Jim knew that the older boys would come back soon if they couldn't find Sammy on their own, so he took the time to start a pot of coffee in case it was needed for a longer search. He didn't know what was really going on, but he was determined to help his friends boys get through this crisis as well. The sudden change in the air made him worry that something had gotten past the salt lines and he rushed through the living room checking that everything was in place before continuing his search in the other rooms. When he reached the boys room, he paused at the sight of the thin curtains slightly billowing in the cold evening breeze. Seeing the youngest Winchester lying on his bed seemingly asleep took the man by surprise, but not as much as the state of dishevelment the boy was in. Hearing voices outside, he left quietly and motioned for both John and Dean to follow.
"He came back?" Dean hurriedly asked as he brushed past Jim to check on his little brother.
John hesitated only a moment to ask, "Did he say where he went?"
"No John, I only came in here because I felt the cold air coming through the window. By the time I got here he was already asleep on the bed."
Nodding, John walked into the room and stopped suddenly when he saw Dean holding one of Sammy's hands, inspecting it in horror. Looking more closely he saw what concerned his brother and he had to wonder what exactly happened while their little brother was gone from their sight.
Dean looked up only briefly before he choked out, "He's been digging with his bare hands John. What the hell is going on?"
Shaking his head, John was about to admit that he had no idea, but that thought was frozen when he saw Dean's expression change from worry to suspicious understanding. "What?" he asked quietly as he watched Dean get up from the bed and start looking around the room. "Dean, what are you looking for?"
"The journal. I haven't seen it today, have you?" Dean asked before turning towards John who looked like he was trying to remember the last time he saw it. "Damn, you don't think someone found it do you? That that's the reason Sammy's freaking out?"
"Sammy's journal's missing?" Jim asked as he walked further into the room. "Are you sure? Maybe he hid it so no one would find it while you were at school."
John and Dean looked at each other before turning their attention to the small figure on the bed, more precisely the raw looking hands with broken nails and a thick layer of dirt caked in the fingernails and along the fingers.
"Jim, stay with Sammy will you?" John asked as both he and Dean ran out of the room in hopes of figuring out what their baby brother had done, all the while hoping they could undo it.
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Sammy knew he was dreaming, but that still didn't help his fear. As he looked around he noticed that there was no break in the darkness and he couldn't help but wonder where he was and if he would be able to find his way back home this time.
"Ah Sammyboy, there you go again, worrying about those brothers of yours – how sweet. But, you know this is all your doing, right? Just think of how much has already been lost just because you exist in the same world as normal people."
The demon's voice floated around Sammy, making him shiver, either from cold or fear he couldn't tell, at the moment they seemed interchangeable.
"Don't worry, it's still our little secret what you did. Oh wait – it's more like… what you didn't do, isn't it? If you had just been able to convince dear old dad that you were serious, that something really bad was in the woods that night… well, we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?" the demon taunted the boy until the tears were flowing freely and the only sounds heard were those of that same lone boy, lost in the darkness of his own mind, tried to get his breathing under control in the attempts to show the monster he had no control over him.
The sound of laughter started as a faint whisper until it reached a crescendo that threatened to deafen Sammy even as he covered his ears with his hands. He didn't know how much more he could take, he could only hope that he died before he lost his mind completely, even if that meant leaving his brothers – they would be better off without him and his problems anyway.
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The wait was almost unbearable as two of the Winchester brothers sat and watched the security guard make his rounds slowly around the perimeter in his car. Finally the man left and both boys let out the breath they were holding before they rushed the fence and quickly climbed over. Neither one of them wanted to think about Sammy being at the cemetery alone especially at night, but it was the only thing that would make sense at the moment, and now they both needed to find out why their little brother had been there.
It didn't take long to get to the gravesite and as the beams from their flashlights illuminated the graves they saw that someone had definitely done some digging, but not for what they had initially feared; their parents graves hadn't been disturbed which meant whoever it was hadn't been meaning to either bring them back, or do a salt and burn.
Sighing, Dean looked at John in relief and saw the same expression reflected in the older brother's eyes. Nodding slightly, Dean bent down and started to remove the dirt in hopes of finding out what was really going on. It didn't take long before he found what he was looking for and the sight sent chills down his spine. Picking up the charred journal, he gently turned it over and saw that although damaged, it was still salvageable. With what light was shining onto his hands, he ignored John's insistence that he be the one to open it, and instead took a deep breath and turned the pages gently until he came across the last written entry and only then did it all make sense and the situation hit him with full force.
'Tonight we're going to do the banishing ritual in the woods, but I wish we weren't. I've already talked to Dad about what I saw in my dreams, that something's wrong, that it's a trap of some kind, but he just smiled at me and said that we'd take extra precautions. I know he thinks I'm just having doubts because of what happened with the last witch we dealt with, but that's not it and I can't get him to listen to me – not that I blame him, my dream made no sense at all… a spirit of a witch who suddenly disappears only to have yellow eyes watching in the dark, the screams of everyone I love so much echoing in the forest while Dean and I stand by the car, Dean running towards the sound only to stop and see something coming out of the dark, Dean being thrown into a tree so hard he breaks his neck, me alone to face yellow eyes still watching in the dark. All pieces of a puzzle and none seem to fit together like they normally do. Dad told me not to worry, if my dream didn't seem like a normal vision, then it probably wasn't, but what if it was? How do I get Dad to listen? I would talk to Mom, but they don't like it when we go to the other if they've already told us no. I wish Dean was home, he always listens, but he's going to his girlfriend's house until it's time to get ready.'
Dean was about to close the book when he saw the drawing on the next page, the first drawing his little brother made after going completely mute; a man in the shadows with yellow eyes holding their mother's head from his fingers while motioning to Sammy to be quiet with his other hand. To the normal observer it was a horrid scene drawn by a very disturbed individual, to someone who actually knew what lived in the dark; it was the answer they'd been searching for.
"Come on, Sammy's in trouble!" Dean yelled as he took off the way they came, not caring if John was right behind him or not.
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Sammy continued to sleep fitfully while Jim watched and prayed. He might have walked away from his collar, but he'd been known to ask for divine intervention every now and again. Sighing, he sat close by and continued his vigil over the youngest Winchester, not wanting to scare the boy but not wanting him to be alone either. Once again he looked at the clock and wondered where the other two brothers were, it had been over an hour and he was starting to worry that they had gotten caught doing something foolish. No sooner had that thought entered his mind, he heard the familiar rumble of the Impala and felt himself relax; if anyone could break through Sammy's nightmare, it would be his big brothers.
It took less than a minute for the front door to open and the sounds of running feet was heard throughout the house. Jim saw Dean come through the bedroom door first and was thankful that young Sammy was still asleep as Dean's expression would have scared the boy to death. In all his years of knowing the teen before him, he'd never seen him so scared.
"How is he?" Dean asked quietly as he sat on the bed and ran his fingers through Sammy's hair.
Jim tried to ignore the damaged journal but it was so hard to tear his gaze away and it was only until Dean demanded once again the condition of his little brother, was the older man able to. "He's caught up in a nightmare. I knew he wouldn't want anyone but you or John touching him, so I've just been waiting to see what happens."
Dean nodded and was about to thank Jim when another figure came through the door.
"What the hell Dean? We need to talk about this. What's in that journal and what does it have to do with Sammy?" John demanded as he marched closer to both brothers before he turned and reached out to grab the leather bound book only to shy his hand away once he heard Dean growl at him in warning. Shocked, but effectively warned, he pulled his hand away from the journal and looked at Dean, waiting for an explanation.
"You don't get to just walk in here and take over everything John; you weren't here when Mom and Dad gave him that. You want to know what's in it, then you're going to have to wait until he trusts you to look at it." Dean said in a quiet voice while his attention was held by his younger brother.
"Dean, I get you're upset, but I need to know what's going on if I'm going to be able to protect him… and you." John said, the frustration in his voice bleeding through.
Dean shook his head slightly before answering. "Look, Jim says there's a demon snooping around and we're hip deep in whatever it wants, that's all you need to know right now."
John stood still for a moment before looking between Jim and Dean. "Please tell me I'm wrong; please tell me that somehow Mom and Dad didn't stumble into a hunt involving a demon. C'mon Dean, Dad's too good for that."
"It's not about being good enough John," Jim said quietly, finally starting to put the pieces together. "it's about being prepared and for whatever reason your parents weren't, right Dean?"
Nodding, Dean continued to watch Sammy and was pleased that the younger boy was starting to calm down. "I can tell you that he warned Dad that something wasn't right, he tried to warn them, but it was one of those times that everything pointed one direction and there wasn't any reason to think otherwise. I can tell you that this demon is screwing with Sammy's head in ways that I don't even want to think about. I can also tell you that for whatever reason Sammy has for not telling us what's going on, it's a good one so we need to respect that until we can convince him that it's ok to trust us with it."
"So you're not going to read anything else in that damn book?" John demanded, not believing what he was hearing. "You expect me to believe that you're just going to sit there and not even glance at it even though we now know that our little brother knows more about what's going on and what happened than he's letting on?"
Dean stood and faced John squarely. "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. I saw what I had to, and that's all I'm going to see until he let me know I can start looking again, got it? If you don't like it, go back to Texas and let us take our chances with the state."
Jim knew that this could end badly for the brothers, but he also knew that at the moment he needed to stay out of it. It was only when he saw that Sammy was now awake and aware that he understood that he should have stopped the brothers from airing out their grievances in the room; Sammy heard everything.
