Chapter 35: My Greatest Fear

-Two weeks later-

The door busted open with a loud boom as the two Winchesters ran into the cramped room, the eldest holding a gun at the ready.

"What happened? Where did it go?" Sam said loudly, running in at top speed, surveying the room, his eyes darting quickly to the shattered window. Nora came in after him, carrying a gun of her own. She looked the exact opposite of Dean. She was shorter than him, smaller than him, and his rugged looks contrasted greatly with her soft, petite features. Where he held the gun as if it had always been attatched to his arm, she looked awkward with hers, having just been taught how to use one for real since she had been possessed.

"Oh my god..." the boy, Dylan, muttered from the floor, his head bleeding. "You were right."

"Yeah," Dean said urgently. "Where did it go?"

"What form was it in?" Sam asked. "Who was it posing as?" They needed to find out what the shapeshifter had transformed into if they had any chance whatsoever.

"What?" Dylan said. He was obviously still in some state of shock, and the three questions at once didn't help.

"What attacked you and your brother? Did it take him?"

"No," Dylan said, shaking his head. "He's not here."

"Who was it posing as?" Sam repeated. Dylan's eyes were still wide in terror. He didn't even seem to know where he was.

"What?" He said again.

"God dammit," Nora muttered, and Dean shot her a 'shut up' look. She rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Who did the motherfucker that attacked you look like?"

"Nora," Dean hissed.

"What? I was going to bitch-slap him but it seemed a little mean."

"It..." Dylan said, his voice faint "...wasn't a person." Sam and Dean exchanged looks. That had to be one of the first times Sam had ever been wrong about something like this. He raised an eyebrow, as if questioning the credebility of the statement.

"What was it?" Sam asked skeptically.

"I couldn't tell what it was until it looked at me, and then it changed. It just transformed into this...this thing." He shuddered. Dean leaned down to his level.

"Where's your brother?"

Dylan's eyes widened. "James? Why would it go after him?"

"It tried to kill him once," Sam said matter of factly, like he was trying to make up for the fact that he was wrong by spitting out as many facts as humanly possible. Dean grinned ever so slightly; Sam was back, or at least bits and peices. "It's probably going to do it again. Angry spirits tend to latch on to one person, or a family, which might explain why it went after you. But I don't think we have to worry about you right now. Where's James?"

"He left an hour ago, for work. He has to go in late sometimes, after everybody else is gone," Dylan said, his voice shaking with concern.

"So he's there all alone?" Sam said, taking a deep breath. Dylan nodded, his eyes traveling to Dean's face.

"He's going to be okay, right? Right?" Dean nodded.

"Of course he's going to be alright," Dean assured him. He turned to Sam, who nodded.

"We're going to help him," Sam said comfortingly. Dylan still looked unsure. "I promise, nothing's going to happen to him."

"I'm coming with you," Dylan said, his face determined.

"You can't. You're safer here," Nora said, her voice sounding strangely comforting.

"She's right," Sam said. "This is going to be very dangerous. Life-threatening, even."

"You can come," Dean said simply, the gun in his hand ready. He turned to walk away, and Sam started to protest. Dean merely turned back, his face totally normal, and asked Dylan, "What was it in the form of, by the way?"

-Thirty Minutes Later-

"You've got to be kidding me!" Dean repeated into his cell phone. Sam laughed bitterly on the other end of the phone.

"Be quiet," he muttered. "He can hear you. He's already freaked out enough about his brother; there's still no sign of him. I don't need you making him worse. I'm going to take you off speaker phone."

"I mean, this has got to be the weirdest thing we have ever done."

"Oh, I don't know about that. We've done some pretty freaky shit."

"Dude, we're searching an office buiding for the homocidal freaking fabric softener teddy bear. Who is afraid of that thing?"

"We don't know necessarily that it feeds off people's fears."

"Really," Dean said sarcastically. "What else could it be?"

"I don't know," Sam admitted. "But I don't understand the Snuggles thing, either. I mean, I understand wanting to beat the living shit out of it..."

"Why, Sam," Dean said, making his voice sound appalled. "Who do you think you are, me? You're getting a little smartassy there."

"I trained with the best," Sam added, the smile apparent. Dean knew from his tone that he wasn't totally back to normal, but at least he wasn't on the verge of a mental breakdown anymore. The dead look was fading slowly, but surely.

"I'm so proud of you," Dean said mockingly as he rounded a corner, running into Nora headfirst.

"Fuck," she said, nearly knocked off her feet. Dean remained standing. "Let me know next time you're going to pull some shit like that, okay?"

"Hold on, Sam," Dean said into the phone. Adressing Nora, he asked, "Did you find it?"

"What? The demon teddy bear? No sign of it. Did Sammy find anything?" Sam didn't bother correcting her on the name, though he had heard her perfectly.

"A whole shit-load of nothing," he responded. Dean motioned for Nora to follow him.

"Well, there's nothing down here, either." He pressed the 'up' button on the elevator's controls. "So we'll check out the next two levels. Nora can take four, I'll take five. If it's not there, we'll start over. But we're going to find this son of a bitch."

The doors slid open as Dean flipped his cell phone closed, trying to avoid acknowledging Nora's prescence at all. She seemed to find that particlarly amusing for some reason. She snorted once, but followed him into the cramped elevator. It was yellow-colored inside, smelling slightly of cheap cologne. Annoyingly happy music played over the tiny speakers in the corner.

Dean leaned against the hand-rail as the doors closed, and Nora stood opposite him. He avoided eye contact, and she just smiled sweetly at him, as if to say "Is there something wrong, Dean?" He unconsciously wished for the elevator to move faster.

Instead, he got the opposite.

The elevator shuddered violently, and Nora was thrown across to Dean. Her body, however tiny, also hurt when it was slammed against Dean's. The lights flickered and then went out. The elevator stopped altogether.

"What the..." Nora said, pushing herself off of Dean. "What just happened?" Dean didn't get a chance to answer, as his cell phone rang.

"What?" He said, irritated.

"Are you alright?" A concerned voice asked from the other end.

"Yeah," Dean assured him. "You?"

"Yeah," Sam confirmed.

"What the hell was that?" Dean asked. "Did you turn the power off?"

"I didn't," Sam said. "It must have just been a power outage. The electricity's out everywhere."

"Where are you?"

"First floor. Don't worry, Dylan's with me. He's freaking out a little, but he's okay. Where are you guys?"

"We're in the elevator. Is there any way you can get us out?"

Sam sighed. "Not until the power comes back on. Sorry. You'll have to just stay there for awhile."

Dean blew a breath out, reaching into his bag for the flashlight. Suddenly, it hit him. "Wait, you mean I'm stuck in an elevator for god knows how long with Nora?"

Sam audibly swallowed, knowing Dean's reaction. "Yes," he said. Then, trying to change the subject, for the sound of Dean hitting the wall was painfully loud, he added, "Look, I'll finish this job up. Just try to stay sane for me. Can you do that?"

"Yeah," Dean said, and Sam could tell the sound of Dean's gritted teeth.

"Good," Sam said, letting out an inner breath of relief.

"Are you sure there's nothing you can do?"

Sam rolled his eyes, pacing in the dark. "Yeah, Dean, just give me a second to use my psychic mind tricks to magically move the elevator. I could barely do that when I was possessed." Dylan shot him a 'what the hell?' look. "Don't ask."

"Sam," Dean complained, "I'm going to kill her, I swear."

"Do your best not to," Sam said, bored.

"Sam--" Dean repeated, but Sam cut off his protest. He snapped the phone shut and slipped it in his pocket, grasping for his flashlight.

"James!" Dylan called, scared. Sam took off running in the direction of the voice. "James, is that you?"

"Dylan!" Sam yelled, winding his way through the hallways, trying to decide which door to go through. He opened the third door down, the one that read "James Sanford" that they had checked in earlier. Except there was one difference in it since the last time they had been there.

There was someone in there. Or rather something. Whatever it was, it must have been small. The flashlight just barely caught the light of the white fur. Two black eyes glinted in the darkness. Sam didn't get a chance to see it better, as the second it saw Sam, it began to transform.

Sam took out his gun, preparing himself, ready for the second it was finished transforming into his greatest fear to shoot it in the heart. He had no idea what it would be when it was done; he hadn't given any real thought to his greatest fear, but he didn't care. He was going to finish this, no matter what. He needed to finish this hunt to prove to himself that he was able to do something useful rather than just sitting around being depressed.

The creature had twisted itself into a human form, and Sam turned the flashlight on it.

"Holy shit..." Dylan whispered. Holy shit was right. Sam thought his response was very appropriate, considerng the situation. He was too shocked to speak himself.

For standing there was something creepier than Snuggle the fabric softener teddy bear, creepier than any killer clown would ever be to Sam. This was something that scared him every time he thought about, the thing that kept him up late nights, trying so hard not to scream.

Standing merely feet away from Sam, his pitch black eyes glinting in the dark, a smirk on his face, was Sam Winchester.

"Hey," he said.

Author's Note: Sorry if this chapter sucked, I personally hated it, but it really was to set up for next chapter and I wrote it in a hurry. In my opinion this is one of the worst chapters of the story and the one that pissed me off the most to write.

I'm also sorry that this took longer than usual to get out. I realize that I missed my usual deadline by pretty long. I was up really late each night this week doing homework. This is one of those times where all of my teachers are piling it on at the same time. It's just been crazy. I was up until one o'clock two nights in a row doing a project on FREAKING MEDIEVAL JAPAN!

I don't know when the next chapter will be up, but it WILL be up. I am not abandoning this story, not by far. It's still a LONG way until the end. When I told my friend (BloodyMaryBloodyMaryBloodyMary, who is working on getting the next chapter of hers typed up. I'm her beta-reader, and she's my best friend, so check her story, Bullets, out) all the things I had planned out, she was like "Holy crap, this is gonna be one long story, isn't it?" And I hadn't even told her the entire thing. It's one long and crazy ride, let me tell you that.

Up Next: As Sam confronts his greatest fear--himself--Dean and Nora start to work out their problems in a very touching scene that ends with a big hug. Um...NOT!! There is some talking, but not much of it is happy sweet stuff.

Until Next Time...