Losing Hope | {BOOK 4}

7| Fanfiction

When we arrived in Ms. Chandler's office, there were several empty bottles sitting around as well as a robot head on the desk.

"Is this hers?" I asked.

"No! That's a prop from act two!" Marie said, grabbing the head. "I've been looking for that, actually."

"There is no space in Supernatural," Dean growled.

"Well, not canonically, no," Marie nodded. "But this is transformative fiction."

"You mean fanfiction."

"Call it what you like, okay? It's inspired by Carver Edlund's books. With a few embellishments. But, as you know, Chuck stopped writing after Swan Song. I just- I couldn't leave that the way it was. I mean, Dean not hunting any more, Sam somehow back from Hell, but not with Dean?! So, I wrote my own ending."

"You wrote your own ending. With spaceships?"

"And robots. And some ninjas. And then, Dean becomes a woman."

We both stared at her like she was insane.

"It's only for a few seconds," she defended.

"And you left Ellie out of it?" I asked.

"Yeah, I just never really liked her very much. I mean, the boys heading to her father's shop to ask for help was just so unnecessary. They could have easily done everything without her."

We left the office, heading back in the direction of the auditorium.

"Alright, Shakespeare. You know that I can actually tell you what really happened with the- the Sam, Dean and Ellie?" Dean began as we walked. "A friend of mine hooked me up with the, uh, unpublished unpublished books. So, Sam came back from Hell. But without a soul. Ellie got pregnant with her and Dean's second kid, a son. Then, Cass brought in a bunch of Leviathans from Purgatory. They lost Bobby. And then, Cass, Dean and Ellie got stuck in Purgatory, Sam hit a dog. They met a prophet named Kevin, they lost him, too. Then Sam endured a series of trials, in an attempt to close the Gates of Hell. Which nearly cost him his life. Dean and Ellie got married. Then Ellie? Ellie became a demon. A Knight of Hell, actually."

"Wow," Marie said in a disbelieving tone.

"Yep."

"That is some of the worst fanfiction that I've ever heard! I mean, seriously, I don't know where your friend found this garbage! I'm not saying ours is a masterpiece, or anything, but geez! Ha! I'll have to send you some fic links later."

Dean looked over at me for backup, but I didn't know what to say. Looking over, we noticed the actresses dressed as Dean and Cass kissing before pulling back and looking all lovey-dovey toward each other.

"What are they doing?" Dean glared at the girls.

"Um... Kids, these days, call it hugging."

"So that in the show?"

"Oh, no," Marie shook her head. "Siobhan and Kristen are a couple in real life. Although, we do explore the nature of Destiel in act two."

"Sorry, what?" Dean and I chorused.

"Oh, it's just subtext! But, then again, you know, you can't spell subtext without... s-e-x."

Dean and I shared another incredulous look.

⁘

We met with Sam outside the school, telling him what we found out from Marie.

"I don't understand," Sam said, shaking his head.

"Me neither," Dean grumbled.

"I mean, shouldn't it be... Deastiel?"

"Really?" I raised my eyebrows. "That's your issue with this?"

"No, of course it's not my issue," he smirked. "You know... how about Sastiel? Samstiel?"

"Okay, alright," Dean glared at his brother. "You know what? You're gonna do that thing, where you just shut the hell up. Forever."

Sam laughed, obviously finding the whole situation amusing.

"Look, guys. No EMF. No hex bags. None of the props are even remotely hinckey. Other than the Charlie Kaufman of it all, I got nothing. You?"

"In Ms. Chandler's office, there's just a pile of empty bottles and regret," I admitted. "She's probably face down in a bar, somewhere. Or a ditch."

"Alright, so what?" Dean added. "This- this all... This whole musical thing, everything, it's... it's all a coincidence? There is no case?"

"Unless one of you is seeing something I'm not, no, Dean," Sam shook his head. "There's no case here."

"Okay."

As we were about to climb into the Impala, Sam looked across at us one last time.

"CasDean?"

"Shut your face! Get in the car!" Dean growled, pointing at him.

⁘

Maggie, the actress who'd been playing Sam, had disappeared just like Ms. Chandler and Marie had been outside when it happened. The police had found the same type of flower at both crime scenes, but we didn't recognize it from anywhere. Marie and Maeve were sitting by the edge of the stage, Marie looking shaken as she held a cup of coffee.

"Hey," I greeted them gently.

"Let me guess," Marie glared. "You guys came here to laugh at me, too. Right?"

"Why don't you tell us what happened to your friend?" Sam suggested, not answering the question.

"Maggie quit the show. She was trying to get it shut down, so, we were fighting. Then, she- she left, and I heard her scream. So, I ran outside to help. And... and I saw a scarecrow. It looked just like the one from our show, but... alive."

"Then what?" Dean pressed.

"It wrapped her in vines, and took her behind the dumpster. And, they were both just... gone. So, I called the cops, and a bunch of adults just told me I have an overactive imagination. But, it's all real. Ghosts. Angels. Demons."

We all shared a look, quietly as Maeve held Marie's hand.

"I wanna believe," she whispered.

"You should believe," Sam told her. "You both should. 'Cause, it is all real. And so are we. I'm Sam Winchester. That's Dean and Ellie."

Marie and Maeve looked at each other following his declaration, and then bust out laughing.

"Okay! Now, look. I'm willing to accept that monsters are real," Marie began. "But those books are works of fiction."

"And you guys are way too old to be Sam, Dean and Ellie," Maeve added.

"More of a Bobby/Rufus/Jody combo? Maybe?"

Dean was glaring at the girls like he wanted to strangle them like yesterday.

"Okay. Alright, little miss sunshine. We are what the books call hunters."

"FBI hunters?"

"Yeah."

Marie and Maeve shared another look.

"You guys are X-Files," Maeve stated.

"Sure," I nodded. "Yeah, you could say that. So, this scarecrow, from your musical, is it based on the one from the books?"

"No, I changed it. I got scared of a local legend, when I was a kid. There was this creepy old scarecrow, on an abandoned farm, outside of town. Kids used to say, if it caught you, it would take you away."

"Okay," Dean said. "If this scarecrow is based over your version, then Maggie and Ms. Chandler might still be alive."

"You think the scarecrow was created by the play?"

"You think... it's a tulpa!"