Dean knelt in front of Sam and felt his pulse. Still way, way too fast. If his skin were any paler he'd be translucent. Gently, he said his brother's name as he eased his arm under his shoulder to get him upright. Sam stiffened and choked out the word, "Stop" as he gagged. Dean froze, giving him a chance to adjust to the new position, then tried again. This time Sam allowed himself to be shifted off the grimy floor and propped against the wall.
"Sammy. Listen to me. Sam. Sam! Look at me."
Sam grunted but opened his eyes a bit.
Dean cut right to it. "The door won't open. The windows are sealed shut. We have to find another way out, but I can't risk leaving you here. We have to keep moving. Do you understand?"
Sam nodded his head ever so slightly then cried out as his hand flew up to his chest. Dean winced in sympathy but said, "Come on. Let's get you up."
They didn't have time for Dean to be gentle. Ripping off the proverbial bandaid, Dean got into a wide stance and with his arms firmly around his brother, Dean pushed them both upright. Even with Dean holding on Sam reeled, pushing them both off balance and into the wall.
Dean managed to keep his feet under him and held on as Sam sagged in his arms. Dean started to shift Sam onto his shoulders in a fireman's carry when Sam yelled and jolted back against the wall, grabbing his chest.
"Don't!'
"Whoa, whoa, easy!" Dean was startled. "Hey. You with me?"
"God! Uh. Shit. Yeah." Sam panted.
Holding on tightly, the two Winchesters slowly made their way down the shadowy corridor. It took a while and several stops for Sam to catch his breath, but they eventually found a emergency exit.
Locked.
Another door.
Locked.
An office window.
Locked.
Several more windows.
Wouldn't budge.
Dean knew it was fruitless but kept going. Something had to give. It just had to. And soon. But Dean couldn't help but think that Sam's heart was going to give out way before any door or window would.
Sam was trying his hardest. His fever had temporarily put him in the giddy zone, random memories and funny stories distracting him from the situation. But now his fever crept even higher, bringing him back to the cold reality and also bringing a new symptom.
Hallucinations. He kept hearing whispering. A voice, coming from nowhere yet everywhere. He strained to make out the words, but they were just beyond his reach.
He stumbled. Dean held tighter as he stumbled yet again. He desperately wanted to tell Dean to leave him, but that would be a waste of his diminishing energy. Dean would never leave him, so it was up to Sam to do dig up every ounce of strength he had left and keep going.
He wasn't even bothering to keep in his cries of pain anymore. The bolts of lightening arcing through his chest were vicious, and the scorching pain in his chest made him want to dig his nails into his skin and rip it away.
They'd covered half of the next hallway when all those tidal waves of dizziness joined together to deliver a new brutal assault. A tsunami overtook him, ripping away both his balance and his strength and pushing him off his feet. Even Dean's strong legs couldn't fight against it, and the two of them fell to the ground. Sam put his forehead against the concrete floor and screwed his eyes tight. He let out a cry of agony as the worst pain yet stabbed him in the chest. He put a hand to his heart and silently wished it would just stop. It was getting hard to breathe. He couldn't deal with this anymore.
Dean tried pulling Sam upright, but he seemed to sink further toward the ground. Dean tried again and Sam yelled, cutting off abruptly as he gagged and threw up more bile.
Dean swallowed the lump in his throat and urged his brother to move. "Sam you have to get up. Now. Come on."
As Dean reached to try a third time, he stopped.
What the hell was that? Squinting, he leaned forward to get a better look at Sam's left shoulder. The shirt had been pulled to the side when he fell, exposing a portion of his anti-possession tattoo. Dean moved the shirt aside a bit more to get a look at the whole area.
Surrounding the anti-possession tattoo were a series of black lines. The wavy tendrils weren't quite touching the tattoo, there was still some pale skin in between, but Dean could swear he could almost see them reaching, straining towards the ink. And was the tattoo lighter? Dean pulled aside his own shirt and looked at the matching tattoo he had on his chest, only they were no longer matching. Where Dean's tattoo was still crisp and dark, Sam's had faded, even seeming to have lost some of the sharpness of the edges.
"Son of a bitch." Dean took a minute to process. He didn't quite understand what was happening, but the puzzle pieces seemed to mostly fit.
He put his hand in Sam's. "Sam. Can you hear me?"
He got a weak answering squeeze.
"I don't know how, but I think you're being possessed. Or, maybe, I don't know, I think more like something's trying to possess you? Your tattoo is faded, and there are black lines all around it, almost like something's attacking it."
That seemed to get Sam's attention. He rolled slightly onto his right side and tried to look down at his shoulder. His eyes got wide as he looked up at Dean with fear in his eyes. A moment later his jaw dropped open as a realization seemed to dawn on him.
"The voice! It... shit!" Sam bore down, squeezing Dean's hand painfully as he worked his way through another painful attack.
"Voices? Sam, what voices?" Now it was Dean's eyes that widened. "Are you hearing this thing?"
"I don't know. I don't know." Sam panted. Dean could see he was he was beginning to panic. "Just get it out of me!"
Dean looked at Sam's chest and gaped in disbelief. He watched, actually saw several of the black tendrils dart towards the tattoo. The instant it made contact Sam arched his back and yelled.
"Shit! Hang on, Sammy, hang on."
That sealed it. Apparently the demon, or whatever it was, knew that it had been discovered and was escalating its attack. He had to act now.
Dean rolled Sam onto his back as he began the exorcism. He kept hid hands firmly on Sam's shoulders as he recited the Latin words he knew by heart.
The black lines seemed to shudder a bit. A few more verses in and the lines retreated just a tad. The tattoo even seemed to be getting a little more depth of color as the assault against it halted. Encouraged, Dean spoke faster and louder.
Then Sam screamed.
Sam's whole body shook, seizing as he writhed on the ground. Dean didn't stop. The demon would keep fighting until the tattoo lost all its power, and Sam's body couldn't hold out that long. He had to keep going.
Dean shut his eyes against Sam's screaming and kept going, speaking the words even faster and louder. He grabbed Sam's hand and didn't even notice his own bones grinding together as Sam squeezed with all his might. Nearing the end of the ritual Dean yelled the final words, opening his eyes and staring down at his brother.
Sam went quiet. His body fell back limply. His head lolled to the side and his jaw went slack. Dean scrambled to look at his chest and saw two things that made his heart sink.
The black lines were still there, closer than ever to the tattoo that had lost even more of its color.
And the thing that he'd feared would happen was reality.
Sam wasn't breathing.