𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 || 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫

Chapter 19 ~ Is This a Tradition Now?

Episode: Season 15 - Last Call Pt. 6

Dean and I got on the case shortly after he finished his "set" with Lee on stage. A girl had gone missing right outside Lee's bar so of course, we'd ended up here. When we told him about it, Lee had suggested going to the lake. According to him, the place was most likely the area a car would get dumped if someone had indeed kidnapped and murdered someone. Lorna, though, suggested going to the salvage yard which is where we ended up in the end, directing Lee to check out the lake.

In truth, I did get some bad vibes from Lee. But I chose to ignore it - he was a friend, after all. An old friend, someone Dean and I had known so many years ago. So it still came as a shock when I woke up bound to a chair. How could this have happened? How could he have betrayed us, kidnapped us?

A sigh escaped my mouth as I glanced over at Dean who'd just awoken as well.

"Why do I always find myself in these situations with you, Dean?" I asked, shaking my head, "You'd think I'd have learned by now. But no, of course not! No matter what I do, I'll always find myself kidnapped, gagged, and bound right here with you,"

"Your loyalty is commendable," he deadpanned and I rolled my eyes.

"That was sarcasm, De-" I started but was rudely cut off by Lee tromping down the stairs into the basement with us.

"Y'all awake?" he asked.

"What are you doing, man?" Dean seethed, pulling at his restraints to no avail.

"You had to hit the junkyard, didn't you?"

"Look, I don't know what's going on, okay? But this is not you,"

"Well, not the old me, anyway. I wasn't kidding about Arizona. What that thing did to that family, those kids, it stuck in my head," he admitted, bending down to our level, "If evil like that exists in the world, then people like us three, we ain't ever gonna win. The best we can do is just have a little fun. The last Hunt I did, the one right around here, I found something,"

He stood up then before banging his hand against a set of iron bars built into the door just in front of us. As he did, a creature popped its head out. My eyes widened in surprise. Saliva dripped from its mouth down onto leathery green skin. Most of the features were hidden from us but from what I could tell, it was a monster. Just like ones we'd hunted before.

"It's called a marid. It's a freaky-looking little thing, isn't it?" Lee laughed, grinning over at us, "As long as you feed it, it gives you money, it gives you health, everything you dreamed of,"

"And so, what, it just costs innocent lives?" Dean snapped at him in anger.

"Dean, you and I both know no one's innocent. After everything we've done, aren't...aren't we owed a little happiness, huh? Don't we deserve that much?"

"Listen to yourself. "We're owed." "We deserve." Come on, man! You're not God!"

"Good or bad... the world doesn't care. No one cares, Dean,"

"Well, we do," I supplied, earning a nod of agreement from Dean.

"Yeah. And that's what got you two here. Now, takes a while to drain a person, but listen to me. Don't worry about it, all right? Don't worry because once you lose a couple of pints, you just fall asleep, and then it'll be over," he assured us, patting Dean on the shoulder once as he turned to leave.

"Lee!" Dean roared, struggling with the IV taped to his wrist.

"This... this is not how I wanted this to go, Dean. When that blonde girl walked in here last night, I should've know, you know - Dean Winchester, Parker Martinez, the righters of wrongs... Y'all were gonna keep digging, and you were gonna figure me out. And if it's got to be you two or me, well, I got to pick me."

With that, he left us there. The madrid snarled out at us from behind the bars and I swallowed a lump of fear in my throat.

But the fear wasn't for me. It was for Dean, for Sam, for my kids left waiting on a mother that may never come home.

What if we never came home?