Roads – chpt 4.
by: sifi
--
There was something strange about the parts that littered the battlefield around him, they looked normal but not, and it wasn't until he found the first severed head that he realized a truth. Once it was established in his mind, other clues and cues came to the fore, there were no insects where a normal battlefield would have been swarming with them. The parts that lay so Dali-esquely on the landscape all seemed to have the same gray, waxy surreal sheen. When he forced himself to grasp the face-down head and roll it over, even as he did so something clicked and his heart stuttered in his breast if only for a moment.
They're sidhe... every single one of them... the proportion is perfect just... decreased... and he held up his own arm in comparison, entranced by the fact that from his fingertips, the color seemed to have leeched from him, and though the waxen sheen did seem to be gloving his hand in the smallest of increments, he reminded himself of Laura returning to her normal color after turning up full body blue and looking like a short brown/auburn haired Mystique, Sans scales of course... damn that's one truly sexy mutant!... mmm! Sorry sweetheart but... man... undeniable hotness! he shook his head imagining Laura's nod of approval.
Mmmm'kay... so... I'm not likely going to find Sammy here... Thank GOD for that!... so what's the point? Why'm I dreaming this?
--
"Why'd you bring me here?" Sam asked, an unconscious grin lighting his face with the Impala's 'squee and buckle' that was home to him.
Sam didn't know what he expected, police, ambulances, the FBI combing the scene, looking for him and Dean, trying to find something else to pin on them, but an undisturbed battlefield wasn't one of them. Even with a mild temperature, the mid morning sun was doing hard work on the bodies and pieces of both sides' fallen. Insects swarmed the field, and scavengers of all stripe from avian to feline to canine were moving among the dead, a feast for the taking.
"Oh God... Dean..." he felt the wind suck out of his body as reality came into hard edged focus. He'd seen enough dead things in his life to know what they looked like, to know what he was seeing and yet as the details of the victims came to him, he felt his stomach clench. An old scar over a boys' eyebrow, a broken tooth on a man no older than himself, dried brown streaks holding hostage a gelatinous wad of gray matter despite the work a hungry raven put into it, on the face of a woman to his left. A flash of blood soaked bone tearing through flaps of skin while hungry housecats tore at the tasty muscle beneath, tugging through the white tendon, flossing their sharp little teeth on the stringy veins and vessels. A determined vixen tugged at half a child's torso that should've been climbing a jungle gym in a grade school playground, undoubtedly bringing the tender young feast to her kits. The scent of bowel and rot hung heavy in the air with the buzzing of the insects becoming amplified, magnified in waves that crashed back and forth over him, almost some kind of call and response among the swarms, 'hey how's it going over there?' "Great how about there?" 'awesome... the putrescence is really thick around here!... we're gonna lay some eggs, hatch some larvae and...'... he turned his head and doubled over, dry heaving into the brown stained ground.
"Oh God..." he grunted feeling the solid warmth of the brother that wasn't, at his side. One hand under his forehead, the other on his back as his stomach clenched again. "Did I do this?... all these people... why aren't there any cops here? Where are the feds?" he asked in a voice that felt eight years old again and was begging Dean to believe that he wouldn't let any rats get into him while he slept. "Someone should be here..."
"The number one rule of war is that people die," Dean reminded him softly while sweeping a palm load of dirt over the puddle of bile that had finally come forth.
Silent in acknowledgement Sam nodded, sat back on his heels and shook his head, "But where are they Dean?... you can't tell me..." he turned locking eyes with his big brother in bone freezing realization. "No..."
Dean nodded, "All the gates... simultaneous strikes, they went right for the 'authority' figures just like your vision said they would... if it hadn't been for you and the few others who were able to see through the demon... well, I doubt we'd have much at all left to worry about..."
"Then what? They're fanning out? They've taken positions of power!? They're OUT THERE and we're standing here doing... doing..." he yelled through the burning heat in his chest that made the bile in the back of his throat taste like cotton candy, "We FAILED Dean!... we LET those things get out!... What about the Igigi? Did they pick a side? Were we right about them? Can they... WILL they help us?" he stormed pacing frantically while his fingers dug through his hair, his mind spinning barely within control as he sifted through the locations of various gateways to hell in the U.S. not that closing them now will do any good! My God how do we stop this now? How do we fix this? How do we win against an army that can take over anyone!
Dean smiled benignly feeling the same warmth and love for this Sam and his passion as he did for HIS Sam. He's forgotten this isn't his world... your shoulders aren't that big little brother... you're gonna have to let this one slide, we have our Crusader and he's back at home loving his wife.
"Sam..." he said softly, that same smile lighting his features all the way up through his eyes. The kind of smile Sam hadn't seen on Dean's face in a long time, far too long.
That's my fault too... he felt something tearing deep inside, the more desperately he tried to cling to the pieces of whatever it was that had started breaking as far back as the night Jess was taken from him, the more readily those pieces seemed to crumble to dust in his hands.
"Oh God... Dean... I can't do this... I can't BE this... it's too big... I can't..." his heart beat hard in his chest and he wished for his gun back in his hand. I'll do it this time I swear to God... I can't live like this... I can't do this... it's too much for one person to handle! and he wanted to hit something, again and again, and again until there was nothing left, of either his target object or himself, he didn't care as long as nothing remained.
"Sam..." Dean blocked his path, his hands, always so strong and certain fell onto his shoulders firmly and easily. His jade green eyes fixed into Sam's and the young man felt his panic pay attention, "You don't have to... this world has it Knight Errant..."
"Right... right... of course... yeah...heh... yeah... but what if this is going to happen in my world Dean? What if...? I can't DO THIS!" he wrestled the stallion that wanted to rip out of him and run until it died.
"Hey!" Dean clasped his head between his hands, "Listen to me... breathe..." he instructed, his body humming with the terror that was coming through his hands, moving through his own systems in an attempt to flee the youngest Winchester, Dean willed the discordant energy to pass through him, to burrow into the earth where it could disperse with little harm.
"Are you afraid to fly?" Sam asked suddenly as his body responded, his lungs filled with air and his panicked mind and heart grasped at the life sustaining inhalation.
Dean smiled crookedly, "A bit yeah...why?" he asked.
"We ever exorcise a phantom traveler?"
"United Britannia... flight four two four... yeah..." Dean smiled.
"Really?" Sam asked, his brows furrowed as the beast in his breast ceased its bucking and screaming and stood pawing the ground and snorting instead.
"Yeah... why?"
"Dean and I... same airline, same flight... so there are some parallels..."
"Guess so," Dean smirked clapping his little brother on the arms, "So... any ideas what exactly might be happening here Eisenstein?"
Sam shook his head, "Best I've got is that whole glimpsing the multiverse thing Dean went through in Washington..."
"Yeah but you're here..." Dean said tapping his chest, "I can touch you... you can affect matter here... from what you told me, your Dean told you... he couldn't... he could only observe and even then it was sporadic and disjointed..."
"But he felt it... God Dean... he felt so much... it hurt him so... deep..." Sam winced.
The Dean before him nodded, "I get that... but maybe part of the hurt was cause he couldn't affect any of it...and you did say... he said, it was variations on his theme right?"
Sam nodded, "Yeah... seemed like..." he swallowed hard around a lump in his throat wondering why he hadn't pressed his big brother for more information. Fact was he was just too happy to get out of there with Dean in tact, mentally and mostly physically. Fact was, he'd been scared, pure and simple. Whatever his big brother had gone through had scared him in a way no supernatural being ever could, and he'd counted among his blessings, their getting out of the area alive let alone largely unscathed.
"Yeah... from what he said... he saw things from the eyes of the other Deans'... nothing really external..."
"So... as much as I hate to... all things considered, pardon the pun... burst your bubble... I'm guessing this isn't the same kind of phenomenon..." Dean winced with a half smile that spoke of sympathy.
Sam nodded smiling companionably back, "Any way we look at it... I have to find a way to get home... if this is a glimpse at what might be coming... people have to be warned... we know other hunters... not a lot of them but... we have to... I mean Ellen can spread the word but she has to know what word to spread!... and I'm willing to bet there are more havens for hunters than Harvell's Roadhouse..." he stopped, mouthed the words again and smiled, "...say that ten times fast..."
Dean cracked a smile motioning to the Impala, "Let's go figure out how to get you home then..."
He pulled the door open, his smile warm and comforting as he looked across the roof of the car, meeting empty air.
"Sam?" he called looking around the battlefield, "Sammy!?" he tried again while circling the car. He stayed for a few more minutes, looking around, making sure the kid some other him had raised was truly gone.
"I hope you find whatever it is you need Sammy..." he looked upward, his throat tightening, "Look after him willya?... both of you..." then slid behind the wheel of his faithful Metallicar and felt just a little lessened with the empty seat beside him.
--
"So you got..." Sam turned, his hand reaching out for a car door that was no longer there, asking a question of a Dean who was also, no longer there. He looked around and swallowed hard, the littered battlefield remained but he found himself alone, if only for an instant.
"Mr. Winchester?" a young boy spoke breathlessly behind him.
Sam wheeled around, "Yeah?"
The child inched forward, his hand outstretched, a piece of folded over white between his fingers, fear on his face, and perhaps just a little awe.
"I'm not gonna hurt you..." he smiled gently, reaching his own hand out just before an alarm sounded loud and clear inside himself, "Put it down under a rock and back away," Sam ordered feeling something heavy in his guts. In his mind's eye he saw his hand reach unsuspectingly toward the boy, and the boy's hand flick out. He also would've sworn he could feel his skin sear wide open in a burning path along his arm.
The boy before him smirked, blinked with black on black eyes and did as instructed before retreating in a cloud of that living dark dust.
Well I'll be damned...he thought keeping his eyes wide open as he reached for the sheet of paper and pulled it from beneath the rock.
--
What is that? Water? Dean thought suddenly feeling particularly thirsty. He cocked his head to the side, stepping away from the torn and jagged edged sidhe parts on the ground. Slowly he moved toward the sound, his senses sharp and his hackles on end despite the certainty that he was only dreaming.
The further he moved through the thickening flora the more urgent the sound became though slowly he came to notice another layer of noise crashing through the underbrush. His heart stalled as that second sound was identified a bare instant before he saw snarling ivory jaws snapping while a black bodied killing machine leaped at him, ropy strands of bloodied saliva slinging thickly from its jaw.
His hands flew to his head defensively and he threw himself to the ground, face down as the first of three such feral beasts passed his position. What the fuh...? he thought at the same moment the unmistakable sound of one of those creatures crying out a death scream that sounded oddly familiar just before a purely animal whimper kissed his ear. He leaped to his feet, patting himself down at every pocket and place he would normally be carrying a weapon and coming up frustratingly empty. He crashed through the flora, a chill bowing his spine as he heard her familiar voice.
"Go! Now!" it was little more than a whisper weaving its way through the cacophony of snarls, tearing, gnashing and slashing he could hear, but it was unmistakable.
Laura... he pulled up short at the sight before him.
Half a dozen sidhe stood behind her, their blades drawn and ready as she leaned down, pulling her sword from the chest of the beast on the ground.
"Go!" she urged as two more closed in, the same rabid feral glow in their eyes, they smelled easy prey.
"Hey!" Dean called hoping to distract them. "Hey got some fresh meat for you!" he reached forward, but the plants he wanted to rustle were not his to be held. "Son of a bitch... come on! This isn't fair...Dream or not... this sucks!" he groaned cocking his head to the side, "Well... she's got clothes on... damn my dreams! Not that nekked isn't good but ... where would you put the sword?" he raised his head just as one of the two remaining beasts leaped at her, "Look out!... Guh... damnit!" he cursed watching her cleave the beast's head free from its neck, loosing a curtain of obscenely red blood to soak her clothes, apparently not for the first time, while his mouth dropped open at the sight of billows of rolling demon smoke soaring up beyond the tops of the trees to disappear from sight. Her movements were economical as her swing brought her into position, the tip of the blade piercing the throat of the third one as it leaped at one of the sidhe behind her. With the crispy-dull butcher sound of the sword point emerging on the far side of the creature's neck, this one too loosed a howl, its snub muzzle raised to the sky as yet another demon was expelled.
What the hell kind of dog is that? It's not wolf, not werewolf, not any kind of dog I've ever seen... not black dog or hell hound... possessed... they possessed animals... he thought watching her usher her charges speedily ahead, there was no time to lose, the forest was already carrying the sounds of more beings approaching.
"Son of a bitch..." she huffed then severed its head cleanly, "Now... MOVE!" she ordered angrily of the sidhe who'd wanted only to help.
Not too far behind him there was another wave of rustling foliage and the sound of more danger hot on their heels that thrust his heart into high gear, "Go Laura... go, go, go..." he urged following close behind, knowing she couldn't hear him, knowing he couldn't effect anything here, but unable to defy his instinctive need to help. "...predators driven mad by possession, perverted against their nature..." that's what she said... but why would I be dreaming this?
He watched his girl and her charges duck under the arms of an ancient tree drowning in lichen and slid to the ground beside her, "What're you doing? You gotta keep moving... come on honey... get your ass up and get moving!" he urged watching as she lay on her belly, her eyes wide, her fear a palpable thing as legs darted past their position.
"That was too freakin' close woman! What the hell do you think you're doing!?" he hissed through his teeth, wondering how this hidey hole had been missed. Wondering if maybe he was wrong and somehow it had wards of its own that kept them camouflaged. "But those animals...those were no normal dogs... those weren't even black dogs... I mean they were black but... what the hell were those things?" he asked looking back and wondering if he should go take a closer look at one of them.
A sound he couldn't place drew his attention, his eyes wide and mouth pursed in incredulity. His girl on his right, her forehead pressing into the mulchy soil beneath the tree, her hands trembling so hard she could only keep them still by fisting them into the earth, her back and breath quivering while drops splattered in fat, heavy pairs from her eyes to wet the ground below, "I can't stop this..."
It took a moment for the words and their meaning to find their way into his comprehension, his Laura and the concept of defeat were mutually exclusive. They didn't belong in the same thought. He knew her words had been spoken only to herself, not loud enough for any of the Sidhe clinging to the trunk of the tree to have even believed she'd spoken at all. And he shook his head while gooseflesh broke over his body.
"No... no honey come on, this isn't your fault... okay so you can't stop it... but you CAN save a LOT of lives here! This isn't your fault!... NO ONE could ask you to save an entire universe alone! NO ONE could expect you to stop what's coming!... Come on now... it's okay, it's gonna be okay..." he tried to soothe and felt his temper flare when his hand passed through her.
One of the younger Sidhe came creeping toward her, a liquid susurration caressing the air while it patted her head.
To their left, from the area of the slain creatures, more foliage rustled, thick leathery leaves, heavy and shiny with recent blood spray, and the arrival of another group of sidhe could be seen as to their right a mournful sound rent the air, the sound of something not quite canine catching the scent of fresh prey.
--
"Alright... I'm here..." Sam called, his eyes searching every shadow nearby as he turned in a slow circle. He'd been surprised, upon finding Dean and the Impala gone, to realize he was armed not only with the Colt, but also a machete on his belt and his favorite knife.
His heart thumped the inside walls of his chest and he swallowed down the lump in his throat.
"Sammy?" Dean stepped warily out from the shadowed side of a long ago defunct bakery.
"Your note said you wanted to talk... What do you want?" Sam asked as his big brother drew to a halt a dozen yards before him.
"Besides you next to me again?" Dean shook his head, "How many soldiers did you lose last night Sam? How many good people sacrificed their lives for YOUR crusade? Huh?... How many more have to die!?..." the elder hunter took two steps closer, his hand outstretched, tears in his eyes cleaning his still battle grimed cheeks, "Sam... please... you have to understand... you CAN'T win!... I cant' LET you win..." he sniffed.
--
tbc.
please R&R.
Thanks.
sifi.
