Spoilers: slight references to events in 'The Benders'

Kakorrhaphiophobia

- Floor 5, part 1 -

oo0oo

Dean would have liked nothing more than to tell Sam that he was all right, that he was actually conscious, and that there was nothing wrong with his hearing. But, unfortunately he wasn't able to, as that male Nurse Ratched gave him another – admittedly smaller – dose of desensitizer. It was a mixed blessing, really, as he could no longer feel the various holes in his skin or the bruises he was surely getting from his kid brother. Not that he could feel Sam slapping him in the face, but he could sure hear it. And he could hear the worry in Sam's voice as he shouted at Dean to wake up and be OK.

"Sam," Kole said as she dug into the waning supply of bandages. "We should try and get him cleaned up as much as we can while he's out."

As if finally comprehending the injuries that encompassed his brother's body, Sam took a step back to get an overall view. He soon made a face, mixing anger and disgust, as he saw that Dean seemed to now be wearing a polka-dot shirt, only the dots were growing larger and they were sticky-wet. There were almost a dozen wounds of assorted lengths and depths marring Dean's chest, arms, and a nasty looking puncture on his thigh.

There were too many curses and threats and demands flowing through Sam's brain to focus enough to express any one of them, so he took the bandages and began treating his brother's injuries. Though it was little consolation, each of the wounds seemed to be placed in such a way as to miss anything vital. Of course, many more and left untreated, Dean could still have bleed out if that was what his captors were going for.

Sam took a step back to take a deep breath, clear his head, and check his progress. Luckily, he had gotten the bleeding to stop in most places, but he still thought that a couple of the cuts could have used some of Kole's liquid stitches. And, they were now out of bandages.

Kole had stood back after handing over the sparse first aid supplies to give Sam room to both work and brood. She had found that the best medicine for the brother who was not hurt was to tend to the one that was – it was each Winchesters' way of apologizing for failing to prevent the pain in the first place. Not that either of them was ever careless, but they held onto their guilt even when it was unwarranted.

Giving Sam space was more than just allowing him optimal physical free range, it was also not standing just beyond his boundaries and staring. Kole had, therefore, taken the opportunity to try and find the door leading outside – as they had been told that each stairwell had one. When she found the door (hidden behind the staircase), she tried the knob. It didn't even turn.

Letting out a harrumph, she pulled the flashlight from her pocket to chase away the shadows in the receded area. She almost laughed – not an amused laugh, but a disturbed one – as she took in the sight before her. What had looked like a door, was nothing more than a painting on the wall, complete with an attached doorknob. It was a great likeness, especially with the assistance of the darkness.

"What's the matter?" Sam asked, hearing the slightly manic laughter.

"It's a fake," she told him as she walked back to where he still stood in front of Dean. "The door's a fake."

"The door to the next floor?"

"Oh, no," she sighed. "I'm sure that's real. I'm talking about the door out of this place. There's supposed to be one per floor for the drop outs to escape. I don't know why I thought it would be there..." saying the last part more to herself than Sam.

"Why wouldn't it be there?"

"Sam, did you see that girl- "

"The one you knocked cold, you mean?" he asked with a hint of pride – though Kole couldn't tell if it was gratification for using the skills the boys taught her or satisfaction that she had struck back at one of the people that had hurt his brother.

"Yes," she huffed. "But did you see who she was?" Sam shrugged and she continued.

"It was Marcy," she told him, to which he shrugged again. "You remember... the nice young girl who asked us for the time back at the bar?"

"That's why I knew those voices," said a rough voice behind Sam. Though it was barely a whisper, it caused both Sam and Kole to jump.

"Dean!" Sam said as he spun around and knelt to make sure he could see his brother's face, knowing full well that you couldn't take Dean's 'fine' at face value.

"Were they the kids?" Kole asked him, lowering her voice so that it didn't ring so loud in comparison to Dean's. Dean nodded his head once in reply.

"What?" Sam asked, turning to her and then back to his brother. "What are you guys talking about?"

"The kids from the bar, Sam," Kole said as if it should now be obvious.

"Wait," Sam said, trying to wrap his head around the new development. "You think the kids are a part of this?" he asked, gesturing to the stairwell around them.

"It makes sense, doesn't it? What we talked about – the egregore... It would take more than three guys to pull all of this off. Whether they started it and the others followed, or they have all worked together from the beginning – well, it really doesn't matter. An egregore often becomes greater than the sum of its parts or creators, but it still needs a certain amount of belief to get off the ground and survive..."

She was doing that thing again where she talked as quick as a high school cheer-leading captain on speed. Dean, who was now standing with assistance, and Sam tried to follow along but were getting lost.

"A what?" Dean asked, his voice was still gravelly but it was getting louder.

"Egregore – like a tulpa," Sam said out of the side of his mouth. Dean gave a low 'hmm' of comprehension, apparently fine with the brief explanation. Which was good, since Kole was still on a role.

"The egregore is in continuous interaction with its creators, influencing them and being influenced by them. The more people there are in the hive mind, the larger and more powerful the egregore becomes. And, if the process has continued over a long period of time, the egregore will take on a kind of life of its own. It can get so strong that, even if its original members die, it could continue to exist if more people enter into the group for it to get energy from."

"Great," Dean said sarcastically.

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "Better and better."

"So how do we kill it?" Dean asked. "I mean, it doesn't sound like we can just go to the neighborhood geeks and ask them to put a bogus story about this place on their website."

"Well," Kole began again after a pause, deciding she didn't want to ask what Dean was talking about, "every egregore has some sort of physical representation, a power object used to evoke or invoke it."

"And if we destroy the object..." Dean began.

"Theoretically, we destroy the egregore," Kole finished.

"Now you're speaking my language."

"But how do we know what it is?" Sam asked. "And how do we even know its here?"

"I think we can be pretty sure its here," Kole told him. "To keep the egregore strong, proper offerings must be made."

"Offerings like kids checking out the local haunted house," Dean concluded.

"So," Sam said, "more likely than not, its on the fifth floor."

Kakorrhaphiophobia: fear of failure or defeat