19

Red Means Stop

Fear smiled around the room, his eyes resting on Castiel.

"Lost some of that mojo, have we?" He chuckled. Castiel ignored him, struggling still.

Your Daddy's gone, a voice hissed inside the angel's head. He won't help you. He hates you. He would've answered you if didn't, right?

Castiel shut his eyes, trying to block out the horrible voice, sucking out his hope and drying it up.

Fear grinned and turned to Patrick, keeping the voice in Castiel's head.

"And how are you?" He smirked. Patrick simply stared at him, terrified. "Not talking? Well, I suppose making you scream will suffice." He flicked his wrist.

Patrick screamed, long, loud, bone-chilling. Lisbon doubled her efforts to get down.

Patrick fell back on the couch, back arcing in apparent agony. Tears that he didn't even know he had left streamed down his face, muscles tense, face red, every wound on his body bursting back open while others appeared from nowhere.

"NO! NO, PLEASE! I'm sorry, I'M SORRY!" He shrieked.

"Patrick!" Lisbon yelled. "It's not real! It's not real, it's okay!"

"Shh!" Fear hissed, pinching his fingers together. Her lips kept moving, but no sound came out.

Fear looked at Patrick again, grinning.

"Now this is what I'm talking about," he grabbed a fistful of Patrick's hair, yanking him off the couch and onto the floor, hoisting him to his knees. Fear looked at the onlookers pinned to the walls.

"I've met a lot of people with angst and daddy issues," Fear said, fist still buried in blonde curls. "But this one," he yanked the whimpering man's head, making him look up, "he's just all kinds of screwed up. Aren't you, Patrick?" He stared up at him, lips quivering. "About Red John cutting up your baby?" Patrick groaned, shutting his eyes, face contorted in an agony none of them could understand, sobbing.

"Or maybe your darling wife, who begged and pleaded for your child's life to be spared? Who begged you to quit the psychic gig but noo. You couldn't, could you? And now she's dead."

Patrick's sobs were so harsh, so violent he was coughing raggedly. The others could do nothing but stare in horror while Lisbon tried to scream.

"Leave him alone, you son of a bitch!" Dean growled. Sam's head whipped toward his brother.

"Dean, don't!" He begged quietly.

Fear looked at the elder Winchester, amused.

"Have some fun with Daddy," he whispered, mouth next to Patrick's ear before letting him fall to the ground.

Patrick shook his head, whimpering frantically, shaking his head, curling into a ball on the floor.

"No, no, no…please…it hurts. No, no, don't do that!"

"Patrick," Lisbon tried to say, wishing with everything she had that she could go to him.

"Mmnn!" Patrick whimpered, sobbing.

Fear walked over to Dean, still smirking. "Think you're tough, huh? Think I can't scare you?"

"You don't scare me more than a girl-scout, pal," he smirked. Fear grinned.

"How's this for girl-scout?" He cocked his head.

Dean went white, eyes growing to the size of saucers.

"Dean?"

"Sammy," he shuddered.

"Dean?" Sam whispered.

Now Dean was screaming. He seemed blind-sighted by the anguish that overwhelmed him. He fell to the ground, curling into himself, eyes shut tight.

"SAAAAM!"

"DEAN!" Sam bellowed.

"SAMMY! HELP MEEEEEEEE!" He shrieked, tears streaming down his face, horrible gashes and bruises appearing all over his body.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

"You want a taste too, Sammy?" Fear grinned.

"GAHUH! AHHNNN!" Sam fell next to his brother. The agents' eyes were wide as the stared at the two hunters and their colleague.

Castiel fell next, his own nightmares intensifying.

"No, NO!" He begged, face in his hands. "Please, please, NO!"

Fear shut his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Ah…" he sighed. "Now that's good." He looked at the rest on the walls. "Would you all like to see what it's like?"

He laughed as they all fell, screaming, shrieking, shaking, crying.

Van Pelt was trembling violently, mumbling incoherently, shaking her head. Rigsby had his arms around her, protecting her almost, sobbing into her hair. Lisbon had her hands over her ears, eyes clenched shut, tears leaking from under her closed lids.

Cho was simply leaning against the wall, his eyes closed, barely moving at all. He might've been sleeping.

Patrick was just getting worse and worse, sobbing so hard he was throwing up blood.

"Ahhh… How wonderful all of this tastes. Better than anything I've ever felt. You all are just full of this, aren't you?"

He shut his eyes, sighing.

He heard a click a moment later.

He opened his eyes, frowning.

Cho was holding the lit Zippo, his eyes hard. Fear's eyes grew.

"How?"

"I learned a long time ago that you have to face what you're afraid of. And I'm not afraid of you." He dropped the lighter into the bowl, igniting the oil and herbs.

Now it was Fear's turn to scream. The entire room rumbled as a terrible red light ignited within him. Slowly the light pushed out of his mouth, illuminating the whole room in harsh light that made Cho turn away.

Windows shook and shattered, lights and computer monitors went haywire once more. Black smoke and red light flew from his mouth and eyes, arms thrown behind him, face turned toward the sky. Cho covered his face as the smoke went toward the sky and disappeared.

Minelli fell to the ground, demon free.