This story is for the contest going on over at @brothersapart. Fans of gt and/or supernatural should give that blog a look, because there’s some quality writing of both over there. The contest has already attracted some really awesome entries, too! I’m adding mine into the fray.
The story is a slight AU of the Brothers Apart series. It takes place the night before Sam is cursed and shrunk by the witch.
Walt didn’t like it, but he hadn’t been left with much of a choice. The supply of crackers and dried meat from the last rat he’d managed to dispatch was running low, and the motel was in a slow season. No, Walt didn’t like it one bit.
It meant he had to venture into occupied rooms. He had to pray that no one saw him or came back while he was out somewhere vulnerable.
It only took one set of eyes spotting him and it could all be over. Walt had far too much experience with that simple truth. He’d spent days in a cage before, waiting for his enormous captor to return and either do away with him or sell him like an object, a pet. Leaving Mallory all alone. Walt was lucky he’d survived that.
That hadn’t hardened his heart the most against humans. Walt had been fortunate to meet one good human then. He was not so lucky when it was his daughter, his sweet baby girl, behind bars. Bars that Walt couldn’t budge no matter how much he wanted to.
Humans took Bree away from him, and all he’d ever been able to do was tell her it’d be okay and watch as they left with her in a cage, helpless.
Now, it was just him and Mallory. He preferred to keep his petite little wife out of danger as much as he could, and worked hard to bring home enough when he went out. He couldn’t lose her, too.
He shifted his feet as he waited. His hiding place under the bed wasn’t ideal, but the two kids staying in the room had dropped plenty of crumbs. He was desperate, and confident in his patience. The food in his leather satchel would be reward enough as soon as he had a clear shot at the entrance hidden behind the other bed.
There were two humans in the room with him, a fact that could set his heart pounding by itself. To top it off, they were kids. The older one was in his mid teens at the most. The slow rhythm of breathing was barely audible over the TV he’d left on, but Walt could tell he was asleep.
If it was just him, Walt would have made his exit already. A creak from the mattress overhead rang ominously in his ears as the younger boy shifted and squirmed into a more comfortable position on the bed. The scratching of a pen on the motel room’s notepad resumed as the boy continued his drawing, blissfully unaware of anything around him.
The TV announced a show to be starting soon, something about a hedgehog. Walt heard the quiet “Oooh!” from the kid above him, and found himself hoping that whatever it was might lull the younger kid to sleep as well. Then he could finally head home and put the stress of hiding in an occupied room behind him.
The boy shifted and the mattress creaked some more, and Walt watched the shadow out on the floor move. It looked like the kid was angling himself towards the TV more, and Walt edged forward carefully, thinking he could confirm the theory.
Just as he looked up, piercing blue eyes peering past the edge of the bed, he saw the pen plummeting downwards after being knocked to the edge by the boy’s movement. Walt gasped in surprised and stumbled to the side, barely avoiding the pen crashing down on top of him directly. Even so, it tilted and knocked into him anyway as he stumbled, leaving them both on the floor in a heap.
Heart pounding, Walt hastily shoved the pen away from him and looked up in time for a hand to fill his vision.
Brothers Apart 