With The Coming of the Dawn
Summary
The hunters become the hunted when a creature stalks a remote community, and one of the brothers has a choice to make. Will both brothers survive the hunt and the decision of the other?
Disclaimer- Nope still not mine, but doesn't stop me from playing! No money being made but hey who wants to be rich right?
Chapter 12
Sam stood in the doorway of Dean's room, his head spinning and heart pounding. He knew that Jess's death had been his fault as if she had never been with him; The Demon would never have targeted her. But his Mom? Although Sam felt somewhat responsible, he had begun to start to believe Dean's insistence that he had only been a baby so how could it possibly have been his fault? Since the emergence of his "curse" or "gift" depending on how you looked at it, the youngest Winchester had come to the inescapable conclusion after Max, that The Demon had to be drawn by, or the cause of, their powers. It was too much of a co-incidence otherwise.
And now his own father had just confirmed his worst fears that without him Dean and John's life would have been so much better. It even explained why his father had told him not to come back when he left to go to college. It had been the perfect opportunity to get Sam permanently out of his and Dean's life. Blood roared through the young hunter's ears as he realised that once, not if, Dean was well, he would have to leave. Sure Dean would be upset a little but in the end, Sam would rather Dean be alive and well to be mad at him.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself Sam, it's pathetic, he muttered to himself as he looked at his pale and pain wracked brother. His father had mentioned something about a connection between blood magic and the leech stone. That gave him a place to start. He pulled out the laptop and began to search. He had never looked into other uses of the leech stone, thinking that what Elsie had told him of its properties was the full story.
Dean stirred, his mind confused. The pain which had been ebbing was now returning full force and his fever was again beginning to climb. He felt like he was on fire, it was as if he could feel every drop of his blood burning through his veins. He could pinpoint each of his organs individually, his heart pounding and erratic, his lungs were straining with every breath he took. His head was splitting with sudden sharp pains, each pain carrying with it confused yet vivid imagery.
He could see his father visiting him but with eyes of deep crimson, and with a strange double exposure effect as if he was looking at several people at once. He could hear a vague echo of his father's voice demanding "stay the hell away from my sons!", but also somehow overlapping with Missouri's "look after your brother Dean, your father is" but this was abruptly cut off. He struggled to make sense of what he was seeing and hearing.
Suddenly Dean could see his bed, crawling with rats and he let out a muffled scream, and tried to pull himself off his bed. He calmed when he felt a familiar presence next to him.
"It's ok Dean, there's nothing there. It's just your fever." Again there was a strange echo, hearing the words normally but also in his mind. He had been pushed firmly back down onto the bed and someone was gently wiping his face down with a cold, damp cloth and had a hold of one of his hands. Dean kept a tight hold on the hand in his; it was a lifeline to the real world and Dean didn't care if he lost all of his man points, at this moment he felt that if he let go, he would fall away and would not be able to find his way back.
"Sammy" he breathed, through the confusion he could feel a deep abiding hurt, an overwhelming sense of guilt coming from his brother, an utter desolation of the soul. What the hell?
"Sam, you ok?" he managed to whisper.
"I'm fine Dean", his brother lied. "How are you feeling?" but there was no answer as Dean still battling furiously, desperate to find out just what was going on with his brother, lost his tenuous grasp on consciousness, images once again flooding his mind.
Pictures of his Mom and Dad, of Sammy as a baby, followed by pictures of Max and his family; images of Jessica in her Smurf top, and then of her pinned bleeding and burning to the ceiling. He saw Sam and their father arguing and Sam subsequently leaving for Stanford. It was almost as if something was trying to force connections in his brain and in a brief moment of clarity, he picked up a memory that was not his own.
His father was outside of Elsie's house on his cell but again with crimson eyes, and he heard his father's conversation with Joshua Howard. With dawning horror, Dean realised that he was picking this up from Sam's point of view. Sam had heard this, Dean thought, his stomach clenching in anger and bile rising. Dammit, don't you believe this Sam, don t you listen to that son of a bitch. Dean couldn't believe what he was hearing, if what he was seeing was real, he doubted he could forgive his father, ever. As if bidden, he caught a glimpse of an earlier argument between John and Sam. He saw the strike and the cruel words, and Dean knew that there was no way his father either believed or could say the things he apparently had in those two memories. That left one inescapable conclusion. Whoever was with them, was not John Winchester. C'mon Sam, surely you can see this too?
Sam had worked through the night with some success. He had found a site that mentioned both the leech stone and multiple properties. The site mentioned how the leech stone could absorb psychic poisons and pain and confirmed that on its own, it was limited to just how much it could contain. At least now I know how I am so tired, he thought. Something Elsie had not told him, though to be fair she probably had not known, and that was that the leech stone should not be used by inexperienced psychics. The site warned that the link used initially to activate the stone, could remain in place and would continue to drain the user. However, the site also mentioned that if the leech stone was soaked in the blood of the original caster, and linked with a binding incantation; then the leech stone could transfer the toxins and their effects from host to host. Unfortunately what the site did not provide was a binding incantation.
"Doesn't matter" Sam said grimly to himself. He knew that there was a binding ritual in his father's journal, it was for use of binding witches powers to make them defenceless, but Sam was sure he could modify it. "At least my abilities can be put to good use" he thought to himself with some satisfaction.
He looked up at a noise in the garden. The creature was back though still seemed reluctant to come too close for now. An idea slowly began to form in Sam's mind….
Dean was trapped in a nightmarish world of forced unconsciousness. He could feel Sam's presence in the room with him. It was funny how he always could, even as a child he could always tell with unerring precision when his brother was nearby. In the same way that his then semi-permanent shadow of a brother, Sam could pinpoint his exact moods and could sense any change in them. Both brothers had an uncanny ability to detect when the other was in danger or in distress, they were each incomplete without the other.
Dean tried desperately to wake, to warn Sam. The same sense that was telling him that his brother was nearby was also screaming at his that he was in danger. The same feeling that had come to him at Stanford that had made him turn around and go back to Sam was nagging at him now. It was telling him that he was losing his brother, even as he was sitting in the same room with him.
His battle to awaken did not go unnoticed by either Sam or the Other; whose psychic connection was both preventing Dean from awakening, and was providing the images that were tormenting him. It was trying to force the connection between Sam and the events of their life, endeavouring to convince the elder brother of the inevitability of Sam's responsibility.
"No", Dean growled, "No way in hell!"
"There's more than one way to skin a cat Dean Winchester" The Other's voice laughed, Dean now recognising that this was coming from an external source. "You will either believe the truth in what is shown to you or not. Either way, your brother will believe that you do." The Other laughed again maliciously. "And to answer your question, that was your father that said those things. Well his voice, in his body anyway. I have to admit to being the author. I thought that it had rather a nice effect don't you think?" it flashed Dean an image of Sam crying brokenly on the floor of Elsie's lounge, his face buried in his knees.
"You bastard, I'll kill you!" Dean snarled at the Other.
"Temper, temper Dean. Did your mother never teach you respect for your elders? Then again, she didn't really have time to teach you much did she? Anyway, everything I said to precious Samuel was there in your father's thoughts, so what does that tell you about daddy dearest? Do you know that he wishes sometimes that you were an only child, that Sammy had never been born? Then his beloved Mary would still be alive and you three would have the home and family that you and John remember. The one you both so desperately crave. All you have to do is give up your brother."
"I don't believe you" Dean whispered, although a tiny seed of doubt had been planted by the Other's words. "Dad would never want that, he loves us both"
"Believe what you will Winchester, I really don't care. Bu know this one thing, John Winchester believes that your Mother and Jessica's deaths are directly linked to your brother. He blames him" With that the voice suddenly silenced and left Dean alone, trapped in a dark world of doubt, misgiving and more than a little fear.
He willed his eyes to open, his voice to work, anything but lie there helpless, but his body, weary beyond belief betrayed him. The battle within his mind tiring his already exhausted body still further, and Dean once more slipped away.
Authors Note – Thanks to all who have reviewed so far- it keeps me going. Seriously. Ok so I'm hinting a little, can't blame a girl for trying Please R and R, I really appreciate it! Will hopefully update tomorrow.