Three Days Later

Castiel lifted the box-

And fell back with an unmanly shriek when a small, furry thing fell out from behind it. Standing on a chair, he stared intently at it, waiting for it to move. When several moments had passed, he stepped down and retrieved a ruler from his desk. It was still there when he got back. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a rat. It lay motionless and stiff on the cold concrete floor.

Arm extended as far as possible, Castiel poked the rodent with his ruler. It didn't react.

Dead, thank goodness.

Sighing in relief, Cas threw away his ruler and returned to the tiny corpse with a broom and dustpan.

"Thank you and have a nice day!" Castiel called after his last customer of the day. After the door swung back into place, he collapsed onto his chair.

Five. Freakin' five dead rats in his back room, each more disgusting then the last. Shuddering, Castiel began to wonder why he had agreed to take over the shop for his father. Never mind that no one else would have done it, or that he (usually) enjoyed it. Somebody was out to get him, and they knew they could find him here. The six notes in his desk drawer attested to that fact.

They didn't know where he lived, did they?

Telling himself he was being paranoid, Castiel forced himself to his feet. Of course they didn't. Otherwise they would stalk him there too.

But this was getting out of hand. He needed someone to help him, to ensure that he wasn't crazy.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he picked up the phone and called his brother.

"Hello, this is the all-powerful Gabriel!"

"Hi, Gabriel."

"Cassie! Hi! What's up?"

"Um. Well, it's kind of stupid. I don't-"

"Hey now, nothing is stupid when it comes to you."

Castiel rolled his eyes at Gabe's cheesy southern-belle accent. "Well... I've been getting weird letters. Creepy weird. And...dead rats. Everywhere. I..." He sighed. He sounded so pathetic.

"Just a thought, but...you wouldn't happen to be using rat traps, now would you? 'Cause you know, they are know to produce- get this- dead rats."

Cas sighed. "I know that, Gabriel. I haven't been using rat traps. They're just dead. On the ground."

Gabriel's voice took on a more serious tone. Cas was grateful that his brother could drop the sass and sarcasm when it counted. "What do you want me to do about it?" A pause. Then, excitedly, "I can always dress up as the Pied Piper and music them out. You know how great a temptress I am. No, wait. I'm a dude. What do you call a male temptress?"

"Annoying," Cas snapped, hanging up the phone.

Usually when it counted.