Author's Note: Title from the song by Dragonforce. Some lines adapted from the Angel episode "Reprise". Also, this story is pretty unrealistic and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but whatever.
Through the Fire and Flames
When Sam's finished crying, he pulls the amulet from Dean's neck and fastens it around his own. There's blood all over it, Dean's blood. He doesn't wipe it off.
Somehow, this wasn't the way that Sam expected Dean to go out. He expected something more. There were no long, sentimental speeches, no heartfelt "I love you"s, no real goodbyes. Only blood, and tears, and pain.
He wonders what Hell is like. He knows it's terrible beyond any stretch of the imagination. He wishes he could know what was happening to his brother. He wonders if it's worse than the pain he's experiencing.
--
Somewhere in between Dean's piercing screams and uncontrollable sobs, the pain stops. He still screams and tears still run down his face and his little brother's name is still the only thing running through his head, but the pain stops. As soon as he realizes it's gone, he's falling.
A voice comes to him from the darkness and clouds around him. It swirls inside his head, one single word.
Dean.
"Is this Hell?" The voice laughs, and laughs, and Dean recognizes it as the carefree laugh of a little girl. Lilith. That bitch.
You're not in hell yet. That was just the pregame show.
"Kill me." Dean's still falling, eyes shut tight. "Just kill me."
You're already dead.
"Then bring me to Hell."
Why, that's just where our little field trip is going to take us.
Dean hits the ground—hard. He lies there limply for a few seconds, before the voice echoes inside his head again.
Get up.
He pushes himself up from the ground, stumbling slightly before he sees the demon cloud that is Lilith materialize in front of him.
Follow me.
So Dean does. He follows Lilith, who takes him through winding passages lined with torches made of bone, and walls streaked with blood. He sees thousands of other demons and many more doomed souls, all going towards the same place. Hell.
There's a door at the end of the passage, finally. Dean is more scared than he has ever been in his entire life, or after-life. He shuts his eyes and whispers one word. Sammy.
He's not here.
The door swings open, and Dean blinks. He turns to the demon cloud that is Lilith, but there's no response. He walks through the doorway, but still can't believe where he is.
"This is Hell?"
Of course this is hell. This is the most terrible place imaginable, Dean. Have you ever seen more torture, more pain, more heartbreak, and more misery in one place?
Hell is the world. The world is hell. Dean's on Earth, he's standing on solid ground. He's been here before, too. He's on the streets of Manhattan and it must be about midnight.
Dean almost laughs.
"I'm in hell? This—this is your idea of hell?"
No, Dean. This is your idea of hell. Dean shakes his head, and he can't believe what he's seeing.
"This isn't hell."
Well, you know it is.You know that better than anyone. Things you've seen, things you've done. Look around you, Dean.
So he looks closely, and sees things he's never noticed before, never took the time to see.
A man pushes a woman up against a wall, speaking threateningly and in a low tone.
A homeless boy sits against a building, and if his face weren't covered in dirt Dean would have noticed the two black eyes he sported.
An old woman sits cross-legged on the ground, counting out change from a hat.
A teenage girl talks on her cell phone, while sobbing, tears streaming down her face.
And far away in Indiana, Sam Winchester burns his brother's body on a makeshift funeral pyre.
The world is evil, Dean, Lilith continues. Evil is in everyone's soul, it's the one thing that's constant. You see, if there weren't evil in every single person out there, they wouldn't be people.The fight between good and evil? It's imaginary, it doesn't exist. There is no fight. Evil goes on, no matter what, and it always has. You can kill as many demons as you want, fight as many battles as you want, but we're invincible, Dean. We will always be here, from the beginning of time to the end of time. So now you know the truth. Welcome to hell. Now have a nice day.
Dean knocks on the door of a small motel room in New Harmony, Indiana, and when his brother answers the door, all he can do is shrug and smile through his tears. Sam doesn't know how Dean got his body back, or what exactly went on, and Dean can't explain a single thing, because he doesn't know either. All he can do is cling to Sam as his brother cries, and wonder what on earth just happened.