Dawn – chpt 10
by: sifi.
--
Gary Nelson folded the possessed man in half, stuffed him into the trunk of his car where he'd be bound by the seals painted on the inside, and slammed the lid down with a breathless and heavy huff.
"Stupid son of a bitch wants a freakin' demon... what is this bio-101? Alright Singer, you asked for it, you got it," And so help me I don't give a rats ass what you do to me, if you think for one minute I'm gonna let those boys put some kinda freakin' whammy on my butt! Make me think they're just a couple of pawns in all this, you got another think coming... Not when they're the ones who made way for the freakin apocalypse!
He looked in the rear view mirror and schooled the icy coldness out of his features, "Time to put on the team-player face..." he sighed double checking his pistol then slid it into his shoulder holster.
With the day waning behind him, Gary pulled out into the Eastbound lane determined to cross the border into South Dakota tonight so he could find himself a place to hole up near Singer's auto yard, and keep his eyes on the comings and goings for a couple days. He needed to figure out who he might come up against, and why the grizzly hunter had REALLY called them all together.
--
"Thanks," Laura nodded at the bartender as he slid the burger in front of her.
"Anything else I can get for you?" he smiled easily bringing the condiments over to her as well.
"Take another beer and a glass of the Captain, neat," she arched her eyebrow while cocking a faint smile, anything to drown out sound of my own thoughts.
"Rock glass?" he asked.
"Yep, one finger from the top please," she nodded squeezing the burger tightly between her fingers and relishing the first greasy rip into mushrooms, melted swiss, grilled onions, and ground sirloin.
By the time the sun slid beneath the blanket of evening Laura drew a sigh of relief as the whirlwind of negativity seemed to finally go with it.
"Another beer?" he asked clearing away her empty plate.
"Please," she smiled and tapped the empty rock glass, "...and."
"Same?" he asked apprehensively.
"Oh yeah," she nodded sliding off the stool and finally feeling her shoulders start to drop, "I'll be right back," she headed for the bathroom as the opening riff of Free's All Right Now pulsed in her pocket.
"Hey sweetie," she looked at her watch, "you guys settled for the night?"
"Yeah, I'll tell you who'd've thought driving could be that tiring," he smiled over the line, "How far are you?"
"I should be there around supper time tomorrow, I called Bobby right after checking in," she bolted the door while behind her, near the front door, the lights on the juke box and along the wall began to flicker.
--
No! it thought as its grip on the emissary's vulnerabilities began to falter, Never mind, there are plenty of tools I can use, if it's body had been fully formed, the face of the twelve year old child it inhabited would have been smiling as it reached its tendrils out to the humans that surrounded the female and took one for a test drive.
Why the others are so easy to grasp in this condition and she eludes me is curious. But still, it makes little difference, as the band of its energy split into eight branches, each one seeking out the weakest of the humans there. The ones with the deepest fears, the ones with the darkest secrets, the ones it sensed who had the most to hide. These were the prey it could most easily manipulate.
"She knows... she can sense it..." it told them one by one, sliding into the cracks in their armor, stirring their paranoia, their guilt, and their shame, burning them with the fires of their own failings.
--
"How's she doing?" Shep asked cracking open a beer.
Dean shrugged, his smile plainly telling, "She sounds good, a lot better than this morning," he tossed the phone to Sam, "said she'd probably make Bobby's around supper time tomorrow."
"And we'll be there a day or so after, good we should have at least a full day to go over everything before everyone gets there," Tom smiled.
"Who's confirmed so far?" Sam asked.
Shep shook his head, "No one's confirmed anything yet, but he did seem to think he'd probably get about a dozen folks to show including us, I know he had about ten others in mind to call, so, we'll see."
"Good enough to get the word out," Dean nodded.
"Dean?" Tom asked leaning forward, "What exactly IS the word? This time yesterday you were speaking in tongues, writing in Cuneiform, and minutes away from passing out on us."
John's eldest boy looked at the three curious faces around him; even Sam, for his part, for his own vision, didn't have the pieces his big brother did.
"I've been thinking about that," he nodded pushing himself stiffly out of the chair and starting to walk the room, his beer bottle swinging between his fingers. He shook his head and looked at them each again as a strange blanket of warmth seemed to wrap around him, "I'm not even sure I believe it, I mean I KNOW it, and I'm not sure I believe it, I was there. Sam's been there, maybe even for a while this morning when his fever spiked and the delirium hit..." he ran his hand into his little brother's hair and squeezed a fist full of it affectionately before ruffing the mop and getting a surprisingly easy smile from the young man in exchange.
Tom and Shep met eyes, their mouths tight, their hearts ready to race, "Been where Dean?" Tom asked.
He looked into Sam's eyes and saw the flicker of assent.
Looking back at their two life long friends, a wry twist of his lips came with a faintly disbelieving shake of the head, "Where it began, where this, these events were set in motion." The warmth cocooned him, "It swore it would be back," his stride grew supple, the motion of his body radiating power and surety, "And we knew it would, but I made a vow as well, that mine would be ready when it did, and they will be, each moment to its time."
"Dean?" Shep breathed, his hand reaching forward instinctively toward the young man who now stood stock still, his eyes almost aglow.
Sam pressed gently down on the older man's hand and shook his head, I had a feeling something like this was coming.
"Is that you Dean?" he asked.
A gentle smile, both enigmatic and still somehow rakish pulled at the corner of his mouth, We are.
"We need to know..." Shep pressed.
"You have all you need, but here, time works for you both," he nodded,
His eyes, glowing brightly green with a heart of copper fell to Sam who stood and faced him.
If you pass out Dean I don't know if I can catch you, "Get a chair behind him," he directed.
"Why don't you just tell us NOW instead of forcing us to play this God Damned Game of yours!" Shep rose up stepping between the brothers, his face turning red with fury, "Do you have any idea what you've put these boys through! I don't give a rats ass who the hell you were once upon a time you son of a bitch!..."
"Shep!" Tom barked after sliding a chair behind Dean.
"No goddamnit! I wanna know why this son of a bitch thinks it has a right to just... to just..." he swiped angrily at the sudden wetness from his eyes and stood nose to nose with Dean and subsequently the being echoing from within him, "Why? Why them? Why NOW? Why!" his shaking hands grasped Dean's shirt, clenching the fabric tight in his fists.
Dean's head swiveled around, those eyes meeting Sam's. He held up his casted arm and tilted his head, turning gently from Shep's tormented grip.
Yeah... me too, Sam thought. He moved without a thought into that raised arm and felt himself embraced by love that had dawned with time, a feeling so complete he wasn't sure his merely human heart could withstand the wholeness of it.
"My boy," Dean's mouth sighed a moment before his knees buckled and his body was guided safely down into the chair.
"Uhhnnggh shit..." John's eldest boy groaned leaning forward, his head bending over his knees as blood peppered the carpeting below him, "too...much... chickflicking..." he groaned sliding forward until Shep was almost completely holding him in the chair.
"Dean?"
"Dean!" Shep and Tom called together as Sam ran to the bathroom for a towel then slid to his brother's side pressing the cloth to his sweat dripping waxy face.
"This happened yesterday too... C'mon Dean, just sneeze it out man, just like you did yesterday alright?" he urged, "C'mon Dean say something please..." he looked up between the two elder hunters, "He's not wired for this kind of thing... please don't do this to him anymore," he breathed casting his glance upward.
"Dean?" he breathed.
"Mmm," he grunted.
--
Feeling better than she had all day, Laura returned to her seat at the bar, straightened on the stool and enjoyed the several deep pops that came from her back. Ahhh that's better, she thought, paying no attention to the couple of men who left their stools, one moving toward the back door, and the other toward the front.
The 'clap' of the deadbolt being thrown on each of the doors DID however catch her attention, slowly she scanned the rest of the patrons and the bartender.
There was curious uncertainty in two sets of eyes and all out fear in another set that sat not too far down the bar from her. A quick assessment gave her eight sets of eyes, including the bartenders' glaring at her coldly.
"Well then..." she smiled tightly and slid off the stool while slugging back half the glass of rum, "Gee, would you look at the time?" she chuckled, "It's getting a little past my bedtime, guess I should just be going now..." she pointed to the cash on the bar, "You can keep the change, it was a great burger..."
"Where d'you think you're going?" the man from the front door, looking like some redneck bully from a ZZ Top video grasped her by the hair, pulled her head back and nipped at her ear while his arm wrapped around her chest, pulling her tight against him.
The stuttered pounding of her heart slowed, her breath evened out, and the tremble she'd felt beginning in her limbs steadied as seven men closed a circle around them.
One of the curious sets of eyes moved with their owner toward the back door where the deadbolt was turned and one of the seven lurched.
Flesh against flesh later a body collapsed unconscious to the floor.
"Lock it back up," her holder breathed while his teeth held her ear in his mouth.
"Dude, you really don't wanna be doing this..." she shook her head.
"Oh yeah I do... I don't know how you KNOW, but you're gonna keep your mouth shut bitch...and I'm gonna make sure of it," he hissed.
One of the remaining two unaffected men grasped a beefy, paint speckled man from behind, "Let the lady go fellas... whatever you think this is gonna serve..."
He didn't get to finish his statement. As he fell to the tacky floor the last man at the far side of the bar squeaked in his seat and backed toward the rear wall as all eyes turned to him.
"Kill the queer," the one holding her ordered quietly.
Laura drew a deep breath and focused a point on each of the three men that moved, "Stop!" she pushed and breathed a sigh of relief as their bodies halted in mid step. "Leave him alone."
Behind her the chest of the man holding her began to rumble, his hand closed on her throat and squeezed. As she gagged and gasped for breath, trying to turn from his grip, the others returned to close in on them.
A quick turn and a thrust of her fingers broke her free. In the center of the circle she turned, trying to keep her eyes on all of them at the same time. Teach me to leave my weapons in the car... son of a bitch!
From behind her, heavy glass shattered and the bartender fell to the floor, amber and red flowing from a deep laceration in his scalp as the man they'd been directed to kill brandished the jagged neck of a Jack Daniels bottle. He swept his arm in a wide arc toward the nearest man and slid into the circle, his back to Laura's as they turned.
"Do you have any idea what the hell's going on here?" he asked breathing shakily.
"Truth?" she asked.
"Sure why not," he shrugged.
"I think they're possessed... sort of..."
He glanced hastily at her face, the men surrounding them inching closer moment by moment, "You're not joking."
"Nope."
Ignoring the bloodied bartender on the floor and moving as one, the men pounced.
--
Dean rolled over, his eyes struggling to come open and find something they could both focus on at the same time. His whole body felt like King Kong had been practicing the Rumba on him, breathing hurt, moving hurt, Why does it have to hurt so much? he wondered, You'd think if we're linked it shouldn't hurt so much. Sam I'm sorry I don't know if I can do this. His head pounded and the world shifted backwards as he turned to look across the room at his little brother, sleeping with his knees in his chest, and he smiled, Once more Sammy, for you, to end this, I can do it one more time.
In the dark Sam turned, a rod of something hot poking, prodding the center of his back, stealing his breath as it tried to lock his body, twisting in agony. Dean! Oh God it hurts! Dean... his heart pounded and his breath moved like shards of glass in his chest.
A twist of smoke curled up from an image walking widdershins thrice around another motel room and in his chest his heart stopped, his breath held, and his skin crawled. Son of a Bitch! How could I forget! he wondered as his eyes scanned the room and he struggled to push himself to the edge of the bed, How could I be so stupid! I put us at risk AGAIN! Damnit! Damnit! Alright... Man I'm sorry...
He groaned, finally able to push himself upright and reached for his satchel and the shank of Holy Wood he'd forgotten finish the seal with.
--
Not too far below the surface of forests' earthen floor, slow joining particles of an ancient being took its opening and felt like smiling.
--
tbc.
please R&R.
Thanks.
sifi.