ROAD UNTRAVELLED

Dedication: To all of my regular readers, you guys rock and to Carikube, you inspire me.

--------------------------------------------

Disclaimer: Sigh I thought I managed to gain ownership of Supernatural and the cast and crew but then I woke up and realised that I was only dreaming.

-----------------------------------------------------

Author's note 1: I have been doing some research for something else and came across something interesting that got me thinking about why Erik Kripke chose Lawrence Kansas. Then I stumbled across a possible explanation which as per usual got my wicked imagination working over time.

Author's Note 2: If you want to find out anything about Stull Cemetery, Google has heaps of links, also Wikipedia has some interesting stuff.

Author's Note 3: Promise no Supernatural Characters will be permanently maimed or killed in the course of this story, they will all recover I promise.

CHAPTER 2 Not So Hide and Seek:

Dean sat in silence waiting impatiently for Sam to speak. He managed to help his brother out of the bathroom and after wrapping a thick blanket around his shoulders and forced a hot drink into him, he sat and waited.

Blinking furiously Sam glanced up at Dean and then around the room, his green eyes wide and wary, 'Dean?'

'Yeah Sammy?'

'What happened?'

'What? I mean what do you mean what happened?'

'I ah remember going to have a shower, I – I had a vision and then a mother of a headache ...' Sam's spoke quietly, his voice strained and tired sounding.

'Then what?' Dean winced when he heard just how short and impatient his voice sounded but Sam seemed oblivious to it as he kept gazing around the room, as though he was looking for someone else. 'Hey Sammy?'

'Yeah Dean?'

'You with me dude?'

'Huh?'

'Sammy!' Dean barked out his brother's name in a very good imitation of their father's voice.

Blinking again Sam glared at Dean and then looked away again, 'can't you see them Dean?'

'See who? What? Damn it Sammy you're starting to freak me out.'

'Them, all of them they're all around us all of the time, following our every move.'

'Sam snap out of it or I swear!'

'Dean they're in my head, their voices, and their faces, all there.' Sam turned back to his brother, his eyes shining with unshed tears but something else, something darker and insidious. 'I don't want to do this anymore.'

'Okay Sammy calm down you're not making any sense.' Dean said as he frantically tried to think of something to do, something wasn't right with Sam and it had to do with that damned mist. Jumping off the bed, Dean grabbed the tin of salt and started to make a salt line around Sam's bed while his brother sat quietly his head dropped and shoulders slumped.

Tugging at the bed, Dean even managed to pull it out enough to make sure that the line was not broken, tossing the container aside he picked up the flask of holy water and went back to sit opposite Sam. 'Sammy?'

'I am so tired of all of this Dean.' Sam whispered lifting his head slightly to look up at Dean, 'I'm sorry for everything.'

'None of this ... damn it snap out of it Sammy now!' Dean ordered, his breath catching in his throat when he saw the gun in his brother's hand. 'Sam?'

'I – I can't do this Dean,' Sam whispered shifting his stare back to the gun, 'can't do this anymore.'

'Sammy give me the gun.' Dean demanded holding his hand out.

'Sorry Dean.'

'Apologise once more and I swear Sam I'll ...'

'You'll what Dean?' Sam cried out hoarsely, 'I – I can't keep doing this.'

'Give me the gun Sam now!'

'What no more Sammy?' Sam giggled as he started to caress the barrel of the gun.

'Sam this is not funny, just give me the gun and we'll work this out.'

'Do you see them Dean?' Sam asked blinking again, 'they are all around us.'

'Who? Who are all around us Sam?'

'Everyone, everything we have killed, they want us Dean they want us to suffer like we made them suffer.'

'Sammy ... that's bullshit, there's nothing there. Someone is playing with your mind Sam that's all.'

'No Dean I can see them, all of them ... the lady in white, the hook man, bloody Mary, the wendingo, vampires all of them.'

'Sammy they were all vanquished nothing can bring them back.'

'Then why are they here Dean?'

'To fuck with our heads, come on Sammy snap out of it.'

'I can finish this Dean and – and then you'll be free.'

'No I won't coz if you finish it then I am right behind you.'

'No Dean please ... I have to do this, they're demanding my ...'

'Your what Sam? Your sacrifice? Your life? What are they demanding Sam?'

'Dean don't please, if I don't do this then they will never leave me alone.' Sam's voice broke as hot tears cascaded down his face, 'I don't ... I can't do this anymore, I'm tired Dean, I am so freaking tired.'

Dean watched as Sam lifted the gun and aimed it at himself; he took in the slight tremor in Sam's hand, the glazed look of in his eyes and the undefinable presence lurking inside his brother. Holding his breathe, Dean flipped the stopper off the holy water flask and without taking his eyes from Sam's face flung the contents at his brother.

The water hissed and steamed on contact, Sam's mouth dropped open and an unearthly scream filled the air, but instead of a noxious cloud of black smoke escaping from Sam's body, tiny tufts of white smoke flew out in all directions. A screeching sibilant sound made Dean drop to the floor his hands covering his ears, his face contorted in agony.

After what felt like hour long seconds the sound was gone, crawling to the bed to pull himself up Dean shuddered and winced with the piercing headache settling in, 'great just freaking great, Sammy?'

Sam lay on his back sprawled over the bed, his eyes wide open but glassy and unfocused, and his large hands clutched spasmodically into the bed coverings, and his chest heaved with each desperately gasped breath.

'Sammy?' Dean called softly again as he hauled himself up onto the bed next to his prone brother. 'Dude talk to me.'

'Dean?' Sam's voice sounded distant and for a moment, Dean thought it came from outside Sam's body.

'Hey Sammy come on dude wake up.' Dean shook Sam's shoulder a little trying to elicit a response from him, anything would do, even a blink.

'Dean?' Sam whispered turning his head slowly towards his brother's voice, 'I – I don't feel right.'

'What is it Sam?'

'Feel so strange Dean, what happened?'

'Seems like some of that mist decided to inhabit you.'

'The mist?'

'Yeah dude, can you sit up?'

'Dean where are you?'

'Whatcha talking about Sammy? I'm right here.'

'Everything's gone white.'

'White?'

'I can only see white Dean, nothing else ... just white.' Sam said.

Dean frowned and moved closer to Sam, placing his hands around his brother's face he stared in horror, 'dude your eyes, ah your eyes are ...'

'What Dean?'

'It looks like someone has painted your eyes white, there's nothing else there, just white. No pupils, no green, nothing just white.'

'Oh man.' Sam sighed, 'Dean I'm blind dude.'

'Well last I heard mists don't make people blind Sammy, and you see white not blankness, not darkness.'

'Just white.' Sam agreed, 'my head hurts Dean.'

'Here lie back on the pillows and I'll get some pain killers for you.'

'Dean?'

'Yeah dude?'

'Don't go far please?' Sam hated sounding so desperate, but he was barely managing to keep his boiling emotions under control and simmering without letting them boil over.

'I'm not going anywhere dude.' Dean said.

'I can hear your heart beating ... calm down Dean you're gonna have a stroke otherwise.'

'Okay now you're just freaking me out.' Dean let out a shuddering breath as he pressed the tablets into Sam's hand and a glass of water into the other one, 'you okay to take these?'

'Yep.' Came Sam's succinct reply. 'I'm tired Dean, I might try to get some sleep.'

'Okay, yeah that sounds like a plan.' Dean sighed with a palpable feeling of relief.

'Dean?'

'Yeah Sammy?'

'You'll be here when I wake up won't you?'

'Not going anywhere without ya Sammy, but I do know one thing ...'

'what's that?'

'As soon as you feel up to it, we are getting out of this freaking freak show of a motel.'

'Dean what about Dad?'

'Don't care, I have a feeling that someone else used Dad to lure us here, nah Sammy this was a trap and we walked straight into it.'

'You really think that someone else did this or some thing?'

'Thing Sammy, and I am not gonna stay here and find out what else they have planned.'

-------------

Tracey sat watching Rory sleep, his face seemingly whiter than the hospital linen. His arm so severely broken required surgery to place two long screws in the shattered bones. Now hooked up to IV's, drainage tubes and other medical paraphernalia as well as traction for his arm Rory looked small and vulnerable.

The small charms Tracey placed surreptitiously around his bed made her feel better, at least nothing can hurt him while he was in hospital. Chewing her lip Tracey swallowed down the rising guilt she felt and tried to concentrate on the healing prayer to the Goddess.

A soft melodic voice whispered through a soft breeze, as she prayed, telling her a name and contact. The Goddess favouring Tracey deciding to help her and Rory and the brothers who were in such dire danger.

Yawning Tracey fell into a light sleep, overwhelming feelings of comfort, and safety wrapped her in a tight cocoon, and she finally had a chance to rest.

--------------

Sam frowned and tried to block out the loud sounds, each one had its own resonance, and each hurt his head in a slightly different way. The two sounds that gave him any semblance of comfort were his brother's voice and the rumble of the impala's engine.

'You doing okay there Sammy?' Dean asked glancing over to his sibling while waiting for the traffic lights to change.

'Yeah just so freaking noisy.' Sam sighed and readjusted his sunglasses again, 'and so bright.'

'Won't be much longer, the only thing is that the next motel won't be so fancy.'

'Hey since when do we do fancy?'

'That's what I'm talking about.' Dean grinned and lightly slapped Sam's knee.

'What did the manager say when you checked us out?'

'Oh he wasn't very happy with us ...' Dean chuckled lightly, 'but when I explained that you weren't well and had to go the hospital immediately coz the doctors feel that you're very contagious and they didn't really know what you had. Well just say he was no long so argumentative and he gave us back the money we paid for the food and stuff.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, said that everything was on the house, part of the prize package and that when you are better we can come back and finish our stay there.'

'Wow.'

'Yeah, poor guy never realised just how used he was.'

'Dean?'

'Yeah Sammy?'

'Do you think ... that last vision I had; do you think it was the trigger for my blindness? I mean I can't remember what I saw and then...'

'Could be Sammy.'

'So if that's the case and it worked, does that mean I won't get anymore?' Sam asked turning his sightless eyes to his brother, although they were hidden behind the dark glasses, Dean could still see the unblinking whiteness.

'Not sure Sammy, not sure at all.' Dean sighed feeling even more lost; being unable to help Sam was never an option as far as Dean was concerned. He simply wouldn't allow it as long as it was humanly possible. Now, now, he did not know what to do and it scared him.

TBC