How I Love Now - A Supernatural/Castiel Love Story

Chapter 6: The Returned

…3 months later...

It was a shapeshifter who had thrown Sam off of his feet. The monster had been disguising himself as an innocent neighbour to the unfortunate victim who had been brutally stabbed to death in his home last week. The Winchesters had thoroughly examined the situation which led them here, to the killers kitchen where he was giving them a rough beating. Sam smashed into the wall and collapsed to the floor unconscious leaving Dean to load the silver bullets into his pistol.

However, before he could lift his gun to aim, Dean was also flung backwards, with his weapon knocked out of his hand. The tall, muscular figure, who could easily be mistaken for a man, nudged the pistol slightly sending it sliding across the kitchen floor near to where Sam lay defeated. The shifter looked down upon Dean who watched his gun despairingly travel further away from him, towards his brother. There was hope that if he could distract the shifter for long enough, Sam would come to his aid with a silver bullet to the heart of the vile creature.

Dean stumbled to his feet, pumped to start fighting once again with faith that Sam would awake from his slumber soon whilst he had the shifter occupied. He threw a punch which merely startled his opponent. It was returned with a blow to the stomach and then a kick sending Dean hard onto the wooden table behind him. Dean could feel the table buckle underneath his weight. He lay still on a bed of splinters and bits of wood as he sensed the thing moving closer to him once more.

Dammit Sammy, hurry up!

XXXXX

Sam sighed blissfully. It was a beautiful forest, kind of like the ones Dean would sneak them both off to when they were little and their dad was too busy hunting. They wouldn’t do much, only spot a few hares and squirrels that they never got the chance to see when they were constantly on the road. Those were the times before Sam even knew about monsters and the true evil in the world. They were some of the most precious memories, ones that would make it to his paradise in Heaven.

Sam stared up to the highest leaves on the trees that sometimes released streams of sunlight when the wind blew them. His eyes followed one particular tree all the way down to the trunk. He did this for no particular reason but what he found at the bottom was the most curious part...

“Cas?”

“Hello Sam,”

Castiel, in his old trench coat with the blue tie and white shirt that was a clean as it used to be, stood expectantly at the root of the tree, like he had stood in that spot for years waiting for Sam.

A sense of reality came over the youngest Winchester as he realised that he had no idea where he was or how he had got there. Sam’s mind drifted to Dean and to the shapeshifter and then everything started to come together.

“I’m dreaming,” He stated, a little irritated that the climax to his exciting hunt had been interrupted with an awfully relaxing forest. The setting was becoming less admiring and more greyscale now that he had discovered that it wasn’t real. Castiel started towards Sam, determined and seeming somehow different.

“Yes, it seems you were knocked unconscious,”

“Wait, how did you get inside my head?” Sam asked immediately, watching Cas study his imaginary surroundings. He’s definitely changed in some way, Sam thought to himself.

“I got my grace back,”

“You what?”