Set after the events of Faith
Sam snatched the sigil from Sue-Ann and smashed it onto the ground. He smashed it real hard to make sure that it broke. Crimson blood flowed from the broken pieces on the ground leaking out profusely as the skeletal reaper holding Dean released its hold on him upon being freed. Sue-Ann had a horrified look on her face. "What have you done?!" She exclaimed, clearly knowing the consequences of her actions. Deep and dark magic was used to control death, now it wants revenge. It wants to take life away from its master.
Time stopped. The clock ceased to tick. It was eerily silent as the street lamps begin to light out one by one towards Sue-Ann. Her heart skipped a beat each time the darkness got closer. It was racing by the time the reaper flickered before her. She turned to run but there was no place to hide as death cornered her, killing slowly as it touched her face, sucking the life out of her as Sue-Ann struggled to breathe. The color of her eyes faded and white foam spilled from the corners of her mouth. She choked and gurgled on it, bringing her hands to her throat in agony. Then, she was no more. Sue-Ann lay on the ground, lifeless. Her eyes were open yet unseeing. The reaper grinned at its marvelous work of revenge as it faded away.
Sam watched as the preacher's wife slipped away. It appeared like she was having a seizure but Sam knew better. Controlling the spiritual force never comes to good end. More often than not, it will come to bite you back in the ass. Just like Sue-Ann. He stared down at the dead body and felt sorry but deep down, he knew she deserved it. She tried to kill his brother for goodness sake! Speaking of Dean, Sam panicked. He had to see for himself that his brother had survived the reaping of his soul.
Dean froze as the saw the lights go out. He knew what was coming- The reaper. His heart thumped loudly against his chest as death came to claim him. Part of him wanted to run away but part of him wanted to give Layla this life he didn't deserve. In his dilemma, he did not see the reaper coming. It placed its hands on his face. It was icy cold. The evil coolness spread to the rest of his body as Dean fell onto his knees, greatly weaken. His eyes turned a shade of pale green and his lips held a bluish tinge. A sharp pain pierced through his skull as Layla's tumor was forced into his brain. Dean's face contorted in tremendous pain as the pressure in his head increased tenfold with every second he felt. Thereafter he felt lightheaded for a moment before everything became numb. The dizziness passed and he could feel nothing, no pain, no pressure. Then he realized, he couldn't hear his panting, that's because he wasn't doing it but was staring down at his own corpse. The hideous reaper shimmered away upon releasing him. Dean swore he heard it gasped before it disappeared but he never knew why.
Sam searched all over the place for his brother. He wasn't with the Impala, neither was he at the tent and started to check beneath the large vehicles. Far away, under the dimly lit street lamp, he saw a body lying on the ground in a weird angle. The man had short and dark blonde hair, wearing an all too familiar leather jacket. He knew it was Dean and imagined the worse. The most terrible thing is that, the worse was true. Sam turned his brother over only to see a deathly pale face of his brother. Nevertheless, he felt for a pulse he knew wasn't there. He thought maybe, maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him, maybe if he pressed hard enough, Dean would be alive, but Dean laid dead. Sam carried Dean in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Tears rolled down his cheeks like a continuous stream. He felt worse than losing Jessica.
Layla was kneeling on the ground when Le Grange withdrew his hands. She felt the same. The same dull ache lingering in her head like it was there ever since a few months ago. She knew the healing hadn't work. It was meant to be. "I don't understand?...Sue-Ann?" Roy asked. He was puzzled by the failure. It was the first time he felt the connection abruptly severed, leaving the poor girl with the brain tumor he couldn't remove. Layla, however, understood that miracles don't always happen even if you wished with all your heart. She believed that God made her that way that she was to die early and be with him. Death is nothing to fear, she had faith in it. She saw her mother's face fell in disappointment and her heart bled for her because after having so much hope, nothing works.
Dean looked around, searching for a sign of life or movement. He was still frozen in time, where everyone stood stationary, every conversation stopped in midway. He was afraid and terrified. This was not something written in Dad's diary, this was not something he could ask Sam about it. Dean is stuck in between life and death. His life was taken out and meant to put in another but the transfer stopped suddenly. With no one to turn to, Dean sat down in a fetal position under the only street lamp that remained lit. He wonders how long he'll stay like this when he hears footsteps approaching. Thud, thud thud. A shadow casted upon him as the body kneeled down beside him and said, "Dean, look up" and he did. Before him was a beautiful woman with dark shoulder length hair and large soulful eyes.
"What's happening?" He asked softly, to her and himself.
"You're neither among the living nor the dead, you've become the bridge to afterlife" she answered.
"What does that mean?" Dean questioned. This was nothing he'd ever come across. He was confused.
"You are chosen to become one of us, a reaper, to help souls cross over" she explained.
He pondered over the matter for awhile before opening his mouth again, "What's your name?"
"Tessa. We reapers can appear to souls in any form that appeals to them and let them see any situation which might convince them. It's our sandbox."
"What about my brother?" He was worried about Sammy. He's all he has got. He's supposed to watch over him, take care of him.
"You can still see him but he cannot see nor hear you unless he himself is on the verge of death" Tessa revealed.
"Is there any other way I can contact him?" Maybe there's some sign he can give Sam or something…
"No" she smiled sadly and dashed all his hopes.
Within that pause in time, Dean learnt the art of persuasion to help souls cross over, bringing himself to engage in chick flick moments and knowing what to say in certain situations. Tessa, his appointed mentor, taught him everything he needed to know in difficult situations. He was ready to reap souls, be the death that claims the dying.
5 months later, Dean remained in Nebraska, travelling from ageing homes to hospitals to where ever he felt the end of a life. He'd disguised as an old man, a young girl but there was one person, he need not disguise. He could use his own face. This person was Layla. When he saw her on the hospital bed, she was bald under a woolen hat, dressed in white gown and connected to many tubes of many machines that kept her breathing and alive. Despite all these, she still looked as beautiful and charming as she was before. Dean took her hand as her soul left her body.
"Dean?" Her voice wavered as she looked behind to see herself lying on the bed.
"Don't be afraid, your time here is up and I'm going to bring you to a better place" Dean gently responded.
"I always knew you were somebody special" Layla said as if it was something she knew all along.
"C'mon, let's go" Dean said and she disappeared in a warm ray of light.
He carried on his work like he was meant to do. Every once in a while, he would take a break and chill out with fellow reapers. It turned out that reapers have a place of their own too though it may not be permanent. One can create a pub with bartenders and hot chicks and everyone would chat and drink there as if the place really exists. All in all, being a reaper isn't so bad and lonely as he thought. It does have its perks. He could still check up on Sam every now and then and so far other than being more broody, he's okay. Bobby is doing a great job looking after him, but not quite up to his predecessor.
About 5 years later, he met face to face with someone he hadn't intended to. It was Daddy Winchester. He had a stroke, a consequence of years of drinking after Mary's death, leading to high blood pressure and such. John's first reaction was to reach for his shotgun loaded with rock salt and pointed it at Dean.
"It isn't going to work Dad" Dean plainly said, "but go ahead and shoot, if it assures you"
"No, you're not Dean, he's dead" John shouted.
"And so are you, Dad" Dean replied sadly.
"What? I can't be dead, I need to hunt down The Demon" John paced around his motel, believing Dean as he saw his own body lifelessly on the couch.
"Dad, it's over, move on" Dean could have appeared to look like Mary but it hurts him too much to do so. Even as a reaper, he still retained all his memories of his living life. It would kill him to disguise as Mary, let alone to face his father as her.
"No, I'm not going Dean and that's that" He commanded in authority, the tone he used on Dean to carry out his order; A voice that Dean always listened to and followed…but not this time.
"I can't force you and there's always a choice, you can stay" John's face lit up a little "but you are not going back into your body"
"Why not?!" John asked angrily.
"Its meant to be, you're living on borrowed time already, Dad, please, I don't want to see you turn into an angry spirit." Dean pleaded. He didn't want to see his father suffer anymore.
John's eyes widen and Dean continued, "Spirits that roam the earth refuses to cross over and end up lonely and helpless, turning violent as the decades to by…."
"I can handle this, son, I'm going to stay" John firmly decided.
"You sure? There's no turning back, you will regret this, Dad" Dean tried again "Come with me"
"No, and I don't want to repeat myself again" and Dean left.
As the years passed, Sam took up hunting again, pairing himself with Jo, slowing getting over his brother's death. He knew that Dean would want him to go back to school but after all that has happened, he couldn't bring himself to. It brought back too much pain. College reminded him of Jessica's death, Dad's disappearance and Dean's loneliness. At least hunting made him feel more Dean, like his brother was with him, remembering their happy times and childish pranks. He wore his brother's amulet and silver ring, kept his mullet rock tapes and polished the Impala. He still kept in touch with the old Bobby, calling him frequently check up certain symbols as well as to check up on him.Dean saw it and he was glad that Sam moved on.
30 years later, there was a cases of a poltergeist in an old motel such that no one dared to stay in it, even its owner packed up and left, not without losing his daughter to the spirit. People who experienced the terror said that the temperature would drop significantly and the room would reek of alcohol and they would see a ghostly figure, screaming and cursing before things started flying around. Jo and Sam checked the area out and found out that an unknown man in his fifties had died there decades ago. He was unnamed as there was no genuine identification card on him so he was buried in behind the motel beside a stone.
Sam never knew that his father died. No one knew. Everybody just assumed that he was missing. When he entered the motel unit where the poltergeist haunted, he felt a familiar sense of anguish from years ago when he was in his teens. The place became very much cooler and the smell of alcohol became increasingly pungent. There was a blurred ghostly figure but there was no screaming and no flying of things. The spirit materialized in front of Sam as he was about to fire a barrel of shotgun into it he stopped. Dad stood before him, looking so angry, so frustrated.
"Destroy me, Sam…Dean was right, I can't take this anymore" John cried. Sam have never seen his father so vulnerable, so helpless.
"Dean? You saw Dean?" Sam questioned, no longer afraid of the restless spirit that was his father.
"Yes, Sam. He's a reaper and I refused to go with him and got left behind." John weakly replied. His voice was hoarse and husky after screaming his voice out upon seeing all those people with yellow eyes. He couldn't stand it anymore.
Somewhere deep down, Sam suspected that his father was dead, just that now, looking at his spirit, he was speechless. He knew he needed to put him to rest. "Alright Dad", he said and went to salt and burn his bones. Just like that, Dad was engulfed in flames but unlike others, he showed no resistance, only relief.
Sam was the only living Winchester. Eventually he stopped hunting and settled down with Jo. They had two kids, Jake and Daniel Winchester who they brought up and trained them to protect themselves against evil but allowed them to lead their own lives as well. Dean watched Sam all these years while doing his job. He was one soul Dean is going to reap but not in near future until his brother grew old and frail. He wanted to much to tell Sam that he loved him and watched over him but he knows that will have to wait.
Sam, in his eighties, sat in a wheel chair by the bed, looking at the photos of his childhood. There was one photo which was taken before the fire. Mom was carrying him together with Dad and Dean and sitting on the hood of the impala, smiling happily. Sam smiled at the picture as a figure appeared before him. It was wearing a leather jacket and tattered jeans and laid a hand on Sam's shoulder.
"Dean." Sam said. He sounded like he'd been dying to see him for a long time.
"Sammy" Dean replied. It was so good to finally be able to communicate with Sam. He could finally be his big brother again and shared the news he'd been longing to say to his brother. "You have been chosen to become one of us, a reaper"
END
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