The full moon lit the nighttime sky, casting a silvery glow across the quiet town. It was just after midnight, meaning hardly anyone was out and about. They were settled into their homes and beds for the night, preparing themselves for the day tomorrow.
On the outskirts of town, in a roadside motel, two brothers paced around the room, staring at the pictures and notes they had tacked to the walls.
"I asked this when we first got here, I'll ask again, what the hell is going on here?" The older of the two asked, sitting down and moving a book closer to him. He flipped through the pages as his younger brother typed away on his laptop, looking for websites on local legends.
"I have no idea," he muttered, giving up the search and slamming the top of his laptop closed. "Dean look, it's late, we're both exhausted. Let's get some sleep, and we'll pick this back up in the morning. We can go around and ask the locals about what they think is going on."
"I can't sleep Sammy," Dean told his brother honestly, tapping the pen he was holding against the table.
"Are you still worried about Castiel?" Sam asked, sitting back in his chair and stretching out his long legs. "Dean, I'm sure he's fine. He's an angel, he can handle himself. We need to figure out what's taking these people, and where the missing people were taken."
"I know, dammit Sam I know. Cas is our friend though. You can't tell me you're not worried about him."
"I am worried, but I know he can take care of himself, and that we can't afford to let ourselves be distracted right now. We get distracted, it's very possible we're the next ones to disappear."
"I won't let that happen Sam," Dean stated, standing up from the chair and making his way to the counter that held a sink, coffee machine, and a bottle of whisky with two Dixie cups. Dean filled one of the cups with a shot, and downed it in one swig before filling it again.
"You don't know what will happen Dean. For all we know, we could wind up dead, by a natural cause!"
"You don't really think we'll die of natural causes do you?" Dean asked, his eyebrow raising slightly as an amused smirk crossed his lips.
"You know what I meant Dean."
"Yeah Sam, I know what you mean," Dean sighed. "I'm just not gonna sit around on my ass and wait for something to happen to Cas okay?"
"I'm not either, but until we know something, we gotta keep busy man." Sam sighed, standing up to face his older brother.
"You're right, I guess," Dean muttered, downing the whiskey in the cup still in his hand.
"So, we'll get some sleep, and first thing in the morning…"
"After breakfast," Dean cut Sam off with. Sam just chuckled and shook his head.
"First thing, after breakfast," he added quickly when he saw Dean open his mouth again. "We'll go around the town and see what the locals have to say."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Dean smiled, jumping onto his bed completely clothed. He closed his eyes, and Sam watched as he fell into a deep sleep right away.
"Dean, what am I gonna do with you?" Sam sighed, laying down on his own bed. He didn't bother changing either. He knew what Dean was feeling with not being able to sleep, but Sam's reason was completely different. It hadn't happened since he and Dean killed Azazel, the demon who had killed their mother and father. He was having a nightmare, that felt like it was about to come true. The same thing happened shortly after his 22nd birthday. He dreamt of his girlfriend's death, then she died exactly as she seen it.
After so long, the dreams took on a different form. He started having them while he was awake, and they were so strong and painful. It felt as though someone took a white hot branding iron and stabbed him through his skull.
Sam laid back in his bed, preparing himself for a nightmare he knew would come, and let himself drift off into his own restless sleep.
Dean stirred as he felt a shot of cold air hit him in the face. Grumbling, he turned to lay on his stomach, to dazed to realize he was no longer on the bed, but on a patch of grass. He shivered as he tried to get comfortable again, but the cold prevented it from happening.
"Sammy, shut the damn window," Dean muttered, burying his face in his arms. Sam grunted awake and sat up, opening his eyes slowly. When he realized he wasn't in the hotel room, his eyes opened even wider, and he scrambled across the grass to where his brother was laying.
"Dean, we're not in the hotel room," Sam whispered sharply, forcing Dean to startle awake fully.
"Where the hell are we?" Dean asked, looking around with sleep filled eyes.
"Looks like a bone yard," Sam shrugged.
"Why in the hell are we here?"
"I don't know," Sam muttered as something snapped. Sam instantly reached for his lower back, where he kept his pistol in the waistband of his jeans. He cursed when he remembered it was in the trunk of the '67 Impala Dean had gotten from their father.
"We gotta get out of here," Dean muttered, realizing they were unarmed at the same time Sam realized it.
"Where do you think you're going?" A voice behind them asked, making the two brothers scramble to a stance and turn around. Sam swallowed thickly when he realized a man was with them. "You can't leave now." The man continued. He then smiled and turned around, throwing his hands into the air. "The party's just begun!"
Suddenly, music began blaring and people started to show up, drinks in hand and having a good time.
"Stick around for a little while, it might get a little, interesting," the strange man before them said, smirking as he took off someone else. Dean looked toward Sam with shock and amusement, who returned the look with one of his own.
"Do we kill them?" Dean asked, stepping backward slightly as a couple doing a sort of waltz nearly hit him.
"I don't know," Sam replied, looking around at all the people having a full blown party in the middle of the cemetery. When his eyes fell on something beside a tombstone, he froze and instantly became more confused.
"Dean," he whispered sharply. Dean followed Sam's gaze to the tombstone, and froze as well when he saw the little girl standing beside it.
"What's a little girl doing here?" Dean asked, moving toward her. The second he took the first step, however, she vanished into thin air.
"She was a spirit," Dean muttered, looking around for any sign of the girl.
"Wait, so are all these people here spirits as well?" Sam asked, looking around. He saw a man drinking from a glass, and watched as the drink spilled out of a cut along his neck. "Yeah, that guy is definitely a spirit," he shivered, turning away from the sight.
"What the hell is going on here?" Dean asked, obviously getting agitated.
"Why, this is your goodbye party of course," a different spirit said. "You two are so brave, giving yourselves up like this."
"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, looking him up and down with narrowed eyes.
"Why, sacrificing yourselves, to keep this place up and going. So selfless, not to many people like that around here anymore." The guy moved on after he saw someone, leaving Sam and Dean to stare at each other.
"S-sacrifice?" Dean muttered. "Did he say sacrifice?"
"Dude, we have to get out of here," Sam whispered.
"Really? I thought I'd let myself get mutilated for these sonsabitches." Dean snapped. "How do we get out without them real…"
"It's time," The spirit from before announced, smiling at Sam and Dean from across the grounds.
"How the hell are they able to do this?" Sam asked suddenly. "This is impossible."
"Sammy, you of all people know nothing is impossible." Dean sighed. "Remember Murdock?"
"Don't remind me," Sam muttered even though he knew Dean had a point. Murdock, a spirit they faced years ago, was able to change as his legend changed. The only way to kill him, was to burn the house he haunted to the ground.
"Come," the lead spirit said, holding out a hand to Sam and Dean. They felt their bodies moving forward, as if being pushed toward the front.
"Think of something Sammy," Dean growled, struggling to free himself from the psychic grip.
"I'm trying," Sam muttered, looking around. He spotted an angel on a tombstone, and immediately thought of Castiel. He looked over at Dean, realizing he had spotted the angel as well.
"He always comes when we're in danger," Sam pointed out. Dean nodded, hoping that Castiel was safe and able to come. He closed his eyes and muttered Castiel's name under his breath. When he opened his eyes, his heart raced when he saw the man standing in front of him.
"Brace yourselves," Castiel told them as he placed his hands on their heads. Dean and Sam closed their eyes, and when they reopened them, they were back in their hotel room.
"What was that?" Castiel asked as Sam and Dean sat down on their beds.
"They, they were going to sacrifice us," Dean muttered, swallowing thickly as he tried to catch his breath.
"To what?"
"They didn't say," Sam answered. There was a brief pause while Sam and Dean collected themselves.
"Cas, you're okay," Sam said, looking up at the angel with relief in his eyes.
"Yes, barely, but I'm alive."
"How?" Dean asked.
"Now's not the time. We have to figure out what they were trying to give you to."
"It could be a number of things." Sam groaned. "Dean was almost sacrificed to a God so a town could stay perfect."
"Normally, human sacrifices do go to Gods, but what kind of God will raise spirits like that?"
"Hades?" Dean asked.
"The Greek God of the Underworld?" Sam asked, looking up at his brother half amused.
"It's possible," Castiel said. "He does have control of their souls, just as much as Lucifer does."
"Possibly more," Sam agreed, letting his head hang. "He is a God after all. Lucifer is just a fallen angel. I think God trumps angel."
"Unless Lucifer has some sort of leverage against Hades."
"Wait, we don't even know if we're talking about Hades," Dean spoke up. "I just threw him out as an example."
"No Dean, it makes sense," Sam muttered, feeling a dull pain shoot through his head.
"Sammy?" Dean asked, kneeling in front of his brother.
"I thought these were over with," Sam growled, his vision flashing from his brother's face to something completely different. He looked around the cemetery, spotting something that made his heart run cold.
"Sam!" Dean snapped, shaking him.
"What's going on with him?" Castiel asked.
"Vision," Dean answered, knowing he had no choice but to sit back and wait for his brother's mind to come back to the present time. "We thought they ended when we killed yellow eyes."
"Azazel would have nothing to do with that," Castiel said. "There was nothing for him to see, so he didn't see it." Sam gasped, clutching onto Dean's shoulders as Dean grabbed a fist full of Sam's shirt.
"What happened?" Dean asked Sam when Sam realized he was looking at his older brother again.
"I thought the visions were gone." Sam said.
"What happened in it?" Dean asked again, ignoring Sam's comment for the moment.
"Ugh, a-a woman was standing at an alter. There is no God, just the ghosts. They get a human sacrifice, they leave the town alone."
A/N Chapter 1 of 2. Hope you like it. :)