The Other Side Of Purgatory

Chapter Three

"You," I used my blade for emphases, pointing it his way, gunk dripping off the edges, "were a hunter."

He didn't even turn around. "Yeah, and?" He was wiping sludge from his blade, running his hand along the flat of it then slinging what gathered on the ground.

I couldn't help but laugh, all the pieces falling into place and the irony of a hunter trapped in a place full of things he'd spent his life killing didn't escape me. "How does a hunter land himself in Purgatory?"

"It's a long story involving an exploding Dick."

"You have my undivided attention."

He was looking me over like he wasn't sure or maybe he was just thinking where to start. He was swaying, shifting his weight and the indecision flitted across his face. Whatever he was thinking, he ended up holding up his blade and running his fingers along the edge and saying, "This thing - it's just as sharp now as when I picked it off that shifter."

I sighed 'Friend' or not, he still didn't trust me but I hadn't trusted him with much either so I guess we were still fair.

"Time. It doesn't work here. Without it, nothing changes. That blades gonna be sharp no matter what you do to it."

He was staring at me. "How do you mean 'time don't work here'?"

"You're human, at least in theory," and I was smiling but his face turned into that stony killer glare so I hurried and said, "but humans need to eat, and sleep, and they feel tired, right?"

His nod was slow.

"Well, have you felt tired? Hungry?" and he said, "No," quick.

"But you've been here, fighting and we've been moving near constantly."

"And?" he says, like the rules don't apply to him.

"How long do you feel like you've been here?" I asked.

"A few hours, maybe." He said but he was working through it in his head. I knew he was working out how many fights we'd had, how far we'd traveled. How he hadn't needed to stop and rest at all, or look for food, or even retie his boots. "No." He was shaking his head and running a hand over his face. "It has to have been weeks but that can't be right."

"Time," is all said. He could work it out.

"How do we kill these things then? How are they dead if things can't change?" He asked and I had no answer for him. I hadn't thought of that. I just shrugged and left him to his thoughts. There was a moment of silence then a type of dawning lit on him and was asking, "Wait, no hunger? So... you?"

I shook my head with a smile. "Who would I eat down here?" his heart was beating just a little faster. "You?" Then he was moving quick and he was in my face, challenging me, standing close enough I could feel his breath and I was awash in his warmth. He was staring into me and I resisted the urge to grab his shoulders and push him away - put some distance between us.

"I'd like to see you try." Is all he said but I knew he was reminding me I was as good as dead to him the moment he didn't need me anymore. 

"Look, I know what you think of me -" but he turned on me and his face was pure rage.

"You don't know anything about me or what I think!"

"Alright. Alright." I said, taking a step back from him.

"I don't want to talk about it. Why don't you whistle some tune and Pied Piper something here that I can kill."

"Whatever you say," and I plucked a few notes from the fog in my memory and tried to build a song of it. The more I stir around in those cloudy areas of my mind, the easier it is to pull clearer memories forward. Maybe it has to do with this human. I had joked about his humanity before but he might be reminding me of my own.

Nothing came at us and I dropped the tune long ago when we stumbled into a tidy little nest of monsters in a clearing. There were six of them. He took off two heads before the whole group was aware he was there. I took down another when she ran at me. Two more heads hit the ground and he had the last one backed up against a tree.

This man, his eyes cut to me as he asked the monster, "Where's the Angel?" and when he laughed a response, Winchester's eyes were still boring into me as he swung his blade and it buried deep into the bark of the tree, another head on the ground while the body crumpled to rest.