Under and Above

12

The next morning Cas hesitantly shimmied down from the tree. The first thing on his mind was the screaming from last night. He ventured over to the tide pools, his hand clamped tight around the shell Dean had given him. 

 Cas reached the tide pools and looked into the first one he saw. He stared into the pool, then promptly spun around and threw up onto the sand. He dropped to his knees then crawled away still retching, the image of what was in the pool burned into his mind. 

 The girl's body had been ripped apart. Her eyes had been gouged out, and her tongue nailed to her forehead. Her intestines lay around her, floating in the red stained water. On her chest was written "humanae sordes" in her own blood. Worst of all was her legs. They had sewn them together with seaweed so that they resemebled a tail. 

 Cas crawled to the edge of a different tide pool. He lay next to it, curled up in a fetal position, his hand still clasped around the small shell. Slowly, he raised the shell to his lips. 

 "Dean..." he whispered into it, then promptly passed out.

                                           .                                   .                               .                             .                                 . 

 "Cas. Cas, you have to get up." 

 "No..." 

 "Cas, please!" 

 Something was wrong with him. He felt much too hot and much too cold. He was imagining voices, voices of mermaids calling his name. He didn't want to wake up. There was a pretty man in his dreams. A pretty man who wanted to protect him...The voices wanted him to wake up, but he was so tired. 

 The metallic stench of blood filled his nostrils, forcing his eyes open. 

 "Cas!" cried Dean. 

 "Dean?" Cas's head hurt. "There's a body..." 

 "What? Where?" asked Dean. He suddenly seemed stiff, and distant, his green eyes hardening. 

 "Over... There..." groaned Cas. He pointed in the general direction of the mutilated girl. 

 Cas heard a splashing noise, and Dean was suddenly gone, having dived down under the tide pool. He soon reappeared in a tide pool much closer to the girl. Looking over at the body, he nodded and swam back to where Cas was waiting. 

 "What... What happened?" murmured Cas, still feeling quite faint. 

 Dean's voice was hard when he replied. 

 "They killed her. The merpeople did." 

 "What was that on her chest?" Cas asked. 

 "Latin," said Dean. "It means, 'human filth.'" 

 Cas felt as though an elephant was sitting on his chest. He couldn't breathe. He tried to use his voice, but he only managed to make strangled sounds. He was going to die. Then... 

 Cas began to laugh. 

 "They can't get me!" he laughed. "They haven't got legs! I'm safe!" 

 By this time he was crying laughing even though none of this was remotely funny. 

 "Cas, you need to know something," whispered Dean. "You need to understand. I'm sorry." 

 And with that, Dean hauled himself out of the tide pool completely. He sat on the sand with his tail out of the water, staring at Cas. 

 "I'm sorry, Castiel." 

 Cas was about to ask what for, but suddenly there was a ripple on the surface of his tail. His iridescent scales turned a pale flesh color. His tail split down the middle, seperating into two flesh colored stumps. Legs and feet soon began to form. 

 After a few minutes, Dean stood up, completely naked. Cas averted his eyes, but curiosity burned in his mind. 

 "You... You've got... You've got..." Cas gasped. 

 "Legs," finished Dean grimly. "You're not safe, Castiel." 

 In the back of his mind, Cas thought, "That's not where I was going with that..." 

 "What do I do then?" whispered Cas. "I don't have anywhere to go. I'm going to die." 

 "No," said Dean firmly. "No. I'm going to hide you. I might have a place that will work..." he trailed off, thinking hard. 

 "I don't know how long this could work, but we can try. I know of a place near me that I go to a lot, and I don't think anyone knows about. I call it the bunker. It's a cave out at sea, though," he said, quickly looking at Cas. 

 "Anything!" Cas practically screamed. 

 "Go salvage what you can and meet me back here is 20 minutes. I'll be waiting," Dean murmured. 

Turning away from Cas, (much to Cas's disappointment), he jumped into the tide pool and then changed back into his natural form. 

 Running down the beach, he ran until he got to the ruins of his little life raft. Searching through the wreckage, he found his little pack of clothes. He could not find anything else. He quickly made his way back to Dean's tide pool. His hands shook and he began to get dizzy. Spotting Dean sitting on the edge of the tide pool, Cas ran towards him in a panic. 

 "What do I do now?" Cas cried. 

 "The only thing we can do. Hide. Okay. This is the plan. We have to travel underwater. So far they don't know you're here, but they suspect something. They search the land for humans, so underwater is our best option. Now, I know you can't breathe under water, so I'll be your human air tank," Dean smirked. 

 "That means you have to tell me when you need air, then I deliver it to you through, shall we call it, the Underwater Kiss of Sweet Sweet Life," Dean winked at Cas. 

 Castiel blushed. 

 "Whatever you want, man..." Cas trailed off, his cheeks burning. 

 "Great!" said Dean. "Now that that's all in order, you're going to have to get in the water, and swim to the bunker which admittedly is kinda far away." 

 "I don't care. Let's just get out of here." Cas awkwardly climbed into the tidal pool, splashing Dean in the process. 

 "Sorry," Cas mumbled. 

 "S'alright. Let's go," grunted Dean.

Taking a deep breath, Cas dove underwater and swam away from the bright sun with Dean at his heels.