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.
Tag: tumblr entry 2016
Nowhere Else to Turn (Part 4/8)
( This is my entry for the @brothersapart 2016 Contest:http://brothersapart.tumblr.com/post/136391836334/brothers-apart-contest-2016 . Enjoy! )
Ziana slept for a total of five minutes while sitting by Shay’s bed. Spending the majority of the day and evening scoping out rooms for food and non-existent medication took more out of her than she cared to admit, but she didn’t dare go to bed after her encounter with the man claiming to be brothers with a friendly human.
A stressful day overall.
She blinked hard and shook her head as she came out of her brief nap. Standing up, she stretched her sore arms over her head; that was what she got for sitting with her arms crossed so tightly for hours. Shay was curled up with her back to Ziana, the blanket pulled up to her chin.
Dim light filtered from one wall. The lamps were on in the motel room on the other side. It had to be morning at least, judging by the rumble of footsteps coming from the room. Ziana could only hope that meant the “brothers” were preparing to leave that morning. After all, Sam claimed they would only stay for one more night.
“Good morning,” Ziana said in a singsong voice, moving over to the table to scrape up some breakfast. Not for her; she could do without, but Shay needed to eat and keep her strength up if they wanted any hope of breaking that fever. “Looks like Sam decided not to have his human come rain hell on us.”
When she received no answer, she looked over her shoulder from the crinkly wrapper.
“Shay?” she called, a little louder.
A barely audible moan came in reply.
Dropping the crumbs on the table, Ziana rushed back to the bed and leaned over Shay to turn her over. Skin hotter than ever, Shay fluttered her eyelids a few times but couldn’t keep them open more than halfway before they drooped back shut.
“Shay? Say something, come on!” Ziana sat on the edge of the bed and pulled the other girl’s upper body into her arms, giving her a rough shake. “Come on!”
“M’sleepy,” Shay murmured, peering at Ziana from under her eyelashes. “Just… a little more sleep. I’ll be fine.”
“Don’t give me that! You know this isn’t okay!”
Ziana bit her lip and shifted Shay’s weight to one side so she could peek under the bandage on Shay’s upper right arm. Bracing herself, she lifted the edge of the wrapped cloth and almost gagged; the skin around the gash was angry red and swollen. She didn’t look at it long enough to be sure, but some nasty stuff seemed to have built up on and around it.
“Gross,” Ziana hissed, cradling Shay back into both arms. “I’ll look again today for some medicine. Hell, even an actual bandage. I swear, I won’t come back until I–Shay?”
The other girl’s eyes were no longer even at half-mast. Her eyelids didn’t so much as twitch in response to Ziana’s voice. The only signal that assured Shay was alive was the weak tickle of breath on Ziana’s neck. But who knew for how much longer that would last if they carried on like this, with no proper medication for the festering wound.
Maybe we can help, she remembered the man from the motel room saying.
“Shut up, Sam,” Ziana muttered, clutching Shay more protectively at the mere thought of the massive human stomping through the room just beyond the wall. Dean, Sam had called him.
Shay let out a soft, shuddering sigh like a whimper, her head falling limply against Ziana’s shoulder. Her breaths came slower, and she began to shake. For a few agonizing moments, Ziana sat there on the edge of the bed, aware that Shay’s skin could go from burning hot to icy cold in a matter of hours if she didn’t do something.
“Fine, fine, fine!”
There was nowhere else to turn. She secured one arm around Shay’s shoulders and slipped the other under her knees to scoop her up. Too desperate to change her mind there and then, Ziana rushed to the passage leading to Sam and Dean’s room.
~~~
By the time she reached the opening behind the nightstand, Ziana had considered going back home no less than a dozen times. It occurred to her that she hadn’t brought her climbing gear. Not that it mattered. Hauling Shay around meant that hooks and ropes weren’t going to do either of them any good. Still, she felt naked without her usual supplies. She wanted to kick herself for not grabbing her needle on the way out, at least.
If Sam was lying and Dean was the snatch-em-up type, she and Shay were royally screwed. But what else could she do? She couldn’t leave Shay to die, even if others would do just that rather than go to a human for help. She could barely handle watching Shay when she first broke out in a fever.
The floor shook again–a sure sign that Dean hadn’t left the room. The drone of the TV was mere background noise between the human’s stomping and Ziana’s instincts screaming in her head to flee back to safety.
A glance down at Shay’s troubled face was enough to force Ziana through the opening and walk along the edge of the wall. She moved out from behind the nightstand, but stayed hidden between it and the bed’s shadows.
The towering human stood by the far table, packing things up by the looks of it. Sam hadn’t been lying when he said they were only staying for that night, and it seemed neither of the “brothers” had pursued any interest in finding people in the walls after last night’s incident.
Ziana swallowed hard. “H-Hey,” she said, quieter than a mouse.
And then Dean’s boots were on the move.
Ziana held Shay tighter, biting back a cry and shoving her back against the wall, but the human didn’t move in her direction. In fact, it seemed he was still minding his own business. He hadn’t even heard her. She squared her shoulders and tried again when he stopped moving in front of the dresser.
“Hey.” It wasn’t much louder than the first time.
Again, she was ignored.
Feeling her cheeks grow hot, she bit down hard on her lower lip and released a long, shrill whistle to get his attention. “Hey!” she roared. The giant’s movements paused. “Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you, long legs!”
The moment the words left her lips, Ziana realized she should have at least left Shay within the opening of the passageway until she could get a better read on Dean’s personality instead of carrying her vulnerable friend directly into danger. She should have grabbed her needle. She should have had a backup plan in case things went south.
She should have not yelled at a freaking giant.
But it was far too late to take it back and do it over. The boots turned and started for the nightstand.
Nowhere Else to Turn (Part 2/8)
( This is my entry for the @brothersapart 2016 Contest: http://brothersapart.tumblr.com/post/136391836334/brothers-apart-contest-2016 . Enjoy! )
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.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Shay murmured finally. “He’d probably just trap us.”
Blinking hard, Ziana nodded firmly.
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.”
Nowhere Else to Turn (Part 1/8)
( This is my entry for the @brothersapart 2016 Contest: http://brothersapart.tumblr.com/post/136391836334/brothers-apart-contest-2016 . Enjoy! )
The rusty pipes echoed with the sound of water rushing through so loudly that it felt like the water system was on its way to falling apart. Sam had long since grown used to the sound after spending the majority of his life living within the walls of a motel. To a human, the sound of water flowing through the pipes was hardly noteworthy.
A sound at the front door would have concerned Sam far more, though thankfully no sound came. Dean hadn’t ordered any food that night, so there was no reason to anticipate any sort of knock yet. He announced that he would order Chinese after his shower.
Most of Sam’s attention was invested in waiting for the adrenaline rush of the latest case to wear off.
He and his brother had arrived the night before and gotten straight to work. Neither of them had slept since checking in, and Sam still felt too wired to even think about laying down. The case was over. A regular salt and burn to Dean, but it was anything but regular to Sam.
Because they had been swept up into the whirlwind of the case, Sam hadn’t taken the opportunity to inspect the walls yet. It had become routine for him since joining his brother on the road. At first, Sam had been optimistic that he would meet more people his size living within the walls of the motels he and his brother stayed in. But Sam had yet to find anyone since leaving the Trails West behind.
And that was the last place he wanted to think about.
Swallowing the mournful thoughts that threatened to surface, he continued on his path along the base of the wall. His best bet was to check out the vents. Finding an opening within that led into paths within the walls would provide evidence for small people claiming residence in the motel.
He prepared himself for disappointment. He and Dean would be off in the morning anyway. There would always be more motels to inspect.
Thumbing his coiled climbing rope, Sam leaned in to peek through the slat of the vent near the ground. The air conditioning rumbled, mingling with the noise of the rushing pipes. He narrowed his eyes at the darkness, but before he could begin to climb in for a closer look, something stirred in the corner of his vision.
Sam lurched away from the vent to look farther down the wall, but in a swish of brown hair and a shifting section of drywall, the movement fled from view.
“Hey, wait!” Sam called, starting a few steps toward the back of the nightstand before he slowed to a stop, dumbfounded.
No way. After a month of examining the inner walls of their motel rooms, he finally came across someone his own size. He would have chalked it up to an animal scurrying out of the room, but most mice didn’t have light skin and a head of brown hair.
The pipes squeaked as the water shut off and snapped Sam back to attention. Instead of letting his thoughts race, he sprinted for the nightstand, determined to catch up with the person. He wasn’t sure what spooked them into running off, but he had a guilty suspicion in his gut. Maybe it wasn’t the first time the person had peeked into the room. If that was the case, they might have seen something that made trusting Sam out of the question.
Sure enough, he found the loose, crumbling section of drywall that the person disappeared behind. It would have been almost impossible for a human to spot it on their own, especially if they didn’t know what they were looking for. Sam liked to think he would have spotted it himself if given the chance to get that far in his exploration of the room.
Prying away the opening, he slipped inside and listened. Sure enough, the sound of pattering footsteps came from the side, retreating further with each passing second. After years of living in walls similar to these, it didn’t take long for his eyes to adjust to the dismal light. He took off at a sprint, careful not to trip over the small sections of woodwork jutting up along the path.
“Wait up! It’s okay!”
The footsteps paused for a brief moment, but Sam didn’t slow down. He turned a corner and spotted her. One wide eye glanced over her shoulder before she bolted off again. She was shorter than him with shorter strides, so he was able to close the distance in a matter of seconds.
He reached out and took her shoulder gently, not that his gentleness was given any appreciation. There were a number of things he was prepared for her to do: scream, squirm away, run faster, or freeze up.
What he didn’t expect was for her to whirl around and punch him squarely in the face.
“Back off!” she hissed as he did just that, staggering back in shock with a hand instinctively jumping up to guard his throbbing right eye.
The needle she whipped out from her belt made him take another step back.
The girl shuffled back a couple of steps too, holding her weapon at the ready and wearing an expression that said she wouldn’t hesitate to run him through if he gave her a reason. Behind the hard look in her eyes, Sam saw something familiar: fear. Her breaths rattled out with agitation, shoulders tense with preparation for anything. She couldn’t be more than in her late teens, but he could tell there wasn’t a drop of innocence left in her. No willingness to risk giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Careful not to make any sudden movements, Sam held his hands palms-out to show peace. He could have wielded his own knife in retaliation in case she attacked unprovoked, but she hadn’t lashed out until he touched her. She acted in what she thought was self-defense.
“I’m sorry for startling you,” he said calmly. “I was just checking to see if anyone lived around here.”
“Yeah, I do, and it’s private property. Now leave me alone. A bloody nose goes very well with a black eye.”
He hesitated, lips parted in surprise at her hostility. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen another one of us,” he said, shoulders slumping. “Can we just talk? My name’s Sam–”
“Cut the crap, Sam. I know you’re with that human out there! I saw you.” The girl edged back tensely, as if he would charge at her just for telling him what she had seen.
Suspicions confirmed, Sam sighed and ran a hand through his brown hair. “You saw that? Well… Then you saw he wasn’t hurt me, didn’t you? His name’s Dean. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone like us. He treats us the same as he would treat other humans.”
The girl laughed. “Right, right. Why don’t you go scamper on back to him and leave me alone? I’m not interested in whatever’s going on with you. I’m sorry that you’re delusional, but that’s no reason for me to put myself in danger.”
“You’re not in danger,” Sam insisted. He paused and gave her a long look, wondering if telling her the truth would make her even less inclined to trust him. Maybe if she knew that Dean wasn’t some random human… “He’s my brother. He would never hurt me.” Spotting the immediate confusion twist on her face, he didn’t bother letting her ask. “I was a human once too,” he explained, “but I was cursed by a witch when I was a kid. I’ve been this size ever since.”
She looked him up and down. “Uh-huh,” she said slowly.
A small smirk touched his lips despite himself. “You don’t believe me.”
“Well, Sam. The way I see it, you’re either lying and you can fuck off, or you’re telling the truth and you can definitely fuck off.” The admission of his origin made her even more wary, Sam noticed with a sinking heart. “Because my first thought when I woke up today wasn’t, ‘Hmm, you know what would go great with all my problems? Witches and curses. Let’s get those in the mix.’”
“What kind of problems?” Part of Sam knew that attempting to earn her trust was a lost cause, but he had to try. “My brother and I are staying one more night. Maybe we can help you.”
She raised her needle, not even a touch of leniency in her eyes. “You’ll stay away from here if you know what’s good for you. So, go. Now.”
He opened his mouth to protest, then closed it. One more look at her face, and he knew he wasn’t getting anywhere with her. There was nothing wrong with her reaction, he knew that. If he was in the same position, he wouldn’t trust anyone who said there was a human who could be trusted with someone his size. Sam wasn’t about to force this girl into doing anything she didn’t want to, including remain in his presence.
Nodding respectfully, he eased back. “We won’t bother you,” he promised, not daring to give his back to her. “You have nothing to worry about.”
Once he turned the corner, he listened closely to make sure she wouldn’t run to get the jump on him. After a few long moments, her footsteps hurried off in the opposite direction. He bit back a sigh, hoping he hadn’t frightened an innocent person into putting herself in danger by taking her things and moving out.
Brothers Apart 