Down the Rabbit Hole

Souls of the Departed

Soundtrack:
Lana Del Rey – Dark Paradise
Silver- Wham Bam Shang a lang
Hey Violet - Hoodie

Lacey opened the door to Rufus's cabin, kicking off her boots as she went in. She dropped her bag on the coffee table and collapsed onto the sofa. It had been a long day. She leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes, letting her mind wander. It had been 5 months since Dean and Cas had disappeared and she was still no closer to finding them. She and Sam had parted ways after a week of fruitless attempts to figure out where they had gone. They had looked in every lore book they could find but there was no information on the Leviathans in any of them, which they already knew but Lacey had insisted they check again. When Sam had given up, they hadn't left things on good terms. Lacey couldn't understand why Sam was so willing to let Dean go when he would never have done that to Sam. So she had started her own investigation. She spent most of her days in the lab at the institute with Mr McCoy, trying out different theories and experiments to figure out what had happened to them. So far, nada. When she wasn't at the lab she worked a few shifts at the Mystic Grill and then spent the weekends with her Aunts. She had just finished the late shift at the Grill, her clothes and hair stank of food. She smiled to herself a little. If Dean had been here, he probably wouldn't have complained about that. Her smile faded. She didn't know if she would ever see him again. The thought haunted her but she pushed it away. She shouldn't think like that. She had to stay positive. Lacey let her mind go blank, exhausted from the day. She slowly drifted off. At first she thought she was dreaming when she heard a familiar voice say;
"I'm screwed, Sam." She floated towards the voice in her mind.
"No, no, no, no. There's gotta be a way. There's gotta be a way. Dad'll know what to do." Lacey frowned as the next voice found its way through the ether. Had Sam found him and not told her? She felt a rushing sensation, as if a gust of wind was going past her. Then everything stopped. Lacey could have sworn she had fallen asleep on the sofa. Yet she was sitting cross legged on a cold, hard floor. And the noises around her, this didn't sound like a dream. She had never had a dream so vivid that there had been background noise. She slowly opened her eyes. Before she could adjust to her surroundings there was a noise in front of her.
"Geez!" She blinked at the person in front of her, as they jumped to their feet. "Where did you come from? What are you?"
"Dean?" Lacey slowly got to her feet, staring at him in shock. "How are you here? Where are we?" Lacey looked around, realising they were in a hospital room.
"How do you know my name? Who are you?" Dean strode towards her, closing the gap.
"Dean, it's me, Lacey." She frowned at him.
"I don't know a Lacey." Lacey scoffed.
"Yes, you do, I'm your girlfriend." Dean raised an eyebrow.
"Sweetheart, I don't have a girlfriend." Lacey stared at him and finally began to take in his appearance.
"Wait, when.... How old are you?"
"I'm not answering anything until..."
"Please, just answer me." Lacey looked at him pleadingly. "How old are you?"
"I'm 27. Why?" Lacey sucked in a deep breath, her mind reeling.
"Oh my god." She stumbled backwards until she hit the wall. "Oh my god."
"Will you stop saying that and tell me who you are?" Dean folded his arms across his chest. Lacey counted backwards in her head.
"2006, it's 2006?"
"Yes. Now you wanna answer me?"
"I'm not sure you'll believe me." Lacey told him.
"You'd be surprised what I'll believe."
"Oh, yeah, I know about the supernatural. I just think this one's a little far-fetched even for you." Dean let out a low growl and closed the gap between them again, Lacey could feel her heart beating fast in her chest.
"You're talking to me like you know me, but I don't know you. So just get on with it and tell me who you are."
"I'm from the future." Lacey blurted out. Dean stared at her for a moment.
"The future."
"Yes. And in the future, I'm your girlfriend." Dean let his gaze wander over her.
"Prove it."
"What?"
"If you're my girlfriend, as unbelievable as that is to me, you'd know stuff about me that no-one else does. So prove it." Lacey thought for a moment before breaking into a grin.
"Rhonda Hurley." Dean blinked at her.
"What?"
"Rhonda Hurley. You were nineteen, there were pink panties involved. And you liked it." She smirked at him.
"Well...." Dean smirked back. "Ok then. We've met, I'll give you that." Dean had the wind knocked out of him slightly as Lacey enveloped him in a hug.
"I've missed you." She told him quietly, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Ok..." Dean patted her shoulder and she pulled away. "Care to explain?"
"My name is Lacey McNulty. We met....meet... whatever, in 2009 when I fall out of the sky and land on your car." Dean balked at her. "Don't worry, Baby was fine." She reassured him. "And, yeah, we eventually got together. We've had our ups and downs but..." She shrugged. "Something happened a little while ago in my time and you've been....away." She paused and looked down at the floor. "So, I guess I've been missing you and somehow I ended up here."
"How could you end up here?" Dean frowned.
"Oh right, yeah, I have powers."
"Like the psychic kids?"
"Psychic kids? No, I'm a mutant, like the x-men?" Dean raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.
"So how are you here?"
"I'm not 100% sure, astral projection I guess." Lacey shrugged. "The last time I did that, I had a little help."
"Well, you picked a pretty crappy time to drop in."
"What do you mean?" Lacey frowned.
"Sorry to break it to you but, I'm dying."
"Well obviously not, I mean, I know you in the future so, you can't die now." Dean shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, I'm a spirit. The real me is lying in that hospital bed." Lacey glanced to her left and for the first time noticed Dean lying in the bed hooked up to machines and tubes.
"Oh my god." She covered her mouth with her hand before shaking her head. "I could try and heal you?" She suggested.
"You can do that?" Dean's eyes widened.
"Normally, yes." Lacey walked over to his body and went to lay a hand on his arm, only to pass right through him. "What?" She looked at her hand, which felt solid enough, and tried again, with the same result. "I don't understand."
"Maybe you're a spirit too." Dean suggested.
"Well, I was fine before I got here. I was just sleeping on the sofa." Lacey replied, thoughtfully.
"Maybe it's this astral projection thing. You said you've not really done it before."
"Maybe..." Lacey trailed off as Sam entered the room. "Oh my god, Sam! He's such a baby." She gushed. She walked towards him but it soon became clear he couldn't see her as he walked right through her to stand beside the bed. "Wow. That was weird."
"Tell me about it. Same thing happened to me earlier." Dean shuddered.
"Hey. So Dad wasn't in his room." Sam spoke to the room at large.
"Where is he?" Dean asked, even though Sam couldn't hear him. Lacey bit her lip. John was alive right now?
"But I got Dad's journal, so who knows? Maybe there's something here." Sam began to leaf through the journal and Dean went to stand beside him.
"Thanks for not giving up on me Sammy." A jolt of guilt and anger went through Lacey. She couldn't believe the Sam in her time was the same one that was sat in front of her, scrabbling to find any way to save his brothers life. Dean was reading the pages with Sam and suddenly he muttered;
"Son of a bitch." And headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Lacey called, rushing after him. She followed Dean to a room down the hall where he had stopped in the doorway. Lacey looked over his shoulder and saw a woman with black shoulder length hair sitting on the bed.
"Hi, Dean." She said, looking up at him gravely.
"You know, you read the most interesting things. For example, did you know that reapers can alter human perception? I sure didn't. Basically they can make themselves appear however they want. Like say a pretty girl. You are much prettier than the last reaper I met."
"I was wondering when you would figure it out."
"Wait, she's a reaper?" The woman finally noticed Lacey.
"Who are you?" She stared at Lacey. "You're not supposed to be here." Dean ignored her.
"I should have known. That whole accepting fate rap of yours is far too laid back for a dead chick. But the mother and the body, I'm still trying to figure that one out."
"It's my sandbox I can make you see whatever I want."
"What, is this like a turn on for you? What, toying with me?" Dean glared at her.
"You didn't give me much choice. You saw my true form and you flipped out. Kinda hurts a girls feelings. This was the only way I could get you to talk to me." She explained.
"Okay, fine. We're talking. What the hell do you want to talk about?"
"How death is nothing to fear." She got to her feet and walked towards Dean. "It's your time to go, Dean. And you're living on borrowed time already." Dean looked over at Lacey who shook her head.
"Look, I'm sure you've heard this before, but you've gotta make an exception, you've gotta cut me a break."
"Stage three: bargaining."
"I'm serious. My family's in danger. See, we're kind of in the middle of this war and they need me."
"The fights over." The reaper assured him.
"No, it isn't."
"It is for you. Dean, you're not the first soldier I've plucked from the field. They all feel the same. They can't leave. Victory hangs in the balance. But they're wrong. The battle goes on without them."
"My brother. He could die without me." Dean protested,
"Maybe he will, maybe he won't. Nothing you can do about it. It's an honourable death. A warrior's death."
"I think I'll pass on the seventy two virgins, thanks. I'm not that into prude chicks anyway." Dean said in his usual manner. Lacey gave him a small smile.
"That's funny. You're very cute." The reaper smiled too.
"There's no such thing as an honourable death. My corpse is going to rot in the ground and my family is going to die! No. I'm not going with you, I don't care what you do."
"Well, like you said. There's always a choice. I can't make you come with me. But you're not getting back in your body. And that's just facts. So yes, you can stay. You'll stay here for years. Disembodied, scared and over the decades it'll probably drive you mad. Maybe you'll even get violent."
"What are you saying?" Dean frowned.
"Dean. How do you think angry spirits are born? They can't let go and they can't move on. And you're about to become one. The same thing you hunt."
"Enough!" Lacey stepped forward. "Dean is alive in the future, so everything you've just said is a bunch of bullshit. You can change this. You have to."
"That's not up to me." The reaper told her.
"Then who is it up to?" Suddenly the lights around them began to flicker.
"What are you doing that for?" Dean asked the reaper.
"I'm not doing it." She looked around too. Suddenly black smoke began to pour through one of the vents.
"What the hell?"
"You can't do this! Get away!" The reaper protested but to no avail as the black smoke entered her.
"What's happening?" Dean asked. The reaper let out a scream and then went silent. When she looked back at them it was through yellow eyes.
"Today's your lucky day kid." She put a hand on Dean's forehead and everything went black.

Lacey woke with a start. The feeling of effectively re-entering her body was jarring, to say the least. She was breathing rapidly as she sat up, taking in the familiar surroundings of Rufus's cabin. She tried to steady her breathing. She had seen Dean. She wasn't quite sure how she'd managed it, but she had. Lacey grabbed her phone from her bag. It was 3am. She groaned and climbed to her feet, heading for the bedroom at the back of the cabin. She was supposed to be at the institute at 9 tomorrow. She changed her clothes and got into bed. She lay there just looking at the ceiling for a minute. She was feeling happier than she had in a long time. She smiled to herself and rolled over. Now she just had to figure out how to do it again.