SPN: The Brothers Grimm - Chapter 6
Title:The Brothers Grimm
Beta: skylar_matthews
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, Brothers Grimm verse, Fusion, adventure, horror
Pairings: Dean/Cas, mentions of Dean/Cassie, suggested Dean/Lisa
Spoilers: Some for The Brothers Grimm
Warnings: some sexual situations, violence, abuse of the French language, lots of UST
Word Count: 26 000 (in total)
Summary: Under the new French occupation, Dean and Sam Grimm have made a living conning people into believing that fairytales and monsters are real. But when they stumble upon the village of Marbaden, everything that they thought they knew gets turned upside down and instead of creating fairytales, they find themselves living in one.
A/N: Written as part of the dc-everafter Challenge. This is loosely based on the film The Brothers Grimm starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. Some significant changes have been made compared to the film but there will still be plot spoilers for those who have yet to watch The Brothers Grimm.
Special thanks to my lovely beta reader, skylar_matthews, and to talli_approved for creating the challenge. This was an awesome excuse to fuse the SPN universe with one of my favorite films and I had a great time writing this! Lastly, I want to thank h4ppy-fun-b4ll for creating beautiful artwork to accompany my fic. It was fun working with you, darling! <3
Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Epilogue | Art Masterpost
“…subterfuge, fraud, theft, vandalism, extortion, slander-”
“Slander?!” Sam called out, in surprise.
“Yes, slander,” the officer said, his English accent slipping through his German, “The villagers in Karlstadt now believe Mr. Erik Krueger to have been possessed by demons. Oh, but I’m sure this has nothing to do with your little ‘exorcism’ you staged.”
Sam hung his head and groaned.
“ -disturbing the peace, breaking and entering-”
“We’ve never broken ‘n’ entered into anything-” Dean protested, struggling against his bonds.
“...well, Mr. Grimm, why don’t I go ahead and add ‘lying to an investigator’ to this list,” the captain said, with a slick smirk that made Dean want to punch the bastard. “Keep protesting all you want but you boys have the word of 7 different villages and a pissed off squad of soldiers working against you. Not to mention your two mates here.”
Dean glared as the officer indicated to Harry and Ed, both who were bound but being carefully guarded by more French soldiers. He wasn’t sure if it was the high noon sun or the look of shame on their faces but he could make out the droplets of sweat that dabbed at the collars of their soiled shirts. Both of them refused to meet his glare.
“So what you gettin’ for this? A chateau in Marseille and Paris’ finest whores?” Dean spat. As much as he was always at odds with them, the betrayal stung in ways he wasn’t about to confess to. So Dean reacted the only way he knew how. “You don’t do shit like this to your friends!”
“Friends? Since when have you ever shown us any respect?” Harry shot back. “Sure, we feel bad that Sam’s getting the short end of the stick here but you’ve never so much as thanked us for any of this. You’ve blackmailed us, short-handed us, even tried to sell us out a few times!”
“Harry’s gotta point there, slick,” Ed piped in. “Turning you in so we get to keep our heads, bit of a no brainer. But you, Sam…seriously, we are so sorry about this.”
“Bite me,” Sam snapped, his giant body not even moving an inch as he tried to disentangle himself from his bonds. He was tied to a tree on Dean’s right, on the edge of the enchanted forest. Dean’s vision was clouded with red as he silently willed himself to rip apart his bindings, not that it would help. All the French soldiers standing between them and the village that lay behind them were well equipped with muskets, pistols, and swords and chances were, he and Sam would be struck down before they so much as taken a step forward.
“As touching as this reunion is,” the officer cut in, his dark look making him more imposing despite being shorter than both Dean and Sam. “I have an execution to carry out and a bottle of wine waiting for me outside of this piss poor town. Not all the polish in the French Empire will get this bloody grime out of my leather boots.”
He moodily glared down at the dust, as if the fact that nature existed was to blame for all his worldly troubles. With a quick snap of his fingers, one of the younger soldiers dropped to the officer’s feet and began shining his shoes.
“A little more to the left, mate.”
“Yes sir, Captain Crowley.”
Dean rolled his eyes. “Ya gonna spend all day standin’ there or ya gonna get this over with?”
“Dean!” Sam hissed.
“Oh, no, Mr. Grimm, I perfectly intend on standing here and looking pretty for your amusement,” Crowley retorted, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“The English must be gettin’ pretty desperate if their sending their trash to clean up the French’s shit.”
“Well, well, this one has bite. Boys!”
Ten of the two dozen soldiers stepped forward, standing in a straight line and raising their muskets. They kept a few meters of distance between the Grimm brothers, waiting for the final signal to be given.
Although Dean was nervous as all fuck and couldn’t help but bitterly think, ‘so this is it!’ He continued to glare defiantly and mentally vowed to come back and haunt every single one of those mother fuckers for killing Sam.
“As by order of Emperor Bonaparte in accordance with the law of the French Empire, I hereby sentence both Dean and Sam Grimm to execution by firing squad for their crimes against the peace. May your death be swift and justice be served…well, maybe not that swift. Kill the younger Grimm first.”
Dean’s eyes widened. “W-wait! Sammy had nothing to do with this! Let him go!”
“What?! Dean!”
“I made him help me! He never wanted to be part of this! He doesn’t deserve this!”
“God damnit, Dean, you’re not doing this alone!” Sam shouted. “Stop always protecting me! I’m just as much a part of this as you!”
As they continued to squabble, Crowley shouted, startling everyone. “Will you two ladies stop your BLOODY yapping!” And in his irritation, he kicked at the soldier still shining his shoes. “…as touching as this is, your crimes against the empire are non-negotiable. So man up, shut up, and try to have some dignity while you die dishonorably!”
Turning back to the firing squad, Crowley raised his right hand. “On the count of 3, boys. 1…!”
A villager screamed.
“Oh…what the bloody hell now?” Crowley groaned.
The villagers who had come to watch the execution suddenly broke apart as a woman came running through. “Help! Somebody help! It’s got Tessa!”
*
Tessa knew the rules that her mother had told her as she left the house to go and fetch some milk from Lisa Brauer. If someone knocks, don’t answer the door. Don’t leave the house. Don’t let anyone in. Her mother had repeated these rules 3 times, made Tessa also repeat them back to her just as many, before she had slipped out with promises of returning shortly. Tessa knew strange things have been happening around here and she also knew better than to disobey her mother.
So like the good girl she was, Tessa continued to scrub the kitchen floor, as her mother had asked. Humming softly to herself, her little hands squeezed the cloth in the bucket before running it over the old, wooden floorboards.
Knock. Knock.
Tessa paused, tiny head glancing over at the door.
Don’t answer the door.
A creeping feeling trailed down her spine. After a few moments, Tessa returned to her task.
Knock. Knock.
“H-hello,” an old, scratchy voice called from the other side. “I-is anyone in there?”
That bad feeling wouldn’t go away. But unable to ignore her curiosity, Tessa slowly stood up.
“W-who is it?” she called, her tiny voice like a booming echo in the silence of her home.
“I-I’m just an old woman,” the voice said, muffled by the door. “P-please take pity on me. All I ask is for a glass of water and then I’ll be on my way.”
Tessa took small steps towards the door, the floor creaking beneath her feet. “M-my mother says I-I can’t let anyone in.”
“Please, dear. Please help me.”
The desperation in the woman’s raspy voice tugged at Tessa’s heart.
Slowly, Tessa reached out and turned the handle of the door. As the door swung open, she looked up into what she expected to be the face of an old woman…
Her scream could be heard all the way from the Brauer’s house.
*
The villagers dispersed, some running to their houses to hide while others followed the soldiers to help get Tessa back. Crowley followed behind in the rear. He shouted something in French to two of the soldiers as he ran into the village.
The two soldiers kept their muskets up and pointed at Dean and Sam.
“I’m guessin’ you guys can’t speak German?”
They both stared at Dean blankly.
“Quoi?”
“Sorry, I don’t speak douchebag.”
“Is this really the time to be a dick, Dean?”
“Assholes have got their guns shoved in our faces, Sammy.”
“Silence!” one of them shouted. “Ne dis rien!”
“Shut up, Dean,” Sam murmured out of the corner of his mouth, nervous smile on his face. “Désolée, mon frère-”
“Je dis, ‘Silence’!”
Dean was about to retort, “don’t you call my brother a ‘joo dee’,” when a black shape sprinted through the tall grasses behind the soldiers. A large, dog-like animal with big, blue eyes and jet black fur, sat just a few meters behind the soldiers, wagging its tail.
Cas!
It barked, making both soldiers jump.
“Mon dieu! C’est le chien!”
“Non, non, c’est le loup!”
“Shit! It’s that wolf!” Sam said.
The dog suddenly growled, leaping onto all fours. It lunged towards the first of the soldiers, knocking him off his feet. The other soldier dropped his musket as Cas turned towards him, pulling out his sword with shaking hands. As he was about to strike out at Castiel, Castiel leapt out of the way and the soldier still standing screamed and began hopping on one foot.
“Imbécile! Vous fusillez-moi!”
The other soldier was still on the ground, clutching his pistol, and apologizing profusely as he scrambled back up to his feet. Momentarily forgetting the dog, he went to his companion’s side to offer assistance.
The distraction was all Castiel needed as he shifted back into his human form. Sam couldn’t hold back his surprised yelp but before the two soldiers could turn to see what was going on, Castiel grabbed both of them and knocked their heads together.
They dropped to the ground with a loud thud.
“What the-you’re-you-”
“Yep, he’s a man-wolf-dog,” Dean said calmly. He ignored Sam’s gaping. “Yo, Cas, little help here?”
“It’s Castiel.”
Dean ignored that too.
“You knew about this?! When were you going to tell me, Dean?!”
Castiel pulled out his hunting knife and swiftly cut through Dean’s bindings.
“Sorry, Sammy, but somewhere between us getting arrested and shot to death, Cas wolfing out must have slipped my mind,” Dean snapped, rubbing his wrists. “Shit, that burns.”
Sam glared at Dean, pulling off the bindings as Castiel cut them away. “An update would still be nice.”
“It must wait. The girl needs our help.”
And just as Castiel said this, Crowley’s voice could be heard from across the field. “What in the bloody fuck is that?!”
*
Most of the soldiers didn’t make it very far as they pursued the large, tawny colored wolf. By the time it had ran into the woods, with Tessa unconscious and thrown over its back, the trees became violent. Instead of just shifting, branches flung from the shadows of the overhanging canopy, some tossing the soldiers into other trees or crushing them under its weight. Dean and Sam were panting heavily, following the trail of the dead and mangled bodies of the soldiers as Castiel led them through the woods.
“Dean! Your 3 o’clock!”
The warning came just in time as a tree branch sliced through the air in front of Dean.
“Watch out, Cas!”
But Dean’s warning was not needed as Castiel’s instincts were sharper, even in his human form. He was already jumping out of the way before the words left Dean’s lips.
“We will never reach her in time,” Castiel gritted out. “Not like this.”
His body bent forward, limbs twisting, bones cracking and reshaping as fur sprouted out all over his body. Sam cried out again, still not as comfortable with the idea that the creature he thought tried to kill them was really their friend.
“Cas, you idiot! Don’t you dare--!”
But Castiel, who was much faster and his senses keener in his dog form, took off in the direction where Gabriel must have gone. Dean swore under his breath as the woods around them slipped into pitch black, despite the afternoon sun that had trickled through the treetops moments before. They had gone in too deep and now their guide was nowhere to be found.
“Cas!”
Sparks flickered at Dean’s side and he looked down to see Sam bending over the dead body of one of the soldiers, now holding a lantern. Like all other times they had been in this part of the woods, the woods were eerily quiet where only minutes ago, the trees had been alive and violent.
“Now how the hell we supposed to find them?” Dean grumbled.
A toad croaked and hopped over Dean’s boot.
Dean and Sam exchanged a look.
“Oh, hell no!”
“It worked for Cas…” Sam pointed out.
“This is fucking stupid.”
But the fear that inched its way into Dean’s veins, leaving his blood running ice cold at the thought of any harm coming to Castiel, put aside his disbelief for the time being. He was desperate and in a forest that came to life, with witches and werewolves or whatever the hell the Novak brothers were, licking toads seemed a viable and believable option at this point of the game.
“Grandmother Toad, show me the way to Cas and I’ll give you a kiss,” Dean said, unable to hold back his sarcasm.
He cringed as his tongue slid over the toad’s belly.
*
“Let her go, Gabriel!”
The mid-noon sun trickled through the trees, its glow making Gabriel’s wolf’s fur cloak shimmer. A smug smirk was on the older hunter’s face, one that was so achingly Gabriel that it filled Castiel with pain. But the absent, dull glow in Gabriel’s golden brown eyes reminded Castiel that this creature standing before him, cradling Tessa’s little body in his arms, was no more his brother than he was a stranger.
“It’s over,” Gabriel said simply. “You can’t stop my mistress.”
Like the few other times Castiel had come face to face with Gabriel since his transformation, he tried again to appeal to him, ignoring the failure that would likely follow.
“Whatever power she has over you, you can overcome it, Gabriel,” Castiel said slowly, taking a hesitant step towards his brother. Gabriel took one step back, pausing as his feet scraped the edge of the little cliff over looking a shallow creek. The only sound between them was small rocks splashing into the water below, as if both skinwalkers were hesitant to even breathe.
“It’s over, Castiel,” Gabriel repeated. “So why don’t you crawl back to your hole with your tail between your legs before I rip you to pieces?”
His wolfish grin held only malice and chilled Castiel down to his bones.
A shot flew by dangerously close to Gabriel’s face, making the hunter scowl. Castiel turned around to find Dean holding a pistol and glaring. “You so much as touch Cas and I’ll-”
“Dean!”
Faster than anyone could blink, Gabriel had leapt over Castiel and had Dean pinned to a tree, a single hand squeezing at the elder Grimm’s throat. Dean struggled and gasped, his body held a meter above the ground and kicking at Gabriel but to no avail. Although Gabriel was very short, standing no taller than 5’8’, his inhuman power made him barely flinch when Dean’s legs connected with his gut.
“Wanna finish that threat, Deano?”
Dean clawed at Gabriel’s hand but could not remove the vice grip that was quickly making his lungs collapse.
In his desperation, Castiel pulled out his knife and threw it with all his strength. It landed right in-between Gabriel’s shoulders.
With a gasp, Gabriel dropped Dean.
Dean choked and grasped at the forest floor, wheezing painfully as his lungs took in precious air again.
From Castiel’s side, Sam cried out Dean’s name, now holding the unconscious Tessa in his arms.
But for Castiel, it was as if time had stopped. The moments passed by agonizingly slow and dread filled him as the awareness of what he had done, how he had struck out against his older brother, made him wish this was nothing more than some horrible nightmare.
What he hadn’t anticipated was for Gabriel to slowly turn around, cold laugh cutting through the stillness of the glade.
“Well, ouch,” he mocked, slowly pulling out the blade with a toothy grin, exposing his canines. “That hurt, bro.”
He tossed the knife aside and casually strolled forward. Sam took a hesitant step back, arms protectively clutching Tessa close to his chest.
“Now, I’ll be taking her, if you bozos don’t mind.”
“Over my dead body,” Sam spat back.
“Oh, that can be arranged.”
“Do not do this, Gabriel,” Castiel warned.
Gabriel stopped and sighed, rolling his eyes. “Or what? You’ll threaten me to death? Face it, bro…you can’t stop me. So why don’t you just accept that and stand aside, save all of us some time.”
“We’re not letting you take her!” Sam cut in.
“Take one more step…” Dean wheezed from behind Gabriel, shakily pointing his pistol at the skinwalker, “and I’ll shoot.”
“And what makes you think your bullets can stop me?”
“Because they’re silver, jackass!”
Castiel’s eyes widened since there was no way those bullets, the pistol most likely swiped from a dead soldier, were silver.
But the deadpan expression on Dean and Sam’s faces, who made a living bluffing and using their subterfuge to survive, remained serious and unwavering. However, all it took was the flicker of Gabriel’s eyes onto Castiel’s face and Castiel filled with dread as he realized that Gabriel knew the Grimm brothers were bluffing.
“Guess that’s a chance I’ll just have to take,” Gabriel said. He looked over Castiel contemplatively. “And if you clowns want the girl, you can have her. My mistress only needs one more…anyone will do.”
Gabriel lunged, his body shifting into his wolf form and hitting Castiel with a force that had Castiel flying backwards and tripping off the cliff. The last sensation he felt was his free fall stopping abruptly as he hit the surface of the water below.
*
“Cas!”
As Castiel tumbled off the cliff, adrenaline overtook Dean and his weariness was pushed aside. He raced forward and jumped off, dropping the three meters to the surface of the extremely shallow creek and ignoring Sam’s shouts from behind him.
In the rush of everything, Dean didn’t have time to think how stupid it was to dive into a creek that could have been no more than 1 meter deep. He barely had time to register how when Castiel’s body hit the surface, he sank into depths that shouldn’t have existed, as if the creek expanded and increased its depths to accommodate the foreign invader. He did, however, cry out in surprise when he hit a solid surface, pain shooting all up through his limbs.
“Cas!”
He began pounding at the surface of the water that had now become thick ice. He pounded and pounded, screaming Castiel’s name as he watched Castiel sink lower and lower into the depths and out of his reach.
“God damnit, Cas!”
It wasn’t long before Dean could no longer see Castiel. In vain, he tried slamming his fists into the ice, cringing as his knuckles cracked but ignoring the blood staining his hands. This dragged on for minutes until Sam’s worried cries finally got through him.
“-is gone! We need to bring Tessa back!”
Dean looked up at Sam standing over the cliff, worried expression marring his features.
“…it’s all my fault, Sam…”
“I need you to snap out of it, Dean! If Cas is gonna have any chance at all, we need to think this through!”
Dean glanced at his bloodied knuckles, clutching them into fists. “Damnit, Sam! I know fuck all about witches and shit! We’ve never killed them! How the hell we supposed to get Cas back?!”
“Look, Dean. You have to trust me on this! I know what I’m doing!”
As Dean climbed back up, using branches and rocks to make his way up the face of the tiny cliff, he couldn’t help but bitterly mumble out, “Kinda like what you knew you were doing with mom?”
It was cold. It was underhanded.
It was the reason Sam finally snapped and punched Dean across the face as soon as he was back at his brother’s side.
In surprise, Dean stumbled back, green eyes widening.
“For fuck sakes, Dean! How long until you finally let that shit go?!” Sam shouted, angrily. He shoved at Dean with his free arm, his other still holding the unconscious Tessa securely against his chest. “I get it. I fucked up. But don’t act as if I don’t spend every fucking day of my life blaming myself for what happened to her!”
“It was never your fault, Sammy, you idiot!” Dean shouted back, body shaking with his pent up rage. The admission now caused Sam’s eyes to fly open in shock. “It was mine. All mine! Because I told you those stupid fucking fairytales and made you believe in shit that ain’t real! And just like back then, it’s my fault that we’re in this mess all over again! People are dying and there’s nothing we can do about it!”
And if Dean were a lesser men, a less stubborn one, the guilt that consumed him, that often made him reach for that shot of whiskey or rum, would be the final thing that struck him down as a lifetime of pent up emotions crumbled the barrier of his resolve. But instead, he turned away, his shame only evident by the slight cracking of his voice.
“These kids…and now Cas…we know all about this shit but we don’t know what’s real, what works, and what doesn’t. It was never suppose to be this way. Fairytales aren’t suppose to be real.”
“…but they are, Dean,” Sam said, quietly. “And we may have never fought anything like this, but we know the lore. We have the supplies. And we know where she is…we’ve gotta at least try.”
Chapter 7
Beta: skylar_matthews
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, Brothers Grimm verse, Fusion, adventure, horror
Pairings: Dean/Cas, mentions of Dean/Cassie, suggested Dean/Lisa
Spoilers: Some for The Brothers Grimm
Warnings: some sexual situations, violence, abuse of the French language, lots of UST
Word Count: 26 000 (in total)
Summary: Under the new French occupation, Dean and Sam Grimm have made a living conning people into believing that fairytales and monsters are real. But when they stumble upon the village of Marbaden, everything that they thought they knew gets turned upside down and instead of creating fairytales, they find themselves living in one.
A/N: Written as part of the dc-everafter Challenge. This is loosely based on the film The Brothers Grimm starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. Some significant changes have been made compared to the film but there will still be plot spoilers for those who have yet to watch The Brothers Grimm.
Special thanks to my lovely beta reader, skylar_matthews, and to talli_approved for creating the challenge. This was an awesome excuse to fuse the SPN universe with one of my favorite films and I had a great time writing this! Lastly, I want to thank h4ppy-fun-b4ll for creating beautiful artwork to accompany my fic. It was fun working with you, darling! <3
Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Epilogue | Art Masterpost
“…subterfuge, fraud, theft, vandalism, extortion, slander-”
“Slander?!” Sam called out, in surprise.
“Yes, slander,” the officer said, his English accent slipping through his German, “The villagers in Karlstadt now believe Mr. Erik Krueger to have been possessed by demons. Oh, but I’m sure this has nothing to do with your little ‘exorcism’ you staged.”
Sam hung his head and groaned.
“ -disturbing the peace, breaking and entering-”
“We’ve never broken ‘n’ entered into anything-” Dean protested, struggling against his bonds.
“...well, Mr. Grimm, why don’t I go ahead and add ‘lying to an investigator’ to this list,” the captain said, with a slick smirk that made Dean want to punch the bastard. “Keep protesting all you want but you boys have the word of 7 different villages and a pissed off squad of soldiers working against you. Not to mention your two mates here.”
Dean glared as the officer indicated to Harry and Ed, both who were bound but being carefully guarded by more French soldiers. He wasn’t sure if it was the high noon sun or the look of shame on their faces but he could make out the droplets of sweat that dabbed at the collars of their soiled shirts. Both of them refused to meet his glare.
“So what you gettin’ for this? A chateau in Marseille and Paris’ finest whores?” Dean spat. As much as he was always at odds with them, the betrayal stung in ways he wasn’t about to confess to. So Dean reacted the only way he knew how. “You don’t do shit like this to your friends!”
“Friends? Since when have you ever shown us any respect?” Harry shot back. “Sure, we feel bad that Sam’s getting the short end of the stick here but you’ve never so much as thanked us for any of this. You’ve blackmailed us, short-handed us, even tried to sell us out a few times!”
“Harry’s gotta point there, slick,” Ed piped in. “Turning you in so we get to keep our heads, bit of a no brainer. But you, Sam…seriously, we are so sorry about this.”
“Bite me,” Sam snapped, his giant body not even moving an inch as he tried to disentangle himself from his bonds. He was tied to a tree on Dean’s right, on the edge of the enchanted forest. Dean’s vision was clouded with red as he silently willed himself to rip apart his bindings, not that it would help. All the French soldiers standing between them and the village that lay behind them were well equipped with muskets, pistols, and swords and chances were, he and Sam would be struck down before they so much as taken a step forward.
“As touching as this reunion is,” the officer cut in, his dark look making him more imposing despite being shorter than both Dean and Sam. “I have an execution to carry out and a bottle of wine waiting for me outside of this piss poor town. Not all the polish in the French Empire will get this bloody grime out of my leather boots.”
He moodily glared down at the dust, as if the fact that nature existed was to blame for all his worldly troubles. With a quick snap of his fingers, one of the younger soldiers dropped to the officer’s feet and began shining his shoes.
“A little more to the left, mate.”
“Yes sir, Captain Crowley.”
Dean rolled his eyes. “Ya gonna spend all day standin’ there or ya gonna get this over with?”
“Dean!” Sam hissed.
“Oh, no, Mr. Grimm, I perfectly intend on standing here and looking pretty for your amusement,” Crowley retorted, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“The English must be gettin’ pretty desperate if their sending their trash to clean up the French’s shit.”
“Well, well, this one has bite. Boys!”
Ten of the two dozen soldiers stepped forward, standing in a straight line and raising their muskets. They kept a few meters of distance between the Grimm brothers, waiting for the final signal to be given.
Although Dean was nervous as all fuck and couldn’t help but bitterly think, ‘so this is it!’ He continued to glare defiantly and mentally vowed to come back and haunt every single one of those mother fuckers for killing Sam.
“As by order of Emperor Bonaparte in accordance with the law of the French Empire, I hereby sentence both Dean and Sam Grimm to execution by firing squad for their crimes against the peace. May your death be swift and justice be served…well, maybe not that swift. Kill the younger Grimm first.”
Dean’s eyes widened. “W-wait! Sammy had nothing to do with this! Let him go!”
“What?! Dean!”
“I made him help me! He never wanted to be part of this! He doesn’t deserve this!”
“God damnit, Dean, you’re not doing this alone!” Sam shouted. “Stop always protecting me! I’m just as much a part of this as you!”
As they continued to squabble, Crowley shouted, startling everyone. “Will you two ladies stop your BLOODY yapping!” And in his irritation, he kicked at the soldier still shining his shoes. “…as touching as this is, your crimes against the empire are non-negotiable. So man up, shut up, and try to have some dignity while you die dishonorably!”
Turning back to the firing squad, Crowley raised his right hand. “On the count of 3, boys. 1…!”
A villager screamed.
“Oh…what the bloody hell now?” Crowley groaned.
The villagers who had come to watch the execution suddenly broke apart as a woman came running through. “Help! Somebody help! It’s got Tessa!”
*
Tessa knew the rules that her mother had told her as she left the house to go and fetch some milk from Lisa Brauer. If someone knocks, don’t answer the door. Don’t leave the house. Don’t let anyone in. Her mother had repeated these rules 3 times, made Tessa also repeat them back to her just as many, before she had slipped out with promises of returning shortly. Tessa knew strange things have been happening around here and she also knew better than to disobey her mother.
So like the good girl she was, Tessa continued to scrub the kitchen floor, as her mother had asked. Humming softly to herself, her little hands squeezed the cloth in the bucket before running it over the old, wooden floorboards.
Knock. Knock.
Tessa paused, tiny head glancing over at the door.
Don’t answer the door.
A creeping feeling trailed down her spine. After a few moments, Tessa returned to her task.
Knock. Knock.
“H-hello,” an old, scratchy voice called from the other side. “I-is anyone in there?”
That bad feeling wouldn’t go away. But unable to ignore her curiosity, Tessa slowly stood up.
“W-who is it?” she called, her tiny voice like a booming echo in the silence of her home.
“I-I’m just an old woman,” the voice said, muffled by the door. “P-please take pity on me. All I ask is for a glass of water and then I’ll be on my way.”
Tessa took small steps towards the door, the floor creaking beneath her feet. “M-my mother says I-I can’t let anyone in.”
“Please, dear. Please help me.”
The desperation in the woman’s raspy voice tugged at Tessa’s heart.
Slowly, Tessa reached out and turned the handle of the door. As the door swung open, she looked up into what she expected to be the face of an old woman…
Her scream could be heard all the way from the Brauer’s house.
*
The villagers dispersed, some running to their houses to hide while others followed the soldiers to help get Tessa back. Crowley followed behind in the rear. He shouted something in French to two of the soldiers as he ran into the village.
The two soldiers kept their muskets up and pointed at Dean and Sam.
“I’m guessin’ you guys can’t speak German?”
They both stared at Dean blankly.
“Quoi?”
“Sorry, I don’t speak douchebag.”
“Is this really the time to be a dick, Dean?”
“Assholes have got their guns shoved in our faces, Sammy.”
“Silence!” one of them shouted. “Ne dis rien!”
“Shut up, Dean,” Sam murmured out of the corner of his mouth, nervous smile on his face. “Désolée, mon frère-”
“Je dis, ‘Silence’!”
Dean was about to retort, “don’t you call my brother a ‘joo dee’,” when a black shape sprinted through the tall grasses behind the soldiers. A large, dog-like animal with big, blue eyes and jet black fur, sat just a few meters behind the soldiers, wagging its tail.
Cas!
It barked, making both soldiers jump.
“Mon dieu! C’est le chien!”
“Non, non, c’est le loup!”
“Shit! It’s that wolf!” Sam said.
The dog suddenly growled, leaping onto all fours. It lunged towards the first of the soldiers, knocking him off his feet. The other soldier dropped his musket as Cas turned towards him, pulling out his sword with shaking hands. As he was about to strike out at Castiel, Castiel leapt out of the way and the soldier still standing screamed and began hopping on one foot.
“Imbécile! Vous fusillez-moi!”
The other soldier was still on the ground, clutching his pistol, and apologizing profusely as he scrambled back up to his feet. Momentarily forgetting the dog, he went to his companion’s side to offer assistance.
The distraction was all Castiel needed as he shifted back into his human form. Sam couldn’t hold back his surprised yelp but before the two soldiers could turn to see what was going on, Castiel grabbed both of them and knocked their heads together.
They dropped to the ground with a loud thud.
“What the-you’re-you-”
“Yep, he’s a man-wolf-dog,” Dean said calmly. He ignored Sam’s gaping. “Yo, Cas, little help here?”
“It’s Castiel.”
Dean ignored that too.
“You knew about this?! When were you going to tell me, Dean?!”
Castiel pulled out his hunting knife and swiftly cut through Dean’s bindings.
“Sorry, Sammy, but somewhere between us getting arrested and shot to death, Cas wolfing out must have slipped my mind,” Dean snapped, rubbing his wrists. “Shit, that burns.”
Sam glared at Dean, pulling off the bindings as Castiel cut them away. “An update would still be nice.”
“It must wait. The girl needs our help.”
And just as Castiel said this, Crowley’s voice could be heard from across the field. “What in the bloody fuck is that?!”
*
Most of the soldiers didn’t make it very far as they pursued the large, tawny colored wolf. By the time it had ran into the woods, with Tessa unconscious and thrown over its back, the trees became violent. Instead of just shifting, branches flung from the shadows of the overhanging canopy, some tossing the soldiers into other trees or crushing them under its weight. Dean and Sam were panting heavily, following the trail of the dead and mangled bodies of the soldiers as Castiel led them through the woods.
“Dean! Your 3 o’clock!”
The warning came just in time as a tree branch sliced through the air in front of Dean.
“Watch out, Cas!”
But Dean’s warning was not needed as Castiel’s instincts were sharper, even in his human form. He was already jumping out of the way before the words left Dean’s lips.
“We will never reach her in time,” Castiel gritted out. “Not like this.”
His body bent forward, limbs twisting, bones cracking and reshaping as fur sprouted out all over his body. Sam cried out again, still not as comfortable with the idea that the creature he thought tried to kill them was really their friend.
“Cas, you idiot! Don’t you dare--!”
But Castiel, who was much faster and his senses keener in his dog form, took off in the direction where Gabriel must have gone. Dean swore under his breath as the woods around them slipped into pitch black, despite the afternoon sun that had trickled through the treetops moments before. They had gone in too deep and now their guide was nowhere to be found.
“Cas!”
Sparks flickered at Dean’s side and he looked down to see Sam bending over the dead body of one of the soldiers, now holding a lantern. Like all other times they had been in this part of the woods, the woods were eerily quiet where only minutes ago, the trees had been alive and violent.
“Now how the hell we supposed to find them?” Dean grumbled.
A toad croaked and hopped over Dean’s boot.
Dean and Sam exchanged a look.
“Oh, hell no!”
“It worked for Cas…” Sam pointed out.
“This is fucking stupid.”
But the fear that inched its way into Dean’s veins, leaving his blood running ice cold at the thought of any harm coming to Castiel, put aside his disbelief for the time being. He was desperate and in a forest that came to life, with witches and werewolves or whatever the hell the Novak brothers were, licking toads seemed a viable and believable option at this point of the game.
“Grandmother Toad, show me the way to Cas and I’ll give you a kiss,” Dean said, unable to hold back his sarcasm.
He cringed as his tongue slid over the toad’s belly.
*
“Let her go, Gabriel!”
The mid-noon sun trickled through the trees, its glow making Gabriel’s wolf’s fur cloak shimmer. A smug smirk was on the older hunter’s face, one that was so achingly Gabriel that it filled Castiel with pain. But the absent, dull glow in Gabriel’s golden brown eyes reminded Castiel that this creature standing before him, cradling Tessa’s little body in his arms, was no more his brother than he was a stranger.
“It’s over,” Gabriel said simply. “You can’t stop my mistress.”
Like the few other times Castiel had come face to face with Gabriel since his transformation, he tried again to appeal to him, ignoring the failure that would likely follow.
“Whatever power she has over you, you can overcome it, Gabriel,” Castiel said slowly, taking a hesitant step towards his brother. Gabriel took one step back, pausing as his feet scraped the edge of the little cliff over looking a shallow creek. The only sound between them was small rocks splashing into the water below, as if both skinwalkers were hesitant to even breathe.
“It’s over, Castiel,” Gabriel repeated. “So why don’t you crawl back to your hole with your tail between your legs before I rip you to pieces?”
His wolfish grin held only malice and chilled Castiel down to his bones.
A shot flew by dangerously close to Gabriel’s face, making the hunter scowl. Castiel turned around to find Dean holding a pistol and glaring. “You so much as touch Cas and I’ll-”
“Dean!”
Faster than anyone could blink, Gabriel had leapt over Castiel and had Dean pinned to a tree, a single hand squeezing at the elder Grimm’s throat. Dean struggled and gasped, his body held a meter above the ground and kicking at Gabriel but to no avail. Although Gabriel was very short, standing no taller than 5’8’, his inhuman power made him barely flinch when Dean’s legs connected with his gut.
“Wanna finish that threat, Deano?”
Dean clawed at Gabriel’s hand but could not remove the vice grip that was quickly making his lungs collapse.
In his desperation, Castiel pulled out his knife and threw it with all his strength. It landed right in-between Gabriel’s shoulders.
With a gasp, Gabriel dropped Dean.
Dean choked and grasped at the forest floor, wheezing painfully as his lungs took in precious air again.
From Castiel’s side, Sam cried out Dean’s name, now holding the unconscious Tessa in his arms.
But for Castiel, it was as if time had stopped. The moments passed by agonizingly slow and dread filled him as the awareness of what he had done, how he had struck out against his older brother, made him wish this was nothing more than some horrible nightmare.
What he hadn’t anticipated was for Gabriel to slowly turn around, cold laugh cutting through the stillness of the glade.
“Well, ouch,” he mocked, slowly pulling out the blade with a toothy grin, exposing his canines. “That hurt, bro.”
He tossed the knife aside and casually strolled forward. Sam took a hesitant step back, arms protectively clutching Tessa close to his chest.
“Now, I’ll be taking her, if you bozos don’t mind.”
“Over my dead body,” Sam spat back.
“Oh, that can be arranged.”
“Do not do this, Gabriel,” Castiel warned.
Gabriel stopped and sighed, rolling his eyes. “Or what? You’ll threaten me to death? Face it, bro…you can’t stop me. So why don’t you just accept that and stand aside, save all of us some time.”
“We’re not letting you take her!” Sam cut in.
“Take one more step…” Dean wheezed from behind Gabriel, shakily pointing his pistol at the skinwalker, “and I’ll shoot.”
“And what makes you think your bullets can stop me?”
“Because they’re silver, jackass!”
Castiel’s eyes widened since there was no way those bullets, the pistol most likely swiped from a dead soldier, were silver.
But the deadpan expression on Dean and Sam’s faces, who made a living bluffing and using their subterfuge to survive, remained serious and unwavering. However, all it took was the flicker of Gabriel’s eyes onto Castiel’s face and Castiel filled with dread as he realized that Gabriel knew the Grimm brothers were bluffing.
“Guess that’s a chance I’ll just have to take,” Gabriel said. He looked over Castiel contemplatively. “And if you clowns want the girl, you can have her. My mistress only needs one more…anyone will do.”
Gabriel lunged, his body shifting into his wolf form and hitting Castiel with a force that had Castiel flying backwards and tripping off the cliff. The last sensation he felt was his free fall stopping abruptly as he hit the surface of the water below.
*
“Cas!”
As Castiel tumbled off the cliff, adrenaline overtook Dean and his weariness was pushed aside. He raced forward and jumped off, dropping the three meters to the surface of the extremely shallow creek and ignoring Sam’s shouts from behind him.
In the rush of everything, Dean didn’t have time to think how stupid it was to dive into a creek that could have been no more than 1 meter deep. He barely had time to register how when Castiel’s body hit the surface, he sank into depths that shouldn’t have existed, as if the creek expanded and increased its depths to accommodate the foreign invader. He did, however, cry out in surprise when he hit a solid surface, pain shooting all up through his limbs.
“Cas!”
He began pounding at the surface of the water that had now become thick ice. He pounded and pounded, screaming Castiel’s name as he watched Castiel sink lower and lower into the depths and out of his reach.
“God damnit, Cas!”
It wasn’t long before Dean could no longer see Castiel. In vain, he tried slamming his fists into the ice, cringing as his knuckles cracked but ignoring the blood staining his hands. This dragged on for minutes until Sam’s worried cries finally got through him.
“-is gone! We need to bring Tessa back!”
Dean looked up at Sam standing over the cliff, worried expression marring his features.
“…it’s all my fault, Sam…”
“I need you to snap out of it, Dean! If Cas is gonna have any chance at all, we need to think this through!”
Dean glanced at his bloodied knuckles, clutching them into fists. “Damnit, Sam! I know fuck all about witches and shit! We’ve never killed them! How the hell we supposed to get Cas back?!”
“Look, Dean. You have to trust me on this! I know what I’m doing!”
As Dean climbed back up, using branches and rocks to make his way up the face of the tiny cliff, he couldn’t help but bitterly mumble out, “Kinda like what you knew you were doing with mom?”
It was cold. It was underhanded.
It was the reason Sam finally snapped and punched Dean across the face as soon as he was back at his brother’s side.
In surprise, Dean stumbled back, green eyes widening.
“For fuck sakes, Dean! How long until you finally let that shit go?!” Sam shouted, angrily. He shoved at Dean with his free arm, his other still holding the unconscious Tessa securely against his chest. “I get it. I fucked up. But don’t act as if I don’t spend every fucking day of my life blaming myself for what happened to her!”
“It was never your fault, Sammy, you idiot!” Dean shouted back, body shaking with his pent up rage. The admission now caused Sam’s eyes to fly open in shock. “It was mine. All mine! Because I told you those stupid fucking fairytales and made you believe in shit that ain’t real! And just like back then, it’s my fault that we’re in this mess all over again! People are dying and there’s nothing we can do about it!”
And if Dean were a lesser men, a less stubborn one, the guilt that consumed him, that often made him reach for that shot of whiskey or rum, would be the final thing that struck him down as a lifetime of pent up emotions crumbled the barrier of his resolve. But instead, he turned away, his shame only evident by the slight cracking of his voice.
“These kids…and now Cas…we know all about this shit but we don’t know what’s real, what works, and what doesn’t. It was never suppose to be this way. Fairytales aren’t suppose to be real.”
“…but they are, Dean,” Sam said, quietly. “And we may have never fought anything like this, but we know the lore. We have the supplies. And we know where she is…we’ve gotta at least try.”
Chapter 7