Sam's POV
The next morning I wake up to Dean quietly packing up. I grumble then roll over onto my side.
"What are you doing?" Dean looks over to me before throwing away the trash he had in his hands.
"We're going to Bobby's. Samantha has a fever again." I look over to her and see she's pale again. I slowly get up, popping my neck, and grab the books I had open last night. I toss them in the small box they were in yesterday.
"God, we can't catch a break." Dean nods his agreement. I pick up the three bags and hang each of them on my arms before grabbing the box and walking out to the car. I smile politely at a lady setting her kids in the car before taking the steps two at a time to our open room.
"It's so hot." Dean and I both look over to Samantha as her slurred voice breaks through the silence.
"That's because you have a fever." Dean retorts. We look around the room once more to make sure we left nothing behind before Dean turns back to Samantha.
"We're going to Bobby's. Can you walk?" As Samantha moves adjusts the sheet I still see that she's only in her bra and Dean's boxers. I hand her my layer of flannel. She takes it with left arm, the not injured side.
"I can't even put this shirt on." Dean pauses then nods and walks over to the bed. I watch as he lifts her torso up gently and puts each arm in the sleeves of the, way too big, flannel and buttons a few buttons.
"Do you want me to carry you?" He asks hesitantly. She shakes her head and reaches her hand out for him to grab.
"I can walk there…just hold on." I smile when she joins elbows with him. The journey to the car is full of pain-filled grunts and Samantha complaining about how hot it is. By the time I'm back from returning the key, Samantha is situated in the backseat with her head looking up at the top of the car.
"Let's go." I follow Dean's order.
-000-
Dean and I both look back at Samantha three hours later as she answers her phone.
"Hello?" By the way her face brightens slightly and how a small smile is now touching her face I can tell its Wade.
"I'm in the car." Dean rolls his eyes at me playfully and we both chuckle slightly before turning back to the street.
"Nothing's wron…" I can hear Wade lecturing Samantha on lying from here. "It's nothing…I was just in a fight with a suspect earlier. Cut up my side pretty bad." I'm not sure how Samantha convinced Wade she was part of an undercover detective group with us. But she had nothing better to say when he called, asking why we were on the news…and I really, really hope nothing bad happens to Wade. Because as I look at Dean and I see the knowing look in his eyes too, we both know. Samantha loves Wade.
"No, I'm fine. I didn't even need stitches." Liar, Liar. Dean laughs loudly as Samantha mutters a 'Fine. But it was only a few stitches.' When Wade lectures her again on lying to him.
"Well you better visit me then." I stop listening to her conversation by now, more worried about where the hell we are.
"Where are we?" Dean looks over to me before giving me a cheesy grin and winking.
"I'm starving and there was sign for a 'Sunnyside Diner'." I nod. Samantha hangs up the phone and looks out to the dark sky.
"Wade said he's going to a college in Nebraska. It's only like thee hours from South Dakota." I look back at her and smile at how happy she looks.
"That's awesome. You guys can see each other more often then." She nods. Dean starts turning into the diner parking lot.
"Hey, don't forget the extra onions this time, huh?" Dean hands me money for the food and I start getting out. Samantha starts opening her door too.
"Whoa, hey-" She sends me a look.
"I haven't eaten in like two days. And I'm not sure what I want." I turn back to Dean and look at Samantha as she limps past me to the door.
"Dude, I'm the one whose gonna have to ride in the car with your extra onions." He grins and I roll my eyes, sighing.
"Hey, see if they've got any pie." I glare at him. "Bring me some pie!" I chuckle as he yells at me when I walk away. When I get into the diner I go up to the counter and start ordering the burger.
"Shit!" I draw my gun as I hear Samantha yell from behind me. Then, we're enveloped in darkness and we're gone.
-000-
My head is killing me. So is my back. What the hell am I laying on? Did Dean leave another window open? Why is that breeze so strong?
"What the fuck!?" I open my eyes as I hear Samantha scream. I'm outside. Nowhere near a motel. Shit, the diner. We were taken. I clamber up onto my feet and wait a few seconds for the dizziness to pass.
"Samantha." No answer. "Samantha!" I hear footsteps behind me and go to reach for my gun but find that my weapons are gone. All of them. So I turn around with a clenched fist, ready to fight.
"Hey! Shit, man. It's me." I drop my fist and sigh with relief when I see Samantha.
"Sorry." She pushes past me, still favoring one side.
"Where the hell are we?" She questions loudly. I catch up with her as we reach the first building. I have no answer.
"Are we trying to run or going to find weapons and fight?" Good question. I look across the abandoned town. I gulp when I can't see anything but dust and broken buildings.
"Even if we left we would have nowhere to go. And Dean has a better chance to find us if we stick in one place." Dean. She nods while I look down to the ground, wondering if Dean is even alive.
"Okay. So find weapons cool." She looks in the building through the window.
"It looks clear. How about you take the building across from me and I'll search this one?" She says as she sticks her hand down her shirt and I look away.
"You practically saw me naked. Stop being such a wuss." I roll my eyes and look over to her face, seeing that it's still pale. I feel her forehead with the back of my hand before she can protest.
"You still have a fever." She takes her hand out of her shirt, holding a few bobby pins. I look at her questionably.
"They're not going to look in your bro for a bobby pins, now are they?" I give a half-hearted laugh.
"I'll look fo-" I hold my hand up as a board creaks from the side of the building. I quietly walk over to a piece of wood sitting on the ground and pick it up, ready to attack. As the person walks around the corner, I stop mid swing as I see its Andy. He throws himself against the building behind him and puts his hands up in surrender.
"Andy?" Samantha and I both say at the same time. He looks at her as she walks up next to me.
"Samantha! Sam! What are you doing here?" His voice is hysteric.
"I don't know." I answer before Samantha can make a sarcastic remark. Samantha taps me.
"I'll be back." I want to protest but she only goes to the door we were at and starts to pick the lock.
"What am I doing here?!" I look back to Andy.
"I don't know."
"Where are we?!" I finally put my hand on his shoulder.
"Andy, look, calm down."
-000-
Samantha's POV
I finally get the lock undone and try to push the door open. It doesn't budge at first. I wiggle the doorknob a few times before taking a step back and kicking the door weakly. I still groan when it pulls on my stitches. The door opens and I quietly step in, making sure to keep a defensive stance. The first thing to the right of the door is a dirty dresser. I make sure no one is behind me before closing the door so I can open the cabinets.
The first thing I see when I open the first drawer is a picture. It's one of the old ones. The ones from a Polaroid. I hesitate in picking it up. The moment I pick it up though, I can tell it's only a few months old. I look closer to the picture. The picture is taken from far away, and blurry.
There's only two people in the picture. It's a young girl and a young guy. They look like they're talking. I put the picture down. Then look back in the drawer…there's a whole stack of these pictures. I look at the second one. Same people, different stance. The guy is now a step farther from the girl.
Third picture. This one is closer. I can see the girl has brown hair and the guy has dyed dark blue hair. The girl has her head bowed.
Fourth picture. Picture is even closer. I can see the guy has black skinny jeans and a 'Fall Out Boy' band shirt on, the girl has a dark green cargo jacket and dirty jeans on. The girl has her fingers on her head like she has a headache. The guy is moving closer to her now, his hands outstretched like he's trying to help.
Fifth picture. It's only a few inches closer. But now there's black smoke making its way into the picture.
Sixth picture. The smoke is gone, in its place is a little girl. Long, long fingernails and her mouth is open in a hiss.
Seventh picture. The guy is now on the ground, the little girl tearing into his chest. I see blood splatter onto the girl. The girl is watching with a satisfied smile.
Eight picture. The little girl is gone. The brunette girl is now looking directly at the camera.
"Oh my god." I'm about to run but there's one more picture. It's pure black. But there's something written on it.
Don't run. Don't trust. It's kill or be killed.
All Hell is breaking loose.
My throat clogs with emotion as I realize people have been here before. They killed each other. I look back to the eight picture. I know her…I've seen her somewhere.
"Ava." I whisper to myself. 'It's kill or be killed'…she killed. She must still be alive. She might be here. I need to warn Sam. I drop the pictures and spin around to open the door. I let out a startled sound as I come face to face with the little girl from the pictures.
"Oh, hi." My voice shakes. I take one more step back, sweeping my eyes around the room to find a weapon. The little girl jumps forward with her mouth hissing and her incredibly long claws pointed at me.
"Don't do this." And just like a low budget horror movie, I trip over a wrinkled, mossy rug. I land on my butt and she goes in for the kill. I feel my heart jump into my throat and on instinct I reach for the first thing I can touch behind me and swing it at her. She vanishes. I look at what's in my hand. A fire poker. I got fucking lucky.
I ignore my heart beating incredibly fast and my side aching, I jump up and run to the door, flinging it open before sprinting to where I can hear distant voices. Every few footfalls, my boots lose traction and I skid on the gravel before regaining leverage.
"Sam!" My voice is so distressed that I wouldn't be surprised if he thought I was getting killed.
"Sam!" I hear a shout then heavy footsteps.
"Samantha?!" I see him come out of a building, several people behind him. I look past him for a second when I see something move in the air.
"Oh my god!" I double over, almost puking even though there's nothing in me to puke up. Some girl was hung by the water tower. I hear Sam arguing with people about leaving. One in particular catching my attention. I don't even give a warning as I storm past Sam and up to Ava. I don't hesitate in swinging the fire poker at her.
She catches it.
"Samantha!" Ava looks at me with brutal murder in her eyes.
"You bitch! You killed all of them!" My voice officially reaches a new high. I would bet that somebody could hear me at the town over. I put both hands on the fire poker in her hands, trying to win it back. She laughs.
"Yeah. I've been here a long time. And not alone, either. People just keep showing up. Children, like us. Batches of three or four at a time." She pauses and with a new strength pulls the poker back. I stumble. She holds it for a second and stands right above me. Sam is shouting. Hell, everybody is shouting. Why the hell aren't they helping?
"Though, I'm not sure why you're here. What're you? Thirteen? Maybe he's just trying to mess with Sam."
"He?" I ask slowly. She swings the poker back and hits me right across the head with it. I fall back into the fence railing and fall through it. I land on my back.
"Yellow-eyes, moron." She raises the poker above her head but keeps talking.
"I had no choice. It's me or them. After a while, it was easy. It was even kind of fun. I just stopped fighting it." She brings it down on my leg. I scream in pain when the side connects with my leg, right above the ankle.
"Fighting what? You bitch." I grunt through my teeth. I almost want to tell Sam to shut up with his screaming. Where the hell is he?!
"Who we are. If you'd just quit your hand-wringing and open yourself up, you have no idea what you can do. The learning curve is so fast, it's crazy, the switches that just flip in your brain I can't believe I started out just having dreams. Do you know what I can do now?" I know fear. Not the fear I can control, the fear I can just push through. No, when she laughs mid-way through her sentence and kicks me in my stomach, I feel pure fear.
"Become a psycho bitch?" My voice is so shaky I wonder how she can even understand me.
"Real funny. I can control." Kick. "Demons!" One more swing to my leg. I'm in tears from the pain. This is a torturous death. Something bangs open. I look on as a black guy comes up behind Ava and snaps her neck. She drops to the ground.
"Oh god." Sam comes up beside me.
-000-
Sam's POV
Ava catches the fire poker as Samantha swings it at her.
"Samantha!" I shout in protest. Then the air gets knocked out of me as we're shoved back by something invisible. The door slams and the Acheri demon from earlier comes back. It appears right in front of me. I crawl back and grab the iron bar Jake and I grabbed earlier. I swing it at her before she disappears. She appears next to Andy. I throw the bar to Jake and he catches it, vanishing the demon as I grab the other bar.
I go to the door than and try to open it. Demonic lockdown? I can't open it. Panic overtakes me as I hear a scream of pure pain.
"Samantha!" I shake the door. I try all the windows, the doors, even the vents. I shout Samantha's name over and over. I lose hope at each scream of pain. Jake finally looks back to the door and backs up before ramming into it, elbow first. It crashes open. He snaps Ava's neck and she falls next to Samantha.
I look at Samantha wide eyed. Blood is pooled under her. So much blood. I can see the deep lashes at where Ava took the poker to her. I don't pay attention to the fact that she's still in Dean's boxers. I don't even pay attention as Andy pukes next to me and Jake moves Ava's body to the water tower.
"Oh god." I finally snap back into hunter mode when she curls in on herself, a cry coming up her throat.
"Help me move her inside." Jake does so without another order. He goes into the house, breaking off a large piece of wood from the ground and coming back out with two sheets and the wood. We carefully move Samantha onto the piece of wood, then place one sheet over Samantha and use the other one to carefully tie it around her body and under the wood.
We walk her into the house with minimal cries of pain. Andy follows behind, we don't notice when he's hurled back into the outside and is torn into by the demon.
Jake and I lay her in the room, guarded by salt, and I ask Jake to look for medical supplies while I keep pressure on her wounds. I run outside a few moments later when Jake calls out my name.
-000-
Dean's POV
I curse as I lay on the brakes when I see the fallen tree right in front of me. Bobby gets out of his truck and knocks on my window.
"Well, it looks like the rest of the way's on foot." I huff and cut the engine before getting out of the car and going around to the trunk. I grab a few guns for each of us, stuffing a duffle with salt, crosses, and an extra pair of clothes for the pair before closing the trunk and walking ahead.
"Let's go."
-000-
"Do you hear that?" Bobby turns to me as we near the abandoned town. I stop walking, stop breathing and listen for a few moments.
"A fight?" I ask. Bobby nods and we both start sprinting to the sounds of a fight. We just break into the edge of town when I see Sam standing up and walking towards a building, favoring one arm.
"Sam!" He turns towards us and starts walking towards our direction, his feet dragging with exhaustion.
"Dean!" I can hear the relief in his voice. I smile slightly and pick up my pace slightly. I see movement. A black man stands up and runs towards Sam.
"Sam, look out!" I start running full sprint. Then, I'm dead. I'm dead. I must be dead because as I see the guy stab my little brother in the back and Sam collapse onto his knees in front of me, I can't live without him.
"No!" I stop right in front of Sam and vaguely notice Bobby still running towards the guy who ended my life.
"No, Sam!" He falls onto my shoulder and I clench at his shirt in pure desperation.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sam. Sam! Hey! Hey, hey. Come here. Let me look at you." I place my hand over the wound in his back and feel my breath catch in my throat when I see my hand is covered in blood.
"Hey, look at me. It's not even that bad. It's not even that bad, all right?" His body goes completely limp in my arms. I pull back slightly and look at his face. "Sammy? Sam!" His eyes are still open. We're okay.
"Hey, listen to me. We're gonna patch you up, okay? You'll be good as new. Huh? I'm gonna take care of you. I'm gonna take you care of you. I've got you. That's my job, right? Watch out for my pain-in-the-ass little brother?" I touch Sam's face, pleading with God for just. This. One. Time. To let us catch a break. I'm praying to God to leave Sam alone. How does God expect me to save the world from monsters without my world next to me?
"Sam? Sam! Sam! Sammy!" Sam's eyes shut. Tears are falling down my face and I couldn't care less. Why didn't I show him how much he meant to me? I never hugged my brother enough. It was always jokes and shoulder pats. Why didn't I give him any hugs? Show him that he's the one keeping me here?
"No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, God. Oh, God." I rock Sam in my arms. He's not dead. He can't be dead. I'm dead.
"SAM!" My voice echoes for miles. I hear Bobby coming back. I'm sobbing into my brother's shirt right now though.
"Dean." I can't. I can't go on. Mom died. I lived. Dad died. I lived. Sam died…I just can't.
"Dean. Samantha. Where's Samantha?" I don't answer. Eventually, I hear Bobby walking somewhere else.
-000-
Bobby's POV
"Samantha!" I walk into a building with the door open, a drawer is open right behind it and white papers scattered on the floor. I move through the door, closing the drawer so I can see what the papers are. I don't look at them. I just grab the stack and slip them in my pocket before spinning around when I hear a crashing sound.
I sprint out of house and to where I heard the sound. I pass three dead people on the way there. One obviously hung, one with a snapped neck, and the last with claw marks marring it's skin.
I stop when I enter a room that's surrounded by salt. Samantha is laying against the wall. Her shirt is lifted up from being caught on the corner of the window. I can see her stitches were ripped open. Blood is covering the ground and the wall where she fell. Her legs are smothered in blood from open wounds. I stop breathing for a moment as all I can smell is the overwhelming scent of blood.
I make my way over to her and check her pulse.
"Fuck."
She's dead.
-000-
I help Dean take Sam's body to the mattress in the house I found Samantha in.
I left then came back in the morning with food. Then left again.
-000-
Dean's POV
"You know, when we were little— and you couldn't been more than 5— you just started asking questions. How come we didn't have a mom? Why do we always have to move around? Where'd Dad go when he'd take off for days at a time? I remember I begged you, 'Quit asking, Sammy. Man, you don't want to know.'" It was only yesterday that I was stealing baby formula for Baby Sammy. Right?
"I just wanted you to be a kid... Just for a little while longer. I always tried to protect you... Keep you safe... Dad didn't even have to tell me. It was just always my responsibility, you know? It's like I had one job... I had one job...And I screwed it up." I pause as I start to finally realize that I will never see Sam again. I will never get to see his smile or his laugh...even his eye roll when I ask for pie.
" I blew it. And for that, I'm sorry." I wipe a tear falling from my face.
"I guess that's what I do. I let down the people I love. I let Dad down. And now I guess I'm just supposed to let you down, too. How can I? How am I supposed to live with that?" I fall silent for a few moments as more tears fall and more and more memories flow into my mind.
"What am I supposed to do? Sammy. God." I'm back to pleading again.
"What am I supposed to do?" I inhale sharply as my voice gets louder the second time. Then I finally break and jump up, kicking my chair backwards.
"WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!" I find myself in my car. Driving blindly towards the nearest crossroads.
-000-
"Okay, five years. Five years, and my bill comes due. That's my last offer— five years or no deal." She comes in for a kiss. I almost punch her when she stops.
"Then no deal." She whispers. My lip twitches. I feel dread fill me. Dread at living without Sam. Dread at what I'm about to do.
"Fine." I test her.
"Fine." She starts walking away. "Make sure you bury Sam before he starts stinking up the joint." I flinch.
"Wait." She turns around knowingly.
"It's a fire sale, and everything must go." I ignore her.
"What do I have to do?"
"First of all, quit groveling. Needy guys are such a turnoff." I find that I'm very, very close to killing her. Or…exorcising her.
"Look... Look, I shouldn't be doing this. I could get in a lot of trouble. But what can I say? I got a blind spot for you, Dean. You're like a... puppy. You're just too fun to play with." She sighs. "I'll do it." I blink.
"You'll bring him back?"
"I will. And because I'm such a saint, I'll give you two years, and two years only." She pauses as if thinking.
"Or, I could throw in that your little puppy, Samantha, lives too. And you would get one year. But here's the thing. If you try and welch or weasel your way out, then the deal is off. They drops dead. Their back to rotten meat in no time. So... It's a better deal than your dad ever got. What do you say?" I hesitate. One year. Is Samantha worth only one ye- I kiss the demon.
-000-
Samantha's POV
I take the biggest breathe I ever have as my eyes pop open. Faintly, I can hear the same sound from the other room. I look down at my side and see my stitches are completely gone but my cut is open again. It's not as deep but it's still bleeding. My leg is throbbing. I look down and see the cuts from the fire poker is still bleeding. My face is on fire. I'm willing to bet if I looked in the mirror I was bleeding there too.
I look around slightly and almost puke at the sight. It looks like a massacre happened. I reach my left hand up to the corner of the window sill, pulling myself up. By the time I'm leaning against the wall at full height, I'm dizzy from how hard I'm breathing. This better be exercise if I'm breathing this hard. I lean against the wall for a few seconds before taking a step forward with my right foot, my uninjured leg, and I'm fine. I take a step with my left leg and fall onto the ground, my hand sliding on the blood next to the makeshift splint.
My vision swims and bile rises in my throat. My body is numb but throbbing at the same time. My vision goes black but I can still hear what's going on around me.
"Sammy? Thank god."
"Hey."
"Owwww. Uh, Dean..."
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, man. I'm just... I'm just happy to see you up and around, that's all. Come on, sit down."
"Okay. Dean... what happened to me?"
"Well, what do you remember?"
"I-I saw you and Bobby, and... I felt this pain. This sharp pain, like... white-hot, you know, and then you started running at me, and...That's about it."
"Yeah, that— that kid, stabbed you in the back. You lost a lot of blood, you know... It was pretty touch and go for a while."
"But Dean, you can't— you can't patch up a wound that bad."
"No, Bobby could. Who was that kid, anyway?"
"His name's Jake. Did you get him?"
"No, he disappeared into the woods."
"We got to find him, Dean. And I swear I'm gonna tear that son of a bitch apart."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy, Van Damme. You just woke up, all right? Let's get you something to eat. Huh? You want something to eat? I'm starving. Come on."
-000-
I can finally see again a few moments later. I can hear people eating. Am I back at my parents' house? Did they throw a bottle at me again? I roll slightly. Then cry out.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop, Sam, stop! Damn it. You almost died in there. I mean, what would I've — can't you just take care of yourself for a little bit, huh? Just for a little bit?"
"Hold on. Where's Samantha?"
"Shit." Rushed footsteps.
"Holy…god." I look blearily at Dean at he stops in the doorway.
"Yeah." I cough. Then groan. "I'm here, by the way." He flinches then goes over to inspect all of my cuts.
"Let's go." Sam says and Dean hands me his thick Cargo jacket, wrapping it tight around my side to try and slow the bleeding. I pass out as Dean picks me up, a dirty sheet wrapped around me.
-000-
"What happened?" I wake three hours later. The moment my eyes open, Dean starts questioning me.
"Ava." My voice is the softest it has been in months. Sam and Dean share a look.
"Start from the beginning." Sam requests that one…I guess I do owe him an explanation about how I knew what Ava was doing.
"Later." Sam gives me a sharp glare. I shift away from him slightly. Looks like we're back to when we went to the roadhouse the first time.
"We have another thirty minutes. Tell us now." I gulp.
"Sam, I'm tired. I lost all the blood that I received and I have a fever and I can't walk. Please just lay off." Dean gives me a concerned look.
"Samantha. You came sprinting out of the abandoned building, screaming. Then you went at Ava with a fire poker. I want to know what happened." His voice is gentler but I can still hear he's annoyed. I ignore him and look out the window, tears brimming my eyes.
"We'll talk later, Sam. She's lost a lot of blood." I feel grateful towards Dean as he says that. Not much later, we pull into Bobby's driveway. As Dean and Sam walk out to the door before I can even get out of the car, I almost want to cry in frustration. I move slowly out of the car, grunting and groaning in pain, while I keep the sheet wrapped tight around me. The walk to the house is less than fun. I try to favor one side of my torso, while also trying to favor the opposite leg. By the time I reach the house, Bobby and Dean are going out the door.
Bobby stares at me weirdly as I fall onto his couch. He quickly pushes Dean out the door. I lean my head on the arm of the couch, pressing the sheet to my side for many minutes until the door opens again. I don't look towards it though.
"Bobby!" I wait until he calls back to finish my sentence.
"I'm getting blood on your couch. Can I get some gauze?" The room tilts for a second before righting itself.
"You didn't stitch her up?" Bobby asks Dean. I hear a smack then a low mutter of 'idjit'.
"Hold on. I'll come and stitch you up." I smile slightly as I hear a familiar feminine voice call out.
"Ellen!" I cheer as happily as I can in my situation. I wait a few moments, while Bobby probably makes her drink holy water, until she comes back with a box full of the stuff she needs.
"Take these." I take the three pills she hands me and within a few minutes, I'm passed out.
-000-
So that happened. Once again, It's like one in the morning. Let me know what you think, please! Thank you, all the favorites and followers! Special thank you to all the reviewers! Let me know what you think. (: