Cowboys and Angels

08. Meta Fiction

A record-needle static sounded and hands typed on a typewriter. Fanfare-Rondeau by Jean-Joseph Mouret played in the background.

Metatron was sitting at the typewriter and looked into the camera before saying, "What makes a story work? Is it the plot, the characters, the text? The subtext? And who gives a story meaning? Is it the writer? Or you? Tonight, I thought I would tell you a little story and let you decide."

---

Water turned on in the Men of Letters shower. Dean stood under the spray, slowly dragged his hands through his hair and over his eyes as the water poured over him. He stood in front of the mirror and wiped away the steam. He looked into his own eyes for a second and sighed. His eyes wandered to his right arm and he rubbed the Mark of Cain with his left hand.

Sam was on the phone while poring over numerous files in the Bunker library.

"Yeah," Sam said. "All right. Thanks, Carlos. Listen, you, uh, if you catch wind of any other demon activity, give me a holler, all right? Appreciate it."

He saw Dean enter and greeted, "Hey."

"Anything?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. A dozen demon-related cases, people without should acting out, but..."

"But no sign of Abaddon."

"Right. Looks like she vanished."

"Well, we just got to keep digging."

"Right." He noticed Dean rubbing absentmindedly at the Mark on his arm. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Let's get to work."

"All right."

INT. UNDERGROUND FACTORY

Castiel was walking down a corridor. She was trying to locate a pulsing sound. Castiel caught her jacket on something and tore it, but continued trying to search for the origin of the sound. She entered a room and there were bloodied bodies everywhere and on the wall was a sigil written in blood. She took out her phone and took picture of it. Behind her, someone was drawing an angel blade on her. She whipped around and disarmed the man.

The man begged for his life. "Please... please, don't! Don't hurt me."

"I'm not gonna hurt you," Castiel told her. "It's okay. What's your name?"

"Harvey."

"Harvey, w-what happened here?" Harvey looked at the sigil and back to Castiel.

"Yeah, I... I heard it, too. What was it?"

"I don't know," Harvey replied. "It, uh, it sounded familiar. It sounded like Heaven. It's so strange down here. I, uh, followed the tone and found so many of my brothers and sisters had, as well. It felt safe here, and then the doors slammed shut and a strange angel arrived. He said he worked for the new God."

"For Metatron?"

"Mm-hmm. He made us an offer... join Metatron, fight for him, and those that did would one day be allowed to return to Heaven."

"Return to Heaven?"

"I didn't believe him, either. But he said he would take us home. Some angels joined him. My friends and I refused, and, uh..."

"I'm so sorry for your loss. For all our loss." She reached towards Harvey and healed his wounds.

"You're Castiel, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"You took a stand against Bartholomew. Are you going to help us, lead us against Metatron?"

"I'm no leader."