Touch of a Stranger
Chapter One: Eluding the Nightmare…
She was faceless, nameless…but Sam knew that she was important. All he knew was that he wasn't having the nightmare about Jess, and that was good-very good.
He could barely see the girl, it was like they were standing face to face in a pitch black room. Neither of them had spoken, and yet, he knew somehow that what she would have to say would be very important-life and death. He felt as though, within this dreamstate world, that he knew her-well.
"Sam, you have to save Dean. Don't worry about me, I'll be alright. I just want you to find Dean and get him out of here." She spoke in a faraway voice, that echoed in the space around them. He was almost sure that she was crying. But what was wrong with Dean?
Just as he went to ask her about Dean, a force swept out of the darkness and took her. Moments later, Sam heard a blood curdling scream echo throughout the-building, house? He wasn't sure.
Sam awoke with a start, sitting forward in the passenger seat of the car his brother was driving. Dean wasn't exactly startled by his brother's state. For a while now, he'd been having nightmares.
"Jess again?" Dean asks.
"No," Sam answers vaguely. Dean's surprise is evident, but he doesn't get a chance to reply. "Where are we?" Sam changes the subject.
"Smack dab in the middle of nowhere," Dean sighs. "Well, that's not completely right. I know that we're in Vermont, I just don't know exactly where in Vermont we are."
"Where are we going?" the younger brother inquires, trying to relax again.
"Ashland, Maine. It seems this quiet little town of 1,500 has been making the national news. Unexplained deaths, disappearances, and some sort of haunted mansion. At least some think that all the strange happenings are due to the history of the mansion, which isn't exactly pretty. Seems there's been a lot of really horrible things connected to the house since its beginnings, back in the early 1900s. you know, the usual-tragic deaths, murder, disease-the whole bit. Apparently, most parapsychologists thought that, due to all the 'lost souls' in this place, the mansion itself sort of started to…take on a life all its own. A lot of experts have done research there, and about 15 years ago, it was declared that the house was a dead cell. This was only because it-or the things inside it-had no one to feed on. But, for some reason, the damn thing has awoken. After 15 years of silence, something triggered this thing back into action. In the last six months, eight people have been found dead, and 13 have mysteriously vanished."
"And they think it's because of the freaky house? Or do they know, Dean? Do they really know?" Sam asks, a bit exasperated. He's hoping they're not on another wild goose chase leading to nothing. "Dean, if they aren't absolutely sure that it's because of that house, then it may not even be our sort of thing."
"Does it matter if they're sure? I've got a hunch that this is exactly what we deal with."
"We can't always go off your hunches. It's gotten us into place where we're not needed before, and it'll happen again."
"Sam, we went to help Beck and Zack simply because you felt that it was our sort of case. Come on, I have a lot more on this house than you did on the shapeshifter."
"Okay, fine. Ashland, Maine, it is, then," Sam reluctantly complies. Leaning back and closing his eyes, he hopes that, if he falls asleep, he can avoid dreaming at all costs.