The Year of Redemption

Chapter 29: Halo

"Dean!"

Dean felt something shaking his shoulder. "Dean!" the voice said again.

Dean was laying on his back. He was strangely aware of his body, especially his tactile senses. He felt everything: the fabric of his clothes against his skin, the mattress underneath him, the pillow under his head, the cold, moist morning air against his face, the hand pressing down on his shoulder – quite roughly, actually.

"Oww," he moaned. His shoulder was sore and in excruciating pain. His whole body was, really.

The hand let go of his shoulder. "Oh, sorry," the voice said.

Dean laid there for a few seconds blankly. His mind refused to register anything, his body refused to move. It was as if he was in a coma, but he was aware of it – it was the only thing he was aware of. Slowly, his other senses began coming back. He heard breathing, close. He flexed his fingers, trying to work some blood flow back into his body.

A sudden thought struck him. A single thought in his otherwise blank mind.

He froze.

His eyes shot open.

Then he bolted upright and whipped his head towards the voice that had spoken previously. He jumped off the bed and threw himself at the figure standing beside it, completely ignoring the pain that immediately shot through every part of his body.

"CAS!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, squeezing the angel with all his might. His biceps protested, sending sharp, agonizing pains that seemed to have a domino effect on the rest of his body, making every muscle torment him, yet he still didn't feel like he could hug Cas tight enough.

After a long time, Dean let go and glanced at the angel's face. "Cas!" he yelled again, pulling the angel into another tight hug. After a full minute, he broke the embrace and held Cas at arm's length, studying his face wide-eyed, incredulous.

Castiel cocked his head slightly to the side and stared back at Dean. He had never seen the hunter look at him like that. It was as if Dean saw him as a completely different person.

Cas's mind began to wander, envisioning all of the possible explanations for him still being alive. His thought process settled on one in particular, but he had a hard time believing it.

"What is the last thing you remember?" Dean demanded.

Cas narrowed his eyes, as if trying to search his memory. "The taste of your mouth," he replied suspiciously. Then his eyes glazed over, as if he was remembering more of the events that had transpired.

"What the hell happened?" Dean asked.

"I don't know," Cas said, still seeming faraway in some memory. "You were kissing me..." he gave Dean a strange look as he said this, "and I was trying to transport us towards a bright light. And just before that, you were plunging a knife through my stomach." He narrowed his eyes again.

Dean was still gripping him by the shoulders and staring at his face. "You're alive..." he said blankly, not even listening to Cas.

"Dean," Cas said firmly. "What did you do?"

Dean blinked, shaking himself from his trance. He opened his mouth to say something, but his eyes suddenly rolled back in his head, and he collapsed towards the ground.

Castiel's hands shot out quickly and caught Dean under the shoulders as he fell, lowering him slowly to the floor. Dean's eyes fluttered, but all Cas could see was white behind them. "Dean!" he said, concerned. He pulled up one of Dean's eyelids. The hunter's eye was pure white. Cas pulled up the other lid. Same thing.