This is it...
Carry on my wayward son, there'll be peace when you are done,
Lay your weary head to rest, don't you cry no more...
- Diana's POV -
I remember the falling feeling washing over me stronger than ever before. Not only did I lose all sense of where I was, I hadn't a clue who I was. All I could think was that I was in the old cartoon movie Alice In Wonderland that I used to watch, falling through the rabbit hole forever, passing various objects, people, and scenes that made no sense.
Then, I landed somewhere. But not gently on my feet like in a Disney movie. It was more like a tumbling to the ground like being tossed from one of those portkey things from Harry Potter. It was too bright and I couldn't see anything, and oppressively hot, so I groped around on my hands and knees, struggling to breathe in the hot, thick air until the light slowly faded and the air seemed to retreat from pressing in on my lungs.
When my eyes adjusted and I stood, I was in the backyard of my childhood home. The grass was long and dotted with white wishing dandelions. The swing that my dad made me out of a plank of wood and long rope, tied to a low tree branch, swayed in the warm breeze that carried the smell of an approaching summer storm.
The screen door on the back porch swung open as a little girl with long brown hair bounded down the steps, clutching a glass jam jar. She looked to be no more than six years old, but her eyes sparkled with a timeless quality that made you wonder whether she'd been here before.
"Momma!" she yelled over her shoulder. "Momma, come on! We're gonna miss it!"
"Coming, my love," sang a warm, honey voice as a woman with thick waves of auburn hair stepped onto the porch with a lovely smile. "Don't worry, baby, we won't miss the party."
"We'll be there even before them, if we leave now," chuckled a tall man with chocolate curls and twinkling blue eyes. He slipped his arm around his wife and bent to kiss her sweetly before smiling down at the little girl, who had crossed her arms stubbornly.
"I just can't wait to see the dancing lights!" she pouted, digging a small hole in the dirt with her toe.
"We won't miss them, darling Diana, I promise," the woman smiled. My heart broke and I felt tears well up as I stared at my beautiful mother, lost to me forever. Her smile was so carefree and the way she and my father looked at each other only made my heart ache for the warmth and comfort of their everlasting love more.
"Maybe, we should wait a little longer," my father suggested, leading my mother down to sit on the steps in front of me. "It will give the dancing lights more time to prepare for us."
"Okay," I watched myself sigh. I plopped down in the grass and began to pick the fuzzy dandelions around me.
"Are you going to make a wish, sweetheart?" my mother asked in that honey voice. I nodded, closed my eyes, and blew as hard as I could on the dandelion, scattering the fluffy seeds to the wind.
"Want to know what I wished for?" I asked them. They nodded. A satisfied smirk spread on my little face. "I can't tell you 'cause then it won't come true."
As tears blurred my vision, my little self and my adoring parents melted away and I let myself dissolve into sobs. I sank to my knees and cried because I missed being so innocent and confident and loved. I cried because I missed my parents and my home and calling fireflies dancing lights and dandelions wishing flowers. I cried because I missed listening to my father sing as he cooked breakfast and watching my mother brush her long, beautiful hair. I cried because it was my fault my parents were ripped away from this world, away from me. I cried because, despite spending many knights staring at the stars praying, despite making sure to scatter every wishing flower seed, and despite remaining consistent in my thoughts every time I blew out my birthday candles, my wish didn't come true.
Suddenly, as I sobbed on the ground, the grass parted and I went tumbling down the rabbit hole again, falling through fire, then ice, then a thousand knives, and feeling as though my skin was being ripped off again, inch by inch. I felt like my organs and muscles were screaming in protest as they were torn out. My blood felt like it had been boiled away, my bones frozen to be so brittle that they shattered.
The most awful part, though, was when I tried to scream. It was like I was trapped in a never ending torture nightmare. As soon as I opened my mouth to scream, my throat closed up and I felt like I'd been swallowing rusty nails. I couldn't scream and I couldn't cry, which only terrified me more.
But just as suddenly as I had fallen through the rabbit hole into agony, my eyes flew open and I was fine. Still scared stiff, but physically sound.
A circle of warmth pressed into my chest and when I raised my fingertips to it, I found the locket. Sam's face appeared above mine and he quickly took my face into his hands, asking again and again if I was all right. I finally managed to nod and he heaved a huge sigh of relief. I slowly sat up and pressed myself back into his chest as his large, warm arms wrapped around me. I placed my hand over his heart, taking comfort in the steady beating against my palm and slowly raised me eyes to the thin, pale man standing at the foot of the bed.
"The power is contained, your mind is free, and the trail leading the hunt directly to you has disappeared," he told me. "While you no longer attract bounty hunters, you are not invisible to them and they do know roughly where you are. My advice to you is to run and hide." He nodded once, then turned and started for the door. Just before he disappeared down the hall, he hesitated and glanced back. "Thought you might like to know: You two were very much intended to fall in love. Your destinies are furthermore heavily intertwined. Good luck." And then he was gone.
Outside, Kara and Dean were pacing anxiously, eyes trained on the floor in front of them, but without seeing it. When we came in, they looked up cautiously.
"100% me," I said with a small smile. Kara screamed and ran to throw her arms around me. I staggered back a bit, but welcomed the hug, taking comfort in her vise grip.
"Oh my dear!" she squealed. "I'm so glad you're all right!"
"I love you, Kara," I told her, giving her another squeeze before prying her arms off. Dean stared at me skeptically. "No more monster in here," I promised with a lighthearted shrug. He wrapped his arms around me too.
"There was never a monster, Diana," he whispered. "You're anything but."
"I love you too, Dean," I whispered back. He released me and looked up to Sam.
"We have to go," Sam said, taking my hand once again. "They have a rough idea of where we are. We need to get out. Fast."
"Not just get out," Kara chimed in. "We need to lay low, too. Now that no one can sense her, they're gonna be pissed or paranoid or both and that's gonna spell trouble. We need to go somewhere they'd never think to look and just lay low until they give up."
"That could take a hell of a long time," Dean sighed. "A lot of these bastards are practically immortal."
"We have to try, Dean," Sam said. "At least for a little while. Just to be safe."
Looking back and forth between all of us, Dean silently considered this, then finally sighed and nodded. "Grab only what you need."
We threw some basics into the car and were about to go back in to grab some food and water when a bright white light flashing across the sky caught our attention.
"What the hell was that?" Dean barked. We all whipped around the other way when we heard Kara scream.
A wild eyed Castiel stood over her, his hands slammed into her chest. Before she could react, he lunged for Dean, forcing his palm against his chest too.
"Castiel!" Sam screamed, jumping in front of me. "Get out of here!" He pulled a long, silver blade, the blade Castiel had used to stab me, from a holster at his hip and ran at the angel.
Castiel dove for him, just dodging the blade, crashing with Sam to the ground and smacking both palms against his chest. Sam cried out, dropping the blade, and then Castiel came at me.
"No!" I heard Sam scream from the ground, but all I could see was the wild, flashing eyes of Castiel before I tumbled to the ground beneath him. He gripped my ribs with both hands and I felt like lightning shot across the bones, but then, surprisingly, there was only a dull ache.
"Cas!" Dean growled, helping Kara to her feet. "What the hell!"
"I was protecting you!" Castiel shouted as Sam crawled over to me. His wild eyes fell down on us as he ran his fingers through his disheveled hair. "Sam, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I was wrong! I made a mistake! But now you're in trouble and I don't know what else to do to help you!"
"Did you just do the angel-hiding thing on our ribs again?" Dean groaned. "Aw, c'mon, Cas! Why! Why do you have to keep carving shit into our ribs!"
"They're coming!" Cas screamed.
"Who?" Sam demanded, jumping to his feet and pulling me up with him.
"All of them!" Castiel pointed to the sky and we all turned our faces up toward the sky. The flash of light had been caused by several bright white figures streaking back and forth across a sky blackened by the collective smoky energies of potentially hundreds or even thousands of demons, coming at us like the dark clouds of a thunderstorm.
We stood there, staring up, frozen in confusion, shock and fear and I almost screamed when I thought of the thunderstorms and fireflies that I'd loved so much in my childhood.
"They're furious because they're losing grip on you!" Castiel shouted over the thundering booms of angels meeting demons above our heads. "You have to run! Go! Now!"
We all ran for the car and as soon as I dove into the back seat, Dean glued his foot to the floor, taking the car at full speed, running from what we'd all hoped was the safety of a potential home, our fear fueled by monsters that resembled my favorite childhood memories.
There was a heavy silence as we all came to realize that if we couldn't run fast enough, the mere wrath of so many deadly creatures would surely kill us all. Sam squeezed my hand and I kissed his. Taking a deep breath and scooting to the edge of my seat, I addressed them all.
"You're my family," I told them. "And I love you all. And we know who we are and what we do. We know that it's right. We also know that we're stubborn as hell! And if we're going down, we're gonna go down together, dammit! Fighting the whole way!"
"I knew you belonged here," Dean laughed. He and Sam exchanged glances in the rearview mirror and soon he pushed a tape into the radio and spun the volume dial all the way up.
"This is becoming an awful habit," Sam smiled.
"What is?" I asked. He pointed towards the radio and I glanced at it, then Dean, then Sam, and back to the radio again. Soon, the strings of an acoustic started playing through the speakers and I grinned as Dean began to belt it out.
"It's all the same! Only the names will change! Every day, it seems we're wasting away! Another place, where the faces are so cold! I drive all night just go get back home!"
And soon, even Sam, who sings even worse than Dean, joined in just as loudly. "I'm a cowboy! On a steel horse I ride! And I'm wanted, dead or alive! Wanted, dead or alive!"
Kara and I burst into giggles before raising our voices with the boys and, even though we were running for our lives, I knew that, in that moment, I'd never be safer or happier anywhere else.
Sometimes I sleep, sometimes it's not for days
The people I meet always go their separate ways.
Sometimes you tell the day by the bottle that you drink.
Sometimes when you're alone, all you do is think,
I'm a cowboy. On a steel horse I ride,
And I'm wanted, wanted, dead or alive.
Wanted, dead or alive...
That's it for this one
I have a couple more ideas and, if you'll read it, maybe I'll do a sequel.
What did you guys think?