Castiel knows prophecies.
He knows that the world
was supposed to end
with screaming
and fire
and two brothers
tearing at each other.
In the end
they pass that
and the world is still standing.
The world really ends
in a park.
With the cold
and darkness
and silence
and a
discarded knife
on the ground.
Or more accurately
silence in response to a question
A very important question.
"Dean?"
The end of the world lasts
for a long time before
he tries again.
"Dean!?"
The world
doesn't seem
to be picking
itself
up.
"Sam!?"
He stands alone.
The wendigo is dead.
He made sure of that.
It hadn't hurt them.
"Dean!?"
It's dark
as one would expect
the world to be
once it's ended.
It's cold.
He's scared.
Like you would expect someone to be
as they stand
dying from the inside
out.
-
10 demons have died.
Apologies.
11 demons have died
at his hand.
And he's still in the dark
with no answers.
He's still cold.
He's still scared.
His brothers and sisters don't answer him.
Why should they?
He believes the last time he spoke to them
he was surrounded
by their kins'
broken
bodies.
Can you be a broken body
while your heart still beats?
Logic and experience
dictate
yes.
-
It's been a month
of silence
and he's back
in that
asinine
park.
He sits on a bench,
stares at the trees
as if
they will just
walk out,
laughing and
clapping each other
on the shoulder.
"Dude, Cas you should have seen your face."
They don't
of course.
People are walking their dogs.
A man sells burgers.
A woman calls her daughter's name.
How sad.
The angels are unlikely
to answer her either.
She calls her name again.
Marie.
Your daughter is gone.
Marie.
I said your daughter is gone.
Marie. I said get away from him.
Wait what?
There's someone
tugging on his sleeve.
Marie.
"You're here a lot mister."
"Yes. I am."
"Why?"
"I am looking for someone."
"For a whole two weeks!?"
"I have been here a month."
"A month!?"
She sounds astounded.
Her mother leads her away.
How funny humans are.
A month is nothing.
Remember.
Dean spent four months
in his
hell.
-
A year.
A year and he's still in the park.
-
Brothers.
Brothers please.
-
If you can't find them
you could at least
talk to me.
-
Please.
-
Five years.
Five years and he's still in the park.
-
Marie.
She's coming over again.
She must be
12 or so now.
Marie, for God's sake just stay away from him.
How would that aid God?
"Don't you have a house?"
No.
"Sir?"
"No."
"So where do you live?"
"Marie leave him alone. I'm sorry."
She's dragged away again.
Her mother stops walking home through the park.
Or maybe Marie left school.
It hardly seems important.
-
Ten years.
Ten years and he's still in the park.
-
"Hello brother."
He freezes.
Hester.
Why are you here?
"We heard you."
You have ignored me
for so long.
Why are you here?
"Because, Castiel
we owe you
an explanation."
...
Go on.
-
"You were one of us,
our kin.
We loved you.
We love you still.
But what you took from us-"
It's called ignorance.
"Don't call us fools."
I'm not.
I'm saying
you were hidden.
"And what?
You showed us the light?"
No.
I showed you the dark.
"You thought yourself king."
I know now that was wrong.
I overstepped-
"You killed our kind."
I'm sorry.
"So am I brother."
Why?
"You know."
What did you do?
"We cannot kill you.
The new order
does not believe
in capital punishment."
So what?
"If we cannot kill you,
we will simply
walk in
and take
your reason
to live."
-
It's anger.
It's red.
It's blood.
Where are they?
"So you strike me now?
How low can you sink?"
Into Hell
if you continue
to push me.
Where are they?
"With us."
Until when?
"Until we see fit,
Brother."
And he's alone
again.
-
Twenty years.
Twenty years and he's still in the park.
Come on.
This is just getting
repetitive
now.
-
"So where do you live?"
Marie asks.
But not really.
He hasn't seen her
in years.
But she still asks.
"So where do you live?"
I don't know.
"Sir?"
I said I don't know.
"Sir, where do you live?"
I don't-
"Sir, what do you live for?"
I don't know.
I haven't known
in years.
-
Thirty years.
Thirty years and he leaves the park.
-
He walks the outskirts.
Steps over a stream
and finds a path.
It leads him out
onto a tarmac road.
Road.
He'd missed the road.
A car drives past.
It beeps at him.
He moves.
The cars have changed again.
They keep changing.
Everything does.
Always.
Cars.
Castiel is an idiot.
Dean would kill
Castiel if he were
here.
You forgot my baby!?
Apologies.
But not really.
Because Dean didn't say
a word.
He hasn't in years.
-
The car is still there.
It's rusty.
How quickly things grow old.
It's covered in dead leaves.
How quickly things die.
The park protests.
The trees hit him and reach for him
as he passes.
When we die
we come back
brighter than ever,they say.
I've seen brighter, he replies.
We have been
here forever.
We are old, they say.
I've been older, he replies.
Yes.
But have you ever
become young again?
Renewed.
Like us?They say.
Just once, he replies.
And his fingers touch the rusted metal.
Once.
I found a home.
That was not a cold office.
It was not the light and
the cold of steel
of heaven.
It was the warmth
of an engine.
And the dark
of humans
who have the
silly need
to paint
their possessions.
The trees are silent
as the impala is young again.
Maybe
they're intimidated.