Legalities: Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke and the CW Network. I am not making any money from this. I am simply playing in the amazing sandbox that is the Supernatural Universe.
Warnings: This is my take on what would have been bad enough to send Sam into a confessional as a child. Taken from a comment made by Sam in the season 8 finale "Sacrifice".
It's unabashed hurt Winchester. Dean suffers because of a choice that Sam makes in a moment of selfish anger. Will he get the chance to make things right before Dean is destroyed forever? Can their father put aside his own obsessive anger and his need to hunt long enough to track down both Sam and Dean? Or will his obsession destroy his sons.
If you do not like the violence, then DO NOT read this story. It revolves around the brothers and their relationship and this idea wouldn't leave me alone. So here is my take on the one and only time Sam confessed his greatest sins.
Rating: T with possible upgrade to MA at a later point if it takes a really dark turn.
NO SLASH/ BROTHERLY LOVE AND FAMILY ANGST ONLY
Please Review if you want to see this one continue.
Chapter Seven
Mind Tricks
Dean shrank back against the bars of the cage. His fingers clawing at his temples as he tried to drown out the voices screaming at him to attack the kid. But all he could see was 'Sam'…and he couldn't hurt Sammy…not ever. A pinch on the back of his leg had him pulling it violently away from the bars and turning a withering look on the man that had just injected him with something. This isn't going to end well. He thought. His fever was still raging and his head felt like cotton and concrete. It was harder for him to hang onto where he was and why he was there.
An image of their father hunting something flashed in his mind and he blinked to try and recall the image…but it was gone. He shook his head as pain lanced through it and he clamped his eyes shut in the hopes that it would stop...it didn't.
The crowd surged forward and split apart as the teacher walked through, he was carrying the cattle prod and wearing one hell of frown. Dean barely acknowledge either the man or the crowd, all he could see was Sam.
The skinny boy across the ring stared at Dean like a zombie. Whatever he'd been given it hadn't done anything to make him more lucid. There was a glazed look to his eyes and he was blinking very slowly. But the moment he glanced up, Dean's heart sank…same almond shaped eyes as his little brother. A zing of pain ripping through Dean's calf had him sinking to one knee and biting his lip to keep from screaming out. Fucking cattle prod...
"You will fight, Dean." The teacher ground out. "Or I will kill you." He looked over his shoulder at the angry mob. Another jab at the young hunter had Dean stumbling further into the ring, but he still made no move to attack the other kid.
"No." It was barely a whisper and he almost couldn't believe that it had come from his own mouth…but he wasn't going to do this…he couldn't.
Dean shook his head as he tried desperately to clear and sift through his own randomly shifting thoughts. A man stepped up behind the other kid and Dean found himself lurching forward in an effort to protect the boy. The guy handed something to the boy and he watched as the kid spun around on Dean…his eyes no longer glazed but bright with anger. A feral snarl ripped through the boy as he lunged forward, the cattle prod in one hand and a ten inch blade in the other.
"Stop…" Dean stuttered as he forced his body back to his feet and moved away from the kid. He couldn't do this…fight someone that had no control…or looked like a freaky carbon copy of Sam. His leg buckled and he went down on one knee before he surged upright again and did his best to keep his distance from the kid. He kept trying to get through whatever had been done to the boy. "We don't have to fight…come on man…just think…"
"You never loved me." The boy breathed out and sprang at Dean with a lightning speed that caught the middle Winchester off guard. "You did that to me on purpose! Dragging me from home to home. I could've been normal." Rage poured off the youth in palpable waves and Dean found that he was only seeing Sammy now. "You just didn't want to be alone!" He lashed out with the prod and caught Dean in the ribs. Fire raced through his side and he wrapped his arm around the area protectively.
Dean stumbled as he tried to move away and fell backward, catching the blue-arcing end of the cattle prod square in his naked chest. The shorts were hanging dangerously low on his lean hips and his entire mid-section was on fire. His world spun as the kid dug the prod deeper into his skin, splitting it and causing blood to trickle from two small wounds. But it was what the boy had said that froze Dean's heart. Is there even a chance that Sam might feel this way? Is that why he left? Or was he taken…
When he turned his green eyes back at his attacker he couldn't tell the difference anymore. Was this the kid from that damned hanging cage? Or had those bastards actually turned Sam against him?
"Fight me!" The Sam-impersonator screamed, his face changing to a dusky red shade as uncontrollable rage poured through him. He lashed forward with the blade; it slid along Dean's shoulder leaving a long bloody trail from his collarbone to his elbow. The wound shifted between ice and fire and Dean's gaze rested there for a moment mesmerized by the blood. His eyes were drawn back to the kid in front of him and blinked slowly as his brain tried to process. Whatever they'd give him was starting to take effect, but it didn't seem to be the one that his captor wanted. The man looked seriously pissed.
Screams from the crowd turned into muddled sounds. Like when someone was yelling at him when he was swimming underwater. What about their father? Where was he? Had he abandoned Dean too? It doesn't matter…I can't do this.
But even if it meant dying right here, right now…he couldn't fight Sam. He gulped his pain down and shook his head 'no' before curling in on himself. The not-Sam roared his anger and pummeled Dean with the cattle prod…but he never brought the knife down again.
He had no idea how long the attack went on…somewhere in the middle of it his brain just shut off and the crowd drained away along with the hateful insults this incarnation of Sam was throwing at him. But until that moment, Dean had heard everything. He'd heard what Sam really thought of him…how he felt about their lives and the way Dean had tried to protect him from it. All his worst fears were laid bare as he stayed still and folded his lengthy body into a ball trying to protect his vulnerable chest and ribs from more abuse.
Finally it was over. The crowd faded to a distant memory and still Dean laid in the center of the ring in a tight bloody ball. His body was a mass of ghastly bruises and split skin. He'd managed to protect his vital areas when his training kicked in. But he'd never struck the kid…not even when the thing had stepped into the ring and took the blade. He'd threatened to peel the skin from Dean's bones and then send the tanned hide to his family and still Dean had refused to fight the kid.
"Anyone else…please…anyone." He'd muttered this over and over again until the teacher had just beat him with the cattle prod. Dean felt every lash, every fire pull of the electricity, and every thread that had been hurdled at him and still he remained motionless on the floor.
"He's fraud!" Someone in the crowd yelled.
"You promised us a fight!" Another man called from the back of the crowd. "You promised us fear!"
XXXX
John was sitting on the side of his truck. His fingers picking at the seam in his jeans. Sam was inside the motel room asleep. He'd handled the news about Dean better than John had…but the boy wasn't sleeping and he was barely eating. It was worrying both the older hunters. Bobby had felt that it was necessary to keep Sam in the loop about things, but John had wanted nothing more than to keep Sam out of this. Hell, he would have kept Dean out of it too if he could.
When he'd left for Seattle it was because of a lead that Caleb had gotten him about a monster that burns it's victims. The more information John had uncovered about the case the more he knew that he was dealing with some truly evil…as it turned out, it was a demon. John's first and he didn't want the boys there until he had exorcised the thing. Which he had, but then he'd heard that there was more than one of them involved and by the time he'd tracked down the other host…it was gone. Just a burned out husk of a human body remaining. He'd called the boys to have them meet him in the area. It was easier to keep an eye on them that way and John wasn't sure what the other demon had planned. Dean had assured him that they would be on their way. And then he'd gotten the call from Dean…Sam was missing and he didn't know what to do.
Footsteps on the gravel startled him out of his thoughts and he turned toward the motel. Bobby stepped up next to him and held up the bottle of Johnny Walker Blue…a very expensive, yet smooth scotch that neither of the hunters drank that often.
"Thought you could use a bit of this tonight." The old hunter's eyes were buried under the brim of the trucker's cap that he always wore. His worn plaid shirt wrinkled from years of misuse and a sad smiled playing at the edges of his lips. The beard did a lot to hide what Bobby didn't want other people to know about him, but his eyes were so expressive that John had learned to read the man years ago.
A simple nod was his only response. "So it takes hunters?" John asked.
Bobby nodded. "That's what it looks like. Danny said that it likes to pit them against each other in the fights." The older hunter took a long swig of the whiskey and handed the bottle to John. This was one bad son of a bitch that they were tracking. He'd made some calls and learned some more about that little exorcism that John had performed in Seattle. Yeah, he'd managed to send one of the demons back…but the one that got away? That was the brains of the operation and the demon that John had caught that was its brother. He hadn't even known that demons had families…at least not like the traditional family unit. So yeah…we're dealing with something completely new to both of us.
"I think we need to find some bait. Needs to be someone that the demon will come after." John grabbed the bottle and tossed back a swallow before handing it back to the other man. "Can't be you…so it's gotta be me."
Bobby nearly choked on his whiskey. "An what happens to Sam if you die?" He blinked at his friend as shock registered on his face. "That kid will have lost his brother and his father in one night. How's he supposed to recover from that?" He won't. Bobby thought immediately.
"He won't. Sam's sensitive and that would break him. But he can't lose Dean…not like this…that'll kill him too." John answered honestly. He leaned against the truck bed and kick at the tire with the back of his boot. His breath was foggy up as he breathed and he blew out a ring of crystalized air before continuing. "That's why you gotta take him if this goes south."
"Come again?" Bobby shot back. He pushed away from the truck and moved to stand in front of John. "I can't raise a child…specially not one that's lost his whole family to demons." The truth was…Bobby was scared of what would happen to Sam if he lost his only anchors to reality…his brother and his father.
"And I can't lose Dean because I'm afraid to go after what took him." John breathed out. Inside he was panicked…the demon had had Dean for five days…there were two more before the matches and God only knows what it could do between now and then. Chances were good that Dean was already gonna be pretty messed up because of what Sam pulled, but to add on a monster playing with his mind? How does a person come back from that? And if they do, are they the same person? John wasn't willing to find out.
XXXX
Sam leaned against the window and his shoulders sagged in defeat. They were going to try and leave him home while they went to save Dean. He clenched his teeth in anger at both his father and Bobby. There was no way that he could live with himself if Dean died and he hadn't been trying to save him. Their father had spent their entire lives teaching them to hunt the things that prowl the night and now he thought that he could just leave Sam out of this? Out of the most important hunt that they'd ever been on?
The guilt surged to the surface and Sam frowned in agitation. He had to be part of the rescue…he had to be. The front door of the motel opened and he hurried to bury himself back under the covers. He'd learned a long time ago that the one thing that gave him away was his breathing. So he evened that out and waited until his father had opened the door and watched him for a moment and then the soft 'snick' of the door closing.
Sam shot out of the bed like a man on fire. He grabbed his gear and hurried to throw on appropriate clothes before prying the window open and climbing out of it. He thought to grab a thick jacket and a blanket; since riding in the truck bed of his father's pickup was really gonna suck. His gaze flickered to the motel room, he could see two figures in the living room so he carefully lifted the tunnel cover and crawled inside. Sam shivered in the cold and quickly wrapped the blanket around his legs and upper body, trying to create a barrier between himself and the floor of the truck.
Luckily for him, Dean had insisted that he buy a new coat for the new school year. For once, his older brother had won out against their father's cheap nature. Sam was sporting a top of the line ski parka that he'd never been so grateful for. He laid in the bed of the truck for about an hour before his finally came out and fired up the engine and they started moving. Whatever happened? Sam was damned sure gonna be involved.
XXXX
When Dean started to shift as he worked back toward awareness he found he wasn't able to move at all. He was folded in on himself like a slinky and his body was thrumming in pain. It was also freezing. His skin was covered in goosebumps and his hands were shaking as he lifted them to his face. Dean swallowed when he realized that he wasn't in the cage on the ground anymore…he was suspended in one of the hanging cages. His clothes still missing and his body a mass of agony from the previous day. His shoulder was on fire and his temperature was worse. He could feel the cold sweat running down his back and the soft 'thwerp' as it hit the ground beneath him.
"You should have fought, Winchester." The familiar voice of the teacher said. He lit a match and one of the black flame candles flared to life in front of Dean. Nothing was holding the candle…it was floating in mid-air.
Dean's eyes widened in surprise. "I told you before…I can't…"
"Yes, you did. Didn't you. Well, then I guess I'll have to get the real thing…" It didn't even get a chance to finish before Dean was begging.
"That wasn't Sammy?" He tried to twist so he could see better, but he didn't have the room to move. "Please, leave him out of this. Just kill me if that's what you want. But Sam's got nothing to do with this. He's a good kid." Dean would have kept going but the bastard jabbed the cattle prod into the wound on his shoulder and he screamed in agony as fire shredded his nerves.
"Shut up, Dean." He said as he pulled now bloody prod away. "It isn't you I want…it never was."
Dean's eyes shifted and he bit at his lip to keep from whimpering in pain. His left hand was covering the wound. The skin was puckered and hot to the touch…so infection on top of everything else…great. But his mind was also listening to everything this asshole had to say. If it wasn't after Dean or Sam…then it was after. "Dad." He whispered.
"Give the man a cigar." The teacher said as he clapped loudly.
"He's not here…and he's not stupid." Dean blinked slowly, his eyes watering from the pain. "He ain't falling for this."
"Like you did?"
Dean winced at the remark, but stayed silent.
"I know that he is here and that he will come…for you." A laugh echoed through the room and Dean found his blood turning to ice in his veins. "And then he's gonna watch you die."
He shook his head in silent denial. If their father came after him and he died in the attempt…who would take care of Sammy? That had to be their first priority…always.
TBC…
Author's Note: Okay, so here's the next chapter. Next one has John facing the teacher for the first time…with a tiny surprise in the back. Bobby's gonna pissed when he realizes that Sam gave them the slip and Dean is slipping fast due to the treatment from the demon.
Please excuse any continuity errors, as I said in the beginning I don't have a Beta and I am posting these within hours of finishing the chapters. So there's no time for me to do really proper proof reading. Sorry for that, just want to get this out for you guys.
Once again, you guys are awesome and thank you so much for the reviews, specially…becca65d, BranchSuper, babyreaper, Nova42, kracken96, Beakers47, Idreamofivan, sonicblue99, mb64, janiekm, Nina Ferraro, Sylvie-winchester, dandy44, and smilingbella.
PLEASE REVIEW: Please let me know if I need to clear anything else up, or if this is coming together for you guys.
