A Funeral of Ravens - SN fic - R

[tigriswolf]

Title: A Funeral of Ravens

Fandom: “Supernatural”

Disclaimer: not my characters; just for fun.

Warnings: AU for “All Hell Breaks Loose”

Pairings: Dean/Sam

Rating: R

Wordcount: 800

Point of view: third

Notes: Um… yeah. Sorry?

 

 

There’s hope, somewhere.

 

But not here.

 

--

 

She does everything by rote, salting the bodies and burning the building down around them. She can’t let them linger—not like this. It sears deep into her soul; no mother should have to outlive her children.

 

Surely, there’s hope out there. Other hunters had to escape the massacre. Had to survive. 

 

She always fussed at John for his quest. Now she has her own.

 

And it aches, just like she’d always suspected it would.

 

--

 

Bobby’s gone. And Missouri. Joshua and Nathaniel, Megana—everyone. Even Gregory, high up in the mountains. 

 

She’s the only one left. 

 

--

 

There is nothing to do but head west, towards the sinking sun. She passes through shells of towns, through blackened buildings and rotting corpses; nothing escapes them. Not children and newborns, not crones and grandmothers.

 

Dogs do, and cats. Horses. Serpents. Ravens and crows are everywhere, darkening the sky. She watches their flocks block out the clouds and whispers, “Murders and funerals.” It’s bitter, maddened laughter that tumbles from her lips.

 

They kill what used to be their kind and leave everything else alive. They killed her baby girl and her foundling boy, and all her friends. But they let kittens prowl and puppies frolic, and they embrace wrapped in a snake’s coils.

 

She used to love those boys, John’s sons. They were her hope, once.

 

But now she sees them for what they are. For what they’ve always been. And it’s too late.

 

It’s too late.

 

--

 

She hits the ocean and stops, stares out over the water. The sun is setting and a cool wind blows from the waves.

 

She still hears the screams. They blend with the roar of the ocean, the slap of the rolling waves on the sand. The salt scent mingles with the salt she used to set her children free. 

 

Tears prick at her eyes and she slaps them away. Now is not the time to break down, to mourn. Now is the time for vengeance.

 

Now is the time to hunt them boys down.

 

--

 

The crows caw overhead. Dogs roam the streets, gnawing on what used to be humans. Families. She barely keeps herself from retching as she sees a little girl’s corpse being tugged between two collies.

 

She doesn’t have the time to stop and bury them all, to say the rites that’ll let them move on. She has to keep going, following the destruction.   After it’s done, she’ll come back.

 

After it’s done.

 

--

 

She follows them to the Gulf of Mexico and they let her see them on the beach, naked as newborns, cavorting in the waves without a care in the world. 

 

There’s a cougar stretched out, sunning, and a small pack of wolves playing chase with the water. There’re crows and ravens, and even a golden eagle, flying above them. Dean has a cobra wrapped around his left arm and Sam has a black mamba coiled about his torso, its head resting on his shoulder.

 

She’s going to be sick.

 

She has the Colt and one bullet, and that’s not enough. Not nearly enough. She wants to sob, to fall to her knees and ask why they didn’t kill her, too, why they let her see the bodies of her babies, of her friends, of all those people between Nebraska and here.

 

“Shh,” Dean says, lightly touching her cheek, taking the Colt from her slack grip. She’s come this far, and she’s going to fail, and she hates him so much she can’t see.

 

Sam reaches out to trace her jaw and leans down, presses a soft kiss to her forehead. “There was always a reason, Ellen,” he whispers, his right hand tightening on her shoulder. “Even when I couldn’t see it.”

 

She jerks back but doesn’t go far, and the mamba slithers over to her. “And what’s that?” she asked, voice barely a shade of what it used to be.

 

His smile is dark and dangerous, his green eyes fathomless. 

 

Dean kisses her lips and a cold breeze blows off the Gulf. 

 

--

 

There’s hope, somewhere. A hunter or two escaped the massacre, families are locked down deep and secure. The destruction didn’t leave America, after all.

 

Ellen isn’t alive to see it spread, though. She doesn’t know just how far Sam’s power stretches, can’t hear Dean’s laugh as he slaughters children in front of their parents. Doesn’t see Dean’s glee as he feeds husbands to his pack as the wives scream for mercy. Can’t feel the vibrations of Sam’s anger and joy as cities collapse and nations beg God for aid.

 

God has no aid to give.   A funeral of ravens flies overhead and a murder of crows caw in the distance. There is hope, somewhere.

 

But not here.

Comments

[henchgirl.livejournal.com]

wow.


(it's four in the morning, or i'd be more eloquent. :P)


wow.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you!

[spectacal.livejournal.com]

This? Is a kick in the balls I don't have.
I love it! Great, great job. :)

[tigriswolf]

*hee*

Thanks!

[cambion-ichor.livejournal.com]

I loved this.
It was so bleak, so hopeless...
A part of me is screaming "but Sam and Dean are the good guys!" and another part of me is whispering "we all have the darkness in us"...
And yeah.
Just.
Wow.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you so much!

[ssfladysb.livejournal.com]

That was sharp and painful and really really good.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you for reading and letting me know!

[alykayt.livejournal.com]

Twisted! I love it!!

[tigriswolf]

*giggles* Thankees!

[calijirl5150.livejournal.com]

WOW, not much more I can think to say, you write very powerful, can just feel the emotions.Excellent job.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you so much!

[shea-fleur.livejournal.com]

This was very powerful, beautifully envisioned and scary as hell! Yeah, I think WOW about sums it up! };-)

[tigriswolf]

Thank you!

[embroiderama]

Holy crap. *shudders* Amazing story! The imagery with all the animals is really chilling.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you for reading!

[ashlesha17.livejournal.com]

How many times can I say, 'I loved this!'? This fic has almost a biblical - end of days quality to it. I love that Sam and Dean are followed by Ellen, they are less seen than the horrific world that they leave in their wake. Great.

lesha

[tigriswolf]

Thank you!

[1aquaesulis76.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's a wow.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you!

[sadelyrate.livejournal.com]

You have an evil (genius) mind, hellbent on hardening us for whatever Kripke & co. have planned for the boys...

I hate to admit it, but I liked this. I liked Ellen the moment she was introduced, even if the Season Finale made me careful around her. And the boys...the boys, the boys, the boys...

How can you make them seem so very in-character even when they're anything but themselves?

[tigriswolf]

It's a gift!

*kidding*

Thank you so much!

[tru-faith-lost.livejournal.com]

Haunting, darlin'. Of course, you know I hate you for the complete lack of happy, but I can't fault the perfection of the dark.

Tracy

[tigriswolf]

Hey, both boys are alive! Just like I promised.

[dev-earl.livejournal.com]

That was lovely. In a dark, twisted, !!! kind of way. But an utter and absolute amazingness.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you so much!

And your icon makes me want to rewatch "Born Under A Bad Sign."

[pushkin666.livejournal.com]

I love this. The imagery is so dark and it's nice to have it from Ellen's point of view as opposed to the boys or a stranger.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you!

[angharadd.livejournal.com]

OMG, that was super-creepy. I loved Sam's & Dean's metamorphoses here, and the Apocalyptic imagery. Not the route they are gonna take in canon, but the fic is all the more precious for that.
Great job!

[tigriswolf]

Thank you!

[ladyvyola.livejournal.com]

Cool -- I do love me some feral Winchesters.

And it's interesting how, while they can only be called "evil", the boys seem less agents of Hell than of a merciless Earth itself, driven to punish and cleanse in equal measure.

Gaia isn't necessarily nurturing. At least, to humans....

[tigriswolf]

Ooh, interesting... and now I may have to do something with that, too.

Thank you for reading!

[fingersofdawn.livejournal.com]

This was awesomely sick and beautifully twisted - loved it! And hated it... *confused* :)

[tigriswolf]

Aww, thanks!

[fleshflutter.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that was very painful and very beautiful. :)

[tigriswolf]

Thank you!

[ashlesha17.livejournal.com]

tigriswolf

I recced your story, A Funeral of Ravens, to crack_impala and it appears in today’s Wednesday - Sam/Dean G-R edition.

lesha

ps. I loved how the story follows the character well into the story before you every see them. All the more horrifying that they're seeing the aftermath rather than the battle.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you so much!

[lexii314.livejournal.com]

This was wonderful. So hopeless and dark. Loved it!

[tigriswolf]

Thank you!

LOVE your icon.

[altyronsmaker.livejournal.com]

well, that was certainly darkly delicious and powerful. How futile for the main character, following and never quite reaching them, until they already know she's there, and then...well.

Wow.
I hope I NEVER SEE THIS ON THE SHOW, though. *aches*

[tigriswolf]

So, you wouldn't want to see Dean and Sam cavorting in the Gulf of Mexico, naked? Huh.

Thank you for reading!

[dodificus.livejournal.com]

That was definitely very chilling and apocalyptic. Ellen following them through all the destruction and being totally impotent to do anything when she found them. I can only imagine how much worse it would have been for everyone if she'd used the colt to kill *one* of them.

[tigriswolf]

Ooh, a fun idea! Thank you!

Also, thank you for reading!

[feline-fury1.livejournal.com]

DDDAAAMMMNNN!

That's it. I got nothin' else.

(Well, at least you didn't kill Dean in this one!)

[tigriswolf]

It's a somewhat happy ending for Our Boys! *hee*

(Any fics you want commentary on?)

[zooey-glass04.livejournal.com]

Wow. That was really good. Dark and hurty enough that I feel the urge to wallow in schmoop for the rest of the evening, and beautifully written. I love this view of Ellen. Great fic!

[tigriswolf]

Thank you so much!

[pushkin666.livejournal.com]

Hello . Your friendly evilsam_spn mod over here. *waves* I've created mirror communities on GJ, IJ and JF just in case we have problems on LJ. More as a back up than anything but there are already some members that we don't have here so it's nice to get evilsam fics/art out there and known.

Would you mind if I posted a link on those communities to this and any other stories you may have posted on evilsam_spn? I do appreciate people want to know/have control over where their babies are going which is why I'm asking.

[tigriswolf]

Sure, go ahead!