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Fly By Night

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“Dean?” The voice from the door questioned the scene that lay before them.

“Amii…” Dean breathed, hands slipping down the rod, “Guess you’re wondering what I’m doing…?”

“Not really. I can see perfectly well.” She smiled, striding over to the brothers. She placed a hand on Dean’s shoulder and he felt his body involuntarily relax, the rod dropping from his hands and only just missing Sam.

“Get off me.” Dean hissed as he rose into a standing position, his eyes staring dangerously into hers.

“You’re meant to be a good boy Dean or you and Sammy will get hurt.” She taunted, bringing up a hand to his face she caressed his cheek, “I know you don’t want that.”

Sam pulled hard on the shackles, the bracket wobbly dangerously on the wall but refusing to break free, he growled angrily at the woman in front of him but his words went unheard, “Get off him!”

“I don’t want you touching me.” Dean tried to turn away but his body didn’t obey, instead it followed her, doing what she wanted it to do.

“You don’t have a choice.” She smirked and grabbed his throat, cutting any retort short, her nails dug in as he struggled to breath.

“Dean!” Sam shouted, he gripped one of the chains with his hand and pulled again, focusing all his energy. The metal shook angrily and the bracket came away a little more as he panicked, watching his tired and vulnerable brother losing the battle to stay conscious, “Let him go!”

Amii paid him no attention, instead she tightened her grip on Dean’s throat and she could feel her nails break through the skin, warm blood seeping out onto the cold and sweaty skin. Slowly, he managed to lift a hand and he tried to pull her hand away but he just had no strength left.

“I said let him go!” Sam cried, thrashing his arms about, frantically pulling the chain over and over again and each time he gained a little more as it came away some more. He saw Dean blink, the way his big brother always blinked when he was trying to keep his eyes focused, and it just pissed Sam off so much that she should be allowed to hurt his brother anymore.

One last effort and he pulled, growling as he did so, and the bracket came away from the wall, shackles heavy on his arms, weighing them down. But it was no worse than he’d had before. His left hand found its way around the metal rod and he brought it up with him as he dragged himself up from the floor and in less than two strides he was behind Amii.

“I said let go.” He demanded and he heard her gasp, she was shocked.

She span around, her hand still squeezing Dean’s throat, her light brown hair catching in her face as she did so, terror written plainly across her eyes. She took a step back, stumbling as she did so and taking Dean with her, she barely managed to catch herself and Sam knew that Dean was about to go. His face was set and Sam readjusted his grip on the rod as he caught a glimpse of Dean behind her, eyes closed and body unstable. Anger flared through him and he thrust the rod up and into the young girl.

Her scream echoed through the warehouse, bringing back a trickle of a memory from a distant vision of where he’d committed a similar act on the same girl. He let go of the rod, leaving it deep inside her guts, and rushed forward as she released Dean.

“Sweet Dreams.” Dean barely managed to choke out before collapsing into Sam’s arms, staring at Amii with more hatred than Sam thought possible.

“How you feeling Dean?” Sam asked gently as he lowered Dean down.

“M’fine… just tired.” Dean groaned, rolling his head away from Sam’s touch.

“Jesus Dean, you’re burning up. We need to get you out of here.” Sam shook his head as his brother swatted his hand away and instead turned his attention to Amii, her lifeless eyes staring at nothing but shadows. He took a deep breath and searched her pockets, hoping to find a key to the damn chains that just kept getting in the way.

Silently, he thanked God or whoever was up there because even though they weren’t doing their best job looking out for Sam and Dean, they had at least let him find the key – and the right key at that. So within minutes he and Dean were free of chains and were making their way out of the room.

“What now?” Dean grumbled as Sam opened to the door to find a corridor leading to the outside world.

“I was just thinking we’d make a run for it and hope yellow eyes doesn’t catch us.” Sam answered, arm wrapped tightly around Dean’s waist to keep him steady.

“Has that ever worked for us before?”

“Maybe once or twice… I’m hoping we get lucky.”

“Mmm-hmmm.”

Sam shrugged and glanced around as he helped Dean across the corridor, not once noticing the yellow eyed shadow watching them from behind. But that’s all the shadow did do – watch. It had known they’d find a way out, they were resourceful after all but it did feel some sorrow that Amii had to be sacrificed.

“Oh God no!” Dean gasped as they stepped out into the cold air.

“What?” Sam asked, head spinning for what caused his brother to call out and then his eyes fell on the same ugly little bug from before. The worst news was that there were no other cars in sight.

“You’re driving.” Dean said flatly, pulling himself out of Sam’s grip and moving around clumsily to the passenger side. Happy to find the door unlocked, he climbed in and settled himself on the seat, his eyes immediately falling closed.

Sam frowned, and clambered into the driver’s seat, making certain adjustments to get the car started. Judging by the surroundings, they were probably only a couple of miles away from the motel and as soon as they got back there, he was packing up their gear into the Impala and he and Dean were getting the hell out of there.

“You still with me bro?”

“You said I could sleep.” Dean moaned, turning to look at his brother, one eye creeping open.

“You can… but I wanna get us to the motel so I can check you out first. So just stay awake a little while longer.”

“I’m fine.”

“No your not. Hell, for all I know you could have a concussion after that rod hit your head.”

“I think I’d know.” Dean rolled his head away and looked out the window trying to fight back the darkness.

“Yeah well, you might but if you did, I don’t think you’d tell me.”

“Sure I would…”

Sam rolled his eyes and pulled the car onto the road, tearing off in the direction his guts told him to, “Yeah and there’s a pink bunny sitting in the back seat.”

“Just make sure it doesn’t eat us.”

It took nearly fifteen minutes to find their way back to the motel; Dean kept quiet, mumbling occasionally when Sam asked him if he was still awake. When they did get back Sam tried to help Dean but the stubborn brother refused, stumbling to the motel door.

“He really did a number on that place.” He muttered as Sam opened the door, his eyes were focused on the half burnt cabin.

Sam didn’t even look, didn’t want to remember the place or the way Dean had been splayed on the ceiling, just like his mom and just like Jess, “Let’s just get you cleaned up and into some clothes that haven’t been nearly burnt to a crisp.”

“Yes sir.” Dean mocked, dragging himself into the room and falling onto the bed, “Then I can sleep right?”

“Then you can sleep.” Sam agreed, kneeling on Dean’s bed, “Don’t move, okay?”

“Why?” Dean opened one eye and looked up at his brother, watching as Sam cut away his shirt, exposing his sweaty ash covered chest that wheezed in and out.

“Lift up.” Sam ordered; removing the shirt and grimacing as his brother winced against the pain.

“Careful with the merchandise.”

“Tell that to the demons, ghosts and other things that go bump in the night before they beat you up.”

“Maybe next time.” The grumble was barely audible but Sam heard it as his brother’s eyes slipped closed again.

“Okay…” Sam said, finally giving in to his tired brother, “I’ll wake you when I’ve packed the car - just make sure you wake up.”

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