Part 20 – Dean

Dean was not feeling nearly as nonchalant as he was pretending about what had just happened with the faceless nurse. His head had already been spinning with too many thoughts of Hell, and then, when he thought he had an outlet for feeling like a hunter again, like he could help someone, his damsel in distress turned out to be a monster after all.

Dean was lucky he had been able to fend her off as well as he had before the others found him, and he was beyond relieved to see them all.

Even the stranger.

"Who's this? Aaron's sister?" Dean pointed to the young blonde who had been added to their crew, and who, despite having shorter hair and somewhat trampy clothes, looked strikingly like Jo Harvelle.

Dean tried not to stare and looked instead to Aaron for an answer, but the man in the polo shirt was shaking his head.

"This is Charlotte," said Castiel, "Charlie," he immediately amended with a slight wrinkle to his nose as if the name displeased him, "And she is not Aaron's sister but another of the inhabitants of the town. We must work quickly to discuss what we know and how best to proceed. I believe Charlotte is the last of the others we will find. Unless, of course, Aaron's sister is actually accessible to us."

"What…what's that supposed to mean?" Aaron jumped to the defensive.

"Stay focused," Sam said sternly. He paused a moment to grip Dean's arm and squeeze in reassurance. Or maybe it was to take reassurance, since Sam looked even more relieved to have found Dean than the other way around.

It was dark in the office, as it had been when Dean first went inside, but it looked like blonde chick Charlie had a flashlight, as did Aaron, since he had managed to hang onto their bag of supplies. The added light made Dean feel a marginal sense of safety, being able to see now that the office was not really all that large.

Dean hopped up onto the desk beside him, leaving the immobile body of the dead nurse where it lay. The others gathered around him, all of them, even the ones he didn't really know, looking to him as leader for some reason. Dean didn't really feel like being leader right now. Conflict of interested or some shit, wasn't it, what with some other version of Dean being one of the big bads out there.

Sam should be leading, not him.

But Dean managed a huff to catch his breath and said, "Okay, so…what do we know so far? Here is as good a place as any to take stock, right?"

"Wait, we should turn off these lights," Sam said, taking Aaron's flashlight right out of his hands and flicking it off, "I know it's a pain, but I think those things are drawn to the light."

See, Sam was the smart one. He should take charge, not Dean. Not here. Dean didn't even like the idea of being in the dark again, how pathetic was that? He was a little soothed that it looked like Sam had managed to re-bandage himself, but Cas wasn't looking too hot, and Dean definitely didn't like that they had two strangers with them now instead of one.

Charlotte didn't immediately listen to Sam about turning off her flashlight. She flicked it around the room instead. "Sure, I just love the idea of chitchatting in complete darkness with a bunch of men I don't know. Genius idea," she grumbled.

"You have nothing to fear from us," Castiel said, ever the unassuming and non-threatening male figure. Granted, the guy was an angel, so Dean didn't think that was quite the right way to put it. Was Cas even really male?

That was awkward to consider, for some reason.

"Sure thing, smooth talker," Charlotte cocked an eyebrow at Castiel, "But even if that's true, I do got something to fear from those walking nightmares lumbering around, and I'd rather be able to see 'em coming. This place isn't exactly—shit!" Charlotte's blue eyes suddenly went wide, her arc of light having landed right on Dean and the desk.

"Dean!" Sam dove forward to grab him, but it was already too late. Impossibly strong arms had already wrapped around Dean from behind and were pulling him backwards through a broken window into an adjacent office they hadn't bothered to notice.

Panic caught in Dean's throat, but he was not about to be done in by one of these freaking faceless bastards. He could tell by the shape of the thin arms and the large scalpel in one hand that it had to another one of the nurses. Dean's shotgun was in the other room, but he was far from helpless.

Slamming his head back into the faceless bitch and hearing a grunt and wheeze as she doubled back, Dean loosened her hold enough to jab an elbow into her stomach and break free. Quickly, he whirled around and reached back for his pistol, but the nurse was faster. She twitched, her head cocking at a disgusting angle, and then she lunged, stabbing the scalpel into Dean's left shoulder.

"Dean!" it was Castiel calling now, and as Dean was struggling to still pull his gun and somehow manage to blow the nurse's face off, the angel came running into the room ahead of Sam and the others and stuck his borrowed knife into the monster's back.

They were morbidly connected for a moment, from angel to monster to Dean, all through blades.

The nurse reared around, leaving her scalpel in Dean's shoulder, but Castiel took her down to her knees with one well-aimed punch. Dean was pretty impressed with that, especially with how fatigued the guy looked, but he took that as his cue to finish the job, pulling his gun finally and putting a bullet in the nurse's head.

She toppled over, dead, and good riddance too. Dean's shoulder hurt like Hell.

"Dean, please sit, we must attend to your wound," Castiel immediately took Dean's hand and led him over to a table. This office was larger than the other one, and seemed to be littered with medical supplies, almost too conveniently.

Damn Silent Hill, Dean thought, constantly messing with them.

Sam came in and started rummaging for supplies to treat Dean's shoulder. Just when Dean thought at least one of them was still in tip top shape—physically anyway—he had to go and get sliced up by an evil but still disturbingly sexy nurse. Now all of them had some kind of handicap. It wasn't as if they could count on Aaron or the new girl.

At least it looked like Sam had found some bandages and a cloth he was able to wet at a sink in the corner. Castiel took the job of removing the knife from Dean's shoulder, and strained right now or not, Dean was thankful for the slightly added strength in the angel's grip, because it didn't hurt nearly as much as it might have.

Dean still grit his teeth with a grunt of, "F-Fuck," but he gave Cas a grateful look afterward so the angel knew that Dean appreciated what he had done.

Everyone seemed to be coming to Dean's rescue. It was really starting to get to him.

"Damn it, here I go wasting everyone's time again," Dean grumbled, not really meaning to be heard, and definitely not looking for sympathy, but there it was.

Sam came over with the cloth and bandages wearing a prominent scowl. "Making sure we're all still in good enough shape to stay alive isn't wasting time, Dean. Quit being a baby," he said, mostly to ease the tension as he tossed a half-smile at Dean.

Sam knew him too well, and had to know that Dean would not be forgetting the Pyramid Head creature and how it was connected to him any time soon. Sam was also a good enough brother most of the time that he would not bring any of that up again until they were alone.

Looking away from those damn puppy eyes and casting his gaze down at the table instead, Dean spotted a bottle marked 'health drink', whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

"Too bad real life isn't like a video game," Dean joked, looking up at Cas and Sam, who were both close beside him now, "I could just take that there and be all better."

Aaron, who was looking especially anxious right now, walked over and picked the bottle up.

He shook it.

Empty.

"Eh. Probably would have tasted like shit anyway," Dean shrugged. And then hissed because Sam was still cleaning his wound and shrugging hurt like a sonuvabitch.

"Dean," Sam said in that reprimanding mother tone.

"Sorry. Just don't want us staying in one place too long. Can we hit two birds here and keep going over what we know? Treating me might be necessary, but coddling me isn't. We're a full crew again, so where do we stand on all this?"

Dean eyed Charlotte particularly, who was being quiet since it had been her light that brought the nurse. She had given the flashlight to Cas now who was using it to shine light on Dean's wound while Sam wrapped it up.

"I found another message in blood when I awoke," Castiel said matter-of-factly, as though finding messages in blood was a common occurrence, though for them maybe it was. "I believe I have figured out what it is that all of the people trapped here have in common."

There was a sudden clang as Aaron tripped over a metal cart in the dark, also losing his hold on the health drink that then crashed to the floor, and following with his own tumble to the ground that was about as far from graceful as a guy could get.

Smooth, Dean wanted to say, but before he could speak he spotted a silver necklace that had fallen from Aaron's pocket, sparkling up at him from the floor. It looked exactly like the locket that should at that moment still be with him.

Dean checked his jeans, despite Sam's protests at his moving.

No locket.

"Dean!" Sam called when Dean leapt from the table, snatching up the locket before Aaron could hide it again. If it hadn't been for the sparkle of silver, Dean never would have noticed the necklace in the dark.

"How did you get this?" he demanded as Aaron clumsily climbed to his feet, looking defensive and ready to bolt. "It was in my pocket, asshole, and I'm pretty sure you're not the slippery fingers type, which means you would have had to take it while I was out. Which means you were awake. You better start talking right now!" Dean stepped into Aaron's personal space, even as Sam was coming up behind him to finish the bandages.

Aaron's eyes darted around at all of them, Castiel having moved in closer as well, and Charlotte having run around to stand behind them since she smartly got the point that Aaron was not a trustworthy guy. He wasn't even trying to defend himself, just staring at them all dumbly.

"Fess up!" Dean growled, thrusting out the locket, "You got something more to do with this place than you're saying, don't you? Don't you! You better come clean right—!" And then Dean saw it, as he was holding up the locket he saw that it had busted open when it fell from Aaron's pocket and the tiny pictures within were floating there in front of his face.

One of the pictures was of a young woman, dark hair, sad smile. The other was of Aaron. Their faces looked remarkably alike, like twins.

"This…this is your sister's locket, isn't it?" Dean said, pulling the necklace back in to keep it out of Aaron's reach, "With the inscription 'Yours Forever'? Not exactly a sisterly message there, Aaron. Just what the hell is going on?"

And of course it was then that the siren once again began to howl.

tbc...

A/N: The plot thickens!

Crim