Winchester or Angel?

18. Real

ERIN

Music. Dancing. The beautiful flowing of dresses. I look up to find myself surrounding in masks, morphing and changing color.

I reach out to pull one off, but instead of just one, they all come off.

Except one.

The last mask slips further out of my reach, until finally out of sight. I look down to see a coffin, waiting for me. Looking up, I see wood and realize I'm in the coffin, burning. I scream, but to no avail. Slamming my hands on the lid, I find a dial. I turn the dial; left, right, then left again. No luck.

Giving up on the dial, I punch the coffin, making it crack. I pull and scratch at the pieces of wood causing dirt to collapse upon me. I dig, unable to breathe yet somehow able to force my way up. My hand touches air, then skin.

One hand grips mine, then a second, but the second burns cold.

Ripped out of my grave, I take a deep breath.

"UGH, Jeez, Sammy. Might wanna wash your socks before you stick them in people's faces." I complain, feeling dizzy after waking, but still able to sit up.

"Smelling salts." Sam informs me, showing me the small test tube of white rocks. "For some reason, Cas couldn't wake you up, so we brought you back to the motel, and I made some smelling salts with stuff I got at the nearby drugstore."

"Oh." I reply. "Thanks."

"Now that you're awake, I may be able to see what the problem was." Castiel approaches me, reaching out with two fingers.

"Wait, Cas." Sam interrupts. "Give her a minute. How are you feeling, Erin?"

"I'm okay. I think." I reply, rasping a bit. I cough before asking my next question. "How long was I out?"

"Just overnight." Alex informs me. "Not long, but my birthday is over."

"Oh no, Alex!" I cry out, coming to the realization that I freaked her out on her birthday. "I ruined your special day. I'm so sorry."

"Erin, hush. It wasn't your fault, and I'm more sorry about you passing out than you missing the end of the night." Alex tries to console me.

I take a deep breath, then decide I'm ready for whatever it is the angel wants to do. "Well, alright then. Let's go ahead and get this over with."

"Come here." Dean tells me, pulling up a dinner chair for me. "Sit down and brace yourself." He's starting to really scare me...

"This shouldn't hurt." He then closes his eyes, touching my forehead with the aforementioned index and middle fingers. I watch him closely, seeing his eyes glow behind their lids, looking for any reaction to anything amiss.

Cas scrunches his eyes, switching to full hand-on-forehead contact. He's starting to worry me. "Is there something wrong?" I ask.

"I don't know." He answers, removing his hand from my head.

Cas then takes a step back, removes the trench coat he always has on, then sets in on a nearby chair. He then unbuttons his right shirt cuff, and rolls it up past his elbow. Castiel unbuckles his belt, pulling it out from his pant loops making both mine and Alex's eyebrows raise.

"Cas." Alex hesitantly calls for his attention. "What are you doing?"

Instead of answering Alex, Castiel turns to me and warns me, "This will be unpleasant." Before folding his belt and putting it in my mouth. "Bite down on this and lean back. If there's someplace that you find soothing, you should go there. In your mind."