A/N: This is the fifth part of the Brothers Lost series, and the end of Season One. If you want to read the rest of the stories, they are found on my page.

Season 1:

Part 1: The Road Not Taken
Part 2: The Water's Fine
Part 3: There's No Place Like Home
Part 4: A Time To Heal
Part 5: It's a Tall World After All

Season 2:

Part 6: Epidemic of the Mannequins

Related short stories: A Ghost from the Past (11 x 17)

Chase Lisong never expected to be involved in such an exciting line of work. Ever since he discovered that borrowers exist and his best friend Jacob had two very small brothers bossing him around, it's all felt so new and thrilling.

How can he say no when his best friend needs help on the next case?

Bobby Loran's knees wobbled and his eyelids fluttered. He wished fervently for the dizzy spell to pass before he lost his balance. The world spun beneath his feet and blurred before his eyes. He couldn't make sense of it except in small increments. Alarm bells clamored in his head.

He stood on a coarse grey surface that threw back sunlight and radiated heat. It was made up of decently sized pebbles all stuck together. Cement. The word came to him belatedly and he shifted his feet, almost tripping himself on the rough texture. Who makes cement this thick? It was more akin to cobblestones.

The breeze was strong and whipped at his blond hair. The familiar scent of cut grass struck him like a mallet and he blinked, trying to understand more of his surroundings.

Tall, thick blades of grass hedged in the reflective grey on either side, a long trek in either direction. If not for the lack of cars or lane markers, Bobby might have thought he was on the highway. A very wide, completely empty highway.

He had something clutched in his hand and stopped observing the world around him to look at it. It was a loop of string with a small, ratty cloth bag on it. His memories caught up to him and he scowled, remembering where it had come from. Who it had come from.

He looked up again. "Jacob, what the hell is-" he began, only for his voice to choke out as the light bouncing off the cement was suddenly blocked out and a tremor shook through the ground. Bobby looked down and behind him as a shadow slid over him like an intangible tide, and his brain frantically put pieces together. Another tremor prompted him to look forward only to scramble backwards and fall on his ass.

Gigantic boots held up twin columns of denim, and as Bobby's gaze lifted skywards, the kaleidoscope came into focus. There was the sky, blue as his eyes. In the distance the top of a tree waved serenely in the gentle breeze that tugged at his hair. A glance to the side revealed a house taller than a skyscraper and as wide as a small city.

Consuming most of his focus was the face of his former best friend, blocking out the view above as he stooped agonizingly slowly over Bobby's fallen form. The sun was hidden behind a face with eyes the size of his head.

Oh my God. I'm…

Bobby was small.

"What the fuck?! " Bobby blurted, pushing himself backwards in a frantic attempt to put distance between himself and the human mountain that Jacob had become. The cobbles of the sidewalk were jagged against his tiny hands, but he didn't care. Panic jitterbugged through him.

He wasn't fast enough. He could never be fast enough with a stride smaller than a finger. Jacob's hand left his side, and Bobby's eyes widened at the sight. If he didn't realize he'd shrunk somehow, he'd think Jacob's hands could pick up a car and throw it.

He could crush it.

Bobby remembered the last time he'd seen Jacob, and his stomach clenched as those fingers began to stretch in his direction, moving inexorably closer.

Jacob could crush him.

"N-no!" he yelped, turning over and pushing himself to his feet as quickly as he could. The scrape of his shoes against the rough terrain competed with his pounding heart. He and Jacob had not parted on good terms. He did not want to find out what his former friend might do with this much power over him.

Several yards (inches?) ahead of him, he saw the crack in the sidewalk. He was so damn small that it would take several strides to reach it. Bobby kept the strange little bag in his hand, clinging to it in absent panic as he ran.

Only a second later, he couldn't even see the shadow all around him on the sidewalk. Fingers longer than his entire body coiled around him at lightning speed, flanking him like a pack of wolves. They closed in before he could think to dive away and tightened, securing him completely in a fist.

Bobby let out an incoherent yelp of fear and thrashed as he left the ground behind. His insides almost felt like they were caving in, his stomach clenched so hard. No one would even be able to see him outside of Jacob's monstrous hand. Thick skin held him in place, a powerful pulse thumped around him, and Bobby had no chance of pushing the grasp away.

Dizziness claimed him once more as he ascended rapidly. "Fucking let me go, you asshole! What the fuck did you do to me? You are so-"

His voice cut off prematurely yet again when the hand opened around him. Bobby scrabbled at it, his eyes wide as light broke in on him and he had no support after just shooting up into the air. He choked on a yelp. A glimpse of the sidewalk so far below shot adrenaline hissing through his bloodstream like acid through cracks in a stone.

He didn't have far to fall. He landed on a strange surface, falling to his knees immediately as it wouldn't support his weight. He looked up and flinched when he realized he wasn't alone in the small space.

There were two other people in there with him and Bobby opened his mouth to ask what the hell was going on when he realized they were familiar.

Dean, his rugged face shadowed by the pocket, got a hand around the neck of Bobby's shirt and hauled him to his feet. Sam, the tallest in the pocket by far, darted forward and yanked away the hexbag that Bobby was clutching.

It was child's play to pry it from the hexed human's hand.

While Sam backed off to his own corner of the pocket to safely stow the hexbag in his satchel, Dean got his other hand on Bobby and pinned him to the wall behind them. Behind that wall, a powerful thudding sound could be heard, shaking the entire pocket with a constant beat. Bobby's disorientation faded enough that he could see his attackers, and he froze to take in the sight.

A smile flashed into existence on Dean's face in time with the metal from Sam's massive hook glinting in the dim light as the satchel was opened, offering a grim comparison.

"Didja miss me?"

SUPERNATURAL

10 hours ago…

"So get this."

It all started out with an innocuous phrase.

Dean scowled at his younger brother. "Would you quit moving already? You're making this take longer and you have no one but yourself to blame."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Honestly. How long's it take you to take off a sling? You've been doing that forever." He took a few steps over to the computer, dragging Dean with him.

"We have to be sure the arm healed!"

With a huff, Sam stomped on the left mouse button on the laptop, clicking the link on the screen. While it was loading, Dean took his sweet time running Sam's arm through a range of motion to make sure that all of the pain was gone. If there was even a little left, the sling would go right back on for a minimum of a week. That was the deal. No pain, and Sam could finally escape his enforced bed rest and get out for fresh air.

Maybe even get to actually explore sometime.

After being at Jacob's house for weeks, Sam had barely seen outside of Jacob's room or the inside of the walls. His arm, broken by one Bobby Loran on their second day visiting, needed to heal, and for that it needed time away from any exertion.

"Anything?" Dean asked sternly, letting the arm go. He studied his little brother's face carefully for any sign of lingering pain Sam might not think to mention.

Sam flexed his hand, eyebrows raising as he held the arm out in front of him. A human had snapped it accidentally, but another human had saved them and given them their freedom back. At last, in a big part thanks to Jacob for all his help, Sam would be able to climb again. "Can't feel a thing," he declared. He gave Dean a look. "Now will you pay attention?"

"Dunno about Dean, but I'm all ears," Jacob chimed in. He had his arms folded on the edge of the desk and his cheek resting lightly on them. Like the others, he'd been looking forward to the moment Sam could get his sling off. More than once, it had almost seemed like Sam was buzzing with energy he just couldn't expend. Dean ran a tight ship, but no one could keep Sam from his wanderlust.

It made for an entertaining show, watching Sam all but drag his older brother around on the desk as he tried to check the arm.

Jacob's eyes flickered curiously to the laptop. He'd gotten it to help with hunting after Sam and Dean (with some help from Bobby Singer, a mentor to all of them) got him into fake credit cards. It opened up so many possibilities, but Jacob tried to keep things to a minimum while they were staying in his home, where his stepfather the cop was hanging around.

The laptop, however, was a must, and it had been pretty much claimed by the small brothers walking on it now. They'd put it to more use than he had by far.

"Catch wind of something, Sam?" he asked with a grin, shifting so he rested his head upright on his chin.

Sam returned Jacob's grin with a nod, eager to get the case underway. During the last week of his healing after they'd figured out the missing person's case in town, Sam's energy level was almost brimming over. The only reason he bore through was because he was so close to being healed.

"A few towns over," Sam said as he pressed with his boot on the spacebar, making the screen scroll down through the article he'd pulled up. "There's two deaths, completely unrelated." While talking, his voice gained confidence.

Normally he was hesitant around Jacob, and more so around Jacob's friend Chase. It had nothing to do with the two humans. They were both welcoming with the brothers, letting them join in and experience the world outside of the walls without fear of their lives being snatched away from them like Bobby had tried.

For years, Sam had lived with his brother and small adopted family, completely sequestered away from any humans or the outside world. The most people they might interact with for almost fourteen years was six, and that was a rare occasion. It was dangerous to gather so many people in one place, and made discovery more likely. Because he was cursed at ten, Sam had less experience in any kind of socializing. The years of his childhood before the curse were blurry and unformed.

On the other hand, Dean could remember being a human with a sharp clarity, and would normally take over if they needed to tell their human friends what to do.

He had no problem getting his point across.

"Except," Sam continued on, his voice gaining volume in his excitement, "for the way they died. Both deaths happened in locked rooms. Locked from the inside. No way in, no way out."

Dean strolled across the keyboard behind Sam, his eyes flicking from side to side as he scanned the screen. "Good job, Sammy. I can see you haven't wasted all this time you've spent on the laptop."

Sam nudged him playfully with an elbow. "What, like the times I found you sneaking out to hijack the computer in the middle of the night?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Dean protested stubbornly.

Jacob snickered. Since the desk was situated across from the foot of his bed in his otherwise spartan room, he had witnessed Dean's nighttime treks to the computer once or twice. The glow of the screen usually only held his attention for a second before he drifted off again, but he knew Sam hadn't been the one to climb all the way up there.

Early on in his tentative friendship with the brothers, Jacob had learned that it was better not to call out some of the things they did. It didn't hurt anyone for Dean to check out the computer, and it offered him some independence. Jacob didn't want to hover over them like a mother hen and lose the trust invested in him.

Getting back to the case, Jacob scanned the article Sam had pulled up on the screen. The white background and lines of black text reflected in his brown eyes while he considered it.

"So if nothing else on the surface links these guys, it looks like maybe a spirit is figuring out its favorite target," he surmised. His voice was mostly confident in his guess, but there was the part of him that was unsure and new to the whole gig. He hadn't been a hunter for more than a few months.

"Guessing we're gonna have to do some snooping around?" he asked, looking to Dean with his eyebrows raised. Dean, being the oldest of their unlikely trio, usually had the game plan for them to follow.

Dean crossed his arms, staring contemplatively down at his boots while he thought over their options. Two people dead, in two separate locations. The timing of the first death was an entire month before the second, and with no obvious marks on the body, it hadn't raised any red flags on anyone's radar. Two deaths like that in such a short period of time, with two younger victims with no known health issues, left authorities baffled.

The police and the hospitals didn't have their background in the weird and unexplained. Hell, Sam and Dean were unexplained in the public eye. People who stood four inches tall shouldn't exist, yet here they were, determinedly doing their best to keep anyone else from becoming victims like them. Open minds could help them figure out this case, or discover if it was just coincidence.

Dean didn't believe in coincidence.

"We'll snoop and check things out," Dean agreed as he switched into problem-solving mode. "So long as we're in town, though, you might have to talk to some of the victims." He grimaced. Jacob might be many things, but he was a terrible liar and his smooth-talking needed work. "Bring the reporter ID we made for ya. Just in case."

Jacob's mouth twisted into a mild frown. He knew as well as Dean that he was an absolute shit liar. He had been practicing with both brothers, but so far he hadn't had much success in their occasional poker games. All of the quarters he'd stashed away for laundry had been won by Sam and Dean.

"Alright," he said, a little skeptical and not very confident in his abilities. Hopefully they would find something substantial without him needing to go and make an ass of himself.

He sat up straighter, leaning back in his chair so the action wouldn't loom over them. He'd learned quickly that it wasn't a good feeling for any of them if he loomed too much. Not that he could help it sometimes, being six foot five.

He rested a hand on the desk. His fingertips bridged right to the edge of the laptop, and he smirked at them. "Well, we might as well get on the road, right?" He met Sam's gaze, knowing the restless little guy was likely more than happy to get on a case again.

Jacob was more than right in his bet. The moment Sam had discovered the case, he'd been ready to go. Sitting around for weeks, unable to even climb and explore the house they were in like Dean could…

It was time to get back out there.

A/N:

Wow! That was the longest hiatus yet, and not even on purpose. Covid and the flu have been going around, I think I've swapped a few colds back and forth with my husband, and I'm hoping we're finished with family health scares for a bit, but of course there's no predicting what'll happen in the future.

The Lost boys are back, and they've found a new case! But what's this- Bobby Loran just got shrunk?

Find out what's going on soon, new chapters will be posted weekly on Wednesdays! We will be seeing a few surprise guest appearances in this one.

Story initially inspired by the song Epidemic of the Mannequins, by Stone Sour

Next: March 1st, 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!