Heart still pounding, Ziana navigated the short distance to her home. If Sam had come any deeper down the path, he might have found it. She wanted to kick herself for not heading in the opposite direction when she retreated upon being spotted. When he caught up to her, she thought for sure it was all over–all because of a stupid mistake. All because she had to go check if the human and his small companion would be checking out of the motel any time soon and put her mind at ease.
Falling to a crouch, she scooted off the edge of the wooden path to fall into the ‘foyer’ of her home. She removed her satchel and needle, blinking in the pale light that washed the low-ceilinged room beneath the floorboards. It was a modest place separated into three main sections: a general area for eating and food storage, and two bedrooms.
“You were talking to someone,” a voice rasped from the corner when Ziana walked into the far left bedroom. Shay sat up halfway in bed, propped on her elbows. Her arms arms shook, barely able to hold her torso up.
“Lay back down,” Ziana said with all the authority of a parent, though her friend was only a year younger than her. “It was nobody.”
The blonde flopped back down with a droll sigh, pushing in both sides of her pillow to fluff it up. “Well then, ‘Nobody’ has a deeper voice than yours. C’mon, who was it? New neighbors?”
“Just some guy.”
Ziana refused to look at her, feeling a stab of guilt at the tone of hopefulness in Shay’s voice. She set her satchel down on the lopsided table across from the bed and rummaged through it. Usually she would go straight to the pantries to store most of it, but Shay needed food now. As terrified as Ziana was to see a human shaking the floor in the next motel room over, that hadn’t stopped her from checking out the other rooms to scrounge up some food.
Still, she had messed up by letting Sam spot her. If she hadn’t known that he was hanging around with that human, she might have led him straight to Shay upon meeting him. After all, it would have never crossed her mind that someone their size was chummy with a giant.
What she wished at the moment, though, was that Shay had been sleeping like she was supposed to. Then she wouldn’t have heard Sam.
“Some guy?” Shay echoed, a faint smile in her voice. “What, did you try to flirt him into finding us some meds?”
Ziana gave a tight chuckle. “No. Just some guy. Just passing through.”
“Liar,” Shay insisted. “What’d he look like?”
“Oh, dreamy. Tall, brown hair, hazel eyes, and out of his damn mind.”
There was a pause, and even with her back turned, Ziana knew Shay’s smile fell. “Hey. Ziana, what’s going on?”
Ziana slammed the wrapped granola crumbs down on the makeshift table so hard that she was surprised it didn’t collapse. “He’s with a human,” she said, baring her teeth. “I saw them. They were talking. The human was holding him, carrying him around. The guy says his name’s Sam. He came to check if anyone was here, and now he knows.”
When the explanation was met with silence, Ziana sighed and made herself turn around. If Shay’s cheeks weren’t so flushed with fever, she would have been paler than pale.
“Then we need to get out of here,” Shay croaked, adjusting herself to sit up and put her legs over the side of the bed.
“No, no, no, you’re too sick.” Ziana rushed over to push her shoulders back down and yank the blanket back up. “Look, I gave the guy a black eye that I’m sure he’ll cherish for the next week or so, and I called him out on what he was trying to do. He left. I don’t think he’ll be bothering us anymore.” She tried to sound sure of herself, but Shay didn’t buy it.
“You punched a guy and he went back to his gigantic human friend? Oh yeah, nothing can go wrong there.” Nonetheless, Shay didn’t try to get up again. Her breaths came shorter, rife with agitation. “What did he say when you told him you knew?”
Ziana snorted a humorless laugh and stepped back to grab a sticky piece of granola for Shay–the biggest one she could get her hands on. “He tried to tell me that the human doesn’t want to hurt us, obviously. Then he tried to feed me some bullshit story that the human is his brother. I dunno, I think he was trying to throw me off. He probably would have offered to introduce me to the guy if I didn’t have my needle out.”
She helped Shay sit up before passing her the food so she wouldn’t choke on her meal. Exiting the room briefly, she returned from the kitchen with a half empty bottle cap of water, setting it carefully on Shay’s lap while she ate. Ziana pulled up a stool constructed from a block of wood next to the bed and sat down.
Munching pensively on her granola, Shay frowned at the thin blanket. “What if he’s telling the truth, though? I mean, the human is letting him walk around in the walls without worrying that he’ll run off. Doesn’t sound like something a human would do. Maybe he’s… different.”
She received a laugh in response. “This fever’s getting to you,” Ziana dismissed, giving Shay a playful tap on the side of her head.
“I’m serious,” Shay insisted, waving her off. “What if… I dunno, what if you asked Sam if his human could give us some medicine? Maybe we wouldn’t even have to meet the human! I mean, if he’s as nice as Sam says he is, wouldn’t he help?”
Ziana went quiet. She hadn’t even thought about that, seeing as she hadn’t considered for even a moment that Sam told the truth. Shaking her head, she brushed off the idea of that being possible. “So what if the human lets Sam walk around? The guy’s probably trained up so well that the human doesn’t have to worry about his pet running off. We’ve gotten through fevers before, Shay. You’re going to be fine without some human’s help. Got it?”
Shay licked her dry lips and gave Ziana a long, uncertain look that sent another wave a guilt through Ziana. What, is she not worth the risk? a voice taunted at the back of Ziana’s mind. You’ll let her suffer because you won’t take a chance? Selfish, selfish, selfish.
After offering Ziana the rest of her food, Shay slid back down in the sheets and curled up on her side. Once her breaths evened out to a peaceful rhythm, Ziana pressed a hand to her cheek, dismayed to find Shay was burning up worse than ever. The bandaged gash on her arm was most certainly infected, and their best option for obtaining medicine was unthinkable.
Sighing, she ran her hand through Shay’s blond hair and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“You’re going to be fine,” Ziana whispered. “We don’t need them.”
“What the hell do you think we are?” Dean growled up at the human towering over them. This guy certainly had looming down. The Winchesters were both tense and prepared, ready to act the second they saw an opening. Sam didn’t need a hook or thread to climb down from most surfaces, though shimmying down was much more dangerous. Desperate times.
Dean shoved Sam in the opposite direction. “Now!” he shouted.
Sam would know what to do.
In unison, the two brothers tossed themselves forward with their knives. Almost at the same time, twin silver blades cut into the hands, one on each side. They needed to get the hands out of their way. If they couldn’t manage that, they wouldn’t have a ghost of a chance at escaping.
Jacob will be the first person to agree with you there, I can tell you that! They don’t have a ruler to measure him in the story, but he’s about an inch and a half tall, making him just about teddy bear sized to Sam.
Because of the immense size difference, this is a horror story. It’s darker than our normal stuff, and experimental in a lot of ways to see how our styles do with horror. It’s not a story for everyone, and it’ll be a roller coaster ride from start to finish!
Jacob was quickly distracted from his shock at Sam and Bowman’s size when he felt the rumble in the ground. A much bigger rumble than before. The tips of each blade of grass around them quivered in time with the tremors, and the shaking traveled up his legs through his planted feet and shaking knees.
He knew what caused it and his regret for the extra shrinkage doubled. It was one thing to face being tiny in a very big world alongside his friends. But now even they were big to him, so tall that he had to tilt his head back to speak directly to them. And that was nothing compared to what was making the ground shake beneath him so much.
Sam got on Jacob’s hand, planting his boots so he wouldn’t lose balance when it started moving. He gestured for the teen to lift it up. “We won’t let you down. Oh, and Dean?” He pulled out the rest of his salt, tossing the pouch to his older brother. “Just in case.”
Dean gave a jaunty salute with the salt, his trademark smirk in place.
Sam charged, and this time Dean used his own smaller size to his advantage. Being the eldest, it smarted to have ended up the smaller of the two brothers, but it also meant he could dodge a lot faster than his bulky brother.
Dean dodged to the side, letting Sam blow past him. He lashed out with a foot, catching Sam’s arm with his hand and sending him to the ground. The end result was Dean holding Sam pinned to the ground, smirking at the annoyed hazel eyes below.
The sharp sound of someone clearing his voice came from behind, and Dean twisted around in surprise. Sam was standing on the edge of the shelf with a disapproving frown on his face. A boot dangled from each hand.
Sam saw the look on Dean’s face and put his eggs down. “I’ll be fine,” he said quietly. “Do what you’ve gotta do.”
Dean swallowed and stepped onto the hand at last. “Okay.” He hadn’t thought it would be so hard to leave, but for so long, they’d been all each other had. Someone to watch out for, and to watch his back in return, and now he’d be on his own with a human. Only a few hundred feet from Sam at any time, but still too far to get back on time without help if something went wrong.
Brothers Apart 