The phone went dead, simply turned off. He pushed it into his pocket and growled as Logan grabbed his arm.
"Look." She was pointing at the ugly steel building that housed the ice rink and apartments.
Dean had already seen it, already knew about the inky shroud that wrapped the building in the odd murky fog. Even though it was dark, they could easily see the even darker mist that formed a perimeter starting six feet from the building on all sides. "I saw. That's probably what's screwing with the phones. Damn it."
Logan and Dean paused about a foot from the mist.
Logan held out a hand, moving into the mist. Her hand paused against it, like a barrier, but then passed through with little resistance. "What the hell is it?" She pulled her hand out, back into the normal darkness and shook it as she realized it was colder on the other side.
Dean shrugged and squared his jaw, "Don't freaking know, but Sam's in there and he's hurt. So let's go." Dean slid the sawed off from his shoulder and moved into the mist. It was like pressing through something oily, but once he was inside, he didn't notice it anymore. What he did notice was the sudden lack of sound. He could hear himself, but when he looked behind, he couldn't hear Logan, even though her mouth was moving.
Logan's hand came through and grabbed Dean's arm only to be followed by the rest of her body, "…s not a trap? Shit that's gross." She said running her hands over her face and shuddering. "Hey? I asked you how we knew it wasn't a trap."
Dean held up his hand, "Shh, listen."
Logan shook her head, "Yeah, I don't hear anything."
Dean nodded, "That's what I'm saying. You can't hear anything outside the mist. The snow's suddenly not falling in here and it's dark." He pointed toward the parking lot. "The lights even look distant. It's like some kind of weird bubble."
"It's weird all right, but is it a trap?" Logan swung the pistol grip shot gun around, pointing at the ugly building in front of them, "I mean, what if they're just waiting for us. We'd be sitting ducks and we have no effing clue what this shit is."
Dean took a step forward, "Doesn't matter. Sam needs help and the only way for us to do that is to go in there." He glanced behind him and noticed that Logan was staring off toward the building and rubbing at the back of her neck, "What?"
Logan shook her head and dropped her hands to her side. "Something's here. I can feel it and it doesn't like us. It's familiar." Logan began to move past Dean. She caught Dean's eyes.
"Shit, I hate it when you do that." Dean hissed as he saw the color of her eyes, but he caught up with her and as they reached the entrance, he grabbed Logan's arm. "I'm betting they're in a locker room. Sam said gym class…the men's locker room always smells like high school gym." Dean put a hand to the door, "You okay?" Dean watched a smile spread across Logan's face and it made him shiver.
She nodded, her crystal blue eyes reflecting the dim light unnaturally. "Let's go."
Dean pulled the door open and they moved cautiously in. It was dark, very dark and the best they could tell there was nothing in the main room. One small emergency light, placed high up on the wall lit the public locker area, but its light didn't spread far. Dean pulled a small Maglite from the breast pocket of his jacket and turned the head. The ultra-bright beam barely penetrating three feet ahead of them. "What the hell is this stuff? It's like it eats the light."
Logan glanced around, "It's outer darkness." Her voice was quiet and calm as they moved in the direction of the locker rooms.
The light began to dim and Dean slapped the handle against his thigh, but he could tell the light was still on. "Okay, so what exactly is outer darkness?"
"Read your Bible. Matthew 22:13 'Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'" Logan paused and looked back at Dean. She caught his eyes. "Remember our Grigori friends? They got their asses thrown into the pit…into the outer darkness. Now they are marked with it. It follows them, it's stained them. There is no light in the outer darkness; it absorbs all light leaving it completely dark. So now, when a Grigori shows up so does the darkness."
Dean shook his head and moved to stand before the men's locker room, "Huh, that's kinda useful info...So, does this knowledge only come to you when you get the freaky eyes or what? Because two minutes ago you had no clue what the hell this crap was."
Logan smiled and leaned into Dean. She gave him a small peck on the cheek, "It's still me in here you know, don't let the 'freaky eyes' fool you. I'm just able to see things when they change." She stepped back and shrugged. "Once the headache died I could tell what it was, sense things…it kind of just comes to me, but the verse, that's from Our Lady of Assumption Catholic High School for girls."
Dean couldn't prevent the smirk, even as they readied to push open the door, "Remind me about that later...uniforms and all huh?"
Logan rolled her eyes, "Pig…you ready?" She watched Dean nod, "On three; one, two, three."
Dean pushed open the door and they moved simultaneously into the room, Dean moving left and Logan to the right. They paused as Dean shone the limited light around the room. Neither of them could see anything, but Dean held up a fist and cocked his head before pointing toward the back of the room. A sound, barely there, but something caught his attention.
They moved, alternating side to side, clearing the rows of lockers as they went. They were about halfway through the room when the lights suddenly shot on with an electronic buzz. Both hunters froze, blinking into the sudden brightness and then looking around them waiting for something. They heard the soft groan at the same time and they moved toward it with the same cautious motions they'd been using.
It was Kate. She lay crumpled on the ground, but she appeared uninjured except for a shallow scratch along her jaw line. Logan took one look at Kate, then glanced at Dean, who luckily didn't see what she did. She cursed silently before she bent to shake Kate gently, attempting to wake her.
Kate moaned and her eyes slowly opened, but remained unfocused. "Sam…he's hurt…he needs help." She began to push herself upright and with Logan's help, she managed to stand unsteady and leaning heavily on Logan's arm. She held a hand to her head, "Shit, what happened to me?"
Dean snickered, "We were kinda' hoping you'd know what happened." He glanced around them, "Now where is Sam?"
Kate pointed toward the showers.
The three of them moved toward the back of the room. They entered the shower area and found Sam on the floor bleeding freely from his shoulder. He was unnaturally pale as he sat on the tile floor in a puddle of blood. Directly across from him the tile wall was indented. A small pile of damaged tile and rubble littering the floor around the area; that and more blood.
Kate gasped and then moved to Sam, dropping to her knees beside him. She grabbed her jacket, which was on the floor about a foot to the right of Sam, and again pressed it into the wound. She glanced over her shoulder, "How'd he get down?"
Dean moved to his brother, squatting down on his other side and checking his pulse. He sighed when he felt it, though it wasn't quite as strong as he wished it were. He caught Logan's eyes, "We need to move him and get this damn bleeding under control." Dean watched as Kate worked.
She was methodically checking his brother over. Limb by limb she assessed him for broken bones, palpated his chest for broken ribs and his abdomen for bruising. With the exception of another puncture in his thigh, this one only an inch or so deep, there was no other wound. She glanced up at the wall behind Dean and pointed, "Something was sticking out from his shoulder and was holding him to the wall." She shook her head, confusion in her eyes. "How'd he end up here."
Dean turned to watch Logan.
She was moving slowly around the room, eerie blue eyes flashing over the room. Logan gasped and took a step back, shaking her head and finding Dean's eyes. Then she pointed at something in the small pile of rubble on the floor and then pulled on her leather gloves before bending to pick it up.
Dean moved to her side and watched as she turned the object over in her, now shaking, hands. His eyebrows rose in concern and confusion, "What's that doing here?" He held out a hand to touch it only to have Logan pull it out of reach.
She shook her head, "Don't. It could be poisoned and it carries a spell." Her eyes swung back to Sam and fear made her words sharp, "We need to move him now, before he wakes up. We need Bobby here and we need to hurry." She fisted the object in her hand and then peeled her glove off inside out, encasing the thing inside her glove. Then she did the same with the other glove before sliding it into her pocket. "Come on, move."
Dean moved, but obviously fast enough because Logan turned on him as she reached Sam's side and gently pulled Kate away. Kate nodded up at her and together they reached under Sam's left shoulder and began pulling him up, "I'm serious Dean, if you want your brother to live we have to move."
Dean pulled Sam up by the opposite shoulder and began moving toward the door. A million questions running through his mind. The movement opened up the puncture wounds and they began to bleed again, particularly the one on his shoulder. Dean cursed, but he kept moving. He recognized that Logan knew something and he was willing to wait for the explanation.
It was difficult, heavy work and it took them what seemed like forever to reach the front door of the ice rink. Sam gained consciousness as they lowered him to the floor and then began to thrash and fight. Logan looked at Dean, "Take him outside and drop him in the snow. Take off everything but his jeans."
Dean looked at her incredulously, "Logan, what the hell?"
Logan's eyes swung at his and he was shocked to see them swirl, actually swirl with her anger, "Do it. His temperature is gonna soar we need to keep him cool."
Dean nodded and pulled his brother outside.
Logan followed, she grabbed Kate's hand and pulled her up short. She looked over her and frowned, "Sled, we need a sled to move him faster."
Kate nodded, "In the back…behind us there's a shed." She moved off toward the back of the building with Logan right behind her.
A padlock was on the shed, but Kate had the key. She opened the door and reached for the orange rescue sled. When she turned, Logan was there. She grabbed the sled and as Kate locked the shed, Logan ran around to where Dean was with Sam.
Together they rolled a now mostly naked Sam onto the shed and then they took off toward the cabin. Kate jogged along beside Sam.
As they jogged, Logan grabbed Dean's hand and then pulled her amulet from her shirt. She glanced back over her shoulder and inclined her head before shaking it.
Dean understood immediately and a cold feeling settled into his gut, "You sure?"
Logan's eyes, still their uncanny blue color widened, "Positive."
Dean sighed and glanced over his shoulder, "We'll deal with it, but Sammy first."
Logan nodded, thankful that the cabin was now in sight, "We're gonna need Bobby. He'll know better how to help Sam. Call him, Kate and I will get Sam inside." She looked back over her shoulder, "Kate, come on help me get him inside."
Kate moved quickly and together the girls pulled the sled up the snowy stairs and dragged Sam into the cabin.
Dean pulled out his phone and pressed three, holding the button until the call went through. Bobby picked up and Dean told him what he knew. Then he flipped his phone closed and stomped up the stairs. He had to help his brother and damn-it, they were going to have to deal with Kate.
Okay, so let me know what you think...sorry about the flipping back and forth in the timeline. I thought it worked better this way. Please review...and thank you all who have. It really does feed my muse :)
