Chapter Text
Dean had grown used to the sound of lapping water over the past two weeks, but something was different about this sound that threaded its way through the darkness towards his missing consciousness. He wasn't yet at coherent thought, just an instinctive anxiety urging him to wake, when the smell of salt reached him.
Dean's eyes snapped open, boggling momentarily at what appeared to be the ocean. Gulf of Mexico, his mind corrected. Hopefully. Though as he looked around…was that the Statue of Liberty upshore? They'd been on the Mississippi! Dean squeezed his eyes, willing consciousness, but when he opened them, it was still there. Definitely smaller than the real one though, he now noticed.
Fully roused, Dean began to take stock. He was very thoroughly tied to a tree, bound by a thin but nonetheless sturdy hempen rope. To his left, set back between him and Lady Liberty, he saw Maggie and Glenn slumped against another tree a few yards away. The rope was digging into his chest, and Dean hoped like hell that Sammy was the weight pulling from the other side.
Hearing a twig snap nearby, Dean muttered a low prayer for Cas and began reaching, trying to feel or rouse Sam. Dean choked down a yelp of pain as his thumbs yanked backwards. His hands weren't even tied together, but someone had wound the rough cord around his thumbs to his neck, he quickly learned as that also began to tighten, as if some sadistic shibari master had gotten hold of them.
“Cas, dammit, come on.” The angel had been overly solicitous since they'd made up their quarrel. He hadn't ignored a single prayer since their reunion after Lisa died, but Cas wasn't answering now. That instinctive anxiety didn't just flare again, it burst into violent flames.
“Sam! Sammy, wake up.” Dean wiggled as best as he could, but the cord tightened just under his Adam's apple. He turned his head slightly, seeking slack, and stopped as a brand new twisted reality doused his fear-flames. “No fucking way.”
“Dean?” Sam's voice cracked, and Dean finally felt slack in the cord around his chest as Sam presumably sat up. ”Shit, we're tied.”
“That ain't the half of it,” Dean murmured. “I don't know what they roofied us with, but I coulda swore I just saw a man-sized dog wearing a winter sweater walk around that fence.”
“Dressing your pets isn't nearly as creepy as abducting strangers. Those barge guys seemed legitimately nice. How'd they fool us for weeks?” Sam coughed, and Dean felt the ropes flex as Sam likewise tested them out.
“Man-sized dog, Sammy. Walking on hind legs, man-style. And Cas ain't answering.”
“Damn.” There was a moment of silence before Sam's wiggling made him cry out. “One of Gabriel's tricks?”
“I have no clue what's going on. I can't move even if my knives are still on me. Can you reach anything?”
“No, no. That wouldn't be wise, hm?” A voice came from Sam's side of the tree. Dean carefully turned his head toward his left, where the speaker was now walking towards Glenn and Maggie's tree. “Oho, rise and shine!”
Dean only caught a glimpse, but the speaker looked like a giant teddy bear. “Fuck me. Not again.” Things hadn't gone well the last time they'd met one of those. He and Sam might've been more traumatized than the kid.
“No, no, this is our first meeting,” the bear assured Dean without turning around.
He nudged Maggie's leg with his foot until she finally blinked her eyes open, and realization hit her much faster than it had Dean. “But that's not the case for all of us,” their captor continued. “Is it, Bela, hm?”