Sam considered the thought of Chase using the hexbag seriously. The fact that there was a ready-made cure for the hex made it an advantage that they should have considered beforehand. Everyone had been so busy trying to see if there were any side-effects, they'd missed the elephant sitting in the room.

There was a way to change to Sam and Dean's size and back again.

If the curse wasn't in effect on them, overriding the cure Bobby and Rufus had developed, Sam might want to try it out. They knew for sure the counter to the hex would have no effect on the brothers; Dean had tried it out after all the victims of the hex were fixed. No dice.

Though Sam harbored no burning desire to get back to human size, it would be a boon to be able to be human sometimes. He liked his life. The towering rooms, looming furniture and dark passageways inside the walls were simply the way things had been for well over half his life. Being a human was a dying memory in the back of his mind, a fact that sometimes made him feel like Jacob lived in an entirely different world. It could be hard opening up to Jacob, though Sam thought he was doing better ever since Jacob spent a week at their size. The experience had made it easier to understand each other, especially Sam's innate shyness. It was enhanced by the way he'd spent most of his life sequestered away from other people, making it easy for the human teen to accidentally fluster him.

All that aside, maybe now they had a way to get to know their humans better, at the same scale without the shadow of their natural vulnerability hanging over them. Sam knew he'd like that chance.

As for Chase…

"He could think of it as an adventure," Sam pointed out to the other two. "He won't have to worry about being stuck like that, not with the cure we have. If he changes his mind, we can just unhex him."

Jacob chuckled. "He might think of it like that," he admitted. With his friend, sometimes it was hard to say how he'd react to something. Chase was usually the kind of gung-ho that got him into trying new things with a lot of enthusiasm regardless of how wise that was. They'd have to keep an eye on him, like Bobby warned. That was nothing new; Jacob had been looking out for Chase since he moved to the country hardly knowing any English at all.

Jacob took a seat on his bed to relax while they waited. Most likely, Chase had to briefly explain his trip out to someone in his household. Depending on who was around at the time, that could turn into an argument. Jacob remembered being over at his friend's house many times. Chase's dad was the easiest to explain things to, with his mom coming in second. His little sister, however, liked to argue.

In the end, Chase would probably be willing to try it. He'd had a little fun with the case when Jacob was the one hexed and before they knew what the cure was. He poked Jacob several times, and kept a smile on his face when there were doubts. Hopefully he'd be able to handle his own shrinking with a similar relaxed attitude.


Not quite half an hour later, the front door of the house opened and closed in the distance. Jacob watched the door to his room, listening for the footsteps beyond it. They were hastier than his mom's and soon enough they could be heard marching towards the room.

The doorknob rattled before a muffled "Oh, shit," could be heard beyond it. Chase knocked twice, a signal that Sam and Dean had worked out for a friendly human to use when they approached. He'd learned it when Jacob shrank, and it had been a while since he needed it.

Seconds later, the door cracked open and Chase's head poked into the room. He found the others and grinned sheepishly. "Almost forgot the password," he admitted.

Over on the dresser, the brothers scrambled back to their feet from where they'd settled down to wait. By habit, Sam already had his satchel slung over his shoulders and Dean scooped up his duffel bag. They rarely went anywhere without those bags, not even a simple walk in the walls from their home.

The world was dangerous for such small people, and they aimed to always be prepared. Once Chase was down at their level, they'd have to watch out for him. He wouldn't have the same instincts or training that they could take for granted compared to a regular human. He was used to fitting in with the world around him, and after the hex was in place, he wouldn't fit anymore.

Dean gave the smaller teenager an easy grin. "I think we can letcha off the hook this time, since you'll be doing us a favor," he said, taking a step forward. He had a feeling that after Chase got a dose of what it was like to live in their shoes, he might not have any problem remembering the knock. "Good to see you."

Chase closed the door behind himself as he entered the room, and grinned right back. He had remembered a jacket after all, and his hands were shoved into the front pockets casually as he made his way towards the dresser. "Hey, fellas," he greeted, stopping a few steps short. He had learned before that standing over his smaller friends could make them ill at ease.

Jacob stood then, also managing not to loom despite that being a much harder task for him. He was more than a foot taller than Chase, and he couldn't help but think of how the brothers might react to seeing just how small Chase would end up.

"So, what's the case?" Chase asked, glancing between the brothers on the dresser and Jacob standing nearby. He stood still, but something about his bearing almost burst with contained energy. He was excited to be pulled in on a case.

Jacob raised his eyebrows. "A haunting, we think. Best witnesses we have only speak Mandarin, from what we can tell. But, listen, dude. There was one thing we didn't mention on the phone."

"Keeping things mysterious, are ya?" Chase mused, the grin still on his face. "What's the dirt?"

Sam and Dean shared a look, then Dean took over from Jacob. "We ran into another snag with this one. Not only do the witnesses not speak any English," or Latin or Greek, "they also aren't keen on being seen by Jacob. They vanished without a trace as soon as he came in the room." The memory of the strange pair slipping into a crack that wasn't thick enough for Dean's arm to fit down rose to mind, another baffling event that they hadn't had time to properly mull over with everything else that was going on.

"We don't think they'll want to talk to any human," Sam picked up the line of thought next. It was his plan, so he could be the one to break the news. "They're our size, and we scrambled for a way to make this work."

He glanced to the side, at the hexbag that was lying so innocuously nearby. By itself, it probably weighed more than either brother, and was likely one of the most dangerous objects in the room.

They needed to take that power and use it wisely.

Sam flushed, and looked up to meet Chase's gaze. "It's the only way we could come up with."

Chase followed Sam's pointed gaze at the hexbag, and his eyes lingered on the thing even after Sam finished up the explanation. Even without them coming right out and saying it, he didn't take too long to figure out exactly where it all led, and what they were really asking of him. He couldn't help but think to himself No wonder they left that out on the phone. Holy shit.

His shoulders bunched up in a prolonged shrug and his mouth twisted into a frown. "You want me to go jar witch sized," he surmised, smirking in spite of himself at the memory of the tiny witch he'd been briefly in charge of. She had fit easily in his hands, unable to escape at all.

He would be like that, too, if he did this.

Chase scratched his head and fidgeted with the edge of his pocket. "Man, that'll be pretty wild, then, won't it? Mini-me the translator."

"So... you'll do it?" Jacob asked, tilting his head to get a better angle on Chase's expression.

Chase grinned. "Dude, I already came all this way. Besides, it's just a little translation job, right? At least this will make it ..." he paused, waving his hand vaguely while he searched for the right word. "Scenic."

"You'll have us watching out for you the entire time," Dean swore, sticking his hands in his pockets. The thought of one of their friends getting into trouble because of them was anathema to him. Especially since they were asking Chase to give up one of his best strengths compared to the brothers. Chase might not be the size of Jacob, but he was nowhere near as easy to confine as either Winchester was, no matter how determined they could be.

Keeping an eye on Jacob during the week he was hexed had certainly made life interesting for the brothers. They never really stopped to consider how most of the things they did on a day to day basis were completely out of the norm for a regular human. Even Dean could manage to climb up a sheer cliff to get to the surface of the table or counter, and that was with his fear of heights in force.

Though years of climbing to survive had softened that fear, it continued to lurk in the back of his mind every day. It haunted his footsteps. Jacob understood it as well as anyone else could, and always did his best to avoid setting it off. Even when Dean was trapped by Bobby, dangling upside down from between pinched fingers, Jacob hadn't let him down.

Now they would have someone else to look out for. Chase had no real idea what he was signing up for, and they couldn't let his willingness to help bite him in the ass. This was their world.

Sam nodded, almost to himself. He was just as lost in thought as Dean was for a moment. "We figured you could take some time before we head out to get the hang of the hex," he told Chase. "There's plenty of space in here, and you can see what the inside of the walls look like without running any risk. We've checked out every corner, and Jacob can make sure no one else bothers us. If you hold onto the bag, it'll shrink down with you, and after that it's safe to hold. We ran some tests with it earlier to make sure it would be safe for you to use."

Dean grimaced, but a smirk lurked at the corners of his mouth. "Just don't go knocking yourself out when you shrink like Godzilla over here did." He jabbed a thumb at Jacob. "I think he's the only person who managed that."

Jacob rolled his eyes and shrugged in exasperation. "Hey, I had a long way to fall, knocking my head at least makes a little sense." He saw Chase's smirk, and it was contagious. "I'm never gonna live that one down, so if you know what's best…"

"I'd be impressed if you ever did manage to live it down, dude, that's just priceless," Chase teased, that smirk widening into an almost Cheshire grin. His round face had a natural impishness that gave the impression of mischief all the time. "I'll be careful," he assured them all with more seriousness.

He reached out to pinch the hexbag, lifting it gingerly away from the dresser before letting it sit on his palm. It looked so innocuous, like a kid's craft project, with its twine and ratty cloth. It could be a cheap incense bag. Or some silly halloween prop. You'd never know by looking at it that it had gotten a group of people into deep trouble, trapping them at a size they weren't prepared for.

"So how do I do the hex thingie?" he asked, glancing up at Jacob.

"I think it works if you just give it a little squeeze, the pressure activates the hex. Be sure to keep hold of it." Jacob watched Chase mull it over.

Then his small hand closed on the hexbag, and once again Jacob watched someone dwindle away so fast it was like he disappeared.


Chase winced. The world swayed and bottomed out around him while dizziness ran rampant over his body, collecting behind his eyes. He still had a hand around the hexbag, though after his initial squeeze it was loose in his fist. Focus returned slowly, trickling into his head like molasses. He peered at the floor around him, brushing his worn converse shoe against a carpet fiber thicker than rope. The carpet came up higher than his ankles.

"Ohhhh shit," he murmured, slapped in the face by the scale of things, and he hadn't even looked up yet. His heart was already pounding. "Maybe I shoulda thought about this…"

His words seemed to prompt a small earthquake. Chase's gaze snapped up. Peripheral shapes tugged at his attention, looming cliffs that he knew somewhere in his mind to be furniture standing taller than they ever should. Despite this, his widened eyes zeroed in on something directly in front of him. Two boots that looked closer in size to shuttle busses shifted, moving other carpet fibers and crushing them flat beneath immense weight. They never stood a chance. Chase swallowed dryly and his heart hammered faster.

"Dude, you okay?" rumbled through the air from above, like the ominous beginning of a thunderstorm, and Chase's head tilted back almost fast enough for whiplash.

Jacob remained where he'd stood before. Now, his height stretched far overhead. Chase caught a glimpse of the hands hanging at his side; the fingers were bigger than a person. Jacob's concerned expression read clear as day despite being what could be a hundred feet up. Chase's mouth dropped open, and he took several steps back while a shudder raced through his core and out to his hands. Jacob had always seemed so tall, so huge, but this…

This was too much.

Panic, despite Chase weakly trying to tell himself he was fine, overrode everything else, and he lost sight of his logical side. Fear of the giant, and fear of the massive open space around him crashed in his ears. Fight or flight kicked in, his body going against the knowledge that should comfort him.

He chose flight. He turned and bolted, his instincts telling him to get out, get away before the giant behind him reached out to grab him.


Up on the dresser, both Winchesters leaned forward as Chase tightened his grip on the hexbag. Watching someone the size of a building dwindle down until they stood no taller than either brother never lost its draw. It was what they must have looked like all those years ago when the witch first cursed them.

The only person who would know what their curse looked like that day when it struck would be Walt Watch. He had braved the room with three humans in it and jumped in to save the brothers when suddenly they were reduced down to smaller than a mouse. He'd grabbed them, and hauled them out of that room before the witch could snatch them up. He'd risked his life for theirs, and they could never pay him back for it.

Chase shrunk down so fast Dean could swear he heard a rush of air follow the teenager, filling in the empty space he'd left behind.

The movement ended at last, and Dean's eyes widened. Chase was all the way down on the floor, and he looked tiny from their perspective. They hadn't seen much of Bobby's capture, stuck in the pocket the way they were. Even with Jacob around, they needed to be cautious while out in the open, only taking the risk of moving the flap on occasion.

Though catching a brief glimpse of Bobby trying to run from Jacob's sweeping hand would forever put a grin on Dean's face.

Now, Dean saw Chase picking himself up from the ground. A joke about how much better Chase was doing compared to Jacob's first time being shrunk was on the tip of Dean's tongue before he saw the look on Chase's face.

And realized they'd overlooked one huge factor.

"Oh, no," Dean said, blinking as Jacob called down to his friend. There was nothing but concern in Jacob's voice, but Dean doubted Chase would hear any of it. Even from so high up, it was hard to miss that wide-eyed panic.

The time he'd been captured by the towering teenager, he hadn't heard any of the concern either. All Dean had focused on was the fact that he was trapped, Sam was in danger, and a human had discovered their existence.

"Oh no. Oh shit."

Sam glanced over, confusion on his face. "Dean, what...?"

Dean leapt into action when he saw Chase shift his weight, and bolt. "Sam, you've gotta catch him!" he snapped, his mind switching right over to problem solving mode. "Jacob will just make things worse if he tries to grab Chase."

"But, what do you..." Sam trailed off as he spotted what Dean had seen far too late.

Jacob, standing directly over Chase after he'd shrunk.

"Just go!" Dean said, pushing Sam towards the edge. It was only a second before Sam had his hook wedged into the edge of the dresser and was dwindling down towards the floor. Dean got his own hook out, preparing himself for the same (if slightly slower) journey, and glared up at Jacob. "Make sure he doesn't reach the door!"

By the time Dean had his hook wedged and was dropping down to the floor himself, Sam had already touched down and darted after Chase, his longer legs closing the distance.


Jacob's eyes were wide. Everything had shifted so quickly, and yet he could probably cover the distance Chase had managed to run in one mid-sized step. His best friend was quick, but so small. He ran with the kind of fervor that only came about with blinding terror. One little glance over a tiny shoulder explained it in clear terms.

Chase was terrified of Jacob.

"Fuck," he whispered to himself, taking a hesitant step to the side. He sidled his way around his small, panicked friend on the lightest steps he could, but it didn't look like it helped. Chase stumbled once on the worn carpet fibers and kept running. Sam was gaining on him with his much longer legs, but Jacob didn't have time to just watch the tiny pursuit on his floor.

He stepped around them and turned. One boot pivoted on the carpet as he leaned his back against the door, sealing it with his weight and bracing his hands against the frame. They couldn't risk Chase getting out into the hall or getting lost in the house. He could panic himself right into trouble, and neither Jacob nor the Winchesters would ever forgive themselves if such a thing happened.

The image of his mom spotting the tiny shape on the floor made Jacob clench his jaw. She might assume he was a mouse or some other pest. Even a reflex startled reaction could be deadly with Chase at that scale. He wasn't even as hardy as Sam and Dean, not by a long shot.


Meanwhile, Sam was solely focused on his target, Chase. Jacob's steps, though they were much closer than normal, didn't register in his mind past the simple knowledge that Jacob was there.

That, and the way the floor quaked under Sam's determined strides.

After so long spent with the teenager, neither Sam or Dean felt any fear towards him. They were a team, and he was an important part of it. Regardless of his size, Jacob was one of their extremely few friends, and could always be counted on. They needed to convince Chase to stop and calm down, and remind himself of Jacob's loyalty to them all.

All of this let Sam focus on his goal even as he ran across the center of the towering room. Normally, it would be the most dangerous place for Sam or Dean to travel. There was no cover, no places to hide. That far from the walls, a human could grab them up without a hope. Conversely, if the humans in the room didn't spot them, they could be crushed underfoot.

Running through the center of the room was necessary, but still made the hair on the back of Sam's neck raise up.

For Chase, Jacob moving to block his path was akin to a mountain moving around him and his entire landscape changing and sealing off the first exit he'd aimed for. He stumbled to a brief stop with those bus-sized shoes stomping out ahead of him, before turning as if on a pin to dart back in roughly the direction he'd come.

Heart-pounding adrenaline kept him going despite a tickle in his lungs that was growing into a burn. All around him towered a room that he remembered so differently. Jacob kept things plainly decorated, with only the bare minimum of furniture. The room was small. Usually. Now it was like an unreal cathedral with monolithic furniture settled into the old carpet.

Chase caught sight of someone running towards him, and didn't take the time to register that they weren't giant like Jacob. They were running at him, while a giant was lumbering around, and his brain hurriedly told him to avoid them too. He wove around Sam like a fish weaves around seaweed.

Sam, caught off guard, tried to lunge in his direction. His outstretched fingers missed the more agile Chase by a wide few inches and he overshot, stumbling to a halt before he could hope to turn. Pushing off with a foot, Sam resumed the chase with renewed determination.

Jacob kept watch over the scene unfolding in miniature in front of him. He knew how serious it really was if they didn't manage to stop Chase before he got himself into trouble, but even so a smile found its way onto his face. He fought it, and he knew that losing this battle would get him scolded, but he couldn't help it.

Something about seeing Sam go barreling right past Chase's zig-zagging run was just too funny.

"Oh my God," Jacob muttered, while a laugh finally escaped him and colored the words with his amusement.

The sound that erupted behind Chase only spooked him further, though a part of him saved room to be confused about why he heard laughter. He hardly noticed who was chasing him, but it didn't really matter; they were gaining on him. He made another quick turn to throw them off. His eyes searched without really seeing as he tried to decide where he could hide himself safely. Under the bed, under the dresser, under the desk …

None of those places should be such easy hiding spots. He shouldn't be able to run under a dresser without ducking, but from the looks of things he could. He ducked an ambitious grab at him yet again and turned.

"Dammit!" Sam couldn't change his direction in time, and overshot Chase all over again.

That kid could dodge. Even Dean couldn't take corners like that when they were sparring!

This time, Sam was at least prepared for the sharp turn, and managed to catch himself before he stumbled with an arm thrown out to the side. He gathered himself again, continuing the chase. It was only a matter of time before Chase managed to find his way under the bed or the dresser, or worse, into the walls without the brothers to watch out for him.

I'm chasing Chase. We'll never hear the end of this one from Dean.

"Chase!" Sam called out, switching to a new tactic while he ran. "C'mon, you know us! You're not in any danger here!"

Chase's breathing was labored as he ran, and his heart kept pounding through all the confusion. He heard more giant laughter and realized that it seemed out of place, and that made him actually think of the words Sam shouted at him. He slowed only a little to look over his shoulder. He saw a familiar face, marred with concern.

Barely a second later, Chase hit a wall.


A/N:

Ah yes, this is going amazingly! Perfect jobs all around, bravo boys

If you want to relive the scene between Sam and Chase here, check out the Supernatural episode, Reading is Fundamental, in which Sam chases Kevin Tran all over the courtyard outside with about as much luck at catching the prophet as he had catching Chase.

Next: April 26th, 2023 at 9PM


Adding in this author's note for all my followers here, and will keep it on all chapters going forward:

If the worst happens and fanfiction shuts down, you can find all my stories on both archive of our own and deviantart, posted under the nightmares06 account. You can also find our story tumblr, which contains a ton of information and answers that are only posted on that site, along with artwork for the stories and future plans we have. That can be found under the brothersapart tumblr account. I can't put links in chapters, but googling "Brothersapart tumblr" should bring it right up!