“What... what happened?” Dean coughed, struggling to remember why he was laying on the ground looking up at the ceiling light, and why the ground felt so damned lumpy. A few of his hazy memories came back to him but all out of chronological order. He remembers walking into the motel from going to get some food for Sammy and five minutes in, he and his little brother were holding their heads in extreme pain. Sammy’s cartoons kept on playing along too loud, even though Dean told his 11 year old brother twice to keep it down before he left for the gas station. The TV volume hardly mattered at the moment besides drowning out their pained groans entirely from anyone outside of the motel room. They couldn’t cry out more than a plea for their brother to be aware that they were under some kind of attack before nothingness swallowed them whole.
Dean sat upright and the sight that greeted him had him more confused than anything at the moment. Somehow he was now in a massive space. Something towered to his left and in the distance he could vaguely make out other boxy shapes. Every one of them far too large and hazy at the edges to fully comprehend.
His head hurt like a bitch and he looked around for his brother. Sure that Sammy was here somewhere. The stench of the motel hadn’t left at all, which was puzzling as all hell because this sure as shit didn’t look like the motel. Dean was sitting somewhat upright on a plane of lumpy, green colored land that stretched out in every direction. The ground was made up of what looked like millions of upright and twisted green ropes that were the size of his palm and as tall as his hand. He dipped his fingers down between the ropes and felt grit and dirt underneath. His vision cleared a little more and he pulled out something that eerily resembled an eyelash but it was very long and thick. Maybe it wasn’t an eyelash... he had no idea what it could be and it wasn’t about to give him the answers to life, the universe, and everything, so he dropped it again.
Dean looked disgusted at how grimy his hand had gotten from the ropes and dirt underneath and wiped his hand off on his jeans to clean them again. The towering shape to his left looked kinda like a cliff that was covered in hundreds of yards of draping fabric that was far larger than anything he’d ever seen. As if every theater in town gave up their elegant curtains to be made into this... what is this? The fabric pooled on the floor at the corner and obstructed his view of the thing they were covering. Some kind of grand opening for a store? He heard that sometimes they cover shit with sheets and whip them off for an unveiling or something but it looked like they’d need more than a few people pulling to budge it an inch. They’ll need a helicopter to finish unwrapping that thing... whatever the hell it is. from what he saw underneath, it wasn’t anything special. There was another one in the distance but it was too far to make out clearly. His head still hurt like crazy and made everything that much more difficult for him.
Dean had a feeling like they could be in big trouble for being here uninvited, so he resolved to find Sammy and get the hell out of dodge before anyone noticed they were here. But where the hell was HERE anyway?!
The building was lifted off of the ground and held up by four posts. Stupidest looking design for a building ever. Thing was fucking huge though. But, it was smaller than the massive space everything was in now. Everything was lit by a single light overhead and he marveled at it for a moment at how much energy it would take to light up this place from just that one source.
Dean was getting mad at himself for not figuring out what the hell things were. The whole place looked completely alien to him and his mind straight up refused to help him figure anything out. He got to his feet and nearly collapsed again when his shoes sunk into the twisted ropes that were all crowded together, holding each short stump of rope upright. Walking on it proved difficult but he knew he had to get a move on to find his brother. Sammy might be in as bad of shape as he was, and he was not going to leave him to deal with it alone. Even if Dean still had doubts that he could deal with the truth that was hiding in plain sight, but merely shoved to the back of his mind. Like, if he faced it head on, he would fail to be a sane, functioning person. And he desperately needed to get to his brother and keep him safe in this place, instead of wasting any more time staring at the strange scenery.
“Sammy.” He tried to call out but his voice was rough and throat was sore as hell. He coughed into his hand to try again and heard his voice come out weak and pathetic as before. Hardly going far enough to be heard by anyone not within 50 feet of him. Dean found his legs were threatening to give out on him as he ran so he took a breather and bowed forward. This damned place was bigger than it looked and it was taking him forever and a day to get anywhere. The terrain was a totally bitch to navigate and not fall in. His hands braced on his knees to heave breaths in and out while his eyes caught sight of something on the ground and he crouched down to view it better. It was crawling down amid the ropes so he parted them and fell back onto his ass and scrambled away once the thing was uncovered.
He must be hallucinating. That had to be it. This can’t be a real insect. He pulled out his knife and inched closer, holding the blade ahead of himself, he made quick stabbing motions at the black creature that crawled along like it hadn’t a care in the world. It climbed up onto the top of the ropes and walked away from Dean entirely. Antennae waving about in the air as Dean stared with his jaw dropped and knife lowering in his grasp. It was... an ant. A small ant. But small was a relative term since the damned thing was as long as his whole hand.
“What the fuck is.... what? What’s going on here?” Dean babbled, following after the ant as it wandered around for a few seconds. Sure that it was some kind of prank being pulled on him. This was some cutting age robot that someones playing around with behind a control pad. Dean jogged to keep up with the surprisingly fast thing and finally kicked it a little with the toe of his boots to tip it over. It whirled around on him and he saw the pinchers on the front of its head open and close before it started marching towards him. Taking clear offense and action against the one that kicked it.
Dean backpedaled so fast he stumbled on his own feet before turning and straight up running away from the gigantic ant-like looking thing and scaled up some of the long fabric that had pooled on the floor from the cliff. The ant thing lost interest in him after a few dozen feet and found something on the ground to pick up and take off. Dean heaved breaths in and out too fast to do his lungs any good. Dean was so focused on the things at his eye level that when he heard his brother’s frightened voice from above he lost his grip on the fabric and fell onto his ass the third time since waking up.
Dean’s eyes went wide as saucers as he saw Sammy’s face far far FAR above him peering down. Scared beyond belief and ten seconds from crying going by the wibbling lower lip. “Dean? What’s going on?”
finally seeing someone familiar here snapped dean back into big brother mode. everything else faded into the distance now that Sam was found. Dean never wanted to hear his younger brother’s fearful voice ever again and sheathed his knife to climb up better to rescue his brother. Any other day and he would have quipped about saving the princess from a tall tower, but Dean was miles away from feeling and speaking flippantly about this. “Hang on, Sammy!” Dean called up, fumbling with the fabric to get better footing. “Don’t move a muscle, Sammy! I’ll get you down!”
“B-But Dean? I don’t wanna come down! I’ll get stepped on!”
“What the hell are you talking about? It’s not safe up there, you could fall down. Could you please stop giving me a heart attack and back up from the edge?” Dean asked, hands gripping the fabric that barely moved when he hoisted himself up the side of the cliff with it.
“But, Deeean?” Sammy’s voice came out more questioning than scared now. His hands clutching at the fabric and peering cautiously over the edge to watch his brother climbing up. Occasionally glancing around and wincing at what he saw up there. “Don’t you know where you are?”
“What?” Dean was only half paying attention, more focused on not falling from the growing heights. His fingers were able to find purchase between the weave of the fabric. Much thicker than any before, it helped him scale up in record time.
“Hold onto your questions, Sammy till I’m up there. I can help getcha down.”
“But Deeean, I told you! I don’t wanna be on the ground! We’ll get stepped on!!”
“By what? Godzilla?” Dean chuckled nervously. His mind still, stubbornly, not yet willing to come to terms with what his eyes were taking in on the periphery. Especially now that he’s getting some serious height with the climb. Dean shook his head to will away reality. At least long enough until he has his brother in a nice and tight safe hug.
“No.” Sam’s voice went a little quieter, as if afraid that by voicing his worries, that they’ll become real. a few tears leaked from Sammy’s eyes. “If we are down there, we’ll get uh, we will... we will get stepped on... by... by Dad.”
