A Million Reasons || Book 2 of 'I Caught Fire Series'

Chapter 23 - Alpha & Omega

"Dad?" I whisper, my hands fluttering over him uselessly. Sam comes and kneels down on the other side, looking down at the entity, "Hey. Chuck."

He remains still and my heart freezes up in fear as I whisper, "Dad, can you hear me?"

Chuck let's out a groan and shifts on the ground, allowing me to let out a breath of relief. Sam leans down, "Chuck, how do you feel?"

He tries to sit himself up and I help him as he weakly says, "You know when you're driving and bug hits your windshield? I'm the bug."

"So what Amara said about you..." Sam trails off and Chuck groans, clutching at his stomach, "Dying. Yeah, whatever she did to me, I can feel my spark, my light fading.
And when it's gone..."

My chin trembles as I feel tears forming in my eyes, the reality of my father's demise setting in. Dean comes and kneels down beside me, his eyes locked on Chuck, "Okay, well, tell us how to fix you."

"You can't." He says with a shake of his head, "I suppose she could, maybe, but that's never gonna happen."

The door to the factory opens up and Dean whips into a standing position, his gun aimed at the intruder. I look over and see Rowena come in, looking disheveled and like she has taken a beating. She looks towards Dean and murmurs, "So that was a gun in your pocket."

Dean lowers his arm, and I turn back to my father. I offer him an arm, which he takes and I raise him to his feet. He grits his teeth in pain as he does, this taking up a lot of energy for him. We exchange a look, when it's interrupted by a familiar accent, "Well, that was a complete and utter dog's breakfast, wasn't it?"

"I didn't know dog's had breakfast." Cas murmurs and Dean smiles, "Cas is back."

"Just curious, has anyone bothered to look outside?" The witch asks, drawing all of our collective attention.

We follow her outside, where there is a black mark on the ground from the smite of the angels. But that doesn't contain my attention for long, instead my eyes drift towards the sky. The sun burns duller than ever, the sky a mixture of purple and orange hues. But the sun shouldn't be shining, because it is night time.

"What is it?" Dean asks, to which Sam answers, "It looks like the sun's..."

"Dying." I whisper, and Sam turns to us, "Why would Amara do that?"

"The sun is the source of all life on earth. Without it, everything just..." Cas trails off and I finish his sentence, "Just wastes away."

"Let's get the hell out of here." Dean insists, only to be met with the snap of fingers. The familiar walls of the bunker surround us, the factory left miles away.

"You." Crowley states, pointing to my father. Chuck unwraps his arm from around me, "Still got a few tricks up my sleeve. I'm not dead y-"

He sways on his feet and collapses back into me, causing me to catch him swiftly, "Hey, I got you."

"I should probably sit down." He says breathlessly.

I nod my head and Cas steps over, helping me seat him on the steps of the library. Cas straightens up and takes in our group, "What so we do now?"