Hungry hungry. Night dark. Dark good. Good for hunting.

Hungry hungry. No meat left. Children small. Little meat but very tender. So hungry. Snif snif. New smell. Old leather and hot guns. Hunters. Stupid meat people. They will die. Soon. Very soon.

Hungry hungry.

*****

The night is dark and damp. The perfect setting for something out of a nightmare to leap at you from the trees, giving you enough time to wet your pants before you become some hell spawn's midnight snack.

Priestly shivers again. The forest feels all wrong to him. The bright moon overhead can't seem to penetrate the thick shadows of the trees and a bone-deep chill seems to be leaking from the woods. It clings to him, wrapping invisible tentacles around his body, threatening to choke him.

Priestly almost jumps out of his skin when he feels a hand fall on his shoulder.

"Hey," Sam says quietly, leaning in close. "You ok?"

"Ya," Priestly lies. "I was just thinking about how much I hate camping."

Sam lets out a sudden bark of laughter and pats his shoulder before turning back to the contents of the Impala's trunk. Priestly watches him with a small smile, but he still can't shake the cold feelings that cling to him. His eyes flick back to the forest and he lets out a shuddering breathe as he listens to the resounding silence of the woods. Not a single noise can be heard, benign or otherwise, and it's unnerving in a way that makes Priestly's heart pound in his ears.

He never thought he'd miss the sound of crickets.

A light goes off behind him, and when the trunk slams shut, the sound echoes in the clearing and spreads outward, coming to a halt when it crashes against the dark trees ahead.

Suddenly a gun is being passed to him and Priestly tears his gaze away from the tainted woods to meet identical eyes. Dean's looking at him as if he can see right through him. Truth be told, with their psychic link, he probably can. His twin's eyes hold concern, silently asking if he is ready for this.

Priestly, takes the back of his brother's head in his free hand and pulls him in for a quick and unexpected kiss.

Let's do this he tells Dean without words.

His twin nods and they kiss again, reassuring, before turning away from each other and towards the woods and the monster that hides within the shadows.

*****

Closer closer. Smelly meat people. Stupid hunters. So hungry. Closer closer.

*****

It happens just as they step through the first row of trees.

Dean is in the middle of explaining their sweep pattern, mid-step, when he stops. He doesn't trail off or pause. He just stops.

Neither Sam nor Priestly is prepared for the psychic shockwave they feel when Dean's eyes meltdown to a bright, nuclear green. It makes them stumble, and Sam falls to one knee, gripping his head in his hands as if it might split right down the middle. Priestly feels his mouth fall open in a silent scream as the mental mayhem overflows out his twin's mind and cascades over him.

They're voices. There are voices in his head that shouldn't be there.

Priestly forces himself to move to Sam, who is still holding his head, eyes streaming tears despite being shut tight. He falls to his knees and grips his younger brother's shoulder with his right hand. His left, he extends, palm outward towards Dean's paralyzed form.

"Hang on, Sammy," Priestly grinds out. "Hang on. I'm gonna try something."

Priestly takes a deep breathe and scrunches his eyes closed, focusing all of his psychic energy into the palm of his left hand, and spreading it outward. Sweat begins to dot his forehead as the mental shield starts to form. It's invisible, but powerful; a shield against the torrent of untamed psychic energy flowing from Dean.

"Almost there, Sammy," Priestly pants, trying to keep his concentration. "Once I get the shield up, you should be ok. Once you're safe… I can get to Dean."

Priestly gasps aloud when he feels the last of his energy shift into place. At once, the extra voices in his head go silent, and a pressing mental weight is lifted from his shoulders. The shield is suddenly much easier to maintain, and Priestly finds he still has enough power to reach out mentally to his twin through the barrier.

"Jesus fuck," Sam moans beside him. He opens his eyes tentatively, and almost immediately shuts them again. "What the hell," he starts, "what the hell happened?" He's still holding his head, with one hand now, and using the other to brace himself on the damp ground.

"There's… something wrong with Dean," Priestly chokes. Despite the shield, he feels like he's about to break. He needs to get to Dean before the sheer weight of psychic energy destroys them all. "I've made a shield," he continues. "We should be safe from the excess psychic energy, if that makes any sense at all. I need to reach out to Dean, mentally, and try to figure out a way to help him."

Sam's eyes are open again and he's staring at Dean, just a few feet from them, with a look Priestly can't describe with mere words. Nothing can describe the way Sam is looking at his brother now and even Priestly feels dwarfed by the pure emotion in his little brother's eyes.

"It's ok, Sammy," he says, almost falling over the words. "Just stay right where you are. I'm gonna reach out to him and see what I can do, but…" he pauses, and takes a deep shaky breathe, "but if I can't help him from here, I'll… I'll have to knock him out."

Sam turns to him, tears in his eyes, but instead of an argument or outrage, he just nods.

*****

While holding onto his little brother and keeping the mental shield in place, Priestly, reaches out with his mind towards Dean, who still stands rooted to the ground. His eyes are still blazing, and his mouth his slack, as if every bit of him is trapped in his head.

Closing his eyes, Priestly focuses for a moment on the weight of the brass charm resting against his chest.

Ok, he thinks. I can do this.

Priestly braces himself and opens a channel to Dean.

Immediately, strained panting fills his head, and a through the noise, a weak voice cries out, help me.

Priestly feels as if he's about to throw up. Dean? he projects. Dean, it's Priestly. It's your brother. Can you here me?

The frantic panting continues, but recognition is sensed. Priestly? Dean moans. He seems to struggle for words. There's too many of them… all screaming… filling my head. It's not like the graveyard. Everyone here is still terrified. It's… it's chaos. I can't make them stop. I can't make them stop long enough to… to sort through them… to calm them down. I need them… I just need them to stop screaming.

"Fuck," Priestly whispers. It's ok, Dean. I promise, I won't let anything happen to you. I have an idea.

*****

"Sam," Priestly says urgently, drifting back from his psychic conversation, "I know I told you not to move, but I'm going to have to go back on that now, because I've got to get to Dean to help him, and I don't think I can maintain this shield remotely."

"What are you gonna do?" Sam asks, looking from Priestly to Dean and back again. His eyes are full of helplessness.

"Well, it seems our powers become enhanced whenever we come in physical contact with one another," Priestly explains while pulling Sam off the ground and keeping his other hand extended. "I think, if I can get my hands on Dean, pun intended, our combined power can handle the voices in his head."

Sam stiffens in Priestly's grip. "Voices?" he utters with dread.

Priestly nods solemnly, though he doesn't look as his little brother, instead keeping his eyes on his twin. "You know all those people the black dog killed?"

Priestly knows the second Sam understands, because the shoulder in his grip starts to quiver.

"Oh Jesus," Sam moans, looking at Dean again with an expression of horror. "All those people… they're in his head?"

Priestly just nods again as he begins pulling Sam towards Dean.

"I'll need both hands when I get there," Priestly says as they get closer, "so stay right nest to me. I don't know if my shield will hold once Dean and I are together. If it doesn't, we'll have to hope that our combined strength will be able to get a handle on the excess psychic energy. Either way, I'll make sure your head doesn't explode."

"Oh good," Sam groans, as he separates from Priestly's clutch when they reach Dean. Sam's back to watching him with the look of helplessness, and Priestly isn't the least bit surprised when Sam says, "Is there anything I can do?"

"Just," Priestly starts, already mentally preparing himself for what he's about to do, "just hold onto him."

Standing in the glow of his brother's eyes, Sam looks like he's on the verge of tears again. "Do you think it'll help?" he whispers, staring into Dean's bright, vacant eyes.

Priestly lets his gaze drift between his brothers.

"It can't hurt," he whispers.

*****

The minute Priestly places a hand on either side of Dean's head, the world around him disappears, and a dozen ethereal voices start screaming, their cries echoing off the inside of his skull. It almost knocks him off his feet, but Priestly holds tight to Dean, refusing to let go.

He focuses on pouring his power into his twin, in hopes that Dean can use it to restore the balance in his crowded mind.

Nothing happens, at first. Priestly thinks he may have over-estimated their power.

Then he feels it.

The pressure in the back of his head starts, slowly, to lift and the voices flutter and waver. His limbs are becoming lighter and he can start to hear Dean's voice through the crowd. He's speaking. Not to Priestly, but to the dead. He's reassuring them; explaining what happened. There are outcries, but Dean is making headway. They're calming; listening to him now. He's telling him who he is and what he is here to do. He's telling them that he is going to kill that monster that murdered them. He's telling them that he's going to make sure that it will never hurt another human being.

Priestly's feeling light headed. Dean's pull is taking a toll on his system and it won't be long until he loses consciousness.

Dean, too, seems to be slipping.

Priestly's vaguely aware of a presence by his side, and it suddenly occurs to him that if they drop, they'll be sitting ducks for the black dog.

The fear is not enough to hold him though, and as the last voice goes quiet, Priestly's world goes black.

*****

Strange meat people. Strong. Strange smell. Something wrong. Hungry hungry. Sleeping now. Kill. Kill now.

*****

Priestly wakes up to the sound of growling all around him.

For a split second, he fears he's woken up just in time to look the black dog in the eye before it kills him. But the figure crouched above him, panting and shaking isn't the monster they've come to hunt.

It's Sam.

Alert, and dripping sweat, Sam grips a sawed-off shotgun tight in his hands as he swivels on the balls of his feet, following the menacing sound leaking out of the trees. He's almost directly on top of Priestly, protecting him in his unconscious state.

"Sammy?" a voice chokes out to his left.

Priestly feels his heart skip a beat when Dean sits up beside him and squints at their little brother. His eyes are bleary and he's about ten shades too pale, but he's conscious and coherent and that makes Priestly so happy he thinks he might cry.

"Jesus, Dean," Sam says, flicking his eyes to his brother quickly before turning them back to the woods. "Are you ok?" His voice is so thick with emotion, he seems to barely get the words out.

Dean, in response, looks over at Priestly, his eyes flashing green for a split second. Priestly heaves a sigh of relief and, with a bit of a struggle, stands, and extends a hand to his twin. Dean takes it, and pulls himself up beside Priestly and Sam, immediately snatching one of their discarded guns from the ground.

"Ya, Sammy," he says, cocking the shotgun with a loud chuck-chuck, "I'm just dandy."

Priestly pulls the hand gun from the back of his pants and leans in close to his brothers. "Where is it?" he asks, barely above a whisper.

Sam grimaces, but keeps his eyes on the trees. "It's hiding, just beyond the shadows. I first heard it after you guys dropped. It probably got wind of us when Dean freaked out, and it must have thought we'd be easy pickings when you two were down." Sam's face hardens. "I thought I saw it at one point. It was close, ready to attack, but I fired a shot into the trees, and it backed off. It's been circling us ever since."

"Mother fucker," Dean growls, swiveling his head, scanning the trees as if he wants to insult the monster face-to-face. "After what it did to those people, those kids," Dean's eyes flicker again, "I'm gonna put that thing down myself." Suddenly, Dean fires a round into the trees, making Priestly and Sam jump. "You hear that, you evil fuck?!" he yells into the black. "I'm gonna put you down for what you did!" His eyes light up again, and this time, Dean cocks his head, listening to something even Priestly can't hear.

When Dean nods resolutely and mouths the words thank you, his eyes fade back to their original colour and his face is set with determination. "One of the hunters just said that before he went down, he was able to get a shot off and hit the mutt in the right front leg. And one of the kids confirmed that when the dog was chasing them, it was limping." Dean's jaw is tight. "Black dogs are nasty fuckers and a bitch to take down. But they," Dean taps his temple, "have given us an opening. The mutt is weak on its right side, and we you use that to put it down for good."

*****

Awake now. Stupid meat people. Smelly hunters. No more play. Die now. Die NOW.

*****

The massive black dog leaps out of the trees a split second after Dean suddenly yells to drop and fire. The thing is almost the size of a cow, with pure black fur, soulless red eyes and teeth that look like they could chew through steel. It sails towards them, arching through the air towards the boys crouched on the ground, aiming and firing at its already wounded right leg and exposed belly.

They manage to hit it several times, but it's not enough to drop the monster. It continues to fly right at them, until it's almost on them, blotting out the moonlight.

That's when Priestly extends a hand, locking the thing in a mental grip and heaves it into a tree.

The black dog collides with the solid trunk with a disgusting, wet crack and drops to the damp grass in a heap. Dean is immediately back on his feet, running towards the mass of fur and claws.

*****

Closer closer. Hurts. But not dead yet. Little closer

*****

"Dean, wait!" Sam calls after him, struggling to stand.

But Dean is already standing over the mutt, glaring down at with a sizzling hatred. He points the shotgun at the thing's face and growls, "Burn in hell, you son of a - "

The black dog's eyes burst open and it lets out a horrifying howl-scream as it lunges at Dean.

Priestly screams and tries to throw up a shield between his twin and the monster, and Sam shouts Dean's name and raises his gun, but it's too late.

With a reaction time too quick to comprehend, lead by the voices in his head, Dean throws his right shoulder forward, jams the shotgun in the mutt's mouth and pulls the trigger.

*****

Sam drives them all to a motel rather than make the trek back to Bobby's. It's late and the three of them are completely exhausted, with both Dean and Priestly feeling drained from such heavy use of their power.

They practically collapse onto their beds with the twins falling on top of each other. Sam struggles with his clothes before he's down to his boxers and under the cool sheets. He mumbles something that sounds like let's never do that again, and then Sam is nothing but snores and a pair of feet sticking out over the end of the bed.

Dean eventually manages to peal himself off Priestly long enough to let them undress and get beneath the sheets. Once there, they fall again into each others' arms, curling into one another. Their breathing is slow and steady, and sleep seems imminent, but Priestly holds it off long enough to kiss Dean slow and deep, letting his fingers slip into his twin's short, dirty-blonde hair.

Are you alright? Priestly projects, pulling back from the kiss. Once again, they're bathed in the moonlight that's slipped between the curtains. Dean looks cool and ethereal pinned beneath Priestly's body, a shard of light glinting off the saliva on his lips.

Dean's eyes are open and glowing softly in the dark.

He shakes his head.

No, he tells Priestly, pulling their lips back together. But I will be.

Read the next story in the Lost and Found 'Verse Splitting Down The Seams