Paint It Black
“I’m still pissed at you, and you really could go fuck yourself with a cactus and I would enjoy your suffering. But I knew you would follow me.”
Dean found Claire sitting on the steps outside. He hadn’t been expecting it and nearly tripped over her. He gained his footing, blinked and covered his eyes with his hand, unused to the brightness of the midday sun. Then he sat down next to her.
Claire wrinkled her nose. “You still smell like a urinal.”
Dean stayed silent for a few moments, and Claire just sat there. Finally, he spoke.
“Did they… dissolve?”
Claire took her turn to stay silent. Her jaw clenched before she answered.
“I… assume so. I wasn’t with them when it happened. But I couldn’t contact either and I couldn’t find them back home.” Dean didn’t miss that she called it home.
“Maybe they’re looking for you.”
“No. I checked for them in Sioux Falls and then went to our predetermined “doomsday” location. Waited for two days. They didn’t show.”
“Where was that?”
“Here.”
“Why didn’t you come in sooner?”
“Same reason you didn’t come out.”
Dean considered that. He knew she was right to be mad at him, and to expect more of him. He was an adult. An adult who had been through Hell and back, uphill both ways, dozens of times. And here she was, being stronger than him. She took a deep breath and spoke again, not stopping this time.
“I was on a bus. In Chicago. I had been hunting a lone vamp that was targeting young guys by getting them to take her home from a date. Easy, quick case. She was taking the bus and it was us and like, four other people, and when I got off to follow her, she just vanished. And not like I lost her, but literally just… turned to dust. And then I heard this horrible crash and turned around to see that the bus had switched lanes and hit this giant tractor trailer, head on. I went over to check it out, and two of the people had died from the wreck. The other people were just gone, and the driver too. I had no clue what was happening, but I thought maybe witches, because people don’t just dissolve. Neither do vampires. But then people started screaming and crowds came out and I realized it was happening to everyone. Then I went straight back to Sioux Falls to find them. The hospital was an absolute mess, and no one had seen Alex. Patients who hadn’t vanished were dying because doctors and nurses vanished. It was chaos. The house was empty. Jodie’s phone was right there in the living room, all my missed calls on it. None from Alex. I think, I knew then. But I still had to check. I watched some news and some chick from Wakanda gave a statement that it was some alien shit. Half of human life, gone. Maybe more than just humans, too, something about other planets and turns out that the galaxy is a whole lot bigger than we thought. So I came here. No cars outside. Sat on the steps for two days, afraid of what I would find inside. Afraid it would be nothing. And when no one came out or came back in, I pretty much knew I was right. Surely, the Winchesters would be the first to try and make this right. But no one came. So I thought all four of you were gone.”
“Guess you were 75% right, then,” Dean said, feeling that splintering feeling again. Claire visibly winced, but kept her tone emotionless.
“Guess so.”
“Are you disappointed that it’s me?”
Claire froze up now, tensing in a way that let him know he had said the wrong thing. He shouldn’t have said it, he knew that, but his brain was still catching up with the plan of staying alive, let alone higher functioning. And he was still dehydrated as fuck.
Claire looked straight ahead, not moving a muscle. Her voice was quiet and seemed just a tad weaker. “Go take a shower, Dean. Drink some water, while you’re at it.”
He listened this time, getting up and retreating inside. He turned to look at her before walking through the door, and saw that she had drawn her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
When he had taken a half-hour long shower and drank at least two quarts of water while he stood there under the spray, he made his way to his room and got dressed. He avoided looking at anything. He made a trip to the kitchen and grabbed a new glass of water, drinking it slowly while leaning on the counter. By the time he had finished the glass, his hunger and fatigue hit him full force. He raided the kitchen for anything still edible. Nothing in the fridge was any good, but there were some chips in the pantry along with a couple packs of ramen. He set a pot on the stove to boil and got to work. He remembered what Claire had said before (along with some common sense) and ate slowly. He had a couple chips, and waited. A few more, then wait. A few more. Prepare the ramen. A couple of chips. His stomach felt okay, but was still roaring with hunger. He separated the ramen into two bowls and headed outside.
Claire hadn’t moved. He sat back down next to her and held out the bowl.
“So… do you have a plan?” he asked. She shifted, took the bowl and straightened her back, crossing her legs. Her voice was hard, icy, and filled with righteous anger.
“I’m gonna go kick Captain America in his star-spangled balls and get him to figure this shit out and fix it.” Dean was slightly taken aback.
“What makes you think he can do that?”
“I just watched a video where he and that Wakandan military lady explained what happened. Some alien called Thanos got some fancy space rocks that control literally the fabric of reality, and apparently he used them to snap half the universe out of existence as part of some weird, convoluted plan to redistribute resources. Iron Man and Spider-Man got abducted by aliens, and Cap and the rest of the Avengers fought the guy here, in Wakanda, and they lost. Then Captain made some piss-poor justification of his fight with Tony Stark and tried to make it seem like he was so good now because he knew Tony had been right all along about putting a shield up to protect us or whatever. Anyway, the alien is gone, and so is half the world.”
Dean considered this. If this was some superhero thing and not a supernatural thing, that could potentially mean it was a lot easier to fix. On the other hand, it could be a lot harder, too. He looked back to Claire.
“My question still stands. Why do you think he can fix it? They clearly already failed once.”
“You’re not wrong. But I don’t have any better ideas.” She finally looked at him, asking a question without words.
“I guess I don’t have any better ideas, either,” he said.
One location spell later, and they were packing up the car to head to the “secret” Avengers bunker- thing in New York, outside of the city. Claire had cleaned up the beers and water, and Dean had found a couple of Sam’s water bottles to fill up and take with them. He very resolutely didn’t think about Sam, though. Just water. Only water.
When they both got in, he started the car and pulled out of the garage. At the end of the driveway, he paused. He and Claire shared a steely gaze, and then both looked straight ahead.
“Let’s go kick some star-spangled balls,” Dean said.
“Fuckin’ ace,” Claire agreed. She grabbed a tape, shoved it in, and turned up the volume. Finally, they were off.