Shadow
"Pack what you need for a few days, we're leaving."
Jane nearly jumped out of her skin at the very unexpected sound of Dean's voice behind her and whirled around. She hadn't seen or heard from him since February, which was… like four months ago and here he was, out of the blue. She didn't know whether to kiss or kill him. "I beg your pardon?"
"Sam's missing and we got to go."
"Again?"
"Now Jane."
"Ash wouldn't tell me what it was, said I had to come to him."
"Well that's useful."
Jane sat in the backseat of the Impala, listening as Bobby and Dean quietly discussed what was going on, or what they thought might be going on. The idea of Sam being possessed again didn't sound very appealing but from what Dean had said, this wasn't like the last time Sam had gone missing. This time, he had just disappeared. He had gone into a diner and… vanished.
Silence ruled for the next hour or so, however long it took them to pull up in front of what used to be the Roadhouse. Her eyes widened as she took in the rubble and smoke, feeling the Impala lurch to a halt and scrambled out just as quickly as Dean and Bobby did.
Whatever Ash had meant to tell Dean, it had been important, and dangerous.
That was about as fun as getting kicked in the jewels.
"How haunted are we talking, Bobby?" Jane asked, trying not to think of the look on Dean's face when that vision, or whatever it had been, had struck him. He had detailed it out and Bobby had been the one to piece together what Dean had seen. Now they were back in the Impala and on their way to Cold Oak, South Dakota.
"Extremely. You brought you gun?" He peered back at her, nodding when she patted the sawed off beside her on the seat. "Good." He turned around, looking out the window. Ash was dead. Others were dead.
They had walked through the wreckage and Jane could not recall ever seeing something so terrible. There had been… well, she had seen the charred remains of people, she had even been able to make out a boot.
Dean had been the one to find Ash, identifying him by a watch and Jane hadn't known what to do at the look on his face. She had no idea what to say even now that they were on the road again, she just kept silence. They were all keeping silent.
They hadn't seen any ghosts, demons or monsters, but the place was still spooky as hell. They had managed to make it so far in the car before finally being forced to enter on foot. There was just something wrong about this place, and Jane had barely taken three steps from the Impala before her stupid 'instinct' kicked in. The familiar tug lurched in her gut, and she felt like she had to hurry, like they had to hurry.
The only problem with that was everything seemed to be closing in on them, though nothing moved. The air was oppressive and it seemed that the night was pressing in on them. There were shadows everywhere and because of her new knowledge of this place, they seemed particularly sinister. She pressed herself a bit closer to Dean, remembering something from she had been a little girl.
When she was a kid, she had always done a run and jump into her bed at night. She made sure she was tucked into a tight little cocoon right in the center of her twin sized mattress because she knew if she let one limb, one teeny tiny finger, dangle over any edge of the bed –even the small crack where bed met wall-, then she was fair game. If that happened, then the thing that lived under bed would have a fair license to get her.
Just like these shadows would get her if she strayed too close.
In retrospect, the thing under the bed could have been totally real all things considered. It could have had a code of ethics. If she let a limb dangle, she was fair game and it was free to strip the skin off of her and suck the marrow from her bones –because everyone knew that was what creatures under the bed did- but since she hadn't let anything dangle, it had let her be.
That had been her imagination. Dean had actually lived with this knowledge as a child. He had known about monsters…
"Sweetheart, you're clinging."
Speaking of Dean, his voice interrupted her somewhat panicky thoughts, and she realized she was indeed clinging to him. "Sorry." She whispered, letting go of his jacket. The perk to the panicky thoughts was that she had been able to ignore the tugging, which was now demanding her full attention. "We need to go faster."
He glanced down at her. "Having a magic moment?"
She nodded.
He took her hand, threading his fingers through hers. "All right, let's go."
And they were off.
Go. Go. Go.
Because if they didn't go fast enough, it was ethically okay for the shadows to come get them.
"Sammy!" Relief washed through Dean at the sight of Sam coming towards them. He was stumbling a bit, but that sorted itself out quick enough. "Sam!"
"Faster Dean!" Jane urged from just behind him. "Sam!"
Sam looked so happy to see them, tired, but happy. He was holding his arm cradled to his chest, obviously injured.
"Sam, look out!" Dean shouted, eyes widening as he picked up his pace.
But it was too late, and Jane would never forget the sound of that knife, or whatever it had been, ripping through Sam. She would never forget the look on his face as he dropped to his knees, shoulders thrown, back arched, as if warding off the pain before reeling in an semi-upright position. Dean had thrown himself to the ground before his brother, catching Sam, and she couldn't watch anymore.
Bobby took off after the man who had come up behind Sam, who had stabbed him. Not a shadow, but a man, and the feeling stopped because… it didn't matter anymore. They didn't go fast enough. She was running after Bobby, desperate to catch him, or the man.
"Gone, he's gone!" Bobby panted, finally coming to a stop and catching her before she could past him. "He's gone Jane."
"Oh God, oh God! Sam!"
