Wisdom Reigns … Denial Remains

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the CW or the producers, cast and crew of Supernatural nor do any monies pass hands. I do however love to play with two certain brothers and return them in relatively good health.

Author's Note 1: Warning! This fic will contain very dark themes and violence, if it offends then don't read. Dean is 27 and Sam is 23 this story is set around season 2 but probably will not follow canon to the letter, so can be classed as AU if you like.

Quick apology, for taking so long between chapter updates, but real life has been worse than any reality show with health issues, studying for my MA, family problems and a new boyfriend time is something that I am missing big time! Hence still up writing and posting at 4.30 in the morning! LOL Hopefully I can get back on track after Easter and you won't have to wait for so long. This chapter is a little shorter than normal but I figure it's better than nothing! ENJOY and thanks for being so patient with me.

What happens when the brother you can see is not the brother you know?

Chapter Four: Beware of staring into the looking glass in case it stares back at you!

Are we safe from our dreams as we are in our waking dreams?

Then:

Six Hours Later:

Bobby and Caleb went into the motel and booked the rooms while Dean stayed with his still unconscious brother. They had made it to another county, to another small non-descript town but with a reasonable looking motel.

'We got two connecting rooms,' Bobby said as he joined Dean in the impala, 'Caleb and me will take the first one and you guys can have the one on the end of the block.'

'Thanks Bobby.'

'Don't sweat it kiddo, oh by the way as soon as we're settled we're going to have a talk about Sam's past convulsions.'

'Yeah sure Bobby,' Dean sighed, he could kick himself for saying something but he was just so tired of all the secrets and trying to keep them.

The three men managed to get Sam into the bed furtherest from the door, before Caleb went for a food and medical supplies run. Bobby made a pot of coffee and laced it with some whiskey while he waited for Dean to finish fussing around his brother.

'Did ya feel that?' Bobby asked as he stared around the room worriedly, 'like a breeze coming in.'

'Nah I didn't … you okay Bobby?' Dean turned to look at his friend and mentor he hated to see the exhausted and haggard look on the older man's face.

'Yeah, yeah just a bit tired I suppose,' Bobby rubbed the back of his neck, 'damn must've gotten a bug bite too.'

Now:

Branches whipped against Sam's face as he ran through the forest, he couldn't take the time to stare around in amazement at the colours of the landscape. Where the trees were reds and blues, they sky was a deep purple and grass was more a black than green. He could hear blood pulsing through veins, the thump, thump, thump, and thump; in time with his breathing, in perfect synchronicity.

A thick vine appeared from no where and wrapped itself around his ankle pulling him down crashing towards the now rock hard landscape the trees and forest floors gone and replaced with jagged rocks and boulders and burning red sand.

He cried out as the edges of the rocks cut into the flesh of his hands and knees adding to his growing collection of injuries. Winded and exhausted he tried to free himself from the vines only to find it winding its way around his arms as well as his ankles, twisting and pulling until he was spreadeagled on the ground. The sharp rocks cutting into his back like razors through butter.

Wind howled around him, whipping his hair into tangles and slices across his face and eyes; it tugged at the remnants of his clothes with force as though the fabric was an affront to it. It also carried his voice away silencing his screams in his own ears but letting them free into the nether regions of space and air.

Then, then he heard that sound – wings gliding on the wind bringing it closer he could smell the pungent scent of nectar and sulphur mixed together into a choking perfume. It filled his airways constricting his breathing and filled his mind with a strange array of images, violent, sexual and terrifying.

The wings were above him, sliding over his now naked limbs; slimy residue left in their wake covering him with a gel like substance, binding him as it began to grow and surround him, adhering his arms to his sides and his legs together. The vines withering on contact with the slime surrendered their prisoner over to the new more frightening regime.

As it started to enclose his face, Sam's eyes snapped open, he opened his mouth and gulped in air until he could scream one word. A name, his only anchor left in reality … "Dean!"

Dean sat up and held his knife ready as he took in the darkened motel room, he stared at the shadowed corners and then at the doors, starting at the front door, bathroom and finally the joining one to Bobby's room. Nothing seemed to be out of place or different, but something woke him.

He slowly turned to focus on the other bed, a feeling of dread coiling in the pit of his stomach as he realised what had woken him. Sam lay in the other bed, writhing and moaning in the grips of a nightmare. Sweat shone on his brother's pale skin in the insipid moonlight of pre-dawn.

'Sammy?' he croaked out, his voice rough, gravely from his own interrupted slumber when Sam didn't show any signs of coming out of his nightmare Dean climbed out of bed and crouched down next to Sam. After a lifetime of experience of waking a dreaming Sam the older brother had the precautions down pat. He could literally do it while still asleep if he wanted to.

'Sam … dude time to wake up,' he called out a little louder and clearer this time, although he held down Sam's hands. The first time he had woken an adult Sam from his nightmare resulted in a black eye and fractured nose. Dean slept with his knife … Sam used his fists and at that time a head-but. The dream itself was about Sam defending himself against unseen attackers.

'Dean anything wrong?' Bobby's sleep deprived voice came from behind and the younger man found himself relaxing slightly at least he didn't have to deal with this on his own but then he also had an irrational spike of anger at Bobby for encroaching on his territory.

'Sam's having a nightmare and can't wake him.' Dean said without turning around to face his "uncle". 'Dammit Bobby what do I do now?'

'How's his breathing?' Bobby asked as he approached the beds, wary of both of the younger men, both in pain, confused and exhausted. One locked in a dreamscape and the other in a waking one.

'Really bad, like he's fighting for each one, as though something's smothering him …' Dean's voice trailed off as he stared down at Sam's face in horror, 'dammit Bobby he is being smothered, I can't wake him up and something's cutting off his breathing.'

'Okay … Dean keep a hold of his hands for me, don't want to end up like ya last time he swung out before waking up.'

'Nice, thanks for the reminder!' Dean quipped, his relief palpable for having Bobby there with him. 'Bobby do ya smell that?'

'Like a sweetened sulphur?' Bobby's nose wrinkled in disgust, 'argh that's revolting.'

'Tell me about it,' Dean ground out, 'it's all over Sam.'

'Try to get him to wake up again Dean,' Bobby said as went to the bathroom and came back with a damp washcloth, passing it to the older brother Bobby took hold of Sam's forearms and pinned him gently. 'See how that goes.'

'He's so hot Bobby,' Dean said as he wiped down Sam's face, 'hey kiddo time to wake up … Come on open those puppy eyes I know you wanna.' Dean tried to cajole Sam back to wakefulness but Sam seemed to struggle on; although he was visibly weakening.

'Damn it! Sam Winchester you wake up now!' Dean ordered tapping Sam's cheek a little harder than he intended but it appeared to have an impact as the younger man showed signs of wakefulness. 'Sammy? Come on dude you can do it.'

Sam let out a heartbreaking cry, his breath gurgling and crackling as he gulped trying to catch his breath. His eyes snapped open although they were fixed and unblinking filled with trails of blood as vessels burst with the effort of waking.

'Dean!' Sam screamed hoarsely his entire upper body lifting off the bed before slamming back down forcing his last breath from his lungs.

'No, no don't you dare Sam … don't you dare stop breathing on me.' Dean snapped as he bent over his brother's chest desperate to hear anything.

'Dean?' Bobby asked in hushed tones after painstakingly long minutes of waiting.

'He's not breathing Bobby.' Dean cried out.

'Caleb git yer ass in here.' Bobby yelled as he and Dean started to do resuscitation breathes on Sam, when Caleb appeared brandishing his gun and knife he stared around the room with a glazed expression and then dropped his weaponry and joined them at Sam's bedside.

'What happened?'

'He was having a nightmare and now he's not breathing,' Dean said between breathes.

'Caleb take over here for me will ya? Yer got younger lungs than me.' Bobby said as a savage pain attacked his neck and head. The bug's bite from earlier throbbed and pulsated with each breath Bobby took himself let alone for Sam.

The hard cocoon finished sealing itself around his body, cutting Sam off from everything and everyone. He felt his body start to shut down and panic settled on his chest; his eyes glued closed effectively blinding him, his nose and ears filled with the thick syrupy goo and then his mouth became sealed. His mind aware and racing with panicked thoughts and terrifying images was the only active part of his body. He felt his organs slow to a stop, his lungs freezing, filled with ice and he realised that he was drowning from the inside out.

Warmth sudden and all encompassing seemed to thaw his frozen chest, allowing another to breath for him. All he wanted to do was to follow the breathing to its origin, to say thank you before he died. The cold was going and cracks started to form in his icy cocoon, splitting in different areas allowing warmth to permeate through his limbs once again. A bright silver ball of light hovered over him and he instinctively knew who it was.

'Dean he's breathing, he's coming back to us,' Caleb said breaking the grief-filled silence, 'Sam's breathing again.'

'Caleb?' Dean blinked and looked over at the older man before turning unwilling eyes to his brother's lax features, 'you brought him back man.'

'We all did, hey could you smell that weird smell before?' Caleb asked as he continued to minister to the youngest Winchester, 'kind of like sweetened sulphur?'

'Yeah both me and Bobby smelled it earlier … it was covering Sam.'

'Mmm… hmmm… argh,' Sam frowned as he fought his way back to consciousness.

'Sammy? That's it dude come on back.' Dean said coaching his brother back to him, he wanted to laugh and cry and then to rant at Sam for staying silent to begin with. If he had spoken up before things got so bad … but then again did Sammy even realise what was happening to him?

Sam opened his mouth a few times as though he was gasping for breathes, the air scorching the abused lining of his throat but it felt so good as he greedily sucked it in he didn't mind.

'Hey Sammy it's so good to have ya back but ya gotta stop scaring us like this.' Dean said as he wiped Sam's face with the washcloth again, 'you gonna keep waking up and talk to me?'

'De … not safe … gotta go and leave … now before he comes back,' Sam pushed the words out and hoped that they came out sounding right, everything was so muddled in his mind and he wasn't sure what was real and what was the Other now.

'I'm right here Sammy I'm not going anywhere or being sacrificed to a moth.' Dean tried to console his brother but Sam seemed to be locked into a different world again.

'Bobby look at Sam's eyes,' Caleb said softly not wanting to startle the volatile Winchester brothers.

'Caleb?' Bobby and Dean asked in unison. Bobby moved closer and flicked torchlight across Sam's unresponsive pupils.

'Ahh what else is gonna happen to ya kiddo?' Bobby said under his breath before looking up at Dean, 'I think … I think Sam might be blind Dean.'

'Wha … what?' Dean stammered and stared at his uncle in shock, 'blind? HOW?'

'Not sure but his pupils are fixed, there's no reaction to light, movement or anything.'

'All dark now … moth gone hunt now … protector hide … sacrifice … my blood burns … feeding time at the zoo…' Sam continued to mutter randomly at times sounding as though he was conversing with someone other times he just uttered words or phrases without any apparent relevance.

'Sammy can you hear me?' Dean asked as he took his brother's hands in his own, it seemed forever ago when he stormed out of their motel room on the pretence to get food and now … now it all seemed irrelevant.

'De-Dean.' Sam nodded and cocked his head to one side, 'so dark.'

'S-S-Sammy … something happened to your eyes.' Dean said as he tried to find an explanation for his ailing brother.

'M'tired … sleep now … no feeding.' Sam slid back down and rolled over onto his side instinctively facing Dean's bed and Dean himself as his eyes slid shut and his tortured breathing finally evened out.

Dean stayed still watching his brother intently for a few minutes before turning to face his friends and mentors, 'we've gotta get this freaking moth-man guys.'

'You got much research done on the hunt before this all went to hell in a hand-basket?' Caleb asked Dean, all three of the older men suddenly felt a small weight lift from them as they slipped into their familiar mantles of hunters.

'Yeah Sam … he said it's a Gorathic Moth,' Dean said as he went over to the pile of notes next to Sam's laptop, his breathing hitched slightly as he thought of Sam never seeing or reading again. Clearing his throat with a short cough Dean straightened his shoulders and let the hunter persona take over. 'Sam said that in very general terms, it has moth like wings, and a body shaped like a man but with the antenna and stuff of a normal moth he-he said that they're ancient and were considered stuff from myths and legends until now."

'A Gorathic Moth?' Bobby mused over the information as he started to unconsciously rub the back of his neck.

'Bobby you okay there?' Caleb asked as he watched his friend suddenly become pale and shaky. 'Bobby?'

Before Caleb or Dean could do anything to help him, Bobby tumbled from his chair to the floor as he started to convulse, his limbs flailed uncontrollably as the convulsion became stronger and more violent, it took both Dean and Caleb to get him situated into a recovery position and away from anything he could hurt himself on as they had to impotently watch their friend struggle through back to back seizures, until blood trickled out of Bobby's ears and nose.

TBC