First of all, I'd like to thank written-in-the-stars1454 and deedle2226 for their reviews! :D I try so very hard to stay true to the characters so that really means a lot to me. Secondly, I am so very sorry it has taken this long to update. I kinda moved out into the middle of no where and rarely get an internet connection. But I am still writing and stuff, so don't worry! Now, please enjoy chapter 2 of my lovely story and then write a review.
My eyes fluttered open. I looked around the motel room I was in. It was similar to the one I had been staying in, but not the same. The last thing I remembered was going back to Sam and Dean's room then falling asleep beside Dean, but when I rolled over, the spot next to me was empty. I sat up and looked around, but neither brother was there in the room with me.
I got up, walked over to my pants and quickly slipped them on. The door to the motel was cracked slightly, so I went outside to see what was up.
"What's goin' on?" I asked Dean while he put his bags in the trunk of his Impala.
"You're up." He said with one of his charming smiles. "We got a call from our dad. Turns out a bunch of couples went missing."
"I see." I replied while wrapping my arms around my body.
"You wanna come with?" Dean asked me. "We didn't really get the opportunity to catch up."
"Um, yeah. I mean, only if you guys want me to." I answered trying not to seem so eager.
"Why wouldn't we want you to hunt with us? As much as I hate admitting it, you've kinda saved our asses on more than one occasion." He said.
"Alright, let me get my things." I said with a smile and turned back to my room.
After following Dean's '67 Chevy Impala for what seemed like forever, it quickly pulled over to the side of the road. I pulled over right behind it, not knowing where we were going and all. I was just about to get out and see what was going on when I saw Sam and Dean arguing. Sam popped the trunk and grabbed his bags then proceeded to walk down the side of the road. I quickly got out of my car.
"Hey! What happened?" I shouted at Sam, trying to block his way.
"I'm going to California." He said angrily.
"Sammy! Wait!" I yelled at him.
"Goodbye Allie." He said shortly and continued walking down the road.
I ran up to Dean and shoved his chest.
"What the hell did you say to him?" I asked.
"I didn't say anything! He's just being selfish!" Dean yelled back at me.
I closed my eyes and took a deep calming breath. Clearly Sam wasn't about to change his mind. I didn't know what was in Cali, but he'd rather go there than hunt with Dean and myself.
"Okay, well, we have other things we need to focus on right now." I said calmly to Dean.
"Yeah." He sighed. "Let's get back on the road. I don't want to waste any more time."
We went back to our cars and drove off to some small town in Indiana. When we got there it was day light, but you couldn't really tell from all the storm clouds. We pulled up next to some small restaurant named "Scotty's Café". It was your typical small town diner; cute and rustic. There was a man, probably late 40's early 50's sitting in a chair outside the diner. Dean got out to go talk to the man. I, however, decided to just hang back in the car. A few minutes later, Dean walked over to my car, and I rolled down the window.
"You know how they say small town folk are supposed to be sweet as apple pie? Well that's bullshit." Dean complained to me.
"Did you get any information outta him at least?" I asked.
"Nah. I think we should split up and ask around some." He answered.
"Alright. Let's meet back here in 20 minutes." I suggested.
"Sounds good." Dean said walking away.
I got out of my car and went to a few shops that lost couples would be likely to stop at. No one seemed to know anything. Not to mention, as soon as I brought them up, the citizens of this small town would become extremely hostile. With no lead, I decided to walk back to the meeting place. As I was walking up on it, I saw Dean sitting on the hood of his car. He seemed a little anxious.
"Finally!" He said as I came up to him.
"What? Did you find something?" I asked him.
"Yep. Hop in. We're going to follow these directions that were given to the love birds." Dean said flashing a piece of paper in my face.
I opened the door to the Impala and slid into the passenger's seat. I reached over for the seatbelt and pulled it across my lap. Dean glanced over at me with a quizzical look on his features.
"I know how you drive. I don't want to die quite yet." I teased him.
"Shut up." He replied, seeming almost genuinely offended.
We drove for about 20 minutes when the EMF started going crazy. Dean reached back and tried to pull it out of his duffle bag. He couldn't quite get a grasp on it so he pulled over and grabbed it out of the bag. It was beeping like mad. We looked up and saw we were right across from what appeared to be an apple orchard.
"Bet you 20 bucks that's where we need to go." I said turning to look at him.
We got out of the car and entered the orchard. Weaving in and out of the infinite rows of apple trees, we came across a truly hideous scarecrow. He looked like a patch work quilt of human flesh.
"Dude, you fugly." Dean said as we approached it.
"You can say that again." I added.
After staring at him for a while, Dean walked over to a ladder that was left out. He picked it up and took it over to the scarecrow. With the ladder right next to it, Dean began to climb up it. He was now eye level with the thing. He pushed back the sleeve of its jacket and looked at its arm. He then pulled out the picture of the husband that went missing.
"Nice tat." He said to the scarecrow.
"What?" I asked kind of confused about what was going on.
"See the similarity?" He asked me, holding the picture next to the scarecrow's arm.
"What the fuck?" I whispered quietly.
We got back to the car and drove back to the town. Dean pulled up to a full service gas station and a girl was standing there.
"I see you're back." She said.
"Never left." Dean replied while getting out of the car. "Hey, you mind fillin' it up there, ah… Emily?" He asked her.
"Still looking for your friends?" She asked as she flipped down the license plate to reveal the gas cap.
He asked her some questions about the town in general and if she grew up here. He also asked her who owned the orchard and the scarecrow, but she didn't know. She said they've been around here forever.
"Is that your aunt and uncles'?" He asked gesturing towards an SUV with its hood popped.
"Nah. A customer's." She answered.
"Not a guy and a girl?" He questioned.
"Yeah." She replied.
She finished filling up the tank and Dean paid her. He drove off to where my car was and dropped me off.
"You try and figure out who owns that scarecrow. I'm gonna go try and save that couple." Dean told me.
"Okay, just don't come on too strong. You know how you have a tendency to do that…" I stated.
"Just… figure out who owns it." He said to me, clearly peeved by my comment.
"Sorry. I'll try." I responded.
I went around to people who would appear to know something about that orchard. However, whenever I brought it up, people seemed to get really upset, especially the older people. Some people even started to yell at me, saying I had no business snooping around in their town. With a whole pile of nothing, I walk back to my car only to hear an officer's siren minutes later. Looking around to see where it was coming from, I spotted a black Impala being run out of town by a cop car.
"Dean, what did you do this time?" I sighed to myself.
I hopped in my car and sped out of town to try and catch up with Dean. Not seeing his car anywhere, I reached down into my pocket for my cell. Just as I pull it out, I got a call from him.
"Where are you?" I asked.
"Interstate. I got chased out by a douchebag cop." He answered.
"Okay, stay there. I'll come find you." I said hanging up the phone.
I drove down a few miles and finally spotted his car. I pulled over to the side of the road next to him and got out of my car.
"What the hell, Dean? I said be subtle." I said.
"Come on, we're going back to that orchard." He told me, completely ignoring me.
"What about my car?" I yelled worried that it would get toed or something.
"It'll be fine. There's a couple that's going to be scarecrow chow if we don't help them." He said speeding off for the orchard.
We pulled up just in time. The couple was running around in the orchard, being chased by the fugly scarecrow.
"Get back to your car!" Dean shouted at them.
They started running back to their car while Dean and I took aim at the scarecrow. We alternated shots, but it barely slowed the thing down. We continued running while shooting and made it back to the couple and their car.
"What the hell was that?" The man asked.
"Trust me, you do not want to know." Dean answered.
Panting heavily I looked up at Dean.
"We need help." I said.
We got the couple on their way and went back to the Impala. We sat down inside, still breathing pretty heavily. I looked around for some waters and after a few minutes of searching, finally found two. I tossed one to Dean, and we both chugged our waters down.
"I'm gonna call Sam." Dean finally said after sitting in silence for a while.
Dean called Sam and told him about the scarecrow. He told him how we thought it was a pagan god and how the town was fatting up the couple like pigs for the slaughter. Also he mentioned the appointment with the college professor we had. Then it got all sappy brother stuff, which I tried to tune out. We continued driving for a while until we got to the professor's office.
"It's not every day that I get a research question on pagan ideology!" The professor said eagerly.
"Well, call it a hobby." Dean replied.
"But you said you were interested in local lore?" He asked sounding slightly confused.
"Mhmm." We answered together.
"I'm afraid Indiana is not known for its pagan witches." He said.
"Well, what if it was imported? You know like the pilgrims brought their religion over? Wasn't a lot of this area settled by immigrants?" Dean asked.
"Yeah." The professor said slowly.
"Like that town near here, Burkettesville? Where did their ancestors come from?" He questioned.
"Northern Europe, I believe; Scandinavia." The professor answered.
"Well what can you tell me about those pagan gods?" Dean prodded.
The professor chuckled before answering, "Well there are hundreds of gods and goddesses."
"I'm actually lookin' for one; might live in an orchard." He responded.
The professor brought out a huge leather bound book. He opened it up and began flipping through the pages. He was about to flip over a page that had what looked like a scarecrow in the middle of a field being plowed.
"Wait, wait, wait. What's that one?" Dean stopped the professor from flipping to the next page.
"Well that's not a woods god per say." He said.
"The Vanier?" Dean said more as a question.
Dean began reading a description of the thing from the book. Apparently he brought protection and prosperity to the settlement. The village would build an effigy of the Vanier and some would practice human sacrifice; one male, one female.
"Kinda looks like a scarecrow, huh?" Dean joked.
"I suppose..." The professor replied gradually.
"This particular Vanier has his energy sprung from a sacred tree?" Dean read from the book.
"Well the pagans believed all sorts of things were… were infused with magic." The professor explained.
"So what would happen if the sacred tree was torched? Do you think it would kill the god?" Dean asked getting a little too excited.
The professor started to laugh at him, "Son! These are just legends we're discussing here!"
"Oh, of course. Yeah you're right. Listen thank you very much." Dean replied awkwardly.
We turned to walk out the door. Dean got to the door first and opened it. We hadn't been paying attention and when we turned around to leave, the sheriff was standing there with his gun. He knocked Dean out cold with the butt of his rifle.
"DEAN!" I screamed before everything went black.
I woke up hours later next to Dean in a dirty basement. My head had been resting on his shoulder. I had a splitting headache were the cop jammed his gun to my skull.
"Mornin' sunshine." Dean said sarcastically to me.
"I feel like someone roofied me and put me in the ring with Mike Tyson." I groaned.
"How would you know what that was like?" Dean asked while looking down at me.
"I was roofied once, so I got that down. I've also been beaten up pretty badly so… yeah. Not much left to the imagination." I replied as I scooted my head down to his lap.
"What are you doing?" He inquired with a sly smirk playing at his lips.
"We're probably going to be here a while, so why not get comfortable?" I asked winking up at Dean.
"Ahh, so you wanna get comfortable, huh?" He replied with a devious tone.
Just then the cellar doors opened up revealing three men, one of which had a shot gun aimed at us, and a woman. Around the corner I saw the girl, Emily, poking her head out from a house.
"What do you want?" I asked the people standing before us.
"Here. Some food and water." The woman said tossing two bottles of water and some pie that had been wrapped in foil.
"Oh, how generous. Fattening us up for your scarecrow?" I asked bitterly.
"Sacrifices must be made for the greater good." She said as she slammed the doors shut.
I looked over at Dean who had already started stuffing his face. I gave him a look of disgust.
"What? It's pie." He said through a mouth full of the flakey apple pastry.
"Yeah, yeah." I dismissed.
The rattling of the lock sounded throughout the cellar. Dean and I eyed each other suspiciously.
"Who's there?" He asked after swallowing the pie in his mouth.
"It's me. Emily. Why do they have you locked down here?" She asked through the wooden doors.
"Uh, well. They're going to feed us to the ah… scarecrow." Dean answered fully aware of how ridiculous that sounded.
"The what?" She questioned utterly confused.
"Never mind. We need your help." I said. "Do you know of any really, really old trees? The locals would treat it with the utmost respect." I added.
"Um, yeah. There's an apple tree in the orchard. They call it the first tree. It's said the pilgrims brought it with them." She informed us. "I-I can't get you out. I don't have a key."
"That's fine." Dean answered.
"What? How is that fine?" She asked.
"They're just gonna take us straight to the tree." Dean said while winking at me.
"Thank you so much, Emily, but you have to leave now, or they'll feed you to it too." I warned her and then heard her run off.
I grabbed a bottle of water and checked the safety seal to make sure they hadn't put anything in it. There were no leaks and the seal was unbroken. I twisted off the cap and began to drink.
"And you judged me for eating the pie…" Dean said trying to be condescending.
"Yes, and for just reason. They could have easily drugged the pie. If you didn't notice, I checked that water and there was no way they added anything to it." I replied.
"Whatever." He said returning to his pie.
We sat there for what seemed like days until the group of adults came back, again with their guns in our faces.
"It's time." The woman said.
They lead us out to the orchard and tied us to separate trees. They obviously didn't want even a chance of us getting loose.
"How many people have you killed, Sheriff? How much blood is on your hands?" Dean asked the sheriff trying to get to him.
"We don't kill them." He responded trying to justify his actions.
"No, but you sure cover up after him. I mean, how many cars have you hidden, clothes have you buried?" Dean taunted.
The sheriff just walked back to his gun, picked it up and aimed it at Dean.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked with tears forming in my eyes to the elderly man who was tying me up. "I have a family. They'll miss me." I lied.
"I'm sorry. I really am, but you see, I have to." He said with guilt in his eyes.
He got up and picked up his gun. He slowly pointed it towards me.
"I hope your apple pie is frickin' WORTH it!" Dean shouted at the people as they left.
"Um so… do you have a plan, cause I'm fresh out?" I asked Dean.
"I'm workin' on it." He replied.
Hours went by as we struggled against our restraints. We had been left alone for the time being. Trying to come up with a plan was becoming more and more futile as our demise became more prevalent. Before we knew it, darkness had engulfed the orchard.
"Is he movin' yet?" Dean asked me.
"Naw. Not yet." I answered. "Wait… oh shit…"
"What?" He shouted.
"Dean?" came Sam's voice through the trees.
"Oh I take back everything I said! I am so happy to see you!" He said to Sam. "How'd you get here?"
"I, ah… I stole a car." Sam answered with shame in his voice.
"Ahaha! That's my boy!" Dean laughed while Sam untied his ropes. "Keep an eye on that scarecrow; he could come alive any minute." He said while slipping off the ropes.
"What scarecrow?" Sam asked.
"Untie me! Untie me!" I shouted starting to freak out.
Dean raced over to me and cut my ropes loose. We started running through the orchard looking for the sacred tree. We turned a corner only to have guns pointed in our faces yet again.
"It'll all be over quickly." The sheriff said.
"It's for the greater goo-" The woman began to say.
She was interrupted by her husband being stabbed in the chest by the scarecrow. She started screaming hysterically. The scarecrow wrapped his arm around her neck and dragged her and her husband, who was now dead, off into the orchard.
"Come on, let's go!" Dean yelled as we escaped to the edge of the orchard.
We waited until morning to go and look for the tree. Turns out the couple the scarecrow had taken was Emily's aunt and uncle. She came with us to find the tree. She led us deep into the orchard to a tree that had weird carvings in its trunk. Sam drenched the thing in gasoline while Dean lit a branch on fire. Right before he was about to torch it, Emily spoke up.
"Let me." She said.
"You know the whole town is going to die, right?" Dean double checked.
"Good." She replied.
She threw the branch on the tree. We all watched it burn down to the ground. Afterwards we went back to Emily's house and waited for her to pack up a few things. We took her to the bus station, so she could start her new life somewhere else.
"Think she's gonna be alright?" Sam asked.
"I hope so." Dean said.
"And the towns people? They're just going to get away with it?" Sam pressed on.
"What'll happen to the town will have to be punishment enough." Dean answered. "So… Should I drop you off somewhere?"
"Naw, I think you're stuck with me." Sam replied.
"What made you change your mind?" Dean questioned.
"I didn't. I still wanna find Dad, and you're still a pain in the ass, but Jess and Mom, they're both gone. Dad is God knows where. You and me. We're all that's left. So if we're going to see this thing through, we're doin' it together." Sam explained with lots of emotion.
"Hold me, Sam. That was beautiful." Dean said ruining the moment like usual.
"You can be such a jack ass sometimes." I chuckled at Dean. I knew he wasn't trying to blow it off; he just has a really hard time expressing his feelings.
"You should be kissin' my ass, dude! You were dead meat!" Sam joked back.
"I would've gotten out. I had a plan!" Dean lied while getting in the driver's seat of his car.
Sam was looking back at me. I shook my head no and mouthed "No he didn't." to Sam. He laughed as he got in the car. I got in my car and followed them out of the parking lot to our next destination, which I honestly had no clue where it was.