#tethered

Sam had chosen a demon and the power she could provide over your family, a choice he is now trying to make amends for, and Dean can’t seem to find it within himself to forgive him, instead resorting to bottling up his pain and drinking copious amounts of alcohol to try to numb his regret. 

 Despite your brothers being physically by your side, they might as well be miles away in opposite directions, leaving you somewhere in the middle, not knowing what to think and who to trust. Unbeknownst to you, someone has been with you through it all. You just couldn’t see him.

Being assigned a guardian angel is rare these days. Heaven is rather busy so the tradition has since fallen by the wayside, but it does still happen. Even less common is the invocation of archangels in the tradition of guardianship. Especially the one who tends to let Heaven’s calls go to voicemail.

Gabriel could not remember the last time he felt the pull. It must have been centuries. Only recently, with all of the ‘Apocalypse’ noise, had he tuned back in to angel radio, so he was surprised to even receive an assignment at all. Everything in him told him to ignore it, to just pretend he hadn’t heard a thing and move on playing the part of the happy-go-lucky trickster, but when he heard your name he froze. ‘ Y/n Winchester? No. There’s… There’s no way that was right.’ he thought to himself in disbelief.

The name Winchester was enough to stop most supernatural creatures in their tracks, but Gabriel was anything but frightened by it. The Winchester boys were some of his favorite toys to play with when he needed some entertainment, but the girl was a different story. Ever since your first meeting on that college campus all those years ago when you looked him dead in the eyes while driving a stake through his chest (‘well, the illusion of my chest, but still’, he thought) there was something about you he just couldn’t shake. You were fierce and feminine, lethal and graceful, and overall unforgettable. In the years since, he has wondered how you were doing. Whether or not you kept that same spark that made you so electric, so incandescent in his eyes. 

He supposes it is possible that his selective hearing has struck again, making him hear what he wanted to instead of what he should. The one thing he could not blame on his hearing, though, was the pull. Like an invisible string being reeled ever tighter, he felt this irresistible urge to be near you. As if everything in his being were responding to some innate primal directive to protect and defend. It was the most human feeling he has ever experienced. This is not the first time he has felt this pull, but it is definitely the strongest, and if he is being honest, that thought terrifies him. One thing he knew for certain, he couldn’t tell you. 

‘This is not gonna end well.’ he thought with a roll of his eyes, taking stock of his situation as he attempted to pinpoint the location of your soul. His guardian status allowed him to sense your presence even with the warding carved into your ribs. ‘She’s either going to try to kill me or…no she’ll probably just try to kill me,’ he said to himself with a little chuckle. ‘Well, let’s see what she’s up to.’

Finding you, he made the decision that it would be best to remain invisible to you and your friends. This way he could both insure your safety, and avoid having to actually explain what the hell he was doing there until he could come up with a plausible excuse that wouldn’t make him seem like a total creep. One that you would actually believe because knowing your current hatred for all things halo that wasn’t exactly undeserved, he imagined you would not be too trusting of your Heaven-appointed bodyguard if you knew the truth.

Being careful to mask the sound of his wings, he landed in what appeared to have once been the living room of a house in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Scanning the room, he noticed the piles and piles of old books, torn and peeling wallpaper, a small crackling fire in a soot-covered fireplace, the smell of dripping candle wax flooded his senses, but more than anything else, he noticed you. As beautiful as the day he met you, he found you curled up on a couch by the bay window with your nose in a book, apparently reading up on some new monster that needed putting down. There was a definite relief in being in your presence and feeling the loosening of the pull, like when a bungee cord returns to its normal state after being stretched. The pleasant sensation was supposed to compel the angel feeling it to be near their ward. ‘Like I needed any further convincing’ he thought to himself.

An older man he did not recognize was talking to your brothers while leafing through one of the many, many books on his desk, explaining a bit of lore he had uncovered in what sounded like an obscure translation of Revelations. The telltale flap of wings pulled him from his thoughts, Gabriel turned his head, his amber eyes meeting a pair of sapphires that he hadn’t expected to see. Castiel’s eyes widened in surprise, obviously not expecting to find an archangel casually observing his friends. Quickly, Gabriel brought a finger to his lips in an attempt to garner the seraph’s silence and keep him from announcing Gabriel’s presence to the whole group. Instead, Castiel walked swiftly toward his brother, lifted his hand to grasp Gabriel’s shoulder, and in a flutter of wings they were gone. 

𖤍: Hello everyone! This is the first fic I have posted, so hopefully the formatting is to your satisfaction. Please kindly let me know if there is something amiss. As a Gabriel fan, I thought it only right to start by giving him some love with my first post. I plan to make this a 3-ish part series, depending on where the mood takes me. If you like what you read, please consider liking, sharing, & sending in a request for something you'd like me to write in the future.

 ˚₊‧꒰ა 𓂋 ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ Thank you to @saradika-graphics for the dividers used! ˚₊‧꒰ა 𓂋 ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

After a beat of silence, Castiel appears. His head on a swivel, he is clearly assessing the surroundings for what manner of danger you had found yourself in to need his help. Turning to one side and then the other, his coat flares, following his movement on a slight delay as crystalline eyes scan the room with the precision of a soldier. All of a sudden he stops, staring again at a seemingly empty spot in the room just outside of the ring of light created by the faintly flickering overhead lamp.

“What’s going on?” he asks, though it is not exactly clear who he is speaking to as he is still holding his gaze on that same spot in the room. All of a sudden, he shifts his eyes, landing all of their cobalt intensity on you. 

Taking a deep breath to maintain your resolve, you begin,”We need to talk.”

The serious tone of your voice tells Castiel everything he needs to know about what the subject of your conversation would be. He knows in an instant that he has been cornered and can no longer avoid the issue. Sure, you hadn’t used holy fire to confine him, but you had captured him all the same. This entrapment is of a moral nature. Fleeing now would only lead you to go digging for answers on your own, further endangering you. Something Castiel knows he cannot allow to happen. Deciding it would do no good to feign ignorance, the angel gets right to the point, replying, “I told you. I am handling it.” 

His tone, though icy and severe, holds no malice suggesting he genuinely feels the situation would be best if left alone. But you just cannot accept that. Too many odd things have been happening in quick succession for you to be able to just ignore the emerging pattern. 

“I don’t buy it. One minute everything is fine, the next you disappear for a week with no warning, going completely radio silent. Then you return acting like everything is fine all the while counting shadows and staring at me as if I need saving from something. Is that it? Do you think I need saving?”

You speak with an urgency that betrays your growing unease with the whole situation. You have always had a terrible habit of needing to feel in control of everything in your life. Born out of the instability inherent in your family’s lifestyle, transient and often filled with danger, you are left with little to depend on for feelings of safety. As a child, you should have been able to turn to your father for that protection. But when his alcoholism and need for revenge effectively took him from you too, you were forced to turn your attention inward to find the reassurance you needed. In short, the idea of facing down an unseen enemy while someone meant to help you chooses to leave you in the dark does nothing but heighten your already present anxieties, but you would be damned if you allowed anyone else to see that. 

For a moment, there is nothing but a stark and uncomfortable silence as Castiel attempts to form his reply. His mouth opens as if to speak, but the words die before reaching his lips, and he closes his mouth once again. He knows any excuse he could give would only prolong the inevitable. Torn between his allegiances to you and to his brother, he chooses to split the difference. To tell a lie but only by omission. One that would both protect the secret he was tasked with keeping and temporarily assuage your fears until he can find more concrete information pertaining to your situation. 

“Things have been…changing in Heaven. Decisions being made that haven’t been for centuries. Ancient traditions being evoked and for what purpose, I do not know. I don’t like being left in the dark any more than you do,” Castiel offers in reply after careful thought, clearly choosing his words very deliberately.

“Not that I don’t care about Heaven’s internal politics, but what does any of that have to do with me?” You retort, trying to redirect him to the heart of the issue. “It’s clear from your behavior that something is coming for me. I just want to know what I’m up against.” His eyes continued darting back and forth between you and that seemingly empty space over your shoulder. “And another thing,” you continued,”Why do you keep looking at me like that? Like…,” you hesitate to find the right words, “-like there’s somebody else you’re talking to. I think you know more than you’re telling me.” 

You pause, taking in the pained look of guilt plaguing the angel’s borrowed face. It is clear that there is more to his story than he is sharing. “Listen,” you continue with a sigh, softening your tone in response to his clear discomfort while still remaining steadfast in your desire to know the truth. “I know there’s more to the story, okay? There always is. And maybe you’re not at liberty to share everything, but…” pausing again, you meet the seraph’s gaze with one of your own that holds in it your determination to protect all that you hold dear, but despite your efforts, mixed within your stare is a small dose of your fear. “Just promise that you’ll tell me if my brothers and I are in danger. Please. I can’t-I can’t lose them” 

It is clear that your plea has an effect on the angel. There is a palpable release of tension in his posture as he realizes he is being let off the hook for the time being. 

With a nod, Cas responds softly, “You have my word,” He disappears in a flutter of feathers, effectively rendering the matter closed- with an asterisk. You never did get an answer as to why he keeps looking over your shoulder.

As if sensing your thought, the metallic clatter of a tool impacting the cement floor behind you immediately draws your attention. Quickly spinning on your heel toward the sound of the noise, you are met with nothing but pitch-black darkness. 

Sick of feeling like a plaything to whatever this creature is, you decide to call out into the void. “Show yourself, you coward! I know you’re out there!” You will your voice not to shake as you invoke your would-be stalker to show itself, simultaneously looking around for any hunting supplies you could use should you need to. You have faced plenty of ghosts in your life and know that Bobby has a habit of keeping salt in just about every conceivable location for split second access. Locating a small container of table salt on a nearby counter without taking your eyes off of the blank space before you, you quickly flip open the pour spout and draw a circle for yourself on the floor. 

Stepping inside your circle, emboldened by your new level of protection, you continue taunting your phantom, “No use pretending now! I know you’re there, so you can stop hiding, you coward. What kind of ghost are you?” Your retort drips with defiance, tired of being toyed with and ready to unmask the entity once and for all. 

The harsh sound of gravel crunching against the cement floor underfoot accompanies a slowly but steadily advancing darkness. One that bends the light of the lamp overhead around itself like a black hole in the shape of a man. The figure strides smoothly toward you and stops only a hair’s breadth away from you, being careful to avoid the ring of salt at your feet. 

‘I will not be intimidated,’ you repeat to yourself over and over again in your head as one would a mantra. Tilting your head to look the figure in the would-be eyes, you stare it down with all of the stubbornness you can muster. The aroma from before has returned, intense like a man’s cologne enhanced with a cloying sweetness reminiscent of warm vanilla and honey. It nearly makes you lose your nerve. 

A scuffing sound from the floor captures your attention. Looking down, you are just in time to see a tendril of that inky blackness in the shape of a leg emerge from the figure making the scuffing sound as the foot breaks your salt line with no hesitation. 

Out of the ether, a man’s voice whispers in your ear with a teasing chuckle.

“Not quite. Try again.”

As if to punctuate his taunt, the light above your head explodes, raining a shower of sparks and broken glass down upon you. With a puff of air like the beat of unseen wings, the figure dissipates as if it was never there to begin with, leaving you all alone in the dark.

𖤍: Hello again, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed this newest installment of 'Tethered'. I am looking to start writing one-shots and other short-form fiction, so if you have any requests, please feel free to send me a request or a dm. I'd love to hear from you! :) Also, please let me know if you would like to be added to the tag list so you never miss an update!

 ˚₊‧꒰ა 𓂋 ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ Thank you to @saradika-graphics for the dividers used! ˚₊‧꒰ა 𓂋 ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

Tag list: @phantomcurses @kymimi