Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, Dean or Sam, I'm just borrowing them and I give them back when I finished and I don't own anything to do with the film 23.
This idea comes from the film 23. The enigma number 23 is the belief that all incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23. Is it an obsession or is it a curse
Thank you for your reviews. Happy you like it so far
Chapter Three
Sam sat nervously on one of the hospital's hard plastic chairs, he looked at his watch yet again, it had been well over an hour, he looked towards the doors where the nurses had wheeled a still unconscious Dean through on a gurney and willed for a doctor to come and tell him that his brother was going to be ok.
As the doors swung open Sam saw a doctor heading his way "Sam Simmons"
Immediately Sam jumped up "Doctor how is he?"
Doctor Jacobs could see the anguish on the younger man's face as he approached "Dean regained conscious a little while ago, his resting now. We've run some tests and I am happy with the results. What I'm concerned about is why he collapsed, as he been eating and sleeping ok?"
Thinking about the last few nights Sam replied "He hasn't been sleeping too well other than that he's been fine"
The doctor made a note in his file has he asked "as he complained of headaches or dizziness?"
"No"
"I'm going to release him but I want him to rest, unfortunately I can't give him any sleeping tablets with his head injury, but if he's sick or as any dizziness can you bring him back in" the doctor replied
"Yeah, sure"
Sam followed the doctor through the doors and down the corridor into the examination room, where Dean lay on the exam table; he had a butterfly band aid over the cut on his temple
"Hey how are you feeling?" Sam asked as he entered the room "because I gotta say you look like crap"
"Just peachy, I'm ready to get out of here"
"Once we get back to the hotel were packing up and leaving" Sam informed him, they weren't staying around.
"Whoa I'm not going anywhere"
"Yes you are" Sam returned instantly, he stared at Dean
Dean stared back "No I'm not, when did we start quitting half way through a job?"
"There something going on here with you Dean, first the nightmares, the phone calls and now this, I don't want you to commit suicide" Sam shouted back with fear in his eyes "I not going to stand by and watch you kill yourself"
"Well I'm not going anywhere, so if you don't want me to commit suicide, then you'll have to stick around to make sure I don't"
Sam huffed back in annoyance "or I could just kill you myself and save you the trouble of committing suicide"
Bitch
Jerk
The drive back to the hotel was quiet, neither brother spoke, both deep in their own thoughts. Sam now believed that the book was somehow connected to the suicides. He needed to continue reading he was sure the answers lay within.
Dean sat on his bed looking at the information they had gathered about the victims at the library but he wasn't taking it in, he was thinking about what happened before he collapsed. Sam sat at the small table reading the book out aloud
"M" said he wouldn't understand our special connection, the bond we had through the curse of the number 23. The next day he put me on the 3.20 train out of town, 3+20 is 23. I was to stay with an old family friend. As the train approached the next station I saw her standing on the platform in her favourite pink dress. Red and white make pink, red adds up to 27 and white 65 equals 92, pink as four letters, 92 divide by 4 is 23
Sam stopped reading and looked at Dean, who was already staring back at him "Dean, you said those exact words yesterday"
"I know, it's like I've heard it before but I can't remember where" Dean looked down at the floor "Sam when I was in Howard Johnson's study before I collapsed events and dates flashed through my mind and they all added up to 23. It doesn't make sense I not going to be 23 ever again but I'm next aren't I?"
"No Dean, I'm not going to let it happen. We are going to figure this out and I think this book is connected somehow" Sam replied, he read on
The train stopped at the station, I don't remember getting off the train and walking towards her but I did, she kissed me and I was once again lost in her. She smelt like fresh flowers. At that moment I would have followed her to the end of the earth, all she had to do was ask. I followed her out of the station to a hotel, where we got the room 23. She told me he was jealous of us and our love for each other. She said that he would never let me see her again. She said she knew a way to end the curse that we both shared, but I would have to leave him, leave everything behind, everything I knew. She said all I needed was faith in her, she called it a leap of faith and we would be together. That night we went onto the roof of the hotel, we didn't feel the cold we had each other to keep us warm. It was the night before my 23rd Birthday; we danced and made plans for our future, the future that didn't include him.
But he found us, he charged onto the roof, we fought and he knocked me out, when I came too I was tied to a tree, he told me he was going to end this, he wasn't going to lose me to her and in the end I would see he was right. I pleaded with him but he wouldn't listen. I watched in horror as he murdered her right there in front of me. Her screams were unbearable, tears rolled freely down my face. I wanted to look away but I couldn't. On my 23rd Birthday the love of my life, my beautiful innocent "M" was gone. I can still hear her screams from that night in my head to this today.
"Oh my god, he killed her" Sam gasped
"I think we've found our vengeful spirit" Dean replied
"I'm not so sure, she loved Joe Black so why would she make other 23 year old's on their birthday commit suicide, the man called he murdered her surely she would be going after men like him?"
"Vengeful spirits memories can get a little twisted" Dean replied "Maybe she blames Joe or she thinks Joe could have saved her"
That night Sam stayed awake and read the book, every now and then he would glance over at Dean who was sleeping peacefully
He took my broken soul back to the hotel, I couldn't look or speak to him; I just wanted to be with my "M". Eventually he fell asleep, I went to the roof where we had spent our last few hours together. I could still smell her and feel her presence, I remember us dancing and laughing, all the plans we had made were now gone. As I looked down at the street below I heard him approaching, why couldn't he just leave me alone? I turned around to face him.
He spoke to me softly with love in his voice, something he hadn't done since I was a young boy, he told me he loved me and it was his job to protect me from "M" and others like her, he couldn't bear to lose me to her. He said he was sorry, he had been hard on me in the last couple of months, he had taken his anger out on me but he never meant to hurt me. He held out his hand, tears rolled down his weather beaten face and he pleaded to me with his eyes to trust him. I took his hand because I was an obedient dog and I trusted him when he told me everything would be ok, what a blind fool I was.
That next morning I realized to late that he had drugged my coffee and in a half comatose state he brought me here. Through a haze of drugs I heard him talking to someone as if I wasn't there, my feelings or what I wanted didn't count. He signed some official looking papers and then shook the man's hand and said goodbye to this man, not me and swiftly left the room without even looking back. On unsteady legs I ran to the door of this man's office, where two burly orderlies held me back. I screamed at him as he walked down the corridor. I begged and pleaded with him not to leave me here; I told him I would be a good son, I was sorry and I would never disobey him again. He had promised everything would be ok but he just carried on walking out of the building and was gone. I collapsed to my knees and sobbed my heart out I had never felt so betrayed, alone and rejected in my whole life as I did at that moment.
Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, hours into days, and days into weeks. I have sat in my room, staring at the four walls now covered in numbers all adding up to 23. "M" was right my life could be reduced to the number 23, my birth date; my first day at kindergarten, my driving licence number, the licence plate of the car I drove, even my real name contained the number 23. I now believe I was cursed from the day I was born and there is only one way to end this fucking curse. "M" told me the number would come after me and now it rules my world.
I told Ned (N 14 + E 5 + D 6 is 23), he would sometimes sit on my bed and watch me type, other times he would lay on my pillow and listen to the dates and events that repeat over and over again in my head
World Trade Centre was built in 1976, 1+9+7+6 is 23 it was doom from the start because it was destroyed 09/11/2001, 9+11+2+1 is 23
The Titanic sunk on its maiden voyage 15/4/1912, 1+5+4+1+9+1+2 is 23
Oklahoma City bombing occurred on the 19th April, 19 + 4 is 23
The Hiroshima Nuke was dropped at 8.15, 8+15 is 23
"M" told me my blood takes 23 seconds to circulate my body, I'm cursed
I have to laugh because my only friend in the whole world was a cockroach and now he has left me too.
This will be my final paragraph because by tomorrow I will no longer have the strength to type, you see they have taken everything from me; they make every decision for me. They think that I'm incapable of making my own decisions but I have made one. I have decided to give up on this life and end the curse, I going to be with my beloved "M", the only person who as seen the real me and loves me for what I am, cursed. She visits me every night in my dreams now I can already feel this life ending I'm becoming closer to my love, she waiting for me on the other side, she tells me that the only way to end the curse is to join her. We were always meant to be together and now we will. These will be my last days at the Riverside Sanatorium. As I take my final breath, when my blood takes its last 23 seconds to circulate my body and my heart stops we will be together forever dancing in each others arms, I will be free from the curse.
Today's date is 16th March 2002 and I don't have to tell you what that adds up to.
Joe Black
The rest of the book was blank, Sam went to the back of the book and found the last page was suck to the back cover; he carefully peeled it back and found an address, The Riverside Sanatorium, Portland, Maine. It was a start to finding Joe Black, was he still alive or had he died, if he was alive maybe he could help them.
TBC