DISCLAIMER: Not mine, I just play with them and put them back when playtimes finished.
A/N: Dean is 9, Sam is 5, timeline is re-series, one-shot. Never thought I could do one of these, but the plot-bunny wouldn't stop hitting me. Hope it's ok.
FEAR IN THE FOREST.
Dean walked through the forest, pushing aside the bushes as they fought to grab onto his clothes. His face and arms were scratched and bleeding, where he had been unable to protect himself against the sharp slashing leaves and twigs. His other hand grasped Sammy's little hand, tightly, almost in a death grip as he dragged Sam along behind him. Both boys were battling to breathe. Dean, with exhaustion snapping at his heels, had pulled his younger brother along, physically carrying Sam over deadfalls and around fallen logs. Sammy was nearly spent, staggering along at Dean's heels. He was desperately trying to keep up with his brother's longer and faster legs. Dean who had momentarily slowed his pace slightly out of sympathy for Sammy, instantly quickened again the moment Dean heard the suspicious noises coming from the path ahead.
Sammy stumbled, unprepared for the sudden increase in Dean's pace, and would have fallen had Dean not reached and steadied him. Dean looked down into Sam's tear stained face, his heart breaking as he listened to his brother's gasping ragged breathing, a result of the exhaustion and fear from their current terror filled race for safety.
It had started innocently enough that morning, when Pastor Jim had suggested to John that they take the boys out for a picnic in the nearby nature reserve. Normally John would have automatically rejected the suggestion. However, John was still recovering from injuries that had been serious enough to ensure he stayed in hospital for 14 long days. It was only after this time that John realised how incredibly scared both his sons had been, terrified of losing their only living parent. As a result, while John was still recovering his mobility and strength, the 3 of them stayed at Pastor Jim's, enjoying a time for reforging their bonds and re-building the boys sense of security.
So when Pastor Jim had suggested the picnic, both the boys had held their breaths and looked at their dad. John looked at the boys and saw the hope in the young faces of his sons.
"Okay" John sighed, unable to stand up against such silent pleading in both young faces, "but you got to stay close and no wandering off."
Both boys nodded happily in agreement and then had raced off, hollering and whooping loudly in excitement, to get ready.
The drive to the forest reserve, although only lasting 30 minutes, had nearly seen John go insane.Bad enough that Jim drove his car, but Sam, sitting in the back of his dad's car, had insisted on listing all the possible bugs or animals the boys would be able to find under rocks or in the trees. John tiredly reflected that he never knew God had made so many different bugs, and quietly in his own heart, wished that Sam would just shut up. Not realising it, John slipped into a light doze, listening to Sam's quiet and serious voice. John woke when the sudden quietness and the lack of the rumbling of the Impala's engine broke through his slumber. Sam, on the other hand, continued with his never ending list. John marvelled that Dean could be so patient with John's younger son. John was sure, that by now, if he had been sitting with Sam, Sam would have been strangled into silence.
After clambering out of the car, John had given explicit instructions to both boys on the rules he expected them to follow whilst in the park. Both boys nodded seriously and solemnly, promising to follow John's rules totally and absolutely.
The morning had passed in a happy haze of excitement for the boys and relaxing chat for the adults. Pastor Jim had packed a huge lunch which all four of them happily reduced to a pile of crumbs at the end of a glorious lunch time. John insisted the boys sat with them for a while and let their lunches go down. It wasn't long before little Sammy felt the lure of sleep, and even young Dean slipped over the edge into a light doze, just before both adults unknowingly joined them.
Time passed and Sam was woken by the loud and repetitive trilling of a colourful sitting in the branches over their heads. Sam's wriggling woke Dean, who quickly silenced his brother upon seeing both adults still snoozing. Both boys quietly wandered off, never moving very far away from their dad and Pastor Jim.
It wasn't until an hour or so later, that Dean realised something was stalking them. Whatever creature was stalking them, the forest creatures clearly knew it was aggressive and deadly, as all sound and movement from the hundreds of surrounding creatures, disappeared as if by magic.
Dean told Sam that it was time to return to the adults, not wanting to tell him the real reason and scare the little boy. Dean knew the dangers and things that were out there but Sam didn't, and Dean did not want to be the one who took Sam's innocence away.
Sam proved to be reluctant to return to his dad and Pastor Jim, but after looking at Dean's face and seeing the fear that Dean was not quick enough to hide, Sam realised that there was something very wrong. Anything that scared his super brave big brother would have to be terrible and so Sam obediently followed every step of Dean's as fast as his little legs would carry him, without a word of complaint.
The problem that Dean saw almost immediately was that the creature was actually between them and their way back to their dad. Dean didn't want to call to out for help, fearing that his dad would come running towards them and drive this aggressive killer into them, possibly seriously hurting Sammy. As Dean walked away from the creature, his mind dwelt on all the endless possibilities of what could happen to Sam if this creature got hold of him. This resulted in Dean's fear growing, and so he sped up their progress pulling Sammy along, with a grip of steel, relentlessly. Sam soon picked up on his brother's fears and it wasn't long before he was silently crying from a combination of his own fears, and Dean's fears. Dean had looked back at Sammy several times and had seen the slow fat tears sliding down his brother's face, but Dean didn't dare stop for fear of giving the creature, that was still hunting them, a chance to jump them.
Neither boy could tell how long this thing herded them along. All they knew was the exhaustion and fear that was slowly eroding away at their strength. Dean finally realised that Sam was clearly at the end of his stamina, and as he hadn't heard any noises from the creature for a short while, he allowed their pace to slacken just a bit, for a little while.
Dean was trying to angle back towards the safety of his dad, when he heard it. There was a sharp crack of a broken branch and a weird wailing noise made by the creature and it was coming from the pathway directly ahead of them. Dean jumped and instantaneously increased their pace, jerking Sammy along with him. Sam stumbled, unable to adapt so suddenly to the change in pace in the haze of his fear and tiredness. Dean grabbed Sammy and steadied him and then realised that the awful wail was coming closer, dead ahead. Dean backed away slowly, pushing Sammy behind him backing up, until they came to a stand still, against a tree.
Then the wailing sound came again, along with a voice Dean knew so well.
"Dean, Sammy," called their father's loud voice. Dean was about to answer when a big Black dog limped into the clearing where he and Sammy stood. Dean's breath caught in his throat with fear. He knew what Black dogs did, he had heard his dad talking to other hunters about them and he was determined this was not to be Sammy's fate. Dean looked at the Black dog and realised it was huge. Its coat was matted and jutted out all over the place. From inside the long pointed jaws Dean could see the white long sharp teeth, along with the twin strings of dangling drool as the dog eyed Sam and Dean off with glinting dark eyes. The call Dean was trying to muster up died in his throat, Sam however took one look at this terrifying Black dog and screamed loudly.
John, hearing his youngest son's terror filled screams, ran as fast as his injured body could carry him towards his sons' location.
Dean hearing the loud noises approaching flinched and waited for the Black dog to leap towards them and start tearing their throats out. Suddenly their dad and Pastor Jim burst out into the clearing, going around the dog and grabbing the boys. John was clearly shaken and kept on patting the boys, checking for injuries.
"Dad," Dean shouted, "Kill it, kill it now," pointing towards the black dog.
John looked at Dean. "What Dean?" John asked quizzically. "Do what?"
"Kill it dad," Dean repeated, "It's a Black Dog" Dean said, dropping his voice dramatically on the last two words.
John stared at Dean puzzled and then his face cleared.
"Dean, no son, look," And John pointed to the two people who had followed his dad and Pastor Jim into the clearing. Dean looked over at the people and his jaw dropped in amazement and revulsion.
The two people, a man and a woman, sat on the ground in front of the black dog hugging and crying into its shaggy matted fur, trying to avoid the dog's overjoyed attentions, for the adults.
John looked back at Dean and said "Son, this is Peter and Wendy, and that," John pointed at the black dog, "is Sebastian their pet dog. He has been lost out here for 3 days and they have been trying to find him ever since."
"But Dad," Dean gasped, "it was stalking us and wailing!"
Peter got up and walked over to explain. "We have 2 boys, who are the same ages as you and your younger brother, Dean. Sebastian is devoted to them and they to him. Sebastian has lots of thorns in his paws and it would have hurt him immensely to walk on them so he was howling in pain. He also probably thought you and Sam were our boys and that you would make him all better, which was why he was trying to follow you."
Dean looked doubtfully at his father and saw his dad smile in agreement.
Sam tugged on his dad's arm, "Daddy can we please go now, please?"
"Sure Sammy," John replied, standing up with Sam in his arms.
Dean walked warily past the dog, ready for any tricks it might pull, but nothing happened. Dean however, was ready, and had marked the dog in his mind, so that when it came after them again, he would know it and be able to kill it.
The ride homeward was totally different to the excited and loud ride out that morning. Sam, for once, was quiet as he slept nestled in his dad's lap. Dean dozed lightly, curled up against his dad's side, only waking on hearing his dad's car, with Pastor Jim driving, come to a quiet stop.
As his dad was getting out of the car, Dean touched his dad's arm. "Dad," Dean called.
"Yes Dean?" his answered looking back at his son.
"Dad, those people are nuts," Dean stated.
"Why, Dean?" John asked puzzled
Dean looked up at his dad puzzled, "Cos they have a Black Dog living with them" leaving the unvoiced but obvious 'well doh' silent.
"Yeah buddy,' John replied, "But it's tame Dean, and it's a pet, it's okay, honest."
Dean stared at his dad. "They keep a Black Dog as a pet and you're okay with this?"
"Uhuh," John grinned slightly at Dean's look.
Dean got out the car and walked into the house shaking his head. It saddened Dean knowing that what he had wondered, was actually true. Dean paused inside the house, wondering how he was to tell Pastor Jim, for Dean knew that Pastor Jim and his dad were friends, and Pastor Jim would indeed be saddened by what Dean had to say.
Dean straightened his shoulders and stiffened his resolve and marched off to give the Pastor his sad news – that when his dad had recently been attacked, it wasn't just blood that had leaked out of his head, but his brains too. Dean knew his dad was now totally and officially cuckoo.