AN: For disclaimer, please see chapter 1.

Much love to all readers (and especially reviewers 😚 😚 😚) I hope you enjoy.

Losing My Religion

Previously:

John: "Bobby, what have you got on cherufe?"

Bobby: "There's a ritual. But it's dangerous and you have to keep feeding it."

John: "Feeding it what?"

Bobby: "Human sacrifice."

ℼ

Mari: "So, are we going to die?"

Dean: "It's fine, I've got a plan."

Mari: "What plan?"

Dean: "A good plan, don't worry."


Chapter 5: Consider This

Dean ran his fingers over the hinges of the cage door for what seemed like the millionth time. In the dark, his sense of touch told him the same thing it had told him every previous time, there was no way to make any escape without at least a basic tool of some kind. And he had nothing, not even a shoelace.

In the distance, he heard footsteps. Withdrawing his hand, he turned to Mari and moved them both back from the bars, well out of reach. Then he paused and listened to the steps getting closer.

"A woman," he hissed quietly. "Probably Wanda." He felt Mari tense. "Stay back here, but keep her talking if you can." He gripped her arm. "It will be ok, just keep her distracted." He felt, rather than saw, her nod. Then he moved away as silently as he could.

Mari's chest heaved as a light came into view. An old fashioned gas lamp, like Wanda couldn't have just got a modern camping lamp. For some reason it made Mari furious. This whole thing was just fucking nuts.

"What the fuck?" she demanded, as soon as Wanda was in view.

"I'm sorry this is necessary." The weak light cast shadows on Wanda's face. It might have shown regret, or ghoulish malice, it was impossible to tell.

"Let me out then."

"I cannot do that."

"You can. You just won't. And you won't even tell me why."

"I told you why!" Anger had crept into Wanda's tone. "Your father."

"My father will make you pay for this."

"Simple child. Your father is not the hero, he is the villain. He is the reason this is necessary."

"How can you say that? You know what he can do, the sacred duty he is here to perform." All thoughts of just playing the distraction fled Mari's mind in the face of her indignation.

But Wanda didn't seem bothered by Mari's fury, she seemed to enjoy it. "He is not doing what you think."

"I know for a fact that you have seen what he can do," Mari challenged. "How can you risk us all? And for what? I still don't understand." It was as if she had only just taken in the whole situation herself, as she moved from attack to entreaty.

Wanda became enraged. "Risk? He is the risk."

"The demons are the risk."

"The demons he summons," Wanda shot back at Mari.

"What?"

"He is in league with them. He calls them, just as he tells them to leave."

A ringing silence followed this proclamation.

Dean, who had been making his way, carefully and silently in the shadows, to get as close to their captor as possible, froze. He had to be careful. He wasn't close enough yet and they needed to keep hold of her, get the keys at least.

Mari's shaky voice finally broke the silence. "He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't call evil."

With a few more steps, Dean thought he was as close as he could get without giving himself away. He lunged. Grabbing Wanda's arm.

She was quicker and stronger than he expected and he was awkwardly reaching through the cage. In a twist she had his arm instead, she yanked on it, as if she would pull him through the too small space between the bars. He grunted as his head and chest collided with the metal.

Mari yelled, "NO!"

But Wanda swung. A loud clang sounded as the lamp in her hand hit the bars and Dean's head at the same time. Pain exploded in a bright light and his knees gave way. She let go of his arm allowing him to slump to the floor.

"Why are you doing this to us?" Mari demanded.

"I'm not."

"Liar. Let us out." Tears fell down Mari's cheeks against her will.

"You misunderstand me," Wanda said, her calm tone in sharp contrast to Mari's emotion-strained one. "I am doing this to you, but not to him." She indicated the fallen teen.

"What?"

"Your friend there, I did not bring him here, and I will not be the one to fetch him."

"What are you talking about?"

"He does like them young," Wanda mused, her eyes lingering on Dean for a moment. Then she glared at Mari. "It is time you saw your father for who he truly is." The laugh was cold. "I will expose him and we will see who has the power then."

There was a scoff, then she left, the sound of her steps getting slowly quieter until they disappeared.

Once confident Wanda was gone, Mari ran forward and dropped to her knees beside the groaning boy. Gently she scooped Dean's head into her lap.

"Are you OK?"

"Peachy," he croaked, gingerly bringing his fingers to his temple. There was some blood but not more than he'd expected.

"How many fingers?" she tried to tease in the dark.

Dean just groaned. There was silence for a moment.

When Mari spoke again, it wasn't light or teasing but full of fear. "I thought she was going to kill you."

"Nah, she needs me alive," Dean pushed himself up, trying to remain stoic.

"For what?"

Dean had managed to sit himself up and turned towards her. "Nothing good."

"Let's move to the back, at least she can't sneak up on us." Mari started to help him up. "She was lying, about my dad, she …" she sniffed back the tears.

"I don't think she was," Dean winced, then glanced at the crestfallen girl beside him. "But that doesn't mean she's right."

Mari's dad was definitely into something. If he had been the one to trap Dean and bring him here, why? Dean had known from the start he wasn't the first prisoner to be kept in this cage. And even though that Wanda bitch and Mari seemed to disagree as to motive, they both agreed Henry Shepherd had some sort of control over whatever monster was hiding in the caves.

Dean's head was throbbing, he suspected this new assault on his skull hadn't helped with the concussion he'd already been sporting.

At the back of the cage, Mari helped him to sit and then slid down beside him so they were both facing the door. It felt better to have something solid at their backs and a friend by their side. They stayed like that, together in silence, for a while.

"She said, 'he likes them young'," Dean murmured eventually, showing where his thoughts had been. "I wonder what she meant by that? Can you think of anything you have seen or heard about what your father has been doing?"

Staring in fear at the shape that was Dean, Mari swallowed. Her father had a private study that no one was allowed into, not even her now. Though when she was younger he'd let her in. It seemed to her now that it was when she started to get curious about what he was doing that she was banned. "Well, there was one thing," she said uncomfortably. "I remember my dad researching these runes."

"Runes!" It was a declaration, not a question and Mari felt Dean's attention had slipped from her for the moment.

"What?"

"I saw a symbol, out on the trail back to town. It was different from the markings left by the drifters. I couldn't place it at the time but that's what it was, it was a rune." Dean sounded excited but the explanation just baffled Mari further. He shifted to face her, even though neither could make out features in the dark. "Runes can be used to cast spells. That must have been what sent me dizzy before I was attacked. Some sort of holding spell, a trap. Do you remember anything about the runes he was researching? What they were for?"

"Not much. He was trying to combine two runes but it wasn't working."

"What two runes?"

"Neither was for youth. One was a binding rune, and the other was … was …" she dropped her head.

"Was what?" Dean urged, scooting closer to her.

"Purity."

"Purity?" Dean asked, baffled. His thoughts raced. The binding is to trap people. The runes were on a trail used by mostly drifters, so people who won't be missed, which makes sense. But not any drifters, only the ones that met requirements. The other drifters, and Wanda, had said it was young ones that were chosen. But the spell was for purity. So it was trapping 'young ones' because they were pure? "What does pure mean? And why that?"

He only realised he'd spoken some of his thoughts aloud when Mari answered him.

"It means … I think it means … they haven't … you know like …"

"Oh," he said, catching on. This time they were both silent.

"So why would someone trap people with runes?" she asked eventually.

"Best guess? Some sort of sacrifice to get this thing to do what he wants," Dean said grimly. 'Like pretend to be a cowering demon,' he added to himself but didn't say it out loud. It was understandable that Mari was struggling with the idea that her dad might not be the hero she had believed. Dean didn't want to make it harder for her.

"And the sacrifice has to be … pure," she pondered.

Dean shrugged uncomfortably. "A lot of these things are fussy eaters. And I can't think of any other reason for the trap to include that rune."

"And you got caught in the trap?"

Dean squirmed, cleared his throat, thought of nothing to say, and looked away.

"So you haven't huh?" she asked after he stayed silent. "Waiting for the right girl?" There was light teasing in her tone but her hand reached for his.

Dean was extremely glad in that moment for the darkness that shielded his red cheeks.

"I've been … really busy," he mitigated lamely. A blast of warm air swept over them, leaving a distinct chill behind it. Mari gripped his hand more tightly.

"And all those horror movies suggest virginity is the key to survival." She forced a laugh but it was hollow. She had edged closer and he could feel her bare arm against his.

"We'll be fine, you'll see," he said, though he didn't sound confident.

"I will be," she affirmed.

"What?"

"You're a sacrifice, not me."

"Yeah, of course, your dad…"

"That's not what I mean," she said, a little embarrassed.

There was a pause.

"Oh," Dean said. They were both silent for a beat.

"And now I have a plan." Unlike Dean earlier, Mari did sound confident. She had gotten close enough that her breath brushed his neck.

"You do?" he asked, surprised. "What plan?"

"Oh, it's a really good plan." She moved even closer to him.

Dean gulped.

ℼℼℼ

Sam sighed with frustration. After identifying what they were hunting, step two on the John Winchester hunting guide was, 'how do you kill it'. The trouble was, neither they, nor Uncle Bobby, could find any reports or lore on one of these things being killed.

Sam had retreated to his geography book to try and get some ideas but thoughts of his brother kept intruding. His smug grin sat firmly in Sam's mind's eye obscuring any attempt to read. It was typical of Dean to be getting in the way of his own rescue and Sam grumbled "Semper fi," aloud.

John looked over at him, something affectionate in his eyes. Where John, and by extension Dean, took pride in the Marine Corps motto, Always Faithful, using it with reverence. Sam had always used it as a grumble regarding his brother's obedience to their father. Or when Dean was being overprotective, especially when Sam would rather be left alone.

"I've always thought 'Aut viam inveniam aut faciam' more appropriate for your brother," John smirked.

"What's that?" Sam moved closer to his father, seeking comfort.

"It means, 'I shall either find a way or make one'," a small smile made it through John's worry and for a moment the father broke through the authoritarian. "When he was little, he never accepted 'no'. If I told him 'you can't climb up the front of that', he'd just climb up the back," John laughed a little. "Even now he won't entertain the idea that something isn't possible."

"Yeah, like when he wanted to see Terminator 2 and they wouldn't let me in. The ticket girl said it wasn't possible and Dean just winked at her and said anything is possible."

"What happened?"

"He picked the lock on a side door and sneaked us in," Sam shrugged.

Some part of John knew he should raise some objection to his fifteen-year-old breaking into a building to take his eleven-year-old to a movie that was probably rated an 18. But both boys saw worse things in reality than any movie was going to show them.

Sam's eyes had gone distant. Then, suddenly, they widened.

"What?" John asked.

"It's a lava monster, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well lava is just really hot rock and rock can be destroyed. So we just need to cool it down."

"Cool it down? How?"

"Liquid nitrogen."

"What made you think of that?"

"Terminator 2. The terminator gets frozen with liquid nitrogen then they shoot it and it explodes." Of course it then reformed and continued trying to kill them but Sam didn't think now was the time to go into that. The cherufe wasn't a robot from the future, after all.

"Sammy, I can't exactly load up liquid nitrogen in the sawn off." John ran a hand over his head.

Sam''s shoulders slumped as the momentary balloon of hope deflated.

John looked at his youngest, hardened his resolve, then used a finger to bring the kid's chin up. "So I guess we'll just have to make a way."

Sam grinned.

ℼℼℼ

The chains made a loud clunk as they hit the floor near Dean.

"Put them on!" a firm male voice ordered. The glint of a pistol, the pistol that had been taken from him, could just be made out in the dim light.

Crazy bitch had dragged Mari from the cage a short while before and Dean didn't know where the girls were now. He glared at the chains, then at the gun. Restraining yourself for the enemy was about the stupidest thing he could think of, but he was caged and the armed aggressor wasn't. It wasn't a fight he could win and getting himself shot wouldn't help anyone, especially him.

"Where are you taking me?" Dean demanded.

"You will be tested. Evil begets evil. If the evil is drawn to you, the truth of your soul will be revealed. If you are God's chosen, you will be spared."

A snort escaped Dean at the irony. His only chance of being spared lay in having done something he was pretty sure Henry Shepherd would consider evil. He looked at the chains again. His only chance to find Mari and escape was to get out of the cage. The only way out of the cage was to put on the chains.

Once Dean had shackled his own ankles and wrists, Henry unlocked the cage door and entered. As he did, he kissed an ecclesiastical stole and then reverently placed it around his neck. Instead of having crosses embroidered into the ends, it was decorated the full length with runes. Dean tried to make them out but the light was too limited.

Henry flicked holy water around the space, reciting as he walked towards the teen.

"When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it returns, it brings with it spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. That is how it is with all the wicked."

"Wow, are you actually buying into your own bullshit or are you just nuts?" Dean snarked. Henry ignored him, grabbing the ends of the chains attached to the shackles.

Once the man was through the first of his psychotic babble, Dean was dragged from the cage, Henry continuing to recite what Dean assumed was supposed to be 'God's word', though he'd never heard anything of the sort from Pastor Jim. Through tunnels and into a large cave, the man never stopped his crazy recitation.

When Henry eventually moved away from him, Dean's shakles had been chained to a large, charred post before an open gash in a rock wall, deep in the cave. Hot air breezed steadily from the gap, blowing his hair, and giving him goosebumps.

Henry moved back to the other end of the open cavern. There was just enough light from two small braziers to make out the space, as far as Dean could see there was only the two of them here. There was a moment of stillness. Then a voice rang out. But it wasn't Dean's. It wasn't Shepherd's either.

"I trusted you."

"What?" Henry turned sharply towards the voice coming from the shadows. "I've been faithful. I've been true. I thought that you were the reason this was where I needed to be all these years. I thought it was because I had been waiting for you. I committed to you completely."

"Wanda, now is not …" Henry's eyes darted from the new arrival to the chained boy and back again. Wanda's eyes were fixed on him, there was no sign she had seen his victim.

"I followed you. Your teachings." There was a loaded pause. "And your wanderings." Her tone had changed and with it so did Henry's demeanour. Wanda smiled coldly to see it. "I have known for some time what you've been doing. How it all works. But even after I discovered how you dispose of these useless bums –" she waved a hand in the direction of the chained figure.

"Hey!" Dean protested, but he was ignored.

"I said nothing, I kept your secrets. Then you took a real person, not some nameless wastrel but Jeremy, a member of the Family. Still I kept my faith. I would have stood by you through it all. I believed in you completely. I was lost and blind. I was a fool. Because then you took my brother from me."

"Wanda," there seemed to be something like relief in Henry's voice, as if he now understood the problem and believed he could fix everything. "I promise you, I had nothing to do with Curtis leaving. I wouldn't –"

"Liar! He would never leave me, never!"

"I swear, he is perfectly well. He just wanted some time out in the world. I didn't know he was leaving until he had gone. But I do know that he wanted you to be safe. Not long ago he made me promise that I would always look after you."

"LIAR!" Her voice broke slightly and she seemed to be shaking.

"Wanda, listen to me, please. You and your brother have always been close, he looked after you when your mother left. But I think he realised, with all these years of protecting you, he had protected you too much."

"No."

"He was hindering you from growing, from standing on your own, from becoming the amazing person you should be. We spoke about it once. He wanted that for you."

"That's not true."

Henry's urging compassionate tone slipped for a moment. "You're a thirty-year-old woman who still climbs into her brother's bed when she has a nightmare." But then Hank took a breath and tried to smooth his face again. "I am certain Curtis means to return."

All hurt and desperation left her countenance, replaced by cold determination. "You and I are going to make him return. You will order the demon to return him."

"Wanda –"

"Enough stalling. Call your demon. After it has taken its sacrifice, it will do our bidding, right? Well, then you have a choice. You get my brother back or your daughter will join him." Wanda moved into the light. She had Mari held securely before her, a gun pressed to the girl's waist.

ℼℼℼ


AN: Thank you for reading and if you have a mo, please do drop me a line. All feedback helps me improve and even a quick thumbs up can really make my day xx Love and hugs to all.