Gone

3

When Dean woke up from the darkness, Castiel fed him again.

The light beyond the window was fluttering and dim, like there were leaves beyond the glass blocking the sun. Dean watched it carefully.

When Castiel was done feeding him, he sat down beside Dean and didn't move.

Dean continued staring at the window.

After a while, Dean began to wonder what Cas was doing. He hadn't gotten up in at least 20 minutes. And he hadn't made a move to talk to Dean either.

After was seemed like hours of curious thoughts knawing at his brain, Dean looked at Castiel.

It was just a quick look, nothing thorough, just enough to see what he was doing. Dean's eyes hurt a little from looking so far to the right.

Castiel was reading. He was sitting with one foot on the chair and the other planted on the floor. His book was propped up against the higher knee. It took Dean a few seconds to realize exactly what it was, he had not seen one in so long.

Dean turned his eyes back to the window, the mystery solved, and mind quieted at last.

He tried to black out.

But he didn't.

Dean's vision stayed clear, and his mind awake and aware. He continued trying to quiet his thoughts to nothing, but it didn't work.

This happened sometimes, every once in a while. His brain would just not shut down, not cooperate.

Dean hated it when that happened.

He squeezed his eyes shut, at first softly and then so hard they hurt. Nothing changed.

He opened his eyes again and resigned himself to the fact that he was not going to fade out anytime soon. The last time this had happened, it had been hours and hours before the dark claimed him again. He had even started to remember.

Remembering was the worst, as he had no idea what he was remembering about. Flashes of torture, black eyes and sadness. But the worst was when he remembered the tall man with long brown hair, and kind blue-green eyes that twinkled. That was much worse than meathooks and people with fangs and fire burning his body.

Dean busied himself watching a beetle crawl up the wall, listening to the turning of pages. The sound was so unfamiliar in this quiet place, Dean forgot the beetle after a while and listened to Cas turning the pages. It made something stir in the back of his head, rising through the fog. He listened to the turning of pages as the memory, (or nightmare, either would work) flooded his mind.

The man turned pages as Dean watched, with one hand on a cup of coffee. He had a red and orange plaid shirt on, and his hair was long. Almost to his shoulders, making Dean itch to cut it. As he watched, the man's eyes lit up, and he slammed his finger onto a paragraph of text from the ancient book he was studying. "I've got it!" He almost yelled.

Dean raised an eyebrow, inviting the man to explain himself. The other man cleared his throat, and read from the book; "'The Vampire Cat. The stories of the Ainu people of Japan tell us that if man kills a cat without taking proper precautions, the spirit of the cat will avenge itself by killing him. The cat enters the man who killed it, who then gradually wastes away while gesturing like a cat and meowing. This awful death can be prevented by eating a part of the cat when it is killed, or it can be cured by killing a second cat and eating it" Dean cringed as the man finished speaking, looking at him expectantly.

"Wow. That is weird." Dean said.

The man nodded his head, while reading more about the Vampire Cat out loud. Dean didn't listen as much this time, just little snippets about this new creature they were hunting. He sipped his coffee as the memory slipped away.

_____________

Dean's vision cleared, and the memory passed as soon as it had come. The colors and words left Dean's head as he tried to remember, sifting away like sand. He could never remember the details of a memory after it left, the same way you can't remember things you've seen in dreams. They just vanish, and there is no way of accessing those moments again. He already couldn't recollect what color shirt the man was wearing.

Castiel was still reading the book, Dean could hear the page turning right now. He couldn't have slipped away too long. Not long enough for Cas to notice, anyways.

He heard a rustle, and then the thud of Castiel's book hitting the floor.