Chapter Two

Sam woke up to a delicious smell. His stomach rumbled. He squinted in the morning light and looked around to find the source of the more than appealing smell. Last night Sam had gone to bed without dinner, and he was more than hungry now.

"Happy birthday!"

Someone slammed him hard in the back and he coughed. It was his brother Dean, who was standing on the other side of the bed with a plate full of scrambled eggs.

"Dean…what?" he said heavy with sleep, and that was when he remembered. Today was May 2nd, his birthday. It being his birthday wasn't usually a big deal to Sam, as they rarely did anything interesting. Sam got up on his elbows to receive the plate from Dean. He smiled at Dean's attempt at writing "nine" in ketchup on top of the eggs.

"Yeah uh... we didn't have any candles or anything so," Dean said and turned away.

"It's great Dean. Thanks."

Dean scratched the back of his neck and turned back towards the hotel kitchen. A couple of minutes later he reappeared with another plate full of eggs.

"Dad, breakfast's ready," Dean tried to carefully nudge John awake, but he didn't stir.

"Dad, it's scrambled eggs, they're good."

John started to move. He let out an annoyed sound and glared at Dean out of the corner of his eyes, "can't you see I'm trying to sleep? Just put 'em in the goddamn fridge," he spat. Dean could smell the alcohol on his breath.

He quickly removed his hand from John's shoulder and took a backwards step towards the wall.

"I'm sorry sir," he said without looking into John's eyes. He stiffly walked back towards the kitchen with the plate in hand.

"And get me a beer while you're there!" he heard John yell in his morning raspy voice.

Dean searched the fridge, but knew there would be nothing to find in there. Last night John had come back from a hunt in Windom that he hadn't allowed Sam and Dean to participate in. He had been gone for 10 days and had returned late last night. When he had arrived back at the hotel he had already been drunk, but he had still continued to drink until he fell asleep in front of the TV. When John had come close to tumbling over, Sam and Dean had moved him onto the bed. John's body had been heavy with deep drunken sleep and when they finally managed to drop him onto the bed, they had both been covered in not only their own, but also their dad's sour-smelling sweat.

Dean peeked over into the sink and discovered that John must have drunk an entire 6-pack of beer all by himself last night.

"You were right," Dean jumped at Sam's sudden appearance behind him.

"Huh?" said Dean.

"The eggs, they were good," said Sam and smiled. Dean raised his eyebrows when he saw that Sam was carrying a half empty bottle of beer in his hands.

"Dad won't notice if you fill the rest up with water," he said and handed Dean the bottle. Dean fumbled absently with the golden amulet Sam had gotten for him last Christmas, while he filled the bottle with water. He ruffled Sam's hair as he passed him and went back into the main room to give John the bottle of thin beer.

John waved his hand impatiently and Dean gave him the beer. While he watched John chug down the liquid with closed eyes, he started to get nervous, nervous about what John would do if he noticed that he had put water in his morning beer.

Dean looked over his shoulder at Sam who was leaning against the doorframe. Almost as if he had read his mind, Sam gave Dean a little reassuring nod and signed thumbs up without raising his hand.

John finished the beer in one go and lazily dropped back onto the pillow. Dean let out a relieved breath and relaxed visibly.

"Dean, car needs cleaning," John mumbled and turned onto his side, facing away from Dean.

"I'll do it now sir."

Dean didn't mind cleaning the car; he had always found it strangely satisfying. Dean loved cars, all cars, but to him this was not just a car, it was his home, his friend, and she was the one steady presence in his life, aside from maybe Sam. He wanted to treat her right and was gentle as he scrubbed her headlights clean of insect goo.

He watched the way the water collected itself into little round droplets on top of the car's slick black paint, as he ran a wet piece of cloth over it in careful circles. He only stopped cleaning when he caught sight of his own green eyes reflected in the dark surface; he found it distracting, annoying, frustrating even, to look at himself for too long and often caught himself squinting when the reflection got too clear. This time though, it was Sam's face that appeared on the car.

"Need help?" he asked.

"Nah, almost done," said Dean and threw the dirty piece of cloth into a bucket of water, "how's dad?"

"Still sleeping, probably won't move anywhere today," Sam muttered and kicked a couple of pebbles under his feet. Dean watched him for a quiet minute before he said, "hey Sam?"

Sam looked up and Dean licked his lips. He continued, "I have an idea."

"An idea?" Sam repeated slowly.

"Yeah, get in the car."

Sam furrowed his brows, but did as his big brother said and started to open the door to the driver's side of the car.

"No the other side," said Dean impatiently.

"Dean, what?" Sam was starting to dread what Dean was planning on that made for it to be that important that he got the driver's side.

"Come on," Dean pushed.

Sam sighed and entered the car from the other side.

Sam knew that Dean would never do anything that would get them in danger - at least not on purpose.

Dean was far from careless when it came to Sam's safety, and he wasn't stupid; he was just... impulsive and stubborn when he meant he had gotten a good idea - Sam thought while he held on to the sides of the car seat so tightly that his knuckles turned white, "dad is going to kill us for stealing the car!" he yelled.

Dean turned his head away from the road, something Sam really wished he'd stop doing, "that's where you're wrong Sammy, dad's going to kill me for stealing the car - you'll be just fine," he snickered and passed a little red Honda so fast that Sam couldn't help but let out a little yelp.

"Do you even have a license!?"

"Don't need any of that official bullshit," he grinned and stroked the steering wheel, "and don't I always keep you safe, huh?"

"Are you talking to me or the car?" said Sam. Dean snorted loudly. "And you still haven't told me where we're going!"

Dean smiled smugly while doing a left turn, "shut up, you'll love it."

Sam decided that he might as well try to sleep.

Several hours later Sam woke up as the car came to a halt in a big, busy parking lot.

"Where are we?" he asked groggy with sleep.

"Can't you tell?", said Dean, "Disneyland, stupid!"

"We're in California," Sam's eyes widened as he looked at his surroundings, "what the hell Dean!"

"Ah shut up, I saw you look at that commercial," said Dean, "Come on Sammy, it's your birthday." He pinched Sam's shoulder and left the car. Sam scratched his forehead and sighed, but opened his door and followed.

Sam had never been to a theme park, the closest he had ever been was "Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie", where he had been taken a couple of times when he was younger. In the beginning he had liked the visits, but then Dean had stopped playing with him, and he had come to realize how scary clowns actually could when you were all by yourself. The thing about Disneyland that had appealed to him was actually that, judging by the commercial, there didn't appear to be any clowns.

They got in unnoticed by sneaking through a staff entrance. Dean picked the lock in no time and together they kept watch. They found that sneaking into Disneyland while avoiding getting caught by any guards wasn't that different from sneaking into an abandoned building while trying not to get caught by ghosts, and therefore managed easily.

They tried to slip as casually as possible out into the restaurant, which the door led to, and when no one seemed to notice they couldn't help but laugh.

"Awesome!" Dean grinned as they left the restaurant and got a first view of the huge theme park. Next to him Sam was standing with his mouth agape.

"It looks just as the commercial," he said, amazed.

The first thing they tried was the Ferris wheel. Sam didn't understand why Dean had protested as much as he had. When Sam had asked him if 'he was scared', his ears had turned red hot and he had forcefully pulled Sam onto the Ferris wheel by the neck of his shirt.

"Of course I'm not scared!" Dean said stubbornly, but instead of listening to his words Sam looked at Dean's hand that was nervously tapping away on his thigh.

Dean tried his best not to show it, but he was, and had always been, deadly afraid of flying - afraid of anything that took you high up in the air, really. It was something he couldn't tell anyone, especially not Sam who was looking fearlessly and eagerly down at the buildings under them.

"Dean have you seen the castle!"

"Yep. Great Sammy," Dean tried to keep his voice under control as he looked anywhere but down at the castle. He almost cried out in relief when he felt the gondola reach the top and start going down again. When they were one fourth from reaching the ground Dean collected enough bravery to tear his eyes away from the roof of the gondola and look over at Sam who was almost glued to the window.

He couldn't help but chuckle when he saw the innocent smile on Sam's face as he took in the entirety of the Disneyland Park. He remembered back when Sam didn't smile or talk very much at all; that had all changed when a wendigo had tried to break into the car where Sam was waiting, while John and him had been away to look for that same wendigo. He had yelled Dean's name so loudly that it had actually startled the wendigo enough to run away, even before John and Dean had crashed through the trees. Since then Sam had spoken, but it was also since then that it had been impossible to keep Sam in the dark about what their dad did when he went away to "do business". They had tried in the beginning, but Sam wasn't stupid, and he definitely hadn't believed it when Dean had told him that it had just been a bear he had seen in the forest. He had figured it out quickly and now he refused to be left behind. The worst was though, when the questions about their mother's death had started. Without neither Dean nor John's knowledge, Sam had dared opening John's journal while no one was looking - and even though John had been angry and yelled at him, he hadn't backed down before he had gotten what he considered proper answers to his questions. Dean wished Sam could have kept his innocence a little longer.

"That was fun!" Sam exclaimed as they left the gondola. Dean felt slightly dizzy and mostly just wanted to kiss the ground he stood on.

It was when they were looking for a place to eat lunch that Sam had heard it. Two girls around Dean's age were talking about a supposed haunting inside Disneyland, and before Dean could stop Sam to tell him that they were probably just talking about the Haunted Mansion, Sam had run over to question them.

"Did you see the ghost miss?" Sam asked.

The girl on the left, whom Dean stopped to notice had beautiful clear ,dark brown skin and full lips, raised a brow and said theatrically, "oooh yes I saw it, it appeared out of," she took a long rhetorical break before she continued, "no where!"

The girl turned to her red-headed friend and they both started laughing.

Dean licked his lips, stuffed his hands in his pockets and waltzed over next to Sam.

"I'm sorry is he bothering you?" he said with a crooked smile, "were you bothering them Sam?"

"No! Dean, I think they saw a-" but before Sam could finish his sentence Dean had placed a hand on each girl's shoulder and led them away from Sam.

"Hey!" Sam yelled and ran after Dean and the girls.

"Maybe you ladies should show me where you saw this… ghost?" Dean said locking eyes with the dark haired girl, "it was so scary!" she giggled.

"We didn't bring any salt rounds Dean," Sam whispered to Dean's back while trying to keep up. Dean glared at him over his shoulder.

The Haunted Mansion was, as Dean had expected, not actually haunted. It looked just as one would expect a haunted house to look like, if one didn't know that ghosts could haunt any house; once, his dad even had to take out a ghost that was haunting a public restroom.

Something Dean hadn't expected was though, that a very living actor in costume would jump out from behind a broken piano, just as Dean was trying to collect enough bravery to take the dark haired girls hand, which resulted in Dean clocking him one right in the nose. The actor had held on to Dean's wrist as he took him to one of the guards. When the guard asked to see Sam and Dean's tickets they were kicked out and told never to come back again.

Sam had quickly fallen asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel in Nevada, after Dean had retold him what happened in The Haunted Mansion, and they had laughed about it for ten minutes. In the silence that appeared after Sam had fallen asleep, Dean started to grow nervous about the things he had told himself he wouldn't think about for the sake of giving Sam a good birthday; what if John had woken up from his alcohol induced coma and noticed that they were gone? And more importantly, what would the punishment be? Dean bit his lip, but after a while he came to the conclusion that whatever it may be, it would be worth the little smile on Sam's face as he snored peacefully next to him, breathing little circles of steam onto the window.

Hours later Dean arrived at the hotel, he parked, and woke Sam up by gently shaking him. He opened the car door and got out, locked the car and looked over at Sam who stood frozen in place. Dean followed his line of vision to the place where John was standing with his arms crossed. John started to slowly walk towards them, his face unreadable. Dean mostly wanted to turn around and run away, but he knew better and remained where he was.

John's face was illuminated as he stepped into the light from the street lamp, but his face was still cold and blank. Dean tried to swallow the knot that had gotten stuck in his throat, "I'm sorry da-"

"Shut your mouth Dean," John cut him off. He moved close to Dean, towering in front of him. He raised his hand. Dean braced himself, but John's hand stopped midair.

"Keys. Dean," he said firmly.

Dean searched his pocket for the car keys, but when he finally found them he accidentally dropped them onto the ground. He quickly got down on all four to pick them up. He slowly raised his head to peek up at John. He immediately looked down again when he saw his dark expression.

"We're leaving", he heard John say from above him, "Get in the car Sam."

Dean heard the sound of footsteps and collected himself, got up, and handed the car keys to John.

"Where are we going sir?" said Dean, but John didn't appear to have heard him and Dean fell silent.

It was morning when someone finally said anything again. Dean hadn't been able to fall asleep, and he jumped a little when John suddenly turned around to tell him that people had been experiencing violent electrical surges and that all cattle around the city had been not only killed, but seemingly exploded where they stood.

"Demons?" said Dean.

John nodded, "strong ones."

"You think it might be…?" Dean whispered under his breath.

John's mouth turned into a tight line as he looked back onto the road darkly, "maybe."

John checked them into a motel called Knight's Inn, in Cedar City, Utah and told Sam and Dean to stuff every weapon they thought might come in handy on a demon hunt into their green duffel.

Before they left the motel John turned around and pointed a finger at Sam and Dean.

"Alright boys", he began and looked from one boy to the other, "this might be the biggest thing we'll ever do - so I expect you to behave like adults."

"Yes sir," they said in unison.

They drove to the outskirts of the city in silence.

"We'll walk from here," John said and withdrew a sawed off from the duffel, he threw the gun at Dean, who caught it with a thud, and gave Sam an old looking knife.

"It's iron."

Sam nodded and flipped the knife expertly in his hand, getting into the right position.

Dean could taste the sulfur in his mouth. As they got closer to the mansion he had to force himself not to drop the gun and use both hands to shield his nose. The smell was so intense that his eyes started watering; he looked over at Sam who was blinking wildly to clear his eyes of the uncomfortable burn.

"Why the hell did no one complain about this sooner," he whispered to Sam.

"Dean, look at the other houses"

Dean looked down the street. The curtains had been pulled in every single house as far as he could see, and there didn't appear to be any shadows moving behind them, even though it was noon Sunday, and yet there were cars parked by almost every house.

"Weird," he said out loud.

He almost walked into John's outstretched arm as he stopped them two houses before their target mansion.

"Follow me - and be quiet," said John.

Sam and Dean followed John into the backyard of one of the neighbor houses, they walked as close as possible to the bushes separating the two houses, and kneeled under one if it's many covered windows.

"Dean, you remember what I told you about cases like this?" John whispered while keeping his eyes fixed on the window.

"…watch out for Sam?"

"Not that!" John hissed and looked at Dean for a split second before going back to stare at the window, "if you see yellow - shoot, shoot as many times as you can, no matter who the rest of the face belongs to."

Dean swallowed and looked back at Sam who was kneeling quietly behind him, "but-"

"No 'buts' Dean! I need to be able to trust you," John was now looking at Dean, "can I trust you Dean?"

"Dad-"

"Yes or no Dean?" said John.

"Yes sir," Dean gulped.

"What was that?"

"Yes sir!" Dean repeated more firmly.

They slipped into the mansion through the back door. The door had been unlocked, which was usually not a good sign.

"Dad maybe this is a-". But Sam didn't get to finish his sentence before the entire mansion shook violently and the door slammed close behind them. They all three turned around, John tried to kick the door - but it didn't budge.

"Brace yourselves," said John and cocked his gun - but the gun was immediately ripped out of his hands and thrown against the wall, as was Dean's sawed off, only Sam managed to hold onto his weapon, which he quickly hid behind his back.

"Well, well, well if it ain't the Winchester trio," a tall, black haired, Asian woman with a brash smile appeared from the other end of the room.

"Who the hell are you?" John sneered.

The woman raised her brows mockingly and pointed at herself, "who, me?" her eyes flashed black, "I'm the least of your worries, Johnny-boy."

"Demon!" John yelled and charged her, but before he could get anywhere near, she sent him flying across the room and into the wall with a flick of her hand. The woman laughed and turned to Sam and Dean. She leaned over to look at Sam's face, "you must be Sammy," she pinched his cheek with two fingers and slapped him lightly with a wide grin on her face, "aren't you just edible".

While the woman was looking at Sam, Dean started to edge towards the guns near the wall.

"Not so fast Dean-o," she said and threw him into an old TV standing in the middle of the room.

She walked towards John and pulled him up into a sitting position by his hair, "you really shouldn't have come here today baby."

She raised her hand, about to strike, when John yelled, "now Sam!" and Sam buried the knife he had been hiding behind his back in the woman's neck.

She let out a strangled scream and staggered backwards.

"You… little…. bitch!" she managed to spit out, choking on her own blood. She turned towards Sam, but before she could do anything John started to chant: "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio-"

The demon fell to her knees, "don't. you. dare."

"Humuliare sub potenti manu dei, contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine, quem inferi tremunt." The demon screamed while John continued to chant,

"It doesn't matter Johnny… they're already here," she said, black smoke oozing from her mouth. "Infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica." The demon screamed loudly, but her screams turned into laughter as the building started to shake again.

"Dean, Sam, run!", John yelled. Dean took Sam's hand and ran pass the bleeding demon. John's eyes widened as he yelled the last words of the exorcism, "ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias libertate servire te rogamus, audi nos!"

The demon smoke disappeared between the planks in the wooden floor, leaving behind a flaming circle. John went over to the now still body. He checked her pulse and found that the previously possessed woman was alive - but barely. She was bleeding profusely from the wound in her neck, but John didn't have time to take care of her. He had heard what the demon had said, 'they're already here', and quickly got back up on his feet and started to run towards the door Sam and Dean had disappeared behind, but just as he placed a hand on the doorknob, the door behind him burst open and two big men with jet black eyes walked through.

"We have to go back to dad!" Sam yelled, but Dean held him back.

"No he told us to run so we run!"

Sam pulled at Dean's hands, but his grip was too tight, "what if something happened to him!"

Dean licked his lips and for a while he just looked at Sam, then he nodded, "alright, okay, let's -"

Dean screamed in agony and fell to the floor.

"Dean!" Sam yelled and ran to where his brother was twisting and turning, seemingly in pain. "Dean what is it!?" he cried desperately.

"Over…there," Dean grunted with clenched teeth, before his eyes rolled back in his head. Sam turned around so quickly that stars appeared before his eyes. By the window a tall blond man was standing with his arm stretched out towards Dean's now unconscious body.

"Stop it!" Sam yelled and the demon's hand snapped to his side. The demon furrowed his brows. He then looked at Sam and his expression brightened in what looked like understanding.

"Ah… yes," he said in a low soft-spoken voice.

The demon slowly walked towards him, but Sam was ready. He kicked the demon's knee cap as hard as he could, but the demon didn't flinch. Sam heard a horrible crunching sound and felt pain flow from his toes to the rest of his body. At least 3 of his toes were broken.

"I would… advice you against… doing that," the demon said slowly.

The demon reached towards Sam's face. Sam clenched his eyes shut and waited for the inevitable pain - but it didn't come. Instead he felt soft fingers trace over his cheekbones and down his chin. Sam flinched and tried to move away, but in a blink of an eye the demon's large hand was around his neck. Sam felt his feet leave the ground as the demon lifted him by his neck, he kicked and twirled the best he could but it was of no avail. Sam's vision blurred. He could hear a loud thumping sound inside his head as it got harder and harder to breathe.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see the demon lift his other arm. Sam felt a sharp stinging pain as the demon left a small cut on his cheek with his sharp nails. The demon moved Sam's kicking body closer to his own. For a brief moment Sam thought the demon was going to kiss him, but instead, the demon slipped out his tongue. Sam let out a cry of disgust and embarrassment when he felt the demon's tongue come into contact with his cheek, licking at the wound and slurping up the blood that ran down his cheek. The demon's eyes rolled up in ecstasy and he moaned loudly.

"You truly are…" he said and locked eyes with Sam. The demon's eyes flashed yellow. Sam froze, but then he screamed. Sam felt something burn in his veins and suddenly he was free and the demon was up against the wall in the other end of the room.

"You!" Sam yelled, his blood bubbling.

"No… I'm… Semyaza… but he'll be happy to hear about your developments, and when time comes…" the demon let out a horrible screech of a laugh.

Sam didn't understand what the demon was talking about, all he could think about was the brief flash of yellow and how he wanted the demon to suffer. And for some reason he couldn't explain, he knew just how to make the demon suffer. He had forgotten everything about the fact that he was a small 9-year old, and in what Sam thought best could be explained as 'tightening mental muscles he never knew he had' he made the demon cough and spit out blood onto the ground.

Sam heard a familiar voice behind him, but couldn't quite remember who it belonged to. He tightened the muscles further and the demon's screeching laughter sounded even louder as black smoke started to ooze from his ears and nose.

"Sam!"

Sam turned around, annoyed about being interrupted, and saw a bloody man stand behind him with wide eyes. He blinked, and then he realized that the man was his dad.

"Dad…" and then his vision faded to black, the last thing he saw was the demon smoking out and escape through the window. He passed out where he stood.

When Sam woke up they were back at the motel. Dean sat on the bed next to where Sam was lying. He looked tired and he had a couple of bruises here and there, but seemed otherwise unharmed. Sam let out a relieved sigh.

John was pacing back and forth in the middle of the room, but when he saw that Sam had woken up he rushed over and grasped his shoulders.

"What did the demon tell you Sam!?" he yelled and drops of spit landed on Sam's cheeks. Sam flinched violently and cleaned the spit off, he didn't understand why, but the feeling of disgust spread itself through his body.

"I-I don't know," Sam stuttered. He really didn't. The last thing he remembered was the demon lifting him up by his neck and then the rest was fuzzy.

"What do you mean you don't know!?" John shook Sam violently and his head lolled back and forth. He felt weak. His throat burned, it hurt terribly as John shook him, and tears starting rolling down his cheeks.

"Dad, please!" Dean cut in desperately. John stopped, only now realizing what he was doing.

"Go get ready for bed," John said to Sam who quickly jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom.

When the door clicked John turned towards Dean, "how could you let it escape?"

"Dad I'm sorry I-", Dean started but was cut short.

"Almost too late… the demon… Sam… Mary," John slurred, caught in a frenzy.

"…dad?" Dean tried.

Suddenly John was in his face, the whites of his eyes red and glassy with rage, "do you want Mary's sacrifice to be in vain!?"

Sam finished brushing his teeth. He could hear agitated voices in the main room, but when he left the toilet Dean was alone. He was sitting on the edge of the bed with his face in his hands.

"Where did dad go?" Sam asked.

Dean jumped a little, but quickly collected himself and sent Sam what he hoped was a convincing smile. "Went to get some food," he said, and when he spoke Sam noticed that Dean's lip was bleeding.

"What happened to your lip?" Sam reached towards Dean's face to get a better look, but Dean jumped to his feet.

"Nothing!" he yelled a little more angrily than he had wanted to. He took a deep breath. "I mean, yenno, the demons."

Sam furrowed his brows disbelievingly, he hadn't noticed Dean bleeding before he went to the bathroom.

"Dad took care of it so don't worry," Dean said before he turned around and ran into the bathroom.

Sam closed his eyes and tried to replace the uncomfortable feeling he had in his body. He thought of Dean's relieved face as the Disneyland Ferris wheel gondola had reached the ground. Sam knew that Dean thought Sam wasn't aware of the fact that he was afraid of heights. He sighed.

"I'm not stupid Dean," he whispered to the empty room.

Author's note:

So yeah here we have chapter two, i hope you enjoyed.

The next chapter will be the last chapter of them as kids, and Castiel will show up in chapter four.

Did you catch who the female demon was?