He pushed his way through the wood. Evie had said the night before that it must be a new wood, and now he looked about him he could see that she was right. He understood better than Sam realised why his brother had felt so unsure about her. It was uncanny how easily she'd slipped in with them, how comfortable it all was. He guessed that was how she managed to get pure strangers to do crazy things like lend her thousands of pounds worth of boat. Even his walking off now was not so much because he didn't want to take orders, rather that he needed to rebel, to not fall into this pattern so easily.
Then there was Evie the woman. The very fact that he hadn't jumped her, even though she'd made it very clear that she wouldn't have pushed him off, seemed significant. Of course, he realised, he liked her.
On an impulse he pulled out his phone and dialed. It rang for a moment, then he was switched over to voicemail. He almost didn't leave a message, but at the last moment changed his mind.
"Hey, Cassie, it's me. Just wanted to see how you were doing. I'm sorry if it's too early. Give me a ring."
He didn't know what else to say. With a sigh, he closed the phone. He'd better get back anyway.
He turned, and found the muzzle of a revolver in his face.
"Oh, hey," he said, with his best ingenuous smile. "I didn't know this was private property. I'll get going."
He tried to step around the stony faced man, but he was having none of it.
"Nice story," he said. "Why don't you tell it to my boss?"
Feeling stupid, Dean walked in front of his guard over to the house. He considered running, but even with all the trees to block the path of the bullet, the guy had a lot of height and weight on him, he seriously doubted he'd manage to get away. Besides, if he ran they'd search for him, and then they'd find Sam and Evie. Better to brazen it out.
Treve was waiting for him in a toweling robe and slippers when Dean was ushered into the conservatory of the house. He'd been brought in the front way, so there was no way Sam could know what had happened.
The man was short and over-weight, but he held a kind of authority - a menace - that over came those short comings. Here was a man, Dean was reasonably sure, who only got others to do his dirty work because he simply couldn't do it all himself.
"Who are you?" He demanded, his voice rough from cigars. Probably Cuban, Dean thought.
"Daniel," he answered, plucking a name from the ether. "Daniel Kernow." Well, it was as good a name as any.
"KERNOW?" He demanded.
- Damn, Dean thought. May be it wasn't such a great name.
"Yeah, Kernel," he amended rapidly. "As in 'Apricot'? Pretty stupid name I know…" he grinned at his captors, they didn't look amused.
"You said Kernow," Treve told him. "As in 'Cornwall'. So, my men happen to find a man wandering around my lake with a Cornish name at exactly the same time I get a report that the barrier I paid a lot of money to have constructed has been removed from the mouth of the river." He looked at Dean with watery blue, bloodshot eyes. "I don't believe in coincidences brother. That's why I'm alive. " He considered Dean for a moment, then made a decision. "I don't have time to screw about. Take him out and shoot him."
"Now wait a minute!" Dean protested. "I was just going for a walk, I…"
Another man stepped in to the room. He didn't make a sound, but everyone knew instantly that he was there. Treve was a menace, but he was an ordinary menace. This man was something else.
"I have a better idea." He said quietly, fixing Dean with almost black eyes.
"I think I'd prefer the bullet," Dean said.
ooooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooooooooooo
Dean was still sitting on the damp ground as he finished telling the other two what he suddenly remembered.
"Couldn't have been much of a forgetting spell if it was that easily broken," Evie said.
"Can you get it out of him?" Sam asked.
Evie looked at Dean.
"That must be what they did to the other victims," she told him. "Come on Dean, don't make me be a bitch."
"What are you talking about?" Sam asked. "Some witch has embedded something in my brother's chest!"
Evie ignored him. "Dean?"
Dean got to his feet. "Yeah, I know."
"You know?" Sam fussed. "You know what?"
Dean pointed at himself. "This is better than anything Evie could have collected."
"We've got our lure," Evie concluded. "You'd better get moving."
"Now hold on!" Sam put a hand on Dean's chest to stop him.
"Ow!" Dean protested. "Dude, watch what you're doing!"
"The idea was to lure the ship up here then throw the stuff overboard. What's to stop the ship taking Dean now as well as Treve?"
"Sam, there was always a risk anyway," Dean reminded him.
Evie went over to her pack and fished around in it. She returned with a small glass bottle.
"Take this, it's water from a holy spring back home. When the time comes, pour it over Dean's chest, pull the crystal out too if you can and throw it in the water." She pressed the bottle into Sam's hand. "Now go, hurry. And take good care of your brother!"
So, Evie thought, the witchdoctor's here after all. On standby. Treve really must be nervous.
It still didn't sit right with her that the forgetting spell had been so easily broken. A man able to do what he could do should have woven a better spell around a believer.
Evie packed up the camp with practiced speed. When she was done there was no sign they had ever been there. Dean had taken his keys, so she used other methods to start up the Impala and move it further out of sight. If anyone really looked they'd find it, she knew, regarding her work critically, so let's hope they don't. Her bike no one would find, of course.
Finally she took position up in a tree where she could see the lake and especially the river.
ooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooooooooooooo
"I don't like this, Dean," Sam said.
"Oh quit whining," he answered. "You sound about eleven, maybe ten."
"I'm serious, Dean," Sam pressed. "What we're doing, it's dangerous."
"Well of course it's dangerous."
"I mean more dangerous than what we normally do."
"Oh, really? Like saying 'Bloody Mary' three times into the mirror you know she's haunting kind of dangerous?"
Dean glanced at him to make sure he'd got the point.
"Watch the river," Sam told him irritably. "There's a bend coming up."
oooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooooooooooo
Evie had been waiting a good forty minutes when a handful of men appeared from the dirt track. Two of them were in diving gear, one carried a small wooden box.
They didn't seem in the slightest bit interested in looking for intruders, instead they concentrated on another task, one they seemed very well practiced in. The two frogmen waded clumsily into the water while unseen, Evie watched with contempt at their awkwardness. The other three men merely waited. After a few minutes there was a pulse. The divers reappeared some way into the lake and laughing.
Evie watched impatiently as the fools played with the barrier like it was a toy, jumping in just on the lake side, and allowing it to push them away.
A discordant bark from a radio at last pulled them to their senses. Evie gave them ten minutes after leaving her sight, then she slipped down from her perch, wearing a swimming costume for once.
The river bed wasn't deep, but it was murky. She already regretted not bringing goggles from when she'd gone after Treve. It'd had taken her too long to locate him. If she'd been quicker then may be Dean wouldn't have been grabbed. Intellectually she realised it was the best thing that could have happened. She didn't like it one bit though.
Finally she found it, in its plastic bag and weighed down by a lump of lead right in the centre of the flow.
Wading out of the water she looked at it quizzically. The bag had already been filling with water, which was unfortunate, because she'd planned to lob it on to the skiff when it came back. What bothered her though was that there was a tiny slit in one corner that let the water in. A deliberate slit.
oooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooooooooooooo
Arturo left the house for what he knew would be the last time. He wasn't best pleased about it, but there were some orders one couldn't disobey. Not far along the road he saw a figure and pulled over. Meg got in the passenger side. She shut the door and looked ahead, not acknowledging the Witchdoctor's presence.
"I hope there's a good reason why I have to lose one of my best clients," he said bitterly.
She glanced at him, unconcerned by his rancour.
"The Winchesters are not to be harmed, not yet anyway. We have plans for them."
"And the girl?"
Meg considered her words.
"Let's just say that right now our needs coincide with hers."
oooooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooooooooooo
Dean brought the boat to a stop at the mouth of the river. He looked out over the grey sky and ocean.
"You know, we could still be here for ages," he said. Suddenly the black ship seemed to coagulate out of the shadows of the waves. "Or not."
He brought the engine back to life, and swung the boat around. Heading back up the way they'd just come.
"Is it following?" He shouted.
"Oh yeah," Sam replied breathlessly.
Dean's mouth was dry. A dread was stealing over him, something he thought he'd stopped feeling years ago. Glancing at Sam, he saw his brother's face had lost all it's colour. In all their plans they'd forgotten one thing everyone had mentioned, the fear that had stolen over them, that had kept anyone from moving while it got on with its work. He gripped the wheel, gritted his teeth, and tried to ignore it.
"Faster Dean!"
"I don't want to lose it!"
"Trust me, you're not going to."
He did trust him. Dean went faster.
It was a long way back to the lake, Sam gripped the bottle of holy water so tightly he was afraid he was going to break it. The ship seemed to be playing with them, it could go as fast as it wanted, yet it was prepared to keep the boat just in its sight. The skiff forced its way up river, the wake soaking the banks, and an early morning angler. The Black Ship glided after them, far bigger than the water course should allow, trees would disappear with almost a shudder, and reappear behind it.
Evie felt its coming long before she saw any sign of it. Her guts twisted in unformed fear as she stood nervously at the edge of the lake. The skiff burst out onto the still water in a cacophony of sound, and kept going, on towards the house.
Then the ship glided in. For a moment, Evie merely stared at it's massive silent form, at the black, flashing clouds above it in the otherwise still air.
The came the whisper.
The hour has come, but not the man.
"Now, Sam," she said anxiously. "Do it now!"
Sam pried Dean's white-knuckled hands from the wheel, and turned him round. He still wore the shirt Evie had ripped and it slipped open as Sam controlled his fall to the floor. Glancing up he saw in horror that the cloud had shifted, was coming towards them. Feverishly he unscrewed the bottle and poured the water over his brother. Then he shut his eyes and prayed it would worked. His head swam, he felt his hair stand up from static electricity, when he opened his eyes he found the cloud had descended upon them.
Then Dean screamed.
Sam reached out for the crystal still embedded in Dean's skin.
ooooooooooo
Evie watched, her hands on her head, feeling helpless. The ship had been fooled so many times, it looked like it wasn't taking any chances. And meanwhile she knew Treve would be bundling his fat little self into his Jaguar and speeding off.
In desperation she lifted up her voice and yelled –
"Over there!" She pointed at the house. "The one you seek is over there!"
And then again –
"Tho ve Eve Curnow! An dean Treve, theu en hunz! Ottava ena!"
ooooooooooooo
Sam threw the crystal into the lake. As he did so he heard Evie shouting something from the bank. The cloud seemed to stutter, then no longer interested in their little boat, it glided away, towards the house.
Sam didn't care any more. All he cared about was that Dean had instantly stopped screaming.
"You okay?" He asked anxiously.
Dean forced himself to sit up. He took a ragged breath.
"If I ever decide to be bait again, remind me of this moment," he said, his voice hoarse.
Sam laughed, relieved. And punched him in the shoulder. The punch he received back had him on his ass.
ooooooooooooooo
Only Evie saw the cloud pass the house and head up along the road that led to it. She heard a screech of tires and watched the micro-storm rage. At last, the cloud returned, still black and menacing, but no longer flashing lightning. The ship turned around and as it passed onto the river, it faded away.
oooooooooooooooOOOOOooooooooooooooo
"So where you to now?" Evie asked as she secured the Harley in it's carrier.
They had given themselves a days holiday since the events two days ago, but now she was anxious to be moving again.
"We haven't decided yet," Dean answered, finishing off the last of her pancakes. "I'm gonna miss your cooking."
She leant against the side of the campervan and watched.
"Honestly, you'd think you never ate, the way you shovel it away." She smiled. "I'm glad I met you."
Dean put the plate down.
"You know, we could come with you to New Orleans," he offered. Sam looked up from the laptop in surprise. "A hungry house, sounds like fun."
"Yeah. But I don't do well with a lot of company. I've grown too used to solitude."
Dean nodded, understanding.
"There's a thing over in Illinois could be interesting," Sam said. "Mutilations."
"More cattle?" Dean asked, sounding bored.
"People."
His eyebrows raised. "Yeah, okay, I could go for that."
Evie washed the plate up in the last of the hot water and stowed it away.
"Well, I'm set. Guys, it's been great."
"You've got our numbers?" Sam asked.
"Both of them, and vice versa?" She checked. "Email etcetera? We will definitely meet again."
ooooooooooooooooOOOOOooooooooooooooo
Evie followed Dean and Sam along the road until the T junction, where she was turning left and they were going right. She rolled down her window and leant out, Dean opened his to hear her.
"There's one thing I forgot to do," she said. Reaching over, she pulled Dean from his seat and kissed him. "Would have been a crime if I'd let you go unkissed," she said with a twinkle in her eyes of forget-me-not blue.
The vehicles pulled away. Evie watched the Impala disappear along the road in her wing mirror. She held a moment of regret, then touched her stereo, looked along the open road and smiled at the future.
Both men watched the camper-van in the mirror until it had shrunk out of sight.
"So, people mutilation?" Dean asked. "Tell me more."