Chapter Text
Your first instinct, of course, was to hide.
But where the hell do you hide when your one available way of escape is out? The only door currently in your reach- blocked. You could swear you left it wide open. Not to mention this door has no lock and yet, somehow it is slammed tight. One thought was bouncing up and down in your head as you hopped under the counter:
Why the hell weird shit has to go down on MY shift, god damn it!
This thought however, was quickly gone.
When a grown man was thrown at the wall opposite to you next to your hiding place, your brain decided to go blank. You felt sudden rush of energy going through you, which obviously was your body reacting to stress. You probably read about it somewhere. Fight or run for your life moment, or something. Shivers running down your spine and muscles tightening in a single spasm- really uncomfortable feeling you hoped never to experience again after you finally got out of school.
You dared to look to your right where the man landed. He was trying to get up from the floor, slowly rising himself up with a grimace of pain showing up on his face. You noticed a pink patch of skin on his chin. It already started to show some swelling. He had a split lip and when he finally stood up, grunting, he was limping. He barely shot a glance towards you. Going straight back into the fight that was going on in the middle of a hotel restaurant, he kicked a chair leg your way, not looking at you again. You heard a loud thump and a shriek followed, and then you heard low, gravely voice shouting
“Sammy, blade! Get the blade, NOW!”
You looked down at the chair leg and reached for it but you were cut off when something hit the counter cracking it in half at the impact, sending rain of glass and plastic all over your head. You gasped and fell flat on your face, the hit on the counter so strong it knocked air out of your lungs. Someone scratched over the remains of the counter, probably trying to stand up, but failed to do so. There was a short, metallic cling and a slow, heavy sound of something sliding down. You started crawling in the direction of it in hopes of finding something to defend yourself with. Just in case.
The view in front of your eyes was unpleasant.
Most of furniture flipped upside down or in pieces. Blood here and there, shattered glass on the floor. Bullet holes in the walls. Bodies laying around, customers, coworkers, and these… Things.
And right next to you, man lying on his back, trying to hold on to one of the tables, heaving like he just crossed a finish line of a marathon run. His right hand blindly searched for something in urgent, hectic moves. You recognized this man. Hard to forget a guy appearing out of nowhere in mere split seconds right in front of your very eyes.
His face was covered in blood slowly dripping from his most likely broken nose. Huge cut on his forehead looked equally bad. When his eyes didn’t roll back into his skull in confusion, they were fixed on something in front of him. It was hard for you to see what it was because of all the dust in the air and flickering lights, but as it was getting closer, the guy’s moves got more lost and panic-stricken.
Your heart almost flat out stopped upon hearing high pitched screeching directly above your head. You jumped for the closest object you considered useful when the light uncoverd it for you by sending bright shining reflection to your eyes. You grabbed it with your hand and went back ready to defend yourself, when you understood that this monstrosity was charging right at the man, not you. It was an impulse you could not control. You threw yourself in front of the man and you could swear you saw his eyes glow bright blue light, but you couldn’t be sure, because suddenly you felt sharp pain and everything went dark for you.
Last thing you registered before passing out was this sound, like a kite fluttering in the wind.
***
You go back to consciousness with a whopping headache, and from the moment you can feel something again, first thing that hits hard apart from your bursting head is nausea, weird knot unwinding in your stomach. Almost immediately you break out in a cold sweat and try to hold yourself back from vomiting. You can hear two sets of footsteps approaching, and a heavy breathing right next to you
“Cas, you alright?” asked the same voice who so kindly offered you a chair leg as means of defense before
“Yes, Dean. I am, as you say… Peachy” answered a deep, hoarse voice, with a slight note of mockery in it. It was followed by short silence
“What the hell happened up there?” asked the chair man
“I was fighting 5 of them, Dean. Don’t blame me for something I had close to no control over” the second man answered with clear reproach in his voice
“Who is this?” asked a third voice “and what is THAT?”
“It is a human being” he answered shortly “Female, to be precise. I do not know her name. But we will know soon, as she is awake”
Your body flinched involuntarily before you could even try to stop it. Suddenly there was a silence between three men that made you reluctantly open your eyes. Man closest to you was the unlucky one who hit your counter. Oddly enough, there was nothing left from injuries visible what you assumed was moments ago. Only staines of blood on his clothes proved the existence of wounds he received before. You blinked a few times to make sure it’s not your eyes cheating you because of shock, but nothing changed. The other two men were standing next to each other. Both tall, dirty, a little bloody and totally ragged.
You sat up but didn’t say a word. Taller guy looked at you with a shadow of sympathy behind his eyes. The other one, covered in mud and blood from shoulders to boots, scanned you top to bottom. His gaze distrustful and tense, same as his whole body language.
“Who are you?” he asked
“Dean, give her a break” said the tall one “sorry for him, he’s a little off now because the job was a fail” he made anoyed face his way and the chair guy scoffed, shook his head and started walking impatiently around “Hi” tall one got closer to you “My name is Sam. This hot headed jerk is my brother, Dean”
“Bitch” he mumbled under his breath in response
“Shut up, Dean” he cut his brother out with a little smirk shadowing his lips “And what’s your name?”
You looked over at every one of them, trying to figure out what’s happening, but after that you took a deep breath and responded-
"My name is Y/N” your voice was weirdly steady and calm, although your mouth was as dry as Sahara desert itself
“Good, great. Okay, Y/N. Do you know what happened?”
You shook your head and stretched your hands open when you realized you still keep this cold, shiny spike squeezed in your bloody hand.
***
~~ 3 months in ~~
You could hear light footsteps coming from the corridor so you ditched reading for a moment to listen. The footsteps stopped behind your door. You whispered come in and faced the door only to be greeted by fluttering sound of Castiel appearing in the room.
It’s been over three months since your workplace incident.
Although you still had a hard time adjusting to your newly acquired knowledge, your learning process started the hard way, so there was that safety bubble of yours gone forever.
Just like that, monsters were real.
You tried to deal with it like any other person who didn’t escape right away would do. You dived into it head to heel, and started drinking a lot more.
The brothers, even Dean who was really pessimistic about it at first- insisted you can’t go back just yet. You didn’t understand why. In the line of work they all shared, from your point of view you were useless at best. Yeah, of course. Reading books was one thing. But out there? In the heat of the moment? Not that you were even half fast or strong as them. God, you don’t even remember when was the last time you had to run even back home.
If that was animal kingdom, you’d be a really mocked and unpopular snail. Not fast, not strong, tiniest amount of movement coordination. Not to mention guns. Big no no. Still couldn’t convince yourself to try it again after the first time.
It did break first ice with Dean, though. You made him chuckle and he treated you better since then. Other than that you were a decent cook and you were okay with patching them up after intense hunts. If Cas wasn’t around, that is. But let’s be honest, he wasn’t visiting often so it occupied most of your time.
“Hello, Y/N.”
“Hi, Castiel” you were in a bad mood. Galloping insomnia and digging through so many books made you cranky; Cas squinted his eyes and tilted his head.
“Am I interrupting you? I see you are alone, but if my companionship is unwelcome, I will be gone, and back in a better time” he said
“It’s okay, just tell me what you want” you looked at his face “I haven’t been sleeping well, that’s all. Whatever. I’ll do what needs to be done” you shrugged carelessly and your eyes went back down to books you were reading. Cas stood still and silent “I ain’t got all day so spill it.”
“Is it because of the events in your restaurant? The day you were brought here?”
“What? Fucked up sleeping schedule?”
“Yes. Among many others.”
"What do you think, huh? Spoiler: it’s not my hobby. Although I’ll consider writing it down in my resume” you said half jokingly; he gave you his distinctive, long intense look before answering
“I did not come here for your help, Y/N.”
“So why did you come here then?” you frowned “you barely come, at least in the last three months. Since I’m here. Not so hard to connect the dots.” he didn't say anything to that "Listen, all I'm saying is I know I'm not your first choice of social get-together. Didn't want to sound accusatory. I'm just stating the obvious."
He was still silent so you raised your head to see if he’s even still here and you jumped a little, because suddenly he’s inches away from you and he offers his hand to help you stand up. You grunt but accept his help. You can see his jaw clenching as he looks at your confused face.
"Hey, I’m sorry if I’m being bitchy today, but…” and that’s all you were able to say before he put his palm on your face and when he barely even touched your skin, the world turned black for you.
***