Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, please don't sue me.
Painted Red
The leaves were wet under their feet. Slick with rain that should have dried up with the sun, the leaves littered the porch steps and made climbing them a rather more interesting task. Jane gripped the iron railing tight to keep from slipping.
It was a typical house, in a nicer part of the city, where the houses were well spaced and had plenty of trees. A typical door, shiny brass doorknob, and a wilted potted plant on the porch. Jane stood ahead of Castiel as she climbed the last step and made to knock on the door.
"Wait. Something's wrong," he said abruptly.
Jane looked back, hand still outstretched, alarmed.
"Stay here," he said. He moved past her and tried the door knob—it opened under his touch. His face was dead serious. Jane felt the panic rise in her throat and said nothing.
Castiel stepped into the house and closed the door quietly behind him. Jane, alone on the porch, stared at that doorknob, entranced by the sound the closing door made, ringing in her ears. What was it? She should go in. Had to go in. Castiel said not to. So what? Should she? Should—
The door opened again, and Castiel stood there. One look at him and Jane knew it was bad. Bad. The word stuck in her mind and seemed to fill everything.
Castiel, wordless, took her by the hand and led her through the door. It was all wrong. The house looked the same, everything in its place. Same as it had been last week when she'd visited. But it was wrong. There was something else. Not quite a smell, not quite a feeling, not quite a quality of the air. Something wrong.
Jane's heart was beating fast. She could feel it in her throat, thumping. When was the last time she'd been this scared? Castiel led her through the entranceway, into the living room. Then he let her go.
Jane could only stand there, presented with this sight. She could not make a sound. Her voice caught in her throat when she wanted to scream hysterically, or gasp, or anything. She was rooted, her eyes dancing through the room, and everything, everything, was bad wrong bad.
Her mother was on the floor. Her sister was on the couch. Her nephew was halfway into the kitchen, face on the linoleum, feet on the beige carpet. They were dead. Oh God, how could there be so much blood? On the walls, on the carpet, on the coffee table, on her mother's shoes. Her family was painted red. Jane stared and stared until she realized the hideous gasping noise was coming out of her mouth and her lungs were collapsing and her eyes would fall out and she turned around and ripped up the roots that were keeping her there. She forgot Castiel, she forgot where she was going, she could only think of her sister's wide, blood covered eyes and red, red everywhere.
Jane ran out of the house that smelled of blood and had that evil in it. She didn't look where she was going. She forgot which was the way home. She ran along the wet sidewalks and couldn't catch her breath and everything was so horribly, horribly wrong and how could there still be people outside, cars in the driveways, lights in the windows when her family was dead? Everything should be crashing down like it was in the middle of her chest, and she ran without knowing where she was going.
She stopped when her legs shook too much to run. Running felt better, running felt like she was doing something, if she stopped running she would have to think. She couldn't tell where she was. A parking lot, maybe. Wet cement. She sat down on a curb and tried to stop shuddering.
She knew he was there before she heard him. Standing there in front of her, looking down at her. An angel of God. Jane lifted her twisted face to look at him.
"He knows who you are. I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this," Castiel said quietly, looking away.
Something new was rising in Jane's throat. It was something like hate.
"You! You did this to them! It was your fault!" She jumped up and shrieked, hysterical, furious. She knew it was wrong, knew she was acting crazy, but she couldn't stop. "It's your fault they're dead! You brought him to them!" She gasped and tried to breath but her lungs weren't working properly.
"Why did you let me see them?" she whispered, but she knew there was no answer. She gave a shuddering sob and almost collapsed, but Castiel caught her. He pulled her up and she sobbed on his shoulder.
A/N: A short but necessary chapter. Good times have ended.