(8k words, dean/cas. part 4 of the anamnesis ‘verse.)
matins: (n) traditional liturgical hour or interval of prayer, originally celebrated during the darkness of early morning, after midnight but before sunrise.
Dean can't sleep. Death makes him a sandwich.
The metal goes through a lung, just missing his heart. It’s the coldest thing he’s ever felt.
Dean wakes with a start from a nightmare that’s mostly black ooze and Cas’s tear-streaked face and the rhythmic boom of Billie’s fist against the warded door. It’s a well-oiled rerun, at this point—he wakes without a sound, and just lies still for a moment, staring up into the inky darkness of his bedroom ceiling and breathing slowly, trying to calm the hammer of his pulse.
or start with part one of the series (anamnesis, here).