A Family Separated:
At the bus station, Sam and Meg had gotten together for a lunch of beers and food from the vending machines. "So what, are you on some kind of vacation or something." Sam asked curious.
Meg laughed, wiping her hands with a napkin. "Yeah right, it's all sipping crystal poolside with me." Sam laughed with her this time. "No, I had to get away from my family."
"Why?" Sam asked, curious about what problems a normal family would have.
"I love my parents." Meg started off with. "And they wanted what's best for me." Meg stopped to sigh softly. "They just don't care if I wanted it." She got lost in her thoughts. "I was supposed to be smart." She slowly curled her hand on the table into a fist. "But not smart enough to scare away a husband." Sam almost smiled at the distain in her voice. "It's just...because my family said so, I was supposed to sit there and do what I was told." Meg made a little clicking sound with her tongue. "I just went my own way instead." Sam stared at her stunned. It just sounded so much like his own situation. "I'm sorry." Meg said sheepishly, apparently thinking she'd said to much. "The things you say to people you hardly know."
'No, no, it's okay. I know how you feel." Sam insisted quickly. "It's sort of the same deal with me and my brother and sister."
"Here to us, then." Meg grinned, raising her beer. "The food might be bad and the beds might be hard but at least we're living our own lives and nobody else's." Sam raised his bottle and tapped it against her own.
Late that night, "I can't believe it." The female of the couple was complaining as they walked through the orchid, they're can having broken down on the highway. "We just got the car fixed!" They had literally just left the repair shop. The girl and her boyfriend, Steve, were quick to panic, screaming as they started running. Why? Because a scarecrow had just came out of the tree line and was now chasing them down.
They only stopped running because Dean and I showed up in front of them carrying shotguns. "Get back to your car." Dean commanded, voice full of authority. Then they just stood there staring wide eyed.
"Go...now!" I shouted at them when they just stood there. The couple started running and we were quick to follow. I awkwardly ran while shooting behind us a few times, the sounds of my shots mixing with Dean's. Although the scarecrow would flinch back at every hit, it never once wavered, or fell, or lost its speed. We reached the road again in record time. I prepared myself, pointing my shotgun into the woods. But he never came.
"What, what the hell was that?" Steve demanded, panting from the long run.
"Don't ask." Dean muttered.
"Not like you'd believe us anyway." I said, lowering my gun.
Back at the bus station, Meg was fast asleep on the floor against the wall. Sam was now having a conversation with Dean and Chris on his phone having gotten the courage to make sure they were alright. "The scarecrow climbed off its cross?" Sam said in disbelief as they explained what was happening.
"Yeah, I'm telling ya." Dean was saying. "Burkitsville, Indiana." I was sitting in the car as Dean drove, the phone in my hand and on speaker phone. "Fun town."
"If only it would get more fun." I said sarcastically.
"It didn't kill the couple, did it?" Sam asked worriedly.
"No." Dean scoffed.
"Although they may have a fortune in therapy bills." I commented.
"So something must be animating it." Sam suggested. I had seen lots of things in my life but a moving scarecrow was something new. "A spirit?"
"Makes more sense than a scarecrow walking around by itself." I said, slouching down in my seat.
"No, it's more than a spirit, it's a god." Dean suddenly said. I looked at him in startled confusion. "A pagan God, anyway." When did he figure that one out?
"What makes you say that?" Sam demanded.
"And how come you didn't tell me?" I questioned.
"I just thought of it a few minutes ago." Dean snapped impatient. "The annual cycle of its killings?" Meaning why they were killing only once every year during this time. "And the fact that the victims are always a man and a woman." I never thought of it that way, thinking they were just after couples. "Like some kind of fertility right." I was just thinking couples, even if they were both men or both woman. "And you should see the locals." But now thinking about it, it was almost one man and one woman. "The way they treating this couple." I wouldn't know, to busy talking with Derek...he'd been amusing. "Fattening em up like a Christmas turkey." I never had a real Christmas turkey, last few years included fancy little finger sandwiches we made by cutting up a ham sandwich, you know, money being tight and all.
"The last meal, given to sacrificial victims." Sam realized.
"Hey!" I suddenly realized. "I never got my dinner!" I had that distraction with Derek and then when I went back to eat, I'd forgotten because Dean has been chased out by the police.
"I'll get you food later." Dean said, pushing on they're conversation. "The scarecrow takes its sacrifice. And for another year, the crops won't wilt and the disease not won't spread."
"Do you know which god you're dealing with?" Sam asked.
"Unless he's been researching without telling me," which I doubted since this was Dean. "We've got nothing." Dean was good at his job but that didn't mean he enjoyed looking things up for hours on end, usually trying to push it into Sam and I although he would flip through a few articles or books.
"Well you figure out what it is, you can figure out a way to kill it." Sam said.
"We're actually on our way to a local community collage." Dean said. I looked at him startled. "I've got an appointment with a professor." When'd he do that? "You know, since I don't have my trusty sidekick geek boy to do all the research." Damn, I had to pay attention more often, I grinned fondly as Sam laughed. "And my sister may be good at weapons but not much help." Dean jabbed jokingly grinning.
My jaw fell, "Hey!" I laughed, shoving at him.
"Watch it, I'm driving!" Dean grinned cockily, nudging me back.
"All you had to do was ask if you're hinting for my help." Sam said, I could hear the smirk in his voice.
"I'm not hinting anything." Dean protested. And of course, he had to turn awkward because that was just Dean's way. "Actually, uh...I want you to know...I mean, don't think." I let my hair fall into my face as I bowed my head, Dean stuttering through an apology.
"Yeah, I'm sorry too." Sam said quietly, just as awkward with family apologies.
"I think we're all sorry." I agreed. I shared the same awkwardness.
Dean sighed before admitting something I thought wouldn't come out unless it was pried by the jaws of life. "Sam, you were right." Shocked, right? "You gotta do your own thing." I know that I was. "You gotta live your own life."
"Are you serious?" Sam sounded just as shocked as I was.
"Or are you just sick?" I was tempted to start feeling his forehead.
"I'm not sick." Dean shook his head, denying it. "Sam has always known what he wanted." I watched him curiously. "And you go after it." Sounded almost like me. "You stand up to dad." Something I've never had the chance to do. "And you always have." And probably never will if this search never ends. "Hell, I wish I...anyway, I admire that about you...I'm proud of you, Sammy."
I swear, if I wasn't a Winchester, I'd be bawling right about now. But my Winchester pride forced me to hold it all back. "I don't even know what to say." Sam whisperer, dumbstruck.
"Say you'll take care of yourself."
"I will."
"Call us when you find dad." After that, it was a bittersweet moment as we said our goodbyes and I slowly let the phone close shut.
At the bus station, "Who was that?" Meg asked quietly as she woke, apparently sensing his mood.
"My family." Sam whispered, staring silently down at the phone clenched in his hand.
"What'd they say?" Meg asked, sounding nosy.
Sam didn't notice, to busy staring at his phone. "...goodbye." He whispered, feeling regretful, like him leaving like this was one big mistake.
At the local community collage, the professor was unloading a crate of books. "It's not every day I get a research question on Pagan ideology." The professor said curiously.
"Yeah, well call it a hobby." Dean said. It wasn't the first time that question had been asked, and probably wouldn't be the last.
"We just can't resist passing through a town without discovering the local legends." I said, paying more attention to looking around the room.
"I'm afraid Indiana isn't really know for its pagan worship." The professor warned.
"Well what if it was imported?" Dean suggested. "You know, like the pilgrims brought their religion over." Everything had to be brought over to America at some point, it being the 'new land' and all, right? "Wasn't a lot of this area settled by immigrants?"
"Like, where did that town Burkitsville come from?" I asked with innocent curiosity.
The professor thought for a minute. "Northern Europe I believe, Scandinavia."
"What could you tell us about those pagan gods?" Dean asked.
"Well there are hundreds of Norse gods and goddesses." The professor said. Meaning we could still be having this conversation next month and longer with him talking about gods and goddesses we don't need to know about.
"Well there's only one of interest specifically." I said, not wanting to go through endless books and references. "I've heard of it living in orchards."
The professor spent several minutes looking through his collection of books. He finally found one of the thicker books covered in a layer of dust, dropping it with a smack on the already overcrowded desk. "Woods God, hmmm?" He startled flipping through several pages, I stood tightly beside him, glancing at the pictures he flipped through.
"Wait," Dean suddenly stopped him on a picture of a scarecrow surrounded by farmers. "What's that one?"
I leaned closer, this pagan God looked exactly like the one we were after. "Oh, that's not a woods God, per se." The professor dismissed it.
"Doesn't matter, it's perfect." I mussed.
"The V-Vanir?" Dean stumbled over sounding it out, looking to the professor for confirmation. Only when the professor nodded did Dean continue reading from the page. "The Vanir were Norse gods of protection and prosperity, keeping the local settlements safe from harm." Well let me tell you, they're price wasn't worth it. "Some villagers built effigies of the Vanir in their fields." People were crazier than us to pray to these kind of gods. "Other villagers practiced human sacrifice." The words 'human sacrifice' almost made me sick. "One man, and one female." I wondered if it still worked if the woman was pregnant. "Kind of looks like a scarecrow."
"I suppose it does." The professor said, looking confused.
"I just love scarecrows." I lied cheerfully, making the man less confused and suspicious, just thinking I was a blonde ditz.
Dean kept reading, "This particular Vanir that's energy sprung from the sacred tree." Great, did that mean we had to find a damn tree in a forest of trees, like a needle in a haystack?
"Well pagans believed all sorts of things were infused with magic." The professor explained.
"So a tree would be perfectly acceptable for this God." I sighed, shoulders dropping.
"So what would happen if the sacred tree was torched?" Dean suggested, it was actually a good idea. "You think it'd kill the God?"
The professor laughed, looking like he was now worried about our mental state. "These are just legends we're discussing." Muttering how I'll be right back, I headed to the bathroom down the hall. I didn't notice as a passed the police officer I questioned earlier pass me by, carrying a shotgun. I was quick to do my business and wash my hands.
Outside on the streets, it had started to rain but it went unnoticed by Stacy, Harley, Scotty, and the police officer. "You don't understand, Harley." Scotty was saying. "All of us here, it's our responsibility to protect the town."
"I understand better than all of you." Harley said pissed. "I'm the one that gives them directions, I'm the one that sends them down to the orchard!"
"Harley, please." The sheriff was begging now.
"We all close our doors, look the other way. Pretend we can't hear the screams." Harley said angrily, nose flaring. "But this is different, this is murder."
"It's angry with us." Stacy said worriedly. "Already the trees are beginning to die." She glanced around worriedly as if fearful that someone was going to hear what they were discussing. "Tonight's the seventh night of the cycle." But it was completely unnecessary since the whole town was in on it. "Our last chance."
Harley sighed. "If the boy has to die, the boy has to die. But why does it have to be her? What happened to the girl the boy came with?"
"I went back for her after knocking out her brother." The sheriff explained. "But I couldn't find her."
On the roof of the collage, "Damn it, how do I get myself into these situations." I muttered, awkwardly crawling back to the edge so I can climb back into the bathroom window I climbed out it. As I was doing this, Emily was begging for this not to happen as she was dragged down into the caller where Dean was kept.
I climbed into window as fast as I could. I had to do it after seeing the professor and police officer staging Dean's unconscious body to a truck out front. I was exiting the bathroom when I literally ran into Derek who was passing, almost making him drop the heavy looking cardboard box he was carrying. "Chris!" He said surprised, gaining hold of his package. His baseball cap was now backwards on his head so he could see without the low bill in his eyes.
"Derek?" I pulled to a stop before completely running him down. "What are you doing here?"
"Just earning a little extra cash, carrying in a new shipment of boxes." Derek grinned. He was pleased to see her again and so soon, her killer tough attitude and apparent strength unlike every other woman he met dragged him in like a moth to a flame.
"Great." I circled around him, he frowned confused. Her face was flushed and her eyes kept glancing from side to side as if expecting someone to be coming even though the halls were empty and the school hours closed. "Sorry to be in a rush but things happen and I have to hurry on." I started to leave. But then I stopped as a thought came to me. They were using Dean as a male sacrifice but that didn't mean that he wouldn't escape and then they'd need another to take his place. And Derek was the only other male out of towner currently in town. So I came back, "Listen, you have to reason to trust or believe but if I were you...I'd get out of town as soon as possible. Like tonight, like within the next five minutes or so." Then I hurried off, feeling like my job was complete, hopefully he wouldn't come across the rouge scarecrow running around, he's gonna become rouge because this town was about to lose its sacrifices, my brother wasn't going to be made into a new skin for a scarecrow to wear around.
"Then where are you going if you want me to leave so bad?!" Derek called after me.
"I have things to do in this town before I can!" I called over my shoulder before disappearing around the corner. Like saving my big brother from being sacrificed to a scarecrow and apparently a magic tree. Derek looked down at the box in his arms, only halfway done with unloading the truck and the hundred dollars he was paid in advance starting to burn in his pocket.
At the local bus station, Sam was trying to call both Dean and Chris for the passed hour. But he didn't know that Dean had been captured and Chris was so busy trying to find him that she didn't notice or care about her phone dying. "Hey, our bus came in." Meg said, gathering her stuff.
Sam closed his phone with a shake of his head, having already made up his mind. "You better catch it, I gotta go." He wasn't willing to go chasing down a father that was probably gone when he knew where his siblings were but not it they weren't dead yet without him there. He didn't hesitate to yank his backpack back onto his shoulder.
"Go where?" Meg demanded like he had to right to make such a decision, Sam didn't notice, to busy gathering his duffle.
"Burkitsville." Sam muttered, starting to walk away.
"Sam, wait." Meg said as a last ditch effort.
"I've been trying to call my siblings for the last three hours." Sam explained. "I'm just getting voicemails."
"Well maybe they're phones are turned off." Meg suggested hopefully.
"No, that's not like them, either of them." Sam said, trying to go around her. "I think they might be in trouble."
"What kind of trouble?" Meg demanded.
"I can't really explain right now." Sam said dismissively. "I'm sorry, look, I don't want you to miss your bus."
"But I don't understand! Meg protested wildly. "You're running back to your brother and sister?" She was getting louder with every word. "The very people you ran away from?" People were glancing over, wondering if they were having a lovers spat. "Why, because they won't pick up they're phone?" Strangers were starting to drag they're children away from the noise. "Sam, come with me to California." She begged.
Sam sighed, shaking his head, "I'm can't, I'm sorry." He couldn't believe he had nearly left, choosing his father who had kicked him out instead of his brother who practically raised him and his sister who he hasn't spent as much time as he wished with.
"Why not?" Meg demanded, getting pissed.
Sam didn't hesitant when he said, "They're my family." Sam left after that and all Meg could do was watch him leave.
Back in Indiana, Derek was throwing his bags into his truck outside the local motel. He had fifty dollars in his pocket, having left the other fifty on the desk of the professor that hired him. He had only done half the work so he took half the money, he wasn't a thief. Derek slammed his trunk door before leaving the town behind, he didn't know much about this 'Christina Winchester' but even he'd felt off about this town since he entered it.
Back in the cellar, "I don't understand." Emily was crying. "They're gonna kill us?"
"Sacrifice us." Dean corrected, not that that was much better. "Which is, I don't know, classier I guess." He walked down the stairs where he'd been trying to force the door open and failed. "You really didn't know anything about this, did you?"
"About what?" Emily asked desperately. "The scarecrow God? I can't believe this?"
"Well you better start believing because I'm gonna need your help." Dean said firmly. Emily shakily nodded, "Now we can destroy the scarecrow but we gotta find the tree."
"What tree?" Emily asked, when did a tree become part of all this?
"Maybe you can help me with that." Dean decided, she had lived here for years. "It would be really old." He explained. "The locals would treat it with a lot of respect, you know, like it was sacred."
Recognition lit Emily's eyes. "There was this one apple tree." She slowly started to explain. "The immigrants brought it over with them, they called it the first tree."
"Is it in the orchard?" Dean asked, getting excited.
"Yes, but I don't know where." Emily admitted sadly. Their conversation was cut short when the doors shrug over, the townspeople standing there.
Elsewhere in town, "This walk is longer without a car." I moaned, barely jogging now but desperately kept going. I wasn't sure how long I've been running but long enough to feel it and be slowing down. And I was pretty tone from hunting most my life so you knew how long I had to be running. I slowed down to a walk as a midnight blue car slowly down beside me. My hand fisted the silver knife in my pocket, eyes narrowing; at this point I was ready to kill any of these townsfolk that came up to me. But I realized it was completely unnecessary as the window rolled down.
"Chris! Are you okay?" Sam demanded, slamming to a stop.
My grin almost broke my face. "Sammy!" I didn't hesitate to run around to the other side of the car and climb into the passenger seat. "It's Dean, step on it and head to the orchard field outside of town!" I commanded. Sam didn't hesitate before he was stamping on the gas, putting the pedal to the metal as some may say. "By the way, cool car, where'd ya get it?"
"I uh, I stole it." Sam admitted sheepishly. The only thing I could do was burst out laughing, the most straight and narrow of the Winchester clan had actually stolen a car.
Tied to trees in the middle of the orchard, "You don't have a plan, do you?" Emily guessed. They had been tied up for literally several hours with nothing happening since they were left there to die by the townspeople.
"I'm working on it!" Dean snapped for the second time, poorly hiding how he was starting to panic. "Can you see?" Emily looked at him confused. "Is he moving yet?"
Emily tried to wiggle to see but the ropes were to tight. She fell back with a defeated sigh, "I can't see." But then she saw a shadow moving in the corner of her eye, Emily shrieked.
"Can you not?" I demanded, holding my ears. Damn, that girl had a pair of lungs on her.
Dean almost sounded like a squealing teenage girl...or Emily, with how excited he seemed. "I take back everything I said, I'm so happy you two are here!" Sam started untying Dean's ropes while I carefully started cutting in half the ones that held Emily with my knife. "How'd you get here?"
Sam admitted he stole a car. "Showed up out of nowhere and picked me up." I said.
Dean burst into the same laughter I had only several minutes before. "Keep an eye of that scarecrow, he could come alive any minute." Dean warned.
"...what scarecrow?" Sam asked slowly.
I stood up straight, followed by Emily. "Would this be a bad time to mention I can't find the scarecrow?" Since the scarecrow was missing, we did the next big thing, start running.
Sam was talking as we ran, "This sacred tree you were talking about..." Sam trailed off when he almost fell.
"It's the source of its power." Dean explained.
"I say we shag ass till morning, then we can come find and torch it." I suggested, still running. We only stopped running as we reaching a clearly and that was only because the townspeople were waiting for us.
"Please, let us go." Emily begged crying, she clutched onto the elbow of my jacket terrified as I was the closest one to her.
"Emily, you have to let him take you." Harley said as if he was simply talking about the weather instead of his niece's life. "You have to-" he never got to finish before a sickle was stuck all the way through his stomach from behind. Emily and Stacy screamed. I flinched at the squishy sound it made, Harley couldn't even scream as he was dragged back. Then Stacy got grabbed from behind and dragged into the shadows screaming. This time, Emily bypassed me and ran into Dean's arms crying. The other townspeople ran, scattering like rats screaming.
With nothing left for us to do, we retreated back to spend the night locked in the impala. It was an annoying night and even harder to sleep but eventually, we made it to morning. Only once the sun was firmly in the sky did we venture out and after a few hours of wondering the orchard in a tight knit group did we finally find the right tree. Sam and I poured the gallons of gas we siphoned from the stolen car all over it while Dean lit a branch he found on the ground on fire so they could light up the tree. "Let me." Emily said, taking the branch from Dean.
I looked at her curiously, her face lit up because of the flames. "You know, the whole town's gonna die." Dean warned.
"Good." Emily said before throwing the branch. All we could do was watch as the tree went up in flames, the scarecrow dying with it.
Nearly an hour later, Emily was packed and standing at the bus stop that would take her to Boston, hundreds of miles away. "We'll see you around, Emily." I said, knowing full well we would probably never see her again. Emily waved before she climbed on the bus and we watched it till it disappeared from sight in the distance.
"Think she's gonna be alright?" Sam asked.
"I hope so." Dean sighed.
"At least better than this town will." I said. This whole place seemed like a ghost town now, the townspeople hiding away in they're homes terrified.
"So the townspeople will just get away with it?" Sam asked. It wasn't like we could just burn the whole town to the ground.
"Well what'll happen to the town will have to be punishment enough." Dean decided. With nothing else keeping us in town, we started the walk to the Impala parked down the street. "So, can we drop you off somewhere?"
I let my head and shoulders drop, remembering Sam's determination to leave. "I guess you probably want to head to California as quick as you can, find dad and all."
But then Sam smirked, "Nah, I think you both are stuck with me." We stopped walking when we reached the car.
"Really!" I squealed, clapping my hands together and sounding very much like a teenager girl instead of myself. The boys stared at me with raised eyebrows, I glared, moving my hands to my hips.
"So...what changed your mind?" Dean said quickly.
"I didn't." Sam admitted. "I still wanna find dad." Then he started to smirk at Dean. "And you're still a pain in the ass." He turned to me, "And you're still the same overbearing older sister." Dean nodded and I smirked, cool, I always wanted to be an overbearing older sister. "But Jess and mom, they're both gone." I let my shoulders drop, dishearted as always when I remembered mom. "Dad is God knows where." Well he was the one that was hiding, he could clearly contact us whenever he pleased. "The three of us." It's been the three of us together for six months. "We're all that's left." At least we weren't alone. "So if we're gonna see this through, we're gonna do it together."
Dean couldn't go without ruining the moment, "Hold me, Sam." He said with fake tearfulness. "That was beautiful."
"Don't be a dick." I laughed, shoving him from behind.
Sam laughed as well, "You should be kissing our asses, you were dead meat, dude."
"Yeah right, I had a plan, I'd have gotten out." Dean insisted.
"Sure you would have." I grinned. Another monster destroyed, another time left behind in the dust and the review mirror.
Miles away, Meg had ditched the bus ride and once again hitchhiking in a truck to who knows where. "So where to pretty lady?" The guy in his fifties asked the woman barely out of her teens.
Meg looked over and grinned, "How about you pull over?"
"Okay." The van driver started to grin. "That works." He pulled over and because he thought a little 'something something' would be happening, he went further away from the road. Meg reached into her bag by her feet and pulled out an elaborate looking silver bowl. "What's that?"
"I've got to make a call." Meg bent over to reach for something further down in the bag.
The driver looked confused by this sudden turn of conversation. "...I've got a cell phone you could use."
"It's not that kind of call." Meg started to grin. The man couldn't ask the question that flashed in his mind, 'What kind of call?' nor could he even blink. Because Meg had done pulled out a knife and in a spilt second, slit it across the man's throat, watching him without a care as he sputtered and started chocking on his own blood. She held the bowl under his neck, letting the blood fill it up. "Thanks the the ride." Meg said cruelly.
Although he was technically still alive, she ignored him so she could stir the blood around the bowl with her finger, speaking it deep Latin as she did so. It was the demonic version of using a phone. She started to speak into it as if there was someone right before her. "It makes no sense. I could've stopped Sam. Hell, I could've taken them all. Why let them go?" She paused and the blood started to bubble. "Yes...yes...yes father."