I walked into the library,
Dean said" No, Sam, it's a... It's an actual curse."
Sam said" What are you talking about?"
" Crowley told me. Or rather Rowena told him after she tried and failed to kill me."
" What the hell happened?" I walked over to them,
" The mark protected me. Rowena really doesn't have a beef with me. She was pissed at Crowley because she thinks he's going soft."
" She's not wrong."
" Yeah, well, after he and mommy dearest got into a fight-"
" Mommy dearest?"
" Rowena is Crowley's mother. More about that later. So... Then he came and told me what she had said. The mark is an actual curse. So, anyway, I'm sorry. I probably should've told you that."
" Yeah." Dean grabbed Sam's phone as it rang,
" Yeah, I know. Winchester Accounting. How may I help you? Charlie? What's going on? Where are you?" Sam and I signaled for speaker,
Charlie said" - Outside of Bill and Ted's-"
" Okay, hey, hey. Take a deep breath, kiddo. Uh, we're both sitting here. Tell me what happened. Why are you bleeding?"
" I, uh- I got shot. Did you know dental floss works great on stitches? I only passed out twice, and I'm pretty sure my wound is now minty fresh."
Sam said" Charlie, you probably need to go to a hospital."
" No, no, I-I'm fine. I just got to get someplace safe. These guys are still after me."
" What guys? Who?"
" Some southern-fried d-bags. They've been after me since I-I dug up The Book of the Damned."
" You found it? Where?"
" After some near misses and some broken into museums, I found historical documents that led to a monastery in Spain. It burned down year ago, left for dead, but, uh, I had this hunch about it. Turned out I was right."
Dean said" Okay, Charlie, what does it say about the mark?"
" I have no fracking idea. The langue it's written in, I've never seen anything like it. I, uh- I found some research notes in the monastery crypt, though, by the friar that buried it. The book of the damned is a spell book for creating or undoing any kind of damnation there is. We translate this thing, I think we can get the mark of cain off you, Dean."
" Charlie, you're a genius."
" A genius fugitive. I- These dudes are following me, they are well trained. One of them keeps talking about his family."
" Family? Did you get a name?"
" No clue. I-I-I spotted a tattoo on one of them. Might be a family crest. It seems occulty. Soon as the book was out of the ground, they were all over me. I, uh... I don't know how much more running I got left in me. T-They're tracking the book somehow."
Sam said" All right, then we need to get you off the grid, Charlie. Where are you right now?"
" Uh, just south of Des Moines."
Dean said" Uh, okay, you know what? Our-Our friend Bobby has a whole bunch of cabins scattered all around, places for hunters to crash. You know, it's not much, but there's some gear and lore books, stuff to keep you busy till we get there."
" Okay, brings snacks. And every men of letters decoder ring there is. This book is old and scary, and I've never seen anything like it."
Dean was being strange, Sam chuckled at him,
Dean said" What?"
Sam said" Nothing." He turned off the radio," Nothing. I just haven't seen you like this in a while, that's all."
" It's a good song, man."
" Yeah, it's-"
" Shut up. Look, man, it has been one crap sandwich after another for the past few weeks, okay? You heard Charlie. We got a shot at fixing this thing, so if that don't put gas in your tank, well..."
" If by shot, you mean a spell in a book that we can't read that's currently being tracked-"
" We're due for a win, okay? Overdue. I'll tell you another thing, if this actually does work, we're gonna take some time off."
" What, like a vacation?"
" Mm-hmm. And I'm not talking just like a weekend in Vegas or sitting in some crap motel watching pay-per-porn. No, I'm talking about a beach. Drinking cervezas, go for a swim, mingle with the local wildlife. When was the last time either one of us was on a beach?"
" Never."
" Never. Sand between our toes, Sammy, Riv. Sand between our toes." Then turned the radio back on, I looked at him then looked out the window.
———
We walked into the cabin,
Sam said" Charlie?" Charlie woke up,
Dean said" Hey."
Charlie said" Were you followed?"
" No, no." She hugged him, then hugged Sam, she hugged me.
Sam said" How you feeling?"
Charlie said" I may have just passed out, but better."
Dean said" Where's the book?"
" Okay, here's what I've learned so far. About 700 years ago, a nun locked herself away after having visions of darkness. After a few decades squirreled away by herself, she emerged with this. Each page is made out of slices of her own skin, written in her blood. I told you, it's eekish. According to the notes I found, it's been owned and used by cults, covens, and the Vatican had it for a while. There's a spell inside that thing for everything. Talking some black mass, dark magic, end of times nastiness. As far as what language it's written in, I'm thinking it's some kind of, uh..."
Dean took the book from Sam, and is flipping through the pages, staring at it, silently. I don't like it.
Sam said" Dean?"
I said" Dean!" My eyes glowed, Dean snapped out of it,
He said" What? I don't think it's a good idea that I touch this." He gave it back to Charlie," I'll go get the rest of our crap."
Sam said" Right." He walked out,
Charlie said" What the hell was that?"
" He's not getting better. He's trying to cover, but... we need to find that cure, fast."
Charlie said" I got a pretty good look at his tattoo. It's something like this." She handed Dean a sketch,
Dean said" The douche clan. Got it. Well, this is everything men of letters had on occult families, so there should be something in here." He started looking through the box of files, a boring... boring... boring box of files.
" Sam, got anything?"
Sam said" Maybe. Uh, yeah, it's all in an obscure Sumerian dialect. Actually found a rough match for it in this book." I followed Charlie to him,
" Great."
" I thought so, too. But I've been translating, but none of the translated words make any sense. It's all just gibberish. I mean, maybe it's in a different dialect?"
" No, no, no. You're right, but I-I think... I think this is in code."
" An entire book of unreadable text that's also in code. Great."
Dean said" And you call yourselves nerds." He shook his head," Come on. You got this." Sam scoffed,
Charlie said" He's right. Let's get our Alan Turing on, decrypt this bitch." Dean stared at the book, then noticed Sam and I looking at him and turned away.
Sam said" You know what, Charlie? Why, uh... um, why don't we stick with my notes for a little bit? This book is literally making my eyes hurt." He put the book in the warded and lead box Dean found at the bunker and shut it in.
Charlie said" Okay, even the bletchley circle couldn't crack this thing. I've tried every cryptographic algorithm there is. Goose egg."
Dean said" Well, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Those people following you... hmm? All kinds of wrong. Talking multi-generational, centuries-old wrong. The Styne family. Men of letters' files have them dated back to the early 1800s. They used spells to create disease, to destabilize markets. Hell, they even helped the nazis before they came into power, and they profited from all of it."
" So, they're like the supernatural Du Ponts?"
" Basically. All the spells they used came from a book of unspeakable evil, which they lost nearly 100 years ago."
Sam said" Okay, so they're bad. So what? We faced worse."
" Sam, read the file. The way the book works is when you use it, there is a negative reaction. I'm talking biblical negative. Dark magic always comes with a price. We know that. We've been down that road before."
Charlie said" Well, let's at least translate it, see what it says."
" You guys don't understand. The book's been calling out to me ever since I laid eyes on it, okay? Calling out to the mark. I can hear it like it's alive. It wants me to use it, but not for good. Look, I wanted it to be the answer, too, okay? I really did. But we have got to get rid of that. Burn it, bury it, I don't give a damn. We'll just have to find another way to fix the mark."
Sam said" Like what?"
" I don't know."
Charlie said" So, you're giving up?"
" No, I'm not giving up. Charlie, I don't have a death wish. Okay, even if I did, I can't die, not with this thing on my arm. What I can do is I can fight it as long as I can until..."
Sam said" Until what? Tell me. Until what, Dean? Until I watch you become a demon again? Until then? I can't do that. I won't do that."
" Well, then you'll just have to lock me up. Bind me to the bunker like you did last time."
Charlie said" That doesn't solve anything."
Sam said" Look, Just let us translate the book, okay? If there's a cure, we'll do it and deal with the consequences later. I can't lose you."
Dean said" Really?"
" Yeah, really. You change your mind on that, 'cause that's not what you said last time." My eyes started flickering,
" Oh, come on, man. You know I didn't mean that."
" This is my cross to bear, Sam. Mine. And that book is not the answer. Now, we got to destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands, and that includes me. I'm gonna go for a drive. Uh, Charlie, we forgot to pick up your snacks."
" Dean, look-"
" We'll figure out another way. And, Sam, I'll get my vacation. But not today. Not like this." He walked out,
Charlie said" Sam. Maybe he's right."
Sam said" No. No, there's a way to fix it. There has to be."
Charlie said" What did Dean mean? When he said you changed your mind?" I looked at Sam,
Sam said" So, a while back, we had a chance to, um... close the gates of hell. And in order to do that, I would've had to die, and I was okay with that and I am okay with that, but Dean was not. And so he, uh..."
" He saved you."
" Yeah, he saved me."
" And let me guess, in doing so, he did something you didn't want and that pissed you off. And you said something that hurt him?"
" Yeah, that sounds about right."
" Brothers. You know, I haven't been a hunter for very long, but it feels like this is the life. Mostly ends in Sophie's choices, death, or tears. Usually all of the above, huh? How did this become my life? I mean, I was gonna own my own start up, marry ScarJo, invent something cool. Now I'm just... I'm just happy to be alive."
" You know, when Dean came to get me at school, I-I told myself... one last job, you know? One more job. And then when-when I, um... when I lost Jess, I, again, told myself, one more job. There's always one more job, you know? And one more job and one more job, and then I was gonna go back to law and-and to my life."
" You were the dread pirate roberts of hunting." Sam chuckled,
" Yeah. I guess I really understand now that... this is my life. I love it. But I can't do it without my brother. I don't want to do it without my brother." I don't like this conversation," And if he's gone, then I don't..."
" I-I got it. I do."
Dean walked in, something was wrong,
Charlie said" What's going on?"
Dean said" The Stynes, they found me." He walked to the fireplace," Those douches are all jacked up, too." He put holy oil in the fire...
Sam said" What are you talking about?"
" I emptied a full clip into one of them before the son of a bitch went down."
" Dean, what are you doing with the holy oil?"
" There is a cure for the mark in the book. But it comes at a price. We got to destroy it." He brought over the book,
" Are you sure about this?"
" It's calling to me, Sam, okay? I can hear it. It's calling to the mark. It wants me to take the book and run away with it." I heard a creak outside, my eyes glowed, I looked at my brothers," Burn it, now." Black smoke circled my stomach," Sam, burn it now." Then the windows were shattered as two jumped through them, Dean and Charlie started fighting the men. Then a third came in, Sam threw the book in the fire,
The man said" Silly boy." The man grabbed Sam by the throat, Sam stabbed him, then pushed the blade deeper before the man died. We all looked at the book burning...
———
I was in the library, watching black smoke be a zoo, then I heard the door open, I ran to the map room.
Charlie said" Whoa. Is that who I think it is?"
Sam said" Charlie, Cas. Cas, Charlie." Charlie hugged him,
" I thought you'd be shorter." I laughed,
" I'm gonna get these to the fridge." Grabbing the beer from the table and walking away, I followed him.
I smelled pizza, my eyes flashed,
I said" Pizza!" I took off for the map room again, I heard Sam chuckle.
Dean said" How did that happen?"
Cas said" Um, it was Hannah. She managed to get the location of the remainder of my grace out of Metatron."
" Awesome. I told you we were due for a win. Good to have you back, pal." Black smoke grabbed one of the boxes, Dean put his hand on it. My eyes glowed, I growled a little, Dean let go, I smiled widely then grabbed the box and ran to the kitchen again." What? He's scary."
We were eating, Dean was laughing as Charlie made Cas play some paper trick game. Sam seemed guilty, now I wanna know what he did.