Thanks again to those who have shown interest in this story.

Another short chapter (but longer than the last), and another character.

Disclaimer: Don't own, just playing, yada, yada.

Dark Side of the Glass

Chapter 4

Sam blinked and slowly lowered his gun. His reflection followed his exact movements, and he almost breathed a sigh of relief. That was too weird.

"Did you see that?" asked Dean. "Tell me you saw that and I'm not going crazy…er."

"I'm not sure what I saw," replied Sam. He stepped forward and cautiously brushed his fingers across the surface of the mirror. "What happened before I got here?"

"Pretty much what you saw. The 'reflection' moved by itself. It saw me and…kinda freaked out a bit. It asked what was going on."

"I heard it. I thought it was you." Sam drew in a deep breath in an attempt to calm his nerves. "What do you think they were?"

"I don't know, Bloody Mary's handsome…and not-so-handsome cousins? Fetches?" Dean paused. "Just what we need, more bad omens."

"I don't think so. They were…sentient, whatever they were. They were aware of us, and apparently just as freaked out. You ever hear of anything like this?"

"No. Now can we get out of here? It's getting kind of stuffy." Dean brushed past Sam and head back out to the main room. Sam took one last glance at the mirror before following.

"I'll check online, see what I can find. You check Dad's journal, then call Bobby. Maybe he's heard of something." Sam pulled his laptop out of the bag and opened it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dean pull their father's journal out of the duffle and settle back on the bed with it. They had been working in silence for a few minutes, when Sam noticed the pattern of Dean's breathing had changed dramatically.

"Dean?" He turned to his brother and saw that he was staring back, a look of complete terror on his face. Oh crap… "Dean, what's wrong? Dean?" Suddenly he propelled himself backward as fast as he could until his back hit the wall behind the bed with an audible thump.

"No! No, no, no, no! Stay away from me!"

Sam froze. It's a flashback. Damn it! I knew he was repressing too much! Now it's breaking through. I have to get through to him right now!

"Dean! It's me! It's Sam. You're OK, you're here with me. You need to calm down," Sam cajoled, but Dean's breathing became more labored, his eyes, focused on some unseen landscape, flicked back and forth in panic. "Dean, please, look at me! It's going to be all right. Please." Without warning, Dean screamed, a deep, guttural cry that immediately reminded Sam of the sounds his brother had made while being torn apart by invisible Hellhounds. He doubled over in obvious pain before falling on his side, thrashing.

"NO! Please, no!"

Sam scrambled towards his duffle and grabbed a bottle of holy water. He twisted the cap and threw the contents at his brother in desperation. Nothing happened. His brother continued to twist and turn until he suddenly sat upright and flopped back on the bed, spread-eagle. Sam watched in horror as Dean's right shoulder began to darken and a pool of red started to form on his left side.

"Oh, God, somebody…help me! SAM!"

"DEAN!" Sam grabbed one of his shirts and rushed to Dean's side. He pressed the shirt against Dean's abdomen, trying to stop the blood flow. He looked into his brother's eyes, half expecting them to have that glazed look that had haunted his dreams for months. Instead they were rolling wildly in their sockets, viewing horrors that Sam could not see as he began to scream wordlessly.

"Dean! Stay with me, man! I'll--." Sam heard the door behind him crash open. He turned, ready to scream at the intruder, and stopped when he saw the figure standing in the doorway.

"Castiel? Castiel! Help him, please!" Sam heard a rush of wings and turned to see the angel standing on the other side of the bed, looking down at Dean. He reached out and touched two fingers to Dean's forehead, silencing him instantly and causing Dean's eyes to snap shut. Dean lay on the bed, utterly still. Sam pressed his fingers to Dean's neck and almost collapsed in relief when he felt the steady beat beneath. He looked up at Castiel, whose inhuman gaze was still fixed on Dean. "Is he--?"

"What happened?" Castiel asked, and the edge to his voice caused Sam to shrink in fear.

"I…I don't know. One minute, he was fine, and the next, he started freaking out, and then he just started bleeding..."

"Before that. Something happened. What was it?"

"We, uh, saw something. In the mirror."

Castiel turned his gaze to Sam. "What did you see?"

"Us. Uh, we saw two things in the mirror that looked like us, but weren't. They…saw us too, and it frightened them, I guess. We were trying to figure out what it was when…" He glanced down at Dean's still form. "When Dean…"

"What exactly did these things do?"

"Dean said the one that looked like him talked, asked what the H…heck was going on. I guess then Dean pulled out his gun and, I heard it from the other side of the door, it tried to get him to stop. That's when I went in and saw it. It called me 'Sammy'…only Dean calls me that…" Sam mused as he felt a new surge of fear mixed with sadness.

"Then what?"

"Then the one that looked like me showed up. It grabbed the other one and they disappeared and the mirror went back to being a regular mirror. That's it." Sam glanced down at his brother. "Is he…will he be OK?"

Castiel reached out and placed his hand on Dean's forehead. For several moments he remained perfectly still with his head tilted slightly and a curious expression on his face as if he was listening to something only he could hear. Just as Sam was about to ask again, the angel's expression changed.

"There." He looked at Sam. "Do not touch him until he awakes or until I return."

"What? Why?"

"Do not touch him. His life, and yours, depends on it," Castiel said before taking one final look at Dean. Sam blinked in surprise, and the angel was gone.