Pray
"Is he dead?!" Anna exclaimed. "He can't be dead! They just met!"
"Patience child," Michael chuckled and patted her head. "This story is far from over."
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"Help," Castiel yelled over the sudden wind and rain that had descended upon his people's village. "Help please! A car has crashed! Someone please come quickly!"
Castiel paused for a moment, taking in the wreckage before him and he took a deep breath before running over to the car. It didn't even look like a car anymore. The metal frame was twisted at an odd angle and the tires refused to stop spinning. The rain poured down and Castiel shivered as he ran closer to the damage. He peered through the window of the car and there laid the rich boy, bleeding from a cut on his forehead and shoved up against the steering wheel. He was somewhere between unconscious and awake.
"Hello," Castiel said. "Can you hear me?"
The rich boy groaned. He cracked his eyes open.
"Can you see me?" Castiel pleaded, hoping he would answer somehow.
The rich boy's eyes were green as grass, but they were clouded by a layer of gray haze as dark as the sky. His eyes were otherworldly.
"Please!" Castiel cried out to the villagers above who had gathered to witness the event that had just unfolded. They were all staring in disbelief, but some in anger. Some looked as though they could easily dismiss the rich boy being down there. "Please someone help me! He's dying!"
Among the peasants the Gods gathered too, all in disguise of course. They watched as Castiel ran around down below with rain soaked hair and mud covering his feet. He was purely distressed and no one made a move to help. Papa Ge was eagerly anticipating another soul to take. Asaka looked concerned, but she maintained her composure. Agwe smirked at his handiwork and Erzulie held a high sense of hope that somehow her idea would pan out. Little did she know her friends all had their own agenda as they begun to whisper gossip laden words into the peasants' ears.
"He roared down the road like the devil himself!" Agwe stated.
"Going too fast around the curves." Asaka said.
"He's sent us scrambling off the road like chickens." Papa Ge reminded them.
"He has what he deserves!" they all three exclaimed and Erzulie stared at them like they were crazy. She walked up to Papa Ge.
"I know that you want him." She chided.
"And soon I will have him!" Papa Ge laughed evilly.
"The boy is dying before our eyes!" one of the peasants said in fear. "What if his people find out?!"
"I say help him!"
"I say hide him!"
"No!" Chuck exclaimed, silencing everyone. The Gods all looked over at the man with anticipatory stares. "Do not touch him; we'd best leave him where he lies.
He and Rebecca were the only ones to travel down to the car and to Castiel. Castiel watched as Chuck inspected the rich boy and scoffed. He started to walk away.
"Even a wealthy man sometimes dies." He commented.
"Please!" Castiel threw himself at his father's feet and pleaded. "He needs help!"
"If this boy dies in our hands the rich will send police." Chuck explained, trying to tug away from his son's grip.
"But he needs care!" Castiel continued to yell over the dying rain. His wide eyes staring up at his mother now, hoping to gain some sensible answer from her.
"If he is meant to die," Rebecca explains. "Then if he lives the Gods will be angry with us."
"The only we can save the boy's life is to send him back to his world!" Agwe, disguised as a peasant called down from above.
"No he is wrong," Castiel argued. "The only thing that will save this poor boy's life is me!"
Chuck looked into his son's eyes. They were full of raw emotion. He, unlike everyone else on the cliff, actually cared about the rich boy's life. He cared if he lived or died. He wanted him to live. For the life of Chuck he didn't know why, but Castiel since childhood had always had a pure compassionate nature. Chuck sighed. He didn't know what he was about to get his people into, but he couldn't resist the look on Castiel's face.
"I will find where he comes from," Chuck said, loud enough for his people to hear. Three of the four Gods were appalled and Erzulie grinned with victory. "I will find who he is and who his parents are. But until I return he will be placed under the care of my son Castiel."
"Charles no!" Rebecca cried out and grabbed onto her husband's sleeve. "You'll be killed..."
"If it satisfies our son," Chuck moved her hand into his and kissed her cheek. "And will bring no suspicion to our people it's something I must do."
Rebecca couldn't argue. She simply hid her face for fear her tears would be seen and Chuck commanded six of his strongest men to help lift the rich boy from his vehicle and carefully take him up the mountain and into the village. Castiel broke into a hopeful smile as he followed the men through the gawking crowd and watched as they carried him into his tent and laid the rich boy down on his mat. The rich boy was out cold and Castiel walked over to him. He knelt down in front of him studying his features. He had tan skin with short crew cut brown hair. His face was as though it was chiseled by the Gods themselves and his clothes were the greatest feature. They were so nice and fit for his stature. Castiel removed his shoes and his jacket, hoping to lighten the weight on the boy's ribcage which Castiel theorized to be damaged from the crash. The rich boy groaned again and Castiel shot away, staring at his eyes hoping they would open again, but they remained shut.
"Do not worry," Castiel whispered to the rich boy as he covered him with a light blanket. "I will take care of you. My name is Castiel and I have admired your car from afar. My friends they think I am crazy for wanting to meet you and I am sorry it had to be under these circumstances, but I am glad I finally did. For I can prove my desire towards you."
Castiel knew the words he had chosen were strong, but he'd seen the rich boy before. He wasn't bad looking and Castiel couldn't help but admit finding him the slightest bit attractive.
The rich boy didn't respond to Castiel, he slumbered on instead. Castiel went through a mental checklist of the herbs he would need for healing the injured boy and then rushed out of his tent and into the night to gather them.
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Two Days Gone By
Castiel hadn't left the tent for two days except to fetch more healing herbs and water. He'd removed the rich boy's shirt the day before to get a better look at his injuries and bruises and he'd rolled up his pant leg. The rich boy's leg was cut and it was getting infected. Castiel had worriedly attended to the boy nonstop and was running on little sleep and food himself.
Meanwhile, the whispers never ceased in the village. The Gods, still in disguise, were the cause of most of the gossip themselves.
"The boy has the will of the devil himself." Agwe commented to a peasant who was watering the garden that Agwe was helping to plant.
"He's clinging to life by one small thread." Papa Ge chuckled, almost excitedly, a bit longer and he'd have his kill. The peasant he was relaying this information to nodded in response.
"But if it hadn't been for Chuck's son he'd certainly be dead," Erzulie reminded the two peasant women she was weaving with. She pointed into Castiel's tent, the flaps were open and the three of them could bear witness to everything that was happening in there. "I mean look how he bathes him and touches and protects him. He binds his wounds and he rubs his chest with healing herbs."
"It's as if the boy is possessed." Asaka said as she walked by and giggled at the attempt Erzulie had been making to get the people on her side. She knew how they felt about the word possession and anything to do with the dark arts. The two women's eyes grew wide in fear and Erzulie glared at her. Asaka smirked and kept walking away with the basket of laundry she'd been entrusted to put away.
Meanwhile inside the tent, Rebecca was putting away laundry of her own when she looked over to see Castiel fawning over the feverish rich boy. Castiel had placed a wet rag on his hot forehead and was leaning over him expectantly.
"You need food," Rebecca pleaded with her son. "You need sleep, for you cannot go on without any sleep."
"Mama." Castiel shushed her.
"Have some tea at least."
"His skin is hot..."
"Have a rest please."
"He needs me here Mama. Can't you see how much this matters to me? I want him to live."
"But I know what's best." Rebecca said in her authoritative voice, hoping Castiel would comply and lie down, but he did not falter. He simply turned his head away from his mother's gaze and back to that of the potentially dying rich boy.
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Four Days Gone By
The villagers were growing quite irritable. Four days had passed since Chuck had left to speak to the rich people. They were yet to know if his fate. Castiel continued going on without sleep and he ate very little, for fear that if he did not attend to the rich boy he would die while Castiel slumbered. He couldn't have that. Rebecca continued to cry for her husband, fearing the worst. She wondered where he was day in and day out and if he would ever come home. Throughout the village though, the rumors continued to fly by mouth of the Gods.
"I fear for them," Agwe commented to a passerby as they both passed Castiel's open tent and Agwe pointed inside. "Nothing but trouble looms ahead."
"By now Chuck could be deep in danger," Asaka said to a group she was helping scrub clothes with. Erzulie was among them and she glared once again at her friend's lack of faith and pure sabotage. "He could have been arrested by the rich or he could be lost in those big woods."
"Or he could dead." Papa Ge resisted the urge to smirk.
Chuck; however, was none of those. He had yet to reach the rich man's house who was most likely the father of the young boy they'd rescued. He was almost there, despite his weary aching feet that were forcing him to trudge onward. He hadn't known the journey would be so treacherous and if he had he'd have stayed in the village and ignored the dying rich boy. But Castiel's determination had been enough to make him cave. He paused a moment, leaning against a tree and praying up to the sky.
"Asaka," he silently prayed. "Mother of the Earth, please guide my feet to the home of the boy. Hear my prayer please, which way there and which way home?"
Asaka did in fact hear him and she took it as another opportunity to one up Erzulie in their little game. She showed him a clear path towards the rich boy's mansion home. Chuck saw it in the distance and smiled.
"Thank you Asaka. I am forever grateful."
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Back in the village Castiel continued to try to heal the sick and injured rich boy against his mother's wishes and he ignored her worrying.
"I need herbs." Castiel pleaded quietly, he was so tired his voice came out as a whisper.
"Your father is still gone." Rebecca said.
"Mama herbs please..." Castiel demanded.
"And you do not care," she chided him. "Oh my Gods what has this boy done to you?"
"Mama please be quiet. He needs more sleep."
"Chuck is lost because of you! Can't you see the consequences of your actions Castiel?! Over one boy you may have lost the only father you have ever known!"
Rebecca ran out of the tent and Castiel continued to stare down at the rich boy in hopes that he would be okay.
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In the days that followed the village was wracked with pure chaos. The Gods were out for blood now. Erzulie's plan was working thus far and they couldn't let her win. Agwe had flooded many of the gardens so that food was becoming scarcer and hunger spread through the village like wildfire. Asaka made poisonous berries grow along the edges of the village as the only sustainable food source, some of them fell prey to their illness causing toxins. Papa Ge took lives left and right and almost started to venture into the healthy living people before Erzulie stopped him the first time. All Rebecca could do was sit and watch the destruction and wrath of the Gods that had fallen upon her people and she cried out for her presumably dead husband.
"Charles," she wept. "Where are you Charles? Please Gods sustain your wrath even for a moment and bring my Charles home. We need him."
She turned to look at her now sickly son.
"All of us need him back."
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Chuck had indeed reached the gates of the mansion in the city on the other side of the island after many days of travel. But he had reached the biggest roadblock he could imagine.
"You want what?" the guards at the gate scowled at Chuck. One of them had taken it upon himself to deal with him and speak to the peasant who had somehow crossed into their borders.
"I have come so far and I need—"
"Get back!" the guard yelled.
"I have news for your master." Chuck pleaded to be given entry to the mansion. He even, despite his dignity, got down on his knees in front of the guards.
"I said get back!" the guard yelled again, kicking Chuck to the ground and into the mud. It smeared all over the side of his face and he coughed from the force to his chest.
"Master Winchester he has—"
"Peasant pig!" the guard kicked him down again for Chuck had tried to get up.
"Please I beg!"
"You must be mad."
"I must see Master Winchester! I have come so far!"
"So far to die!" the guard exclaimed and the both of them surrounded him with their daggers raised high. They prepared to strike. Chuck covered his face in fear, but his voice did not shake when he exclaimed his next words that caused the guards to cease and stare.
"I have found his son!"
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The sky was dim back at the village and the wind cut through it like a knife. The villagers were crying, pleading with, and weeping to their Gods to have mercy. Agwe finally let up, but left little to be desired in his wake. Asaka wilted a few of the berry plants. Erzulie was thankful her friends were ceasing their destructive ways. It was heartbreaking to see a lack of love anywhere except for the one that radiated from Castiel's tent. The rich boy was still clinging and holding on and Castiel still refused to give up hope. The only one who refused also to give up was Papa Ge. Erzulie watched him adjust his top hat, the skull beads rattling against each other as he did, and his eyes went completely black with skulls as his pupils. He wasn't going to wait around anymore, Erzulie could tell. The villagers could feel him, rearing up for the final kill before he'd leave them at peace. He walked through them as they fell to their knees and cried and pleaded for him to stay away from them. He did not give them a second look as he made a beeline for his true target.
Erzulie took off after him, wading through the hordes of crazed villagers. Their tribal shrieks filled the air and their eyes could not be dried. Castiel sat, practically brain dead from the lack of sleep and he shook from the hunger deep inside of him. The rich boy was almost on the brink of death and yet Castiel continued to watch on. He wasn't going to give up on him. Never. Erzulie caught up with her deathly friend as soon as he stood in the entrance of Castiel's tent, the young peasant boy was unaware of him. His eyes focused on the rich boy and he smirked. Erzulie jumped towards him, grabbing his wrist and stopping him. Papa Ge gasped and his eyes returned to their normal deep gold. Erzulie gave him a look of disbelief.
"You dare you take him now," she said in an accusatory tone. "You have no right! He is not dying yet!"
Papa Ge bared his teeth in a sneer and jerked his wrist from her grip. He looked over at Castiel and the rich boy and hurriedly exited the tent. He held his hand out and a scepter with a skull on the top of it appeared. He leaned on it and watched the disarray around him.
"Papa Ge don't come around me!"
The cries were endless and they echoed one another with such despair he could just eat it up. He snickered though he was filled to the brim with disappointment.
"This isn't the first time I've taken matters into my own hands," he said to himself. He turned to see his friend staring down at Castiel and the dying rich boy like they were her beacon of hope. "Just you wait Erzulie. If I cannot do things one way then I can simply do them another."
He tipped his hat to cover his eyes as he begrudginly made his way back into the heat of the village.
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