Merry Christmas everyone! This is for my lovely partner Pax because they will enjoy it much more than a stranger would. Merry Christmas my love, hope you enjoy this last minute gift, and I also hope you like Dean. <3
TW: Mild swearing, violence
Word count: 8,105

    Winters in North Dakota were never fun, which had been established by many people over the years. The worst part, perhaps, was the fact that there was never much snow. It would get so cold in the winter, that instead of snow falling in big, lazy flakes, or even as tiny pellets in the middle of a blizzard, the clouds would freeze so much that there would be very little snow at all.
    This season was no different, unfortunately. It was already midway into December, and except for a bit of frost on the ground, it wasn't exactly looking like a Winter Wonderland in the small town of Minot. It was nothing but huddled jackets, shivers, and a few crappy Christmas decorations strewn around the motel Pax found themselves in. They had been traveling around with the Winchester brothers for a few years now, living with them in the Kansas bunker along with their angel companions, and somehow managing to hide the secret of their true species by making an even better hunter. This lead them to discover a possible case in North Dakota, which described a sudden spike in children deaths by what appeared to be stabbings. Of course, any case that involved a monster killing kids needed to be dealt with accordingly, so Sam and Dean wasted no time driving upstate, taking Castiel and Jack with them, squeezing them in with Pax in the back seat of the Impala.
    Leading up to the present, the five hunters had purchased two motel rooms to share amongst each other: Sam, Dean, and Castiel in one room, and Pax and Jack sharing the second. And while the Nephilim seemed to be arguably comfortable sitting cross-legged on his bed, Pax was already huddled underneath the blanket in the corner of theirs. Jack was watching them curiously out of the corner of his eye, seemingly interested, or maybe even amused, at how the supposed human handled the cold temperature in the room. "If you'd like, I can turn up the room heat." He offered politely.
    Pax glanced over at the boy, shaking their head with a small smile. "Nah, that would cost extra on the bill." They explained, sarcasm lacing their tone of voice. "And you know Dean would pitch a fit if the bill were any higher than it has to be."
    "Oh." Jack hummed, giving a confused frown as he returned his attention to what he'd been doing. As Pax returned their gaze forward as well, a quick knock on the door snapped both hunters out of their trains of thought, turning their heads as Sam stepped into the room, cradling his laptop in his arm.
    "Come in, I guess." Pax remarked, shrugging the blanket off their shoulders as Sam sat down in a nearby chair. "I guess this means you found something?"
    Sam nodded. "I talked to Dean and Cas about it," he responded, "and we think we're dealing with Hans Trapp."
    "Who?" Jack asked.
    "Hans Trapp, it's part of a German folk tale." The man repeated, looking between him and Pax. "He's a scarecrow that scares young children into doing their chores and being nice for the year... Basically another Anti-Claus. All of our evidence points towards this thing."
    "But if it's German, what is this thing doing in a dead-end town in North Dakota?" Pax wondered. "And why is it going as far as killing these kids?"
    Sam shook his head a little, "We're not sure." He admitted. "But we know how to kill it, and that's really all that matters. Burning branch to the heart," He added, getting up from the chair as he folded his laptop shut. "Last place it was seen was a place on Greene street... Actually, that's the only place it's been seen. It's like the thing's going down that road, house-to-house... Dean and Cas are already in the car, we're gonna drive up and see if we can catch it before it gets to the next house."
    "All right. Looks like we've got another mystery on our hands." Pax snarked calmly, making their way to the motel door as Jack looked up at them in surprise.
    "I know that, that was from Scooby-Doo." He declared, following the older pair of hunters out of the room. "They said that in every episode I saw."
    Pax laughed softly, nodding. "Yes, Jack, it's from Scooby-Doo." They answered. As the trio left the old, worn-down motel room, Dean and Castiel had loaded into the front and back seats of the Impala, taking with them any extra supplies they thought they'd need for the case: Medical supplies, rations, etcetera.
Of course, the car was already on, and Dean was already loudly singing along to the song on his cassette tape, drumming the wheel with his hands to the beat. "You wanna settle down a little?" Sam suggested, flashing his brother a somewhat-playful look, as he and the pair behind him climbed into the car. "Save some of that energy for when we're killing this scarecrow?"
"Yeah, yeah..." Dean shook his head, glancing up at Pax and Jack in the rearview mirror as the two settled themselves in next to Castiel, the three of them as comfortable as they possibly could be in this tight situation. Turning down the music's volume, he added, "Everyone comfy?"
"No," said Pax.
"Not particularly." Castiel added softly.
"Perfect." Dean gave a nod, shifting the gear as the car began to roll out of the parking lot. The car fell into silence for a few moments, each hunter keeping their attention out the window, letting their mind wander, or think about the case they were about to complete and how they'd do it. The road outside the car was bumpy, occasionally jostling each member in their seat as Dean drove over a particularly large rock, or a small crater in the concrete. The sun had mostly dipped beneath the horizon, casting a yellow-pink glow on the buildings and partially giving the hunters a few buildings or people to look at.

    As the car began to approach Greene street, Sam broke the silence: "We should probably think a little bit about how we're going to handle this," he pointed out. "I mean, who stays back, who actually goes after the thing... Anyone wanna volunteer as tribute?"
    "I'll go." Pax offered, giving a passive shrug. "And... I'll take Dean with me, too." They added with a small smile, glancing forward at Dean, who seemed to shake his head in disapproval.
    "Always throwing me in the fire for the dangerous work, huh?" He joked lightly, glancing back at the hunter for a moment, before he quickly returned his attention to the road ahead of him. On the row of houses to the right of the Impala, the last house to be attacked was still taped off as a crime scene, giving them a clear view of which house would be next, according to the monster's pattern so far. As he parked the car next to the sidewalk, Dean turned himself around slightly and continued, "Lucky for you, I like the dangerous work. So what's the plan?"
    "Well," Sam spoke up, "I was thinking you two could go up to the house, go inside if you need to, and try to lure the thing outside. Cas, Jack, and I can stay behind here and get the burning branch ready, and once you've got it outside, we can corner it and kill it."
    "I like that plan." Jack agreed, looking around the car.
    "Alright, looks like everybody's on board." Dean said, opening the door as he heaved himself out with a small grunt. "You with me or what?" He called over his shoulder to his fellow hunter, who was in the process of climbing out of the car as well.
    "Yeah, yeah, don't get too excited to stab a scarecrow." Pax answered, standing up from the Impala as they shifted their shoulders a bit. Hugging their jacket close to their chest against the brisk wind, they followed Dean around to the side of the house, as the pair could hear the remaining three hunters begin to get ready somewhere behind him. The house in question certainly wasn't anything impressive, it was almost identical to every house around it as far as the eye could see, with a white picket fence, double doors, and a near massive front lawn and backyard for kids to play on. This was such a model image of a friendly suburban neighbourhood, it was hard to believe anything or anyone would want to hurt the people living here.
    But, it wasn't their job to decide who deserved it or not, it was their job to kill off the monsters that seemed to want to decide that on their own. Pax watched Dean curiously as the man peered into the backyard of the house, looking over the fence in an attempt to find means of getting inside. "You know, worst-case-scenario, we can just kick the front door down." Pax pointed out, flashing Dean a small grin. "You and I both know you love doing that."
    Dean huffed, shaking his head as he stepped away from the fence. "Yeah, I do..." He agreed. "But let's try and keep damage costs to a minimum here, yeah? We don't have to kill the thing inside the house this time, so we don't have to destroy everything on our way through."
    "You make a good point." Pax admitted, dipping their head as they decided to give Dean that win. He was a pretty talented hunter, they had to admit, and they'd found themselves enjoying their time with Dean more than when they were with another hunter. Maybe it was bias, maybe it had to do with something else, but Pax didn't want to question it, and instead enjoy the friendship they did have with the hunter.
    "'Course I do, I make the best points." Dean agreed, shooting a cocky grin at Pax, who rolled their eyes and looked away. Turning his head, he could see his brother and the pair of angels standing outside the Impala, Sam clutching a long, thin pine branch in one hand, and a box of matches in the other. "Any minute now, this bastard could pop up at any time... Maybe we should head inside the house, just in case this is more of a 'silent killer' deal?"
    "No... No, let's not risk it." Pax said. "I don't want the adults coming after us, we don't know if they're still awake or not." They pointed out, nodding a gesture back to the house. "Let's just go in once we know for sure it's in there."
Dean thought about what they'd said for a few seconds, then nodded, shrugging his shoulders a bit. "Yeah, that's true." He said. "See? This is why we take you along with us, you're the smart one."
Pax looked up, smiling a little. "Not Sam?" They asked.
"Sam's pretty smart n' all, yeah, but... He's mopey." Dean explained, earning a soft laugh from Pax. "But you? You're always so positive about everything, it's a nice change from the doom-and-gloom attitude everyone else has... Well, maybe not Jack, but you get the point."
Pax was still smiling ear-to-ear as they listened to Dean, crossing their arms over their chest. He was rambling. About them. And it was adorable. Dean didn't tend to lose his cool all that often, let alone start rambling to himself about another person, perhaps in front of that person in question. They couldn't help listening to him, who would?
Suddenly, Dean stopped. "Wait... You hear that?" He asked, looking up to the top floor of the house. Pax hadn't heard it, probably because they were too busy listening to Dean, and was surprised the man had even heard anything with how much he was talking to himself. Now they were both looking up, suspicion written on their faces as they listened again for the sound. It came very clearly the second time; A single thump, and then gentle rustling, as if someone was moving around in the upstairs bedroom. Someone not entirely human, judging by the sound of the rustling specifically.
    "Alright, we'd better find that way in, and fast." Pax said, following close behind as Dean decided to hop the backyard fence. As the two landed on the grass with a huff, Dean wasted no time as he made his way to the rear door, pulling a few objects from his pocket as he began to pick the lock open.
    "Can't you do that any faster?" Pax remarked, looking up as the noises rang out again, louder this time.
    "I'm moving as fast as I can." Dean shot back in a grunt. "If I try and do this any faster, I'll break the damn thing."    "Alright, alright, just... Don't dawdle." They pleaded, shaking their head a little. "I'm getting worried about that kid upstairs."
    With a click, Dean shoved his materials away and pushed the door open, leaning inside to look around for any adults. "Alright, the coast is clear." He hissed over his shoulder, taking a wary step into the house. Pax was next, looking around at the kitchen they appeared to be in: It was far too dark to see much, but as their eyes began to adjust, Pax could pick out things like cupboards, the oven, a counter... But it wasn't what mattered right now.
    "We need to find some stairs." They whispered back.
    "Right." Dean nodded curtly, stepping as softly as he possibly could as the pair explored the house. Turning a corner, they'd left the kitchen and found themselves in the living room of the house, with a stairwell only slightly visible on the opposite end of the room. With another nodding head gesture, Dean ushered his partner to the stairwell, taking a gun from the waistband of his pants as they crept up the stairs, holding it up in a ready position.
    Pax soon followed suit as they reached the top, holding their gun up as they looked around for the child's bedroom. The dimly-lit hallway's walls were littered with picture frames, and right next to the top of the stairs was clearly the master bedroom, made obvious by the large bed visible through the crack in the door.
    That left them with the bathroom in the middle of the hallway, and the second bedroom on the opposite end. Dean waved his hand, urging Pax to follow him as he walked near-silently towards the bedroom door. Pushing it open further, he and Pax could see a little boy in his bed in the corner of the room, curled up, and supposedly asleep.
    However, almost at the exact second the door had been pushed open, the boy seemed to stir slightly — Before suddenly sitting upright as he let out a shrill, blood-curdling scream.
    Not at the hunters, he wasn't even looking at the door. He was looking at the wall across from him, and as Dean and Pax rushed in, they could see the scarecrow, so tall that its head grazed the ceiling, and with long, claw-like hands bared to attack. "Hey, you giant bastard, over here!" Dean shouted, firing a shot at the creature. The bullet landed in its chest, and while the scarecrow reeled back, in what seemed to be either pain or alarm, it didn't do much actual damage. But Dean had succeeded with his original plan in firing the gun, as the scarecrow, in a sudden fit of rage, began stomping across the bedroom and storming towards the pair, crushing littered-out toys beneath it as it moved.
    "Time to go, time to go..." Pax mumbled, turning heel and making their way quickly back towards the stairwell. Dean wasn't far behind, and the scarecrow seemed to be right on his tail as they hurried down the stairs, and they could hear a pair of deeper screams as the parents were now awake, likely seeing the scarecrow as it flew down the stairs after the hunters.
    Running back into the kitchen and out the back door, Dean and Pax expertly climbed back over the fence, just barely dodging the creature as it barrelled right through the wood. "Sam, now!" Dean shouted, though his brother was already rushing towards the scarecrow with the burning branch in his hand.
    As Dean and Pax had to dodge him, too, Sam was behind the distracted scarecrow within seconds, piercing it in the middle with the long branch. At once, it threw its head back in an ear-piercing scream, one that had all three hunters slouched over in pain, with her hands pressed tightly against their ears. The scarecrow burst into flames, beginning to crumple apart into the ground as its scream soon died out, and by the hunters were able to collect themselves again, it was nothing more than a pile of straw on the grass.
    "Well..." Dean looked between Sam and Pax, giving a small shrug. "I guess that went as well as we could've hoped."
    "If that's the bar, I guess we can go home happy." Sam agreed calmly, dusting himself off a little as he looked back to the road. "C'mon, Jack and Cas are waiting back at the car."

    After the excitement of the case, everyone found themselves back where they'd started in the town: Back at the motel, although in the same room this time around. The plan was to sleep in Minot for the night, then make their way back to Kansas in the morning, since there wasn't exactly any rush to get back to the bunker. Once again, Pax was curled up in their bed with the blanket cloaking them, with Jack sitting cross-legged in his own, his eyes glued to the TV. And while Sam was pacing idly around the room, Dean and Castiel seemed to be having a conversation about how the recent hunt had gone, and if there was anything that could've been done different to better it. Perhaps not destroying the family's fence was part of that.
    "Hey, I've got an idea." Dean then spoke, turning away from the angel as he looked around the room. "Why don't we do a Secret Santa before we leave town?"
    "A... Secret Santa?" Jack echoed, tilting his head slightly to the side. "What's that?"
    "It's a gift-giving thing," Sam explained, "basically, we'd each get the name of a person we need to buy a gift for, but nobody gets to know who each gift is going to until we actually hand them out."
    "Kind of chick-flicky of you to suggest, Dean." Pax added in a taunt.
    "Shut up." He sneered back. "I'm serious, guys, why not? It'll be fun, and these two haven't ever really had a Christmas before," he pointed out, gesturing to Jack and Castiel respectively. "So it'll be perfect for them."
    Sam looked around the room for a second or two, then shrugged, giving a small nod. "Yeah, I don't see why not." He agreed, his reaction creating a small chain of nods amongst the hunters. "No harm in staying in town for another day or two to have some fun. 'Tis the season, I guess."
    "How are we doing this 'Secret Santa,' then?" Castiel asked with a squint, straightening himself in his seat a little.
    "Draw names from a bowl." Pax suggested, shrugging the blanket off their shoulders as they got up from the bed. "There's some paper and a pen here, and I'm pretty sure the kitchen cabinets actually have dishes in them. Better than trying to find a hat, I guess."
    "It's not traditional, but we make do." Dean agreed, walking to the kitchen to pick out a bowl, as Pax began sketching down the names of the people in the room. He stopped at a cabinet door, opening it up as he blindly took a bowl out, waving it in the air behind him. "Will this do?" He called.
    "Whatever it is, I'm sure it's fine." Pax answered boredly, writing down the last name as they began ripping up the paper, giving each name its own square of paper to reside on. As they started folding the names in half, they added, "Ready with the bowl?"
    "All ready." He answered, holding the bowl up as Pax started dropping the slips of paper in. Once they were done and had stepped back, Dean shook the bowl a bit, shuffling the papers up before he held it out to the rest of the room. "Okay, everyone pick a piece of paper, just one." As the remaining four hunters shuffled up to the bowl, picking out little slips of paper before walking back, Dean took a quick look around the room, making sure everyone had one before he picked out the last one for himself.
    "I got Castiel." Jack announced curiously.
    "Jack— No," Dean groaned, shaking his head as Sam and Pax started laughing, all while Jack looked around, wondering if he'd done something wrong.
    "You weren't supposed to tell us who you got, that's the 'secret' part." Pax explained, still giggling to themselves about it, as Jack let out a quiet "Oh" and glanced back down at his slip of paper.
    "Alright, everyone, names back in." Dean instructed, ignoring the groan of annoyance from the others as he collected back the papers. Soon enough, thankfully, everyone was unfolding their new slips of paper and silently acknowledging who they'd be buying a gift for. This included Jack, this time having glanced down at the name, gasping, then holding the paper close to his chest.
    Dean looked around the room for a second or two, watching the others react to their own discoveries, before unfolding and glancing down at his own. Once he read the name, however, he almost couldn't believe what he was reading. It was almost an act of witchcraft that Pax's name was presented back to him, and no matter how many times he read it over, the letters stayed the same. He glanced up, trying to see if they'd noticed his reaction, but Pax wasn't even paying attention to him, having started a conversation with Sam after they both knew who their Secret Santas were. How would he even go about buying a gift for them?
    "Well, since it's too late to do any shopping now, I say we turn in." He spoke up, gesturing a quick nod towards Sam, who noticed and joined Dean at the door. "Cas, Jack, what are you two doing?"
    "I like this show." Jack answered with a small smile, looking back towards the TV. "I'm gonna keep watching it, it's fun."
    "Just make sure the volume isn't too loud for Pax to sleep." Castiel reminded the Nephilim, earning a grateful glance from the hunter as they curled back up under the blankets. "I guess I'll... Watch the television in here as well. If that's all right with you two."
    Pax nodded, as did Jack. "I don't have a problem with it." Pax answered, lifting their head up from the pillow for a moment.
    "Well, Sam and I are gonna head next door, get some shut-eye, too." Dean continued, as he opened the door for him and his brother to leave. "Anything goes wrong, don't make too much noise. I need my beauty sleep." He added sarcastically, as Sam closed the door shut on their way out.

    Early in the morning a couple of days later, Dean had driven out with Sam to the town's superstore, both with the intention of buying gifts for their own respective Secret Santa. Truthfully, nobody would have expected many stores in this town to have well-known names, and yet here they were, standing in the middle of your average, every-day Walmart, wondering where they should be going first. "All right, well... I guess I have an idea of where I'm going." Sam admitted slowly, having spoken to a blue-vested worker with too wide of a smile. "We'll meet back here in half an hour?"
    "Yeah, sounds good." Dean nodded, looking around for a second or two himself, before he and Sam both parted ways and left in their own directions. The man found himself walking towards the clothing section of the store first, although he had no idea what kind of clothes Pax would like, let alone how to shop for clothes for somebody else at all. He knew what kind of clothes Pax wore on a near-daily basis, but what would they appreciate receiving from him? Something they could wear to sleep? Something they wouldn't mind getting dirty in the middle of a case?
Deciding a clothing item probably wasn't the best idea, Dean moved on to another aisle, one with short shelves that mainly sold jewelry and other accessories. Pax occasionally had tried to wear earrings, and occasionally wore things like bracelets or necklaces. But after taking a quick look through what jewelry the store was offering, and deciding everything would end up being way too romantic, he had to move on from that section of the store as well, and soon found himself wandering a bit aimlessly.
It wasn't long before Dean realized he had no idea what he was doing here, something that very likely would have been obvious to anyone else a while ago. He'd bought Christmas gifts for Sam before, so why was Pax any different now? ...Well, there were actually a lot of reasons that he could think of why they were different, but it wasn't something he wanted to focus on right now, or else he'd end up walking into someone else.
Scanning the store around him that he could see at the moment, Dean soon spotted a store employee, hurrying to catch up with the young man before he walked away. At the end of the day, if anyone knew how to shop for— Well, a close friend like Pax, it would be someone paid to know the answers. He tapped on the smaller man's shoulders, and the employee spun around, curly hair bouncing as he flashed Dean one of those too-wide smiles. "Hi, can I help you?" He asked.
"Yeah, listen," Dean murmured, squinting down at the employee's name tag. "...Russel. I'm here gift-shopping for a good friend of mine, but, uh... I don't know where to start." He admitted.
"Well, are they really a good friend if you don't even know what to get them for Christmas?" He teased, laughing a little. When Dean held a stern, and now frustrated expression, he cleared his throat and continued, "What kind of things do they like?"
Dean thought for a few seconds on the question, giving a shrug as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Well... I see them collect knick-knacks a lot." He explained. "You know, little figurines that collect dust in your grandma's house?"
"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. We've got some snow globes in the back if you'd like to take a look?" Russel offered, gesturing with a thumb over his shoulder to, what Dean couldn't see and had to assume, where a store room was. "We haven't stocked them yet, but snow globes are a staple gift at this time of year. To someone who likes to display, they're a nice way to say, 'I care,' you know?"
"Uh... Yeah, I guess." Dean answered, begrudgingly following the young man, as he turned and sped off towards the room in mention. "Why aren't they out yet if they're so popular?"
"We just stocked today, but that's all I can tell you. Not a stock guy, not my problem!" Russel threw over his shoulder, with a sense of humour in his tone that seemed to put Dean at ease a little. "You must feel pretty lucky right now, huh? Getting the first pick at the brand new globes."
"Yeah, I'm ecstatic." Dean grunted back, rolling his eyes to the sky as they entered the stock room. It was pretty huge, another surprise for such a small town. The atmosphere wasn't all that inviting, however, with a stone grey theme lacing the walls and floors. But then again, customers weren't exactly meant to be back here. The massive room was brightly lit, and freezing cold, for that matter, as Dean found himself pulling his jacket tighter against his chest, in an attempt to shield himself from the icy gust of wind that greeted him at the door. As Russel walked further in, Dean stopped a few paces away from a ceiling-high shelf, stacked with several boxes that not even God knew were filled with.
"The smaller snow globes are just in the back. You just wanted a small one, right?" Russel asked. Dean gave him a quick nod, seeing a call from Sam start to come in on his cell phone, and he turned around to answer it as the employee hurried off into the room.
"Miss me already?" He spoke, grinning to himself. "What's up?"
"We've got a problem." Sam responded, as Dean's face fell a little in confusion. "Hans Trapp, that creepy scarecrow we just killed?"
"Yeah?"
"It just killed another kid last night."
"What?" Dean blurted out — A little louder than he'd wanted, as he had to take a glance around and make sure nobody had heard him. "What?" He repeated, quieter. "How's that possible? I saw you stab it, it... Scorched into nothing, you saw that."
"I don't know. Pax just texted me the news, and the description of the murder fits exactly with what this thing did." Sam explained. "You know, we never cleaned up what was left of it when we were done, it left that pile of straw on the grass when we left. Maybe it has something to do with that, I mean, maybe we had to actually burn the remains, too?"
"Something doesn't seem right about this, Sammy." Dean responded, frowning as he pressed his cell phone to his ear. "I've got a bad feeling this has more to it than just, you know, not burning remains..."
    Dean suddenly froze, hearing loud, swift footsteps race up from behind him: Ignoring the response from Sam, he spun around, reaching for his gun as he dropped his phone. Unfortunately, his attacker was just a split second faster, and before he knew it, he'd been clubbed in the side of the head with a blunt object of some sort. He tumbled to the ground, already feeling the world around him fade out as he tried to get a glance at his attacker, before consciousness finally slipped from him and he slumped down further.
    "Dean?" Sam called from the other end of the line. "Dean, are you there?"

    As Dean slowly began to come to again, blinking away the dizziness and groaning at the searing pain in the side of his head, he looked around the room, his eyes adjusting to the darkness as he quickly remembered what'd happened before he went under. He tugged against the restraints holding him in place, tugging until he could almost feel the rope cut through his skin, before he settled down a little and got a better look at the room he was in.
    It was clearly someone's basement, that was obvious by the window near the ceiling, which also revealed that it was past dark by now, another terrifying thought that settled deep in his chest. The basement was littered with what seemed like boxes, furniture, and other items covered up by dark blankets, casting shadows against the wall that only slightly revealed what a few of the items were. He could see a broken down washer-and-dryer against the wall opposite from him, which seemed to be mostly used for spare parts at this point.
    Getting a better feel of his restraints, Dean was seated on the ground, tied up to one of the four foundational pillars in the middle of the room, his wrists and ankles tied up with nothing more than cheap rope. He knew he could cut through it within a minute, if that, if he could just find his pocket knife...
    Before he could search much, Dean jumped a little as a door suddenly slammed upstairs somewhere, hearing footsteps begin to approach the basement door. It swung open, and as the footsteps hurried down the stairs, he was nothing short of shocked to see the Walmart employee from earlier. "Russel?" He spat out.
    Russel glanced down at Dean on his way by to the other side of the room, clutching a black plastic bag in his one hand, as he looked genuinely surprised to see the man awake, let alone talking to him. "Hm? Yeah?" He answered.
    Dean flashed the younger man a glare, shaking his head in disbelief. "What the hell are you doing, man? What happened to selling snow globes early and not having to stock the shelves?" He demanded. "My head hurts like a bitch."
    "Sorry, sorry. I was sorta running out of resources." Russel admitted honestly. "...Oh, by the way, you might've been looking for this." He added, fishing something out of his pocket, soon revealing Dean's missing pocket knife as he held it up slightly in the air. "I was gonna let you keep it, of course, I don't like taking things that don't belong to me. But, you know..." As he slid it on the ground towards the man, he finished, "Couldn't have you breaking free."
    "Why are you doing this, kid?" Dean grunted.
    "Why? Well, because, you're a hunter." Russel answered, making Dean tilt his head up in surprise. "And you're a Winchester, so pretty much one of the best hunters around. I didn't want you getting in the way of anything... Which you already have, so thanks for that, I guess."
    Dean shook his head, glaring daggers up at the young man. "No way."
    Russel only gave him a small, hesitant nod, as he pulled a blanket off one of the piles of furniture: Revealing it to not be furniture at all, but rather a dust-covered dark altar, fit with a black book open to a spell page in the middle. Setting down his bag next to it, he continued, "I'm not doing this for me ...Well, I sort-of am, it was my idea, but I'm not doing it out of selfishness or anything. I'm doing it because I'm tired of the kids in this town acting like spoiled brats all the time, especially around the time of year where they just get free toys handed out to them. You get where I'm coming from, don't you, Dean?"
    "Well, hey, I like kids just as much as the next guy... Not much." Dean responded slowly, before shaking his head as he wondered why he was even humouring this. "But that doesn't mean you get to kill them, man. Kids aren't supposed to be grateful, they're supposed to enjoy this part of life where everything's a hand-out—"
    Russel held his index finger up slightly, interrupting Dean. "Let me cut you off there... I'm not killing kids!" He defended himself, taking a long grill lighter from the shelf next to him, as he began lighting up the long, thin candles littered around his altar. "Wait, just wait, you're gonna love this..."
    "I know where this is going." Dean grumbled, watching silently as Russel finished setting up, taking a small amulet-like object from his back pocket as he placed it down on the open page.
    "You do? ...Yeah, I guess you did meet him already." Russel agreed, picking up his bag again as he turned back around to face Dean. Turning it over and dumping out the contents, it turned out to be a pile of straw, very likely the remains Dean and the other hunters had left behind. "You beat him up pretty good back there... But, hey, I forgive you. It's easy to fix."
    Dean shook his head, looking down at his pocket knife on the ground, as he now focused on trying to reach it with his feet. "Lucky me." He grunted back boredly.
    "Dean, I'm not the bad guy here." Russel pleaded, piling up the straw nicely before he turned back to his altar. "Or, at least, I don't think I am. Can't be the good guy in everybody's story, right? ...Anyway, I think what I'm doing here will really change things for the better for this town. I mean, a scarecrow that goes around killing kids who've been bad this year? That'll make everyone shape up in no time, and pretty soon, I'll actually be able to enjoy my job."
    "I thought you already liked it? Snow-globe-selling freak..." He murmured.
    "I like my job when I don't have to deal with kids all the time." Russel retorted. "Yeah, you know why we ran out of snow globes so fast? ...Because kids keep coming in and breaking them, and we all know the parents aren't doing anything about it! I'm telling you, once this story settles in, things are gonna be really good around here..."
    "Alright, I've had about enough of your soap opera." Dean interrupted, as Russel turned around again, in what seemed to be genuine confusion. "Listen, I'll cut you a deal. If you let me go right now and stop sicking the Scarecrow of Oz after people, I'll only pound your skull for a little bit."
    "Scarecrow of Oz, that's a good one!" Russel laughed, turning back around to face his altar. "You know, I don't think he actually had a name, I think it was just 'Scarecrow...'" As Dean groaned in defeat, Russel squinted down at his page slightly, reading off the old, foreign spell that was written there. "Ab altera te accerso, clamavi ad te de terra ficta, servicio meo et dimittam te ut vitae."
    With the words spoken, the pile of straw began to shift and rouse slightly, before suddenly sprouting up from the ground as it began to take form, into that of the long-clawed scarecrow Dean recognized all too well. "See? This is the culprit for all that kid-killing that's been going around, not me." Russel explained, though Dean was mostly ignoring him at this point, his gaze fixed on the scarecrow's dead-eyed, all-too-creepy expression. "Pretty nifty, isn't he? I mean, I like him."
    Russel suddenly looked up, apparently hearing something upstairs that Dean missed, though it wasn't long before the bound-up man was looking up at the ceiling as well, silently hoping it was his fellow hunters here to help. "I'm... Gonna go check that out." He said, walking hurriedly to the stairs, though he quickly spun around and pointed at the scarecrow. "You! Make sure he doesn't go anywhere."
    As the scrawny man quickly jogged up the stairs, the scarecrow shuffled a few steps, turning to stare at Dean dead-on. Considering reaching his pocket knife didn't work, all Dean could do was try to tug out of his restraints, and try not to stare the thing in the face for too long.
    Surprisingly, a few minutes into this patch of boredom, Dean found his attention drawn to the ceiling, as he could hear some kind of struggle start upstairs. Russel was clearly trying to fight someone off from the basement door, but it wasn't until he heard Sam call out that Dean started pulling at his ropes again. "Down here, Sammy!" He shouted, growling to himself as he struggled to get himself free.
Making himself known seemed to be what the group needed to fight through the younger man, as the next thing Dean saw was, rather satisfyingly, Russel flying down the stairs, landing at the bottom with a harsh thud. The familiar band of hunters rushed down a second or two later, Pax rushing up to free Dean, as Castiel and Jack hovered over the crumpled man, making sure he didn't move.
"Sam, the necklace, on that book!" Dean instructed, ripping his hands free as soon as the rope was loose, as he began to untie his ankles. "I think it's letting him control the—"
"Kill them!" Russel cried.
At once, the scarecrow sprang from its inactive state, turning slowly to face Sam, before it suddenly began stomping towards him and the altar at a terrifying fast pace. In a panic, Sam threw the necklace onto the ground, smashing it as soon as it hit the concrete.
Russel's face dropped in horror as the scarecrow came to a halt, and Castiel ushered Jack to stand back as it slowly turned its attention to the young man on the floor. "No... No, no, I can fix this..." He spluttered out, panicking more as the creature made its way lazily across the room. As if it could understand him, he continued desperately, "Please, don't do this, I don't wanna die! I—"
The next thing the hunters heard was Russel's stomach-wrenching cry of agony, followed by the guttural sounds of the scarecrow ripping him to shreds, as each hunter had to turn their heads and shield themselves from the horrible sight. Once it decided it was done with the poor man, the scarecrow itself began to crumble in on itself, returning again to nothing but a pile of straw on the basement floor.
"That was..." Castiel shook his head, returning his gaze to what was left of the superstore employee. "That could have gone better."
"Hey, it was bloody, but I consider that a win." Dean replied, grunting as Pax helped him up from the ground. "How the hell did you guys find me, anyway?"
"Well, Sam told us about the call you guys were on that got cut off." Pax explained, looking around the room a little as they spoke. "He went outside and saw that guy dragging you to his car, so he followed him here... Had to wait for all of us to show up before we could actually bust in, though."
"What happened to you, Dean?" Jack asked. "How did that guy get you here?"
"Well, he took me into the back room of the store to look for something for me to buy, and... He came up behind me, clubbed me in the back of the head." Dean responded, shaking his head a little as he tried to recall the events from earlier. "...Hey, speaking of gifts. Did anyone actually do their Secret Santa?"
The atmosphere of the room seemed to get awkward, and after a quick exchange of glances, the overall answer seemed to be 'no.' "Alright, yeah, kind of figured..." Dean laughed a little. "Let's just drive back to Kansas."
"What about the body?" Sam asked. "Are we just gonna leave him here?"
"I mean, I don't see why not." Pax pointed out calmly. "We're ditching, and there's not exactly any evidence we were ever here."
"Pretty creepy, coming from you." Dean retorted, being the first to make a move towards the stairs as he soon followed Castiel and Jack up. "Remind me not to get on your bad side." He added over his shoulder.

Early the next morning, so early that it was still pitch black out, Dean kept heavy eyes on the road as they drove along the road back to Kansas. Sam and Pax were asleep in their respective seats, and while Jack was beginning to doze off as well, Castiel was, of course, still wide awake. It was pretty peaceful, considering what they'd all just been through and what they had to witness, but that was usually the case when it came to the obligatory ride home.
The ground outside was thinly coated in snow, the weather having calmed down not too long ago after a snowstorm, something Dean was reasonably afraid to drive through. Looking to his left, he noticed something beyond the bridge that caught his eye, and— Knowing he would get a worthy reaction out of it, stomped down on the brake pedal. The action caused everyone in the car to fall forward a little bit, except for Dean himself, of course, who'd been expecting it. Waking up the three sleepy passengers, he was now met with his brother glaring down at him from his height. "Dean, what the hell?"
"There's a frozen lake out there." Dean answered nonchalantly.
"A frozen lake?" Pax echoed sarcastically. "Oh, wow. Let's just drop everything, then."
"We should go skate on it." He continued seriously.
"Skate?" Castiel asked. "Dean, we don't have any skating equipment on us..."
Dean looked over his shoulder at the angel, giving a shrug. "Who cares?" He pointed out. "Let's have a little bit of fun before we get back to work in the morning. Why not? We're not in any hurry."
"Okay, but you also realize it's two in the morning, right?" Pax added.
"Yes, thank you. I'm aware." He shot back, turning off the car as he climbed out from his side. "For anyone who's worried, you'll be able to go back to your beauty sleep once we get bored."
"You sure the lake's even solid enough for all of us on it?" Sam called from the other side of the car. "I mean, I don't think you wanna drive around in Baby soaking wet..."
"Oh, yeah, I'm sure. It's freezing out here." He scoffed back, pausing next to the car as he waited for Pax to catch up to him. "You've got nothing to fear, Sammy. If anyone falls in, I'll personally dive in after and yank them out. Now you three go, I gotta talk to this one for a minute." He added, nodding a gesture towards Pax.
Sam cocked an eyebrow at Dean, then shrugged. "Tch. All right, if you say so." He responded, walking after Castiel and Jack as the three hopped over the highway gate.
Pax stood with Dean, both hunters leaned up against the side of the Impala as the two watched the remaining three make their way towards the lake. They felt their heart flutter in their chest at the idea of being with Dean alone, but pushed those thoughts down for now and tried to act cool about it. "You gotta talk to me, huh?" They then spoke up, flashing Dean a small smile. "Real smooth, Winchester."
Dean turned his attention to Pax, giving them a smile that nearly made them melt then and there. "I'm just gonna get straight to the point and not dance around the issue here." He said, shoving his hands into his coat pockets. "I've been thinking about you a lot lately, and I think we should start hanging out more often, just the two of us... You know, without the three stooges tagging along." He nodded back to the three on the icy lake, where Sam was keeping himself busy by trying to teach the angels how to balance on the ice. And failing, as it wasn't long before all of them were trying not to topple and fall over.
Pax laughed a little at the sight ahead of them, nodding a little as well as they looked back to Dean after a moment. "Yeah, I'd like that." They agreed softly. "...I don't know how secretive you thought you were being, but it was a little obvious that you like me."
"Shuddap." Dean sneered back playfully, pushing himself off the car with a smile as Pax laughed again. "C'mon, let's get down there before somebody kills himself."
"I'm right behind you." They promised, following the man as the two of them climbed over the highway railing, trudging through the snow and towards the frozen lake. Deciding to use the last moment or two they had to themselves, Pax spoke up again, "Hey, Dean?"
"Hmm?"
Pax grinned. "Did you suggest that whole Secret Santa thing, just so you'd be able to come up with something like this in the end?"
"Did I get kidnapped by a creepy four-eyes over a snow globe just to make you go ice-skating? No, I can't say that I did." Dean answered, chuckling a little as Pax gave him a playful nudge. "Hey, I can see the ice cracking under Jack's feet!" He called, laughing again as the men seemed to panic for a split second, before coming to the conclusion that Dean was just being an asshole. As usual.