Raising Winchesters
Chapter 25
John and Bobby watched as Dean walked through the room and stopped directly in front of the ferret. Bobby took a step towards Dean, but John grabbed his arm, his eyes never leaving his son. "Wait, Bobby."
"Are you crazy?" Bobby looked at John as if he'd lost his mind. "That thing is one of them, Winchester. We don't know what it's capable of."
John continued to watch the scene unfold, oblivious to the anger seeping out of Bobby's pores. He wanted nothing more than to yank his son back to him, but he was also too desperate to figure out what was going on to let the opportunity escape them. In his mind, it was now or never. They had to do something to figure out what the hell was going on between Dean and the creatures that now flooded Bobby's property.
He was ready, though. His eyes never left his son and his gun stayed trained on the ferret that was unnervingly staring at the boy. He was confident that he could take out the ferret within the span of a single second, if he had to. Bobby wasn't so confident in John's abilities, though, especially since Dean's safety was on the line. But he held back, every nerve on edge and ready to fire.
Dean hadn't said a word since entering the room. He hadn't looked at anyone or anything other than the ferret, either. His breathing was so shallow that John and Bobby could barely tell that he was actually breathing. Seeing Dean so still was unfamiliar. And it was eerie. The boy was usually so full of life, but now he was anything but that.
And it didn't look like it was going to change any time soon. Both Dean and the ferret looked as if they were in a trance. And they looked like they could stay that way for a while.
But then everything changed in the blink of an eye.
If Dean had any control at all over his body, he would never have done what he did. But the second he entered the room, he was no longer in control of himself. His feet propelled him forward and his eyes never left the sight of the large ferret waiting for him by the window. He knew that his dad and Uncle Bobby were in the room, too, and he hoped that they would be able to protect him from whatever was going on.
Eventually, he came to a stop a few feet in front of the ferret. He had no idea how long he'd been standing there and he had no idea what his dad and uncle were doing. It wasn't until he started to move even closer to the ferret that he even heard either of them speak.
"Dean! Stop!" John yelled loudly, and Dean felt a little jolt of something shoot through him. He thought that maybe it was his body trying to regain control, but it didn't really last long enough to do him any good. Within a second, he felt his body moving out of his control, inching forward towards the ferret and the window.
"Dean!" John was yelling louder and Dean could feel him moving forward. Before he could reach is son, though, he came to an abrupt stop, as if he'd ran into a brick wall. "What the hell?!"
"John! Grab him!" Bobby sprinted forward, too, wondering why John had stopped, but just seconds later, he too came to an abrupt stop. Just inches away from where Dean had been and unable to get any closer.
Before either of them could say or do anything more, and before they could even wrap their minds around what was happening, the ferret's shape started changing. Right before their eyes, it turned into a man. And right before their eyes, the man grabbed Dean and disappeared.
"Dean!" John and Bobby both screamed at the same time, their bodies falling forward as the invisible wall that had held them back, suddenly disappeared. They both scrambled to their feet and moved towards the spot where Dean had just been.
"Where is he?!" John screamed as panic took him over. "Bobby, where the hell is he?"
"I don't know, John." Bobby moved around the room, frantically checking over every inch of the room. "He's not here!"
John made his way over to the window, looking out into the yard. "They're all gone," he said. "Bobby, they're all gone. All the creatures."
Bobby joined John at the window, staring out into the empty yard. "Damn it!"
Before either of them could say or do anything else, Jim entered the room, carrying a visibly upset Sam. "What happened?" he asked immediately. "Where's Dean?"
John and Bobby both just stared at the man, neither having an answer worth sharing. Jim looked from one to the other as he ineffectively tried to calm Sam down. It took almost a full minute before John realized that he should take his youngest son from the man and try to calm him down.
"Daddy! Where's Dean? I want Dean." Sam was crying so hard that his breaths were sharp and painful. Sobs were wracking his small body, to the point that John had to tighten his grip on the boy to prevent him from falling out of his arms.
"We'll find him, Sammy. I promise, we'll find him."
Bobby and Jim could both tell that the man didn't really believe his own words.
Dean had no idea what had happened. One second he was in Bobby's house, the next he wasn't. And he had no idea where he was. All he knew was that he was by himself and he was cold and scared. As he looked around the small room he was in, he realized that there weren't any windows. There was a single bulb hanging from the ceiling, giving off a yellow light that made more shadows in the small room than he was comfortable with. He noticed a toilet in one corner of the room and a dirty, stained mattress in another corner. There was only one door in the room, but he could tell that there wasn't a door knob.
He knew he was trapped and he wanted to cry. The only good thing he could focus on was that he had full control of his mind and his body again. At the moment, there weren't any voices in his head, other than the voice of his dad, telling him what he should be doing.
Look around you.
Learn everything you can about the space you're in.
Look for an exit.
Listen to the sounds around you.
Keep the door to whatever room you're in right in front of you.
Always be prepared for something to happen.
Never let your guard down.
Keep your cool.
He knew what he was supposed to do. He just didn't know if he could do it. Dean didn't think he'd ever been so scared and that was saying a lot. He'd faced scary things before, but this was different. For the first time ever, he wasn't completely sure that his dad would be able to help him. He knew that his dad, Bobby, and Jim were still trying to figure out what was going on and he knew that they really had no idea what they were dealing with. For the first time in his life, he didn't have faith in his dad's ability to save him. And that terrified him.
It took almost an hour for John to calm Sam down. In that hour, he tried to figure out if Sam was just upset because Dean was gone or if he was upset because something more supernatural was going on with him. Was he hearing voices too? Was he feeling some supernatural presence or energy? Did he have a vision of something?
John didn't know for sure, but he had been thinking that there might be something going on with his youngest son. Ever since Sam was old enough to talk, he'd had what John referred to as preternatural feelings. He sometimes sensed things before they happened and up until the moment Dean disappeared, John had been able to write it off as coincidence.
But now he wasn't so sure. According to Jim's report of what had happened up in the bedroom, Sam woke up at almost the exact second that Dean disappeared. And he woke up screaming. Jim thought that Sam was having a nightmare, but when he realized that Sam was crying out that something had taken his brother and that Dean was nowhere in sight, he knew there was a problem. At almost the same time, he heard John and Bobby yelling downstairs.
As he made his way downstairs, Sam continued to cry, his tears and sobs mixed with words as he tried to tell them what had happened. Somehow they were able to make out a few words here and there, and putting it all together, the hunters eventually figured out that Sam was saying something about a witch taking Dean to a dark place where no one would find him.
Once John had taken Sam into his own arms, he immediately started pacing the floor, his gun still held tightly in one hand, while he clutched Sam tightly into his chest with the other. Bobby and Jim knew that he was just seconds away from completely losing it, but they were at a loss as to what to do. They were feeling the same way, too, to be honest.
"John, we need to calm down. We need to figure out a plan."
John stopped pacing and turned abruptly to face his friends. "A plan? How can we figure out a plan when we have no idea who or what took my son or where they took him?!"
Jim stepped closer to John. "John, come on. Sit down and let's put our heads together. Let's treat this like any other hunt and start at the beginning."
"This isn't just any other hunt, Murphy. This is my son! This is Dean!"
Bobby stepped forward to stand next to Jim. "John, we want to find him as much as you do. And we will. We'll find him."
"You don't know that, Bobby!"
"Yes, I do. Because I know you. You won't stop until you find him. We won't stop until we find him."
John finally sat down, still clutching Sam to his chest. Sam had been quiet for a while and he didn't try to remove himself from his dad's tight hold. Instead, he laid his head against the man's chest and closed his eyes. John absently rubbed Sam's back with the hand that was still holding the gun until Jim stepped forward and removed it from his grasp.
They had been talking things over for almost twenty minutes when Sam suddenly sat up and looked at John. "Daddy? What's a dockyard?"
All three hunters stopped talking and looked at Sam. "What do you mean, Sam? Where did you hear that word?"
Sam shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, Daddy. I just… I just heard it."
"Did you hear anything else?"
Sam just shook his head as he looked at his dad. John immediately looked over at Bobby. "Is there a dockyard around here?"
"A few. Some are still functioning and there's an old abandoned one about fifty miles from here."
John jumped to his feet, nearly dumping Sam on the ground. Bobby and Jim both jumped to their feet, too, anxious to stop the man from doing something stupid. "John, wait! We can't just run off without a plan."
"I don't have time to wait, Singer. Dean's out there somewhere. I have to find him."
"We will, but we need to take a few minutes and figure this out. I'll make a few phone calls and get a few more hunters to check out some of the yards. Jim can stay here with Sam and let us know if he comes up with anything else for us. We'll check out the abandoned yard."
"Let's go." John immediately started walking towards the door.
"Just hold on, John. We need supplies."
"The Impala has what we need, Bobby. Let's go." Without another word or a single look back at Sam, John walked out the door.
Author's note: Dang! These holidays sure do mess with my writing plans. This one's a little shorter than normal, but some exciting stuff happened, so I hope you're all okay with that.
Thanks so much for reading. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter. Take care.