#HELLOOOOOOO CAN ANYONE HEAR ME. PLEASE POST!!!!!!!!!

[dailyhermit]

SO SORRY EVERYONE!!!! Here's a bonus two-pack for missing a few days!!!

[apompkwrites]

reader impact || the archons' isekai

series masterlist characters: venti, zhongli genre: fluff summary: somehow, our players have found themselves in the world of genshin impact! how, i wonder, will they handle this predicament? will they create their own story to be a protagonist, or will they find someone else's story to become a love interest part of? notes: this was actually really fun to write!! i mean, i got to write a fanboy shutdown and the more composed approach :)). also hehe early morning post gm everyone! or afternoon. or night. whenever you're reading this :D

venti -

hOO BOY LET'S GOOO!!!!

okay so this boy is very energetic on his own.

imagine his surprise when he's suddenly in one of his favorite games of all time?!??!

what did he do to deserve this and how can he do it again?

now that he's here, he has two (2) priorities.

1. find wine.

2. find you.

honestly they both rank the same in terms of importance so he doesn't really have a preference on who/what he finds first.

he will visit the windrise tree before anything, though.

it's just so?? calming to him??

so he's there, sitting next to your statue, when he hears someone playing a lyre :00

he'll jump to his feet and just run to wherever the music is coming from.

and tHERE!!

THERE YOU ARE!!

YOU'RE STANDING IN FRONT OF HIM WITH ALL OF YOUR GLORY AND JUST ASJHJKHAD

um, anyway...

he'll just listen quietly to you playing music.

so cute...

and so is the song you're playing :))

when you finally finish up your set, your eyes immediately go to him.

i mean, he's the only one here listening to you play music but not saying anything.

"hello! did you enjoy my song?"

you broke him.

good job.

he will sit there for a few minutes just basking in your glory.

you're here and he's here and you're real and--

"hellooooooo? anyone home?"

"HUH YES HI!"

you're, of course, taken aback by how loud he is when he snaps out of his trance.

but that surprise is immediately replaced by joy as you laugh at how silly this boy is.

i mean, who wouldn't like him?

"ah, normally i'd ask for payment for my performance, but--"

"i can give you an apple!"

his response is so quick and genuine and you accept it.

i mean... it's an apple from a cute boy. what could go wrong?

he'll definitely ask where a good place for apples are, even if he knows it by heart.

he just wants to spend time with you :((

when he pays you back with an apple, he'll just sit with you in the grass.

it's weird to see him so quiet...

"got something you wanna say?"

"u-uhhhh!"

he's so awkward around you please you own his heart--

take him to the tavern please.

he just wants to drink with you.

he'd probably say some things he shouldn't like how he's been isekai'd into this world.

of course, you knew he wasn't from here or literally anywhere in teyvat.

but he's nice and fun so you don't mind hanging out with him until he leaves :)

zhongli -

ah yes, our unusally calm and composed isekai protagonist.

similar to how he first met you, he's keeping his composure on the outside but actually losing his mind on the inside.

he's...

he's here???

why???

he's not complaining but he just want answers.

he's very relieved to see he's in liyue instead of mondstadt.

like, he doesn't hate mondstadt but he'd much rather be in the city of contract as opposed to the city of wine freedom

his first stop would probably be to find some tea.

because he really needs something to calm him down.

he's walking through liyue, right, just admiring the construction and atmosphere.

he's passing by the wangsheng funeral parlor when--

"ah, my apologies."

his head will whip around when he hears your voice.

he gets to hear you talk!!!

in person!!!!!!!

"sir?"

"ah, yes. no worries..."

catch him holding back a stutter when he first talks to you.

you catch him so off guard but he doesn't want to embarrass himself in front of you--

"excuse me? is there a good place to find tea here? i'm not exactly from liyue, you see."

"of course!"

you sounded so excited and cute wtf--

"in fact, i was just on my way there. why don't i accompany you?"

"i'd... i would love that."

hehe tea date tea date tea date!!!

you take him to this really nice tea place that knows you.

and your unfortunate inability to understand mora...

you don't ask him to pay, thank the gods, but it's extremely awkward when he reveals he doesn't have any to pay for his own tea.

the owners lowkey expected you to bring someone like this one day though...

so they offer it to you for free and you're on your way out.

you end up following him around to show him liyue.

"you said you weren't from here, correct? why don't i show you some popular tourist spots?"

"if it isn't too much of a bother..."

his mind: adjakflsld yes please!!!!

he knows he doesn't have to tell you that he isn't from here.

from the way you talk to him about liyue, you've already made it clear that you're well aware he isn't from teyvat.

which, thankfully, doesn't come as a surprise to you.

instead, you take the time to spend time with him and show him your favorite spots in liyue/teyvat.

you bring him to the guyun stone forest.

protect him please, he can't fight on his own--

anyway, you bring him to the highest peak you can, staring off into the ocean.

he'll sit there and listen to you tell your stories, even if he knows them by heart <33

[ladymelissaduthe]

Challenge #1.5

aka The Fic Where Arin Gets Stuck With Missy In An Inescapable Location (accidentally)

a/n: weirdly specific title, but It’ll make sense when I post Challenge 2, I promise AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA This was a really fun RP and fic to write, though it was slightly difficult what with the lack of visual cues in terms of writing,,, that’s what happens when you set something in the dark. ANYWHOS, thank you Anna @arin-schreave​ for this RP and for running with my crackhead ideas NJKSDNDKJD Anywhos, hope you enjoy this funny little fic ,,, also I promise everything about the ring ™™™™ will be revealed soon SJKNDKJKD (2,684 words) 

For a place that was twenty times the size of my own home back in Orleans, I was running out of things I could do in the palace. I was so desperate, I was actually in the library of all places.

Sure, there were the regular Women’s Room lessons for the day but we usually ended whatever was the day’s lessons early. Against the usual urge to scroll through my phone, learning a Tiktok dance in a gown wasn’t exactly the easiest. Doing the renegade was going to wait for a more casual day in the palace.

So I was in the library, browsing the bookcases and jeopardizing my poor immune system to some allergic rhinitis around these books.

There were a few books with interesting titles: The Creativity Crisis, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Business Process Re-engineering in Illéa to name a few.

The title that catches my attention though had a green spine, lined with gold. Embroidery Patterns from America. Huh, you don’t hear that name everyday. I could check it out and show it to my maids. Maybe try it out and do them myself on a dress I have.

I reach up for the book, extending my arms above me. I lean against the case for some support as I reach for it. It seemed stuck on the shelf though, not seeming to fully budge out of its place.

I try to pull it again, suddenly feeling the case slide open. Huh?

The next thing I know, I’m on the ground of a dark hallway and hearing the case slide close behind me, and the light leave the entire space. Oh no.

Where was I?

Why was it so dark? Oh Gosh, the floor felt like it hasn’t seen a vacuum cleaner in a decade.

I couldn’t make out where I was exactly, but it was dusty and smelled like one of those old historical houses in Orleans tourists would visit all the time

I try to look around and feel for the way I came through.

“Hello!” my voice seems to echo in the space. Maybe if I kept on yelling someone could get me outta here. “Help!”

“Can anyone help me?!” I yell again, hoping someone passing by the case would hear me. I try banging against the wall, sounding almost hollow. It sounded like wood.

“Hello!” I call out again. Please someone GET ME OUT OF HERE.

I keep on trying to yell to get anyone to realize I was trapped here. Was this… a dungeon? Did the palace keep prisoners here? Oh Gosh, I was going to get stuck here. Questions later. I needed to get outta here.

A knock.

I’m saved! I could kiss whoever was going to get me out of here. Or not, cause that sounded like treason.

“Hello! Is someone else there?!” Please get me out of here ASAP, I’m pretty sure there are spiders here.

“This isn’t funny. I don’t care if Ayesha put you up to it, knock it off.”  

Are you flipping kidding me? Who the hell was Ayesha?

“Uh… I can’t quite knock it off!” I feel something crawl along my feet and like any normal person… I scream. “I REALLY DON’T LIKE IT IN HERE! PLEASE I JUST FELL THROUGH THE WALL!”

“Really the jig is up.” I hear shuffling from the other side. Did they really just???

“This ain’t no dance sweetheart! PLEASE JUST HELP ME GET OUTTA HERE! I THINK THERE ARE SpidE-ERS!” I feel something crawl across my feet and I pound my fist against the wall again, “THIS ISN’T A JOKE! HELP!”

Silence.

It was quiet from the other side. Did…. They…. Just…. Leave me here?

I bang my fists against the wall again. “Hello?! HELLO???? HELLOOOOOOO!!!”

Footsteps sound like they’re fading away. Oh no, I was going to be trapped here forever. I didn’t even write a will yet. Oh Gosh, I haven’t even gotten married yet. I was gonna get trapped in this weird dark hallway for the rest of my life.

No. If no one was going to get me out of here, I was going to get myself out of here. The way my voice echoed meant that I was in a huge space. Maybe if I just… walked down?

And get even more lost?

Maybe if I—

I jump at the sudden motion of the wall. The wall in front of me suddenly gives way and opens, LIGHT. I see light…

“Hello…?”

“Oh thank sweet baby Jesus,” I say walking towards the opening, towards the light…

… and Arin Schreave.

I pick up my jaw from the floor before I quickly try to push some of my hair behind my ears. Oh of all times, Arin Schreave had to see me covered in dust bunnies? Not cute… AT ALL.

“ah… hello!”

Oh wow. This looked more like a hallway with a little more light shined on it… still very dusty.

The prince takes another step into this hallway, until I see the door starting to close behind him. I feel myself jump at the sound of the door shutting. Once again, the room was blanketed in darkness.

“Shit.”

“Nonononono!” I run back to where the door was, looking for something, anything, to get us out of here. Come on. All the escape room games have some kind of button to press. Maybe the prince knew something.

“Do these not open from this side…” MANNERS. “… your highness?”

“Uh…” I hear a sigh come from my right. “There’s a button somewhere around here but I don’t quite remember where.” So he did know something.

I hear a couple of steps grow louder from the direction of his voice, until I feel myself stumble backward. Did he just run into me? I reach for the wall to keep myself from toppling over. Oh. There was a hand on my waist.

“Oof, uh, sorry.” I try to move closer to the wall to avoid bumping into him. Why did it suddenly get so hot? Must be my allergies.

“No, that was my fault.” I could start making out his silhouette, moving close to the wall too. The hand around my waist was gone too.

I clear my throat, and push some of my hair back. Oh of all people to have heard me, it had to be Arin Schreave.

“I suppose you were the one on the other side of the wall I was talking to?”

“Uh, yes… I was… sorry I didn’t believe you.”

I wring my hands. I wouldn’t have believed this happened if it didn’t happen to me. “Well… whatever Ayesha may have pulled on you before… it must have been pretty bad for you to be this skeptical…”

A sigh. “I’m used to it.”

Thank God I was an only child.

Prince Arin goes silent for a moment before he says, “Just give me a minute to think?”

“Alrighty.” I suck in a breath and nod, going a little further down the wall. He said that there was a button around here. Maybe I could find it here. I try to run my hand through the wall, looking for an imperfection, a bump that could trigger the door to open.

“I think there’s a button on one of the wall, down by the floor.” I hear the prince speak up. I guess I was sort of right.

“Why would you put a switch down by the floor?” I ask. Well, there was nothing else I could do but crouch down and start feeling for it close to the floor. Ugh, all I could feel was the material of my dress pool to the ground. I try to push it away to try and keep on searching the wall.

“Not the way I thought I’d be spending this afternoon.” I laugh to myself. This was ridiculous.

“Trust me, I definitely didn’t plan for this.” I hear a sigh, “It’s near the floor so it doesn’t accidentally get pushed. It’ll feel like a small hole…”

I shake my head, hands still gliding through the wall, “Reasonable, but this is already a secret passageway. Not many people would press a button accidentally.”

I sneeze, “Oh wait.”

A small laugh from my left. “It’s uh… from when the country had rebels and the last thing you’d want to do is open one of these on accident if you were trapped inside.”

“Were rebels that much of a problem for you to have constructed these?” It had to be around here close to the door. “If I were a button… where would I be…”

“According to the history books I’ve read, yes. They were. But as a kid we used these tunnels during games of hide and seek.”

“I can tell from the dust, ” I sneeze on my elbow, “bunnies, that it’s probably been a long time since you played games here.” ACHOO! “And it’s been a while since rebels have attacked too, I guess.”

“Over 50 years… but I wouldn’t trust the dust bunnies. They could be harboring anti-monarchy sentiments.”

“Ah yes, rebellious dust bunnies. Practically planning anarchy through allergies and sticking onto your clothes unnecessarily.” I shake my head. I can’t believe this was my first conversation with the prince after meeting him… in a DARK, dusty, old, probably abandoned secret tunnel. ROMANTIC.

“They’re sneaky little buggers that make terrible pets.” I hear some shuffling from his side until I feel something bump into me.

“OOF!” I sneeze again into my elbow, before shuffling away from him. Come on Prince Arin, let’s practice some spatial awareness. “I just wanted to see some embroidery patterns. Who rigs a book of embroidery patterns to trigger a weird door?”

I sneeze, sitting up on the heels of my feet. I hate having allergies.

“Someone who doesn’t think embroidery is interesting I’m guessing.”

I lift a shoulder up, “Fair.”

I shake my head before going back to the wall and try feeling it for the button again. “It’s still fun though. Embroidery, I mean.”

“I don’t know much about it honestly.” I hear a grunt come from Arin.

ACHOO. “Just a needle and a thread honestly. That’s what my mama used to tell me.” I fumble through the wall, still looking for the button. “She used to be a seamtress before she married my dad.”

“Aha”

I hear a click before the door seems to slide open. Light. FRESH AIR.

“Oh thank God.” I breathe out a sigh of relief. I immediately stand up, albeit a bit wobbly, before I offer my hand to Arin.

He doesn’t take my hand, instead standing on his own and brushing off the dust from his pants. I tuck my hand in my other, dusting myself too.

His eyes then set on me. Oh I must look horrible. Of all times, it had to be a time where I didn’t look cute.

“Oh um… you have a little something right here.” He gestures to his head.

UGHHHHHH

“Oh,” I pat my head for whatever was there. “You also have um… what is… that…” I peer closer. It didn’t look like a speck of dust, it looked like it was moving. It had… legs?

“It’S A SPIDER.”

“oh!” I watch him quickly brush the spider off, but I watch as he swats it and gets accidentally flung at me.

I do what a normal would do in this situation.

I shriek, but I quickly swat it off my dress to the ground and running the HELL away from it. I then hear a small clinking sound. “Oh no…”

I look down to my right hand. My ring. It was gone.

Arin’s eyes follow the noise, he himself following after it to investigate.

Now this was awkward. I follow after where the sound stopped, where Arin bends down to look for the source.

“Um… I got it.” He seems to have found it, picking it up and straightens.

I step up to him and hold my palm open, “T-thank you. I can take this now.”

Oh great Melissa. Sure, a ring wasn’t going to give him any war flashbacks at all… or worse… make him start asking questions about it.

Arin clears his throat as he hands the ring to me. “Well, that’s not something you’d want to lose.”

“Nope,” I take the ring and slip it back on my right index finger. Why did I get it resized? That was a stupid decision, now it was way too big for any of my fingers. “It’s my Grammy’s ring.” I laugh slightly before looking back to him.

He nods. “Ah well… Maybe you should have it resized so you don’t lose it. Rings like that tend to be sentimental.”

It was sentimental, and trust me, it already has been resized.

I clench my right hand, making sure it wouldn’t slip off again.

“It doesn’t normally fall off, at least not all the time.” I tilt my head. “And yes, this one is really sentimental to me.”

I couldn’t bear to part with this piece.

“I can see that. It reminds me of my mom’s old wedding ring.” Arin says, and I notice him swallow nervously. “I just mean it’s pretty.”

I take a moment to blink at the wedding ring remark.

“Actually,��� I laugh slightly. “this was my Grammy’s wedding ring.”

Grandpa said he saved for an entire year to buy her this ring. Back then, things weren’t so easy for them or his orchard.

I lift a shoulder, continuing. “It was my mom’s, and then it was passed down to me.” It was a thin gold band surrounded with little diamonds. No big jewel or anything. Just tiny little diamonds. Grandpa had some taste. I scrunch up my nose and breathe out a laugh. “Thank you… for calling it pretty.”

“Of course.” He nods a bit awkwardly before glancing to the door. “Did you want to get our of here?”

Oh right, I almost forgot.

“Yes, please.” I lift my skirt to move quicker to the door before it closed in on us again. I wasn’t gonna stuck in that room again. “Thank you again for helping me.”

ACHOO!

“Sorry for not believing you…”

Arin seems to follow behind me. As we both get out of the room, he shuts the door behind us. Good. I never wanted to see that tunnel again. Ever.

I lift a shoulder, “Easy mistake, I probably would have freaked out if I heard a voice from the other side of the wall and not believe that there was a secret hallway over there.” I gesture my head to the bookcase.

“Just try not to do it again.” A small smile appears on his face. He should smile more. “The dust bunnies might not be as friendly next time.”

“I’m more worried about the spiders.” ACHOO! “Might wanna ask a couple of maids to maybe spruce it up a bit, maybe add some nice lighting, maybe an exit sign inside.”

I end up sneezing again, can’t helping but laugh at the situation.

“There’re actually lights in there…”

“That could have been useful a couple of minutes ago.” I chuckle before ACHOO! “Well, that… was an adventure, but I think I need a hot shower to wash that hallway off.” Or a bubble bath, a bubble bath seemed nice.

I give Arin a quick curtsy with a smile, “Thank you again for getting me outta there, your highness.”

In turn, he gives me a smile and a nod. “Of course.” He gives me a bow. That’s.. a first. “I hope the rest of your day is better.”

To be honest, this… was actually fun. It was nice to get to interact with Arin.

“Have a nice day!” I nod once with a smile and spin on my heel,  d lifting my skirt and heading straight to my room.

I had a feeling that things were going just fine with Arin. It was a start, that’s all I needed.

[rachembol]

Dust in the Wind (Part 12/?)

Pairings: Sam x Reader (Eventually)

Genre/Warnings: Self-discovery, vengeance, grief, absentee father, typical Supernatural violence, cursing, fluff, shitty writing, idk probably typos?

Words: 2.2 k

Summary:  Life as a post doc was stressful, but your typical norm: lecturing in the morning, working in the lab in the afternoon, and finally grading homework and working on your publications in the evening.  Of course, that life came crashing down the day the sheriff of your hometown called telling you of your mother’s brutal murder. As the only child of a single mother, you had to return to your small Midwestern town to bury the only person who supported you and pushed you through everything.  While sorting through her belongings, you had come across a small box whose contents had you switching your title from Doctorate in Biology to Hunter.  What would become the search of your lifetime will not end the way you expect it.

a/n: Sorry it’s been so long!  I’ve had a lot of things pile up recently in my classes and not much time to write.  Hope you all enjoy some doubtful lovebirds.  Also, is this more than just a simple shifter case?  We will have to see!!

Series List | Part 11 | Part 13

Lights dazed in Sam’s vision, his head was pounding like crashing waves against a shoreline.  Dust hung in the air, causing him to sneeze as he finally woke up. Seconds passed before he remembered what had happened.  A new shot of adrenaline joined what was already in his system as he tugged on the ties that were holding him to a chair; the rope felt like a thousand tiny little cat scratches against his wrists and ankles.  Ignoring the throbbing pain isolated on the back of his head, he surveyed the dimly lit room looking for his attacker.

After he obtained the footage from the third store on his list, he had climbed into the back of his taxi to head to the last one. There was another passenger in the car, which hadn’t been surprising to Sam, until they hit him over the head. The first blow wasn’t enough to knock Sam out, so when the second swing came, he was able to block it. Unfortunately, the third hit its target.

Now gaining consciousness, Sam assessed his surroundings wondering who – or what – had attacked him, and if they were still nearby.  “Is anyone there?  Hello?”

He expected a response, but not from your voice.

“Is anyone there?  Hellooooooo?” It mocked.

Damn, Sam thought to himself, I must have been hit pretty fucking hard.

Approaching footsteps caught his attention; his body tensed at the looming danger.  The tension dissipated as he saw your form enter what little light was in the room.

“Y/N! Oh, thank God.  I think the shifter found out who we were; he sprung me in my cab on the way over.  Can you get these ties undone?”  His head tilted backwards, indicating the rope holding his wrists on the backside of the chair.

Your strange grin and lack of reply worried him. You walked around the back of the chair to presumably untie the rope, but instead, your hands rested on his shoulders.

“Samuel Winchester, never thought I would have the pleasure of holding you captive.  This gig turned out much better than I anticipated.”

Sam chuckled nervously as his mind caught up with the situation.  “So, you’re the shifter?  Well, at least we don’t have to keep looking for you now.”

The slap across the back of his head told him that the shifter was not up for sarcasm.  Walking around to stand in front of Sam, it looked straight into his eyes with your Y/E/C ones.  “Listen here, big guy.  You aren’t the target of this whole charade, you’re just leverage.  And you know what I like to do with leverage?” It paused, searching Sam’s face for signs of fear.  “I like to have fun.”

The shifter brought a hand up to Sam’s cheek and lightly stroked it with its thumb.  Sam attempted to pull away but it’s other hand grabbed the back of his head, preventing him.  “What’s wrong, Sammy?  Don’t you want Y/N to be touching you this way?  Caring for you?  Telling you that you mean the world to her?”

Sam watched as your smile was contorted on the shifter’s face; he began seething in anger.  “Go to hell.”

A distorted version of your laugh escaped the shifter’s lips.  “Huh, that’s exactly where someone wants Y/N to be!”  It paused as it examined Sam’s questionable look, climbing into his lap to straddle him.  The closeness was almost too much for Sam to handle.  “They tell me you’re the smart one but what I can tell from you and your brother, intellect doesn’t quite run in the family.”

Sam’s mind began to race, contemplating how this simple case was connected to you.  “What does Y/N have to do with this?”

Continuing to toy with the hunter, the shifter brought its lips – your lips – up to Sam’s ear.  “She has everything to do with this.  Whether some may question the technicality of her presence that night, he believes she was a witness to his promise of revenge.  He will fulfill it, I guarantee it.”

“Dean, this isn’t working!” You yelled, kicking the dust at your feet.  You were standing outside the abandoned barn Dean had found to interrogate the shifter. The evening air filled your lungs and cooled your skin as you two took a break.

The older Winchester’s hardened expression cut through you; he was just as upset if not more about the situation.  Sam had now been missing for several hours while Dean and you tortured the shifter to spill his location.  You now knew everything irrelevant to the matter at hand, like what the shifter’s favorite color was, or how it preferred to kill his victims, all answers that dodged your questioning.  On top of that, even though your throw wasn’t supposed to be fatal, it was slowly becoming just that.  You estimated that the monster had maybe thirty minutes left, something it knew as well.

“It has to be stalling.”

“Yeah?” Dean paused.  “No shit.”  He continued to wipe the blood from the silver blade in his hand, his movements rough and trembling; the sight causing sympathy to course through you.

The two of you returned to the shifter, deciding to use this last thirty minutes to the best of your abilities.  

Dean crouched in front of the tied down shifter, pulling its hair to make it look up at him.  “Alright douche bag, we know that you’re stalling.  Whoever you’re waiting to come busting in and save you ain’t coming.  Just tell us where the real Sam is, and you’ll be dead before you realize it.”

“Someone to save me?” It turned its head to the side to spit out the blood oozing from its upper lip.  “Ha, like that’s what I’m waiting for.  I’m a goner, just like him.”

Your anger bubbled over.  “He is not gone, you bastard!”

“He is not gone, you bastard.” It whined back at you in Sam’s voice.  “God, I honestly don’t know what he sees in you. You’re so annoying!”

You smiled at his insult, knowing that he was lying his ass off.  “I thought shifters could read snippets of the person’s mind they are impersonating, guess you’re just a defect.”  This topic had been reoccurring during your investigation; an angle at which the shifter was trying to make you crack under your emotions.  The shifter taunted you with lies that you could only dream Sam would think about you.  Even though hope would start to build within you, Dean could not learn about how you felt about the younger Winchester, you wouldn’t allow it.

Placing a hand on Dean’s shoulder, you pulled him away from the shifter.  “Dean, I think it’s time to call Cas.”

An internal struggle could be seen through Dean’s emerald eyes; he didn’t want to disturb Castiel’s search for Jack, but Sam was in danger and had been for too long.  He looked down at the ground while nodding his head in agreement, placing the silver dagger in your hands.  He walked out of the barn, leaving you with the dying monster.

“Ya’know, I’m not gonna tell you guys shit.” It jeered.

Your eyes found Sam’s blue-green ones.  They looked so perfect, yet the held the wrong gaze; the sincerity, gentleness, and humility that you knew should have been there were stripped away and replaced with coarse, raw instinct.  This was not the man you wished he was, nowhere close.

The shifter laughed under your stare, making your blood boil.  “You might want to take a picture dear, after all, this may be the last time you see your boy toy.”

The blade in your hand moved as an extension of your anger, puncturing through the shifter’s left hand tied to the chair. It’s scream echoed through the old barn, but you couldn’t hear it over the sound of your erratic heartbeat loud and clear in your ears.  Swiftly, you removed the dagger you had stashed in your boot and brought it close to the shifter’s right eye.  You would have continued moving forward if it wasn’t for those damn irises looking back at you.

A throat cleared behind you, followed by a deep voice that you recognized.  “Y/N, may I?”

Slowly peeling yourself away from the shifter, you turned to see Dean and Castiel watching you intently.  “Please do, Cas.  I don’t want to waste any more time.”

You side stepped out of the angel’s way as he approached the prisoner.  Fear couldn’t even begin to describe the shifter’s expression as Castiel placed two fingers on its forehead.  You could feel the power emanating from the two of them as he searched through the shifter’s mind for Sam’s location.

After what seemed like decades, Castiel removed his hand.  The shifter’s head tip forward, finally succumbing to its death.  “Old logging mill, about 15 minutes from here.  He’s not alone, there’s one other shifter.”

You pulled out your phone quickly and searched for any mills nearby.  “Found it.”

“Thanks, Cas.”  Dean said; a flutter of wings being Castiel’s only farewell as he disappeared.

Working quickly, the two of you disposed of the shifter’s corpse.  It wasn’t long before the Impala was racing towards the abandoned logging mill.

Hours had passed since Sam last saw you – well the shifter “you”.  After two hours of harassment, that thankfully didn’t turn quite sexual, it left to deal with some “unfinished business”.  In the time that had passed, all Sam could think about was you. How does this case have anything to do with you?  Is someone hunting you?  What is this “promise of revenge”?

After hours of deliberating with himself, your voice pulled him from his thoughts.  “Sammy, I’m home!”

A few moments passed before your form appeared in front of Sam.  In your hands was a bag from a local hardware store, its contents most likely being rope and other materials that could be used for torture.

Great, still the shifter.

Sam scoffed at the sight.  “Uh, you may not have noticed but, you’ve already tied me up.  I don’t see the point in more rope.”

The shifter scrunched your face in annoyance as it glided over to the table perched next to Sam’s chair, placing the bag on top of it.  “God, what does she even see in you?  Hell, what do you even see in her?”  

Her words caught Sam of guard.  “Excuse me?”

“Don’t tell me you’re oblivious to it too?”  His dumbfounded expression shocked the shifter, inciting her to continue.  “Oh my God, you are!  Both of you are head over heels for each other and don’t know it!”

A fit of laughter consumed the shifter as Sam stared in disbelief.  “Yeah, you must be a flawed shifter.” He ridiculed.

“Flawed shifter? You would rather believe that I am a shifter not capable of hearing her thoughts than you two being dumbasses? That’s freaking gold!  And to think, I got to witness first hand her worry about you getting jealous.”

“Wait, what?” He questioned.

“Last night at the bar?  When that dumb bitch walked up to me to try to win a bet?  I was scoping out the place for a new victim when the whole reason I was in this town walked right up to me.  I gotta say, you three picked up scent of our work quicker than I expected.”

Sam listened to every word carefully.  If he played his cards right, he knew he could still get information from this shifter. “Our work?”

It stiffened at his words, realizing it had made a mistake.  Finally, it shrugged its shoulders before continuing.  “Guess it doesn’t matter since you’ll be dead soon anyway. Two shifters were hired to cause mayhem in this town in hopes of dragging Y/N out here: Connor and myself. We didn’t know she was traveling with the Winchesters but, seeing as you were not difficult to capture I’m sure your bother will be an easy catch as well.”

“Overall, this has been an easy gig.  I was able to transform into Y/N after I ran into her last night, and Connor got to turn into the giant Winchester to trick your counterparts.  It was quite funny, as we learned about you two lovebirds; however, I’m still shocked you two haven’t done anything about it.  Knowing Connor, he’s probably already played her like a fiddle, I’ll even bet he’s sleeping with Y/N as we speak.”

The corner of Sam’s mouth twitched out of rage.  He would have ripped himself from this chair had it not been for his already embedded and swollen wrists.  If he had been too blind to see how you felt, he sure as hell didn’t want some shifter being the one who told you the truth.

Sam, stop and think.  The shifter is toying with you.  If this Connor guy has gotten into your head, he will have known how you felt and told this shifter.  You cannot trust what its saying.

He calmed his mind before responding.  “Wow, you are really good at making shit up.”

The shifter snorted in disbelief.  “Wow Winchester, you really don’t understand a damn thing-“

It cut itself off at the sound of approaching footsteps.

“Well, well.” It whispered.  “The party has arrived.”

Series List | Part 11 | Part 13