The Hunter and the Hunted 17/?
Title: The Hunter and the Hunted 17/?
Part 17: “I’ll Wait ‘Til You Get Here”
Authors: art_of_mayhem and candygramme
Rated: PG 13 for language and adult situations.
Pairing: Dean Winchester/Alex Krycek
Spoilers: Vague for the X-Files “Terma” and “Requiem”
Warning: Slash
Word count: 3,191
Disclaimer: Dean and his family belong to Eric Kripke and Supernatural, and Alex belongs to Chris Carter and the X-Files. We own nothing. We are doing this for love and not money.
Author’s notes: After losing contact with each other during the time Sam was at college, Alex and Dean meet again, but now Sam is back and dad’s gone missing.
The quoted song is “Out/In,” by Remy Zero.
The beautiful icon is by art_of_mayhem.
Part 16
Part 15
Part 14
Part 13
Part 12
Part 11
Part 10
Part 9
Part 8
Part 7
Part 6
Part 5
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1
~~~~~~~oo(O)oo~~~~~~~
and i'll wait
i'm fine here i could wait
i'll wait till you get here
just be the star
i have always known you were
perfect sound
you're perfectly clear
from here
The bar they picked was packed with youngsters, most of whom seemed to be there for the live band that was setting up at one end of the bar on a low stage. As usual, Dean had zeroed in on a pretty girl dressed in tight clothing, and Sam seemed content to sit nursing a beer and watching people, his ever present laptop open and booted. Alex leaned on the bar close to Dean and fixed the bartender with a smile. "Busy tonight," he remarked.
"Every Friday we have a live band. Usually more people in than this - some of the students aren't in tonight; guess that they're still in shock over the stuff that happened up at the caves." The bartender seemed inclined to chat, busily polishing glasses as he talked.
"Oh? What happened up at the caves? I'm from out of town. Was there an accident or something?" Alex sipped beer from the bottle and tried to appear as if the news was fresh.
"Four boys and two girls just vanished, like it was a magic trick." It was plain that the bartender was enjoying imparting the news, so Alex gave him a suitably shocked reaction.
"My God, how on earth could that happen?"
"They were messing around, summoning the devil or something." The bartender frowned, breathed on the glass he was polishing and buffed it with his cloth again. "Mark my words, nothing good ever comes of that. I've seen The Exorcist. You don't want to be fooling around with that sort of thing. The others are all still in shock."
"Others?" asked Alex, raising an eyebrow and looking suitably fascinated. "Tell me about the others."
Dean was making suitable conversation with the young thing, flirting and laughing, drawing little bits of information from her as he went. The girl was smiling, laughing along with him and touching him, moving bit by bit closer to him. With the air of a master, Dean played her, sipping his drink from time to time and leaning in close to whisper in her ear. After a while she got up to go to the bathroom, and Dean turned on his stool, shifting his gaze to Alex and the bartender. He had gotten the location of the caves from her, knowing they would eventually have to go up and see them for themselves.
Taking a sip of his beer, he started listening more intently to the conversation between Alex and the bartender. The papers hadn't said anything about others being involved, but that didn't surprise him, it just made Dean think that maybe they needed to get Sam to hack into the police computers to find out what that report really said.
Alex moved back so that his thigh was pressed against Dean's. It was at moments like this that he lamented the loss of his left arm. He'd have given almost anything to be able to reach between Dean's thighs and cop a surreptitious feel. As it was, he could only turn slightly so that his prosthetic arm lay against him and remember days gone by when he could have done more.
"You think that the kids were really doing devil worship? What makes you say that?" Alex was gazing at the bartender as if fascinated. "Were they doing orgies and stuff?"
"Worse," said the man behind the bar, pushing another beer over the counter as he spoke. "Someone told me they killed a cat or something like that, just for a sacrifice."
Dean shifted a bit, to intensify the contact between them and to get a better ear on the conversation. "Sounds like that Blair Witch movie," he commented, "Let me guess, trip went wrong, and the other kids can't remember? You have any idea why they would do such a thing? I mean come on," Dean gave the bartender a skeptical look.
"That's what they say," said the man, shrugging. "They're lying to protect themselves; that's what I think."
"How many of them?" Alex shot Dean a cheeky glance and allowed his prosthetic arm to drift up along Dean's thigh. "They okay? I mean apart from the memory loss? No virgins deflowered or anything like that?"
The bartender was about to give his opinion on the probability of virgins in the twelfth grade, when someone summoned him to get them a drink. Alex turned to Dean. "What do you think?" he asked.
Dean shook his head, "Sounds like to me a bunch of high school kids sitting around watching bad B-flicks. They got drunk and high, decided to carry out the movie action and got carried away. We won't know till we go out there and look for ourselves, will we? I guess there’s an outside chance that it could also be a Wending,” he added, shifting around so he could face Alex. “And if you keep your arm where it's at, I'm just gonna have to either find a booth for us and push you under it, or a clean enough bathroom stall. Or maybe I should just leave you to let your imagination go wild." Dean smirked and pulled away, heading toward the table where Sam was sitting.
"Trust me, baby, I've got a very fertile imagination," said Alex, chuckling as he aimed a slap at Dean's behind. "And I fully intend to use it. You're gonna be putty in my hands by the time we get to bed."
Sam looked up as his brother came across. "Do you know that the kids were apparently holding some sort of sabbat? There were thirteen of them, and they killed a cat. This is really nasty, Dean. I don't know if we should go in without protection."
Dean sat down beside Sam giving a nod, "I got some condoms, would that help?" He gave Sam a serious look before smiling again. "Okay, so what kind of protection do we need? Angelica root? Purple candles? What? Because all this is sounding more and more like a bad movie to me, and not like something really supernatural. I mean the worst that I can think of is that they ran into a Wendigo rather than a bunch of fairies," he said, smirking.
"They sure as anything disappeared, and now the surrounding area is starting to send in reports of milk being turned sour, and cows dying. There are fairy rings appearing close to town, especially around this cave. I think we should at least check it out."
Alex had come to stand behind Dean while he was listening to Sam, and now stood pressed firmly up against his lover. "You two want any more beer?" he asked, sliding his hand surreptitiously under Dean's jacket to fondle his chest. "My round."
"No thanks," said Sam, actually smiling. "I'm on a roll here, and I want to be able to read the screen. I'm just reading some very interesting information about the kids that were left behind. They're all left handed. Weird, huh?"
Dean frowned as he was thinking, leaning back in his chair and feeling Alex behind him. "Think the cows saw something they didn't like? Because I hear if you scare a cow, its milk turns sour, it's no longer any good.” He gave a short laugh. “But yeah, you're right, Sammy, we should check it out. I think the sooner the better. You guys up for a little trip?" Dean looked back at Alex, raising his eyes to meet his lover’s as he placed a hand over the one that Alex had resting on his chest.
"Come on, take a little trip to the caves, play with the little girl fairies out there," he smirked, winking at Sam, his leg bumping him under the table. "But why all left handed?"
"According to legend," said Sam, "Left handed folks were able to defend themselves against fairy beguilements. Fairies apparently hypnotize you into thinking they're the most beautiful things ever." He gave a toothy grin. "Alex better take care. He sure as heck ain't left handed."
"Clever! Wish I'd thought of that," growled Alex. "Your brother has a rare talent, love. If wit were shit, he'd be constipated."
Dean nudged Alex, "Behave," he whispered. "Okay, so if the kids were all left handed, why didn't they help the others get away? Being left handed they should have been able to fight them off right? That's what you are saying?" Frowning, Dean shook his head. "Whatever, we should be on our guard, because something isn’t right here."
Dean pushed back to his feet, throwing some money on the table. "You think we should take a mirror or something? Would that help?" he asked his little brother as they left the bar. "Or will dangling you with your puppy dog eyes work just as well? Maybe you can hypnotize them." He gave Sam a snide grin.
"Oh, fuck off!" Sam shut down his laptop as Dean and Alex were filing out of the bar, and by the time he had finished, the other two were in the car, leaving the back seat for Sam.
"Okay, let's go see the fairies," said Alex, smiling. "And really, it's a good job we aren't in San Francisco. They have a whole bunch of scary ones around there."
"Takes one to know one," murmured Sam, and then as Alex burst out laughing, he did too. "Okay. That was pretty childish of me, sorry."
As Dean let in the clutch and pulled the car away, Alex was turning to smirk at Sam. "You were at Stanford, weren't you? I bet you know all about the fairies in those parts," he said, and Sam threw a balled up paper at him.
Dean was glad in a way he was driving and wondered if this was how his father had felt when he and Sam had been kids doing the same thing. He whistled between his teeth and concentrated on his driving, hoping that his two companions would settle. Fortunately they showed no further signs of bickering, and the rest of the drive was completed in companionable silence.
Getting out to the area where the cave was located wasn't so difficult. Once the car was parked, they found that they would have to walk into the woods for some distance. Dean clambered out and walked around to the trunk, opening the secret compartment and propping it open with one of the shotguns. "Okay, Sammy, what shall we take with us? Guns?" He of course was gonna carry one. Alex should have his own, this time. "Do we need salt to sprinkle on their little wings to keep them from flying?"
"Wouldn't hurt to carry holy water," murmured Sam, considering. "And herbs they do not like are St. Johns wort, red verbena, daisies, rowan or mountain ash, although the strongest plant against them is the four-leaf clover, which protects against fairy glamour. Have we got any four-leaf clover?" He poked around in the trunk until he found a little box labeled 'herbs.' "Mmm... No. Damn. Fairies don't like cold-iron much. A horseshoe or two would help."
There was a pause, and Alex vanished into the wood as Sam was speaking. He returned a couple of minutes later, carrying several branches that bore feathery leaves and red berries.
"Here," he murmured. "Mountain Ash."
Dean was digging around as well. He could have sworn he’d had one or two four leafed clovers in the trunk. "You know how hard those things are to find? I swear I had some in here..." he grumbled, banging his head on the trunk as Alex came trotting back. "Well look at you," Dean smiled, then leaned over and gave Alex a quick kiss. "I knew you weren't the daisy type," he smirked, taking the branch Alex offered him. "Do we need the whole thing or just the leaves? What do we do with it, wave it around?"
Dean figured most people would be feeling really silly doing what they were doing, but not them. They knew what kind of effect these apparently random things would have. And yes, it did seem silly in a way, but if their precautions worked and kept them alive, Dean would be good with that. Dragging the items they needed out, he closed the trunk and handed a gun over to Alex. "Here, you will need this; it’s got the right ammo.” He looked at his two companions and smiled grimly. “Well, let's go, boys." Turning, Dean was the first to trek off into the woods, leading the way.
Alex paused to check the gun, popping out the clip and inspecting it before putting it back and moving out behind Dean. Sam watched him with a quizzical look on his face, and Alex turned to look at him. "What? You don't check the weapon, if you weren't the one that loaded it? That's pretty damned stupid, if you ask me."
"Yeah, well, I trust my brother, and I didn't ask you." Sam was frowning as he pushed past Alex, striding through the woods after Dean. After a moment, Alex shrugged his shoulders and followed him, tucking the rowan sprig into his pocket as he went.
Dean picked his way through the woods, pushing aside tree branches. He stepped over a log, ducked under a branch till he came to the area where the teens had apparently been doing their little kill-the-cat gathering. He stopped to look about himself, searching for any signs of... he had no clue, but guessed that he should be alert for anything and everything. Throwing open his arms, Dean slapped them to his side again in frustration, "Don't see any fairies here. No little Tinkerbelles flying about." He kicked at a rock before turning back to Sam and Alex.
"I guess that's because it's still broad daylight," murmured Sam, smirking. "According to legend, the door to fairyland opens at dusk and closes when the cock crows three times."
"Did he just say 'fairyland' with a straight face?" asked Alex. "I wish I'd had a video camera for it."
Dean smirked, "You’ll get used to it after a while. Sammy’s a star! I don't think even I could say that with a straight face, let allow that bit about the cock crowing three times." Dean smacked Sam's back as he walked around him, looking about them suspiciously.
"I'm serious." Sam sat down on a large rock. "I read a whole bunch of stuff about it, before we left the bar. Fairyland is apparently in another dimension."
"Did it say what you do to get into fairyland?" asked Alex, unsuccessfully masking a grin.
"Yeah, actually. You go widdershins around the portal three times and call on the fairies." Sam flashed Dean a smile of complicity. "Like this, see."
He began to walk around the rock he'd been sitting on, going anti-clockwise. As he returned for the third time to stand before them, he yelled, "Okay fairies. Come and get me..."
And vanished.
Dean had been looking around, only turning his head to catch Sam's little grin. "Fairies. Still gives me the giggles just to say that." He kicked at a broken twig and turned, just as Sam was yelling. But then Sam was gone.
Dean's heart stopped that very moment. "Sam?" He blinked a few time before rushing over, "SAMMY?" He screamed, looking about wildly in an effort to locate his brother. "SAMMY!? Can you hear me! SAM!"
Dean turned around, drawing his gun, looking rather desperate, his free hand waving in the air. "BRING MY BROTHER BACK!" Dean shouted in an apparently frantic state. "SAM? SAMM!?" Dean looked at Alex, his chest rising and falling in panic and anguish.
"Hey!" Alex was at his side in an instant, arm outstretched to comfort Dean. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay, Dean." He hugged Dean for a moment, noting the tension in his lover's shoulders and feeling his heart sink a little at the knowledge that the tall, gangly kid brother earned so much concern from him. "Don't worry about it, baby. All we have to do is copy what Sam did, and we'll follow him. You want to do that?"
Dean pushed Alex back, the comforting doing little to calm the fear in him. "Don't, just don't. Sam is all I have," he snapped at Alex, looking about wildly. Alex stepped back, allowing Dean some space, and after a few deep breaths, Dean gave a nod. "Yeah, yeah." He drew his gun. "What did he do? Counter clockwise he said?" However Dean didn't move right away. His face set in a stone cold expression, and he looked away from Alex as he started walking around the rock three times. "Okay fairies," His voice was as cold as his face. "Come and get me."
"Jesus, wait!" Alex tore after Dean, grabbed at his hand as Dean shouted his challenge, and saw Dean melt away to nothing in a fraction of a second.
"You wanna make it three?" yelled Alex, waiting to dissolve. Nothing happened. "Fuck!" The expletive was ripped from him as he stood in front of the rock feeling all too solid. "Come and get me, fairies." And there was no response, not even derisive laughter.
Alex took a deep breath and stood looking at the rock. It looked like a perfectly ordinary rock to him, and he glared at it as if he could somehow transform it with the power of his gaze. Doggedly he plodded around the thing three times and then called out to the fairies once more, but nothing happened. The sudden realization that he'd lost Dean - and his big, stupid brother too - hit Alex, and he felt a coldness in the pit of his stomach. "Come on, guys. Come back."
There was nothing, and he was out of ideas. Miserable, he sat down on the offending rock to wait and see what happened.
~~~~~~~oo(O)oo~~~~~~~
Part 17: “I’ll Wait ‘Til You Get Here”
Authors: art_of_mayhem and candygramme
Rated: PG 13 for language and adult situations.
Pairing: Dean Winchester/Alex Krycek
Spoilers: Vague for the X-Files “Terma” and “Requiem”
Warning: Slash
Word count: 3,191
Disclaimer: Dean and his family belong to Eric Kripke and Supernatural, and Alex belongs to Chris Carter and the X-Files. We own nothing. We are doing this for love and not money.
Author’s notes: After losing contact with each other during the time Sam was at college, Alex and Dean meet again, but now Sam is back and dad’s gone missing.
The quoted song is “Out/In,” by Remy Zero.
The beautiful icon is by art_of_mayhem.
Part 16
Part 15
Part 14
Part 13
Part 12
Part 11
Part 10
Part 9
Part 8
Part 7
Part 6
Part 5
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1
~~~~~~~oo(O)oo~~~~~~~
and i'll wait
i'm fine here i could wait
i'll wait till you get here
just be the star
i have always known you were
perfect sound
you're perfectly clear
from here
The bar they picked was packed with youngsters, most of whom seemed to be there for the live band that was setting up at one end of the bar on a low stage. As usual, Dean had zeroed in on a pretty girl dressed in tight clothing, and Sam seemed content to sit nursing a beer and watching people, his ever present laptop open and booted. Alex leaned on the bar close to Dean and fixed the bartender with a smile. "Busy tonight," he remarked.
"Every Friday we have a live band. Usually more people in than this - some of the students aren't in tonight; guess that they're still in shock over the stuff that happened up at the caves." The bartender seemed inclined to chat, busily polishing glasses as he talked.
"Oh? What happened up at the caves? I'm from out of town. Was there an accident or something?" Alex sipped beer from the bottle and tried to appear as if the news was fresh.
"Four boys and two girls just vanished, like it was a magic trick." It was plain that the bartender was enjoying imparting the news, so Alex gave him a suitably shocked reaction.
"My God, how on earth could that happen?"
"They were messing around, summoning the devil or something." The bartender frowned, breathed on the glass he was polishing and buffed it with his cloth again. "Mark my words, nothing good ever comes of that. I've seen The Exorcist. You don't want to be fooling around with that sort of thing. The others are all still in shock."
"Others?" asked Alex, raising an eyebrow and looking suitably fascinated. "Tell me about the others."
Dean was making suitable conversation with the young thing, flirting and laughing, drawing little bits of information from her as he went. The girl was smiling, laughing along with him and touching him, moving bit by bit closer to him. With the air of a master, Dean played her, sipping his drink from time to time and leaning in close to whisper in her ear. After a while she got up to go to the bathroom, and Dean turned on his stool, shifting his gaze to Alex and the bartender. He had gotten the location of the caves from her, knowing they would eventually have to go up and see them for themselves.
Taking a sip of his beer, he started listening more intently to the conversation between Alex and the bartender. The papers hadn't said anything about others being involved, but that didn't surprise him, it just made Dean think that maybe they needed to get Sam to hack into the police computers to find out what that report really said.
Alex moved back so that his thigh was pressed against Dean's. It was at moments like this that he lamented the loss of his left arm. He'd have given almost anything to be able to reach between Dean's thighs and cop a surreptitious feel. As it was, he could only turn slightly so that his prosthetic arm lay against him and remember days gone by when he could have done more.
"You think that the kids were really doing devil worship? What makes you say that?" Alex was gazing at the bartender as if fascinated. "Were they doing orgies and stuff?"
"Worse," said the man behind the bar, pushing another beer over the counter as he spoke. "Someone told me they killed a cat or something like that, just for a sacrifice."
Dean shifted a bit, to intensify the contact between them and to get a better ear on the conversation. "Sounds like that Blair Witch movie," he commented, "Let me guess, trip went wrong, and the other kids can't remember? You have any idea why they would do such a thing? I mean come on," Dean gave the bartender a skeptical look.
"That's what they say," said the man, shrugging. "They're lying to protect themselves; that's what I think."
"How many of them?" Alex shot Dean a cheeky glance and allowed his prosthetic arm to drift up along Dean's thigh. "They okay? I mean apart from the memory loss? No virgins deflowered or anything like that?"
The bartender was about to give his opinion on the probability of virgins in the twelfth grade, when someone summoned him to get them a drink. Alex turned to Dean. "What do you think?" he asked.
Dean shook his head, "Sounds like to me a bunch of high school kids sitting around watching bad B-flicks. They got drunk and high, decided to carry out the movie action and got carried away. We won't know till we go out there and look for ourselves, will we? I guess there’s an outside chance that it could also be a Wending,” he added, shifting around so he could face Alex. “And if you keep your arm where it's at, I'm just gonna have to either find a booth for us and push you under it, or a clean enough bathroom stall. Or maybe I should just leave you to let your imagination go wild." Dean smirked and pulled away, heading toward the table where Sam was sitting.
"Trust me, baby, I've got a very fertile imagination," said Alex, chuckling as he aimed a slap at Dean's behind. "And I fully intend to use it. You're gonna be putty in my hands by the time we get to bed."
Sam looked up as his brother came across. "Do you know that the kids were apparently holding some sort of sabbat? There were thirteen of them, and they killed a cat. This is really nasty, Dean. I don't know if we should go in without protection."
Dean sat down beside Sam giving a nod, "I got some condoms, would that help?" He gave Sam a serious look before smiling again. "Okay, so what kind of protection do we need? Angelica root? Purple candles? What? Because all this is sounding more and more like a bad movie to me, and not like something really supernatural. I mean the worst that I can think of is that they ran into a Wendigo rather than a bunch of fairies," he said, smirking.
"They sure as anything disappeared, and now the surrounding area is starting to send in reports of milk being turned sour, and cows dying. There are fairy rings appearing close to town, especially around this cave. I think we should at least check it out."
Alex had come to stand behind Dean while he was listening to Sam, and now stood pressed firmly up against his lover. "You two want any more beer?" he asked, sliding his hand surreptitiously under Dean's jacket to fondle his chest. "My round."
"No thanks," said Sam, actually smiling. "I'm on a roll here, and I want to be able to read the screen. I'm just reading some very interesting information about the kids that were left behind. They're all left handed. Weird, huh?"
Dean frowned as he was thinking, leaning back in his chair and feeling Alex behind him. "Think the cows saw something they didn't like? Because I hear if you scare a cow, its milk turns sour, it's no longer any good.” He gave a short laugh. “But yeah, you're right, Sammy, we should check it out. I think the sooner the better. You guys up for a little trip?" Dean looked back at Alex, raising his eyes to meet his lover’s as he placed a hand over the one that Alex had resting on his chest.
"Come on, take a little trip to the caves, play with the little girl fairies out there," he smirked, winking at Sam, his leg bumping him under the table. "But why all left handed?"
"According to legend," said Sam, "Left handed folks were able to defend themselves against fairy beguilements. Fairies apparently hypnotize you into thinking they're the most beautiful things ever." He gave a toothy grin. "Alex better take care. He sure as heck ain't left handed."
"Clever! Wish I'd thought of that," growled Alex. "Your brother has a rare talent, love. If wit were shit, he'd be constipated."
Dean nudged Alex, "Behave," he whispered. "Okay, so if the kids were all left handed, why didn't they help the others get away? Being left handed they should have been able to fight them off right? That's what you are saying?" Frowning, Dean shook his head. "Whatever, we should be on our guard, because something isn’t right here."
Dean pushed back to his feet, throwing some money on the table. "You think we should take a mirror or something? Would that help?" he asked his little brother as they left the bar. "Or will dangling you with your puppy dog eyes work just as well? Maybe you can hypnotize them." He gave Sam a snide grin.
"Oh, fuck off!" Sam shut down his laptop as Dean and Alex were filing out of the bar, and by the time he had finished, the other two were in the car, leaving the back seat for Sam.
"Okay, let's go see the fairies," said Alex, smiling. "And really, it's a good job we aren't in San Francisco. They have a whole bunch of scary ones around there."
"Takes one to know one," murmured Sam, and then as Alex burst out laughing, he did too. "Okay. That was pretty childish of me, sorry."
As Dean let in the clutch and pulled the car away, Alex was turning to smirk at Sam. "You were at Stanford, weren't you? I bet you know all about the fairies in those parts," he said, and Sam threw a balled up paper at him.
Dean was glad in a way he was driving and wondered if this was how his father had felt when he and Sam had been kids doing the same thing. He whistled between his teeth and concentrated on his driving, hoping that his two companions would settle. Fortunately they showed no further signs of bickering, and the rest of the drive was completed in companionable silence.
Getting out to the area where the cave was located wasn't so difficult. Once the car was parked, they found that they would have to walk into the woods for some distance. Dean clambered out and walked around to the trunk, opening the secret compartment and propping it open with one of the shotguns. "Okay, Sammy, what shall we take with us? Guns?" He of course was gonna carry one. Alex should have his own, this time. "Do we need salt to sprinkle on their little wings to keep them from flying?"
"Wouldn't hurt to carry holy water," murmured Sam, considering. "And herbs they do not like are St. Johns wort, red verbena, daisies, rowan or mountain ash, although the strongest plant against them is the four-leaf clover, which protects against fairy glamour. Have we got any four-leaf clover?" He poked around in the trunk until he found a little box labeled 'herbs.' "Mmm... No. Damn. Fairies don't like cold-iron much. A horseshoe or two would help."
There was a pause, and Alex vanished into the wood as Sam was speaking. He returned a couple of minutes later, carrying several branches that bore feathery leaves and red berries.
"Here," he murmured. "Mountain Ash."
Dean was digging around as well. He could have sworn he’d had one or two four leafed clovers in the trunk. "You know how hard those things are to find? I swear I had some in here..." he grumbled, banging his head on the trunk as Alex came trotting back. "Well look at you," Dean smiled, then leaned over and gave Alex a quick kiss. "I knew you weren't the daisy type," he smirked, taking the branch Alex offered him. "Do we need the whole thing or just the leaves? What do we do with it, wave it around?"
Dean figured most people would be feeling really silly doing what they were doing, but not them. They knew what kind of effect these apparently random things would have. And yes, it did seem silly in a way, but if their precautions worked and kept them alive, Dean would be good with that. Dragging the items they needed out, he closed the trunk and handed a gun over to Alex. "Here, you will need this; it’s got the right ammo.” He looked at his two companions and smiled grimly. “Well, let's go, boys." Turning, Dean was the first to trek off into the woods, leading the way.
Alex paused to check the gun, popping out the clip and inspecting it before putting it back and moving out behind Dean. Sam watched him with a quizzical look on his face, and Alex turned to look at him. "What? You don't check the weapon, if you weren't the one that loaded it? That's pretty damned stupid, if you ask me."
"Yeah, well, I trust my brother, and I didn't ask you." Sam was frowning as he pushed past Alex, striding through the woods after Dean. After a moment, Alex shrugged his shoulders and followed him, tucking the rowan sprig into his pocket as he went.
Dean picked his way through the woods, pushing aside tree branches. He stepped over a log, ducked under a branch till he came to the area where the teens had apparently been doing their little kill-the-cat gathering. He stopped to look about himself, searching for any signs of... he had no clue, but guessed that he should be alert for anything and everything. Throwing open his arms, Dean slapped them to his side again in frustration, "Don't see any fairies here. No little Tinkerbelles flying about." He kicked at a rock before turning back to Sam and Alex.
"I guess that's because it's still broad daylight," murmured Sam, smirking. "According to legend, the door to fairyland opens at dusk and closes when the cock crows three times."
"Did he just say 'fairyland' with a straight face?" asked Alex. "I wish I'd had a video camera for it."
Dean smirked, "You’ll get used to it after a while. Sammy’s a star! I don't think even I could say that with a straight face, let allow that bit about the cock crowing three times." Dean smacked Sam's back as he walked around him, looking about them suspiciously.
"I'm serious." Sam sat down on a large rock. "I read a whole bunch of stuff about it, before we left the bar. Fairyland is apparently in another dimension."
"Did it say what you do to get into fairyland?" asked Alex, unsuccessfully masking a grin.
"Yeah, actually. You go widdershins around the portal three times and call on the fairies." Sam flashed Dean a smile of complicity. "Like this, see."
He began to walk around the rock he'd been sitting on, going anti-clockwise. As he returned for the third time to stand before them, he yelled, "Okay fairies. Come and get me..."
And vanished.
Dean had been looking around, only turning his head to catch Sam's little grin. "Fairies. Still gives me the giggles just to say that." He kicked at a broken twig and turned, just as Sam was yelling. But then Sam was gone.
Dean's heart stopped that very moment. "Sam?" He blinked a few time before rushing over, "SAMMY?" He screamed, looking about wildly in an effort to locate his brother. "SAMMY!? Can you hear me! SAM!"
Dean turned around, drawing his gun, looking rather desperate, his free hand waving in the air. "BRING MY BROTHER BACK!" Dean shouted in an apparently frantic state. "SAM? SAMM!?" Dean looked at Alex, his chest rising and falling in panic and anguish.
"Hey!" Alex was at his side in an instant, arm outstretched to comfort Dean. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay, Dean." He hugged Dean for a moment, noting the tension in his lover's shoulders and feeling his heart sink a little at the knowledge that the tall, gangly kid brother earned so much concern from him. "Don't worry about it, baby. All we have to do is copy what Sam did, and we'll follow him. You want to do that?"
Dean pushed Alex back, the comforting doing little to calm the fear in him. "Don't, just don't. Sam is all I have," he snapped at Alex, looking about wildly. Alex stepped back, allowing Dean some space, and after a few deep breaths, Dean gave a nod. "Yeah, yeah." He drew his gun. "What did he do? Counter clockwise he said?" However Dean didn't move right away. His face set in a stone cold expression, and he looked away from Alex as he started walking around the rock three times. "Okay fairies," His voice was as cold as his face. "Come and get me."
"Jesus, wait!" Alex tore after Dean, grabbed at his hand as Dean shouted his challenge, and saw Dean melt away to nothing in a fraction of a second.
"You wanna make it three?" yelled Alex, waiting to dissolve. Nothing happened. "Fuck!" The expletive was ripped from him as he stood in front of the rock feeling all too solid. "Come and get me, fairies." And there was no response, not even derisive laughter.
Alex took a deep breath and stood looking at the rock. It looked like a perfectly ordinary rock to him, and he glared at it as if he could somehow transform it with the power of his gaze. Doggedly he plodded around the thing three times and then called out to the fairies once more, but nothing happened. The sudden realization that he'd lost Dean - and his big, stupid brother too - hit Alex, and he felt a coldness in the pit of his stomach. "Come on, guys. Come back."
There was nothing, and he was out of ideas. Miserable, he sat down on the offending rock to wait and see what happened.
~~~~~~~oo(O)oo~~~~~~~