Here's the next chapter!
Just a warning: this is a dark chapter. This isn't fun or pretty. :(
I hope you enjoy anyway... :)
Sam reached.
Thoughts swarmed around him, overwhelming and loud. Normal people with normal concerns, angry, sad, happy, afraid.
He moved out of the city and things were quiet for a moment.
He stretched out faster, searching for something, trying to get a sense of where to look.
It was exhausting simply trying to reach out so far, but Sam wasn't a Winchester by name only. He didn't let go, didn't give up.
He'd been through too much to stop now.
Finally, a faint darkness in the distance.
Sam reached out towards it, trying not to get too close, but close enough that either he or Cas could get a better idea of where this was.
The darkness grew as he approached it, an awful evil leeching the life out of everything around it.
Sam cringed away from the suddenly great darkness standing before him, frightened, but he forced himself a little closer.
He had to figure out where this was.
...
Sam was trembling.
Dean watched with trepidation as Sam cringed away from something.
His brother was afraid.
"Dean." Sam's voice was a faint whimper and Dean had the distinct impression that his brother wasn't aware he had spoken.
Dean stepped forward, wrapping his arms around his little brother, whispering softly, "I'm right here. I'm here."
...
Sam felt a distant flash of cold amusement, someone else's emotion, and he had a sinking feeling that he knew who's.
"You are very bold, Sam. Perhaps too bold."
Sam was suddenly plunged into a horrible evil, a pure darkness that had him jerking and writhing in fear and panic, trying to free his mind, but to no avail.
...
Dean was shocked when Sam suddenly cried out, body jerking in his older brother's arms. "Sam!"
He distantly heard Castiel yelling as well. "Samuel! Sam!"
Tears ran down Sam's cheeks, whimpers falling from his lips.
"Sam! Sammy, answer me! Snap out of it!"
...
Flames.
Screams of thousands.
Suffering surrounded him.
Lucifer laughing at the pain he inflicted.
Blood, so much blood.
Black eyes flashing.
Sam spiraled, surrounded, overwhelmed by more evil than he had ever been faced with.
A deep cold settled in his veins, painful in its extremity.
It was replaced by burning, burning unlike anything he had ever experienced. Ten times worse than anything the trickster had inflicted. From the inside out: his heart first, spreading to his veins, carried to his limbs till he was alight with agony.
Flayed alive, pierced by sharp instruments Sam didn't even have names for, torn to pieces by demons and hellhounds alike.
Sometimes he watched others suffer, sometimes he suffered himself.
He couldn't decide what was worse.
Lucifer laughed.
"Is this what you were looking for, Sam?"
...
Dean panicked when Sam began to scream, horrible heart-wrenching screams that tugged at every protective instinct the older brother had.
"SAMMY! Sam, wake up! Answer me! Please! Sam!"
Dean flashed Castiel a desperate look. "DO SOMETHING!"
Cas tightened his hold on Sam's shoulder, his worried look fading away as he closed his eyes.
Then suddenly Sam was collapsing against Dean, screams cutting off, trembling, tears running down his face, pitiful whimpers tearing at Dean painfully.
Dean managed to lower his younger brother to the ground, cradling him in his arms. "Sammy. Sam, I'm right here. You're okay."
Dean spared Cas a moment's glance. "Please tell me you got what you need." he didn't bother to hide the anguish in his voice.
Cas nodded, grimly, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Sam was whimpering almost constantly now, sometimes a word accompanying the wretched sound. "Dean."
Sam was shaking almost violently now, nearly making Dean lose his grip, but the older brother simply tightened his hold and tucked Sam's head under his chin. "I'm right here, Sammy. It's over, you're safe. You're okay."
Sam's hands were clutched in his shirt, his tears turning to distressing sobs.
"Sammy. Sammy, please. I'm right here."
...
For hours, Sam was completely inconsolable.
It had been years since Dean had held Sam like this for so long and it had never been like this.
Sam didn't respond to him, cried till his tears were spent, whimpering till his voice was gone, clutching Dean's shirt, refusing to let go.
Dean hated to admit it, but he was terrified. Terrified of what this meant, what Sam had seen. Terrified that Sam wouldn't come back to him.
He was in uncharted territory. Even with all Sam had suffered, his little brother had never had a breakdown, definitely nothing like this.
Dean didn't know what to do, so he did what had always worked in the past. He held on. He rocked Sam gently back and forth, whispering soothing nonsense in his ear, urging him that he was right there and would never move again if Sam didn't want to.
Tears began to streak down Dean's cheeks as his baby brother made another soft noise of anguish, wordless torment expressed in the only way Sam seemed to be able.
"It'll be okay, Sammy." Dean forced back the thought that he might be lying. "It'll be okay. You'll be okay. I don't even know what happened, but I'm not going to let you be anything but okay. You hear me? Big brother has your back, Sammy."
Please Sammy.