Chapter 13: "Dream a little dream of me."
"Good morning,"
Jennifer snuggled into the chest she was laying on, pinching her eyes against the bright sunlight filtering through the curtains.
She whispered a muffled 'good morning' and took a deep breath, trying to go back to sleep for a few minutes when she suddenly realised she went to sleep alone last night.
She opened her eyes, looking up to the person lying next to her. Her heart stopped.
"John?"
He smiled and kissed her forehead, "Hello, Jenny,"
She scrambled back and fell out of the bed, startled. "You're dead. Am I dead?"
"No," John smiled. "You're not dead."
"How can you be real?" she looked around. It could be a dream, but it was so weirdly vivid.
She knew she had to get out, this couldn't be natural. John sat up too, smiling. "Where are you going?"
"Nowhere," she lied. "Just, getting some air. I'll be back."
John's smile got wider as his eyes flashed yellow. "Of course you will."
She turned around and ran out the door, ignoring the shouts she heard behind her.
When she slammed the door behind her, she was standing outside, in a forest.
Jennifer turned around, but the door had disappeared too. She took a deep breath.
"What the Hell." She started walking, north, presumably.
She walked out of the forest, past grasslands and rivers. There were animals to accompany her along the way, horses that trotted aside her, showing her the way to a pond to drink from, wolves that kept her warm at night. It started to feel like she had been walking for weeks when she finally found some sign of civilisation.
It was a cemetery, so you couldn't exactly call it civilized, but it was better than the endless grass she had been walking through for weeks now. She sat down for a moment, back resting against a headstone, only now realizing she was still in her pyjama's. That was a big word for the ripped and dirty sweatpants and tank top, but she started to get cold.
The wind whipped around her arms when the clouds suddenly grew dark and it started to rain. Soft drops pouring down the sky so dense that it was hard to see.
"Come on." She heard a strangely familiar voice. "It's time to go back. You have completed your mission. We're proud."
She was scared to death, but couldn't resist the temptation of walking forward, towards the voice. There was a small tomb with a pentagram on the door.
First she saw Ice, but not the Ice she saw in the bathroom. This time, she had braided her thick hair and was dressed into a velvet red dress that looked Tudor-like.
Next she saw Sam and Dean lying on the ground. Sam was on his belly, a dirty stab wound that must've pierced right through his spine in his back.
Dean was lying in a puddle of his own blood, his face, arms and chest ripped open by what appeared to be claws.
"No!" Jennifer screamed. "I didn't do this, tell me I didn't!"
Ice smiled and nodded. "We are proud of you. Very proud. And now I need you again."
The Ice dissolved into black smoke and swirled around the tomb.
Jennifer sank to her knees, feeling alone and empty. The Smoke closed in on her, surrounded her and suffocated her.
Two big hands yanked her out of the smoke. She inhaled deeply, drinking the fresh, damp air.
"Excorzisamus té, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarí, omnis legio, omnis congregatio. Et secta diabolica. Ergo draco maledicte. Ecclésiam tuam, securi tibi. Facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos." It was Sam's voice, quick and certain, that blurted an exorcism out in less than thirty seconds. "Jennifer, you need to wake up!"
Jennifer sat up and wrestled free from his grip. She got up and shook her head: "I'm not sleeping, I'm awake. I have been here for weeks."
Sam looked around, his eyes only momentarily resting on the bodies. "What do you mean, weeks?"
"I woke up in a motel room, alone and when I went out, the door disappeared so I had nothing left to do but walk. I walked for weeks and ended up here, in this cemetery. That's where the nightmare really started." Jennifer waved to the bodies.
Sam nodded. "It's okay, it's all going to be okay, but you need to focus now. You're dreaming."
"Dreaming?" Jennifer shook her head. "No, I've been here for weeks."
She was so incredibly confused. Of course, when she first arrived here the idea of a dream had occurred to her, but she assumed that this was her punishment, a last, lovely trip through a beautiful landscape until she would descend down into Hell via this tomb-gate-thing.
"You need to snap out of it, you need to realise this is a dream." Sam said. "You've been sleeping for two days."
"How do I get out of it? I can't just snap out of it after weeks!"
Sam grabbed her shoulders, but the familiar cold sensation wasn't there. "It hasn't been weeks- it's been two days. TWO DAYS." He shook her shoulders.
Jennifer started pinching herself, but she still didn't really believe it.
Sam saw that in her eyes, he stepped back. "Okay- if this were real, would I be able to do this?"
He raised his arms and pointed his hands at the tomb, it crumbled to pieces and more Demons, black clouds, like thunder, rose in the sky and around them.
"It's a dream, so you can stop it, but you have to believe it." Sam nodded.
Jennifer looked at the cloud of Demons, swirling through the sky like snakes. One of them turned in front of Jennifer and hovered above the ground for a moment.
Even though it was just a cloud of black smoke, Jennifer recognized it. Recognized her.
She clenched her jaw and raised her hand like Sam had done, she wanted to believe, she wanted this dream to stop.
And collapsed.
She woke up in a hospital bed, in one of those blue gowns and she had an iv-needle in her hands.
Hastily, she pressed the nurse button. After her last experience with ending up alone in an hospital bed, she wanted answers, and quickly.
A nurse entered the room. "Ah- good!" she smiled, "You're awake! You're uncle has been awake for a few hours too."
"Uncle Bobby?" She said. Her voice was raw.
"Yes, a maid found you, you have been in a coma for a couple of days. The doctor suspects there was something in the air, but since you both woke up, you're going to be fine!" The nurse smiled and did something with her IV.
"Can I see my uncle?" Jennifer asked. She didn't want to be alone in an hospital.
"Well, I'm going to get a doctor to check if you're all good to go. But I can call one of your brothers if you want." The nurse smiled.
Jennifer hated her.
"Are my brothers here too?" She didn't want to say any names, in case of tripping the NSA off or anything.
"Yes, one is really tall and the other is a male model type." The nurse said.
Jennifer smiled. "Can you get the tall one? Please?"
The nurse turned around like a ballerina or something. Swirling around with her long blonde hair and her perfect hips.
Haha, you're hilarious.
It was just a flash, but scary enough to creep her out.
She started scratching her wounds, but realised that they were taken care of.
She shoved her arm under the blanket when she heard footsteps that sounded like Sam.
"How are you feeling?" Sam asked, he walked in the room.
"I'm okay." Jennifer tried to dodge his eyes and stared to a small pimple on his forehead.
Sam sat down on her bed. "We need to talk about a few things Jennifer." he pointed to the bandage around her forearm. "That for a starter."
Jennifer wanted to die. She was ashamed and felt guilty, but she needed it.
"Listen, I am not the one to judge. But harming yourself is not a good way to cope."
Just nod and smile and kick him out. His Demons are way worse.
"Jennifer-? Are you even listening to me?" Sam said.
"I don't want to talk about it. The same way Dean doesn't want to talk about John and the way you don't want to talk about Jessica. Please don't make me talk about why I do this." Jennifer shook her head. "I've got a reason. I need it."
"But it's not good for you," Sam said. He shook his head. "I am used to people not talking. Just- you know, if you ever feel like it, I want to help."
The doctor walked in, bless the Lord, to delay their conversation.
Very much to her disappointment, Sam didn't leave. He stayed in the back of the room, silently observing when the doctor listened to her heart, breath and took her temperature.
"Surprisingly enough, you are fine. You're a little dehydrated so we'll keep you here for observation, but I guess you could leave before supper."
Jennifer smiled. "Thank you, doctor."
He nodded, "I have some other patients to see, I'll tell the nurse when you can go."
Jennifer shook his hand. "Thank you doctor." She rubbed the place where the IV needle had been.
When the doctor closed the door behind him, Sam scraped his throat again. "We also need to talk about what you dreamed about."
"I don't want to talk about that." Jennifer said.
"Why do you fear our deaths?" Sam asked. "And did you see the cemetery before? The one in your dream?"
Jennifer shrugged. "After John, I have every reason to fear your deaths, you family is irrational and would gladly go to Hell for each other. And no, I did not see the cemetery before."
"I dreamed about it too. For a couple of weeks now," Sam admitted.
"I start to wish I had called for Dean instead of you." Jennifer rolled her eyes.
Sam smiled. "It's okay. I understand. I'll leave you alone, then." He turned around.
"No!" Jennifer said, a little more desperate than she had planned to sound. "Please. I, I don't want to be alone. Not in a hospital."
Sam pulled a chair next to her bed. "No, that's fine. We asked if you could be moved to Bobby's room, but since you're both allowed to leave tonight, there wasn't much use to that."
"What exactly happened?" Jennifer asked.
"We got a phone call that Bobby was in the hospital so we went over here, found the research in the closet and went to investigate too. Dean went to Jeremy and I interrogated the assistant."
"Let me guess," Jennifer smiled. "Dean drank a nice, cold beer."
Sam nodded. "So the three of you have to stay awake until we can get to Frost."
"Well, I feel like I have slept for weeks, so that'll be fine." Jennifer shrugged.
Nothing was less true, three days and countless cups of double shot espresso's later, Jennifer, Bobby and Bela were sitting in their greasy motel room. Bobby had bags under his eyes and Jennifer was lying face down on the couch, pinching herself to stay awake.
"I'll call Dean, maybe he found something at the strip club," Bobby took his phone out of his pocket.
"I bet," Bela smiled.
"I hope he did, because that was our last real lead." Jennifer mumbled into her pillow.
She could just lay her head down for a minute and...
"Keep awake," Bobby tilted the couch so she fell off.
"I'm up!" she shot up and stumbled to the kitchen for more coffee.
"Strip club was a bust huh?" Bobby said over the phone. "That was our last lead. –Don't yell at me, boy. We're working our asses off here. Well, that's for Bela and me, Jennifer hasn't been useful for the last seven hours. –Well, who isn't?"
Bobby turned to Bela and pressed the phone to his shoulder. "What do you got, Bela?"
Bela shook and spread her tarot cards one more time over her Ouija board, like she had done for at least twenty times today, but shook her head. "Sorry, sometimes the spirit world is in a chatty mood and sometimes it isn't."
Bobby brought the phone back up to his ear again. "She's got nothing."
"Great! Well, I'm just going to blow my brains out now!" Deans last, desperate shout could be heard through the entire room.
Bobby sighed. "Bela, let me ask you something."
Bela looked up at him, slightly confused as she put away her deck of cards.
"Why are you helping us?"
She smiled a little. "Bobby, I'm surprised you don't remember."
Bobby squinted his eyes, probably trying to remember their earlier encounters.
"Flagstaff?" Bela smiled.
Right now at the moment, Jennifer wanted to wipe that happy smile of her well-rested face.
"Oh, yeah. Right. Flagstaff." Bobby said. He didn't look like he remembered Flagstaff.
Jennifer didn't even remember where Flagstaff was.
Twenty minutes later, the phone rang again. Bobby answered it.
"Hey Dean. –Seriously? –O sweet God. I can cry right now. –Yea, we're still at the motel room. See you there."
He threw the phone on the table. "Sam got Jeremy, he's dead."
"Really?" Jennifer asked. She smiled happily. "Does that mean that we can sleep?"
Bela got up. "Well, I'll be off then. Let you guys rest your eyes."
Jennifer didn't even make it to her bed, she crashed on the couch and blacked out immediately.
When she woke up, it was dark again. Someone had wrapped a blanket around her. She heard muffled conversation in the hall.
"She must've taken off or something." Sam said.
"Just like that? It's a little weird." Dean answered.
"Yeah well," Bobby said, "if you ask me what's weird is why she helped us in the first place."
"I thought you saved her life." She could hear Dean frown.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Bobby said confused.
"The thing in Flagstaff." Dean said.
Jennifer lifted her head off the couch, so she could hear their conversation. She wanted to know what happened in Flagstaff.
"That thing in Flagstaff was an amulet. I gave her a good deal, that's all." Bobby said.
"Well, the why did y-?" Sam's sentence faltered in his throat.
"You boys better check your pockets," Bobby said. There was muffled ruffling and a sigh. "Not literally."
Jennifer chuckled. She didn't have a hard time imagining them reaching into their pockets, with a confused look on their face.
"No, no, no, no." Dean marched into the room with a frightened look on his face.
"The Colt." Sam shook his head. "Bela stole the Colt."
Dean slammed the safe shut angrily. "Pack your crap."
"Why? Where are we going?" Sam asked confused, barely able to catch the bag Dean threw at him.
"We're going to hunt the bitch down." Dean marched out of the motel room the same way he walked in.
Bobby saw that Jennifer was awake and shrugged. "I'll guess we'll just go back to the junkyard then?"
She swung her legs over the edge of the couch and sat up. "Maybe we can help from there, get a hold of her credit cards and track her down."