Day 9:
Throw
“Artemis!” “You alright?”
They both moved towards him but when Sam stopped and knelt beside him, Dean kept going moving into the bedroom
“What happened? We heard a…a scream.”
He shook his head only to flinch when it make the headache pulse painfully. “It-it wasn’t me.”
“But we heard it come from in here,” Dean countered, crossing to the front seats. “And there’s nothing in here other than you.”
The headache spiked and a growl came from his left side. He closed his eyes against the pain, against the knowledge that whatever it had been, it was still there. Something warm pressed into his left shoulder and he jumped away, running into Sam. He stared, suddenly able to see the creature.
It lowered its head crouching back down and he was left to deal with the bewilderment of the thought that the motion had sprung into his mind as it blinked out of existence again. There was no way it comprehended his action, no way that it understood that it had scared him and regretted such a thing. It wasn’t even real!
“Artemis?” He jumped again, gaze snapping to Sam. He realized she was gripping his shoulders, supporting him. “You alright?”
He looked back at the spot the creature had been in. “I don’t…” The breath shuddered in his chest but he found his mind racing with ease. The lie came and slid off his tongue without restrained, dancing with the truth he gave. He needed to figure out what the hell was going on and for some reason it meant keeping whatever the thing was to himself for the time being. It was stupid but there was no going back now. “Whatever that scream had been had startled me enough to throw me off balance.” He got himself to his feet. “I thought that something had touched my arm but I think it was just my shirt moving.”
“You’re ok, though?” Dean double checked.
He looked to the other and did his best to ignore the pounding in his head. “Yeah, I’m ok. Spooked but unharmed.”
Sam got to her feet. “Let’s get the rest of the bags and hurry in then. If it hadn’t been in the camper, it means it was outside and we should get in the house.”
“What if it’s under the camper?” Dean asked as Artemis touched the door handle.
The thing only he could see was visible again in the corner of his vision. It tipped its head to the side, curious, before getting up onto all fours and trudging over. He glanced back but turning his full attention on it made it disappear again. It didn’t stop it from brushing up against his leg as it apparently moved out of the camper into the young storm outside. He shifted his weight to hide the shudder of fear that raced through him. There was a thought growing in the back of his mind that he was trying desperately to deny because there was no way that thought was right. “I can check real quick. If it had been anything serious, it would have gotten you two when you ran in. As scary as it sounded, though, it could have just been two raccoons fighting under the camper.”
“We’ll be right behind you,” Sam stated firmly. “That way if nothing is there, we can get the bags and run. If there is, then we’ll be able to help you get away before we book it for the cabin.”
That made it easy to ignore the shudder that went through him when the thing returned and rubbed against his legs like a cat. The instinct to reach down and touch shot through his system nearly erasing the fear long enough for him to follow through. He opened the door instead and got smacked in the face by sleet as the wind buffeted him from seemingly all sides.
Sam and Dean kept with him and went directly towards the storage compartments as he glanced under the camper. There were signs in the dirt that was quickly turning to mud of a scuffle and he looked back at the thing that vanished when he focused on it. It had sat in the muddy gravel at the foot of the camper door looking like a dog out of the corner of his eye but there was no impression in the gravel where it sat.
That thought got louder.
He turned away and hurried over to Sam and Dean. “All clear. Whatever it was booked it.”
“So it was something under the camper?” Sam asked, passing him a bag.
He shrugged, throwing it over a shoulder. “The ground’s all messed up from something.”
He took a second bag from Dean and started for the cabin as soon as the other closed the compartment door. Beckett met them at the front door, opening it wide for them. He passed them one of the bags he was carrying as Cole came up from the basement. “Any issues?” Cole inquired, as Dean managed to close the door as the three of them stayed in the entrance long enough to ditch slightly muddy and wet shoes.
“Other than some animal giving us a heart attack, no,” Sam answered, starting for the stairs to the loft.
Beckett looked between them, surprised. “What had happened?”
Dean shrugged as Artemis traded Beckett bags. “Something decided to have a brawl under the larger camper scaring the crap out of us.”
Beckett hugged their bag to their chest, eyes wide. “Do you know what it had been?”
“Raccoons, probably,” he supplied, following after Sam as he passed the bag he had first given Beckett to Cole. The man dipped his head in thanks. “Not sure, though. It was long gone by the time we got around to leaving the camper.”
Cole frowned. “At least you’re all safe. Lunch should be ready in a few minutes.”
Sam came barreling back down the stairs as he stepped onto the first step. He tucked himself against the wall to let her pass before continuing on, hearing her announce behind him, “Good, cuz I’m starving.”
Chatter filled the cabin but no one followed. No one, except for the shadow thing. He dropped his bag on his bed before turning, finding the creature standing on its hind legs between him and the stairs. In the different light, he could make out its large eyes as it blinked.
Everything was telling him to run away, to shout and scream and get someone’s attention to get him away but as he stood there staring, the creature crouched till it was sitting on the floor like a dog sitting waiting for its next command. A string of laughter drew his attention to the railing but the thing was still there when he looked back.
“What are you?” he tried, words cautious and low. The head rotated sideways like he had seen dogs do to interesting sounds. He frowned. “Can you speak?” The head moved as the eyes narrowed, the posture curling in on itself. He was reminded then of the screaming he had heard and the headache that was still pounding at his skull. “Right. Ok. How about in something I can understand.”
The thing blinked, settling back into a relaxed posture before it got up onto all fours and walked closer.
He flinched when the headache worsened but it faded quickly, leaving a very strange sensation behind. The creature could communicate but it wasn’t in a way that he naturally understood. Until he got used to seeing the creature, seeing the second plane, and start willingly listening, the best it could do was give him impressions.
The strangest thing was they weren’t thoughts. They weren’t coherent word thoughts. No voice spoke in his head. Instead it was like the creature had simply draped the information in his mind via impressions and emotions and in other ways he didn’t even understand enough to try and reason out. He stared at it, though if it was out of shock, awe, or terror, he wasn’t sure. “But why me?” His voice cracked on the last word. “Why not Beckett or Cole or Orlean?”
The headache got a bit worse before fading again.
This time he got a full memory, watching from the creature’s viewpoint as Beckett looked directly at it in the corner of the camper but having the understanding that Beckett couldn’t actually see it even if they could sense it somehow. A second memory followed, though, of the creature in the tent by the river standing over him but it wasn’t looking at him. Its gaze was towards the back of the tent where he knew the strange ranger had come from. This memory wasn’t as neatly packaged as the one of Beckett. Parts of it were black as if he had stood up too quickly or a dream was deteriorating but he could feel the creature’s concern, the distrust and desire to protect, to guard against whatever was coming.
The creature knew what had been coming but he didn’t receive that information.
“But why do you need to protect me?” he challenged, distraught.
The headache flared and took longer to fade this time.
He found himself in some hospital. The room he was in was sun washed orange and quiet. There was no sound of machinery, only the soft breath of the woman in the bed he was standing next to. He looked around, wondering what was going on till he caught sight of the baby in the incubator against the wall at the foot of the bed.
“Did you find one Dlmor?”
He jumped at the sudden voice and looked down at the woman in the bed. Her eyes were half lidded but she was smiling looking directly at him. Regret and grief filled his chest, suffocated him.
“I’m sorry,” he found himself saying. “I couldn’t-I tried but I couldn’t-”
She reached up cupping his cheek, shushing him gently. “It’s alright, Dlmor. It’s ok. You may be young but you’re strong. You’ll learn quickly enough.” She lowered her hand to her chest. “Will my memories of-” the word went in one ear and out the other- “be enough to bind you to him?”
“Not without harming the life you’ve created for yourself.”
“As long as he gets the chance to live a long life.”
That churned something in his chest and he reached out, covering her hand with his. “It will not be a normal life. He will be targeted.”
“But you can protect him. You can teach him when he can no longer be protected by you alone.”
Frustration bubbled up into the mix of emotions. “But you’re asking me to condemn your son to a life longer than any human lifespan faced with having to deal with those that will kill him on sight once they know what he has become.”
“Please, Dlmor. I’ve already lost enough children along the way. I can’t lose him now that he’s here, even if I never understand why things are so difficult for him.”
He caved. It was immediate and left him wondering if he had even been trying to fight her desire. No, he knew he hadn’t been. He was already ready to do as she asked but he had to be sure she was ok with it, that she knew the extent of what she was asking. He pressed his face against her neck, her cheek, rubbing up against her one last time. “I will miss you, Ellen.”
“Take good care of my Artemis for me.”
The cabin snapped back into place around him, the air freezing against his skin and dark compared to the warmly lit hospital room he had just been in. His head felt like it was splitting in two but he could think through it. Shoving himself upright was a painful experience but he looked at the thing, frowned at it. “That was…my mom? I don’t…I don’t understand.”
The sunlight had turned everything one color but he would have sworn he would have been able to recognize his own mom’s face but even trying to look back on the memory brought up nothing but more pain.
The creature placed its hands on his knees, startling him. It was warm compared to the rest of the room. There was a pause before it rested its forehead against his. He found himself pressing into the contact when the headache started to subside. The warmth was nice, too, but not having the headache was bliss.
There was a small flare as he gained the knowledge that Dlmor wasn’t going to talk to him again until the damage from the other had healed more. He nodded as the creature pulled away, looking expectantly into his face. “That’s fine. It’s fine. The questions can wait.”
They both moved towards him but when Sam stopped and knelt beside him, Dean kept going moving into the bedroom
“What happened? We heard a…a scream.”
He shook his head only to flinch when it make the headache pulse painfully. “It-it wasn’t me.”
“But we heard it come from in here,” Dean countered, crossing to the front seats. “And there’s nothing in here other than you.”
The headache spiked and a growl came from his left side. He closed his eyes against the pain, against the knowledge that whatever it had been, it was still there. Something warm pressed into his left shoulder and he jumped away, running into Sam. He stared, suddenly able to see the creature.
It lowered its head crouching back down and he was left to deal with the bewilderment of the thought that the motion had sprung into his mind as it blinked out of existence again. There was no way it comprehended his action, no way that it understood that it had scared him and regretted such a thing. It wasn’t even real!
“Artemis?” He jumped again, gaze snapping to Sam. He realized she was gripping his shoulders, supporting him. “You alright?”
He looked back at the spot the creature had been in. “I don’t…” The breath shuddered in his chest but he found his mind racing with ease. The lie came and slid off his tongue without restrained, dancing with the truth he gave. He needed to figure out what the hell was going on and for some reason it meant keeping whatever the thing was to himself for the time being. It was stupid but there was no going back now. “Whatever that scream had been had startled me enough to throw me off balance.” He got himself to his feet. “I thought that something had touched my arm but I think it was just my shirt moving.”
“You’re ok, though?” Dean double checked.
He looked to the other and did his best to ignore the pounding in his head. “Yeah, I’m ok. Spooked but unharmed.”
Sam got to her feet. “Let’s get the rest of the bags and hurry in then. If it hadn’t been in the camper, it means it was outside and we should get in the house.”
“What if it’s under the camper?” Dean asked as Artemis touched the door handle.
The thing only he could see was visible again in the corner of his vision. It tipped its head to the side, curious, before getting up onto all fours and trudging over. He glanced back but turning his full attention on it made it disappear again. It didn’t stop it from brushing up against his leg as it apparently moved out of the camper into the young storm outside. He shifted his weight to hide the shudder of fear that raced through him. There was a thought growing in the back of his mind that he was trying desperately to deny because there was no way that thought was right. “I can check real quick. If it had been anything serious, it would have gotten you two when you ran in. As scary as it sounded, though, it could have just been two raccoons fighting under the camper.”
“We’ll be right behind you,” Sam stated firmly. “That way if nothing is there, we can get the bags and run. If there is, then we’ll be able to help you get away before we book it for the cabin.”
That made it easy to ignore the shudder that went through him when the thing returned and rubbed against his legs like a cat. The instinct to reach down and touch shot through his system nearly erasing the fear long enough for him to follow through. He opened the door instead and got smacked in the face by sleet as the wind buffeted him from seemingly all sides.
Sam and Dean kept with him and went directly towards the storage compartments as he glanced under the camper. There were signs in the dirt that was quickly turning to mud of a scuffle and he looked back at the thing that vanished when he focused on it. It had sat in the muddy gravel at the foot of the camper door looking like a dog out of the corner of his eye but there was no impression in the gravel where it sat.
That thought got louder.
He turned away and hurried over to Sam and Dean. “All clear. Whatever it was booked it.”
“So it was something under the camper?” Sam asked, passing him a bag.
He shrugged, throwing it over a shoulder. “The ground’s all messed up from something.”
He took a second bag from Dean and started for the cabin as soon as the other closed the compartment door. Beckett met them at the front door, opening it wide for them. He passed them one of the bags he was carrying as Cole came up from the basement. “Any issues?” Cole inquired, as Dean managed to close the door as the three of them stayed in the entrance long enough to ditch slightly muddy and wet shoes.
“Other than some animal giving us a heart attack, no,” Sam answered, starting for the stairs to the loft.
Beckett looked between them, surprised. “What had happened?”
Dean shrugged as Artemis traded Beckett bags. “Something decided to have a brawl under the larger camper scaring the crap out of us.”
Beckett hugged their bag to their chest, eyes wide. “Do you know what it had been?”
“Raccoons, probably,” he supplied, following after Sam as he passed the bag he had first given Beckett to Cole. The man dipped his head in thanks. “Not sure, though. It was long gone by the time we got around to leaving the camper.”
Cole frowned. “At least you’re all safe. Lunch should be ready in a few minutes.”
Sam came barreling back down the stairs as he stepped onto the first step. He tucked himself against the wall to let her pass before continuing on, hearing her announce behind him, “Good, cuz I’m starving.”
Chatter filled the cabin but no one followed. No one, except for the shadow thing. He dropped his bag on his bed before turning, finding the creature standing on its hind legs between him and the stairs. In the different light, he could make out its large eyes as it blinked.
Everything was telling him to run away, to shout and scream and get someone’s attention to get him away but as he stood there staring, the creature crouched till it was sitting on the floor like a dog sitting waiting for its next command. A string of laughter drew his attention to the railing but the thing was still there when he looked back.
“What are you?” he tried, words cautious and low. The head rotated sideways like he had seen dogs do to interesting sounds. He frowned. “Can you speak?” The head moved as the eyes narrowed, the posture curling in on itself. He was reminded then of the screaming he had heard and the headache that was still pounding at his skull. “Right. Ok. How about in something I can understand.”
The thing blinked, settling back into a relaxed posture before it got up onto all fours and walked closer.
He flinched when the headache worsened but it faded quickly, leaving a very strange sensation behind. The creature could communicate but it wasn’t in a way that he naturally understood. Until he got used to seeing the creature, seeing the second plane, and start willingly listening, the best it could do was give him impressions.
The strangest thing was they weren’t thoughts. They weren’t coherent word thoughts. No voice spoke in his head. Instead it was like the creature had simply draped the information in his mind via impressions and emotions and in other ways he didn’t even understand enough to try and reason out. He stared at it, though if it was out of shock, awe, or terror, he wasn’t sure. “But why me?” His voice cracked on the last word. “Why not Beckett or Cole or Orlean?”
The headache got a bit worse before fading again.
This time he got a full memory, watching from the creature’s viewpoint as Beckett looked directly at it in the corner of the camper but having the understanding that Beckett couldn’t actually see it even if they could sense it somehow. A second memory followed, though, of the creature in the tent by the river standing over him but it wasn’t looking at him. Its gaze was towards the back of the tent where he knew the strange ranger had come from. This memory wasn’t as neatly packaged as the one of Beckett. Parts of it were black as if he had stood up too quickly or a dream was deteriorating but he could feel the creature’s concern, the distrust and desire to protect, to guard against whatever was coming.
The creature knew what had been coming but he didn’t receive that information.
“But why do you need to protect me?” he challenged, distraught.
The headache flared and took longer to fade this time.
He found himself in some hospital. The room he was in was sun washed orange and quiet. There was no sound of machinery, only the soft breath of the woman in the bed he was standing next to. He looked around, wondering what was going on till he caught sight of the baby in the incubator against the wall at the foot of the bed.
“Did you find one Dlmor?”
He jumped at the sudden voice and looked down at the woman in the bed. Her eyes were half lidded but she was smiling looking directly at him. Regret and grief filled his chest, suffocated him.
“I’m sorry,” he found himself saying. “I couldn’t-I tried but I couldn’t-”
She reached up cupping his cheek, shushing him gently. “It’s alright, Dlmor. It’s ok. You may be young but you’re strong. You’ll learn quickly enough.” She lowered her hand to her chest. “Will my memories of-” the word went in one ear and out the other- “be enough to bind you to him?”
“Not without harming the life you’ve created for yourself.”
“As long as he gets the chance to live a long life.”
That churned something in his chest and he reached out, covering her hand with his. “It will not be a normal life. He will be targeted.”
“But you can protect him. You can teach him when he can no longer be protected by you alone.”
Frustration bubbled up into the mix of emotions. “But you’re asking me to condemn your son to a life longer than any human lifespan faced with having to deal with those that will kill him on sight once they know what he has become.”
“Please, Dlmor. I’ve already lost enough children along the way. I can’t lose him now that he’s here, even if I never understand why things are so difficult for him.”
He caved. It was immediate and left him wondering if he had even been trying to fight her desire. No, he knew he hadn’t been. He was already ready to do as she asked but he had to be sure she was ok with it, that she knew the extent of what she was asking. He pressed his face against her neck, her cheek, rubbing up against her one last time. “I will miss you, Ellen.”
“Take good care of my Artemis for me.”
The cabin snapped back into place around him, the air freezing against his skin and dark compared to the warmly lit hospital room he had just been in. His head felt like it was splitting in two but he could think through it. Shoving himself upright was a painful experience but he looked at the thing, frowned at it. “That was…my mom? I don’t…I don’t understand.”
The sunlight had turned everything one color but he would have sworn he would have been able to recognize his own mom’s face but even trying to look back on the memory brought up nothing but more pain.
The creature placed its hands on his knees, startling him. It was warm compared to the rest of the room. There was a pause before it rested its forehead against his. He found himself pressing into the contact when the headache started to subside. The warmth was nice, too, but not having the headache was bliss.
There was a small flare as he gained the knowledge that Dlmor wasn’t going to talk to him again until the damage from the other had healed more. He nodded as the creature pulled away, looking expectantly into his face. “That’s fine. It’s fine. The questions can wait.”