TAPELOOP - part 2
“It was vampires, at least that’s what gave you the mortal wounds. You must have got ‘em ‘cause hasn’t been any missing hikers since I came up here. That was three weeks ago.”
Dean glared at him fury rising through his, body? “You behead us?” He growled. Sam laid a calming hand upon his shoulder. Dean could feel the emotion coursing through Sam. It helped calm him.
“No man, what do you take me for? Couple of wannabe demon leeches did that bit of vandalism. I’d been following them, trying to get to their boss. Knights of Hell stuff, you know, anyway lucked out, they pulled into the same motel as us, drunk as skunks and boasting about how, quote your heads on a stick unquote, would get them promoted.”
“Nice, wait a minute, who’s us?” Sam asked. They were over the initial shock, the horror of knowing this time there would be no resurrection.
“Hej, Dean, Sam.” Krissy Chambers spoke up and she and Garth moved so the Winchesters could see them more clearly. Krissy put down the lamp she was holding and adjusted the grip on her shotgun.
“Really?” Dean deadpanned looking at the shotgun.
“Yep. I’ve already shot you twice Dean, don’t make it a trifecta.” Krissy said her voice and manner was all business but there were tear-tracks on her cheeks.
“You must have figured it out about the same time as we met the demons and you swooped down on those boys like the Wrath of God. ‘Course that presented us with a vengeful ghost problem and, well, finding your bodies was easy. Your ghost bodies were knocked out from the rock-salt blast when we got here. Made it easier to lay the salt circle. But you’re stubborn.” Garth spoke as he moved about the circle.
***
Sam and Dean watched as he and Krissy gathered up their belongings and went about wrapping their bodies for burial. “That’s the pain isn’t it? We broke the circle.” Sam stated. Dean huffed and gave an ‘I should have known’ grimace to no one in particular.
“Yep. Hence Krissy shooting you twice and me once.” Garth said pulling up a chill-box.
“Beer? Glad your priorities are set,” Dean tried to joke but found himself throwing up instead.
“Nope. It’s the rest of you.” Krissy said cruelly. It wasn’t meant and the brothers recognized it for what it was, a coping mechanism.
“I thought I told you to graduate and quit hunting” Dean scolded.
“I did graduate moron and I’m on break before academy starts.” Krissy replied finally lowering her shotgun.
“Academy? What the fuck’s that?” Dean asked.
“FBI. Figured we could use at least one real agent in our ranks. Stop spluttering or I’ll tell you ‘bout Aiden and Josephine becoming police.” Krissy smiled at the brothers reactions.
“Congrats Krissy, tell the others the same.” Sam said “Garth?” He asked nudging Dean who looked blankly at their shrouded bodies.
“Yeah. It’s time I guess. You behave, you hear me?” Garth got up and broke the salt line.
***
The effect was immediate, they can feel how they are nothing and something all at the same time. Different from when they’d been dead previous times. They wanted to help Krissy and Garth but found they couldn’t hold their own bodies. They could hold the chill-box containing their heads and that freaked them out more than the fact they were dead.
Outside the hollow where they’d died Krissy and Garth had already prepared two pyres. Sam noticed that their bodies had been marked with a ‘D’ and ‘S’ and when Krissy and Garth placed their heads upon the pyre they’d been marked with initials as well.
It made him start laughing, loud hysterical laughter that would not stop no matter how Dean glared at him or Krissy and Garth edged away and thumbed their guns off safety.
“Enough! Fuck Sam, keep it together.” Dean said which only made Sam laugh louder. But the tone had changed and now it was genuine mirth.
Tears pouring down his cheeks he pointed to the pyres again and this time Dean got what had made him finally breakdown. Damned if it wasn’t funny. All the things that could have gotten them and it was vampires and two low-life demons. The futility of it welled up and soon he was laughing just as hysterically, then genuinely as Sam. When they eventually stopped laughing and wiped their tears away they looked towards Krissy and Garth.
“You ring Kevin. Let him know what happened. Tell him to give you access to the bunker.” Sam said. “And don’t make us martyrs, promise Garth. I hear any whispers of hunters idolizing us and our lives or making deals with supernatural because we’ve done that; I’ll come down or crawl up, whichever it is and hunt you down. All of you.”
“Got it. No following the Winchester way, gonna be hard since Edlund’s stories have gone viral and you guys are, well, you. But I’ll see the word gets out, still some of us around that know your word is solid.” Garth said solemnly.
“Ditto what Sam said, about martyr stuff. Take Dad’s journal. That plus the I.D’s in Baby’s glove box. That should lead you to any storage and lock-boxes we’ve got. Baby, I” Dean couldn’t speak any more and just nodded.
“We’ll take care of it and Her, Dean. You have my word.” Krissy said solemnly and Dean nodded in thanks.
She and Garth moved towards the pyres and lit them. The four of them watched the mortal remains of Dean and Sam Winchester burn to ash. A life time of memories played before Dean and Sam as they watched the two hunters warming themselves by their pyres.
As the last coals burnt out Dean saw Tessa coming towards them. “You ready Dean, Sam?” she asked. “As we’ll ever be.” They replied. Garth and Krissy saw Dean and Sam speak to someone and then disappear.
Garth took out his phone and noted the GPS co-ordinates of where they’d laid Sam and Dean Winchester to rest. He and Krissy buried the pyre ash, a liberal layering of salt included then drove off. He’d let Kevin Tan know the co-ordinates maybe if the angel Castiel still existed he’d like to know where his earthy family were buried.
***