Meant to post this earlier in the day but the first week of classes was chaos.
And sorry for the craziness last week. FF was being stupid and the first notif email didn't work, so I had to reupload it. If you got two emails and the first didn't work, that is why.
2 things/rants based off of recent comments (not to hate on the people who made them I don't think you mean anything by them but I still want to address them).
1. Until the story is completely written I will only post on Fridays. I will not be releasing chapters earlier without a good reason. I have full confidence that you all have the ability to wait a week. I'm glad you like it and want more! But I do not have time to post more than once a week so if I give it to you early, you're going to be waiting OVER a week for the next chapter.
2. I do not like John Winchester. In fact I despise him (except for the Winchester's version of him) I am being nicer to him in this fic than I usually am. I do not care about his circumstances. I do not care if "anyone might act like that you've never been there". I simply do not care. If I were to fall in this exact circumstance and treat my children the way he treated them, someone please take my children and arrest me. There is NO excuse. I do not care what trauma he went through. That doesn't excuse child abuse. And whether or not you think it happened in canon (idk how you couldn't see it but hey to each their own) but in the Brotherhood we have when Sam ran away to Flagstaff and this fic I made it very clear that there was physical, verbal, and emotional abuse at the beginning of the story. There is no excuse for treating your children this way. Circumstances aren't an excuse and I will not tolerate excuses being made for him. There may be a REASON (not an excuse, there is a difference) he did it, but none of them are valid. Abuse is abuse, the reason is irrelevant.
Thank you for listening to that rant.
This chapter really gives the final push before the plot turns.
It's just...
Well you'll see lol.
Please enjoy!
~TH~
Caleb woke, drenched in sweat. He bolted upright, unsure of if he had a nightmare or what caused him to wake so panicked. The only thing he knew was that he felt absolutely terrible. He had the briefest thought of dying but then decided if this was as bad of a hangover as it seemed he'd probably only wish he were dead.
"Easy," Mac was at his side in an instant. That didn't seem right. He tried not to get blackout drunk around his father. And Mac would not be near as kind if this was a hangover. "Your fever only just broke."
Oh. That was news to him."Fever?"
Mac pressed his lips together, giving the look he tended to have when contemplating the severity of a case. "What do you remember?"
Not much. But he tried to think, remember what happened before the world had turned into a swirling ball of color. "I remember-" The memory crashed down on him like a collapsing wave.. His eyes widened, the panic coming back. He had been possessed. The Entetee had fought him for control and Caleb had lost. He looked around the room, finding only Mac. Where were the others. "Is everyone alright? Did I hurt anyone?"
"Everyone is fine. You were the only one who was hurt." Mac seemed relieved at his answer. He smoothed out the blanket covering Caleb, a father not a doctor. "But you seem to be on the mend now. You've been asleep for hours.'
"Deuce?"
The Scholar pressed his lips together. "Alive. Nothing new on how to kill the Entetee."
Caleb nodded slowly. His head still felt funny. He blamed that for the words that next came out of his mouth. "But we will save him, right?"
Mac sighed, concern for more than just Caleb etched in his eyes. "We'll figure out something. I have no doubt."
Caleb grunted. A new picture formed in his mind. One that should have filled him with horror but only made him laugh. "How 'sJonny?"
"As violent as ever." Mac seemed far less amused.
"You're ticked that he tried to shoot me." Caleb observed.
"He overreacted."
The younger man glanced away, his voice becoming softer. "He should have done it. It could have worked."
"Dont." Mac snapped. "Don't ever speak like that."
"We need to get Dean back." He didn't understand how it wasn't the Triad's every waking moment. Didn't they understand how important this was? Didn't they care? Weren't they willing to do anything and everything needed to get Dean back?
"But not at the expense of your life. You need to stay out of things right now."
Tha caught Caleb off guard. Despite the fact that his brain felt friend, the idea of sitting on the bench never even crossed his mind."What? Why? I need to help!"
"Caleb, you were possessed." Mac stated in an exasperated tone. "Your heart heart rate and temperature only just returned to normal. I can't afford for you to get hurt like this."
"But we can afford to let Dean stay there?!"
"We're looking for a way to get him out. But as of right now, the only way I know of is to convince him to leave and I don't believe he will even speak to us."
Caleb set his jaw, ready for an argument. But his dad was right. Dean had to be convinced to leave. And.. there was a chance…"Where's everyone else?"
"In the other room, researching."
"I need a shower." Caleb moved to get up, his mind already forming a plan. He'd done his research too. And maybe now he knew enough to actually convince him to leave. If he could just get him away from Whiteman…
"Go ahead, just don't overdo it."
Caleb rolled his eyes, calling back over his shoulder."It's a shower, Dad. I'll try not to strain something lifting the soap."
~SPN~
Caleb exited the bathroom, fully dressed. The rest of the Triad was now in the room, clearly Mac thought him well enough for company. Good. He was more likely to get away with his plan if it wasn't just Mac. Now just to put it in motion.
He walked over to the fridge, making a show of opening it. Just as he'd thought, there was nothing. That was a relief. Had it been stocked for some reason he'd have to find an entirely new reason to leave and he hated to admit it, but he was going to need all the brain power he needed. He was running low on reserves at the moment.
"I'm going to go get some food." He let the door slam shut, going back over to the bed to sit and put on his shoes.
"Son, you just woke up," Mac protested, a discontent frown on his face. "I don't-"
"I'm fine Dad" Caleb rolled his eyes, pushing his foot into the shoe. "The only thing I am is hungry. Really hungry." Which honestly wasn't a lie. He was starving. From the little he knew about possession survival, that was fairly normal. But he also didn't want to think like that. At all. Just thinking about that thing inside of him…
"It's three a.m." Jim added, sounding incredulous. Caleb shook himself out of his thoughts. The pastor was on to him.
"Then I'll grab something at a gas station." The youngest hunter shrugged.
Mac pressed his lips together, the doctor, father, and scholar all warring together. "You would have used a lot of energy-
"See!" Caleb had been right in his assumption and it looked like he might just get away with it. "I'll be back in an hour."
John was watching Caleb intently. He thought the Knight might know what his real plan was, but all Winchester did was raise an eyebrow and grunt, "Bring back a six pack."
Caleb gave a wave of acknowledgement before hurrying out of the door. John definitely knew, but he wanted Dean back as much as Caleb did. Still, he was expected back soon and it was in his best interest to return with a some sort of food within an hour. An hour and a half if he was lucky.
The Entetee's castle truly was beautiful, almost breathtaking. Everytime Caleb saw he was drawn to it. There was a part of him that saw the building and felt the pull of safety. There was something unnatural about the building that caused Caleb to shudder, his own psychic powers working to fight off whatever encapsulated him.
Caleb still couldn't get a solid grasp on Dean, but he could get enough to know that he was near. There was no true connection. Missing Dean's link was like missing a limb. He could try to ignore, to put something else there, but the fact that something was wrong persisted.
It took longer than Caleb would have liked, but he finally reasoned out the room that Dean was staying in. It was on the first floor, but too high to reach. He picked up some gravel off of the ground and threw it at the window. Cliched but effective.
It took about five stones before someone answered.
It wasn't Dean.
"What do you want, Romeo?" The kid, probably in his early twenties, said, sticking his head out of the now opened window. He was rubbing his eyes and offering a loud yawn. There was the same weird shimmering that Caleb had noticed with Dean. Whoever the kid was, he seemed unconcerned with a stranger outside of his window at three a.m.
"Is Dean there?"
A sigh was all he was met with. The boy disappeared and Caleb could hear a muffled, "Hey Juliet, it's for you!"
Caleb couldn't help but snort at that. Deuce would have a sarcastic roommate.
Dean's head appeared a moment later, looking annoyed and confused. "Caleb? What are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to you."
"No way, man, you shouldn't be here." And Dean sounded… awful. Absolutely exhausted. Caleb noticed the way that he was leaning into the window frame, like he was afraid he couldn't stand without it.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"No I'm not, I'm just- " He sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his head onto the side of the frame. "You need to leave."
"Five minutes." And Caleb almost felt bad for pushing him when the kid clearly needed sleep. But this couldn't wait. He couldn't explain it, but he knew that this would be his last chance.
"Caleb-"
"Give me five minutes and I'll leave you alone."
An exaggerated, and yet seeming genuine, sigh. "Alright, but if I'm not back in five minutes Carlos is getting Whiteman."
Not ideal, but he would make it work. "Fine, just get down here."
It took Dean much longer than it should have to crawl out the window. There was a weakness about him that his body didn't show. Physically, he looked fine. It was just when Caleb looked at his face that he could see that something was wrong. And Dean acted like something was wrong. It wasn't unlike Dean to hide wounds, but something else was going on.
"Talk fast." The boy muttered, not so discreetly leaning against the wall for support.
Caleb knew he needed to talk fast and tried to get to the point immediately. "Whiteman is killing and feeding off of kids."
"I thought we already went over this-"
"I don't want you to be next, don't you get that?" Okay he needed to keep it cool. Dean didn't respond well to yelling or raised emotions. He couldn't push him away.
"I get that you don't know how to let me make my own decisions!"
"Okay, okay." Deep breath. Refocus and change course. "I can feel you, okay? Everytime he… feeds." He felt sick just saying the words. "I can feel it. And needless to say it isn't a pleasant sensation." He ran a hand through his hair, hoping that the sincerity would come across better than the logic. He wasn't lying, this entire thing was distressing to him in a way that the Triad could never understand.
"You feel it? How-? Well- just stop. Give me some privacy for once!" The rollercoaster of Dean's emotions played easily in his tone. Confusion, concern, followed by a forced anger. There was no real heat in the boys eyes. He knew he should be angry so he forced it. Caleb was making headway and Deuce was fighting it.
Keep it light. "Don't you think if I knew how to turn off this trainwreck up here I'd do it?" He turned his lips upward. Hopefully Dean wouldn't take it as another challenge.
"Okay, fine. I'm sorry you have to feel it, but it's still my decision."
An apology was something. "He's hiding things from you. You don't know everything." Breadcrumbs leading him home. Dean wasn't ready for everything, Caleb wasn't sure of everything himself.
"Then tell me!" The anger was back, but it wasn't in denial. He knew something was up. Had something happened to change Dean's mind or was it just the weakness and exhaustion? It didn't matter, Caleb would take it.
"From what I can tell, he keeps the bodies. Do you get that?! There's a stash of bodies somewhere in that bodies of kids who are being fed off of! And if you're not careful you're going to join them!" Okay a little more yelly than he had meant. He really didn't like things that messed with kids.
Dean scoffed. "I think I would have found a room full of dead bodies caleb. No to mention the smell-"
"Do you really think he would just let you go there!?" Dean was a hunter. He should have basic reasoning skills. But if Caleb had to spell it out he would. "He's a psychic, he's shielding it from you."
"We can go anywhere we want! It's not a prison, Caleb." And there was the righteous indignation. Caleb was losing him.
"So there's nowhere you can't go?"
"Nope."
"And there's nowhere that you for some odd reason don't want to go?" Caleb knew the tricks and Dean did too. He just wasn't thinking. He didn't want to think. Dean wanted this place to be everything he imagined and was willing to shut off his reasoning to get there. Caleb's job was to jog his memory.
And it worked. Dean started to speak but cut himself off. There was a look on his face that told Caleb he'd hit on something.
"What is it?" He said with too much excitement. "Headaches? Sickness? Invisible force? There's something."
"It's- none of your business. Stay out of this Caleb." That time it was almost a plea.
"But you know I'm right. You know he's hiding something from you. Don't let him do this. Come with me. Now. You don't have to go back there." And this was it. The moment of truth.
Dean opened his mouth, but whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the roommate (Carlos?) calling down, "Dean, you good?! It's been five minutes!"
Dean slammed his mouth shut, clearing his voice, then calling back, "Yeah, yeah coming."
"Deuce-" Caleb grabbed at Dean's arm as the boy began to turn away. He was so close. He couldn't let him just leave!
"I gave you your five minutes." He jerked his arm away, turning back to the wall. Dean sighed, looking back over his shoulder. "I don't care, Damien. I like it here. Now don't come back here. Next time I'm getting Whiteman first." It was said with such sincerity. Caleb could be right, Dean did care. Anthem didn't want Balec's protection, he wanted freedom.
Caleb stood unmoving, watching Dean slowly scale the wall. Dean avoided Caleb's eyes as he shut the window.
Whiteman had won.
~TH~
So yup. Caleb tried and Dean responded. What do you think?
Things take a turn next chapter. I *think* you'll like the next one lol.
I live off a comments and i'ma be honest life is something else rn so I'd appreciate any feedback you have!
God bless,
Jamie
