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Finding a mummy in Kansas was just weird. Sam didn’t know much mummy lore, at least not mummies-as-monsters lore. He knew quite a bit about Egyptian burial customs. He didn’t believe this was a real mummy. It showing up around the time haunted houses were starting to set up for Halloween made it far more likely that it was a fake monster. A prop, hopefully, rather than an actor who’d gotten taken over, but still.
Whatever it really was didn’t matter right now. Three teenagers had been dragged off already, one every other night from the same general area at the same general time. Now Sam was hanging around the area, hoping the mummy would show. It was due. Dean and Castiel were there, too, in different parts of the area.
Sam was the one to hear the scream, and he ran toward it. The mummy had a teenage girl cornered in an alley, cowering behind a dumpster, and was advancing on her at a shamble. Sam fired off a prayer to his angel and ran forward. “Hey! Ugly! Over here! Leave her, take me instead!”
The mummy looked over, but didn’t turn away from the girl. “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmhhh?”
“Yeah, I’m talking to you, you don’t want her, she’s too small. You need a big guy! Like me!” Sam advanced toward the mummy. “Come on, let her go.”
The mummy turned toward Sam and started shambling his way toward him. “UGHHHHHHHHUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
The girl took off running, and made it past the mummy without getting caught. Sam breathed a sigh of relief and then drew his gun. He took aim at the mummy. Bullets wouldn’t kill it, he didn’t think, but it was worth a try if he needed it while he waited on Dean and Castiel.
“Wait! Don’t shoot!” Castiel flew to put himself between Sam and the mummy. Sam lowered the gun; it wouldn’t hurt Castiel if Sam shot him, but it would be inconvenient and a waste of bullets. Castiel reached out and put two fingers to the mummy’s forehead, dropping it instantly. “Are you all right? Is there anyone else hurt?”
“No, there was a girl here who’s gonna have nightmares for a while but she got away safely. I got here before the mummy even touched her.” Castiel nodded and squatted beside the mummy. Sam crouched beside him. “Any idea what’s going on?”
“You were right about it being a cursed object rather than a true Egyptian mummy, but this isn’t a prop. Do you have a knife?” Castiel held out his hand expectantly.
Sam, naturally, did. He took out the demon-killing knife and handed it to Castiel. “What is it?”
“There’s a human inside these bandages.” Castiel cut through the outer layers over the person’s face, peeling the bandages away. “I know you’d never forgive yourself if we didn’t at least try to save him. I’m glad I got here in time.”
The person’s face came into view. His eyes were closed, and he didn’t flinch as Castiel’s knife cut through bandages over his neck. It could be just the remnant of Castiel dropping him, but it could be so much worse, too. “Is he alive?”
“He is,” Castiel confirmed. “The curse has put him in a sort of trance. Once we get these bandages off, he should awaken. It’s likely he will remember nothing of this attack.”
“So the bandages are cursed? Is there a particular order that we have to uncover the body?” Sam pulled out his pocketknife. It would be slower, but it would work.
“I don’t believe so. Be careful not to cut him.”
Sam nodded and started cutting from the feet up. He had just finished freeing a leg when Dean came up. “We dissecting corpses now?”
“No. We’re removing a cursed item from an innocent victim,” Castiel replied, squinting at Dean. “Can you get salt and a lighter, so that we can burn the bandages?”
“Yeah, sure, we gonna burn them right here?” Dean looked around. It was a reasonably secluded alley, but still, a fire might attract attention.
“I can cause people not to notice us,” Castiel said. “If we burn the bandages here, there’s less chance that we lose a piece in transport and fail to break the curse.”
“Good thinking.” Dean took off. Sam and Castiel continued to work on cutting off the bandages. They’d cut through the front by the time Dean got back, and Castiel carefully lifted the person inside.
Two things happened. The man awakened and started screaming. The bandages rose up reaching for him. Sam jumped between the bandages and Castiel. The bandages were just about to envelop him when he felt something soft and powerful in front of him. He couldn’t see anything, but he could see the bandages hitting an invisible barrier and stopping short. Frustrated, they pounded against the barrier, slamming into it again and again.
Dean wasted no time when he got back, pouring salt over the bandages and lighting his lighter. Sam backed away from the fire, and Dean quickly figured out to get behind the invisible barrier. Once the bandages were entirely burned, Dean turned to face Sam. “Dude. I don’t know what this is protecting us, but it was the only thing between us and becoming a Japanese cartoon.”
“Dean.” Dean just grinned unapologetically. Sam rolled his eyes and turned to Castiel and the mummy’s victim. “Are you all right? What do you remember?”
“Last thing I remember, I was getting in costume for the first night of the haunted house I work at. Next thing I know there’s some dude grabbing me and another dude with a knife standing over me and bandages lunging at me. What the hell is going on?”
“Those bandages were cursed. They took you over and used your body to do some bad things,” Dean said. “I don’t suppose you have any idea where the missing teenagers would have been taken?”
“No. No! What missing teenagers?” The guy went pale, looking between the three of them. “Are you saying I hurt people? I swear, I don’t remember any of it!”
“You didn’t hurt anyone,” Sam reassured him. “Your body was taken over by some sort of spirit, and they used it to take people. We don’t know if they’ve been hurt or not. They’re just missing. No one but the people in this alley know it was you inside the mummy, and none of us will tell anyone. As far as anyone else is concerned, you’re just the mummy’s first abduction victim.”
“So… can I go? Get home to my family?”
“Yeah, go on, get out of here,” Dean said. Once he was gone, Dean shook his head. “Any chance we find the other victims alive?”
“We have to try,” Sam said. “What was that protecting us, Cas?”
“Exactly what you’re thinking it was,” Castiel said, and Sam smiled. Even for his life, being sheltered from cursed mummy bandages by an angel’s wing was a weird day. “We should get out of here ourselves. Start looking for victims.”
The victims wandered back over the next few hours, showing up at their homes. Their parents called Agent Perry to let him know. They had no memories of their abductions, meaning the first victim would fit right in. Sam flopped back on the motel room bed when he hung up from the last call. “We’re done. It’s over. Everyone lived.”
Castiel lay beside him, laying his head on Sam’s chest. “We need more of this kind of hunt, where everyone lives.”