New chapter! So this one is a bit bland in my mind, but has some important information for the plot. I worked hard to bring some of Sam's thoughts and feelings into this. I've never been very good and portraying Sam, even though he's probably the character I identify most with. (Weird, huh?) Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this. Remember, I don't own Supernatural or Hetalia and never will.
The engine of the car rumbled steadily as the sleek, black Impala roared down the dark streets. Sam stared out the passenger side window, contemplating the events at the mortuary. Beside him, Dean gripped the steering wheel, thoughts obviously somewhere else as well. He looked over at his brother, jaw set in a hard line, green eyes staring forward. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the Ferrari following close behind.
"Dean…" he said, looking at his stony faced brother again. "What the hell was that thing?"
"I'm not sure, Sammy." he said, not looking away from the road. "I mean, we've faced zombies before but I've never seen one with glowing eyes. That's not like anything I've ever seen before. Not with necromancy spells or voo doo. And if that Enochian was on the rest of the bodies…if this has to do with angels… If that kid hadn't picked up on that heart thing, I doubt any of us would have made it out of their alive."
"Do you think we should have torched the body?" Sam asked, looking back out the rear windshield again. "We don't know if it can come back or not."
"No, I think Lovino was right about the heart. I basically destroyed it with the knife. I don't think it's coming back."
Sam trusted his brother, but he still had his doubts. Fire was the only sure way he knew how to gank most things. A moment of silence passed between them. "What do you think Cas has to tell us?"
"Hopefully something we can use to solve this whole mess. We can't stay here forever stabbing every dead body in the heart and hoping that'll solve the problem. If there's someone out there causing this, we need to get rid of them."
"And if it's an angel that's doing this?"
"All the more reason to get rid of it."
Sam frowned and looked down at his hands. He let out a quiet sigh, thoughts still rushing through his head at a million miles an hour. With the threat of angelic interference hanging over their heads, the situation had gotten much more dangerous. It wasn't rare that the angels were involved in cases that they had worked, but Lovino and Antonio added an extra element that they hadn't planned for. They didn't know anything about angels except what they had seen with Cas. They didn't know that not all angels were good.
Sam felt a heavy weight of guilt for what had happened to Feliciano and what was now happening to Lovino. He knew the pain of losing a brother, and it sucked. If he was hallucinating this badly, the grief was obviously more prevalent than he was letting on. And if Antonio was right about him taking some kind of pills, that was even worse. To be under the influence of anything in this work was a bad idea. That was why he worried so much about Dean when he drank.
But there was also the chance that Lovino wasn't hallucinating. They had burned the bones, but Sam had seen ghost attached to objects instead. So, Lovino could be haunted. But, Sam quickly put this from his mind. Feliciano had no reason to stay behind and haunt his brother. He probably was hallucinating, especially considering that no one else had seen a ghost around him.
"Do you think Lovino's going to be alright?" Sam asked, not even trying to mask the worry in his voice.
"I," Dean sighed, taking one hand off the wheel to rub his eyes before replacing it. "I don't know. He seems like he's slowly going off the deep end. I felt the same way when I lost you, ya know?"
"But you brought me back," Sam said. "Lovino didn't attempt anything like that. You don't think that Feliciano is haunting him, do you?"
"No, I highly doubt that. I think he's just seeing things. It's not really all that rare, even in this line of work. Besides, we burnt that body so… Hunters don't usually have things to attach to."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too." Sam shifted in his seat, looking out the window again. Silence fell in the car again, each man independently thinking about their companions driving in the car behind them. Sam hoped that Lovino would be okay, hoped that he wouldn't fall victim to the depression that seemed to overwhelm him. Dean simply sent a prayer to Cas to watch over the boy as he did for him.
In the other car, Antonio sat behind the wheel, Lovino having begrudgingly handed over the keys after being convinced he wasn't in the shape to drive. The Spaniard stared forward, listening to the soft sobs still coming from his friend. He felt like he should say something, but he had no idea what he could possibly say to help him. Now that he knew the kind of loss he had been through, there really was nothing to say.
Lovino looked out the window of the car, tears streaming down his face. They were uncontrollable. As he stared at his reflection in the glass, he held his breath, expecting to see his brother instead. But, he just saw his own tearstained face. "Antonio…" he whispered.
The brunette looked over at him for a moment, surprised, then looked back to the road. "What is it, Lovi..Lovino?" He bit his lip, not wanting to upset the other more than he already was.
"Did I ever tell you that I used to have a little brother?"
"No…"
Lovino sighed, leaning his head against the glass, the tears finally starting to slow. "Yeah. He was…such a bright and happy person. A hunter, too. Though, he did more research than anything else. He couldn't really stomach a lot of the action. He hated staking vampires the most. I don't really know why. When I found you about to be vamp food, it just reminded me so much of him that I had to save you."
"Well, I'm glad you did. I wasn't really ready to die just yet."
"You're not cut out for this job, either. You shouldn't be here. I think you should go home before something happens to you."
"And you leave you alone? No way."
"I'll be fine," the young Italian said. "I know how to handle myself. And, if something does happen to me, it's not the end of the world, you know? If you died, I don't think I could live with myself. Not losing two people I care about."
Antonio didn't respond, mouth going dry as a few tears brimmed in his eyes. He gripped onto the steering wheel, gulping down a wave of emotion. His vision became blurry, but he quickly blinked the tears away and increased the pressure on the gas pedal to catch up with the Impala. Finally, he cleared the thickness in his throat enough to respond. "I always thought that you cared more about this leather seating than about me…"
"Idiota…" Lovino muttered. "If I didn't care about you, I wouldn't have let you tag along this long. I wouldn't keep sticking my neck out for you. And I definitely wouldn't be telling you to get the hell out now. People in this work get hurt, and you don't deserve that."
"But… Neither do you…" Antonio glanced over at him.
Lovino didn't respond, looking up and through the windshield as Antonio pulled into the parking lot of the Winchester's motel. A sigh left his lips as he unclicked the seatbelt he was wearing. The car stopped and he shot out the doors and started walking to the door of the motel. Wiping his eyes, he walked past Sam who had paused watching him.
"Lovino," the younger Winchester said, causing the other to look over at him. "Are you doing okay? Really?"
"I'll be fine," he replied then ran ahead, catching up with Dean and going into the hotel room.
Antonio jogged over, grabbing Sam's arm to gain his attention. "He…he told me. About his brother. Not how he died or anything, but he told me about him. It's good that he's opening up, right?"
Sam nodded. "That can never be a bad thing. Come on, Cas is probably already waiting for us inside." He led the other into the motel room where, sure enough, the angel was standing. Lovino dropped down into a chair, pulling his leg up and wrapping his arms around it. Antonio walked over and stood behind him. Sam leaned against the small table in the center of the room.
"What do you think of this, Cas?" Dean asked.
The angel looked to each other men in turn before answering the question. "Have you all heard the story of Lazarus?"
Sam looked over at the angel, surprised. "You mean the Biblical Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead?" l
"Precisely," the angel answered, nodding at the man. "The story I'm sure your familiar with is that the Son of God brought the man forth from his death after he had been in the tomb for three days. However, the truth is not that simple. A spell was cast over Lazarus before he died, by an angel, that allowed him to be brought forth once again. That spell, known as The Awakening, has been used several times throughout history when God wanted a human to live again."
"Wait, Awakening?" Dean asked. "Like what was written on those ribs?"
"Yes," Castiel replied. "The Enochian present on the ribs is indicative of The Awakening. However, the spell was unfinished. It seems like the angel who used the spell did not complete it, for whatever reason. They brought the body back to life, but did not restore the soul."
"Making a zombie, basically," Sam said, looking over at Dean. "So we should have burned the body."
"No," Castiel said. "The body doesn't need to be burned. "The heart must be destroyed as it is the source of the spell, the source of life for the body until the soul is returned. The body can only last for so long without its soul, however. If the two are not reunited within about two or three days, the heart will stop beating and it will die once again."
"We already figured that part out," Sam said. "Thanks to Lovino." He nodded toward the small man, who was being uncharacteristically silent.
"But, we can't stick around here forever killing every zombie that decides to start walking around," Dean said. "Do you know what angel is causing this? Can we get rid of him instead?"
"I don't know," Cas said. "I could look at one of the bodies to see if they left any indicators of who they were on the spell itself, but the body would have to be alive. Once its dead, it serves no purpose for me."
"Of course…" Dean muttered, dropping down on the edge of the bed with a deep sigh. "So, do we wait until another body shows up and have you look at it or something?"
"I feel like that's the only course of action we have right now," the angel said.
"But, whoever is doing it knows we're here," Antonio suddenly chimed in, surprising everyone. "That message on the tree." He looked at Sam, willing him to explain.
"Yeah, uh," Sam said, nodding at him. "We went looking for the missing body. We found it, it's chest was ripped open. And there was a message carved in the tree above it, probably from the angel doing this. What did it say again?"
"Get out or die," the Spaniard said, nodding a bit. "And there was blood everywhere."
Castiel's brow furrowed in worry, his eyes darkening. "That could spell trouble..."
"My question is," Lovino said, speaking for the first time. "Why in the hell would an angel want to cause so much fucking damage? I thought they were like, good or something. Like you." He said, pointing at Castiel. "I mean, they're angels for Christ's sake!"
"Unfortunently, angels aren't all good," Sam said, looking over at the other. "I mean, I understand what you're saying, cause I used to hope for the same thing. But we've seen some horrible shit done by angels and it's honestly not pretty." He brushed the hair out of his face, then shrugged.
"Heaven is in turmoil right now, and many angels have lost their way. They're following those whose intentions are questionable at best." Castiel said.
"Forgetting all these morality discussion right now, Dean said, standing again. "Let's deal with the here and now, alright. We'll talk about how angels are actually dicks later. What do you think our next move should be, Cas?" He walked over and looked the angel in the eye.
"I think you should all get some rest," he answered. "I'll watch over this town tonight and alert you if I find any angelic activity anywhere. But if something does happen, you'll all need your strength. Stay together, and be ready for anything." Before anyone could respond to him, the angel vanished, leaving Antonio gawking once again.
Lovino stood, grabbing the Spaniard by the shirt and began to lead him to the door. "We'll drop by tomorrow morning. See you then."
Sam stepped in front of him, causing the other to scowl at him. "No," the much taller man said. "I think you and Antonio should stay here for the night, so that we can keep an eye on you both."
"Yeah," Dean chimed in, crossing his arms. "Besides, Cas said we should stick together."
"We don't need to be babysat," Lovino snarled.
"Come on, Lovi," Antonio said. "Let's just do what they say, okay?"
"No," he said stubbornly. "But if you want to stay here, then be my guest." The smaller man shoved past Sam and flew out the door.
The three remaining men just stared at the still open door, before Sam sighed and reached over and pushed it closed. Antonio backed up and sunk down in the chair previously occupied by the Italian.
"He say anything about what happened back at the morgue," Dean asked, sitting back down on the bed.
"No," Antonio whispered, staring at his knees. "I didn't ask. He seemed too sensitive to press any kind of issue on him. He still does, really."
"You need to say something to him," Sam said. "Or risk letting him get hurt. What if he had started that shit while that creature was attacking. He either needs to get his head together or get out of the job."
"I know," Antonio said, voice barely above a whisper.
"Go back to your motel," Dean said. "Talk to him. And get your asses back over here at first light. Cas should be back by then with news. If not, we'll all wait here together for him to show. Got it?"
"Yeah," he said, standing and walking past the other two. He made the quick trek across the two lane street and up to the door of their room. Inside he found Lovino swallowing a handful of pills. "Lovi, those aren't good for you…"
"That's not my name, bastardo," the other replied. He looked over at Antonio, eyes narrowing slightly. "What do you know anyway? Maybe they are exactly what I need."
"It's not healthy to take so much medication, of any kind…"
"Bullshit!" Lovino suddenly exploded. "It's all I can do right now, okay? You don't know what it's like. You've lived your cushy, little life. You've never known what it's like to lose someone. You can't possibly think you have any right to tell me how to deal with it! Fuck you, Antonio!"
"I know I don't understand, Lovino… I never said I did but-"
"No! Don't say anything else!" Lovino shook his fist at Antonio as he walked toward him. "You just walk into my life and then act like you know me! Why the fuck do you think you have to the right…" His voice trailed off as he started to sob. Antonio just watched him sadly for a moment.
Just as he was about to reach out to help calm his friend, the sobbing came to an arupt halt. Then, the small Italian crumpled to the ground, body limp. The unconsciousness swallowed him completely. Antonio knelt down, lifting him up and shaking him, but received no response from him. He licked his lips nervously, then froze when he realize that Lovino was no longer breathing.
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