Chapter 5: Awake
It was another dark and lonely night for the outsiders and owners of Granger Carnival, had been for somewhat 40 years, kids these days were more interested in the latest video game and Hollywood movie than to be seen riding the Ferris wheel with they're uncle Bob, they were children of the revolution, the 21st century kids, things were different now. Truth be told the Grangers had been out of business a while now and not because of bad profits or Brad Pitt making young girls swoon, there was something else, something that the Grangers would never share with anyone, that somehow kept the visitors away.
The carnival was alive, but only at the dark of night when the children were in their beds dreaming of happy thoughts, when the howling wind of the fairground would sing its song, slithering through and creeping its way through the rusty mechanics of the faded attractions that once put a smile on a little girls face.
There was something wrong with this place that was certain.
There was definitely something horribly wrong.
It always happened at exactly 3am every night, the carnival came alive, it was like the carnival had a mind of its own. Maybe it did, this was one of those rare occasion when the unexplained happened, I mean they didn't know what was really going on when the fairground came to life, when the neon signs shone brightly, roll up roll up enjoy the show was the way of the Granger trade always was, always will be. The fairground music blazing out of the Twister or the carousel playing its haunting tune and this happened every night for this family.
Riley Granger shot up from his interrupted sleep "son of a bitch not again" he cursed "damn rich kids" he sat up from his single bed slipping on his brown leather boots.
He did not leave unattended, by his side he carried beside him his most prized possession, his shotgun. He had hunted many animals with it in the past, deer,birds you name it they were victims to its destruction.
Riley reached into his small bedside cabinet pull out some rounds and made sure the gun was loaded then headed out of his trailer.
"Come on out you little brats...show yourself" he bellowed across the fairground keeping his shotgun cocked up "I'm armed"
A gust of wind soared through the fairground wastelands turning the power turning off as if by magic.
"Who's out there?"
Again there was no answer, this troubled the fairground owner not only that his fairground was haunted but that he knew about it too, deep down he knew.
"I mean it you rotten kids show yourself, I have a gun"
He spun round with a fright only to let out a long and echoed bellow that would probably wake up the whole neighbourhood. The terrified screams only got worse when whatever his attacker was put a knife to his throat, and then there was silence.
Then there was silence.
Motel Le Casa-Evening
"You okay bro," he asked his brother as he made his way round to Dean sitting beside him on the edge of the bed.
Dean stared down at the ground shifting away slightly and nodded" he's back...he's coming"
Sam glanced up at Dean a confused expression on his face "who's coming?"
"He's coming" he widened his eyes repeating it over and over the word driving him to madness, he heard his own voice echoing, drumming hard in his ear drums "he's coming"
Sam tried to understand what Dean was talking about but found himself completely perplexed by all of this, none of it made any sense to him.
"Dean Who...who talk to me" his attention was quickly cut short and grabbed his brothers arm finding a rather unusual mark on his right wrist like a tattoo, it was a cross between a pentagram and some Celtic pattern "what the hell is this?"
Dean pulled away pulling the sleeve of his khaki coloured shirt down turning away "we gotta get out of town...now" he demanded.
Sam raised an eyebrow at his older brother "woaw...hold up why?" he watched with great concern as Dean quickly packed up his belongings rushing around like it was the end of the world. "DEAN-"
"Sam move your ass, now or I leave you behind"
Sam figured it was best not argue with Dean especially since just a few minutes ago he was going on about someone coming; he let out a frustrated sigh and nodded just agreeing packing up anything he could finding knowing Dean would get impatient quickly.
They both got in the car quickly while Dean started up the engine the Impala's engines screeching hard as put his foot down on the brakes driving off into the night.
On the road-Interstate-a few hours later
Sam glanced over at Dean as he drove looking to down towards where that tattoo was, he had to know what it meant, why he had it would bug him all night if he didn't know.
"You get that that tattoo in prison?" he asked breaking the silence between the two of them.
"No" he replied simply.
Sam continued to stare; giving his brother the why won't you just let me help you look, he sighed flicking through an old newspaper "Dean pull over your in no condition to drive okay man, let me drive for a few hours.
Dean hissed up at Sam "back off...I'm fine, I don't even know where I'm going yet anyways" he turned back to the road driving faster.
Sam let out a frustrated sigh shaking his head "just tell me what's going Dean, please I won't drop it until you do"
Dean groaned frustrated "Sam please"he pleaded "i don't know what's going on"
Sam wasn't buying it for a second he knew that Dean knew and wasn't up for sharing"look dean I know you're scared I don't blame-"
"I'm not scared" Dean interrupted.
Sam raised an eyebrow laughing at him mockingly "right...then why are you running huh?".
It was quite often that Dean would avoid the question that meant he would have to open up and explain to his brother how he really felt and let's face it that never happened, he would only truly let slip what he was feeling when he was desperate and Dean definitely wasn't desperate...not yet.
"You know one of these days Dean you're going to have to talk to me; you can't live your life in the dark forever and whatever it is your hiding I will find out sooner or later" he looked to his brother just waiting for the I'm fine and I'll survive routine that he usually pulled.
Dean glanced up at his brother and gulped giving him a nod" your right-"
Sam raised an eyebrow at Dean a little shocked that he actually agreed with something he said, usually he would disagree.
"But there's a lot more to this than you know Sammy I know it now, I know things i didn't know before, whatever this thing is-"he glanced up at Sam "it's changing me"
Sam gulped staring up at Dean then turned away" we'll figure it out, like I told you before I'll find a way to save you"
Two Hours later
The silence between the brothers seemed to last forever, although not for long
"So tell me again the situation" Dean asked looking up at his brother.
Sam searched through staring down at his laptop scrolling through the webpage's that had kept him occupied for a few hours, he even found themselves a case "Married couple in their early 40's keep getting their place haunted by something apparently comes alive at night"
Dean raised an eyebrow at Sam's bluntness "erm okay...explain I'm not getting it"
Sam shook his head "Well if I knew what it was Dean we wouldn't be going all the way down there would we" he shot back.
Dean rolled his eyes at Sam "alright Samantha there's no need to get snappy" he let out a heavy sigh putting his foot down on the accelerator speeding down the highway.
"Husbands in intensive care...whatever's terrorizing them took a nasty chunk out of him" he sighed once more "we should probably go talk to him see if he remembers or saw anything"
Dean nodded in agreement "well all in good time let's get there first" he figured he shouldnt argue with Sam and they needed a destination so went along with it for now.
Sam glanced over at Dean cautiously trying to figure out what was going on inside his head furthermore he wanted to know what the deal was with his new tattoo and what it meant.
A few hours later the Impala pulled up outside the hospital it didn't seem to take them long, like usual Dean was a crazy fast driver, even in his condition they got there in no time.
"So you think some kids tried to attack Mr Granger?" Dean asked the wife glancing up from his notes.
The wife gripped hold of her blanket she had wrapped around her shivering; she wasn't the most attractive of women so there was no chance of Dean hitting on her, she shrugged "I've already spoken to the cops about this do I really have to go through this again?"
Sam pulled a sympathetic smile "we're very sorry ma'am but if you wouldn't mind"
The woman sighed frustrated clenching her teeth glancing up at Sam and Dean "Damn right it was kids it was those Miller kids, their parents send them up to trash our carnival out of jealousy, they've always been jealous"
Dean cleared his throat stopping what he was writing "jealous?"He questioned "Jealous of what exactly?"
"Because we're better than them and they know it, they may have their fancy cars and designer suits, but what we have is family and respect, they look down on us like we're trash"
Dean raised an eyebrow exchanging a look with his brother.
Sam returned the look knowing what Dean was thinking, he awkwardly smiled at the woman "right okay well I think we got all we need, thank you for your time ma'am I hope your husband gets better" he smiled sincerely leaving her, and walked down the corridor.
Dean groaned as he followed his brother "well that was a waste of time, I knew this wasn't our gig, just a battle of families, let the cops deal with this one"
Sam shook his head questioning every little thing "I don't know, it could be but we should probably head over to the carnival first before we just ditch the case just to be sure"
Dean shrugged" what's the point Sammy, I know what we're going to find out" he took a pause glancing up at his brother "what that woman told us,a bunch of troublemakers trashing the carnival"
"We don't know that-"
Dean shrugged again staring his brother in the eye the one that told him he didn't care "We'll I'm not about to waste my time, you want to go be my guest, but find yourself a driver because I'm not going".
Sam couldn't understand why Dean wasn't giving this case a chance, or maybe it wasn't Dean he was talking to now.
"Fine I will" he stared at Dean hurtful feeling himself wanting to cry, he hated fighting with his brother.
Dean stared up at Sam for a moment, wanting to say something back to him but decided against it, he ended up walking away. He brushed past Sam walking down the dark hospital corridor leaving Sam alone.
Dean roared down the road a little on edge, Sam was pissing him off, his life was pissing him off, pretty much everything was pissing him off and it was driving him nuts.
It wasn't that he didn't think it was worth checking out the case, it was the interrogation, and the questions Sam had about what was happening to him, he didn't feel like explaining himself purely due to the fact he had no idea himself and that scared him.
He unlocked the door to their motel room looking down at the ground and sighed, he closed the door behind him and threw the keys to the side table beside the door and turned on the light.
He Jumped as he saw a shadow beside the bed and widened his eyes"Get the hell away from me"
Lucas smirked rubbing his hands against the cotton covers on the bed "well Howdy Dean long time no see" he grinned pulling himself up slightly "me and you need to have a little talk"
To be continued...