Work Text:
“This is never going to work.”
Gabriel looked up over his glasses from the computer screen to his husband. Sam had on his grumpy face, what his estranged brother Dean had often affectionately called his bitch face, and his arms were crossed over his broad chest.
“Ah, Blessed be those who have not seen but believed,” Gabriel smirked at him as he pulled up the website he was looking for. “Or something like that.”
Sam snorted at him. “Something like that, my ass. Since when do you quote scripture?”
“Since now,” Gabriel retorted, focusing back on the screen in front of him. “I brushed up on my bibles studies. Thought it might come in handy for our hobby. You never know.”
“Did you miss the part where they condemn our hobby?” Sam teased, leaning over the computer with a smirk. “Thou shalt not kill…? Or something like that.” he added.
“Hush,” Gabriel commanded him lightly, kissing him on the nose. “Didn’t say I was a scholar, but a lot of our playmates are. Michael Milton ring a bell?”
Sam grimaced at him. “You made your point.”
Reverend Michael Matthew Milton had been the first man they’d killed together, a religious zealot who punished Vegas Strip prostitutes and left bible verses in their pockets. He had died cursing them with a wooden cross imbedded in his neck. Even though it had brought them together to what they were now, Sam hated to be reminded of that man. Something about it still left a sour taste in his mouth. Still there were plenty of killers who used religious ideology in their modus operandi, and knowing where they pulled their source material would only help them in the long run.
“Good, now come help me fill this out,” Gabriel beckoned Sam around the rough hewn desk. Gabriel had pulled up the registration for PlentyofFlesh.com, a dating site for those with morbid interests. Most of the accounts he had found were little more than poorly constructed fantasies that would make even a seasoned romance writer blush, but there were a couple that seemed to be a little too indepth for his comfort.
He knew that Sam was probably right, that an online dating website, even one as creepy as this, would most likely not lead to their next victim, but he was willing to give it a try. Technology was evolving, and so should they.
Sam pulled up one of the rickety kitchen chairs and set it down next to him. This cabin wasn’t the best, but they were technically on the run and didn’t have much to chose from.
Gabriel began to read the questions, he filled out the obvious ones like age and gender, and then he got to the real fun. He looked over at Sam, reading over his shoulder.
“Would you consider dating a cannibal?” Sam read. “What the hell kind of question is that?”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow at him. “The website is called PlentyofFlesh, what kind of questions did you think they were going to ask?”
Sam didn’t dignify that with a response.
Shaking his head, Gabriel checked the yes button and continued, clicking the yes options for everything he possibly could. If they were casting this sort of net, they may as well cast it as wide as possible. Finally he clicked the “Done” Button, now all they had to do was wait.
It didn’t take long for the responses to start coming in.
With Gabriel manning the dating chats, and Sam using his FBI honed hacking skills to find their potential dates, together they made quick work of their suitors. Most of them were run of the mill sickos, with nothing more than fantasy to back up their claims at cannibalism. As far as Gabriel could tell, they were mostly harmless, but there were a few that stuck out.
A couple of them had criminal records, but most were for minor infractions; public nudity, disorderly conduct, nothing that warranted Gabriel and Sam’s specific attention.Gabriel was getting frustrated that his brilliant idea hadn’t worked. He could feel the prickle of unspent energy under his skin like a needle, the thing in his head was restless as well, pacing up and down in his subconscious like a caged animal. It had been far too long since he let it out to play.
Gabriel could tell by way Sam was moving that he felt the same. His normally graceful movements had a strange disjointed quality to them now, like he was struggling to keep it together. They needed to find someone to play with, and soon.
Gabriel was down to the last message he had received, from someone using the screenname of “BadtotheBONE”
He clicked to open the message and immediately recoiled from the screen, large gruesome images greeting him as he began to read the man’s words. A quick reverse image search told Gabriel the pictures hadn’t been seen on the internet before, which only made the man’s claim that he was a true cannibal, and not just a desperate child playing dress up, all the more credible.
“I think we’ve got a winner,” Gabriel grinned over at Sam, who perked up immediately at the thought. He took over the search from there, using whatever voodoo he’d picked up at the FBI to make sure they could substantiate the man’s claims.
A few hours laters, and Sam’s talented fingers had found more evidence than they could ever want that Cole Trenton was the real deal. There was a string of small-town murders, missing women between the ages of 20 and 30. Cole posted pictures on several dark websites of his meals, and what was left of them looked strikingly like the missing girls. He’d dressed their bodies like rare delicacies, but he’d left their faces mostly unharmed, save for the parts that were good eating, like cheeks.
Gabriel could feel the itch under his skin dull almost instantly, easing from a sharp pain to a fading throb as Sam compiled everything they needed to know about their new playmate.
It was time to get to work.
~~~~
The night they had picked for their playdate turned out to be almost perfect. It was cloudy but dry, the clouds obscuring the moon in a way that aided their covert efforts. Killdeer, North Dakota was a very small town, only 751 residents, and Cole lived on the outskirts of it, his cabin hidden in a thicket of trees. Gabriel imagined it was to protect him and his hobby from the prying eyes of inquisitive locals, but now it would only aid Gabriel and Sam in their mission to end his life.
They parked more than a mile away from the cabin, concealing their car behind a bush so it couldn’t be seen from the road. The tire treads they would take care of on their way back out. Gabriel carried a sleek black bag over his shoulder, it’s contents specially selected for tonight’s adventure. Sam was carrying a large black duffle bag, his own preferred playthings inside. Together, they tromped through the woods, careful to make sure they weren’t leaving behind any evidence.
Finally, they saw the lights of Cole’s cabin. There was a steady stream of smoke issuing from the chimney, and his car was parked in the open garage towards the back of the property. As far as they had come to believe, Cole lived alone. He had no friends to speak of, and his only relative was his elderly mother, who had long ago succumbed to the cruel fingers of dementia. There would be no one there to interrupt them.
Step by step, inch by inch, Sam and Gabriel crept in the shadows, until they were close enough to see into the cabin’s windows. Cole was seated a drawerless computer desk at the far wall, with his back facing the door. His attention was riveted to the screen, and Gabriel could make out the PlentyofFlesh dating site on the screen. Gabriel noted there were no weapons within his reach, his kitchen containing a knife block and a hanging meat cleaver, across the room. If they were lucky, he wouldn’t time to react before they were on him.
Gabriel looked over at Sam with a smile, noting that Sam’s face already held the telltale signs that he was slipping into his kill space. Gabriel took a deep breath and handed his internal reins over to the thing that lived inside him, as he had so many times before. Gabriel slipped a syringe from his bag, having it at the ready while they approached the door.
In one fluid motion, Sam pushed the heavy wooden door open, and bounded into the cabin, Gabriel trailing in his wake. Cole made a valiant attempt to get away from them, but Sam was large and quick, and he was found lacking. Sam dropped him easily, straddling the man’s wiggling body as Gabriel got closer.
Gabriel smiled at Cole as he plunged the syringe into the meat of his bicep and pushed the plunger. “Sorry Chef, it’s our turn to make dinner.”
“No, please, no,” Cole struggled, as it became clear to him what was happening, but the drug was strong and quick -acting, and he couldn’t get another word out before he lost consciousness.
Sam climbed off of Cole, leaving him on the floor as they set about exploring the rest of the house. It didn’t take them long to find the floor hatch to the basement hidden under a ratty oriental rug.
Gabriel descended the stairs first, his trusty bowie knife in hand as he eyes darted from one corner of the room to another, trying to find any trace of danger. What he found was so much worse. The basement was not dirt like he had expected it to be, rather it was nicer than the cabin above it. The money that Cole had not spent on the rest of his cabin had clearly been spent here, no expense spared.
It was simply the biggest kitchen that Gabriel had ever seen.
He recognized it almost instantly from the pictures Cole had posted to the dark web, lustrous granite countertops, a mahogany kitchen island, gleaming stainless steel appliances, and the focal point, a large black oven. Most of the women Cole had consumed had been photographed in this very kitchen, splayed out on the island, or in various other stages of preparation. There was no doubt in his mind that Cole was the monster they were seeking. Now all that was left was to serve him his just desserts.
“Sam! Bring him down here!” Gabriel called up to Sam, and a couple minutes later, Sam came down the stairs, Cole thrown like a lumpy sack of potatoes over his shoulder. He stopped as he reached the bottom, taking in everything as Gabriel had. He turned to Gabriel with a smirk, and then laid the unconscious Cole across the island.
This was going to be fun. He loved to cook.
Sam and Gabriel moved in separate directions but it was almost as like they were two hands of the same body, their motions perfectly tandem with the other. Gabriel began cutting off Cole’s clothing, careful not to cut any of the skin. Sam headed to the large refrigerator to check out what ingredients they had to work with. He returned with some herbs, onions, heirloom carrots, and some free range organic bone broth. Another search of the kitchen produced fresh butter, twine, several large roasting pans and a turkey baster.
Gabriel began to cut up the vegetables as Sam used the twine to tie Cole up as one would if he were a pork loin instead of a person. Gabriel moved on, chopping the bundle of herbs that Cole had so generously provided, and mixing them up with the butter to make a delectable rub for their roast. Sam did any additional prep, preheating the oven and adding water and the cut up vegetables to the pan.
They were slathering Cole’s body with the herbed butter by the time he woke up, and he looked at them with unfocused, hazy eyes. “I’m going to kill you when I get out of this,” he snarled, trying to free himself from the twine that Sam had wrapped him in. “Skin you alive.”
“Like those girls you ate?” Gabriel said, making a show of slapping butter on Cole’s face, paying special attention to the cheeks. “I don’t think so. Besides, why waste the skin? It’s the best part of the animal, especially when cooked in butter, and yours looks wonderful.”
Cole visibly paled, and began struggling anew, but Gabriel knew that the knots Sam had tied were almost unbreakable.
“Not so tough now, are we, Mr. BadtotheBONE?” Gabriel chuckled, stepping to the sink to wash the butter from his hands. He grinned as realization bloomed in Cole’s eyes, darting madly between him and Sam. “You know who we are, Cole. You know what happens now.”
“You think you’re so much better than the rest of us?” Cole hissed at him. “You’re both monsters just like me, they’ll get you, and they’ll-”
His tirade was cut short by Sam stuffing an apple in his mouth. “I got tired of hearing his voice,” he shrugged, lifting Cole’s prone body into one of the roasting pans they’d found before. “Let’s get on with this.”
“By all means,” Gabriel nodded, watching Cole struggle as Sam lifted the pan off the table. Gabriel opened the hot oven for him, and Sam slid him in.
“Too bad we can’t stay for dinner,” Gabriel smirked at him. “But I wouldn’t want to spoil my appetite.” He closed the oven door, ignoring Cole’s wiggling as he turned to smile at Sam.
“Order up!”