Don't Feed After Midnight

Chapter 18

"I don't know how you do it." Kevin complained from his place at the wooden table in the men of letters library.

"Do what?" Sam looked up from the book he was paging through, across the table; the lines Kevin always secretly thought resembled an upside down wifi symbol creased Sam's forehead.

"This." He jabbed a finger down, closing out of yet another webpage.

"Research? Isn't it pretty much the same as reading the word; or writing a term paper, come to that. You were in advanced placement…"

"Yeah, sure, I studied. But this, it's different. It's not chemistry or physics. This is all… murky, like fumbling around in the dark." Kevin tried to explain his growing dissatisfaction with everything.

He laid the iPad he'd been using to search for the symbol down on the wooden table and picked up the note pad again. "I mean, what are we even looking for? You say it's got to be a glif or symbol, okay. But how do we know you even joined the dots right?"

Sam shot him a tired look. "We don't. But uh, basically every culture there is has some form of trickster mythology. The symbol is our only way of narrowing it down."

"Yeah, I get that, but it's just… frustrating."

Sam shrugged, dropping his eyes to the book in front of him again, turning a page, "you get used to it."

"I don't want to get used to it!"

Sam looked up again. The wifi symbol on his forehead was joined by two deep vertical lines, and Sam was now giving him the puppy dog eyes he'd read about, "I get that Kevin, really I do…"

"But it doesn't change anything." He responded flatly, letting a dejected breath puff through his lips. "This is my life, Leviathans, demons and angels, until I die. Because I'm the sole keeper of the word of the lord on earth, yeah I got that memo.

The thing I don't get is why you keep doing it…"

Sam was staring at him.

"I mean everything you've been through… and you keep doing this. Keep trying to fix the world."

"Well, yeah, I-I mean… if the world gets broken, it kind of effects all of us, Kevin. It won't just go away because we want it to. And if you know enough to do something..."

"Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act, and in that action are the seeds of new knowledge," he quoted, "Albert Einstein." Kevin added quickly, before the older man asked.

"Mmm," Sam nodded, "new knowledge, pretty much."

Something struck Kevin then. "Maybe it isn't new knowledge we need…"

Sam huffed and rapped his knuckles lightly on the cover of the book he was reading, grimacing with long suffering agreement.

"No, I mean you've dealt with a trickster before. One that played pranks on you and tried to turn you and Dean against each other. The case with the frat boy pledge master, that 'aliens' probed and made to slow dance. And the research scientist who got eaten by an aligator from the sewers."

Sam was staring at him.

"I mean the angels fell and now suddenly there's a trickster here, playing us off against each other... Your laptop, Dean's car… Doesn't that all seem kind of like a replay to you?"

"Gabriel's dead, Kevin." Sam was gazing at him intently, frowning. "…I never told you that story."

Kevin gulped, suddenly nervous.

No, neither Winchester had told him that story, he'd read it in one of Carver Edlund's books, (well, Kevin guessed they were actually Chuck Shurley's books,) the Charlie person had sent him. He could feel his face heating up, and Sam just kept staring at him suspiciously.

"Your friend Charlie…" he blurted out. "She sent me a link to the books, by, well, I guess, by the other prophet… the one I replaced…"

The muscles along Sam's jaw bulged and jumped. "Seriously?!" He gritted. "The books," Sam huffed, "if Chuck weren't already dead, I swear to god…" his eyes narrowed. "How many did you read?"

Kevin gulped in panic, looking away from the hunter in embarrassment.

Sam huffed and Kevin felt himself flinch guiltily.

"A-all of them?" He admitted, finally peeking up at the hunter warily.

Sam rubbed his brow, shook his head and looked away, "just do me a favour and don't tell Dean about this."

Kevin nodded in agreement, he'd seen Dean, briefly, before Sam pulled a face and demanded he go get cleaned up. There'd been blood all over him.

Crowley's blood Kevin guessed. Dean had a habit of reacting violently to things he didn't like.

"I'm surprised Charlie would…" Sam pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number.

"Hey, Charlie….

Yeah…

I'm really doing fine. Pretty much back to factory specifications...

You did tell me, yeah."

"No, no we're still officially working on the Angel thing.

Hey, just called with a quick question, did you…"

"You did Huh?

No, that's okay, don't beat yourself up for forgetting, it happens to the best of us.

You guys can say hi right now."

Sam held a hand over the phone, "so, turns out Charlie wasn't the one who updated your reading list." He handed over the phone.

"Say hi."

"Hello?" Kevin said cautiously.

"Kevin, hey, nice to meet a fellow recent innitiant, to the weirdness of things that go bump in the night! I'm Charlie, Charlie Bradbury- Well, that's what I go by, anyway.
I hear we have you partially to thank for the world not being overrun by chompy bitey things. Kudos on that." A girl prattled brightly in his ear.

"Ummm don't mention it," he replied feeling tounge tied, "nice to meet you too. Sam and Dean have only good things to say about you, Charlie."

"Can't say I've always been able to reciprocate.

But we're cool now.

The Winchester's are a disaster zone waiting to happen, but they mean well. Sam says I'm going to be your in case of emergency contact. Promise if I get that email I'll come riding to the rescue, we've got to stick together right?!"

"Umm, thanks for that." He looked up at Sam, silently begging to be saved from the flood of the girl's prattle. It had been forever since he talked to a stranger, and frankly, he was feeling more than a little overwhelmed. "Oh, oh, Sam wants to talk to you again." He faked, thrusting the phone back at the hunter.

"Hi Charlie, yeah….

Huh, of course your highness….

I'll ask, but right now we kinda have our hands full of….

Yeah...

No, he's working on the car, yeah I'll tell him...

You make sure to call if you run across any cases…

Because, hunters without backup end up dead, Charlie…" Sam pulled a face at what ever the girl said in response.

"Hey, I was serious before, and you really need to come for a real visit, soon, stay a couple of days, check out the archives, meet Kevin in person…
Yeah, yeah, you too, bye."

Sam hung up.

"So, we can assume our trickster knows about, and probably read, all of Chuck's books." Sam looked worried, "that's just… Wow!"

Kevin nodded, "How many people know about those books, anyway? Know what they are and where to find them. I mean, until I was sent them, I didn't know, and I am pretty good with computers. Most monsters are kind of non-technical aren't they? Demi gods, I thought they were pretty full of themselves. Would a thing like that lower itself to learn how to work a computer or read a whole load of trashy novels."

"No. You're right, most monsters are pretty much Ludites, but…" Sam huffed out a breath, "I just don't know."

"Still, I can't help thinking all this has to do with the angels, they know Chuck was a prophet. So it makes sense they'd know about his books."

"Yeah, but in our experience the only angel interested in picking up a book, is Metatron, and according to Cas, he's the only angel that wasn't kicked out of heaven by the trials. If he was smart, the last place he'd be, would be here." Sam's hands tightened round the books cover and his face hardened.

"It would solve half of our problems if we could get our hands on him, then we could make him tell us how to reverse that spell."

"Still think it might be worth trying angel banishing sigils or something. What could it hurt?"

Sam stood up abruptly. "Such an action would be unwise. If you will excuse me, I must confer with Dean." Sam said and with that he turned and walked stiffly out, Kevin starred after him, feeling slightly bewildered.