Her vision came back foggy. Was it bad that she was familiar with the feelings after waking up from a jump attack? Hell, she'd known the attack was coming but it still hurt.
"Hey, Raven. Hey!" Raven squinted, adjusting to the light. She saw Sam standing over her, crouching in their cage. Yep- a cage. They were in a cage.
Raven had to take a slow breath to keep herself from freaking out. She pressed herself against the cage, as far as it allowed. She'd never done well in cages. Or any sort of entrapment. Her track record wasn't good concerning a lot of things, cages were just a touchy subject.
She took another breath as she looked up at Sam. The cage had been person-sized, but normal person sized! Sam was a moose of a man. The cage dwarfed him.
She remembered how they ended up here. The younger Bender men had overpowered them. She'd gotten in a few good hits before the second one blitz's her. She was distracted out of concern for Sam.
They had taken her Bag. Raven could barely make it out though- across the room, hanging on the wall. The faint light in the room was hitting one of the buttons. Her anxiety was soothed at the sight, less so at the distance.
Sam knelt lower on the ground. "Hey you okay?"
Raven didn't trust her head with a nod. "Yeah." She took two deep breaths to calm down. "You see the number on that bus?"
Sam chuckled. He looked around the dimly lit room they were in. "No. But I didn't see anything before I went down. You? You see what it was?"
"It looked human." Raven explained. "And was corporal. That narrows down what it can be."
Sam nodded in agreement.
Raven glanced to the side, taking more breaths.
"What's wrong?" Sam asked. He had noticed Raven's breathing. He knew she'd done it before to calm down. What could be scaring her? It occurred to him suddenly. "Is...is it the cage?" He remembered what she'd said about her home life growing up, how they'd been monsters. He was scared that they'd done more than just collectively beat her.
Raven let him draw his own conclusions. "We have a roommate."
Sam made a note about her changing of the subject. He turned though, seeing a second cage. There was a man lying in it. Sam couldn't tell if he was alive or dead.
==DG==
Sam was trying to break down the cage. They'd taken anything he had on him. Raven too. All he had was his legs. He kicked at the door, kicked at the hinges. Whatever put them in this had gone all out on the cage itself.
Raven still hadn't moved from her spot on the back of the cage. She'd kept up her calming breaths, her knees curled up to her chest.
His kicking woke up their roommate. He groaned in his cage.
Sam stopped in his kicking. He rushed towards the man, kneeling down to get a better look at him. "You're alive."
The man groaned, curling about as he tried to right himself.
"Hey, you okay?" Sam asked.
"Does it look like I'm doin' okay?" The man snarked.
"He has breath for sass, he's fine." Raven waved off.
The man grumbled.
"Where are we?" Sam asked him.
"I don't know." The man replied,. He sat up in his cage. "The country, I think. Smells like the country."
"You're Alvin Jenkins, aren't you?" Sam realized.
"Yeah." The man replied.
Sam sighed. "We were lookin' for ya."
"Oh, yeah?" Jenkins replied, in a snarky tone once again.
"Yeah."
"Yep." Raven gave him a wave, then gestured to the cage. "Going great so far, huh?"
"Well, no offense, but this is a piss-poor rescue." Jenkins told them.
"Well, our brother's out there right now, too. He's lookin' for us." Sam waved back to Raven. The hunter hadn't moved, she hadn't even blinked at the revelation that it was Jenkins. Then again, it's possible she had another prophetic vision. Her's were different from Sam's, who's visions seemed to be tied with that night. Raven's were for their cases. She never brought them up during the case. He should ask more often. "So-"
"So, he's not gonna find us." Jenkins remarked. "We're in the middle of nowhere." He nodded towards the only door in the room. "Waiting for them to come back and do God-knows-what to us."
"What are they? Have you seen them?" Sam asked.
"What are you talking about?" Jenkins asked.
"Whatever's got us, what'd they look like? Raven said they looked human at first." Sam explained.
Raven had not said that. She'd said they looked human, not 'at first'.
"See for yourself." Jenkins invited, dryly.
On cue, the door opened. Two men in black coats and hats- hiding their features. One walked to Jenkins cage, kicking it. Jenkins flinched away. The other went over to a pole in the middle of the room. He opened a panel, revealing a multitude of buttons. He inserted a key into it, twisting it while pushing a button. It opened the door to Jenkins' cage.
When it opened, Jenkins flinched away. The two men walked into the cage.
"Leave me alone! Don't you take me, leave me alone!" Jenkins ranted at them.
The coated men dropped a plate of food in front of their prisoner. One of them slammed the bat against Sam and Raven's cell. Scare tactics complete, the two men left the makeshift prison.
Once they were gone, Jenkins got to eating.
Sam hummed to himself, looking at the door where their captors had left. Raven was still sitting against the wall of the cage.
"I'll be damned. They're just people." Sam noted in wonder.
"To be fair...I said that." Raven noted. "Still weird though."
"Yeah." Sam agreed.
"Yeah. What'd you expect?" Jenkins snarked, finishing up the food he'd been given.
"How often do they feed you?" Sam asked, surprised at the speed.
"Once a day. And they use that thing over there to open the cage." Jenkins explained.
"And that's the only time you see 'em?" Sam asked.
"So far. But I'm waitin'." Jenkins admitted.
"Waitin' for what?" Sam asked, thinking something monstrous would come.
Jenkins looked at Sam like he was an idiot for not knowing. "Ned Beatty time, man."
Sam let out a quick sigh. "I think that's the least of your worries right now."
"Oh, yeah?" Jenkins scoffed.
"Yeah."
"I mean it's fair to be concerned about that." Raven muttered.
"What do you think they want, then?" Jenkins questioned the both of them.
Raven hummed. She glanced at the empty plate of food Jenkins had finished.
Sam reached up through the bars of the cage. There was a long metal wire hanging there. He tried pulling it down, to work it off.
Raven continued to stare at the empty plate. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, again taking a long quiet breath.
"Depends on who they are." Sam grunted.
"They're a bunch of psycho hillbilly rednecks, if you ask me. Lookin' for love in all the wrong places." Jenkins cautioned. "I'd watch out, girlie, cause I bet you're the freshest slice they've seen in a while."
"I am going to reach through these bars and slam you against them until your head busts open, if you ever imply that again." Raven informed him plainly. She had her eyes shut- unable to stare at the plate or the implications of it anymore.
Sam said nothing as Jenkins were uncomfortably pale. Even looked quesy, if honesty is so important.
==DG==
Sam tugged on the wire again.
Raven hadn't moved at all.
Jenkins was becoming mind-numbingly bored. He figured the only thing to do was talk to his cellmates. "What's your name, again?"
"It's Sam." Sam replied.
She raised her hand. "Raven." She introduced.
"Why don't you give it up, Sammy, there's no way out." Jenkins told him.
Sam huffed. "Don't...call me...Sammy!" Then like the Hulk, he pulled the wire down. There was a metallic twang as something hit the ground.
Raven made a low noise of approval. If she were up to it, she'd give him a judges score. "What'd we get?"
Jenkins peered through the bars on his cage.
Sam knelt down for it. "It's a bracket."
"Well, thank God, a bracket. Now we've got 'em, huh?" Jenkins snarked.
The door on his cell clicked open. Raven's shoulders sagged in disappointment.
"Must've been short." Jenkins noted as he walked out. The door to the room unlocked too. Obviously, he was going to leave. "Maybe you knocked somethin' loose."
"No he didn't." Raven countered flatly. "Don't leave your cage."
"What?"
"This isn't right." Sam agreed.
"Don't you guys wanna get out of here?" Jenkins questioned, confused.
"Yeah. But that was too easy." Sam dismisses.
"Your door I can understand. But both of them? At once?" Raven pointed out.
"Look, I'm gonna get out of here, and I'm gonna send help, okay, don't worry." Jenkins argued against their reasonable concerns.
"No, we're serious. Jenkins- this might be a trap." Sam warned.
"Bye, Sammy, Bye Ray." He walked out the now open door.
"Jenkins!" Sam yelled.
Raven blew out a breath. She hadn't moved from the floor. The door locked behind Jenkins- proving their suspicions right.
Two minutes later, his screams echoed into their prison.
==DG==
It was night now.
Raven was trying hard not to sleep. She was self-award enough to know the issue. She'd rather not dream at all than deal with whatever her brain had scraped up from its nightmare-fuel bucket.
Sam was less lucky. He'd fallen asleep some time ago.
Raven sighed. She rested her head against the now cold bars. She would sleep easier when Dean came to break them out.
What she really wanted was her Bag. There was a lock-pick kit in there. Water that didn't have the chance of being poisoned, sand with snacks.
That Bag had gotten Raven out of a lot of scraps. She loved it. She could remember her adventures before that Bag- it had been fun, yes, though tedious.
'She should add a summoning charm to it. How could she work that out? She could definitely manage something but for repeated use it would have to be strong...'
So as Raven fought off sleep, she kept her attention on her Bag. Better that than giving in to her dreams.
She wondered what she'd even dream about. There were so many harsh memories in a dark cage. Two centuries, she'd gone through a lot. She had been locked in cages dirtier than this, in cages with not so obvious bars, prisons meant to crush her spirit from inside out. She refused to add this one to the list- it was barely worth a side note.
At least her limbs were free to move about this time. And with others- that helped too. The steady sounds of Sam's breathing were reminding her of where she was, keeping her grounded to the reality she had chosen.
==DG==
The next day, the Winchester's twins had a new roommate.
Kathleen had been stripped from her uniform. She wore long pants, a white tank top that would need some bleach, and they even took her hair down. Raven liked the look.
They had both watched as she was dragged in. Their 'hosts' had brought her not long ago. Long enough that they knew she'd wake up from however they knocked her out.
To prove it, Kathleen groaned in pain. She reached back to her head.
"You alright?" Sam asked her.
"Careful with the bars." Raven cautioned.
"Are you Sam and Raven Winchester?" Kathleen asked after a pause.
"Last we checked." Raven replied.
"Your, uh, your cousin's looking for you." Kathleen advised.
Raven chuckled. "Thank God." Sam sighed, also chuckling. "Where is he?"
"I, uh-I cuffed him to my car." Kathleen admitted with a pained wince.
Neither Winchester gave much bother to that. They'd seen Dean in worse traps.
The door where Jenkins escaped from opened. Sam and Kathleen tensed. Raven was wondering if she should roll her eyes or start laughing.
Dean walked through the door. He looked around the makeshift prison.
Raven decided to laugh.
Dean turned towards the noise. He spotted his upright brother first. "Sam?" Dean came to the bars blocking him from them. "Are you hurt?"
"No." Sam replied.
"I'm alive too, whore."
"Never doubted you." Dean praised with a cheeky grin.
Raven rolled her eyes- but she was smiling.
Dean smacked the cage, making a metallic twang. "Damn, it's good to see you two."
"How did you get out of the cuffs?" Kathleen-an officer of the law- asked.
Dean turned to her. His expression giving nothing away. "Oh, I know a trick or two."
Kathleen gawked.
"Alright." Dean went to the front of the Winchester cage. He looked at the lock. "Oh, these locks look like they're gonna be a bitch."
"Well, there's some kind of automatic control right there." Sam pointed to the giant pole sticking up from the ground.
"Have you seen 'em?" Dean asked.
"Yeah. Dude, they're just people." Sam revealed.
Dean stared at his brother in surprise. "And they jumped you?" He grinned in big-brother joy. "Must be gettin' a little rusty there, kiddos." He teased.
"Screw you." Raven snickered.
Dean smirked as he went over to the panel. He pushed on the various buttons it had. Nothing happened. "What do they want?"
"I don't know." Sam replied. "They let Jenkins go, but that was some sort of trap. It doesn't make any sense to me."
"Well, that's the point. You know, with our usual...playmates, there's rules, there's patterns." Dean explained. "But with people, they're just crazy."
"I think they're going to hunt us- either for food or for sport." Raven admitted. The boys turned to her. "I mean, they've got us in cages. I heard Jenkins screaming- I don't know. It just feels like, if we died, being killed by humans hunting humans would be almost poetic."
Dean has to give her that. Sounded like the sort of thing they'd get stuck with. Besides, who knows? Maybe she had another dream about it.
"See anything else out there?" Sam asked Dean.
"Uh, he has about a dozen junked cars hidden out back. Plates from all over, so I'm thinkin' when they take someone, they take their car, too." Dean admitted.
"Did you see a black Mustang out there?" Kathleen asked, sounding as though she hoped he hadn't. "About ten years old?"
"Yeah, actually, I did." Kathleen drooped. "Your brother's?" She nodded. "I'm sorry. Let's get you guys out of here, then we'll take care of those bastards." He pointed at the control panel. "This thing takes a key. Key?"
"I don't know." Sam replied.
"They have it." Raven answered.
Dean huffed. Just their luck. "Alright, I better go find it."
"Hey." Sam called. Dean looked. "Be careful."
"Don't die- I'll laugh at you for it." Raven cautioned, doing better to hide her concern.
"Yeah." Dean promised. "You do that."
==DG==
Raven knew Dean had been captured when Lee Bender walked inside the prison. He lifted up the key, twisting it into the control panel.
"What are you doing?" Sam questioned.
The Winchester cage unlocked. The twins tensed. Sam went for the bracket on the floor. Raven searched for a time to grab her Bag.
"Raven." Sam glanced at her.
She nodded at him.
Lee opened the door to their cage. He raised his rifle towards Sam- the bigger target.
"Hey!" Kathleen yelled.
Sam threw the bracket at Lee's face. It caused him to jerk, firing the gun off. Sam rushed at Lee- tackling him to the ground. Raven rushed out of the cage, towards her Bag.
In the distance, Pa Bender shouted out for his son. The same son who was getting knocked in the face by his own rifle. Sam raised up the rifle once Lee was down. He tried to see if he could load it back up. Guess what? He couldn't.
"Damn." Sam grumbled.
"Here." Raven held out one of the guns she'd bought in her time on this world. Nothing fancy, just a semi-automatic. She's bought it cause it said Smith & Wesson and she liked references. Sam took the gun. Raven held up a second gun for herself. "Ready?"
Sam nodded.
Raven grinned.
Sam dragged Lee into their old cage. Raven went over to the fuse box- finding it easy to fuck up the system enough to give them a cover of darkness. More than that, they'd let out Kathleen so she could hide.
They had only just set their trap when Pa and Jared Bender stormed in.
"Lee! Where are ya? Lee!" Pa shouted. "Damn it, Jared, get the lights!"
Jared tried- only nothing worked. "They must have blown the fuses."
Pa huffed in anger. He stormed out, trying another room in the large barn. The more traditional barn setting.
Sam was hiding up in the balcony behind bales of hay. Kathleen was searching for her own hiding spot. Raven was hiding behind the door. When the Bender men snuck in, she kept herself low and hidden. The door was wide enough to hide her as long as she kept her breathing steady and slow.
She could hear them sneaking in the room. Raven didn't want to chance looking out. She raised her weapon- already ready to fire.
She heard the sounds of a cabinet door squeaking.
At that, she leaned out from her hiding space.
Three shots went off- that would be Jared trying and failing to shoot Kathleen.
Screaming and yelling- Kathleen jumping on Jared's back.
More shots- Pa firing at Sam.
Raven leaned out. She aimed her weapon- firing.
Pa yelled out. The bullet had hit him in the firing shoulder.
Raven reloaded- firing again.
Pa screamed that time. She'd hit him in the back.
Jared heard the noise- of course he did. Still there was nothing he could do until he'd thrown off the bitch on his neck. He grabbed her back, throwing her to the ground. "You stupid bitch."
Raven rushed out. Sam too.
"Hey!" Sam called.
Raven fired as Jared turned towards them.
Jared turned- firing his own rifle.
Sam and Raven dodged the shot.
Jared fell to the ground, clutching the wound on his arm.
Sam rushed over. He hit Jared on the head with his borrowed gun. The last Bender fell over.
With that, the Winchesters placed their bleeding host into their own cages. Raven kicked the door on Jared's cage closed, as Sam locked it shut from the control panel. He'd be dead before long- better for everyone that way.
Kathleen had taken Pa's rifle. She had her weapon aimed towards Pa, in case the Bender had any bright ideas. Raven's shot had kept him down but not dead.
Sam was giving Raven back her handgun. He was prepared to drag Pa towards the other empty cage. He turned to Kathleen, his request plain on his face.
Raven gave her a nod of understanding.
"I'll watch this one. You two go ahead." Kathleen suggested.
Sam stared.
Raven went on. Dean would need help- or rather his ego would, after handling Missy.
"Go ahead." Kathleen told Sam.
"Let's see what's taking Dean so long." Raven told Sam. The hunter joined her retreat.
Sometimes, Raven had to admit. She missed the human-crazies. At least those she could deal with normally. Especially with her Bag by her side.
==DG==
Dean was an easy find. He had just finished locking away Little Missy Bender into the closet. It had been hilarious to catch him in the act. The little Bender was yelling up a storm until Dean knocked her out.
Raven was still snickering about it when all three of them walked out of the house. A shot had gone out.
Kathleen was walking out from the barn. "Where's the girl?" She asked them.
"Locked her in a closet." Dean answered. "What about the dad?"
She hesitated. "Shot. Trying to escape."
Everyone in the group knew that was a lie.
==DG==
With that handled, the Winchesters talked about leaving town. "I think the car's at the police station." Dean told them.
Sam and Raven laughed.
Behind them, Kathleen was on the radio. "-backup unit en route to your location."
The Winchesters paused to let Kathleen catch up. "So, state police and the FBI are gonna be here within the hour. They're gonna wanna talk to you." She told them. "I suggest that you're both long gone by then."
"Thanks." Dean replied. "Hey, listen, I don't mean to press our luck, but we're kind of in the middle of nowhere. Think we could catch a ride?"
Kathleen gave him a deadpan stare. "Start walking. Duck if you see a squad car."
"Sounds great to me." Sam replied. "Thanks."
Raven gave a short salute. "I'll keep them from being stupid."
Kathleen nodded.
"Listen, uh...I'm sorry about your brother." Dean apologized, empathic to her plight.
"Thank you." She replied. Her eyes watered. "It was really hard not knowing what happened to him. I thought it would be easier once I knew the truth- but it isn't really." She sniffled. "Anyway, you should go."
The Winchesters walked up the path. Raven was holding her Bag close to her stomach, relieved to have it back in her grasp.
"Never do that again." Dean stated.
"Do what?" Sam asked.
"Go missin' like that." Dean clarified.
Sam chuckled. "You were worried about us."
Raven cooed, mockingly.
"All I'm sayin' is, you two vanish like that again, I'm not lookin' for ya." Dean warned.
"Sure, you won't." Sam snorted.
"I'm not." Dean stated more firmly.
"We believe you." Raven snickered.
Sam too. "So, you got sidelined by a thirteen-year-old girl, huh?"
Dean scoffed. "Oh, shut up."
"Nah we get it. Kids are monsters." Raven laughed.
"Just sayin', gettin' rusty there, kiddo." Sam added on.
That got Dean chuckling. "Shut up."
All three Winchesters laughed together, as they had their long walk back to the Impala.
==DG==
AN: HAHA. Guess who's ready for the premiere in a week?! NOT ME!
Thanks to SpeckledOne and BantaMonkey for following