Survive, Boy, Survive

Chapter 58

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" After some near misses and some broken into museums, I found historical documents that led to a monastery in Spain.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..."