The World You Thought You Live In 7/12
Chapter 7
The basement wasn't just a basement. It was a whole floor by itself. First they found servant quarters, a wine cellar, storage rooms for food - now all rotten and crumbled to dust - and racks over racks with canned food. Victor picked up a can. The inscription told him the pears inside would be still eatable in twenty years.
"Was he afraid of a third world war or what?" Victor placed the can back on the shelf and wiped his dusty hand on his jeans.
The beam of Sam's flashlight ghosted over the rack. "This area is common for heavy winters and the house is isolated so it makes sense to be prepared in case you get snowed in."
"The right preparation would be to travel south. There's no snow in Florida." Dean pointed out. The way he said it it wasn't a joke. As if it was the way of things. He didn't like the weather? He hit the road and drove somewhere he liked it better. Victor wondered if Dean knew the concept of home in more than just a theoretical way. From what he knew about the brothers - the records of their childhood where scratchy at best - probably not.
Obviously the storage rooms had been in use at the time Libbey disappeared so the dust and cobwebs were bad but not that bad. Deeper into the basement dust covered everything with a thick layer which got raised by sudden movements. Victor learned quickly to set his feet properly. And after he ran into a veil of cobwebs he learned to avoid those, too.
These rooms had been used for over a century to dump all the junk nobody could use anymore but had been to expensive at it's time to throw away.
"I bet we can find the Amber Room somewhere in here." Sam let out a sigh.
"The what?" Dean spit out a dust bunny. His hair was gray and plastered to his head by a mixture of sweat and grit even the spot of dried ectoplasm was covered up by it.
"A chamber with amber decorations in the tsar's palace in Saint Petersburg. Got lost after the second world war." Victor answered before Sam could open his mouth.
"Et tu, Brute?" Dean shone his flashlight right into Victor's face.
"Sorry." Victor tried to look a least a little bit sheepish while he squinted into the bright light. "When I can't sleep I watch the Discovery Chanel. Since I got your case I watched a lot of documentaries."
Dean stared at him for a long minute then shook his head. "How can you even loose a whole room?"
"That's exactly what we are here to find out." Sam brought them back to their task not without a grin in Victor's direction.
After they had checked the obvious rooms for a torture chamber with no result they were now on the search for a hidden room. Which meant they had to crawl behind closets and probe the floor boards on their knees. To make it more fun the sun had went down an hour ago so the small windows were useless and they had only their flashlights to enlighten their surroundings. At least the ghosts left them alone. For now.
"Tell me again why I volunteered for this job." Victor begged after he checked another solid wall.
"Because you are an idiot." Dean answered without missing a beat.
"Right, how could I forget." He brushed a spider from his sleeve and turned towards the next wall. At this rate it would take forever to search the basement. And they didn't even know if there was anything worth finding.
"Got it." Sam shouted from the other room. Dean and Victor breathed a sigh of relief.
"About time." Dean muttered when he followed Victor through the door. Two steps inside they stopped and let the beams of their flashlights wander around. Sam was kneeling in the far corner nearly hidden behind a dresser. The room was stuffed with furniture some covered with white sheets others only powdered with dust. To get into that corner Sam must have climbed over a broken table, some chairs and at least two sideboards but the layer of dust was undisturbed. With his light Victor searched on the floor for Sam's footsteps but Dean was way ahead. By the time Victor realized there was a hidden path trough all that stuff the older Winchesters was halfway through the room. Victor hurried to catch up.
"It's a trap door." Sam pointed at the floor. From his position Victor couldn't even see the floor around Sam. If they hadn't actually been looking for it they would have never found it. However that was what it was build for. Libbey had wanted his privacy.
Sam tried to pull it open. "Locked." He informed. "From the inside."
"Figures. One of those days." Dean seemed rather annoyed than surprised.
They had a split second warning before Scully was back. The EMF meters whined and the flashlights flickered and Scully was at Sam's throat again. Before she could do any damage Dean had blasted her away.
"That bitch starts to get on my nerves." He muttered and got her good when she materialized once again. Without really looking he started to reload his gun.
"On mine too." Sam rubbed his throat. Dark bruises already marked his skin and it would only get worse in the morning. Victor winced in sympathy. Eating maybe even drinking would be a bitch for several days.
Still occupied with his gun Dean never saw Libbey coming. The man appeared right behind him, a knife in hand ready to stab him in the back. Without thinking Victor fired.
Dean's scream mixed with the gunshot. At first Victor thought he had hit him with the rock salt - which he maybe did but that was not the problem. The problem was that Dean was on his knees. The problem was the stab wound in his back. The problem was the blood soaking the fabric of his jacket.
"Dean!" Sam was at his brother's side in a second. Kneeling beside him he was low enough for Victor to shoot Libbey over their heads who had just decided to continue the party. This time Victor could see the spirits face. Ectoplasm oozed out of his eyes, nose and mouth. Kinda like that Eric Draven character from The Crow, Victor thought before Libbey disappeared in a blast of rock salt.
"Get him away from the trap door." Victor shouted although he had no idea if that was what triggered the ghost. But Sam nodded, grabbed his brother and howled him out of the corner.
"That bastard is toast." At least Dean was well enough to plan his revenge. If he could talk maybe his lungs were still intact. And his heart apparently too. Yeah, and maybe he'll just shrug it off as if nothing ever happened. Victor gritted his teeth.
"How bad is it?" He asked while Sam ripped the layers of clothing away. The back of Dean's jacket had black strains of ectoplasm on it. And there was more blood.
"Hospital bad." Sam taped a dressing on Dean's back and kept up the pressure. "You with me?" He asked his brother who looked way to pale. However, he tried to smirk which turned into a painful grimace.
"'M fine."
"Yeah, whatever." Sam looked up to Victor. "Take his other side and then let's get outa here."
They took Dean in the middle - who insisted he could walk on his one but neither Sam nor Victor were willing to give it a chance - and together they headed for the exit. At least the ghosts didn't come back. Maybe they were triggered by actions Libbey didn't like.
It felt like an eternity but they finally made it back to the stairs.
"Go ahead and open the door." Sam tightened his grip around his brother's waist so Victor could let go of him. The last few steps Dean had gotten heavier and Victor felt a sticky wetness he didn't want to think about. He is losing to much blood.
"Who had closed it anyway?" He asked on his way up.
"No, please no." Sam's voice was barely a whisper and Victor had just enough time to wonder what he was afraid of when the door didn't budge.
"It's stuck." Victor rammed his shoulder against the door. "Something is blocking it." He couldn't remember if there had been something next to the door which could have fallen over. It had to be really heavy to block the door like that.
"Come down here." Sam maneuvered Dean into a sitting position against the wall. "You'll never get that door open." He checked the wound and draw his hand back bloody. "Damn, it's still bleeding."
Sam pressed once again on the dressing to stop the bleeding.
"Butcher." Dean clawed his hands around Sam's free hand and forearm but he didn't try to push his brother away.
"Why can't I open the door?" They had to get outa here. Dean needed a hospital, this was nothing they could handle by themselves. Plus there were homicidal ghosts down here.
"Supernatural lock down." Dean shifted and bit back a groan. "We're not going anywhere."
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