DISHONOR ON ME

Dean hadn’t been sure it would work. It was a wild idea, in every sense of the work, but they had been desperate and both of them having a panic attack at the same time was guaranteed death. And yet, somehow, it worked. Their surroundings shimmered and vanished, and they were back to the Y on the tunnels they’d found at first. “Holy shit, you did it!” He was in disbelief, and gad Drew been anyone else, he would’ve hugged her, but Drew was Drew so that wasn’t gonna happen. Ever. But he was impressed.

Drew was still missing her backpack and she was still wet, though, so what had happened to them had been real, in a way, so Dean had to be more observant in case he started getting the nagging feeling on his brain again. “C’mon, that thing was that way,” and he started walking on the opposite direction they’d taken at first.

He and Drew were both screaming. Peachy. It only made it harder to focus on what was and wasn’t real and to think of a way out. He should’ve noticed it sooner. He should've— No. He breathed in and closed his eyes, forcing himself to count to twenty (since ten had stopped working a long time ago). Drew was right, they couldn’t fight Mist, they couldn’t just stab thin air, it didn’t work like that.

Maybe it was the panic trying to crawl up his throat, maybe it was some divine inspiration, but Dean had one wild idea. “Charmspeak it!” He’d remembered when the Seven of the prophecy had returned (well, the six; Valdez hadn’t been around back then) and they told about their quest. None of them actually talked to Dean, but he listened, and he listened to Piper and the Roman girl, and he remembered them saying manipulating the Mist was a lot like charmspeak. It wouldn’t hurt to try, right? “Make it stay back,”

Dean’s request was easier said than done. Drew had never tried to charmspeak something that wasn’t a person. She couldn’t make the rain stop on command or tell the wind to blow in a certain direction. As far as Drew was aware, charmspeak didn’t work like that. The Mist was magic (or something like that, Drew didn’t pay that much attention when it had been explained so many years ago). 

Weren’t they prophecy-bound, Dean would’ve pushed her back into the water stream. “Easy there, Sarcasm Master. I meant…” He rolled his eyes. “’Two demigods shall descend into the dark, and get astray in the treacherous path’. Astray. Checked. But this isn’t how the Labyrinth is supposed to be. We should’ve popped up somewhere, or found something already, several somethings, actually. We’ve been walking for hours and found nothing except…” Don’t call it by its name. Names are powerful. “…that thing.”

There it was. The ladder. The same ladder on the side of the channel, and it was the fourth time they’d walked past it. He’d been keeping count. And he stopped. “Someone’s making us walk in circles, and you hadn’t noticed it. Someone’s toying with our heads.”

Being a pessimistic overthinker with anxiety issues and ADHD on top of certain mind powers for once seemed to be of use, because as soon as Dean said that aloud, he felt it. It was like when Drew tried to use charmspeak on him, a nagging feeling on his brain he hadn’t been able to shake off until that moment. And no one messed with his head. “Get… out…” He mumbled through gritted teeth, fighting the thing in his mind, like he’d fought Drew’s charmspeak once, and from the corner of his eye he could see the setting around them shifting again, almost like it was… “It’s Mist! This shit isn’t real! It’s the Mist!”

“I’m not the one in front, it’s not my job to notice!” she immediately lashed out before Dean’s words and their meaning really sunk in. Once they did sink in, she began to panic. Something more powerful than either of them was making them walk in circles. The idea that they ever could have made it through this was stupid in the first place and now they were going to be stuck in a loop forever. The word seemed to echo in her head. Forever. With Dean. Her heart rate sped up and she began to hyperventilate. Dean shouting in the background finally caught her attention and she could just make out his words over the panic. “What?!” she shrieked, panicking more. If this was the mist and nothing was real they could be anywhere. They could be back in the skeleton room about to be eaten by that monster that already almost killed her once. 

“Seemed to be a path,” Dean explained, putting on his backpack again and adjusting the straps. “Keep that bottle for you,” It was up to Drew to ration her drinks, he couldn’t and wouldn’t be her watchdog. They went down the ladder and back to the water channel, though now the level was lower and there was, indeed, a concrete path. Going back meant a pit with a monster that could be waiting for them, going forward meant they could find literally anything, good or bad.

He sighed and started walking following the current of the water. “C’mon, don’t get behind,” They walked in silence for a while, but Dean couldn’t help but notice they seemed to be getting nowhere. “Got a theory… a bad one… wanna hear it? Someone’s toying with us.”

There it was. The ladder. The same ladder on the side of the channel, and it was the fourth time they’d walked past it. He’d been keeping count. And he stopped. “Someone’s making us walk in circles, and you hadn’t noticed it. Someone’s toying with our heads.”

Dean sighed before taking out one of the water bottles he’d been carrying on his backpack and handed it to Drew. Losing half their food and water would be an issue, and it meant they could die of dehydration or starvation or– It was better to stop himself before letting his brain go down that road.

“Gotta get out of here, feels like sitting ducks. Apparently we can walk following the water.”

None of them seemed to be in the mood to talk, and Dean was the last person in the world to force conversation out of anyone; instead, he remained sitting with his head against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment. They deserved that break. When he opened his eyes again he wasn’t sure how much time had passed, though, and Drew was asleep too. At least their clothes were dry now and he stood up to take a look around and try to find a way out or at least a sign of where the fuck they were.

Nothing. He peeked at the water and he noticed the level had lowered, but he wasn’t really feeling like going back the way they’d come. “Hey… wake up.”

“Don’t jinx it,” He glared at Drew. With their luck, they shouldn’t be tempting fate, specially not if that monster was what Dean thought it was. He closed his eyes and breathed in. “Guess we can stay here til our clothes get dry.”

Dean had seen the monster’s face right as Drew was falling down and her flashlight lit the door where the monster was looking down on them, but he didn’t want to believe his eyes. Maybe he was going mad, that wasn’t so hard coming from him. He rested his head against the concrete wall and took a deep breath; they deserved at least a couple of minutes before going on.

“Where the fuck are we, anyway?” He asked out loud, looking around the floor they were in, trying to spot a sign or something else. He couldn’t allow himself to feel trapped, or he’d start losing his shit and having a panic attack, and that’d probably kill them both.

“DID NOT!” He was offended Drew even suggested that had been a kiss, “You’re fucking welcome”. He grumbled, sitting on the floor away from her. His clothes were soaked and so was his backpack, but at least he’d kept it. Drew’s had been lost in the water, thus losing half their stuff for the quest, including the flashlight. Shit. At least they were in some lit space this time. 

“You saw what that monster was?”

“Eugh,” Drew shuddered again and wrinkled her nose. She wrapped her arms around her knees to try and warm up. That water had been cold and she was still soaking wet. They were only a couple hours into the quest and she’d already almost died once and lost her backpack, including the flashlight that she’d been using like a security blanket. Great.

“NO!” He tried to catch Drew as she fell, the vine reacting to him and trying to catch her as well, and he almost wrapped her wrist. Almost. He’d just told her he wouldn’t let her fall, and that was exactly what he did, but when he heard the splash of water a couple of seconds lately, he knew not all hope was lost. The time it took Drew to fall meant the water wasn’t too far from Dean’s spot (ADHD, making you run Physics equations when your life was in danger), so he pulled the straps of his backpack, breathed as deep as he could, and let himself go, falling feet-first into the water.

Holy shit it was cold, and it smelled awful, but Dean couldn’t focus on that. Drew had to be close, somewhere, and he swam blindly until his hand touched something that felt like a human hand. Hopefully it would be Drew’s hand, but he didn’t have time to check, grabbing it hard and pulling the person up to the surface with him. There was one old, yellowish light bulb hanging from the ceiling, and Dean had never been happier to see Drew Tanaka’s face.

… except she was unconscious and they were floating with the current. He pulled Drew’s body against his, wrapping an arm around her chest, and let the cold water carry them away. There were more and more light bulbs on as they got away from the pit, and Dean finally spotted a ladder on the side of the water channel. “ C'mon, c'mon, c'mon…” He muttered through gritted teeth as he swam towards the ladder, his backpack and Drew’s weight making him slower. He grasped the bottom step and held onto it tightly.

The ladder was only seven steps high and Dean dragged them both up, coming to a rest on a concrete floor. His arms felt sore but he put Drew down, quickly checking on her. “Fuck…” She was too pale, and she wasn’t breathing, and he had to fight the urge to freak out. “Nonononono. Drew. Drew!” Okay, what was he supposed to do with someone who wasn’t breathing? CPR… CPR??? He groaned and started doing the chest compressions, only to make a disgusted face as he pinched her nose to breathe on her mouth. “Fuck, I hate you so much…”

Drew was dead. Completely and totally dead. And of course she died fleeing from a stupid monster on this stupid quest. If Drew were alive right now, she would be screaming ‘I told you so’ to Dean and the monster and probably the actual labyrinth itself. It was only a matter of time until her ghostly form opened her eyes and would be waiting for placement in Hades. Any second now. Aaaany second. Wait- If she was dead, how was she still thinking all this? And was that air in her lungs? A cold cement floor below her, soaking wet strands of hair stuck to her face, somebody’s mouth on hers-