A/N:

***CONTENT WARNING: This chapter mentions topics such as sexual violence and sexual assault. Nothing is graphic but I wanted to give y'all a heads up.***

Thanks for reading! Special shoutout to:AJ Granger and BooksWriteMusic for the reviews.

Please review lovelies.

/

Chapter 15: His Mouth Merely Twists

The sun felt magical. It was beating down so hard that she could almost feel the sunburn coming on. But Beth didn't care. It had been weeks since she had been outside in the fresh air and she was going to enjoy every single second of it.

Dean was leaning against the Impala, still on high alert with a machete in hand and a gun holstered on his hip. Regardless of Charlie's pleading, Dean just wouldn't relax. Charlie had eventually given up and went swimming in the lake. She was splashing around in the water and even in her long sleeve shirt—to avoid sunburn of course—she still looked like a mermaid. Charlie wasn't normally graceful but in the water she was like a ballerina. Sam was swimming laps back and forth along the deepest part of the lake, of course he made it look easy. Castiel was sitting on a small log near the water's edge. His eyes were unfocused, staring into nature and soaking in the peaceful quietness of the morning. However, even in the sunshine he still looked sad. Beth wished she could help the angel, but she had no idea what an angel would possibly want.

If she closed her eyes it almost felt like a regular Saturday on the farm, with Shaun and Maggie splashing in the water while she would set out a picnic. She felt a peacefulness that she hadn't felt since the walkers first started attacking.

After a while, Sam got out of the water and joined her in the sand. His smile was beaming from ear to ear. His skin was glistening and she noticed some scars that she'd never seen before. She tried to guess what each of them was from. Several straight cuts along his arm, probably used to get blood for spells or making the angel banishing marks he taught her last month. There was a round scar along the bottom of his rib cage that looked like a bullet hole and another slice through his bicep that looked like a bullet graze. The teeth marks on his shoulder caught her attention and she wondered if it had been a vampire bite like the ones that had bitten her and Dean in Purgatory. There was a large jagged scar on the palm of his hand that she'd noticed while they did their hand-to-hand combat training. The black tattoo on his muscled chest matched the anti-possession necklace the brothers had given her. She noticed the water rolling off of the hard muscles she'd grown familiar with. Beth had been pressed against him more times than she could count while they were training but seeing his tanned, tall body out here in the sunlight gave her an entirely new appreciation for her personal trainer. Finally her eyes drifted up and caught his eyes. Sam raised his eyebrows at her and she knew she'd been caught staring. She felt her face heat up and this time it had nothing to do with the sun.

"Just wondering if I should get a tattoo too," she tried to cover by pointing at his chest. "Seems like the necklace could be easily removed."

"Yeah, we know some hunters who ran into that problem. Not sure how many tattooists we'll find working these days though," Sam said as he took a swig from her water bottle.

"Maybe once we put the world back together," Beth shrugged. She still didn't know if it was possible, but Charlie had repeatedly insisted that the Winchesters could do anything.

Sam just chuckled, "Yeah, we'll put: find a tattoo parlor at the top of the to do list. Right up there with finding Charlie a Wi-Fi hot spot and finding Dean a bakery."

"What are you going to do first?" Beth inquired.

He stared off thoughtfully for so long that Beth began to think that he was never going to answer her.

"I think I'd like to go back to school." Sam whispered, almost as if he didn't want to say his hope out loud. "I didn't think I would ever go back to school after I gave up law school, but I think I'd like to be a teacher. The lecture halls, the football games, the parties—everyone is just at the start of their life and so full of hope for the future. I just want to see that again."

Beth wasn't really surprised; she had seen first hand how much Sam enjoyed teaching her. He was patient and kind and brilliant.

"You should do it! You're already a great teacher, Sam. Maybe I'll be able to get into school too. Never finished high school, but I think I've done enough extra credit reading in your library to make up for it." She laughed, trying to lighten Sam's mood that had turned despondent.

"Then now it is time for P.E." he said as he stood, towering over her.

"What?"

"I know how much you hate running laps in the compound, let's go for a run outside." Sam stretched his hand out to her and helped her up from the sand.

"Oh Sam! Can we really? That would be amazing!" She jumped up, already looking around for where they could run.

They walked over to the Impala first, Beth got additional weapons from Dean and Sam changed into a dry pair of sweatpants behind the trunk.

Dean was surly, not approving of the two of them going out for a run out in the open like this. "Stay within earshot," he demanded. "And look out for one another. Sam will have your back, but you've got to watch his too."

"I will, Dean." Beth nodded solemnly, showing him that she was taking this responsibility seriously.

When Sam came back around the car, shirtless but with two guns in shoulder holsters and an axe in his hand, Dean guffawed.

"You look like the 8th Village Person," Dean teased.

"Jerk," Sam said with an eye roll before turning to Beth and asking "Ready?" while Dean mumbled, "Bitch" under his breath at his brother.

Beth and Sam took off at a comfortable jogging pace away from the lake.

/

He didn't want to admit it but it was extremely nice to be out of the bunker and in the fresh air. Charlie and Beth definitely had the right idea. Dean missed being out on the open road. Missed the nights he and Sam would just park Baby in the middle of nowhere and sit on the trunk with some beers.

Sam and Beth were gone for longer than Dean would have liked. He didn't like the group being separated like this, with no way to communicate or locate one another if something went wrong.

Charlie was reading comic books in the sun and Cas was staring absently at the lake, looking sad and scared like a kicked puppy.

Dean had long ago forgiven Cas for everything he'd done—taking in the Leviathan's, breaking the wall in Sam's head, aiding in the start of the apocalypse, disappearing on their first night in purgatory etc. But Dean hadn't yet got up the courage to ask if Cas had forgiven him for leaving him behind in purgatory… for years… and for losing The Profit… and for not stopping the apocalypse therefore allowing his Father's creation to fall into a wasteland. It wasn't like he could find a Hallmark card that could cover that monumental apology.

He mulled over the words he might say to Cas but nothing sounded right.

"Sorry I ditched you in Monsterland."

"I'm sorry I ruined the planet."

"Sorry for being an eternal disappointment."

Fortunately, Beth and his brother came pounding back into the clearing at that moment and excused him from his pathetic attempts at crafting apologies. His alarm bells went off at seeing his brother racing with such speed, thinking something was chasing him but the pair was all smiles and sweat so Dean calmed down.

His brother, shirtless from earlier still, dropped his weapons with Charlie and went straight into the water again, evidently to cool off. Dean was so pleased to see how different Sam was recently. He seemed lighter and happier than Dean remembered him being… ever.

Beth was a little shyer, leaving on her shorts and tank top before wading slowly into the water.

Dean decided it was time for lunch so he pulled out the cooler full of food the packed that morning and pulled it over to the blanket where Charlie was sitting.

"Is it just me or does it feel like we're back in high school—they are the jocks and we're the lazy stoners?" she nodded her head towards the two that were swimming as she tore into her sandwich.

He laughed, "I'm way too old to be in a high school comedy. I think I'd be more like the cranky old history teacher at this point."

"Yeah, that would be some version of history you'd teach," Charlie agreed. She put on a deep mocking voice, "Demons were first recorded in the United States in 1862 by Nathaniel Bloomington, but that guy was a moron because demons were here for centuries sowing discord between Native American tribes."

They were laughing together, but suddenly the laugh died on his lips.

He watched as Beth came out of the water.

She walked, soaking wet, towards where Cas sat on a log. The angel seemed to not even notice her at first, still lost in his otherworldly daydream. But then when he looked up at Beth's face, Cas didn't seem surprised to find her standing so close. Beth held her hand out to Castiel and he took her hand and followed her out into the lake. He didn't question her, just trusted implicitly. He flashed back to the last time he saw Cas walking out into the lake; he'd gone under water, Leviathans exploded out of him, and Cas lost his memory and disappeared for almost a year. The only trace of the angel had been the tattered and bloodied remains of his trench coat.

This time Cas entered the lake couldn't have been more different.

He walked into the lake with Beth at his side and she helped him lay back in the water. Dean watched in shock as the blonde patiently taught him how to float on the water.

The angel's smile was practically reflective as the sun shone down on his face floating just above the waterline. It was a goofy, dazed sort of smile, the kind of smile that Dean associated with cartoon characters who had gotten hit on the head. Beth looked like a proud mom as she beamed down at Cas floating peacefully. It was strange to think of someone acting as a motherly figure to an angel.

Dean thought the pair was oblivious to the world. In fact, the pair of them together seemed like they were glowing. A white light seemed to flow back and forth between Cas to Beth. It reminded Dean of a watered down the light that angels' true forms always took, but instead of melting people's eyeballs out… the light seemed peaceful and warming like the sunrise on a cold morning.

"Have you ever seen anything like that before?" Charlie whispered while her eyes remained transfixed on the pair in the water.

Distantly, Dean noticed that Sam had stopped swimming to gawk at the unusual sight too.

It was not often that Dean was left speechless with astonishment, but he had to force his brain to refocus in order to make his vocal cords work. "Never," Dean whispered in response.

Even though Beth was nearly 100 yards away and across the water, her eyes flicked up as if she had heard Dean's voice. Her blue eyes pierced him and from this distance they were indistinguishable from Castiel's.

When he heard the growling coming from directly behind him, he figured that Beth hadn't been looking at him at all. He grabbed the machete at his side and Charlie snatched up her sword that had been lying on the picnic blanket with her.

Turning, Dean saw that there were at least 30 croats crashing through the clearing. Charlie and Dean could handle this lot, but Dean could hear Sam and the others crashing through the water to provide backup anyway.

Dean began cutting his way through corpses automatically. With annoyance he noticed that their food was now covered in black Croatoan bodies were just falling to the ground with thuds and Dean's count was rising, it had to be more than 30 by now. How many more were there?

Behind Dean, Charlie's grunts and Sam's heavy breathing was comforting. He had to glance around to search for Beth, she was soaking wet and covered in blood with a pile of bodies at her feet. However, she didn't even look like she was out of breath.

I should do more cardio, go for a run once in a while. Dean thought to himself as he swung his machete through two skulls at once.

Castiel was cutting through the monsters with a glazed over look in his eye that reminded Dean of Purgatory. His mind got caught up in memories of Purgatory and realized too late when a croat toppled over him from the side. Dean tripped over fallen bodies and got knocked into the black ooze mixing into the dirt. Just as he was about to push the croat off of him, two more piled on with their jaws snapping inches from his face.

A knife plunged towards his face, slicing through 2 skulls. Dean was grateful his mouth was closed as the blood dripped onto his face. He lifted his machete into the open mouth of the last croat and pressed until the blade sliced through the back of the rotting head. Dean hefted the dead weight off of him and took the hand that Cas offered him to stand up.

Dean saw his brother striking the through the heads of the last few bodies still moving on the ground. Charlie was leaning against the car, panting hard. Beth was still staring into the forest as if waiting for more monsters to pour out any second.

"Where the hell did all of them come from?" Dean asked as he wiped the grime from his face.

"Probably from the mill. I knew those gates wouldn't hold all of the ones that were trapped in there," Sam answered, as he cleaned his knife off. "There's got to be at least 70 here. There might be more coming."

"We should get out of here before more walkers catch up," Beth turned away from the forest, back towards the group and began gathering their supplies that got scattered during the fight.

Charlie, still looking worse for the wear as her hair stuck out of her braid in several places, made to get into the backseat before Dean shouted, "Not so fast, Red! Do not get croat guts all over baby. Take that disgusting shirt off before you get in my car."

"Dean Winchester. If I didn't know any better I'd think you were just trying to me out of my clothes," Charlie laughed as Dean rolled his eyes.

"Don't flatter yourself, it's all about the leather," Dean said as he opened the trunk to grab clean clothes. He tossed his dirty shirt on the pile of unmoving corpses.

"Come on," Beth said, grabbing Charlie's hand and a couple of items from Dean's pile of clothes. "Just because he wasn't trying to get you out of your clothes, doesn't mean he should get a free show." The girls laughed together as they disappeared into the tree line.

The guys changed, finished packing up, searched the croat's bodies for anything useful, and Dean was already waiting impatiently in the driver's seat. But the girls had not yet returned.

Sam was fidgeting with his knife, still standing next to the Impala, refusing to get in until the girls got back. Castiel, looked unusually drained in the backseat. Dean glanced at his friend in the rearview mirror and if he weren't an angel, Dean would have guessed that Cas needed a nap.

Just when Dean was about ready to go after them, the Beth and Charlie came crashing back into the clearing.

Only they weren't alone.

/

Electricity seemed to pump under her skin. She felt good. She felt alive. She'd always been terrified by the walkers. Even after she'd spent all winter on the road with her family, fighting and running from the walkers. She never got used to them. Being behind the fences at the prison hadn't made her any less frightened. Beth could remember the way her heart used to pound furiously whenever she could even hear the growls from within the prison walls.

But today, she felt calm. An unusual sense of calm. Despite the fact that she'd run about 10 miles with Sam and killed more than a dozen walkers, her heart was steady and slow like she was reading a book on a sunny Tuesday afternoon.

She could almost believe that it was just from her training with Sam. She was stronger and in better shape than ever before. However, it was more than just the added cardio.

She was more focused and clear headed than ever before. And when she looked out into the forest, Beth felt as if she could see for miles.

No, not see. Sense. She corrected herself. I can sense for miles.

For a moment, it was as if she was standing far away—viewing the entire forest in front of her at once, seeing through the trees, hearing the growls of the huge herd of walkers that were no where near her.

The sensation passed as quickly as it started, and she tuned back into the Sam saying, "…There might be more coming."

The blonde didn't trust whatever weird vision she'd just had enough to tell the rest of her friends… but she didn't want to stick around long enough to see if her vision of more walkers was right.

So instead she just said, "We should get out of here before more walkers catch up."

Charlie and her went behind a few trees and stripped off their wet, soiled clothes. The pair was joking about how Dean would never let them out of the bunker again after this mess when Beth heard a twig snap.

She gripped her knife but before she could unsheathe it, two men slithered out from behind nearby trees. One of them was tall, nearly as tall as Sam and had a gun pointed directly at Beth. The other, smaller and skinny, had grabbed Charlie from behind with one hand wrapped over her mouth and the other pressing a knife into her throat.

"Don't scream. And don't move," the taller one with the gun said to Beth. "Put your hands up."

Beth hesitated, hands itching towards the handle of the on her belt loop.

"You grab that knife and your friend's blood will be the last thing you see." The skinny man leered at her from over Charlie's shoulder and the red head winced as a few drops of blood trickled from her neck.

"Please don't hurt her," Beth's voice waivered, she was scared for her friend so she lifted her hands into the air.

"What do you want?" Charlie asked breathlessly.

"You." His eyes trailed up and down Beth's body, still exposed in just her bra and shorts since she'd been in the middle of changing. Under his gaze she felt dirtier than when she'd been covered in walker guts. "Both of you are going to put these on and come with us," The taller one, pulled a handful of zip-ties out of his pocket. He handed a pair to his buddy, with his eyes and gun still pointed at Beth. "Women are a rarity these days… and ones as beautiful as you are especially… valuable." The way his voice oozed with slime as he said it made it clear how Beth and Charlie what was valuable about them in this apocalypse world.

He slowly approached Beth, she felt her breath hitch and she was more afraid staring up into this creep's eyes than she had been when facing down a dozen walkers.

Beth took a deep breath and tried to remember everything Sam had taught her in hand-to-hand combat training over the past several weeks. Charlie caught her eye and gave a tiny nod.

And then, they both moved. Beth dropped low and pulled her knife as she quickly closed the distance between her and her attacker. The man evidently hadn't been expecting her to go offensive and she knocked the breath out of him as she tackled him to the ground.

The gun slipped out of his hand and flew into the underbrush nearby. The blonde tried to keep the upper hand, going to plunge the knife towards the stranger, but he reached up and punched her, once in the side and a second time in the face. The blows from both sides knocked her off balance and the man rolled on top of her.

"Feisty bitches aren't they Logan?" He teased as his hands gripped her wrists above her head. Beth could hear the grunts from the other pair and the fact that Logan never answered gave Beth hope that Charlie was putting up a solid fight. "That's alright, I like them a little wild. It's more fun when you have to break them in." His eyed raked over her exposed skin while the hold on her wrists tightened painfully. However, she refused to release the knife. For a spilt second, she considered shouting for help. The Winchesters and Castiel must be only 100 yards away from them.

The problem was, the walkers would hear her yell too.

When Beth imagined all the walkers she'd seen coming toward her new family, she resolved to stay silent. When the man went to grab the zip-ties, she flipped over and yanked her hands out of his grip. She'd practiced the move a thousand times with Sam. Only this time, she had a real knife. Beth slashed out with the knife, catching the stranger in the side of his stomach and then kicking him so he fell back into the dirt. She scrambled to her feet while the man was stunned and felt through the leaves where the man's gun had fallen.

She felt the grip just as she heard a sickening, gurgling sound on her right. Beth turned abruptly raising the barrel of the gun she'd grabbed out of the leaves but nearly dropped it out of shock. Charlie was slathered in blood. It wasn't her own though. The skinny man's neck was spraying bright red blood, his hands gripped hopelessly at the gaping hole in his throat while his eyes widened. He fell and didn't move again.

However, Beth's original attacker had pulled her knife out of his side and was now brandishing it towards the girls.

Beth took aim at his chest and said with her voice gravelly, "Stop, don't move!" But she hesitated, her arm shaking momentarily before she aimed the gun lower, aiming for his leg instead.

The man scoffed and kept coming at her so she prepared for the kickback of the weapon.

But the gun clicked uselessly, no bullet fired.

He smiled mirthlessly as he lunged towards Beth. But she didn't hesitate this time, lashing out with a punch to his knife wound. The man swiped out towards Beth and she felt the burning pain as it the knife sliced through her left arm. He didn't get a second chance to hurt her though. She hit him, hard in the face with the barrel of the gun and he stumbled backwards but she stayed on him and hit him again, twice more in the head, while he was off balance. The man lost consciousness, and slumped on the ground.

Beth quickly kicked the knife out of his hand and grabbed the zip-ties out of his pocket. "Charlie! Tie him up before he wakes up again," Beth instructed.

Beth released the clip of the gun in her hand, "Empty." She snorted, showing Charlie. "I can't believe we fell for this crap."

"Yeah, they had us fooled," Charlie replied, but her bravado from before had melted away. She looked at the dead man. Logan. He had attacked Charlie and now he was lying in a pool of his own blood and she looked horrified. "I… I can't believe I…"

"It was us or them, Charlie. Even if this wasn't loaded, they were still going to take us, hurt us… who knows what else…" Beth let her voice drop as she tried to shake off the images of what would have happened if these men had taken the women back to their camp. "You did what you had to do to save both of us."

Charlie had tears in her eyes but she sniffled and nodded her head.

"Check him for other weapons and let's get dressed," Beth tried to distract her nodding towards their captive.

Beth quickly checked the dead man's pockets for anything useful. There was nothing helpful in his pockets so she grabbed the clean shirts from where they had fallen into the dirt. She put one on and then went to help Charlie. The red head found two more weapons and a lighter on the tall stranger.

"Here," Beth said, motioning for Charlie to stand up. Beth used a clean shirt to help wipe the dead man's blood off Charlie's face and neck. It had already started to dry and was crusting on her skin. Beth tossed the dirty shirt into the dirt with everything else and gave Charlie one of Dean's button down shirts to put on.

"Let's head back. The guys are probably worried about us," Beth said, helping her friend to her feet.

"What should we do with them?" Charlie asked, looking at the unnamed unconscious man. Beth noticed her friend's eyes flick towards Logan's body but they couldn't stay on the dead man's body for long.

"Why don't you wake him up? We'll bring him to the guys and see what they think," Beth instructed. She then approached the dead man, and pulled her knife. Beth felt sick as she thought of Charlie killing a human. But then she thought of the other people this man had hurt. How many other girls had this pair taken in forests? How many women had fallen prey to their act? She plunged it into the dead man's skull, ensuring he would never end up a walker. Ensuring he could never hurt another person again.

/

A/N: I know it's been FOREVER since I updated. But just know that I am still working on these stories (even if it is a slower than George RR Martin).

I'm super curious to know what y'all think of some things:

What do you think about Beth's strange abilities? What do they mean?

What do you think the Winchesters will do about this abusive man and his group?

What do you think the trials to close the gates of hell will be?

PLEASE review and let me know what you thought!

Next chapter Cas will tell us his theories about what is going on with Beth. And coming soon (probably the next chapter): we find out what the trials are!