-1You all have been so receptive to this story it just makes me want to keep writing and writing…. So I thank you very much for all your responses and I hope the you enjoy the conclusion to this story as much as you have the rest… Let me in on your thoughts….
Rosebud
-Part 7- In Dreams Conclusion Part 1
John sat at the table of the small motel room looking from on bed to the next, both his son's finally resting semi-peacefully, allowing him a moment of rest and relaxation… a moment to gather his thoughts. Taking a sip from his Styrofoam coffee cup… Mary's words still sticking with him, confusing him, taking him around and around in circles like a lost puppy.
He knew what had to be done, he knew what it was up to him to find a way to do, yet he felt like he was going in to this thing blinder than Dean at this point. He had faced so many things in his twenty-three years of demon hunting, the unexplainable, the out right scary, but nothing had ever gotten to him like this….
Running a hand through his hair with a shaky breath he rose to his feet and put down his coffee before sliding on his leather jacket fishing for his keys. The first step, he thought to himself, was going to be finding out exactly what they had to work with, staking out the area, so on and so forth.
Looking at the clock he watched as the bright green numbers changed to 3:43 a.m. only 36 more hours to go…He shot one final glance toward his boys, his heart telling him not leave them, but his head and his gut telling him that he needed to. Bringing them with him on a stake out was going to do nothing for any of them except make things harder…. Create more hard ships for them to find their way through….
With that final thought he stepped outside of the hotel room closing and locking the door behind himself, locking his boys inside, where he hoped and prayed they would find safety…. Even though he knew they wouldn't… That was a fools wish….
- The road ahead of him was the picture perfect dawn as he drove after and faster, Sam at his side as he glanced into his rearview mirror and saw nothing but road they had already traveled behind them. It felt good to get back behind the wheel of his car, to get back in control of his life, and of course to hunt down as many evil sonsofbitches that they could find….
Dean watched as his younger brother slept peacefully, a smile pressed across his lips to accompany whatever dream he was having this time around, "You just rest now Sam…. You deserve it little brother." He whispered toward the sleeping form and cleared his throat.
He had no idea where the road was taking them now, but none of that mattered, they were safe… Pounding out the beat to AC/DC's highway to hell on the steering wheel quietly Dean had never felt better than he did right at that very moment….
And that is of course when he should have realized something was going to go wrong….
The car swerved heavily as he gripped the steering wheel, the road before him suddenly becoming nothing more than a painful skull splitting, literally blinding light . He Swallowed hard and fought to scream but nothing would come out, not a sound…. Or even a gasp…..
He tried to hit the break as the darkness he was now all to familiar with over took him, but the motion seemed to only make the car go faster…. Head first into some sort of abyss….. His hands flying away from the wheel, something holding them back… something…. No someone….
"You didn't think you could get rid of me that easy now…. Did you?" He voice was strong, powerful… her words driving like nails into Dean's chest, thousands of them all at once…. Sending a pain worse than any he had felt before shooting through his whole body. "I'm more powerful than anything you've ever seen before boy… And you really didn't think some sarcastic little speech was going to rid you of me now did you?"
"Wh-what?" Dean found himself nearly unable to even whisper the word as he listened to the sound of his heartbeat pounding and pounding faster than a hundred horses racing in an open field.
"I just had to lay low for a little while…." Her venomous tone lowered a little, "I needed to come back stronger, make you believe I had let you go, it's all in the element of surprise… Even you should know that…."
Dean didn't say anything now, hell he couldn't think of a single word to form in response as he suddenly felt her hand on his forehead….. His body glued to the impala's leather seats, unable to move a muscle…. He was helpless, and much more than sure that the attack he had thrown at her before had done nothing but chink her armor… Well and of course piss her off, which only sent her flying back at him, fangs out and wings spread.
It was like an electrocution through his whole body, as he found the strength to open his mouth and draw in only minimal amounts of air with each gasp, just enough to keep breathing, just enough to tell him he wasn't dead…..
The cold was back now biting at his flesh causing him to tremble uncontrollably as the power she was pouring into him seemed to grow stronger and strong by the second, making his body and his mind weaker and weaker … "Sammy….Help….." His words were strained as he felt himself letting go…
Numb…. Completely… totally… numb, he felt her hand drop from his flesh as he lay there helpless in the darkness.
-Sam's eyes shot open a cold sweat pouring down his face his breath hitching in his throat…. That's when he heard it, the small weak gasps for air from the bed adjacent to his… "Dean." He cried out a little his eyes darting around the room looking for his father who was no where to be found as he jumped up from the bed and was immediately at Dean's side.
His lips were blue as the sky, his face white, eyes wide, his body trembling but not shaking or thrashing like before… features lax, chest rising and falling with the effort of ten men….
"Oh god no…." He mumbled dropping next to him on the bed putting his hand to his face and rubbing it slightly in an attempt to receive a response….
Nothing.
Feeling a lump rise into his throat Sam gagged, "Dean…. No… Damn-it…..You bastard!" He panted the visions from his nightmare flashing through his mind bringing vomit to his mouth, so vivid so real… He watched, he watched every minute of it, and yet he could do nothing….
"Warm…We need to get you warm…" He nodded to himself not more than a minute later fighting against his every instinct to break down, and trying to remain calm, which was proving nearly impossible.
Going to his bed he pulled the blankets from it and went back to his brother… "If you can hear me in there…. You hold on…." He carefully draped the blankets around and under him.
The sounds of the older man's labored breaths sending a haunting chill through Sam's body as he slowly climbed into the bed , lifting his brother's form and climbing behind him sitting down carefully and placing deans body between his legs and holding him, chest to back in an attempt to open his airway, and maybe more so in an attempt to comfort him… even if he knew it was lame, and if Dean knew about it he would probably smack him, and call him a pussy or something else just as offending.
Dean's head lulled slightly to the side against the warmth of his brothers arm resting there like a rag doll as he fought for each breath.
"It's alright…. You hear me…. It's alright….." Sam kept repeating to himself, feeling as though he himself were going crazy… "Keep breathing Dean, keep breathing and we'll find a way through this." His nostrils flared once more, only this time it was fear not anger as alligator tears found their way down his cheeks slow and steady, he made no attempt to fight them off….
Before he knew it, against everything in his exhausted body… Sam found himself once more asleep.
His surroundings seemed unfamiliar, everything white and foggy, so much so that he began to wonder if he had in fact some how died and was now about to enter the gates of heaven…..
"Sammy…"
"Dean?" Sam questioned whipping his head around to find his brother walking toward him, "What the hell is going on?"
"You're dreaming…. I think." Dean whispered the last part.
"What happened to you?" Sam asked his voice filled with regret, "I-I saw her, I saw the whole thing… the road trip, the spinning car… but I couldn't help you….."
"I had no choice…" Dean swallowed a little, "I had no choice but to let go…"
"Are you dead!"
"Dude… Do I look dead!"
"Well… Yes…."
"No Sammy, I'm not dead…"
Sam's face contorted in confusion finding himself mesmerized by his brothers eyes, finally looking at him, finally seeing him, it seemed like it had been years sense he had seen his brother, his real brother…. "I don't understand… I thought that if she got you… you go insane…."
"I am… I will… I mean, I'm not to sure, you know this is usually your department… you're the brains of the operation… but I think that you know… my spiritual self… clings harder to my sanity than my… other self…." Dean grunted, "damn… I wish I could explain this better for you Sammy…. But I can't… I just I need you to know that I'm slipping faster now…. I can feel it…."
"You have to keep holding on." Sam pleaded, "Just a little longer…."
"I'm trying…. But I think you and dad might have been right about this one, she's to strong, I can't control it…. And…I think I pissed her off… " He smirked a little with the end of his statement.
"Leave it to you piss off the most powerful thing we've ever faced." Sam's retort was dry, masking his fear, "Are you in pain?" He asked fearful of the answer
Dean could see the fear in Sam's eyes and shook his head, "Not now, no…. inside my body…. When I go back there…. " Dean shook his head, "I need you to listen to me now…."
"Okay- Okay what?" Sam nodded.
"If things… go south…. You are going to have to-"
"Screw you!"
"Sammy please, promise me…. I don't know if I'll be able to come to you again, I need you to make me this promise dude."
"Alright…" Sam nodded reluctantly….
"I don't want you wiping up my droll and shit do you hear me? If it gets to that you cap me, and don't you dare feel bad about it."
Sam nodded his face stern, "It's not going to come to that…. We'll find a way to kill her…."
"How only my blood can kill her" He stopped, "Not everything is as it seems… under the eye of the protected."
"What?" Sam asked growing more and more confused by the minute.
"I don't know…. That's important though…."
"Dean? Do you want to die?"
"What! Hell no, of course not, what kind of question is that!"
"Then why are you surrendering so easily…?"
"Easily! Where the hell have you been these past few days Sam, there is nothing easy about this situation, and you know that, now come on…. I'm just telling you… It's my job to protect you not the other way around…."
"Why do you always do that?"
"Do what?
"Treat me like I'm a child, like it's your job to protect me…."
"It is…." Dean frowned a little feeling his insides begin to turn a little his body weakening…. "Sammy…."
"Dean… What's happening?" He watched as his brothers image right there before him began to fade away….
"You're waking up….." Dean's voice grew faint, and as an after thought, his will to live poking through maybe, Dean's voice grew louder, "Don't give up on me…."
- "Sam….Sam…."
"Sam's eyes flew open, "Dean…"
"No son, it's me…" John frowned trying to piece together the image before him, kicking himself for leaving….. "What the hell happened while I was gone…."
"She's got him, he's trapped…." He whispered, "Inside…, but somehow in dreams…. In my Dreams…He comes to me…. "
"He does?"
"I don't know, we can't explain it…. But he says that he can feel himself growing weaker, soon she's going to have all of him, he can feel it, he can feel her taking his memories…. His sanity…." He paused, "Where were you?"
"I went back to the cave…." John cleared his throat, "I needed to see what we were dealing with…."
"And what did you find out…?"
"It was empty…"
"What!" Sam's eyes grew dark… saddened, "No, that was our only lead….."
John shook his head, "Not our only lead…..Maybe this connection… this power between you and Dean, is actually a good thing, if she is connected to him…. Then he in turn in some way has to be connected to her as well…."
"How is he going to tell us dad look at him….."
"He's going to tell you…" John nodded, "When he comes to you again…"
"How do you know he'll be bale to come to me again…"
"He will… He can't leave you alone, unprotected, he'll use every ounce of himself to watch over you…." John's voice was confident as he rested his hand on his still son's face, "We're not letting go of you son…."
Dean's body jerked again his head shifting as he took in one sharp breath then another 5 or 6 times right in a row fighting against the gruesome and devouring images in his mind….
"Dad…. There's more…."
"What is it?"
"He made me promise…. That uh, that if it comes to it…. I'll relieve him of his suffering…"
"That doesn't sound much like your brother…."
"He's tired… can't you tell, he's a fighter, but no one should have to fight this hard for this long…."
"We're not going to kill him…"
Sam nodded wordlessly…. "How long, do we have now?"
"28 hours…. Give or take a few minutes here and there…."
Sam frowned deeply causing lines to form on the sides of hs mouth as he felt his brother's shaking worsen his head jerking back into his collar bone repeatedly… over and over again a screech irrupting from his lips, a cry of pain, as he was thrown with an over whelming power into convulsions…. "What the-"
"He's having some kind of seizure…" John stated almost blankly as he reached over steadying his son's head and grabbing a piece of blanket forced it into his mouth so that his tongue wouldn't find it's way down his throat.
"She's doing this to him…. She knows he came to me…" Sam held tight to his brothers limbs. "She's torturing him…. His body…. Making the pain unbearable, detaching him from us… from reality…."
John didn't respond as he watched the shaking seize and stood up going to the bathroom to get some washcloths and water….
Sam ran his fingers through his brothers hair soothingly as he watched his lips trembling, he was weak… so weak, it was a state that Sam was not used to… "You'll be alright…." He found himself saying again for the thousandth time. As he watched Dean's sightless eyes blinking rapidly up at him, head still locked in Sam's grasp. "You'll be alright."