I don't own supernatural.
This chapter is shorter then any of the others so far. The next one will be longer.
Chapter 3 Black Dog
"Caleb," John began with a deep fortifying breath. "Please tell me you didn't leave the job unfinished."
Caleb shifted uncomfortably. "Uh, I might maybe have just forgotten it and hurried home," Caleb cringed. "Give me a break; the last time there was a vital family meeting someone was dying!" he added to the furious look he got from John.
"That I can understand," John sighed. "Still, that's not what I taught you Caleb. You got the house protected?"
"As well as I could without raising suspicion," Caleb assured.
"Which means-" John prompted.
"Salt on top of all the doors and windows. Took me a full night to do that. Sigils drawn in that type of white marker that doesn't show up unless you write on special paper. Those are all over the house; on the door posts, on the doors themselves, on the ceiling, under rugs. Same with the devil's traps. They're everywhere; you just can't see them. Holy water stashed in every room right next to the salt. I had to find the dumb waiter to get that set up."
"You used to like to play in those, Jonny," Calen remember, laughing. He didn't understand the discussion, but he didn't like the tension suddenly present in the room.
John "hmm"ed like he had barely heard Calen.
"You armed, Sam, Dean?" he then asked his sons.
"When am I not armed?" Dean inquired with a snort.
Calen was horrified to see John's youngest pulling a knife from his pocket. The little boy looked so small and vulnerable next to Caleb's giant frame; it was a stark contrast to the knife and Sam's expression.
"What about the bag?" John asked.
"I'll get it," Dean volunteered. He soon rushed back into the room with a huge duffel bag.
"Get the kids out of here. Put them to bed or something," John said to his father. "They'll be more hindrance then help in this situation, and I don't want them hurt."
Calen was stunned at the sudden change in his baby brother. One minute the boy was sitting quietly eating dinner with the rest of the family, and the next he was barking out orders like some sort of military commander.
As soon as the complaining and confused kids were hustled out of the room by their equally confused mothers, the real action began.
"Let's go boys; your daddy said to get you out," he heard his father coax, trying to persuade Sam and Dean out of the room.
"Yeah, here's the thing; Sam and I don't exactly have the normal innocence level of other kids. We know what we're doing, so leave us alone," Dean told the man distractedly as he rummaged through the bag.
Caleb was also giving some trouble.
"I'm not leaving John to clean up my mess alone," he insisted as Luke tried to drag the boy from the room.
"Leave them," John ordered as he rummaged through his coat and came up with a journal. "You got any idea what we're hunting, Caleb?"
"Black Dog," Caleb answered instantly as he pulled away from his father. "I was hunting it in the woods when I got the call to come here."
"Then it picked up your scent and followed you home," Sam surmised.
"Yeah, I guess," Caleb admitted, looking shame faced.
"Right," John sighed. "This is why I cut all ties; I didn't want work following me home."
"That I can definitely respect," Caleb agreed.
"Dean, we need the silver knives and bullets; you know the drill," John commanded.
He looked towards his sons to find them already loading the guns.
"Good," he said with a smile.
"Any of you know how to work guns?" he asked. All the women had disappeared with their children, so Calen, Mark, Luke, Danny, and their father were the only ones left in the room.
"Course we do, Jonny," Calen reassured.
"Good," John said repeated. He walked over to the guns his sons had just finished loading. "What about knives? You got your stuff Caleb?"
"Yeah; I got my stuff," Caleb answered, pulling a knife from up his sleeve.
"You know, we're going to be having a talk on how there is supposed to be a strictly no weapons policy in this house once we're done with whatever it is we're doing," Calen found himself saying. He didn't like that not only did his baby brother carry weapons, but also three of his nephews did too.
"Sure," John placated distantly as he flipped through the pages of the book he was holding.
"Found it!" he suddenly exclaimed, bearing a ridiculous resemblance to the five year old that Calen had helped take care of. He suddenly wanted to snatch the gun out of his brother's hands for fear of the boy hurting himself with it.
"You read this page and then take the guns and knives and stake out the place. Don't let anyone or anything in without testing them first," John ordered.
"What tests?" Danny asked.
"The ones Dean did on you earlier," John replied flatly. That got Calen to wondering about that.
"You want us to throw water and salt and then nick you with a knife?" their father questioned incredulously. Calen almost burst out laughing at the thought of his badass looking nephew throwing water all over his father and younger brother.
"Not just any water," Sam took the time to explain as he slipped another two knives up his sleeves and a gun into his waist band. Calen hated the ease with which the family baby was handling such dangerous weapons. "Holy water. It's been blessed, and any demon that tries to come near will be burned by it," Sam finished.
He sounded completely ridiculous as he said it, but Calen couldn't help but be worried when the boy seemed serious.
"Demons?" Mark asked, obviously concerned as well.
"Yeah," Sam replied. "Salt will keep any spirits out, and it might slow down a black dog. The only other thing you have to worry about is the silver knife. It has to be silver, or it won't do any good."
"What?" Luke queried in confusion. "John, Caleb, what's going on?"
"Just….stay in here, alright Dad?" Caleb requested. "I don't want you getting hurt."
"Don't open the doors or windows," John added.
"If you see anything shoot first; ask questions later," Dean put in, sticking to his father's normal, 'I'm leaving' lecture.
"Read the journal," Sam advised. "It'll explain better then we could."
And then they were gone, leaving the rest of the men in the family with a journal full of notes on various mythical creatures and how to kill them. Oh boy…..
Supernatural
Calen looked through John's journal with a feeling of disbelief. John actually believed in all these things? His notes were surprisingly clear for a man who was obviously not quite right in the head. Calen couldn't help but wonder how poor Caleb had gotten dragged into all of this though.
"That's it. This is bullcrap; I'm going to get them," Luke finally sighed after fifteen minutes of reading.
"I'm coming too," Calen agreed with a sigh of his own. Poor John; first his wife had died, and then he started having delusions about monsters trying to kill him and his children.
Danny looked a little doubtful.
"What's up Danny?" Mark asked as he noticed this.
"Well, it's just….. When we were over at John's I saw a couple pictures of creatures that I thought he had printed out. They looked really realistic though, so I was kind of suspicious. What….what if they're actually right about this?" Daniel inquired.
"You're kidding, right?" Luke questioned incredulously. Calen almost got the feeling that he didn't want to be real more because if it was then Caleb was in constant danger more than anything else.
"Let's watch them," Calen suggested. He was the oldest, and it normally came to him to settle the arguments.
"How?" Mark asked pointedly.
"Through the window," Calen said. "Just like all the kids are doing upstairs."
The rest of them blinked.
"Alright then," their father decided doubtfully. Calen knew their father, and he knew John; neither one of them would believe in something like this unless they had solid proof right in front of their eyes.
So they all trooped towards the windows. The living room windows opened onto the wide front lawn, and the five oldest Winchesters looked out with trepidation.
The sight that greeted their eyes horrified them. Caleb, Dean, and John were all running towards Sam, who had a giant black dog with glistening teeth on top of him.
They watch with fear as Sam stabbed the thing again and again with no effect.
They even watched as John shot the beast straight through the head without any effect.
"That should've killed anything," Calen whispered through his fear.
"The book said it could only be killed by silver through its' heart," Danny whispered back.
The fight was brought to a swift end by Sam's knife finally finding the dog's heart. The giant animal shuddered once, and then collapsed completely on the tiny form underneath it.
The other men were there instantly, pulling the thing off Sam. The little boy was back on his feet in seconds.
The body was dragged away, and as soon as the hunters were out of sight the rest of the family relaxed the tiniest bit. It wasn't that they were glad that they couldn't see their family; it was more that the horrific corps was making their stomachs turn just by looking at it.
"I really, really hope the kids didn't watch that," Mark said with a pale face.
They all froze as they considered this possibility. They were broken out of their horrified dazes by the thundering of feet on the stairs.
"Here they come," Luke murmured.
Danny was the first to get assaulted by a crying child. Brian raced down the stairs and straight into his father's arms, sobbing with fear. The boy was only eleven after all. Luna soon filled up what little space was left to grip her father, tears streaming down her face too.
Adrian (being too old to cry at fifteen) simply stood there, pale as death and shaking.
Lily, Jacklyn, and Opal were all crying with no regards to how old they were, and the rest of the boys and Violet looked like they were going into shock.
"What, the. Hell. Was that?" Aiden finally managed to ask.
His father and grandfather exchanged looks.
"And don't try to tell us that was just a normal dog," James added. "We know it wasn't. They shot it through the head and it didn't do anything."
Luke sighed. "Living room; now," he ordered quietly, his voice leaving no room for argument.
Danny moved to the kitchen to grab John's journal. He returned to see the rest of the family already settled on various couches and chairs around the room. They were sure to leave one couch open for John, Dean, Caleb, and Sam.
He sat down and pulled Brian into his lap. Lily was being treated the same way, as was Jacklyn, and Hayden and Aiden were snuggled into their father's sides. They all looked so much younger that way. It was like when they got upset they aged backwards until they reached ages were snuggling up to Mommy and Daddy wasn't embarrassing.
Calen opened his mouth to try and explain, but they were cut off by the door slamming open. Their missing family members streamed through the entry. Everything seemed fine until they noticed that Caleb and Dean were holding up a blood drenched and pale as death Sam.
So….thoughts?