Back in Black

Chapter 7

Sam, do you truly wish to help your brother and find out why he had acted so strongly when he learned about the abuse that boy suffered?

I want to help Dean, the way he's protected me.

Then I can let you into Dean's memories and let you see what happened. I warn you, it will not be pleasant, and Dean will know what you have done when he wakes up. There is some comfort I can give though...these memories are not Dean's.

What?

A few years ago in this time, Dean's past self made a deal with me. In exchange for being given a second chance that was almost guaranteed to include real family and not the fake one he had, he would give up three items of mine and the chance of a rather rare power. He also gave up fame, glory and a large amount of gold, just so he might have a chance to be your brother. The memories that are trying to overwhelm him are those from his past life.

How can I protect Dean?

When I allow you into his mind, all you have to do is remind him he's not alone and never will be again. That he has real family and not a false ideal of one.

Sam nodded, and 'Mort' placed his hand on Sam's forehead. It felt cold, colder than anything he had ever felt before. Mort then placed his other hand on Dean's head, and Sam felt himself fall deep, deep into the inner corners of Dean's mind.

~

Sam awoke in a house that was far too clean. Sure Dean had these weird episodes of OCD where he cleaned everything top to bottom, but this looked like an extreme form of a Harvelle Cleaning-Hurricane, as it was collectively called.

The place looked like some hellish version of a Suzy-homemaker house, only it felt...wrong. Like it was forced and not natural.

Sam walked around trying to find his brother, but what he saw instead made his blood boil.

There was a child, who looked barely eight-years-old cooking on a gas grill without anything to protect his hands. Nearby was a horrid looking woman who resembled a horse, and not in a good way. Her thin weedy looking eyes watched like a hawk as the child struggled with ease of long practice to cook what appeared to be a very unhealthy dinner. There wasn't a single vegetable that wasn't deep fried in it.

Something told him to watch this play out. So he did.

The child finished the task, and the second Sam got a good look at the boy's eyes his jaw dropped.

That child with the messy black hair and too-thin frame had the exact shade of green eyes that his brother had. And the way he walked reminded Sam exactly how his brother did whenever he was injured.

Sam didn't pay any mind to the horse woman, and instead followed the child outside where he was forced to take a shower with a cold water hose, despite the fact that the water was definitely freezing since it was late autumn from what he could tell.

It was almost too much to take. He was forced to watch the child suffer through outright neglect, abuse and unwarranted punishment for imagined slights. And the strangest thing was that not a single person commented on it. At all. Even the teachers ignored what was right in front of their faces and it was absolutely baffling. Shouldn't they have called Child Services the second the abuse became evident?

Finally Sam watched the poor child climb up a tree in mad haste to avoid being attacked by a rather vicious English Bulldog. The people in the home left the boy all alone up there and even had the gall to lock the door that night, forcing him to stay in the tree where the dog awaited below.

Sam had enough. He walked past the dog who was asleep but still very alert for the child's attempt to come down and started to climb. It was a miracle the tree held his weight, considering how weedy the thing looked.