deancasbigbang:

Title: John Winchester’s Basement

Author: violue

Artist: oh-cassie

Rating: Explicit
Pairings: Dean/Cas (minor Sam/Ruby/Brady, past Castiel/Others)
Wordcount: 21300
Warnings/Tags: alternate universe, canon-typical violence, creature!Castiel, past infidelity (not Dean/Cas)
Posting: 11/20/2018

Summary:

After Dean’s father dies, it falls to him to pack up his house. Dean expects to spend a few days drunk, mourning, nostalgic… but John’s house has more inside it than old hunting trophies and shot glasses, and Dean’s about to find out that his father is not quite the man he thought he was.

---

A trapdoor.

There’s no other word for what Dean’s looking at. It’s thick, heavy wood, with a large, metal ring fastened to one end. It looks like something out of a video game, aside from the dusty old pizza box next to it.

What a fucking trip.

Dean grabs hold of the ring, surprised to see that it lifts easily. He thought it would be heavier. In the movies, secret trapdoors are always really heavy.

He hears the chains again as he lifts the door, and finds himself wanting to mutter “curiouser and curiouser”, like Alice in Wonderland. Maybe he’ll fall inside and be transported to another world.

He doesn’t fall in, but he does make his way down the narrow flight of stairs hidden beneath the door, holding his phone up for light as he goes. The stairs go down a bit longer than an average staircase, and each step makes Dean feel a little more nervous, a little claustrophobic.

When Dean gets to the bottom he spies a light switch which he flips on.

To the left of the stairs, the small part of the basement that actually exists underneath the house, there are many, many locked metal boxes on a shelf. The rest of the room extends behind the house, under the backyard. How did Dean not know this was here? John’s been living here a good fifteen years.

The room goes back far enough that part of it remains in shadows, and it’s from that direction that Dean hears the sound of chains again, this time much clearer than before.

“It’s about time.” The agitated, gravelly voice makes Dean jump out of his fucking skin. Holy fucking shit there’s someone down here. “I’m starving.”

Dean’s afraid to go closer, because who the fuck. “H-hello?” he calls out, embarrassed when his voice fucking cracks like he’s twenty years younger.

The chains shift. “You are not John,” the voice says.

“N-no,” Dean says, looking to see if there’s another light switch.

“Come closer, human.”

Yeah, like that’s not alarming. “No thanks, pal, I’ve seen this movie.” Dean finally locates the second light switch and flicks it on.

There’s a man seated on the floor, beside a pile of books and a flashlight. The chains Dean was hearing… they’re for him. There’s two chains, each attached to a manacle around the man’s wrists. They stretch five feet at most, one end rooted in the cement floor. The man is looking away, one arm blocking the light.

“Very bright, haven’t had light in here in days,” he mutters, sounding annoyed more than anything else.

“What are… who are you?!” Dean all but shouts. “What the hell is this?”