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It had been a trap. Fuck. Of course it had been a trap. It had been too easy— just walk right up through the front door? Fuck. Of course it was a trap but Dean said… Dean said it would be okay. He said it was all part of the plan, he said— Cold dread settled in the pit of his stomach.
Dean had known. He had known it was a set up and still sent them in. He’d kissed him and told him it’d be alright. He’d kissed him and breathed ‘I love you’ against his lips and fuck he should have realized then. He should have—
A searing pain in his leg tore Cas from his thoughts. Above him his brother gazed down at him wearing Sam’s familiar face. A pitying look in his eyes but there was no sadness in his small smile. “They always did say this was your greatest weakness, Castiel.” He dug the toe of his perfect shoe into the oozing gash on Cas’s leg. He could feel the bone ripping through his skin further, stark against the thick red coating his pant leg. A terrible scream echoed around the room.
“Too much heart. You followed his orders blindly, didn’t you.” The bone snapped under the pressure and his vision went white around the edges. Lucifer shook his head slowly, ‘tsk’ing through a condescending smile. “You knew it was a trap, deeeeep deep down. Didn’t you?” He flicked his wrist and Cas heard the snap before he felt the blinding pain.
He refused to look at his arm. Refused to look at the new exposed bone, at the unnatural angle. “But Dean wouldn’t do that to you, would he?” The way he said Dean’s name made bile rise in the back of Cas’s throat. He wanted to be sick, from the pain, the putrid smell of blood, the words. He wanted to be sick. “He would, Castiel. And he did. And now you’ll die here.”
Tapping his chin Lucifer scowled, twisting Sam’s face into something grotesque. Something that hurt to look at. “It’s over, brother. You’re done running, it’s time to put on your big boy panties.” His heel came down on Cas’s other leg and he felt the tendons and muscle tear apart. He felt the bones grind together and splinter. A broken sob was choked out through clenched teeth. He tried. He tried so hard to keep it in. To keep from giving Lucifer the satisfaction of knowing he’d finally broken.
But fuck it hurt.
“Didn’t you get tired of it? Running from Heaven, from Hell and everyone in between?” There was a contemplative look on his face as Lucifer ground his foot down, bone crumbling and blood staining perfect white pants. Cas tried desperately to pull away but every movement sent waves of heat and pain shooting through his very being.
With tears streaming down his face and soaking his shirt collar Cas grasped at the silver band hanging from his neck. So this was it. This was how his story ended. After everything, it all came back to this. To die by his brother’s hand. To die looking up into Sam Winchester’s eyes. Screwing his eyes shut Cas let out a wet puff of air. God. He wished he could see Dean one last ti—
The sharp sting of his broken arm being yanked backwards made his eyes fly open and he screamed. Holding it in be damned. Hiding the pain be damned. He was to die here anyway. “There we go. That’s more like it.” Lucifer purred, one hand smoothing down the back of Cas’s head to grip the hair at the nape of his neck as the other jerked his wrist back. The sickening pops barely reached his ears.
Letting go of his hair, Lucifer bent down and ran long fingers through the blood pooling under his crushed leg. Smirking he drug them across Cas’s exposed throat. “You’re like that fairytale,” he pressed bloody thumbprints down Cas’s torn shirt, one after the other like gumdrop buttons on a cookie. “You were such a good soldier, even I can admit that, Castiel, but then he came along.”
The disgust in his voice was suffocating. “And you got soft.You ran from your duties. From your responsibilities.” He spat out the word ‘soft’ like it was something vile and wrapped one bloody hand around Cas’s throat. “You ran from our brothers and sisters. You ran from Michael. From me.” The slow tightening on his windpipe had Cas gasping for air, his only unharmed limb scrabbling at Lucifer’s hand.
His vision was going dark and he hoped he’d pass out soon. He was jerked forward and back as his eyes started to close and Lucifer drew his face closer and hissed, “You ran from us all, and for what? The love of one man?” He yanked his hand away and grabbed the chain holding the ring.
“No!” Cas cried out, reaching for the band Lucifer held up to his eye level. The chain dug into his neck but the bite was insubstantial against the rest of his wounds. Lucifer locked eyes with him and melted the metal between his fingertips. Cas felt his heart seize and his stomach turned to ice.
“Guess what, Castiel. You’re done running, because the big bad fox finally caught you.” Lucifer growled as his eyes flashed bright red. At first nothing seemed to happen, then blinding pain. All of his limbs felt like they were on fire. He could feel it. All of it. The muscle and sinew tearing away from bone. His joints cracking and dislocating.
He screamed. And screamed and screamed and screamed until there was no sound and he could taste blood on his tongue. “You could run, run, run, as fast as you could, but it didn’t really matter.”
The door swung open behind them and Cas watched in mute horror as Lucifer’s sneer morphed into a gleeful smile. “Cas!” His wide eyes jumped to Dean. Both of them where they were in the open doorway. His Dean’s face was stoney in a way Cas knew was a farce. His jaw was clenched and his eyes pinched at the corners. “Leave him alone—“
Dean’s voice cracked and Cas could see the younger him swallow, tears gathering in his eyes. He knew. He knew they weren’t all getting out of this alive. He knew and Cas could see it eating away at him that he couldn’t stop it. “Bee—“ He choked out, gaze finding his Dean’s again as the darkness started creeping around his vision again. “Bee, I lov—“
A sharp pain in his chest. A sting that radiated out in waves over his body. A scream. His own? It didn’t sound like it. Took far away, too deep. Too... Dean. Then Lucifer’s face, swimming in and out of focus. “Ah ah, now none of that.” A twist and the blade was all he could feel as it tore through his heart.
“I’ve finally caught you, little gingerbread man.”