Wow guys sorry for the long update lol was SO busy haha anyways, the next chapter is already written and I will update soon…maybe this weekJ

________________________________________________________________________

Dean picked the heavy locks in seconds. The school doors opened like a gate with a screech. Sam followed to Dean's left and Ben tailed behind after Sam half a step behind. They stayed close and they stayed in line of sight. 'One of Dean's control-freak rules.' Ben had bitched about it at first, but hid how much comfort it really gave him to know Dean and Sam were right beside him.

Since the first time he had seen Dean he had felt a strange hero admiration for the man. Partly because they had seemed so alike, partly because Dean's face was the one he remembered seeing first in that basement. The glow of the sun surrounding him like a halo and the embodiment of freedom. Ben, a scared impersonation of the man Dean Winchester really was.

They pushed the door closed behind them and took a second to take in the darkness. Dean had explained that it was necessary to take a second to develop night vision. Even when it was already dark outside. You still needed to adjust to the slightly darker indoors. Ben stood and tried to make out the paintings on the walls. All of them made by the students. He noticed patterns in the floor and doors down the hall to his left and right. Slowly he even started to notice shadows in the dark.

Dean started moving forward.. They had studied the layout for the school grounds in preparation. Ben hadn't felt it was necessary to memorize it, but now that he was there he felt comforted by it.

"Sam, Ben, you take the hall to the left. We circle around and meet behind the library." Dean fired off.

"Alright." Was Sam's quiet reply.

Ben didn't like the idea of splitting up, but he wasn't about to protest it. Not with Dean already doubting his involvement in the hunt. He noticed that Sam followed the order without question. Ben couldn't figure out the brothers' relationship. Some orders were followed without question while others were open to negotiation or direct refusal. He had seen Sam take charge as many times as he had Dean, but he still couldn't figure out how they aligned themselves so perfectly to the other's mind. It was like they knew what the other was thinking.

The dark halls wound and curled. Sam and he walked quietly through a glass hall. The night sky was visible above the streetlights. It was like looking out through a fish tank. Like being on display. It made Ben feel vulnerable. Trees swayed in the gentle breeze blowing outside and made the shadows inside dance.

Like a slow hypnosis he stopped and watched the trees dancing in the whispering wind. He never noticed how Sam crept further and further into the darkness.

Dean was walking down a hall close to the library when he heard it. He immediately knew something was wrong. Some sense on the edge of his consciousness warned him that the night had changed. The air had shifted minutely. Barely perceivable, but Dean noticed. He fingered the phone in his pocket and listened intently.

Something whispered in the dark. Sweet honeysuckle voices lulled him closer and peaked his curiosity. He noticed a large painting on the wall and stepped up in front of it. His eyes slid from corner to corner of the piece in a trance. Abstract shapes shimmered in the dimmed lights like eyes glancing at him. Little voice giggled and teasing smiles lit up the canvas.

Out of nowhere a face slowly started forming. A beautiful woman. Eyes like the moon, lips sweet and wet. She smiled down at him and blew him a kiss. A sweet scent spread through the air. Like sugar. Sticky and teasing. He smiled up at her pretty mouth and ignored the reasoning part of him, telling him it was wrong.

She suddenly smiled down and raised a hand. The canvas billowed like rings in a lake. She stretched the slender hand forward as he did the same. Her brilliant eyes were inescapable. She leaned closer, through the canvas. Her lips glistened like stars sparkling in deep, forest lakes. She sighed softly when he stretched to reach her. His deep breaths was the only sound in the room besides from her soft sighs.

"….Dean…."

She leaned in for the last bit and connected her sweet lips with his. Light as a feather at first, but the kiss quickly deepened. They breathed into each other and her hands slowly crept out of the painting and grabbed his head. He felt her greedy tongue digging deeper between his lips. Sucking out his energy. Claiming his entire focus.

Her hands were strong. She was pulling him closer too fast. Something inside him clicked and he yanked back with a fierce move. She clawed after him, still making her sweet crooning sighs. Her eyes saddened as he pulled back.

"What the hell is this…" He mumbled to no one in particular. She tipped her head at him and faded back into the painting. His breath was coming too fast. His heart was fluttering. Without looking back he turned and started running for their rendezvous point behind the library.

Sam stopped suddenly when a breeze tickled the back of his neck. He turned and froze.

"Ben?"

The hallway behind him was quiet and dark.

"Ben?!"

His breaths came in huffs and he started running back the way he came. He was quietly cursing himself for letting Ben out of his sight. When he came to a bend in the hall right before the glass hall he slowed and brought up his gun. This was where he had last seen Ben. He rounded the corner and stopped when all he found was a white wall. Not quite believing what he was seeing, he put his hands on it and punched it a bit for good measure.

"No!"

Solid.

How the hell did that get here?

It hadn't been there before. Unless this wasn't the way they'd come? He looked back and wondered if he should turned back and head for the library. Dean would worry. He would worry a fist into Sam's face if Ben wasn't with him. In seconds Sam turned and started running for the meeting point. He needed his brother if he was going to find Ben. It didn't matter if Dean never forgave him as long as Ben was ok.

He hurled through the empty halls until something snagged his foot and sent him sprawling. He banged his head against the wall and blacked out before he even hit the ground.

Ben suddenly looked up when he heard someone yelling his name. It sounded muffled. He blinked and wondered why he had dozed off like that. Where he was? Where Sam was?

Ben…

There it was again. Sam's voice, but muffled. Ben was about to call back when he heard another and far more disturbing sound in the distance. Back the way they came. He crept along the walls with his shotgun in front of him and his eyes trained on the dark.

Strange mumbling reached his ears.

He ground his jaw at the voice. It sounded like a woman. He rounded a corner and could see a soft glow from candles light up the halls. In front of the lights was a girl dressed in black. She felt familiar somehow. He inched closer and almost had a heart attack when she suddenly stood in a rush and screamed out in shock.

"Jesus!" He yelled back at her surprised scream. She was looking at him, shaking.. "Who are you?"

He saw her tip her head slightly. "It's you!" She said in surprise.

"Who are you?" He asked again. She grabbed a flashlight and lit it, pointing it to her face.

"It's me. Karly. Remember? The girl at the football game?" She looked carefully hopeful at him.

His mind was spinning. What girl? Then he remembered. Girl dressed in black that day too. Black hair, nice smile that lit up her face. She turned the flashlight on Ben and took a step back in fear when she saw the gun.

"W-What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same." Ben said and gestured to the candles.

She glanced at them and swallowed nervously. "I-I'm performing a spell."

"A spell?" Ben asked incredulously.

She nodded and he could already see the disappointment setting in. "It's alright if you don't believe me. Nobody does." She shook her head a little.

"What kind of spell?" He asked with confirming her suspicions of him.

She stared for a second. "A protection spell. Something's going on here and I intend to stop it." She said in a strong voice.

"How do you know about protection spells?" He asked, carefully weighing his words.

She wouldn't stop staring at him. "I'm not exactly a normal girl, Ben."

His name briefly had him tensing until he remembered that he gave it to her when they met. "We have that in common then."

"What do you mean?"

"I know something is going on here. I've seen it." He said and stepped closer, lowering his gun.

"Do you know what it is?" She inched a little closer too.

"A trickster."

"Seriously?" She eyed him in disbelief.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Yeah?"

"They're real?"

"Yeah, you know about them?"

She huffed and ran a hand down her face. "Yeah I know. I've done a bit of reading." She shrugged and something about her changed. "And of course living as one for nearly three thousand years help." She smiled as Ben's face fell.

He froze.

Her smile grew as his fear skyrocketed. He brought up his gun, but it was viciously ripped out of his hands by a phantom force. She tisked at him waggled a finger. "You know what you're fighting and you still bring a gun to kill me?" With a wave of her hand she forced him back against the wall.

He hit it with a huff. The air in his chest was forced out all at once. "I-I'm n-not al-lone." He forced out through clenched teeth. She actually smiled at him.

"I know all about your little friends. They're the ones I felt at the cemetery back in Cicero." She sauntered closer and ran a finger along the wall. As she came closer he felt his chest squeeze tighter.

"T-They're gonna k-kill y-you…"

"I doubt that." She was still smiling. "You see, that little binding spell you did, had me confused for a little while. I could feel it happening, but I didn't know what it was." She reached his incapacitated body and giggled when she ran a finger over his chest. "Then you three showed up and it suddenly became clear-"

He knew he had to buy time. "Kate saw you back in Cicero!" He choked out. "You looked nothing like this…!"

"Nooo, I had to change. You see I can bend reality as I wish. Make you see anything I want.." She leaned up close enough that he could smell her hair. Sweet like flowers. "Make you feel…." She giggled at his response, "…anything…"

"Back off!!" Dean's strong voice called down the hall.

She turned with a hiss. Her eyes flashed over with a cold blue and Ben felt her fingers like knives of ice. "AAHHH!" He couldn't help the cry that was forced from him when one of her nails dug into his skin.

"STOP!" Dean ordered with his gun held in front of him.

Ben couldn't help the whimper when she squeezed a little tighter.

"I'll kill you I swear to God!!" His voice was an angry order and a warning growl at the same time.

The trickster looked at him with a smile and cold, blue eyes. "You shouldn't worry so much about him," She glanced back up at Ben and back at Dean. "You should worry more about your brother."

Ben saw his face fall and could feel the fear in his own chest as well. Sam. If something had happened to him Ben would make sure the trickster paid for it.

"I'll kill you if you hurt my brother!" Dean hissed.

The trickster laughed and threw her head back. "That's what the whelp said."

"Let him go."

"Or what?" She challenged.

Dean bit his lip and glared at the trickster as he tightened his grip around the wooden stake, "You'll die…!"

"If you kill me Dean, the boy dies too," She glanced up at Ben and smiled.

Dean hesitated unsure on when to make his move. He either killed the trickster right away and risked Ben's life – That's not an option… Lisa would kill me - OR he stalled it and waited for Sam. A plan was slowly forming in the recesses of his mind.

Sam awoke to a pounding skull and little lights blinking around his head. With drunken dizziness he came to his knees and stumbled before coming to a complete stand. With one hand and his head resting on the wall he stayed for a minute, taking deep breaths.

Then something made the hairs on the back of his neck stand. Something brushed by his neck, feather light. He flinched back with a yelp and stared at the phenomenon appearing before his very eyes. The wall was alive. Long, dark green vines stretched out in front of him. With spidery tentacles they brushed the wall, looking for purchase.

Wriggling, twitching, squeezing. The huge plant was growing before his very eyes. He squeezed his gun and took a shaky step back. With another yelp he jumped when something slithered up his boot. The huge plant wasn't just on the wall. It was spreading like a spider's web across the floor. Green tentacles were slithering up the walls like they were alive. His heart started pounding and racing in fear. The vines tried to snake around his ankle again and he dodged. With a gazelle-like jump he avoided being tripped by the slim fingers of the grotesque plant. He stomped down on one of the vines and felt a small amount of satisfaction when the plant whimpered. It was growing across the floor, from wall to wall and up the ceiling. When it started making little squeaking noises Sam figured it was time to get the hell outta dodge.

He turned and almost flinched back several feet. Behind him another wall had formed, but not like anything he had seen before. The plant was trapping him. Without thinking he brought up his gun and shot at the green mass of strings. The first bullet hit and the plant almost screamed in fury. Sam felt the sound slicing through his brain and making him dizzy. With stumbling steps he backed off. The tentacles reached out, snagging his clothes, his skin and his face, crawling under his shirt, into his ears, his nose and up his pants. Beginning to feel frantic he started swinging his arms. The tentacles were slithering under his clothes and grabbing his skin with little nicks. Ripping into his skin, little by little.

"Ahh!"

One of them ripped a tear in his chest. The blood started flowing and quickly left a growing stain on his shirt. The plant seemed to purr at the taste of his blood. It vibrated with pleasure and doubled its efforts at claiming him as its prey. More and more snakelike arms shot out from the massive, moving wall and were pulling him closer. The little tentacles started pricking holes in his skin and absorbing the blood. More and more arms slithered around his body. The more he struggled the more arms appeared. They wrapped around him like a cocoon until air became hard to breathe. He couldn't expand his chest and his skin was on fire from the little cuts. He could feel them against his skin, wriggling and tickling. Goosebumps rippled nonstop over him. With a burst of panic he brought up his gun and fired at one of the tentacles trying to creep into his mouth. The gun went off dangerously close to his head and left a giant ringing in his ears. The plant screamed in agony and he started struggling to get free.

Kicking and shooting at anything he could see, the plant slowly loosened its grip. The second he hit the ground he lunged. He ripped at the plant-arms trying to crawl inside his clothes and scurried away. The plant had grown enormously in the few seconds he had been locked in its grip. The minute amount of blood it had drawn from Sam. He looked back once before rounding the corner and saw the spidery tentacles reaching and screaming for his blood.

With his heart in his throat and his skin still crawling he ran back towards the glass-hall. Suddenly there was nothing stopping him. Without thinking twice he hurled himself in the direction he had left Ben.

And then suddenly he heard a scream.

"I'll tell you again…" Dean growled animally low and circled around the trickster, "let Ben go or I'll kill you…"

"You? Kill me? With what?" The trickster laughed.

"Oh, just a little surprise I have…doesn't matter, you're going to die anyway." Dean angled himself so he had his front to the exit and his back to the wall. Ben was suspended to his left with the trickster's hand around his neck.

She squeezed and made him gasp. Without thinking he lunged at the creature and pushed Ben out of the way. Ben was thrown several feet to his right while he and the trickster went down in a bundle. The girl it had decided to impersonate stared up at him with wide eyes, but moved before he could.

With a lightning quick movement she lifted a hand and flung Dean against a wall. She rolled to her feet with cat-like grace and stalked closer to him. "You see, Dean, my powers may be diminished, but they're far from gone."

Sam heard a cry from pain and whirled around another corner before he saw Ben flying to the ground. "Ben!"

"Sam…?" The kid choked out in a ragged gasp.

Sam could tell his face was red even in the dark. "Ben, are you hurt? Are you okay?" He crouched and saw his brother tackling the trickster before being pushed into a wall.

"No I'm fine…you don't look okay though," Ben was looking up worriedly when Dean hit the wall. Ben and Sam both flinched when Dean impacted and Sam sprung to his feet.

"It's okay, Ben! It doesn't matter!" Sam said quickly, "You gotta get outta here," And ran towards the trickster without looking to see if the boy followed his directions. "DEAN!" He pounded head first into the petite girl looming over his brother and threw them both to the floor.

Karly rolled to her feet and sneered at the intruder. "I'm gonna rip your throat out,

hunter…!" She hissed and flung out her arm.

Sam pounded into the wall behind him with a thump and air squeezed out of him.

In the background he saw his brother lunging from the floor. He swung the stake with one hand and aimed it at the trickster's heart. He didn't manage to stake her through the back, before she turned. Instead of stabbing her in the back he punched it in her chest. The tip of the stake was the only part buried.

"Don't please!" Her eyes widened in fear of impending death.

"A creature like you begging for mercy? I don't think so…" Dean growled and slowly pushed the stake in deeper. Her hold on his brother was released and he fell to the floor.

"I….…..know…….a-…….secret……" She gurgled through the blood gathering in her mouth.

"Don't we all." He growled and pushed the stake a little deeper.

"It's Be-"

Before the trickster could finish the sentence he pushed the stake clean through her chest. The trickster stared up at him through wide eyes as if not believing her fate. "Told you I'd kill you….!" He growled and yanked the stake out. She fell to the ground, dead.

Dean aided his brother and supported him when Sam teetered. "You look like shit." He frowned over the blood seeping from dozens little wounds all over Sam's skin. "C'mon."

Sam just frowned and allowed himself to be nudged towards the exit.

Ben was waiting outside the school, worrying if Dean and Sam were okay. The minutes went by like hours and just as he had decided to go against a direct order he saw the doors slamming open. Guess Dean was done playing it stealthy. Ben took a deep breath and held it as he saw the brothers stumbling out.

"Are you ok?" Dean asked as they came towards him.

"Me? Yeah. How about you?" He hovered around Sam when he saw the older Winchester stumbling under the weight.

"Yeah. We just need a nice nap, huh Sam?" His voice didn't hold the carefree tone as usually, but it seemed to have the desired effect.

"Bite me, jerk!" Sam grumbled when Dean lugged him in the back of the car.

"Yeah yeah, Francis." Dean grinned and nudged Sam's boot with his knee before closing the door. Ben hovered uneasily as Dean shut the door. He didn't know what to say. Somehow he knew it was his fault, but he didn't know how to explain it to the two hunters. "Let's get outta here, kiddo." He clapped a hand on Ben's back before opening the driver door and sliding in.

Ben followed without a word. With an anxious glance in the back he swallowed. "Are you sure you're ok?" He directed the question to Sam who looked up with glazed eyes. He was bleeding from several, little wounds.

"Yeah, Ben. Like Dean said; just need a nap, 's all." He leaned back with a wince and closed his eyes.

Dean smiled quickly, but didn't say anything.

"Dean, I'm sorry…" Ben almost whispered. He wouldn't look up and could feel his face reddening when Dean turned his sharp eyes to him.

"What do you mean Ben?"

"It's my fault," He gestured vaguely to Sam bleeding in the back.

Dean frowned and cleared his throat a little uneasily. "Ben, it's not your fault, okay?" He was having trouble looking into the boy's eyes. "Things like this happen to us all the time…its okay… relax." He cleared his throat again and swallowed the lump in his throat. "Were not mad at you. Right Sam?" He glanced at his brother, hoping for some support.

"Right. No reason to be, Ben." Ben glanced back and Sam offered a quick smile. "You did good." Ben almost smiled back.

Dean smiled briefly over the small win. The kid was fine and the beasty was pushing up daisies. "Yeah.... Anyway, let's head back and clean up." He looked at Ben and caught the kid's attention. "Then you're going home."