when a soul mates

Castiel rises

The Empty is a strange place to end up in.

The Shadow of the Empty is a being so strong, that not even God can control it. Chuck knew about the rules in there and he knew how the Shadow was operating and he was frustrated about it since his knowledge had no use at all. For him at least, knowledge was a sort of power that you were supposed to use. Especially against people. Forming them, bending them towards his will.

The Empty is different, because there is nothing to bend. Its literal Nothingness. In theory at least. Physically there is nothing in the Nothing, but because you, as cosmic, supernatural being, don't really die like other species, you're not really gone. When a human dies its soul wanders straight to heaven or hell -depending on the will to not stay behind as a restless ghost- where it just exists as it was and go on with another form of presence.

Not in the Empty. You're just you, but the worst part, that's left of your consciousness. It repeats your worst regrets on a loop and time doesn't make any sense in that form of reality.

That's why when Castiel suddenly started falling and fell down on the hard, cold stone, which he immediately recognized, he couldn't possibly know how long it had been, that he'd seen this particular room. At least for real. He's seen it multiple times. Billions. But that wasn't real, it was back in the Empty.

Black goo vaporized into thin air as it let go of Castiels back and he slowly tried to stand up from his knees. Curiously and terribly confused he stared at his hands, started turning them around and started to feel his body to make sure he was real. He looked around the room, a pulse pounding in his temples. Nothing was different than from his memories, even the sigil was still there, written in his blood. Although it was way darker than the last time he saw it. The air inside his room was thick and hard to breathe in.

Breathe?

That was odd. He never felt like he had to hold his breath in case to not choke before. But he didn't want to waste his thoughts about that right now.

Nervously he reached for the door handle and stepped out on the hallway. In this very second he got this weird crawling feeling inside his stomach while he stood right there.

Would he scare the brothers just entering the kitchen or library while they were sitting there in quiet? Would they even believe it was really him? Was it really him at all? What if that was just a joke from the Shadow, a lame attempt to punish Castiel for keeping it awake for so long and all of this was just a dream?

Those thoughts were overwhelming, so he leaned against the wall and tried to regulate his breath.

They will be happy to see you.

Where could they be anyways? He didn't even know what time it was, so they could easily be asleep right now and the last thing he would want was for them to get a heart attack because suppose-to-be-dead-Castiel was leaning over them. There wasn't much else to try anyways than to just look around for everyone.

Jack. Maybe he could see Jack, he probably wouldn't try to shoot him the second he'd see Castiel alive and well in the middle of the maybe-night.

Castiel started walking down the hallway, where Jacks room was, but found it wide open full of stuff that didn't seem to belong to Jack, but to a terrifying version of Deans favorite horror movies. It was full to the roof with every sort of weapon he has ever seen, there wasn't even a bed inside anymore. It looked like an office, but instead of staplers, copiers and papers there were knifes, swords and guns everywhere. This was a Bat-Cave if he'd ever seen one. It was exactly like Dean used to talk about constantly.