Hello again! So here's chapter four, and I think this might already be the longest fic I've ever written... Daunting! I'm generally a on-shot writer, so if you, my lovely readers wanted to give me some suggestions on where you want to see this going I would absolutely love it! I'm planning on making each chapter a little snippet of their childhood until their all over 18 and pick up properly again from there, so now is your chance to have your input :)
Any way, please enjoy, and if you have a moment at the end, tell me what you think!
One Month Later
Dean gently repositioned the pistol In Hope's hands and took a step back, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets.
"Okay, Just turn your body forward a little more, that's it. Now, when you're ready, remember don't rush, take a deep breath." He said soothingly as Hope nodded and frowned in concentration. With only the tiniest of flinches she pulled the trigger, the bullet flying just left of the empty soda can and thumping into a tree behind it. She turned to look at him, her brow furrowed in disappointment as he chuckled and shook his head.
"Don't give me that look, that was a really good shot." He cam forward and took the gun from her, clicking the safety on and tucking it back into his belt. There was a dramatic sigh from behind them as Sam turned the page of his comic particularly loudly.
"What?" Dean demanded, flapping his arms. Same just sighed again and turned another page, raising an eyebrow. Dean stormed forward and grabbed the comic, holding it just out of Sam's reach and putting the other hand on the smaller boy's forehead so he just flailed uselessly.
"What Sam?!" He said again, earning himself Sam's well practised bitch-face.
"Dad's gonna flip if he finds out you're teaching her to shoot. The gun's meant to be for emergencies only." He replied, letting his arms drop to his sides. He knew Dean well enough to know he'd get bored if he didn't fight back. Proving him right, he dropped the comic into Sam's lap and cross his arms.
"Dad's been gone for two weeks Sam! He didn't even enrol us in a school this time, just left us! You know how to shoot, it's time she learnt, she needs to be able to protect herself." He turned to walk away but turned back on an after thought.
"And if you tell him I swear I will burn your lucky underpants." He poked Sam in the chest for emphasis and glared.
"Plus, Hope wants to learn, don't you Hope?" The curly dark head appeared at his elbow, and came to perch on the wall beside Sam. She smiled and nodded, picking at the hem of of her shirt.
"I don't want to be a burden..." Sam shuffled closer and put his arm around her, giving her a squeeze. She looked up at him and grinned, leaning into the hug.
"When is John getting back? Have you heard from him?" She asked Dean hopefully. He shook his head and sat on the low wall on the other side of her, looking out at the muddy expanse of overgrown land behind their motel. He missed the disappointed look she gave him, her smile faltering and turning hard as she kicked a pebble frustratedly into the long grass.
It had been a long month of moving from town to town, constantly being told that this was where they would be parting ways and then being dragged off again because someone smelt sulphur, or there were scratch marks on a tree... She hated the emotional whiplash he was dragging her through. Plus John had been gone longer than they'd expected this time, and they were starting to run out of money for food, especially as they had actually had to buy her a couple more tops since the lady in the room next door had asked why she wore the same outfit every day.
She spotted a quarter half buried in the mud and bent to pick it up. Brushing off the dirt she tucked it in her back pocket and pushed away from the wall, shoving her hands in her pockets as she strolled off back towards the motel.
"This sucks!" She shouted over her shoulder, stepping into the long grass. She was so bored! What were they supposed to do all day for weeks?!
"Hope come back! Don't sulk..." Dean called after her, hopping down from the wall to chase after her. The long grass came up well past her waist and Dean suddenly had a bad feeling in his gut. He rushed forward, but before he could step into the grass she disappeared from his line of sight with a scream, dragged down into the grass.
"Hope!" He yelled, stumbling forward with thrashing arms, dragging the grass from side to side searching for her. The grass to his left rustled as something raced past. He pulled the gun from the back of his belt and swung it from left to right frantically, breathing heavily.
"Sam! Stay out of the grass! Get back to the motel now!" He yelled, terrified. He had no idea what was out there, or where Hope had gone and he needed to get out of the grass. He made a dash for the wall they'd been sitting on and nearly made it before a cold hand gripped his ankle and dragged him down. He shot blindly in that direction and felt whatever had him jerk slightly but carry on pulling, and the next thing he knew, everything went dark.
Dean came too with a start, trying to yank his hands out of their bindings. The room was too dark to see anything but he could smell damp and mould, and an underlying smell he vaguely recognised, something coppery and sour. He heard a quiet groan from somewhere to his left and swung his head round to search the darkness.
"H-hope?!" His voice shook slightly, but he took a deep breath and tried to get a grip on himself. He was a hunter, he wasn't allowed to be scared, he had to save Hope.
"Dean...?" The little voice that replied was thick with tears but made him audibly sigh with relief.
"Oh thank god, you're alive. Are you okay? Can you see anything?" He asked quietly, not wanting to draw attention to them in case whatever took them was nearby. He strained to reach into his pocket towards his flick knife, his fingers just brushing the wooden handle, but not quite getting close enough to grab it.
"Yeah, i'm- i'm fine... I can see... there's a lamp near me, I might be able to reach to turn it on if I scoot my chair... and there's... water? I think my feet are in water." He heard her slap her boots against the tiny bit of water on the floor and thought hard. What lived in dark, damp places, and took children...? The were a couple of things he could remember, but with most of them they would already be dead.
"Okay, Hope, quietly, really quietly try and get your chair close enough to the lamp to turn it on." He said, not bothering to whisper any more. If the creature was around it would already have heard them. He tried again to reach into his pocket while Hope threw her weight to the side, grunting as the heavy chair moved a fraction of an inch with each movement. After a minute or so she made a triumphant noise and used her mouth to pick up the switch on the lamps chord, flicking it on with her tongue.
Dean looked around him and gulped, not liking what he saw. They were in some kind of basement, surrounded by shelves full of junk, and dotted here and there was the occasional bloody knife had been discarded haphazardly on the floor. The were bloody hand prints smeared on the floor and walls, and Dean was pretty sure that was a bit of scalp by the door.
"Ummm, okay, Hope, can you reach anything sharp to cut yourself free?" He asked, trying to sound calm and failing. He heard a little whimper from his left and turned to look at Hope, who was staring wide eyed at the puddle of lumpy blood her feet sat in. He gagged slightly and had to take a second to keep himself from hyperventilating. He saw a jagged knife half on half off the shelf beside him and started heaving his chair closer to it.
"Don't look at it Hope, look at me, think of something else." He said between movements. She nodded and snapped her eyes up to him, shaking violently.
"Dean... Dean! I'm really scared, what's happening?" She hiccuped, her eyes locked on Dean as he managed to grab the bloody knife between his teeth, turning slightly green at the thought of who's blood it was touching his mouth. He dropped it into his lap just close enough for his fingers to drag it closer and turn it around, tucking it under the rope and start to saw. He glanced up at her and caught her big, terrified blue eyes for a second. They were pleading him to make all this go away, to make it stop happening.
"Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better. Remember to let her into your heart, then you can start to make it better..." He sang shakily, continuing to saw at the rope. His mum used to sing 'Hey Jude' to him when he was scared as a kid, and even if it didn't help Hope, it had an odd soothing effect on him.
"Dean, what are you-"
"Shhh, I'm singing to you. Hey Jude, don't be afraid, you were made to go out and get her. The minute you let her under your skin, then you begin to make it better." He flushed red as he continued. Just as he thought the cramp in his hand would stop him from making the last few stroked of the knife, the rope snapped, releasing his hand.
"Yes!" He said, reaching over to untie his other hand. He shot up out of the chair and rushed over to Hope, he had untied one of her hands when he was thrown backwards into one of the shelves.
"Dean!" Hope screamed, scrambling at the remaining rope.
A figured flickered in front of her eyes and reached forward to slash a hand across her cheek before disappearing again. She howled in pain and pressed her hand to her cheek, blood flowing freely over her fingers as she stumbled over to dean, digging him out from under the shelf with her free hand. There was a split in his eyebrow that bled sluggishly and he held his arm at a crooked angle against his chest. He was obviously in pain and just managing to cling to consciousness but he managed to pull himself up and use his good arm to pull Hope behind him.
"Shit... poltergeist..." He gasped, looking around him for any iron or salt. He spotted an old poker and grabbed it, brandishing it in front of him as a screeching laugh resonated through the room. Hope came out from behind him to hold up tiny shaking fists, making him laugh weekly.
"That still isn't going to work you know." She glared up at him and held her stance.
"Well, it-it makes me feel better." She stuttered. Her lip started to quiver so she sucked it between her teeth. The figure of a girl roughly Dean's age flickered into being in front of them, her hair hanging over her face in greasy strands. Her clothes were filthy and her hands were blood stained up to the elbow. Dean swung the poker at her as she reached towards them, making her scream and dissipate, reappearing on his other side to grab Hope's hair and pull her to the floor, screaming.
"Get off her!" Dean shouted, swinging the poker through her again. It gave him just enough time to drag Hope back to her feet and thrust the poker into her hand so he could grab a candlestick from another shelf.
"They can't touch anything iron! If she gets close, swing at her! Start heading for that door, we need to get out of this room." He said, shoving her towards the room's single entrance and exit. Hope stumbled slightly but righted herself and made a dash for it as Dean swung once more at the furious screaming spirit. She threw open the door to reveal a set of stairs straight up, a hatch at the top with the barest amount sunlight shining through the cracks.
"Dean come on! I can see light!" She screamed, turning to look at him. He was up against the wall, his feet off the floor as he clutched at his throat, struggling for the breath. The bloody girl stood in front of him, her hand raised. Panicking, Hope rushed forward and swung the poker, screaming. Dean dropped to the floor still clutching his arm to his chest as he scrambled to his feet, dropping the candlestick to grab Hope's arm and drag her up the stairs.
"The hatch is locked, just keep swinging that until I can break through." He demanded breathlessly, slamming his shoulder into the rotting wood. The pain was enough to make black spots start to appear in his vision but he could feel the hatch starting to give way. After a couple more shoves, he burst through the wood and flopped into the mud with a cry, Hope scrambling over him to drag him out onto the ground. She looked around her and spotted the wall they had been sitting on earlier in the distance, on the other side of the field. She also saw a big man sprinting towards them, a shot gun in his hand.
"John!" She screamed, Still trying to drag Dean out of the hatch. The girl flickered up 20 yards from them and rushed forward screeching. There was a painfully loud gunshot and she screamed frustratedly as she disappeared again, John stopping breathlessly beside them.
"Get the hell away from my kids." He said coldly, gathering Hope up into his arms before slinging her over his shoulder with one arm and using the other to pull Dean into a standing position, taking most of his weight.
"If she's running around out here then we need to get out of this field and find her bones. Come on, we need to hurry" he grunted, dragging Dean over to the fence, steering clear of the long grass.
"Come on Dean, not much further!"
He kicked down a section of the old wooden perimeter and stumbled through it, let Dean slump to the floor at his feet as he lowered Hope off of his shoulder.
She immediately started babbling and making excuses.
"I didn't know she was there I'm so sorry please don't send me away I didn't mean to get Dean hurt but I think he broke his arm I didn't know what to do-" He dropped to his knees and pulled her into his arms, her chatter turning into sobs as her head hit his shoulder. With one arm around her tiny shaking frame, he reached down to gently slap Dean's face with the other, waking him up.
"Come on, Dean, stay awake, you're safe now." He said, trying to catch his breath still. Dean nodded and dragged himself into a sitting position with a yelp.
"Where's Sammy?" He gasped through the pain, using his dad's arm to pull himself onto his knees.
"He managed to make it back to the motel room and called me. I dropped everything but it still took me a few hours to drive back here, I'm so sorry." He pulled Dean onto his other shoulder, ignoring his son's muffled cry as he jostled his broken arm.
"I'm so glad you're both alive, I should never have stayed away for so long, but there was this case up in Minnesota and... well it doesn't matter, you're both alive. I couldn't bare to lose either of you." Eventually, Hope stopped crying and pulled away from John, hiccuping tragically. The bloody claw marks across her face looked raw and she was clearly in shock, but she clenched her hand into his jacket, shaking.
"Does that mean I can stay?" She asked pathetically. John just pulled her close again and nodded.
"I guess it does kid."
With John and Sam gone to salt and burn the poltergeist's bones Dean and Hope were left alone in the motel room to pack everything up and get ready to move on. John had put a couple of quick stitches in Dean's forehead and his arm was strapped to his body awaiting a trip to the hospital to set it, while Sam had coated Hope's face with antiseptic cream. The cuts were deep, and parts probably needed stitching too, but there was a difference between putting a couple of stitches in his 14 year old son's eyebrow and stitching across the middle of an 8 year old girl's face, so John had left that well enough alone.
Dean dropped down on the bed beside her still looking particularly pale and sweaty and threw his good arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.
"You know, I think you might be the bravest person I have ever met..." He said quietly, looking at his feet. He felt her lean against him, her head turning so her forehead rested on his chest.
"I was so scared... I couldn't move." She whispered, the occasional shake still making it's way up her spine.
"But I just wanted to say... Thanks. For singing to me. It really helped." Dean chuckled and rubbed her arm comfortingly.
"Yeah, my mum used to sing that to me when I was really little... But um, don't tell anyone, okay? I've got a reputation to live up to." A car horn sounded outside, making both of them jump. Dean grabbed two bags in his good arm, letting Hope grab the other two and open the door.
"Well, come on princess, hospital awaits." He said sarcastically, following her out to the car.
Thanks for reading, please review!
Much love xx