Dean stood up and looked around, but all he could see was darkness and trees. They were standing in the middle of a forest with no idea where the hell they were.
"Henry, tell me you got this," Dean said, looking around cautiously.
Henry tried to sense their surroundings, but something was interfering with his angelic powers. His connection to his grace felt restricted, almost as if some kind of power was pressing down on it.
"Although I want to say I got this, I don't got this, Dean. I think we got sucked into some serious trouble."
Sam looked at the Necronomicon still in Dean's hand. "You think it's related to that book?"
"That's why I said we should've just thrown some salt on it and burned it back at the damn museum instead of stealing it and trying to lock it somewhere," Dean said, shooting Henry an annoyed look.
Henry didn't really have an answer for that.
He hadn't known what kind of mess burning the book could cause, so taking it had seemed like the safer option — lock it somewhere secure and deal with it later.
He hadn't expected the damn thing to open a portal and suck all three of them through, and he certainly hadn't seen anything like that happen in the Evil Dead movie.
Before they could argue about it any further, several thick vines shot out from the trees and wrapped around Dean and Sam. They tightened around both brothers' legs and yanked them off the ground, leaving them hanging upside down.
"What the hell?" Sam shouted, grabbing at the vine around his ankle.
Dean twisted around and looked at him. "Vines and bondage?"
Sam gave him an irritated look. "Seriously, Dean?"
Dean shrugged, still hanging upside down. "What? I've seen enough Asian porn to know where this is going."
"Could you maybe focus on getting us down?"
Dean tried to reach for his weapon but couldn't get his arm into a useful position. "Yeah, working on it."
Henry summoned a sword formed from blue and gold energy into his hand and swung it at the vine holding Sam, cutting straight through it.
Sam dropped into the leaves with a heavy thud. "Ow."
"You good?"
Sam pushed himself up, brushing leaves off his jacket. "Yeah. Thanks."
Henry turned to Dean, still hanging.
Dean eyed the sword. "Okay, now me."
Henry stepped closer and sliced through the vine holding him. Dean dropped hard into the leaves and groaned, rolling onto his back. "Could've given me a heads-up."
"You wanted me to leave you hanging?"
Dean stared at him for a second, then sat up and pulled leaves out of his hair. Before he could say anything else, the trees started shaking again, and a mass of vines burst from the darkness, tearing through branches straight at them.
Henry's sword shifted in his hand, the blade extending and narrowing into a long lance wreathed in blue and gold energy. He spun it once and stepped forward as the first vine whipped toward his face.
The lance flashed through it, cutting the thick vine into pieces before it could touch him. Two more came from opposite sides — he ducked one and swept the lance through both.
The severed pieces slapped against the ground while more vines crawled in over them.
"These things don't know when to quit!" Dean shouted, kicking one off his leg.
Sam grabbed another before it could wrap around his ankle and yanked it aside, but a second tendril came through the trees and knocked him off balance.
"Dean!"
Dean caught him by the jacket and hauled him back just before the vine slammed into the ground where his head had been. "Gotcha!"
Henry charged through the opening, spinning the lance as vines closed in from every direction.
The weapon became a blur of blue and gold, slicing through tendrils and sending pieces flying into the dark.
One thick vine crashed down from above, and he crossed the lance in front of himself to block it — the impact drove him several inches into the dirt.
"Okay..." He gritted his teeth and pushed back. "You're pissing me off now."
He twisted the lance, tore the vine apart, and drove forward, cutting through everything in his path.
Some vines lashed like whips; others crawled along the ground trying to grab his legs. He jumped one, landed on another, and used it as a foothold to launch himself at a thick cluster hanging from a tree — one strike, and the whole mass dropped from the branches.
Behind him, Sam ducked under another tendril and drove his knife into it, but the vine barely reacted before wrapping around his arm.
"Sam!"
Dean grabbed it with both hands and pulled, but it only tightened. "Little help here!"
Henry spun and hurled the lance. The glowing weapon shot through the air, severed the vine cleanly, and buried itself in a tree trunk several yards off, blue and gold energy still crackling along the shaft.
Sam ripped the remaining piece off his arm. "Thanks."
Henry held out his hand, and the lance tore itself free and flew back into his grip. "Yeah, no problem."
The attack kept coming.
For nearly two minutes the forest was nothing but snapping branches, tearing vines, and flashes of blue and gold.
Henry spun and thrust the lance, cutting through wave after wave while Dean and Sam stayed close enough to cover each other.
Then they stopped.
The remaining tendrils recoiled violently, dragging themselves back into the darkness between the trees. A few kept twitching on the ground before going still.
Henry stood in the middle of the shredded vegetation, breathing hard, lance still in hand.
Dean looked around at the wreckage. "Okay, anybody else think those things were trying to eat us?"
Sam eyed the retreating vines. "Yeah."
Henry's gaze stayed fixed on the dark. "They weren't just trying to eat us." He tightened his grip on the lance. "They were trying to take us somewhere."
Dean's expression hardened as he looked deeper into the forest. "Great. Evil Dead vines with a plan."
Henry slowly lowered the lance. "And whatever's controlling them just realized we're not easy prey."
*****
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