Chapter Text
Corbin Fisher was used to waiting at least half an hour for his sister to pick him up. Ever since their parents had given her sole control over the family’s second car, she had been diligent about picking him up from places, but negligent at being on time. It wasn’t that he was worried about being in Middletown late at night. The town was relatively safe, and he was built enough that no one considered messing with him, even late at night.
Corbin lounged on the curb outside the Pinkberry, checking his phone for the third time in half an hour. The wind whipped his hair wildly and pushed his hood off his head, shoving leaves across the road and rustling the bushes behind him. He yanked it back onto his head, trying to shrug off the cold. A dry bolt of lightning cracked far away, illuminating the sky. He jumped.
Nothing. It was nothing. He settled back down to wait, ignoring the sounds of night time, which seemed more and more ominous by the minute.
Something shifted in the bushes. Thunder rolled down the small town street. His skin prickling with fear, Corbin pulled out his phone, scrolling to his sister’s number in the contacts. His finger never hit the call button.
The Bennett brothers sat in the downstairs living room of the Shurley residence, the owner of the house having long disappeared to the grocery store for milk.
“Angels? As if. Are you sure he didn’t mean the baseball team?” Gabriel’s half-hearted attempt at a joke was ruined by the dark shadows under his eyes. He had returned home a few hours after Chuck and Castiel, back hunched and hands shaking. Cas, who was sitting in the living room at the time, followed him with his eyes as he stumbled down the stairs and into his room without so much as a word. The younger Bennett could feel that something in Gabe’s demeanor had shifted, but couldn’t identify it, and it added one more layer of awkwardness to their already somewhat stilted relationship.
“I’m fairly sure, Gabriel. He seemed,” Cas paused, unable to come up with a word to describe Decanusel. Divine was incorrect, regal a long shot, and the casual way the angel had knocked Chuck unconscious definitely eliminated holy, “Sincere,” He said finally, unhappy with how that sounded. Gabriel snorted.
“Right. Sincere. That might be enough for you, but I’d like a little more assurance.”
“He showed me his wings.”
“I’m pretty sure there are other monsters with wings. Real monsters,” Gabriel spat, ending the discussion. Castiel let out a deep sigh.
“Well, it isn’t as though it matters right now. He said I was meant to do something, but he never specified what. We can delay discussion of this topic until he returns. Then you can question him as much as you want,” Cas shrugged, watching Gabriel relax out of the corner of his eye.
“So what now?”
“We could find a hunt,” Castiel suggested absentmindedly, not looking especially enthusiastic.
Gabriel nodded, going to his room to retrieve his laptop. Castiel did the same, returning first. He typed in the first search term when Gabriel plopped down beside him, placed his feet on the coffee table, perched his computer on his knees and began typing in the uncomfortable position.
Time passed by with aggravating slowness, the first ten pages of every google search the brothers tried yielding nothing but a few amateur attempt to create urban legends. Castiel was about to give up and try his luck with the confusing possibility of angels once more when Gabriel fist pumped victoriously.
“Werewolf in Middletown, Maryland!”
“That’s a little...normal for your tastes.”
“No, I mean. It’s an actual werewolf. A horror movie werewolf. Look,” Gabriel turned his computer around, balancing it on his knees haphazardly. Cas squinted at the ludicrously dim screen. Gabe rolled his eyes, turning up the brightness to a somewhat reasonable level. Castiel nodded thankfully and began scanning the page.
The attacks seemed to start with small animals, but it quickly escalated to any unfortunate civilian caught outside after dark. The articles from the reputable town paper blamed it on a bear, but a local blogger stated otherwise. The author claimed to have interviewed a survivor, who said she was attacked by a giant wolf that walked on two legs.
“What do you think it is?” Cas leaned in to the screen, brow furrowed as though the text would somehow tell him its secrets. Gabriel shrugged.
“Shifter maybe? If I could turn into anything at all, I’d go for horror movie villain.”
“Maybe.”
“Well, either way we should head out now. Middletown is... 40 hours away, and I’d like to get through as much of California as possible before rush hour.”
“We should wait for Chuck,” Cas insisted. Gabriel gave him a confused look, as though suddenly disappearing on one of their oldest acquaintances - perhaps even friends - without a word was even remotely acceptable.
“He’ll be fine. Just leave a note.”
“That’s inconsiderate. He’ll be back soon. We can wait,” Gabriel opened his mouth to argue, but Cas stared him down.
“Fine.”
When Chuck returned ten minutes later, he seemed genuinely surprised that they had thought to tell him of their departure in person. Surprised, and a little relieved.
“No offense, guys, but you’ve been sitting on the couch and glaring at each other for three hours. Just, uh, don’t get killed while you’re gone,” he smiled, but it dropped when he realized what he had said, “Oh. Sorry, Cas, I just-”
“It’s fine, Chuck,” Cas waved the apology away. The other man seemed to accept it, but he still looked faintly guilty when he offered them a timid goodbye after they had packed. Cas stared at the house in the rearview mirror until they turned the corner, wondering exactly how much had changed with his death.
Cordelia Monroe, Gap shopkeeper and aspiring art teacher, chewed her lip anxiously. She didn’t think it was standard procedure for FBI agents to interview witnesses in cheap diners, but the intensity with which Agent Finletter was staring at her made it difficult to think of him as anything other than some sort of crime hunter extraordinaire.
Or a serial killer, but she had always tried to think the best of people.
“So what did you see?” Agent O’Grady, the smaller, more amicable looking one, asked.
“Oh,” She blinked, playing with the wrapper from her straw, “Umm, I already told the police officers.”
“Yes, but we have to file a report as well. Jurisdiction issues, you understand.”
That made sense, Cordelia supposed. Her favorite cop dramas always had jurisdiction come up. She pursed her lips, trying to figure out whether the sheriff or the agents were the protagonists of this particular case. Definitely the agents, she decided. They were much more photogenic. Which, unfortunately, meant that she had to make sure not to miss any details in her account. Witnesses who forgot key details always ended up dead.
“Well, I was just going to the Gap, you know, where I work,” She waved in the general direction of the mall.
“Why? It was the middle of the night,” Agent Finletter asked.
“Oh, umm. I forgot my bag in the back room when I got off-shift, but I know the manager well so he lent his keys to me,” The agent nodded, satisfied with her answer, “But anyway. I got to the Gap, and I saw Corbin waiting outside the PinkBerry.”
“You knew the victim?” Agent O’Grady was looking at her, like Finletter had before. She looked down, twiddling her thumbs.
“Yeah. I babysat him back when I was in high school. Corbin was a good kid. That’s his name. Corbin Fisher. I don’t think the police have released it yet...”
“Did you say,” one agent started, coughing suddenly in what seemed to be a concealed laugh, “Did you say Corbin Fisher?”
“Uh, yeah,” she responded, “Why?”
The dark-haired one interrupted before his partner could speak, “Sorry, my partner knows someone by that name. So you saw him outside the PinkBerry. What happened next?”
“I was going to go out and offer him a ride. His sister is, uh, was always late picking him up from things. But before I could...I saw something. It looked like ah, uh,” She hadn’t told the sheriff this, but...she had decided to tell the agents everything, “A werewolf,” She finished quickly, shoulders hunching in embarrassment.
“Could you clarify what, exactly, a werewolf looks like?” Agent Finletter wasn’t looking at her strangely yet, which was surprising, and also a very good sign.
“Well, you know. Like a wolf, only it stood on two legs and it, uh, had human arms. And it was bigger than a wolf. Way bigger. It, uh, jumped out of the bushes on the edge of the mall and it just. It just sort of. Umm. Ate him,” She looked at her coca cola, wishing she hadn’t been at the mall that night. Her hands were shaking, she noticed absentmindedly.
“Are you alright?” Agent O’Grady looked genuinely concerned, so she nodded.
“Do you have any other questions, agents?” Her voice sounded small in her ears.
“Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Corbin?” Agent Finletter asked.
“No! I mean, like I said before, he was a great kid. And when he wasn’t, it was just teenager stuff, you know? Nothing that could get him killed.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. Thank you, Miss Monroe,” Agent O’Grady gave her a smile. The two men stood and left her to silently contemplate her soda.
Castiel was researching in their dim hotel room, waiting for his brother to return from the morgue. The light above him kept flickering rapidly, despite his attempts to screw it in properly. He checked his watch. Gabriel had been gone for four hours. Slightly concerned, but not actively worried, he removed his heavy, reliable Nokia phone from his pocket. As his hand touched the plastic, however, it began to ring.
“I was about to call you, Gabriel. Where have you been?”
“You’ll never guess what happened, little bro,” Cas could hear the smile in his brother’s voice.
“Another attack?”
“Another attack!”
“Was it the same monster?”
“Well, it’s not a shifter and it’s not a movie werewolf.”
“How do you know?” Castiel moved his phone to his shoulder, shifting his computer off his lap.
“Because I’m watching it on film right now. The victim was a film junkie, and he caught the whole thing on his flip phone. Luckily I swiped it before the sheriff noticed it was there. Not a silver eye in sight. And guess what did the deed this time.”
“What?”
“I have no idea!”
“What do you mean, Gabe?”
“It looks kind of like a lizard. But a flying lizard. A flying bird-lizard. With tentacles. And only one eye.”
“You’re joking.”
“Nope.”
“There’s no way there’s a real monster that looks like that.”
“I’ll bring it to the hotel and you can see for yourself.”
“Please do,” The light bulb flickered some more. Cas glared at it.
“Alright, I’ll be there as soon as I put some gas in the truck.”
“You took the truck to the morgue?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“The ice cream truck?”
“I parked it a block away,” Gabe snorted, affronted.
Castiel sighed. “If you say so. Just hurry.”
“Of course. See ya.” The disconnection tone followed.
Cas returned his attention to the computer, typing in “flying bird lizard with tentacles and only one eye.” Unsurprisingly, this yielded no useful results. He continued searching, to no avail.
Five minutes of furious googling passed, and then the light flickered again.
The light went out.
Glass shattered behind the drawn curtains, a dark shape bursting into the room. The light sputtered back to life, fully illuminating the room for the first time all day.
Cas grabbed the gun from the nightstand, aiming it at the creature’s head.
“Well, I suppose movie werewolf is one way to describe you,” he muttered under his breath. The monster let out a low growl, spit dripping from its half-opened mouth onto the carpet. The thick black hair that covered its body bristled as it slowly stalked toward the hunter.
“I’m fairly sure this won’t kill you, but if you’re sentient at all I doubt you will appreciate being shot,” Cas warned. The monster ignored him, its pace quickening. He fired. The wolf let out an angry growl as dark blood began seeping from its chest. Another shot. It howled, collapsing in on itself and dropping to the ground. Cas jumped from the bed, grabbing his laptop and sprinting to the door. He could hear the monster shifting behind him, but he didn’t look back, instead opening the door and running from the premises as quickly as possible. He only stopped when the dry taste of metal in his throat prevented him from continuing any further.
Once he had recovered his breath, Castiel removed the phone from his pocket, dialing his brother.
No answer.
He swore quietly, sent a text, and then began the long trek to the nearest gas station.
Gabriel paid for his gasoline, waiting impatiently for the machine to read his card. It let out a cantankerous beep, rejecting his purchase and spitting the card back out. He frowned and shoved it in again.
There was a loud scratching noise behind him. He turned. Nothing but the gas station, perfectly intact. He looked up.
If he were hard pressed to give the monster a name, he’d say it was a dragon. It was shaped like a giant, winged lizard. But the tentacles that sprouted from its back and the single, red rimmed eye at the center of its forehead...that was something he’d never read in a fairy tale.
Its razor claws dug into the roof of the gas station, and he could hear confused screaming from inside. Not knowing what to do, he pulled the gun from his waistband and aimed.
“Do you honestly think that will help?” Gabriel spun in the direction of the voice. Kali lounged against the side of the truck, examining her nails.
“This is a bit of a cliché entrance, don’t you think?” he joked. She looked up at him, unimpressed.
“Is me saving your life cliché? If so, I can stop. Wouldn’t want to cheapen the narrative.”
“What? Do you know how to kill this thing?” Kali shrugged.
“Not at all. But I do know how to run away,” At that, she opened the door of the truck. Then she waved her hand, and he found himself being psychically pushed into the passenger’s seat. He turned to his left and, sure enough, she was seated behind the wheel.
Somehow, when they took off, the cap on the gas tank closed itself.
“We can’t leave, Kali. Those people might die.”
“If you stay and insist on trying to save everyone, then you and those people will die. Which would you prefer? Actually, don’t answer that. I’m the one driving, so I get to choose.”
“But-” Kali’s glare silenced him.
“I’m going to stop the car and let you take the wheel. But only if you promise not to go back there and be stupid.”
“I promise,” He was aware that he sounded childishly sullen. He didn’t care. Apparently he sounded sincere, as well (which he was less sure of), because she pulled over and put her foot on the brakes. They switched positions, and Gabriel began to drive toward the hotel. Kali stared at the side mirror contemplatively.
“I’m going to be lying low,” Kali said after a minute. He raised an eyebrow at her.
“What?”
“That angel, Decanusel-”
“Wait, so he is an angel?”
“Yes. And because he’s an angel, me and my whole species are on his shit list. So you,” She jabbed one perfectly manicured finger in his direction, “Will be continuing to fight the good fight and I will be staying far away from feathers and your little brother.”
Gabe opened his mouth to protest, but caught sight of said brother out of the corner of his eye. Cas was trudging down the street, laptop in one hand, looking even more disgruntled than usual. Gabriel turned to tell Kali to leave, but the seat was already empty.
Gabriel carefully nudged open the door to the hotel room, making sure whatever Cas had wounded earlier had already left. After meeting up again, the brother had decided to return to the hotel to salvage what was left of their luggage. Thankfully, Gabe kept most of his clothes in the van and Castiel’s duffel was by the door, so nothing was lost in the wreckage of their room.
What was lost was a decent amount of time to inspect the damage: the Bennetts left quickly, knowing the police were likely on their way.
They parked the van by a Starbucks about two miles away, tagging onto the coffee shop’s free wifi. Gabriel sat himself on the freezer holding the vanilla and the chocolate, and propping his laptop up on the serving counter
“I think the first thing we should determine is if these two creatures are somehow connected,” Castiel suggested, sitting on the floor with his own laptop on his lap.
Gabriel nodded, taking a sip of his raspberry mocha, but not responding. A few minutes later, he hopped down, spinning his computer to face Castiel.
“Snallygaster,” he declared, proud of himself.
“Bless you,” Cas answered, continuing to search.
“No, that’s its name. It’s called the Snallygaster. According to the site, our scaly friend stirred up enough trouble to attract the attention of the Smithsonian, back in the day. They put out a reward for it when it first appeared,” Gabriel explained, scrolling the article. “It looks like its main roost is Braddock Heights, so if we take the van over there to probably the most boring and stuffy looking library there is, we could find out more about this thing than we could surfing the digital ocean of amateur porn and cat videos.”
Castiel rolled his eyes, turning to close his laptop.
“Snallygaster,” Castiel read aloud, turning the pages of the binder full of fading newspapers. “A dragon-like monster with tentacles and one eye, sighted on and off since the early 1700s. Reportedly drowned in a vat of whiskey in 1932,” Castiel finished, impressed, before turning to Gabe, “You have to admire the library for being this organized.”
Gabriel shrugged, leaning over to look over Castiel’s shoulder, “Jury’s still out having a smoke. So we know what this thing is, and when it’s been showing up. What’s it got to do with the werewolf?”
“That’s the thing,” Castiel continued, pulling another binder towards him, “I’m sure the fake werewolf is the Dwayyo, a monster that looks like a B-horror werewolf. These papers report it being sighted in 1965, and on and off since then. There’s a report here of it being sighted fighting what appeared to be a dragon-like creature, but that’s it. None of the sightings seemed to occur at the same time, except for some dubious claims of witnesses seeing them fight. It’s almost as if only one monster was around at a time,” Castiel sighed, closing both binders.
“Well, that’s more than we had before,” Gabriel admitted, scrolling on his phone, “The internet says you can repel the Snallygaster with a seven-pointed star. That’s as much of a lead as we have right now. We’ll just have to try normal silver bullets on the Dwayyo,” He stood up, making his way out the door, and leaving Castiel to put away their materials.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“We are not staying at a pirate themed motel, Gabriel,” Cas knew arguing was useless. The only reason he had gotten around staying at Hidden Cove when they first got into town was that they had arrived at one A.M. In the early hours of the morning Gabriel was easily convinced, but in daylight there was no dissuading him from his obsession with themed hotels.
Paying for the room was uneventful, and soon the unimpressed, costumed teen behind the front desk was handing them a key to number 115.
When they reached their room, the door swung open to discover it was not as empty as would be expected. Ava sat pristinely on the bed closest to the window, one leg over the other. She looked impossibly dignified for someone sitting on a piece of furniture shaped like a pirate boat. She nodded at the two of them.
“Bennett. Smaller and less pleasant Bennett,” she greeted. She smiled radiantly at them, eyes flashing white.
“You’re one to talk,” Gabriel grinned, far less genuine and far more venomous. He pulled a knife from his pocket, a crude, serrated weapon with sigils carved in the blade.
“Oh, put the knife away. I’m not here to kill you.”
“Then why? There’s no way this is a social visit,” Gabriel pointed his weapon menacingly. Ava squirmed, as though it were a real threat to her. Cas felt his eyebrows rise.
“It actually is. Of a sort.” She leaned back, putting her weight on her hands, “I came to reminisce about old times. Oh, those were fun. Remember Agent Virgil Maro? I remember Virgil,” Cas saw Gabriel’s hand tighten around the handle of the knife, “So you did, he was dead? I wasn’t sure. But I bet you don’t know how he died.”
“Seeing as you’ve graced us with your presence, I can guess,” Cas said through clenched teeth. She laughed.
“I’m sure you can! But I’ll tell you anyway. I locked up him and everyone else in that stupid little police station, and I tortured them until they died. Which, honestly? Not that long. I forget sometimes how breakable you humans are. It was hardly any fun at all. Well, except for that pretty secretary. She was fun. I flayed her alive, and she screamed like a good little girl,” Ava sighed fondly.
“And why did you feel the need to tell us this?”
“Because you two are getting boring. You need something to pump you up, get you mad. Complacent Bennetts are dull Bennetts,” She looked them over, taking in the tension in Gabriel’s jaw and the subtle narrowing of Cas’ eyes, “And would you look at that? I succeeded! Which means my day was a success. Alright, now back to your scheduled programming. Wouldn’t want to get in the way of your little hunt. Bye bye,” Cas moved to intercept her, but then he blinked and she was gone. He turned to look at Gabriel. Gabriel let out a huff.
“She was afraid of that knife,” Cas said, quietly. Gabe looked down at it as though he had forgotten it was there.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Well, I...It can kill demons,” The last half of the sentence came out of Gabriel’s mouth in a rush.
“What? But nothing can kill a demon.”
“This can. I got it while you were dead. I had a guy make it for me.”
“If he can make something like that, why didn’t you tell me about him?”
“We...don’t talk anymore,” Gabriel’s expression closed off completely, and he sulked over to his bed, collapsing into it and staring forlornly at the ceiling. Cas didn’t want to drop the issue, but the tone in his brother’s voice allowed no room for argument. The brothers sat in silence for minutes, which stretched into hours.
“I’ll go get us some dinner,” Castiel said, once the quiet grew too oppressive for his liking. Gabriel said nothing, “Then we should start the hunt.”
Castiel stalked through the forest, taking slow, careful steps to avoid giving away his position with a crunch of pine needles. The wickedly curved blade, newly engraved with seven seven-pointed stars, was a heavy weight in his palm, and a comfort in the dark woods. He could hear Gabriel breathing over his shoulder, deliberately slow inhalations and exhalations that were almost swallowed by the quiet patter of rain around them. Small, cold droplets slipped under the collar of his shirt, soaking and chilling him.
A noise broke the monotonous static of wood noise. It was low and quiet at first, but it quickly grew louder, into a cacophonous wail, two inhuman voices clashing for domination of the air around them. Cas turned to his brother. Gabriel took one hand from the rifle he was carrying and made a series of hand motions. Castiel nodded and began to move more quickly. The soggy fall leaves beneath his feet didn’t provide very good traction, but he remained on his feet despite the slippery foliage.
He slowed to a stop at the edge of the clearing, sharing a look with his brother. The two monsters circled each other in the dark, moonless night, already injured from the fighting. The Dwayyo’s yellow eyes gleamed even in the cloudy darkness, more like a cat’s than a dog’s, mouth curled up in a snarl. Blood flecked its teeth and its claws, matting its fur in clumps. Its arm, rippling with muscles, hung limply at its side.
The Snallygaster turned from its nemesis, glaring at the brothers. Tentacles protruded from its back, under its wings, levitating in the air and flailing about. The wings were hunched together, fragile skin ripped in places. It let out a steam whistle scream and the tentacles lunged at Cas, wrapping around his wrist before he could back out of its range. Its grip tightened, bone crushing, until he dropped his weapon, hissing in pain. Gabriel aimed at the eye in the Snallygaster’s forehead, finger moving onto the trigger.
The Dwayyo moved, a dark shadow, tackling Gabe to the ground and removing the gun from his grip, almost gently. It growled at him, leaning in so that the tip of its long nose almost touched the hunter’s cheek. It sniffed, then let out a disgusted snort. It leaned back and, before he could blink, backhanded Gabriel across the face. He went still. Castiel struggled with the grip on his wrist, straining to retrieve his weapon and help his brother, but the slimy hold would not relent. It yanked him into the air, examining him with its single, wide eye for a moment before flinging him against a tree.
He let out a yelp of pain, vision blurring for a moment as his head and back slammed against the tree, sending tendrils of agony through his whole body. He crumpled to the ground, breathing ragged. He looked up at the two creatures, expecting one of them to lunge at him, but no blows came. Instead, they returned to their deadly dance, gazes radiating pure hatred.
The Dwayyo lunged, razor teeth digging into the Snallygaster’s neck. The flying creature retaliated with sharp talons to its opponent's face. The two creatures tumbled to the ground, Castiel unable to tell who pushed whom to the damp forest floor. The Snallygaster was on top first, tentacles wrapping around the Dwayyo’s throat. Then the wolf achieved dominance, unable to remove the asphyxiating appendages but succeeding in keeping a hold of the other monster’s jugular.
The Snallygaster’s wings shot out, clods of dirt shooting into the air. It screeched, its one eye wide and bloodshot. The Dwayyo ceased its attempts at biting its opponent to death and instead clawed at the single orb, rending it to bloody tissue. The Snallygaster responded by lifting the Dwayyo into the air, bashing it back and forth like a rag doll. The doglike creature let out howls of agony, its already injured flesh becoming more and more battered until it eventually went still. The Snallygaster let out a victorious crow, depositing the corpse unceremoniously onto the ground. It attempted to sit, but Cas saw the blood running in a copper river down its neck and knew that it would be too weak. Instead, it twitched, letting out a final, mournful call, and fell still.
Cas watched the two creatures, sure they were dead but unable to fully trust the inconceivable idea that he and his brother had somehow survived. It was only when Gabriel moaned that he was able to tear his gaze away, wincing at the sparks of pain that continued to dance through his nerve endings. He knew moving would only cause him further problems. Instead, he turned his eyes to the horizon, taking in the stars as they glittered, escaping one by one from the retreating cloud cover. The natural sounds of the forest, absent before, resumed as though a battle had not just been fought. The unseasonably cold rain ceased, leaving Castiel alone with the constellations above and the serenade of nocturnal wildlife.
After a few minutes, Gabriel stood up, heavy booted footsteps making their way to Cas’ side. Castiel turned to his brother, who offered a hand. Together, the two of them trudged from the forest, aching but alive.
The kitchy pirates painted in the hallway didn’t seem quite as cheery and fun as when the two had first checked into the hotel. Castiel helped Gabriel down the hall. The older brother shrugged off his head injury, but still managed to smack his face on a fake palm tree. Castiel dug out the key to their room, unlocking the door as Gabriel wandered off to the bathroom.
“You broke a seal,” a voice called out from the darkness, making both brothers jump. Castiel pulled out his knife, and Gabriel struggled with the bathroom door. “Whoa, hold up, it’s just me,” the voice continued.
Castiel frowned, turning to flip on the light. Standing in the middle of the room, wearing the same clothes as he had at the school, was Decanusel. The hunter lowered his knife, walking farther into the room.
“Is this him?” Gabriel asked from the door, gesturing with his rifle. “You didn’t tell me he looked like he walked straight out of Brokeback Mountain. First Ava, now this...”
Castiel sighed, ignoring his brother. He eyed Dean up and down, biting the inside of his cheek, “Usually, people don’t break into hotel rooms. In case you weren’t aware of normal human customs,” he pointed out, approaching Dean.
Dean shrugged him off, stepping to the side to let him pass. “Usually, hunters can hold their own in hunts, especially when dealing with cases this important,” he retorted.
“This case wasn’t important,” Castiel frowned, throwing his jacket onto the bed.
“You really don’t get it, do you?” Dean insisted, “The Dwayyo and the Snallygaster aren’t supposed to be awake at the same time. And if they are, they aren’t supposed to be able to fight to the death. The rivalry between them is one of Earth’s constants, and them killing each other violates the laws of existence. So congrats, you letting them broke a seal.”
“A seal?” Gabriel supplied, putting his gun away.
The room grew colder, a tree slapping against the window, “You don’t know?” He asked, then laughed, “Of course you don’t. Just my luck,” He let out an exasperated sigh, a brief flash of irritation in his green eyes before he could cover it up with his usual mask of emotionless cockiness, “This is what angels are throwing themselves on spears here on Earth to stop,” Seeing the confused faces on the two brothers, he continued on, “There’s a certain number of events that can occur, which will break seals that have been in place since the dawn of humanity. The first and the last are set in stone, but if you were to break just under sixty-six of them, well,” He trailed off.
“What?” Castiel asked, voice quiet. Decanusel smiled a bitter, empty smile.
“Then we’ll have the end of the world on our hands.”