Archive of Our Own ^beta

The sheets were wet from his sweat, and brushed against him, tangling around his arms, his feet, his thighs, his neck, like snakes, like lethal snakes that wanted to eat him alive, that wanted to asphyxiate him. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear the motel bed cracking beneath his body, the creak of the mattress croaking loudly every time he flinched, every time his body trembled, every time he moved, but how could he not? The snakes were going to kill him, he had to get away. At some point, he had been aware that he was dreaming, but the blurry vision that filled his brain wasn’t going away, it was only growing in intensity, and Sam felt his body go away from the bed, from the motel room, from Dean, from everything, even from his own mind, as the dream consumed him, and his vision was filled with someone else’s house.

The living room was quiet except for the soft sound of the woman’s breathing. She had fallen asleep on the couch, a book still on her lap, her curly brown hair gently lying on her face. She looked so peaceful… Sam felt like a creep, just staring at her, but the dream wouldn't let him wake up, wouldn’t let him move.

There was a slight shift in the air, and the warm light from the tiny lamp at the side of the couch started flickering. The woman noticed, and her eyelids started twitching, her consciousness making its way through her sleepy brain. He tried to get up from the couch, but a sudden scream tore from her mouth, and a moment later she was flying across the room, yelling for a help Sam couldn’t offer, thrashing and flailing with her arms and legs, kicking the air, trying to stop the invisible force that was throwing her from side to side of the house, not caring if she stumbled upon furniture.

After two entire and horrible minutes of being thrown around like a doll, the woman fell with a loud thump on the floor, and immediately started crawling in the direction of the door. Suddenly, her leg did a funny twist, and a loud snap filled the room, followed by her own scream of pain. Tears were falling freely down her cheeks, and another snap filled the room. Both of her legs lay uselessly sprawled on the floor, her eyes almost out, her face all pain. She started crawling again, only with her arms, and the sounds of pain that escaped her lips were not something Sam wanted to hear anymore.

Two more snaps from her arms and she was lying there, pain, pain, pain, she was pain, and Sam was trying to move, to yell, to do something, but he couldn’t even stop looking, he couldn’t do anything, he was helpless and useless and could do nothing but watch how this poor woman suffered the biggest of the pains as her spinal column snapped too. God, he couldn't look away from her face. From her torture. Maybe that was fair. She was, after all, going through all of that, the least Sam could do, if not help her, was watch the horror show.

But he couldn’t help the mental sigh that escaped from him when he heard the woman’s neck snap as well, ending her misery. A sudden sharp, excruciating pain in his head made him yelp, and he shut his eyes at the intense agony that he felt. When he opened them again, the snakes were back, trying to strangle him, and he tossed and turned on the bed like never.

He was going to die. It was his turn, and he was going to die, in pain, just like that poor woman, and he could do nothing about it. Something touched his arm, and he started screaming, not ready, never ready, for hearing his own arm snap , for the pain he was going to be in.

“SAM! Dammit, it’s me! Stop!” someone ( Dean , some part of his brain offered) said, voice tinged with concern, but Sam didn’t give a shit about who this was, because it was probably a trick, a monster with his brother’s voice, and was going to snap his limbs in two and leave him there with his pain, and the snakes, and god, his head was killing him.

“Don’t!” he yelled desperately, still feeling rough and strong hands on his arms, ready to break them, “Please, don’t do it!”

“Sammy, I’m not gonna do anything! Just open your eyes, okay? I’m right here.” He had his eyes closed? Hadn’t even realized. Sam stopped thrashing so much. It wouldn’t help him anyway. It surely hadn’t helped the woman. He waited a few seconds before slowly opening his eyes.

He had his head ducked down, and saw the sweaty sheets covering his body. The snakes. Hands were pressing his arms forcefully. Snap. Before that could actually happen, he pushed the chest in front of him, making the hands go away, and frantically untangled his very healthy and safe limbs out of the sheets. With all the desperate thrashing, he fell off the bed onto the hard floor, and backed off until his back was pressing against the wall.

“Sammy!” Boots came nearer him, his brother’s face suddenly appearing in front of him, looking worried. Like, really worried. “Hey, look at me,” Dean’s strained voice said, and so he did. His eyes, full of fear (still thinking, still remembering, snap, snap, snap ) focused on Dean’s concerned ones. “Okay, Sammy, you gotta relax, dude. Do you hear me?” Dean shifted and Sam flinched, pressing himself harder against the wall. “Sammy, it’s just me. I’m not gonna hurt you, alright?” Dean’s soft voice said, trying to sound calm and failing, sounding broken and sad. “Sam, you have to slow down. Your breathing is too fast, your heart is going crazy. I think you’re going into shock or something. You gotta talk to me, what happened?”

Sam tried to breathe. He wouldn’t stop trembling, and his eyes darted around the room. Motel room. Right. He took notice of the mess that was his bed, the duffle, the guns on the table. Motel room. A blanket was suddenly being pulled on him, warm hands rubbing his arms.

“You’re shivering so bad, Sammy…” Dean said, and Sam blinked. Motel room. Dean.

Dream. He had a dream. But—no. His head hurt, his head hurt so much… he pressed his hands against his temples.

“That’s it, Sammy, breathe. You’re doing good. Does your head hurt?” He nodded. His head hurt, he couldn’t think straight… dream. Motel room. Dean. No, wait. Not a dream. His head hurt. His head hurt… not a dream.

“V’sion,” he murmured, as if he had discovered the most important thing in the world, but Dean just smiled sadly at him, knowingly.

“You don’t have to talk about it yet, okay? We’ll see what we can do later, yeah? What about you go back to bed for a while, huh? Floor’s cold, not very comfy,” Dean said, already grabbing him by the arm, but Sam pulled away.

“Broken…” Sam’s voice was barely there, and he realized his throat felt kind of sore. Had he been yelling…?

“Broken? Sam, your arm is fine, it’s not broken,” Dean’s gentle voice said, and rubbed his arm again, softly and comfortingly. Sam leaned into his hand. “See? Everything’s fine.” There was a pause in which Sam closed his eyes and tried to forget the woman’s screams. Snap, snap, snap. — “Sammy, you’re scaring me. Come on, why don’t we go to bed?”

“...snakes…” Sam said quickly, staring at his bed.

Dean looked at it too, and then looked again at Sam, a weird expression on his face.

“Okay, then… why don’t you come to my bed? I bet there are no snakes there, huh? What about that, buddy?” Dean offered, in a tone that Sam had never heard in years. The tone Dean usually used with kids…

“...’kay…” Dean helped him to his feet, and Sam actually started to smile when he felt his very not broken feet beneath him, his healthy bones supporting his legs. He started walking with Dean still pressing the blanket around his shivering body, when the sharp headache returned and he doubled over himself. A yelp of both surprise and pain came out of him, and Dean’s hands caught him just before he could collapse to the floor again.

“Sam? Sammy?” he said, his voice not soothing anymore, but filled with concern.

Dean quickly made him walk until they reached the bed, and gently pushed him against the soft mattress and pillows. Dean disappeared for a moment, leaving Sam and his pain alone, but he was back in no time, pressing some pills against his brother’s lips, a glass of water in his other hand.

“Here, drink these. You’ll feel better, I promise.”

Sam took them, and fell on the pillows again.

“The woman…”

“Whatever it is, we’ll help her, okay? Jus- rest for a moment, Sammy.” Then, to himself, he muttered, “Jeez, you scared the crap out of me. It’s never been this bad…”

Sam closed his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.