Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.

chapter forty-two , Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

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Athena keeps her good eye on the rushed words that were written across her notebook. She was sitting on the bench quietly reading the words she's been writing lately about her father's death and what happened. Sam was crouched in front of his mother's grave while Dean was far away from it. He was standing beside the bench Athena was sitting on. The only thing that kept it from becoming an awkward silence is the fact that Athena was softly murmuring her words.

Athena knew why Dean was close to her. Because he wanted to talk. He felt guilty, and the three siblings knew it. After the last case, Dean had realized just how much he took his grief out on others and how much he still wanted to run away from it. He was envious that Athena and Sam were able to grieve in such a healthy manner. What Dean didn't know was that Athena was hardly dealing with any feelings at all. She was, as what any Winchester would say "fine".

"Whatcha reading?"

Athena keeps her good eye on her notebook. "Uh, just notes I've been working on."

Dean frowns and hums softly. "Oh, well. Is it for education or..."

Athena shakes her head, "No, it's for my thoughts. Whenever they pop into my head, I write them down."

"What? Like even when you're sleeping?" Dean asks.

"Uh, no." Athena snorts. "I'm sleeping when I'm sleeping."

Dean chuckles, "No, I mean, do you just wake up from your sleep."

"Oh. Yeah, most of my thinking happens when I'm sleeping." Athena shrugs.

"Your eye bags are getting bigger." Dean states. "You're not sleeping."

"Yes, I am."

"Athena, why do you carry that thermos around all the time?" Dean folds his arms.

"So I can drink my whiskey from it without you suspecting anything." Athena finally looks at her brother with a deadpan expression. "What do you think it's for?"

"Not whiskey that's for sure." Dean folds his arms.

Athena sighs, "No, shit, Sherlock." She huffs. "It's for coffee."

Dean scratches his brow and Athena squints her good eye. "Why do you care?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

Athena raises her brows and Dean sighs. "Look, Athena, about how I've been acting this past month..."

Athena lets out a soft breath, "Oh boy—here we go..." she closes her notebook and places it in her backpack.

Dean sits next to Athena on the bench and he huffs. He scratches the top of his brow. "I'm sorry for everything."

Athena's eye trail behind Dean and she pulls her brows together. "That tree is dead."

"Wh-what?"

Athena points and Dean turns to follow her finger. He looks at the dead tree. "Okay, well, anyway—"

"Yeah, excuse me." Athena stands up and grabs her bag. She walks over to the dead tree and Dean sighs. This was gonna be harder than he thought. Dean follows Athena to the tree. She circles the tree like a shark with her pointer tapping her lower lip. Dean knocks on the tree and it almost sounds hollow.

"Weird." Dean voices.

Athena nods, "Right? Look down."

Dean looks at the ground and notices they were standing in a patch of dead grass. "Holy shit."

Athena raises her brows, "Holy shit." She nods.

Dean's eyes catch sight of the grave marker stuck in the dirt. He crouches down and inspects the flowers that were now dead.

After Sam was done visiting his mom's grave, he made his way over to his siblings who were talking to a Groundskeeper. Dean accepts the card from the guy and shows it to Athena.

Athena grabs the card, "Nice. I mean, not nice, because she's dead. But, nice as in you got the card."

"Teamwork!" Dean holds a hand up, waiting for a high-five.

Athena looks at Dean's hand and presses her lips into a firm line. "Right." She turns to Sam. "We might have a case." She walks over to him with the card in her hand. Dean sighs softly and his hand drops.

"Yeah?" Sam raises his brows.

"Angela Mason." Athena states.

"She was a student at the local college." Dean adds, making his way over to his siblings. "Her funeral was three days ago."

"Okay..."

Athena frowns and squints her good eye. "Well, I'm sure you saw her grave, right?"

"Yeah, I saw it." Sam says.

"Everything is dead around it." Dean states. "It's a perfect friggin' circle. You don't think that's a little weird?"

"Maybe the Groundskeeper went a little agro with the pesticide." Sam suggests.

"No, we asked him. No pesticide, no chemicals. Nobody can explain it." Athena replies.

Sam pulls his brows together and looks at his siblings, weirded out by their recent 'teamwork'. "Okay, so, what are you guys thinking?"

"I don't know, Unholy Ground, maybe." Dean speaks.

"Un..." Sam stops in his tracks. He shakes his head and chuckles.

"What?" Dean stops and shrugs a shoulder.

"If something evil happened, it could easily poison the ground." Dean defends his answer. "Remember the farm outside of Cedar Rapids?"

"Yeah, but—"

"It could be the sign of a demonic presence...or the Angela girl's spirit, if it's powerful enough."

Sam looks at Athena, "And what's your theory?"

Athena sputters her lips, "Uh, as of right now? Nothing. I just thought it was weird that there was dead stuff in a circle."

Sam frowns and rolls his eyes. He walks away from his siblings.

"Well, don't get too excited. You might pull something." Dean scoffs.

Athena walks beside Sam and Dean. "It's just stumbling onto a hunt...here of all places?"

They get to the car.

"So?"

"So, are you sure this is about a hunt, not something else?" Sam questions.

Dean squints his eyes, "What else would it be about?"

Athena sighs, "We all know what it's about." She speaks up. "And I'm just making it clear, I was the one who said something about the dead tree."

"And why is that?" Sam asks. "Maybe to avoid a certain conversation between you and a certain someone?"

Athena's eye widens, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" She chuckles. "You are not gonna try and analyze me." She points at Dean. "You can analyze him, but not me."

Dean's mouth hangs open.

Athena scoffs and shakes her head, her face becoming hot with anger because she knew Sam was right. "Analyze me..." she quietly murmurs. "How about I analyze you."

Athena gets in the car while softly muttering to herself. Dean raises her brows, "Nice job, Sammy." He looks at his brother. "You've pissed her off."

"You pissed her off first, all right?" Sam points at him.

"Hey, I'm working on reconciliation." Dean smacks Sam's finger away from him.

Sam pulls his face back and pinches Dean's arm.

"Ow!"

"You started it!"

"Are we gonna go or what?" Athena peeks her head out of the window and looks at her brothers.

They both look at her then look back at each other. Dean scoffs, he rounds the car and gets in the driver seat.

☆

"Angie was only a mile away from home when..."

Athena bites the inside of her cheek and looks at her bandaid-wrapped fingers.

"It's got to be hard..." Dean starts. "...losing someone like that. Sometimes it's like they're still around, almost like you can still sense their presence."

With the same reaction, Sam and Athena look at Dean.

"You ever feel anything like that?" Dean inquires about the grieving father.

"I do, as a matter of fact."

"And it is perfectly normal to feel that way, Dr. Mason," Athena assures the man, her tone was stern toward Dean, but comforting to the father. The stern part of her voice was aimed at Dean. As much as Athena wanted there to be a case here. She wasn't going to start pointing fingers at someone because he was grieving in a normal way.

"Especially with what you're going through," Sam adds.

"You know, I still phone her." The man says. "And the phone's ringing before I remember that, Uh...family's everything, y'know?"

"Angie was the most important thing in my life. And now I'm just lost without her."

Athena swallows the lump in her throat. "I am so sorry, Mr. Mason."

As soon as they got back to the Motel, Dean was still talking about the case Sam was quickly losing interest in.

"I'm telling you, there's something going on. We just haven't found it yet." Dean skims through John's folder.

"Dean, so far you got a patch of dead grass and nothing." Sam chuckles.

"Well, something turned that grave into Unholy Ground." Dean states. "Right, Athena?"

Athena flips her knife in her hand as she keeps her eyes on her notebook. Her hand starts to tug at her hair instinctively. She softly speaks under her breath, reading across the words. What was she missing? She hated feeling this way.

"Athena!"

The girl snaps out of her obsessive thoughts and looks at her brothers. Sam shifts his eyes to her hand and she pulls her brows together. She looks down at her hand and her mouth slightly opens seeing some of her hair in her hand. "Shit must've pulled too hard." A dry chuckle escapes her lips. Sam and Dean nervously look at each other.

"Are you—"

"Fine. I'm fine." Athena closes her notebook. "I think I'm gonna go to my room and lay down." She forces a small smile. "Tell me if you guys find anything on the case."

Athena quickly gets off the bed with her notebook close to her chest. She speed walks to the door and leaves the room without another word.

"She's been doing that a lot lately," Sam says.

Dean clenches and unclenches his jaw. "Yeah...what are we going to do?"

"Maybe forgot about this so-called 'case'—"

"What?"

"Come on, Dean, none of us need this chasing nothing crap right now." Sam looks at his brother. "There's no reason for it to be Unholy Ground."

Dean rolls his eyes.

"Angela Mason was a nice girl who died in a car crash. That's not exactly vengeful spirit material. You heard her father."

Dean lets out a sharp breath, "Yeah, well, maybe daddy doesn't know everything there is to know about his little angel, huh?" He paces the room and Sam follows him.

"You know what? We never should have bothered that poor man." Sam states. "We shouldn't even be here anymore."

"So, what, Sam? We just bail without even figuring out what's going on?" Dean scoffs.

"I think I know what's going on here." Sam states. "It's the only reason I went along with you this far."

"What are you talking about?" A crease forms between Dean's brows.

"This is about mom's grave."

Dean's chest tightens and he scoffs. "Got nothing to do with it." He brushes his brother off.

"You wouldn't step within 100 yards of it." Sam states. "Look, maybe you're imagining a hunt where there isn't one so you don't have to think about mom or dad."

Anger rises in Dean and he drops the journal on the bed and looks at Sam. The middle Winchester senses Dean's rage and he sighs. "You want to take another swing? Go ahead if it will make you feel better."

Dean's anger quickly dies down. Was Dean really that known for violent tendencies that Sam was ready for his brother to hit him? Did Athena think that too? It made Dean's stomach turn and he was left feeling ill. The eldest Winchester shakes out of his thoughts and he meets Sam's eyes.

"I don't need this crap." Dean recovers. He grabs his keys and jacket.

Sam lets out an exhausted breath. "Dean, where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go get a drink...alone."

☆

"So, why is he bald?"

Athena looks up from her notebook and looks at the tv screen. "He's a monk." She answers.

"And...he's the...what again?"

"Avatar." Athena answers. "It's the title of the show, Sam."

"It's good." Sam nods his head.

Athena raises her brows, "Really good."

"And this is a kid's show?" Sam chuckles.

Athena smiles and a small laugh escapes her lips. "Yeah. Kid shows can be really good, you know?"

"Well, not the kid shows Dean likes." Sam laughs.

Athena raises her brows, "What? The shows Dean watches can be good...sometimes."

Sam raises his brows, "Like what?"

"Scooby-Doo?"

Sam opens his mouth to object but Athena holds a finger up. "Don't lie, Sam. I will know."

Sam slumps his shoulders, already knowing that it was futile to try and lie. "Okay, Scooby-Doo is...good at times."

"At times." Athena scoffs. "All the time. Scooby-Doo is good all the time."

The door opens and Sam quickly turns the tv off. Dean looks at the tv that was turned off and then back at his siblings. Athena rolls her good eye, "Oh, come on, don't be embarrassed that you enjoy watching Aang and his friends."

Dean's mouth slightly opens and he points at Sam. "You were watching Avatar?"

"It was only for a second—"

"Liar," Athena speaks, her eyes on her notebook. "We watched 3 episodes."

Dean laughs and Sam's jaw clenches. "Whatever—where the hell were you?" Sam looks at his brother.

"Oh, just working my imaginary case." Dean answers.

"Yeah, and?" Sam questions.

Oh, well, you were right. I didn't find much." Dean answers. "Yeah. Except Angela's boyfriend died last night—slit his own throat, but, you know, that's normal."

Athena quickly looks at Dean with her brows raised.

"Uh, let's see. What else? Oh, he was seeing Angela everywhere before he died." Dean looks at Sam with a smug expression. "But, you know, I'm sure that's just me transferring my own feelings."

Athena looks from Dean to Sam. "Okay, so, I missed something—obviously." She sighs.

"Maybe there is something going on here," Sam admits. "I'm sorry."

"Maybe?" Dean takes his jacket off and looks at Sam with a pointed look. "Sam, I know how to do my job despite what you might think."

"Should I leave?" Athena asks. "This is starting to get uncomfortable."

"No, everything's good," Sam assures the girl. "We should check out the guy's apartment."

"I just came from there..." Dean sits at the table. "...a pile of dead plants just like the cemetery. Hell, a dead goldfish, too."

Athena pouts her lower lip. "Aw..."

"So, Unholy ground?" Sam suggests.

"Maybe," Dean says. "I'm still not getting that powerful angry-spirit vibe from Angela." He stands up and grabs the book he placed on top of the tv. "I've been reading this, though."

"You stole her diary?" Athena cranes her neck forward.

"Yes, I did, Athena," Dean says. "And if anything, the girl's a little too nice."

"So, what do you want to do?" Sam asks.

Dean opens the diary, "Keep digging, talk to nods of her friends."

"You get any names?"

"You kidding me?" Dean chuckles and he holds the diary out to his siblings. "I have her bestest friend in the whole wide world."

☆

"Good work, guys."

Sam and Dean look at Athena. She was sitting in the grass with her eye on a comic book and her headphones hanging around her neck.

"You wanna help?" Sam asks with a chuckle.

Athena purses her lips and exhales through her nose. "And risk seeing a rotting corpse?" She flips the page of her comic book and goes back to reading.

Sam and Dean look at each other. They both let out a soft laugh before going back to digging again. As soon as they hit the casket with their shovels. Dean looks at his brother and raises his brows. "Ladies first."

Sam's shoulders sag and he sighs. He hands his flashlight to Dean, "Hold that."

Dean grabs the two flashlights and points them at the casket. Sam opens the casket door, revealing nothing.

"What the fuck?"

Athena looks at her brothers, "It smells, huh?"

"There's nothing here," Dean says.

Athena purses her lips, "Maybe you need glasses."

Dean looks at Athena. "Even if I needed glasses to see, I could still tell if there was a body in this casket or not and there's not."

Athena stands up and walks over to the hole. She looks into the casket and frowns, "Huh...when did they bury her?"

"They buried the body four days ago." Dean answers.

"I don't get it." Sam huffs. Athena points at the inside of the casket cover. "Look at that."

Sam and Dean look across the scripture on the casket cover. "What is that?"

Sam shrugs a shoulder, "I'm not sure..."

Dean raises his brows and his chest tightens with rage. "I've seen these kinds of symbols before."

"Okay...where?"

"Dr. Mason's house," Dean murmurs, anger evident in his voice.

Athena and Sam look at each other, before looking back at Dean. The eldest Winchester grabs his shovel and stalks out of the cemetery.

"Ah, shit..." Athena places her comic in her bag and zips it shut. She stands up and quickly follows after her brothers.

"Dean, wait up!" Sam calls out.

Dean grabs his keys and unlocks the car. Sam walks over to his brother and stands in front of him. "Dean, you can't just go to this guy's place and not even know anything about those symbols."

"Then what do we do, Sammy?" Dean throws his arms out.

Athena sputters her lips, "We could go to the library and look into it." she suggests.

Dean looks at Athena and she raises her brows. He looks at back Sam and the middle Winchester waits for Dean's response. Dean sighs, "Yeah, that could work."

Athena presses her lips together, "Great. Glad we're on the same page and not acting impulsively." she then scoffs and gets into the backseat.

The Winchesters spent all night looking into the symbols. They made their way to Mr. Mason's house and the two younger symbols took notice in Dean's agitated body language.

He aggressively knocks on the door.

"Dean, take it easy, okay?" Sam says.

Athena rocks back and forth on her heels. "When has Dean ever taken it easy?"

Dean bangs his hand against the door again and Athena points at him, proving her point. The door opens, revealing Dr. Mason.

"Dr. Mason--"

"We need to talk."

Athena side-eyes Dean, and she huffs.

"Well, come in." Dr. Mason takes a step side.

The three siblings entered the house. Athena unzips her bag and grabs the papers with the symbols drawn on them. She hands it to Dean.

"You teach Ancient Greek." Dean holds the drawings out to Dr. Mason. "Tell me...what are these?"

Dr. Mason grabs the paper, "I don't understand. You said this had something to do with Angela."

"It does," Dean says. "Please, just humor me."

"They're part of an ancient greek divination ritual." Dr. Mason states.

"Used for Necromancy, right?" Dean asks.

"That's right."

"See, before we came over here, we stopped by the library and did a little homework ourselves," Dean says. "Apparently, they use rituals like this one for communicating with the dead, even bringing corpses back to life--full-on zombie action."

"Yeah. I mean, according to the legends." Dr. Mason says, his response curt. "Now, what's this all about?"

"I think you know." Dean snatches the papers from Dr. Mason's hands.

Sam and Athena look at their brother.

"Dean." Sam softly speaks.

"Look, I get it." Dean starts. "There are people that I would give anything to see again, but what gives you the right?"

"Relax," Athena growls.

"What are you talking about?" Dr. Mason asks.

"What's dead should stay dead!" Dean snaps.

"What?!"

"Stop it!" Sam shouts.

Athena looks at each person as they continue shouting.

"What you brought back isn't even your daughter! These things are vicious, they're violent! They're so nasty! They rot the ground around them--I mean, come on! Haven't you seen 'Pet Sematary'?"

Dr. Mason shakes his head, "You're insane." he walks past Dean and heads over to the phone. Athena holds her hand out, "And he's going for the phone."

"Where is she?" Dean asks.

"Get out of my house." Dr. Mason grabs the house phone and starts to dial.

Athena looks around the house, her eyes stop on the plants. They were alive. She tugs on Sam's jacket sleeve and he looks at her. Athena motions her head to the plant and Sam looks at the plants. Sam's eyes slightly widen.

Dean stalks over to Dr. Mason and snatches the phone from him. "I know you're hiding her somewhere. Where is she?!" he throws the phone on the ground. Athena flinches, "Can you stop it?!"

Sam walks over to his brother. "Dean, stop! That's enough." he snaps. "Dean, look--beautiful, living plants." Sam looks at Dr. Mason. "We're leaving."

"I'm calling the police." Dr. Mason threatens.

Dean scoffs and stalks out of the house. "We're sorry. We won't bother you again." Sam follows his brother out of the house.

Athena chuckles nervously. "Th-they dragged me here. So..." she bunches her shoulders. "...yeah..." she runs out of the house.

Athena runs down the steps and catches up with her brothers. "I think he's actually calling the cops. Thanks, agro-dean."

"Hey, I was only trying to solve this case," Dean says.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" Sam barks.

"Back off." Dean scoffs and walks away from his siblings.

"That man is innocent. He didn't deserve that." Sam says, following Dean.

Dean holds his arms out. "Okay, so, she's not here. Maybe he's keeping her somewhere else."

"Or, just a thought--he's not the one who brought her back." Athena suggests in a fake oblivious tone.

"Guys, I know what I'm doing." Dean brushes his siblings off.

Athena purses her lips. Dean is such a liar.

"No, you don't...at all," Sam says. "I don't scare easy, but you're scaring the crap out of me."

"Don't be overdramatic, Sam." Dean huffs.

Sam pulls his brows together with worry. "You're lucky this turned out to be a real case..." he stands in front of Dean, stopping him in his tracks. "'cause if it wasn't, you would've found something else to kill."

Dean raises his brows, "What?"

"You're on edge, you're erratic, except for when you're hunting, 'cause then you're downright scary," Sam explains.

Dean looks at Athena, wondering if she agreed with what Sam was saying. Athena didn't say anything, but she quickly looked away from Dean when he turns to her; which gives him his answer.

"You're tail spinning, man, and you refuse to talk about it, and you won't let us help you."

Athena watches as Dean looks away from Sam and chuckles. "I can take care of myself, thanks." He starts to walk down the sidewalk again.

"No, you can't!" Sam exclaims. "And you're the only one who thinks you should have to. You don't have to handle this on your own. No one can."

"Sam, if you bring up dad's death one more time I swear to god—"

"Dean, it's killing you. Please."

Athena wanted to partake in this conversation. But she didn't really know what to tell someone, who lost the one person they look up to. The girl doesn't know that kind of loss. Yet.

"We've already lost dad." Sam states. "You and I lost mom. I've lost Jessica..." he looks at Athena and then back at Dean, "...now Athena and I are gonna lose you, too?"

Dean's jaw goes slack and he looks at Athena. She looks at the ground, not able to even come up with something to say. Dean looks back at Sam, "We better get out of here before the cops come."

"Dean—"

"I hear you, okay?" Dean assures Sam. "I'm being an ass, and I'm sorry." He looks at Athena. "I'm sorry."

Athena's chest tightens and a lump forms in her throat. "We should...get out of here." She stuffs her hands into her pockets. She walks past her brothers, wanting to get far away from this conversation.

...

"You really think this is gonna work?"

Athena finishes lighting one of the candles. "Well, I did come up with the plan, so—"

Dean clears his throat, catching Athena's attention. Athena looks at Dean and rolls her eyes. "Okay, fine—we came up with the plan."

"Teamwork!" Dean holds a hand up.

Athena blinks at Dean and starts to light another candle. Sam chuckles softly with his brows knitted together. He felt bad at Dean's attempt to try and get back in Athena's good graces, but it was also hilarious when he failed.

"This was the only plan we had." Athena says. "But, if you've got another plan, my ears are open."

Sam holds a hand up, "Nope. No plan this time."

Twigs snap in the distant, catching the sibling's attentions. "Athena—"

"Stay here, yeah, yeah. Just go." Athena waves a hand and finishes lighting her candles.

Sam and Dean pull out their guns before walking in opposite directions. After a few minutes of silence, Athena heard a gunshot ring through the cemetery which made her heart jump. She soon saw Sam sprinting towards her with Angela right behind him. Angela tackles Sam and Athena quickly stands up with a clenched jaw.

Angela grips Sam's head and before she could snap his neck, Dean shoots her in her back. The Walking Corpse flies off of Sam. She rolls back onto her feet and looks at Dean. Athena covers her ears before Dean shoots a whole round into Angela's chest. Angela falls back into her coffin and Dean sprints over to her. Dean slides into the coffin and drives the silver stake into Angela's heart despite her pleads for life.

Then Athena hears her brother murmur a sentence that sends chills down her spine.

"What's dead should stay dead."

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author's note.

sorry this chapter is that good, I wanted to get something out to you guys, but my motivation for this chapter slowly started to die down at the end

words : 4357