Title: Echoes
Author:
fate_incomplete Rating: PG
Warnings: Angst
Spoilers: None
Characters: Castiel, Dean
Word Count: 440
Summary: He was beyond weary. On auto pilot most of the time, just going through the motions. Something had driven him once, to keep fighting, to keep protecting what was left. He wondered if he even knew what that was anymore.
A/N: Written for the
Five Acts Meme for
joyyjpg. Post Apocalypse/Angst/Immortality
Castiel stared out at the road, paying little attention to the scenery. It was all the same. He could hear Dean shift in his seat in boredom. They had been driving for over seven hours, mostly in silence, or at least from Castiel's side of the car. Dean rambled on every now and then, filling the silence. Castiel listened, not really following the one-sided conversation, just lost in the comforting sound of his voice.
Dean started to hum, tapping his fingers on his thigh, to some song Castiel didn’t know. He never understood Dean’s obsession with something he called the classics. He decided it didn’t matter if he understood. It was all just part of what made Dean, Dean.
“Hey, you know what’d be great?” Dean asked, still tapping his fingers.
Castiel looked across at Dean, not bothering to answer, knowing Dean would continue anyway.
“If we blew this joint. I mean, what the hell are we doing here anyway?”
Castiel didn’t answer, just looked back at the road, blurry through the dust smeared windscreen.
“But you won’t leave will you? You just keep going.”
Castiel ignored the question, as he ignored so much these days. Dean went back to humming.
Castiel tried to ignore the weary feeling Dean’s question stirred in him. It was getting harder, and harder to ignore though. He was beyond weary. On auto pilot most of the time, just going through the motions. Something had driven him once, to keep fighting, to keep protecting what was left. He wondered if he even knew what that was anymore.
He looked across at Dean. He knew whatever it was, it lay somewhere behind those eyes staring back at him. Whatever it was, it was just an echo now.
They pulled into some city. He wasn’t even sure what its name was. Castiel stopped in the middle of the road, turned the engine off, and looked out as dust swirled around the car. Crumbling buildings lined the street. Movement up ahead caught his eye.
Demons. That was all that was left.
He looked across to the empty passenger seat. He grabbed the shotgun that lay on it, imagining briefly that his hand grazed Dean’s as he picked it up. He got out of the car, glancing at the empty passenger seat once more, before turning to walk down the street. He faced the demons alone, as he had been for so long now.
He kept going, unable to leave. Waiting for the day, when the echo of everything he had lost, was gone too.