Chapter 13

Sam jerked awake and looked around to find he was laying in an alley and quickly got up to look around. He walked to the end of the alley and looked up and down the street. He could tell it was early morning and things were just opening up and traffic was starting to pick up with people heading for work. He saw a newsstand and headed for it to see where he was.

Sam hoped that might tell him were Lark might be. He paid for a paper and wondered toward what seemed the busier part of the town walking slowly down the sidewalk glancing in windows searching for Lark. He had gone almost to the end of the street when a familiar figure stepped from a store across the street. She was dressed in jeans, T-shirt and button up shirt and had on combat boots.

"Lark." Sam mumbled to himself as he stepped to the street and looked both ways before hoofing it quickly across the street. He hurried to catch up with her, grabbing her arm to stop her forward movement. "Lark thank goodness I found you."

"Sam I told you I needed a little time, I'm not coming home with you. Please just leave me alone." I said madly jerking my arm out of his grasp and turning to walk away.

"Lark, wait, I need to talk to you." Sam insisted stepping in front of me. "You're in a dream world. Look, I don't know how much time I have, but you've got to believe me. This, what you're seeing is not real. You are lying in a bed at Bobby's right now."

"What are you talking about? We had dinner last night with my parents."

"You told Dean and me your parents were dead and you were raised by your grandparents." Sam said trying to convince me of what he was saying. "How about we find somewhere less crowded and talk?" he asked glancing around at the people staring at him. He stumbled slightly but caught himself. "Please you need to believe me."

"Alright, so you didn't have dinner with me last night?" I asked confusion showing on my face as I tried to sort out what I was being told.

"No, that wasn't me."

"And we don't live together?"

"No." Sam said in surprise. "We barely know each other." he said leading her to a small park and a bench. They sat down and Sam leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees drawing in some deep breaths.

"Are you ok?" I asked as I looked this Sam over and started noticing a difference in him from the other Sam I had been dealing with.

"Not really, I need to talk fast." Sam said as another wave of pain coursed through him. "You are a hunter like Dean and me. We hunt monsters that most people think don't exist. We met you on a hunt in Texas months ago. We were looking for the same monster and teamed up, but you weren't happy doing that. You said you preferred to work along." Sam chuckled at the memory. "The way you stood up to Dean was priceless. You are a capable, strong, intelligent, and cunning hunter. You actually saved my life..." Sam told me before he started coughing hard. "I don't know how much longer I have. We crossed paths in a bar where you were playing poker. We got a motel room and parted company the next morning. We got an email from you about hunting a djinn and you were in trouble. He caught you and put you in the world he created from your deepest wishes, but it's not all perfect. There's a darkness here too. We killed the djinn, but you never came out of the dream. In the real world you are dying, you've got to break free of this dream or you will die Lar..." Sam stopped talking, cringing in pain and doubling over.

"Sam, how? How do I get back?" I asked frantically.

"I don't..." he hissed feeling pain radiating up and down his body. "I'm being pushed out!" he cried out and I watched his body disappear before my eyes.

"Sam..." I said softly as I tried to process what he told me. I was a hunter and hunted monsters? I rubbed my temples as the headache returned. I noticed the newspaper laying where Sam had been and something on the front page caught my eye. I picked it up and began to read about a memorial service being held for the victims of flight 497 that crashed a year ago tomorrow. "No, that's not right..." I mumbled to myself. "That flight didn't crash..." I sat back and frowned as forgotten memories crashed into my mind. I needed to use a computer. With that decision made, I headed for the local library to find one.

spn

Sam sucked in a large breath as he sat up in the bed beside Lark and stared wildly at Bobby and Dean. He coughed and tried to get his lungs working again.

"Bro you ok?" Dean asked him getting into his line of sight. "Did you find her?"

"Here drink some water son." Bobby offered holding out the water to him.

"Thanks." Sam said hoarsely as he cleared his throat.

"Did you find Lark?" Dean asked again, anxious to know.

"Yeah, I told her." he said looking down at Lark but not mentioning what she said about them living together. He wasn't too sure what she meant by that and wasn't going to cause any ill feelings between him and Dean. He would wait until he could talk to Lark alone and see if she would tell him anything. "How is she?"

"Her fever is still going up." Bobby said wringing out a cloth to replace the one that was on Lark's forehead. "We've done what we can. I've got ice packs placed around her body to hopefully stop it from going higher. If she doesn't come out of this soon it may be too late. I don't know how much longer her body can take this."

"Hopefully she'll figure it out. She had no memory of being a hunter, but I think I triggered something that got her remembering."

"I hope so son, for her sake." Bobby replied. "Why don't you two go to bed, I'll sit with her."

"Yeah, that does sound good." Sam said still unbalanced from the dream root. "C'mon Dean, Bobby will wake us if anything happens."

"Come and get us if there's a change." Dean told him.

"You know I will Dean, now go lay down." Bobby insisted to both the boys, waiting until they left to sit down in the chair Dean had been using. He reached over and took Lark's hand, squeezing it gently. "You listen to me young lady, I know how strong you are, you can beat this and come back to us. You hear me?" he spoke sternly to her. "I don't need to lose one of my kids and no I ain't getting soft. You kind of grew on me; you got guts lass and turned out to be one hell of a hunter. I'm proud of you kid. We don't need to lose ya. You fight with everythin' you got, don't ya go givin' up on me now. I know you can do it so don't ya go proving me wrong."

spn

I sat back in the seat and stared at the screen reading about a guy that was killed supposedly by a wild animal. I knew this was wrong, I had saved his life. I continued to type knowing some cases Sam and Dean worked to see if they had changed too. It seemed like those we had saved were dead now. Sam was right, there was darkness here and I had to find a way out of this nightmare.

I quickly began typing trying to find anything I could about djinn and started reading all I could find. I was hoping to find some mention of how a victim might break the hold of the dream and wake up. After two hours I knew what needed to be done and got up slowly leaving the library and going in search of a sporting goods store or one that would carry what I needed to buy.

The cemetery was deserted as I walked through it looking for my grandparents' graves. It took me nearly an hour before I found it. A soft breeze blew across the grave yard grabbing strands of my hair and blowing it into my face. I tucked the stray hairs behind my ear and knelt down in front of the grave.

"Oh Grams, Gramps, this isn't how it's suppose to be." I mumbled as tears filled my eyes and ran down my cheeks. I sobbed quietly as I remembered my time with them after my parents died. I stayed kneeling at their graves preparing myself for what I needed to do. I heard the footsteps before the person spoke to me.

"I thought I'd find you here." a male voice I knew said just loud enough for me to hear.

I got up and wiped my face before turning to look at him. "What are you doing here?" I asked hiding my emotions from him and putting a neutral look on my face. I studied him closely and now that I knew he wasn't the real Dean, I could see small differences in his features and his demure. He might sound like Dean was it wasn't him.

"Seems Sammy was worried when he couldn't find you. Never thought he'd reach out to me after everything." Dean replied squinting against the sun as he cocked his head and looked at me.

"Yeah, well I didn't exactly tell him where I was going." I noted staring into his eyes not looking away.

"What's going on with you? Should I call Sam?" he asked taking out his phone.

"Don't bother, I won't be here long. I know everything now." I told him watching as he let his hand drop with the cell in it.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked carefully when he caught the glimmer of the knife blade clutched n my hand.

"All this, it's not real, it's a dream from deep down in my mind." I said waving my hand around. "I don't belong here."

"It's as real as you want it to be Lark." Dean said taking a step toward me that made me step away from him. "Deep down in your subconscious this is what you wanted. You don't have to leave."

"He's right Lark, you can have everything you want here." Sam said stepping into view near Dean.

I tensed and made sure I was not within their reach.

"But I'm dying in my world." I told them.

"You can continue to live out your life here. We could marry, make your parents grandparents." Sam offered.

"If you don't want to stay with him, you could come back to me. We can make it work." Dean added. "It's your choice, whatever you want. Just stay with us."

"Larklin dear, why don't you give that knife to your Dad?" my Mom asked me as my parents joined the brothers causing me to back further away.

"Cupcake listen to your Mom." my Dad said holding out his hand.

"No, no, all those people died because I wasn't there to save them. I love you Mom, Dad, but I can't stay. I have to wake up, I've got to go back."

"Please Larklin, you can live out your life here, grow old and when the time comes, after you have had a long life you will pass away. Join us sweetheart." Mom said holding out her hand.

"I'm sorry I can't do that." I said as I quickly plunged the knife into my stomach and twisted it hard. I felt the searing, hot pain rush through my body and looked one more time into my parent's faces before falling backward into the dark, bottomless abyss.

A/N: So Lark figured it out but will she wake up on the other side? One more chapter to go and this story will end. Thank you to all who have taken the time to read it. Reviews are welcome. NC