"What do you mean she's gone," Dean demands even as his brother begins to pace the entrance hall of the Cranston home. Dean runs a hand through his short hair, making the strands stick out at odd angles. "How could they just disappear, though?"
"No idea," Sam answers with a shrug. "One second Liza looked ready to beat the guy, then he threw something in her face that had her passing out, and then they were gone in a puff of smoke. I'm telling you, this whole thing is probably tied to witchcraft!"
"Well, yeah, Sam, that's pretty obvious at this point!" Sam rolls his eyes at the unneeded sarcasm, itching to punch something. "Could you tell what the guy looked like?"
"Yeah, it was that dick we talked to yesterday that swore he wasn't using a dead criminal as his bodyguard."
"Then let's find where he hides out and kick his ass!"
"I'm coming," Tyson states as he and Luka walk inside. Dean begins to shoot down that idea when Tyson interrupts. "I know the fastest way out to the old barn where he makes everything, I can get you there in about ten minutes."
"I'm coming too," Luka adds.
"The hell you are. You're the only one in this family that's gonna get anywhere in life, so I'm not putting you in danger because you feel the need to step up. You can fucking forget it." Luka looks ready to object, but Tyson takes care of that by shoving him in the sitting room and locking the door from the outside. "Let's get goin', I have a rifle in my truck."
"You're an idiot!" On instinct, Elizabeth can feel herself growing angry until she hears someone else screaming that they're the smartest person in the room and she realizes she's not the one being called the idiot. Her next realization is that she can't move and should probably start panicking.
She forces her eyes open to take in the sight in front of her; two fully grown men are in the middle of a screaming match, looking like an old married couple as they throw insults at each other. The tallest one is easily recognizable as Clarke—you don't forget an ass like that even if the person it belongs to did try to kill you—but the other is harder to place. He isn't nearly as tall as Clarke, but he has a presence that makes everyone around him feel smaller somehow. He has a headful of dark curls and hazel eyes that would have killed Clarke on the spot if looks alone could do that.
"You're just angry because you were too much of a little bitch to take her yourself," the man, Kade, shouts back at Clarke.
"Well excuse me for not wanting to touch the woman that stabbed me in the goddamned neck!" The sarcasm is strong with this one. "Hey, Frankenstein, the bitch is awake." Kade backhands Clarke hard enough that the taller man falls to the ground with a shout, clutching the side of his face that's already beginning to swell.
"Haven't you learned the proper way to talk about women?" Kade shakes his head in disgust before walking over to where Elizabeth is at, resting three of his fingers against her neck to check her pulse. "Good, you're reacting well to this. Can you move anything besides your eyes?" If I really could move, you'd be curled up on the floor and clutching at your manly pride, buddy. "I'll take that as a no, then." A regular genius, this one.
"I checked her record before I tried to kill her back in Tulsa. No drug charges, so she's a lightweight." Elizabeth rolls her eyes, attempting to see where she's seating, but most things are blurry since he glasses aren't on.
"Don't strain too much, Elizabeth, you'll only hurt yourself." Kade grabs a short length of chain and a padlock, using them to bind first one wrist and then the other to the arms of the chair. He uses two more chains and padlocks to do the same to her ankles, appearing satisfied as he moves out of her sight.
"You're looking well for a kidnap victim." If she could move, she'd stab Clarke in a more sensitive place than the last time.
"Don't torment her, Clarke." Kade comes back into sight with a needle and an elastic band, the band tied tightly around her upper arm to make her veins stand out. Elizabeth lets out a hiss as he inserts the needle, making sure the syringe is full before he signals for Clarke to put a Band-Aid over the prick. "Give her the serum."
"Why? You promised I could kill her for what she did to me."
"And you will, but don't you want her to struggle? That is what gets you off, isn't it, Alexander?" Clarke scowls as he injects Elizabeth with something purple, tossing the needle in the trash. Feeling begins to come back to her fingers and toes first, slowly flooding to the rest of her until she can struggle against the chains keeping her in place. "Would you like to explain to her how you're still alive?"
"The witch brought me back," he grumbles with a glare sent Kade's way. "He told me if I wanted to stay that way, then I should come with him."
"Too bad you'll both be dead soon," Elizabeth states. She sends a feral grin in Clarke's direction, flexing hand hands against the arms of the chair. "I can't wait to stab you again."
"And how are you going to kill me, Elizabeth? Huh? Because, from where I'm standing, it looks like I have the upper hand in all of this."
"Well, from where I'm sitting, you also have a huge nose, but I wasn't going to bring that up until you got cocky."
"She has a point," Kade grins, mixing things together in a large brass bowl. "I know a great plastic surgeon if you want to fix all of that." Clarke growls, storming off to the other side of the room while Kade continues to stir things into the bowl. "Well, what do y'all say to summoning our headless accomplice? He's been itching to get his revenge against the Crane family, but he can't cross that damn bridge quite yet."
"How did my life come to this? One day I'm a relatively normal kid that liked to color and the next I'm some looney that rushes headlong into danger because my favorite superstition popped into reality. I'm certifiable."
"All the interesting people are, sweetie pie."
"Yeah, that's real comforting coming from a sociopath that has no motive to kill people using a guy that's been dead since the revolutionary war."
"Do you see me judging you, blondie?" She opens my mouth to reply but she's cut off when a door is smashed in, the sound of muffled cursing making her smile and relax back in the chair.
"No, but you're about to have your teeth knocked down your throat since my reinforcements are here." She struggles against the chains, her chair rocking dangerously.
"Fuck."
"Dean, we're back here! Clarke—" Clarke delivers a hard slap that sets her world spinning and her head snapping to the side. "In the back!" Clarke, eyes wild, runs across the room to grab a police issued shotgun, but no shells. You gonna use it as a bat or what, buddy?
"Liza," Dean shouts back. She can hear the rapid footsteps as Dean comes closer to the backroom. "We're comin', just hang on!" Unlike Clarke, who's in panic mode as he stands with his back against the wall near the door, Kade is completely calm as he strikes a match and drops it in the bowl, a plume of green smoke and a smell like sulfur rising from it.
"It's a witch! He's also a dick, but I'm pretty sure you got that by now." Tyson is the first inside the room and almost has his head taken off when Clarke swings the rifle, but he grabs it and uses Clarke's momentum to swing him to the ground. Kade lets the bowl drop to the floor as Dean and Sam come in, holding a large hunting knife against Elizabeth's throat.
"Too late, Dean," Kade informs him. "The Horseman will be here any second and he'll be glad that you brought Tyson with you."
"Why," Ty asks breathlessly, having finally knocked Clarke unconscious with the butt of his rifle.
"Because your family basically ruined this town! We're falling apart and most people don't want to come anywhere near here because of that damn legend."
"Not why are you doing this. Why shouldn't I kill you right now? It doesn't take a genius to know that I can blow your head off without even wounding Elizabeth." He has a point, her head stops low on Kade's chest and his head is in plain view.
"You kill me and no one can control the Horseman."
"Then why'd you need my blood," Elizabeth demands. "Why kidnap me and bring them down on your head?" She gets no immediate answer to that, the knife in Kade's hand beginning to shake as the sound of hoof beats grow louder and louder. "Ah hell, we're on the wrong side of the bridge."
"Soon it won't matter what side of the bridge we're on because I'm going to help him destroy all of Crane's descendants and he'll help me bring this town back to its original glory."
"What do you know about the town's original glory," Tyson glowers from across the room, tightening his hold on his rifle.
"I was here the day this town was founded! I helped your ancestor build everything and I even taught him the spells needed to imbue the fields with enough magic that they would never falter! All he had to do in return was help my father during the war and he turned him out because he was fighting on the wrong side! To rub salt in the wound, he had my father decapitated and then buried in an unmarked grave!"
"Well, you had your dead daddy chop off my baby sister's head right in front of me. Almost all of my friends died that night too and I went home wondering whether or not to join them. So fuck you and your grudge!" Ty has his rifle raised right as the Horseman crashes through a window somewhere in the house, the hoof beats echoing loudly in Elizabeth's ears. "I have an idea that he'll leave if I kill you."
"Unchain me, Kade," Elizabeth demands. "Unchain me right now so I have a fighting chance."
"No," he returns quickly, voice going high. "He'll need to feed and what better victim than someone with your bloodline, Elizabeth?"
"Dead things aren't drawn to Chosen, they're repelled."
"Usually, yeah, but your bloodline, like so many others', is a little different. It's been tweaked. It goes all the way back to the source." The Horseman comes into view now, swinging his saber threateningly as he rears the horse. Sam pushes Tyson out of the way right as the hooves come down, hitting the ground hard enough to smash a skull. "Father!" Its shoulders turn towards Kade, the only way to tell that it can hear anything since there's no head.
"This is so not how I pictured meeting the Headless Horseman." Elizabeth bends as far forward as she can in the chair, pulling out the bobby pin she always keeps hidden in her thick hair and beginning to work on one of the locks as well as she's able. It's an awkward position and her wrist is beginning to cramp up.
Dean, ever the optimist, shoots the Horseman, silver bullets barreling through his chest and knocking him off the horse. A deep grumbling comes from the corpse as he rises again, slowly as though he does feel the sting of the bullets.
"Bullets can't stop my Father, Winchester, not now." The lock springs open, allowing Elizabeth a free hand to work on the other lock keeping the chains around her right wrist.
"Tyson, get behind us," Dean shouts as the Horseman swings out with the saber. Tyson's barely able to dodge the blow, falling to his knees and rolling behind Sam. Hands shaking in her hurry, Elizabeth almost drops the pin before getting the other lock open, Kade only noticing when the chain hits the ground.
She grabs his wrist in both hands, grappling with him to keep the knife away from her throat. She squeezes tightly pushing his hand closer to his arm until she feels the bone snap and Kade falls backwards with a shriek. She uses the pin to open the other two locks before jumping up and grabbing the knife.
"Hey," she yells to get the Horseman's attention. "Free meal right here, sweet cheeks!" Elizabeth lets out a hiss as she cuts her palm, blood dripping to the ground from her clenched fist. The cut stings and her heart is beating ninety miles a minute, but she has a decent idea of what needs to happen. "Come on, bitch!"
"Liza, what the hell are you doing," Sam questions, keeping Tyson from charging the dead guy.
"Distracting him." The Horseman's spurs jingle as he stalks closer to her and she backs up against the wall. "Dean, salt and burn at any moment."
"Getting it," Dean says, scrambling over to the duffel bag. Elizabeth lets out a shout as the Horseman swings his sword, the blade creating a whole in the plaster when she jumps out of the way at the last minute. "Hold on, honey!"
"I don't know how long I can hold it, Dean!" She dances further out of the saber's reach, the metal seeming to sing as it cuts through the air. She's doing a pretty good job until she trips over Kade, the air sweeping out of her lungs as she hits the floor. The Horseman raises his sword, preparing to strike when Tyson tackles him to the ground. He stays on top of the Horseman, kneeling on his chest and holding down his wrists.
"Dean, now," Sam shouts. Dean runs over, taking care not to let any gas hit Tyson while Elizabeth snatches the canister of salt and starts on it, Sam moving to kick the saber out of the Horseman's hand.
"Tyson, move out of the way." He rolls off seconds before Sam drops a light match on the Horseman, the corpse letting out an inhuman screech before turning to a pile of ash, his saber crumbling away in Sam's grasp.
"Why did all of this feel too easy?"
"Who cares? We're all alive and the headless assface is roasting somewhere." Dean helps Elizabeth up while Tyson delivers a hard kick to Kade's side that forces him to wake up.
"Are you okay," Dean asks quietly, steering Elizabeth farther away from the others. "I mean, Clarke didn't…?"
"No." She shakes her head, offering up what she hopes to be a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, Dean."
"Are you? I mean, you were chained to a chair for an hour at least and had to face the bastard that tried to murder you. There's no way in hell you're actually fine." He has that earnest look on his face, his green eyes focused solely on her as he reads her body language. "Don't shut down on me, Liza."
"Are you gonna be my on-the-road therapist." She means it as a joke, but Dean just shrugs and cups her face with gentle hands.
"If you need one, then I'll find you one."
"Guys," Sam calls," Clarke's awake." Elizabeth turns to stare at the star of her nightmares, taking in his freshly broken nose and bloodied lip. He doesn't look nearly as handsome now and he certainly isn't as threatening now that Sam's chained him to a chair.
"Gee, Clarke, looking pretty good for a kidnap victim," she says sarcastically. He sneers up at her, making himself comfortable in the chair. "Who's going to do this? Killing Kade will kill Clarke too."
"I want to," Tyson says quietly, picking his hunting rifle back up. "My family needs its justice."
"No, Ty, this will weight on your conscious and you won't be the same."
"I know." He faces where Sam's propped Kade against the wall, the witch holding his broken arm tightly against his chest as he rocks back and forth. Tyson takes a deep breath, holding the rifle tightly against his shoulder as he aims, and releasing the breath as he squeezes the trigger.
The bullet zips through the air and buries into the wall, leaving a hole in Kade's chest. In response to that, Clarke lets out a pained grunt, instinctively trying to grasp at his chest as a pool of scarlet blooms against the white tee. After just a few seconds, Clarke is staring blindly ahead of him, chest still.
"I don't see him coming back anytime soon this time."
Dean stows the remaining bags in the trunk, his side aching from where he'd had to shoulder the front door of Kade's hideout open. The others are busy saying their goodbyes, but Dean just trying to stay awake. He'd spent most of the night awake, watching over Elizabeth as she slept fitfully. She'd kept letting out small whimpers of fear and mumbling until Dean eventually took her into his arms.
Sam and Elizabeth climb into the car as Dean shuts the truck, both surprised when he nudges Sam until the taller man is behind the wheel and Dean's in the passenger's seat. "You okay," Sam asks, taking the keys and starting the ignition.
"Peachy," Dean answers, resting his head against the back of the seat. He doesn't completely relax until he feels Elizabeth's fingers running through his short hair, the motion familiar and soothing since. His mom used to do this when he was sick, nails scratching lightly at his scalp until he fell asleep. It means he's safe.
"Is the asshole not tagging along?"
"Nope," Elizabeth sighs, resting her forehead against Dean's. "He had this crazy notion we might hurt him since he didn't show up until everything was taken care of." Dean grins, breathing in the sweet scent that he always associates with Elizabeth. It's the one that means soft kisses and unconditional love.
Liza and Sammy and Bobby, they're the ones Dean needs in order to survive this unbalanced world. They're his real family.
Oh music/you made me hear such music/Without you here to guide me/I fear my soul will fly away/Sorry/that's the word I want to sing to you/The other word is "Stay"/To hear the love I meant to say