Chapter 10: The Horseman Cometh

Author's Note: Let me just say that in no way did I ever mean to imply a sexual relationship between Sam and Dean. All I can really say about that is EEWWW! I don't have any issues over slash, but incest is another whole story.

Maybe it's because I'm a girl I made Dean a little more caring than he really is, though I think he really does care about Sam deeply because he is all Dean has left in the world. In almost every episode you see Dean protecting or rescuing his baby brother.

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Dean dragged, half carried, Sam back to the car at the opposite end of the corn field. A black plume of smoke continued to drift up into the sky. Dean was sure that by the time they put the fire out there would be nothing left of the Rains' family farm. In time the skulls would be found along with Mary's body at the bottom of the steps. Arson investigators would even be able to figure out that the fire had been set, but other than that, they would never know the truth of what really happened in that house.

They drove in silence back to the motel. Sam glanced at Dean every now and then. He was glad that his vision was clearing but he still felt incredibly dizzy. He thought about Mary. He was sorry she was dead, even if she was a murderer, even if she was trying to kill them. Mary hadn't been born evil. Her family had made her that way.

In a strange why it made Sam appreciate the family he had. Sure, Dad had been hard on them, and they never settled down and lived a normal life, but Sam knew right from wrong, and he had been loved, even if Dean and Dad sometimes couldn't show it.

Then he realized that wasn't true either. Dean showed he cared almost every day. Maybe it wasn't in the form of a hug, or bonding over a football game, but Dean did other things. He bandaged his wounds. He watched his back. He even saved his life when it needed saving. Maybe if Mary had had another brother or a sister who had looked after her and protected her she wouldn't have turned out the way she did.

Dean pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car. Sam opened his door and hesitantly climbed to his feet.

"You okay?" Dean asked, ready to help him if he needed it.

"I'm okay," Sam replied, even though his legs were shaking slightly as he walked and he wasn't exactly moving in a straight line. He really did feel intoxicated.

As soon as they entered the room Dean told Sam to sit in the chair. He went into the bathroom and came out with several wet clothes and began to wash the dirt and soot out of Sam's gash on his head.

Sam looked at Dean and saw that his brother looked whipped. The scratches on Dean's cheek were raw and swollen. There was also blood coming from his scalp somewhere. He probably got cut when he jumped through the window.

"Okay," Dean said. "You're going to need a couple of stitches in that. Go take a shower and I'll sow it up afterwards."

"Can't you just pull it close with some butterfly Band-Aids?" Sam asked. He wasn't afraid of getting stitches from a doctor because they numbed you up, but they didn't have any of that stuff, so getting stitches now was going to hurt.

"Don't be a baby," Dean said. "It'll only take about six or seven."

"Only," Sam grumbled. He got up and went to the shower. He was anxious to get the smell of smoke off of him. It reminded him to much another fire. He pulled his coat off and dropped it to the floor. He grabbed clean underwear from his bag along with a pair of drawstring sweatpants. He went into the bathroom and after a minute the door opened and he threw the dirty clothes on to the floor.

They would need washing, as would everything Dean was wearing. Dean decided to go ahead and do laundry duty while Sam took his shower. He put on his own sweatpants and then picked up all the clothes from the floor. He felt something hard in Sam's coat pocket. He rifled through the pocket and found a book. He didn't even bother to look at the title. He just tossed it on the dresser and left the room

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The sheriff walked around the charred remains of the Rains' property. This was a mess he just didn't need right now. He had a murderer on the loose and now an arson fire. He hadn't been told yet that it was arson, but he could tell. The house went up to fast for there to have not been an accelerate used.

He watched as the two man fire crew did their job. They would put out all the hotspots and search the building for evidence. He had a deputy out looking for Mary Rains but he had a feeling that Mary would be found in the house. In a month's time two families had been completely wiped out. What on earth was happening in his town?

Suddenly there was a strong gusting wind that blew his hat off his head. The trees bowed and the corn stalks waved wildly back and forth. He looked to the sky to see if a storm was rolling in. He certainly hoped not. That would mess up any evidence still yet to be collected.

He was relieved to see the twilight sky was crystal clear with a quarter moon and the stars just beginning to show. He jumped when a flash of lightning appeared right in front of him. Then there was another. Again he looked to the sky but the lightning wasn't coming down, it was shooting up…up from the burned house. Was there a live wire in there still that was coming into contact with water?

He walked closer to the house. The two fire men who were wandering around in the house ran out of it for safety.

A final flash of lightning lit up the interior of the house and the sheriff couldn't believe his eyes. Walking out of the house was a man, but it wasn't a man.

"Oh my god," he exclaimed.

"Sheriff, what is that?" one of the fire guys called.

"I'll be damned if I know." He drew his gun and began to fire at the headless figure that started walking away from them towards the road. The bullets didn't even seem to phase it. It never even gave any indication that it felt them.

"Aren't you going to go after it?" the other guy standing there said.

"She was telling the truth."

"Who?"

"Sarah Beth. She said the headless horseman killed her family, and I thought she was crazy."

"You mean that thing is going to go kill someone? Sheriff you have to go after it."

"Uh, yeah, yeah you're right." He hurried to his police cruiser and drove after the thing, but he didn't see it anywhere. It was gone, and he had no idea where it was off to. Part of him really didn't want to know.

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Sam laid across his bed while he listened to Dean sing a very bad rendition of Welcome to the Jungle by Guns an' Roses. He held an ice pack to his brand new stitches and popped the last Dorito from the vending machine bag into his mouth. Not much of a dinner, but then he didn't have much of an appetite so it worked out fine.

The water turned off and Dean stopped singing. Thank the lord for small favors. He flipped through the TV channels, making a point of avoiding the breaking news story on channel 7. If he had bothered to listen to it he would have heard about how several firemen claimed to have seen a decapitated body walk away from a certain burned farm house. Instead he was watched an episode of Abbot and Costello on the PBS station. He figured some slapstick comedy was in order for the evening.

Dean stepped out of the bathroom in his sweatpants and said, "Hey, I love these guys."

"You would," Sam teased. "I bet you're a Stooges fan, too."

"Don't knock the Stooges. Even you have to admit that Curly is a riot."

Sam just laughed. It felt good to laugh…to pretend like today never happened, even though both he and Dean would be wearing the battle scars from it for some time to come.

"By any chance did you put the clothes in the dryer?" Dean asked.

"You washed clothes?" Sam asked. "Voluntarily?"

"Don't act like that. We couldn't very well walk around in clothes covered in soot and smoke. I think people would have definitely noticed that."

"True, and no, I didn't put them in the dryer but I will now," Sam offered.

"Never mind," Dean said. "I'll do it." He grabbed some money to put in the coin slot and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. "Christ its cold," he complained as he ran to the laundry room with his bare feet.

He hurriedly put the wet clothes into the dryer and got it started. He was half way to the room when suddenly a massive breeze started up and almost knocked him over. Loud footsteps could be heard stomping on the pavement and Dean strained to see who or what was coming.

The glow from the motel sign lit up the immediate vicinity and Dean felt the bile rise into his throat when he saw it step into the light. There, not more than thirty feet from their motel was the headless horseman.

"Oh shit!" Dean exclaimed when he realized it was heading straight for their room…straight for Sam!