Chapter 15

"Sam"

"Sam. Can you hear me?"

Who's talking to me? Sam thinks. He turns away from the voice, and pulls the covers up. Wait. Why am I in a bed? Where am I? Sam scrunches his eyebrows and rolls over. Wait… Lina!

Sam bolts up in bed and sways a little from the quick motion. An arm reaches out to steady him. Sam looks to his right and sees Dean sitting on a chair next to the bed.

"Take it easy bro," Dean says softly. He hands Sam a glass of water and eases him into a sitting position. Sam drinks some of the water and feels Dean's eyes on him the whole time. Why is he acting so weird? Sam places the cup on the nightstand, and takes a moment to survey his surrounds.

"You're in Bobby's room," Dean says quickly, probably noticing Sam's confused expression.

"Okay," Sam says slowly. Why am I here?

"What do you remember?" Dean asks.

"What?" Sam responds startled. Why would his brother ask such a strange question? "Dean, are you okay? You're acting a little strange."

Dean jerks his head back and stares at Sam dumfounded.

"You're really asking if I'm okay?" Dean responds in shock.

"Well yeah you're being weir–," Sam's sentence trails off as he looks down at his shirt. This isn't my shirt. This looks like one of Bobby's. Sam looks around the room and sees Dean's duffle bag on the ground. A couple shirts have been taken out. He then looks at Dean. He is wearing a blue shirt. I could've sworn he was wearing a black one today. He didn't want Lina to see him when… Sam's eyes widen.

"Lina," Sam whispers, "Dean what did you do to her?"

"Sam, I want to know if you're okay." Dean responds clearly ignoring his question.

"Dean, where's Lina?" Sam repeats. Dean sighs and brings both hands to his face. His shoulders drop, and when he removes his hands he stares directly at Sam.

"When are you going to put your own life in front others, or in this case monsters?" Dean says angrily.

"Dea–," Sam starts, but Dean cuts him off.

"No Sam, do you realize what happened? It… Lina, almost killed you. I found you unconscious in the car. Your shirt was covered in blood and you were barely breathing. I had to carry you into the house. You've been unconscious for nearly a day with a wicked fever and the first words out of your mouth are where's Lina?"

Sam's eyes drop to his lap in an effort to avoid Dean's glare. He remembers now. Sam recalls the assault of voices from Lina and her mother. He also remembers the complete silence before he passed out. He takes a deep breath and tries to explain himself to Dean.

"Dean, Lina's not purposely hurting me. She communicates telepathically, I guess with other mermaids. For some reason I can hear her, and it's really painful. Like a vision, I guess. I think I'm just sensitive to these kinds of things."

Dean presses his lips together into a rigid line. He looks like he is considering Sam's words, but does not want to accept them. After a few minutes he releases a defeated breath and speaks to Sam.

"I put the mermaid in the panic room. It seems to have cut off her… telepathic abilities. Also since you were being lazy and sleeping I had to take on the responsibility of researching the spirit at the college."

Sam smiles. That's Dean, changing the topic to something they know best. Hunting.

"So what did you find?" Sam asks.

"Well like you found earlier, the school was built on land that used to be owned by a fishing company. It was called Ocean Delicacies. Sounds pretty fancy, right? Well it wasn't. The company was actually sued multiple times and had many run-ins with the FDA, which eventually led to its shutdown in 1973. The land was bought by Henry Peterson in 1981, and was transformed into an all boys' college. Two years ago, in 2003, the college began accepting female students. They began constructing more dormitories shortly after."

"Yeah, I know all of this," Sam replies. Dean holds up his hands and raises his eyebrows.

"I wasn't finished Sammy. Did you know there was an old shed left from Ocean Delicacies on the campus?"

"No," Sam starts slowly.

"And did you know that they knocked down that shed to build more housing for the female students?" Dean asks smugly.

"No… do you know anything about the shed?" Sam asks. Dean smiles and slaps Sam's back before answering.

"Spoken like a true hunter. I had to do some deep digging, but what I found was well worth the search," Dean pauses and takes out a piece of computer paper, "This is from the contract between Ocean Delicacies and Henry Peterson. 'I, Jeremy Flanders, former owner of Ocean Delicacies, hereby relinquish ownership of my land to Henry Peterson for the purpose of erecting a college under these conditions. One, the college must be an all boys' school. Two, the small building on the northwestern part of the campus must remain intact. These terms must be kept after ownership of the land is transferred…' yada yada yada. Then it goes into financial crap."

Sam squints his eyes in concentration before speaking to his brother.

"The college violated the contract then."

"It didn't actually. The contract expired with the death of Flanders. Flanders never had any children so the contract was declared null and void. That's why the college was able to accept female students."

"Do you know what Flanders had against women?" Sam asks.

"Not women. Mermaids," Dean replies with a smile showing how proud he is of his research.

"Wait, what?" Sam replies in disbelief.

"Flanders' father, Benjamin, died in 1970 at the age of 63. The reports indicate that he drowned in the ocean by the factory. Jeremy was the one who found his father's body washed up on shore. The autopsy didn't indicate any foul play so his death was ruled as an accidental drowning. Jeremy didn't accept that though. He said, quote, 'My father was a strong swimmer, the best I knew. He didn't drown. The ocean's maidens took him.'"

"Ocean's maidens… mermaids!" Sam blurts out, "I can't believe I missed that." Dean smiles proudly and replies.

"Maybe you're not as good at research as you thought."

"I did only have about three hours to research, and most of that time was spent researching Melanie's story," Sam counters defensively.

Dean shrugs his shoulders and frowns.

"Anyway, Jeremy kind of dropped off the radar after his father's death. When do you think the safety violations occurred at the factory?" Dean continues.

"I'm guessing between 1970 and 1973," Sam replies.

"Exactly. You know what the violations were? Unsanitary working conditions. Flanders started painting strange symbols all over the factory, and was disregarding all safety codes. He also began spending long periods of time in the shed," Dean responds.

"How do you know all of this?" Sam asks.

"I found a co-worker of Flanders, an ex-girlfriend to be exact," Dean responds with a grin, "I briefly spoke to her on the phone. I was actually going to visit her today. Said I was a high school friend of Flanders and she bought it."

"Today? What time?" Sam questions. Dean holds up his wrist and looks at an imaginary watch.

"Like right now. Do you wanna go? How do you feel?" Dean asks.

Sam brushes Dean's concern away and sits up straighter.

"I feel fine. Let's go," Sam replies as he rolls his eyes. He swings his legs over the side of the bed and takes a deep breath. Dean leans over and holds his arms out for Sam. Sam looks at his brother's outstretched hands and exhales sharply through his nose.

"I can stand on my own Dean," Sam mutters annoyed as he pushes Deans hands away.

Sam slowly rises to his feet. The room sways momentarily, but after a few moments everything becomes stable. Sam looks down at the twisted bed sheets. Sweat stains and small amounts of dried blood decorate the usually white bedspread. He swallows loudly and instantly feels a stab of guilt for his treatment of Dean. Sam had not realized he'd been that sick. He briefly glimpses at Dean and sees his brother quickly avert his eyes. Sam opens his mouth to apologize for his behavior, but the words get stuck in his throat. Damn, he thinks, why do I always manage to let Dean down? Sam clears his throat and heads to the doorway. He walks down a narrow hallway to the staircase. As he walks down the stairs he hears Dean's footsteps behind him. When he gets to the bottom of the stairs he takes a left and heads to the basement door. Dean begins talking, unaware that Sam turned left.

"I forgot to tell you Flanders has a sis–," Dean pauses and then calls out in a confused tone, "Uh, Sammy the front door is straight ahead not to the left."

Sam remains silent and quickens his pace down the hall. The air is still for a moment before the clamoring of feet vibrates the house.

"Sam!" Dean roars behind him.

Sam winds the corner and barrels down the basement stairs. In a matter of seconds he finds himself standing before the panic room door. He involuntarily begins to shake. Here we go, Sam thinks as he places his hand on the handle. Though before he can act Dean grabs his shoulder pushes him to the side. Dean then acts as a barrier, placing his body between the door and Sam.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Dean screams.

Sam moves to the front of Dean and faces him head on.

"I wanted to see if Lina was okay," Sam responds matter-of-factly.

"There's no way I'm letting you near that monster!" Dean shouts.

Sam casts his eyes downward. He just doesn't get it.

"Do you hear yourself?" Sam asks through clenched teeth, "Do you even realize what you're saying? Why is she a monster? All I see is a college student." Dean stares ahead emotionless, but Sam continues forward anyway.

"Has she killed anyone Dean? I don't think so. How about you? You've killed people. Wouldn't that make you more of a monster than her? And what about me? I can hear her thoughts. I have premonitions about the future. I'm unnatural. Doesn't that make me a monster?"

Dean stares past Sam with a blank expression.

"You're not a monster, Sammy," Dean whispers.

Sam opens his mouth retaliate, but he falls silent when he hears a faint sound on the other side of the door.

"I know what a monster is," Lina's voice whispers.