Jar of Hearts World: Part 4
"How long has it been?" Sam asked almost entirely monotone.
Michael checked his watch, "We've been walking for almost an hour now."
"Excellent."
"I think this thing goes on forever." he exhaled tired and tapped his shoe against the wall, an attempt to shake some goo from his once nice footwear. The eldest Novak brother frowned at the ruination of his clothes.
"It snakes underneath the city like intestines or something." Sam agreed softly, his legs were starting to hurt and he missed his friends. Fear hadn't settled in, not yet. He knew there was the possibility of being eaten by one of those worms but he had no reason to be scared then, not before it happened for real.
"Thanks for the imagery, I had almost forgotten I was eaten once." Michael scoffed and passed Sam by as the Winchester slowed to a stop.
His ears were burning, Sam thought for sure he could hear something. "Quiet." He whispered and caught Michael's arm to stop him as a rumbling started beneath their feet, "Do you feel that?" He asked softly and it rumbled again, slowly increasing in time and volume. They pressed themselves against a wall and looked to either side for a possible explanation. "I have a feeling we're about to have some company…"
"I see it." Michael whispered and Sam turned to look, "It's taking up most of the tunnel!"
"Get down and hide against the walls, be as flat as you can." Sam instructed as they both did exactly that. There were two options, the first was to flatten their backs against the wall and enjoy the smear of the worm over their faces or bury their heads in the rock. They chose the latter.
Sam closed his eyes and waited until he felt the drag of the creature pass him by. He felt a little bit gross but better than it could have been; he was about to get up when Michael called to him a second time; "There's more, stay down." The ones that passed were of varying sizes, Sam counted about three but only 2 touched him. "Can we have a break, already?" Michael groaned and forced himself to get up, Sam right behind him.
"Not likely." Sam muttered and started to brush himself off, "That was disgusting."
"If my suit wasn't already ruined it would be now." Michael griped, their motions nearly in sync.
Sam looked down the tunnel the monsters had come from, his brow furrowed as he squinted in the darkness, "What were they running from?"
"Who says they're running from anything?"
He was quiet for a second and nodded, "I… guess you're right. What do you want to do? Keep going the same way, ignoring whether or not they're running from something bigger or go after them?"
"Well there's a possibility we'll run into something continuing on the way we were going, or we could definitely run into four of those things." Michael raised an eyebrow at him with a half smirk, "I'll take my chances, let's keep going."
"Deal."
"Sam!" Jet shouted for what he thought was the hundredth time, they had ventured into the tunnels together but found no sign of the youngest member of their team. "Where could this thing lead?" he asked in frustration.
"Probably all over the city." Dean mumbled in reply, he flicked some slime off his arms again after killing the third worm in a row. Those void creatures were smarter than the other ones they'd encountered that came in groups, as soon as a few started to die all the rest tried to flee the moment the two 'hunters' were identified.
"Well we can't exactly run through all of them, what the hell do we do?" Jet threw his arms into the air and gave one of the walls a swift kick. There were at least five different pathways they could take, which meant Sam could be lost deep in the heart of this thing.
"I don't know, what makes you think I know? Cas is the one that knows stuff!"
"Yo, I wasn't trying to say-" He stopped and lifted his hand to gesture Dean shut up, "Wait… I hear something…"
Dean shut up and listened, it was Sam. His hearing was enhanced and he still hadn't heard it before Jet. "It's Sammy."
"We should-"
"You stay here," Dean put his hand on Jet's chest before his friend could take any more steps, "I'm gonna need you to help me find my way back here so just wait and listen, okay?"
Jet took a breath as if he were going to say something in protest but he rolled his eyes and waved Dean off instead, "Get going."
"Thanks man." Dean ran down the passageways until he came to another split in the road, he listened again, this time he heard nothing. Sam wasn't talking anymore. "Sammy!" He shouted and waited again, "SAM!"
No answer came and he was ready to pick a passage at random when he heard it; "Dean?"
"Sammy! Where are you?" Dean bolted again, taking a right and running as fast as he could.
"Dean! Dean this way!" So close now, another forked path. "Dean!"
He took off again and nearly bulldozed his brother over when he found him, "Sammy," he breathed a sigh of relief and dropped a hug onto the no-longer-lost Winchester, "Thank god, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Sam smiled and squeezed Dean right back, "Managed to get Michael out of a worm sac, got a little lost, nothing I couldn't handle."
Dean smirked at Michael who just sort of tipped his head in a slight bow, a gesture of recognition. "Thanks for keeping my brother company."
"He saved my life, I should be the one thanking him." Michael grinned and pointed up the tunnel, "Exit's that way I hope?"
"Yeah, pretty sure." Dean fought the urge to take Sam's hand like he used to whenever his little brother got lost.
"Where're Cas and Jet?"
"Jet's waiting for us by the exit, let me show you." Dean led them to the first intersection and looked in the direction he was pretty sure he'd come, "Jet!"
"What?" Came the distant, snarky reply. Dean couldn't help the grin on his face, not only because his best friend was hilarious but because of the way Sam's face lit up just at the sound of Jet's voice.
"Missed your boyfriend?"
"Yeah." Sam didn't hesitate and hurried on ahead of them. "Jet!"
"Sam?" Excitement and relief laced Jet's tone, Dean knew his friend was itching to leave his post but wouldn't dare. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" Sam kept running after his voice, Dean and Michael right on his heels. They came up the dark tunnels to see Jet standing firmly beside one passageway, his eyes lit up at the sight of them. Sam threw his arms around Jet's shoulders and held on tight. "I'm glad you're here."
Jet hugged him and kissed his cheek, he only squeezed tighter when he felt how Sam's arms shook and his body trembled. "You were terrified." He whispered softly and cradled Sam's head, fingers laced into wet hair.
"I'm not scared." Sam mumbled in a shaky voice, "I was never scared."
Jet placed a kiss on his forehead and held Sam closer, "Alright," he looked over at Dean who shared the same worried look. "You gonna be okay?"
Sam only nodded and let out a shuddered sigh, "Sorry," he gasped and pulled away to rub at his eyes, except Jet wouldn't let him get that far.
"What are you sorry for?"
"I don't know, I was just… I was worried." Sam wiped his eyes and laughed a little, it wasn't a very strong laugh but it was reassuring all the same. "After everything that happened in Futurum and then with the corrupted timeline, it's getting a little heavy for me."
Jet smiled warmly and moved his hand to touch under Sam's jaw; his thumb gently stroked his boyfriend's cheek as they just looked at one another. They didn't say anything for a moment and after a few seconds Sam closed his eyes and exhaled, it was steadier than the last few breaths he'd taken and a little more controlled. He leaned forward, letting Jet's hand guide him until he felt the familiar pressure of the other male's mouth on his. The touch of his lover was a comforting thing, warm hands caressing his skin, strong and sturdy in their embrace. A light smack sounded between them, something only they could hear, as they pulled apart again.
"You'll be okay, I promise." Jet whispered and Sam nodded.
"I trust you."
"Hey," Dean put a hand on Sam's shoulder, "should I be worried?"
"No," Sam sighed in some relief, a smile on his lips, "I think I'll be okay, for real this time."
"Alright, just don't… don't push yourself, okay?" Dean had seen Sam far too ill to be comfortable knowing his little brother wasn't doing so well, even if it was only a little bit.
"I won't, sorry." Sam bowed his head a bit and turned toward the tunnel Jet had been guarding, "Sunlight's that way?"
"Sure is, let's get back to Cas." Dean grinned and hurried them along. They'd had quite the stroke of luck, if he really thought about it. Sam was missing, directly in the middle of the monster's cave structures, and yet he reemerged unharmed and safe, a little shaken maybe but still safe. It was something to be celebrated, not feared.
Castiel twiddled his thumbs and watched the news as more reports of missing people were aired. The city had started to notice the odd occurrence as being exactly that, there were strange tunnels cropping up around town and in the areas of where said individuals had disappeared. Castiel squinted at one of the videos as it played out for him, he recognized that tunneling.
"Oh for the love of crap…" he ran his hand down his face tiredly and pulled himself to his feet, "If I'd known that I would've gone myself."
"What is it?" The other Castiel piped up excitedly and, to his credit, a little anxious.
"They're vermis."
"Vermin?"
"No, vermis, it's Latin for worm, maggot, grub, that sort of thing. They travel as one creature and eventually molt into two and so on until there're mass numbers of them." Castiel walked toward the house's exit, "I'll have to take care of it myself, physical attacks won't make a difference, they'll just multiply." He was out the door by the end of that sentence, the two hosting him ran to follow but he shouted back, "Stay there, you'll be fine as long as you're upstairs."
Cas stalked down the street the same way Dean and Jet had gone, his coat caught the breeze as it blew past him and for a second he felt kind of badass. A thought that he decided would be kept to himself, it was cooler when unspoken.
Soon enough he heard the frantic murmuring of a crowd and knew it had to be around something Dean had done; Cas approached quickly and pushed through to the front where he saw a dead vermis, split in half and both sides wriggling. The priest made a face that showed as much disgust as he was capable of, he raised a hand toward the creature and looked back to the crowd, "Step away!" He demanded and after a few seconds his hand started to flicker and glow. He'd seen it before but this time he could feel it, the power and the way it moved, he could control it.
In a flash the beast disintegrated, the particles dissipated into the air above them. People shrieked of course but Cas couldn't be bothered, he scanned for an entryway into the labyrinth tunnels and after passing by a few more people in the crowd he found it. He hurried to it and waved his hands over it a few times, chanting under his breath as a swell of magic washed over the hole.
"Wow," he heard the voice of his other self and nearly rolled his entire head.
"I said stay back at home." He snarled.
"Well all these people are here and if you were running off to fight whatever was making those giant tunnels, we couldn't leave you alone!" Castiel argued with him and he couldn't be bothered to reply.
Cas continued the spell until he spotted four more interruptions rushing up from below. "Cas!" Dean called with some elation and Cas knew, from the talk he'd had with his other self an hour or so before that he should show the same devotion. But he couldn't be bothered right then.
"Hurry the fuck up!" He snapped back which seemed to be enough motivation to get their asses moving.
"What're you doing?" Dean asked as he cleared the hot zone and stood behind his partner.
Castiel didn't respond with words and instead showed them with a few flashy moves and one solid beam of energy shot down the hole, twisting around the first curve and onward. Cas held it there, he thought it might have been a strain but it wasn't, his dying self hadn't lied when he said that Cas would be able to control it without the black outs. "I'm getting rid of them, once I'm done with this spell they should be cleared out."
Dean smiled and looked over at Jet with a sort of 'told you so expression,' "See? Cas is the one that knows stuff."
"I never doubted you for a second, man." Jet laughed, his hand firmly clasped in Sam's.
Michael stood in complete disbelief at the entire scenario unfolding in front of him, even with Castiel hanging off him in a big 'oh my god you're alive' hug he couldn't believe it. "I'm fine," he reassured his younger brother with words and a hug but still couldn't wrap his mind around the magic and giant worms and alternate dimensional people. There were two Castiel's and two Dean's directly in his line of sight and quite frankly it was freaking him out.