A/N: Nope, I dom't own anything about Supernatural.
All explanations in the end of the chapter!!! I know it took me forever!! Sorry!! Hope you enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 11 – Requiem for a dream
Dean and Marie ran as fast as their legs allowed them to. Marie kept holding Dean's hand tightly as they ran. His hands seemed to be her shield, a comfort zone. She felt protected, as if nothing bad could happen to her, could harm her as long as she was holding his hand. She noticed the worried look in his eyes, but how he tried to look calm and controlled for their sakes, for Sam's sake. He needed to focus and trust his instincts to find his little brother. Dean had followed the same direction where he last saw Sam runnuing to. But after that, there were all possible ways he could follow, north, south, east, west. He could go straight ahead, to the right or to the left. All he knew was that Sam went after a mango tree and that was the only clue he had. If he had known Liz's intention, he wouldn't have said it was okay for his brother to go finish the damn job alone.
"It's ok to be worried Dean, he's your brother". Marie said trying to ease his tension. He didn't have to play tough around her.
"I can't lose it Marie. Sam's in trouble. I feel it in my guts and… if something happens to him, I'll never… I'm his big brother and I'm all he has. He's all I have". Dean said looking deeply into her eyes. Marie nodded her head.
"We'll find him". She assured. "Lets keep going". She said trying to give Dean the trust he needed to trust himself.
Why was it so difficult to face the truth? Maybe because a lie was much easier to accept. Dean didn't wanna think he could find his brother too late, or that it could already be too late. It would be wonderful though, to think Sam had been able to burn the bones and he was ok, trying to find his way back and he would run into Dean and Marie as they looked for him. Yes, that was a beautiful lie.
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"HELP!!!!!!!!!" Sam continued to scream and hit the top of his not so new wooden prison. The rain fell over the sand like little heavy stones, penetrating the already wet flooded floor, reaching the cracked wood of Sam's coffin. Little drops started to invade the small space where he was, slowly. Sam had already been wet from running to the grave. The sound of the little drops falling, sometimes over his face, or on some other part of his body, other times on the wood, was the only sound keeping his screams company. He felt his throat sore and his energy going away along with his oxygen supply. Scream and panic wasn't exactly a good idea for someone with limited air.
The coffin was dark. Dark like his bedroom was when he was a kid alone with Dean in a motel room. Dark like his closet. But this time Dean wasnt there to console him, he wasn't there to say things would be okay and he would let nothing happen. He was alone with his just his thoughts, trapped in a solitary of darkness.
He couldn't believe how he got himself into these situations. His skin was bruised from squirming. The cruel silence was the worse. Cruel like death itself. Sam knew there were many kinds of silence. This was sure not a comforting one. Not the silence of a Sunday afternoon, or the silence of a dark night where the world around slept soundly in their nice warm beds.This silence was his mind torture, his companion, his insanity screaming wihtout a sound.
He fought back some tears, but failed as warm tears streamed from his eyes, the only warmth he had felt since they had arrived there.
"Dean". He whispered, trying to get a grip with much difficulties. He had faith Dean would find him and get him out, if Liz hadn't killed him already. That thoguht had to be pushed away from his mind. Dean always saved him, always showed up and they always sighed relief after a hellish job. Sam began to daydream of this moment, him and Dean inside the Impala, sighing in relief, talking about the psycho ghost Liz was, mocking her. Dean would have tons of comments about Marie and Sam would be sure his brother had thoguht about the girl in a motel bed for sure. Thank God for imagination. It wasn't as if Sam could actually feel himself getting calmer by thinking of that, cause after all, that was just a possibility among many others. He would hold firmly to that thought and wish for it to happen.
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Dean and Marie kept running, Dean was following a steady direction, clueless if he was going to the right place or not.
"Damn it! Where is he??" He said out loud as he stopped abruptly and looked around.
He could see the same scene wherever he looked. Nothing but a bunch of dead bushes, dead grass, mud and darkness. Death, death and more death. He couldn't recall being in such a gray place before. Gray like the ashes of a cremated body.
"SAM!!!" He shouted. Liz looked at him and shook her head. Dean was past the point of dispair, he was now in panic. And they hadn't seen a damn mango tree yet.
"SAMMY!!" He shouted again, confused, shifiting his eyes fast from north to south, from east to west looking for some sign. His voice echoed through the rain, reaching a fair distance. Dean didn't receive any reply but the sound of his own echo. He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. He needed to pull himself together. If he wasn't able to find Sam, if he wasn't able to save him then, he had already made that decision some time ago, when Sam had been infected in that town. If Sam wasn't gonna live, then he didn't wanna live either. Marie didn't know that, but Dean saw no reason to go on, without Sam he was just a hunter, a bitter hunter that had lost his whole family, a hunter that could save strangers but not his family. Like that, he didn't wanna live.
Marie appraoched him with pityful eyes. "Dean, maybe.."
"No, don't even say it, don't you dare". Dean cut her off. "He's not dead, he can't be". Dean affirmed as if he was absoliutely sure of that, which deep down, he wasn't.
Marie nodded her head once again and also took a general look around the place. There were just way too many possibilities. She took his hand in hers.
"Where to? You're a hunter, follow your instincts". She said giving him some incentive.
John Winchester had taught him well. If there was somehting he was good at, it was hunting, and one thing he trusted above all was his intuition, his instinct.
But he could be wrong and if he was, if he took the wrong way, then he could in fact lose his brother. Only one way was the right one. He had three chances to make a mistake and one to find Sam.
"East..."
Dean turned around suddenly, looking at the direction whispered. He frowned. A chill was sent down his spine. Although he already knew the answer to the question he was about to ask Marie, he decided to go for a normal possibilty.
"Why east?" He asked Marie giving her a suspiscious look. Marie retributed the look.
"You tell me". She said not understanding a damn thing.
"Didn't you just whisper for me to go east?" Dean asked really expecting a yes. Marie bit her bottom lip. Dean could be very cute when he was desperate and vulnerable, but so weird when he asked random, freaky questions. For the short time she knew him, she was already getting used to his sudden weird questions.
"I didn't open my mouth to say anything". She said also glancing east.
Dean was indecise for a moment. He felt someon's breath on his ear when he heard that, a warm breath, not a death cold feeling. Was it Liz playing a trick? Was it some kind of supernatural help? He had received those before, from his mom once. He had been face to face with death so many times, he had seen so many ghosts and imposible things happening. People that were saved in mysterious ways when they were supposed to have died.
He also bit his bottom lip and let out a sigh.
"Come on". He said following east
"You sure??" She asked in doubt. She had heard nothing, no whisper, nada. Dean looked deeply in her eyes,. His green eyes looking so helpless, she felt like hugging him tight. Not that a hug wuld solve his problems, she just thought that a hug was appropriate for a sad or desperate moment. Dean wasn't much of a hugging type though.
"It's that or nothing. I have to trust something Marie. My brother..." He stopped his phrase for a second. "We wacth each other's back, I wacth his even more. And if I don't hold onto somehting, I lose it." Dean adimmitted. "When I lose it, I make stupid decisions and ... I just do what I have to even though that might turn out bad for me. This time I'd like things to turn okay for all of us... so, just, don't ask me if I'm sure cause I never am". Dean said with the most unsure and pityful eyes Marie had ever seen.
"Okay Dean. Let's go east then".
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Sam stopped squirming, accepting the damn wodden prison wouldn't break and he wouldn't get out of there on his own.
He tried to keep himself calm, hard thing to do when you were six feet under and not officially dead, but the calmer he remained the more chances he had to live. He never thought he would have to be careful not to waste oxygen.
He ignored the pain on his bruised fists and the continous sound of the water dripping inside the coffin. He wanted to take his mind far from that palce. He wanted to go back to his childhood when Dean made his best to keep his innocence. When he could eat lucky charms and not worry about dead girlfriends and spells to exrocise demons.
He wanted to take his mind back to the good moments he had with his brother, rare times when Dean decided to take a break and just have some fun. The pranks they played on each other that resulted in legitimate laughs, legitimate fun. He recalled the last conversation he had with his father before he died. His father's smile when he said he didn't wanna fight. He should have guessed somethign was wrong by then.
He remembered how happy he got when he was able to save his brother, even if Dean didn't quite agree or like the solution.
And he recalled, when he was still at college, and Jessica was alive, he had beautiful plans for them, when he fell asleep every night beside her and woke up with her smile.
He just wished he could distract himself with those memories, and forget about the rest, just forget. That stupid water dripping, slowly, making the only sound he was able to hear taunting, more annoying than he thought it could be. He'd give anything to hear his brother calling him Sammy instead of that water dripping, it felt as if it was dripping inside his brain.
Sam was so tired. His body felt exhausted as did his mind. He felt his eyes beginning to get heavy, very heavy for some reason. He was almost welcoming that sensation. Maybe if he let himself drift away, he would wake up on a motel bed with his brother's happy face to see him awake. Or maybe, just maybe, he would be somewhere else and his dead body would be already buried six feet under.
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Dean's legs were comaplaining and begging for him to stop. He had refused to listen to his muscles this time and Marie had decided to go along with Dean. They had been running, following the direction given, heading east.
He felt optimistic about it, he was sure he was gonna find Sam, that tree had to be close, they would see it any minute now, after all they had been running for a good amount of time. Or at least it felt like a good amount of time for both of them.
Dean suddenly felt Marie grabbing his hand, forcing him to stop.
"Marie!" He said a little angry.
"Dean look!" She pointed her finger to what she had seen, still a little distant, but nothing that a couple more minutes running couldn't be. "Looks like a mango tree to me, could be the one we're looking for".
A grin formed on Dean's lips for a few seconds, Marie was a farm girl and if someone could recognize a mago tree by a fair diatnce, it was her. But... there was no sign of his brother.
"Where's Sam?" He asked as his smile faded. Marie shrugged, if he wasn't there, than at least he could have left a clue of where he was. Dean's hopes went down the drain and the panic feeling took him over once again.
"Let's see what we find there". She said trying to keep his hopes high. Dean let out a sigh, that was not good at all. Sam hadn't passed them by.
"He has to be somewhere". Dean said trying to keep his sanity. They walked a little slower to the tree, paying more attention to each inch of the place, searching for any sign that Sam had passed through.
"We'll see, just calm down". They looked all around. The grass was pretty high, which made their way to the tree more difficult.
"I think I can see the top of two gravestones. This is the place Dean". Marie said as they were now a few feet away. That was supposed to be good news, they had made it there, but Sam was nowhere to be seen.
"If he was here then Liz's grave is supposed to be dug and..." Dean's phrase was interrupted by his own scream of agony. Marie saw Dean kneeling on the floor suddenly, his face showing great pain. One of his hands held on his chest, making pressure as if he wanted to hold his heart tightly. The other hand was on the floor, holding and squeezing the grass between his fingers.
"Dean!" She said kneeling beside him. She placed her hand on his shoulder. "What is it?? Talk to me!!" Dean opened his mouth but couldn't talk, he felt as if someone had dropped a heavy truck on his chest, it was so tight, he felt as if something was crushing him, making his breathing hard. The words got stuck in his throat. His cheeks were turning red as if he had a fever and he was pratically gasping for air. His mouth was wide open, inhaling large amounts of air that didn't seem to be enough.
"He's in a little pain right now. But don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you, you little bitch!" Liz said, appearing behind them all of the sudden.
"What did you do to him???" She shouted, beginning to panic herself.
"There are so many things a ghost can do, you just have no idea. It's like a game and I can choose for each situation, what I wanna do, as I please". Liz was full of herself.
"This was all a trap". Marie concluded.
"Wher...where's Sam?" Dean asked through clenched teeth fighting against the pain.
"You'll join him very soon, I had already told him that, before I threw him in my coffin, a grave he dug himself."
"You buried him alive??" Marie said in a disgusted tone. She knew the answer to that, but she just couldn't believe Liz had actually been capable of doing that. Marie was always afraid that could happen to her. She felt the chills just by thinking someone else was down there, begging for air.
"You twisted bastard!" She shouted, still kneeled beside Dean.
"I said... I'd stay with you...let..let Sam go". Dean was having a terrible time even to talk.
"Why? I can have you both Dean". Liz said making a gesture with her hand, clenching her own fists.
"Ahhh!" Dean screamed again. The pressure on his chest got tighter and more painful, more crushing. He hung his head low, concentrating on his breathing. It felt as if someone was tearing his chest into pieces.
"My God. Dean!" Marie placed her hand on his chin and gently lifted it up so she could meet his eyes. Marie couldn't remember having this kind of experience before, let alone being so close to someone in such pain as Dean was, and not being able to help. She could feel against her soft skin, his dificult warm breathing. Dean let out another scream scaring her, as he rolled on the floor breaking the contact with Marie, and stopped in a fetal postion over the grass, not standing the pain.
"You're gonna kill him!!!" Marie shouted not knowing what to do. Liz was letting out her laugh, that laugh that no one wanted to hear anymore, the laugh when she was winning the game, the laugh of a witch from kid movies, she was the evil witch. Dean's chest was covered in mud from the floor, they were both dripping with water from the rain.
Even squirming on the floor from his agony, Dean couldn't help but to look at the gravestone, where his little brother could be dead or dying for all he knew. "Sammy" He whispered still in a fetal position, not being able to stand up, his muscles seemed to spasm under his skin. The cold rain and the dirty floor didn't even bother so much, his mind was so focused on the feeling inside his chest and on Sam that he had even forgotten the cold, Liz and a desperate Marie beside him.
A sound began echoeing through the vast field. Joining the thunder around them. Shuddering sounds approached the spot where they were. Cries for help, groans, wailing, moans of pain, all mixed like a synphony, all crying at the same time, filling the night air with its dreadful plead. It sounded like a procession of people crying for a lost life.
Liz's laugh ceased at the very same second that the cries thrummed through the air. Along with this agonizing wailing, they noticed a dark shadow coming through the already dark sky, making it even darker, swalling the clouds hungrily. The apocalipse seemed to be unleashed upon that farm. Thunders, lightenings, a strong wind showed all their power pittyless. The shadow came rolling like a big monster, opening a huge mouth ready to take all of them like a cloud of smoke. The thunder sounded like one hundred set of drums being played, the lighetnings striking the mountains, cutting through the dark sky like a knife. Liz looked around her, also afraid of what was happening.
Marie ran to Dean's side once again, who was also listening to those terrifying sounds and observing the mystrious darkness astonished. Dean was still in his fetal postion, though the pain had decreased a little, as Liz semed to be hypnotized by all the events happening. That was not one of her tricks.
"Dean what's that?? What's going on?" She asked as she squeezed his arm with shaky hands. Dean swallowed hard, it could be so many things, his knowledge couldn't recall anyhting precise to give Marie an answer.
"I've no idea". He said and shifted his eyes between Liz and her grave. With much effort, Dean got to his knees and placed one hand on Marie's shoulder.
"I'll take care of Liz, somehow. But you've got to help Sam, before things turn out even more fucked up. She's distracted now, please, take him out of there". He pleaded, as he was pleading for his own life.
How could she refuse such a request?? Dean always seemed to ask something she couldn't refuse, those green eyes, begging was a huge blackmail.
Marie nodded her head. "I'll get him out". She said bringing relief to a tormened Dean. She stood up and ran to the grave, even with her heart jumping so intensely, like a child jumping up and down inside her, even not wanting to leave Dean's side, she ran to the grave, scared to find the coffin with Dean's dead brother.
She kneeled upon the dirt and without heasitation she plunged her hands into the soft mud and began to dig.
"I'm coming Sam, I'm coming. Please be alive". She said to herself as a huge shade covered the spot where she was. The darkness was getting closer and closer, so were the terrifying sounds, still echoing all over the place, making her blood run faster throuhg her veins.
"Dear God, we're all gonna die". She whispered, panting.
Still kneeling on the floor, Dean seemed as hypnotized as Liz, wondering what that sound was. Slowly coming into view, several shapes marched toward them. Shapes that smelled like an army of rotten bodies, shapes that little by little gained color, form and then Dean could see who they were. They came followed by the sounds of hell but the coldness of Alaska chilled the air around them.
Men, ghost of what used be young, strong, men. Probably all of Liz's victim. Each of them carrying the marks of a violent death. Whiped, burned, strangled, drowned, sliced or chopped, even skinned. The most horrific wounds craved in their memories and displayed in their ghostly form. Sliced backs, similar to chopped pigs, with wounds that seemed so fresh that they could pratically see coagulated blood dripping and the bad smell of old blood. Headless shapes, ghosts wearing what seemed to be third degree burnes on their skin, black like coal on their tangible ghost forms. Some of then even, had received Liz's special treatment, when Liz removed their manhood in a selfish act years ago. Some had no eyes, no ears, no hands or feet, some were just a torso attached to a hand, crawling miserably toward them. Dean's breathing became loud and fast as he saw all the marks so visible on those ghosts.
These ghost were still attached to their painful experiences. All of them, furious, agonizing, crying, screaming for help. Souls that had remained trapped for years, trapped to be Liz's slaves in the after life.
The shadow was covering the whole sky now, as if those ghosts had opened a gateway to where they come from, a gateway that released all the sorrow and misery, all the evil and cruelty from wehere they had been trapped. The sound and the cruelty was so much that it could send chill down anyone's spine. Even Dean's, mainly because he had offered himself to become one of them.
Marie froze for a second as she saw all the ghosts. So ugly, so mistreated, so much anguish. Their faces were nothing less than people whose life had been stolen and their souls sold. She was frightened. "We're gonna die". She said again almost forgetting her task. As her eyes caught a sight of Dean, still struggling aginst Liz's inflicted pain, her hands automatically got some more mud and removed it from the grave.
"I'll be ... damned". Dean croaked not believing his own eyes. He didn't think kitchen salt and some fluid would solve their problem now.
"What in hell's name is fucking happening here?" Liz shouted. Even for a powerful ghost like her, all of her victims together were way too much for her to control.
Coming in front of the victims, leading them like the sargent of an army, yet another shape began to get ashy colors and a human aspect. A ghost that had been a killer and a victim as well. Liz was possessed by a wave of fury and hate that filled her entire body like hot air.
"What did you do mother?!" She said giving the ghost of her mother a despicable look.
TBC...
Ok ok, I know I said I wouldn't take another month to update, but this fic is giving me a hard time! Besides college and work (as usual) has kept me busy!! I'm soo sorry!!
But I sooo appreciate the reviews!!! You know that right?? So please, let me know if you liked this chapter!! Leave a review!! I have just one more chapter to post than I think I'm done.
And Kim, sorry for being a pain, I know you weren't in the mood but thanks for the help!!!
Ok guys! Have a good weekend!!!
Lil.