I'll Come Back To You

Chapter 2: The Empty

The Empty was just as dark and desolate as Cas remembered. Darkness spread out endlessly in every direction, no one and no escape in sight.

There was a reason they called it the Empty, after all.

"You'd do well to behave this time, Castiel," The cosmic entity who had taken him called. "There are worse places then here you could end up, believe it or not."

"I won't go to sleep, if that's what you mean." Cas declared. He knew what it was like to sleep in this place. To be frozen in the darkness, with no way of knowing how long you had been there. No chance to wake up. Not even a dream to make it worth while.

The Entity scowled at him.

"You will do as I say," She ordered. Cas smiled.

"I promised you I would go back. I never promised I'd behave." He retorted.

"Fine." The Entity snapped. "But know that there is no way I am sending you back. No matter how much you annoy me."

"Noted." Cas insisted, sitting down.

******

The Empty was a boring place to sit patiently in. Cas got bored.

He used to be able to spend centuries sitting perfectly still without getting bored. He and Gabriel once had a contest to see who could be a more believable statue in the human world.

Gabriel had lasted two days.

Castiel had acted as a statue in a french city for sixteen decades.

But Cas's time with the Winchesters and the human world had destroyed that ability. There was so much to do and see in the human world. So much to smell, to touch, to feel, to enjoy.

In the Empty, there was nothing. Nothing but absolute darkness.

So Cas wandered around. He went looking for something. For anything.

He walked six hundred million steps West, then six hundred million steps north, then east, then south, then west again.

There was nothing to be found. But there had to be something somewhere. The Empty is where ever angel, demon, and god went when they died. They had to all be kept somewhere. But Castiel couldn't remember where he had been held. He only remembered waking up in the same area he was in now.

The Awake, he deemed the area. He was trapped in The Awake, and he needed to locate The Sleep without falling asleep.

But since he had all the time in the universe, and no possible leads, Cas sat back down and waited.

And then he decided to start talking. Maybe the Entity would change its mind if Cas actually annoyed it enough.

"Hello, Cosmic Entities." He called out. His voice didn't echo. "How are you?"

There was no response.

"Do you guys eat anything, or is there no food here? Not that I'd need food. Just curious."

Nothing.

"You should really invest in some decorations. A few flowers would really spice this place up. Maybe a window or two? Some floral curtains? Hell is all darkness and despair and stuff, but at least they've got style down there."

"Heaven is more like a big office building. Everybody's got their own room, and then the angels work in cubicles. It's all white and clean up there. Classy. Modern. Who chose the color scheme for this place anyway? Black is such a poor color choice for a room. Too much darkness. I would've picked a nice powder blue. Light, colorful, gives folks some hope instead of eating their souls out."

Cas sprawled out on his back, rambling.

"Unless you were going for the whole Dementor theme, cause that's fine too. Just wouldn't pick it for my own home. Where are you guys anyways? Cause I know for a fact that you're at least six million feet away from me. How big is this place? Is there a sky, or is this a building? I think Hell has a sky. It's black. Purgatory has a sky. It rains there too. Did you know that? You should check out Purgatory- it's a great vacation destination if you want to murder something that's already dead. I had my honeymoon in Purgatory. Good times, although I think Dean would disagree."

"You guys remember Dean right? Blonde hair, dreamy eyes, sexy body? Great guy, although he needs a serious self esteem boost. Do you like Dean? I hope not. Because I called dibs before Michael did, although nobody seems to remember that. I like Dean. A lot. He's awesome. He loves pie- do you have pie here? Well that just takes us back to if you have food here. Or maybe you have pi here instead. I know all the digits of pi. Wanna here them? Of course you do. 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028-"

Cas's rambling went on for, well, he wasn't sure how long.

He recited the dictionary for the entire English language, and then Spanish, followed by German, French, Arabic, Yiddish, Hebrew, Latin, Latvian, Japanese, Mandarin, and Enochian.

He recited every single one of Shakespeare's works by heart, and then proceeded to repeat them, acting them all out.

He talked constantly. He talked about bees, about Dean and Sam and Jack, who would never give up on him. He talked about his mistakes and how the angels never forgave him, but Dean always did. 

He talked about Dean for ages. About everything he loved about the Winchester.

He talked about everything he loved, and everything he regretted. He made a list of people, angels, and supernatural creatures of all kinds that he never got to apologize to.

He relayed the entire history of the universe, just in case the Entities had never heard it.

He talked about the centuries he had spent on the Earth before humans or dinosaurs were ever there. How he and his siblings had roamed around, playing games and having fun with each other. How angels had fallen in love, and nobody had minded. How simple things had been. And then how it had all changed when Chuck told them not to step on a fish.

He listed his favorite years of humanity, in order of how much he liked them. He started with 1979, the year Dean had been born, and ended with 1549, because he had hated 1549 for some reason, and all of the 1300's were somehow much better then 1549 had been.

He listed every single one of his siblings. First in order of creation, then alphabetically, then in order of liked best to worst.

He sang. He sang every classic rock song he had ever heard Dean play in the Impala, and there were hundreds of them. He sang everything, from Bob Seger to ZZ Top.

But it was a Def Leppard song that changed something.

"Razzle 'n' a dazzle 'n' a flash a little light," Cas sang. "Television lover, baby, go all night."

"Sometime, anytime, sugar me sweet
Little miss ah innocent sugar me, yeahSo c'mon, take a bottle, shake it up
Break the bubble, break it upPour some sugar on me-"

And then something had cracked, and Cas had stopped singing. There was a sound of someone struggling, but Cas wasn't sure where it came from. He couldn't see anything.

And then a voice called out.

"Someone said something about sugar?"