. It had tasted Cas's blood and it wanted more.
Then, Cas dug his fingers into its eyes and Dean was gratified to hear the creature howl in agony. The fucking thing still didn't let go, instead clamping down its jaws around Cas's forearm. Cas hissed in pain.
Dean took his chance while the creature was too distracted chewing on Cas's arm to notice anything else. He pushed forward, stabbing the knife into the thing's neck, feeling warm blood flowing over his hand. It still didn't let go of Cas so Dean raised the knife high before forcing the blade straight down into its eye socket. Body instantly going slack, it fell to the ground. Dead.
"Dean," Sam warned. He was looking back towards the beast Dean had already wounded. Dean could hear it snarling. He turned to finish the thing off, trusting that Cas could still hold off the third animal, but Cas stopped him with his bloody arm.
The stupid mutt had its nose down, staring right at Dean again and it did not look happy.
"We need to move," Cas said, and without any more explanation than that, grabbed Dean's jacket and pulled him around behind him.
The strain was clear in Cas's eyes as he twisted the arm he still had extended, holding the hound-creature and pushing it back with that invisible grasp. Cas took a breath, another, all his attention on the animal. It strained and fought and snapped and growled but couldn't get away. Then, Cas turned his hand suddenly and there was a snap. The beast's head hung at a weird angle, its tongue out and its eyes open and dead. Cas had broken the damn thing's neck with his mind and that was goddamn scary.
"We run," Cas ordered, drawing back his arm. Cas's left arm shook, and Cas pulled it up close to his chest. The beast must have really sliced deeply, because the red staining the tan sleeve of Cas's coat was growing at an alarming rate, and there was blood dripping to the ground from Cas's wrist. If it was anyone else, Dean would've been worried about blood loss. "It's not far," he hold them, tipping his head back to indicate the way they'd been headed.
Dean wasn't convinced by this plan. "We can outrun them?"
"We can." Cas's tone left no room for argument. He turned towards Dean, eyes burning with irritation and pain. It made Dean wonder why he wasn't healing. "Go," Cas commanded. "Go now."
"We need to kill them," Dean argued, because as great as it'd be to just run the hell away, doing that went against every instinct Dean had. To leave the fuckers alive meant the chance that some poor bastard would come across the hounds some time later, injured and baying for blood, and get ripped to shreds.
"We can't kill them like this," Cas shot back.
"Guys," Sam interrupted. He'd given up on the Colt, and at some point had dug the shotgun out of his duffel. He had it pointed at the creature's head. "Vicious beasts. Can we focus please?"
"Shoot it, Sam," Dean ordered, not entirely sure why Sam was holding off, but Sam fired right between its eyes and the thing fell dead with a loud gun blast and a cut-off howl.
Dean looked back to Cas. "The dead monsters say we can kill them."
"They won't stay dead," Cas said testily then, pre-empting any further arguments he went on, "Now, run."
Dean had twenty reasons not to, but Cas had on his seriously pissed face and earlier he'd protected Sam, so Dean figured it was the least Dean could do to trust Cas with this. Maybe it was one of those times when only some obscure weapon from some obscure country would keep the monsters down. Fuck knew he'd seen enough of those in his time.
So Dean took Sam by the elbow and tugged him away, glad he had when he saw one of the beasts, the first one they'd killed with a knife to its brain, beginning to twitch.
Cas stood in front of the brothers, watching them closely, and told them, "The town will be safe. Run."
"But, Cas…" Sam protested.
"He's a big boy," Dean cut him off. "Come on."
Dean glanced at Cas, who nodded, still not taking his eyes from the creatures, and then Dean broke into a run, Sam beside him.
They sprinted as fast as they could, making it to the bend in the road in seconds and Dean was beginning to think about looking back because he couldn't hear Cas following, just a freaky whining that was all kinds of wrong.
He began to slow down, Sam matching his pace, but Cas called, "Keep going," and he sounded like he was running now too so Dean didn't stop.
Sam was ahead of him, rounding the bend, and it didn't take long for Cas to catch up.
"Give me your hand," Cas said. It was weird how he wasn't even a little out of breath when he spoke and ran at the same time, even when Dean was starting to feel the burn in his legs, panting for air.
Also, what the hell?
"What?" Dean asked.
Just up ahead, Sam's figure had disappeared behind the thick line of trees. Dean sped up.
"I need your hand," Cas demanded, extending his arm towards Dean. Dean was just glad it wasn't the injured one. That would had to have hurt.
"I'm not," Dean began, but Cas interrupted with a growled, "Give me your hand."
Not waiting for Dean to comply, he grabbed Dean's wrist, his hand slipping down into Dean's. As fucking stupid as he felt, Dean was pretty sure Cas had to have a good reason for doing this, so he just continued to run at full tilt without trying to yank his hand away. Cas's grip was strong, almost crushing, and Dean wasn't sure he'd be able to get away anyway. The hand was warm and dry, and it was a stupid thing to notice when he was running for his life.
Cas had better have a good reason anyway.
Behind them, close and getting closer, Dean could hear the beasts' feet hitting the blacktop, their claws clacking against the hard surface. They were panting heavily, howling and yowling and there were definitely three of them again. Except now they sounded angry and hungry. Dean really fucking hoped Cas knew what he was doing.
They made it to the turn, and as soon as they'd rounded the corner Dean could see the town ahead, a fence and a neatly mowed lawn bordering the first house not far off. Sam stood in the middle of the road a few feet away from it, shotgun held up and ready to fire.
"We pass the town limit," Cas said. "We'll be safe."
Opposite the nearest house, Dean noticed the sign proclaiming, Welcome to Spring Green, old and beat up and faded.
Dean guessed that was where they needed to be because Cas ran faster -much faster than he ever should have been able to- pretty much pulling Dean along. He was looking right at the sign. Dean's legs burned with the strain.
"Come on," Sam called back to them, "Hurry up!" Which was not even a little helpful because Dean knew that much and he was breathing hard, and his arm felt like it was about to be pulled out of its socket the way Cas was dragging him, and from the look on Sam's face the beasts were a lot closer to their heels than he'd like.
They couldn't have been more than ten feet from Sam when Dean felt something slice down the back of his shoulder like a knife. He couldn't stop himself crying out, but there was no way was he going to stop now so he pushed on, ignoring the burning pain. Cas fell back, letting Dean lead.
Five feet, then two feet, then right at the line of the town border. Suddenly, Dean hit some kind of resistance, like the air was somehow thicker for just a second, and then it was gone.
As soon as Dean was through, he was yanked back, his arm pulled painfully back where he was still holding on to Cas. He twisted around, not letting go of Cas's hand, somehow knowing that that would be a very bad thing, and he could see that whatever the resistance was it was trying to push Cas out and away.
"Sam!" Dean called, and immediately Sam was there, reaching out and grabbing hold of Cas's shoulder, pulling him in towards them.
Over Cas's shoulder Dean could see the beasts snapping at Cas's heels, trying to get a bite. Dean yanked harder and Cas's face twisted in pain, but slowly he moved forward, dragged through the resistance, and then, like there'd never been anything there, the barrier was gone and Cas fell forward into the two brothers, knocking them to the ground.
On the other side of the border the beasts hissed and growled and snapped angrily, prowling back and forth along the borderline, but they didn't try to cross into the town.
Dean didn't like to think what it meant that in front of them all three creatures looked back at him with sharp eyes, whole and alive and not a scratch on them.
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