With The Coming of the Dawn
Summary
The hunters become the hunted when a creature stalks a remote community, and one of the brothers has a choice to make. Will both brothers survive the hunt and the decision of the other?
Disclaimer- I don't own Supernatural or any of the characters therein despite my best efforts. Doesn't stop me from dreaming though…..sigh. Please don't sue me, not making any money from this and they have no one to blame, leaving us all summer like this….. grrrr
I have taken some liberal artistic licence with this story, (making some facts up entirely!) Any errors are entirely expected and come as no surprise to the author – hoping you can turn a blind eye and enjoy.
Please R and R – this is my first ever Fanfic, wrings hands, please be gentle but I appreciate any constructive criticism in the probably vain hope that my writing somehow improves.
Prologue
"This was so not one of my better ideas", Sam muttered as he raced through the forest undergrowth, his long legs eating away the distance, taking him further away from the town and his brother.
The forest was worryingly quiet. The evening mist was creeping in and the last of the fading sunlight casting an eerie tint to the woods around him. It was if he was the only thing alive in the forest, which he knew unfortunately for a fact that he wasn't, just that every other living thing here was a damn sight brighter than he was and were keeping out of sight.
It had seemed like such a good one at the time, but then again, Sam had had only one thought at the time and that was to keep this thing the hell away from his brother.
"If I tear this jacket, I am so going to get it from Dean," Sam thought as he ran through a particularly dense section of undergrowth. He was wearing one of Dean's white T shirts and leather jacket – he had drawn the line at his jeans though, no way that they would have fitted his long legs anyway and these bushes were determined to take lumps out of him as it was. It was the best he could do at such short notice though and would hopefully be enough to lure this creature away from his brother.
"Come and find me you bastard!" Sam thought angrily. He slowed to listen, to see if his plan was working. Even though he was waiting, desperately hoping to hear it, he was still chilled to hear that high-pitched barking in the distance behind him, gaining fast, and his heartbeat started to race when he realised that he was no longer the hunter but the hunted……..
Chapter One
The week before…
Dean was bored.
This was not good news for Sam as a bored Dean was a Dean just waiting to either get into trouble or to annoy Sam – either way; Sam's chances of getting to research in peace and quiet were slim and fast approaching zero. Dean had eventually settled down at the window having been prowling the room like a caged tiger for the past half hour. Only Sam's exasperated sigh had made him realise that his pacing was starting to fray his younger brother's nerves. He hated to be cooped up inside, to be trapped and was feeling the need to be outside in the fresh air. If he were honest with himself,
He had never felt more alive than when he was on a hunt.
He smiled mischievously and asked, "anything yet?" for what had to be the tenth time in an hour. He was rewarded with a pillow being thrown at him, which he caught easily and pushed behind his back as he lounged against the wall, and looked out of the window at the mist forming as the night began drawing in.
They had stayed in worse places before ok, worse guesthouses, but this was a small town, if you could call it that, based around the sawmill and lumberjack business located further up the hill on the forest edge. The town had a general store and one solitary bar, which boasted a pool table and darts board.
"But this town sure has its perks" Dean thought with a smile, his green eyes lighting.
The locals were friendly enough to the new men in town. The Impala had attracted some appreciative glances when they arrived and the vast majority of the men either worked at the sawmill or were frequently away during the week at the camps located in the forest. This meant that there were a few, rather lonely, bored and affectionate women more than willing to make most of the temporary excitement of the new faces in town.
Not that Sam seemed to notice; Dean thought grumpily, it was all about the hunt these days. There was the brief interlude with Sarah but since then Sam was reverting back, he might as well be a hermit, the social life he had. Well there was no way Dean was staying in tonight, if Sam wanted to keep an eye out then he could do it at the bar.
He was just about to start to wind Sam up about being a eunuch or something, when there was a knock at the room door.
Dean looked up at Sam, who had at last lifted his head up from his porings over the laptop, his brown, expressive eyes dulled with fatigue and worry.
"You going to get that?" Sam asked with a small smile, knowing very well after the last couple of days that it would be one of the local women, finding yet another reason to visit his brother.
"What can I say dude?" Dean replied, "It's boring here, the ladies all want a piece of this handsome devil and can you blame them?" He smirked.
"You have no shame, you know that don't you?" Sam said, his smile growing. H couldn't help it; his brother could always brighten his moods.
"What have I got to be ashamed of – I am doing a public service, lifting this town out of it's dull and dreary existence, not to mention driving the women –"
"Away?" Sam interrupted with a grin
"Wild" Dean retorted, "Something which you obviously know nothing about kiddo", glad to see Sam smiling for the first time in days.
The knock on the door became more insistent, and Dean rose, still smirking to open it.
Cat, the Woodcut's resident barmaid and owner of the guest house that the Winchesters were currently staying, stood at the door, her arm still raised mid-knock. Her normally cheerful not to mention very attractive face, was unusually serious. Dean had to admit that he liked her pout at having to wait almost as attractive as her mischievous grin when she was flirting with him.
"Dean, I was coming back from the bar when I though I saw someone prowling round your car" she said without preamble.
"What!" Dean exclaimed, if anyone has even put a scratch on her, I'll kill them, he thought angrily. He grabbed the keys and called back to Sam
"Won't be long, just going to pound someone into next week if they have even so much as looked at the car the wrong way"
Sam hesitated for a second before grabbing his coat and heading after Dean. He knew his brother could handle anyone, but there was no way he was letting him out of his sight, not after that last vision, the memory of it catching his breath.
In his vision, something had been hunting Dean, who had been tearing through the forest like a man possessed. Sam almost flinched at the word "possessed", not a word used lightly in his family.
Suddenly, a blinding pain filled his mind, Sam clutched at his head as the vision claimed him again.
A strange high-pitched bark called out in the forest behind Dean, getting closer, moving fast. Dean was pale, one hand to his head, the other pressed to his chest as he ran. He was slowing now, the pain coming in waves, it was excruciating, blinding, debilitating – and he knew he couldn't go on much longer. Sam – he had to protect Sam. And Sam in his vision could feel Dean's pain as if it were his own, sense the growing despair and the startling realisation that this time he might not make it and that his hopes of escaping the creature were fading.
The forest in front of Dean cleared and the ground levelled out and became more solid, Dean glanced down and realised that he had made it to the road leading into town; he peered through the mist and could see the lights in the distance. He was going to make it!
Suddenly the bark sounder, much closer to his right, between him and the town and he instinctively veered away when he realised what the creature was doing. It was driving him, hunting him, toying with him with a cruel almost catlike intelligence. Dean's anger rose, no furry critter is going to hunt down a Winchester, no way in hell!
It rose from the ground in front of him, not some wolf-like creature like he had imagined, but man shaped, tall and lean, "and so not a critter" dean though almost giddily. It rose to its full height, and towering over Dean, it sent it's taloned, paw like hand crashing down on Dean in a crushing blow……
"DEAN!" Sam screamed, as he came back from his vision. He realised he was still in their room. "Dean", he whispered, "I will not lose my brother…ever" he promised to himself and staggered from the room.