Hey, so I'd appreciate if you put a review somewhere along here if you've read this far. I don't know if anyone reading this at all but if you are I'd be much obliged and a bit more dedicated to getting these up on time but for right now, I'm kinda just writing for myself.
Thanks! ~Edwin Nigma
"Dean." The voice hissed in the dark. "Dean, wake up!" it said urgently and the older brother's eyes flicked open.
He groaned slightly and rubbed his eyes. "What's wrong?"He asked before pausing.
Oh crap.
He could hear them as soon as he focused on the snapping of twigs. It was, fortunately, faint. He guess it must be a quarter of a mile away or more by his hearing range.
"It's them, isn't it?" Sammy asked and Dean just closed his eyes and sighed. Like it would be anyone else on a week like this one.
"It's okay. We'll be fine." Dean rolled his eyes before seeing his brother's expression. He was scared but trying not to make it obvious. Why would-? Dean started before thinking back to the last time Sam had interacted with these hunters. Sam had helped carry Dean back home after that. He must've been freaked since Dean had always made an effort to make it look like he'd had everything under control so seeing how miserably his older brother had failed at that… Sam was probably terrified of that happening to him.
Dean reached for his brother and pulled him close.
"It's going to be okay." he said quietly. "I'm not going to let them hurt you."
Sam hugged his brother and buried his face in his shoulder.
Dean was only half right in his thinking. Sam wasn't worried about getting hurt, he was more terrified of losing his brother.
"Don't be scared, Sammy. You'll be alright." Dean whispered.
What about you? Sam thought to himself.
Jo kicked some leaves off to the side and scanned the area.
"They've been through here. They covered their tracks but… well, they're good but we're better." she said with a grin.
"They? You said one before." Lisa interrupted.
The blonde girl just shrugged. "Another set of tracks showed up. Bigger than the others, probably called in for backup… Hey John, why would one of them be hurt?"
She turned and looked at her mentor. Gruff man's face gave no emotion.
"Could be from anything. There might have been a fight within the pack. These monsters can turn on each other in an instant if they see an opportunity for personal gain. Every Beta is just twitching to become the new leader, you know." he explained.
Lisa's eyebrows knit together but she said nothing. What a terrible way to live she thought. How does he handle it all? What if he's- she stopped herself. She didn't care about him. Not at all. Not even the tiniest bit. Nope.
"Where did they go next?" John asked.
Jo nodded sharply and turned around to examine the scene around her. She saw the scuffs made from whoever came to clean up the trail. It was a hurried job, like they wanted to be done with it son and move on. That made it easier and much harder to follow.
They ended up in a clearing with nothing but a few tree stumps and a rusty car tipped on it's side and probably looted and graffitied over by teens from the last few generations.
The hunters spaced out to look for a sign. Lisa looked at the car with a slightly dreamy kind of look on her face. When they were growing up, Dean would stand up on the drivers seat of his dad's car and pretend he was coasting along the highway. Lisa would take shotgun and they'd "run away together" without ever leaving the driveway. She flushed at the memory of someone she didn't care about in the slightest and looked down at a different kind of shotgun she had loaded with silver bullets in her hands. That was the past, this was now. People change and he had changed for the worst.
She climbed on top of the old rusty car and pulled open the door, it seemed oddly sturdy for an old junkyard reject tipped on it's side. Something about the bottom of the wreck caught her eye. It looked like there was a piece welded funny. Maybe it was trick of the light or just a break. She stepped down inside and moved it. It came loose, revealing a pit only a few feet deep but the side of it kept going past what the flashlight could cover
"Hey, did you find something?" Lisa called, walking over a little bit.
The brunette girl shrugged. "There's something like a hole down here. It might be just some kids' secret clubhouse or something. I'll shout if I find anything."
Down the rabbit-hole I go she joked in her mind. The drop was about 4 feet and she landed surprisingly quietly but in the silence it felt like it echoed.
She switched on her flashlight and felt her jaw drop. It was far more elaborate than she'd anticipated. The tunnel stretched out in front of her, high enough for even someone John's size to walk comfortably down.
Lisa looked back up at the hole she'd just jumped through and saw the flashlight beam from Jo skimming the top.
"You okay?" her sister asked.
"Fine. Wait there." Lisa said. She considered calling for backup but there was no real reason to assume there was danger here...and a piece of her told her to wait until she knew more. She was already a little irked by John's speech on turning on their own kind. Something was off about him that she hadn't found out about yet. Something in the way Dean had paled when he heard John coming.
She pressed forward down the tunnel. Her footsteps were silent from years of practice and the soft dirt floor helped muffle any mistakes.
"Dean?" the voice squeaked. "I hear footsteps."
The older brother strained his ears only for a moment. His hearing's getting really good a piece of Dean's mind mused. The other piece became fiercely protective.
He glanced back at the doorway behind him, glaring into the darkness as though daring for someone to step out. If they did...oh boy would they regret it. He would-
"Dean?" the voice breathed and the green eyes turned away from the door to look at his charge. Sam looked so worried. No kid should ever have to be that worried at his age especially. Dean bit his lower lip and pulled his brother to his shoulder.
"It's gonna be fine, Sammy. Everything's gonna be okay." he whispered silently. "I promise. No one's going to hurt you. You're gonna be just fine. You'll be-"
He'd been clumsy. He'd messed up. That and those hunters were scary good. He hadn't even heard them come in. The only way he knew they were there was from the circular piece of metal that now rested against his back.
