I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE

Chapter One: Home To Kill

Glass crunched beneath Jenny's boots as she stepped inside the bunker, the sound immediately put her on edge. As far as she had been concerned the only person that would be in there was her younger brother, Sam. No one else had even set foot in there for over two months, and, as far as she knew, nothing other than the two of them had access to the place.

Silently, she lowered her duffel bag from her shoulder and placed it down beside the door before she took the gun from the back of her jeans and made her way down the stairs. There was mess everywhere she looked. Books and papers, weeks of research, had been thrown from the tables and scattered across the room, chairs had been knocked over and lamps had been smashed to the ground. It looked like a pretty intense fight had gone down while she had been gone.

"Hello?" she called out, her voice echoed off the cold and empty walls around her. There was no sign of anyone. "Sam?" she tried again, desperately praying that he was okay. "Sammy? You here?" Her held her breath for an answer but there wasn't one.

At two years younger than her, Sam made Jenny the middle child of him and Dean. And, like Dean, she had always taken on the older sibling responsibility to keep her younger brother safe. While she told herself she was the one who could keep her little brother safe, despite him being pretty much twice her size, a lot of the time he had been the one there to save her. They had always been close, but the past two months, especially with what had happened to Dean, they'd had to be there for each other more than ever before.

Jenny held a tighter grip of her gun and made her way down the hallway towards his room, not sure she was ready for what she might find there. Something caught her eye as she came towards the end of the corridor, there was blood on the floor beside her boot, and it looked fresh. Holding her breath she rounded the corner and stopped dead at the sight before her.

Sam lay on the floor in front of her, completely still. There was blood covering his grey t-shirt and face, he looked as though he had been beaten within an inch of his life. She dropped down to her knees beside him, momentarily forgetting everything else, and placed a hand to his neck. "Sam? Hey, can you hear me?" she felt a small pulse and sighed in relief, he was still alive. "Sammy?" she shook him as if she could will him back into consciousness. "Come on, please, wake up."

A loud smash from somewhere in the distance made her jump. Whatever had done that to Sam was still in there with them, she wasn't alone. Taking a short breath she grabbed her gun and cast one last glance at her brother before she continued her way inside, following the noise.

It was only as she came closer to it that she realised the commotion was coming from what had been Dean's room, before he had left. That pissed her off even more. If breaking in there and trying to murder Sam hadn't done it, breaking into Dean's room had sealed it, whatever was on the other side of that door was dead.

She nudged the slightly ajar door with her foot to open it further, giving her a better look inside. The room was trashed, and somewhere in the back of her mind she thought to herself how pissed off Dean would be at the mess, but she dismissed the notion and focused on what she was doing. There, standing with his back to her, was a man. It was someone she hadn't expected to see again, she wasn't sure what she thought had happened to him, she wasn't even sure that she had wanted to know, but there he was, standing right in front of her, her elder brother, Dean Winchester.

He turned at the sound of the door being opened and looked her up and down, taking in the gun aimed at him. All he did was smirk, as if the thought of her shooting him did nothing but amuse him.

Jenny narrowed her eyes at him because, sure, it was Dean, only something was different. He didn't even look like her brother anymore. Everything that made him Dean was gone. There was a dark and cold smile on his face that replaced the warmness he had once shown to her, the glimmer of his green eyes had gone, now dangerous in a way that she had never seen them look before. It was more than just the hunter within him, it was a clear darkness, something that hadn't been there before.

"Well, if it isn't little Jenny." he smirked down at her as she took a step forwards, the gun still focused on him. "Baby Jay." he pondered, giving a small chuckle. She clenched her jaw at the familiar nickname, shaking her head at him as if she could warn him not to provoke her without even opening her mouth. "Didn't hear you come in."

Jenny didn't know what to do, she didn't know what to think. Everything just seemed to stop for a moment, as if the world had stopped turning and it was just the two of them left staring at each other in silence.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked him, her voice was hard, but the fear came though clearly in her words. Nothing before had scared her as much as seeing Dean in the state he was in there.

Dean chuckled at the question and gave a half-hearted shrug. "Can't a guy come visit the family every once in a while?" he replied sarcastically.

Jenny tightened her hold of the gun, her finger hovering over the trigger, and took a step back, nothing but unnerved by him. But Dean just continued to smirk at her and closed the distance between them in one long stride. His eyes closed for a moment and then she saw him, she saw him for what he had truly become, she saw the evil in the blackness staring down at her.

She found herself backed into the wall with him seemingly towering over her. There was a malicious glint in his eyes that she knew was directed right for her, the same way she was sure it had been aimed at Sam earlier.

"Dean," her voice cracked a little at his name. She tried to look away from him but he simply moved closer and grabbed her face to force her to stare at him. "What the hell do you want?" she pushed out again through gritted teeth.

He reached down and took the gun, completely forgotten about, from her hand. "I came to cut off my connections." he told her quietly, his voice low in a way that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. He had never had her afraid of him before, but this was something new, this wasn't him.

A frown found its way to her brow, confused by his words. "You what?"

Dean shook his head as if she was stupid just for asking. "You think I don't know what you and Sam are doing here?" he asked incredulously, raising his eyebrows at her. "You think I haven't worked it out? I've seen all your damn research in there, Jennifer, I know. You're trying to find a way to turn me back. And I can't let that happen."

Jenny stared at him in disbelief. She could tell that he wasn't lying to her, it wasn't an act her was putting on, the man in front of her meant business. He meant what he said, he really did want them out of the picture. He wanted his brother and sister dead, purely for the reason that they wanted to keep him alive.

"Something's wrong with you, Dean." she managed to get out in a small whisper. She summoned what strength she had in her and shoved him hard in the chest to get him away from her but it did nothing, he remained where he stood. "Something's really broken in you."

"No," he shook his head in disagreement. "Nothing's wrong with me, Jenny." He finally moved back from her and threw the gun across the room in the direction of a desk. And then she had a sick thought, if he wasn't going to use a gun, he was going to use the blade to do it. "You see," he spoke lightly as he paced the room in front of her. "I'm finally who I'm supposed to be. I'm strong, stronger than I've ever been before." he looked back to her and grinned.

With an effortless flick of his wrist he had her thrown against the opposite wall. She hit it with a thud and fell down against the table beneath her, crashing through it before she hit the floor with a pained groan.

"See." he smirked as he stood over her. "You can't beat me, Jenny, neither of you can." he grabbed a firm hold of her blonde hair and pulled her up to face him. "Neither of you are a threat to me."

"Dean, come on, just think about what you're doing here," she struggled against his hold. "This isn't you."

Dean had never so much as said something to intentionally hurt her, and now he was throwing her across rooms and smashing her into furniture. That wasn't her brother, or was it? She didn't know who he was anymore. She didn't know what she was supposed to think. Everything in her wanted to deny it, but this time she knew it wasn't just a possession, there wasn't a demon in there to exorcise. Dean was just.. Bad.

He didn't say anything at first, just smiled. The darkness flickered in his eyes again before he threw her back into the wall, this time harder. Once again, she fell to the ground at his feet.

"You see, Jen, now that I don't have to worry about looking after you and Sam anymore, I'm free to do whatever the hell I like. And, let me tell you, there is nothing like it." he grinned as she pushed herself up to face him and punched her hard in the face, knocking her back into the wall. "Look at you, not even fighting back, are you? Guess I'm not the only one with something broken in me."

Jenny wiped the blood from her lip and shook her head, fighting the urge to cry. Dean had always been the one on her side, he had always had her back, he had always been the one she turned to when things got hard. And this time he hadn't been there, because he had been the exact reason she had been in the state where she needed someone there for her. He had been the one to cause her pain.

The first time she had seen the blackness in his eyes she had freaked, she hadn't known what to do. They had tried to exorcise the 'demon' in there, but nothing. And then he had just been gone. They couldn't hold him there, nothing could, he was too strong for both of them. And honestly, she had thought that would be the last time she saw him.

After he had gone things had been hard. There had been the nightmares and the initial desire to give up right there. She had taken the frustration out on violent hunts and whiskey, she had tried to silence the nightmares with vodka, but nothing had changed, it hadn't gotten better. And then Sam had tracked her down. He had turned her around and brought her back to the bunker, convincing her that they had to help their brother because he was still in there somewhere. It wasn't all darkness and evil, the man who had raised them was still alive inside and they had to save him, because Winchesters just didn't give up on family.

And once she had gotten into the research with Sam things had cleared up. She knew that there was something seriously wrong with her older brother, something more than had ever been wrong with him before. Something had changed in him, he was different, but that didn't mean that he couldn't be saved. It didn't mean that he couldn't go back. She had trained a part of herself to believe that the man she had spent her entire life with, the one who had made her into the person she was right there, he was still inside there somewhere. He couldn't be gone, she wouldn't accept it. Not now.

Dean seemed to realise that she wasn't about to answer him and landed another hard punch to her face. She felt the bruise coming in her cheek but did nothing, just looked at him.

"Please, Dean," she almost pleaded with him, tears in her eyes. "It's me, it's Jenny." her hand gripped at the front of his shirt, her other rested at his cheek and forced him to look at her. "I'm your sister."

But Dean ignored her and punched her again, harder, this time hard enough to knock her from his own grip and send her to the floor in front of him. He wasted no time in getting down to his knees to wrap his hands around her neck tightly. He hadn't been lying, he was stronger than he had ever been before, there was no remorse at all in his actions, he just didn't care anymore. He wanted them both dead and he wasn't about to quit.

"Dean, please," Jenny managed to choke out, fighting his hold with everything she had in her. His grip tightened with his left hand but his right released her neck. For a second she was confused, but then he brought up a knife and pressed it to her skin, hard enough to draw blood.

She felt as though she could cry. It wasn't even the thought of death that fazed her. It wasn't that Sam was probably next. It wasn't that there was a good chance they were both going to hell. It was the fact that she was about to die at the hands of the one man who had spent his entire life trying to keep her alive. All Dean had ever done was save her life, protect her and keep her safe. And now he was the one who was about to kill her.

There was so much anger in his face. His teeth gritted together in what looked like pure hatred. There was no soul left in his eyes, they were black as midnight, filled with a depravity she could never have associated with him before.

Clawing at the hand around her neck she tried to free herself but he was too strong. "I know you're in there, I know you can hear me, I -" But nothing else came out, his hand squeezed hard enough that she could barely speak. "Please, Dean -" Her eyes met his, pleading, searching him for some sign of humanity.

And then something seemed to change in his face. The black of his eyes flickered back to the green she was so used to seeing, the hard frown set so deep within his features faded a little, the murderous glare faltered. For a small second he looked like her brother again. His grip tightened on the knife for a moment, until she was sure that he was going to use it, but then he pulled away and backed himself off her.

His breathing was heavy as he stood over her, he looked torn as to what he should do, but then he turned from her. He turned his back to her and walked straight out of the room without another word. Jenny lay there on the floor, unable to move, holding her breath as his heavy footsteps grew quieter until she heard the door of the bunker open and slam closed again.

Then she knew, Dean was gone.