A/N: Thanks everyone who reviewed my story, you all rock. And you'll be happy to know that my penchant for evil cliffies continues in this story. Mwah ha ha; I love them

Chapter Nine

Once Sam received the phone call telling him his brother had been taken to hospital, he hurried there as fast as he could to find out if his big brother was okay. After spending far too long waiting and not being told anything, he was finally allowed to see Dean.

Dean had come out of the incident relatively unscathed much to Sam's relief. He hadn't broken any bones and the worst injury he had received was a sprained wrist. The Doctor had insisted that he stay overnight to make sure he was okay, a prospect which annoyed Dean greatly. He told them he felt fine and didn't need to stay.

He was sitting up in bed looking thoroughly bored, flicking through the channels on the television. The nurse who took Sam to Dean had told him that his brother had been complaining almost incessantly that he was fine and didn't need to stay a minute longer. Sam just shook his head and commented that it sounded just like Dean.

"Hey," he greeted Dean as he entered the room.

"Hey, can we leave now?" He didn't stop channel hopping. Sam was well aware about Dean's thoughts on daytime television and there didn't seem to be anything to watch. Despite his protestations that he was fine, Dean didn't look it. He was pale, tired and covered in bruises, some from the fall and some from the beating he had taken the night before. His cut hand had also been redressed.

"Dean you just fell down a flight of stairs, can't you just rest for a minute."

"I don't have time to rest; we have a spirit to get rid of."

Sam shook his head as he sat down in the chair next to the bed. "You need to rest," he said with a tone of finality in his voice that Dean didn't argue with.

"Don't you want to know what I found out about our little spook?"

"What did you find out?"

"Well, there was definitely no record of a young girl called Annabel dying in this town so I widened the search," he gestured to his jacket which was draped over the back of the chair. Sam took it and removed several leaves of paper containing newspaper articles while Dean elaborated. "I found a girl matching the spirit's description called Annabel Parker who lived in Durham, North Carolina. She was found dead in the seventies in the basement of her house," he explained. "It turns out Annabel had this friend and they were best friends but the girl's parents didn't like her; said she was a bad influence, so she murders the parents so she and her friend could be together."

"Then why did she die?"

"The friend was sent to live with her grandparents after her parents were murdered and before police could talk to Annabel about the murders she was found in the basement hanging from the ceiling by her parents."

"That's very strange behaviour for a seven year old," Sam mused.

"That's not all though," Dean continued. "The Wellington family, before they moved here, lived in the exact same town Annabel did before she died."

"So, the spirit latched onto Melody pretending to be her imaginary friend and when they moved so did she."

"Yep, she just wanted a friend. But when Eve Wellington told Melody to stop believing Annabel got mad again."

"And killed her so she could stay with Melody," Sam finished. Dean nodded. "Wait a minute," he murmured to himself as he flicked through the newspaper articles.

"What is it?"

"Didn't we stay in Durham for a while when we were kids?"

"Yeah, I think so, why?" Dean asked.

"Erm… no reason," he told his brother but his brain was working overtime. Something had just clicked and he was quite shocked at this realisation. He had remembered that they lived in Durham for a couple of months when he was seven, the age that he had believed in Annie. He couldn't understand why he hadn't realised it before; Annabel and Annie, his imaginary friend were one and the same. It certainly explained why Annie had been so mean about his family. She wanted him to herself without Dean and his dad interfering. Maybe it was good that he stopped believing in her.

"We need to go to and salt and burn her bones," Dean said, breaking Sam from his thoughts.

"You're right," Sam sighed. "But I need to go and see Allie first and tell her I'm leaving. I have to say goodbye to her."

"Fine, you can go do that, just get me out of this place first."


Once Sam had managed to convince the doctors to release Dean, he took him back to the motel room, insisted he rested before they left and then went to tell Allie he had to leave; a task he was completely dreading.

She looked so pleased to see him when she answered the door and while Sam smiled, he couldn't make it reach his eyes. She immediately knew that something was wrong.

"Sam, what's the matter?" She nervously asked.

"Allie, could I come in I need to speak to you for a moment."

"Of course," she said as she opened the door wider so he could enter the house. She led him to the living room and sat him down on the couch. "Would you like a drink?" She asked trying to delay the inevitable.

"No thank you," Sam quietly replied. "Allie I came here because I needed to tell you that Dean and I have to leave."

"Leave? Why are you leaving?"

"We have some unavoidable business that we have to take care of immediately. I'm sorry but we really have to go."

"When are you leaving?"

"As soon as I get back from here."

"Why can't you stay? I'm sure your brother could manage this business by himself. You could stay here with me," she desperately begged him, realising that he was once again slipping out of her grasp.

"I'm sorry," Sam said genuinely, "but I can't leave Dean alone at the minute. I should go."

"Please don't, I thought you liked me."

"I do, but this is something that I have to do. Maybe when it's finished I could come back and see you again," he sadly told her, knowing that was not likely to happen.

"You will" She brightly asked him.

"Maybe, we'll see how things go," he said. "But now I have to go," he leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss and wiped the tears away from her face. "Goodbye Allie."

"Bye Sam," she said as he stood up and left. Now she was angry. That son of a bitch Dean was going to pay for making her precious Sam leave again. This time, she decided, Dean Winchester was not leaving town alive.


Sam walked slowly back to the motel. He was not ready to leave yet. He felt miserable at the thought of leaving Allie behind which he found strange. He had never intended to feel this way about her and it was really strange that he felt this way. He hated this kind of life sometimes. He wasn't like Dean and couldn't just drop a girl and leave like he did. It made him feel like he did when he had to leave Sarah and that was not a feeling he had ever wanted to feel again. Shaking off this strange feeling he made his way back to Dean so they could leave, picking up some food so they could eat beforehand.

"Dean, I got us some food," he called out as he closed the motel room door. There was no reply but Sam saw the bathroom door was shut and heard the shower running so he assumed Dean was showering before leaving. He threw the food onto the table and sat on the bed waiting for Dean to leave the bathroom but he didn't. After fifteen minutes Sam began to worry, he never usually spent that long in the shower. He tried to open the door but it was locked.

"Dean!" He called, banging on the door but there was still no reply. Feeling frantic, Sam kicked the door until it cracked open and he could enter. "Dean!" He called again in panic when he found his big brother lying on the floor of the bathroom in a pool of his own blood, a stab wound in his side.