The Nightmare Unravels
"Sam? Sam! Can you hear me? Open your eyes! Sammy!" Dean grabbed his brother's shoulder and shook it forcefully.
His sibling did not open his eyes but groaned to let Dean know he was still alive.
Pressing two fingers to his brother's neck, Dean felt for his sibling's pulse, finding it weak and thready.
"Sam? SAM!" Dean leaned down, his nose almost touching his brother's as he yelled in his face.
What the hell was going on? Dean wondered. It was four days since Sam had found that weird room beneath the stairs and he had only been acting more and more out of sorts.
Shaking his head, Dean curled his hand into a fist and pressed his knuckles hard against Sam's sternum, rubbing up and down in quick motions.
His brother groaned again and his eyes opened halfway.
"D'n… do'n," Sam muttered, his voice barely audible.
The older sibling stared down at the younger in disbelief. Sam's face was pale and beaded with sweat; dark circles had formed beneath his eyes and he barely moved even as Dean continued to push his knuckles into his sternum painfully.
"That's it, I'm calling an ambulance," Dean muttered to himself and pulled out his cell phone, ready to dial 911.
He hesitated though, this didn't feel right but it didn't feel as though this was a normal illness. Sam had no fever. As far as Dean knew, he'd had no vomiting or diarrhea. On second thought, Dean didn't think there would be much a doctor could do for his brother. Instead of dialing the paramedics, the hunter called Castiel.
The phone rang and rang and rang.
When Cas' recorded voice told him to leave a message, Dean did: "Cas, call me back as soon as you get this. Sam's sick… and I think he needs your help."
Shoving his phone back into his pocket, Dean sat down on the bed beside his sibling and struggled to find a reason for his brother's mysterious condition.
They hadn't been around anyone who was ill, nor had they hunted any witches recently. There was no chance Sam had picked up some sort of contagion or a witch had hidden a hex bag in his room or on his person.
That room under the stairs!
Nearly a week had passed since Dean had found his sibling fighting to get a peek inside the room concealed beneath the staircase that led to the dungeon.
Why had it been boarded up in the first place?
Dean recalled there had been nothing inside but for a series of strange symbols and an old-fashioned lantern.
"I'm an idiot," Dean growled and stood. Why hadn't he thought of that before? They were in one of the strongholds of the Men of Letters; who was to say they hadn't trapped something in that small space under the stairs and boarded it up to keep the nosy out?
"I'll be right back, Sammy," Dean murmured to his brother- Sam didn't respond- and dashed out of his brother's room to get his laptop.
Grabbing the computer, still sitting on one of the tables in the main room where Sam had left it, Dean hurried back to his brother's bedside and sat down.
Booting up the laptop and typing in his sibling's password, Dean opened up the Internet and pulled up his brother's browsing history, looking for the research Sam had been doing on the symbols found with the lantern.
As Dean searched frantically for the pages his brother had been looking at only days before, Sam groaned beside him and stirred weakly.
Tearing his gaze away from the computer, Dean placed a hand on his brother's chest comfortingly.
"Don't worry, Sammy," he murmured, "I'm gonna fix this, I'm gonna find out what's wrong."
SPN
The Lidérc's greasy feathers rose in ire as it narrowed its yellow eyes at the hunter. It was almost strong enough to be rid of its current victim, almost, but not quite. Digging its wicked claws deeper into the young man's shoulders, the monster redoubled its efforts to drain the hunter of his life force should his brother find out just what had attached to him.
SPN
"Here we are," Dean muttered to himself as he found the pages Sam had been looking at, ancient symbols and writings the hunter didn't understand the focus of his sibling's search.
"Sumerian… Babylonian…" Dean quickly skimmed the pages, finding that none of the writings looked right.
Suddenly, the chords to 'Smoke on the Water' sounded from Dean's pocket and he jumped, so focused on the laptop he'd completely forgotten he'd called Cas.
Fishing his phone from his pocket, Dean's heart leaped at the angel's name on the caller ID.
"Cas! Am I glad to hear from you!" he exclaimed before his friend could even begin to speak.
"What's wrong with Sam?" the angel asked, "Are you alone? Is Mary with you?"
"Mom's still with the Brits," Dean told him, "It's just the two of us."
"What happened?" the angel asked again.
Dean took a breath and told his friend everything he knew, about the room beneath the stairs, about his brother's strange fatigue and weakness; the angel listening without interrupting.
"A lantern?" Cas asked when Dean had finished.
"Yeah, and some strange writing," the hunter reiterated.
"I believe your brother has a Lidérc attached to him," the angel informed the hunter.
For a moment Dean felt elation at finally being able to put a name to what was happening his brother but then he frowned, "What's that? A monster?"
"Yes," Castiel told him, "They normally only live in Hungary and Eastern Europe so I don't know why the American Men of Letters should have one-"
"Doesn't matter," Dean interrupted, "How do I get it away from Sam?"
"It has been five days since you discovered the hidden room?" Cas asked.
"Four," Dean reminded him.
"You must act quickly," the angel told him, "Lidércs are able to kill their victims within as little as five days."
"Tell me how to gank this thing!" Dean demanded, his concern for his brother growing.
"You must wait until nighttime," Castiel told him, "Only then will you be able to capture the creature. You need to turn off all the electric lights in the Bunker- you must not use anything electric or battery-powered, that's very important- and light a candle and bring it to Sam's room. You need to use the candle to illuminate the Lidérc and it will be paralyzed. You will be able to bring it down to the dungeon and place the candle in the lantern you found- carefully- and seal the room back up."
Dean's frown deepened, "But that's not killing it, only trapping it."
"You cannot kill the Lidérc, only trap it," Castiel told him, "Unfortunately."
"Hm," the hunter muttered, not much liking the sound of what the angel was telling him.
"Sam will get better though?" he asked and Castiel told him that once the monster was once again in the room beneath the stairs, his brother should recover.
"Should?" Dean asked.
"You are going to be cutting it very close," Cas told him, "There is a chance that Sam might not recover."
Dean closed his eyes for a moment.
"No, he'll get better," he insisted.
"I wish I could be there to help," the angel told him.
"I got this Cas," Dean assured him.
"Call me tomorrow," the angel said, "However it turns out."
"Sam will be fine," Dean replied, speaking more to himself than the angel.
Hanging up, the hunter closed the laptop and brushed his sibling's bangs away from his brow.
"Hang in there, Sammy," he whispered to his brother, "I'll be able to help you soon."
W
"Son of a bitch!" Dean swore as he pawed through the drawers in the Bunker's kitchen, finding nothing larger than tea lights. He already had the hammer he'd need but he hadn't thought about what kind of candle he might want until the last minute.
Sunset was ten minutes past and Dean knew his time was running out. Grinding his teeth in irritation, he grabbed a box of matches and a tea light before heading down the hallway to his brother's room, flicking off the light switches as he went, plunging the Bunker into darkness.
Standing in the doorway to San's room, Dean paused, listening for the sound of his brother's breathing. Panic coursed through him when at first he heard nothing but silence before a raspy, shallow breath from within sounded and Dean calmed down slightly. At least his brother was still alive, if barely.
Holding the tea light pinched between his thumb and first two fingers; Dean struck a match against the box and brought the lit end to the wick of the tiny candle.
For a moment it didn't seem like it would catch, the orange flame seeming to disappear before it flared up, bolstered by the tea light's wick.
Holding the tea light up, Dean stepped into the room, ignoring the warmth against his fingers.
The hunter wasn't prepared for what he saw perched on his sibling's chest. So shocked was Dean that he nearly dropped the candle in surprised.
The Lidérc was about the size of a toddler and looked like the bastard child of a bat and a hen. It had feathers like a chicken, but they were black and appeared to be coated with some oily substance. It had yellow eyes and beak that ended in a sharp hook. It's white, scaly legs had toes that ended in curved claws, which were dug deep into Sam's skin. Instead of the comically stubby wings of a chicken, larger bat wings sprouted from the monster's back. The comb on top of its head was the colour of fresh blood and pulsed grossly.
"What the-" Dean began but then stopped short as the monster's mean jaundiced eyes met his hazel ones.
The Lidérc opened its beak to reveal a tongue like an earthworm but no sound came out and it did not move. It took a second for the hunter to realize that the sight of the flame from the tea light must have paralyzed the monster.
Reaching out hesitantly, Dean picked up the creature with his free hand and tucked it beneath his arm, making sure that the candlelight shone directly into its face. The monster still did not move.
Peering at his silbing's prone form, Dean thought Sam looked even worse than he had earlier that day. The dark circles beneath his eyes seemed to have blackened considerably and his skin appeared stretched over the bones of his face, making him look skeletal. Dean waited for several seconds but he didn't hear his brother breathing.
Knowing that he may already be too late, he turned and ran down the hallway towards the dungeon, the flame fluttering in the wind caused by his rapid movement, his heart hammering in his chest, praying that he would have enough time.
Throwing open the door to the basement, Dean hurried downstairs, nearly falling twice, the candle's flame flickering and threatening to go out altogether.
"Oh no you don't," Dean warned and forced himself to slow down. Heart hammering, the hunter's feet touched the concrete floor and he turned sharply to his right, peering into the shadowy space beneath the stairs.
The tea light was very warm in Dean's hand, almost too hot to continue holding, so he knew he needed to act quickly. Crouching down, the Lidérc heavy beneath his arm, the hunter illuminated the small space under the stairs. It was just as they had left it.
Ducking his head, Dean stepped into the confined room, careful not to step on any of the symbols carved into the cement floor.
Carefully putting the monster on the floor, the hunter reached out and opened the door in the side of the lantern and placed the tea light inside. Closing the latch, Dean waited for a moment but nothing happened.
"Okay," he muttered slowly before the flame from the tea light flared so brightly that the hunter was forced to cover his eyes with his arm.
When the flame died down to normal and Dean lowered his arm, he saw that the chicken monster was gone. Letting out a breath, Dean decided that was a good sign and cautiously exited the room.
"Sucks to be you," Dean commented, closing the door to the room tightly, pulling the cord that turned on the overhead light before taking the time to firmly hammer the boards back onto the door with a ferocity borne of desperation.
W
Wiping sweat from his brow, Dean stood back and observed his handiwork. It was clear that there was something beneath the stairs but he didn't care. Maybe later he and Sam could drywall over the boards so no one would ever know there was a door there.
Thinking of Sam, Dean's heart skipped a beat when he realized that some time had passed and he didn't even know if his brother was all right.
"Idiot," Dean muttered and raced up the stairs and down the hallway to his sibling's room.
"Sammy! Hey Sammy! You'll never guess-" Dean stopped and stared at his brother's prone form. He didn't appear to have moved since Dean had left him with the Lidérc.
"Sammy?" Dean flicked on the light switch beside the door and stepped into the room, "Sam?"
Straining his ears, Dean struggled to hear his sibling breathe. There was silence.
"No…" Dean whispered, "No… no way… it… it worked… it had to… Cas said…"
Stumbling forward, the older sibling fell to his knees beside his brother's bed, grabbing one of Sam's hands in his own, only now feeling the sting of burns as his fingers brushed his sibling's cool skin.
"Sam? SAM!" Dean shouted, "Wake up!"
The younger man did not respond.
"SAMMY!" Dean shouted, inches from his brother's face, "SAMMY!"
Tears welled up in Dean's eyes. It couldn't end. Not like this. This wasn't fair. There was no way. This couldn't be.
Laying his head on his sibling's chest, Dean allowed his tears to spill unchecked.
"I'm sorry, Sammy," he whimpered, "I wasn't quick enough… I… I should have realized… something was wrong…"
Closing his eyes, the older Winchester gripped his brother's hand tightly, squeezing Sam's fingers as hard as he could.
A sudden cold touch on the back of his neck made the hunter jump.
"D'n," Sam's eyes were barely open, his lips hardly moving but he had indeed spoken.
"Sammy? Sammy!" Dean's heart leaped into his throat and he started to cry again, though now they were tears of happiness.
"I thought… I thought I was too late," Dean wrapped his arms around his brother's neck in a hug.
"So… did I," Sam whispered, barely audible.
Dean leaned back and wiped his face with the backs of his hands.
"What… what was it?" Sam asked but his brother shushed him.
"I'll tell you later," Dean assured him, brushing his bangs away from his brow lovingly, "You need your rest."
Sam's eyes slid closed, "Hm."
Dean smiled and although he knew he should get some sleep as well, did not leave his brother's side for the rest of the night, content just to watch the steady rise and fall of Sam's chest as he breathed.
Author's Note:
Chapter title comes from a John 5 song of the same name.
Thanks to Idreamofivan, reannablue, Trucklady53, Kas3y, mandancie, and SamDeanLover28 for reviewing.
I've used some of the folklore about the Lidérc I found on the Internet but also used my own imagination as well so it is not completely within the creature's mythology.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited and followed this story. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!