Chapter Seven – To Lose One's Mind

Two hours had passed; Alana was buried next to his mother. It was time to seek out his family. He was going back to Jakob's Ladder and he was going to find his family and kill those that got in his way. It was pay back time and someone was about to get an ass kicking.

He found a car, started the car and took off down the long dark highway. He was always watching the rearview mirror; someday someone would come after him. But until that day came, he had a mission to complete and if it meant dying then it was fate.

He parked the car some hours later off the side of the road, making sure his prints were wiped clean. He took off on foot through the backroads, reaching the back parts of Jakob's Ladder later that early morning. No one was around, it was eerily silent and nothing stirred. Sam was cautious now, something was wrong.

Trees were burnt, houses smoldered, yet as Sam ventured further into the darkness that he realized that he was not in Jakob's Ladder at all.

"What the hell?" he mumbled as he tripped over some foreign object. His knee began to bleed and he gritted his teeth as he kept walking. There was no time to stop and clean a wound when payback was needed done.

He walked up the main road, familiar buildings began to come to term in his mind, the library was gone, it was where Derek supposedly died but Sam knew better. Derek had swapped placed with his brother some time during the night, or was it before all of this in the first place. He shook his head, his brother was alive, that he was damn sure of. But the aching in his head also intense, someone was calling out to him.

"Sam?" the voice echoed, it was too faint to hear yet when he heard it, he looked around him. "Sam."

"Is anyone out there?" he called out, only to be answered by silence.

He ran towards the sheriff's office, there had to be someone there, or so he hoped. Yet as he came to the door, he paused, wishing that he didn't have to go into the dark building. But the curiosity of the voice beckoning him drew him in, taunting him in his every step.

"Sam." the voice whispered, "Help."

Now he knew he wasn't hearing things. Someone was in danger and needed his help, yet who possessed a gift like him to call on him? Dean didn't have gifts, Alana was dead, Majestic was human and dad was a hunter. So who the heck was it?

"Sam."

The voice came from right behind him and he jumped, as he turned his hazel eyes enlarged. "Jess?"

She nodded, her blond hair cascading down over her shoulders, her pure white dress waving in the slight wind. "Your family needs your help."

"I know. Alana had to be buried. I wanted her near mom."

Jess nodded, "I know Sam, and she loves you for that. She's in a better place now. Your mom and I will take care of her."

Sam felt the tears fall from his eyes, "I loved her Jess. Just like I love you, you both meant the world to me."

She smiled, "And we loved you all the same. But now Dean and your father and Majestic need your help. If you don't get to them soon, they're going to die as well."

Jess tilted his head up, her eyes piercing into his own. "There is no time to grieve I fear Sam. You need to save Dean or all is lost."

"What do you mean?"

"Dean dies then the balance between good and evil is crushed, letting both parties to venture back out on this plane. Once that happens, you and Dean are liable to get killed.

"So I will never get out of this demon killing?"

She shook her head, "No, I fear not. Maybe I died with our child to be spared the pain."

Sam looked at her shockingly, "My what?"

"I was pregnant the night I died, I was afraid to tell you, afraid you would reject me, but it's too late now."

Sam took a deep breath, "But it wasn't my child was it Jess? It was Dean's. That one night he came to see me and I took off for a few hours. You and he slept together. That's how, right."

She closed her eyes and nodded, "Dean begged me to tell you that it was yours. He was afraid you would hate him."

Sam snapped, "You cheated on me with my own brother, how could you?"

She stepped back, now almost illuminate. "You needed to know Sam. That child would be the next demon hunter for the Winchester family. I screwed up, I paid the ultimate price and I got what I deserved. But what about Alana? What about the child she carried, did it too deserve to die?"

"Alana wasn't pregnant."

Jess nodded, "She was indeed before she joined you and Dean. Caleb was the father but like me he is now long gone. Caleb wanted nothing more than Alana to have her son and bring him up as a Winchester."

Sam shook his head, "Impossible. How would she know Caleb?"

"Your father introduced them to one another. Father Jim was there as well. They wanted to meet your father's only daughter."

Sam punched the wall, he couldn't believe what he was hearing, didn't want to believe.

"This is not real." he muttered and turned to find Jess gone. He shook his head, his bangs in his eyes, tears falling. "I'm losing it, I'm fucking losing it."