So- if anyone is stil reading this, I know it's been a while since I updated. I'm in the middle of my exams and I have to work hard to even graduate. After these four weeks I'll have a loooooong holiday and promise I'll update more often that once every month :) I try to do once a week but I need to graduate so this story is side-tracked. Anyway, enjoy this chapter, fav, follow, and review!

A drooping Moonflower (a wilting prayer)

"What happened?" Gabriel whispered.

"I don't know." Dean said.

"Maybe we should turn our flashlights on." Castiel did as he said. The beam of light, that was exceptionally strong for a flashlight, didn't really help them see any more.

"Shit." Dean cursed. "Oh shit."

He could hear Gabriel chuckle.

"Is this funny to you in any way, trickster?" Dean snarled.

"Uhm- yes, obviously we will have to hold hands." Gabriel chuckled.

"I'm sorry, I don't swing that way." Dean frowned.

Gabriel sighed, annoyed. "No you idiot, if we don't we'll lose each other."

"Obviously," Dean said, as if he was only joking.

Gabriel rolled his eyes and grabbed Deans hand. "Lead the train boy, choo-choo!"

"You're nuts." Dean said, but he led the road.

The beam of his flashlight was only strong enough to light the path ahead of them for two feet or less. The nasty, humid air was getting warmer and warmer the further they went down the path and Dean had trouble breathing.

They followed the path for a while until they heard trembling in front of them. Dean stopped.

"What's wrong?" Gabriel asked.

"Listen," Dean said, and they were silent.

For a moment there was nothing but the sound of their ragged breaths, until Dean heard the trembling again.

"Now I heard it too," Gabriel whispered.

"That's something huge." Castiel said. He clicked his own flashlight on too, but the light was weak and the lamp flickered on and off.

"Not the right moment." Dean whispered.

"I got extra batteries," Gabriel smiled weakly. "But I suppose now is not the time to…"

"No Gabriel, now is not the time." Dean growled. "Arm yourselves."

Castiel slid the long, silver blade out of his belt and held it steadily, pointing towards the oncoming danger. Dean grabbed his favourite knife too, the one with the ragged sides, and he saw Gabriel hold a short dagger and a knife he recognized.

"Hey- that's my throwing knife!" He said.

Gabriel smiled. "I didn't pickpocket this one, I found it in the river."

Dean shrugged: "Okay whatever. Keep it."

Dean turned the flashlight off, they would hear the thing coming and if it didn't have night vision, not waving around a flashlight would be a huge advantage.

"Come out come out wherever you are," Dean growled, and left of him he heard breathing.

Not Castiel's soft and regulated breaths, not Gabriel's blowing through his nose, but long in- and exhales through the mouth. The sound of a beast on the hunt.

"Left." He said and, not knowing what the others would do, he lunged to the left with his knife, feeling fur and blood and bones.

At once, everything was fur and blood and bones and then someone turned on the light.

Dean blinked a couple of times, trying to let his eyes adjust, but he needed all his attention to the mutt that was lying on top of him.

It was big, it was grey and it had short hairs all over its body.

But it also bled.

"And if it bleeds, I can kill it." Dean panted to himself. He started stabbing the thing mindlessly, when he felt a sharp pain in his upper thigh. He could feel blood stream out of the wound that was created by what felt like claws and knew he needed to hurry up. The blood was flowing too fast.

What he didn't know is that Gabriel and Castiel could see that the monster Dean was lying under was a wolf.

Not just any wolf. A big one. One that had a head as big as Deans torso and ugly yellow nails on his claws.

For it being so big, it has lost Dean underneath him and was furiously looking for the thing that was caused so much pain in his stomach.

When the wolf clawed Deans leg open, both Castiel and Gabriel, as if under a spell, lunged forward, and ended up on the wolf.

When Gabriel stabbed it in his ribs, it tried bucking them off.

Gabriel flew off, crashing into a wall close by and Castiel was shoved forward, onto the neck of the beast. He stabbed it at the base of its skull with his long silver blade, so fierce that it came out of his beak.

The wolf collapsed and Castiel swung his leg over the head, shoving the beast on his side.

"Dean?" He asked, his hands searching the ground for his friend.

"I'm okay Cas." Dean clicked on the flashlight and smiled weakly. "But I can't feel my leg."

"I'm okay too, if anyone cares." Gabriel came walking their way, rubbing his head. He also had found Deans flashlight and pointed it at his leg. "Whoa- you're going to need stitches boy."

He sat down and opened his backpack.

"Sod off Gabriel, I don't need stitches." Dean growled.

He didn't want anyone to stitch him up with a needle. He wasn't a pair of jeans.

"It's okay Dean," Castiel said, taking the first aid kit from Gabriel. "A lot of accidents happen when you work around lumber. I know how to stitch someone up."

"But it's going to hurt." Gabriel smiled.

"Shut your pie hole you arrogant twat." Dean cursed.

Castiel waved the needle and thread around for it to cool down and motioned for Dean to give the flashlight to Gabriel. "If you can't see what happens, it'll hurt less."

Dean turned his eyes away and Castiel took his chance, disinfecting the wound in one swipe with a cloth rubbed full of alcohol he had prepared when Dean wasn't looking.

"O! You son of a bitch." Dean clenched his teeth together. "That was low. That was so-"

He was cut off when Castiel pressed his skin back together (luckily the claw had only made one real deep wound. The other nails had just scratched his leg) and quickly sowed it up.

He disinfected the wound one more time and bound it all up in fresh bandage.

When he sat up and washed the blood off his hands, he smiled, gruntled. "Nice work, even if I say it myself."

"Okay." Dean got up, wiping his blade on his coat. "What do we do now?"

"You," Castiel pushed him back on the ground. "need to rest."

"I could use some sleep too," Gabriel sat down so abruptly he almost fell. "And this place is as good as any in this Godforsaken cave."

"I'll take the first watch." Castiel offered. "Someone needs to look out for more giant mutts."

Dean wished he could say that he would keep awake with Cas, but he barely managed to grab his blanket and fold it underneath his head before he fell asleep, wrecked because of his fight, the heat and the blood loss.

It was a nice, dreamless sleep for once. He woke up a few hours later, with a throbbing leg and one Hell of a headache.

He groaned and sat up.

"Hello Dean." He heard Castiel whisper. "I hope you slept well."

"Yeah-" Dean said, rubbing his eyes. "Kind off. Do you have the bag? I need to drink something."

He heard muffled sounds of Castiel digging in the backpack and felt a bottle against his chest.

"Oh sorry," Castiel said. "I can't see anything."

Dean smiled. "It's okay." He grabbed the bottle and opened it. "Good thing it tastes horrible huh? Makes you drink slower."

He chugged down almost half before giving it back.

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Dean proposed. "I won't be able to sleep anyway with this leg."

"It's going to be an ugly scar." Castiel said. "I did my best sowing it up, but it was hard with the darkness and all."

"As long as I get back to 12 I don't care if I lose the leg." Dean mumbled.

He passed Castiel the blanket he had used as a pillow and he could see a dark shadow that was probably Cas lay down on the ground next to him.

Dean closed his eyes, leaning against the wall. He focused on listening, Cas' breathing, Gabriel's breathing, and tried to push those to the background.

Their breaths became a rhythm and the moment something was off, Dean would hear it.

As much as he'd expected it, nothing happened though. But focusing on the breaths of his friends helped him calm down.

Dean smiled. He should stop thinking about Cas and Gabriel as friends. They were allies. They had to die in order for him to get back to 12, but he had no idea how he was going to kill them.

He might be able to kill Gabriel if it would come to it, but he would never manage to look Cas in the eye and stab him in the chest. Only imagining the betrayed look on his face broke his heart.

Castiel and Gabriel woke up almost at the same time. Cas refreshed Dean's bandage and Gabriel refreshed the batteries in Cas' flashlight.

The shared a meal in the darkness, Gabriel still had some muesli bars and dried fruit, but that was it.

"We need to get to those supplies quickly." Gabriel mentioned.

Nobody replied because they all knew. They could starve in this place if the mutts didn't kill them.

They were on their way quicker than expected and even though Castiel advised Dean to take it slow, the boy led the small pack.

It wasn't until a few hours of limping later, that they encountered another obstacle.

It was a heavy, wooden door, closed off by iron shutters.

Unsure of what to do, Dean turned towards Castiel and Gabriel. "Do we open it?"

They shrugged.

"No going back." Gabriel said, and Castiel nodded.

It took them a while to open the door, but it wasn't locked.

It didn't lead to a room, but to another hallway.

Dean sighed. "I am sick and tired of constant halls and halls, leading to nowhere! When are we going to find anything?"

"Dean." Castiel said. He walked past him and looked to the left and to the right. "Dean, this is a maze."

"How would you know?" Gabriel frowned.

"Because it says it there," Castiel pointed his flashlight to the wall.

Something was carved into it: 'At the middle of this maze you will find the gold and riches I promised you.'

Dean cursed. "They're just toying around with us!"

"These are the Hunger Games, Dean-o." Gabriel smiled.

Dean growled and resisted the urge of punching Gabriel in the face. He marched to the left. "Let's go."

"You sure about heading that way?" Gabriel came running after him.

"Let it go." Dean growled. "I lead the way."

He led them into the maze, randomly turning left and right, walking back at dead ends and limping to the side when he thought he heard something coming.

Nothing ever really came and Dean started thinking that the maze might be abandoned, until they stumbled upon a crossroad.

"What way now?" Castiel asked.

"I don't know," Dean took a few steps forward, trying to see further down the path.

Gabriel and Castiel did the same, Castiel checked the left path and Gabriel the right for any signs of life, and when Dean wanted to turn back to the crossroad he almost walked into a brick wall.

"Heaven, I'm in Heaven," He heard, and the blood drained from his face when he turned around to see Alastair standing in the middle of the path.

"I see you got yourself a scratch!" Alastair smiled. "I admire the needlework, did Cassie do that?"

"Not your business." Dean growled. This was impossible, Alastair only existed in his nightmares, in his head. "You're not real."

"But I can be." Alastair smiled. "Remember the first time we met? Carved a big scar into your chest."

"But it's not real!" Dean said, trying to remain calm.

It is not real. Not real.

He lifted his shirt to prove that there was no scar. Alastair could not torture him outside his head.

He was shocked when Alastair smiled, and even more shocked when he looked down at his stomach and saw the jagged lines of the pentagram.

"You're one scared little boy Dean." Alastair said. "I almost feel sorry for you. The way you jumped forward to volunteer for Sammy, like a robot."

"Any good sibling would volunteer." Dean said. He dropped his shirt back down and rubbed the scars, trying to wipe them off his skin.

"No, because if they would, there would be more volunteers Dean. It's almost like if you were trained. Like, like a little dog." Alastair smiled and petted the air next to him.

"Like a Hound."

The big dog from yesterday appeared under his hand and growled violently.

Dean tried to walk back, but only met the brick wall.

Behind him, he could hear Castiel scream and Gabriel sob, and he bit his lip not to do anything of that nature himself.

With a flick of his wrist, Alastair send the Hellhound Deans way and the only thing he remembered were the cold teeth burying themselves in his flesh, over and over and over again.