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~*~
The door thunders with every forceful push at the other side. Sam and Dean lean against it to stop it from opening, and the rattles shake their bodies.
“I don’t know how much longer this door is going to hold!” Sam yells over the ruckus.
Dean nods as he searches with his eyes for something in the room that might help. They are in the dungeon, and all he can see are some file cabinets that might help if they could move away from the door.
Just as he’s about to suggest one stays while the other moves them, the pushing stops. There’s an eerie silence suddenly after all of that, which makes Dean’s skin crawl with anticipation.
“Quick, before it comes back,” he tells Sam, moving away from the door towards the cabinets. Sam follows him without hesitation, and they’re soon moving the cabinets to block the door.
They lean against the cabinets, catching their breath.
“You’re bleeding.” Sam points out, looking at a gash in Dean’s left thigh.
“So are you,” Dean responds, signaling the blood in Sam’s forehead.
Sam sighs. “C’mon, we have a first aid kit somewhere down here.”
Dean limps after him, now that the adrenaline is settling a bit, his leg throbbing in pain. He shakes his head in disbelief that they are in this situation.
All because of a stupid Christmas tree.
~*~
“Where did you get this?” Sam asks, astonished by the Christmas tree Dean decided to surprise him with.
“It was the last one at the Christmas market in town,” Dean explains proudly.
Sam looks it up and down. When it comes to Christmas trees, this one has seen better days. Crooked, and with some leaves already browning, it wasn’t a catch. But they had worse shit before, and he figures that when waiting until the last minute to get a tree, this is what you are left with.
“And you got it because…?”
Dean rolls his eyes. “Because it’s our first Christmas in this place, a permanent one, and this is what people with permanent places do.”
“We’re not like those people, Dean.” Sam reproaches.
Dean’s mouth twists. “Don’t be a party pooper, Sammy.”
Sam groans softly. “Fine. But I’m not decorating it.”
Dean smiles blindingly. “Sure thing, I got that covered. But it would go so much faster with your help.”
Sam sighs in defeat, because how can he be a grump when this is making Dean happy? “Okay, I will help.”
“Atta boy!”
~*~
Dean grunts as Sam bandages his leg.
“I’m almost done,” Sam assures.
“We gotta have something to kill with in the bunker.”
“I don’t know, Dean. What can you use to kill an evil tree?”
“Fire?”
“We don’t want a walking tree chasing us while setting the whole bunker on fire.”
Dean leans his head against the wall. “Fair point.”
“Decapitation always works,” Sam suggests after a short minute of silence.
“Where is the head?” Dean asks, confused.
Sam nods in agreement. “It doesn’t have one, but it has plenty of arms to saw off.”
“We will have to get too close to it.” Dean mourns.
“Yeah, but I don’t see how to get rid of it besides chopping it into pieces. Then we can burn it outside!”
“Risky. But I like this plan.”
“We just have to get to the garage to grab the electrical saws,” Sam adds sheepishly.
Dean groans. “Easy.”
~*~
“Whoa, Sam, if you wanna get some action tonight, you just gotta say so.” Dean grins slyly.
“What slap?” Sam asks midway through, adding another ornament.
“Seriously? You just slapped my ass.” Dean responds, annoyed.
“I didn’t,” Sam says, lowering his arms. He looks around, then at the tree.
“C’mon, Sam! You don’t have to be shy about it. It was different, I will admit, but it’s okay.”
“Dean. I did not slap your ass.”
“Someone just did.”
Sam looks up at his brother.
Dean stares back.
They both turn to look at the tree.
The tree giggles.
They both back off quickly.
“What the hell?!” Dean exclaims, drawing out his gun.
Sam has his gun out and pointing at the tree in a second.
“You heard that too, right?” Sam asks, not convinced yet that he hasn’t lost his mind.
“Uh-huh.”
The tree suddenly turns around, making the ornaments jingle with the movement.
“Oh fuck no,” Dean mutters, backing away even more, and then shooting at the tree.
Sam has backed away, too, and then just waits to see if the shots did anything.
Suddenly, two branches of the tree come flying out and grab each of their wrists that are holding the guns. Sam shouts as the branch holds tightly on him and starts to pull him towards the tree.
“Hey!” Dean screams, trying to get loose as he’s being pulled. The branch tightens enough to make him let go of the gun. Dean curses and watches as Sam does the same.
Great, now they have no guns!
Dean reaches into his back pocket and takes a knife out, using it to cut the branch in one swift movement. Now free, he goes to aid Sam, doing the same. The tree retaliates by throwing another branch that grabs at Dean’s thigh. It pulls, making him fall on the floor, and starts to drag him.
“Dean!”
~*~
They get out of the dungeon as silently as possible and start to walk in tandem against the walls. They see the tree walking around at some point down the hall, but can avoid it by hiding behind a wall.
Somehow, they manage to get to the garage.
Dean opens the chain-link door where the tools are kept. Sam follows him inside and closes the door just in case the tree heard them.
“Alright, what exactly is the plan?” Dean whispers.
“We get as close as possible and cut the main stump in half. I think that will put a damper on its plans to eat us.”
“Okay.”
Just as they come out of the garage, the tree is waiting for them. In the minutes that it has been by itself, it has gotten bigger and more menacing. Now bearing sharp needle-like leaves on its branches.
“I’m never buying the last Christmas tree again,” Dean says to himself.
But Sam hears him and chuckles shortly. “Let’s do this!”
~*~
The knives are useless to cut loose now. Dean fights by grabbing the table, but the tree is stronger and starts to drag them both. Sam runs towards the library and takes the sword there. When he comes back, Dean’s legs are almost under the tree. He quickly cuts the branch again, setting Dean free, but the tree gets furious and angrily slaps him across the face, sending him across the floor, losing the sword in the process.
Dean gets up and runs towards Sam, helping him to get up, as the tree starts to walk.
“Are you kidding me?” Sam says in disbelief.
Dean grabs Sam’s arm and tugs at it. “Let’s go.”
Sam nods and starts to run behind Dean.
With no sense of clear direction, they run through the bunker, as the tree follows them.
“Dungeon!” Dean exclaims as the tree is getting closer.
~*~
The tree roars as one of its branches gets sawed off when it attacks Sam.
“Take that motherfucker!” Dean hollers in triumph.
“We have to get closer!” Sam says, cutting another branch.
“How do you suppose we can do that?”
“Dean, watch out!” Sam warms, and another branch sprouts straight towards Dean's ankle.
“Son of a…!” Dean exclaims, falling to the floor. This time, he holds the saw tightly as he goes down. But the position doesn’t allow him to cut the branch.
Sam is fighting the branches getting thrown at him, and Dean is dragged closer to the base of the tree.
It’s there that an idea occurs to him.
“Dean!” Sam screams in despair when he sees Dean disappear under the tree.
Sam cuts another branch. “Give me my brother back!”
The tree suddenly screams. A loud, wailing sound that makes Sam cover his ears. When Sam looks back at the tree, it splits in half, the top falling to the side. Dean appears from behind, a shit-eating-grin on his face.
“Take that Christmas tree!”
Sam heaves a sigh of relief.
Dean cuts off another part of the tree. No sound comes from it.
“I think you killed it,” Sam says deadpan
Dean looks up. “Let’s burn it. Just in case.”
Sam nods.
~*~
As they tend to the new cuts and bruises from their foray with the evil Christmas tree, Dean can’t help but think that only they would enough up with whatever that was.
“Seriously, though. No more Christmas trees.” Sam begs.
Dean pouts. “Aw, Sammy, where’s your Christmas spirit?”
“I’m serious,” Sam says, getting up from the chair and walking away.
Dean follows him. “Not even a small, very manageable one?”
~^Fin^~