11

Kya didn't need a flashlight. She once again transferred the flame of the Zippo to her palm, stretching the flame until it engulfed her hand like a torch. The flames didn't hurt, they tingled but they didn't harm her. She noticed that Sam kept staring at her in mild amazement and she had to hide a smile.

The mansion was so huge they would have been better served time-wise by splitting up but a unanimous agreement between them all ousted that idea. Their chances of survival were increased by remaining together as long as they could.

They had entered one of the hallways to their left and now both flashlight beams and torch lit the way. There were no miraculous lights that sprang up from this section of the house and Dean was busy memorizing their path in case they had to turn around and get back to the foyer. They had been walking for what seemed like ages and there had been no sign of a door to be found on either side. Kya was beginning to think the house was playing tricks on them and this hallway would stretch into eternity and beyond.

"How long have we been walking?" Sam wondered, echoing her thoughts.

Dean consulted his wristwatch. "About thirty minutes."

"Maybe we should turn around. I don't think this goes anywhere," Kya commented.

Both brothers stopped short, beginning to think that she was right. Sam turned around and his breath caught in his throat, eyes wide with shock. Kya glanced in the direction that had so caught his attention but saw nothing but empty hallway stretching beyond them.

"Sam?" she asked, concerned.

Dean went to stand in front of his stunned brother and waved a hand in front of his face. "Sammy! What is it?" he demanded.

"It can't be," he stammered. "It can't . . . .,"

All Dean could do was look at Kya in puzzlement.

Sam stopped short in the hallway. He could sense his brother near him, but it was as if he couldn't shake himself from the image before him enough to respond properly. Panic gripped his throat and his heart thudded against his chest so hard he thought it was trying to break free from the bones that caged it.

Before him was Jess. She walked down the hallway toward him, arms outstretched, fresh blood from the gaping wound in her stomach spewing forth over her white dress. Her blond curls tumbled down her back and over her shoulders, blue eyes searching his face imploringly. He took a few halting steps forward, felt a pressure on his chest that stopped any further movement and resisted it fiercely, trying to get to the love of his life.

"No!" he screamed. "Let me go! I have to go to her!"

Kya stumbled back in shock as Sam went from shock to fierce anger. Dean's hand was against his brother's chest, pushing him backward, away from whatever had captured his full attention. The hallway still appeared as empty as it had been before. As Dean applied pressure Sam begin to struggle with ferocity, pushing back with enough force to send Dean sprawling to the ground.

"Dean!" she cried, rushing to his side.

"Shit," he mumbled. "What's gotten into him?"

Kya turned to look over her shoulder where Sam was raising his hands as if touching the face of an invisible intruder. There was pain in his eyes so deep that it broke Kya's heart to see it, and a degree of anger that made his eyes glint in the light of her flaming hand. Dean's flashlight had tumbled from his grip and landed the way they had come, beam shining into blackness and throwing long shadows on the walls.

"It's this house," she muttered. "This place is playing tricks on us."

"We have to snap him out of it!" Dean cried, jumping to his feet.

Sam stretched his hands towards Jessica's face and when he touched her skin it was as cold as the ground in which she lay. A look of confusion spread across his features. The ground? His Jessica had been dead for what seemed like a lifetime ago.

"But . . .you're dead," he stammered.

Her serene face contorted into anger. "Thanks to you," she snapped. "You could have told me, you could have warned me. You lied to me, Sam."

"No," he whispered. "I was protecting you."

"Great job you did with that!" she hissed. "I'm dead because of you. If you had never left me for your damn brother then I would still be alive. You left me alone to die!"

He stumbled back, tears washing his face, hands clutching his head as he shook his head fervently. The word "no" tumbled from his mouth in choked waves.

"It's your fault," she whispered. "It's your fault! I had everything! I had a life, a future, everything to live for! And you took it all away from me. You took everything for one road trip!"

He fell against the wall helpless against the onslaught of her words. They stung, they burned, and they gutted him from the inside. His chest hurt as his breathing accelerated to the point of hyperventilation. He put his hands over his ears but her words echoed inside his head, unfazed by the covering. He couldn't escape.

Jessica leaned down in front of him, forcefully taking his face in her hands until their eyes met. Her blue eyes burned with hatred and that alone shattered his heart into a million pieces.

"You. Killed. Me."

Dean rushed to his brother and as he knelt in front of him he felt an ice cold shudder run through his body. Sam was sobbing, tears cascading down his face, features wrenched in pain so deep it came from his baby brother's core. His breathing was ragged and harsh, each breath forced out through lungs so tight with pain it seemed like they would implode. Dean put two fingers to Sam's neck and pulled them back in shock as he released that Sammy's heartbeat was reaching a dangerous level.

"Sam!" he cried, taking his brother by the shoulders. "Sammy!"

"Sam, whatever it is it isn't real," Kya breathed, kneeling at his other side. "It isn't real Sam."

"Jess," he gasped. "I'm sorry!"

Kya cast a questioning glance at Dean but he shrugged it off. "Sam, she isn't real. Jessica is dead. She isn't real. Listen to me!"

Sam reached a hand up and clutched at Dean's shirt desperately. Dean seized on that interaction.

"Sam, you have to listen to me. You can't leave me like this; you have to stay with me!"

"Dean," Kya said worriedly. "He's going into shock."

"I know," he replied through clenched teeth.

Kya stood up, searching for a way to see what Sam saw. If she could locate the source of his pain then perhaps she could fight it off and free him from its grip. But this Jess, this girl that pained him to the point of death, was visible only by Sam. Despair gripped her. She had only just met them, had no time to make a real connection, but something had bound her to them for this journey at least. She couldn't watch Sam die.

She was still racking her brain for a plausible means to help when something solid slammed into her, forcing her to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sam collapse in his brother's arms, deathly still, and then she felt the fire of blood erupt in her side.