A Very Supernatural Journey Chapter 14
A birthday story for Enkidu07, co-manager of the E/O Drabble Challenge.
by womanofletters, theymp, mainegirlwrites and wynefred
Previous Chapters: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
This chapter by mainegirlwrites
Summary: Can she be stopped? And at what cost?
Chapter 14: Monster Monsoon
"Oh, crap," Sam echoed his brother. The Winchesters and the police officers that had stayed to fight took several steps back. Bows, still armed with the oil-dipped arrows, fell to the ground. The sound of the metal and wood dropping in the sudden silence was disquieting.
Wąda stretched her long neck, her wide eyes rolling and showing their whites. Those who were injured stifled their moaning and sobbing, afraid of attracting the monster's attention. Simultaneously, Dean ushered Rachelle behind his back as Sam did the same for the nearby Shawna. They backed slowly into the shelter of a grove of trees near the stream. Amy and Mer could not be found.
You are truly mad, Henri told Wąda, his thoughts shaking with anger.
Wąda dropped her head and gazed at Henri, her mouth open in what could be construed as a grin. Henri slapped her, his hand seemingly insignificant against her large cheek. Her head reared up, and she emitted a shrill scream.
"Run!" Dean yelled. He caught his brother's eye, and a moment of understanding passed between them. The Winchesters had been in moments like this before - and the best idea right now was to keep everyone safe until they could regroup with a plan.
The four of them turned to retreat. Rachelle looked back for an instant over her shoulder. In horror, she saw Wąda scoop Henri up like a toy in her mouth and toss him into the river. Oblivious to her formerly faithful servant's pain and injury, the monster stomped towards the college campus.
Rachelle stumbled to a halt and began to turn around, back towards the river and Henri. Dean grabbed her shirt, his eyes panicked.
"Let me go!" Rachelle cried.
"No - I'm not letting you go!" Dean replied with fury in his voice. Rachelle looked at him with astonishment, knowing his words meant more than their situation for that moment.
"Okay, then come on," Rachelle said softly, coaxing his hand off her shirt. "Henri needs us."
Skirting the remainder of the crowd that had descended into chaos, Dean and Rachelle, still hand in hand, backtracked quickly to the stream. Henri was pulling himself out of the river, gasping loudly. One webbed hand held his side, where a stream of blood steadily pulsed.
Rachelle bent down to him, their eyes locking.
I will die, just like the others, Henri thought to Rachelle. I have been a fool. My queen, she used me, and now -
"Stop it!" Rachelle said aloud. Her forehead crinkled and her eyes narrowed. "Henri, you may die. But help me stop that monster before you do!"
Henri's eyes opened wide.
"I cannot," he croaked, struggling to rise to his feet. Rachelle helped him, clenching her jaw against the unpleasant feeling of his scales on her flesh. Dean stepped forward and put one of Henri's arms over his strong shoulders. If the situation weren't so dire, Rachelle would have laughed out loud at the look of utter disgust on the hunter's face.
"For everything that you have done, right or wrong...this can be your redemption," her voice was low and soothing, yet urged Henri to take step after heavy step. "For those that you have lost...for the family you never had...for the hurt, the anger, the betrayal. For all those things, Henri, now you must fight."
Dean grabbed Henri's wrist tighter, and shifted so he could carry more of the bagiennik's weight. Both Henri and Dean listened intently to Rachelle's soothing words.
"You think you are the only one that has ever been betrayed? The only one that has ever been beaten down so low you could only go sideways or up?" Rachelle paused, took a deep breath, and continued.
"Let me tell you, Henri, you are a free - uh- man. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight? Fight and you may die, run and you'll live," Rachelle voice rose. "But dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell your enemy that she may take your life, but she'll never take your freedom!"
Henri pushed himself off of Dean's shoulder, staggering forward. I will have my freedom, Henri pushed the thought to Rachelle. And you will have yours. Stay hidden, but stay close. The bagiennik lurched forward, and began to talk aloud, over his shoulder to them.
"We must get the rings away from Wąda - ," he sputtered. "If I can get close enough and spray her with my poison, it will hurt her. Then will be your chance. Pull the rings apart, and - ," Henri wheezed and coughed, spraying clots of blood out of his mouth.
"Great," Dean muttered. "Got to rely on one monster to kill another - and this one is already dying."
"You're doing the right thing, Henri," Rachelle assured him, ignoring Dean.
Dean glanced at Rachelle, wiping his slimed-coated hands on his jeans. "Not to take away from your moment there or anything...," he began.
"Yes, that was from Braveheart," Rachelle conceded with a grin. "My apologies to Mel Gibson. Although, in my world, he turns out to be quite an ass."
Dean playfully plugged his ears. "Spoiler alert," he winked. Their eyes locked.
"Rachelle - ," Dean began. His mouth clamped closed, then opened again, his eyes clouded as he searched for words. Rachelle waited patiently.
"We'll talk later, okay?" he finally said. Rachelle sighed and nodded. This is the Dean Winchester that fans know and love, she thought to herself. Emotions buckled down tighter than a penny clenched in a miser's hand.
"Hey!" Sam rounded the corner, Shawna at his side. "Where did you both go?"
Shawna raced to Rachelle and hugged her fiercely. "Don't go disappearing like that," she croaked, her voice thick with emotion.
"Where's Mer? And Amy?" Rachelle asked her. Shawna took a deep breath.
"Mer got a rock to the head. She's okay - just a little dizzy - she's with the paramedics. Amy is with her. I can't find any cops anywhere - seems like they all split - ,"
"Not this cop," Tyrone announced, walking up to the group. "What's the plan?"
Sam slapped Tyrone on the back with a warm greeting. The officer, unstable from lack of sleep, could barely keep on his feet.
"Henri told us if we get him close enough to that monster and grab the rings from her, we might have a fighting chance," Dean explained. The group began following Henri at a slow jog, as he had made some distance. Up ahead, they could see Wąda's large form pause at a water fountain and take a drink. Suddenly, Henri turned towards them, doubling back, dashing to the river behind them.
"Henri!" Rachelle cried. "Where are you going?" He pushed past them and disappeared into the trees. They could hear the distant splash as he dove into the river.
"Great!" Dean exclaimed. "A lot of good he did on his promises!"
"No, look!" Shawna pointed to Wąda at the fountain. Henri had reappeared in the water at the monster's nose, and Wąda raised her head in surprise. He leaped onto her head, digging his claws into her eyes and his heels into her nostrils. The queen screamed in agony. She reared up, thrashing her head from side to side. Henri sprayed his oily poison into her forehead.
Now, now! Henri screeched. Rachelle grabbed her head in agony at the sudden force of Henri's desperate thought, falling to her knees. Shawna grabbed her, but Rachelle managed to weakly signal toward Wąda.
"Now!" Dean cried. Sam, Tyrone and Dean sprinted towards the monster. When they got to her, Sam leapt, wrapping his arms and legs around Wąda's arm, his weight pulling the heavy limb towards the ground. His efforts to bring her down were like a flea buzzing around a giant. Preoccupied by Henri's attack, she didn't even seem to notice Sam's weight on her arm.
Dean began to hack away at her clawed hand with a small knife. With her free hand, Wąda finally managed to peel Henri off her face. He fell to the ground with a dull thud, seemingly lifeless. The monster swung her damaged face to the Winchesters and Tyrone.
Henri had done well. Wąda's eyes were bloody, sightless sockets. There was now a gaping hole in her forehead where he'd managed to spray his poison. It was widening, opening and spreading across her forehead like a mad sinkhole.
"You think I can be stopped?" she hissed. "A millennia of planning...waiting...," she shook Sam off her arm, and he fell to the ground with a grunt. He rolled out of the way, but quickly found his feet again.
"You pesky little human...I'll crush you - ," she drew up her arm, sightlessly swinging her arm where Dean was standing.
With a roar, Tyrone leapt onto Wąda's face, sticking his arm into the hole in her head and firing the entire magazine of bullets directly into her brain.
Wąda screeched, and slammed her head into the pavement, crushing the brave officer. She remained there, head down, motionless. Dean reached into her relaxed hand and pulled out the attached rings in triumph. He turned to Rachelle, holding them over his head in a victorious salute to her. He glanced over his shoulder to check on Tyrone - only to be stunned by the sight of Wąda's head upon the officer's body.
"Dean!" Rachelle gasped in horror, the words choking in her dry mouth. The sight of their selfless friend, crushed to death, had just about done her in. She managed to point to the monster, who was beginning to lift her head slightly. Wąda reached out randomly towards Dean, feeling for him with her hand. He managed to dodge her reach, but she kicked out her hind leg, sending him somersaulting head over heels and landing on the pavement with force.
"No!" Rachelle tried to stand, but her legs wouldn't support her. The exhaustion of the past few days and the epic battle she was witnessing proved to be too much. A blur ran past her - Sam. He reached his brother's unconscious form, and hauling Dean over his shoulder, brought him to Rachelle. The rings were still clutched in his fist. Sam gently pried Dean's fingers apart, retrieving the rings and handing them to Rachelle. Sam looked up to Rachelle, his eyes swollen with sorrow.
"Tyrone...," Rachelle whispered to him. Sam nodded, stricken by the sudden loss of his friend.
Wąda was still moving, struggling against her injuries and the pain.
Rachelle felt a strength come from the rings in her hand. They warmed her with a power, an energy she had never known. She rose to her feet. A deep humming filled her chest, and her mind expanded with clarity of purpose.
"No more, Wąda," she cried. She put a finger from each hand through each ring, and began to pull them apart. Her face clenched with the effort.
Wąda's head reeled up in a spasm, the injured monster desperate in her attempt to survive. WIth a last spurt of adrenaline, she clawed the pavement, dragging herself in the direction of the humming rings.
"The rings..." she crowed. One of her hands snaked forward towards Rachelle's foot.
"No!" Sam shouted. He lunged forward, Dean's knife in his hand, and sank it into the monster's arm. "This is for Tyrone, bitch," he said. A viscous liquid oozed from the limb. Wąda wailed in the agony of defeat, her head once again slumping to the ground. Sam hovered next to her, knife at the ready. He listened as the creature took great gulps of air, attempting to breathe, but she remained still.
The rings glowed with a golden light that increased with the distance between each ring. Rachelle panted, her muscles straining. She felt a cool hand on each of hers, and looked in astonishment at Henri. His face was contorted with the pain from his injuries, but he gave her a curt nod, and helped her pull the rings further apart.
Rachelle felt the earth move beneath her feet, and glancing down, witnessed a vortex beginning to form between her and Henri.
No more rings, no more Wąda. And now you have your way home, Henri told her.
No, no, I don't want to go -, Rachelle began to force the rings back together, and the vortex shrank.
Rachelle, this is your destiny, Henri implored. He was badly injured, and weak, and he struggled to keep the rings from merging again.
Destiny be damned! Tears rose in her eyes.
Rachelle felt another cool hand on her arm. She turned and looked into Dean's eyes. His head was lowered in pain, and he attempted to blink focus back into his eyes. Blood trickled down the side of his head from his impact with the sidewalk. Henri stepped away, and Dean took the bagiennik's place, laying one of his hands on each of hers.
"No, I don't want to go," she repeated, murmuring aloud to Dean. Dean frowned sadly, torn. Then he slowly forced Rachelle's hands apart.
"Please, no," Rachelle sobbed. The vortex swirled between them, growing in size and strength. The wind from the maelstrom whipped Rachelle's long blonde hair around her head.
With a sudden flash of light, the rings released their bond to each other. Rachelle dropped her hands to her sides in defeat, her head hanging. The rings dropped to the ground, bouncing almost comically. The thick smell of ozone filled the air. Wąda convulsed, her last breath rattling from her mouth. At last, her large, lizardlike body was still.
The vortex swirled at Rachelle's feet, producing a soft roar with its power. She stared down into it miserably, her hair swirling around her face. She felt its pull grow stronger. Rachelle shifted her weight to remain on solid ground. She was balanced precariously on the edge, at that point of equilibrium where she could be pulled in either direction.
You must hurry. It won't stay open for long, Henri told her. He offered her one of the rings on his outstretched palm. It glistened in his webbed hand, winking and enticing her.
"You keep it, Henri," she said, curling his fingers around the ring and pushing it towards him. His face was a mixture of emotion - pain, fear, and sadness. "Maybe you can use it for some good."
He shook his head slowly, then gave it a gentle toss into the vortex, which swallowed it with a flash of light.
I am not meant for its power. Good-bye, Rachelle. He lay a cool hand on her arm, and the two locked eyes.
"I'm not going!" Rachelle cried over the sound of the vortex. It was getting louder and more powerful. Dean grabbed her shoulders, and spun her to look at him. She wavered at the edge of the vortex, and she clung to him to keep from falling backwards into its grip. Their eyes locked - his almost threatening, hers wild with despair.
"Rachelle - ," he began, then brought her close, bodies touching, breath on breath, forehead to forehead. His hands wove into her hair, pulling her closer, and she dug her fingers into his back, doing the same. She looked into his intense green eyes, noticing the flush of boyish freckles across his nose. The smell of gunpowder and leather. The mad beating of her heart.
A swell of anticipation rose in Rachelle's chest, and for a moment, she could barely draw a breath. They were alone in time and space, no monsters, no vortex, no rings.
Kiss me, dammit, she thought.
Before she could ponder it further, he pulled her as close as he possibly could to his body and covered her mouth with his in a hungry kiss. She could feel the harsh prickles of his unshaven face, and then the caress of his lips, softer than she could have imagined. Rachelle responded in kind, a low moan escaping her. Their breathing became deep, quickening as he kissed her again and again, each kiss soft and gentle.
Dean's lips traveled to her ear, his cool cheek brushing against hers as he whispered hoarsely, "I'll miss you, Rachelle," his voice thick with emotion. Rachelle's eyes opened wide.
"Dean - ," she began, but he gave her the gentlest of nudges, and Rachelle tumbled into the vortex.
X X X
Shawna cried out, stretching her hands forward, but Rachelle was gone.
"I didn't get to say good-bye!" she yelled at Dean, her face contorted with anger. He walked by her, head down, shoulders hunched over.
Sam intercepted the angry girl who began to stride towards Dean, a clenched fist ready to pound.
"Shawna, I'm sorry - really sorry. But Dean had to get Rachelle into the vortex - and her own universe - before it was too late. The alternative was to have her trapped here - ,"
"Trapped! She wasn't trapped like some animal! She wanted to stay here," Shawna's voice weakened, as she looked imploringly at Sam.
"We had to make right the universes," Henri stated forlornly. He bent down to pick up the other ring, which glimmered on the sidewalk like a cheap gumball machine prize. He offered it to Sam, who gingerly accepted it, grasping it with two fingers.
"I don't know if there's a spell box to keep this safe," the hunter murmured.
"The rings are in two separate universes," Henri offered. "...and Wąda is no more. Perhaps that is safe enough." He coughed, specking the sidewalk with blood. "But now I must go."
"Where will you go?" Shawna asked. Henri had already turned, following a forlorn Dean towards the river. Sam and Shawna watched as he staggered, then fell. After a moment, the bagiennik rose again, then weakly stumbled towards the water.
Dean was sitting calmly on a smooth rock by the river's edge, cradling his gun, when he heard the bagiennik stumble up the pathway towards him. The creature paused, first staring at the hunter, then at his gun. Henri's breath came hard and heavy, his chest heaving with effort.
"There is nothing of me left to kill, hunter. I am already dead."
Dean turned the gun over in his hand, not looking up at Henri.
"Am I real, Henri? Or am I just like Rachelle said - some lame character in a low-rated television show?"
Henri managed a tilted grin, flashing rows of uneven, sharp teeth. He began to laugh, clutching his side in pain, but still laughing.
"You are not a lame character, Mr. Winchester," Henri replied. He took a cautious step forward, his eyes still glued to the gun turning in Dean's hand. His laughter descended into a thick silence, and Henri licked his dry lips. Dean made no effort to look up at the creature. Henri slowly advanced to the river, his eyes never leaving the weapon. His feet felt the gentle, cool lapping of the water, but he stiffened as Dean finally raised his eyes to meet Henri's.
"You better - ," Dean began, but the bagiennik was already gone, the river not even revealing the gentlest of ripples.
Read Chapter 15: Through Hell and High Water