You'd awoken to a strange sensation; the wind ruffling your feathers. You open your eyes to darkness, at least until you switched to your night vision. You're hidden in the nook of a tree, so small that, unless they're looking as hard as inhumanly possible, nobody can see you. Moving gently, you step out of your hiding spot, flinching violently at the cold aid that hits your skin.
You take a moment, trying to remember where you are and why you're there. When the memories hit, you step back with a gasp, mind dredging up all the images of the bodies it can. And then you remember the men.
Looking around, it's pretty obvious you've been outside for hours, and they're definitely looking for you. Crouching down, you extend your hands to the dirt. About an inch from making contact, electric blue feelers push out from your skin, digging deep into the earth as you place your palms hard against it, closing your eyes. The images come sharp and fast. The men are spread out, all yelling out as they search for you, the black and white figures disappearing for a second whenever they have to jump of a log or stop touching the earth for any number of reasons.
The man with wings flickers before disappearing for good. When he doesn't reappear within a few moments, you realize he's searching in the sky and you wrench your roots from the earth as you stumble back with a gasp.
Your survival instincts trump any trust they might have forged by getting you out of the cages, and you're up in seconds, running as fast as you can. You're faster than most people, at least, that's what you gauged from the white coats reactions to seeing your top speed, and you should have been clear within seconds. Unfortunately, the ground of the forest is not the smooth surface of the treadmill that you're used to, and you trip over a large stump, tearing the skin on your leg open, startling you into a cry of pain that you're sure echoed in the otherwise quiet forest.
Your feelers earlier had revealed that, other than the occasional bird on a branch, there were no animals in these woods. Whether the whitecoats had set out traps or the Erasers had hunted them all, you couldn't be sure.
With shaking arms, you push yourself up and take off again without checking your wounds. A hunted animal will run when presented with the opportunity, and not even pain will stop it.
Every time your feet touch the earth, your feelers extend for a heartbeat, revealing that the men are no where near you, but that knowledge does nothing to quell the fear eating your insides, especially as you still can't feel the winged man.
When the large wall of a wire cage reveals itself, you don't hesitate for even a fraction of an instant, propelling yourself up using what little air you can get with you wings trapped behind you to grab onto the barbed wire on top, launching over the side and ignoring the new tears in your skin. And then you hit the ground. The instant your feet touch the earth outside of the cage, your collar sparks into life, and you only manage a short, cut off scream before the electricity locks your jaw and the rest of your body with a constant wave of numbness.
***
Dean Winchester was tired. Today had not been a good day for him. First, he'd been forced awake earlier than no man should ever awaken to destroy some lab place that Cas was very adamant about, and now he has to find some freaking kid that Cas decided to take in. They've all been looking for it for hours and they hadn't come any closer to finding it.
A pained scream cuts those thoughts off short. Never mind, the kid was close. Something about the scream sounded weird, unnatural. Shaking the thought off, he moves, running as fast as he can through the woods. After a few minutes he stops, walking in a circle as he tries to figure out where he is. He's completely lost.
Picking a direction, he decides to follow it, moving as quietly as he can through the eerily silent trees. He's been moving in this direction for about two minutes (he's grown quite fond of his direction) when a second cry sounds from the opposite. Pausing, he looks back and forth between the directions, trying to figure out which one to take. The cry had sounded like the kid was in pain, but maybe they just tripped. He takes a few steps in his direction before stopping again. The sound had been cut off, which was never a good sign. But his direction! Fuck it.
He takes off again, this time to the sound of the cry. He runs until he sees a fence, large enough to cover the entirety of the compound and about twenty feet high. On the ground on the opposite side of the fence lies the kid, body shaking in uncontrollable convulsions. He moves faster, trying to build up momentum, before jumping with all his might. He only makes it about three feet up, smacking into the metal and groaning as he grabs on and tries to climb. Making it an additional six feet, he finally stops, seeming to realize that climbing isn't going to be fast enough, not to mention the barbed wire on the top which he'd failed to notice until he looked up partway through his climb.
After making it safely to the ground and making a few calls to the other two in his group, he paces the fence, searching for any give that could allow him to pull it apart. After a minute of this, he's hits with the sudden realization that the kid stopped making noise. Turning, he stares hard at their crumpled body, inspecting it for even the tiniest of movements. Other than the occasional twitch, they were still. With a growing sense of dread, he makes his way back toward them, grabbing the fence and pulling with all his strength. When it doesn't give, he slams his hands against it hard with frustration and stars yelling. Yelling for the kid to look at him, for his giant but slow moose of a brother, and for the idiotic angel that should have been there by now.
As if on cue, Cas appears beside him, pausing for only a second before he sees the problem and instantly reacts, burning a large hole in the fence to allow them to rush through.
When they reach the kid, Cas's panic grows exponentially. They're barely awake, eyes rolling in panic, unable to focus on anything through the pain coursing through them. Rolling them onto their side so they won't choke on their own tongue, the source of their pain is discovered. A thin metal band, almost like a collar, encircles their neck, a blue light emanating from a lock on the back, a rapid beeping obvious now that the men were nearer.
Before Dean can fully feel the horror that had begun to infect his lungs again, Cas touches the band, breaking the clasp, and the kid stills. As Cas reaches for them again, they grab his arm and yank, pulling him off balance. They pull themself up, eyes going unfocused as they fight through the pain, before setting their sights on Dean. He backs up, attempting to show that he means no harm, but just as they lunge for him, Sam appears out of nowhere, grabbing them and holding them tight to him until Cas gets close enough to help. They struggle even as he touches their forehead, fingernails digging deep into Sam's arms before the angel's sedation magic finally takes a hold of them and they drop.
A/N, as you might have guessed, this chapter takes place the night of Jesse's escape from The School. I was going to leave that night where it left off, but I decided to bring it back to sort of tie up some loose ends. The next chapter will also take place during this time.
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Devil With a Smile
Fanfiction2 years ago Max and the flock had left you in The School. 24 months ago you were betrayed by the only people you'd ever trusted. For 730 days, you'd harbored growing resentment for these kids who had left you to be tortured. Now you're rescued by a...
