"You sure you're okay with getting back in the saddle Dean?" Sam asks from my doorway.
"Hell yeah. For the first time in a long time, I can't feel the Mark's effect on me. So yeah. I'm ready to kill some warewolves." I pull my hair up into a ponytail and continue to stuff clothes haphazardly into my duffle bag.
"Well, I'm just concerned. Since you've been Mark-free, you've been sick. You haven't been on a case in a while, let alone without the Mark giving you some extra murdering juice or whatever."
"First of all. It wasn't 'murdering juice' it was the Mark calling out to me to kill everything and everyone. Second, I'll be fine. Cas fixed me up good. Thirdly, how can you have long hair? I always have to put it into one of these stupid things just so it doesn't get in my face, and even then I eat my own hair when the wind blows just right. What?"
Sam lets go of the burst of laughter he was 'trying' to hold in, "Just you… Complaining about long hair… I could cut it for you." He manages to get out between laughs.
"Yeah, you're soooo hilarious." I head to my bathroom to gather up my bathroom things. I spot a pair of scissors sitting on the sink. Truth be told, I have been tempting myself to cut my own hair for quite some time now, and NO I have not been thinking about suicide ever since the Mark has been removed. I grab the scissors and head back out to my room, Sam is still standing in the doorway. "Here. Do it." I say as I thrust the scissors at my wide eyed brother.
"Wh-what?"
"You heard me. Cut. My. Hair. Do it Sammy. Do it before I change my mind." I wiggle the paired blades in my hand, urging Sam to take them. "Sammy do it now!" I wiggle the pair with more intensity.
"Dean. No. I'm not going to cut your hair."
"Dammit Sam." I grab his hand and thrust the pair of scissors into his hand. Well, the handle. I didn't impale my brother's hand, "Do it!"
"Dean. You don't understand. I suck at cutting hair-"
"I don't care! A good 99% of the time, it's up in a ponytail!"
"What if we have to go another one of those fancy gala parties or whatever? What are we going to do then?"
"Updo."
Bitchface.
"Can we please get on the road now?" I ask, trying to get back to the matter at hand.
He sighs, "Fine, just give me like two minutes. I'll meet you in the garage."
"Fine." I zip up my bag and head out through my doorway and head to the garage.
About five minutes later, Sam finally shows up with his bag and throws it in the trunk. "Let's roll."
"Dude. This is your fifth pee stop in this state alone! I swear you have a bladder the size of a new born kitten, but you pee like a racehorse."
"Just shut up and pull over."
Sam is fidgeting in his seat and frantically grabbing at his crotch like Michael Jackson, all while sitting in the passenger's seat. I find a decent place to pull over to the shoulder and shove my baby into park. Before she even gets to a complete stop, Sam is barreling out the door, unzipping his pants while I laugh at him.
He gets back in the car a few seconds later and gives me a bitch face-death glare combination.
"What? What's with the poop face?" I ask as I pull out from the shoulder of the back road.
"Nothing." He mumbles, and I let it go, figuring it's literally nothing.
After driving two more states, I pull onto the shoulder, "Chinese fire drill." I say suddenly
"Why?"
"Because I'm tired as all fuck and you've been making love to some of the logs you've been sawing. That's why."
"I wasn't making love to anything."
"Your happy noises beg to differ. Now move." I nudge his side to switch places. He gets out and I slide to the right and shut the door. Sam gets in the left side and pulls out from the shoulder, I try to stifle a cough, but I can't. I cover my mouth with my hand and as I pull it away, there's a splatter of crimson sitting there.
Shit.
I figure now is the perfect time to take a much needed nap.
The next thing I know, I'm being smacked on the arm.
"Owwwww. Whaaaaaaaaaaat?" I whine.
"We're in Vermont and nearing the town. Just thought I should tell you it's your turn to check in."
"You couldn't've given me a little warning next time?"
He shrugs, "Guess not. Come on. Liven up."
"Ugh, shut up." I wipe my eyes.
A few minutes later, Sam is pulling into a motel parking lot and I get out to check us in.
The man behind the desk quickly sits up and shuts a magazine as soon as he hears the jingling of the bell hanging above the door.
He clears his throat, "Checking in?"
"Yeah. Room with two beds preferably."
He looks out at the car, "Yeah, I bet." He mutters
"Sorry?"
"Uuuuuuuhmmmm….. We only have one room available." He says with a serious face, but it turns up into a shit eating grin, "It's our…. Honeymoon Suite."
I close my eyes and take a breath, god I'm getting too old for this shit. "You are positive you don't have any more rooms. I mean, the lot is practically deserted." I look out at the parking lot with only three other cars.
"We're going through some renovations and you won't find any more motels for a while longer either. Next town is over a hundred miles away. We're really out in the boondocks."
"Yeah, I'll say." I let out an exasperated sigh, "Fine, I'll take the room." I dig out my Pat Benatar ID and credit card and hand them over to the bald man with the goatee, soggy muscle car t-shirt, and denim cutoff sleeve vest. He runs the cards through and I sign in.
"Here is your key, and cards back Ms. Benatar."
I flash him my best 'I'm gonna kill you' smiles, take the items from his hand and storm out the door to the Impala.
"What? What's with the stink face?"
"Honeymoon suite." I grumble
Sam sighs dramatically, "Not again." And backs the car into the space closest to the room. The two of us get out and grab our duffels from the backseat, I unlock the door.
"Jesus fucking Christ." We say at the same time the second I turn on the light.
The room is huge with a jacuzzi tub outside the bathroom door, the bed along one of the far walls is circular, a couch closer to the door, a bar, and everything is painted red and white.
"How many times are we going to be confused as a couple? I mean REALLY?!" I huff as I throw my bag on the far side of the bed. "Although…." I glance at the tub, "Dibs on first bath in the fancy tub." I grin, Sam just rolls his eyes and scoffs.
"Just…. Let me know, so I'm far away while you're in there." He glances at the circular bed, "I never knew what the point is to have a circle bed."
"Me neither little bro. Me neither." I make my way to the door, "I'm gonna see if I can find us some grub in this village." I swipe up the keys from the table and head out the door.
I come back to the room with a bag of greasy burgers and find Sam on his laptop as usual.
"I managed to find some sort of food in this town." I say as I hold up the bag.
Sam scoffs at the grease soaked bag, "Did you get some burgers with your grease?" he smirks
"You know it." I smirk as I set the grease lined bag on the table. "Dig up anything good?" I take out a couple burgers and toss one to Sam sitting on the couch.
"Nothing that we already know now. You wanna interview people tomorrow and I take the P.D.?"
"Why don't I take the popo station and you talk to the family? Since you're such a people person." I take a burger for myself and start unwrapping it.
He raises his eyebrows as if to say something, but decides against it because he turns back to his laptop with a huff as he takes a bite out of his burger.
"Were there any internal organs missing from the bodies?" I ask the coroner, who is actually getting on my nerves.
"Well…. The hearts were missing in all three vics. You saying that something other than an animal could've done this?"
"Wait. Three vics? I thought there was only two." I grab the coroner's report sitting on top of the freshest of the dead guys, and start glancing through it.
"New one came in just this morning around four." The five foot five man in thick black rimmed glasses fidgets around in place for a couple of seconds, "Are you done here? I gotta do something."
I glace up from the coroner's report for a second, "What, you gotta pee or something? I'm not waiting on you or anything, you go do your business."
"Nooo….. I got a coffee date."
I chuckle, "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to laugh at you." Yeah I did, "But you got a date. With who? One of the stiffs? Your mother?"
"She's from upstairs. Actually. Receptionist."
"Everyone has a thing for receptionists from upstairs. You ever seen any Casa Erotica?" I flop down the report onto a nearby surface and look at the young little prick in the face, "What's the biggest animal in this neck of the woods?"
"Uh… Bears, I think…. Yeah. But a bear wouldn't just go for a man's heart and leave the rest, he would just plain eat the guy. Plus, this doesn't look like a bear mauling. It looks like someone… Cut out the hearts."
"Yeah... Alright, thank you doctor, I will call if I have any other questions." And I head out the door and head back to the motel.
"Whacha got?" Sam asks me from the couch
"No wolfy stuff. What about you? You got anything?"
"Well, Ms. Tracey, Mr. and Mrs. Frans, and more recently Ms. Gail told me how normal and ordinary things were before the members of their family got killed."
"Fantastic." I throw off my suit jacket onto the nearest chair, "But what I thought was kinda weird was the coroner."
"Coroners are usually weird." Sam chuckles
"No… Well, yes, but not this guy. He has a date today."
He shrugs, "So….. What? Coroners can't go on dates?"
"Not a weird, annoying coroner going on a date with the hot receptionist from upstairs."
Sam shrugs again, clueless.
"It's like I don't even know you." I mumble to myself, "When a hot receptionist chick that goes out with a geeky coroner kid, it's usually on a dare or a sympathy thing. Also, there's another thing. Don't wolf victims usually look like…. Wolf victims? Ya know, limbs hanging on by a thread, looking like he went ten rounds with a Grizzly?"
Sam shrugs, "I guess, yeah. Why? The guy didn't look like that?"
"No. It just looked like his heart was cut out of his chest. I mean, other than some struggle, and it kinda looked like a chain was wrapped around his neck, torso, and limbs."
"Huh…. That's a new one."
"Yes it is."
"So….. You thinking sacrifice?"
"If it is, what kind of sacrifice. It could be just some sick, twisted kids messing around or… We got ourselves another Aztec god, or just about a million other things."
"Great."
I'm sitting on the bed, my laptop open, looking at some article about some Norse god named Logi that I somehow got around to looking at. I personally thought it said Loki at first, but it's not. However, this dude did beat Loki in an eating contest. I wonder if there was pie? Mmmmm pie eating contest. Pie sounds really good right now. I should get some pie. But I have to do research. But I also need my thinking food.
"I'll be right back." I say suddenly, snapping the lid to the computer closed.
"Woah, where're you going?"
"We're outta beer. Beer run. Also, if I read another word on that screen, I think I'll literally start climbing these walls." I pick up a jacket nearby as well as my keys and head out the door.
"Such a weirdo." Sam says under his breath.
I managed to find a gas station down the road and head inside.
I pick up about three different pies and a couple six packs of beer. I pay for the items and head back out.
If Logi beat Loki in an eating contest, I'm pretty sure he'd kick my ass. Just barely. But it'd be awesome get into an eating contest with a god. Didn't Loki have some weird kids though? Yeah, a giant snake, some chick that picks up the dead, and a huge wolf. What's his name? Feniris? No….. Fargo? Hell no. God, what is it? Fenrir? Maybe. That sounds about right.
I dig my phone out of my jacket pocket- because the pockets in my jeans are about as useless as fuck- and call Sam.
"Whadgya forget?" he answers
"Does the name Fenrir sound familiar? Like uh….. Norse…. Stuff?" I ask, pretending I didn't hear my brother's 'warm' greeting.
"Um….. I can check. Hold on." There's some clicking of keys in the background, "Oh. Uh, yeah. He's Loki's oldest son, who's this huge wolf and is bound with a chain called Gleipnir on an island called Lyngvi until Ragnarok. During Ranarok, he will swallow Odin in their 'big showdown' fight, but one of Odin's sons avenges his father's death and kills Fenrir by splitting him in half."
"Good times. Do we know how to put down Ol' Yeller?"
"Uh…. Not yet, but I'll look."
"You have fun with that." I hang up and throw my phone on the ground on the passenger's side. "Just…. Fucking perfect. Norse gods…. Again. Just….. Fucking awesome." I slam on the gas harder.
"Hey. I think I got something useful, but it doesn't make sense." Sam says as I walk through the door.
"What?"
"So, the guy that split Fenrir in half? He put his foot on Fenrir's bottom jaw. 'and the shoe he will wear then has been a long time in the making; it consists of all the strips and bits of leather pared off the heels and toes of new shoes since time began, all the leftovers thrown away as gifts for the god'."
"So, are we thinking just a leather shoe?"
"Well, I thought that at first too, but…. Then I got to thinking to myself. Heels and toes. Maybe it's shoes made from human skin."
"Do you always have to mention any kind of disgusting things whenever I'm eating, or just about to eat pie?"
"No, but seriously. Either that, or find some of the things that the dwarves made to build the chain that bound him for all this time."
"Like what?"
"Well, one of the things is the root of a mountain."
"Well, either way we're uber boned and we don't know how to kill anything. Hey, you think the wooden stakes work?" I smirk.
"How many dog puns are you going to say?"
I shrug as I take a big bite out of the blueberry pie, "We also don't know what this guy looks like either. If he is a guy. He could be a wolf for all we know." I say with a mouthful of pie.
"I guess we gotta keep digging." Sam tries to hide a smirk, but fails.
"Oh, who's the one with the doggy puns now, huh?" I playfully mock.
Later that night, I can't sleep worth a fuck, so I go out for a drive to try and calm my nerves. For some odd reason, I can't help but keep thinking about that weirdo coroner and his date with the receptionist. It's such an odd pairing. Who asked who out? If he did, it wasn't until after the two years of looking at her fondly from a distance. If she asked him out, she most likely did it on a dare by her girlfriends.
I remember that all the time during high school. I remember hearing the other 'popular' kids cackling to themselves that one of them should ask the geeky, awkward kid in Biology out. That kid just so happened to be Sam in one of the schools.
~flashback~
"Hey Karen, you know that kid in Biology that sits in front of you?" Karen's girlfriend asked in the hallway between fourth and fifth period.
"Yeah, why?"
"Aaaaand he's really smart right? Like really smart?"
"What are you getting at Hayley?"
"You should ask him out and get the answers to the test that's in two days."
"Why would I do that? He's so…. I don't know…. Geeky!"
"Awww, come on! He's not that geeky!"
"Lee, he's a nasal spray with thick rimmed glasses away from being a total nerd!"
"Come on Karen! Pleeeeeaaase? If I don't pass this test with at least a D, I'm not going to be able to cheer until I pull my grades up. And the big game is this weekend!"
"Why can't I ask out his brother? Dean. He's geeky kid's brother! I can hang out with him, and get the answers from his little brother."
"Come on Karen. You're sneaky, but you're not that sneaky. Ask Biology kid out."
"You don't even know his name." I cut in. My seventeen year old voice carrying out down the two lockers I stand from the girls, "Why would you ask someone out if you don't even know their name?"
"Maybe you can tell me his name." Hayley suggests
I grin, "Call him John Whetton. You'll get a real reaction outta him."
-John Whetton is the bass player for Asia, and has been our code for 'this chick is crazy, go over the top dramatic, bat shit crazy when she tries to pull a stunt-
The two girls smile victoriously, giggle to themselves (not really to themselves, the whole hallway heard them giggle) and walk away from the lockers to lunch.
I chuckle, "Dumb bitches. Thank you Asia." I laugh to myself once more before heading to lunch myself. "Heya Sammy." I say to Sam as I pass him going the other direction. He was walking with another kid, probably in his class and most likely his new friend.
I reach the lunchroom and inhale the smell of reheated mush that is probably not considered food in most places, but it's edible, so I eat it. It's just about the only actual meal I get while dad's away.
I find a table with a couple of kids I have in history, "You ready for the current events quiz today?" one of them asks me.
"Pff, fuck no. You?"
"Nuh uh. Not at all. I haven't even glanced at a paper since I saw that weird obituary last week."
I snort, "Yeah, tell me about it. Hey, can you decipher what the hell this is?" I point my fork at the glob of meat that sort of looks like chicken. Or is it fish? Nah, it's probably lasagna. The kid pokes the food in question with his fork.
"Uh….. I think it's a… Velociraptor. I don't know man, your guess is as good as mine."
"Yeah." I stab the questionable meat….. Thing with my fork and take a huge bite. Next thing I know, the questionable meat is gone and someone is screaming bloody murder in the lunch room.
"WHO PUT YOU UP TO THIS?!" Sam's thirteen year old voice really carries throughout the room. The girl from the hallway looks like she's going to shit her pants, or cry, maybe both.
"I-I…. I…." she stammers
"You what? Say it! What were you going to say?!" he shouts in her face.
Yup, there's the first tear, and without another word, she runs from the cafeteria more tears streaming down her face.
Sam continues his journey to a table with his new buddy. The lunch room breaks into murmurs of, "ugh, that was so not cool." Or, "She's a total spaz, that kid's brave."
I'll be the first to admit, Sam sure is a fantastic little actor. He spots me and gives me a subtle thumbs up and I reciprocate the gesture.
~present~
Loki is a trickster. Which means, he can change his shape or form at the snap of his fingers or something. Doesn't Loki have a wife or something in the legend? Yeah, I'm pretty sure he does. What's her name? God, I can never remember her name.
I'm driving in through a stretch of road with extremely tall trees on either side of me. I see something move at the corner of my eye in amongst the woods. "Jesus Christ. It's like I'm in a horror movie. Right, I live in one. That's why." I mumble to myself. I pull onto the shoulder of the road, "And I play the stupid little bitch who has to investigate every little thing and who always opens the closet that has the killer hiding inside." I head to the trunk and grab a flashlight, a knife, and my .45 Colt. "Always the stupid one." I mutter to myself once more as I shine the beam of light in the woods.
"Hello?" I call out to no one in particular, and the response I get is a white hot pain at the back of my head and everything goes black.
Sam's POV
I know Dean left around midnight, and I know I shouldn't worry, but…. I really can't help myself. It's around three in the morning and Dean still hasn't come back yet. But maybe she did find some spot in the bushes to crash. Maybe I should try her cell. I pick up my phone and dial each and every one of her numbers, and each one keeps ringing and goes right to voicemail.
"Shit." I mumble to myself, "ShitshitshitshitFUCK. Definitely not very good. Nopenopenope. Nuh uh. Shit!" And of course she just had to take the only car we had, but I'm not too concerned about that right now I gotta find Dean!
I get on my computer and see if Dean's GPS is on in his phone. Thank god it is!
At least she's still in the state. Actually not too far from the motel. I slam the lid shut and dash out the door, looking for a car.
Yes! There's a lemon car not too far from the room. I slide my slim jim in through the window and wiggle it around until I hear the familiar clicking sound of the lock unlocking. I hot wire the car and head out on the road.
I reach a point in the road with trees on either side, I see the taillights of a car similar to the Impala. As I draw closer, I am 10,000,000% sure it's the Impala. I pull the car onto the shoulder, get out, and look in the backseat then the front seat to see if she is sleeping. Nothing looks like there was a struggle from inside the car. All the doors and windows are closed, so she physically got out of the car. Maybe she saw something in the woods. If she did, then what? Fenrir? A deer? Both? Only one way to find out. I pull out my flashlight from the inside pocket of my jacket and my Taurus pistol from the waistband of my jeans.
"DEAN?!" I call out into the woods.
Dean's POV
I regain consciousness in a dark place, I'm not quite sure where I am, but I do know that my body is chained to what feels like a tree.
"Oh good. You're awake." A recognizable female voice says, "I was afraid you were going to sleep through the best part."
"I'm guessing that wouldn't be cake and ice cream." I say
"Oh no. This is even better. I just have to take a little something from you, then I can see my son again." She continues, "If only my lover was here to share this experience. But ever since he killed the Allfather's son, he's been bound with a giant snake spitting venom in his eyes and his wife holding a bowl over his face to catch the venom, what a lot that does."
I put the pieces together from what she just said, "So you're Angrboda. Loki's mistress. Boy, I gotta say, for a thousand something odd year old goddess, I too would certainly take the form of a hot receptionist from the upstairs of the coroner's office in the police department."
"SILENCE MORTAL! You have no input on how I should live my life."
"But didn't you and Loki have three kids together? Yeah, and they all turned out to be monsters." I change the subject.
"SILENCE! Don't you DARE say that about my children. I love my children just as much as the next mother!"
"Yeah, what a lotta good that did. Odin sent all your kids away to different worlds."
"Yes he did. That's why I'm giving my children a second chance to right the wrong. Fenrir will kill Odin, Jormungand and Thor will kill each other, and poor Hel will have to clean up the mess by taking the dead to her realm."
"What's her realm?"
"Helheim you buffoon! The realm of the dead!"
"I thought that was Valhalla."
"Valhalla is where all the warriors go when they've died in battle. Hel is where the dead go when they die a regular death, like…. I don't know, dying in their sleep or something."
"So, why do you need my heart to bring Ragnarok?"
"I had to have one heart for each realm."
"Wait, wait, wait…. You said that there are nine realms. But there's only three bodies, now if only two of the bodies had two hearts…."
"I hide things very well." She smirks and picks up an eight inch blade with what looks like intricate flame carvings along the blade itself. "Beautiful, isn't it? Surt's Sword will bring upon the fire that will engulf this realm and much of the other nine realms. It can also kill almost all things, except three. The three Norns, the Allfather, and Yggdrasill. The Tree of Life."
"If you're going to kill me, just kill me. Don't make this huge speech, gloating about yourself and how you're going to bring the end of the world on all of us. Also, why are you telling me all this?"
"Well, because I want to silly. And because I know you can't kill me." She leans in close and smells something, "What's that smell?" she takes a long whiff too close for comfort at my neck, "Your entrails are….. Crumbling. How are you even alive?"
Just then, Sam gets her attention by shouting 'Hey!' and flips over the alter.
"John Whetton!" I manage to shout before she stabs me in the chest.
"NOOO!" I hear my brother's voice scream, but it sounds more like someone talking normally from a distance. All I can hear is blood rushing in my ears and my own gasping for air. I feel myself jolting forward and back again as she retrieves the blade protruding from my chest and turns to Sam, but he's right behind her and manages to turn the blade on her, the already blood soaked blade runs through her heart and she falls down onto the floor of the woods dead.
I weakly look up at Sam as he's coming towards me, he somehow unbinds me and cradles my face, tears staining his cheeks.
"Fuck not again." I manage to croak out and give him a small smile.
"Don't worry buddy, I've got you. I got you." He pulls my face into his chest in an almost hug, then pulls back, "We're gonna get you back home so you can get better, alright?"
"Bitch." I mumble, feeling something warm come out of my mouth. Please let that be saliva.
Sam half sobs half snorts, "Jerk."
"Cas….." I manage to whisper out my little dorky, fallen angel's name before everything goes black.
I feel so evil! Muhahahaha! I hope you guys liked it this far! I'm not done just yet.