Torn Apart

Torn Apart

A Supernatural story by Nikki @SPNHellcat

Our next entry in the #SPNWishList fic and art challenge! Nikki responded to the prompt: "What happened with Dean and Lee in Arizona?" A great further characterization of Lee and what drives him. This lore -- which I'm guessing Nikki created -- is tremendously chilling. Now I'm apparently scared to death of mountain lions. Enjoy! -- Jennie

Something in Lee broke that sweltering Arizona night.

He lay on the floor of the old warehouse, his mouth tasting oil and blood while smashed into the gritty floor. But he was more concerned with the heel of a cowboy boot pressing hard into his neck and sending pain down his spine. 

The thing above him – a gato monte, Dean had called it – spoke low, almost a growl.

“You should have stayed away,” she said, leaning down to where Lee could feel her breath on his neck and drops of blood from her fangs sliding down his cheek. 

It was just a few days ago that Lee had called Dean Winchester for an assist. Something was taking people in Buckeye, Arizona – a mid-size city usually known its safety. 

First it was a woman with no enemies who disappeared from a locked house. Seven days later, her body showed up – moments before a man at a gym seemingly vanished into the steam at a local sauna. 

The woman’s body was ripped to shreds. 

The second victim turned up seven days later in similar fashion. But that wasn’t the worst part. Almost simultaneously another man went missing from a mall store. And Tyler Brannigan wasn’t alone when he was taken. His 6-year-old daughter, Lisa, was gone too. 

The pictures on the news were heartbreaking – a blonde imp with a gap-toothed smile. Lee worked the case like he had been taught by the Winchesters, but he was stuck. 

That’s when he called Dean – knowing they only had until Thursday to save the family. 

Dean rolled into town nine hours later – dust covering the Impala and sweat covering Dean, who complained the old air conditioner had given out about two hours before. 

“When are you going to get a new car?” Lee quipped, to which Dean grimaced – “Baby here is a legend. Never.”

They jumped into action by splitting up the legwork – Dean hit the police station, and Lee went to the coroner.  A vamp attack didn’t fit, because the bodies were mutilated. Though much of the skin and muscle was gone, all the organs were there, including the heart. And that excluded a werewolf.

After a burger and beer, the men retired to a battered motel room and hoped for a break the next day. 

They got it when word of a witness came to them over flapjacks at a diner on the edge of town.

“I heard Maggie Tierney saw something, but she’s afraid to tell the police,” whispered Loretta – a red-headed waitress who was a ringer for Flo from the old “Alice” television show. 

“Know where we might be able to find Maggie?” Dean asked casually, flashing his million-watt smile.

“Sure, sweetie – try the park.” 

All that Loretta was missing was a snap of gum between her bright pink lips.

Dean and Lee rolled up to the park to find a group of teenagers smoking and skateboarding smack dab in the middle of a school day. 

Spying the hunters dressed in their FBI suits, the kids started to scatter – until Lee asked one of them for a cigarette. Shortly after, they were pointed to Maggie, swinging by herself. It looked like her hair hadn’t been washed in days, and her eyes were wide with sleep deprivation.

She was nervous but eventually opened up.

“It was like a person, but not,” Maggie said. She had caught a glimpse of a creature outside the mall when Tyler and Lisa were taken. The only thing she could describe with certainty were the eyes.

“They glowed gold or yellow – and narrowed in slits like my cat Slugger,” Maggie said. “Is that possible?”

A call to John Winchester got Lee and Dean a name – gato monte – after the moniker given by Spanish explorers to mountain lions. The creature was a human crossed with a lion – similar to what happens with a werewolf. They were known for being lithe and stealthy. 

They needed a steady diet of human tissue and usually kept their victims alive for several days – biting off bigger and bigger chunks until the human died. The only way to kill it was to slice its neck with a steel knife.

Noting the sites of the three disappearances, Dean used a map to winnow down a likely hunting/feeding ground to a two-mile radius. Then they started checking every decrepit building in sight – someplace where screams wouldn’t be noticed.

After a dozen strikes, and with the sun high in the sky, Dean and Lee tumbled out of the Impala, tired and weary from the 100-degree heat. 

Tomorrow was Thursday. And they were both feeling the pressure. 

They strolled into a creepy old water sanitation building, and the smell of blood nearly knocked them over. They split up to cover more ground – a clear mistake. 

Lee found the gato first – but only after it had pounced from behind, knocking his dagger across the floor. She crouched – a woman by stature but a cat in the way she slunk low and paced to find an opening to attack. Lee had nowhere to run. She bared her razor-sharp teeth, and he watched her eyes turn gold.

“How many lives you got left?” Lee shouted, with more bravado than he actually felt. 

The gato pounced, and the two locked together. Lee landed a few blows, but then the creature’s claws tore down his forearm – leaving a trail of blood. While Lee was distracted by the wound, she spun him facedown on the ground.

He couldn’t even yell when the teeth sunk into him –  only to be ripped away in a split second. 

By the time Lee turned, he saw Dean squaring off with the monster. 

“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” Dean taunted. “I just killed your litter mate. You’re next.”

Except that Dean didn’t have a weapon – having lost the knife he carried killing the gato’s buddy down the hallway. 

He’d heard Lee in trouble and sprinted to the back room. Before he could get to his friend, he saw a man off to the side, looking dazed. 

It was Tyler. But where was the blue-eyed Lisa? Dean didn’t see the girl anywhere as he quickly ushered Tyler outside. The dad was largely catatonic, and Dean yelled, “Go to the car!” before he bounded back in to see Lee in the cat’s mouth. 

A push was all he could muster before the creature turned on him. And just as the gato pounced, Lee slid a knife across the floor – hitting Dean in the foot. 

When Dean bent to pick it up, the cat – already in midair – hit the wall behind Dean, stunning her briefly. Just enough for Dean to whirl and pull the knife across the cat’s neck.

The creature slumped to the floor. 

Dean immediately turned to help Lee to his feet. Lee was a little bloody and dazed, but he’d been worse. 

“I got Tyler out,” Dean said. “But I don’t know where Lisa is.”

They split up to canvass the rest of the warehouse. Dean heard a wail and ran toward it. 

On the floor, the girl’s body lay lifeless. There was so much damage... only the curly blonde ringlets made it clear they had found her. Dean almost threw up.

Lee was on his knees – saying “We were too late” over and over as Dean pulled him up by the shoulder. 

Dean bent to cradle little Lisa, but Lee pushed him aside and said he needed to carry the girl out.

It was his case. He had found it, called Dean, brought him here to Buckeye. It was his job. 

And that was the last time he ever felt like himself.