Dean woke up naked to the sound of thumping skin and moans.
'What the fuck?' He peered towards the sound trying to get his eyes to focus in the dark. He could make out two shapes silhouetted in the tiny amount of light available to him. The moans and slap of skin against skin crescendoed as he rolled to his side and got up on one elbow. He was covered in sweat and felt light headed. "Sam?" He croaked softly, his throat parched and dry, "Sam!" he choked out coughing and falling back against the bed. The moans and slaps increased to fever pitch as Dean covered his face with his hands and tried to block out the noise from his splitting head. "Sammy! Help!" He called out desperately, feeling his consciousness falling away.
The next time Dean opened his eyes a crack, the daylight burnt into his retina and he winced as if his brain had been sliced in two. "Son of a bitch," he cursed in pain and pushed himself up. His bladder felt like it would burst any second and his mouth tasted like sawdust and dirt. Squinting against the light he stumbled into the filthy bathroom and proceeded to relieve himself. After a shake and a flush, he splashed cold water from the sink onto his face and looked up wearily into the mirror. Cas was standing right behind him. "Holy shit!" He gasped and spun around to face Cas with a start. "Almost Dean," Cas said flatly. Dean was shocked and frightened by the appearance of the man who, last he saw, seemed to be some kind of devil thing.
"It's ok Dean," Sam's voice floated around the bathroom corner before the face of the young man appeared behind Cas's shoulder. "Cas is one of the good guys. Just come and sit down and we'll explain everything." Sam gestured to the beds.
Sliding past Cas, and super conscious of his naked body, Dean quickly strode over to the bed he had risen from; tucking his lower body under the coverlet. "Ok," he said warily, "What in the hell is going on here?"
Sam sat down on the bed across from Dean's bed, while Cas remained standing at the bathroom door.
"You've probably got a lot of questions right now Dean but we haven't got time to go through everything. I'll just give you the basics." Sam began.
"Ok," Dean nodded uncertainly still half-eyeing Cas standing quietly.
"Do you believe in monsters Dean?" Sam asked.
"Well... I believe in monstrous people..." Dean conceded.
"No I mean actual monsters, and spirits and such?" Sam clarified.
"Uuh..." Dean stammered, looking confused from Sam to Cas and back to Sam.
"Well, they're real Dean." Sam looked earnestly into Dean's eyes trying to get the confused man to understand. "They're real and one lives right here in this town... The Raijū."
"The Ra.. what?" Dean's face mirrored the incredulity he felt in his mind. 'What the hell is this clown talking about? This is insane. How do I get out of here?' Thoughts raced through Dean's mind and he started to look around for a way out.
"Wait! Dean, listen, I know this is crazy sounding but I'm telling you the truth!" Sam implored as he saw the panic rising in Dean's face.
"It's true Dean. Sit down and hear Sam out". At the sound of Cas's voice Dean sat back down and stared at the man he thought had shown great generosity to him but had also freaked the living shit out of him.
He shook his head, "None of this is making a damn ounce of sense" he groaned, gripping his head in his hands. "Monsters... you Cas... and that Dog thing! What on Earth are you talking about Sam!?" Dean pleaded. "You three gallons of crazy in a two gallon bucket?!"
Sam looked at Dean with compassion and concern in his eyes. He reached out and gripped the forearm of the overwhelmed man and, holding firmly, said "Dean hush, calm down. Give me five minutes to explain and then, if you still want to run, you can go."
Dean looked into the face of his friend and across to the steely gaze of Cas. Cas nodded tightly toward Sam. Taking a deep breath, Dean acquiesced: "Ok, five minutes. That's it. Then I'm gone from this crazy circus."
Sam nodded with a tight lipped smile. He let go of Dean's arm and sat up straight on the bed. Looking down at his hands he wondered where to begin this incredible story. With a sigh, he looked up at Dean and said "It all started fifty years ago..."
"There was this Japanese guy called Yuuto who lived in the town and had a kind of Japanese curiosity shop. He didn't make a lot of money but he was a real character and most everyone knew him. Maybe they thought he was a bit crazy, but they never thought he'd do anything harmful."
"He spent a lot of time in the bar listening to the various woes of the farmers roundabout these parts. There had been a long drought and crops were failing from lack of water everywhere. Turns out Yuuto means helpful or something in Japanese and this guy sees it as his life purpose to try and help people out."
"Yuuto was a Shinto devotee and he kept a journal of his life experiences. After hearing the farmers' complaints, he wrote a journal entry trying to figure out how he could help them. He decided he needed to pray to the Shinto god Raijin to bring storms to the area and help the farmers with their crops. To try and bring some extra guarantees that his prayers would work, he used an old Japanese ritual of summoning the Raijin that had been passed down in the lore of his family. He planned to appeal directly to the god. What he didn't know was that one of the ritual objects he had used in the ritual from his curiosity store was actually magic. The god Raijin appeared that night, summoned by Yuuto, bringing thunder and lightning and a great storm with him. Yuuto was terrified by the appearance of the god but to his credit decided to go ahead and plead with the god to bring prosperity and plentiful water to the region so the farmers' crops could succeed."
"The Raijin laughed at Yuuto's request and, as he did, lightning flashed and tore through the sky. He asked Yuuto why he should bother with the woes of these farmers. Yuuto pleaded with the god, eventually offering his own service in exchange for the god's favour. The Raijin looked intrigued by this man who would offer his own life to help strangers he barely even knew. The Raijin decided to humour the man. He told Yuuto that if he were to grant this special boon, Yuuto would become his Raijū companion on Yuuto's death. Yuuto agreed to the deal and afterwards wrote the entire experience in his diary. It wasn't long before his sacrifice made a difference to the lives of the community. Farmers found their crops in abundance year after year and the town never ran out of water again."
"One day Yuuto was walking home from his shop when he was attacked by a huge black dog. The dog mauled him to death. Although people came running to help him when they heard his screams, the attack was so savage and swift that very little could be done. The dog ran out of town and Yuuto lay bleeding in the street. They lifted his lifeless body from the ground and gave him an official Shinto burial in the town cemetery."
"About six months later a local girl who had been helping out at the church saw a huge black wolf with green eyes staring at her as she walked home along the forest road from the church hall. She was so frightened by the sight she ran full tilt the rest of the way home and, in breathless gasps, related the story to her Pa."
"Her Pa was one of the people who had seen Yuuto killed by the huge black dog, and so he gathered his weapons and called on a group of men from the town to help him hunt the beast. He was convinced it was the same monster that had killed Yuuto. The men entered the forest intent on trapping and shooting the beast. Strangely, the sky had turned an evil green grey colour and ominous black clouds started filling the heavens. As the men sought the beast, lightning started cracking across the sky and soon torrential rain and gale force winds blew up from nowhere. The womenfolk of the town were anxious for their men, but they could do nothing but batter down in the face of the strange storm. By morning the storm had disappeared as quickly as it had arrived."
"When the men never returned home the next day, the panicking women formed a search party with the assistance of the state troopers. For hours they searched the forest around the outskirts of town looking for the missing men. Just before nightfall, a call came over the radio. The men had been found. Dead and mauled. No one had witnessed a sight quite like it. It was like a typhoon had taken animal form and ripped the doomed hunting posse limb from limb. Very little of the remains were recognisable as human, let alone as the men who had left the day before. The news ran an article on the deaths and the townsfolk grieved and banned anyone from going into the forest from that day on."
"Years passed and the town slowly recovered from the forest massacre. The legend of the Storm dog grew. Children, like me, grew up doubting the monster in the forest was real. We all thought our parents and grandparents were superstitious nutcases. We'd regularly make clandestine raids into the forest. Nothing weird ever happened.
Then one day I was out in the forest when a storm started brewing. It got dark real quick so I looked for a place to shelter. Finally I came across a kind of bunker in the deepest part of the forest. It was just a mound with a door in it."
"The bunker we were in," said Dean quietly.
"Yes," replied Castiel gravely, making Dean turn suddenly towards the man. He had forgotten Cas was in the room. Castiel was looking intensely at Dean and it made the young man feel deeply uncomfortable. Sam cleared his throat and Dean turned back to his friend.
"Yeah exactly. So I found a way to open the door and I hid inside away from the storm. I must have eventually fallen asleep, because when I woke up I looked straight into the green eyes of a huge black wolf."
Sam told Dean how the huge animal was not in any way aggressive towards him and seemed more curious than anything else to find a human in its lair. Sam however had no idea how he was going to get out of this situation alive. He didn't move for hours, waiting until the monster finally moved away and curled its obsidian limbs underneath itself, resting its maw on a giant black paw.
"After some time had passed it was clear the monster was asleep," Sam continued.
"I took the chance to move in as small and silent a way as I could. I was able to make my way towards where a small shaft of sunlight was penetrating the dusty gloom of the bunker. I found it was coming from where the door jamb did not fit closely to its frame. I could not easily locate a mechanism to open the door and decided to wait and see if I could get an opportunity to escape."
"He didn't have to wait long," Castiel interjected and Dean looked at the older man in surprise. "I had been searching for the bunker of the Raijū for some time as part of my mission. I came across it at this exact moment," Cas added.
"You were there?" Dean asked, puzzled by this. He looked from Sam to Cas and back to Sam, suddenly realising how far over his head he was. Sam and Cas both watched as Dean's face moved through shocked disbelief to fear and finally to stonewalled neutrality.
"Yes Dean, that's right. I was there," replied Cas gently.
"What are you Cas?!" Dean demanded, pulling himself away from the two men, every muscle in his body tensed and ready for flight.
"I'm an Angel of the Lord," Cas answered and at that moment his eyes filled with blue electric light and his whole body radiated power.
Dean fell back terrified and awed from the sight and power of this being. This man he thought was just an ordinary guy with a generous heart was so much more than he had bargained for.
Cas resumed his normal appearance and, seeing the overwhelming panic in Dean's face, sought to reach out and calm him. Dean pulled away violently from Cas's outstretched hand and got to his feet with the bed between him and the two other men.
"Dean, just listen," said Sam urgently. "I know this is a huge thing to take in, but I promise you that things will make a lot more sense when you've heard the full story."
"Well, uh, I've just got to take a leak before we continue," replied Dean heading towards the bathroom door. He watched the faces of the two other men as he closed the door. He bolted it from the inside and then, finding the window big enough to squeeze through, got out of the damn place and ran down to the highway hoping for a ride to arrive super fast. He had barely caught his breath when a truck came into view. Sticking his thumb out, Dean caught the attention of the truck driver who pulled over to let him jump into the cab. As Dean jumped up to the seat he looked back up to the hotel to see Cas and Sam bursting out of the room and running towards him yelling and waving. Dean turned to the driver and said "Let's get the hell outta here," only then getting a good look at the driver's face. Green flashing eyes in a face almost entirely covered with a black dense beard and a smile full of canine teeth leered back at him. "Hello Dean," the werewolf man grinned as he shifted the rig into gear and Dean felt the truck heave forward. Looking back out the window he saw Sam and Cas fading into the distance as the truck picked up speed. He tried the door and found himself locked in to the cabin. The werewolf man broke into sadistic laughter as he watched Dean's dawning realisation of his predicament out of the corner of his eye. The werewolf leaned over and grabbed Dean's chin, forcing him to come eye to eye with those strangely alien orbs. Menacingly, the werewolf stared at Dean for a second then, laughing, it said "Whatever you say Dean, whatever you say."