October 31, 1995
The Impala blended well into its current surroundings, black on black, traveling down the unlit road. Twin headlights stabbed into the dark, the beams dappled with the shifting mists of a light fog. Her engine growled, echoing into the empty air, a warning to any and all dangers to stay well clear of her and her passengers.
Sam was curled up in the back seat, where he had been relegated when Shawn had called shotgun, knees drawn up to his chin, and arms wrapped around his legs. "Dean," he spoke up, "Are you sure this is such a good idea? Mom would freak if she knew."
From the other side of the back seat, Lex barked with laughter, his mouth full of at least one fun-size candy bar. "Hey," he nudged Shawn in the shoulder, "I think Dean's little bro would rather be trick or treating with the other little kiddies." He didn't notice the snotty face Sam made at him.
Shawn looked over at Dean, who was biting his tongue, trying to keep his attention on driving with the minimal light. "I told you we shouldn't have brought him, not tonight."
Dean opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by Lex barking, "Only way his ol' man would let him borrow the car, if he babysat the kid."
"Hey!," Dean snapped, throwing a glance over his shoulder, "Back off Sammy, or I swear, your butt'll be walking home."
Sam curled up tighter, not happy to be the center of attention. "He's gonna do fine." Dean continued. "Aren't you, Sammy? Everybody's gotta do this at least once. It's a rite of passage."
Sam uncurled, acutely aware of the heavy air of judgment on him. "I'll...I'll be fine, Dean." he forced out.
Shawn turned in his seat so he could meet Sam's eye, "It's really no big deal. We've all been. There's nothing out there but dead weeds and some old stones." Sam nodded. Shawn was really such a bad guy, not always.
It was past discussing anyway. Dean was already spinning the wheel under his hand, turning the car off the road, and bringing it to a stop outside the sagging, rusted fence. Sam leaned over the front seat for a better look. The gate sat right before them, illuminated in the headlights, sagging on time battered hinges. His eyes traveled upward, above the gate, to where the ancient looking sign read: STULL CEMETERY.
The boys tumbled from the car, the older three hooting and jeering, as adolescent males on a mission to do something stupid tend to do. Flashlight beams danced in the dark, casting long shadows in their wakes as the light played over dead foliage and the bars of the fence.
"You know," Lex popped up behind Sam's shoulder, making him jump, his light planted under his chin, transforming his face into a ghoulish mask, "they say the devil himself is supposed to come tonight."
Without warning, Dean grabbed Lex by the arm and spun him, pinning him against the car. "What did I say?" he growled, inches away from the other boy's face.
"All right, All right! Jeez, Dean, it's all part of the fun." Lex defended himself. "Didn't know you wanted the training wheels on for your baby bro." Dean looked at him coldly, his lip curling, part of him wondering just why it was that he hung out with this douche.
"Guys, we doing this?" Shawn interrupted. He knew them both well enough to know that Lex would keep running his mouth, and that Dean would not respond well, not where Sam was concerned. "Dean, come on. You know he doesn't mean anything. He just doesn't think. Don't make it more than it is."
Dean gave Lex one last warning look before releasing him with a shove. "Yeah, let's go." he conceded, and the three teens moved off towards the gate.
Sam was frozen. He'd watched the confrontation with a sort of detached disinterest. Lex's words had caused a sort of squishy, cold feeling in his middle. It wasn't fear exactly. It was more like...it was dread. He watched the other boys advance on the gate, but somehow, he couldn't get his own feet to move to join them.
He knew it was stupid. Everybody came out to Stull, just to prove they weren't too scared to do it. He even knew girls who had done it. Just, why did it have to be on Halloween, and why did Lex have to go and open his big, stupid mouth?
"Sammy?" Dean was watching him from near the gate. Sam just looked at him, not sure what to say, unable to take a step. "You guys go on," Dean told his friends, "we'll catch up." he started back towards where Sam stood rooted.
Whatever comment Lex was going to make was cut off when Shawn grabbed his shoulder and pushed him forward, "Come on, let's go." he said curtly. Their lights moved off into the darkness as their squabbling voices grew fainter with distance.
Dean sighed, he owed the guy a serious beat down, but later. He leaned up against the car, near where Sam stood glued. "You know, you don't have to do this."
Sam found his voice, "I'm not chicken, Dean." he snapped. "Everybody does this. You said so yourself." He hadn't been wild about the idea when it came up, would have been happy to beg off, but now, now he just wanted so bad for all Lex's needling not to be true. If only he could get himself to move. For all his resolve, however, his body seemed pretty content to stay right where it was.
"Yeah, I did," Deam admitted. He'd worked himself into a really good spot this time. This night, of all nights, well that was just too much for a kid's first time. He saw that now, now that it was too late. He really believed that Sam could have done it if Lex hadn't gone running his mouth, but the damage was already done. It was way too much to expect Sam to walk in there now. The kid had spunk, especially when he got his feathers ruffled, but this had all gone too far, and now Dean needed to find a way to let Sam off the hook and to get Sam to let himself off.
"You know though," he mused, "no matter what your friends tell you, most of them come out here in the daytime. Just coming this far, at night, Halloween night, you've already got that beat by a mile."
"Yeah?" Sam looked skeptical but sounded hopeful.
"Oh yeah, I'm proud of you, Sammy...Sam." he beamed. "Look, you wait here. I'm going to round up the guys, we'll blow this off, get some burgers or something. How's that sound?"
Sam hesitated, "That sounds real good, Dean." he finally said. The icy grip on his stomach eased up a bit. He hopped up to sit on the hood of the car, taking comfort from it, solid beneath him, still warm from the drive, as he watched Dean walk off into the dark, calling to the others.
Staying alone in the dark, even outside the fence, the silence amplifying every sound, turned out to be a little tougher than Sam had thought. The wind carried imagined voices, and rustled through dead branches, conjuring up images that he preferred not to dwell on. He wondered how long Dean had been gone. It seemed like a long time, but Sam knew that dark and isolation could change how time seemed to pass.
Something went thunk on the other side of the fence like something had hit the ground. He shone his light towards the sound, but couldn't make anything out through the shifting shadows. "Dean?" he called. The wind rustled through dry leaves, setting them rattling like a macabre wind chime.
Sam slid down off the car hood, his heart thumping in his chest. He peered into the dark, searching for some sight of the lights returning. "Dean!" he called again.
Barely aware he was doing it, his feet moved slowly towards the gate, coming to a stop just this side of it. He rested a hand on the weather-worn support, his eyes scanning the dark. The other side seeming somehow otherworldly, like crossing the gate would take him away to another place that he could never come back from. Steeling himself up, despite his pounding heart and heavy breathes, he stepped across. The world remained remarkably unchanged, and it felt kinda anticlimactic.
Encouraged, he continued forward, the beam of his flashlight catching flashes of the worn and crumbling markers as he approached them. "Dean!" he yelled.
He was well out amongst the graves now, ancient by the standards of a twelve-year-old boy. He tried not to imagine their occupants, long since decomposed into skeletal remains, frightening enough just lying there, let alone imagined digging their way up through the ground to do whatever it was they did to those foolish enough to trespass in this place on the night of the dead.
When the first pain lanced across his scalp, he'd thought for an instant that he'd been grabbed by something. The flashlight fell from his trembling hand. His cry was more fear than pain. The second pain, sharp, stabbing deep into his head, left him clutching his head, stumbling down to one knee. Through tear blurred eyes he could barely make out the lights bobbing towards him. The last thing he heard before passing out was Dean's panicked voice, calling his name.
XXXXX
It was warm and quiet. He didn't want to leave the warm place. It was nice. There was a sound. He listened. The mumble became more clear, became a word, a name, his name. Dully he dragged his eyes open.
Dean's face, etched with concern appeared over him. "Oh thank god!" Dean exclaimed, clutching him up into a tight hug. "You scared the crap out of me, you little pain in the ass."
"Wha' h'pen?" Sam mumbled, slowly coming out of it. They were in the back seat of the car.
"That's what I'd like to know," Dean demanded. "Jeez Sammy, didn't I tell you to wait here? What were you thinking, wandering out there all alone like that?"
"I...I, um" Sam couldn't seem to form an answer.
"Forget it" Dean interrupted. "You're all right. Everything's all right. Let's just get you home. Think you're OK to sit up?"
Sam rose a bit, testing, and then nodded. He dragged himself sitting as Dean backed out of the car to move to the driver's seat.
Lex moved to take the vacated spot as Dean cleared the way. Dean grabbed his arm and looked at him dangerously. "You say one word to him," he growled, "one, and you're a dead man. You hear me? Next time I come out here, it'll be to bury you."
Whatever snarky thing Lex had on his lips fell away when he caught the look in Dean's eye. For once he shut his mouth and just nodded in agreement.
XXXXX
"You went where?" Mary's voice was a mix of anger and amazement.
The brothers winced. Once Sam's lethargy had worn off, he'd been excessively pleased with himself for the night's adventure. He was going to have the tale of all tales to brag about at school. It was understandable that he had been babbling about it when they came in the door. It had just been bad luck that Mary had been sitting there when they came in and had heard everything before Dean could shush him.
"Sam, go upstairs," she said cooly.
Sam's guilty expression gave way to surprise. "Mom, it's only..." he started to protest.
"Now, please." Mary interrupted in a tone that left no room for further discussion. Pouting dramatically, Sam stomped up the stairs.
She watched until he was out of sight and then turned to her older son, who had painted on his charming, "get out of trouble" expression. Mary was having none of it. "What were you thinking, Dean?"
"Mom, it's no big deal." he shrugged off her concern. "Everybody does it. It's a manhood thing."
"It's a stupid reckless thing!" she countered. "Do you have any idea what could have happened?" Dean was taken by surprise. Mary tended towards overprotective, in his opinion, especially towards Sam, but she wasn't prone to outbursts.
"What could happen?" he argued. "Trip over something in the dark? Have a little scare? Nothing that couldn't have happened anywhere after dark. Seriously, Mom, it's not like the ghosts were gonna come up out of the ground and get us. "
Mary blanched, "I...um...no, you're right. Of course, you're right. I just...Dean, promise me you won't go out there anymore, OK?"
Dean wasn't sure what to make of the turnaround. Mary had seemed hornet mad when they came in, but now, she looked almost broken. "Yeah, sure Mom," he said meekly, all the bravado suddenly blown out of him. "I'm sorry, it was just the guys and me being dumb. We'll uh...it won't happen again." He fumbled for something else to say and the awkward silence stretched between them. "I'm...I'm just going to let Sam know, you know about steering clear of Stull from now on." he was more looking for a way to fill the silence and leave than anything else. He started up the stairs.
"Dean," Mary called after him, "I just want to make sure you and Sam are safe. I don't know what I'd do if anything ever happened to either one of you."
"Yeah, I know Mom," he answered, and continued up the stairs, thinking to himself how truly weird this night had been.