Survive, Boy, Survive

Chapter 61

I was researching with Dean, Sam's gone off somewhere, don't know, don't really care that much. My head dropped onto my arms, I heard Dean scoff, then his chair moving, then I was lifted up. My head flopped onto his shoulder,
Dean said" I was wondering when you were gonna pass out on me. Took longer than I thought." I felt him walking...

I was laid down,
Dean said" Get some sleep, River, you deserve it." I rolled over and fell asleep-
———
I sniffed a burger, then went to bite into it, but Sam grabbed it from me and tossed it.
I said" Hey! I'm hungry!"
He said" Then eat something that doesn't look like it'll actually kill you."
" Fridge's been picked!"
" I'll tell Dean. Teleport or something, go get you something to eat."
" I don't want to teleport. I wanted to eat the deadly burger!"
" I'm your big brother, I can't let you eat a moldy burger, buddy."
" Then why are you keeping secrets if you're my brother?"
" I'm not keeping any secrets from you."
" Sure, you aren't. Whatever. Not like I haven't kept my share of secrets from you idiots. I want pizza." I walked away from him, I heard him sigh.

Dean came back with one of the Styne's,
Dean said" Here's how this works. You're strong. I'll give you that. But you can bleed and hurt just like the next guy, so I'm gonna ask questions, you're gonna give answers, or it's gonna get crazy real quick."
The man said" Well, I hope you got some time. I'm not the usual breed of cat."
" Neither are we. Did you kill that girl in Omaha?"
" Yeah. So, it's true. You have the mark of cain. My sympathies. That's why you wanted the book- To remove it."
Sam said" We wanted the book because that's where your power comes from. See, our family business is putting guys like you out of business."
" Oh. It's impressive. Let me tell you about my family business. You're in way over your heads. The family is vast- spread over the world. And that power that you mentioned doesn't come from the book. It comes from intelligence and will. The book facilitates. Stock market dive, recession, 9/11- Any of them ring a bell? Arab spring. Didn't even break a sweat."
" Okay. Why?"
" Well, you got to be in it to win it, boys. You see, chaos breeds fear. Fear breeds panic, and panic breeds desperation, and there's always profit to be made from desperation. You make a big enough mess, has to get cleaned up. And we've been in the fix-it business for 1,000 years, and business has never been better." Sam's phone buzzed," Now for the last 80 years, we haven't had the book. With the book, we're unstoppable." Then Sam walked out,
Dean said" The girl you killed- why take her eyes?"
" That whole situation- Unfortunate. We normally never leave a body when we harvest." I looked at Dean, we both turned to the man,
" When you what?"
" It's a family specialty- bioengineering. Surgical enhancement. And I'm not talking about nose jobs." He pulled up his shirt," See? Two hearts in here. Bunch of extra muscle, especially in the legs. Every man in the family's had a little something. Pretty much what you'd expect, though, given the family tree."
" The Stynes?"
" The real family tree. The name was altered out of necessity. You have chanced upon a linage with a long and proud tradition... and some unwanted notoriety. One of Europe's oldest families. The house of... Frankenstein."
" Frankensteins aren't real. They're made up."
" Yeah, of course. And we never had a family acquaintance named Mary Shelley who spent a few nights in castle Frankenstein and stumbled upon our secrets, and forced us to change our name and go underground."
" So, why didn't Shelley go public?"
" She wrote a book. Doesn't get more public than that."
" Mm."
" But no one believed it to be true, just like no one's gonna believe you."
" Well, as long as my brothers and me believe, that's enough."
" Yeah, well... as mighty as I'm sure your little family is, mine is a juggernaut. We're not ordinary men. We're spartans." Dean pulled out a knife,
" But you aren't immortal."
" What we are is expendable. I go down, there's an army of replacements behind me."
" And where does this army call home, hm? Who's big daddy Frankenstein?"
" Were you here when I mentioned that we're underground? There are secrets."
" Well, I'm swell at uncovering secrets."
" You give me the book, and it's conceivable that we could have a conversation."
" The book?"
" Mm."
" Dude, we don't have the book. The book was burned."
" The book is protected by a spell. It's eternal. It cannot be destroyed." No, no, no, no...

We walked out to Sam, he stopped as he nearly ran into us.
Dean said" What are you doing?"
Sam said" Uh... something came up."
" What?"
" It's handled. Uh, what's going on in there? Get any more out of him?"
" Yeah, an earful- Truly. Let me ask you something." Then there was a crash, we took off for the dungeon.

We got there and saw a blood trail, we looked in and the lunatic ripped off his own arm.
Dean said" Oh, my god. He ripped it off."

I walked into the library,
Dean said" I don't freakin' believe it! You got Charlie involved with this again, and now she's missing?!" Sam's phone buzzed,
Sam said" Charlie, where are you? If you have the book, give it to them."
" Charlie has the damn book of the damned?!"
" Then give them your notes, Charlie. Give them the code- Whatever they want!" Dean took the phone,
" Charlie, I don't know what the hell is going on, but you need to listen to me. Give whoever that us whatever they want. You understand?!" We ran up the stairs to the door," Charlie?!"

We were speeding down the road,
Dean said" So, you had the book the whole time?"
Sam said" Dean-"
" Lied right to my face."
" I thought it was our only chance to get you free of the mark, so I grabbed it."
" I made it real clear how I felt. You ever consider that?"
" Dean, listen-"
" And then you pulled Cas into it. And Charlie."
" Charlie loves you, Dean. We all love you."

We pulled up to the motel, jumping out, they got their guns ready, I powered up. We walked into the room, no one was there, we walked to the bathroom door,
Sam said" Oh, god." Then he gagged, Charlie was dead...
Dean said" Charlie?"