The Road To Heaven Bestrewed With Amaranth (4/??);
Title: The Road To Heaven Bestrewed With Amaranth (4/??);
Author: Rinienne;
Rating: overall R for language, violence, blood and sexual themes;
Genre: romance, adventure, time travel;
Pairing/Characters: Dean/Castiel, Bobby, Sam, Rufus, Samuel, Gwen OFC and many others;
Spoilers: The fic starts from the middle of season 6 and alternates the end of it, but also has spoilers for 7x1;
Word Count: WIP (3700 this part);
Beta: All thanks for beta'ing to mozzarellaroses and eridanie
Summary: Sometimes life gives us a chance to turn around and see where you went wrong. Such opportunity was given to Dean and Castiel in a form of a young girl who appeared out of nowhere. Who is she? Where did she come from?
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
Chapter 4
What had been written…
March, 2011;
The alarm clock woke Dean up when it was seven in the morning. Dean had once been used to waking up even earlier, but after nearly two weeks without a single hunt, he couldn't exactly acclimate to the usual early-morning hunter lifestyle. He stretched, trying to wake his body totally, and got up from the bed.
“Hey, wake up!” He shook his brother’s shoulder. “We gotta find someplace that sells normal coffee. More or less.”
Sam shifted in his sleep, mumbling something indistinct, and turned to the other side, covering his head with a pillow.
“Alright, bitch, I'll shower first then,” Dean mumbled as he dragged himself to the bathroom.
Dean finished with his bathing in about twenty minutes, feeling much better and more awake, despite the series of yawns that kept creeping out of his mouth, trying to convince the hunter to get back into the warm bed. Sam must have woken up while he was in the shower. Because he was gone now. The older Winchester decided to use the time he'd had alone to change.
Sam appeared ten minutes later, holding a bag of something that looked like food and three big plastic cups of coffee. “Go and check on Bobby,” he advised, placing the bag and the cups on the table. “I bought breakfast for all of us,” he explained before taking his jacket off and disappearing into the bathroom.
Dean yawned one more time before grabbing his phone and dialing Bobby’s number. The older hunter had a room right next to them, but like hell was he going anywhere while all the coffee was still in the cup and not in his stomach.
As it turned out, the older hunter was already awake, waiting for the two brothers to finish with their morning routine. They arranged to meet outside in twenty minutes, giving Sam some time to get ready.
After they had gotten ready and filled up on breakfast, the three hunters stood outside in the parking lot, planning their next course of action.
“What do you think, should we go there right now?” Dean inquired.
“I guess it'll be for the best.” Sam nodded. “At least we'll be able to prepare for the meet-up with this... thing.”
***
The docks themselves looked pretty busy even at this early hour. Workers were fussing all around, moving cargo in and out of ships, but the hunters still didn’t have any problems sneaking to their destination unnoticed. The warehouse itself was surrounded by yellow tape, which local police left after their examination of the crime scene. When the three reached the entrance, something drew Dean’s attention.
“Look,” he pointed out, “it seems like someone got up even earlier than us today.”
The impressive-looking pad lock had already been broken open and was now laying on the ground under the door.
“Do you think it could be the creature?” Sam inquired.
“Since when did a five inch long worm need to use a door to get inside a building?” Bobby sneered sarcastically.
“So, who do you think it was?” Sam asked.
“I guess we'll find it out,” Dean said, carefully opening the door, trying to produce as little sound as he could.
The warehouse inside looked empty and abandoned; it was so quiet that every step was echoing in the room, reflecting from metal walls. Dean was trying to strain his ears and listen to see if there was anything going on around, but everything was quiet.
“Maybe they already left?” Dean suggested hopefully. “Or some crazy kids just decided to break in for fun?”
“Sure, if they broke the lock for kicks and left without going in,” Bobby sighed.
They decided to make their way further in the warehouse, keeping close to each other. The next several blocks looked empty as well. Dean was moving slowly, holding a shotgun before him, trying to detect every possible movement.
“What is this?” Sam asked as they stood in the middle of the next section.
The room itself wasn’t any different from the ones they had already passed, but here, in the middle of it, the floor was stained with something dark red. Sam moved closer, examining the stains. He touched the suspicious dense liquid with his finger, putting it closer to his face, sniffing it. “Blood,” he finally concluded, though Dean already had his suspicions. “And it’s fresh,” Sam added.
The stain on the floor was leading them to the corner of the room; it looked like someone had been dragging an unconscious-maybe even dead body across the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind. They slowly followed the trail, trying to be even more careful then they had been before. The trace went all the way down to another section and disappeared under a pile of polyethylene sheets. Dean carefully raised the corner of a lower sheet with his gun and:
“Oh shit,” he whispered. There, under the cover of several polyethylene layers, was a body. The hunters couldn’t yet see who it was. Dean passed his shotgun to his brother and started to remove the material, unwrapping the one who was laying under it.
“Oh no,” Sam gasped as they were finally able to see the person who rolled out. there, all covered in his own blood, lay Samuel Campbell, with a bullet hole right in the middle of his forehead.
Dean had no idea how to react. One the one hand it it was Samuel, who had betrayed them, whom he promised to kill on sight, but from another he was still their grandfather, and even if his resurrection was caused by something supernatural, and he'd been dead for thirty years, Dean still felt a little upset. Plus, Sam was way more attached to the bastard, and for him, it must have been a bigger shock.
“Crap,” Dean swore, “if he’s here, so's Gwen.”
“And I bet the thing's in her, too,” Bobby said. .
“Damn, I told them not to show up,” Sam sighed, rubbing his face with his palm. Then he tensed for a second, turning his head. “Do you hear that?” he asked.
Dean and Bobby stopped motionless, trying to hear what Sam was talking about. And now Dean could clearly hear some sort of weird noise coming from another side of the room. One more moment of listening and Dean was ready to bet that he was hearing weeping coming from the metal lockers on the opposite wall.
“I think there's someone inside,” he said, carefully moving closer to the lockers. When they were close enough to recognize that the weird sound was, in fact, weeping, Dean gestured to his brother to move to another side and open the metal door, while Dean guarded him with a raised shotgun.
They did it on the count of three, revealing the young woman who had been hiding inside. She yelped, covering her face with her arms, crouching against the metal wall. “Don’t shoot, please, don’t shoot!” she pleaded.
“Oh my god, Gwen!” Sam burst out. “Are you all right?” he asked, coming closer.
Gwen opened her eyes and a wave of relieve washed over her features. “Sam? Dean?” she exhaled in surprise.
Sam helped her to get up, while Dean continued pointing his gun, as he understood perfectly that the creature they were facing could be more clever than most things they had fought against.
“What happened?” Sam asked.
Gwen leaned on Sam as she started to cry. “I don’t know, I don’t know,” she was weeping, “There was something inside me, I couldn’t control it… I killed him, Sam, I killed Samuel!”
“No, it wasn’t you, Gwen, it was the creature. You’re safe now.” He tried to calm her down, rubbing his hands along her long black hair.
“All right you idjits,” Bobby interjected, “I’m glad your cousin's safe, of course, but we're all hunters here and we have bigger problems than sobbing into each other's jackets.”
“Bobby’s right, we need to move on,” Dean agreed. “But first we need to check her ears.”
“My ears? Why?” Gwen asked, surprised.
“Well, you see, dear, we have more knowledge about the thing we're hunting now.” Dean smirked as he moved closer to Gwen, cupping her head with a free hand, angling for a better look. Maybe because Gwen was too frightened or maybe she simply didn’t expect it, she didn't protest. Dean let her go the moment he noticed there was nothing. “It’s left,” Dean concluded.
“What is this thing?” Gwen asked.
“If it were up to me, it'd be called the Jefferson Genitalia.” Dean smirked. “But apparently we're calling it the Khan Worm,” he added more seriously.
“It’s a new monster, created by Eve,” Sam explained, noticing Gwen’s confusion.
“Why the hell did you come here so early in the morning?” Bobby groaned. “We thought you wouldn't arrive till the evening. We came so we could clear everything out before someone got in trouble.”
Gwen glanced at the older hunter with distrustfully, but shook it off, probably realizing that three other hunters were all she had now. “Well, we thought we could do the same,” she explained, sighing. “We were wrong.”
“Typical,” Bobby sighed.
“All right, we probably need to continue searching,” Sam offered. “Keep your eyes on each other.”
***
For the next twenty minutes or so, they walked around the warehouse to no effect, failing to spot anything. Even with all the information Mary had shared with them, they still had no idea how this thing could move, with what speed or if it could live without host, and if yes, then for how long? With every minute that passed, there were more and more doubts about how they were going to find it.
“Maybe we should just burn the whole place down?” Dean suggested.
“There's more metal in this building than wood, it’s not going to burn,” Sam replied.
“Well, anyone else have any better ideas?” the older Winchester asked. “I think we’ve already checked every room here.”
“Maybe we could use something as bait?” Gwen proposed.
“Yeah, sure, let me just get Wormy's Favorite Monster Treats from the car,” Bobby said dryly.
“You think I’m joking? This isn't exactly fun for me, either,” Gwen groaned.
“All right guys, please relax; we aren’t in any condition to argue,” Sam interrupted. “We'd better make another round.”
At that moment, something suddenly rumbled several rooms away from them. The four hunters exchanged looks and rushed towards the sound. They were trying to be as fast and as quiet as they could. The door they heard the rumble from was close to the entrance, so it could mean only two things: either they passed something without noticing it or someone else had decided to wander into the warehouse.
When the four hunters came closer, they were able to hear someone’s steps in the next section of the warehouse, followed by more rumbling of metal and indistinct mumbling, like someone had just stumbled over something and decided to unleash his frustration in the form of swearing, but at the same time understood that he had to be quiet. Dean gestured for the others to separate into two groups, and they surround the archway between the sections.
“Freeze!” Dean yelled, jumping from his spot when the steps were close enough.
He stopped, realizing he knew who this person was.
“Damn it, Rufus!” Bobby yelled. “We could've shot you.”
“But you didn’t!” The older man smiled, moving the barrel of his shotgun away from Dean’s face.
“I think it’s no use asking why you came,” the hunter sighed.
“Yeah, couldn’t miss all the fun.” Rufus grinned.
***
For the next half hour, nothing changed. They checked the warehouse several times, but it was empty. The hunters had several ideas, some of which included the probability that the thing was smart enough to know they were close, so it might've already jumped ahead.
Now all five of them were sitting in the middle of the main section, waiting and watching each-other carefully because it was the only thing left for them to do. But with every passing minute the simple task seemed more and more difficult, because they were all starting to get bored.
“May be we should separate into groups and search the building again?” Rufus proposed.
“Yeah, and what if it’s in one of us, so we end up losing someone?” Gwen protested.
“And what then?” Rufus groaned. “We'll sit here till someone wants to go to the bathroom? And then we'll all go together, holding hands to make sure they don't get taken over by the son-of-a-bitch?”
“All right.” Dean sighed. “We'll do one last check. But let's not split up.”
Dean turned his head to his brother and Bobby. “What do you think are our chances? Of sending these guys home, I mean?”
“Pretty damn small,” Bobby sighed. “Rufus ain't gonna go anywhere, that’s for sure.”
“And Gwen won’t go till she gets revenge for Samuel's death, ” added Sam.
“There's no time to argue with these guys.” Dean shook his head. “They have to leave no matter what. Even if I have to drag-”
He never had the chance to finish his sentence. Dean heard a shot and turned his head, seeing Gwen lying on the floor, a pool of blood slowly spreading underneath her, and Rufus standing above her with a shotgun in his hands and a shocked look on his face. The three other hunters raised their guns, pointing them at Rufus.
“Don’t shoot, it’s me!” Rufus groaned. “She jumped me, she was possessed!”
“Yeah, sure she did,” Dean said angrily.
In attempt to prove his words, Rufus threw his gun on the floor and raised his hands.
“Tie him up,” Dean commanded.
***
They tested Rufus with the electrical shock but it didn’t show anything. There was the slight chance the little shock wasn't enough to affect the worm, but they weren't willing to risk anything stronger on the man with heart problems.
Dean felt like a total idiot, leaving the two alone. Whether or not she had been possessed by the worm, it definitely would have had the time to escape when they were all over Rufus.
It was another dead end, the only difference being the corpse where there used to be a hunter. The older Winchester sat uncomfortably on the table, watching their prisoner carefully. He wasn't too happy with his decision to come here. Sure, they did it to protect the innocent, but at what cost? Two of three other hunters had died already and Dean had no idea how he could stop it.
“We need to get Rufus out of there,” the older Winchester finally commanded, standing up from the table. “Sam, Bobby, take him away and get out of here.”
“Are you out of your mind, son?” Bobby protested. “What the hell are you going to do here, alone?”
“I think I have more of a chance if you guys go.”
“Dean, stop saying that! We're not going to leave you!” Sam said.
The younger brother moved closer to Dean, crossing his arms on his chest, like that would prove him right. Dean knew perfectly well that the two other hunters weren’t going to leave him, no matter how realistic Dean’s points could be.
“Fine.” The older Winchester sighed in defeat. “But we need to get Rufus out of here. Then we can come back.”
Sam stepped closer. “And what if the thing's inside him? We'll just be letting it escape.”
“And what are we going to do? Sit here forever?” Dean inquired. “Do you have another plan?”
Sam sighed and turned back to the two older hunters. “I think we need to go for now,” he announced.
They untied Rufus from the chair and brought him out of the warehouse. There was the chance the worm would escape, but Rufus was their friend. They couldn't keep him shacked up in that place like a monster the entire night. He wasn't just another hunter; he was Bobby's friend. He meant something. Plus there was the whole future thing where only the three of them were destined to survive. Dean winced at the thought of destiny, the desire to save Rufus now becoming a personal goal for the him, he wanted to prove, yet again that there was no such thing as destiny, that they were people who could fight it and prove to the whole word that destiny was nothing but a load of bull crap.
“We need to take Gwen and Samuel out,” Sam said. “I know what you thought of them, but they were hunters. They at least deserve a proper funeral.”
Dean didn’t argue with his brother, nodding in agreement instead. Together, they extracted Samuel’s corpse from under the layers of polyethylene and dragged him back to the first room of the warehouse. Then they went back for Gwen.
What happened next was too fast for them to register, let alone react to. They didn't even have the chance to grab Gwen when Dean found himself being thrown across the room. The world darkened for a moment before Dean was able to open his eyes again. Sam and Bobby had been tossed too, and were just coming to as Dean saw Gwen standing in the middle of the room, holding Rufus by the throat.
“Sorry,” she pronounced with a deep torturous voice that didn’t belong to the girl, looking right at Dean. “I was sent to give you a message, but it looks like you already know everything,” the worm said. “And you…” it turned its head to Rufus, “mother doesn’t need you.” It smiled and squeezed Rufus’ neck under its hand.
Dean got up as fast as he could, rushing the monster, but he couldn't get there fast enough. The sound of cracking bones echoed through the half empty warehouse room, tearing a small groan of pain from Dean’s throat. In the corner of his eye he saw Sam and Bobby getting up as well. Like in an action movie, sounds began to dull as time slowed down. The hunter heard Bobby yelling something, he heard his brother shouting his name, but he wasn’t able to distinguish words as the wave of anger rushed through his blood, echoing with a loud ringing in his ears.
The monster in Gwen’s body dropped Rufus and moved out of Dean’s way before he had a chance to get to it. The worm rushed to the open window and jumped through it. Something clicked outside and the room filled with a squeaking noise and a terrible smell of burning flesh. The whole of Gwen’s body started to shake in convulsions, exuding smoke from its surface before it finally dropped to the floor.
“Take that, you son of a bitch!” Dean groaned, coming closer and watching a small worm climb out of Gwen’s ear, trembling in agony for several seconds before it curled in a ball and stopped moving.
***
It was already late in the evening when the three hunters arrived back at Sioux Falls. The Impala and Bobby’s truck were parked in the salvage yard, so quiet that it was like even the cars were mourning the events in the warehouse. Yes, they were able to defeat the worm, thanks to the Sam’s useful idea to set traps around the exits-but at what price? Three good hunters died in the process, and even if Dean knew about it from the very beginning, he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
Mary rushed to the yard, meeting the hunters with a smile on her face, but noticing their mood, her facial expression turned into a frown. She stopped for a moment and then turned around, slowly walking back into the house, not saying a single word.
They burned the bodies of Gwen and Samuel according to the tradition of hunters and buried Rufus as Bobby insisted. Dean knew that the older hunter was crushed and broken right now but he didn't show it, keeping his stoic face and pouring Johnny Walker Blue Label on Rufus' grave. Bobby was still blaming himself for the death of Rufus' daughter, and no matter what Dean said, he couldn't do a damn thing about it. Rufus wasn’t their relative, but Dean knew that sometimes, people were family, even if they didn't share blood.
Later on Bobby asked the brothers to leave him alone, so the two returned to the house. Mary was sitting on the couch, not moving, wrapping her arms around her knees.
“Are you ok?” Dean asked, taking a seat next to the girl. Mary never knew any of the hunters the worm had killed, but she still looked very depressed. The older Winchester hadn’t known his daughter for longer than a week, but he had never seen her so down. The difference between now and her usual mood was so severe that it was disturbing.
“I don’t know,” Mary answered. She paused for a moment, like she was trying to find the right words. “I’m scared,” she admitted.
“You want to talk?” Dean suddenly asked. He had no idea why he’d said that, because he wasn’t into all those heart to heart conversations. But Mary was a girl, she was allowed to show weakness, and no-one would judge her for it. And right now she needed to talk and Dean was here for her.
“I just…” she mumbled quietly, her voice broken. “I came here to change things, to prevent the big evil from rushing into the world, but how can I prevent it when we weren’t even able to prevent three people from dying? Even if we knew everything beforehand.”
Dean looked at his daughter and sighed. He knew exactly how she felt; he knew it from experience.
“I don’t know how we're going to do it, I don’t know,” Mary admitted, trying to fight tears.
“Maybe we'll start with simpler things,” Sam said as he appeared in the doorway, leaning on the side jamb with his arms across his chest. “Like you telling us everything you know.”
Mary raised her head and looked at Sam. For a moment she was silent, considering his words, but then she nodded.
“All right,” she said. “All right…”
<
Next>>
Author: Rinienne;
Rating: overall R for language, violence, blood and sexual themes;
Genre: romance, adventure, time travel;
Pairing/Characters: Dean/Castiel, Bobby, Sam, Rufus, Samuel, Gwen OFC and many others;
Spoilers: The fic starts from the middle of season 6 and alternates the end of it, but also has spoilers for 7x1;
Word Count: WIP (3700 this part);
Beta: All thanks for beta'ing to mozzarellaroses and eridanie
Summary: Sometimes life gives us a chance to turn around and see where you went wrong. Such opportunity was given to Dean and Castiel in a form of a young girl who appeared out of nowhere. Who is she? Where did she come from?
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
Chapter 4
What had been written…
March, 2011;
The alarm clock woke Dean up when it was seven in the morning. Dean had once been used to waking up even earlier, but after nearly two weeks without a single hunt, he couldn't exactly acclimate to the usual early-morning hunter lifestyle. He stretched, trying to wake his body totally, and got up from the bed.
“Hey, wake up!” He shook his brother’s shoulder. “We gotta find someplace that sells normal coffee. More or less.”
Sam shifted in his sleep, mumbling something indistinct, and turned to the other side, covering his head with a pillow.
“Alright, bitch, I'll shower first then,” Dean mumbled as he dragged himself to the bathroom.
Dean finished with his bathing in about twenty minutes, feeling much better and more awake, despite the series of yawns that kept creeping out of his mouth, trying to convince the hunter to get back into the warm bed. Sam must have woken up while he was in the shower. Because he was gone now. The older Winchester decided to use the time he'd had alone to change.
Sam appeared ten minutes later, holding a bag of something that looked like food and three big plastic cups of coffee. “Go and check on Bobby,” he advised, placing the bag and the cups on the table. “I bought breakfast for all of us,” he explained before taking his jacket off and disappearing into the bathroom.
Dean yawned one more time before grabbing his phone and dialing Bobby’s number. The older hunter had a room right next to them, but like hell was he going anywhere while all the coffee was still in the cup and not in his stomach.
As it turned out, the older hunter was already awake, waiting for the two brothers to finish with their morning routine. They arranged to meet outside in twenty minutes, giving Sam some time to get ready.
After they had gotten ready and filled up on breakfast, the three hunters stood outside in the parking lot, planning their next course of action.
“What do you think, should we go there right now?” Dean inquired.
“I guess it'll be for the best.” Sam nodded. “At least we'll be able to prepare for the meet-up with this... thing.”
***
The docks themselves looked pretty busy even at this early hour. Workers were fussing all around, moving cargo in and out of ships, but the hunters still didn’t have any problems sneaking to their destination unnoticed. The warehouse itself was surrounded by yellow tape, which local police left after their examination of the crime scene. When the three reached the entrance, something drew Dean’s attention.
“Look,” he pointed out, “it seems like someone got up even earlier than us today.”
The impressive-looking pad lock had already been broken open and was now laying on the ground under the door.
“Do you think it could be the creature?” Sam inquired.
“Since when did a five inch long worm need to use a door to get inside a building?” Bobby sneered sarcastically.
“So, who do you think it was?” Sam asked.
“I guess we'll find it out,” Dean said, carefully opening the door, trying to produce as little sound as he could.
The warehouse inside looked empty and abandoned; it was so quiet that every step was echoing in the room, reflecting from metal walls. Dean was trying to strain his ears and listen to see if there was anything going on around, but everything was quiet.
“Maybe they already left?” Dean suggested hopefully. “Or some crazy kids just decided to break in for fun?”
“Sure, if they broke the lock for kicks and left without going in,” Bobby sighed.
They decided to make their way further in the warehouse, keeping close to each other. The next several blocks looked empty as well. Dean was moving slowly, holding a shotgun before him, trying to detect every possible movement.
“What is this?” Sam asked as they stood in the middle of the next section.
The room itself wasn’t any different from the ones they had already passed, but here, in the middle of it, the floor was stained with something dark red. Sam moved closer, examining the stains. He touched the suspicious dense liquid with his finger, putting it closer to his face, sniffing it. “Blood,” he finally concluded, though Dean already had his suspicions. “And it’s fresh,” Sam added.
The stain on the floor was leading them to the corner of the room; it looked like someone had been dragging an unconscious-maybe even dead body across the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind. They slowly followed the trail, trying to be even more careful then they had been before. The trace went all the way down to another section and disappeared under a pile of polyethylene sheets. Dean carefully raised the corner of a lower sheet with his gun and:
“Oh shit,” he whispered. There, under the cover of several polyethylene layers, was a body. The hunters couldn’t yet see who it was. Dean passed his shotgun to his brother and started to remove the material, unwrapping the one who was laying under it.
“Oh no,” Sam gasped as they were finally able to see the person who rolled out. there, all covered in his own blood, lay Samuel Campbell, with a bullet hole right in the middle of his forehead.
Dean had no idea how to react. One the one hand it it was Samuel, who had betrayed them, whom he promised to kill on sight, but from another he was still their grandfather, and even if his resurrection was caused by something supernatural, and he'd been dead for thirty years, Dean still felt a little upset. Plus, Sam was way more attached to the bastard, and for him, it must have been a bigger shock.
“Crap,” Dean swore, “if he’s here, so's Gwen.”
“And I bet the thing's in her, too,” Bobby said. .
“Damn, I told them not to show up,” Sam sighed, rubbing his face with his palm. Then he tensed for a second, turning his head. “Do you hear that?” he asked.
Dean and Bobby stopped motionless, trying to hear what Sam was talking about. And now Dean could clearly hear some sort of weird noise coming from another side of the room. One more moment of listening and Dean was ready to bet that he was hearing weeping coming from the metal lockers on the opposite wall.
“I think there's someone inside,” he said, carefully moving closer to the lockers. When they were close enough to recognize that the weird sound was, in fact, weeping, Dean gestured to his brother to move to another side and open the metal door, while Dean guarded him with a raised shotgun.
They did it on the count of three, revealing the young woman who had been hiding inside. She yelped, covering her face with her arms, crouching against the metal wall. “Don’t shoot, please, don’t shoot!” she pleaded.
“Oh my god, Gwen!” Sam burst out. “Are you all right?” he asked, coming closer.
Gwen opened her eyes and a wave of relieve washed over her features. “Sam? Dean?” she exhaled in surprise.
Sam helped her to get up, while Dean continued pointing his gun, as he understood perfectly that the creature they were facing could be more clever than most things they had fought against.
“What happened?” Sam asked.
Gwen leaned on Sam as she started to cry. “I don’t know, I don’t know,” she was weeping, “There was something inside me, I couldn’t control it… I killed him, Sam, I killed Samuel!”
“No, it wasn’t you, Gwen, it was the creature. You’re safe now.” He tried to calm her down, rubbing his hands along her long black hair.
“All right you idjits,” Bobby interjected, “I’m glad your cousin's safe, of course, but we're all hunters here and we have bigger problems than sobbing into each other's jackets.”
“Bobby’s right, we need to move on,” Dean agreed. “But first we need to check her ears.”
“My ears? Why?” Gwen asked, surprised.
“Well, you see, dear, we have more knowledge about the thing we're hunting now.” Dean smirked as he moved closer to Gwen, cupping her head with a free hand, angling for a better look. Maybe because Gwen was too frightened or maybe she simply didn’t expect it, she didn't protest. Dean let her go the moment he noticed there was nothing. “It’s left,” Dean concluded.
“What is this thing?” Gwen asked.
“If it were up to me, it'd be called the Jefferson Genitalia.” Dean smirked. “But apparently we're calling it the Khan Worm,” he added more seriously.
“It’s a new monster, created by Eve,” Sam explained, noticing Gwen’s confusion.
“Why the hell did you come here so early in the morning?” Bobby groaned. “We thought you wouldn't arrive till the evening. We came so we could clear everything out before someone got in trouble.”
Gwen glanced at the older hunter with distrustfully, but shook it off, probably realizing that three other hunters were all she had now. “Well, we thought we could do the same,” she explained, sighing. “We were wrong.”
“Typical,” Bobby sighed.
“All right, we probably need to continue searching,” Sam offered. “Keep your eyes on each other.”
***
For the next twenty minutes or so, they walked around the warehouse to no effect, failing to spot anything. Even with all the information Mary had shared with them, they still had no idea how this thing could move, with what speed or if it could live without host, and if yes, then for how long? With every minute that passed, there were more and more doubts about how they were going to find it.
“Maybe we should just burn the whole place down?” Dean suggested.
“There's more metal in this building than wood, it’s not going to burn,” Sam replied.
“Well, anyone else have any better ideas?” the older Winchester asked. “I think we’ve already checked every room here.”
“Maybe we could use something as bait?” Gwen proposed.
“Yeah, sure, let me just get Wormy's Favorite Monster Treats from the car,” Bobby said dryly.
“You think I’m joking? This isn't exactly fun for me, either,” Gwen groaned.
“All right guys, please relax; we aren’t in any condition to argue,” Sam interrupted. “We'd better make another round.”
At that moment, something suddenly rumbled several rooms away from them. The four hunters exchanged looks and rushed towards the sound. They were trying to be as fast and as quiet as they could. The door they heard the rumble from was close to the entrance, so it could mean only two things: either they passed something without noticing it or someone else had decided to wander into the warehouse.
When the four hunters came closer, they were able to hear someone’s steps in the next section of the warehouse, followed by more rumbling of metal and indistinct mumbling, like someone had just stumbled over something and decided to unleash his frustration in the form of swearing, but at the same time understood that he had to be quiet. Dean gestured for the others to separate into two groups, and they surround the archway between the sections.
“Freeze!” Dean yelled, jumping from his spot when the steps were close enough.
He stopped, realizing he knew who this person was.
“Damn it, Rufus!” Bobby yelled. “We could've shot you.”
“But you didn’t!” The older man smiled, moving the barrel of his shotgun away from Dean’s face.
“I think it’s no use asking why you came,” the hunter sighed.
“Yeah, couldn’t miss all the fun.” Rufus grinned.
***
For the next half hour, nothing changed. They checked the warehouse several times, but it was empty. The hunters had several ideas, some of which included the probability that the thing was smart enough to know they were close, so it might've already jumped ahead.
Now all five of them were sitting in the middle of the main section, waiting and watching each-other carefully because it was the only thing left for them to do. But with every passing minute the simple task seemed more and more difficult, because they were all starting to get bored.
“May be we should separate into groups and search the building again?” Rufus proposed.
“Yeah, and what if it’s in one of us, so we end up losing someone?” Gwen protested.
“And what then?” Rufus groaned. “We'll sit here till someone wants to go to the bathroom? And then we'll all go together, holding hands to make sure they don't get taken over by the son-of-a-bitch?”
“All right.” Dean sighed. “We'll do one last check. But let's not split up.”
Dean turned his head to his brother and Bobby. “What do you think are our chances? Of sending these guys home, I mean?”
“Pretty damn small,” Bobby sighed. “Rufus ain't gonna go anywhere, that’s for sure.”
“And Gwen won’t go till she gets revenge for Samuel's death, ” added Sam.
“There's no time to argue with these guys.” Dean shook his head. “They have to leave no matter what. Even if I have to drag-”
He never had the chance to finish his sentence. Dean heard a shot and turned his head, seeing Gwen lying on the floor, a pool of blood slowly spreading underneath her, and Rufus standing above her with a shotgun in his hands and a shocked look on his face. The three other hunters raised their guns, pointing them at Rufus.
“Don’t shoot, it’s me!” Rufus groaned. “She jumped me, she was possessed!”
“Yeah, sure she did,” Dean said angrily.
In attempt to prove his words, Rufus threw his gun on the floor and raised his hands.
“Tie him up,” Dean commanded.
***
They tested Rufus with the electrical shock but it didn’t show anything. There was the slight chance the little shock wasn't enough to affect the worm, but they weren't willing to risk anything stronger on the man with heart problems.
Dean felt like a total idiot, leaving the two alone. Whether or not she had been possessed by the worm, it definitely would have had the time to escape when they were all over Rufus.
It was another dead end, the only difference being the corpse where there used to be a hunter. The older Winchester sat uncomfortably on the table, watching their prisoner carefully. He wasn't too happy with his decision to come here. Sure, they did it to protect the innocent, but at what cost? Two of three other hunters had died already and Dean had no idea how he could stop it.
“We need to get Rufus out of there,” the older Winchester finally commanded, standing up from the table. “Sam, Bobby, take him away and get out of here.”
“Are you out of your mind, son?” Bobby protested. “What the hell are you going to do here, alone?”
“I think I have more of a chance if you guys go.”
“Dean, stop saying that! We're not going to leave you!” Sam said.
The younger brother moved closer to Dean, crossing his arms on his chest, like that would prove him right. Dean knew perfectly well that the two other hunters weren’t going to leave him, no matter how realistic Dean’s points could be.
“Fine.” The older Winchester sighed in defeat. “But we need to get Rufus out of here. Then we can come back.”
Sam stepped closer. “And what if the thing's inside him? We'll just be letting it escape.”
“And what are we going to do? Sit here forever?” Dean inquired. “Do you have another plan?”
Sam sighed and turned back to the two older hunters. “I think we need to go for now,” he announced.
They untied Rufus from the chair and brought him out of the warehouse. There was the chance the worm would escape, but Rufus was their friend. They couldn't keep him shacked up in that place like a monster the entire night. He wasn't just another hunter; he was Bobby's friend. He meant something. Plus there was the whole future thing where only the three of them were destined to survive. Dean winced at the thought of destiny, the desire to save Rufus now becoming a personal goal for the him, he wanted to prove, yet again that there was no such thing as destiny, that they were people who could fight it and prove to the whole word that destiny was nothing but a load of bull crap.
“We need to take Gwen and Samuel out,” Sam said. “I know what you thought of them, but they were hunters. They at least deserve a proper funeral.”
Dean didn’t argue with his brother, nodding in agreement instead. Together, they extracted Samuel’s corpse from under the layers of polyethylene and dragged him back to the first room of the warehouse. Then they went back for Gwen.
What happened next was too fast for them to register, let alone react to. They didn't even have the chance to grab Gwen when Dean found himself being thrown across the room. The world darkened for a moment before Dean was able to open his eyes again. Sam and Bobby had been tossed too, and were just coming to as Dean saw Gwen standing in the middle of the room, holding Rufus by the throat.
“Sorry,” she pronounced with a deep torturous voice that didn’t belong to the girl, looking right at Dean. “I was sent to give you a message, but it looks like you already know everything,” the worm said. “And you…” it turned its head to Rufus, “mother doesn’t need you.” It smiled and squeezed Rufus’ neck under its hand.
Dean got up as fast as he could, rushing the monster, but he couldn't get there fast enough. The sound of cracking bones echoed through the half empty warehouse room, tearing a small groan of pain from Dean’s throat. In the corner of his eye he saw Sam and Bobby getting up as well. Like in an action movie, sounds began to dull as time slowed down. The hunter heard Bobby yelling something, he heard his brother shouting his name, but he wasn’t able to distinguish words as the wave of anger rushed through his blood, echoing with a loud ringing in his ears.
The monster in Gwen’s body dropped Rufus and moved out of Dean’s way before he had a chance to get to it. The worm rushed to the open window and jumped through it. Something clicked outside and the room filled with a squeaking noise and a terrible smell of burning flesh. The whole of Gwen’s body started to shake in convulsions, exuding smoke from its surface before it finally dropped to the floor.
“Take that, you son of a bitch!” Dean groaned, coming closer and watching a small worm climb out of Gwen’s ear, trembling in agony for several seconds before it curled in a ball and stopped moving.
***
It was already late in the evening when the three hunters arrived back at Sioux Falls. The Impala and Bobby’s truck were parked in the salvage yard, so quiet that it was like even the cars were mourning the events in the warehouse. Yes, they were able to defeat the worm, thanks to the Sam’s useful idea to set traps around the exits-but at what price? Three good hunters died in the process, and even if Dean knew about it from the very beginning, he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
Mary rushed to the yard, meeting the hunters with a smile on her face, but noticing their mood, her facial expression turned into a frown. She stopped for a moment and then turned around, slowly walking back into the house, not saying a single word.
They burned the bodies of Gwen and Samuel according to the tradition of hunters and buried Rufus as Bobby insisted. Dean knew that the older hunter was crushed and broken right now but he didn't show it, keeping his stoic face and pouring Johnny Walker Blue Label on Rufus' grave. Bobby was still blaming himself for the death of Rufus' daughter, and no matter what Dean said, he couldn't do a damn thing about it. Rufus wasn’t their relative, but Dean knew that sometimes, people were family, even if they didn't share blood.
Later on Bobby asked the brothers to leave him alone, so the two returned to the house. Mary was sitting on the couch, not moving, wrapping her arms around her knees.
“Are you ok?” Dean asked, taking a seat next to the girl. Mary never knew any of the hunters the worm had killed, but she still looked very depressed. The older Winchester hadn’t known his daughter for longer than a week, but he had never seen her so down. The difference between now and her usual mood was so severe that it was disturbing.
“I don’t know,” Mary answered. She paused for a moment, like she was trying to find the right words. “I’m scared,” she admitted.
“You want to talk?” Dean suddenly asked. He had no idea why he’d said that, because he wasn’t into all those heart to heart conversations. But Mary was a girl, she was allowed to show weakness, and no-one would judge her for it. And right now she needed to talk and Dean was here for her.
“I just…” she mumbled quietly, her voice broken. “I came here to change things, to prevent the big evil from rushing into the world, but how can I prevent it when we weren’t even able to prevent three people from dying? Even if we knew everything beforehand.”
Dean looked at his daughter and sighed. He knew exactly how she felt; he knew it from experience.
“I don’t know how we're going to do it, I don’t know,” Mary admitted, trying to fight tears.
“Maybe we'll start with simpler things,” Sam said as he appeared in the doorway, leaning on the side jamb with his arms across his chest. “Like you telling us everything you know.”
Mary raised her head and looked at Sam. For a moment she was silent, considering his words, but then she nodded.
“All right,” she said. “All right…”
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