Cherry Pie

Scarecrows and Sacrifices

[Rayne]

I came to in near darkness. Dean was cursing, trying to open a door in the ceiling above the small set of stairs. He stopped when I sat up on the floor, groaning. Kneeling down next to me, he examined my head where I assumed there was a huge welt by now. "You okay, Cherry Pie?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," I told him, but winced when his fingers touched the bump on my temple. "Where are we?"

"Some kind of cellar."

"So are we going to become the scarecrow's new suits now?"

"Looks like."

"How long do you think we've been here?" I asked.

"Not sure, I woke up not long before you. I left my phone in the car so I can't even call Sammy and tell him where we are."

The jangling of a lock sounded above us and we looked up just in time for the cellar door to open. I shielded my eyes against the sudden brightness but once they adjusted, I saw that it was Scotty who was peering in. He was looking straight at me.

"Oh, good. You're awake," he said, sounding relieved. "The Sheriff was worried he hit you a little too hard there."

"You're in on this too?" I asked. "On this whole...sacrifice thing?"

His face hardened. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh really?" Dean spoke up. "So you're not murdering innocent people so that you can have a few good apples to make your crappy pie with?"

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"It's for the common good," he said in a way that sounded like the whole town repeated the same line to themselves every night before bed so that they could sleep peacefully. He started to close the door then.

"Oh, come on. Just beam us up, Scotty!" I yelled after him. I started to climb up the stairs but he had slammed the door in my face. Growling, I turned back to Dean and threw my hands up in the air. "What a waste of a reference. Seriously."

"Okay, calm down there, firecracker. It looks like you're still ninety percent sugar."

That immediately caught my attention. "Ooh, sugar!" I hopped down and reached towards Dean's jacket.

"Rayne, what on earth are you doing?" He tried to pry my hands away, but I was persistent and soon enough I found what I was looking for in his inside pocket.

"Remember you took away my remaining Starbursts yesterday?" I pulled a red square with that familiar 'S' logo on it out of the bag and started to unwrap it. "You were yammering on and on about me turning into Willy Wonka or something like that, which, now that I think of it, coming from you, Dean, was quite a nice little pop culture reference." I patted him on the arm. "Good job."

Dean raised an eyebrow at me. "So we're locked in some freak's cellar, about to be sacrificed to a killer scarecrow, and all you can think about is candy?"

"So?" I didn't see the problem he was implying.

He chuckled and went back to searching for another way out of the tiny cellar. "You're something, Ray," he muttered.

"Something sweet, though, right?" I asked as I popped another unwrapped piece into my mouth. "'Cuz I'm so full of sugar."

He paused and turned to me. "You're handling this rather well."

I flashed him a toothy grin. "Actually, I'm kind of freaking out on the inside. Joking about it keeps me distracted and that somewhat helps me stay calm."