#and then a man with an axe jumped out at us and the teens promptly screamed and ran and left us in the dirt

[disappearinginq]

Went to something called Scream Fest at our local-ish amusement park, which involved a haunted house or four.

Accidentally got an actor to break character because I wasn't looking at her face but at her dress and immediately yelled "oh my GOD, I love your dress!" (neon glow in the dark polka dots in 40's vintage style) And she did a quick "thanks, it has pockets!" demo swish, and that's when I realized she was missing half her face (make up) and tried to apologize for fucking up the vibe and that's when our group got run over by a bunch of teens that were being pursued by a ventriloquist doll.

[inkribbon796]

A Diamond in the Rough Ch. 1

Chapter 1: Bad Luck Eric

Summary: Eric has always felt like he was a bad luck magnet, but his life gets a whole lot unluckier the day his father brings him to work one day.

A/N: WARNING for child abuse, both verbal and physical, and for murder.

Eric in this is 14. Illinois who makes a brief cameo is 17. This is probably one of the last three origin stories. After this is Yancy’s first arrest and then the Host’s that’ll be out probably February.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3

~::~ 6 Years Ago ~::~

Eric was almost the middle child of sixteen kids in his family, child number seven in the line up. So he was used to many things: getting picked on by his older siblings, getting ignored by his parents — especially his father — and having to be quick at the dinner table even though he was never quick enough to get any of the well made food.

His mother at least tried, but with sixteen kids someone was bound to fall through the cracks.

As Eric found out, being the almost middle child was nowhere near as bad as when his “bad luck” started coming in, starting small by killing his pets first. Or when his mother died. When his girlfriend died. Then in the final strike was when his brothers all died and he lost his legs.

His father stopped ignoring him, and Eric learned how awful things could really have been. Because Eric was never going to be his father’s perfect son, but Derek Junior was gone and there was nothing either of them could do about it.

Today was already shaping up to be a bad day, Derek had woken up pissed and hungover and had taken it out on Eric, and now the young teen was supposed to go down to the warehouse with his father when all he wanted to do was curl up under his sheets with his little blanket scrap and cry until he felt something other than pain and grief.

But he forced his shoddy prosthetics to cooperate and got into the back of his dad’s car, not looking up and not touching anything.

“Okay, so this is a big day, Eric, I need you not to fuck this up,” Derek glanced at his son through the rear view mirror, glaring at him as if his eyes were made of hellfire.

And to Eric they might as well have been.

“Word yesterday was that Dark might be dropping by, and so help me if you piss him off.”

“I-I-I’ll be,” Eric already felt the tears starting, “be good, I-I . . . pr-omise, Sir.”

His last work was so painful that he almost swallowed it.

“You better not touch anything unless I tell you to, or I’ll kick your ass,” Derek threatened venomously.

Thankfully Derek wasn’t expecting an actual answer so Eric mercifully sat in silence in the back, trying desperately not to let his dad hear him crying and keep his eyes dry.

Derek glared at him when he limped out of the car. He glanced over to see a small group of people next to the entrance of the warehouse. There was a young man in a tweed suit and a dark brown fedora in his hand. He was directing some crate into another warehouse and Derek just watched him.

The kid barely looked old enough to drive, let alone be a captain, but it was obvious that people who were voicing any complaints were promptly shut up. Derek didn’t want to be one of the dissenters.

Rumors had been spreading for years, Wil had been seen in his studio with small kids. There was occasionally a kid or two around Dark.

Added to the fact that Derek was pretty sure that the teenager — because he had to be — was one of Dark’s “personal assistants” which half the network knew those kids were related somehow to Dark.

Everyone chalked it up to Wil.

The kid led the group with the crate into a separate warehouse and the instant Derek could move, he did and left Eric to scramble after him.

Derek only seemed to get more frustrated as the day went on, and Eric was so exhausted and frustrated himself but instead of being angry like Derek he just got sadder.

And then the other shoe dropped when Dark strolled in through a portal, right next to Eric.

The young man jumped and dropped the box he was holding, hearing whatever was inside of it crashing and breaking inside the box.

Eric flinched, knowing that a slap or punch from Dark would hurt ten times as much as his father’s.

It didn’t come . . . yet . . .

What did come was a scarily calm tone, “What was in the box?”

Eric felt sheer terror choke up his throat, he was too scared to open his mouth or look up past Dark’s elbows. He’d never met the demon before and his whole body locked up.

Dark was patiently waiting, much calmer and even temper then he would be if a grown adult had broken his things in front of him.

Contrary to what Dark had been desperate to keep secret, he was developing a soft spot for human children. And he considered this obvious Derekson child — one he’d never seen before — counted as one.

Dark would have to do something about that at some point, make sure people didn’t question his ruthlessness.

Eric was still shaking in fear, terrified about how long Dark had gone unanswered, he tried to open his mouth but no words came out.

“Boy!” Derek called out and Eric thought he might cry. “I am so sorry, Sir.”

Dark held up a hand, Derek freezing in his tracks, he kept looking at Eric and asked, “What was in the box?”

“It might—” Derek started.

“If I wanted an answer from you I would have asked you,” Dark snapped aggressively at Derek. And out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eric flinching, his arms coming up to protect himself.

Dark saw it and he saw red, thinking of three little boys that had come into his care with varying levels of fear and anger. Of Kay who cried and was afraid of being separated and would only nap under Dark’s desk. Of Arthur who was so angry he couldn’t communicate with other people without getting easily frustrated. Of Illinois who would cling to him and still expected to be pushed away.

They all had flinched like that when Dark had moved wrong. While they didn’t so much anymore every once in a while Kay would freeze up and shut his eyes for a second or two.

And suddenly that box was the least important thing in the room.

Eric covered his ears as Dark’s ringing got shrill in volume, hunching himself over, whimpering in fear.

“Is this one of yours?” Dark asked, knowing that Derek had a lot of children and he was going to need to look into that.

“Yes, but—” Derek answered.

Dark planned on torturing Derek, on taking great pains to correct what he saw as a personal insult against Dark himself. But the mounting rage from his twin souls got the better of him and the faces of his own children flashed in his mind.

An axe suddenly appeared in Dark’s hand and then it was buried in Derek’s chest who was woefully unprepared to die.

The entity kept swinging at Derek, the man’s screams quickly dying out to a gurgle and then nothing as Dark kept swinging. His echoes were screaming and breathing curses at the dead man.

It was only until Derek was nothing but a chilling corpse on the ground, his chest nothing but jelly did Dark remember there had been someone else nearby but when he looked back at where Eric had been, the boy was gone.

Dark dragged his hand across his face, realizing that he was just spattered with blood.

He needed to find that kid, Dark had drilled into his network the danger of witnesses, and . . .

His blue soul was . . . concerned about him. Dark would be fighting against Damien not to adopt the boy on sight.

“Don’t be an idiot, we just killed his father,” Celine snapped. “We don’t need another one to hate us.”

Which was a statement Damien was rather crestfallen by. “We asked for six initially. Bim wouldn’t be the youngest anymore.”

No!

“No!”

Dark and Celine both told him.

With Damien pouting, Dark used and portal and dumped the body into the middle of the ocean. Then ordered the closest of his workers to clean up the mess, threatening to have them killed next as he called Illinois to tell him a new warehouse was temporarily under his control until he could find someone else.

He had a child to track down.

[shirtlesssammy]

14x04: Mint Condition

Then:

I can’t believe this! Ghosts are real!

Now:

(Sidenote: I’m here for the fun Easter Eggs! Check out the credits on the Hell Hazers poster!)

At Smash Pow Comics, Stuart, a nerdy little dude with a trench coat, watches an advertisement for a horror movie marathon. There’s going to be slicing and dicing all week! (I spy a Racist Ghost Truck and the cabin from Hollywood Babylon.) He starts unpacking new inventory, when he finds a Mezco 15” Mega-Scale Panthro.

He promptly shoves it into a bag, clearly intent on stealing it. He gets a call from a friend, Sam, who wants to talk about the recent bad review their store received after Stuart got into a fight with a customer. The dude has principles. But, he agrees to be nicer to customers. He then leaves the store with the stolen Panthro.

Later, Stuart is yelling on the phone at a pizza company for being late with his delivery, when, now out of the box, Pantho turns his head and makes his way, nunchucks in hand, over to Stuart. Things do not go well for Stuart.

Speaking of things not going well, Dean is not adjusting well to his home being invaded by strangers (and the whole Michael possession thingy). He’s holed up in his (MESSY) room drinking beer, eating pizza, WEARING ‘SEND NOODS’ NOVELTY SOCKS, and watching classic 80s horror movies. I don’t think fanfic could have written this better, folks.

Sam checks in on our little hermit.

It seems that Dean is pouting because Cas is gone (and Kaia and her magical spear are gone and Michael and his deathly threat to the world are also gone.) Sam then continues to show his strong leadership skills and deftly takes control of the situation, telling Dean about a case --a killer toy! Dean’s on it!

Sam couldn’t be prouder of himself.

The brothers arrive at the comic store (and, omg, Sam’s little faux-scared reaction to the kids on the street is KILLER.) Sam, the store owner, is there and before Dean calls her Sam’s Wonder twin, I was thinking how she’d fit right into the hunter world with her plaid shirt. Sam then notices another worker, Dirk, and says he’s Dean’s Wonder twin. Parallels established.

Dean then completely nerds out over a life size mannequin of David ‘Hatchet Man’ Yeager, the monster from his favorite movie franchise, All Saints’ Day. DEAN BEAN.

Comic Sam asks how she can help them (Dean’s interested in vintage Hot Wheels), Sam wants to know more about Stuart. Sam tells them that he’s at his mom’s house. “Of course he is,” Dean quips.

At Stuart’s mom’s house, the brothers settle in with a little hot apple cider and wait for Stuart. 

*Bullet Points of Crazy Dialog*

Fortnite is the game

Dean’s a Zelda for life

MIRL

Who needs goth-girl drama, am I right?

The hospital report said that you had marks on your face, your legs, your back, and your genitals. That’s not a slip and fall.

Surprisingly, Stuart is not interested in cooperating with the insurance company. They decide to stakeout the home to do a sweep of hex bags, etc. Dean tries getting Sam to talk about his hatred for Halloween, but the stakeout interrupts the inquiry. They duck down to avoid notice.

Stuart then comes screaming out of his home, blood gushing from his gut. Dean heads inside to investigate.

For Science:

While looking around, Dean’s nearly bisected by a rogue chainsaw. WHELP.

Later, at the hospital, Dean and Sam visit Stuart and his mother. Alone, they discuss the lack of hex bags and overabundance of EMF at Stuart’s home. It’s a ghost!

Sam heads back to Stuart’s house, only to find no EMF. He does see a picture of Stuart, Sam, Dirk, and another man though.

At the dark, quiet hospital, Dirk stands watching over a comatose Stuart. Dean brings him some candy (awww), Dirk confides that Stuart is his best friend. He might have issues, but he’s there when Dirk needs him. Then they both nerd out over their favorite All Saints’ Day movie. Dean then confesses that he likes to watch these movies because he knows the bad guy is going to lose. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Sam heads back to the shop to talk to...Sam. Sam asks Samantha a few normal insurance-adjuster questions, like did anyone close to Stuart die recently? In fact, yes. The former shop owner, Jordan, willed the store to Sam and Dirk after he died. Unfortunately, Jordan was cremated, so the trail's gone cold. Speaking of COLD, the shop dips dramatically in temperature. Sam whips out his “carbon monoxide detector” and finds EMF signals are through the roof. They'd better run before they--

Later, Sam wakes up after getting knocked out by the hatchet man and discovers a traumatized Samantha and a set of missing shop keys. They've been locked inside the store while the possessed mannequin stalks the streets to hunt down Stuart.

At the hospital Dean continues to totally nerd out with Dirk as they keep their vigil over Stuart. They share their favorite moments from horror movies until Sam calls and interrupts (Interrupting Saaaam) with the news that Jordan's on his way as...the Hatchet Man.

Dean is over the moon that David Yaeger – the Hatchet Man himself – is on his way to the hospital. It's like a dream...er, nightmare...er, dream come true.

Jordan shambles through the Halloween streets wearing the Hatchet Man mannequin, blending in perfectly with the astonishingly well costumed children of the town. (For comparison, when children of this age came to my house last week they were wearing hoodies, jeans, and bored expressions.)

At the hospital, Dean makes a salt line around Stuart's bed and tells Dirk to stay inside the circle. Dean runs off, leaving the two alone. When the room grows cold, lights flicker, and the furniture begins to rattle, Dirk races out of the salt circle. As an audience, we collectively cry, “Oh noooooooo!” (And also, OH YES.)

At the store, Samantha informs Sam that Stuart was excluded from Jordan's will due to his tendency to give himself the ol' five finger discount. And now we have a motive. Jordan's after Stuart due to his thieving ways. Sam's having trouble escaping the store with its master locks and shatter-proof glass. It's so well fortified, you could use it to wait out a zombie apocalypse. All you need now is a deep freezer full of Cornetto ice cream cones.

At the hospital, Dean finds an ax.

For My Scientific Paper Entitled, Jensen Ackles, Your Face is a Menace:

And the Hatchet Man finds Stuart's mom. She shrieks and drops her dinner, but fear not! The Hatchet Man gets distracted by Dirk who confronts him from the other end of the hallway. Dirk tells Jordan to stop trying to kill Stuart but Jordan seems pretty locked into his role. He chases Dirk through the hospital.

We cut to some security guards enjoying popcorn and a movie in their office. On screen, they watch the Hatchet Man chase after a shrieking victim while on another unseen screen Dirk is chased through the hospital by Jordan. Beautiful.

Both chase scenes make lovely references back to the lampshade from earlier, screaming about the weird lack of people around to help them while they shout and run through the hospital. Yessss very good. Dirk, cornered at the hospital elevator, cringes in horror as the Hatchet Man advances.

In the impenetrable fortress of solitude, aka the comic book shop, Sam makes a casual chemical bomb out of household cleaners and a Scooby Doo lunchbox. He blows the back door off the shop. COOL.

Dirk continues to run from Jordan and finds himself in the morgue. Dean claps a hand on his shoulder from behind. YIKES! Classic jump scare. 

Dirk tells Dean that the homicidal Jordan/Hatchet Man is at the hospital and, right on cue, Jordan sits up from where he's been laying on a slab in the morgue. With a sheet pulled up over him. Like you do. Jordan has gone METHOD in this haunting, man.

Cut to a movie trailer, with the origin story of David Yaeger and...the Hatchet Man. Intercut with scenes from old Supernatural episodes including – no joke – an old shot of the back of young John Winchester's head in the auto shop, we see the basic story outline.

Yaeger was killed in a prank gone wrong and his body burned to hide the evidence. He returned to enact his revenge on the teens who'd killed him and mutilated his body. (Hey guys, who wants to talk about horror movies and fables as classic morality plays? The “bad” are killed and the “good” or repentant are saved. I would love to see this tie into Heaven's stability problems later in this season, and an exploration of vengeful ghosts and morality fables. That would be a nice, tight narrative woven through the season...Mmmhmmm.)

I digress. Dean faces down Jordan for an ax showdown.

Dean gives Jordan a choice. Move on to the after-afterlife or fight Dean. Jordan pushes a button on his...plastic suit? “Time to slice and dice,” he says, challengingly. And the fight's on. Hatchet Man's pretty strong with his two axes and quickly knocks Dean's ax out of his hands. Dean goes on to fight with 1) a sheet 2) an empty jug and 3) a bedpan in each hand. I. LOVE. THIS. FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHER.

Sam and Sam walk through the hospital, racking their brains for what Jordan might be clinging to. They decide the keys are the culprit. Meanwhile, Dean's in a tight spot, on the ground in his fight against Jordan. The ax raises. Dean cowers. Suddenly, there's a blade from behind. Dirk stabbed the Hatchet Man right in the back but it's not enough to stab the plastic dummy. Jordan grabs ahold of Dean and starts to choke him. Sam races to burn the keys, and the two Sams pour alcohol into a bowl and light it on fire, destroying the keys and setting free Jordan's spirit.

“Is it really over? Just like that?” Dirk asks a little while later, to Dean's astonishment. Yeah, getting choked was super easy. (I love this subtle dig at us viewers' casual acceptance of violence and trauma. It's not a judgmental observation, it's just the way we function.)

On the way home, Dean opens up to Sam. He thanks him for getting him out of his pizza-box-filled bedroom. Sam asks Dean to stop “hiding out” in his room. He tells him that nobody blames him for what Michael did while he possessed Dean, nor for doing what he had to do to save Sam and Jack. Dean blames himself, though. “I'm never gonna get over it,” Dean tells him flatly. But he will pull himself up and fight alongside Sam. Dean addresses Sam as “Chief” and while the address is a bit tongue in cheek, it's also an affectionate nod to Sam's new responsibilities and leadership role. (Yaaay)

Dean grills Sam about his hatred of Halloween and, since emotions are being released, Sam relents. When he was in sixth grade he had a huge crush on a girl. He went to her Halloween party, but was so nervous that he threw up all over the apple bobbing game and all over her. “It was soooo bad,” Sam says quietly with a haunted look in his eye. (I LOVE how relatable Sam's trauma is. Who doesn't spend time sometimes dwelling on the scars of youth? No matter what true horrors lay in the past, some form of trauma is universal to all of us humans.)

Sam ran from the party and hid in the woods until Dean found him and picked him up. Dean vows to make Sam's next Halloween a good one. They can wear matching outfits like:

1) Batman and Robin (No)

2) Bert and Ernie (That's weird)

3) Rocky and Bullwinkle (Nooope)

4) Shaggy and Scooby! (Why?)

5) Turner and Hooch (Urg)

6) Ren and Stimpy (Come on)

7) Thelma and Louise (No thanks)

But the show’s not over yet, folks. A security guard heads into the morgue. He finds the knife, the two axes...and the Hatchet Man. The Hatchet Man cackles, “Trick or Treat” and then chuckles malevolently as the screen goes black. Dun dun duuuuuuuun!

Time to Quote and...Smote?

It’s so smooth, it’s like a dolphin’s belly.

Thundercats? Seriously? Panthro is mine.

If I had Kryptonite gloves I could beat up Superman. Anyone could. That's SCIENCE, Sam!

I can’t believe you had her make us apple cider.

We all do bad things sometimes.

Unless it's Godzilla, it's real.

One day we're gonna have to answer for the things we did that night.

In this dark, quiet hospital...they can run, they can hide, but there's no escaping the Hatchet Man.

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