Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or any of its characters. I merely enjoy torturing them from time to time.
Mullet Rock
Chapter Fourteen:
Sammy was so stunned by Dean's announcement that he simply stared at his brother unable to believe what he'd just heard. He shook his head in denial and looked around at the items from the alter that were scattered across the floor. His eyes came to rest on a little black book that lay on the ground near where he was standing.
He reached down and picked up the book recognizing it immediately. He knew what the ritual in this book was used for. "No Dean," he choked out. "Please tell me you didn't… you aren't…" Sam's eyes pleaded with Dean to take back what he'd said, to tell him it was all some sick joke.
"Sam," his brother replied quietly. "I had too. It was the only way to get you back."
Sam stalked angrily up to his brother. He reached out suddenly grabbing his bandaged hand and ripped the bandage off of it. He closed his eyes at the sight of the self inflicted wound on his brother's palm. "Oh God," he whispered. "You did."
The look of complete horror on Sam's face was devastating for Dean. "Sammy," he repeated. "It was the only way, even Bobby and Ash agreed. I wouldn't have done it if there was another way." He watched his brother closely not knowing what to expect. He knew he'd failed him… knew Sam was disappointed at the choice he'd made. But it didn't matter. Sam was back and that's what counted. They would work everything else out later. Dean was totally unprepared for Sam's reaction when it came.
"No!" Sam shouted fiercely at him grabbing him by the shirt and nearly lifting him off his feet. "She can't have you! You tell her! If she came for me then she's taking me. I won't let her trade... I won't!" He shoved his brother against the car. "How could you! After what Dad did to you! Did you think I'd let you?" Sam was breathing heavily as his angry shouting came to an end. He had Dean pinned to the car. His brother wasn't fighting him at all. He just shook his head.
The color drained from Dean's face as he listened to Sam's tirade. Understanding washed over him as he realized what Sam thought he'd done. "Sam no… it's not like that." He tried desperately to make his brother understand. "I didn't make a trade. I'm not going anywhere."
It took a few seconds for understanding to penetrate the anger that engulfed him… for what Dean had told him to sink in. Slowly though, it did. And as understanding crept into him Sam released his brother his anger turning to confusion.
"Sammy," Dean said anxiously. "I summoned her that's all, I swear. I just needed her help."
"What for?" Sam asked trying to figure out what had happened.
"The mask," Dean told him. "I needed her to get your soul out of the mask."
Sam leaned on the car and ran his hand through his hair. "I think you need to start at the beginning," he told his brother with a sigh.
"How much do you remember?" Dean asked his brother as he leaned on the car next to him.
"I recall going to the gift shop. We found the mask, I reached for it… Then just… pain… burning pain," he replied. "It… it lasted forever."
"That's my fault Sam," Dean said rubbing his necklace. "I'm sorry. I should have been the one to handle the mask. My amulet would have protected me."
"You had no way of knowing Dean," Sam told his brother. "We couldn't have known… besides, I'm the one that did the research on this one. What was in the mask? What happened, I seem to have lost around thirty hours."
"A very pissed off soul. From what I've been able to figure out it's been trapped in the mask for centuries. Somehow when you held the mask it was able to switch places with you. It put your soul in the mask."
Now that he wasn't moving around and was beginning to relax Sam was growing tired again. He was having to concentrate to follow what his brother was saying. "How?"
"I'm not sure how," Dean told him. "But the thing knew how to steal souls. I had to find a way to switch you back. I spent hours combing web sites looking for information on how to fix it. I even had Bobby and Ash working on it. Ancient Shaman from Africa were said to have the ability to do it, but I couldn't find one."
Sam rubbed his eyes. "What ever the damn thing did to me, I'm tired… I've never felt this tired in my life."
Dean smiled at his brother. "Um… it didn't do that," he said. "I did."
"What?"
"The damn thing was in your body. I couldn't hurt it so I… I drugged it…"
"You drugged me?!"
"No," Dean said patiently. "I drugged Kindoki."
"Kindoki?"
"That's what it called itself," Dean replied. "Anyway… Like I said I looked for hours and I couldn't find any way of switching you back. Then Ash sent me an e-mail. He said the only thing he knew of that could do it was a reaper. Bobby said the same thing."
"It was too dangerous," Sam told his brother. "What if it had…?"
"It didn't Sam," Dean told his brother. "Everything worked out okay, everything's fine."
Sam shook his head at the danger Dean had put himself into for him. When he thought of what could have gone wrong it scared the hell out him. A thought occurred to him. "How did you convince her to do it if you didn't bind her?" Sam asked.
"She owed me," he told his brother. "I just made her understand that."
"What do you mean she owed you?" Sam asked. "How can a reaper owe you?"
"Apparently Tess is our family reaper," Dean explained. "She's the one who took dad instead of me."
"I thought you couldn't remember what happened with the reaper in the hospital?"
"I didn't… until I saw her." Dean said. He didn't want to go into the whole story. He just wished he could forget the hospital and everything that happened there. To get off the painful subject he continued his story. "Anyway, long story short… while I distracted the damn thing Tess was able to get close enough to take its soul and put yours back where it belonged."
Sam looked around the warehouse. "How'd you distract it? By pretending to be a punching bag for the damn thing?"
"More like a bouncing ball," Dean muttered.
"What was that?"
"I said it used telekinesis," his brother lied. "The damn thing was a very strong psychic. It wasn't easy to work around that. That's why I had to drug it."
Dean walked over to the mask and picked it up. "I told Tess I'd do something with this so it couldn't be used again."
"What are you going to do with it?" Sam said. "We can't burn it. It's made with Cowry shells. You can't even just break it."
"I know." Dean said. "I have an idea, but it can wait until after we've both gotten some sleep." He went to the trunk and pulled out the lighter fluid and matches. Then he took the little black book from his brother and burned it until there was nothing left but ashes.
"Why'd you do that?" Sam asked curiously having considered doing the same thing himself.
"Just keeping a promise," Dean told him. "Come on, you can show me where the shop is to get my girl fixed up then we're going to the motel."
"Good," Sam said. "Because I feel like I can sleep for a week.
A/N – Okay… one more chapter should finish this one up and free me to work some more on Murder in Montana. Thanks for reading and please review!