AUTHOR NOTES: Please enjoy! This was edited and approved by my bestie LittleIsis. All mess ups are her fault. (Just kidding, love you!)
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Chapter One: Angels
It was so hot it hurt to breathe. The air shimmered like he was in an ocean of sand. He kept walking despite the muscle spasms that stuttered every step. He'd been walking for so long he had forgotten how to stop. His worn shoes carried sand in and out of the heel as he walked. Castiel did not regret his life despite how horribly it was about to end.
Castiel had always thought of himself as a simple man. Growing up he didn't eat much besides the dark rye bread his Mother baked. The borscht was his favorite treat, eaten on the coldest winter days. On Christmas his parents would light all the candles in the house and dance to music his Uncles played on a fiddle. He found joy in lit candles. He found happiness in the eyes of the Madonna who graced his Mother's bedside table.
He wished for the coldest New York night. Like the winter where the water froze in the glass he left by the windowsill. Instead he was facing the Texas sun as it beat down relentlessly on his back. He licked his blistered lips to sooth the pain but the meager moisture left on his tongue was not enough. His legs chose that moment to fail. He sagged to his knees and fell face first to the hot sand. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you die. But Castiel only clung on to one memory, his parents laughing brightly with the Christmas candles flickering high in the night.
"How do you know if we're going in the right direction? We could be going in circles Dean!" Sam was practically yelling as their covered wagon bumped along the rocky trail. His brother didn't disguise his eye roll.
"Baby knows the way to go. Besides the compass always points south right? And that's the way we're going." He clicked the reigns and the horse named Baby cantered a little faster. She was a smooth black Arabian that Dean had stolen when she was just a foal.
"Dean for the love of God we're supposed to be heading north. You know, towards South Dakota."
"Calm down Sammy or you'll pop a blood vessel if you keep up that bitch face." Their extended stay in the Western regions of America had made Sam a bit cranky. He was always complaining about the sand in his boots or the heat. Of course the heat was bad, they were in the middle of the desert. Dean rarely let the weather bother him anymore. He sighed happily with the sun beating down on his face and the hot air blowing through his hair. Along the horizon he could see a wake of Vultures circling high in the sky. He counted at least six which meant whatever animal was currently dying of thirst was a large one.
"Want to see what poor shmuck is rotting up the way?" Dean asked his younger brother. Sam shrugged noncommittally which Dean took as a yes. He slapped Baby's rear to indicate the change in direction.
A mile or so up the trail sat what appeared to be a wad of black cloth baking in the sun. A vulture was investigating the odd shape to determine whether it was edible or simply a piece of trash left by one of the passing wagon trains. The bird pecked at the only visible shred of color amongst the mass. The mass let out a defeated moan; the vulture squawked in disappointment, his meal was still alive. Dean himself was surprised when the odd black shape unfolded into the shape of a human. A very thin, very haggard looking human with their skin drawn taunt against their bones from dehydration but a human nonetheless lay dying in the hot Texas sun. He leapt from the wagon without stopping the horse.
"Sam get the water. They're still alive." He picked the skeletal man from the burning sand and cradled him in his arms. Two marble blue eyes opened slightly as the cowboy carried him.
"An angel, I must be in heaven." The man sighed in a deep voice full of sad relief. Dean's heart beat a little harder in his chest. The man was half dead yet his eyes were so alive. Before Dean could correct him the man in black had passed out in his arms.