Chapter 2: What about the Candyman?

"You hurt my feelings, Moose." Crowley spat. "Told you it's got nothing to do with me nor my underlings." Of course this isn't a mindless accusation, Sam swore that he could smell sulfur in at least one location at every crime scene. Or maybe it was, a mindless accusation that is. Maybe what Sam needs was someone to point a finger at. Who cares anyway, whatever this is, as long as the missing children were found and the town returned to safety, right? Well, wrong. Because now they've got the King of Hell hot on their heels and he is keen to find out what has been spooking the people of the godforsaken town that was not of his doing. It's hard to do your job when your enemy's nose is poked into your business.

"So tell me, what have you boys got on that plate of yours?" Crowley smirked. "I'm all ears, Moose."

"Dean's missing."

"Yes, I've noticed that." Crowley said waving his hand at Sam.

"I think whatever we were hunting, we were close." Sam replied in frustration. His eyes never left Crowley's face as he spoke, "It's been five hours. And I think that it took him."

Crowley raised his brow as he listened, his eyes scooting over to Castiel before returning to Sam. Both were visibly distressed. "Feathers here couldn't locate him?"

Sam shook his head, "Even if Dean had prayed to Cas, Cas had heard none of it."

"What took him?"

"It was the Candy Man."

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They were left stranded on a highway bridge towards Harlow's and Dean was visibly upset. Castiel knew that it was well past sunset and all he could do to help was to hold the flashlight as Dean worked his way through the Impala's engine and Sam navigating the map with frustration. They were not lost, Castiel convinced himself, sidetracked maybe, but not lost. Castiel assumed that they were close to town, oddly enough, there were no signs of vehicles or sounds and sights indicating a bustling little town at the end of the road. With Sam by the map, he was sure that this road leads only to Harlow's. The moment the Impala set wheels on the highway, all that surrounded them was thick, heavy fog that seem to have settled out of nowhere. For Sam and Dean, even with the headlights glaring onto the road ahead, it was hard to differentiate between day and night.

Things could turn out positive. Someone may drive past and they could have hitched a ride, but Castiel knew better. Optimism was a fantasy. This 'ghost bridge' as Dean called it with a more colorful language than what Castiel would have used, was getting on to their nerves, It wasn't hard for Castiel to see that the fog was screwing with Sam and Dean - they would flinch or take a swing at something that wasn't there - and luckily for him, whatever it was doesn't seem to take a liking to angel genes. And while the roar of the Impala's engine shouts that Dean had fixed her up all good, Castiel wasn't sure whether he likes it or not.

"Ok, that looks…"

"Dreadful." Dean spat. The fog lifted the moment Dean sets foot onto the town, giving him a clear view of what lies ahead - quiet, lifeless place. There were no street decorations, no laughter, not even a buzz of a fly in this place. And Halloween was just tomorrow!

"I was meaning to say 'optimistic'." Sam said.

"Very funny, Sammy."

If the town itself wasn't freaky enough, the people here was on another level of weird. As they walked towards the motel lobby door, Castiel stole another look around the place and instantly regrets his choice. What appeared to be empty windows from before had people standing on the other side. They were stiff and unmoving, except for their eyes which kept a close watch on the trio.

"Dean?" Castiel called out as they stepped through the motel lobby doors, "You need to take a look at this."

"What is it Cas?" Dean asked as he spun around and looked towards where Cas wouldn't tear his eyes away.

"Do you see what I see?"

"What the hell?"

"So you do too."

The image of the residents and the receptionist stuck around in Castiel's thoughts even as they were checked into their room. There was only one available room, which struck Cas as odd because it doesn't seem like a visitor spot, and Castiel refers to more than just the run down motel. Cas doesn't mind, angels don't need sleep anyways and as Dean hits the showers, Sam settles down on the bed and flips open his laptop. Castiel reckons neither of them are getting any sleep tonight.

"It isn't like Gabe to not contact us after so long." Sam muttered under his breath. He grabbed a glass from the table and turned the tap on to fill it up with water before taking large gulps. "Could something have happened to him?"

"Don't worry Sam." Castiel assured. "If Gabriel was in danger, he would have called for help. And I would have heard it."

"Yeah, you're right." Sam sighed as he scrolled through his laptop. "We should probably focus on solving this case before Dean gets off on the job. You know he's craving for this way too much."

Castiel sighed. Sam was right, it was risky taking on the job, but Castiel couldn't bear to see Dean suffer - if you even count boredom as suffering. And after a night of brainstorming, neither of them could find relevant information that points to the culprit. "You remember what Dean said the other day? About children going missing faster than adults?"

About that, Castiel had been thinking about the importance of Halloween but he couldn't pinpoint its significance in the middle of all that was happening. "Yeah, what about it?"

"I've gotten some information on the missing children here. The police seemed to want to keep the situation quiet. I noticed that we didn't see any missing persons' posters around and these files were classified and password protected. I think that the police might have been involved in this."

There was something about what Sam said that didn't sit right with Castiel. "You just ripped this data off the county records? Isn't it illegal to read classified files?"

Sam shrugged. "Only if you get caught."

That was good enough for Cas. "What did you find?"

"Honestly, there's not much. The children's files are almost clean. It states here that they were all snatched from their own homes late at night, and their family members only noticed it when morning came. There were also no signs of break in."

Castiel frowned at Sam. "I have never heard of anything like this."

"Neither have I. Well, Dean and I hunted a Rhakshasa once. They can't enter a house without first being invited. But they are nasty, and absolutely not at all stealthy."

Sam passed the laptop over to Cas. He took it without question and began to scroll through the black text and jargon but the sight of one particular child caught his attention. He had blond hair, bright golden eyes and he was in all smiles and bright like sunshine. And he looked really similar to someone he knew.

"What is it Cas?" Sam asked. You look troubled. Did you pick up something?"

It took Castiel another second to match the photo to one of his memories. It happened thousands of years ago, no wonder he couldn't scratch that itch when he first saw it. The child was a splitting image of his brother as a boy. He looked exactly like Gabriel.

"Sam, what did Gabriel say he had to do again?"

"Well, erm. Something about lollies. He had to gather a bunch of magical sweets or something before the week ends." Sam said. "What's this got to do with Gabriel?"

"I have an unsettling feeling in my grace that Gabriel has got something to do with the kidnappings." Castiel replied. When Sam gasped, he rushed in to clarify himself. "Well, maybe not directly involved. I mean, it's a coincidence that Halloween happens to be the end of this week, and it's associated with lots of candies. And this child, Matt, he bore striking resemblance to Gabriel when he was a fledgling."

"Do you think he could be the one behind all this?" Sam mumbled. "I guess what I'm saying is, this wouldn't be the first time he got out of line." Sam winced as he remembered the painful memories of being pranked by the trickster.

Castiel shook his head. "Gabriel may be one for mischief but he's definitely not evil."

Sam huffed. "I certainly hope so. Do you think that Matt could be Gabe in disguise?"

"I'm not completely sure, but something about him is… bugging me. Here, take a look. Maybe you could see what I can't."

"What's there to see?" Dean's voice boomed.

Sam didn't know how to tell Dean that his boyfriend was ranked first on their psychotic killer suspect list. He and Gabe never did get along and while neither of them possess enough threat towards each other, it had gotten to the point where they would have not a day of quiet over their constant bickering. Ever since Sam announced that Gabriel and he was together, Dean had toned down quite a fair bit - of course only after the initial ruckus. Sam was thankful for both of them, and with Gabriel living together with them in the bunker, it was hard to not learn to get along. And despite the small teasing and pranking then lightened up the mood in the bunker or on hunts, Dean never meant Gabriel any harm or hate.

Until now. What if Dean lashes out with a 'I told you so! He's gonna hurt you one day!'?

Castiel let Dean on their earlier discussion and Dean was chugging down a bottle of beer as he listened. When Cas got to the part on Gabriel, Sam closed his eyes and waited for it to come - the egoistic, self proclaims of his brother's disapproval. But it never came. Sam opened an eye and glanced over at Cas and his brother, who seemed to deep in discussion instead.

Ok, maybe there was nothing to fear.

This wasn't quite what Sam expected. He wouldn't wish for it any other way. But he wanted to know why. Why wasn't Dean condemning Gabriel? Why did Dean seem cool with it - whatever it was? More importantly, why was he comforted with the silence between them in this situation? Dean isn't that shallow, Sam chided himself, we've got a possible serial killer on our hands and all that I care about is how Dean sees Gabe.

But he hasn't fucked it up, not yet.

"Sammy?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you notice anything weird with Gabriel for the past week? Anything, like behaviours, actions, something he said-"

"Dean, I'm not your client." Sam sighed, "But no. He was the same. Only on the night before he left that note, he was squeamish about candy wrappers."

Dean raised his brow, "Candy wrappers?"

"You heard right. I thought it was because I was telling him off." Sam complained. "My room is filled with those! And not like it was hard to clean it up."

"However much I love porn, Sammy. I'm not keen to hear about the bedroom adventures of the Moose with the Candyman. Just not into that kind of stuff."

Sam rolled his eyes. The thing was, Gabriel usually had some sort of witty comeback before using his mojo to clean the place up. But he wouldn't stop rambling on how he couldn't touch the wrappers that night and that the wrappers formation made up to be some sort of sigil - or the wrappers contained some sort of sigil - whichever.

"Even if Gabriel was involved, it doesn't add up. The kidnappings began fifteen days ago, and Gabester disappeared three days ago. That makes twelve days unaccounted for."

"Do you remember what the sigil was?" Castiel asked.

Sam vaguely remembered the wrappers randomly strewn across the room, but he couldn't make out the exact shape that they formed, which left Castiel very little to work on. Sam mentioned that Gabriel wasn't answering his prayers either and Castiel had no luck with the angel radio.

When morning rolled on, the brothers were having their breakfast. When Castiel trotted into the room to join them, he looked terrible. He handed Sam the coffee cups and headed straight for the bed and sat down. There was heavy silence between the three of them, and for a moment, it was awkward as hell. All Castiel did was to go downstairs to get a local map and and two cups of coffee - how do you even freak an angel out?

Castiel looked down at his hands before bringing one of them up to his cheek, then sliding up into his messy hair and lingered there for a short moment before involuntarily shuddering. He didn't know that kissing and teasing were part of a receptionist job. He didn't know that tongue was used in greetings. The lady sure acted differently from the night before, where her expression was stoned and cold, and she spoke no words. This morning, Castiel will say, that she was too affectionate towards guests for her own good.

"Did you find anything, Cas?" Sam asked.

"Not much that I could notice." Castiel didn't break his trance as he replied monotonously.

"Well, look who has got his feathers ruffled up." Dean teased.

"Well, actually, Heaven." Castiel replied.

That got both the Winchesters' attention as they dropped their forks onto the plates with a 'cling' and fixed their gaze on the angel.

"Not to get your hopes up or anything, I actually couldn't hear much from the angel radio. Just some noises but I doubt it's anything worth checking out."

Sensing that Castiel was holding back, Dean pushed further. "But? Spit it out."

"But there's something going on outside that I think you should take a look for yourself."

Nothing else was said as the boys packed their gear and headed out and while Dean's expression was grim and professional, his eyes sparkled with excitement. Castiel smiled, he loved it when Dean's eyes sparkle like that. He just hoped that what greets them outside will not tamper with the gleam.

A/N: Reviews make me very happy :) Thanks to those who read, favourite, followed and reviewed! :D